On my return to my home, a few weeks after the events narrated in the
previous chapter, in pursuance of a promise made to Preston, I inserted
an advertisement in the papers, which read somewhat as follows:
'WANTED, a suitable person to go South, as governess in a planter's
family. She must be thoroughly educated, and competent to instruct
a boy of twelve. Such a one may apply by letter;' etc., etc.
A score of replies flowed in within the few following days, but being
excessively occupied with a mass of personal business, which had
accumulated in my absence, I laid them all aside, till more than one
week had elapsed. Then, one evening I took them home, and Kate and I
opened the batch. As each one was read by my wife or myself, we
commented on the character of the writers as indicated by the
handwriting and general style of the epistles. Rejecting about two
thirds as altogether unworthy of attention, we reserved the remaining
half dozen for a second inspection. Among these, the one with the
cramped, precise chirography was thought to come from an old maid.
Another, whose five lines of rail fence covered a sheet nearly as large
as a ten-acre lot, was the production of a strong-minded woman. A third,
on tinted paper, and dotted with blots and erasures, was from a fat
lady, who wore her shoes down at the heel, and got up too late for
breakfast. 'But here, Kate,' I exclaimed, as I opened the fourth
missive, 'this one, in this firm yet lady-like hand--this one will do.
Hear what it says:
SIR:--I think I can answer your requirements. A line addressed to
Catharine Walley, B----, N.H., with full particulars, will receive
immediate attention.
'That's the woman, Kate. A business man in petticoats! _She_ can manage
a boy of twelve!'
'Or a man of twice that age,' said Kate, quietly reading the letter. 'I
wouldn't have that woman in _my_ house.'
'Why not? She has character--take my word for it. Her letter is as short
and sweet as a 'promise to pay.''
'She has too much character, and not of the right sort. There is no
womanliness about her.'
'You women are always hard on your own sex. She'll have to manage Joe,
and she'll need to be half man to do that. I think I had better write
her to come here. I can tell what she is when I see her. I can read a
woman like a book.'
There was a slight twinkle in my wife's eyes when I said this, and she
made some further objections, but I overruled them; and, on the
following morning, dispatched a letter, inviting Miss Walley to the
city.
Returning to my office from ''Change,' one afternoon, a few days
afterward, I found a lady awaiting me. She rose as I entered, and gave
her name as Miss Walley. She was prepossessing and lady-like in
appearance, and there was a certain ease and self-possession in her
manner, which I was surprised to see in one directly from a remote
country town. She wore a plain gray dress, with a cape of the same
material; a straw hat, neatly trimmed with brown ribbon, and, on the
inside, a bunch of deep pink flowers, which gave a slight coloring to
her otherwise pale and sallow but intellectual face. Her whole dress
bespoke refinement and taste. She was tall and slender, with an almost
imperceptible stoop in the shoulders, indicative of a studious habit;
but you forgot this seeming defect in her easy and graceful movements.
Her brown hair was combed plainly over a rather low and narrow forehead;
her face was long and thin, and her small, clear gray eyes were shaded
by brown eyebrows meeting together, and, when she was talking earnestly,
or listening attentively, slightly contracting, and deepening her keen
and thoughtful expression. Her nose was long and rather prominent; and
her mouth and chin were large, showing character and will; but their
masculine expression was relieved by a short upper lip, which displayed
to full advantage the finest set of teeth I ever saw.
Referring at once to the object of her visit, she handed me a number of
credentials, highly commendatory of her character and ability as a
teacher. I glanced over them, and assured her they were satisfactory.
She then questioned me as to the compensation she would receive, and the
position of the family needing her services. Answering these inquiries,
I added that I was prepared to engage her on the terms I had named.
'I have been in receipt of the same salary as assistant in a school in
my native village, sir,' she replied; 'but what you say of the family of
Mr. Preston, and a desire to visit the South, will induce me to accept
the situation.'
'When will you be ready to go, madam?' I asked.
'At once, sir. To-day, if necessary.'
Surprised and yet pleased with her promptness, I said:
'And are you entirely ready to go so far on so short notice?'
'Yes, sir. The cars leave in the morning, I am told. I will start
then.'
'And alone?'
'Yes, sir. We Yankee girls are accustomed to taking care of ourselves.'
'I admire your independence. But you pass the night in town; you will, I
trust, spend it at my residence?'
'Thank you, sir.'
Ordering a carriage and stopping on the way at a hotel to get the single
trunk which contained her wardrobe, I conveyed her at once to my
residence.
After supper we all gathered in the parlor, and I set about entertaining
our guest. I had to make little effort to do that, for her conversation
soon displayed a knowledge of books and people, and a wit and keenness
of intellect, as decidedly entertained me. She was not only brilliant,
but agreeable; and in the course of the evening made some pleasant
overtures to the children. Frank, with a book in his hand, had drawn his
chair off to another part of the room, and showed, at first, uncommon
reserve for a lad of his warm and genial nature; but gradually, as if in
spite of himself, he edged his chair nearer to her. Our little 'four
year old,' however, resisting the offered temptation of watch and chain,
and even sugar-plums, repelled her advances, and hid his curly head only
the more closely in the folds of his mother's dress. Kate listened and
laughed, but I caught occasionally, as her eyes studied the visitor
attentively, a troubled expression, which I well understood. After a
while the lady expressed a readiness to retire that she might obtain the
rest needed for an early start by the morning train, and Kate conducted
her to her apartment.
I felt highly delighted with the idea of being able to send Mrs. Preston
so agreeable a companion, and not a little vexed with my wife for not
sharing my enthusiasm. When she returned to the parlor, I said:
'Kate, why do you not like her?'
'I can hardly tell _why_,' she replied, 'but my first impression is
confirmed. I would not trust her. Why does she go South for the same
salary she has had in New Hampshire?'
'Because she wants to see the world; she's a stirring Yankee woman.'
'No; because you told her of Mr. Preston's position in society; and
because she hopes to win a plantation and a rich planter.'
'Nonsense,' I replied. 'You misjudge her.'
'I tell you, Edmund, she is a cold, selfish, sordid woman; all
intellect, and no heart. If I had never seen her face, I should have
known that by her voice, and the shake of her hand.'
But it was too late--I had engaged her; and at seven o'clock on the
following morning she was on her way to the South.
I soon received information of her safe arrival at her destination, and
the warm thanks of Preston for having sent him so agreeable a person,
and one so well fitted to instruct his children.
* * * * *
The turpentine location was soon secured, and early in the following
spring, Joe, with about a hundred 'prime hands,' commenced operations in
the new field. Constantly increasing shipments soon gave evidence of the
energy with which the negro entered upon his work; and by the end of the
year, Preston had not only paid the advances we made on receiving the
deed of the land, but also the note I had given for the purchase of
Phyllis. For the first time in five years he was entirely out of our
debt.
The next season he hired a force of nearly two hundred negroes, and
generously gave Joe a small interest in the new business, with a view to
the black's ultimately buying his freedom. His transactions soon became
large and profitable both to him and to us. Shortly afterward he paid
off the last of his floating debt, and his balances in our hands grew
from nothing till they reached five and seven and often ten thousand
dollars.
But heavy affliction overtook him in the midst of his prosperity. His
wife and two eldest daughters were stricken down by a prevailing
epidemic, and died within a fortnight of each other. A letter which I
received from him at this time, will best relate these events. It was as
follows:
MY DEAR FRIEND:--I have sad, very sad news to tell you. A week ago
to-day I followed the remains of my beloved wife to the grave.
Overcome by watching with our children, and grief at their loss,
about three weeks since she took their disease, and sinking
rapidly, soon resigned her spotless spirit to the hands of her
MAKER. Overwhelmed by this treble affliction, I have not been able
to write you before. Even now I can hardly hold a pen. I am
perfectly paralyzed; I can neither act nor think--I can only
_feel_.
You, who have seen her in our home, can realize what she was to my
family, but none can know what she was to me: companion, friend,
guide! My stay and support through long years of trial, she is
taken from me just as prosperity is dawning on me, and I was hoping
to repay, by a life of devotion, some part of what she had borne
and suffered on my account. Another angel has been welcomed in
heaven, but I am left here alone--alone with my grief and my
remorse!
My son is inconsolable, and even little Selly seems to realize the
full extent of her loss. The poor little thing will not leave me
for a moment. She is now the only comfort I have. Miss Walley has
been unremitting in her kindness and attention, taking the burden
of everything upon herself. Indeed, I do not know what I should
have done without her.
Time may temper my affliction, but _now_, my dear friend, I am not
ROBERT PRESTON.
Nothing worthy of special mention occurred to the persons whose history
I am relating till about a year after the death of Mrs. Preston. Then,
one day late in the autumn, I received information of her husband's
approaching marriage with the governess. In the letter which invited me
to be present at the ceremony, Preston said: 'No one can ever fill the
place in my heart that is occupied, and ever will be occupied by the
memory of my sainted wife; but Miss Walley has rendered herself
indispensable to me and my family. My studious habits and ignorance of
business made me, as you know, even in my full health and strength, a
poor manager; and during the past year, grief has so broken my spirits
that I have been utterly unfitted for attending to the commonest duties.
But for Miss Walley, everything would have gone to waste and ruin. With
the efficiency of a business man, she has attended to my household,
overseen my plantation, and managed my entire affairs. In the first
moments of my bereavement, when grief so entirely overwhelmed me that I
saw no one, I did not know to what censurious remark her disinterested
devotion to my interests was subjecting her; but recently I have
realized the impropriety of a young, unmarried woman occupying the
position she holds in my household. Miss Walley, also, has felt this,
and some time since notified me, though with evident reluctance, that
she felt it imperatively necessary to leave my service. What, then,
could I do? My people needed a mistress; my children a mother. She was
both. Only one course seemed open, and after mature deliberation I
offered her my hand, frankly stating that my heart was with the angel
who, lost to me here, will be mine hereafter. Satisfied with my
friendship and esteem, she has accepted me; and we are to be married on
the 26th inst.; when I most sincerely trust that you, my dear friend,
and your estimable wife, will be present.
That night I took the letter home to my wife. She read it, and laying it
down, sadly said:
'Oh, Edmund! He is, indeed, 'among the rocks!''
* * * * *
Two years went by, and I did not meet Preston, but our business
relations kept us in frequent correspondence, and his letters
occasionally alluded to his domestic affairs.
Very soon after his marriage with the governess, his son went to live
with his uncle, Mr. James Preston, of Mobile, a wealthy bachelor, who
long before had expressed the intention of having the boy succeed to his
business and estate. 'Boss Joe' continued in charge of the turpentine
plantation, and had built him a house, and removed his wife and aged
mother to his new home. On one of my visits to the South I stopped
overnight with him, and was delighted with his model establishment. Two
hundred as cheerful-looking darkies as ever swung a turpentine axe, were
gathered in tents and small shanties around his neat log cabin, and Joe
seemed as happy as if he were governor of a province.
His operations had grown to such magnitude that Preston then ranked
among the largest producers of the North Carolina staple, and his
'account' had become one of the most valuable on our books. Though we
sent 'account currents' and duplicates of each 'account sales' to his
master, our regular 'returns' were made to Joe, and no one of our
correspondents held us to so strict an accountability, or so often
expressed dissatisfaction with the result of his shipments, as he.
'I thinks a heap of you, Mr. Kirke,' he said at the close of one of his
letters about this time; 'but the fact am, thar's no friendship in
trade, and you _did_ sell that lass pile of truck jess one day too
sudden.'