Ralph took Lina’s hand and spoke
to her in a sad broken voice, “On one condition,
Lina; go home with me now my mother will
receive you joyfully. This miserable absence
has not been made public. Take back the protection
you have abandoned. I will not ask your confidence,
only be honest and truthful with my mother. She
loves you. She is forgiving as the angels.
Her beautiful virtues will redeem you, Lina. She
is too magnanimous for severity, too pure for cowardly
hesitation”
Lina began to weep on her pillow,
till the pale hands with which she covered her face,
were wet with tears.
“Oh! she is good she
is an angel of love and mercy; but this is why it
is impossible for me to go back don’t
ask me, oh! Ralph, Ralph, you are killing me
with this kindness. Go away, go away! perhaps
God will let me die, and then all will be right.”
“Lina, this is infatuation;
you shall return home with me; have no fear
of my presence; in a week after you accept the shelter
of my father’s roof, again I go away.”
For an instant Lina brightened up,
then a still more mournful expression came to her
eyes, quenching the gleam of yearning hope, and she
shook her head with a gesture of total despondency.
“Don’t, don’t, my heart is breaking.
I could tell her nothing; he has forbidden it.”
“He!” repeated
the young man, furiously, “great heavens, can
you plead such authority, and to me?”
“Forgive me, oh, forgive me;
I am so feeble, so miserably helpless, words escape
me when I do not know it. Do not bring them up
against me. Oh, Ralph, I am very unhappy.
The lonesomeness was killing me, and now you have
come upon me unawares, to turn that dull anguish into
torture. How could you ask me to go home? it
was cruel ah, me, how cruel!”
“What can I do, how shall I
act?” cried Ralph, appealing to Agnes Barker,
who stood earnestly regarding the scene.
“Leave her at present,”
said the girl, softly smoothing Lina’s tresses
with her hand. “Reflection may induce her
to accept your noble offer; certainly, at present,
she is too ill for any attempt at a removal.”
“I will consult my mother,”
said Ralph, looking mournfully down upon the unhappy
girl, whose eyelids began to quiver from the weight
of tears that pressed against them, when he spoke
of her benefactress; “Lina, promise me not to
leave this place till I have consulted with her.”
Again Lina struggled for energy to
speak, but her voice only reached him in a hoarse
whisper.
“Ralph, don’t; please
never mention me to mamma, it can only do harm promise
this, Ralph. I cannot plead, I cannot weep, but
if this is my last breath it prays you not to mention
that you saw me, to your mother.”
Ralph hesitated till he saw Lina’s
eyes, that were fixed imploringly upon him, closing
with a deathly slowness, while her face became as
pallid as the linen on which it rested.
“Lina, Lina, I promise anything,
only do not turn so white!” he exclaimed, terrified
by her stillness.
She opened her eyes quickly, and tried
to smile, but the effort died out in a faint quiver
of the lips. She was too much exhausted even for
weeping.
“Come,” said Agnes, laying
her hand on the young man’s arm; “this
excitement will do her more injury than you dream of.
Go down stairs a little while, and wait for me there.”
Ralph took Lina’s poor little
hand from its rest on the counterpane, and, with a
touch of his old tenderness, was about to press his
lips upon it; but a bitter memory seized him, and
he dropped it, murmuring, “Poor child, poor
child, it is a hard wish, but God had been merciful
if this stillness were, indeed, death!”
A pang of tender sorrow ran through
Lina’s apparently lifeless frame, as a broken
lily is disturbed by the wind, but she had no strength
even for a sob; she heard his footsteps as he went
out, but they sounded afar off, and, when all was
still, she fell into total unconsciousness.
Then the woman who had received Ralph
and Agnes came in from an adjoining room, and, bending
down, listened for the breath that had just been suspended;
when satisfied that the poor sufferer was totally
unconscious, she turned with a fierce look upon Agnes.
“Now, Agnes, tell me the meaning
of this intrusion. How dare you bring that young
man here without my permission?”
“I brought him, madam, because
you were resolved to leave my share of the compact
half-performed. Did I not warn you in the beginning
that his alienation from this girl must be complete?
Nothing would convince him that she was utterly lost,
but the sight he has just witnessed. It was a
dangerous experiment, but I have conquered with it.”
“And for what purpose?
I tell you, girl, all this craft and perseverance
is exhausted for nothing. You are constantly crossing
my purposes, and only to defeat yourself in the end.”
“It is useless reasoning in
this fashion,” answered Agnes, insolently; “half-confidences
always lead to confusion. The truth is, madam,
you have not at any time really studied my interests;
there is something beyond it all that I have had no
share in from the first. I have been frank and
above-board, while you are all mystery. My love
for the young gentleman below was confessed the moment
my own heart became conscious of it. Nothing
but his lingering trust in this frail thing kept back
all the response to that love that I can desire.
This visit has utterly uprooted that faith. The
way is clear now. Another month, and you shall
see if I am defeated.”
The woman smiled derisively.
“Poor fool,” she said,
“a single sweep of my hand or a word
from my lips, and all your romantic dreams are dashed
away. I have separated the miserable girl from
her lover to gratify the wildest delusion that ever
entered a human brain. This very night I sent
for you, that this game of cross-purposes might have
an end. The confidence you have so often asked
for, would have been yours but for this rash introduction
of the young man into a house he should never have
seen.”
“Give me that confidence now,
and it may avail something!” answered Agnes,
always insolent and disrespectful to the woman before
her; “that I have some of your precious blood
in my veins, you have taken plenty of opportunities
to impress upon me, but it shall not prevent my seeking
happiness in my own way!”
“Then you are resolved to entice
this young man into a marriage, Agnes?”
“I am resolved that he shall
desire it as much as myself.”
Again Zillah covered the girl with her scornful glances.
“I tell you, girl,” she
broke forth passionately, “this is a subject
that you shall not dare to trifle with. I desire
you to leave General Harrington’s house; it
is no safe home for you. Obey me, and, in a little
time all the fragments of my legacy shall be yours.”
“I should fancy those fragments
were pretty well used up, if all the finery in this
house is paid for,” said Agnes, with a scornful
laugh. “Even as a speculation, my own project
is the best.”
“Then you are determined to
stay in the house with this young man?”
“Why, am I not well protected,
and is it not the most natural thing in the world?
Mrs. Harrington has lost her companion I
fill her place. Then, there is the precious old
chambermaid; she might have more dangerous people
in the house than I am.”
“True,” muttered Zillah,
thoughtfully. “Well, girl, take your own
way a little longer; but, remember, I must have a
promise that no engagement shall be made with Ralph
Harrington without my previous knowledge. A few
weeks, Agnes, will bring our affairs to a crisis when
you and I shall be all-powerful or nothing. As
for this wild but hush!”
Zillah pointed warningly toward the
bed, where Lina was struggling into consciousness
again. “Are you better, love?” she
inquired, gently bending over the pale form.
But Lina faintly turned away her head,
without even an attempt at speech.
Taking advantage of the moment, Agnes
left the chamber, and glided down into the room where
Ralph sat waiting, harassed with painful thoughts.
He did not notice Agnes as she came
gliding up the room, and took her place on the sofa
by his side; but directly the clasp of soft fingers
on his hand, which fell listlessly on the cushion,
made him look up, and the large, compassionate eyes
of Agnes Barker looked into his. Unconsciously
he clasped the fingers that had sought his. “How
is she now? I am sure that you were kind to her,
poor young thing.”
Agnes did not answer; but, as he looked
up, astonished at her silence, the sight of her dark
eyes flooded with tears, and a broken sob that struggled
up from her bosom, took him by surprise. In all
his acquaintance with her, he had never seen Agnes
shed a tear till that moment.
“You are ready to cry,”
he said, gratefully. “Heaven knows a better
reason for tears never existed poor, lost
girl!”
“You give me too much credit,”
said Agnes, in a low voice; “from my soul I
pity the unhappy young creature up-stairs but,
indeed, indeed I envy her, too!”
“Envy her?”
“Indeed, yes, that so much love such
heavenly forgiveness can outlive her fault; that she
has even now the power to reject the compassion withheld
from deeper and purer feelings in others. Oh,
yes, Ralph Harrington, it is envy more than anything
else that fills my eyes with tears.”
“Agnes!” exclaimed the young man, breathlessly.
The girl bent her head, and made a
faint effort to withdraw her hand from his tightened
clasp. Directly Ralph relinquished the hand slowly,
and arose.
“Miss Barker, you pity me.
You feel compassion for the tenacity of affection
which clings around its object even in ruin. I
understand this, and am grateful.”
Agnes clenched the rejected hand in
noiseless passion, but Ralph only saw the great tears
that fell into her lap. He stood a moment irresolute,
and then placed himself again by her side.
“Do not weep, Miss Barker; you
only make my unhappiness more complete!”
He looked up, and again their eyes met.
“If it were so, you can at least
give me pity in exchange for pity!” she said,
with gentle humility; “faith to the faithless
cannot forbid this to me.”
Ralph was silent; in the tumult of
his thoughts he forgot to answer, and that moment
Zillah entered the room.