"There is barely time for us to reach the cars," said Theodore, hurriedly, the next morning, not turning his head from his valise to look at the new-comer, but knowing by the step that it was Pliny.
"I am sorry that we shall have to hurry your mother and sister so. How are you feeling? Did you get any rest last night, my poor fellow?"
"Feeling like a spinning-wheel going round backward and tipping over every now and then," Pliny answered, in a thick, unnatural voice, and then Theodore let valise and bundle and keys drop to the floor together, and turned a face blanched with horror and dismay upon his friend. There was no disguising the fearful fact--Pliny had been drinking, and even then did not know in the least what he was about, or what was expected from him. Removed by just a flight of stairs from his father"s corpse, having the charge of his mother on one side, and his young sister on the other, he yet had forgotten it all, and lost himself in rum. Poor, wretched Pliny! Poor Theodore as well! Which way should he turn? What do or say next? How could he help yielding to utter despair? There were circ.u.mstances about it that he did not know of; he knew nothing yet about that bottle of wine, nor how Pliny had trembled before it; how he had walked his floor and struggled with the evil spirit; how he had even dropped upon his knees and tried to pray for strength; how he had even lain down at last, considering the tempter vanquished; how it was not until he was called toward morning to minister to his mother"s needs, and she had said, as she set down the wine-gla.s.s:
"How deathly pale you look, Pliny! Take a swallow of wine; it will strengthen you, and we all need to keep up our strength for this fearful day. Just try it, dear--I know it will help you!"
Then, indeed, had Pliny"s courage failed him; he took the gla.s.s from his mother"s offering hand, and drained its contents. After that you might as soon have tried to chain a tiger with a silken thread as to save Pliny when once that awful appet.i.te had been again aroused. Wine was as nothing to him, but he was in a regularly licensed hotel, and there was plenty of liquid fire displayed in a respectable and proper manner in the bar-room. Thither he went, and speedily put himself in such a state that he whistled and yelled and sang while his father"s coffin was being carried down stairs.
Now, what was Theodore to do? He flung himself into a chair opposite his bed, where Pliny had just sense enough left to throw himself, and tried to think. Dora first--this knowledge, or if that were not possible, at least this sight, must be spared her. But there was no time to spare--he resolutely put down the heavy bitter feelings at his heart, and thought hard and fast. Then he hastened down stairs. "I want two carriages instead of one," he said to the landlord, who long ere this had felt a dawning of the importance and wealth of this company that he was entertaining, and was all attention.
The second carriage was obtained, and Pliny, with the aid of the little doctor, who had proved himself kind-hearted and discreet, was gotten into it.
"Where is Pliny?" queried Mrs. Hastings, as, after much trouble and delay, she stood ready for Theodore"s offered arm.
"He has gone ahead with the baggage," was Theodore"s brief explanation.
Then he hurried them so that there was no time for further questioning, though Mrs. Hastings found chance to say that, "It was a very singular arrangement--that she should suppose his mother and sister were of more importance than the baggage." The train was in when they reached the depot; but the faithful little doctor had obeyed Theodore"s instructions to the very letter--seating Pliny in the rear car, and checking baggage and purchasing tickets for the entire party. When they were seated and moving, Theodore left the ladies and sought out Pliny. He occupied a full seat, and was asleep. With a relieved sigh, Theodore returned to the mother and daughter--evaded the questions of the former as best he could, speaking of headache and faintness, both of which troubles Pliny undoubtedly had--but the great truthful eyes of Dora sought for, and found the truth in his.
"_Don"t_ despair," he said to her, gently, even while his own heart was heavy with something very like that feeling. "The Lord knows all about it. He _will not_ forsake us."
It was not to be supposed that a car ride of scarcely two hours would steady poor Pliny"s brain. Theodore had thought of that, and prepared for saving him any unnecessary disgrace. McPherson, sitting in the little office back of his "Temperance House" that morning, saw a boy approaching with a telegram for him. It read:
"Meet the 10.20 Express with a _close_ carriage.
"THEODORE MALLERY."
So, when the train steamed into the depot, the first person whom Theodore saw was the faithful Jim. A few hurried words between them explained matters, and Pliny was quietly helped by Jim and Mr. Stephens into the close carriage and whirled away before Theodore had possessed himself of all of Mrs. Hastings" extra shawls and wraps.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER XXVIII.
DEATH AND LIFE.
There had been a grand and solemn funeral. A long line of splendid coaches had followed the millionaire to his last resting-place. Rosewood and silver and velvet and c.r.a.pe had united to do him honor. Many stores in the city were closed because Mr. Hastings had extensive business connections with them. The hotels were closed because Mr. Hastings owned three of the largest; the Euclid House was shuttered and bolted, and long lines of heavy c.r.a.pe floated from the numerous doors. Many hats had been uplifted, many gray heads bared, while the closing words of the solemn burial service were once more repeated, and then the mourners had returned to their places, and the long line of carriages had swept back, and the city had taken down its shutters and opened its doors again, and the world had rushed onward as before. Only in that one home--there the desolation tarried. Through all the trouble and the pain Theodore had been with them constantly. That first day he had accompanied them home of necessity, their rightful protector being still in his drunken sleep.
Arrived there, they needed help and comfort even more than they had before. There were friends by the hundreds, but Theodore could not fail to see that while Mrs. Hastings appeared incapable of directing, and indeed very indifferent as to what was done, Dora turned steadily and constantly to him for advice and a.s.sistance. Pliny was prevailed upon to go at once to his room, and was very soon asleep. When the wretched stupor of sleep had worn itself out upon him, and left the fearful headache to throb in his temples, Theodore was at his side, grave and sad and silent, but patient still, and gentle as a woman. Only a few words pa.s.sed between them, Pliny speaking first in a cold, hard tone.
"Go away, Mallery, and let me alone--everything is over. All I ask of you is to send me a bottle of brandy, and never let me see your face again."
Theodore"s only answer was to dip his hand again into cool water, and pa.s.s it gently over the burning temples; then he said:
"I think it would be well to lie still, Pliny. They do not need you below at present, and your head is very hot."
Pliny pushed feebly with his hand.
"Go away, Mallery, I can not endure the sight of you. It is all over, I say. I will never try again."
Very quietly and steadily went the firm, cool hand across his forehead, and the voice that answered him was quiet and firm.
"No, I shall _not_ leave you, dear friend, and all is _not_ over. You are going to try harder than ever before, and I am _never_ going to give you up--NEVER!"
Silence for a little, then Pliny said:
"Then don"t leave me, Theodore, not for an _instant_, _day or night_--promise."
And Theodore, ignoring all the strangeness of his position, promised, and remained in the house, the watcher-guard and helper of more than Pliny.
Not for an instant did he lose sight of his friend; through all the trying ordeal of the following days he was constantly present. Even in Pliny"s private interviews with his mother, Theodore hovered near, and his was the first face that Pliny met when he came to the door to issue any orders. It was Theodore"s hand that held open the carriage door when the son came to follow his father to his final resting-place, and it was Theodore"s arm that was linked in his when he walked down the hall on his return.
These were sad things to Theodore in another way. Despite all Mr.
Hastings" coldness to him, he had never been able to lose sight of the memory of those days, now long gone by, in which the rich man had in a sense been his protector and friend. He could not forget that it was through _him_ that his first step upward had been taken. Aside from his mother, Mr. Hastings was perhaps the first person for whom he felt a touch of love. He could not forget him--could not cease to mourn for him.
There was, only a week after this, another funeral. There was no long line of coaches, and no display of magnificence this time--only a quiet, slow-moving procession following the unplumed hea.r.s.e. Only one store in the city was closed, and not a hundred people knew for whom the bell tolled that day; but did ever truer mourners or more bleeding hearts follow a coffin to its final resting-place than were those who gathered around that open grave, and saw the body of Grandma McPherson laid to rest for awhile, awaiting the call of the great Maker, when he should bid it come up to meet its glorified spirit, and dwell in that wonderful _Forever_!
The messenger came suddenly to her, in the quiet of a moonlight night, when all the household were asleep; and none who saw her in the morning, with that blessed look upon her face, that told of earth receding and heaven coming in, could doubt but that when in the silent night she heard the Master whisper, "Come up higher," she made answer, "Even so, Lord Jesus."
So they laid her in the silent city on the hill, very near the spot where, by and by, there towered and blazed Mr. Hastings" monument; but when they set up _her_ white headstone they marked on it the blessed words: "So he giveth his beloved sleep."
But oh, that home left without a mother--the dear, loving, toiling, patient, self-sacrificing mother!
"Dear old lady," were the words in which Theodore had most often thought of her, and I find on thinking back that I have constantly spoken of her thus, but in reality she was not old at all; her early life of toil and privation and sorrow had whitened her hair and marked heavy lines as of age on her face. Her quaint dress gave added strength to this impression, and Theodore when he first met her was at that age when all women in caps and spectacles are old, so "Grandma" she had always been to him, but they only wrote "sixty-three" on her coffin.
They were sitting together, Theodore and Pliny, the first evening they had spent alone since the changes had come to them. They were in their pleasant room which must soon be vacated, for the guiding presence that had made of them a family was wanting now. They had not been talking, only the quietest common-places--neither of them seemed to have words that they chose to utter. They were sitting in listless att.i.tudes, each occupying a great arm-chair, which they called "study-chairs." Theodore with his hands clasped at the back of his head, and Pliny with his face half hidden in his hands. The latter was the first to break the silence.
"Mallery, you are _such_ a wonderment to me! What is there about me that makes you cling so? I thought it was all over during that awful time. I don"t know how you can help despising me, but you don"t know how it was.
Oh, Theodore, I tried, I struggled, I _meant_ to keep my promise, and even at such a time as that the sight of my enemy conquered me. Now, _what_ am I to do? There is no hope for me at all. I have no trust, no confidence in myself."
"That at least would be hopeful if it were strictly true," Theodore answered, earnestly. "But, Pliny, it is not _quite_ true. If you utterly distrusted yourself, _so_ utterly that you would stop trying to save yourself alone, and accept the All-powerful Helper"s aid, I should be at rest about you forever."
Contrary to his usual custom, Pliny had no answer ready, seemed not in the least inclined to argue, and so Theodore only dropped a little sigh and waited. It was not despair with him during these days--his faith had reached high ground. "Ask, and ye _shall_ receive," had come home to him with wonderful force just lately, while he waited on his knees; he felt that he should never let go again for a moment. Still there seemed nothing now for him to do, nothing but that constant watching and constant praying; and he had only lately come to realize how much these two things meant. Presently, sitting there in the silence, he bethought himself of Winny in her desolation.
"Pliny," he said, suddenly, "shall not you and I go down and try to help poor Winny endure her loneliness? Do you know she is utterly alone?
Rick"s wife is in her room with the child, and Rick and Jim just went down the walk together."
Pliny seemed nothing loth, and the two descended to the dear little parlor where so many happy hours had been pa.s.sed. Winny had turned down the gas to its lowest ebb, and was curled into a corner of the sofa, giving up to the form of grief in which she most indulged--utter, white silence. She sat erect as the two young men entered, and Theodore turned on the gas; Pliny took the other corner of the sofa, and Theodore the chair opposite them. He looked from one to the other of the white worn faces. What utter misery was expressed on both! A great longing came over him to comfort them. But what comfort could he offer for such troubles as theirs, save the one thing that both rejected? He gave voice to his thoughts almost without intending it, with no other feeling than that his great pity and desire for them were beyond his control.
"How much, _how very much_, you two people need the same help! What utter nothingness any other aid is. I have not the heart to offer either of you the mockery of human sympathy," he spoke in gentle, sad tones, and straight way was startled with himself for speaking at all. Winny turned her great gray solemn eyes on her companion in the other corner.
"Do _you_ feel the need of help?" she asked, gravely. "Heaven knows I _do_ feel the need of something I don"t possess. I am utterly shipwrecked. I don"t know which way to turn. I do, if I only would turn that way. Mother had help all her life long--help that you and I know nothing about. Do you doubt that?"
"No, I _don"t_," answered Pliny, solemnly.
"Then why can"t we have it if we both need it, and can get it for the asking? Mother prayed for you as well as for me. The very last night of her life I heard her. I know what she prayed for is so. I"m tired of struggling. I"ve been at it, Theodore knows, for a great many years. If mother were here to-night I would say to her: "Mother, I"m not going to struggle any more; I"m going to give myself up," and that would make her happy--oh, too happy for earth. Well, I"m going to, anyway. I"m sick of myself; I want to get away from myself; I need help. You"ve struggled, too; I know by myself. Suppose we both give up. Suppose we both kneel down here this minute, and say that we are tired of ourselves, and ashamed of ourselves and we want Christ. Theodore will say it for us.
Will you do it, Mr. Hastings?"