THE STOLEN JOURNAL.
Ralph saw Lina pass, from the breakfast-room window, and his heart smote
him. What had she done, poor, dear girl, to warrant his present
feelings? What evil spirit possessed him to think ill of her, so pure,
so truly good, as she was?
Ralph took his hat and followed Lina through the grounds, up to a hollow
in the hills, where a great white pine tree sheltered a spring that
sparkled out from its roots, like a gush of diamonds. It was a heavy
day, not without flashes of sunshine, but sombre heaps of clouds drifted
to and fro across the sky, and the wet earth was literally carpeted with
leaves beaten from their branches by the storm. Amid all these dead
leaves, and within the gloomy shadow of the pine, Lina sat alone
weeping. She heard Ralph's tread upon the wet foliage, and arose as if
to flee him, for with all her gentleness, Lina was proud, and his
presence made her ashamed of the tears that her little hand had no power
to dash entirely away.
"Lina," said Ralph, holding out his hand, rejoiced by her tears, for he
longed to think that she was offended by his rudeness in the dusky room,
"Lina, forgive me. I was a brute to wound you with my rough ways."
Lina turned away and sobbed. "It was not that, Ralph. You were only
silent, not rude. But I have seen your mother this morning. Oh, Ralph,
she will never consent to it--we must give each other up."
"What did she say? Tell me, Lina, tell me!" cried Ralph, full of
emotion.
"She said nothing, Ralph, but her face--for a moment it was terrible.
Then she fainted!"
"Fainted, Lina!--my mother?"
"I thought her dead, she looked so cold and white. Oh, Ralph, if my
words had killed her, what would have become of us?"
"Lina, you astonish me. My mother is not a woman to faint from
displeasure. It is the effect of her accident. You should not have
spoken to her now!"
"I could not help it. Indeed, I was so happy, and it seemed right and
natural to tell her first of all."
"But, what did you tell her, darling?"
Lina looked up, and regarded him gratefully through her tears.
"I don't know--something that displeased her--that almost killed her, I
am afraid."
"Don't cry, don't, Lina--it will all come out right."
"No, no--I feel it--I know it--we must give each other up. The very
first hint almost killed her, and no wonder. I did not think of it
before--so much kindness made me forget. But what am I? Who am I, to
dare equal myself with her son?"
"What are you, Lina!" said Ralph, and his fine face glowed with generous
feelings. "What are you! An angel! the dearest, best!"
Lina could not help being pleased with this enthusiasm, but she cut it
short, placing her hand upon his mouth.
"It is kind of you to say this, but the facts--oh! these facts--are
stubborn things. What am I but a poor little girl, who wandered from, no
one can say where, into your house, a miserable waif, drifted by chance
upon the charity of your parents! I have no antecedents beyond their
kindness--no name, save that which they gave me--no past, no future. Is
it for me to receive affection from their son--to climb ambitiously to
the topmost branches of the roof-tree that sheltered my happiness and my
poverty?"
And this was the girl he had dared to think coarse and forward in not
blushing at the liberties he had taken. This fair, noble girl, who, with
all her delicacy, could utter such true, proud thoughts. For the moment,
Ralph would have dropped on his knees, and asked her pardon in the dust.
But, beware, young man--he that doubts a beloved object once, will doubt
again. When you could, even in passing thought, judge that young
creature wrongfully, it was a break in the chain of confidence that
should bind true hearts together. Ralph! Ralph! a jewel is lost from the
chain of your young life, and once rent asunder many a diamond bead will
drop away from that torn link.
"Believe me," said the youth, burning with enthusiastic admiration of
the young creature before him, "These proud words slander the noblest
heart that ever beat in a woman's bosom. My mother loves you for
yourself. All the better that God sent you to her unsought, as he does
the wild flowers. Lina, the pride which reddens your cheek, would be
abashed in her presence."
"It is not pride, Ralph, but shame that such thoughts should never have
presented themselves before. I have dreamed all my life; up to this
morning, I was a child. Now, a single hour has surrounded me with
realities. The whole universe seems changed since yesterday."
Lina looked drearily around as she spoke. The hill-sides were indeed
changed. The boughs, twelve hours before, so luxuriously gorgeous, were
half denuded of their foliage. The over-ripe leaves were dropping
everywhere through the damp atmosphere. A gush of wind shook them in
heavy clouds to the earth. All the late wild flowers were beaten down
and half-uprooted. Nature seemed merely a waste of luxurious beauty
thrown into gloomy confusion, among which the high winds tore and
rioted.
Lina was chilled by these winds, and drew her shawl closely, with a
shivering consciousness of the change. The young man's ardent hope had
no power to reassure her. The subtle intuition of her nature could not
be reasoned with. Sad and disheartened, she followed Ralph slowly
homeward.
A few hours after the scene we have described, the governess was
half-way up the hill, on which the house of her nurse stood. She had
walked all the way from General Harrington's dwelling, and her person
bore marks of a rough passage across the hills. Her gaiter boots were
saturated with wet, and soiled with reddish clay. Burdock burs and
brambles clung to the skirt of her merino dress, which exhibited one or
two serious rents. Her shawl had been torn off by a thicket of wild
roses, and she carried it thrown across her arm, too much heated by
walking to require it, though the day was cold.
On her way up the hill, she paused, and flinging her shawl on the
ground, sat down. Opening the vellum-bound book, she read a few
sentences in it, with a greedy desire to know the most important portion
of its contents, before resigning it into hands that might hereafter
deprive her of all knowledge regarding them. But the winds shook and
rustled the pages about, till she was obliged to desist, and at last
made her way up the hill in a flushed and excited state, leaving her
shawl behind.
The moment she rose to a level with the house, the door opened, and the
woman whom she claimed as a slave nurse, came forth, advancing towards
Agnes with almost ferocious eagerness. She called out:
"Back again so soon! Then there is news."
"Look here," answered Agnes, holding up the volume, from which the
jewelled heart still dangled, cleft in twain as it was. "In less than an
hour after entering the house I had it safe. Isn't that quick work?"
"Give it to me--give it to me. You are a good girl, Agnes, a noble girl,
worth a hundred of your lily-faced white folks. Give me the book,
honey--do you hear?"
But Agnes, who had again opened the volume, held it back.
"Not yet, mammy--I have only read a little--don't be too eager--I have a
right to know all that is in it!"
"Give me that book. Her secrets belong to me--only to me. Hand over the
book, I say!"
"But I wish to read it, myself--who has a better right?"
The dark eyes of the slave flashed fire, and her hands quivered like the
wings of a bird when its prey is in sight. She clutched fiercely at the
book, hissing out her impatience like a serpent.
"Take it!" exclaimed Agnes fiercely, "but don't expect me to steal for
you again."
"Hist!" answered the woman, crushing the book under her arm; "here comes
one of the Harringtons on horseback. Clear that face and be ready to
meet him, while I go in and hide Mabel Harrington's soul!"