Uncle Nathan and Henry secured seats which had been reserved for ladies who did not appear to claim them. Opposite them were seated Emily and her uncle. She was dressed in deep mourning, and her countenance was saddened by the gloom of affliction. Her eyes were reddened by weeping, in which she had indulged freely in the quiet of her state-room. By intense effort she had subdued her violent agitation, and a sad calmness rested upon her face, that belied her feelings.
Henry Carroll, who had not before been aware of her presence, was, as may be supposed, astonished at this meeting. In her sable dress and melancholy aspect he read the sad affliction which had befallen her in the death of her father. Their eyes met, and exchanged warmer greetings than their words could have done. A sad smile--the smile of pleasure--rested upon her beautiful features, as they interchanged salutations. Her pale cheek was slightly crimsoned with a tell-tale blush. Her fluttering heart refused to retain its secret.
Henry expressed his grief at the melancholy event which had shrouded her in the weeds of mourning,--not in words alone, but his sorrow for the death of a kind friend was more eloquently told in his countenance.
Jaspar was chagrined at this meeting, and his awkward attempts to be civil to Henry were entire failures. This was an event for which he was not prepared,--the consequences of which filled him with anxiety. He knew that in Henry his wronged niece would have a zealous advocate;--not a superannuated priest, but a young man whose blood was warm, and whose soul was full of energy. True, he reasoned, the young officer was powerless as a diplomatist. Ho as yet knew nothing of the will, or of Emily"s degraded position. Henry knew the feelings and character of his brother, and would be the last one to believe the infamous statement of the will. What the father might have said to him in regard to her he knew not. As guilt always does, he imagined a thousand dangers, and saw with a clear vision the real ones besides.
At the tea-table there was little conversation beside the ordinary courtesies of the occasion. Jaspar said but little.
The guilty never feel any security in the enjoyment of ill-gotten wealth. The murderer is haunted by the ghost of his victim. The cries of the widow and the orphan continually ring in the ear of the avaricious.
The fear of discovery haunted Jaspar. Although he saw no probability of his villany being exposed, the fear of discovery troubled him day and night. Revengeful and cruel, dauntless and bold, as he had ever been, the present seemed a crisis in his life. He had accomplished the climax of villany, and as he had racked his powers of invention for the means of attaining his purpose, he now taxed them for the means of concealing it. The insecurity of his position was so tedious, that he sought, as the tempest-tost mariner seeks the quiet haven, to fortify it, so that he might be at rest from the tormenting doubts which a.s.sailed him. Vain hope! there is no rest for the wicked. Plots and schemes ran through his mind; but they afforded no satisfaction. There was only one event which promised the least mitigation of his mental sufferings, and this was the death of his niece. Black as he was at heart, he shrank from her murder,--not at the deed, but at the terrible consequences to him which might follow it.
Emily was conducted to the ladies" cabin by Jaspar, who, by a dogged adherence to her side, seemed determined to prevent any further conversation between her and Henry. But the black chambermaid, with an official dignity which is oftentimes necessary in her position, politely requested him to retire. Jaspar left, satisfied she would be safe from intrusion for the present.
Jaspar"s disposition to prevent further conversation between Emily and Henry was not unperceived by the latter. He was satisfied that her uncle"s close attendance at her side--so foreign to his former manner--was not without its purpose. Love, which he had in vain attempted to stifle, pressed more vigorously at his heart. In her recognition of him he had read that the sentiment in her heart was not abated by his absence. Her melancholy aspect had awakened a new interest in him. Disappointed in obtaining the interview he desired, he sought the hurricane deck to think of her, and to cherish the warm feeling in his heart. But what was his surprise, on reaching it, to find Emily there, and alone!
After the departure of Jaspar she had retired to the gallery which surrounds the cabin, to enjoy the freshness of the evening air. The gallery was somewhat crowded, and, with a lady and gentleman, she had ascended to the hurricane deck. Her companions, more gay and happy than she, soon left her to the gloom and comparative silence which usually reigns on the upper deck. There were no other pa.s.sengers there, and, fearing not the darkness or the loneliness, she was there venting the sadness which pervaded her heart. She was about to descend, when she recognized Henry.
Emily related to him the circ.u.mstances of her father"s death, and of the reading of the will.
"Impossible!" exclaimed Henry, in astonishment.
"It is strange; but I cannot see any reason to disbelieve it, except that my father"s character a.s.sures me it is not so."
"Which would be a very good reason for disbelieving it. And you are now on your way to Cincinnati?"
"I am; and it is the most melancholy journey I ever attempted. But I ought to be thankful for all that comes,--if I am a slave, for the freedom that awaits me."
"Good Heavens! Emily, do not talk so! You freeze the blood in my veins!"
"Nay, I feel somewhat reconciled to the terrible reality now, for it little matters what I really am, since the will--true or false--condemns me to the odium of having been a slave. You will not wish now to own your sister!" said Emily, with a sad smile.
"Yes, were you ten times a slave, it would not obliterate the mark of the omniscient G.o.d! It could not alter the beauty of the features or the character. I should be proud of such a sister, even did she wear the shackles. But you! No, no, there is no stain upon your birth!"
"And can you regard me as you once did? A--"
"An angel. Yes, truly, as an angel of the higher order."
"Nay, nay, this sounds not like the Henry Carroll of a month since. You are a flatterer," said Emily, with a smile.
"I did but say what I would have gladly said then," replied Henry.
The fear of ingrat.i.tude to a father no longer chained his heart to the narrow limit of friendship. He saw her before him trodden down by misfortune, in the power of subtlety and villany, and as a child of misfortune his heart even more strongly inclined to her. He loved her more tenderly than before.
"Then, when sorrow was a stranger, you were subdued and distant to your sister," said Emily, her heart fluttering with the storm of emotion within it.
"I am as I was then; but you were a child of affluence, and I feared to--to--"
"Why did you fear?" asked Emily, not waiting to hear the word Henry was stammering to enunciate. "Had you no confidence in your sister?"
"I did have confidence in the _sister_. But I fear it was not a sister"s confidence I sought."
"Indeed!" said Emily, her emotions destroying the appearance of surprise the word was intended to convey.
"Emily, I will not now attempt to conceal the feelings which have torn my heart," said Henry, in a low tone, as he took her willing hand. "When I bade you farewell,--alas! what misfortunes have come since!--when I left you for I dared not think how long, you know not what violence I did to the warmest feeling of my heart. You know not what misery the struggle between that feeling and duty has caused me. I have striven to conquer it; but Heaven has now put you in my path, thus bidding me resist no more the impulse of my heart. I love you, Emily, and I have tried, for your sake and your father"s, to conquer my love. Say, Emily, may I venture to hope my love is not unvalued?"
A slight pressure of the hand he held was all the answer he received--was, indeed, all he asked.
"You forget what I am," murmured Emily.
"I will always forget what this will has said you are. But Heaven will not let the innocent be wronged, nor the guilty remain unpunished. A month since, how I wished you were not the heiress of a millionaire!"
"Why did you wish it? Did you think that gold would blacken my heart?"
"No, dear Emily, but it would have been ingrat.i.tude in me to win your love, and thus destroy any other plan your father might have cherished."
"My father never had an avaricious disposition," replied Emily, warmly.
"Far from it; but he might have had some views, in regard to his daughter, with which I might have interfered."
"But you were a rebel against his views, notwithstanding," said Emily, with a smile, and a deep blush, which the darkness concealed from Henry.
"I should have been sorry to have heard you say so, then; but now, Heaven bless you for the words!" replied Henry, with a warm pressure of the hand.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Hatchie and Henry rescuing Emily from the Mississippi.
Page 79]
"Madam," said Jaspar, who had stealthily approached, without the knowledge of the lovers, "to your state-room! Captain Carroll, as the guardian of this lady, I request your entire withdrawal, in future, from her society."
"A request," replied Henry, proudly, "which I shall entirely disregard."
"Then, by--you will receive the penalty of your obstinacy!" said Jaspar, in a pa.s.sion.
"I am not to be intimidated by threats."
"Do not provoke him, Henry" said Emily, fearful for the safety of him whom the last hour had doubly endeared to her.
"Mr. Dumont, _her_ request I will obey," and Carroll walked forward.
He paused by the side of the wheel-house, to hear the report of the leadsman, who was sounding the depth of water, in obedience to the command of the pilot, expressed in a single clang of the heavy bell.
Mechanically he had stopped, and with no interest in the matter he listened to the monotonous reply, "Quarter less three," &c. He was about to descend to the boiler deck, when a shrill shriek startled him from his revery. There was no mistaking the sound of that voice! Without an instant"s hesitation, he called to the pilot to stop the boat, and, with a few bounds, was by the side of Jaspar, who was calling l.u.s.tily for help. Henry, careless of his own safety, slid down to the gallery abaft the ladies" cabin, and then sprang to the single pole upon which was suspended the small boat. Before he could unloose the tackle, and lower himself down, he heard a splash, and saw a man swimming towards the spot where Emily had disappeared. Henry plied a single oar in the stern of the boat, and reached the place in season to take in the n.o.ble fellow who had preceded him, together with his lifeless burden, as he rose. The steamer backed down, and in a few moments more the party was safely on board again.
"Where is the man who saved her?" said the disappointed Jaspar, after a.s.sisting Emily to her state-room.
Emily"s fall had not been accidental, as the reader will at once infer.
Jaspar"s pa.s.sion, and the danger which he thought the young officer"s presence menaced, had prompted him to an act which was not attended with his usual prudence, and the failure was likely to place him in a more uncomfortable position than his former one. With the instinct of deception, he immediately offered a liberal reward to the man who had rescued her.
"Where is he? Who is he?" shouted Jaspar, eagerly.