The guardian angel
page: 0 (TitlePage) [View Page 0 (TitlePage) ] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL BY OLIVER WENDELL HO-LMES, AUTHOR OF "THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE ELSIE VENNER, ETC.. BOSTON.: TICKNOR AND FIELDS. 1867. page: 0[View Page 0] Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by TICKNOR AND, FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. * .. . U r . .WBLCHBTIoKLUow, . CO.. ' CA *BRID ,E. TO JAMES T. FIELDS, A TOKEN OF KIND REGARD FROM ONE OF MANY WRITERS WHO HAVE FOUND HM A WISE, FAITIFUL, AND GENEROUS FRIEND. page: 0[View Page 0] TO MY READERS. "A NEW PREFACE" is, I find, promised with my story. If there are any among my readers who loved AEsop's Fables chiefly on account of the Moral appended, they will perhaps be pleased to turn backward and learn. what I have to say here. Tis 'tale forms a natural sequence to a former one, which some may remember, entitled "Elsie Venner." Like that, it is intended for two classes of readers, of which the smaller one. includes the readers of the "Morals" in AEsop and of 'this Preface. The first of the two stories based itself upon an experiment which some thought cruel, even on pa- I' per. It imagined an alien element introduced into the blood of a human being before that being saw the light. It showed a human nature developing itself in conflict wih the ophidian characteristics and instincts impressed upon it during the pre-natal period. Whether anything like this ever happened, page: vi-vii[View Page vi-vii] V1 .i 'IO jMY READERS. or was possible, mattered little it enabled me, at any rate, to suggest the limitations of human re- sponsibility in a sitple and effective way. The story which follows comes more nearly with- in the range) of common experience. The succes- sive development of inherited bodily. aspects and habitudes is well known to all who have lived long enough to see families grow up under their own eyes. The same thing happens, 'but less obviously to common observation, in the. mental and moral nature. There is something' frightful in the,way in which not only characteristic quali- ties, but particular manifestations of them, are re- peated from generation to gheration. Jonathan Edwards the younger tells the story of a brutal wretch in New Haven who was abusing his father, when the old man cried out, "'Don't drag me ;any further, for I did n't drag my father beyond this tree." I have attempted to show the successive evolution of some inherited qualities in the char- acter of Myrtle Hazard, not so obtrusively as to disturb the narrative, but plainly'enough to be kept in sight by the small class of preface-readers. If I called these two stories Studies of the Reflex - Function in its higher sphere, I should frighten s TO MY READERS. vii away all but the professors and the learned ladies. If I should proclaim that they were protests against the scholastic tendency to shift the total responsi- bility of all human action from the Infinite to the finite, I might alarm the jealousy of the cabinet- keepers of our doctrinal museums. By saying nothing about it, the large majority of those whom my book reaches, not being pteface-readers, will never suspect anything to harm them beyond the simple facts of the narrative. Should any professional alarmist choose to con- found: the doctrine of limited responsibility with that which denies the existence of any self-deter- mining power, he may be presumed to belong to the class of intellectual half-br6eds, of which we. have many representatives in our new country, wearing the garb of civilization, and even the gown of scholarship. If we cannot follow the .automatic machinery; of ,nature into thel mental and moral world, where it plays its part as much: as inllthe bodily functions, without being accusedl of laying "all that we are evil in to a divine thrusting on," .; we had better return at once to our old demon- ology, and reinstate the Leader of the Lower House in his timne )onored prerogatives. b ., . .. page: viii-ix[View Page viii-ix] viii TO MY READERS. As fiction, sometimnes seems stranger than -truth, a few words may be needed here to make some of my characters and statements appear probable. The tmg-p nding question involving a property which had become, in the .mean time of immense value finds its parallel in the great De Haro land- case, decided in the Supreme Court while this story was in progress (May 14th, 1867) The experi- ment of breaking the child's will by imprisonment and fasting is borrowed from a famous incident, hap- - pening long before the case lately before one of the courts of a neighboring Commonwealth, where a lit- tle girl was beaten to-, death because she would not say her prayers. The mental state involving utter confusion of different generations in a person yet capable of forming a correct judgment on other, matters, is almost a direct transcript from, nature. I should not have ventured to repeat the questions of the daughters of the millionnaires to Myrtle Hazard about her family conditions, and their comments, had not a lady of fortunp and 'position mentioned to me a similar circumstance in the school history of -one of her own children, Per- haps I should hlave hesitated in reproducing Myrtle i Hazard's ^"Vision,"?' but for a singular experience . ., TO MY READERS. ix of his own related to me by the late Mr. Forceythe ;Willson. . ' Gifted Hopkins (under various aliases) has been a frequent correspondent of mine. I have also received a good many 'communications, signed with various names, which must have been from near female relatives of that young gentleman. I once sent a kind of' encyclical'letter to the whole fam- ily connection; but as the delusion under which they labor is still conlmon, and often leads to the wasting of time, the contempt of honest study or humble labor, and the misapplication of inltelligence not so far below mediocrity as to be incapable of affording a respectable return when employed ill the proper direction, I thought this picture from life might also be of service. When I say that no genuine young poet will apply it to himself, I think I have so far removed the sting that few or none will complain of being wounded. It is lamentable to be forced to add that the Reverend Joseph Bellamy Stoker is only a softened copy of too many originals to whom, as a regular attendant upon divine worship from my' childhood to the present time, I have respectfully listened, ,while they dealt with me and mine and the bulk page: x-xi (Table of Contents) [View Page x-xi (Table of Contents) ] x TO MY READERS. of their fellow-creatures after the manner of their sect. If, in the interval between hs first showing himself in my story and its publication in a sep- arate volume, anything had occurred to make me question the justice or expediency of drawing and exhibiting such a portrait, I should have recon- sidered it, with the view of retouching' its sharper features. But its essential truthfulness has been illustrated every month or two, since my story has been in the course of publication, by a fresh ex- ample from real life, stamped in darker colors than any with which I should have thought of staining my pages. There are a great many good clergymen to one bad one, but a writer finds it hard to keep to the true proportion of good and bad persons in telling a story. The three or four good ministers I have introduced in this narrative must stand for many whom I have known and loved, and some of whom I count to-day among my most valued friends. I hope the best and wisest of them will like this story and approve it. 'If they cannot all do this, I know they will recognize it as 'having been written with a right and honest purpose. CONTENTS. - . CHAPTER I. AN ADVERTISiENT E. . AE II. GREAT' EXCITEMENT . ' "I. ANTECEDENTS . . . . ' IV. BYES GRrDLEY, A. M. . . . 2 V. THE TWINS . . 53 VI. THEE USE OF SPECTACLES ' 5 Vii. MYRTLE'S LETTER.-THE YOUNG MEN'S PURSUIT 6o VIII. DOWN THE RIVER . ' IX. MR. CLEMENT LINDSAY RECEIVES A LETTER, AND BEGINS. HS ANSWER . .. X. MR. CLEMENT LINDSAY FINISHES HIS LETTER.- WHAT CAME OF IT XI. VEXED WITH A DEVIL, . '05 XII. SKIRMSHNG . . ' '. ' 24 XII. BATTLE . . ' ' ' I43 XIV. FLANK MOVEMENT . . ' I52' XV. ARRIVAL OF'REINFORCEMENTS . . . 75 XVI. VICTORY . . . ' ' ' ' ' 875 XVII. SAINT AND SINNER . ' .' 8 XVIII. TIE VILLAGE POET. ' 8 XIX. SUSAN'S YOUNG MAN .' I92 XX. THE SECOND MEETING . . ' 2 XXI. MADNESS?. . . 242 242 ! page: xii (Table of Contents) -1[View Page xii (Table of Contents) -1] xii CONTENTS. XX-fT. A CHANGE OF PROGRAMME . . . . 251 XXIII. MYRTLE' IAZARD AT TIlE CITY SCHOOL . 259 XXIV. MUSTERING OF FORCES . . .. . . " XXV. THE POET AND. THE PUBLISHER . . 288 XXVI. MRS. CLYMER KETCHUM'S PARTY . . . 302 j XXVIII. MNE AND COUNTERMNE . . .. 3I9 XXVIII. MR. BRADSHAWY CALLS ON MSS BADLAM . , 324 XXIX. MSTRESS 5(ITTY FAGAN CALLS ON MASTER 13BYES GRIDLEY . . . . . . 331 XXX. MASTER BYES GRIDLEY CALLS ON MSS CYN- THA BADLAM . . 338 XXXI. MASTER BYES GRIDLEY CONSULTS WITH JACOB PENIIALLOW, ESQUIRE . . . . 350 XXXII. SUSAN POSEY'S TRIAL . . . . . 358 XXXfII. .JUST AS YOU -EXPECTED . . .. . 367 XXXIV. MURRAY BRADSHAW PLAYS -HS LAST CARD. 382 XXXV. TTHE SPOTTED PAPER * 393 XXXVI. tONCLUSION . .. .. . -405 .' , '7' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. AN .-, CHAPTER I T AN ADVERTISEMENT, ON Saturday, the 18th day of June, 1859, the "State Banner and Delphian Oracle," published weekly at OxbowyVilage, one of the principal centres in a thriving riertown of New England, contained adetmen which involved the story of a young life, and Startled the emotios of a small community. Su faces of dismay, suc shaking of heads, such gatherings at corners, such halts of complaining, rheumatic wagons, and drie'dsup, Chir1. , zupi'ng chaises, for Colloquy of their till faced tenants, had 3ot beei tknown since the rainy November Friday, when lid Malachi Withers was found hanging in his garret up iere at the lonely house behind the poplars. The numbe of thand Oracle which con "ed d tsmut w a fair specimen enough of the nd of newspaper to which it beloned S xtracts om a stray copy of t he daite referretd. to will ow the reader what kind' of ente'tainment the paper was custoomed to furnish its patrons, and also serve soe tal purposes of the writer in. bi'inoin- in*, -;-,'-- ' ' . rsnages who are to figure i this narrative n c c sopy in question was addressed to one of itegular page: 2-3[View Page 2-3] TBrE GUAEDIAN ANGEL. subscribers, ----"B. Gridley, ' q"' The sarcastic annota- tio s at vbcrious pointS, enclosed in brackets and iialicied that they may be dijstinguished from any other co e were taken from thl pencilled remarks of that gentleman intended for the improvemen t of a member of the familute in which he resided, and are by noean tobe attributed to the harmleSS pen"which reprodc es them. Byles Gridley, A. M., as he wo ul have beenstylelor by persons acqcuainteed with scholarly dignities, was a bachelor, who had been a schoolmaster, a college tutor, and after- wards for many years ofessor, a man of learning, of habits, of whims and crotchets, sudh as are hardly, to be found, except in old, unmarried tudents,ed te dou ple fowers of college culture, their, stamina all turned to petals, their stoc in the life of the race all fuaded in the individ- hl. Beir g a man of letters, y 1 i tGridciy rataher amnofleter.. ^ ^ 3 ievund ledthe liter ary ac quire o th d pEO of the rural district where he residcyd,& d, having know much of college anti s omei ing Of city life, was apt to smile at the importance they attched to taieir littl -oalf C oncernS-le was, of course, quite as much an object of rough satire to te natural o bservers and humorists, ho are never wanting in a"New ngland village,-- perhaps not inay '-. village where a score or two of families are 'ot in any vill ,rate, to fur- brought togethoeaer, enuh of them, at any nish. the ordinary characters of a realife stock co pany. The, old aster of.- Arts was a permanent boarder in the house of a very worthy woman, relict of the late Ammi Hopkins, by courtesy Esqulre whose handsome monument ink a finished and carefully colored lithograph, repre- senting a finey shaped urn under a very nicely groomed nude: vr ' ' . . ' THE .GUARDIAN ANGEL. 3. willow - hun in her small, well-darkened, and, as it were, monumental parlor. Her household consisted of herself7 her son, nineteen years of age, of whom more hereafter, and of two small children, twins, left upon her doorstep when little more than mere marsupial possibilities, taken in for the night, kept for a week, and always thereafter cher- ished by the good soul as her owln; also of' Miss Susan Posey, aged eighteen, at school at the "Academy" in another part of the same town, a distant relative., boardirig with her. 'What the old scholar took the village paper fo;r it would be hard to guess, unless for a reason like thAt which carried him yery regularly to hear the preaching of tlhe Rev. JosephlBellamy Stoker, colleague of the old minister of the village parish; namely, because he did not believe a word of his favorite 'doctrines, and liked to go there so as to growl to himself through the sermon, and go home gcold- ing all the way about it. ' The leading article of the "Banner and Oracle" for June 18th must have been of superior excellelee, for as Mr. Gridley remarked, several of the metropolitan " jour- nals of the date of June 15th and thereabout had. evidently conversed with the writer and borrowed some of his ideas before he gave them to the public. The Foreign ]News by the Europa at Halifax, 15th, was spread out in the amplest dimensions the type of the office could supply. M:ore bat- tles! The Allies victorious'! The King and General Cialdini beat the Austrians at Palestro! 400 Austrians drowned in a canal! Anti-Fxrench feeling in Germany! Allgermine Zeitung talks of conquest of Allsatia and Lor- aine and the occupation of Paris! [Vicious digs with a pencil through the above, proper names.] Race for the page: 4-5[View Page 4-5] ,. , , !, 4 . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Derby won by Sir Joseph Hawley's lMusjid! [That's what Englandcares for! H]oorayfor the Darby! Italy be deedeed!] Visit of Prince Alfred to the Holy Land. Letter from oar own Correspondent. [Oh! Oh! At West Minkville? Cotton advanced. Breadstuffs declin- inr. - Deacon RTumrill's barn burned down on Saturday night. A pig missingj supposed to have "fallen a prey to the devouring element." [ Got roaste.] A yellow min- eral had been discovered on the Doolittle farm, which, by the report of those who had seen it, bore a strong resem- blance to California gold ore. Much excitement in the neighborhood in consequence. [Idiots! Iron pyrites!] A hen at Four Corners had just laid an egg measuring 7 by 8 inches. Fetch on your biddies! [Editorial wit!] A man had shol an eagle measuring six feet and a half from tip to tip of his wings. - Crops suffering for want of rain. [Always just so. "Dry times, Father Noah!"] The editors had received a liberal portion of'cake from the happy couple whose matrimonial union was recorded in the column dedicated to Hymen. Also a superior article of [article of! bah!] steel pen from the enterprising mer- chant [shopkeeper] whose advertisement was to be found on the third page of. this paper.--An interesting Surprise Party [cheap theatricals] had transpired [bah!] on Thurs- day evening last at the house of the Rev. Mr. Stoker. The parishioners had donated [donated! GIVE iS a giood word enough for the Lord's Prayer. DONATE our daily bread!] a bag of meal, a bushel of beans, a keg of pickles, and a quintal of salt-fish. The worthy pastor was much affected, etcetc tc. [Of course. C(all 'ea SENSATION parties and done with it!] The Rev. Dr. Pemberton and the vener- able Dr. Iiurlbut honored the occasion with their presence. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 5 -We learn that the Rev. Ambrose Eveleth, rector of St.' Bartholomew's Chapel, has returned from his journey, and will officiate to-morrow. Then came strings of advertisements, with a luxuriant vegetation of capitals and notes of admiration. More of those PRIME GOODS! Full Assortments of every Article in our line! [Except the one thing you want!] Auction Sale. Old furniture, feather-beds, bed-spreads [spreads! ugh!], setts [setts!] crockery-ware, odd vols., ullage bbls. of this and that, with other household goods, etc., etc., etc., -the etceteras meaning all sorts of insane movables, such as come out of their bedlam-holes when an antiquated domestic establishment disintegrates itself at a country "vandoo." - Several announcements of "Feed," whatever that may be,-not restaurant dinners, anyhow, -- also of 'Shorts," - terms mysterious to city ears as jute and cud- 'ear and gunnybags to such as drive oxen, in the remote nterior districts. - Then the marriage column above allud- id to, by the fortunate recipients of the cake.- , Right opposite, as if for matrimonial ground-bait, a Notice that Whereas my wife, Lucretia Babb, las left my bed and board, I will not be responsible, etc., etc., from this date. -. Jacob Penhallow (of the late firm Wibird and Penhallow) had taken Mr. William Murray. Bradshaw into partner- ship, and the business of the office would be carried on as usual under the title Penhallow and Bradshaw, At- torneys at Law.-Then came the standing professional board of Dr. Lemuel Hurlbut and Dr. Fordyce Hurlbut, the medical patriarch of the town and his son. Follow- ing this, hideous quack advertisements, some of them with the certificates of- Honorables, Esquires, and. Clergy- men. Then a cow, strayed or stolen from the sub- page: 6-7[View Page 6-7] 6 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. scriber. - Then the advertisement referred. to in our first paragraph: . MYRTLE HAZARD has been missing from her home in this place since Thursday morning, June 16th. She is fifteen years old, tall and womanly for her age, has dark hair and eyes, fresh complexion, regular features, pleasant smile and 'voice, but shy with strangers. Her common dress was a black and white ging- ham check, straw hat, trimmed with green ribbon. . It is feared she may have come to harm in some way, or be wandering at large in a state of tem'porary mental alien- ation. Any information relating to the missing child will be gratefully received and properly rewarded by her afflicted aunt, MSS SILENCE WITHERS, Residing at the Withers Homestead, otherwise known as "The Poplars," in this village. 'THE GUARDIAN ANEL . 7 \ ' r - Ti. GREAT EXCITE1MENT. rT HE publication of the advertisement in the paper JL brought the village fever of the last two days to its height.' Myrtle Ilazard's disappearance had been pretty well talked round throu-gh the immediate neighborhood, but now that forty-eight hours of search and inquiry had not found her, and the alarm was so great that the young girl's friends were willingd to advertise her in a public journal, it was clear that the gravest apprehensions were felt and jus- tified. The paper carried the tidings to many who had not heard it. Some of the farmers who had been busy' all the week with their fields came into the village in their wagons on Saturday, and there first learned the news, and saw the paper, and the placards, which were posted up, and listened, open-mouthed, to the rwhole story. Saturday was therefore a day of much agitation in Ox- bow Village, and some stir in the neighboring settlements. Of course there was a great variety of comment, its char- acter depdnding very mnuch on the sense, knowledge, and disposition of the citizens, gossips, and young people who talked over the painful and mysterious occurrence. The Withers Homestead was naturally the chief centre of interest.' Nurse Byloe, an ancient and voluminous wo- man, who had known the girl when she was a little brlght- eyed child, handed over "'the baby" she was holding to another attendant, and got on her things to go straight up to The Poplars. She ,had been holding "( the baby " these page: 8-9[View Page 8-9] 8 . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. forty years and more, but somehow it never got to be more than a month or six weeks old. She' reached The Poplars after much toil-and travail. Mistress Fatgan, Irish, house- servant, opened the door, at which Nurse Byloe knocked softly, as she was in the habit of doing at the doors of those who sent for her. "Have you'heerd anything yet, Kitty Fagan?" asked Nurse Byloe. "Niver a blissed word," said she. "Miss Withers is up stairs with Miss Bathsheby, a cryin' and a lam-entin'. Miss Badlam's in the pa;loi,, The men has been draggin' the pond. They have n't found not one thing, but, only jest two, and that was the old coffee-pot and the gray cat,- - it's them nigger boys hanged her with a string they tied: round her neck and -then drownded her." [P. Fagan, Jr., LEt. 14, had a snarl of similar string in his pocket.] Mistress Faganr opened lthe door of. the best parlor. A woman was sitting there alone, rocking back and forward, and fanning herself with the blackest of black fans. "Nuss Byloe, is that you? Well, to be sure, I'm glad to see you, though we're all in trouble. Set right down, Nuss, do. O, its dreadful times!" A handkerchief which was in readiness for any emotional overflow was here called on for its function. Nurse Byloe let herself drop into a flaccid squab chair with one of -those soft cushions, filled with slippery feath- ers, which 'feel so fearfully like a very young infant, or a nest of little kittens, as they flatten under the subsiding person. The woman in the rocking-chair was Miss Cynthia Bad- lam, se(ond-cousin of Miss Silence Withers, with whom she had been living as a companion at intervals for some years. THE. GUARDIAN ANGEL. 9 She appeared to be' thirty-five years old, more or less, and looked' not badly for that stage of youth, tiough of course she might, have been handsomer at twenty, as is often the case with women. She wore a not unbecoming cap; fre- quent headaches had thinned her locks somewhat of late years. Features a little too sharp, a keen, gray eye, a quick and restless glance, which rather avoided being melt, gave the impression that she was a wide-awake., cautious, suspicious, and, very possibly, crafty person. . "I could n't help comin'," said Nurse Byloe, "we do so love our :babies,---how can we help it, Miss Badlam?" The spinster colored up at the nurse's odd way of using the possessive pronoun, and dropped her eyes, ass was nat- ural on liearing such a speech. "I never tended clildren as you have, Nuss," she said. "But I've known Myrtle Hazard ever since she was three 'years old, and to think she should have come to such an end, - The heart is deceitful above all things and desper- ately wicked' "-' and sle wept. "Why, Cynthy Badlam, what do y' mean? said Nurse Byloe. "Y' don't think anything dreadful has come o' that child's wild nater, do ye?" "Child!" said Cynthia Badlam, " child enough to wear this very gown I have got on and not find it too big for her neither." It would have pinched Myrtle here and there pretty shrewdly.] The two women, looked each other in the eyes 'With sub- tle interchange of intelligence, such as belongs to tlheir. sex in .virtue of its specialty. Talk without words is half thieir conversation, just as it is all the conversation of the lower animals. Only the dull senses of men are dead to it as to the music of the spheres. 1 - page: 10-11[View Page 10-11] 10 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Their minds travelled along, as if they had been yoked together, through whole fields of suggestive speculation, until the dumb growths of thought ripened in both their souls into articulate speech, - consentingly, as the move- ment comes after the long stillness of a Quaker meeting. Their lips opened at the same moment. "You don't mean" -began Nurse Byloe, but stopped as she heard Miss Badlam also speaking. "They need n't drag the pond," she said. "They need n't go beating the woods as if they were hunting a patridge, though for that matter Myrtle Hazard was always more like a patridge than she was like a pullet. Nothing ever took hold of that girl, -not catechising, nor advising, nor punishing. It's that dreadful will of hers never was broke. I've always been afraid that she would turn out a child of wrath. Did y' ever watch her at meetin' playing with posies and, looking round all the time of the long prayer? That's what I've seen. her do many and many a time., I'm afraid--O dear! Miss Byloe, I'm afraid to say what I'm afraid of. Men are so wicked, and young girls are full of deceit and so ready to listen to all sorts of artful creturs that 'take advantage of their ignorance and tender years." She wept once more, this time with sobs that seemed irrepressible. "Dear suz " said the nurse, "I won't believe no sech thing as wickedness about Myrtle Hazard. You mean she 's gone an' run Off with some good-for-nothin' man or other? If that ain't what y' mean, what do y' mean? It can't be so; Miss Badlam she 's one o' my babies. At any rate, I handled her when she fust come to this village, and none' o' my babies never did sech a thing. Fifteen year old, and be bringin' a whole family into disgrace! THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. '- " If she was thirty year old, or five-an'-thirty or more, and never 'd had a chance to be married, and if one o' them artful cretur^ you was talkin' of got hold of her, -then, to be sure, - why, -- dear me ! - law ! I never thought, Miss Badlan !--but then of course you could have had your pickin' and choosin' in the time of it; and I don't mean to say it 's too late now if you felt called that way, for. you 're better lookin' now than some that 's younger, and there's no accountin' for tastes." A sort of hysteric' twitching that went through the firame of Cynthia Badlam dimly suggested to the old nurse that she was not making her slightly indiscreet personality much better by her explanations. She stopped short, and surveyed the not uncomely person of the maiden lady sit- ting before her with her handkerchief pressed to her eyes, and one hand clenching the arm of the rockingchair, as if some Spasm had clamped4 there. The nurse looked at her with a certain growing interest she had never felt be- fore. It was the first time for some years that she had had such a chance, partly because Miss Cynthia had often .been away for long periods, -partly because she herself had been busy professionally. There was no occasion for her services, of course, in the family at The Poplars; and she. was always following round from place to place after that everlasting migratory six-weeks or less old baby. There was not a more knowing pair of eyes, in their way, in a circle of fifty miles, than those kindly tranquil orbs that Nurse Byloe fixed on Cynthia Badlam. The silver threads in the side fold of hair, the delicate lines at the corner of the eye, the slight drawing down at the angle of, the mouth, -- almost imperceptible, but the nurse dwelt upon it, -a certain moulding of the features as of page: 12-13[View Page 12-13] 12 . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. an artist's clay model worked by delicate touches with the fingers, showing that tinme or pain or grief had ihad a hand in shaping them, the contours, the adjustment of every fold of the dress, the attitude, the verj way of breathing, were all passed through the searching inspection of the ancient expert, trained to know all the changes wrought by time and circumstance. It took not so long as it .takes to de- scribe it, but it was an analysis of imponderables, equal to any of Bunsen's with the spectroscope. Miss Badlami removed her handkerchief and looked in a furtive, questioning w-ay, in her turn, upon the nurse.. "It's dreadful close lere, - I 'm 'most smothered," Nurse Byloe said; and,. putting her hand to her throat, unclasped the ca-tch of the necklace of gold beads she had worn since.. she' was a baby,--a bead having been added from time to time as she thickened. It lay in a deep groove of her large neck, (and. had not troubled 'her in breathing before, since the day when her husband was run over by an ox-team. At this moment Miss Silence Withers entered, followed by Bathsheba Stoker- daughter of Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker. She was the friend of yrtle, and had come to comfort Miss Silence, and consult wFith her as to what further search they should institute. The two, Myrtle's aunt and her friend, were as unlike as they could well be. Silence Withers was something more than forty years old, a shadowy, pinched, sallow, dispirited, bloodless woman, with the habitual look .of the people in the funeral car- riage which, follows next to the hearse, and the tone in speaking that may be noticed in a household where one of its members is lying white and still in a cool, darkened cham- , THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 13 be overhead. Bathsheba Stoker was not called hand- some; but she had her mother's'youthful smile, which was so fresh and full of' sweetness that she seemed like a beau- ty while she was speaking or listening,; and she could never be plain so long as any expression gave life to her features. In perfect repose, her face, a little prematurely touched by sad experiences, -for she was but seventeen years old, -had the character- and decision stamped in its outlines which any younT man who wanted a. companion to warn, to comfort, and command him, mDight have de- pended' on as warranting the courage, the sympathy, and tlh-e sense demanded for such a responsibility. She had been trying her powers of' consolation on Miss Silence. It was a sudden freak of M[yrtle's. She hlad gone off on some foolish but innocent excursion. Besides, she was a girl that would take care of herself; for she was afraid of nothing, and nimbler than any boy of her age, and almost as strong as -any. .As for thinking any bad thoughts about her, that was aI shame; she cared for none of tthe ,younr fellows that were round her. Cyprian Eveleth was the one she thought most of; but Cyprian was as true as his sister Olive, and who else was there? To all this Miss Silence answered only by sigthing and moaning. For two whole days she had lbeen kept in constant fear and worry, afraid every minute of some tragical message, perplexed by the conflicting advice of all11 manner of of ficious friends, sleepless of course through the two nights, and now' utterly -broken down and col- lapsed. Bathsheba had said all she could in the way o1f consola- tion, and hastened back to her mother's bedside, which she hardly left, except for the briefest of visits.' page: 14-15[View Page 14-15] " THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. "It 's a great trial, Miss Withers, that's laid on you," said Nurse Byloe. "If I only knew that she was dead, and had died in the Lord," Miss Silence answered, -" if I only knew that;. but if she is living in sin, or dead in wrong-doing, what is to become of me? - O,. what is to become of me when ' I!e maketh, inquisition for blood'?" Cousin Silence," said Miss Cynthia, "it is n't your fault, if that young girl. has taken to evil ways. If going to meeting three times every Sabbath day, and knowing the catechism by heart, and reading of good books, and the best of daily advice, and all needful disci- pline, could have corrected her sinful nature, she 'would never ,have,run away from a home where she enjoyed all these privileges. It's that Indian blood, Cousin Silence. It 's a great mercy you and .i have n't got any of it in our veins! What can you expect of children that come from heathens and savages? - You can't lay it to yourself, Cou- sin Silence, if Myrtle Hazard goes wrong-" "The Lord will lay it to me, -Ithe Lord will lay it to me," she moaned. "Didn't he say to Cain, 'Where is Abel, thy brother?" " Nurse Byloe was getting very red in the face. She had had about enough of this talk between the two women. "I hope the Lord 'll take care of Myrtle Hazard fust, if she's in trouble, 'n' wants help," she said; "'n' then look out for them that co'mes next. Y' 're too suspicious, Miss Bad- lam; y' 're too easy to belieye stories. Myrtle Hazard was as pretty a child and as good a child as ever I. see, if you did n't rile her; 'n' d'd y' ever see one o' them hearty, lively children, that had n't a sperrit of its wn? For my part, I 'd rather handle one of 'em than aozen' o' them . W . e t I ^ THE' GUARDIAN ANGEL. 15 little waxy, weak-eyred, slim-necked creturs that always do what they tell 'em to, and die afore they're a dozen year old; and never was the time when I've seen' Myrtle Haz- ard, sence she was, my baby, but what it 's always been, Good mornin', Miss Byloe,' and '.How do you do, 'Miss Byloe? I 'm so glad to see you.' The handsomest young woman, too, as all the old folks will agree in tellin' you, sence the timte o' Judith Pride that was, - the Pride of the County they used to call hier, for her beauty. 1Her greats grandma, y' know, Miss Cynthy, married old King David Withers. What I want to know is, wether anyi'hing, has beeon heerd, and jest what 's been done about findin' the poor thing. How d' ye know she has n't fell into. the river? ' Have they fired cannon? They say that busl's the gall of drownded folks, and makes the corpse rise. Have they looked in the woods everywhere? Don't believe no wrong of nobody, not till y' must, -least of all of them 'that come o' the same folks, partly, and has lived with ye all their days. I tell y', Myrtle Hazard's jest as innocent of all what y' 've been thinkin' about,- bless the poor child; she 's got a soul that's as clean and sweet -- well, as a pond-lily when it fust opens of a mornin' without a, speck on it no more than on the fust pond-lily God' Almighty ever made!" :- . That gave a turn to the two women's thoughts, and their l ; handkerchiefs went up to their faces. Nurse Byloe turned her eyes quickly o6n Cynthia Badlam, and repeated her close inspection of every outline and every light and shad. ow in her figure. She did not announce'any opi nion as-to the age or good looks or general aspect or special points of Miss Cynthia; but she made a sound whicth the books write humph! but which real folks make with closed lips, 'S '. 5 ". page: 16-17[View Page 16-17] 16 "THE GUARDIAN .ANGEL. thus: n'!-a sort of half-suppressed labio-palato-nasal utterance, implying that there is a good deat which might be said, and all the vocal organs want to have a chance at it, if there is to be any talking. Friends and neighbors were coniingin and out; and the next person that came was the old minister, of 'whom, and cf his colleague, the Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker, some account may here be introduced. The Rev. Eliphalet Pemberton --Faher Pemberton as brother ministers called him, Priest Pemberton as he was commonly styled by the country people-would have seemed very old, if the medical patriarch pf the village had not been so much older. A man over ninety is a great comfort to all his elderly neighbors: he is. a picket-guard at the extreme outpost; and the young folks of sixty and seventy feel that the enemy must get by him before he can come near their camp. Dr. Hurlbut, at ninety-two, made Priest Pemberton seem comparatively little advanced; but the college catalogue showed that he must be seventy-five years old, if, as we may suppose, he was twenty at the time of his graduation. He was a man of nole presence always, and now, in the grandeur of his flowing silver hair and with the gray shaggy brows overhanging his serene and4 solemn eyes, with the slow gravity of motion and the measured dignity of speech which gave him the air of an old pontiff, he was an imposing personage to look upon, and could be awful, if the occasion demanded it. His creed was of the sternest: he was looked up to as a bulwark against, all the laxities which threatened New England theology. But it was a creed rather of the study and of the pulpit than. of every- day application among his neighbors, -He dealt too much THE -GUARDIAN ANGEL. 17 in the lofty abstractions which had always such fascinations for the higher class of New England divines, to busy him- self as much as he might have done with the spiritual con- dition of individuals. He had also a good deal in him of what he used to call the Old Man, whichl as ie confessed, he had never succeeded in putting off,- meaning thereby certain qualities belonging to humanity, as, much as the natural gifts of the dumb creatures belong to them, and tend- ing to make a man beloved by his weak and erring fellow- mortals. In the, olden' time he would have lived and dlied king of his parishlmonarch, by Divine right, as the hoblest, grandest, wisest of all that made up the little nation within hearing of his 'meetincg-house bell. But Young Calvinism has less reverence and more love of novelty than its forefathers. 'It wants change, and, it loves young blood. Polyandry is getting, to be the normal condition of the Chlurch; and :about the time a man is becoming a little over-ripe for the livelier human sentiments, he may be pretty sure the wo- men are looking round to find him a colleague. In this way it was tlat the Rev. Joseph Bellamy sokler became the colleague of the Rev. Elipihalet Pemberton. If one could have dived deep below all the Christian graces - the charity, the sweetness of disposition, the humil- ity- of Father Pemberton, he would have found a small remnant of the "Old Man," as the good clergyman would have called it, which was never in harmony with the Rev. Mr. Stoker. The younger divine felt his importance, and made his venerable colleague feel that he fell; it... Father Pemberton had a fair chance at rainy Sundays and hot summer-afternoon services;. but the junior pushed him aside without ceremony whenever he thought there was page: 18-19[View Page 18-19] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. like to be a good show in the pews. As for thosecourte- sies vwhich the old need, to soften the sense of declining faculties and failing attractions, the younger pastor be- stowed them in public, but was negligent of them, to say the least, when not on exhibition. Good old Father Pemnerton could not love this man; but he would nOt hate him, and he never complained to him or of him. It would have' been of no use if he had: the women of the parish had taken up the Rev. Mr. Sto- ker; and when the women run after a minister or a doctor, what do the men signify ? Why the women ran. after, him, some thought it was not hard to guess. He was not ill-looking, according to the village standard, parted his hair smoothly, tied his white cravat careflly, was fluent, plausible, had a gift in prayer, was considered eloquent,'was fond of listening to their spir- itual experiences, and had a sickly wife. This is what 1Byles Gridley said; but he was apt to be caustic at times. Father IPemberton visited his ,people but rarely. Like Jonatlhan Edwards,.'like David Osgood, he felt his call to be to study-work, and was impatient of the egotisms' and spiritual megrims, in listening to which, especially from the younger females of his flock, his colleague had won the hearts of so many of' his parishioners.' His presence 'had a wonderful effect in restoring the despondent Miss Silence :to her equanimity; for not all the.hbard divinity he had preached for half a century had spoiled his kindly nature . and not the gentle Melanchthon himself, ready to welcome death as a refuge from the rage and bitterness of theologi- ans, was more in contrasit with the dispuitants with whom hle mingled, than the old minister, in the hour of trial, with the stern dogmatist in his study, forging thunderbolts to smite down sinners. THE GUARDIAN .ANGEL.. 19 It was well that there. were no tithingmen about on that next day, Sunday; for it shone no Sabbath day for the young men within half a dozen miles of the village. They were out on Bear. Hill the whole day; beating up the bushes as if for game, s ng old crows out of their ragged nests, and in one dark glen startling a fierce-eyed, growling, bob- tailed catamount, who sat spitting and looking all ready to spring at them, on the tall tree where he clung with hli claws unsheathed,' until a young fellow came upi with a gun and shot him dead. They went through and through the swamp at Musquash Hollow; but found nothing better than'a wicked old snapping-turtle, evil to behold, with lis snaky head and alligator tail, but worse to meddle with, if his horny jaws were near enough to spring their man-trap on the curious experimenter. At Wood-End there were some Indians, ill-condiitioned savagesin a dirty tent, making baskets, the'miracle of which was that they were -o clean. They had seen a young lady answering the. description, about a week ago, She had bought a basket. -Asked them if tlhey had a canoe they wanted to sell. --- Eyes like hers (pointing to a squaw with a man's hat on). At Pocasset the young men explored all the thick woods,-some who ought to have known better taking their guns, which made a talk, as one might well. suppose it would. Hunting on a Sabbath day'! They did n't mean to shoot Myrtle Hazard, did they? it was keenfy asked. A good many said it was all' nonsense, and a 'mere excuse to get away from meeting and have a sort of frolic on pretence that it was a work of necessity and mercy, one or both. While they were scattering themselves'about in this way, some in earnest,-some rejoicing in, the unwontedl license, lifting off for a little while that enormous Sabbath-day page: 20-21[View Page 20-21] 20 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. pressure which weighs like forty atmospheres on every true-born Puritan, two young men had been since Friday in search of the lost girl, each following a clew of his own, and determined to find her if she was among the living. Cyprian Eveleth made for the village of Mapleton, where his sister Olive was staying, trusting that, with her aid, he might get a clew to thewmystery of Myrtle's disap- pearance. William Murray Bradshaw struck for a railroad train going to the great seaport, at a station where it stops for wood and water. In the mean time, a third young man, Gifted Hopkins by name, son of the good: woman already mentioned, sat down, with tears in his eyes, and wrote those touching -stanzas, "The Lost Myrtle,"- which were printed in the next "Banner and Oracle,? and much admired by many who read them. ,. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 21 CHAPTER H. ANTECEDENTS. THE Withers Homestead was the oldest mansion in town. It was built on the east bank of the river, a little above the curve which gave the name to Oxbow Village. It stood on an elevation, its west gable close,to the river's edge, an old or'chard and a small pond at the foot of the slope behind it, woods at the east, open to the s outh, with a great row of Lombardy poplars standing guard in front of the house. The Hon. Selah Withers, Esq., a descend- ant of one of the first colonists, built it for his own residence, in the early .part of the last century. Deeply impressed with his. importance in the order of things, he had chosen to place it a little removed from the cluster of smaller dwellings about the Oxbow; and with sonie vague fancy in his mind of the calesthatoveoo the ine and the: Danube, he had selected this eminence on which to place his substantial gambrel-roofed dwelling-house. Long afterwards a bay-window; almost a little room of itself had -been thrown out of the second story on -the west side, so that it looked, directly down on the river running i: beneath it. The chamber, thus half suspended in the air, had been for years the special apartment of Myrtle Hazard; ' and as the boys paddling about on the river would often catch glimpses, through the' window, of the little girl dressed in the scarlet cet she fanied in those days, one of them, Cyprian Eveleth had given it a name which be- came current among the young people, and indeed furnished page: 22-23[View Page 22-23] 22 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.. to Gifted Hopkins the subject of one of his earliest poems, to wit, "The, Fire-hang-bird's Nest." If we would know anything about 'the persons now living at the Withers Homestead, or The Poplars, as it was more commonly called of' late years, we must take a brief inven- tory of some of their vital antecedents. It is by no means certain that our individual personality is the single inhab- itant of these our corporeal fiames. Nay, there is recorded an experience of one (f the living persons mentioned in this narrative, - to be given in full in its proper place,- which, so far as it is received in evidence, tends to show that 'some, at least, who have long been dead, may enjoy a kind of secondaiy and imperfect, yet self-conscious life, in these bodily tenements which we are in. the habit of con- sidering exclusively our own. There are many cilrcum- stances, familiar to common observers, which favor this belief to a certain extent. Thus, at one moment we detect the look, at another the tone' of' voice, at another some characteristic movemlent of this or that ancestor, in our re- lations or othelis. There are times when our friends do' not act like themselves, but apparently in obedience to some other law than that of their own proper nature. We all do things both awake and asleep which surprise us. Perhaps we have cotenants in this house we live in. No less than eight distinct personalities are said to have coexisted in a single female mentioned by. an ancient physician of unim- peachable authority. In this light we may perhaps see the meaning of a sentence, from a work which will be repeat- edly referred to in this narrative, viz.: "-This" body in -. which we journey across the isthmus between the two oceans ' is not a private carriage, but an omnibus." 'The ancestry of the Withers family had counted a mar- , 1 . ' f- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 23 tyr to their faith before they were known as Puritans. The record was obscure in some points; but the portrait, marked "Ann Holyoake, burned by ye bloudy Papists anno 15 .." (figures- illegible), was'still hanging against the panel o'ver the fireplace in the west parlor at The Poplars. The fol- lowing words were yet legible on the canvas-- Thou hast made a couenant O Lord with mee and my children forever." The story had come' down, that Ann Holyoake spoke these words in a prayer she offered up at the stake, after the fagots were kindled. There had always been a secret. feeling in the family, that none of her descendants could finally fall from grace, in virtue of this solemn "covenant." There had been also. a legend in the family, that the martyred woman's spirit exercised a kind of supervision over her descendants; that she either manifested herself to them, or in some way impressed them, from time to time; as in the case of the first pilgrim before he cast his lot with the emigrants,-of one Mrs. Winslow, a descend- ant in the third generation, when the Indians were about to attack the settlement where she lived, -and of another, just before he was killed at Quebec. There was a remarkable resemblance between the fea- tures of Ann Holyoake, as shown in the portrait, and the miniature likeness of Myrtle's mother.- Myrtle adopted the nearly obsolete superstition more readily on this ac- count, and loved to cherish the fancy that the guardian spirit which had watched over her ancestors :was often near her, and would be with her in her time of need. The wife of Selah Withers was accused of sorcery in the evil days of 1718. A careless expression inone of her letters, that "ye Parson was as lyke to bee in league page: 24-25[View Page 24-25] 24 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. with ye Divell as anie of em," had got abroad, and given great offence to godly people. There was no doubt that some odd "manifestations," as they would be called now- a-days, had taken place in the household when she was a girl, and that she presented many of the conditions belong- ing to what are at the present day called mediums. Major Gideon Withers, her son, was of the very com- mon type of hearty, loud, portly men, who like to show theinselves at militia trainings, and to hear themselves shout: orders at musters, or declaim patriotic sentiments at town-meetings and in the General Court. He loved to wear a crimson sash and a 'military cap with ai large red feather, in which the village folk used to say he lookedias "hahnsome ag a 'piny," - meaning a favdoite, flower of his, wiigh is better spelt peony, and to which'it was not unnat- ural that his admirers should compare him. If he had married a wife like himself; there miglht prob- ably enough have sprung f'om the alliance a family of moon-4aced children, who would have dropped into their places .like posts into their holes, asking no questions of life, contented, like so many other honest folks, with the part of supernumeraries in the drama of being, their ward- robe of flesh and bones being .furnished them gratis, and nothingr to do but to walk across the stage wearing it. But Major Gideon Withers, for some reason or other, married a slender, sensitive, nervous, romantic woman, which ac- counted for the fact that his son David, "King David," as he was called in' his time, had a very different set of tastes from his father, showing a turn for literature and sentiment in his youth, reading Young's "Night Thoughts," and Thomson's "Seasons," and sometimes in those early days writing verses himself to Celia or to Chloe, which sounded THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 25 just as fine to him as Effie and Mininie sound[ to young peo- ple now, as Musidoras as Sacclarissa, as Lesbia, as Helena, as Adaht and Zillah, have all. sounded to young people in their time, - ashes of roses as they are to us now, and as our endearing Scotch diminutives will be to others by and by. Kingl David Withers,-who got his royal prefix partly because he was rlich, and partly because he wrote hymns occasionally, when he grew too old to write love-poems, married the famous beauty before mentioned, Miss Judith Piride, and the race came up again in vigor. Their son, Jeremy, took for his firsti wife a delicate, melarncholic girl, who matured into a sad eyed woman, and ,bore him] two- children, Machi and Silence, both of whomi inherited her temperament. When she died, he 'mourned for her bitterly almost. a year, and then put on a ruffled shirt and went across the river to tell his grief to Miss Virginia Wild, there residing. This lady was said to have a few drops of genuine aboriginal blood in her veins'; and. it is certain that her cheek had a little of the russet tinge which a, Seckel pear shows on its warmest cheek when it blushes. - Love shuts itself up in sympathy like a knifc-blade in its handle,.and opens as easily.--All the rest. followed in due order according to Nature's kindlyprogramme. Captain Charles Hazard, of the sliip Orient Pearl, fell desperately in love with their daughter Candace, married is: her, and carried her with him to India, where their first and only child was born, and received the name of Myr- tle, as fitting her cradle in the tropics., So her earliest im- pressions, - it would not be exact to call them recollections, i --besides the smiles of 'her father and 'mother, were of dusky faces, of loose white raiment, of waving fans, of 2 page: 26-27[View Page 26-27] 26. -. TIE GUARDIAN ANGIL. breezes perfumed' with the sweet exhalations of sandal- wood,'of gorgeous flo\vers and glowing fruit, of shady veran- dasl of gliding palanquins, and all the languid lu:ury of the South. The pestilence which has its natural home in India; but has journeyed so fair from its birthplace in these later years, took her father and mother away, suddenly, in the very freshness of their ealy maturity. A relation of Myrtle's father, wife of another captain, was returning to America on a yisit, and the child was sent back, under he care, while still a mere infant, to her relatives at the old homestead. Duting the loncg voyage, the strange mystery o the ocean Ias wrought inlo her consciousness so deeply, that it seemed to belong to her being. The waves rocled her as if the sea had been her mothero ; and, looling over the vessel's side from the arms that held her with tender :care, she used' to watch the play of the waters, until the rhythm of their movemeit became a part of her,. almost as much as hler own pulse and brea th. The instincts and qualities belonging to the ancestral traits whil' predominated in the conflict of mingled lives traits w hic h predosmhIe in the lay in this child in embryo, waiting to come to matuiity. It was as when sev9ral grafts, bearing fruit that ripens at different times, are growing upon *the same stock. Her earlier impulses may have beeL derived directly from her father and mother, but all the ancestors who have been mentioned,' and more or less obscurely many others, came. uppermost in their time, before the absolute and total result of their se-veral forces had found its-equilibrium in the character by which she was to be 'known as an individual. These inherited impulses were therefore many, conflicting, some of tmem dangerous.- The World, the Flesh, and the Devil -held mortgages on her life before its deed was put THE. GUARDIAN ANGEL. , '. 27 in her hands butssweet and .gracioui; influences were also born with her; and the 'battle of life'was to be fought be- tween them, God helping her in her 'need, and her own free choice siding with one or the other. The formal state- ment of this succession of ripening characteristics need riot be repeated, but the fact must be borne in mind c This was the child who was delivered into the hands of Miss -Silence Withers, her aunt on the father's, side, keep- ing, house with her brother Malachi, a bachelor, already called Old Malachi, tliough hardly entitled by his years to such a venerable prefix. Both these persons 1had inherited the predominant traits of their sad-eyed. mother'. Malachi, the' chief heir of- the family property, was rich, but felt iery poor. He owned this fine old estate of some, hun- dreds of acres. He had moneys in the bank, shares in various companies, wood-lots in the town; and a large tract of Western land, the subject of a 'lawsuit whichl seemed as if it would never be settled, and kept 'him always uneasy. Some said he hoarded gold somewhere about the old house, but nobody knew this for a certainty. In spite of his abundant, means, he talked much of poverty, and kept the household on the narrowest footing of economy. One- Irishwoman, with a little aid from her husbland now and, then, did all their work; and the only company they saw was Miss Cynthia Badlam, who, as a relative, claimed a home with them whenever she was so disposed, The "little Indian," as Malachi called her, waNs an awk- ward accession to the family. Silence Withiiers knew no more about children and their ways and wants than if she had' been a female ostrich. Thus it was that she found it necessary to send for a woman well known in the place as the first friend whose acquaintance many of the little peo- ple of the town had made in this vale of tears. page: 28-29[View Page 28-29] 28 'TIE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Thirty years of practice had taught Nurse Byloe the art of handling the young of her species with the soft firmness which one may notice in cats with their kittens,- more grandly in a tawny lioness mouthing her cubs. Myrtle lid not know she was held; she only felt' she was lifted, and borne up, as a cherub may feel upon a white-woolly cloud, and smiled accordingly at, the nurse, as if quite at home in her arms. "As fine a child as ever breathed the breath of life. But where did them black eyes come firom? Borrt in Injy, -that's it, ain't it? No, it's her poor mother's eyes to be sure. Does n't it seem as if there was a kind of Injin look to 'em? She 'll be a lively one to manage, if I know any- thing about childun.. See her clinchin' them little fists!" This was when Miss Silence came near her and brought her rather severe countenance close to the child for inspec- lion of its features. The unngracious aspect of the woman and the defiant attitude of the child prefigured in one brief instant the history of many long coming years. It was not a great while before the two parties 'in that wearing conflict of alien lives, which is often called educa- tion, began to measure their strength against eachl other. The child was bright, observing, of restless activity, in- quisitively curious, very hard to frighten, and with a will which seemed made for mastery, not s1lbmission. The stern spinster to whose care this vigorous life was committed was disposed to discharge her duty to the girl faithfully and conscientiously; but there were two points jin her character and belief which had a most important bearing on the manner in which she carried out her lauda. ble intentions. Fjrst, she was one of that' class of human beings whose one single engrossing thought is their owi *^ , * * ' ' ', THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 20 welfare, in the next world, it is true, but still their own personal welfare. The Roman Church :recognizes this class, and provides every form of specific to meet their spiritual condition. But in so far as Protestantism has thrown out works as a means :of insuring: future safety, these unfortunates are as badly off as nervous patients who have no drops, pills, potions, no doctors' rules, to fol low. Only tell a poor creature what to do, and he or she will' do it, and be made easy, were it a pilgrimage of a thousand miles, with shoes full of split peas instead of boiled ones; but if once assured that doing does no good, the-drooping Littlefaiths are left at leisure to worry about their souls, as the other class of weaklings wo rry about their bodies. The effect on character does not seem to be very different in the two classes. Metaphysicians may discuss the nature, of selfishness at their leisure; if to have all her thoughts centring on the one point of her own well-beilig by and by was selfishness, then Silence Withers was su- premely selfish; and if we are offended with th t 'form of egotism, it is no more than ten of the twelve Apostles were,'as the reader may see by turning to the Gospel of St. Matthew, the, twentieth chapter and the twenty-fourth verse. - The next practical difficulty was, that she attempted to : carry out a theory which, whatever might be its success in other cases, did not work kindly in the case of Myrtle Hazard, but, on the contrary, developed a mighty spirit of antagonism in her nature, which threatened to end in utter lawlessness. Miss Silence started from the approved doc- trine, that all children are radically and utterly wrong in all their motives, feelings, thoughts, and deeds, so long as/ {? they remain subject to their natural instincts. It was by * . : *^ S'* . ' - . page: 30-31[View Page 30-31] 30 THE GUARDIAN 'ANGEL. lhe eradication, and not the education, of these instincts, that the character of the human being she was moulding w as to be determined. The first great preliminary pro- cess, so soon as the child manifested any evidence of intel- ligent and persistent self-determination, was to break her will. There is no doubt that this was a legitimate conclusion from the teaching of Priest. Pemberton, but it required a colder and harder nature than his own to carry out mahy of his dogmas to their practical application. He wrought in the pure mathematics, so'to speak, of theology, anpd left the working rules to the good sense and good feeling of his people. Miss Silence had been waiting for her opportunity to apply the great doctrine, and it came at last in a very trivial way. "Myrtle does n't want brown bread. Myrtle won't have brown bread. iyrtle will have white bread." "Myrtle is a wicked child. She will have what Aunt Si- lence says she shall have. She won't have anything but brown bread." Thereupon the bright red lip protruded, the hot blood mounted, to her face, the child untied her little "tire," got down from the table, took up her one forlorn, featureless doll, and went to bed without her supper. The next morn- "ng the worthy woman thought that hunger and reflection would have subdued the rebellious spirit. So there stood yesterday's untouched supper waiting for her breakfast. She would not taste it, and it became. necessary to enforce that extreme penalty of the law which had been threat- ened, but never yet put in execution. Miss Silence, in obe- dience to what, she felt to be a painful duty,: without any * * \ i,. TH-E GUARDIAN ANGEL. S passion, but filled' with hih, inexorable purpose, carried the child up the he garret, and, fastening her so that she : could not wander about and hurt herself, left her to her repentant thoughts, awaiting the moment when a plaintive entreaty for liberty and food should announce that the evil' nature had yielded and the obdurate will was broken. The garret was an awful place. All the skeleton-like ribs of the roof showed in the dim light, naked overhead, and the only floor to be trusted consisted of the few. boards, which bridged the lath and plaster. A great, mysterious brick tower climbed up through it, - it was the chimney, but it looked like a horrible cell to put criminals into. The whole place was festooned with cobwebs,---not light films, such as the housewife's broom sweeps away before they have become a permanent residence, but vast gray draperies, loaded with dust, sprinkled with yellow powder from the beams where the worms were' gnawing day and night, the home of old, hairy spiders who had lived there 'since they were eggs and would leave it for unborn spi- ders who 'would grow old and huge like themselves in it, long after 'the human tenants had left the mansion for a narrower home. lere this little criminal was imprisoned, six, twelve, -tell it not to mothers, - eighteen dreadful hours, hungry until she was ready to gnaw her hands, a prey to all childish imaginations; and here at her stern guardian's last visit she sat, pallid, chilled, almost fainting, but sullen and unsubdued. The Irishworan, poor stupidt Kitty Fagan, who had no theory of human nature, saw her over the lean shoulders of the spinster, and, fbrgetting all - differences of condition and questions of authority, rushed to her with a cry of maternal tenderness, and, 'with a tem- pest of passionate tears and kisses bore her off to her own page: 32-33[View Page 32-33] TIWE GUARDIAN ANGEL. humble realm, where the little victorious martyr was fed from her best stores, until there was as much danger from repletion as there had been from famine. How the experiment might have ended but for this empirical and most unphilosophical interference, there is no saying; but it settled the point that the rebellious nature was not to be subjugated in a brief conflict. The untamed disposition manifested itself in greater enor-, mities as she grew older. At the age of four years she was detected in making a cat's-cradle at meeting, during ser- mon-time, and, on being reprimanded for so doing, laughed out loud, so as to be heard by Father Pemberton, who thereupon bent his threatening, shaggy brows upon, the child, and,. to his shame be it spoken, had such a sudden -uprising of weak, foolish, grandfatherly feelings, that a mist came over his eyes, and he left out his " ninthly ' 'al- together, thereby spoiling the logical sequence of proposi- tions which had kept his large forehead knotty for a week. At eight years old she'fell in love with the high-colored picture of Major Gideon Withers in the red sash and the red feather of his exalted military office. It was then for the first time that her Aunt Silence remarked a shade of resemblance between the child and the portrait. She had always, up to this time, been dressed in sad colors, as was fitting, doubtless, for'a forlorn orphan; but happening one day to see a small negro girl peacocking round in a flam- ing scarlet petticoat, she struck for bright colors ir her qwn apparel, and carried her point at last. It was as if a ground-sparrow. had changed her gray Ifeathers for the burning plumage of sothe tropical wanderer; and it was natural enough that Cyprian Eveleth should have called her the fire-hang-bird, and her little chamber the fire-hang- ; . ETHE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 33 bird's nest, using the country boy's synonyme for the Baltimore oriole. At ten years old she had one, of those great experiences which give new meaning to the life of a child. Her Uncle Malachi had seemed to have a strong liking for her at one time, but of late years his delusions had gained upon him, and under their influence he seemed to regard her as an encumbrance and an extravagfance. He was growving more and more solitary in his habits, more and more negligent of his appearance. HIe was up late at night, wandering about the house from the cellar to the garret, so that, his light being seen flitting' from window to window, the story got about that the old house was haunted. One dreary, rainy Friday in November, Myrtle was left alone in the house. Her uncle had been gone since the day before. The two women were both away at the vil- lage. At such times the child took a strange delight in exploring all the hiding-places of the old mansion. She had the mysterious dwelling-place of so many of the dead and the living all to herself. What a fearful kind of pleas- ure in its silence and loneliness! The old clock that Mar- maduke Storr made in London more than a hundred years ago was clicking the steady pulse-beats of its second cen- tury. The featured moon on its dial had lifted one eye, as if to watch the child, as it had watched so. many generations of children, while the swinging pendulum ticked them along into youth, maturity, gray hairs, death-beds,- ticking through'the prayer at the funeral,- ticking with- out grief through all'the still or noisy woe of mourning,- ticking without joy when the smiles and gayety of com- forted heirs had come back again. She looked at herself page: 34-35[View Page 34-35] 84 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. in the tall, bevelled mirror in the best chamber. She pulled aside the curtains of the stately bedstead whereon the heads of the house had slept until they died and were stretched out upon it, and the sheet shaped itself to them in vague, awful breadth of outline, like a block of mon- umental marble the sculptor leaves just hinted by the chisel. 'She groped her way up to tie dim garret, the scene of her memorable punishment. A. rusty hook projected from one of the joists a little higher than a man's head. Some- thing was hanging from it, - an old garment, was it? She went bravely up and touched - a cold hand. She did what most children of that age would do, -uttered a cry and ran downi stairs with all her might. She rushed out of the door and called to the man Pftrick, who was doing some work about the place. What could be done was done, but it was too late. Uncle Malachi had made away with himself. That was plain on the face of things. In due time the coroner's ver- dict settled it. It was not so strange as it seemed; but it made a great talk in the village and all the country round about. Everybody knew he had money enough, and yet he had hanged himself for fear of starving to death. For all that, he was found t lliave left a will, dated some years before, leaving his propky to his sister Silence, with the exception of a certain moderate. legacy to be paid in money to Myrtle Hazard when she should arrive at th- age of twenty years. The household seemed more' chilly than ever after this tragical event. Its depressing influence' followed the child to school, where she learned the common branches of knowl- edge. It followed her to the Sabbath-day catechisings, where she repeated the answers about the federal headship . ... THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 35 of Adam, and her consequent personal responsibilities, and other technicalities which are hardly milk for babes, per- haps as well as other childlren, but without any very pro- found remorse for what she could not help, so far as she understood the matter, any more than her sex or staturei and with no very clear comprehension of the phrases which the New England followers of the Westminster divines made a part of the elementary instruction of young people. At twelve years old she had grown tall and womanly, enough to attract the eyes-of the youth and older boys, several of whom made advances towards her acquaintance. But t ry discipline of the household had sunk into her soul, and sheld been shaping an internal life for herself which it was hard for friendship to penetrate. Bathsheba Stoker was chained to the bedside of an invalid mother. Olive Eveleth, a kind, true-hearted girl, belonged to another religious commiunion; and this tended to render their meet- ings less frequent, though Olive was still her nearest friend. Cyprian was himself a little shy, and rather held to Myrtle through his sister than by any true intimacy directly with herself. Of the other young men of the village Gifted Hopkins was perhaps the most fervent of her admirers, as he had repeatedly shown by effusions in verse, of which, under the thinnest of disguises, she was the object. Murray Bradshaw, ten years older than herself, a young man of striking aspect and claims to exceptional ability, had kept his eye on her of late; but it was generally sup- posed that he.would find a wife in the city, where he was in the habit of going to visit a fashionable relative, Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, of 24 Carat Place. She, at' any rate, understood very well that he meant, to use lhis own phrase, "to go in for a corner lot," - understanding thereby a page: 36-37[View Page 36-37] 36 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. young lady with possessions and without encumbrances. If the old man had only given his money to Myrtle, Muurray Bradshaw would have made sure of her; but she was not likely ever to get much of it. Miss Silence Withers, it Was understood, would probably leave her money as the Rev. Mr. Stoker, her spiritual director, should indicate, and it seemed likely that most of it would go to a rising educa- tional institution where certain given doctrines were to. be taught through all time, whether disproved or not, and whether those who taught them believed them or not, pro- vided only they would say they believed them. Nobody had promised to say masses for her soul if she made this disposition of her property, or-pledged the word of the Church that she should have plenary absolution. But she felt that she would be making friends in Influential Quarters by thus laying up her treasure, and that she would be safe if she had the good-will of the ministers bf her sect. Myrtle Hazard had nearly reached the age of fourteen, and, though not like to inherit much of the family property, was fast growing into a large dower of hereditary beauty. Always handsome, her features shaped themselves in a finer symmetry, her color grew richer, her figure promised a perfect womanly development, and her movements had the grace which high-breeding gives the daughter of a queen, and which Nature now and then teaches the hum- blest of village maidens. 'She could not long' escape the notice of the lovers and flatterers of beauty, and the time of danger was drawing near. At this period of her. life she made two discoveries which changed the whole course of her thoughts, and opened for her a new world of' ideas and possibilities. , . . - THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 37 Ever since 'the dreadful event of November, 1854, the garret had been a fearful place to think of, and still more to visit. The stories that the house was haunted gained in frequency of repetition and detail of circumstance. But Myrtle was bold and inquisitive, and explored its recesses at such times as she could creep among them undisturbed. Hid away close under the eaves she found an old trunk covered with 'dust and cobwebs. The mice had gnawed through its leather hinges, and, as it had been hastily stuffed full, the cover had risen, and two or three volumes had fallen to the floor. This trunk held, the papers and books which her great-grandmother, the famnous beauty, had left behind her, records of the romantic days when she was the belle of the County, - story-books, memoirs, novels, and poems, and not a few love-letters,--a strange collection, which, as so often happens with such deposits in old fam- ilies, nobody had cared to meddle with, and nobody had been willing todestroy, until at last they had passed out of mind, and waited for a new generation to bring them into light again. The other dtSvery was of a small hoard of coin. Under one of the boards which formed the imperfect floor- ing of the garret was hidden an old leather mitten. In- stead of a hand, it had a fat fist of silver dollars, and a thumb of gold half-eagles. Thus knowledge and power found their way to the sim- ple and secluded maiden. The books were hers to read as much as any other's; the gold and silver were only a part of that small provision which would be hers by and by, and if she borrowed it it was borrowing of herself. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil had shaken its fruit into her lap, and, without any serpent to tempt her, she took thereof and did eat.' page: 38-39[View Page 38-39] 38 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. - * . CHAPTER IV,. BYES GRIDLEY, A. M. jT HE old Master of Arts was as notable a man in his outside presen'tment as one will find among five hun- dred college alumni as they file in procession. His strong, squared fe'atures, his formidable scowl, his solid-looking head, his iron-gray hair, his positive and as it were cate- gorical stride, his slow, precise way of putting a statement, the strange union of trarapling radicalism in some directions and high-stepping .conservatism in others, which made it- impossible to calculate on his unexpressed opinions, his testy ways and his generous impulses, his hard judgments and kindly actions, were characteristics that gave him a very decided individuality. He had all the aspects of a man of books. His study, which was the best room in Mrs. Hopkins's house, was filled with a miscellaneous-looking collection of volumes, which his curious literary taste had got together from the shelves of all the libraries that had been broken up during his long life as a scholar. Classics, theology, especially of the controversial sort, statistics, politics, law, medicine, sci- ence,. occult and overt, general literature, --almost every branch of knowledge was represented. 'His learning was very various, and of course mixed up, useful and useless, new and ancient, dogmatic and rational, -like his library, in short; for a library gathered like his is a looking-glass in which the owner's mind is reflected. The common people about ,the village did not know * . , . s . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL, 39 I what to make of such a phenomenon. He did not preach, marry, christen, or bury, like the ministers, nor jog around with medicines for sick folks, nor carry cases into court for quarrelsome neighbors. What was he good for? Not a great deal, some of the wiseacres 'thought, - had "all. sorts of sense but common sense,"-" smart mahn, but not prahc- tical." There were others who .read him more shrewdly. He knowed more, they said, than all the ministers put to- gether, and if he 'd stan' for Ripresentative they 'd like to. vote for him,- they ied n't hed a smart maln in the Gin- eyal Court sence - re Wibird was thar. They may h ve overdone the matter in comparing his knowledge with that of all the ministers togetfher, for Priest Pemberton was a real scholar in his special line of study, as all D. D.s are supposed to be, or fthey waould not have been honored with that distinguished title. But Mr. Byles Gridley not only had more learning than the deep-sea line of the bucolic intelligence could fathom; he had more wis- dom. also than they gave' him credit for, even those among them who thought most of his abilities. In his capacity of schoolmaster he ,had sharpened his wits against those of the lively city boys he had in charge, and made such a reputation as "' Master" Gridley, that he kept that title even after he had become a nege tutor and' professor. As a tutor he had to deal with many of these same boys, and others like them, in the still more vivacious period of their early college life. He got rid of his police duties when he became a professor, but he still studied the pupils as carefully as he' used once to watch them, and learlled to read character with a skill which might have fitted him for governing men instead of adolescents. But he loved quiet and he dreaded mingling with the brawlers page: 40-41[View Page 40-41] 40 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. of the market-place, whose stock in trade is a voice and a vocabulary. So it was that hle had passed his life in the patient mechanical labor of instruct;on, leaving too many of his instincts and faculties in abeyance. The alluvium of all this experience bore a nearer resem- blance to worldly wisdom than might have been conjec- tured; much nearer, indeed, than it does in many old instructors, whose eyes get fish-like as their blood grows cold, and who are not; fit to be trusted with anything more practical than a gerund or a cosine. Master Gridley not. only knew a good deal of human nature, .but he knew how to keep his' knowledge to himself upon occasion. He un- derstood singularly well the ways and tendencies of young people. He was shrewd in the detection of trickery, and very confident in those who had once passed the ordeal of his well-schooled observing powers, He had no particular tendency to meddle with the personal relations of those about him; but if they were forced upon him in any way, he was like to see into them at least as quickly as any of his neighbors who thought themselves most endowed with practical skill. In leaving the duties of his office he considered himself, as he said a little despondently, like an old horse :unharnessed and turned out to pastre He felt that he had separated himself fromr hu interests, and was henceforth to live in' his books w ithe dead, until he should be numbered with them himself. He had chosen this quiet village as a place where he might pass his days undisturbed, and find a peace- ful resting-place in its churchyard, where the gravel was dry, and the sun lay. warm, and the glowing woods of au- tumn would spread their many-coloied counterpane over the bed where he would be taking. his rest. It some- :;gj . , THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 41 times' came over him painfully that he was never rpore to be of' any importance to his fellow-creatures. There was nobody living' to whom he was connected by any very near ties. He felt kindly enough to the good woman in whose house he lived; he sometimes gave a few words of counsel to'her son; he was not unarniable with the few people he met; he bowed with great consideration to the Rev. Dr. Pemberton; and he studied with no small interest the physiognomy of the Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker, to whose sermons he listened, with a black scowl now and then, and a nostril dilating with ominous'intensity of meaning. But he said sadly to himnself, that his life had been a failure, that he had nothing to show for it,'and his one talent was ready in its naplktn to give back to his Lord. He owed something of this sadness, perhaps, to a cause which many would hold of small significance. Tlhough he had mourned for no lost love, at least so far as was known, though le had never suffered the pang of parting with a child, though he seemed isolated from those joys and griefs wlich come with the ties of fimily, ie too had his private urn filled with the ashes of extinguished hopes. IH was the father of a dead book. Why "Thoughts on the Universe, by Byles Gridley, A. M.," had not met with an eager welcome and a perma- nent demand from the discriminating public, it would take us too long to inquire in detail. Indeed, he himself was never able to account satisfactorily for the state of things' -- which his bookseller's account made evident to him. He. had read ,and re-read his work; and} the mrae familiar ne became with it, the less was he able to understand the singular want of popular 'appreciation of what he could not help recognizing as its excellences. He had a special !" " .'. "' page: 42-43[View Page 42-43] 42 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. copy of his work, printed on large paper and sumptuously bound. He loved to read in this, as people read over the letters of friends who have long been dead; and it might -have awakened a feeling of something far removed from the ludicrous, if his comments on his own production could have been heard. "That's a thought, now, for you!- See Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay's Essay printed six years after this book." "A felicitous image!-and so -everybody would have said if. only Mr. Thomas Carlyle had hit upon it.", "It this is not genuine pathos, where will you find it, :I should like to know? And nobody to open the book where it stands written but ono poor old man -- in this generation, at least- in this generation!" It may be doubted whether lie would ever have loved his book with such jealous fondness if it had gone through, a dozen editions, and everybody was quoting it to his 'face. But now it lived only for him ; and to him it was wife and child, parent, friend, all in one, as Hector was all in all to his spouse. He, never tired of it, and in his more san- guine moods. he looked forward to the time when the world would acknowledge its merits, and his genius would find full recognition. Perhaps he was right: more than one book which seemed dead and was dead for contemporary readers has had a resurrection when the rivals who tri- umphed over it lived only in the tombstone memory of an- tiquaries. Comfort for some of us, dear fellow-writer! It followed from the way in which he lived that he must have some means of support upon which he could depend. He was economical, if not over frugal in some of his hab- its; but he bought books, and took newspapers and re- views, and lhad money when money was needed; the fact being, though it was not generally known, that a distant g -* TTHE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 43, relative had not long before died, leaving him a very com- fortable property. S ' His money matters had led him to I hve occasional deal- ings with the late legal firm of Wibird and Penhallow, which had naturally passed, into the hands of the new partnership,: Penhallow andR Bradshaw. He had entire confidence in the senior partner, but not so much in the young man who had been recently associated in the busi- ness. Mr. William Murray Bradshaw, commonly called by his last two names, was the son of a lawyer of some note for his acuteness, who narked out his calling for him in having him named after the great Lord Mansfield. Murray Brad- shaw was about twenty-five years old, by common consent good-looking, with a finely formed head, a searching eye, and a sharp-cut mouth, which smiiled at his bidding with- out the slightest ireference to the real 'condition of his feel- ing at the moment. This Was a great convenience'; for it gave him an appearance of good-nature at the small ex- pense of a slight muscular movement which was as easy as winking, and deceived everybody but those who had studied him long and carefully enough to find that this play of his features was what a watchmaker would call a 'de- tached movement. He had been a good scholar in college, not so much by hard study as by skilful veneering, and had taken great- pains to stand well with the Faculty, at least one of whom, Byles Gridley, A. M., had watched him with no little inter- est as a man with a promising future, provided he were not so astute as to outwit and overreach himself in his excess of contrivance. His classmates could not help liking I I, m him; as to loving him, none of them would have thought a e . / zNtt page: 44-45[View Page 44-45] " THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. of that. He was so shrewd, so keen, so full of) practical sense, and so good-humored as long as things went on to his liking, that few could resist his fascination. - He had a way of talking with people about what they were interest- ed in, as if it were the one matter in the world nearest to his heart. But he was commonly trying to find out some- thing, or to produce some impression, as a juggler is work- ing at his miracle while he keeps people's attention by his voluble discourse and make-believe movements. In his lightest talk he was almost always edging towards a prac- tical object, and it was an interesting and instructive amusement to watch for the moment at which he would ship the belt of his colloquial machinery on to the tight pulley. It was done so easily and naturally that there was hardly a sign of it. Master Gridley could usually detect the shifting action, but the young man's features and voice never betrayed him. He was a favorite with the other sex, wlho love poetry and romance, as he well knew, for which reason he often used the phrases of both, and in such a way as to answer his purpose with most of those whom he wished to please. :He had one great advantage in the sweepstakes of life: he was not handicapped with any burdensome ideals. He took evcrytling at its markelt-value. H-le accepted the standard 'of the street as a final fact for to-day, like the broker's list of prices. ' His whole plan of life was laid out. tHe knew that law was the best introduction to political life, and he meant to use it for this end. He chose to begin his career in the country, so as to feel his way more surely and gradually to its ultimate aim; but he had no intention of burying his shining talents ih a grazing district, however tall its grass tlnsi alis rs THE GUARDIAN ANGEL 45 miglht grow. His business was not with these stiff-jointed, slow-witted graziers, but with the supple, dangerous, far-see- ing men who sit scleming by the gas-light in the great cities, after-all thor lamps and candles are out from the Merrimac to the Housatonic. Every strong and every weak point of those who might probably be his rivals were laid down -on his charts, as winds and currents and rocks are marked on those of a navigator. All the young girls in the coun- try, and not a few in the city, with which, as mentioned, had had frequent relations, were on his list of possible availabilities in the matrimonial line of speculation, pro- vided always that their position and prospects were such as would-make them proper-matches for so considerable a persqn as the future Hon. William Murray Bradshaw. Master Gridley had made a careful study of his old pupil since they had resided in the same village. The old professor could not eDp admiring him, notwithstand- ing certain suspicious elements in his character; for after muddy village talk, a clear stream of intelligent conversa- tion was a' great luxury to the hard-headed scholar. The more he saw of him, the more he learned to watch his movements, and to be on his guard in talking with him. The old man could be crafty, with all his simplicity, and he had found out that under his good-natured manner llthere often lurked some design more or less worth noting, and which might involve other interests deserving protec- tion. For some reason or other the old Master of Arts had of late experienced a certain degree of relenting with re- gard to himself, probably brought about by the expressions of gratitude from worthy Mrs. Hopkins for acts of kind- ness to which lhe himself attached no great value. He page: 46-47[View Page 46-47] "O THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. had been kind to her son Gifted; he had been fatherly with Susan Posey, her relative and boarder ; and he had shown himself singularly and unexpectedly amiable with the little twins who had been adopted by the good woman into her household. In fact, ever since these little crea- tures had begun to toddle about and explode their first consonants, he had looked through his great round specta- cles upon them with a decided interest; and from that time it seemed as if some of the human and social senti- ments which had never leafed or flowered in hin, for want of their natural sunshine, had begun growing up from roots which had never lost their life. His liking for the twins may have been an illustration of that singular law. which old Dr. Hurlbut used to lay down, namely, that at a certain period of life, say from fifty to sixty and up- ward, the grand-paternal instinct awakens in bachelors, the rhythms of Nature reaching them i:n spite of her defeated intentions; so that when men marry late they love their autumn child with- a twofold affection, father's and grandfatier's both in one. However this may be, there is no doubt that Mr. Byles Gridley was beginning to take a part in his neighbors' welfare and misfortunes, such as could hardly have been expected of a man so long lost in his books and his scho- lastic duties. And among others, Myrtle Hazard had come in for a share of his interest. He had met her now and then in her walks to andt from school and meeting, rand had been taken with her beauty and. her. apparent un- consciousness of it, .which he attributed to the forlorn kind of household in which she had: grown up. Hehad got so far as to talk with her now and then, and found himself puzzled, as well he might be, in talking with a girl who THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 47 had been growinlg into her early maturity in antagonism with every influence that surrounded her. "Love' will reach her by and by/' he said, "in spite of the dragons up at the den yonder, ' Centum fronte oculos, centum cervice gerebat I ' , . Argus, et hos unus sapeo fefellit amor.' ' But there was something about Myrtle he hardly knew' whether to call it dignity, or pride, or reserve, or the mere habit of holding back brouglit about by the sys-' tem of repression under which she had been educated- which kept even the old Master of Arts at his distance. Yet he was strongly drawn to her, and had a sort of pre- sentiment that he might be able to'help her some day, and that very probably she would want his help; for' she was alone in the world, except for the drigons, and sure to be assailed by foes from' without and firom within. Hie, noticed that her name was apt to come up in his conversations with- Murray Bradshaw; and, as he himself never introduced it, of'course the young man must have forced it, as conjurers force a card, and witih some special object. This set him thinking hard; and, as a result of it, he determined the next time Mr. Bradshaw brought her name up to set, him talking. So he talked, not suspecting how carefully the old man listened. "It was a demonish hard case," he said, "that old Malachi had left his money as he did.' Myrtle Hazard was going t)'be the handsomest girl about, whei she came to her- beauty, and she was coming to it mighty fast. If -it, 'they could only break that will, - but it was no use try- ing. The doctors said he was of sound mind for at least two years after making it. If Silepee Withers got the A' /* . ,- . " ' / page: 48-49[View Page 48-49] 48 .THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. land claim, there'd be a pile, sure enough. Myrtle Hazard ought to have it. If the girl had only inherited that property -whew! She'd have been a match 'for amy fellow. That old Silence Withers would do just as her minister told her, even chance whether she gives it to the Parson-factory, or marries Bellamy Stoker, and gives it to him -after his wife's dead. He 'd take it if he had to take her with it. Earn his money,'-hey, Master Gridley?" "Why, you don't' seem to think velry well of the Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker?" said Mr. Gridlley, smiling. "Think well of him? Too fond of using the Devil's pitchfork for my fancy! Forks over pretty much all the' world but himself and his lot into- the bad place, you know; and toasts his own cheese with it with very much the same kind of comfort that other folks seem' to take in. that business. Besides, he has a weakness for pretty saints- and sinners. That's an odd name he has. More belle amnie than ,Joseph about hiim, I rather guess!" The old professor smiled again. "So you don't think he believes all the mediaeval doctrines he is in the habit of preaching, Mr. Bradshaw?" "No, sir; I think he belongs to the class I iave seen described somewhere. 'There are those who hold the opinion that truth is only safe. when diluted,-about one fifth to four fifths lies, - as the o:xygen of 'the air is with its nitrogen. Else it would burn us all up."' Byles Gridley colored and started a little. This was one of his -own say ings in "Thouhts. on the Universe." But the young man quoted it without seeming to suspect. its authorship. "Where did jou pick up that saying, Mr. Bradshaw?" J ,', !] I' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 49 "I don't remember.. Some paper, I rather think. It's one of those good things that get about without anybody's knowing who says 'em. Sounds like Coleridge." "That's what I call a compliment worth having," said Byles Gridley to himself, when he got home. "Let me look at that passage." He took down "Thoughts on the Universe," and got so much interested, reading on page after page, that he did not hear the little tea-bell, and Susan Posey volun- teered to run up .to his study and call him down to tea. page: 50-51[View Page 50-51] 501 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CHAPTER V. THE, TWINS. - M ISS SUSAN POSEY knocked timidly at his door, and informed him that tea was waiting. He rather liked Susan -Posey. She was a pretty creature, slight, blonde, a little, too light, a village beauty of the second or third grade, effective at picnics and by moonlight,- the kind of girl that very young men are apt to remember as their first love. She had a taste for poetry, and an admiration of poets,; but, what was better, she was modest and simple, an d a perfect sister and mother and grandmother to the, two little forlorn twins who had been stranded on' the Widowy Hopkins's door-step. These little twins, a boy and girl, were now between two and three years old. A few words will make us ac- quainted with them. Nothing had ever been known of their origin. The sharp eyes of all the spinsters had been through every household in the village and neighbor- hood, and not a suspicion fixed. itself on any one. It was a dark night when they were left; and it was probable that they had been brought from another town, as the sound of wheels had been heard close to the door where 'ithey were found, had stopped for a moment, then been heard again, and lost in the distance. How the good woman of the house took them in and kept them has been briefly mentioned. At first nobody thought they would live a day, such little absurd attempts at humanity did they seem. But the young doctor came, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 51 and the old doctor came, and the infants were laid in cot- ton-wool, and the room heatefd up to keep them warm, ancd baby-teaspoonfuls of milk given them,' and after being kept alive in this way, like the young of opossums and kangaroos, they came to a conclusion about which they did not seem to have made up, their thinkin,r-pulps for some weeks, namely, to go on trying to c(ross the sea of life, by tugging at the four-and-twenty oars which must be pulled day and night until the unknown shore is reached, and the oars lie at rest under the folded hands. As it was not very likely that the parentss who left their offspring round on door-steps were of sa iritly life, they were not presented for baptism like the children of church- members. Still, they must have nanes to be known by, and Mrs. Hopkins was much exercised in the matter. Like many New Encgland ,parents, she had a decided taste, for names that were significant and-sonorous. That which she had chosen for her oldest child,- the young poet, was either a remarkable prophecy, or it had brought with it the endowments it promisedt She had lost, or, in her own more pictorial language, she had buried, a daughter to whom she had given the names, at once of cheerful omen and melodious effect, Wealthy Amadora. As for thoem poor little creturs, she said, she believed they was rained down out o' the skies, jest as they say toads and tadpoles come. She meant toa be a mother to 'erm for all that, and give 'em jest as good nanes a.8 if they was the governor's children, or tIhe minister's. If Mr. Gridley would be so good as to find her some kind of. a real handsome Chris'n name fof r 'em, she'd provide 'em with the other one. Hopkinses they shall be bred and taught, and Hopkinses they shall be 'call ed. Ef. their fa- page: 52-53[View Page 52-53] 52 . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. ther and mother was ashamed to own 'em, she wasn't. Could n't Mr. Gridley pick out some pooty-soundinig names from some of them great books of his. It 's jest as well to have 'em poo'ty as long as they don't cost any more than if they was Tom and Sally. A. grim smile passed over the rugged features of Byles Gridley. "Nothing is easier than that, Mrs. Hopkins," he said. "I will give you: two very pretty names that I think will please you andi other folks. They 're new names, too. If they should n't like to keep them, they can change them before they, 're christened, if they ever are.. Isosceles will be just the name for the boy, and. I,'m sure you won't find a prettier name for the girl in a hurry than. Hemin- thia. 'Mrs. Hopkins was delighted with the dignity apd novelty of these 'two names, which were forthwith adopted. As they were rather long for common use in the family, they were shortened into the easier forms of Sossy and Minthy, under which designation the babes began very soon to thrive mightily, turning bread and milk into the substance of little sinners at a great rate, and growing as if they were put out at compound interest. This short episode shows us the family conditions sur- rounding Byles Gridley, who, as we were saying, had just been called down to tea by Miss Susan Posey. "I am coming, my dear," he said, -which expression quite touched Miss Susan, whO ;did not know that it was a kind of transferred caress from the delicious page he was reading. It was not the living child' that was kissed, but the dead one lying under the snow, if we may make a trivial use of a very sweet and tender thought we all remem- ber. 8Ii :; ThTHE GUARDIAAN GEL. 53 Not long after this, happening to call in at the lawyer's office, his eye was caught by the corner of a book lying covered up by a pile of papers. Somehlow or other it seemed to look very natural to him, Could that be a copy of Thoughts on the Universe"? He watched his oppor- tunity, and got a hurried sight of the volume. His own treatise; sure enough.! Leaves uncut. Opened of itself to the one hundred and twentieth page. The axiom Mur- ray Bradshaw lhad quoted -lhe did not remember fronl what, --" sounded like Coleridge" - was staring him in the face from -that very page. When he remembered how ihe had pleased himself with that compliment the other day, he blushed like a school-girl; and then, thinking out the whole trick -- to hunt up his forgotten book, pick out a phrase or two from it, and play on his weakness with it, to win his good opinion,l- for what purpose he did not know, but doubtless to use him in some way, - he grinned with a contempt about equally divided between himself and the young schemer., "Ah ha "! he muttered scornfully. "Sounds like Cole- ridge, hey? Niccolo Macchiavelli Bradshaw!" From' this day forward lihe looked on all the young law- yer's doings with even more suspicion1 than before. Yet he would not forego his company and conversation ; for he was very agreeable andc amusii to study ; andthis trick ihe hald played him was, after all, only a diplomatist's way of flattering this plenipotentiary. Who could say? Some time or other he might cajole England or France or Russia into a treaty with just such a trick, Shallower men than he had gone out as ministers pf the great Republic. At any rate the fellow was worth watching. . page: 54-55[View Page 54-55] 54 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CHAPTER VI. THE USE OF SPECTACLES. THHE old Master of Arts had a great reputation in the house where he lived for knowing everything that was going on. He rather enjoyed it; and sometimes amused himself with surprising his simple-hearted landlady and her boarders with the unaccountable results of his sagacity. One thing was quite beyond her comprehension. She was perfectly sure that Mr. Gridley could see out of the back of his head, just as other people see with their natural organs. Time and again he -had told her what she was doing when his back was turned: to her, just as if he had been sitting squarely in front of her. Some laughed at this foolish notion; but others, who knew more of the neba-' Ious sciences, told ler' it was like 's not jes3 so. Folks had read letters laid ag'in' the pits o' their stomachs, 'n' w1hy should n't they see out o' the backs o' their heads? Now there was a certain fact at the bottom of this be- lief of Mrs. Hopkins; and as it would be a very small thing to make a mystery of so simple a matter, the reader shall have the whole benefit of knowing all there is in it, - not quite yet, however, of knowing all that came of it. It was not the mirror trick, of course, which Mrs. Felix Lorraine and other dangerous historical personages have so long made use of. It was nothing but this. Mr. Byles Gridley wore a pair of formidable spectacles with large round glasses. He had often noticed the reflection of objects be- hind him when they caught their images at certain angles, I. :' - - ..'.THE G RDIAN. ANAGEt. 55 and had got the habi very often looking at the reflecting surface of one or the other of the glasses, when he seemed to be lookingthrough them. It put a singular power into his possession, -wiich nmight possibly hereafter lead to something 'moe :significant than the mystification of the Widow Hopkins. A short time before Myrltle Hazard's disappearance, Mr. Byles Gridley had occasion to, call again at the office of Penhallow and Bradshaw on some small matter of busi- ness of his own.. There were papers to look over, and he put on his great round-glassed spectacles. He and Mr. Penhallow sat down at the table, and Mr. Bradshaw was at a desk behind them. After sitting for a while, Mr. Penhallow seemed to remember something. he had meant to attend to, for he said all at once: "; Excuse me, Mr. Gridley. Mr. Bradshaw, if you ware not busy, I wish you would look' over this bundle of papers. They look like old receipted bills and memoranda of no particular use; but they came from the garret of the Witlers place, and might possibly have something that would -be of value. Look them over, will you, and see whether there is any- thing there worth saving." The young man took the papers, and Mr. Penhallow sat down again at the table with, Mr. Byles Gridley. This last-named gentleman felt just then a strong impulse to observe the operations of Murray Bradshaw. He could not have given any very good reason for it, any more than any of us can for half of what we do. "I should like to examine'that conveyance we were speaking of once more," said he. Please to look at this one in the mean time, will you, Mr. Penhallow?" Master Gridley held the document up before him. He page: 56-57[View Page 56-57] 356 'THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. didl not seem to find, it quite legible, and adjusted his spec- tacles carefully, until they. were just as he wanted them. When he had got them to suit himself, sitting there with, his back to Murray Bradshaw., he could see him and all his movements, the desk at which he was standing, and the books in the shelves before him, -all this time ap- pearing as if he were intent upon his own reading. The young man began in a rather indifferent way to look over the papers. He loosened the band round them, and took them up one by one, gave a careless glance at them, and laid them togcether to tie up again when he had gone through them. Master Gridley saw all this process, thinking what a fool he was all the time to be watching such a simple proceeding. Presently he noticed a more sudden movement: the young man' had' found something whicl arrested his attention, and turned his head to; see 'if he was observed. The senior partner and his client were both apparently deep in their own affairs. In his hand Mr. Bradshaw held a paper folded like the others, the back of which he read, holding it in such a way that Master Grid- ley saw very distinctly three large spots of link upon it, and noticed their position. Murray Bradshaw took an- other hurried glance at the two gentlemen, and then quick- ly opened the paper. He ran it over with a flash of his eye, folded it again, and laid it by itself. With another quick turn of his head, as if to see whether he were observed' or like to be, he reached his hand out and took a volume down from the shelves. In this volume he shut the docu- ment; whatever it was, which he had just taken out of the bundle, and placed the book in a very silent and as it were stealthy way back in 'its place. He then gave a look at each. of the other papers, and said to his partner: "Old THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. ' ' 57 bills, old leases, and insurance policies that have run out. Malachi seems to have kept every scrap of paper that had a signature to it." "That's the way-with the old misers, always," said Mr. Penhallow. Byles Gridley had got through reading the document he held,- or pretending to read it. He took off his specta- cles. "We all grow timid and cautious as are get old, Mr. Penhallow." Then turning round to the young man, he/ slowly repeated the lines,- "'Multa seznem circu7zveniunt inconmmoda, vel quod Qucerit et inventist miser abstinet, ac timet uti; Vel quod res omnes timido, gelideque ministrat -' You, remember the passage, Mr. Bradshaw?" While he was reciting these words from Horace, which he spoke slowly as if he relished' every syllable, he kept his eyes on the young man steadily, but without betraying any suspicion. His old habits as a teacher made that easy. Murray Bradshaw's face was calm as usual, but there was a flush on his cheek, and Master Gridley saw the slight but unequivocal signs of excitement. "Something' is going on inside there," the, old 'man said to himself. He wated patiently, on the pretext of busi- ness, until Mr. radshaw got up and left the office. As soon as he and the senior partner were: alone, Master Grid- ley took a lazy look at some of' the books in his library. There stood in the book-shelves a copy of the Corpus Juris Civilis,-the fine Elzevir edition of 1664. It was bound in parchment, and thusreadily distinguishable at a glance from all the books round it. Now Mr. Penhallow was not page: 58-59[View Page 58-59] 58 ' T;TiE GUARDIAN ANGEL. much of a Latin scholar, and knew .and cared very littld about the civil law. He had fallen in with this book at an aluction, and bouglht it to place in his shelves with the other :." properties" of the .office, becaulse it :would look respect- able. Anything shut up in one ,of those two octavos might stay there a lifetime without Mr. Penhallow's disturbinr it; that Master Grid ley knew, 'and of course the young man knew'it too. We often move to 'the objeclts of supreme curiosity or desire, not in the lines of castle or bishop on the chess- board, but with the knight's zigzag, at first in the wrang direction, making believe to ourselves we are not after the thing coveted. Put .a lump of' sugar in a canary-bird's cace, and the small creature will illustrate the instinct for the benefit- of inquirers or sceptics. Byles Gridley went to the other side of the room and took a volume of Reports from the shelves. He put it back and took a copy 'of '"Fearne on Contingent Remainders," and looked at that for a moment in anl idling, way, as if from a sense of having nothing to do. Then he drew the back of his forefinger alon the books on the shelf, as if nothing interested him in them, and strolled to the shelf in front of the desk at which :Murray Bradshaw had stood. He took clown the second volume of the COrps Juris, Oivilis,. turned' the leaves over mechanically, as, if in search of some title, and replaced it. He looked round for a moment. Mr. Penhallow was writing hard at his table, not thinking of him, it was pl ain enough., He laid his, hand on the FIRST volume of the Corpus Juris Civilis. There was a; document shut up in it.. His hand was on the book., whether taking it out or putting it back was not evident, when the door opened and 1Mr. William Murray Bradshaw entered. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 59, "Ah, Mr. Gridley," he said,c you are not studying the civil law, are you?" He strode towards him as he spoke, his face white, his eyes fixed fiercely on him. "It always interests me, Mr. Bradshaw,' he answered, "and this is a fine edition of it. One may find a great many valuable things in the Coipus Juris Civilis." He looked impenetrable, and whether or not he had seen ? more than Mr. Bradshaw wished him to see, that gentle- man could not tell. But there stood the two books in their place, and when, after Master Gridley .had gone, he looked in the first volume, there was the document he had shut up in it. page: 60-61[View Page 60-61] 60 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CHAPTER VII. MYRTLE'S LETTER. -THE YOUNG MEN S PURSUIT. "YOU know all abopt it, Olive?" Cyprian Eveleth said to his sister, after a brief word of greeting. "Know of' what, Cyprian?" "Why, sister, don't you,know that Myrtle Hazard is- missing,-gone!-gone nobody knows where, and that we are looking in all directions to find her?" Olive turned very ]pale and was silent for a moment. At the end of that moment the story seemed almost old to her. It was a natural ending of the prison-life which had been round Myrtle since her earliest years. Wheni she got large and strong enough, she broke out of jail,-that was all. The nursery-bar is always climbed sooner or later, whether it is a wooden, or an iron one. .Olive felt a s if she had dimly foreseen just such a finishing to the tragedy of the poor girl's home bringing-up. Why could not she have done something to prevent it? WTell, - what shall we do now, and as it is?- that is the question. "Has she left no letter,- no explanation of her leaving in this way?" "Not a word, so far as anybody in the village knows." "Come over to the post-office writh me; perhaps we may find a letter. I think -we shall." Olive's sagacity and knowledge of her friend's character hlad not misled her. She found a letter from Myrtle to herself, which she opened and read as here follows:-- "MY' DEAREST OLIVE': H hink no evil of me for what J TIlE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 61 I have done, The fire-hang-bird's nest, as Cyprian called it, is empty, and the poor bird is flown. "I can live as I have lived no longer. This place is chilling all the life out of me; and I must find another home. It is far, far away, and you will not hear from. me again until I am there. Then I,will write to you,. "You know where I was born,-under a- hot sun and in the. midst of strange, lovely scenes that I seem still to remember. I must visit them a'gaini: my heart always yeains for them. And I must cross the sea to get therew - the beautiful great sea that I have always longed -for and that my vriver lhas been whispering about t'o ;me ever so many years. My life is pinched and starved here. I feel as old, as Aunt Silence, and I am only fifteen, --a clhild she has called me within a few days. If this is to be a child, what-is it to be a woman? "I love you dearly, - and -your brother is almost to me as if he werec mine. I love our sweet, patient Bathsheba, - yes, and the old man fthat Iras spoken so kindly with, me, good AMaster Gridley; I hate to give you pain, - to leave you all, -but my way of life is killing me, and I am too young to die. I cannot take the comfort with you, my dear friends, that I would; for it seems as if I carried a lump of ice in my heart, and all the warmth I find in you cannot thaw it out. ' "I have had a strange warning to leave this place, Olive.' Do you remember how the angel of the Lord ap- peared to Joseph and told him to flee into Egypt? I have had a dream like thhat, Olive. There is an old be- lief in our family that the spirit of one who died many generations ago watches over some of her descendants. They say it led our first ancestor to come over here when page: 62-63[View Page 62-63] TH E GUARDMAN ANGEL. it was a wilderness. I believe it has appeared to others of the family in times of trouble. I have had a strange dream at any rate, and the one I saw, or thought I saw, told me to leave this place. Perhaps I should have stayed if it had not been for that, but it seemed like an angel's warning. "Nobody will know how I have gone, or which way I; have taken. On Monday, you may show this letter to my friends, not. before. I do not think they will be in danger of breaking their learts for me at our house. Aunt Si- lence cares for nothing but her own soul, and the other woman hates me, I always thought. - Kitty Fagan will cry hard. Tell her perhaps I shall come back by and by. There is a little box in my room, with some keepsakes marked, --one is for poor Kitty. You can give them -to the right ones. Yours 'is with them. "Good by, dearest. Keep mny secret, as I told you, till -Monday. And if you never see me again, remember how much I loved you. Never think hardly of me, for you have grown up in a. happy home, 'and do not know how much misery can be crowded into'fifteen years of a young girl's life. God be with you! , A IYRTLE HAZARD." Olive could not restrain her tears, as she handed the letter to Cyprian. ( Her secret is as safe with you as with me," she said. ' But this is madness, Cyprian, and we must keep her from doing herself a wrong.. What she means to do, is to get to Boston, in sorpe way or other, and sail for India. It is strange that they hlave not tracked her. There is no time to be lost. She shall not go out into the world in this waiy, child that she is. No; she THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 63 shall come back, and make her home with us, if she can- not be happy with these people. Ours is a happy and a cheerful home, and she shall be to me as a younger sis- ter, -and your sister too, Cyprian. But you must see her; you must leave this very hour; and you may find her. Go to your cousin Edward, in Boston, at once; tell him your errand, and get him to help you find our poor dear sister. Then give her the note, I will rlite, and say-- I know your heart, Cyprian, and I can trust that to tell you what to say." In a very short time Cyprian Eveleth was on his way to Boston. But anoth keeer keen e in pursuit than he, was there before him. Ever since e day when Master Gridley Jhad made that over-curious oservation of the young lawyer's proceedings at the office, Murray Bradshaw. had shown a far livelier interest than before in the conditions and feelings of Myr- tle hazard. He had called frequently at The Poplars to talk over business matters, which seemed of late to re- quire a deal of talking. He had been very deferential to 1Mtiss Silence, and had wound himself into the confidence of Miss Badlam. He found it harder to establish any very near relations with Myrtle, who had never seemed to care much for any young man but Cyprian Eveleth, and to care for him quite as much as Olive's brother as for any personal reason. But he carefully studied Myrtle's tastes and: ways of thinking and of life, so that, by and by, when she should look upon herself as a young woman, and not as a girl, he would have a great advantage in making her more intimate acquaintance. Thus, she corresponded with a friend of her mother's in India. She talked at times as if it were her ideal home, page: 64-65[View Page 64-65] " THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. alid showed many tastes which might well be vestiges of early Oriental impressions. She made herself a rude i hammock, -such as are often used in hot climates, -and swung it between two elms. -Iere she would lie in the hot summer days, and fan herself with the sandal-wood fan her friend in' India had sent her,- the perfume of whch, the women said, seemed to throw her into day dreams, which we6e almost like trances. These circumstances gave a general direction to Lis ideas, which were presentlyfixed more exactly by two circumstances which he learned for himself and kept to himself; for he had no idea of making a hue and cry, and yet he did not mean 'that Myrtle Hazard should get away if he could help it. . The first'fact was this. He found among the copies of the city newspaper they took at The Poplars a recent number from which. a square had been cut out. He pro- cured another copy of this'paper of the same date, and found that the piece cut out waas an advertisement to the effect that the A I Ship Swordfish, Captain Hawkins, was to sail from Boston for Calcutta; on the 20th bf June. The second fact was the. following. On the window-sill of her little hanging chamber, which the women allowed . him to inspect, he found some threads of long, black, glossy - hair caught by a splinter in the wood.. They were Myr- I tle's of course. A- simpleton might have constructed a tragedy out-of this trivial circumstance,--,how she lad cast herself from the, window into the waters ,beneathl it, - how she had been thrust out after a struggle, of which this shred from. her tresses was the dreadful wit- ness,-and so on. Murray Bradshaw did not stop to guess and wonder. He said nothing about it, but wound TIE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 65 the sining threads on his finger, and, as soon as he got home, examined them with a magnifier. They had been cut off smoothly, as with a pair of scissors. This was part of a mass of hair, then, which had been shorn and thrown from the windoW. Nobody would do that but she herself. What would she do it for? To disguise her sex of course. The other infeirences were plain enough. The wily young man put' all these facts and 'hints to- gether, and concluded that he would let the rustics drag the ponds and the rive r, and scour the woods and swamps, while he himself went to the seaport town from which she would without doubt sail if' she had formed the project he thought on the whole most probable. Thus it was that we found him hlurrying to the nearest station to catch the train to Boston, while they were all looking for traces of the missing girl nearer home. In the cars he mnade 'the most suggestive, inquiries he could frame, to stir up the gentlemanly conductor's memory. Had any young fellow been on the train within a day or two, who had attracted his notice? Smooth, handsome face, black eyes, short black hair, new clothes, not fitting very well, looked away when he paid his fare, had a soft voice "like a woman's, - had he seeni anybody answering to some such description as this? The gentlemanly con- ductor had not noticed, was always taking up and setting down way-passengers, -might have had such a young man aboard, -therie was two or three students one day in the car singing college songs,- he did n't care how folks looked if they had their tickets ready, - and minded their own business, - and, so saying, he poked a young man upon whose shoulder a ringleted head was reclining with that delightful abandon which the railroad train seems to provoke in lovely woman; - "Fare!" page: 66-67[View Page 66-67] " THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. It is a fine thing to be set down in a great, over crowded hotel, where they do not know you, looking dusty, and for the moment shabby, with nothing but a carpet-bag in your hand, feeling tired, and anything but clean, and hungry, and worried, and every way miserable and mean, and to un'dergo the appraising process of the gentleman inT the office, who, while he' shoves the book round to you for your name, is miaking a hasty calculation as to how high. up he can venture to doom you. But Murray Bradshaw's plain dress and carpet-bag were more than made up for by the air and tone which imply the habit of being attended to. The clerk saw that in a glance, and, as he looked at the name and address in the book, spoke sharply in the explosive dialect of his tribe,- "Jun! ta'tha'genlm'n'searpethag'n'showhimupt'thirtydne!" When Cyprian Eveleth reached the same hotel late at night, he appeared in his best clothes and with a new valise ;. but his amiable countenance and gentle voice and modest manner sent him up two stories higher, where he found himself,in a room not much better than a garret, feeling lonely enough, for he did not know he had an acquaintance in the same house. The two young men were in and out so irregularly that it was not very strange that they did not happen to meet each other. The young lawyer was far more likely to find Myrtle if she were in the city than the other, even with the help of his cousin Edward. He was not only older, but sharper, better acquainted with the city -and its ways, and, whatever might be the strength of Cyprian's motives, his own were of such intensitythat he thaought of nothing else by day, and dreamed of nothing else by night. He went to work, therefore,/in the most systematic manner. He first visited THE\ GUARDIAN ANGEL. 7 67 the ship Swordfish, lying at her'wharf, saw her captain, and satisfied himself that as yet nobodyat all correspond- ing to the description of Myrtle Hazard had been seen by any. person on board. He visited all the wharves, inquiring on every vessel where it seemed possible she might have been looking' about. Hotels, thoroughfares, every place where he might hear of her or meet'her, were all searched. He took some of the police into his confi- dence, and had half a dozen pairs of eyes besides his own opened pretty widely, to discover the lost girl. On Sunday, the 19th, he got the first hint which encour- aged him to think he was on the trail of his fugitive. He had gone down again to the wharf where the Swordfish, advertised to sail the next day, was lying. The captain was not on board, but one of the mates was there, and he addressed his questions to him, not with any great hope of hearing anything important, but determined to lose no chance, however small. He was startled with a piece 'of information which gave him such an exquisite .pang of delight that he could hardly keep the iusual quiet of his demeanor. A youth corresponding to his description of Myrtle Hazard in her probable disguise had been that morning on board the Swordfish, making many inquiries as to the hour at which she was to sail, and who were to be the passengers, and remained some time on board, going all over the vessel, examining her cabin accommodations, and saying he should return to-morrow before she sailed,- doubtless intending to take passage in her, as there was plenty of room on board. There could be little question, from the description, who this young person was.. It was a rather delicate-looking, dark-haired youth, smooth-faced, somewhat shy aid bashful in his ways, and evidently ex- page: 68-69[View Page 68-69] -68 THE GUARDIAN AN6EL. cqited and nervous. He had apparently been to look about him, and would comne back at the last moment, just as the vessel was ready to sail, and in an hour or two be beyond the reach of inquiry. Murray Bradshaw returned to his hotel, and, going to his chamber, summoned all his faculties ir state council to determine what course he' should follow, now thlt he had the object of his search certainly within reaching distance. There was no danger now of her eluding him; but the grave question arose, what. was he to do when he stood face to face with her. Sle must not go, -- that was fixed. If she once got off in that ship, she might be safe enough; but what would become of certain projects in which hle was interested, - that was thee question. ^But again, she was no child, to be turned away from her adventure by cajolery, or by any such threats as common truants w"uld find suffi- cient to scare them back to their duty. He could tell the facts of her disguise and the manner of her leaving home to the captain of the vessel, and induce him to send her ashore as 'a stray girl, to be returned to her relatives. But this would only make her furious with him; and he must not alienate her from himself at any rate. He might plead with her in the name of duty, for the sake of her friends, for the good name of'the family. She had tlhoght all these things over before she ran away. What if he should address her ts a lover, throw himself at her feet, implore her to pity him and' give up her rash schteme, and, if things came to the very worst, offer to follow her wherever'she went, if she would accept him in the'only relation that. would ren- der it possible. Fifteen years old, -he nearly ten years older,-but such things had happened before, and this was no time to stand on trifles. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 69 He worked out the hypothesis of the matrimonial offer as he would have reasoned out the probabilities in a law case he was indertaking. 1. He would rather risk that than lose all hold upon her. The girl was handsome enough for his ambitious future, wherever it might carry him. She came of an honorable family, and had the great advantage of being free from a trlibe of disagreeable relatives, which is suchb a drawhack on many otherwise eligible parties. To these considerations were to be joined other circumstances which we need not lere mention, of a nature to add greatly to their force, and ' which would go far of themselves to determilne his ac- tion. 2. How was it likely she would look on such an ex- traordinary proposition? At first, no doubt, as: Lady Anne looked upon the advances of Richard.- She would be star- tled, perhaps shocked. What then? She could not help feeling flattered at such an offer from him,- him, William Murray Bradshaw, the rising young man of his county, at her feet, his eyes, melting with the love he hwoould throw into them, his tones subdued to their most sympathetic quality, and all those phrases on his lips which every day beguile women older and more discreet than this romantic, long-imprisoned girl, whose rash and adventurous enter- prise was an assertion of her womanhood and her right to dispose of herself as she chose. lHe ad not lived to be twenty-five years old without knowing his power with wo- men. He believed in himself so thoroughly, that his very donfidence was a strong promise of success. 3. In case all his entreaties, arguments, and offers made no- impression, should he make use of that supreme re- source, not to be employed save in extreme need, but page: 70-71[View Page 70-71] 70 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. ' ' , ' , which was of a nature, in his opinion, to shake a resolution stronger than this young girl was like to oppose to it? That would be like Christian's coming to his weapon called All-prayer, he said to himself, with a smile that his early readings of Bunyan should have furnished him an image for so different an occasion. The question was one he could not settle till the time came,--- he must leave it to the instinct of the moment. The next morning found him early waking after a night of feverishi dreams.. He dressed himself with more than usual care, and walked down to the wharf where the Swordfislh was moored. The ship had left the wharf,. and' was lying out in the stream. A. small boat had just reached her, and a slender youth, as he appeayed at that distance, clirlibed, not over-adroitly, up the vessel's side. Murray Bradshaw called to a boatman near by and ordered the man: to row him over as fast as. he could to the vessel lying in the streaml He had no sooner reached the deck of the Swordfish than he asked for the young per- son who had just been put on board. "Ie is in the cabin, sir, just gone down with the captain," was the reply. His heart beat, in spite of his cool temperament, as he went down the steps leading to the cabin.. The young per- son was talking earnestly with the captain, and, on his turning round, Mr. William Murray Bradshaw had the pleasure of recognizing his young friiend, Mr. Cyprian Eveleth. / ' -. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 71 CHAPTER VIII. DOWN THE RIVER. "OOK at the flower of a morning-glory the evening be- fore the dawn which is to see it unfold. The deli- cate petals are twisted into a spiral, which at the appointed hour, when. the' sunlight touches the hidden springs of its life, will uncoil itself and let the day into the chamber of its virgin heart. But the spiral must unwind by its own law, and the hand that shall try to hasten the process will only. spoil the blossom which would have ex:panded in symmetrical beauty under thie rosy fingers of morning. We may take a hint from Nature's handling of tile flower in dealing with young souls, and especially with the souls of, young girls, which, from their organization and conditions, require more careful treatment than those of their tougher-fibred brothers. Many parents reproach themselves for not having enforced their own 'onvictions on their children in the face of every inborn antagonism they encountered. Let them not be too severe in their self-condemnation. A want of judgment in this matter has sent many a young person to Bedlam, whose nature would have opened kindly enough if it had only been trust- ed to the sweet influences of morning sunshine. In such cases it may be that thlle state we call insanity is not al- I rways an unalloyed, evil. It may take the place of some- thing worse,--tJhe wretchedness of a mind not yet de- throned, but subject to the perpetual interferences of mother- mind governed by laws alien and hostile to its *.. . , S. . ' * : jj page: 72-73[View Page 72-73] 72 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.. own. Insanity may perhaps be the only palliative left to Nature in this extremity. But before she comes to that, she has many expedients. The mind does. not know what diet it can feed on until it has been brought to the starvation point. Its experience is like that of those who have been long drifting about on rafts or in long-boats. There is nothing out of which it will not 'contrive to get some sustenance. A person of note, long held captive for a political offence, is said to have owed the preservation of his reason to a pin, out of which he contrived to get exercise and excitement by throwing it down carelessly on-the dark floor of his dungeon, and then hunting for it in a series of systematic explorations until he had found it. Perhaps the most natural thing Myrtle 'Hazard could llave done would have'been to go crazy, and be sent to the nearest asylum:, if Providence, whichL in its wisdom makes use of the most unexpected agencies, had not made a special provision for her mental welfare. She was in that arid household as the prophet in the land where there was no dew nor rain for these long years. But as he had thebrook Cherith, and the bread and flesh in the morning and the bread and flesh in the evening which the ravens brought him, so she had the river and her secret store of Ibooks. The river was light and life and music and companion- ship to her. She learned to row herself about upon it, to swim boldly in it, for it had: sheltered nooks but a little way above The Poplars. But there was more than that in it, -it was infinitely sympathetic. A river is strange- ly like a human soul. It has its dark and bright days, its troubles from within, and its disturbances from without. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 73 It often runs over ragged rocks with' a smooth surface, and is vexed with ripples as it slides over sands that are level as a floor. It betrays its various moods by aspects which are the commonplaces of poetry, as smiles and dim- ples and wrinkles and frowns. Its face is full of winking eyes, when the scattering rain-drops first fall upon it, and it scowls back at the storm-cloud, as with lknitted brows, when 'the winds are let loose. It talks, too, in its own simple dialect, murmuring, as it were, with busy lips all. the' way to the ocean, as children seeking the mother's breast and impatient of delay. Prisoners whio know what a flower or an insect has been to them in their solitary cell, invalids who have employed their vacant minds in studyiog the patterns of paper-hangings on the walls of 'their sick-chambers, can tell what the river was to the lonely, imaginative creature who used to sit looking into its depths, hour after hour, from the airy height of the Fire-hang-bird's Nest. Of late a thought had mingled with her fancies which had given to the river the aspect of sometling more than a friend and a companion. It appeared all at once as a Deliverer. Did not its waters lead, after 'long wanderings, to the great highway of the world, and open to her the gates of those cities from which she couid take her depart- ure unchallenged towards the lands of the morning or of the sunset? Often, after a freshet, she had seen a chld's miniature boat floating down on its side past her window, and traced it in imagination back to some crystal brook flowing by the door of a cottage far up a. blue moun- tain in the distance. So she now began to fbllow down the stream the airy shallop that held her bright fancies. These dreams of hers were colored by the rainbows of an 4, page: 74-75[View Page 74-75] -7 4 ' THlE GUARDIAN ANGIL. enchanted fountain,--the books of adv ete te o be seen. The literature s hichw f tnighead lfer, anM tle's lo proveient was chiefY of a teii character, a d,* how evr itere til;ng va"n"d"alu to those to hi t was adapted, had not beenl chosen sith ^any wise reg I to it fitness for her spe I ont ,t o , .a sead whe i - offer ook lie kthe "Saint's hest" to a child who te idea ri rogre' it is true, wt eatdelight Shelid ethe idea oftre ve ing with a pack n', the ddn'h " ,dventures, the yploun ladies at the palce the name of li ch as Beauitul and their ery 'restintl museum f of curiosities. As for the allegdeal meaning, it But, the very first book fhe gothold of out of the hid - det treasury threw the aPilrtim' s qs" t o a" qluite into the shade. It was te stor of a oth ho ral ai-y and lived on an island,-one C I ruoef ahemkably ad- rtive, bt evidently truh fl of rema nearer home, of Deborah aSapSOn the you th apor served as A solder in the Revolutionary I rr, ithe a trait of her in man's a ttire, p e th had 'n ,emale sheo w h was, a lovely. A virtuius young m ed THE GUAARDIAN ANGEL. 75 well, as she deserved to, and raised a famtily with as good a name as wife and mother as the best; of them. But perhaps not one of these books and stories took such hold of her imagination as the tale of Rasselas, which most young persons find less entertaining than the Vicar of Wakefield, with which it is now-a-days so commonly bound up. It was the prince's discontent in the Happy Valley, the iron gate opening to the. sound of music, aind closing forever on those it admitted, the rciky boundaries of the imprisoning valley, the visions of the world beyond, the projects of escape, and the long toil wh-ich ended in their accomplishmbient, which' haunted her sleeping and waking. She too was a prisonlr, but it was not in the Happy Valley. Of the romances and the love-letters we must take it for granted that she selected wiisely, and read discreetly; at least we know nothing to the contrary. There were mysterious reminiscences and hints of her past coming over her constantly. It was in the course of the long, weary spring before her- disappearance, that a dangerous chord was struck which added to her growing restlessness. In an old closet were some sea-shells and coral-fans, and dried star-filhes and sea-horses, andi a nat- ural mummy of a rough-skinned dog-fish. She had not thought of them for years, but now she felt impelled to look after them. The dim sea' odors which Istill clung to them penetrated to the very inmost haunts of memory, and called up that longing for the ocean breeze which those who have once breathed and salted their blood with it never get over, and which makes the sweetest inland airs seem to them at last tame and tasteless. Slle held a tiger-shell to her ear, and listened to that low, sleepy murmur, whether in the sense or in the soul we hardly know, like that which had , page: 76-77[View Page 76-77] 7 T -LTH:E GUARDIAN ANGEL. 7 6 so often been her lullaby,--a memry of the sea, as Lan- dor and Wordsworth have sung. You tare getting to look like your father, Aunt Silence said one day; "I never saw it before. I always thought you took after old Major Gidaeon Withers. Well, I hope you won't cometo an early grave like poor Charles, - or, at any rate, that you may be prepared." " It did not seem very likely that the girl wasgoing out of the world at pre cnt, but she looked Miss Silence in the face very seriously, and said, "Why not a eary grave, aunt, if 'this world is such a bad placeas you say it is?" "I 'm afraid you are not fit for a better." She wondered' if Silence ViTiers and Cynthia Badlam were just ripe 'for heaven. 3For some months Miss Cynthia Badlai, who, as was said, had been an habitualvisitor at The Poplars, had lived re as a permanent resident. Between her and Silence Withers, Myrtle -lazard found no 'rest for her soul. Each of" them was for untwistilg the morning-glory without aiting for the sunshine todoit. Each had her own wrenches and pincers to use for that purpose. All this promised little for the nurture and admonition of the young girl, who, if her will could not be broken by impris- onment and starvation atthree years old, was not likely to be over-tractable to anybut gentle and reasonable treat- ment at fifteen er own re Aunt Silence's engine was responsibility,- her own re- usponsibility and the dreadful consequences which would sfollow toher, Silence, if Myrtle should in any way. go wrong. Ever since her failure in that moral coup d'diat by which the sinful dynasty of the natural self-determiining power was to be dethroned, her attempts in the wayof THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. " education had been a series of feeble efforts followed by plaintive wails over their utter want of success. The face she turned upon the young girl in. her solemn expostulations looked as if it were inscribed with the epitaphs of hope and virtue. Her utterances were pitched in such a forlorn tone, that the little bird in his cage, who always began twittering at the sound of Myrtle's voice, would stop in his song, and cock his head with a look of inquiry full of pa- thos, as if he wanted to know what was the matter, and whether he could do anything to help. The specialty of Cynthia Badlam was to point out all the dangerous and unpardonable transgressions into which young people generally, and this young person in particular, were likely to run, to hold up examples of those who had fallen into evil ways and come to an evil end, to present the most exalted standard of ascetic virtue' to the lively girl's appre- hension, leading her naturally to the conclusion that a bright example of excellence stood before her in the irre- pifoachable relative who addressed her. Especially with regard to the allurements which the world offers to the' young and inexperienced female, Miss Cynthia Badlam was severe and eloquent. Sometimes poor. Myrtle would stare, not seeing the meaning of her wise caution, some- times look at Miss Cynthia with a feeling that there was something about her that Was false and forced, that she had nothing in common with young people, that she had nc pity for them, only hatred of their sins, whatever these might be,--a hatred which seemed to extend .to those sources of frequent temptation, youth and beauty, as if they were in themselves objectionable. Both the lone women at The Poplars were gifted with a thin vein of music. They gave it expression in psalmody, page: 78-79[View Page 78-79] 78 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. i, of course, in which Myrtle, who was a natural singer, was expected to bear her part. This would have been pleas- anter if the airs -most frequently selected had been cheerful or soothing, and if the favorite hymns had been of a sort to inspire a love for what was lovely in this life, and to give some faint foretaste of the harmonies of a better world to come. But there is a fondness for minor keys and wailing cadences common to the monotonous chants of cannibals and savages generally, to such war-songs as the wild, im- placable "MaIseillaise," and to the favorite tunes of low- spirited Christian pessimists. That mournful "China," which one of our most agreeable story-tellers has justly singled out as the cry of despair itself, was often sung at The Poplars, sending such a sense of utter misery through the house, that poor Kitty Fagan would cross her- self, and wring her hands, and think of funerals, and wop- der who was going to die, - for she fancied she heard the Banshee's warning in those most dismal ululations. On the first Saturday of June, a fortnight before her disappearance, Myrtle strolled off by the river-shore, along its lonely banks, and came home with her hands full of leaves and blossoms. Silence Withers looked at them as if they were a kind of melancholy, manifestation of frivolity on the part of the wicked old earth. Not that she did not inhale their faint fragrance with a certain pleasure, and feel their beauty as none whose souls are not wholly shrivelled and hardened can help doing, but the world was, in her -estimate, a vale of tears, and it was only by a mornentary forgetfulness that she could be moved to smile at anything. Miss Cynthia, a sharper-edged woman, had formed the habit of crushing everything for its moral, until it lost its TIE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 79 sweetness and Igrew almost odious, as flower-de-luces do when handled roughly. "There 's a worm in that leaf, Myrtle. He has rolled it all round him, and hidden him- self from sight; ;but there is a horrid worm in it, for all it is so young: and fresh. There is a worm in evry young soul, 'Myrtle." "But there is not a worm in every leaf, Miss Cynthia. ,Look," she said, "all these are open, and you can see all over and under them, and there is nothing there. Are there never any worms in the leaves after they get old anti yellow, Miss Cynthia?" That was, a pretty fair hit for a simple creature of fifteen, --but perhaps she was not so absolutely simple as one might have thought. It was on the evening of this same day that they were sitting together. The sweet season was opening, and it seemed as if the whispering of the leaves, the voices of the birds, the softness of the air, the young life stiriring in everything, called on all creatures to join the universal chorus of praise that was going up around them. "What shall we sing this evening?" said Miss Silence.. "Give me one of the. boks, if you please, Cousin Si- lence," said Miss Cynthia. "it is Saturday evening. Ioly time has begun.' Let us prepare our minds for the solemnities of'the Sabbathl." She took the book, one well known to the schools and churches of this nineteenth century. "Book Second. Hymn 44. Long metre. I' guess 'Putney ' will be as good a tune as any to sing it to." The trio began, - - "With holy fear, and humble song, " - and got through the first verse together pretty well. , ,* page: 80-81[View Page 80-81] 80 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Then came the second verse:- "Far in the deep where darkness dwells, The land of horror and despair, Justice has built a dismal hell, And laid her stores of vengeance there." Iyrtle's voice trembled a little in singing this verse, and she hardly kept up her part with proper spirit. "Sing out, Myrtle," said Miss Cynthia, and she struck up the third verse:- Eternal plagues and heavy chains, Tormentinglracks and fiery coals, And darts t' inflict immortal pains, Dyed in the blood of damned souls." This last verse was a duet, and not a trio. Myrtle closed her lips while it was sninging,and when it was done threw down the book with a look of anger and disgust. The hunted soul was at bay. ; "I won't sing such words," she said, " and I won't stay heire to hear them sung. The boys in the streets say just such words as that, and I aim not going'to sing them. You can't scare me into being good with your cruel hymn- book!" She could not swear: she -was not a boy. She would not cry: she felt proud, obdurate, scornful, outraged. All these images, borrowed from the Holy Iiquisition, were meant to frighten her, and had simply irritated her. 'The blow of a weapon that glances off, stinging, but not pene- trating, only enrages. It was a moment of fearful danger to her character, to her life itself. , Without heeding' the cries of the two women, she sprang up stairs to her hanging chamber. She threw open the window and looked down into the stream. For one mo- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 81 ment her head swam with the sudden, overwhelming, almost maddening thought that came over her, - the im- pulse to fling herself headlong into those running waters and dare the worst these dreadful women had threatened her with. Something - she often thought afterwards it was an invisible hand-held her back duringli that brief moment, and the paroxysm--just such a paroxysm as throwsT many a yoting girl into the Thames or the Seine-- passed away. She remained looking, in a misty dream, into the water far below. Its murmur recalled the whis- per of the ocean waves. And through the depths it seemed as if she saw into that strange, half-remembered world of palm-trees. and white robes and dusky faces, and amidst them, looking upon her with ineffable 'love and tender- ness, until all else faded from her sight, the fche of a fair woman,---was it hers, so long, long deadl, or that dear young mother's who was to her less a recollection than a dream? Could it have been this vision that soothed her, so that she unclasped her hands and lifted her bowed 'headr as if she had heard a voice whispering to her from that unknown world where she felt there was a spirit watching over her? At any rate, her face was never more serene than when she went to meeting with the two nmaiden ladies on the fol- lowing day, Sunday, and heard the Rev. Mr. Stoker preach a sermon from Luke vii. 48, which made lbol:h the women shed tears, but especially so excited Miss Cynthia that she , was in a kind of half-hysteric condition all thel rest of the day.. After that. Myrtle was quieter and more docile than ever before. Could. it be, Miss Silence thought, that the Rev. Mr. Stoker's sermon had touched her haMd heart? 4* , F ' . . . . . . page: 82-83[View Page 82-83] 82 TIE GUARDIAN ANGEL. However that was, she did not once wear the stormy look with which she had often met the complaining remon- strances Miss Silence constantly directed against all the spontaneous movements of the youthful and naturally viva- cious subject of her discipline. June is an uncertain month, as everybody knows, and there were frosts in miny parts of New England in the June of 1859. But there were also beautiful days and nights, and the sui was warm enough to be fast ripering the strawherries, - also certain plans which had been in flower some little time. Some preparations had been going on in a quiet way, so that at the ,ight moment a decisive movement could be made. Miyrtle knew how to use her needle, and always had a dexterous 'way of shaping any article of dress or ornament, a natural gift not very rare, but sometimes very needful, as it was now. On the morning of the 15th of June she was wandering by the shores of the iriver, some distance above rThe Pop- lars, when a boat came drifting along by her, evidently broken loose from its fastenings farther up the stream. It was common for such waifs to show themselves after heavy rains had swollen the river. They might have run the gauntlet of nobody could tell how many farms, and'perhaps ,passed by half a dozen towns and villages in the night, so that, if of common, cheap make, they were retained without scruple, by any who might find them, until the owner called for them, if he cared to take the trouble. 'Myrtle took a knife fom her pocket, cut down a long, slender sapling, and coaxed the boat to the side of the bank. A pair of old oars lay in the bottom of the boat; she took one of these and paddled it into a little cove, where it could lie hid among the thiick alders., Trlen she went home and THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 83 busied herself about various little matters more interesting to her than to us. She was never more amiable'and gracious than on this day.. But she looked often at the clock;, as they remem- bered afterwards, and studied over a copy df the Farmer's Almanac which 'was lying in the kitchen, with a somewhat singular interest. The days were nearly at their longest, the weather was mild, the night promised to be clear and bright. . The lousehold was, to all appearance,'asleep at the usual early hour. When all seemed quiet, Myrtle lighted her lamp, stood before 'her mirror, and untied the string that bound her long and beautiful dark hair, which fell in its abundance over her shoulders and below he:r girdle. She lifted its heavy masses with one hand, and severed it with' a strong pair of scissors, with remnorseless exaction of every wandering curl, until she stood s c:hanged by the loss of that outward glory of her womanhood, that she felt as if she had lost herself and found a brother she had never seen before. "Good by, Myrtle!" she said, and, opening her window very gently, she flung the shining tresses upon the running water, and watched them for a few moments as they floated down the stream. Then she dressed herself in the charac- ter of her imaginary brother, took up the carpet-bag in which she had placed what she chose to carry with her, stole softly down stairs, and let herself out of a window on the lower floor, shutting it very carefully so as to be sure that nobody should be disturbed. She glided along, looking all aboutul her, fearing she might be seen by some curious wanderer, and reached the cove where the boat she had concealed was lying. She , . page: 84-85[View Page 84-85] (, 84: THE 'GUARDIAN ANGEL. got into it, and, taking the rude oars, pulled herself into 'the middle of the swollen styream. Her heart beat so that it seemed to her as if she co0uld hear it between the strokes of the oar. The lights were not all out in the village, and she trembled lest she should see the figure of some watchel looking from the windows in sight of which she would have to pass, and that a glimpse of this boat stealing along at so late an'hour might give the clew to the secret of her disappearance, 'with which the wholel region was to be bus- ied in the course of the next cIdy, 'Presently she came abreast of The Poplars. The house lay so still, so peacefil} - it would wake to such dismay.! The boat slid along beneath her own overhanging chamber. "No song to-morrow from the Fire-hang-bird's Nest! sheb said. So she floated by the slumbering village, the, flow of the i'iver carrying her steadily on, and the careful strokes of the oars adding swiftness to her flight. At last she came to the "Broad Meadows," and knew that she was alone, and felt confident that she had got away unseen.', There was nothing, absolutely nothing, to point out whichway she had gone.. Her boat came from nobody knew where, her disguise had been got to- gether at different times in such a manner as to lead to no suspicion, and not a human being ever had the slightest hint that. she had planned and meant to carry out the en- terprise which she had now so fortunately begun. Not till the last straggling house had been long past, not till the meadows were. stretched out behind her as well as before her, spreading far off into the: distance on each side, did she give way to the sense of wild exultation which was coming fa'st over her. But then, at last, she. drew a longong lon breath, and, standing up' in the boat, z THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. '85 looked all around her, , The stars were shining over her head and deep down beneath her. The cool wind came fiesh upofi her cheek over the long .grass reaches. No living thing moved in all the wide level circle which lay about her. She had passed the Red Sea:, and was alone in ,the Desert. She threw down her oars, lifted her hands like a priest- ess, and her strong, sweet voice burst into sog, - the song of the Jewish maiden when'she went out before the chorus of ;in men and sang that grand solo, which we all remember ii its ancient words, and in their modern para- phrase,- "Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! Jehovah hath triumphed, his people arc free " The poor child's repertory was limited to songs of the religious sort mainly, but there was a, choice among these. Her aunt's favorites, beside "Chna," already mentioned, were "' Bangor," which the worthy old New England clergyman so admired that he acttually had the down-east city called after it, and " 'Windsor," and "Funeral Hymn." ButMyrtle was in no nmood for these. She let off her ecstasy in "Ballerina," and "Arlinrnton, and "Silver Street," and at last in that nmost riotous of devotional hymns, which sounds as if it had been comn- posed by, a saint who had a cellar under his chapel, "Jordan." So she let her wild spirits run loose; and then a tenderer feeling stole over her, and. she salng herself into a more tranquil mood with the gentle music of "Dundee." And again she pulled quietly and steadily at her oars, un- til she reached the wooded region through which the river inds. after leavingl the - Brolad Meadows." The tumult in her blood 'was calmed, yet, every sense , . ., page: 86-87[View Page 86-87] 86 T TH, GUARDIAN. ANGEL. and faculty was awake to the manifold delicious, mysterious impressions of that wonderfill June night. The starswere shining between the tal trees, as if all the jewels of heaven had been set in one belt of midnight sky. The voices of tl2e wind,' as they siglled throirugh the pines, seemed like the br eath of a sleeping child, and then, as they lisped friom the soft, tender lehves of 'beeches and maples like the half-articulate whisper of the mother hushing all the intrusive sounds that might nawaken it. Then came thle pulsating e mo onote of the frois from a fir-off pool, tle harsh cry of an owl from tan old tree that overhung it, the splash of a mink or musquash, and nearer by, the lihlt step of a woodchuck:, as he canteted off in his quiet way to his hole in the nearesthank. The larirels were just com- ing into bloom, - lle yellow lilies, earlier'than their fairer sisters, pusheing their golden ctups thrsoulg the water, not otntnt, like those, to float onl -the surface of the stream that fed them, - emblems of showy wcalth, and, like that, derawing .all manner of-insects to feed upon them. The miniature forests of ferns came down to the edge of the Stream, their tall, beidin g plumes swaying in the night breeze. Sweet odors from oozing pines, from dewy flow- ers, from spicy leaves, stole out of the tangled thickets, and made the whole. scene more' dream-like with their faint, mingled suggestions. By and by the banks of the river grew lower and marshy, and' in plItce of the larger fore'sttrees which had covered them stood slender tamaracks, sickly, mossy, looking as if they had been moon-struck and were out of their wits, their tufts of leives staring off every way from their' spindlitng branches. The. winds came cool and damp out of the hiding-places among their dark recesses. 'The THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 87 country people about here called this region the'"Witches' Hollow," and. had many stories about the stra nge things that happened there. The Indians used to hold' their "powwows," or magical incantations, upon a lbroad mound which rose out of the common level, and where some old hemlocks and beeches formed a dark grove, wlich served them as a temple for their demon-worship. There were many legends of more recent date connected with this spot, some of them hard to' account for, and no superstitious or highly imaginative person would have cared to pass through it alone in the dead of the night, as lthis young girl was doing. She knew nothing of all these fables and fanicies. Her own singular experiences in this enchanted region were certainly not suggested by anything she had' heard,.and may be considered. psychologically curious by. those who would not think of attributing any mystical meaning to them. We are at liberty to report many tnllgs without attempting to explain them, or committing ourselves to anything beyond the fact that so they were toid us. [The reader will find Myrtle's "Vision," as written out at a later period from her recollections, at the end of this chapter.] The night was passing, and she meant to be as far away as possible from the village she had left, before morning. But the, boat, like all craft on country rivers-, was leaky, and she had to work until tired, bailing it out, before she was ready for another long effort. The old tin measure, which was all she had to bail with, leaked as; badly as the boat, andh:er task was a tedious one. At. last she got it in good trim, and sat down to her oars with the determination to pull steadily as long as her strength would hold out. Hour after hour she kept at her work, sweeping round page: 88-89[View Page 88-89] 8 T:ITHE GUARDIAN ANGEL., the long bends where the river was hollowing out one bank and building new shore on the opposite one, so as gradually to shift its channel; by clipper-shaped islands, sharp at the bows looking lup streanm, sharp too at the stern, looking down -their shape solving the navigator's problem of least resistance, as a certain young artist had pointed out; by slumbering villages; by ,utlying farm- houses; between cornfields where the young plants were springing up in little thready founitains; in the midst of stumps where 'the forest had just been felled; through patches where the fire of the last great autumnal drought had turned all the green beauty of the woods into brown desolation; and again amidst broad expanses of open meadow stretching as far as the eye could reach in the uncertain light. A faint yellow tinge was beginning to stain the eastern horizon. laer boat was floatingr quietly along, for she had at last taken in her oars, and she was now almost tired out with toil and excitement. She rested , her head upon her hands, and felt her eyelids closing in spite of herself. And now there stole upon her ear a low, gentle, distant murmur, so soft that it seemed almost to- minle, with the sound of her own breathing, but so steady, so uniform, that it soothed her to sleep, as if it were the old cradle-song the ocean used to sing to her, or the lulla-, by of her fair young mother. So she glided along, slowly, slowly, down the course of the winding river, and the flushing dawn kindled around her as she slumbered, and, the low, gentle murmur grew louder and louder, but still 'she'slept, dreaming of the mur- muring ocean. ,. . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 89 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIII. MYRTLE HAZARD'S STATEMENT. "A Vision seen by me, Myrtle Hazard, aged fifteen, on the night of. June 15, 1859. Written "out at. the re- quest of a friend, from my recollections. "The place where I saw these sights is called, as I have been told since, Witches' Hollow. I had never been there before, and did not know that it was called so, or anything about it. "The first strange thing that I noticed was on coming near a kind, of hill or mound that rose out of the low meadows. I saw a burning cross, lying on the slope of that mound. It burned with a pale greenish light, and did not waste, though I watched it for a long time, as the boat I was in moved slowly with the current and I had stopped rowing. "I know that my eyes were open, and I was awake while I was looking at this cross. I think my eyes were open when I saw these other appearances, but; I felt just as if I were dreaming while awake. . ; . "I heard a faint rustling sound, and on looking up I saw many figures moving around me, and I seemed to see myself among them as if I were outside of myself. 1 "The figures did not walk, but slid or glided with an even movement, as if without any effort. They made many gestures, and seemed to speak, but I cannot tell whether I heard what they said, or knew its meaning in some other, way. . "-I knew the faces of some of these figures. They were the same I have seen in portraits, as long as I can re- ,' tz page: 90-91[View Page 90-91] 9(0 .THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. member, at the old house where I was brought up, called The Poplars. I saw my father and my mother as they look in the two small pictures; also my grandmother, and her father and mother and grandfather, and one other person, who lived a great while ago. All of these have been lopg dead, and the longer they had been dead the less like sub- stane they looked and .te more like shadows, so that the oldes* w .;s like one's breath of a frosty morning, but shaped like the living figure. "There was no motion of their breasts, and their lips seemed to be pmovuing as if they were saying, Breath! Breath!, Breath! I thbught they 'wanted to breathe the ail of this' world again in my shape, which I seemed to see as it were empty of' myself and' of these other selves, like al sponge that has water pressed out of it.. Prlesently it seemed to me that I returned to myself nd they seemed to have become a part of me for I all at oncee othersnging to live paover the they had led, on "Another figure 'was just like the one we called the Major, who was a very strong, hearty.-looking man, and ,who' is said to have drank hard sometimes, though there is nothing about it on hi tombstone, which I used to read went all through me, an d I was always to have hat ., THE GUARDIAJ ANGEL. 91 was left of his life in that shadow-like shape, forming a portion of mine. . "So in the same way with the shape answering to the. portrait of that famous beauty who was the wife of my great-giandfather, and used to be called the Pride of' the County. "And so too with another figure which had the face of that portrait marked on the' back, Ruth /Bradford, who married one of my ancestors, and was before the court, as I have heard, in the time of the witchcraft trials. "'There was with the rest a dark, wild-looking woman, with a head-dress 'of feathers. She kept as it were in shadow, but I saw something of my own features in her face. "It was on my mind very strongly that the shape of that woman of our blood who was burned long ago by the Papists came very close to me, and was in. some way made one with mine, and that I feel her presence with me since, as if she lived again in me; but not always, - only at times, -and then I feel borne up as if I could do any- thing iri the world. I had a feeling as if' she were my guardian and protector. "It seems to me that these, and more, whom I have not mentioned, do really live over some part of their past lives in my life. T do not understand it all, and perhaps it can be accounted for in some way I have not thoug'ht of. I write it down as nearly as I can give it from mremory, by request, and if it is printed at this time had rather have all the real names withheld. "MYRTLE, .HAZARD." NOTE BY THE FRIEND. "This statement must be accounted for in some way, or page: 92-93[View Page 92-93] 92 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. pass into the category of the supernatural. Probably it was one of those intuitions, .with objective projection, which sometimes come to imaginative young persons, especially girls, in certain exalted nervous conditions. The study of the portraits, with the knowledge of some parts of the his- tory of the persons they represented, and the consciousness of instincts inherited in all probability from these same ancestors formed the basis of Myrtle's 'Vision.' The lives of our progenitors. are, as we know, reproduced in different proportions in ourselves. Whether they as indi- viduals have any consciousness of it, is another matter. It is possible that they do .get a second as it were fractional life in us. It might seem that many of those whose blood flows in our veins struggle for te mastery, and by and by one or more get the predominance, so that we grow to be like father, or mother, or remoter ancestor, or two or more. are blended in us, not to the exclusion, however, it must be understood, of a special personality of our own; about which these others are grouped. Independently of any possible scientific value, this 'Vision' serves to illustrate the above-mentioned fact of common experience, which is not sufficiently weighed by most moralists. "How much it may be granted to certain young persons to see, not in virtue of their intellectual gifts, but through those direct channels which worldly wisdom may possibly close to the luminous influx, each reader must determine for himself by his own standards of faith and evidence, "One statement of the narrative admits of a simple natural explanation, which does not allow the lovers of the marvellous to class it with the quasi miraculous appear- ance seen by Colonel Gardiner, and given in full by Dr. 'Doddridge in his Life of that remarkable Christian soldier. X! , .THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 93 Decaying wood is often phosphorescent as many r eaders this state, lying across each other, observed, and vindicate the truth of the youg irl' stor hrithout requiring us to suppose any exceptional occurrence outside of natural laws." page: 94-95[View Page 94-95] 9 L THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CH APTER IX-. MR. CLEMENT LINDSAY RECEIVES A LETTER, AND BEGINS HIS ANSWER. IT was already morning when a young man living in I the town of Alderbanlk, aite lying awae for an hour, thinking the unutterable thoughts that nineteen years of life bring to the sleeping and waking dreams of young Ieople, rose from his bed, and, half dressing himself, sa down at his desk, from which he took a letter, which he opened and iread. It was written in a delicate, thouh lhardly formed female hnd, an crossed like a checker- board, as is usual with these redundant manuscripts. ihe letter was as follows :- "i OXBOW VILLAGE, June 13j 1859. "MY DEAREST CLEME:NT,-- You' was so good to write me such a sweet little bit of a letter, - only, dear, yo never seem to be in quite so good spirits as you used to be. I wish your Susie was with you to cheer you up; but no, - she must'be patient, and you must be patient too, for you are so ambitious! I have heard you say so many times that nobody could be a great artist without passing years and years at work, and growing pale and lean with:thinking so hard. :You won't grow pale and lean, I ope; for I do so love to see that pretty color in jour cheeks you have always had ever since I have known you ; and besides, I do not believe you will have to work so very hard. to do some- thingr great, -ou have so much genius, and people of genius do such beautiful things with so little trouble. You THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. remember those beautiful lines out of our newspaper I sent you? Well, Mr. Hopkins told nce he wrote those lines in one evening without stopping! I wish you could see Mr. Hopkins, he is a very talented person. I cut out this little piece about him from the paper on purpose to show you,--for genius loves genius, -and you would. like to hear him read his own poetry, - he reads it beautifully. Please send this piece from the paper back, as I want to put it in my scrapi-book, under his autograph:-- "Our young townsiman, Mr. Gifted Iopkins, has proved himself worthy of the name e he bears. is poetical effusions are equally creditable, to his head and his heart, displaying the highest' order of genius and( powers of imagination and fancy hardly second to any writer of the age. He is destined to make a great sensation in the world of letters.' "Mrs. Hopkins is the same good soul she always was. She is very proud of her son; as is natural, and keeps a copy of everythng he writes. I believe she cries over them every time she reads tlhem. You don't know how I take to little Sossy and Minthy, those two twins I have written to you about before. Poor little creatures, - what a cruel thing it was in their father amnl mother not to take care of them! What do you think? Old bachelor Grid- ley lets. them come up into his room, and builds forts and castles for them with his big books ' The world 's coming to an end,' Mrs. Hopkins said the fil t time iec did so. He looks so savage with that scowl of his, and talks'so gruff when he is scolding at things in general, thtat nobody would have believed he would have let such little things come anywhere near him. But he. seems to be growing kind to all of us and everybody. I saw him talking to the Fire-hang-bird the other day. You know who 'the Fire- hang-bird is, don't you? Myrtle Hazard her name is. -I wish' you could see her. I don't know' as I do, though. You would want to make a statue of her, or a painting, I page: 96-97[View Page 96-97] 96 THTE GUARDIAN ANGEL. know. She is so handsome that all the young men stand round to see her come out of meeting. Some say that Lawyer Bradshaw is after her; but my! he is ten years older than she is. She is nothing but a girl, though she looks as if she was eighteen. She lives up at a place called The Poplars, with an old woman that is her aunt or some- thing, and nobody seems to be much acquainted with her except Olive Eveleth, who is the minister's dauglter at Saint Bartholomew's Church. She never has beauxs round her, as some young girls do - they say that she is not happy with her aunt and another woman that stays with her, and that is the reason she keeps so much to herself. The minister came to see me the other day, -Mr. Stoker his name is. I was all alone, and it frightened me, fob he looks, O, so solemn on Sundays! But he called me 'Iy dear,' and did n't say anything horrid:, you know, about my lucin such a dreadful, deadful sinner, as I have heard of lis saying to some people, but he looked very kindly at me, and took my hand, and laid his hand on my shoulder like a brother, and hoped I would come and see him in his study. I suppose I must go, but I don't want to. I don't seem to like him exactly. I hope you love me as well as ever you did. I can't help feeling sometimes as if you was growing away from, me,- you know what I mean, - getting to be too great a person for such a small person as I am. I know I can t al- ways understand you when you talk about art, and that you know a great deal too much for such a simple, girl as I am. O, if I thought I could never make you happy . .. . . There, now! I am almost ashamed to send this paper so spotted.-- Gifted Hopkins wrote some beautiful verses one day on A Maiden Weeping.' He compared the tears fail- THE:E GUARDIAN ANGEL. 97 ing from her eyes to the drops of dew which one often sees upon the flowers in the morning. Is n't it a pretty thought? "I wish I loved art as Well as I do poetry; but I am afraid I have not so mucli taste as some girls have. You remember how I liked that picture in the illustrated maga- zine, and you said it was horrid. I have been afraid since to like almost anything, for fear you should tell me some time or other it was horrid. Don't you think I shall ever learn to know what is nice from what is n't? "O, dear Clement, I wish you would do one thing to please me. Don't say no, for you can do everything you try t- I am sure you can. I want you to write me some poetry, -just three or four little verses Too SuSIE. O, I should feel so proud to have some lines written all on purpose for me. M, r Hopkins wrote some the other day, and'printed them in the paper, ' To M -e,' I believe he meant them for Myrtle,- the first and ]tast letter of her name, you see, ' M' and ' e. "Your letter was a dear one, only-so short! I wish you would tell me all about what you are doing at Alderbank. I-ave you made that model of Innocence that is to have my forehead, and hair parted like mine! MMake it pretty, do, that is a darling. "Now don't make a face at my letter. It is n't a very good one, I know'; but your poor little Susie does the best she can, and she loves you so much! . Now do be nice and write me one little bit of a mite of a poem, - it will make me just as happy! "I am very well, and as happy as I can be when you are away. "Your affectionate SUSIE." (Directed to Mr. Clement Lindsay, Alderbank.) 5 page: 98-99[View Page 98-99] (38 - THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. The envelope of this letter was unbroken, as was before said, when the young 'man took it from his desk. He did not tear it with the hot impatience of some lovers, -but cut it open neatly, slowly, one would say sadly.. He read it 'with an air of singular effort, and yet with a certain tender- ness. When he had finished it, the drops were thick on his forehead; he groaned and put his hands to his face, which was burning red. This was what the impulse of boyhood, years ago, had brought him to! 'He, was a stately youth, of noble bearing, of high purpose, of fastidious taste; and, if his broad fore- head, his clear, large blue eyes, his commanding features, 'his lips, firm, yet plastic to every change of -thought and feeling, were not an empty mask, might not improba- bly claim that Promethean quality of which the girl's letter had spoken, --the strange, divine, dread gift of X genius. 'This poor, simple, innocent, trusting creature, so utterly incapable of coming into any true relation with his aspiring mind, his large and strong emotions, this mere child, all simplicity and goodness, but trivial and shallow as the little babbling brooklet that ran by his window to the river, to lose its insignificant being in the swift torrent he heard rushing over the rocks, - this pretty idol for a weak and kindly and easily satisfied worshipper, was to be enthroned as the queen of his affections, to be adopted as the compan- ion of his labors! The boy, led by the commonest instinct, the mere attraction of biped to its female, which accident had favored, had. thrown away the dearest possession of manhood, - liberty, -and this bawhle was to be his life- long reward! And yet not a bawhle cither, for a pleasing person and a gentle and sweet nature, which had once Jf . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 99 made her seem to him the very paragon of loveliness, were still hers. Alas! her simple words were true,- he had grown away from her. Her only fault 'was that she had not grown with him, and surely he could not re- proach her with that. "* No," he said to himself, "I will never leave her so long as her heart clings to me. I have been rash, but she shall not pay the forfeit. And if I may thiak of myself, my life need not be wretched blause she cannot share .all my being with me. The common human qualities are more than all exceptional gifts. She has, a woman's heart; and what talent' of mine is to be named by the love a true woman can offer in exchange for' these divided and cold affections? If it had pleased God to mate me with one more equal in other ways, who could share my thoughts, who could kindle my inspiration, who had wings to rise into the air with me as well as feet to creep by my side upon the earth, -'what cannot such a, woman do for a nmain! "What! cast away the flower I took in the bud because it does not show as I hoped it would when it opened? I will stand by my word; I will be all as a man that I promised as a boy. Thank God, she is true and pure and sweet. My nest will be a peaceful one; but I must take wing alone, alone." He drew one long sigh, and the cloud passed from his couItenance. He must answer that letter now, - at once. There were reasons, he thouglht, which made it important. And so, with the cheerfulness which it cwas kind and be- coming to show, so far as possible, and yet with a little excitement on one particular point, which' was the cause of his writing so promptly, he began his answer. page: 100-101[View Page 100-101] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. / ALDERI BANK, Thursday morning, June 16, 1859. fr th "MY DEAR SUSIE, -I have just been reading your pleasant letter; and if I do not send you the poem you ask for so eloquently, I will give you a little bit of adyice, which will do just as well, - won't it, my dear ? I was interested in your account of various things going on at Oxbow Village. I am very glad you find young Mr. Hop- kins so agreeable a friend. His poetry is better than some which I see printed in the village papers, and seems gener- ally unexceptionable in its subjects and tone. I do not be- lieve he is a dangerous companion, though fhe habit of writing verse does not.always improve the character. I think I have seen it make more than one of my acquaintances idle, con- ceited, sentimental, and frivolous, - perhaps it found them so already. Don't make too much of his talent, and particu larly don't let him think that because he can write verses he has nothing else to do in this world. That is forhis benefit, dear, and you must skilfully apply it. " Now about yourself. My dear Susie,' there was some- thing in your-letter that did'not please me. You speak of a visit from the Rev. MTr. Stoker, and of his kind, brotherly treatment, his cordiality of behavior, and his asking you to visit him in his study. I am very glad to hear you say that you ' don't seem to like him.' He is very familiar, it seems to me, for so new an acquaintance. What busi- ness had he to be laying his hand on your shoulder ? I should like to see him try these free-and-easy ways in my presence! He would not have taken, that liberty, my dear! No, he was alone with you, and thought it safe to be disrespectfully familiar. I want you to maintain your dignity always with such persons, and I beg you not to go to the study of this clergyman, unless sane older THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 101 i friend goes with you on every occasion, and sits through the visit. I must speak plainly to you, my dear, as I have a right to. If the minister has anything of importance to say, let it come through the lips of some mnatur person. It may lose sometlhing of the fervor with which it would have been delivered at first hand, but the great rules of Christian life are not so dependent on the particular indi- vidual who speaks them, that you must go to. this or that young man to find out what they are. If to any man, I should.prefer the old gentleman whom you have mentioned in your letters, Father Pemberton. You understand me, my dear girl, and the subject is not grateful. You know how truly I am interested in all that relates to you, - that I iregard you with an affection which-- HELP! HELP! HELP! A cry as of a young persons voice was heard faintly, coming from the direction of the river. Soamething in the tone of it struck to his heart, and he sprang as if he had been stabbed. He flung open his chamber window and leaped from it to the ground. He ran straight to the bank of the river by the side of which the village of Alderbank was built, a little farther down the stream than the house in which he was living. Everybody that travels in that region knows the beau- tiful falls which break the course of the river just above the village; narrow and swift, and surrounded by rocks of such picturesque forms that they are sought and admired by tourists. The stream was now swollen, and: rushed in a deep and rapid current over the ledges, through the rocky 'straits, plunging at last in tumult and foam, with loud, continuous roar, into the depths below the cliff from' which it tumbled. page: 102-103[View Page 102-103] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. A short distance above the fall there projected from the water a rock which had, by parsimonious saving during a long course of years, hoarded a little soil, out of which a small tuft of bushes struggled to support a decent vegetable existence. The high waters had nearly submerged it, but a few slender twigs were seen above their surface. A skiff was lying close to thisrock, between it and the brink of the fall, which was but a few rods farther down. In the skiff was a youth of fourteen, or fifteen years, hold- ing by the slender twigs, the boat dragging at them all the time, and threatening to tear them away and go over the fall. It was not likely that the boy would come to shore alive-if it did.. There were stories, it is true,- that the Indians used to shoot the fall in their canoes with safety; but everybody knew that at least three persons had been lost by going over it since the town was settled; and more than one dead body had been found floating far down the river; with bruises and fractured bones, as if it had taken the same fatal plunge. There was no time to lose. Clement ran a little way up the river-bank, flung off his shoes, and sprang from' the bank as far as he could leap into the water. The current swept him toward the fall, but he worked nearer and nearer the middle of the stream. I-e was making for the rock, thinking he could plant his feet upon it and at the worst hold the boat until he could summon other help by shouting. He had barely got his feet upon the rock, when the twigs by which] the boy was holding gave way. He seized the boat, but it dragged him from his uncertain foot- ing, and with a desperate effort he clambered over its side, and found himself its second doomed passenger. There was but an instant for thought. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 103 (Sit still;" he said, " and, just as we go over, put your arms round me under mine, and don't let go for your life !" He cauglit up the single oar, and with a few sharp pad- dle-strokes brought the skiff into the blackest centre of the current, where it was deepest, and would plunge them into' the deepest pool. IHold your breath ! God save us! Now!" They rose, as if with one will, and stood for an instant, the arms of the younger closely embraoing the other as he had directed. A sliding away from beneath them of the floor on which they stood, as the drop fails under the feet of a felon. A great rush of air, and a mighty, awful, stunning roar, - an involuntary gasp, a cloking flood of water thatt came bel- lowing after them, and hammered them down into the black depths so far that the young man, though used to div- ing and swimming long distances under water, had well- nigh yielded to the fearful need of air, and sucked in his death in so doing. The boat came up to the surface, broken in twain, splin- tered, a load of firewood for those who raked the river- lower down. It had turned crosswise, and struck the rocks. A cap rose to the surface, such a one as boys wear, - the .same that boy had on. And then - after how many seconds by the watch cannot be known, but after a time long enough, as the young man remembered it, to liye his whole life over in memory - Clement' Lindsay felt the blessed air against his face, and, taking a great breath, came to his full consciousness. The arms of the boy were still locked around him 'as in the embrace of death. A few strokes brought'him to the shore, dragging his senseless :burden page: 104-105[View Page 104-105] 104 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. He, unclasped the arms that held him so closely encircled, and laid the slender form of the youth he had almost died to save gently upon the grass. It was as if dead. He loosed the ribbon that was round the neck, he tore open the checked shirt-- The story of Myrtle Hazard's sex was told,; but she was deaf to his cry of surprise, and no blush came to her cold cheek. Not too late, perhaps, to save her, not too late to try to save her, at least! He placed his lips to hers, and filled her breast with the air from his own panting chest. Again and again he re- newed these efforts, hoping, doubting, despairing,--once more hoping, and at last, when he had almost ceased to hope, she gasped, she breathed, she moaned, and rolled her eyes wildly round her,--she was born again into this mortal life. He caught her up' in his arms, bore her to the house, laid her on a sofa, and, having spent his strength in this last effort, reeled and fell, and lay as one over whom have just been whispered the words, "He is gone," THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 105 CHAPTER X. MR, CLEMENT LINDSAY FINISHES HS LETTER. - WHAT CAME OF IT. THE first thing Clement Lindsay did, when he was fairly himself again, was to finish his letter to Susan Posey. He took it up where it left off, "with an affection which"' ---- and drew a long dash, as above. It was with great effort he wrote the lines which follow, for' he had got an ugly blow on the forehead, and his eyes were "in mourning," as the gentlemen of the ring say, with unbe- coming levity. "An adventure! Just as I was writing these last words, I heard the cry of a young person, as it sounded, for help. I ran to'the river and jumped in, and had the pleasure of saving a life. I ,got some bruises which have laid me up for a day or two; but I am getting over them very well now, and you need not worry about me' at all. I will write again soon; so pray -do not fret yourself, for I have had no hurt that will trouble me for any time." Of course, poor Susan Posey burst out crying, and cried as if her heart would break. O dear! O dear! what should she do! He was almost killed, she knew he was, or he had broken some of his bones. O dear! O dear! She 'would go and see him, there! - she must and would. He would die, she knew he would, --and so ont. It was a singular testimony to the evident presence of a human element in Mr. Byles Gridley that the poor girl, in her extreme trouble, should think of him as a counsel- 5* page: 106-107[View Page 106-107] 106' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. lor. But the wonderful relenting kind of look on hls gravo features as he watched the little twins tumbling about his great books, and certain mrarks of real sympathy he had sometimes shown for her in her lesser woes, encouraged her, and she went straight t to his study, letter in hand. She gave a timid knock ait the door of that awful sanctuary. "Come in,. Susan Posey," was its answer, in a pleasant tone. The old master knew her light step and the maid- enly touch of her small hand on the panel. What a sight! Thllere were Sossy and Minthy in- trenched in a Sebastopol which must have cost a good halIf-hour's engineering, and the terrible Byles Gridley besieging .the fortress with hostile, manifestations of the most singular character. He was actually discharging a large sugar-plum at the postern gate, which' having been, left unclosed, the missile would certainly have reached one of the garrison, when he paused as the door opened, and the great round spectacles and four wide, stariiing infants' eyes were levelled at Miss Susan Posey. . 'She almost forgot her errand, grave as it was, in aston- ishment at this manifestation. The old man had emptied his. shelves of half their folios to build up the fort, in the midst -of which he had seated the two delighted and up- roarious babes. Thlere was his Cave's "; Historia'Liter- aria," and Sit Walter Raleigh's "History of the World," and a whole array of Christian Fathers, and Plato, and Aristotle, and Stanley's hook of Philosophers, with Effi- gies, and the Junta Galen, and the Hippocrates of Foesius, and Walton's Polyglot, supported by Father Sanchez on one side and Fox's "Acts and Monumentq?" on the other, --an odd collection., gs folios from lower shelves are apt, to be. - , . SHE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 107 The besieger discharged his sugar-plum, which was so well aimed that it fell directly into the lap of AMinthy, who acted with it as if' the garrison had been on short rations for some time. He saw at once, on looking up, that there was trouble. "What liow, Susan Posey, my dear?" "O Mr.. Gridley, I am in such trouble! What shall I do? What shall I do'? ' She turned back the name and the bottom of. the letter in such a way that Mr. Gridley could rewad nlothing but the few lines relating the " adventure." "So Mr. Clement Lindsay has been savingl a life, has he, and got some hard knocks doing it, hey., Susan Posey? Well, well, Clement Lindsay is a brave fellow, and there is -.o need of hiding his name, my child. Let me take the 'letter again a moment, Susan Posey.' What is the date of it? June 16th. Yes,-- yes, -yes!" Hle read the paragraph over again, and the signature too, if he wanted to; for poor Susan had found that her secret was hardly opaque to those round spectacles and the eyes behind them, and, with a not unbecoming blush, opened the fold of the letter before she handled it back. ( No, no, Susan Posey. He will come all right. His. writing is steady, and if he had broken any bones he would have mentioned it. It's a thing his wife will be proud of, if he is ever married, Susan Posey," (blushes,) "and his children too," (more blushes running up to her back hair,) "and there's nothing to be worried about. But I ll tell you what my dear, I 've got a, little business that calls me down the river to-morrow, and I should n't mind stopping an hour at Alderbank and seeingi how our young friend Clement Lindsay is; and then, if he was page: 108-109[View Page 108-109] THEI GUARDIA:N ANGEL. going to have a long time of it, why we could manage it somehow that any friend who had any special interest in him could visit him, just to whil.e away the: tiresomeness of being sick. That 's it, exactly. I '11 stop at Alder- bank, Susan Posey. Just clear up these two children for me, will you, my dear ?7 Isoseles, come now,- that's a good child. Helminthia, carry these sugar-plums down stairs for me, and take good care of them, mind !" It was a case of gross bribery and corruption, for the fortress was immediately evacuated on the receipt of a large paper of red and -white comfits, and the garrison marched down stairs much like conquerors, under the lead of the young lady, who was greatly eased in mind By the kind words and the promise of Mr. Byles Gridley. But he, in the mean time, was busy with thoughts she did not suspect. ".A young person," he said to himself, - "why a young person ? Why not say a boy, if it was a boy? What if this should be our handsome truant?- 'June 16th, Thursday morning !' -About time to get to A.lderbank by the river, I should think. None of the boats missing? Whlat then? She may have made a raft, or picked up some stray skiff. Who knows? And then got shipwrecked, very likely. There are rapids and falls farther along the river.- It will do no harm to go down. there and look about, at any rate." On Saturday morning, therefore, Mr. Byles Gridley set forth to procure a conveyance to make a visit, as he said, down the river, and perhaps be gone a day or two. He went to a stable in the village, and asked if they could let him have a horse. The man looked at him with that air of native superi- ority which the companionship of the generous steed con- fers on all his associates, down to the lightest weight among the jockeys. "Wal, I hain't got nothin' in the shape of a hoss, Mr. Gridley, IU've got. a mare I s'pose I could let y' have." "0, very well," said the old master, with a twinkle in his eye as sly as the other's wink, - he had parried a few jokes in his time, --"they charge half-price for mares al- ways, I believe." That was a new view-of the subject. It rather took the wind out of. the stable-keeper, and set a most ammoni- acal fellow, who stood playing with a currycomb, grinning at his expense. But he rallied presently. "Wal, I b'lieve they do for some mares, when they let 'em to some folks; but this here ain't one o' them mares, and you ain't one o' them folks. All my catle 's out but this critter, 'n' I don't jestly want to have nobody drive her that ain't pretty car'ful, -she's faast, ][ tell ye,- don't want no whip. - How fur d'd y' want t' go ? "' 'Mr. Gridley was quite serious now, and let. the man know that he wantted the mare and a light covered wagon, at once, to be gone for one or two days, and would waive the question of sex: in the matter of payment. Alderbank was about twenty miles down the river by the road. On arriving there, he inquired for the house where a Mr. Lindsay lived. There was only xone Lind- say family in town, -he must mean Dr. William Lind- say. His house was up there a little way above the vil- lage, lying a few rods back from the river. lHe found the house without difficulty, and knocked at the door. A motherly-looking woman opened it immedi- ately, and held her hand up as if to ask hinm to speak and move softly. page: 110-111[View Page 110-111] "O THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. "Does Mr. Clement Lindsay live here?" "He is staying here for the present. He is a nephew - of ours. He is in his bed from an injury." "Nothing very serious,. I hope?" ' "A bruise on his head,--not very bad, but the doctor was afraid of erysipelas, Seems to be doing well enough now.? . "Is there a young person here, a stranger?". "There is such a young person here. Do you come with any authority to make inquiries?" . : "I do. A young friend of mine is missing, and I . thought it possible I[ might learn something here about it. ' Can I see this young person?" The matron came nearer to Byles' Gridley, and said:- t This person is a young woman disguised as a boy. She was rescued by my nephew at the risk of lhi life, and she has been delirious ever since she has recovered her con- sciousness. She was almost too far gone to be resuscitated, but Clement put his mouth to hers and kept her breathing until her own breath returned and she gradually came to." Is she violent in her delirium?" "Not now. No; she is quiet enough, but wandering, --wants to know where she is, and whose the strange faces are,--mine and my husband's,-that's Dr. Lind, say,'- and one of my daughters, who has watched with her." - "If that is so, I think I had better see her. If she is the person I suspect her to, be, she will know me; and a familiar face may bring back. her recollections: and put: a stop to her wanderings. If she does not know me, I will not stay talking with her. I think she will, if she is the ne I am seeking after. There is no harm in trying." THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 111 Mrs. Lindsay took a good long look at the old man. There was no mistaking, his grave, honest, sturdy, wrin- kled, scholarly face. His voice was assured and sincere in its tones. 1Iis decent black coat was just what a scholar's should be,--old, not untidy, a little shiny at the elbows with much leaning on his study-table, but neatly bound at the cuffs, where worthy Mrs. Hopkins had detected signs of fatigue and come to the rescue. His very hat looked honest as it lay on the table. It had moulded itself to a, broad, noble head, that held nothing but lwhat was true and fair, with: a few harmless crotchets just to fill in with, and it seemed to know it. ' The good woman gave him her confidence at once. "Is the person you are seeking a niece or other relative of yours ?" "Why did not she ask if the girl was his daughter ? What is that look of paternity and of maternity which ob- serving and experienced mothers and old nurses know ho well in men and in women?" "No, she is not a relative. But I am acting for those who are." "Wait a moment and I will go and see that the room is all right." She returned presently. "Follow me softly, if you0 please. She is asleep, - so beautiful, so innocent! " Byles Gridley, Master of Arts, retired professor, more than sixty years old, childless, loveless, stranded in a lone- ly study strewed with wrecks of the world's thought, his work in life finished, his ofie literary venture gone down with all it held, with nobody to care for him but accidental acquaintances, moved gently to the side of the' bed and looked upon the pallid, still features of Myrtle Hazard. page: 112-113[View Page 112-113] "2 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. He strove hard against a strange feeling that was taking hold of him, that was making his face act, rebelliously, and troubling his eyes Ivith sudden films. He made a brief stand against this invasion. "A weakness, -a weak- ness!"'he said to himself. '"What does all this mean? Never such a thing for these twenty years! Poor child poor child!-- Excuse me, madam,' he said, after a little interval, but for what offence- he did not mention. A great deal might be forgiven, even to a man as old as Byles Gridley, looking upon such a face, -so lovely, yet so marked with the traces of recent suffering, and even now showing by its changes that she was struggling in some fearful dream. Her forehead contracted, she started with a slight convulsive movement, and then her lips parted, and the cry escaped from them,- how leart-breaking when there is none to answer, it,-" 'MotherP') Gone back again through all the weary, chilling years of her girlhood to that hardly remembered morning of her life when the cry she uttered was answered by the light of loving eyes, the kiss of clinging lips, the embrace of caressing arms! "It is better to wake her," Mrs. Lindsay said;' she is. having a troubled dream. Wake up, my child, here is a friend waiting to see you." She laid her hand very. gently on Myrtle's forehead. Myrtle opened her eyes, 'but they were vacant as yet. "Are we dead?" she said. "Where am I?, This is n't heaven-there are no angels -0, no, no, no! don't send me to the other place-fifteen years,- only fifteen years old -no father, no motler-nobody loved me. Was it wicked in 'me to live?" Her whole theological training was condensed in that last brief question. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 113 The old man took her hand and looked her in the face, with a wonderful tenderness in his squared features. "Wicked to live, my dear? No indeed! Here! look at me, my child; don't you know your old friend Byles Gridley? ' She was awake now. The sight of a familiar cobunte- nance brought back a natural train of thought. But her recollection 'passed over everything that had happened since Thursday morning. ' Where is the boat I was in?" she said. "I have just been in. the water, and I was dreaming that I. was drowned. O Mr. Gridley, is that you? Did you pull me-out of the water?" No, my dear, but you are out of it, and safe and sound: that is the main point. How- do you feel] now you are awake?" She yawned, and stretched her arms and looked round, but did not answer at first. This was all natural, and a sign that she was coming right. She looked down at her dress. It was not inappropriate to her sex, being a loose gown that belonged to one of the girls in the house. f I feel pretty well," she' answeied, "but a little con- fused. My boat will be gone, if you don't run and stop it now. How did you get me into dry clothes so quick?" Master Byles Gridley found himself suddenly possessed by a large and luminous idea of the state of things, and' made up his mind in a moment as to what he must do. There was no time to be lost. Every day, every hour, of Myrtle's, absence was not only a source of anxiety and a cause of useless searching, but it gave room for inventive fancies to imagine evil. It was better to run some risk of injury to health, than to have her absence prolonged another day. ' ! page: 114-115[View Page 114-115] "4 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. "Has this adventure been told about in the village, Mrs. Lindsay?" ' No, we thought it best to wait until she could tell her own story, expecting her return to consciousness every hour, and thinking there might be some reason for 4er disguise which it would be kinder to keep quiet about." "You know nothing about her, then?" "Not a word. It was a great question whether to tell the story and make 'inquiries; but she was safe, and could hardly bear disturbance, and, my dear sir, it seemed too probable that there was some sad story behind this escape in disguise, and that the-poor child might need shelter and retirement. We meant, to do as well as we could for her." "All right, Mrs. Liridsay. You do not know who she is, then?" "No, sir, and perhaps it is as well that I should not know. Then I shall not have to answer any questions about it." "Very good, madam, --just as it should be. And your family, are they as discreet as yourself?" "Not one word of the whole story has been or will be told by any one of us. That was agreed upon among us." "Now then, madam. My name, as you heard me say, is Byles Gridley. Your husband will know it, perhaps'; at any rate I will wait until he comes back. This child is of good family and of good name. I. know her well, and mean, with youIr kind help, to save her from the conse- quences which her foolish adventure might have brougoht upon her. Before the bells ring for meeting to-morrow morning this girl must be in her bed at her home, at Ox- bow Village, and we must keep her story to ourselves as THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 115 far as may be. It will all blow over, if we do. The gos- sips will only know that she was upset in the river and cared for by some good people, good people and sensible people too, Mrs. Lindsay. And now I want to see the young man that rescued my friend here, - Clement Lind- say, - I have. heard his name before. Clement was not a beauty for the moment, but Master Grid- ley saw well enough that he was a young man of the right kind.. He knew them at sight, - fellows ,with lime enough in their bones and iron enough'in their blood to begin with, -shapely, large-nerved, firm-fibred and fine-fibred, with well-spread bases to their heads for the ground-floor of the faculties, and well-vaulted arches for the upper range of apprehensions and combinations. "'Plenty of, basements," he used to say, "without attics and skylights. Plenty of skylights without rooms enough and space enough below." But here was "a three-story brain,' he said to himself as. he looked at it, and this was the youth who was to find his complement in our pretty little Susan Posey! His judg- ment may seem to have been hasty, but he took the meas- ure of young men of twenty at sight from long and saga- cious observation, as Nurse Byloe knew the "heftt" of a baby the moment she fixed her old eyes on it. Clement was well acquainted with Byles Gridley, though he had never seen him, for Susan's letters had had a good deal to say about him of late. It was agreed between them that the story should be kept as qut a as possible, and that the young girl should not know the name of her deliverer, -it might save awkward complications. It was not likely that she would be disposed to talk of her adventure, which had ended so disastrously, and thus the whole story would soon die out. I- .I page: 116-117[View Page 116-117] "6 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. The effect of the violent shock she had experienced was to change the whole nature of Myrtle for the time. Her mind was unsettled: she could hardly recall anything except the plunge over the fall. She was perfectly docile and plastic, - was ready to go anywhere Mr. Gridley wanted her to go, without any: sign of reluctance. And so it was agreed that he should carry her back in his cov- ered wagon that very night. All possible arrangements were made to render her journey comfortable. The fast mare had to trot very gently, and the old master would stop and adjust the pilloivs from time to time, and adminis- ter the restoratives which the physician had got ready, all as naturally and easily as if he had been bred a nurse, vastly to his own surprise, and with not'a little gain to his self-appreciation. He was a serviceable kind of body on occasion, after all, wase t he not , hey r. Byles Gridley? he said to himself. At half past four o'clock on Sunday morning the shep- herd brought the stray lamb into the. paved yard at The Poplars, and roused the slumbering household to receive back the wanderer. It was the Irishwoman, Kitty Fagan, huddled together in such amorphous guise, that she looked as if she had been fitted in a tempest of petticoats and a whirlwind of old shawls, who presented herself at, the door. But there was a very warm heart somewhere in that queer-looking bundle of clothes, and it was not one of those that can throb or break in silence. When she saw the long covered wagon, and the grave face of the old master, she thought it was all over with the poor girl she loved, and that this was the. undertaker's 'wagon bringing back only what had once been Myrtle Hazard. She screamed THt GUARDIAN ANGEL. 117 aloud, so wildly that Myrtle lifted her head from the pillow against which she 'had rested it, and started for- ward. The Irishwoman looked at her. for a moment to assure herself that it was the girl she loved, and not her ghost. Then it all came over her, -she had been stolen by thieves, who had carried her off by night, and been res- cued by the brave old man who had brought her back. What crying and kisses and prayers and blessings were: poured forth, in a confusion of which her bodily costume was a fitting type, those who know the vocabulary and the enthusiasm of her eloquent race may imagine better than we could describe it. The welcome of the two other women was far less de- monstrative. There, were' awful questions to be answered 'before the kind of reception she was to have could be set- tled. -What they were, it is needless to suggest; but while Miss Silence was weeping, first with joy that her " respon- sibility" was removed, then with a fair share of pity and kindness, and other lukewarm emotions, - while Miss Badlain waited for an explanation before givTing way to her feelings, - Mr. Gridley put the essential facts before them in a few words. She had gone down the river some miles in her boat, which was upset by a rush of the current, and she had come very near being drowned. She was got out, however, by a person living near by, and cared for by some kind women in a house near the river, where he had been fortunate enough to discover her. - Who cut her hair off? Perhaps those good people, she had been out of her" head. She was alive and' unharmed, at any rate, wanting only a few days' rest. They might be' very thank- ful to get her back, and leave her to tell the rest of her page: 118-119[View Page 118-119] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. story when she had got her strength and memory, for she was not quite herself yet, and might not be for some days. And so there she was at last laid in her own bed, listening again to the ripple of the waters beneath her, Miss Silence sitting on one side looking as sympathetic as her insufficient nature allowed her to look; the Irishwoman uncertain be- tween delight at Myrtle's return, and sorrow for her condition; and Miss Cynthia Badlam occupying herself about hous'e-matters, not unwilling to avoid the necessity 9f displaying her conflicting emotions. Before he left the house, Mr. Gridley repeated the state- ment in the most precise manner, - some miles down the river - upset and nearly drowned- rescued almost dead -brought to and cared for by kind women in the house where he, Byles Gridley, found her. These were the facts, and nothing more than this was to be told at present. They had betterbe made known at once, and the shortest and best way would be to have it announced by the minis- ter at meeting that forenoon. With their permission, he would himself write the note for Mr. Stoker to 'ead, and tell the other ministers that they might announce it to theii people. The bells rang for meeting, but the little household at The Poplars did not add to the congregation that day. In the mean time Kitty Pagyan had gone down with Mr. Byles Gridley's note, to carry it to the Rev. Mr. Stoker. But, on her way, she stopped at the house of one Mrs. Fin- negan, a particular friend of hers; and the great event of the :morning furnishing matter for large discourse, and various social allurements adding to the fascination of having a story to tell, Kitty Fagan forgot her note until meeting THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 119 had begun and the minister had read the text of his sermon. " Bless my soul ! and sure I 've forgot ahl about the letter !" she cried all at once, and away she tramped for the meeting- house. The sexton took the note, which was folded, and said he would hand it up to the pulpit after the sermon,- it would notdo to interrupt the preacher. The Rev. Mr. Stoker had, as was said, a somewhat re- markable gift in prayer, - an endowment by no means confined to profoundly spiritual persons,-- in fact, not rarely owing much of its force to a strong animal nature underlying the higher attributes. The sweet singer of Israel would never have written such petitions and such hynmnslif his manhood had been less complete; the flavor of remembered frailties, could not help giving a character to his most devout exercises, or they would not have come quite home to our common humanity. But there is no gift more dangerous to the humility and Sincerity of a minister. While his spirit ought to be on its knees before the throne of grace, it is too apt to be on tiptoe, following with ad- miring look the flighlt of its own rhetoric. The essentially intellectual character of an extemporaneous composition spoken to the Creator with the consciousness that many of his creatures are listening to criticise or to admire, is the great argument for set forms of prayer. The congregation on this particular Suniday was made up chiefly of women and old men. The young men were hunting after Myrtle Hazard. Mr. Byles Gridley was in his place, wondering why the minister did not read his notice before the prayer. This prayer was never reported, as is the questionable custom with regard to some of these performances, but it was wrought up with a good deal of rasping force and broad pathos. When he came to pray page: 120-121[View Page 120-121] 120 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. for "our youthful sister, missing from her pious home, perhaps nevermore to return to her afflicted relatives," and the women and old men began crying, Byles Gridley was on the very point of getting up and cutting short'the whole matter by stating the simple fact that she had got back, all right, and suggesting that he had better pray for some of the older and tougher sinners before him. But on the, whole it would be more decorous to wait, and perhaps he was willing to hear what the object of his favorite antipathy had to say about it.. So he waited through the prayer. He waited through the hymn, "Life is the time-" He waited to hear the sermon. The minister gaveout his text from the Book of Esther, second chapter, seventh verse: "For she had neither father nor mnother, and the maid was fair and beautiful." It was to be expected that the reverend gentleman, who loved to produce a sensation, would avail himself of the excitable state of his audience to sweep the key-board of their emo- tions, while, as we may say, all the stops were drawn out. His sermon was from notes ; for, though absolutely extem- poraneous composition may be acceptable. to one's Maker, it is not considered quite the, thing in speaking to one's fellow-mortals. He discoursed for a time on the loss of. parents, and on the dangers to which the unfortunate orphan is exposed. Then he spoke of the peculiar risks of the tender female child, left without its natural guardians. Warming with his subject, he dilated with wonderful unction on the temptations springing from personal attractions. He pictured the "fair and beautiful " women of Holy Writ, lingering over their names with lover-like devotion. He brought Esther before his audience, bathed and perfumed for the royal presence of Ahasuerus.. He showed them ' -THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 121 the sweet young Ruth, lying down in her innocence at the feet of the lord of the manor. He dv;elt' with special luxury on the charms which seduced the royal psalmist, - the soldier's wife for whom he broke the commands of the decalogue, and the maiden for whose attentions, in his cooler years, he violated the dictates of prudence and pro- priety. All this time Byles Gridley had Iis stern eyes on him. And while he' kindled into passionate eloquence on these inspiring themes, poor Bathsheba) whom her mother had sent to church that she might get a little respite from her home duties, felt her blood 'growing cold in her veins, as the pallid image of the invalid wife, lying on her bed of suffering, rose in the midst of the glowing pictures which borrowed such warmth from her husband's imagina- tion. The sermon, with its hinted application to the event of the past week, was over at last. The shoulders of the ner- vous women were twitching with sobs. The old men were r: ying in their vacant way. But all the while the face of Byles Gridley, firm as a rock in the midst of this lachrymal inundation, was kept steadily on the preacher, who had often felt the:look that came through the two round glasses searching into the very marrow of his bones. As the sermon' was: finished, the sexton marched up thrlough the broad aisle and handed the note over the door of the pulpit to the clergyman, who was wiping his face after the exertion of delivering his discourse. Mr. Stoker looked at it, started; changed color,- his vision of "The Dangers of Beauty, a Sermon printed by Request," had vanished, --and passed the note to Father Perpibertori, who sat by him in the pulpit. With much pains ihe deciphered its contents, for his eyes were dim with yeais., and, having page: 122-123[View Page 122-123] 122 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. read it, bowed his head upon his hands in silent thanks- giving. -Then he rose in the beauty of his tranquil and noble old age, so touched with the message he had to proclaim to 'his people, that the three deep furrows on his forehead, which some said he owed to the three dogmas of original. sin, predestination, and endless torment, seemed smoothed for the moment, and his face was as that of an angel while he spoke. "Sisters and Brethren, - Rejoice with us, for we have found our laml which had strayed from the fold. This our daughlter was dead and is alive again; she was lost and, is found. Myrtle Hazard, rescued from great peril of the waters, and cared for by good Samaritans, is now in ler home. Thou, O Lord, who didst let the water-flood overflow her, didsti not let the' deep swallow her up, nor the pit shut its mouth upon her. Let us return our thanks to the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,1 who is our 9God and Father, and who hath wrought this great deliverance." After his prayer, which it tried him sorely to utter in unbiooken tones, he gave out the hymn, "Lord, thou hast heard thy servant cry, And rescued from the grave" ; but it was hardly begun when the leading female voice trembled and stopped, - and another, -- and then a third, - and Father Pemberton, seeing that they were all overcome, arose and stretched out his arms, and breathed over them his holy benediction. The village was soon alive with the news. The sexton forgot the solemnity of the Sabbath, and the bell acted as' -if it was crazy, tumIlling heels over head at such a rate, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.. 123 and with such a clamor, that a good many thought there was a fire, and, rushing out from every quarter, instantly caught the great news with which the air was ablaze. A few of the young men who' had come back went even further intheir demonstrations. They got a small cannon in readiness, and without waitinog for' the going down of the sun, began firing rapidly, upon which the Rev. Mr. Stoker sallied forth to put a stop to 'this violation of the Sabbath. But in the mean: time it was heard on all the' hills, far and' near. Some said they were firing in the hope of raising the corpse; but many who heard the bells ringing their .crazy peals guessed what had happened. Before night the parties, were all in, one detachment bear- ing the body of the bol-tailed eatamount swung over a pole, like the mighty cluster of grapes from Eshcol, and another coonveying with wise precaution that monstrous snapping-turtle: which those of our friends wh' wish to see will find among the'specimens marked Chelydra Ser- pentina in the great collection at Cantabridge. }f x page: 124-125[View Page 124-125] 124- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CIIAPTER XI. VEXED WITtr A DEVIL. IT was necessary at once to summon a physician to ad- vise as to the treatment of Myrtle, who had received a shock; bodily and mental, not lightly to be got rid of, and very probably to be followed by serious and varied dis- turbances. Her very tranquillity was suspicious, for there must be something of exhaustion in it, and the reaction must come sooner or later. Old Dr. Lemuel Hurlbut, at the age of ninety-two, very deaf, very nearly blind, very feeble, liable to odd lapses of memory, was yet a wise counsellor in doubtful and difficult cases, and on rare occasions was still called upon to exercise his ancient skill. Here was a case in which a few words from him might soothe the patient and give confidence to all who were interested in her. Miss Silence Withers went herself to see him. "Miss Withers, father, wants' to talk with you about her grand-niece, Miss Hazard," said Dr. Fordyce Hurl- but. Miss Withe rs , Miss Withers?-O, Silence Withers, --lives up at The Poplars. How's the Deacon, Miss Withers?" [Ob. 1810.] "My grandfather is not living, Dr. Hurlbut," she screamed into his ear. "Dead, is he??Well, it is, n't long since he was with us; and they come and go,-they come and go. I re- member his father, Major Gideon Withers. He had a * THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 125 great red feather on training-days, -that was what made me remember him. Who did you say was sick and' wanted to see me, Fordyce?" ' "Myrtle Hazard, father,-she has had a narrow es- cape from drowning, and it has left her in a rather ner- vous state. They would like to have you go up to The Poplars and take a look at her. You remember Myrtle Hazard? She is the great-granddaughter of your old friend the Deacon." He had to wait a minute before .his thoughts would come to order; with a little time, the proper answer would be evolved by the slow automatic movement of the rusted mental machinery. After the silent moment: "Myrtle Hazard, Myrtle Hazard,--yes, yes, to be sure! The old Withers' stock, --good constitutions,-a little apt to be nervous, one or two of 'em. I 've given 'em a 'good deal of valerian and assafoetida, -not quite so much since the new blood came in. There is n't the change in folks people think, - same thing over and over again. I've seen six fingers on a child that had a six-fingered: great-uncle, and I've seen that child's grandchild born with six fingers. Does this girl like to have her own way pretty well, like the rest of the family?" "A little too well, I suspect, father. 'You will remem- ber all about her when you come to see her and talk with her. She would like to talk with you, and her aunt wants to see .you too; they think there's nobody like the 'old 'Doctor.'" He was not too old to be pleased withl this preference, and said he was willing to go when they were ready. With no small labor of preparation he was at last got to page: 126-127[View Page 126-127] 126 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. the house, and crept with his son's aid up to the little room over the water, where his patient was still lying. There was a little too much color in Myrtle's cheeks, and a glistening lustre in her eyes that told of' unnatural excitement. It gave a strange brilliancy to her beauty, ) and might have deceived an unpractised observer. The old man looked at her long and curiously, his imperfect sight excusing the closeness of his scrutiny. He laid his trembling hand upon her forehead, and then felt her pulse with his shrivelled fingers. He asked her various questions about herself; which she answered with a tone not quite so calm as- natural, but willingly and in- telligently. They thought she' seemed to the old Doctor to be doing very well, for he spoke cheerfully to her, and treated her in such a way that neither she nor any of those around her could be alarmed. 'The younger phy- sician was disposed to think she' was only suffering from temporary excitement, and that it would soon pass off. They left the room to talk it over. "It does not amount to much, I suppose, father," said Dr. Fordyce Hurlbut. ' You made the pulse about nine- ty, -a little hard,- did n' you, as I did? Rest, and low diet for a day or two, and all will be right, won't it?" Was it the feeling of sympathy, or was it the pride of superior sagacity, that changed the look of the old man's wrinkled' features?"Not so fast, - not so fast, Fordyce," he said. "I've seen that look on another' face of the same blood,-it 's a great many years ago, and she was dead before you were born, my boy, -- but I 've seen that look, and it meant trouble then, and I 'm afraid it means trouble now. I see some danger of a brain fever. And if she does n't have that, then look out for some hysteric fits that , THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 127 will make mischief. Take that handkerchief off of her head, and cut her hair close, and keep her temples cool, and put some drawing plasters to the soles of her feet, and give her some of my pilulce oompositce, and follow them with some doses of sal polychrest. I 've been through it all before in that same house. Live folks are only dead folks warmed over. I can see 'em all in that girl's face, -Handsome Judith, to begin with. And that' queer woman, the Deacon's mother, -there's where she gets that hystericky look. Yes, and the black-eyed woman with the Indian blood in her, -look out for that,--look out for that.' And-and my son, do you remember Major Gideon Withers?" Ob. 1780.] "Why no, father, I can't say that I remember the Major.; but I know the picture very well.. Does she remind you of him?" He paused again, until the thoughts camne slowly strag- gling up to the point where the question left him. He shook his head solemnly, and turned his dim eyes oa; his sol's face. "Four generations -four generations, man and wife,- yes five generations, for old Selah Withers took me in his arms when I was a 'child,'and called me 'little gal,' for I was in girl's clothes, -five generations before this Hazard child I've looked on with these old eyes. And it seems to me that I can see something of almost every one of 'em in this child's face,-'it 's the forehead of this one, and it's the eyes of that one, and it's that other's mouth, and the. look that I remember in another, and when she speaks, why, I 've heard that same voice before yes, yes - as long ago as when I was first married; for I remember Rachel used to think I praised Handsome Judith's voice * page: 128-129[View Page 128-129] 128 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. more than it deserved, - and her face too, for that matter. You remember Rachel, my first wife,-don't you, For- dyce?" "No, father, I don't remember her, but I know her portrait." (As he was the son of the old Doctor's second' wife, he -could hardly be expected to remember her prede- cessor.) The old Doctor's sagacity was not in fault about the somewhat threatening aspect of Myrtle's condition. His directions were followed implicitly for with the exception of the fact of sluggishness rather than loss of memory, and of that confusion of dates which in slighter degrees is often 'felt as early, as middle-life, and increases in most persons from year to year, his mind was still penetrating, and his advice almost as trustworthy, as in his best days. It was very fortunate that the old Doctor ordered Myr- tle's hair to be cut, and Miss Silence took the scissors and 'trimmed it at once. So, whenever she got well and was seen about, there would be no mystery about the loss of her locks,-the Doctor had been afraid of brain fever, and ordered them to cut her hair. Many things are uncertain in this world, and among them the effect of a large proportion of the remedies pre- scribed by physicians. Whether it was by the use of the means ordered by the old Doctor, or by the efforts of nature, or by both together, at any rate the first danger was averted, and the immediate risk from brain fever soon passed over. But the impression upon her mind and body had been too profound to be dissipated by a few days' rest. The hysteric stage which the wise old man: ad appre- hended began to manifest itself' by its usual signs, if any- thing can be called usual in g condition the naturalorder of which is disorder and anomaly. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 129 And now the reader, if such there be, who believes in the absolute independence and self-determination of the will, and the consequent total responsibility of every human being for every irregular, nervous action and ill-governed muscular contraction, may as well lay down this narrative, or he may lose all' faith in poor Myrtle Hlazard, and all patience with the writer who tells her seory. The mental excitement so long sustained, followed by a violent shock to the system, coming just at the period of rapid development, gave rise to that morbid condition, accompanied with a series of mental and moral perversions, which in i norant ages and communities is attributed to the influence ot evil spirits, but for the better-instructed is the malady which they call hysteria. Few households have ripened a growth of womanhood without witnessing some of its manifestations, and its phenomena are largely traded in by scientific pretenders and religious fanatics. Into. this cloud, with all its risks and all its humiliations, Myrtle Hazard is about to enter. Will she pass through it un- harmed, or wander from her path, and fall over one of those fearful precipices which lie before her? After the ancient physician had settled the general plan of treatment, its details and practical application were left to the care of his son. Dr. Fordyce Hurlbut was a wid- ower, not yet forty years old, a man of a fine masculine aspect and a vigorous nature. He was a favorite with his female patients, perhaps many of them would have said because he was good-looking and pleasant in his manners, but some thought in virtue of a special magnetic power to which certain, temperaments were impressible, though there was no explaining it. 'But he himself never claimed any such personal gift, and never attempted any of the exploits 6*, I. page: 130-131[View Page 130-131] 130 THE' GUARDIAN ANGEL. which some thought were in his power if he chose to exer- cise his faculty in that direction. This girl was, as it were, a child to him, for he had seen her grow up from infancy, and had often held her on his knee in her early years. The first thing he did was to get her a nurse, for he saw that neither of the two women about her exercised a quiet. ing influence upon her nerves. So he got her old friend, Nurse Byloe, to come and take care of her. The old nurse looked calm enough at one or two of his first visits, but the next morning her face showed that something had been going wrong. "Well, what has been the trouble, Nurse?" the Doctor said, as soon as he could get her out of the room. "She 's been attackted, Doctor, sence you been here; dreadful. It's them high stirricks, Doctor, 'n' I never see 'emn higher, nor more of 'em. Laughin' as ef she would bust. Cryin' as ef she 'd lost all her friends, 'n' was a follerin' their corpse to their graves. And spassums,- sech spassums! And ketchin' at her throat, 'n' sayin' there was a great ball a risin' into it from her stommick. One time she 'had a kind o' lockjaw like. And one time she stretched herself out 'n' laid jest as stiff as ef she was dead. And she says now that her head feels as ef a nail had been driv' into it, - into the left temple, he says, and that's what makes her look so distressed no'.' The Doctor came once more to her bedside. He saw that her forehead was contracted, and that she was evident- ly suffering from severe pain somewhere. "Where is your uneasiness, Myrtle?" he asked. She moved her hand very slowly, and pressed it on her left temple. He laid his hand upon the same spot, kept it there a moment, and then removed it. She took it gently THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 131 with her own, and placed it on her temple again. As he sat watching her, he saw that her features were growing easier, and in a short time her deep, even breathing showed that she was asleep. "It beats all," the old Nurse said. "Why, she's been a complainin' ever sence daylight, and she hain't slep' not a wink afore, sence twelve o'clock las' night! It's jes' like them mragnetizers,-I never heerd you was one o' them kind, Dr. Hulburt." " I can't say how it is, Nurse, -I have heard people say my hand was magnetic, but I never thought of its quieting her so quickly. No sleep since twelve o'clock last night, you say?" "Not a wink, 'n' actin' as ef she was possessed a good deal o' the time. You read your Bible, I)octor, don't you? You're pious? Do you remember about that woman in Scriltur' out of whom the Lord cast seven devils? Well I should ha' thought there was seventy devils in that gal last night, from the way she carr'd on. And now she lays there jest as peaceful as a new-born babe, - that is, accordin' to the sayin' about 'em; for as to peaceful new-born babes, I never see one that come t' anything, that did n't screech as ef the haouse was afire 'n' it wanted to alall ll the fire- ing .ines within ten mild." The Doctor smiled, but he became thougthtful in a mo- ment. Did he possess a hitherto unexercised personal power, which put the key of this young girl's nervous system into his hands'? The remarkable tranquillizing effect of the contact of his hand with her forehead looked like an immediate physical action. It might have been a mere coincidence, however. He would not form an opin- ion until his next visit. * '" . page: 132-133[View Page 132-133] 132 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. At that next visit it did seem as if some of Nurse Byloe's seventy devils had possession of the girl. All the strange spasmodic movements, the chokings, the odd sounds, the wild talk, the laughing and crying, were in full blast. All the remedies which had been ordered seemed to have been of no avail. The Doctor could hardly refuse trying his quasi magnetic influence, and placed the tips of, his fingers on her forehead. The result was the same that had fol- lowed the similar proceeding the day before,--the storm was soon calmed, and after a little time she fell into a quiet sleep, as in the first instance. Here was an awkward affair for the physician, to be sure! He held this power i his hands, which no remedy and no other person seemed to possess. How long would he-be chained to her, and she to him, and what would be the consequence of the mysterious relation which must necessarily spring up between a man like him, in the plenitude of vital force, of strongly attractive personality, and a young girl organized for victory over the calmest blood and the steadiest resistance? Every day after this made matters worse. There was something almost partaking of the miraculous in the influ- ence he was acquiring over her. His "Peace, be still!" was obeyed by the stormy elements of this young soul, as if it had been a supernatural commapd. How could he resist the dictate of humanity which called him to make his visits more frequent, that her intervals of rest might be more numerous? How could he refuse to sit at her bed- side for a while in the evening, that she might be quieted, instead of beginning the night sleepless and agitated? The Doctor was a man of refined feeling as well as of principle, and he had- besides a' sacred memory in the THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 133 deepest heart of his affections. It was the common belief in the village that he would never marry again, but that his first and only love was buried in the grave of the wife of his youth. It did not easily occur to him to. suspect himself of any weakness with regard to this patient of his, little more than a child in years. It did not at once su- gest itself to him that she, in her strange, excited condition, might fasten her wandering thoughts upon him, too far re- moved by his age, as it seemed, to strike the fancy of a young girl under almost any conceivable conditions; Thus it was that many of those beautiful summenr even- ings found him sitting by his patient, the river rippling and singing beneath them, the moon shining over them, sweet odors from the thickets on the banks of the stream stealing in on the soft air that came through the open window, and every time they were thus together, the subtile influence which bound them to each other bringing them more and more into inexplicable harmonies and almost spiritual iden- tity. But all this did not hinder the development of new and strange conditions in Myrtle Hazard. Her will was losing its power. "I cannot help it " -the hysteric motto - was her constant reply. , It is not pleasant to confess the truth but she was rapidly undergoing a singular change of her nmoral nature. She had been a truthful child. If she had kept her secret about what she found in 'the garret, she thought she was exercising her rights, and. she had never been obliged to tell any lies about it. But now she seemed to have lost the healthy instincts for veracity and honesty. She feigned all sorts of odd symptoms, and showed a wonderful degree of' cunning in giving an appearance of truth too hem. It became next to ( . ' page: 134-135[View Page 134-135] 1-34 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. impossible to tell what was real and what was simulated. At one time she could not be touched ever so lightly with- out shrinking and crying out. At another time she would squint, and again she would be half paralyzed for a time. She would pretend to fast for days, living on food she had concealed and took secretly in the night. The nurse was getting worn out. Kitty Fagan would have had the priest come to the house and sprinkle it with holy water. The two women were beginning to get ner- vous themselves. The Rev. Mr. Stoker said in confidence to Miss Silence, that there was reason to fear she might have been given over for a time to the buffetings of Satan, and that,-perhaps his (Mr. Stoker's) personal attentions might be useful in that case. Arid so it appeared that the "young doctor" was the only being left with whom she had any complete relations and absolute sympathy. She had become so passive in his hands that it seemed as if her only healthy life was, as it were, transmitted through him, and that she depended on,the transfer of his nervous power, as the plant upon the light for its essential living processed. ' The two young men who had met in so unexpected a manner on board the ship Swordfish had been reasonably discreet in relating their adventures. Myrtle Hazard may or may not have had the plan they attributed to her; how- ever that was, they had looked rather foolish when they met, and had not thought it worth while to be very com- municative about the matter when they returned. It had at least given them a chance to become a little better ac- quainted with each other, and it was an opportunity which the elder and more artful of the two meant to turn to ad vantage. 'THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 135 Of all Myrtle's few friends only one was in the habit of seeing her often during this period, namely, Olive Eveleth, a girl so quiet and sensible that she, if anybody, could be trusted with her. But Myrtle's whole chlamacter seemed to have changed, and Olive soon found that she was in some mystic way absorbed into another nature. Except when the physician's will was exerted upon her, shejwas drifting without any self-directing power, and then any one of those mlanifold impulses which would in some fornmer ages have been counted as separate mlanifestatibons on the part of distinct demoniacal beings might take possession of her. Olive did little, therefore, but visit Myrtle from time to time to learn if any change had occurred in her condition. All this she reported to Cyprian, and all this was got out 'of him by Mr. William Murray Bradshaw. That gentleman was far from being pleased with the look of things as they were represented. What if the Doctor, who was after all in the prime of life and younger- looking than some who were born half a dozen years after him; should get a hold on this young woman, -girl now, if you will, but in a very few years certain to come within possible, nay, not very improbable, matrimonial range of him? That would be pleasant, would n't it. It had hap- pened sometimes, as he knew, that these magnetizing tricks had led to infatuation on the part of the subjects of the wonderful influence. So he concluded to be ill and consult the younger Dr. Hurlbut, and incidentally find out how the land lay., The next question was, what to be ill with. Some not ungentlemanly malady, not hereditary, not incurable, not requiring any obvious change in habits of life.. Dyspepsia would answer the purpose well enough; so Mr. Murray . . page: 136-137[View Page 136-137] 136 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Bradshaw picked up a medical book and read ten minutes or more for that complaint. At the end of this time he was an accomplished dyspeptic; for lawyers half learn a thing quicker than the members of any other profession. He presented himself with a somewhat forlorn counte- nance to Dr. Fordyce Hurlbut, as suffering from some of the less formidable symptoms of that affection. He got into a very interesting conversation with him, especially about some nervous feelings which had accompanied his attack of indigestion. Thehce to, nervous complaints in general. Thence to the case of the young lady at The Poplars whom he was. attending. The Doctor talked with a certain re-. serve, as became his professional relations with his patient; but it was plain enough that, if this kind of intercourse went on much longer, it would be liable to end in some emotional explosion or other, and there was no saying how it would at last turn out. Murray Bradshaw was afraid to meddle directly. He knew something more about the history of Myrtle's ad- venture than any of his neighbors, and, among other things, that it had given Mr. Byles Gridley a peculiar interest in her, of which he could take advantage. 'He therefore art- fully hinted his fears to the old man, and left his hint to work itself out. However suspicious Master Gridley was of him and his motives, he thought it worth while to call up at The Pop- lars and inquire for himself of the nurse what-was this new relation growing up between the physician and his young patient. She imparted her opinion to him in a private conversa- tion with great freedom. "Sech doin's! sech doin's! The gal's jest as much bewitched as ever any gal was sence THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. . 137 them that was possessed in Scriptur'. And every day it's wus and wus. Ef that Doctor don't stop comin', she won't' breathe without his helpin' her to before long. And, Mr. Gridley, -I don't like to say so, - but I can'l help think- in' he's gettin' a little bewitched too. I doan't believe he means to take no kind of advantage of her; buut, Mr. Grid- ley, you 've seen them, millers fly round' and round a candle, and you know how it ginerally comes out. Men is men and gals is gals. I would n't trust no man, not ef he was much under a hundred year old,-- and as for a gal-!" "Mulieri ne mortuce qzidem credendur est," said Mr. Gridley. "You would n't trust a Woman everi if she was dead, hey, Nurse?" "Not till she was buried,'n' the grass growin' a foot high over her," said Nurse Byloe, " unless I 'd k'now'd her sence she was a baby. I 'e know'd this one sence she was two or three year old; but' this gal ain't Myrtle Hazard no longer,- she's bewitched into somethin' different. I'll tell ye what, Mr. Gridley; you get old Dr. Hulburt ocome and see her oncea day for a week, and get the young doc- tor to stay away. I 'll resk it. She '1 have some dreadful tantrums at fust, but she'll come to it in two or three days." Master Byles Gridley groaned in spirit. He had come to this village to end his days in peace, and here he was just going to make a martyr of himself for the sake of a young person to whom he was under no obligation, except that he had saved her from the consequences of her own foolish act, at the expense of a great overturn of all his domestic habits. There was no help for it. The nurse was right, and he must perform the disagreeable duty of page: 138-139[View Page 138-139] 138 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. i -letting the Doctor. know that he was getting into a track which might very probably lead to mischief, and that he must back out as fast as he could. At 2 P. mr. Gifted Hopkins presented the following note at the Doctor's door: - "Mr. Byles Gridley would be much obliged to Dr. - Fordyce Hurlbut if :he would--call at his study this even- -ing." "Odd, is n't it, father, the old man's asking me to come 'j and see him? Those old stub-twist constitutions never want patching." "Old man! old man! Who's that you call old,-not Byles Gridley, hey? Old! old! Sixty year, more or less! How old was Floyer when he died, Fordyce? Ninety-odd, was n't it? Had the asthma though, or he' . have lived to be as old as Dr. Holyoke,-a hundred year and over. That's old. But men- live to be a good deal more than that sometimes. What does Byles Gridley want of you, did you say?" "I'm sure I can't tell, father; I'll go and find out." So he went over to Mrs. Hoplkins's in the evening, and was shown up into the study. Master Gridley treated the Doctor to a cup of such tea as bachelors sometimes keep hid away in mysterious cad- dies. He presently began asking certain questions about the grand climacteric, which eventful period of life he was fast approaching. Then he discoursed of medicine, ancient and modern, tasking the Doctor's knowledge not a little, and evincing a good deal of acquaintance with old doctrines and authors. He had a few curious old medical books in his library, ,which, he said he should like to sl!ow Dr. Hurlbut. /;" ^ THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 139 Thee, o! Mhat do you say to .tis copy of Joan- nes de, Ietamn, Venice, 1522? Lookrat tese woodcuts, the first anatomical pictures ever printed, Doctor, ulness these others of Jacobus Berengarius are'old er! See this scene of the plague-patienLt, the doctor smelling at his pouncet-box, the old nurse standing square at the bedside, the young nurse with the bowl, lolding back and turninr her head away, and the old burial-ha behind hel sovi . er forward,-'a very curious book, Dotefor, and has the first phrenoloital. picture in it ever made. 'iLake a look, too, at my Vesalius, -ot the Leyden edition, Doctor, but the one withl the grand old original figures,--. so good that they laid themra to Titian; And look here, Doctor, I could n't help getting this great folio Albinus, 177, -and the hineteenth century can't touch it, Doctor,-- can't touch it for -completeness and magnificence,- so Ell the learned professors tell me! Brave old fellows, Doctr; and put their lives into theirbooks as yougentlemen Con't pretenl to do now-a-days. And good old fellows, Doctor, - I igh minded, scrupulous, conscientious, punctilious, riemem- bered their duties to man and to woman, and felt all the responsibilities of their confidential relation to families. Did you ever read the oldest of medical doculments,-the Oath of Hippocrates?" The Doctor thought he had read it, but did not remem- read it to you, Dr. Hurllut." There was something in Master Gridley's look that made page: 140-141[View Page 140-141] "O THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. the Doctor feel a little nervous; he did not know just what was coming. Master Gridley took out his great Hippocrates, the edition of Foesius, and opened to the place. He turned so as to face the Doctor, and read the famous Oath aloud, l Englishing it'as he went along. When he came to these words whlch follow, he pronounced them very slowly and with specia emphasis. "Mhy life shall be pure and holy." ' Into whatever house Henter, I will go for the good of the patient: I will abstain from inflicting any voluntary injury, and from leading away'any, whether man or woman, bond or free." . . The Doctor changed color as he listened, and the moist- ure broke out on his forehead. ' ' Master Gridley saw it, and followed up his advantage. ' Dr. Fordyce Hurlbut, are you not in danger of violating the sanctities of your honorable calling, and leading astray . ? a young person committed to your sacred keeping?" While saying these words, Master Gridley looked full -upon him, with a face so charged with grave meaning, so i impressed with the gravity of his warning accents, that the Doctor felt as if he were before some dread tribunal, I and remained silent. He was a member of the Rev. M3r. Stoker's church, and the words he had just listened to were i those of a sinful old heathen who had never heard a ser- mon ,in his life; bulb ttey stung him, for'all that, as the h parable of the prophet stung the royal transgressor. He spoke at length, for the plain honest words had touched the right spring of consciousness at the right mo- ment; -not tob early, for he now saw whither he was tend- ing, - not too late, for he was not yet in the inner spirals ! THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. , 141 of the passion which whirls men and women to their doom in ever-narrowing coils, that will not unwind at the com- mand of God or man. He spoke as one who is humbled by self-accusation, yet in a manly way, as became his honorable and truthful character. "Master Gridley," he said, "I stand convicted before you. I know too well what you are thinking of. It is true,. I cannot continue my attendance on Myrtle -on Miss Hazard, for you mean her - without peril to both of us. She is not herself. . God forbid that I should cease to be myself! I shave been thinking of a summer tour, and I -will at once set out upon it, and leave this patient in my father's hands. I think he will find strength. to visit her under the circumstances." The Doctor Went- off the next morning without saying a word to Myrtle Hazard, and his father made the customary. visit in his place. That night the spirit tare her, as -may well be supposed, and so the second night. But there was ao' help for it: her doctor was gone, and the old physician., with great effiort, came instead, sat by her, spoke kindly to her, left wise directions to her attendants, and above all assured them- that, if'they would have a little patience, they would see all this storm blow ,over. On the third night after his visit, the spirit rent her sore, and came out of her, or, in the phrase of to-day, she had a fierce paroxysm, after which the violence. of the conflict ceased, and she might be called convalescent so far as that was concerned. But- all this series of nervous disturbances left her in a very impressible and excitable coidition. This was just the page: 142-143[View Page 142-143] "2 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. state to invite the spiritual manipulations of one of those theological practitioners who consider that the treatment of all morbid states of mind short of raving madness be- longs to them and not to the doctors.. This same condition was equally favorable for the operations of any professional experimenter who would use the flame of religious excite- ment to light the torch of an earthly passion. So many fingers that begin on the black keys stray to the white ones before the tune is played out! If Myrtle Hazard was in charge of any angelic guardian, the time was at hand when she would need all celestial in- fluences; for the Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker was about to take a deep interest in her spiritual welfare. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 143 C CHAPTER XII. SKIRMSHNG. ": S0 the Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker has called upon you, Susan Posey, has he? And wants you to come -and talk religion with him in his study, Susan Posey, does he? Religion is a good thing, my dear, the best thing in the world, and never better than when we are young, and n o young people need it more than iyoung girls. There are temptations to all, and to them as often as to any, Susan ! Posey. And temptations come to them in places where they don't look for them, and from persons they never thought of as tempters. So I am very glad to have your thoughts called to the subject of religion. 'Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth.' I "( "But Susan Posey, my dear, I think you had better not break in upon the pious meditations of the Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker in his private study. A monk's cell and a minister's library are hardly the places for young ladies. They distract the attention of these good rnen from their devotions and their sermons. If you think you must go, you had better take Mrs. Hopkins with you. She likes religious conversation, and it will do her good too, and save a great deal of tiire for the minister, conversing with two at once. She is of discreet age, and will tell you when it is time to come away, -you might stay too long, you know. I ve known young persons stay a good deal too long at these interviews, -a great deal too long, Susan Po'sey!" Such was the fatherly counsel of Master Bryles Gridley. .* page: 144-145[View Page 144-145] "4 ' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Susan was not very quick of apprehension, but she could not help seeing the justice of Master Gridley's remark, that for a young person to go aad break in on the hours that a minister requires for his studies, without being accompanied by a-mature friend who would remind her when it was tinme to go, would be taking an unfair advantage of his kindness in asking her to call upon him. She promised, therefore that she would'never go without having Mrs. Hopkins as her companion, and with this assurance her old friend rest- ed satisfied. It is altogether likely that he had some deeper reason for his advice than those with which he satisfied the simple nature of Susan Posey. Of that it will be easier to judge after a glance at the conditions And character of the minis- ter and his household. The Rev. Mr. Stoker had, in addition to the personal advantages already alluded to, some other qualities whic- might prove attractive to many women. He had, in par- ticular, that art of sliding into easy intimacy with them which implies some knowledge of the female nature, and, above' all, confidence in one's powers. There was little doubt, the gossips maintained, that many of the younger women -of his parish would have been Willing, in certain contingencies, to lift for him that other end of his yoke under which poor Mrs. Stoker was fainting, unequal to the burden. That lady must have been some years older than her husband,- how many we need not inquire too curiously, -but'in vitality she had long passed the prime in which he was still flourishing. She had borne him five children, and cried her eyes hollow over the graves of three of them. Household cares had dragged upon her; the routine of vil \ . . ;si - ' TTHE GUARDIAN ANGEL. . 145 lage life wearied her; the parishioners expectetd too much of her as the minister's wife; she had wanted more fresh air and more cheerful companionship; and her thoughts, had fed too much on death and sin, -good bitter tonics to increase the appetite for virtue, but not good as food and drink for the spirit. But there was another grief which lay hidden far beneath these obvious depressing influences. She felt that she was no longer to her husband what she had been to him, and felt it with' something of self-reproach,-- which was a' wrong to' herself, for she had been a true and tender wife. Deeper than all the rest was still another feeling, which had hardly risen into the region of inwardly articulated thought, but lay unshaped beneath all the syllabled trains of sleeping or waking consciousness. The minister was often consulted by his parishioners upon spiritual matters, and was in the habit of receiving in his study visitors who tame with such intent. Iometimes it was old weak-eyed Deacon Rumrill, in great iron-bowed spectacles, with hanging nether lip and tremulous voice, who had got his brain into a muddle about the beast. with two horns, or the woman that fled into the wilderness, or other points not settled to his mind in Scott's Commentary. The minister was always very busy at such times, and I made short work of his deacon's doubts. Or it might be that an ancient woman, a mother or a grandmother in Israel, came with her questions and her perplexities to her pas- tor; and it was, pretty certain that just at that moment he- was very deep in his next sermon, or had a pressing visit to make. : ' But it would also happen occasionally that one of the tenderer ewe-lambs of the flock needed comtfort. from the 7 ' Jr ':i 77' ?o page: 146-147[View Page 146-147] "6 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. presence of the shepherd. Poor MrIs. Stoker noticed, or thought she noticed, that the good man had more leisure for the youthful and blooming sister than for the more dis- crect and venerable matron or spinster. The sitting was apt to be longer;, and the worthy pastor would often lin- ger awhile about, the door, to 'speed the parting guest, perhaps, but a little too much after the fashion of young people who are not displeased with each other, and who often find it as hard to' cross a threshold single as a witch finds it to get over a running stream. More than once, the pallid, faded wife had made an errand to the study, and, after a keen look at the bright young cheeks, flushed with the excitement of intimate spiritual communion, had gone back to her chamber with her hand pressed against her heart, and the bitterness of death in her soul. The end of all these bodily and mental trials was, that the minister's wife had fallen into a state of habitual inva- lidism, such as onlywomen, who feel all tie nerves which in men are as insensible as telegraph-wires, can experience. The doctor did not know what to make of her case,-- whether she would live or die, - whether she would lan- guish for years, or, all at once, roused by some strong im- pression, or in obedience to some unexplained movement of the vital forces, take up her bed and walk. For her bed had become her home, where she lived as if it belonged to her organism. There she lay, a not unpleasing invalid to contemplate, always looking resigned, patient, serene, except when the one deeper grief was stirred, always arrayed with simple neatness, and surrounded with little tokens that showed the constant presence with her of tasteful and thoughtful affection. She did not know, no- body could know, how steadily, how silently, all this arti- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 147 ficial life was draining the veins and blanching the cheek of her daughter Bathsheba, one of the every-day, air- breathing angels without nimbus or aureole who belogto every story which lets us into a few househlolds, as much as the'.stars and the flowers belong to everybody's verses Bathsheba's devotion to her mother brought its own reward, but it was not in the shape of outward commenda- tion. Some of the more censorious .members of her father's congregation were severe in their remarks upon her absorption in the supreme object of her care. It seems that this had prevented lher from attending to other duties which they considered more imperative. They did n't see why she should n't keep a Sabbath school as well as the rest, and as to her not coinin' to meetin' three times on Sabbath day like other folks, they could n't account for it, except because she calculated that she could get along without the means' of grace, bein' a minister's daughter. Some went so far as to doubt if shi had ever experienced religion, for all she was a professor. There was a good many indulged a false hope.. To this, others objected her life of utter self-denial and entire surrender to her duties towards her mother as some evidence of Christian character' But old Deacon Rumrill put down that heresy by show- ng conclusively from Scott's Commentary on Romans xi. 1- 6, that this was altogether against her chance of being called, and that the better her disposition to perform good w orks, the more unlikely she as to e suject of saving grace. Some of thee severe critics were good people 'enough themselves, but they loved active work and stirrin co mpanionslip, anld would have found their real cross 'if they had been called to sit at. an invalid's bedside. page: 148-149[View Page 148-149] "8 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. As for the Rev. Mr. Stoker, his duties did not allow him to give so much time to his suffering wife as his feelings would undoubtedly have prompted. He there- fore relinquished the care of her (with great reluctance, we may naturally suppose) to Bathsheba, who had in-. herited not only her mother's youthful smile, but that self-forgetfulness which, born with some of God's crea- tures, is, if not " grace," at least a manifestation of native depravity which might well be mistaken for it. The intimacy of mother and daughter was complete, except on a single point. There was one subject on which no word ever passed between them. The ex- cuse of duties to others was by a tacit understanding a mantle to cover all short-comings in the way of attention from the husband and father, and no word ever passed between them implying a suspicion of the loyalty of his' 'affections. Bathsheba came at last' so to fill with her tenderness the space left enmpty in the neglected heart, that herf mother only spoke hier habitual feeling when she said, "I should think you were in love with me, my dar- ling, 'if you were not my daughter." This was a dangerous state of things for the minister. Strange suggestions and unsafe speculations began to min- gle with his dreams and reveries. The thought once ad- mitted that another's life is becoming superfluous and a bur- den, feeds like a ravenous vulture on the soul. Woe to the man or woman whose days are passed in watching the hour-glass through which the sands run too slowly for longings that are like a skulking procession of bloodless murders! Without affirming such horrors of the Rev. Mr. Stoker, it would not be libellous to say that his fancy was tampering with future possibilities, as it constantly was .apr .tatl THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 149 happens with those who are, getting themselves into train- ing for some act of folly, or some crime, it may be, which will in its own time eyolve itself as an idea iin the conscious- ness, and by and by ripen into fact, It must not be taken for granted that Ihe wasactually on the road to some fearful deed, or that he was an utterly lost soul. He was ready to yield to temptation if it came in his way; he would even court it, but he did not shape out any plan 'very definitely in' his mind, as a more des- perate sinner would have done. He, liked the pleasur- able excitement of emotional relations with his pretty lambs, and enjoyed it under the name of religious commun- ion. There is a border land where 'one can, stand on the territory of legitimate instincts and affections, and yet, be so near the pleasant garden of the Adversary, that his dangerous fruits and flowers are within easy reach. Once tasted, the next step is like to be the scal- ing. of the wall. The Rev. Mr. Stoker was very fond of this border land. His imagination was wandering. over it too often when his peni was travelling almost of itself along the weary parallels of the page be'fore him. All at once a blinding flash would come over 'him, the lines of his sermon would run together, the fresh manuscript would shrivel like a dead leaf, and the rows of hard- hearted theology on the slelves before him, and the broken-backed: Concordance, and the Holy Book itself, would fade away as he gave himself up to the enchant- ment of his delirious dream. The reader' will probably consider it; a discreet ar- rangement that pretty Susan Posey should- seek her pastor in grave company. Mrs. Hopkins willingly con- sented to the arrangement which had been proposed, and page: 150-151[View Page 150-151] 150 TIE GUARDIAN ANGEL. agreed to go with the young, lady on her visit to the Rev. Mr. Stoker's study. They were both arrayed in their field-day splendors on this occasion. Susan was lovely in -her light curls and blue ribbons, and the becoming dress which could not, help betraying the modestly emphasized : crescendos and gently graded dininuendos of her figure. She was as round as if she had been turned in a lathe, and as delicately, finished as if she had been modelled for a Flora. She had naturally an airy toss of the head and a springy movement of the 'joints, such as some girls study in the glass (and make dreadful work 'of it), so that she danced all over without knowing it, like a little lively bobolink on a bulrush. In short, she looked fit to spoil a homily for Saint Anthoiny himself, Mrs. Hopkins was not less perfect in her somewhat different style. She mightt be called impressive andiim- posing in her grand costume, which she wore for this visit. It was a black silk dress, with a crape shlawl, a firmly defensive bonnet, and 'an alpaca umbrella with a stern-looking and decided lknob presiding as its handle. The dried-leaf rustle of her silk dress was suggestive of the ripe autumn of life, bringinglith it those golden fruits of wisdom and experience which the grave teachers of mankind so justly prefer to the idle blossoms of adoles- cence. It is needless to say that the visit was conducted with the most perfect propriety in all respects. Mrs. Iopkins was disposed to take upon herself a large share of the conversation. The minister, on the other hand, would have devoted himself more particularly to Miss Susan; but,' with a very natural make-believe obtuseness, the good woman drew his fire so constantly that few of his remarks, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 151 and hardly any of his insinuating looks, reached the ten- der object at which they were aimed. It is probable, 'that his features or tones betrayed somel impatience at having thus been foiled of his purpose, for Mrs. Hopkins thought he looked all the time as if he wanted to get rid of her. The three parted, therefore, not in the best humor all round. Mrs. Hopkins declared she 'd see the minister in Jericho before she'd fix herself up as if she was goin' to a weddin' to go and see him again. 'Why, he didn't make any more of her than if she'd been a tabby-cat. She believed some of these ministers thought women's souls dried up like peas in a pod by the time they was :forty year old; anyhow, they did n't seem to care any great about 'em, except while they was green and tender. It was, all Miss Se-usan,' Miss Se-usan, Miss, Se-usan, my dear! but as for her, she might jest as well have gone with her apron on, for any notice he took of her.- She did n't care, she was n't goin' to be left out' 'when there was talkin' goin' on, anyhow. Susan Posey, on her part, said she did n't like him a bit. He looked so sweet at her, and heldl his head on one side, - law! just as if he had been a young beau! And, -don't tell, - but he whispered that he wished the next time I came I would n't bring that Hopkins woman! It would not be fair to repeat what the mninister said to himself; but we may own as much as this, that, if worthy rs. -Iopkins had heard it, she would have treated him to a string of adjectives which would have greatly enlarged his conceptions of the female vocabulary. page: 152-153[View Page 152-153] O15f2 . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.. CH:APTER XIII. BATTLE. , IN tracing the history of a human soul- through its com- monplace nervous perturbations, still more through its spiritual humiliations, there 'is danger that we shall feel a certain contempt for the subject of such weakness. It is easy to laugh at the erring impulses of a young girl;, but you who remember when -- - , only fifteen years old, untouched by passion, unsullied in name, was found in the shallow brook where she had sternly and surely sought her death,--(too true! too true! - ejtus animne Jesu miserere!-but a Igeneration has passed since then,)- - will not smile so scornflully. Myrtle Hazard no longer required the physician's visits? but her mind was very far from being poised in the just balance of its faculties. She was of a good natural consti- tution and a'fine temperament; but she had been over- wrought by all that she had passed througli, and, though X happening to have been born in another land, she was of American descent. Now, it has lolig been noticed that there is something in the influences, climatic or other, here prevailing, which predisposes to morbid religious excite- menrt. The graver reader will not object to seeing the exact statement of a competent witness ,belonging to a by-gone century, confirmed- as it is by all that we see about us. "There is no Experienced Minister of the Gospel who hath not in the Cases of Tempted Souls often had this Ex- , THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 153 perjence, that the ill 'Cases of their distempered Bodies are the' frequent Occasion and Original of their Temptations." "The Vitiated Humours in many Person-s, yield the Steams whereinto Satan does insinuate himself, till he has gained a sort of Possession in them, or at least Iran Opportunity to shoot into the Mind as rpany Fiery Darts as may cause a sad Life unto them; yea, 't is well if Self:laurder be not the sad end into which these hurred-(?) People are thus precipitated. 2New fingland, a country where Splenetic Maladies are pievailing and pernicious, perhaps above 'mny other, hat!l afforded Numberless Instances:, of even pious People, who bave. contracted these Melancholy Indisposi- tions which have unhinged them from all Service or Com- fort; yea, not a few Pefsons have been hurried thereby to lay Violent Hands upon themselves at the la;t. Thse are among the unsearchable Judgments of God. /" Such are the words of the Rev. Cotton NM[ather. The minister had hardly recovered from his vexatious defeat in the skirmish where the'Widow FHopkins was his principal opponent, when he received a iqote from Miss Silence Withers, wh'ich promised another and more impor- tant field of conflict. It contained a request that he would visit Myrtle Hazard, who seemed to be in a very excitable and impressible condition, and who might perhaps be easily broughlt under those influences which s]hee had resisted firomr ler early years, through inborn perversity of char- acter. of When the Rev. \Mr. Stoker received this note, he turned vey pale, - which was a bad sign. Then :he drew a long breath or two, and presently a flush tingled up to his cheek, where it remained a fixed burning glow. 'This may have 7* page: 154-155[View Page 154-155] 154 TIlE GUARDIAN ANGEL. been from the deep interest he felt in rMyrtle's spiritual wel- fare; but he had- often been sent for by aged sinners in more immediate peril, apparently, without any such disturb- ance of the circulation. To know whether a minister, young or still in flower, is in safe or dangerous paths, there are two psychometers, a comparison between which will give as infallible a return as the dry and wet bulbs of the ingenious "Hygrodeik." The first is the black broadcloth forming -the knees of his pantaloons; the second, the patch of carpet before his mirror. If the first is unworn and' the second is frayed and threadbare, pray for him. If the first is worn and shiny, while the second keeps'its pattern and texture, get him to pray for you. The Rev. Mfr. Stoker should have gone down on his knees then and there, and sought fervently for the grace which he was like to need in the dangerous path just opening before him. He did not do this; but he stood up before his looking-glass and parted his hair as carefully as if he had been separating the saints of his congregation from the sinners, to send the list to the statistical columns of a religious newspaper. He selected a 'professional neckcloth, as spotlessly pure as if it had been washed in innocency, and adjusted it in, a tie which was like the white rose of Sharon. -Myrtle Hazard was, he thought, on the whole, the handsomest girl he had ever seen; Su- san Posey was to her as a buttercup from the meadow is to a tiger-lily. He knew the nature of the nervous disturbances through which she had been passing, and that she must be in a singularly impressible condition. He felt sure that he could establish intimate spiritual re- lations with her by drawing o ui her repressed sympathies, .. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 155 by feeding the fires of her religious imagination, by exer- cising all those lesser arts of fascination which are so familiar to the Don. Giovannis, and not always unknown to' the San Giovannis. As for the hard doctrines which he used to produce sen- sations with in the pulpit, it would have been a great pity to worry so lovely a girl, in such a nervous state, with them. He, remembered a' savory text -about being made all things to all men, which would bear application par- ticularly well to the case of this young Worman. lie knew how to weaken his divinity, onccasion, as well as an old housewife to weaken her tea, lest it should keep people awake. The Rev. Mr. Stoker was a man of emotions. He loved to feel his heart beat; he loved all the forms of non- alcoholic drunkenness, which, are so much better than the vinous, because they taste themselves so keenly, whereas the other (according to 'the statement of experts who are familiar with its curious phenomena) has a certain-sense of unreality connected with it. He delighted in the re- flex stimulus of the excitement he produced in others'by working on their feelings. A powerful preacher is open to the same sense of enjoyment -an awful, tremulous goose-flesh sort of state, but still enjoyment -that a great tragedian feels when he curdles the blood of his audience. Mr. Stoker. was noted for the vividness of his. descrip- tions of the future which was in store for the great bulk of his fellow-townsmen and fellow-worldsmen. He had three sermons on this subject, known to all the country round as the sweating sermon, the fainti;ng sermon, and the convulsionfit sermon, from the various effects said to page: 156-157[View Page 156-157] 56 , .THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. iave been produced by them when delivered before large udiences. It might be supposed that his reputation as a errorist would have interfered with his attempts to ingra- iate himself with his young favorites. But the tragedian vho is fearful as Richard or as Iago finds that no hin- Irance to his success in the part of Romeo. Indeed, vomen rather take to terrible people; prize-fihters, p- rates, highwaymen, rebel generals, Grand Turks, and Bluebeards generally have a fascination for the sex; your virgin has a natural instinct to saddle your'ion. The fact, therefore, that the young girl had sat undr his tremen- dous pulpitings, through the sweating sermon, the fainting sermon, and the convulsion-fit sermon, did not secure her against the influence of his milder approaches. Myrtle was naturally surprised at receiving a visit from him; but she was in just that unbalanced state in Which almost any impression is welcome. He showed so much interest, first in her health, then in her thoughts and feel- ings, always following her lead in the conversation, that before he left-her she felt as if she had made a great discov- ery; namely, that this man, so formidable behind the guns of his wooden bastion, was a most tender-hearted and sym- pathizing person when he came out of it unarmed. How delightful he was as he sat talking in the twilight in low and tender tones, with respectful pauses of listening, n which he looked as if he too had just made a discovery,- of an angel, to wit, to whom he could not help unbosoming ^ his tenderest emotions, as to a being from another sphere. It was a new experience to Myrtle. She was all ready for the spiritual manipulations of an expert. The excita- bility which had been showing itself in spasms and strange paroxysms had been transferred to those nervous centres, ?? THtE GUARDIAN ANGEL. . 157 whatever they may be, cerebral or ganglionic, which are concerned in the emotional movements of the religious. nature.. It was taking her at an unfair disadvantage, no doubt. In the old communion, some priest might have wrought upon her while in this condition, and we might. have had at this very moment among us. another Saint Theresa or Jacqueline Pascal. She found but a danger- ous substitute in the spiritual companionship of a saint like the Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker. People think the confessional is unknown in our Prot- estant churches. It is a great mistake. The principal cliange is, that there is no screen between the penitent and the father confessor. The minister knew his rights, and very soon asserted them. He gave Aunt Silence to un- derstand that he could talk more at ease if he and his young disciple were left alone together. Cynthia Badiam did' not like this arrangement. She was afraid to speak about it; but she glared at them aslant, with the look of a biting horse when his eyes follow one sideways until they are all white but one'little vicious spark of pupil. It was not very long before the Rev Mr. Stoker had established pretty intimate relations with the household at The Poplars. He' had reason to think, he assured Miss Silence, that Myrtle was in a- state of mind which prom- ised a complete transformation of her character. He used the phrases of his sect, of course, in talking with the elder- ly lady; but the language which he employed with the young girl was free from 'those mechanical expressions which would have been like to offend or disgust her. As to his rougher formnula, he-knew better than to ap- ply them to a creature of her fine texture. If he had been disposed to do so, her simple questions and antswers page: 158-159[View Page 158-159] 158 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. to his inquiries would have made it difficult. But it was in her bright and beautiful eyes, in her, handsome features, and her winning voice, that ie found his chief obstacle! How could he look upon her face in its loveliness, and talk to her as if she must be under the wrath and curse of God for the mere fact of her existence? It seemed more natural, and it certainly was more entertaining, to question her in such a way as to find out what kind of theology had grown up in her mind as the result of her training in the complex scheme of his doctrinal school. And as he knew that the merest child, so soon as it begins to think at all, works out for itself something like a theory of human nature, he pretty soon began sounding Myrttle's thoughts on this matter. What was her own idea, he would be pleased to know, about her natural condition as one born of a 'sinful race, and her inherited liabilities on that account? Myrtle smiled like a little heathen, as she was, accord- ing to the standard of her earlier teachings. That kind of talk used to worry her when she was a child, sometimes. Ys, she remfembered its coming back to her in a dream she had, when - when (She did not finish her sen- tence.) Did he think she hated every kind of goodness and loved every kind of evil? Did he think she was hateful to the Being who made her? The minister looked straight into the bright, brave, ten- der eyes; and answered, "Nothing in heaven or on earth could help loving you, Myrtle!" Pretty well for a beginning! Myrtle saw nothing but pious fervor in this florid sen- timent. But as she was honest and clear-sighted, she could not accept a statement which seemed so plainly in THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 159 contradiction with his common teachings, without bringing his flattering assertion to the test of another question. Did he suppose, she asked, 'that any persons could be Christians, who could not tell .the day or' the year of their change from children of darkness to children of light, The shrewd clergyman,-whose creed could be lax enough on occasion, had provided himself with authorities of all kinds to meet these awkward questions in casuistical di- vinity. He had hunted up recipes for spiritual neuralgia, spasms, indigestion, psora,' hypochondriasisj just as doctors do for their bodily counterparts. To be sure they could. Why, what did the great Rich- ard Baxter' say in his book on Infant Baptism? . That at a meeting of many eminent Christians, some of them very famous ministers, when it was desired that every one should give an account of the time and manner of his conversion, [theire was but one of them all could do it. And as for himself, Mr. Baxter said, he could not remem- ber the day or the year when he began to be sincere, as he called it. Why, did n't President Wheelock say to a young man who consulted him, -that some persons might be true Christians without suspecting it? All this, was so very different from the uncompromising way in which religious doctrines used to be presented to the young girl from the pulpit, that it naturally opened her heart and warmed her affections. Remember, if she needs excuse, that the defeated instincts of a strong nature were rushing in upon her, clamorous for their rights, and that she was not yet mature enough to understand, and manage them. Trhe paths of love and religion are at the fork of a road which every maiden travels. If some young hand does not open the turnpike gate of the first, she is pretty page: 160-161[View Page 160-161] 160 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. sure to try the other, which has no toll-bar. It is also very commonly noticed that these two paths, after diverg- ing awhile, run into each other. True love leads many wandering souls in-to the better way. Nor is it rare to see those who started in company for the gates of pearl seated together on the banks that border the avenue to that other portal, gathering the roses for which it is so famous. Itt was with the most curious interest that the ministe listened to the various heresies into which her reflections had led her. Somehow or other they did not sound so dangerous coming from her lips as when they were uttered by the coarser people of the less rigorous denorninations, or preached in the sermons of heretical clergymen. 'He found it impossible to think of her in connection with those denunciations of Sinners fo which his discourses had been noted. Some of the sharp,old church-members be- gan to complain that his exhortations were losing their tt n, for ,. ..pheihe for g d yrtle pungency. The truth was, he was preaching for Myrtle H:1zard. He was getting bewitched and driven beside himself by the, intoxication, of his relations with her. All this time she was utterly unconscious of any charm that she was exercising, or of being herself .subject to any personal fascination. She loved to read the books of ec- static contemplation which he furnished her. She loved to sing the languishing hymns which he selected for her. She loved to listen to his devotional rhapsodies, hardly know- ing sometimes whether she were in the body, or out of thte body, while' he lifted her upon the wings of his passion- kindled rhetoric. The time came when she had learned to listen for his step, when her eyes glistened at meeting him, when the words he uttered Were treasured as from something more than a common mortal, and the book he THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 161 had touched was like a saintly relic. It never suggested itself to her for an instant that this was anything more than such a friendship as Mercy might have cultivated with Great-Heart. She gave her confidence simply be- cause she was very young and innocent. The green tendrils .of the growing vine must wind round some- thing.. The seasons had been changing their scenery while the events we have told were occurring, and the loveliest days of autumn were now shining. To those who know the- "Indian summer" of our Northern, States, it is needless to describe the influence it exerts on the senses and the soul. The stillness of the landscape in that beautiful time is as if the planet were sleeping, like a top, before it begins to rock with the storms of autumn. All natures seem to find themselves more truly in its light; love grows more tender, religion more spiritual, memory sees farther back into the past, grief revisits its mossy marbles, the poet harvests the ripe thoughts which he will tie in slieaves of verses by- his winter fireside. The minister had geot into the way of taking frequent walks with iMyrtle, whose health had seermed to require the open air, and who was fast regaining her natural look. Under the canopy of the scarlet, orange, anrd crimson leaved maples, of the purple and violet clad oaks, of the birches in their robes of sunshine, and the beeches. in their clinging drapery, of sober brown, they walked together while he discoursed of tie joys of heaven, the sweet coin- munion of kindred souls, the ineffable bliss of a world where love would be immortal and beauty should never know decay. And while she listened, the strange light of the leaves irradiated the youthful figure of' Myrtle, as when H . page: 162-163[View Page 162-163] 162 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. the stained window let in its colors on Madeline, the rose- bloom and the amethyst and the glory. "Yes! we shall be angels together," exclaimed the Rev. Mr. Stoker. "Our souls were made for immortal union. I know it; I feel it in every throb of my heart. Even in this world you are as an angel to me, lifting me into the heaven where I shall meet you again, or it will not be heaven. O, if on earth our communion could have been such as it must be hereafter! O Myrtle, Myrtle!" He stretched out his hands as if to clasp hers between themt in the rapture of his devotion. Was it the light reflected from the glossy leaves of the poison sumach which overhung the path that made his cheek look so pale? Was he going to kneel to her? Myrtle turned her dark eyes on him with a simple wonder that saw an excess of saintly ardor in these demon- strations, and drew back from it. "I think of heaven always as the place where I shall meet my mother," she said calmly. These words recalled the man to himself for a moment, and he was silent. Presently he seated himself on a stone. His lips were tremulous as he said, in a low tone, "Sit down by me, Myrtle." "No," she answered, with something which chilled him in her voice, "we will not stay here any longer; it is time to go home." "Full time!" muttered Cynthia Badlam, whose watch- ful eyes had been upon them, peering through a screen of yellow leaves, that turned her fce pale as if with dead- ly passion.. YHE GUARDIAN ANGEL. '163 - t CHAPTER XIV. FLANK MOVEMENT. MISS CYNTHIA BADLAAM was in the habit of occasionally visiting the Widow Hopkins. Some said ---but then people will talk, especially in the country, where they have not much else to do, except in haying- time. She had always known the widow, ong b e Gridley came there to board, or any other special event happened in her family. No matter what people said. Miss Badlam called. to see Mrs. Hopkins, then, and the two had a long talk together, of whicl only a ortion is on record. Here are such fragments as have been pre- served. What would I do about it? Why, I'd pul a stop to arry n's on, mighty quick, if I had to tie the girl ts the bedpost, and have a bulldog that would take' the seat out of any pair of black pantaloons that comewithin forty (rod of her, - tat 's what I'd do about it! [Ie undertook to. be mighty sweet with our S:usan onewtie, but ea d senhe he"s been talkin' relion witIL Myrtle Hazard he 's let us alone. Do as I did When he asked our Susan to come to his sthdy,- stick close to your girl and you 'll put a stop to all this business, lie Won't make love to two at once, unless they're both pretty young, I'll warrant. Follow her round, Miss Cnhy, ad keep ur "I have watched her like a cat, Mrs. Hopkins, but I can' follow 'her eerywhere, -she won't stand what page: 164-165[View Page 164-165] 1G4 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Susan Posey 'll stand. There 's no use our talking to her, - we've done with that at our house. You never know what that Indian blood of hers will make her do. She's too high-strung for us to bit and bridle. I don't want to see her name in the paper again, alongside of that (She did not finish the sentence.) "I 'd rather have her fished dead out of the, river, or find her where she found her uncle Malachi!" "You don't think, Miss Cynthy, that the man means to inveigle the girl with the notion of marryin' her by and by, after poor Mrs. Stoker 's dead and gone? "The Lord in heaven forbid!" exclaimed Miss Cyn- thia, throwing up her hands. "A child of fifteen years old, if she is a woman to look at!" "It's too bad - it 's too bad. to think of, Miss Cynthy; and there's that poor woman dyin' by inches, and Miss Bathsheby settin' with her day and night--she has n't got a bit of her father in her, it's all her mother, - and that man, instead of bein' with her to comfort her as any man ought to be with his wife,-- in sickness and in healh, that's whathe promised. I'm sure when my poor husband was sick.... To think of that man goin' about to talk religion to all the prettiest girls he can find in the parish, and his wife at home like to leave him so soon, -it's a shame,-so it is, come now! Miss Cynthy, there's one of the best men and one of the learnedest men that ever lived that's a real friend of Myrtle Hazard, and a better friend to her than she knows of - for. ever sence he brought her home, he feels jest like a father to her,--and that man is Mr. Gridley, that lives in this house. It's him I 'll speak to about the minister's carry'n's on. He knows about his talking sweet to our Susan, and TIE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 165 he 'll put things to rights! He 's a master hand when le does once take hold of anything, I tell you that! 3Jest get him to shet up them' books- of his, an d take hold of anybody's troubles, and you'll see how he 'll straigliten 'erm out," There was a pattering of little feet on the stairs, and the two small twins, "Sossy" and "Minthy," in the home dialect, came hand in hand into the room, Miss Susan leaving .them at the threshold, not wishing to interrupt the two ladies, and being much interested also in listening to Mr. Gifted Hopkins, who' was reading some of his last poems to her, with great delight to both of them. The good woman rose to take them from Susan, and guide their uncertain steps. "My babies, I call 'em, Iliss Cynthy. Ain't they nice children? Come to go to bed, little dears? Only a few minutes, Miss Cynthy." She took them into the bedroom on the same floor, where they slept, and, leaving the door open, began, un: dressing them. Cynthia turned her rocking-chair round so as to face the open door. She looked on while the little creatures were being undressed; she heard the few words they lisped as their infant prayer; she, saw them laid in their beds, and heard their pretty good-night. A lone woman to whom all the sweet cares of maternity have been denied'cannot look upon a sight like this with. out feeling the void in her own heart where a mother's affection should have nestled. Cynthia sat perfectly still, without rocking, and watched kind Mrs. Hopkins at her quasi parental task. A tear stole down her rigid face as she saw the rounded limbs of the children bared in their white beauty, and their little heads laid on the pillow. They were sleeping quietly when Mrs. Hopkins left the . ., page: 166-167[View Page 166-167] 166 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. room for a moment on some errand of her own. Cynthia rose softly from her chair, stole- swiftly to the bedside, and printed a long; burning kiss on each of their foreheads. When Mrs. Hopkins came back, she found, the maiden lady sitting in her place just as she left her, but rocking in her chair and sobbing as one in sudden pangs of grief. "It is a great trouble, Miss Cynthy," she said, -" a great trouble to have such a child as Myrtle to think of and to care for. If she was like our Susan Posey, now! but we must do the best we canr; and if Mr. Gridley once sets'himself to it, you may depend upon it he 'll make it all come right. I would n't take on about it if I was you. You let me speak to our Mr. Gridley. We all have our troubles. It is n't everybody that can ride to heaven in a C-spring shay, as my poor husband used to say; and life 's a road that's got a good many thank-you- ma'ams to go bumpin' over; says he." Miss Badlam acquiesced in the philosoplical reflections of the late Mr. Ammni Hopkins, and left it to his widow to carry out her own suggestion in reference to consulting Master Gridley. The good woman took the first oppor- tunity she had to introduce the matter, a little diffusely, as is often the way of widows who keep boarders. "There's something going on I don't like, Mr. Gridley. They tell me that Minister Stoker -is following round after Myrtle Hazard, talking religion at her jest about the same way he'd have liked to with our Susan, I calculate. If he wants to talk religion to me or Silence Withers, -well, no, I don't feel sure about Silence, - she ain't as young as she used to be, but then ag'in she ain't so fur gone as some, and she's got money,--but if he wants to talk religion with me, he may come and welcome. But as for Myrtle THE GUARDIAN. ANGEL. 167 Hazard, she's been sick, and it's left her a little flighty byr what they say, and to have a minister round her all the time ravin' about the next world as if he hiid a latch-key to the fiont doqr of it, is no way to make her come to her.. self aain. I "'e seen more than one young girl sent off to the asylum by that sort of work, when, if I 'd only had 'em, I 'd have made 'em sweep the stairs, and mix the puidin's, and'tend the babies, and milk the cow, and keep 'em too busy all day to be thinkin' about thenmselves, and! have 'em dress up nice evenin's and see some young folks and have a good time, and go to meetin' Sundays, and then. have done with the minister, unless it was old Father Pemberton., He knows forty times as much about heaven as that Stoker man does, or ever's like to, -- why don't they run after him, I should like to know? Miniisters are men, come now; and I don't want to say anything against women, Mr. Gridley, but women are women, that 's the fact of it, and half of 'ern are hystericky when they 're young; and I 've heard old Dr. Hurlbut say many a time that he had to lay in an extra stock of valerian and assa- fcetida whenever there was a young minister round, for there 's plenty of religious ravin', says he, that 's nothin' but hysterics." [Mr. Froude thinks that was the trouble with Bloody Queen Mary, but the old physician did not get the idea from him.] "Well, and what do you propose to do about the Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker and his young proselyte, Miss Myrtle Hazard?' said Mr. Gridley, when ;]aMrs.. Hopkins at last gave him a chance to speak. "Mr. Gridley,"- Mrs. Hopkins looked full upon him as she spoke, -" people used to say that you was a good page: 168-169[View Page 168-169] 168 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. . man and a great man and one of the learnedest men alive, but that you did n't know much nor care for much except books. I know you used to live pretty much to yourself when you first came to board in this house. ' But you 've been very good to my son; .. . . and if, Gifted lives till you .... till you are, in.... your grave, .... he g will write a poem - I know he will - that will 'tell your goodness to babes unborn." [Here lMaster Gridley groaned, and repeated to himself silently, "Scindentur vestes, gemmse frangentur et aurum, Carmina quum tribuent fiamla perennis erit." All this inwardly, and without interrupting the worthy 'woman's talk.] "And if ever Gifted makes a book, - don't say anything about it, Mnr. Gridley, for goodness' sake, for he would n't hayv anybody know it, only I can't help thinking that some time or other he will print a book, - and if he does, I know whose name he 'll: put at the head of it,-' Dedi- cated to B. G., with the' gratitude and respect -' There, now, I had n't any business to say a word about it, and it's only jest in case he does, you know. I 'm sure you de- serve it all. You 're helped him with the- best of advice. And you 've been kind to me when I was. in trouble. And you 've been like a grandfather " [Master Gridley winced, -why could n't the woman have said father? - that grand struck his ear like a spade going into the gravel] "to those babes, poor little soulls! left on my door-step like a couple of breakfast rolls, - only you know it's the baker left them. I believe in you, MvIr. Gridley, as I believe in my .Maker and in Father Pemberton, - but, poor man! he's old, and you won't be old these twenty years yet." THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 169 [Master Gridley shook his head as if to say that was n't so, but felt comforted and refireshed.] "Yoti 've got to help Myrtle' Hazard :again. You brought her home when she come so nigh drowning. You got the old doctor to go and see her when she come so nigh being bewitched with the magnetisim and nonsense, whatever they call it, and the young doctor was so nigh bein' crazy, too. I know, for Nurse Byloe told me all about it. And now Myrtle's gettin' run away with by that pesky Minister Stoker. Cynthy Badlam was here yesterday crying and sobbing as if her tIe'art would break about it. For my part, I did n't think C ynthy cared so much for the girl as all that, but I saw her takin' on dread- fully with my own eyes. That mari's like a hen-hawk among the chickens, - first he picks up one, and then he picks up another. I should like to know ijf nobody but young, folks has souls .to be saved, and specially young women!" . "Tell me all you know about Myrtle Hazardl and J6seph Bellamy Stoker," said Master Gridley. ' Thereupon 'that good lady related all that Miss Badlam had imparted to her, of which the reader knows the worst, being the interview of which the keen spinster had been a witness, having followed them for the express purpose of knowing, in her own phrase, what the minister was up to. It is not to be supposed that Myrtle had forgotten the discreet kindness of Master Gridley in bri:nging her back and making the best of her adventure. Ite, on his part, had acquired a kind of right to consider himself her adviser, and had begun to take a pleasure in the tlhought that he, the worn-out and useless old pedant, as he had been in the way of considering himself, might perhaps do something 8 page: 170-171[View Page 170-171] 170 - TiE GUARDIAN ANGEL. , even -more important than his previous achieve ment to save this young girl from the dangers that surrounded her. He loved 'his classics and his old books; he took an inter- est, too, in'the newspapers and periodicals that brought the fermenting thlought and the electric life of- the great world into his lonely study; but these things just about him were getting strong hold on him, and most of all the fortunes of this beautiful young woman. How strange! For a whole generation' he had lived in no nearer relation to his fel- low-creatures than that of a liallf-fossilized teacher; and all at once he found himrself face to face with the very' most intense form of life,'the counsellor of threatened innocence, the champion of' imperilled- loveline'ss. Wlhat business was it of his? 'growled the lower nature, of which he had said in '"Thoughts on the Universe,"- "Every man leads or is led by something that goes on fozir legs." m n Then he remembered the grand line of the African freed-. man, that makes all human interests everybody's business, and, had a sudden sense of dilatation and evolution, as it were, in all his dimensions, as if he were a head taller, and a foot bigger round the chest, and took in an extra gallon of air at every breath. Then--you who have written a book that holds your heart-leaves between its )ages will understand the movement - he took down '"Thoughts on the Universe." for a refreshing draught from his own well- spring. He opened as chance ordered it, and his eyes fell on the following passage:- ' "Tnhe true Anzerican formula was: well phrased by the late Samuel Patch, the Western .Empedocles,' Some things can be done as well as others.' A ihomnely utterance, but it has virtue to overthrow all dynasties and hierarchies. These were all built zip on the Old- World dogma that some things can NOT be done as well as others." THE GUARDIAN ANGEL 171 "' There, now! i he' said, talking to himself in his usual way, "is n't that good? It always seems to me that I find something to the point when I open that book. 'Some things can be done as well as others,' can they? Suppose I should try what I can do by visiting :Miss . Myrtle Haz- ard? I think I may say I am old and incomblustible enough to be trusted. She does not seem to be a safe neighbor to very inflammable bodies!': Myrtle was sitting in the room long known as the Study, or the Library, when Master. Bvles Gridley called at The Poplars to see her. Miss Cynthia, who received him, led him to this apartment and left him alone wiith Myrtle. She welcomed him very cordially, but -colored as she did so,- his visit was a surprise. She was at work on a piece of embroidery. Her first instinctive movement was to thrust it out of sight with the thloulght of concealment; but- she checked this, and before the blush of detection had reached her. cheek thie blush of ingenuous shame for her weakness had caught and passed it, and was in full possession.' She sat with her worsted pattern held bravely in sight, and her cheek as bright as its liveliest crimson. Miss Cynthia' has let me in upon you,"' he said, " or I should not have ventured to disturb you in this way. A work of art, is it, Miss Myrtle'.'Hazard?" "Only a pair of slippers, Mr. Gridley, -- fior my pastor." "Oh! oh! That is well. A good old man. I have a great regard for the Rev. Eliphalet Pembertoin. I wish all' ministers were as good and, simple and pure-hearted as the Rev. Eliphalet Pemberton. And I wish all the young people thought as much about their elders as ryou do, Miss Myrtle Hazard. We that are old love lithe acts of kind- ness. You gave me more pleasure than you knew -of, my page: 172-173[View Page 172-173] 172 . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. dear, when you worked that handsome cushion for me. The old minister will be greatly pleased, - poor old man!" "But, Mr. Gridley, I must not let you think these are for Father Pemberton. They are for- Mr.-Stoker." "The Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker! He is not an old man, the Rey. Joseph Bellamy Stoker. He may perhaps be a widower before a great while. - Does he know that you are working those slippers for him?" "Dear me! no, Mr. Gridley. I meant them for a sur- prise to him. He has been so kind to me, and understands me so much better than I thought anybody did. He is so different from what I thought; he makes religion so per- fectly simple, it seems as if everybody would agree with him, if they could only hear him talk." "Greatly interested in the souls of his people, is n't he?" "Too much, almost, I am afraid. He says he has been too hard in his sermons sometimes, but it was for fear he should not impress his hearers enough." "Don't you think he worries himself about the souls of young women rather more than for those of old ones, :Myrtle?" There was something in the tone of this question. that helped its slightly sarcastic expression. Myrtle's jealousy for her minister's sincerity was roused. "How can you ask that, Mr. Gridley? I am sure I wish'you or anybody could have heard him talk as I have. There is no age in souls, he says; and I am sure' that it would do anybody good to hear him, old or young." "No age in souls, - no age in souls. Souls of forty as young as souls of fifteen; that's it." Master Gridley did not say this loud. But he did speak as follows: "I am glad to hear what you say of the Rev. Joseph Bellamy "; , i t 1p- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 173 Stoker's love ofbeing useful to people of all ages. You have had comfort in his companionshlp, and there are' others who might be very glad to profit by it. I know a very excellent person who has had trials, and is greatly interested in religious conversation. Do you lthink he would be willing to let this friend of mine share in the privileges of spiritual intercourse which you enjoy? There was but one answer possible. Of course he would. "I hope it is so, my dear young lady.. But listen to me one moment. I love you, my dear child, do you know, as if I were your own grandfather." (There was moral heroism in that word.) "I love you as if you were of my- own blood; and so long as you trust me, and suffer me, I mean to keep watch against all dangers, that threaten you in mind, body, or estate. You may wonder at me, you may sometimes doubt me; but until you say you distrust me, when ariy trouble comes near you, you will find me there. Now, my dear child, you ought to know that the Rev. Jo- seph Bellamy Stoker has the reputation of being too fond of prosecuting religious inquiries with youn 'and handsome woole." " Mylrtle's eyes fell, a new suspicion seemed to have suggested itself. "He wanted to get up a spiritual intimracy with our Susan Posey,--a very pretty girl, as you know." Myrtle tossed her head almost imperceptibly, and bit her lip. "I suppose -there are a dozen young' people that have been talked about with him. He preaches cruel sermons in his pulpit, cruel as death, and cold-blooded enough to freeze any mother's blood if nature didnot tell her he lied, page: 174-175[View Page 174-175] 174 . ^ THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. and then smooths it all over with the first good-looking -young woman he can get to listen to him." Myrtle had dropped the slipper she was working on. "Tell me, my dear, would you be willing to give up meleting this man alone, and gratify my friend, and avoid all occasion of reproach?" "Of course I would," said Myrtle, her eyes flashing, for her doubts, her shame, her pride, were all excited. "Who is your friend, Mr. Gridley?" "An excellent woman,- Mrs. Hopkins. You know her, Gifted Hopkins's mother, with whom I am residing. Shall the minister be given to understand that you will see him hereafter in her company "?" Myrtle came pretty near -aturn of her old nervous per- turbations. "As you say," she answered. "Is there no- body that I can trust, or is eVderybody hunting me like a bird?" She hid her face in her handsy "You can trust me, "my dear," said Byles Gridley. "Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern, - it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that, Myr- tle, one stitch at a time, taken patiently, and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery. You can trust me. Good by, my dear." "Let her finish the slippers," the old man said to himself as he trudged home, " and make 'em big enough for Father Pemberton. He shall have his feet in 'em yet, ormy name is n't Byles Gridley! THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 175 CHA PT'ER XV. ARRIVAL OF REINFORCEMENTS. MYRTLE HAZARD waited until the steps of Mas ter Bvles Gridley had ceased to be- heard, as he walked in his emphatic way through the long entry of the old mansion.; Then she went to her little chamber and. sat down in a sort of revery. She could not doubt his sin- cerity, and there was something in .her own consciousness which responded to the suspicions he had expressed with regard to the questionable impulses of the Rev. Joseph, Bellamy Stoker It is not in the words that others say to us, but in those other words which these make us say to ourselves, that we find our gravest lessons and our sharpest, rebukes. The hint another gives us finds whole trains of thought which have been getting themselves ready to' be shaped in in- wardly articulated words, and only awaited the touch of a burning syllable, as the mottoes of a pyrotechnist only wait for a spark to become letters of fire. The artist who takes your photograph must carry you with him into his "'(developing " room, and he will give you a more exact illustration of the truth just; mentioned. There is nothing to be seen on the glass just- itaken from the camera. But there is a potential, though invisible, picture hid in the creamy film which covers 'it. Watch him as he pours a wash over it, and you will see that miracle wrought which is at once a surprise and a charrm,--the sudden appearance of your own features, wherle a moment before was a blank without a vestige of intelligence or beauty. page: 176-177[View Page 176-177] 176 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. In some such way the grave -warnings of Master Byles Gridley had called up a fully shaped,; but hitherto unword- ed, train of thought in the consciousness of Myrtle Hazard. It was not merely'their significance, it was mainly because they were spoken at the fitting time. If they had been uttered a few weeks earlier, when Myrtle was taking the first stitch on the embroidered slippers, they would have been as useless as the artist's developing solution on a plate which had never been exposed in the camera. But she had been of late in training for her lesson in ways that neithershe nor anybody else dreamed of. The reader who has shrugged his (or her) shoulders over the last ilustra- tion will perhaps hear tils one which follows more cheer- fully. The physician in the Arabian Nights made his patient play at ball with a bat, the hollow handle of which contained drugs of marvellous efficacy. Whether it was the drugs that made the sick man. get well, or the exercise, is not of so much consequence as the fact that he did at any rate get well. These walks which Myrtle had taken with her reverend counsellor had given her a new taste for the open air, which was what she needed just now more than confessions of faith or spiritual paroxysms. And so it happened that, while he had been stimulating all those imaginative and emotional' elements of her nature which responded to the keys he loved to play upon, the restoring influences of the sweet autumnal air, the mellow sunshine} the soothing aspects of the woods and fields and sky, had been quietly doing their work. The color was fast returning to heracheek, and the. discords of her feelings and her thouglhts gradually resolv- ingo themselves'into the harmonious and cheerful rhythms of bodily and mental' health. It needed but the timely THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 1" Word from the fitting lips to change the whole programme of her daily mode of being. The word had been spoken. She saw its truth; but how hard it is to tear away a cher- ished illusion, to cast out an unworthy intimate! How bard for any!--but for a girl so youncg, and. who had as yet found so little to love and trust, how cruelly lihard! She ,sat, still and stony, like an Egyptian statue. Her eyes were fixed on a vacant chair opposite the one on which she was sitting. It was a very singular and fantastic old chair, said to have been brou-ght oyer by the first emigrant of her race. The legs and arms were curiously turned in spirals, the suggestions of which were half pleasing and half repulive. Instead of the claw-feet common in furniture of a later date, each of its legs rested on a misshapen reptile, which it seemed to flatten by its weight, as if it were squeez- ing the breatht out of the ugly creature. Over this chair hung the portrait of her beautiful ancestress, her neck and' arms, the specialty of her beauty, bare, except for a brace- let on the left wrist, and her shapely figure set off by the ample folds of a rich crimson brocade. Over Myrtle's bed hung that other portrait, which was to her almost as the pictures of the. Mater. Dolorosa to trustful souls of the Roman faith. She had longed for these pictures while she was in her strange hysteric condition, and they had been hung up in her chamber. The night was far gone, as she knew by the declining of the constellations which she had seen shining brightly almost overhead in the early evening, when she awoke, and found herself still sitting, in the very a'ttitude in which she was sitting hours before. Her' lamp had bushed out, and the starlight but dimly illuminated her chamber.. She Started to find herself sitting there, chilled and stiffened by , 8* .. L page: 178-179[View Page 178-179] 178 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. long remaining in one posture; and as her consciousness returned, a great fear seized her, and she sprang for a match. It broke with ,the quick' movement she made to kindle it, and she snatched another as if a fiend were after her. It flashed and went out. O the terror, the terror! The darkness seemed alive with fearful presences. The lurid glare of .her own eyeballs flashed backwards into her brain. She tried one more match; it kindled as it should, and she lighted another lamp. Her first impulse was to assure herself that nothing was changed in the familiar objects around, her. She held the lamp up to the picture of Judith Pride. The beauty looked at her, it seemed as if with a kind of lofty recognition in her eyes; but there she was, 'as always. She turned the light upon the pale face of the martyr-portrait. It looked troubled and faded, as it seemed to Myrtle, but still it was the same face she remem- -bered from her childhood. Then she threw the light on the old- chair, and, shuddering, caught up a shawl and flung it over the spiral-wound arms arid legs, and the flattened reptiles on which it stood. In those dead hours of the night which had paseed over her sitting there, still and stony, as it should seem, she had had strange visitors. Two wonzmen had been with her, as real as any that breathed the breath of life,--so it ap- peared to her, -yet both had long been what is called, in our poor language, dead. One came in all the glory of her ripened beauty, bare-.necked, bare-armed, full dressed by nature in that splendid animal equipment which in its day had captivated :the eyes of all the lusty lovers of com- plete muliebrity. The other;,- how delicate, how trans- lucent, how aerial she seemed! yet real and true to the lineaments of her whom the young girl looked upon as her hereditary protector. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 179 The beautiful woman turned, and, with a face full of loathing and scorn, pointed to one of the reptiles beneath the feet of the chair. And while Myrtle's eyes followed hers, the flattened and half-crushed creature seemed to, swell and spread like his relative in the old fable, like,the black dog in Faust, until he became of tenfold'size, and at last of colossal proportions. And, fearfil to relate, the batrlachian features humanized themselves as 'the monster grew, and, shaping themselves more and more into a re- membered similitude, Myrtle saw in them a hideous like- ness of- No! n! it was too horrible! Was that the face which had been so close to hers but yesterday? were those the lips, the breath from which had stirred her grow- ing curls. as hle leaned' over her while I hey read together some passionate stanza from. a hymn that was as much like a love-song as it dared to be in godly company? A shudder of disgust - the natural repugnance of loveliness 'for deformity-ran all through her, and she -shrieked, as she thought, and threw herself at the feet of that other figure. She felt herself lifted from the floor, and then a cold thin hand seemed to take hers. 'The,warm life went out of her, and she was to herseif as a dimly conscious shadow that glided with' passive acquiescence wherever it was led. Presently she found herself in a half-lighted apartment, where there were books on tl:e shelves around, and a desk with' loose manuscripts lying on it, and a little mirror with a worn bit of carpet before it. And while she looked, a great serpent writhed in through the half-open door, and made the circuit of the room, laying one huge ring all round it, and then, going round again, laid another ring over the first, and so on until he was wound all round the room like the spiral of a mighty cable, leaving a hol- page: 180-181[View Page 180-181] 180 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. low in the centre; and then the serpent seemed to arch his neck in the air, and bring his head close down to Myr- ; te's face; and' the features were not those of a serpent, but of a man, and it hissed out the words she had read that. very day in a. little note which said;.." Come to my study to-morrow, and we will read hymns together.?' Again she was back in her little chamber, she did not know how, and the two women were looking into her eyes with strange meaning in their own. Something in themI seemed to plead with her to yield to their influence, and her choice wavered which of them to follow, for each would have led her her own way,-whither she knew not. It was the strife of her "Vision," only in another form,-the contest of two lives her blood inherited for the mastery of her soul. Thle might of beauty conquered. Myrtle resigned herself to the guidance of the lovely phantom, which seemed so much fuller of the unextin- guished 'fire of life, and so like herself as she would grow to be when noon should-have-^ripened her into maturity. Doors opened softly before them; they climbed stairs, and threaded corridors, and 'penetrated, crypts, strange yet familiair to her eyes, which seemed to her as if they could see, as it were, in darkness. Then came a confused sense of eager search for something' that'she knew was hidden, whether in the cleft of a rock, or under, the boards of a floor, or in some. hiding-place among the skeleton rafters, or in a forgotten drawer, or in a heap of rubbish, she could not tell; but, somewhere there was something which she was to find, and wwhich, once found, was to be her talis- man. She was in the midst of this eager search when she awoke. - : The impression was left so strongly on her mind that, . . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 181 with all her fears, she could not resist lthe desire to make an effort to find what meaning there was in this frightfully real dream. Her courage came back as her senses as- sured her that all around her was natural, as when she left it. She determined to follow the lead of the strange hint her nightmare had given her. In one of the upper chambers of the old mansion there stood a tall, upright desk of the ancient pattern, with folding doors above and' large drawers below. "That desk is'yours, Myrtle," her uncle Malachi had once said to her; "and there is a ttick or two about it that it will pay you to, study." Many a time Myrtle had puzzled herself about the rmystery of. the old desk. All the little draw- ers, of which 'there were a considerable number, she had pulled out, and every crevice, as she thought, she had carefully examined. She determined to make one more trial. It was the dead of the night, and this was a fearful old place to be wandering about; but she was possessed with an urgent feeling which would not. let her wait until daylight. She stole like a ghost from her chamber. She glided along the narrow entries as she had seemed to move in her dream. She opened the folding doors of the great upright desk. She had always before' examined it by daylight, and though she had so often pulled all the little drawers out, she had never thoroughly explored the recesses which re- ceived them. But in her new-born passion of search, she held her light so as. to illuminate all these deeper spaces. At once slhe thought she saw the marks of pressure with a finger. She pressed her own finger on this place, and, ,as it yielded with a slight click, a small mahogany pilaster sprang forward, revealing its well-kept secret that it was page: 182-183[View Page 182-183] 182 THE GUJARDIAN ANGEL. . the mask of a tall, deep, very narrow drawer. There, was something heavy in it, and, as Myrtle turned it over, a golden bracelet fell into her hand. She recognized it at once as that which had been long ago the ornament of the fair woman whose portrait hung in her chamber. She clasped it upon her wrist, and from- that moment she felt as if she were the captive of the lovely phantom who had been with her in her dream. "The old man walked last night, God save us!" said Kitty Fagan to Biddy Finnegan, tthe day after Myrtle's nightmare and her curious discovery. ' . I(' ' : THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 183 CHAPTER XVI. VICTORY. IT seems probable enough that Myrtle's whole spiritual adventure was an unconscious dramatization of a few simple facts which her' imagination tatigled together into a kind of vital coherence. The philosopher who goes'to the bottom of things will remark that all the elements of her fantastic melodrama had been furnished her while waking. Master Byles Gridley's penetrating and stinging caution was the text, and the grotesque carvings and the portraits furnished the "properties " with which her own mind had wrought up this scenic show. The philosopher who goes to. the bottom of things might not find it so easy to account ,for the change Which came over Myrtle Hazard from the hour when she clasped the bracelet of Judith Pride upon her wrist. She felt a sud- den loathing of the man whom she had idealized as a saint. A young 'girl's caprice? Possibly. A i'eturn of the nat- ural instincts of girlhood with returning heaalth? Pe'haps so. An impression produced by her dream? An effect of an influx from another sphere of being? The working of Master Byles Gridley's emphatic warning? The magic of her new talisman? We may safely, leave these questions for the present. As we have to tell, not what Mrytle' Hazard ought to have' done, and why she should have done it, but; what she did do, our task is a simpler one than it would be to lay bare. all the springs of her action. Until this period, she had page: 184-185[View Page 184-185] 184 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. hardly thoughtlof herself as a born beauty.. The flatteries she had received from time to time were like the chips and splinters under the' green wood, when the chill women pre- tended to make a fire in the best parlor at The Poplars, which had a way of burning themselves out, hardly warm- ing, much less kindling, the fore-stick and the back-lo;g. Myrtle ,had a tinge of what some call superstitionk and she began to look upon her strange acquisition as a kind of amulet. Its suggestions betrayed themselves in one of her first movements. Ntothing could be soberer than the cut of the dresses which the propriety of the severe house- hold had established as the rule of her costume. But the girl was no sooner out of bed than a passion came over her to see herself in that less jealous arrangement of drapery which the Beauty of the last century had insisted on as presenting her most fittingly to the artist. She rolled up the sleeves of her dress, she turned down its prim collar and neck, and glanced from her glass to the por'trait, from the portrait back to the glass. Myrtle was not blind nor dull, though young, and in many things untaught. She did not say in so many words, "I too am a beauty," but she could not help seeing that she, had many of the attrac- tions of feature and form which had made the original of the picture before her f:amous; The same stately carriage of the head, the same fill-rounded neck, the same core than hinted outlines of figure, the same finely-shaped trms and hands, and something very like the same features startled her by their identity in the permanent image of the canvas and the fleeting one of the mirror. The world was hers then, - for she had not read roman- ces and love-letteirs without finding, that beauty governs it in all times and places. Who, was this middle-aged J THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 185 minister that had been hanging round her and talking to her about heaven, when there was not a single joy of earth that she had as' yet tasted? A man that had been saying all his fine things to Miss. Susan Posey, too, had he, before he had bestowed his attentions on her? And to a dozen other girls, -too, nobody knows who! The revulsion was a very sudden one. Such changes of feeling are apt to be sudden in young people whose nerves have been tampered with, and Myrtle was not of a temper- ament or an age to act with much, deliberation where a pique 'came in to the aid of a resolve. lMaster Gridley guessed sagaciously what would be the effect of his revela- tion, when he told her of' the particular attentions the min- ister had paid to pretty Susan Posey and various other young. women. The Rev. Mr. Stoker had parted his hair wonderfully that morning, and made himself as captivati'ng as his pro- 'fessional costu'me allowed. He had drawn down the shades of his windows so as to let in that subdued light whi'ch is merciful' to crow's-feet and similar embellishments, and wheeled up his sofa sd that two 'could sit at the table and read from the same book. At eleven o'clock he was pacing the room with a certain feverish impatience, casting a glance now and then at the mirror as' he passed it. At last the bell rang, and he him- self went to answer it, his heart throbbing with expectation of meeting his lovely visitor. ' Myrtle Hazard appeared by an envoy extraordinary, the bearer of sealed despatches. Mistress Kitty F'agan was the young lady's substitute, and she delivered into the hand of the astonished clergyman the following missive:-. page: 186-187[View Page 186-187] 186 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. " TO THE REV. MR.- STOKER. "REVEREND SIR,--!.I shall not come to your study this day. I do not feel'that I have any more need of religious counsel at this time, and I am told by a friend that there are others who will be glad to hear you talk oon this subject. I hear that Mrs. Hopkins is interested in religious subjects, and would have been glad to see you in my company. As I cannot go with her, perhaps Miss Susan Posey will take my place. I thank you for all the good things you have said to me, and that you have given me so much of your company. I hope we shall sing hymns together in heaven some time, if we are good enough, but I want to wait for that awhile, for I do not feel quite ready. I am not going to see you any more alone, reverend sir. I think this is best, and I have good advice. I want to see more of young people of my own age, and I have a friend, Mr. Gridiey, who I think is older than you are, that takes an interest in me,; and as you have many others that you must be inter- ested in, he can take the place of a father better than you can do. I return to you, the hymn-book, - I read one of those you marled, and do not care to read any more. : Respectfully yours, "'MYRTLE HAZARD." The Rev. Mr. Stoker uttered a cry of rage as he finished this awkwardly written, but tolerably intelligible letter. What could he do about it? It would, hardly do to stab Myrtle Hazard, and shoot Byles. Gridley, and strangle Mrs. Hopkins, every one of which homicides he felt at the moment that he could have committed. And here he was in a frantic paroxysm, and the next day was Sunday, and his morning's discourse was, unwritten. His savage medi- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 187 aeval 'theology came to his relief, and he clutched out of a heap of yellow manuscripts his well-worn "convulsion-fit" sermon. He preached it the next day as if it did his' heart good, but Myrtle Hazard did not hear it, for she had gone to St. Bartholomew's with Olive. Eveleth' page: 188-189[View Page 188-189] 188 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CHAPTER XVII. I SAINT AND SINsNER. IT happened a little after this time that the minister's invalid wife improved somewhat unexpectedly in health, rnd, as Bathsheba was beginning to suffer from imprison- nen:t in her sick-chamber, the physician advised very' . strongly that she should vary the monotony of her life . by going oout of the house daily for fresh air and cheerful , companionship. She was therefore frequenh'tly at the house ! f Olive Eveleth'; and as Myrtle wanted to see young peo- ple, and had her own way now as never before, the three ' , girls often met at the parsonage. Thus-they became more .',i! and more intimate, and grew more and more into each oth- er's affections. s These girls presented three types of spiritual character which are to be found in all our towns and villages.. Olive had been carefully trained, and at the proper age confirmed. Bathsheba had been prayed for, and in dlde time startled and converted. Myrtle was a simple daughter of Eve, witlh many impulses like- those of the other two girls, and some that required more watching. She was not so safe, perhaps, as either of the other girls, for this world or the next; but she was on some accounts more interesting, as being a more genuine representative of that inexperienced and too easily deluded, yet always cherished, mother of our race, whom we must after all accept as embodying the ere- ative idea of woman, and who might have been alive and happy now (though at a great age) but for a single fatal error. - - ' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. '189 The Rev. Ambrose Eveleth, Rector of Saint Bartholo- mew's, Olive's father, was one of a class numerous in the Angli/can Church, a cultivated man, with purie Itastes,'with simple habits, a, good reader, a neat writer, a safe thinker, with a snug and well-fenced mental pasturage, which his sermons -kept cropped moderately close without any ex- hausting demand upon the soil. Olive had grown insensibly into her religious maturity, as into her bodily and intellect- ual developments, which one might suppose was the natural order of, things in a, well-regulated Christian household, where the children are brought up in the nurture and ad- monition' of the Lord. Bathsheba 'had been worried over and perplexed and depressed with vague apprehensions about her condition, conveyed in mysterious phrases and graveyalrd expressions of countenance, until about the age of fourteen 3years, when she had one of those emotional paroxysms very commonly considered in some Protestant sects as essential to the formation of religious character. It, began with a shiver- ing sense of enormous guilt, inherited and practised from her earliest infancy. Just as every, breath she ever drew had been malignantly poisoning the air with carbonic acid, so her every thought and feeling had been tainting the universe with sin. This spiritual chill .or rigor had in due order been followed by the fever-flush of' hope, and that in its turn had ushered in: the last stqage, - the free opening of' all the spiritual pores in the peacefull relaxation of self-surrender. Good Christians are made by many very different pro- cesses. Bathsheba had taken her religion after the fash- ion of her sect; but it was genuine, in spite of the cavils of'the formalists, who could not understand that the spirit page: 190-191[View Page 190-191] 190' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. which kept her at her mother's bedside was, the same as that which poured the tears of Mary of Magdala on the feet of her Lord, 'and led her forth at early dawn with the other Mary to visit his sepulchre. Myrtle was a child of nature, and of course, according to the out-worn formula which still shame the distorted religion of humanity, hateful to the Father in Heaven who made her. She had grown up in antagonism with all that surrounded her. She had been 'talked to about her corrupt nature and her sinful heart, until the words had become 'an offence and an insult. Batlsheba knew her father's fondness for young company too well to suppose that his intercourse with Myrtle had gone beyond the sentimental and poetical stage, and was not displeased when she found' that there was some breach between' them. Myrtle herself did not profess to have passed through the technical stages of the 'customary spiritual paroxysm. Still, the gentle daughter of the terrible preacher loved her and judged her kindly. She was modest enough to think that perhaps 'the natural state of. some girls might be at least as good as her own after the spiritual ichange of which she had been the subject. A' manifest heresy, but not new, nor unamiable, nor inex- plicable. The excellent Bishop Joseph Hall, a painful preacher and solid divine of Puritan tendencies, declares that he prefeirs good-nature before grace in the election of a wife; because, saith he, "it will be a hard Task, where the Na- ture is peevish and froward, for' Grace to make an entire Conquest whilst Life lasteth." An opinion apparently entertained by many modern ecclesiastics, and one which may be considered very encouraging to those young ladies ' .' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 191 of the politer circles who ha ve a fancy for marrying bish- ops and other fashionable clergymen. Not of course that -": 'grace is so rare a gift among the young ladies of the upper social sphere; but tley are in the habit of using the word with a somewhat different meaning from that 'whchl the good Bishop attacled'to it. . . t M'4 * * " ' * .' 1 '5 ' ,- i? r page: 192-193[View Page 192-193] 192 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CHAPTER XVIII. THE VILLAGE POET. T was impossible for Myrtle to be frequently at Olive's without often meeting Olive's brother,'and her reappear- ance with the bloom on her cheek was a signal which her other admirers were not likely to overlook as a hint to re- commence their flattering demonstrations; and so it was that she found herself all at once the centre of attraction to three young men with whom we have 'made some 'ac- quaintance, namely, Cyprian Eveleth, Gifted Hopkins, and Murray Bradshawi. When the three girls were together at the house of Olive, it gave Cyprian a chance to see something of Myr- tle in the most natural way. Indeed, they all became used to meeting him in a brotherly sort of relation; only, as he was not the brother of two of them, it gave him the inside track, as the sporting men say, with reference to any rivals'for the good-will of either of these.' Of course neither Bathsheba nor Myrtle thought of him in any other light than as Olive's brother, and would have been surprised with the manifestation 'on his part of any other feeling, if it existed. So he became very nearly as in- timate with them .as Olive was, and hardly thought of his intimacy as anything more than friendship, until one day Myrtle sang some hymns so sweetly that Cyprian dreamed about her that night; and what young person does not know tiat the woman or the man once idealized and glori- fied in the exalted state of the imagination belonging to . . * *', , THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 193 leep becomes dangerous to the sensibilities in the waking iours that follow? Yet something drew Cyprian to the ;entler and more subdued nature of Bathsheba, so that he often thought, like a gayer personage than himself, whose livided affections are famous: in song, that he could have eeen blessed' to share her faithful heart, if Myrtle had not Bewitched him with her unconscious and innocent sorcer- es. As for poor, modest Bathsheba, she thought nothing f herself, but was almost as much fascinated by Myrtle s if she had been one of the sex she was born to make in ove with .her. The first rival Cyprian was to encounter in his adnira- ion of Myrtle Hazard was Mr. Gifted Hopkins.. This oung gentleman had the enormous advantage of that . ' "-subduing accomplishment, the poetical endowment. io womran, it is pretty generally understood, can resist the i outh or mnan nwho. addresses her in verse. The thought hat she iS the object of a poet's love is one which fills a voman's ambition more completely than all that wealth or i ffice or social eminence can offer. Do the young million- aires and the members of the General Court get letters i:om unknown, ladies, every day, asking for their auto- raphs and photographs? Well, then! Mr. Gifted Hopkins, being a poet, felt that it was so, o the very depth of his soul. Could he not confer that i mmortality so dear to the human heart? Not quite yet, erhaps, - though the "Banner and Oracle" gave him al- eady "an elevated niche in the Temple of Fame," to luote its own words - but in that glorious summer of his ;enius, of which these spring blossoms were the promise. it was a most formidable battery, then, which Cyprians irst rival opened upon the fortress of Myrtle's affections. 9- . 9 *M " I , EW1 page: 194-195[View Page 194-195] 194 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. His second rival, Mr. William Murray Bradshaw, had made a half-playful bet with his fair relative, Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, that he would bag a girl within twelve months of date who should unite three desirable qualities, speci- fied in the bet, in a higher degree than any one of the five who were on the miatrimonial programme which, she had laid out for him,--and Myrtle was the' girl with whom he meant to win the bet. When a young fellow like him, cool and clever, makes up his mind to bring down his bird, it is no joke, but a very serious. and a tolerably cer- tain piece of business. Not being made. a fool of by any boyish nonsense,-passion and all that,--he has a great advantage. I Many a woman rejects a man because he is in love with her, and accepts another because he is not. The first is thinking too much of himself and his emotions,-the ottler makes a study of her and her friends, and learns what ropes to pull. ' But then it must be remembered that Murray Bradshaw had a poet for his rival, to say nothing of the brother of a bosom friend. The' qualities of a young poet are so exceptional, and such interesting objects of study, that. a narrative like this can well afford to linger awhile in the delineation of this most envied of all the forms of genius. And by con- trasting the powers and limitations of two such young per- sons as Gifted Hopkins and Cyprian Eveleth, we may better appreciate the nature of that divine inspiration which gives to poetry the superiority it claims over every other form of human expression. Gifted Hopkihs had shown an ear for rhythm, and for the simpler forms df music, from his earliest childhood. He began beating with' his heels the accents of the psalm- tunes sung at meeting at a very tender age,-a habit, p1" THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 195 indeed, of which he had afterwards to correct himself, as, though it shows a sensibility to rhythmical impulses like that which is beautifully illustrated when a circle join hands and emphasize by vigorous downward movements the leading syllables in the tune of Auld Lang Syne, yetl it is apt to be too expressive when a large number of boots join in the performance. He showed a remarkable talent for playing on one of the less complex musical instruments, too limited in compass to satisfy exacting ears, but affording excellent 'discipline to those who wish to write in the simpler metrical. forms, - the same which summons the hero from his repose and stirs' his blood in' battle. By the time he was twelve years old he was struck with the pleasing resemblance of certain vocal sounds which, without' being the same, yet had 'a curious relation which made them agree marvellously well in'couples; as eyes with skies; as heart with art, also with part and smart; and so of numerous. others, twenty or thirty pairs, perhaps, which number he considerably increased as he grew ,older, until he may have had fifty or. more such pairs at his com-. mand. The -union of so extensive a catalogue of words which matched each other, and of an ear so nice that it could tell if there were nine or eleven syllables in an heroic line, instead of the legitimate ten, constituted a rare combination of talents in the opinion of those upon whose judgment he relied. He was naturally led to try his powers in the expression of some just thought or natural sentiment in he shape of verse, that wonderful medium, of imparting I hought and feeling to his fellow-creatures which a bounti- ul Providence had made his rare and inestimable endow- aent. page: 196-197[View Page 196-197] 190 G THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. It was at about this period of his life, that is to say, when he was:oftlhe age of thirteen, or we may perhaps say- fourteen years, for we do not' wish to overstate his preco- city, that he experienced a sensation so entirely novel, that, to the best of lhis belief, it was such as no other younlg per- son had ever known, at least in anything like' the same degree. This extraordinary. emotion was brought onh-by tlhe siglht of Myrtle Hazard, with, whom lhe had never before had any near relations, as they had been at different schools, and Myrtle was too reserved to be very generally known among the young people of his age. ,. Then it was that lie broke forth in his virain effort, "Lines to M--e,s 7 which were published in the village paper, and were claimed by- all possible girls but the right , one; namely, by two Mary Annes, one Minnie, one Me- hitable, and one Marthie, as she saw fit to spell the name borrowed friom her who was troubled .about many things. The success of these lines, which were in that fbrm of verse known to the hyrmn-books as '" common metle," was such as to convince the youth that, whtatever occupation lie might be compelled to follow for a time to obtain a liveli- hood or to assist his worthy parent, his true destiny was the glorious career of a poet. It was a most pleasingo cir- cumstance, that his mother, while she fully recognized the propriety of his 'being diligent in the prosaic line of busi- ness to which circumstances had called him, was yet as much convinced as he himself that he whas destined to achieve literary fame. She had read Watts and Select Hymns all througrh, she slaid, and she did n't see but what Gifted' could make the verses come out jest as slick, and the sound of the rhymes jest as pooty, as Izik Watts or, the Selectmen, whoever tlhey was, -she was sure they THE -GUARDIAN ANGEL. 197 could n't be the selectmen of this town, wherever they be- longed. It is pleasant to say that the young man, though favored by nature with -this rarest of talent's, did not forget the humbler duties that Heaven, which dresses few singuing- birds in the golden plumes of fortune, had laid upon him. After having received a moderate amount of instruction at one of the less ambitious educational institutions of the town,' supplemented, it is true, by the judiicious and gra- . tuitous hints of Master Gridclley, the young poet, in obedi- ence to a feeling which did him the highest credit, relin- quished, at least for the time, the Groves, of Academus, and- offered his youth at the shrine of Plutus, that is, left olf Astudying and took to business.- He became what they call a " clerk f' in what they call a "store " up in the huckleberry districts, and kept such accounts as. were i required by the b:usiness of the establishment. His prin- cipal occupation was; however, to attend'to the details of i commerce as it was transacted over the counter. This industry enabled him, to his great praise be it spoken, to assist his excellent parent, to clothe himself in a becoming " 1 manner, so that he made a really handsome figure on Sun- . days and was always' of presentable aspect, likewise to purchase a book now and 'then, and to subscribe for that leading periodical which furnishes the best models to the youth of the country in the various modes' of composition. Though Master Gridley was very,kind' to the young i man, he was rather disposed to-ch6ck the exuberance of his poetical aspirations. The truth was, that the old clas- sical scliolar did not care a great deal for inodern English poetry.- Give him an Ode of Horace, or a scrap from the s Greek Anthology, and he would recite it with great infla- tion of spirits; but he did not think very much of " your j9 page: 198-199[View Page 198-199] 1083 THE GUARDIAN AGCEL. ]leatses, and your Tennysons, and tie whole Hasheesh- crazy lot," as he called the dreamily sensuous idealists who belong to the same century that brought in ether and chlo- roform. He rather shook his head at Gifted Hopkins for indulging so largely in metrical composition. "Better stick to your ciphering, my young friend," he said to 'him, one day. "Figures of speech are all very well, in their way; but if yoA undertake to deal much in thern, you 'll figure down your prospects into a mighty small sum. There's some danger that it will take all the sense out of you, if you keep writing verses at this rate. You young scribblers think any kind of nonsense will do for the public, if it only has a string of rhymes tacked to it. Cut off the bobs of your kite, Gifted Hopkins, and see if it does n't pitch, and stagger, and come down head-foremost. Don't write any stuff with rhyming tails to it that won't make a decent show for itself after you're :chopped all the rhyming tails off. That's my advice, Gifted Hopkins. Is there any book you would like to have out of my library? Iave you ever read Spenser's Faery Queen? ' lHe had tried, thi young man answered, on the recom- mendation of Cyprian Eveleth, but had found it rather hard reading. Master Gridley lifted his eyebrows very slightly, remem- bering that some had called Spenser the poet's poet. "What a pity," he said to himself, " that this Gifted Hop- kihis has n't got the brains of that William Murray Brad- shaw! What's the reason, I wonder, that all the little earthen pots blow their covers off,and froth over in rhymes at such a great rate, while the-big iron pots keep their lids on, and do all their simmering inside? That is the way these old pedants will talk, after' all , ' i , . ' ' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 199 their youth and all their poetry, if they ever had any, are gone. The smiles of woman, in the mean time, encouraged the young poet to smite the lyre. Fame beckoned him up- ward, from her templed steep. 'The rhymes which rose before him unbidden were as the rounds of Jacob's ladder, on which he would climb to a heaven of glory. Master Gridley threw cold water on, the young man's too sanguine anticipations of success. "All up with the boy, if ;he's going to take to rhyming when he ought to be doing up papers of birown sugar and weighing out pounds of tea. Poor-house,-- that's what it 'll end in. Poets, to be sure! Sausage-makers! Empty skins of old phrases, -stuff 'em with odds and ends of old thoughts that never we'e good for anything, - cut 'em up in lengths and sell 'em to fools! And if' they ain't big fools enough to buy em, give 'erm away; and if you can't do that, pay folks to take 'em. .Bah! what a fine style of genius common-sense. is! There 's a passage in the book that would fit half these addle-headed ihymesters. What is that saying of mine about squinting brains '?" -He topk down ." Thoughts on the Universe," and read Of Squinting Brains. ' "Where there is one man who squints with his eyes, there are a dozen who squint with their brains. It is an infir- ity ,in one of the eyes, making the two.-unequal in power, thta makes men squint. Just so it is an inequality in the two halves of the brain that makes some men idiots and others rascals. 1 kn6w a fellow whose right half is a genius, but his other hemisphere belongs to a fool; and I had a friend perfectly honest on' one side, but who was sent to * O, page: 200-201[View Page 200-201] 200 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. ] jail because the other had an inveterate tendency in the direction of picking pockets and appropriating 3cs alie- num/." -- All this, talking and reading to himself in his usual :fashion. .. . The- poetical faculty which was so freely developed in Gifted Hopkiris had never manifested itself in Cyprian 'Evelseth, whose -look and voice, might, to a stranger leave seemed more likely to imply an imaginative nature. Cyp- :rian was dark, slender, sensitive;, contemplative, a lover of lonely walks, -- one who listened for the whispers of :Nature and watched her shadows, and was alive to the symbolisms she writes over everything. But Cyprian had :never shown the talent or the inclination for writing in verse. He was on the pleasantest terms with the young poet, and being somewhat older, and having had the advantage of academic and college culture, often gave him useful hints as to the cultivation of his powers,'such as genius frequently requires at the hands of humbler intelligences. Cyprian was incapable of jealousy; and although the name of Gifted Hopkins was getting to be .known beyond the immediate neighborhood, and his autograph had been re- quested by more than one young lady living in another county, he never thought of envying the young poet's spreading populari ty. That the 'poet himself was flattered by these marks of public favor may be inferred fronm the growing confidence with which he expressed. ,himself in his conversations with Cyprian, more especially in one which was held at the "store " where he officiated as " clerk." "I become more and more assured, Cyprian," he said, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 201 leaning over the counter, " that I was born ito be- a poet. I feel it in my marro. w. I must succeed. I: must win the laurel of fame. I must taste the sweets of-- " "Iolasses," said a barehieaded girl. of ten who entered at that moment, bearing in her hand a cracked pitcher,- "' ma wants three gills of molasses." . Gifted Hopkins dropped his subject and took up a tin . measure. He served the little maid with a benignity quite charming to witness, made an entry on a slate of .08, and resumed the conversation. "Yes, I am sure of it, Cyprian. The very last piece I wrote was copied in twTo -papers. It was .' Contemplations in Autumn,' and -don't think I am too vain --one young lady has told me that it reminded her of E'ollok. You -never wrote in verse, did you, Cyprian?" "I never wrote at all, Gifted, except school and college . exercises, and a letter now and then. Do you find it an ! easy and pleasant exercise to make rhymes? " j "Pleasant! Poetry is to me a delighllt and a passion. I never know what I am going to write whenl I sit downl, And presently the rhymes begin poundincg in my brain, - it seems as if there were a' Hundred couples of them; paired like so many. dancers, -'and then these rhymes f seem to take possession of me, like a surprise, party, , and bring in all sorts of beautiful thoughts, and I write and write, and the verses run measurin, themselves out ! like-" "Ribbins, --- ny narrer blue ribbins, Mr. Hopkins? Five eigihths of a yard, if you please, Mr. Hopkins.' How's j your, folks?" Then, in. a lower tone, "Those last verses of yours ini the Bannernoracle were sweet pooty." Gifted Hopkins meted out the five eighths oaf blue ribbon ' page: 202-203[View Page 202-203] 202 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. by the aid of certain brass nails on the counter. He gave good measure, not prodigal, for he was loyal to his employer, but putting a very moderate strain on the ribbon, and let- ting the thumb-nail slide with a contempt of infinitesimals which betokened a large soul in its genial mood. The young lady departed, after casting upon him one of those bewitching glances which the young poet -let us rather say the poet, without making odious distinctions - is in the confirmed habit of receiving from dear woman. Mr. Gifted Hopkins resumed: "I do not know where this talent, as my friends call it, of mine, comes from. 'My father used to carry a chain for a surveyor sometimes, and there is a ten-foot pole in the house he used to measure land with. I don't see why that should make me a poet. My mother was always fond of Dr. Watts's hymns; but so are other young men's mothers, and yet they don't show poetical genius. But wherever I got it, it comes as easy to me to write in verse as to write in prose, almost. - Don't you. ever feel a longing to send your thoughts forth in verse, Cyprian?" "I wish I had a greater facility of expression very often," Cyprian answered; "'but when I have my best thoughts I do not find that I have words that seem fitting to clothe them. I have imagined a great many poems, Gifted, but I never wrote a rhyming verse, or verse of any kind. Did you ever hear Olive play 'Songs without Words'? If you have ever heard her, you will know what I mean by unrhymed and unversed poetry." "I am sure I don't know what you mean, Cyrprian, by poetry withoutrhyme or verse, any more than I should if you 'talked about pictures that were painted on nothing, or statues that were made out of nothing. How can you tell THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 203 hat that anything is poety, I should like to know, if there is neither a regular line with just so many syllables, nor a i rhyme? Of codrse you can't. Inever have any thoughts too beautiful to put in verse: nothing can be too beautiful for it." Cyprian left the conversation at this point. 'It was get- ting more suggestive than interpenetrating, and he thought he might talk the matter over better with Olive. Just then a little boy came in, and bargained with GCifted for a Jews-harp, whiich, having obtained, he placed against his teeth, and began playing upon it with a pleasure almost equal to that of the young poet reciting his own verses. "A little too much like my friend Gifted. Hopkins's poetry," Cyprian said, as he left the "store." All in one note, pretty much. Not a great many tunes,-- ' Hi Betty Martin,' 'Yankee Doodle,' and one or two more like them. But many people seem to like them, and I don't, doubt it is i as exciting to Gifted to write them as it is to a great genius i to express itself in a poem." Cyprian was, perhaps, too exacting. lIe loved too well the sweet intricacies of Spenser, the majestic and subtly interwoven harmonies of Milton. These made him impa- tient of the simpler strains of Gifted Hopkihs. - Though he himself never wrote verses, he had some qualities which his friend the poet may have undervalued i in comparison with the talent of modelling the symmetries ! of verse and adjusting the correspondences of rhyme. He !j had kept in a singular degree all the sensibilities of child- i: hood, its simplicity, its reverence. It seemed as if nothing j of all that he met in his daily life was common or unclean to him, for there was no mordant in his nature for what was coarse or vile, and all else he could not help idealizing il1 page: 204-205[View Page 204-205] 204 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. into its own conception of itself, so to speak. He loved the leaf after its kind as well as the flower, and the root as well as the leaf, and did not exhaust his capacity of affec- tion or admiration on the blossom or bud upon which his friend the poet lavished the wealth of his verse. Thus Nature took him into her confidence. She loves the men of science well, and tells them all her family secrets,- who is the father of this or that member of the group, who is brother, sister, cousin, and so on, through all the circle of relationship. But there are others to whom she tells her dreams; not what species or genus her lily belongs to, but what vague thought it has when it dresses in white, or what memory of its birthplace that is which we call its fragrance. .Cyprian was one of these. Yet he was not a' complete nature. He requircd another and a wholly dif- ferent one to be the complement of his own. Olive came as near it as a sister could, but -- we must borrow an old image moonlight- is no more than a cold and vacant glim- mer on the sun-dial, which only answers to the great flaming orb of day. If Cyprian could but find some true, sweet-tem- pered, well-balanced woman, richer in feeling than in those special imaginative gifts which made, the outward world at times unreal to him in the intense reality of his own inner life, how he could enrich and adorn her existence, -how she could direct and chasten and elevate the character of all his thoughts and actions! "Bathsheba," said Olive, "it seems to me that Cyprian is getting more and more fascinated with Myrtle Hazard. . He has never got over the fancy he took to her when he first saw her in her red jacket, and called her the fire-hang- bird. Would n't they suit each other by and by, after Myrtle has come. to herself and grown into a beautiful and noble woman, as I feel sure she will in due time.? i THE GUARDIAN. ANGEL. 205 "Myrtle is very lovely," Bathsheba answered, "but is n't'she a little too flighty -for one like your brother? Cyprian is n't more like other young men than Myrtle is like other young girls. I have thought sometimes I - I wondered whether out-of-the-way people and common ones do not get along best together. Does n't Cyprian want some more every-day kind of girl to keep him straight?? Myrtle is beautiful, --beautiful, fascinates everybody. Has Mr. Bradshaw been following after her lately? He- is taken with her too. Did n'tf you ever think, she would have to give in to Murray 3radshaw at last? He looks to me like a man that would hold on desperately as a lover." If Myrtle Hazard, instead of being a half-finished school- girl, hardly sixteen years old, h4d been a young woman of eighteen or nineteen, it woultl have been plain sailing :i enough for Murray Bradshaw. But he knew what a dis- tance their ages seemed just now to put between them, - a distance which would grow practically less and less with every year, and he did not wish to risk anything so long - as there was no danger of interference. He rather en- couraged Gifted Hopkins to write poetry to M1yrtle. "Go in, Gifted," he said, " there's no telling what may come of! it," -and Gifted did go in at a great rate. Murray Bradshaw did not write poetry himself, but he ! read poetry with a good deal of effect, and he would some- - . times take a hint from one of Gifted Hopkins's last pro- ductions to recite a passionate lyric of Byron or' Moore, i into which he would artfully throw so much meaning that Myrtle was almost as 'much puzzled, in her simplicity, to t knowwhat it meant, as she had, been by the religious fer- i vors of the Rev. Mr. Stoker. 'illB page: 206-207[View Page 206-207] 206 ' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Ie spoke well of Cyprian Eveleth. A good young' man, limited, but exemplary. Would succeed well as rector of a small parish. That required little talent, but a good deal of the humbler sort of viitue. As for himself, he confessed to ambition, - yes, a great deal of ambition. A failing, he supposed, but not the worst of failings. He felt the instinct to handle the larger interests of society. Tie village would perhaps lose sight of him for a time; but he meant to emerge sooner or later in the higher spheres of government or diplomacy. Myrtle must keep his secret. Nobody else knew. it. He could not help making a confidant of her, -a thing he had never done before with any other person as to his plans in life. Per- haps she might watch his career with more interest from her acquaintance with him. He loved to think that there was one woman at least who would be pleased to hear of his success if he succeeded, as with life and health he would,-who would share his disappointment if fate should not favor him. So he wound and wreathed him- self into her thoughts. It was not very long before Myrtle began to accept the idea that she was. the one person in the world whose peculiar duty it was to sympathize with the aspiring young man whose humble beginnings she had the honor of witnessing. And it is not very far from being the soli- tary confidant, and the single source of inspiration, to the growth of a livelier interest, Where a young man and a young woman are in question. Myrtle was at this time'her own mistress as never be- fore. The three young men had access to her as she walked to and from meeting and in her frequent rambles, besides the opportunities Cyprian had of meeting her in THE GUARDIAN. ANGEL. 207 his sister's company, and the convenient visits which, in connection with the great lawsuit, Murray Bradshaw could make, without question, at The Poplars. It was not long before Cyprian perceived that he could never pass a certain boundary of intimacy with Myrtle. Very pleasant and sisterly always she was with him; but she never looked as if she might mean more than she said, and cherished a little spark of sensibility which might be, fanned into the flame of love. Cyprian felt this so certainly that he was on the point of telling his grief to Bathsheba, who looked to him as if she would sympathize as heartily with him as his own sister, and whose sym- pathy would have a certain flavor in it,- something which one cannot find in the heart of the dearest sister that ever lived. But. Bathsheba was herself sensitive, and changed color when Cyprian ventured a hint or two in the direction of his thought, so that'he' never got so far as to unburden his heart to her about Myrtle, whom she admired so sincerely that she could not have helped feel- ing a great interest in his passion towards her. As for Gifted Hopkins, the roses that were beginning to bloom fresher and fresher every day in Myrtle's cheeks unfolded themselves more and more freely, to speak meta- phorically, in his song. Every week she would receive a delicately tinted note with lines to "Myrtle awaking," or to "Myrtle retiring," (one string of verses a little too [Musidora-ish, and which'soon found itself in the condition of a cinder, perhaps reduced- to that state by spontaneous combustion,) or to "The Flower of the Tropics,"' or to the "Nymph of the River-side," or other poetical alias, such as bards affect in their sieges of the female heart. Gifted Hopkins was of a sanguine temperament. As page: 208-209[View Page 208-209] 208 'hE GUARDIAN ANGEL.. he read and re-read his verses it certainly seemed to. lim that they must reach the heart of the angelic being to whom they were addressed. That shl was slow in con- fessing the impression 'they made upon her, was a favor- able sign ; so many girls called-his poems " sweet pooty," that those charming words, though soothing, no longer stirred him deeply. Myrtle's silence showed that the im- pression his verses had made was deep. Time would develop her sentiments; they were both young; his posi- tion was humble as yet; but when he had become famous through the land --0 blissful thought - the. bard of. Ox- bow Village would bear a name that any woman would be proud to assume, and the M. It. which her delicate hands had wrought on the kerchiefs she wore would yet perhaps be read, not Myrtle Hazard, but Myrtle Hopkins! THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 209 CHAPTER XIX. SUSANCS 'YOUNG MAN. TEHERE seems no reasonable doubt that Myrtle Hazard might have made a safe thing ofeit with IGifted Hop- kins, (if so inclined,) provided that she had only been se- cured against interference. . But the constant habit of read- ing his verses to Susan Posey was not without its risk to so excitable a nature as that of the young poet. Poets were always capable of divided affections, and Cowley's Chronicle" is a confession that would fit the whole tribe of them. It is true that Gifted had no right to regard Susan's heart as open to the wiles of any new-comer. He knew that she considered herself, and was considered by another, as pledged and plighted. Yet she was such a devoted listener, her sympathies were so easily roused, her blue eyes glistened so tenderly at the least poetical hint, such as "Never, O never," t"My aching heart" ' "Go, let me weep,"' any of those touching, phrases out of the long' catalogue which readily suggests itself,--that her influence was getting to be such that Myrtle (if really anxious to ,secure him) might look upon it with apprelension, and the owner of Susan's heart (if of a jealous 'disposition) might have thought it worth while to make a visit to Oxbow Vil- lage to see after his property. It may seem not impossible that some friend had sug- gested as much as this to the 'young lady's lover. The. caution would have been unnecessary, or at 'least pre- mature. Susan was loyal as ever to her absent' friend. N page: 210-211[View Page 210-211] 210 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Gifted Hopkins had never yet presumed upon the familiar i relations existing between them to attempt to shake her t allegiance. It is quite as likely, after all, that the young gentleman about to make his appearance in Oxbow Village visited the place of his own accord, without a hint from anybody. But the fact concerns us more than the reason of it, just now. . "Who do you think is coming, Mr, Gridley? Who do you think is coming?". said Susan Posey, her face covered ; with a carnation such as the first season may see in a city belle, but not the second. "Well, Susan Posey, I suppose I must guess, though I am rather slow at that business. Perhaps 'the Governor. No, I don't think it can be the Governor, for you would n't look so happy if it was only his Excellency. It must be the President, Susan Posey,--.President James Buchanan. Have n't I guessed right, now, tell me, my dear?" "O Mr. Gridley, you tre too bad, - what do I care for governors and presidents? I know somebody that's worth fifty million thousand presidents, -and he 's coming,-- my Clement is coming," said Susan, who had by this time learned to consider the awful Byles Gridley as her next friend and faithful counsellor.. Susan could not stay long in the house after she got her note informing her that her friend was soon to be with her. Everybody told everything to Olive Eveleth, and Susan must run over to the Parsonage to tell her that there was a young gentleman coming to Oxbow Village; upon which Olive asked who it was, exactly as if she did. not know; whereupon Susan dropped her eyes and said, "Clement,- J mean Mr. Lindsay." That was a fair piece of news now, and Olive had her * r A THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 2" bonnet'on five minutes after Susan was gone, and was on her way th Batlisheba's, -- it was too bad that the poor girl who lived so out of the world should n't know anything of what was going on in it. Bathsheba had been in all the morning, and the Doctor had said she must take the air every day; so Bathsheba, had' on her bonnet a. little after Olive had gone, and walked straight ,up to The Poplars to tell l. d that a certain young gentleman, Clem- enTLindsay, was coms to Oxbow Village. It was perhaps fortunate that there was no special sig- nificance to Myrtle in the name of Clementl Lindsay. Since the adventure which had brought these two young persons together, and, after coming so near a disaster, had ended in a mere humiliation and disappointment, and but for Master Gridley's discreet kindness might have led' to foolish scandal, Myrtle had never referred to it in any way. Nobody really knew what her plans had been except Olive and Cyprian, who had observed a very kind silence about the. whole matter. The common version of the sty was harmless, and near enough to the truth, -down the river, - boat 'upset, - pulled out,- taken care of by some wo- men in a house, farther down, -sick, brain fever, - pretty near it, anyhow, - old Dr. Hurlbut called in, -- had her lair cut, -- hystericky,. etc., etc. Myrtle was contented with this statemer t, an d asked no luestions, and it was a perfectly understood thing that no- )ody alluded to the subject in her presence. It followed iom all this that the name of Clement Lindsay had no eculiar meaning for her. Nor was she like to. recognize I tim as the youth in whose company she had. gone 'through I : er mortal peril, for all her recollections were confused and ' reamlike from the moment when she awoke and found her- - ' .3' ' *:':' ' page: 212-213[View Page 212-213] 212 ' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. self in the foaming rapids just above the fall, until that when her senses returned, and she saw Master Byles Grid- ley standing over her with that look of tenderness in his j'; square features which had lingered in her recollection, and, made her feel towards him as if she were his daughter. Now this had its advantage; for as Clement was Susan's i young man, and had been so for two or three years, it would have been a great pity to have any such curious relations established between him and Myrtle Hazard-as a consciousness on both sides of what had happened would naturally suggest. "Who. is this Clement Lindsay, Bathsheba?"Myrtle asked. "Why, Myrtle, don't you remember about Susan Posey's is-to-be,- the young man that has been- well, I don't know, but I suppose engaged to her ever since they were children almost? "Yes, yes, I remember now. O dear! I'have forgotten so many things, I should think I had been 'dead' and was coming back to life' again. Do you know anything about him, Bathsheba? - Did n't somebody say he was very hand- some? I wonder if he is really in love with. Susan Posey. Such a simple thin! I want to see him. I have seen so few young men." As Myrtle said, these words, she lifted the sleeve a little on her left arm, by a half-instinctive and half-volun- tary movement. The glimmering gold of Judith Pride's bracelet flashed out the yellow gleam whicli has been the e reddening of so many hands and the blackening of so many souls since that innocent sin-breeder was first picked up in the land of Havilah. There came a sudden liglt into her eye, such as Bathsheba had never seen there before. [-- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 213 It looked to her as if Myrtle were saying unconsciously 'to herself that she had the power of beauty, and would.- like to try its influence on the handsome young man whom she was soon to meet, even at the risk of unseating poor little Susan in his affections. This pained the gentle and humble-minded girl, who, without having tasted the world's pleasures, had meekly conseerated heerelf to the lowly duties which lay nearest to her. For Ba4isheba's phrasing of life was in the monosyllables of a rigid faith. ,Her con- ceptions of the human soul were all simplicity and purity, but elementary. She could not conceive the vast license the creative energy allows itself in mingling the instincts j which, after long conflict, may come into harmonious ad.- justment.. The flash which Myrtle's eye had caught from the gleam of the gold n bracelet filled Bathsheba with . a sudden fear that 's e was like to be, led away by the ' vanities of that world lying in wickedness of which the i1 minister's daulghter had heard so much and seen so little. Not that 'Bathsheba made any fine moral speeches to herself. She only felt a slight shock,'such asl a word or a look from one we love too often, gives us, - stich as a child's trivial gesture or movement makes a parent feel, -- that impalpable something which in the slightest possible ! inflection of a syllable or- gradation of a tone will some- times leave a sting behind it, even in a trutsting heart. This was all. But it was true that what she saw meant a great deal. It meant the dawning 'in Myrtle. Hazard of one of her as yet unlived secondary lives. Bathsheba's : virgin perceptions had caught a faint early ray of its glim- mering twilight. She answered, after a very slight pause, which this i explanation has made seem so long, that shle had never *i page: 214-215[View Page 214-215] 214 T HE GUARDI N ANGEL. seen the young gentleman, and that she did not know about Susan's sentiments. Only, as they had kept so long to each other, she supposed there must be love be- tween them. Myrtle fell into a revery, with certain tableaux glowing along its perspectives which poor little Susan Posey would have shivered to look upon, if, they could have been transferred from the purple clouds of Myrtle's imagina- tion to the pale silveriy mists of Susan's pretty fancies. She sat in her day-dream long after Bathsheba had left her, her eyes fixed, not on the faded portrait of her beati- fied ancestress, but ,on that other canvas where the dead Beauty seemed to live in all the splendors of her. full- blown womanihood. The young man whose name had set her thoughts rov- ing was handsome, as the glance at him already given might have foreshadowed. But his features had a graver impress, than his age seemed to account for, and the sober tone of his letter to; Susan implied that something had given him a. maturity beyond his years. The story was not an uncommon one. At sixteen he had dreamed - and told his dream. At eighteen he had awoke, and found, as he believed, that a young heart had grown' to his so that its life was dependent on his own. Whether it would have perished if its filaments had been gently disentangled. from the object to which they had attached'themselves, experienced judges of such matters may perhaps question. To justify Clement in his estimate of the danger of such an experiment, we must' remember that to young people' in their teens a first passion is a portentous and unpre- cedented phenomenon. The young man may have been THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. '215 mistaken in thinking that Susan would die if lihe left her, and may have done more than his duty in sacrificing him- self; but if so; it .was' the mistake of a geneious youth, who estimated the depth of another's feelings by his own. He measured the depth of his own rather by. what he felt they might be, than by that of any abysses they had yet sounded. Clement was called a " genius" by those who knew him, atd was consequently in danger of being spoiled early. The risk is great enough anywhere, but greatest in a new country, where there is an almost universal want of fixed standards of excellence. He was by nature an artist; a shaper with the pencil or the chisel, a planner, a contriver capable of turning his hand to almost any work of eye and hand. It would not have been strange ff- he thought he could do everything, having gifts which were capable of various 'application, - and being an American' citizen.' But though he was a good draughtsman, and had made some reliefs and mod- elled some figures, he called himself only an architect. He had given himself up to his art, not merely from a love of it and talent for it, but with' a kind of heroic devotion, because he thought his country wanted a race of builders to clothe the new forms of religious, social, and national life afresh from the forest, the quarry, ar:d the mine. -Some thought he would succeed, others that he would be a brilliant, failure. "Grand notions, -grand notions," the master with whom he studied said. "Large ground plan of life, -- splendid elevation, A little wild in some of his fancies, perhaps, but he's only a boy, and he 's the kind of boy that some- times( grows to be a pretty big man. Wait andi see,- page: 216-217[View Page 216-217] 216. . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. wait and see. He works days, and we can let him dream nights. There.'s a good deAil of him, anyhow." His fellow- students were puzzled. Those who thothught of their calling as a trade, and looked foliward to the time whelen they should be 'embodying the ideals of municipal authorities in brick and st. one, or making contracts with wealthy citizens, doubted. whether Clement would, have a sharp eye enough for business. "'Too many whims, you know. All sorts of queer ideas in his head,- as if a boy like him was going to make things all over,again!6" No doubt there was something, of youthful extravagance in his plans and expectations. But it was the untamed enthusiasm which is the source of all great, thoughts and deeds, - a beautifill delirium which age commonly tames down, and for which .tle cold shower-bath the world fur- nishes gratis proves a pretty certain cure. - 'Creation is always preceded by chaos. Tile youthful archilect's mind was confused by the multitude of sugges- tions which were crowdinc in upon it, and which he had not yet, had ti'me or developed mature strength -sufficient to reduce to order. Tile young American of any freshness of intellect is stimulated to' dangerous excess by the,con- ditions of life into which he is born. -There is a double proportion of oxygen in the New-World air. The chemists have not found it, out yet, but human brains and breathing- orfgans1have lono since made the discovery. Clement knew that his hasty entanglement had limited his possibilities of happiness in one , direction, and he felt that 'there was a, certain grandeur in the recompense of working out his defeated instincts through the ambitious medium of his :noble art. Had not 'Pharaohs chosen it to proclaim. their longings for immortality, Caesars their THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. . 217 passion for"pomp and luxury, and priests to symbolize their conceptions of the heavenlly'mansions ? His dreams were o n a gr'and .scale.; sucllh, after all, are the best possessions of youth. Had lhe but been firce, or mated with a nature akin to, his own, he would' have felt him- self as truly the heir of creation as any youngo man that lived. But his lot was cast, and his youth had all the serious aspect to himself of. thlough tful: panhloodi In the region of his art alone h11 hoped always to find freedom and a companionship which his home life could never give him. Clement imeant to lhave visited his beloved before he left AI'derbank, but was called unexpectedly back to the city. Happily Susan was not exacting; she looked up to him with too gretat a'feeling of distCance between them to dare to question his actions. .Perhaps she found a paritial con- solation in the company of Mr. Gifted Hopkins, -WNho tried his lnew poems on her, which was the next best: thing to addressing them to her. "4 Would that you iwere with us at this deliyghtful season;' she wrote in the autumn;' " but no, your Susan must not repine. Yet,'in the beautiful words of our native poet, - ' O would, O would that thou wast here, , For absence makes thee doubly dear; Ah! what is life while thou'rt away?. ' 'T is night without the orb of day! '" The poet; referred to, it need hardly be said:, was our young" and promisinyg friend G. H., as hle sometimes mod- estly signed himself. The letter, it is unnecessary to state, was voluminous, - for a woman can tell her love, or other matter -of interest, over and over again in as manly forms as another poet, not G. H., found fqr his grief; in ringDin'g the musical cllanges of "In Memoriam." 10 l. page: 218-219[View Page 218-219] 218 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. The answers to Susan's letters were kind, but not very Iong. They convinced her that it was a simple impossi- bility that Clement could come to Oxbow Village, on account of the great pressure of the work he had to keep him in the city, and the plans he nmust finish at any rate. But at last the work was partially got rid of, and Clement- was coming; yes, it was so nice, and, O dear! should n't she be real happy to see him? To Susan he appeared as a kind of divinity,- almost too grand for human nature's daily food., Yet, if the sim- ple-hearted girl could have told herself the whole truth in plain words, she would, have confessed to certain 'doubts' which from time to time, and oftener of late, cast a shadow oni her seemingly bright future. With all the pleasure that the thought of meeting Clement gave her, she felt a little tremor, a certain degree of awe, in contemplating his visit. If she could have clothed heir self-humiliation in' the gold and purple of the 1"Portuguese Sonnets," it would 'have been another matter; but the trouble with the most com- mon sources of disquiet is that they have no wardrobe of flamingc phraseology to air themselves in; 'the inward burning goes on without the relief and gratifying display. of the crater. , "A friend of mine is coming to the village," she said to Mr. Gifted Hopkins. "I want you to see him. He is a genius,-- as some other young men are."' (-lthis was ob- viously personal, and the youthful poet blushed with ingen- uous delight.) "I have known him for ever so many years. He and I are very good friends." The poet knew that this meant an exclusive relation between them i and though the fact was no surprise to him, his countenance fell a little. The truth was, that his admiration was divided I . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 219 between Myrtle, who seemed to him divine and adorabl'e, but distant, and Susan, who listened to his frequent poems, whom he was in the habit of seeing in artless domestic costumes, and whose attractions had been gaininm- upon him of late in the enforced absence of liis divinity. He retired pensive from this interview, and, flinginl. himself at his desk, attempted wreaking his tlhoughts upon expression, to borrow the language of one of his brother bards, in a passionate lyric which lie began thus:-- "ANOTHER'S! "Another's! O the pang, the smart! Fate owes to Love a deathless grudge, - , The barbed fang has rent a heart Which- which- . "judgle- judged-- no, not judge. Budge, drudge, fudge-- What: a disgusting languarge English is! N'Nthin( fit to couple with such a word as grudge! And the fgush of an impassioned moment arrested in full flow, slopped short, corked up, for want of a paltry rhyme! Judge, - budge, - drudge, -- nudge, - oh!--sudge, - misery! fudge. In vain,- futile, -no use, - all up for to-nil-ht i" While the poet, headed off in this way by the poverty of his nativeton rgue, soughlt inspiration by retiring into the : world of dreams,- went to bed, in short,-- his more fortunate rival was just entering the village, mrhere he was to make his brief residence at the house of Deacon Rumrill, who, having been a loser by the devouring element, was glad to receive a stray boarder when any such were looking ,about for quarters. For some reason or other he was restless that evening and took out a volume he had brought with him to beguile, the earlier hours of the night. It was too late whe her. , S page: 220-221[View Page 220-221] 220 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. arrived to disturb the quiet of Mrs. Hopkins's household; and whatever may have been Clement's impatience, he held it in check, and sat tranquilly until midnight over the pages of the book with which he had prudently provided himself. "Hope you slept well last night," said the old Deacon, when Mr. Clement came down to breakfast the next morn- ing. "Very well, thank you, - that is, after I got to bed. But I sat up pretty late reading my favorite Scott. I, am apt to forget how the hours pass when I have one of his books in my hand." The worthy Deacon looked at Mr. Clement with a sudden accession of interest. "You could n't find better reading, young man. Scott. is my favorite author. A great man. I have got his like- ness in a gilt frame hanging up in the other rob6n. I have read him all through three times." The young man's countenance brightened. He had not expected to find so much taste for elegant literature in an old village deacon. "What are your favorites among his writings, Deacon? I suppose you have your particular likings, as the rest of us have." The Deacon was flattered by the question. "Well," he. answered, "I can 'hardly tell you'. I like pretty much everything Scott ever wrote. Sometimes I think it is one thing, and sometimes another. Great oh Paul's Epistles, --don't you think so?" The honest fact was, that Clement remembered vrery little about "Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk," a hook of Sir Walter's less famous than many of his others; but lhe Dr' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 221 signified his polite assent to the Deacon's staltement, rather wondering at his choice of a favorite, and smiling at his queer way of talking abdut the Letters as Epistles. "I am afraid Scott is not so much reacd now-a-days as he once was, and as he ought to be," said :M:r. Clement. "Such character, such nature and so much grace '" Tlatt 's it,- that 's it, young man," the Deacon broke in, - "Natur' and Grace, - Natur' and Grace, . Nobody ! ever knew better what those two words meant than Scott did, and I 'm very glad to see you 've chosen such good wholesome reading. You can't set up too late, young man, to read Scott. If I had twenty children, their should all begin reading Scott as soo:; as they were old enough to spell 'sin,' -and that's the first word my little ones I learned, next to 'pa' and ma.' Nothing like beginningO the lessons of life in good season." "What a grim old satirist!" Clement said to himself. "I wonder if the old man' read-s other novelists. Do tell me, Deacon, if you have readl Thackeray's last story?" "Thackery's story? Published by the American Tract Society?" "Not exactly," Clement answered, smiling, and quite. deliglted to find such an unexpected vein of grave pleas- antry about the dimure-looking church-dignitary; for the aDeacon ask ed his question without moving a muscle, and l took no cognizance whatever of the young man's tone and smile. First-class humorists are,; as is well kiow n, remark- able for the immovable solemnity of their features. Clem- 1, ent promised himself not a little amusement from the curiously sedate drollery of the venerable Deacon, who, it. was plain from his conversation, had cultivated a literaryr taste which would make him a more agreeable companion :: "-i! page: 222-223[View Page 222-223] 22.2 ... THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. than the common ecclesiastics of his grade in country vil- lages. Aftei breaklfast, Mr.- Clement walked forth in the direc- tion of Mrs. Hopkins's house, thinking as he went of the pleasant surprise his visit would bring to his longring and doubtless pensive Susan; for thourgh she knew' he was coming, she did'not know that he was at that moment in Oxbow Village. As he drew near the house, the first. thing he saw was Susan 3Posey, almost running against her just as he turned a corner. She looked wonderfully lively and rosy, for the weather was getting keen and the frosts had begun to bite. A youngD gentleman was walking, at her side,'and reading to her from a paper he held in his hand. Both looked deeply interested, -so much so that Clement felt half, ashamed of himself for intruding upon them so abruptly. But lovers are lovers, and Clement could not help join- in(g them. Thle first thng, of course, was the :utterance of two simultaneous exclamations, "Why, Clement!" "Why, Susan!" What might have come next in the pro- gramme, but for the presence of a third party, is matter of conjecture; but what did come next was a mighty awk- ward look on the part of Susan Posey, and the following short speech - Mr. Lindsay, let me introduce Mr. Hopkins, my friend,. the poet I've written to you about. He was just reading two of his poems to me. Some other time, Gifted -Mr. Hopkins." "O no, Mr. Hopkins, --pray go on," said Clement, "I'm very fond of poetry." The poet did not require much urging, and began at once reciting over again the stanzas which were afterwards THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 223 so much admired in the "Banner and Oracle,"--the first verse being, as the readers of that paper wMill remem- ber, -- -' She moves in splendor, like the ray That flashes from unclouded skies, And all the charms of night and day Are mingled in her hair and cyes." Clement, who must have been in' an agrony of impatienIe to be alone with his beloved, commanded his feelings ad- mirlably. He signified his approbation of the poem by saying that the lines were, smooth and the rlhymes absolute- ly without blemish. The stanzas reminded him forcibly of one of the rof eatest poets of the -century. Gifted flushed hot with pleasure. He had tasted the blood of his own rliymes; and when a poet gets as far as that, it is like wrinfging the bagr of exhilaratirng gas from the lips of a fellow suckingl at.-it, to drayg his piece away from him. "Perhaps you .will like these lines still better," he said; the style is more modern':- ' O daughter of the spiced South, , Her,bubbly grapes have' spilled the wine That staineth with its hue divine The red flowcer of thy perfect mouth."' And so on, through a series of stanzas like these, with the pulp of two rhymes between the upper and lower crust of two others. - ' Clement was. con'ered. It was necessary to say some- thint for the-poet's ' sake, - perlaps for Susan'a; for she wtas in a certain sense responsible for the poeams of a youtl! of' genius, of whom she had spoken so often and so en- thusiastically. page: 224-225[View Page 224-225] 224 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. "Very good, Mr. Hopkins, and a form of verse little used, I should tlink, until of late years. You modelled this piece on the style of a famous living English poet, did you-not?" "Indeed I did, not, Mr. Lindsay,-I never iinitate. Originality is, if I may be allowed to say so much for my- self, my peculiar forte. Why, the critics allow as much as that. See here, Mr. Lindsay." Mi. Gifted Hopkins pulled out his pocket-book, and, taking therefrom a cutting from a newspaper,--whch dropped helplessly open of itself, as if tired of the process, being very tender in the joints or creases, by reason of having been often folded and unfolded,--read aloud as follows: "The bard of Oxbow Village - our valued correspondent. who writes over the signature of G. H. -is, in our opinion, more remarkable for hit originality than for, any other of his numerous gifts,"' Clement was apparently silenced by this, and the poet a little elated with a sense of triumph. Susan could not help sharing his feeling of satisfaction, and without' mean- ing it in the least, nay, without knowing it, for she was as simple and pure as new.'milk, edged a little bit-the merest infinitesimal atom--nearer to Gifted Hopkins, who was on one side of her, while Clement walked on the other. Women love the conquering party,- it is the way of their sex. RAnd poets, as we have seen, are wellnigh irresistible when they exert their dangerous power of fascination up- on the female heart. But Clement was above jealousy; and, if he perceived anything of this movement, took no notice of it. He saw a good deal of his pretty Susan that day.. She : was tender in her expressions and manners as usual, but there was a little something in her looks and language ! q; * * ' ,4 . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 225 f!0om time to time that Clement did not know exactly what to make of. She colored once or twice when the youngl poet's name was mentioned. She was not so full of her little plans for the future as she had' sometimes been, "everything was so uncertain," she said. Clement asked ! himself whether she' felt quite as sure that her attachment t would last as she onee did. But there were no reproaches, not even any explanations, which are about as bad between lovers. There was nothing but an undefined feeling on his side thaft she did not cling quite so closely to him, per- haps, 'as he had once thought, and that, if he had hap- pened to have been drowned that day when he went down with the beautiful young woman, it was jusit conceivable that Susan, who would havee cried dreadfully, no doubt, would in time have listened to consolation from somne other i young man,- possibly from the young poet whose ,verses , he had been admiring. Easy-crying ,widows take new husbands soonest; there is nothing like wet weather for transplanting, as Master Gridley used to say. Susan hadl a fluent natural gift for tears, as Clement well knew, after the exercise of which she used to brighten up like the rose which had been washed, just washed in a shower, men- tioned by Cowper. . As for the poet, he learned more of his ovn sentiments during this visit of Clement's than he had ever before . 0 known. He wandered about with a dreadfully disconsolate look upon his countenance. He showed a falling-off in ' his appetite at tea-time, which surprised and disturbed his mother; for she had filled the house with fragrant sugges- ' tions of good things coming, in honor of MAr." Lindsay,' ; who was to be her guest at tea. 'And cliefly the genteel fo'rm of doughnut called in the native dialect cymbal (Qu 10* I ' o0 *" * * ' I " page: 226-227[View Page 226-227] 226 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Symbol? B. G.) which graced the board with its plastic forms, suggestive of the most pleasing objects - the spiral ringlets pendent from the brow of beauty,- the magic circlet, which is the pledge, of plighted affection,-the indissoluble knot. which typifies the union of hearts, rwhich organs were also largely represented; this exceptional delicacy would at any other time have claimed his special notice. But his mother remarked that he paid little atten- tion to these, and hs, "No, I thank you," when it came to the preserved "damsels," as sonme call them, carried a pang with it to the maternal bosom. The most touching evidence of his unhappiness- whether intentional or the result of accident xwas not evident-- was a broken heart, which he left upon his plate, the meaning of which was as plain as anything in the language of flowers. -Iis thoughts were gloomy during that day, running a good deal on the more picturesque and impressive methods of bidding a voluntary farewell to a world which had allured him with visions of beauty only to snatch them from his impassioned gaze. His mother saw somethingo of this, and got fromn him a few: disjointed words, which led her to lock up the clothes-line and hide her late husband's razors, an affec- tionate, yet perhaps unnecessary precaution, for self-elimi- nation contemplated from this point of view by those who have the natural outlet of verse to relieve them. is rarely followed by a casualty.' It may rather be considered as implying a more than average chance for longevity; as those who meditate an imposing finish naturally save them- selves for it, and are therefore careful of their health until the time comes, and this is apt to be indefinitely postponed so long as there is a poem to write or a proof to be cor- rected. ! . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 227 , \ . CHAPTER XX. THE SECOND MEETIN . " /'I1SS EVELETH requests the pleasure of Mr. Lindsay's company to meet a few friiends on the evening of the Feast of St. Ambrose, December 7th, Wednesday. "THE PARSONAGE, December 6th." It was the luckiest thing in the world. They always made a little festival of that evening .at the Rev. Ambrose Eveleth's, in honor of his canonized namesake, and be- cause they liked to have a good time. It came this year just at the right moment, for here was a distinguished stranger visiting in the place. Oxbow Village seemed to be running over with its one extra young man,- as may be seen sometimes in larger villages, and even in Cities of moderate dimensions. Mr. William Murray Bradshaw had called on Clement the day after his arrival. He had already met the Dea- con in the street, and asked sonme questions about his transient boarder. A very interesting young man, the Deacon!said, much given to the reading of pious books. Up late at night after he came, reading Scott's Commentnary. Appeared to be as fond of serious works as other young folks were of their novels and romances and other immoral publica- tions. He,'the Deacon, thought of having a few religious friends to meet the young gentleman, if he felt; so disposed; and should like to have him, Mr. Biadshaw, come in and J page: 228-229[View Page 228-229] 228 1. ThE GUARDIAN ANGEL. take a part in the exercises. - Mr. Bradshaw was unfortu- nately engaged. He thought the young gentleman could hardly find time for such a meeting during his brief visit. Mr. Bradshaw expected naturally to see a youth of im- perfect constitution, and cachectic or dyspeptic tendencies, who was in training to furnish one of those biographies beginning with the statement that, from his infancy, the subject of it showed no inclination for boyish amusements, and so on, until he dies out, for the simple reason that there was not enough of him to live. Very interesting, no doubt, Master Byles Gridley would have said, but. had no more to do with good, hearty, sound life than the history of those very little people to be seen in museums pre- served in jars of alcohol, like brandy peaches. When Mr. Clement Lindsay presented himself, Mr. Bradshaw was a good deal surprised to see a young fellow of such a mould. He pleased himself with the idea that he knew a man of mark at sight, and he set down Clement in that category at his first glance. The young man met his penetrating and questioning look with a frank, in- genuous, open aspect, before which he felt himself disarmed, as it were, and thrown upon other means of analysis. He would try him a little in talk. "I hope you like these people you are with. What sort of a man do you find my old friend the Deacon?" 'Clement laughed. "A very queer old character. Loves his joke as well, and is as sly in making it, as if he had studied' Joe 'Miller instead of the Catechism." Mr. Bradshaw looked at the young man to know what he meant. Mr Lindsay talked in a very easy way for a s;erious young person. He was puzzled. Hc did not, see to the bottom of this description of the Deacon. With THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 229 a lawyer's instinct, he kept his doubts to himself and tried his witness with a new question.. "Did you talk about books at all with the old man?" "To be sure I did. Would you believe it, -tlat aged saint is a great novel-reader. So he tells me. What is more, he brings up his children to that sort of reading, from the time wheri they first begin to spell. If anybody else had told, me such a story about an old country deacon, I would n't have believed it; but he said so himself, to me, at breakfast this morning." Mr Bradshaw felt as if either he or 1Mr. Lindsay must certainly be in the first stage of mild insanity, and he did not think tlhat he himself could be out of his wits. ie must try one more question. 1Ie had become so mystified. that he forgot himself, and began puitting his interrogation iII legal form. "Will you state, if you please I beg your pardon- may I ask who, is your own favorite author?:" "I think just now I like to read Scott better than almost anybody." Do you mean'the Rev. Thomas Scott, author of the Commentary?" Clement stared at Mr. Bradshaw, and wondered whether he was trying to make a fool of him. The young lawyer hardly looked as if he could be a fool himself. "I mean Sir Walter Scott." he said, dryly. "Oh!" said Mr. Bradshaw. -He saw thlat there had ;been a slight nmisunderstanding between the young man and his worthy host, but it was none of his business, and tlhere were other subjects of interest to talk ablout. "You know one of our chlarming young l'adies very well, I believe, Mr Lindsay. I: think you are an old acquaint- ance of AMiss Posey, wlom we all consider so pretty." , ;. page: 230-231[View Page 230-231] 230 . THE GUARDIAN ,ANGEL, Poor Clement! .'The question pierced to the very mar- row of his soul, but it was put with the utmost suavity and courtesy, and honeyed with a compliment to the young lady, too, so that there was no avoiding a direct- and pleas- ant answer to it. " Yes,".he said, "I have known the yoding lady you i speak' of for a long time, and very well,-- in fact, as you, must have heard, we are somrnthing more than friends. NlMy visit here is principally on her account!" . "'You must give tthe rest of us a chance tosee some- thingr of you during(, your visit, 1Mr. Lindsay. I hope you , are' invited to Miss Eveleth's-to-morrow evening?" "Yes, I got a note this morning. Tell me, Mr. Brad- shaw, who is there that I shall meet if I go? I have no i doubt there are girls here in the village I should like to i see, and perhaps some young fellows that I, should like m to talk with. You know all that's prettiest arnd pleasant- est, of course. " "O, we're a little place, Mr. Lindsay4 A few nice f people, the rest comnnme Va, you know. .High-bush black- i berries and low-bush blackberries,--you understand,-- just so everywhere, -- liigl-bush -here and there, low-bush ; , plenty. You must, see the two parsons' daugliters,- Saint Amabrose's and. Saint Joseph's,- and another girl I want particularly to introduce you to. You shall form i your own opinion of her. Icall her handsome and stylish,. but you have got spoiled, you 'know. Our youngl, poet, too, one we raised in this place, Mr. Lindsay, and a superior r article of poet, as We think, - that is, some of us, for the rest of us are jealous of lim, because the girls are all dying for him and want his autograph l.-And Cyp,-- yes, you must talk to Cyp, -- he has ideas. But don't t s THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 231 forget to get hold of old Byles- Aaster Gridley I mean -before you go. Big head. Brains enoupgh for a cabi- net minister, and fit out a college faculty with ,what was left over. Be sure you see old Byles. '3eit him talking about his book,-' Thoughlts on the Universe.' Did n't sell -much, but has got knowing, tiings in it. I'll show you a copy, ,and then you can tell him you know it, and he will take to you. Come in and get your dinner with me to-morrow. We will dine late, as the city folks do, and after 'that we will go over to the Rector's. I should like to show you some of our village people. Mr. Bradshaw liked the thought of showiingw the young man to some of his firiends there. As Clemcnt was already ' "done for," or "'bowled out," as the youngr lawyer would have expressed the fact of his being pledged in the matri- monial direction, there was nothing to be apprehended on the score of' rivalry. And although Clement' was particu-, larly good-looking, and would have been called a distin- guishable youth anywhere, Mr. Bradshaw considered him- self far more than his match, in all probability, in social accomplishments. He expected, therefore, a C ertain amount of reflex credit for bringing such a fin-e younga fellow in his company, and a second instalment of reputation from out- shining him in conversation. This was rather nice calcu- lating, but Muirray Bradshaw always calculated. With most men life is like backgammon, half skill, and half luck, but with him it was like chess. He never putshed a pawn without reckoning the cost, and when Ihis mind was least \ busy it was sure to be half a dozen moves alhead of thie game as it was standin. . Mr. Bradshaw gave Clement a pretty dinner enough for such .a place as. Oxbow Village.. He off'eredl him spome . page: 232-233[View Page 232-233] 232 TiHE GUARDIAN ANGEL. good. wine, and would have made him talk so as to show his lining, to use one of his own expressions,'but Clement lad apparently been through that trifling experience, and could not be coaxed into saying more than he meant to say. Murray Bradshaw was very curious to find out how. it was that he had become the victim of such a rudimen- tary miss as Susan Posey. Could she be an heiress in disguise? Why rno, of course not; had' not he made all proper inquiries about that when Susan came to town? A small inheritance from an aunt or uncle, or some such rela- tive, enough to make her a desirable party in the eyes of certain villagers perhaps, but nothing to allure a man like this, whose face aiid figure as marketable possessions were worth say a hundred thousand in the girl's own right, as Mr. Bradshaw put it roughly, with another hundred thou- sand if his talent is what some say, and if his connection is a desirable one, a fancy price, - anything he would fetch. Of course not. Must have got caught when he was a child. Why the diavolo did n't he break it off, then? There was no fault to find with the modest entertainment at the Parsonage. A splendid banquet in a great house is an admirable thing, provided always its getting up did not cost the entertainer an inward conflict, nor its recollection a twinge of ecoinomical regret, nor its bills a cramp of anxi- ety. A simple evening party in the smallest village is just as admirable in its degree, when' the parlor is cheer- fully lighted, and the board prettily spread, and the guests are made to feel comfortable without being reminded that anybody is making a painful effort. We know several of the yung people who were theere, and need not trouble .ourselves for the others. Myrtle Hazard had promised to come. She had her own way of THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 233 late as never before; in fact, the women were afraid of her. Miss Silence felt. that sle could not be responsible for her any longer. She had hopes for a time that. Myrtle would' go through the customary spiritual paroxysnm under the influence of the Rev. Mr. Stoker's assiduous exhortations but since she had broken off with him, Miss Silence had looked upon her as little better than a backslider. And' now that the girl, was beginning to show the tendencies whVilc seemed to come straight down to her fi om the belle of the last century, (whose rich physical developments seemed to the under-vitalized spinster as lthemselves a kind of offence against propriety,) the forlorfi woman folded her thin hands and looked on hopelessly, hlardly venturing a remonstrance for fear of some new explosion. As for Cynthia, she was' comparatively dasy since she had, through Mr. Byles Gridley, upset the minister's questionable ar- rangement -of religious intimacy. She -had, in fact, in a quiet way, given Mr. Bradshaw. to understand. that he would probably -met Myrtle at the larsonage if he dropped in at their small gathering. Clement walked over to Mrs. Hopkinss after his dinner with the young lawyer, and asked if Susan was ready to go with hinm. At the sound of his voice, Gifted Hopkins smote his forehead, and called himself, in subdued tones, a5 miserable being. His imagination wavered uncertain for a while between pictures of various modes of ridding him- self of existence,' and fearful deeds involvinog the life of others. He had no' fell purpose of actually doing either, but there was a gloomy pleasure in contemplating them as possibilities, and in mentally sketching the c"Lines' written in Despair " which would be found in what was but an hour before the pocket of the youthful bard, G. I., victim page: 234-235[View Page 234-235] 231 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. of' a'hopeless passion. 'All this emotion was in the nature of a surprise to the young, man, He had fully believed him- self desperately in love with Myrtle Hazard; and it-was not - until Clement came into the family circle with the right of eminent domain over the, realm- of Susan's affections, that t this unfortunate discovered that Susan's pretty ways and morning dress and[ love of poetry and liking for his conl- t pany had been too much' for him, and that he was hence- ;' forth to be wretched during the remainder of his natural life, except so far as he could unburden himself in song. Mr. William Murrlay Bradshaw had asked the privilege of waiting upon' Myrtle to the little party at the Eveleths. lMyrtle was not insensible to the attractions of the yroung. lawyer, though she had never thought of herself except as a child in her relations with any of these older persons. But she was not the same girl that she had been:but a few - months before. She had achieved her independence by, her audacious and most dangerous enterprise. She had gone through strange nervous trials and spiritual experi- ences which had matured her more' rapidly than years of common life would have done. She had got back her I health, bringing with it a riper wealth of womanhood.. She I had found her destiny in the consciousness that she inherited the blauty belonging to her blood, and which, after sleep- ing for a generation or two as if 'to rest from the -glare of l the pageant that follows beauty through'its long career of . triumph, had come to the light again in her life, and was 7 to repeat the legends of the olden time in her own history. Myrtle's wardrolbe had very little of ornament, such as the mnodistes of the town would have thought, essential to render a young giirl like her presentable.. There were a: few heirlooms of old date, however, which she had kept as THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 235 curiosities until now, and which she looked over until she found some lace and other convertible mateiial, with which she enlivened her costume a little for thet evening. As she clasped the antique bracelet around her w,.rist, she felt as if it were an amulet that gave ler the .power of charmr- ing which had been so long obsolete ill her lineage. - At the bottom of her h6art she cherished a secret longing to try her fascinations on the young lawyer. Who could blame her? It was not an inwardly expressed intention, -it was the simple instinctive movement to subjugate the strongest of the other sex who lhad come in her way, which, as already said, is as natural to a woman as it is to a man to be captivated by the loveliest of thos'e to whom lhe dares to aspire. . Before William Murray Bradshhaw and -IMyJrtle Hazard liad reached the Parsonage, the girl's cheeks' were flushed and her darkl eyes were flashing with a: newr excitement. The young man had not made love to her directly, but lie hlad interested her in herself by a delicate and tender flat- tery of manner, and so set her fancies ivorkitg that she was taken with him as never before, and wishng that the Parsonage had been a mile farther from The Poplars. It was impossible for a young girl like Myrtle to conceal the pleasure she received from. listening to her seductive ad- mirer; who was trying all his trained skill upon his artless companion. Murray Bradshaw felt sure that the galme was in his hands if he played it with only commnon pru- dence. There yas no need of hurrying this child,--it miglht startle her to make downriglht love abruptly; and now thhat he had an ally in her own household, and was to have access to her with a freedom he had never before en.- joyed, there was a refined pleasure in playinlg his fish,- page: 236-237[View Page 236-237] 236 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. this gamest of golden-scaled creatures,-which had risen to his fly, and which he wished to hook, but not to land, until he was sure it would beaworth his while. They entered the little parlor at the Parsonage looking so beaniing, that Olive and Batlhsheba exchanged glances which implied so much that it would take a full page to tell it with all the potentialities involved. "Iow magnificent Myrtle is this evening, Bathsheba " said Cyprian Eveleth, pensively. What a handsome pair they are, Cyprian!" said 'Bath- sheba cheerfully. ' Cyprian sighed. "She always fascinates me whenever. I look upon her. Is n't she the very picture of what a poet's love should be, -a poem herself, -a glorious lyric, ---all light and music! See what a smile the creature has!' And her voice! When did you ever hear such tones? And when was it ever so full of life before." Bathsheba sighed. -"I do not know any poets but Gift- ed Hopkins. Does not Myrtle look, more in her place by the side of Murray Bradshaw than she would with Gifted hitched on her arm? Just then the poet made his appearance He looked depressed, as if it had cost him an effort to come. He was, however, charged with a message which he must deliver to the hostess of the evening. "They 're coming presently," he said. "That young man and Susan. Wants 'you to introduce him; Mr. Brad- shaw." The bell rang presently, and Muiray Bradshaw slipped' out into the entry to meet the two lovers. "How are you, my fortunate friend?" he. said, as he met them at the door. "Of 'course 'you 're well and hap- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 237 py as mortal man can be in this vale of tears.. Charming, ravishing, quite delicious,'that way of dressing your. hair, Miss Posey! Nice girls here this evening, Mr. Lindsay. Looked lovely when I came out of the parlor. Can't say how they will show after this young lady puts in an ap- pearance." In reply to which florid speeches Susan blushed, not knowing what else to do, and Clement smiled as naturally as if he had been sitting for his photograph. He felt, in a vague way, that he and Susan werle being patronized, which is not a pleasant feeling to persons with a certain pride of character. There was no expression of contempt about :Mr. Bradshaw's- manner or language at which he could take offence. Only he had the air of a man 'who praises his neighbor without stint, with a calm consciousness that he himself is out of reach of compari- so n in the possessions or qualities which he is admiring in the other. Clement was right in his obscure perception of Mr. Bradshaw's feeling while he was making his phrases. That gentleman was, in another moment, to have the tin- gling delight of showing the grand creature he had just be- gun to tame. He was going to extinguish the pallid liglt ' of Susan's prettiness in the brightness of M[yrtle's beauty. lie would bring this young man, neutralized and rendered entirely harmless by his irrevocable pledge to a slight girl, 'face to face with a masterpiece of,young womanhood, and say to him, not in words, but as plainly a,s speech could have told him," Behold ,my captive!" It was a proud moment for Murray Bradshaw. He had seen, or thought thlat he had seen, the assured evidence of a speedy triumph over all the obstacles of Myrtle's youth and his own present seeming slight excess of matu- rity. Unless he were very greatly mistaken:, he could now page: 238-239[View Page 238-239] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. walk the course; the plate was his, no matter what might be the entries. And this youth, this handsome, spirited- looking, noble-aired young fellow, whose artist-eye' could not miss a line of Myrtle's proud and almost defiant beauty, was to be the witness of his power, and to look in admira- tion upon his prize! He introduced him to the. others, reserving her for the last. She was at that moment talk ing with the worthy Rector, and turned when Mr. Brad- shaw spoke to her. " Miss Hazard, will you allow me to present to you my friend, Mr. Clement Lindsay ?" They looked full upon each other, and spoke the com- mon words of salutation. It was a strange meeting; but we who profess to tell the truth must tell strange things, or we shall be liars. In poor little Susan's letter there was some allusion to a bust of Innocence which the young artist had begun, but of which he had said nothing in his answer to her. He had roughed. out a block of marble for that impersonation; sculpture was a delight to him, thoulgh secondary to his main pursuit. After his memorable adventure, the image of the girl he had rescued so haunted him that the pale ideal which was to work itself out in the bust faded. away in its perpetual presence, and -alas, poor Susan! --in obedience to the impulse that he could not control, he left Innocence sleeping in the marble, and began mod- elling a figure of proud and noble and imperious beauty, to which he gave the name of Liberty. The original which had inspired his conception was be- fbre him. These were the lips to which his own had clung when he brought her back from the land of shadows. The hyacinthine curl of her lengthening locks had added THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 239 if something to her beauty; but it was the same face which had haunted him. This was the form he had borne seem- ingly lifeless in his arms, and the bosom vwhich heaved so visibly before him was that which his eyes - they were the calm eyes of a sculptor, but of a sculptor hardly twenty years old. Yes, -her bosom was heaving. She had an unex- plained feeling of suffocation, and drew great breaths,-- she could not have said why,- but she could not help it; and presently she became giddy, and had a great noise in her ears, and rolled her eyes about, and was on the point of going into an hysteric spasm. They called Dr. Hurl- but, who was making himself agreeable to Olive just then, to come and see what was the' matter with Myfrtle. "A little nervous turn, -that is all," he said. "Open the window. Loose the ribbon round her neck. Rub her hands. Sprinkle some water on her forehead. A few drops of cologne. Roqm too warm for her,-- that's all, I think." Myrtle came to herself after a time without anything 'like a regular paroxysm. But she was excitable, and whatever the cause of the disturbance may have been, it seemed prudent that she should go home early; and the excellent Rector insisted on caring for her, niuch to the discontent of Mr. William Murray Bradshaw. "Demonish odd," said this gentleman, was n't it, Mr. Lindsay, that Miss Hazard should go off in that way? Did you ever see her before ? "I - I - have seen that young lady before," Clement answered. "Where did you meet her? " Mr. Bradshaw asked, with eager interest. page: 240-241[View Page 240-241] 240 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. "I met her in the Valley of the Shadow of Death," Clement answered, very solemnly. - "I leave this place to-morrow morning. Have you any commands for the city?" "Knows how to shut a fellow up pretty well for a young one, does n't he?"Mr. Bradshaw thought to- himself.) . "Thank you, no," he answered, recovering himself. "Rather a melancholy place to make acquaintance in, I should think, that Valley you spoke of. I should like to know about it." Mr. Clement had the power of looking steadily into another person's eyes in a way that was by no means en- couraging to curiosity or favorable to the process of cross- examination. M-r. Bradshaw was not disposed to press his question in the face of the calm, repressive look the young man gave him.. "If he was n't batgged, I should n't like the shape of ihings any too well,' he said to himself. The conversation between Mr. Clement Lindsay and Miss Susan Posey, as they walked home together, was not very brilliant. "I am going to-morrow morning," he said, "and I must bid yru good by to-night." Perhaps it is as well to leave two lovers to themselves, under these circum- stances. Before he went he spoke to his worthy host, whose moderate demands he had to satisfy, and with whom he wished to exchange a few words. And by the way, Deaeln, I have no use for this book, and as it is in a good type, perhaps you would like it. Your favorite, Scott, and one of his greatest works. I have another edition of it at home, and don't care for this volume." , . . I, - THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 241 "Thank you, thank you, Mr. Lindsay, much obleeged. I shall read that copy for your sake, -the best of books next to the Bible itself." After Mr. Lindsay had gone, the Deacon looked at the back of the book. "Scott's Works, Vol. IX." He opened it at hazard; and happened to fall on a well-known page, from whichi e began ireading aloud, slowly, "When Izrul, of the Lord beloved, Out of the land of bondage came." The whole hymn pleased the grave Deacon. He had never seen this work of the author of the Commentary. No matter; anything that such a good man wi'ote must be good reading, and he would save it up for Sunday. The consequence of this was, that, when the Rev. -Mr. Stoker stopped in on his way to meeting on the "Sabbath," he turned white with horror. at the spectacle of the senior Deacon of his clhurch sitting, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, absorbed in the pages of ' Ivanhoe," which he found enor- mously interesting; but, so far as he had yret read; not occupied with religious matters so much as 'he had ex- pected. Myrtle had no explanation to give of her nervous attack. Mr. Bradshaw called the day after the party, but did not see her. lie met her walking, and thought she seemed a little more distant than common. That would never do. He called again at The Poplars a few days afterwards, and was met in the entry by Miss Cynthia, with Whom he had a long conversation on matters involving Myrtle's interests and their own. " ! page: 242-243[View Page 242-243] CHAPTER XXI. MADNESS? MR. CLEMENT LINDSAY returned to the city and his usual labors in a state of strange mental agitation. He had received an impression for which he was unprepared. He had seen for the second time a young girl whom, for the peace of his own mind, and for the happiness of others, he should never again have looked upon until Time bad taught their young hearts the lesson which all hearts must learn, sooner or later. What shall the unfortunate person do so has met with one of those disappointments, or been betrayed into one of those positions, which do violence to all the tendei'est feel- ings, blighting the, happiness of youtllh, d the prospects of after years? if the person is a young man, he has various resources. He can take to the philosophic meerschaum, and nicotize himself at brief intervals into a kind of buzzing and blurry insensibility, until he begins to "color" at. last like the bowl of his own pipe, and even his mind gets the tobacco flavor. Or he can have recourse to the more suggestive stimulants, which will dress his future up for him in shin- ing possibilities that glitter like Masonic regalia, until the morning light and the waking headache reveal his illusion. Some kind of spiritual anesthetic he must have, if he holds his grief fast tied to his heart-strings. But as grief must be fed with thought, or starve to -death, it is the best plan to keep the mind so busy in other ways that it has no time THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 243 to attend to the wants of that ravening passion. To sit down and passively endure it, is apt to endl in-putting all the mental machinery into disorder. Clement Lindsay had ihought that lis battle of life was already fought,, and thait he had conquered. IIe believed that he had subdued himself completely, and that. he was ready, without betraying a shadow of disappointment, to take the insufficient nature which destiny had assigned himi in his companion, and share with it all of his own larger beingr it was capable, not of comprehending, but of alprehending. He had deceived himself. The battle was not fought and won. There had.beeh a struggle, and what seemed to be a victory, but the enemy - intrenched in the very cit- adel of life had rallied, and would make anothei despe- rate attempt to retrieve his defeat. 'The haste with which the .young man had quitted the village was only a proof that lie felt his danger. lHe believed that, if lhe came into thle presence of Myrtle Ilaz- ard for the 'third time, he should be no longer -master of his feelings. Some explanation must take pla'ce between them, and how was it possible that it should be without emotion ? and in what do all emotions shared by a. young man with such a young girl as this tend to find their last expression ? Clement determined to stun his sensibilities' by work. He would give himself no leisure to indulge in idle dreams of what might have been. His plans were never so care- fully finished, and his studies were never so continuous as now. But the passion still wrought within him, and, if lhe drove it from his waking thoughts, haunted his sleep until he could endure it no longer, and must give it some mani- page: 244-245[View Page 244-245] 244 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. festation. He had covered up the bust of Liberty so closely, that not an outline betrayed itself through the heavy folds of drapery in which it was wrapped. His thoughts recurred to his unfinished marble, as offering the one mode in which he could find a silent outlet to the feelings and thoughts which it was torture to keep impris- oned in his soul. The cold stone would tell them, but without passion ; and having got the image which possessed him out of himself: into a lifeless form, it seemed as if he might be delivered from a presence which, lovely as it was, stood between him and all that made him seem honorable and worthy to himself. He uncovered the bust which hle had but half shaped, and struck the first flake from, the glittering marble. The toil, once begun, fascinated him strangely, and after the day's work was done, and at every interval he' could snatch from his duties, he wrought at his secret task.. "Clement is graver than ever," the young men said at the office. "What 's the matter, do you suppose? Turned off by the girl they say he means to marry by and by? How pale he looks too! Must have something worrying him : he used to look as fresh as a clove pink." The master with -whom he studied saw that he was losing color, and looking very much-worn, and determined to find out, if he could, whether he was not overworking himself. He soon discovered that his light was seen burn- ing late into the night, that he was neglecting- his natural rest, and always busy with some unknown task, not called for in his routine of duty or legitimate study. Something is wearing on you, Clement," he said. "You are killing yourself with undertaking too much. Will you let me know what keeps you so busy when you ought to be THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 245 asleep, or taking your ease and comfort in some way or -other?" Nobody but himself had ever seen his marble or its model. He had now'almost finished it, laboring at it with such sleepless devotion, and h9 was willing to let his master have a sight of his first effort of the kind, - for he was not a sculptor, it must be remembered, though he had modelled -in clay, not without some success, from time to time. "Come with me," he said. The master climbed the stairs with him up to his modest chamber. A closely shrouded bust stood on its pedestal in. the light of the solitary window.' "That is my ideal personage," Clement said. "Wait one moment, and you shall see how far I have caught the character of our uncrowned queen." The master expected, very naturally, to see the conven- tional young woman with classical wreath or feather head- dress, whpm we have placed upon bur smallest coin, so that our children may all grow up loving Liberty. As Clement withdrew the drapery that covered his work the master stared at it in amazement. He looked at it long and earnestly, and at length turned his eyes, a little moistened by some feeling which thus betrayed itself, upon his scholar. "This is no ideal, Clement. It is the portrait of a very young but very beautiful woman. No common feelin(r could have guided your hand in shaping such a portrait from memory. This must be that friend of yours of whom I have often heard as an amiable young person. Pardon me, fort you know that nobody cares more for you than- I do,-I hope that you are happy in all your relations page: 246-247[View Page 246-247] 246 ' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. with this young friend of yours. How could one be otherwise?" - It was hard to bear, very hard. He forced a smile. "You are partly right," he said.. "There is a resem- blance, I trust, to a living person, for I had one in my mind." "Did n't you tell me once, Clement, that you were at- tempting a bust of Innocence? I do not see any block in your room but this. Is that done?" "Done with!"Clement answered; and, as he said it, the thouglht stung through him that this was the vely stone whichl was to have worn the pleasant blandness of pretty Susan's guileless countenance. How thenew features had effaced the recollection of the others! In a few days more Clement had finished his bust. His hours were again vacant to his thick-coming fancies. While he had been busy with his marble, his hands had required his attention, and he must think closely of every detail upon which he was at work. But at length his task was done, and he could contemplate what he had made of it. It was a triumph for one so little exercised in sculp- ture. The master had told him so, and his own eye could not deceive him. He might never succeed in any repeti- tion of his effort, but this once he most certainly had suc- ceeded. He could not disguise irom himself the source of this extraordinary good fortune in so doubtful and difficult an attempt. Nor could he resist the desire of con- templating the portrait bust, which - it was foolish to talk about ideals - was not Liberty, but Myrtle Hazard. It was too nearly like the story of the ancient sculptor: his own work was an over-match for its artist. Clement had made a mistake in supposing that by giving his dream ;a . I - , ' T ' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 247 a material form he should drive it from the possession of his mind. The image in which he-had fixed his recollec. tion of its original served only to keep her living presence before him. He thought of her as. she clasped her arms around him, and they were swallowed up in the rushing waters, coming so near to passing into the unknown world together. He thought of her as he stretched her lifeless form upon the bank, and looked for one brief moment on her unsunned loveliness, - a sight to dream of, not to ; tell." He thought of her as his last fleeting gliimpse had shown her, beautiful not with the blossomy prettiness that passes away with the spring sunshine, but with a rich vitality of which noble outlines and winning expression : were only the natural accidents. And that singulard im- pression which the sight of him had produced upon her,-- how strange! How could she but have listened to him, --to him, who was, as it were, a second creator to her, for he had brought her back from the gates of the unseen realm,-if he had recalled to her the 'dread moments they had passed in each other's arms, with death, not love, in all their thoughts. And if then he had told her how her image had remained with him, how it hiad colored all his visions, and mingled with all his conceptions, would not those dark eyes have melted as they were turned upon him? Nay, how could he keep the thought away, that she would not have been insensible to. his passion, if he could have suffered its flame to kindle in his heart? Did it not seem as if Death had spared them for Love, awrd that Love should lead them together through life's long journey to the gates of Death? jti Never! never! never! Their fates were fixed. For him, poor insect as he was, a solitary flight by day, and page: 248-249[View Page 248-249] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. a return at evening to his wingless mate For her -he thought.he saw her doom. Could he give her up' to the cold embraces: of that pas- sionless egotist, who, as he perceived plainly enough, was casting his shining net all 'around her? Clement read Murray Bradshaw correctly. lie could not perhaps have spread his character out in set Words, as we must do for him, for it takes a long apprenticeship to learn to describe analytically what 'we know as soon 's sWe see it; but he felt in his inner consciousness all that we 'must tdll for him. Fascinating, agreeable, artful, knowing, capable of winning a woman infinitely above' himself, incapable of, understanding her,-0, if he could but touch him with the angel's spear, and bid him take his true shape before her whom he was gradually enveloping in the silken meshes of his subtle web! He would make a place for her in the world, - 0 yes, . doubtless. He would be proud of her in company, would dress her handsomely, and show her off in the best lights. But from the very hour that he felt his power over her firmly established, he would begin to remodel her after his' own worldly pattern. He, would dismantle her of her womanly ideals, and give her in their place his table 'of market-values. He would teach her to submit her sensibilities to her selfish interest, and her tastes to the fashion of the mo- ment, no matter which world or half-world it came from. " As the husband is, the wife is,"- he would subdue her to what he worked in. All this Clement saw, as in apocalyptic vision, stored up for the wife of Murray Bradshaw, it he read him right- ly, as he felt sure he did, from the few times he had seen him. He would be rich by and by, very probably. He THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 249 ' ' looked like one of those young men who are sharlp and hard enough to come to fortune.. Then she would have to take lher place in the great social exhibition where the gilded cages are ,daily opened that the animals may be seen, feeding on the sight of stereotyped toilets and the sound of impoverished tattle. 0 misery of semi-pro- vincial fashionable life, where wealth is at its wit's end to avoid being tired of an existence which has all the labor of keeping up appearances, without the piquant profligacy which saves it at least from being utterly vapid! How' many fashionable women at the end of a long season would be ready to welcome heaven itself as - relief from the desperate monotony of dressing, dawdling, and driving I This could not go on so forever. Clement had placed a red curtain so as to throw a rose-bloom on his marble, and give it an aspect which his fancy turned to the sem- blance of life. He would sit and look at the features his own hand had so faithfully wrought, until it seemed as if' the lips moved, sometimes as if they were smiling, some- times as if they were ready to speak to. him. His com- panions began to whisper strange things of him in the studio, - that his eye was getting an unnatural light, - that he talked as if to imaginary listeners,--in short, that there was a look as if something were going wrong with his.brain, which it might be feared would- spoil his fine intelligence. It was the undecided battle, and the enemy, as in his noblest moments he had considered the growing passion, was getting the better of him. He was sitting one afternoon before the faital- bust which had smiled and whispered a.way his peace, when the post- man brought him a letter. It was from the simple girl page: 250-251[View Page 250-251] '250 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. to whom he had given his -promise. We know how she used to prattle in her harmless waysabout her innocent feelings, and the trifling matters that were goingr on in her little village world. But now she wrote in sadness. Something, she, did not too clearly explain what, had grieved her, and she gave free expression to her feelings. -:I have no one thaet loves me but you'" she said; "and if you leave me I must droop and die. Are you true to me, dearest Clement, - true as when we promised each other that we would love while life lasted? Or have you forgotten one who will never cease to remember that she was once your own Susan?" Clement dropped the letter from his hand, and sat a long hour looking at the exquisitely wrought features of her who had come between him and honor and his plighted, word. At length he arose, and, lifting the bust tenderly from its pedestal, laid it upon the cloth with which it had been covered. He wrapped it closely, fold upon fold, as. the mother whom man condemns and God pities Wraps the child she loves before she lifts her hand against its life. Then he took a heavy hammer arnd shattered his lovely, idol into shapeless fragments. The strife was over. t * . . . . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 251 CHAPTER XXII. A CHANGE OF. PROGRAMME. WILLIAIM MURRAY BRADSHAW was in pretty intimate relations with Miss Cynthia Bad- lam. It was well understood between them that it miglht be of very great advantage to both of them if' e should in due time become the accepted lover of Myrtle Hazard. So long, as he could be reasonably secure agcainst interfer- ence, he did not wish to hurry her in making her decision. Two things -he did wish to be sure of, if possible, before asking her the great question; --first, that she would an- swer it in the affirmative; and secondly, that'certain con- tingencies, the turning of which was not as yet absolutely capable of being predicted, should happen as he expected. Cynthia had the power of furtheringc his wishes in many di- rect and indirect ways, and he felt sure of her co-operation. She had solme reason to fear his enmity if' she displeased him, and he had taken good care to make her understand that her interests would be greatly promoted by the sue; cess of the plan tvhich he had formed, and which was con fided to her alone. He kept the most careful eye on (every possible source of disturbance to this quietly maturing plan. He had no objection to have Gifted Hopkins about Myrtle as much as-she would endure to have him. The youthful bard en- tertairned her very innocently with his bursts of poetry, but she was in no danjer from a young person so intimate- ly associated with the yard-stick, the blunt scissors, and page: 252-253[View Page 252-253] 252 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. ' little brown-paper parcel. There was Cyprian too, about whom he did not feel any very particular solicitude. Myrtle had evidently found out that she was handsome and stylish ! ,and all that, and it was not very likely she would take up -with such a bashful; humble, country youth as this. He I could expect nothing beyond a possible rectorate in the remote distance, with one of those little pony chapels to preach in, which, if it were set up on a stout pole, would '- pass for a good-sized martin-house. Cyprian might do to ' d practise on, but there was no danger of her looking at him ' in a serious way. As for that youth, Clement Lindsay, if he had not taken himself off' as he did, Murray Brad l shaw confessed to himself that he should have felt uneasy. -? He was too good-looking, and too clever a young fellow to : bhave knocking about among fragile susceptibilities. But . on reflection he saw there could be no danger. i, "All up with him,-poor diavolo! Can't understand it--such a little sixpeinny miss-pretty enough boiled parsnip blonde, if one likes that soit of thing - pleases some of the old boys, apparently. Look out, Mr. L.- remember Susanna and the Elders. Good! "Safe enough if something new does n't turn up. Youngish. Sixteen 's a little early. . Seventeen will do. Marry a girl while she 's in the gristle, and you can shape her bones for her. Splendid creature-without her trim- mings. Wants training. Must learn to dance, and sing something besides psalm-tunes. I Mr. BradshaWv lbegan humming the hymn, "When I can read my title clear," adding some variations of his own. "That 's the solo for my prima donna t In the mean time Myrtle seemed to" be showing some new developments. One would have said that the in- *. v - THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 253 stincts- of the coquette, or at least of the city belle, were conling uppermost in her nature. 'Her little :nervous attack passed aw-ty, and she ,ained strength and beauty ! every day. She was becoming conscious of her gifts of fascination, and seenled to please herself with the homage of her rustic admirers. Why was it that no one of them . had the look and bearing of that young man she had seen but a moment the other evening? To'think that; he should have taken tup with such, a weakling as Susaan Posey! She sigled, and not so Qmuch thoulght as felt how kind it would have been in Heaven to have Imade her such a man. ; But the image of the delicate blonde stood between her and all serious thourght of Clement Lindsay. She saw the wedding in the distance, and very foolishly thought to her- ! self that she could not and would not go to it. But Clement Lindsay was gone, and she must content herself with such worshippers as the village afforded. M]ulrray Bradshaw, was surprised and confoiunded at the easy/way in which she received his compliments, and, played with his advances, after the fashion of the trained, : ball-room belleIs, who know how to be almost{ caressing in. manner, and yet are really as far off from the deluded vice- tim of their suavities as the topmost statue of the Milan cathedral from the peasant that kneels on its floor. -He admired her all the more for this, and yet he saxw that she would be a harder prize to win than he had once thought, ; If he made up his mind that he would have her, he mrust go armed with all implements, from the red hackle to the, harpoon. The change which surprised Murray Bradshaw could not fail to be noticed by all those about her. Miss Silence had long ago come to pantomime, - rolling up of eyes, * , \ \ page: 254-255[View Page 254-255] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. clasping of hands, making of sad mouths, and the rest, - but left her to her own way, as already the property of that great firm of World &Co. which drives such sharp bargains for young souls with the better angels. Cynthia studied her for her own purposes, but had never gained her confidence. The Irish servant saw that some change had come over her, and thought of the great ladies she had sometimes looked upon in the old country. Tiey all had a kind of superstitious feeling about" Myrtle's brace- let, of which she had told them the story, but which Kitty half believed was put in the drawer by the fairies, who brought her ribbons and partridge feathers, and other simple adornments with which she contrived to set off her simple costume, so as to. produce those effects which an eye for color and cunning fingers can bring out of almost nothing. Gifted Hopkins was now in a sad; vacillating condition, between the two great attractions to which he was exposed. Myrtle looked so ilinmensely handsome one Sunday when he saw her going to cllhrcl, -not to meeting,' for she would not go, except when she knew Father Pemberton was going to be the preacher,- that the young poet was on the point of going down on his knees to her, and telling her that his heart was hers and hers alone. But he sud- denly remembered that he had on his best pantaloons; and the idea of carrying the marks of his devotion in the shape of two dusty impressions on his most valued article of ap- parel turned the scale against the demonstration. Itl hap- pened the next morning, that Susan Posey wore the most becoming ribbon she had, displayed for a long time, and Gifted was so taken with her pretty looks that he might very probably have made the same speech to her that he THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. had been on the point of making to Myrtle the day before, but that he remembered her plighted affections, and thought what he should have to say for himself when Clement Lindsay, in a frenzy of rage and jealousy,, stood before him, probably armed with as many deadly instruments as a lawyer mentions by name in an indictment for murder. Cyprian Eveleth. looked very differently on the new manifestations Myrtle was making of her tastes and inclina- tions. He had always felt dazzled, as well as attracted, by her; but now there was something in her expression and manner which made him; feel still more strongly that they were intended for different spheres of' life. He could not but own that she was beorn for a brilliant destiny,- that-no ball-room would throw a light from its chandeliers too strong .for her, -that no circle would be too brilliant for her to illuminate by her presence. Love does not thrive without hope, and Cyprian was beginning to see that it was idle in him to think of folding these wide wings of Myrtle's so that they would be shut up in any cage he could ever offer her. He began to doubt whether, after all, he might not find a meekr 'and humbler nature better adapted to his own. And so it happened that one evening after the three girls, Olive, Myrtle, and Bathsheba, had been together at the Parsonage, and Cyprian, availing him-. self of a brother's privilege, had joined there, he found he had been talking most of the evening with the gentle girl whose voice had grown so soft and sweet, during her long ministry in the sick-chamber, that it seemed to him more 'like music than speech. It would not be fair to say that Myrtle was piqued to see that Cyprian was devoting him- self to Bathsheba. Her ambition was already reaching beyond her little village circle, and she had an inward page: 256-257[View Page 256-257] 256 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. sense that Cyprian found: a form of'sympathy in the min- ister's simple-minded daughter which he could not ask from a young woman of her own aspirations. Such was the state of affairs when Master Byles Grid- ley was one moriing surprised by an early call from Myr- tle. He had a volume of Walton's Polyglot open before him, and was reading Job in the original, when she entered. ' Why, bless me, is that my young friend Miss Myrtle Hazard?" he exclaimed. "I might call you Keren-Hap- puck, which is Hebrew for Child of Beauty, and not be very far out of the way, - Job's youngest daughter, my dear. And what brings my young friend out in such good season this morning? Nothing going wrong up. at our ancient mansion, The Poplars, I trust?" "I want to talk with you, dear Master Gridley," she answered. She looked as if she did not know just how to begin. "Anything that interests you, Myrtle, interests me. I think you have some project in that young head of yours, my child. Let us have it, ih all its dimensions, length, breadth, and thickness. I think I can guess, Myrtle, that w^e have a little plan oflsome kind or other. We don't visit Papa Job quite so early as' this without some special cause, - do we, Miss Keren-Happuch?" "I I want to go to the city- to school," Myrtle said, with the directness which belonged to her nature. "That is precisely what I want you to do myself, Miss Myrtle Hazard. I don't like to lose you from the village, but I think we must spare you for a while." "You're the best and dearest man that ever lived. What could have made you think of such a thing for me, :Mr. Gridley?" THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 257 "Because you are ignorant, my child, -partly. I want to see you fitted to take a look at the world without feeling like a little country miss. Has your Aunt Silence promised to bear your expenses while you are in the city? It will cost a good deal of money." "I have notsaid a word to her about it. I am sure I don't know what she would say. But I have some money, Mr. Gridley." She, showed him a purse with gold, telling him how she came by it. "There is some silver besides. Will it be enough?" No, no, my child, ee must not meddle with that. Your aunt will let me put it in the bank for you, I think, where it will be safe. But that shall not make any difference. I have got a little money lying idle, which you may just as well have the use of as not. .You can pay it back perhaps some time or other; if you did not, it would not make, much difference. I am pretty much alone in the world, and ex- cept a book now and then - Aut liberos aut libros, as our valiant heretic has it, - you ought to know a little Latin, Myrtle, but never :mind - I have not much occasion for money. You shall go to the best school that any of our cities, can offer, Myrtle, and you shall stay. there until we agree that you are fitted to come back to us an ornament to Oxbow Village, and to larger places than this if you are called there. 'We have had some talk about it, your Aunt Silence and I, and it is all settled. Your aunt does not feel very rich just iiow, or perhaps she would do more for you, She has many pious and poor friends, and it keeps her funds low. Never mind, my child, we will have it all arranged for you, and you shall begin the year 1860 in Madam Delacoste's institution for young ladies. Too many page: 258-259[View Page 258-259] 258 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. rich girls and fashionable ones there, I fear, but you must see some of all kinds, and there are very good instructors' in the school,- I know one, -he was a college boy with ne, --and you will find pleasant and: good companions there, so he tells me; only don't be in a hurry to choose, your friends, for the least desirable young persons are very apt to cluster about a new-comer. " Myrtle' was bewildered with the suddenness of the pros- pect thus held out to her. It is a wonder that she did not bestow an embrace upon the worthy old master. Perhaps she had too much tact. It is a pretty way enough'of telling one that he belongs to a past generation, but it does tell him that not over-pleasing fact. Like the title of Emeri- tus Professor, it is a tribute to be accepted, hardly to be longed for. When the curtain rises again, it will show Miss :Hazard in a new character, and surrounded by a new world. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 259 ' f MYRTLE HAZARD AT THE CITY SCHOOL. R. BRADSIIAW was obliged to leave town for a week or two on business connected with the great, land-claim. On his return, feeling in pretty good spirits, as the prospects looked favorable, he went to make a call at The Poplars. He asked first for Miss Hazard. "Bliss your soul, Mr. Bridshaw," answered Mistress Kitty ,Fagan, " she 's been gahn nig a wake. ]It's to the city, to the big school, they 've sint her." This announcement seemed to make a deep impression on Murray Bradshaw, for his feelings found utterance, in one of the most energetic forms of language to which ears polite or impolite are accustomed. He' next asked for Miss Silence, who soon presented herself. Mr. Bradshaw asked, in a rather excited way, "Is it possible, Miss Withers, that your niece hms quitted you to go to a city school?" lMiss Silence answered, withher chief-mourner expres- sion, and her death-chamber tone: "Yes, she has left us for a season. I trust it may not be her destruction. I had hoped in fornmer years that she would become a mis- sionary, but I have given up all expectation of that now. Two whole years, from the age of four to that of six, I hlad prevailed upon her to give up sugar, - the money so saved to go to a graduate of our institution - who was afterwards --he labored 'among the cannibal-islanders. I thought she seemed to take pleasure in this small act of page: 260-261[View Page 260-261] 1'TI- F ARDIAN ANGEL. self-denial, but I hlave ince suspected that Kitty gave her secret lumps. It wa by MAri ridley's advice that she went, and by his pecuniary assistance. What could I do ? She was bent on going, and I was afraid she would have fits, or do something dreadful, if I did not let her have her way. I am afraid she will come back to us spoiled. She has seemed so fond of dress lately, andionce she spoke of learning - yes, Mr. Bradshaw, of learning to - dance ! I wept when I heard of it. Yes, I wept." That was such a,tremendous thing to think of, and especially\\o speak of in Mr. Bradshaw's presence,. -for the most pathetic image in the world to many women is that of themselves in tears,--that it brought a return of the same overflow, Which served as a substitute for conver- sation until Miss Badlam entered the apartment. Miss Cynthia followed the sae m general course of re- mark. They could not help Myrtle's going if they tried. She had always maintained that, if they had only once broke her will when she was little, they would have kept the upper hand of her; but her will never ~was broke. They came pretty near it once, but the child would n't give in. Miss Cynthia went to the door with Mr. Bradshaw, and the conversation immediately became short and in- formal. "Demonish pretty business! All up for a year or more,- hey ?" " Don't blame me,- I could n't stop her." " Give me her address, --I '11 write to her. Any young men teach in the school ?" " Can't tell you. -She '1 write to Olive and Batlsheba, and I '11 find out all about it." THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 261 Murray Bradshaw went home and wrote a long letter to Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, of 24 Carat Place, containing many interesting remarks and inquiries, some of the latter relat- ing to Madam Delacoste's institution for the education of young ladies. . While this s was going on at Oxbow Village, Myrtle was establishing herself at the rather fashionable school to which Mr. Gridley had recommended her. Mrs. or Mad- am Delacoste's boarding-school had a name which on the whole it deserved pretty well. She had some very good instructors for girls who wished to get up useful knowledge in case they might marry professors or ministers. They had a chance to learn music, dancing, drawing, and' the way of behaving in company. There was acllance, too, to pick up available acquaintances, for many rich people sent their daughters to the school, and it was somtething to have been bred in their company. There was the usual division of the scholars into a first; and second set, according to the social position, mainly de- pending upon the fortune, of the families to'which they belonged. The wholesaledealer's daughter very naturally considered herself as belonging to a different order from the retail dealer's daughter. The keeper of a great hotel and the editor of a widely circulated newspaper were con.- sidered s ranking with the wholesale dealers, and their daughters belonged also to the untitled nobility which has thei.dollar for its armorial- bearing. The second set had mast of the good scholars, and some of the prettiest girls; but nobody knew anything about their families, who lived off the great streets and avenues, or vegetated in country towns. page: 262-263[View Page 262-263] 262 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Myrtle Hazard's advent made something like a sensation. They did not know exactly what to make of her. ]Hazard? Hazard? No great firm of that name. No leading hotel kept by any Hazard, was there? No newspaper of note edited by anybody called Hazard, was there? Came from where? Oxbow Village. O, rural district. Yes.- Still they could not help owning that she was handsome,--a concession which- of course had to be made with reser- vations. "Don't you think she's vurry good-lookin'??" said a Boston girl to a New York girl. "I think she's real pooty." "I dew, indeed. I did n't think she was haaf so hand- some the feeest i me' I saw her," answered the New York girl. What a pity she had n't been bawn in Bawston!" ' Yes, and moved very young to Ne Yock!" "And married a sarsaparilla man, and lived in Fiff Avenoo, and moved in the fust society." "Better dew that than be strong-mainded, and dew your own cook'n, and live in your own kitch'n." "Don't forgit to send your card when you are Mrs. Old Dr. Jacob!" "Indeed I shain't. What's the name of the alley, and which bell?" ,The New York girl tookout a memoran- dum-book as if to ]put it down. "Had n't you better let me write it for you, dear?" saoid the Boston girl. It is as well to have it legible, you know." "Take it," said the New York girl. "There 's tew York shill'ns in it when I hand it to you." "Your whole quarter's allowance, I bullie4e, -ain't it?" said the Boston girl. *- -' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 263 Elegant manners, correct deportment, and propriety of language will be strictly attended. to in this institution. The most correct standards of pronunciation will be incul- cated by. precept and example. It will bo the special aim of the teachers to educate their puplIs out of all provincial- isms, so that they may be recognized as well-bred English scholars wherever the language is spoken in its purity,"- Extract from the Prospectus of lladam Delacoste's Board- ingSchdool Myrtle Hazard was, a puzzle to all the girls. Striking, they all agreed, but then the criticisms began. Many of the girls chattered a little broken French, and one of them, Miss Euphrosyne De Lacy, had been half educated in Paris, so that she had all the phrases which are to social operators what his cutting instruments are to the surgeon. 'Her face she allowed was handsome; but her style, accord- ing to tlis oracle, was a little bourgeoise, and her air not ex- actly comme il faut More specifically, she was guilty of contours forterent pronnces, -corsage de paysanne,-- quelque chose de sauvage, etc., etc. This girl prided her- self on her figure. Miss Bella Pool, (La Belle Poule as the derni-Parisian girl had christened her,) the beauty of the school, did not think so much of Myrtle's face, but considered ler figure as better than the De Lacy girl's. The two sets, first and second, fought over her as the Greeks and Trojans over a dead hero, or the Yale College societies over a live freshman. She was nobody by her connections, it is true, so far as they could find out, but then, on the other hand, she had the walk of a queen, and she looked as if a few stylish dresses and a season or two would make her a belle of the first water. She had that page: 264-265[View Page 264-265] THE GUARDIANANGEL. .air of indifference to their little looks and whispered com- ments which is surest to disarm all the critics of a small tattling community. On the other hand, she came to this school to learn, and not to play; and the modest and more plainly dressed girls, whose fathers did not sell by the ear- go, or keep victualling establishments for some hundreds of people, considered her as rather in sympathyhwith them than with the daughters of the rough-and-tumble millionnaires who were grappling and rolling over each other in the gold- en dust of the great city markets, She did not mean to belong exclusively to either of their sets. She came with that sense of manifold deficiencies,. and eager ambition. to supply them, which carries any learner upward, as if on wings, over the heads of, the mechanical plodders and the indifferent routinists. She learned, therefore, in a way to surprise the experienced instructors. Her somewhat rude sketching soon began to show something of the artist's touch. Her voice, which had only been taught to warble the simplest melodies, after a little training began to show its force and sweetness and flexibility in the airs that enchant drawing-room audiences. She caught with great readiness the manner of the easiest girls, unconsciously, for she inherited old social instincts which became nature with' the briefest exercise. Not much license of dress was allowed in the educational es- tablishment of Madam Delacoste, but. every girl had an opportunity to show her taste within the conventional lim- its prescribed. And Myrtle soon began to challenge remark by a certain air she contrived to give her dresses,,and the skill with which she blended their colors. 'Tell you what, girls," said Miss Berengaria Topping, female representative of the great dynasty that ruled over t. ..THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 265 the world-famous Planet Hotel, "she 's got style, lots of it. I call her perfectly splendid, when she 's got up in her swell clothes. That oriole's wing she wears in her bonnet makes her look gorgeous, -she '11 be a stunning Pocahor tas for the next tableau." Miss Rose Bugbee, whose family opulence grerw out of the only merchantable article a Hebrew is never known to seek profit. from, thouglht she could be made presentable in the first circles- if taken in hand in good season. So it came about that, before many weeks. had passed over her as a scholar in the great educational establishment, she might be considered as on the whole the most popular girl. in the whole bevy of them. The studious ones admired hler for her facility of learning, and her extraordinary ap- petite for reform of instruction, and the showy girls, who were only enduring school as the purgatory that opened into the celestial world of society, recognized in her a very handsome young person, who would be like to make a sensation sooner or later. There were, however, it must be confessed, a few who considered themselves the thickest of the cream of the school-girls, who submitted her to a more trying ordeal than any she had yet passed. "How many horses does your papa keep ?" asked Miss Florence Smythe. " We keep nine and a pony for Ed- gar." . Myrtle had to explain that she had no papa, and that thley did not keep any horses. Thereupon Miss Florence Smythe lost her desire to form an acquaintance, and wrote home to her mother (who was an ex-bonnet-maker) that the school was getting common, she was afraid, --they were letting in persons one'knew nothing about. page: 266-267[View Page 266-267] 266 . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Miss Clara Browne had a similar curiosity about the amount of plate used in the household from which Myrtle came. Her father had just bought a complete silver ser- vice. Myrtle had to own that they used a good deal of china at her own home,- old china, which had been a hundred years in the family, some of it. ' A hundred years old!" exclaimed Miss Clara Browne. "What queer-looking stuff it must be! Why, everything in outhouse is just as new land bright! Papai had all our pictures painted on. purpose for us. Iav-. you got any handsome pictures in your house?" "We have a good many portraits of members of the family," she said " some of them older than the china." "How very very odd! What do the dear old things look like?" - "One was a great beauty in her time." H "How jolly!" "Another was a young woman who was put to death for her religion, - burned to ashes at the stake in Queen Mary's time." '.How very very wicked! It was n't nice a bit, was it? Ain't you telling me stories? Was thiat a hundred years ago?-But you 've got some new pictures and things, have n't you? Who furnished your parlors? "My great-grandfather, or his father, I believe." "Stuff and nonsense. I don't believe it. What color are your carriage-horses?" "Our woman, Kitty Fagan, told somebody once we did n't keep any horse but a cow." "Not keep any horses! Do for pity's sake let me look at your feet." Myrtle put out as neat a little foot as a shoemaker .ever THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 267 fitted with a pair of number two. What she would have been tempted to do with it, if she had been a boy, we will not stop to guess. After all, the questions amused her quite as much as the answers instructed Miss Clara Browne. Of that young lady's ancestral claims to distinction there is no need of discoursing. Her " papai: " commonly said sir in talking with a gentleman, and her " mammai " would once in a while forget, and go down the area steps. instead of entering at the proper door; but they lived behind a brown stone front, which' veneers everybody's antecedents with a facing. of respectability. Miss Clara Browne wrote home to her mother in the same terms as Miss Florence Smythe,--thai the school was getting dreadful common, and they were letting in very queer folks. Still another trial awaited Myrtle, and one which not one girl in a thousand would have been so unprepared to mieet. She, knew absolutely nothing of certain things with which the vast: majority of young persons were quite fa- miliar. There were literary young ladies, who had read every- thing of Dickens and Thackeray, and something at least of Sir Walter, and occasionally, perhaps, a French novel, which they had better have let alone. One of the talking young ladies of this set began upon Myrtle one day. "O, is n't Pickvlek nice?".she asked. "I don't know," Myrtle replied ; "I never tasted. any." The girl stared at her as if she'were a crazy creature. "Tasted any! Why, I mean the Pickwick Papers, Dick- ens's story. Don't you think they 're. nice? Poor Myrtle hadl to confess that ,she had never read them, and did n't know anything about them. page: 268-269[View Page 268-269] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. i / "What! did you never read any novels?" said the young lady. O0, to be sure I have," said Myrtle, blushing as she thought of the great trunk and its contents. "I have read Caleb Williams, and Evelina, and Tristiam Shandy" (naughty girl !), " and the Castle of Otranto, and the Mys- teries of Udolpho, and the Vicar of Wakefield, and Don Quixote-" The young lady burs t out laughing.' "Stop! stop! for mercy's sake,"' she cried. "You must be somebody that 's been dead and buried and come back to life again. Why you 're Rip Van Winkle in a petticoat! You ought to powder your hair Cnd wear patches." "We 've got the oddest girl here," this young lady wrote home. ," She has n't read any book that is n't a thousand years old. One of the girls says she wears a trilobite for a breastpin; some horrid old stone, I believe that is, that was a bug ever so long ago. Her name, she says, is Myr- tie Hazard, but I call her Rip Van Myrtle.' Notwithstanding the quiet life which these young girls were compelled to lead, they did once. in a while have their gatherings, at which a few young gentlemen were admitted. One of these took place about a month after Myrtle had joined the school. The girls were all in their best, and by and by they were to have a tableau. Myrtle came out in all her force. She dressed herself as nearly as she dared like the handsome woman of the past generation whom she re- sembled. The very spirit of the dead beauty seemed to ani- mate every feature and every movement of the young girl, whose position in the school was assured from that moment. She had a good solid foundation to build upon in the jeal- ousy of two or three of the leading girls of the style of THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 269. pretensions illustrated by some of their talk which has been given. There is no possible success without; some opposi- tion as a fulcrum: force is always aggressive, and crowds something or other, if it does not hit or trample on it. The cruelest cut of all was the remark attributed to Mr. Livingston Jenkins, who was what the opposition girls just referred to called the great "swell" among "the privileged young gentlemen who were present at the gath- ering. "Rip Van Myrtle, you call that handsome girl, do you, Miss Clara? By Jove, she 's the stylishest of the whole lot, to say nothing of being a first-class beauty. Of course you know I except one, Miss Clara. If a girl can go to sleep and wake up after twenty years looking like that, I know a good many who had better begin their nap without waiting. If I were Florence Smythe, I 'd try it, and be- gin now, - eh, Clara ? " Miss Browne felt the praise of Myrtle to be slightly alleviated by the depreciation of Miss Smythe, who had long been a rival of her own. A little later in the even- ing Miss Smythe enjoyed almost precisely the same sensa- tion, produced in a very economical way by.Mr. Livingston Jenkins's repeating 'pretty nearly the same sentiments to her, only with a change in the arrangement of the proper names, The two young ladies were left feeling compara- tively comfortable with regard to each other, each intend- ing to repeat Mr. Livingston Jenkins's remark about her friend to such of her other friends as enjoyed cleveFisay- ings, but not at all comfortable with referetce to Myrtle Hazard, who was evidently considered by the leading "swell" of their circle as the most noticeable personage of the assembly. X The individual exception in. each case page: 270-271[View Page 270-271] 270 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. did very well as a matter of politeness, but they knew well enough what he meant. It seemed to Myrtle Hazard, that evening, that she felt the bracelet on her wrist glow with a strange, unaccus- tomed warmth. It was as if it had just been unclasped from the arm of a young Woman full of red blood ant tingling all over with swift nerve-currents. Life had never looked to her as it did that evening. It. was the swan's first breasting the. water, - bred on the desert sand, with vague dreams of lake and river, and strange longrings as the mirage came and dissolved, and at length afloat upon the sparkling wave. She felt as if she had for the first time, found herrdestiny. It was to please, and so to command, --to rule with gentle' sway in virtue. of the royal gift of beauty,---to enchant with the commonest exercise of speech, through the rare quality of a voice which could not help being always gracious and winning, of a manner which came to her as an inheritance of which she had just found the title. She read, in the eyes iof all that she was more than any other, the centre of admira- tion. Blame her who may, the world was a very splendid vision as it opened before her eyes in its long vista of pleasures and of triumphs. How different the light of these bright saloons from the glimmer of the dim chamber at The Poplars! Silence Withers was at that very moment looking at the portraits of Anne Holyoake and of Judith Pride. "The old picture seems to me to be fading faster than ever," she was thinking. But when she held her lamp before the other, it seemed to her that the picture never was so fresh before, and that the proud smile upon its lips was more full of conscious triumph than she re- membered it. A. reflex, doubtless, of her own thoughts, i . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 271 for she believed that the martyr was weeping even in heaven over her lost descendant, and that the beauty, changed to the nature of the malignant spiritual company with which she had long consorted in the under-world, was. pleasing her- self with the thought that Myrtle was in due time to bring her news firom the Satanic' province overhead, where she herself had so long indulged in the profligacy of embonpoint and loveliness. The evening at' the school-party was to terminate with some tableaux. The girl'who had suggested that Myrtle would look " stunning" or " gorgeous" or " jolly," or whatever the expression was, as Pocahontas, was not far' out of the way, and it was so evident to. the managing heads that she would make a fine appearance in that char- acter, that the "Rescue of Captain John Smith" was specially got up to show her off. Myrtle had sufficient reason to believe that there was a hint of Indian blood in her veins. It was one of those family legends which some of the members are a little proud of, and others are willing to leave uninvestigated. But with Myrtle it was a fixed belief that she felt perfectly' distinct currents of her ancestral blood at intervals, and she had sometimes thought, there were instincts and vague recollections which must have come from the old warriors and hunters and' their dusky brides. The Indians who visited the neighborhood recognized something of their own race in her dark eyes, as the reader may remember they told the persons who were searching after her. It had almost frightened her sometimes to find how like a wild creature she felt when alone in the woods. Her senses had much of that delicacy for which the red 'people are noted, and she often thought she could follow the. trail i , page: 272-273[View Page 272-273] 272 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. of an enemy, if she wished to track one through the forest, as unerringly as if she were a Pequot or a Mo- began. It was a strange feeling that came over Myrtle, as they dressed her for the part she was to take. Had she never worn that painted robe before? Was it the first time that these strings of wampum had ever rattled uponi her neck and arms? And could it be that the plume of eagle's feathers with which they crowned ter dark, fast-lengthen- ingo locks had never shadowed her forehead until now? She felt herself carried back into the dim ages when the wilderness was yet untrodden save by the feet of its native lords. Think of her wild fancy as we may, she felt as if that dusky woman of her midnight vision on the river were breathing for one hour through her lips. If this belief had lasted, it is plain enough where it would have carried her. But it came into her imagination and vivify- ing consciousness with the- putting on of her unwonted costume, and might w ell leave her when she put it off. It is not for us, who tell only what happened, to solve these mysteries of the seeming admission of u'nhoused souls into the fleshly tenements belonging to air-breathing personalities. A very little more, and from that evening forward the question would have been treated in full in. all the works on medical jurisprudence published throughout thelimits of Christendom. The story'must be told or we should not be honest with the reader. TABLEAU 1. Captain John Smith (Miss Euphrosyne de Lacy) was to \ be represented prostrate and bound, ready for execution; Powhatan (Miss Florence Smythe) sitting upon a log; savages with clubs (Misses Clara Browne, A. Van Boodle, E. Van Boodle, Heister, Booster, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 273 etc., etc.) standing around; Pocahontas holding the knife in her hand, ready to cut the cords with which Captain John Smith is bound.- Curtain. TABLEAU 2. Captain John Smith released and kneel- ineg before Pocahontas, whose hand is extended in the act of raising him and presenting him to her father. Savages in various attitudes of surprise. Clubs-fallen from their. hands. Strontian flame to be kindled.-Curtain. This was a portion of the programme for the evening, as arranged behind the scenes. The first part went off with wonderful' eclat, and at its close there were loud, cries for Pocahontas. She appeared for a moment. Bouquets were flung to her; and a wreath, which one of the young ladies had expected for herself in another part, was tossed upon the stage, and laid at her feet. The curtain fell. "Put the wreath on her for the next tableau," some of them whispered, just as the curtain was going to rise, and one of the girls hastened to place it upon her head. The disappointed young lady could not endure it, and, in a spasm of jealous passion, sprang at Myrtle, snatched it from her head, and trampled it under her feet at the very instant the' curtain was rising. With a cry which some 'said had the blood-chilling tone of an Indian's battl--shriek, Myrtle caught the knife up, and raised her arm against the girl who had thus rudely assailed her. The girl sank to the ground, covering her eyes-in her terror. Myrtle, with her arm still lifted, and the blade glistening in her hand, stood over her, rigid as if she had been sud- denly changed to stone. Many of those lookIing on thought all this: was a part of the show, and were thrilled with the wonderful acting. Before those immediately around her had had time to recover from the palsy of their friglt, 12* . page: 274-275[View Page 274-275] ,274 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Myrtle had flung the knife away from her, and was kneel- ing, her head bowed and, her hands crossed upon her breast.' The audience went -into a rapture of applause as the curtain came suddenly down; but .Myrtle had for- gotten all, but the dread peril she had just passed, and was thankingr God that his angel-her own protecting :( spirit, as it seemed to her --had stayed the arm'which a passion such as her nature had never known, such as she believed was alien to her truest self, had lifted with dead- ; liest purpose. She alone knew how extreme the danger had been. "She -meant-to scare her, - that "s all," they said. But Myrtle tore the eagle's feathers from her hair, andl stripped off her colored beads, and threw off her painted robe. 'The metempsychosis was far too real for her to let her wear, the semblance of the savage from whom, as she believed, had come the lawless impulse at the thought of which her soull recoiled in- horror. '; Pocahontas has got a horrid headache," the managing young ladies' gave it out, "and can't come to time for the last tableau.' So this' all passed over, not only without ' loss of credit to AMyrtle, but with-no small addition to her local fame,- for it-must have been acting; " and was n't it C stunning to see her with that knife, looking as if she was .. going. to stab Bella, or to scalp her, or something?" - As Master Gridley had predicted, and as is the case !; commonly with new-comers at colleges and schools, Myrtle had come first in contact with those who were least agree- X able to meet. The low-bred youth who amuse themselves . with scurvy tricks on freshmen, and the vulgar girls who i try to show off their gentility to those whom they think less . ; I important than themselves, are exceptions in every instituu- tion; but they make themselves-odiously prominent before. . A. t . 'atto t , , . He[ THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 275 the quiet and modest young people have had fime to gain the new' scholar's confidence. Myrtle found friends in due time, some of them daughters of rich people, some poor girls, who came with the same sincerity of purpose as her- self. But not one -was. her match in the facility of acquir- ing knowledge.. Not one promised to make :such a mark in society, if she found an opening into its loftier circles. She was by no means ignorant of her natural gifts, and she cultivated them with the ambition which would not let her rest. During her stay at the great school, she made. but one visit to Oxbow Village. She did not tri to startle the good people with her accomplishments, but they were- surprised al; the change which had taken place in her. Her dress was' hardly more showy, for she was but a school-girl,. but it fitted her more gracefully. She had gdined a softness of expression, and, an etase in conver- s:ation, which'produced their effect on all wiith whom she came in contact. Her aunt's voice lost something of its plaintiveness 'in talking with" her.' Miss Cynthia listened with involuntary interest to her stories. of school and school- mates. Master Byles Gridley accepted her as the great success of 'his life, and determined to make her his chief heiress, if there was any occasion for so doing. Cyprian told Bathsheba that Myrtle must come to be a great lady. Gifted- Hopkins confessed to Susan Posey that he was- aafraid of her, since she had been to the great -city school. She knew to9 much and looked too much-like a queen, for a village boy to talk with. Mr. William Murray Bradshaw tried all his fascinations upon her,: but she parried compliments so well, and put-off all his nearer advances so dexterously, that he could not page: 276-277[View Page 276-277] ',27 6 TilE GUARDIAN ANGEL. adva ice beyond the region of florid courtesy, and never got a chance, if so' disposed, to risk a question which he would not ask rashly, believing that, if Myrtle once said No, there would be little chance of her ever saying Yes. , . , t THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 2" CHAPTER XXIV. MUSTERING OF FORCES. N OT long after the tableau performlance had made Myrtle Hazard's name famous in the school and among the friends of the scholars, she received the very flattering attention of a call from Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, of 24 Carat Place. This was in consequence of a sugges- tion from Mr. Livingston Jenkins, a particular friend of the family. "rThey 've got a demonish splendid school-girl over there," he said to, that lady,- " made the stunningest-look. ing Pocahontas at the show there the other day. Demon- ish plucky-looking filly as ever you saw. Had a row with another girl, - gave the war-whoop, and went at her with a knife. Festive, - ey? Say she only meant to scare her, - looked as if she meant to stick her, anyhow. Splen- did style. Why can't you go over to the shop and make ' em trot her out?" The lady promised Mr. Livingston Jenkins that she certainly would, just as soon as she could find a moment's leisure, -- which, as she had nothing in the world to do, was not likely to be very soon. Myrtle in the mean time was busy with her studies, little dreaming ,hat an extraor- dinary honor was awaiting her. That rare accident in the lives of people w o have nothing to do, a leisure morning, did at last occur. An elegant carriage, with a coachman in a, wonderful cape, seatedlon a box lofty as a throne, and wearing a hat-band . rt page: 278-279[View Page 278-279] 278 * THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. as brilliant as a coronet, stopped at the portal of Madam Delacoste's establishment. A card was sent in bearing the open sesame of Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, the great lady of 24 Carat Place. Miss Myrtle Hazard was summoned as a matter of course, and the fashionable woman and the young girl sat half an hour together in lively conversation. M]yrtle was fascinated by her visitor, who f'ad that flattering manner which, to those not experienced in the world's ways, seems to imply unfathomable depths of dis- interested devotion. Then it was so delightful to look upon a perfectly appointed woman, one who was as artistically composed as a poem or an opera, - in whose costume a kind of various rhythm undulated in one fluent harmony, from the spray that nodded on her bonnet to the rosette that blossomed on her 'sandal. As for the lady, she was captivated with Myrtle. There is nothing that your fashionable woman, who has ground and polished her own spark of life into as many and as glittering social facets as it will bear, has a -greater passion for than a large rough diamond, which knows nothing of the sea of light' it imprisons, and which -it will be her pride to have cut into a brilliant under her own eye, and to show the world for its admiration and her own reflected glory. Mrs. Clymer Ketchur had taken the entire inventory of Myrtle's natural endowments before the; interview was over;. She had ,no marriageable children, and she was thinking what a killing bait Myrtle would be at'one of her stylish parties. She soon got another letter from Mr. William Murray Bradshaw, which explained the interest he had taken in Madam Delacoste's school, -all. which she knew pretty nearly beforehand, for she had found out a good part of THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 279 Myrtle's history in the half-hour they had spent in com- pany. "I had a particular reason for my inquiries about the school,": he wrote. "There is a young girl there I take an interest in. She is handsome and interlsting, and- though it is a shame to mention such a thing .--has possi- bilities in the way of fortune not to be undervalued. Why can't you make her acquaintance and be civil to her? A'country girl, but fine old stock, and will make a figure some time or other, I tell you. Myrtle Hazard, -that's her name. A mere school-girl. Don't be ma- licious and badger me about her, but be polite to he1. Some of these country girls have got 'blue blood,' in them, let me tell you, and show it plain enoug h." ("In huckleberry season!") said Mrs. Clymer, Ketch- um,' in a parenthesis,-and went on reading. v'b- "Don't think I'm one of your love-in-a-cottage sort, to have my head turned by a village 'beauty. I've got a, career before me, Mrs. K., and I know it. Bqt this is one of my pets, and I want you to keep an eye on her. Perhaps when she leaves school you wouldnr'ta mind ask- ing her to come and stay with you a little while. Possibly I may come and see how she is getting on if you do,- won't that tempt yoiu, Mrs. C. K.?" Mrs. Clymer Ketchum wrote back to her relative how she had already made the young lady's acquaintance. "Livingston Jenkins (you remember him) picked her out of the whole lot of girls as the 'pretties;t filly in the stable.' That's his horrid way of talking. But your young milkmaid is really charming, and will come into form like a Derby three-year-old. There, now, I've caught that odious creature's' horse-talk, mnyself. You're dead in love with this 'girl, Murray, you know you are. page: 280-281[View Page 280-281] 280 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. ' After all, I don't know but you're right. You would make a good country lawyer enough, I don't doubt. I used to think you had your ambitions, but never mind. If you choose to risk yourself on 'possibilities,' it is not my afair, and she's a beauty, -there 's no mistake about that. "There are some desirable partis at the school with your dulcinea. There's Rose Bughee. That last naine is a good one to be married from. Rose is a nice girl, there are only two of them. The estate will cut up like one of the animals it was made out of--you know-- the sandwich-quadruped. Then there's Berengaria. Old Topping owns the Planet Hotel among other things, so big, they say, tiere 's always a bell ringing from some- body's room day and night the year round. Only child --unit and six ciphers-carries diamonds loose in her pocket - that 's the story - good-looking -lively - a lit- tle slangy -called Livingston. Jenkins ' Living Jingo' to his face one day. I want you to see my lot before you do anything serious. You owe something to the family, Mr. William Murray Bradshaw! But you must suit yourself after all: if you are contented with a humble position in life, it is nobody's business that I know of. Only I knrow what life is, Murray B. Getting married is jumping 6ver- board, any way you look at it, and 'if you must save some woman from drowning an old maid, try to find one with a corkjacket, or she 'll carry you down with her." Murray Bradshaw was calculating enough, but he shook his head over this letter. It was too demonish cold-blooded for him, he said to himself. (Men cannot pardon women for saying aloud what they do not hesitate to think in si- lence themselves.) Never mind, he must have Mrs. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 281 Clymer KIetchum's house and influence for his own pur- poses. Myrtle Hazard must become her guest, and then, if circumstances were favorable, he was certain of obtain- ing her aid in his project. The opportunity to invite Myrtle to the great mansion presented itself unexpectedly. Early in the spring of 1861 there were some cases of sickness in Madam I)elacoste's es- tablishment, which led to closing the school for a while. Mrs. Clymer Ketchum took advantage of'the dispersion of the scholars to. ask Myrtle to come and spend some weeks with her. - There were reasons why this was more agreea- ble to the young girl than returning to Oxbow Village, and she very gladly accepted the invitation. It was very remarkable that' a man living as Master Byles Gridley had lived for so long a time should all at j once display such liberality as he showed to a young woman who had no claim upon him, except that he had rescued her from the consequences of her own imprudence and warned her against impending dangers. Perhaps he cared more for her than if the obligatiion had been the other way,- students of human nature say it is commonly so. At any rate, either he had ampler resources than it was commonly supposed, or he was imprudently giving way to his generous impulses, or he thought he was making advances which would in due time be returned to him. Whatever the reason was, he furnished her with means, not only for her necessary expenses, but sufficient to afford her, many of the elegances' which she would be like to want in the fashionable society with which she was for a short time to mingle. Mrs. Clymer Ketchum was so well pleased with the young lady she was entertaining, that she thought it worth. * , . page: 282-283[View Page 282-283] '282 TIE GUARDIAN ANGEL. while to give a party while Myrtle was staying with her. She had her jealousies and rivalries, as women of the, world Will, sometimes, and these may have had their, share in leading' her to take the trouble a large party involved. She was tired of the airs of Mrs. Pinnikle, who was of the great Apex family, and her- terribly accomplished daughter Rhadamantha, and wanted to crush the young lady, and jaundice her mother, with a;girl twice as brilliantand ten time. haIndsomer. She was very willing, also, to take the nonsense out of the Capsheaf girls, who thought themselves the most- Stylish personages of their city world, and would Ibite their lips well to see themselves distanced by a coun- try miss. In the mean time circumstances were promising to bring into Myrtle's neighborhood several of her old friends and admirers. Mrs.' Clymer Ketchum had written to Murray Bradshaw that she had asked his pretty milkmaid to come and stay awhile with her, but he had been away on busi- ness, and only arrived in the 'city a day or two before" the party. But other young fellows had found out the attractions of the girl wlio was "hanging out at the Clymer 'Ketchumn concern," and callers were plenty, reducing tete- a-tetes in a corresponding ratio. He did get one opportu- nity, however, and used it well. They had so many things to talk about in common, that she could not help finding him good company. She might well be pleased, for he was an adept in the curious art of being agreeable, as other people are in chess or billiards, and had made a special study of her tastes, as a physician studies a patient's consti- tution. What he wanted was to get her thoroughly in-. terested in himself, and to maintain her in a receptive condition until such time as he should be ready for a final TTHE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 283 move. Any day might furnish the decisive motive; in the mean time he wished only to hold her as against all others. It was well for her, perhaps, that others had flattered. her into a certain consciousness of her ownvalue. She felt her veins full of the same rich blood as that which had. flushed the cheeks of handsome Judith in the long summer of her triumph. Whether it. was vanity, or pride,'or only the instinctive sense of inherited force and attraction, it was the best of defences. The golden bracelet on her wrist seemed to have brought as much protection with it as if it; had been a shield over her heart. , But far away in Oxbow Village other events were in preparation. The "fugitive pieces" of Mr., Gifted Hop- kins had now reached a number so considerable, that, if collected and printed in large type, with plenty of what. the unpleasant printers call " fat," --meaning thereby blank spaces, - upon a. good, substantial, not. to say thick. paper, they might perhaps make a volume which would have substance. enough to bear thetitle, printed lengthwise along the back, "Hopkins's Poems." Sucll a volume that; author had in contemplation. It was to be the literary event of the year 1861. He could not mature such a project, one which he had been for some time contemplating, witlhout consulting Mr. Byles Gridley, who, though 'he had not unfrequently re-. pressed the young poet's too ardent ambition,' had yet always been kind and helpful. Mr. Gridley was seated in his large arm-chair, indulging himself in the perusal of a page or two of his own work before repeatedly referred to. His eye was glistening, for it had just rested on the following passage; - page: 284-285[View Page 284-285] 284 TiHE GUARDIAN ANGEL. , There is infinite pathos in unsuccessful authorship. The book that perishes unread is the deaf mute of litera- ture. The great asylum of Oblivion is full of such, making inaudible signs to each other in leaky garrets and unattain- able dusty upper shelves." He shut the book, for the page grew a little dim as he finished this elegiac sentence, and sighed to think how much more keenly he felt its truth than when it was writ- ten, - than on: that memorable morning whenbhe saw the advertisement in all the papers, "This day published, 'Thoughts on the Universe. By Byles Gridley, A. M.'" At that moment he heard a knock at' his door. He closed his eyelids forcibly for ten seconds, opened them, and said cheerfully, "Come in!" Gifted Hopkins entered. He had a collection of manu- scripts in his hands which it seemed to him would fill a vast number of pages. He did not know that mafiu- script is to type what fresh dandelions are to, the dish of greens that comes to table, of which last Nurse Byloe, who consideied them very wholesoime spring, grazing for her patients, used to say that they ( biled down dreadful." "I have brought the autographs of my poems, Master Gridley, to consult you about making- arrangements for ;publication. They have been so well received by the pub- lie and the leading crities of this part of the State, that I think of having them printed in a volume. I am going to the city for that purpose. My mother has given her con- sent. I wish to ask you several buSiness questions. Shall I part with the copyright for downright sum of money, which I understand some prefer doing, or publish on shares, or take a percentage on the sales? These, I be- lieve, are the different ways taken by authors." j THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 285 Mr. Gridley was altogether too considerate to reply with the words which would mast naturally have come to his lips. He waited as if he were gravely pondering the im- portant questions just put to him, all the while looking at Gifted with a tenderness which no one who, had not buried one of his soul's children could: have fellt for a young au- thor trying to get clothing for his newhorn intellectual off spring. "Ithink," he said presently, " you hald better talk with an intelligent and liberal publisher, and be guided by his advice. I can put you in correspondence with such a person, and you had better trust him than me a great deal. Why don't you send your manuscript by mail?" ' "What, Mr. Gridley? Trust my poerms, some of which are unpublished, to the post-office? No, sir, I could never make up my mind to such a isk. I mean to go to the city myself, and read them to me of the leading pub- lishers. I don't want to pledge myself to any one of them. I should like to. set them bidding against each other for the copyright, if I sell it at all." Mr. Gridley gazed upon the innocent youth with a sw-eet Wonder in his eyes that made him look like an angel, a little damaged in the features by time, but; full of celes- tial feelings. "It will cost you something to make this trip, Gifted. Have you the means to pay for your journey and your stay at a city hotel?" Gifted blushed. "My mother has laid by a small sum for me," he said.. "She knows some of my poems by lieart, and she wants to see them all in print." Master Gridley closed his eyes very firmly again, as if thinking, and opened them as soon as the foolish film had ' ' " page: 286-287[View Page 286-287] 286 9 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. left them. He had read many a page of "Thoughts on the Universe ' to his own old mother, long, long years ago, and she had often listened with tears of modest pride that Heaven had favored her with a son so full of genius. "I'll tell you what, Gifted," he said. "I have been thinkiing for a good while that I would make a visit to the city, and if you have made up your mind to try what you can do with the publishers, I will take you with me as a companion. It will be a saving to you and your good mother, for I shall bear the expenses of the expedition." Gifted Hopkins came very near going down on his knees. He was so overcome with gratitude that it seemed. as if his very coat-tails wagged with his emotion. "Take it quietly," said Master Gridley. Don't make a fool of yourself. Tell your mother to have some clean shirts and things ready for you, and we will be off day after to-morrow morning." Gifted hastened to impart the joyful news to his mother, and to break the fact to Susan Posey that he was about to leave them for a while, and rush into the deliriums and dangers of the' great city. Susan smiled. Gifted hardly knew whether to be pleased with her sympathy, or vexed that she did tot take his leaving more to heart. The smile held out bravely for about a quarter of a minute. Then there came on a little twitching at the corners of the mouth. Then the blue eyes began to shine with a kind of veiled glimmer. Then the blood came up into her cheeks with a great rush, as if the heart had sent up a herald with a red flag from the citadel to know what was going on at the outworks. The message that went back was of discomfiture and capitula- tion. Poor Susan was overcome, and gave herself up to weeping and sobbing. lt . L .UN I :THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 287 The sight was too much for the young poet. In a wild burst of passiop he seized her hand, and pressed it to his lips, exclaiming, "Would that you could be mine forever!" arid Susan forgot all that she ought to have remembered, and, looking half reproachfully but half tenderly through her tears, said, in tones of infinite sweetness, " O Gifted!" . - . . ' ' * ' page: 288-289[View Page 288-289] 288 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CHAPTER XXV. THE POET AND THE PUBLISHER. [ T was settled that Master Byles Gridley and Mr. Gifted Hopkins should leave early in the morning of the day appointed, to take the nearest train to the city;. Mrs. Hop- kins labored hard to get them ready, so that they might make a genteel appearance aimong the great people whom they would meet' in society. She brushed up Mr. Grid- ley's best black suit, and bound the cuffs of his dress-coat, which were getting a little worried. She held his honest- looking hat to the fire, and smoothed it while it was warm, until one would have thought it had just been ironed' by the hatter himself. She' had his boots and shoes brought into a more brilliant condition than they had ever known: if Gifted helped, it was to his credit as much as, if he had shown his gratitude by polishing off a copy of verses in praise of his benefactor. When she had got Mr. Gridley's encumbrances in readi- ness for the jourhey, she devoted herself to fitting out her son Gifted. First, she had down from the garret a capa- cious trunk, of solid wood, but covered with leather, and adorned with brass-headed nails, by the cunning disposition of which,'also, the paternal initials stood out on the rounded lid, in the most conspicuous manner. It was his father's trunk, and the first ithing that went into it, as the widow lifted the cover, and the smothering shut-up smell struck an old chord of associations, was a single tear-drop. How well she remembered the time when she first, unpacked it THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 289 for heryolang husband, and the white shirt bosoms showed their snowy plaits! O dear, dear! But wooen decant their affection, sweet and sound, out of the old bottles into the new ones,- off frorm the lees of the past generation, clear and bright, into they clean vessels just 'made ready to receive it. Gifted Hopkins was his mother's idol, and no wonder. She had not only the com- mon attachment of a parent for him, as her offspring, but, she felt that her race was to be rendered illustrious by his genius, and thought proudly of the time when some future biographer would mention her own humble name, to be held in lasting remembrance as that of the mother of Hopkins. , So she took great pains to equip this brilliant but inex- perienced young man with everything he could by any possibility need during his absence. The great trunk filled itself until it bulged with its contents like a boa-constrictor who has swallowed his blanket. Best clothes and common clothes,' thick clothes and thin clothes, flannels and. linens, socks and collars, with handkerchiefs enough to keep the pickpockets busy for a week, with a paper of gingerbread and some lozenges for gastralgia, and' "hot drops," and' 'ruled paper to write letters on, and a little Bible, and. a phial with hiera picra, and another with paregoric, and another with "' camphire" for sprainsand bruises, - Gifted went forth equipped for every climate from the tropic to the pole, and armed against'every malady from Ague to 'Zoster. He carried' also the paternal watch, a solid silver bull's-eye, and a large pocket-book, tied round with a long tape, and, by way of precaution, pinned into, his breast- pocket. He talked about having a pistol, in case he were attacked by any of the ruffians who are so numerous in 13 s 1 en , .. page: 290-291[View Page 290-291] ,290 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. the city, but Mr. Gridley told him, No! he would certainly shoot himself, and he should n't think of letting him take a pistol. They went forth, Mentor and Telemachus, at the ap- pointed time, to dare the perils of the railroad and the snares of the city. Mrs. Hopkins was firm up to near the last moment, when a little quiver in her voice set her eyes off, and her face broke up all at once, so that she had to hide it behind her handkerchief. Susan Posey showed the truthfulness of her character in her words to Gifted at parting. "Farewell," she said, ' and think of me some- times while absent. My heart is another's, but my friend- ship, Gifted - my friendship -" Both were deeply affected. He took her hand and would have raised it to his lips; but she did not forget her- self, and gently withdrew it, exclaiming, " O Gifted!" this. time with a tone of tender reproach which made him feel. like a profligate. He tore himself away, and when at a safe distance flung her a kiss, which she rewarded with a tearful smile. Master Byles, Gridley must have had some good divi- dends from some of his property of late. There is no other way of accounting for the hahdsome style in which he did things on their arrival in the city. He went to a tailor's and ordered a new suit to be sent home as soon as possible, for he knew his wardrobe was a little rusty. He looked Gifted.' over from head to foot, and suggested such improvements as would recommend him to the fastidious eyes of the selecter sort of people, and put him in his own tailor's hands, at the same tine saying that all bills were to be sent to him, B. Gridley, Esq., parlor No. 6, at the Planet /House. Thus it came to pass that in three days THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 291 from their arrival they were both in an eminently present- able condition. In'the mean time the prudent Mr. Grid- ley had been keeping the young man busy, and amusing himself by showing him such of the sights of the city and its suburbs as. he thought would combine instruction with entertainment. When they were both properlyl equipped and ready for the best company, Mr. Gridley said to' the young poet, who had found it very hard to contain his impatience, that they would now call together on the publisher to whom he wished to introduce him, and they set out accordingly. "My name is Gridley," he said with modest gravity:, as he entered the publisher's private room. "I have a note of introduction here from one of your authors, as' I think lhe called himself,--a very populan writer for whom you publish." The. publisher rose and came ,forward in the most cor- dial and respectful manner. "Mr. Grid[ey?-- Profls- sor Byles Gridley,'-author of ' Thoughts on the Uni- verse'?" The brave-hearted old man colored as if he had been a young girl. His dead book' rose before him like an ap- parition. He groped in modest confusion' for an answer. ( A child: I luried long ago, my dear sir," he said. "Its title-page was its tombstone. I have brought this young friend. with me,- this is Mr. Gifted Hopkins of Oxbow Village,- who wishes to converse with, you about - " "I have come, sir -" the young poet began, interrupt- ing him. "' Let me look at your lpanuscript, if you please, Mr. Popkins," said the publisher, iriterrupting in his turn. "Hopkins, if you please, sir," Gifted'suggested mildly, page: 292-293[View Page 292-293] 292 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. proceeding to extract the manuscript, which lhad got wedged into his pocket,' and seemed to be holding on with all its might. He was wondering all the time over the extraordinary clairvoyance of the publisher, who had looked through so many thick folds, broadcloth, lining, brown paper, and seen his poems lying hidden in his breast-pocket. The idea that a youngr person coming on such an errand should have to explain his intentions would have seemed very odd to the publisher. *He knew the look which belongs to- this class of enthusiasts just as a horse-dealer knows the look of a green purchaser with the equine fever raging in his veins. If a young author had come to him with a scrap of manuscript hidden in his boots, like Major Andre's papers, the publisher would have taken one glance at him and said, 'Out with it!" While he was battling for the refractory scroll with his pocket, which turned half wrong side out, and acted as things always do when people are nervous and in a hurry, the publisher directed his conversation again to Master Byles Gridley. "A remarkable book, that of' yours, Mr. Gridley,- would have a great run if it were well handled. Came out twenty years too soon,- that was the trouble. .One of our leading scholars was speaking of it to me the other day. ' We must have a new edition,' he said; I people are just ripe for that book.' Did you ever think of that? Change the form of it a little, and give it a new title, and it will be a popular book. Five thousand or more, very likely." Mr. Gridiey felt as if' he had been rapidly struck on the forehead with a dozen distinct blows from a hammer not quite big enough to stun him.' He sat still without saying THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. i.93 a word. He had forgotten for. the moment all about poor -Gifted Iopkins, who had got out his manuscript at last, and was calming the disturbed corners of it. Coming to himself a little, he took a large and beautiful silk handker- chief, one of his new purchases, from his pocket, and ap- plied it to his face, for the weather seemed to have grown very warm all at once. Then he remembered the errand on Whichlhhe had come, and thought of this youth, who had got to receive his first hard lesson in life, and whom he had brought to this kind man that it should be gently ad- ministered. . "You surprise me," he said,-" you surprise me. Dead and buried. Dead and' buried. I had sometimes thought that at some future period, after- I] was gone, it might- but I hardly know what to say about your sug- gestions. But here is my young friend, Mr. Hopkins, who would like to talk with you, and I will leave him in your hands. I am at the Planet House, if you should care to call upon me. Good morning. 'rMr. Hopkins will explain everything to you more at his ease, without me, I am confident." . Master' Gridley could not quite make up his mind 'to stay through the interview between the' young poet and the publisher. The flush of hope was bright in Gifted's eye and cheek, and the good man knew that young hearts are apt to'be over-sangUiine, and that one who enters a shower-bath often feels very differently fronm the same per- son when he has pulled the string. "I have brought you my Poems in the original auto- graphs, sir," said Mr. Gifted Hopkins. He laid the manuscript on the table, caressing the leaves still with one hand, as loath to let it go. page: 294-295[View Page 294-295] 294 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. What disposition had you thought of making of them?" the publisher asked, in a pleasant tone. He was as kind a man as lived, though he worked the chief engine in a chamber of torture. "I wish to read you a few specimens of the'poems," he said, " with reference to their proposed publication in a volume." "By all means," said the kind publisher, who deter- mined to be very patient with the protege of the hitherto little-known, but remarkable writer, Professor Gridley. At the same time he extended his foot in an accidental sort of way, and pressed it on the right-hand knob of three which were arranged in a line beneath the table. A little bell in a distant apartment--the little bell marked C.- gave one slight note, loud enough to start a small boy up, who looked at the clock, and knew that he was to go and call the publisher in just twenty-five minutes. "A, five minutes; B, ten minutes; C, twenty-five minutes ";- that was .the youngster's working formula. Mr.' Hopkins was treated to the full allowance of time, as being intro- duced by Professor Gridley. The young man laid open the manuscript so that the title-page, written out very handsomely in -is own hand, should win the eye of the publisher. BLOSSOMS. OF THE SOUL. A WREArr OF VERSE; Original. BY GIFTED HOPKINS. "A youth to-Fortune and to Fame unknown." Gray. "Shall I read you some of the rhymed pieces first, or some of the blank-verse poems, sir? Gifted asked. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 295 Read what you think is best,-a' specimen of your first-class style of composition." "I will read you the very last poem I have written," lie said, and he began:- ( TIE TRIUMPH OF SONG. "I met that gold-haired maiden all too dear; And I to her :'Lo! thou art very fair, i Fairer than all the ladies in the world That fan the sweetened air with scented fans, 'And I am scorched with exceeding love, Yea, crisped till my bones are dry as straw. Look not away with that high-arched brow, But turn its-whiteness that I may behold, And lift thy great eyes till they blaze on mine, And lay thy finger on thy perfect mouth, And let thy lucent ears of carven pearl -Drink in the murmured music of my soul, As the lush grass drinks in the globed dew; For I have many scrolls of sweetest rhyme ,I will unroll and make thee glad to hear. "Then she:: O shaper of the marvellous phrase That opcneth woman's heart as doth a key, I dire not hear thee - lest the bolt should slides That locks another's heart within my own. Go, leave me,--and she let her eyelids fall And the great tears rolled from her large blue eyes. ( Then I If thou'not hear me, I shall die, Yea, in my desperate mood may lift my hand And do myself a hurt no leech can mend; For poets ever were of dark resolve, And swift stern deed- That maiden heard no more, But spake: Alas! my heart is very weak, And but for -Stay! And if some dreadful morn, After great search and shouting thorough the wold, We found thee missing, - strangled, - drowned i' the mere, - Then sltuld I go distraught and be. clean imad! ? x ' page: 296-297[View Page 296-297] 296 'THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. O poet, read! read all thy wondrous scroll! Yea, read the verse that maketh glad to hear! Then I began and kead two sweet, brief hours, And she forgot all love save only mine!" "Is all this from real life?" asked the publishei. "It - no, sir - not exactly from real life that is, the leading female person is not wholly fictitious - and the incident is one which might have happened. Shall I read you the poems referred to in the one you have just heard, sir?" "Allow mne, one moment. Two hours' reading, I think, you said. I fear I shall hardly be able to spare quite time to hear them all. Let me ask what you intendd doing with these productions, Mr. - - -rr - Popkins." ' Hopkins, if you please, sir, not Popkins," said Gifted, plaintively. He expressed his willingness to dispose of the copyright, to publish on shares, or perhaps to receive a certain percentage on the profits. "Suppose we take a glass of wine together, Mr.---- Hopkins, before we talk business," the publisher said, open- ing a little cupboard and taking therefrom a decanter and two glasses. He saw the young man was looking nervous. He waited a few minutes, until the wine had comforted his epigastrium, and diffused its gentle glow through his unspoiled and consequently susceptible organization. "=Come with me" -he said. Gifted followed him into a dingy apartment in the attic, where one sat at a great table heaped and piled with manuscripts., By himn was a huge basket, half full of manuscripts also. As they entered he dropped another manuscript into the basket and looked up. "Tell me," said Gifted, " what are these papers, and THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 297 who is he that looks upon them and dropcs them into the basket?" e re "These are the manuscript poems that we receive, and the one sitting at the table is commonly spoken of among us as The Butcher. The poems he drops into the basket are those rejected as of no account." But does he not read the poems before he rejects them? "He tastes them. Do you eat a cheese before you buy it?" '"And what becomes of all those that he drops into the basket?" If they are not claimed by'their author in proper season, they go to the devil." "What!" said Gifted, with his eyes stretched very round. "To the paper factory, where they hav o a horrid ma- chine they call the devil, that: tears everything to bits, - as the critics treat our authors, sometimes, - sometines, Mr. Hopkins." Gifted devoted a moment to silent reflection. After this,instructive sight they returned together to the publisher's private room., the wine had now warmed the youthful poet's prxcordia, so that hle began to feel a re- newed confidence in his genius and his fortunes. "I should like to know what that critic of yours would say to my manuscript," he-said boldly. "You can try it if you want to," the publisher replied, with an ominous dryness of manner which the sanguine youth did not perceive; or, perceiving, did not heed. "Iow can we manage to get an impartiid judgment?" "O, I 'll arrange that. He always goes to his luncheon about this time. Raw meat and vitriol punch, - that 's what the authors say. Wait till we hear him go, and 13* t - page: 298-299[View Page 298-299] 298 THE GUAXRDIAN ANGEL. - then I will lay your manuscript, so that he will come to it among the first after he gets back. You shall see with your owh eyes what treatment it gets. I hope it may please him, but you shall see." They went back to the publisher's private room and talked awhile. Then the little office-boy 'came up with some vague message about a gentleman - business- wants to see you, sir, etc., according to the established programme; all in a vacant, mechanical. sort of way, as if he were a talking-rmnachine just running down. Thie publisher told the boy that he was engaged, and the gentleman must wait. Very soon they heard The Butcher's heavy footstep as he went out to get his raw meat'and vitriol puncih.: "Now, then," said the publisher, and ledrforth the con- fiding literary lamb once more, to enter the fatal door of the critical shambles. , "Hand me your manuscript, if you please, Mr. Hop- kins. I will lay it so that' it shall be the third of these :that are coming to hand. Our friend here is a pretty good judge of verse, and knows a merchantable article about as quick as any man in. his line of business. If he forms a favorable opinion of your poems, we will talk over your propositions." . Gifted was conscious of a, very slight tremor- as he saw ,his precious manuscript deposited on the table, under two others, and over a pile of similar productions. Still he could not help feeling, that the critic would be struck by his title. The quotation from Gray must touch his feel- ings. The very first piece in the collection could not fail to arrest him. He looked a little excited, but he was in good spirits. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 299 jj "We will be looking about here when our friend comes back," the publisher said. "He is Ja very methodical per- son, and will sit down and go right to work just as if we were not here. We can watch him, and if he should ex- press any, particular interest in your poems; I will, if you say so, carry you up to him and reveal the fact that you are' the author of the works that please him."', They waited patiently until 'The Butcher returned, ap- parently refreshed by his ferocious; refectio:n, and sat down at his table. He looked comforted, and not in ill humor. rThe publisher and the poet talked in low tones, as if on business of their own, and watched him as lhe returned to his labor. The Butcher took the first manuscript that came to hand, read a stanza here and there, turned over tie leaves, turned back and tried again, -shook his head held it, for an instant over the basket, as if doubtful, -- and let it softly drop. He took up the second manuscript, opened it in several places, seemed rather pleased with what he read, and laid it aside for further examination. He took up the third. "Blossoms of the Soul," etc. He glared at it in a dreadfully ogreish way. Both the lookers-on held their' breath. Gifted Hopkins felt as if half a glass more of that warm sherry would not hurt him. There was a sinking at the pit of his stomach, as if he,was in a swing, as high as he could go, close up to the swallows' nests and spiders' webs. The Butcher opened the manu- script at random, read ten seconds, and gave a short low grunt. He opened again, read ten seconds, and gave another grunt, this time a little longer and louder. He opened once more, read five seconds, and, with something that sounded like the snort of a dangerous animal, cast it -,'I page: 300-301[View Page 300-301] 300 . THE GUAtD IAN ANGEL. impatiently into the basket, and took up the manuscript that came next in order. Gifted Hopkins stood as if paralyzed for a moment. " Safe, perfectly safe," the publisher said to him in a whisper. "I 'll get it for you presently. Come in and take another glass of wine," he said, leading him back to his own'office. "No, I thank you," he said faintly, "I can bear it. But this is dreadful, sir. Is this the way that genius is welcomed to the world of letters?" The publisher explained to him, in the kindest manner, that there was an enormous over-production of verse, and that it took a great part of one man's time simply to over- haul the cart-loads of it that were trying to get themselves. into print with the imTrinzatur of his famous house. "You are young, Mr. Hopkins. I advise you not to try to force your article of poetry on the market. The B--, our friend, there, that is, knows a thing that will sell as soon as he sees it.. You are in independent circumstances, per- haps? If so, you can print--at your own expense- whatever you choose. May I take the liberty to ask your - profession?" Gifted explained that he was "clerk" in a "store," where they sold dry goods and West India goods, and goods promiscuous. "O, well, then," the publisher said, "you will understand me. Do you know a good article of brown sugar when you see it?" Gifted Hopkins rather thought' he did. He knew at sight whether it was a fair, salable article or not. "Just so. Now our firiend, there, knows verses that: are salable and unsalable as well as you do brown sugar.- ,f s , THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 30.1 Keep quiet now, and I will go and get your manuscript for you. "There, Mr. Hopkins, take your poens,--they will give you a reputation in your village, T don't doubt, which is pleasant, but it will cost you a good deal of money tio print them in a volume. You 'are very young: you can afford to wait. Your genius is not ripe yet,. ][ am confi- dent, Mr., Hopkins. These verses are very well for a beginning, but a man of promise like you, Mr. Hopkins, must n't throw away his chance by premature publica- tion! I should like to make you a present of a few of the books 'we publish. By and by, perhaps;: we can work you into our series of poets; but the best pears ripen slowly, and so with genius. --Where shall I send the volumes?" Gifted answered, to parlor number No. 6, Planet Hotell, where he soon presented himself to Master IGridley, who could guess pretty well what was coming. But he let him tell his story. 6"Shall I try the other publishers?" said the disconsolate youth . "I would n't, my young friend, I would n'to You havew seen the best one of them all. He is right about it, quite right:- you are young, and had better wait. Look here, Gifted, here is something to please you. We: are going l to visit the gay world together. See what has been left; X here this forenoon." He showed him two elegant notes of inrivitation request- ing the pleasure .of Professor Byles Gridley's. and of Mr. Gifted Hopkins's company on Thursday evening, as the guests of Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, of 24 Carat Place. 9 page: 302-303[View Page 302-303] 3802 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CHAPTER XXVI. MRS.' CLYMER KETCHUM'S PARTY; [YR1TLE HAQLIZARD lad flowered out as beyond question the handsomest girl of the season. There were hints from different quarters that she might possibly be an heiress. Vague stories were about of some contin- gency which might possibly throw a fortune into her lap. The young men about town talked of her at the clubs in their free-and-easy -way, but all agreed that she was the girl of the new crop, -- " best filly this grass,y as Livingstoin Jenkins put it. The general understanding seemed to be that the young lawyer who had followed her to the city was going to capture her. She seemed to favor him certainly as much as anybody. But Myrtle saw many young men now, and it was not so easy as it would once have been to make out who was an especial favorite. There had been times when Murray Bradshaw would have offered his heart fand liand to Myrtle at once, if he had felt sure that she would accept him. But he preferred playing the safe game now, and only wanted to feel sure - of her. He had done his best to be agreeable, and could hardly doubt that he had made an impression. He dressed well when in the city, - even elegantly, - he had many of the lesser social accomplishments, was -a good dancer, and compared favortably in all such matters Fwith the more dashing young fellows in society. He was a better talker than most of them, and he knew more about'the girl he * was dealing witl than they could know. "You have only TRE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 303 got to say the word, Murray," Mrs. Clymer, Ketchunm said to hel relative,'" and you can have her. Biut don't be rash. - I believe you can get Berengaria if you try; and there 's something better there than possibilities." Murra'yr Bradshaw laughed, and told Mrs. Clymer Ketchum not to worry about him; he knew what he was doing. It so happened that Myrtle met Master Byles Gridley walking with Mr. Gifted Hopkins the day before .the party. She longed to have a talk with her. old friend, and was glad to have a chance of pleasing her poetical admirer. She therefore begged her hostess to invite themn both to her party to please her, which she promised to do at once. Thus the two elegant notes were accounted fbr. Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, thougll her acquaintances were chiefly in the world of fortune and of fashion, had yet a certain weakness for what she called clever people. She therefore always variegated her parties with a. streak of young artists and writers, and a literary lady or two; and, if she could lay hands on a first-class celebrity, was as' happy as an Amazon who had captured a Centafur. "There's a demonish clever young fellow by the namer of Lindsay," Mr. Livingston Jenkins said to her a little before the day of the party. "Better ask him. They say he's the rising talent, in his line, architecture mainly, but has done some remarkable things in the way of sculpture. There's some story about a bust he made that was quite wonderful. I 11 find his address for you." So Mr. Clem- ent Lindsay got his invitation, and thus 'Mrs. Clymer Ketchum's party promised, to bringf tog(ethel a number of persons with whom we are acquainted, andi vilho were ac- quainted with each other.. Mrs. Clymer' Ketchum knew how to give a party. Let page: 304-305[View Page 304-305] 304 - THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. her only have carte blanche for flowers, music, and cham- pagne, she used to tell her lord, and she would see to the rest, - lighting the rooms, tables, and toilet. He needn't be afraid: all he had to do was to keep out of the way. Subdivision of labor is one of the triumphs of modern civilization. Labor was beautifully subdivided in this lady's household. It was old Ketchum's business to make money, and he understood it. It was Mrs. K.'s business to spend money, and she knew how to do it. The rooms blazed with light like a conflagration; the flowers burned like lamps of many-colored flame; the music throbbed into the hearts of the promeniaders and tingled through all the muscles of the dancers. Mrs. Clymer Ketchum was in her glory. Her point d' Alenfon must .have spoiled ever so many French girls' eyes. Her bosom heaved beneath a kind of breastplate glittering with a heavy dew of diamonds. She glistened- and sparkled with every movement, so that the admirer. forgot to question too closely whether the eyes matched the brilliants, or the cheeks glowed like the roses. Not far from the great lady stood Myrtle Hazard. She was $ dressed as the fashion of the day demanded, but she had added certain audacious touches of her own, reminiscences of the time when the dead 'beauty had flourished, and which first provoked the question and then the admiration of the young people who had a natural eye for effect. Over the long white glove on her left arm was clasped a rich bracelet, of so quaint an antique pattern that nobody had seen anything like it, and as some one whispered that it was. "the last thing out," it was greatly admired by the fashion-plate multitude, as well as by the few who had a taste of their own. If the soul of Judith Pride, long . . . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. . 3(0 divorced from its once beautifully moulded dust, ever lived in dim consciousness through any of those who inherited her blood, it was then and there that she breathed through the lips of Myrtle Hazard. The young girl almost trem- bled with the ecstasy of this new mode of being, soliciting every sense with light, with perfume, with melody,--all that could make her feel the wonderful complex music of a fresh life when all its chords first vibrate together in har- mony. Miss Rhadamantha Pinnikle, whose mother was !J an Apex (of whose race it was said that they always made an obeisance when the family name was mentioned, and I had all their 'portraits painted with halos round their heads), found herself extinguished in this' new radiance. Miss Victoria Capsheaf stuck to the wall as if she had been a fresco on it. . The fifty-year-old dynasties were dismayed and dismounted. Myrtle fossilized them as suddenly as if she had been a Gorgon, instead of a beauty. The guests in whom we may have some interest were in the mean time making ready for the' party, which was ex- pected to be a brilliant one; for. 24 Carat Place was well known for the handsome style of its entertainments. Clement Lindsay was a little surprised 'by his invitation. He had, however, been made a lion of several times of late, and was very willing to. amuse himself once in a while with a peep into the great world. It was but an empty Ishow to him at best, for his lot was cast, and :he expected to lead a quiet domestic life after his student days were over. MAaster .Byles Gridley had known. what society was in his earlier time, and understood very well that all a gen- tleman of his age had to do was to dress himself in his usual plain way, only taking a little more care in his ar- -. . . ' . T * " page: 306-307[View Page 306-307] 806 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. rangements than was needed in the latitude of Oxbow -Vil- lage. But Gifted must be looked afte-, that he should not provoke the unamiable comments of the city youth by any defect or extravagance of costume. The young gentleman had bought a light sky-blue neckerchief, and a very large breast-pin containing a gem which he was assured by the vendor was a genuine stone. He considered that" both these would be eminently effective articles of dress, and Mr. Gridley had some trouble to convince him that a white tie and plain shirt-buttons would be more, fitted to the occasion. On the morning of the day of the great party Mr. Wil- liam Murray Bradshaw received a brief telegram, which seemed to cause hirm great emotion, as he changed color, uttered a forcible exclamation, and began walking up and down his room in a very nervous kind of way. It was a foreshadowing of a certain event now pretty sure to happen. Whatever bearing this telegram may have had upon his plans, he made up his mind that he would contrive an op- portunity somehow that very evening to propose himself as a suitor to Myrtle Hazard. He could not say that he felt as absolutely certain of getting the right answer as he had felt at some previous, periods. Myrtle knew her price, he said to himself, a great-deal better than when she was a simple country girl. The flatteries with which she had been surrounded, and the effect of all the new appliances of beauty, whichhad set her off so that she could not help seeing her own attractions, rendered her harder to please and to satisfy. A little experience in society teaches a young girl the arts and the phrases Which all the Lotharios have in common. Murray Bradshaw was ready to land his fish now, but he was bot quite sure that she was yet THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 307 hooked, and he had'a feeling that by this time she knevr every fly in his book. However, as le. lhad made up his' mind not to wait another day, he addressed himself to the trial before him with a determination to succeed; if any nearns at his command would insure success. He arrayed( himself with faultless elegance-: nothing must be neglected on such an occasion. I e went forth firm and grave as a general going into a battle where all is to be lost or won. He entered the blazing saloon with the unfiiling smile upon his lips, to which he set them as he set his watch to a particular hour, and minute. . The rooms were pretty well filled when he arrived andc made his bow before the blazing, rustling, glistening, wav- ing, blushing appearance under which palpitated, with the pleasing excitement of the magic scene over which its owner presided, the heart of Mrs. Clymer Ketchum. He turned to: Myrtle 'Hazard, and if he had ever doubted. whch way his inclinations led him, he could doubt no, longer. Hlow much dress and how much light can a wo.. man bear? That is the way to measure her beauty. A. plain girl in a simple dress, if she has only a pleasant; voice, may. seem almost a beauty in the rosy twilight The nearer she comes to being handsome, the more orna-. ment she will bear, and the more she may dely the sun- shine or the chandelier., Murray Bradshaw was fairly daz-, zled with the brilliant effect of Myrtle in full dress. .I-He did not know before what handsome arms 'she had, - Ju. dith Pride's famous arms, - which the'high-colored young men in top-boots used to swear were the halndsomest pair in New England, - right over again. He did not know before with what defiant effect she would light up, standing as she did directly under a huge lustre, in full flower of page: 308-309[View Page 308-309] i * '308 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. flame, like a burningr azalea. He was not a man who in- tended to let his sentiments carry him away from- the serious interests of his future, yet, as he looked upon Myr- tle Hazard, his heart gave one throb which made, him feel in every pulse that this was a woman who in her own right, simply as a woman, could challenge the homage of the proudest young man of her time. He hardly knew till this moment how much of passion mingled with other and calmer motives of admiration. He could say I love you as truly as such a man could ever speak these words, meaning that he admired her, that he was attracted to her, that he should be proud of her as his wife; that he should' value himself always as the proprietor of so rare a person, fhat 'no appendage to his existence would take. so liigh a place in his thoughts. This implied also, what is of great consequence to a young woman's happiness in the married state, that she would be treated with uniform politeness, with satisfactory-evidences of affection, and with a degree of confidence quite equal to what a reasonable woman, should expect from a very superior man, her husband. If Myrtle could have looked through the window in the breast against wlich only authors are privileged to'flatten their features, it is for the reader to judge' how far the pro- gramme would have satisfied her. Less than this, a great deal less, does appear to satisfy many young women; and it may be that the interior just drawn, fairly judged, be- longs to a model lover and husband. Whether it does or not, Myrtle did not see this picture. There was a beauti- fully embroidered shirt-bosom in front of that window through which we have just looked, that intercepted all sight of what was going on within. ' She only saw a man, young, handsome, courtly, with a winning tongue, with an THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 309 ambitious spirit, whose every look and tone imrnlied his ad- miration of herself, and who was associated with her pa:st life in such a way that they alone appeared like old friends in the midst of that cold alien throng. It seemed as if le could not iave chosen a more auspicious hour than this; for she never looked so captivating, and her presence must; inspire his lips with, the eloquence of love.. And she-- was not this delirious atmosphere of light and music just the influence to which he would wish to subject her before trying the last experiment of all which'can stir the soul of a womnan? He knew the mechanism of that impressiona- ; ble state which served Coleridge so excellently well, - ' "All impulses of soul and sense Had thrilldd my guileless Genevieve; The music, and the dolefill tale; The rich and balmy eve,"- thoughl he hardly expected such startling results as hap- pened in that case, - which might be taken as an awful warning not to sing moving ballads to young ladies of us- ceptible feelings, 'unless one is prepared for very serious consequences. Without expecting that Myrde would rush into his arms, he did think that she could not help listening to him in',the intervals of the delicious music, in some recess where the iroses and jasmines and heliotropes made the air heavy with sweetness, and the crimson curtains, drooped in .heavy folds that half hid their forms from the curious eyes all round them. HeIr heart would swell like Genevieve's as he told her in simple phrase that she was his life, his love, his all, - for in some two or three words like these he meant to put his appeal, and not infine poet- ical phrases that would do for Gifted Hopkins and rhym- ing tomtits of that feather. O page: 310-311[View Page 310-311] 310 THE- GUARDIAN ANGEL. Full of his purpose, involving the plans, of his whole life, implying, as he saw clearly, a brilliant future or a disastrous disappointment, with a great unexploded mine of consequences under his feet, and the spark ready to fall into it, he walked about the gilded saloon with a smile upon his lips so perfectly natural and pleasant, that one would have said he was as vacant of any aim, except a sort of superficial good-natured disposition to be amused, as the blankest-eyed. simpleton who had tied himself up in a white cravat and come to bore and be bored. Yet under this pleasant smile his mind was so busy with its thoughts that he had forgotten all about the guests from Oxbow Village who, as Myrtle had told him, were to come this evenihg. His eye was all at once caught by a famil- iar figure, and he recognized Master Byles Gridley, accom- panied by Mr. Gifted Hopkins, at the door of 'the saloon. He stepped forward at once to meet and to present them. Mr. Gridley in evening costume made an eminently dig- nified and respectable appearance. There was an unusual look of benignity upon his firmly moulded features, and an air of ease which rather surprised Mr. Bradshaw, wlh did not know all the social experiences which had formed a -part of'the old Master's history. The greeting between them was courteous, but somewhat formal, as Mr. Brad- shaw was acting as one of the masters of ceremony. He nodded to Gifted in an easy way, and led them .both into the immediate Presence. "This is my friend Professor Gridley, Mrs. 'Ketchum, whom I have the honor of introducing to you,- a very distinguished scholar, as I have no doubt you are well aware. And this is my friend Mr. Gifted Hopkins, a young, poet of distinction, whose fame will reach you by and by, if it has not come to your ears already."' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 3" The two gentlemen went through the usual forms, the poet a little crushed by the Presence, but doing his best. While the lady was making polite speeches to them, Myr- tie Hazard came forward. She was greatly delighted -to meet her old friend, and even looked upon the young poet with a degree of pleasure she would hardly have expected to receive from his company. They both brought with them so many reminiscences of familiar scenes and events, that it was like going back for the moment to Oxbow Vil- lage. But Myrtle did not belon to herself that evening, and had no opportunity to enter into conversation just then with either of thern. There was to be dancing by and by, and the younger people were getting impatient that it bnould begin. At last the music sounded the well-known summons, and the floors began to ring to the tread of the dancers. As usual on such occasions there were a large number of non-combatants, who stood as spectators around those who were engaged in the campaign of the evening. Mr. Byles Gridley looked on gravely, thinking of the min- uets and the gavots of his younger days. Mr. Gifted Hop- kins, who had never acquired the desirable accomplishment of dancing, gazed with dazzled and admiring eyes at the wonderful evolutions of the graceful perfornmes. The mu- sic stirred him a good deal; he had also baen introduced to one or two young persons as Mr. Hopkins, the poet, and he began to feel a kind of excitement, such as was often the prelude of a lyric burst from his pen. Others might have wealth and beauty, he thought to himself, but what were these to the gift of genius? In fifty years the wealth of these people would have passed into other hands. In fifty years all these beauties would be dead, or wrinkled and double-wrinkled great-grandmothers. And when they page: 312-313[View Page 312-313] 312 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. were all gone 'and forcrotten, the name of Hopkins would be still fresh in the world's memory. Inspiring thought! A smile of triumph rose to his lips;. he felt that the village boy who could look forward to fame as his inheritance was richer than all the- millionnaires, and that the words he should set in verse would have an enduring lustre to which the whiteness of pearls was cloudy, and the sparkle of diamonds dull. . ' ' He raised his eyes, which had been cast down in reflec- tion, to look upon these less favored children of Fortune, to whom she had given nothing but perishable ilnheritances. Two or three pairs of eyes, lie observed; were fastened upon him. His mouth perhaps betrayed a little self-conscious- ness, but he tried to show his features in an aspect of dirg- nified self-possession. There seemed to be remarls and questionings going on, which he supposed to be somethiing like the following :.-- Which is it? Which is it? - Why, that one, there, - that young fellow, -- don't you see?- What young fellow are you two looking at? Who is he? Whllat is he?-- Why, that is Hopkins, the poet. - Hopkins, the poet! Let me see him! LBt me see him! - Hopkins? Wlhat! Gifted Hopkins? etc., etc. , Gifted Hopkins did not hear these words except in fancy, but he did unquestionably find a considerable number of eyes concentrated upon him, which he very naturally inter- preted as an evidence that he had already begun to enjoy a foretaste of the fame of which he should hereafter have his full allowance. Some seemed to be glancing furtively, some appeared as if they wished to speak, and all the time the number of those looking at him seemed to be increasing. A vision came through his fancy of himself as standing on THE4 G UARDIAN ANGEL. 313 a platform, and having persons who wished to look upon liim and shake hands with him presented, as he had heard was the way with great people when going about the coun- try. But this was only a suggestion, and by no means a serious thoulght, for that would have implied infatuation. Gifted Hopkins. was quite right in believing that he at- tracted many eyes. At last those of Myrtle Hiazard were called to him, and she perceived that an accident was mak- ing him unenviably conspicuous.' The bow of his rather large'white neck-tie had slid round and got, beneath his left ear. A not very good-natured or well-bred young fel- low had pointed out the subject of this slight misfortuneto one or two others of not much better taste or0 breeding, and thus the unusual attention the youthful poet was receiving explained itself. Myrtle no sooner saw the little accident of which her rural friend was the victim, than she left her place in the dance with a simple courage which did her credit. "I want to speak to you a minute'," she said. "Come into this alcove." And the courageous young lady not only told Gifted what had happened to him, but found a pin somehow, as women always do on a pinch, and had him in presentable condition' again almost before the, bewildered young man knew what was the matter. On reflection it occurred to him, as it has to other provincial young persons going to great cities, that he might perhaps have been. hasty in \ thinking himself an object of general curiosity as yet. There had hardly been time for his name- to have become very widely known. Still, the feeling had been pleasant for the moment, and had given -him an ideal of what the rapture would be, when, wherever he went, the monsier digit (to hint a classical phrase) of the collectivle admiring " page: 314-315[View Page 314-315] 3]l. 4 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. public would be lifted to point him out, and the whisper would pass from one to another, ' That's him! That's Hopkins 1" Mr. Murray Bradshaw had been watching the opportu- nity for carrying out his intentions, with his pleasant smile covering ;up all that was passing in his mind, and Master. Byles Gridley, looking equally unconcerned, had been watching him. The young man's time came at last. Some were at the supper-table, some were promenading, some were talking, when he managed to get Myrtle a little apart from the rest, and led her towards one of the recesses in the apartment, where two chairs were invitingly placed. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were sparkling, -the influences to which he had trusted had rot been thrown away upon her. He had no idea of letting his purpose be seen until he was fully ready. It required all his self- nmastery to avoid betraying himself by look or tone, but he was so natural that Myrtle was thrown wholly off her guard. He meant to make her pleased with herself at the outset, and that not by point-blank flattery, of which she had had more than enough of late, but rather by sugges- tion and inference, so that she should find herself feeling happy without knowing how. It would be easy to glide from that to the impression she had produced upon him, and get the two feelings more or less mingled in her mind. And so the simple confession he meant to make would at length evolve itself logically, and hold by a natural con- nection to the first agreeable train of thought which he had. called up. Not the way, certainly, that most young men would arrange their great trial scene; but Murray Brad- sil1w was a lawyer in love as much as in business, and considered himself as pleading a cause before a jury of THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. . 15 Myrtle Hazard's conflicting motives. What would any lawyer do in a jury case, but begin by giving the twelve honest men and true to understand, in the first place, that their intelligence and virtue were conceded by all, and that' he himself had perfect confidence in them, and leave them to shape their verdict in' accordance with these propositions and his own side of the case? Myrtle had, perhaps, never so seriously inclined her ear to the honeyed accents of the young pleader. He flattered her with so much tact, that she thought she heard an un- conscious echo through his lips 'of an admiration which he only shared with all around him. But in him he made it seem discriminating, deliberate, not blind, but very real. This it evidently, was which had led him to trust her with his ambitions and his plans,-they might be delusions, but he could never keep them from her, an'd she was the one woman in the world to whom he thought he could safely give his confidence. The dread moment was close at hand. M]yrtle was lis- tening with an instinctive premonition of what was coming, ten thousand mothers and grandmothers and great- grandmothers; and so on, had passed through it all in pre- 'ceding generations until time reached backwards'to the sturdy savage who asked no questions of any kind, but knocked down the primeval great grandmother of all, and carried her off to his hole in the rock, or into the tree where he had made his nest. Why should not the coming question announce itself by stirring in the pulses and thrill- - ing in the nerves of the descendant of all these, grand- mothers? She was leaping imperceptibly towards hiin, drawn byr the mere blind elemental force, as the plummet was at- , . . . page: 316-317[View Page 316-317] 313 6 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. tracted to the side of Schehallien. Her lips were parted, and she breathed a little faster than so healthy a girl ought to breathe in a state of repose. The steady nerves of William Murray Bradshaw felt unwonted thrills and tre- mors tingling through them, as he came nearer and nearer the few simple words with which he was to make Myrtle Hazard the mistress of his destiny. His tones weie be- coming lower and more serious; there were slight breaks once or twice in the conversation; Myrtle had cast down her eyes. "There is but one word more to add," he murmured softly, as he bent towards her- A grave voice interrupted him. "Excuse me, Mr, Bradshaw," said Master Byles Gridley, "I wish to present a young gentleman to, my friend, here. I promised to show him the most charming young person I have the honor to be acquainted with, and I must redeem my pledge. Miss Hazard, I have the pleasure of introducing to your ac- quaintance my distinguished young fiiend, Mr. Clement Lindsay." Once more, for the third time, these two young persons stood face to face. Myrtle was no longer liable to those nervous seizures which any sudden impression was liable to produce when she was in her half-hysteric state of mind and body. She turned to the new-comer, who found him- self unexpectedly submitted to a test which he would never have risked of his own will. He must go through it, cruol as it was, with the easy self-command which belongs to a gentleman' in the most trying social exigencies. He ad- dressed her, therefore, ih the usual terms of courtesy, and then turned and greeted Mr. Bradshaw, whom he had' never' met since their coming together at Oxbow Village. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 317 M-yrtle was conscious, the instant she looked upon Clement Lindsay, of the existence of some peculiar relation between them; but what, she could not tell. Whatever it was, it broke the charm which had been weaving between her and Murray Bradshaw. He was not foolish enough to make a scene. What fault could he find with Clement Lindsay, who had only done as any gentleman would do with a lady to whom he had just been introduced,--addressed a few polite words to her? After saying those words, Clement had turned very courteously to him, and they had spoken- with each other. But Murray Bradshaw could not help seeing that Myrtle had transferred her attention, at least for the moment, from him to the new-comner. ' He folded his arms and waited, - but I he waited in vain. The hid- den attraction which, drew Clement to the young girl with whom he had passed into the Valley of the Shadow of Death overmastered all other feelings, and he gave himself up to the fascination of her presence. The inward rage of Murray Bradshaw at being inter- rupted just at tho moment when he was, as he thought, about to cry dceckmate and finish the first great game he had ever played, may well be imagined. But it could not be helped. Myrtle had exercised the customary privilege of young ladies at parties, ard had turned from talking with one to talking with anothr, - that was all. Fortu- nately for him the young man who had been introduced at sueh a most critical moment wa's not one from whom he need apprehend any serious interference. He felt grateful beyond measure to pretty Susan Posey, who, as he had -good reason for believing, retained her hold upon her early lover, and was looking forward with bashful interest to the time when she should become Mrs. Lindsay. It was bet- ': , page: 318-319[View Page 318-319] 318 ,THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. ter to put up quietly with his disappointment;, and, if he could get no favorable' opportunity that 'evening to resume his conversation at the interesting point where he left it off, he would call the next day and bring matters to a conclu- sion. He called accordingly the next mnorning, but was disap- pointed in not seeing Myrtle. She had hardly slept that night, and was suffering from 'a bad headache, which last reason was her excuse for not seeing company. He called again, the following day, and learned that ,Miss Hazard had just left the city, and gone on a visit to Oxbow Village. "^54 ' , ' * ' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 3 19 CHAPTER XXVII. MNE AND COUNTERMNE. HAT the nature of the telegram was which had produced such an effect on the feelings and plans of Mr. ,William Murray Bradshaw nobody especially in- torested knew tit himself. 'We may conjecture that it an- nounced some fact, which had leaked out a little prema- turely, relating to the issue of the great land-case 'in which the firm was interested. However that might be; Mr. Bradshaw no sooner heard that Myrtle had suddenly left the' city for Oxbow Village, - for what reason he puzzled * himself to guess, than he determined to follow her at once, and take up the conversation he' had' begun at the party where it left off. And as the young, poet had received his quietus for the present at- the publisher's, and as Master Gridley had nothing splecially to detain him, they too re- turned 'at about the same time, and so our old acquaint-' ances were once more together within the familiar pre- cincts where we' have been accustomed to see them. Master Gridley did not like playing the part of a spy, but it must be remembered that he was an old college officer, and had something of the detective's sagacity, and a certain cunning derived from the habit o'f keeping an eye on mischievous students If any underhand contriv- ance was' at work, involving the welfare of any one in whom he was interested, he was a dangerous 'person for the plotters, for he had plenty of time to attend to them, and would be apt to take a kind of pleasure in matching t.( page: 320-321[View Page 320-321] 320 -TH:IE GUARDIAN ANGEL. his wits against another crafty person's,- such a one, for instance,' as Mr. Macchiavelli Biadshaw. Perhaps he caught some words of that gentleman's con. versation at the party; at any rate, he could not fail to observe his manner. When he found that the young man had followed Myrtle back to the village, he suspected something more than a coincidence. When he learned that, he was assiduously visiting The Poplars, and that he was in close communication withi Miss Cynthia' Badlam, he felt sure that he was pressing the siege of Myrtle's heart. But that there was some difficulty in the way was equally clear to him, for he ascertained, through channels which the attentive reader will soon have means of conjec- turing, that Myrtle hbad seen him but once in the week following his return, and that in the presence of her dragons. She had various excuses when he called,- headaches, perhaps, 'among ,the rest, as these are staple articles on such occasions. But MCvaster Gridley knew his man too well to think that sliglat obstacles would prevent his going forward to effect his purpose. "I think he will get her, if he holds on,' the old man said to himself, ' and he won't let go in a hurry. ' If there were any real loive about it -but surely he is inca- pable of such a human weakness as the tender passion. What does all this sudden concentration -upon the girl mean? He knows something about her that we don't know,--that must be it. What did he hide'that paper for, a year ago and more? Could that have anything to do with his pursuit of' Myrtle Hazard ,to-day?" Master Gridley paused as he ,asked this question of himself, for a luminous idea had struck him. Consulting daily with Cynthia Badlam, was he? Could there be a, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 321 conspiracy between these two persons to, conceal some important fact, or to keep something back until it would be for their common -interest to have it made known? Now Mistress Kitty Fagan was devoted, heart and soul, to Myrtle Hazard, and ever since she had received the young girl from Mr. Gridley's hands, when he brought her back safe and sound after her memorable adventures had considered him as Myrtle's best friend and natural protector. These, simple creatures, whose thoughts are not taken up, like those of educated people, with the care of a great museum of dead phrases, are very quick to see the live- facts which are going on about them. Mr. Grid- ley lhad met her, more or less accidentally, several times of late, and inquired very particularly about Myrtle, and how she got along at the house since her return, and whether she was getting over her headaches, and how they treated her in the family. "Bliss your heart, 'Mr. Gridley," Kitty' said to him on one of these occasions, " it's ahltogither changed intirely.- Sure Miss Myrtle does jist iverythin' she likes, an' Miss Withers niver middles with her at ahl, excip' jist to roll up her eyes an' look as if she was the hid-moorner at a. funeril whiniver Miss Myrtle says she wants to do this or that, or to go here or there. It's Miss Badlam that "s ahlwiz after her, an' a-watchin' hir,-she, thinks she's cunnin'er than a cat, but 'there's other folks that's got eyes an' ears as good as hers. It's that Mr. Bridshaw' that's a puttin' his head together with Miss Badlam for somethin' or other, an' I don't believe there,'s no good in it, --for what does the fox an' the cat be a whisperin' about, as if they was thaves an' incind'ries, if' there ain't no mischief hatclhin'?" - - . - u page: 322-323[View Page 322-323] 322 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. "Why, Kitty," he said," what mischief do you think is going on, and who is to be harmed?" "' O Mr. Gridley," she answered, " if there ain't some- body to be chated somehow, then I don't know an honest man and woman from two rogues. An' have n't I heard Miss Myrtle's name whispered as if'there was somethin' goin' on agin'-her, an" they was afraid the tahk would go out through the doors, an' up through the chimbley? I don't want to tell no tales, Mr. Gridley, nor to hurts no hon- est body, for I 'm a poor woman, Mr. Gridley, but I comes of dacent folks, an' I vallies my repitation an' character as much as if I was dressedin silks and satins instead of this mane old gown, savin' your presence, which is the best I've got, an' niver a dollar to buy another. But if iver I hears a word, Mr. Gridley, that manes any kind of a mis- chief to Miss Myrtle, the Lard bliss her soul an' keep ahl the divils away from her!--I'll be iUnnin' straight' down here to tell ye ahl about it,- be right sure o' that, Mr. Gridley." "Nothing must happen to Myrtle," he said, "that we can help. If you see anything more that looks wrong, you had better come down here at once and let me know, as you say you will. At once, you understand. And, Kitty, I am a little particular about the dress of people who come to see me, so that if you would just take the trouble to get you a tidy pattern of gingham or calico, or whatever you like of that sort for a gown, you would please me; and perhaps this little trifle will be a convenience to you when you come to pay for it." Kitty thanked him with all the national accompani- ments, and trotted off to the store, where Mr. Gifted Hop- kins displayed the native amiability of his temper by THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 323 tumbling down everything in the shape of ginghams and calicos they had on the shelves, without a murmur at the taste of his customer, who found it hard to get a pattern sufficiently emphatic for her taste. She succeeded at last, and laid down a five-dollar bill as if she were as used to the pleasing figure on its face as to the sight of her own five digits. Master Byles Gridley had struck a spade deeper than he, knew into his first countermine, for Kitty had none of those delicate scruples about the-means of obtaining infor- mation which might have embarrassed a diplomatist of higher degree. page: 324-325[View Page 324-325] 324 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CH APTER XXVIII. -MR. IBRADSHAW CALLS ON MSS BADLAM. " S Miss Hazard in, Kitty?" I "Indade she "s in, Mr. Bridshaw, but she won't see nobody." What 's the meaning of that, Kitty? Here is the third time within three days you've told me I couldn't see her. She saw Mr. Gridley yesterday, I know; why won't she see me to-day?'" "Y' must ask Miss Myrtle what the rason is,-it's none o' my business,. Mr. Bridshaw. That s the order she give me." "Is Miss Badlam in?" "Indade she 's in, Mr. Bridshaw, an' I 'll go cahl her." "Bedad," said Kitty Fagan to herself, "the cat an' the fox is goin' to have another o' thim big tahks togitler, an' sure the old hole for the stove-pipe has niver been stopped up yet." Mr. Bradshaw and Miss Cynthia went into the parlor together, and Mistress Kitty retired 'to her kitchen, There was a deep closet belonging to this apartment, sepa- rated by'a partition from the parlor. There was a round hole high up in this partition through which a stove-pipe had once passed. Mistress Kitty placed a stool just under this opening, upon which, as on a pedestal, she posed her- self with great precaution in the attitude of the goddess of other people's secrets, that is to say, with her head a little on one side, so as to bring her liveliest ear close to the THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 325 opening. The conversation which took place in the hear- ing of the invisible third party began in a singularly free. and-easy manner on Mr. Bradshaw's part. :, What the d is the reason I can't see Myi-tle,' Cynthia?" '"That.'s more than I can tell you, Mr. Bradshaw. ][ can watch her goings on, but I can't account for her tan.- trums." "You say she has had some of her old nervous whims, -has the doctor been to see her?" "No indeed. She has kept to herself a good deal, but t don't think there 's anything in particular the matter with her. She looks well enough, only she seems a little queer, -- as girls do that have taken a fancy into their heads that they 're, in love, you know, -absent-minded, -does n't seem to be interested in things as you would expect after being away so long." Mr. Bradshaw looked as if this did not please him par-. ticularly. If he was the object of her thoughts she would' not avoid him, surely. Have you kept your eye on her steadily?" "I don't believe there is an hour we can't account for,- Kitty and I between us." "Are you sure you can depend on Kitty?" ["Depind on Kitty, is it? O, an' to be sure ye can de- pind on Kitty to kape watch at the stove-pipe hole, an' to tell all y'r plottin's an' contrivin's to them that 'll get the cheese out o' y'r mousetrap for ye before ye ,catch any poor cratur in it." This 'was the inaudible comment of the un- seen third party.] "Of course I can depend on her as"far as I trust her.. All she knows is that she must look out for the girl to see that she does not run away or do herself a mischief The page: 326-327[View Page 326-327] 326 THE GUARD IAN ANGEL. .;, Biddies don't know much, but they know enough to keep a watch on the --" :. "Chickens."' Mr. Bradshaw playfully finished the sen- tence for Miss Cynthia. [' An' on the foxes, an' the cats, an' the wazels, an' the hen-hahks, an' ahl the other bastes," added the invisible witness, in unheard soliloquy.] ' "I ain't sure whether she 's quite as stupid as she looks," said the suspicious young lawyer. "There 's .a little cun- :i ning twinkle in' her eye sometimes that makes me, think - she might be up to a trick on occasion. Does she ever listen about to hear what people are saying?" , "Don't trouble yourself about Kitty Fagan, for pity's -sake, :Mr. Bradshaw. .The Biddies are all alike, and they're all as stupid as owls, except when, you tell 'em just what to do, and how to do it. A pack of priest-ridden fools!" ' . . . The hot Celtic blood,in Kitty Fagan's heart gave a leap. The stout muscles gave an involuntary jerk. The sub-, stantial frame felt the thrill all through, and the rickety stool on which she was standing creaked sharply under its , burden. Murray Bradshaw started. He got up and opened i;. softly all the doors leading from the room, one after another, and looked out. "I thought I heard a noise as if somebody was moving, Clynthia. It 's just as well to keep bur own matters to our- selves." : X " If , ,t.;' "If you wait till this old house keeps still, Mr. Brad- shaw, you might as well 'wait till the river has run by. It's. as full of rats and mice as an old cheese is of mites. There 's a hundred old rats in this house, and that 's what you hear." THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 32 7 ["An' one old cat; that's what I hear." Third party.'] "I told you, Cynthia, I must be off on this business to- morrow. I want to know that everything is safe before ] go. And, besides, I have got something to say to you that's important, - very important, mind you." He got up once more and opened every door softly and looked out. He fixed his eye suspiciously on a large sofa at the other side of the room, and went, looking half ashamed of his extreme precaution, and peeped under it, to see if there was any one hidden there to listen. Then he came back and drew his chair close up to the table at which Miss Badlam had seated herself. The conversation which- followed was in a low tone, and a portion of it must be given in another place in the words of the third party,. The beginning of it we are able to supply in this connec.. tion. "Look here, Cynthia; you know what. I am going for, It's all right, I feel sure, for I have had private means of finding out. It's a sure thing; but I must go once more to see that the other fellows don't try any trick on us. You understand what is for my advantage is for youris, and, if : go wrong, you go overboard with me. Now I must leave the--you know - behind me. I can't leave it in the house or the office: they might burn up. :[ won't have it about me when I am travelling. Draw your chair a little more this way. N'ow listen." ["Indade I will," said. the third party to herself. -The reader will find out in due time whether she listened, to any purpose or not.] In the mean time Myrtle, who for some reason was rather nervous and restless, had found a pair of half.. page: 328-329[View Page 328-329] 328 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. i finished slippers which she had left behind her. The, color came into her cheeks when she remembered the state of mind she was in when she was working on" them for the Rev. Mr. Stoker. She recollected Master Gridley's mis- take about their destination, and determined to follow the hint he had given. It would please him better if she sent them to good Father Pemberton, she felt sure, than if he should get them himself. So she enlarged them somewhat, (for the old man did not pinch his feet, as the younger J clergyman was in the habit of doing, and was, besides, of portly dimensions, as the old orthodox three-deckers were It apt to be,) and worked E. P. very handsomely into the ' pattern, and sent them to him with her love and respect, to his great delight; for old ministers do not have quite so many tokens of affection from fair hands as younger ones. What made Myrtle nervous and restless? Why had she quitted the city so abruptly, and fled to her old home, I leaving all the gayeties behind her which had so attracted ; and dazzled her? She had not betrayed herself at the third meeting with the young man who stood in such an extraordinary rela- tion to her,-who had actually given her life from his own breath, -as when she met him for the second time. - Whether his introduction to her at the party, just at the instant when Murray Bradshaw was about to make a dec- laration, saved her from being in another qoment the promised bride of that young gentleman, o&3t, we will not be so rash as to say. It looked, certainly, as if he : was in a fair way' to carry his point; but perhaps she would have hesitated, or' shrunk back, when the great question came to stare her in the face. . She was excited, at any rate, by the conversation, so ; THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 329 hat, when Clement was presented to her, her thoughts ould not at once be all called away from her other admirer, nd she was saved from all danger of that sudden disturb- nce which had followed their second meeting. 'Whatever npressi'on he made upon 'her developed itself gradually,- till, she felt strangely drawn towards him. It was not imply in his good looks, in his good manners, in his con- ersation, that she found this attraction, but there was a ingular fascination which she felt might be dangerous to er peace, without explaining it to herself in words. She ould hardly 'be in love with this young artist; she knew hat his aQections were plighted to another, --a fact which eeps most young women from indulging unruly fancies; et her mind was possessed by his image to suich an extent hat it left little room for that of Mr. William Murray 3radshaw. ' .' Myrtle Hazard had been just ready to enter on a career f worldly vanity and ambition. It is hard to blame her, or we know' how she carrie by the tendency. She had very quality, too, which fitted her to shine in the gay world; and the general law is, that those who. have the ower have the instinct to use it. We donot suppose that he bracelet on her arm was an amulet, but it was a sym- ol. It reminded her of her. descent; it kept alive the esire. to live over the joys and excitements of a' bygone eneration. If she had accepted Murray Bradshaw, she rould have pledged herself to a worldly life. If she had efused, him, it would perhaps have given her a taste of ower that might have turned her into a coquette. TThis ew impression saved her for. the .time, She had come aci to her nest in the village like a frightened bird; her eart was throbbing, her nerves were thrilling, her dreams ':l page: 330-331[View Page 330-331] 830 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. were agitated; she wanted to be quiet, and could not listen to the flatteries or entreaties of her old lover. It was a strong will and a'subtle intellect that had arrayed. their force and skill against the ill-defended citadel of Myrtle's heart.' Murray Bradshaw was perfectly deter- mined, and not to be kept back by any trivial hindrances, such as her present unwillingness to accept him, or even her repugnance to him, if a freak of the moment had car- ried her so far It was a settled .thing: Myrtle Hazard must become Mrs. Bradshaw; and nobody could deny that, if he gave her his name, they had a chance, at least, for a brilliant future. b' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 331 CHAPTER XXIX. MSTRESS KITTY FAGAN CALLS ON MASTER BYES GRIDLEY. " 'D like to go down to the store this mornin', Miss withers, plase. Sure I've niver a shoe to my fut, only jist these two that I 've got on, an' one other pair, and thim is so full. of holes that whin I'm standin' in 'em I'm outside of 'em intirely." "You can go, Kitty," Miss Silence answered, fune- really. Thereupon Kitty Fagan proceeded to array herself in her most tidy apparel, including a pair of shoes not exactly answering to her description, and set out straight for the house of the Widow Hopkins. Arrived at that respecta- ble mansion, she inquired for Mr. Gridley, and was in- formed that he was at home. Had a message for him, - could she see. him in his study? She could if she would wait a little while. Mr. Gridley was busy just at this minute. Sit down, Kitty, and warm yourself at the cook-' ing-stove. Mistress Kitty accepted Mrs. Hopkins's hospitable offer, and presently began orienting herself, and getting ready to make herself agreeable. The kind-hearted Mrs. Hop- kins had gathered about her several other pensioners be- sides the twins. These two little people, it may be here mentioned, were just taking a morning airing in charge of Susan Posey, who strolled along in company with Gifted Hopkins on his way to "the store." Mistress Kitty soon began the conversational blandish- page: 332-333[View Page 332-333] 332 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. / ments so natural to her good-hmored race. It's a little blarney that 'll jist suit th' old lady," she said to herself, as she made her first conciliatory advance. "An' sure an' it's a beautiful kitten you ve got there, Mrs. Hopkins. An' it"s a splindid mouser she is, I 'll be bound. Does n't she look as if she 'd clane the house out o' them little bastes,-bad luck to 'em!" Mrs. Hopkins looked' benignantly upon the more than middle-aged tabby, slumbering as if she had never known an enemy, and turned smiling to Mistress Kitty. . "Why, bless your heart, Kitty, our old puss would n't know a mouse by sight, if you showed her one. If I Was a mouse, I'd as lieves have a nest in one of that old cat's ears as anywhere else. -You could n't find a safer place for one." "Indade, an' to be sure she's too big an' too handsome a pussy to be after wiastin' her. time on them little bastes. It's that little tarrier dog of yours, Mrs. Hopkins, that will be after worryin' the mice an' the rats, an' the thaves too, I'll warrant. Is n't he a fust-rate-lookin' watch-dog, an'. a rig'ler rat-hound?" Mrs. Hopkins looked at the little short-legged and short- winded animal of miscellaneous extraction with an expres- sion of contempt and affection, mingled about half and half. "Worry 'em! If they wanted to sleep, I rather guess he would worry 'em! If barkin' would do their job for 'em, nary a mouse nor rat would board free gratis in my house as they do now. Noisy little good-for-nothing tike, ain't you, Fret? Mistress Kitty was put back a little by two such signal failures. There was another chance, however, to make her point, which she presently availed, herself of,- feeling pretty 'sure this time that she, should effect a lodgement. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 333 Mrs. Iopkins's parrot had been observing Jitty, first with one eye and thenr with the other, evidently preparing to make a remark, but awkward ;with a stranger. "That 's a beautiful par't y 've got there," Kitty said, buoyant with the certainty that she was on safe ground this time; " and tahks like a book, I'll be bound. Poll! Poll! Poor Poll!" She put forth her hand to caress the intelligent and' affable bird, which, instead of responding as expected, "squawked," as our phonetic language has it, and, opening a beak imitated from a tooth-drawing instrument of the good old days, made a shrewd nip at Kitty's forefinger. She drew it back with a jerk. "An' is that the way your par't tahks, Mrs. Hopkins?" "Talks, bless you, Kitty! why, that parrot has n't said a word this ten year. He used to say Poor Poll! when we first had him, but he found it was easier to squawk, and that's all he ever does now-a-days, - except bite once in a while." "Well, an' to be sure," Kitty answered, radiant as she rose from her defeats, "if you 'll kape a cat that does n't know a mouse when she sees it, an' a dog that only barks for his livin', and a par't that only squawks an' bites an' niver spakes a word, ye must be the best-hearted woman that's alive, an' bliss ye, if ye was only a good Catholic, the Holy Father 'd make a saint of ye in less than no time!" So Mistress Kitty Fagan got in her bit of Celtic flattery, in spite of her three successive discomfitures. "You may come up now, Kitty," said Mr. Gridley over the stairs. He had just finished and sealed a letter. "Well, Kitty, how are things going on up at The Pop- page: 334-335[View Page 334-335] 334 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. lars? And how does our young lady seem to be of late" " "Whisht! whisht your honor." Mr Bradshaw's lessons had not been thrown away on his attentive listener. She opened every door in the room, "by your lave," as she said. She looked all over the walls to see if there was any old stove-pipe hole or other avenue to eye or ears* Then she went, in her excess of caution, to the window. She saw nothing noteworthy except Mr. Gifted Hopkins and the charge he convoyed, large and small, in the distance. The whole living fleet was station- ary for the moment, he leaning on the fence with his cheek on his hand, in one of the. attitudes of the late Lord Byron; she, very near him, listening, apparently, in the pose of aMignon aspirant au ciel, as rendered by Carlo Dolce Scheffer. Kitty came back, apparently satisfied, and stood close to Mr. Gridley, who told her to sit down, which she did, first making a catch at her apron to dust the chair with, and then remembering that she had left that part of her cos- tume at home. - Automatic movements, curious, Mistress Kitty began telling in an undertone of the meeting between. Mr. Bradshaw and Miss Badlam, and of the arrangements she made for herself as the reporter of the occasion. She then repeated to him, in her own way, that part of the conversation which has been already laid before the reader. There is no need of going over the whole of this again in Kitty's version, but we may fit what followed into the joints of what has been already told. "He calied her Cynthyv d' ye see, Mr. Gridley, an' tahked to her jist as asy as if they was two rogues, and she knowed it as well as he did. An' so, says he, I'm goin' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 335 away, says he, an' I'm goin' to be gahn siveral days, or perhaps longer, says he, an' you'd better kape it, says he." "Keep what, Kitty? What. was it he wanted her: to keep?" said Mr. Gridley, who no longer doubted that he was on the trail of a plot, and meant to follow it. He was getting impatient with the " says he's" wilh which Kitty double-leaded her discourse. "An' to be sure ain't I tellin' you, Mr. G(ridley, jist as fast as my breath will let me? An' so, says he, you 'd bet- ter kape it, says he, mixed up with your other paapers, says he,"' (Mr. Gridley started,) " an' thin we can find it in the garret, says he, whinever we want it, says he. An' if it ahl goes right out there, says he, it won't be lahng before we shall want to find it, says he.- And I can dipind on you, says he, foi we 're both in the same boat, says he, an' you knows what I knows, says he, an' I knows what you knows, says he. And thin lie taks a stack o' papers out of" his .pocket, an' he pulls out one of 'em, an' he says to her, says he, that's the paper, says he, an' if you die, says he, niver lose sight of that day or night, says he, for it's life an' dith to both of us, says he. An' thin he asks her if she has n't got one o' them paupers -what is 't they cahls 'em.? -divilops, or some sich kind of a name--that they wraps up their letters in; an' she says no, she has n't got none that's big enough to hold it. So he says, give me a shate- o' paaper, says he. An' thin he takes the pauper that she give him, an' he folds it up like one o' them -di.- vilops, if that's the name of 'em; and thin he pulls a stick o' salin'-wax out of his pocket, an' a stamp, an' he takes the paCper an' puts it into th' other paaper, along with the rest"'of the paupers, an' thin he folds th' other paaper over page: 336-337[View Page 336-337] ! ' ' ' ** * 336 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. the paaipers, and thin he lights a candle, an' he milts the salin'-wax, and he sales up the paaper that was outside th' other paupers, an' he writes on the back of the paaper, an' thin he hands it to AMiss Badlam."' "'Did you see the paper that he showed her before he fastened it up with the others, Kitty?" "I did see it, indade, Mr. Gridley, and it 's the truth I'm tellin' ye." "Did you happen to notice anything about it, Kitty." "I did, indade, Mr. Gridley. It was a longish kind of a paaper, and there was some blotches of ink on the back of it, - an' they looked like-a face without any moutl, for, says I, there 's two spots for the eyes, says I, and there 's a spot for the nose, says I, and there 's niver a spot for the mouth, says I." This was the substance of what Master Byles Gridley got out of Kitty Fagan. It was enough, - yes, it was too much. There was some deep-laid plot between Murray Bradshaw and Cynthia Badlam, involving the interests of some of the persons connected with the late Malachi With- ers; for that the paper described by Kitty was the same that he had seen the young man conceal in the Corpus Juris Civilia, it was impossible to doubt. If it had been a single spot on the back of it, or two, he might have doubted. But three large spots - "blotches" she had called them, disposed thus '. -would not have happened to, be on two different papers, in all human probability. After grave consultation of all his mental faculties in committee of the whole, hle arrived at the following conclu- sion, - that Miss' Cynthia Badlam was the depositary of a secret involving inrterests which he felt it his business to defend, and of a document which was fiaudulently with- i THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 337 Ield and meant to be used for' some unfair purpose. And most-assuredly, Master Gridley said to himself, he held a master-key, which, just so certainly as he could make up his mind to' use it, would open any secret in the keeping of Miss Cynthia Badlam. He proceeded, therefore, without delay, to get ready for a visit to that lady, at 'The Poplars. He meant to go thoroulghly armed, for he was a very provident old gentle- man. His weapons were not exactly of the kind which a housebreaker would provide himself with, but of a some- what peculiar nature. Weapon number one was a slip of paper with a date and a few words written upon it. "I think this will fetch the 'document," he said to himself, "if it comes to the worst. Not if I can help it, - not if I can help it. But if I can.- not get at the heart of this thing otherwise, why, I mustf come to this. Poor woman! - Poor woman.!" Weapon number two was a small phial containing spirits of hartshorn, sal volatile, very strong, that would stab through the nostrils, like a stiletto, deep into the gray ker- nels that lie in the core of the brain. Excellent in cases of sudden syncope or fainting, su'ch as sometimes require the opening of windows, the dashing on of cold water, the cutting of stays, perhaps, with a scene of more or less tu.' multuous perturbation and afflux of clamorou's womanllood. So armed, Byles Gridley, A. M., champion of unpro- tected innocence, grasped his ivory-handled cane and sal- lied forth on his way to The Poplars. 15 . : , * : . ; I page: 338-339[View Page 338-339] 338 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CHAPTE\R XXX. MASTER BYES GRIDLEY CALLS ON MSS CYNTHA BADLAM. ISS CYNT'-HA BADLAM was seated in a small parlor which she was accustomed to consider her own during her long residences at The Poplars. The entry stove warmed it but imperfectly, and she looked pinched and cold, for the evenings were still pretty'sharp, and the old house let in the chill blasts, as old houses are in the habit of doing. She was sitting at her table, with a little trunk open before her. She had taken some papers from it, which she was looking over, when a knock at her door announced a visitor, and Master Byles Gridley entered the parlor. As he came into the rooni, she gathered the papers to- gether and replaced them in thetrunk, which she locked, throwing an unfinished piece of needle-work over it, putting the key in her pocket, and gathering herself up for com- pany. Something of all this Master Gridley saw through his round spectacles, but seemed not to see, and took his seat like a visitor making a call of politeness. A visitor at such an hour, of the male sex, without special provocation, without social pretext, was an event in the life of the'desolate spinster. Could it be - No, it could not-and yet-and yet! Miss Cynthia threw back the rather commnon-looking but comfortable shawl whiclh covered her shoulders, and showed her quite pre- sentable figure, arrayed with a still lingering thought of that remote contingency which might yet offer itself at THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 339 some unexpected moment;' she adjusted the carefully plaited cap, which was not yet of the lasciate ogni speranza pattern, and, as she obeyed these instincts of her sex, she smiled a' welcome to the respectable, learned, and inde- pendent bachelor. SMr. Gridley had a frosty but kindly age before him, with a score or so of years to run, which it was after all not strange to fancy might be rendered more cheerful by the companionship of a well-conserved and amiably disposed woman,-if any such should hap- pen to fall in his way. . That smile came very near disconcertingr the plot of Master Byles Gridley. He had come on an inquisitor's errand, his heart secure, as he thought against all blan- dishments, his will steeled to break down all resistance. He had come armed with an instrument of torture worse tthan the thumb-screw, worse than the pulleys which attempt the miracle of adding a cubit to the stature, worse than tle brazier of live coals brought close to the naked soles of the feet,--an instrument which, instead of trifling with the nerves,. would clutch all the nerve-,ne';,tres and the heart itself in its gripe, and hold them until it got its an- swer, if the white lips had life enough left to slape one. And here was this unforttmate maiden lady Smiling at him, setting her limited attractions in their best' light, pleading with him in that natural language which makes any contumacious bachelor feel as guilty as Cain before any single woman. If Mr. Gridley had been alone, he would have taken a good sniff at his own bottle of sal vol- atile; for his kind heart sunk within him as he thought of the errand upon which'he had come. It would not do to leave the subject of his vivisection under any illusion as to the nature of his designs. page: 340-341[View Page 340-341] 340 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL., "Good evening, Miss Badlam," he said, "I have come to visit you on a mattel of business." What was the internal panorama which had unrolled itself at th instant of his entrance, and which rolled up as suddenly at the sound of his serious voice and the look of his grave features? It cannot be reproduced, though pages were given to it; for some of the pictures were near, and some were distant; some were clearly seen, and some were only hinted; some were not recognized in the intellect at all, and yet they were implied, as it were, be- hind the others. Mvany times we haye all found ourselves glad or sorry, and yet we could not tell what thought it was that reflected the suixbqam or cast the shadow. Look into Cynthia's suddenly exalted consciousness and see the picture, actual and potential, unroll itself in all its details of the. natural, the ridiculous, the selfish, the pitiful, the human. Glimpses, hints, echoes, suggestions, involving tender sentiments hitherto unknown, we may suppose, to that unclaimed sister's breast, - pleasant excitement of receiving congratulations from suddenly cordial friends:; the fussy, delights of buying furniture and shlopping for, new dresses,- (it seenied as if she could hear herself saying, "Heavy silks, - best goods, if you please,") - with delectable thumping down of flat-sided pieces of calico, cambric, rep," and other stuffs, and rhythmic evolution of measured yards, followed by sharp snip of scissors, and that cry of rending tissues dearer to woman's ear than any earthly sound until she hears the voice of her own first- born, (much of this potentially, remember,)- thoughts of a comfortable settlement, an imposing social condition, a cheerful household, and by and by an Indian summer of serene widowhood, -all these, and infinite other' involved THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 841 possibilities had mapped themselves in one long swift flash before Cynthia's inward eye, and all vanished as the old man spoke those, few words. The look on his face, and the tone of his cold speech, had instantly swept them all away, like a tea-set sliding in a single crash from a slip- pery tray, What could be the "business" on which he had come to her with that solemn face? she asked herself, as she returned his greeting and offered him 'achair. She was conscious of a slight tremor as she put this question to her own intelligence. "Are we like to be alone and undisturbed? '"Mr. Grid- ley asked. It was a strange question, --men do act strangely sometimes. She hardly knew whether to turn. red or white. "Yes,there is nobody like to come in at present," she answered.. She did not know what to make: of it. Whlat was coming next,-a declaration, or an accusation of murder? "My business," Mr. Gridley said, very gravely, ' re- lates to this. I, wish. to inspect papers whichl I have reason. to believe exist, and which have reference to the affairs of the late Malachi Withers. Can you help me to get sight of any of these papers not to be found at the Registry of Deeds or the Probate Office?" "Excuse me, Mr. Gridley,'but may I ask you what particular concern you have with the affairs of my rela- tive, Cousin Malachi Withers, that's been dead and buried these half-dozen years?" "Perhaps it would take some time to answer that: ques- tion fully, Miss Badlam. Some of these aifairs do con- cern those I am interested in, if not myself directly." * 8* page: 342-343[View Page 342-343] 842 T:HE GUARDIAN ANGEL. "3lay I ask who the person, or persons may be on whose account you wish to loolk at papers belonging to my late relative, Malachlli Withlers?:'" "You can ask mle almost anything, Miiss BadIam, but I should really be very much obliged if you would answer my question first. Can you help me to get a sight of any papers relating to the estate of Malachi Withers, not to be found at the Registry of Deeds or the Probate Office, - ally of which you may happen to have any private and particular knowledge?" "I beg your pardon, Mr. Gridley; but I doi't under- stand why you coime to me with such questions. Lawyer Penhallow is the proper person, I should think, to go to. He and his partner that was - Mr. Wibird, you know- settled the estate, and he has got the papers, I suppose, if there are any, that ain't to be found in the offices you-, mention." , Mr. Grfdley moved his chair a little, so as to bring Miss Badlam's face a little more squarely in view. 'i Does 3ir. William AMurray 'Bradshaw know anything about any papers, such as I am referring to, that may. have been sent to the office?" The lady felt a little moisture stealing through all her pores, and at the' same time a certain dryness of the' vocal organs, so that her answer came in a slightly altered tone which neither of them could help noticing. "You had better ,ask Mr. William M3Iulray Bradshaw yourself 'about thlat," she answered. She felt the hook now, and her spines were rising, partly with apprehension, partly with irritation. "Has that young gentleman ever delivered into your hands any papers relating to the affairs of the late Malathi- Withers, for your safe keeping?" THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 343 "What do you mean by asking me these questions, Ir. Gridley? I don't choose to be catechisecd about Murray Bradshaw's business. Go to him, if you please, if you want to find out about it." "Exctise my persistence, Miss Badlam, bult I must pre- vail upon you to answer my question. Has Mr. William Murray- Briadshaw ever delivered into your rhands any pa- pers relating to the affairs of the late Malach'i :Withers, for your safe keeping?" ' "Do you suppose I am going to answer such questions as you are putting me because you repeat them over, Mr. Gridley? Indeed I sha'n't. Ask him, if you please, what- ever you wish to know about his doings." She drew herself up and looked savage]ly at him. She had talked herself into her courage. There was-a color in her che eks and a sparkle in her -eye; she looked dan- gerous as a cobra. "'Miss Cynthia Badlam," Master Gridley said, very deliberately,. s I am afraid we do not entirely understand each other. You must answer my question precisely, caIt- egorically, point-blank, and on the instant. Will you (1do this at once, or will you compel me to show you the abso- lute necessity of your doing it, at the expense of pain to both of us? Six words from me will make you answer all my questions." . "You can't say six words, nor sixty, Mr.. (Gridley, that will make me answer one question I do not choose to. I defy you I " "I will not say one, Miss Cynthia Badlam. There are some things one does not like to speak in lWords. But I will show you a scrap of paper, containing just six words and a date, - not one word more nor onie less. You shall page: 344-345[View Page 344-345] 344 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 'read them. Then I will burn the paper in the flame of your lamp. As soon after that as you feel ready, I will ask the same, question aagain." . Master Gridley took out from his pocket-book a scrap of paper, and handed it; to Cynthia Badlam. Her hand shook as she received it, for she was frightened as well as enraged, and she saw that Mr. Gridley was in earnest and knew what he was doing. She read the six words, he looking at her steadily all the time, and watching her as if he had just given her a drop of prussic acid. No cry. No sound from her lips. She stared as if half stunned for one moment, then turned her'l head and glared at Mr. Gridley as if she would have murdered him if she dared. In another instant her face whitened, the scrap of paper fluttered to the floor, and she would have followed it but for the support of both Mr. Gridley's arms. He dis- engaged one of them presently, and felt in his pocket for the sal volatile. 1; served him excellently well, and stungO her back again to her senses very quickly. All her defiant aspect had gone. "Look!" he said, as he lighted the scrap of papers in the flame. "You understand me, and you see that I must be answered the next time I ask my question." She opened her lips as if to speak. It was as when a bell is rung in a vacuum,--no words came from them,- only a faint gaspirg sound, an effort at speech. She wa. caught tight in Ithe heart-screw. -"Don't hurry yourself, Miss Cynthia," he said, with a certain relenting tenderness of manner. "'Here, take another sniff of the smelling-salts. Be calm, be quiet, --I am well disposed towards you,--I don't like to give you \ THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 345 trouble. There, now, I must have the answer to that question; but take your time,- take your time." "Give me some water, -'some water!" ;s-e said, in a strange hoarse whisper. There was a pitcher of water and a tumbler on an old marble sideboard near by. He filled thl tumbler, and Cynthia emptied it as if she had just been taken from the rack, and could have swallowed a bucketf'ul. "Wliat do you want to know?" she asked. i I wish to know all that you can tell me about a certain paper, or certain papers, which I have reason' to believe BIr. William Murray Bradshaw committe0d to your keep- ing. "There is only one paper of any consecuence. Do you want to make him kill me? or do you want to make, me kill myself'?" "Neither, Miss Cynthia, neither. I wish to see that pa- per, but- not for any bad purpose. Don't you think, on the whole, you have pretty good reason to trust me? I am a very quiet man, Miss Cynthia. Don't be afraid of me; only do what I ask,-it will be a great deal better for you inm the end." She thrust her trembling hand into her pocket, and took out the key of the little trunk. She drew the trunk to- wards her, put the key in the lock, and opened it. It seemed like pressing a knife into her own bosom and turn- infg the blade. That little trunk held all the records of her life the forlorn sdinster most cherished ---a few letters that came nearer to love-letters than, any others she had ever received'; an album, with flowers of' the summers of 1840 and 1.841 fading between its leaved t:wo papers con- taining locks of hair, half of a broken ring, and other insig- 15' page: 346-347[View Page 346-347] 3846 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. nificant mementos which had their meaning, doubtless, to . her,-such a collectioiras is often priceless to. one liuman heart, and passed by as worthless in the auctioneer's inven- tory. She took the-papers out ,nechanically, and laid them on the table. Anmong them was an oblong packet, sealed with what appeared to be the office-seal of Messrs. Penhallow and Bradshaw. b "Will you allow me to take that envelope containing papers, Miss Badlam?"Mr. Gridley asked, with a suavity and courtesy. in his tone'and manner that showed how he felt for her sex and her helpless position. She seemed to obey his will as if she had none of her own left. She passed the envelope to him, and stared at him vacantly while he examined- it. He read on the back of the package : cc ithers Estate - old papers - of no importance apparently. Examine hereafter." (' May I ask wlhen, where, and of whom you obtained these papers, Miss Badlam-?" "Have pity on me, iMr. Gridley,- -have pity on me. I am a lost woman if you do not. Spare me! for God's sake, spare me! There will no wrong come of. all this, if you will but wait a little while. The paper will come to light when it is wanted, and all will be riglht. But do not make me answer any more questions, and let me keep this paper. O Mr. Gridley! I am in the power of a dreadful man.-" &'You mean Mr. William Murray Bradshaw?" "I mean him." "i Has there not been some understanding between you that he should become the approved suitor of Miss Myrtle Hazard?" ' Cynthia wrung her hands and rocked herself backward , , 'THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 8 347 and forward in her misery, but answered not a word. What could she answer, if she had plotted with this "dreadful man" against a young and innocent girl, to deliver her over 'into his hands, at the risk of all her earthly hopes and happiness? Master Gridleywaited long and patiently for any an- swer she might have the force to make. .As she made none, he took upon himself to settle the whole matt;er without further torture ofhis helpless victimrn, "This package must go into the hands of the parties who had the settlement of the estate of the late NMalachi With- ers. Mr. Penhallow is the survivor of the two gentlemen to-'whom that business was intrusted. How long ,is Mr. William Murray Bradshaw like to be away?" v; Perhaps a few days,- perhaps weeks:, -- and then he will come. back and kill' me,-- or -or ---worse! Don't take that paper, Mr. Gridley,--hbe is n't like you! you would n't -' but he would '-he would send me to everlast- ing misery to gain his own end, or to save himself. And yet he is n't every way bad, and if 'he did- . marry' Myrtle she 'd think there never was such a man, -- for he can 'talk her heart out of' her, and the wicked in hin lies very deep and won't ever come out, perhaps, if the world goes right with him." The last part of this sentence shLowed how Cyn- thia talked with, her own "conscience; all lher mental and moral machinery lay open before the calm eyes; of Master Byles Gridley. His thoughts wandered a moment from the 'business b1fe- fore him; he had just got a new study of human nature, which in spite of himself would be shaping!tself into an axiom for an imagined new edition of 'l'houghts on the Universe," -something , like this,- The greatest saint page: 348-349[View Page 348-349] 348 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. may be a sinner that never got down :to "hard pan." It was not the time to be framing axioms. "Poh! poh!" he said to himself; "what are you about, making phrases, when you have got' a piece of work like this in hand?" Then to Cynthia, with great gentleness and kindness of manner: "Have no fear about any conse- quenceslto yourself. Mr. Penhallow 'must see that paper, -I mean those papers. You shall not be a loser n6or a sufferer if you do your duty now in these premises." Master Gridley, treating her, as far as circumstances per- mitted, like a genitleman, had shown no intention of taking the papers either stealthily or violently. It must be with her consent. He had laid the package down upon thoe table, waiting for her to give him leave to take it.' But just as be spoke tlese last words, Cynthia, whose eye had been glancing furtively at it while he was thinking out his axiom, and taking her bearings to it pretty carefully, stretched her hand out, and, seizing the package, thrust it into the sanctuary of her bosom. "Mr. Penhallow must see those papers, Miss Cynthia Badlam," Mr. Gridley repeated calmly. "If he Says they or any of them can be returned to your keeping, well and good. But see them he must, for they have his office seal. and belong in his custody, and, as you see by the writing' on the back, they have not been examined. Now there may be something among them whi'ch is of immediate im- portgnce to the relatives of the late deceased Malachi Withers, and therefore they must be forthwith submitted to the inspection of the surviving partner of the firm' of Wibird and Penhallow. 'This I propose to do, with your consent, 'this evening. It is now twenty-five, minutes past eight by the true time, as my watch has it. At half past THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 349' eight exactly I shall have the honor of bidding you good evening, Miss Cynthia Badlam, whether you give me, those papers or not. I shall go to the' office of Jacob Penhallow, Esquire, and there make one of two coramunications to him; to wit, these papers and the facts connected there- with, or another statement,. the nature of which you may perhaps conjecture." There is no need of our speculating as to what Mr. Byles Gridley, 'an honorable and humane man, would have done, or what would have been the nature of that communication which he offered as' an alternative to the perplexed Woman. He had not at any rate miscalculated the strength of his appeal, which Cynthia interpreted as he. expected. She bore the: heart-screw about two minutes. Then she took the package' from her bosom, and gave' it with averted 'face to Master Byles. Gridley, who, on receiving it, made her a formal but not unkindly bow, and bade her good evening. "One would think it had been lying out in the'dew,"' he said, as he left the house and walked towards ,Mr. Penhallow's residence. page: 350-351[View Page 350-351] 350 THlE GUARDIAN AINGEIL. CHAPTER XXXI. MASTER BYES GRIDLEY CONSULTS WITH JACOB PEN- HALLOW, ESQUIRE. LAWYER PENHALLOW was seated in his study, "his day's work over, his feet in slippers, after the comfortable but inelegant fashion which Sir Walter Scott reprobates, amusing himself with a volume of old Reports. lHe was a knowing man enough, a keen country lawyer, but honest, and therefore less ready to suspect the honesty of others. He had a great belief in his young partner's ability, and, though lie knew him to be astute, did not think him capable of roguery. It was at his request that Mr. Bradshaw had under- taken his journey, which, as he believed,-and as Mr.' Bradshaw had still stronger evidence of a strictly confiden- tial nature which led him to feel sure,--would end in the final settlement of the great '"land claim in favor of their client. The case had been dragging along from year to year, like an Englishl clancery suit; and while courts and lawyers and witnesses had been sleeping, the property had been steadily growing. A railroad had passed close to one margin of the township, some mines had been opened in the county, in whichb a village calling itself a city had grown big enough to have a newspaper and Fourth of July orations. It was plain that the successful issue of the long process would make the heirs of the late Malachi Withers possessors of an ample fortune, and it was also plain that the firm of Penhallow and Bradshaw were like to receive, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 351 in such case, the largest fee that had gladdened the profes- sional' existence of its members. ,Mr. Penhallow had his book open before him, but his thoughts were wandering from the. page. [-HeI was think- ing of his absent partner, and the probable results of his expedition. What, would be the ,consequence 'if all this property came into the possession of Silence Withers? Could she have any liberal intentions with reference to Myrtle Hazard, the young girl who had grown up with her, or was the common impression true, that sihe was bent on endowing an institution, and thus securing for herself a favorable consideration in the higher courts, where her beneficiaries would be, it might be .supposed, influential ad- vocates? He could not help thinkihngthat M%\r. Bradshaw believed that Myrtle Hazard would eventually come to a part at least of this inheritance. For- the story Was, that he was paying his 'court to the young lady Whenever he got an opportunity, and that he was cultivating an intimacy with Miss Cynthia Badlarn. "Bradshaw would n't make a move, in that directiofn," Mr.'Penhallow said. to himself, "until he felt pretty sure that it was going to be a paying business. If he was only a young minister now, there 'd be no difficulty about it. Let any man, young or old, in a clerical white cravat, .step up to Myrtle Hazard, and ask her to be miserable in his company through this wretched life, and Aunt Silence would very likely give them her blessing, and add something to it that the man in the white cravat would think worth even more than that was. -But I don't know what she'll say to Bradshawr - Per- haps he 'd better have a hint. to go to meeting a, little more- regularly. However, I suppose he known what he's about." page: 352-353[View Page 352-353] 352 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. He was thinking all this over when a visitor was an- nounced, and Mr. Byles Gridley entered the study. "Good evening, Mr. Penhallow," Mr. Gridley said, wip- ing his forehead. "Quite warm, is n't it, this evening " "Warm!'? said Mr. Penhallow, "I should think it would freeze pretty thick- to-night. I should have asked you to come up to the fire and warm yourself. But take off your 'coat, Mr. Gridley,- very glad to see you. You don't come to the house half as often as you come to the office.. Sit down, sit down." Mr. Gridley took off his outside coat and sat do-wn. "He does look warm, does n't he?"Mr. Penhallow thought.' "Wonder what has heated up the old gentle- man so. Find out quick enough, for he always goes straight to business.' "Mr. Penhallow," Mr. Gridley began at once, "I have come on a very grave matter, in which you are interested as well as myself, 'ax I wish to lay the whole of it before you as explicitly as I can, so that we may settle this night before I go what is to be done. I am afraid the good stand- ing of your partner, Mr. William Murray Bradshaw, is concerned in the matter. Would it be a surprise to you, if he had carried his acuteness in' some particular case like the one I am to mention beyond the prescribed limits?" The question was put so diplomatically that there was no chance for an indignant denial of the possibility of Mr. Bradshaw's being involved in any discreditable transaction. "It is possible," he answered, "that Bradshaw's keen wits may have betrayed him into sharper practice than I should altogether approve in any business we carried on together. He is a very knowing young man, but I can't think he is foolish enough, to say nothing of his honesty, THE. GUARDIAN ANdEL. 353 to make any false step of the kind you seem to hint. I think he might on occasion go pretty near the line, but I don't believe he would cross it." Permit me a few questions, Mr. Penhallow. You set- tled the estate of the late Malachi Withers, did you not?" "Mr. Wibird and myself settled it together." "Have you received any papers from any of the family since the settlement of the estate?" "Let me see. Yes; a roll of old plans of the Withers Place, and so forth, -not of much use, but labelled and kept. An old trunk with letters and account-books, some of them in Dutch,- mere curiosities. A year ago or more, I remember that Silence sent me over some papers she had found in an odd corner,- the old man hid things like a magpie. I looked over most of them, trumpery not worth keeping, - old leases and so forth." "Do you recollect giving some of them. to Mr. Brad- shaw to look over?" ' Now I come to think of it, I believe I did; but he re- ported to me, if I remember right, that they amounted to nothing." "If any of those papers were of importance, should you think your junior partner ought- to keep thenm from your knowledge?" "I need not answer that question, Mr. Gridley. Will you be so good as to come at once to the facts on which you found your suspicions, and which lead you. to put these questions to me?" Thereupon Mr. Gridley proceeded to l;ate succinctly the singular behavior of Murray Bradsihaw in taking one paper from a number handed to him by Mr. Penhallow, and concealing it in a volume. He related how he was just W page: 354-355[View Page 354-355] 854 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. on the point of taking out the volume which contained the paper, when Mr. Bradshaw entered and disconcerted him. He had, however, noticed three spots on the paper by which he should know it an'ywhere' He then repeated the substance of. Kitty Fagan's story, accenting the fact that she too noticed three remarkable spots on the paper which Mr. Bradshaw had pointed out to Miss Badlam as the one so important to both of them. Heire he rested the case for the moment. Mr. Penhallow looked thoughtful. There was some- thing questionable in the aspect of,this business. It did obviously suggest the idea of an underhand arrangement with Miss Cynthia, possibly involving some very grave consequences. It would have been most desirable, he said, to have ascertained what these papers, or rather this par- ticular paper, to which so much importance was attached, amounted to. Without that knowledge there was nothing, after all, which it might not be possible to explain. He might have laid aside the spotted paper to examine for some object of mere curiosity. It was certainly odd that the one the Fagan woman had seen should present three spots so like those on the other paper, but people did some- times throw treys at backgammon, and that which not rarely happened with two dice of six faces might happen if they had sixty or six hundred faces. On the whole, he did not see that there was any ground, so far, for anything more than a vague suspicion. He thought it not unlikely that Mr. Bradshaw was a little smitten with the young lady up at The' Poplars, and that he had made some diplomatic overtures to the duenna, after the approved method of suit- ors. She was young for Bradshaw, - very young, - but he knew his own affairs. If he chose to make love to a I!! . TIE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 355 child, it was natural enough that he should begin aby court- ing her nurse. i Master Byles Gridley lost himself for half a minute in a most discreditable inward discussion as to whether Laura Penhallow was probably one or two years older than Mr. Bradshaw. That was his way,-he could not help it. He could not think of anything without these mental paren- theses. But he came back to business at the end of his half-minute. I can lay the package before you at this moment, Mr. Penhallow. I have induced that woman in iwhose charge it was left to intrust it to my keeping, with the express in- tention of showing it to you. But it is protected by a seal, as I have told you, which I should on no account presume to meddle with." Mr. Gridley took out the package of papers. ' : How damp it is'!"Mr. Penhallow said;'" must have been lying in some very moist neighlborhood."' "Very," Mr. Gridley answered, with a peculliar expres- sioh which said, Never mind about that." "Did the party give you possession of these documents without making any effort to retain them?" the lawyer asked. , Not precisely. It cost some effort to induce Miss Bad- lam to let them go out of her hands* I hope you think I was justified in making the-effort I did, not without a con- siderable strain upon my feelings, as well as her own, to get hold of the papers?" "That will depend something on what the .papers prove to be, Mr. Gridley. A man takes a certain responsibility in doing just what, you have done. If, for instance, it' should prove that this envelope contained matters relating page: 356-357[View Page 356-357] 356 TiHE GUARDIAN ANGEL. solely to private transactions between Mr. Bradshaw and Miss Badlam, concerning no one but themselves, -and if the words on the back of the envelope and the seal had been put there merely as a protection for a package con- taining private papers of a delicate but perfectly legitimate character-" The lawyer paused, as careful experts do, after bending the bow of an hypothesis, before letting the arrow go. Mr. Gridley felt very warm indeed, uncomfortably so, and ap- plied his handkerchief to his face. Could n't be anything in such a violent supposition as that, -and yet such a crafty fellow as that Bradshaw, - what trick was he not up to? Absurd! Cynthia was not acting, - Rachel would p't be equal to such a performance! - " why then, Mr. Gridley," the lawyer continued, "I don't see but what my partner would have you at an advantage, and, if dis- posed'to make you uncomfortable, could do so pretty effec- tively. But this, you understand, is only a supposed case, and not a very likely one. I don't think it would have been prudent in you to meddle with that seal.. But it is a very different matter with regard to myself. It makes no difference, so far as I am concerned, where this package came from, or how it was obtained. It is just as absolutely within my control as any piece of property I call my own. I should not hesitate, if I saw fit, to break this seal at once, and pioceed to the examination of any papers contained within the envelope. If I found any paper of the slightest importance relating to the estate, I should act as if it had never been out of my possession. "Suppose, however, I chose to know what was in the package, and, having ascertained, act my judgment about returning it to the party from whom you obtained it. In , . THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 357 such case I lmiight see fit to restore, or cause it tolbe restored, to the party, without any marks of violence having been used being apparent. If everything is not right, probably no questions would be asked by the party having charge of the package. If there is no underhand work going on, and the papers are what they profess to be, nobody is compro- mised but yourself, so far as I can see, and you are com- promised at any rate, Mr. Gridley, at least; in the good graces of the party from whom you obtained the docu- ments. Tell that party that I took the package without opening it, and shall return it, very likely, without break- ing the seal. ' ill consider of the matter, say a couple of days. Then you 'shall hear from He, and she shall hear from you. So. So. Yes, that's it. A inice business. A thing to sleep on. You had better leave the whole mat- ter of dealing with the package to me, If I see fit to send it back with the, seal unb'roken, that is my affair. But keep perfectly quiet, if you please, Mr. Gridley, about the whole matter. Mr. Bradshaw is off;,as you know, and the business on which he is gone is important, -- very impor- tant. He can be depended on for that"; he has acted all along as if he had. a personal interest in the success of our firm beyond his legal relation to it." Mr. Penhallow's light burned very late in the office that night, and the following one. He looked troubled and absent-minded, and' when Miss Laura venturedl to ask him how long Mr. Bradshaw was like to be gone, answered her in such a way that the girl who waited at table concluded. that he did n't mean to have Miss Lamury keep company with Mr. Bradshaw, or he'd never have spoke so dreadful hash to her when she ahst about him. page: 358-359[View Page 358-359] 358 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CHAPTER XXXII. SUSAN POSEY'S TRIAL. DAY or two after Myrtle Hazard returned to the village, Master Byles Gridley, accompanied by Gifted Hopkins, followed her, as has been already mentioned, to the same scene of the principal events of this narrative. The young man had'been persuaded that it would be doing injustice to his talents to crowd their fruit prematurely upon the market. He carried his manuscript back with him, having relinquished the idea of publishing for the present. Miaster Byles Gridley, on the other hand, had in his pocket a very flattering proposal from thie same pub- lisher to whom he, had introduced the young poet, for a new and revised edition of 'his work, "Thoughts on the Universe," which was to be remodelled in some respects,. and to have a new title not quite so formidable to the average reader. It would be hardly fair to Susan Ppsey to describe with what delight and innocent enthusiasm she welcomed back Gifted Hopkins. She had been so lonely since he was. away! She had read such of his poems as she possessed-- duplicates of his printed ones, or autographs which he had kindly written out for her--over and over again, not with- out the sweet tribute of feminine sensibility, which is the most precious of all testimonials to a poet's power over the heart. True, her love belonged to another,- but then she was so used!to Gifted! She did so love to hear him read his poems,--and Clement had neverwritten that THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. ' 359 "Iittle bit of a poem to Susie," which she had asked him for so long ago! She received him therefore with open. arms, --not literally, of course, which would have been a breach of duty and propriety, but in a figurative sense, which it is hoped no reader will interpret to her discredit. The young poet was in need of consolation. -It is true that he had seen many remarkable sights during his visit to the city; that he had got "smarted up," as his mother called it, a good deal; that he had been to Mrs. Clymer Ketchum's party, where he had looked upon life in all its splendors; and that he brought back many interesting ex- periences, which would serve to enliven his conversation for a long time. But he had failed in the great enterprise he had undertaken. He was 'forced to confess to his re- vered parent, and his esteemed friend Susan Posey, that his genius., which was freely acknowledged, was not thought to be quite ripe as yet. He told the young lady some pAr- ticulars of his visit to the publisher, how he had listened with great interest to one of his poems,- "The Triumph of Song, - how he had treated him with marked and flat- tering attention; but that he advised him not to risk any- thing prematurely, giving him the hope that by and by he would be admitted into that series of illustrious authors which 'it was the publisher's privilege to preseint to the reading public. In short, he was advised not to print. That was the net total of the matter, and it; Vras a pang to. the susceptible heart of the poet. He had hoped to have come home enriched by the sale of his copyright, and with the prospect of seeing his name before long on the back of a handsome volume.; Gifted's mother did all in her power to console him in his disappointment. There was plenty of jealous people x , I' ' page: 360-361[View Page 360-361] 360 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. always that wanted to, keep young folks from -rising in the world. Never mind, she did n't believe but what Gifted could make jest as good verses as any of them that they r kept such a talk about. She had a fear that he might pine away in consequence of the mental. excitement he had gone .! through, and solicited his appetite with, her choicest appli- . ances; --of which he partook in a measure which showed that there was no immediate clause of alarm. . , But Susan PIosey was more than a consoler,:- she was ; an angel to him in this time of his disappointment. "Read me all the poems over again," she said,--" it is almost the only pleasure I ha've left, to hear you read your beautiful verses." Clement Lindsay had not written to Susan quite so often of late as at some former periods of the history of 1 their love. Perhaps it was that which had made her look paler than'usual for some little tieie. Something was evi- dently preying on her, Iter only delight seemed to be in if listening to Gifted as he read, sometimes with fine declamar- r tory emphasis, sometimes" in 'low, tremulous tones, the va- t : rious poems enshrined in his manuscript. At other times : she was sad, and more than once Mrs. Hopkins hadseen a . tear steal down her innocent cheek, when there'seemed to . be no special cause for grief. She ventured to speak of it e to Master Byles Gridley. :H "Our Susan 's in trouble, ]Ir. Gridley, for some reason . or other that's unbeknown tome, and I can't help wishinig ! you could jest have a few words with her. You 're a kind l; of a grandfather, you know, to all the young' folks, and they'd tell you pretty much everything about themselves. I calc'late she is n't at ease in her mind about somethin' or ! other, and I kind o,' think, Mr. Gridley, you could coax it X out of her." , . ' ' ' , , "., THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 361i "Was there ever anything like it?" said Master Byles I Gridley to himself. " I shall have all the young folks in Oxbow Village to- take care of at this rate ! Susan Posey in trouble, too! 'Well, well, well, it's easier to get a birch- bark canoe.off the shallows than a big ship off the rocks. Susan Posey's trouble will be come at easily enough; but Myrtle Hazard floats in deeper water. We must make Susan Posey tell her own story, or let her tell i;, for it will all come out of itself." "I am going to dust the books in the open shelves this morning, I wonder if Miss Susan Posey would n't like to help-for half an. hour or so, Master Gridley remarked at the breakfast-table. The amiable girl's very pleasant countenance lighted up at the thought of obliging the old man who had been so kind to her and so liberal to her fiiend, the poet She would be delighted to help him; she would dust them all for him, if he wanted her to. No, Master Gridley said, he always wanted to have a hand in it;.and, besides, such a little body as she was could not lift those great folios out of the lower shelves without overstraining herself; she might handle the musketry and the light artillery, but he' must deal with the heavy guns himself. ' As low down as the, octavos, Susan Posey, you shall govern; below that, the Salic law." Susan did not know much about the Salic ].aw :; but she knew he meant that he would dust the big books and she would attend to the little ones. A very young and a very pretty girl is sormetimies quite charming in g a costume which thinks of nothing- less than of being attractive, Susan appeared after breakfast in: the page: 362-363[View Page 362-363] 362 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. . study, her head bound with a kerchief of bright pattern, a, little jacket she haid outgrown buttoned, in spite of opposi- : tion, close about 'her up to the throat, round which a white handkerchief wasv loosely tied, and a pair of old gauntlets protecting her hands,-so thhat she suggested something be- tween a gypsy, a jaunty soub7rette, and the fille du regirent. Master Gridley took out a. great volume from the lower shelf, -a folio in massive oaken covers with clasps like *prison hinges, . bearing the stately colophon, white on a ground of vermilion, of Nicholas Jenson and his associates. He opened the vlolume, - paused over its blue and scarlet initial letter,- he turned -page after page, admiring its brilliant characters, its broad, white. marginal rivers, and the -narrower white creek that separated the black-typed twin-columns, - he turned back to the beginning and read 3 the commendatory palrgraphl, "Nam ipsorum omnzia. fl- ; gent turn correetione dignissima, turn cura imprimendo splendida ac nziranda," and began reading,f "Incpitpro- emiunm szuper apparatum decretalium.,. . . ." when it sud- denly occurred to him, that this was not exactly doing what - lhe had undertaken to do, and he began whisking an ancient bandanna about the ears 61f the venerable volume. All ! this time Miss Susan Posey was catching the little books 4 by the small of their backs, pulling' them -out, opening them, and clapping them together, 'p-'p-'p! 'p-'p-'p! and .j carefully caressing all their edges with a regular profes- I$ sional dusting-cloth, so persuasively that they yielded up every particle that a year had drifted upon them, and came n forth refreshed and rejuvenated. This process went on for t a while, until Susan had worked down among the octavos, and Master Gridley had worked up among the quartos; he had got hold of Calmet's Dictionary, and was caught " THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 3;63 by the article Solomon,'so that he forgot his occupation again. All at once it struck him that everything was very silent, the 'p-'p-'p! of clapping the booksU;d ceased, andl the light rustle of Susan's dress was no longeirbeard. Hele ieoked up and saw her standing perfectly still, with a book 'Di in one hand and her duster in'the other. She was lost in thought, and by the shadow on her face and the glistening of her blue eyes he knew it was -her hidden sorrow that had just come back to her. Master Gridley shut up his I" book, leaving Solomon to his fate, like the worthy Bene- dictine- he was reading, without discussing the question ; whether he was saved orl not i "Susan Posey, child, what is your trouble?" Poor Susan was in the state of unstable equilibrium - which the least touch lupsets, and fell to crying. It took :: her some time-to get down the waves of .emotion so that i speech would live upon them. At last it ventured out,- . showing at intervals, like the boat rising tin the billow, sinking into the hollow, and climbing again into notice. b: "s0 Mr. Grid--ley - I can't - I c4n't --tell you or -I any-body ,-what's the mat-mat--matter.- My heart will br -br--break."; "No, no, no, child," said Mr. Gridley, symrnpathetically stirred a little himself by the sight of Susan in tears and sobbing and catching her breath, " that must n't be, Susan Posey, Come off the steps, Susan Posey, and stop dust- ing the books, - I can finish them, - and tell me all about your troubles. I will try to help you out of them, and I have begun to think I know how to help young people pretty well. I have had some' experience at ilt." But Susan cried and sobbed all the more uncontrollably and convulsively. Master Gridley thought -he had better '-------- *-- Ulvj . '-iI page: 364-365[View Page 364-365] 364 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. lead her at once to what he felt pretty sure was the source of her grief, and that, when she had had her cry out, she would probably make the hole in the ice he had broken big enough in a very few minutes. "I think sometlhing has gone wrong between you and your friend, the young gentleman with whom you are in intimate relations, my child, and I think you had better talk freely With me, for I can perhaps give you a little counsel that will be of service." Susan cried herself quiet at last. "There's nobody in the world like you, Mr. Gridley," she said, " and I've been wanting to tell you something ever so long. My fiiend- Mr. Clem- Clement Lindsay does n't care for me as he used to,-I know he does n't. , le has n't written to me for - I don't know but it's a month. And O Mr. Gridley! he 's such a great man, and I am such a simple person,. I can't help. thinking - he would be happier with some- body else than poor little Susan Posey!" This last touch of self-pity overcame her, as it is so apt to do those who indulge in that delightful misery, and she broke up badly, as a horse-fancier, would say, so that it was some little time before she recovered her conversa- tional road-gait. "O Mr. Gridley," she began again, at length; "if I only dared to toll him what I think, that perhaps it would be happier for us both--if we could forget each other! Ought I not to tell him so?, Don't you think he would find another to make him htppy? Would n't he forgive me for telling him he was free? Were we not too young to know each other's hearts when we promised each other that we would love as long as we lived? Sha'n't I write him a letter this very day and tell him all? Do you think THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 365 it would be wrong in me to do it? 01 Mr. Gridlcy, it makes me almost crazy to think about it. Clement must be free! I cannot, cannot hold him to a promise he does n't want to keep." There were so many questions in this eloquent rhapsody of Susan's that they neutralized each other1 as one might say,- and Master Gridley had time for reflection. His thoughts went on something in this way:- "Pretty clear case! Guess Mr. Clement can make up his mind to it. Put it well, didn't slhe? ]Not a word. about our little Gifted! That 's the trouble. Poets! how they do bewitch these school-girls! And having a chance every day, too, how could you expect her to stand it?" Then aloud: "Susan Posey, you are a good, honest little girl as ever was. I think you and Clement were too hasty in coming together for life before you knew what life meant. I think if you write Clement a letter, telling him that you cannot help fearing that you two are not perfectly adapted to each other, on account of certain dif- ferences for which neither of you is responsible, and that you propose that each should release the other from the pledge given so long ago, -in that case, I say, I believe he will think no worse of you for so doing, and may per- haps agree that it is best for both of you to seek your hap- piness elsewhere than in each other." The book-dusting came to as abrupt a close as the read- ing of Lancelot. Susan went straight to her\room, dried her tears so as to write in a fair hand, but had to stop every few lines and take a turn at the " dust-layers," as Mrs. Clymer Ketchum's friend used to call the fountains of sensibility. It would seem. like betraying Susan's con- fidence to reveal the contents of this letter, but the reader page: 366-367[View Page 366-367] s ANGEL. THE GUAR it it was simple and sincere and very Ilout the slightest allusion to any other : of the poetical or cheaper human va- before Susan received a reply from It was as kind and generous and noble ilsked. It was affectionate, as a very tter might be, and candidly apprecia- Susan had assigned for her proposal. r freedom, --nbt that he should cease n her, always. He accepted his own would ever think she could be indif- fortunes. And within-a very brief sending his answer to Susan Posey, see her in person, or whether he had he had packed his trunk, and made absence of uncertain length at the his way to Oxbow Village. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 367 CHAPTER XXXIII. JUST AS YOU EXPECTED. THE spring of 1861 had now arrived, - ;hat event- ful spring which was to lift the curtain and show the first scene of the first act in the milghty drama which fixed the eyes of mankind during four bloody years. The little schemes of little people were going on in all our cities and villages without thouglht of the fearful convul- sion ich assoon coming to shatter the hopes and cloud the prospects of millions. Our little Oxbow Village, which held itself by no means tlhe least, of human cen- tres, was 'the scene of its own commotions, as intense and exciting to those concerned as if the destiny of the nation had been involved in them. Mr. Clement Lindsay appeared suddenly in that impor- tant locality, and repaired to his accustomed quarters at the house of Deacon Rumrill. That worthy person re- ceived him with a certain gravity of manner, caused by. his recollection of the involuntary transgression into which Mr. Lindsay had led him by his present of Ivanboe. He -was, on the whole, glad to see him, for his' finances were not yet wholly recovered from the. injury inflicted on them by the devouring element. But he could not forget that his boarder had betrayed him. into a breach of tlhe fourth commandment, and that' the strict eyes of his clergyman had detected liim in' the very commission of the offence. He had no sooner seen Mr. Clement comfortably installed,- therefore, than he presented himself at the door of his page: 368-369[View Page 368-369] 368 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. chamber with the book, enveloped in strong paper and very securely tied round with a stout string. " ere is your vollum, Mr. Lindsay," the Deacon said. "I understand it is not the work of that great and good mahn who I thought wrote it. I did not see anything immoral in it as fur as I read, but it belongs to what I consider a very dangerous class of publications. These novels and romances are awfully destructive to our youth. I should recommend you, as a young man of principle, to burn the vollum. At least I hope you will not leave it about anywhere unless it is carefully tied up. I have written upon the paper round it to warn off all the young persons of my household from meddling with it." True enough, Mr. Clement saw in strong black letters on the back of the paper wrapping his unfortunate Ivan- hoe, -- "DANGEROUS READING FOR CHRISTIAN YOUTH. TOUCH NOT THE UNCLEAN THING." "I thought you said you had Scott's picture hung up in your parlor, Deacon Rumrill," he said, a little amused with the worthy man's fear and precautions. "It is the great Scott's likeness that I have in my par- lor," he said; "I will show it to you if Jou will come with me." Mr. Clement followed the Deacon into that sacred apart- ment. "That is the portrait of the great Scott," he'said, point- ing to an engraringr of a heavy-looking person whose phrenological developments were a somewhat striking con- trast to those of the distinguished Sir Walter. "I will take good care that none of your young people THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 369 see this volume," Mr. Clement said ; "I trust yoh read it yourself, however, and found something to please you in it. I am sure you are safe from being harmed by any such book. Did n't you have to finish it, Deacon, after you had once begun?" "Well, I - I perused a consid'able portion of the work," the Deacon answered, in a way that led Mr. Clement to think he had not stopped much short of Finis "Anything new in the city?" "Nothing except what you 've all had,-- Confederate States establishing an army and all that, --not very new- either. What has been going on here lately, Deacon?" "Well, Mr. Lindsay, not a great deal. My new barn is pretty nigh done. I've got as fine a litter of pigs as ever you see. I don't know whether you 're a judge of pigs or no.. The Hazard gal's come back, spilt, pooty much, I guess. Been to one o' them fashionable schools, -I 've heerd that she 's learnt to dance. I 've heerd say that that Hopkins boy 's round the Posey gal,--- come to think, she s the one you went with some when you,was here --I 'm gettin' kind o' forgetful. Old Doctor Hurlbut. 's pretty low --ninety-four year old,-born in '67, --folks ain't ginerally very spry after they're ninety, but he ,held out wonderful." How 's Mr. Bradshaw? "Well, the young squire, he's off travellin' somewhere in the West, or to Washin'ton, or somewhere else, -- don't jestly know where. They say that ihe's follerin' up the courts in the business about old Malachi's estate. I' don' know much about it." The news got round Oxbow Village very speedily that page: 370-371[View Page 370-371] 870 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Mr. Clement Lindsay, generally considered the accepted lover of Miss Susan Posey, had arrived in that place. Now it had come to be the common talk of the village that young Gifted Hopkins and Susan Posey were getting to be mighty thick with each other, and the prevailing idea was that Clement's visit had reference to that 'state of affairs. Some said that Susan had given her young man the mitten, meaning thereby that she had signified that his services as a suitor were dispensed with. Others thought there was only a wavering in her affection for her lover, and that he feared for her constancy, and had come to vindicate his rights. Some of the young fellows, who were doubtless envious of Gifted's popularity with the fair sex, attempted in the most unjustifiable manner to play upon his susceptible na- ture. One Jc them informed him that he had seen that Lindsay fellah raound taown with the darndest big stick y' ever did see. Looked kind o' savage and wild like. Another one told him that perhaps he 'd better keep a little shady; that are chap that had got the mittin was praowlin' abaout with a pistil,- one o' them Darringers, -abaout as long as your thumb, an' 'll fire a bullet as big as p'tatah- ball,-a fellah carries one in his breeches-pocket, an' shoots y' right threigh his own pahnts, withaout ever takin' on it aout of his pocket. The stable-keeper, who, it may be remembered, once exchanged a few playful words with Mr. Gridley, got a hint from some of these unfeeling young men, and offered the resources of his stable to the youth supposed to be in peril. I 've got a faast colt, Mr. Hopkins, that 'll put twenty mild betwixt you an' this here village, as quick as any four huffs 'll dew it in this here caounty, if you should want . .. , -THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 371 to get away suddin. I 've heein tell there was some lookin' raoiund here that would n't be wholesome to meet, -jest say the word, Mr. Hopkins, an' I 'll have ye on that are colt's back in less than no time, an' start ye off full jump. There's a good many that's kind o' worried for fear something might happen to ye, Mr. Hopkins, -y' see fel- lahs don't like to have other chaps cuttin' on 'em aout with their gals." Gifted Hopkins had become excessively nervous by this time. It is true that everything in his intimacy with Susafi Posey, so far, might come under the general head of fiiendship; but he was conscious that something more was in both their thoughts. Susan had given him myste- rious hints that her relations with Clement had undergone a change, but had never had quite courage enough, per.. haps had too much delicacy, to reveal the whole truth. Gifted was walking home, deeply immersed in thoughts excited by the hints which had been thus wantonly thrown out to inflame his imagination, when all at once, on lifting his eyes, he saw Clement Lindsay coming straight towards him. Gifted was unarmed, except with a pair of blunt scissors, which he carried habitually in his pocket. What should he do? Should he fly? But he was never a good runner, being apt to find himself scant o' breath, like Ham- 'let, after violent exercise. His demeanor on the occasion did credit to his sense of his own virtuous conduct and his self-possession. He put his hand out, while yet at a con- siderable distance, and marched up towards Clement, smil- ing with all the native amiability which belonged to him. To his infinite relief, Clement put out his' hand to grasp the one offered him, and greeted the young poet in the most fiank and cordial manner. page: 372-373[View Page 372-373] 372 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. "And how is Miss Susan Posey, Mr. Hopkins?" asked Clement, in the most cheerful tone. "It is a long while since I have seen her, and you must tell her that I hope I shall not leave the village without finding time to call upon her. She and I are good friends always, Mr. Hop- kins, though perhaps I shall not be quite so often at your mother's as I was during my last visit to Oxbow Village." Gifted' felt somewhat as the subject of one of those old- fashioned forms of argument, formerly much employed to convince men of error in matters of religion, must have felt when the official whlo superintended, the stretching- machine said, "Slack up!") He told Mr. Clement all about Susan, and was on the point of saying that if he, 1Mr. Clement, did not claim- any engrossing interest in heir, he, Gifted, was ready to offer her the devotion of a -poet's heart. Mr. Clement, however, had so many other questions to ask him about everybody in the village, more particularly concerning cer- tain young persons in whom he seemed to be specially in- terested, that there was no chance to work in his own rev- elations of sentiment. Clement Lindsay had come to Oxbow Village with a single purpose. He could now venture to trust himself ini the presence of Myrtle Hazard. He was free, and he knew nothing to show that she had lost the liberty of dis- posing of hejr: heart. But after' an experience such as he had gone through, he- was--naturally. distrustful of himself, and inclined to be cautious and reserved in yielding to a new passion. Should he tell her the true relations in which they stood to each other,-that she owed, her life to him, and that he had very nearly sacrificed his own in saving hers? Why not? He had a claim on her grati- -. b * ' ' - ' ^ ' THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 373 tude for what he had done in her behalf, and out of this gratitude there might naturally spring a warmer feeling. No, he could not try to win her affections by showing that he had paid for them beforehand. She seemed to be utterly unconscious of the fact that it' was he who had been with her in the abyss of waters. ; If the thought came to her of itself, and she ever asked him, it would be time enough to tell her the story. If not, the moment inight arrive when he could reveal to'her the truth that he was her deliverer, without accusing himself of bribing her woman's heart to reward him for his services. He would wait for that moment. It was the most natural thing in the world that Mr. Lind- say, a young gentleman from the city, should call to see Miss Hazard, a young lady whom he had met recently at a party. - To that pleasing duty he addressed himself the evening after his arrival. "The young gentleman's goin' a courtin,'I calc'late" was the remark of the Deacon's wife when she saw what a comely figure Mr; Clement showed at the tea-table. "A very hahnsome young mahn," the Deacon replied, "and looks as if he might know consid'able. An archi- - tect, you know,--a sort of a builder. Wonder if he has n't got any good plans for a hahnsome pigsty. I sup- pose he 'd charge somethin' for one, but it couldn't be much, an' he could take it out in board." "Better ask him," his wife said; "he looks mighty pleasant; there's nothin' lost by askin', an' a good deal got sometimes, grandma used to say."' The Deacon followed her advice. Mr. Clement was perfectly good-natured about it,- asked the Deacon the number of snouts in his menagerie, got an idea of the page: 374-375[View Page 374-375] 374 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. . ', . , ;? accommodations required, and. sketched the plan of a neat i and appropriate edifice for the Porcellarium, as Master iI Gridley afterwards pleasantly christened it, which was- carried put by the carpenter, and stands to this day a : monument of his obliging disposition, and a proof that- there is nothing so humble that taste cannot be shown in it. "What 'll be your charge for the plan of the pigsty, Mr. Lindsay?" the Deacon inquired with an air of in- terest,--he might have become involved more deeply than he had intended. " Iow much should you call about right for the picter an' figgerin'?" "O, you're quite welcome to my sketch of a plan, ^ Deacon. . I've seen much showier buildings tenanted by animals not very different from those your edifice is meant for." : Mr. Clement found the three ladies sitting together in the chill, dim parlor at The Poplars. They had one of the city papers spread out on the table, and Myrtle was read- ing aloud the last news from Charleston Harbor. She rose as Mr. Clement entered, and stepped forward to meet him. It was a strange impression this young man pro- duced upon her,-not through the common channels of the intelligence, - not exactly that " magnetic " influence of which she had had experience at a former time. It ' did not overcome her as at the moment of their second meeting. But it was something she must struggle against, and she had force and pride and training enough now to maintain her usual tranquillity, in spite of a certain inward commotion which. seemed to reach her breathing and her pulse by some strange, inexplicable mechanism. *E-TIIII NJ UIIYV HIYILl! THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 375 Myrtle, it must be remembered, was no longer the sim- ple country girl who had run away at fifteen, but a young lady of seventeen, who had learned all that more than a. year's diligence at a great school could teach her, who lad been much with girls of taste and of culture, and was familiar: with the style and manners of those who came from what considered itself the supreme order in the social hierarchy. Her natural love for picturesque adornment was qualified by a knowledge of the prevailing modes not usual in so small a place as Oxbow Village. All this had not failed to produce its impression on those about her. Persons who, like Miss Silence Withers, believe, not in education, inasmuch as there is no healthy nature to be educated, but in transformation, worry about their charges up to a certain period of their lives. Then, if the trans- formation does not come, they seem to think their cares and duties are at an end, and, considering their theories of human destiny, usually accept the situation with won- derful complacency. This was the stage which Miss Si- lence Withers had reached with reference to Myrtle. It made her infinitely more agreeable, or less disagreeable, as the reader may choose one or the other statement, than when she was always fretting.,out/h r responsibility." She even began to take an inter st in some of Myrtle's worldly experiences, and somethin like a smile would now and then disarrange the chief-mourner stillness of her features, as Myrtle would tell some lively story she had brought away from the gay society she had firequented. Cynthia Badlam kept her keen eyes on her like a hawk. Murray Bradshaw was away, and here was this handsome and agreeable youth coming in to poach on the preserve of which she considered herself the gamekeeper. What page: 376-377[View Page 376-377] THE GUARDIIAN ANGEL. did it mean ? She had heard the story about Susan's be- ing off with her old love and on with a new one. Ah ha! this is the game, is it ? Clement Lindsay passed not so much a pleasant evening, as one of strange, perplexed, and mingled delight and in- ward conflict. He had found his marble once more turned to flesh and blood, and breathing before him. This was the woman he was born for; her form was fit to model his proudest ideal from,-her eyes melted him when they rested for an instant on his face, - her voice reached the hidden sensibilities of his inmost nature; those which never betray their existence until the outward chord to which they vibrate in response sends its message to stir them. But was she not already pledged to that other,-.that cold- :blooded, contriving, venal, cynical, selfish, polished, fasci- nating man of the world, whose artful strategy would~pass with nine women out of ten for the most romantic de- votion ? If he had known the impression he made, he would have felt less anxiety with reference to this particular possi- bility. Miss Silence expressed herself gratified with his appearance, and thought he looked like a good young man, -he reminded her of a young friend of hers who- [It was the same who lhad gone to one of the cannibal islands as a missionary,- and stayed there.] Myrtle was very quiet. She had nothing to say about Clement, ex- cept that she had met him at a party in the city, and found him agreeable. Miss Cynthia wrote a letter to Murray Bradshaw that very evening, telling him that he had bet- ter come back to Oxbow Village as quickly as he could, unless he. wished to find lbis place occupied by an in- truder. In the mean time, the country was watching the garri. son in Charleston Harbor. All at once the first gun of the four years' cannonade hurled its ball against the walls of Fort Sumter. There was no hamlet in the land which the-reverberations of that cannon-roar did not reach. There was no valley so 'darkened by overshadowing hills that it did not see the American flag hauled down on the 13th of April. There was no loyal heart in the North that did not answer to the call of the country to its defenders which went forth two days later. The great tide of feel.. ing reached the locality where the lesser events of our narrative were occurring.. 4 meeting of the citizens was instantly called. The venerable Father Pemberton opened it with a prayer that filled every soul with cour. age and, high resolve. The young farmers and mechanics of that whole region joined the companies to which they belonged, ororganized in'squads and marched at once, or got ready to march, to the scene of conflict. The contagion of warlike patriotism reached the most peacefully inclined young persons. "My country calls me," Gifted Hopkins said to Susan Posey, " and I am preparing to obey her summons. If I can pass the medical examination, which it is possible I may, though I fear my constitution may be thought too weak, and if no obstacle impedes me, I think of marching in the ranks of the Oxbow Invincibles. If I go, Susan, and I fall, will you not remember me ... as one who ... cherished the tenderest .. . sentiments . . towards you ...and who had looked forward to the time when... 'when .. His eyes told the rest. He loved! Susan forgot all the rules of reserve to which she had page: 378-379[View Page 378-379] 378 T HE GUARDIAN ANGEL. been trained. What were cold conventionalities at such a moment? Never! never!" she said, throwing her arms about his neck and mingling her tears with his, which were, flowing freely. "Your country does not need your sword, ..but it does need... your pen. Your poems will in- spire ... our soldiers.... The Oxbow Invincibles will march to victory, singing your songs... If you go-... and if you... fll . .. Gifted! . I... I .... yes; I shall die too!" His loye was returned. He was blest! "Susan," he said, "my own Susan, I yield to your wishes, at every sacrifice. Henceforth they will be my law. Yes, I will stay and encourage my brave country- men to go forward to the:bloody field. My voice shall urge them on to the battle-ground. I will give my dearest breath to stimulate their ardor. ... O Susan 1 My own, own Susan!" While these interesting events had been going on be- neath the modest roof of the Widow Hopkins, affairs had been rapidly hastening to a similar conclusion under the statelier shadow of The Poplars.. Clement Lind- say was so well received at his first visit that he ven- tured to repeat it several times, with so short intervals that it implied something more than a common interest in one of the members of the household. There was no room for doubt who this could be, and Myrtle Hazard could not help seeing that she was the object of his undisguised admiration. The belief was now general in the village that Gifted Hopkins and Susan Posey were either engaged, or on the point of being so; and it was equally under- stood, that, whatever might be the explanation, she. and THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. ' 379 her .former lover had parted company in an amicable manner. Love works very strange transformations in young women. Sometimes it leads them to try every mode of adding to their attractions, --their whole thought is how to be most lovely in the eyes they would fill so as to keep out all other images. Poor darlings! We smile, at their little vanities, as if they were very trivial things compared with the last Congressman's speech or the great Election Sermon; but Nature knows well what she is about. The maiden's ribbon or ruffle means a great deal more for her than the judge's wig or the priest's surplice. It was not in this way that the gentle emotion awaking in the breast of Myrtle Hazard betrayed itself. As the thought dawned in her consciousness that she was loved, a ehange came over her such as the spirit that protected her, according to the harmless fancy she had inherited, might have wept for joy to beholl; if tears could flow from an- gelic eyes. She forgot herself and her ambitions, - the thought of shining in the great world died out in the pres- ence of new visions of a future in which she was not to be, her own, -of feelings in the depth of which the shallow vanities which had, drawn her young eye's to them for a while seemed less than nothing. Myrtle had not hitherto said to herself that Clement was her lover, yet her whole nature was expanding and deepening in the light of, that friendship which any other eye could have known at a glance for the great passion. Cynthia Badlam wrote a;pressing letter to Murray Brad- shaw. "There is no time to be lost; she is bewitched, and will be gone beyond -hope if this business is not put a stop to." page: 380-381[View Page 380-381] 380 THE GUAtRDIAN ANGEL. . Love moves in an accelerating ratio; and there comes a time when the progress of the passion escapes from all human formula, and brings, two young hearts, which had been gradually drawing nearer and nearer together, into complete union, with a suddenness that puts an infinity between the moment when all is told and that which went just before. They were sitting togetlhei by themselves in the dimly lighted parlor. They had" told each other many expe- riences of their past lives, very freely, as two intimate friends of different sex might do. Clement had happened to allude to Susan, speaking very kindly and tenderly of her. He hoped this youth to whom she was attached would make her life happy.. "You know how simple- hearted and good she is; her image will always be a pleas- ant one in my memory,- second to but one other." Myrtle ought, according to the common rules of conver- sation, to have asked, What other? but she did not. She may have looked as if she wanted to ask, - she may have blushed or turned pale, perhaps she could not trust her voice;: but whatever the reason was, she sat still, with downcast eyes. Clement waited a reasonable time, but, finding it was of no use, began again. i "Your image is the one other, - the only one, let me say, for all else fades in its presence, -your image fills all my thought. Will you trust your life and happiness with one who can offer you so little beside his love? You know my whole heart is yours." Whether Myrtle said anything in reply or not, wheth- er she acted like' Coleridge's Genevieve, --that is, "fled to him and wept," or suffered her feelings to betray them- selves in some less, startling confession, we will leave un-, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 381 told. Her answer, spoken or silent, could not have been a cruel one, for in another moment 'Clement, was pressing his lips to hers, after the. manner of accepted lovers. "Our lips have met to-day for the second time," he said, presently. She looked at him in wonder. What did he mean? The second time! How assuredly he spoke! She looked him calmly in the face, and awaited his explanation. "I have a singular story to tell you. On the morning of the 16th of June, now nearly two years ago, I was sitting in my room at Alderbank, some twenty miles' down the river, when I heard a cry for help coming fiom the river. I ran down to the bank,, and there I saw ar boy in an old boat - " WMhen it came to the "'boy" in the old boat, Myrtle's cheeks flamed so that she could not bear it, an she cov- ered her face with both her hands. But Clement told his story calmly through to the end, slidinge gently over its later incidents, for Myrtle's heart was throbbing violently, and her breath a little catching and sighing, as when she had first lived with the new life his breath had given her. "Why did yoi ask me for myself, when you coild have claimed me ? " she said. "I wanted a free gift, Myrtle," Clement answered, "and I have it." They sat in silence, lost in the sense of that new life which had suddenly risen on their souls. , The door-bell rang sharply. Kitty Fagan answered its summons, and presently entered the parlor and announced that Mr. Bradshaw was in the library, and wished to see the ladiesi page: 382-383[View Page 382-383] 382 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. CHAPTER XXXIV. MURRAY BRADSHAW PLAYS HS LAST CARD. HOW 'can I see thai man this evening, Mr. Lind- say?-' " "May I not be Clement, dearest? I would not see him at all, Myrtle. I dor't believe you will find much pleasure in listening to his fne speeches." "I cannot endure it. - Kitty, tell him I am engaged, and cannot see him this evening., No, no! don't say en- gaged; say very much occupied." Kitty departed, communing with herself in this wise:-- "Ockipied, is it? 'An' that's what ye cahl it when ye 're kapin' company with one young gintleman an' don't want another young gintleman to come in an' help the two of, ye? Ye won't get y'r pigs to market to-day, Mr. Brid- shaw, no, nor to-morrow, nayther, Mr. Bridshaw. It's Mrs. Lindsay that Miss Myrtle is goin' to be,-an' a big cake there 'll be at the weddin', frosted all over-, -won't ye be plased with a slice o' that, Mr. Bridshaw?" With these-reflections in her mind, Mistress Kitty deliv- ered her message, not without a gleam of malicious in- telligence in her look that stung Mr. Bradshaw sharply. He had noticed a hat in the entry, and a little stick by it which he remembered well as one he had seen carried by Clement Lindsay. But he was used to concealing his t emotions, and he greeted the two older ladies who pres- ently came into the library so pleasantly, that no one who had not studied his face long and carefully would have THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 383 suspected the bitterness of heart that lay hidden far down beneath his deceptive smile. He told Miss Silence, with much apparent interest, the story of his journey. H-e gave her an account of the progress of the case in which the estate of which she inherited the principal portion was interested. He did not tell her that a final decision Which would settle the right to the great claim might be ex- pected at any moment, and he did not tell her that there was very little doubt that it would be in favor of the heirs of Malachi Withers. He was very sorry he could not see Miss Hazard that evening,--hoped he should be more fortunate to-morrow forenoon, when he intended to call again,--had a message for her from one of her former school friends, which he was anxious to give her. He ex- changed certain looks and hints with Miss Cynthia, which led her to withdraw and bring down the papers lie had intrusted to her. At the close of his visit, she followed him into the entry with a lamp, as was her common custom. "What's the meaning of all this, Cynthia? Is that fellow making love to Myrtle ? "I 'm afraid so, Mr. Bradshaw. He's been here several times, and they seem to be getting intimate. I could n't do anything to stop it." " Give me the papers, -quick! " Cynthia pulled the package from her pocket. Murray Bradshaw looked sharply at it. A little crumpled,-- crowded into her pocket. Seal unbroken. All safe. : "I shall come again to-morrow forenoon. Another day and it will be all up. The decision of the court will be known. It won't be my fault if one visit is not enough.- You don't suppose Myrtle is in love with this fellow ?" '" She acts as if she might be. You know he's broke page: 384-385[View Page 384-385] 384 - "THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. with Susan Posey, and there 's nothing to hinder. If you Lsk my opinion, I think it's your last chance: she is n't a Dirl to half do things, and if she has taken to this man it will be hard to :make her change her mind. But she 's young, and she has had a liking for you, and if you manage it well there's no telling." Two potes passed between Mylrtle Hazard and Master Byles Gridley that evening. Mistress Kitty Fagan, who had kept her ears pretty wide open, carried them., Murray Bradshlaw went home in a very desperate state )f feeling. He had laid his plans, as he th9ught, With perfect skill, ana the certainty of their securing their end. These papers were to have been taken from the envelope and found in the garret just at the right moment, either by :i Cynthia herself or one of the other members of the family, who was to be led on, as it were accidentally, to the dis- covery. ,The right moment must be close at hand. He . was to offer his hand and heart, of course to Myrtle, and it was to be accepted. As soon as the decision of'the land case -was made known, or .not long afterwards, the/-e was to be a search in the garret for papers, and these were to be discovered in' a certain dusty recess, where, of course, they would have been placed by Miss Cynthia. And now the one condition which gave any value to these arrangements seemed like' to fail. This obscure youth - this poor fool, who had been on the point of marrying a simpleton to whom he had made a boyish prom- ; ise--was cming between him and the object of his long ! pursuit, -the woman who had every attraction to draw him to herself. It had been a matter of pride with Mur-i ray Bradshaw that he never lost his temper so as to inter- fere with the precise course of action which his cool judg- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 38.5 ment approved; but, now he was almost beside himself with passion. Iis labors, as he believed, had secured the favorable issue of the great case so long pending. He had followed Myrtle through her whole career, if not as her avowed lover, at least as- one whose friendship promised to flower in love in due season. The mQment had come when the scene and the characters in this village' drama were to undergo a change as sudden and as brilliant as is seen in those fairy spectacles where the dark background changes to a golden palace and the sober dresses are re- placed by robes of regal splendor. The change was fast approaching; but he, the enchanter, as he had thought himself, found his wand broken, and his power given to another. He could not sleep during that night. He paced his room, a prey to jealousy and envy and rage, which his calm' temperament had kept' him from feeling in their intensity up to this miserable hour. He thought of all that a mad- dened nature can imagine to deaden its own intolerable anguish. Of revenge. If Myrtle rejected his suit, should he take her life on the spot, that she might never be anoth- er's, - that neither man nor woman should ever triumph over him, -the proud ambitious man, defeated, humbled, scorned.?' No! that was a meanness of egotism which only the most vulgar souls could be capable of. Should he challenge her lover? It was not the way of the peo- ple and time, and ended in absurd complications, if any- body was foolish enough to try it. Shoot him? The idea floated through his mind, for he thought of everything; but he was a lawyer, and not a fool, and had no idea of figuring in court as a criminal. Besides, he was not a murderer, cunning was his natural weapon, not vio- 17 . - page: 386-387[View Page 386-387] 386, THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. lence. He had a certain admiration of desperate crime in others, as showing nerve and force, but he did not feel it to be his own style of doing business. During the night he made every arrangement for leav- ing the village the next day, in case he failed to make any impression on Myrtle Hazard and found that his chance was gone. He wrote a letter to his partner, telling him that he had left to join one of the regiments forming in the city. He adjusted all his business matters so tthat his partner should find as little trouble as possible. A little before dawn he threw himself on the bed, but he could not sleep; and he rose at sunrise, and finished his prepara- tions for his departure to the city. The morning dragged along slowly. He would not go to the office, not wishing to meet his partner again. After breakfast he dressed himself with great care, for he meant to show himself in-the best possible aspect. Just before he left the 'house to go to The Poplars, he took the sealed package from his trunk, broke open the envelope, took from it a single paper, it had some spots on it which distinguished it from all the rest,-put it separately in his pocket, and then the' envelope containing the other papers. The calm smile hie wore on his features as he set forth cost him a greater effort than he had ever made before to put it on. He was moulding his face to the look with which he meant to present himself; and the muscles had been sternly fixed so long that it was a task to bring them to their habitual expression in company, -that of ingenuous good-nature. He was shown into the parlor at The Poplars; and Kitty told Myrtle that he had called and inquired for her, and was waiting down stairs. ;I: .' TIIE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 387 "Tell him I will be down presently," she said. "Aid, Kitty, now mind just what I tell you. Leave your kitchen door open, so that you call hear anything fall in the lparlor. If you hear a book fall, it will be a heavy one, and will make some noise, - run straight up here to my little cham- ber, and hang this red scarf out of the window. The left- hand side-sash, mind, so that anybody can see it from the road. If Mr. Gridley calls, show him into the parlor, no maitter who is there." Kitty FIagan looked amazingly intelligent, and promised that she wouldcdo exactly as she was told.. Myrtle fbl- lowed her down stairs almost immediately, and went into' the parlor, where Mr. Bradshaw was waiting. Never in his calmest moments had he worn a more in- siniuating smile on his features thatl that with which he now greeted Myrtle. So gentle, so graciotis, so full of trust, such a completely natural expression of a kind, genial character did it seem, that to any but. an expert it *would have appeared impossible that such an 'effect could be pro- duced by the skilful balancing of half a dozen pairs of little muscles that manage the lips and the corners of the mouth. Thie tones of his voice were subdued into'accord with the look of his features; his whole manner was fias- cinatilng, as far as any conscious effort could make it so. It was just one of those artificially pleasing effects that so often pass with such as have little experience of life for the genuine expression. of character and feeling. But Myrtle had learned the look that shapes itself on the fea- tures of one who loves with a love that seeketh not its own, and she knew the difference between acting and real- ity. She met his insinuating approach with a courtesy so carefully ordered that it was of itself a sentence without' *. page: 388-389[View Page 388-389] '388 THlE GUARDIAN ANGEL. appeal. Artful persons often interpret sincere ones by their own standard. Murray Bradshaw'thought little of, this somewhat formal address,--a few minutes would break this thin film to pieces'. He was not only a suitor with a prize to gain, he was a colloquial artist about to employ all the resources of his specialty. He introduced the conversation in the most natural and easy way, by givingr her the message from a former school- mate to which -he had referred, coloring it so delicately, as he delivered it, that it became an innocent-looking flat- tory. Myrtle found herself n -a rose-colored atmosphere, not from Murray 'Bradshaw's admiration, as it .seemed, but only reflected by his mind from another source. 'That was one of his arts, -always, if possible; to associate himself incidentally, as it appeared, and unavoidably, with an agreeable impression. So Myrtle was betrayed into smiling and being pleased before he. had said a word about himself or his affairs. Then he told her of the adventures and labors of his late expedition; of certain, evidence which at the very last moment he had unearthed, and which was, very probably the turning-point in the case. He could not help feeling that she must eventually reap some benefit from the good fortune with which, his efforts had been attended. The thought that it might yet be so liad been a great source of encouragement to him,-it would always be a great happiness to him to remember that he had done anything to, make her happy. ' "Myrtle was very glad that he had been so far successful, - she did not know that it made much difference to her, but she'was obliged to him for the desire of serving her that he had expressed. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL; 389 "My 'services are always yours, Miss Hazard. There is no sacrifice I would not willingly- make for your benefit. I have never had but one feeling toward you. You can- not be ignorant of what that feeling is. "I know, Mr. Bradshlaw, it has been one of kindness. I have to thank you. for many friendly attentions, for which I hope I have nevelr been ungrateful." " Kindness is not all that I feel towards you, Miss Hazard. If that were all, my lips would not tremble as they do now in telling you my feelings. I love you." He sprang the great confession on Myrtle a little sooner than he had meant. It was so hard to go on making phrases! Myrtle changed color a little, for she was startled. The seemingly involuntary movement she made brought her arm against a large dictionary, which lay very near the edge of the table ofn which it was resting. The book fell with a loud noise to the floor. There it lay. The young man awaited her answer; he did not think of polite forms at such a moment. "It cannot be, Mr. Bradshaw,- it must not be. I have known you long, and I am not ignorant of all your brilliant qualities, but you must not speak to me of love. Your regard, your friendly interest,--tell me that I, shall always have these, but do not distressmrile with offering more than these." -"I do not ask you to give me your love in return; Ir -only ask you not to bid me despair. Let me believe that the time may come when you will listen to me, - no mat- ter how distant. You are young,--you have a tender heart, you would not doom one who only lives for you to wretchedness. So long that we have known each other! -It cannot be that any other has come between us-" page: 390-391[View Page 390-391] *890 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Myrtle blushed so deeply that there was no need of his finishing his question. "Do you mean, Myrtle Hazard, that you have cast me aside for another? for this stranger- this artist - who was with you yesterday when I came, bringing with me the story of all I had done for you, -yes, for you,- and ,was ignorniiously refused the privilege of seeing you?o" ' Rage and jealousy had got the better of him this time. Hte rose as he spoke, and looked upon her with such passion kindling in his eyes that hle seemed ,ready for any desper- ate act. ' "I have thanked you for any services you may have rendered, me, Mr. Bradshaw,"' Myrtle answered, very calmly, " and I hope you will add one more to them by sparing me this rude questioning. I wished to treat you as a fiiend ;.,I hope you will not render that impossible." He had recovered himself for one more last effort. I was impatient: overlook it, I beg you. I was thinkingl of all the happiness I have labored to secure for you, and of the ruin to us both it' would be if you scornfully rejected tle love I offer you, - if you refuse to leave me any hope for the future,- if you insist on throwing yourself away on this man, so lately plkdged to another. I hold the key of all your earthly fortunes in my hand. My love for you inspired me in all that I have done, and, now that I come ,: to lay the result of my labors at your feet, you turn from me, and offer my reward to a stranger. I do not ask you to say this day that you will be mine,- I would not force your inclinations, -but I do, a'sk you thalt you will hold yourself free of all others, and listen to me as one who may yet be more than a friend. Say so much as this, Myrtle, and you shall have such a future as you never dreamed of. l= THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. , 391. Fortune, position, all that this world can give, shall be yours '!" "Never! never! If you could offer me the whole world, or take away from me all that the world can give,' it would make no difference to me. I cannot tell what power you hold over me, whether of life and death, or of wealth and poverty; but after talking to me of love, I should not have thought you would have wronged me by suggesting any meaner motive. It is only because we have been on friendly terms so long that I have listened to you as I have done. You have said more than enough, and I beg you will allow me to put an end to this inter- View. " , ' . - ' . I Shc rose to leave the room. But Murray Bradshaw had gone -too far to control himself, - he listened only to the rage' which blinded him. "Not yet " he said. "Stay one moment, and you shall know what your pride and self-will have cost you!" Myrtle stood, arrested, whether by fear, or curiosity, or the passive subjection of her muscles to his imperious will, it would be hard to say. Murray Bradshaw took out the spotted paper fromhis breast-pocket, and held it up before her. "Look here!"' he exclaimed. "This. would have made you rich, it would have crowned you a queen in society, - it would' have given you all, and 'more than all, that. you ever dreamed of luxury, of splendor, of enjoyment; and I, wlio won it for you, would have taught you how to make lif;ec yield every bliss it had in store to your wishes. You re- ject my offer unconditionally?" Myrtle expressed her negative only by a slight contemp- tuous movement. page: 392-393[View Page 392-393] 392 .THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Murray Bradshaw walked deliberately to the fireplace, and laid the spotted paper upon the burning coals. It writhed and curled, blackened, flamed, and in a moment was a cinder dropping into ashes. He, folded his arms, and stood looking at the wreck-of Myrtle's future, the work of his cruel hand. Strangely enough, Myrtle herself was fascinated, as it were, by the apparent solemnity of this mysterious sacrifice. She had kept her eyes steadily on him all the time, and was still gazing at the altar on which her happiness had been in some way offered up, when the door was opened by Kitty Fagan, and Master Byles Grid- ley was ushered into the parlor. "Too late, old man!"Murray Bradshawr exclaimed, in a hoarse and savage voice, as he passed out of the room, and strode through the entry and down the avenue. It was the last time the old gate of The Poplars was to open or close for him. The same day he left the village; and the next time his name was mentioned it was as an officer in one of the regiments just raised and about marching to the seat of war. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 393 CHAPTER XXXV. THE SPOTTED PAPER. WlT HAT Master Gridley may have said to Myrtle Hazard that served to calm her after this exciting scene cannot now be recalled. That Murray Bradshaw thought he was inflicting a deadly injury on her was plain enough. That Master Gridley did succeed in convincing her that no great harm had probably been done her is equally certain. Like all bachelors who have lived a lonely life, Master Byles Gridley had his habits, which nothing short of some terrestrial convulsion or perhaps, in his case, some in- stinct that drove him forth to'help somebody in trouble-- could possibly derange. After his breakfast, he always sat and read awhile, -the paper, if a new one came to hand, or some pleasant old'author, -if a little neglected by the world of readers, he felt more at ease with him, and loved him all the better. But on the morning after his interview with Myrtle Hazard, he had received a letter which made him forget newspapers, old authors, almost everything, for the mo- ment. It was from the publisher with whom he had had a conversation, it may be remembered, when he visited the city, and was to this effect :That Our Firm propose to print and stereotype the. work originally published under the title of "Thoughts on the Universe "; said work to be remodelled according to the plan suggested by the Au- thor, 'with the corrections, alterations, 'omissions, and addi- 17 page: 394-395[View Page 394-395] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. tions proposed by him; said work to be published under the following title, to wit: - ; said work to be printed in 12mo, on paper of good quality, from new types, etc., etc., and for every copy thereof printed the author to receive, etc., etc. Master Gridley sat as in a trance, reading this letter over and over, to know if it could be really so. So it really was. His book had disappeared from the market long ago, as the elm seeds that carpet the ground and never germinate disappear. At last it- had got a certain value as a curiosity for book-hanters. Some one of them, keener-eyed than the rest, hadseen that there was a mean- ing and virtue inl this unsuccessful book, for which there was a new audience educated since it had tried to breathe before its time. Out of this had r6own at last the publish- er's proposal. It -was too much: his heart swelled with joy, and his eyes filled with tears. How could he resist the temptation? He took down, his own particular copy of the book, which was yet to do him honor as its parent, and began reading. As his eye fell on one paragraph after another, he nodded approval of this sentiment or opinion, he shook his head as if questioning whether this other Wvere not to be modified or left out, he condemned a third as being no longer true for him as when it was Written, and he sanctioned a fourth with his hearty approval. The reader may like a few specimens from this early edition, now a rarity. He shall have them, with Master Gridle4's verbal comments. The book, as its name implied, contained " Thoughts " rather than consecu- tive trains of reasoning or continuous disquisitions. What he read and remarked upon were a few of the more pointed statements which stood out in the chapters he was turning THE .GUARDIAN ANGEL. 395'; over. The worth of the book must not be judged by these almost random specimens. '" Te best thought, like the most perfect digestion, is done unconsciously. -Develop that.--Ideas at compound in-- terest in the mind.-- Be aye sticking in an idea, -while you 're sleeping it'll be growing. Seed of a thought to- day, -flower to-morrow- next week-ten years from now, etc. -Article by and by for the .... " Can the Infinite be supposed to shift the responsibility of the ultimate destiny of any created thing to the finite ? Our theologians pretend that it can. I doubt. - Heretical, Stet. ' "Protestantism means None of your business. But it is afraid of its own logic.-Stet. No logical resting-place short of None of your business. The supreme self-indulgence is to surrender the will to a spiritual director. - Protestantism gave up a great luxury. - Did it though ? "Asiatic modes of thought and speech do not ,express the relations in which the American feels himself to stand to his Superiors in this or any other sphere of being. Re- publicanism must have its own religious phraseology, which is not that borrowed from Oriental despotisms. :" Idols and dogmas in place of character,; pills and the- ories in place of wholesome living. See the histories of theology and medicine. passim. -Hits 'em. "'Of such is the kingdom of heaven.' Do you mean to say, Jean Chauvin, that ' Heaven LIES about us in our infancy' ? " Why do you complain of your organization? soul was in a hurry, and made a- rush for a body. page: 396-397[View Page 396-397] 396 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. are patient spirits- that have waited fromn eternity, and never found parents jit to be born of. --- How do you know anyttling about all that? Dele. "What sweet, smooth voices the negroes-have! A hun- dred generations fed on bananas. - -Compare them with our apple-eating white folks --It' won't do. Bananas came from tuhe West Indies.. "To tell -a man's temperament by'his handwriting. See if the dots of his i's run ahead or not, and if they do, how far. -I have tried that -on myself. "I Marrying into some families is the next thing to being canonized. - Not so true now as twenty or thirty years ago. As many bladders, but mnore pins. "Fish and dandies only keep on ice. - Who will take? Explain in note how all warmth approachng blood heat spoils fops and flounders. "Flying is a lost art among men and reptiles. Bats fly, and men ought to. 2'ry a light turbine. Rise a mile straight, fall half a' mile . slanting, - rise, half a mile straight, fall- half a mile slanti'ng, and so on. Or slant up and slant down. -Poh! You ain't such a fool as to think that is new,- are you? . "Put in my telegraph project. Central station. Cables with insulated wirets running to it from different quarters of the city. These form the centripetal system. From central station, wires to all the livery stables, messehger stands, provision shops, etc., etc. These form the centrifu- gal system. Any house may have a wire in the nearest cable at small cost. "Do you want to be remembered after the continents have gone under,. and come' up agaitn, and dried, and bred new races? ' Have your name stamnped on all your plates and * j - THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 897 cups and saucers. Nothing, of you or yours will last like those. I never sit down at my table without looking at the china service, and -saying, 'Here are my monuments. T/hat butter-dish is my urn. TUts soup-plate is my memo- rial tablet.' -No need of a skeleton at my banquets! 1 feed from my tombstone and read my epitaph at the bot- tom of every teacup. - Good." He fell into a revery as he finished reading this last sentence. He thought of the dim and dread future,' all the changes that it would bring to him, to all the living, to the face of the globe, to the order of. earthly things. He saw men of a new race, alien to all that had ever lived, excavating with strange, vast engines the old ocean-bed now become habitable land. And as the great' scoops turnfed out the earth they had fetched up from the unex- plored depths, a relic of a former simple- civilization re- vealed the fact that here a tribe of human beingrs had lived and perished. -Only the coffee-cup he. had in his hand half an hour ago. - Where would he be then? and Mrs. Hopkins, and Gifted, and Susan, and everybody? and President Buchanan? and .the Boston State-House? and Broadway? -O Lord, Lord, Lord! And the sun- perceptibly, smaller, according to the astronomers, and the earth cooled down a number of degrees, and inconceivable arts practised by men of a type yet undreaLmed of, and all, the fighting creeds merged in one great universal - A knock at his door interrupted his revery. Miss Su- san Posey iniformed him that a gentleman was waiting be- low who wished to see him. "Show him up to my study, Susan Posey, if you please," said Master Gridley. page: 398-399[View Page 398-399] 398 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.. Mr. Penhallow presented himself at Mr. Gridley's door, with a countenance e:pressive of a very high state of ex-. citement. You have heard the news, Mr. Gridley, I suppose?" What news, Mr. Penhallow?" "First, that my partner has left very unexpectedly to enlist in a regiment just forming. Second, that the great land-case is decided in favor of the heirs of the late .al- achi Withers." "Your partner must have known about it yesterday?" "He did, even before I knew it. He' thought himself possessed of a very important document, as you know, of which he has made, or means to make, some use. You are aware of the artifice I employed to prevent any pos- sible evil consequences from any action of his. I have the genuine document, of course. I wish you to go over with me to The Poplars, and I should be glad to have good old Father Pemberton go with us; for it is a serious mat- ter, and will be a- great surprise to more than one of the family. They walked together to the old house, where the old clergyman had lived for more than half a century. He was used to being neglected by the people who ran after his younger colleague; and the attention paid him in asking him to be present on an important occasion, as he understood this to be, pleased him greatly. He smoothed his long white locks; and called a granddaughter to help make him look fitly for such an occasion, and, being at last got into his grandest'Sunday aspect, took his faithful staff, and set out with the two gentlemen for The Poplars. On the way, Mr. Penhallow explained to him the occasion of their visit, and the general character of the facts he had to ' ' ' - . Wl THE' GUARDIAN ANGEL. 899 ! announce. He wished the venerable minister to prepare Miiss Silence Withers for a revelation which would mate- 'ially change her future prospects. -Ie thought it might be well, also, if he would say a few words to Myrtle Haz- ird, for whom a new life, with new and untried tempta- l ;ions, was about to open. His business was, as a lawyer, to make known to these parties the facts just come to his )wn knowledge affecting their interests. He had asked XIr. Gridley to' go with him, as having intimate relations vith one of the parties referred to, and as having been the ' principal agent in securing to that party the advantages which were to accrue to her from the hew turn of events. "'You are a second parent to her, Mr. Gridley," he said. 'Your vigilance, your shrewdness, and your-- spectacles- have saved her. I hope she knows the full extent of her ob- ligations to you, and that she will always look to you for counsel in all her needs. She will want a wise friend, for she is to begin the world anew." What had happened, when she saw the three grave gen- 1 flemen at the door early in the forenoon, Mistress Kitty Fagan could not guess. Something relating to IMiss Myr- tle, no doubti she was n't goin' to be married right off to Mr. Clement, - was she, - and no church, nor cake, nor anything? 'The gentlemen were shown into the parlor. ' Ask- Miss Withers to go into the library, Kitty," said Master Gridloy. '"'Dr. Pemberton' wishes to speak with her." The good old man was prepared for a scene with Miss Silence. He announced to her, 'in a kind and deli- cate way, that she must make up her mind to the disap- pointment 'of certain expectations which she had long entertained, and which, as her lawyer, Mr. Penhallow, had come to inform her and others, were to be finally re- linquished from this hour. page: 400-401[View Page 400-401] THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. To his great surprise, Miss Silence received this corn- munication almost cheerfully. It seemed more like a relief to her than anything else. Her one dread in this world was her " responsibility "; and the thought that she might have to account for ten talents hereafter, instead of one, had often of late been a positive distress to her. There was also in her mind a secret disgust at the thought of the hun- gry creatures who would swarm round her if she should ever be in a position to bestow patronage. This had grown upon her as the habits of lonely life gave her more and more of that fastidious dislike to males in general, as such, which is not rare in maidens who have.seen the roses of more summers than politeness cares to mention. Father Pemberton then asked if he could see Miss Myr- tle Hazard a few moments in the library before they went into the parlor, where they were to meet Mr. Penhallow and Mr. Gridley, for the purpose of receiving the lawyer's communication. What change was this which Myrtle had undergone since love, had touched her heart, and her visions of world- ly enjoyment had faded before the thought of sharing and ennobling the life of one who yas worthy of her best affec- tions,-of living for another, and of finding her own noblest self in that divine office of woman ? She had laid aside the bracelet which she had' so long worn as a kind of charm as well as an ornament. One would have said her features hadl lost something of that look of imperious beauty which had' added to her resemblance to the dead woman whose glowing portrait hung upon her wall. And if it could be that, after so many generations, the blood of her who had died for her faith could show in her descend- ant's veins, and the soul of that elect lady of her race THE GUAPDIAN ANGEL. 401 look out from her far-removed 'offspring's dark eyes, such a transfusion of the martyr's life and spiritual being mirght well seem to manifest itself in Myrtle Hazaird. The large-hearted old man forgot his scholastic theory of human nature as he looked upon her face. He thought he saw in her the dawning of that grace which some are born with; which some, like Myrtle, only reach through many trials and dangers; which some seem to show for a while and then lose; which too many never reach while they wear the robes of earth, but which speaks of the kingdom of heaven already begun 'in the.heart of a child of earth. He told her simply the story of the occurrences which had brought them together in the old house, with the message the.lawyer was to deliver to its inmates. He wished to prepare her for what might have been too sud- den a surprise. But Myrtle was not wholly unprepared for some such, revelation. There was little danger that any such an- nouncement would throw her mind from its balance after the inward conflict though which she had been passing. For her lover had left her almost as soon as he had told her the story of his passion, and the relation in which he 'stood to her. He, too, had gone to answer his country's call to he: children, not driven away by crime a.nd shame and despair, but quitting all.-his new-born happiness, the art in which he was an enthusiast, his prospects, of success and honor--to obey the higher command of duty. War was to him, as to so many of the noble youth who went forth, only organized barbarism, hateful but for the sacred cause which alone redeemed it from the curse that blasted the first murderer. God only knew the sacrifice such young men as he made. page: 402-403[View Page 402-403] O2 TITIE GUARDIAN ANGEL. How brief Myrtle's dream had been! She almost doubted, at some moments, whether she would not awake from it, as from her other visions, and find it all unreal. There was no need of fearing any undue excitement of her mind after the alternations of feeling she had just experi- enced. Nothing seemed of much moment to her which could come from without,--her real world was within, and the light of its day and the breath of its life came from her love, made holy by the self-forgetfulness on both sides which was born with it, Only one member of the household was in danger -of finding the excitement more than she could bear. Miss Cynthia'knew that all Murray Bradshaw's plans, in which he had taken care that she should have a personal interest, had utterly failed. What he had done with the means of revenge in his power, if, indeed, they were still in his power,-she did not know. She only knew that there had been a terrible scene, and that he had gone, leaving it uncertain whether he would ever ieturn. It was with fear and trembling, that she heard the summons which went forth, that the whole family should meet in the parlor to listen to a statement from Mr. Penhallow. They all gathered as requested, and sat round tle room, with the exception of Mistress Kitty Fagan, who knew her place too well to be sittin' down with the likes o' them, and stood with attentive ears in the doorway. Mr. Penhallow then read from a printed paper the de- cision of the Supreme Court in the land-case so long pend- ing, where the estate of the late Malachi Withers was the claimant, against certain parties pretending to hold under an ancient grant. The decision was in favor of the estate. '! This gives a great property to the heirs," Mr. Penhal- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 403 - low remarked, "and the question as to who these heirs are has to be opened. For the will under which Silence Withers, sister of the deceased, has inherited, is dated some years previous to the decease, and it was not very strange that a will of later date should be discovered.- Such a will has been discovered. It is the instrument I have here." Myrtle Hazard opened her eyes very, widely,, for the paper Mr. Penhallow held looked exactly like that which Murray Bradshaw had burned, and, what was curious, had some spots on it just like some she had noticed on that. "This will," Mr. Penhallow said, i' signed by witnesses dead or absent from this place, makes a disposition of tlle testator's property in some respects similar to that of the previous one, but with a single change, which proves to be of very great importance." Mr; Penhallow proceeded to read the will. The im- portant change in the disposition of the property was this. In case the land-claim was decided in favor of the estate, then, in addition to the small provision made :for Myrtle Hazard, the property so coming to the estate should all go to her. There was no question about the 'genuineness and the legal sufficiency of this instrument. Its date was not very long after the preceding one, at a period when, as was well known, he had almost given up the hope of gaining his case, and when the pr(operty was of little value compared to that which it had at present. A long silence followed this reading.' Then, to the sur- prise of all, Miss Silence Withers rose, and vwent to NMyr- tie Hazard, and wished her joy with every appearance of sincerity. She' was relieved of a great responsibility. Myrtle was young and could bear it better. She hoped page: 404-405[View Page 404-405] 401 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. that her young relative would live long to enjoy the bless- ings Providence had bestowed upon her, and to use them for the good of the community, and especially the promotion of the education of deserving youth. If some fitting per- son could be found to advise Myrtle, whose affairs would require much care, it would be a great relief to her. They all went up to Myrtle and congratulated her on her change of fortune. Even Cynthia Badlam got out a phrase or two which passed muster in the midst of the general excitement. As for Kitty Fagan, she could not say a word, but caught Myrtle's hand and kissed it as if it be- longed to her own saint, and then, suddenly applying her apron to. her eyes, retreated from a scene which was too much for her, in a state of complete mental beatitude and total bodily discomfiture. Then Silence asked the old minister to make a prayer, and he stretched his hands up to H-eaven, and called down all the blessings of Providence upon all the household, and especially upon this young handmaiden, who was to be tried with prosperity, and would need all aid fromabove to keep her from its dangers. 'Then Mr. Penhallow asked Myrtle if she had any choice as to the friend who should 'have charge of her affairs. Myrtle turned 'to Master' Byles Gridley, and said, "You have been my friend and protector so far,-- will you con- tinue to be so hereafter?" Master Gridley tried very hard to begin a few words of thanks to her for her preference, but finding his voice a little uncertain, contented himself with pressing her hand and saying, "Most willingly, my dear daughter!" THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 405 CHAPTER XXXVI. CONCLUSION. THE same day the great news of Myrtle Hazard's L accession to fortune came out, the secret was told that she had promised herself in marriage to Mr. Clement Lindsay. But her friends hardly knew how to congratu- late her on this last event. Her lover was gone, to risk his life, not improbably to lose it, or to come homlie a wreck, crippled by wounds, or worn out with disease. Some of them wondered to see her so cheerful in such a moment of trial. They could not know howN the manly strength of -Clement's determination had nerved her for womanly endurance. They had not learned that a great cause makes great souls, or reveals them to themselves,- a lesson taught by so many noble examples in the times that followed. Mvrtle's only desire seemed to be to la- bor in some way to help the soldiers and their families. She appeared to have forgotten everything for this duty; she had no time for regrets, if she were disposed to indulge them, and she hardly asked a question as to the extent of the fortune which had fallen to 'her. The next number of the "Banner and Oracie"l con- : tained two announcements which she read with some in- terest when her attention was called to them. They were as follows:- "A fair and accomplished daughter of this village comes, by the late decision of the Supreme Court, into possession of a property estimated at a million of dollars or more. It consists of a' large tract of land' urchased many y ears ag6 by the late Malachi Withers, now become of immense value by the growth of a city in its neighborhood, the opening of mines, etc., etc. It is rumored that the page: 406-407[View Page 406-407] 40,6 THE GUAR DIAN ANGEL. lovely and highly educated heiress has formed a connection looking towards mat- rimony with a- certain distinguished artist." '"Our distinguished young townsman, William Murray Bradshaw, Esq., has been among the first to respond to the callof the country for champions to de- fend her from traitors. We understand that he has obtained a captaincy, in the -th Regiment, about to march to the threatened seat of war. May victory perch- on his banners!" , ' The two lovers, parted by their own self-sacrificing choice in the very hour that promised to bring them so much happiness, labored for the common cause during all the terrible years of warfarfare, one in the camp and the field, the other in the not less needful work which the good women carried on at home, or- wherever their services were needed. Clement-now Captain Lindsay,--re- turned at the end, of his first campaign' charged with a special office. Some months later, after one of the great battles, he 'was sent home wounded. He wore the leaf on his shoulder which entitled him to be called Major Lind- say. He recovered fi;om his wound only too rapidly, for Myrtle had visited him daily in the military hospital where he had Presided for treatment; and it was bitter parting. The telegraph wires were ftlrilling almost hourly with. messages of death, and the long pine boxes came by almost every trains, ,-.,no need of asking what they held! Once nmore he came, detailed on special duty, and this time with the eagle on his shoulder,--he aWuas Colonel Lindsay. The lovers could not part again of their owni free will. , Some adventurous women had followed their husbands to, the camp, and. Myrtle looked as if she could play the part of the 3laid of Saragossa on occasion. So Clement asked her if she would return with him as his wife; and Myrtle answered, with as much willingness to submit as a maiden might fairly show under suqh circum- THE IGUARDIAN ANGEL. 407 stances, that she would do his bidding. Thereupon, with the shortest .possible legal. notice, Father PeJnnberon was sent for, and the ceremony was performed in the presence of a few witnesses in the .large parlor at The Poplars, which was adorned with flowers, and hung :round with all. the portraits of the dead members of the family, summoned as witnesses to the celebration. One witness looked on with unmoved features, yet Myrtle thoughlt there was a more heavenly smile on her faded lips than she had ever seen before beaming from the canvas, - it was Ann. Hol- yoake, the martyr to her faith; the guardian spirit of Myrtle's visions, who seemed to breathe a holier benediction than any words even [those of, the good old Father Pember- ton himself- could convey. They went back together to the camp. FIroim that period until the end of the war, Myrtle passed her time between the life of the tent and that of the hospital.' In the offices of mercywhich slhe performed for the sick ancd the Wounded and the dying, the dross of her nature seemedl to be burned away. The conflict of mingled lives"' in her blood had ceased. No lawless impulses usurped the place of thaat serene resolve which had grown strong by every exercise of its high prerogative. If she lhad been called now to die for any worthy cause, her race would have been ennobled by a second martyr, true to the blood of her who died un- cder the cruel Queen. . : Many sad sights she saw in the great hospital where she passed some months at intervals, - one never to be forgotten. An officer was brought into the! ward where she was in atten-dance. ("Shot through the lungs,- pretty nearly gone." She went softly to his bedside. He was bleathlling with t. Ids. -bedside. He was t. i ' * * ; * : *** j page: 408-409[View Page 408-409] 408 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. great difficulty; his face was 'almost convulsed with the effort, but she recognized him in a moment; it was Mur- ray, Bradshaw, -. Captain Bradshaw,'-- as she knew by the bars on his coat flung upon the bed where he had just been laid. She addressed himby name, tenderly as if he had been a dear brother; she saw on his face that hers were to be the last kind words he would ever hear. He turned his glazing eyes upon her. "Who are you?" he said in a feeble voice. "An old friend,' she answered; "you knew me as Myr- tie 'Hazard." He started. "You by my bedside.! You caring for me! - for me, that burned the title to your fortune to ashes before your eyes! You can't forgive tht,- I won't believe it! Don't you hate me, dying,as I -am?" Myrtle was used to. maintaining a perfect calmness' of voice and countenance, and she held her feelings firmly down. "I have nothing to forgive you, Mr. Bradshaw. You may have meant to do me wrong, but Providence raised up a protector for me. The'paper you burned was not the originral, - it was a copy substituted for it -" "And did the old man outwit me after. all?" he cried out, rising suddenly in bed, and clasping his hands behind his head to 'give him a few more gasps of breath. "I knew he was cunning, but I thought I was his match. It must have been Byles Gridley,-nobody else. And so the old man beat me after all, and saved you from ruin! Thank God that it came out so! Thank God! I can die now. Give me your hand, AMyrtle." She took his hand, and held it until it gently loosed its hold, and he ceased to breathe. Myrtle's creed was a sim- THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 409 'ple one, with more of trust and love in it' than of systema- tized articles of belief. She cherished the fond hope that these last words of one who had erred so miserably were a token of some blessed change which the in fluences of the. better world might carry onward until he should have' outgrown the sins and the weaknesses of his earthly career. Soon after this she rejoined her husband in the camp. From time to time they received stray copies of t he "Ban- ner and Oracle," which, to Myrtle especially, were full of interest, even to the last advertisement. A few paragraphs may bereproduced here which relate to persons who have figured in this narrative. "TEMPLE OF HYMEN. "Married, on the e3th instant, Fordyee Hurlbut, M. D., to Olive, only daugh- ter of the Rev. Ambrose Eveleth. The editor of this paper returns his ac- knowledgments for a bountiful slice of the wedding-cake. May their shadows never be less!" Not many weeks after this appeared the following:- "Died in this place, on the 28th instant, the venerable Lemuel Hurlbut, M. D., at the great age of XCVI years. "With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days undetstanding.'" Myrtle recalled his kind care of her in her illness, and paid the tribute of a $igh to his memory, - there was noth.- ing in a death like his to call for any aching re'grtet. 'Trhe usual routine of small occurrences was duly re-. corded in the village paper . for' some weeks longer, when she was startled and shocked by receiving at number con. taining the following paragraph:-- "CALAMTOUS ACCIDENT! "It is known to our readers that the steeple of the old meeting-house was struck by lightning dbout a month ago. The frame of the building was a good deal jarred by the shock, but no danger was apprehended from the injury it had received. On Sunday last the congregation came together as usual. The Rev. Mr. Stoker was alone in the pulpit, the Rev, Doctor Henberton having been detained by slight indisposition. The sermon was from the text, The wolf also page: 410-411[View Page 410-411] "O THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie dow:a with the kid.' (Isaiah xi. 6.) The pastor described the millennium as the reign of love and peace, in eloquent and impressive language. He was in the midst of the prayer which fol- lows the sermon, and had just put up a petition that the spirit of affection and faith and trust might grow up and prevail among the flock of which he was the shepherd, more especially those dear lambs whom he gathered with his arm, and carried in his bosom, when the old sounding-board, which had hung safely for nearly a century, --loosened, no doubt by the bolt which had fallen on the church, -broke from its fastenings, and 'ell with a loud crash upon the pul- pit, crushing the Rev. Mr. Stoker under its ruins. The scene that followed beggars description.. Cries, and shrieks resounded through the house. Two or three young women fainted entirely awHy. Mr. Penhallow, Deacon Rumrill, Gifted Hopkins, Esq., and. others, came forward immediately, and after much effort succeeded in -removing the wreck of the sounding-board, and extricating their unfortunate pastor.. He was not fatally injured) it is hoped; but, sad to re-. late he received such a violent blow upon the spine of the back, that palsy of the lower extremities is like to ensue. HEe is at present lying entirely helpless. Every attention is paid to him by his affectionately devoted family.1" Myrtle had hardly got over the pain which the reading j of this unfortunate occurrence gave her, when her eyes were gladdened by the following pleasing piece of intelli- gence, contained in a subsequent number of the village paper: - ,L IMPOSING CEREIMONY. :. 4 "The Reverend Doctor Pemberton performed the impressive rite of baptism upon the first-born child of our distinguished townsman, Gifted Hopkins, Esq., the Bard of Oxbow Village, and. Mrs. Susan P. IIopkins, his amiable and. respected lady; The babe conducted himself with singular propriety on this occasion. lie received the Christian name of Byron Tennyson Browning. May he prove worthy of his qame and his parentage!" " The end of the war came at last, and found Colonel Lindsay among its unlarmed survivors. He returned with Myrtle to her native village, and they established themselves, at the request of Miss 'Silence Withers, in the old family mansion. Miss Cynthia, to whom Myrtle made a generous allowance, had gone to live in a town not many miles distant, where she had a kind of home on sufferance, as well as at The Poplars. This was' a convenience just then, because Nurse Byloe was invited to stay'with them for a month or two; and one nurse and two single women under the same roof keep each other in a stew all the time,. as the old dame somewhat sharply remarked. Master Byles Gridley had been appointed Myrtle's legal, * ,. . . THE GUARDIAN 'ANGEL. ' 4" protector, and, with the assistance of Mr. Penhallow, had brought the property she: inherited into a more manageable and productive form; so that, when Clement began his fine studio behind the old mansion, he felt that at least he could, pursue his art, or arts, if he chose to give himself to sculpture, without that dreadful hag,' Necessity, standing by him to pinch the features, of all his ideals, and give them something 'of her own likeness. Silence Withers was more cheerful now that she had got rid of her responsibility. She embellished her spare per- son a little more than in former years. These young peo- pie looked' so happy! Love was not soy unendurable, perhaps, after all. No woman need despair, -- especially if she has a house over her, and a snug little property. A: worthy man, a former' miissionary, of the best principles, but of a slightly jocose and good-humored habit, thoughit that'he could piece his widowed years with the not insigni- ficant fraction of life left to Miss Sileice, to their mutual advantage. He came to the village, therefore, where Father Pemberton was very glad to have him supply the pulpit in the place of 'his unfortunate disabled colleague. The courtship soon began, and 'was brisk eiough; for the good man knew there was' no time to lose at his period of life, - or hers either, for that matter. It was a rather odd specimen -of love-making; for he was constantly trying to subdue his features to a glavitylwhich they were not used to, and she was as constantly endeavoring to be as lively as possible, with the innocent desire of pleasing her light- hearted suitor. "Vieille file faitjeune mariee." Silence was ten years younger as a bride than she had seemed as a lone woman. One would have said she had got out of the coach next to page: 412-413[View Page 412-413] "2 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. - the hearse, and got into one some half a dozen behind it, - where there is often good and reasonably cheerful conver- sation going on about the virtues of the deceased the probable amount of his property, or the little slips he may. have committed, and whbere occasionally. a subdued pleas- antry at his expense sets the four waistcoats shaking that, were lifting with sighs a half-hour ago in the house of mourning. But A[iss Silence, that was, thoughlt t tat wo families, with all' the possible complications which time -might bring, would be. better in separate establishments. She therefore proposed selling The Poplars to Myrtle and her husbandand removing to a house in the village, which would be large enough for them, at least for the present. So the :young folks bought the old house, and paid a mighty good price for it; and enlarged it, and beautified and glorified it, and one fine morniing went together down to the Widow Hopkins's, whose residence seemed in dan- ger of being a little crowded, --for Gifted lived there with his Susan, and what' had happened might happen again, -and gave Master Bylks Gridley a formal and most per- - suasively worded invitation to come up and make his home with them at The Poplars. Now Master Gridley has been betrayed into palpable and undisguised weakness at least once in the presence of this assembly, who are looking, upon him almost for the last time before they part from him, and -see his face no more.. Let us not inquire too curiously, then, how he re- ceived this kind proposition. It is enough, that, when he found that a new study had been built op purpose for hIm, and a sleeping-room attached to it so that he could live there without disturbing anybody if he clhose, he consented to remove there for a while, and that he was there estab- lished amidst great rejoicing. Ts , , ; THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 413 Cynthia Badlam had fallen of late into poor health. 'She found at last that she was going; and as she had a little property of 'her own, -as almost all poor relations, l ave, only there is not enough of it,- she was much exer- cised in her mind as to the final arrangements to be made respecting its disposition. The Rev. Dr. Pemberton was one day surprised by a message, that she wished to have an interview with him. He rode over to the town in which she was residing, and there had a long conversation with. her upon this matter. When this was settled, her mind. seemed to 'be more at ease. She died with a comfort". -able assurance that she was going to a better world, and. with a bitter conviction that:it would be hard to find one that would offer ler a worse lot than being a poor relation in. this. ' Her little property was left to Rev. Eliphalet Pember. ton and Jacob Penhallow, Esq., to be by them employed for such charitable purposes as they should elect, educa- tional or other. Father Pemberton preached an admirable funeral sermon, in which he praised her virtues, known to this people among whom she had long lived, and especially that crowning act by which she devoted all she had to pur- poses of charity and benevolence. The old clergyman seemed to have renewed his youth since the misfortune of his colleague had incapacitated him froni labor. He generally preached in the fJrenoon now, and to the great acceptance of the people,-for the truth was that the honest minister who had married Miss Silen'ce was not young enough or good-looking enough to be an ob- ject of personal attentions like the Rev. Josep)h Bellamy Stoker,- and the old minister appeared to great advantage contrasted with him in the pulpit. Poor Mr. Stoker was page: 414-415[View Page 414-415] "4 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. I now helpless, faithfully and tenderly waited upon: by his ,own wife, who had regained her health and strength, -in no small measure, perhaps, from the great need of sympa- thy and active aid which her unfortunate husband now ex- perienced. It wasan astonishment to herself when she found that she who- had so long been served was able to serve another. Some who knew his errors thought his ac- cident was a judgment; but others believed. that it was only a mercy in disguise, - it snatched him roughly from his sin, but it opened his heart to gratitude towards her whom his neglect could not alienate, aid through gratitude to repentance and better thoughts. Bathsheba had long ago promised herself to Cyprian Evelethb; and, as he was about' to become the rector of a parish in the next town, the marriage was soon to take place.. ' - . How beautifully serene Master Byles Gridley's face was growing! Clement loved to study its grand lines, which had so much strength and fine humanity blended in them. He was so fascinated by their noble expression that he sometimes seemed to forget himself, and looked at 'him more like an artist taking his portrait than like an admir- ing friend., He maintained that Master Gridley had a bigger bump of benevolence and as large, a one of cautious- ness, as the two people most famous for the size of these organs on the phrenological chart he showed him, and proved it, or nearly proved it, by careful measurements of his head. Master Gridley laughed, and read him a pas- sage on the pseudo-sciences out of his book. ' The disposal of Miss Cynthia's bequest was much dis- E cussed in the village. Some wished the trustees would use it to lay the foundations of a public library. Others thought it should be applied for the relief of the families of \ ' , . F THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 415 soldiers who had fallen in the war. Still another set would take it to build a monument to the memory of those heroes. The trustees listened with the greatest candor to all these gratuitous hints. It was, however, suggested, in a well- written anonymous article whiclh appeared in the village paper, that it was desirable to follow the general lead of the testator's apparent preference. The trustees were at liberty to do as they saw fit; but, other things being equal, some educational object should be selected. If there were any orphan children in the place, it would seem to be very proper to devote the moderate sum bequeathed to educating' them. The trustees recognized the justice of this sugges- tion. Why not apply it to the instruction and rtaintenance of those two pretty and. promising children, virtually or- phans, whom the charitable Mrs. Hopkins had cared, for so, long without any recompense, and at a cost which 'would soon become beyond her means? The good people of the neighborhood accepted this as the best solution of the diffi- culty. It was agreed upon at length by the trustees, that the Cynthia Badlam Fund for Educational Purposes should be applied for the benefit of the two foundlings, known as' Isosceles and Helminthia Hopkins. Master Byles Gridley was greatly exercised about the two ' preposterous names," as he called them, which in a moment of eccentric impulse he had given to these children of nature. He ventured to hint as much to Mrs. Hopkins. 'The good dame was vastly surprised. She. thought they was about as pooty names as anybody had had given 'em in. the village. And they was so handy, spoke short, - Sossy and Minthy,--she never should know 'how to call 'era anything else. ' But 'my dear Mrs. Hopkins," Master Gridley urged. page: 416-417[View Page 416-417] "6 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. "if you knew the meaning they have to the ears of scholars, you would see that I did very wrong to apply such absurd names to my little fellow-creatures, and that I am bound to rectify my error. More than that, my dear madaln, I mean to consult-you as to the new names ;- and if we can fix. upon proper and pleasinDg ones, it is my intention to leave a prietty legacy in my will to tfiese interesting children." "Mr. Gridley," said Mrs. Hopkins, " you 're the best man Hever see, or ever. shall see, . . . except: my poor dear Ammi.... I 'll do jest as you say about that, or about anytlhing else in all this livin'" world." "Well, then, Mrs. Hopkins, what shall be the boy's name?" "Byles Gridley H-Iopkins!" she answered instantly. "Good Lord!" ,said Mr. Gridley, " think a minute, my dear madam. I will not say one word,--only think a minuth, and mentioil some name that will not suggest quite so many winks and whispers." She did think something less than a minute, and then said aloud, "Abraham Lincoln Hopkins." "Fifteen thousand -children have been so christened during the past year, on a moderate computation.' "Do think of some name yourself, Mr. Gridley; I shall like anything that you like. 'To think of those dear babes having a fund - if that 's the right name- on purpose for 'eem, and a promise .of a legacy,- I hope they won't get that till they're a hundred year old!" "What if we change Isosceles to Theodore, Mrs. Hop- kins? That means the gift of God, and the child has been a gift from Heaven, rather than a burden." Mrs. Hopkins seized her apron, and held it to her eyes. She was weeping. "Theodore!" she said,-"Theodore! r{. , , THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 417 M[y little brother's name, that I buried when I was Dnly eleven year old. Drownded. The dearest little child that ever you see. I have got his little mug with Theodore on ,it now. Kep' o' purpose. Our little Sossy shall have it. Theodore P. Hopkins,--sha'n't it be, Mr. Gridllley?" "Well, if you say so; but why that P., Mrs. I, opkins? Theodore Parker, is it?" "Does n't P. stand' for Pemberton, and is n't Father Pemberton the best man in the world - next to you, Mr. Gridley?" "Well, well, Mrs. Hopkins, let it be so, if you like'; -if you are suited, I am. Now about Helminthia ; there can't be any doubt about what we oulght to call her, -surely the friend of orphans should be remembered in nftming one of the objects of her etarity." "Cynthia Badlamn Fund Hopkins," said the good woman triumphantly, -" is that what you mean. " "Suppose we leave out one of the names,-- four are too many. I think the general opinion will be that [-Helmintha should unite the names of her two benefactresses, - Cyn- thia Badlam Hopkins." "Why, law! Mr. Gridley, is n't that nice;? -- Minthy- and Cynthy, - there ain't but one letter of diffeilence! Poor Cynthy would be pleased if she could know'that one of our babes was to be called after lher. She was dreadful fond of children." On 'one of the sweetest Sundays that ever nmade Oxbow Village lovely, the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Pemberton was summoned to officiate at three most interesting ceremonies^ -a wedding and two christenings, one of the latter a double one. * page: 418-419[View Page 418-419] "8 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. The first was celebrated at the house of the Rev. Mr. Stoker, between the Rev. Cyprian Eveleth and Bathsheba, daugh'ter of the first-named clergyman. He could not be present on account of his great infirmity, but the door of his chamber was left open that he might hear the marriage service performed. The old, whllite-haired minister, as- sisted, as the papers said, by the bridegroom's father, con- ducted the ceremony according to the Episcopal form. When he came to those solemn words in which the husband promises fidelity to the wife so long as they both shall live, the nurse, who was watchiing, near the poor father, saw him bury his face in his pillow, and heard, him murmur the words, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" The christenings were both to take place at the same service, in the old meeting-house. Colonel'Clement Lind- say and Myrtle his, wife came in, and stout Nurse Byloe bore their sturdy infant in her arms. A slip of paper was handed to the Reverend Doctor on which these words were written -"The name is Charles Hazard." The solemn and touching rite was then performed; and Nurse Byloe disappeared with the child, its forehead glis- tening with the dew of its consecration. Then, hand in hand, like the babes in the wood, marched up the broad aisle -- marshalled by Mrs. Hopkins in front, and Mrs. Gifted Hopkins bringing up the rear the two children hitherto known as Isosceles and Hlelmintha. They hadbeen well schooled, and, as; the mysterious and to them incomprehensible ceremony was enacted, maintained the most stoical aspectl]of tranquillity. In Mrs. Hopkins's words, , They looked like pictcrs, and behaved like ancl s." That evening, Sunday evening as it was, there was a " * X , 'X THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 419 quiet meeting of some few friends at The Poplars. It was such a great occasion that the Sabbatical rules, never strict about Sunday evening, --which was, strictly speaking, secular time,- were relaxed. Father Pemberton was there, and laster Byles Gridley, of course, and the Rev. Ambrose Eveleth, with his son and his daugliter-in-law, Bathsheba, and her mother, now in comfortable health, Aunt Silence- and her husband, Doctor Hurlbut and his wife (Olive Eveleth that was), Jacob Penhallow, Esq., MLrs. 'Hopkins, her son and his wife ,(Susanr Posey that was), the senior deacon of the old church. (the admirer of the great Scott), the Editor-in-chief of the Banner and Oracle," and in the background, Nurse Byloe and the priv- ileged servant, AMistress Kitty Fagan, with a few others; whose names we need not mention. . The evening was made pleasant with: sacred music, and the fatigues of two long services repaired by such simple refections as would no1t turn the holy day into at day of labor. A large paper copy of the new edition of Byles Gridley's. remarkable work was lying on the table. He never looked so happy,--could anything fill his .cup fuller? ,In the course of the evening Clement spoke of the many trials through which they had passed in commort :with vast numbels of their countrymen, and some of' those peculiar dangers which Myrtle hadlhad to encounter in the course of a'life more eventful, and attended with more risks, perhaps, than most of them imagined. Bult Myrtle, he said, had always been specially cared for. Ht wished them to look upon the semblance of that protecting spirit who had been faithful to her in her gravest hours of trial and danger.' If they would follow him into one of the lesser apartments up stairs they would have an opportu- nity to do so. page: 420-421[View Page 420-421] 420 THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. Myrtle wondered a little, but followed with the rest. They all ascendedl to the little projecting chamber, through the window of whichi her 'scarlet jacket caught the eyes of the boys paddling about on the river in those early days when Cyprian Eveleth gave it the name of the. Fire- hang-bird's Nest. . The light fell softly but clearly on the dim and faded canvas from which looked the saintly features of the mar- tyred woman, whose continued presence with her descend- ants was the old fiamily legend. But undernea;th it IMyr- tle- was surprised to see a smnall table withi some closely covered object upon it. It was a mysterious arrangement, made without any knowledge on-her part. "Now, then, Kitty!"Mr. Lindsay said. Kitty Fagan, who had evidently been taught her part, stepped forward, and removed the cloth which concealed' the unknown object. It was a lifelike marble bust of Master Byles Gridley. ' "And this is what you have been working at so long, - is it, Clement?"Myrtle said. "Which is the image of your protector, Myrtle?" he answered, smiling, 'Myrtle Hazard Lindsay walked up to the bust and kissed its -marble forehead, sayihg, "This is the face of my Guardian Angcel." THE END. Cambridge: Stereotyped and Printedl by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. '
