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THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
_A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics._
VOL. XX.--OCTOBER, 1867.--NO. CXX.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by TICKNOR AND
FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.
THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.
CHAPTER XXVII.
MINE AND COUNTERMINE.
What the nature of the telegram was which had produced such an effect on
the feelings and plans of Mr. William Murray Bradshaw nobody especially
interested knew but himself. We may conjecture that it announced some fact,
which had leaked out a little prematurely, relating to the issue of the
great land-case in which the firm was interested. However that might be,
Mr. Bradshaw no sooner heard that Myrtle had suddenly left the city for
Oxbow Village,--for what reason he puzzled himself to guess,--than he
determined to follow her at once, and take up the conversation he had begun
at the party where it left off. And as the young poet had received his
quietus for the present at the publisher's, and as Master Gridley had
nothing specially to detain him, they too returned at about the same time,
and our old acquaintances were once more together within the familiar
precincts where we have been accustomed to see them.
Master Gridley did not like playing the part of a spy, but it must be
remembered that he was an old college officer, and had something of the
detective's sagacity, and a certain cunning derived from the habit of
keeping an eye on mischievous students. If any underhand contrivance was at
work, involving the welfare of any one in whom he was interested, he was a
dangerous person for the plotters, for he had plenty of time to attend to
them, and would be apt to take a kind of pleasure in matching his wits
against another crafty person's,--such a one, for instance, as Mr.
Macchiavelli Bradshaw.
Perhaps he caught some words of that gentleman's conversation at the party;
at any rate, he could not fail to observe his manner. When he found that
the young man had followed Myrtle back to the village, he suspected
something more than a coincidence. When he learned that he was assiduously
visiting The Poplars, and that he was in close communication with Miss
Cynthia Badlam, he felt sure that he was pressing the siege of Myrtle's
heart. But that there was some difficulty in the way was equally clear to
him, for he ascertained, through channels which the attentive reader will
soon have means of conjecturing, that Myrtle had seen him but once in the
week following his return, and that in the presence of her dragons. She had
various excuses when he called,--headaches, perhaps, among the rest, as
these are staple articles on such occasions. But Master Gridley knew his
man too well to think that slight obstacles would prevent his going forward
to effect his purpose.
"I think he will get her, if he holds on," the old man said to himself,
"and he won't let go in a hurry. If there were any real love about it--but
surely he is incapable of such a human weakness as the tender passion. What
does all this sudden concentration upon the girl mean? He knows something
about her that we don't know,--that must be it. What did he hide that paper
for a year ago and more? Could that have anything to do with his pursuit of
Myrtle Hazard to-day?"
Master Gridley paused as he asked this question of himself, for a luminous
idea had struck him. Consulting daily with Cynthia Badlam, was he? Could
there be a conspiracy between these two persons to conceal some important
fact, or to keep something back until it would be for their common interest
to have it made known?
Now Mistress Kitty Fagan was devoted, heart and soul, to Myrtle Hazard, and
ever since she had received the young girl from Mr. Gridley's hands, when
he brought her back safe and sound after her memorable adventure, had
considered him as Myrtle's best friend and natural protector. These simple
creatures, whose thoughts are not taken up, like those of educated people,
with the care of a great museum of dead phrases, are very quick to see the
live facts which are going on about them. Mr. Gridley had met her, more or
less accidentally, several times of late, and inquired very particularly
about Myrtle, and how she got along at the house since her return, and
whether she was getting over her headaches, and how they treated her in the
family.
"Bliss your heart, Mr. Gridley," Kitty said to him, on one of these
occasions, "it 's ahltogither changed intirely. Sure Miss Myrtle does jist
iverythin' she likes, an' Miss Withers niver middles with her at ahl,
excip' jist to roll up her eyes an' look as if she was the hid-moorner at a
funeril whiniver Miss Myrtle says she wants to do this or that, or to go
here or there. It's Miss Badlam that 's ahlwiz after her, an' a-watchin'
her,--she thinks she 's cunnin'er than a cat, but there 's other folks that
's got eyes an' ears as good as hers. It's that Mr. Bridshaw that's a
puttin' his head together with Miss Badlam for somethin' or other, an' I
don't believe there 's no good in it,--for what does the fox an' the cat be
a whisperin' about, as if they was thaves an' incind'ries, if there ain't
no mischief hatchin'?"
"Why, Kitty," he said, "what mischief do you think is going on, and who is
to be harmed?"
"O Mr. Gridley," she answered, "if there ain't somebody to be chated
somehow, then I don' know an honest man and woman from two rogues. An' have
n't I heard Miss Myrtle's name whispered as if there was somethin' goin' on
agin' her, an' they was afraid the tahk would go out through the doors, an'
up through the chimbley? I don't want to tell no tales, Mr. Gridley, nor to
hurt no honest body, for I 'm a poor woman, Mr. Gridley; but I comes of
dacent folks, an' I vallies my repitation an' character as much as if I was
dressed in silks and satins instead of this mane old gown, savin' your
presence, which is the best I 've got, an' niver a dollar to buy another.
But if iver I hears a word, Mr. Gridley, that manes any kind of a mischief
to Miss Myrtle,--the Lard bliss her soul an' keep ahl the divils away from
her!--I 'll be runnin' straight down here to tell ye ahl about it,--be
right sure o' that, Mr. Gridley."
"Nothing must happen to Myrtle," he said, "that we can help. If you see
anything more that looks wrong, you had better come down here at once, and
let me know, as you say you will. _At once_, you understand. And, Kitty, I
am a little particular about the dress of people who come to see me, so
that if you would just take the trouble to get you a tidy pattern of
gingham or calico, or whatever you like of that sort for a gown, you would
please me; and perhaps this little trifle will be a convenience to you when
you come to pay for it."
Kitty thanked him with all the national accompaniments, and trotted off to
the store, where Mr. Gifted Hopkins displayed the native amiability of his
temper by tumbling down everything in the shape of ginghams and calicos
they had on the shelves, without a murmur at the taste of his customer, who
found it hard to get a pattern sufficiently emphatic for her taste. She
succeeded at last, and laid down a five-dollar bill as if she were as used
to the pleasing figure on its face as to the sight of her own five digits.
Master Byles Gridley had struck a spade deeper than he knew into his first
countermine, for Kitty had none of those delicate scruples about the means
of obtaining information which might have embarrassed a diplomatist of
higher degree.