"He is gone?"
"Yes."
"I am so very glad!" she said, with emphasis, while something like a
smile lighted up her countenance. "This gives me a respite, at least. If
he is prudent"--she checked herself, and giving me a grateful glance,
exclaimed, "I am so much obliged to you."
"Nobody could be more welcome, I am sure, to so slight a service. I
shall hope now to see you getting well."
"O, yes," she answered, "I must get well; there is so much to do. But my
classes and my writing must be dropped for a while, I presume, unless
the doctor will let me take in some of my scholars, for, of course, I
cannot go out."
"Your arm must begin to heal before you can think of teaching, ever so
little. I have an idea, Miss Jorgensen, from what you have said of
yourself, that this necessity for repose, which is forced upon you, will
prove to be an excellent thing. Certainly, you were wearing out very
fast with your incessant labor."
"Perhaps so--I mean, perhaps inforced rest will not be bad for me; but,
O, there is such need to work! I can so poorly afford to be idle."
"What you say relieves my mind of a suspicion, which at first I
harbored, that the firing of that mischievous pistol was not wholly
accidental. I now see you wish to live and work. But why had you such a
weapon about you? Are you accustomed to fire-arms?"
"The mischief this one did me shows that I am not; and my having it
about me came from a fear I had of its doing worse mischief in the hands
of Mr. Hurst."
"Are affairs so desperate with him?"
"Please don't question me. I cannot answer you satisfactorily. Mr. Hurst
is in trouble, and the least that is said or known about him is the
best. And yet you wonder, no doubt, that I should interest myself about
a man who is compelled to act the part of a culprit. Well, I cannot tell
you why at present; and it would be a great relief to know that you
thought nothing more about it." This last she uttered rather petulantly,
which warned me that this conversation was doing her no good.
"Believe, then," I said, "that I have no interest in your affairs,
except the wish to promote your welfare. And I think I may venture to
affirm that everybody in the house is equally at your service when you
wish to command him or her."
"Thank you all; but I do not deserve your kindness; I have been so
ill-tempered. The truth is I cannot afford to have friends; friends pry
into one's affairs so mercilessly. Mrs. Mason tells me there is a new
boarder," she said, suddenly changing the subject.
I assented, and gave what I intended to be an amusing account of the
new-comers' conversation and manners.
"Was there anything said about me at dinner?" she asked, with a painful
consciousness of the opinion I might have of such a question.
"I do not think there was. We were all so taken up with the latest
acquisition that we forgot you for the time."
"May I ask this favor of you, to keep the conversation away from me as
much as possible? I am morbidly sensitive, I presume," she said, with a
poor attempt at a smile, "and I cannot keep from fancying, while I lie
here, what you are saying about me in the dining-room or parlor."
Of course, I hastened to disavow any disposition on the part of the
family to make her a subject of conversation, and even promised to
discountenance any reference to her whatever, if thereby she would be
made more comfortable; after which I bade her good-night, having
received the assurance that my visit had relieved her mind of several
torturing apprehensions.
The more I saw and thought of Miss Jorgensen, the more she interested
and puzzled me. I should have inclined to the opinion that she was a
little disturbed at times in her intellect, had it not been that there
was apparent so much "method in her madness;" this reflection always
bringing me back at last to the conclusion that her peculiarities could
all be accounted for upon the hypothesis she herself presented; too much
work and some great anxiety. The spectacle of this human mite fighting
the battle of life, not only for herself but for the strong man who
should have been her protector, worked so upon my imagination and my
sympathy that I found it difficult to keep the little woman out of my
thoughts.
I kept my word to her, discountenancing, as far as I could, the
discussion of her affairs, and in this effort Mrs. Mason co-operated
with me; but it was practically impossible to prevent the inquiries and
remarks of those of the family who were not so well informed concerning
her as we were. The new boarder, also, with that quick apprehension he
had of every subject, had caught enough to become interested in the
patient up-stairs, and daily made some inquiries concerning her
condition, and, as it appeared to me--grown a little morbid, like Miss
Jorgensen--was peculiarly adroit in extracting information.
Three weeks slipped away, and Miss Jorgensen had passed the most painful
period of suppuration and healing in her arm, and had promised to come
down-stairs next day to dine with the family. Mrs. Mason had just
communicated the news to us in her cheeriest tones, as if each
individual was interested in it, and was proceeding to turn out our
coffee, when a servant brought in the letters for the house and laid
them beside the tray, directly under the eye of the new boarder, who sat
on the landlady's left.
"'Miss Jorgensen," said he, reading the address of the topmost one. "A
very peculiar handwriting." Then taking up the letter, as if to further
examine the writing, I observed that he was studying the postmark as
well, which, being offended at his unmannerly curiosity, I sincerely
hoped was illegible. But that it was only too fatally plain will soon
appear.
With an air of _hauteur_ I seldom assumed, I recalled the servant, and
ordered the letter to be taken at once to Miss Jorgensen. Before leaving
the house I was informed that Miss Jorgensen wished to speak to me.
"Mr. Hurst has done a most imprudent thing!" she exclaimed, the moment I
was inside the door. "I ought to have published a 'personal,' or done
something to let him know I could not go to the post-office, and to
account for his not hearing from me."
"He has returned to the city?"
"Yes!" She fairly ground her teeth with rage at this "stupidity," as she
termed it. "He always does the very thing he ought never to have done,
and leaves undone the things most important to do. Of course he cannot
come here, and I can not go to him without incurring the greatest risk.
I really do not know what to do next."
Tears were now coursing down her pale cheeks--tears, it seemed, as much
of anger as of sorrow.
"Let him take care of himself," I said, rather hotly. "It is not your
province to care for him as you do."
She gave me an indescribable look. "What can you, what can any one know
about it? He may want money; how can he take care of himself in such
circumstances without money? I sent for you to contrive some plan by
which he can be communicated with. Do tell me at once what to do."
"How can I tell you, when, as you say, I do not know what is required.
You wish to see him, I presume?"
"How can I--O, I dislike so much to ask this of you--but _will_ you take
a message to him?" She asked this desperately, half expecting me to
decline, as decline I did.
"Miss Jorgensen, you are now able to ride. Shall I send a carriage for
you?"
"There may be those on the lookout who would instantly suspect my
purpose in going out in that way. On the contrary, nobody would suspect
you."
"Still, I might be observed, which would not be pleasant, I can imagine,
from what you leave me to surmise. No, Miss Jorgensen, much as I should
like to serve you personally, you must excuse me from connecting myself
in any way with Mr. Hurst; and if I might be allowed to offer advice, I
should say that, in justice to yourself, you ought to cut loose from him
at once."
Miss Jorgensen covered her face with one little emaciated hand, and sat
silent a few seconds. "Send me the carriage," she said, "and I will go."
"You forgive me?"
"You have been very good," she said. "I ought not have required more of
you. I will go at once; the sooner the better."
When I had reached the head of the stairs, I turned back again to her
door.
"Once more let me counsel you to free yourself from all connection with
Mr. Hurst. Why should you ruin your chances of happiness for one so
undeserving, as I must think he is? Keep away from him; let him shift
for himself."
"You don't know what you are talking about," she replied, with a touch
of the old fierceness. "I have no chances of happiness to lose. Please
go."
On my way down to the office I ordered a carriage.
What happened afterward I learned from Mrs. Mason and the evening
papers. Miss Jorgensen, dressed in deep black, with her face veiled,
entered the carriage, directing the driver to take her to the houses of
some of her pupils. At the corner of the street, a gentleman, who proved
to be our day-boarder, got upon the box with the driver, and remained
there while Miss Jorgensen made her calls. Finding him constantly there,
and becoming suspicious, she ordered the carriage home, and gave
directions to have it return an hour later to take her down town for
some shopping. At the time set, the carriage was in attendance, and
conveyed her to one of the principal stores in the city. After
re-entering the carriage, and giving her directions, our day-boarder
once more mounted the box, though unobserved by her, and was conveyed
with herself to the hiding-place of Mr. Hurst, contriving, by getting
down before the door was opened, to elude her observation.
Another carriage, containing officers of the police, was following in
the wake of this one, and drew up when Miss Jorgensen had entered the
house where Hurst was concealed. After waiting long enough to make it
certain that the person sought was within, the officers entered to
search and capture.
At the moment they entered Hurst's apartment, he was saying, with much
emotion, "If I can only reach China in safety, a way will be opened for
me--"
"Hush!" cried Miss Jorgensen, seeing the door opened, and by whom.
"All is over!" exclaimed Hurst. "I will never be taken to prison!" And,
drawing a revolver, he deliberately shot himself through the head.
Miss Jorgensen was brought back to Mrs. Mason's in a fainting condition,
and was ill for weeks afterward. That same evening our day-boarder
called, and while settling his board with Mrs. Mason, acknowledged that
he belonged to the detective police, and had for months been "working
up" the case of a bank-robber and forger who had escaped from one of the
eastern cities, and been lost to observation for a year and a half.
And we further learned in the same way, and ultimately from the lady
herself, that Miss Jorgensen was a myth, and that the little French
teacher was Madame ----, who had suffered, and toiled, and risked
everything for her unworthy husband, and who deserved rather to be
congratulated than condoled with upon his loss.
It is now a year since all this happened, and it is the common gossip of
our boarding-house that Mr. Quivey is devoted to the little dark-eyed
widow; and although Miss Flower still refers to "E. E." and "I. I.,"
nobody seems to be in the least disturbed by the allusion. When I say to
Quivey, "Make haste slowly, my dear fellow;" he returns: "Never fear, my
friend; I shall know when the time comes to speak."