While Reuben spoke, Ishmael gave signs of returning consciousness, and then suddenly opened his eyes and looked around him.
"Drink this, my boy; drink this, my darling Ishmael," said Hannah, raising his head with one hand while she held the brandy to his lips with the other.
Ishmael obediently drank a little and then sank back upon his pillow. He gazed fixedly at Hannah for a few moments, and then suddenly threw his arms around her neck, as she stooped over him, and cried out in a voice piercing shrill with anguish:
"Oh, Aunt Hannah! she is gone; she is gone forever!"
"Who is gone, my boy?" asked Hannah sympathetically.
"Claudia! Claudia!" he wailed, covering his convulsed face with his hands.
"How, my ban upon Brudenell Hall and all connected with it!" exclaimed Hannah bitterly, as the hitherto unsuspected fact of Ishmael"s fatal love flashed upon her mind; "my blackest ban upon Brudenell Hall and all its hateful race! It was built for the ruin of me and mine! I was a fool, a weak, wicked fool, ever to have allowed Ishmael to enter its unlucky doors! My curse upon them!"
The boy threw up his thin hand with a gesture of deprecation.
"Don"t! don"t! don"t, Aunt Hannah! Every word you speak is a stab through my heart." And the sentence closed with a gasp and a sob, and he covered his face with his hands.
"What can I do for him?" said Hannah, appealing to Reuben.
"Nothing, my dear, but what you have done. Leave him alone to rest quietly. It is easy to see that he has been very much shaken both in body and hind; and perfect rest is the only thing as will help him,"
answered Gray.
Ishmael"s hands covered his quivering face; but they saw that his bosom was heaving convulsively. He seemed to be struggling valiantly to regain composure. Presently, as if ashamed of having betrayed his weakness, he uncovered his face and said, in a faltering and interrupted voice:
"Dear Aunt Hannah, I am so sorry that I have disturbed you; excuse me; and let me lie here for half an hour to recover myself. I do not wish to be self-indulgent; but I am exhausted. I ran all the way from Brudenell Hall to Baymouth to get--to see--to see--" His voice broke down with a sob, he covered his face with his hands, and shook as with an ague.
"Never mind, my dear, don"t try to explain; lie as long as you wish, and sleep if you can," said Hannah.
But Ishmael looked up again, and with recovered calmness, said:
"I will rest for half an hour, Aunt Hannah, no longer; and then I will get up and cut the wood, or do any work you want done."
"Very well, my boy," said Hannah, stooping and kissing him. Then she arranged the pillow, covered him up carefully, drew the curtains and came away and left him.
"He will be all right in a little while, Hannah, my dear," said Reuben, as he walked with her to the fireplace.
"Sit down there, Reuben, and tell me about yourself, and where you have been living all this time," said Hannah, seating herself in her arm-chair and pointing to another.
Reuben slowly took the seat and carefully deposited his hat on the floor by his side.
"I am sorry I spoke so sharply to you about the lad, Reuben; it was a thankless return for all your kindness in taking care of him and bringing him home; but indeed I am not thankless, Reuben; but I have grown to be a cross old woman," she said.
"Have you, indeed, Hannah, my dear?" exclaimed Reuben, raising his eyebrows in sincere astonishment and some consternation.
"It appears to me that you might see that I have," replied Hannah plainly.
"Well, no; seems to me, my dear, you"re the same as you allers was, both as to looks and as to temper."
"I feel that I am very much changed. And so are you, Reuben! How gray your hair is!" she said, looking critically at her old admirer.
"Gray! I believe you! Ain"t it though?" exclaimed Reuben, smiling, and running his fingers through his blanched locks.
"But you haven"t told me all about yourself, yet; where you have been living; how you have been getting along, and what brought you back to this part of the country," said Hannah, with an air of deep interest.
"Why, Hannah, my dear, didn"t you know all how and about it?"
"No; I heard long ago, of course, that you had got a place as overseer on the plantation of some rich gentleman up in the forest; but that was all; I never even heard the name of the place or the master."
"Well, now, that beats all! Why, Hannah, woman, as soon as I got settled, I set down and writ you a letter, and all how and about it, and axed you, if ever you changed your mind about what--about the--about our affairs, you know--to drop me a line and I"d come and marry you and the child, right out of hand, and fetch you both to my new home."
"I never got the letter."
"See that, now! Everything, even the post, goes to cross a feller"s love! But Hannah, woman, if you had a-got the letter, would you a-called me back?" asked Gray eagerly.
"No, Reuben, certainly not," said Hannah decidedly.
"Then it is just as well you didn"t get it," sighed this most faithful, though most unfortunate of suitors.
"Yes; just as well, Reuben," a.s.sented Hannah; "but that fact does not lessen my interests in your fortunes, and as I never got the letter I am still ignorant of your circ.u.mstances."
"Well, Hannah, my dear, I"m thankful as you feel any interest in me at all; and I"ll tell you everything. Let me see, what was it you was wanting to know, now? all about myself; where I was living; how I was getting along; and what fotch me back here; all soon told, Hannah, my dear. First about myself: You see, Hannah, that day as you slammed the door in my face I felt so distressed in my mind as I didn"t care what on earth became of me; first I thought I"d just "list for a soldier; then I thought I"d ship for a sailor; last I thought I"d go and seek my fortun"
in Californy; but then the idea of the girls having no protector but myself hindered of me; hows"evar, anyways I made up my mind, as come what would I"d leave the neighborhood first opportunity; and so, soon after, as I heard of a situation as overseer at Judge Merlin"s plantation up in the forest of Prince George"s County, I sets off and walks up there, and offers myself for the place; and was so fort"nate as to be taken; so I comes back and moves my family, bag and baggage, up there. Now as to the place where I live, it is called Tanglewood, and a tangle it is, as gets more and more tangled every year of its life. As to how I"m getting on, Hannah, I can"t complain; for if I have to do very hard work, I get very good wages. As to what brought me back to the neighborhood, Hannah, it was to do some business for the judge, and to buy some stock for the farm. But there, my dear! that boy has slipped out, and is cutting the wood; I"ll go and do it for him," said Reuben, as the sound of Ishmael"s ax fell upon his ears.
Hannah arose and followed Gray to the door, and there before it stood Ishmael, chopping away at random, upon the pile of wood, his cheeks flushed with fever and his eyes wild with excitement.
"Hannah, he is ill; he is very ill; he doesn"t well know what he is about," said Reuben, taking the ax from the boy"s hand.
"Ishmael, Ishmael, my lad, come in; you are not well enough to work,"
said Hannah anxiously.
Ishmael yielded up the ax and suffered Reuben to draw him into the house.
"It is only that I am so hot and dizzy and weak, Mr. Middleton; but I am sure I shall be able to do it presently," said Ishmael apologetically, as he put his hand to his head and looked around himself in perplexity.
"I"ll tell you what, the boy is out of his head, Hannah, and it"s my belief as he"s a going to have a bad illness," said Reuben, as he guided Ishmael to the bed and laid him on it.
"Oh, Reuben! what shall we do?" exclaimed Hannah.
"I don"t know, child! wait a bit and see."
They had not long to wait; in a few hours Ishmael was burning with fever and raving with delirium.
"This is a-gwine to be a bad job! I"ll go and fetch a doctor," said Reuben Gray, hurrying away for the purpose.
Reuben"s words proved true. It was a "bad job." Severe study, mental excitement, disappointment and distress had done their work upon his extremely sensitive organization, and Ishmael was prostrated by illness.
We will not linger over the gloomy days that followed. The village doctor brought by Reuben was as skillful as if he had been the fashionable physician of a large city, and as attentive as if his poor young patient had been a millionaire. Hannah devoted herself with almost motherly love to the suffering boy; and Reuben remained in the neighborhood and came every day to fetch and carry, chop wood and bring water, and help Hannah to nurse Ishmael. And Hannah was absolutely reduced to the necessity of accepting his affectionate services. Mr.
Middleton, as soon as he heard of his favorite"s illness, hurried to the hut to inquire into Ishmael"s condition and to offer every a.s.sistance in his power to render; and he repeated his visits as often as the great pressure of his affairs permitted him to do. Ishmael"s illness was long protracted; Mr. Middleton"s orders to vacate Brudenell Hall on or before the first day of February were peremptory; and thus it followed that the whole family removed from the neighborhood before Ishmael was in a condition to bid them farewell.