But James Harrington had regained all his strength, and stood up firmly before the infuriated old man.
"I have said before, that from the hour this lady became your wife, the place of my sainted mother enshrined her. As I would have studied that mother"s happiness, I gave myself and all that I possessed to her welfare and yours. My own tastes were simple, and I had no hopes. The larger portion of my income, you have always controlled."
"And always will command, or this woman"s name shall become a by-word from Maine to Georgia!" exclaimed the General, resuming some control over his rage. "We comprehend each other now, and can talk plainly. You have learned some of my secrets, and shall know more. I have other debts of honor, and no ward"s fortune to pay them with: her reputation or mine is at stake--one must save the other."
"I do not understand you, sir."
"You can very well comprehend that the contents of this precious book, will render anything like affection for Mrs. Harrington impossible to me. Indeed, the unhappy position in which your mother"s death left me, not only penniless, but frightfully involved, enforced this second marriage. I can afford to forgive an outrage on affections that never existed. So while the lady"s faithlessness does not affect my interests or my honor, I can endure it with self-complacency."
"I am shocked--astonished, sir, to hear you speak in this way!" said James, indignantly.
The old man smiled.
"You are a dreamer, sir, which I am not. Scenes and excitements are my abhorrence; we hold unpleasant relations toward each other. You are my step-son. The only child of my very distant cousin, a Harrington like myself, to whom, but for your birth, I was the direct heir. The property, a vast one, which might have been justly divided, fell to his widow, your mother, by will. I married the lady, thus, as any sensible man would have supposed, ensuring the inheritance which should have been mine, and which undoubtedly would have been mine, but the lady took it into her head to get jealous one fine day"----
"Stop, sir!" said James Harrington. "I guessed too well the cause of her death--the bitter sorrow which haunted my mother to her grave. She died a broken-hearted woman; do not take her name irreverently into your lips, or I shall forget myself."
"You _are_ forgetting yourself, sir!" answered the General, waving his hand with gentle deprecation. "This is neither time nor place for heroics. I did but attempt to impress you with the fact, that your mother"s unjust will had caused all this domestic turmoil. You took the property from me--I won the lady from you. Let us look upon the thing like sensible men, and make rest.i.tution."
"Rest.i.tution, sir! Rest.i.tution of a wasted life!"
"Do be composed--I am tired of storms. You love the lady--I do not. I want money--you care nothing for it."
"Well, sir, well?"
"Really, it is difficult coming to the point, while you look so excited; but, if you will listen tranquilly, all this may be settled."
James sat down, with one hand pressed to his forehead.
"Go on, sir. I am listening."
"It is but just, as I said before, that you disburse the bulk of a property which originally came from the Harrington family. Give me a deed, conveying two-thirds of that property to my unrestricted control during life--I have no ambition to make wills--and the secrets of this book are safe. The west is broad, and most conveniently accommodating when marriage ties become irksome. Mabel can take that direction for her summer travels, while I remain here. In three months the fashionable world may thank us for a week"s gossip, which I can very well endure.
The world is large--there is California, Australia, or Europe--her second marriage in any of these countries would never be heard of."
James Harrington started up, shaking from head to foot; and so white, that the General half-rose, tempted to flee his presence.
"Tempter, h.o.a.ry-headed fiend, how dare you!" broke from his white lips.
The old man faltered a little as he went on, and an anxious restlessness of the eye betrayed more emotion than he cared to make apparent.
"I neither tempt nor persuade. We have done each other great injury; this lady has been the cause, and in some sort the victim. After reading that book, it is impossible for this household to contain us all. I will not submit to be turned out a beggar, nor to live an hour longer on your munificence. The plan I offer is the only one that can be peaceably acted upon."
"And the lady, Mrs. Harrington, does she know this?"
"Not a syllable. I have no fancy for hysterics, protestations, or fainting fits. The _role_ of an injured husband, is not to my taste; and I should prefer that she base her complaints on my indifference, abandonment, infidelity, or whatever faults of that nature she pleases.
I will take a trip to Paris, if that promises to facilitate matters."
"And, if I refuse?"
"Then the lady shall be quietly waited upon by my lawyer, and invited to leave my house. This book will not only be placed in evidence against her, but every line it contains shall be duplicated by thousands, and spread far and wide."
"Give me time--give me air. I cannot think or breathe!" answered James, struggling with himself amid a whirl of contending feelings, like a drowning man engulphed by a flood. "A few minutes, and I will speak again."
He arose, and walked unsteadily towards the library window, threw it open, and stepped out upon the balcony. There he strove to look the difficulty before him in the face--to meet the terrible temptation with courage. He dared not turn his thoughts, even for a moment, toward the possibility of the proposed divorce, but crushed it back resolutely, as if it had been a serpent attempting to charm his soul away. If a glow of delight had touched his heart with the first certainty of Mabel"s love, it was gone now, quenched by a consciousness of the terrible dangers that were closing around her.
It was a bitter cold morning; all around him the earth lay sheeted with deep snow. The river was frozen over from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e. Not a green thing was near, save the spruces and pines upon the shrouded lawn, and they drooped and moaned under a burden of cold whiteness, which the wind might disturb but fail to sweep away. The balcony was littered with slender icicles which had fallen from the gables above, and flashed out like shattered jewels from his impetuous footsteps as he trod them down, walking to and fro in the wild excitement that seized upon him. At another time he must have shuddered beneath the sharp wind that filled his hair and clothes with frost. But now, the fever in his blood burned too hotly not to feel the biting cold as a relief.
He leaned against a pillar of the balcony, shocked to the soul, and yet so indignant that the frozen particles that filled the air, flashed athwart his eyes like sparks of fire. The hand with which he strove to force back the painful rush of thought from his forehead, fell upon it like ice, but in a moment that too was burning. He tore off his cravat, and in vain exposed his bosom to the frost. He gathered handfuls of snow from where it had lodged in ridges on the stone bal.u.s.trade, and pressed them to his forehead, hoping thus to slake the fever of his wild thoughts. A little time, and this fierce struggle must have killed him; for, not to have found some means of saving Mabel Harrington from the dangers that encompa.s.sed her, would have been a thousand deaths to him.
Oh! how his bad angel toiled and struggled to fix that divorce upon his mind, as the best and only means of saving her. But the heart that swelled so tumultuously in his bosom, was honest and unselfish. He took hold of the temptation, firmly wrestled with, and hurled it aside, facing the right with heroic courage.
At last, his restless footsteps ceased; some new idea contracted his features, sweeping all the fire away. Slowly and steadily, like the beams of a star, thought followed thought, till his face grew luminous with generous resolution. The red fever had burned itself out on his forehead, leaving it pale and calm, while across his lips stole an expression so much more beautiful than a smile, that I cannot impress it upon the reader.
CHAPTER LXIV.
THE LIFE DEED.
James Harrington turned from the balcony, and entered the open window, composed and firm, but paler than before he went out.
General Harrington looked sharply up as James came forward, but did not speak; there was a force and dignity in his aspect that filled even that worldly old man with respect, amounting almost to awe. They sat down face to face; James leaning heavily against the table, General Harrington retreating far back in his chair, to avoid the firm glance of those eyes.
"There is another way of settling this matter," he said, plunging at once into the depths of the subject. "I have wealth which you desire. To obtain it you will sell your revenge on a helpless woman whose hand you have obtained, but whose love you have never sought. Your offer is specious, but to accept it would be wickedness in me, degradation to her. I know well that she would die rather than escape your vengeance on such terms. I reject them utterly!"
"It is well," said the old man, pale and trembling in his turn, "I have at least this left;" and gathering up Mabel"s book, he seemed preparing to go out.
"But," said James Harrington, still with great self-possession, "I am ready to purchase the tranquillity of your wife on other terms. Give me that book--pledge your solemn word of honor that its contents shall never be mentioned again to mortal being--leave Mabel Harrington in the entire enjoyment of her home and station, exactly as she has received them during her married life, and I will at once give you entire control of my income during your natural life, only reserving for myself enough for a bare subsistence. I will leave this house to-morrow. Henceforth, I will hold no communication with you or your family. As you said, the world is broad--any place will answer for one who has no hopes."
The old man was so taken by surprise that he could not answer, but sat searching the face before him with eager scrutiny.
"And you will do this?"
"I will."
"Without entering into explanation with her, or any one else?"
"Explanations are impossible. The family will understand that I am suddenly called away; after that, any prolonged absence can be accounted for. But remember, sir, this lady"s tranquillity must be a.s.sured beyond a chance of revocation; on that rests the validity of any deed I shall draw. The day and hour in which her position is in the slightest degree impaired, no matter from what cause, and I return, though it were from the uttermost ends of the earth, to resume my own and protect her."
"Have no fear," answered the general, with an impatient wave of the hand. "The shelter of my roof, and the protection of my name, will ensure all; these I promise never to withdraw."
"And that book?"
"Shall be kept secret as the grave!"
"It must be burned before I leave the room!"
The old man was about to hesitate, and demand the life-deed before he surrendered Mabel"s journal; but there was a stern dignity in his step-son that checked the mean impulse. He knew well that no bond would be held more sacred than that man"s word. James read the thought with a smile of contempt, and turned to leave the room.