A SLIGHT CHANGE IN THE PICTURE.
The two lone revellers remain at the pier-table, moody and hectic. Mr.
Snivel drops into a sound sleep, his head resting on the marble.
Weak-minded, jealous, contentious--with all the attendants natural to
one who leads an unsettled life, sits George Mullholland, his elbow
resting on the table, and his head poised thoughtfully in his hand. "I
will have revenge--sweet revenge; yes, I will have revenge to-night!" he
mutters, and sets his teeth firmly.
In Anna's chamber all is hushed into stillness. The silvery moonbeams
play softly through the half-closed windows, lighting up and giving an
air of enchantment to the scene. Curtains hang, mist-like, from massive
cornices in gilt. Satin drapery, mysteriously underlaid with lace, and
floating in bewitching chasteness over a fairy-like bed, makes more
voluptuous that ravishing form calmly sleeping--half revealed among the
snowy sheets, and forming a picture before which fancy soars, passion
unbends itself, and sentiment is led away captive. With such exquisite
forms strange nature excites our love;--that love that like a little
stream meanders capriciously through our feelings, refreshing life,
purifying our thoughts, exciting our ambition, and modulating our
actions. That love, too, like a quicksand, too often proves a destroyer
to the weak-minded.
Costly chairs, of various styles carved in black walnut, stand around
the chamber: lounges covered with chastely-designed tapestry are seen
half concealed by the gorgeous window curtains. The foot falls upon a
soft, Turkey carpet; the ceiling--in French white, and gilt
mouldings--is set off with two Cupids in a circle, frescoed by a skilled
hand. On a lounge, concealed in an alcove masked by curtains pending
from the hands of a fairy in bronze, and nearly opposite Anna's bed, the
old Judge sleeps in his judicial dignity. To-day he sentenced three
rogues to the whipping-post, and two wretched negroes--one for raising
his hand to a white man--to the gallows.
Calmly Anna continues to sleep, the lights in the girandoles shedding a
mysterious paleness over the scene. To the eye that scans only the
exterior of life, how dazzling! Like a refulgent cloud swelling golden
in the evening sky, how soon it passes away into darkness and
disappointment! Suddenly there appears, like a vision in the chamber,
the stately figure of a female. Advancing slowly to the bed-side, for a
minute she stands contemplating the sleeping beauty before her. A dark,
languishing eye, an aquiline nose, beautifully-cut mouth, and a
finely-oval face, is revealed by the shadow in which she stands. "How
willingly," she mutters, raising the jewelled fingers of her right hand
to her lips, as her eyes become liquid with emotion, and her every
action betokens one whose very soul is goaded with remorse, "would I
exchange all these worldly pleasures for one single day in peace of
mind." She lays aside her mantle, and keeps her eyes fixed upon the
object before her. A finely-rounded shoulder and exactly-developed bust
is set off with a light satin bodice or corsage, cut low, opening
shawl-fashion at the breast, and relieved with a stomacher of fine
Brussels lace. Down the edges are rows of small, unpolished pearls,
running into points. A skirt of orange-colored brocade, trimmed with
tulle, and surrounded with three flounces, falls, cloud-like, from her
girdle, which is set with cameos and unpolished pearls. With her left
hand she raises slightly her skirts, revealing the embroidered gimps of
a white taffeta underskirt, flashing in the moonlight. Small, unpolished
pearls ornament the bands of her short sleeves; on her fingers are
rings, set with diamonds and costly emeralds; and her wrists are clasped
with bracelets of diamonds, shedding a modest lustre over her
marble-like arms.
"Can this be my child? Has this crime that so like a demon haunts
me--that curses me even in my dreams, driven her, perhaps against her
will, to seek this life of shame?" She takes the sleeper's hand gently
in her own, as the tears gush down her cheeks.
The sleeper startles, half raises herself from her pillow, parts her
black, silky hair, that lays upon her gently-swelling bosom, and throws
it carelessly down her shoulders, wildly setting her great black orbs on
the strange figure before her. "Hush, hush!" says the speaker, "I am a
friend. One who seeks you for a good purpose. Give me your
confidence--do not betray me! I need not tell you by what means I gained
access to you."
A glow of sadness flashes across Anna's countenance. With a look of
suspicion she scans the mysterious figure from head to foot. "It is the
Judge's wife!" she says within herself. "Some one has betrayed me to
her; and, as is too often the case, she seeks revenge of the less guilty
party." But the figure before her is in full dress, and one seeking
revenge would have disguised herself. "Why, and who is it, that seeks me
in this mysterious manner?" whispers Anna, holding her delicate hand in
the shadow, over her eyes. "I seek you in the hope of finding something
to relieve my troubled spirit, I am a mother who has wronged her
child--I have no peace of mind--my heart is lacerated--"
"Are you, then, my mother?" interrupts Anna, with a look of scorn.
"That I would answer if I could. You have occupied my thoughts day and
night. I have traced your history up to a certain period. ("What I know
of my own, I would fain not contemplate," interrupts Anna.) Beyond that,
all is darkness. And yet there are circumstances that go far to prove
you the child I seek. Last night I dreamed I saw a gate leading to a
dungeon, that into the dungeon I was impelled against my will. While
there I was haunted with the figure of a woman of the name of Mag
Munday--a maniac, and in chains! My heart bled at the sight, for she, I
thought, was the woman in whose charge I left the child I seek. I
spoke--I asked her what had become of the child! She pointed with her
finger, told me to go seek you here, and vanished as I awoke. I spent
the day in unrest, went to the ball to-night, but found no pleasure in
its gay circle. Goaded in my conscience, I left the ball-room, and with
the aid of a confidant am here."
"I recognize--yes, my lady, I recognize you! You think me your abandoned
child, and yet you are too much the slave of society to seek me as a
mother ought to do. I am the supposed victim of your crime; you are the
favored and flattered ornament of society. Our likenesses have been
compared many times:--I am glad we have met. Go, woman, go! I would not,
outcast as I am, deign to acknowledge the mother who could enjoy the
luxuries of life and see her child a wretch."
"Woman! do not upbraid me. Spare, oh! spare my troubled heart this last
pang," (she grasps convulsively at Anna's hand, then shrinks back in
fright.) "Tell me! oh, tell me!" she pursues, the tears coursing down
her cheeks--
Anna Bonard interrupts by saying, peremptorily, she has nothing to tell
one so guilty. To be thus rebuked by an abandoned woman, notwithstanding
she might be her own child, wounded her feelings deeply. It was like
poison drying up her very blood. Tormented with the thought of her
error, (for she evidently labored under the smart of an error in early
life,) her very existence now seemed a burden to her. Gloomy and
motionless she stood, as if hesitating how best to make her escape.
"Woman! I will not betray your coming here. But you cannot give me back
my virtue; you cannot restore me untainted to the world--the world never
forgives a fallen woman. Her own sex will be first to lacerate her heart
with her shame." These words were spoken with such biting sarcasm, that
the Judge, whose nap the loudness of Anna's voice had disturbed,
protruded his flushed face and snowy locks from out the curtains of the
alcove. "The gay Madame Montford, as I am a Christian," he exclaims in
the eagerness of the moment, and the strange figure vanishes out of the
door.
"A fashionable, but very mysterious sort of person," pursues the Judge,
confusedly. "Ah! ha,--her case, like many others, is the want of a clear
conscience. Snivel has it in hand. A great knave, but a capital lawyer,
that Snivel--"
The Judge is interrupted in his remarks by the entrance of Mr. Snivel,
who, with hectic face, and flushed eyes, comes rushing into the chamber.
"Hollo!--old boy, there's a high bid on your head to-night. Ready to do
you a bit of a good turn, you see." Mr. Snivel runs his fingers through
his hair, and works his shoulders with an air of exultation. "If," he
continues, "that weak-minded fellow--that Mullholland we have shown some
respect to, hasn't got a pistol! He's been furbishing it up while in the
parlor, and swears he will seriously damage you with it. Blasted
assurance, those Northerners have. Won't fight, can't make 'em
gentlemen; and if you knock 'em down they don't understand enough of
chivalry to resent it. They shout to satisfy their fear and not to
maintain their honor. Keep an eye out!"
The Judge, in a tone of cool indifference, says he has no fears of the
renegade, and will one of these days have the pleasure of sending him to
the whipping-post.
"As to that, Judge," interposes Mr. Snivel, "I have already prepared the
preliminaries. I gave him the trifle you desired--to-morrow I will nail
him at the Keno crib." With this the Judge and the Justice each take an
affectionate leave of the frail girl, and, as it is now past one o'clock
in the morning, an hour much profaned in Charleston, take their
departure.
Armed with a revolver Mullholland has taken up his position in the
street, where he awaits the coming of his adversaries. In doubt and
anxiety, he reflects and re-reflects, recurs to the associations of his
past life, and hesitates. Such reflections only bring more vividly to
his mind the wrong he feels himself the victim of, and has no power to
resent except with violence. His contemplations only nerve him to
revenge.
A click, and the door cautiously opens, as if some votary of crime was
about to issue forth in quest of booty. The hostess' head protrudes
suddenly from the door, she scans first up and then down the street,
then withdraws it. The Judge and Mr. Snivel, each in turn, shake the
landlady by the hand, and emerge into the street. They have scarce
stepped upon the sidepath when the report of a pistol resounds through
the air. The ball struck a lamp-post, glanced, passed through the collar
of Judge Sleepyhorn's coat, and brushed Mr. Snivel's fashionable
whiskers. Madame Ashley, successor to Madame Flamingo, shrieks and
alarms the house, which is suddenly thrown into a state of confusion.
Acting upon the maxim of discretion being the better part of valor, the
Judge and the Justice beat a hasty retreat into the house, and secrete
themselves in a closet at the further end of the back-parlor.
As if suddenly moved by some strange impulse, Madame Ashley runs from
room to room, screaming at the very top of her voice, and declaring that
she saw the assassin enter her house. Females rush from their rooms and
into the great parlor, where they form groups of living statuary,
strange and grotesque. Anxious faces--faces half painted, faces hectic
of dissipation, faces waning and sallow, eyes glassy and lascivious,
dishevelled hair floating over naked shoulders;--the flashing of
bewitching drapery, the waving and flitting of embroidered underskirts,
the tripping of pretty feet and prettier ankles, the gesticulating and
swaying of half-draped bodies--such is the scene occasioned by the bench
and the bar.
Madame Ashley, having inherited of Madame Flamingo the value of a
scrupulous regard for the good reputation of her house, must needs call
in the watch to eject the assassin, whom she swears is concealed
somewhere on the premises. Mr. Sergeant Stubbs, a much respected
detective, and reputed one of the very best officers of the guard,
inasmuch as he never troubles his head about other people's business,
and is quite content to let every one fight their own battles,--provided
they give him a "nip" of whiskey when they are through, lights his
lantern and goes bobbing into every room in the house. We must here
inform the reader that the cause of the _emeute_ was kept a profound
secret between the judicial gentry. Madame Ashley, at the same time, is
fully convinced the ball was intended for her, while Anna lays in a
terrible fright in her chamber.
"Ho," says Mr. Stubbs, starting back suddenly as he opened the door of
the closet in which the two gentlemen had concealed themselves. "I see!
I see!--beg your pardon, gentlemen!" Mr. Stubbs whispers, and bows, and
shuts the door quickly.
"An infernal affair this, Judge! D--n me if I wouldn't as soon be in the
dock. It will all get out to-morrow," interposes Mr. Snivel,
facetiously.
"Blast these improper associations!" the high functionary exclaims,
fussily shrugging his shoulders, and wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"I love the girl, though, I confess it!"
"Nothing more natural. A man without gallantry is like a pilgrim in the
South-West Pass. You can't resist this charming creature. In truth it's
a sort of longing weakness, which even the scales of justice fail to
bring to a balance."
Mr. Stubbs fails to find the assassin, and enters Madame Ashley's
chamber, the door of which leads into the hall. Here Mr. Stubbs's quick
eye suddenly discerns a slight motion of the curtains that enclose the
great, square bed, standing in one corner. "I ax your pardon, Mam, but
may I look in this 'ere bed?" Mr. Stubbs points to the bed, as Madame,
having thrown herself into a great rocking chair, proceeds to sway her
dignity backward and forward, and give out signs of making up her mind
to faint.
Mr. Stubbs draws back the curtains, when, behold! but tell it not in the
by-ways, there is revealed the stalworth figure of Simon Patterson, the
plantation parson. Our plantation parsons, be it known, are a singular
species of depraved humanity, a sort of itinerant sermon-makers, holding
forth here and there to the negroes of the rich planters, receiving a
paltry pittance in return, and having in lieu of morals an excellent
taste for whiskey, an article they invariably call to their aid when
discoursing to the ignorant slave--telling him how content with his lot
he ought to be, seeing that God intended him only for ignorance and
servitude. The parson did, indeed, cut a sorry figure before the gaze of
this indescribable group, as it rushed into the room and commenced
heaping upon his head epithets delicacy forbids our inserting
here--calling him a clerical old lecher, an assassin, and a disturber of
the peace and respectability of the house. Indeed, Madame Ashley quite
forgot to faint, and with a display of courage amounting almost to
heroism, rushed at the poor parson, and had left him in the state he was
born but for the timely precautions of Mr. Stubbs, who, finding a
revolver in his possession, and wanting no better proof of his guilt,
straightway took him off to the guard-house. Parson Patterson would have
entered the most solemn and pious protestation of his innocence but the
evidence was so strong against him, and the zeal of Mr. Sergeant Stubbs
so apparent, that he held it the better policy to quietly submit to the
rough fare of his new lodgings.
"I have a terror of these brawls!" says Mr. Snivel, emerging from his
hiding-place, and entering the chamber, followed by the high legal
functionary.
"A pretty how-do-ye-do, this is;" returns Madame Ashley, cooling her
passion in the rocking-chair, "I never had much respect for parsons--"
"Parsons?" interrupts Mr. Snivel, inquiringly, "you don't mean to say it
was all the doings of a parson?"
"As I'm a lady it was no one else. He was discovered behind the curtain
there, a terrible pistol in his pocket--the wretch!"
Mr. Snivel exchanges a wink with the Judge, points his thumb over his
left shoulder, and says, captiously: "I always had an implacable hatred
of that old thief. A bad lot! these plantation parsons."
Mr. Stubbs having discovered and removed the assassin, the terrified
damsels return to their chambers, and Madame Ashley proceeds to close
her house, as the two legal gentlemen take their departure. Perhaps it
would be well to inform the reader that a principal cause of Anna's
preference for the Judge, so recently manifested, was the deep
impression made on her already suspicious mind by Mr. McArthur, the
antiquary, who revealed to her sincerely, as she thought, her future
dark destiny.