THE LOVERS.
Both mother and son made the homeward ride in silence. A wide space, a
deep gulf of time, separated them from the morning. The events of
the day had been so startling, so pregnant with compressed fate, the
emotions they had undergone had been so profound, so mixed of the
keenest elements of wonder, pain, and pride, that a feeling of
exhaustion succeeded. The old basis of their lives seemed to have
shifted, and the new foundations were not yet firm under their feet.
Yet, as they sat together before the hearth-fire that evening, and the
stern, proud calm of Gilbert's face slowly melted into a gentler and
tenderer expression, his mother was moved to speak.
“This has been my day,” she said; “it was appointed and set apart for me
from the first; it belonged to me, and I have used it, in my right, from
sun to sun. But I feel now, that it was not my own strength alone that
held me up. I am weak and weary, and it almost seems that I fail in
thanksgiving. Is it, Gilbert, because you do not rejoice as I had hoped
you would?”
“Mother,” he answered, “whatever may happen in my life, I can never feel
so proud of myself, as I felt to-day, to be your son. I do rejoice for
your sake, as I shall for my own, no doubt, when I get better used to
the truth. You could not expect me, at once, to be satisfied with a
father who has not only acted so cruelly towards you, but whom I have
suspected of being my own rival and enemy. I don't think I shall ever
like the new name as well as the old, but it is enough for me that the
name brings honor and independence to you!”
“Perhaps I ought to ha' told you this morning, Gilbert I thought only
of the justification, not of the trial; and it seemed easier to speak in
actions, to you and to all men at once, as I did, than to tell the story
quietly to you alone. I feared it might take away my strength, if I
didn't follow, step by step, the course marked out for me.”
“You were right, mother!” he exclaimed. “What trial had I, compared with
yours? What tale had I to tell--what pain to feel, except that if I
had not been born, you would have been saved twenty-five years of
suffering!”
“No, Gilbert!--never say, never think that! I see already the suffering
and the sorrow dying away as if they'd never been, and you left to me
for the rest of life the Lord grants; to me a son has been more than a
husband!”
“Then,” he asked in an anxious, hesitating tone, “would you consider
that I was not quite so much a son--that any part of my duty to you was
lost--if I wished to bring you a daughter, also?”.
“I know what you mean, Gilbert Betsy Lavender has told me all. I am glad
you spoke of it, this day; it will put the right feeling of thanksgiving
into my heart and yours. Martha Deane never stood between us, my boy; it
was I that stood between you and her!”
“Mother!” he cried, a joyous light shining from his face, “you love her?
You are willing that she should be my wife?”
“Ay, Gilbert; willing, and thankful, and proud.”
“But the very name of her struck you down! You fell into a deadly faint
when I told you I had spoken my mind to her!”
“I see, my boy,” she said; “I see now why you never mentioned her name,
from that time. It was not Martha Deane, but the name of the one
you thought wanted to win her away from you,--your father's name,
Gilbert,--that seemed to put a stop to my life. The last trial was the
hardest of all, but don't you see it was only the bit of darkness that
comes before the daylight?”
While this new happiness brought the coveted sense of thanksgiving to
mother and son, and spread an unexpected warmth and peace over the
close of the fateful day, there was the liveliest excitement in Kennett
Square, over Miss Lavender's intelligence. That lady had been waylaid by
a dozen impatient questioners before she could reach the shelter of Dr.
Deane's roof; and could only purchase release by a hurried statement
of the main facts, in which Alfred Barton's cruelty, and his wife's
wonderful fidelity to her oath, and the justice done to her and Gilbert
by the old man's will, were set forth with an energy that multiplied
itself as the gossip spread.
In the adjoining townships, it was reported and believed, the very next
day, that Alfred Barton had tried to murder his wife and poison his
father--that Mary had saved the latter, and inherited, as her reward,
the entire property.
Once safely housed, Miss Lavender enjoyed another triumph. She related
the whole story, in every particular, to Martha Deane, in the Doctor's
presence, taking especial care not to omit Alfred's words in relation to
his enforced wooing.
“And there's one thing I mustn't forgit, Martha,” she declared, at the
close of her narrative. “Gilbert sends word to you that he needs your
true-love more 'n ever, and he's comin' up to see you to-morrow; and
says I to him, The door's open, even accordin' to the Doctor's words;
and so it is, for he's got his true name, and free to come. You're a man
o' your word, Doctor, and nothin' 's been said or done, thank Goodness,
that can't be easy mended!”
What impression this announcement made upon Dr. Deane could not be
guessed by either of the women. He rose, went to the window, looked
into the night for a long time without saying a word, and finally betook
himself to his bed.
The next morning, although there were no dangerous cases on his hands,
he rode away, remarking that he should not be home again until the
evening. Martha knew what this meant, and also what Miss Lavender meant
in hurrying down to Fairthorn's, soon after the Doctor's departure.
She became restless with tender expectation; her cheeks burned, and her
fingers trembled so that she was forced to lay aside her needle-work. It
seemed very long since she had even seen Gilbert; it was a long time
(in the calendar of lovers) since the two had spoken to each other. She
tried to compare the man he had been with the man he now was,--Gilbert
poor, disgraced and in trouble, with Gilbert rich and honorably born;
and it almost seemed as if the latter had impoverished her heart by
taking from it the need of that faithful, passionate sympathy which she
had bestowed upon the former.
The long hour of waiting came to an end. Roger was once more tethered
at the gate, and Gilbert was in the room. It was not danger, this time,
beyond the brink of which they met, but rather a sudden visitation of
security; yet both were deeply and powerfully agitated. Martha was the
first to recover her composure. Withdrawing herself from Gilbert's arms,
she said,--
“It was not right that the tests should be all on my side. Now it is my
turn to try you, Gilbert!”
Even her arch, happy smile did not enlighten him. “How, Martha?” he
asked.
“Since you don't know, you are already tested. But how grave you look!
Have I not yet learned all of this wonderful, wonderful history? Did
Betsy Lavender keep something back?”
“Martha!” he cried, “you shame me out of the words I had meant to say.
But they were doubts of my own position, not of you. Is my new name
better or worse in your ears, than my old one?”
“To me you are only Gilbert,” she answered, “as I am Martha to you.
What does it matter whether we write Potter or Barton? Either is good in
itself, and so would any other name be; but Barton means something,
as the world goes, and therefore we will take it. Gilbert, I have put
myself in your place, since I learned the whole truth. I guessed you
would come to me with a strange, uncertain feeling,--not a doubt, but
rather a wonder; and I endeavored to make your new circumstances clear
to my mind. Our duty to your mother is plain; she is a woman beside
whom all other women we know seem weak and insignificant. It is not that
which troubled you, I am sure, when you thought of me. Let me say,
then, that so far as our relation to your father is concerned, I will be
guided entirely by your wishes.”
“Martha,” he said, “that _is_ my trouble,--or, rather, my
disappointment,--that with my true name I must bring to you and fasten
upon you the whole mean and shameful story! One parent must always be
honored at the expense of the other, and my name still belongs to the
one that is disgraced.”
“I foresaw your feeling, Gilbert. You were on the point of making
another test for me; that is not fair. The truth has come too
suddenly,--the waters of your life have been stirred too deeply; you
must wait until they clear. Leave that to Alfred Barton and your mother.
To me, I confess, he seems very weak rather than very bad. I can now
understand the pains which his addresses to me must have cost him. If
I ever saw fear on a man's face, it was on his when he thought I might
take him at his word. But, to a man like you, a mean nature is no better
than a bad one. Perhaps I feel your disappointment as deeply as you can;
yet it is our duty to keep this feeling to ourselves. For your mother's
sake, Gilbert; you must not let the value of her justification be
lessened in her eyes. She deserves all the happiness you and I can give
her, and if she is willing to receive me, some day, as a daughter”--
Gilbert interrupted her words by clasping her in his arms. “Martha!” he
exclaimed, “your heart points out the true way because it is true to the
core! In these things a woman sees clearer than a man; when I am with
you only, I seem to have proper courage and independence--I am twice
myself! Won't you let me claim you--take you--soon? My mother loves
you; she will welcome you as my wife, and will your father still stand
between us?”
Martha smiled. “My father is a man of strong will,” she said, “and it
is hard for him to admit that his judgment was wrong. We must give him a
little time,--not urge, not seem to triumph, spare his pride, and trust
to his returning sense of what is right. You might claim reparation,
Gilbert, for his cruel words; I could not forbid you; but after so much
strife let there be peace, if possible.”
“It is at least beyond his power,” Gilbert replied, “to accuse me of
sordid motives. As I said before, Martha, give up your legacy, if need
be, but come to me!”
“As _I_ said before, Gilbert, the legacy is honestly mine, and I will
come to you with it in my hands.”
Then they both began to smile, but it was a conflict of purpose which
drew them nearer together, in both senses,--an emulation of unselfish
love, which was compromised by clasping arms and silent lips.
There was a sudden noise in the back part of the house. A shrill voice
was heard, exclaiming,--“I will--I will! don't hold me!”--the door burst
open, and Sally Fairthorn whirled into the room, with the skirt of her
gown torn loose, on one side, from the body. Behind her followed Miss
Lavender, in a state of mingled amusement and anger.
Sally kissed Martha, then Gilbert, then threw an arm around the neck of
each, crying and laughing hysterically: “O Martha! O Gilbert! you'll
be married first,--I said it,--but Mark and I must be your bridesmaids;
don't laugh, you know what I mean; and Betsy wouldn't have me break in
upon you; but I waited half an hour, and then off, up here, she after
me, and we're both out o' breath! Did ever, ever such a thing happen!”
“You crazy thing!” cried Miss Lavender. “No, such a thing never
happened, and wouldn't ha' happened this time, if I'd ha' been a little
quicker on my legs; but never mind, it serves me right; you two are to
blame, for why need I trouble my head furder about ye? There's cases,
they say, where two's company, and three's overmuch; but you may fix
it for yourselves next time, and welcome; and there's one bit o' wisdom
I've got by it,--foller true-lovyers, and they'll wear your feet off,
and then want you to go on the stumps!”
“We won't relieve you yet, Betsy,” said Gilbert; “will we, Martha? The
good work you've done for us isn't finished.”
“Isn't finished. Well, you'll gi' me time to make my will, first. How
long d' ye expect me to last, at this rate? Is my bones brass and my
flesh locus'-wood? Am I like a tortle, that goes around the fields a
hundred years?”
“No,” Gilbert answered, “but you shall be like an angel, dressed all in
white, with roses in your hair. Sally and Mark, you know, want to be the
first bridesmaids”--
Sally interrupted him with a slap, but it was not very violent, and he
did not even attempt to dodge it.
“Do you hear, Betsy?” said Martha. “It must be as Gilbert says.”
“A pretty fool you'd make o' me,” Miss Lavender remarked, screwing up
her face to conceal her happy emotion.
Gilbert soon afterwards left for home, but returned towards evening,
determined, before all things, to ascertain his present standing with
Dr. Deane. He did not anticipate that the task had been made easy for
him; but this was really the case. Wherever Dr. Deane had been that day,
whoever he had seen, the current of talk all ran one way. When the first
surprise of the news had been exhausted, and the Doctor had corrected
various monstrous rumors from his own sources of positive knowledge, one
inference was sure to follow,--that now there could be no objection
to his daughter becoming Gilbert Barton's wife. He was sounded, urged,
almost threatened, and finally returned home with the conviction
that any further opposition must result in an immense sacrifice of
popularity.
Still, he was not ready to act upon that conviction, at once. He met
Gilbert with a bland condescension, and when the latter, after the first
greeting, asked,--
“Have I now the right to enter your house?”
The Doctor answered,--
“Certainly. Thee has kept thy word, and I will willingly admit that I
did thee wrong in suspecting thee of unworthy devices. I may say, also,
that so far as I was able to judge, I approved of thy behavior on the
day of thy grandfather's funeral. In all that has happened heretofore, I
have endeavored to act cautiously and prudently; and thee will grant, I
doubt not, that thy family history is so very far out of the common way,
as that no man could be called upon to believe it without the strongest
evidence. Of course, all that I brought forward against thee now falls
to the ground.”
“I trust, then,” Gilbert said, “that you have no further cause to forbid
my engagement with Martha. My mother has given her consent, and we both
hope for yours.”
Dr. Deane appeared to reflect, leaning back in his chair, with his cane
across his knees. “It is a very serious thing,” he said, at last,--“very
serious, indeed. Not a subject for hasty decision. Thee offered, if I
remember rightly, to give me time to know thee better; therefore thee
cannot complain if I were now disposed to accept thy offer.”
Gilbert fortunately remembered Martha's words, and restrained his
impatience.
“I will readily give you time, Dr. Deane,” he replied, “provided you
will give me opportunities. You are free to question all who know me, of
course, and I suppose you have done so. I will not ask you to take the
trouble to come to me, in order that we may become better acquainted,
but only that you will allow me to come to you.”
“It would hardly be fair to deny thee that much,” said the Doctor.
“I will ask no more now. I never meant, from the first, to question your
interest in Martha's happiness, or your right to advise her. It may
be too soon to expect your consent, but at least you'll hold back your
refusal?”
“Thee's a reasonable young man, Gilbert,” the Doctor remarked, after
a pause which was quite unnecessary. “I like that in thee. We are both
agreed, then, that while I shall be glad to see thee in my house, and
am willing to allow to Martha and thee the intercourse proper to a young
man and woman, it is not yet to be taken for granted that I sanction
your desired marriage. Remember me kindly to thy mother, and say, if
thee pleases, that I shall soon call to see her.”
Gilbert had scarcely reached home that evening, before Deb. Smith, who
had left the farm-house on the day following the recovery of the money,
suddenly made her appearance. She slipped into the kitchen without
knocking, and crouched down in a corner of the wide chimney-place,
before she spoke. Both mother and son were struck by the singular
mixture of shyness and fear in her manner.
“I heerd all about it, to-day,” she presently said, “and I wouldn't ha'
come here, if I'd ha' knowed where else to go to. They're after me, this
time, Sandy's friends, in dead earnest; they'll have my blood, if they
can git it; but you said once't you'd shelter me, Mr. Gilbert!”
“So I will, Deborah!” he exclaimed; “do you doubt my word?”
“No, I don't; but I dunno how't is--you're rich now, and as well-born as
the best of 'em, and Mary's lawful-married and got her lawful name; and
you both seem to be set among the folks that can't feel for a body like
me; not that your hearts is changed, only it comes different to me,
somehow.”
“Stay here, Deborah, until you feel sure you're safe,” said Mary. “If
Gilbert or I should refuse to protect you, your blood would be upon our
heads. I won't blame you for doubting us; I know how easy it is to lose
faith in others; but if you think I was a friend to you while my name
was disgraced, you must also remember that I knew the truth then as well
as the world knows it now.”
“Bless you for sayin' that, Mary! There wasn't much o' my name at any
time; but what little I might ha' had is clean gone--nothin' o' me left
but the strong arm! I'm not a coward, as you know, Mr. Gilbert; I'll
meet any man, face to face, in a fair and open fight. Let 'em come in
broad day, and on the high road!--not lay in wait in bushes and behind
fences, to shoot me down unawares.”
They strove to quiet her fears, and little by little she grew composed.
The desperate recklessness of her mood contrasted strangely with her
morbid fear of an ambushed enemy. Gilbert suspected that it might be a
temporary insanity, growing out of her remorse for having betrayed Sandy
Flash. When she had been fed, and had smoked a pipe or two, she seemed
quite to forget it, and was almost her own self when she went up to her
bed in the western room.
The moon, three quarters full, was hanging over the barn, and made a
peaceful, snowy light about the house. She went to the window, opened
it, and breathed the cool air of the April night. The “herring-frogs”
were keeping up an incessant, birdlike chirp down the glen, and nearer
at hand the plunging water of the mill-race made a soothing noise. It
really seemed that the poor creature had found a quiet refuge at last.
Suddenly, something rustled and moved behind the mass of budding lilacs,
at the farther corner of the garden-paling. She leaned forward; the
next moment there was a flash, the crack of a musket rang sharp and loud
through the dell, followed by a whiz and thud at her very ear. A
thin drift of smoke rose above the bushes, and she saw a man's figure
springing to the cover of the nearest apple-tree. In another minute,
Gilbert made his appearance, gun in hand.
“Shoot him, Gilbert!” cried Deb. Smith; “it's Dougherty!”
Whoever it was, the man escaped; but by a singular coincidence, the
Irish ostler disappeared that night from the Unicorn tavern, and was
never again seen in the neighborhood.
The bullet had buried itself in the window-frame, after having passed
within an inch or two of Deb. Smith's head. [Footnote: The hole made by
the bullet still remains in the window-frame of the old farm-house.]
To Gilbert's surprise, all her fear was gone; she was again fierce and
defiant, and boldly came and went, from that night forth, saying that no
bullet was or would be cast, to take her life.
Therein she was right; but it was a dreary life and a miserable
death which awaited her. For twenty-five years she wandered about the
neighborhood, achieving wonders in spinning, reaping and threshing, by
the undiminished force of her arm, though her face grew haggard and her
hair gray; sometimes plunging into wild drinking-bouts with the rough
male companions of her younger days; sometimes telling a new generation,
with weeping and violent self-accusation, the story of her treachery;
but always with the fearful conviction of a yet unfulfilled curse
hanging over her life. Whether it was ever made manifest, no man could
tell; but when she was found lying dead on the floor of her lonely
cabin on the Woodrow farm, with staring, stony eyes, and the lines of
unspeakable horror on her white face, there were those who recalled her
own superstitious forebodings, and believed them.