Many and sharp the numerous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves
Regret, remorse, and shame.
And man, whose heaven-erected face
The smiles of love adorn,
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.
Burns.
"Wretch!" cried Wilkins, striking at Quirk with his brawny fist, as he
rose from the prostrate form of Guly--"Wretch, you have killed him!"
and, seizing the offender by the collar, with the united force of foot
and hand he hurled him into the street. The two other young men, who had
drunk less freely of the wine, and were less excited, passed out also,
expressing to Wilkins their regret at the unfortunate occurrence.
Locking and barring the door, the head clerk hurried back to Guly's
side, and lifted him gently in his arms. With the tender care of a
mother, he bore him to his own bed and smoothed the golden curls from
the wounded temple, as he laid him softly on the pillow. The old gush of
love had swept back to Arthur's heart when he saw his brother fall at
his side, and with throbbing pulse he implored Wilkins to fly for a
physician leaving him to watch by Guly's pillow.
Wilkins acceded to his request, and, going out by the alley door, locked
it after him, and dashed down the street in search of his own physician.
The sound of his heavy footsteps, as they fell upon the pavement, rang
far and near through the silent streets; and, as he sped on, their echo
fell upon his ear fearfully, and sent a thrill of something like terror
through his strong frame. He even slackened his pace, and strove to
lighten his tread that the desolate sound might not thus sweep
constantly after him; but his anxiety with regard to Guly was so intense
that he found it impossible to go at a slower gait, and he went on,
running strongly, his huge chest heaving with the unwonted exertion, and
the big drops of perspiration standing out like rain-drops on his brow.
Suddenly there came a low hum of voices to his ear, not unlike the
murmur of a distant sea. Louder and louder, it came upon the midnight
air, till, answering to the echo of his flying steps, came the distant
cry of "Murder! stop him! stop him! Murder!" And the prolonged, terrific
cry sent a panic through every limb, as for an instant the head clerk
paused to listen.
As by instinct, he comprehended all. He felt as fully aware as though he
had been plainly told so, that the echo of his hurried pace had been
caught by the quick ear of the night guardians, and he was pursued as a
midnight assassin. Thinking that the safest course would be to hurry
straight to the physician's office, where he was well known and where
the statement he might make would be corroborated, he again struck into
a run, and with all his strength endeavored to elude the pursuers, whose
voices every moment fell more clearly on his ear.
He felt in his great heart all the terrible consequences which might
accrue to Guly if he should be captured, for there would necessarily be
more or less delay in his again obtaining freedom.
But, swiftly as he fled, he felt he was no match for the swift-footed
pursuers behind him, and the cry of murder, and the sound of clubs upon
the banquette, and the sharp, quick watchman's rattle, fell on his ear
more startlingly clear every moment. Suddenly he thought to dart down
the first dark street, and at the next block double on his pursuers. But
his design had been anticipated, and as he dashed at a headlong pace
round the corner, he found himself face to face with a posse of
policemen, and a crowd of half-dressed coffee-house loafers, who are
always abroad upon the first hint of an excitement.
With a shout of triumph, Wilkins' arms were pinioned at his side; and
despite all his prayers and entreaties, he was hurried away to the
guard-house. He begged to be allowed to stop at Doctor C.'s office, and
deliver him the message he had brought, assuring them that, would they
but give him a few minutes' time, he could fully assure them of his
innocence; but all in vain. An atrocious murder had been committed
somewhere up town, and they had been chasing all night, they said, to
find the assassin, who had escaped. They declared themselves "fagged
out," and swore they must "chuck" somebody, and if he wasn't the right
man he could prove it in the morning, and that was all they had to say;
and, in bitterness of heart and anxiety of mind, Wilkins heard the heavy
door shut with a short clang, and knew he was a prisoner! Wearily the
night sped away; and, tortured with anxiety for the pale young being
whom he had left senseless on his pillow, Wilkins walked the narrow
precincts of his cell moody and disconsolate. For with all the evil of
this man's strange nature, there were some pure and sparkling gems of
good, which cast a radiance, bright and purifying, over the dark traits
of his character. This love for Guly was one of these. Springing up, as
it did, from among the rank weeds of sin and recklessness in his breast,
it proved that he could appreciate the lovely, and knew how to cherish
it. Then, his guardian care of Blanche, the brodereuse--where a thousand
men would have but thought of evil, his sole care was to ward it from
her. And now, as he walked back and forth across the heavily spiked
floor, another ray of glorious and intense light shot from his great
heart heavenward. It was a prayer! breathed there in the midst of the
perplexities and troubles which surrounded him, earnestly, hopefully
breathed for Guly; and if ever a prayer ascended to the "Great White
Throne," accepted for its faith and sincerity, that one did, sent from
the burning lips of Bernard Wilkins that night.
Morning came, and he was taken before the Recorder, and though it
required but little trouble to prove his innocence, it took _time_, and
it was with a breast lacerated by a thousand fears that he found himself
again at liberty, and turned his steps towards the store.
As he had left the front door key inside, Jeff had as usual been able to
open the store and put things in order. The clerks were many of them in
their places, but he scarcely noticed any one; passing up between them,
with long and rapid strides, he struck his foot against the door of his
room, and the next instant stood at Guly's side. He lay as he had left
him, on the bed, still wrapped in his white robe, pale and very
beautiful. Wilkins bent breathlessly over him, and the blue eyes at that
moment opened, and smiled a welcome upon him. Clasping his hands
together with an upward look of thankfulness, Wilkins fell upon his
knees beside the bed and buried his face in the covers, as if he would
fain conceal the too vivid pleasure expressed in his features.
A hand was laid upon his shoulder. He started, looked up, and met the
gaze of Arthur.
"Ah, yes, Arthur, I had forgotten you. How did you manage? What could
you do?"
"Finding you did not return, I suspected something had occurred, and
dispatched Jeff after the nearest physician. He pronounced Guly's wound
not dangerous, but recommended quiet for a day or so. You see he is
doing nicely; he wasn't hurt much after all. As Quirk says, he is such a
weakly affair, that it takes nothing at all to knock the senses out of
him."
"Then you have had a conference with Quirk, this morning, have you?"
returned Wilkins, coldly. "Well, your very humane judgment is worthy of
both of you; you can now go to your counter, sir, if you like, or seek
rest if you are fatigued, as you choose."
Arthur took his place in the store. Aided by Quirk's slurs and
inuendoes, as soon as he saw Guly recovering he had experienced another
revulsion of feeling, and really cherished a sentiment of anger, when he
remembered that he had allowed himself to be so "bullied," as Quirk
expressed it, by a stripling so weak and "curdy" as Gulian. He convinced
Arthur, with his reckless reasoning, that in gambling for a little
"innocent amusement," there in the store, they were but doing what all
young men with any idea of fashionable pleasure did, and that Wilkins
had no right to exert over them the authority which he did. That, as
for Guly's wound, it was Wilkins' fault he had received it, and,
altogether, they ought to have fought it out before yielding so easily.
But though he had succeeded in leading Arthur to think that Guly was
meddlesome and intrusive, he could not succeed in rousing his ire
towards Wilkins; for Arthur was not so blind as to be unable to see that
Wilkins was his truest friend. Still, there was a restless and undefined
uneasiness in his breast, a fancy that his dignity had been insulted,
yet so vague was the impression left on his mind by the wily Quirk, that
he could scarcely decide from whom he had suffered it, Wilkins or Guly;
but with that unnatural perversity which sometimes enthrals the human
heart, he was more than half inclined to think it was his brother, and
cherished an indignant feeling against him, which even the memory of his
pallid face as he lay before him the night before, with the blood slowly
oozing from his wounded temple down the blue-veined cheek, could not
dissipate; and whenever, during that long day, he went into Wilkins'
darkened room to look upon the young form lying there, it was not in
sorrow and love, but silence and coldness.
When Mr. Delancey came to the store that day, which was at an hour later
than usual, Wilkins joined him at his high desk, and held with him a
long conference. The merchant had shown many signs of impatience during
its pending, and no slight evidences of anger. As Wilkins turned away,
Mr. Delancey sat looking down through the store for some time, leaning
stiffly back in his chair meanwhile. The moment he saw Quirk disengaged,
he called his name in his sharp, peculiar tone of voice, at the same
time beckoning to him with his forefinger. Quirk flung down the piece of
goods he was about folding, and a scarce perceptible pallor spread over
his coarse cheeks, as, darting a malicious glance at Wilkins, he
approached the high desk.
"So, sir, you took the liberty to gamble in my store last night, eh?"
"I wasn't the only one."
"Hold your tongue, sir. You dare not tell me you didn't propose it?"
"Mallory, Adams and Arthur Pratt joined me."
"You knew the store's rules better than they. Do you know that I think
any one that gambles will steal?"
"Then your store is full of thieves."
"The more need, then, of making an example for their benefit. Take your
place, sir; you have a fortnight's warning to find another situation,
and quit."
With cheeks glowing with anger and fierce resentment, Quirk went back to
his place, knowing there was no use in arguing the matter with such a
man as Delancey; who had, in fact, acted entirely upon Wilkins'
suggestion; whereas the others would no doubt have shared the same
fate, had he acted upon his own. The head clerk had laid the whole
matter before him exactly as it was, quietly throwing in his own advice
and ideas on the subject, and there were reasons why Mr. Delancey didn't
choose to differ very materially from what his head clerk said.
After he had dismissed Quirk, the merchant every now and then turned his
eye upon Wilkins' room door, as if he fain would enter there could he
possibly do so without being seen. Unconsciously, as it were, Mr.
Delancey had that morning missed the bright young brow and gentle eyes,
which in all his moods never had failed to show him the respect of an
obeisance and a greeting regularly upon his entrance. There was an
uprightness and nobleness too, characterizing Guly's every deed which
the merchant had not failed to observe, and which had created a respect
and esteem for the boy even in that obdurate heart.
Mr. Delancey stepped down from his high desk, and began to traverse the
space between it and the long windows. But every turn brought him nearer
and nearer to the little bed-room door, and at last, certain that he was
unobserved, he laid his hand upon the knob and slipped in.
If ever the merchant displayed his awkwardness, it was in a sick room;
the knowledge of which fact, perhaps, made him so rare a frequenter of
such places.
As he stopped at Guly's bedside, with his long fingers pressed down
among the pillows, the boy opened his eyes, and looked up in his face
with a smile, expecting to see Wilkins or Arthur. He was greatly
surprised at seeing his employer, but immediately extended his hand and
said:
"Is it possible 'tis you, Mr. Delancey? This is an unexpected pleasure."
Mr. Delancey took the proffered hand in his, held it loosely for a
moment in his bony fingers, as if unaccustomed to holding friendly
hands, then let it drop back again upon the bed-clothes.
"Why is my presence so unexpected? Don't you suppose I ever look in on
sick clerks?"
"I certainly hope so, sir; I scarcely expected it in my case; but I am
very happy to be disappointed--sit down sir?"
The merchant seated himself, and said:
"So you got in a row last night."
"In _trouble_, sir; most unfortunately. I hope that it is the last case
of the kind."
"Yes, bad to have your place empty--want all my men at their posts. Get
about as soon as you can. Be up to-morrow, I 'spose?"
"Yes, sir, God willing."
"God willing! Do you always put that in?" said Mr. Delancey, half rising
from his chair, then reseating himself.
"Yes, sir, always."
The merchant sat for a moment, with his cold eye fixed on his earnest
face.
"Invariably you say that, eh?"
"Invariably, sir."
"Humph! I don't!" returned the other, rising abruptly from the chair,
and, without another word, he slipped out of the little door as
cautiously as he had entered, and again took his seat at his desk.
The day wore on with an occasional visit from Arthur, a frequent one
from Wilkins, and numerous inquiries sent by all the clerks, who could
not help but feel an interest in the young sufferer.
By the increased darkness of the room, Guly knew the day must be most
gone, and he lay looking upon the little table where one night he had
seen Wilkins writing, with the quadroon standing behind his chair--that
night which he had remembered so distinctly and pondered on so much.
As he lay musing upon that event, his attention was attracted by a
singular noise outside his door, and the next moment it was thrown open,
and to Guly's utter astonishment the dwarf swung himself in upon his
long crutches, with Wilkins, looking like a giant, walking smilingly
behind him.
"Here's a friend that's true to you, Guly; he misses you, you see, as
well as the rest of us."
"Hih! hih! Monsieur," chuckled the little man, reaching up and catching
hold of Guly's fingers; "I have seen you nowhere to-day; I think you
very sick or very dead. I get no picayune to-day, no bean soup. Hih!
hih! Monsieur, I miss you very much."
"You are kind, to come and see me, my poor friend. It seems very natural
to see your face. You are welcome."
"Me welcome?" squeaked the dwarf, climbing up with much difficulty into
the chair Mr. Delancey had so recently left; "me welcome, Monsieur! Hih!
that's mor'n has been said to me these many years--hih! poor deformed
little devil that I am!"
Guly heard a sound, a strange sound, something between a schoolboy
snivel and a sob, and looking up, to his amazement saw a bright tear
rolling down his visitor's wrinkled cheek, and his one eye, seeming to
lie out farther on his face then ever, was glistening with more.
"You have never told me your name," said Guly, hoping to divert his
attention.
"No,'cause I never thort you cared to know it," returned the other,
wiping his eye on the cuff of his coat. "The boys call me King Richard,
because, as they say, he was stoop-shouldered like me, Monsieur. They
daren't exactly call me humped for fear of my crutches, hih! hih! You
can call me Richard, or Dick, or what you choose."
"You musn't talk too much to Monsieur," said Wilkins, kindly; "he is too
ill to hear much conversation--hurts his head."
"Hih! no, I won't hurt him. A picayune, Monsieur: I've had no bean soup,
to-day. Pauvre Richard!"
Wilkins dropped a piece of silver in the claw-like hand, and went back
into the store.
The dwarf sat rubbing the dime on his sleeve, brightening it, and
looking curiously at it with his one eye, as if to assure himself it was
good--then disposed of it somewhere about his person.
"Are you hungry, Richard?" asked the boy, eyeing him pityingly.
"Oui, Monsieur, hungry and poor and friendless. Oh, Lord! but I've got a
dime to buy bread now, hih! hih! hih!"
"I am your friend, Richard; never go hungry when you are destitute. I am
not rich, but I always hope to be able to give you a piece of bread, and
you musn't call yourself friendless ever again."
The dwarf hitched himself round on his chair, and fixed his great
raw-looking eye inquisitively on the gentle face looking upon him.
"Friend to _me_, Monsieur, such a horrid little ape as me? Hih! hih!
can't think that."
"Don't call yourself such names, Richard. The hand that made me, made
you; and He has commanded us to love one another," said the boy,
sweetly.
"And you _can_ love me, you? Hih! no, no, no, I wasn't born to be loved,
only to be kicked round the world like a football while I live, and when
I die to be kicked into a pauper's grave. Hard lot! deformed,
friendless, wretched, poor. Nothing to love, no one to love me, hih!
wonder what I was born for. Monsieur, what hurt you?"
Guly smiled at the sudden transition in the dwarf's manner, and replied
briefly that he had been hurt with broken glass.
"Hih! that's bad. I must get down and go away--make you talk too
much--'hurt your head.' Always hurt people's heads, I do--that part
where their eyes are. Adieu, Monsieur."
The dwarf, after some labor, reached the floor, and succeeded in tucking
a crutch under either arm.
"Hope you'll get well, Monsieur."
"Be round to-morrow I hope, Richard; thank you."
"Hope so. Adieu."
"Adieu."
He swung away, and reached the door, but hobbled back to the bed again,
and raising his red, skinny fingers, took Guly's hand in his.
"You meant what you said, Monsieur, about loving one another?"
"Yes. Truly so, Richard."
"And I may think of you as loving even _me_?"
"As loving you, Richard. As loving you for one of the Great God's
cherished works, sent here expressly to call forth our love, and awaken
the dormant sympathies of our nature."
"May that Great God, bless you, Monsieur. Hih! hih! Adieu."
Once more he gained the door, and this time it closed behind him,
shutting him out. And Guly fell asleep, with the earnest blessing of the
poor deformed one brightening his dreams, and the holy words, "Love ye
one another," ringing sweetly through his heart.