EYE-OPENERS.
On the morning of All Saints' Day, and while numerous bells, in tuneful
voices, reminded London of souls departed, and souls to be saved, Silas
Jones and his twin spirit, Sarah Kane, having arrayed themselves in best
bib and tucker, had taken the underground rail from Bayswater, and with
the multitude were trying not to lose one another in the London fog--a
regular pea-souper, in which the coat-pocket of Silas had been picked of
pipe, tobacco and handkerchief.
"Mercy me, Silas, look well that they don't steal the license."
"You are right, Sarah; which the thieves would not ask for leave or
license to take; 'tis a big world our London; and it's my belief the
thieves' quarter is the biggest half."
"We should have made sure of the license, Silas, by being married at
first."
"That we should, dear; but you have always let a fancied duty come
between us. And now for Piccadilly and Dr. Annesley, in this fog."
"Hello, Missis; a feller can't see in this 'ere yeller fog; 'ere, get
into my barrow; it's clean, and I'll run yer through," said a boy's
voice, running against them; and which Sarah Kane recognized as that of
her liberator, the cross-eyed boy.
His offer was hurriedly declined by Silas, who dreaded Sarah taking her
hand from his arm. On ascertaining from the boy that he had hired to
peddle fruit for a huckster and that he had pawned the watch and chain
they offered to redeem them, and give him a sovereign and-a-half for
them; which offer he joyfully accepted; they also, giving him their
address, told him, if at any time he wanted advice or assistance, to
come.
A policeman now directed them to the residence of Dr. Annesley--a
genial, kindly old gentleman, who was at home, and pleased to see them.
On their relating the doings at Broadlawns, he was both astonished and
indignant, disgusted and outrageous.
"As to any sharp tricks in money matters, I am not surprised," he said,
impatiently; "but that they should have dared to perpetrate such an
outrage as the marriage of Mr. C. Babbington-Cole, to that intensely
disagreeable, ugly, cruel, Miss Villiers, is monstrous, monstrous!"
"You may well say so, sir," said Sarah Kane, sadly.
"How is it you had no suspicions, Mistress Kane, and you under the same
roof?"
"I only overheard a word now and again, as to a marriage; but I never
suspected this horror; I supposed it meant Miss Pearl, and that they
were going to bring her back, when of age."
"Nothing can be done for Babbington-Cole; he is tied for life; but how
he could ever have fallen into their net, is more than I can imagine,"
he said, in disgusted tones.
"You know, I told you they took him by surprise, sir; and his father lay
ill; and cablegrams came telling him to wed Margaret Villiers, and
hasten with her to his bedside; and he was just demented-like, between
it all, and brain fever coming on."
"Well, well, it is a bad, very bad business. I confess to the having
been so disgusted, on Villiers making Stone guardian to Miss Pearl,
until she attained her majority, that I, metaphorically speaking, washed
my hands of the whole affair; especially on Miss Pearl herself telling
Brookes & Davidson, her mother's lawyers, that she agreed to it; this
she said, on their telling her that, as her father had had softening of
the brain at the time, nothing he said was worth considering."
"Depend upon it, doctor, Mr. Stone had used coercion to induce Miss
Pearl to agree," said Silas Jones.
"Yes, I see, he must have," he answered, thoughtfully.
"And you don't know anything of poor Miss Pearl's whereabouts, do you,
sir?" asked Sarah Kane, anxiously.
"Yes, I can give you a clue, for I love her for her own and her mother's
sake; and as time went on, and I heard or saw nothing of her, I wrote T.
L. Brookes, the senior partner, for I have had nothing to do with the
hypocrites at Broadlawns, since Villiers' death; and he sent me an
address at New York. Here it is, 'Mrs. Kent, The Maples, Murray Hill;'
but, it is only a clue, for I have written, and have not, as yet,
received a reply."
"Oh, please copy it for me, sir, for Silas and I are going to be
married, and go out and find her. I promised her mother to look after
her; and I have not heard from Miss Pearl; but she has written, for she
said she would; but they have read and destroyed them, the same as they
did to some that came for Mr. Cole just before and after he arrived."
"Horrible! horrible! How is he now; you just come from there, I
presume?"
On Sarah Kane relating her late enforced retirement under Tom Lang's
roof, and her escape therefrom, he opened his eyes in astonishment,
saying, indignantly:
"The rascal! and you know nothing of the locality?"
"Nothing whatever, sir."
"Even if she did, Dr. Annesley, Stone would coin some plausible reason
for placing her there."
"Yes, yes, Jones; he is as cunning as the arch-fiend; people would
believe him, too, as he is a good churchman."
"But, you know, Silas; he has his falsehood ready. Sir, he told my
jailer that I was demented, and--worse."
"Ah, his plots have no flaw; poor creature, after the kindness and
respect Mrs. Villiers showed you, and which you deserved; too bad, too
bad."
"The poison of their lying tongues has already done Sarah harm in
Bayswater, Doctor. People pass her without a nod; they at Broadlawns say
they found her in the bedroom of a gentleman guest at midnight, and that
she stole out of the house at three in the morning to meet another."
"Shocking! you can have them up for defamation," he said, sternly.
"But, sir, I must tell you, it was to poor Mr. Cole's bedroom I went,
and he with brain-fever coming on, to do what I could to comfort the
unfortunate gentleman; and it was to Silas and his sister I went at
night to tell them of the awful marriage; that I was turned out, and
going to Mrs. Mansfield's, which I was foolish enough to believe," she
said, with tears.
"Well, well, Mistress Kane, there, there, don't recall it; go off to a
clergyman's and marry this good man; and here are five pounds to buy
some trifle in Cheapside, to remember the day by. And now, let me see,
there was something I wished to see Jones about," he said, kindly,
rubbing his forehead. "Yes, I have it; did they give you all the wearing
apparel of the late Mrs. Villiers, Mistress Kane?"
"Oh, no, sir! I would not expect such beautiful things. I thought Miss
Pearl should have them, whenever I see Miss Stone wearing the lovely
furs and satins."
"Did you ever receive five hundred pounds sterling, Mistress Kane, left
you, by the will of the late Mrs. Villiers?" he asked, slowly, and with
emphasis.
"Sir, you take my breath away. Silas, tell him, no, sir. I! I! receive
such a sum. No, nor one penny since Mrs. Villiers' death; but that, I
cannot claim, for I have staid on willingly, to watch dear Miss Pearl's
interests, and this is the end. Come Silas, let us go now to the parson;
it will be our first step out of Old England, to find Miss Pearl," she
said, nervously, her tears flowing apace, partly with the troubled
excitement of the words of Dr. Annesley, partly at the having, at last,
a clue to the whereabouts of Pearl Villiers. Not so, Silas, who loved
her too well to allow the words of Dr. Annesley to pass unnoticed.
"Do you really mean that the late Mrs. Villiers left Sarah a legacy,
Doctor?" he said, in some excitement.
"I do; and infer from your united words that that rascal has pocketed
it; I must see to it," and going to the telephone, ringing up Brookes &
Davidson, ascertaining that they were both at their offices, said:
"Hello! Have been interviewed _re_ Villiers' estate, am now sending the
persons to you; they are quite reliable; shall see you to-morrow."
"All right, send them on."
"This is all I can do for you at present," he said; "and I advise you to
make oath as to your not having received the legacy; it will save time.
"I am selfish enough to be glad you are going out to New York; something
tells me you will trace Miss Pearl; and I can assure you both, you have
my fullest sympathy in your dealings with Stone; I can scarcely restrain
myself from taking the law into my own hands, going out, and charging
them with their villainy."
"Thank God for your friendship, Doctor," said Silas Jones fervently, as
he smoothed Sarah's bonnet-strings, and gave her her satchel.
"Good-bye, sir, and heaven bless you for your kindnesses," said Sarah
Kane, with feeling.
"O, pshaw; my only regret is that you have only found me out to say
farewell; but you must both come back, and bring Miss Pearl, to see an
old man."
On reaching the offices of the law-firm, Sarah Kane made oath as to the
not having received either money or wearing apparel.
W. Davidson, Q. C., saying:
"My eyes are being opened every day by the revelations of my clients;
but what you say confirms my suspicion, that the schemes of some
_certain_ people are such cunningly devised fables, as to make it next
to impossible for all the law courts in the kingdom to convict them."
On leaving Temple Bar, they dined comfortably at a restaurant, talking
faster than they ate. Afterwards, by the words of a clergyman, they were
at last made one, at which, with hearts full of thankfulness and quiet
content, they took a Bayswater omnibus.
Again in the little back parlor, where Mary had a table groaning under
its good things, with a bright fire to welcome them, to which they had
scarcely done justice, and beginning to relate their adventures in the
city, when Simon, the man from Broadlawns, entered, saying, hurriedly:
"I gave my word to the young gent up to the house that I'd fetch you
folks up to see him when they, over there, were out; so, come along,
please, if you be in a mind to give the poor gentleman his way."
"Yes, indeed, we will, Simon," said Sarah Kane, readily tying on her
bonnet. "Come, Silas, dear."
He rose, somewhat reluctantly, for the neat little parlor is doubly home
to him now, with the sweet, gentle face of Sarah looking at him with the
loving eyes of a wife.
"But are you sure, Simon, that they are all out, and for the evening,
for I cannot answer for myself if I come across them?"
"Sure as the Bank of England, Mr. Jones, they be at the parson's. He's a
showing of them off to a big missionary from foreign parts as his best
angels."
"The Rev. Mr. Parks is so good," said Sarah, "that I always regret that
his eyes are closed to the color of his angels."
"The trouble be, Mistress Kane, that they blindfold more nor parson,"
said Simon, as they hurriedly made their exit.
"Mistress Kane no longer, Simon, for I am glad to tell you we were
married in the city to-day."
"Lawk-a-day! you don't tell me; but I am mighty glad to hear it. You
will have a man of your own now, to take your name out of the gossips'
mouth."
On arriving at Broadlawns, they went at once to the gloomy east chamber,
when Sarah could scarcely repress an exclamation of intense pity at the
change for the worse in the appearance of the long-suffering inmate. He
was wasted to a shadow, and his brown locks had been shaved during brain
fever, his kindly blue eyes looked black in the transparent paleness of
his face, as did his whiskers and moustache, but in which many grey
hairs had come. Holding out a thin, white hand, he welcomed Sarah
warmly, saying:
"Oh, it _is_ good to see your face again. I expect I look like a
galvanized corpse, Sarah. What with the horror of my forced union with
Medusa (a pet name I have for Mrs. Cole), and then brain fever, which, I
don't wonder, caught me, and which, having that woman about me,
aggravated. You banished, and maligned, at which I stuffed the
bedclothes into my ears, and now my old enemy, inflammatory rheumatism,
I have had a pretty tough time of it."
"Yes, indeed, you have, poor fellow," said Sarah, restraining her tears,
and scarcely able to look at the wreck before her; "but you are on the
mend now, and we must trust in God to bring you around soon. It has been
a heartbreak to me, Mr. Cole, that I was not allowed to nurse you."
"Only another piece of their cruelty, Sarah. But tell me about yourself.
Where did that old sinner incarcerate you? tell me everything," he said,
with feeble eagerness, for sometimes the pain was intense, causing him
to set his teeth, or catch his breath.
But Silas Jones, seeing how much she was affected, and wishing to give
her time to recover, himself gave the sick man a vivid picture of her
imprisonment and release.
"Jove! what a wretch--I mean Stone; for the man Lang was simply his
tool. Gad! I shall exercise a treble amount of will-power to get well,
and out of their clutches, and back to dear old Toronto. 'Out of every
evil comes some good,' they say; though, in my case, not much; in
Sarah's, yes, for you have given me a tonic, Jones. From this moment I
am determined to recover."
"That's right; be brave, sir, and you'll pull through right smart," said
Silas Jones; for Sarah is swallowing a lump in her throat.
"Yes, bear up, Mr. Cole," she said, trying to smile, as she seated
herself on the bedside, taking his poor, worn hands into her own, warm
with vitality. "But Silas has not given you a bit of good news--that the
happiest part of our lives is to come, for from to-day, we pass them
together!"
"Yes," said Silas, coming beside her, laying his hands on her shoulders;
"yes, I have nothing more to wish for, with Sarah beside me. I cannot
remember the time, sir, that I did not want Sarah."
Two tears rolled down the sick man's cheeks, as he thought of his own
wretched fate; but, by a visible effort, controlling self, he said,
simply:
"I am glad you are together, and happy. Yours is a blessed union. God
help me to health and strength, that I can free myself of _her_
presence," he cried imploringly. "Sarah, I have a fancy--it may be a
dying one, heaven knows--it is to see a likeness of Pearl Villiers, the
girl I was, by right, to have married."
"Here she is, poor dear," she said with alacrity, unfastening a locket
suspended to her chain.
"How strange! how like her! only older, and more careworn. Sarah, I have
seen a face like this three or four times on the other side of the
water; the face, too, strange to say, haunted me; a nice, good face,
rather than pretty; but if the careworn, troubled look was gone it would
have been pretty. Yes, the same features; small, pale, and regular."
"And with fair hair and slight figure?" cried Sarah, clasping her hands.
"Yes," but with the restlessness of the invalid he changed the subject,
saying:
"You and your husband are going to America, you say. I am going, too;
_when_ I get well. You might meet me there, if you can't wait for me,"
he said, wearily; "and, yes, there is something else I must hasten to
say before those people return. I have received no letters since my
arrival, only a few newspapers; here they are. I love them because they
come from dear Toronto," he said, in nervous haste, taking from beneath
his pillow a copy of the _Mail_, two of _Grip_, with a _Globe_.
"Letters were here to meet you, sir?"
"Then the sneaks have read and kept them," he cried, angrily.
"Perhaps I should not have told you, sir; but I don't like you to think
your friends have forgotten you."
"You do me no harm, Sarah, by your eye-openers. Wrath is a good tonic;
tell me if you know what postmark was on them."
"Here are some envelopes I picked up from the grate the morning they
sent me away."
"Yes, they said their letters would be here to meet me. This is quite
plain, from Will Smith; this I can scarcely decipher; but it's--yes,
it's Mrs. Gower's writing; and this from a namesake of yours, Mr. Jones.
Ah, it's good to see even these scraps. I could preach sermons on the
wickedness of my jailers," he said, weakly, "but now, at once, before
they come back, take my address here, on----"
"How dare you enter my roof! it is more than flesh and blood can stand,"
said Mrs. Cole, entering stealthily, her face in a flame with rage--a
virago, from the crown of her head to the sole of her foot, and arrayed,
with her usual contempt for harmonious coloring, in pea-green satin, jet
trimmings, with crimson bows.
"Calm yourself, Mrs. Cole; we are in the presence of a sick man," said
Silas, with intense pity for the invalid, and endeavoring to curb his
own tongue.
"Don't dare to address me, but get out of my house immediately; there,
follow your bonnet, Sarah Kane," she said, furiously, pitching her
bonnet and satchel into the hall, on which some change rolling
therefrom, she was the richer by a half a sovereign, which, stealthily
picking up, with an inward chuckle, she slipped into her boot.
"What's all the racket about upstairs? Wait a few moments, Lang," said
Stone, who, on returning, ascertained he had been waiting for him in the
kitchen for a full hour, they having missed each other in the morning.
Sarah Jones, in nervous haste to be gone, picked up her bonnet and
satchel, taking the hand of Mr. Cole in good night.
"Remember! and here is my address," he whispered nervously.
But the woman he has married is too sharp for them; for, on Sarah
turning from the bedside, she snatched the paper, tearing it into
fragments.
"Good night, Mr. Cole. I am truly sorry for you; you are too good for
the inmates of this house."
"Again you dare to trespass," said Stone, meeting them on the stairs,
turning and following them down.
"I warned you before that I should make you pay for this. I am master
here, and I tell you I shall kick you out if you ever show your ugly
faces here again," he said, choking with passion.
"Good evening, Mistress Kane," winked Lang, as they passed him. "It was
not square of you to skip off from me without paying your board. I'm
dead broke, so you or your follower better pay up now; it's only five
sovereigns, and save law expenses."
"You are unwise, Mr. Lang, to add insult to injury," she said, quietly,
as she went out into a serener night.
"Provide yourselves with plasters, and we shall provide ourselves with
copper toes, the next time you trespass," shouted Mrs. Cole, over the
banisters.
"We shall only trouble you once more," said Silas Jones, curbing
himself, "when Mrs. Jones will give you her signature in exchange for
five hundred pounds, with interest on same, left her by the will of the
late Mrs. Villiers."