THE DAY OF THE WEDDING
Dr. Richards had arrived at Spring Bank. Hugh was the first to meet him.
For a moment he scrutinized the stranger's face earnestly, and then
asked if they had never met before.
"Not to my knowledge," the doctor replied in perfect good faith, for he
had no suspicion that the man eying him so closely was the one witness
of his marriage with Adah, the stranger whom he scarcely noticed, and
whose name he had forgotten.
Once fully in the light, where Hugh could discern the features plainer,
he began to be less sure of having met his guest before, for that
immense mustache and those well-trimmed whiskers had changed the
doctor's physiognomy materially.
'Lina was glad to see the doctor. She had even cried at his delay, and
though no one knew it, had sat up nearly the whole preceding night,
waiting and listening by her open window for any sound to herald his
approach.
As the result of this long vigil, her head ached dreadfully the next
day, and even the doctor noticed her burning cheeks and watery eyes, and
feeling her rapid pulse asked if she were ill.
She was not, she said; she had only been troubled because he did not
come, and then for once in her life she did a womanly act. She laid her
head in the doctor's lap and cried, just as she had done the previous
night. He understood the cause of her tears at last, and touched with a
greater degree of tenderness for her than he had ever before
experienced, he smoothed her glossy black hair, and asked:
"Would you be very sorry to lose me?"
Selfish and hard as she was, 'Lina loved the doctor, and with a shudder
as she thought of the deception imposed on him, and a half regret that
she had so deceived him, she replied:
"I am not worthy of you. I do love you very much, and it would kill me
to lose you now. Promise that when you find, as you will, how bad I am,
you will not hate me!"
It was an attempt at confession, but the doctor did not so construe it.
Poor 'Lina. It is not often we have seen her thus--gentle, softened,
womanly; so we will make the most of it, and remember it in the future.
The bright sunlight of the next morning was very exhilarating, and
though the doctor, who had risen early, was disappointed in Spring Bank,
he was not at all suspicious, and greeted his bride-elect kindly,
noticing, while he did so, how her cheeks alternately paled, and then
grew red, while she seemed to be chilly and cold. 'Lina had passed a
wretched night, tossing from side to side, bathing her throbbing head
and rubbing her aching limbs. The severe cold taken in the wet yard was
making itself visible, and she came to the breakfast table jaded,
wretched and sick, a striking contrast to Alice Johnson, who seemed to
the doctor more beautiful than ever. She was unusually gay this morning,
for while talking to Dr. Richards, whom she had met in the parlor, she
had, among other things concerning Snowdon, said to him, casually, as it
seemed:
"Anna has a waiting maid at last. You saw her, of course?"
Somehow the doctor fancied Alice wished him to say yes, and as he had
seen Adah's back, he replied at once:
"Oh, yes, I saw her. Fine looking for a servant. Her little boy is
splendid."
Alice was satisfied. The shadow lifted from her spirits. Dr. Richards
was not George Hastings. He was not the villain she had feared, and
'Lina might have him now. Poor 'Lina. Alice felt almost as if she had
done her a wrong by suspecting the doctor, and was very kind to her that
day. Poor 'Lina, we say it again, for hard, and wicked, and treacherous,
and unfilial, as she had ever been, she had need for pity on this her
wedding day. Retribution, terrible and crushing, was at hand, hurrying
on in the carriage bringing Anna Richards to Spring Bank, and on the
fleet-footed steed bearing the convict swiftly up the Frankfort pike.
'Lina could not tell what ailed her. Her _hauteur_ of manner was all
gone, and Mug, who had come into the room to see "the finery," was not
chidden or told to let them alone, while Densie, who, at Alice's
suggestion, brought her a glass of wine, was kindly thanked, and even
asked to stay if she liked while the dressing went on. But Densie did
not care to, and she left the room just as the mud-bespattered vehicle
containing Anna Richards drove up, Mr. Millbrook having purposely
stopped in Versailles, thinking it better that Anna should go on alone.
It was Ellen of course, 'Lina said, and so the dressing continued, and
she was all unsuspicious of the scene enacting below, in the room where
Anna met her brother alone. She had not given Hugh her name. She simply
asked for Dr. Richards, and conducting her into the parlor, hung with
bridal decorations, Hugh went for the doctor, amusing himself on the
back piazza with the sprightly Mug, who when asked if she were not sorry
Miss 'Lina was going off, had naïvely answered:
"No-o--sir, 'case she done jaw so much, and pull my har. I tell you,
she's a peeler. Is you glad she's gwine?"
The doctor was not quite certain, but answered: "Yes, very glad," just
as Hugh announced "a lady who wished to see him."
Mechanically the doctor took his way to the parlor, while Hugh resumed
his seat by the window, where for the last hour he had watched for the
coming of one who had said, "I will be there."
Half an hour later, had he looked into the parlor, he would have seen a
frightened, white-faced man crouching at Anna Richards' side and
whispering to her as if all life, all strength, all power to act for
himself were gone:
"What must I do? Tell me what to do."
This was a puzzle to Anna, and she replied by asking him another
question. "Do you love 'Lina Worthington?"
"I--I--no, I guess I don't; but she's rich, and--"
With a motion of disgust Anna cut him short, saying: "Don't make me
despise you more than I do. Until your lips confessed it, I had faith
that Lily was mistaken, that your marriage was honorable, at least, even
if you tired of it afterward. You are worse than I suppose and now you
speak of money. What shall you do? Get up and not sit whining at my feet
like a puppy. Find Lily, of course, and if she will stoop to listen a
second time to your suit, make her your wife, working to support her
until your hands are blistered, if need be."
Anna hardly knew herself in this phase of her character, and her brother
certainly did not.
"Don't be hard on me, Anna," he said, looking at her in a kind of
dogged, uncertain way. "I'll do what you say, only don't be hard. It's
come so sudden, that my head is like a whirlpool. Lily, Willie, Willie.
The child I saw, you mean--yes, the child--I--saw--did it say
he--was--my--boy?"
The words were thick and far apart. The head drooped lower and lower,
the color all left the lips, and in spite of Anna's vigorous shakes, or
still more vigorous hartshorn, overtaxed nature gave way, and the doctor
fainted at last. It was Anna's turn now to wonder what she should do,
and she was about summoning aid from some quarter when the door opened
suddenly, and Hugh ushered in a stranger--the convict, who had kept his
word, and came to tell what he knew of this complicated mystery, about
which every invited guest was talking, and which was keeping Ellen
Tiffton at home in a fever of excitement to know what it all meant.
"There will be no bridal at Spring Bank to-night, and if the invited
guests have any respect for the family, they will remain quietly at
home, restraining their curiosity until another day.
"ONE WHO HAS AUTHORITY"
Such were the contents of the ten different notes left at ten different
houses in the neighborhood of Spring Bank that April day, by a strange
horseman, who carried them all himself and saw that they were delivered.
The rider kept on his way, reining his panting steed at last before the
door of Spring Bank, and casting about him anxious glances as he sprang
up the steps. There was nobody in sight but Hugh, who was expecting him,
and who, in reply to his inquiries for the doctor, told where he was,
and that a stranger was with him. There was a low, hurried conversation
between the two, a partial revelation of the business which had brought
Sullivan to the house where were congregated so many of his victims; and
at its close Hugh's face was deadly white, for he knew now that he had
met Dr. Richards before, and that 'Lina could not be his wife.
"The villain!" he muttered, involuntarily clinching his fist as if to
smite the dastard as he followed Sullivan into the parlor, starting back
when he saw the prostrate form upon the floor, and heard the lady say:
"My brother, sir, has fainted."
She was Anna, then; and Hugh guessed rightly why she was there.
"Madam," he began, but ere another word was uttered, there fell upon his
ear a shriek which seemed to cleave the very air and made even the
fainting man move in his unconsciousness.
It was Mrs. Worthington, who, with hands outstretched as if to keep him
off, stood upon the threshold, gazing in mute terror at the horror of
her life, whispering incoherently: "What is it, Hugh? How came he here?
Save me, save me from him!"
A look, half of sorrow, half of contempt, flitted across the stranger's
face as he answered for Hugh kindly, gently: "Is the very sight of me so
terrible to you, Eliza? I am only here to set matters right. Here for
our daughter's sake. Eliza, where is our child?"
He had drawn nearer to her as he said this last, but she intuitively
turned to Hugh, who started suddenly, growing white and faint as a
suspicion of the truth flashed upon him.
"Mother?" he began, interrogatively, winding his arm about her, for she
was the weaker of the two.
She knew what he would ask, and with her eye still upon the man who
fascinated her gaze, she answered, sadly: "Forgive me, Hugh. He was--my
husband; he is--'Lina's father, not yours, Hugh--oh! Heaven be praised,
not yours!" and she clung closely to her boy, as if glad one child, at
least, was not tainted with the Murdock blood.
The convict smiled bitterly, and said to Hugh himself:
"Your mother is right. She was once my wife, but the law set her free
from the galling chain. Will some one call Densie Densmore in? I may
need her testimony."
No one volunteered to go for Densie Densmore, and he was about repeating
his request, when Alice came tripping down the stairs, and pausing at
the parlor door, looked in.
"Anna!" she exclaimed, but uttered no other sound for the terror of
something terrible, which kept her silent.
She stood looking from one to the other, until the convict said:
"Young lady, will you call in Densie Densmore? And stay, let the bride
know. She is wanted, too. I may as well confront all my victims at
once."
Alice never knew what she said to Densie, or 'Lina either. She was only
conscious of following them both down the stairs and into that dreadful
room. No one had said that she was wanted, but she could not keep away.
She must go, and she did, keeping close to Densie, who took but one
step, then with a delirious laugh, she darted upon the stranger like a
tigress, and seizing his arm, said, between a shriek and hiss:
"David Murdock, why are you here, a wolf in the sheepfold? Tell me,
where is my stolen daughter?"
For an instant the convict regarded the raving woman, and then, as if in
answer to her question, with a half nod, his glance rested on 'Lina,
who, too much terrified to speak, had crept near to her affianced
husband, now returning to consciousness. Hugh alone saw the nod, and it
brought him at once to 'Lina, where, with his arm upon her chair, he
stood as if he would protect her. Noble Hugh! 'Lina never knew one-half
how good and generous he was until just as she was losing him.
"Densie," the convict said, trying in vain to shake off the hand which
held him so firmly: "Densie, be calm, and wait, as you see the others
doing. They all, save one, are interested in me."
"But my daughter, my stolen daughter. I'll have her, or your life!" was
Densie's fierce reply.
"Auntie," and Alice glided to Densie's side.
She alone could control that strange being, roused now as she had not
been roused in years. At the sound of her voice, and the touch of her
fingers on her hand, Densie released her hold and suffered herself to
be led to a chair, while Alice knelt beside her.
There was a moment's hesitancy, and his face flushed and paled
alternately ere the convict could summon courage to begin.
"Take this seat, sir, you need it," Hugh said, bringing him a chair and
then resuming his watch over 'Lina, who involuntarily leaned her
throbbing head upon his arm, and with the others listened to that
strange tale of sin.