Mr. George Rutherford, as I have hinted in a former chapter, was
becoming entangled in his pecuniary circumstances. He had no fears as
yet that he should not be able to pay every obligation, and have a
competency left; but his sensitive spirit was keenly alive to that kind
of humiliating deference which is always more or less demanded and
received by those who, more calculating in their habits, keep their
capital at command, and are enabled to exchange their ready money for
the borrower's security.
But whatever annoyance or inward torment he suffered was carefully
concealed within his own breast; he could not bear to throw a shade over
the bright and joyous heart of his wife.
It was, however, impossible that one who loved with such entire
devotedness, should not perceive when some dark and troublous cloud lay
upon the object of her affection. Often would she come to him as he sat
musing, at the close of day, and ask--
'What is it, George! does anything trouble you? these wrinkles are truly
beginning to be permanent. Do tell me, and let me share it with you.'
And then he would smile, and kiss the fair hand, and say--
'Nothing, dear Mary; nothing worth telling; there are a thousand little
vexations and cares in life, you know, which help to make the marks upon
us, I suppose, and thus show that they have been. Nothing, dear Mary.'
But by degrees accumulated strokes began to bear most seriously upon
him; his property melted away by little and little; at one time an
unwise act of friendship, at another an unsuccessful negotiation in
trade, or may be, a sharper's trick; there seemed to be always some
cause at work to drive away his means.
He had become largely implicated in establishing a store near to the
property he owned in the barrens, in order to afford an opposition to
Mr. Cross, hoping thereby to alleviate the condition of the poor
laborers; but the person who managed the business proved to be no match
for the wily Cross, and it only served to excite his adversary to bitter
revenge.
He had, also, become involved more seriously than he as yet had any idea
of himself, with a Company that were engaged in working a quarry.
The prospects held out to him were very flattering, as such things
usually are when presented by interested and designing persons; but as
each year passed by with no profit realized, and a fresh demand for
money to carry on their operations, too confiding to suspect those whose
bad management ought to have awakened his doubts, he suffered his purse
to be drained, and, worse than all, suffered his name and credit to be
used.
Manfully had he borne up under all his reverses, shrinking from no loss
nor responsibility, which, however unwisely brought upon himself, was
still his own act, and, therefore, sacred as his honor.
At length a storm, he saw, was rising fast, and spreading its dark and
gloomy mantle over him. He could not avert its fury; but with fortitude,
with a firm determination to maintain his integrity, he awaited the
catastrophe.
The first blow which came with much severity was in the failure of
Bolton, the individual whom he had established in trade near the
barrens. Many were involved in that calamity, and he was compelled, in
order to meet the demands which would be made upon him in consequence,
to use all his means and his utmost ingenuity to maintain his credit,
now become of vital importance to him. Troubles, at times, overtake us
like the tiding-bearers to the Patriarch of old; scarce has one sad tale
been uttered, when another is ready to begin.
Mr. Rutherford had passed a sleepless night; the long hours had been
spent in running over the sad circuit of his misfortunes, and in
endeavoring to extricate himself from the tangled maze in which he was
involved. His wife would most willingly have been the partner of his
cares, and spent the day and night in labor, either of body or of mind.
But no--he must not, he cannot disturb the quiet of her bosom; he will
yet, he fondly hopes, weather it through, and she shall never know the
struggle his spirit has borne. And thus it would have been, and thus his
proud and tender heart would have ached in secret, and cloistered all
its trials, until it broke beneath the accumulated load; but a kind
Providence was watching around his sleepless bed, and knew all that he
could bear, and was preparing the way that would, in spite of himself,
break open his secret sorrows, and compel him to unbosom himself to her
whose gentle spirit would pour out its sweet consolations into his
troubled heart, brace up his worn-out feelings, and lay them calmly to
rest amid the soothings of love; earthly, it may be, but a bright emblem
of that in which the weary soul will sweetly repose when the trials and
toils of life are over.
The watching and busy thoughts of the night past were too visible the
next morning to escape the eye of love; and as his Mary entered the room
where he was seated, waiting for their early meal, she could not help
saying to him,
'You are sick, dear George; I know you are.'
Before he could reply there was a knock at the door, and Mr. Rutherford
was summoned into an adjoining apartment.
The gentleman expressed his regret for the business upon which he had
come; he handed to Mr. Rutherford a paper, which proved to be an
attachment upon his beautiful homestead, and the land connected with it.
'You have, no doubt, heard, sir, that the Quarry Company has gone to
pieces; and as you appear to be the only responsible one among them, the
person named in that paper, and to whom they are largely indebted, feels
compelled to take this step, although very reluctantly.'
This explanation was sufficient; Mr. Rutherford perceived the dilemma to
which things had at length come. His visitor, having no further
business, withdrew; and as he closed the door upon him, he retired again
by himself, and was seated by a table with the paper in his hand, when
his wife entered the room, and closed the door.
'My dear George, you must let me know what is the matter. You cannot
hide from me, that there is some great trouble upon you. Tell me, my
dear husband, tell me what it is'--and she threw herself upon her knees
before him, and clasping her arms about him, looked up with intense
interest beaming from her dark hazel eyes.
'We are ruined, Mary! my property, the inheritance of my ancestors, is
all, I fear, to be swept away from me.'
'And you have known this, George, a long time, and have been bearing the
trouble all alone in your own breast. Why have you done this, and not
let me be a sharer of your sufferings?'
'Oh, Mary, how could I do it? It was out of your power to stop the
torrent I have been contending against, and I could not bear to disturb
your quiet.'
'My dear George, how little do you understand of a woman's love; bright
and pleasant things do not always satisfy its warm desire. I had rather
suffer with you, and for you, my dear husband, the sharpest pangs, and
feel the direst vicissitudes of life, if I could only prove to you, how
much dearer to me is your love than all things else on earth.'
As she said this her eyes were filled with tears, and told so truly with
the words she had just uttered, all the meaning of her soul, that he
clasped her to his bosom.
'My love, my life, my heart's richest treasure! may God bless you for
all the comfort you have been to me, and for all you are now.'
Sorrow, thou child of sin, strong and terrible as is thy power, and
crushing as is the weight of thy hand when pressed on no worms of the
dust, yet know thou, there is an antidote, a precious gift of Heaven,
when by man's sin all blessings which his God had given were justly
forfeited--this antidote is love; when fixed on God, it bows the spirit
into childlike confidence, clinging closer to the heavenly hand the
heavier the blow. And when two kindred souls on earth have merged their
hopes, their fears, their interests, their warm desires, their whole
hearts' sympathies in one strong true embrace, there is so much of
heaven's own happiness in it, that spite of all the anguish under which
at times they bow, this sweet and subtile charmer steals within, spreads
a calm upon the bosom of the waters, hushes all to peace, and bids them
still be happy.
And now she sits beside him, and he tells her all his strange trials,
and how dark his prospects are.
'It must all go, Mary.'
'Well, my dear husband, let it all go; your own sweet spirit is
unstained by one wrong or mean act; you have never withheld a righteous
due; you have never ground the face of the poor; you have never
triumphed over those beneath you; you have rather tried to raise them to
your own level: and now let poverty come, it cannot sink our spirits, so
long as there is no blot on your fair fame, and no stain on your
conscience.'
Rutherford was manly in his feelings, but he could not repress his
starting tears. His lovely wife, without a sigh, had let go all that
wealth could hold out to her, and only thought of her husband's virtues.
'Yes, Mary, that is true. I believe I can truly say with Job: "If I have
withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the
widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless
have not eaten thereof: if I have seen any perish for want of clothing,
or any poor without covering, then let my arm fall from my
shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone."'
'I know it, my dear husband, I know it; and as you have acted in the
fear of God, his strength will be our refuge.'