"She is coming here. I dare not meet her. I must go away again. I am hunted to death--I am hunted to death! I was hunted from Blue Cliffs, and now I am hunted from Charlottesville! Where shall I go next? To Richmond? Yes, of course, to Richmond! And there I will stay. For there is room to hide myself from any one whom I do not wish to see. And in a few weeks _he_ will go to Richmond to settle there permanently. But I will go some few weeks in advance of him, so that he will never be able to say that I followed him there!"
Having formed this resolution, Mary Grey then set about, immediately to engage lodgings for the Blue Cliffs party.
She knew that her hostess, the bishop"s widow, had one vacant room: that would accommodate two of the ladies, and therefore she resolved to make a virtue of her own necessities and give up her own room for the accommodation of the other two.
She proposed this plan to her hostess, who at first opposed the self-sacrifice, as she called it. But finally, being persuaded by Mary Grey, she yielded the point, and fervently praised the beautiful, unselfish spirit of her young guest, who was ever so ready to sacrifice her own comfort for the convenience of others.
Mary Grey then wrote to Miss Cavendish, telling her of the arrangement, and then explaining:
"You must know, my dear girl, that my health is not improved. For the last twelve months it has been growing steadily worse. My nervous system is shattered. I can not bear noise or tumult or excitement. I dread even to meet strangers. Therefore I think I shall go away and stay during this carnival of a Commencement. I hope that you and Laura will occupy my vacant chamber. The chamber adjoining is already vacant, and I have engaged it for Mrs. Fanning and Electra. I know I have paired your party off differently from _your_ pairing; but then I like the thought of having you and Laura in my deserted chamber. I think I shall go to some very quiet village far from the bustle of company.
Forgive me for not remaining to meet you, and set me down as very, _very_ nervous; or, if that will not excuse me in your eyes, set me down as _crazy_; but never, _never_ as ungrateful or unloving.
MARY.
"P.S.--Mr. Lyle must find accommodations at the hotel."
Having finished, sealed and dispatched this letter, Mary Grey went to work and packed her three great trunks for her journey. That kept her busy all the remainder of the day.
The next morning she dressed herself and went to call upon her friends and bid them good-bye. They were very much surprised at the suddenness of her departure; but she explained to one and all that she rather wished to avoid the crowd, bustle and confusion of Commencement week, and had therefore determined to leave town for a few days, and that her rooms with the bishop"s widow would be occupied in the meantime by her friend Miss Cavendish, of Blue Cliffs, and her party.
This made an impression upon all minds that "sweet Mrs. Grey," with her spirit of self-sacrifice, had left town at this most interesting period for no other reason than to give up her quarters to her friends.
Lastly, Mary Grey went to her pastor and obtained from him a letter to the pastor of St. John"s Church in Richmond.
Furnished with this, she would obtain entrance into the most respectable society in the city, if she desired to do so.
On the third day from this, Mrs. Grey left Charlottesville for Richmond.
CHAPTER XV.
AN OLD FACE REAPPEARS.
What the Carnival is to Rome, and the Derby is to London, the Commencement week of its great University is to the little country town of Charlottesville.
It is looked forward to for weeks and months. A few days previous to Commencement week the little town begins to fill. The hotels and boarding-houses are crowded with the relatives and friends of the students and professors, and even with numbers of the country gentry, who though they may have no relative at the University yet take an interest in the proceedings of Commencement week.
Emma Cavendish and her friends were therefore peculiarly fortunate in having had comfortable apartments pre-engaged for them.
It was late on the evening of the Monday beginning the important week that they arrived at Charlottesville, and proceeded at once to the house of the bishop"s widow.
They found the house hospitably lighted up, and open.
Their hostess, a dignified gentlewoman, received them with great cordiality, and rather as guests than as lodgers.
She showed the ladies to the two communicating rooms on the first floor that they were to occupy--large, airy, pleasant rooms, with a fresh breeze blowing from front to back. Each room had two neat white-draped single beds in it.
"If you please, Mrs. Wheatfield, which of these was Mrs. Grey"s apartment?" inquired Emma Cavendish.
"This back room overlooking the flower-garden. But as the front room was unoccupied she had the use of that also, whenever she wished it,"
answered the bishop"s widow.
"I was very sorry to hear from her by letter that she would not be able to remain here to receive us," said Miss Cavendish.
"Ah, my dear, I was just as sorry to have her go away! A sweet woman she is, Miss Cavendish," answered Mrs. Wheatfield.
"Why did she go? Is her health so very bad, Mrs. Wheatfield?"
"My dear, I think that her malady is more of the mind than of the body.
But I believe that she went away only to give up these rooms to you and your friends, because there were no other suitable rooms to be obtained for you in Charlottesville."
"I am very sorry to hear that; for indeed I and my companions would rather have given up our journey than have turned Mary Grey out of her rooms. It was really too great a sacrifice on her part," said Emma Cavendish, regretfully.
"My dear, that angel is always making sacrifices, for that matter. But I do think that _this_ sacrifice did not cost her much. Love made it light. I feel sure she was delighted to be able to give up her quarters to friends who could not in any other way have been accommodated in the town," said the bishop"s widow, politely.
"I am sorry, however, not to have met her," murmured Emma Cavendish.
"And now, ladies, here are the apartments. Arrange as to their occupancy and distribution among yourselves as you please," said the hostess, as she nodded pleasantly and left the room.
The ladies had brought but little luggage for their week"s visit, and it had already arrived and was placed in their rooms.
They washed, dressed their hair, changed their traveling-suits for evening-dresses and went down into the parlor, where they found Alden Lytton--who had walked over from the University to meet his sister--in conversation with Mr. Lyle.
There was quite a joyous greeting. But Alden had to be introduced to Mrs. Fanning, who had changed so much in the years that had pa.s.sed since their last meeting that the young man would never have known her again.
But every one remarked that when the lady and the student were introduced to each other their mutual agitation could not be concealed.
And every one marveled about its cause.
Alden Lytton found fair Emma Cavendish more beautiful than ever, and he now no longer tried to deny to himself the truth that his heart was devoted to her in the purest, highest, n.o.blest love that ever inspired man.
"Do you know, Mr. Lytton, where Mrs. Grey has gone? She did not tell me in her letter where she intended to go; I believe she had not then quite made up her mind as to her destination," said Miss Cavendish.
"I was not even aware of her departure until I learned it from Mrs.
Wheatfield this evening," answered Alden Lytton.
"Then no one knows. But I suppose we shall learn when we hear from her,"
said Emma, with a smile.
Then Alden produced cards for the Commencement, with tickets inclosed for reserved seats in the best part of the hall, which he had been careful to secure for his party. These he gave into the charge of Mr.
Lyle, who was to attend the ladies to the University.
And then, as it was growing late, the two gentlemen arose and took leave.
They left the house together and walked down the street as far as the corner, where Alden Lytton paused and said: