"Think no more of this night's accidents."
_Midsummer Night's Dream._
From Stillyside Claude Montigny rode towards the western extremity
of the island; his thoughts steeped in bliss, and the country, as
it slumbered in the moonlight, seeming to him the land of Elysium.
At the ferry of Pointe Saint Claire he engaged a bateau in which
he was rowed over the confluence of the rivers Ottawa and Saint
Lawrence by four boatmen who, from time to time, in a low tone, as
if afraid of awakening the dawn, chaunted, now an old song of
Normandy, and now a ballad upon the fate of some lost voyageur.
The moon was yet shining, and he was in the mood to enjoy such
minstrelsy; but when they neared the opposite shore, a feeling of
sadness and apprehension stole over him, as he thought of meeting
his father, to whom he knew he must either communicate distasteful
tidings, or what was worse to his ingenuous mind, practice a culpable
concealment. Thus musing, as day broke he leaped on shore, and
again mounting his horse rode thoughtful through forest and farm;
now reburied in the darkness of night, which yet lingered amidst
the foliage, and now emerging into the light of the clearing; until,
as the sun was rising over the opposite bank of the St. Lawrence,
he entered the manorial gates of Mainville, and passing through
the park-like grounds, was once more in the proud home of the
Montignys.
Meantime, Amanda Macdonald had not slept. Shame, joy, fear, hope
possessed her; but fear chiefly, for she dreaded the coming morrow,
when she must meet her foster-mother, and--what to her was yet more
terrible--her, as she supposed, deeply offended guardian; and it
was not till the birds began to chirp and flit about her window,
that she fell into a deep, refreshing slumber that lasted long into
the day, and was at length broken by the voice of Mona bidding her
arise.
The advocate, on the other hand, who had at once returned to town,
arose at his usual hour, and repairing to his office, began the
business of the day; whilst at a later period, the dissipated
Narcisse again found his boon companions, and with them renewed
the debauch of yesterday.
During the day the anxious Mona did not fail to question her charge
touching the interrupted interview; and the latter at length related
how it had befallen, confessed to her sudden passion for the gallant
Montigny, revealed his plighted vows, and confiding herself to the
bosom where she had always found advice and comfort, deprecated
the displeasure of her guardian. But the betrayed Mona could give
her only slight encouragement, in what was now yet nearer to her
than even her guardian's favor, her lover's truth.
"Child," said Mona to her emphatically and in a warning tone, after
musing, "Child, hope not too much; fear everything, for man is
naturally false towards woman. Ah, you have yet learned but little
of man, and may you never learn too much. Beware, beware, beware,
Amanda. Happy the ignorant, happy is the woman whom no false man
has taught to distrust his sex! Man's love to woman is as evanescent
as is the presence of the summer-morning mist, that, for an hour
or so, hugs lovingly the lea, then vanishes for ever. What are his
vows but vapour? Poor, rash girl, why, without warning me, have
you opened the horn-book of love, and spelled at such a speed,
that, in a day's time, you have read as far as warier maids dare
con in years?" And Amanda looked both abashed and amazed; but at
length enquired in wonder:
"What may you mean by these strange utterances? Nay, nay, dear
Mona: you slander your own father by this language."
"Thou canst not say, child, that I slander thine," responded Mona,
tartly; and her countenance darkened with an equivocal expression
new to Amanda, who, catching at the inuendo, earnestly demanded,
"Who was my father? tell me, for you know; I myself know, I feel,
(and not untrustworthy is this intuition) that I am not here a mere
fortuitous foundling. Who was my mother? I charge you to inform
me."
"Girl, had not man been false, you had not needed to have so often
asked of me that question," Mona replied with a cynical expression,
and hoarse, sepulchral voice, that, whilst it seemed to vindicate
herself, reproved her fellow, on whose face an air of horror now
mantled, as she excitedly exclaimed:
"Say more, or else unsay what you have already uttered. What must
be understood from this alarming language? Although there hangs a
mystery over my birth, surely there rests upon it no dishonor.
Acquaint me, then, once more I charge you, and now by the love and
kindness that you have always shewn to me, declare, for you know--I
say I feel you know; whose child am I, where was I born, how have
I been committed to your care, adopted, cherished; I, who have no
filial claims upon you; adjudged to be an orphan, perhaps the child
of charity; how have I been divided between you and my guardian,
or held as if I were your mutual bond? Inform me, Mona, my good
Mona, foster-mother, nurse, you who have been to me as a true mother
might be, say whose I am; whether, and where, my parents live; and,
if they live, why they have thus abandoned me," and she burst into
a flood of tears.
"Quiet yourself, my fond one," answered Mona, moved also to tears
by this appeal; "your birth on one side is as high as any that this
country boasts, therefore is as high as Claude Montigny's. Your
mother is descended from a warlike Scottish line, your father's
father was an English peer. Your parents are yet living; but their
union, which was in many points unequal, was, alas! rendered the
more unequal by a gulf-like disproportion in the passion that
provoked it;--a gulf, too, that was undiscovered, till, too late,
your mother saw it. Thence, their lives, their loves, so call it,
their mutual progress (save on the course of fondness towards
yourself, their child, whereon they journey equal side by side)
has for years kept, and yet keeps, a still disparting pace; and,
oh, Amanda, excuse these tears, for well I know your mother, and
pity her, having many a time listened to her fruitless complaints;
but until your father, who is the laggard one of this most
misappointed pair, shall, either underneath the whip of a castigating
conscience, or prompted by the spur of your poor mother's sharp
appeals, come up abreast, and fill a certain chasm of omission by
an indemnifying deed, which has been by him most selfishly left
undone, but whose performance is essential to the full fruition by
you of your fortune, you must remain, as you have hitherto done,
my foster-child, and your grim guardian's ward; a waif we hold
waiting for its claimants; and until they arrive, let me beseech
you, as though I were the mother I have spoken of, to think no
further of young Claude Montigny."