Roden did not return to Caryston that night, nor the next day, nor the
day after that. A boy was sent from Windemere to bring over some of his
boxes. On Monday of the next week he went with the Errolls to Old Point
Comfort, where Mary had been ordered to stop during her convalescence.
As much as he despised Virginia for her confession, that pathetic, joyous
cry of hers as she thought him about to forgive her would sometimes ring
in his ears; her deep, still, pleading look, as of some dumb beast, for
mercy haunted him at times. He could feel her forehead on his feet, and
the eager grasp of her hands upon them. It was not pleasant, all this;
for while it annoyed and even pained him, he could not say honestly
to himself that he felt any disposition to forgive her. Forgiveness is
no doubt divine. Roden was quite sure that it was an attribute which,
like happiness, belonged solely to the gods. As for himself, he was
distinctly, vehemently, entirely human. He did not forgive--almost he did
not wish to feel forgiveness. What! forgive a creature who had sought to
murder his manhood’s one love? Verily he would be no better than herself
did he so much as dream of pardon. Between her and her God must rest that
question. He would none of it. And yet why did that earnest, wistful
voice, so thrilling with a timid exultation, come ever to his mental
ears: “O my God! my God! air you goin’ ter furgive me?” Pshaw! what
balderdash! He had not cursed her. Let her comfort herself with that. He
did not know many other men who would have been as forbearing. And yet
again--those hands about his feet, that huddled form prone before him in
humblest entreaty! It made him irritable at times. He was conscious of
having acted with perfect justness, and yet he felt that his justness had
not been tempered with overmuch mercy.
In the mean time Virginia lived on, if one can be said to live whose
heart is dead within her. She did not dare to pray for death; she did not
dare to hope for peace; she feared to die, poor ignorant child, because
of the roaring flame which waited to devour her. She feared even more to
live, because of the fire with which she was already consumed. She never
moved save to go to bed and get up again. Sometimes she would sit all
day out-of-doors under the great horse-chestnuts, already shrivelling
in the June sunlight. Nothing roused her; nothing moved her in anywise.
Poor old Herrick would recount to her his drollest stories, ending with
a vociferous “Hyeah! hyeah!” in hopes of eliciting some answering mirth
from her. But when he had reached the most excruciatingly funny climax,
and paused to hear her laugh, she would turn on him her vague, gentle
eyes, and say, “What’s that, father?” or sometimes, “Were you a-talkin’
ter me, father dear?”
The old man went heavily about his work. He was like some willing beast
too late in life called upon to support a heavy burden. He was disgusted
and angry to feel the big tears on his cheeks.
“The beauty of the question air,” he quoth, angrily, to himself one day,
“I ain’t wuth th’ victuals I eat. I’m a pore ole fool ez oughter be
a-suckin’ ov a sugar rag, ’stead o’ tendin’ ter er beeg place like this;
but, Godamighty! ef that thar gyrl don’ git a heap peerter ’fo’ long, I’m
gwine plumb crazy. My sakes! who’d ’a’ ever thought Faginia would a-set
all day like that a-studyin’ her own han’s like they wuz the book o’
Gord! Howsomdever, ’tain’t many ez studies th’ book o’ Gord ez faithful
ez my pore leetle gyrl studies them han’s o’ hern. Somethin’ cert’n’y
_is_ out o’ kelter with that thar chile. Godamighty! ef Faginia wuz ter
die--”
He stopped blankly in the midst of the cornfield through which
he was walking, and thrusting his hands deep in his brown jeans
trousers-pockets, looked up appealingly at the hot blue sky.
That same evening he was summoned as juryman to Charlottesville, a
village some fifteen miles from Caryston, and as he kissed Virginia
good-by his heart rose in his throat. The face she lifted to his was so
wan, so patient, so like the face of her young mother just ere she died,
twenty-one years ago.
“Leetle gyrl--leetle gyrl,” said the old man, brokenly, “ef you don’ want
tuh hurry yo’ father tuh his grave, yo’ll hurry en take them purty leetle
foots out o’ yourn. Darter, honey, try ’n’ git some o’ them ole red
roses in them white cheeks. Please, Faginia, honey, I’m ’mos’ worrited to
death ’long o’ you.”
“Pore father!” she said, stroking his face--“pore father!” that was all.
Her listless hand fell again into her lap. Her eyes fixed themselves with
their vague, uncomprehending look upon the far blue distance. She was as
much apart from him as though she were already dead. He rose to his feet,
strangling a sob in his brave old throat, that he might not distress her,
and rode manfully away to his unpleasant duty.
That night a dreadful thing occurred at Caryston. The “mill stable,”
as it was generally called, from being built on a hill just above the
mill-pond, caught on fire. There were four of Roden’s most valuable
horses in it, together with Bonnibel, who had been moved from the house
stables while they were undergoing alteration.
Virginia was sitting silent by her bedroom window when the first copper
glare began to tinge the dense upward column of black smoke. She knew
in a minute what it was, although Aunt Tishy muttered something about
“bresh” fires.
She leaped to her feet, her heart once more renewing its old-time
measure. “Mammy!” she called--“Mammy! that’s th’ mill stable! th’ mill
stable’s on fire! O God above! Th’ pore horses--an’ Bonnibel! O pore Mr.
Jack--pore Mr. Jack! Ef Bonnibel’s hurt, it’ll break his heart.” She
had forgotten everything in her thought for him. Her own sin, his harsh
words--all that had passed between them since first he gave Bonnibel into
her glad keeping.
“Here!” she called, tossing on her clothes with nervous, eager fingers,
“han’ me my shoes--quick!--Lord God!--ef only I ken git thar in time!”
She was down-stairs and out of the house almost before the old negress
knew what she was about to undertake. Out at a side gate she dashed,
and down a grassy hill at the back of the house. Some catalpa-tree
roots caught at her flying feet with their knotty fingers as though,
fiend-like, they would hinder her on her errand of mercy. On, on; her
breath came quick and laboring. She was on the open road now, straining
with all her might up a steep, stone-roughed hill. All the northern
heavens were ablaze with an angry orange. As she gained the top of the
hill a little fan of lilac flames burst from the stable roof against the
night. There was yet time--Bonnibel was in a loose-box near the door.
O God, the other horses! Must they roast alive--the beautiful, agile
creatures that he so loved?
Below, in the placid breast of the large pond, the lurid mass above was
reflected with an effect as incongruous as when some world-tossed soul
pours out its hot confession into the calm keeping of a saintly heart.
The shallow stream shoaled into fire among the black stems of the
water-reeds, and tossed the flames upon its mimic waves. She gained the
rough bridge which spanned it; her feet passed with a swift, hollow sound
across it. She was there--at the stable, and her breath had not yet
given out. Then all at once she remembered. Oh, joy! joy! If she saved
Bonnibel, and was herself hurt to death, would not that be atonement?
Might he not forgive her then? Poor little savage child--poor, sweet,
uncivilized, true heart! I think indeed he would forgive you if he knew.
There were men running frantically about--omnipresent--useless: they
had delayed so long to set about extinguishing the fire that it was now
beyond all bounds. The wild, dull trampling of the hoofs of the terrified
horses made horror in the air. They whinnied and nickered like children
pleading for help. One of the English grooms was dashing into the smoke
and heat. Virginia seized him by the arm.
“I’m coming with you,” she said; “let me keep hold of your coat.”
Alas! alas! the maddened, silly brutes refused to follow. They reared
madly whenever approached, and struck with their fore-feet at the plucky
little lad. In no way could he approach them; threats and cajolery were
in vain. Virginia snatched a whip from the stable wall and tried to beat
them out. Usurper, vicious to the last, rushed furiously at her, and
but for the lad’s striking him over the head with a pitchfork, would
inevitably have dashed her brains out with his wicked hoofs. There was no
further time to be lost. One side of the roof was blazing ominously, and
the wall on the eastern side began to tremble.
Virginia, in spite of entreaties and hands held out to stop her, turned
her skirts about her head and went into Bonnibel’s box. “Six of us ’ave
tried to get ’er out, miss,” said the panting lad, who had followed her.
“Don’t you venture in, for God’s sake, miss; she’s that mad she’ll kill
you--th’ poor hussy!”
Bonnibel was in truth like a horse distraught. She was leaping back and
forth, and trotting from side to side of her capacious box, nickering
from time to time, with head aloft and tail held like a plume above her
satin quarters. No sooner did she hear Virginia’s voice than she stopped
short, quivering in every splendid limb and sinew.
“Bonnibel!” said Virginia, in that soft monotone the frightened creature
had not now heard for many a day--“Bonnibel!” There was a second’s pause;
then stooping her bright head, with a low whinny as of welcome and trust,
the gallant mare came to the well-known voice.
Virginia tore off her woollen shawl and blindfolded the bright eyes.
In the mean time the rest of the English lads and the head groom had
arrived, with fire-engines and more help. They had already succeeded in
getting the horse out. The vicious Usurper they were compelled to leave
to his awful fate.
“Boys, Bonnibel’s coming!” yelled the lad who had entered the stable with
Virginia, dashing out ahead of her; “Miss Herrick’s got her, and she’s
coming kind as a lamb!”
A hearty, roaring cheer went up from without, mingled with exultant
warwhoops from the negroes gathered around.
Almost they were safe. Why do things happen with only an inch between
safety and destruction? One instant more and horse and woman would have
been free. But in that tarrying instant a heavy beam from the front of
the stable fell crashing down, bringing with it a great mass of bricks
and mortar. Virginia and Bonnibel were half buried under the reeking
mass. The flames sent up an exultant roar as of triumph. There was a
smothered, horrified groan from the men, and then Bonnibel, freeing
herself by one powerful effort of her iron quarters, galloped off into
the coolness of the night.
They pulled Virginia out, with such gentleness as they could spare to
the encroaching flames, and a bed was instantly made for her on the damp
turf by means of the men’s hastily torn-off coats. She lay there, still,
white, most beautiful, with peace at last upon her tired face. Did she
dream, perchance, that he forgave her?
Ah! but the horror that followed--the crash succeeding crash, the hideous
rioting of the vengeful flames about the poor brutes within. Some were
suffocated, some jammed to death beneath the continually falling masses
of stone and brick. Usurper, dauntless, rebellious to the last, struck
with his iron-shod feet at the flames that made too free with him. He was
so magnificent in his fierce disdain that more than one of the grooms
sobbed like girls at the fate which had overtaken him. All at once a
cry, piercing, shrill, terrible above any sound which had ever come upon
their hearing, shook the stillness of the night to shuddering echoes. It
was the one and only sign of pain that Usurper gave ere he sank to an
awful death among the blazing ruins.
Virginia’s senses returned to her as they were carrying her home in
solemn silence and with bared heads. She tried to lift herself on one
elbow, and sank back with a moan of pain; but even for that there went up
some muttered thanks from the men who carried her. They had thought her
dead.
“Does the moving pain you, miss?” asked the lad who had been with her in
Bonnibel’s box.
“It hurts some,” she said, bravely. “What’s happened?”
They had to tell her all about the fire, as though it were a thing new to
her, and how she had saved Bonnibel.
“Oh, did I?” she said. “Did I?--air yuh sure?”
“Sure, miss?” echoed the admiring Hicks. “Sure? Well, I think we be
pretty sure o’ that ’ere! Bean’t we, boys?”
They could not say enough.
One thought was making music in Virginia’s heart. “Perhaps he’ll forgive
me now,” she said over and over to herself. She looked upward at the
starry heavens through the broad leaves of the catalpa-trees, as they
bore her up the last hill to the house, with a feeling closely akin to
joy. “I’ve saved Bonnibel,” she thought--“I’ve saved Bonnibel, anyways;
ef he don’t forgive me, I’ve done, somethin’ to make him glad. ’Twas
awful in that burnin’ place; but I saved her--I saved her--I saved her.”
She said the last three words out loud.
“That you did, miss,” said the boy Hicks, who walked close beside her.
“Tell her again, boys.”
They told her over and over again, first one and then the other; she
seemed never tired of listening. For the first time in many, many days
her white lips fell into the gracious curves they used to know so well.
She was smiling--smiling for sheer happiness. She was hurt to death,
she knew that; something whispered it in her glad ears as distinctly as
though the good God had bent from his great heavens himself to tell her
so; and she knew--ah! she knew--that her God had forgiven her. Death
had brought her two gifts so sweet in his chill arms that his embrace
scarcely frightened her. As they carried her with slow carefulness up
the front steps and into the wide hall an innocent fancy seized her; she
would like so much to die in Mr. Jack’s room--on his little iron bed.
There couldn’t be any harm, could there? She looked so wistfully up into
the face of little Hicks that he felt she wanted something, and asked her
what it was.
“Kyar me into Mr. Jack’s room,” she whispered. “It’s--it’s nearer the
ground.”
The pretty subterfuge was also a very good one. It would have been almost
mortal anguish to her, had they sought to bear her poor wrecked body up
that winding stair-way.
So into “Mr. Jack’s room” they carried her, and placed her full gently on
his forsaken bed.
Aunt Tishy came hurrying with inarticulate cries. They hushed her as best
they might, telling her that any disturbance might kill the girl. Then
little Hicks mounted one of Roden’s best horses and dashed off in search
of a surgeon.
Virginia lay quiet and quite content, staring with wide-open eyes at the
well-known objects in the airy room. Another delightful fancy seized
upon her. Ah! it was good to lie there and die, and pretend that she had
been his wife, and that it was her right to die in there with all those
much-loved manly kickshaws about her: the Scotch deer-stalker’s cap,
which hung on one of the sconces of a little mirror over the mantle;
that heap of glittering spurs on a table near at hand; his whip; his
boots; an old blue flannel shirt on the bed’s foot. She had not allowed
any one to enter his room since he left for Windemere, nor had she
herself been in it.
And even if he didn’t forgive her, she saved Bonnibel. Suddenly there
came upon her an awful, crashing agony.
“Mammy! mammy!” she called, in her childhood’s voice. She clung to her
old nurse with might and main. “Oh, mammy, mammy, I’m payin’ fur it! Yuh
don’ know, but I’m payin’ fur it. I’m so glad--I’m so glad! Mammy, sing
me ’bout ’though yo’ sins be as scarlet’--sing! sing!”
The old negress, as well as she could for sobbing, sang to her in such
words as these:
“’Tis de old ship o’ Zion,
Come to take us all ho-ome--
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
’Tis de old ship o’ Zion,
Come to take us all home--
Glory, glory, hallelujah!”
Here she broke off with a pitiful cry: “O Gord! my sweet lamb, mammy
kyarn’ sing to you while her heart’s fyar breakin’ in her. Don’ ask pore
mammy tuh sing, my honey--don’, don’!”
“Sing, please, sing,” said the girl, with gentle insistence. Her mind was
failing her a little for the first time. “God alluz furgives, don’ he,
mammy? Alluz, alluz. Sing ’bout it, mammy; please, mammy, sing.”
The old negress went on, brokenly:
“We has landed many thousands--
Hallelujah!
An’ we’ll lan’ many mo-re--
Hallelujah!”
“Please sing ’bout the sins, mammy; that’s what I want--’bout the sins.”
The poor old woman crooned on, swaying her body to and fro as she
crouched at the bedside:
“Do’ yo’ sins be as skyarlet,
Dey shall be as white as snow--
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Do’ yo’ sins be as skyarlet,
Dey shall be as white as snow--
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
’Tis Jesus is deir Capt’in--
Hallelujah!
’Tis Jesus is deir Capt’in--
Hallelujah!”
“White ez snow--white ez snow,” murmured the girl. “Mammy, do yo’ bleeve
that? Ain’t it sweet, mammy? don’ it seem good an’ kind? Mammy, yo’ see
that ole blue shirt a-hangin’ thar? I loves that shirt, mammy, same as
some women loves their children. It’s sorter got his shape now, ain’t it?
Hand it here, mammy. Don’ it smell good?--kinder briery an’ soapy, mammy?
He used to take more barths ’n any man yo’ ever hearn ov. I used ter hear
him a-splashin’ clear up in my room. Where’s father, mammy? I do want to
see father, an’ I want to see Bonnibel ’fore I go. She came to me--oh,
so sweet an’ lovin’! She knew I’d ’a’ died fur her, I reckon. Mammy, did
yo’ sen’ fur father? Pore father! pore father! he’ll be so sorry! Oh,
pore father!” Here the first tears she had shed rolled over her white
cheeks. The old negress sobbed out aloud.
“Oh, my honey!” she said--“oh, my little lamb!--oh, my honey!”
Again came that terrible pain, almost beyond her power to endure.
“I’m payin’ fur it--I’m payin’ fur it,” she said, over and over again.
“God’s so good to me! He’s forgiven me; he’s lettin’ me pay fur it.”
The surgeon came at daybreak. He was quiet and serious. Little Hicks was
the only one to whom he told anything. To him he said, “She may live two
or three days; she may die before night.”
At one o’clock next day old Herrick returned. He was wordless and
almost majestic in his deep grief. All day long he sat holding her
in such positions as would ease her; talking to her; trying to follow
her wandering fancies. She knew him always, though she knew no one
else. “Father,” she said, suddenly, in one of the intervals when reason
returned to her, “won’t you please sen’ fur Mr. Jack? Somethin’ in
my heart tells me he’ll come--now. Write to him ’bout Bonnibel. Tell
him I saved her. Tell him I jess want ter say good-by. I don’ wan’
him ever ter furgive me. I only want to--to look at him once more.
Father”--wistfully--“_you_ think he’ll come?”
“Yes, yes, my little girl, I think he’ll come.”
“Then write, write, father--quick. Don’ let it be too late. I wan’ so bad
to look at him once more!”
He came--oh yes, he came! mad with regret and remorse, repentant, eager
to atone. “Where is she? where is she?” he asked as he threw down his
hat upon the hall table, and jerked off his spurs, that their jingling
might not disturb her. If he had only known the music that they made to
her ears!
“She’s in yo’ room, sur. They tells me ez how ’twar her fancy to be took
thar,” said Herrick, simply. “I hope ez you don’ min’, sur.”
Mind! Jack’s eyes were hot with the saddest tears of all his life.
He went in softly. There she lay, pathetic, fragile as some long-ill
child upon his narrow bed. He went and stooped over her, taking into one
of his brown hands her restless, slender fingers. Her gentle look rested
unknowingly upon him.
“Ain’t they goin’ ter sen’ fur Mr. Jack?” she said. “I think he’ll
come--now; father thought ez how he would. Please write it down that I
saved Bonnibel--please write that down. ’Twas mighty hot, but I saved
her. Oh, don’ yo’ think he’ll come?--don’ yo’ think he’ll come? I don’
even arst him to speak to me. Ef he’ll only stand in th’ door so ez I kin
see him when I go.”
“Virginia--Virginia,” said Roden, brokenly. “My dear little girl, don’t
you know me? Here I am!--here--at your side. Don’t you feel my hands,
Virginia? Don’t you know me?”
She went rambling on. “I wonder ef he would furgive me ef he knew? I
wisht Bonnibel could tell him--I wisht I was Bonnibel!” with a little
rippling laugh infinitely pathetic. “Oh, wouldn’ I kyar him pretty an’
straight at his fences, an’ win ev’y race fur him!” Her eyes opened
vague and sorrowful again upon Roden’s pale face. “Oh,” she said, with
a long sighing breath, “don’t you think he’ll come? Write to him ’bout
Bonnibel--please write that ter him.”
“Virginia, look at me--look at me,” said the young man, half lifting her
in his arms. “Dear little Virginia, here I am. I forgive you with all my
heart and soul, Virginia. Oh, please look at me, please remember me.”
“Who says ‘furgive?’” she said, with her restless, eager eyes searching
the room as if for something long expected--“who says ‘furgive?’”
“I do, I do,” Roden said, weeping at last like any girl. “I forgive you,
Virginia--Virginia. You _shall_ know me!”
Her eyes fixed themselves upon his face, first vacantly, then with a
wonder-stricken radiance. “Mr. Jack,” she said, under her breath, “did
they tell yo’? I saved her; that’s all. Yo’ needn’ say nothin’; I jess
wanted to look at yo’. I saved her. ’Twas awful hot. I kin hear it
roarin’ now. She come to me; she wouldn’ come to nobody else.”
“Virginia,” said Roden, “listen to me; stop talking. What do I care about
Bonnibel? Child, do you want to break my heart? Listen, Virginia; I
forgive you--I _forgive you_.”
“Do--you--really?” she said, with the old timid joy in her soft voice.
“I ain’t dreamin’? Well, God’s so good to me! But I did save her.
‘Bonnibel!’ I said--‘Bonnibel!’ an’ she come right straight ter me with
her pretty head tucked down. Then came all that fire on us. I thought
’twas over. But I saved her--I saved her. Please tell him that--_please_
tell him that. I reckon he’ll sorter remember me kind fur that; don’ you,
father?”
After a while her reason came again. She asked to see Bonnibel; they
could bring her to the window, she said, and she would like also to give
her a handful of grass.
They rolled the bed to the window, and little Hicks led Bonnibel up
beside it. Roden went out himself and gathered a handful of fresh grass.
I think the lad only respected his master more for the tears that ran
down his cheeks. He couldn’t see very distinctly himself just then, this
good little Hicks.
“Bonnibel,” said the girl, in her cooing tones--“Bonnibel.”
What was the matter? Had suffering charged some magic in that soft voice?
Bonnibel turned indifferently away from the anxious hand, and rubbed her
bright head with an impatient movement against one of her fore-legs.
“Oh!” said the girl, while the glad flush died out of her face, and the
green blades fell from her hold upon the window-sill, “Bonnibel don’ know
me any more--she don’ care. I gave my life for her, an’--an’ she don’
care.”
“Yes, she does--she does,” said Roden, frantic for her disappointment;
“she’s just gorged, the little glutton! She’s been out at grass ever
since you saved her, Virginia dear; that’s all.”
“No, ’tain’t,” said the girl, sadly. “I ain’t the same, I reckon; I
reckon I’m right near gone, Mr. Jack. Well, I saved her, anyhow. The most
part fell on me; she kicked herself loose. Please, father, ef Mr. Jack
don’ come in time--_please_, father, tell him ez how I saved Bonnibel.
Oh, father, I mus’ tell somebody ’fore I go. I kyarn’ bear to think there
won’t be anybody in all th’ world ez knows it when I’m gone. I loved him,
father dear--I loved him so! An’ I’ve been mighty wicked; an’ God’s been
mighty good ter me; an’ I’m goin’ to heaven, mammy says. But I won’t have
him even there--I won’t have him--even there.”
The soft voice broke suddenly--stopped. The bright head dropped forward
on her breast.
Roden had buried his face in her two pale hands. When he looked up, old
Herrick was closing gently with his toil-roughened hand the sweet wide
eyes which never more would look on anything this side the stars.
It was at this moment that Bonnibel, repenting, perhaps, of her former
coldness, thrust in her little deer-head at the open window, and drew a
long sighing breath as of contentment.
The blades of grass dropped from the thin hand now so still upon the
stirless bosom were blown along the window-sill by the mare’s warm breath.