Leonard opened his door and stole towards that of the room adjoining;
for his first natural impulse had been to enter and console. But when
his touch was on the handle, he drew back. Child, though the mourner
was, her sorrows were rendered yet more sacred from intrusion by her
sex. Something, he knew not what, in his young ignorance, withheld him
from the threshold. To have crossed it then would have seemed to him
profanation. So he returned, and for hours yet he occasionally heard
the sobs, till they died away, and childhood wept itself to sleep.
But the next morning, when he heard his neighbor astir, he knocked
gently at her door: there was no answer. He entered softly, and saw
her seated very listlessly in the centre of the room--as if it had no
familiar nook or corner as the rooms of home have--her hands drooping
on her lap, and her eyes gazing desolately on the floor. Then he
approached and spoke to her.
Helen was very subdued, and very silent. Her tears seemed dried up;
and it was long before she gave sign or token that she heeded him. At
length, however, he gradually succeeded in rousing her interest; and
the first symptom of his success was in the quiver of her lip, and the
overflow of the downcast eyes.
By little and little he wormed himself into her confidence; and she
told him, in broken whispers, her simple story. But what moved him the
most was, that, beyond her sense of loneliness, she did not seem to
feel her own unprotected state. She mourned the object she had nursed,
and heeded, and cherished; for she had been rather the protectress
than the protected to the helpless dead. He could not gain from her
any more satisfactory information than the landlady had already
imparted, as to her friends and prospects; but she permitted him
passively to look among the effects her father had left--save only
that if his hand touched something that seemed to her associations
especially holy, she waved him back, or drew it quickly away. There
were many bills receipted in the name of Captain Digby--old yellow
faded music-scores for the flute--extracts of Parts from Prompt
Books--gay parts of lively comedies, in which heroes have so noble a
contempt for money--fit heroes for a Sheridan and a Farquhar; close by
these were several pawnbroker's tickets; and, not arrayed smoothly,
but crumpled up, as if with an indignant nervous clutch of the old
helpless hands, some two or three letters. He asked Helen's permission
to glance at these, for they might give a clue to friends. Helen gave
the permission by a silent bend of the head. The letters, however,
were but short and freezing answers from what appeared to be distant
connections or former friends, or persons to whom the deceased had
applied for some situation. They were all very disheartening in their
tone. Leonard next endeavored to refresh Helen's memory as to the name
of the nobleman which had been last on her father's lips, but there he
failed wholly. For it may be remembered that Lord L'Estrange, when he
pressed his loan on Mr. Digby, and subsequently told that gentleman to
address him at Mr. Egerton's, had, from a natural delicacy, sent the
child on, that she might not hear the charity bestowed on the father;
and Helen said truly, that Mr. Digby had sunk into a habitual silence
on all his affairs latterly. She might have heard her father mention
the name, but she had not treasured it up; all she could say was, that
she should know the stranger again if she met him, and his dog too.
Seeing that the child had grown calm, Leonard was then going to leave
the room, in order to confer with the hostess, when she rose suddenly,
though noiselessly, and put her little hand in his, as if to detain
him. She did not say a word--the action said all--said "Do not desert
me." And Leonard's heart rushed to his lips, and he answered to the
action as he bent down and kissed her cheek, "Orphan, will you go with
me? We have one Father yet to both of us, and He will guide us on
earth. I am fatherless like you." She raised her eyes to his--looked
at him long--and then leant her head confidingly on his strong young
shoulder.