THE DEPARTING GUEST.
They were gone, and a gloom like that of the grave fell on everything in
that room. While Jessie Lee lay cold and insensible on my bosom, smitten
to the heart by her father's denunciation, Mrs. Dennison took the letter
from Mr. Lee and read it from end to end. After that she uttered some
words which I did not understand--for the cold head upon my bosom had
frozen up my faculties--and went her way from the room, and oh! thank
my God! from our presence, I prayed inly, forever and ever.
I do not know when or how Mr. Lee left the room, but I was alone with
Jessie, and she dead, for the moment, as if in her winding-sheet.
I had no strength to lift her, or remove her from the room, but I laid
her gently on the carpet, and, taking the crimson pillows from a couch,
rested her head upon them. All this had been done with great quietness;
no unusually loud word had been spoken during that terrible scene--not a
soul in the house, except us four, knew that anything had happened.
Striving to subdue my agitation, I went up-stairs in search of
restoratives. The crystal flasks in poor Mrs. Lee's chamber had never
been emptied of their contents, so I went there hoping to find something
that would bring the stricken girl out of her deathly sleep.
The room was dim, but filled with the breath of flowers, as it had been
in its owner's life-time. Every article of furniture was in its old
place. The white bed gleamed out from the twilight of the apartment like
a snow-bank; the soft lace curtains covered the windows, flowing down
beneath the silken over-curtains like ripples of falling sleet.
Everything was so natural, so almost holy in its stillness, that even in
the terrible anxiety that filled my soul, I felt like falling down by
the bed and praying that sainted one to help me save her child.
A wild petition did spring to my lips; but it was a time for action; so,
snatching a flask from the dressing-table, I was turning to leave the
room, when Lottie arose from a stool, at the foot of Mrs. Lee's
easy-chair, and stood before me like a ghost.
"What are you doing here, Miss Hyde?" she said, in a whisper. "She does
not like people to come to her room."
I held up the flask and was going on; but she seized it between both
hands.
"It is for Miss Jessie--for her child--she is ill."
The girl's hands dropped.
"Take it--take it," she said, and followed me from the room.
When Lottie saw her young mistress lying so still and marble-like on the
floor, a cry of anguish broke from her.
"Oh! my poor, poor lady! how much she looks like her--how much she looks
like her!"
Jessie came to at last: that is, she breathed again, and her eyes
opened; but this was all. She had no strength, and all the rich, young
life that made her so beautiful had left her frame.
While she lay thus but half conscious, swift footsteps passed through
the hall, a spasm swept over that pale face, and Jessie made a struggle
to move and get away from the hateful sound. It was but a faint motion,
and she was still again. Then came a low smothered sound of conversation
near the door, and all was silent after that.
I had hoped that Mr. Lee would come back and help me save his child from
the depths of her trouble; but he did not appear, and I dared not send
for him.
"Lottie," I said, at last, "will you help me? Can you and I carry her up
to her room, or must I call one of the people?"
"You and I--no one else."
We lifted Jessie from the floor, and carried her up-stairs, meeting no
one.
As we came to the passage which led to Mrs. Lee's chamber, Lottie paused
and drew a heavy breath; then looking down on that still face, she
turned toward the sacred chamber.
I did not protest. That room seemed the most natural place for Mrs.
Lee's daughter when driven forth from her father's heart.
Poor Jessie! We laid her down on her mother's bed, and there she rested
for many a long day and night--if rest was ever known to a nervous fever
like that which fell upon her from the hour of her father's wrath.
While Jessie lay on the bed with her eyes wide open, and shudders of
distress passing over her, Lottie drew me to another part of the room,
and asked, in a troubled voice, what had made her young lady so ill.
I had no other friend in whom it was possible to confide. Lottie, with
all her eccentricities, was true as steel, but I did not myself know the
entire cause of all this disturbance, and could not speak of it with
anything like certainty, so I only answered her, as quietly as I could,
that Mrs. Dennison was going away.
A quick light flashed into Lottie's eyes. She looked from side to side,
as if wondering what direction to take. Her sharp intellect almost
caught the truth.
"But Miss Jessie isn't fretting so about that. There's something else.
Oh, Miss Hyde! do tell me what it is!"
"I cannot tell you, Lottie, what I do not understand myself."
"And you won't listen. High notions will be the death of you yet. Oh,
how I hate airs! Now, if it had been me, I'd have known all about it, by
hook or by crook, but it's of no use talking. Are you sure Babylon is
going; if she is, her last trump has been played, and she thinks she's
won High, Low, Game, and a Jack turned up. Oh, if I only had time to
make this all out, but it's hop, skip, and a jump; here they jump right
into the dark."
"What do you mean, Lottie?"
"Oh, nothing particular. You keep your secrets, and I'll keep mine.
That's fair."
As Lottie spoke, the door of our room was open, and this gave us a view
of the hall, at the other end of which was Mrs. Dennison's chamber. The
door of that room also was wide open, and we saw the widow talking
earnestly with her mulatto maid, who had drawn a couple of trunks from
the closet, and was now emptying a wardrobe in what seemed to be angry
haste. With three or four dresses flung over her arm, she turned
fiercely upon her mistress, and seemed to be upbraiding her.
Mrs. Dennison answered with an imperative gesture, at which Cora tossed
her head, like a racer under curb, and flung the dresses in a heap upon
the bed, stamping angrily on the floor as Mrs. Dennison left the room
and turned down the staircase which led to the library.
"By gracious! they are packing up, sure enough!" exclaimed Lottie, "and
I standing here like a frightened goose. Take care of Miss Jessie,
ma'am. I couldn't help you now--no, not if she were dying. Babylon is
playing that last trump this minute."
Lottie left me instantly, and I saw her draw close to Cora, with whom
she had become very intimate during the last few weeks.
"Do tell me what all this fuss is about," I heard her say. "Miss Jessie
is off in hysterics, and your madam looks like a thunder-gust--quarrelling,
I should surmise."
"Quarrelling? I should think so," answered the mulatto. "Here she comes
all in a storm, and orders me to get ready in an hour, as if I had a
dozen hands--no consideration--no feeling. In an hour, and all her
dresses to fold! It's too bad! I believe she thinks I'm her slave yet;
but I'll show her--I will! Just look at the pile of dresses on the bed,
all to fold and pack in an hour."
"I'll help you," answered Lottie, in her stolid fashion, which I noticed
she had always used with Cora, who seemed to hold her in profound
contempt. "I can fold dresses first-rate."
"Oh! she would never trust you with them; but I'll tell you what will
help just as well; there is her writing-table, with the drawer running
over, and the top loaded with books; just pack that heap of things away
in the smallest trunk."
"Well, I'll do that, if you'd rather," said Lottie, with apparent
reluctance; "but not knowing how to read, you see I might get the wrong
things."
"No, everything belongs to her; just empty the drawer, and pack them
nicely away."
"But you're not really going?" inquired Lottie.
"In an hour."
I saw Lottie move toward the table, and begin to gather up books and
papers with great indifference; but when Cora's back was turned, she
grew vigilant as a fox, and seemed to be searching for some particular
object with breathless anxiety. I saw her take a book, bound in purple
leather, from a back part of the drawer, examine it closely, and thrust
it back again as Cora turned toward her, when she became active in tying
up other parcels, and packing them away.
All at once Cora seemed to have some doubt regarding the dress she was
to leave out for travelling.
"Just like her, not to tell me. Goes off on her own hook in everything
without a word, as if I was of no account when she wants to move. Which
way did she go?"
"Toward the library," said Lottie; "gone to say good-bye to Mr. Lee, I
suppose. You can hear him tramp, tramp, tramp, up and down the floor."
"Tramp or no tramp, I'll know what she wants," said Cora, who was
evidently enraged at this sudden movement.
"I'll be back in a minute."
Away Cora darted along the hall, and down the stairs. Just as quickly
Lottie seized upon the purple book, flung her apron over it, and ran
into her own room, slamming the door in my face. After a moment's
absence, she flitted back again, with both hands under her apron, as she
had come forth.
"Don't sit there; don't seem to be looking after me. That yellow witch
will think something is going on if you do," she said, in a hurried
whisper, darting in at the door, and out again.
"But what are you taking away, Lottie?"
"Nothing--not a thing. I'm taking it back again; don't you see?"
Back she went, and directly after I heard her talking with the mulatto
girl in the most friendly manner possible.
In half an hour I heard Mrs. Dennison sweep past the door, and knew that
she was finding fault with Cora, because everything was not in
readiness. The girl answered her sharply, and some angry words passed,
such as might have been tolerated in equals, but which sounded strangely
out of place between mistress and servant. I knew that this lady was
going in anger from our house, but had no desire to see her before she
went; for since the scene which had flung poor Jessie almost insensible
on that bed, my dislike of the woman had deepened into absolute horror.
In a little more than an hour I heard the sound of heavy trunks being
dragged through the hall, and the roll of a carriage along the lower
terrace. Then I could distinguish the tread of Mr. Lee, words spoken in
a low tone, and a rustle of garments moving down-stairs.
Then all was still for a moment. Lottie stood in the hall, listening
intently; I could not breathe, my heart so longed for the sound of that
woman's sure departure.
It came at last. I heard the carriage-wheels and the tramp of hoofs
bearing her away. I saw Lottie fling up her arms in silent thankfulness.
Jessie, too, unlocked her hands, and turned her eyes upon me, drawing a
deep, deep breath, as if something had cleared the atmosphere that
weighed her down.