"Why _poor_ Charlotte?" replied Jessie, grasping his arm. "Is William sick or dead?"
"He has been arrested for forgery. I may as well tell it first as last,"
and the words dropped slowly from Mr. Graham"s lips.
"_Forgery!_ William arrested! It"s false!" shrieked Mrs. Reeves, and the salts which Mrs. Bartow had used so vigorously a little time before changed hands, while Jessie pa.s.sed her arm around the lady to keep her from falling to the floor. "It"s false. He never forged. Why should he?
Isn"t he rich, and a Bellenger?" she kept repeating, until at last Mr.
Graham answered:
"It is too true, my dear madam, that for some time past Mr. Bellenger has been engaged in a systematic course of forging, managing always to escape detection, until now, it has been clearly proved against him, and he is in the hands of the law."
There was no reason why Mrs. Reeves, at this point, should think of Walter, but she did, and fancying that her auditors might possibly be drawing comparisons between the two cousins she said:
"It"s the _Marshall_ blood with which he is tainted."
"Marshall blood!" repeated Jessie, indignantly. "I"d like to know by what chemical process you have mingled the Marshall blood with William Bellenger"s."
Mrs. Reeves could not explain. She only knew that she was completely overwhelmed with surprise and mortification, and she seemed so bewildered and helpless that Mr. Graham ordered his carriage, and sent her to No.-, whither the sad news had preceded her, and where Charlotte lay fainting and moaning in the midst of her bridal finery, which would never be worn. She had noticed William"s absence from the house for the last twenty-four hours, and was wondering at it, when her father, roused by the shock from his usual state of quiet pa.s.siveness, rushed in, telling her in thunder tones that her affianced husband had been guilty of forging Graham & Marshall"s name, not once, not twice, but many times, until at last he was detected and under arrest.
"He"ll go to State prison, girl-do you hear? To State prison! Why don"t you speak, and not sit staring at me with that milky face?"
Poor Charlotte could not speak, but she fainted and fell at the feet of her father, who became himself at once, and bending kindly over her brought her back to life. It was not that Charlotte loved William so very much. It was rather her pride which was wounded, and she moaned and wept until her grandmother came, and with her lamentations and reproaches, so wholly out-did all Charlotte had done, that the latter grew suddenly calm, and without a word or a tear, sat motionless, while the old lady raved on, one moment talking as if they were all going to prison together, and the next giving Charlotte most uncomfortable squeezes to think she was not the wife of a forger after all.
The _three Thayers_ were for the time forgotten, and when at Charlotte"s request Jessie came to see her, accompanied by her grandmother, Mrs.
Reeves kissed the latter affectionately, whispering in her ear:
"We"ll not mind the past, for the present has enough of trouble and disgrace."
Great was the excitement among William"s friends, the majority of whom turned against him, saying "they expected it and knew all the time that something was wrong."
Mr. Graham stood by and pitied the cowed and wretched young man, and pitied him all the more that his father kept aloof, saying:
"He"s made his bed and he may lie in it."
At the first intimation of the sad affair, Mrs. Bellenger hastened home, but neither her money nor her influence, and both were freely used, could disprove the guilt of the young man, who awaited his trial in a state of mind bordering on despair.
Only once did he speak of Charlotte, and that on the day which was to have seen her his bride. Then, with Mr. Graham, he talked of her freely, asking what effect it had on her, and appearing greatly agitated when told that she was very ill, and would see none of her friends but Jessie.
"G.o.d bless her,-Jessie, I mean," he said, "and bless poor Lottie, too. I am sorry I brought this trouble upon her. I thought to pay the notes with her money, and I resolved after that to be a better man. I am glad Nellie did not live to see this day. Do you think that up in Heaven she knows what I have done and prays for me still?"
Then, as talking of Nellie naturally brought Walter to his mind, he confessed to Mr. Graham how his letter had sent his cousin away.
"I thought once to win Jessie for myself," he said, "and so I broke poor Nellie"s heart. I purposely withheld the note the deacon sent to Jessie, bidding her come ere Nellie died. And this I did, because I feared what the result might be of Jessie"s going there. But my sin has found me out, and I shall never cross Walter"s path again; it"s Jessie he loves; tell her so, and bring the light back to her eyes, which were heavy with tears when I saw her last."
Mr. Graham did tell her, and when next she went to the chamber where Charlotte lay sick of a slow fever, there was an increased bloom upon her cheek and a brighter flash in her dark eye, while from her own great happiness she strove to draw some comfort for her friend, who would suffer no other one of her acquaintance to approach her.
Jessie alone could comfort her, Jessie alone knew what to say, and the right time to say it, and when at last the trial came, and the verdict of "guilty" was p.r.o.nounced, it was Jessie who broke the news as gently as possible to the pale invalid.
Locked in each others" arms they wept together; the one, tears of pity; the other, tears of regret and mortification over the misguided man whose home for the next five years would be a dreary prison.
There was no going to Saratoga that summer, no trip to Newport; and when the gay world congregated there asked for the sprightly girl who had been with them the season before, and for the old lady who carried her head so proudly and sported such superb diamonds, the answer was a mysterious whisper of some dire misfortune or disgrace which had befallen them, and then the dance and the song in which Charlotte had ever been the first to join, went on the same as before.
Gradually as Charlotte recovered her strength and her spirits, she began to wish for some quiet spot where no one knew her, and remembering dear old Deerwood, now a thousand times more dear since she knew of Walter"s love, Jessie told her of its shadowy woods, its pleasant walks, its musical pines with the rustic seat beneath, and Charlotte, pleased with her rural picture, bade her write and ask if she could come.
So Jessie wrote, and in less than one week"s time two girls walked again upon the mountain side, or paused by the little grave where Nellie was buried. Upon the bank close to the mound a single rose was growing,-the last of the sisterhood. It had been late in unfolding its delicate leaves, and when at last, it was full blown, Jessie picked it, and pressing it carefully, sent it with the message, "it grew near Nellie"s grave," to the weary man whose life was now one of toil and loneliness.
CHAPTER XIV.-THE STRANGER NURSE.
The regular boarders at the -- Hotel were discussing their dinner with all the haste and greediness which characterizes their Eastern brethren.
The first and second courses had been removed, and the merits of the dessert were about to be tested when for a moment the operation ceased, while the operators welcomed back to their midst a middle-aged man, who for a few weeks had been absent from the city.
That Captain Murdock was a general favorite, could readily be seen by the heartiness of his greeting from his friends, and that he was worthy of esteem, none knew better than the hundreds of poor and dest.i.tute who had often been relieved and comforted by his well-filled purse, and words of genuine sympathy. Possessed of unbounded wealth, he scattered it about him with no miserly hand, and many a child of poverty blessed him for the great good done to him.
"Well, captain," said one of the boarders, "glad to see you back. We"ve been mighty lonesome without you. Found your room occupied, didn"t you?"
"Yes," returned the man addressed as captain, "the landlord tells me he took the liberty to put the young man in there because the house was so full. Of course, he couldn"t know that he would be too sick to vacate the premises in the morning; but it"s all right. I, who have slept so often on the ground, don"t mind camping on the floor now and then."
Here a dozen voices interposed offering him a part or the whole of their rooms, but the good-natured captain declined them all, saying "he should do very well, and perhaps the young man would not be sick long. Did they know where he came from? Was he a stranger or a resident in California?"
A stranger, they replied, adding that he came from New York about two weeks before, and had almost immediately been taken sick, and that was all they knew about him.
Dinner being over, Captain Murdock went up to his room, not to see the sick man particularly, but because he wished to remove to another apartment a few articles which he would probably need.
Walter, for it was he, was sleeping, while near him, in an arm-chair, dozed the old crone who had been hired to nurse him. One glance at the former convinced the captain that he was poorly cared for and must necessarily be very uncomfortable. Still he might not have interfered, had not the sick man moaned uneasily in his sleep, and turning on his side, murmured the name of _father_.
Never had Captain Murdock been thus addressed,-no infant arms had ever twined themselves around his neck,-no sweet voice called him _father_,-and yet this one word thrilled him with an undefinable emotion, awakening at once within his bosom feelings of tender pity for the sick man, who seemed so young and helpless.
"Poor boy," he whispered, "he is dreaming of his home away in the East, and of the loved ones who little know how much he needs their care," and advancing toward the bedside, he adjusted the tumbled pillows, smoothed the soiled spread, pushed back the tangled hair from the burning forehead, and was turning away when Walter awoke, and fixing his bright eyes upon him, said faintly, "Don"t go."
Thus entreated the captain sat down beside him, while the old nurse roused up, exclaiming:
"Sakes alive, captain! is that you? Ain"t you feared the fever"s catching? He"s got it mightily in his head, and keeps a goin" on about Jessy, his brother, I guess, or some chap he know"d at home."
At the mention of Jessie, Walter turned his eyes again upon the captain, and said.
"Jessie"s married. Did you know it?"
"Yes, I know it," answered the captain, thinking it best to humor the whim. "Whom did she marry?"
"William," was the reply, "and I loved her so much."
At this point the nurse arose, saying: