EX-OFFICIO.
The spacious rooms at Grassy Spring had been filled to their
utmost capacity by those of the villagers, who, having recovered
from their panic, came to join in the funeral obsequies of Dr.
Griswold. In the yard without the grass was trampled down and the
flowers broken from their stalks by the crowds, who, failing to
gain admittance to the interior of the house, hovered about the
door, struggling for a sight of the young girl, whose strange
death watch and stranger bonfire was the theme of every tongue.
Solemnly the voice of God's ambassador was heard, proclaiming, "I
am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," and then
a song was sung, the voices of the singers faltering, all but one,
which, rising clear and sweet above the rest, sang of the better
world, where the bright eternal noonday ever reigns, and the
assembled throng without held their breath to listen, whispering
to each other, "It is Nina, the crazy girl. She was the doctor's
betrothed."
Down the gravelled walk,--along the highway,--over the river, and
up the hill to the village churchyard the long procession moved,
and when it backward turned, one of the number was left behind,
and the August sunset fell softly upon his early grave. Sadly the
mourners, Arthur, Edith and Nina, went to their respective homes,
Edith seeking the rest she so much needed, Nina subdued and awed
into perfect quiet, sitting with folded hands in the room where
her truest friend had died, while Arthur, alone in his chamber,
held as it were communion with the dead, who seemed this night to
be so near to him.
Swiftly, silently, one by one, the days came and went until it was
weeks since Dr. Griswold died, and things at Grassy Spring assumed
their former routine. At first Nina was inclined to be melancholy,
talking much of the deceased, and appearing at times so depressed
that Arthur trembled, lest she should again become unmanageable,
wondering what he should do with her now the Dr. was gone.
Gradually, however, she recovered her usual health and spirits,
appearing outwardly the same; but not so with Arthur, whose
thoughts and feelings no one could fathom. It was as if he had
locked himself within a wall of ice, which nothing had power to
thaw. He saw but little of Edith now; the lessons had been tacitly
given up, and, after what she had heard from Dr. Griswold, she
could not come to Grassy Spring just as she used to do, so she
remained at home, marvelling at the change in Arthur, and
wondering if he really loved her, why he did not tell her so. Much
of what Dr. Griswold had said she imputed to delirium, and with
the certainty that she was beloved, she would not dwell upon
anything which made her unhappy, and she waited for the end, now
hastening on with rapid strides.
Behind the icy wall which Arthur had built around himself, a
fierce storm was blowing, and notwithstanding the many midnight
watches kept over Dr. Griswold's grave, the tempest still raged
fearfully, threatening to burst its barriers and carry all before
it. But it reached its height at last, and wishing to test his
strength, Arthur asked Nina one pleasant night to go with him to
Collingwood. She consented readily, and in a few moments they were
on their way. They found the family assembled upon the broad
piazza, where the full moon shone upon them through the broad
leaves of woodbine twining about the massive pillars. Edith sat as
usual upon a stool at Richard's feet, and her face wore a look of
disappointment. Thoughts of Eloise Temple had been in her mind the
entire day, and sitting there with Richard, she had ventured to
ask him again of the young girl in whom she was so much
interested. But Richard shook his head. He was reserving Eloise
Temple for a future day, and he said to Edith,
"I cannot tell you of her yet, or where she is."
"When will you then?" and Edith spoke pettishly. "You always put
me off, and I don't see either why you need to be so much afraid
of telling me about her, unless her mother was bad, or something."
"Edith," Richard replied, "I do not wish to explain to you now. By
and by I'll tell you, it may be, though even that will depend on
circumstances;" and he sighed as he thought what the circumstances
must be which would keep from Edith any further knowledge of
Eloise than she already possessed.
Edith did not hear the sigh. She only knew that it was useless to
question him, and beating her little foot impatiently, she
muttered, "More mystery. If there's any thing I hate it's
mystery.--"
She did not finish what she meant to say, for at that moment she
spied Arthur and Nina coming through the garden gate as the
nearest route.
Edith was not in the best of humors. She was vexed at Richard,
because he wouldn't tell and at Arthur for "acting so," as she
termed it,--this acting so implying the studied indifference with
which he had treated her of late. But she was not vexed with Nina,
and running out to meet her, she laid her arm across her neck, and
led her with many words of welcome to the stool she had just
vacated, saying laughingly: "I know Mr. Harrington would rather
you should sit here than a cross patch like me! I'm ill-natured
to-night, Mr. St. Claire," and she bit her words off with playful
spitefulness.
"Your face cannot be an index to your feelings, then," returned
Arthur, retaining her offered hand a moment, and looking into her
eyes, just to see if he could do it without flinching.
It was a dangerous experiment, for Edith's soul looked through her
eyes, and Arthur read therein that which sent feverish heats and
icy chills alternately through his veins. Releasing her hand he
sat down upon the upper step of the piazza, and leaning against
one of the pillars, began to pluck the leaves within his reach,
and mechanically tear them in pieces.
Meantime Richard had signified to Edith his wish that she should
bring another stool, and sit beside him just as Nina was doing.
"I can then rest my hands upon the heads of you both," he said,
smoothing the while Nina's golden curls,
"Now tell us a story, please," said Nina; and when Richard asked
what it should be, she replied,
"Oh, tell us about the years ago when you were over the sea, and
why you have never married. Maybe you have, though. You are old
enough, I reckon. Did you ever marry anybody?"
"YES, _I_ DID," returned Richard; "a little girl with hair like
yours, I think, though my eyesight then was almost gone, and I saw
nothing distinctly."
"Wha-a-at!" exclaimed Edith, at the same time asking Arthur if he
was hurt as he started suddenly,
"There it goes. It was a BEE, I guess;" and Nina pointed to an
insect flitting by, but so far from Arthur as to render a sting
from the diminutive creature impossible. Still it served as an
excuse, and blessing Nina in his heart for the suggestion, Arthur
talked rapidly of various matters, hoping in this way to change
the conversation. But Edith was not to be put off, even if Nina
were. She was too much interested to know what Richard meant, and
as soon as politeness would permit, she said to him,
"Please go on, and tell us of the girl you married. Who was the
bridegroom, and where did it occur?"
There was no longer a shadow of hope that the story would not be
told, and folding his arms like one resigned to his fate, Arthur
listened, while Richard related to the two girls how, soon after
his removal to Geneva, he had been elected Justice of the Peace in
place of one resigned. "I did not wish for the office." he said,
"although I was seldom called upon to act, and after my sight
began to fail so fast, people never came to me except on trivial
matters. One night, however, as many as--let me see--as many as
ten years ago, my house keeper told me there were in the parlor
four young people desirous of seeing me, adding that she believed
a wedding was in contemplation."
"Splendid!" cried Edith; "and you married them, didn't you? Tell
us all about it; how the bride looked, and every thing."
"I cannot gratify you in that respect," returned Richard. "There
was a veil of darkness between us, and I could see nothing
distinctly, but I knew she was very slight, so much so, indeed,
that I was sorry afterward that I did not question her age."
"A runaway match from the Seminary, perhaps," suggested Arthur, in
tones so steady as to astonish himself.
"I have sometimes thought so since," was Richard's reply, "but as
nothing of the kind was ever known to have occurred, I may have
been mistaken."
"But the names?" cried Edith, eagerly, "you could surely tell by
that, unless they were feigned."
"Which is hardly probable," Richard rejoined, "though they might
as well have been for any good they do me now. I was too unhappy
then, too much wrapped up in my own misfortunes to care for what
was passing around me, and though I gave them a certificate,
keeping myself a memorandum of the same, I soon forgot their names
entirely."
"But the copy," chimed in Edith, "that will tell. Let's hunt it
up. I'm so interested in these people, and it seems so funny that
you should have married them. I wonder where they are. Have you
never heard a word from them?"
"Never, since that night," said Richard; "and what is more
unfortunate still for an inquisitive mother Eve, like you, the
copy which I kept was burned by a servant who destroyed it with
sundry other business papers, on one of her cleaning house days."
"Ah-h," and Arthur drew a long, long breath, which prompted Edith
to ask if be were tired.
"You're not as much interested as I am," she said. "I do wish I
knew who the young bride was--so small and so fair. Was she as
tall as Nina?" and she turned to Richard, who replied,
"I can hardly judge the height of either. Stand up, Snow Drop, and
let me feel if you are as tall as the bride of ten years ago."
"Yes, Nina is the taller of the two," said Richard, as he complied
with his request and stood under his hand. "I have often thought
of this girl-wife and her handsome boy-husband, doubting whether I
did right to marry them, but the young man who accompanied them
went far toward reassuring me that all was right. They were
residents of the village, he said, and having seen me often in
town, had taken a fancy to have me perform the ceremony, just for
the novelty of the thing."
"It's queer you never heard of them afterward," said Edith; while
Nina, looking up in the blind man's face, rejoined,
"YOU DID IT THEN?"
"Nina," said Arthur ere Richard could reply, "it is time we were
going home; there is Sophy with the shawl which you forgot." And
he pointed toward Sophy coming through the garden, with a warm
shawl tucked under her arm, for the dew was heavy that night and
she feared lest Nina should take cold.
"Nina won't go yet; she isn't ready," persisted the capricious
maiden. "Go till I call you," and having thus summarily dismissed
Soph, the little lady resumed the seat from which she had arisen,
and laying her head on Richard's, whispered to him softly, "CAN'T
YOU SCRATCH IT OUT?"
"Scratch what out?" he asked; and Nina replied,
"Why, IT; what you've been talking about. Nothing ever came of it
but despair and darkness."
"I do not know what you mean," Richard said, and as Arthur did not
volunteer any information, but sat carelessly scraping his thumb
nail with a pen-knife, Edith made some trivial remark which turned
the channel of Nina's thoughts, and she forgot to urge the request
that "it should be scratched out."
"Nina'll go now," she said, after ten minutes had elapsed, and
calling Soph, Arthur was soon on his way home, hardly knowing
whether he was glad or sorry that every proof of his early error
was forever destroyed.