"Whom do you call everybody else, my dear?" said Mr. Leonard, looking over his paper good-humoredly. "If I don"t mistake, you may see some thousands of people in New York every day still."
"Oh, yes, the n.o.bodies stay, of course. I don"t mean them," said Miss Felice, pettishly. "I hate people. Anybody that pretends to be anybody is going away."
"You"re a nice republican--you are!" said Master Royal, who in one corner of the room was making frantic efforts to stand on his head, as he had seen them do in the circus the night before.
"Has your friend Mr. Randall gone, too?" said Georgia, still trying to smile, though there was a slight agitation in her voice in spite of all.
"Yes, of course he has. I wonder you didn"t hear of it," said Miss Felice, looking dissatisfied.
"Hear of it! how could she?" broke in Maggie. "You see, Miss Randall, the queerest thing occurred while you were sick--just like a thing in a play, where everybody turns out to be somebody else. Mr. Randall had a sister once upon a time, and lost her somehow, and she grew up and married Mr. Richmond Wildair, and he lost her somehow, the lady evidently having a fancy for getting lost, and it was all found out through d.i.c.k Curtis. So Mr. Randall and Mr. Wildair had a great time about it, and now they have both gone to look for her again--one North and the other South, so if they don"t find her it will be a wonder. Is it not romantic? I would give the world to see her--the wife and sister of two such famous men. Oh, Miss Randall! Mr. Curtis says she was quite splendid--so beautiful, you know, and,"--here Maggie lowered her voice to a mysterious whisper--"he thinks she has gone and killed herself."
"Oh, ma, look how pale Miss Randall is; she"s going to faint if you don"t look sharp," cried out Master Royal.
"No, it is nothing; pray do not mind," said Georgia faintly, motioning them away. "I am not very strong yet; allow me to wish you good-morning.
Mr. Leonard, can I see you in private for a few minutes?"
"Certainly, certainly," responded Mr. Leonard, while the rest looked up, rather surprised, as they left the room.
In as few words as possible Georgia made known her request, and obtained from him a promise of secrecy. Mr. Leonard was not in the least surprised; he was perfectly confident about her taking the prize, and, having obtained her address, told her he would call for it on the morrow.
But when the old gentleman saw it he fairly started back, and gazed on it in a sort of terror and consternation that amused Georgia, breaking out at intervals with e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns of extreme astonishment.
"Eh? what? Lord bless my soul! Why, it"s quite frightful--upon my life it is! Good gracious! what a pair of eyes that young woman has got!
"Hagar in the Wilderness." Je-ru-sa-lem! I wouldn"t be Abraham for a trifle, with such a desperate-looking wild-cat as that about the house.
She"s the born image of yourself, too; one would think you and Hagar were twin sisters. Well, Lord bless me! if it isn"t enough to give a man fits to look at it! It"s well I"m not nervous, or I"d never get over the shock of looking at it. Upon my honor, Miss Randall, I don"t know what to make of you. You"re the eighth wonder of the world--that"s what you are!"
The painting was accordingly sent in, and three days after, the whole Leonard family departed--the children for home, and the elders of the house for Cape May--and now Georgia was left to solitude and suspense once more, until, as day after day was pa.s.sed, and _the_ day approached, she began her old fashion of working herself up into one of her fevers of impatience and excitement. Her usual antidote of a long, rapid walk was followed in the city as well as in the country, and often did people pause and look in wonder after the tall, dark-robed figure that flitted so rapidly by them, whose vailed face no one ever saw.
One night, as darkness was falling over the city, Georgia found herself suddenly among a crowd of people who were pa.s.sing rapidly into a church.
Borne along by the throng, she was carried in, too, and half-bewildered by the crowd, and by the crash of a grand organ, and the glitter of many lights, she found herself in a pew, among thousands of others, before she quite realized where she was. She looked, and, with a half-startled air, saw she was in one of the largest churches of the city, and that it was already filled to suffocation.
She heard some persons in a seat before her whisper that an eloquent young divine (she could not catch the name) was going to address them.
While they yet spoke, a tall, slight figure, robed in black, came out of the vestry, pa.s.sed up the stairs, and ascended the pulpit. A silence so profound that you could have heard a pin drop in that vast mult.i.tude reigned, broken at last by a clear, thrilling voice that rang out in deep tones with the awful words from Holy Writ:
"You shall seek Me and you shall not find Me, and you shall die in your sins."
A death-like pause ensued, and every heart seemed to stand still to catch the next words. But why does Georgia start as if she had received a spear thrust? Why do her lips spring white and quivering apart? Why are her eyes fixed so wildly, so strangely on the preacher? In that moment the mystery was solved, the secret revealed--the brother of her husband stands before her. The gay, the careless, the elegant, the thoughtless Charley Wildair is a clergyman. For awhile she sat stunned by the shock, conscious that he was speaking, yet hearing not a word.
Then her clouded faculties cleared, and her ears were greeted by such bursts of resistless eloquence as she had never dreamed of before. In that moment rose before her, with terrific vividness, the despairing death-bed of the sinner and the awful doom that must follow. Shuddering and terrified, she sank back, shading her face with her hands, appalled by the awful fate that might have been hers. What--what was all earthly trouble compared with that dread eternity of misery she had deserved--that awful doom that might yet be hers? Still it arose before her in all its frightful horrors, exhibited by the clarion voice of the speaker, until, wrought up to the pitch of frenzy, her trembling lips strove to form the word "Mercy." And still, as if in answer, rang out that thrilling voice with that terrific sentence of eternal doom:
"You shall seek Me and you shall not find Me, and you shall die in your sins."
The sermon was over, the people were crowding out, and she found herself half senseless kneeling in the pew, with her face hidden in her hands.
An uncontrollable desire to see, to speak to him she had just heard seized her, and she sprang up, and grasping some one who stood near her, said, incoherently:
"Where is he? I must see him! Where is he gone?"
"Who?" said the startled personage she addressed.
"He who has just preached."
"In there," said the man, pointing to the vestry. "Go in that way and you will see him."
Forcing her way through the throng, Georgia hurried on, pa.s.sed into the sanctuary, and from thence to the vestry.
There she paused--restored to herself. Nearly a dozen clergymen were there, standing in groups, conversing with several ladies and gentlemen, who had come too late to get into the church, and had been forced to remain there to listen. All eyes were turned on the new-comer, whose pale, wild beauty made her an object of deep interest, as she stood startled and hesitating in the door-way. A little boy, standing near, looked up and said, curiously:
"Did you want anybody, ma"am?"
"Yes--Mr. Wildair. Is he here?" said Georgia, hurriedly.
"Yes"m, there he is," said the boy, pointing to where stood the man she was in search of, standing by himself, his forehead leaning on his hand, and a look of utter fatigue and weariness on his face.
All Georgia"s eagerness returned at the sight. Pa.s.sing rapidly through the wondering spectators she approached him, and, with an irrepressible cry of "Charley!" she stood before him.
Looking very much surprised, as well he might, the young clergyman lifted up his head and fixed his eyes full on her face; but there was no recognition in that look, nothing but the utmost wonder.
"Oh, Charley! don"t you know me?--don"t you know Georgia?" she cried out, pa.s.sionately.
Instantly he started up.
"What! Georgia Darrell--little Georgia, my brother"s wife!" he cried, eagerly.
Her eyes answered him.
"Is it possible? Why, Georgia, how little I expected to meet _you_ here!" he said, holding out his hand, with a smile of mingled remorse and pleasure. "How came you here?"
"I do not know. Chance--Providence--something sent me here to-night."
"I would never have known you, it is so long since we met."
"Not so long as you think," she said, with one of her old rare smiles.
"No! How is that?"
"Do you remember the person you met on a country road, one night about a month ago, and asked the way to Widow O"Neil"s?"
"Yes."
"I was that person."
"Indeed! And did you know me?"
"Certainly I did."
"Well, I never for an instant dreamed it was you; but no wonder--I never saw any one so changed," he said, looking in the pale wasted face, and contrasting it with the blooming happy one he had last seen.
"Trouble seldom changes people for the better, I believe," she said, with a sigh.
"Ah, I heard what you allude to; Curtis told me. I am very, very sorry indeed, Georgia; but do you know they imagine you dead?"