The good lady sat in her chamber wiping the perspiration from her ruddy
face, and occasionally peering out into the pleasant street, with a
longing desire to escape from her self-imposed prison, and breathe the
air again in her accustomed walks. But this she dared not do, lest it
should be discovered that she was not away from home and enjoying some
little pent-up room in the third story of a crowded hotel. Occasionally,
too, she thought with a sigh of the clover fields, the fresh, green
grass and shadowy woods, where Jessie was really enjoying herself,
without the trouble of dressing three times a day, and then swelling
with vexation because some one else out-did her.
"If she don't come with William, I mean to go down there and see what
this family are like that she makes such a fuss about," she said.
"Marshall? Marshall? The name sounds familiar, but it isn't likely I
ever knew them. If I supposed I had, I wouldn't stir a step."
At this point in her soliloquy a servant appeared, saying "Mr. Bellenger
wished to see her," and putting in her teeth, for it tired her to wear
them all the time, and adjusting her lace cap, the old lady went down to
meet the young man, who had just returned from Deerwood. Numberless were
the questions she asked concerning her granddaughter. Was she well? was
she happy? was she sun-burned? were her hands scratched with briers? and
what kind of people were these Marshalls?
To this last William hastened to reply:
"Clever country people, very kind to Jessie, and well they may be, for
if I've the least discernment, they hope to have her in their family one
of these days."
"What can you mean?" and the old lady's salts were brought into frequent
use, while William, in his peculiar way, told her of Walter Marshall,
who he said "was undoubtedly presuming enough to aspire to Jessie's
hand."
"What, that boy that Richard educated?" Mrs. Bartow asked, growing very
red and very warm withal.
"Yes," returned William; "but the fact of his being a charity student is
not the worst feature in the case. It pains me greatly to talk upon the
subject, but duty requires me to tell you just who Walter is," and
assuming a half-reluctant, half-mortified tone, Will told Mrs. Bartow
how Walter was connected with himself and the "terrible disgrace" of
which she had written to Jessie in her last letter.
For a moment the old lady fancied herself choking to death, but she
managed at last to scream:
"You don't say that he has dared to think of Jessie, the daughter of a
millionaire, and the granddaughter of a----"
She was too much overcome to finish the sentence, and she sank back in
her chair, while her cap-strings floated up and down with the rapid
motion of her fan.
"I'll go for her at once," she said, when at last she found her voice.
"I'll see this Mr. Impudence for myself. I'll teach him what is what.
Oh, I hope Mrs. Reeves won't find it out. Don't tell her, Mr.
Bellenger."
"I am as anxious to conceal the fact as you are," he replied, "for he,
you know, is a relative of mine, although our family do not acknowledge
him." And having done all he came to do, the nice young man departed,
while the greatly disturbed lady began to pack her trunk preparatory to
a start for Deerwood.
In the midst of her preparations she was surprised by the unexpected
return of Mr. Graham, to whom she at once disclosed the cause of her
distress, asking him "if he wished his daughter to marry Walter
Marshall, whose father was a----"
She didn't quite know what, for William had not made that point very
clear.
"I do not wish her to marry any one as yet," returned Mr. Graham, at the
same time asking if Walter had proposed, or shown any signs of so doing.
"Of course he's shown signs," returned Mrs. Bartow, "but I trust Jessie
has enough of the Stanwood about her to keep him at a proper distance."
"Enough of the what?" asked Mr. Graham, with the least possible smile
playing about his mouth.
"Well, enough of the Bartow," returned the lady. "The very idea of
receiving into our family a person of his antecedents!"
In a few words Mr. Graham gave her his opinion of Walter Marshall,
adding:
"I do not say that I would like him to marry Jessie,--very likely I
should not,--and still, if I knew that she loved him and he loved her, I
should not think it my duty to oppose them seriously, though I would
rather, of course, that the unfortunate affair of his father's had never
occurred."
This was all the satisfaction Mrs. Bartow could gain from him, and
doubly strengthened in her determination to remove Jessie from Walter's
society, she started the next morning for Deerwood, reaching there
toward the close of the day succeeding Jessie's interview with Walter in
the pines.
"Not this tumble-down shanty, surely?" she said to the omnibus driver
when he stopped before the gate of the farm-house.
"Yes'm, this is Deacon Marshall's," he replied, and mounting his box
again he drove off, while she went slowly up the walk, casting
contemptuous glances at the well-sweep, the smoke-house, the bee-hives,
the hollyhocks, poppies and pinks, which, in spite of herself, carried
her back to a time, years and years and years ago, when she had lived in
just such a place as this, save that it was not so cheerful or so neat.
Aunt Debby was the first to spy her, and she called to her niece:
"Why, Mary, just look-a-here! There's a lady all dressed up in her
meetin' clothes, a-comin' in. I wish we had mopped the kitchen floor
to-day. There, she's gone to the front door. I presume the gals has
littered the front hall till it's a sight to behold."
Mrs. Bartow's loud knock was now distinctly heard, and as Mrs. Howland
had not quite finished her afternoon toilet, Aunt Debby herself went to
answer the summons. Holding fast to her knitting, with the ball rolling
after her, and Jessie's kitten running after that, she presented herself
before her visitor, courtesying very low, and asking if "she'd walk into
the t'other room, or into the kitchen, where it was a great deal
cooler."
Mrs. Bartow chose the "t'other room," and taking the Boston rocker,
asked "if Miss Graham was staying here?"
"You mean Jessie," returned Aunt Debby. "It's so cool this afternoon
that she's gone out ridin' hossback in the mountains with Walter and
Ellen. Be you any of her kin?"
"I'm her grandmother, and have come to take her home," answered the
lady, frowning wrathfully at the idea of Jessie's riding with Walter
Marshall.
"I want to know!" returned Aunt Debby. "We'll be desput sorry to lose
her jest as Walter has come home, and he thinks so much of her, too."
Mrs. Bartow was too indignant to speak, but Aunt Debby, who was not at
all suspicious, talked on just the same, praising first Walter, then
Ellen, then Jessie, and then giving an outline history of her whole
family, even including Seth, who she said "allus was a good boy."
If Aunt Debby expected a return of confidence she was mistaken, for Mrs.
Bartow had nothing to say of her family, and after a little Aunt Debby
began to question her. Was she city-born, and if not, where was she
born?
"That red mark on your chin makes me think of a girl, Patty Loomis by
name, that I used to know in Hopkinton," she said, and the mark upon the
chin grew redder as she continued: "I did housework there once, in
Squire Fielding's family, and this Patty that I was tellin' you about
done chores in a family close by. She was some younger than me, but I
remember her by that mark, similar to your'n, and because she was
connected to them three Thayers that was hung in York State for killin'
John Love. There was some han'some verses made about it, and I used to
sing the whole of 'em, but my memory's failin' me now. I wonder what's
become of Patty. I haven't thought of her before in an age. I heard that
a rich old widder took her for her own child, and that's all I ever
knew. She was smart as steel, and could milk seven cows while I was
milkin' three. There they come, on the full canter of course. Ellen 'll
get her neck broke some day," and greatly to the relief of Mrs. Bartow
she changed the conversation from Patty Loomis and the three Thayers who
were hung, to the three riders dashing up to the gate, Jessie a little
in advance, with her black curls streaming out from under her riding
hat, and her cheeks glowing with the exercise.
"Why, grandma!" she exclaimed, as holding up her long skirt, she bounded
into the house, and nearly upset the old lady before she was aware of
her presence. "Where in the world did you come from? Isn't it pleasant
and nice out here?" and throwing off her hat, Jessie sat down by the
window to cool herself after her rapid ride.
"Why, grandma, you are as cross as two sticks," she said, when Aunt
Debby had left the room, and grandma replied:
"That's a very lady-like expression. Learned it of Mr. Marshall, I
suppose."
"No, I didn't," returned Jessie. "I learned it of Will Bellenger when he
was here. It's his favorite expression. Did he bring you my note?"
"Certainly; and I've come down to see what the attraction is which keeps
you here so contentedly."
"Oh, it's so nice," returned Jessie, and Mrs. Bartow rejoined:
"I should think it was. Who ever heard of a bed in the parlor
now-a-days?" and she cast a rueful glance at the snowy mountain in the
corner.
"That's a little out of date, I know," answered Jessie; "but the house
is rather small, and they keep the spare bed in here for such visitors
as you are. The sheets are all of Aunt Debby's make, she spun the linen
on a wheel that treads so funny. Did you ever see a little wheel,
grandma?"
The question reminded Mrs. Bartow of Patty Loomis and the three Thayers,
and she did not reply directly to it, but said instead:
"What did you call that woman?"
"Aunt Debby Marshall, the deacon's sister," returned Jessie, and Mrs.
Bartow relapsed into a thoughtful mood, from which she was finally
aroused by hearing Walter's voice in the kitchen.
Instantly she glanced at Jessie, who involuntarily blushed; and then the
old lady commenced the battle at once, telling Jessie plainly that "she
had come down to take her home before she disgraced them all by
suffering a boy of Walter Marshall's reputation to make love to her."
"Walter never thought of making love to me," returned the astonished and
slightly indignant Jessie; "and if he had it wouldn't have been
anybody's business but mine and father's. He isn't a boy, either. He's a
splendid-looking man. Pa thinks the world of him; and he knows, too,
about that old affair, which wasn't half as bad as Will and Mrs. Reeves
seem to think. Walter told it to me last night up in the pines, and I'll
tell it to you. It wasn't murder nor anything like it. Now, even I
shouldn't wish it said that any of my friends were hung."
"Hung!" repeated the old lady. "Who said anybody's friends were hung?
It's false!" and the red mark around the lip wore a scarlet hue.
"Of course it's false," answered Jessie. "That's what I said. Nobody
knows for certain that he stole, either," and forgetting her own belief,
founded on her father's, Jessie tried to prove that Seth Marshall was as
innocent as Walter himself had declared him to be.
"Whether he's guilty or not," returned Mrs. Bartow, "you are going home,
and you're to have nothing to say to Walter. It would sound pretty,
wouldn't it, for Mrs. Reeves to be telling that Jessie Graham liked a
poor charity boy?"
Jessie was proud, and the last words grated harshly, but she would stand
by Walter, and she replied:
"Mrs. Reeves forever! I believe you'd stop breathing if she said it was
fashionable. I wonder who she was in her young days. Somebody not half
so good as Walter, I dare say. I mean to ask Aunt Debby. She has lived
since the flood, and knows the history of everybody that ever was born
in New England, or out of it either, for that matter."
Mrs. Bartow was not inclined to doubt this after her own experience, and
as in case there was anything about Mrs. Reeves, she wished to know it,
she secretly hoped Jessie would carry her threat into execution. Just
then they were summoned to supper, and following her granddaughter into
the pleasant sitting-room, Mrs. Bartow frowned majestically upon Walter,
bowed coldly to the other members of the family, and then took her seat,
thinking to herself:
"The boy has a little of the Bellenger look, and, if anything, is
handsomer than William."
The tea being passed, with the biscuit and butter and honey, and the
cheese contemptuously refused by the city guest, Jessie said to Aunt
Debby:
"Did you ever know anybody by the name of Gregory? That was Mrs. Reeves'
maiden name, wasn't it, grandma?"
Mrs. Bartow nodded, and Aunt Debby, after withdrawing within herself for
a moment, came out again and said:
"Yes, I knew Tim and Ben Gregory in Spencer. Ben was the best of the
two, but he wa'n't none too likely. He had six boys, and Tim had six
gals."
"What were their names?" asked Jessie, and Aunt Debby replied:
"There was Zeruah, and Lyddy, and Charlotty----"
"That'll do!" cried Jessie, her delight dancing in her eyes. "What was
their father, and where are the girls now?"
"Their father was a tin peddler, and what he didn't get that way folks
said he used to steal, though they never proved it ag'in him. Charlotty
and I was 'bout of an age."
"I knew she was older than she pretended," thought Mrs. Bartow, and in
her joy at having probably discovered her dear friend's genealogy, she
took two biscuits instead of one.
"She worked in Lester factory a spell, and then, after she was quite
along in years, say thirty or more, she married somebody who was a
storekeeper, and went somewhere, and I believe I've heard that she
finally moved to New York."
"Can't you think of her husband's name," persisted Jessie, and Aunt
Debby replied:
"Twan't very far from Reed, but it's so long ago, and I've been through
so much since, that I can't justly remember."
Neither was it necessary that she should, for Mrs. Bartow and Jessie
were satisfied with what she could remember, and nothing doubting that
Charlotte Gregory was now the exceedingly aristocratic and purse-proud
Mrs. Reeves, whose granddaughter was a kind of rival to Jessie, they
returned to the parlor, Mrs. Bartow repeating at intervals:
"A tin peddler and a factory girl, and she holding her head so high."
"She's none the worse for that, if she'd behave herself, and not put on
such airs," said Jessie. "I wouldn't wonder if some of my ancestors were
tinkers or chimney sweeps. I mean to ask Aunt Debby. Let's see. Your
name wasn't really Martha Stanwood, was it? Weren't you an adopted
child?"
"Jessie!" and in the startled lady's voice there was such unmitigated
alarm and distress that Jessie turned quickly to look at her. "Do let
that old crone alone. If there's anything I hate it's a person that
knows everybody's history, they are so disagreeable, and make one so
uncomfortable, though I'm glad to be sure, that I've found out who Mrs.
Reeves was. Just to think how she talks about high birth and all
that,--born in a garret, I dare say."
"She don't put on a bit more than you do," said the saucy Jessie,
thinking to herself that she would some time quiz Aunt Debby concerning
her grandmother's past.
That night, after Jessie had retired, Mrs. Bartow asked for a few
moments' conversation with Walter, to whom she had scarcely spoken the
entire evening Quick to detect a slight, he assumed his haughtiest
bearing, and rather overawed the old lady, who fidgetted in her chair,
and pulled at her cap, and then began:
"It is very unpleasant for me to say to you what I must, but duty to
Miss Graham, and justice to you, demands that I should speak. From
things which I have heard and seen, I infer that you,--or rather I'm
afraid that you,--in short, it's just possible you are thinking too much
of Miss Graham," and having gotten thus far, the old lady gave a sigh of
relief, while the young man, with a proud inclination of the head, said
coolly:
"And what then?"
This roused her, and muttering to herself, "Such impudence!" she
continued:
"I should suppose your own sense would tell you what then! Of course
nothing can ever come of it, for even were you her equal in rank and
wealth, you must know there is a stain upon your name which must never
be imparted to the Grahams."
"Madam," said Walter, "you will please confine your remarks to me
personally, and say nothing of my father."
"Well, then," returned the lady. "You, personally, are not a fit husband
for Jessie."
"Have I ever asked to be her husband?" he said.
"Not in words, perhaps, but you show it in your manner both to me and
others, and this is what brought me here. Jessie is young and easily
influenced, and might possibly, in an unguarded moment, do as foolish a
thing as your mother did."
There was a feeling of intense delight beaming in Walter's eyes, for the
idea that Jessie could in any way be induced to marry him was a blissful
one; but it quickly passed off as Mrs. Bartow continued:
"It would break her father's heart should she thus throw herself away,
while you would prove yourself most ungrateful for all he has done for
you."
This was touching Walter in a tender point, and the pride of his nature
flashed in his dark eyes as he replied:
"Let me know Mr. Graham's wishes, and they shall be obeyed."
"Well, then," returned the lady, "I asked him if he would like to have
his daughter marry you, and he replied--" she hesitated before uttering
the falsehood, while Walter bent forward eagerly to listen. "He said he
certainly would not, and with his approbation I came down to remove her
from temptation."
Walter was very white, and something like a groan escaped him, for he
felt that Jessie was indeed wrested from him, and he began to see that
he had always cherished a secret hope of winning her some day. But the
dream was over now. She, he knew, would never disobey her father, while
he himself would not return the many kindnesses received from his
benefactor with ingratitude.
"Tell Mr. Graham from me," he said at last, almost in a whisper, "that
he need have no fears, for I pledge you my word of honor that I will
never ask Jessie Graham to be my wife, unless the time should come when
I am by the world acknowledged her equal, and when I promise this, Mrs.
Bartow, I tear out, as it were, the dearest, purest affection of my
heart, for I do love Jessie Graham; I see it now as clearly as I see
that I must kill that love. Not because you ask it of me, Madam," and he
assumed a haughty tone, "but because it is the wish of the best friend I
ever knew. He need not fear when I am with her in New York. I will keep
my place, whatever that may be, and when I call on Jessie, as I shall
sometimes do, it will be a brother's call, and nothing more. Will you be
satisfied with this?"
"Yes, more than satisfied," and Mrs. Bartow offered him her hand.
He took it mechanically, and as he turned away the lady thought to
herself:
"He is a noble fellow, and so handsome, too, but William looks almost as
well. Didn't he give it up quick when I mentioned Mr. Graham. I wonder
if that was a lie I told. I only left off a little, that was all," and
framing excuses for her duplicity, the old lady retired for the night.
They were to leave in the morning, and Jessie seemed unusually sad when
she came out to breakfast, for the inmates of the farm-house were very
dear to her.
"You'll come to New York soon, won't you?" she said to Walter, when,
after breakfast, she joined him under the maple tree.
At the sound of her voice he started, and looking down into her bright,
sunny face, felt a thrill of pain. Involuntarily he took her hand in
his, and said:
"I have been thinking that I may not come at all."
"Why, Walter, yes you will; father will be so disappointed. I believe he
anticipates it even more than I."
"But your grandmother," he suggested, and Jessie rejoined:
"Don't mind grandma; she's always fidgetty if anybody looks at me, but
when she sees that we really and truly are brother and sister, she'll
get over it."
There was a tremulous tone in Jessie's voice, as she said this, and it
fell very sweetly on Walter's ear, for it said to him that he might
possibly be something more than a brother to the beautiful girl who
stood before him with blushing cheeks and half-averted eyes.
"Jessie, Jessie!" called Mrs. Bartow from the house, and Jessie ran in
to finish packing her trunks and don her traveling dress.
Once, as Aunt Debby slipped into her satchel a paper of "doughnuts and
cheese, to save buying a dinner," Jessie could not forbear saying:
"Oh, Aunt Debby! I think I know that Charlotty Gregory, who used to live
in Leicester. She's Mrs. Reeves now, and the greatest lady in New York;
rides in her carriage with colored coachman and footman in livery, wears
a host of diamonds, and lives in a brownstone house up town."
"Wall, if I ever," Aunt Debby exclaimed, sitting down in her surprise on
Mrs. Bartow's bonnet. "Reeves was the name, come to think. Drives a
nigger, did you say? She used to be as black as one herself, but a
clever, lively gal for all of that. With her first earnin's in the
factory she bought her mother a calico gown, and her sister Betsey a
pair of shoes."
"Betsey," repeated Jessie, turning to her grandmother, "that must be
Mrs. Reeves' invalid sister, whom Charlotte calls Aunt Lizzie. Very few
people ever see her."
"Wa'n't over bright," whispered Aunt Debby, continuing aloud: "How I'd
like to see Miss Reeves once more. Give her my regrets, and tell her if
I should ever come to the city I shall call on her; but she mustn't feel
hurt if I don't. I'm getting old fast."
Jessie laughed aloud as she fancied Mrs. Reeves' amazement at receiving
Aunt Debby's regrets, and as the omnibus was by that time at the door,
she hastened her preparations, and soon stood at the gate, bidding her
friends good-by. For an instant Walter held her hand in his, but his
manner was constrained, and Jessie bit her lip to keep back the tears
which finally found a lodgment on Ellen's neck. The two young girls were
tenderly attached, and both wept bitterly at parting, Jessie crying for
Ellen and Walter, too, and Ellen for Jessie and the man whom she, ere
long, would meet.
"What shall I tell Will for you?" Jessie asked, leaning from the omnibus
and looking in Ellen's face, which had never been so white and thin
before.
From the maple tree above her head a withered leaf came rustling down,
and fell upon Ellen's hair. Brushing it away, she answered mournfully:
"Tell him the leaves are beginning to fade."
"That's a strange message for her to send, but she speaks the truth,"
Walter thought, and after the omnibus had rolled away, and he walked
slowly to the house, he felt that for him more than the leaves were
fading,--that the blossoms of hope which he had nurtured in his heart
were torn from their roots, and dying beneath the chilly breath of
fashion and caste.