Aunt Hannah shook her head, and a mist stole over her spectacles. She was getting very childish in her old age, that stern old maid.
"You are a nice girl, Mary," she said, "and mean right, I know. But Joseph will never be content to let you support him if you had the strength. He is very manly and proud with all his softness."
"I know it, aunt, but then remember I am like his sister."
"But sisters do not support their brothers, and men do not like to take favors where they ought to give them."
"Oh! aunt Hannah, you make me so unhappy. What difference can it make which does the work where two people love each other?"
"This," answered the old maid; "women were born to look upward with their hearts and cling to others for support--men were made to give this support. You cannot change places and be happy!"
"I see, I see," murmured Mary Fuller, thoughtfully, "but Joseph will get well again; only think how much better he is since he came to the Old Homestead."
That moment Joseph came in from the garden, where he had been walking by himself, for the day was fine, and he loved to gratify his eye for colors, even among the vegetable beds and coa.r.s.e garden flowers, and had been quietly enjoying them till the dusk drove him in-doors.
Mary looked toward him wistfully. She remembered that for some days he had seemed sad and preoccupied, going alone by himself and drawing only sad strains from his violin.
"Aunt Hannah, I am glad you are here," said the youth, moving slowly toward his seat by the stand; "I want to talk a little with you!"
Mary had drawn back as he came in; there was no candle lighted, and she was lost in shadow.
As he spoke, Mary started and would have gone out, but aunt Hannah extended her hands to prevent it, and the youth sat down sighing heavily, doubtless unconscious of her presence. Two or three times, as was his habit when thoughtful, he drew the slender fingers of his right hand through his hair, scattering the curls back on his temples.
At length he spoke, but with hesitation.
"Aunt!"
"Well, Joseph!" and the old lady began to knit.
"Aunt, I come to say"--He paused, and drew the hand once or twice across his forehead, as if to sweep aside some inward pain. Aunt Hannah remained silent, knitting diligently.
"I must go away from here, aunt; you have given me shelter when I most needed it. Now I must take to the world again."
Mary listened with a sinking heart and parted lips that grew cold and white with each word. At last a wild sob arose in her throat, and the veins upon her forehead swelled with the effort she made to suppress it.
"You wish to leave us, then?" questioned aunt Hannah, coldly, "and why?"
"My life is idle here, utterly idle and dependent. G.o.d did not smite all the pride from my soul when he took my father. I cannot live on the toil of two old people whom my own hands should support."
"But you are welcome Joseph; and we love to have you with us."
"I know it--still, this should make me only more anxious to relieve your generosity of its burden."
"This is not all," said aunt Hannah, mildly, "you keep the princ.i.p.al reason back for leaving us, tell me what it is?"
"Perhaps I ought--though the reason I have given should be enough.
Yes, aunt, there is another motive--do not laugh at my folly, that I cannot dwarf myself and become a helpless nonent.i.ty, without a struggle to grasp the blessings so much desired by other men. It has been a happy time that I have known at the Old Homestead, still what has it secured to me but unrest, and such disquiet as will follow me through life, unless I work out a destiny for myself like other men?"
He broke off, hesitating for words, and a faint blush stole over his face even in the darkness.
Aunt Hannah felt his embarra.s.sment, and had compa.s.sion on him.
"I know all about it," she said, quietly, "you love Mary Fuller. She is a good girl. Why not?"
"Why not?" exclaimed the youth, pa.s.sionately, "I am penniless? Nay, it is more than probable that I may never be really strong again."
"That is G.o.d"s work, but no fault of yours!"
"But how can I support a wife? I who cannot earn bread for myself?"
"You wish to leave Mary then?"
"_Wish_ to leave her! Do the angels wish to flee from paradise, when all its flowers are in blossom? No, bear with me, good aunt. It may be folly, but, I have some power. Let me try it. Every year sends a troop of persons to our country who turn their talent into gold. Why should not I?"
"And what would you do then?" inquired the old lady.
"What should I do!" exclaimed the youth, with enthusiasm. "Why, return to you with the money I had earned, and, instead of a burden, become a protector to your old age."
"And Mary."
"Then I could, without cowering with shame at my own helplessness, ask her to love me even as I love her."
"But how many years must go by before you can return to us? The best part of her life and yours will have pa.s.sed before then."
"I know it. I feel all the madness of my hopes. They are wild, insane perhaps, but I will not give them up; do not ask me, do not discourage me. Why must I, with my heart and brain alive like other men"s, live and die alone?"
Aunt Hannah looked towards Mary Fuller, who sat trembling in the darkness. The triumphant consciousness that she was beloved, overwhelmed the girl with a pleasure so exquisite that it almost amounted to pain. Still she felt like a criminal stealing the secret of her own happiness, but the shadows were too thick; aunt Hannah saw nothing of this.
"And now," said the youth, more calmly, "you will let me depart, or I shall speak out the love which is becoming too powerful for concealment. I shall tell her that the beggar loves her and dreams of making her his wife."
Mary arose, the joy at her heart swelled painfully, and her delicate frame trembled beneath it. She would gladly have crept from the room with her sweet burden of happiness, but this excitement had been continued too long; her limbs gave way and she sank to the floor.
"Who is here? what is this?" cried the youth; "has another heard my mad confession?"
"_I_ heard it all, forgive me, forgive me. I could not go out; at the first attempt my strength gave way"--
"You heard me?" questioned the youth, pale and trembling. "You heard all that I said. Girl, girl, you have stolen the secret from my heart to despise me for it."
Mary Fuller rose to her feet, and drew towards him. The beauty of an angel glowed in her face; it was bright with holy courage.
"Despise you for it! I, who love you so much!"
"Love me! Stop, Mary, do not say this if it is not holy truth, such as one honest heart may render to another."
"It is holy truth. Take my hands in yours. See how they quiver with the joy of your words."
"But I am poor, Mary Fuller, I am stricken in all my strength."
"And I, what am I?"