"Thank G.o.d," said Ashley with a great sigh of relief.
"And why do you thank G.o.d?" asked Harding.
"Because," said Ashley, "to me Mabel is the dainty, the divine one. She comes upon the eye as a perfect soprano voice smites on a musical ear."
"You are growing musical, are you?" said Harding. "Well then, the other is a celestial contralto, deep-toned and full and sweet, materialized."
After this both were silent for a moment and then Ashley began to laugh low to himself.
"What is your hilarity occasioned by?" asked Harding.
"I was thinking what fools we have been making of ourselves," said Ashley.
"And how did you reach that estimate, pray?" asked Harding.
"Why, Harding," was the answer, "an hour ago we met two ladies. They were not what we expected to find, and they brought a sort of enchantment to us. We saw them first an hour ago; we will to-morrow see them once more, and that will be all; and still we have been raving like two lunatics for the past half hour about them."
"You are right," was the sad reply. "See yonder on the street corner."
Just then a dainty carriage and a set of heavy trucks met on the corner and pa.s.sed each other, the carriage turning to the east, the trucks to the west.
"Typical, is it not?" said Ashley. "The trucks go west--at least they will to-morrow night."
"Most true," said Harding, "and still I think I would like to kiss the carpet that has been sanctified by the footfalls of Mildred Brewster."
Ashley reached out, seized Harding"s wrist and felt his pulse.
"You have got it bad, Harding," said he, "and I don"t feel very well myself. If poor Corrigan were alive again and here we would get him to tell us about Maggie Murphy."
"We have had a mirage, Ashley. Let us pray that it will soon pa.s.s by,"
said Harding.
And then without another word being spoken, they returned to the hospitable house of Hartwell.
CHAPTER XX.
The following is the copy of a letter written by Mrs. Wolcott to the widow of her deceased husband"s brother, Mrs. Abby Roberts, of Eastport, Maine:
TAUNTON, Sept. 20th, 1878.
MY DEAR SISTER:--I wrote you briefly of the dispatch announcing the death of my brother James, in a Nevada mine, and that his embalmed body was being brought home by two miners. Since then events have crowded upon me so swiftly that I have not had composure enough to think of writing.
The remains of my brother reached here on the 29th ultimo. Mr.
Hartwell, Mr. Hill and Mr. Burroughs went out as far as Walpole on the railroad to meet the train on which the body was being brought.
The miners were taken home by Mr. Hartwell. On examination my poor brother"s face was found to look quite natural, and it wore an expression so restful that I could not help but feel as though it was an indictation that after his hard physical toil and fierce mental troubles, he was at peace at last.
Mabel, you know, has been with me since she graduated in June.
On receiving the dispatch we telegraphed to Mildred at Mt.
Holyoke to come home at once, so both girls were with me when the remains arrived.
From the two miners who came with the body Mr. Hartwell received the Nevada papers giving an account of the accident in which James was killed; also a letter from the superintendent of the mine, stating that after all expenses were paid my poor brother left eight hundred and forty dollars to his children.
This we all thought was most wonderful, considering the amount regularly sent the children. It shows that poor James lived a most economical life in the West and that the wages paid there are generous.
The letter of the superintendent stated that the two miners who were to accompany the remains home had risked their lives in trying to rescue James, and the published account showed that one of them had fainted in the dreadful chamber of the mine while the exhaustion of the other was so extreme that he was entirely prostrated and seized with chills and vomiting upon being brought out into the open air.
Of course myself and the girls were anxious to meet and thank these men, but I confess that at the same time we all dreaded the interview awfully. Good land! You know what we have been reading about Western miners for the last twenty-five years, and we could not help but feel that if they should prove to be quiet men it would only at best be a case of wild beast with a collar and chain on. And what to do with them at the funeral was something which had been troubling us ever since the receipt of the dispatch. It was to be in church and on Sunday and it was certain that there would be a church full of people.
How to be polite, and at the same time how to get those men in and out of a church without their doing something dreadful was a question which I confess had worried me and I could see that it was worrying Mabel, too. Mildred did not seem to think much about it.
Mr. Hartwell called upon us and told us he was going to bring them over at once and we sat down in fear and trembling to wait their arrival.
You can never imagine our surprise when Mr. Hartwell showed them into our parlor and we saw them for the first time. Both were young men, one not more than thirty, and the other not more than twenty-four years of age; both were dressed with perfect taste, in dark business suits of fashionable clothes, and though slightly confused--I guess startled is a better word--both, with considerate gentleness, and with a grave courtesy, in low voices, addressed me first and then the children.
They expected to find school children, they met young ladies--I may say beautiful young ladies if I am their aunt--and I think the surprise for a moment threw them off their guard.
But they certainly were not more astonished than were we. Mabel well nigh broke down, but Mildred, with her more matter-of-fact nature, bore the ordeal n.o.bly.
While the girls were talking I stole the opportunity to look more closely at the men. My surprise increased every moment.
Instead of a pair of bronzed bruisers, they stood there with faces that were as free from tan as the face of a closely-housed woman. They were each of about medium height, but with broad shoulders, tremendous chests and powerful arms.
The younger one had a firm foot and large hand and the frankest open face you ever looked into. The other had smaller hands, feet and features, but their heads were both superb, and the first words they spoke revealed that both were fairly educated.
The younger one was light with auburn hair. He wore a heavy mustache; the rest of his face was clean shaven. The other was darker with gray eyes, brown hair, with full beard, but neatly trimmed, and the hair of both was of fashionable cut. I tell you, sister, as they stood there they would have borne inspection even in Boston.
After the first greetings were over and we had all gained a little composure, the men explained to us that James was possessed of more property than he himself was aware of, and one of them handed to Mabel a paper which he called "a bill of exchange" on a Boston bank for forty two thousand six hundred dollars. Since then they have explained that the money was made by a friend of my brother, and that it was accomplished by buying stocks when they were low and selling them when they were high, which seems to me to be a most profitable business.
You see it makes the girls rich when they thought they were so poor, and were counting only on lives of hard work.
The visit of the young men was only a very brief one, not five minutes in duration it seemed to me, but they were moments of great excitement to our little household as you may well believe. When they were gone Mabel said: "Are they not perfectly splendid?" and I said: "Indeed, they are," but Mildred merely said: "They seem to be real gentlemen." That Mildred is the strangest girl.
The funeral was to be the next day, and in antic.i.p.ation of it we had bought cheap mourning hats and plain bombazine mourning habits, such as I thought would be becoming to people in our circ.u.mstances. But when I learned that the girls were no longer poor, I thought it would be only proper that they should have more expensive dresses. So as soon as the young men had gone, I sent a message to Mrs. Buffets, the dressmaker, and Mrs.
Tibbetts, the milliner, asking them to do me the favor to call upon me at once, if possible. They both called within a few minutes. Before they came, however, I explained to the girls what I had done, at which Mabel was very glad, but Mildred seemed perfectly indifferent. She hardly spoke after the young men went away for several minutes. I think their coming had turned her thoughts back more intently upon her father. Mrs.
Tibbetts came first and from her Mabel ordered three expensive hats. I expostulated against her buying a hat for me but she would have it so. When we explained what was wanted to Mrs.
Buffets, she declared at first that it was impossible without working after twelve o"clock on Sat.u.r.day night which she did not like to do as she was a member in good standing in the First Baptist church, but she finally agreed that she would try, provided we would pay what would be extra for her sewing girls. This she estimated would amount on three dresses to at least seven dollars and a half. I have no idea that the girls got more than half a dollar apiece extra and there were but seven of them, and that the rest was clear gain to Mrs.
Buffets, but that is the advantage which is always taken of people when there is a funeral.
We had a hard time with Mildred. She insisted that two dresses and hats were all that were required, one for Mabel and one for aunty; that as yet she was a school girl and the cheap raiment was good enough for her. I think she would have refused to yield had I not told her that unless she did I would not accept either hat or habit; then she consented.
Of course, it may seem like vanity to speak of such a thing in so sad a connection, but the dresses were most lovely. The girls" were of rich and soft cashmere, mine was of Henrietta cloth. I must say that in the new clothes the girls did look beautiful at the funeral, and I was as proud of them as I could be on so sad an occasion.
That Sat.u.r.day evening after we talked the matter over, the girls sent an invitation over to Mr. Hartwell"s house to the miners to attend the funeral with us. The invitation was answered by the younger miner, Harding. He accepted the invitation for himself and his friend, stating that Ashley (the other one) was temporarily absent in the city. The note was beautifully written and every word was spelled correctly.
Next morning, a few minutes before it was time to proceed to the church, the young men came in.
They were scrupulously dressed in black and their attire even to their hats and gloves was in perfect taste.
Mildred betrayed more agitation than on the first meeting. She is a strange girl and the loss of her father almost crushed her. Mabel, however, received them with a grace which was queenly and in her new robes she looked like a queen indeed.