"Well, Miranda, I"m in great perplexity and anxiety. I"ve just had a note from a messenger my husband has sent asking me to come out to that Green Tavern you were talking about. He was sent to me with some message and has had an accident so he couldn"t come. It kind of frightened me to think what might be the matter. I"m glad you are going this way because it keeps me from thinking about it. Are we nearly there? I never went out this road so far before."
"It ain"t fur," said Miranda as if that were a minor matter. "I"ll go right along in with you, then you needn"t feel lonely. I guess likely it"s business. Don"t you worry." The tone was rea.s.suring, but Marcia"s face looked troubled.
"No, I guess that won"t do, Miranda, for the note says it is a private matter and I must come alone. You know Mr. Spafford has matters to write about that are very important, railroads, and such things, and sometimes he doesn"t care to have any one get hold of his ideas before they appear in the paper. His enemies might use them to stop the plans of the great improvements he is writing about."
"Let me see that note!" demanded Miranda. "Got it with you?" Marcia hesitated. Perhaps she ought not to show it, and yet there was nothing in the note but what she had already told the girl, and she felt sure she would not breathe a word to a living soul after her promise. She handed Miranda the letter, and they stopped a moment while she slowly spelled it out. Miranda was no scholar. Marcia watched her face eagerly, as if to gather a ray of hope from it, but she was puzzled by Miranda"s look. A kind of satisfaction had overspread her homely countenance.
"Should you think from that that David was hurt-or ill-or-or-killed-or anything?" She asked the question as if Miranda were a wizard, and hung anxiously upon her answer.
"Naw, I don"t reckon so!" said Miranda. "Don"t you worry. David"s all right somehow. I"ll take care o" you. You go "long up and see what"s the business, an" I"ll wait here out o" sight o" the tavern. Likely"s not he might take a notion not to tell you ef he see me come along with you. You jest go ahead, and I"ll be on hand when you get through. If you need me fer anything you jest holler out "Randy!" good and loud an" I"ll hear you.
Guess I"ll set on this log. The tavern"s jest round that bend in the road.
Naw, you needn"t thank me. This is a real pretty mornin" to set an" rest.
Good-bye."
Marcia hurried on, glancing back happily at her protector in a calico sunbonnet seated stolidly on a log with her tin pail beside her.
Poor stupid Miranda! Of course she could not understand what a comfort it was to have confided her trouble. Marcia went up to the tavern with almost a smile on her face, though her heart began to beat wildly as a slatternly girl led her into a big room at the right of the hall.
As Marcia disappeared behind the bend in the road, Miranda stealthily stole along the edge of the woods, till she stood hidden behind a clump of alders where she could peer out and watch Marcia until she reached the tavern and pa.s.sed safely by the row of lounging, smoking men, and on into the doorway. Then Miranda waited just an instant to look in all directions, and sped across the road, mounting the fence and on through two meadows, and the barnyard to the kitchen door of the tavern.
"Mornin"! Mis" Green," she said to the slovenly looking woman who sat by the table peeling potatoes. "Mind givin" me a drink o" water? I"m terrible thirsty, and seemed like I couldn"t find the spring. Didn"t thare used to be a spring "tween here"n town?"
"Goodness sakes! Randy! Where"d you come from? Water! Jes" help yourself.
There"s the bucket jes" from the spring five minutes since, an" there"s the gourd hanging up on the wall. I can"t get up, I"m that busy. Twelve to dinner to-day, an" only me to do the cookin". "Melia she"s got to be upstairs helpin" at the bar."
"Who all you got here?" questioned Miranda as she took a draught from the old gourd.
"Well, got a gentleman from New York fur one. He"s real pretty. Quite a beau. His clo"es are that nice you"d think he was goin" to court. He"s that particular "bout his eatin" I feel fl.u.s.tered. Nothin" would do but he hed to hev a downstairs room. He said he didn"t like goin" upstairs. He don"t look sickly, neither."
"Mebbe he"s had a accident an" lamed himself," suggested Miranda cunningly. "Heard o" any accidents? How"d he come? Coach or horseback?"
"Coach," said Mrs. Green. "Why do you ask? Got any friends in New York?"
"Not many," responded Miranda importantly, "but my cousin Hannah Heath has. You know she"s ben up there for a spell visitin" an" they say there was lots of gentlemen in love with her. There"s one in particular used to come round a good deal. It might be him come round to see ef it"s true Hannah"s goin" to get married to Lem Skinner. Know what this fellow"s name is?"
"You don"t say! Well now it might be. No, I don"t rightly remember his name. Seems though it was something like Church er Chapel. "Melia could tell ye, but she"s busy."
"Where"s he at? Mebbe I could get a glimpse o" him. I"d jest like to know ef he was comin" to bother our Hannah."
"Well now. Mebbe you could get a sight o" him. There"s a cupboard between his room an" the room back. It has a door both sides. Mebbe ef you was to slip in there you might see him through the latch hole. I ain"t usin" that back room fer anythin" but a store-room this spring, so look out you don"t stumble over nothin" when you go in fer it"s dark as a pocket. You go right "long in. I reckon you"ll find the way. Yes, it"s on the right hand side o" the hall. I"ve got to set here an" finish these potatoes er dinner"ll be late. I"d like to know real well ef he"s one o" Hannah Heath"s beaux."
Miranda needed no second bidding. She slipped through the hall and store room, and in a moment stood before the door of the closet. Softly she opened it, and stepped in, lifting her feet cautiously, for the closet floor seemed full of old boots and shoes.
It was dark in there, very dark, and only one slat of light stabbed the blackness coming through the irregular shape of the latch hole. She could hear voices in low tones speaking on the other side of the door. Gradually her eyes grew accustomed to the light and one by one objects came out of the shadows and looked at her. A white pitcher with a broken nose, a row of bottles, a bunch of seed corn with the husks braided together and hung on a nail, an old coat on another nail.
Down on her knees beside the crack of light went Miranda. First her eye and then her ear were applied to the small aperture. She could see nothing but a table directly in front of the door about a foot away on which were quills, paper, and a large horn inkstand filled with ink. Some one evidently had been writing, for a page was half done, and the pen was laid down beside a word.
The limits of the latch hole made it impossible for Miranda to make out any more. She applied her ear and could hear a man"s voice talking in low insinuating tones, but she could make little of what was said. It drove her fairly frantic to think that she was losing time. Miranda had no mind to be balked in her purpose. She meant to find out who was in that room and what was going on. She felt a righteous interest in it.
Her eyes could see quite plainly now in the dark closet. There was a big b.u.t.ton on the door. She no sooner discovered it than she put up her hand and tried to turn it. It was tight and made a slight squeak in turning.
She stopped but the noise seemed to have no effect upon the evenly modulated tones inside. Cautiously she moved the b.u.t.ton again, holding the latch firmly in her other hand lest the door should suddenly fly open. It was an exciting moment when at last the b.u.t.ton was turned entirely away from the door frame and the lifted latch swung free in Miranda"s hand. The door opened outward. If it were allowed to go it would probably strike against the table. Miranda only allowed it to open a crack. She could hear words now, and the voice reminded her of something unpleasant. The least little bit more she dared open the door, and she could see, as she had expected, Marcia"s bonnet and shoulder cape as she sat at the other side of the room. This then was the room of the messenger who had sent for Mrs.
Spafford so peremptorily. The next thing was to discover the ident.i.ty of the messenger. Miranda had suspicions.
The night before she had seen a man lurking near the Spafford house when she went out in the garden to feed the chickens. She had watched him from behind the lilac bush, and when he had finally gone away she had followed him some distance until he turned into the old corduroy road and was lost in the gathering dusk. The man she had seen before, and had reason to suspect. It was not for nothing that she had braved her grandmother and gone hunting wild strawberries out of season.
With the caution of a creature of the forest Miranda opened the door an inch further, and applied her eye to the latch hole again. The man"s head was in full range of her eye then, and her suspicion proved true.
When Marcia entered the big room and the heavy oak door closed behind her her heart seemed almost choking her, but she tried with all her might to be calm. She was to know the worst now.
On the other side of the room in a large arm-chair, with his feet extended on another and covered by a travelling shawl, reclined a man. Marcia went toward him eagerly, and then stopped:
"Mr. Temple!" There was horror, fear, reproach in the way she spoke it.
"I know you are astonished, Mrs. Spafford, that the messenger should be one so unworthy, and let me say at the beginning that I am more thankful than I can express that your letter of forgiveness reached me before I was obliged to start on my sorrowful commission. I beg you will sit down and be as comfortable as you can while I explain further. Pardon my not rising. I have met with a bad sprain caused by falling from my horse on the way, and was barely able to reach this stopping place. My ankle is swollen so badly that I cannot step upon my foot."
Marcia, with white face, moved to the chair he indicated near him, and sat down. The one thought his speech had conveyed to her had come through those words "my sorrowful commission." She felt the need of sitting down, for her limbs would no longer bear her up, and she felt she must immediately know what was the matter.
"Mrs. Spafford, may I ask you once more to speak your forgiveness? Before I begin to tell you what I have come for, I long to hear you say the words "I forgive you." Will you give me your hand and say them?"
"Mr. Temple, I beg you will tell me what is the matter. Do not think any further about that other matter. I meant what I said in the note. Tell me quick! Is my husband-has anything happened to Mr. Spafford? Is he ill? Is he hurt?"
"My poor child! How can I bear to tell you? It seems terrible to put your love and trust upon another human being and then suddenly find-- But wait.
Let me tell the story in my own way. No, your husband is not hurt, physically. Illness, and death even, are not the worst things that can happen to a mortal soul. It seems to me cruel, as I see you sit there so young and tender and beautiful, that I should have to hurt you by what I have to say. I come from the purest of motives to tell you a sad truth about one who should be nearest and dearest to you of all the earth. I beg you will look upon me kindly and believe that it hurts me to have to tell you these things. Before I begin I pray you will tell me that you forgive me for all I have to say. Put your hand in mine and say so."
Marcia had listened to this torrent of words unable to stop them, a choking sensation in her throat, fear gripping her heart. Some terrible thing had happened. Her senses refused to name the possibility. Would he never tell? What ailed the man that he wanted her hand in forgiveness? Of course she forgave him. She could not speak, and he kept urging.
"I cannot talk until I have your hand as a pledge that you will forgive me and think not unkindly of me for what I am about to tell you."
He must have seen how powerfully he wrought upon her, for he continued until wild with frantic fear she stumbled toward him and laid her hand in his. He grasped it and thanked her profusely. He looked at the little cold hand in his own, and his lying tongue went on:
"Mrs. Spafford, you are good and true. You have saved me from a life of uselessness, and your example and high n.o.ble character have given me new inspiration. It seems a poor grat.i.tude that would turn and stab you to the heart. Ah! I cannot do it, and yet I must."
This was torture indeed! Marcia drew her hand sharply away and held it to her heart. She felt her brain reeling with the strain. Harry Temple saw he must go on at once or he would lose what he had gained. He had meant to keep that little hand and touch it gently with a comforting pressure as his story went on, but it would not do to frighten her or she might take sudden alarm.
"Sit down," he begged, reaching out and drawing a chair near to his own, but she stepped back and dropped into the one which she had first taken.
"You know your husband has been in New York?" he began. She nodded. She could not speak.
"Did you never suspect why he is there and why he stays so long?" A cold vise gripped Marcia"s heart, but though she turned white she said nothing, only looked steadily into the false eyes that glowed and burned at her like two hateful coals of fire that would scorch her soul and David"s to a horrid death.
"Poor child, you cannot answer. You have trusted perfectly. You thought he was there on business connected with his writing, but did it never occur to you what a very long time he has been away and that-that there might be some other reason also which he has not told? But you must know it now, my child. I am sorry to say it, but he has been keeping it from you, and those who love you think you ought to know. Let me explain. Very soon after he reached New York he met a lady whom he used to know and admire.
She is a very beautiful woman, and though she is married is still much sought after. Your husband, like the rest of her admirers, soon lost his heart completely, and his head. Strange that he could so easily forget the pearl of women he had left behind! He went to see her. He showed his affection for her in every possible way. He gave her large sums of money.
In fact, to make a long story short, he is lingering in New York just to be near her. I hesitate to speak the whole truth, but he has surely done that which you cannot forgive. You with your lofty ideas-Mrs. Spafford-he has cut himself off from any right to your respect or love.
"And now I am here to-day to offer to do all in my power to help you. From what I know of your husband"s movements, he is likely to return to you soon. You cannot meet him knowing that the lips that will salute you have been pressed upon the lips of another woman, and that woman _your own sister_, dear Mrs. Spafford!
"Ah! Now you understand, poor child. Your lips quiver! You have reason to understand. I know, I know you cannot think what to do. Let me think for you." His eyes were glowing and his face animated. He was using all his persuasive power, and her gaze was fixed upon him as though he had mesmerized her. She could not resist the flood-tide of his eloquence. She could only look on and seem to be gradually turning to stone-frozen with horror.
He felt he had almost won, and with demoniacal skill he phrased his sentences.