* * * "To-day, for the first time since you were here, our poor little girl spoke of you of her own accord, asking where you were and why you left her so long alone. I really think it would be better for you to take her home. She is generally quiet with you, and latterly she has a fancy that you are threatened with some danger, for she keeps whispering to herself, "Keep Arthur from temptation. Keep him from temptation, and don"t let any harm come to little MIGGIE." Who is Miggie? I don"t think I ever heard her name until within the last few days." * * *
And this it was which kept Arthur St. Claire from falling. Slowly the tears, such as strong men only shed, gathered in his eyes and dropped upon the paper. Then his pale lips moved, and he whispered sadly, "Heaven bless you, NINA, poor unfortunate Nina. Your prayer SHALL save me, and henceforth Edith shall be to me just what your darling Miggie would have been were she living. G.o.d help me to do right," he murmured, as he thought of Edith Hastings, and remembered how weak he was. That prayer of anguish was not breathed in vain, and when the words were uttered he felt himself growing strong again--strong to withstand the charms of the young girl waiting impatiently for him in the adjoining room.
There were many things she meant to say to him in Richard"s absence. She would ask him about NINA, and the baby picture which had so interested her. It had disappeared from the drawing room and as yet she had found no good opportunity to question him about it, but she would do so to-day. She would begin at once so as not to forget, and she was just wondering how long it took a man to read a letter, when he came in. She saw at a glance that something had affected him, and knowing intuitively that it was not the time for idle questionings, she refrained from all remark, and the lesson both had so much antic.i.p.ated, proceeded in almost unbroken silence. It was very dull indeed, she thought, not half so nice as when Richard was there, and in her pet at Arthur"s coolness and silence, she made so many blunders that at last throwing pencil and paper across the room, she declared herself too stupid for any thing.
"You, too, are out of humor," she said, looking archly into Arthur"s face, "and I won"t stay here any longer. I mean to go away and talk with Judy about Abel."
So saying, she ran off to the kitchen where she was now a great favorite, and sitting down at Judy"s feet, began to ask her of Florida and Sunnybank, her former home.
"Tell me more of the magnolias," she said, "It almost seems to me as if I had seen those beautiful white blossoms and that old house with its wide hall."
"Whar was you raised?" asked Judy, and Edith replied,
"I told you once, in New York, but I have such queer fancies, as if I had lived before I came into this world."
"Jest the way Miss Nina used to go on, muttered the old woman, looking steadily into the fire.
"Nina!" and Edith started quickly. "DID you know Nina, Aunt Judy?
Do you know her now? Where is she? Who is she, and that black-eyed baby in the frame? Tell me all about them."
"All about what?" I asked Phillis, suddenly appearing and casting a warning glance at her mother, who replied, ""Bout marster"s last wife, the one you say she done favors." Then, in an aside to Edith, she added, "I kin pull de wool over her eyes. Bimeby mabby I"ll done tell you how that ar is de likeness of Miss Nina"s half sister what is dead, and "bout Miss Nina, too, the sweetest, most misfortinest human de Lord ever bornd."
"She isn"t a great ways from here, is she?" whispered Edith, as Phillis bustled into the pantry, hurrying back ere Judy could more than shake her head significantly.
"Dear Aunt Phillis, won"t you please tell Ike to bring up Bedouin," Edith said coaxingly, hoping by this ruse to get rid of the old negress; but Phillis was too cunning, and throwing up the window sash, she called to Ike, delivering the message.
Edith, however, managed slily to whisper, "In Worcester, isn"t she?" while Judy as slily nodded affirmatively, ere Phillis" sharp eyes were turned again upon them. Edith"s curiosity concerning the mysterious Nina was thoroughly roused, and determining to ferret out the whole affair by dint of quizzing Judith whenever an opportunity should occur, she took her leave.
"Mother," said Phillis, the moment Edith was out of hearing, "havn"t you no sense, or what possessed you to talk of Miss Nina to her? Havn"t you no family pride, and has you done forgot that Marster Arthur forbade our talkin" of her to strangers?"
Old Judy at first received the rebuke in silence, then bridling up in her own defense, she replied, "Needn"t tell me that any good will ever come out o" this kiverin" up an" hidin", and keeping whist. It"ll come out bimeby, an" then folks"ll wonder what "twas all did for. Ole marster didn"t act so by Miss Nina"s mother, an"
I believe thar"s somethin" behind, some carrying on that we don"t know; but it"s boun" to come out fust or last. That ar Miss Edith is a nice trim gal. I wish to goodness Marster Arthur"d done set to her. I"d like her for a mistress mighty well. I really b"lieve he has a hankerin" notion after her, too, an" it"s nater that he should have. It"s better for the young to marry, and the old, too, for that matter. Poor Uncle Abe! Do you s"pose, Phillis, that he goes over o" nights to Aunt Dilsey"s cabin sen" we"ve come away.
Dilsey"s an onery n.i.g.g.e.r, anyhow," and with her mind upon Uncle Abel, and her possible rival Dilsey, old Judy forgot Edith Hastings, who, without bidding Arthur good morning, had gallopped home to Collingwood, where she found poor, deluded Richard, waiting and wondering at the non-appearance of Mr. Floyd, who was to buy his western wood lot.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE MYSTERY AT GRa.s.sY SPRING.
For several weeks longer Edith continued taking lessons of Arthur, going sometimes with Richard, but oftener alone, and feeling always that a change had gradually come over her teacher. He was as kind to her as ever, took quite as much pains with her, and she was sensible of a greater degree of improvement than had marked the days when she trembled every time he touched her hands. Still there was a change. He did not bend over her now as he used to do; did not lay his arm across the back of her chair, letting it some times fall by accident upon her shoulders; did not look into her eyes with a glance which made her blush and turn away; in short, he did not look at her at all, if he could help it, and in this very self-denial lay his strength. He was waging a mighty battle with himself, and inch by inch he was gaining the victory, for victory it would be when he brought himself to think of Edith Hastings without a pang--to listen to her voice and look into her face without a feeling that she must be his. He could not do this yet, but he kept himself from telling her of his love by a.s.suming a reserved, studied manner, which led her at last to think he might be angry, and one day, toward the first of March, when he had been more than usually silent, she asked him abruptly how she had offended, her soft eyes filling with tears as she expressed her sorrow if by any thoughtless act she had caused him pain.
"You could not offend me, Edith," he said; "that would be impossible, and if I am sometimes could an abstracted, it is because I have just cause for being so. I am very unhappy, Edith, and your visits here to me are like oases to the weary traveller.
Were it not for you I should wish to die; and yet, strange as it may seem, I have prayed to die oftener since I knew you as you now are than I ever did before, I committed a fatal error once and it has embittered my whole existence. It was early in life, to, before I ever say you, Edith."
"Why Mr. St. Claire," she exclaimed, "you were nothing but a boy when you came to Brier Hill."
"Yes, a boy," he exclaimed, "or I had never done what I did; but it cannot be helped, and I must abide the consequences. Now let us talk of something else. I am going away to-morrow, and you need not come again until I send for you; but whatever occurs, don"t think I am offended."
She could not think so when she met the olden look she ahs missed so long, and wondering where he could be going, she arose to take her leave. He went with her to the door, and wrung her hand nervously, bidding her in heart a final farewell, for when they met again a great gulf would be between them,--a gulf he had helped to dig, and which he could not a.s.s. Edith had intended to ask old Judy where Arthur was going, without, however, having much hope of success: for, since the conversation concerning Nina, Judy had been wholly non-committal, plainly showing that she had been trained for the occasion, but changed her mind, and rode leisurely away, going round by Brier Hill to call upon Grace whom she had not seen for some little time. Grace, as usual, was full of complaints against Arthur for being so misanthropical, so cross- grained and so queer, shutting himself up like a hermit and refusing to see any one but herself and Edith.
"What is he going to Worcester for?" she asked, adding that one of the negroes had told old Rachel, who was there the previous night.
But Edith did not know, unless it was to be married, and laughing at her own joke, she bade Grace good-bye, having learned by accident what she so much desired to know.
The next morning she arose quite early, and looking in the direction of Gra.s.sy Spring, which, when the leaves were fallen, was plainly discernible, she saw Arthur"s carriage driving from his gate. There was no train due at that hour, and she stood wondering until the carriage, which, for a moment, had been hidden from her view, appeared a second time in sight, and as it pa.s.sed the house she saw Aunt Phillis"s dusky face peering from the window. She did not see Arthur, but she was sure he was inside; and when the horses were turned into the road, which, before the day of cars, was the great thoroughfare between Shannondale and Worcester, she knew he had started for the latter place in his carriage.
"What can it be for?" she said; "and why has he taken Phillis?"
But puzzle her brain as she might, she could not fathom the mystery, and she waited for what would next occur.
In the course of the day Victor, who, without being really meddlesome, managed to keep himself posted with regard to the affairs at Gra.s.sy Spring, told her that Mr. St. Claire, preferring his carriage to the cars, had gone in it to Worcester, and taken Phillis with him; that he would be absent some days; and that Sophy, Phillis"s daughter, when questioned as to his business, had answered evasively,
"Gone to fetch his wife home for what I know."
"Maybe it is so," said Victor, looking Edith steadily in the face, "Soph didn"t mean me to believe it; but there"s many a truth spoken in jest."
Edith knew that, but she would not hearken for a moment to Victor"s suggestion. It made her too unhappy, and for three days she had a fair opportunity of ascertaining the nature of her feelings toward Arthur St. Claire, for nothing is more conducive to the rapid development of love, than a spice of jealousy lest another has won the heart we so much covet.
The next day, the fourth after Arthur"s departure, she asked Victor to ride with her on horseback, saying the fresh March wind would do her good. It was nearly sunset when they started, and, as there was a splendid moon, they continued their excursion to quite a distance, so that it was seven ere they found themselves at the foot of the long hill which wound past Collingwood and on to Gra.s.sy Spring. Half way up the hill, moving very slowly, as if the horses were jaded and tired, was a traveling carriage, which both Edith and Victor recognized at once as belonging to Arthur St.
Claire.
"Let"s overtake them," said Edith, and chirruping to Bedouin, she was soon so near to the carriage that her quick ear caught the sound of a low, sweet voice singing a German air, with which she herself had always been familiar, though when she first learned it she could not tell.
It was one of those old songs which Rachel had called weird and wild, and now, as she listened to the plaintive tones, they thrilled on every nerve with a strange power as if it were a requiem sung by the dead over their own buried hopes. Nearer and nearer Bedouin pressed to the slowly moving vehicle, until at last she was nearly even with it.
"Look, Miss Edith!" and Victor grasped her bridle rein, directing her attention to the arms folded upon the window and the girlish head resting upon the arms, in the att.i.tude of a weary child.
One little ringless, blue-veined hand was plainly discernible in the bright moonlight, and Edith thought how small and white and delicate it was.
"Let"s go on," she whispered, and they dashed past the carriage just as Arthur leaned forward to see who they were.
"That was a young lady," said Victor coming up with Edith, who was riding at a headlong speed.
"Yes, I knew it," and Edith again touched Bedouin with her whip as if the fast riding suited well her tumultuous emotions.
"His bride?" said Victor, interrogatively, and Edith replied, "Very likely, Victor," and she stopped Bedouin short. "Victor, don"t tell any one of the lady in the carriage until it"s known for certain that there is one at Gra.s.sy Spring."
Victor could see no reason for this request, but it was sufficient for him that Edith had made it, and he promised readily all that she desired. They were at home by this time, and complaining of a headache Edith excused herself earlier than usual and stole up to her chamber where she could he alone to wonder WHO was the visitor at Gra.s.sy Spring. It might be a bride, and it might be NINA.
Starting to her feet as the last mentioned individual came into her mind, she walked to the window and saw just what she more than half expected to see--a light shining through the iron lattice of the DEN--a bright, cheerful light--and as she gazed, there crept over her a faint, sick feeling, as if she knew of the ruin, the desolation, the blighted hopes and beautiful wreck embodied in the mystery at Gra.s.sy Spring. Covering her eyes with her hands the tears trickled through her fingers, falling not so much for Arthur St. Claire as for the plaintive singing girl shrouded in so dark a mystery. Drying her eyes she looked again across the meadow, but the blinds of the Den were closed, and only the moonbeams fell where the blaze of the lamp had been.
A week went by, and though Grace came twice to Collingwood, while Victor feigned several errands to Gra.s.sy Spring, nothing was known of the stranger. Grace evidently had no suspicion of her existence, while Victor declared there was no trace of a white woman any where about the premises. Mr. St. Claire, he said, sat in the library, his feet crossed in a chair and his hands on top of his head as if in a brown study, while Aunt Phillis appeared far more impatient than usual and had intimated to him plainly that "in her "pinion white n.i.g.g.e.rs had better be at home tendin"
to thar own business, of they had any, and not pryin" into thar neighbor"s affairs."
At last Edith was surprised at receiving a note from Arthur, saying he was ready to resume their lessons at any time. Highly delighted with the plan Edith answered immediately that she would come on the morrow, which was Friday. Richard did not offer to go, owing in a great measure to the skillful management of Victor, who, though he did not suggest Mr. Floyd and the western wood lot, found some equally good excuse why his master"s presence would, that day of all others, be necessary at home.