"A happy and united family!" almost shrieked the woman. "And has it all come to this--am I again spurned, again hurled back to the earth--Hagar thrust forth to wander forever and ever with her child in the broad desert--the world. I tell you, General Harrington, this shall not be!"
"Shall not--slave, how dare you?" cried the old man, rising haughtily.
"Slave, slave! Yes, I am your slave, for I love you, my master, love you with a madness this cold white lady never dreamed of. Do not crush me beneath this woman"s feet--do not. For years and years I have lived on this one wish, to be your slave again. She, your wife, is faithless, false, cold as marble; put her away--send her forth, as I have been. The same G.o.d made us both, and should punish us both alike. I have been tortured long enough; take me home, master, take me home--a servant, a slave, anything; but send this woman from beneath your roof. She has had her life, I have a right to mine! Give it to me--give it to me for my love"s sake, for our child"s sake!"
The woman fell upon her knees as she spoke; her locked hands were uplifted, and wrung madly together--her eyes were full of wild, pa.s.sionate tears. She looked, indeed, a Hagar coming back from the desert, where she had left her youth buried.
"Master, master, send her away, send her away!" she pleaded, in a burst of pathetic entreaty. "What has she been to you, that I was not? She is the mother of your child--so am I. She was your wife--I was your slave.
She claimed rights, station, wealth, power, and returned nothing. I gave my soul, my being, every breath of my life, every pulse in my heart, and claimed only bonds. You fettered her with flowers--me with iron. I loved these chains, for they bound me to you--they have drawn me to your feet again. I will not give way to that woman a second time!"
The old man had been growing calm amid this pa.s.sionate appeal. Strong feeling always annoyed him, and the woman seemed actuated by a species of madness, that filled him with repulsion. He turned from her with a look of quiet contempt.
"Why, Zillah, you should go on the stage. These wild paroxysms, half-pathetic, half-demoniac, tell splendidly with the public: a little dash of blasphemy now, and you are perfect. The best society would run wild about you--ladies, most of all, especially if they knew exactly who and what you were, Zillah."
The woman sprang to her feet, white as death; her eyes closing, her lips specked with foam. She attempted to speak, but the words writhed themselves to death on her lips without a sound.
How still intense rage can sometimes appear! The woman stood mute for more than a moment, in which General Harrington held his breath, awed, in spite of himself, by a force of pa.s.sion he had never witnessed before.
"Zillah," he said at last, half-terrified, "Zillah, control yourself; this rage will injure you. Come, come, let us talk together more reasonably. You know how I dislike these wild flights of temper, and how little good they can effect. Take that hand from your bosom, girl; if you have a poniard there, let it stay sheathed. I do not fear you, at any rate."
"You need not," said the woman, in a hoa.r.s.e whisper. "I could not strike, even while you were mocking me."
Her hand fell slowly downward as she spoke, leaving the hilt of a dagger just visible under her dress.
The General stepped toward her, took the dagger from her bosom, and cast it contemptuously on the fire.
"Have done with this acting, girl, and talk like a sensible woman, if you have really anything to say."
Zillah smiled scornfully, as he had done, while her eyes followed the dagger to its lodgment in the fire.
"It is the purpose, not the instrument, which is dangerous," she said, with pale self-possession, still speaking in hoa.r.s.e undertones; "and, in order to reach that, you must clutch here."
Zillah pressed one hand hard on her heart as she spoke, and the old man could see that concentrated pa.s.sion shook her from head to foot, still as she seemed.
"Zillah, this pa.s.sion will prevent me ever seeing you again. I am no boy, to be terrified into concessions; as for violence, attempt it, and I will have you dealt with like any other house-breaker. In the North we have heavier chains than you have ever worn. You will find that the slavery which springs from crime, is a reality that you have not yet known. No more threats, then, if you ever hope to see your master again."
"I was wrong," said the woman, standing before him with the downcast look learned in her early bondage. "It was wounded love, not anger, against you, my master, that tortured me into this rash language. I came to tell you of L----of our child; she is very, very ill."
"What, Lina? poor child, no wonder she is heart-broken. Heaven knows I would have kept this miserable secret from her, but for Ralph! Where is she now?"
"In my own house, raving with brain fever!"
"And have you told her all?"
"Yes, and she, too, spurned me--every one repulses and scorns me, while that woman"----
"Hush! Zillah, you are getting fierce again, and that I will not submit to."
"No, no, master, it was grief for my child, not anger," said the woman, checking herself. "She is ill, very ill. The doctor thinks she must die."
"Indeed, I am grieved to hear it. Let her have every care; have a dozen physicians, if it is needful. Poor child--poor child!"
"You love her, then, this daughter of a slave?" said Zillah, with a fierce gleam in her eyes, as if jealous of his very love for her own child.
"Love her? Why she has always been a pet in the house--a beautiful, sweet-tempered creature, whom everyone loved. I think she is even dearer to me than Ralph himself."
Again the woman turned white.
"And you love her so much?"
"Again, Zillah: you are hard to please; but take good care of the child--in a day or two I will come to see her!"
"Indeed, to see her--her only."
"Have done with this paltry childishness, I am tired of it!" answered the General, with authority. "This comes of allowing you a foothold here. Remember I cannot have my privacy intruded on in future by these mysterious visits; they will become known to the family, and Mrs.
Harrington may think them a just cause of complaint--a thing above all others to be avoided. I tell you, Zillah, this rash pa.s.sion, which at your age should be controlled, inconveniences me very much; indeed, as a man of honor, I cannot encourage it farther."
Zillah"s lips writhed, as if she were repeating over his last words in the scorn of her heart; but she stood immovable and silent, with her eyes bent on the floor.
"If money is needed for you or Lina, whose future I will liberally provide for, that can at any time be supplied to the extent of your wishes."
"I shall not need your money," answered the woman coldly.
"But you cannot be rich!"
"The master to whom you sold me left his property to be divided between some half dozen slaves, who received their freedom and the legacy together. I am spending mine; when it is gone, I can work."
"Then you reject all help from me?"
"I was your slave, General Harrington--twice bound, first by your laws, again by the will of my own heart, but I am no beggar; even when you loved me, I worked for my own bread."
"I am glad that you are so well provided for: now let this romance come to an end. We are no boy and girl, remember, Zillah; and, though it is very pleasant to feel that one heart at least proves faithful to the end, I cannot, in justice to Mrs. Harrington, admit you under the same roof with herself. Her peace of mind is important to me, very important, and her tranquillity must not be endangered by these wild visits. I will withdraw, now, and give you an opportunity to leave the house; be careful that no one sees you, especially Mrs. Harrington. Adieu! In two or three days, at most, I shall be able to see you and Lina."
The old gentleman waved his hand, in token of a friendly adieu, as he went, leaving his singular visitor standing in the middle of the room, so numbed in feeling or lost in thought, that she seemed unconscious of his departure.
It was more than a minute before the woman lifted her head; then her face was pale, and a deep smouldering purpose burned like fire in the depths of her eyes. She looked around wildly, as if searching for the man who had just left the room; then her recollection seemed to come back, and she went up to the table, examining everything upon it with eager haste. The journal was no longer there, but in its place she found a folded paper placed in a small portfolio, which bore the General"s initials.
The paper shook in her hands as she unfolded it, for all her former agitation had come back; and, in her haste to read, the fire seemed to leap from her black eyes over the writing. It was the life-deed which had just pa.s.sed between General Harrington and his son-in-law.
The woman laughed as she folded up the paper--a laugh of such bitter mockery that it started even herself, as if some other person had been reviling her.
"And has it ended in this, after years of plotting and privations that would have killed a common person? Have I ended in binding them more firmly together. This accounts for his solicitude for her welfare. This is why these visits of mine trouble him. They might break the compact which secures repose and reputation to Mabel Harrington, for so much money--and she is to triumph a second time! I am nothing--a weed, a bit of miserable night-shade that has poison in it, and nothing more."
As she muttered over these thoughts, more and more slowly, the woman folded her arms, and stood immovable for several minutes; her brow grew dark as midnight, and a strange, settled expression came up to her face, as if the poison she had just spoken of were diffusing itself through her entire system. At last she heard steps approaching the library, and hurried away through the disused entrance.