RIVERSIDE COTTAGE
Mrs. Johnson did not like Dr. Richards, and yet he became an almost
daily visitor at Riverside Cottage, where one face at least grew
brighter when he came, and one pair of eyes beamed on him a welcome. His
new code of morality worked admirably. Mr. Howard himself was not more
regular at church, or Alice more devout, than Dr. Richards. The
children, whom he had denominated "ragged brats," were no longer spurned
with contempt, but fed with peanuts and molasses candy. He was popular
with the children, but the parents, clear-sighted, treated him most
shabbily at his back, accusing him of caring only for Miss Alice's good
opinion.
This was what the poor said, and what many others thought. Even Anna,
who took everything for what it seemed, roused herself and more than
once remonstrated with her brother upon the course he was pursuing, if
he were not in earnest, as something he once said to her made her half
suspect.
She had become very intimate with Alice latterly, and as her health
improved with the coming of spring, almost every fine day found her at
Riverside Cottage, where once she and Mrs. Johnson stumbled upon a
confidential chat, having for its subject John and Alice, Anna said
nothing against her brother. She merely spoke of him as kind and
affectionate, but the quick-seeing mother detected more than the words
implied, and after that the elegant doctor was less welcome to her
fireside than, he had been before.
As the winter passed away and spring advanced, he showed no intentions
of leaving Snowdon, but on the contrary opened an office in the village,
greatly to the surprise of the inhabitants, who remembered his former
contempt for any one who could settle down in that dull town, and
greatly to the dismay of old Dr. Rogers, who for years had blistered and
bled the good people without a fear of rivalry.
"Does Dr. Richards intend locating permanently in Snowdon?" Mrs. Johnson
asked of her daughter as they sat alone one pleasant spring evening.
"His sign would indicate as much," was Alice's reply.
"Mother," she said gently, "you look pale and worried. You have looked
so for some time past. What is it, mother? Are you very sick, or are you
troubled about me?"
"Is there any reason why I should be troubled about my darling?" asked
the mother.
Alice never had any secrets from her mother, and she answered frankly:
"I don't know, unless--unless--mother, why don't you like Dr. Richards?"
The ice was fairly broken now, and very briefly but candidly Mrs.
Johnson told why she did not like him. He was handsome, refined,
educated, and agreeable, she admitted, but still there was something
lacking. The mask he was wearing had not deceived her, and she would
have liked him far better without it. This she said to Alice, adding
gently: "He may be all he seems, but I doubt it. I distrust him greatly.
I think he fancies you and loves your money."
"Oh, mother," and in Alice's voice there was a sound of tears, "you do
him injustice, and he has been so kind to us, while Snowdon is so much
pleasanter since he came."
"Are you engaged to him?" was Mrs. Johnson's next question.
"No," and Alice looked up wonderingly. "I do not believe I like him
well enough for that."
Alice Johnson was wholly ingenuous and would not for the world have
concealed a thing from her mother, and very frankly she continued:
"I like Dr. Richards better than any gentleman I have ever met. I should
have told you, mother."
"God bless my darling, and keep her as innocent as now," Mrs. Johnson
murmured. "I am glad there is no engagement. Will you promise there
shall not be for one year at least?"
"Yes, I will, I do," Alice said at last.
A second "God bless my darling," came from the mother's lips, and
drawing her treasure nearer to her, she continued: "You have made me
very happy, and by and by you'll be so glad. You may leave me now, for I
am tired and sick."
It was long ere Alice forgot the expression of her mother's face or the
sound of her voice, so full of love and tenderness, as she bade her
good-night on that last evening they ever spent together alone. The
indisposition of which Mrs. Johnson had been complaining for several
days, proved to be no light matter, and when next morning Dr. Rogers was
summoned to her bedside, he decided it to be a fever which was then
prevailing to some extent in the neighboring towns.
That afternoon it was told at Terrace Hill that Mrs. Johnson was very
sick, and half an hour later the Richards carriage, containing the
doctor and his Sister Anna, wound down the hill, and passing through the
park, turned in the direction of the cottage, where they found Mrs.
Johnson even worse than they had anticipated. The sight of distress
aroused Anna at once, and forgetting her own feebleness she kindly
offered to stay until night if she could be of any service. Mrs. Johnson
was fond of Anna, and she expressed her pleasure so eagerly that Anna
decided to remain, and went with Alice to remove her wrappings.
"Oh, I forgot!" she exclaimed, as a sudden thought seemed to strike her.
"I don't know as I can stay after all, though I might write it here, I
suppose as well as at home; and as John is going to New York to-night he
will take it along."
"What is it?" Alice asked; and Anna replied:
"You'll think me very foolish, no doubt, but I want to know if you too
think so. I'm so dependent on other's opinions," and, in a low tone,
Anna told of the advertisement seen early last winter, how queerly it
was expressed, and how careless John had been in tearing off the name
and address, with which to light his cigar. "It seems to me," she
continued, "that 'unfortunate married woman' is the very one I want."
"Yes; but how will you find her? I understand that the address was
burned," Alice rejoined quickly, feeling herself that Anna was hardly
sane in her calculations.
"Oh, I've used that in the wording," Anna answered. "I do not know as it
will ever reach her, it's been so long, but if it does, she'll be sure
to know I mean her, or somebody like her."
"I dislike writing very much," she said, as she saw the array of
materials, "and I write so illegibly too. Please do it for me, that's a
dear, good girl," and she gave the pen to Alice, who wrote the first
word, "Wanted," and then waited for Anna to dictate.
"WANTED--By an invalid lady, whose home is in the country, a young
woman, who will be both useful and agreeable, either as a companion
or waiting maid. No objection will be raised if the woman is
married, and unfortunate, or has a child a few months old. Address,
"A.E.R., Snowdon, Hampden Co., Mass."
Alice thought it the queerest advertisement she had ever seen, but Anna
was privileged to do queer things, and folding the paper, she went out
into the hall, where the doctor sat waiting for her.
John's mustached lip curled a little scornfully as he read it.
"Why, puss, that girl or woman is in Georgia by this time, and as the
result of this, Terrace Hill will be thronged with unfortunate women and
children, desiring situations. Better let me burn this, as I did the
other, and not be foolish. She will never see it," and John made a
gesture as if he would put it in the stove, but Anna caught his hand,
saying imploringly: "Please humor me this once. She may see it, and I'm
so interested."
Anna was always humored, and the doctor placed in his memorandum book
the note, then turning to Alice he addressed her in so low a tone that
Anna readily took the hint and left them together. Dr. Richards was not
intending to be gone long, he said, though the time would seem a little
eternity, so much was his heart now bound up in Snowdon.
Afraid lest he might say something more of the same nature, Alice
hastened to ask if he had seen her mother, and what he thought of her.
"I stepped in for a moment while you were in the library," he replied.
"She seemed to have a high fever, and I fancied it increased while I
stood by her. I am sorry to leave while she is so sick, but remember
that if anything happens you will be dearer to me than ever," and the
doctor pressed the little hand which he took in his to say good-by, for
now he must really go.
As the day and night wore on Mrs. Johnson grew worse so rapidly, that at
her request a telegram was forwarded to Mr. Liston, who had charge of
her moneyed affairs, and who came at once, for the kind old man was
deeply interested in the widow and her lovely daughter. As Mrs. Johnson,
could bear it, they talked alone together until he perfectly understood
what her wishes were with regard to Alice, and how to deal with Dr.
Richards, whom he had not yet seen. Then promising to return again in
case the worst should happen, he took his leave, while Mrs. Johnson, now
that a weight was lifted from her mind, seemed to rally, and the
physician pronounced her better. But with that strange foreknowledge, as
it were, which sometimes comes to people whose days are nearly numbered,
she felt that she would die, and that in mercy this interval of rest and
freedom from pain was granted her, in which she might talk with Alice
concerning the arrangements for the future.
"Alice, darling," she said, when they were alone, "come sit by me here
on the bed and listen to what I say."
Alice obeyed, and taking her mother's hot hands in hers she waited for
what was to come.
"You have learned to trust God in prosperity, and He will be a
thousandfold nearer to you in adversity. You'll miss me, I know, and be
very lonely without me, but you are young, and life has many charms for
you, besides God will never forget or forsake His covenant children."
Gradually as she talked the wild sobbing ceased, and when the white face
lifted itself from its hiding place there was a look upon it as if the
needed strength had been sought and to some extent imparted.
"My will was made some time ago," Mrs. Johnson continued, "and I need
not tell you that with a few exceptions, such as legacies to Densie
Densmore, and some charitable institutions, you are my sole heir. Mr.
Liston is to be your guardian, and will look after your interests until
you are of age, or longer if you choose. You know that as both your
father and myself were the only children you have no near relatives on
either side--none to whom you can look for protection.
"You will remember having heard me speak occasionally of some friends
now living in Kentucky, a Mrs. Worthington, whose husband was a distant
relative of ours. Ralph Worthington and your father were schoolboys
together, and afterward college companions. Only once did anything come
between them, and that was a young girl, a very young girl, whom both
desired, and whom only one could have."
Alice was interested now, and forgetting in a measure her grief, she
asked quickly: "Did my father love some one else than you?"
"I never knew he did," and a tear rolled down the faded cheek of the
sick woman. "Ralph Worthington was true as steel, and when he found
another preferred to himself, he generously yielded the contest."
"Oh, I shall like Mr. Worthington," Alice exclaimed, a desire rising in
her heart to see the man who had loved and lost her mother.
"He was, at his own request, groomsman at our wedding, and the
bridesmaid became his wife in little less than a year."
"Did he love her?" Alice asked, in some astonishment, and her mother
replied evasively:
"He was kind and affectionate, while she loved him with all a woman's
devotion. I was but sixteen when I became a bride, and several years
elapsed ere God blessed me with a child. Your father was consumptive,
and the chances were that I should early be left a widow. This it was
which led to the agreement made by the two friends that if either died
the living one should care for the widow and fatherless. To see the two
you would not have guessed that the athletic Ralph would be the first to
go, yet so it was. He died ere you were born."
"Then he is dead? Oh, I'm so sorry," Alice exclaimed.
"Yes, he's dead; and, as far as possible, your father fulfilled his
promise to the widow and her child--a little boy, five years old, of
whom Mrs. Worthington herself was appointed guardian. I never knew what
spirit of evil possessed Eliza, but in less than a year after her
husband's death, she made a second and most unfortunate marriage. Mr.
Murdoch proved a greater scoundrel than we supposed, and when their
little girl was nearly two years old, we heard of a divorce. Mr.
Johnson's health was failing fast, and we were about to make the tour of
Europe. Just before we sailed we visited poor Eliza, whom we found
heartbroken, for the brutal wretch had managed to steal her daughter,
and carried it no one knew whither. I never shall forgot the distress of
the brother. Clasping my dress, he sobbed: 'Oh, lady, please bring back
my baby sister, or Hugh will surely die.' I've often thought of him
since, and wondered what he had grown to be. We comforted Eliza as best
we could, and left money to be used for her in case she needed it. Then
we embarked with you and Densie for Europe. You know how long we stayed
there, how for a while, your father seemed to regain his strength, how
he at last grew worse and hastened home to die. In the sorrow and
excitement which followed, it is not strange that Eliza was for a time
forgotten, and when I remembered and inquired for her again, I heard
that Hugh had been adopted by some relation in Kentucky, that the stolen
child had been mysteriously returned, and was living with its mother in
Elmwood.
"At first Eliza appeared a little cool, but this soon wore off. She did
not talk much of Hugh. Neither did she say much of Adaline, who was then
away at school. Still my visit was a sadly satisfactory one, as we
recalled old times when we were girls together, weeping over our great
loss when our husbands were laid to rest. Then we spoke of their
friendship, and lastly of the contract.
"'It sounds preposterous, in me, I know,' Mrs. Worthington said, when we
parted, 'you are so rich, and I so poor, but if ever your Alice should
want a mother's care, I will gladly give it to her.'
"This was nearly eight years ago. In my anxiety about you, I failed to
write her for a long, long time, while she was long in answering, and
then the correspondence ceased till just before her removal to Kentucky,
when she apprised me of the change. You have now the history of Mrs.
Worthington, the only person who comes to mind as one to whose care I
can intrust you."
"But, mother, I may not be wanted there," and Alice's lip quivered
painfully.
"You will not go empty-handed, nor be a burden to them. They are poor,
and money will not come amiss. I said that Mr. Liston would attend to
all pecuniary matters, paying your allowance quarterly; and I am sure
you will not object when I tell you that I think it right to leave
Adaline the sum of one thousand dollars. It will not materially lessen
your inheritance, and it will do her a world of good. Mr. Liston will
arrange it for you. You will remain here until you hear from Mrs.
Worthington, and then abide by her arrangements. Will you go, my
daughter--go cheerfully and do as I desire?"
"Yes, mother, I'll go," came gaspingly from Alice's lips. "I'll go; but,
mother, oh, mother," and Alice's cry ended as it always did, "you will
not, you must not die!"
But neither tears, nor prayers could avail to keep the mother longer.
Her work on earth was done, and after this conversation with her
daughter, she grew worse so rapidly that hope died out of Alice's heart,
and she knew that soon she would be motherless. There were days and
nights of pain and delirium in which the sick woman recognized none of
those around her save Alice, whom she continually blessed as her
darling, praying that God, too, would bless and keep His covenant child.
At last there came a change, and one lovely Sabbath morning, ere the
bell from St. Paul's tower sent forth its summons to the house of God,
there rang from its belfry a solemn toll, and the villagers listening to
it, said, as they counted forty-four, that Mrs. Johnson was dead.