The din of the day is quiet now, and the street is deserted. The last
bacchanal reeled homeward an hour ago. The most belated cabman has
passed out of hearing. The one poor wretch who comes nightly to the
water-side has closed her complaint; I saw her shawl float over the
parapet as she flung her lean arms against the sky and went down with
a scream. Here, in the busiest spot of the mightiest city, there is no
human creature abroad; but footsteps are yet ringing on the
desolateness. They are heard only by me. There are two of them; the
first light, timorous, musical; the other harsh and heavy, as if shod
with steel. I recognize them with a thrill; for they have haunted me
many years, and they are speaking to me now. The one is soothing and
pleading, and it implores me to write; but the second is like the
striking of a revengeful knell. "Confession and Pardon," says the one;
"Horror and Remorse," echoes the other. They tinkle and toll thus
every midnight, when my hour of penance arrives and I have tried to
register my story. It is almost finished now. Let me read the pages
softly to myself:
"My life has been a long career of suffering. The elements, whose
changes and combinations contribute to the pleasure of my species,
have arrayed themselves against me. I am fashioned so delicately that
the every-day bustle of the world provokes exquisite and incessant
pain. Embodied like my fellows, my nerves are yet sensitive beyond
girlishness, and my organs of sight, smell, and hearing are
marvellously acute. The inodorous elements are painfully odorous to
me. I can hear the subtlest processes in nature, and the densest
darkness is radiant with mysterious lights. My childhood was a
protracted horror, and the noises of a great city in which I lived
shattered and well-nigh crazed me. In the dead calms I shuddered at
the howling of winds. I fancied that I could detect the gliding
revolution of the earth, and hear the march of the moon in her
attendant orbit.
"My parents loved me tenderly, and, failing to soothe or conciliate
me, they removed from the busy city to a secluded villa in the
suburbs. Those labors which necessitated abrupt or prolonged sound
were performed outside our grounds. The domestics were enjoined to
conduct their operations with the utmost quietude. Carriages never
came to the threshold, but stopped at the lodge; the drives were
strewn with bark to drown the rattle of wheels; familiar fowls and
beasts were excluded; the pines were cut down, though they had moaned
for half a century; the angles of the house were rounded, that the
wind might not scream and sigh of midnight, and the flapping of a
shutter would have warranted the dismissal of the servants. Thick
carpets covered the floors. My apartments lay in a remote wing, and
were surrounded with double walls, filled with wool, to deaden
communication. Goodly books were provided, but none which could arouse
fears or passions. Fiery romances were prohibited, and histories of
turmoil and war, with theology and its mournful revelations, and
medicine, which revived the bitter story of my organism. My library
was stocked with dreamy and diverting compositions--old Walton, the
pensive angler; the vagaries of ancient Burton, and the placid
essayists of the Addisonian day. Of poets I had Cowper and Wordsworth,
who loved quiet life and were the chroniclers of domestic men and
manners. Pictures of shadowy studios and calm lakes, unfrequented
coverts and sleepy wayside inns, covered my wall. The tints of
tapestry, panel, and furniture were subdued, and the sunshine which
mellowed a stained window was softened by an ingenious arrangement of
shades and refractors. Art opposed her quaintest contrivances against
the intense and violent moods of Nature, and my retirement was secure
from the inroads of all except my careful guardians.
"But I was still unhappy, and the prey of vivid fancies. This privacy
suggested the great world without, where men were wrestling with
dangers. I imagined ships upon stormy seas, and whirlwinds around
mountain-homes; the chaos of cities, the rout of armies, dim arctic
solitudes, where the icebergs tumbled apart and the frozen seas split
asunder. They had banished painful occurrences, but the sensitive
organism could not be destroyed, and I bore up until almost insane,
struggling to be cheerful when stunned and dazzled. At last, when my
mother stole into my room one day--it was October, I think, for I
could hear the tiniest leaves dropping to the grass far below--I laid
my head wearily in her lap and covered my ears with my hands. My eyes
were filled with tears.
"'My dear mother, I cannot bear this life. I suffer as of old, though
there be not a mote across the sun nor a breath in the air. If my mind
could be led from these consciousnesses, I might be calm.'
"'Luke,' said my mother, 'you need a companion.'
"The thought was a new one, and so thrilled me.
"'No, mother,' I replied; 'strong, healthy beings could not exist thus
cloistered.'
"'For less than money,' she responded, 'they have done more.'
"'We should not agree,' I said; 'I would be peevish and he would
despise me.'
"'Your companion must be a woman, my son.'
"A succession of short chills passed through every nerve, and a
moment's faintness possessed me.
"'It must not be,' I pleaded; 'a restless, chatting, plotting woman
would be worse than all.'
"My mother marked my rising agitation and glided away.
"'Whatever can relieve you, dear Luke,' she said, 'your father shall
obtain.'
"I now fancied that they believed me mad, and that a keeper was to be
introduced to me, under the guise of a companion. I formed many mental
portraits of this fierce person, and they kept me awake through the
long watches. I even meditated escape, and unclosed my casement with
that design, but the sunlight, the bird songs, and the zephyrs rushed
into my window and staggered me like so many sentinels. One day I
slept fitfully, and dreamed that I was poor and orphaned, with the
alternatives of death or work before me. I had wandered to a village
and thrown myself beneath some elms, with a horrible despair sealing
my eyelids. Suddenly the grass was stirred by some human footfalls,
and two soft voices were speaking close beside me.
"'It is strange,' said the first voice; 'he is pale and delicate, but
with no evidences of heavier afflictions.'
"'You do not know him,' murmured the other; 'wait and see!'
"A face bent down to mine, and the lips of a woman touched my cheek. I
started in my sleep, caught my breath gaspingly, and quivered like an
aspen.
"'This is indeed terrible,' said the soft voice compassionately; 'but
do not despair. It cannot be nature. It must be habit, or bashfulness,
or the effect of some childish and forgotten fright. Cheer up, and
hope!"
"'Be kind to him, Heraine,' resumed the other; 'you are my last resort,
and becoming his companion you become my child. Do not vex, do not excite
him. Be yourself--always calm, gentle, and affectionate--and the kindness
which you show my boy may God return to you in mercy and blessing!'
"I unclosed my eyes; the scene was resolved to my quiet library.
Something glided through the door, but a form from the other side
flung a shadow across my face. A premonition of the keeper thrilled me
a moment, but I turned slowly at length and looked into the intruder's
face.
"A woman, or rather a girl with a woman's face, serene and placid, as
if never ruffled by care or passion, sat between me and the window,
and the gloomy light softened her calm countenance. As I looked up her
lashes fell, and her blue eyes were bent fixedly upon the floor. She
seemed like one of my sedate portraits, which had come down from its
case. She waited, apparently, for some sign of recognition, or until
my surprise should have passed away, and did not move while I ran her
over with keen curiosity. She was, probably, of my own age, though her
self-possession might have stamped her as much older; but the bloom of
her cheek and her bosom just ripening were indices of a girl's year's.
She raised her eyes at length and bade me good afternoon in a voice
which reminded me of the faintest lullaby. The quiet tone was seconded
by an assuring glance, and directly we were conversing without
restraint, as if friends of years rather than acquaintances of an
hour.
"Heraine was the impersonation of composure. The neutral tint of dress
corresponded with the smooth tresses of her brown hair. Her touch was
magnetic, and petulancy vanished at her smile as at a charm. Her
intelligence was, doubtless, the secret of her power. She divined my
moods without inquiry, and cheered them without effort. She led me out
of the unhealthy atmosphere engendered by my sensitiveness, and I
sometimes forgot my disability for hours. She was as good as she was
capable, and as amiable as she was resolute. We fraternized
immediately, and I felt all the newness of a regenerated life. My
temperament was fitful as of yore, but the gloomy spectres vanished;
and my attention being weaned from the slighter occurrences of
nature, I was no longer racked by their tremors and jars. The soft
face of Heraine seemed to hush all chaos, and when she smiled I
thought that the very earth had ceased to roll. When her large liquid
eyes were fully opened upon me, I seemed to be looking into the hungry
blue of the sky, and carried aloft by the look beyond the influence of
matter. For the moment my nerves grew numb, the compass of my senses
narrowed to her wondrous face, and the fetters which bound me to it
were forged of gold.
"The months went by like the stars, which wheel eternally, but seem
motionless as we watch them. Sometimes we read aloud, but our voices
were low and lulling, as if quieter than silence. Then we talked of my
calm paintings, shadowing deeper lonelinesses in them. But it was my
highest rapture to sit in stillness for hours while Heraine, cushioned
at my feet, made cunning embroideries, like some facile poet whose
fingers were dropping rhymes.
"I remarked that our conversations were progressive. My companion led
me gradually into forbidden themes, as if to strengthen and embolden
me. We went forth, in fancy, from our shadowy chamber, through deep
groves, into twilights, beneath soft skies, even into the glare of the
sun, and, at last, among the storms and the seas. I may have quivered,
but I was not shocked; for the wrack and roar of the universe were
drowned in the quietness of her voice. Then we walked abroad a little
way, and, though pained, I endured; for she did not abuse these
successes. She had travelled in far countries, and often read me
friendly letters which attested how well the world esteemed her.
Sometimes her acquaintances came to the house, but never to my room;
and once or twice she was absent a whole day, when my nervousness
returned. There was one correspondent whose missives were never read
to me--a fine, bold hand, which at length became familiar. Their
receipt pleased her, I thought, and once I ventured to say,
"'Heraine, you have a pleasant letter there.'
"She only blushed very much, and all her quietness was gone for a
moment.
"As the months expanded into years, a new feeling engendered from our
intimacy. I did not comprehend it at first. It crept upon me like the
unfolding of a new sense, or the gradual realizing of the earliest
profound thought. An unexpected event gave it recognition.
"The boldly-indorsed letters came twice a month at first, afterward
four times, and finally twice, thrice, and even five times a week.
Heraine was quick and flushed. She passed but two or three hours daily
in my apartment, and substituted for the embroidery a dress of such
bright hues that it dazzled my eyes. One day she took her accustomed
seat, with a face subdued to sadness and an irresolute manner.
"'Luke,' she said, after a long pause, 'we have passed many days
pleasantly together?'
"She did not wait for me to speak, though I thrilled and turned deadly
white.
"'And because so pleasantly, I contemplate my farewell with regret.'
"'Your farewell, Heraine?'
"'Yes,' she said firmly; 'to-day--this afternoon--this hour--I bid
adieu to Glengoyle!'
"I fell forward in my seat, forcing down my heart, which sobbed and
swelled, and the whole world rang, flared, and burst into violence. If
the seas had opened their fountains and the crust of the globe crushed
up, there would have been no greater chaos. But in my faintness and
agony I caught the blue eye which had soothed and melted me so often,
and, clasping my hands, I fell at her knees and said,
"'Heraine, I love you!'
"It was her time to tremble now, and I interpreted the pallor of her
cheek as a signal of hope.
"'I know that I love you,' I said; 'if the earth and the stars were to
be blotted out, and you remain, I should not miss them. You are my
universe. Without you there is no creation, and the elements are at
war. If you leave me, you have left only a bright space in a wretched
eternity. No voice but yours can say "peace" to me. Be merciful and
remain!'
"She was moved with my appeal, and tears came to her eyes.
"'I did not know that it had come to this,' she said. Then her
composure returned, and she raised me with a smile.
"'If you would win any woman,' she said meaningly, 'you must first be
a man. You are not a man, Luke. You are a child! You have shut the
sunlight from you, and the trill of a thrush pierces you like an
arrow. Would you cage your wife in the gloominess of this sepulchre?
Would you hush her songs, and tremble beneath her caresses, and die in
the delights of her love? Go! Open the window of this vault! Mingle
with the crowds of cities! Ascend into the mountains! Cross the seas!
Become worthy of my affection, and then entreat me again!'
"She had shown me the abject thing I was. Her conditions were harder
than death; but the hope she had spoken was like a glimpse of Heaven,
and I answered,
"'Heraine, I will do it!'
"In a month I set out for my travels. An easy coach conveyed me to
London, and the third day I lay sick in Paris. Sore of body and brain,
strained in nerve and stunned in sense, I persisted in my resolve, and
was whirled, more dead than alive, across the Continent to Berlin. In
the period of three months I had traversed all the leading kingdoms
and pushed my purpose to the sandy banks of the Nile. Every moment in
this journey was an infinity of torture; but in the bitterest pangs I
remembered the divine consummation, and kept on. My infirmities were
increased rather than diminished. In the deepest thunder I could hear
the delving of the beetle; and though the whole vault blazed with
electric light, I could see the twinkle of the glow-worm. But among
the multitude of noises which haunted me, the most persistent were the
footfalls of men. There were pauses in the lives of all other beings.
The weasel and the hyena rested sometimes, and I could avoid their
haunts, but men were forever alert and ubiquitous. I heard them in
abysses, upon peaks, and in wildernesses. They trod upon my nerves;
they crushed sleep from my soul. I closed my ears in vain; I fled
without refuge; I prayed without avail. The patter of little children,
the footfall of the maiden, the elastic pace of the youth, the racking
limp of the cripple, the veteran hobbling upon his wooden stump, the
confused tread of crowds, the steady tramp of soldiers--these tortured
me by daylight, and I kept penance at midnight with the going of
outcasts and vagrants.
"I learned to classify these footfalls. My sensations of them were so
keen that my memory retained them. I recognized individuals, not by
their faces but by their feet. A solitary tourist met me among the
ruins of Luxor; I knew his tread, though months had elapsed, among the
thousands on London Bridge. A gypsy family, whom I passed on the
Spanish sierras, went under my window in Paris, and I missed the feet
of the lad who had been hanged. Ten thieves were marched to the
pillory in Kiev; I counted the paces of the four who escaped, from a
closed diligence on the Simplon. I lost not one among the millions of
footfalls. But there were two which I distinguished every where. When
I pursued, they retreated; when I fled, they followed me. They were
like two echoes in different keys; and one of them I loved, the other
I hated. The first was soft, tinkling, harmonious, like a memory
rather than a sound; the other was firm, vigorous, and vehement, and
it kept time with the soft footstep, as if to drown it to my ears.
When I was fagged and wretched, the light footfall approached me; but
when, inspirited, I rose to behold its owner, it died away in the
thunder of its companion tread.
"At last I embarked for America, and when the land disappeared I said
to myself, 'At sea, at least, no footfalls can follow.' But one night,
when the clangor of the screw drove me upon deck, I heard, far astern,
through the deep fog, the sound of two haunting feet. Next morning a
swifter steamer overtook us. The waves revelled between, and the winds
were high, but above the bellow of our engines and the elements, those
thrilling footfalls rang out. I caught a glimpse of a familiar
something, as the rival craft went by, and reeled and fell upon the
deck.
"I found New York the noisiest city in the world, and felt that a
week's tenure would drive me mad. A fire occurred in Broadway the
night of my arrival, and the din of the mobs which ran to its relief
was greater than all the combined clamors of Europe. So I resorted to
a beautiful village called Wyoming, in the heart of the Susquehanna
mountains, and passed the month of September in comparative quiet. If
any place in the world is shut in from brawls and storms, it is this
historic valley. Its reminiscences were sad and painful to me, but its
scenes were like soft dreams.
"During a part of my tenure in the village I missed my shadowy
attendants; but when, one day, I ascended to Prospect Rock, I heard
amid the hum of farms and mines and mills, those same audible
repetitions floating up the sides of the mountain. The valley grew dim
upon my sight, and I hastened nervously to my cottage. Thenceforward I
seldom lost them. When I penetrated the wild glen of the Lackawanna,
or climbed the Umbrella Tree, or ventured into the Wolf's Den, or sat
upon Queen Esther's Rock, or sailed upon Harvey's Lake, they followed
me, the one lulling, the other maddening--invisible but omnipresent
types of the good and the evil which forever hover in the air.
"One day I ventured to Falling Waters, a reservoir which is
precipitated from a cliff, called Campbell's Ridge, into a gorge of
the Shawnee Mountains. The deafening roar of the cataract would be
almost deathly to me; but, strengthened by the promise of Heraine, I
determined to add this achievement to the long list of inflictions
endured for her sake.
"I made the ascent on foot, and could see, from the base of the ridge,
the skein of foam shining through the pines in its everlasting flight
down the rocks. I became accustomed to the sound as I gradually
approached, and mused, with gladness, of an early return to England.
Heraine would acknowledge my vindication. Suffering more anguish from
a sunbeam or a song than others from the knout or the rack, I had yet
run the gauntlet of the intensest horrors, cheered by the certainty of
her regard. She would confess her error. We should shut out the world
again from our shadowy home at Glengoyle, and go down together, hand
in hand, to a deeper stillness. As I mused thus I heard the haunting
footfalls again, going up the mountain before me. To my delight, their
attendant demon was inaudible, and I pursued them rapturously. The
rush of waters grew louder. They had moaned before; they shrieked and
screamed now, as if in the agony of their suicidal leap. But, clear
and musical, above the hell of sound rang the tinkling feet which had
led me around the globe.
"I called aloud. I quickened my pace. I could see only in glimpses
through my tears; but along the steep sinuosities of the path
something fluttered and vanished, and fluttered again--I recognized
Heraine.
"I knew now the fidelity of her affection. She had followed my invalid
wanderings, to be near me in want and prostration. I could have knelt
in the aisle of the dim woods, with God's choir of waters pealing
before me, to weep my gratitude. But as the figure of Heraine
disappeared above, those other abhorred footfalls rang keenly below.
Deep, rapid, and elastic, they were sonorously defined above the clash
of the cataract. I fled, with my hands upon my ears.
"On and on! winding among boles, creeping beneath branches, climbing
ledges, vaulting over fissures and chasms, I reached the open plain at
last, and halted unnerved upon the brink of the abyss.
"The glory of the prospect filled me with exquisite pain. A mist,
arched by a delicate rainbow, rose from the tumbling flood, and the
sunny valley was visible, at intervals, beyond it, inclosed by blue
mountains and intersected by the pale, ribbon-like Susquehanna. It was
my fate to endure, not to enjoy; but at this moment the cataract was
forgotten in a deeper torment; the boughs opened, the sky split with
the shock of feet, and a man bounded from the wood.
"He was tall, handsome, and athletic, and his ruddy cheeks were
flushed with exercise. He made a trumpet of his hands, and hallooed,
long and clear,
"'Hera--a--a--ine!'
"Then he whistled through his fist till the rocks and water rang.
"'Where the deuce is the dear girl?' he said, and his eyes fell upon
me.
"A terrible hatred rose in my heart against this man. It was the first
great passion I had nurtured, and had received no other provocation
than the empty sounds of his footfalls. But antipathies are not
accidental merely; they are organic; and my quick sense took alarm
even from his tread. One's character may be defined in his gait, but I
knew from the tramp of this person that his nature was averse to mine.
Why had he followed my affianced across the seas? Why had his crashing
drowned the music of her steps? Why had he uttered her name with an
endearment? Why had he been retained at her side, and I sent alone and
wretched before? My wrists knotted nervously as these accusations took
shape, and my blood became gall.
"'I beg pardon,' he said curtly; 'but are you the young man we are
looking for?'
"I asked through my teeth whom he designated in the term '_we_.'
"'Heraine, of course,' he replied; 'give me your hand! We have
followed our little invalid--that's what we call you--over many a
league, and may make his acquaintance at last. Ralph Clendenning, at
your service!'
"I shrank menacingly from him, and counted the dull throbs of my
heart.
"'What! timid!' he said; 'and with so old a friend? I never met you,
indeed, but then I have talked of you so often that you have grown to
be quite a brother.'
"I saw that he was frank and winning, and hated him the more.
"'Upon my word,' he added, 'there was none whom I had resolved in my
mind to love so well, for the sake of Heraine.'
"A cry escaped me, so bitter that it seemed a howl, and I clenched my
hands.
"He still followed me along the very edge of the cliff, extending his
hand. A horrible impulse rushed upon me, and a thought darker than
jealousy caught it up. I hurled myself against him. He staggered on
the brink of the abyss, and went down with a sharp, half-stifled
scream!
"My eyes followed the dead weight, as it rolled from ledge to ledge,
accelerated each instant by the force of the cataract. A world, tossed
out of gravity and crashing among the planets, could not have been
more awfully distinct. Down--down--down--a formless mass of fibre and
bone, the mist seemed to buoy it up when it reached the deepmost
cascade, and as it disappeared through the tops of the pines I heard
the coming of footfalls.
"Mine was a soul in torment, listening to music in heaven. I stood,
stiff and numb in horror, staring into the gulf. The roar of the
cataract was smothered to a babble. The rainbow vibrated tremulously
to the dropping harmonies. I saw the familiar shadow as it gided to
my feet. A soft hand thrilled me with its touch, and the old voice
said,
"'Dear Luke, I am Heraine, come back.'
"I could not stir. My eyes were forged to the abyss.
"'Why do you glare so wildly?' she said. 'Come! you have been brave,
and must not fail now. Have you no kind greeting for Heraine?'
"Down in the abyss, swaying and rocking upon the pine bough, with the
frank smile as when I murdered him, I saw my victim in fancy.
"'Speak, Luke,' she repeated. 'I have a dear friend here; he has made
the long pilgrimage with me, fondly anticipating this meeting. You
will know him to-day, and I am sure you will love him.'
"Still surging upon mist and spray and bough, with the halo of the
rainbow shimmering above it, the noble face turned upward forgivingly.
"'We have planned for your happiness, dear friend. Compared to the
retreat we have fashioned for you, Glengoyle is a Babel. But you are
ill, Luke; What terrible allurement lies in the waterfall? Come away
from the brink! Ralph! Ralph!'
"She called in clear tones. The woods and waters answered back.
"'He is there,' I stammered; 'down--deep--dead--do you see him?--how
he smiles and surges on the tufts of the pines! I--thrust him over--in
rage--even as he gave me his hand--I slew him!'
"'Merciful God!' she whispered in horror; 'he was my husband!'
"The rainbow dissolved; the waterfall deluged the valley; the
mountains were covered with waves; the skies grew pitchy dark; I saw
nothing more.
* * * * *
"My sensations upon waking were those of a diver who has risen from
the tranquil depths to the surface. Hubbub recommenced; horror
returned. My hair was shaven close to my skull; my head ached
dismally; I moved my hand with an effort, and my eyelids were so weak
that I could not unseal them for a time.
"I was lying in my old chamber at Glengoyle, and Heraine was sitting
at my bedside. Her garments were sable, her brown hair thin, her face
placid, as of yore, but marked by deep-seated grief, and the magnetism
of will and courage was gone from it. To the eye she was the same; to
the mind, a weak and broken thing. Crime had changed both our natures;
she had been tutor and governess before, and I the passive, submissive
creature; but sin had made me bold, and sorrow worn her to a woman.
"'Luke,' she said, in the same lullaby tone, 'do you know me? do you
recognize the place? are you still weak?'
"'Heraine,' said I, sternly, 'do not the wrongs we have done each
other forbid this intimacy?'
"'Oh, Luke!' she replied, 'let us not uncover the past. I have buried
your sin with its victim, and watched you through weary months, and
prayed God to pardon you.'
"'Can God pardon your sin to me, Heraine?'
"'I trust so, Luke,' she said feebly, 'if ever in my life I treasured
you a hard thought or did you any injury.'
"'Is it no injury,' I said, 'to have lured me by a false promise from
my quiet home? I have endured the torture of cities, seas, suns, and
storms. Your pledge was my spur and talisman through all. But you had
cheated me with a lie. You were another's already. For you I have
stained my hands with blood and shut heaven against my soul!'
"'As I have an account to Settle, Luke,' she pleaded, 'I meant your
happiness only. To have told you that I was wedded would have pained
you. I thought to familiarize you with scenes and sounds, by making my
regard an incentive to adventure. It was your mother's plan. I yielded
to the deception, and believed it good."
"'It was a wicked falsehood,' I said; 'you knew the weakness of my
nature--that my sensitiveness was a disease--that to cross me was to
kill. You have made both of us wretched forever.'
"My cruelty was murdering her; her face grew deathly in its pallor,
and she pressed her hands upon her heart.
"'Let the dead man lie between us,' I proceeded; 'it is not seemly for
you to be my friend; and to me you are an ever-present accusation. We
must not see each other!'
"'Oh, Luke!' she cried, falling upon her knees imploringly; 'I am a
bruised thing, a-weary of the world. This silence and darkness are
endeared to me. Do not send me away!'
"'You agitate me,' I said; 'let us do our penance, each in loneliness.
There was a time when our sorrows were mutual; it is past; we have
only to say farewell.'
"I covered my face with my hands; she touched my brow with her lips,
and when the door had closed upon her sobbing I heard her footfalls
making mournful music on the stairs. They rang upon the lawn, then
pattered down the drive; they passed desolately out of the gate, they
were lost on the highway, and then the world became blank again.
* * * * *
"'Luke,' said my mother timidly, 'Mrs.
Clendenning--Heraine--is--dead.'
"'I know it,' said I quietly.
"She seemed surprised, and interrogated me with her eyes.
"'She died at twilight yesterday,' I stated; 'as the first candles
were lit in the lodge and the earliest star appeared--I heard her
footsteps.'
"'At that time she passed away,' sobbed my mother. 'Oh, Luke! you were
cruel to the poor girl. Her parting prayer was made for you. To the
last you stood between Heraine and heaven.'
"'At that time, mother, I was sitting at my window. Tears and thrills
haunted me during the afternoon, and I was frightened in the silence
and darkness. And I heard Heraine's footsteps come up the road, pass
the lodge, ascend the stairs, and cross my threshold. They were like
echoes rather than sounds--hollow and ghostly; and mingled with them
were the deeper footfalls of my other spectre, her husband.'
"I could not inhabit my chamber now. These awful sounds drove me into
the open world, where I hoped to lose them in the tread of multitudes.
I wandered to the old church on the day of the funeral, and looked
upon the bier with dry and burning eyes. The pastor read of the holy
Jerusalem, and said that her pure feet were walking the golden
streets. But in the hushes of the sobbing I heard them close beside
me, and while children were strewing her grave with flowers they
followed me over the stile and through the village till I gained the
fields and took to my heels in fright.
"I sought the resort of crowds, and lived amid turbulences. In busy
hours I baffled my pursuers; but in the dark midnights, when only the
miserable walked, I suffered the agonies of remorse and penance. The
ever-flowing stream of life on London Bridge became my solace. My
apartments are here, and I sit continually at an open window, leaning
far forward, to catch the thunder of the tramp. I know the footfalls
as of old. I see the suicide pace to and fro, to nerve herself for the
deed. I hear her sleek betrayer, and detect their wretched offspring
as he first essays to filch a handkerchief or a purse.
"Oh, the footfalls! the footfalls! Each tread marks a good or a wicked
thought. A fiend or an angel starts beneath every heel. They write an
eternal record as they go. Their voices float forever to witness
against or for us. We people space as we cleave it. The ground that is
dumb as we spurn it has a memory and a revenge. I am more sensitive
than my kind; and my penance to these monitors of my sin is but a
realization of the terror which all must feel at the accusation of
their footfalls."