"I suppose I had fallen into that sort of stupor which precedes freezing to death, and was unconscious; but when next I awoke to the realities of this exceedingly real world, I was in bed in a meanly furnished room, and the first face I beheld was that of Betsey Stubbs, Georgia--the one who used to figure on the bills as Eugenia De Lacy?"
"And always played the artless little girl, although she was thirty years old," said Georgia, laughing. "Oh, I remember her."
"Well, there she was, and there I was with her, and with the company again. It turned out that two of the men were pa.s.sing along the road, returning to the village--what do you call it?--Burnfield, and stumbled over me, lying stiff and nearly frozen on the road. They knew me immediately, and carried me off to where the rest of them were; and it was resolved that they should decamp with me, for that old tyrant of a manager thought it too much of a good thing to lose three at once. So, in spite of my tears, and cries, and struggles and entreaties, I was forcibly carried off a little after midnight, when the storm cleared away, and brought back to the city.
"Well, Georgia, for nearly another year I remained at our old business, and with the old set, too closely watched to think of escaping, and to escape from them was now the sole aim of my life. The opportunity so long sought for came at last. One night a chance presented itself, and I was off; and fickle fortune, as if tired of making me a mark to poke fun at, came to my aid, and I made good my escape from my jealous guardians. For hours I wandered about through the city, until at last, worn out and exhausted, I curled myself up on the marble door-steps of an aristocratic mansion, and fell fast asleep.
"A hand grasping my shoulder and shaking me roughly awoke me after a time, and as I started up, I heard a gruff voice saying:
""Hallo! you little vagrant, what are you doing here?"
"I rubbed my eyes and looked up. An old gentleman, who had just alighted from a carriage, stood over me, with no very amiable expression of countenance, shaking me as if he would shake a reply out of me by main force.
"I stammered out something--I don"t know what--and terrified lest he should give me into the hands of a policeman, I tried to break away from him and fly; but the old gentleman held on like grim death, and seemed not to have the slightest intention of parting with me so easily.
""You"re a pickpocket, ain"t you?" said he, sharply.
""No, sir," said I, half-angrily, and looking him full in the face, "I am _not_."
""Then what brought you here," persisted he, "if you are not a juvenile thief?"
""I was tired, sir," said I, "and I sat down here to rest, and so fell asleep."
"The old gentleman kept his sharp eyes fixed on me as if he would read me through, with a strange look of half-recognition on his face.
""Please to let me go, sir," said I, again struggling to get free.
""What"s your name, boy?" said the old man, without heeding me in the slightest degree.
""Warren Randall Darrell," replied I.
"As if he had been struck, the old man loosened his hold and recoiled; and I, seizing the opportunity, darted off, but only to find myself in the grasp of a servant who stood holding the horses.
""Not so fast, my little shaver," said he, grinning; "just you wait till Mr. Randall"s done with you."
""Mr. Randall!" repeated I, and instantly a sort of conviction flashed across my mind that he might be my grandfather.
"At the same instant the old man approached me, and catching me by the arm, gazed long and steadily into my face, plainly revealed by the light of a street-lamp. I looked up in his agitated face quite as unflinchingly, and so we stood for nearly five minutes, to the great bewilderment of the coachman, who stared first at one and then the other, as if he thought we had both lost our senses.
""Tell me," said the old man, after a pause, "what was your mother"s maiden name?"
""Alice Randall," said I, my suspicion becoming certainty; "and you are my grandfather."
""What!" he exclaimed, with a start. "Do you know me? Who told you I was?"
""No one," said I; "but I think so. My grandfather"s name is Warren Randall, and that is the name on your door-plate there. I was called after him."
""You are right," said he, in an agitated voice. "I am your grandfather.
My poor Alice! You have her eyes, boy--the same eyes that once made the light of my home. Where--tell me where is she now?"
""I don"t know," said I, half-sobbing. "She"s dead, I"m afraid--she and Georgia."
""Who is Georgia?"
""My sister."
""And your father?" he said, with a darkening brow.
""Is dead, too; has been dead this long, long time."
""And so you are an orphan, and poor and friendless," he said, speaking as much to himself as to me. "Poor boy! poor little fellow! Warren, will you come and live with me--with your grandfather?"
"I thought for a moment, and then shook my head.
""No," said I, "I can"t. I must find my mother and Georgia."
""Where are they?" he said, eagerly. "I thought you told me they were dead."
""I said I didn"t know, and I don"t. They may be dead, for it is over a year since I saw them last. I was carried away from them by force, and now I am going to seek for them."
""You!" said he. "How can a little friendless boy like you find them?
No, no, Warren, stay with me, and let me search for your mother. I may succeed, but you will starve ere you find them, or be put in prison.
Warren you _will_ stay?""
"And you did?" said Georgia.
"And I did. I answered that what he said was true, and that he was far more likely to succeed than I was. That night I slept in a princely home, with servants to come at my call--with every luxury to charm every sense around me. Was not that a sudden change, Georgia, from the miserable quarters of the players?"
"Yes, indeed," said Georgia. "And what change did it make in you? Did affluence spoil you?"
"It might have, if I had stayed long enough there," said Warren, smiling, "for I, with all my perfections--and if you want a list of them just ask Miss Felice Leonard--am not infallible. I gave him my history, and he dispatched a trusty messenger to Burnfield, and upon his return he told me that both my mother and sister were dead. I believed him then, but I have since thought that, finding you provided for, he wished to keep me all to himself, and make me his sole heir.
"I had so long thought, Georgia, that you and my mother were dead that the revelations did not take me by surprise, and though I grieved for awhile, the novelty of everything around me kept my mind from dwelling much on my bereavement. My grandfather told me he intended to send me to school, and, when he died, make me his sole heir, on condition that I would drop the detested name of Darrell and take his. Not being very particular about the matter, I readily consented, and two months afterward I was sent to old Yale, where he himself had been educated, there to be trained in the way I should go.
"Well, Georgia, I remained there four years, and won golden opinions from the big wigs of the inst.i.tution, and delighted the heart of my kind old grandfather by my progress in the arts and sciences. A letter announcing his sudden death recalled me at last. I hurried back to New York in time to follow him to the grave, and, when the will was read, I found myself sole heir to his almost princely wealth.
"Then I went to Europe and Asia, and saw all the sights, from the pyramids of Egypt down, and wrote a book about my travels, as every one does now who goes three yards from his own vine and fig-tree. Then I came home, and lo! before I have been here three months, I find that my sister, who was dead, comes to life again, and so--_finis_!"
"You should add, "And they lived happy for ever after,"" said Georgia, smiling, "only, perhaps, it would not be strictly correct. And now that you have found your sister, what do you mean to do with her?"
"Make her mistress of the palatial mansion of the Randalls," said Warren, promptly, "and settle one-half my fortune on her. _That_, Madam Wildair, is my unchangeable intention."
"Oh, Warren, dearest. I will never hear of such a thing!" said Georgia, vehemently.
"Well, if you will excuse me for saying so, I don"t care in the least whether you will or not--I shall do it. Not a word now, Mistress Georgia; you will find that you will have to obey your brother, since you have found him, and do for the future exactly as he tells you.
Besides, Georgia, Warren Randall"s sister shall never go back penniless to her husband," he said, proudly; "he shall find her his equal in wealth, as in everything else."
"Oh, Warren!" she said, with filling eyes.