_III.--The Fell Work of Slander_
Ragni now did not stir outside her own door. She longed for fresh air, but she would not go out into the town for fear of the cruel, curious eyes of the scandal-mongers. Soren Kule haunted her. His house overlooked her garden, and she got the strange fancy into her head that he was always sitting at the window blindly listening for her. So she never even went for a walk in the park-like grounds which Kallem had purchased wholly for her pleasure.
The poison of scandal had done its work. Her husband, unfortunately, never suspected that she was really ill; he had a deep longing for a child of his marriage, and, misled by too eager a hope, he misinterpreted the strange alteration in his wife"s health.
But one evening, when she coughed, some blood came up. Kallem saw it, and the hideous truth came upon him in a blinding flash. It was the terrible disease which he had spent the greater part of his fortune in fighting against. Tuberculosis! But how was it that it had come so suddenly, and ravaged her dear, sweet, tender body so furiously? She was in a galloping consumption, and the end was not far off ... a few weeks ... a few days, perhaps.
"Darling," he said, coming to her bedside one day, "isn"t there some secret you would like to confide in me--some secret that has been hurting and distressing you? Tell me, dearest, for I shall have no peace until I know it."
"I will tell you," she said. "I have just been thinking about it. You will find some papers in my writing-table--they are all for you. Read them, dear, when----" she broke off abruptly--"by and by. You will understand that it was for your sake I kept it secret."
He went downstairs, and in the writing-table he found Karl"s letter.
Horror, indignation, and helplessness overcame him. Why had he not known of this in time? He would have gone to every soul in the town, and told them that they lied.
"Ay," he said, "I will tell them so yet. They have murdered her--cowardly murdered her! Ah, G.o.d, I have spent my life and my fortune in my endeavours to benefit them, and there"s not one of them--not one--honest enough to tell me to defend my wife"s good name!"
What drove him almost to madness was that there was none he could go to and take by the throat, exclaiming: "You have done this! You are answerable to me for this!" Still, there was one who stood apart from the others--Josephine. Josephine had not invented the slander; that was not her way. But she would believe what was invented when it concerned anyone she disliked. And how she disliked Ragni! Yes, it was Josephine and her hypocrite of a husband who had laid his darling open to this sort of attack. Very well! Everything else was gone--his joy of life, his interest in science, and his love of mankind. But he still had something to live for--vengeance!
As he was sitting one evening by the bedside of his wife the door opened, and Karl Meek came into the room. "Is she dead?" said the boy.
Ragni heard the question. She looked up, and tried to smile. Her eyes rested for a moment on Karl, and then remained on her husband. A moment after she was dead.
Josephine was surprised to hear that Karl Meek was the only person whom her brother allowed to follow the coffin of his dead wife. Did that mean that Edward did not suspect him? Or, more likely, that he had forgiven him? Ah, if one could be as good as that!
"G.o.d"s way with sinners," said Tuft, "may seem cruel, but it is really kind and merciful. The death of that woman will work for Edward"s good: Of course, he feels it keenly now, but he will get over it. It is a blessing in disguise."
As soon as Tuft uttered these words he felt the sheer brutality of them.
By a strange irony of fate, his own child had fallen ill about the time that Ragni took to her bed, and the minister and his wife were now talking over the couch of their suffering little boy. Something was wrong with his chest, and Josephine would have liked to call in her clever brother in place of the ordinary family doctor, but she would not humble herself to beg his help. Perhaps it was the shock of her husband"s words that aroused her, but that night the springs of her nature were strangely opened. She came downstairs in her nightdress to Tuft"s bed, and awoke him. Her eyes were fixed in a blank stare.
"I can"t sleep, Ole," she whispered. "I want to warn you. That woman-- Edward"s wife--is trying to take away our boy. We have been too hard on her--too hard. Now she will make us pay for it."
"You are not yourself, Josephine," said Tuft, rising up, and dressing himself hastily. "I will fetch the doctor."
"No, no!" she cried. "Ask Edward to come."
Tuft did not dare do this himself, but he got his doctor to approach Kallem, who made an appointment to examine the child early next morning.
Josephine shrieked when she saw him. Under the stress of mental suffering, the flesh on his face had wasted to the bone; he was the image of death. Without speaking to either of the parents he went to the child, tapped its chest lightly here and there, and then said something to the doctor and went out.
"He has gone to get his instruments," the doctor whispered. "The case is extremely serious. An operation must be performed at once."
Josephine did not speak, neither did Tuft. They had been watching Kallem"s face as he bent over their boy, and in it they seemed to read the sentence of death. They had called him in too late.
They were mistaken. Edward Kallem came hurrying back with a staff of trained a.s.sistants. Tuft and Josephine were locked outside their child"s room. An hour afterwards the door was opened. The boy"s life was saved.
This they learnt from their own doctor, but Kallem himself departed without even speaking to them.
_IV.--The Reconciliation_
That night, over the body of the sleeping child, Ole Tuft at last dealt sternly and truly with himself. Three times, in the course of the day, had he gone to Kallem"s house to thank him for saving his boy"s life.
But Kallem had refused to see him. At the third refusal Tuft understood.
If ever he entered his brother-in-law"s house he would enter it a changed man. He was now vowing that he would begin this new life by uniting Edward and Josephine. It was his jealousy, he admitted to himself, which had been the root of all the mischief.
Edward had been his hero, too, in his younger days, and it was this common worship of a n.o.bler and more gifted nature which had brought him and Josephine together. Why had he not let it remain the base of their intercourse? Their marriage would then have been a happy one, and his own life would have been filled with larger thoughts and more generous feelings.
While Pastor Tuft was meditating, his wife was acting. She too, had been refused admittance to her brother"s house. So she was writing to him.
For whatever wrong they might have done, she said, they wished to make amends. They had been intolerant, she allowed, and they were sorry for it. But surely they were worthy to be accused? Would he not, then, tell them plainly what they had done to make him so angry?
Some days afterwards, Josephine received a large envelope addressed to her by her brother. But she was surprised, on opening it, to find that it was full of papers in two strange handwritings. They were letters to Kallem, from Ragni and Karl Meek. Josephine trembled as she looked at them. She began by chance with Meek"s letters. Ragni innocent? Good G.o.d!
was she innocent? Yes! Now she understood why Edward had driven away on the day of the funeral with only Karl Meek by his side; but she could not understand how he had survived it.
The servant knocked at her bedroom door, saying that supper was ready.
"No, no!" she managed to exclaim, as she writhed in shame and sorrow.
She must go at once to her brother if she had to go to him on her knees.
But no! Here were Ragni"s letters. She felt as if her brother were standing over her, and forcing her to read them. Some of them were early love-letters. There had been no misconduct. Her chivalrous brother and the sweet, gentle woman whom he had rescued from a horrible fate had lived apart from one another in America until the day of their marriage.
Josephine slipped from the chair down upon her knees, weeping and sobbing. "Forgive me! Forgive me!" she whispered, pressing Ragni"s letters in her hands.
Then she forced herself to silence, so that no one might discover her crouching there in the shame of her crime. She had murdered her brother"s wife--not by words, but by her silence! Yes, she was a murderess! Well, let Edward deal with her as he thought fit!
She ran wildly out of the house into the dark, rainy street, past her husband"s church, past the white wall of Soren Kule"s dwelling. Her brother was standing in the open door, surrounded by trunks and boxes.
Was he thinking of going away? Tears streamed down her face.
"Edward!"
She could get no further. He drew himself upright, his face white and stern.
"You shall never enter here!" he said, with a break in his voice.
He bent down to do up a trunk. When he got up she was gone. With a fierce look in his eyes, he continued his preparations. He meant to catch the first train the next morning, and get at once far away from his native town. What he would then do he did not know, except that he would never return. When everything was ready, he locked the front door and went to bed. But he could not sleep. Twice in the night the door-bell rang, but he would not open the door. It rang a third time, and kept on ringing; and at last he got out of bed. It was Ole Tuft. His face was ghastly.
"Where is my wife, Edward Kallem? What have you done with my wife?" he moaned.
"Ragni"s grave," said Kallem. "She is there, I think."
And then he slammed the door to. Just as dawn was breaking, the bell rang again. Kallem went into the hall, and saw that two pieces of paper had been thrust through the letter-box. On one, Tuft had written: "She is not there, Edward; she was not there. I found this note on my writing-table among the letters you sent her. Oh, Edward, it was not like you to send her away!" On the other piece of paper Josephine had written: "Read these, Ole, and you will understand all. For my life"s sake, I am now going to my brother!"
"For my life"s sake!" Kallem shivered as he read it, and all his old love for his sister came back to him. Had he killed her? She had wronged Ragni, true; but it was merely out of jealousy. Jealousy because he had made Ragni all in all to him, and left her out of his life. He could have brought his wife and sister together, but he had not tried to do it. Ah, he, too, was guilty! All her life long Josephine had looked up to him and worshipped him. Then he had come back from America, and cast her off, for one who was not worthy of him, so it seemed to her. And in his fierce pride he had refused to reveal to her the fine character of his wife.
He rushed out of the door, resolved to find what had become of her. She was sitting on the steps of the house. As she saw him, she crouched down like a wounded bird, which cannot get away, yet must not be seen. He took her up into his arms, and carried her indoors.
"Let me stay, Edward--let me stay!" she said.
He bent over her and kissed her.
"G.o.d"s ways! G.o.d"s ways!" said Ole Tuft, as he and Edward and Josephine walked slowly towards his house through the empty streets in the early morning.
"But I still cannot share your faith," Kallem said.