"Almost if--if you have not to return to Ion to-night. Must you, really?"
"Yes; mother would be alarmed by my absence; and she seldom retires till I am there to bid her good-night."
"Then promise me to avoid that thicket," she pleaded anxiously.
"I cannot think there is any real danger," he said, with a rea.s.suring smile, "but I shall take the other road; "tis but a mile further round, and it would pay me to travel fifty to spare you a moment"s anxiety, dearest."
She looked her thanks.
He left at ten, his usual hour, bidding her have no fear for him, since no real evil can befall those who put their trust in Him whose watchful, protecting care is ever about His chosen ones.
"Yes," she whispered, as for a moment his arm encircled her waist, ""What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee." It is comparatively easy to trust for myself, and G.o.d will help me to do it for you also."
She stood at the window watching his departure, her heart going up in silent prayer for his safety. Then, saying to herself, "Papa must not be disturbed with my idle fancies," she turned to receive his good-night with a face so serene and unclouded, a manner so calm and peaceful, that he had no suspicion of anything amiss.
Nor was it an a.s.sumed peace and calmness; for she had not now to learn to cast her care on the Lord, whom she had loved and served from her very infancy; and her head had not rested many moments upon her pillow ere she fell into a deep, sweet sleep, that lasted until morning.
While Elsie slept, and Mr. Travilla galloped homeward by the longer route, the moon, peering through the cloud curtains, looked down upon a dark figure, standing behind a tree not many yards distant from the thicket Elsie had besought her friend to shun. The man held a revolver in his hand, ready c.o.c.ked for instant use. His att.i.tude was that of one listening intently for some expected sound.
He had stood thus for hours, and was growing very weary. "Curse the wretch!" he muttered, "does he court all night? How many hours have I been here waiting for my chance for a shot at him? It"s getting to be no joke, hungry, cold, tired enough to lie down here on the ground. But I"ll stick it out, and shoot him down like a dog. He thinks to enjoy the prize he s.n.a.t.c.hed from me, but he"ll find himself mistaken, or my name"s n----" The sentence ended with a fierce grinding of the teeth. Hark! was that the distant tread of a horse? He bent his ear to the earth, and almost held his breath to listen. Yes, faint but unmistakable; the sounds filled him with a fiendish joy. For years he had nursed his hatred of Travilla, whom he blamed almost exclusively for his failure to get possession of Elsie"s fortune.
He sprang up and again placed himself in position to fire. But what had become of the welcome sounds? Alas for his hoped-for revenge; they had died away entirely. The horse and his rider must have taken some other road. More low-breathed, bitter curses: yet perchance it was not the man for whose life he thirsted. He would wait and hope on.
But the night waned: one after another the moon and stars set and day began to break in the east; the birds waking in their nests overhead grew clamorous with joy, yet their notes seemed to contain a warning tone for him, bidding him begone ere the coming of the light hated by those whose deeds are evil. Chilled by the frosty air, and stiff and sore from long standing in a constrained position, he limped away, and disappeared in the deeper shadows of the woods.
Arthur"s words of warning had taken their desired effect; and cowardly, as base, wicked, and cruel, the man made haste to flee from the scene of his intended crime, imagining at times that he even heard the bloodhounds already on his track.
CHAPTER TENTH.
"At last I know thee--and my soul, From all thy arts set free, Abjures the cold consummate art Shrin"d as a soul in thee."
--SARA J. CLARK.
The rest of the winter pa.s.sed quietly and happily with our friends at Ion and the Oaks, Mr. Travilla spending nearly half his time at the latter place, and in rides and walks with Elsie, whom he now and then coaxed to Ion for a call upon his mother.
Their courtship was serene and peaceful: disturbed by no feverish heat of pa.s.sion, no doubts and fears, no lovers" quarrels, but full of a deep, intense happiness, the fruit of their long and intimate friendship, their full acquaintance with, and perfect confidence in each other, and their strong love. Enna sneeringly observed that "they were more like some staid old married couple than a pair of lovers."
Arthur made no confidant in regard to his late interview with Jackson; nothing more was heard or seen of the scoundrel, and gradually Elsie came to the conclusion that Mr. Travilla, who occasionally rallied her good-naturedly on the subject of her fright, had been correct in his judgment that it was either the work of imagination or of some practical joker.
Arthur, on his part, thought that fear of the terrors he had held up before him would cause Jackson--whom he knew to be an arrant coward--to refrain from adventuring himself again in the neighborhood.
But he miscalculated the depth of the man"s animosity towards Mr.
Travilla, which so exceeded his cowardice as at length to induce him to return and make another effort to destroy either the life of that gentleman or his hopes of happiness; perhaps both.
Elsie was very fond of the society of her dear ones, yet occasionally found much enjoyment in being alone, for a short season, with Nature or a book. A very happy little woman, as she had every reason to be, and full of grat.i.tude and love to the Giver of all good for His unnumbered blessings, she loved now and then to have a quiet hour in which to count them over, as a miser does his gold, to return her heartfelt thanks, tell her best, her dearest Friend of all, how happy she was, and seek help from Him to make a right use of each talent committed to her care.
Seated in her favorite arbor one lovely spring day, with thoughts thus employed, and eyes gazing dreamily upon the beautiful landscape spread out at her feet, she was startled from her reverie by some one suddenly stepping in and boldly taking a seat by her side.
She turned her head. Could it be possible? Yes, it was indeed Tom Jackson, handsomely dressed and looking, to a casual observer, the gentleman she had once believed him to be. She recognized him instantly.
A burning blush suffused her face, dyeing even the fair neck and arms. She spoke not a word, but rose up hastily with the intent to fly from his hateful presence.
"Now don"t, my darling, don"t run away from me," he said, intercepting her. "I"m sure you couldn"t have the heart, if you knew how I have lived for years upon the hope of such a meeting: for my love for you, dearest Elsie, has never lessened, the ardor of my pa.s.sion has never cooled----"
"Enough, sir," she said, drawing herself up, her eyes kindling and flashing as he had never thought they could; "how dare you insult me by such words, and by your presence here? Let me pa.s.s."
"Insult you, Miss Dinsmore?" he cried, in affected surprise. "You were not wont, in past days, to consider my presence an insult, and I could never have believed fickleness a part of your nature. You are now of age, and have a right to listen to my defense, and my suit for your heart and hand."
"Are you mad? Can you still suppose me ignorant of your true character and your history for years past? Know then that I am fully acquainted with them; that I know you to be a lover of vice and the society of the vicious--a drunkard, profane, a gambler, and one who has stained his hands with the blood of a fellow-creature," she added with a shudder. "I pray G.o.d you may repent and be forgiven; but you are not and can never be anything to me."
"So with all your piety you forsake your friends when they get into trouble," he remarked with a bitter sneer.
"Friend of mine you never were," she answered quietly; "I know it was my fortune and not myself you really wanted. But though it were true that you loved me as madly and disinterestedly as you professed, had I known your character, never, _never_ should I have held speech with you, much less admitted you to terms of familiarity--a fact which I look back upon with the deepest mortification. Let me pa.s.s, sir, and never venture to approach me again."
"No you don"t, my haughty miss! I"m not done with you yet," he exclaimed between his clenched teeth, and seizing her rudely by the arm as she tried to step past him. "So you"re engaged to that fatherly friend of yours, that pious sneak, that deadly foe to me?"
"Unhand me, sir!"
"Not yet," he answered, tightening his grasp, and at the same time taking a pistol from his pocket. "I swear you shall never marry that man: promise me on your oath that you"ll not, or--I"ll shoot you through the heart; the heart that"s turned false to me. D"ye hear," and he held the muzzle of his piece within a foot of her breast.
Every trace of color fled from her face, but she stood like a marble statue, without speech or motion of a muscle, her eyes looking straight into his with firm defiance.
"Do you hear?" he repeated, in a tone of exasperation, "speak! promise that you"ll never marry Travilla, or I"ll shoot you in three minutes--shoot you down dead on the spot, if I swing for it before night."
"That will be as G.o.d pleases," she answered low and reverently; "you can have no power at all against me except it be given you from above."
"I can"t, hey? looks like it; I"ve only to touch the trigger here, and your soul"s out o" your body. Better promise than die."
Still she stood looking him unflinchingly in the eye; not a muscle moving, no sign of fear except that deadly pallor.
"Well," lowering his piece, "you"re a brave girl, and I haven"t the heart to do it," he exclaimed in admiration. "I"ll give up that promise; on condition that you make another--that you"ll keep all this a secret for twenty-four hours, so I can make my escape from the neighborhood before they get after me with their bloodhounds."
"That I promise, if you will be gone at once."
"You"ll not say a word to any one of having seen me, or suspecting I"m about here?"
"Not a word until the twenty-four hours are over."
"Then good-bye. Your pluck has saved your life; but remember, I"ve not said I won"t shoot him or your father, if chance throws them in my way,"
he added, looking back over his shoulder with a malicious leer, as he left the arbor, then disappearing from sight among the trees and shrubbery beyond.
Elsie"s knees shook and trembled under her; she sank back into her seat, covering her face and bowing her head upon her lap, while she sent up silent, almost agonizing pet.i.tions for the safety of those two so inexpressibly dear to her. Some moments pa.s.sed thus, then she rose and hastened, with a quick nervous step, to the house. She entered her boudoir, and lay down upon a couch trembling in every fibre, every nerve quivering with excitement. The shock had been terrible.
"What de matter wid my chile? what ails you, honey?" asked Aunt Chloe, coming to her side full of concern.
"I think one of my bad headaches is coming on, mammy. But oh, tell me, is Mr. Travilla here?--and papa! where is he?"