To this note two postscripts were appended--the first in a girlish, uneven hand, was redolent of the boy Arthur"s "Florida rose."
"Miggie, precious Miggie--come to Sunnybank; come to Nina. She is waiting for you. She wants you here--wants to lay her poor, empty head, where the bad pain used to be, on your soft, nice bosom--to shut her eyes and know it is your breath she feels--your sweet, fragrant breath, and not Arthur"s, brim full of cigar smoke. Do come, Miggie, won"t you? There"s a heap of things I want to fix before I die, and I am dying, Miggie. I see it in my hands, so poor and thin, not one bit like they used to be, and I see it, too, in Arthur"s actions. Dear Arthur boy! He is so good to me-- carries me every morning to the window, and holds me in his lap while I look out into the garden where we used to play, you and I.
I think it was you, but my brain gets so twisted, and I know the real Miggie is out under the magnolias, for it says so on the stone, but I can"t help thinking you are she. Arthur has a new name for me, a real nice name, too. He took it from a book, he says--about just such a wee little girl as I am. "Child-wife,"
that"s what he calls me, and he strokes my hair so nice. I"m loving Arthur a heap, Miggie. It seems just as if he was my mother, and the name "Child-wife" makes little bits of waves run all over me. He"s a good boy, and G.o.d will pay him by and by for what he"s been to me. Some folks here call me Mrs. St. Claire. Why do they? Sometimes I remember something about somebody somewhere, more than a hundred years ago, but just as I think I"ve got hold of it right, it goes away. I lose it entirely, and my head is so snarled up. Come and unsnarl it, wont you? Nina is sick, Nina is dying, Nina is crazy. You must come."
The second postscript showed a bolder, firmer hand, and Edith read,
"I, too, echo Nina"s words, "Come, Miggie, come." Nina wants you, and I--Heaven only knows how much I want you--but, Edith, were you in verity Richard"s wife, you could not be more sacred to me than you are as his betrothed, and I promise solemnly that I will not seek to influence your decision. The time is surely coming when I shall be alone; no gentle Nina, sweet "Child-wife" clinging to me.
She will be gone, and her Arthur boy, as she calls me, free to love whomsoever he will. But this shall make no difference. I have given you to Richard. I will not wrong the blind man. Heaven bless you both and bring you to us."
The sun shone just as brightly in the summer sky--the Kauterskill fell as softly into the deep ravine--the shouts of the tourists were just us gay--the flecks of sunshine on the gra.s.s danced just as merrily, but Edith did not heed them. Her thoughts were riveted upon the lines she had read, and her heart throbbed with an unutterable desire to respond at once to that pleading call--to take to herself wings and fly away--away over mountain and valley, river and rill, to the fair land of flowers where Nina was, and where too was Arthur. As she read, she uttered no sound, but when at last Richard said to her,
"What is it, Birdie? Have you heard bad news?" her tears flowed at once, and leaning her head upon his shoulder, she answered,
"Nina is dying--dear little, bright-haired Nina. She has sent for me. She wants me to come so much. May I, Richard? May I go to Nina?"
"Read me the letter," was Richard"s reply, his voice unusually low and sad.
Edith could not read the whole. Arthur"s postscript must be omitted, as well as a portion of Nina"s, but she did the best she could, breaking down entirely when she reached the point where Nina spoke of her Arthur boy"s goodness in carrying her to the window.
Richard, too, was much affected, and his voice trembled as he said, "St. Claire is a n.o.ble fellow. I always felt strangely drawn toward him. Isn"t there something between him and Nina--something more than mere guardianship?"
"They were engaged before she was crazy," returned Edith, while Richard sighed, "poor boy, poor boy! It must be worse than death.
His darkness is greater than mine."
Then his thoughts came back to Edith"s question, "May I go to Nina?" and his first feeling was that she might, even though her going would necessarily defer a day to which he was so continually looking forward, but when he remembered the danger to which she would be exposed from the intense heat at that season of the year, he shrank from it at once, mildly but firmly refusing to let her incur the fearful risk.
"Could I be a.s.sured that my bird would fly back to me again with its plumage all unruffled I would let her go," he said, "but the chances are against it. You would surely sicken and die, and I cannot let you go."
Edith offered no remonstrance, but her face was very white and her eyes strangely black as she said, "Let us go home, then; go to- morrow. This is no place for me, with Nina dying."
Nothing could please Richard more than to be back at Collingwood, and when Grace came to them he announced his intention of leaving on the morrow. Grace was willing, and Victor, when told of the decision, was wild with delight. Mr. Russell, too, decided to go with them to Shannondale, and when, next morning, the party came out to take the downward stage, they found him comfortably seated on the top, whither he had but little trouble in coaxing Grace, who expressed a wish to enjoy the mountain scenery as they descended.
"Will Miss Hastings come up, too?" he asked, but Edith declined and took her seat inside between Richard and Victor, the latter of whom had heard nothing of the letter; neither did Edith tell him until the next day when, arrived at Collingwood, they were alone for a moment in the library--then she explained to him that Nina was sick, possibly had sent for her.
"I thought things would work out after a time, though honestly I"d rather that little girl shouldn"t die if it could be brought round any other way," was Victor"s reply, which called a flush at once to Edith"s cheek.
"Victor Dupres," said she, "never hint such a thing again. It is too late now; it cannot be--it shall not be; and if I go, Arthur has promised not to say one word which can influence me."
"If you go," repeated Victor, "Then you have some intention of going--I thought he had objected."
"So he has," returned Edith, the same look stealing into her eyes which came there at the Falls. "So he has, but if Nina lives till the middle of October I shall go. My mind is made up."
"Oh, consistency, thou art a jewel," muttered Victor, as hearing some one coming, he walked away. "Means to jump down the lion"s throat, but does not expect to be swallowed! Splendid logic that!"
and Victor shrugged his shoulders at what seemed so contradictory as Edith"s talk and Edith"s conduct.
As she had said, Edith meant to go, nay more, was determined to go, and when, on the third day after their return, Mr. Russell came for her final decision, she said to him, ere Richard had time to speak,
"I shall not go now; it is too early for that, but if Nina continues worse, I will come to her the latter part of October. I am writing so to her to-day."
Richard was confounded, and could only stammer out,
"Who is to be your escort?"
"You, Richard;" and Edith clasped his arm, thus rea.s.suring him at once.
She had some thought, some consideration for him; she did not intend to desert him wholly, and he playfully tapped her chin, laughing to think how the little lady had boldly taken matters into her own hands, telling what should be with as much sang froid as if she were master instead of himself. And Richard rather liked the independent spirit of Edith, particularly when he found that he was not wholly left out of her calculations. And so he arranged with Mr. Russell, that if Nina were not better as the autumn advanced, Edith should perhaps go down to see her.
Arthur had made his marriage with Nina public as soon as he returned to Sunnybank, but as Mr. Russell"s home was in Tallaha.s.see, and he himself a quiet, taciturn man, he had not heard of it, and in speaking of Nina to Edith, he called her Miss Bernard, as usual, and thus Richard still remained in ignorance, never suspecting that golden haired Nina was the same young girl he had married years before.
Poor Richard, he was ignorant of many things and never dreamed how light and gay was Edith"s heart at the prospect of going to Florida, even though she half expected that when she went it would be as his wife. But Richard determined it otherwise. It cost him a struggle so to do, but his iron will conquered every feeling, save those of his better judgment, and calling Edith to him one day two weeks after Mr. Russell"s departure, he said,
"Birdie, I"ve come to the conclusion that a blind man like me will only be in your way, in case you go to Florida. I am not an interesting traveling companion. I require too much care, and I dread the curious gaze of strangers. It makes me very uncomfortable. So on the whole I"d rather stay at home and let Victor go in my stead. What does Birdie say?"
"She says you are the n.o.blest, most unselfish man that ever lived," and Edith kissed his lips, chiding herself seriously for the spirit which whispered to her that she too would rather go without him. "I won"t stay very long," she said. "Our wedding need not be deferred more than two months; say, till the first of January, at 7 o"clock, just as we before arranged it for October, only a more quiet affair, I shall then be your New Year"s gift.
Does that suit you, dearest?"
She did not often call him thus, and when she did she was sure of accomplishing her purpose. The strong man melted beneath a few words of love, becoming a very tool in the hands of a weak girl.
"Yes, darling," he replied, "that will do--but supposing we hear that Nina is better, or dead--what then?"
The mere possibility was terrible to Edith, but she answered calmly,
"Then we"ll be married in October, just as first proposed;" and thus was the die cast, and a fresh link added to the chain of Edith"s destiny. She was going to Florida; going to Arthur; and going alone, so far as Richard was concerned.
Spying Victor coming up the walk from the post-office, she ran out to meet him, telling him of the journey before him, and almost crying for joy when he placed in her hand a worn envelope bearing the post-mark of Tallaha.s.see. It was from Arthur, and contained a few lines only, telling of Nina"s increasing illness, and her restless, impatient desire for Miggie. In conclusion he wrote,
"We have had no fever this summer. You will be perfectly safe in coming any time after the middle of October. I shall welcome Mr.
Harrington most cordially if he sees fit to accompany you."
Edith could read this to Richard, and she did, feeling a pang at the perfect faith with which he answered,
"Were it not for the tedious journey I believe I would go with you, but it"s too much of an undertaking. I won"t trammel you with so great a burden. I"d rather stay at home and antic.i.p.ate my darling"s return."
Then with the same forethought and careful consideration which marked all his actions, Richard consulted with her as to the beat time for her to start, fixing upon the 15th of October, and making all his arrangements subservient to this. He did not tell her how lonely he should be without her--how he should miss her merry laugh, which, strange to say, grew merrier each day; but he let her know in various ways how infinitely precious she was to him, and more than once Edith felt constrained to give up the journey, but the influences from Florida drew her strangely in that direction, and revolving to pay Richard for his self-denial by an increase of love when she should return, she busied herself with her preparations until the 15th of October came, and her trunks stood ready in the hall.
"If I could only read your letters myself, it would not seem one- half so bad," Richard said, when at the last moment, he held Edith"s hand, "but there"s a shadow over me this morning--a dark presentiment that in suffering you to leave me I am losing you forever."
Edith could not answer, she pitied him so much, and kissing his lips, she put from her neck his clinging arms, wiped his tears away, smoothed his ruffled hair, and then went out from his presence, leaving him there in his sorrow and blindness alone.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
SUNNYBANK.
"Berry soon, Miss, an" we"re thar. We turns the corner yonder, we drives "cross the plain, down a hill, up anoder, an" then we"s mighty nigh a mile from the spot."