OLD MEMORIES AND YOUNG HEARTS.
Away, away, on the wide, wide world--
With aching heart and fevered brain,
Like a broken waif she is sharply hurled,
To her dreary orphan life again.
When uncle Nathan led his nephew into the house, and told aunt Hannah
who he was, she grew pallid as a corpse, and when the young man took
her hand, she began to shiver from head to foot, till the chattering
of her teeth was audible in the stillness.
"It is our nephew, little Anna's boy, come to live with us, Hannah."
"To live with us?" she repeated, in a hoarse voice.
"Yes," answered uncle Nathan, taking the youth's hand between both his
plump palms, and smoothing it caressingly as he would have quieted a
kitten, for he felt all the chill that was in her voice. Where else
should our sister's child make his home?"
"But his father?"
"My father is dead," answered the youth, sadly, "and before he went I
was told of all your kindness, how for years your own means of
livelihood had been stinted that I might become perfect in my art. I
have not wasted your means, and some day, God willing, may return
something of all that you have done for me."
Aunt Hannah listened in silence, but her eyes burned in their sockets,
and her hands worked nervously around each other. Happily the youth
saw nothing of this, or he might have doubted the welcome so
expressed.
It was now late in the night, and with anxious haste aunt Hannah
turned to a stand, where an iron candlestick supported the end of what
had been a tallow candle.
"We are all tired," she said, presenting the candlestick to uncle
Nathan. "He can sleep in the spare bed up stairs."
Uncle Nat took the candle and conducted his relative from the room,
leaving aunt Hannah standing by the hearth, pale and almost as rigid
as marble.
After a little she began to pace up and down the kitchen with measured
strides, her eyes cast down, and her fingers locked together as if
made of iron. Thus the morning found her, for she did not go to rest
that night.
A few days after, just before sunset, uncle Nat was enjoying himself
as usual in the old porch, while Mary Fuller and Joseph sat together
on the threshold of the door, conversing in low tones between the
impromptu air which he gave to them in delicious snatches. Behind, in
the dark of the kitchen, sat aunt Hannah, gazing over her
knitting-work at the group. Her hands were motionless upon the
needles, and she seemed lost in profound thought. All at once her lips
moved, and she muttered,
"Yes, they, too, will love each other. I can see it plainly enough.
Poor Mary, how he turns to her voice, how greedily he listens when she
speaks; can the love of childhood revive so suddenly? But what do I
know of love, save its humiliation and pain--rejected, despised,
trampled on!"
Here her hands began to tremble, and she worked her needles for a
moment, vigorously, but made another abrupt pause the minute after,
and thus her thoughts ran,
"Well, why should they not marry, these two noble creatures? She is
dearer than a child to us, the true-hearted Mary, and he--who could
help being good under the care of a father like Esmond? She loves him,
I can see it in her eyes, in the quiet humility of her look; she loves
him, and he loves her; they will soon find it out, but the others, I
must see the young man; I must try to read all these young hearts."
Aunt Hannah was disturbed in her reverie by a light step that came
through the outer room, followed by the quick opening of a door, and
Isabel Chester entered the kitchen.
Poor Isabel! her eyes sparkled wildly through their tears, her face
was flushed, her lips quivering, and the rich masses of her hair hung
in waves around her head. Still was she wondrously beautiful, for
grief softened a style of loveliness sometimes too brilliant and
imperious. In tears, Isabel was always sweet and womanly. She was a
being to cherish as well as to admire.
She entered hurriedly, and flinging back the shawl, of mingled colors,
that partially covered her head, looked eagerly around.
"Mary, where is Mary Fuller?" she inquired, "I wish to speak with Mary
Fuller."
Mary heard her voice and sprang up.
"Oh! Isabel, this is kind, I am glad you have come so soon."
"Come with me, Mary. I must speak with you."
"Let us go up to my room," said Mary, with some excitement, when she
saw the flushed face and agitated manner of her friend.
"Mary, Mary, come here, hold my head against your bosom, it aches, oh,
it aches terribly," cried Isabel, reaching out her arms as she sunk on
the bed in Mary's room. "I have come to live with you dear Mary, tell
me I am welcome, oh, tell me I shall not be turned out of doors. I ask
nothing better than to stay at the Old Homestead all my life."
"You are sick, darling Isabel, very sick, to talk so wildly," said
Mary, striving to soothe her excitement; "why, you would seem like a
bird of paradise in a robin's nest here at the Old Homestead--yes, yes
you are sick, Isabel, your hands are burning, your lips mutter these
things strangely; what has come over you?"
"I have left Mrs. Farnham for good!" exclaimed Isabel, starting up and
pushing the hair back from her temples. "I shall never see Frederick
again, never, never--Mary, Mary Fuller, I know this is death, my heart
seems clutched with an iron claw."
"Try and be calm, dear Isabel--if you have really left Mrs. Farnham,
tell me, how it all came about, and what I can do."
"She taunted me with my poverty--she flung the Alms-House in my
teeth--oh, Mary, Mary, dependence on that woman has been a burning
curse to my nature--oh I would die for the power to fling back all the
money she heaped upon me. It crushes my life out."
"Hush, hush Isabel, this is wicked rebellion--one insult should not
cancel a life of benefits," said Mary, very gently.
Isabel laughed wildly. "Benefits! What have they made me? a beggar and
an outcast. Where can I find support out of all the frothy
accomplishments she has given me? Not one useful thing has she ever
taught me. You, Mary, are independent, for you work for your daily
bread--no one can call you a pauper."
"And you have really left Mrs. Farnham?" said Mary, smoothing down
Isabel's disturbed tresses with her two palms, "and you would like to
live here at the Old Homestead, I hope, oh, how much I hope that it
can be so."
"I have been wandering in the woods for hours, trying to think what
was best. I have no friend but you, Mary. Among all my fine
acquaintances, no one would stand by me. Let me stay, Mary, and make
me good like the rest of you--I wish we had never parted!"
"Lie still and rest, darling--I know aunt Hannah will let you
stay--don't mind the expense or trouble, for I'll tell you a secret;
Isabel, Joseph has been teaching me to paint, and in a little while he
says I can make the most beautiful pictures, and sell them for
money--besides, don't say that you can do nothing; out of all these
pretty accomplishments it will be strange if you can't make a living
without hard work too."
"Dear, dear Mary, how you comfort me!" was the grateful answer, given
in the quick, rapid enunciation of coming fever. "You will ask aunt
Hannah for me, but Mary, she must not let Frederick Farnham come
here!"
"Why not? how can you ask it, he who paid their debts and saved them
from so much sorrow?"
Isabel drew Mary close to her and whispered in a wild hoarse way, "We
love each other; he wants me to become his wife, but I have taken an
oath, a great black oath against it."
"An oath!" said Mary, half doubting if this were not all feverish
raving.
"Yes, yes, an oath. You would not let me marry among my father's
murderers--oh, I was dreadfully tempted, but the oath saved me, and I
am here!"
Mary became terrified, there was too much earnestness among the fire
of poor Isabel's eyes. Had she in reality taken an oath of this kind,
and was it working out its own curse?
"Ask her, ask aunt Hannah if I can stay," pleaded Isabel; "these
clothes are so heavy I want to get into bed where no one can find
me--my head aches--my heart aches, oh, I am very miserable!"
"I will call aunt Hannah," said Mary; "we will ask her together."
Isabel burst into a passion of tears. "Yes, go now, while my head is
clear, put some more cold water on it, that is so cool, go Mary."
Mary went softly down stairs.
Aunt Hannah had looked keenly after the girls as they disappeared. She
dropped the knitting-work into her lap, and sat gazing hard at the
door long after it was closed.
She was still motionless, gazing on the distance in this hard fashion,
when the door was pushed open and Mary Fuller looked out.
"Aunt Hannah, dear aunt Hannah, will you come up here?" she cried in
an excited voice, "Isabel and I want you."
Aunt Hannah arose, folded her needles, closed them at the end with a
pressure of the thumb, and thrust them into the ball of yarn,
muttering all the time,
"I could not help it if I wanted to," and she mounted the stairs.
Isabel Chester lay on the bed, white with anguish, but with a feverish
heat burning in her eyes. The shawl, with its many gorgeous tints, lay
around her, mingling with her purple dress in picturesque confusion.
She tried to sit up when aunt Hannah approached the bed, but instantly
lifted both hands to her temples, and fell back again moaning
bitterly.
"Ask her, ask her," she cried, looking wildly up at Mary Fuller, "I
have been wandering in the hills so long, and am tired out. Ask her
for me, Mary Fuller."
Aunt Hannah sat down upon the bed, and Mary Fuller stood before her
holding Isabel's hot hand in both hers. With the eloquence which
springs from an earnest purpose, she told aunt Hannah all that she had
herself been able to gather from the lips now quivering with a chill
that preceded violent fever. It was a disjointed narrative, but full
of heart-fire. Mary wept as she gave it; but aunt Hannah sat perfectly
passive, gazing upon the beautiful creature before her with steady
coldness.
When Mary had done, and stood breathlessly waiting for a reply, the
old lady moved stiffly as if the silence had aroused her.
"Then she wishes to stay with us," she said.
Isabel started up. "I will be no expense, I can paint, and embroider
and sew! I can do so many things. All I want is a home. Give me that,
only that!"
She fell back again, shivering and distressed, looking up to aunt
Hannah with a glance of touching appeal that disturbed even the
composure of that stony face.
"You will let her stay with us!" pleaded Mary.
"What else should we do?" inquired aunt Hannah. "She wants a home, and
we have got one to give her. Isn't that enough?"
Isabel, who had been looking up with a vivid hope in her eyes, broke
into a hysterical laugh at this, and seizing aunt Hannah's hard hand,
kissed it with passionate gratitude.
"One word," questioned aunt Hannah; "do you love that young man?"
"Love him, oh, yes, yes, a thousand times, yes!" cried the poor girl,
and the sparkle of her eyes was painful to look upon "I think it must
kill me to see him no more. I am sure it must!"
"And you are sure he loves you?"
"_Sure_?" she cried, flinging out her clasped hands, "sure, yes, as I
am of my own life!"
"And you believe him to be a good man?"
"I know it, have we not grown up together? He is passionate, proud,
impulsive--but noble. I tell you his faults would be virtues in other
men."
As aunt Hannah listened, there came a glow upon her sallow cheeks, and
a soft smile to her lips, as if something in Isabel's wild enthusiasm
had given her pleasure.
"She shall stay with us! Surely with all our debts paid, we can find
room for the child!"
"Room--room for the pauper--room!"
Isabel had caught the word, and sent it back again with wild glee,
half singing half shouting it through her burning lips. The fever was
beginning to rage through her veins.
Three times that night aunt Hannah went to the front door, to answer
the eager questions of young Farnham, who had been wandering for hours
in sight of the house. At last, as if struck with sudden compassion,
the old lady invited him into the kitchen, and these two seemingly
uncongenial persons, sat and conversed together with strange
confidence till the day dawned.
When young Farnham arose to go, he took the aged hand of his companion
and pressed it to his lips, with a homage to years acquired from
abroad. He did not see the blood flush up into that withered face, or
the tears that gathered slowly into her eyes; and was therefore,
surprised when she arose, and as if actuated by an unconquerable
impulse, kissed his forehead.
"Good-bye," she said, in a broken voice, "the poor girl up stairs
shall not die for want of nursing."
"How good you are!" said the young man; "how can I ever repay you?"
Aunt Hannah looked at him with strange fondness.
"You paid our debts last night," she said, "or we might have had no
home to give this girl."
"That was nothing, never mention it again."
"Nothing, why, boy, it was an act that you shall never forget to your
dying day."
"Save _her_, and that will be an act that I shall never forget."
"Do you love her so much, then?"
"Love! I worship her--I can hardly remember the time when I did not
love her!"
"And what would you sacrifice for her?"
"What? Everything."
"Stop and answer me steadily. If you could choose between all the
property left by your father and Isabel Chester, which would you
take?"
"Which would I take? Labor, poverty, and my Isabel. The property! what
has it of value in comparison to this noble girl? I answer again
Isabel, Isabel!"
A singular expression stole into the old woman's face.
"Would you live here, and work the place, when Nathan and I are too
old, if you were sure of her for a wife?"
"I would do anything with her and for her," cried the youth, ardently.
"And," continued aunt Hannah, in a broken voice, still eyeing him
anxiously--"you would find a corner for two old people somewhere in
the homestead!"
"This is wild talk," said the young man, with a troubled smile. "I am
my father's heir, and have no right to throw away his wealth; so it is
useless talking of what I might, or could, do, under other
circumstances."
"Then you would not be content to live here with your wife, and
support yourself from the place?"
"I did not say so--but that it was impossible. Heaven knows I count
wealth as nothing compared to Isabel."
"Then you only think of her, you care nothing for, for "--
Aunt Hannah paused, and put a hand to her throat, as if the words she
suppressed pained her.
"I care for her, and for all that have been kind to her, now or ever,"
he replied, impressively; "most of all I am grateful to yourself."
"Once again," said aunt Hannah, clinging tenaciously to the point
which seemed to interest her so much, "if you could not marry Isabel
Chester without becoming as poor, for instance, as Joseph Esmond
is--would you give up all and marry her?"
"Once again, then, yes, I would."
"And be happy after it?"
"With _her_, yes!"
"But you have never worked?"
"I can learn!"
"You are learned and love to mingle with great men. You are proud, and
this is a poor old house!" She argued so earnestly that he could not
refrain from smiling.
"I fancy, if the need come, I would get along with all these
difficulties, without much regret. But this is idle speculation. In
another month I shall be of age; then no one can claim legal authority
over me or mine. I know there is great wealth to be accounted for, but
have never known how much, or what restrictions are upon it. If it
leaves me at liberty to marry Isabel, and she will give up this cruel
resolve to abandon me, for her sake independence shall be welcome, if
not, then I will answer your questions more promptly than you perhaps
expect."
"That girl will never marry your mother's son--she has taken an oath
against it."
"She shall marry me. Who can help it? Do we not love each other? If
her proud spirit rejects the property, so be it--I care as little for
gold as she does. As for that miserable oath, it is worthless as the
wind, taken in a moment of romantic excitement. The angels do not
register oaths like that."
"I say it again, Isabel Chester will not marry Mrs. Farnham's son,"
persisted aunt Hannah.
And she was right.