"What was the matter with her? Was it the cholera morbus, that is so prevalent at this season?"
Reuben grinned from ear to ear; but did not immediately reply.
The judge looked as if he still expected an answer. Reuben scratched his gray head, and looked up from the corner of his eye, as he at length replied:
"It was a boy and a gal, sir!"
"A what?" questioned the judge--perplexity.
"A boy and a gal, sir; twins, sir, they is," replied Reuben Gray, joy getting the mastery over every other expression in his beaming countenance.
"Why--you don"t mean to tell me that your wife has presented you with twins?" exclaimed the judge, both surprised and amused at the announcement.
"Well, yes, sir," said Reuben proudly.
"But you are such an elderly couple!" laughed the judge.
"Well, yes, sir, so we is! And that, I take it, is the very reason on"t.
You see, I think, sir, because we married very late in life--poor Hannah and me--natur" took a consideration on to it, and, as we hadn"t much time before us, she sent us two at once! at least, if that aint the reason, I can"t account for them both in any other way!" said Reuben, looking up.
"That"s it! You"ve hit it, Reuben!" said the judge, laughing. "And mind, if they live, I"ll stand G.o.dfather to the babies at the christening. Are they fine healthy children?"
"As bouncing babies, sir, as ever you set eyes on!" answered Reuben triumphantly.
"Count on me, then, Gray."
"Thank you, sir! And, your honor--"
"Well, Gray?"
"Soon as ever Ishmael is able to hear the news, tell him, will you, please? I think it will set him up, and help him on towards his recovery."
"I think so, too," said the judge.
Reuben touched his hat and withdrew. And the judge returned to the house.
Claudia had come down and breakfasted, but was in a state of great annoyance because she was denied admittance to the bedside of her suffering favorite.
The judge, to divert her thoughts, told her of the bountiful present nature had made to Hannah and Reuben Gray. At which Miss Claudia was so pleased that she got up and went to hunt through all her finery for presents for the children.
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE HEIRESS.
Trust me, Clara Vere de Vere, From yon blue heavens above us bent, The grand old gardener and his wife Smile at the claims of long descent, Howe"er it be, it seems to me, "Tis only n.o.ble to be good; Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood.
--_Tennyson_.
Almost any other youth than Ishmael Worth would have died of such injuries as he had sustained. But owing to that indestructible vitality and irrepressible elasticity of organization which had carried him safely through the deadly perils of his miserable infancy, he survived.
About the fourth day of his illness the irritative fever of his wounds having been subdued, Judge Merlin was admitted to see and converse with him.
Up to this morning the judge had thought of the victim only as the overseer"s nephew, a poor, laboring youth about the estate, who had got hurt in doing his duty and stopping Miss Merlin"s runaway horses; and he supposed that he, Judge Merlin, had done his part in simply taking the suffering youth into his own house and having him properly attended to.
And now the judge went to the patient with the intention of praising his courage and offering him some proper reward for his services--as, for instance, a permanent situation to work on the estate for good wages.
And so Judge Merlin entered the sick-chamber, which was no longer darkened, but had all the windows open to admit the light and air.
He took a chair and seated himself by the bedside of the patient, and for the first time took a good look at him.
Ishmael"s handsome face, no longer distorted by suffering, was calm and clear; his eyes were closed in repose but not in sleep, for the moment the judge "hemmed" he raised his eyelids and greeted his host with a gentle smile and nod.
Judge Merlin could not but be struck with the delicacy, refinement, and intellectuality of Ishmael"s countenance.
"How do you feel yourself this morning, my lad?" he inquired, putting the usual commonplace question.
"Much easier, thank you, sir," replied the youth, in the pure, sweet, modulated tones of a highly-cultivated nature.
The judge was surprised, but did not show that he was so, as he said:
"You have done my daughter a great service; but at the cost of much suffering to yourself, I fear, my lad."
"I consider myself very fortunate and happy, sir, in having had the privilege of rendering Miss Merlin any service, at whatever cost to myself," replied Ishmael, with graceful courtesy.
More and more astonished at the words and manner of the young workman, the judge continued:
"Thank you, young man; very properly spoken--very properly: but for all that, I must find some way of rewarding you."
"Sir," said Ishmael, with gentle dignity, "I must beg you will not speak to me of reward for a simple act of instinctive gallantry that any man, worthy of the name, would have performed."
"But with you, young man, the case was different," said the judge loftily.
"True, sir," replied our youth, with sweet and courteous dignity, "with me the case was very different; because, with me, it was a matter of self-interest; for the service rendered to Miss Merlin was rendered to myself."
"I do not understand you, young man," said the judge haughtily.
"Pardon me, sir. I mean that in saving Miss Merlin from injury I saved myself from despair. If any harm had befallen her I should have been miserable; so you perceive, sir, that the act you are good enough to term a great service was too natural and too selfish to be praised or rewarded; and so I must beseech you to speak of it in that relation no more."
"But what was my daughter to you that you should risk your life for her, more than for another? or that her maimed limbs or broken neck should affect you more than others?"
"Sir, we were old acquaintances; I saw her every day when I went to Mr.
Middleton"s, and she was ever exceedingly kind to me," replied Ishmael.
"Oh! and you lived in that neighborhood?" inquired Judge Merlin, who immediately jumped to the conclusion that Ishmael had been employed as a laborer on Mr. Middleton"s estate; though still he could not possibly account for the refinement in Ishmael"s manner nor the excellence of his language.
"I lived in that neighborhood with my Aunt Hannah until Uncle Reuben married her, when I accompanied them to this place," answered Ishmael.