EDITH AND THE WORLD.
"Victor is faithful," Edith said, as she saw the light, and
fancied that the Frenchman was still up, waiting to assist his
master.
But not for Richard did Victor keep the watch that night. He would
know how long that interview lasted below, and when it was ended
he would know its result. What Victor designed he was pretty sure
to accomplish, and when, by the voices in the lower hall, he knew
that Edith was coming, he stole on tip-toe to the balustrade, and,
leaning over, saw the parting at the parlor door, feeling
intuitively that Edith's relations to Richard had changed since he
last looked upon her. Never was servant more attached to his
master than was Victor Dupres to his, and yet he was strongly
unwilling that Edith's glorious beauty should be wasted thus.
"If she loved him," he said to himself, as, gliding back to his
room, he cautiously shut the door, ere Edith reached the first
landing. "If she loved him, I would not care. More unsuitable
matches than this have ended happily--but she don't. Her whole
life is bound with that of another, and she shrinks from Mr.
Harrington as she was not wont to do. I saw it in her face, as she
turned away from him. There'll be another grave in the Collingwood
grounds--another name on the tall monument, 'Edith, wife of
Richard Harrington, aged 20.'"
Victor wrote the words upon a slip of paper, reading them over
until tears dimmed his vision, for, in fancy, the imaginative
Frenchman assisted at Edith's obsequies, and even heard the
grinding of the hearse wheels, once foretold by Nina. Several
times he peered out into the silent hall, seeing the lamplight
shining from the ventilator over Edith's door, and knowing by that
token that she had not retired. What was she doing there so long?
Victor fain would know, and as half-hour after half-hour went by,
until it was almost four, he stepped boldly to the door and
knocked. Long association with Victor had led Edith to treat him
more as an equal than a servant; consequently he took liberties
both with her and Richard, which no other of the household would
dare to do, and now, as there came no response, he cautiously
turned the knob and walked into the room where, in her crimson
dressing-gown, her hair unbound and falling over her shoulders,
Edith sat, her arms crossed upon the table, and her face upon her
arms. She was not sleeping, for as the door creaked on its hinges,
she looked up, half-pleased to meet only the good-humored face of
Victor where she had feared to see that of Richard.
"Miss Edith, this is madness--this is folly," and Victor sat down
before her. "I was a fool to think it was Mrs. Atherton."
"Victor Dupres, what do you mean? What do you know? Why are you
here?" and Edith's eyes flashed with insulted pride; but Victor
did not quail before them. Gazing steadily at her, he replied,
"You are engaged to your guardian, and you do not love him."
"Victor Dupres, _I_ DO!" and Edith struck her hand upon the table
with a force which made the glass lamp rattle.
"Granted you do," returned Victor, "but how do you love him? As a
brother, as a friend, as a father, if you will, but not as you
should love your husband; not as you could love Arthur St. Claire,
were he not bound by other ties,"
Across the table the blanched, frightened face of Edith looked,
and the eyes which never before had been so black, scanned Victor
keenly.
"What do you know of Arthur St. Claire's ties?" she asked at last,
every word a labored breath.
Victor made no answer, but hurrying from the room, returned with
the crumpled, soiled sheet of foolscap, which he placed before
her, asking if she ever saw it before.
Edith's mind had been sadly confused when Nina read to her the
SCRATCHING OUT, and she had forgotten it entirely, but it came
back to her now, and catching up the papers, she recognized
Richard's unmistakable hand-writing. He knew, then, of her love
for Arthur--of the obstacle to that love--of the agony it cost her
to give him up. He had deceived her--had won her under false
pretenses, assuming that she loved no one. She did not think this
of Richard, and in her eyes, usually so soft and mild, there was a
black, hard, terrible expression, as she whispered hoarsely, "How
came this in your possession?"
He told her how--thus exonerating Richard from blame, and the
hard, angry look was drowned in tears as Edith wept aloud.
"Then he don't know it," she said at length, "Richard don't. I
should hate him if he did and still wished me to be his wife."
"I can tell him," was Victor's dry response, and in an instant
Edith was over where he sat.
"You cannot, you must not, you shall not. It will kill him if I
desert him. He told me so, and I promised that I wouldn't--
promised solemnly. I would not harm a hair of Richard's head, and
he so noble, so good, so helpless, with so few sources of
enjoyment; but oh, Victor, I did love Arthur best--did love him so
much," and in that wailing cry Edith's true sentiments spoke out.
"I did love him so much--I love him so much now," and she kept
whispering it to herself, while Victor sought in vain for some
word of comfort, but could find none. Once he said to her, "Wait,
and Nina may die," but Edith recoiled from him in horror.
"Never hint that Again," she almost screamed. "It's murder, foul
murder. I would not have Nina die for the whole world--beautiful,
loving Nina. I wouldn't have Arthur, if she did. I couldn't, for I
am Richard's wife. I wish I'd told him early June instead of
October. I'll tell him to-morrow and in four weeks more all the
dreadful uncertainty will be ended. I ought to love him, Victor,
he's done so much for me. I am that Swedish child he saved from
the river Rhine, periling life and limb, losing his sight for me.
He found it so that time he went with you to New York," and
Edith's tears ceased as she repeated to Victor all she knew of her
early history. "Shouldn't I marry him?" she asked, when the story
was ended. "Ought I not to be his eyes? Help me, Victor. Don't
make it so hard for me; I shall faint by the way if you do."
Victor conceded that she owed much to Richard, but nothing could
make him think it right for her to marry him with her present
feelings. It would be a greater wrong to him than to refuse him,
but Edith did not think so.
"He'll never know what I feel," she said, and by and by I shall be
better,--shall love him as he deserves. There are few Richards in
the world, Victor."
"That is true," he replied, "but 'tis no reason why you must be
sacrificed. Edith, the case is like this: I wish, and the world at
large, if it could speak, would wish for Richard to marry you, but
would not wish you to marry Richard."
"But I shall," interrupted Edith. "There is no possible chance of
my not doing so, and Victor, you will help me.--You won't tell him
of Arthur. You know how his unselfish heart would give me up if
you did, and break while doing it. Promise, Victor."
"Tell me first what you meant by early June, and October," he
said, and after Edith had explained, he continued, "Let the
wedding be still appointed for October, and unless I see that it
is absolutely killing you, I will not enlighten Mr. Harrington."
And this was all the promise Edith could extort from him.
"Unless he saw it was absolutely killing her, he would not
enlighten Richard."
"He shall see that it will not kill me," she said to herself, "I
will be gay whether I feel it or not. I will out-do myself, and if
my broken heart should break again, no one shall be the wiser."
Thus deciding, she turned toward the window where the gray dawn
was stealing in, and pointing to it, said:
"Look, the day is breaking; the longest night will have an end, so
will this miserable pain at my heart. Daylight will surely come
when I shall be happy with Richard. Don't tell him, Victor, don't;
and now leave me, for my head is bursting with weariness."
He knew it was, by the expression of her face, which, in the dim
lamp-light, looked ghastly and worn, and he was about to leave
her, when she called him back, and asked how long he had lived
with Mr. Harrington.
"Thirteen years," he replied. "He picked me up in Germany, just
before he came home to America. He was not blind then."
"Then you never saw my mother?"
"Never."
"Nor Marie?"
"Never to my knowledge,"
"You were in Geneva with Richard, you say. Where were you, when--
when--"
Edith could not finish, but Victor understood what she would ask,
and answered her,
"I must have been in Paris. I went home for a few months, ten
years ago last fall, and did not return until just before we came
to Collingwood. The housekeeper told me there had been a wedding
at Lake View, our Geneva home, but I did not ask the particulars.
There's a moral there, Edith; a warning to all foolish college
boys, and girls, who don't half know their minds."
Edith was too intent upon her own matters to care for morals, and
without replying directly, she said,
"Richard will tell you to-morrow or to-day, rather, of the
engagement, and you'll be guarded, won't you?"
"I shall let him know I disapprove," returned Victor, "but I
shan't say anything that sounds like Arthur St. Claire, not yet,
at all events."
"And, Victor, in the course of the day, you'll make some errand to
Brier Hill, and incidentally mention it to Mrs. Atherton. Richard
won't tell her, I know, and I can't--I can't. Oh, I wish it were--
"
"The widow, instead of you," interrupted Victor, as he stood with
the door knob in his hand. "That's what you mean, and I must say
it shows a very proper frame of mind in a bride-elect."
Edith made a gesture for him to leave her, and with a low bow he
withdrew, while Edith, alternately shivering with cold and flushed
with fever, crept into bed, and fell away to sleep, forgetting,
for the time, that there were in the world such things as broken
hearts, unwilling brides, and blind husbands old enough to be her
father.
* * * * * *
The breakfast dishes were cleared away, all but the exquisite
little service brought for Edith's use when she was sick, and
which now stood upon the side-board waiting until her long morning
slumber should end. Once Mrs. Matson had been to her bedside,
hearing from her that her head was aching badly, and that she
would sleep longer. This message was carried down to Richard, who
entertained his guests as best he could, but did not urge them to
make a longer stay.
They were gone now, and Richard was alone. It was a favorable
opportunity for telling Victor of his engagement, and summoning
the latter to his presence, he bade him sit down, himself
hesitating, stammering and blushing like a woman, as he tried to
speak of Edith. Victor might have helped him, but he would not, as
he sat, rather enjoying his master's confusion, until the latter
said, abruptly,
"Victor, how would you like to have a mistress here--a bona fide
one, I mean, such as my wife would be?"
"That depends something upon who it was," Victor exclaimed, as if
this were the first intimation he had received of it.
"What would you say to Edith?" Richard continued, and Victor
replied with well-feigned surprise, "Miss Hastings! You would not
ask that little girl to be your wife! Why you are twenty-five
years her senior."
"No, no, Victor, only twenty-one," and Richard's voice trembled,
for like Edith, he wished to be reassured and upheld even by his
inferiors.
He knew Victor disapproved, that he considered it a great
sacrifice on Edith's part, but for this he had no intention of
giving her up. On the contrary it made him a very little vexed
that his valet should presume to question his acts, and he said
with more asperity of manner than was usual for him,
"You think it unsuitable, I perceive, and perhaps it is, but if we
are satisfied, it is no one's else business, I think,"
"Certainly not," returned Victor, a meaning smile curling his lip,
"if both are satisfied, I ought to be. When is the wedding?"
He asked this last with an appearance of interest, and Richard,
ever ready to forgive and forget, told him all about it, who Edith
was, and sundry other matters, to which Victor listened as
attentively as if he had not heard the whole before. Like Edith,
Richard was in the habit of talking to Victor more as if he were
an equal than a servant and in speaking of his engagement, he
said,
"I had many misgivings as to the propriety of asking Edith to be
my wife--she is so young, so different from me, but my excuse is
that I cannot live without her. She never loved another, and thus
the chance is tenfold that she will yet be to me all that a
younger, less dependent husband could desire."
Victor bit his lip, half resolved one moment to undeceive poor
Richard, whom he pitied for his blind infatuation, but remembering
his promise, he held his peace, until his master signified that
the conference was ended, when he hastened to the barn, where he
could give vent to his feeling in French, his adopted language
being far too prosy to suit his excited mood. Suddenly Grace
Atherton came into his mind, and Edith's request that he should
tell her.
"Yes, I'll do it," he said, starting at once for Brier Hill "'Twill
be a relief to let another know it, and then I want to see her
squirm, when she hears all hope for herself is gone."
For once, however, Victor was mistaken. Gradually the hope that
she could ever be aught to Richard was dying out of Grace's heart,
and though, for an instant, she turned very white when, as if by
accident, he told the news, it was more from surprise at Edith's
conduct than from any new feeling that she had lost him. She was
in the garden bending over a bed of daffodils, so he did not see
her face, but he knew from her voice how astonished she was and
rather wondered that she could question him so calmly as she did,
asking if Edith were very happy, when the wedding was to be, and
even wondering at Richard's willingness to wait so long.
"Women are queer any way," was Victor's mental comment, as, balked
of his intention to see Grace Atherton squirm, he bade her good
morning, and bowed himself from the garden, having first received
her message that she would come up in the course of the day, and
congratulate the newly betrothed.
Once alone, Grace's calmness all gave way; and though the
intelligence did not affect her as it once would have done, the
fibres of her heart quivered with pain, and a sense of dreariness
stole over her, as, sitting down on the thick, trailing boughs of
an evergreen, she covered her face with her hands, and wept as
women always weep over a blighted hope. It was all in vain that
her pet kitten came gamboling to her feet, rubbing against her
dress, climbing upon her shoulder, and playfully touching, with
her velvet paw, the chestnut curls which fell from beneath her
bonnet. All in vain that the Newfoundland dog came to her side,
licking her hands and gazing upon her with a wondering, human look
of intelligent. Grace had no thought for Rover or for Kitty, and
she wept on, sometimes for Arthur, sometimes for Edith, but
oftener for the young girl who years ago refused the love offered
her by Richard Harrington; and then she wondered if it were
possible that Edith had so soon ceased to care for Arthur,
"I can tell from her manner," she thought; and with her mind thus
brought to the call she would make at Collingwood, she dried her
eyes, and speaking playfully to her dumb pets, returned to the
house a sad, subdued woman, whose part in the drama of Richard
Harrington was effectually played out.
That afternoon, about three o'clock, a carriage bearing Grace
Atherton, wound slowly up the hill to Collingwood and when it
reached the door a radiant, beautiful woman stepped out, her face
all wreathed in smiles and her voice full of sweetness as she
greeted Richard, who came forth to meet her.
"A pretty march you've stolen upon me," she began, in a light,
bantering tone--"you and Edith--never asked my consent or said so
much as 'by your leave' but no matter, I congratulate you all the
same. I fancied it would end in this. Where is she--the bride-
elect?"
Richard was stunned with such a volley of words from one whom he
supposed ignorant of the matter, and observing his evident
surprise Grace continued, "You wonder how I know, Victor told me
this morning; he was too much delighted to keep it to himself. But
say, where is Edith?"
"Here I am," and advancing from the parlor, where she had
overheard the whole, Edith laughed a gay, musical laugh, as hollow
and meaningless as Mrs. Atherton's forced levity.
Had she followed the bent of her inclinations she would not have
left her pillow that day, but remembering Victor's words, "Unless
I see it's killing you," she felt the necessity of exerting
herself, of wearing the semblance of happiness at least, and about
noon she had arisen and dressed herself with the utmost care,
twining geranium leaves in her hair just as she used to do when
going to see Arthur, and letting them droop from among her braids
in the way he had told her was so becoming. Then, with flushed
cheeks and bright, restless eyes, she went down to Richard,
receiving his caresses and partially returning them when she
fancied Victor was where he could see her,
"Women are queer," he said again to himself, as he saw Edith on
Richard's knee, with her arm around his neck. "Their love is like
a footprint on the seashore; the first big wave washes it away,
and they are ready to make another. I reckon I shan't bother
myself about her any more. If she loved Arthur as I thought she
did, she couldn't hug another one so soon. It isn't nature--man
nature, any way; but Edith's like a reed that bends. That
character of Cooper's suits her exactly. I'll call her so to
myself hereafter--Reed that bends," and Victor hurried off,
delighted with his new name.
But if Victor was in a measure deceived by Edith's demeanor, Grace
Atherton was not. Women distrust women sooner than men; can read
each other better, detect the hidden motive sooner, and ere the
two had been five minutes together, Grace had caught a glimpse of
the troubled, angry current over which the upper waters rippled so
smoothly that none save an accurate observer would have suspected
the fierce whirlpool which lay just below the surface. Because, he
thought, they would like it better, Richard left the two ladies
alone at last and then turning suddenly upon Edith, Grace said,
"Tell me, Edith, is your heart in this or have you done it in a
fit of desperation?"
"I have had a long time to think of it," Edith answered proudly.
"It is no sudden act. Richard is too noble to accept it if it
were. I have always loved him,--not exactly as I loved Arthur, it
is true."
Here the whirlpool underneath threatened to betray itself, but
with a mighty effort Edith kept it down, and the current was
unruffled as she continued,
"Arthur is nearer my age--nearer my beau ideal, but I can't have
him, and I'm not going to play the part of a love-lorn damsel for
a married man. Tell him so when you write. Tell him I'm engaged to
Richard just as he said I would be. Tell him I'm happy, too, for I
know I'm doing right. It is not wicked to love Richard and it was
wicked to love him."
It cost Edith more to say this than she supposed, and when she
finished, the perspiration stood in drops beneath her hair and
about her mouth.
"You are deceiving yourself," said Grace, who, without any selfish
motive now, really pitied the hard, white-faced girl, so unlike
the Edith of other days. "You are taking Richard from gratitude,
nothing else. Victor told me of your parentage, but because he
saved your life, you need not render yours as a return. Your heart
is not in this marriage."
"Yes, it is--all the heart I have," Edith answered curtly. Then,
as some emotion stronger than the others swept over her, she laid
her head upon the sofa arm and sobbed, "You are all leagued
against me, but I don't care. I shall do as I like, I have
promised to marry Richard, and Edith Hastings never lied. She will
keep her word," and in the eyes which she now lifted up, Grace saw
the years glittering like diamonds.
Then a merry laugh burst from the lips of the wayward girl as she
met Mrs. Atherton's anxious glance, and running to the piano she
dashed off most inspiriting waltz, playing so rapidly that the
bright bloom came back, settling in a small round spot upon her
cheek, and making her surpassingly beautiful even to Grace, whose
great weakness was an unwillingness to admit that another's charms
were superior to her own. When the waltz was ended Edith's mood
had changed, and turning to Grace she nestled closely to her, and
twining one of the silken curls around her fingers, said
coaxingly,
"You think me a naughty child no doubt, but you do not understand
me. I certainly do love Richard more than you suppose; and Grace,
I want you to help me, to encourage me. Engaged girls always need
it, I guess, and Victor is so mean, he says all sorts of hateful
things about my marrying my father, and all that. Perhaps the
village people will do so, too, and if they do, you'll stand up
for me, won't you? You'll tell them how much I owe him--how much I
love him, and, Grace," Edith's voice was very low now, and sad,
"and when you write to Arthur don't repeat the hateful things I
said before, but tell him I'm engaged; that I'm the Swedish baby;
that I never shall forget him quite; and that I love Richard very
much."
Oh, how soft and plaintive was the expression of the dark eyes
now, as Edith ceased to speak, and pressed the hand which warmly
pressed hers back, for Grace's womanly nature was aroused by this
appeal, and she resolved to fulfill the trust reposed in her by
Edith. Instead of hedging her way with obstacles she would help
her, if possible; would encourage her to love the helpless blind
man, whose step was heard In the hall. He was coming to rejoin
them, and instantly into Edith's eyes there flashed a startled,
shrinking look, such as the recreant slave may be supposed to wear
when he hears his master's step. Grace knew the feeling which
prompted that look full well. She had felt it many a time, in an
intensified degree, stealing over her at the coming of one whose
snowy looks and gouty limbs had mingled many a year with the dust
of Shannondale, and on her lips the words were trembling, "This
great sacrifice must not be," when Edith sprang up, and running
out into the hall, met Richard as be came.
Leading him into the parlor, and seating him upon the sofa, she
aat beside him, holding his hand in hers, as if she thus would
defy her destiny, or, at the least, meet it bravely. Had Grace
known of Victor's new name for Edith she too would have called her
"Reed that bends," and as it was she thought her a most
incomprehensible girl, whom no one could fathom, and not caring to
tarry longer, soon took her leave, and the lovers were alone.
Arrived at home, Grace opened her writing desk and commenced a
letter, which started next day for Florida, carrying to Arthur St.
Claire news which made his brain reel and grow giddy with pain,
while his probed heart throbbed, and quivered, and bled with a
fresh agony, as on his knees by Nina's pillow he prayed, not that
the cup of bitterness might pass from him--he was willing now to
quaff that to its very dregs, but that Edith might be happy with
the husband she had chosen, and that he, the desolate, weary
Arthur might not faint beneath this added burden.
Five weeks went by--five weeks of busy talk among the villagers,
some of whom approved of the engagement, while more disapproved.
Where was that proud Southerner? they asked, referring to Arthur
St. Claire. They thought him in love with Edith. Had he deserted
her, and so in a fit of pique she had given herself to Richard?
This was probably the fact, and the gossips, headed by Mrs.
Eliakim Rogers, speculated upon it, while the days glided by,
until the five weeks were gone, and Edith, sitting in Grace's
boudoir, read, with eyes which had not wept since the day
following her betrothal, the following extract from Arthur's
letter to his cousin:
"Richard and Edith! Oh! Grace, Grace! I thought I had suffered all
that mortal man could suffer, but when that fatal message came, I
died a thousand deaths in one, enduring again the dreadful agony
when in the Deering woods I gave my darling up. Oh, Edith, Edith,
Edith, my soul goes after her even now with a quenchless, mighty
love, and my poor, bruised, blistered heart throbs as if some
great giant hand were pressing its festered wounds, until I faint
with anguish and cry out, 'my punishment is greater than I can
bear.'
"Still I would not have it otherwise, if I could. I deserve it
all, aye, and more, too. Heaven bless them both, Richard and his
beautiful singing bird. Tell her so, Grace. Tell her how I blessed
her for cheering the blind man's darkness, but do not tell her how
much it costs me to bid her, as I now do, farewell forever and
ever, farewell."
It was strange that Grace should have shown this letter to Edith,
but the latter coaxed so hard that she reluctantly consented,
repenting of it however when she saw the effect it had on Edith.
Gradually as she read, there crept over her a look which Grace had
never seen before upon the face of any human being--a look as if
the pent-up grief of years was concentrated in a single moment of
anguish too acute to be described. There were livid spots upon her
neck--livid spots upon her face, while the dry eyes seemed fading
out, so dull, and dim, and colorless they looked, as Edith read
the wailing cry with which Arthur St. Claire bade her his adieu.
For several minutes she sat perfectly motionless, save when the
muscles of her mouth twitched convulsively, and when the hard,
terrible look gave way--the spots began to fade--the color came
back to her cheeks--the eyes resumed their wonted brilliancy--the
fingers moved nervously, and Edith was herself. She had suffered
all she could, and never again would her palsied heart know the
same degree of pain which she experienced when reading Arthur's
letter. It was over now--the worst of it. Arthur knew of her
engagement--blessing her for it, and pitying he would not have it
otherwise. The bitterness of death was past, and henceforth none
save Grace and Victor suspected the worm which fed on Edith's very
life, so light, so merry, so joyous she appeared; and Edith was
happier than she had supposed it possible for her to be. The firm
belief that she was doing right, was, of itself, a source of
peace, and helped to sustain her fainting spirits, still there was
about her a sensation of disquiet, a feeling that new scenes would
do her good, and as the summer advanced, and the scorching July
sun penetrated even to the cool shades of Collingwood, she coaxed
Richard, Grace and Victor to go away. She did not care where, she
said, "anything for a change; she was tired of seeing the same
things continually. She never knew before how stupid Shannondale
was. It must have changed within the last few months."
"I think it was you who have changed," said Grace, fancying that
she could already foresee the restless, uneasy, and not altogether
agreeable woman, which Edith, as Richard's wife, would assuredly
become.
Possibly Richard, too, thought of this, for a sigh escaped him as
he heard Edith find fault with her beautiful home.
Still he offered no remonstrance to going from home awhile, and
two weeks more found them at the Catskill Mountain House, where at
first not one of the assembled throng suspected that the beautiful
young maiden who in the evening danced like a butterfly in their
midst, and in the morning bounded up the rocky heights like some
fearless, graceful chamois, was more than ward to the man who had
the sympathy of all from the moment the whispered words went
round, "He is blind."
Hour after hour would Edith sit with him upon the grass plat
overlooking the deep ravine, and make him see with her eyes the
gloriously magnificent view, than which there is surely none finer
in all the world; then, when the looked toward the west, and the
mountain shadow began to creep across the valley, the river, and
the hills beyond, shrouding them in an early twilight, she would
lead him away to some quiet sheltered spot, where unobserved, she
could lavish upon him the little acts of love she knew he so much
craved and which she would not give to him when curious eyes were
looking on. It was a blissful paradise to Richard, and when in
after years he looked back upon the past, he always recurred to
those few weeks as the brightest spot in his whole life, blessing
Edith for the happiness she gave him during that season of
delicious quiet spent amid the wild scenery of the Catskill
Mountains.