THE SUBJECTION OF ALICE.
Oh! bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower.
_—Shakspere._
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh!
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy!
_—Ibid._
After this terrible family storm, in which poor Mrs. Chester’s vital
powers had suddenly failed, the peace stern death enforces reigned
through the house. Alice, her heart and brain overturned by endurance,
lay exhausted, almost insensible, upon her bed within her chamber.
General Garnet had taken himself off to the village tavern, whence he
had been invited to pass a week or two, at Point Yocomoco, the seat of
Judge Wylie.
Mr. Sinclair, in the disinterested kindness of his heart, remained at
the house, superintending and directing everything, unquestioned by
Colonel Chester, who, when he met, recognized him with a sigh or a
groan. He remained until the funeral was over, and the house restored to
its former order, and departed without seeing Alice, who, still
prostrated, had not left her room. And after this, as Colonel Chester
had not revoked his prohibition, he came to the house no more.
As days glided into weeks Alice recovered a portion of her strength,
left the chamber, and mournfully went about her customary occupations.
Poor Alice! her spirit was very willing, but her nerves were very weak.
So it was with a pang of fear that Alice heard her father at the
breakfast table one morning announce the expected arrival of General
Garnet that evening. Yes, Colonel Chester, thinking that now perhaps
sufficient time had elapsed since her mother’s death—and sufficient
strength and cheerfulness had returned to his daughter—had recalled her
suitor. Alice was trembling violently—she dared not look up. She had
been taught to love and venerate her father above all earthly beings,
and next to God. She loved and venerated him still, and kept her
thoughts reverently away from investigating his motive and judging his
conduct. She had been taught to bow with implicit and reverential
obedience to his will. To oppose him had not been easy in her thought—it
was terrible in practice. It would have been terrible to her had her
father been a man of moderate temper and self-control; but he was a man
of violent and ungovernable passion; and Alice was in an agony of terror
when she faltered out:
“Father, if General Garnet comes here only as your guest, I will welcome
him with every possible attention; I will try to make him feel at home,
and endeavor to render his sojourn with us in every other way agreeable;
but if he comes here as my suitor——” Here her voice died away.
“Well!”
It is impossible to convey the short, curt, galvanic strength and
abruptness with which he jerked, as it were, this syllable out, and
brought Alice up. It was like throwing the lasso suddenly around her
neck, and jerking her up face to face with him. And such a face! It is
impossible to paint the grim determination of the locked jaws, armed
with the wiry stubble beard, bristled up with fierceness, and the
ferocity of the darkly-gathered frown that screwed his glance upon her
pallid face, that screwed it into her very brain. Alice turned deadly
sick, her eyes filmed over, and she sank back in her chair. She did not
faint or lose consciousness, for the next instant she felt her father’s
iron hand upon her fragile shoulder, and her father’s awful voice in
that low, deep, suppressed tone of fierce, immutable determination,
saying:
“Miss Chester, it is not as your suitor, but as your husband, that
General Garnet will come this evening. I command you to receive him as
such.”
And he left her.