CONCLUSION.
After the trial was over, and the doctor safely lodged in prison to
serve out his length of time, Rothsay gradually grew quiet and ceased to
talk of the startling events which had thrown the town into such
commotion. They were getting accustomed to the fact that Rossie was
alive and with them again. She had appeared in the streets with Beatrice
two or three times, and many of her old friends had been admitted to see
her, but she was still very weak in body and mind, and was kept as quiet
as possible. Beatrice had made a short visit with her husband to Boston,
but had returned again to her own home, bringing Trix and Bunchie with
her, hoping the effect on Rossie might be good. And it was, for from the
moment the children came and turned the orderly house upside down with
their play and prattle, she began to improve and seem much like the
Rossie of old, except that her face and figure were thinner and there
were no roses on her cheeks, and there was always a tired look in her
eyes and about her mouth. Of her brother she never spoke, nor of
Josephine either; neither had she ever been near the Forrest House,
which, without her knowledge, had gradually been undergoing a
transformation, preparatory to the time when she should be equal to
visit it. Both Everard and Beatrice, with Aunt Axie to assist them, had
been busy as bees, removing from the house every article of furniture
which either the doctor or Josephine had bought, and replacing it with
the old, familiar things of Rossie’s childhood.
When the doctor refurnished the house he had ordered all the rubbish, as
he called it, to be stored away in the attics and unused rooms, where it
had lain untouched save as dust and cobwebs had accumulated on it, and
thus it was comparatively easy for the rooms to assume their natural
appearance, except so far as they had been changed by new windows and
doors, and partitions thrown down to make them more commodious. Could
Axie have had her way, she would have put everything back as it was, and
not have left a vestige of the past, but Everard had the good sense to
see that the changes were such as both he and Rossie would like when
accustomed to them. He put himself with Rossie, for he knew he should
live there with her, although nothing definite was settled by word of
mouth. He had a plan which he meant to carry out, and when the house was
restored to itself, and the same old carpets were on the floor, and the
same old pictures on the wall, and the chairs in his father’s room
standing just as they stood that day when Rossie came to him so
fearlessly and asked to be his wife, he went to her and said she was to
ride with him that morning, as there was something he wished to show
her. She assented readily, and was soon beside him in Beatrice’s
phaeton, driving toward the Forrest House grounds, into which he
suddenly turned.
“Oh, Everard,” she cried, as her cheek flushed scarlet, “where are you
going? Not there? I cannot bear it yet. It will bring the buzzing back,
and all the uncertainty. Don’t go, please. It’s like a haunted place.”
But Everard was firm, and quieted her as well as he could, and pointed
out Aunt Axie standing in the door just as she used to stand waiting for
her young mistress, and John farther on in the stable-yard, and even the
old dogs barking in the early sunshine, and running to meet them as they
came up. It did not seem strange nor haunted now, and Rossie made no
resistance when Everard lifted her from the phaeton and carried her into
the house, which seemed so restful and home-like that she felt all her
old morbid feelings and fears dropping from her, and flitted from room
to room like some joyous bird, until she came to the judge’s chamber,
where she paused a moment on the threshold, while there flashed upon her
a remembrance of that day which seemed so long ago, when she had
entertained it so fearlessly, and done that for which she always blushed
when she recalled it. Passing his arm around her Everard drew her into
the room, and closing the door made her sit down beside him, while he
said, “Rossie, you surely have not forgotten a scene which took place
here more than six years ago, when a miserable, sorely-tried young man
sat here a beggar, with a secret on his mind far worse and harder to
bear than prospective poverty. And while he sat thinking of the future,
and shrinking from it with a dread of which you cannot conceive, there
came to him a little sweet-faced girl, who, in her desire to comfort him
and give back what she believed to be his, asked to be his wife, without
a thought of shame. No, Rossie, don’t try to get away from me, for you
cannot. I shall keep you now, forever,” he continued, as Rossie tried to
free herself from the arm which only held her closer, as Everard went
on: “In one sense that time seems to me ages and ages ago, so much has
happened since, while in another it seems but yesterday, so distinctly
do I recall every incident and detail, even to the dress and apron you
wore, and the expression of your face as it changed from perfect
unconsciousness to a sense of what you had done. You came to me a child,
but you left me a woman, whom I do believe I would even then have taken
to my heart but for the bar between us. That bar is now removed, and
Rossie, my darling, I have brought you here to the old home, and into
the very room, to answer the question you asked me then, that is, if you
are still of the same mind. Are you, Rossie? Do you still wish to be my
wife?”
He had her face between his two hands, and was looking into her eyes,
which filled with tears as she said to him: “Oh, Everard, yes, yes. I
have wished it so much when it was wicked to do so, and now that it is
not, I wish it still; only I am afraid I must not, for there is such a
horrible fear before me all the time which I cannot shake off. Day and
night it haunts me, that I am not all right in my brain. I saw so much
and suffered so much that I can’t put things together quite straight,
and my head buzzes at times, and I do not remember, and am even troubled
to know just who I am and what has happened. Oh, do you think, do you
suppose I am going to be a,——a,——” She hesitated, and her lips quivered
pitifully as she finally pronounced the dreadful word,—“fool.”
Everard’s laugh was something pleasant and good to hear, it was so long
and loud.
“Fool, Rossie. No. You are only tired out and must have the perfect rest
which you can find alone with me,” he said, and he covered her face with
kisses. “And were you ten times a fool, I want you just the same. And
you are mine, my own precious little Rossie who will be my wife very
soon. There is no need for delay, I want you and you need me, and
Beatrice ought to go to her husband, which she will not do while she
thinks you need her care. So it will be within two weeks at the
farthest. You need no preparation, just to come home,—though we will go
away farther South for a while, where the season is earlier and where
the roses will soon come back to these pale cheeks and vigor to the
poor, tired brain.”
Rossie let him arrange it all as he pleased, and the wedding took place
two weeks from that day in Beatrice’s drawing-room, without parade or
show, for both bride and groom had suffered too much to care for
publicity now; but both were perfectly happy, and Rossie’s face was
sweet and beautiful as are the faces of Murillo’s Madonnas, as she
lifted it for her husband’s first kiss, and heard him say, “My wife at
last, thank God.”
There was a trip southward as far as the mountains of Tennessee, where,
in a lovely, secluded spot Rossie gained so rapidly both in body and
mind, that the second week in May was fixed upon for their return to the
Forrest House, where Aunt Axie again reigned supreme, and where Agnes
had found a haven of rest at last. Beatrice, who had gone with Trix and
Bunchie to Boston, had offered Agnes a home with her as nursery
governess to the children, but Rossie had said to her first, “If you
can, Aggie, I wish you would live with me. It will make me happier to
have you at the Forrest House,” and so Agnes went to the Forrest House,
and was there to meet the newly-married couple, when they came back one
lovely afternoon in May to take possession of their old house, amid the
pealing of bells and the rejoicings of the people, who had assembled in
crowds upon the lawn in front of the house, where Everard’s most
intimate acquaintances had arranged a grand picnic, to which all who
were his friends and wished to do him honor were publicly invited. It
would seem as if everybody was his friend or Rossie’s, for the whole
town was out, filling the grounds, which were beautifully decorated,
while over the gateway a lovely arch of flowers was erected with the
inscription on it, “Welcome to the rightful heirs.”
And so, amid the ringing of bells and the huzzas of the crowd, and
strains of sweet music as the Rothsay band played a merry strain,
Everard and Rossie drove up the avenue and passed into the house where
they had known so much joy and sorrow both, and which hereafter was to
be to them an abode of perfect peace and happiness.
There was a dance upon the lawn that night, after the hundreds of lamps
and lanterns were lighted, and people came from afar to see the sight,
which equaled the outdoor fetes of the _Champs d’Elyesees_, and were
continued until the village clock chimed twelve, when, with hearty
handshakes and three cheers for Mr. and Mrs. Forrest, the crowd departed
to their respective homes, and peace and quiet reigned again at the
Forrest House.
And now, there is little more to tell of the characters with whom my
readers have grown familiar.
Dr. Morton is still in Boston, and perfectly happy with Beatrice, who is
the best of wives and step-mothers, idolized by husband and little ones,
and greatly honored by the people, notwithstanding that she sometimes
startles them with her independent way of acting and thinking.
Yulah is at the Forrest House in the capacity of waiting-maid, and no
one looking at her usually placid German face would dream of the
terrible expression it can assume if but the slightest allusion is made
to the wretched man who in his felon’s cell drags out his miserable
days, with no hope of the future, and nothing but horror and remorse in
his retrospect of the past. Once or twice he has written to Rossie,
asking her forgiveness, and begging her to use her influence to shorten
his term of imprisonment. But Rossie is powerless there, and can only
weep over her fallen brother, whose punishment she knows is just, and
who is but reaping what he sowed so bountifully.
In course of time Everard heard from Michel Fahen of the excitement
caused by Rossie’s escape, of the means taken at first to trace her, and
of the indignation of the people, and the invectives heaped upon Van
Schoisner when Michel told, as he was finally compelled to do, what he
knew of Rossie’s unjust detention as a lunatic. It is more than six
months now since Rossie came home a bride, and in that time no cloud,
however small, has darkened her domestic horizon or brought a shadow to
her face. The house has been refurnished from garret to cellar, and is
seldom without guests, both from city and country, while the village
people are never tired of taking their friends to see the beautiful
grounds, of which they are so proud, and to call upon the fair young
matron, on whom the duties of wifehood sit so prettily, and who is as
sweet and innocent as in the days when she wore her white sun-bonnet,
and was known as Little Rossie Hastings.
THE END.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in
spelling.
2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.