But Jamie got no answer to his letter, and he wrote again. Again he got no answer; and he wrote a third time, this time by registered mail; so that he got back a card, with her name signed to the receipt.
Jamie"s manner, unconsciously to himself, had changed since that first row of gold coins had gone into the black tin box; the tellers and the bookkeepers had observed it, and they began to watch his mail again. What was their glee to see among Jamie"s papers, one morning, a letter in the familiar feminine hand! "Jamie"s foreign mail has come!"
the word went round. "I thought it must be on its way," said the second bookkeeper; "haven"t you noticed his looks lately?" "The letter is postmarked New Orleans," said the messenger boy, turning it over.
But it was felt this went beyond friendly sympathy.
"Mr. O"Neill," said Mr. Stanchion sternly, "if I see you again interfering with McMurtagh"s mail, you may go. What business is that of ours?"
Poor O"Neill hung his head, abashed. But all eyes were on Jamie as he opened his desk. He put the letter in his pocket. The clerks looked at one another. The suspense became unendurable. When old Mr. Bowdoin came in, the cashier told him what had happened. "Jamie"s foreign mail has come again. But he will never read it here, sir, and we can"t send him out till lunch-time: the chief bookkeeper"--
The old gentleman"s eyes twinkled. "McMurtagh!" he cried (Mr. Bowdoin had always called Jamie so since he came into the bank), "will you kindly step down to my counting-room? I will meet you there in a few minutes, and there are some accounts I want you to straighten out for me."
As Jamie hurried down to the Long Wharf, he pressed his coat tight against him. The letter lay in his pocket, and he felt it warm against his breast.
Neither Mr. James Bowdoin nor Harley was in the little room (it was just as Jamie remembered it when he first had entered it, no pretense of business was made there now), and he tore the letter open. Thus it ran:--
NEW ORLEANS, _August 30, 1849_.
MY DEAR, DEAR JAMIE,--If I have not written to you it was only because I did not want to bring more trouble on you. But things have gone from bad to worse with us. I feel that I should be almost too unhappy to live, only that David is with me now. [Jamie sobbed a little at this.] I wanted never to ask you for money again. But we are very, very poor. I will not give it to him. But if you could send me a little money, a hundred dollars would last me a long time.
Your loving M. ST. CLAIR.
Jamie laid his head upon the old desk, and his tears fell on the letter. What could he do? His conscience told him, nothing. All his earnings belonged to the employers he had robbed.
After a minute he took a sheet of paper and tried to write the answer, no. And Mr. Bowdoin came in, and caught him crying. The old gentleman knocked over a coal-scuttle, and turned to pick it up. By the time he had done so Jamie had rubbed the tears from his eyes, and stood there like a soldier at "Attention."
"Jamie," said Mr. Bowdoin, "I should like to make a little present to your ward, to Mercedes. Could you send it for me? I hope she is well?"
And before Jamie could answer Mr. Bowdoin had written out a check for a hundred dollars. "Give her my love when you write. I must go to a directors meeting." And he scurried away hurriedly.
Jamie sat down again and wrote his letter, and told her that the money was from Mr. Bowdoin. "But, dear heart," it ended, "even if I cannot help you, always write." And, going home that night, Jamie began to fancy that some omniscient power had put it into the old gentleman"s heart just then to do this thing.
III.
Old Mr. Bowdoin, one morning, some time after this, stood at his window before breakfast, drumming on the pane. The gesture has commonly been understood to indicate discontent with one"s surroundings. Mrs. Bowdoin had not yet come down to breakfast.
Outside, her worthy spouse could see the very tree upon which cousin Wendell Phillips had not been hanged; and his mouth relaxed as he saw his grandson Harley coming across the Common, and heard the portentous creaking that attended Mrs. Bowdoin"s progress down the stairs,--the butler supporting her arm, and her maid behind attending her with shawl and smelling-salts. The old lady was in a rude state of health, but had not walked a step alone for several years. As she entered, Harley behind her, old Mr. Bowdoin gravely and ostentatiously pulled out a silver dollar and put it into the hand of the surprised young man.
"Pa.s.s it to the account," said he.
Harley took the coin, and, detecting a wink, checked his expression of surprise.
"It all goes into the fund, my dear, to be given to your favorite charity the first time you are down in time for breakfast. It amounts to several thousand dollars already."
Mrs. Bowdoin snorted, but, with a too visible effort, only asked Harley whether he would take coffee or tea.
"With acc.u.mulations, my dear,--with acc.u.mulations. But you should not address me from your carriage in that yellow shawl, when I am talking to a stranger on the Common. At least, I thought it was Tom Pinckney, of the Providence Bank, but it turned out to be a stranger. He took me for a bunco-steerer."
"James!"
"He did indeed, and you for my confederate," chuckled the old gentleman. ""Mr. Pinckney, of Providence, I believe?" said I. "No, you don"t," said he; and he put his finger on his nose, like that."
"James!" said Mrs. Bowdoin.
"_I_ didn"t mind--don"t know when I"ve been so flattered--must look like a pretty sharp old boy, after all, though I have been married to you for fifty years."
"James, it"s hardly forty."
"Well, I thought it was fifty. The last time I did meet Tom Pinckney, he asked if I"d married again. I said you"d give me no chance. "Better take it when you can," said he. "That will I, Tom," says I. "I"ve got one in my mind.""
"Really, grandpa," remonstrated young Harley.
"Don"t you talk, young man. Didn"t I hear of you at another Abolition meeting yesterday? And women spoke, too,--short-haired women and long-haired men. Why can"t you leave them both where a wise Providence placed them? Destroy the only free republic the world has ever known for a parcel of well-fed n.i.g.g.e.rs that"ll relapse into Voodoo barbarism the moment they"re freed!"
"James, the country knows that the best sentiment of Boston is with us."
"The country doesn"t know Boston, then. And as for that crack-brained demagogue cousin of yours, he calls the Const.i.tution a compact with h.e.l.l! I hope I"ll live to see him hanged some day."
"Wendell Phillips is a martyr indeed."
"Martyr! Humbug! He couldn"t get any clients, so he took up a cause.
Why, they say at the club that he"--
"They said at the meeting last night, sir," interrupted Harley, "that they"d march up to the club and make you fellows fly the American flag."
"It"s Phillips wants to pull it down," said the old gentleman.
Mrs. Bowdoin rattled the tea things.
"Don"t mind your grandma, Harley, if she is out of temper. She"s got a headache this morning. She went to bed with the hot-water bottle under her pillow and the brandy at her feet, and feels a little mixed."
"James! I never took a brandy bottle upstairs with me in my life. And Harleston knows"--
"Do you suppose he knows as well as I do, who have lived with you for fifty years?"
"And I"ll not stay with you to hear my cousin insulted!" Majestic, she rose.
"It"s too much of one girl," chuckled Mr. Bowdoin. "No wonder men keep a separate establishment."
"_James!_" Mrs. Bowdoin swept from the room.
"Don"t run upstairs alone; consider the butler"s feelings!" called her unfeeling spouse after her.
"You"re too bad, sir," said Harley.
"I"m trying to develop her sense of humor; it"s the one thing I always said I"d have in a wife. Remember it, when you get married. Why the devil don"t you?"
"I have too much sense of humor, sir," said Harley gravely. "What is that?" For a noise of much shouting was heard from the Common. Both men rushed to the windows, and saw, surrounded by a maddened crowd, a small company of federal soldiers marching north.