Ida found the party, on whose companionship she had in a measure
forced herself, waiting and calling for her. The words of the old
gentleman had inspired them with kinder and more considerate feeling.
"I'm coming," she answered; "don't wait for me, I'll keep near
you."
As they had already observed her evident wish to be left to herself,
they complied with her request.
The icy calm of her despair was now broken.
"God bless him for his kindness!" she murmured, and "God bless
him for his hearty, hopeful words; they may save me yet," and she
followed the others, crying softly to herself like a little child.
It would seem as if every warm tear fell on her heart, that had
been so hard and desperate before, so rapidly did it melt at the
thought of the old man's kindness.
But before she reached the hotel she began to grow excessively
weary. She had not only overtaxed her powers of endurance, but
had over-estimated them.
At last, as she was about to ask her companions to walk more slowly,
lest she should be left alone by the roadside in her weakness, she
heard the sound of strong, rapid steps.
"Where is Miss Mayhew?" was the anxious query of a voice that made
her heart bound and color come into her face, even at the moment
of almost mortal weakness and weariness.
"Here is Miss Mayhew," said one of the half-grown youths. "She
prefers to walk by herself, it seems."
"Thank you," replied Van Berg, decisively. "I will see her safely
home;" and the part went on, leaving him face to face with the
maiden whom he now believed he had very greatly wronged, and who,
he feared might yet proved herself capable of a terrible crime.
She stood before him with bowed head. In her weakness and agitation
she trembled so violently that even in the starlight he could not
help seeing her distress, and it filled him at once with pity and
alarm.
"You are ill, Miss Mayhew," he said, anxiously.
"Yes," she answered; then, conscious of her growing need, she
said, appealingly, "Mr. Van Berg, with all my faults I am at least
a woman. Please help me home. I'm so weak and weary that I'm
almost ready to faint."
He seized her hand and faltered hoarsely, "Miss Mayhew, you have
not--you have not taken that drug---"
She was so vividly conscious of her own dark secret, and so
impressed by his power to discover all the evil in her nature, that
she replied in a low tone,
"Hush. I understand you. Not yet."
"Thank God!" he ejaculated, with such a deep sigh of relief that
she looked at him in surprise. The he drew her hand within his arm,
and weary as she was, she could not help noting that it trembled
as if he had an ague.
For a few moments they walked on without speaking. Then the artist
addressed her.
"Miss Mayhew---"
"Mr. Van Berg," she said, hastily interrupting him. "Spare me
to-night. I'm too weary even to think."
Again they walked on in silence, but his agitation was evidently
increasing.
"Let me enter by that side door, please," she said as they approached
the hotel.
"Miss Mayhew," he began in a low, hurried tone, "I must speak. You
said you were a woman. As such I appeal to you. A woman may, at
times, have no pity on herself, but it rarely happens that she is
pitiless towards others, and it is said that she is often the most
generous and merciful towards those who have wronged her. I have
wronged you cruelly and unpardonably. I knew it as soon as you
entered the parlor last evening. There is no excuse for me--I
will never forgive myself, but I do most sincerely apologize and
ask your forgiveness. Miss Mayhew, I appeal to your generosity--I
appeal to your woman's heart. If you should consummate the awful
purpose which I fear has been in your mind, I should go mad with
remorse. You would destroy me as surely as yourself. Pardon me for
speaking thus, but I fear so greatly--O God! can she have already
committed the fatal act?"
Ida's overtaxed powers had given way, and she would have fallen had
he not sustained her. His words had overwhelmed her, and, taken
in connection with those spoken by old Mr. Eltinge, had given a
glimpse of the awful abyss into which she had well nigh plunged,
dragging others, perhaps, after her. She recoiled from it all so
strongly that she became sick and faint from dread; and Van Berg
was compelled to support her to a rustic seat near the path. He
was bout to leave her in order to obtain assistance, when she put
her hand on his arm and gasped:
"Wait--give me time--I'll soon be better. Do not call any one, I
beg."
"Let me quietly bring you a little wine, then, from my own room?"
She bowed her assent.
The stimulant soon revived her. He stood at her side waiting with
intense anxiety till she should speak. At last she rose slowly
and weakly, saying in a low tone:
"Mr. Van Berg, I suppose I have now reached the lowest depth in
your estimation, but I cannot help it. I admit that I was in an
awful and desperate mood, and was about to act accordingly. There
is no use of trying to hid anything from you. But a good man spoke
kindly to me to-night, and the black spell is broken. There is
the drug I purchased," and she handed him the phial of laudanum.
"You many now dismiss all fears. I will explain further another
time if you care to hear. Please let me go in by myself."
"Pardon me for saying, no," he answered, gently. "I think I am
best able to-night to judge of what is right. You must go in at
the main entrance, and on my arm. Henceforward I shall treat you
with respect, and I intend that all others shall also."
With a low sob, she said, impulsively: "Oh, Mr. Van Berg, forgive
me! but that was my motive. I meant to compel your respect; and
I thought there was no other way. I thought that if I went to my
grave, instead of going to the man who attempted your life, you
would see that you had misjudged me. Here is a letter which I wrote
you. It should go with the poison. It is all that I can offer in
excuse or extenuation."
"Good God!" he exclaimed. "I have escaped a worse fate than yours
would have been," and she felt his arm again trembling violently
beneath her hand.
"I did not think you would care so greatly," she murmured.
"Miss Mayhew," he said, in a deep voice, "promise me, before God,
that you will never harbor such a thought again."
"I hope I never may," she replied, despondently, "but I've lost
all confidence in myself, Mr. Van Berg."
"Poor child! What a brute I've been," he muttered; but she heard
him.
As the mounted the piazza, they met Stanton and Mrs. Mayhew.
"Why, Ida," exclaimed her mother, "I thought you were in your room."
"I walked to the village with a party of young people," was her
hasty reply, "and Mr. Van Berg met me on our return. I'm very
tired. Good-night," and she went directly to her room.
The artist's manner in parting was polite and respectful, and by
this simple act, he did much to reinstate her in the social position
she had well nigh lost, through her supposed infatuation with the
man who was now a synonym in the house for everything that was
vile.
On the following day, through the aid of Miss Burton, he caused
the impression to be generally given that Miss Mayhew had been
exceedingly mortified that she had ever associated with such a
villain as Sibley had shown himself to be, and still more pained
to think that she should be imagined capable of any other feeling
save contempt for him, after learning of his disgraceful words and
actions. These explanations gave an entirely new aspect to the
matter, and sufficiently accounted for her increasing indisposition
and rather odd behavior. Indeed, people placed it to her credit
that she was so deeply affected, and were all the more inclined to
make amends for having misjudged her.
Mrs. Mayhew accompanied her daughter to her room, but Ida told her
that she was too weary to answer a single question, and that she
wished to be alone.
"Van, may I speak with you?" Stanton had asked, anxiously.
When they were sufficiently far from the house to ensure privacy
he began again: "Van, what's the matter? You were as white as if
you had seen a ghost."
"I'm not afraid of ghosts," said the artist, almost sternly, "but
there are things which I mortally fear, and chief among these are
blunders--stupid, irrational acts, but involving results that may
be beyond remedy. You and I have just made one that might have
cost us dear. Of course you will treat your cousin hereafter as
you please, but I most decidedly request that you do and say nothing
that involves any reference to me. I wish her to form her opinions
of my attitude towards her solely from her own observation."
"I think you are a trifle severe, but I suppose I deserve it," said
Stanton, stiffly.
"I admit that I am strongly moved. I do not excuse myself in the
least; and yet you know I was misled. I must tell you plainly that
Ida Mayhew is not a girl to be trifled with. I fear her mother
wholly fails in understanding her, and from what you yourself have
told me of her father, she has no help there. She has no brother,
and you should take the place of one, as far as possible. The
only right I have to speak thus is on the ground of the great wrong
I have done her, and for which I can never forgive myself. Miss
Mayhew and I are comparative strangers and our brief summer sojourn
here will soon be over. By mere accident facts have come to my
knowledge to-night which prove in the most emphatic manner, that
she requires kind, unobtrusive, but vigilant care. I never knew
of a girl who needed a brother more than she. She is not bad at
heart--far from it, but she is fearfully rash, and she is warped
by education, or its lack, and by the vile literature she has read,
to such a degree that she cannot see things in their true moral
aspects. I'll give you a plain hint, and then you must not ask me
anything further, for both you and I must be able to say that the
history of my last interview was never given. My hint is this--I
do not believe that self-destruction ever appeared to Miss Mayhew
as an awful and revolting crime. Her actual life, hitherto, has
been a round of frivolity. Only on the stage or in the absurd woes
of her stilted heroes and heroines, has she given any attention to
the sad and serious side of life. Men and women committing suicide
to slow music is the chief stock in trade in some quarters, and
when serious trouble came to her this devil's comedy had been robbed
of its horror by the clap-trap of stage effect. That is the only
way in which I can account for it all or excuse her. But the fact
that she recoiled from Sibley so strongly and felt the disgrace
of her association so keenly, proves that she possesses a true
woman's nature. But, as I said, she needs a brother's care. You
are nearest of kin, Stanton, and you must give it. Indeed, Ik,
pardon the freedom of an old friend whom circumstances have strangely
mixed up in this affair, I think you are honor-bound to give this
brother's protection; and you ARE a man of honor if you pass your
word."
"Do you--do you think there is still any danger that she will---"
"No; the danger is passed for this occasion; but you must guard
her from deep despondency or strong provocation in the future."
"The task you require is a difficult one. I doubt whether she ever
forgives me even."
"I think she will. I have also learned to-night that genuine
kindness and sympathy have great weight with her. Pledge me your
word that you will do the best you can."
"Well, Van, I suppose I ought--I will. But your words have quite
unnerved me."
"Unnerved! I'm worse than that. I feel as if I had passed through
a month's illness. Never breathe a whisper of all this to any one.
Good-night." And he strode away in the darkness.
Having reached a secluded spot, he ground the phial of laudanum
that Ida had given him under his heel with the vindictiveness with
which he would stamp out the life of a poisonous reptile.
Then he returned to his room and took out Ida's letter, but his
hands trembled so that he could scarcely open it. As he read, they
trembled still more, and his face became almost ashen in its hue.
He was so appalled at what might have happened that his heart seemed
for a second to cease its pulsations.
"Great God!" he said, in a hoarse whisper--"what an escape I've
had!"
Hour after hour passed, but he sat motionless, staring at the abyss
into which he had almost stumbled.
The song of a bird without reminded him that morning was near. He
drew the curtain and saw that the dawn was reddening the sky.
"Thank God," he cried, fervently, "for the escape we both have
had!"
Then, in order to throw off the horrible nightmare that had oppressed
him, he stole quietly out into the fresh, cool, dewy air.