Agnes Barker came coldly into the room, answering Lina"s cry.
"Mrs. Harrington has only fainted," she said, closing the door which she still held slightly ajar, as if that moment entering.
"There is aromatic vinegar on the console yonder--do bring it, while I open the window."
Lina ran for the crystal flask pointed out, and began to sprinkle Mabel"s face, sobbing and moaning all the time. Agnes opened the sash door, that led to a stone balcony full of flowers, and their breath came floating into the room.
"Shall I run? shall I call help?" questioned Lina, letting Mrs.
Harrington"s head fall back upon the crimson cushions of her chair, "I--I am sure Ralph would bring her to."
"Be quiet," answered Agnes Barker, dragging the easy-chair towards the window, where the fragrant wind blew clear and cold into that deathly face.
"If you call any one, let it be Mr. Harrington."
"The General?"
"No, Mr. James Harrington."
"I will go," answered Lina, eagerly.
But the name of James Harrington, even upon those lips, had reached the sleeping sense of Mabel. She made a faint struggle. Her lips quivered with an ineffectual attempt to speak. This brought Lina back.
"Shall I call help, dear mamma? Shall I call help?"
"No!"
The monosyllable was uttered so faintly, that nothing but a loving ear, like Lina"s, would have heard it. The warm-hearted girl stooped and kissed Mabel softly upon the forehead, thanking G.o.d silently in her heart.
Mabel shrunk from that pure kiss, turned her head abruptly on the cushion, and tears stole through her eyelashes, leaving them dark and moist.
"Madam, is there anything I can do?"
As she spoke Agnes bent over the helpless woman, and shed her glances over that pale face, as the upas tree weeps poison.
The unaccountable dislike that Mabel felt for this girl, gave her strength, and she sat up, stung by the reflection that her weakness had so objectionable a witness.
"You here, Miss Barker!" she said with cold dignity; "I have always held this room sacred from all, but my own family."
"I come by invitation," answered Agnes, meekly. "Yesterday afternoon you left a message with my nurse, desiring that I should seek you before entering upon my duties again. This command brought me here, not a wish to intrude."
Mrs. Harrington arose, walked feebly back to the little breakfast-table, and taking up a small teapot of frosted silver, poured some strong tea into a cup which she drank off clear. Then moving back her chair, she sat down, evidently struggling for composure.
"I remember," she said very quietly, for Mabel had controlled herself, "I remember leaving this message with a woman who called you her mistress."
Agnes smiled. "Oh, yes, our Southern nurses always claim us in some form. "My mammy," I think she must have called herself that. Every child has its slave mammy at the South."
"Then you _are_ from the South, Miss Barker?"
"Did not General Harrington tell you this, madam?"
"I do not recollect it, if he did," answered Mabel, searching the girl"s face with her clear eyes; "in truth, Miss Barker, I made so few inquiries when you entered my family, that your very presence in it is almost a mystery to me. General Harrington told me you were well educated, and an orphan. I found that he was correct in the latter point, but was somewhat astonished yesterday afternoon to hear the woman whom I met, claim you as her mistress."
"You do not understand our Southern ways, Mrs. Harrington, or this would not appear so singular. With us the tie between a slave nurse and her child, is never broken."
"Then this woman is a slave?" questioned Mabel.
"She has been, madam, but though I had nothing else in the world, when I became of age, she was made a free woman."
"But she is not very black--at least, in the dim light, I saw but faint traces of it."
Again Agnes smiled a soft unpleasant smile, that one could put no faith in:
"Perhaps it was that which rendered her so valuable, but black or white, the woman you saw was a born slave."
"And how does she support herself in that solitary house?"
"She has a garden, and some poultry. The woods around afford plenty of dry fuel, and my own humble labors supply the rest."
Mabel became thoughtful and ceased to ask questions. The governess stood quietly waiting. All her answers had been straightforward and given unhesitatingly, but they did not bring confidence or conviction with them. Still Mrs. Harrington was silenced for the time, and remained in deep thought.
"May I retire, madam?" said the governess at last, drawing slowly toward the door.
Mabel started from her reverie.
"Not yet. I would know more of you, of your parents, and previous life.
Where we intrust those most dear to us, there should be a perfect knowledge and profound confidence."
"Of myself I have nothing to say," answered Agnes, turning coldly white, for she was a girl who seldom blushed. All her emotions broke out in a chilly pallor. "Of my parents all that can be said is told, when I repeat that they left me with nothing but an honorable name, and this old woman in the wide world."
Her voice broke a little here, and this struck Mabel with a shade of compa.s.sion.
"But how did you chance to come North?"
"I entered a Louisianian family as governess, directly after my parents"
death. They brought me North in the summer, recommended me to General Harrington, and I remained."
Nothing could be more simple or frankly spoken. Agnes, as I have said, was pale; but for this, she might have seemed unconscious that all this questioning was mingled with distrust.
Mabel had nothing more to say. The feelings with which she had commenced this conversation, were not in the slightest degree removed, and yet they seemed utterly without foundation. She waved her hand uneasily, murmuring, "you may go," and the governess went out softly as she had entered.
"Can I stay with you, mamma?" pleaded Lina, creeping timidly up to Mabel"s chair.
"I am weary," answered Mrs. Harrington, closing her eyes, and turning aside her head. "Let me rest awhile!"
"But you will kiss me before I go?" said the gentle girl.
"Yes, child," and Mabel kissed that white forehead with her quivering lips.
"Is it with your whole heart, mamma?"