NINA.
Three or four times Edith went to Grassy Spring, seeing nothing of
the mysterious occupant of the Den, hearing nothing of her, and
she began to think she might have returned to Worcester. Many
times she was on the point of questioning Arthur, but from what
had passed, she knew how disagreeable the subject was to him, and
she generously forbore.
"I think he might tell me, anyway," she said to herself, half
poutingly, when, one morning near the latter part of April, she
rode slowly toward Grassy Spring.
Their quarrel, if quarrel it could be called, had been made up,
or, rather, tacitly forgotten, and Arthur more than once had
cursed himself for having, in a moment of excitement, asked her to
marry Richard Harrington. While praying to be delivered from
temptation he was constantly keeping his eyes fixed upon the
forbidden fruit, longing for it more and move, and feeling how
worthless life would be to him without it. Still, by a mighty
effort, he restrained himself from doing or saying aught which
could be constrained into expressions of love, and their
interviews were much like those which had preceded his last visit
to Worcester. People were beginning to talk about him and his
beautiful pupil, but leading the isolated life he did, it came not
to his ears. Grace indeed, might have enlightened both himself and
Edith with regard to the village gossip, but looking upon the
latter as her rival, and desiring greatly that she should marry
Arthur, she forebore from communicating to either of them anything
which would be likely to retard an affair she fancied was
progressing famously. Thus without a counsellor or friend was
Edith left to follow the bent of her inclinations; and on this
April morning, as she rode along, mentally chiding Arthur for not
entrusting his secret to her, she wondered how she had ever
managed to be happy without him, and if the time would ever come
when her visits to Grassy Spring would cease.
Leaving Bedouin at the rear gate she walked slowly to the house,
glancing often in the direction of the DEN, the windows of which
were open this morning, and as she came near she saw a pair of
soft blue eyes peering at her through the lattice, then a little
hand was thrust outside, beckoning to her as it did once before.
"Wait, Miggie, while I write," came next to her ear, in a voice as
sweet and plaintive as a broken lute.
Instantly Edith stopped, and at last a tiny note came fluttering
to her feet. Grasping it eagerly she read, in a pretty, girlish
hand:
"DARLING MIGGIE:--Nina has been SO sick this great long while, and
her head is so full of pain. Why don't you come to me, Miggie? I
sit and wait and listen till my forehead thumps and thumps, just
as a bad nurse thumped it once down in the Asylum.
"Let's run away--you and I; run back to the magnolias, where it's
always summer, with no asylums full of wicked people.
"I'm so lonely, Miggie. Come up stairs, won't you? They say I rave
and tear my clothes, but I won't any more if you'll come. Tell
Arthur so. He's good. He'll do what you ask him."
"Poor little Nina," and Edith's tears fell fast upon the bit of
paper. "I WILL see you to-day. Perhaps I may do you some good.
Dear, unfortunate Nina!"
There was a step upon the grass, and thrusting the note into her
pocket, Edith turned to meet Arthur, who seemed this morning
unusually cheerful and greeted her with something like his olden
tenderness. But Edith was too intent upon Nina to think much of
him, and after the lesson commenced, she appeared so abstracted
that it was Arthur's turn to ask if she were offended. She had
made herself believe she was, for notwithstanding Nina's assertion
that "Arthur was good," she thought it a sin and a shame for him
to keep any thing but a raving lunatic hidden away up stairs; and
after a moment's hesitation she answered, "Yes, I am offended, and
I don't mean to come here any more, unless---"
"Edith," and the tone of Arthur's voice was fraught with pain so
exquisite that Edith paused and looked into his face, where
various emotions were plainly visible. Love, fear, remorse,
apprehension, all were blended together in the look he fixed upon
her. "You won't leave me," he said. "Any thing but that. Tell me
my error, and how I can atone."
Edith was about to speak, when, on the stairs without,--the stairs
leading from the den--there was the patter of little feet, and a
gentle, timid knock was heard upon the door.
"It's locked--go back;" and Arthur's voice had in it a tone of
command.
"Mr. St. Claire," and Edith sprang from her chair, "I can unlock
that door, and I will."
Like a block of marble Arthur stood while Edith opened the oak-
paneled door. Another moment and Nina stood before her, as she
stands now first before our readers.
Edith knew her in a moment from the resemblance to the
daguerreotype seen more than eight years before, and as she now
scanned her features it seemed to her they had scarcely changed at
all. Arthur had said of her then that she was not quite sixteen,
consequently she was now nearly twenty-five, but she did not look
as old as Edith, so slight was her form, so delicate her limbs,
and so childlike and simple the expression of her face. She was
very, very fair, and Edith felt that never before had she looked
upon a face so exquisitely beautiful. Her hair was of a reddish-
yellow hue, and rippled in short silken rings all over her head,
curling softly in her neck, but was not nearly as long as it had
been in the picture. Alas, the murderous shears had more than once
strayed roughly among those golden locks, to keep the little
white, fat hands, now clasped so harmlessly together, from tearing
them out with frantic violence. Edith thought of this and sighed,
while her heart yearned toward the helpless young creature, who
stood regarding her with a scrutinizing glance, as one studies a
beautiful picture. The face was very white--indeed, it seemed as
if it were long since the blood had visited the cheeks, which,
nevertheless, were round and plump, as were the finely moulded
arms, displayed to good advantage by the loose sleeves of the
crimson cashmere wrapper. The eyes were deeply, darkly blue, and
the strangely gleaming light which shone from them, betrayed at
once the terrible truth that Nina was crazed.
It was a novel sight, those two young girls watching each other so
intently, both so beautiful and yet so unlike--the one, tall,
stately, and almost queen-like in her proportions, with dark,
brilliant complexion; eyes of midnight blackness, and masses of
raven hair, bound around her head in many a heavy braid--the
other, fairy-like in size, with golden curls and soft blue eyes,
which filled with tears at last as some undefinable emotion swept
over her. In the rich, dark beauty of Edith's face there was a
wonderful fascination, which riveted the crazy girl to the spot
where she had stopped when first she crossed the threshold, and
when at last, sinking upon the sofa, Edith extended her arms, as a
mother to her child, poor little Nina went forward, and with a
low, gasping sob, fell upon her bosom, weeping passionately, her
whole frame trembling and her sobs so violent that Edith became
alarmed, and tried by kisses and soft endearing words to soothe
her grief and check the tears raining in torrents from her eyes.
"It's nice to cry. It takes the heavy pain away," and Nina made a
gesture that Edith must not stop her, while Arthur, roused from
his apathy, also said,
"She has not wept before in years. It will be a great relief."
At the sound of HIS voice Nina lifted up her head, and turned
toward the corner whence it came, but Edith saw that in the glance
there was neither reproach nor fear, nothing save trusting
confidence, and her heart insensibly softened toward him.
"Poor Arthur," Nina murmured, and laying her head again on Edith's
bosom, she said, "Every body is sad where I am, but I can't help
it. Oh, I can't help it. Nina's crazy, Miggie, Nina is. Poor
Nina," and the voice which uttered these words was so sadly
touching that Edith's tears mingled with those of the young
creature she hugged the closer to her, whispering,
"I know it, darling, and I pity you so much. Maybe you'll get
well, now that you know me."
"Yea, if you'll stay here always," said Nina. "What made you gone
so long? I wanted you so much when the nights were dark and
lonesome, and little bits of faces bent over me like yours used to
be, Miggie--yours in the picture, when you wore the red morocco
shoe and I led you on the high verandah."
"What does she mean?" asked Edith, who had listened to the words
as to something not wholly new to her.
"I don't know," returned Arthur, "unless she has confounded you
with her sister, MARGUERITE, who died many years ago, I have heard
that Nina, failing to speak the real name, always called her
MIGGIE. Possibly you resemble Miggie's mother. I think Aunt
Phillis said you did."
Edith, too, remembered Phillis' saying that she looked like
"Master Bernard's" wife, and Arthur's explanations seemed highly
probable.
"Dear, darling Nina," she said, kissing the pure white forehead,
"I WILL be a sister to you."
"And stay with me?" persisted Nina. "Sleep with me nights with
your arms round my neck, just like yon used to do? I hate to sleep
alone, with Soph coiled up on the floor, she scares me so, and
won't answer when I call her. Then, when I'm put in the recess,
it's terrible. DON'T let me go in there again, will you?"
Edith had not like Grace, looked into the large closet adjoining
the Den, and she did not know what Nina meant, but at a venture
she replied,
"No, darling. You'll be so good that they will not wish to put you
there."
"I CAN'T," returned Nina, with the manner of one who distrusted
herself. "I try, because it will please Arthur, but I must sing
and dance and pull my hair when my head feels so big and heavy,
and once, Miggie, when it was big as the house, and I pulled my
hair till they shaved it off, I tore my clothes in pieces and
threw them into the fire. Then, when Arthur came--Dr. Griswold
sent for him, you see--I buried my fingers in HIS hair, so," and
she was about to clutch her own golden locks when Edith
shudderingly caught her hands and held them tightly lest they
should harm the tresses she thought so beautiful.
"Arthur cried," continued Nina--"cried so hard that my brain grew
cool at once. It's dreadful to see a man cry, Miggie--a great,
strong man like Arthur. Poor Arthur, didn't you cry and call me
your lost Nina?"
A suppressed moan was Arthur's answer, and Nina, when she heard
it, slid from Edith's arms and crossing over to where she sat,
climbed into his lap with all the freedom of a little child, and
winding her arms about his neck, said to him softly,
"Don't be so sorry, Arthur, Nina'll be good. Nina is good now.
He's crying again. Make him stop, wont you? It hurts Nina so.
There, poor boy," and the little waxen hands wiped away the tears
falling so fast over Arthur's face.
Holding one upon the end of her finger and watching it until it
dropped upon the carpet, she said with a smile, "Look, Miggie,
MEN'S tears are bigger than girls."
Oh, how Edith's heart ached for the strange couple opposite her--
the strong man and the crazy young girl who clung to him as
confidingly, as if his bosom were her rightful resting place. She
pitied them both, but her sympathies were enlisted for Arthur, and
coming to his side she laid her hand upon the damp brown locks,
which Nina once had torn in her insane fury, and in a voice which
spoke volumes of sympathy, whispered, "I am sorry for you."
This was too much for Arthur, and he sobbed aloud, while Edith,
forgetting all proprieties in her grief for him, bowed her face
upon his head, and he could feel her hot tears dropping on his
hair.
For a moment Nina looked from one to the other in silence, then
standing upon her feet and bending over both, she said,
"Don't cry, Miggie, don't cry, Arthur. Nina ain't very bad to day.
She wont be bad any more. Don't. It will all come right some time.
It surely will. Nina won't be here always, and there'll be no need
to cry when she is gone."
She seemed to think the distress was all on her account, and in
her childish way she sought to comfort them until hope whispered
to both that, as she said, "It would come right sometime."
Edith was the first to be comforted, for she did not, like Arthur,
know what coming right involved. She only thought that possibly
Nina's shattered intellect might be restored, and she longed to
ask the history of one, thoughts of whom had in a measure been
blended with her whole life, during the last eight years. There
was a mystery connected with her, she knew, and she was about to
question Arthur, who had dried his tears and was winding Nina's
short curls around his fingers, when Phillis appeared in the
library, starting with surprise when she saw the trio assembled
there.
"Marster Arthur," she began, glancing furtively at Edith, "how
came Miss Nina here? Let me take her back. Come, honey," and she
reached out her hand to Nina, who, jumping again upon Arthur's
knee, clung to him closely, exclaiming, "No, no, old Phillis;
Nina's good--Nina'll stay with Miggie!" and as if fancying that
Edith would be a surer protector than Arthur, she slid from his
lap and running to the sofa where Edith sat, half hid herself
behind her, whispering, "Send her off--send her off. Let me stay
with you!"
Edith was fearful that Nina's presence might interfere with the
story she meant to hear, but she could not find it in her heart to
send away the little girl clinging so fondly to her, and to
Phillis she said, "She may stay this once, I am sure. I will
answer for her good behavior."
"'Taint that--'taint that," muttered Phillis, jerking herself from
the room, "but how's the disgrace to be kep' ef everybody sees
her."
"Disgrace!" and Edith glanced inquiringly at Arthur.
She could not believe that Nina was any disgrace, and she asked
what Phillis meant.
Crossing the room Arthur sat down upon the sofa with Nina between
himself and Edith, who was pleased to see that he wound his arm
around the young girl as if she were dear to him, notwithstanding
her disgrace. Like a child Nina played with his watch chain, his
coat buttons, and his fingers, apparently oblivious to what was
passing about her. She only felt that she was where she wished to
be, and knowing that he could say before her what he pleased
without the least danger of her comprehending a word, Arthur, much
to Edith's surprise, began:
"You have seen Nina, Miss Hastings. You know what is the mystery
at Grassy Spring--the mystery about which the villagers are
beginning to gossip, so Phillis says, but now that you have seen,
now that you know she is here, I care not for the rest. The
keenest pang is over and I am beginning already to feel better.
Concealment is not in accordance with my nature, and it has worn
on me terribly. Years ago you knew OF Nina; it is due to you now
that you know WHO she is, and why her destiny is linked to mine.
Listen, then, while I tell you her sad story."
"But SHE," interrupted Edith, pointing to Nina, whose blue eyes
were turned to Arthur. "Will it not be better to wait? Won't she
understand?"
"Not a word," he replied. "She's amusing herself, you see, with my
buttons, and when these fail, I'll give her my drawing pencil, or
some one of the numerous playthings I always keep in my pocket for
her. She seldom comprehends what we say and never remembers it.
This is one of the peculiar phases of her insanity."
"Poor child," said Edith, involuntarily caressing Nina, who smiled
up in her face, and leaning her head upon her shoulder, continued
her play with the buttons.
Meanwhile Arthur sat lost in thought, determining in his own mind
how much he should tell Edith of Nina, and how much withhold. He
could not tell her all, even though he knew that by keeping back a
part, much of his past conduct would seem wholly inexplicable, but
he could not help it, and when at last he saw that Edith was
waiting for him, he pressed his hands a moment against his heart
to stop its violent beating, and drawing a long, long sigh, began
the story.