"Ronayne, Ronayne!" resumed Mrs. Headley, after the strong excitement
of her feeling had been in some measure calmed, "how rapidly you
arrive at conclusions. Much of what you say is probable--for your
sake, I would it were all so, but let us be guided in our judgment
by circumstances and facts alone. If it had at first been arranged
that the plan adopted with such success to-day, why the visit to,
and detention in, the vault of the summer-house where every
preparation had been made for a long concealment?"
"That," replied Ronayne, "is a mystery which time alone can unravel.
I confess that it involves a contradiction susceptible of explanation
only by themselves. This, in all human probability we shall never
know; but then, again, forgive me, Mrs. Headley, for thus detaining
you with any selfish interests, but your voice, your counsel, your
very knowledge of the facts--all breathe peace to my wounded spirit;
but, I ask again, why the scream she gave--why the emotion, the
grief, she evinced when, on opening the trap-door, you saw her
reclining exhausted on that rude couch? I would reason the matter
so as to convince myself _thoroughly_ that her flight has been her
own wilful act, for then I shall the less regret, even though I
should not be able to banish her image wholly from my mind. You
have said that you saw Wau-nan-gee leave the summer-house with an
excitement in his eye and manner you had never witnessed before,
and that this corresponded with the state in which you found Maria
a few moments later. Now, is it probable that if she had purposed
anything wrong she would have asked you to accompany her, or that
she should have asked you to wait for her, while visiting a spot
whence she knew she never would return? Oh, no! this could never
be. Her mode of evasion, if such had been intended, would have been
very different; she would have chosen a moment when you were in
some distant part of the garden, and saw her not, to steal into
the summer-house. All clue, then, would have been lost, and the
appearance of the Indians lurking about the cottage would naturally
have impressed you with the belief that she had been carried off
by them. How were they dressed?"
"Even as you have described the party that pursued, or affected to
pursue you yesterday," exclaimed Mrs. Headley, "in the war paint
of the Winnebagoes. I know it well, for their chiefs have often
been in council here."
"Just so," pursued Ronayne. "Is it not then reasonable to
suppose--mark, I do not weakly seek to justify the wrong which
but too certainly exists, but I would dissect each circumstance
until the truth be known--is it not, I repeat, reasonable to suppose
that, even if Maria wanted an evidence of her abduction, she would
have gone towards the cottage rather than the summer-house. It
would have been easy enough then for the Indians who, I have no
doubt, were the same party I encountered at Hardscrabble, to have
carried her off before any assistance could arrive from the fort.
On the contrary, she was certain of discovery in the summer-house
into which she had been seen to enter, and every part of which she
would have known would have been most strictly searched. Wherefore,
too, the object in keeping her confined, as it were, in a dungeon,
when the free air was open to her, and the boundless wilderness
offered health and freedom?"
"I have thought of all that, Ronayne," replied Mrs. Headley, "and
I cannot but suppose that this retreat was a temporary one. In all
probability, when Wau-nan-gee issued from the summer-house, he was
in the act of proceeding to make his preparations for finishing
the work just begun, but seeing that I had not yet left the grounds,
waited to know what my movements would be before he took any farther
step. My stationing the boat's crew before the gate, where they
could command the whole of the view between the cottage and the
summer-house, acted as a check upon them, and little dreaming, I
presume, that I had discovered the trap-door, they had intended,
on my departure across the river, to avail themselves of my absence,
and bear her off into the forest. As for the deep grief which I
witnessed on entering the summer-house, that may easily be accounted
for. A woman of refinement, education, and generous susceptibility,
however unhappily carried away she may be by a resistless, and, in
her view, fated passion, does not without a pang tear herself from
old associations to enter upon new, especially where they are of
an inferior character. She may mourn her weakness even at the moment
she most yields to it. One dominant thought may fill her soul--one
master sentiment influence all her actions, and govern the pulsations
of her heart, but that does not exclude the workings of other and
nobler emotions of the mind. Even when she feels herself most
tyrannized over by the passion, the infatuation, the destiny against
which she finds it vain to struggle, sorrow for her altered position
will intrude itself, and then is her heart strengthened and her
mind consoled only by the reflection that the sacrifice was
indispensable to the attainment of that, without which, in the
strong excitement of her imagination, she deems life valueless.
Charity should induce us to believe that it is, what I have already
termed it, a disease, for on no other principle can we account for
that aberration of the passions, the intellect and the judgment
which can lead such a woman to forget that mind chiefly gives value
to love, and to sacrifice all that is esteemed most honorable in
the sex by man, to the fascination of mere animal beauty. Ah!
Ronayne, this must have been the case in the present instance. You
see, I probe you deeply--but enough!"
"Dear Mrs. Headley," returned the Virginian, pressing her hands
warmly in his own, "I am satisfied that, humiliating as it is to
admit the correctness of your impression, there is but too much
reason to think that it is even as you say. When I recur to the
past of yesterday and to-day, I cannot doubt it; and yet I confess
there is much buried in obscurity which I would fain have explained.
Were it made clear, manifest as the handwriting on the wall,
that Maria had abandoned me for Wau-nan-gee, I should be at ease.
It is the uncertainty only that now racks my mind. Could I _know_,
not merely _believe_ her false, a weight would be taken from my
heart. Oh! Mrs. Headley, why did you not suffer Wau-nan-gee to
enter--why drive from me the only means of explanation at which I
can ever arrive--and, yet, what could have been his object in thus
venturing here after having despoiled my home of its treasure? If
guilty, would he have dared to approach me? and that he might not
do so with evil intent, is evident from the fact of his having
knocked for admission. Oh! Mrs. Headley, I know not what to think--my
mind is chaos--I am a very changeling in my mood: not from want
of energy to act when once assured, but from the very doubts that
agitate my mind, made wavering by the absence of all certain proof."
While the soul of the unfortunate young officer was thus a prey to
every shade of doubt, and manifesting the very weakness that his
lips denied, Mrs. Headley regarded him with, deep concern. She
could well divine all that was passing in his heart, and the chord
of her sympathy was keenly touched. For some moments she did not
speak, but appeared to be lost in her own painful reflections. At
length, when Ronayne, who during these remarks had been rapidly
pacing the room, threw himself into a chair, burying his face in
his hands, evidently ill at ease, she drew forth her packet, the
seal of which was broken, and handed it to him, saying with sadness--
"My dear Ronayne, I had hoped that I should not have been under
the necessity of making known to you the contents of this note,
but I see it cannot be withheld. It was placed in my hands, just
after I had parted with Mrs. Elmsley, by Serjeant Nixon, who stated
that Maria had left it with him for me, as she rode out this morning,
telling him it was of the utmost importance that he should deliver
it."
"I saw her in conversation with him," said Ronayne, as he took the
note and approached the light to read it, "and on asking what
detained her, she said, hastily, that she was merely sending you
a message--not a document of the importance which you seem to attach
to this. I felt at the time that she was not dealing seriously with
me; but as it seemed a matter of little consequence I did not pay
much attention to it; but, let me read!"
The following were the contents of the note, which Ronayne eagerly
perused, with what profound emotion it need scarcely be necessary
to describe:
"My dear Mrs. Headley: When you receive this, you will have seen
me, perhaps, for the last time; but I am sure that you will believe
that, in tearing myself from the scene where so many happy, though
not altogether unchequered days have been passed, no one occupies
a deeper place in my regret than yourself, whom I have ever regarded
as a second mother. The dreadful reasons which exist for it, however,
prevent me, as a wife, from acting otherwise. I know you will
condemn me--tax me with ingratitude and selfishness. I am prepared
for reproach; but, alas! no other course remains for me to pursue.
If I have yielded to the persuasions of the gentle, the affectionate,
the devoted Wau-nan-gee, it is not so much on my own account as in
consideration of the hope held out to me of a long future of
happiness with the object of my heart's worship. For him I can,
and do make every sacrifice, even to the incurring of your
displeasure, and the condemnation of all who know me. But let
me entreat you to remember, that if he is seemingly guilty, I alone
am truly so, and chargeable for the deep offence that will of course
be attributed to him. Remember that I have planned the whole; and
should it be decreed by fate that we never meet again, I pray God
in his infinite goodness to preserve those whom I now abandon, and
spare them the distraction that weighs upon this severely-tried
heart.
"I promised you a candid explanation of everything relating to what
you saw yesterday. This you will find fully detailed in the
accompanying document, written after you had left me, and before
the return of Ronayne last night from fishing."
"Document! what document?" asked the Virginian, interrupting himself,
and in a voice husky from emotion; "there is nothing here, Mrs.
Headley, but the letter itself."
"Nothing but that and the piece of embroidery which Maria had worked
for me were contained in the packet," was the reply. "In her hurry
she must have forgotten to inclose it."
"In the accompanying document (resumed the Virginian, reading) you
will find the nature of my connexion with Wau-nan-gee fully explained.
You will, of course, make such use of all that is necessary to your
purpose as you may deem advisable; but, as I make that part of the
communication which refers to Wau-nan-gee strictly confidential,
I conjure you never, in the slightest way, to allude to him as
being connected either with my evasion or with the revelation I
have made to you in the inclosure. Adieu, my dear Mrs. Headley.
God grant we may meet again!
"Your own Maria."
During the perusal of this note, Mrs. Headley had watched the
countenance of Ronayne with much anxiety. She saw there evidence
of strong and varied feelings which he made an effort to subdue,
and so far succeeded that, when he had finished he returned the
note to her with a calm she had not expected.
"There is no need of further confirmation now, Mrs. Headley," he
said, with a bitter half-smile. "You have, indeed, probed but to
heal. All my weakness is past. To-morrow I shall be myself again,
and attend the council. Pardon me that I have been the cause of
detaining you so late, and believe me when I say that deeply do I
thank you for the interest you have taken in me."
"God bless you, Ronayne! Alas, you are not alone in, your trials--much
of moment awaits us all. Good night!"
And, assuming her disguise, she speedily regained her home.