"Ellen is dying," returned Walter, "and they have sent for me."
"Ellen dying!" and the man, who a moment before had spoken so jeeringly, staggered into a chair as if smitten by a heavy blow.
"I did not suppose he cared so much for her," thought Walter, and in a kinder tone he told what he knew, and pa.s.sing William the note intended for Jessie, he bade him take it to her that night, and tell her to meet him at the depot in the morning. "And William," said Walter, fixing his eye earnestly upon his cousin, "what message shall I take to Ellen for you? or will you go too?"
For a moment William hesitated, while his better nature battled with his worse, urging him to give up the game at which he was playing, and comfort the dying girl he had so cruelly deceived, and acknowledge to the world how dear she was to him; then, as another frightful thought intruded itself upon him, he murmured, "I can"t, I can"t," and with that resolution he sealed his future destiny. "No, I cannot go," he said, and thrusting the note into his pocket went out into the open air, a harder man, if possible, than he had been before. "Jessie must not go to Deerwood if I can prevent it," he thought to himself. "Nellie may tell her all, and that would be fatal to my plans."
So he resolved not to call at Mr. Graham"s that night, and in case an explanation should afterward be necessary, he would say that he had sent the note by a boy, who, of course, had neglected to deliver it.
Accordingly the next morning Walter and his grandmother waited impatiently for Jessie at the depot, and then, when they found she was not coming, took their seats in the cars with heavy hearts, for both knew how terrible would be the disappointment to Ellen, who loved Jessie Graham better almost than herself.
"Where"s Jessie? Didn"t I hear her voice in the other room?" the sick girl asked, when, one after the other, Mrs. Bellenger and Walter bent over her pillow and kissed her wasted face.
"She isn"t here," said Walter, and the color faded from Ellen"s face as she replied:
"Isn"t here? Where is she, Walter?"
He answered that he did not see her himself, but had sent the message by William, and at the mention of his name the blood came surging back to the pallid cheeks.
"William would carry the note, I know," she said, "and why does she stay away when I want so much to see her before I die?" And turning her face to the wall, she wept silently over her friend"s apparent neglect.
"Walter," said Mrs. Bellenger, drawing him aside, "it may be possible there is some mistake, and Jessie does not know. Suppose you telegraph to her father and be sure."
Walter immediately acted upon this suggestion, and that evening as Jessie sat listlessly drumming her piano, wondering why Walter seemed so changed, and wishing somebody would come, she received the telegram, and with feverish impatience waited for the morning, when she set off for Deerwood, where she was hailed with rapture by Ellen, who could now only whisper her delight and press the hands of her early friend.
"Why didn"t you come with Walter?" she asked, and Jessie replied:
"How could I, when I knew nothing of his coming?"
"Didn"t William give you a note?" asked Walter, who was standing near, and upon Jessie"s replying that she had neither seen nor heard from William, a sudden suspicion crossed his mind that the message had purposely been withheld.
No such thought, however, intruded itself upon Ellen; the neglect was not intentional, she was sure; and in her joy at having Jessie with her at last, she forgot her earlier disappointment. Earnestly and lovingly she looked up into Jessie"s bright, glowing face, and, pushing back her short black curls, whispered:
"Darling Jessie, I am glad you are so beautiful, so good."
And Jessie, listening to these oft-repeated words did not dream of the pure, unselfish love which prompted them.
If Jessie were beautiful and good, she would make the life of William Bellenger happier than if she were otherwise; and this was all that Ellen asked or wished.
Hidden away in a little rosewood box, which Jessie had given her, was a blurred and blotted letter, which she had written at intervals, as her failing strength would permit. It was her farewell to William, and she would trust it to no messenger but Jessie.
"Tell them all to go out," she said, as the shadows stretched farther and farther across the floor, and she knew it was growing late. "Tell them to leave us together once more, just as we used to be."
Her request was granted, and then laying her hand upon her pillow, she said:
"Lie down beside me, Jessie, and put your arms around my neck while I tell you how I love you. It wasn"t my way to talk much, Jessie, and when you used to say so often that I was very dear to you, I only kissed you back, and did not tell you how full my heart was of love. Dear Jessie, don"t cry. What makes you? Are you sorry I am going to die?"
A pa.s.sionate hug was Jessie"s answer, and Ellen continued:
"It"s right, darling, that I should go, for neither of us could be quite happy in knowing that another shared the love we coveted for ourselves.
Forgive me, Jessie, I never meant to interfere, and when I"m dead, you won"t let it cast a shadow between you that he loved me a little, too."
"I do not understand you," said Jessie, "I love n.o.body but father,-no man, I mean.
"Oh, Jessie, don"t profess to be ignorant of my meaning," said Ellen.
"It may be wrong for me to speak of it, but at the very last, I cannot forbear telling you how willingly I gave William up to you."
"_William!_" Jessie exclaimed. "I never loved William Bellenger,-never _could_ love him. What do you mean!"
There was no color in Ellen"s face, and she trembled in every limb, as she answered, faintly:
"You wouldn"t tell me a lie when I am dying?"
"No, darling, no," and pa.s.sing her arm around the sick girl, Jessie raised her up, and continued, "explain to me, will you? for I do not comprehend."
Then as briefly as possible Nellie told the story of her love, and how William had said that Jessie stood between them.
"If it is not so," she gasped, "if he has deceived me, don"t tell me. I could not endure losing faith in him. Don"t, don"t," she continued, entreatingly, as Jessie cried indignantly:
"It is false,-false as his own black heart! There is no understanding between our parents. I never thought of loving him. I hate him now, the monster. And you are dying for me, Nellie, but he killed you, the wretch!"
Jessie paused, for there was something in Nellie"s face which awed her into silence. It was as white as ashes, and Jessie never forgot its grieved, heart-broken expression, or the spasmodic quivering of the lips, which uttered no complaint against the perfidious man, but whispered faintly:
"Bring me my little box, and bring the candle, too."
Both were brought, and taking out the letter so deeply freighted with her love, the sick girl held it in the blaze, watching it as it blackened and charred, and dropped upon the floor.
"With that I burned up my very heart," she said, and a cold smile curled her lips. "The pain is over now. I do not feel it any more."
Then, taking a pencil and a tiny sheet of note paper from the box, she wrote:
"Heaven forgive you, William. Pray for pardon at my grave. You have much need to pray."
Pa.s.sing it to Jessie, she said:
"Give this to William when I am dead; and now draw the covering closer over me, for I am growing cold and sleepy."
Jessie folded the blanket about her shoulders and chest, and then sat down beside her, while the family, hearing no sound, stole softly across the threshold into the room where the May moonshine lay; where the candle burned dimly on the table, and where the light of a young life flickered and faded with each tick of the tall old clock, which in the kitchen without could be distinctly heard measuring off the time.
Fainter and fainter, dimmer and dimmer, grew the light, until at last, as the swinging pendulum beat the hour of midnight, it went out forever, and the moon-beams fell on the golden hair and white face of the beautiful dead.
CHAPTER XI.-THE NIGHT AFTER THE BURIAL.