The morning brought feelings a little more endurable, yet still, very
far from pleasant. Very early, while it was still dark, Cosmo saw his
companions set off on their journey home, and was left to the cold
dismal consciousness of a solitary day just beginning, as he watched the
lights put out, and the chill gray dawn stealing over the high houses.
The first ray of sunshine glimmered upon the attic windows and burned
red in the vane over the dwelling-place of Madame Roche. This gleam
recalled the lad’s imagination from a musing fit of vague depression and
uneasiness. He must now think no more of Cameron--no more of those
strange breakings off and partings which are in life. On the contrary,
his old caprice of boyish generosity laid upon him now the claim of an
urgent--almost an irksome--duty, and he, who went upon his travels to
seek Mary of Melmar with all the fervor of a knight-errant, turned upon
his heel this cold spring dawn with an inexpressible reluctance and
impatience, to go to her, in obedience to her own summons. He would
rather have been with Cameron in his silent and rapid journey--but his
duty was here.
When Cosmo went to Madame Roche, which he did at as early an hour as he
thought decorous, he found her alone, waiting for him. She came forward
to receive him with rather an anxious welcome. “I almost feared you were
gone,” said the old lady, with a smile which was less tranquil than
usual. “When I saw your friends go, I said to myself, this boy is but a
fairy messenger, who tells of a strange hope, and then is gone and one
hears no more of it. I am glad you have not gone away; but your poor
friend, he has left us? I thought it best, my child, to say nothing to
Marie.”
Cosmo’s heart swelled a little in spite of himself; he could not bear
the idea of the two women gossiping together over his friend’s
heart-break, which was the first thought that occurred to him as Madame
Roche spoke, and which, though it was certainly unjust, was still partly
justified by the mysterious and compassionate tone in which the old lady
mentioned Cameron’s name.
“I am not aware that there is any occasion for saying any thing,
madame,” said Cosmo, with a little abruptness. Madame Roche was not
remarkably quick-sighted, yet she saw through the lad’s irritation--the
least smile in the world came to the corner of her lip. She did not
think of the great pang in the Highlander’s heart--she knew very little
indeed of Cameron--she only smiled with a momentary amusement at Cosmo’s
displeasure, and a momentary sense of womanish triumph over the
subjugated creature, man, represented in the person of this departed
traveler, who, had just gone sadly away.
“Do not quarrel with me, my child,” she said, her smile subsiding into
its usual sweetness; “the fault was not with me; but tell me once more
this strange news you told me last night. Melmar, which was my father’s,
I was born heiress of it--did you say it was mine--_mine_? for I think I
must have mistaken what the words mean.”
“It is quite true,” said Cosmo, who had not yet quite recovered his
temper, “your father left it to you if you were ever found, and if you
were not found, to _my_ father, and to Huntley Livingstone, his heir and
eldest son. My father sought you in vain all his life; he never would
put in his own claim lest it should injure you. When he died, Huntley
was not rich enough to go to law for his rights, but he and everybody
believed that you never would be found, and that he was the heir. He
thinks so now; he is in Australia working hard for the money to maintain
his plea, and believing that Melmar will be his; but I have found you,
and you are the lady of Melmar; it is true.”
“You tell me a romance--a drama,” cried Madame Roche, with tears in her
eyes. “Your father sought me all his life--_me_? though I was cruel to
him. Ah, how touching! how beautiful!--and you, my young hero!--and this
Huntley, this one who thinks himself the heir--he, too, is generous,
noble, without selfishness--I know it! Oh, my child, what shall I do
for him? Alas, Marie! She is my eldest child, and she is married
already--I never grieved for it enough till now.”
“There is no need, madame,” said Cosmo, to whom these little sentences
came like so many little shooting arrows, pricking him into a
disappointed and vexed resentment. “Huntley needs nothing to make him
amends for what is simply justice. Melmar is not his, but yours.”
This speech, however, which was somewhat heroical in tone, expressed a
most uncomfortable state of mind in Cosmo. He was angry at the idea of
rewarding Huntley with the hand of Marie, if that had not been given
away already. It was a highly romantic suggestion, the very embodiment
of poetic justice, had it been practicable; but somehow it did not
please Cosmo. Then another suggestion, made by his own fancy, came
dancing unsolicited into the lad’s mind. Desirée, perhaps, who was not
married, might not _she_ be compensation sufficient for Huntley? But
Cosmo grew very red and felt exceedingly indignant as he thought of it;
this second reward was rather more distasteful than the first. He paid
very little attention, indeed, to Madame Roche, who, much excited,
smiled and shed tears, and exclaimed upon her good fortune, upon the
kindness of her friends, upon the goodness of God. Cosmo put his hands
in his pockets and did not listen to her. He was no longer a young poet,
full of youthful fervor and generosity. The temper of the British lion
began to develop itself in Cosmo. He turned away from Madame Roche’s
pretty effusion of sentiment and joy, in a _huff_ of disenchantment,
discontented with her, and himself, and all the world.
Perhaps some delicate spirit whispered as much in the old lady’s ear.
She came to him when her first excitement was over, with tender tears in
her beautiful old eyes.
“My child, you have found a fortune and a home for me,” said Madame
Roche, “but it is to take them away from your brother. What will your
mother say at home?”
“She will say it is right and just, madame, and I have done my duty,”
said Cosmo, briefly enough.
Then Madame Roche bent forward and kissed his young cheek, like a
mother, as she was.
“We are widow and orphans,” she said, softly. “God will bless you--He is
the guardian of such; and He will not let Huntley suffer when He sees
how all of you do justice out of a free heart.”
Cosmo was melted; he turned away his head to conceal the moisture in his
own eyes--was it out of a free heart? He felt rebuked and humbled when
he asked himself the question; but Madame Roche gave him no time to
think of his own feelings. She wanted to know every thing about all that
had occurred. She was full of curiosity and interest, natural and
womanly, about not only the leading points of the story, but all its
details, and as Marie did not appear, Cosmo by himself, with his
beautiful old lady, was soon reconciled to the new circumstances, and
restored to his first triumph. He had done what his father failed to
do--what his father’s agents had never been able to accomplish--what
newspaper advertisements had attempted in vain. He had justified his own
hope, and realized his own expectation. He had restored home and fortune
to the lost Mary of Melmar. A night and a morning were long enough for
the sway of uncomfortable and discontented feelings. He gave himself up,
once more, to his old enthusiasm, forgetting Huntley’s loss and
Cameron’s heart-break, and his mother’s disappointment, in the
inspiration of his old dreams, all of which were now coming true. The
end of this conversation was, that Cosmo--charged with Madame Roche’s
entire confidence, and acting as her representative--was to follow his
former companions and return to Edinburgh as speedily as possible, and
there to instruct his old acquaintance, Cassilis, to take steps
immediately for the recovery of Melmar. He parted with the old lady, who
was, and yet was not, the Mary of his fancy, that same evening--did not
see Marie, who was fortunately kept in her room by an access of illness
or peevishness, took leave of Baptiste and the old streets of St. Ouen
with great content and exhilaration, and on the very next morning, at an
hour as early, as chilly, and as dark as that of Cameron’s departure,
began his journey home.