RECONCILED
"Well, Irene, what is your decision about the party at Mrs. Churchill's
to-night?"
"I will go with you, father, if it is a matter of so much interest to you,
though, as I told you yesterday, I should prefer declining the invitation
as far as I am concerned."
"It is full time for you to go into society again. You have moped at home
long enough."
"'Moped' is scarcely the right word, father."
"It matters little what you call it, the fact is the same. You have shut
yourself in till you have grown to look like a totally different woman.
Indeed, Irene, I won't permit it any longer; you must come out into the
world once more. I am, sick of your black looks; let me see you in colours
to-night."
"Will not pure white content you, father?"
"No, I am tired of it. Wear something bright."
"I have a favour to ask at your hands, father, will you give me that large
beautiful vacant lot with the old willow tree, on the corner of Pine
Street and Huntingdon Avenue, opposite the court-house?"
"Upon my word! I must say you are very modest in your request! What the
deuce do you want with it?"
"I know that I am asking a good deal, sir; but I want it as a site for an
orphan asylum. Will you give it to me?"
"No! I'll be hanged if I do! Are you going entirely deranged? What business
have you with asylums, I should like to know? Put all of that ridiculous
stuff out of your head. Here is something for which I sent to Europe. Eric
selected it in Paris, and it arrived yesterday. Wear it to-night."
He drew a velvet case from his pocket and laid it before her. Touching the
spring, the lid flew open, and on the blue satin lining lay the blazing
coils of a magnificent diamond necklace and bracelets.
"How beautiful! how splendidly beautiful!"
She bent over the flashing mass in silent admiration for some time,
examining the delicate setting, then looked up at her father.
"What did they cost?"
"Why do you want to know that?"
"I am pardonably curious on the subject."
"Well, then, I was silly enough to give seven thousand dollars for them."
"And what was the value of that lot I asked for?"
"Five thousand dollars."
"Father, these diamonds are the finest I ever saw. They are superbly
beautiful; a queen might be proud of them, and I thank you most earnestly
for such a gorgeous present; but if you will not be offended, I will be
candid with you--I would a thousand times rather have the lot than the
jewels."
The expression of blank astonishment with which these words were received
would have been ludicrous but for the ominous thickening of his brows.
She laid her fingers on his arm, but he shook off the touch, and, scowling
sullenly, snatched the velvet case from her hand.
He went to town, and she met him no more till she was attired for the
party. Standing before the mirror in her own room she arranged the flowers
in her hair, and, when the leaves were disposed to suit her fastidious
taste, she took up a pearl set which he had given her years before,
intending to wear it. But just then raising her eyes, she saw her father's
image reflected in the glass. Without turning she put up her arms, and,
laying her head back on his shoulder, said eagerly--
"My dear, dear father, do let us be reconciled."
Clouds and moodiness melted from his handsome features as he bent over her
an instant, kissing her fondly; then his hands passed swiftly over her
neck, an icy shower fell upon it, and she was clothed with light.
"My beautiful child, wear your diamonds as a seal of peace. I can't let you
have the Pine Street lot--I want it for a different purpose; but I will
give you three acres on the edge of town, near the depot, for your asylum
whim. It is a better location every way for your project."
"Thank you, father. Oh! thank you more than words can express."
She turned her lips to one of the hands still lingering on her shoulder.
"Irene, look at yourself. Diana of Ephesus! what a blaze of glory!"
Two days before the marriage of Charles Harris and Maria Henderson had been
celebrated with considerable pomp, and the party to-night was given in
honour of the event by Mrs. Churchill, a widowed sister of Judge Harris.
She had spent several years in Paris superintending the education of a
daughter, whom she had recently brought home to reside near her uncle, and
dazzle all W---- with her accomplishments.
At ten o'clock there stood beneath the gas-lights in her elegant parlour a
human fleshy antithesis, upon which all eyes were riveted--Salome
Churchill--a dark imperious beauty, of the Cleopatra type, with very full
crimson lips, passionate or pouting as occasion demanded; brilliant black
eyes that, like August days, burned dewless and unclouded, a steady blaze;
thick, shining, black hair elaborately curled, and a rich tropical
complexion, clear and glowing as the warm blood that pulsed through her
rounded graceful form. She wore a fleecy fabric, topaz-coloured, with black
lace trimmings; yellow roses gemmed her hair, and topaz and ruby ornaments
clasped her throat and arms. An Eastern queen she looked, exacting
universal homage, and full of fiery jealousy whenever her eyes fell upon
one who stood just opposite. Irene's dress was an airy blue _tulle_,
flounced to the waist, and without trimming, save the violet and clematis
clusters. Never had her rare beauty been more resplendent--more dazzlingly
chilly; it seemed the glitter of an arctic ice-berg lit by some low
midnight sun, and turn whither she would fascinated groups followed her
steps. Salome's reputation as a brilliant _belle_ had become extended since
Irene's long seclusion, yet to-night, on the reappearance of the latter, it
was apparent to even the most obtuse that she had resumed her sway--the
matchless cynosure of that social system. Fully conscious of the intense
admiration she excited, she moved slowly from room to room, smiling once or
twice when she met her father's proud look of fond triumph fixed upon her.
Leaning against the window to rest, while Charles Harris went in search of
a glass of water, she heard Aubrey's name pronounced by some one on the
gallery.
"Well, the very latest report is that, after all, Aubrey never fancied
Grace Harris, as the quidnuncs asserted--never addressed her, or anybody
else--but is now, sure enough, about to bear off _belle_ Salome, the new
prize, right in the face of twenty rivals. I should really like to hear of
something which that man could not do, if he set himself to work in
earnest. I wonder whether it ever occurs to him that he once stood behind
Jacob Watson's counter?"
"But Aubrey is not here to-night. Does not affect parties, I believe?"
"Rarely shows himself. But you mistake: he came in not twenty minutes ago;
and you should have seen what I saw--the rare-ripe red deepen on Salome's
cheeks when he spoke to her."
Irene moved away from the window, and soon after was about to accompany
Charlie to the hall, when a Mr. Bainbridge came up and claimed her hand for
the cotillion forming in the next room. As they took their places on the
floor, she saw that Salome and Russell would be _vis-a-vis_.
Irene moved mechanically through the airy mazes of the dance, straining her
ear to catch the mellow voice which uttered such graceful, fascinating
nothings to Salome. Several times in the course of the cotillion Russell's
hand clasped her, but even then he avoided looking at her, and seemed
engrossed in conversation with his gay partner. Once Irene looked up
steadily, and as she noted the expression with which he regarded his
companion she wondered no longer at the rumour she had heard, and
acknowledged to herself that they were, indeed, a handsome couple.
The dance ended; Irene declined to dance again. She looked about for Dr.
Arnold, but he had disappeared; her father was deep in a game of euchre;
and as she crossed the hall she was surprised to see Philip leaning against
the door-facing, and peering curiously into the parlours.
"Philip, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, Miss Irene! I have been hunting for you ever so long. Mrs. Davis is
dying, and Susan sent me after you. I went to your house two hours ago, and
they said you were here. Will you come, ma'am!"
"Of course. Philip, find Andrew and the carriage, and I will meet you at
the side door in five minutes."
She went to the dressing-room, asked for pencil and paper, and wrote a few
lines, which she directed the servant to hand immediately to her
father--found her shawl, and stole down to the side door. She saw the dim
outline of a form sitting on the step, in the shadow of clustering vines,
and asked--
"Is that you, Philip? I am ready."
The figure rose, came forward into the light, hat in hand, and both started
visibly.
"Pardon me, Mr. Aubrey. I mistook you in the darkness for another."
Here Philip ran up the steps.
"Miss Irene, Andrew says he can't get to the side gate for the carriages.
He is at the front entrance."
"Can I assist you, Miss Huntingdon?"
"I thank you; no."
"May I ask if you are ill?"
"Not in the least--but I am suddenly called away."
She passed him, and accompanied Philip to the carriage. A few minutes'
rapid driving brought them to the Row, and, directing Andrew to return and
wait for her father, Irene entered the low small chamber, where a human
soul was pluming itself for its final flight home. The dying woman knew her
even then in the fierce throes of dissolution, and the sunken eyes beamed
as she bent over the pillow.
"God bless you! I knew you would come. My children--what will become of
them? Will you take care of them? Tell me quick."
"Put your mind at rest, Mrs. Davis. I will see that your children are well
cared for in every respect."
"Promise me!" gasped the poor sufferer, clutching the jewelled arm.
"I do promise you most solemnly that I will watch over them constantly.
They shall never want so long as I live. Will you not believe me, and calm
yourself?"
A ghastly smile trembled over the distorted features, and she bowed her
head in assent.
"Mrs. Davis, don't you feel that you will soon be at rest with God?"
"Yes--I am going home happy--happy."
She closed her eyes and whispered--
"Sing my--hymn--once--more."
Making a great effort to crush her own feelings, Irene sang the simple but
touching words of "Home Again," and though her voice faltered now and then,
she sang it through--knowing, from the expression of the sufferer's face,
that the spirit was passing to its endless rest.
A passionate burst of sorrow from Johnnie followed the discovery of the
melancholy truth, and rising from the floor Irene seated herself on a
chair, taking the child on her lap, and soothing his violent grief. Too
young to realize his loss, he was easily comforted, and after a time grew
quiet. She directed Susan to take him into the next room and put him on his
pallet; and when she had exchanged a few words with Philip's mother about
the disposition of the rigid sleeper, she turned to quit the apartment, and
saw Russell standing on the threshold. Had the dead mother suddenly stepped
before her she would scarcely have been more astonished and startled.
He extended one hand, and hastily taking hers, drew her to the door of the
narrow, dark hall, where the newly-risen moon shone in.
"Come out of this charnel-house into the pure air once more. Do not shrink
back--trust yourself with me this once at least." The brick walls of the
factory rose a hundred yards off, in full view of the Row, and leading her
along the river bank he placed her on one of the massive stone steps of the
building.
"What brought you here to-night, Mr. Aubrey?"
"An unpardonable curiosity concerning your sudden departure--an
unconquerable desire to speak to you once more. I came here overmastered by
an irresistible desire to see you alone, to look at you, to tell you what I
have almost sworn should never pass my lips--what you may consider unmanly
weakness--nay, insanity, on my part. We are face to face at last, man and
woman, with the golden bars of conventionality and worldly distinction
snapped asunder. I am no longer the man whom society would fain flatter, in
atonement for past injustice; and I choose to forget for the time, that you
are the daughter of my bitterest deadly foe--my persistent persecutor. I
remember nothing now but the crowned days of our childhood, the rosy dawn
of my manhood, where your golden head shone my Morning Star. I hurl away
all barriers and remember only the one dream of my life--my deathless,
unwavering love for you. Oh, Irene! Irene! why have you locked that rigid
cold face of yours against me? In the hallowed days of old you nestled your
dear hands into mine, and pressed your curls against my cheek, and gave me
comfort in your pure, warm, girlish affection; how can you snatch your
frozen fingers from mine now, as though my touch were contamination? Be
yourself once more--give me one drop from the old overflowing fountain. I
am a lonely man; and my proud, bitter heart hungers for one of your gentle
words, one of your sweet, priceless smiles. Irene, look at me! Give it to
me?"
He sat down on the step at her feet, and raised his dark magnetic face,
glowing with the love which had so long burned undimmed, his lofty full
forehead wearing a strange flush.
She dared not meet his eye, and drooped her head on her palms, shrinking
from the scorching furnace of trial, whose red jaws yawned to receive her.
He waited a moment, and his low mellow voice rose to a stormy key.
"Irene, you are kind and merciful to the poor wretches in the Row.
Poverty--nay, crime, does not frighten away your compassion for them! Why
are you hard and cruelly haughty only to me?"
"You do not need my sympathy, Mr. Aubrey, and congratulations on your great
success would not come gracefully from my lips. Most unfortunate obstacles
long since rendered all intercourse between us impossible still; my feeling
for you has undergone no change. I am, I assure you, still your friend."
It cost her a powerful effort to utter these words, and her voice took a
metallic tone utterly foreign to it. Her heart writhed, bled and moaned in
the grip of her steely purpose, but she endured all calmly--relaxing not
one jot of her bitter resolution.
"My friend? Mockery! God defend me from such henceforth. Irene, you loved
me once--nay, don't deny it! You need not blush for the early folly, which,
it seems, you have interred so deeply; and though you scorn to meet me even
as an equal, I know, I feel, that I am worthy of your love--that I
comprehend your strange nature as no one else ever will--that, had such a
privilege been accorded me, I could have kindled your heart, and made you
supremely happy. Cursed barriers have divided us always; fate denied me my
right. I have suffered many things; but does it not argue, at least, in
favour of my love, that it has survived all the trials to which your
father's hate had subjected me? To-night I could forgive him all! all! if I
knew that he had not so successfully hardened, closed your heart against
me. My soul is full of bitterness which would move you, if one trait of
your girlish nature remained. But you are not my Irene! The world's queen,
the dazzling idol of the ball-room, is not my blue-eyed, angelic Irene of
old! I will intrude upon you no longer. Try at least not to despise me for
my folly; I will crush it; and if you deign to remember me at all in
future, think of a man who laughs at his own idiocy, and strives to forget
that he ever believed there lived one woman who would be true to her own
heart, even though the heavens fell and the world passed away!"
He rose partially, but her hand fell quickly upon his shoulder, and the
bowed face lifted itself, stainless as starry jasmines bathed in equatorial
dews.
"Mr. Aubrey, you are too severe upon yourself, and very unjust to me. The
circumstances which conspired to alienate us were far beyond my control; I
regret them as sincerely as you possibly can, but as unavailably. If I have
individually occasioned you sorrow or disappointment, God knows it was no
fault of mine! We stand on the opposite shores of a dark, bridgeless gulf;
but before we turn away to be henceforth strangers, I stretch out my hand
to you in friendly farewell--deeply regretting the pain which I may have
innocently caused you, and asking your forgiveness. Mr. Aubrey, remember me
as I was, not as I am. Good-bye, my friend. May God bless you in coming
years, and crown your life with the happiness you merit, is the earnest
prayer of my heart."
The rare blue cord on her brow told how fiercely the lava-flood surged
under its icy bands, and the blanched lip matched her cheek in
colourlessness; save these tokens of anguish, no other was visible.
Russell drew down the hand from his shoulder, and folded it in both his
own.
"Irene, are we to walk different paths henceforth--utter strangers? Is such
your will?"
"Such is the necessity, which must be as apparent to you as to me. Do not
doubt my friendship, Mr. Aubrey; but doubt the propriety of my parading it
before the world."
He bent his cheek down on her cold hand, then raised it to his lips once,
twice--laid it back on her lap, and taking his hat, walked away toward
town.
For some time she remained just as Russell had left her; then the white
arms and dry eyes were raised to the midnight sky.
"My God! my God! strengthen me in my desolation!"
She put back the folds of hair that, damp with dew, clung to her gleaming
temples, and recrossing the wide road or street, approached the chamber of
death.
Irene met at the door Dr. Arnold's buggy.
"Irene, are you ready to go home?"
"Yes. Mrs. Davis is dead."
"As I was leaving Mrs. Churchill's, your father told me where you were, and
I thought I would come after you. Put on your shawl and jump in. You are in
a pretty plight, truly, to stand over a deathbed! 'Vanity of vanities! all
is vanity!' Here, let me wrap that gauze cloud around your head. Now then!"
The top of the buggy had been lowered, and as they rode homeward she leaned
her head back, turning her face to the sickly moonlight.
They went into the house, and as he filled and lighted his pipe, his
cavernous eyes ran curiously over her.
"How you have blazed to-night! Your diamonds are superb."
"Yes, sir."
"Go to sleep at once, child. You look as if you had seen a ghost. What has
knotted up your forehead in that style?"
"I have looked upon a melancholy death to-night, and have seen two helpless
children orphaned. Come and see me soon; I want to consult you about an
orphan asylum for which father has given me a lot. Good night, sir; I am
very much obliged to you for your kindness in bringing me home. Nobody else
is half so considerate and thoughtful."
In her own room she took off the jewels, withered violets and moist
_tulle_--and drawing on her dressing-gown, went up to the observatory, and
sat down on the threshold of one of the glass doors looking eastward.
"Think of a man who laughs at his own idiocy, and strives to forget that he
ever believed there lived one woman who would be true to her own heart,
though the heavens fell and the world passed away!"
These words of scorn were the burning shares over which her bare feet trod,
and his bitter accents wailed up and down her lonely heart. Through the
remainder of that cloudless night she wrestled silently. At last, when the
sky flushed rosily, like an opal smitten with light, and holy
Resignation--the blessing born only of great trial like hers--shed its
heavenly chrism over the worn and weary, bruised and bleeding spirit, she
gathered up the mangled hopes that might have gladdened, and gilded, and
glorified her earthly career, and pressing the ruins to her heart, laid
herself meekly down, offering all upon the God-built altar of Filial
Obedience.
In the
" ... early morning, when the air
Was delicate with some last starry touch,"
she opened the door of her father's room and approached the bed. The noise
wakened him, and raising himself on his elbow, he looked wonderingly at
her.
"What is the matter, Irene? You look as if you had not closed your eyes."
"Father, you took me in your arms last night, and kissed me as you have not
done before for years. Oh, father! my father! do not cast me off again!
Whom have I in the world but you? By the memory of my sainted mother I
ask--I claim your love!"
"You are a strange girl, Irene; I never did understand you. But I don't
want to drive you from me, if you prefer to live here single. There shall
be peace between us, my dear daughter."
He leaned forward, and laid his hand caressingly on her head, as she knelt
at his bedside, pleading with uplifted arms.