"Warner, Warner!" interrupted old Hagar, the nameless terror of the night before creeping again into her heart. "Whose name did you say was Warner?"
"The hull on "em, boy, girl, and all, is called Warner now--one Rose, and t"other Henry," answered the peddler, perfectly delighted with the interest manifested by his auditor, who, grasping at the bedpost and moving her hand rapidly before her eyes, as if to clear away a mist which had settled there, continued, "I remember now, Hester told me of the children; but one, she said, was a stepchild--that was the boy, wasn"t it?" and her wild, black eyes had in them a look of unutterable anxiety, wholly incomprehensible to the peddler, who, instead of answering her question said: "What ails you woman? Your face is as white as a piece of paper?"
"Thinking of Hester always affects me so," she answered; and stretching her hands beseechingly towards him, she entreated him to say if Henry were not the stepchild.
"No marm, he warn"t," answered the peddler, who, like a great many talkative people, pretended to know more than he really did, and who in this particular instance was certainly mistaken. "I can tell you egzactly how that is: Henry was the son of Mr. Hampleton"s first marriage--Henry Hampleton. The second wife, the one your darter lived with, was the Widder Warner, and had a little gal, Rose, when she married Mr. Hampleton. This Widder Warner"s husband"s brother married Mr. Hampleton"s sister, the woman who took the children, and had Henry change his name to Warner. The Hampletons and Warners were mighty big-feelin" folks, and the old squire"s match mortified "em dreadfully."
"Where are they now?" gasped Hagar, hoping there might be some mistake.
"There you"ve got me!" answered Martin. "I haven"t seen "em this dozen year; but the last I heard, Miss Warner and Rose was livin" in Leominster, and Henry was in a big store in Wooster. But what the plague is the matter?" he continued, alarmed at the expression of Hagar"s face, as well as at the strangeness of her manner.
Wringing her hands as if she would wrench her fingers from their sockets, she clutched at her long white hair, and, rocking to and fro, moaned, "Woe is me, and woe the day when I was born!"
From everyone save her grandmother Margaret had kept the knowledge of her changed feelings towards Henry Warner; and looking upon a marriage between the two as an event surely to be expected, old Hagar was overwhelmed with grief and fear. Falling at last upon her knees, she cried: "Had you cut my throat from ear to ear, old man, you could not have hurt me more! Oh, that I had died years and years ago! But I must live now--live!" she screamed, springing to her feet--"live to prevent the wrong my own wickedness has caused!"
Perfectly astonished at what he saw and heard, the peddler attempted to question her, but failing to obtain any satisfactory answers he finally left, mentally p.r.o.nouncing her "as crazy as a loon." This opinion was confirmed by the people on whom he next called, for, chancing to speak of Hagar, he was told that nothing which she did or said was considered strange, as she had been called insane for years.
This satisfied Martin, who made no further mention of her, and thus the scandal which his story might otherwise have produced was prevented.
In the meantime on her face lay old Hagar, moaning bitterly. "My sin has found me out; and just when I thought it never need be known! For myself I do not care; but Maggie, Maggie--how can I tell her that she is bone of my bone, blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh--and me old Hagar Warren!"
It would be impossible to describe the scorn and intense loathing concentrated in the tones of Hagar"s voice as she uttered these last words, "and me old Hagar Warren!" Had she indeed been the veriest wretch on earth, she could not have hated herself more than she did in that hour of her humiliation, when, with a loud voice, she cried, "Let me die, oh, let me die, and it will never be known!" Then, as she reflected upon the terrible consequence which would ensue were she to die and make no sign, she wrung her hands despairingly, crying: "Life, life--yes, give me life to tell her of my guilt; and then it will be a blessed rest to die. Oh, Margaret, my precious child, I"d give my heart"s blood, drop by drop, to save you; but it can"t be; you must not wed your father"s son; oh, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie!"
Fainter and fainter grew each succeeding word, and when the last was spoken she fell again upon her face, unconscious and forgetful of her woe. Higher and higher in the heavens rose the morning sun, stealing across the window sill, and shining aslant the floor, where Hagar still lay in a deep, deathlike swoon. An hour pa.s.sed on, and then the wretched woman came slowly back to life, her eyes lighting up with joy, as she whispered, "It was a dream, thank Heaven, "twas a dream!"
and then growing dim with tears, as the dread reality came over her.
The first fearful burst of grief was pa.s.sed, for Hagar now could weep, and tears did her good, quelling the feverish agony at her heart. Not for herself did she suffer so much as for Maggie, trembling for the effect the telling of the secret would have on her. For it must be told. She knew that full well, and as the sun fast neared the western horizon, she murmured, "Oh, will she come to-night, will she come to-night?"
Yes, Hagar, she will. Even now her feet, which, when they backward turn, will tread less joyously, are threading the woodland path. The halfway rock is reached--nearer and nearer she comes--her shadow falls across the floor--her hand is on your arm--her voice in your ear--Maggie Miller is at your side--Heaven help you both!
CHAPTER XIX.
THE TELLING OF THE SECRET.
"Hagar! Hagar!" exclaimed Maggie, playfully bounding to her side, and laying her hand upon her arm. "What aileth thee, Hagar?"
The words were meet, for never Hagar in the desert, thirsting for the gushing fountain, suffered more than did she who sat with covered face and made no word of answer. Maggie was unusually happy that day, for but a few hours before she had received Henry"s letter making her free--free to love Arthur Carrollton, who she well knew only waited a favorable opportunity to tell her of his love; so with a heart full of happiness she had stolen away to visit Hagar, reproaching herself as she came for having neglected her so long. "But I"ll make amends by telling her what I"m sure she must have guessed," she thought, as she entered the cottage, where, to her surprise, she found her weeping.
Thinking the old woman"s distress might possibly be occasioned by her neglect, she spoke again. "Are you crying for me, Hagar?"
"Yes, Maggie Miller, for you--for you!" answered Hagar, lifting up a face so ghastly white that Maggie started back in some alarm.
"Poor Hagar, you are ill," she said, and advancing nearer she wound her arms around the trembling form, and, pillowing the snowy head upon her bosom, continued soothingly: "I did not mean to stay away long. I will not do it again, but I am so happy, Hagar, so happy that I half forgot myself."
For a moment Hagar let her head repose upon the bosom of her child, then murmuring softly, "It will never lie there again," she arose, and, confronting Maggie, said, "Is it love which makes you so happy?"
"Yes, Hagar, love," answered Margaret, the deep blushes stealing over her glowing face.
"And is it your intention to marry the man you love?" continued Hagar, thinking only of Henry Warner, while Margaret, thinking only of Arthur Carrollton, replied, "If he will marry me, I shall most surely marry him."
"It is enough. I must tell her," whispered Hagar; while Maggie asked, "Tell me what?"
For a moment the wild eyes fastened themselves upon her with a look of yearning anguish, and then Hagar answered slowly, "Tell you what you"ve often wished to know--my secret!" the last word dropping from her lips more like a warning hiss than like a human sound. It was long since Maggie had teased for the secret, so absorbed had she been in other matters, but now that there was a prospect of knowing it her curiosity was reawakened, and while her eyes glistened with expectation, she said, "Yes, tell it to me, Hagar, and then I"ll tell you mine;" and all over her beautiful face there shone a joyous light as she thought how Hagar, who had once p.r.o.nounced Henry Warner unworthy, would rejoice in her new love.
"Not here, Maggie--not here in this room can I tell you," said old Hagar; "but out in the open air, where my breath will come more freely;" and, leading the way, she hobbled to the mossy bank where Maggie had sat with Arthur Carrollton on the morning of his departure for Montreal.
Here she sat down, while Maggie threw herself upon the damp ground at her feet, her face lighted with eager curiosity and her l.u.s.trous eyes bright as stars with excitement. For a moment Hagar bent forward, and, folding her hands one above the other, laid them upon the head of the young girl as if to gather strength for what she was to say. But all in vain; for when she essayed to speak her tongue clave to the roof of her mouth, and her lips gave forth unmeaning sounds.
"It must be something terrible to affect her so," thought Maggie, and, taking the bony hands between her own, she said, "I would not tell it, Hagar; I do not wish to hear."
The voice aroused the half-fainting woman, and, withdrawing her hand from Maggie"s grasp, she replied, "Turn away your face, Margaret Miller, so I cannot see the hatred settling over it, when I tell you what I must."
"Certainly; my back if you prefer it," answered Maggie, half playfully; and turning round she leaned her head against the feeble knees of Hagar.
"Maggie, Maggie," began the poor old woman, lingering long and lovingly over that dear name, "nineteen years ago, next December, I took upon my soul the secret sin which has worn my life away, but I did it for the love I had for you. Oh, Margaret, believe it, for the love I had for you, more than for my own ambition;" and the long fingers slid nervously over the bands of shining hair just within her reach.
At the touch of those fingers, Maggie shuddered involuntarily. There was a vague, undefined terror stealing over her, and, impatient to know the worst, she said, "Go on, tell me what you did."
"I can"t--I can"t--and yet I must!" cried Hagar. "You were a beautiful baby, Maggie, and the other one was sickly, pinched, and blue. I had you both in my room the night after Hester died; and the devil--Maggie, do you know how the devil will creep into the heart, and whisper, whisper till the brain is all on fire? This thing he did to me, Maggie, nineteen years ago, he whispered--whispered dreadful things, and his whisperings were of you!"
"Horrible, Hagar!" exclaimed Maggie. "Leave the devil, and tell me of yourself."
"That"s it," answered Hagar. "If I had but left him then, this hour would never have come to me; but I listened, and when he told me that a handsome, healthy child would be more acceptable to the Conways than a weakly, fretful one--when he said that Hagar Warren"s grandchild had far better be a lady than a drudge--that no one would ever know it, for none had noticed either--I did it, Maggie Miller; I took you from the pine-board cradle where you lay--I dressed you in the other baby"s clothes--I laid you on her pillow--I wrapped her in your coa.r.s.e white frock--I said that she was mine, and Margaret--oh, Heaven! can"t you see it? Don"t you know that I, the shriveled, skinny hag who tells you this, am your own grandmother!"
There was no need for Maggie Miller to answer that appeal. The words had burned into her soul--scorching her very life-blood, and maddening her brain. It was a fearful blow--crushing her at once. She saw it all, understood it all, and knew there was no hope. The family pride at which she had often laughed was strong within her, and could not at once be rooted out. All the fond household memories, though desecrated and trampled down, were not so soon to be forgotten. She could not own that half-crazed woman for her grandmother! As Hagar talked Maggie had risen, and now, tall, and erect as the mountain ash which grew on her native hills, she stood before Hagar, every vestige of color faded from her face, her eyes dark as midnight and glowing like coals of living fire, while her hands, locked despairingly together, moved slowly towards Hagar, as if to thrust her aside.
"Oh, speak again!" she said, "but not the dreadful words you said to me just now. Tell me they are false--say that my father perished in the storm, that my mother was she who held me on her bosom when she died--that I--oh, Hagar, I am not--I will not be the creature you say I am! Speak to me," she continued; "tell me; is it true?" and in her voice there was not the olden sound.
Hoa.r.s.e--hollow--full of reproachful anguish it seemed; and, bowing her head in very shame, old Hagar made her answer: "Would to Heaven "twere not true--but it is--it is! Kill me, Maggie," she continued, "strike me dead, if you will, but take your eyes away! You must not look thus at me, a heartbroken wretch."
But not of Hagar Warren was Maggie thinking then. The past, the present, and the future were all embodied in her thoughts. She had been an intruder all her life; had ruled with a high hand people on whom she had no claim, and who, had they known her parentage, would have spurned her from them. Theo, whom she had held in her arms so oft, calling her sister and loving her as such, was hers no longer; nor yet the fond woman who had cherished her so tenderly--neither was hers; and in fancy she saw the look of scorn upon that woman"s face when she should hear the tale, for it must be told--and she must tell it, too. She would not be an impostor; and then there flashed upon her the agonizing thought, before which all else seemed as naught--in the proud heart of Arthur Carrollton was there a place for Hagar Warren"s grandchild? "No, no, no!" she moaned; and the next moment she lay at Hagar"s feet, white, rigid, and insensible.
"She"s dead!" cried Hagar; and for one brief instant she hoped that it was so.
But not then and there was Margaret to die; and slowly she came back to life, shrinking from the touch of Hagar"s hand when she felt it on her brow.
"There may be some mistake," she whispered; but Hagar answered, "There is none"; at the same time relating so minutely the particulars of the deception that Maggie was convinced, and, covering her face with her hands, sobbed aloud, while Hagar, sitting by in silence, was nerving herself to tell the rest.
The sun had set, and the twilight shadows were stealing down upon them, when, creeping abjectly upon her knees towards the wretched girl, she said, "There is more, Maggie, more--I have not told you all."
But Maggie had heard enough, and, exerting all her strength, she sprang to her feet, while Hagar clutched eagerly at her dress, which was wrested from her grasp, as Maggie fled away--away--she knew not, cared not, whither, so that she were beyond the reach of the trembling voice which called after her to return. Alone in the deep woods, with the darkness falling around her, she gave way to the mighty sorrow which had come so suddenly upon her. She could not doubt what she had heard. She knew that it was true, and as proof after proof crowded upon her, until the chain of evidence was complete, she laid her head upon the rain-wet gra.s.s, and shudderingly stopped her ears, to shut out, if possible, the memory of the dreadful words, "I, the shriveled, skinny hag who tells you this, am your own grandmother." For a long time she lay there thus, weeping till the fountain of her tears seemed dry; then, weary, faint, and sick, she started for her home. Opening cautiously the outer door, she was gliding up the stairs when Madam Conway, entering the hall with a lamp, discovered her, and uttered an exclamation of surprise at the strangeness of her appearance. Her dress, bedraggled and wet, was torn in several places by the briery bushes she had pa.s.sed; her hair, loosened from its confinement, hung down her back, while her face was so white and ghastly that Madam Conway in much alarm followed her up the stairs, asking what had happened.
"Something dreadful came to me in the woods," said Maggie; "but I can"t tell you to-night. To-morrow I shall be better--or dead--oh, I wish I could be dead--before you hate me so, dear grand--No, I didn"t mean that--you aint; forgive me, do;" and sinking to the floor she kissed the very hem of Madam Conway"s dress.
Unable to understand what she meant, Madam Conway divested her of her damp clothing, and, placing her in bed, sat down beside her, saying gently, "Can you tell me now what frightened you?"
A faint cry was Maggie"s only answer, and taking the lady"s hand she laid it upon her forehead, where the drops of perspiration were standing thickly. All night long Madam Conway sat by her, going once to communicate with Arthur Carrollton, who, anxious and alarmed, came often to the door, asking if she slept. She did sleep at last--a fitful feverish sleep; but ever at the sound of Mr. Carrollton"s voice a spasm of pain distorted her features, and a low moan came from her lips. Maggie had been terribly excited, and when next morning she awoke she was parched with burning fever, while her mind at intervals seemed wandering; and ere two days pa.s.sed she was raving with delirium, brought on, the physician said, by some sudden shock, the nature of which no one could even guess.