THE EVENING RIDE.
As Ralph Harrington was returning from Benson's cabin one night, he met
Agnes Barker. It was yet early in the evening, but the sharp, frosty air
rendered it singular that a young girl should have ventured into the
cold, without some important object to urge her forth. Ralph had been
touched, and a good deal subdued, by his conversation with Ben; and he
would gladly have avoided this rencontre with the governess, who
invariably left him excited and wretched with fresh doubts whenever he
conversed with her. But Agnes came directly towards him, and he remarked
that her manner of walking was excited, and like that of a person who
had some important object to pursue.
"Mr. Ralph Harrington, you have been unjust to me. When I told you that
Lina French was still in the neighborhood quietly domesticated, where
your saintly step-brother could visit her at will, you disbelieved me,
and cast discredit on my word. Since then, James Harrington has
disappeared mysteriously as she did. I now say that he, also, is in the
city, making preparations to take the girl South; in a few days she will
leave it with him."
"Why should he take this course, Miss Barker, if it is true? My brother
was wealthy, free, and has been for years his own master. If he loved
Lina, there was no need of concealment--nothing but my own mad passion
stood in the way, and Heaven knows that I was ready to take the heart
from my bosom, could that have made him or her happier. There is a
mystery in all this that I cannot fathom. My brother, so noble, so more
than generous, could not have lived the life he has, to prove this
traitor to himself and us at last."
"Then you still have faith in this girl?"
"I will not believe so ill of her as you seem to desire, until some
farther explanation is had. She may love my brother, and he, I cannot
well understand how any man could help loving her, for she was the
purest, the most lovely character I ever knew."
"She _was_ that character, it is well you say was," answered Agnes, with
a dash of scorn in her voice; "for I am about to offer you proof of what
she is."
Ralph turned white, and recoiled a step back. "Proof--proof, have you
heard something, then?"
"Yes, I have heard from Miss Lina--she has sent for me. A private
message, of which no one is to be informed."
"And, when are you going?--where is she now?" inquired Ralph, in
breathless astonishment.
"Now," answered Agnes. "She has sent a conveyance from the city, which
waits at a curve of the road. I may not return to-night--may never
return. My occupation here is gone, and no one will regret me. I came
unloved, and I go away the stranger I was then!"
It was dark, and Ralph could not see her face distinctly, but the sound
of tears was in her voice.
"Not so--not so!" said he, impetuously. "You will be regretted--we, at
least, are not strangers; I will go with you. If this girl is in the
city, I will convince myself of the fact; then, if your suspicions were
correct, she shall never occupy a thought of mine while I have
existence."
"Go with me if you wish," said Agnes, mournfully; "it will be a few
moments taken from the desolation of life that must follow; after that I
shall be alone."
Ralph scarcely heeded her; a wild desire to see Lina, and convince
himself of her falsehood, drove all other thoughts from his mind; but
the words and voice which bespoke so much tender sorrow, were remembered
afterward.
"Come, let us begone at once," he said, folding his paletot closely, and
drawing her arm through his. "I thank Heaven this suspense will be ended
to-morrow. I shall be a man again."
Agnes leaned heavily on his arm; the deep snow made walking difficult,
and this was her excuse. Ralph only noticed it to lend her assistance;
his thoughts ran wildly toward Lina French, the gentle, kind-hearted
girl who had been so long a portion of his own life, and whose
unworthiness he could not yet wholly realize.
A two-horse sleigh, crowded with buffalo robes, evidently the equipage
of some wealthy establishment, stood on the highway where it swept down
to General Harrington's mansion. Ralph helped his companion in, and they
dashed off noiselessly as lightning, and almost as swift.
No word was spoken between the two during the ride. Agnes shivered now
and then, as if with cold, and this aroused Ralph for an instant from
the painful reverie into which he had fallen; but he only drew the fur
robes more closely about her, and sunk into perfect unconsciousness of
her presence once more. Thus, in profound silence they reached the city,
and dashing onward, they drew up before the house to which Lina had been
conveyed only a few weeks before.
"This is the house," said Agnes, pushing the fur robes from around her;
and, without waiting for help, she sprang out, and mounted the steps
just as the door was opened by some one from within. A single word
passed between her and the servant, just as Ralph reached her side; but
he only heard her inquiring in the ordinary way for the young lady who
had just taken up her residence there.
The door was flung wide open, as if she had been expected, and the
servant led the way into what, in the dim light, seemed a small
drawing-room. The bland, warm atmosphere that filled this room would
have been most welcome, under other circumstances, after the severe cold
of the night; but now Ralph was hardly conscious either of the warmth,
or an atmosphere of blooming plants which floated luxuriously around
him. Rich jets of gas burned like fairy beads in the lower end of the
room, dimly revealing the small conservatory from which this fragrance
came, and affording a glimpse here and there of rich silk hangings and
pictures upon the wall, whose gorgeousness forced itself upon the
observation even in that dim twilight.
Ralph looked around with surprise; the place was so unlike anything he
had expected to find, that for the moment he lost sight of the object of
his coming. All at once he became conscious of a third presence--a soft
flutter of garments, and the movement of some person advancing towards
that portion of the room in which those tiny stars seemed burning.
Directly a glow of light burst over the whole apartment. The stars had
broken into brilliant jets of flame, and a tent of blossoms rose before
him, like some fairy nook flooded with radiance.
Half-way between this background of plants and the place he occupied,
stood a female, so gorgeously attired and so singular in her whole
appearance, that the young man uttered an exclamation of surprise, which
was answered by an angry start and an abrupt movement of the woman, who
was evidently both astonished and displeased by his presence there.
"What is this?" she said, haughtily; "I gave no orders for the admission
of strangers here."
Before Ralph could speak, Agnes Barker came forward, and stood for a
moment looking steadily in the woman's face, thus concentrating her
entire attention on herself.
"Madam, if you are the mistress of this house," she said, with great
self-possession, "you will not consider this an intrusion, for it must
have been with your knowledge that I was sent for to attend Miss
French--the young lady who has lately taken up her residence here."
The woman stood for a moment as if struck dumb with astonishment, then a
faint smile dawned on her mouth, which was at once displaced by angry
glances cast upon Ralph Harrington.
"And this young gentleman, certainly he was not sent for?"
Again Agnes interrupted the explanation Ralph was ready to give.
"Your message, madam, was a strange one, and reached me after dark.
Surely a young girl coming so far from home, might be expected to bring
an escort."
"Besides," said Ralph, impetuously, "if Lina--if Miss French is here, I
have a better right to see her than any one else; and if she is in this
house, I must and will know her reasons for coming here."
"The young lady is in her room, and will receive no one at this time of
night," answered the woman, firmly; "if you wish to see her, let it be
at some more proper hour."
"But I, madam, have been summoned here by Miss French herself!" said
Agnes, with that firmness which had marked her conduct since she entered
the house. "Permit me to desire that you lead me to her room."
The woman looked keenly in her face a moment, as if about to contest the
wish, but some new thought seemed to spring up; and answering abruptly,
"Come, then," she left the room.