Adeline awoke early the next morning perfectly sane, though weakened by
the exertions which she had experienced the night before, and saw with
surprise and alarm that she was not in her own lodging.
But she had scarcely convinced herself that she was awake, when Mrs
Selby, the mistress of the house, appeared at her bed-side, and, seeing
what was passing in her mind by her countenance, explained to her as
delicately as she could the situation in which she had been brought
there.
'And who brought me hither?' replied Adeline, dreadfully agitated, as
the remembrance of what had passed by degrees burst upon her.
'Colonel Mordaunt of the guards,' was the answer; and Adeline was
shocked to find that he was the person to whom she was under so
essential an obligation. She then hastily arose, being eager to return
home; and in a short time she was ready to enter the drawing-room, and
to express her thanks to Colonel Mordaunt.
But in vain did she insist on going home directly, to ease the fears of
her family. The physician, who arrived at the moment, forbade her going
out without having first taken both medicine and refreshment; and by
the time that, after the most earnest entreaties, she obtained leave to
depart, she recollected that, as her clothes were the same, she might
still impart disease to her child, and therefore must on no account
think of returning to Editha.
'Whither, whither then can I go?' cried she, forgetting she was not
alone.
'Why not stay here?' said the colonel, who had been purposely left
alone with her. 'O dearest of women! that you would but accept the
protection of a man who adores you; who has long loved you; who has
been so fortunate as to rescue you from a situation of misery and
danger, and the study of whose life it shall be to make you happy.'
He uttered this with such volubility, that Adeline could not find an
opportunity to interrupt him; but when he concluded, she calmly replied,
'I am willing to believe, Colonel Mordaunt, from a conversation which I
once had with you, that you are not aware of the extent of the insult
which you are now offering to me. You probably do not know that I have
been for years a married woman?'
Colonel Mordaunt started and turned pale at this intelligence; and in a
faltering voice replied, that he was indeed a stranger to her present
situation;--for that, libertine as he confessed himself to be, he had
never yet allowed himself to address the wife of another.
This speech restored him immediately to the confidence of Adeline. 'Then
I hope,' cried she, holding out her hand to him, which in spite of his
virtue he passionately kissed, 'that, as a friend, you will have the
kindness to procure me a coach to take me to a lodging a few miles out
of town, where I once was before; and that you will be so good as to
drive directly to my lodgings, and let my poor maid know what is become
of me. I dread to think,' added she bursting into tears, 'of the agony
that my unaccountable absence must have occasioned her.'
The colonel, too seriously attached to Adeline to know yet what he
wished, or what he hoped on this discovery of her situation, promised to
obey her, provided she would allow him to call on her now and then; and
Adeline was too full of gratitude to him for the service which he had
rendered her, to have resolution enough to deny his request. He then
called a coach for himself, and for Adeline, as she insisted on his
going immediately to her lodgings; and also begged that he would tell
the mulatto to send for advice, and prepare her little girl for
inoculation directly.
Adeline drove directly to her old lodgings in the country, where she was
most gladly received; and the colonel went to deliver his commission to
the mulatto.
He found her in strong hysterics; the tawny boy crying over her, and
the woman of the house holding her down on the bed by force, while the
little Editha had been conveyed to a neighbour's house, that she might
not hear the screams which had surprised and terrified her.
Colonel Mordaunt had opened the door, and was witnessing this
distressing scene, before any one was conscious of his presence; but
the tawny boy soon discovered him, and crying out--
'Oh! sir, do you bring us news of our friend?' sprang to him, and hung
almost breathless on his arm.
Savanna, who was conscious enough to know what passed, though too much
weakened from her own sufferings and anxieties to be able to struggle
with this new affliction, started up on hearing these words, and
screamed out 'Does she live? Blessed man! but say so, dat's all,' in
a tone so affecting, and with an expression of agonized curiosity so
overwhelming to the feelings, that Colonel Mordaunt, whose spirits were
not very high, was so choked that he could not immediately answer her;
and when at last he faltered out, 'She lives, and is quite well,' the
frantic joy of the mulatto overcame him still more. She jumped about his
neck, she hugged the tawny boy; and her delight was as extravagant as
her grief had been; till exhausted and silent she sunk upon the bed, and
was unable for some minutes to listen quietly to the story which Colonel
Mordaunt came to relate.
When she was composed enough to listen to it, she did not long remain
so; for as soon as she heard that Colonel Mordaunt had met Adeline in
her phrensy, and conveyed her to a place of safety, she fell at his
feet, embraced his knees, and, making the tawny boy kneel down by her,
invoked the blessing of God on him so fervently and so eloquently that
Colonel Mordaunt wept like a child, and, exclaiming, 'Upon my soul, my
good woman, I cannot bear this,' was forced to run out of the house to
recover his emotion.
When he returned, Savanna said 'Well--now, blessed sir, take me to my
dear lady.'
'Indeed,' replied he, 'I must not; you are forbidden to see her.'
'Forbidden!' replied she, her eyes flashing fire; 'and who dare to keep
Savanna from her own mistress?--I will see her.'
'Not if she forbids it, Savanna; and if her child's life should be
endangered by it?'
'O, no, to be sure not,' cried the tawny boy, who doted upon Editha,
and, having fetched her back from the next house, was lulling her to
sleep in his arms.
Colonel Mordaunt started at sight of the child, and, stooping down to
kiss its rosy cheek, sighed deeply as he turned away again.
'Well,' cried Savanna, 'you talk very strange--me no understand.'
'But you shall, my excellent creature,' replied the colonel,
'immediately.' He then entered on a full explanation to Savanna; who
had no sooner heard that her mistress feared that she had been so much
exposed to the infection of the small-pox, as to make her certain of
giving it to her child, than she exclaimed, 'Oh, my good God! save and
protect her own self! She never have it, and she may get it and die!'
'Surely you must be mistaken,' replied the colonel, 'Mrs Berrendale must
have recollected and mentioned her own danger if this be the case.'
'She!' hastily interrupted the mulatto, 'she tink of herself! Never--she
only mind others' good. Do you tink, if she be one selfish beast like
her husban, Savanna love her so dear? No, Mr Colonel, me know her, and
me know though we may save the child we may lose the mother.' Here she
began to weep bitterly; while the colonel, more in love than ever with
Adeline from these proofs of her goodness, resolved to lose no time in
urging her to undergo herself the operation which she desired for
Editha.
Then, begging the mulatto to send for a surgeon directly, in spite
of the tears of the tawny boy, who thought it cruel to run the risk
of spoiling Miss Editha's pretty face, he took his leave, saying
to himself, 'What a heart has this Adeline! how capable of feeling
affection! for no one can inspire it who is not able to feel it: and
this creature is thrown away on a man undeserving her, it seems!'
On this intelligence he continued to muse till he arrived at Adeline's
lodgings, to whom he communicated all that had passed; and from whom
he learned, with great anxiety, that it was but too true that she had
never had the small-pox; and that, therefore, she should probably show
symptoms of the disease in a few days: consequently, as she considered
it too late for her to be inoculated, she should do all that now
remained to be done for her security, by low living and good air.
That same evening Colonel Mordaunt returned to Savanna, in hopes of
learning from her some further particulars respecting Adeline's husband;
as he felt that his conscience would not be much hurt by inducing
Adeline to leave the protection of a man who was unworthy of possessing
her. Fortunately for his wishes, he could not wish to hear more than
Savanna wished to tell every thing relating to her adored lady: and
Colonel Mordaunt heard with generous indignation of the perfidious
conduct of Berrendale; vowing, at the same time, that his time, his
interest, and his fortune, should all be devoted to bring such a villain
to justice, and to secure to the injured Editha her rightful
inheritance.
The mulatto was in raptures:--she told Colonel Mordaunt that he was a
charming man, and infinitely handsomer than Berrendale, though she must
own he was very good to look at; and she wished with all her soul that
Colonel Mordaunt was married to her lady; for then she believed she
would have never known sorrow, but been as happy as the day was long.
Colonel Mordaunt could not hear this without a secret pang. 'Had I
followed,' said he mentally, 'the dictates of my heart when I saw
Adeline at Bath, I might now, perhaps, instead of being a forlorn
unattached being, have been a happy husband and father; and Adeline,
instead of having been the mistress of one man, the disowned wife of
another, might have been happy and beloved, and as respectable in the
eyes of the world as she is in those of her grateful mulatto.'
However, there was some hope left for him yet.--Adeline, he thought, was
not a woman likely to be over-scrupulous in her ideas; and might very
naturally think herself at liberty to accept the protection of a lover,
when, from no fault of hers, she had lost that of her husband.
It is natural to suppose that, while elevated with these hopes, he did
not fail to be very constant in his visits to Adeline; and that at
length, more led by passion than policy, he abruptly, at the end of ten
days, informed Adeline that he knew her situation, and that he trusted
that she would allow him to hope that in due time his love, which had
been proof against time, absence, and disdain, would meet with reward;
and that, on his settling a handsome income on her and her child for
their joint lives, she would allow him to endeavour to make her as happy
as she, and she only, could make him.
To this proposal, which was in form of a letter, Colonel Mordaunt did
not receive an immediate answer; nor was it at first likely that he
should ever receive an answer to it at all, as Adeline was at the moment
of its arrival confined to her bed, according to her expectations, with
the disease which she had been but too fearful of imbibing: while the
half-distracted mulatto was forced to give up to others the care of the
sickening Editha, to watch over the delirious and unconscious Adeline.
But the tawny boy's generous benefactress gave him leave to remain at
Adeline's lodgings, in order to calm his fears for Editha, and assist
in amusing and keeping her quiet; and if attention had any share in
preserving the life and beauty of Editha, it was to the affectionate
tawny boy that she owed them; and he was soon rewarded for all his care
and anxiety by seeing his little charge able to play about as usual.
Colonel Mordaunt and the mulatto meanwhile did not obtain so speedy a
termination to their anxieties: Adeline's recovery was for a long time
a matter of doubt; and her weakness so great after the crisis of the
disorder was past, that none ventured to pronounce her, even then, out
of danger.
But at length she was in a great measure restored to health, and able to
determine what line of conduct it was necessary for her to pursue.--To
return an answer to Colonel Mordaunt's proposals was certainly her first
business; but as she felt that the situation in which he had once
known her made his offer less affronting than it would have been under
other circumstances, she resolved to speak to him on the subject with
gentleness, not severity; especially as during her illness, to amuse the
anxiety that had preyed upon him, he had taken every possible step to
procure evidence of the marriage, and gave into Savanna's hands, the
first day that he was permitted to see her, an attested certificate of
it.