Althea antic.i.p.ated a storm; but she braved it, and asked Thornton"s consent to her baptism. She might as well have asked the mountain to come down and be bathed in the sea. He was fierce as the whirlwind, unrelenting as death. His words of scorn and anger poured down like a water-spout, but unlike this element of destruction, his fury became not spent.
He forbade her attendance at the closing exercises of the Mission, or any further discourse with the Jesuit. Of this Jesuit, he had jocosely a.s.serted he was going to take lessons in the art of intrigue. He deemed the lesson had been given without his seeking, and it was no less galling from his secret conviction that it was all his own fault.
Had his wife asked his permission to join either of the other sects, he would have answered her with an indifferent laugh and sneer. _That_ would have been of no consequence. She could have been a Methodist, or a Universalist, anything but a Catholic! Like a Pagan Diocletian, he would have gathered all Catholics together, and thrown them to wild beasts.
The coming election had lost for him its interest. It had cost him dear.
Everything might go to Sharp and the dogs; one thing was certain--his wife should not become a Catholic. He remained steadily at Vine Cottage, a Cerberus to guard his domain. The Missioner would leave Windsor on the morrow. Althea wrote him a brief note, which she sent by Mary, asking him what she should do.
His reply was this verbal message: "Wait--and trust in G.o.d!" Mary delivered this faithfully, and added:
"He said, ma"am, to tell you that he would never forget to pray for you at every Ma.s.s he should say."
"G.o.d will hear _his_ prayer," was Althea"s thought, and she was comforted.
The very spirit of evil seemed to have taken possession of Mr. Rush. He was more and more resolved to have entirely annihilated every trace of the new faith in his wife. For this purpose he sent far and near, until he had literally the proverbial "house full of ministers." His wife was under exhortation first from one, then from another, every hour in the day.
First the Presbyterian, then the Methodist, the Baptist, even the Spiritualist expounded and sermonized upon the several beauties of the Protestant faith. Their princ.i.p.al ammunition, however, was expended in besieging, battering and anathematizing the Catholic Church.
Every minister had a book for her to read, at home in his library, which he would bring her, the reading of which would prove convincingly conclusive. One had Fox, one Hogan, another Kirwan and Maria Monk, and still another the mult.i.tudinous tomes of Julia McNair Wright. As to Edith O"Gorman--no need to allude to this lately arisen bright particular star, in whose flood of light, the black sun of Catholicism was going down. Mary Stuart was not more tortured by Elizabeth"s emissaries, than was Althea by these clever ministers. But the ill-fated Queen, nursed from childhood in the faith, was not more unwaveringly firm than was this six-days" neophyte.
With this array of ministers, however, was not her greatest trial. They might deem her stupid, obstinate, blind, and infatuated, but they were at least gentlemanly and polite. She could reply to them as she thought best, without danger of having her head taken off. She was even glad of their presence as they went and came again, because, while they talked, her husband was for the most part silent.
And when he demanded that one or other should receive her into his church, he was in turn offended at them, because they insisted that the lady"s consent was necessary. When the subject was given over, and everyone had departed finally to his own house, then Althea"s true martyrdom commenced.
"You have become a believer in Purgatory, and your faith shall spring from actual knowledge; for as long as you live I will make this house to you a purgatory," declared the enraged husband, furiously. And he kept his word. But the good G.o.d, omnipotent on earth as in heaven, had said: "Thus far shalt thou go, but no farther."
Althea would have remained quiet and resigned, never mentioning the subject of her faith, but this Thornton would not permit. He would talk of it incessantly. To Althea it finally became a fire-brand, which, constantly waving to and fro before her eyes, threatened to turn her brain to madness.
She became dangerously ill. A severe fever had set in, to break up which baffled the physician"s skill, when too late he was called. Thornton had persisted in not believing her sick, and had taken his own time for calling in Dr. Hardy.
Kitty Brett, finding a girl to take her own place, offered her services, which were accepted, as personal attendant upon Althea. As the unfortunate lady grew rapidly worse, Mrs. Moffat was engaged as head nurse.
This Mrs. Moffat was by many regarded as the salt that saved Windsor.
Windsor would have gone to destruction long ago, physically, but for the saving help of Mrs. Moffat"s hands. True, she was a married woman, and, like the martyr, was followed by "nine small children, and one at the breast," but this never prevented her lending a helping hand to any and every applicant. She could be absent from home a week at a time. The children could stir up their flour and water, and bake their hard cakes.
They could lie down at night wherever they chanced to give up and fall, and arise with the morning"s sun, ready dressed. Falling down cellar--it was a trap-door--other people"s children would have broken their necks, but these little Moffats, after turning two or three somersaults, reached the bottom standing upright. They nursed themselves through mumps, measles, whooping cough, and all kindred diseases by playing in the creek; so that Dr. Hardy had serious thoughts of recommending "creek-playing" as a specific in such cases. They were hearty, hardy little fellows, all boys but the eldest, and cared nothing more for their mother"s brief visits, after they had had their scramble for the _bon-bons_ with which she was in the habit of regaling them.
Mrs. Moffat was, indeed, a most valuable attendant upon the sick. Unlike most people, she was in her element when in a sick-room. She could accommodate herself to every situation and emergency. If things and people did not go to suit her she could go to suit them. There was no grating, no friction where Mrs. Moffat was; her very presence was _oily_, so to say. She could lift people heavier than herself; there appeared no limit to her powers of endurance. She could watch night and day without the least detriment to her nerves. She could taste the most nauseous potions, and submit to most disgusting odors, nor make the least wry face about it. If she found a patient not very sick she would sit down and pour forth a gossipy stream of talk for an hour, when, ten to one, every ailment would be forgotten. There was a charm in her tone, word, and manner that affected like magic. Of course, this woman had a drunken husband--such women always have that affliction. There were those, even in Windsor, who said they did not blame Mr. Moffat for taking to drink--if _their_ wives were always from home, and the house forever topsy-turvey, and the children making pyramids of themselves like a pile of ants, they should take to drinking too. But n.o.body could wait on these very people when sick but Mrs. Moffat.
Althea was sure of the best attention while Mrs. Moffat waited on her; and this capable person scarcely left her bedside. Kitty Brett was _her_ right hand, as she herself was Althea"s. Kitty was kept upon a steady march, here, there, and everywhere; and she was as willing as was her superior. She could not do enough for one who had been persecuted for the faith.
The master of the house kept a steady watch over all. His argus-eye was ever on the alert lest, despite his vigilance, the Catholic priest should be smuggled into the house.
Althea was constantly delirious, and it was feared she might die without having recovered her reason. The crisis approached, and Dr. Hardy watched her silently for many hours. He had done his utmost, and though he hoped faintly he feared the worst. Mrs. Moffat"s whispered loquacity was awed into silence. Kitty wept silently at the foot of the bed, praying fervently as she wept. Thornton had walked to and fro in his slippers, his long hands crossed upon each other behind his back, casting out occasionally fierce glances from his cavernous brows. He came and stood, like a thundercloud, by the Doctor"s side.
"Any change?" he whispered.
The doctor shook his head.
"What do you think, any chance?"
The doctor looked at his watch, which he had been holding in his hand.
"Yes, while she breathes there"s a chance, I suppose," replied the doctor, without looking up, but changing uneasily his position.
"Well, I have an awful headache; I will lie down in the next room; if she is worse, you can call me," and the cloud disappeared.
Althea had been some time sleeping quietly, neither articulating nor moaning. Dr. Hardy watched her as only doctors watch their patients. It was more to him than a question of life and death--it was somewhat like the alchemist, trembling with hope and fear over his costly dissolvents.
At length, Althea"s eyes opened, glanced hastily around and closed again. Dr. Hardy was not surprised. For the last half hour he had been expecting this, but he had given no sign. When her eyes again opened, he put some drops to her lips, which she readily swallowed. By-and-bye she gave a look of thorough consciousness, accompanied with an effort to speak.
Again, in an hour, she looked earnestly at Dr. Hardy, and moved her lips. He bent low to listen, and only himself caught her words: "Send for the priest."
Dr. Hardy frowned. Was this old anxiety going yet to ruin all? Couldn"t she die or live without the priest?
"You are going to get well now," he whispered in reply.
"Send for Father Ryan, for G.o.d"s sake," she again repeated, so forcibly that Kitty caught the words.
"I will go for him," she said eagerly, but the doctor interfered.
"No, I will see Mr. Rush;" for the anger of that man and his future hostility was not a pleasing prospective to the easy-going doctor, ever ready to propitiate.
Mr. Rush was like a lion, aroused from his sleep, in which he had found temporary oblivion of a torturing headache.
The doctor"s words were not audible in the sick room, but Kitty distinctly heard the reply of Thornton Rush:
"I tell you I don"t care. I don"t believe it will make the least difference. If she has a mind to worry, let her worry; I won"t have a Catholic priest in the house. I"ll have the devil first. If she is going to live, she will live, anyhow. I have never thought she would die yet.
For G.o.d"s sake, let me alone, and don"t waken me again, no matter what happens."
The doctor returned with lugubrious visage. But Kitty"s was radiant.
She was seized with a thought or an inspiration, and she whispered:
"I will take all the blame upon myself; he cannot more than kill me. It is a good time--he has left orders to be let alone. The priest can come and go before he knows it," and she darted out without another word.
The doctor and Mrs. Moffat looked smilingly across at each other in the faint lamp-light, but neither made a movement for Kitty"s detention. As the faithful girl had said, "the priest came and went" before the master knew anything about it. And Althea, having pa.s.sed through her earthly purgatory, and now hovering, as she thought, upon the borders of death, had been baptized by water into newness of life, and been strengthened by that heavenly food, which is more and diviner than the bread of angels.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.
Althea was very weak, but continued slowly to recover. Several days elapsed, during which time Thornton"s pain in the head had been upon the increase, and other alarming symptoms had been developed. These were intensely strengthened by the imprudence of a meddlesome neighbor.
Curtis Coe was Windsor"s merchant tailor. He may have been more than the ninth part of a man in some respects; but when, under pretence of a friendly call, he informed Thornton Rush, already very sick, that the priest, Father Ryan, had baptized Althea--we say, when he did this intentionally and with malice aforethought, and with a sinful love of tale-bearing, and with utter recklessness as to consequences, he proved himself infinitely less, even than ordinary tailors of the proverbial size. He deserved the punishment of being hissed by his own goose.
The effect of this ill-advised news upon Thornton can be better imagined than described. What increased it ten-fold was the man"s utter impotence to resent or punish what had been done. His ravings were fearful, his imprecations multiplied. Vain were the doctor"s warnings that his anger would aggravate his disease. He continued to rave until he became unconscious of the words he uttered. To all in the house it was a relief when this man pa.s.sed into unconscious delirium. One can listen to insane blasphemies with sorrow and pity; but only with horror and disgust to revilings, and railings sanely spoken.