"Dar"s a good deal in dat letter I know"d afore, and dar"s odder points as "pear new to me; but whether de old or de new, "twon"t do for us folk declar a single word o" what de young lady hab wrote in dat ere "pistle.
No, Phoebe, neery word must "scape de lips ob eider o" us. We muss hide de letter, an" nebba let n.o.b"dy know dar"s sich a dockyment in our posseshun. And dar must be nuffin" know"d "bout dis n.i.g.g.a findin" it.
Ef dat sak.u.mstance war to leak out, I needn"t warn you what "ud happen to me. Blue Bill "ud catch de cowhide,--maybe de punishment ob de pump.
So, Phoebe, gal, gi"e me yar word to keep dark, for de case am a dangersome, an a desprit one."
The wife can well comprehend the husband"s caution, with the necessity of compliance; and the two retire to rest, in the midst of their black olive branches, with a mutual promise to be "mum."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
WHY COMES HE NOT?
Helen Armstrong goes to bed, with spiteful thoughts about Charles Clancy. So rancorous she cannot sleep, but turns distractedly on her couch, from time to time changing cheek upon the pillow.
At little more than a mile"s distance from this chamber of unrest, another woman is also awake, thinking of the same man--not spitefully, but anxiously. It is his mother.
As already said, the road running north from Natchez leads past Colonel Armstrong"s gate. A traveller, going in the opposite direction--that is towards the city--on clearing the skirts of the plantation, would see, near the road side, a dwelling of very different kind; of humble unpretentious aspect, compared with the grand mansion of the planter.
It would be called a cottage, were this name known in the State of Mississippi--which it is not. Still it is not a log-cabin; but a "frame-house," its walls of "weather-boarding," planed and painted, its roof cedar-shingled; a style of architecture occasionally seen in the Southern States, though not so frequently as in the Northern--inhabited by men in moderate circ.u.mstances, poorer than planters, but richer, or more gentle, than the "white trash," who live in log-cabins.
Planters they are in social rank, though poor; perhaps owning a half-dozen slaves, and cultivating a small tract of cleared ground, from twenty to fifty acres. The frame-house vouches for their respectability; while two or three log structures at back--representing barn, stable, and other outbuildings--tell of land attached.
Of this cla.s.s is the habitation referred to--the home of the widow Clancy.
As already known, her widowhood is of recent date. She still wears its emblems upon her person, and carries its sorrow in her heart.
Her husband, of good Irish lineage, had found his way to Nashville, the capital city of Tennessee; where, in times long past, many Irish families made settlements. There he had married her, she herself being a native Tennesseean--sprung from the old Carolina pioneer stock, that colonised the state near the end of the eighteenth century--the Robertsons, Hyneses, Hardings, and Bradfords--leaving to their descendants a patent of n.o.bility, or at least a family name deserving respect, and generally obtaining it.
In America, as elsewhere, it is not the rule for Irishmen to grow rich; and still more exceptional in the case of Irish gentlemen. When these have wealth their hospitality is too apt to take the place of a spendthrift profuseness, ending in pecuniary embarra.s.sment.
So was it with Captain Jack Clancy; who got wealth with his wife, but soon squandered it entertaining his own and his wife"s friends. The result, a move to Mississippi, where land was cheaper, and his attenuated fortune would enable him to hold out a little longer.
Still, the property he had purchased in Mississippi State was but a poor one; leading him to contemplate a further flit into the rich red lands of North-Eastern Texas, just becoming famous as a field for colonisation. His son Charles sent thither, as said, on a trip of exploration, had spent some months in the Lone Star State, prospecting for the new home; and brought back a report in every way favourable.
But the ear, to which it was to have been spoken, could no more hear.
On his return, he found himself fatherless; and to the only son there remains only a mother; whose grief, pressing heavily, has almost brought her to the grave. It is one of a long series of reverses which have sorely taxed her fort.i.tude. Another of like heaviness, and the tomb may close over her.
Some such presentiment is in the mother"s mind, on this very day, as the sun goes down, and she sits in her chamber beside a dim candle, with ear keenly bent to catch the returning footsteps of her son.
He has been absent since noon, having gone deer-stalking, as frequently before. She can spare him for this, and pardon his prolonged absence.
She knows how fond he is of the chase; has been so from a boy.
But, on the present occasion, he is staying beyond his usual time. It is now night; the deer have sought their coverts; and he is not "torch-hunting."
Only one thing can she think of to explain the tardiness of his return.
The eyes of the widowed mother have been of late more watchful than wont. She has noticed her son"s abstracted air, and heard sighs that seemed to come from his inner heart. Who can mistake the signs of love, either in man or woman? Mrs Clancy does not. She sees that Charles has lapsed into this condition.
Rumours that seem wafted on the air--signs slight, but significant-- perhaps the whisper of a confidential servant--these have given her a.s.surance of the fact: telling her, at the same time, who has won his affections.
Mrs Clancy is neither dissatisfied nor displeased. In all the neighbourhood there is no one she would more wish to have for a daughter-in-law than Helen Armstrong. Not from any thought of the girl"s great beauty, or high social standing. Caroline Clancy is herself too well descended to make much of the latter circ.u.mstance. It is the reputed n.o.ble character of the lady that influences her approval of her son"s choice.
Thinking of this--remembering her own youth, and the stolen interviews with Charles Clancy"s father--oft under the shadow of night--she could not, does not, reflect harshly on the absence of that father"s son from home, however long, or late the hour.
It is only as the clock strikes twelve, she begins to think seriously about it. Then creeps over her a feeling of uneasiness, soon changing to apprehension. Why should he be staying out so late--after midnight?
The same little bird, that brought her tidings of his love-affair, has also told her it is clandestine. Mrs Clancy may not like this. It has the semblance of a slight to her son, as herself--more keenly felt by her in their reduced circ.u.mstances. But then, as compensation, arises the retrospect of her own days of courtship carried on in the same way.
Still, at that hour the young lady cannot--dares not--be abroad. All the more unlikely, that the Armstrongs are moving off--as all the neighbourhood knows--and intend starting next day, at an early hour.
The plantation people will long since have retired to rest; therefore an interview with his sweetheart can scarce be the cause of her son"s detention. Something else must be keeping him. What? So run the reflections of the fond mother.
At intervals she starts up from her seat, as some sound reaches her; each time gliding to the door, and gazing out--again to go back disappointed.
For long periods she remains in the porch, her eye interrogating the road that runs past the cottage-gate; her ear acutely listening for footsteps.
Early in the night it has been dark; now there is a brilliant moonlight.
But no man, no form moving underneath it. No sound of coming feet; nothing that resembles a footfall.
One o"clock, and still silence; to the mother of Charles Clancy become oppressive, as with increased anxiety she watches and waits.
At intervals she glances at the little "Connecticut" clock that ticks over the mantel. A pedlar"s thing, it may be false, as the men who come south selling "sech." It is the reflection of a Southern woman, hoping her conjecture may be true.
But, as she lingers in the porch, and looks at the moving moon, she knows the hour must be late.
Certain sounds coming from the forest, and the farther swamp, tell her so. As a backwoods woman she can interpret them. She hears the call of the turkey "gobbler." She knows it means morning.
The clock strikes two; still she hears no fall of footstep--sees no son returning!
"Where is my Charles? What can be detaining him?"
Phrases almost identical with those that fell from the lips of Helen Armstrong, but a few hours before, in a different place, and prompted by a different sentiment--a pa.s.sion equally strong, equally pure!
Both doomed to disappointment, alike bitter and hard to bear. The same in cause, but dissimilar in the impression produced. The sweetheart believing herself slighted, forsaken, left without a lover; the mother tortured with the presentiment, she no longer has a son!
When, at a yet later hour--or rather earlier, since it is nigh daybreak--a dog, his coat disordered, comes gliding through the gate, and Mrs Clancy recognises her son"s favourite hunting hound, she has still only a presentiment of the terrible truth. But one which to the maternal heart, already filled with foreboding, feels too like certainty.
And too much for her strength. Wearied with watching, prostrated by the intensity of her vigil, when the hound crawls up the steps, and under the dim light she sees his bedraggled body--blood as well as mud upon it--the sight produces a climax--a shock apparently fatal.
She swoons upon the spot, and is carried inside the house by a female slave--the last left to her.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
A MOONLIGHT MOVING.
While the widowed mother, now doubly bereft--stricken down by the blow-- is still in a state of syncope, the faithful negress doing what she can to restore her, there are sounds outside unheard by either. A dull rumble of wheels, as of some heavy vehicle coming along the main road, with the occasional crack of a whip, and the sonorous "wo-ha" of a teamster.
Presently, a large "Conestoga" wagon pa.s.ses the cottage-gate, full freighted with what looks like house furniture, screened under canvas.
The vehicle is drawn by a team of four strong mules, driven by a negro; while at the wagon"s tail, three or four other darkeys follow afoot.