Richard was getting very tired of it--very weary of listening to Arthur"s directions, and to Edith"s merry laughs at her awkward blunders, and he was not sorry when one lesson-day, the fifth since they began, Grace Atherton"s voice was heard in the hall without asking for admission. He had long since forgiven Grace for jilting him, and they were the best of friends; so when she suggested their going into the adjoining room, where it was pleasanter and she could play to him if he liked, he readily a.s.sented, and while listening to her lively conversation and fine playing, he forgot the lapse of time, and was surprised when Edith came to him with the news that it was 12 o"clock.
"Pray, don"t go yet," said Arthur, who was loth to part with his pupil. "You surely do not dine till three, and I have already ordered lunch. Here it comes," and he pointed to the door where Phillis stood, bearing a huge silver salver, on which were wine and cake and fruit of various kinds.
"Grapes," screamed Edith, as she saw the rich purple cl.u.s.ters, which had been put up for winter use by poor, discarded Mrs.
Johnson. "I really cannot go till I have some of them," and as there was no alternative Richard sat down to wait the little lady"s pleasure.
He did not care for lunch, but joined in the conversation, which turned upon matrimony.
"It must be a very delightful state," said Edith, "provided one were well matched and loved her husband, as I am sure I should do."
"Supposing you didn"t love him," asked Grace, "but had married him from force of circ.u.mstances, what then?"
"I"d kill him and the circ.u.mstances too," answered Edith.
"Wouldn"t you, Mr. St. Claire?"
"I can hardly tell," he replied, "not having matrimony in my mind.
_I_ shall never marry."
"Never marry!" and the pang at Edith"s heart was discernible in her soft, black eyes, turned so quickly toward this candidate for celibacy.
"How long since you came to that decision?" asked Grace; and in tones which indicated truth, Arthur replied,
"Several years at least, and I have never for a moment changed my mind."
"Because the right one has not come, perhaps," put in Richard, growing very much interested in the conversation.
"The right one will never come," and Arthur spoke earnestly. "The girl does not live, who can ever be to me a wife, were she graceful as a fawn and beautiful as---" he glanced at Edith as if he would call her name, but added instead--"as a Hebe, it could make no difference. That matter is fixed, and is as changeless as the laws of the Medes and Persians."
"I am sorry for you, young man," said Richard, whose face, notwithstanding this a.s.sertion, indicated anything but sorrow.
He could now trust Edith alone at Gra.s.sy Spring--he need not always be bored with coming there, and he was glad Arthur had so freely expressed his sentiments, as it relieved him of a great burden; so, at parting, when Arthur said to him us usual, "I"ll see you again on Friday," he replied,
"I don"t know, I"m getting so worried with these abominably tedious lessons, that for once I"ll let her come alone."
Alas, poor, deluded Richard! He did not know that to attain this very object, Arthur had said what he did. It is true, he meant every word he uttered. Matrimony and Edith Hastings must not be thought of together. That were worse than madness, and his better judgment warned him not to see too much of her--told him it was better far to have that sightless man beside them when they met together in a relation so intimate as the teacher bears to his pupil. But Arthur would not listen; Edith was the first who for years had really touched a human chord in his palsied heart, and the vibration would not cease without a fiercer struggle than he cared to make. It could do no harm, he said. He had been so unhappy--was so unhappy now. Edith would, of course, be Richard"s wife; he had foreseen that from the very first--had predicted it long ago, but ere the sacrifice was made, he was surely pardonable if, for a little while, he gave himself to the bewildering intoxication of basking in the sunshine of her eyes, of bending so near to her that he could feel her fragrant breath, feel the warm glow of her cheek, of holding those little hands a moment in his own after he had ceased to teach her fingers how to guide the pencil.
All this pa.s.sed in rapid review before his mind while his lips uttered the words which had so delighted Richard, and when he saw the shadow on Edith"s face, his poor, aching heart throbbed with a joy as wild and intense as it was hopeless and insane. This was Arthur St. Claire with Edith present, but with Edith gone, he was quite another man. Eagerly he watched her till she disappeared from view, then returning to the library he sat down where she had sat--laid his head upon the table where her hands had lain, and cursed himself for daring to dream of love in connection with Edith Hastings. It would be happiness for a time, he knew, to hang upon her smile, to watch the lights and shadows of her speaking face, to look into her eyes--those clear, truthful eyes which had in them no guile. All this would be perfect bliss, were it not that the end must come at last--the terrible end--remorse bitterer than death for him, and for her--the pure, unsullied, trusting Edith--ruin, desolation, and madness, it might be.
"Yes, MADNESS!" he exclaimed aloud, "hateful as the word may sound." And he gnashed his teeth as it dropped from between them.
"No, Edith, no. Heaven helping me, I will not subject you to this temptation. I will not drag you down with me, and yet, save Griswold, there lives not the person who knows my secret. May be he could be bought. Oh, the maddening thought. Am I a demon or a brute?" And he leaped from his chair, cursing himself again and again for having fallen so low as to dream of an act fraught with so much wrong to Edith, and so much treachery to one as fair, as beautiful as she, and far, far more to be pitied.
Arthur St. Claire was, at heart, a n.o.ble, upright, honorable man, and sure, at last, to choose the right, however rugged were the road. For years he had groped in a darkness deeper, more hopeless than that which enshrouded the blind man, and in all that time there had shone upon his pathway not a single ray of daylight. The past, at which he dared not look, lay behind him a dreary waste, and the black future stretched out before him, years on years it might be, in which there would be always the same old cankering wound festering in his soul. He could NOT forget this plague spot.
He never had forgotten it for a single moment until he met with Edith Hatings, who possessed for him a powerful mesmeric charm, causing him in her presence to forget everything but her. This fascination was sudden but not less powerful for that. Arthur"s was an impulsive nature, and it seemed to him that he had known Edith all his life, that she was a part of his very being. But he must forget her now, she must not come there any more, he could not resist her if she did; and seizing his pen he dashed off a few lines to the effect that, for certain reasons, the drawing lessons must henceforth be discontinued.
Arthur though himself very strong to do so much, but when he arose to ring for the servant who was to take this note to Collingwood, his courage all forsook him. Why need he cast her off entirely?
Why throw away the only chance for happiness there was left for him? "Twas Arthur"s weaker manhood which spoke, and he listened, for Edith Hastings was in the scale, a mighty, overwhelming weight. She might come just once more, he said, and his heart swelled within his throat as he thought of being alone with her, no jealous Richard hovering near, like a dark, brooding cloud, his blind eyes shielding her from harm even more than they could have done had they been imbued with sight. The next time she came, the restraint would be removed. She would be alone, and the hot blood poured swiftly through his veins as he thought how for one brief moment he would be happy. He WOULD wind his arm around that girlish waist, where no other manly arm save that of Richard had ever been; he WOULD hug her to his bosom, where no other head than hers could ever lie; he would imprint one burning kiss upon her lips; would tell her how dear she was to him; and then--his brain reeled and grew dizzy as he thought that THEN he must bid her leave him forever, for an interview like that must not he repeated. But for once, just once, he would taste of the forbidden fruit, and so the good angel Arthur St. Claire wept over the wayward man and then flew sadly away, leaving him to revel in antic.i.p.ations of what the next Friday would bring him.
CHAPTER XIII.
FRIDAY.
It was just beginning to be light when Edith opened her eyes, and lifting up her head, looked about the room to see if Lulu had been in to make her fire. She always awoke earlier on lesson day, so as to have a good long time TO THINK, and now as she counted the hours, one, two, three and a half, which must intervene before she saw Arthur St. Claire again, she hid her blushing face in the pillow, as if ashamed to let the gray daylight see just how happy she was. These lessons had become the most important incidents in her life, and this morning there was good cause why she should antic.i.p.ate the interview. She believed Richard was not going, and though she was of course very sorry to leave him behind, she tried hard to be reconciled, succeeding so well that when at 8 o"clock she descended to the breakfast room, Victor asked what made her look so unusually bright and happy.
"I don"t know," she replied, "unless it is because we are going to ride," and she glanced inquiringly at Richard, seating himself at the table.
Victor shrugged his shoulders. HE knew more than Edith thought he did, and waited like herself for Richard"s answer. Richard HAD intended to remain at home, but it seemed that Edith expected him to go, by her saying WE, and rather than disappoint her he began to think seriously of martyring himself again. Something like this he said, adding that he found it vastly tedious, but was willing to endure it for Edith"s sake.
"Pardonnez moi, Monsieur," said Victor, who for the sake of Edith, would sometimes stretch the truth, "I saw Mr. Floyd yesterday, and he is coming here this morning to talk with you about the west wood lot you offered for sale. Hadn"t you better stay home for once and let Miss Edith go alone."
Edith gave a most grateful look t Victor, who had only subst.i.tuted "this morning" for "some time to-day," the latter being what Mr.
Floyd had really said.
"Perhaps I had," returned Richard. "I want so much to sell that lot, but if Edith---"
"Never mind me, Mr. Harrington," she cried; "I have not been on Bedouin"s back in so long a time that he is getting quite unmanageable, they say, and I shall be delighted to discipline him this morning; the roads are quite fine for winter, are they not Victor?"
"Never were better," returned the Frenchman; smooth and hard as a rock. "You"ll enjoy it amazingly, I know. I"ll tell Jake not to get out the carriage," and without waiting for an answer the politic victor left the room.
Richard had many misgivings as to the propriety of letting Edith go without him, and he was several times on the point of changing his mind, but Edith did not give him any chance, and at just a quarter before ten she came down equipped in her riding habit, and asking if he had any message for Mr. St. Claire.
"None in particular," he answered, adding that she might come back through the village and bring the mail.
Once on the back of Bedouin, who danced for a few moments like a playful kitten, Edith felt sure she was going alone, and abandoning herself to her delight she flew down the carriage road at a terrific speed, which startled even Victor, great as was his faith in his young lady"s skill. But Edith had the utmost confidence in Bedouin, while Bedouin had the utmost confidence in Edith, and by the time they were out upon the main road they had come to a most amicable understanding.
"I mean to gallop round to the office now," thought Edith; "and then I shall not be obliged to hurry away from Gra.s.sy Spring."
Accordingly Bedouin was turned toward the village, and in an inconceivably short s.p.a.ce of time she stood before the door of the post-office.
"Give me Mr. Harrington"s mail, please," Edith said to the clerk who came out to meet her; "and--and Mr. St. Claire"s too, I"m going up there, and can take it as well as not."
The clerk withdrew, and soon returned with papers for Richard, and a letter for Arthur. It was post-marked at Worcester, and Edith thought of Mr. Griswold, as she thrust it into her pocket, and started for Gra.s.sy Spring, where Arthur was anxiously awaiting her. Hastening out to meet her, he held her hand in his, while he led her up the walk, telling her by his manner, if by nothing else, how glad he was to see her.
"It has seemed an age since Tuesday," he said. "I only live on lesson-days. I wish it was lesson-day always."
"So do I," said Edith, impulsively, repenting her words the moment she met the peculiar glance of Arthur"s eyes.
She was beginning to be afraid of him, and half wished Richard was there. Remembering his letter at last, she gave it to him, explaining how she came by it, and marvelling at the sudden whiteness of his face.
"I will wait till she is gone," he thought, as he recognized Dr.
Griswold"s writing, and knew well what it was about. "I won"t let anything mar the bliss of the next two hours," and he laid it upon the table.
"Ain"t you going to read it?" asked Edith, as earnestly as if she knew the contents of that letter would save her from much future pain. "Read it," she persisted, declaring, with pretty willfulness that she would not touch a pencil until he complied with her request.
"I suppose I must yield then," he said, withdrawing into the adjoining room, where he broke the seal and read--once--twice-- three times--lingering longest over the sentences which we subjoin.