"It isn"t the money!--it isn"t the money I am thinking of!"
exclaimed the poor mother, almost in despair at her husband"s blindness to her feelings.
"What is it then you take so much to heart?"
"It"s remembering that we never warned our poor child; we put him in the way of temptation, where he only learned to think everything of the world and its ways; we didn"t take pains enough to do our duty, as parents, by him!"
"Well, Hester, I must say you are a very unreasonable lady!"
exclaimed Mr. Taylor, who was getting impatient under his wife"s observations. "One would think it was all my fault; do you mean to say it was wrong in me to grow rich?"
"I am afraid it would have been better for us, and for our children, if you hadn"t made so much money," replied the wife.
"The happiest time of our life was the first ten years after we were married, when we had enough to be comfortable, and we didn"t care so much about show. I am sure money hasn"t made me happy; I don"t believe it can make anybody happy!"
Mr. Taylor listened in amazement; but his straightforward, quiet wife, had been for several years gradually coming to the opinion she had just expressed, and the death of her eldest son had affected her deeply. The merchant, finding that he was not very good at consolation, soon changed the conversation; giving up the hope of lessening the mother"s grief, or of bringing her to what he considered more rational views of the all-importance of wealth.
As soon as Jane felt equal to the exertion, she accompanied Miss Agnes and Elinor to Wyllys-Roof. During the three years of her married life she had never been there, having pa.s.sed most of the time either at Charleston or New Orleans. Many changes had occurred in that short period; changes of outward circ.u.mstances, and of secret feeling. Her last visit to Wyllys-Roof had taken place just after her return from France, when she was tacitly engaged to young Taylor; at a moment when she had been more gay, more brilliantly handsome than at any other period of her life.
Now, she returned there, a weeping, mourning widow, wretchedly depressed in spirits, and feeble in health. She was still very lovely, however; the elevated style of her beauty was such, that it appeared finer under the shadow of grief, than in the sunshine of gaiety; and it is only beauty of the very highest order which will bear this test. Her deep mourning dress was in harmony with her whole appearance and expression; and it was not possible to see her at this moment, without being struck by her exceeding loveliness. Jane was only seen by the family, however, and one or two very intimate friends; she remained entirely in the privacy of her own room, where Elinor was generally at her side, endeavouring to soothe her cousin"s grief, by the gentle balm of sympathy and affection.
CHAPTER XII. {x.x.xV}
"Do thou stand for my father, and examine me upon the particulars of my life."
"What manner of man, an"t please your majesty!"
Henry IV.
{William Shakespeare, "1 Henry IV", II.iv.375-376, 420-421}
HAZLEHURST"s affairs had not remained stationary, in the mean time; Mrs. Stanley and himself were already at Wyllys-Roof, when Miss Wyllys and Elinor returned home, accompanied by the widowed Jane. The ladies had received frequent intelligence of the progress of his affairs, from Mr. Wyllys"s letters; still there were many details to be explained when the party was re-united, as several important steps had been taken while they were in New York. Mr. Clapp was no longer the only counsel employed by the claimant; a.s.sociated with the Longbridge attorney, now appeared the name of Mr. Reed, a lawyer of highly respectable standing in New York, a brother-in-law of Judge Bernard"s, and a man of a character far superior to that of Mr. Clapp. He was slightly acquainted with Mr. Wyllys, and had written very civil letters, stating that he held the proofs advanced by his client, to be quite decisive as to his ident.i.ty, and he proposed an amicable meeting, with the hope that Mr. Stanley"s claim might be acknowledged without farther difficulty. That Mr. Reed should have taken the case into his hands, astonished Hazlehurst and his friends; so long as Clapp managed the affair, they felt little doubt as to its beings a coa.r.s.e plot of his own; but they had now become impatient to inquire more closely into the matter. Mrs.
Stanley was growing very uneasy; Hazlehurst was anxious to proceed farther as soon as possible; but Mr. Wyllys was still nearly as sanguine as ever. All parties seemed to desire a personal interview; Mr. Reed offered to accompany his client to Wyllys-Roof, to wait on Mrs. Stanley; and a day had been appointed for the meeting, which was to take place as soon as Harry"s opponent, who had been absent from Longbridge, should return. The morning fixed for the interview, happened to be that succeeding the arrival of the ladies; and it will be easily imagined that every member of the family looked forward to the moment with most anxious interest. Perhaps they were not aware themselves, how gradually doubts had arisen and increased, in their own minds, since the first disclosure made by Mr. Clapp.
"Harry and myself have both seen this man at last, Agnes," said Mr. Wyllys to his daughter, just after she had returned home, when alone with Elinor and herself. "Where do you suppose Harry saw him yesterday? At church, with Mr. Reed. And this morning I caught a glimpse of him, standing on the steps of Clapp"s office."
"Indeed!" exclaimed Miss Wyllys, who, as well as Elinor, was listening eagerly. How did he look?--what kind of man did he seem?"
"He looked like a sailor. I only saw him for a moment, however; for he was coming out of the office, and walked down the street, in an opposite direction from me. I must confess that his face had something of a Stanley look."
"Is it possible!"
"Yes; so far as I could see him, he struck me as looking like the Stanleys; but, in another important point, he does not resemble them at all. You remember the peculiar gait of the family?--they all had it, more or less; anybody who knew them well must have remarked it often--but this man had nothing of the kind; he walked like a sailor."
"I know what you mean; it was a peculiar motion in walking, well known to all their friends--a long, slow step."
"Precisely; this man had nothing of it, whatever--he had the sailor swing, for I watched his movements expressly. William Stanley, as a boy, walked just like his father; for I have often pointed it out to Mr. Stanley, myself."
"That mast be an important point, I should suppose; and yet, grandpapa, you think he looks like my uncle Stanley?" said Elinor.
"So I should say, from the glimpse I had of him."
"What did Harry think of him?" asked Miss Wyllys.
"Hazlehurst did not see his face, for he sat before him in church. He said, that if he had not been told who it was, he should have p.r.o.nounced him, from his general appearance and manner, a common-looking, sea-faring man, who was not accustomed to the service of the Church; for he did not seem to understand when he should kneel, and when he should rise."
"But William Stanley ought to have known it perfectly," observed Elinor; "for he must have gone to church constantly, with his family, as a child, until he went to sea, and could scarcely have forgotten the service entirely, I should think."
"Certainly, my dear; that is another point which we have noted in our favour. On the other hand, however, I have just been carefully comparing the hand-writing of Clapp"s client, with that of William Stanley, and there is a very remarkable resemblance between them. As far as the hand-writing goes, I must confess, that I should have admitted it at once, as identical, under ordinary circ.u.mstances."
"And the personal likeness, too, struck you, it seems," added Miss Agnes.
"It did; so far, at least, as I could judge from seeing him only a moment, and with his hat on. To-morrow we shall be able, I trust, to make up our minds more decidedly on other important points."
"It is very singular that he should not be afraid of an interview!" exclaimed Elinor.
"Well, I don"t know that, my child; having once advanced this claim, he must be prepared for examination, you know, under any circ.u.mstances. It is altogether a singular case, however, whether he be the impostor we think him, or the individual he claims to be. Truth is certainly more strange than fiction sometimes. Would you like to see the statement Mr. Reed sent us, when we applied for some account of his client"s past movements?"
Miss Agnes and Elinor were both anxious to see it.
"Here it is--short you see--in Clapp"s hand-writing, but signed by himself. There is nothing in it that may not possibly be true; but I fancy that we shall be able to pick some holes in it, by-and-bye."
"Did he make no difficulty about sending it to you?" asked Miss Agnes.
"No, he seemed to give it readily; Mr. Reed sent it to us a day or two since."
Miss Wyllys received the letter from her father, inviting Elinor to read it over her shoulder, at the same moment. It was endorsed, in Clapp"s hand, "STATEMENT OF MR. STANLEY, PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF HIS FATHER"S EXECUTOR," and ran as follows:
"July 1st, 183-.
"I left home, as everybody knows, because I would have my own way in everything. It was against my best interests to be sure, but boys don"t think at such times, about anything but having their own will. I suppose that every person connected with my deceased father knows, that my first voyage was made to Russia, in the year 18--, in the ship Dorothy Beck, Jonas Thomson, Master. I was only fourteen years old at the time. My father had taken to heart my going off, and when I came back from Russia he was on the look-out, wrote to me and sent me money, and as soon as he heard we were in port he came after me. Well, I went back with the old gentleman; but we had a quarrel on the road, and I put about again and went to New Bedford, where I shipped in a whaler. We were out only eighteen months, and brought in a full cargo. This time I went home of my own accord, and I staid a great part of one summer. I did think some of quitting the seas; but after a while things didn"t work well, and one of my old shipmates coming up into the country to see me, I went off with him. This time I shipped in the Thomas Jefferson, for China. This was in the year 1814, during the last war, when I was about eighteen. Most people, who know anything about William Stanley, think that was the last of him, that he never set foot on American ground again; but they are mistaken, as he himself will take the pains to show.
So far I have told nothing but what everybody knows, but now I am going to give a short account of what has happened, since my friends heard from me. Well; the Jefferson sailed, on her voyage to China, in October; she was wrecked on the coast of Africa in December, and it was reported that all hands were lost: so they were, all but one, and that one was William Stanley. I was picked up by a Dutchman, the barque William, bound to Batavia. I kept with the Dutchman for a while, until he went back to Holland.
After I had cut adrift from him, I fell in with some Americans, and got some old papers; in one of them I saw my father"s second marriage. I knew the name of the lady he had married, but I had never spoken to her. The very next day, one of the men I was with, who came from the same part of the country, told me of my father"s death, and said it was the common talk about the neighbourhood, that I was disinherited. This made me very angry; though I wasn"t much surprised, after what had pa.s.sed. I was looking out for a homeward-bound American, to go back, and see how matters stood, when one night that I was drunk, I was carried off by an English officer, who made out I was a runaway. For five years I was kept in different English men-of-war, in the East Indies; at the end of that time I was put on board the Ceres, sloop of war, and I made out to desert from her at last, and got on board an American. I then came home; and here, the first man that I met on sh.o.r.e was Billings, the chap who first persuaded me to go to sea: he knew all about my father"s family, and told me it was true I was cut off without a cent, and that Harry Hazlehurst had been adopted by my father. This made me so mad, that I went straight to New Bedford, and shipped in the Sally Andrews, for a whaling voyage. Just before we were to have come home, I exchanged into another whaler, as second-mate, for a year longer. Then I sailed in a Havre liner, as foremast hand, for a while. I found out about this time, that the executors of my father"s estate had been advertising for me shortly after his death, while I was in the East Indies; and I went to a lawyer in Baltimore, where I happened to be, and consulted him about claiming the property; but he wouldn"t believe a word I said, because I was half-drunk at the time, and told me that I should get in trouble if I didn"t keep my mouth shut. Well, I cruized about for a while longer, when at last I went to Longbridge, with some shipmates. I had been there often before, as a lad, and I had some notion of having a talk with Mr. Wyllys, my father"s executor; I went to his house one day, but I didn"t see him. One of my shipmates who knew something of my story, and had been a client of Mr. Clapp"s, advised me to consult him. I went to his office, but he sent me off like the Baltimore lawyer, because be thought I was drunk. Three years after that I got back to Longbridge again, with a shipmate; but it did me no good, for I got drinking, and had a fit of the horrors. That fit sobered me, though, in the end; it was the worst I had ever had; I should have hanged myself, and there would have been an end of William Stanley and his hard rubs, if it hadn"t been for the doctor--I never knew his name, but Mr. Clapp says it was Dr. Van Horne.
After this bad fit, they coaxed me into shipping in a temperance whaler. While I was in the Pacific, in this ship, nigh three years, and out of the reach of drink, I had time to think what a fool I had been all my life, for wasting my opportunities. I thought there must be some way of getting back my father"s property; Mr. Clapp had said, that if I was really the man I pretended to be, I must have some papers to make it out; but if I hadn"t any papers, he couldn"t help me, even if I was William Stanley forty times over. It is true, I couldn"t show him any doc.u.ments that time, for I didn"t have them with me at Longbridge; but I made up my mind, while I was out on my last voyage, that as soon as I got home, I would give up drinking, get my papers together, and set about doing my best to get back my father"s property. We came home last February; I went to work, I kept sober, got my things together, put money by for a lawyer"s fee, and then went straight to Longbridge again. I went to Mr.
Clapp"s office, and first I handed him the money, and then I gave him my papers. I went to him, because he had treated me better than any other lawyer, and told me if I was William Stanley, and could prove it, he could help me better than any other man, for he knew all about my father"s will. Well, he hadn"t expected ever to see me again; but he heard my story all out this time, read the doc.u.ments, and at last believed me, and undertook the case.
The rest is known to the executors and legatee by this time; and it is to be hoped, that after enjoying my father"s estate for nigh twenty years, they will now make it over to his son.
"Dictated to W. C. Clapp, by the undersigned,
[Signed,] "WILLIAM STANLEY."
{"Dutchman" = a ship trading between the Netherlands and the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia), of which Batavia (now Jakarta) was the capital}
"Are these facts, so far as they are known to you, all true?"
asked Miss Agnes, as she finished the paper. "I mean the earlier part of the statement, which refers to William Stanley"s movements before he sailed in the Jefferson?"
"Yes; that part of the story is correct, so far as it goes."
"How extraordinary!" exclaimed Elinor.
"What does Harry think of this paper?"