“AND STILL THE BITTER IN THE CUP OF JOY.”
Once more I had sunshine. The clouds seemed to depart as suddenly
as they had risen, and that same rejoicing and rosy light which had
encircled the brow of manhood at its dawn long shrouded, seemingly lost
for ever, and swallowed up in darkness--came out as softly and quietly
in the maturer day, as if its sweet serene had never known even
momentary obscuration.
Love, verily, is the purple light of youth. If it abides, blessing and
blessed, with the unsophisticated heart, youth never leaves us. Gray
brows make not age--the feeble step, the wrinkled visage, these indicate
the progress of time, but not the passage of youth. Happy hearts keep us
in perpetual spring, and the glow of childhood without its weaknesses is
ours to the final limit of seventy. The sense of desolation, the pang of
denial, the baffled hope, and the defrauded love, these constitute the
only age that should ever give the heart a pang. I can fancy a good man
advancing through all the mortal stages from seventeen to seventy-five,
and crowned by the sympathies of corresponsive affections, simply going
on from youth to youth, ending at last in youth's perfect immortality!
The hope of this--not so much a hope as an instinct--is the faith of our
boyhood. The boy, as the father of the man, transmits this hope to riper
years; but if the experience of the day correspond not with the promise
of the dawn, how rapidly old age comes upon us! White hairs, lean
cheeks, withered muscles, feeble steps, and that dull, dead feeling
about the heart--that utter abandonment of cheer--which would be
despair were it not for a certain blunted sensibility--a sort of drowsy
indifference to all things that the day brings forth, which, as it takes
from life the excitement of every passion, leaves it free from the sting
of any. Yet, were not the tempest better than the calm? Who would not
prefer to be driven before the treacherous hurricane of the blue gulf,
than to linger midway on its shoreless waters, and behold their growing
stagnation from day to day? The apathy of the passions is the most
terrible form in which age makes its approaches.
With an earnest, sanguine temperament, such as mine, there is little
danger of such apathy, The danger is not from lethargy but madness. I
had escaped this danger. It was surprising, even to myself, how suddenly
my spirits had arisen from the pressure that had kept them down. In
a moment, as it were, that mocking troop of fears and sorrows which
environed me, took their departure. It seemed that it was only necessary
for me to know that I was about to lose the presence of William Edgerton
to find this relief.
And yet, how idle! With an intense egoisme, such as mine, I should
conjure up an Edgerton in the deepest valleys of our country. We have
our gods and devils in our own hearts. The nature of the deities we
worship depends upon our own. In a savage state, the Deity is savage,
and expects bloody sacrifices; with the progress of civilization his
attributes incline to mercy. The advent of Jesus Christ indicated the
advance of the Hebrews to a higher sense of the human nature. It was the
advent of the popular principle, which has been advancing steadily ever
since and keeping due pace with the progress of Christian education. The
people were rising at the expense of the despotism which had kept them
down. It does not affect the truth of this to show that the polish of
the Jewish nation was lessened at this period. Nay, rather proves
it, since the diffusion of a truth or a power must always lessen its
intensity In teaching, for the first time, the doctrine of the soul's
immortality, the Savior laid the foundation of popular rights, in
the elevation of the common humanity--since he thus showed the equal
importance, in the sight of God, of every soul that had ever taken shape
beneath his hands.
The demon which had vexed and tortured me was a demon of my own
soliciting--of my own creation. But, I knew not this. I congratulated
myself on escaping from him. Blind fancy!--I little knew the insidious
pertinacity of this demon--this demon of the blind heart. I little knew
the nature of his existence, and how much he drew his nutriment from the
recesses of my own nature. He could spare, or seem to spare, the
victim of whom he was so sure; and by a sort of levity, in no ways
unaccountable, since we see it in the play of cat with mouse, could
indulge with temporary liberty, the poor captive of whom he was at any
moment certain. I congratulated myself on my escape; but I was not so
well pleased with the congratulations of others. I was doomed to endure
those of my exemplary mother-in-law, Mrs. Delaney. That woman had her
devil--a worse devil, though not more troublesome, I think, than mine.
She said to me, when she heard of my purpose of removal: “You are right
to remove. It is only prudent. Pity you had not gone some months ago.”
I read her meaning, where her language was ambiguous, in her sharp,
leering eyes--full of significance--an expression of mysterious
intelligence, which, mingled with a slight, sinister smile upon her
lips, for a moment, brought a renewal of all my tortures and suspicions.
She saw the annoyance which I felt, and strove to increase it. I know
not--I will not repeat--the occasional innuendos which she allowed
herself to utter in the brief space of a twenty minutes' interview. It
is enough to say that nothing could be more evident than her desire
to vex me with the worst pangs which a man can know, even though
her success in the attempt was to be attained at the expense of her
daughter's peace of mind and reputation. I do not believe that she ever
hinted to another, what she clearly enough insinuated as a cause of fear
to me. Her purpose was to goad me to madness, and in her witless malice,
I do believe she was utterly unconscious of the evil that might accrue
to the child of her own womb from her base and cruel suggestions. I
wished to get from her these suggestions in a more distinct form. I
wished at the same time, to deprive her of the pleasure of seeing that I
understood her. I restrained myself accordingly, though the vulture was
then again at my vitals.
“What do you mean. Mrs. Delaney? Why is it a pity that I hadn't gone
months ago?”
“Oh! that's enough for me to know. I have my reasons.”
“But, will you not suffer me to know them? I am conscious of no evil
that has arisen from my not going sooner.”
“Indeed! Well, if you are not, I can only say you're not so keen-sighted
a lawyer as I thought you were. That's all.”
“If you think I would have made out better, got more practice, and made
more money in Alabama, that, I must tell you, has been long since my own
opinion.”
“No! I don't mean that--it has no regard to business and
money-making--what I mean.”
“Ah! what can it have regard to? You make me curious, Mrs. Delaney.”
“Well, that may be; but I'm not going to satisfy your curiosity. I
thought you had seen enough for yourself. I'm sure you're the only one
that has not seen.”
“Upon my soul, Mrs. Delaney, you are quite a mystery.”
“Oh! am I?”
“I can't dive into such depths. I'm ignorant.”
“Tell those that know you no better. But you can't blind me. I know
that you know--and more than that, I can guess what's carrying you to
Alabama. It's not law business, I know that.”
I was vexed enough, as may be supposed, at this malicious pertinacity,
but I kept down my struggling gorge with a resolution which I had
been compelled often enough to exercise before; and quietly ended the
interview by taking my hat and departure, as I said:--
“You are certainly a very sagacious lady, Mrs. Delaney; but I must leave
you, and wait your own time to make these mysterious revelations. My
respects to Mr. Delaney. Good morning.”
“Oh, good morning; but let me tell you, Mr. Clifford, if you don't see,
it's not because you can't. Other people can see without trying.”
The Jezabel!
My preparations were soon completed. I worked with the spirit of
enthusiasm--I had so many motives to be active; and, subordinate among
these, but still important, I should get out of the reach of this very
woman. I could not beat her myself but I wished her husband might do it,
and not to anticipate my own story, he did so in less than three months
after. He was the man too, to perform such a labor with unction and
emphasis. A vigorous man with muscles like bolt-ropes, and limbs that
would have been respectable in the days of Goliah. I met him on leaving
the steps of Mrs. Delaney's lodgings, and--thinking of the marital
office I wished him to perform--I was rejoiced to discover that he was
generously drunk--in the proper spirit for such deeds in the flesh.
He seized my hand with quite a burst of enthusiasm, swore I was a likely
fellow, and somehow he had a liking for me.
“Though, to be sure, my dear fellow, it's not Mrs. Delaney that
loves any bone in your skin. She's a lady that, like most of the dear
creatures, has a way of her own for thinking. She does her own thinking,
and what can a woman know about such a business. It's to please her that
I sit by and say nothing; and a wife must be permitted some indulgence
while the moon lasts, which the poets tell us, is made out of honey: but
it's never a long moon in these days, and a small cloud soon puts an end
to it. Wait till that time, Mr. Clifford, and I'll put her into a way of
thinking, that'll please you and myself much better.”
I thanked him for his good opinion, and civilly wished him--as it was
a matter which seemed to promise him so much satisfaction--that the
duration of the honeymoon should be as short as possible. He thanked me
affectionately--grasped my hand with the squeeze of a blacksmith, and
entreated that I should go back and take a drink of punch with him. As
an earnest of what he could give me, he pulled a handful of lemons from
his pocket which he had bought from a shop by the way. I need not say
I expressed my gratitude, though I declined his invitation. I then told
him I was about to remove to Alabama, and he immediately proposed to go
along with me. I reminded him that he was just married, and it would be
expected of him that he would see the honeymoon out.
“Ah, faith!” he replied, “and there's sense in what you say; it must be
done, I suppose; but devil a bit, to my thinking, does any moon last a
month in this climate; and the first cloudy weather, d'ye see, and I'm
after you.”
It was difficult to escape from the generous embraces of my ardent
father-in-law; and the whole street witnessed them.
That afternoon I spent in part with the Edgertons. I went soon after my
own dinner and found the family at theirs. William Edgerton was present.
The old man insisted that I should take a seat at the table and
join them in a bottle of wine, which I did. It was a family, bearing
apparently all the elements within itself of a happiness the most
perfect and profound. Particularly an amiable family. Yet there was no
insipidity. The father has already been made known; the son should be
by this time; the mother was one of those strong-minded, simple
women, whose mind may be expressed by its most striking
characteristic--independence. She had that most obvious trait of
aristocratic breeding, a quiet, indefinable, easy dignity--a seemingly
natural quality, easy itself, that puts everybody at ease, and yet
neither in itself nor in others suffered the slightest approach to
be made to unbecoming familiarity. A sensible, gentlewoman--literally
gentle--yet so calm, so firm, you would have supposed she had never
known one emotion calculated to stir the sweet, glass-like placidity of
her deportment.
And yet, amidst all this calm placidity, with an eye looking
benevolence, and a considerateness that took note of your smallest want,
she sustained the pangs of one yearning for her firstborn; dissatisfied
and disappointed in his career, and apprehensive for his fate. The
family was no longer happy. The worm was busy in all their hearts.
They treated me kindly, but it was obvious that they were suffering. A
visible constraint chilled and baffled conversation; and I could see the
deepening anxieties which clouded the face of the mother, whenever her
eye wandered in the direction of her son. This it did, in spite, I am
convinced, of her endeavors to prevent it.
I, too, could now look in the same quarter. My feelings were less bitter
than they were, and William Edgerton shared in the change. I did not the
less believe him to have done wrong, but, in the renewed conviction
of my wife's purity, I could forgive him, and almost think he was
sufficiently punished in entertaining affections which were without
hope. Punished he was, whether by hopelessness or guilt, and punished
terribly. I could see a difference for the worse in his appearance since
I had last conferred with him. He was haggard and spiritless to the last
degree. He had few words while we sat at table, and these were spoken
only after great effort; and, regarding him now with less temper
than before, it seemed to me that his parents had not exaggerated the
estimate which they had formed of his miserable appearance. He looked
very much like one, who had abandoned himself to nightly dissipation,
and those excesses of mind and body, which sap from both the saving
and elevating substance. I did not wonder that the old man ascribed his
condition to the bottle and the gaming-table. But that I knew better,
such would most probably have been my own conclusion.
The conversation was not general--confined chiefly to Mr. Edgerton the
elder and myself. Mrs. Edgerton remained awhile after the cloth had been
withdrawn, joining occasionally in what was said, and finally left us,
though with still a lingering, and a last look toward her son, which
clearly told where her heart was. William Edgerton followed her, after
a brief interval, and I saw no more of him, though I remained for more
than an hour. He had said but little. It was with some evident effort,
that he had succeeded in uttering some general observation on the
subject of the Alabama prairies--those beautiful “gardens of the
desert,”
“For which the speech of England has no name.”
My removal had been the leading topic of our discourse, and when I
declared my intention to start on the very next day, and that the
present was a farewell visit, the emotion of the son visibly increased.
Soon after he left the room. When I was alone with the father, he took
occasion to renew his offer of service, and, in such a manner, as to
take from the offer its tone of service. He seemed rather to ask a favor
than to suggest one. Money he could spare--the repayment should be at my
own leisure--and my bond would be preferable, he was pleased to say, to
that of any one he knew. I thanked him with becoming feelings, though,
for the present, I declined his assistance. I pledged myself, however,
should circumstances make it necessary for me to seek a loan, to turn,
in the first instance, to him. He had been emphatically my friend--THE
friend, sole, singular--never fluctuating in his regards, and never
stopping to calculate the exact measure of my deserts. I felt that I
could not too much forbear in reference to the son, having in view the
generous friendship of the father.
That day, and the night which followed it, was a long period with me. I
had to see many acquaintances, and attend to a thousand small matters.
I was on my feet the whole day, and even when the night came I had no
rest. I was in the city till near eleven o'clock. When I got home I
found that my wife had done her share of the tasks. She had completed
her preparations. Our luggage was all ready for removal. To her I
had assigned the labor of packing up her pictures, her materials for
painting, her clothes, and such other matters as she desired to carry
with us, to our new place of abode. The rest was to be sold by a friend
after our departure, and the proceeds remitted. I knew I should need
them all. Most of our baggage was to be sent by water. We travelled in
a private carriage, and consequently, could take little. Julia, unlike
most women, was willing to believe with me that impediments are the
true name for much luggage; and, with a most unfeminine habit, she could
limit herself without reluctance to the merest necessities. We had no
bandboxes, baskets, or extra bundles, to be stuffed here and there,
filling holes and corners, and crowding every space, which should be
yielded entirely to the limbs of the traveller. Though sensitive and
delicate in a great degree, she had yet that masculine sense which
teaches that, in the fewness of our wants lies our truest source of
independence; and she could make herself ready for taking stage or
steamboat in quite as short a time as myself.
Her day's work had exhausted her. She retired, and when I went up to the
chamber, she already seemed to sleep. I could not. Fatigue, which had
produced exhaustion, had baffled sleep. Extreme weariness becomes too
much like a pain to yield readily to repose. The moment that exercise
benumbs the frame, makes the limbs ache, the difficulty increases of
securing slumber. I felt weary, but I was restless also. I felt that it
would be vain for me to go to bed. Accordingly, I placed myself beside
the window, and looked out meditatingly upon the broad lake which lay
before our dwelling.
The night was very calm and beautiful. The waters from the lake were
falling. Tide was going out, and the murmuring clack of a distant
sawmill added a strange sweetness to the hour, and mingled harmoniously
with the mysterious goings on of midnight. The starlight, not brilliant,
was yet very soft and touching. Isolated and small clouds, like
dismembered ravens' wings, flitted lightly along the edge of the
western horizon, shooting out at intervals brief, brilliant flashes of
lightning. There was a flickering breeze that played with the shrubbery
beneath my window, making a slight stir that did not break the quiet
of the scene, and gave a graceful movement to the slender stems as they
waved to and fro beneath its pressure. A noble pride of India [Footnote:
China tree: the melia azedaracha of botanists. A tree peculiar to the
south, of singular beauty, and held in high esteem as a shade-tree.]
rose directly before my eyes to the south--its branches stretching
almost from within touch of the dwelling, over the fence of a neighbor.
The whole scene was fairy-like. I should find it indescribable. It
soothed my feelings. I had been the victim of a long and painful moral
conflict. At length I had a glimmering of repose. Events, in the last
few days--small events which, in themselves denoted nothing--had yet
spoken peace to my feelings. My heart was in that dreamy state of
languor, such as the body enjoys under the gradually growing power of
the anodyne, in which the breath of the summer wind brings a language of
luxury, and the most emperiest sights and sounds in nature minister to
a capacity of enjoyment, which is not the less intoxicating and sweet
because it is subdued. I mused upon my own heart, upon the heart which
I so much loved and had so much distrusted--upon life, its strange
visions, delusive hopes, and the sweet efficacy of mere shadows in
promoting one's happiness et last. Then came, by natural degrees, the
thought of that strange mysterious union of light and darkness--life and
death--the shadows that we are; the substances that we are yet to be.
The future!--still it rose before me--but the darkness upon it alone
showed me it was there. It did not offend me, however, for my heart was
glowing in a present starlight. It was the hour of hopes rather than of
fears; and in the mere prospect of transition to the new--such is the
elastic nature of youth--I had agreed to forget every pang whether of
idea or fact, which had vexed and tortured me in the perished past. My
musings were all tender yet joyful--they partook of that “joy of grief”
of which the bard of Fingal tells us. I felt a big tear gathering in my
eye, I knew not wherefore. I felt my heart growing feeble, with the same
delight which one would feel at suddenly recovering a great treasure
which had been supposed for ever lost. I fancied that I had recovered my
treasure, and I rose quietly, went to the bed where Julia lay sleeping
peacefully, and kissed her pale but lovely cheeks. She started, but did
not waken--a gentle sigh escaped her lips, and they murmured with some
indistinct syllables which I failed to distinguish. At that moment the
notes of a flute rose softly from the grove without.