She stopped, for Kate had uttered a cry and grasped her arm.
"Not fatal!" she gasped. "Oh, Agnes! Agnes! Tell me he did not die!"
"He did not, thank Heaven. He lived, and lives still--thanks to the skill and care of Doctor Danton."
Kate clasped her hands with a fervent prayer of thanksgiving.
"Oh, my poor Harry!" she cried, "immured so long in those dismal rooms, when you were free to walk the world. But perhaps the punishment was merited. Go on, Agnes; tell me all."
"The wound was not fatal, but his state was very critical. Doctor Danton extracted the bullet, and remained with him all night. I was totally helpless. I don"t remember anything about it, or anything that occurred for nearly a fortnight. Then I was in a neighbour"s room; and she told me I had been very ill, and, but for the kindness and care of the young Doctor, must have died. She told me William lived, and was slowly getting better; but the good Doctor had hired a nurse to attend him, and came to the house every day. I saw him that very afternoon, and had a long talk with him. He told me his name was Doctor Danton, that he had come from Germany on business, and must return in a very few days now.
He said he had friends in Canada, whom he had intended to visit, but this unfortunate affair had prevented him. He had not the heart to leave us in our forlorn and dangerous state. He would not tell his friends of his visit to America at all, so they would have no chance to feel offended. Oh, Miss Danton, I cannot tell you how good, how n.o.ble, how generous he was. He left New York the following week; but before he went he forced me to take money enough to keep me six months. I never felt wholly desolate until I saw him go, and then I thought my heart would break. Heaven bless him! He is the n.o.blest man I ever knew."
Kate"s heart thrilled with a sudden response. And this was the man she had slighted, and perhaps despised--this hero, this great, generous, good man!
"You are right," she said; "he is n.o.ble. And after that, Agnes, what did you do?"
"I dismissed the hired nurse, and took care of poor Will until he fully recovered. Then he resumed his business; and I went back, sick and sorrowful, to my old life. I can never tell you how miserable I was. The husband I loved was lost to me forever. He had gone, believing me guilty of the worst of crimes, and I should never see him again to tell him I was innocent. The thought nearly broke my heart; but I lived and lived, when, I only prayed, wickedly, I know, to die. I came to Canada--I came here; and here I met my best friend once more. I saw Harry, or an apparition, as I took it to be, until Doctor Danton a.s.sured me to the contrary. He did not know, but he suspected the truth--he is so clever; and now that he has seen him, and knows for certain, he told me to tell you who I was. Miss Danton, I have told you the simple truth, as Heaven hears me. I have been true and faithful in thought and word to the husband I loved. Don"t send me away; don"t disbelieve and despise me."
She lifted her streaming eyes and clasped hands in piteous supplication.
There were tears, too, in the blue eyes of Kate as she took the little supplicant in her arms.
"Despise you, my poor Agnes! What a wretch you must take me to be! No, I believe you, I love you, you poor little broken-down child. I shall not send you away. I know Harry loves you yet; he calls for you continually in his delirium. I shall speak to papa; you shall see him to-night. Oh!
to think how much unnecessary misery there is in the world."
She put her arm round her slender waist, and was drawing her towards the house. Before they reached it, a big dog came bounding and barking up the avenue and overtook them.
"Be quiet, Tiger," said Kate, halting. "Let us wait for Tiger"s master, Agnes."
Tiger"s master appeared a moment later. One glance sufficed to show him how matters stood.
He lifted his hat with a quiet smile.
"Good evening, Miss Danton; good evening, Mrs. Danton. I see you have come to an understanding at last."
"My brother--we all owe you a debt we can never repay," Kate said gravely; "and Agnes here p.r.o.nounces you an uncanonized saint."
"So I am. The world will do justice to my stupendous merits by-and-by.
You have been very much surprised by Agnes" story, Miss Danton?"
"Very much. We are going in to tell papa. You will come with us, Doctor?"
"If Mrs. Agnes does not make me blush by her laudations. Draw it mild, Agnes, won"t you. You have no idea how modest I am."
He opened the front door and entered the hall as he spoke, followed by the two girls. The drawing-room door was ajar, but Eeny and her teacher were the only occupants of that palatial chamber.
"Try the dining-room," suggested Kate; "it is near dinner-hour; we will find some one there."
Doctor Frank ran down-stairs, three steps at a time, followed more decorously by his companions. Grace seated near the table, reading by the light of a tall lamp, was the only occupant. She lifted her eyes in astonishment at her brother"s boisterous entrance.
"Where is papa?" Kate asked.
"Upstairs in the sick-room."
"Then wait here, Doctor; wait here, Agnes! I will go for him."
She ran lightly upstairs, and entered the sick man"s bedroom. The shaded lamp lit it dimly, and showed her her father sitting by the bedside talking to his son. The invalid was better this evening--very, very weak, but no longer delirious.
"You are better, Harry dear, are you not?" his sister asked, stooping to kiss him; "and you can spare papa for half an hour? Can"t you, Harry?"
A faint smile was his answer. He was too feeble to speak. Miss Danton summoned Ogden from one of the outer rooms, left him in charge, and bore her father off.
"What has happened, my dear?" the Captain asked. "There is a whole volume of news in your face."
Kate clasped her hands around his arm, and looked up in his face with her great earnest eyes.
"The most wonderful thing, papa! Just like a play or a novel! Who do you think is here?"
"Who? Not Rose come back, surely?"
"Rose? Oh, no!" Kate answered, with wonderful quietness. "You never could guess. Harry"s wife!"
"What!"
"Papa! Poor Harry was dreadfully mistaken. She was innocent all the time. Doctor Frank knows all about it, and saved the life of the man Harry shot. It is Agnes Darling, papa. Isn"t it the strangest thing you ever heard of?"
They were at the dining-room door by this time--Captain Danton in a state of the densest bewilderment, looking alternately at one and another of the group before him.
"What, in the name of all that"s incomprehensible, does this mean? Kate, in Heaven"s name, what have you been talking about?"
Miss Danton actually laughed at her father"s mystified face.
"Sit down, papa, and I"ll tell you all about it. Here!"
She wheeled up his chair and made him be seated, then leaning over the back, in her clear, sweet voice, she lucidly repeated the tale Agnes Darling had told her. The Captain and his wife sat utterly astounded; and Agnes, with her face hidden, was sobbing in her chair.
"Heaven bless me!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the astonished master of Danton Hall. "Can I believe my ears? Agnes Darling, Harry"s wife!"
"Yes, Captain," Doctor Frank said, "she is your son"s wife--his innocent and deeply-injured wife. The man Crosby, in what he believed to be his dying hour, solemnly testified, in the presence of a clergyman, to her unimpeachable purity and fidelity. It was the evil work of that villain Furniss, from first to last. I have the written testimony of William Crosby in my pocket at this moment. He is alive and well, and married to the lady of whom he was speaking when your son shot him. I earnestly hope you will receive this poor child, and unite her to her husband, for I am as firmly convinced of her innocence as I am of my own existence at this moment."
"Receive her!" Captain Danton cried, with the water in his eyes. "That I will, with all my heart. Poor little girl--poor child," he said, going over and taking the weeping wife into his arms. "What a trial you have undergone! But it is over now, I trust. Thank Heaven my son is no murderer, and under Heaven, thanks to you, Doctor Danton. Don"t cry, Agnes--don"t cry. I am heartily rejoiced to find I have another daughter."
"Oh, take me to Harry!" Agnes pleaded. "Let me tell him I am innocent!
Let me hear him say he forgives me!"
"Upon my word, I think the forgiveness should come from the other side,"
said the Captain. "He was always a hot-headed, foolish boy, but he has received a lesson, I think, he will never forget. How say you, Doctor, may this foolish little girl go to that foolish boy?"
"I think not yet," the Doctor replied. "In his present weak state the shock would be too much for him. He must be prepared first. How is he this evening?"