The old man lifted his head, and listened.
"Mrs. Thrasher! oh, Mrs. Thrasher, wont you let me in?"
There was a moan of anguish in the words that struck to the heart at once. The old man held his breath, while the wife clung to him with her head lifted from the pillow.
"It"s her, it"s Katy Allen," she whispered.
The old man slipped out of bed and hurried on his clothes. She, good soul, followed him, groping for her dress in the dark, but another faint knock on the gla.s.s, and a mournful voice crying, "Wont you let me in?
I"m freezing! I"m freezing," sent her to the window in nothing but her long night gown and cap, with its double borders shading a very pale and startled face.
Mrs. Thrasher lifted the sash and looked out. A dark figure sat crouching on the snow where it had just fallen after losing its hold on the window sill.
"Katharine, Katharine Allen, is it you?"
The figure struggled to its feet, and clinging to the window-frame with one hand, put the other through the opening, where it touched Mrs.
Thrasher on the bosom. A lump of snow could not have chilled her more completely, but nothing cold had power to reach that kind heart. She lifted her plump little hands and folded the trembling fingers to her bosom tenderly as if some stray bird had fluttered there. Then the sharp wind swept over them both, and dropping the hand with a caress, the woman said, kindly:
"Go round to the door, Katharine. Father is unbolting it now."
Katharine turned away. Mrs. Thrasher closed the window, and hurrying on a garment or two, went into the next room, where the embers of a n.o.ble hickory wood fire lay smouldering under a bed of ashes. While she was raking out the fire Mr. Thrasher came in, treading softly in his stocking feet, and with the suspenders he had forgotten to b.u.t.ton, trailing to the floor behind him. From the darkness beyond came Katharine Allen; her hood was pushed back, and sparkles of ice shone in her hair as the ruddy light from two brands thrown hastily together flashed over her. She had been crying, but the tears had frozen to pearls on her cheeks, and filled her eyelashes with delicate frostiness.
She entered the room and sat down in Mrs. Thrasher"s chair, looking wistfully at the old woman, and begging pardon with her eyes as she touched the blue and red patchwork cushion, which, in those days, was sacred to the mistress of a New England home.
"I am very cold," she said, with a wan smile; "it chilled me through standing by the gate so long."
"Poor child," said Mrs. Thrasher, gathering the stray brands together with a pair of heavy tongs. "Father, just hand in a stick or two of wood from the entry way. There, now, set up close to the andirons. Never mind us, we"re not a-cold."
Katharine drew close to the fire, and held out her hands, that trembled and fluttered to the heat like half perished birds.
"I ran away," she said, piteously; "crept out of the garret window, and came off here. They want to kill me, you know."
The old people looked at each other and turned away, with their faces in shadow.
"You"ll not be afraid to hide me a little while?" she questioned, anxiously.
The old lady bent over her, with tears in her soft eyes.
"Afraid, dear? no; we"re not afraid, are we, father?" she said, lovingly.
A noise outside startled Katharine; she sprang up and fixed her wild eyes on the window.
"They"ve seen the light--they"re after me."
"It"s only an icicle dropping from the eaves," said the old lady, smiling. "There isn"t a soul near but father and I, Katharine, dear, and you aint going to be afraid of us?"
Katharine looked at her lingeringly and sat down again.
"No; I"m not afraid of you. He told me to come, and not fear any thing."
Mrs. Thrasher drew close to the girl and bent over her.
"He, dear; tell us, father and I, you know, who it is you mean by _he_?"
Katharine looked up, and a strange light came to her face; it was as if a pearl had been suddenly illuminated at the heart.
"It was Nelson who told me to come," she said, in a tender voice.
"Nelson Thrasher--our son?" interposed the old man, almost sternly.
Katharine shrank together in her chair, and looked at him with a frightened glance.
"Did I say Nelson?" she questioned, faintly. "Not if it makes you angry with him."
The old man rose from his chair, and stood up in the fire light.
"Katharine," he said, "tell us the truth--was it our son who brought this shame and trouble on you?"
The words were stern. The old man trembled in all his limbs, but still there was strength both in his look and utterance.
"Shame, no; it is not shame for him--you might be sure of me there," she said, with pathetic simplicity. "I never mentioned him, and never will.
So don"t speak of shame and Nelson in one breath. The disgrace is mine, you know; and the sorrow, he shall never hear of it--never."
The old lady looked imploringly at her husband, and shrank back into the shadows of the room, wringing her hands.
"And this is my son! He brings ruin on an innocent, thoughtless girl, and then abandons her for years--her and his parents."
"Ruin! No, not that!" cried Katharine. "Shame! No! no! It is I that somehow have brought disgrace on him! Only I never told his name--never will ask for it! Don"t be afraid. I didn"t come for that--only to beg a hiding-place for one day. Those men will never know that I have any right to come here. Let them search. If they tear the house down, nothing will be found under the rafters. I"ve got the paper here!"
CHAPTER XLI.
THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE.
She pressed one hand to her bosom, and smiled proudly, as if they ought to be grateful for something she had done.
"The paper--what paper?" questioned Mrs. Thrasher.
"That which the minister gave us. It is more than three months, and he told me not to wait longer than that."
"Let me read the paper, girl!"
"Yes," joined in Mrs. Thrasher, coming out of her obscurity. "Let father read the paper."
"He told me to bring it here after three months," said Katharine, looking at them doubtfully; "but he did not know how it would happen.
Dreadful things have been done that he never thought of, so I must be careful. I am only a poor girl, and they have almost done the worst by me. Nothing can disgrace me more, but it hasn"t reached him yet. I wouldn"t even tell the doctor. n.o.body ever saw the paper. That is my secret--the only thing I have left. When they have killed me I will eat the paper, and die with it in my bosom, be sure of that."