HOPE.
One precious pearl, in sorrow's cup,
Unmelted at the bottom lay.
To shine again when, all drunk up,
The bitterness should pass away.--MOORE.
But if Sybil in the chaos of her mind, had lost all memory of her two
proteges, _they_ had not for a moment forgotten her.
Raphael, who was perfectly well aware of Sybil's situation, was breaking
his heart at Black Hall. And every morning when little Cro' was set up
in his high chair beside Mrs. Berners' vacant place at the head of the
breakfast table, he would ask piteously:
"If 'Sybil-mamma,' was coming home to-day?" And every morning he would
be answered, evasively:
"May be, to-day or to-morrow."
The day succeeding his promise to his wife, Mr. Berners informed Miss
Tabby that he should take her to the prison to see Sybil, and requested
her to get ready at once to go. And at the same time he sent a message
to Joe to put the horses to the carriage and prepare to drive them.
Miss Tabby, at the prospect of meeting Sybil, whom she had not seen for
some months, burst into a fit of loud hysterical sobbing and crying, and
could not be comforted.
Mr. Berners had patience with her, and let the storm take its course,
knowing that it would be followed by a calm that would best prepare the
poor creature to meet her lady.
When Miss Tabby was composed enough to listen to him, Mr. Berners very
impressively said to her:
"You must remember Mrs. Berner's mental derangement, that renders her
utterly unconscious of her imprisonment, and unconcerned about her
future, and you must be very cautious neither to betray any emotion at
the sight of her, nor to make any allusion to the murder or the trial,
or to any person or event connected with either; for she has forgotten
all about it."
"That is a wonderful blessing indeed, and I would bite my tongue off
sooner than say anything to disturb her," said Miss Tabby, with a few
subsiding sobs.
The same admonition which he had administered to Miss Tabby was also
emphatically impressed upon the mind of Joe. And the old man was even
more ready and able to understand and act upon it than the old maid had
been.
When Raphael and little Cro' found out that Mr. Berners was going to
take Miss Tabby to see Mrs. Berners, they both pleaded to go with him
also.
But this could not in either case be permitted.
To Raphael Mr. Berners explained the case of his wife, and sent the boy
away more sorrowful, if possible, than before.
To little Cro' he gave his gold pencil and his new blank note-book from
his pocket, that the child might amuse himself with drawing "pictures,"
and he promised to take him to see "Sybil-mamma" at some future day.
It was yet early in the forenoon when the carriage from Black Hall
rolled through the prison gates, and drew up before the great door of
the building.
Miss Tabby groaned and sighed heavily as she followed Mr. Berners into
the gloomy hall.
They were met by one of the turnkeys, who informed Mr. Berners that Mrs.
Berners and Miss Pendleton were taking the air in the walled garden
behind the building.
Preceded by the turnkey and followed by Miss Tabby, Lyon Berners went
through the hall out at the grated back door, and through the walled
back yard, and through another heavy gate into the strongly enclosed and
well-shaded garden, where he found his wife and her friend sitting under
the trees.
This was so much better than anything Miss Tabby had expected to see,
that her depressed spirits rose at once as she hurried after Mr. Berners
to meet Sybil, who, with Beatrix, had arisen to receive him.
Mr. Berners had scarcely time to embrace his wife and shake hands with
Miss Pendleton, before Miss Tabby rushed past him, caught Sybil in her
arms, and forgetting all Mr. Berners' cautions and her own promises,
fell to sobbing and crying over her foster-child, and exclaiming:
"Oh, my lamb! my baby! my darling! And is it here I find you, my
darling! my baby! my lamb!" etc., etc., etc.
"Why, you foolish old Tabby, what are you howling for now? Haven't you
got over your habit of crying for every thing yet, you over-grown old
infant?" asked Sybil, laughing, as she extricated herself from the
clinging embrace, and sat down.
"I know I'm an old fool," whimpered Miss Tabby, as she wiped her eyes,
and leaning up against the bole of the tree.
"To be sure you are! Everybody knows that! But you are a dear, good old
Tabby, for all; and I am delighted to see you. And now aren't you going
to speak to Miss Pendleton?"
"Oh, yes! how do you do, Miss Beatrix? inquired the old woman, as she
courtesied and offered her hand to Miss Pendleton.
"I am well and glad to see you, Miss Tabby," answered the young lady,
cordially.
"And oh, Miss Beatrix, I do pray the Lord to bless you every night and
morning of my life! For surely you do deserve blessings for staying with
Miss Sybil in this here awful--"
An admonitory pressure of Miss Tabby's shoe by Mr. Berner's boot
arrested her speech for an instant, and then modified it:
"In this here commodious and sillubrious watering place!" she added,
with a knowing nod towards Mr. Berners, which happily escaped Sybil's
notice.
Sybil had many questions to ask about Black Hall and its inmates, and
its surroundings; but first she asked the general question:
"How are all at home, Miss Tabby?"
"Oh, all are well, my dear child!" answered the old woman, "as well as
can be, considering your--Oh, there I go again!" she exclaimed, suddenly
breaking off in alarm.
"All are well, you say, Miss Tabby?" inquired Sybil.
"Oh yes, honey, all well, the servants and the cattle and the pets and
all the other animyles, and Raphael and little Cromartie--Oh, my
goodness! there I go again, worse than ever."
"Who? Raph--Cro'?" began Sybil, passing her hand in perplexity to and
fro across her brow. "Who are they? Did I dream of them, or read of them
somewhere? Raph--Cro'. Oh, dear me, my head is so queer! Did I read or
dream?"
"No, my dear," exclaimed Miss Tabby, hastening to retrieve her error.
"You did not read, nor likewise dream of any sich. They's peacocks,
honey; nothing but peacocks, as was bought to ornament the lawn, you
know."
"Oh yes, I know! peacocks!" said Sybil with a smile, readily adopting
the explanation that had been made to her. "But I dreamt a strange dream
about those peacocks. I dreamt--Oh, I can't remember what I dreamt!" she
continued, contracting her brows with an expression of pain and
perplexity.
"Never mind, my darling, what it was. Dreams are profitless subjects to
employ the mind upon," said Beatrix Pendleton, taking Sybil's hand, and
lifting her up. "Now come with me. I have something pleasanter to talk
about," she added, as she drew Sybil down one of the shaded garden
walks.
There was one subject among others upon which Sybil was quite sane; her
own approaching maternity. Beatrix knew this, as she led her to a
distant garden seat, and made her sit down upon it, while she said:
"Now, darling, that Miss Tabby is here, had we not better commission her
to buy some flannels and lawns and laces for the wardrobe of the coming
child? She can bring them when she comes next time. And you and I can
amuse ourselves with making them up."
"Oh yes, yes, indeed! That will be delightful. How strange I never
thought of that before! Why, I do believe I would have let the little
stranger arrive without an article to put on it, if you hadn't reminded
me--and I a married woman, who ought to know better, and you only a
girl, who ought to know nothing! Well, I do declare!" exclaimed Sybil,
turning and staring at her companion.
"Never mind, darling; it is only because you have been ill, and I have
been well, that you have forgotten this necessary provision, while I
have remembered it," said Beatrix soothingly.
"Well, I won't forget it again!" exclaimed Sybil, starting up and
running towards her husband, and followed by Miss Pendleton.
"Lyon!" she said, breathlessly. "How much money have you got about you?"
"I don't know, dear. You can have it all, if you wish, be it little or
much; for it is all your own, Sybil," replied Lyon Berners, putting his
purse in her hands.
"Oh, no, I don't want that; but you must give Tabby as much money as she
may require, to make some purchases for me."
"Yes, certainly," said Mr. Berners, taking back his pocket-book.
"Me! me make purchases for you, my lamb? La! whatever can you want in
this awful--There I go again!" exclaimed Miss Tabby in dismay.
"You have too much curiosity, you good old soul. But here, come with me,
and I will tell you what to buy for me--after you have instructed me as
to what I shall want," said Sybil, laughing archly, as she led the way
to a rude arbor at a short distance.
"Now, Tabby, what I want you to buy for me, is everything in the world
that is needed for a bran, spic and span new baby!"
"La! Miss Sybil; whose baby?" inquired the astonished housekeeper, with
her mouth and eyes wide open.
"Tabby, don't be a goose!"
"But, Miss Sybil, I don't know what you mean!"
"Tabby, I'm not 'Miss Sybil' to begin with! I'm Mrs. Berners, and have
been married more than a year, and you know it, you stupid old Tabby!"
"But, Miss Sybil, or ratherwise Mrs. Berners, if I must be so
ceremonious with my own nurse-child, what has that to do with what
you've been a-asking of me to buy?"
"Nothing at all," answered Sybil, half-provoked and half-amused at the
dullness of the old housekeeper. "Nothing whatever. But you must go out
and buy everything that is required for the wardrobe of a young child;
and you must find out what _is_ necessary, for I myself haven't the
slightest idea of what that is."
The housekeeper looked at the lady for a moment, in questioning doubt
and fear, and then, as the truth slowly penetrated her mind, she broke
forth suddenly with:
"Oh, my good gracious! Miss Sybil, honey! you don't mean it, do you?"
"Yes, I do, Tabby; and I thank heaven every day for the coming
blessing," said the young wife, fervently.
"But oh, Miss Sybil, in such a place as this--There I go again!"
exclaimed the housekeeper, breaking off in a panic, and then adding, "I
an't fit to come to see you; no that I an't. I'm always a forgetting,
especially when you talk so sensible!"
"What's the matter with you Tabby? Are you crazy? you never thought I
was going to stay _here_ for such an event, did you? In a public resort
like this? Tabby, I'm shocked at you! No! I shall be home at Black Hall
to receive the little stranger, Tabby," said Sybil, making the longest
and most connected speech she had made since her reason had become
impaired.
"Ah, Lord! ah, my Lord!" cried the old woman, on the verge of hysterics
again.
"Now, Tabby, don't begin to whimper! You whimper over everything though,
I know. You whimpered when I was born, and when I was christened, and
when I was married; and now you whimper when I am going to be crowned
with the crown of maternity. Oh, you old rebel!" cried Sybil,
contradicting all her sarcastic words by caressing her old friend.
"No, I don't mean to! but if you knowed! Oh! if you knowed!" exclaimed
Miss Tabby, suppressing and swallowing her sobs.
"Now, then, let us go back to Lyon. Lyon will give you what money you
may need for the purchases; and I beg that you will make them as soon as
possible, and bring them to me here," said Sybil, as she arose and
walked back to the spot where she had left her husband and her friend.
After a little general conversation, in which Sybil sometimes joined
naturally, and from which she also sometimes wandered off at random, Mr.
Berners proposed to call in Joe to pay his respects to his mistress.
Sybil sprang at the proposal, and Joe was duly summoned from his seat on
the box of the carriage before the door.
He came into the garden hat in hand, and bowed gravely before his
unfortunate mistress.
And when she asked him many questions about that department of the
domestic economy of Black Hall that fell under his own supervision, he
answered all her questions satisfactorily, without ever once falling
into the unlucky blunders that had marred Miss Tabby's communications.
"Your favorite mare, Diana is in prime order, ma'am, and will be so
whenever you come home again to take your rides in the valley. And your
coach horses Castor and Pollux, ma'am, couldn't be in better trim. I
shall take pride in driving of you to church behind them, ma'am, the
first Sunday after you come home, which we all at Black Hall hopes, as
the waters of this here cilibrated spring may soon restore your health,
and send you back to us strong and happy," said Joe, at the conclusion
of a very long address.
"Thanks, Joe! I know that you are very sincere and earnest in your good
wishes. Many thanks! But, dear old soul, how came you to be so lame?"
Joe was taken by surprise, and stood aghast. He knew of course that his
mistress was slightly insane; but he was utterly unprepared for such a
lapse of memory as this. He looked at his master in distress and
perplexity.
"Oh!" answered Lyon Berners for his man, "Joe was thrown from his horse,
and had his ankle sprained."
"Poor Joe! You must be very careful until it gets quite well," said
Sybil, compassionately.
And soon after this her visitors, master and servants, took their leave.