AN UNDISCOVERABLE SECRET.
The Ferns did not stay much longer at Midlands. Crushed by their
misfortunes neither cared to remain near the scenes that had made them
so unhappy, nor where they would be likely to meet faces which kept
alive their grief. The father knew no more than at first concerning the
strange conduct of his daughter. She had told him nothing, and he had
not asked her a single question. It was enough for him that she was
bowed with a great trouble. His only thought was to mitigate her
distress in every possible way. He was old--how old he had not realized
until that week when she changed from a happy, laughing girl, standing
at the threshold of a marriage she longed for, to a sombre shadow that
walked silently by his side. He was the one who under ordinary
circumstances should have received the care and the thoughtfulness--but
everything was altered now. He guided and directed the younger feet,
even though his own were faltering and slow.
Where they had gone no one seemed to know. Archie Weil received one
brief note from Mr. Fern thanking him again in touching phrase for his
many kindnesses, and saying that Daisy wished to add her most earnest
wish for his happiness. The letter said they were going away for some
time; but no more. He went one day to Midlands, hoping to learn
something from the servants, and found the home entirely deserted. A
neighbor told him a real estate agent near by had the keys, but that the
place was neither for sale nor to rent. The agent, when found, could add
nothing to his stock of information. Mr. Fern had merely mentioned that
he was going on a journey and asked to have a man sleep at the house
during his absence, as a precaution against robbery.
Mr. Weil saw Roseleaf two or three times, but the interviews were so
unsatisfactory that he felt them not worth repeating. The novelist told
him, as he had told Gouger, that he did not believe he had ever really
loved Daisy, and was actually relieved now that the strain was ended. No
persuasion could turn him from this statement, which he made rather in
explanation of his present course than as a defense of it. Gouger had
persuaded him that a love affair was necessary to develop his talents as
a writer. Before he knew what he was about, such an affair had been
precipitated upon him. He had felt its pleasures and pains to the
uttermost, and now it was ended. All that was left as a result was a
pile of MSS. which the critic pronounced wonderful. It was as if he had
been in a trance, or mesmerized. Henceforth he would confine his
writings to actualities or to poetic imaginings.
Talking with a man who held these views was not inspiring, to put it
mildly, and Archie reluctantly gave up all hopes of making Daisy Fern a
happy woman through this source. He had dreamed of unraveling the
mystery that surrounded her and placing the young couple again in the
position which, by some horrible mischance, had been so vitally changed
in the short space of one day. Though he still loved Daisy with all the
warmth of his nature, Archie had no thought of trying to win her for
himself. She had given the fullness of her innocent heart to Roseleaf
and he did not believe she was one to change her affections to another
so soon as this.
What had happened! What had happened! He thought it over day by day, and
night by night.
Among the things he did before leaving New York--for he felt that a
journey was necessary for him--was to seek out Millicent. He found the
elder sister adamant to every suggestion of love for her family. She
believed herself injured by them, and would have nothing more to do with
either. As to the strange affair regarding Daisy she declared she had no
theory. She did not think it sufficiently interesting even to try to
formulate one. Her time was given to writing, and she had found another
assistant that quite filled Roseleaf's place. The firm of Scratch &
Bytum had accepted her latest novel, as she did not care to have
anything more to do with Mr. Gouger.
When she mentioned the name of Roseleaf, Mr. Weil looked at her
intently, and saw that she uttered it with the utmost calmness. She had
hardened. Her fancied grievances had made her a different woman. She was
cynical before, but now she was bitter. He would not have believed that
such an alteration could have taken place in so short a time.
"What is your new book about?" he asked, trying to be polite.
"Crime!" she answered briefly. "It deals with the lowest of the low. It
suits the mood I am in. I am writing of things so terrible that they
will hardly be credited. To get at my facts I have to go into the most
depraved quarters, and associate with the _canaille_. But I am going to
make a hit that has not been equaled in recent years!"
He smiled sadly.
"Roseleaf had the same expectation," he said. "And yet he tells me that
he is doing nothing on that wonderful tale over which I have heard
Gouger rave so often. He has reached a point where he can go no farther,
and unless he rouses himself, all he has done is merely wasted time."
Millicent closed her eyes till they resembled those of a cat at noonday.
"Keep watch for mine," she said. "It will be all I claim for it."
During the winter Mr. Weil was in California. As spring approached he
returned to the East and visited a well known resort in North Carolina,
where by one of those curious coincidences that happen to travelers, he
found himself placed at table exactly opposite to Mr. Walker Boggs. The
ordinary salutations and explanations followed, and then Mr. Boggs
alluded to a more interesting subject.
"I think I can surprise you," he remarked, "by something that I learned
the other day. Mr. Fern and Miss Daisy are living within five miles of
here."
It was certainly news, and entirely unexpected at that. Those people
might be in Greenland, for all Archie had known, and indeed he had
supposed they were on the other side of the ocean. He listened with
interest while Boggs went on to say that they had hired an old
plantation house and grounds and were living a strictly secluded life.
The narrator had seen them in one of his drives through the country, and
had talked a few minutes with Mr. Fern; but--and he said it with a touch
of pique--he had not been invited to visit them, nor had any apology
been made for the neglect.
"By George, I thought it rather tough!" he added, "considering the way
you and I got him out of that nigger's clutches."
"But you must remember what he has since endured," replied Archie,
mildly.
"And there's been no explanation, of any sort?"
"Not the slightest. I'd give half I'm worth if I could get a clue. It
worries me all the time. A life like that girl's ruined--simply
ruined--in twenty-four hours, and nobody able to tell why! It's enough
to drive a man frantic!"
Mr. Weil did not drive immediately to Oakhurst, which he learned was the
name of the estate that Mr. Fern rented, but he enclosed his card in a
hotel envelope and sent it there by mail, without a word of comment. If
they thought it best to see him he would be glad to go, otherwise he
would not intrude on their privacy.
Several days after--mails were slow in the South--an answer came. It
briefly requested that Mr. Weil and Mr. Boggs, if the latter were still
in town, would come to lunch on the following Wednesday. Boggs fumed
slightly at the apparent difference made between him and Weil, but ended
by going with his friend to Oakhurst.
Mr. Fern did not look any worse than when Archie had last seen
him--indeed, if anything, he had improved in appearance. Time helps most
griefs to put on a better face, and though the marks of what he had
passed through would not be likely to leave his countenance, the utter
hopelessness had in a measure disappeared. When Daisy came into the
parlor, she also wore a mien not quite so crushed as when she left the
room at Midlands with her words of farewell. Whatever her trouble was,
it had not left her without something to live for. Her youth was doing
its work, and it seemed to the anxious eyes of the onlooker that time
would restore her nearly, if not quite, to her former radiance.
In the presence of Mr. Boggs, neither father nor daughter cared to
discuss the past. They talked of the plantation on which they resided,
of the pleasant drives in the vicinity, and of matters connected with
the world in general, of which they had learned through the newspapers.
But after the lunch was finished Archie found himself alone with Daisy,
wandering through the extensive oak forest that gave the place its
name.
"How long shall you stay here?" he asked her, as a prelude to the other
questions he wanted to follow it.
"I don't know," she replied. "We shall probably go north during the warm
weather, perhaps to the White Mountains."
He suggested that it must be rather lonesome at Oakhurst.
"Not for us," she said, quickly. "We are all in all to each other, and
require no thickly settled community to satisfy us."
"Daisy," he said, after a pause, "there are things I must say to you,
and I hope--with all my heart--you will find a way to answer them. In
the first place, do you believe me, really, truly, your friend?"
She placed her hand in his for answer. The action meant more than any
form of words.
"Then, tell me--tell me as freely as if I were your brother, your
priest--why you stayed from home that night."
She withdrew the hand he held, to place it with the other over her eyes.
"It is impossible," she responded, with a gasp. "I told you that I never
could explain, and I never can."
He looked sorely disappointed.
"I know no person on earth--not even my father," she proceeded, giving
him back the clasp she had loosened, "that I would tell it to sooner
than you. I have not given him the least hint. I know it leaves you to
think a thousand things, and I can only throw myself on your mercy; I
can only ask you to remember all you knew of me before that day, and
decide whether a girl can change her whole mental and moral attitude in
a moment."
He drew her arm caressingly through his, and breathed a sigh on her
forehead.
"Not for one second have I doubted your truth!" he replied. "Believe
that, Daisy, through everything. But I hoped for an explanation, for
something that might assist me to punish the guilty ones, for such there
must have been."
The face that she turned toward him was full of terror.
"Why do you say that?" she exclaimed.
"Because--"
"No, no!" she cried, interrupting him. "I do not want to hear you! We
must not talk on the subject! There is nothing to be told, nothing to be
guessed. This must be alluded to no more between us. It must end here
and now!"
Thoroughly disappointed, he could do no more than acquiesce in the
decision, and he indicated as much by a profound bow. Then she changed
the conversation by an abrupt allusion to Roseleaf. When he told her, as
he thought it wisest to do, how well the young man had borne his loss,
she said she was very thankful. She had feared that he would suffer when
he came to his senses, and it was a mercy that this reflection had been
spared her.
He spoke of her sister, and of the call he had made upon her,
suppressing, however, the disagreeable features of her remarks. Daisy
said she had written twice and received no reply. It was evident that
the separation in the family was final.
Toward evening the visitors drove back to their hotel, discussing the
strange events that had occurred. Archie Weil did not close his eyes
that night. The love he had tried to suppress broke forth in all its
original fervor. He could not sleep with the object of his adoration
five miles away, so lonely and so desolate.
* * * * *
The next day Mr. Boggs went away, and the next after this, a new visitor
carried from the north. On coming out upon the veranda to smoke, Mr.
Weil found Shirley Roseleaf there.
The surprise was mutual. Dying of ennui, Archie was glad even to meet
the novelist. They talked for hours and afterward went to ride together.
It appeared that Roseleaf had come south to get material for an article
in the interest of the magazine on which he was employed.
One night, a week later, Roseleaf came into Weil's room and asked if he
would like to take a moonlight canter with him. Glad of any means to
vary the awful monotony Archie accepted, and the horses were soon
mounted. Weil noticed that the route was in the direction of Oakhurst,
but as he supposed Roseleaf knew nothing of the presence of the Ferns
there, and as the family were doubtless abed at this time, he made no
attempt to induce him to take an opposite course. It was a sad pleasure
to pass within so short a distance of the roof that sheltered the one he
loved best. On they rode, until they were within a mile of Oakhurst,
and then Roseleaf drew his animal down to a walk. A little further he
turned sharply into a by-path and alighted.
"What's all this?" asked Archie, stupefied with astonishment.