"He turns himself away. The act is his, not mine," replied Mr.
Howland, coldly.
As he spoke, the bell rung.
"There he is, now!" exclaimed the mother, starting toward the door.
"Esther!" Mr. Howland stept in front of his wife, and, looking sternly in her face, added, "Haven"t I just said that there was no entrance for him, to-night?"
"But it"s early! It"s only a few minutes after ten," eagerly replied the mother.
"It"s past ten o"clock, and that settles the matter," returned Mr.
Howland.
"But where will he go?" asked the mother.
"To the Station House, if he can find no better place. To-morrow he will most probably have a higher appreciation of the comforts of home."
As Mr. Howland closed this sentence, the bell rung again.
"Andrew! I must let him in!" exclaimed the mother, in a tone of anguish, and she made a movement to pa.s.s her husband. But a strong hand was instantly laid upon her arm, and a stern voice said--
"Don"t interfere with me in this matter, Esther! As the father of that wayward boy, it is my duty to control him."
"This is driving him from his home; not controlling him!"
"I"ll bear the responsibility of what I am doing," said Mr. Howland, impatiently. "Why will you interfere with me in this way?"
"Is he not _my_ son also?" inquired Mrs. Howland, pa.s.sing, in her distress of mind, beyond the ordinary spirit of her intercourse with her self-willed husband.
"I am his father," coldly replied the latter, "and knowing my duty toward him, shall certainly do it."
The bell was rung again at this moment, and more loudly than before.
"Oh, Andrew! let me beg of you to open the door!" And Mrs. Howland clasped her hands imploringly, and lifted her eyes running over with tears to her husband"s face.
"It cannot be opened to-night, Esther!" was the firm reply. "Have I not said this over and over again. Why will you continue these importunities? They are of no avail."
A loud knocking on the street door was now heard. By this time, a servant who had retired came down from her room and was moving along the pa.s.sage, when Mr. Howland intercepted her, with the question--
"Where are you going?"
"Some one rung the bell," replied the servant.
"Never mind; go back to your room. You needn"t open the door."
"Andrew isn"t in yet," said the servant, respectfully.
"Didn"t I say, go back to your room?" returned Mr. Howland, in a sharp voice.
Twice more the bell was rung, and twice more the knocking was repeated. Then all remained silent.
"Come, Esther!" said Mr. Howland to his wife, who was sitting on a sofa, with her face buried in her hands. "Let us go up stairs. It is late."
The mother did not stir.
"Esther! did you hear me?"
Slowly, more like a moving automaton than a living creature, did Mrs. Howland arise from her place, and follow her husband up to their chamber. There, without uttering a word, she partially disrobed herself, and getting into bed, buried her tearful face in a pillow. Mr. Howland was soon by her side. Both lay without moving for nearly half an hour, and then the heavy respiration of the husband told that he was asleep. The moment this was apparent, Mrs.
Howland, who had lain as still as if locked in deep slumber, crept softly from the bed, and then, with a quick, eager motion, commenced putting on a wrapper. This done, she drew a pair of slippers on her feet, glided noiselessly from the room, and hurried down to the street door, which she softly opened.
The mother had hoped to find her erring son still there. But, as she looked anxiously forth into the darkness, no human form was perceived.
"Andrew!" she called, in a low voice, as she stepped from the door, and threw her eyes up and down the street: "Andrew!"
But all was silent. Descending to the pavement, she pa.s.sed along a few yards to the steps of the next house, a faint hope in her mind that Andrew might have seated himself there in his disappointment and fallen asleep. But this hope was not realized. Then she pa.s.sed on to the next house, and the next, with the same purpose and the same result. She was near the corner of the street, when the sound of a closing door fell upon her ear, and the thought that the wind might have shut her own door upon her, filled her with sudden alarm.
Running back, she found that what she had feared was too true. She was alone in the street, half-dressed and with her head uncovered, and the door, which closed with a dead-latch, shut against her.
To ring the bell was Mrs. Howland"s first impulse. But no one answered to the summons. Every ear was sealed in slumber, and, even were that not the case, no one would come down, unless her husband should awaken, and discover that she was not by his side. Again and again she pulled the bell. But eagerly though she listened, with her ear to the door, not the slightest movement was heard within.
While the mother shrunk close to the door in a listening att.i.tude, the sound of a slow, heavy step was heard approaching along the street. Soon the form of a man came in view, and in a little while he was in front of Mrs. Howland, where he paused, and after standing and looking at her for a few moments, said,
"What"s the matter here?"
Mrs. Howland trembled so, that she could make no answer.
The man put his hand on the iron railing, and lifted one foot upon the stone steps leading to the door of the house, saying as he did so,
"Do you live here?"
"Yes!" was replied in a low, frightened voice.
Mrs. Howland now looking at the man more closely, perceived, by his dress, that he was one of the night policemen, and her heart took instant courage.
"Oh," said she, forgetting, for the moment, the unpleasant circ.u.mstances by which she was surrounded, and turning to the man as she spoke, "have you seen anything of my son--of Mr. Howland"s son--about here to-night?"
"Mrs. Howland! Is it possible!" replied the man, in a respectful voice. Then he added, "I saw him go down the street about half an hour ago."
"Did you! And do you know where he has gone?"
"No, ma"am. He pa.s.sed on out of sight."
A low moan escaped the mother"s lips at this intelligence. A few moments she stood silent, and then placed her hand upon the bell-pull and rung for admittance.
"Is the door locked?" asked the watchman, manifesting surprise.
"No; the wind blew it to, and it has become fastened with the dead-latch."
Both stood silent for some time, but no one answered the bell. The night dews were falling upon the mother"s head, and the night air penetrating her thin garments. A shiver ran through her frame, and she felt a constriction of the chest as if she had inhaled sulphur.