THE FLIGHT.
Mrs. Major Wheatly was a very fine lady, and lived in a very fine house
two or three miles out of town. Having secured a traveling companion and
a governess for her daughter, in the person of Miss Rose, the little
Speckport school-mistress, she had desired that young person to come out
to their place immediately, and assist in the packing and other
arrangements, preparatory to starting. Miss Rose had obeyed, and being
out of town had heard nothing of the inquest and the verdict until that
night, when the major drove in, after dusk, with the news. Mrs. Major
Wheatly, like any other fine lady, was greatly addicted to news, and
received a severe shock in her nervous system by the manner in which her
paid companion received the intelligence. They were all sitting at tea
when the major blurted out the story, and his conviction that "the young
scamp would be hung, and serve him right," and Miss Rose had fallen
suddenly back in her chair in a violent tremor and faintness. All the
next day she had gone about so pale and subdued that it gave Mrs.
Wheatly the fidgets to look at her; but whatever she felt, she had
wisely kept to herself, and made her moan inwardly, as dependents who
know their places always should. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof"--that day brought its own evil tidings. The major returning at
his usual hour of the evening from town, announced the astounding
intelligence that Miss Nathalie Marsh was disinherited, and the broad
lands of Redmon given to another. Mrs. Major Wheatly sipped her tea and
ate her buttered toast, and was deeply sympathetic. She had met the
pretty, golden-haired, violet-eyed heiress often in society, and had
admired and liked her, as most people did, and was as sorry for her as
was consistent with the dignity of so great a lady.
"Of course Captain Cavendish must recede now," she said: "he paid her
very marked attentions, but of course he will not marry a penniless
bride. Were they engaged, I wonder?"
"Cavendish is a fortune-hunter," said the major. "Miss Marsh is a very
nice girl, and a very pretty one, and altogether too good for him. No
fear of his marrying her, my dear; he wouldn't marry the Venus Celestis
herself, without a handsome dowry."
"Mrs. Wheatly," Miss Rose said, "I must go into town to-morrow morning,
to see my friends and say good-bye."
She was so pale and tremulous saying this, that the lady hastened to
assent, nervously, lest she should make another scene.
"I am going in about nine o'clock," the major said, "and will drive you.
Harris will take you back."
"And you must not stay long, Miss Rose," his lady languidly said;
"remember we start at half-past two, and there is so much to be done."
The clock on the sitting-room mantel of that silent house on Cottage
Street was pointing to half-past nine, when Betsy Ann, with fuzzy hair
and sleepy face, hastened to answer a knock at the front door. She
stared sleepily at her visitor, who came hurriedly in.
"Is she here, Betsy Ann?--Miss Marsh?"
"Yes'm," Betsy Ann said, "she's up in your room, and Miss Laura Blair
and Midge, they've been and sot up with her all night, and me and Miss
Jo Blake we've been sitting up with Mrs. Marsh. Midge, she's gone to bed
now, and you'd better go up-stairs."
Miss Rose ascended the stairs, and tapped at the door that had been her
own. It was opened by Laura Blair, looking pale and fagged.
"Is it you, Miss Rose?" she said, in a low voice, kissing her. "I was
afraid you were not coming to say good-bye."
"I could not come sooner, and can stay only an hour now. How is she?"
"There is no change. She has lain all night as she lying now."
Miss Rose looked at the bed, tears slowly swelling up and filling her
soft brown eyes. Nathalie lay among the white pillows, her amber tresses
trailing and falling loose all about, her hands clasped over her head,
her haggard face turned to the window overlooking the bay, her wide-open
blue eyes staring blankly at the dim gray sea melting away into the low
gray sky.
"She lies like that," Laura softly said, "all the time. We sat up with
her all night, but she never slept, she hardly moved; whenever we went
near the bed, we found her eyes wide open and vacant, as they are now.
If she could only talk or cry, she would be better, but it makes one's
heart ache to look at her."
"Does she not talk?"
"She will answer you if you speak to her, but that is all. She is quite
conscious, but she seems to be in a sort of torpor. I will leave you
with her, and lie down for half an hour. She was very fond of you, and
perhaps you can do more with her than I could."
Laura departed; and Miss Rose, going over to the bed, stooped down and
kissed the cold, white face, leaving two bright tears upon it.
"Nathalie, dearest," she said, "do you know me?"
Her large, melancholy eyes turned upon her sweet, tender face.
"Yes," she said, in that voice so unlike her own, that it startled her
hearer. She seemed so unlike herself every way, that Miss Rose's tears
rained down far faster than they would have done at any outbreak of
grief.
"You are ill, my darling," Miss Rose faltered through her tears. "I wish
I could stay and nurse you back to health, but I am going away
to-day--going, perhaps, never to come back."
"Going away? Oh, yes. I remember!"
She turned wearily on the pillow, still gazing out over the wide sea, as
if her thoughts were far away.
"I am very sorry for you, dear, dear Nathalie! Very, very sorry for you!
It seems to me, sometimes, there is nothing in all this world but
suffering, and sorrow, and death."
"Death!" Nathalie echoed, catching with sudden and startling vehemence
at the word. "Miss Rose, are you afraid to die?"
The question was so sudden and so strange, that Miss Rose could not for
a moment answer. A wild gleam of light had leaped into the sick girl's
eyes, and irradiated her face so unnaturally, that it struck her
companion with terror.
"Afraid to die?" she faltered. "To die, Nathalie?"
"Yes," Nathalie repeated, that abrupt energy yet in her voice; "you are
good and charitable, better than any other girl I know, and you ought
not to be afraid to die. Tell me, are you?"
She laid hold of Miss Rose's wrist, and looked wildly into her
frightened face. The girl tried to still her beating heart and answer.
"I am not good, Nathalie. I am an erring and sinful creature; but,
trusting in the great mercy of God, I think I shall not be afraid to die
when it shall please him to call me. We must rely on his mercy,
Nathalie, on that infinite compassion for our misery that made him die
for us. If we thought of his justice, we might all despair."
Nathalie turned away, and looked out again over the dark, tossing bay.
The sweet voice of Miss Rose broke the stillness.
"To the just, Nathalie, there is no such word as death! To quit this
world, to them, is only passing from earth to Heaven in the arms of
angels. Why should we ever grow to love this world, when day after day
it is only passing from one new trouble and sorrow to another?"
"Sorrow!" Nathalie repeated, in a voice sadder than any tears. "Yes,
sorrow, sorrow, sorrow! There is nothing left now but that."
"Heaven is left, my darling," Miss Rose whispered, her fair face
radiant. "Oh, look up, Nathalie! When all the world deserts us, there
is One left who will never turn away when we cry out to him. We may turn
our backs upon him and forget him in the hour of our happiness and
prosperity, but when the world darkens around us, and all earthly love
fails, he will never leave us or forsake us, but will lead us lovingly
back to a better and purer bliss. Remember, Nathalie, the way to heaven
is the way of the Cross. It is a hard and thorny one, perhaps; but think
of the divine feet that have trodden it before us."
"Stop, stop, stop!" Nathalie impatiently cried out, "why do you talk to
me like this! I am not good--I am only miserable and despairing, and I
want to die, only I am afraid!"
She moved away her face; but Miss Rose, bending over her still, kissed
once more the averted face.
"There was a time, Nathalie," she said softly, "when I was almost as
miserable as you are now, when, God forgive me, I prayed in my
passionate and wicked rebellion to die too. There was a time, Nathalie,
when I was rich and flattered, and beloved and happy--as happy as we can
ever be with the blind happiness of a lotus-eater when we never think or
thank the good God from whom that happiness comes. I thought myself an
heiress as you did, Nathalie; my father was looked upon as a rich and
honorable man, and his only daughter the most enviable girl in all the
city of Montreal. It was balls and parties, and the theater and the
opera, every night; and riding and driving, and dressing and shopping
all day long. I had my carriage to ride in, a fine house to live in,
servants to wait on me, and rich dresses and jewels to wear; and I
thought life was one long holiday, made for dancing and music, and
sunshine and joy. I had a lover, too, whom I thought loved me, and to
whom I had given my whole heart, and we were on the verge of being
married. Are you listening to me, Nathalie?"
"Yes," Nathalie said. She had been listening intently, forgetting for
the first time her own sorrows, to hearken to the story, so like her
own.
"Well, Nathalie, in one day, almost as you have done, I lost
all--father, lover, fortune, honor. My father went out from breakfast,
hale and well, and was carried home two hours afterward, struck dead.
Congestion of the brain they said it was. I was so frantic at first, I
could realize nothing but his death, but I was soon sternly compelled to
listen to other bitter facts. Instead of being an heiress, I was a
beggar. I was far poorer than you, for I was motherless and without a
home to shelter me. The creditors seized everything--house, furniture,
carriages, horses, plate, pictures--and turned me, in point of fact,
into the street. I had been educated in a convent, and the good nuns
gave me a home; but for that, I might have gone to the almshouse, for
the friends of prosperity are but frail reeds to lean upon in adversity.
He whom I was to have wedded, Nathalie, cast me off; he could never
disgrace his English friends by bringing to them as his wife the
daughter of a wretched defaulter. Dearest Nathalie, I need not tell you
what I suffered--you are feeling the same anguish now--and I was
rebellious and despairing, and wished impiously for nothing but death.
The nuns, with the sweetness and patience of angels, as they are, used
to sit by me for hours, telling me that blessed are they who mourn and
are chastened; but I could not listen. Oh! it was a miserable, miserable
time! and there seemed no light for me either in earth or heaven. If I
had been 'cursed with the curse of an accomplished evil prayer,' and
died then in my wicked despair, I shudder to think of what would have
been my fate. But that merciful and loving Father had pity on me in
spite of myself, and it is all over now, and I am happy. Yes, Nathalie,
happy, with a far better and more rational happiness than I ever felt in
the most joyous days of my prosperity; and I have learned to thank God
daily, now, for what I then thought the greatest misery that could ever
befall me. I wished to take the vail; but the nuns knew the wish
proceeded from no real vocation, but from that weary heart-sickness that
made me so disgusted with the world, and would not consent, at least not
then. I was to go out into the world again, and mingle in its ceaseless
strife once more; and if at the end of a year the desire was as strong
as ever, I was to go back to that peaceful haven, like the dove to the
ark, and be sheltered from the storms of life forever. So I came here,
Nathalie; and I am happy, as I say--happy, as with Heaven's help you
will one day be. I labor for a sacred cause, and until that is
accomplished, I shall enter no convent--it is to pay my father's debts.
They are not so very large now; and in three or four years, if life and
health be granted me, I hope to accomplish my task.
"And now, Nathalie, you have heard my story; it is not a very romantic
one, but in many ways it is similar to your own. This fever of
wretchedness will pass, as mine has done, if you only pray. All the
secret lies there, pray; and he who has said 'Seek and ye shall find,'
will not refuse you peace."
Her face was like the face of an angel. Nathalie looked into the
inspired eyes, and felt how sinful and lost she was beside this heroic
girl--this simple, womanly martyr, kissing meekly the rod which struck
her--this patient, humble soul, rebelling not, but thanking God alike
for the joy and suffering it pleased him to send. She felt, through all
the dull torpor of suffering, how unworthy she was beside her; but she
could not, in that first bitter hour, imitate her. She could not; she
only turned away again in gloomy silence.
"You will think of all this, dearest Nathalie," the soft, tender voice
went on; "for all this pain, like every other earthly pain, must pass
away. The great lesson of life is endurance; and all, from the king to
the beggar, must learn it."
She rose, as she spoke, to go, for more than an hour had passed, and
kissed the cold and averted face again.
"I must leave you, Nathalie," she said, her tears falling on that
colorless face. "Good-bye, and God bless and comfort you."
"Good-bye," was the only response; and Miss Rose left the room. Laura
Blair met her in the lower hall.
"Are you going?" she asked; "the gig is waiting for you."
"Yes; but I think I should like to see Mrs. Marsh, to say good-bye."
"She is asleep, and so is Miss Blake. I will say it to both of them for
you. I am very sorry you are going, Miss Rose. Do you think you will
ever come back?"
"Oh, yes, I hope so! If I send you my address, Miss Blair, will you
write and tell me how--how all my friends get on?"
"Yes, with pleasure."
Betsy Ann came out to bid farewell, and Laura kissed her, and watched
her as she entered her gig and was driven away. Miss Rose had no time to
bid good-bye to any one else; but when she reached the station early in
the afternoon, in the carriage, with Major and Mrs. and Miss Wheatly,
she found all her pupils assembled, in Sunday attire, waiting to say
farewell. Mrs. Wheatly shrugged her shoulders at the scene, and stared
through her eye-glass, and was relieved when they were all seated in the
car and the scene was over. As they took their place, a gentleman on the
platform leaned his elbow on the window, and lifted his hat in
salutation to the ladies.
"Hallo, Blake!" said the major, nodding familiarly, "come to see us
off?"
"No," said Val; "I've come to see myself off. I'm going to take a couple
of holidays and look at the country. Keep a place for me, Miss Rose; I
want to talk to you. I'll be in in a brace of shakes."
It is probable a brace of shakes meant fifteen minutes, for at the
expiration of that period of time, and just as the train was in motion,
Mr. Blake lounged in, laden with oranges, peaches, and newspapers, which
he distributed promiscuously, and then took a seat beside Miss Rose. It
was pleasant to have Val for a traveling companion, for he knew every
inch of the country, and was so full of stories and anecdotes as to be
perfectly fascinating. He talked of the murder, asserted his belief in
Charley's innocence, in spite of any amount of circumstantial evidence,
and his firm conviction that the mystery would be speedily cleared up;
his present journey, he hinted, being taken to bring about that
desirable result. The fact was, Mr. Blake had of his own choice turned
amateur detective, and was on the track of Miss Cherrie Nettleby, and
positively resolved never to stop until he had hunted that young lady
down. A telegram had been dispatched to Greentown the day before, and
the answer Val had expected returned; Cherrie had never been near her
relations in Greentown at all. The reply threw the family at the cottage
into consternation, but Val reassured them by expressing his resolution
to find her, if she was above ground. From his inquiries at the station,
he had found out from the clerk, who knew her (who did not know
Cherrie?) that she had taken a through ticket to the terminus, thirty
miles beyond Greentown. The conductor remembered very well the pretty
girl with the dark eyes and curls, and rosy cheeks; had found her dozing
every time through the night he had passed in that car; remembered her
ticket was for S----, the terminus, but was positive she had got out
before they reached the final station. Where or when she had left, he
could not say; it was after night, and passengers were getting out and
coming in at every station, and she could easily depart among them
unnoticed. He did not know whether she had gone as far as Greentown; but
he did not remember seeing her after they passed that place. Val got out
at nearly every station where they made any stop, and inquired for the
pretty girl with the dark eyes and curls, but without success. At
Greentown, he bade Miss Rose farewell; told her to take care of herself
and not be sea-sick, and not to go and marry an Englishman before she
returned to them; and, carpet-bag in hand, and the address of Cousin
Ellen in his pocket, strolled along through the gray twilight to pursue
his inquiries. He found the farmhouse easily enough, but not Cherrie.
She had never been seen there, and no one who had been at the station
that night had seen any young lady whatever alight.
Val remained in Greentown that night, and went on pursuing his inquiries
next day, but with the like result. He went on to S----; it was just
possible she had gone on there, and taken the steamer for Quebec. He
inquired at all the hotels, but no one answering to her description had
stopped at any of them, and her name was not on the list of passengers
by the last steamer.
Mr. Blake spent three days in the search, and was then compelled by
business to return to town. Short as had been his absence, Speckport had
received a new shock--no less than the escape of the prisoner from jail.
Charley Marsh had broken prison and fled! How, could not very clearly be
ascertained, though the bars had been wrenched from his window and the
casement found wide open, his quilts torn into strips, and dangling from
it. But the window was high, and there was a wall to be got over
afterward, and how he had accomplished that last feat, puzzled
Speckport. He had accomplished it, however, and was flown; and the
police were after him, scouring the woods. Rewards were offered for his
capture. Mr. Blake put his hands in his pockets and whistled, when he
heard it. The recollection of a certain fact, not known to all Speckport
as it was to him, rushed upon his memory. In the days gone by, when the
late Mr. Marsh had been a wealthy man, and the jailer of the prison (not
jailer then) sued for a debt he could not pay, Mr. Marsh had come to his
relief, paid the debt, and freed him. It was hardly probable the man had
forgotten this obligation, and the bread cast then upon the waters had
returned after many days. But the jailer was not suspected, and he and
Val kept their own counsel.
"I hope he'll get clear off," thought Val; "for if ever he's caught now,
unless the real criminal turns up, there will be nothing to save him.
This flight of his is enough to hang him, in itself."