THE MYSTERY
GEORGE, however, did not forget his promise to use all the means
in his power to get Mary out of slavery. He, therefore, laboured
with all his might to obtain money with which to employ some one
to go back to Virginia for Mary. After nearly six months' labour
at St. Catherine's, he employed an English missionary to go and
see if the girl could be purchased, and at what price. The
missionary went accordingly, but returned with the sad
intelligence that, on account of Mary's aiding George to escape,
the court had compelled Mr. Green to sell her out of the state,
and she had been sold to a Negro trader, and taken to the New
Orleans market. As all hope of getting the girl was now gone,
George resolved to quit the American continent for ever. He
immediately took passage in a vessel laden with timber, bound for
Liverpool, and in five weeks from that time he was standing on
the quay of the great English seaport. With little or no
education, he found many difficulties in the way of getting a
respectable living. However he obtained a situation as porter in
a large house in Manchester, where he worked during the day, and
took private lessons at night. In this way he laboured for three
years, and was then raised to the situation of clerk. George was
so white as easily to pass for a white man, and being somewhat
ashamed of his African descent, he never once mentioned the fact
of his having been a slave. He soon became a partner in
the firm that employed him, and was now on the road to wealth.
In the year 1842, just ten years after George Green (for he
adopted his master's name) arrived in England, he visited France,
and spent some days at Dunkirk. It was towards sunset, on a warm
day in the month of October, that Mr. Green, after strolling some
distance from the Hotel de Leon, entered a burial ground, and
wandered along, alone among the silent dead, gazing upon the many
green graves and marble tombstones of those who once moved on the
theatre of busy life, and whose sounds of gaiety once fell upon
the ear of man. All nature around was hushed in silence, and
seemed to partake of the general melancholy which hung over the
quiet resting-place of departed mortals. After tracing the varied
inscriptions which told the characters or conditions of the
departed, and viewing the mounds beneath which the dust of
mortality slumbered, he had now reached a secluded spot, near to
where an aged weeping willow bowed its thick foliage to the
ground, as though anxious to hide from the scrutinising gaze of
curiosity the grave beneath it. Mr. Green seated himself upon a
marble tomb, and began to read Roscoe's Leo X., a copy of which
he had under his arm. It was then about twilight, and he had
scarcely gone through half a page, when he observed a lady in
black, leading a boy, some five years old, up one of the paths;
and as the lady's black veil was over her face, he felt somewhat
at liberty to eye her more closely. While looking at her, the
lady gave a scream, and appeared to be in a fainting position,
when Mr. Green sprang from his seat in time to save her from
falling to the ground. At this moment, an elderly gentleman was
seen approaching with a rapid step, who, from his appearance, was
evidently the lady's father, or one intimately connected with
her. He came up, and, in a confused manner, asked what
was the matter. Mr. Green explained as well as he could. After
taking up the smelling bottle which had fallen from her hand, and
holding it a short time to her face, she soon began to revive.
During all this time the lady's veil had so covered her face, that
Mr. Green had not seen it. When she had so far recovered as to be
able to raise her head, she again screamed, and fell back into
the arms of the old man. It now appeared quite certain, that
either the countenance of George Green, or some other object, was
the cause of these fits of fainting; and the old gentleman,
thinking it was the former, in rather a petulant tone said, "I
will thank you, sir, if you will leave us alone." The child whom
the lady was leading, had now set up a squall; and amid the
death-like appearance of the lady, the harsh look of the old man,
and the cries of the boy, Mr. Green left the grounds, and
returned to his hotel.
Whilst seated by the window, and looking out upon the crowded
street, with every now and then the strange scene in the
grave-yard vividly before him, Mr. Green thought of the book he
had been reading, and, remembering that he had left it on the
tomb, where he had suddenly dropped it when called to the
assistance of the lady, he immediately determined to return in
search of it. After a walk of some twenty minutes, he was again
over the spot where he had been an hour before, and from which he
had been so unceremoniously expelled by the old man. He looked in
vain for the book; it was nowhere to be found: nothing save the
bouquet which the lady had dropped, and which lay half-buried in
the grass from having been trodden upon, indicated that any one
had been there that evening. Mr. Green took up the
bunch of flowers, and again returned to the hotel.
After passing a sleepless night, and hearing the clock strike six,
he dropped into a sweet sleep, from which he did not awaken until
roused by the rap of a servant, who, entering his room, handed
him a note which ran as follows:--"Sir,--I owe you an apology for
the inconvenience to which you were subjected last evening, and
if you will honour us with your presence to dinner to-day at four
o'clock, I shall be most happy to give you due satisfaction. My
servant will be in waiting for you at half-past three. I am,
sir, your obedient servant, J. Devenant. October 23. To George
Green, Esq."
The servant who handed this note to Mr. Green, informed him that
the bearer was waiting for a reply. He immediately resolved to
accept the invitation, and replied accordingly. Who this person
was, and how his name and the hotel where he was stopping had been
found out, was indeed a mystery. However, he waited impatiently
for the hour when he was to see this new acquaintance, and get
the mysterious meeting in the grave-yard solved.