BACK TO THE HOMESTEAD.
Elizabeth broke loose at last, and darted off, leaving the man-servant
far behind. Across the greenwood in front of the meeting-house, over
hillocks and between frowning stumps, littered around with new-made
chips, which flew beneath the spurning hoofs of her horse, she rode, her
eyes kindling, and her heart on fire with the joy of a first return
home.
Up she came to the door-yard fence, cast one eager glance around,
expecting some one to rush forth and welcome her; then, seeing that all
was still, she sprang from her saddle and ran into the house, calling
out,
"Cousin Abby! Abby Williams, I say, where are you? Don't you know that
I've got home? Abby! Abby!--Tituba! Tituba! Dear me! where has everybody
gone?"
She stood in the little sitting-room, looking around in breathless
expectation. She ran into the kitchen: old Tituba was there, kindling
the fire.
"Tituba, mammy dear, dear old mammy!" cried the young girl, springing
forward, dropping upon her knees, and hugging the old woman with all her
might.
"Oh! did I surprise you, mammy? Caught you napping, ha? How glad I am to
see you, dear, blessed old soul! Why don't you speak? Why don't you kiss
me to death? There, that seems something like. Now, where is cousin
Abby? And how have you all got along without me? And where is the fawn?
I've got a new bell for him--and--and--"
Here the warm-hearted young creature burst into an April storm of smiles
and tears, while old Tituba untied her stylish bonnet, and took off her
riding-cape with a sort of shy humility, for the entire love of nurse
and child had been broken up, on the old woman's part, by the confidence
which she had reposed in Abby Williams, during the absence of her young
mistress. Somehow the old creature felt as if she had been wronging the
young girl who came back so frankly and kindly to her arms, by her
conversation that night with her cousin.
"What ails you, mammy Tituba? What on earth makes you look everywhere
except in my face? Indeed you don't seem half glad enough to see me!"
"Oh, yes, how can the child talk so!" cried the old woman, with a great
effort at self-control. "But with all these fine clothes on, and that
bonnet; dear me, one hardly knows one's own child. Then, my dear, you've
grown so proud and so handsome, it's enough to make an old Indian think
twice before she dares to kiss you, rough and hearty, in the old way."
"Poh--poh. I'm always the same old penny, brightened up a little, that's
all," said Elizabeth, blushing crimson. "So you think I am
changed--improved a little," she added, glancing down at herself with
graceful vanity. "What will cousin Abby think, I wonder? Oh! there she
is."
Elizabeth darted forward, and threw her arms around the neck of Abigail
Williams, so blinded by the joy of meeting her old playmate again that
she did not observe the restraint with which all her enthusiasm was met.
At the time of their first parting, three months before, these two girls
had never possessed an unshared thought; but now the hearts that beat
against each other, in that close embrace, were swelling with secrets
which could never be thoroughly understood. In that little time
childhood had been left behind, and each had learned to tread alone the
path, which, at this point, began, with them, to diverge into the
wilderness of life.
But the old love would come swelling back, spite of the thoughts that
lay in its channel, like rocks cast into the bed of a stream, which
sparkles all the more from the obstruction.
"Abby--Elizabeth."
How different were the voices that uttered these words! Elizabeth's was
loving and brimful of affection; that of Abby Williams answered it
almost with pathos; both wept, one bitterly, the other with quick gushes
of joy.
"Oh, Abby, Abby, I have so much to tell you," cried Elizabeth, blushing
crimson under the tears that trembled on her cheek. "Don't ask me what
it is yet, only wait a little, till we get into the woods together. Come
along, here is father just getting off his horse at the door, with Gov.
Phipps's servant doing the pompous in his new livery. Step into the
entry way, or he will feel disappointed, as I did, at not seeing your
face peeping out through the morning-glory vines."
Elizabeth felt the heart, which had been beating strongly against her
own, recoil with a sudden shock, as she mentioned her father; and it was
almost by force that she drew her cousin into the doorway in time to
meet the minister, who came through the gate with his usual hesitating
slowness, and held out his hand, gravely smiling as he approached his
niece.
Her hand shook like an aspen, as she held it out, and the touch was cold
as ice. But the minister simply said,
"Is any thing ailing you, Abigail?" and passing on, he hung his hat on a
peg in the wall, and placed his riding-whip behind the door.
With a sudden impulse, Abby drew her cousin out on the stepping-stone,
leaving the passage open.
"Come, come into the woods," whispered Elizabeth, clasping her cousin
round the waist, and drawing her gently along. "I want to get into the
shadows, where we can talk together."
Abby drew a deep breath, and hurried on, more eager to leave the house
than her companion; for she was faint from the recoil of her whole
nature against the old man, who had been more than a father to her.
Ready to flee anywhere to avoid the touch of that hand again, she
hurried with her cousin to the woods.
So the two sped on, across the meeting-house green, by the tomb-stones
rising from the tall grass behind it, and past those twin graves over
which the old trees bent their whispering boughs. Elizabeth would have
turned that way, for the vines were quivering with dew-drops, and the
periwinkles trembled like cerulean stars among them, so deeply did the
shadows lie there almost till noonday. But Abby hurried on, turning her
eyes resolutely from the spot, and almost forcing her cousin into the
gloom of the woods.
There was a ledge of rocks piled along the side of a ravine, choked up
by dogwood trees, sassafras, and wild honeysuckles, on which the girls
had loved to play from childhood up. A lofty tulip tree sheltered it,
and above that towered a hill-side, clothed with great hemlocks, through
which the sun never penetrated, save in golden gleams that lost
themselves in the topmost boughs. The different ledges of this little
precipice were not only lined, but absolutely piled, with moss, which
lay beautifully thick all around. On one shelf it lay in cushions, green
as emerald, and soft as Genoa velvet; then another species, bright and
feathery as the plumage of a bird, crept over a huge old log that lay in
a parallel line with the edge, embroidering it with green lace-work,
till there was a wild wood sofa erected by this simple freak of nature,
more luxurious than the couch of an empress.
"See, see, how far the moss has crept since we were here before," cried
Elizabeth, throwing herself on the sofa. "When I went away, that end of
the log was bare; now every inch is green. See, all along the ledge at
our feet, the buckthorn moss has spread into a crisp carpet; and the
wild columbines have grown in a border all around it. Why, Lady Phipps's
drawing-room is not prettier."
"Yes," said Abby, looking vaguely around. "Every thing has grown and
thrives since you went away, Elizabeth; but the place does not look so
beautiful to me, as it did once; the loneliness seems dreary."
"Yes, yes, of course; then I was away. But now the woods will be
cheerful as spring time again. Sit down, cousin. Why will you stand
there, tall and still, like a ghost, when the moss fleeces are so soft
and the shadows so cool? It is pleasant as sunset here. One almost gets
sleepy, with the hum of the bees and blue flies. Come, sit close by me:
I feel lonesome without your arm around my neck, cousin Abby."
Those tones, and that dear old name, brought quick tears into Abigail's
eyes. She drew gently to the side of her cousin, and sat down. As
Elizabeth clasped her waist, the bosom beneath her arm began to heave;
and all at once Abby burst into a great fit of crying: the first
absolute storm of passion that Elizabeth had ever seen her yield to.
"What is the matter, Abby dear? What are you crying for? How you
tremble! What have they been doing to you, while I was away? Don't,
pray, don't cry so!"
Abigail checked her tears as suddenly as they had commenced; and
clasping her hands hard for a single instant, seemed to control her
nerves by stern, mental force.
"Don't mind me," she said, hoarsely. "I have been alone so much--but you
had something to tell me--about Lady Phipps, perhaps, or the governor;
of course they were delighted to have you with them; come, tell me all
about it; one gets so little real information from letters."
"Oh! I could not write, at least what I wished to tell you, any more
than I could talk it all over in broad daylight. Besides, one must see a
rainbow to judge how its colors rise out of each other; there is no
describing it; and some things, that one knows and feels, are the same.
The best friend you have must guess at them."
"What is it you speak of?" questioned Abby, gradually withdrawing
herself from the clasp of her cousin's arm. "I do not understand. In
this visit to Lady Phipps, have you been crushed down with secrets that
must not be talked of? Has the memory of your mother stalked forth like
a curse to haunt you?"
"The memory of my mother, the young creature who died when I was first
laid in her bosom like a poor little flower broken by a sudden weight of
dew, as I have often heard my father say!--What should there be in the
memory of my mother which you and I cannot talk about?"
"Nothing," said Abigail, vaguely. "Were we talking of--our mothers? It
is a dreary subject; let us think of something else. God help
us!--something else, Elizabeth--the woods are too lonesome for talk
about the dead. You were about to tell me something."
"Yes! but I cannot tell it; your voice is so strange! You look afar off,
as if talking to some one in the distance. I can neither catch your
eyes, nor feel the old touch of your hand. Abigail Williams, I am afraid
of you!"
The low laugh, which broke from Abigail's lips, was mournful as a wail.
"There it is. I knew it, I expected it: not an hour together, and she
fears me already."
She turned abruptly, drew close to her cousin's side, and stealing both
arms around her, murmured in a voice of ineffable sadness,
"Don't, Bessy--dear, dear Bessy, don't be afraid of me. Is it not enough
that I am afraid of myself? Now, tell me what this thing is! So that it
is not about the dead, I can listen and be pleased."
"About the dead? Why, Abby, how strangely you talk! What have you and I
in common with the dead? The sunshine is not pleasanter than life is to
me since, since--"
"Since when, Bessie?"
"Since he loved me."
A strange sort of wonder crept over Abigail Williams. She looked upon
her cousin with vague apprehension. The word love was a new thing to
her; it had scarcely yet entered into her dreamy life. Elizabeth smiled
at first amid her blushes, but as Abby kept gazing upon her with parted
lips and that wonder in her eyes, her lips began to tremble, and the
warm color ebbed away from her face.
"I forget," she said, deprecatingly, "you have not heard any thing about
him. I could not write, and even my father knew nothing till he came to
Boston after me. But oh! if you could see him, Abby! If you could hear
him speak; or read his beautiful poetry that he writes; it would not
seem strange that I love him so much."
"Then you have been treacherous also? You love some one more than me?"
"Forgive me, forgive me," pleaded Elizabeth, "I could not help it. We
were in the same house--he was like a son to Lady Phipps."
"Better than your father, perhaps," continued Abby, pondering over this
new subject in her mind, heedless of the tears and blushes with which
she was regarded. "I have heard of such things, but never expected them
to come so close. So you love some one better than us all, Elizabeth
Parris?"
"Forgive me, dear cousin! Why are you so angry?"
"Angry? Oh! nothing of the kind. I only wonder how any one can look
forward, when the dead will not rest--how it is the privilege of one
human being to love, and the duty of another to hate!"
"The duty of another to hate!--why, cousin, there is--there can be no
such duty. God is love, the Bible tells us so; and oh! when the heart is
full of this blessed, blessed feeling, one sees him everywhere. Don't
talk of hate, it is a new word between us two."
Abigail Williams attempted to smile, but only a quiver of the pale lips
followed the effort. Still she grew more composed, and gently won her
warm-hearted cousin back to bright thoughts again, by a few questions.
"His name? Oh, yes--his name is Norman--Norman Lovel--he is the private
secretary of Gov. Phipps, who treats him like a son. He lives in the
house, and but for his name you would never believe that he was in no
way related to the governor. Still he is only a stranger, recommended by
some friend in London, and singular enough don't know his own parents.
Never saw them, or anybody that he knew was related to him in his whole
life. But what difference does that make, when everybody else almost
worships him?"
"And you among the rest?"
"I most of all," answered Elizabeth, bathed in a glow of crimson, from
the white forehead to the heaving bosom.
"And this is happiness, I suppose?"
"Happiness? That is what seems strange to me, when life is full of glow,
and I can hardly breathe from the rich swell of a heart that seems ready
to break with joy, an exquisite pain creeps in, and I know by it that
happiness can mount no farther!"
"But there must be a cause for this pain!"
"A cause? Yes! every thing must have a cause, I dare say, if one could
but find it out. I only know that the joy was perfect till that storm
arose, and the ship came in with a woman on board, who seemed to disturb
every thing she looked upon. Even Lady Phipps never seemed to draw a
deep breath while she was in the house. As for me! Abby, Abby, you don't
know what torment is, till you have given your whole heart to one
person, and see another stealing him away from you!"
"This," said Abby, who had listened with thoughtful interest, "this is
the feeling they call jealousy, I suppose. Is it so painful?"
"For a time," answered Elizabeth, turning pale with the very
recollection of her suffering, "it seemed as if I must die. Shame,
anger, a keen fear of losing him, kept me silent. But when I was alone,
with the door shut, and the curtains of my bed drawn close, all this
pride and strength gave way; my brain grew hot; the very breath choked
me as it rose; I could neither sleep nor rest, but walked the room all
night, wondering if she thought of him too, if he were watching the
light in her window, or if both were asleep and dreaming of each other.
Sometimes I saw them in the garden, conversing together with the deepest
interest; sometimes they sat in the great portico till the dark crept
around them like a veil; and all this time I was overlooked and
forgotten. Once in a while Norman would seem to remember me with a
start, and force himself to say a few kind words; but there was neither
depth nor earnestness in what he said: the woman had bewitched him, I am
sure of it."
"Bewitched? That is a fearful word," said Abby, looking around with a
wild stare, as if the very foundations of her life had been disturbed by
the word her cousin used.
"Yes, Abby, I solemnly believe she was a witch; for the moment she was
gone all the beauty of my life came back; Norman was himself again; he
seemed to wake up from a dream and wonder what he had been about; at
first, he would not believe how much I suffered, and wondered that I had
grown thin, and that blue shadows were creeping under my eyes, as if his
own neglect had not been the cause; but when Lady Phipps told him how it
was--I would have died fifty times rather than let him know--nothing
could be more generous than his sorrow. He begged my pardon almost on
his knees. There was no kind look or sweet word that he did not coin
into a more loving expression, to win me back to our old happiness."
"And you were happy then?--you are happy now?" said Abby, looking
wistfully into the bright face, over which smiles and blushes came and
went like gleams of sunset on a summer cloud.
"Happy? yes, he parted with me so kindly--he was so earnest to make me
forget that dangerous woman, who had disappeared from among us like a
ghost--he seemed to love me again so much more than ever, that I could
not help being happy. Besides, he is coming down to see us. I have told
him all about you, darling cousin. Father has consented that in a year
or two, if we do not change our minds, that is--"
"He will take you away altogether; and this has happened while I was
ignorant of it all. Oh, Elizabeth! how many things can grow up to divide
two souls, while one of the little wild-flowers yonder buds, blossoms,
and fades away!"
"But no souls are divided here, Abby!" cried the young girl, earnestly.
"The love that I feel for you and father only grows broader and deeper
since I have known him. We are not parted, cousin."
"Not by love. I know that!"
"Not at all. Look at me, cousin Abby! how strangely you are peering into
the distance, as if something in the gloom drew your eyes from my face!
What is it you see, cousin?"
Elizabeth bent forward, and looked keenly in the direction her cousin's
eyes had taken. Far down the hollow she saw the young hunter whose
presence had surprised her on the road a few hours before.
"Hush, Abby! Don't speak yet; but look and tell me who he is?"
As she spoke, Elizabeth leaned forward till her golden curls took the
wind and fluttered out like sunbeams on the air. The man saw her, turned
and disappeared among the undergrowth of the hollow.
"Did you ever see him before?" questioned Elizabeth of her cousin, as
she shrunk back with a sort of superstitious dread, for the man had
vanished like a phantom; "or have the woods become haunted since I went
away?"
Abby Williams started up with nervous haste. "Come, come, you must be
hungry by this time: it is almost noon; old Tituba will be waiting, and
you know nothing makes her so angry as leaving her Johnny-cake to be
eaten cold. She will never forgive us."
Elizabeth sighed. A pang of disappointment came across her sunny nature.
Why was Abby so changed? How had it happened that a confession, which
she had shrunk from and dreamed over, should have been told in that
hard, common-place fashion? Why were the sweet tidings which had cost
her so much agitation received so coldly by the only creature who had
never till then felt a thought or feeling unshared with her?
"Well," she said, and her bright eyes filled as she spoke, while a laugh
that had bitter tones in it rose to her lip, "I did not think you would
have taken all this so coldly. But never mind; as you say, Tituba's
Johnny-cake must not get cold."
With a slight bound she reached the shelf of rock below her, and hurried
away, followed by Abigail Williams, who stopped every other moment to
look anxiously around, but still kept near her cousin.
"There he is--I say, Abby--there he is again, moving through that
dogwood thicket," said Elizabeth, holding her breath, and speaking in a
whisper.
"Be quiet; it is only a hunter searching for deer or wild turkeys."
As she spoke, Abigail made a quick signal with her hand, which sent the
young woodranger into covert again.
"Who is he? What is the reason we never saw him before?" thought
Elizabeth, as she moved homeward; but the silence of her cousin
encouraged no questions, and the two girls reached the house without
speaking of the stranger again.