Harland_Jessamine.txt topic ['13', '324', '378', '393']
CHAPTER I.
TOUNG girl lay upon a lounge in the recess of
an oriel-window. If disease held her tliere, it
had not altered the contour of the smooth cheek,
or made shallow the dimples in wrist and elbow
of the arm supporting her head ; had not unbent
the spirited bow of the mouth, or dimmed the glad light
of the gray eyes. Most people called these black, de-
ceived by the shadow of the jetty lashos. They were
wide open, now, and the light of a sunny mid-day streamed
in upon her face through the window, yet the upper part
of the irid was darkened by the heavy fringe that matched
in line the well-desfined brows. Her hair, also black,
with purple reflections glancing from eveiy coil and
fold, was braided into a coronal, and about the heavy
plait knotted at the back of the head was twisted a half-
12 JESSAMINE.
wreath of yellow jessamine. Her skin was dark and clear,
but she had nsiially little color ; her forehead was not re-
markable for breadth or height ; the nose was a nonde-
script, and the mouth rather piquant than pretty, with
suggestions of wilfulness in the full, lower lip, and the
slight, downward lines at the comers. Her dress was
white muslin, with no ornament beyond the gold clasp
of her girdle, and a spray of jessamine at her throat.
The casement was canopied with the vine from which
this last had been plucked. Hundreds of bright bells
were swinging lazily in the warm breeze, and were tossed
into livelier motion and perfume by the kisses of brown-
coated bees and vivid humming-bii*ds. Heightening the
glow of the tropical creeper, while they relieved the eye
of the spectator, drooped still, lilac clusters of wisteria,
and these the girl put aside with impatient fingers when
she raised herself upon her elbow to obtain a better view
of the outer scene. A flower-garden, lively with Spring
blossoms, opened through a wicket in the white fence
into a church-yard green and level on the roadside
green likewise, but swelling into long ranks of unequal
and motionless billows behind the building. This was
an ancient 8tructm*e, as was shown by the latticed win-
dows with rounded tops, and the quaint base of the
steeple that yet tapered gracefully into a shimmering
point against the pale noon of the sky. But loving eyes
had watched it, and reverent hands guarded it against
decay. The brick walls were sound, the masonry of
gray stone about windows and doors smooth and solid
with cement made hard as the stone by years and
weather. The sward was shaven evenly, and the two
great elms at the entrance to the rural simctuary were
JSB8AMINE. 13
the pride of the region. A double row of these trees
bordered the road for a hundred yards in either direc-
tion, and now offered shade and coolness to an orderly
herd of horses tethered beneath them. A few handsome
equipages were there, two or three stately family car-
riages and several jaunty buggies, but most of the ve-
hicles to which the animids were attached, bore the stamp
of rusticity, hard usage, and infrequent ablutions, while
the preponderance of roadsters and ponderous draught-
horses over blooded stock, betokened that in this, as in
other agricultural districts, the beautiful was held in sub-
ordination to the useful. The little church, thanks to the
taste of the present pastor and the economical proclivi-
ties of past generations, had escaped the vulgarizing in-
fluence of "a good coat of paint." Slow circles of
lichens, hoary and russet, had toned down the original
ruddiness of the bricks, and green mosses dotted the
slated roof. It stood on the edge of a cup-like valley,
surrounded by mountains. So near was the lofty chain
on the north-east, that the rising sun sent the shadow
of the Anak of the range " Old Windbeam," across the
graveyard to the foot of the sacred walls ; so remote on
the west that the Day-god looked his last upon the fertile
pastures, winding streams, and peaceful homesteads, over
hills round and blue with distance.
The watcher in the oriel-window saw neither flowers
nor elms; noticed the throng of patient dumb horses
and motley collection of carriages as little as she did the
mountains, near and far. Every feature was stirred with
exultant wistf ulness, and her eyes never moved from a
certain window of the church from which the inner
shutters had been folded back. The house was densely
14 JESSAMINE.
packed with living beings she could see through this
galleries and aisles, as well as pews, and dimly, in the
dusky interior, she discerned an upright and animated
figure the orator of the occasion. Into the heat and
hush of high noon heat fragrant with waves of odor
from resinous woods, and clover-fields, and garden-borders
a hush to which the tinkling bells of browsing kine in
4he meadows, and the hum of bird and bee close by,
brought a deeper lull instead of interruption ^flowed a
voice sonorous and sweet; now calm in argument or
narrative now, breaking into short, abrupt bursts of im-
passioned declamation ; anon, rising with earnest, majes-
tic measures, most musical of all, that brought words
with the varied inflections, to the rapt listener. Smiles
and tears came to her with the hearing ; light that was
fflory to the eyes ; softness that was tenderness, not sor-
fow, to the senBitWe mouth.
When the speaker's tones were drowned by the storm
of applanse that shook the church, and the mass of human
heads swayed to and fro as did the cedars in Old Wind-
beam's crown on gusty Winter nights, the girl fell back
upon her cushions and fairly sobbed with excitement.
" My hero I my king 1 "
A slight bustle in the hall distracted her attention, and
warned her of the necessity of self-control. A man's
voice questioned, and a woman's provincial and drawl-
ing replied, and steps approached the parlor.
" Here's a gentleman wants Mr. Fordham, Miss Jes-
sie," said an ungainly country girl, opening the door.
A tall figure bowed upon the threshold.
" I am an intruder, I fear," he said, taldng in at once
the facts of the young lady's inability to rise from her
JE88AM1NE. 15
sofa, and the confusion that burned in her dark cheek at
the unexpected apparition. "But they told me at the
hotel below that I should find Mr. Fordham here. He is
my cousin."
The glow remained in all its brightness, but it was
painful no longer, as she held out her hand.
"Then you are Mr. Wyllys?" smiling cordially.
" Tou are very welcome."
She waved him to a chair near her lounge with an air
of proud, but unconscious, grace, that did not escape the
visitor.
" I am sorry you did not arrive in season to participate
in the celebration of our Centennial. Tou know, I sup-
pose, that Mr. Fordham is the orator of the day ? "
Warily observant, with eyes that habitually looked
careless, and were never ofE guard, Mr. Wyllys remarked
the smile and glance through the window at the church,
which accompanied this bit of information, but his reply
evinced no knowledge of atight beyond what was conveyed
by her words.
"I should be ashamed to confess it, but I was not
aware until this moment that any public celebration was
going on, unless it were a religious service in the church
a saint's day or other solemn festival. Is this, then, the
anniversary of a notable event in the history of your
lovely valley ? "
There was a tincture of commiseration for his ignorance
mingled with her surprise at the question that must have
diverted the stranger if his sense of humor was keen. Her
answer was grave as befitted the importance of the subject.
" The founder of this colony among the hills was a
direct descendant of the Scotch Covenanters one David
16 JESaAMlNE.
Dundee, from whom the settlement took its name. He
emigrated with a large family of sturdy boys and girls,
and his report of the rich lands and genial climate of his
new home drew after him many others ^all from his
native land most of them his former friends and neigh-
bors. They cleared away forests, built houses, dug, and
ploughed, and reaped, and worshipped God after the
fashion of their fathers, having, within fifteen years after
David Dundee's establishment of himself and household
here, erected the substantial church you see over there.
At the time of the breaking out of the French and Indian
war, there was not a more prosperous and happy commu-
nity in the State. In response to the call to arms, the
bravest and best of the young and middle-aged men
formed themselves into a company and marched away to
fight as zealously and conscientiously as they had felled
the woods and tilled the ground. A mere handful and
most of these infirm from age and disease remained
with the women and children, upon whom devolved much
and heavy labor if they would retain plenty and comfort
in their homes. They* were literally hewers of wood and
drawers of water ; they sowed the fields and gardens, and
gathered in the crops with their own hands these heroic
great-grandmothers of ours 1 ^herded their cattle and re-
paired their houses, besides performing the ordinary tasks
of housewives. And one and all ^they learned and
pmctised the use of fire-arms, kept muskets beside cradles
and kneading-troughs, and when they met for worship on
Sabbath, mothers carried their babies on the left arm, a
gun upon the right. One day, late in April ^perhaps as
fair and sweet a day as this news c^me to this secluded
hamlet that a large body of ^ the enemy 'chiefly Indi-
JE88AMINB. 17
ans and half-breeds was approaching. Providentially,
old David Dundee was at home on a furlough of three
days ^he asked no more ^that he might rally somewhat
after the amputation of his left arm in hospital. He had
the church beU rung (it was a present from a Scottish
lord, and it hangs still in the steeple), and after a brief
consultation, upon the green, in front of the * kirk,* with
the wisest of his neighbors a council. of war from which
women were not excluded ^he collected the entire popu-
lation into the church, first allowing them one hour in
which to bury or otherwise secrete their valuables. The
feebler women and the children were sent, for safety, into
the cellar, which extends under the whole building ; the
lower parts of the windows were barricaded with feather-
beds and mattresses, with loop-holes through which guns
could be thrust, and these stout-hearted matrons and
young girls volunteered to defend. The men were mus-
tered in the galleries. A sentinel from the bell-tower
soon gave warning that the foe was in sight From their
loop-holes the colonists saw their houses and barns fired,
their horses and other stock maimed and butchered, gar-
dens, fields, and orchards wantonly laid waste ; but not
a woman wept or a man swore or groaned in the crowded
church. On they came, flushed with success, ravening
for human blood. David Dundee spoke twice before the
uproar without made hearing, even of his stentorian
voice, impossible. ^ Hand your fire 'till ye hear me gie
the word I ' he said, when his small army looked to him
for orders, as savages and half-breeds rushed forward to
surround the building. A minute later ' The Lord have
maircy upon their souls, for we'll hae nane upon their
bodies 1 Fvrel^
18 JE88AMINR
" The fight was a fierce one, and lasted until nightfall."
*^ * Then,' says the chi'onicler of the story ^ seeing that
the enemy had withdrawn a little space, we thanked the
God of battles, and took some refi-eshment ; then set
about earing for our wounded and preparing for the
renewed attack we believed the savages were about to
make. Finding the hurt of our leader, David Dundee,
to be mortal, and that our ammunition was well-nigh
exhausted, and being, in consequence, sore distraught
in spirit, we gave ourselves anew to prayer then^ stood
to our a/rms / '
" Wasn't that grand 1 " the girl interrupted herself to
say ^her wide eyes all a-light with fire and dew.
" Glorious 1 One likes to remember that upon such a
foundation as your Dundee and his followers our Ke-
public was built," assented the listener. " And, then ? "
" And, then," taking up the words with singleness
of interpretation and a grave simplicity that nearly pix)-
voked the auditor to a smile ^^ the darkness closed down
and hid the foe from their sight. With the dawn came
a glad surprise. The invaders had retreated, bearing
their dead and wounded with them. The garrison had
lost but twenty in all five of them being women.
They were buried in the graveyard over there with
the exception of the rugged old chieftain, who was
interred directly under the pulpit. All this happened
a hundred years ago. When Mr. Fordham was here,
last summer, the committee having the centennial an-
niversary in charge, requested him to deliver the oration."
"I am somewhat surprised that he has never mentioned
this new distinction to me, although I knew his modesty
to be equal to his ability," said the visitor.
JESSAMINE. 19
The black brows were knit and the Up cnrled.
" It is ' no distinction ' to him to deliver an historical
address to a crowd of yeomen, you may think and
rightly I His consent to do this is a proof of his kind-
ness of heart and willingness to oblige his friends. I
understand as well as you do, that our pride in the one
event that has made our valley memorable in the history
of our country, may seem overstrained to absurdity in
the eyes of others. But there are some in Mr. Fordham's
audience who appreciate his talents, and all admire.
Listen I " her f oi'ehead smoothing as the applause broke
forth again.
Mr. Wyllys was too well-bred to recall to her mind
what she should have learned from his frank avowal
of ignorance of her cherished tradition, namely ^that
the "one event" had been, in that hm'rying modem
age, forgotten by the world outside the noble amphi-
theatre of hills. The country girl had told the story
well ; er face had been an engaging study while she
talked, and there was novel refreshment in her naive *
belief that the tale must interest him as much as it did
herself. Otherwise, he might have found the recital a
bore.
"You misunderstood me if you imagined that I in-
tended to sneer did me an injustice you will not repeat
when you are better acquainted with me. The highest
honor that can be awarded the American citizen is the
opportunity to serve the people. And my cousin any
man might well be proud of the compliment conveyed
in the invitation to be speaker on an occasion like this.
The theme should be, of itself, inspiration. I am dis-
posed to quaiTcl with him for excluding me from th
20 JS8BAMINB.
namber of his hearers. His reserve on the subject of
the appreciation that meets his worth and talents every-
where is sometimes trying to the temper of those who
know how to value these, and the reputation they have
won for him."
^^ He is singularly modest But that is a characteristic
of true merit," said the young lady, laconically. " Yotl
came down from Hamilton to-day i ''
'^ I did I " with a slight shrug of the shoulder and a
comic lifting of the eyebrows. ^^ Actually arising at four
o'clock to take the train. I saw the sun rise, for the first
time in twenty years. Tour home is very beautiful, Miss
Kirke."
" We think so. I ought to, for I was born here and
have known no other. But I am not Miss Kirke only
Miss Jessie. My elder sister is in the church. When
she comes home, she will play the hostess better than I
do."
'' Excuse me for saying that you are scarcely a compe-
tent judge on that point."
She met the gallantry with the half -petulant expression
and gesture that had answered bis allusion to his cousin's
" new distinction.'^
^^ I did not say that to provoke flattery. Apart from
the truth that my sister is my superior in nearly every-
thing that goes to make up the digmfied lady, she is, just
now, in better physical trim than I can boast. I sprained
my foot a week ago," smiling, and blushing so brightly
as to arouse the spectator's curiosity ^^and I am for*
bidden to use it, as yet."
She turned her face to the window as the crash of
a brass band proclaimed that the oration was $t an
JESSAMINE. 21
end. While she beat time on the sill to the patriotic
strains the visitor inspected the room and its appoint-
ments.
It was a square parlor, low-browed and spacious, and
wainseoated with oak. Venerable portraits adorned the
walls, and the furniture belonged to the era when ma-
hogany was plentiful and upholstery expensive, if one
might judge from the disproportion in die quantity of
polished wood and that of cushions. A modern piano
was there, however, and the carpet was new and hand-
some. The lounge on which Jessie lay was evidently the
workmanship of a neighborhood carpenter, but was far
more comfortable than the stately sofas at opposite ends
of the apartment, being broad and deeply cushioned, and
covered with a pretty chintz pattern. An old china
bowl, full of pond-lilies, was upon the centre-table ; tall
vases of the same material and antique style stood on the
mantel, and a precious cabinet of carved wood Mr.
Wyllys wondered if the owners knew how precious ^was
in a far corner. The most conspicuous ornament of the
room was a large picture that hung over the mantel. It
was a portrait of the second daughter of the house, taken
several years before, for it represented a giri of sixteen,
kneeling beside a forest spring. She had just filled a
leaf-cup with water, and, in the act of raising it to her
lips, glanced at the spectator with a smile of saucy
triumph, ^a face so radiant with roguish glee as to win
the gravest to an answering gleam. The likeness was
striking still, and the painting excellent. The figure was
spirited, the attitude one of negligent grace, and the
accessories to the principal object were well brought in.
A vista in the woods revealed the craggy front of Wind-
22 JESSAMINE.
beam, and about the old beech, shading the spring, clang
a jessamine in full flower.
Mr. Wyllys got up to take a nearer view of the picture,
and Jessie looked around.
" That is one of my father's treasures," she said, with-
out a tinge of embarrassment or affectation at seeing
him intent upon the scrutiny of her portrait. " It was
painted by H " pronouncing a celebrated name.
^^ He spent a summer in this neighborhood, four years
since. He was with us on a picnic to the wishing-well :
every county has a wishing-well, hasn't it? and there
made the first sketch of that picture."
" A neat way of informing me that he was struck with
her attitude and face, and asked the favor of reproduc-
ing them upon canvas 1 " reflected the guest.
" It is a masterpiece 1 " he said aloud.
He marvelled, inwardly, at the paternal devotion or ex-
travagance that had tempted the master of the unpretend-
ing manse to make himself the owner of what he knew
must be a costly work of art.
Jessie answered as if he had spoken.
" Mr. H gave it to my father, who had been atten-
tive to him during a severe illness."
She scanned the new-comer narrowly while his regards
were engaged by the painting, never dreaming that he
was quite conscious of the scrutiny, and prolonged his
examination purposely that she might have time and op-
portunity for hers. He stood fire bravely, for his mien
of easy composure did not vary by so much as the nervous
twitch of a muscle ; his attitude was one of serious atten-
tion ; his eyes did not leave the picture.
A tall, lithe figure, with a willowy bend of the should-
JESSAMINE, 23
ers, slight, but perceptible, especially when he spoke, or
listened to her; fair, almost sandy hair; bine eyes; a
pale, and by no means handsome face, inasmuch as the
forehead was narrow, the cheeks thin, the mouth large,
and tlie luxuriant beard had a reddish tendency in the
mustache, and where it neared the under lip, each of these
particulars and the tout ensevrMe awoke in Jessie's mind
disappointment, which found vent in a little sigh and a
droop of the comers of the mouth as she withdrew her eyes.
Then, silence abode between them for awhile. The
music of the band had ceased, and whatever were the con-
cluding exercises of the celebration in the church, they
were inaudible in the great parlor, where cool shadows
slept in the comers, and the scent of pond-lilies and
jessamine steeped the air into languorous stillness. It
would have seemed like a dream to a romantic or imagi-
native man, and the glory of the place and hour been the
figure among the pillows on the couch, her dark cheeks
stained red as with rich wine ; the sultry yellow of the blos-
soms in her hair and upon her bosom making more black
her wealth of hair, more clear her olive skin, the while,
forgetful that she was not alone, she watched with parted
lips and eager, love-full eyes, for the coming of her lord.
We shall have abundant proof, hereafter, that Mr.
Wyllys was the reverse of romantic, and that his imagi-
nation never misled his judgment, but aesthetics was a
favorite study with him, and his taste being good, he de-
cided within his calm and patronizing self that the hour
spent in the " best room " of the Dundee parsonage was
not utterly wasted.
He had had a study in color and of more kinds than
that which met the eye ^if nothing else.
CHAPTER n.
;EEE they are 1"
The low exclamation, fraught with delight and
ill-suppressed impatience ^genuine and artless as a
child's drew Mr. Wyllys to join Jessie's lookout
at the window.
The road and church-yard were full of the retiring
crowd, and a group of three persons was at the wicket-
gate. A white-haired man, of dignified and benign pres-
ence, bowed somewhat under the weight of his three-
score years and ten, walked with his ann about the
shoulders of one youthful and erect, who retarded liis gait
to suit the measured tread of his companion.
" Stand back 1 don't let him see you until he comes
in I " ordered Jessie ; and Mr. Wyllys retreated without
having made other observation of the lady at Mr. Kirke's
side, save that she was of medium height and neatly
dressed.
Mr. Fordham's face brightened with pleasure and
JESSAMINE, 26
amazement at sight of the figure standing at the head of
Jessie's sofa.
" Orrin ! you here ? "
" In body and in spirit, Roy I "
Jessie's eyes were busy, as their hands lingered in the
hearty clasp of greeting.
"What a contrast I " she thought, 'twixt pity for the one
and exultation in the other.
The epithet most aptly descriptive of Roy Fordham's
features and bearing was "manly." The broad brow;
the hazel eyes, rather deeply set, that looked straight
into those of the person with whom he talked; the
resolute mouth and square chin ; his upright carriage,
stalwart frame, and firm step all deserved it. His height
did not equal that of his cousin, but he seemed taller un-
til they stood side by side. Without relinquishing the
visitor's hand, he turned, with serious courtesy that be-
came him well, to the lady who had entered with him.
" Miss Kirke, allow me to present my friend and rela-
tive, Mr. Wyllys ! "
It was a formally worded introduction, for Miss Kirke
was punctilious in these matters. She bent her head
graciously, but with no effusive cordiality such as had
gushed forth in her sister's welcome to one with whose
name she was pleasantly familiar.
" We are happy to see any friend of Mr. Ford-
ham in our home," she said in a clear monotone that ac-
corded perfectly with her calm face and reposeful de-
meanor. " My father, Mr. Wyllys 1 "
The back of the latter was to the lounge when Miss
Kirk6 had committed him to the host's care, and betaken
herself to scftne other part of the house; but he knew that
26 JESSAMINE.
Roy 'W'as bending over his betrothed, smiling tender re-
proach into eyes that filled with happy, foolish tears at
his query " Have you "been very lonely ? '*
" Not at all 1 I have enjoyed the morning intensely.
I could see into the church very plainly, and hear much
that was said. It was almost as good as going myself." *
" I told you you would be reconciled to the disappoint-
ment by noon."
'' But not in the way you meant I "
The wilful ring was in the voice, loving as it was.
Mr. Wyllys' visage was a model of bland deference,
and his answers to Mr. Kirke's remarks pertinent, the
while he was reflecting, " You are likely to have lively
work on your hands, my good cousin, witli your Kate. I
should hardly have cast the part of Petruchio for you,
either."
"I think I will have mine brought to me here, to-
day ! " he heard Jessie say, softly, when dinner was an-
nounced.
Roy's reply was to lift her in his arms and carry her
across the hall to the dining-room, where one side of the
. table was taken up by a settee heaped with cushions.
She pouted and laughed as he laid her down among
these.
" I believe you imagine that I am losing moral volition
as well as bodily strength I I have taken my meals in
this d la fairy princess style for seven days," she added,
to Mr. Wyllys, when they were all seated " have per-
sonated Cleopatra and Mrs. Skewton to my own content
and my friends' amusement. I find it so comfortable
that I shall regret the recovery which will doom me to
straight-backed chairs, drawn up in line of battle against
JESSAMINE. 27
the table. If you want to know the fulness and delight of
the term, dolce far nientSy practise clumsy climbing
among our steep hills, and the fates may send you a
sprained ankle a not intolerable prelude to a month of
such luxurious indolence and infinitude of spoiling as I
am now enjoying."
" The indolence and the petting might be less to his
taste than they are to yours," replied her father, indulg-
ently.
" Don't you believe it ! " said Jessie, with a saucy flash
of her great eyes across the table at the guest. " I have
a notion that both would be altogether to his liking.
Unless I am mistaken, he has had Benjamin's share of
these luxuries already."
" You have been telling tales out of school, Roy 1 "
said his cousin, threateningly, as Mr. Fordham laughed.
Jessie anticipated the reply.
" You are wrong and the accusation is unflattering to
my perceptive powers. You betray your ease-loving pro-
pensities in every motion and accent. Don't frown at
me, Euna 1 I am complimenting him, although he may
not suspect it. Indolence not laziness, mind ! but the
graceful laisser-faire which sometimes approximates the
sublime is the least appreciated of the social arts."
Mr. Wyllys answered by a. quotation :
" * Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet tlran toil the shore
Than labor in the deep mid-ooean.' ''
" The gospel of ease, of which Tennyson is the apos-
tle 1 " said Hoy. " Sleep is never sweeter than when it
comes to the laboring man, nor is the shore so welcome
28 JESSAMINE.
to him who never leaves it, as it is to the mariner who
has gained it by toiling through the deep mid-ocean."
Jessie made a dissenting gesture.
" Lejeu vaut'il la chanddle f "
" Yes if rest and ease be the chief goods of life,"
was the rejoinder.
It was made gently and affectionately, but Jessie ap-
pealed to Mr. Wyllys, in whimsical vexation.
"Wouldn't anybody know that lie is a college pro-
fessor ? He is a merciless logician, and logic was always
a bore to me. 1 don't know the difPerence between a
syllogism and a sequence. Poor Euna 1 what a fearful
trial she had in her pupil 1 "
" You use the past tense, I observe 1 '.' Mr. Wyllys re-
marked, demurely.
Everybody was tempted to badinage in talking with
her.
" Because my days of nominal pupilage are over. The
trial remains in full force."
" You may say that, my dear." Mr. Kirke laid a
caressing hand upon her head. " Your sister and I would
hear the slander from no one else."
Miss Kirke said nothing, only smiled in a slow, bright
way, peculiarly her own. While Jessie could not speak
without action, the blood leaping to cheek and lip as did
the fire to her eye and ready retort to her tongue, her
sister sat, serene and fair, observant of every want of
those about her, graceful in hospitality, hurried in noth-
ing, careful in all she said and did. She must have been
twenty-five years old, Wyllys decided, but she would look
as young at forty, after the manner of these calm-pulsed
blondes. The soft brown hair was put plainly back from
JESSAMINE. 29
her temples ; her features were like her father's, Greek
in outline, but more delicately chiselled ; her eyes were
placid mirrors ^not changeful depths. Her dress was a
dun tissue that yet looked cooler than Jessie's muslin, and
her lace collar was underlaid and tied in front with blue
ribbon. Mr. Wyllys had an eye and a critically correct
one for feminine attire, down to the minutest details,
and he approved of hers as befitting her age, position, and
style.
He noted, moreover, with surprise and approval, that
there was not a touch of rusticity in the appointments of
the table and the bill of fare. Old-fashioned silver, mas-
sive and shining ; china that nearly equalled it in value,
and cut-glass of the same date, were set out with tasteful
propriety upon a damask cloth, thick, snowy, ' and
glossy, and ironed in an arabesque pattern. From the
clear soup, to the ice-cream, syllabubs, and frosted cake
which were the dessert, each dish bespoke intelligent
and elegant housewifery. Yet the only servant he saw
was the lumpish girl who had admitted him. She re-
moved and set on dishes without a blunder, decent and
prim in a white cape-apron, directed, Mr. Wyllys was
sure, in every movement, by the mistress' eyes, unper-
turbed as these seemed.
Crude brilliancy mature repose thus he described
the general characteristics of the sisters' behavior, by the
time the meal was over. Both were strong, both women of
intellect and culture. One was as self-contained as the
other was impulsive. He had never before and his ac-
quaintance with the various phases of American society
was extensive ^met the peer of either in farm-house or
country parsonage.
30 JESSAMINE.
" I should as soon have looked for rare orchids in a
daisy-field," was his figure.
The cousins went out for a walk in the afternoon, a
ramble that led them by a zig-zag path, to the summit of
Old Windbeam, They had climbed the hugest boulder
of his knobby forehead, and sat upon it in the shadow of
a low-spreading cedar, smoking the cigar of contentment,
and surveying at their leisure the magnificent panorama
unrolled beneath them, when Orrin laid his hand upon
his friend's knee, with a half laugh that had in it a quiver
of wounded affection.
" Why have you left me to find all this out for myself,
old fellow ? Did you doubt my sympathy, or my discre-
tion ? "
Roy did not turn his head, but his fingers closed
strongly and lingeringly upon his cousin's.
" I doubted neither. There was nothing I could tell
you until very lately. I came to Dundee, last September,
to pass my vacation at the hotel in the village below.
There were excellent hunting and fishing hereabouts, I
had been told, and I brought letters of introduction to
Mr. Kirke from Dr. Meriden and Professor Blythe, who
were his college friends. Before my return to Hanailton,
I asked and obtained his permission to correspond with
his younger daughter, confiding to him my ulterior
motive for the request. He consented and kept my
secret. Our letters were such as friends might exchange,
and mine were usually read aloud to her father and
sister. When I reappeared here at the beginning of our
intermediate vacation ten days ago, she received me
without suspicion or embarrassment. She never knew
what my real feelings toward her were until last week
JESSAMINE. 31
the day of the accident. We were walking together when
Bhe slipped and fell. In the alarm of the moment, for
she nearly fainted with the pain, and 1 thought the hurt
far more serious than it afterward proved to be^ I spoke
words that could not be misunderstood nor recalled. Not
that I would recall them 1 They secured for me the
great blessing of my life."
His voice changed here. Up to this sentence the story
was a quiet recitative he might have learned by rote, and
uttered at the bidding of one he felt had a right to hear
it. The lack of spontaneity did not ofPend the auditor.
He appreciated his cousin's richer and fuller nature suf-
ficiently to understand that the most abundant springs
of affection and passion lay too far below the surface
to be easily forced into view. He saw, too, that the
confession of his wooing and winning was made with
pain ; that the spirit to whose exceeding delicacy of text-
ure and sentiment few did justice, shrank from the rev-
elation, even to his nearest of kin. He doubted not that
when the " alarm " of which Koy had spoken, cleft the
sealed stone, the hidden waters leaped to the light with
power that swept reserve, humility and expediency before
them ; that Jessie had listened to pleadings more fervent,
to vows more solemn than are poured into the ear of one
in ten thousand of her sex.
" Does she recognize this truth ? " he speculated within
himself. "Or does she the petted darling of an old
man and an only sister receive all this as the tribute due
her charms ? account her flippant talk, flashing eyes, and
schoolgirlish arts an equitable exchange for this man's
whole being and life % "
Hifl tact was marvellous to womanliness. His tone
32 JESSAMINE.
took its key from 'that which last met his ear; was
slightly tremulous purposely subdued.
" Thank you for allowing me to share in your new
happiness I I need not tell you how heartily I congratu-
late you-^how fervent is my wish that your wedded life
may be all sunshine. I believe the lady of your choice
to be worthy of your regard. I am sure she will have
the best husband in the land."
Koy griped his hand hard.
" You are kind to say it. It is a step 1 might well
tremble to take ^this asking a young girl who has lived
in an atmosphere of love and indulgence^ and known
care only by hearsay, to share my toils, to divide with me
the burden of whatever sorrow Providence may send ine
in discipline or judgment ; to endure my caprices, be
patient with my faults be loving through and above all."
Orrin held down his head to hide a smile,
" I am continually reminded when the theme of our
discourse is *dear, delightful woman,' of what Willis
says of his chum in his * Slingsby Papers ' : ' It is sel-
dom one meets with a spark of genuine chivalric fire
nowadays. Job lit his daily pipe with it.* If another
lover were to talk to me as you do, I should accuse him
of rank affectation. I believe you feel all you say. Miss
Kirke should be a proud and happy woman."
" She cannot abide that title," said Eoy, smiling.
" And, indeed, it suits her as ill as it sits well upon Eu-
nice."
" Is that the elder sister ? I thought she was ' Una.*
That would be a fitting name for the chaste beauty.
I glanced down, involuntarily, for the tamed lion couch-
ant beneath her chair, when Miss Jessie spoke it."
JESSAMINE. 33
" She is * Eunice ' to everybody else. They had not
the same mother, and there is a difference of ten years
in their ages. The first Mrs. Kirke was, I judge, a se-
date pastoress who looked well after her household and her
husband's flock. Her praise is still in the churches of
this region. She died when the little Eunice was at the
age of five. Four years afterward^ Mr. Kirke brought
to the manse a beautiful woman city born and bred, re-
fined, accomplished, and delicate. She fell into ill-health
very soon. Bland as this climate seems to us who live
80 much further North, it was harsh to her. She was a
South Carolinian, and her fondness for her old home
grew into longing during her residence among these
mountains. Her invalidism became confirmed after ihe
birth of her babe. In memory of the sunny bowers in
which her girlhood had been passed, she gave it the fan-
ciful ^you may think fantastic name of Jessamine."
" It is odd, but pretty, and it suits her."
" Her fondness for the vine and fashion of wearing
the flower may appear to you and to others a girlish
whim. In reality, they are the motherless child's tribute
to the memory of the parent whom she recollects with
fondest devotion, although she was but five years old at
her death."
" She told me she had known no home but this valley.
The sisters were not educated in the country, I take it ? "
" The elder graduated with distinction at Bethlehem.
It was her mother's dying reqiiest that she should, at a
suitable age, be sent to the Moravian Seminary at that
place. She was thorough and conscientious in her stud-
ies, as in everything else, cultivating her talents for
music and modem languages with especial diligence that,
34 JES8AMINE.
as she has told me, * it might not be necessary to send
little Jessie from home to school.' The younger sister
has had no teachers except Eunice and their father, who
is a fine classical scholar."
"And a man of far more than ordinary ability, I
should suppose. Why has he buried himself alive in this
out-of -the- world region ? "
" Because he is essentially unworldly, I imagine. He
lias here ample opportunity for study, and he loves his
books next to his children. Then, his attachment to the
parsonage and to his people is strong. . ^ I was ambitious
of distinction in my profession, once,' he said to me the
other day, *but that was before my wife's death.' It
may sound like exaggerated sentiment, but I believe he
means to live and die in sight of her grave. I have
learned from Eunice something about his love for her,
and his grief at her death.
" I have given you this sketch of the family history
that you may better comprehend w^hat passes in the
household. My lodgings are at the hotel, as are youre,
but most of our time will, of course, be spent at the Par-
sonage. I want you to know and like them all particu-
larly Jessie. It may be that you can be of service to her
while I am abroad."
" What does she say to that scheme 1 "
" I have said nothing to her about it. I dread the
task I" Roy looked very grave. "Her father agrees
with me that it is wiser to be silent on the subject until
my plans are definitely laid. I would prolong the clear
shining of her day while I can."
He arose, apparently anxious to dismiss the subject.
"We must go I Eunice's tea-table is ready at sunset."
JESSAMINE. 35
"He cannot trust himself to discuss this matter of
their separation," said Orrin, inly, following the rapid
stride of his thoughtful cousin down the moimtain.
"One tear from his pert Amaryllis would reverse his de-
cision at this, the eleventh hour. ' Lord I what fools these
lovers be I'"
The manse meadows were gained by a rustic foot-
bridge spanning the creek which skirted these. Two
young men, whom Mr. Wyllys rightly supposed to be
members of the " Committee upon Orator of the Day,"
were waiting here to speak to Mr. Fordham, probably to
solicit a copy of his address for publication, the consider-
ate kinsman further surmised, and sauntered on to the
garden, leaving the other to follow when he would. Lin-
gering among the fragrant borders, momentarily expect-
ing Roy to rejoin him, he lost himself in a rose labyrinth,
so affluent of bloom and odor, tliat he did not know
wliere he was until warned of his proximity to the oriel-
window by Jessie's voice. Through a crevice in the
creepers, he could scq her lounge set in the spacious re-
cess, and the back of her head as she raised it to speak to
some one within the room,
"Eoy described him as distingui and fascinating 1"
she said, in an accent of chagrin. " I call him positively
homely 1 Don't you ? "
Orrin should have moved assured as he was that he
was the subject of unflattering remark. In his code, this
was a reason why he should remain acquiescent and
hearken for more. Perhaps others who make higher
pretensions to the minor moralities would have done like-
wise.
" He is not handsome, certainly," returned Miss Kirke.
36 JESSAMmB.
"You are disposed to be unreasonable beciause your ex-
pectations were unduly raised.''
" By his cousin who told me he was the most popular
man in Hamilton one of the glass-of -fashion and mould-
of-form kind, you know," continued Jessie, in increasing
vexation. " Am I to be blamed if 1 lose at least the out-
posts of my temper when, having expected an Adonis, I
behold"
" A gentleman 1 " Her sister finished the sentence.
" Since he is that, dear, and Mr. Fordham's cousin, ho
should be safe from our criticism. At least, while he is
our guest."
There was a pause before Jessie spoke again.
" Darling Euna ! are you displeased with me ? " she
said coaxingly. " I was cross and unladylike, I acknowl-
edge. I ought not to I did not expect that he would be
Roy's equal in appearance or manner, but I am grievously
disappointed."
" Not to be outdone in generous candor, I own that I
am, also," was the reply.
The elder sister approached the window as she said it ;
and Mr. Wyllys effected a skilful retreat.
The labyrinth had its terminus in a matted arbor near
the church-yard fence. Sitting down in this, the subject
of the recent discussion indulged himself in a hearty
but noiseless fit of laughter.
CHAPTER III.
I REIN WTLLYS could afford to laugh at criticism
that would have provoked a thin-skinned, or moder-
ately-vain man to anger, if not to hatred. For he
was aware that his cousin had spoken the bare truth
when he represented him as the admired Crichton of
the town which was their home. His features and form
were as I have portrayed them. He had neither beauty
nor absolute symmetry to recommend these. He was not
wealthy, nor yet eminent in his profession. A lawyer in
fair practice, gained principally by the exercise of other
gifts than legal acumen, he was yet a person of mark in
the community. The reason assigned for this would have
been the same, in effect, by every acquaintance, whether
the witness were the fine lady of ton who made sure of
him before issuing her cards for the grand ball of the
season, or the Milesian who "stepped intil his Honor's
office to ask him could I take the law of Teddy O'Rourke
for this black eye, or is it himself tliat will be afther
taking the law of me for the two I've give Jma f "
38 JESSAMINE,
"Not regularly handsome, 1 admit, my dear," Mrs.
Beau Moude would say. " But there is something more
potent, as more subtle in influence in his presence and
speech. Do you know I think a fascinating homely man
the most charming creature in the world? And Mr.
Wyllys' deportment, tone, and conversation are unsur-
passable. Other men may be as well-bred, but there is a
nameless Something about his manner that is exquisite
and irresistible."
While Murphy would expatiate by the hour upon the
" satisfaction a man experienced in daleing wid a pairf ect
gintleman, and it was Misther Wyllys had the beautiful
way wid him I "
That he danced elegantly, sang expressively, and was a
pleasing pianist ; that he was conversant with the current
literature of the day ; that the stereotyped cant known
as " art criticism " fell from his tongue aptly, and as if
no one else had ever used the same phrases in his audi-
tor's hearing, undoubtedly contributed largely to his
popularity; but these accomplishments were secondary
in power to the nameless Something lauded by Mi's. Beau
Monde. His own sex recognized the charm more will-
ingly than they are wont to acknowledge the claims to
favoritism of one who is the woman's darling of his set.
The graceful insouciance that artfully concealed his con-
sciousness of the degree long ago awarded him, as " Pet
of the Petticoats;" his gay good-humor, his fund of
anecdote ^nd repartee, made him as welcome at bachelors'
wine and dinner-parties as in mixed companies. If his
negligent saunter through the assembly-room, his delib-
erate articulation and grave, deferential bend before his
fair vassals, provoked ill-nature to the charge of puppy-
JESSAMINE. 39
isra, the censor was silenced by tales of his proficiency
in manly sports; how in the gymnasium and billiard-
room, upon the cricket-green and skating-pond, he had
few equals, so seldom found a superior, that his exploits
had passed into a proverb.
After all, however, his brightest bays were gained in
his character as carpet knight. Trained coquettes and
professional flirts, flushed by a long course of victories,
had put confident lances in rest and run vain-glorious
tilts with him. He was always ready to accept the
challenge ; ready to become, for a few days, or, in ex-
ceptionally tough cases, a few weeks, the apparent captive
of the ambitious belle. The approach of proud humility
than which nothing could have been more opposed to
servility of spirit or demeanor; the gradual, and finally
rapt absorption of his every faculty and sentiment into
his unspoken adoration of her whose chains he wore;
the delicate appreciation of each shade of feeling and
thought, and prescience of each desire; above and be-
neath all, his singular faculty of adaptation to the various
phases of character set for his reading, could hardly fail,
first, to disarm, then to flatter, finally to captivate.
Up to this period of his career, when he had entered
his nine-and-twentieth year, nobody said openly of him
that his business in life was to win hearts for the pleasure
of breaking them. If he had broken any, his victims
made no moan. In the cases of the veteran coquettes
alluded to just now, sympathy would have been thrown
away. There were stealthy whispera to the eflFect, how-
ever, that others, less wary, had been drawn into his
snare ; had dreamed of love, and, awakening to anguished
perception of their folly, had shrouded bleeding hearts in
40 JESSAMINE.
robes of pride or Christian resignation, and lived on out-
wardly as little changed by the experience as was he. It
is superfluous to remark that these cautious rumors lent
lustre to his fame instead of tarnishing it ; that dozens of
intrepid damsels were wrought by the hearing into a
Curtius-like spirit of self-immolation ; panted to leap,
bedecked in their bravest array, into the gulf which
yawned to destroy the safety and peace of mind of the
whole sisterhood of marriageable women in the classic
town of Hamilton. The envious, nor the prudish, stig-
matized him as a lady-killer. The coarse term would be
an insult to his refinement, his notable honor, and equally
notable kindness of heart. He was, beyond question, the
most charming of men, a social diamond of the first
water, although the obtuse daughters of the Dundee
manse had not at once discovered it.
What wonder that lie, sitting among the roses in the
arbor, found infinite diversion in the recollection that he
was pronounced by Jessie " positively homely " utterly
unattractive beside her handsome lover, and that her
more discreet sister had mildly echoed her disappoint-
ment?
He enjoyed the novelty of the incident and the laugh
it gave him was sincere in the half-spoken regret
" What a pity I cannot publish this ve^ict and the man-
ner of its delivery, in Hamilton."
With that, he pulled down a branch of musk roses nod-
ding above his head ; broke it, tore off the petals until he
had a double handful, and buried his face in the odorous
mass. Roy came up with him as the sound of low, sweet
singing moved the stillness of the garden and the sunset
into music. The songstress was Jessie, lying within her
JESSAMINE, 41
oriel-window alone, and gazing at the amber ocean bil-
lowing above the purple hilb at the outlet of the valley.
Her rich contralto voice was like the colored light and
the musk roses, Orrin thought, in no wise tempted to dis-
like or underrate her because shQ did not value him
aright. That mistake would rectify itself, by and by.
He conld stay a fortnight in Dundee as well as not.
Roy had pressed him to do so, and he began to think he
would.
This was what Jessie sang, never dreaming of the audi-
ence, fit, but few, hidden in the blossoming thicket :
*^ Sleeping, I dreamed, Love dreamed, Love, of thee ;
O'er the bright- wave, Love, floating were we.
Light in thy fair hair played the soft wind,
Gently thy white arms round me were twined ;
And as thy song, Love, swelled o'6r the sea,
Fondly thy blue eyes beamed, Love, on me."
Neither of the cousins stirred until the song was fin-
ished, when a robin in the nearest elm began his vespers.
" This is Arcadia 1 " said Orrin, ravishing another
spray ^great white roses this time, with creamy hearts.
" It is home ! " replied the other, softly.
Orrin appeared not to hear him.
" Or the Vstle of Cashmere 1 '^ he went on, drawing in
long breaths of perfume. " Here are
^ Timid jasmine buds that keep
Their odors to themselves a^ day,
But when the ptmlight dies away
Let the delicious secret out ^!
roses of Kathay and bulbuls and Nourmahal I "
43 JESSAMINE,
Roy looked at him over Lis shoulder.
" If j'ou have pulled enough of Eunice's rare, early
roses to pieces to satisfy your destructive proclivities, we
will go in," he said, pleasantly.
Something in his friend's eye and tone disinclined him
to pureue the therao. He could not suspect him of an
intention to ridicule Jessie or her home, but he felt the
absence of sympathy with his own mood.
" Are they hers t " asked the other, brushing the
wasted leaves in an unheeded shower to the floor.
Roy paid no regard to the emphasis. He was strangely
averse to talking about Jessie at that moment.
" They are," he said, leading the way to the house, Orrin
treading on the scattered flakes of fragrance, to gain
the door of the bower. " She is an able florist. There
is not another garden like hers for many miles around."
^o one excepting Jessie observed that Mr. Wyllys did
not accost her of his own accord while they were at tea,
which was set out upon a small table near the large win-
dow in the parlor. She, used to petting, and what might
have been considered by an impartial judge more than
her share of general attention, and a trifle nervous withal,
in her desire to produce an agreeable impression upon
Roy's kinsman, did remark it, and was conscience-
smitten by the fear lest her chagrin at beholding a man
so unlike her pre-conceived ideal had been reflected in
her manner. She seized an opportunity, therefore, when
Roy rolled the table to its accustomed place in the middle
of the apartment, to court Orrin's notice.
. " So you ascended our Mont Blanc this afternoon ? "
she said, smiling engagingly. " I must retract my saucy
innuendoes touching your fondness for ease."
JESSAMINE. 43
He was quite near her, but he must have been inatten-
tive, for he turned his face to her, with " Pardon me 1
I did not catch your observation I "
" It was nothing so dignified as an observation," she
retorted, coloring and laughing. " If I wer he
said many pleasant things of me, else I should fear that
he had taken a dislike to me, from the beginning, that
he thought Professor Fordham might and ought to have
done better. I must make him like him for myself not
merely because I am his kinsman's choice."
From which soliloquy the reader will perceive that
Mr. Wyllys had led off with a winning card.
CHAPTER IV.
"WEEK had passed since the Dundee Centennial,
and life in the parsonage had been in outward as-
pect like the weather still and sunny. The old-
est Dundeeian had never known before so early
and genial a season. Eunice's roses were in lux
u riant bloom ; the clover-meadows were pink and fra
grant ; the forests had burst into full leafage ; the straw
berries upon the southern terrace of the kitchen-garden
were swelling globes, white on the nether, scarlet upon
the upper sides.
The ways of the household, always simple and method-
ical, were not otherwise now. Hoy spent a couple of
hours each forenoon with his betrothed. Orrhi rarely
made his appearance until two or three hours after din-
ner when the cousins came up from the hotel together,
and did not return to their lodgings before ten o'clock at
night. Mr. Kirke had daily interviews with Mr. Wyllys
in the course of the walks and drives they took in com-
64 JESSAMINS!.
pany, and brought home accounts of his suavity, wit, and
varied information, which were endorsed by Eunice, which
Jessie heard with growing bewilderment at the chance or
purpose that withheld her from participation in what was
freely enjoyed by her father and sister. Even their
music practice had not melted the ice that lay, an impas-
sive mass, just beneath tlie surface of his deportment
whenever he approached or addressed her. per liveliest
sallies and most friendly overtures, met with a response,
ready and civil, indeed, but so unlike the gentle courtesy,
the kindliness and graceful deference of his behavior to
Eunice that nothing but a spirit determined and unsuspi-
cious of evil as was our heroine's could have kept her to
her resolve to win his friendship.
Koy found her veiy charming under the light veil of
pensiveness this secret solicitude cast over her." She
never intimated to him that his kinsman had not met her
expectation in every respect. She was thankful, instead,
that her betrothed did not see for himself that all was not
right between them. Some day, when the frost was
quite dispelled, they would laugh over it together over
her fears, her innocent stratagems for the accomplishment
of her object, Orrin's stateliness, and Roy's blindness to
her perturbation. She had patience and hope. She
would await the vanishThent of the mist, passing content,
meanwhile, with the heart-riches that were hers beyond per-
adventure. She had not heard of the German University
scheme. It was unlike Hoy Fordham to hang back from
making a revelation which must come in the end, which
delays could not soften, and which could cause no more
distress now than if it were withheld until the close of
his vacation. His judgment said that Jessie would
JESSAMINE, 55
better endure the prospect of the separation while he
was with her, to lead her thoughts to the great and man-
ifest' ad vantages that would accrue to him from the year
of foreign study, and overleaping the gulf of absence
to paint the delight of re-union. Mr. Kirke represented
that Jessie was a girl of sense and strength ; that she
would be better pleased to be confided in, and consulted
as his f uture^wife, than be blinded and petted as a child ;
and Hoy, acquiescing in this opinion, still put off the
evil hour. Was it loving consideration for her or
presentiment that struck him with dumbness ?
The lovers sat on the piazza, one afternoon, just after
the sunset repast Jessie's " trial effort " had been made
with ease that augured rapid recovery, but she was for-
bidden to walk without assistance, or to bear her whole
weight upon the injured foot,
" While I feel strong enough to run a race with you
down to the mill," she said, pointing to a venerable build-
ing, a quarter of a mile distant. " You can form no idea
of the perversity of the restless thing that used to be a
manageable member, when I had leave to walk, or sit
still as I liked. I have a terrific attack of the fidgets ! "
" Penalty of insubordination ^a return to the lounge
and oriel- window I " smiled Roy, in warning.
" That would be no punishment at all 1 When I am
strong and active again I mean often to play helpless,
upon that dear old lounge, to lie within the window and
dream. I love it 1 "
Her voice sank in an intonation of ineffable tenderness
that went to Koy's heart in a pang, not a thrill. This
evening he meant to tell her that for many months she
must sit alone in what he had named their ^^ betrothal- ^
56 JESSAmNE.
nook ; " that the year they had agreed upon as the period
of their engagement mnst be passed apart, the one from
the other. He had made up his mind to another thing.
If she asked the sacriiice at his hands, he would abandon
the cherished hope of years, the fruition of wliieh seemed
now so near, and she should never guess the extent of his
self-denial. She was so dear to him ! this incarnation of
frolic, passion, and of fancies gay, graceful, as whim-
sical as various but all beautiful to him ; she, whose
eyes deepened and softened and glowed with the tender
cadence of those three words " I love it ! " He had
never succeieded in telling Orrin why he loved her. His
spoken analysis of her character was cold and imperfect.
Had Orrin uttered aloud his unflattering, " pert Amaryllis,"
Eoy would have resented the epithet warmly, yet ac-
knowledged, secretly, that his own portrait of her was
liardly more like the reality. He could not describe her
trait by trait, feature by feature. But for himself, he
knew that she was the embodied glory of his life ; that
every ray that kept his heart warm and bright with a
very summer of gladness, could be traced to her, her
love, and the influence the consciousness of this had upon
his thoughts of the present, and dreams of days to come.
" The oriel is enchanted ground to me. We will build
one like it, in our own home, and cover it with jessamine
and wisteria," he said, noting, with loving amusement, the
crimson flush that always bathed her face at direct allu-
sions to their marriage. " Orrin shall sketch it for me.
He is a universal genius, and his taste is marvellous.
His bachelor apartments are a notable exception to any
othei*s I ever saw. They are furnished aVmost as well,
kept ahnost as neatly, as if he were married."
JESSAMINE. 57
"Isn't he a bit of a Sybarite?" queried Jessie, ab-
ruptly. " If he has a fault or, no ! you wouldn't own
that he has but, isn't his foible a love of luxury of
comfort, if you prefer to call it so ^bodily and mental ? "
" He is certainly not indolent. I know no other man
who.will work more persistently, although quietly, to gain
a coveted end. And if he loves the ease of the flesh,
why so do we all don't we? His philosophy teaches
that it is folly for one to be miserable, when he can as
readily be happy and comfortable. His has been a pros-
perous life, thus far. He has known little of sorrow or
trial. Should these come, they will ripen, not sour him,
for the original material is good. I am the more anxious
that you should know and appreciate him because ^"
The gate swung open to admit a visitor a farmer's
lad, in whose attempts at self-education the young pro-
fessor took a lively interest.
"I found this in the field on the other side of the
mountain, to-day," he said, laying a piece of stone in Mr.
Fordham's hand. " 1 think there's ore in it."
Koy inspected it closely.
"Miss Jessie" he gave her no more familiar address
in the hearing of common acquaintances "is your
father in his study ? "
" I believe so," she replied, eyeing the intruder less
amiably than her lover had done, in the anticipation of
the prolonged interruption.
" Mr. Kirke has an acid that will test this in a few min-
utes," continued Fordham to the boy. " Will you excuse
me for a little while?" turning to Jessie with a smile
loving for herself, and entreating her forbearance for his
jproUgd.
t*
68 JESSAMINE.
Her ill-liumor vanished instantly under the benignant
ray.
" Certainly ! " she replied, nodding cordially to the
bashful lad. " lie is the noblest man God ever made I "
she said aloud, when she was alone.
She leaned back in her easy chair, her hands folded in
blissful contentment, enjoying the breeze from the moun-
tains, the sunset clouds, the incense from the flower-
garden, and the hum of the mill-wheel, mentally recapit-
ulating her hero's perfections, until her heart ached with
happy sighs, and she saw the landscape through an irides-
cent haze.
" I am a baby ! " was her indignant ejaculation, as she
cleared her eyes with an impatient brush of her hand. " I
grow more ridiculous every day 1 "
As a means of growing wiser, she fell to watching her
sister and Orrin Wyllys, who were busy tying up wan-
dering rose-bushes in Eunice's pet labyrinth. Mr. Wyllys
had his back to Jessie, when she first observed them. He
was fastening back a branch which Miss Kicke held in its
place, and their hands were very close together. It may
have been this circumstance, it may have been the heat of
the day, or the reflection of a bunch of pink moss-roses
overhead it could hardly have been anything which her
companion was saying which brought the delicate roseate
flush to the face usually pale and calm. His attitude was
far too dignified and respectful to hint the possibility of
gallant badinage on his part. Bond-fide love-making
was, of course, out of the question, since they had not
known each other ten days.
"Euna is handsome 1 " mused her sister in complacent
affection. ^^ What a high-bred face and bearing she has 1
JESSAMINE. 59
She looks the lady in her morning-gowns of print and
dimity ; but that lawn with the forget-me-not sprig be-
comes her rarely. I am glad I insisted upon her putting
it on. But she wouldn't let me fasten the lilies-of-the-
valley in her hair 1 Her only fault is a tendency to prim*
ness. She and Mr. Wyllys get on admirably together.
He evidently admires her, and it is a treat to her to have
the society of a cultivated gentleman. I know," smiling
and blushing anew, '^ it is a salvo to my conscience to see
them satisfied with each other's company, needing Roy
and myself as little as we need them. I should else
blame myself for our seeming selfishness."
Bambling on discursively, she struck upon an idea, too
fraught with delightsome mischief not to urge her to im-
mediate action. Eunice had turned her head away, and
Orrin was concealed by a tall shrub. The grassy alley
leading from the porch to where they were standing
would not give back the sound of footsteps. How fright-
ened and amazed the careful elder sister would be, if she
were to steal down the walk and present herself before
her ! How solemnly Orrin would look on while she sub-
mitted to be lectured for her imprudence, and how she,
in the end would triumph over her custodians, Roy in-
cluded (who, by the way, was staying away an unconscion-
able time), when she should demonstrate that she knew
better than they what she could do and bear ; that she
was none the worse for the escapade that had wrought
their consternation. She only regretted that she must
lose the sight of Roy's horrified visage when he should
return to discover her flight.
Her eyes gleaming with mirth, she arose cautiously,
favoring the unused joint, and stepped off ^ t})e low piazzai
60 JESSAMINE.
Even when she felt the cool, delicious turf under foot, she
steadied herself by grasping the nearest objects that of-
fered a support. Firet it was a clump of box, then the
stout prickly branches of a Japan apple-tree, then a fan-
shaped trellis, which would by and by be covered with
Cyprus vines. She would do nothing rashly would
come to her own by degrees. But when another step
would bring her within arms' length of the florists, she
trod firmly upon both feet, and feeling neither pain nor
weakness, laughed aloud in wicked glee, and took that
step. She saw Eunice start and grow white ; saw Orrin's
grave yet courtly surprise as he advanced to offer his arm.
Ere he could reach her, the treacherous ankle gave way
with a wrench that drove breath and sense in one quick
shuddering breath from her body.
As they left her, she heard, like a strain of far-off
music, a voice say in her ear, " My poor child 1 " had a
dizzy thought that strong arms Stronger than Eunice's
received her.
Then, all was a blank until she awoke upon her lounge,
hair and face dripping with wet ; the scent of sal volatile
tingling in her nostrils, and a cluster of anxious faces
about her. Eunice's was the first she knew. Hoy's next.
He was on his knees by her, chafing her hands. She
pulled them feebly from his hold, and clasped them about
his neck, hiding her eyes upon his bosom.
"O, Eoyl I was very wrong 1 very foolish 1 Don't
scold me."
" Hush I hush I " he said, soothingly. " Nobody thinks
of scolding you 1 If you apologize to any one, it must be
to this gentleman. He brought you into the house, and
JESSAMINE, 61
I suspect his arms want looking after more thanyonr foot
does."
He laughed, not quite steadily, in saying it, and Jessie
felt his fingers tighten upon hers. She flushed up rosily
was herself again, as she looked around for Orrin. lie
was in the rear of the family party, as was seemly, but
his eyes were bent upon her with a singular fixedness
the irids closing in upon a spark that fiashed and pierced
like steel. Involuntarily, she shut hers, for a second, as
if blinded.
He came forward at that.
" Don't believe him ! " said the same voice that had
sent its echo through her swoon. " I am none the worse
for the slight exertion. I consider myself very fortunate
in having been near enough to help you, when you fainted
am very thankful that you are better. Come with me,
Koy 1 Here is the doctor 1 If Jie scolds you, Miss Jessie,
please consider me your champion."
The doctor, being an old friend, did scold the " mad-
cap," who had, he for a while averred, undone his and
Nature's fortnight's work. Relenting, finally, at Jessie's
pretty show of penitence, he confessed that less harm had
been done than he had expected, and contented himself
with sentencing the delinquent to two days' strict confine-
ment to the sofa, and "serious meditation upon what
might have been the result of her imprudence her
reckless step."
" My misstep, you mean," said the incorrigible patient.
" If I had not lain here so long already as to forget
how to walk straightly and squarely, and to maintain the
centre of gravity, this would not have happened."
Altogether, the evening was gayer than usual to all.
63 JESSAMINE.
Jes8ie*& spirits were exuberant to a degree her sister
feared was hysterical, aud Orrin seconded her sallies
with a quieter humor, that amused the rest and enchanted
her.
" It was worth my while to faint 1 " she owned to him,
sotto voce J when he came up to say " Good-night." *' I
wish I had done it before I "
Her cheeks were red with excitement ; her eyes
laughed up into his with arch meaning that was very
bewitching and very indiscreet. His pupils contracted
suddenly to the blue spark, and his left palm covered
the little hand he held within his right.
" You are very kind 1 " was all he said with his lips.
" What treason are you two whispering there ? " ques-
tioned Eoy.
" Nothing that concerns you in the least 1 " answered
Jessie, saucily. " We will keep our own counsel won't
we ? " to Orrin.
He was too sensible to lie awake thinking, at an hour
when people with accommodating consciences and gutta-
percha hearts are wont to sleep soundly. Nor had he
ever contracted the unsafe and irrational habit of talking
audibly to himself one to which poor Jessie was ad-
dicted. Yet he had his thoughts as he put out the
candle in his bedroom that night.
" She is either a bom flirt, and over-anxious to practise
her calling, or she is the most charming, because most
novel compound of naivete, cleverness, and feeling that
has crossed iny path for many a day. In either case, she
is a study."
The best and the worst women were with him resolved
into that studies, all, and when they had fed his
JESSAMINE. 63
vanity and ministered to his individual gratification,
they were laid aside for other specimens. As the dis-
sector of men's bodies soon loses his reverence for wliat-
ever of divinity the common mind may discern in the
human form ; as the anemone and th^ nettle are to the
botanist but different combinations of stamen, pistil, and
petal, so your professed student of character, your
mortal searcher and tryer of souls, merges heart into
head in the practice of his art. Sorrow has no sacred-
ness ; Love no warning purity ; Pain no appeal to him.
Sensibilities are interesting only as they quiver and
shrink beneath his toucli ; Affection is his plaything ;
blasted hopes, withered and wounded hearts, are the un-
considered dehriB of the sacrificial honors done the ensan-
guined Moloch of his Self-love.
It is the fashion to call such ornaments of Society. A
better, because truer, name, would be the Thugs of
Civilization.
I ^
CHAPTER V.
R. SEPTIMUS BAXTER was President of
Marion College, situate in the beautiful town of
Ilamilton, lying two hundred miles to the north-
ward, and in another state than the mountain-
girded valley of which the Dundee Church and
the surrounding village were the chief ornaments. Dr.
Baxter was the nominal head of the faculty of professoi's,
and Mrs. Septimus Baxter was virtual autocrat of his
hoilie.
He was a little man, physically, at his best, which was
when he was in his own realm ^the area enclosed by the
walls of his lecture-room. There was, in popular phrase,
"no fit" to his clothes. His trousers bagged at the
knees, and" his coats hung in loose folds down from his
shoulder-blades, on the very day they left the tailor's
shop ; were shabby within twenty-four hours. He had a
trick of brushing the nap of his hat the wrong way in
his abstracted moods, and of twisting his forefinger in
JESSAMINE. 65
one bow of his white cravat until he dragged it into a
slovenly loop, two crumpled wisps depending from it.
Another and his most inveterate habit was, to tie his
handkerchief into a succession of tight knots while he
lectured, preached, prayed, and talked. Each marked a
step in ratiocination or a rise in interest in the matter
that engaged his mind until the climax of proof or
animation was reached, when he would begin to untie
them, one after the other, timing the process so judi-
ciously that " Amen 1 " or " Quod erat demonstrandum I ''
passed his lips as the released cambric swept through his
hand in a flourish prior to its restoration to his pocket.
Nevertheless, he commanded respect from students and
professors. His courage in grappling with crabbed or
ponderous themes ; the eagle eye that penetrated the
vapors of mysticism, detected the insidious thread of
sophistry, which, intertwined with legitimate argument,
was gradually but fatally guiding the inquirer away
from the truth ; the bursts of real eloquence, passages of
beauty and pathos, that starred the didacticism of his dis
courses, electrifying his hearers as the musical ring from
the desiccated tortoise-shell may have startled the god
who tripped over it these made him a hero to his
classes, a man to be consulted and reverenced by his co-
laborers. Moreover, he had a great heart within his
narrow chest, soft as a child's, generous to self-abnega-
tion, and full of ^such holy and Christian graces as love
the shade, while their imconscious aroma betrays their
existence to all who pass.
Mrs. Baxter had been a belle, and she would hardly
have cast a second glance upon the small and shabby
divine, but for two weighty reasons. By some unac-
66 JESSAMINE.
countable freak of Cupid, or of Fortune, the popular MiflS
Lanneau had counted her- thirtieth j^ear witliout exchanging
her celibate state for that which she languishingly avowed
would be preferable to one of her dependent nature and
seeking sensibilities. She laughed yet with her lips and
executed arch manoeuvres with her speaking eyes, when
unfeeling allusion was made in her presence to the
" crooked stick " that awaits the over-nice fagot gatherer,
and to the forlorn and aged virgin, also a wanderer in
woodlands, who answered the owl's " To-who ? " all the
freezing night with the despairing^" Anybody ! " But
at heart she was growing restless, if not unhappy, when
Dr. Baxter fell in her way. She was a litterateur^ as
well as a beauty, and her reverend suitor was a man of note
a distinguished clergyman, a savant and senior profes-
sor in a highly respectable institution of learning. She
had longed for a " career " all her life for a sphere of
decided influence social and literary. Would a more
promising avenue to this ever be offered her ? She over-
looked the ill-fitting coat, the dragged cravat, the inevi-
table handkerchief. As she put it, she " set the subjective
where it should always be placed above the grosser ob-
jective." In direct English she married the doctor, and
had for fifteen years made him an excellent wife. If his
testimony were of importance in this case and he was a
sturdy truth-teller he wanted no better.
I have said that he was a little man at his best. He was a
pygmy on a certain evening in the November succeeding
the Dundee Centennial summer. To begin with the
most severe of the dwai-fing processes to which he had
been subjected. It was a reception night in the presiden-
tial mansion. Mrs. Baxter had given a party the previ-
JE88AMINB. 67
Oils week, and now sat in state, as was the Harailtonian
usage, to receive the calls demanded from those who had
been the invitees on that occasion. The ceremony in its
mildest form would have been purgatorial to her spouse,
but she had aggravated the torture by personally superin-
tending his toilette. This accomplished, she entreated
him if he had one atom- of regard for her, to leave neck-
tie and handkerchief alone for that night ; walked him
into the parlor, and inducted him into an immense easy
chair directly beneath a bracket-light ; thrust an illumin-
ated folio one of her centre-table ornaments ^between his
fingers, and withdrew to her own chair a little way oflF, to
examine the effect.
" You are really picturesque, my love 1 '' she decided, in
honeyed patronage. " If you can only remember to sit
upright instead of slipping down in the lap of your chair
until your coat-collar shows above the back of your neck,
you will make a fine study for a sketch of * Learned
Leisure,' or something of that kind."
The poor man smiled resignedly, and began to turn the
leaves of his book. It was a sacred album, the work of
his wife's fair fingers, although he did not know this.
" I flatter myself you will find some choice bits there ? "
she said, modestly.
She was fond of talking about " bits," and " effects,"
and " tone," and " depth ; " of " chiaro-oscuro^^ and
" bas-reliefs," and " intaglios," and " antiques," useful
cant that forms the stock-in-trade of many an art-critic,
whose decrees pass current with a larger circle than the
clique which eulogized Mrs. Baxter's talents. She was,
in feature and coloring, a pretty woman still, in defiance
of her forty-five or forty-six years. Her brown eyes were
68 JESSAMINE.
lively ; the red of her complexion, if a trifle fixed and
hard, seldom outspreading the distinctly defined round
spots npon the cheek-bones, was hers honestly, as were
the glossy curls that showed no frost-lines, and the pearly
teeth she had trained her lips to reveal at every possible
opportunity. Her hands were plump, white, and small,
and^vould have been smaller had she exercised them less.
Like the teeth, they were too obtrusive. She could not
say " Good-day" to a passing acquaintance without part-
ing her lips in a wide smile over the milk-white treasures,
tucking away their natural covering in an incredibly
narrow fold above the ivory, and stretching it below into
a straight line which lost itself in creases that had once
been dimples. She had been renowned in her youth for
her vivacity, and had cultivated it into what nobody was
kind enough to tell her was frisky affectation. The ex-
tent to which the pliant fingers curved, and twined, and
twinkled, and sprawled, in the course of a convereation
of moderate length, was a thing of wonder forever to the
uninitiated spectator of her gambols. She added to this
gesticulation a way of plunging forward from her girdle
upward, when she waxed very animated, that threatened
to precipitate her into the lap of her fellow-colloquist,
after which she would lay her hand upon her heaving
bust, and sjvallow audibly, while awaiting a reply to her
latest delivei-ance. To sum up description in one word
Mrs. Baxter's speciality was Manner.
Iler friends were correct in one laudation. She was
amiable and kind-hearted in her way, as her husband was
in his. If she trafficked upon this excellence, made the
most of it, very much after the style in which she showed
off her teeth and hands, it was rather because display
JE88AMmE. 69
was her controlling foible, than throngh any design upon
the answering gratitude of lier beneficiaries. She was
dressed in black silk, with a jaunty velvet basqnine, a
scarlet scarf of Canton crepe fastened upon the riglit
slioulder with an antique cameo, and knotted under
the left, the fringed ends falling low down upon her
skirt.
She was just established in her comfortable causeusej
when the door-bell heralded a visitor.
" My dear Mr. Wyllys 1 " she cried, fluttering forward
to meet him. " You are doubly welcome when you come
alone. One sees you so seldom except in a crowd, that it
is a genuine pleasure to have a few moments' qui^t con-
versation with you."
" It is like yourself to excuse my unfashionably early
call with such gracious tact," responded the gentleman,
bowing low over her hand.
He shook hands with the doctor with less errvpresse-
mentj but most respectfully, and sank upon a divan near
the hostess.
" I have another engagement this evening, but I could
not deny myself the pleasure of paying my devoirs to
you in passing. I will not ask if you have recovered
from the fatigue of Thursday night " with an expressive
look at her blooming face. " I believe, however, it is
never a weariness to you to be agreeable, as it is to us
duller and less benevolent mortals. I am horribly cross,
always, on the morning succeeding a party. It is as if I
had overdrawn my account, in the matter of social enter-
tainment; borrowed too heavily from the reserve fund
intended by Nature for daily expenses. But this rule
applies only to people whose resources of spirits, wit, and
70 JESSAMINE,
general powers of pleasing, are limited. Ton are above
the need of such pitiful economy as we find neces-
sary."
" ShaU I undeceive yon ? " beamed the lady. " If the
doctor dear, patient martyr I were put into the witness-
box, he might tell sad tales, make divulgations that would
demolish your pretty and flattering theory. Doctor, my
love 1 Mr. Wyllys is anxious to know what was the
status of ray spiritual and mental thermometer, on the
morning after our little re-union^ last week 2 "
" Eh, what did you say, my dear ? "
He lowered his folio. His eyebrows were perked dis-
contentedly, and his forefinger was in the doomed bow
she had tied not fifteen minutes before.
Mre. Baxter tried, unsuccessfully, to frown down the
offending digit before she made reply.
" Mr. Wyllys has heard that I am like champagne,
^ stale, flat, and unprofitable ' with a dash of vinegar
when the effervescence wrought by social excitement is
off," vivified, by her mirthful misrepresentation of her
visitor's words, into radiance that revealed every molar,
and forced her eyelids into utter retirement.
" Ah 1 " The doctor smiled absently, and re-bent his
brows over the page, protruding his lips in a vicious
pout as he read.
" He disdains to notice the slander," resumed Mrs.
Baxter, unabashed at her failure to elicit a conjugal
compliment. " Seriously, Mr. Wyllys, I am thankful
for the guidance of reason and will that counterbalance
my mercurial temperament. My spirit resembles nothing
else so much as a mettled steed, whose curvettings are
restrained by an inexorable rein. But for my sober
JESSAMINE. 71
judgment, Impulse would have led me into an erratic
course, I fear."
Relaxing the tension of the fingers and wrist that had
pulled hard at an imaginary curb, and unclenching the
teeth from their bite upon the word " inexorable," she
sighed, reflectively.
" The combination is rare " commenced the gentle-
man.
" It is preposterous 1 " ejaculated the doctor, closing
the Russian-leather album with a concussion like the re-
port of a pocket-pistol.
" I think not, dear," said the wife, gently corrective.
" It is, as Mr. Wyllys says, a rare combination, but cer-
tainly not an impossible one."
" It is preposterous," reiterated the doctor, with a ruin-
ous tng at his cravat, " that a rational creature, who can
read and write, should waste time in disfiguring good,
honest paper with such incongruous, not to say blasphe-
mous, nonsense as I find here. It was bad enough for me-
diseval monks to deck the Word of Life in the motley
wear of a harlequin. Greek, German, black-letter text,
are, all of them, stumbling-blocks to the unlearned, di-
versions to the thoughtless. But when the sacred Script-
ures are bedizened into further illegibility by paint and
gilding, and illn^trated by birds, beasts, and even fishes,
daubed upon fields, azure, argent, and verde, the offence
becomes an abomination. Such profanation is offered
that divinest of pastorals, the twenty-third psalm, in tliis
volume," elevating it in strong disgust.
Mrs. Baxter arose and took it from his liand in time to
save it from being tossed to the table or floor.
"Tastes differ, my dear husband," was all she said,
72 JESSAMINE,
but her forbearance and real sweetness of temper called
forth a look of unfeigned respect from the amused spec-
tator.
" I wouldn't keep it in the parlor, if I were in your
place, Jane," the doctor expostulated, seeing her deposit
the folio upon a stand beyond his reach.
" I will not ask you to look at it again, love," ^still
amiably.
She returned to the subject when the critic had
helped himself to a volume which was more to his
taste.
" I saw few things when I was abroad, before my mar-
riage, that interested me more than the illuminated mis-
sals and breviaries preserved in convents, museums, and
private collections of vertu^^ she said to Mr. Wyllys.
" I am the possessor of a remarkably fine specimen of
the illuminator's art the gift of a dear friend and rela-
tive, now no more. I had not looked into it for years
until after I commenced my humble album, which, allow
me to observe, my excellent husband does not guess is
my handiwork. To return " the hands describing an
inward curve, and subsiding into an embrace upon her
knee " tlie best touches in my work were after my pre-
cious reliquary. I must show it to you. I am chary of
displaying it to non-appreciative or irreverent eyes. Con-
sequently it seldom sees the light."
Orrin followed her to an escritoire at the back of the
room, peeping covertly at his watch as he went. Mrs.
Baxter laid her hand upon her bust, and choked down
some rebellious uprising of memory or regret, as she un-
locked a drawer.
, " This is it 1 " mournfully, taking out a thin volume
JESSAMINE. 73
bound in gilded leather and carved boards, and redolent
of the scent of some Indian wood.
Orrin examined it in pleased surprise. He had ex-
pected to see an absurdity. He beheld a gem of its
kind ; a collection of Latin hymns, including the Stabat
Mater, Dies Irse, and Veni Sancte Spiritus, each page
encircled by a border of appropriate design, and delicate
yet rich coloring.
" I have never seen anything finer. I do not wonder
that you prize it highly. I thank you for showing it to
me," he said, sincerely. " By whom was it executed ? "
" My friend ordered it for me of an adept in his art,
then resident at Florence. I forget his name, but you
will find it cleverly concealed from the common eye in
some one of the convolutions of the title-page," was the
reply.
The fly-leaf adhered slightly to tjie page designated,
and Orrin read the inscription upon the former before
detaching it.
" ' Ja/ne *Lanneau^ from Oinevra. Florence^ Janua/ry
1st J 18 .' I have surely seen that handwriting before !
* Ginevra 1 ' " he repeated slowly, and the pretty name
fell musically from his tongue. " There is poetry in the
word ! "
" You would have said so, had you known her ! " Mrs.
Baxter winked away two unbidden tears that glazed her
eyes, without forming and dropping ^swallowed anew
and very hard. " She always reminded me of a plaintive
poem set to music. That is, in the later years of an exist-
ence which was all song and sunniness when it was fresh
and new." -.
Orrin fluttered a few leaves; commented upon the
74: jmSAMlNK
grace and finish of a decoration here and there, and went
back to the inscription. It was 'strongly like Jessie
Kirke's writing, but the resemblance was undoubtedly
accidental The one line had been penned, he learned
from the date, before she was bom.
" She was the Helena to my Hermia,'' pursued the
hostess. "We lived the same life until her marriage,
which preceded mine by five years. She was my senior
by some months, but in heart and soul we were twins ! "
pressing her hands gradually together, beginning at the
wrists, and passing upward to the finger-tips, to express
the idea of oneness. "And by a most extra-or-di-nary
coincidence, we both married clergymen 1 '^
" Another evidence of the perfect harmony of soul ex-
isting between you. Did I understand you to say that
she is not living ? "
" Alas 1 she has been in her grave for fifteen years. I
never saw her after her marriage, which was a surprise to
all her friends. We anticipated a brilliant union for her.
But she bestowed herself, her talents, her beauty, upon a
clerical widower who was twelve years older than herself.
My poor Ginevral it was a strange ending to her san-
guine dreams. Mr. Kirke was a scholarly man, it is true,
and a thorough gentleman, and of his devotion to her
there could be no doubt.- It was such worship as few
women can inspire. I believe that he tried faithfully to
make her happy, but my personal acquaintanceship with
him was very slight."
" Kirke 1 " repeated Orrin, more deliberately and with
less emphasis than was his wont, and he was always the
reverse of abrupt. His lazy articulation now was almost
a drawl. " 1 know a gentleman a clergyman of that
JE88AM1NE!. 75
name Eev. Donald L. Kirke, resident, now, and I fancy
for many years, at Dundee"
" It is the very same ! " Mrs. Baxter started tragically,
and leaned gaspingly toward him, her throat swelling like
a pouter pigeon's. " And you know him, you say ? Tell
me something about him about his family 1 My sweet
cousin left a child, I know. Does it still live ? Dundee 1
yes I that was the quaint Scotch name of my Ginevra's
new home. I have always associated it with ' The Cot-
ter's Saturday Night.' Tou recollect ^Dundee's wild,
warbling measures ' ? Do sit down and tell me all 1 "
"Tou should visit Dundee," said Orrin, sauntering
back to the fireplace, but declining the seat she offered.
" It is a beautiful valley sheltered from storms by a bar-
ricade of picturesque hills. I was there in May, and the
climate and flowers especially the wealth of roses, re-
minded me of sunny Provence. I became quite well ac-
quainted with Mr. Kirke. He is, as you describe him, a
thorough gentleman one of the genuine ^ old school '
handsome, refined, and scholarly. His daughters, of
whom there are two, are cultivated ladies. The younger
who is, I presume, the child to whom you refer is, I
have heard, very like her beautiful mother. You would
be interested in her, first, for your cousin's sake, but very
soon for her own. This matter of family likeness is a
curious one. I see now what was the resemblance that
puzzled me last Spring. Miss Jessie Kirke might easily
be mistaken for your daughter."
*' If she were, what a happy woman I should be ! " cried
the flattered lady, casting up her brown eyes, and raising
her clasped hands to a level with her chin. " The relief
afforded by your charming description is beyond expres-
76 JESSAMINE,
sion. I have never dp,red inquire respecting my lost dar-
ling's babe. And sbe is really a Lanneau! Heaven
bless her 1 I feared Tiow I feared ! to hear that she had
grown np an awkward rustic, whose faint likeness to her
parent would pain, not gratify me. Therefore I have
maintained no correspondence with Mr. Kirke since our"
excliauge of letters immediately after his wife's decease.
^Jessie Kirke!' what a riante^ jpiquante^ bewitching
name ! "
" I wish you could prevail upon her father to entrust
her to you for a time. She would be a feature in our
society this winter. Her face and manners are strikingly
attractive, and hers is a style of beauty that wiU improve
with years and knowledge of the world. Her bearing
and conversation have much of the fascination which is,
I suspect, a family gift. She will grow handsomer until
I cannot say when. Women, like leaves, have their
time to fade, and this trying season lies, with a large ma-
jority, a little on the bright side of thirty. The Lan-
neaus have not lost the secret they brought from fair France
the magic that purchases the gift of. perennial youth."
" Fie 1 fie 1 how you digress 1 I am dying for infor-
mation of my beloved young cousin, and you launch into
irrelevant gallantries flattery that is thrown away,' let
me tell you, upon one of my age and gravity 1 " frowned
Mrs. Baxter with her forehead, her lips openly refractory,
and her eyes dancing with delight. " Do sit down and
tell me more 1 "
^' I cannot, thank you 1 I have already bored you with
a visit three times as long as I meant it should be. Your
cousin does the family credit. I can award her no fiigher
praise. Au 7*evoir / "
JESSAMINE.
77
"One second 1 " she entreated, detaining him. " The
discoveries of this evening seem trifles to you. To me
they are an Event 1 I shall write to the precious lamb
to-morrow. Please give me her address in full."
Orrin dictated, and she wrote it upon her ivory tablets.
" Perhaps it would be as well not to mention me in
connection with this renewal of your intercourse with
Mr. Kii'ke's family,'' he said, carelessly. " Your friend-
ship will be the more welcome if it is supposed that it
has its root in your fond recollection of your lamented
relative. Excuse the suggestion^-but from what I have
seen of father and daughters, I am inclined to think
them sensitive and proud ^as they have a right to be.
Your tact hardly needed this hint, however. There is a
ring 1 I have loitered here shamefully 1 Do you know
that your beautiful drawing-room is likened, about town,
to Circe's cave ? "
CHAPTER VL
R. WTLLYS was careful not to repeat hi8 visit
within a week. He could trust to the natural
growth of the seed he had sown, and he wds too
politic to appear solicitous, on his own account, for
the resumption of cousinly intercourse between the
houses of Baxter and Kirke. He did not overrate his
influence with the would-be leader of Hamilton society.
Four days after his party call, he had a note from Jessie.
" Deab Cousm Orrin :
" I enclose a letter received last night from Mrs. Baxter,
wife of the President of Marion College. She is, I have
learned from this, my nearest living relative, outside my
immediate family circle, being my mother's first cousin.
I never heard of her until the arrival of this communi-
cation. My father knew; her, years ago, but did not re-
member whom she had married. I little imagined when
I listened to Roy's praises of his friend, Dr. Baxter, that
JESSAMINE, 79
I had any personal interest in, or connection with his
family. Mrs. Baxter writes, yon see, in an affectionate
strain, and is nrgent in her request that I should pass the
winter with her. My father and sister agree with me
that you are the proper person to consult with regard to
my answer to the invitation. Tou are, doubtless, ac-
quainted with Mrs. Baxter, and are certainly more aufait
to the usages of Hamilton polite society than we are.
" Tell me freely what you think I ought to do fieely
as if I were in blood, as 1 am in heart,
" Tour Kinswoman,
^ Jessie Kibeb."
"Here is an example of hereditary transmission that
would stagger Wendell Holmes himself!" thought
Orrin, scanning the epistle, letter by letter. "The
chirography of the girl, who could not write at the time
of her mother's death, is precisely similar to here as
similar as it is unlike that of the sister by whom she was
educated. It is a nut to crack for those who carp at the
idea that the handwriting is a criterion of character, who
attribute variety of penmanship to educational influences
entirely. What has my fair ^ kinswoman ' inherited
from her matronal progenitor besides her features and
carriage, and these sloping, slender Italian characters, I
wonder ? It may be worth my while to investigate the
question as a psychological phenomenon."
To secure the facilities for doing this, he resolved to
run down to Dundee the next day.
The early train he had condemned in the spring,
started now before daylight, and he called himself a fool,
as he took his place in the cold, smoky car, for making
80 * JESSAMINE.
the journey at all. Being mortal, he was liable to these
spasms of prudence and faltering of purpose, during
which he held serious questioning with Common-sense
leaving feeling out of the discussion whether he were
not squandering time and thought in prosecuting his
favorite pastime of winning and wasting hearts. He
knew that, viewed in the dead white light of sober judg-
ment, tested by commercial rates, his ambition to stand
chief victor in Cupid's lists, would be ignoble and uure-
munerative. He felt that he would himself tlius rate it,
had he no other aim in life. Aware, as he was, that he
kept step with his fellows in "business pursuits, that he
was intellectually the peer of those th crowd called
masters, he did not let the thought of adverse criticism
of his affaires du cceur weigh too heavily with him. It
was easy to persuade himself that since the world's'con-
querors and prophets, sages, warriors, and saints, had, each
in his time, esteemed the love of woman the worthiest
meed of valor, learning,* and piety ; had fought, gone
mad, and made shipwreck of faith, to gain and wear the
prize, leaving upon record the aspiration " to waste life
upon her perfect lips," alongside of heroic epics and re-
ligious meditations, his researches and successes in this
field of art, the mining and delving and polishing that
attended his explorations among the curiosities of woman's
affections and follies were lawful and dignified, and
should entitle him to an honorable grade in the school of
philosophers.
Apart from these cold-blooded considerations (a man
fiirt is always more cold-blooded than a woman coquetry
and the desire to conquer hearts being oftener a passion
with the latter than a deliberate plan) apart from these
JE88 AMINE. 81
I say, Orrin Wyllys was, as he would have said of him-
self, " not a bad fellow." He liked to give pleasure, to
be useful to his kind, to be thanked and praised for his
benefactions.
Finding myself, once upon a time, in the actual
presence and in social converse with one of the brightest
of modern (American) stars a man I had reverenced
afar off, as a mental and moral monarch among mortals,
I was disenchanted and appalled at hearing him say some-
thing like this :
" I have no patience with this talk about finding one's
truest happiness in promoting that of others. I believe
that man is best employed who makes the most and best
of Himself ! My business in life is to improve Myself
by every means at my command ^to make Myself, spiritu-
ally and intellectually, Ground and perfect as a star,'
without diverting my energies and wasting my sympa-
thies with projects for the good of my race. This is my
idea of true philanthropy."
" And the rest of mankind may go hang 1 " said a plain-
spoken auditor.
The Star shrugged his broad shoulders.
" Ce nH est pas mon affaire ! "
This was, substantially, Orrin's creed, but he had his
own notions as to the manner in which the cultivation of
Self was to be conducted, and being still some degrees
below the exalted plane of observation occupied by the
aforesaid Star, was not superior to the weakness of talk-
ing about philanthropy, even believing himself that he
did good for good's sake, and that his satisfaction in see-
ing others made happy through his instrumentality, was
pure benevolence. His charities were many-^^and open.
4*
82 JESSAMmS.
Indeed, Lady Patronesses shook their heads, smilingly,
at him while deprecating his " soft-hearted credulity "
and lauding his generosity, and his name was a synonym
among men for good-nature and lenient judgment.
Therefore, when he muttered ^** Just like my con-
founded amiability, this taking so much pains to benefit
those who may never appreciate my motives, nor be
grateful for what I have done ! " as he buttoned his over-
coat up to his chin and pulled on his fur-lined gloves,
he half believed that he spoke sincerely went systemati-
cally to work to arrange his projects with the best side
toward him ; &und substantial comfort in so doing.
Eoy had left his affianced to his guardianship, and her
action at this juncture might be fraught vidth important
consequences to her and to Roy himself. He could allay
Mr. Kirke's scruples, if he had any, relative to his daugh:
ter's acceptance of Mrs. Baxter's pressing ofEer of hospi-
tality and chaperonage, better in five minutes' talk than
by twenty written pages. He was anxious that Jessie
should pay the visit. She had taken a strong hold of his
fancy, and he could study her to advantage while she was
her cousin's guest ; be her cavalier wherever she went, by
virtue of the authority vested in him by her absent be-
trothed. Hamilton was dull this season. There was not
a woman in it whom he had not read from preface to
" Finis " ^and his enei^ies were chafing for lack of ex-
ercise in his noble vpcation. The prospect of Jessie's
coming ^the high-spirited child of nature, lively and lov-
ing, was very tempting.
But this was, he perceived, a digression, and he hastened
to regain the original line of thought. His scheme
which Mrs. Baxter must be suffered to believe was her's,
JESSAMINE, 83
instead of giving the country clergyman's daughter a
season in town, was a golden opportunity of improvement
of her mind and manners that should not be lightly cast
aside. She had, more than once, confidentially bemoaned
her inability to procure in Dundee the tuition in music
and German she fancied she needed to qualify her to fill
worthily the station to which Eoy had elected her.
The reader of human nature smiled a little just here.
" When, if the truth were known, the practical Pro-
fessor would be better pleased aye 1 and better served
in the long run, weriB his Jessamine to confine her ambi-
tion to the realms of cake, and bread, and butter making.
I have seen other women as mistakenly risk complexions
and eyes in poring over books, under the fond impression
that they were ^ qualifying ' themselves to be their hus-
band's ^ help-meets ' I What an age of shams is this ! "
Since, however,^ this was Jessie's delusion, it might as
well be indulged. She could have excellent music and
language masters in Hamilton. He would, himself,
snatch a few hours, weekly, that he might read German
with her. The readings would prevent him from rusting
in a language once familiar to him, as his own, and he
would find further compensation for his trouble in the
enjoyment he foresaw in guiding her eager mind through
the rich storehouses of literature a knowledge of Ger-
man would unlock for her. Waxing more complacently
benevolent, he dwelt upon the comfort and pleasure Mrs.
Baxter a wortliy, though ridiculous, creature would
derive from the companionship of her young friend.
The Lady President was a bom Patroness. The intro-
duction of the sparkling luminary he was sure Jessie
would become in the Hamiltonian firmament, would be
84 JE88AMmK
with her a work of pride and love. She would spare no
pains to make the novice's sojourn in her abode delight-
ful to all parties interested in it
Notwithstanding which irrefragable reasoning such
was the effect of atmospheric and other extraneous influ-
ences upon one in the undisputed possession of a sound
body, sane mind, and serenely approving conscience
Mr. Wyllys relapsed into discouragement several times in
the earlier stages of his journey ; wrote himself down an
ass for taking the trouble of a ten hours' ride into the
country at this gloomy season to accjomplish that, which,
after all, might have been settled by letter. Break-
fast by gas-light, a hard run through muddy streets to
catch the train; a seat in a damp, close-smelling car,
which was chilled, rather than warmed, by a stove-full
of green wood, were sorry tonics for preparing spirits and
temper for the duties of a new day. It annoyed the phi-
lanthropist that he could not put from his mind the vision
of Eoy Fordham's happy face as it shone upon his wak-
ing sight one July morning the first of the summer va-
cation. Valise in hand, he had burst into his cousin's
sleeping-room to say " Good-by," for he was off, by peep
of dawn, to Dundee and Jessie. Orrin remembered every
word that had been spoken ; how he had forborne to re-
mind the rapturous lover that this was the last visit he
could pay his promised bride before his departure for
Europe in August, and the calm surprise he had felt at
seeing " prudent," far-seeing Koy apparently oblivious of
all save present delight. Oddly, enough, it would have
been more agreeable to his trusty relative to think of the
absentee as a staid, studious, personage, whose affections
were always subservient to duty and judgment.
JESSAMINE. 85
Few of earthly mould ^snch are the freaks of imagi-
nation and the complications of nervous irritation are,
at all times, superior to like vicissitudes of purpose and
temper. I trust, then, that my hero will not suffer ma-
terially in the opinion of the exceptional minority when
I state that it was near noon ere he finally and stably
reassured his dubious mind that in this flying visit to the
parsonage, he was acting wisely for Himself, and, as
secondary, third and fourth rate considerations, for Jessie,
Hoy, and Mrs. Baxter. The lever that completed the
task of elevating his self-esteem from the slough of doubt,
was not the anticipation of Jessie's peraonal and mental
improvement, or Mrs. Baxter's gratified maternal long-
ings. It was the thought how the light imprisoned in
Eunice Kirke's berylline eyes, would break up to the
surface in the golden glints he had seen, at infrequent
intervals, dash their placid darkness; how her slow,
bright smile would greet his unexpected appearance, and
applaud his vivacious sallies ; the sweet monotone, many
a queen of fashion would give her costliest jewels to
imitate successfully, reply to his questioning. For he
would have many questions to put. This was a studious
autumn with the sisters. While Roy had laughed at
Jessie's lamentations over her lack of learning, protesting
that she " knew more already of books and men than any
professor's wife he had ever met," he had, in compliance
with her desire, and believing that active employment
would be wholesome discipline for her in the weary
months of their separation, arranged a schedule of
history, ancient and modern, French, German, and gen-
eral reading for her. Orrin had also visited Dundee in
the August vacation, accompanying Roy back to town^
^
86 JESSAMINE.
and not quitting him until he waved his farewell from
the pier to the slowly-moviug steamship "outward
bound." During those sad, precious "last days," the
disengaged pair were, of necessitjj often left to entertain
one another for hours together, and their decorous friend-
ship had matured naturally and gracefully into an
equally decorous intimacy. Orrin had marked passages
for Eunice's consideration in divera books they had
glanced over in company ; sent to her after his return to
Hamilton, Carlyle, Emerson, anJ Macaulay ; besides run-
ning down for a day in October, to bring a thick roll of
duetts, sonatas and etudes, and the whole of Mozart's
Twelfth Mass for Miss Kirke's practice in the lengthen-
ing evenings.
He had taken extraordinary pains to ascertain her
tastes,, and displayed his customary tact in ministering to
these.
" We are almost relations-in-law, you know 1 " had
been his only apology for attentions and gifts, and
Eunice had accepted all in simple good faith.
Her interest in his talk and her manifest liking for
him, were a more flattering tribute to his vanity than
was Jessie's frank cousinliness. I think it is always thus
with the tokens of favor vouchsafed to friend and ad-
mirer by reserved, self -concentrated women. While Jes-
sie was his especial study (or quarry) just now, he did not
disdain the goods the gods offered him in the esteem and
preference of the handsome elder sister. He had found
her eminently convenient when his motive was to pique
and mystify his cousin's betrothed by a feint of haughty
indifference, and he was too wise an economist to cast
aside what he had gained. He would be a clumsy
JESSAMINE.
87
diplomatist, indeed, were Jie to prove himself incompe-
tent to the management of two affairs at the same time.
If my attempted analyzation of a " fascinating man's "
principles and intentions-has seemed prolix to the surface-
reader, he will bear in mind that it is but a meagre
abstract of what Mr. Wyllys thought, felt, and reasoned
through the dreary November day, that did not see the
sun until a break in the clouds low upon the western
hills let out his light upon a sodden, wretched earth.
The late rays burnished Windbeam's coronal of cedars
into golden-green, but curling fleeces of mist clung about
his mighty chest and flanks, making him look grimmer
and blacker by contrast ; the valley was full of shadows,
purple and gray ; the old church was lightless save for
the one dazzling arrow which was shivered against the
slender tip of the spire, when Orrin undid the latch of
the parsonage-gate. Proven 9al warmth and roses were
things that belonged to the dead summer. Eunice's ever-
greens hardly redeemed the garden from desolation. A
trim arbor-vitsB hedge kept warm the southern border,
that would be gay in March with crocuses and tulips ;
the box-trees were the only leafy shrubs in the alley
down which Jessie had crept, to faint in his arms at the
other end. A thrifty holly, beaded with scarlet, mounted
guard at the left of the front steps, as did a cedar, cov-
ered with bluish-white berries, at the right. A stately
young pine he remembered as a favorite of Jessie's, filled
the air with its solemn sighing, while he awaited the
answer to his knock.
" So, Winter comes even to the Happy Yalley ! " he
moralized. " I ought to have known it, of course, only I
had not thought of it."
!^
88 JESSAMINE.
Patsey, the good-humored servant-girl, opened the
door, and welcomed Mr. Wyllys with the broadest of
smiles.
"Mr. Kirke and Miss Eunice is not at home, sir.
They're a-visiting some place in the village. Miss Jessie
is in, though. Be pleased to walk into the parlor, and
I'll tell her you're here."
He heard swift feet skim the floor overhead as his
name was repeated, and Jessie was in the room before he
could take off his gloves. With a wild, scared face, lips
that moved without sound, and eyes that demanded con-
firmation or denial of the dread that was strangling her^
heart, she caught his hands and looked up dumbly at
him. His smile broke the spell sooner and more .effectu-
ally than words could have done. She wrested her fin-
gers from his, with a laugh so burdened with shame and
liappiness as to be more like a sob, testifying what had
been the pressure and what was the release.
" I was sure "
" That I was the bearer of bad news from abroad. I
understand," Orrin took up the broken sentence. " You
were never more mistaken. Your letter, encJ losing Mrs.
Baxter's, brought me. Your fears must take counsel of
hope and faith another time. Hoy was well when last
heard from well and happy, and, you may be sure, very
busy. But what is this ? " leading her to the window and
scrutinizing her with fond solicitude. " What have you
been doing with yourself? I am afraid he keeps his
pledge of health, and resignation to the Inevitable better
than you do yours to him. Are you not WjelH You
have been sick, and I was not told of it I "
Her complexion was dead to sallowness ; her eyes were
JESSAMINE. 89
leaden, the lids drooping wearily, and she was thinner in
face and figure than when he had parted from her six
weeks ago. Her dress, of dark, " navy " blue serge, made
plainly, the long skirt heavy and still while she stood,
and unrelieved save by narrow linen collar and cuffs,
looked like a mourning garb.
" The Mater Dolorosa to the life ! " said the quick-
eyed lover of the fine arts to himself. " A blue hood
drawn well forward would make the likeness perfect.
Who would have thought that a morbidly love-sick girl
could, by dreaming and fretting, stamp her features with
the imprint of that divine sorrow 1 Marvellous are the
tricks of Nature ! ''
All this while he held Jessie's hand ; his eyes seemed
as if they could not leave the countenance whose change
had so pained him. The girl's faint smile was very
grateful.
" I am not sick 1 I have no physical ailment beyond a
sensation f general good-for-nothingness. I ought to bo
ashamed to confess it, but I imagine I have a touch of
what fine ladies call the ^ blues.' Papa would have in
Dr. Winters a month ago, in spite of all I could do and
say. He laughed at me a little, scolded me a great deal,
and pronounced my malady dyspepsia, or low fever, or
nervous debility he was not certain which. In any case,
his prescription was quinine, dumb-bells, and porter, ale,
lager beer, or a decoction of gentian-root and chamomile
flowers. Think of it 1 " with a grimace. " Could my cup
of existence be more effectually embittered ? I take qui-
nine, and swing the bells a thousand times each day, but
I do not see that the regimen increases my appetite or
makes me sleep better. There is nothing the matter with
90 JESSAMINE.
me that will not yield to resolution and common-sense
and and time I I shall be all right when I get used
to things as they are," she continued, with feverish rapid-
ity, marking his doubtful look ** I need discipline, hard-
ening, tempering. If papa and Euna would rate me
soundly for my folly and childishness, the counter-irritant
would brace my system. I should need no other medi-
cine. But they won't, unfortunately 1 "
She was laughing now, but not with her native glee.
Orrin's scrutiny serious and tender ^was prolonged
until her eyes sank and a blush of the lost color tinged
her temples. A sigh escaped him as he relinquished her
hand, and walked twice through the apartment to collect
thoughts and words.
" My coming was timely," he said, drawing a chair to
her side. " Dear child 1 your life is too precious to be
wasted in unavailing regrets. Tour peace of mind is
dear to too many to be wrecked by morbid nursings.
Don't think me harsh 1 You should have something to
engage your time and thoughts beyond the routine of oc-
cupation and recreation appointed to you here ; should
see more of the world than that portion of it which is
bounded by these mountains. Tou would starve upon
what satisfies your sister. Duty to be performed duty
done a straight course and strength to walk therein
these fill the measure of her earthly desires. Tour tem-
perament and your intellect demand a larger sphere
wider range for your mind and more food for your heart.
Tou are dying of inanition, and you do not know it. Tou
are a caged wild bird who is trying to learn to sing by
note."
She shook her head wilfully.
JESSAMINE, 91
"You are altogether wrong. I have been pampered,
housed, petted, until nerve and muscle, mental and spir-
itual, are gone. I need a stimulant, but a moral one."
Orrin changed his ground.
" What if I supply it in the guise of a German course,
seasoned with unsparing admonition whenever you are
indolent or unreasonable ? " he said, lightly.
\
/
CHAPTER VIL
LESS vain man than Mr. Wyllys would have
been flattered by the effect produced upon the
Bpiritless, faded creature, the mockiug shadow of
the old blithesome Jessie, by half an houf's talk
with himself. A less patient man would have
been chagrined by the discovery that his enumeration of
the varied and substantial benefits that would accrue to
her from the proposed visit to Mrs. Baxter, and the deli-
cate skill with which he contrived to keep before her all
the while the prospect of his society and guardianship,
weighed but as thistle-down with the obtuse " love-sick
girl," in comparison with the circumstance that Hamilton
was Roy Fordham's home.
Orrin was surprised, and not agreeably, when her own
words forced this astounding fact upon him.
" It will be the next best thing 1 " she said, dreamily, a
happy smile touching her lips and kindling up her eyes.
" I have heard him talk so much of the place and the peo-
%
JESSAMINE. 93
pie, that it will be like revisiting half -remembered scenes
^renewing former acquaintanceships. You will show
me all his favorite haunts, let me see the friends he values
most highly won't you? The ocean is narrower and
quieter when I think of taking the walks and drives he
likes best ^which he has described to me over and over ;
of mingling with those who were his daily associates
who knew him l^efore I did. Though I don't like very
well to think of that'^^ interrupting herself with a laugh.
" I feel as if nobody had the right. It seems to me that
I cannot recollect when I did not know him."
She mused silently for some minutes the tender light
still trembling over her face. It was as if she had for-
gotten his presence, until a sudden thought turned her
to him with an abrupt query.
"Mrs. Baxter knows nothing of has heard no ru-
mors ? " in shy anxiety that appeared overstrained to one
who had heard the loving soliloquy Orrin was prompt to
decide was in very bad taste, even when tlie unconsidered
listener was in the confidence of both parties.
"Of your engagement?" he said, with grave direct-
ness. " Hamilton is in profound ignorance. on that sub-
ject. Eoy knows how to keep his own counsel, and know-
ing it was his .wish tliat your betrothal should remain
secret, for the present, I have mentioned it to no one.
You need be under no embarrassment on that score."
" Thank you."
Jessie was silent again, but the pause was filled with
soberer thoughts. She began to fear lest she had been
talking nonsense been indiscreet and unmaidenly.
Orrin kindly overlooked the lapse into'selfish sentimen-
tality, but she was ashamed that she had given him oo-
94: JESSAMINE,
casion for exercising forbearance on this subject He
noted, and with satisfaction, that she treated him to no
more love rhapsodies that night; did not voluntarily
name Koy in the ensuing dialogue.
"I am happy to learn that Mrs. Baxter is warm-
hearted and sincere," she said, at the close of a searching
catechism upon that lady's characteristics. " I was pre-
possessed in her favor, less by her letter, than because she
loved my mother. My sister has been a dear and care-
ful parent to me. You have seen what my father's fond
indulgence is. But the core of my heart has ached for
my mother my own beautiful mother ever since she
died. I was not quite five years old, yet I recollect her
as if I had kissed her for the last time, yesterday. My
father had this oriel built to please her. I remem-
ber seeing her nowhere else until she was carried
up to her death-bed. Her easy chair stood there"
pointing "and her writing-desk beside it. When I
could, by standing on tip-toe, just get my chin upon the
window-sill, she would make me measure with a bit of
ribbon how much the. jessamine had grown in a week.
She planted these vines and tended- them as if they had
been her children. She said to me, more than once or
twice, that she hoped I would be like my name-flower
when I grew up brave, sweet, faithful ^telling how
one had for fifty yeard curtained the porch of the house
in which 'she was born, and how dearly she loved it. She
made* me her companion, and, in some sort, her confi-
dante by the time I could talk plainly, and very proud I
was of the distinction. She used to take me upon her
lap, or hold me closely in her arms as she lay on her
lounge in the twilight, and repeat stories of her Southern
JESSAMINE. 05
home ; smg ballada bo Bweetly Bad that I could not help
cr}ung quietly while I listened very quietly, for fear she
should hear me, and stop."
It was twilight by tliia time. The mountain-ci-owii
was dusky as the plain ; the elm-trees in the church-yard
were swaying in the bleak wind that bowed the garden-
shrubbery, and swept the long grass above neglected
graves into brown waves. The naked, snake-like sprays
of the creepers tapped monotonously against the window-
panes, Orrin had healthy nerves, but as he looked
through the glooming air at the shaft, standing like a
sheeted ghost at the head of Mr. Kirke's second wife,
and heai'd in the stillness of tiio place and hour, the sob-
bing sighs of the pine boughs, he wished Jessie had
chosen some other hour and spot for her weird reminis-
cence than the November gloaming and this haunted re-
cess. ^
She was leaning back in' her chair, her hands crossed,
her face npraised to the sky :
" I have a perfect picture of her before me, at this
moment," she went on, presently. " She had large, soft
eyea, and very dark hair. She waa always pale, and she
never laughed. But her smile was my reward when I was
good, as her kiss was the cure for every hurt Nobody
else can ever tell me such wonderful tales. Some were
in prose, many in verse, more beautiful to my apprehen-
sion tlian any poetry I have read since. This was on her
well days my white days! when the writing-desk
would, if I requested, be supplanted by the color-box;
and pencils, and we passed whole hours together she
and I she Bketching or painting to illustrate anecdote
and fairy story, I perched in my high chair at her side,
96 JESSAMINE,
looking on in rapt delight. I believe that I was a
troublesome child noisy, wayward, passionate to every-
body else in the house. I kept away from her of my own
accord in my stormy or sulky fits. The earliest lesson
taught me by my father was, that ^ poor, sick mamma
must not be disturbed.' I suppose it was on account of
her feeble health that he always heard my prayers, put
me to bed at night, and nursed me in my infant sick-
nesses. It was he who came to my crib in the dim light
of one terrible January morning, and told me that she
was in Heaven. I did not understand exactly what that
meant, but I gathered that it was something very dread-
ful from the sight of his emotion. I have never seen
him weep except that once. I had sprung from my pil-
low to sob out my childish grief in his arms. He pressed
me to his bosom until I could scarcely brieathe, and said,
over and over, in a strange undertone that terrified me
more than did the drip of the hot tears over my face
^Ginevra's babyl Ginevra's baby I' Baby though I
was, the scene is graven upon my memory for life."
The wind shook the casement, and the bare sprays
tapped more impatiently upon the glass^ as the spirit of
the dead mother might have signalled her child to let
her in.
" Mrs. Baxter will never weary of talking with you
upon a theme so dear to you both," said Orrin, shaking
off the superstitious fancy.
Jessie was aroused to livelier speech by the suggestion.
" You have heard her speak of rny mother, then ? "
" Tes, but before I suspected the identity of the ' Gin-
evra ' who was her adopted sister, with your father's
wife. By a singular mischance, she never named him to
JESSAMINE. 97
me until one day lafet week, when she asked if I knew
him ^and you."
He had equivocated so adroitly as to bar cross-examina-
tion, he hoped, but Jessie's curiosity was not easily
parried.
" Was that before or after she wrote to me ? "
" Probably afterward, for she told me that the sight of
a keepsake given her by your mother had set her to think-
ing of their early and close intimacy, and that she had
^ obeyed the impulse which bade her make inquiries
about you, and ask you to visit her.' Those were her
words, as nearly as I can recall them. She expresses her-
self warmly but not, I honestly believe, more warmly
than she feels."
" I would not go to Hamilton had you recalled t her
mind the fact of my existence. If love for her lost
friend did not prompt her to seek me out, I Would not
owe my recognition to the recommendation of another.
No 1 not to yours 1 "
Had he not read aright her sturdy pride, her jealousy
for Ker mother's memory and her father's dignity % With
what wise pre-vision he had detected the danger, and, by
his caution to Mrs. Baxter, averted it I
Eunice, the beryl-eyed, also had her confidential talk
with Mr. Wyllys that night.
" Father," she said, after supper, as he tarried, for an
instant, in the dining-room. " I should like to speak with
Mr. Wyllis for ten minutes when Jessie is not by. Can
you contrive to call her out of the parlor, by and by ? "
" Certainly, my daughter," he replied, without curiosity
or hesitation.
Jessie was his pride and darling verj beautiful and
98 JESSAMINE,
gifted in his eyes. Ho lavished upon her the wealth of a
heart that had never known its own depth until he met
her mother. The first Mrs. Kirke was the daughter of
one of his college-professors, a little older than himself,
very amiable, very discreet, and the best housekeeper in
the parish. He owed much to her exemplary manage-
ment since, relieved from cares domestic and pecuniary,
he could devote much time, bring unjaded energies, and a
free mind to the prosecution of the studies he loved so
well. Without in the least entering into his enthusiasm
in scholastic research, she laid down as one of the rules
of her orderly household, that his study was forbidden
ground to heedless or intrusive feet ; guarded him when
he had entered the sanctum, and shut the door between
him and the living, active world as vigilantly as she
would have watched and defended hid treasure. He was
" about his business," in her phrase, and to her just, prac-
tical ideas of duty and life it was but right that people
should be allowed to follow their lawful and allotted call-
ings without molestation. She did not particularly enjoy
her husband's sermons, but he found her bread, butter,
and cake always to his taste. Ho was an accomplished
linguist, and would have been glad to have one under his
own roof, with whom he could converse in Italian, Ger-
man, or French. She had, as his correct ear continually
reminded him, but an imperfect acquaintance with her
vernacular, according to classical standards. But her
coffee was fragrant, clear, and strong ; while a whiff of
her Young Hyson was as the scent of a zephyr that had
wandered over acres of flowering tea-plants, and made
the wishy-washy, or over-boiled decoctions of other
housewives seem but weedy and rank abominations. If
JESSAMIJSTK 99
the refined and sensitive young pastor kept within his
own breast many thoughts, dreams, and regrets he would
fain have shared with a congenial mate, it should have
been a compensation that the shirt-front covering the
sealed repository of these was snowy and glossy as a bran-
new tomb-stone ; that the heels of his socks were always
run before they went on his feet, and that in the years of
their wedded life he never found " a button off." Mr.
Kirke believed fully all his parishioners said when they
assured him that he had a pattern wife, and that he
ought to take good care of her, since he would never find
another like her. She worked steadily and diligently
she was never " fussy " up to the day on which Eunice's
little brother was bom. " Overdid herself," said doctor
and gossips, while her husband blamed himself bitterly
for not having taken thought to spare her who had served
him to the death. The death that came so swiftly and
easily, she had time for neither parting word nor kiss.
" I am tired, I believe," she murmured to the nurse.
Unused to complain, she said it deprecatingly even in
mortal weakness. " Do you think that I might just take a
little nap ? If Mr. Kirke should want for anything, don't
hesitate to wake me at once." With that she turned her
face to the wall and died " fell asleep," said her head-
stone. Her baby was buried with her.
This was Eunice's mother. Four years after the
decease, the widower met Giuevra Lanneau at a watering-
place whither he had gone for health, and she for dis-
traction from certain troublesome memories. Whatever
may have been her faults and weaknesses ; whatever the
motives for her mamage and the causes of her subse-
quent invalidism and melancholy, this good man had
100 JESSAMINE,
worshipped her with entireness of devotion ; had mounied
her "with an intensity of anguish that bleached his locks ;
bent his stately form toward the earth that had swallowed
up his idol ; deafened him to the calls of ambition that
urged him to leave a seclusion endeared to him as her
home and burial-place.
But for all this, Eunice was his right hand, in Parson-
age and in parish. lie " really would have no excuse for
a third marriage," was a common saying in the neighbor-
hood ^^ with such a daughter to keep his house and ' do
for him.' " If the spirit of the mother were permitted
to watch her child's daily walk and conversation, it must
have heightened her beatitude to be thus assured that
" Mr. Kirke " was not likely, while Eunice lived, " to want
for anything." Her father's trust in her discretion was
implicit, and when she unblushingly asked him to " con-
trive" to secure for her a tete-drt&te with a young and
attractive man, he made no demur, formed no conject-
ures. Nor did he doubt that the matter of her communi-
cation to Mr. Wyllys was, in some way, essential to Jessie's
weal. The first and abiding thought with both was " the
child," he had yet made up his mind to part with for
a little while.
Eunice was sewing by the shaded parlor lamp, Wyllys,
while he talked to both sisters, looked quite as often at
her as at Jessie. He was in the mood for enjoying him-
self, and his surroimdings were propitious. He had
had an excellent supper. Eunice had inherited her
mother's taste and skill in the domestic department. . Her
dainty cookery would have done credit to a salaried chef^
said Mr. Wyllys, than whom there were few better judges
of all that pertained to the gratifications of the flesh. A
JESSAMINE. 101
wood fire burned busily and gayly upon the castellated
fire-dogs of shining brass that fiashed back the illumin-
ation from a hundred curves and points. There was a
breath of tea-roses and mignonette in the air, for the
shelf running around the inside of the oriel was filled
with plants; crimson curtains had taken the place of
muslin, at the other windows. A November gale " a
dry storm " was rising without. It was pleasant, while
hearkening to its blustering, to bethink himself that he
had not to breast it in a tramp back to the hotel, he
having accepted Mr. Kirke's invitation to sleep at the
parsonage. The recollection of his disagreeable journey,
now that he was rested, warmed, and filled, was another
element in his present content The old-fashioned parlor
with its quaint and massive furniture, were more to his
liking than the polish and glow of the modern " suite of
rooms," every prosperous mechanic's wife now regards as
one of the necessaries of life.- From his leisurely and ap-
proving survey of the apartment, his eyes came back to
dwell longest upon Eunice.
She wore a brown merino, that made no noise when she
moved, and fell in classic folds about her as she sat in her
straight-backed chair. A knot of blue ribbon joined a
crimped ruffle above the high-necked dress, and frills of
the same material were at her wrists. The light, strained
through the ground-glass shade, made her skin seem fair
and fresh as that of a little child, while it did not blur
the clear chiselling of her features. Her hands were
shapely, her motions replete with quiet grace. The high-
bred lady, stainless in deed as single in motive, spoke in
the fearless, tranquil eyes and composed demeanor.
" She rests me 1 " said the connoisseur in womanly loveli-
r.
102 JESSAMINE.
ness, to his appreciative self. " If I were obliged to marry
either, I am not sure she would not suit me better than
this restless gypsy, who keeps one perpetually upon the
qui vive by her sharp interrogations, her repartee, and
variable moods. To secure the perfection of comfort, a
man should be able to flirt with one all day, and come
home at evening to recover from his dazed feverishnessin
the cool semi-twilight of the other's presence. - I must
find out, some day, if she has ever been in love. I think
not. There is a dewy firmness in the texture of her
heart that seldom outlasts the fires of even a mild passion
such a timid flame as the pastor's daughter might con-
scientiously feel for some pious under-shepherd or amor-
ous evangelist.''
At this precise instant, Jessie, who had been flitting
restlessly about the room, picking dead leaves from tlie
geraniums, and seed-vessels from verbenas and mignonette,
tossing them, one at a time, into the fire, and pensively
watching the blaze feed upon them ; parting the curtains
to press her face against the glass " to see whether it
rained,"^ stopping once in a while to lean on her sister's
chair and address a question to her or Orrih obeyed her
father's summons to his study. The two left at the fire-
side, followed her to the door with their eyes, then these
. met. Eunice answered the questioning of Orrin's.
" She is over-excited to-night. But there is a nervous
restlessness about her of late that makes me anxious. I
hope much for her from the proposed change of air and
scene."
She laid aside her work, neatly folded ; put scissors
and thimble in their cases, and the cases into her work-
box, and calmly confronted her companion.
JESSAMINE. 103
" Mr. Wyllys, I wish to Bay a word to you respecting
my sister's antecedents before she goes to Mrs. Baxter."
Without a symptom of surprise, he bowed, and ex-
changed his seat for one near the stand by which she sat.
In tliis one action, he accepted her confidence, and put his
services at her disposal should she desire them.
" From the descriptions of this lady, given by yourself
and my father, I infer that she is affectionate and voluble.
She will be likely to impart to Jessie all she knows of her
mother's history, and question her concerning her own
childish recollections. I have thought it best that you
should hear the truth upon a subject that is rarely alluded
to in our family. My father talked freely of it with Mr.
Fordham before giving his sanction to his engagement
with Jessie ; but he has not spoken of it to me in many
years ^never to my sister. Should a garbled version of
a story which is sad enough in itself, reach her ears, it
would distress and bewilder her if there were no one near
who could correct the mis-statement. My stepmother
never recovered the natural tone of her health and spirits
after my sister's birth. Her malady took the form of a
gentle melancholy, indifference to domestic and neighbor-
hood interests, varied at times by fits of wild weeping, so
violent that she was confined to her couch with headache
and debility for several days after each. She talked
rationally when drawn into conversation, expressing her-
self upon every topic discussed with clearness and intelli-
gence; but the spring of action was gone. She never
complained of bodily pain; made no unreasonable de-
mands upon the time and patience of those about her.
Nor did she require to be humored and amused as is the
way of most sufferers from confirmed hysteria. She
104 JESSAMINE.
read much and wrote more, burning her manuscripts,
however, as fast as they were finished. She drew, too,
rapidly and well, and upon these occupations expended
what little energy of mind and body remained to her
after the illness that had nearly cost her her life. We
guarded her from intrusion and uncharitable remark as
far as we could. My nurse, an elderly widow, was then
alive, and was our housekeeper, her daughter being our
only other servant How the report originated, I cannot
say probably from some indiscreet remark let fall by
this daughter, who has now a home of her own some
miles away but within the year, a rumor has been brought
lo me that Jessie's mother died a lunatic. It is possible
Mrs. Baxter has likewise heard such. If she has, and
should be so imprudent as to repeat it to you, so unfeeling
as to hint it to the daughter of that unhappy lady, may I
rely upon you to tell my sister the exact truth t My step-
mother lived and died a sane woman as sane as I am
this moment. Jessie is impressible and ardent. Her
love for her mother is a passion. It would nearly kill her
if this slander were retailed to her."
She had made her little speech ; summed up the case,
and offered her appeal with such simplicity, such deft
moderation, as challenged the lawyer's admiration. His
reply was directly to the purpose.
*'You may depend upon me. Miss Kirke. I hope,
with you, that I shall never be called upon to fulfil the
trust with which you have honored me. I am confident
that Mrs. Baxter is ignorant of the particulars of her
cousin's ill-health. She has spoken to me with apparent
frankness of her early life of her marriage, and the se-
clusion that followed it.'*
JESSAMINE. 105
"For which she blames my father!" interrupted
Exmice, red indignation staining her fair face. "Be-
cause he would not subject his wife to the indifferent or
pitying observation of those who had been the associates
of her brilliant girlhood ; because he indulged her long-
ing for solitude and quiet ; guarded her sedulously and
tenderly from all that could tax and jar upon her tort-
ured nerves ^he fell under their banl He gave me
some letters to examine and file or burn, if I thought
fit ten years ago. Among them I found one from Mrs.
Baxter one from another cousin of Ginevra Lanneau.
They were written to him, just after her death. Both
reproached him Mrs. Baxter (then Miss Jane Lanneau)
gently, the other harshly, for separating his young wife
from her friends and * inmaersing her in a savage solitude,
where, cut off from all congenial associations, a nature
so refined as hers could not but pine itself to death.'
I do not quote from Mrs. Baxter. If she had upbraided
the best of men and most loving of husbands in these
terms, Jessie should never enter her house, unless under
my protest."
" You are right. But, believe me, she will be safe and
happy in Mrs. Baxter's care. Her goodness of heart is
undeniable ; her impulses are amiable, and she is, more-
over, a woman of sound principles, and genuine piety.
She is vain, but never unkind or censorious. She always
reminds me of the pretty has hUu immortalized by the
' Spectator 'or is it the ' Tattler ' ? ' When 'says the
essayist 'she would look languishing, there is a fine
thing to be said at the same time that spoils all. Thus,
the imhappy Merab, although a wit and a beauty, hath not
106 JEa8AMINE.
the credit of being either, and all because she would be
both.' Our Hamilton Merab has sterling traits, never-
theless, and is incapable of using the language you have
quoted. No one but a vulgar idiot could apply it to
Mr. Kirke. The writer had, I take it, never seen him.
You have every reason to be proud of your father, Miss
Eunice. He is that best work of the Creator a Christian
gentleman, I say it without reverence, a prince of the
blood royal."
The golden lights glanced up from the dark wells of
her eyes ; her smile was grateful and exultant
" Thank you 1 I know you mean what you say, and it
is but the truth."
Neither spoke for a brief space. The soughing of the
pine-tree was annoyingly continuous to Orrin's ear ; the
fire-flashes were silent. He tried to forget the vexing
sound in remarking that Eunice's bent profile showed
against the dark wood of the high, carved mantel, clear
and fine as a cameo cutting, but it would be heard.
" You were very young at the time of your step-
mother's death to be your father's assistant and co-adviser,"
he said, to prevent an awkward break in their talk. " I
am surprised at the accuracy of your recollections."
" I was fifteen. The elder daughter of a family early
learns to assume and to bear domestic cares ; is more
mature at the same age than are those who come after
her. I remember my own mother, who died eleven years
earlier than did Jessie's. I was thirty last month."
She picked up her sewing vrithout a fiutter or a blush,
and Orrin, not daring to offer her the fiimsy compliment
of incredulity he would have paid another woman who
JESSAMINE. 107
liad volunteered a confession disparaging to her per-
sonal charms, was still casting about in his mind for woi'ds
that should praise, yet not offend, when his opportunity
was lost through Jessie's return to the room.
CHAPTEE VHL
|0U find us, in humble imitation of Mr. Turveydrop,
fitill using our little arts to polish polish I " said
Jessie Kirke, mimicking the famous trowel gesture
of the Professor of Deportment, as Orrin Wyllys
entered Mra. Baxter's drawing-room on the even-
ing of the fourth of January.
The Lady President's " collegiate re-unions " on the first
and third Thursdays of each month had, up to this
winter, been declared a nuisance by the class for whose
benefit she had inaugurated the series; to wit, the
homeless, graceless students whose intellectual training
was committed to her husband and his confreres^ while
their polite education was left to Fate and the hap-hazard
culture of promiscuous society. Now, promiscuous society
(the term is Mrs. Baxter's not mine) in Hamilton,
although less detrimental to the principles, manners, and
conversational powers of unguarded youth than the same
foe would have been in a region more remote from the
JESSAMINE. 109
great humanizing and refining centre expressed, to the
visual organs, by the square, cream-colored mansion at
the right of the college campus ^was yet ininiical to the
best interests (another stolen phrase!) of the aforesaid
matriculated youngsters. To counteract the evil, the
presidential residence was converted, on the evenings
I have designated, into a social reformatory, and the
mistress put forth her utmost energy to render the process
of amelioration pleasant to the subjects thereof. The
success of her system, which had gone into operation two
years before, had been less than indifferent up to the
date of her young kinswoman's arrival. Simultaneously
with her appearance at the pillared portal of the cream-
colored Centre, the cause of elegant deportment and
colloquial accomplishments began to look up in the
contiguous halls of learning. The " reception '' on the
ensuing Thursday was well attended, the second was a
" crush " the supply of lemonade and sponge-cake inade-
quate to the demand.
This was the third, and the hostess, elate with past, and
sanguine of prospective, victories, had, with the assistance
of her guest, bedecked her rooms with New Tear's gar-
lands and floral legends. As an ingenious tribute to the
learning of the major portion of the assembly, Mrs. Baxter
had accomplished a Latinization of certain stock phrases of
welcome, and was immensely proud of the " classic air "
imparted to her saloon by these.
" I suppose they are all right," Jessie said dubiously
to Orrin, when he inspected them. " My knowledge of
the dead tongue is confined to the musty sayings every-
body has learned by heart ' Sio trcmsit gloria mundi^
' MiraMle dictUy and the like."
110 JESSAMINE.
" Salve I " blossomed into being in heather, and pink-
and-white paper roses over the mantel opposite the door
of the front parlor. Over that in the back '' Jubemus
vos salver e^^ while " faustum et felicem hunc diem! "
was tacked above the piano in the mnsic-room.
" To polish 1 to polish ! " reiterated Jessie, stroking her
gloved left hand with her right, and looking so roguishly
beautiful that Orrin had no difficulty in throwing an ex-
pression of intense admiration into his gaze.
" Stand off, and let me look at you I " said he, brusquely
for him, drawing bacck for a better view.
She was well wortli it. Native quickness, aided by
the marvellous intuition as to effect, and the daring that
attempts new combinations of color and untried styles of
coiffure and dress, which people name "French taste,"
had wrought together in her attire. She had a " genius
for apparel," Mrs. Baxter pronounced delightedly, adding
" So much for blood 1 The Parisian eye and Parisian
aptitude are, like the poetic afflatus, nascitur^ non fit.
You are a true Lanneau." There would be no better-
dressed woman in the assembly to-night than the country
girl, whose toilette had yet cost less than that of any
other who laid claim to the honors of belleship.
Iler maize-colored tissue had a full double skirt ; the
upper looped with rosettes of black lace and narrow black
velvet. A bunch of f uschias scarlet with purple hearts,
drooped above her left temple. Not a jewel was visible
except her engagement-ring a fine solitaire diamond.
Instead of a brooch she wore another spray of f uschias,
mixed with feathery green, at her throat, and her only
laces were those edging her neck and sleeves. But she
was dazzling enough to turn stronger heads than those of
JESSAMINE, 111
the sheepish sophomores, pert juniors, and priggish
seniors, who would compose her train, thought Wyllys,
surveying her with the deliberate freedom of a brotherly
friend. Her eyes sparkled into splendor, her bloom
deepened, and the white-gloved fingers toyed nervously
with her bouquet as his inspection was prolonged. As
the finale, he offered his arm with a sweeping obeisance,
and they strolled through the rooms, untenanted as yet
save by themselves.
" I hardly expected to see that^ to-night," said Orrin,
touching her bouquet. " The utmost I hoped was, that
it might please your eye for a moment, as it passed in re-
view among a host of others."
" There is a degree of modesty which is laughable,"
she returned. " Pray, whose flowers did you suppose I
would prefer to yours ? "
" Perhaps I feared the rivalry of the chaste assortment
of sweet alysseum and white rose-buds I saw left at Pro-
fessor Fairchild's door this morning."
"Eminently suitable to my * style * ! " interrupted she,
ironically. "The fear reflects credit upon your discrimi-
nation and my "taste."
" Or " he went on ^" the astounding array of came-
lias, azaleas, and orange-blossoms that arrived last night,
duly enveloped in wet cotton, sent per express from the
green-house of a city florist to the millionnaire's son
Senior Lowndes. Rumor afl&rms that he h^ neither
studied nor eaten since he was first pierced by Cupid's
arrows ^your eyelids doing service as bows, and the sight
of the magnificent offering which is to propitiate the blind
god, has driven him clean daft with rapturous anticipation.
Seriously and frankly, my advice is that you discard my
112 JESSAMINE.
simple gift in favor of the exotics. I am content or
I slioiild be with the grace already shown me by your in-
tention to give my flowei-s the place of honor. But Mr.
Lowndes may be offended if yon do not exhibit his Brob-
dingnagian bouquet. It is already the talk of the place,
and everybody expects to see it in your hands to-night."
" It vdll not be everybody's maiden disappointment,"
said Jessie, obstinately. " The floral behemoth has a big
vase and a table all to himself in the music-room, so Mr.
Lowndes can play show-man to his satisfaction. I reserve
the right of wearing what I please, and my bouquet is
part of my toilette. Could anything harmonize better
with my dress than these scarlet verbenas, divided from
the purple violets by the circlet of white blossoms, and
capped by one snowy cape-jessamine ^like a queen in her
ermine % "
" That is the only member of your family to be had in
this frozen region," rejoined Orrin. " I telegraphed to
Baltimore in the vain hope of obtaining the golden bells
you love."
" Did you ? They do not bloom anywhere at this sea-
son, I imagine. But your effort to procure them was an
evidence of thoughtful kindness beyond my expectation
and desert. You do too much for me 1 I am humbled
yet happy when I recount to myself your favors."
" Don't say ' favors 1 ' If you knew ^"
" Knew what ? " queried Jessie, innocently, looking up.
He held her eyes for a second by the irresistible mag-
netism of his, then, saying, with a short laugh that
sounded like bitter self disdain '^ What you will never
hear from me 1 " commenced talking fast and gayly about
other things.
JE88AMmE. 113
Mtb. Baxter ran in, opportunely, to give Jessie time to
collect her thoughts. Unobservant of the gravity of one
of the parties to the broken dialogue, and the forced
liveliness of the other, the hostess dashed into a profusely
illustrated description of the contretempB that had de-
tained her in her dressing-room. It was nothing less
serious than the doctor's mistake, in taking from a closet
a bottle of ink instead of the scented glycerine she asked
him to get.
"For my tender skin (we Lanneaus are deplorably
thin-skinned) is frightfully chapped this winter, and there
is no better remedy for this affliction than bay-water and
glycerine, as perhaps you know ^you who are ignorant
of nothing 1 * Now, my dearest,' I said, ^ rnay I trouble
you to pour it upon my hands as I hold them over the
basin % Gently, doctor, darling 1 ' When, presto I down
came an inky deluge 1 " screaming with laughter, as she
had with alarm when the mischance had occurred. " I
spent nearly an hour in endeavoring to efface the murky
stains, and 1 shall be compelled to keep my gloves on the
entire eviening. Isn't it a pitiable predicament? "
The scarlet scarf was on duty again to-night, but now
tied about her waist, the knot at the side.
" I never feel quite dressed unless I have a speck of
scarlet artfully brought into my costume," she had said
to Jessie, on the evening of her arrival. " It individual-
izes my attire. I should not know should not he myself
without it."
Jessie joined in her merriment over the catastrophe
that would have angered a wife whose temper was less
even, but her heart was beating hard and hurriedly with
vague alarms. Orrin had altered inexplicably of late.
114 JESSAMINK
TTis sudden alternations of spirits and mysterions allusions
were more than an enigma they were a distress to her.
" If I knew 1 " she repeated mentally. " What was he
about to say, and why did he look at me so intently ?
Why did he refuse to finish the sentence? I have
wounded or offended him but how ? "
Self-condemnation was her first impulse when she
noted a change in the demeanor of those she loved.
Orrin ridiculed it as a morbid trick of mind that might
be cured by reproof or raillery. Eoy bore with it
patiently and hopefully, recognizing in it an hereditary
strain of melancholy which she would conquer or outlive
in time. Iler eyes were darker, her voice a tone lower,
her smile a trifle subdued all the evening, for the inci-
dent that preceded the festivities. Nobody complained
of the change. She was new, handsome, and sprightly,
a triumvirate of recommendations that would have made
her a star of note among her associates had her " style "
been less unique, her cast of thought and conversation as
commonplace as it was original. She was surrounded
continually, to-night, by a group of gentlemen most of
them young, while there were some whose attentions
paid as they were by men of mature years and high
standing, intellectual and social ^were a compliment of
which the debutante might justly be proud.
Orrin kept aloof from her, playing his part among the
guests with his wonted spirit and grace. But his eyes
followed her furtively wherever she went, until she was
provoked with herself for meeting them so often. He
would suspect her of impertinent curiosity, accuse her of
forwardness, or feel that he was under espionage. She
would not look in his direction again. A resolution she
JE88AMINE, 116
was certain to break within three minutes after it was
made, tempted to the infraction by the stealthy yet pierc-
ing ray slie imagined she could feel, when her face was
turned away from him, and which, struggle as she might
against the inclination, drew her regards again and again
in his direction.
She descried a new meaning in his watchfulness before
long, a sad yearning that would not let her out of his
sight ; mournfulness that might signify either compas-
sion or regret. Unused to dissemble, she must have
grown distrait^ unmindful of the gay scene and the duties
it imposed upon her, but for the example of his fidelity
in the performanceof these. Emulating what she plainly
perceived was self-denial in him, she talked, promenaded,
and laughed with conscientious diligence, to the delight
of her chaperone and the distraction of the smitten swains
of three classes, the freshmen counting as nobodies.
The crowd was thinning fast when Orrin again ap-
proached her.
" We will finish our promenade now that there is room
to move and breathe," he said, drawing her hand within
his arm. " I want to have a moment's talk with you be-
fore I go. I leave town early in the morning."
The involuntary clasp of the gloved fingers upon his
sleeve was all it should be, but the deprecating glance
and exclamation were too frank and sisterly.
"Are you going away? Not to be absent long, I
hope ? "
"A week certainly probably a fortnight."
" I shall be very lonely without you ! absolutely lost,
in fact 1 " replied Jessie, feeling all she said.
" I could stay, I suppose but I ought to go," said
116 JE88AMINK
Orrin, slowly. " Yes, it is the best thing left for me to
do ! Don't think, however, that it costs me nothing to
leave Hamilton while you are in it. I shall carry the
image of my docile pupil, my bright-faced, sunny-hearted
friend, with me wherever I go. You have been a beauti-
ful revelation to me, Jessie. Let me speak, for a mo-
ment, out of the sad sincerity of a spirit, wrung as I trust
yours will never be. Should we never meet again upon
earth, you will not cease to be to me pshaw ! what am I
saying ? I talk wildly to you, I doubt not, but there are
times of battle and tempest and desolation in the which
incoherence is pardonable. When you are married, you
may be sorry for me in a calm, sisterly way, as people on
the cliff above the beat of the surf, pity the wretches
BufiFocating in the waves,"
" Let me help and comfort you now I " begged Jessie,
her tell-tale eyes glistening until Orrin was fain to halt
before Mr. Lowndes' monster bouquet in the last room of
the suite, and keep her back to the company, while she
struggled for composure. ** It breaks my heart to hear
you ! " came at last in a half sob from the trembling lips.
"Don't talk of breaking hearts, dear!" he returned,
smiling sadly. " It is an idle phrase in the mouths of
the loved and happy. May you always be both 1 "
He squeezed her hands until she winced with pain,
took one lingering look into her eyes that seemed to
compel her soul to their surface, whispered, " God bless
you I " and before she could move to stay him, he was
making his conge to Mrs. Baxter.
Regardless of the stranger and inquisitive eyes that
might be upon her, Jessie watched the parting; the
hostess' dramatic start, and fingers joined in hospitable
^
JESSAMINE, 117
Bupplication ; the toning down of her physiognomy from
tragic coiistemation, at the announcement of his con-
templated journey, to plaintive resignation, as he declared
the fixedness of his purpose ; marked the animated
pantomime, and felt no inclination to smile that it was
over-wrought to extravagance. Assuredly, Orrin's going
at all was a serious discomfort to herself. Taken in
connection with his evident unhappiness, his disjointed
confessions of grief and trial, that, despite the absurdity
of the imagination, she could not help believing had
some reference to her; finally, her inability to soothe
or aid him, these all combined to make the farewell the
saddest save one she had ever gone through.
" You are weary, my dearest girl ! " said Mrs. Baxter,
sympathizingly, twining her arm around her and pulling
her down upon the sofa, when she had bidden a widely
smiling adieu to all her guests, with the exception of a
bald, mild man in spectacles, who was penned in the
angle formed by the chimney and the wall, while the
doctor, planted in front of him, held to his argument
and his handkerchief at such length that only half the
knots were yet untied. *' But you have been charming
this evening ! have really outdone yourself I I prognos-
ticate a dazzling season for you scores of conquests and
troops of friends."
" I don't care for the conquests, but the friends will be
welcome to one who has so few," returned Jessie. " Not
that I have any enemies, but my circle of acquaintances
is small."
She tried to speak brightly, lest her dispirited mood
should reflect discredit upon her friend's endeavoi-s to
make her happy.
118 JESSAMINE,
" It will enlarge rapidly within the next few weeks.
The prestige of Mr. Wyllys' approval and friendship
would ensure the success of a debutante whose personal
claims upon popular favor were far inferior to yours, mv
sweet. I shall always cherish a grateful recollection of
his attentions to you, as ray relative and friend. It is a
high compliment, as you would understand, were you
better acquainted with the materials and structure of our
best society. His influence in Hamilton is ex-tra-c/r-
di-na-ry. I have promised to do my best to fill his place
while he is away, but I am painfully conscious of my in-
ability to prevent you from missing him continually. He
was averse to going, but said the necessity laid uppn him
to do so was imperious. He was rather out of spirits, 1
fancied but it might be only a fancy. Doctor, dear I do
let Mr. Barnard come to the fii*e 1 The rooms are grow-
ing chilly, now that they are so nearly empty."
" Empty ! " The doctor turned amazed. " Where are
all the people, Jane ? "
Jessie did smile now, impolite as she feared it was, at
the alacrity with which the mild victim wriggled from
the corner at the momentary diversion of his jailor's
notice, muttered apologetically to the hostess, and got
himself out of the apartment and house.
" As I was saying " pursued the doctor, consulting
his handkerchief and collecting his wits " my objection
to Darwin's theory and to the hypothesis advanced by
Aojassiz is one and the same. I maintain "
" Dearest husband I " interposed his wife. " Since
Mr. Barnard has followed the rest of our friends, sup-
pose we postpone the further discussion of that point
JE88AMINE, 119
until to-morrow. Jessie and I are quite exhausted by
the excitement of the evening."
Jessie was sorry for him as he began, with a rueful
visage, to disentangle his cambric and his brains.
'' 1 hope you have had a pleasant evening," she said,
affectionately, going up to bid him " good-night."
His eyes cleared at sound of the frank, sweet voice,
and the sight of her face. She had never been shy of
him, had understood him better and sooner than young
girls did generally, and made herself useful to him in
many little ways. He caught himself dreaming, some-
times, in looking at and listening to her, of what his life
and home might have been, if daughters of his own had
graced and blessed it. Jessie had taken very kindly,
on her part, to the rustic, eccentric scholar. Roy had
made her acquainted with his excellences as well as his
peculiarities, and bespoken for him a worthy place in her
regard. He talked of " my young friend. Professor
Fordham," to her more frequently than he was aware of,
won to communicativeness by her deep and evident in-
terest in the theme. She had not thought it best, up to
this time, to reveal her engagement to him or to his
talkative spouse, although Hoy's last letter had gently
advised her to do so, at the first favorable opportunity.
The doctor might let slip the morceau of news in one of
his fits of abstraction, while " Cousin Jane " would, she
was sure, be in a twitter of mysterious importance, and de-
sire to announce it formally and publicly. And Jessie,
being new to the fashionable world, shrank from having
her heart-history gossipped about. Her conscience was
pricked slightly now for her want of confidence in
Eoy'B dear old co-laborer, as he laid a hand on either
120 JESSAMINE,
shoulder, and gazed eteadfastly at her, his hard, Scotch
lineaments softening into kindliness and paternal afiPec-
tion.
" Ton are very handsome, my dear I Do you know
it?"
Jessie blushed deeply, but she did not laugh or bridle,
and her answer was straightforward and unaffected as
was the query.
" I have been told so, sir I "
" Very handsome, but somewhat wilful 1 " continuing
his physiognomical examination. "Undisciplined, tool
A warm heart, but hasty judgment. Loving and lova-
ble. A nature powerful for good as for evil. My
daughter 1 when the crisis in your life shall arrive ^f or
there is a turning-point in every human life hesitate
long and pray earnestly that you may be directed into
the right path. If you take the wrong, great woe will
ensue to yourself and others."
Then, with the grave simplicity that sometimes in-
vested the quaint little man with dignity at which the
most irreverent could not mock, he laid his withered
hand upon her head :
" The LosD bless thee and keep thee ; make the light
of His countenance to shine upon thee, and give thee
peace ! "
After which he kissed her between the great, solemn
eyes, and wished her "sound slumbers and happy
dreams."
" It seems a ridiculous thing when it is put into words,
bat it reminded me of the way Roy used to say ' Good-
night,' last summer, at the close of our happiest even-
ings ! " thought Jessie, on her way upstairs, a mist between
JE88AMmE, 121
her and the glittering stair-rods. " Oh ! I ought to be a
good woman ! "
Too much excited by this little episode, or the other
events of the evening, to sleep, Jessie sat down by her
chamber-fire, when she had donned her dressing-gown,
and unbound the hair that oppressed her head by its
weight of braids. She had kept up her Parsonage habit
of reading a portion of Scripture before retiring each
night, and her Bible lay upon her knee now rbut un-
opened. She was heavy-hearted, notwithstanding Mrs.
Baxter's congratulations and predictions.
Was it home-sickness that painted the ima^^ of her
father and Eunice in the fiery bed of coals filling her
grate ? that showed her, in the violet-tinted flames quiv-
ering above the ignited mass, her chamber in the manse
among the hills; her mother's portrait over the white
tent bedstead ; her mother's escritoire, between the win-
dows, that contained Roy's letters ? Was she already
tired of the life that had been so pleasant four houn
ago? Was this dissatisfaction with herself and thosf
with whom she had talked and laughed within that time
satiety or chagrin ? She had enjoyed every moment ol
her visit heretofore, with the avidity of a novice in tht
scenes to which her cousin'a kindness had introduced
her ; the rides with Mrs. Baxter ; the walks with Orrin,
and the Hamilton girls who had extended to her a hearty
and generous welcome ; the parties, lectures, and concerts
she had attended ; the German and music lessons ; the
books she read aloud to Mrs. Baxter, and those Orrin had
read to them both on the delightful stormy nights that
kept other callers away ; had caught eagerly at Fanny.
Provost's offer to teach her billiards, and Orrin's pro-
6
122 JESSAMnfE.
posal that she should learn to skate. In fact, the day and
evening had been so crowded with occupation, recreation,
and incident, as to leave her scanty space for letters to
Dundee, and oblige her to steal hours from sleep that she
might live her enjoyments over in describing them to
Eoy. She had studied faithfully, too, and successfully
under Orrin's direction, and spurred on by his encour-
agement She was sure she could never learn so rapidly
and zestfully again. Life seemed such hard and dreary
labor.
She wished herself back in the quiet Parsonage, where
the evening^B talk, music, or reading was seldom inter-
rupted by neighbors or strangers ; where one day went
by like every other, within doors ; where, on snowy af-
ternoons, the ticking of the hall-clock could be heard all
through the house ^by Patsey in the kitchen ; by Mr.
Kirke in his study; by Eunice, sewing in her room
overlooking the church-yard ; most distinctly by hereelf
as she read, drew, or wrote in her favorite oriel, or, in
the twilight, walked up and down the parlor, dreaming
visions that put winter and gloom to flight dreams of
Eoy's return and their united lives. Wished herself
back, if she could be once more the girl who had left
home six weeks ago. She forgot that latterly she had
sickened there in mind and body, under the strain of her
grief at Koy's absence, and tiie pressure of her self-
imposed tasks, unrelieved by the diversions needful for a
girl of her age and temperament. That life seemed such
a safe, wholesome one simple, pure, pastoral. It beck-
oned her as might a living friend, beloved and trusted.
She verily believed, after the fashion of young and ig-
norant dreamers, who take to misanthropic reverie at
JESSAMINE. 123
the first.blast of disappointmentj as a frightened deer to
the water, that she had exhausted the pleasures of exist-
ence ; had proved the gay world, and found it all " hol-
low, hollow, hollow " the while slie, a hlase cynic, could
never return to relishful participation in the innocent
joys that had once satisfied her. *
The touch of Dr. Baxter's hand was yet warm upon
her head ; the grave accents of his admonition and bless-
ing had scarcely left her ear, but she had no thought
that the predicted crisis was upon her; that her feet
stood upon the very point where turning was to be bless-
ing or curse. No ! she was fatigued in body, unsettled
in spirits. The eccentric doctor's warning had joined to
the reaction succeeding the excitement of the day, to
put her out of conceit with her present mode of life
and Orrin Wyllys was i6 be out of town for a fort
night.
This was the diagnosis she made of her discontent
after an hour's melancholy lucubration over the restless
tongues of flame, and their scarlet substratum. All her
causes of discomfort were absurd and childish vagaries,
she said, severely, -excepting the last. And oh! of
course, the separation from Roy ! Orrin's absence would
make her feel this the more would be an actual trial.
For was ho not the oldest and best friend she had in
America, outside of Dundee? She had thought much,
tenderly, and regretfully, since she had become so de-
pendent upon Orrin's kindly oflices, of her own dead
brother the day-old baby whoni she had never seen;
who would, had he lived, have been to her all that her
brotherly friend was and more, if that were possible.
She had mourned that Itttle baby always. It is natural
124 JESSAMINE,
for girls to want an older brother npon whom to lean for
protection and guidance. She had not guessed what a
comfort and joy such would be to her until Roy's adopted
brother had, in some degree, supplied this need. She
had seen him every day since her arrival in Hamilton,
and eadh interview had strengthened her regard and ad-
miration for him. His interest in her studies, her amuse-
ments, her health ^in all that went to make up the sum
of her earthly happiness, was marked and unvarying; A
brother in blood could not have been kinder, more
thoughtful, in providing whatever could increase her
comfort or contribute to her pleasure. She had learned
to expect his coming on the evenings she spent at home ;
to watch for glimpses of his figure in a crowd of unfa-
miliar forms and faces; to refer doubtful questions to
, his arbitrament, and appeal to his sympathy in her
moments of sadness and anxiety. In fine, he had gained
what may be called Cupid's best vantage-ground ^he had
rendered himself necessary to her enjoyment and peace
of mind. His going made a void in her daily life and in
her heart.
Although romantic and immature, she was not weak
or mawkish. Therefore, she did not repeat "I never
loved a tree or flower," as she ended her musings with a
sigh to the memory of the student in foreign lands, and
for him to whom she had that night said a tearful
" Good-bye." But she remembered both in her prayers.
If she named Orrin with more earnestness than breathed
in her petitions for Eoy's welfare, it was because she be-
lieved his present need of comfort to be greater. The
very mystery veiling the cause of his unhappiness, led her
to dwell upon the subject longer and more interestedly
JE88AMINE. 125
than if he had confided to her the nature of the trouble
he was in.
With the morrow came a note.
"Dear Jessie: I am scribbling this before sunrise
on this dark morning, to ask your forgiveness for my
abruptness and moodiness last night. I puzzled maybe,
pained you kind heart that you are ! Do not let a
thought of my unhappiness mar the brightness of your
existence, now or ever. If you cannot think of me with-
out sadness, forget me. I could bear that better than
the thought that I had distressed you. Believe me you
have no truer friend than he who signs himself in sor-
rowful sincerity,
" Yours faithfully,
"Oeein "Wyllys."
" Doesn't he mean to write to me while he is away ? "
said Joi^sie, after reading the ten lines through twice,
wonderingly and attentively. " He is evidently in great
trouble. If I could only help him ! "
If he meant her to forget him, he had taken extraordi-
nary measures to secure this end. At six o'clock, every
evening, a bouquet was left at Mrs. Baxter's ^oor for
Miss Jessie Kirke. Mr. Wyllys' card accompanied the
first. The rest needed no other label than the snow-white
cape jessamine, that, lurk in whatever ambush of
greenery and bloom it might, was instantly betrayed by
its subtle aroma.
Eight days went by more laggingly than Jessie had
believed time could pass in Hamilton, and Eunice's
weekly bulletin of home news announced that Dundee
had been honored by Mr. Wyllys' presence.
126 J^ISSAMINE.
" He spent the Sabbath with us," wrote she. " It was
a pleasant day to us all. Mr. Wyllys kindly took ray
place as organist in church, and played with even more
than his usual taste and feeling. Ilis news of you would
of itself have made him a welcome guest. His report of
your health, sports, and progress in your studies was very
favorable. He says, moreover, that Mrs. Baxter will not
consent to give you up before Spring. Do not abridge
your stay, for fear we shall be lonely without you. We
miss you, of course, but we are consoled for the pain of
separation, by the knowledge that you are improving in
health and enjoying social and educational advantages
such as our secluded valley cannot furnish.
" I enclose a letter from Eoy, directed, as usual, under
cover to Father. In the accompanying note, he alludes
to his gratification at learning that you are so pleasantly
situated and happily employed this winter. We are glad
that he is heartily in favor of the important ^tep we
ventured to take without waiting to consult him.
" I wish you could see your oriel now. Our flowers
have flourished this winter as they never did before. The
Daphnes are in full bloom. The Stephanotis is almost en-
cumbered by buds, and the fragrant petunias and double
nasturtiums (the seed of which Mr. Wyllys gave me in
the Fall) are thriving bravely, the latter climbing rapidly.
" Our excellent neighbors are very kind and attentive,"
etc., etc.
Jessie re-read this letter when she had finished Hoy's ;
perused it with a half smile that was more mournful
than amused, and an odd stricture about her heart.
Eunice's round of duties and pleasures seemed to her
like something she had passed outgrown ages since ; yet
JESSAMINE, 127
there was, far down in her spirit, a piteous longing
for those gone days. She might be wiser she was not
better or happier for the glimpses lately granted her of
a world of stormy and contending passions and mixed
motives.
"He spent the Sabbath with us!" she read aloud.
" And I was not at home ! He said nothing to me of his
intention to visit Dundee. Since he has changed his
plans in one respect, he may in another, and be absent
three or four weeks instead of two. Heigho ! "
She folded up her sister's letter, and addressed herself
very slowly to the task of getting ready for a party at
Judge Provost's the great house of the town. It wad
given in honor of a niece of his, who was visiting his
daughter, and was to be a grand affair. Jessie had
never attended one half so fine, but she was ennuyee in
anticipation.
" There will be the stock company of beaux," she med-
itated. " The one unmarried professor ; the ten almost
marriageable seniors, and the ten utterly ineligible ones,
who are without beards or moneyed capital ; the whole
army (I had nearly said ^herd') of juniors and sopho-
mores ; the dozen or fifteen gentlemen detailed for tlie oc-
casion from the doctors' and lawyers' offices, and the higher
rank of tradespeople in Hamilton. There will be danc-
ing in one parlor, and small-talk in another ; promenading
in the halls and billiard-room ; fiirtations in all stages
among the oleanders and lemon-trees of the conservatory,
and a "jam" not sweetin the supper-room. Asa
clergyman's daughter and the guest of a clergyman's
wife, I must not dance in public. I am sick to nausea
of callow collegians and small-talk, and I don't care for
128 JESSAMINE.
late Bnppers of indigestible dainties. I would rather
spend tlie evening with Mariana in the moated grange,
for that mopish damsel would, let me sit still and sulk if
I wanted to. And I believe I do 1 "
" A little more lire, my love I " whispered Mrs. Baxter
in the dressing-room, aflFecting to be busy in shaking out
Jessie's pink silk drapery. " I have a presentiment that
you are to meet your fate to-night. But you must posi-
tively exert yourself to seem less quiet and preoccupied.
Repose and lofty indifference are considered well-bred,
and are a very safe rdle for the commonplace to adopt.
But they are unbecoming to us?^
The novice did her best to throw light into her eyes
and warmth into her complexion. Being a novice, the
attempt was a failure ; but Mrs. Baxter, perceiving that
ignorance, not obstinacy, hindered the desired effect, for-
bore to hint that, in spite of Jessie's elegant attire and
becoming coiffure^ she had never seen her look worse.
Trusting to the animating influences of the festive scene
to restore that which friendly expostulation had proved
ineflScient to recall, she committed her to the ofBcious
homage of young Lowndes, and turned her attention to
the part she was herself to play in the evening's drama.
"What a magnificent creature your niece is, Mrs.
Baxter ; or is she a cousin? " said an elderly gentleman
also one of the judge's visitors ^to her, at length.
The pleased and amiable chaperone looked o^'er her
shoulder, directed by his gaze, just in time to see Jessie
pass, treading as if on air j her eyes luminous orbs of
rapture ; her cheeks like the inner foldings of a damask
rose ; her lips apart in a smile, sweet and happy, and her
hand on Orrin Wyllys' arm.
CHAPTER IX.
ND you have really been to* Dundee I" Jessie
was saying, unconscious that she was clinging to
Mr. Wyllys' arm very slightly, but perceptibly
to him, with the glad hold of one to whom some-
thing dear and rare has been restored. " Was this
a part of the original plan of your joumeyings ? "
" No, but my business led me within sight of Old
Windbeam (' a frosty pow ' his is, just now I) and it
acted upon me as did the Iron Mountain of the Arabian
Nights upon the hapless ships that approached it. It
drew out the nails of doubt as to the best course for me
to pursue ; the screws of resolution not to be turned aside
by memories of the Past and the allurements of the
Present. To be brief I collapsed utterly! took the
afternoon train to Dundee, and passed, in that retreat
from briefs and busybodies, the happiest Sabbath I have
known since last August."
"Euna wrote to me about it the lovely, precise old
6*
130 JESSAMINE,
darling! She never indulges in extravagances upon any
subject, but her concise sentences mean much, and these
said how she enjoyed the day ^and your music. I was
envious of her, when I read of it ^just for a moment, of
course. I have seen so much of you this winter it
seemed mean and* selfish in me to grudge her one day of
like pleasure."
" Envy so groundless could not but be evanescent,"
said Orrin, with admirable gravity. " But tell me about
youi*self. What have you been doing while I was
away ? "
" Cultivating envy, as I said and, 'I am not positive,
but wrath and all uncharitableness, as well. Who is it
that confesses to an instant uprising of all that is wicked
in his nature at the approach of trouble, while visiWe
blessing always moves him to thankful piety? I am
afraid I am similarly constituted. * I have been dull and
* dumpish' for a week and more; choosing to quaiTcl
with the three peas under the fourteen feather-beds,
rather than enjoy the good that is certainly mine. You
see I also am versed in fairy-lore."
"I remember that the disguised princess, at being
asked why she was haggard in the morning after the
night spent in the forester's cabin, betrayed her gentle
breeding by complaining of the lumps in her mountainous
couch. Fourteen feather-beds 1 Think of it I To sleep
amid the waves of one of the Dutch abominations is
enough to engender dyspepsia, apoplexy, and spleen. But
what were the three peas in your bed of roses ? "
" It has rained four days out of eight, my Germany
letter was behind time and I missed my brother-cousin
at eveiy turn," responded Jessie bravely, vexed that
JESSAMINE. 131
anythiDg in the enumeration should make her cheek put
on the sudden flame of poppies.
" Two valid and sufficient reasons for ennui ! As for
the third, and notably the least of all, I thank you for the
welcome implied by it. I have missed you, Jessie ! "
" But not as I have you 1 " was the ingenuous response.
" I have been homesick, dismal, disagreeable, horrid gen-
erally. But I spare you the recapitulation. I am very,
very happy that you are back again in health, and," ^fal-
tering a little, ^' in better spirits, than when you left us."
" Mr. Wyllys 1 " interrupted a consequential personage
a young-old bachelor. " Excuse me. Miss Kirke, but
this is business of importance ! "
He spoke a sentence aside to Orrin, who replied briefly
in the same tone.
" Mr. Hurst is acting as master of ceremonies to-night,
comme d VordinairCy^ observed Wyllys, moving on with
his companion. " How will Hamilton pai-ties get on af-
ter he dies or marries I wonder ? There has been an
addition to the ranks of fashion during my absence, I
find. I had hardly finished my bow to Mrs. and Miss
Provost, when Warren Provost presented me forcibly to
Miss Sanford. 1 learned, before I went three steps far-
ther, that this party is given to Miss Sanford, and now
Mr. Hurst tells me that I am expected, presently, to
dance with Miss Sanford. Who is Miss Sanford ? "
Jessie comprehending, at once, that he shunned further
reference to the state of his spirits at their parting, fol-
lowed his lead away from the subject, with alacrity.
" Miss Sanford is the daughter of Judge Provost's sis-
ter, and such an heiress! An American Miss Burdett
Coutts, if half the stories in circulation about her be true.
132 JE88AMINR
She is the only child of a five-millionaire, and has, be-
sides, a million in her own right, inherited from her
mother. Poor thing! what a nuisance it must be to be
60 horribly rich ! " commented the country girl who
thought herself wealthy with her mother's wedding-
portion of ten thousand dollars, carefully husbanded by
her father against her majority or marriage.
^ If another woman than Jessie Kirke had said that, I
should have supposed she was in jest," said Orrin. " I
believe you mean what you say. But why ? Many and
sweet are the uses of money."
" Why do I regard it as a misfortune for a woman to
be immensely rich ? Because she can never be sure of
true friend or lover. Because she seldom escapes one of
two evils, dupedom or misanthropy. It must be almost
an impracticable task for a great heiress to satisfy herself
that she is not vjooeA j^our les beaux yeux de see ecvsP
" But if there are no other beaux yeux in the case her
own being, we will say, leaden should she not congratu-
late herself that she has one talisman that will win atten-
tion and regard ? "
" Eegard I " echoed Jessie, incredulously.
" And why not ? She typifies bank stock, real estate,
ready money, to the adorer of these. He worships them^
it is true, but through her, as discriminating Romanists
try to make us believe that they adore the Virgin
Mary by the help of her images."
" And as Dr. Baxtertoldme, the other day, Aaron and his
crew of apostate ingrates bowed down to the molten calf
as the representative of the Egyptian Apis," put in Jessie,
sarcastically. " If a woman can content herself with that
sort of worslup, put herself on a par with the goose that
JESSAMINE. 133
laid the golden egg, she wants neither aFection nor
pity."
" Yet I'll warrant that the famous goose preened her-
self alongside of the most gorgeous peacock in the barn-
yard ; accounted herself the equal of the stateliest swans.
There are as many purse-proud women as men. Million-
naires of both sexes do not scorn the court paid to their
money through themselves. On the contrary, they would
be piqued and offended if their dollars were not duly ap-
preciated. Novels and sentimentalists tell us that the
unhappy possessors of princely fortunes desire to be
loved and sought for their intrinsic virtues, whereas the
great mass especially of women who are wedded for
their riches, are quite alive to the truth that this is so, and
are far from being wounded thereby. They are neither
dupes nor misanthropes, but sensible practical bodies who
regard their property as a part of themselves soul of
their soul and unhesitatingly appropriate all the advan-
tages it buys, pluming themselves, as a rule, upon their
ability to command service and fidelity. You shake your
head ? Let ine illustrate from real life. I was talking,
some time ago, with a married lady whom nobody had
ever, in my hearing, called weak-minded, even behind her
back. I had known her for many years, and she opened
up her mind to me freely, with regard to her courtship
by, and marriage to, the man of her choice. ' I feared, at
one time, that I had lost him forever,' she said. ' He
was quite assiduous in his attention to another young lady
who was pretty, elegant, and accomplished. I was very
unhappy, for he had never declared his intentions to me.
But she had not money enough to suit his notions of- the
fitness of t^ngs,' I quote literally, ' So he came back
134 JE88AMIKE.
to me. Wasn't I thankful then that my dear father had
provided for me handsomely and thus secured my happi-
ness for life ? ' "
" A clever anecdote considering it is impromptu I "
said wilful Jessie, with an air of superb disbelief. " If
I could credit it, and you ^"
" You would cease to commiserate heiresses ! " finished
Wyllys. ** For myself, 1 have an antipathy to the whole
class. All whom I have had the misery of knowing
were sordid, self-conceited, and rapacious of admiration
to a degree that passed understanding and disgust."
He dropped his voice, for the crowd immediately about
them had grown still and attentive.
Miss Sanford was going to sing. Jessie and her escort
chanced to be near the piano, and had a fine view of her
as she was led to the instrument by an ambitious senior,
whom she loaded down with her bouquet, gloves, fan,
handkerchief, and gold vinaigrette. She was probably
about twenty-five years of age, but this was a diflScult
point to determine from her appearance ; her hair, eye-
brows, and /complexion being so light, thkt, as Jessie
afterwards said to Mrs. Baxter, she looked as if she might
have lain for forty-eight hours in a bath of caustic soda
and water the preliminary process in the preparation of
the phantom bouquets the President's lady was skilled in
arranging. Miss Sanford was thin and bony. " Scrag-
gy," one would have termed her, had she belonged to the
so-called inferior animals. Her eyes were a pale, fixed
blue, like those of a chinn doll ; her lips met scantily over
teeth that were unpleasantly prominent ; she had a re-
ceding chin, a sharp nose, and a low forehead. A homely,
shrewish-looking girl to the uninstructed eye. Yet her
'-* ""-""-" -' ^-~-"rj^-^j^.^^.. - - --r.z=^^ ^--^^-.--rT - ^ - -- f-. -_- - --i^
J
JESSAMINE. 135
air showed that she was accustomed to receive court from
the sophisticated multitude, the many who were awake
to the fact that she was the undoubted mistress of charms
not to be adequately expressed by less than seven figures.
Her dress was a walking advertisement of her pretensions
to this intelligent homage, being mauve satin, flounced
with point lace. It was cut too low upon the flat chest
and prominent shoulder-blades, but the region thus left
bare was made interesting to feminine eyes by a magnifi-
cent diamond necklace. Bracelets to match loaded her
meagre wrists, and were pushed up ostentatiously before
she put her fingers upon the key-board, witli a coquettish
grimace at her cavalier.
" I don't sing ball^s," Jessie and Orrin heard her say,
tossing her head one-sidedly a frequent trick with her,
since it set her ear-rings to dancing until the precious
stones seemed to emit sparks of real fire. " Ballad music
is considered so low in refined circles. I have never cul-
tivated any but the classical style operas, you know,
bravuras and arias, and all that, you know. Let me treat
you to my favosite ^just the sweetest thing you ever heard,
from La Traviata. I perfectly dote upon it I "
She played a thumping prelude and accompaniment in
villainous time ; her voice was shallow and shrill ; she
made audacious dashes at trills and cadenzas, her feeble
pipe breaking down upon the ascending, and breaking up
upon the descending scale. A more lamentable and wit-
less travestie of operatic execution could hardly have been
conceived of. The Italian words were made a thing of
no account whatever.
" Her resources are wonderful," said Orrin, under cover
of the buzz of compliments and thanks that succeeded the
136 jEaaAMms.
song. " When she forgot what came next she siibstituted
Bomething of her own composition in the KafBr dialect,
I think with a readiness and coolness truly astounding.
Honor bright, now," laughing down mischievously into
his companion's eyes " what has this little scene remind-
ed you of something you have hitherto viewed as a cari-
cature ? "
. " I won't tell you ! "
But Jessie's face was alive with fun. It might not be
^it certainly was not altogether kind or well-bred in her
to join in ridiculing the host's niece, but it was " only Or-
rin," and so long as his comments were for her ear alone,
no harm was done.
"You need not I Miss Swartz has arisen above such
* low style ' as * Blue-eyed Mary ' an& ' That Air from the
Cabinet,' but she can still * sing Fluvy du Tajy if she had
the words.' Indeed, being bent upon fascination, she
sings it, words or no."
He had found Jessie and Mrs. Baxter deep in "Vanity
Fair " one evening, had taken the book and read aloud
several chapters, including "The quarrel about an heiress."
" Yet you will not let me say, ' Poor Miss Swartz I ' '^
said Jessie.
"Certainly not. She is in Paradise. Eeserve your
pity for me, who am doomed to ask her to waltz so soon
as this part of the exhibition is over. Harkl another
sweet selection 1 This time from Der Freischutz
Agatha's prayer, done into boarding-school German
jpatoisy varied by the amazing improvisations aforesaid.
For Heaven's sake I come away into the conservatory.
Even ^ when music, heavenly maid, was very yovmg^ a
baby in the cradle, she never squalled like that! "
JESaAMINE. 137
Jessie could not help langhing at his whimsical impa-
tience. Mirth came easily to-night. The surprise and
joy of her friend's return had exhilarated her. The
very freedom of his comments upon others made her
feel the entireness of their mutual confidence. His
talking to her in this strain was a direct compliment
to her discretion. It was delightful to see him gay once
more to believe that his light rattle was the overflow
of a heart as full and happy as her own.
He lingered with her in the conservatory until the in-
defatigable Mr. Hurst cam to hunt him up.
" You will let me take you in to supper ? " said Wyllys,
pulling himself up with graceful unwillingness from the
fantastic root seat beside the fountain. " Where shall I
find you, if I survive the next half hour ? "
" Here ! " glancing up brightly. " It is cool and quiet,
and my feet ache with standing. Don't send anybody to
me, please I I shall sit here, and rest and think ponder
seriously upon the miseries of the rich, the compensations
of the poor."
Orrin had chosen their resting-place in the leafy boudoir
with his habitual sagacity, having an eye both to ease
and the semi-privacy which confidential friends find so
enjoyable in the neighborhood of a crowd. An osier
frame overrun with ivy, screened Jessie on the left from
any save very prying eyes; a barricade of lemon and
orange trees towered at the back ; in front, the fountain,
showering from peak and sides of a rock-work pyramid,
cast a shimmering veil between her and the archway,
closing up a vista of vines and shrubs, through which
issued music and the hum of many voices with the rhyth-
mical beat of feet. Jessie listened to the merry din, the
138 JESSAMINE,
nearer dash of the glittering drops into the basin at her
feet ; and inhaling the perfume of the exotics behind her,
smiled a happy little smile in remembrance of her scorn-
ful weariness in predicting the flirtations among the
oleanders and lemon-trees. She had no prevision then
that she should sit here with one chosen companion, talk-
ing freely and gladly of all that was in her heart ; none
of the gentle and lovely reverie to which he had left her.
From a great globe of ground glass overhead, effulgence
like that of a midsummer moon streamed down upon the
falling water; the trailing grasses and clinging mosses
upon the stones were threaded with tiny brilliants ; the
broad wet leaves of the aquatic plants overhanging and
growing within the marble reservoir were washed with
silver. A single lily arose, pure and proud, from a clump
of luxuriant flags. Tall ferns standing motionless on the
thither margin, made a miniature brake of an alley that
stretched away into cool green dimness. A bed of musk-
plant yielded up languorous sighs to the warmed air. All
that was sensuous in temperament and artistic in taste
made response to the influence of the place and hour.
Jessie gave herself up to it without resistance, laid her
head against the tortuous scroll-work of the high back of
the settee, and dreamed. The evening had been trium-
phant, intoxicating to her. The evening she would have
preferred to spend with dolorous Mariana 1
She whispered the familiar lines to herself :
" *A11 day, within the dreamy house,
The doors upon their hinges creaked ;
The blue fly sung V the pane ; the mouse
Behind the motUdenng wainscot shrieked,
Or from the crevice peered about, ^
JESSAMINE. 139
But that was nothing! I dare say the Grange was a
commodiouSj respectable family mansion ; that it would
have been as beautiful as the Alhambra to the poor girl,
had the faithless lover kept his tryst. * " He cometh not,"
she said ! ' That was the key to the desolation without
and within. I had not believed that I could be so glad to
see any one except Koy, as I am to meet Orrin again. He
has a look like his cousin sometimes. I never noticed it
before as I have to-night; a look that gives me a sense of
safety and companionship when with him, which makes
Badness and homesickness impossibilities. It is good to
have a friend upon whom I can lean my whole weight
without fear of causing weariness in whose society I can
be frankly, fearlessly, joyously, myself! "
There were but two or three couples in the conserva-
tory besides herself, and they, too, seemed to be lulled
into silent musing by the subdued lights and odorous airs
of the fairy-like haunt. Perhaps some of the dancers
found fault with the draught from the archway, for Jessie
saw Warren Provost and Mr. Hurst let down the damask
curtains which had been looped back from it. She drew a
deeper breath of content in the feeling of increased seclu-
sion. Now that the music, the babble of human tongues,
and the tramp of a hundred waltzers were muffled, a
mocking-bird from his concealed cage in an acacia tree
began to sing. First came a chirp of alarm as if he had
just awakened from dreams of tropical skies and mag-
nolia groves then a trial trill, a gush of liquid melodj^,
clear and soft as the ripple of a mountain rivulet. Kext,
he whistled, still softly, but with marvellous correctness
and sweetness, a flute waltz Jessie had heard Orrin
140 JEaSAMINE.
Wyllys play last sammer. She smiled and munnured ia
her trance,
" Everything associated with him is pure pleasure ! "
Nobody could be moody or dull when he chose to please
and interest. To her, his coming was like the spreading
of the sun rays down the mountain sides and through the
valley on summer mornings^steeping the commonplace in*
beauty ; making of native loveliness a witching miracle.
Dear, dear Hoy ! She owed this great happiness also to
him. He had reckoned wisely and lovingly in commit-
ting her to the care of this guardian.
The band struck up a march. The blare of the instru-
ments burst unwelcomely upon l^er rosy dreams. She
aroused herself with a start to see the curtains pulled back.
The mocking-bird ceased his song abruptly. The waltzers,
panting and flushed, thronged the narrow aisles of the
conservatory ; chattered and flitted among the foliage like
bright-plumaged, loud-voiced parrots. Miss Sanford was
conspicuous among .them, leaning palpably upon her
escort's arm. Her affected laugh grated unpleasantly upon
Jessie's ears, every few seconds. She was in exuberant
spirits ; in high good-humor with herself, and, presumably,
with her partner.
" Oh I that darling beauty of a lily I " she cried, push-
ing roughly past the ivied screen, to get a closer view of
the proud, pale princess of the fountain. " I wanted you
should see it ! Fanny Provost, my cousin, goes just crazy
over it. It was brought to her all the way from the Nile
or the Ganges, or the Amazon, or some other of those
stupid rivers in Europe, whose names I always forget by
her beau. You know she is engaged to Lieutenant
Averill of the Navy? Everybody who is anybody an-
JESSAMINE. 141
nounces engagements nowadays, as soon as the matter is
settled by what my uncle, Judge Provost, calls the high
contracting parties. It is a nice fashion. Don't you think
so 2 \do think an engagement must be just the cunning-
est, sweetest thing in the world I "
^ " That depends, in a great measure, upon who the high
contracting parties are, I suppose," replied Orrin, with
the slightest imaginable glance in the direction of the con-
cealed spectator, but one in which she read a drollery of
appeal that wrought irresistibly upon her risibles.
Miss Sanford tittered. " I declare I am afraid of you,
Mr. Wyllys 1 You are so sarcastic I Of course, tliat was
what I meant. One takes that for granted always. But
it must be just too sweet for two people who are devoted
to one another, and who are of suitable ages arid prospects,
and all that, you know, to promise that they will just
perfectly adore one another, till death, you know. At
least, that is the way /look at it. I am so womanly, Mr.
Wyllys ! I often tremble at the thought of buffeting the
world; Everybody is so absorbed in their own selfish in-
terests. My cousin, Mrs. Morris the ex-Chancellor's
lady, you know says I am a sensitive plant, not fit to
meet the rough winds of life."
- With the ventriloquial knack that belongs to the genu-
ine slayer of hearts, Orrin made his reply inaudible to
any one but the woman at his side, who flushed up eagerly,
and fanned herself in naive agitation.
" I wish I could think so, Mr. Wyllys ! It is ever so
kind in you to wish it, I am sure. But men and I am
ashamed to say it-^ women, too, are such awful flatterers !
And appearances are so deceitful ! Nobody would be-
lieve, for instance, that I, with everything ^^compara-
142 JE8aAMINE,
tively speaking you know ^to make me happy, should
plno for a kindred heart one that would beat responsive
to mine. True, one pei'son cannot have everything, you
know There I I've torn my laee flounce upon that ugly
cactus I Just see, Mrs. Saville ! " to a lady who was
passing, revealing the extent of the rent. . " The fli*st time ^
I have ever worn it, too ! I don't know what my careful
papa will say. It was a present from him. But, la ! who
cares ? If he scolds, I'll punish him by paying for it
myself. That will just break his heart. Nothing puts
him out so much as for me to remind him that I can be
independent of him if I choose. That is the way with
all you gentlemen isn't it, Mr. Wyllys ? " staring boldly
she fancied engagingly up at him. " You would have us
owe everything to you. Bless me ! can that be supper ?
And just as we are having such a sweet, romantic time 1
Isn't this just the most delicious bower in Christendom?
I tease my cousin Fanny by insisting that Lieutenant
Averill couldn't help proposing when once she had got
him in here. Not that it can compare in size with our
conservatory. Ours is connected, too, with the graperies,
which makes it perfectly immense. Where can Mr.
Eomondt be ? He saw me come in here, I am certain,
for we passed him in the door. He was to take me in to
supper, but I am not in the habit of waiting for my
escorts. It would be just too funny if / of all the women
here should be thrown upon your protection in the char-
acter of the deserted maiden wouldn't it ? "
"The bliss of succoring you is not to be mine, at
present, it seems," said Orrin, with an adroit, backward
bow, as Mr. Eomondt hurried upon the scene, full of
apologies, to claim his convoy.
JESSAMINE,
143
A new caprice seized the belle.
" I protest he ought to be the deserted one, in punish-
ment for his tardiness I " regaining her hold of Mr. Wyl-
lys' elbow, and making a resentful moue at the derelict
gallant. " I have half a mind to go off with you and leave
-jiim to solitary regrets. Suppose, if I trust myself to him,
my barque should be shipwrecked on the journey ? "
It was an awkward moment. . The heiress' look and
action plainly testified that hers was no " half mind " to
commit herself to the pilotage of the man who had not
invited such a display of confidence. Wyllys extricated
himself promptly and creditably, and as if her proposal
were entirely decorous and ladylike. He had too much
sense and tact ever to patronize one of his own sex, and
owed much of his popularity to the air of respectful hon-
hommi^ with which he now turned to the perspiring and
rebuked Komondt.
"Do not try fallible humanity beyond endurance, Miss
Sanford 1 It is hard to be just and magnanimous in the
face of such a temptation, but right is right. Mr. Eo-
mondt ! grant me the honor of becoming y9ur security for
the safe and pleasant transfer of la ^eine du hal to the
supper-room.
Jessie was quivering with merriment in her sheltered
nook.
"I have been in mortal terror lest J should not be
launched at all, but be left high and hungry upon the
stocks!" she cried gayly, at her attendant's approach.
" And supper is one of the substantial blessings of life,
when one has a good appetite."
Orrin feigned to wipe the dews of exhaustion from his
brow with a despairing flourish of his handkerchief.
IM
JE88A2INB.
" At last I am at your service. You must stay me with
flagons (of champagne), and comfort me with (pine)
apples;" he said, profanely enough, "for I am sick of
heiresses ! "
c
'^
CHAPTER X.
[JDGE PROVOST, whoso wife and daughters
were the leaders of fashion in Hamilton, was him-
self a social Greatheart. Having brought to bear
upon various vexed domestic problems the force
of his astute mind and enlightened Christianity,
he had arrived at a series of conclusions equally credita-
ble to both. The pertinence of his deductions was so
obvious to the impartial reasoner as to excite his surprise,
that the great body of good and sensible men and women
did not adopt and practise them. For example, he main-
tained first, that the best way to keep men out of jails,
was to provide them with abodes so comfortable that they
would prefer these to stone cells and prison fare : sec-
ondly, as a modification of the same principle, that, since
amusements are necessary to the happiness of the young,
they should be provided with lawful diversions in their
own homes, lest they should seek unlawful abroad ;
tiiirdly, in unconscious plagiarism of the wise and genial
7
146 JESSAMmS.
author of " Annals of a Country Neighborhood," he held
and believed for certain, that the surest way to make an
indifferent thing bad, .was for good people to hold them-
selves aloof from doing it.
Acting upon these principles, the eminent jurist built
a bowling-alley at the back of his garden; caused his
eight children to be instructed in music and dancing, and
encouraged them to pursue these recreations in his par-
lors, where, also, lay backgammon and chess board in
full sight. Finally, he crowned their gratification while
he drew upon liimself the reprobation of the zealots and
puritans among his neighbors, by throwing a wing out
from his already spacious residence, expressly for a
billiard-room. It was a pretty place, and a cheerful, with
its green carpets and lounges, tinted walls, and long
French windows, and was, as may be supposed, a popular
resort with tliose of the college students who had the
entree^ as well as with the young Provosts and 'their
friends of both sexes in the town. A happy, hospitable
set were the young Provosts the four sisters and four
brothers affectionate to one another, dutiful and loving
to the parents to whose judicious affection they owed
their sunny childhood and youth. Jessie liked them
better than she did any other family in Hamilton, while
Fanny, the second daughter, had taken a fancy to her at
first sight, which was ripening into a cordial friend-
ship. .
The billiard-room was very bright with aftemocii
sunshine, and merry with the chatter of gay voices, one
day late in Februaiy, when a party of six or eight gitlB
was collected about the table four playing, the othei-s
lookipg on ^n) talking, sometimes of the game in
JESSAMINE. 147
progress, sometimes upon other subjects all in a familiar
yet ladylike way.
" Somebody mark for me, please ! " said a ruddy-
cheeked damsel who had never, by any chance, won a
game, and whose principal points were the point she made
of missing every shot. "If I should hit anything it
would be a pity not to get credit for it. * Now all of
you look and learn 1 "
She poised the cue with a superabundance of caution,
pursing up her lips into an O, as she took aim ; dashed
at the white ball nearest her, which flew frantically
from side to side of the board, rebounding twice from
the cushion, and, at last, popping into a distant pocket,
having dodged every other ball with a malicious in-
genuity eminently illustrative of the proverbial perversity
of inanimate things.
" Better luck next time ! " said the player, invincibly
good-humored, resigning her place; " If there is any-
thing in perseverance and hope, I shall do it yet, some
day, and astonish you all."
The others laughed with, rather than at her and
Jessie Kirke took the stand she had vacated. All leaned
forward to watch her play, her skill being already an
established fact A touch ^not a thrust to the white ball
sent it against a red at such an angle that in the rebound
it hit another quite at the other end of the green table,
which latter rolled into a pocket. This, to the uninitiated,
meaningless process, being repeated by her, with trifling
variations, until she had made sixteen points, was consid-
ered a feat among the embryo billiardist^' surrounding her.
"So miich for a true eye and a sure touch!" ea'd
Famiy Provost. " Ton shame us all, Jessie dear."
143 JESSAMINS.
" So much for having a good teacher I " Baid another,
less complimentary. " If Mr. Wyllys would bestow as
much care upon our tuition as he has upon hers, we
might be adepts, too."
" She has practised ten times as much with me as she
has with him," answered Fanny, pleasantly. " So, I am
entitled to the larger share of the praise for her pro-
ficiency. I will not be cheated of ray laurels."
"Is Mr. Wyllys, then, your best player?"
The querist was Miss Sanford, who "did not care
about billiards," and had even remonstrated, at the begin-
ning of her visit with her cousin Fanny, with regard to
her liking for the game" such a queer one for ladies I
She would be afraid to touch a cue for fear she might be
called strong-minded." She had discovered, furthermore,
that her wrists were not stout enough to bear the weight
of a cue steadily, and took pleasure in publishing their
genteel fragility. Only tliat afternoon she had called at-
tention to this by an exclamation addressed to Jessie,
as she drew up her cuffs in order to be ready for her
turn.
" Dear me \ Miss Kirke I what wouldn't I give to be
as robust as you are ! Look at her arms I They would
make six of mine. What do you do to develop your
muscles so?"
Jessie smiled in quiet satisfaction with her own beau-
tifully moulded wrists.
"I am healthy, and I lead an active life," she said,
laconically, but politely.
Miss Sanford was not pleased either with smile or
words, but there was apparently nothing to resent, and she
returned to her sofa. She had attended a party the ev^n*
JESSAMINE. 149
ing before, and was to-day " utterly worn out." While
the game went on, she toyed with her rings, slipped her
bracelets of dead gold and pearls up and down her
thin arms, and now and then yawned behind her hand.
Mr. Wyllys' name awoke her from the apathetic dron-
ing.
"Decidedly!" replied a looter-on, Selina Bradley
by name a kind-hearted, talkative, and indiscreet girl
whom everybody liked, yet of whose tripping tongue
many were afraid. " Decidedly the best in town. Don't
you think so, Fan ?"
" There are not many who can equal him among our
finest billiard players," said Fanny. " I do not believe
he has lost a game since Mr. Fordham went away. He
played splendidly! His nerves were steady and his
judgment nice."
" Fordham I " repeated the heiress, quickly. " What
was his first name ? Who is he ? "
" Roy and he is a professor in our college. He is
now in Heidelberg, Germany. Do you know him ? " said
Fanny, in surprise. " You must have heard us speak of
him before."
" Never I I used to know him," rejoined Miss San-
ford, tossing her head. " He was engaged to a very dear
friend of mine. No 1 I didn't know he was in Germany,
lamgladof it!"
Selina, breathless with excitement, did not catch the
meaning of the latter sentences.
"Engaged! I thought he was love- proof! Fanny!
Nettie I Sue ! do you hear this ? Who do you guess is
engaged to be married ? No less a personage than our
invulnerable Professor Fordham I " "
y
150 JE88AMIJSfB.
The girls crowded about Miss Sanford, forgetting the
game in the superior attractions of a love-storj.
" To whom ? ''
"Who told you 1"
" I don't believe it I *' were the divers comments upon
the intelligence.
Jessie remained alone at the table, tapping the cushion
opposite her with her cue, her face flaming with indignant
confusion. Taken utterly by surprise, she could not at
once rally to reply to the false statement she had heard,
or govern her countenance well enough to seem indiffer-
ent
The heiress bridled at the last remark, setting back her
head in a fashion she conceived was regal, whereas it was
merely ungracefully scornful.
" You are not asked to believe it. Miss Barnes 1 I said
distinctly that the gentleman was formerly betrothed to
my friend. I am happy, on her account, to be able to
state that the (to her) unfortunate engagement was broken
almost a year since."
" What do you mean ? How did it happen ? And to
think we never heard a breath of it I Go on ! there's a
darling I and tell us all about it I " entreated Selina, sink-
ing to the carpet at the feet of the in nowise reluctant
newsmonger.
" Perhaps you had rather not, Hester," suggested gen-
tle Fanny to her cousin. " Such stories are painful to
those interested in either of the parties to the engagement,
and the telling does no good to any one. The fewer
people that hear of them the better, it seems to me."
" Oh ! I don't mind it in the least now I " Hester has-
tened to re-assure her. She settled the voluminous skirt
JESaAMINE. 151
of her purple cashmere peignoir about her ; disposed her
rings upon her fingers, and her fingers upon her lap to
her liking; sighed profoundly, and looked smirkingly sen-
timental. " There was a time when I could not allude to
it, or even think of it, without tears. My disposition is
80 sympathetic! But time deadens all griefs, and my
poor friend acknowledges herself that it was best the
affair should have terminated as it did. She met Mr.
Fordham at the seashore summer before last was with
him there for a week or so. It was long enough for him
to fall violently in love with her. He couldn't help being
taken by her appearance, for she is just perfectly lovely !
a blonde, with blue eyes, and a red rose-bud of a mouth,
and golden hair, and the sweetest smile ! ''
" She must be a real beauty I " sighed Selina, in an ecs-
tacy of admiration.
" She is. People pretend to see a resemblance between
us. I have actually been mistaken for her more than
once but that is all nonsense," said Hester, modestly.
" I should be just too happy if I were half as handsome
as Maria. But I love her too dearly to be envious. We
are like twin sisters in heart. I dare say that is the rea-
son we are called so much alike. We go out so much to-
gether, you see, that the sight of one reminds people of
the other, you know. But as I was saying, this Mr. Ford-
ham pretended to be smitten with her, and, early in the
winter, visited her at her own home. Her parents liked
him exceedingly. He is rather an imposing naan, you
know, and has some reputation as a scholar. So, when
he paid a , second visit at Christmas, and offered himself,
there was no objection raised to the match. Poor, dear,
deluded Maria 1 how happy she was 1 All went swim-
162 JEaSAMlNS.
mingly for about Bix weeks, when, without warning, he
broke the engagement. And why, do you euppooe 1 He
had heard that one of her eisters had died of consumption
several years before he knew her, and he ^ could not be
hampered by a sickly wife f '
She waited until the chonis of reprobation subsided,
then resunded :
" He wrote to her. Iron man as he was, he was afraid
to trust himself in her presence. He ^ regretted the ne-
cessity that forced him to this unpleasant step,' he said,
* but he owed a duty to himself which was not to be
lightly put aside. He should always remain her friend,'
and all that sort of rubbish, you know. The broken-
hearted creature stooped to argue with him. She loved
him devotedly, and she had had no other love. If I had
been in her place, I would have died sooner than let him
know how I suffered ; but she was such a lamb-like, gen-
tle creature! and her spirit was utterly crushed. She
wrote to him, imploring him not to leave her, representing
that there was not a sign of hereditary consumption in the
family ; that her parents were living, and that her grand-
parents on both sides had all died from other diseases.
But he was obstinate. He ^ would never,' he replied, ' in
any circumstances, marry a woman who was not, in his
opinion, perfectly sound in mind and body, or who had
; any predisposition to scrofula, consumption, or insanity.'
He pretended to believe still that she had the seeds of a
fatal malady in her system, and went so far as to allude
to her beautiful color: just the sweetest pink and white
you ever saw I as a hectic flush. That^a the history of
Mr. Eoy Fordham's love-scrape 1 "
" And did she break a_blood-ve8sel, or go into a de-
JB88AMmB. 158
cline?" asked Sne Barnes, her ronnd face ludicrously
elongated, while her eyelids twinkled away a sympathiz-
ing tear.
"Well ^nol" Miss Sanford hesitated, then made
the admission unwillingly, evidently appreciating the
damage her mournful recital must sustain through the
want of this orthodox sequel. " But she was in a sad
way for awhile. Her family kept the miserable affair as
quiet as possible for her sake. The truth was communi-
cated to nobody except a few very intimate and dearest
friends. But you can^t wonder that I have hated the
sound of Professor Fordham's name ever since."
"Very natural, I am sure I" murmured the plastic
Sue.
Hester made a parade of wiping her eyes with a lace
handkerchief.
" Not that I ever liked him. Poor Maria brought him
around to our house, one evening, on purpose to have me
see him. And the next morning she was in, bright and
early, to ask what I thought of him. * I don^t fancy him
in the least, my dear child,' I said to her, candidly.
^ He has a cold, severe eye, and a stubborn mouth. He
is quiet in manner because he is unfeeling. If you
marry him, he will rule you with a rod of steel, and
make your life a burden.' It was a trial to say it, but I
knew it was my duty, and I didn't turn back, you know.
iShe cried her eyes out over what she said was my un-
kindness, and left me in a tremendous huff. She would
neither speak to me, nor hear my name mentioned in her
presence, until the rupture came. Then she sent right
away for me, and fell upon my neck, begging my pardon.
^If I had been as clear-sighted as you, Hester, what
154 JSB8AM1NB.
wretchedness I would have been spared!' she sobbed.
I am very acate in my perception of character. My
grandmother, Mrs. General Deane my mother's mother
said to her dying day that my skill in seeing through
people especially sheep in wolves' clothing I mean
wolves in sheep's clothing was ^well I the most aston-
ishing thing she had ever seen."
Jessie was knocking the balls to and fro, in reckless
disregard of the laws controlling the game, but the shaip
click of the ivory spheres did not distract general atten-
tion from Miss Sanford.
^' I never was more amazed in all my bom days t "
said Selina, conscientiously reserved with respect to her
pre-natal experience. '^ Mr. Fordham is so pleasant, yet
so dignified, and ranks so high in the Faculty and the
church, and has so much influence among the students!
Who could ever have thought of his behaving in such an
inhuman and ungentlemanly manner ? "
"Why, people in Hamilton everybody out of the
college as well as in, consider him a piece of pei^ection I "
added Sue.
" He is a detestable snake in the grass, then 1 " Hes-
ter said, vehemently, her energy so disproportionate to
the occasion, that doubts would have arisen, in an un-
biassed mind, of her own belief in the affecting narration
she had glibly poured forth.
"Take care, dear!" cautioned Fanny. "^^ There may
be extenuating circumstances of which we are ignorant
Mr. Fordham's character as a gentleman and a Christian
is not to be lightly disputed. Every question has two
sides, papa says, and those are wisest who suspend judg-
ment until both are heard. I am morally certain there
JE88AM1NE. 155
is some mistake about all this, which Mr. Fordham could
clear up, if he were here."
The heiress snifiFed haughtily, and her light skin was
dappled with fieiy red spots to the roots of her hair ; her
faint eyebrows met in a viragoish frown.
" I thank you for the inference, Miss Provost I Would
I repeat a story unless I was sure ' morally certain,' as
you say, that it was true in every particular? If you
question my veracity, you can ask dozens of her ac-
quaintances in her native place, who will confirm my
statement. And you may be thankful if you don't, at
the same time, hear some other ugly facts about your
Christian gentleman, that I have chosen to omit. If I
have a fault, it is that I am too charitable in my judg-
ment of human nature. I am perpetually being imposed
upon."
The cue that had been stationary while Fanny put in
her plea for mercy to the absent perjurer, was restless
again, red balls and white chasing one another aimlessly
across tlie green cloth.
" To tell the truth," said Nettie Fry, another of the
listening group, propitiatory of the mistress of a million
in her own right, "I never admired Mr. Fordham so
much as many pretend to do. He was always so cool
and lofty so unapproachable and unlike other young men
of his age. And as Miss Sanford says, he looked as if he
might, when married, grow into a kind of Bluebeard."
" For my part, I thought him grand and good," con-
fessed Selina. " And I liked him a hundred times bet-
ter than I did the modem young gentleman, with his
flattering speeches and unmeaning attentions. I didn't
think he covJd trifle with a woman's affections. I am.
156 JESSAMINE.
dreadfully disappointed I I wonder if Mr. Wyllys knows
anything about this shocking business I "
" Of course he doesn't I How should he I " retorted
Hester, tartly. " There are not three people besides my-
self, even in our city, who ever heard of it."
"You said * dozens,' just now, Hester 1" ventured
merciful Fanny, in gentle rebuke.
Selina averted the burst of anger portended by the
darkening visage of the moneyed belle.
. " 1 thought Mr. Wyllys would be more likely to hear
Mr. Fordham's side of the story than anybody else," she
said, timidly. " You know they are own cousins."
" You don't say so 1 " ejaculated Heater, horrified ;
and by a simultaneous conviction of their indiscretion,
the entire party was moved to glance at Jessie.
She appreciated the extreme awkwardness of the
pause ; felt that their eyes were directed, like so many
burning-glasses, to a focus that was herself, and me-
chanically went on playing with her cue and balls. Only
Fanny Provost was in a position from which she could
see that while her features were steady, and her eyes
seemed to follow the red and white spheroids in their
windings and doublings, one swollen vein in her throat
was beating like a clock, and the nails were bloodless
where they pressed upon the cue.
" Come ! we must finish our game 1 " said the young
hostess, going back to the table. " Jessie has been per-
fecting her skill by a bit of private practice, while we
were making havoc of our neighbors' characters."
At heart she was exceedingly displeased with the tale-
bearer, but the courtesy of hospitality forbade her more
emphatic expression of disapproval.
JBSSAMmE. 157
Jessie threw down the slender rod, and tried, very un-
Buccessf ttlly, to laugh.
" 1 have done nothing except spoil your game for yon.
I thought you had found an occupation so far preferable
that you would not care to go on with this. I give up
my cue and ray place. You must choose other partners
and commence anew. I have forgotten how the balls
were set up when we stopped to listen to Miss Sanford's
thrilling romance. I must go now, Fanny. My time is
npl" .
Bowing a general "Good afternoon," she made her
way to the library where she had left her hat and cloak.
Fanny accompanied her.
" You will join us again this evening, I hope," she said,
kindly. " Mr. Wyllys is to give us some music. Hester
has never heard him sing. By a somewhat strange series
of mischances, she has never happened to be present when
he gave the rest of us this pleasure. She cannot endure
contradiction, as you see ; so when she insisted I should
ask him for to-night, I complied. I am often thankful,
Jessie, that I am not an only child, when I see how rest-
less and irritable so much notice and petting has made
her. It is a downright misfortune to be so wealthy as she
is. Everything and everybody conspires to spoil her. She
is more to be pitied than blamed, poor girl 1 "
Jessie said nothing in rejoinder to this ingenious apol-
ogy for her cousin's ill-natured tattling, and Fanny was
obliged to proceed directly to the point.
" I am sorry if you are leaving thus early on account
of anything Hester has said," she continued, genuine
concern depicted in her countenance " sorry if the slur
cast by the idle talk of a party of thoughtless girls upon
158 JESSAMINE,
the character of your of our friend, Mr. Wylljs' cousin
has wounded or displeased you. Hester does not mean
to exaggerate or misrepresent^ but she has a wild, careless
fashion of talking sometimes. I am convinced that there
is some great mistake in the story we have heard. In
details and in general bearing, it is not in keeping with
Mr. Fordham's well-established character. If you knew
him, you would agree with me in discrediting it, in totoP
" I do know him, and I quite agree with you I '*
Jessie was tying on her hat, and the action might have
caused the slight quaver and weakness in her voice. It
was firmer when she spoke again. Fanny, in consterna-
tion at the unexpected disclosure, and the manner which
said that more was behind the mere statement, could not
summon words for reply.
"Mr. Wyllys' cousin" with unconscious emphasis,
Fanny imagined was disdainfal "is not a stranger to
me. I have known him a long time. But say nothing to
your friends about the acquaintanceship. They might
fear they had ofiFended me by their strictures. I will I
may tell you moi*e some other time. You will compre-
hend then why certain things which were said just now,
have excited me more than I care to show. You are al-
ways just and tender-hearted, and I thank you for speak-
ing when I could not. Good-by I "
Her lips were set and hard to Fanny's soft kiss, and her
eyes glowed dangerously as the latter attended her to the.
front door. The peace-maker, noting this, refrained from
further endeavors to heal the breach between her relative
and her new friend. Hester had been shockingly, shame-
fully imprudent, even if what ehe stated were true. Jessie
was hurt and angry, and she had a right to be. Yet she,
JESSAMINE. 169
Fanny, dared not advance another step without a more
distinct understanding of the case. For the present it
was beyond her art. She tried to content herself by a
cordial invitation to " run in to-morrow forenoon for a
quiet billiard-practice only you and myself if you do
not think better of your refusal to come to-night," and
let her visitor go.
CHAPTER XL
fdREATLT perturbed, Fanny returned to the circle
of gossips. They had not recommenced their
game, but were standing about, and leaning upon
the billiard-tablo, busily rehearsing the late scene,
accentuating their animated periods by tapping
the floor with the cues, and rapping the board with the
ivory balls. All except Hester, who sat still upon her
lounge, twirled her rings, and looked sulky.
Selina was foremost and loudest in apologetic exclama-
tions being as candid in regret as she had been in cen-
sure.
" Do you know I never thought of his being a relation
of Mr. Wyllys until just as I spoke of it? That is like
my blundering tongue I There is no half-way house of
meditation between the brain and it. We are ruined I
you and I especially, Nettie, and Sue is almost as badly
off. Jessie will tell Mr. Wyllys, and he will report us all
to his cousin, and won't there be a row \ "
JE88AMINB. 161
" Why should you care ? " said Hester, sharply. " If
the man is away off in Germany, he can't quarrel with
you."
" But he is coming back next Fall 1 I should sink into
the earth if he were to ask me any questions about what
I have said. He has always been so gentle and pleasant
with me ! I felt quite proud of his good opinion." *
" You had very little to be proud of, I should say ! "
retorted Miss Sanford, losing command of her tongue and
temper entirely, as the discussion proceeded. " Thank
Heaven I I am not dependent upon such contemptible
trifles for my peace of mind I I wouldn't recognize Koy
Fordham on the street, or anywhere else ; would cut him
dead were he to enter this room at this very minute.
As for Miss Kirke, I care less than nothing for her, or
her opinion. If she chooses to play the spy upon a con-
fidential conversation between ladies^ and carry tales to
gentlemen, she may, and welcome. I never could abide
her from the first instant I ever saw her. I do hate
tattlers and backbitera 1 But let her do her worst 1 I
flatter myself that /, at least, am above her reach 1 "-
" I should be very uneasy and unhappy, if I believed
that the substance of our conversation would ever reach
Mr. Fordham's ears," rejoined Fanny, very gravely. " But
Mr. Wyllys is no mischief-maker. Kor, for that matter,
is Jessie Kirke. My principal regret is that we have
wounded her ; for I do not think a reputation so nobly
earned as Mr. Fordham's has been, will suffer from our
idle chatter. It is founded upon a rock. As to Jessie's
playing the spy, Hester, she had no reason to believe the
communication you made was confidential."
" She never opened her lips while I was talking 1 just
lJ*"
162 jmsAMnsfR
Bfood oflE there, pretending to be busy with the billiard
balls, and listenedj'^ said Hester, hotly, '^ If that wasn't
mean and dishonorable, I don't know what is ! "
^^ I am inclined to think it would have been well had
the rest of us done likewise I " smiled Fanny, willing to
give a jocose tUm to the circumstance. " Since we
cannot help our blunder, we will try to forget it."
But Hester had a troublesome bee in her bonnet. She
looked more and more discomposed.
^^ What makes you all think that this Kirke girl will
blab to Mr. Wyllys? What has she to do with him,
more than any of you here % "
" What's he to Hecuba, or Hecuba to him 1 " quoted
Fanny, theatrically, bent upon covering her cousin's
coarseness of speech and manner. " They are old f riend&,
and he is intimate at Dr. Baxter's, where she is staying.
As I said, however, the least of my apprehensions is that
she will stir up strife between us and Mr. Fordham."
She chalked her cue carefully, as if it were her chief
concern at present.
" Is he addressing her ? " demanded Hester, with in-
creasing interest.
" I don't know. Selina 1 will you play on my side ? "
"In a minute!" The volatile Bradley was ofiE at a
tangent. " I don't begin to believe that ho means to
offer himself to her, whatever wiseacres may say. It is
well known that he is not a marrying man. He brings
out girls that have the making of belles in them. It is a
sort of hobby with him a mission he has. This done, he
stands back serenely, and lets other men marry them.
He is a universal lover of the sex, and upon occasions
like those I have named^-a benefactor. Some o^ our
JE88AMINK 163
most elegant matrons and handsomest young ladies were
h\& protegees. His sanction of their charms made them
the fashion. It is odd, but true."
Hester smiled, laid her head on her left shoulder, and
peeped at an opposite mirror. ;
" It would be a sin were you Hamilton girls to let him '
marry this girl. Tou don't half appreciate him. I have
met so many distinguished and gallant men, that I call
myself a tolerable judge of true breeding and polished
manners. And I can inform you that in a large, gay
city such as that I live in, he would be a star! might
have almost any girl he wanted. The idea of his throw-
ing himself away upon a poor minister's daughter is just
perfectly nonsensical. I have too good an opinion of his
common-sense and his taste, to believe it for a second.
He can't but know that he could look ever so much
higher. What there is about this Miss Kirke that you
all admire, I can't see, for the life of me. She couldn't
carry it, in our place, with such a bold hand, as she does
here. She would be put down at once and forever I "
" Jessie Kirke is my friend, Hester, and was but just now
my guest," said Fanny, firmly. " Excuse me for saying that
I cannot hear her spoken of unkindly in this house. She
is a lady ^born and bred. Papa says her family were
people of rank in this country, before oura was ever heard
of. I am not an aristocrat, but if I were I should rather
belong to what Dr. Holmes calls the ^ Brahmin caste ', in
America, than to any other. Jessie Kirke comes of an
educated race, and the refinement of educated genera-
tions shows itself in every motion and word. I do not
aflSrm that she will ^that she would, if he offered him-
self, marry Mr. Wyllys. 1 do say that he would do well
164 JESSAMINSL
to win her for his wife. And I BQspect he does not need
to be told this."
The snn was an hour high as Jessie descended the
granite steps of Jndge Provost's mansion. The college
buildings lay to her right, upon rising ground, separated
by a shallow valley from the hill crowned by the Provost
house and grounds. Instead of taking the street that,
would conduct her to Dr. Baxter^s door, she turned
sharply to the left, and began another and steeper ascent.
There were few residences in this quarter of the town,
and these were gentlemen's villas, separated by large gar*
dens. She did not look up at the windows of the scat-
tered dwellings in passing, although more than one ac-
quaintance watched, from one and another of these, the
straight, slender figure that held on its rapid course with-
out sway or falter. In the plainest garb, she was con-
spicuous for her carriage and peculiar style of beauty.
This afternoon she looked like a young forest princess in
her dark green dress, and tunic trimmed with fur, the
black velvet cap and sweeping green feather. She had
thought of Hester Sanford's colorless countenance and
Parisian costumes as she made ready for the call upon
Fanny, laughed to herself at the image that smiled back
upon her from the mirror, knowing how far handsomer,
even more "stylish" (Hester's pet word I) she was in
her simple robes. She thought more of such things now
than ever before. Her enjoyment in general company
was no longer the gratification of a young girl's frank
vanity often as guileless and freely uttered as a
child's. The desire to be at her best looks, to attract
and to hold the admiration of those whom she met
abroad, had ceased to be simple and positive. There was
JBa&AMIB. 165
in it the baser element of competition. She would be
beautiful and brilliant because gthers ^Hester Sanford
in particular ^were homely and- silly. The feeling had
grown upon her insidiously so stealthily she could not
tell when she forbore to laugh, good-naturedly, at the
heiress' absurdities; to declare openly to Mr. Baxter
and Orrin that she had conceived an antipathy to her be-
fore she had known her three horn's, or three minutes,
that association with her invariably provoked her into an
indescribable but intolerable state of discomfort, analogous
to that a cat is supposed to feel when her fur is turned
the wrong way. But she disliked the woman intensely
now when she hardly ever named her to others.
There were many reasons for this. As proud in her
way as Hester was vain-glorious in hers, it galled her
continually that she must appear even for Fanny's and
decency's sake to submit to the insufferable impertr-
nence of one who was her peer in nothing save the acci-
dent of riches. She would give her no apparent ad-
vantage; would not put it into her power to boast that
she had driven her out of the arena where she ^Hester
^believed that she reigned queen of Fashion, if not of
Love and Beauty, or she would have avoided her when-
ever she could. It seemed to her that the more dignified
course was to overlook her ^lier spiteful innuendoes, her
pompous condescensions, and brainless boastings with
the sublime indifference of one whose thoughts were set
upon worthier and more comely objects ; to mete out to
the heiress scrupulously such show of regard as she would
vouchsafe a peevish, painted gad-fly hissing about her
ears and eyes.
The gad-fly had stung her out of her seeming of
166 JESSAMINE.
haughty carelessness, and since she could not crush or
even touch it, she was fleeing before it, as for her life.
The figure occurred to Irer as she climbed a third hill
one she had never crossed before without pausing on the
summit to look back over the town a view Eoy had
commended to her admiration in one of his letters. She
did not stop now, or turn her head, but almost ran down
the other side, her teeth clinched, and a dry aching in the
throat that ought to have been relieved by tears, yet was
not to be. She met no one in her walk. The dav was
still, and very cold ; the hills beyond the ice-bound river
were strongly defined against a pale orange sky into
which the color seemed to be frozen, so unvarying was if^
as the sun rolled horizonward. She had passed the region
of paved sidewalks, bnt the ground rang like stone un-
der her tread ; her breath was frosty vapor as soon as it
left her lips. She did not think how much colder it
would be in the open country road on the other side of
the bridge. She would not feel it when she got there.
Two wood wagons, each with a team of four hoi*Bes, were
coming across the bridge, abreast, and she stepped aside
to let them pass. The drivers were walking behind their
loads, swinging their arms and stamping to keep up the
circulation of the congealing blood in their limbs. The
roadsters tramped in a cloud of steam from tlieir nostrils,
about which fine icicles clung to their shaggy hair. They
had thick woollen shields over their breasts, fur collars
upon their shoulders.
" Men are tender in their mercies to the brute crea-
tion 1 " thought the young lady at whom the men looked
with respectful but evident approbation, in going by.
" When it comes to women, their pity fails them 1 " .
JES8AMnfE, 167
She was doing more than escaping the malignant
tongue that had blackened the fair fame of her be-
trothed. She despised Hester Sanford's intellect and in-
ventive talents so heartily that she should have laughed
to scorn the tale to which she had hearkened ; dissected
the ill-formed mass of contradictions, and boldly refuted
her statements by a comparison of their incongruities.
Three months earlier she would have covered the traducer
with confusion, and rightly punished her gloating audi-
ence by standing forth as the defender of Eoy's honor
and truth, and proudly announcing the nature of the
bond between them. She was incapable of such an at-
tempt now. Like a cowed hound, she had crouched in a
corner and suffered the outrage to him who was her other
self the gallant gentleman, whose name she was to bear
some day lifted neither tongue nor finger to save that
name from obloquy. Not even to amiable Fanny (how
much braver than her craven self I) had she been able to
say '* This man is to be my husband I Who strikes him,
wounds and makes an enemy of me 1 "
Why was this ?
She stopped midway across the bridge; leaned over
the parapet with locked hands and rigid features ; stared
down upon the shining black ice still not feeling the
cold and tried to answer the question thrust upon her.
Why had she made no fight to save the character of
him for whom she had once declared heraelf willing to
die?
"How dared they?" she had muttered between her
teeth, in leaving Judge Provost's portico. On the bridge
she spoke again a hoarse whisper it hurt her throat to
sibillate.
168 JEaSAMINE.
'^ If this be true I " Blie said, letting her clasped hands
fall upon the Btone wall.
There was a livid bruise on both, when she removed
her gloves that evening, but she had not felt it when it
was dealt.
Had tlien her belief in her lover's integrity succumbed
to the weight of the first doubt cast upon it, in her
jM* presence? Were her faith and her love made of such
flimsy stuff as to be torn into wretched rags by a single
gale ? If these were ever well-founded, must not the in-
roads of distrust have been gradual in order to be
effectual ? Had suspicion and forebodings visited her be-
fore to-day 2 been harbored, but not recognized? If so,
what were the grounds for doubts and fears !
" 7j^ it be true ^" she repeated, with a desolate moan
^^ there is no help for me in earth or in heaven I I can
never trust or love again 1 "
Some one was coming on behind her with quick steps,
which echoed loudly on the icy planks, and she walked
on hastily. Her first unwise impulse was to increase her
speed in the hope of getting away from the intruder,
whoever he might be. But finding, on reaching the
opposite shore, that he gained on her, she slackened her
pace to let him pass. She would be the sooner alone and
unobserved if she allowed him to go on. It was only a
chance wayfarer, of coui-se, but she would shun all eyes,
idle or searching, while her brain was in such a whirl, her
heart rent and quaking. She detected nothing familiar in
the footfall, but she did remark, with a*ten8e of irritation,
that it was more deliberate in neariu^ her. Did the un-
seem pursuer mean to dog her ?
Annoyance was exchanged momentarily for active
jmaAMiNE. 169
alann,; the angry blood welled to her face and head in
one mighty throb, as a hand touched her elbow, before
her persecutor had breath to accost her.
It was Orrin Wyllys' voice that said, laughingly, " Is
it Atalanta, or swift Camilla scouring the plain, whom I
have chased for the last ten minutes? What are you
running away from ? "
The Furies 1 "
CHAPTER Xn.
lERrN" was shocked into sober sincerity by the
fierce, curt utterance.
" My dear Jessie 1 what has happened ? "
" Don't ask me 1 " walking on, without looking
at him.
Orrin kept step with her for several moments, studying
the eyes that, black and disdainful, stared straight" before
her, and the mouth set in a close curve of pride, before
he spoke again.
" I will ask nothing just now, except that you will take
my arm, and allow me to be your escort. This is a lonely
road."
" It suits me the better, then I "
He waited a minute more, and, with gentle force, undid
her right hand frona its hold upon its fellow, and drew it
within his arm.
" I see that my society is unwelcome, Jessie, but it is
not right for you.to be so far from home at this time of
\
JESSAMINE, 171
day without a protector. I shall not compel your cbnfi-
dence. When you are ready to give it, my sympathies or
services are at your command, as they have always been
since I became your guardian in the absence and with the
sanction of my cousin."
The hot sparkle was a blaze as she looked up.
" Yes ! and you, too, must have known it 1 You, who
pretend to be my friend 1 My trust has been blind and
foolish throughout. You were ready enough to counsel
and warn me about other things. Why did you never
tell me of Eoy Fordham's former engagement ? of the
love-aflFair (save the mark I) that clashed with mine ? You
have said again and again that you respected me that
my happiness was of value in your estimation. Did not
respect or humanity urge you to spare me this bitter hu-
miliation ? "
Unaffectedly amazed though he was at the onslaught
and the information she imparted, Orrin yet refrained
from explicit denial.
" Who has been talking to you ? " he asked, instead.
She dashed through the story in the same impetuous
straiu, ending it with " He ought to have told me this,
and so ought you 1 I can forgive anything but deliberate
deception."
Orrin mused.
" You are excited " he began, slowly.
She interrupted him ^' Who would not be ? I am not
a stone 1 "
" Nobody said that you were, or ought to be," smiling
a little. "I was about to say that the displeasure you
feel is perfectly natural ^just what any woman with a
heart would experience in the circumstances. But let us
172 JESSAMINE.
investigate before we condemn. What is your ground of
complaint against my friend and your betrothed ? Did
he ever tell you that you were his first and only love ? "
" I do not know that he asseiiied it in so many words,"
she replied, with a vivid blush. " But I certainly inferred
as much from what he has said."
" Every woman's inference is the same when she listens
to a declaration of affection. Who but a fool would pre-
face such by a confession of how many times he had re-
hearsed it to other ears? Few men reach the age of
twenty-five without having had two or three grandeajpas-
sions. I do not maintain, as a gentleman did once in my
hearing, when taxed with being engaged in his fortieth
love-suit, that in this, as in most other things, practice
makes perfect. But I hold that you cannot accuse Boy
of deceiving you, unless he has declared expressly that
he had never loved or wooed until he met you. Happy
are those who are not visited by the ghosts of by-gone
and, as they deemed, buried affections upon their bridal
evesl Ghosts that are hard enough to lay^ as many a
miserable married, not mated one can testify."
^^ ITone such shall stand between me and him whom I
marry 1 " cried Jessie, vehemently. " If Boy Fordham
once loved if he still regrets this girl ^has one pang of
compunction in the review of her fidelity and her sorrow;
if he repents, never so slightly, his relinquishment of her
upon insufficient cause he shall go back to her. I will
have a whole heart, or I will quit him, a pauper in love.
Divided allegiance is worse than desertion."
" Bo assured of one thing 1 " returned Orrin, emphati-
cally. "Boy Fordham 'regrets' no past action of his
own. His judgment is as calm b& his measures are de-
JESSAMINE, 173
cided. If he Buffers his heart to go out of his keeping, he
does it in the persuasion that he could not act more pru-
dently, more in accordance with his best interests, than
to intrust it to her whom he has chosen. But should ho,
nevertheless, discover, from subsequent developments,
that he was mistaken, he would recall affections and troth
without weak hesitation. If Miss Sanford's story be true
(which, please observe, I am far from admitting), we may
still rest content in the knowledge that he pursued what
he thought was the wisest course ^performed what
seemed to him a simple and imperative duty. He is, of
all men I know, the most clear-headed and conscientious.
If his ideas upon certain subjects appear to me to be
over-strict, if his conduct, in cases that would be trying
emergencies to me, looks like an exercise of superhuman
resolution or self-denial, I do not, therefore, question his
wisdom or my failings. His standard of right is so ele-
vated, his views of duty are based upon "
" Don't make labored excuses for him which you feel,
in your soul, are paltry sophisms 1 " burst out Jessie, im-
patiently. " Is it your belief that he was ever betrothed
to this girl ? And, if so, did he cast her off upon the bar-
barous pretext Hester Sanford named ? I have tried to
think it all out," she continued, putting her hand to her
head, like one dazed or stunned, "but nothing is fixed and
clear. He was at the seashore two summers ago, after he
visited Dundee. He did go to B the following win-
ter ^twice both times to attend the weddings of friends,
he told me. These things he made no secret of. That
does not look like guilt. And yet Tell me what to be-
lieve ^how to act I "
" If I were in possession of the exact truth, you should
174 JEJSSAMINE,
have had it before now. I am as ignorant as yourself of
all except the facts you have stated. He lias fi*iends
relatives whom he esteems in B . I recollect that he
was with them at the sea shore late in his vacation, and
that he spent Christmas before last in the city which is
their home. This is the extent of my actual knowl-
edge touching this mysteiy. He is reticent in the
extreme with respect to his pereonal affairs. I never
heard your name ; never suspected that he was not heart-
whole prior to my first visit to Dundee. I can only
judge him in this, as in eveiy case, by what I know of
his principles and past conduct. He is incapable of
what he would consider a dishonorable, much less a base
deed I Try and trust him ; forget this tale which may be
a fiction, out-and-out, and hope for the best 1 "
"Christmas before last!" murmured Jessie, in stifled
accents. "He was corresponding with me then I He
had told my father that he meant Oh!" stopping
short, and stamping lier foot with feverish energy upon
the frozen earth " Is there no way of ending this hor-
rible suspense ? no one who can put me out of this pain ?
I would give my right hand if I might stand face to
face with Eoy Fordham, for ten minutes! just long
enough to bring my accusation, and hear his defence I "
" I am thankful that this cannot be! " said Orrin, com-
posedly. " I understand him better than yon do in some
respects. To doubt is to insult him. One sentence of
* accusation,' and your power over him is gone forever.
Be guided by me, Jessie ! You are not in a fit condition
to decide for yourself upon your safest mode of action
at this critical juncture. It is an oft-repeated maxim
of human law that every man is innocent until proof
JESSAMINE, 175
brings his guilt home to him. Two things are patent
from our present standpoint. When Eoy asked you to
marry him, he was free to do so, the previous engage-
ment, assuming that such had ever existed, having been
dissolved some months earlier than the date of his
proposal to you. Again and on this head I can speak
confidently he is thoroughly satisfied that his choice
is a judicious one. This is not the first time I have
wanted to say this to you. He may not be an ardent
suitor, because his is n5t a passionate nature, nor is he
\ given to demonstrations of emotion. But he is more
than contented. He is sincerely attached to you "
" Which means that he will fulfil his part of the con-
tract of marriage, unless my sister should die of consump-
tion before the wedding-day arrives!" Jessie checked
his defence of his kinsman by saying, with a rasping
laugh. ,
Wyllys looked deeply pained.
" We will defer further conversation about this matter
until you are calmer," he said, witli a manifest struggle.
" You are not ready for it just yet, or you would not
sneer at my well-meant, if ineffectual, attempt to set your
mind at rest."
"With unfeeling arguments! with special pleadings
that freeze the blood at my heart I " she pursued, unap-
peased and desperate. "If this is the ablest defence
you can set up for your client, you do well to defer the
further consideration of it. I have prayed you for bread,
and you give me a stone I I have said ^ Let me have the
plain truth I ' and you tantalize me with fine-drawn theo-
ries and exhortations to patience and faith. I am tempted
to bejieve that you ^re in the league to deceive me 1 "
176 JESSAMINE.
" Jessie 1 Jessie I take care I Tou do not know what
you are doing I "
It was entreaty^ not reproach. He seemed to crave
a personal boon deliverance from impending trial of
bis strength or feelings. Jessie rushed on headlong, deaf
to the significance of the petition.
"Your advocacy is worthy of the cause you have
espoused I And while you expatiate upon your cousin's
cool head and colder heart, and recommend me to make
sure of this pattern partner ^yesl that is the way. yon
put it I am being torn by pride and woimded affection
and incertitude, as by raging wild horses ! It is easy
for you to talk sensibly and even eloquently of what ap-
peals only to your reason 1 "
Child I '' seizing her elbows, and bringing her to a
stand-still in the middle of the road, facing himself,
"does it cost me nothing, do you think, to plo^ this
cause? There are no wild horses for me thenl No
* Might-have-been' dogging my steps and haunting my
pillow 1 No furies of betrayed confidence and remorse
menacing me 1 I tell you, your pettish jealousy, yotir
slight heat of resentment that will be gone before to-
morrow morning, is, in comparison with what I endure,
a summer breeze to a tornado,-^ the flicker of a match to
the fires of Gehenna 1 "
H released her, and she walked on beside him, be-
wildered and giddy ; almost oblivious of her individual
grievances in the thought of the passion that had fired
his eyes, found vent in his hurried sentences. The sun
was down. They were in a rough country-road ; stone
fences on either hand ; the naked hedge-rows seeming to
rfiiver in the still, freezing air. The hard orange dye of
JESSAMINE, 177
the west was beginning to melt slowly into a gray as
cold. It was a heartless, dreesome afternoon.
Jessie never forgot it, or the interval of awful silence
that succeeded Wyllys' unprecedented outbreak. Not
daring to glance at his face, she had a second surprise,
when he, at length, suggested, in a tone tranquil to cold-
ness, that they should retrace their steps. Could she
be dreaming now? Or were the strange, wild words
echoing confusingly in her brain, dictated by her distem-
pered fancy t
" It will be late before we reach home, as it is," Orrin
offered, in support of his proposition. " And the air grows
keener every moment."
Nothing more passed between them until they were
again upon the bridge, where he stayed her, for a moment,
that he might rearrange her furs.
"Tou are not used to this biting weather 1 Are you
tolerably comfortable ? " he asked, in his usual brotherly
way.
", Quite comfortable ^if you are not angry with me 1 "
she answered, enboldened by the little attention and his
tone.
" You silly child 1 I have never had a thought of you
that bordered upon unkindness. We have both been
hasty and unreasonable in judgment and in language,
this afternoon. Tour warmtli was excusable. Mine was
culpable weakness. Ton will hate me, in time, if I
forget myself in this manner. It was selfish and wicked,
besides being unmanly. Don't contradict me ! I know
what I am saying now, at any rate. To exchange an
unpleasant for a painful subject promise me that you
8
178 JE88AMINSi
will not allude to Miss Sanford's narrative in your letter
to Eoy."
"I shall write to him by to-morrow's mail, and tell
him all 1 " said Jessie, with a retnrn of stubbornness.
" You will regret it all your life 1 If he is guilty, he
will be offended at your arraignment of him by letter,
which must, of necessity, be formal and incomplete as
to testimony ^you having but one witness, and that by
no means a reliable one. Should he be innocent, you
inflict severe and needless pain ; put yourself in the posi-
tion of a touchy, suspicious, exacting fiancee^ whose ti-oth
he will ever thereafter hold by a slight tenure. ^Let
sleeping dogs lie,' is a sage motto, unless they can bark
to some purpose. If you will allow me, I shall make
it my business to sift this etory carefully, and apprise
you of the result if I have to cultivate an inti-
macy with Miss Sanford in order to get at the truth.
Meanwhile, we will depend upon what we are certain
of Hoy's integrity and the nicety of his honor. At the
risk of being again taken to task for special pleading,
let me say that he is, in my estimation, as nearly faultless
as mortals ever grow to be. Tou cannot act more ration-
ally than to think as much as possible of him, and as
little of his vcmri&n cousin as is consistent with common
benevolence."
It was silvery-gray twilight out-of-doors when they
gained Mrs. Baxter's door, and they found a rosy twilight
of summer within her firelighted parlors, balmy, more-
over, with the spiciness flowing out in the genial tem-
perature, from the latest bouquet presented by Mr. Wyllys.
The donor, playfully gallant, and bent, it would seem,
upon effacing the memory of his late excited speech,
JESSAMINE. 179
was chafing Jessie's unmb fingers before the fire, and she
laughing in spite of herself at his sallies, when Mrs.
Baxter tripped in.
She always entered a room bouncingly, generally with
the added effect of being pushed in by some unseen
hand from behind. She recoiled, momentarily, at the
tableau upon the rug, and Jessie observed it with a sick,
guilty qualm that made her snatch away her hand from
Orrin's hold.
He was not discomfited.
" Here is a frozen wayfarer I picked np on the bridge,
my dear madam, taking an ^unconstitutional," he said.
"Mindful of your known charity and condescension, I
took the liberty of bringing her in to be treated by you
as her needs require. If I may advise you in a matter,
in which you are bo much wiser than myself, I recom-
mend that a cup of warm drink ^gruel, panada, or posset
and a reasonable amount of admonition, tempered to
suit the exhausted state of the patient, be administered
without delay. As an additional precaution against
rheumatism, pleurisy, or bronchitis, a glass of hot lemon-
ade, with'' affecting to whisper "a tablespoonful of
Jamaica rum or old Bourbon, at bedtime, would be
eminently judicious. My impertinence culminates in
the petition that you vouchsafe to bestow upon my un-
worthy but chilly self a cup of the nectar in common uso
upon your table under the name of souchong."
Jessie slipped away to her chamber while her cousin
was replying in suitable terms to this nonsense, and did
not reappear until the tea-bell had rung twice.
She had been crying, Mrs. Baxter saw at once, and
she was still very pale. It had been a violent fit of
180 JESaAMINB.
weeping that had exhausted her to langaor of express
sion and movement. The doctor epoke cheerily to her
as she seated herself beside him.
" Well, my little girl, how are your Bpiritfl, this freez-
ing night t Do they follow the mercury, or rise as it
descends ? "
An unfortunate question, but it brought a faint glow
to her face.
" I shall be more lively when I have had my supper,'*
she said, averting her eyes. " I am cold and tired now."
The doctor bent his head and raised his hand to ask
a blessing, and then bade his wife ^^ pour out Jessie's
tea, forthwith. She looks as if she needed it," he sub-
joined, uneasily, watching her with eyes that were very
keen when he was awake to what was passing in the
everyday and material world.
Jessie sipped the scalding liquid, swallowing each
spoonful with a tremendous effort, when it trickled down
the lump that obstructed larynx and epiglottis, wishing,
the while, that the doctor would subside into one of his
fits of learned abstraction and knot his handkerchief, in-
stead of staring so solemnly at her; expecting, every
second, to hear him demand ^'^What have you been
crying about, my daughter ? "
She was very grateful to Orrin for his persistent and,
in the end, successful atttempts to draw the fire of the
searching regards; and, rallying her wits and courage,
she, at last, joined in the conversation. Mrs. Baxter,
likewise, was less voluble than was her wont. Appreciat-
ing the fact, recognized by the majority of his acquaint-
ances, that Mr. Wyllys was not a marrying man, she
aroused herself to ponder, in serious earnest, upon what
JESSAMINE. 181
was likely to be the result of his fraternal intimacy with
her ward. Orrin had made all straight with her at the
outset, even before Jessie entered her house as a visitor,
by representing himself as an old friend of the family,
and speaking of Mr. Kirke's daughter in a grandf atherly
strain, that entitled him to become the platonic cavalier of
the rustic debutante. But platonic grandfathers did not
squeeze pretty girls' hands en tite-d-tite in tlie twilight
" or they should not," reasoned the duenna ; and
Jessie's red eyes and pallid complexion increased, her
misgivings to dreads. She had been asleep all winter
until to-night, she thought, shudderingly, and had awak-
ened upon the edge Of a precipice. If through her
neglect or misplaced confidence, Ginevra's child should
come to grief, she would rue, to the latest day of her
life, the invitation that had enticed her from home and
safety, to lose her heart to the designing arts of a man of
the world.
Orrin had small temptation to prolong his stay into the
evening. There was incipient disfavor in the hostess'
eye, which was not neutralised by her stereotyped smile.
The doctor betook himself to his study when he arose
from the table, and Jessie shaded her face from fire and
lamp-light by a hand-screen, complaining that she was
stupid after her walk in the wind.
" I promised to go up to Judge Provost's to-nighV he
said, at the end of an unsatisfactory half hour. ^^ Won't
you join our party for billiards and music? Miss Fanny
charged me not to come without you."
Jessie did not raise her regards from the screen.
" No, thank you ! I have had enough billiards for one
day. And I am in an intensely unmusical humor."
]
182 JE88AMmK
" I really ought to * do ' the polite to Miss Sanf ord,''
continued he, lightly to Mrs. Baxter's ears, significantly
to Jessie's. " I have been shamefully remiss since her
appearance among us. Miss Fanny took me to task for
it, an evening or two since, and I was obliged to plead
* Guilty.' I have paid her very little attention except in
public, and that has been confined to a dance or two at
each party."
Mrs. Baxter, profoundly indifferent to Miss Sanford,
and the degree of court he offered her, yet strove to look
interested.
" That is a little remarkable, Mr. Wyllys, considering
your reputation for gallantry and hospitality, and she is
invested with more substantial charms than any of our
Hamilton belles can boast."
^' I am afraid my taste for the substantial has not been
properly cultivated," was the reply.
Jessie was silent and gloomy, and Wyllys secretly lost
patience with her.
" I thought her more of a woman 1 " he said, inly.
^^ She acts like a fractious child, inconsolable for the loss
of a toy. I gave her credit for more depth of feeling,
more power of endurance."
She called up a faint symptom of a smile, in response
to his adieux, and relapsed into taciturnity and the
shadow of her screen, when he had departed. Mrs.
Baxter flitted about the rooms like a perturbed guardian
' angel; poking the fire that her charge's feet might be
warmer ; dropping a curtain to shut out a draught from
the back of her neck ; pushing forward a brioche for her
use, and giving her chair a gentle tug nearer the grate,
before she essayed verbal consolation.
JESSAMINB. 183
Finally, she leaned upon the back of Jessie's seat and
made several mesmeric passes over her brow and scalp,
the fringe of the scarlet scarf it was her pleasure, to-
night, to sport twisted around her right wrist, brushing
the chin, and tickling the nose of her young relative.
" Does your head ache very badly now, my sweet ? "
breathlessly solicitous.
" Not at all thank you, cousin 1 "
" I am flighted to hear you say so 1 You don't think
you have really taken cold, my preciousr--do you ? "
^* Oh, no 1 I never take cold ! "
" Mr. Wyllys seemed very anxious lest you had," Mre.
Baxter remarked, quite too earnestly. " I say, * seemed,*
for these ladies' men are not models of sincerity, always,
however charming they may be as parlor companions.
If I had a daughter, my love and it is the great sorrow
of my life, as it is of the doctor's, that we never had one
if I had a daughter, just blooming into womanhood,
affectionate, susceptible, and unsuspecting, I should cau-
tion her to be on her guard against a too-ready credence
in the flattering tongues and the more insidious flattery
of demeanor and action of gentlemen who are honorable
in all things else. I respect Mr. Wyllys" she contin-
ued, the passes faster and more agitated, and the silken
fringes bobbing up and down before Jessie's vision. " I
honor his many estimable admire his many shining
qualities. But I am fearful that in his otherwise com-
^^ mendable desire to please and make happy, he may ex-
cite hopes or expectations may be the better terra ^he
never intended to engender. There is in every com-
munity, my darling Jessie, a class of men ^pardon me
for saying that it is fortunately a small class who do
184 JESSAMmS.
not care op intend to marry except for convenience, or
pecuniary gain perhaps not even then. Yet they are
generally the pets of their respective circles, especial fav-
orites with ladies. Why, I cannot say, nnless it be that
they endeavor to make themselves agreeable to the entire
sex, instead of concentrating their attentions upon one
woman. Mr. Wyllys is a notable example of this order
of carpet knights."
Entirely oat of breath by this time, she withdrew her
hand from her guest's head, to press it upon her own pal-
pitating bosom, while her gulp of emotion was as loud as
the cluck of a brooding hen.
Jessie lowered her screen with a gesture of haughty
amusement.
'^ If your object is to warn me against attaching undue
importance to Mr. Wyllys' friendly attentions. Cousin, I
can disabyse your mind of fears for my peace of heart,
by assuring you that it is not threatened from that quar-
ter. I ought to have told you, long ago, of a circum-
stance that exculpates Mr. Wyllys from the chai^ge of
trifling, and renders the notice he bestows upon me alto-
gether harmless and proper. I am engaged to be mar-
ried to his cousin, Mr. Fordham, and he knows it T&is
makes all safe for us both does it not { I am sorry I
did not apprize you of this state of affairs when I first
came to you. It would have been more honorable and
kind to you and an act of common justice to Mr. Ford-
ham, if not to Mr. Wyllys."
'%
CHAPTER XIIL
HERE was no prettier spot in tlie Dundee valley
than Willow Creek, a somewhat wide, and in some
places deep, stream, just where it was spanned by
a rngtic bridge at the bottom of the Pareonage
meadows. The fringe of willows on the thither
bank, and the alder and birch thicket studding that
nearest the house, were reflected in the clear, brown mir-
ror to the tiniest leaf and bud. Beneath and between
these, there were stretches of turf which were evei^reen ;
beds of wild balsam that flowered all summer ; ferns in
variety and profusion, from the tree-ferns upborne by
their wiry black stems to a height of four or five feet, to
the delicate maiden-hair, hiding in the lee of straws and
stones ; and on the day we are describing the fifth of
September these alternated with borders of hoary
mountain sage, blue-eyed asters, tossing plumes of golden-
rod, yet taller purple bnish, stiff and gorgeous, and
patches of bright yellow dodder, running riotously into
#
186 JESSAMINE.
the water, and entaBgling the commoner arrow-leaf and
Bedge in its meshes.
Through the gorge worn by the creek in the moun-
tains, one had a view of the upper valley, and the chain
of hills that grew bluer and lower as the eye pursued
their southerly course. Below the bridge was the church,
benignant warder of the plain fertile as was that of
Sodom, loaded with corn, ripe for cutting, and already
stacked for the garner, and white, here and there, as from
untimely snows, with blossoming buckwheat. The whistle
of the quail in the stubble, the rattling roll of empty
farm wagons over the stone bridge below the mill, ou
their way to the field; the duller thunder of heavily
laden trains creaking and swaying from side to side be-
hind the straining oxen, and the drowsy undertone of tlie
mill-wheel, mingled with the nearer warble of birds in
the trees and the gentle wash of the waves under the
willows. It was bright, benignant weather a day that
reminded one of healthy, active, happy middle-age, for
there was a whisper of Autumn in the air, the mellowness
of Autumnal light over plain and water and hill.
There was nothing in landscape, air, or sunlight that
should have reminded Jessie Kirke of the miserable
February afternoon when she stood on the Hamilton
bridge, staring down at the black ice below, and fought
her first battle of life. But that other scene and the
strife of that hour were very present to her, as she halted
on the foot-bridge and leaned over the rail to gaze at the
slow, smooth current of the creek. The narrow crossing
had been designed and partly built by Mr. Kirke him-
self. The floor was of oak plank ; the railing was com-
posed of cedar branches with the bark left on, arranged
JESSAMINE. 187
in fantastic figures, and surmounted by a sleuder pole
of the same wood. Many stopped to examine and admire
it in passing over, and it made a picturesque feature in
the view. It was familiar in every joint to Jessie, having
formed a part of her favorite walk for ten years ; but she
chose to linger there on this morning, to hang over the *
parapet, pick bits of bark from the side and fi.ing them
into tlie creek, as an idle child might launch and watch a
miniature fleet.
It was a face many removes from childhood's tliought-
lessness and childish glee that looked back at her from
the glassy surface. A face, wild-eyed and haggard, with
bent brows betokening suffering and conflict ; a mouth
telling, in piteous and patient lines, of defeat
She had returned from Hamilton in April, looking
jaded and ill, said the Dundeeians, who shook sagacious
heads over her winter's dissipation. Her father and
Eunice attributed her loss of bloom and liveliness to too
close application to her studies, and cited her improve-
ment in music, French, and German, in proof of their
theory. She did not relax her diligence when she was
settled at home. Eunice, whose name was a synonym
for industry, did not surpass her in strict attention to all
departments of feminine work. In the kitchen and the
garden, at the needle, the piano, writing-desk, and her books,
she toiled from sunrise until bedtime, with energy Eunice
silently likened to greediness for occupation of mind and
body, while Mr. Kirke hardly recognized his darling in
the decorous thrifty housewife and busy student. Into-
nations, phraseology, and deportment all were altered.
She was an elegant woman in appearance and conversa-
tion, but the fond parent missed the tricksy sprite who
188 JSSSAMINB.
had wrought mischief and mirth in his home ; missed
her teasing and her follies, her exactions and her caresses^
Kot that she was cold or sullen. She told long and enter-
taining stories of her Hamilton life ; gave faithful de-
scriptions of the people and things she had seen while
away from them ; listened with apparent interest to neigh-
borhood news and family plans ; talked of art, literature,
and philosophy to him by the hour ; was attentive to his
every possible want, and offered regularly the morning
and evening kiss she had been accustomed to bestow from
her infancy. But, having already one daughter who was
an exemplar to her sex, he recollected the bewitching
naughtiness of the old-time Jessie, and wished fervently
that he had met Mrs. Baxter's invitation by a peremptory
negative, |iild kept bis gem as it was. To his taste, it had
lost ^not gained ^in the cutting and polishing.
Eunice was discreet when he intimated something of
the kind to her.
'^ She is certainly more quiet and studious," she replied,
'^ but she says she is very well, and she has much to make
her thoughtful in Boy's absence The long separation
must, of itself, oppress her spirits continually. And,
Father, our Jessie has gained new views of Life and Duty
within the last year. She can never be a child again.
Her nature mind and affections ^must broaden and
deepen with time. We would not have it otherwise,
strange as the change is to us now. I fear, though, that
she works too hard, while I honor her determination to
prepare herself thoroughly for her future position. She
will be a wife of whom Koy may justly be proud."
Again, when Mr. Eirke feared that Jessie was often
depressed to despondency, although she strove bmvely to
JESSAMINE. 189
conceal it, the elder sister " hoped all would be well again
when Eoy came back."
" He can reason or soothe her out of morbid fancies
better and sooner than either you or I. His influence
over her is wonderful and always beneficial."
" I wish he were home again then ! " sighed the parent.
He did not guess how heartily Eunice echoed the de-
sire. She might be partially successful in quelling his
anxieties, but the beryl eyes saw that, so far from all
being right with her young sister, something was lament-
ably wrong. Jessie's very manner of speaking of Eoy
and her marriage was totally dissimilar to her former
frank or bashful confession. If she had lived with him
as his wife a dozen years, she could not have mentioned
his name more composedly, or talked of housekeeping and
other practicalities in a more matter-of-fact strain. This
was exceedingly sensible, but it was not, on that account,
the more like Jessie. The transformation from an en-
thusiastic madcap, who did and felt nothing by halves
let it be loving, laughing, sorrowing, or working ^into
the dignified partner of Eunice's everyday cares and
duties, equable in temper, reliable in judgment, and ju-
dicious in action ought, perhaps, to have elicited com-
mendation from one who was herself a model in all these
respects ; but, instead of gratification, she felt only be-
wilderment and alarm at the completeness of the change.
It had been her habit to think and say, when her sister's
crudities or extravagances were more marked than her
quieter taste approved, that the discipline of life, as life
went on, would rectify these ; that they were but the re-
dundant growth of a noble stock. A little pruning a
few sharp experiences, and hypercritical indeed would be
190 JE88AMINR
the judgment that should find room for blame. She. was
displeased with herself in recollecting this, now that tlie
discipline had wrought upon the free, wild spirit ; the
redundancies had fallen under the pruning-knif e.
Something of this external change must have mani-
fested itself in Jessie's letters, for Eoy had twice written
privately to Eunice, questioning her closely about her sis-
ter's health and spirits.
" Her letters are as regular as ever, and no less beauti-
ful than punrstual," he said. " But they contain so few
particulars of her daily life and feelings, while they treat
freely of other subjects, that I have fancied there is
something pertaining to her individual experience she
desires to hide from me, lest the knowledge of it should
pain me. My noble, generous girl ! She would bear any
distress or inconvenience rather than afflict me by reveal-
ing the extent of her suffering or perplexity. I intrust
my sometimes wayward always sweet, graceful, and
clinging Jessamine to you, our sister ! Tend and guard it
tenderly for me."
Eunice answered hopefully and with such reassurance
as she could truthfully impart, and wished more ardently
than ever that he would i*eturn and assume the charge of
his treasure the charge and the cure.
They had had a quiet summer, the most stirring event
being a visit from Mrs. Baxter and Orrin Wyllys, who
acted as her escort. They were domesticated for a week
at the parsonage, and Jessie's monopoly of her cousin's
society had left Orrin almost entirely to her father's and
sister's care. Nobody made verbal objection to this di-
vision of hospitable duties. Mr. Wyllys held long talks
with his host scientific, theological, literary, and political
JESSAMlirB. 191
during post-prandial smokes, besides driving and walk-
ing with him in his professional rounds at such seasons as
Eunice was too busy to attend to her guests. When she
was at liberty to devote herself to social duties, there were
hours of music and reading ; long rambles among the
hills ^Mrs. Baxter and Jessie far in advance for the
latter always outstripped her sister in pedestrian expedi-
tions; moonlight promenades and conferences on the
piazza that left Jessie all the time she desired for conver-
sation with her late chajperone. It was generally agreed
at parting that the week had passed swiftly and delight-
fully ; farewells were linked with hopes of a repetition of
the pleasure, and the household relapsed into its ordina-
ry aspect and ways. If there were any perceptible dif-
ference in those composing it, it was that Jessie worked
harder and was paler than before the interruption, while
Eunice grew younger and prettier every day.
" I have tried very hard I " Jessie said aloud, still
hanging over the water, but clasping her hands in a sort
of despair. " And I am very tired ! "
Then two heavy tears rolled from her eyes and broke up
the reflection of the sad face below into little dancing
circles.
An hour ago, as she stood in the garden grafting a rose-
bush, a neighbor rode up to the fence to say, " Good-day,"
and inquire after the health of the clergyman's family.
" You'll hav# company pretty soon, I'm thinking," he
said, knowingly. "I suppose that's no news to you,
though?"
" We expect no one," said Jessie, carelessly.
" It will be a pleasant surprise to you, then. I saw
Mr. Wyllys at the hotel as I came by."
193 JE88AMINB.
Jessie's knife swerved sliglitly as she made the in-
cision in the bark, but her voice was firm.
" Are you sure % "
" Oh, yes I I talked with him. He got up late last
night, he said. Come now, Miss Jessie ; I am an old
friend, which of you is he after ? "
" Neither that I know of. Certainly not me I " replied
she, imperturbably.
She finished her task carefully, when the inquisitor had
passed ; carried twine and scissors into the house ; gave
Patsey an order as she glanced into the kitchen, and, un-
observed by the servant, left the dwelling and went down
through the garden into the meadow.
Her father and Eimice were away from home for the
day ^probably for the night also, and she had her reasons
for preferring the solitudeof the woods, or a retreat among
the crags of Old Windbeam, to a prolonged interview with
Orrin WyUys.
Did I say, " preferred " % Does not the opium-eater, in
his lucid intervals, prefer thirst and languor and pain to
the drug for which his diseased appetite cries out as the
dying for breath, and the fever-scorched for water? Pre-
fer it with mind and conscience, if not with flesh and
will? Jessie Kirke's will lived yet, and it had borne lier
beyond the reach of temptation and kept her there. But
it did not hinder her from picturing Orrin pacing the
portico, or, sitting in the parlor, awaiting her while she
hid herself and her wretchedness among the willows.
She had bilt to go back by the way she had come, and
hours of blissful companionship would be hers; foil
draughts of enjoyment such as those which had intoxi-
cated the unwary girl who, last winter, had believed that
JESSAMINE. 198
she migbt drink and be blameless. His eyes would kin-
dle into tbe magic gleam that enervated resolution and
let loose a flood of vague, delicious fancies upon her
brain ; his voice melt into the modulations that enchained
the ear like pathetic music. Under the spell of his con-
summate address she would believe, for the moment, or
the hour, or the day he spent with her, all that he said or
looked, although dimly conscious, the while, that she
would despise herself as a weak, guilty fool for the tem-
porary faith, through weeks and monUis afterward.
As she did now ! She was wrung by self -contempt
for nursing these imaginations, yet dallied with them
sipped shudderingly, yet with avidity, of their dangerous
sweetness.
" I have tried very hard ! " she moaned again.
Tried to hold fast to her trust in her betrothed after the
cruel shock it had sustained from Hester Sanf ord's story,
for she still believed that it was Arm and absolute up to
that honr ; ignored persistently the fact that other influ-
ences had previously been at work sapping her confidence
in the attachment of one who, his nearest of kin reluc-
tantly admitted, was a man of granite, virtuously severe
to the frailties of others, because he was himself prudent,
sage, and incorruptible by such bribes as most men found
potent love, and the hope and opportunity of making
the beloved one happJ^ Kot onq, word of this had
Wyllys ever uttered. He always spoke of Koy with seri-
ousness and respect, confessing voluntarily^, time and
again, his own moral and intellectual inferiority tQ bis
cousin, and scrupulously keeping her betrothment before
Jessie's mind. Whatever might have been her lapses
from loyalty, she could not deny that in this oft-repeated
9
194 JESaAUmE.
acknowledgment of her paramount obligation to her
affianced husband, Orrin had been honorable to pnnctil*
iouBness. She had not yet come to see that he had also
been ingenious in pressing invisible shackles into her
soul ; in reminding her perpetually that she was no lon-
ger a free agent. The girl had chafed under the process,
without knowing that she did so, and why. Her broth-
erly friend, who had seen a blooded horse, although
docile by nature and well broken in, fret and grow rest-
ive under an over-tight check-rein, may have known, bet-
ter than she, what he was about.
She was still uncertain how much or how little truth
there was in the heiress' tale. She had contrived to see
her but seldom after the scene in the billiard-room, and
in this she was ably seconded by Miss Sanford when the
news of "that Miss Kirke's" engagement to Professor
Fordham was circulated in Hamilton circles. Jessie did
not try to analyze the impulse that bade her announce
the relation she bore to Eoy at the very time when her
doubts of him were at their height. Perhaps she felt
the need of a safeguard for herself ; or her conscience
may have rebuked her that she had not defended him
right or wrong when attacked ; or the suspicion of hia
unworthiness stimulated her to a strained generosity, a
resolve to leave undone no part of the duty she owed,
while she was under contract to him. It had been
long since her latest mention of the matter to Wyllys.
He had replied to her queries by an injunction to con-
tinued confidence in Eoy's integrity, which was construed
by her into a charitable evasion. He promised again
and solemnly to push his investigations as occasion might
offer^ but ahe believed that he was afraid to keep his
JESSAMINE, 195
word. He would preserve intact his own love and es-
teem for the cousin he professed to revere, and blindly
declined to undertake the examination of a record he
more than feared contained entries that would lower his
opinion of his hero, and damage the latter's character
irretrievably with herself.
Given this lever of unappeased distrust in, and latent
resentment toward him, to whom her allegiance was due,
and a less adroit diplomat than Orrin Wyllys might
have so weakened the defences of her love and con-
stancy as to make her question whether surrender were
not unavoidable even desirable. She was " tired," poor
child 1 dismayed that her labor in "deep mid-ocean" was
so tedious and severe, longing for rest in whatever port
her worn heart might make.
" I shall be tamed by the time you come home," she
had said, 'twixt tears and smiles, to Boy at their parting.
" Quite tame and old ! "
" And I am ! " she thought, the jest recurring to her
now. " Only life has also grown tame, and the world old
and gray ! "
She had swung her hat upon her arm, and pushing
back her hair with the palms that supported her fore-
head, that the wind from the water might cool her beat-
ing temples, she rested her listless weight upon the frail
railing. The woven twigs, once supple, were dry and
rotten under the bark, and swayed outward with a sharp,
crack ^a warning that came too late to save her. She
caught, in falling, at the shattered panels left standing,
and dragged only a handful of broken sticks with her
into the creek. Coming to the surface after the plunge,
Idle threw her graspkig, Btniggling hands widely abroad.
196 JESSAMINE.
Bucceeded in seizing one of the npriglit supports of the
bridge, and clung to it. Her head and shoulders were
out of water. She was not actually drowning. In the
strength imparted by this consciousness, she drew a long
breath, and called for help.
A faint echo came back fi'om the hills. The rest of
the shout was lost in the spreading meadows, or over-
powered by the commingled sounds that were the voice
of the early autumn day.
She heard them more distinctly than when she had
stood upon the bridge ; the beat of the mill-wheel, the
rattle and rumble of the farm-wagons, even the tread of
the teams upon the oaken flooring; tlie now distant
whistle of the quail, and, close beside her, the lapping of
the creek among the sedges.
She weighed her chances of speedy release from her un-
pleasant and dangerous situation before she raised another
outcry. The^ stream was the feeder of the mill-pond, and
was made deeper and more sluggish by the dam, less than
half a mile farther down. She remembered to have
' heard that the depth just under the bridge was about ten
feet. It might as well be a hundred if she were to relin-
quish her hold. She could do nothing but cling and wait
until her calls should bring rescue, or some chance pas-
senger espy her. This was an unfrequented by-way, and it
might be many hours before assistance came to her in
. the latter form. As to the other, the Parsonage was the
nearest dwelling. The mill was no farther off, but the
united shriek of twenty drowning women could not be
heard above the clatter of the machinery. Patsey was
alone in the kitchen, her whole soul in her semi-weekly
baking, and deaf to all out-door noises excepting those
JE88AMINE. 197
from the poaltry-yard. There was no one else in the
house, unless Orrin had arrived. Jessie beKeved that she
tasted the bitterness of death, as she imagined him, ex-
pectant of her coming, yet thoughtless of evil as the rea-
son of her delay, taking a few restless turns upon the
portico ; then, wandering into the parlor, and standing, as
he often did, for several minutes together, gazing at the
picture of the girl at the wishing- well ; opening the piano
and running over some remembered air, or improvising
dreamy, wistful strains, with absent thoughts, and eyes
fixed upon vacancy.
And she was here 1 nearing the gates that were to shut
down between them forever.
She called again a shrill scream that scared the birds
from their perches on the willow and birch boughs, and
awoke a wailing echo among the mountains. Then all
was quiet, save for the mill, the fainter roll of heavy
wheels, and, louder than either, the lap ! lap ! lap ! of the
waves upon the grassy bank. How deadly cold the water
was I And she became sensible now of an increasing
weight drawing her downward ^the strain of her satu-r
rated garments upon the arms wound about the rough
pole which stood between her and death. There was a
current, also, to be resisted, placid as the mirror had
seemed from above, and her sinews were aching already.
Her whole body would be numb presently ^her clutch
be relaxed by cold and the prostration of the nervous and
muscular system.
She had decried life as tame, and the world as unlovely.
She found them, in this fearfully honest hour, too dear
and beautiful to leave thus suddenly. She recollected,
even in this season of peril and dread^ the Wl|h*6peated
198 JE88AMINK
Btory that one in the act of drowning recalls, in a flash of
memory, every event of his past existence, however re-
mote and minute ; reasoned within herself that this must
be an old wives' fable, since she, on the brink of eternity,
had but one overmastering idea how to avert impending
dissolution. Her father, Eunice, Hoy, and Orrin, were
all in her mind by turns, but there was no quickening of
affection now that she might be leaving them to re-
turn no more. They were, in comparison with the terri-
ble fact of her present danger, but misty and far-off ab-
stractions faded portraits in her mental gallery, hardly
deserving a glance. She dwelt, in agony, upon the cir-
cumstances that the stream was becoming like ice to her
limbs, and the pain in her arms intense, while her soaked
clothing and the current were sucking her downward.
When the last remnant of her strength should fail, would
she be drowned by the cruel waters where she had fallen
in, or borne, conscious, and writhing in the throes of suf-
focation, over the dam, to be mangled by the rocks below
the fall ?
The horror of the last f ?incy drew from her another
shriek. The echo taunted her by its feeble mimickry ;
the dull boom of the mill-wheel, the teamster's shout to
his oxen, had the same meaning, and the lapping of the
water was that of a fierce destroyer, hungering for his
prey.
Meanwhile, the visitor at the Parsonage had been
tlirough the round Jessie had sketched for him in her
tortured imagination ; had paced the porch until he was
weaiy of the solitary turns ; surveyed the portrait to his
heart's content, regretting, in bis sesthettc mind, that the
original kead toned down to the level of commonplace re-
JE88AMnfJBL 199
finement, and had played a pensive ^^thonght" on the
piano.
This performance brought in Fatsey.
" Dick Van Brunt was by the gate just now, Mr. Wyl-
lys, and he said as how he seen Miss Jessie going down
toward the crick, nigh upon an hour ago. You mought
see something of her if you was to walk that way."
"Thank you, Patsey. Perhaps I will if she do not
come in soon. And perhaps I * mought ' make a fool of
myself, clambering over those confounded mountain-paths
for half a day, and not get a glimpse of her 1 '^ he mut-
tered, when the handmaiden had withdrawn.
He stepped through the oriel-window into the garden,
humming, aotto voce^ " My heart's in the Hielands, my
heart is not here ; " made the tour of the enclosure, noting
how Eunice's rose labyrinth had grown, and that the rarer
plants he had sent her in the Spring were recompensing
her for the care she had bestowed upon them ; brushed
both hands over a bed of bergamot until the air reeked
with perfume, and plucked a sprig of rosemary from the
spot where he had stood to overhear the sisters' criticisms
of himself sixteen months before smiling queerly as he
did so.
" I will send the fair Una a root of ^ Csesar's Bay,' with
tlie stipulation that she shall set it just here," he said, in-
wardly, the smile brightening at the apt conceit. "It
shall be to me a floral monument a Cupid's Ebenezer."
He gathered, furthermore, several bunches of choice
roses, rifling them of their freshest odor by ruthless hand-
ling, and strewing them to the right and left as he went
from the garden into the meadow. The day was fine,
and not warm enough to make walking a grievous task.
200 JESaAMINB.
and he might jSnd Jessie at or near the bridge. He
whistled " Casta Diva " as he strolled over the short, thick
grass, elastic to the foot as carpets of the deepest pile,
whistled melodiously, and, one would have said, for want
of thought, in remarking uis roving eyes and tranquil
physiognomy. He looked, as he felt, on excellent terms
with himself and the rest of the world ; like a man who
had eaten to satisfaction, but not to repletion, of the
sunny side of the peach tendered by Fortune, and who
was suitably grateful to the person to whom he considered
that he owed his success in life to wit, Orrin Wyllys.
What a companion portrait to set over against this
serene visage and lounging figure in the pleasant meadow-
paths was that, which, with distorted limbs, and counte-
nance eager to frenzy, hung midway over the stream he
was approaching! Jessie had heard the whistle, aud
known it for his ; caught from afar his measured tread
npon the sward, and, feeling herself grow weak and
voiceless in the rush of reviving hope, had painfully
gathered her remaining forces to abide his coming. She
could see him through rifts in the low-branching birclies ;
counted every step with trembling impatience until he was
within a stone's throw.
Then she signalled him in a husky, dissonant voice that
shocked herself, fainting though she was with suspense,
^'; intent only upon watching his movements, which meant
to her deliverance, sure and swift.
" Orrin 1 make haste 1 I am perishing 1 "
A glimpse of the broken railing told'him all.
Tearing off his coat as he ran, he leaped into the creek^
swam out to her, and bade her loosen her hold, and re-
main perfectly quiet
JESSAMINE. 201
" Don't seize me ! I will save you I Trust me 1 " he
said, in authority she did not dream of resisting.^
Li a minute more he had dragged her through the
water and laid her upon the warm turf, where the sun
fell in brightness that meant comfort to her now as em-
phatically as the wavering glitter upon the stream had
signified derision of her sufferings when ste was very
nigh to death.
In all their intercourse, Orrin had never spoken words
that came so directly from what had once been a heart, as
those that stirred the languid 'pulses and brought back the
fleeting senses of the forlorn creature who lay gasping
within his arms livid, sodden, almost lifeless.
" Darling Jessie I Precious child ! Thank Heaven, I
was in time 1 "
The blue lips were touched by a smile ; her eyes un-
closed upon his with a look of worshipful love and grati-
tude that appealed to meaner elements of his character
than those that had prompted his first outburst, fie was
himself again as his gaze kindled into responsive softness
and fire.
" My love 1 " he murmured, bending to kiss her. " May
I not call you so for one blessed instant ? My only love,
and mine alone I "
0*
CHAPTER XIV.
B. KIBEE and Exinioe were still absent when Or-
rin paid his second call at the Parsonage that day.
He had conducted Jessie home in the forenoon a
drenched and shivering figare, at which Patsey
screeched with terror; stayed long enough to
learn from the girl that the preventives he had ordered
against cold were administered, and that her young mis-
tress was put comfortably to bed, after which he betook
himself to the hotel to make the requisite changes in his
own apparel.
"Miss Jessie hopes you'll stay here, sir," remarked
Patsey. " She says you'll find dry things in Mr. Kirke'a
room. Pve just laid 'em out all ready."
" I am much obliged to Miss Jessie and to yon, my good
girl ; but I shall run no risk in going down to the village.
Say to Miss Jessie that she will hear from, or see me
again before night."
Three hours later, a messenger brought a note, inquir-
JESSAMINE. 203
ing how Jessie was, and if she would be quite able to see
him in the evening,
" For I must return to Hamilton to-morrow," he added.
Jessie wrote one line in reply :
" I am up and well. Come whenever you please.
Gratefully,
J. K."
His pleasure was to delay the visit until twilight. Per-
haps he had a difficult progi'arame to arrange; perhaps he
wanted to give Jessie time to recover strength and com-
posure, or he may have thought that delay would enhance
the value of his society. On tlie legal principle he had
enunciated when Eoy's prior engagement was under dis-
cussion, we ought to accept his own explanation of his
tardiness.
** I could not come earlier," he said very gravely, in
reply to Jessie's faltered gratitude and fears that he had
suffered from the morning's adventure. " You needed
rest and quiet, and I have been unhinged all day ^men-
tally, I mean. Don't thank me again 1 You don't know
how like mockery phrases of acknowledgment from you
to me sound. Sit down. You are still weak and nervous.
Yoti are trembling all over."
If she was, it was not from cold or debility. He placed
her in an arm-chair, brought a shawl from the hall, and
folded it about her ; turned away abruptly, and walked
the. room in a silence she had neither words nor courage
to break. The piano stood open as he had left it in the
morning. He stopped before it on his tenth round, seated
himself, and began a prelude. Then he sang the ballad
she had crooned in the amber sunset, so many, lo&ny
201 JES8AMIN&
months agot wliilo he listened without, and tore the
hearts out of Eunice's roses.
He gave the first verse with tenderness that was ex-
quisite ; rendered the musing ecstasy of the dream with
beauty and expression that thrilled the auditor with deli-
cious pain. This deepened into agony under the passion-
ate melancholy of the last stanza :
*' Soon, o^er the briglit waves howled forth the gale,
Fiercely the lightning flashed on onr sail ;
Yet while our fiail barque drove o*er the sea,
Thine eyes like loadstars beamed, Love, on me.
Oh, heart, awaken I wrecked on lone shore I
Thou art forsaken 1 Dream, heart, no more I "
He came back to where she sat all bowed togetlier,
and quivering in every limb and knelt before her.
" Jessie, J have dreamed, and I am awake. I am here
to-night, to ask you to forgive, not only the rash, pre-
sumptuous words I spoke this morning, but the feeling
that gave them birth. I have loved you from the
moment of 'our first meeting. You and Heaven are my
witnesses how I have striven with my unwarrantable pas-
sion, how, persuaded that the indulgence of this would
be a rank offence against honor and friendship, I resisted
by feigned coldness your innocent wiles to win the good-
will of Eoy's relative. I deluded myself, for a time, with
the belief that I could control the proofs of my affection
within the bounds of brotherly regard. You best know
how, when your faith in the truth of your accepted lover
was shaken, I became his champion ; how conscientiously
and laboriously I have pleaded his cause with you ; tried
to be faithful to the trust he had reposed in me ; how,
when I had nearly betrayed myself in an unguarded
JESSAMINE. 205
moment, I endeavored to dissipate any suspicions that my
imprudence might have awakened in your mind. Again
and again I have avoided you for days and months to-
gether ; punished myself for my involuntary transgression
against my friend by denying myself the sight of that
which was dearer and more to be desired in my esteem
than all the world and heaven itself ; have shut myself
into outer darkness from the light of your eyes and the
sound of your voice. The fruit of the toils, the anguish,
the precautions of more than a year, was destroyed to-day
by one outbiirst of ungovernable emotion.
" I shall dream no more, dear 1 I solemnly vow this
on my knees, while I beg you to say that you do not de-
spise me 1 "
The bowed head was upon his shoulder now, and she
was weeping. He put his arm about her, and held her
close, while he prayed her to be comforted.
" I have cost you many painful thoughts, and not a few
tears since the day when you told me the story of old
David Dundee, over there in the window," he said, sadly.
" It would have been better much better for you hiid you
never seen or heard of me. These teare are all for me,
I know. But, indeed, darling, I am not worthy of one
of them. They make me feel yet more keenly what a
villain I must seem to you."
" Don't say that 1 " she burst forth. " If you are un-
worthy in your own sight, what must I think of my con-
duct? You were under no vow; had professed to love
no other, had entered into no compact in the name of
God, to be constant to one one only while life en-
dured ; a compact you called as sacred and binding as
marriage. I loathe myself when I think of my iickleneai
206 JESSAMINS.
and falsehood. I do not deserve to receive the love of any
true man. There is, at times, a bitter tonic in the idea that
I may be better worth Hoy Fordham's acceptance than I
would be of another's who had never deceived the trust
of the woman who loved him."
She sat upright, and laughed, in saying it. " We he
and I could not upbraid one another on the score of
inconstancy.''
" I will not have you depreciate yourself. You have
been true to the letter of your vow. There are some
feelings that defy control. Listen to me, deadest," sit-
ting down by her. " This is a world of mismatched
plans, of blighted hopes and fruitless regrets. But the
wise do not defy Fate. They look, instead, for the sparkle
of some gem amid the ashes of desolation. Let us be
brave since we cannot be hopeful. I can never forget
you, never cease to think of you as the dearest and no-
blest of women. The memory will be more to me than
any possession in the gift of Fortune. No change of ex-
ternal circumstances can make us less to one another than
we are now, while to the WDrld we can never be more.
Nothing is further from my wishes or designs than to
weaken your regard for the strength of a compact so sol-
emn as that which binds you to your betrothed. He is a
good man, and he will cherish you kindly and faithfully.
It may be a hard saying, but we are dealing in no mock
reserves now, love ; and however weakly my heart may
shrink from pronouncing the doom of my happiness, I ought
not to disguise from myself or you the truth, that, as ho
has done nothing since your betrofiial to forfeit your es-
teem, you should f uMl your promise whenever he shall
claim it."
JESSAMINE. 207
^^ Which he may never do!" Jessie interrupted the
forced calmness of the argument. "I heard a terrible
story a month ago one that has driven sleep from my
eyes for whole nights since. Did you ever hear that my
mother was insane for many years before she died ? "
It was too dark to see her features, but Orrin felt the
strong shudder that ran over her ; saw tlie gesture that
seemed to tear the dreadful secret from her breast.
She went on wildly. "That the loving words and
caresses, the recollection of which has fed my heart from
my babyhood, the tales and songs and sketches that were
my choicest pleasures then, were the vagaries of an un-
settled mind ; that she knew nothing aright after I, mis-
erable little wretch ! was born ! Not even her own and
only child 1 That, through all these years I have been wor-
shipping a beautiful myth 1 I never had a mother I Oh I
that I had died while I still believed in her 1 "
The cry of the last sentence was of hopeless bereave-
ment, and the specious actor beside her sat appalled at the
might of a woe beyond his conception.
She resumed before he could reply.
" I ought never to marry I Accursed from the begin-
ning, I should finish toy shadowed life alone. ITou talk
of the gifts of Fortune. The best she can offer me now
are quiet and obscurity. I have written all this to Mr.
Fordham. He knows, by this time, that I am a less de-
sirable partner for his fastidious and untainted self than
was the poor girl whose only crime was that her sister
had died of consumption, ^that a deadlier malady is my
birthright 1'^
" Tou have written this to Eoy ? " exclaimed Orrin, in
208 JESSAMINSL
Btern earnest. " Without consultation with your sister
or father?"
" Why shoald I consalt tliem ! Having deceived me
for twenty years or more, they would not be likely to
tell me the truth now. The story came indirectly to me,
from the daughter of my mother's nurse, who lived here
herself as a servant when I was born. Afterward I saw
and talked with the woman myself. Nothing but the
whole truth would satisfy me. Her account was clear
and circumstantial. There is no mistake."
^'The woman is a lying gossip a malicious or weak-
minded slanderer. You have acted hastily and most un-
wisely 1 " Orrin said, in seriousness that commanded her
attention. " This tale is not a new one to me. Your
sister informed me that there was such a figment in cir-
culation before you went to Mrs. Baxter."
He rehearsed Eunice's description of her step-mother's
invalidism, softening such portions of it as might, he
feared, tend to feed the daughter's unhealthy fancies.
" Your father and your family physician will tell yott
that her disease was physical. Her low, nervous state
and hysterical symptoms were concomitants to this, as
were her indispositidVi to see strangers, and inability to
go abroad. It is your duty to write this explanation to
Roy. He had your father's version of the case, when he
asked his sanction to his addresses to yourself. You
must tell him that this was the correct one."
" To what purpose would all this be ? " He had nevet
heard her speak sullenly until now. " Better that he
should part from me on this pretext than upon the ground
which my farther confession would furnish."
She said the concluding words so indistinctly that
JESSAMINE. 209
Orrin did not catch their purport, or his rejoinder would
have been different and less prompt*
" For the sake of your mother's memory I " he urged,
gently. " The mother who, you are again persuaded,
both knew and loved you."
She was still for a moment,
" You are right," she said then. " It would be base to
screen my faithlessness at the expense of her reputa-
tion. I am cowardly ^but indeed, indeed, it is not an
easy task to undeceive him. He trusts me implicitly 1
If you had read his letters 1 And I do still value his
esteem. I believed in him so long, you know. But I
will tell him all ! It is just that I should be spared no
humiliation ! "
To Wyllys this was sheer raving, yet it sounded dan-
gerous.
" What do you mean ? " he queried, in an altered tone.
Instead of replying, she hid her face in her hands
(how well he. remembered the old action!) and
moaned.
He touched her shoulder, less in caress than admoni-
tion, as he asked, " Tell him what % Why do you speak
of humiliation?"
" Because he still believes in me^ I tell you I He will
scorn me when I confess that my heart has changed
that I can never love him again, as I fancied I did
once!" she whispered, as if ashamed to say it aloud.
" He will cast me off free me at once and forever."
The temptation was powerful, and the Thug yielded to
it, without a struggle.
" And if he should, darling ? Wliat then ? " he said,
tightening his arm about her waist.
210 JESSAMINE.
" You should not ask me 1 " in a yet lower whisper.
Had the dusk allowed, she might have seen a smile of
triumph upon his face ; an involuntary uprearing of the
head as from the binding of the bay of victory about
his brows. In affections and in spirit, she lay at his feet
her love confessed, her destiny in his power. Did he
wish, for one insane instant, that his acting were reality,
that, with clean heart and hands, he could fold her in his
embrace, and call her by the name which is the seal and
glory of loving womanhood ? make her his honored and
beloved Wife ?
We are all human, and there may have gaped in that
one wild second, an hitherto unsuspected joint in his har-
ness of unscrupulous egotism. If this were so, he con-
quered the weakness before he again spoke.
'' Jessie, this is sheer madness I My beautiful angel I
why have you made me love you only that both our
hearts should be broken at last % Do you know what
you are doing % Do not injure yourself fatally in the es-
timation of all your friends by cancelling this engage-
ment. Tour father has talked much to me of the com-
fort it is to him. He loves and honors Fordham ; is
happy in his old age in the anticipation of giving you
into his keeping. This will be a crushing blow to his
pride and affection. And Fordham 1 you do not com-
preliend what a terrible thing his anger is. I, who have
seen him aroused, warn you not to make him your life-
long enemy. These calm, slow natures are vindictive be-
yond the possibility of your conception."
" Yet you would have me trust myself and my happi-
ness in his keeping % When I have said that I do not
love him ! Have yoa read my nature to so little puipoae
JB88AMnfE. 211
as to think that fear will drive, where affection does not
lead me ? "
Her spirit was rising. He knew the signs of her
moodj and that the sharpest of the straggle between
her will and his was to come. He made ready his last
shaft.
" Leave things as they are I If I plead earnestly, it is
because there is so much at stake. For me, as for you !
Do not tempt me to perjury and dishonor. Help me to
keep my integrity by holding fast to your own ! Believe
me, who have seen more of life and human inconsistency
than your virgin fancy ever pictured, when I say that
crossed loves are the rule, love-marriages the exception in
this crooked, shadowed world. By and by, you botli of
us will learn quietness of soul, if not content, and nobody
surmise the secret of the locked heart-chambers which
are consecrated to one another."
" Perjury 1 dishonor!" repeated Jessie, bewildered.
" By what oath are you bound ? I do not understand ! "
"You have heard no report, then, of the business
which brought me to Dundee ? Has not Mrs. Baxter or
Miss Provost written to you of my engagement \ ''
" Engagement ! " still wonderingly.
" I am engaged to be married, Jessie 1 " mournfully
firm.
"To whom?"
He just caught the gdsp, for her throat and tongue
were too dry for perfect articulation.
" To Hester Sanford."
Without another word, she got up and groped her way
to the mantel.
Orrin followed.
212 JESSAMINE,
" What 18 it ? " he asked, tenderly.
" I want the matches ! Ah, here they are 1 "
She struck one, the blae flame showing a ghastly face
above it, lighted the lamp, and motioned Orrin to a seat
opposite her own, at the centre-table.
" Now 1 " she said, interlacing her fingers upon the
table, and leaning over them in an attitude of attention.
" Go on with what you were saying."
If she had expected him to show embarrassment, she
was foiled. He put his hand upon hers before he began,
and although she drew it back, he felt that it was clay-cold,
and judged rightly that his real composure would outlast
her counterfeit.
" What could I do ? " he said, beseechingly. " You
were lost to me as surely as though you were already
married or dead. If I am to blame for obeying the
reckless impulse to double-bar the door separating us to
divide myself from you by a gulf so wide that expec-
tancy, desire, and hope would perish in attempting to
cross it, you are scarcely the one to upbraid me for the
deed. More marriages are contracted in desperation than
from mutual love. I said : * If I am ever cured, it will
be by this means.' Miss Sanford was not unpropitious
to my advances. I will not insult your common-sense by
pretending that her evident partiality flattered or attracted
me much less that I ever felt one throb of tenderness
for her. Since I could never love another woman, what
difference did it make who bore my name and kept my
housed It were better so I reasoned to marry one
whose supreme self-love would prevent her from divining
my indifference and its cause, who was shallow-hearted,
insensitive, and obtuse of wit, than one who, gauging my
JB88AMIN& 213
feelings by her own, would expect a devotion I coald not
feign
" Bat I cannot talk of Miss Sanford and my new bonds,
here, and now 1 I thought myself armed at every point
for self-justification when I came to you. One ray from
your eyes showed me my error."
" Perjury ! dishonor 1 " reiterated Jessie, without mov-
ing the eyes that were fast filling with disdain. " It is
from these that I am to save you? You perjured your-
self when you told that girl that you loved her and tell
it to her you did, or she would not have accepted your
hand. Other men have sought her in marriage, and she
would be exacting as to the form of your proposal. You
dishonored yourself* and the name of wedded love in
every vow you made her. From this sin, at least, I am
free. When I promised to marry Roy Fordham, I
thought I understood my own feelings. And my heart
was his I If I could forget the mad, wicked dream that
divides me from that season of purity and gladness, I
would peril my soul to do it I You speak of the sanctity
of my engagement ; of the integrity that bids you hold
fast to yours. We will pass over the first. It was a .
sacred thing, and a precious, once, before the serpent left
his loathsome trail upon it. But where was your integ-
rity when you talked to me of love, just now ? when you
deliberately prefaced the announcement of your betrothal
by the declaration that the memory of me must always be
more to you than any earthly possession ? Was this loyal?
Was it honorable, or even honest ? I believe that I have
loved you, Orrin WyUys ! I believe, moreover, that you
have tried to win my love for what end the Maker of ua
both alone knows. If I have been weak, you have been
214 JE88AMINSL
wicked. I see it all now step by step I fall after fall I And
to crown the injury you have done me with insult, you ad-
jure me to save you from temptation to perjury by heap-
ing lie upon lie, in continuing to assert by actions, if not
by direct protestation, that I love a man to whom I am
indifferent. Tou have sold yourself for Hester Sanford'a
millions. Tou would have me sell myself, soul and body,
for expediency and convenience and to avert Roy Ford-
ham^s lasting enmity. That is the case, strippetl of senti-
mental verbiage."
" Jessie 1 "
" I have no affection for him, or for any one else I No
faith 1 no hope ! " she pursued, towering above him like
a lost but menacing spirit "You saved my life this
morning. You make of that benefit a wrong to-night, by
robbing life of all that it held of sweetness and comfort ;
by showing me what a coarse bit of gilded clay I ^poor
fool ! have worshipped. I wish you had let me drown! "
" Jessie ! are you mad ? "
lie had arisen with her, and would have drawn nearer
to her side, but she waved him off. Thei*e. was a terrible
beauty in her wrath that fascinated him, in spite of her
cutting words.
" I was a happy, trustful child when you crossed my
path. I am a hard, bitter, suspicious woman and the
change is your work. You have humbled me forever in
my own eyes, by letting me into the dark secrets of my
instability and idiotic credulity. I care not what others
think of me. I shall write to Mr. Fordham before I
sleep, and release him ; if he still considers himself bound
to me, shall tell him plainly that my love is dead and
my heart.I "
JESSAMINE. 215
" You will judge me more mercifully, and yourself
more justly one day, Jessie. Tour self-reproaches pain
me more than do your vituperations against myself.
Nothing you can say in your present mood can alter my
feelings for you. You have had much to try you, to-day,
my poor child 1 When you are cooler, you will retract
mentally at least the charges you have brought 'against
one whose heart is now^and always will be ^your own.
You know me better than you think, I can'wait for
time and your sober reason to right me. Implacable as I
know Fordhani to be, under his impassive demeanor, he
will be more lenient to what he will esteem my breach of
trust ^the wrong I have done him when once he has
heard my defence, than you are at this monjent."
" You suppose, then, that I am going to lodge a com-
plaint against you^ " she said, contemptuously. " I shall
not mention your name. I should be ashamed to own
who was the cause of my folly. You have nothing to
di'ead from your cousin's anger."
And, although his last remark was a " feeler," designed
to elicit such an assurance, this speech stung him more
sharply than had the volley of invectives that preceded
it.
Mr: Kirke and Eunice did not return until midnight.
Jessie had the evening to herself, and the letter to Eoy
was sent to the post-office before she went to bed.
It was short and decisive to unkindness:
- "When I wrote to you, last week," was the uncere-
monious commencemAit, ^^'I said that I would await
your reply before sending another letter. I believed that
the information contained in the former would be the
means of terminating our engagement. I have learned
216 JESSAMINE.
Bince that the Btory was a malicious or idle exaggeration.
My mother died, as she had lived, a sane woman. But
this matters little so far as our relation to one another is
concerned. Another, and an insuperable obstacle to our
union, exists in the change of my feelings toward your-
self. If I ever loved you I think, sometimes, I never
did I love you no longer. Months of doubt and sufFer-
iug have brought me to the determination to confess this
without reserve. I offer no extenuation of my fickleness.
I ought to have remained constant, but I have not. May
you choose more happily and wisely in the future !
" I write this without conference with my father or
sister, in the knowledge, also, that my change of purpose
and prospects will be a sorrow and a surprise to both.
Eut I cannot hesitate or draw back. I need hardly say
that I have entered into pledges with no one else. No
one desires that I should, or seeks to win my affections.
It rests with you to give me the release I ask of your
generosity and humanity, or to hold me to the letter of
ray bond. If, having learned the extent of the change
that has come over me since I gave it, you insist upon
the fulfilment of my promise, I diall submit to your de-
cision.
" Foreseeing what your action will be, it only remains
for me to add that your gifts and letters await your order.
" Jessamine Kikkb."
CHAPTER XV.
HE September nights were cool among the moun-
tains, and as Mr. Kirke and his elder daughter
drove home through the moonlight, between eleven
and twelve o'clock, from the visit of njercy they
had been paying on the other side of the ridge,
there were white blankets of mist upon the meadows, and
filling up the valleys along which their route lay.
The fire was out in the kitchen, and Patsey had been
asleep for two hours and more, having made up her mind
that her master would not return until the morrow.
There was still a light in Jessie's chamber, and she came
down, wide-awake and dressed, to admit the travellers.
The "servant man slept in a room over the stable, and,
after calling to him two or three times without arousing
him, the worthy clergyman took pity upon his weariness
after his hard day's work, and groomed his horse himself.
Eunice exclaimed at the dampness of his overcoat in
helping him remove it, and Jessie instructed in guch
10
218 JESSAMINE,
appliances to health and comfort by her watery ad-
venture, tlie telling of which she reserved for a more
convenient season ^prescribed a glass of brandy-and-water.
llr. Kirke needed nothing except a night's rest, he as-
Biircd tliem both ; pinched Jessie's cheek, in kissing her
' good-night," and rallied her upon her anti-temperance
proclivities, then ascended to his chamber. He came
down late to breakfast, the next, morning ; owned that
sleep had p^'oved obdurate to his wooing; that he had
had something very like an ague during the night, and
that it was a violent headache which deprived him of
appetite.
When he arose from table, Jessie coaxed liim, almost
in the old winsome way he could never resist, into the
parlor; made him lie upon the sofa; tucked a shawl
warmly about his shoulders, and sitting down of her own
accord to the piano, played plaintive, soothing airs until
he fell asleep.
This was the beginning of the spell of fever that,
witliin twelve hours, laid him upon his bed, and which,
ten days later, assumed a typhoid form.
His daughters were his nurses, by day and night
Offers of watchers poured in from the few gentle and
tlie many simple who were his parishioners and neigh-
boi-8 ; but the sisters courteously and gratefully declined
them all. Their patient was all-deserving of the name,
and needed no other care than they could give him. He
slept much, and suffered little pain, and their light
household tasks allowed one or the other to be constantly
witli him. Thus, to the kindly applicants; while to each
other and their parent .they said that love would not
allow them to delegate a duty so dear and pious even to
JEBSAMINK^ 219
the true friends who sought to divide their labors. No
man ever had more tender and gentle custodians. There
was no perceptible difference in the assiduity and skill
of the two, but visitors were unanimous in the expression
of the opinion that their anxious vigils told more visibly
upon Jessie than upon her sister. She wasted almost as
rapidly as the sick man, while her eyes were settled in
their mournfulness, and she seemed to forget how to
smile days before the physician expressed any doubt as to
the sequel of her parent's illness.
He had been confined to his room three weeks, when,
on tlie morning of the 27th of September, Jessie met the
doctor on the stairs, as she was carrying in a bowl of
beef tea she had just made.
" Ah, doctor 1 I did not know you were here ! " she
said, more cheerfully than he had heard her speak for
several days, unless when within her father's hearing.
" Papa is more comfortable is he not ? "
" He is more quiet, certainly. Can I see you for a
moment, my dear, when you have taken that in ? I shall
wait for you in the parlor."
He spoke very gravely, averting his eyes as he finished;
and hope went suddenly and completely out of the
daughter's heart.
She bore the basin carefully and steadily into the
chamber, up to the bedside of the patient, and called his
name clearly :
" Papa, dear, will you take a little of this for me? "
She watched him narrowly as he aroused himself to
respond.
" He sleeps all the time, to-day," whispered Eunice.
There was a dull glow in his half-open eyes, and he
220 JESSAMINE.
put his hand to his head, confusedly, staring in his
younger daughter's face, as she repeated her request.
"It is Jessie, papa! You have been dreaming, and
are not yet awake. Here is your beef tea. May I give
you a spoonful or two ? "
" I thought you were your mother, child 1 '' he said,
smiling faintly but lovingly at her. " I was dreaming,
as you say."
She fed him as she would an infant, but he would
take only a few spoonfuls of the nourishment, turned
his face away, and fell asleep again instantly.
The doctor's delicate and unenviable duty was half
done for him before she joined him in the lower room.
" You consider my father worse ? " was the address
with which she opened the interview.
" I grieve to say that I do."
" Can notliing be done for him? "
He hesitated.
" I am answered 1 " she said, hastily. " Don't shelter
yourself behind the hateful, worthless subterfuge about
hope ceasing only with life. Tell me,, instead, how
long"
The rest of the sentence was beyond her powers of
utterance. But she did not succumb in aspect, after the
wordless struggle died away in a quiver of the un-
moistened lips. She wa^ very white, but very still.
The doctor congratulated himself upon the sagacity that
had led him to choose this one of the twain as the recipi-
ent of his unwelcome intelligence. Jessie was his fav-
orite, and he had always contended that hers was the
stronger, as well as the more sprightly nature of the two.
Since she was so collected so well prepared for the sad
JESSAMmE, 221
probability if not the fell certainty he could be en-
tirely frank.
" The symptoms are of general congestion," he said.
" If this should advance rapidly, we cannot hope to have
him with us more than twenty-four hours, at the utmost.
I shall return, presently, with Dr. Trimble. But his
verdict will, I think, coincide with mine. The indica-
tions are distinct. Your father will probably be uncon-
scious much of the. time, and suffer little, if at all. No
one can doubt his fitness for the great change. I have
known him for over thirty years, and I can testify that
he has walked humbly and closely with his God. He
has instructed you so carefully, Jessie, my dear, that you
do not require to be told where to look for consolation,
for g^ace, and strength, in this trying hour "
A motion of prohibition that had in it none of the
grace of entreaty, checked his formula.
"You will not be long absent?" asked a voice from
between the rigid lips.
The circles under her eyes were blacker and broader
each second.
" I shall be in again as soon as I can find Dr. Trimble.
You had better take Miss Eunice into your confidence
without delay. She might think it strange ^might take
it hard if anything were to happen, you know "
" Yes I I know 1 "
That shut his mouth, and rid her of his presence.
The day was warm for the season so sultry that the
cirrus clouds swimming in the blue ether, looked soft to
April tearfulness. How still it was, as Jessie stood in
the open oriel- window, and let her eyes roam through
garden and church-yard, ever returning, without voli-
222 JEBSAMINSi
tion of hers, to the gap in the long lines of grayefitones
next her mother's tomb ! Had Nature swooned all over
the broad earth ? Was there nothing real left in creation
save the fact of her great woe ?
" My father is dying I " she said, aloud and distinctly.
And, again "I suppose this is what people mean
when they talk of not realizing a sorrow 1''
As if aught bnt overwhelming appreciation of the
might of a present calamity could crush the heart into
deadness.
She was picking the faded leaves from the creepers,
and ^crumbling them into dust, when Eunice came in.
Jessie's protracted absence after the conference with the
doctor had excited her apprehensions, and she stole down,
while her father slept, to inquire into the cause. - Im-
measurably relieved at sight of her sister's attitude and
occupation, she smiled as she aroused her from her rev-
erie.
" I could not think what had become of you, dear 1
What does Dr. Winters think of father ? "
" Sit down, Eunice, and I will tell you ! " said Jessie,
dreamy pity in her eyes, but no change in her hard, hol-
low voice.
Eunice sank into the nearest chair, laying her hand
quickly upon her heart.
*' You cannot mean ^"
"That he is dying? Fesl" interrupted the other;
and in the same awful composure, she repeated the
doctor's verdict, verbatim.
"Now" she concluded "I will go back to him.
Tou may come presently, when you have had time to
think over the matter."
JESSAMINE, 223
The bexyl eyes were washed with many tears before
they again met Jessie's across the sick-bed, but, after
that, Eunice bore herself bravely. Hour after hour, they
sat in the hushed upper chamber, facing their' nearing
desolation, without a plaint or an audible sigh. Below
stairs, all was silent as the grave. Patsey, with au in-
definable idea that the house should bo set in r rder for
the coming of the grim guest, had dusted the lurniture,
set back the chairs in straight rows against the walls in
parlor and dining-room, and closed uU the blinds on the
lower floor; made her kitchen neat as Miss Eunice
could have wished ; then seated herself upon the upper
step of the side porch, her arms wrapped in her clean
apron. Jessie's orders were positive that no one besides
the doctors should be admitted, and as the servant's look-
out commanded the front gate, she intercepted the many
callers who flocked to the Parsonage, at the swift rumor
of the pastor's extreme illness.
" We will keep him to ourselves while he stays with
us I" the younger sister had answered the other's fear
lest this proceeding should give offence to " the people."
" He has belonged to them for thirty years. At the last,
we may surely claim him ! "
"But they love him dearly!" expostulated Eunice.
" He is their spiritual father and guide."
"He is our aUP^ was the curt reply, and Eunice
forbore to argue further.
In the midst of her grief, she was slightly afraid of
Jes^e. The wide eyes that were caverns of gloom ; the
tuneless . accents that never shook or varied, cowed her
into quiet and obedience.
There was little to be done. The sick man slept if
224 JESSAMINE.
it were sleep except when aroused .to take medicine or
food. At these periods, he recognized liis children, and
spoke coherently, although briefly. His kind heart and
gentle breeding were with him to the end. His utter-
ances were of thankfulness for the services they rendered,
and love for those who bent over him, that not a word
should be lost of that they felt, at each awakening, might
be the last sentence they should ever hear from him.
He spoke once intelligibly and calmly of the nearing
separation.
" 1 am going fast 1 " he said to Eunice, who was lifting
his head upon her arm that she might adjust the pillow.
" The Father is very good. The ' precious blood ' avails
even for me for me 1 I go empty-handed, but rich
for thiere is the ^ unspeakable gift I ' " Closing his eyes
he murmured softly to himself.
Eunice bowed her ear, and held her breath to catch
the words.
" ' The token was an arrow, with the point sharpened
by love, let easily into the heart ! ' God is good very-
good I "
It had been the testimony of his whole life.
"Jessie, dear I my little girl I you are wearing your-
self out for me I " he said, at another time. " I wish JRoy
were here I But His will be done I He knows my
darling's needs her temptations her trials. Like as
a Father pitieth his children, dear ! And it is true !
EecoUect that I told you so, this and when and how ! "
She was to recollect it in the Father's good time. Now
the words meant little, after she had heard the dying
parent's wish for Eoy's return. She said something in
her own heart that was like a thanksgiving that her
JESSAMINE, 225
father was spared the one pang which the coming of the
man he would have her many, would bring, that the
sea rolled between them.
" We shall be cared for, Papa ! " she replied, quietly.
" I know ! The promise is sure," and he slept again,
like a child at even-time upon the mother's breast.
" The ^ great peace ' is his I " said Eunice, in pious
gratitude.
Jessie was mute.
So the afternoon went by, and the shortening twilight
of Autumn drew on apace. The shutters of the southern
windows were unclosed to admit the air which evening
had not made raw. The fleecy clouds were packed in a
cumulose mass upon the horizon, and this began to rise
in portentous majesty, as the sun set behind it. Dun,
while day lasted, with ragged, brassy edges, it darkened
and thickened as Jessie watched it from her seat at the
bed-head, into a banner of blackness absorbing the light
from the rest of the heavens, and blotting out the earth
from her sight. The silence was breathless. Wot an
insect chirped or leaf rustled. Even the pine boughs
were motionless. The mill wheel was still ; the roar of
the waterfall was the only sound abroad under the inky
sky. The sisters could no longer see each other, but all
the waning light in the room seemed concentred upon
the pallid face between them. The effect of the pale
radiance and the brooding quiet about them was weird
unearthly. Eunice could bear it no longer.
" I will bring the night-latnp I " she said, rising.
She had hardly reached the foot of the staircase, when
Jessie heard the garden-gate shut, and steps upon the
gravel-walk leading to the kitchen ; next, a stifled
10*
226 JES8AMINE.
tp
Bcrearn from Patsey, and a low, manly Toice in rebuke
or reassurance. Listening, as for her life, the deadly
cold of hands and feet creeping up to her heart, she
caught a faint exclamation from Eunice ; then, the
cautious tread of feet in the hall to the parlor-door, which
was shut behind those who went in^ after which all was
quiet again.
For one moment, the darkness was Egyptian, and the
night more freezing thanwinter. The watcher struggled
to arise, to raise her hands to her madly throbbing head,
but a dull paralysis was upon her limbs. It was not more
than three minutes, but it seemed an hour, before will
asserted its sway so far as to call back the blood in a
tingling rush to the heart and extremities. Her trial was
at hand. This the coujp de grace of the appointed tor-
ture was not to be spared her, and she awaited it
dumbly. But for the moveless face upon the pillow be-
side her, she must have rushed away to hide herself ia
thicket or cave ^perhaps in the river-bed from which
she had been rescued so lately. That she could not
leave. Her father slept on, the pale, unearthly glimmer-
ing abiding still upon the broad brow and noble features.
He was beyond the reach of earthly solicitude the
swimming and buffeting, the toil and anxiety, were for-
ever overpast ; his feet already touched the solid grounds
He was very far off from her ^bruised, struggling, con-
demned to endure the consequences of her own and
another's wrong-doing.
A weary season of sickness and dread elapsed ere
Eunice entered with the lamp. She put it down upon a
stand in a distant comer, came around to Jessie's side, and
stooped to listen to her father's breathing before she spoke.
JESSAMINE.
227
Her voice was husky and uneven, and there was the
shine of fresh tears upon her cheeks.
" There is some one down stairs who wishes to see you,
dear," she said, laying her hand upon her sister's, to sup-
port her in case she should be overcome by the great joy
in, store for her. " Some one you will be glad and thank-
ful to meet again 1 "
" Is it Koy Fordham ! " asked the hard voice, while
Jessie did not start or stir.
Eunice saw that her prefatory measures were thrown
away.
" It is ! He sailed a foi^tnight earlier than he expected ;
arrived in America but yesterday. Dear sister! our
Heavenly Father has sent him to us in our sorest need.
He is waiting, love 1 "
" Then let him come up. I shall not leave this room.'^
fmm
CHAPTER XVI.
'VERY object in the dimly lighted chamber seemed,
to Jessie's strained eyes, to stand out with painful
distinctness, as her long-absent lover entered.
Most clearly of all, she saw his familiar figure ;
noticed even the full beard and gray travelling-
suit, while he crossed the floor toward her. She arose,
mechanically, and went forward a step to meet his fleet,
noiseless advance.
" My own one 1 my precious darling 1 "
He had her in his arms before she could resist, if she
had meant to do so. There were tears in his eyes and
voice as he kissed her, and he held her closely, warmly,
as a mother would a suffering child.
She undid his embrace with fingers strong and chill as
steel.
" My father is very ill ! " she faltered, and retreated to
his pillow.
Disturbed by the movement and sound of his name,
JESaAMINE. 229
Mr. Kirke awoke. The recess in which his bed stood
was in partial shadow, but his gaze rested at once upon
Eoy, and he tried to lift his head.
" Is that the doctor ? "
Jessie replied :
" No, Papa ! It is, Mr. Fordham."
Instead of welcoming him, the sick man looked heav-
enward, and his lips moved in prayer. Only the daugh-
ter who had crept nearest to him, interpreted the burden
of his thanksgiving.
" Lord 1 now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in
peace I "
When he moved, it was in an effort to hold out his arms
to the returned voyager.
. " Eoy 1 dear, dear son ! "
Roy took the emaciated hands in his, with one answer-
ing word.
" Father I "
"Leave us for a little while, my children I" said the
dying voice. " We have much to say to one another, and
the time is short I "
He was obeyed ; Eunice going to her room, to weep
and pray in mingled gratitude and sorrow; Jessie fly-
ing down the stairs into the hall, thence out into the gar-
den.
The sky was one expanse of cloud by this time. The
wind moaned fitfully in the tree-tops; brought down
showers of dry leaves into her face and upon her un-
covered head. They whispered drearily to her as they
hurtled by and crackled under her feet, and each thicket
had its sigh of desolation. She heard and felt all her
soul in unison with the night and its voices of woe. She
230 JESSAMINE.
had fled from her father's presence, feeling like one
accursed, forsaken by God and man. The retm^n for
which the dying saint's praise had gone up. to heaven,
was the event she had anticipated with shame and terror
that made her long to bury herself in the wilderness
or the grave, to escape the sight of him whom she had
deceived. To him, her father was now bequeathing her
^liis dearest earthly treasure. Would Eoy let him,
indeed, depart in peace, or would his stern sense of
truthf Illness and honor impel him to a revelation of her
pei-fidy t True, he had taken her in his arms and kissed
her, bnt she had received this as his farewell, not his
salutation ; seen in it the resistless overflow of the old-
time fondness at sight of her and her affliction. Better
a thousand times better that he had not come until
the eyes that had lighted into gladness at sight of him
were sealed in death, than to plant thorns m the painless
pillow of the death-bed by relating how she had betrayed
the trust of her betrothed, and disappointed her father's
hopes.
If she could have warned him 1 If she had had the
presence of mind to make some sign of caution before
she left them together !
Would Roy " the man of granite " have mercy ? or
must her father's last words to her be reproof and not
blessing ? regret and not thankfulness ?
Up and down 1 np and down ! she trod the long alley,
looking at the faintly illuminated windows of that upper
chamber; wringing her hands in her dry-eyed agony,
longing yet fearing to hear the summons that should end
her suspense.
It came at length ! Eoy's step upon the piazza, and
I
JESSAMINE. 231
his call, guarded that it should fiot reach the sick-room,
but audible to her as would be the trump of doom.
" Jessie I where are you ? "
She went toward him without hesitation. Women
have gone to the hall of sentence and to the block in
the same way. lie met her, guided by her rustling tread
among the leaves.
" This should not be 1 " he said. " You will be ill
next ! "
He led her into the house, and to the parlor where
there were lights.
She was not surprised that he did not let her pause
until they reached the deep window where she had not
sat, for months, until that morning after the doctor left
her. She had not expected a violent outbreak of anger
or recrimination; had felt that, even in becoming her
accuser, he could not cease to be a gentleman.
Orrin had told her, more than once or thrice, that his
kinsman was just to cahn severity. He would grant her
a chance of self -exculpation ; would judge her out of her
own mouth; make her rehearse to him the story of her
falsehood upon the spot where she had plighted her vow
of eternal constancy. And she would meet it all say
it all, save the name of her tempter that she was
pledged not to reveal ^if he would but let her go back
the sooner to her father the father who was dying up-
stairs 1
"Don't think me cruel, dear, or ungenerous," began
Koy, when he had seated her, and himself at her side.
Had her wretchedness moved him to leniency?
He continued : " But this is no season for useless de-
lays and mistaken reserve. Our dear father is passing
232 JBBSAMINE,
OMVSLj from us. I met tlie doctor on my way to you this
evening. lie thinks that he may leave us very, very soon.
One moment, dearest, and you shall go to liim " for she
had started up. " lie has made a dying request of us
of yon and me the fulfilment of which depends upon
you. i say nothing of the eager happiness with which I
have given my consent to the proposal only of the com-
fort you can shed upon his last moments by marrying me
in his sight within the next hour."
" No I no I no ! " She slid from her seat to her knees,
and hid her face, crouching to the floor in hoiTor and
humiliation. " I cannot I It would be a sin ! a fearful
sin I "
* Roy would have raised her, but she shrank away from
him.
" Anything but that 1 Ask me anything but that ! "
she repeated.
" It is not I who ask it, dear. Our father has decided
what shall be the time and place of our marriage. It is
not selfish much less is it sinful in us to yield to his
wish ^his last earthly desire. It has been his prayer
from the commencement of his illness that he might live
to -join our hands ; give you into my keeping before you
should close his eyes. Surely, knowing this, we may not
fear to repeat in his hearing the vows we made long ago
in this, our betrothal nook."
The simple, sad sincerity of his appeal sounded like
pitiless will in the ears of the distracted girl, but she could
not gainsay his reasoning. The decision was then thrown
upon her 1 Hers was the power to cast a ray of light
upon the even-time of the life which had been to her a
constant benefaction, or to cloud it with disappointment.
JESSAMINE. 233
" It is not selfish in us to yield to his wish 1 "
The words stung like venbraed sarcasm. Not selfish to
accept the fate against which her nature physical and
spiritual had lashed itself into revolt for weary months
past 1 Not selfish to bind upon her neck the yofee of the
scorned and imloving wife 1
The last thought moved her to action. She dragged
hereelf to her feet, still rejecting his aid^ and, for the first
time since their meeting, looked into his face.
" Did you get my last letter ? that in which I asked
you to release me from this engagement ? "
" Yes.""
He would have drawn nearer as h^said it, but she kept
him off less by her gesture than with her eyes so un-
like the sweet wells at which he used to drink his fill of
love !
" And knowing all, it is still your wish to marry me !
Think well before you answer. This bond is for life, re-
member ! and life is long I Oh, how long to the misera-
ble !
" This is my answer." Before she could avoid him, he
had gathered her in his arms, had pressed the reluctant
head to his bosom. "We have been wedded almost a
year and a half already, my Jessie. I am claiming my
wife, not my betrothed. Did you imagine that I could
be frightened from my hope and my purpose by that
morbid little note, written by a half -sick, over-sensitive
woman ? Eecollect ! you left the decision to me ! If,
instead of this, you had ordered me to stay away forever,
1 should have come to you all the same ; have taken you
to the old resting-place and kissed away the gloomy fan-
cies that had tempted you to banish me. I know your
234 JESSAMINE,
heart better than yon do youreelf and it is Tmne ! The
LosD do BO to me, and more also, if aught but death part
you and me I
" Now, beloved, what shall I say to our father ? The
minutes are precious."
" It shall be as yon and he desire. I will tell him this
myself," replied Jessie, calming all at once into mourn-
ful composure Eoy deemed altogether natural in the cir-
cumstances.
" One word more 1 " detaining her. " I met Dr. Bax-
ter this evening at the station, on his way to pay you a
visit, promised, he said, ever since last winter. Stopping
at the hotel while the stage set down other passengere, we
heard of your father's illness, and our dear old friend,
with characteristio delicacy, would not present himself
a stranger to your sister, in the circumstances. He re-
mained at the hotel until I should bring further intelli-
gence. Am I right in supposing that it is your wish, as
well as mine, that he should perform the ceremony which
is to make us one in name, as we have long been one in
heart ? If so, I will go for him without delay."
" Do what you like whatever is best," she answered,
hurriedly. " By all means, bring Dr. Baxter here 1 My
father will like to see him."
" His arrival just now is providential," said Eoy, walk-
ing upstairs at her side, his arm still supporting her.
" There is light, even from the earthward side, upon this
dark river, love 1 "
He beckoned Eunice from the. sick-room as Jessie went
in, exchanged half-a-dozen sentences with her relative
to his plans, and ran down the steps lightly and swiftly.
He had ordered Mr. Kirke's horse to be harnessed to his
JESSAMINE. 235
buggy before he sought Jessie, and Eunice heard him
drive off in the direction of the village by the time she
returned to her post.
The sisters awaited him and the clergyman where they
had sat all day, the one at the right hand, the other at the
left hand, of their father. Eunice ventured to suggest to
her companion the expediency of making some change in
her dress before the ceremony.
" I thought perhaps you would like to be married in
white," she said, timidly. " I am almost sure Roy would
prefer this."
" I have not time to dress. I have left him too long
already," returned Jessie, pointing to her father.
She tried to keep her promise of apprising him of her
acquiescence in his will, but was pai'tly. baffled by his in-
creasing drowsiness. He spoke, it is true, when she told
him that she had heard from Mr. Fordham of his request,
and determined to grant it, but it was not clear that he
quite understood her.
" Good child I " he said, with closed eyes. " God bless
you both 1 "
Did " both " mean his daughters or the two who were
to be wedded presently ? She could not bring hereelf to
ask.
Mr. Kirke lapsed into slumber or stupor, and the room
was silent again save for his iiTegular breathing, showing
that his semi-insensibility varied in character from that
of the day. Once, Jessie got up with the remark that it
was time to renew the mustard-poultices that stimulated
the curdling veins into action, and the pair did the office
deftly and mutely. Eunice saw her sister, as she reseated
herself, lay her cheek to the almost pulseless hand tliat
236 JESSAMINE.
rested on the coverlet, and close her eyes, while her lips
were stirred by an inaudible sentence. The observer was
thankful for this token of a more subdued and natural
frame of mind than the suffering girl had yet exhibited.
It was meet that she should seek the blessing of Heaven
upon the union she was about to form, and that thoughts
of prayer should be linked with loving ones of her eartlily
parent. And Eunice, too, prayed in her gentle, pious
heart for the happiness of the child, she had reared as her
own, and for that of the true, fond brother, whose arrival
in this their darkest hour, was like a direct answer from
on high to the petitions she had offered, during their long
days of watching and anxiety. With Roy to console and
care for Jessie, the smitten household would be rich even
in temporal comfort.
Was Jessie praying? She had proudly flung the
charge of perjaryat another, saying "Of this sin, at
least, I am innocent." What was the act to which she
had given her consent which the next hour would render
irrevocable ? It was when this question was forced upon
her by some taunting demon, that she kissed the lifeless
hand, and whispered the formula she had said aloud that
morning at the open window, and repeated inly hundreds
of times since.
" My father is dying 1 "
Since she could not lie down and die in his stead, she
would sacrifice the poor hopes of peace that were spared
to her from the wreck of her early dreams, to purchase
for him what gratification she could still give him.
Eunice might well eye her apprehensively, all that day
and evening. Many with steadier brains and cooler blood
than were hers have been consigned to insane asylums.
JESSAMINE. 237
The wind was so loud, the roar of the pine outside the
window so continuons, as to drown the sound of returning
hoofs and wheels. They were ignorant of Roy's second
arrival until he knocked at the chamber-door. Eunice
said, " Come in I " and he whispered a few words to her
before he approached Jessie.
" Are you quite ready ? " he asked, softly.
Slie bowed her head in assent.
He disappeared for a moment, then came back with
Dr. Baxter, Drs. Winters and Trimble. The physicians,
with difficulty, aroused their patient so far as to swallow
the stimulant they administered. Patsey brought in
more lights, and retired, with the doctors, to the back-
ground an interested spectator of the singular scene.
" Father I " it was Roy's voice, sonorous yet pleasant,
that reached the senses and reason which were fast slip-
ping away with life. " This is Dr. Baxter, of whom you
have often heard Jessie's very dear friend and whose
wife is the cousin of Jessie's mother."
The double reference waa talismanic. Mr. Kirke
opened his eyes to their full width all recognizing in
them the glassy stare of dissolution and tried to move
his hand toward the person thus introduced.
" He is very welcome ! "
Dr. Baxter pressed the cold hand between his.
" Brother in Christ 1 we should have met before. We
shall meet again. In that safe world there are no crossed
purposes or partings. There we shall know even as we
are known of one another and of the Master. You are
very near the entrance upon that perfect life. I have
been sent hither by our Loed to bid you, ' God speed I '
on the short and easy journey, and to ask your blessing
238 JESSAMINE.
upon these, onr children, who would walk after yon, hand
in hand. Is it still yonr wish that they should be mar-
ried here beside you, before you go from their sight % "
" Yes ; by all means ! "
The emphasis was faint, yet perceptible, and he shut
his clammy lingers feebly upon those Jessie slipped within
them, as she obeyed Dr. Baxter's injunction to join her
right hand with that of her betrothed. She felt their
loose hold more plainly. than she did the warm, strong
grasp that signified loving protection, te^iderest sympathy.
It was a strange, sad rite, stranger and more mel-
ancholy than burials usually are. The bride's gaze
never left the sunken face and closed eyes that rested
among the pillows, and her assent to the interrogations
put to her was so slight as to create a passing doubt in the
mind of the catechist as to whether she had given any.
The mountain storm burst overhead in thunder, wind,
and rain, as the bridegroom spoke his reverent and stead-
fast response, and when the benediction was pronounced,
Jessie stooped to kiss her father, apparei:tly forgetful that
Eoy's was the paramount right to the token of affection.
" Dear Papa I It is your little Jessie 1 I have done as
you wished. Will you not bless me ? ''
The cry sounded in the ear deadened by the death-
stupor as a faint and far-off call. Mr. Kirke's eyelids
quivered without rising, and the muscles of the mouth
were moved. Then, the gray calm settled down again
upon his -countenance.
" He must speak to me I I must be sure that he hears
me that he understands how I have obeyed him 1 " said
Jessie, frantically. " He must ! " to the physicians who
advanced to the bedside with restoratives.
JESSAMmE. 239
They were useless. The dying man was beyond the
reach of human skill. The lips were parted, the throat
did not contract. Dr. Winters shook his head despair-
ingly and turned from his old friend and pastor, the un-
tasted glass of brandy in his hand.
" He does not see or hear me ! " cried the daughter,
throwing up her arms in a passion of despair. " I did it
for him, and he will never know it."
She sank to her knees beside the bed and buried her
face in the coverings. Roy leaned over her, and whis-
pered something the rest did not hear. He might as well
have addressed her father with words of consolation.
When he touched her to recall her attention, she shivered
violently, but gave no other sign of consciousness of his
presence.
" I am glad you are here, Mr. Fordham ^heartily re-
joiced and greatly relieved," said Dr. Winters, as Eoy at-
tended him down the stairs. " Your wife needs very deli-
cate and judicious treatment just now. Her whole
nervous system is unstrung. I saw it in her manner and
eye this forenoon. When the unnatural strain is relaxed,
she will break down completely, I am afraid."
Mr. Kirke died at midnight. He had noticed no one,
and said nothing since his feeble rejoinder to Dr. Baxter's
query whether the marriage should proceed, until half an
hour before lie breathed his last, those about him saw a
change in the face that, in stillness and beauty, resembled
a fine Greek mask. Jessie perceived it first; was quick
to take advantage of the tinge of color, the' tremor of
features.
" Papa I " she prayed, raising his head to a resting-place
on her arm. " Can you hear me ? .If you can, kiss me.''
240 JESSAMINE.
The stiff lips moved under the pressure of hers, and a
smile, ineffahle in radiance and tenderness, remained when
the kiss had been given.
" Ton do know me do yon not % " said his daughter,
breathlessly. " Who is it that is speaking to you \ "
All pr^ent heard the reply : ^
" Omevra ! "
CHAPTER XVIL
HE " breaking down " predicted by Dr. Winters,
took the form, not of hysterical emotion, as he had
anticipated, but of physical languor and spiritual
apathy, which were more alarming. Jessie moved,
spoke, and thought like one in a trance ; acquies-
cing in every proposal made by her sister and Eoy ;
obeying every request without demur or inquiry. If left
to herself she asked nothing except to be allowed to sit
or lie passive for hours together ; her great eyes closed or
blank ; her countenance set in the gloomy weariness that
had marked it from the moment her hand left her dead
father's forehead ^a look that said she had henceforward
I.
nothing to hope for or to fear.
Few husbands would have had tolerance with this ex-
cessive grief for the loss of a parent, however beloved,
and worthy of filial attachment. One might search far
and long without finding a man whose sympathy with the
demonstration of this would incite him to warmer love
243 JE88AMmE.
and fonder care for her, who, for the time, overlooked his
claim to supreme regard in her devotion to a memory.
" You could not mourn more bitterly for me ! " I once
heard a man say in impatient reproach, upon surprising
his wife in tears within a week after she had committed
an indulgent parent to the grave.
lie was a good man, and an afiFectionate husband, but he
could not endure the semblance of a divided allegiance.
Had Koy Fordham's love been of this sensitive and
exclusive type, it would have been chafed threadbare be-
fore the honeymoon was one-tenth wasted. The new bond
between them she ignored entirely ^not, it was evident, in
wilfulness or shyness, but because it had no place in her
thoughts; was a matter of no moment in comparison
with the event that steeped her whole being in despon-
dency. It was well that neither he, nor Eunice had any
knowledge of the continuous warfare of the summer, the
fiercer struggle of that early September day, the morrow
of which had brought a fresh sorrow in her father's ill-
ness. Had they comprehended all this, superadded to
their fears that her three weeks' watching and its finale
had seriously affected her nervous system, they would have
had small hope of the curative power of Nature and of
Love. She was, in reality, insane for the three days im-
mediately succeeding her marriage, if lack of feeling,
thought, and connected memory signify mental aberra-
tion. In after years, this period was almost a blank in
the retrospect, a confusing dissolving view that defied her
scrutiny. While it lasted it was a nightmare from which
she had not strength to awaken.
When she was led by Roy to take a last look at her
father's face as he lay in his cofiin ready to be transported
JESSAMINE. 243
to the church, her eyes were vacant and dry, her features
emotionless.
" He looks very natural I " she said slowlj'', like one
trying to recall the conventional phrase in such circum-
stances.
When Eunice bent weepingly to kiss the frozen lips
where still lingered the smile of ineffable peace with
which he had named his wife, Jessie eyed her with a
mixture of wonder and perplexity ; and remarking again,
" Very natural ! almost life-like ! " turned away, with the
air of one who had said and done all that could be required
of her.
In an agony of alarm, Roy sought Dr. "Winters, who
had called to inquire after the health of the family, and
to see if he could be of service in their affliction. Eunice
had taken charge of her sister at night, and reported that
what little sleep had visited the latter had been won by
the use of anodynes. Had the physician asked the
bridegroom a sedative, potent enough to induce slumber
for several hours, the after effect of which would not be
increased cerebral excitement ? Come what might, Jessie
must not witness the obsequies appointed for that fore-
noon. Her mind seemed, to him, to need but a touch to
complete its overthrow. While the two gentlemen held
counsel, Eunice entered with the welcome news that Jessie
had, on leaving the parlor where the remains lay, gone
voluntarily to her own -room she having shared her
sister's since their common bereavement thrown herself
upon the bed and fallen into a deep sleep.
The church-bell was not tolled for the pastor's funeral,
and a band of trusty yeomen, stationed fifty yards up and
down the road, prevented vehicles from approaching the
244 JESSAMUm.
gate of PaTBona^ or church-yard. The reason was qnieUy
disseminated, and the value of the precaution universally
admitted. Mingled with the teara that fell upon the bier
of the faithf al servant of QtD, were earnest prayers for
the restoration of health and reason to the daughter
" the people's " pride and pet as she had been his the
merry, popular " little Jessie," who was known to every
household in the parish. Many wistful eyes sought the
closed blinds, behind which she lay wrapped in death-
like slumber.
" The only hope for life and brain 1 " Dr. Winters had
pronounced, and the dictum was repeated far and near
with awed looks and subdued breath.
Within the manse, all was hushed and dark. Eunice
sat with the sleeper while the services at the church went
forward.
" Do not separate us this morning!" was her petition
to Eoy, who would have taken the post himself. " I have
nobody left but her 1"
She interpreted correctly the meaning of the imperfect
sounds that penetrated her seclusion the funeral psalm,
the dull tramp of many feet from the front to the back of
the church; the awful pause ^like no other upon earth
that told the coffin was sinking to its place the voice of
prayer the brief, reverent utterances with which the dear
dust was committed to the keeping of the Lord of Life,
through all the coming ages of Time then, the muffled
tumult of departure. She sat quiet until the end ; restrain-
ing sob and sigh that the beloved living should not be
disturbed ; staying her heart upon the Father of the
fatherless, the God whose goodness the expiring saint
had charged his children never to forget.
JESSAMnfE. 245
Koy relieved her as soon as the services were over.
" Thank you " he said, kissing her with a brother's fond
sympathy. " Go now, and leave her to me. I will call
you, should you be needed."
Alternately, and in company, they watched her until
Dr. Winters' third visit that day brought hope that was
confidence to their tried souls.
" If she sleep, she shall do well 1 " said Dr. Baxter,
when Eoy carried the glad tidings to hira, that the
stupor had changed to natural slumber. He was sit-
ting in the window of Mr. Kirke's study ; for a wonder,
without book or paper before him, but absorbed in con-
templation of the mountain scenery.
" You are wearing yourself out," he added, observing
that Roy's complexion, tanned by the sea- voyage, was fast
regaining its natural hue, and that his eyes bore evidence
of grief and anxiety. " Jessie is safe in her sister's care,
and while she sleeps cannot miss you. Bide here a bit
with me " ^he often relapsed into the Scotch dialect
"and refresh yourself by a survey of this picture. I
must quit you all to-morrow, and I would have a few
words with you before I go."
Jessie was alone when she awoke. Eunice had been
called to the parlor to see a parishioner from the other
side of the mountain who had not heard of Mr. Kirke's
decease until that morning, had ridden twenty miles to
attend the funeral, and arrived too late. Eunice had
been too long the obedient servant of the congregation to
hesitate as to the course she should pursue in the dilemma.
Jessie slept soundly and peacefully, and Eoy would be
back soon. She closed the door noiselessly, and obeyed
the summons of her father's friend.
246 JBSaAMINB.
Sammer zephyrs were coquetting with the sombre pine-
branches ; summer-scents were stealing up to Jessie's
windows from the garden. To such wooing whispers and
goodly odors had she awakened many mornings during
many yeara. She mistook the colored light visible
through the shutters for dawn ; marvelled sleepily that
her limbs ached and her head was weary.
" It must be time to get up 1 " she meditated, 'twixt
sleeping and waking. " Yet I am not rested. I have
not heard Eunice or Patsey go downstairs."
In tossing her arm up to pillow her head for a second
nap, she saw lier sleeve. How had she happened to fall
asleep without undressing ? She sat upright, and tried to
remember when and how she had gone to bed overnight.
How queerly her head felt !
"As if it had been dead and was coming to life
again 1 " was her simile.
She was at home, and in her own room ; everything
about her was in its usual order. Yet something had
happened. What was it ? A Bible lay on the stand by
the bed. Between the leaves was a handkerchief. She
drew it out, and saw Eunice's name in the corner. How
came it there ? Had Eunice sat with her, last evening ?
If so, why ? Her feet were oddly numb when she stood
up; she was weak and dizzy as from illness or fasting;
but she walked to the door, opened it, and hearkened
for movements upon the lower floor. It was so quiet,
she heard the droning of a humming-bird moth which
had come to look for untimely blossoms in the honey-
suckle draping the hall-window. Another sound, alufiost
as monotonous, blended with this the steady flow of a
man's voice talking or reading in the study. Who was
JESSAMINE, 247
her father's guest? And what hour of day was it I It
must be morning, since she had just awakened, yet looked
and felt like evening.
A draught from the open door she had left blew
that opposite slightly ajar. Surely, that was Dr. Baxter's
Toiee! Had she dreamed of his arrival! A fearful
dream, the dim recollection of which made her sick and
faint ? Sinking to a settee that stood outside the study-
door, seeking to stimulate her half -dead brain by rubbing
her temples hard, she endeavored to gather the meaning
of what Dr. Baxter was saying. He was in the middle
of one of the monologues which were sometimes a bore ;
sometimes a delight. A gleam of amusement flitted over
the wan, vacant visage of the eavesdropper as she pictured
to herself still as if she were somebody else and not
Jessie Kirke the knotted handkerchief she doubted not
was on active duty.
" Is it consistent with the Divine economy for an im-
mortal being to spend twenty-five, fifty, threescore and
ten years, in the acquisition of knowledge and expe-
rience for which he is to have no use in the world to
come ? Believe me, they are in grievous error, denying
themselves the abundant consolations which the hope of
a continued and eternal existence should bring, who
overlook the plain teachings of the word and the almost
divine intuitions of the human soul on this question. The
Future Life ! What is it but the stretching into regions
yet unknown to us, into the Eternity of which we have
but imperfect conceptions, of the life which now is ? the
Present, which is the journey toward the continuing
City? Into that state we shall, it is true, be born as
spiritual babes. But not idiots! As the instincts and
248 JESSAMTim.
actions of the babe prefigure the disposition and appetites
of the man, so the habits of thought and feeling, the
inclinations and aspirations of the newly disembodied
spirit will bear a certain relation to that which it will
at length become the perfect man in Christ Jesus. As
hereditary taints and hereditary virtues are reproduced
in the mortal babe, we shall find definite traces of our
earthly individuality in the heavenly nurseling. And
that the proportion which the loftiest attainm^its of the
profoundest philosopher will bear to the infancy of this
celestial creature will be less ^far less than that which
the mere instincts of the earthly infant bear to the wisdom
and strength of the adult, I also believe. We shall have
to begin with the rudiments of infinite knowledge. But
we shall have Eternity in which to learn."
Jessie still chafed her forehead, where wrinkles of
pained pei^plexity gathered and deepened, as she tried to
put word to word and sentence to sentence. She lost
what came next in vainly attempting to get the sense of
these last sentences. Perhaps she should understand
better when she was quite awake.
" Such proportion as the seed sustains to the mature
plant, the ovum to the living, moving creature, you vrill tell
me " Dr. Baxter was saying, when she again lent atten-
tion to his dissertation. " I grant it. But like produces
like in vegetable and animal generation, and why deny
the spiritual analogy? What we call Death is but the
threshold and a narrow one separating the vestibule
from the temple. It is all one building the Life which
God has given. When 1 cast off the cumbrous shell I
have borne so long that I foolishly fancy it is myself a,
part of my being without which I should be naked, shiv-
JESSAMnfE, 249
pring, and helpless ; when it slips from my soul by reason
of its own weight and rottenness, I shall enter upon no
new existence. It will be / still not a different crea-
tion. For a moment, perhaps, I may not know what has
happened. Thus, I have seen a butterfly trembling with
the strangeness of his position, clinging with damp, un-
tried wings to the bough that supports the little pendant
coffin, now broken from which he has just crept. A
delicious sense of liberty and space there may be as one
breathes more freely in leaving a close room for the
outer air. I shall miss the incubus of the body, and the
fleshly desires I have sloughed off with it. Then will
dawn upon me gradually as I have strength to bear the
revelation, that I have passed ! Not been made over, mark
youl We are nowhere taught that regeneration is a post-
humous experience. ^ He is gone 1 ' soi^e one will say.
And perhaps another ^ He is dead ! '
" Dead ! I tell you, my friend, I shall be the livest
man in that rooml Not until that hour of glorious
emancipation shall I know what life is 1 "
There was an interval of stillness. Jessie had staggered
to her feet. Her eyes, no longer blank, were dilated with
intensest and eager inquiry. What did it signify this
talk of death and the life to econe ? Who was the spealc-
er's companion % Her father % Oh, why did he not speak ?
Another voice, deeper and sweeter, made reverent re-
sponse :
" Thanks be to God, for His unspeakable gift ! "
She flung the door widely open ; faced the astonished
men with the demand, shrieked, rather than spoken :
" Where is he % He said that ! my father 1 Where is
he Tiow f "
11*
250 JESSAMINE.
" Jessie, love I "
Boy caught her in his arms, bat she poshed him from
her.
"I will know I 1 am gomg mad! Where is my
father?"
Dr. Baxter secured her fluttering hands ; looked stead-
fastly, yet not sternly, into her eyes.
" He may be Jiere^ my child I We cannot tell. Be
sure he remembers and loves you still, he, who, while in
the flesh, held yon so dear. Believe this and be still
under the mighty but loving hand of Ood 1 "
Her head sank upon his shoulder.
" You would not deceive me ! You are a good man,
and speak the truth always ! " she sobbed, excitedly. ^^ Is
my father reaUy dead 1 Oh, I remember it all now ! "
With the resuscitation of the torpid intellect, came a
flood of tears, mingled with anguished exclamations an
hysterical attack that only abated with her strength.
By nine o'clock she was asleep, exhausted, but free from
fever and the nervous spasms that had made the seizure
alarming at first The danger was tided over, for the
presiBnt, and ere the rest separated for the night, Dr.
Baxter returned thanks for "the aignal deliverance,"
kneeling between the husband and sister ; besought com-
fort and peace for the smitten household in fervent,
affectionate words, which showed that however his
thought might stray from the subjects to which his ac-
quaintances would hold him, his heart was always in the
right place.
" I cannot thank you as I should for all you have been
to us all you have done for us 1 " said Eunice, as they
talked of the morrow's parting.
JESSAMINE. 261
" Do not, my dear 1 The privilege and the gratitude
have been and are mine. Gop sent me to you. 1 bless
Himforitl",
It was after sunrise when Jessie unclosed her eyes.
Eunice's chair was still by her pillow, but it was empty.
Her mind was clear. She had no diflSculty in recalling
how the gentle hands had laid her to sleep ; the mellow
voice read to her from The Book " A prayer of tlie af-
flicted, when he poureth out his heart before God."
Dear Eunice 1 her love tried as it had been by her per-
versity and reserve, her late violent and selfisli distress
was more precious than ever before. She would arise
, and share, if she could not lighten, her labors and her bur-
dens. As she sat up in bed, she espied upon a lounge
near by, a gentleman's dressing-gown. The blood sprang
to her cheeks in a burning torrent, for the truth flashed
instantly upon her. Roy had asserted his right to the
exclusive guardianship of his wife ; had sent the weary
sister to take the rest she needed, and himself kept watch
over her through the night. There came to her no soft-
ening thought of the anxious affection that had held his
eyes waking while othei-s slept She was only angry
desperately indignant that he had dared sit there and
watch her without her knowledge or consent. The blind,
mad moment passed, she stood, for many more white as
death thinking I Then she locked the door. Eoy
might enter at any instant, or'Eunice glide in to ask how
she was, and she must be alone while she thought it all
out! No mortal eye witnessed the fight of the next
hour. The woman ^tom and dashed by a legion of pas-
sions ^verily believed, while they had the mastery, that
she would not survive it She never told the tale of her
252 JESBAMINE.
hurts to her dearest eaitbly friend/ It was something
she would not renew by relating, even when time had
almost worn away the scars.
She was made of sterner stuff than she knew. Ere she
quitted her chamber, her resolution was taken^ every
trace of the strife put out of sight. She had ^^ light
enough to see the next step." If she were bound for
life against her will and conscience, Eoy was basely
wronged and through no fault he had committed against
her. If her course were to be joyless ^a strait and rough
path, his was no smoother or more delightsome. Kecom-
pense him for what she had lost for him, she could not,
but she could and she would appear dutiful and resigned.
Fordham coming in from the brisk walk in tlie early
morning air by which he had tried to make up for his
vigil, found her in the parlor, aiTanging the books upon
bracket-shelves and dusting the rare old china bowl and
vases which the sisters let no one but themselves handle.
Her breakfast-toilette had been carefully made, contrast-
ing strikingly with yesterday's nigUge. Her rich hair
was braided as she used to wear it, and banded with
black ribbon ; her white cambric dress was belted with
the same, and loops of narrower hung from her mourning
brooch. She comprehended all that had hajipened within
the week ; accepted the expediencies and proprieties of
her position with its soitows and duties, and he honored
her for it. Her attire showed that she consulted his
taste, wished to be fair in his eyes, and for this he loved
her better than ever, if that could be. He did not know
it, but the woman he had wedded never, in her previous'
or subsequent life, gave another equal proof of strength
of mind and purpose, as when, physically faint and
JESSAMINE. . 253
mentally distraught by the frightful ordeals she had
already sustained, she lifted this, the heaviest cross of
all, and adjusted it to her shoulders for a lifelong
journey.
The greeting between them was affectionate on his
side grave upon hers very quiet on both, as befitted
the circumstances of the household.
*' Ah, Jessie, darling ! I am glad you are well enough
to be down stairs 1 But are you not exerting yourself too
much ? " he exclaimed at his entrance.
And " I am much better, thank jou 1 entirely able
to be about as usual," was the reply, uttered without the
flicker of a blush.
Then he kissed the cheek that was neither averted nor
offered.
Dr. Baxter and Eunice appearing, a minute afterward,
saw nothing amiss. There may have been nothing, yet
the young husband had looked for a different reception
now that his Jessie was declared to be " quite herself
again."
He was a patient man and a considerate, and the secret
disappointment was condemned as soon as recognized.
This was not the time for love-making or this was
clearly Jessie's feeling. To oppose her scruple while her
grief was so fresh and her nerves unsettled, would be
persecution. She deserved all grace and indulgence at
his hands, and she should have it. Their life as tJieira
was all before them. He would be a help not an em-
barrassment, to the orphans. Jessie loved himl Jessie
was his wife 1 That was enough !
CHAPTER XVIII.
JilOY FORDHAM remained ten days longer in
^' Dundee in consequence of an arrangement made
by Ills brother professors by which they divided
his duties among them, Dr. Baxter, whose par-
tiality for him was proverbial, taking a double
share upon himself. The furlough was not accepted by
him without misgivings. He felt that he ought to be in
his place at the beginning of the college session, and that
to avail himself further of the generous kindness of
trustees and faculty, after a year's absence, was an abuse
of the same. Dr. Baxter wrote him two strong, short
letters to refute this idea, and he found additional solace
for his conscience in the discovery that he was needed by
the sisters. Eunice and he were joint executors of Mr.
Kirke's small property. To Jessie were left her mother's
dowry with the accumulated interest ; her mother's picture,
and certain articles of jewelry, dress, and furniture, which
had been hers. Everything else was Eunice's sl portion
JESSAMINE. 255
that did not nearly equal her sister's, but with which she
was more than content. The settlement of the estate
was easily accomplished. The just man had no debts,
and the few legal papers needful to secure the title of
his possessions to his children were in perfect order.
At the end of a week the only open question was that
of Eunice's residence. Eoy had engaged a house in
Hamilton, and was urgent in his desire that she should
live with Jessie and himself. The conscientious elder
sister hesitated in the knowledge that her income would
not support her in like comfort anywhere else.
" My inclination leads me to follow Jessie," she con-
fessed to her brother-in-law. "My sense of duty to my-
self and to you makes me doubt the propriety and justice
of living in comparative idleness, when, if I had not the
shelter of your roof, I must work to eke out a main-
tenance."
Which quibble Roy pronounced absurd and far-
fetched.
"Quite unworthy of sensible Eunice 1 To say nothing
of the manifest unkindness to our poor girl here," he said,
as his wife entered the room where he was sitting.
" Come here, Love, and convince this unreasonable and
sceptical woman that she is indispensable to our happi-
ness."
Jessie yielded passively to the arm that drew her to his
knee.
" What is it ? " she asked, listlessly.
Koy gave an abstract of the situation.
She looked confused uncertain whether she had heard
him aright. It was an effort to understand anything,
sometimes. Eoy and Eunice glanced from her to one
256 JESSAMINE,
another. They saw that dazed look, heard her stammer
of tener than either liked ; dreaded nothing else so much
as they did the repetition of the scenes attending their
father's demise and burial.
" Of course she will live with me with ns, wherever
we go 1 '' she rejoined. " Unless you object " to Roy.
" But I was under the impression that you wished it,
that the matter was definitely arranged."
" It is, now ! '' said Roy confidently, and Eunice did not
dispute it.
There was a clear, more constant light in her eye, now
that the responsibility of the decision was removed from
her, and the step determined upon without her vote. The
prospect of separation from her sister was very painful,
and there were other reasons wliy Hamilton should be a
pleasant home to them all. This was her representation
of the case to herself and to the friends who lamented
losing her.
" Mourning is veiy becoming to Miss Kirke ! '^ was
the usual remark of these visitors upon leaving the Par-
sonage.
And " She is really a most lovely woman. What will
the congregation do without her ? "
Roy was to leave them for a fortnight, to attend to his
classes, and forward the preparations for the reception of
his bride. When all was ready for their removal, he
would return to superintend the sale of furniture, stock,
etc, then take the sisters back to town with him.
" My family I " he said, in forced gayety, on the morn-
ing of his departure. " I assure you, my consequence iu
my own eyes is mightily augmented by the acquisition
of my new honors."
JESSAMINE, 257
Eunice called up one of her slow, bright smiles in
acknowledgment. Jessie appeared to heed the com-
pliment as little as she did the parting, that drew tears
from her sister^s eyes and choked Eoy's farewell direc-
tions as to the care she must take of herself while he was
away.
" I shall write to you every day, my sweet wife," he
promised. " And it will not harm you it may help you
to while away the time, if you can scribble a few lines to
me in return, now and then."
" If I can I will. If you wish it I will write certainly.
Bnt don't expect to hear every day from me. There's
very little here to write about, you know," answered
Jessie.
Eunice wondered, to reverent admiration, at the love
and forbearance with which he thanked her for the con-
cession.
They attended him to the porch. The morning was
foggy, and Roy put Jessie back in the shelter of the hall-
door.
" It is too damp for you out here 1 Don't stand there
to see me off ! " ^
Eunice maybe he would have been better satisfied
had she disregarded the loving command. As it was,
when he waved his hand from the carriage-door, Eunice
stood alone in the doorway. Yet she was sure Jessie did
not mean to be ungracious ; that she was not really insenr
sible to the devotion of the husband of her choice ; that
but for the stay of his presence she must have gone mad
or died in her overwhelming grief. What she mistook for
unwif elike reserve was an incessant effort to control her-
self, to play the woman and not the child. It was best
258 JBSaAMmE.
not to interfere even so far as to hint that Eoy's kindest
schemes for her comfort and pleasure as often as not
were imnoticed by verbal thanks or grateful look from
her whom he aimed to benefit As Jessie's interest in the
outer world and passing events i*evived, this blemisli would
vanish. Older people, who had known more of the disci-
pline of life, had fallen into the mistake of idolizing their
sorrows while they were new.
The sisters were at tea on the third day of Mr. Ford-
ham's absence, when a letter was brought to Jessie.
" From Roy !" she said, quietly, and laid it down by
her plate until the meal was finished, Eunice hurrying
through hers in the belief that the wife wished to be alone
when she read it.
Instead of this, Jessie broke the seal, and read the four
closely written pages by the lamp upon the supper-table,
while her sister washed the silver and china in the same
little cedar-wood pail, with shining brass hoops, her
mother had used for this purpose a quarter of a centuiy
before. Eunice was inclined to be scrupulous in the
matters of extreme cleanliness and system in housekeep-
ing, and neatness and fitness of apparel ; and had other
and quaint, but never unpleasant, peculiarities that leaned
toward what the vulgar and unappreciative style " old-
maidism." But she was a bonny picture to behold to-
night, her black dress setting off her fairness to exquisite
advantage ; her features chastened into purer outline and
a softer serenity by sorrow ; her eyes more beautiful for
the shadows that had darkened them.
She was younger in appearance and feeling than her
companion, who scanned, without change of expression
and complexion, the love-words that had streamed, a
JESSAMINE. 259
strong, living tide, fi'om the writer's heart. She read it
all, from address to signature ; then handed it to her sis-
ter, who had jnst summoned Patsey to remove the hot
water and towels.
"There are several messages to you in it," she said,
languidly. " You can read them for yourself."
Eunice drew back.
" I don't think he meant it for any eyes but yours, dear.
Tell me what he says to me."
" I should have to go all over it again in order to do
that," returned Jessie. " They are scattered sentences
business items and the like. You may look for them at
your leisure. I shall leave the letter upon the table
here,"
She put it down under her lamp, and turned her chair
to the fire.
This was their sitting-room, now that the two, with
Pntsey, composed the household. By tacit consent, they
avoided the parlor, as recalling too vividly the gatherings
and the happiness of other days. Jessie had leaned back
in her cushioned seat, staring, in a blank, purposeless way,
at the fire for five minutes or more, when Eunige took her
place with her work-box on the other side of the hearth.
" You insist, then, that I shall read your love-letter ? "
she asked, pleasantly.
Faithful to her promise to Eoy to do all in her power
for the restoration of Jessie's native cheerfulness, she
compelled herself to wear a tranquil countenance in her
sight, to speak hopefully, and, when she could, brightly,
in addressing her.
Jessie neither smiled nor frowned. She looked sim-
ply and wearily indiflferent.
260 JESSAMINS,
"If you please," she said, without withdrawing her
eyes from the blazing logs.
Eunice skimmed the fii'st three pages curaorily, on the
watch for any mention of her own name, beset, all the
while, by the idea that her act in opening the letter at all
bordered upon profanation, and affected almost to teai-s
by stray sentences she could not avoid seeing, eloquent of
the young husband's tender compassion for his loved one,
his longings to be with her, and fond prognostications of
the peace and joy of their future life.
At the top of the fourth page, a passage seemed to
dart up at her from the sheet, and, leaping into view, to
be chansced into characters of red-hot flame :
" AVhat a discreet little woman you are, never to liint to
me your knowledge of Orrin's engagement I The com-
munication took me completely by surprise. lie would
scarcely believe that you had not told me ; said that he
went down to Dundee on purpose to impart to you the
agreeable and important secret. The marriage is fixed
for December. I always prophesied that he would marry
in haste when he had once selected the lady, whom I am
extremely curious to meet. He has floated from flower
to flower so long that his selection ought to be worth see-
ing. You know her, he tells me. I shall expect a full-
length description of her done in your finest style, when
I return. I own 1 should be better satisfied tliat he is to
be made as happy as I would have him, if Miss Sanford
were not an heiress. While we you and I and others
who know him well, will never suspect him of selling
himself for money, the above fact may give occasion for
scandal-mongers to rave and exult. The father of the
bride-elect is in town. I met him on the street to-day
JE88AMnrSL 261
with Orrin. Rumor has it that his business here is to
purchase the new house opposite Judge Provost's, as a
residence for the happy pair. It will be a handsome
home, but I hope and believe that we shall be as content
with our love-nest of a cottage."
Jessie did not look around as her sister refolded the
letter, tucked it into the envelope, and laid it upon the
table. But while each believed herself to be separated
from the other by a fathomless gulf of memories, every
one of which was an anguish, both were pondering the
' same section of the epistle that lay between them. The
announcement of Wyllys' approaching marriage was, in
itself, nothing to the wife. The thought of it had lost
the power to wound when she parted with her faith in
him. The wrong he had done her could never be for-
given; he had misled her purposely; deceived her cruelly ;
had robbed her life of love and hope, and given her self-
contempt and remorse in their stead. But she did not
regret him as she now knew him to be or linger fondly
npon recollections of their by-gone intimacy. Hester
Sanford was welcome to the suitor her gold had
bought.
The phrases that had found a sentient spot in her breast
were tliese : " Whom I am extremely curious to meet."
" I shall expect a full-length description of her." The
apathetic misery which had locked brain and heart with
fetters of ice since her father's death had not rendered
her totally unmindful of her husband's long-suffering and
gentleness, his unselfish love and care of herself. She
was persuaded that the girlish passion that had made of
him a demi-god was gone forever. Her flesh fainted,
and her spirit died within her, at the caresses to which
262 JBSSAMINIS.
Bhe had tnraed herself in the days of her idolatry, as
roses open to the sun as innocently and as natorally.
She conld never love again. The fires had scathed too
deeply for that ; but she had begun to believe that she
might find comfort in esteeming and liking her only pro-"
tector; might seek, and not in vain, in a calm, true
friendship for this good man, forgetfulness of the storms
that had wrecked her early dreams. In his frank and
noble presence suspicion stood rebuked. It was easier to
discredit the evidence of one's own senses and judgment,
than to doubt his integrity.
But here was a deliberate deception. He ^Eoy Ford-
ham had known Hester Sanford before she Jessie
ever saw her. She was the intimate associate and confi-
dante of his former love; of the woman he had re-
nounced heartlessly and without compunction, and
whose name had never passed his lips in his wife's hear-
ing. She recalled faithfully Hester's account of the call
" Maria " had paid with her then betrothed at Mr. San-
ford's house a statement she would not have dared to
make, had it been gronndless. Whence this affectation
of ignorance, on Fordham's part, of the person and char-
acter of his cousin's intended bride, if not as a further
means of keeping the knowledge of the affair from her f
" To whom.it should have been told, more than a year
ago!" she reflected, a dreary loneliness creeping over
her, with the conclusion " He is like the rest of them 1
I would have believed in him if I could I "
The door shut quietly. She did not hear it, or miss
her sister from her place. It was not an uncommon oc-
currence for them to sit together without speaking, for
an hour at a time, Eunice's fingers busied widi some arti-
JESSAMINE, 263
cle of useful needlework, Jessie's holding a book which
slie pretended to read as a cover for her grieflFiil musings.
Much less was it in the imagination of the younger sister
to^follow the elder in lier progress up the staircase, her
face more stony and eyes more desolate with each stepj
to the fair, large chamber she had occupied from her
childhood.
It was cold and dark, but for the light of the taper she
set down upon the mantel. There were none of the
fanciful ormaments, none of the luxurious devices, the
patches of bright coloring that reflected the owner's tastes
and whims in Jessie's apartment. All thfe draperies
those of the windows, the dressing-table, and the antique
chairs, were pure white, as were also the walls. The
carpet was a sober drab, checkered with narrow lines of
blue. The aspect of the whole was so chill and grave
on this bleak night, that Eunice shivei*ed as at the breath
of winter, as she drew up a seat to a stand in the middle
of the floor, and leaned her head upon the hard wood.
Not a tear or word escaped her, but a deft and an invisi-
ble engraver was at work upon her features, sharpening
outlines, deepening here a stroke and there a furrow,
until the father would not have known his child.
I said, many pages back, that Orrin Wyllys' victims
made no moan. Least of them all, was this gne likely to
publish her case to the world, to shriek out her great
and sudden woe in the ear of heaven and of her kind.
She had never loved before she met him, and the dis-
covery of this curious fact had stimulated his professional
zeal animated his pride in the honor and success of his
vocation. He had found the key to her heart, and had
used it. Love is no holiday romance when it comes thus
264 JESSAMINE.
late in life to a woman of large capacity for affection,
and a will, the strength of which has hitherto made the
repression of such seeking instincts and needs as win for
weaker girls the reputation of lovingness and dependence,
appear even to those who know her best like tranquil
contentment with her allotted share of love and compan-
ionship. She had heard herself called, " a predestined
old maid," ever since her mother left her, a demure
infant, apt and serious beyond her yearfr~to become her
father's co-work6r and comforter. Her calm smile at
the nickname looked like conscious superiority to dread
of the obloquy ^a fear that infects all classes of her sex.
Her love was as reticent as her longing for affection had
been. Orrin's most insidious arts had not suificed to sur-
prise her into confession. Of marriage he had never
spoken, nor she permitted herself to think. Her attach-
ment was artless and uncalculating as a child's. He had
convinced her that the subtle sympathy of their souls
had made them one from their earliest meeting ; that he
had then i*ecognized in her his spirit-mate. The seduc-
tive cant came trippingly from his tongue with the fluent
convincingness of much practice, and she was listening
to it for the first time. His dual game was adroitly
conducted, and the result was a triumphant cap-sheaf to
his harvest of hearts. His bride-expectant would have
torn her flaxen hair natural and artificial with rage
had she guessed how tame he found ^is pursuit of her-
self ; how deficient in the flavor of excitement that had
marked his courtship of the beautiful but fortuneless
country girls.
The hall-clock rang out nine strokes when Eunice
shook off her reverie, and unlocked a drawer of her
JESSAMINE. 265
bureau. It was lined with silver paper, and the odor of
dried violets stole into the still, cold air when she opened
it. A bunch of withered flowers; a small herbarium
filled by Wyllys and herself in their woodland and
mountain rambles, ^the vignette on the title-page, from
his pencil ; all the inscriptions, names of specimens, and
pbetical legends, penned by his hand; a thin bundle
of letters and notes; five or six books ^favorite works
with both of them composed the contents. She took
them out carefully, one by one, and laid them in a heap
upon the table. Then, she sought in the closet for a wal-
nut box, one of her childhood's treasures, an oblong
casket with a sliding top and a strong lock. Without
audible evidence of suffering, she arranged the relics
within it, with the nice regard to neatness and order
which was, with her, intuitive as it had become habitual.
The last article was a volume of Spenser's "Faerie
Queene '^ an English edition elegantly illustrated. Wyl-
lys had sent it to her, the Christmas Jessie passed with
Mrs. Baxter. His pencillings were upon several pages,
^d one of the fly-leaves bore an extract from Tennyson.
He had apologized for transcribing it, there, in the letter
accompanying the gift, by saying that it was ever in his
mind, when he watched or talked with hei*. No eyes
save his and hers had ever seen the lines as written upon
that page, and they were the more precious to her that
this was so.
Eyes not down-dropt, nor oyer-bright) but fed
With the clear-pointed flame of chastity ;
Clear without heat, tmdying, tended by
Pure vestal thoughts in the translucent fane
Of her BtiU spirit ; locks (not wide-dispread)
Madonna-wise on either side her head ;
12
266 JESSAMINE.
Sweet lipe, whereon p^zxwtoally did idgn
The Bommer calm of golden charily,
Were fixed shadows of thj fixed mood.
She unclosed the book and re-read them before con-
' signing it to its place. How vividly arose before her the
scene of that Christmas Eve, when tiie parcel was brought
to herl Her father always spent the evening of the
twenty-fourth of December in his study and fasting. It
was an anniversary with him ; scrupulously observed for
many years, of what event or crisis in his life his daugh-
ters never knew. Eunice had made her preparations for
a lonely evening by her chamber-fire; collected her
books and work about her that s,he might not feel too
sadly the want of human converse. But she had touched
none of these ; was sitting, her head on her hand, gazing
into the fire, hearkening to the wind as it flung fierce
dashes, of sleet against the windows, and longing, how
hungrily I for some visible evidcnce^that she was remem-
bered and missed by another, as she thought of and missed
him. Into her solitude had come his gift and letter, and
the night was all light about her ; the world was no more
dark and cold and tempestuous. She walked in Paradise,
hand in hand with the good genius who had wrought the
spell.
The idealistic character of woman's love is at once her
blessing and her curse. Orrin Wyllys, at that hour danc-
ing at a Christmas rout, the gayestof the season, looking
meaning but unuttered flatteries into other eyes ; feign-
ing as he best could feign to wait as for the sentence
of life and death, upon other " sweet lips," would have
laughed in unmixed amusement had he seen, in a magic
mirror, the representment of himself before which a pure,
UKS.
JESSAMINE. 267
fervent soul was laying votive offerings of her best
affections and richest fancies; to which she.was looking
np as to the highest of human intelligences, the embodi-
ment of manhood's virtues and graces. While to her the
delusion was happiness without stain or shade, wliile it
lasted.
It was over nowl Eetuming from the pursuit of
these shadows dearer and fairer than any real joy and
positive delight that would ever visit her solitary life,
she let the leaves of the book she still held unfurl slowly
under her fingers, reading a line here, a paragraph there,
always those marked by the hand that must never meet
hers again with the lingering touch which said more than
the most impassioned words from other tongues. A blue
ribbon was inserted at one place, where a passage was
encircled by pencilled brackets, while in the margin was
written, " E. K."
Her angePs face
As the great eye .of heayen slunM bright,
'And made a sonshme in a shady place.
Eunice shut her eyes in a throe of memory that
ploughed deep pain-lines in her visage. Hell may keep,
but earth has not a keener torment than the contempla-
tion of what was once sweetest joy, ^now changed into
shameful agony.
The book had fallen to the floor and lay still open at
the page marked by the ribbon. In picking it up, her
eye rested upon another line unmarked.
At last, in dose heart shntting np her pain.
The rest of Eunice Elirke's life was a commentary upon
that passage.
268 JEBSAMmB.
The travail of concealment began when she turned the
lock upon .the mementos few and innocent of her
only love-dream. Hitherto, it had been a pearl, too price-
less and pare to be exposed to other eyes.
Defaced and crushed by one rude blow, it was some-
thing to be thrust out of sight, kept beyond the chance
of suspicion or detection buried in a nameless grave.
The key of the casket was a tiny thing, at which she
looked for an instant in irresolution that ended in her
raising the window, and flinging it far into the garden.
The rain would soon beat it into the loose mould. It
would be rusted into uselessness before the spring plough-
share brought it again to the surface. Upon the lid of
the box she fastened a card.
" To he hv/nied vnth m^," she wrote upon it with fin-
gers that did not tremble.
The grave seems near and welcome in the ague-fit that
shakes the soul from the divine illusion of reciprocal
affection. There was not a symptom of sickly sentimen-
talism in Eunice's nature ; but she did feel that she could
have said farewell to existence and the few she loved,
with less effort than was required to dress her counte-
nance in its wonted serenity, and go back to her sister ; to
speak and act as if a thunderbolt had not riven the
ground at her feet ; to consult her rustic and unobserv-
ant handmaid about homely details of the morrow's house-
keeping. Confirmations all of them of the stabbom
fact that the business of life ^its tug and sweat and
strain, halts not for broken heart-strings.
If the iron be blunt, a man must lay to it more strength.
If the spirit refuse to bear its part in the appointed work
of the hour, or day, or life, the muscles and brain must
JESSAMINE.
269
be educated to perform double duty. This toiling and
reeking at the galley-onr may bring power to the sinews,
and hardness to the flesh, but woe to him by whose
offence the burden is bound upon the guiltless I
CHAPTER XIX.
ta third Sabbath in October was bland and bright
as Jnne. Koy, who had arrived in Dundee on
Saturday evening, invited his wife to a stroll in the
garden with him after the dispersion of the after-
noon congregation. There were more sere than
green leaves in the rose labyrinth, but one side of the
arbor was covered by a thrifty micra phylia that had
been known to keep its foliage from Autumn to Spring
when the winter was not severe, and which had put
forth, within a week, a few large milk-white roses,
warmed into delicious fragrance by the sunny day.
" Sweets to the sweet 1 " said Eoy, cutting a half -open
blossom and a bud, and fastening them in Jessie's
brooch. " I wish they did not match your cheeks so
nearly, Love 1 "
She smiled faintly:
" I am gaining strength rapidly. There is nothing the
matter with me, except that I have not enough to do to
JESSAMINE. 271
keep me from moping. There is one thing yon must let
me speak of while Eunice is not by," she continued,
hurriedly. " I may not have appeared grateful for your
permission to remain here until her arrangements about
the school are completed, but I am thankful ! I feel your
goodness ^your generosity, deeply 1 I wish I were more
worthy of it I"
Unconsciously, she had laid hold of the lappel of his coat,
and was fingering it nervously. Then a girlish trick
she used to practise when coaxing or bantering her
father, andj occasionally, when talking saucily with him- *
self she began with deliberate fingers to button the
coat from the throat down. " Making a mumniy of me,
Madcap I " was the allitei*ative comment Mr. Kirke usually
made when the process was finished. Boy recollected it
now, and smiled to himself. The action her first
voluntary caress since his return from abroad, thrilled
him* with ecstasy. Her downcast eyes and trembling
lips recalled, in one rapturous rush, thoughts of the shy
dalliance of the girl he had wooed amid these bowers.
He was winning her back to her true self, or, rather,
nature and affection were recovering from the lethargy
induced by the shock she had sustained.
" My wife must never speak to me of gratitude I " he
said, restraining the psean the heart would hav sung
through the lips. " Your happiness should be if I know
myself is my chief consideration. Much as I regret
Eunice's refusal to share our dwelling, I should be savage
in my unkijidness if I were to add to your disappoint-
ment by denying your request that you might be left
together a week or two longer. Nor do I wish to punish
her, or, in any manner, express my chagrin at her de-
272 JBB8AMINB.
termination. She is actuated by motives which are
weighty in her estimation. The sight of her glistening
eyes when I told her, this morning, that you were not
to be separated while she remained in the Parsonage,
went far toward compensating me for my self-denial.
By and by, my bird will nestle in my bosom, settle her-
self in our home. The knowledge that you are, indeed
and in truth, mine, dear one, renders me patient, almost
satisfied, in your absence. If I say hourly, in the
thought of your coming to and dwelling with me
^ God speed the day ! ' die aspiration does not incline
me to force your inclination, to withhold from you a
reasonable indulgence, that I may see you the sooner in
your right place. I would be your husband not your
jailor, my pet 1 "
It was impossible to look into his moved face ; to hear
the cadence of passion and yearning that trembled along
the last sentences, and not believe that, whatever might
be the record of his past loves and defections, his whole
heart was now given to her who bore his name. The
listener's paroxysm of humility bowed her in spirit to his
feet. He was heaping burning coals upon her shamed
head.
"And God make me fit for that homel" she said,
solemnly, lifted in the exaltation of high resolve above
the mental apathy and physical repulsion which had, up
to this hour, made this enforced union an ever-present
nightmare. " Indeed, Eoy, I will strive to be a good
wifel I have nothing to live for except the hope of
making you happy. You know what I am, weak and
faulty a spoiled child from the beginning, to whom
everything like discipline was unknown imtil lately.
JESSAMINE. 273
And then one stroke followed another so rapidly that I
have hardly been sane, I think. But I do want to satisfy
you in every respect, or so far as one like me can 1 "
" ' So far as you can ! ' " kis whole soul in the eyes that
beamed into hers, and in the sweet, proud smile irradiat-
ing his grave features. " The work is done, dearest !
My cup runneth over. It will scarcely bear a rose-leaf
this evening, only this seal of our renewed covenant,
my angel of blessing, my good, true wife! " bending to
kiss her.
He remembered afterward, how she clung to his
shoulder and hid her face there, when he placed her be-
side him on the bench in the arbor, where they sat out
the half -hour of sunset as they had so many others in
days gone by.
Eunice, seated behind the tea-urn when they obeyed
Patsey's summons to supper, noted the lessened gloom of
her sister's mien and Roy's expression of radiant content ;
saw, when they gathered about the hearth for the even-
ing's talk, that Eoy took in his clasp the hand which
generally lay listlessly across its fellow in Jessie's lap,
and that she allowed him to retain it. Saw and was
thankful for these slight harbingers of the return of the
love and brightness which were once her child's life.
Tried to comfort herself in her isolation with the belief
that the night was passing from her darling's spirit.
" Wounds soon heal in hearts young and healthy as is
hers I " she thought. " For this, at least, I may return
hearty thanks."
Within two days after the receipt of Eoy's first letter,
Eunice had announced to Jessie the reverse of her plans
for the winter. Instead of removing with them to Ham-
12*
274 JEaSAMINB.
ilton, she had decided to hire a cottage in the village, and
open, a school for girls. She had partially engaged both
house and pnpils before she broached the subject to her
sister. Thoroughly aroused from her selfish languor by
the startling intelligence, Jessie had opposed the scheme
with might and main. Accustomed as she was to Ea-
nice's calm but resolute measures, and her taciturnity re-
specting her own views, wants, and plans, this retreat from
a position which had not been taken without i]^uch and
serious thought, filled her with consternation. Having
plied her unsuccessfully with arguments and entreaties of
her own devising, Jessie wrote to Roy, begging him to
use his powerful influence to avert the threatened evil.
"I cannot do without.her I " she said, without staying
to reflect upon what might be the husband's feeling on
reading the avowal, " unlike as we are and reserved as we
have been to one another on some subjects, our hearts are
knit together by bands which are all the stronger for our
late loss. In the anticipation of this parting, my only
sister seems to me like my second soul ^the other part of
myself. I shall be less than half a woman without her.
Ton can do more with her than any one else. K you
desire my happiness, and I know you do, entreat her not
to leave liie I "
If aught in this letter wounded Fordham, nobody knew
it. He wrote to Eunice forthwith and urgently ; did his
best to dissuade her from the novel project, partly be-
cause he loved and respected her, chiefly because the mat-
ter was one that concerned Jessie's comfort and happiness!
He accomplished nothing, except to elicit from Eunice
the admission that she had no counter-reasoning to offer,
and a mild but firm repetition of her unalterable resolve.
JESSAMINE. 275
He made- a second attempt on Saturday evening, during
Jessie's absence from the room. Eunice sewed on stead-
ily without a word, while he set forth the disadvantages
of her present plan the advantages of the former.
Finally, brought to bay by his argument and searching
questions, she confronted him abruptly.
" I must have work, aild plenty of it, just now. Boy ! I
dare not be idle ! When it shall be safe and best for me
to rest and think, I will accept your offer. I beg you to
believe that I act from principle not caprice. I am su^e
that I am doing right. And now, please say no more."
He desisted at that, and with characteristic magnanim-
ity, undertook to reconcile his wife to the separation, by
holding out the hope that it was but temporary, besides
inquiring into the minutisB of her design, and lending her
what assistance she required in the furtherance of it. All
was in train when he retorned to his post of duty on
Thursday morning. Kepairs were in progress upon the
leased cottage, which was pretty and convenient ; twenty
pupils engaged to begin lessons early in November ; the
sale of the surplus furniture was over, and the sisters,
with Patsey, were busy getting the rest of their effects in
order for transportation. Jessie was to follow in two
weeks, when she had seen Eunice and the faithful servant
domiciled in their new abode.
It was the longest fortnight Eoy had ever known,
although he kept his loneliness and longing to himself,
concealing their existence most carefully from his wife.
She would come to " him and home," on Wednesday of
the second week, and he passed every hour he could spare
from college duties and sleep, in getting the house ready
for her reception. On Monday, arrived boxes from Dun-
276 JB8SAMINB.
dee which he unpacked with his own hands. They con-
tained Jessie's personal property ^books, books and hijovr
terie^ and the most delightful occupation of his solitude
was the arrangement of these in parlor and sitting-room,
lie slept at " home," as he proudly called it, after these
were brought in. They were too valuable to be left un-
guarded.
On Tuesday night, Orrin Wyllys, who had just re-
turned from a visit of three or four days to hi&jiomcee^
cjj^anced to pass the house, and seeing lights on the first
floor, rang the bell.
Eoy answered it. He was in dressing-gown and slip-
pers a cigar in one hand, a book in the other.
" A domesticated Benedict to the life 1 '* laughed his
cousin, as he followed him into the library. *^AhaI
there is an old and valued acquaintance."
The portrait of the girl at the wishing-well hung oppo-
site the door, and, he observed, in exact range of Boy's
vision as he sat in his chair.
" You will find many more if you will use your eyes.
Come with me."
The dining-room adjoined the library, and the parlors
were just across the hall. A bronze statuette of Pallas
four feet high, mounted upon a colunm of Egyptian mar-
blepresented to the popular professor by the studeniB,
was the most conspicuous ornament; but scattered here
and there were many interesting works of art selected by
him in foreign lands ^always with reference to Jessie's
tastes and wishes. The piano was Orrin's bridal gift a
surprise held in reserve by the fond husband to brighten
the coming home of his household deity. But the sitting-
room back of the state apartments, was the one on which
JESSAMINE. 277
he had expended most care and time. A bay-window did
duty for the more roomy oriel, and the shelf, which was
an extension of the sill, was filled with plants.
" Next Spring we will set a root of jessamine outside,"
remarked Eoy, when Orrin praised the infant creepers
ivy and passion-flower on the inside of the casemeot.
The carpet was mosses, green, gray, and russet, specked
with red-topped lichens ; the walls were flushed with pink.
Jessie's escritoire was in one comer, her work-stand in
another. A reading-lamp, with its alabaster shade, was
upon the centre-table, and a low lounging chair beside it.
The picture of Jessie's mother hung over the mantel;
Jessie's books strewed the stands, and were ranged in rows
within a handsome bookcase at the back of the room.
Choice engravings were hung in good lights, and within
the fireplace lay long, well-seasoned logs ready for light-
ing.
" Beauty's bower I " said Orrin, gazing about him with
unqualified approbation. " Who would have given you
credit for such a genius for furnishing ? For the indi-
viduality of your appointments shows that you are not in-
debted to the upholsterer for the charming effect. But
perhaps you have worked under orders. 'Did Mrs. Ford-
ham and her sister give you general directions ? "
" None. I am happy to have the approval of a con-
noisseur," rejoined Eoy, lightly. "I knew, of course,
what Jessie would like, and have tried to please her.
Upholsterers and cartes hlancJies from papa, and the toils
of magnificence are the luxuries (and nuisances) of men
who marry heiresses. As perhaps you have discovered."
"Sagely guessed! I heard little besides millinery,
dressmaking, and upholstery talk while in B . Pon-
278 JESSAIONE.
derons preparations) so it struck me, for sach everyday
events as marrying, giving in marriage, and going to
housekeeping. I had come to the conclasion that I was
anti-domestic in my proclivities, bnt a sight of this idyl
of a home has staggered the belief. I am glad you are
married, old fellow 1 " clapping him on the shoulder.
" I could not tell you in a month how glad 1 "
" Don't begin, then 1 " Eoy led the way to the library.
^^ Else, not to be outdone, I must take at least a year in
which to express my gratification at the event"
Orrin eyed him furtively while he affected to be en-
grossed in the delicate operation of lighting the cigar
tendered by the host Ro/s clear, open brow, sunny
smile, and the hearty ring of his voice were indubitable
Bigns of the sincerity of his happiness. It was with a
lighter spirit I leave conscience out of the question
that his kinsman threw himself back in his comfortable
chair, and prepared to enjoy the evening.
" The last of my quasi widowerhood 1 " said Roy. " I
wish it were the last of.your bachelor days, Orrin 1 "
" Ca viendra ! " returned the other, his cigar between
his teetii. ^^ Next month is December."
^^ I hope your wife will take as kindly to me as mine
does to youl" pursued Roy. "And that I may, one
day, have the opportunity to prove by services rendered
her, my appreciation of the care you have taken of my
interests in my absence."
"Don't speak of it, my dear boyl" said Orrin, has-
tily.
Even he colored slightly at the unintentional sarcasm.
He coughed to emit the smoke that had gone down the
wrong way, and this gave him time to rally his ideas.
JBaSAMUIfE. 279
No harm had come of his innocent pastime. Eoy was
none the wiser, and his bride had had the advantage of
a new sensation in the development of her latent capaci-
ties for loving and suffering. She would be better and
stronger all her life ; her character would gain breadth
and fibre for the emotion that had stirred the depths of
her being. It was wholesome, if sharp, discipline a
sort of spiritual subsoil ploughing, without which she
might never, have developed aright. Women were a
marvellous and an entertaining study. Their powers of
craft and concealment were beyond man's ken or imita-
tion. The most imprudently passionate of them acted
sometimes with circumspection that would put a Talley-
rand to the blush. Jessie, mad and desperate as she was
at her last interview with himself, had nevertheless re-
considered her resolution to reVeal her inconstancy to her
lawful lover, and judiciously judging that the Past was
gone beyond recall, had taken up with the old love so
soon as the new one was off. She could not have done
better for all parties. " Scenes," Kcept when sentimen-
tal and en Ute-d-Utey were a vulgarism to be eschewed by
refined people.
^^ Jack shall have Gill,
Nonglit shaU go ill."
he repeated, mentally, thus salving the smart caused by
Boy's thanks. ^^ Jessie and I will be capital friends and
neighbors. She will like me none the less because she
knows that, had she been possessed of the fair and fond
Hester's wealth, her destiny would have been changed.
She is too acute of perception not to comprehend that, in
that case, my sense of what was due to her and myself
280 JESSAMINE.
would not have let me resign her, even to my honored
cousin, here. But what is, is best, I suppose.
" You have never met my Dulcinea, I believe ? " he said
aloud, both cigar and windpipe being in good working
order by the time he reached this consolatory sequel.
'^ I have not had that pleasure. Jessie gave me a slight
sketch of her ^a mere outline, which I hope to fill up for
myself, shortly, from life.'*
"Then," meditated the cool and candid bridegroom-
elect, " my tow-headed divinity lied egregiously about that
old affair ! I must cross-examine her in earnest, and if
my suspicion is correct, make her retract certain counts in
her indictment against Jessie's husband. I owe him that
much reparation. Since they are a wedded unit, things
should go upon velvet so far as is consistent with the fact
of human imperfection. PU send the lovely Hester to
make amends to Mrs. Fordham, some time. If I do not
forget it ."
He was in one of his gracefully indolent moods to-
night, and did not hurry himself in speech.
" She is not handsome. Ton would not, I fear, con-
sider her even pretty," he resumed, after a few lulling
puffs, such as might be necessary to temper loverly exag-
geration. "But she is a dear, affectionate, pliant little
thing, and will make just the wife a hlaa^ world citizen
like myself needs. I hope I think you will like her.
But I don't expect you to see in her the peer of your
glorious Jessie, however well she may suit me."
Eoy, when left alone again, pondered this speech dissat-
isfiedly.
"I am not quite content with this match, nor with
Orrin's tone. I had not looked for a lover's rhapsodies,
JESSAMINE. 281
knowing his critical taste in these matters, but he ought
not to acknowledge or feel the need of apologies for his
choice. I am afraid his love does not leave him as little
to wish for and to fear, as mine does me,"
He looked up at the portrait with a smile.
" But there is only one Jessie in the world, and she will
be here to-morrow night."
Still standing before the picture, he made an involun-
tary gesture, as of folding something in his arms.
" My darling 1 soon to be my angel in the house ! I
think it would kill me to lose you now."
His sudden motion had struck a book from the comer
of the table, exposing a letter that lay beneath. It was a
foreign envelope, and had probably been given to the
servant by the postman that afternoon, and placed there
by her with the book on the top, for safe-keeping. An
enclosure fell out as he opened the cover a letter that
had arrived in Heidelberg after he set out for home, said
a line from a fellow-student in the University. The smile
lingered lovingly about mouth and eyes, while he tore off
the inner wrapper.
The superscription was Jessie's ; the note the short and
cold farewell she had indited after her parting with Orrin
Wyllys,on the 6th of September.
" No harm done 1 " reiterated the affectionate kinsman,
walking slowly along to his lodgings, under the pure moon.
" I should have been sorry had she carried her threat into
execution; spoiled her own prospects, and made Roy
wretched. But I could find it in my heart to regret the
witch even now that I am on the eve of beatification. The
affair was interesting most engaging while it lasted
had more cayenne and frine in it than tiiis very lawful
and eminently remnneratiTe lore-making. My ' lassie wi'
tlie lint-white locks,' says it is ' jnat the sweetest thing in
the world.' Peutitrel
CHAPTER XX.
I OT was at the depdt Wednesday afternoon to meet
his wife.
" Yon are not well, I am afraid 1 " she said,
when they were in the carriage that was to conyey
them home.
" I am not sick, but I have had much to think of and
to do, lately, and I may look somewhat jaded," he an-
swered. " Yon left Eunice well, you say I"
" Quite well, thank you 1 You have overworked your-
self in getting the house ready for me. You should have
left that for me to do."
" It was not necessary. As it is, you will find much
room for alteration and improvement, I doubt not. You
were fortunate in meeting with a pleasant escort on your
journey. Are you much fatigued ? "
" No, but my head aches a little," turning her face to
the window.
She was disappointed in her reception. The parting
284 JBSSAMINB.
from Ennice had been a grievons trial ; the journey filled
with mournful thoughts of the past that now lay so very
far behind her. In turning her back upon her parents'
graves and her birthplace, she seemed to have parted
company forever with the blithe girl who had been born
and had grown up to woman's estate, careless and joyous
as the swallows that had for a century built their nests in
the belfry of the church-tower. She had almost forgotten
how Jessie Kirke felt and acted. Yet she was thankful
that in the midst of melancholy and dazement, her ap-
pointed way lay clear and open before her ; that she had
still a sure staff on which to lean, the hope and resolve
that she would do her duty bravely and well in the sphere
for which her marriage-vow had set her apart It was
indicative of the generous temper and sound sense that
never failed to assert theinselves when the momentary
tumult of passion had passed, which neither her faults nor
the influence of the tempter had warped, that she had
never, for one moment, blamed Roy for hurrying forward
their marriage. They were " troth-plight," as her Scot-
tish ancestors would have put it. She had said, " If you
insist upon the^ fulfilment of my promise, I will submit
to your decision." And he had not said it idly. He had
taken her at her word, as he had the right to do, and by
that pledge she would abide.
Lonely and tired, the sight of Roy's face in the crowd
of strangers upon the platform of the Hamilton station
had cheered her heart like a cordial. She forgot that he
was her husband ; remembered him only as a noble
and faithful friend in whose presence she would be no
longer solitary and sad. She was even conscious of a
proud sense of proprietorship in the fine-looking, dignified
JESSAMINE. 285
man who was the first to enter the car when it stopped,
a consciousness that flushed her cheeks faintly, and quick-
ened her pulses, as she introduced him to the gentleman
who had acted as her escort and heard his well-chosen
words of acknowledgment for the favor done him. He
had not kissed her then she supposed because there were
60 many looking on ; but after taking his place beside her
in the carriage, he might surely tell her that her coming
gave him joy ; repeat something of the rapturous antici-
pations that had overflowed his heart in writing his last
letter, received by her the night before. His face was
very pale, his eyes abstracted, his voice constrained.
Anything more unlike the Roy she had known in Dundee
could hardly be imagined, without changing the identity
of the man. It was not surprising that a qualm of home-
sickness weakened her heroic resolutions; put to flight
her dreams of forgetting herunhappinessin the sustained
effort to be and do all he wished.
Roy saw the struggle and surmised, in part, the cause
of it ; but what could he say to assuage or encourage 'i
The caresses and fond words with which he had sought
to console her in the earlier days of her desolation must,
he now saw in the lurid light shed upon his honeymoon
by that terrible letter, have aggravated her sufferings.
Professing to be her protector, he had played the part
of a brutal ravisher ; haJ torn her, shrinking and crying
out against the loathed union she felt would " be a sin a
fearful sin," from her free, happy girl-life, and bound
her, soul and body, in fetters more hateful and enduring
than manacles of steel. After the first shock of horror
and of grief, he forgot the wrong he had sustained in his
overmastering compassion for her. And he could not
886 JESSAMINE.
free her 1 Loving her better than he did his own happi-
ness and life, he was powerless to ensure her peace of
mind by restoring her to liberty. Had he been other
than the true Christian and true man he was, the distract-
ing anguish of that conviction would have driven him to
madness and to suicide, as a sequel to the fearful vigil
that followed the discovery of his real position.
Light ;came v^ith the morning, and strength for the
day. His course was plain to mitigate the rigors of her
fate by such kindly deeds as a brother might perform for
the promotion of a sister's welfare ; by abstaii\ing from
even such manifestations of affection as are a brother's
right. There should be no formal explanation until she
had recovered from the fatigue of her journey, and begun
to feel at home in her new abode. Thus tnuch he could
and would do, and await the result.
" What a pretty, pretty house 1 " exclaimed Jessie, as
the carriage drew up at the gate of a cottage on the
southern slope of one of the hills on which the handsome
town was built.
She had meant to praise his selection of a residence
however ordinary its appearance, but her enthusiastic ad-
miration was genuine.
Eoy smiled, but not with the glad gleam she looked
to see.
" It is good and kind in you to say so 1 If you can be
satisfied here, I ask nothing better or grander."
A tidy girl opened the door, whom Jessie recognized
with pleased surprise as a former servant in Dr. Baxter's
family.
"Why, Phoebe 1 This is homelike 1 How very gen-
erous in Cousin Jane to give you up to me 1 "
^HMH
JBSSAMINiS, 287
" She said yoa might find me U8ef ul, Miss Jessie I I
beg your pardon ^Mrs. Fordham 1 " replied the girl, drop-
ping a courtesy.
Jessie colored, Eoy thought, painfully, at the as yet
Tinf amiliar name. He interfered to save her further em-
barrassment, in the shape of congratulations.
" Yon will show her to her room, if you please, Phoebe.
And then let her have a cup of tea. She has a headache.
Tour trunks will be sent up in the course of half an
hour, Jessie, but I would not advise you to wait for
them, or take the trouble of changing your travelling-
dress. Tou must begin your life here by doing just as
you choose in such matters."
He met her in the hall when she ran down, ten min-
utes later, fearful lest she had kept him waiting, and led
her into the supper room ; letting her take her place be-
hind the tea-tray without one of the tenderly gallant
speeches with which a bridegroom would naturally in-
stall his bride in the chair always appropriated by the
mistress of heart and home. He was attentive to her
wants, and talked as much as usual ^perhaps more ^in
the endeavor to put her at her ease; telling how the
flowers upon the tea-table and in her chamber were sent
over at noon from Judge Provost's conservatory ; that
the silver service was a present from the Baxters, the
bronze mantel-clock from Fanny Provost, who was very
anxious to see her and resume their old intimacy. Se-
lina Bradley had sent the chased silver butter-bowl, and
other Hamilton families had testified their good-will by
elegant and suitable gifts.
" I am every day more glad that you spent last winter
here," he said. " You do not come as a stranger; have
288 JE88AM1NE.
already pleasant associations with our town and its
inhabitants, and gained a foothold, I find, in many
hearts."
He had unwittingly dealt as direct a blow at the secret
panel that hid the skeleton in her heart, as he had at
Orrin Wyllys' indurated conscience the previous evening.
Jessie had no words in which to reply ; sought to con-
ceal her confusion by steadfastly regarding the pattern
on her plate one of a set of china Eoy had purchased
in Dresden, she discovered, presently, when she remarked
upon its beauty.
'^ I had no idea you had such exquisite taste I " She
made a bold attempt to break through the nameless but
powerful constraint that kept down everything like easy
or merry converse on her part. " I expect to be in a
state of perpetual astonishment on that score for a long
time to come. I did not know that learned scholars ever
condescended to consider such petty details of domestic
life as porcelain and carpets."
He put back his chair without replying directly to the
compliment, at which, to her mortification, he looked
rather pained than pleased.
" If you have finished your supper, perhaps you would
like to go over the house? " he said, politely. " Or, if
you are tired, we will postpone it until to-morrow."
" I should greatly prefer going now 1" catching at the
prospect of some mitigation of the growing stiffness.
The survey was a quiet progress for the most part,
certainly not accomplishing the end she had hoped for.
Roy said little, and Jessie felt very awkward, as door
after door was opened, and she appreciated the thought-
fulness that had ministered to her comfort, from first to-
JE88AMINE, 289
last, yet was forbidden by the mysterious spell chaining
her tongue, to thank him who had wrought it all. But
when they reached the sitting-room, where the flames
were crackling and curling among the wood on the
hearth, and her chair and fire-screen awaited her, the
home-restf ulness of the scene broke down the ice wall.
The feelings that had gathered to oppression upon her
heart, oveiiowed her eyes and choked her articulation.
"This is too muchl^' she exclaimed, catching Eoy's
hand in hers, and gazing tearfully into his face. " Oh 1
what am I ^^
She could say no more.
" The mistress of this room and this house ! " responded
Roy, in kindly seriousness. " One who has a right to
expect every attention I can bestow. This is your
sanctum. Nobody shall enter it without your permis-
sion."
Jessie tried to smile playfully.
"Excepting yourself!"
" When you want me, I shall come ! " was the evasive
reply.
" Surely you will not wait "
The remonstrance was cut short by a tap at the door,
signalling Mrs. Baxter's impetuous entrance.
" My dearest lamb ! " she cried, with a strangled sob,
clasping her cousin in her embrace.
" The doctor wovM come the instant he had swallowed
his tea 1 " she tried to cover Jessie's emotion and her own
by saying, when she could speak clearly. ' I told him
it was barbarously unfeeling and unromantic ; that, ac-
cording to all rules of etiquette and sentiment, you
should pass tiiis evening without the intrusion of com-
13
290 JEBSAMINE,
pany. But he was obstinate. I don't believe jon two
have the remotest conception of his favoritism of you ! "
Meantime, the doctor had, in his odd fashion, slipped his
hand under the young wife's chin, and raised to the light
a strangely agitated face eyes swimming in tears, fore-
liead slightly puckered with the effort after Belf-^ontrol,
and little eddies of smiles breaking up around the
mouth. Eoy saw in it the whole history of the shipwreck
of her heart and life, and her womanly determination to
keep the knowledge of the disaster to herself. Would
the physiognomist's keenly solemn gaze detect as much %
Neither of the lately wedded pair was prepared for
the remark with which he released the blushing Jessie.
" I wanted to see if the heart of her husband could
safely trust in her. My daughter 1 do you know what a
good man you have married ? "
^'Do not raise her expectations to an unreasonable
height, my dear sir ! " interposed Eoy, in time to fore-
stall her reply. " And let me thank you, in her name
and in mine, for the honor you have done us in this
early visit."
The doctor accepted the compliment and the chair that
the liost wheeled forward, in profound silence. The
conversation had been carried on by the others for sev-
eral minutes before he again joined in. He was aroused
then by his wife's laudations of Orrin's generosity as dis-
played in his bridal present.
" I don't see how you can take it so quietly 1 " she
berated the recipient. " One would suppose pianos were
given away every day! And you should value the in-
strument the more highly because it is the gift of your
great admirer and true friend, Mr. Wyllys. I assure
JESSAMINE, 291
yon, Mr. Fordhara, nothing could exceed his care of and
devotion to her, for your sake and in your name, of
course ! while you were over the seas and far away."
" True friend I " echoed the doctor's dryest, most rasp-
ing tones. " Humph ! "
" HFow^ my love, I do mvplore that you will not drag
forward that most unjust and unreasonable prejudice in
the present company 1 " cried his wife, in a nervous flut-
ter from her bonnet-crown to her gaiter-tips. "If I have
failed to convince you that it is groundless and absurd,
oblige me by withholding the expression of it, here and
now I "
" My good Jane I " returned the imperturbable spouse
^" Where else could the truth be so fitly spoken as in
the hearing of judicious friends ? I am sorry to say, Mr.
Fordham, that my excellent wife and myself do not
agree respecting Mr. Wyllys' character and actions."
" Doctor ! doctor 1 " ejaculated the frantic woman,
plunging forward, at an angle of forty-five degrees, to
pluck his sleeve. " You forget that you are addressing
Mr. Wyllys' cousin ! "
" A candid man, and a fair judge of human nature and
motives, nevertheless," her lord went on to say, with a
stiff little bow in the direction of the person named.
" The only safe rule among friends is candor. It is sel-
dom I attribute sinister purposes to one whom I do not know
certainly to be malevolent or hypocritical, but when I de-
clare it to be my firm conviction that Orrin Wyllys (of
whom the best thing I know is that he has descended phys-
ically from the same stock that produced your husband,
my child 1)" this to Jessie " when I affirm that I believe
him to be a wolf wlio ravens safely and reputably under
292 JESSAMINE.
the cowardly cover of sheep's clothing, I am not, as my
dear Jane here would persnade herself and you, the victiin
of causeless prejudice."
'^ Dearest, I entreat I " broke in the wife, at her last
gasp of distress.
His discourse moved on majestically. There were four
knots in his handkerchief already.
" From the moment I heard Mr. Wyllys caution Mrs.
Baxter not to allude in her letter of invitation to our Jes-
sie, to information he had supplied relative to her person,
residence, and education, I distrusted the singleness of his
desire for the resumption of Mrs. Baxter's intercourse with
the family of her early friend. When the invited guests
arrived, and I learned that the terms of their previous
intercourse entitled him to become her cavalier on all oc-
casions ; her preceptor and referee in doubtful cases of
conscience and conduct ; ^when I compared this circum-
stance with his careless and apparently accidental men-
tion of her to Mrs. Baxter, and his pretended indifference
to her coming, I made up my mind that he was particu-
larly interested in her for some reason he did not care to
divulge. I believe still that this was the case. I believe
that, knowing her to be betrothed to his cousin, he strove,
consciously and systematically, to win her from her alle-
giance. I thank God that he did not succeed ; that she
has given herself and her happiness into the keeping of a
true and honorable gentleman I "
" 1 am grateful to you, doctor, for your staunch friend-
ship for myself, and your paternal guardianship of my
wife I "
Eoy Fordham's full, pleasant tones reached Jessie's ears
JB88AMIIfE. 293
like an angelic benediction throngh the seething chaoB
that was swallowing her np.
' I am glad, moreover, that you have, in the present
company, introduced the subject of your misgivings re-
garding my cousin's behavior while I was away. I ap-
pointed him my proxy before I left my betrothed and my
native land. The attentions that misled you into doubt
of his right dealing were paid in that chai-acter. I can-
not have you undervalue the ' true and honorable gentle-
man ' I know Orrin Wyllys to be. He is my friend ! "
The doctor tugged at his cravat-bow and stared into
the chandelier. Mrs. Baxter gulped down all the solici-
tude she could swallow, and threw all the rest into the
deprecating look she cast upon Koy. He stood before
his zealous old superior courteous, kind, but earnest in
defence of his absent friend the model of gallant man-
liness, thought the abject creature, cowering in the shadow
of Mrs. Baxter's chair, half dead with remorse and the
dread of additional questioning.
The love of this man she had trodden under foot I for-
gotten aflFection and duty to him in the mad, wicked de-
lirium wrought by the wiles of one whom Roy, in the
simplicity of his integrity, still accounted honest and
faithful. A cheat and a coward Jessie had written Orrin
down since that early September day when he confided to
her the fact of his engagement, and shrank visibly at
the suggestion of Roy's anger at his shameless breach of
faith. She stigmatized him now, in the council of her
thoughts, as a liar from the beginning. . He had manoeu-
vred, then, to procure Mrs. Baxter's invitation for herself,
while he denied to her that she had ever been named
between them until after this was sent ; had inveigled
294 JEaSAMINE.
her away from the shelter of her f athei^'s roof and the
gnard of her sister's care, that he might establish his
fell influence over her. Wonld not Eoy, with all his
generous trust in his cousin's honor and friendship, com-
pare the doctor's mal-apropos statement with her confes-
sion of the change in herself, and arrive at a tolerably
correct perception of the truth that would blast her for-
ever in his sight, as not merely weak and fickle, but for-
ward and unmaidenly ?
When the throbbing of her heart would let her listen
intelligently to what was going on, the doctor had been
beguiled into a dissertation upon Druidistic history, by
Boy's exhibition of a paper-weight in the form of an
altar, encircled by a wreath of mistletoe, graven out of a
bit of stone he had picked up at Stonehenge. His consid-
erate spouse carried him off before one-third of the
knots in his handkerchief were untied. Her valedictory,
like her salutatory, was a diffuse apology for their intru-
sion upon the sacredness of the installation-eve.
" But the doctor dear, blundering man ! is amenable
to no laws of conventionality," she subjoined, vdth an in-
dulgent shrug and sigh.
It is questionable whether either of the persons ad-
dressed regretted the breach of etiquette. The time had
gone by more swiftly and comfortably than if they had
been left to themselves. As it was, an embarrassing
silence followed the visitors' departure. Hoy stood on
the rug, facing the fire, motionless and thoughtful. Jes-
sie, trembling in a nervous chill that changed her fingers
into shaking icicles, durst not attempt to speak.
Fordham finally came out of his reverie with a start,
and turned toward hei- apologetically.
JE88AMINE, 295
" You are sadly tired ! Our good friends were very
welcome, but they have kept you up beyqnd your strength.
May I take you to your room ? "
She murmured a disclaimer of the imputation of ex-
cessive fatigue, but took his proffered arm, and they
mounted the stairs together.
A bright fire burned in the large front chamber, flashed
gayly back from the gilt fleur-de-lis of the delicately
tinted wall aper and the frames of the few pictures. A
cosey arm aair stood ready for Jessie, with a foot-cushion
below it, and the marble slabs of bureau and mantel bore
fragile wealth of Bohemian and frosted glass and Parian
ornaments.
" Is there anything I can do to make you more com-
fortable?" inquired Eoy, not offering to sit down.
" Wouldn't a glass of wine do your head good ? "
" I think not. I need nothing, thank you ! " without
raising her eyes from the carpet.
" I hope you will be quite rested by morning," he con-
tinued, with the same ceremonious gentleness. " I may
as well explain to you that, foreseeing how frequently I
shall be obliged to sit up late at my studies, I have had
the chamber opposite prepared for myself. So I will bid
you good-night now."
He held out his hand. She placed here within it,
silently, eyes still averted.
" Good-night, and pleasant dreams ! " he repeated, with
a kindly pressure of the chill fingers.
An impulse she could not control or define drew her
to her feet. " Won't you kiss me, Roy ? " she asked, in
soiTOwf ul humility.
She did not see how bloodless were the lips that obeyed.
296 JESSAMINS.
The salute was, to her apprehension, cold and reluctant,
and, without anther syllable, he passed on to the outer
door. There he stopped ^hesitated, with a backward
glance at the drooping figure, standing where he had left
her and returned.
" I had not intended to say it yet," he said, agitatedly.
" Thei'e have been times when I questioned the propriety
of any attempt at self -justification. But I would not have
you think worse of me than I deserve for my selfish reck-
lessness in hurrying on our marriage. 1 received this let-
ter " giving it to her " last night. It furnishes the clue to
much that I now see ought to have checked my unseemly
impatience to claim the right I believed was still mine.
This was the communication to which you referred when
you pleaded that the contents of your last letter should
have hindered my proposal. I supposed, in the haste and
excitement of the moment, that yoii meant the false
rumor of your mother's insanity which had been treated
of in a former communication, the receipt of which, let
me say here, hastened my return. Not that I dreaded
insanity for you, but because I gathered from your letter
that you were unhappy and a prey to morbid fancies, and
I hoped to be able to do you good by diverting these. If
this * last letter' which you hold had reached me in sea-
son, your request should have been granted."
He paused to master his own emotion, or to give her
opportunity for. reply. He may liave hoped yet, in the
face of the evidence to the contrary he had had, that she
would retract her declaration. '' I love you no longer "
might represent that she was possessed by " morbid fan-
cies " virlien it was penned ; that under the sharp tutelage
of sorrow, her affections bad regained their balance.
JE88AMINK 297
She only sat still, her face hidden in her hands. There
was a crouch in her attitude that suggefted an unpleasant
idea to the observer. It was that she feared him ^his
wrath and the results of this eicplanation. He forgot
his sufferings in the desire to remove this apprehension if
it existed.
" My only hope now is, that since I know what I should
have perceived from the beginning, I may spare you an-
noyance, if not misery, by consulting your wishes and re-
specting your repugnances. If I could set you free, I
would. My heaviest burden is the consciousness that
this is impracticable. But it is my desire that, from this
time, you should ;ease to regard me as your husband, and
try to think of me as your friend. For we may still be
that to each other may we not, dear Jessie J "
She was moaning as in mortal pain.
" This kindness kills me ! I had rather you should say
that you hated me ! "
" But that would not be true," said the gentle voice.
" And henceforward we will be very frank and just in
our dealings with one another. We will try, moreover,
to put vain regrets out of sight, and to do the duty of the
day ; to serve our fellows and honor Him who has some
merciful intent in leading us through these dark waters.
Now, my child, this subject need never be renewed. Our
Father knows our sorrows. To Htm we will look for
strength. He knows, too, the sincerity of my sad heart
when I say how deeply it afflicts me to feel how much
more grievous is your trial than mine."
Folding in his the hands she extended in a speechless
passion of tears her lips trying vainly to form a petition
13*
298
JSS8AM1NB,
for pardon he prayed the Ood of all consolation to have
her in His holy keeping ; to give her joy for weeping, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Then, bid-
ding her again " Be comforted and sleep," he went out.
CHAPTER XXL
KNOCKED at Mr. Fordham's door, ma'am, as
you bid, and he said that he wasn't well enough to
leave his room, and would you be pleased to eat
breakfast without him. And he said, ma'am, that
you needn't be uneasy the leastest bit in the world,
for it's only a cold and sore throat he's got, and, indeed,
if I may make so bold as to say it, he's that hoarse I
could scarcely hear him at all."
Phoebe eyed her mistress slyly and keenly when she had
delivered her message. Although not particulaiiy given
to prying and gossip, her curiosity was excited by certain
peculiarities in the home life of Mr. and Mrs. Fordham,
for which the supposition that the master of the house had
" picked up German ways," while abroad, did not fully
account. They had distinctly separate apartments, carry-
ing the rule of division so far that Mr. Fordham never
entered his wife's sitting-room without knocking at the
door, and if she invaded the library when he was in, she
300 JESSAMINE.
not only asked admittance in the same way, bat apologized
for interrupting his studies.
"They are too polite by half I" Phcebe estimated,
judging them by her not very extensive observation and
experietice. " There's Mrs. Baxter will make more
fuss over her dried-up atomy of a man in one day, than
Mrs. Fordham does about her fine figure of a husband in
a year."
She had never seen Mr. Fordham kiss or otherwise
caress his bride, or indulge in any of the romping fond-
ling which the lately wedded are prone to forget may bo
less interesting to spectators than to themselves. Yet, she
was ready to affirm stoutly that, in her parlance, " they
thought the world and all of one another ; " that Mr. Ford-
ham studied his wife's inclinations, anticipated her wishes,
and ministered to her comfort more than any other gen-
tleman she knew ; while " Mr. Fordham Ukes this," or,
" he is not fond of that," were decisive phrases in Jessie's
mouth in the conduct of her domestic affairs, and her
many devices to make his home-coming at noon and even-
ing, an ever-new pleasure, called forth tlie continual ad-
miration of the handmaiden.
It was a puzzle past her finding out But here was a
test that could hardly fail. The wife should, according
to Phoebe's creed, fly on the wings of love and anxiety
to the bedside of her sick lord f become his nurse and
servitor until he recovered.
To the girl's grieved disappointment, for she was
sincerely attached to the whilome "Miss Jessie," and
wanted to think well of her in all things ^Mrs. Fordham
said, composedly, if not coolly "Very well, Phcebe!
Bring in breakfast I " and turned again to the window at
JESSAMINE. 801
which fihe was standing, when the news was brought to
her of her husband's sad case.
" I'm right down sorry that I am ! '' grumbled the
servant over the kitchen range. " I did hope she'd show
some feeling for him when he's maybe took for dipthery
or quincy or something else awful. And he such a good
provider and well-spoken gentieman, and never so much
as raising his voice in a temper with her, but treating
her like a queen ! I've a mind to slip up myself, and
ask what he'U have to eat These are the beautif uUest
muffins ever I see ! She is a master hand at the like.
And I know she made these, as she does all sorts of nice
things, because he likes 'em. Queer she never lets on but
what I get up the dishes he praises. Mistresses mostly
is glad enough to pocket the compliments as belongs to
their girls. She's a genuwine lady, and no mistake, but
it cuts me to see her so ocdd-hearted to him. I suppose
they're what folks call a ^ fashionable couple.' "
While this soliloquy was going on, the subject of it
stood still at the window, gazing into the street. It was
a bleak December day. There had been rain in the
night ; then * the thermometer sank abruptly, and by
mM*ning the sidewalks were glazed with ice. The earth
was black and grim, the clouds, grayly sullen, seemed to
rest upon the chimney-tops, and while Jessie looked, it
began to snow, gently for a while, then so fast that a
wavering sheet soon shut out her view of distant objects.
The cottage was on a comer, and this being a side-win-
dow, gave upon the college-grounds on one hand. Judge
Provost's house, garden, and lawn on the other. By
changing her position never so slightly, the lady could
have beheld the balconied front and imposing cupola of
802 JESSAMINE.
the Wylljs' residence, of which the happy pair had taken
formal possession ten days before, postponing their bridal
tour until Spring. " For," as the bride eagerly explained
to everybody ^'^both of us have been everywhere on
tills side of the water, and winter-travelling is an awful
bore. To be sure, we've been abroad, too, and seen
eveiythiBg that is worth seeing. So we are beating our
brains to devise something rechercki^^ (pronounced re-
ckurcky) ^ in the way of a wedding-trip. And it is %o
sweet and romantic to come to our own home, right
away I Indeed, as I told Orrin, it isn't safe to leave such
carpets and furniture as ours unprotected."
Jessie had heard all this fanfaronade, and much more
from Mrs. Baxter, but she was not thinking of it now.
Nor did she niove so as to bring the ^^ new and superb
mansion of our popular fellow-citizen, Orrin Wyllys, Esq.,"
within the range of her vision ; only seemed to watch
the falliug snow, and the few passers-by who dotted
the whitening streets at this early hour. In reality, she
was speculating upon the meaning of the stillness in the
chamber overhead. Was Boy, then, too ill to get up!
Was his room comfortable ? What attention from nurse
or physician did he need? How was she to learn and
supply his wants ? It would be barbarous unkindness,
if he were very sick, to stand aloof and leave the charge
of him to hirelings. Yet her personal attendance would
be awkward for both. She was not sure that he would
approve of it, so fastidious had been his care to excuse
her from such offices. He had spoken, in an off-hand
way, overnight, of feeling chilly, and apologized for not
offering to read the new number of a magazine to her
by saying that his throat was sore. Without consulting
JESSAMINE, 303
hirn, she had brewed a pitcher of hot lemonade, and
insisted upon his drinking it after he went to his room.
He had thanked her with the invariable courtesy that
met her every effort to serve him, and " was sure it was
all he needed. A most agreeable prescription too ! " he
added, as he bore off the pitcher. It was a shock, after
this pleasant parting, to hear that hb was sick in bed.
What if he were to be seriously ill % Her heart gave a
great bound, then ceased moving for a moment. He
was so robust, so fall of life and energy, that this could
not be.
What if he were to die ! She too thought of diphtheria.
There had been several fatal cases of it in Hamilton
recently. She was pale and faint ; her limbs giving way
under her as she admitted the frightful supposition.
What would she be ^what would she do if the strong
staff of his protection, the solace of his companionship,
were reft from her?
For she knew that, little cause as she had given him in
the circumstances attending their marriage, to cherish her
as all men should as some men do the women who love
them fervently and constantly, there was hardly a wife in
the land who was surrounded by the atmosphere of chiv-
alrous devotion which encompassed her in the secluded
life she led as the nominal mistress of Eoy Fordham's
home. Her deep mourning was a sufficient excuse for
declining to enter the gay circle in which Mrs. Wyllys
fluttered and her diamonds and husband shone. But
Koy saw to it that she was not lonely. The Baxters,
Provosts, and others of his friends were often with them
during the day, and he spent his evenings, as a rule, at
home.
i I i
804 jmssAMnrjB.
" Will you favor me with yoar company in the library,
or shall I come to your sitting-room?" he would ask,
when supper was over.
They wrote and studied together as two friends of the
same sex might ; talked freely upon all subjects suggested
by either each watchful thJat no chance touch should
wound the other ; make him or her swerve quickly aside
lest the next step should be upon the fresh grave that lay
ever between them. In all their intercourse, Boy's ap-
parent ease far surpassed his wife's. Ofaeerf ul, cordial,
always kind and more than kind in manner and language^
he yet comported himself as if there were nothing abnor-
mal in this sort of association ; as if passion and regret
were alike things of the Past, to which he had said they
need never again recur. No warmer love-name than
" Jessie, dear," ever passed his lips, and after the night of
the home bringing, he had never offered to kiss or em-
brace her. A hand-clasp, night and morning ; a smiling
bow and lively phrase, when h ecame in to dinna: and tea,
were the most affectionate courtesies exchanged. But no
distraught lover, at the height of his lunacy, ever studied
his mistress's fantasies, sought to penetrate and fulfil her
will, as did this quiet and courtly husband that of the
woman who had confessed that her heart was none of his
when he married her. Flowers, fruits, birds, and books
were lavished upon her ; passed into her hands through
other than his, but were always procured by him in re-
sponse to some expressed liking on her part, or in accord-
ance with what he imagined were her wishes or needs.
Nor was his unobtrusive attention to her health less con-
stant. In the same friendly style, he regulated exercise,
diet, and work ; saw that her habits were not too sedentary.
JB8SAMINE. 305
and that slie did not expose herself imprudently to cold,
damp, or fatigue.
Her review of all this was rapid and circumstantial.
" He deserves all that I can do for him. False delicacy
nor pride shall keep me back from ministering to the
wants of one who is to me father, brother, friend. I may,
at least, wait upon him as a hostess might tend an honored
guest a housekeeper the master of the house I " she had
decided by the time Phosbe set cofiEee, mufiins, and steak
upon the table.
Then to the serving-girl's increased chagrin, she sat
down, with Roy's vacant chair opposite her, and break-
fasted alone.
" Not much of a breakfast, to be sure 1 " said Phoebe,
returning at the end of ten minutes, to find the room de-
serted. ^' Half a muffin, and a cup of coffee, and she
clean forgot to carve the steak I Looks like she was in
love but that can't be I "
" Come in I " said the changed voice that had wrought
upon PhcBbe's womanly compassion, as Jessie awaited the
warrant to enter the sick-room a faint-hearted lingerer
upon the threshold. She buoyed up her courage by re-
membering that she was the housekeeper who had come
for the orders for the day ; the diffidence she railed at
inwardly, as ridiculous and uncalled for, had no visible
effect, except to heighten her color, and make her carry
her head a trifle less loftily.
Already Mrs. Wyllys had been heard to say that, " if Mrs.
Fordham were worth a million in her own right, she could
not look more haughty and indifferent to people who were
richer and better bred. When, as everybody knew, she
was a poor preacher's daughter with just money enough to
806 JBSaAMINE.
buy her wedding-clothes. Though, pity knows, they
couldn't have cost much I Was there ever such awful
taste, as not to lighten her mourning to suit the circum-
stances ? Who ever heard of a bride's wearing crepe ? "
There were red spots upon Roy's cheeks, when he
saw who his visitor was probably hectic, for his de-
meanor was natural. With instant thought of her proba-
ble embarrassment, he put out his hand, smilingly.
"Ah! Jessie, dearl Good-morning! You are very
good to visit a poor fellow in his affliction. For such a
throat and head as I have to-day are an affliction. Iseldom
strike my colors to a common cold."
" This seems to me to be an uncommon one ! " Jessie said,
feeling his pulse with the practised touch she had learned
in her parish- visiting. " You have fever. You ought to
have medical advice. Who is your physician ? "
" I have never had occasion to call in one since I came
to Hamilton. Suppose we ' bide a bit,' as our worthy
President says, and if I am not better in the course of an
hour or two, we can send for Dr. Bradley. I had a try-
ing day yesterday. Professor Fairchild is sick, and I had
some of his classes in addition to my own. It is well this
is Saturday. I can lie still, and rest my throat with a
clear conscience. Provided " smiling in her grave face
^' provided you do not let me trouble you I "
" Trouble me ! you should know better than that !
But" ^hesitating " if you will let me say it"
" Go on ! there is nothing you may not say to me," he
said encouragingly.
" I dp think it would be better to see Dr. Bradley, at
once if only as a precautionary measure."
He started looked at her intently.
JESSAMINE. 307
" Ton are thinking of diphtheria I You ought not to
have come in until that point was settled. There may
be danger to you. If, through my carelessness "
He turned his face away, unable or unwilling to finish
the sentence.
" I never thought of that ! " said Jessie, simply. " If
I had, I should have come all the same. Wliatever may
be the doctor's opinion, I shall stay here, and take care
of you. It is my place."
She rang the bell for Phoebe, and in ijj^oy's hearing,
ordered her to go for the doctor. She would not have
her charge suspect that she was imdnly alanned, or
believe there was occasion for a hasty summons. Then,
she brought a sunshiny face to the bedside, and put a
fresh pillow under the hot, heavy head.
" You don't know what a famous nurse I am," she said,
blithely. "My father" her voice sinking with the
sacred word ^" used to say that nursing was a talent, and
that I was bom with it."
She set to work, forthwith, without waiting for per-
mission. Eoy, regarding her silently from his bed,
heartily endorsed Mr. Kirke's verdict. Not Eunice her-
self could have moved more soundlessly, wrought more
efiiciently to alleviate, so far as she could, the pain and
discomfort of his situation. The doctor was at home, and
obeyed the call promptly. Roy glanced inquiringly at
Jessie when he was announced.
"Show him up!" was all she said, and when he
followed Phoebe into the chamber, she met him with
high-bred ease as the lady of the house ; as the patient's
wife discussed his symptoms ; heard, with marked grati-
SOS jEaaAMnrs.
flcation, that her fears of diphtheria were nnfoimded^ and
received his directions gratefully and attentively.
" A fine woman, and a most devoted wife 1 " pro-
nounced Dr. Bradley, at his lunchecm-table, that day. ^' Lret
me hear no more gossip about her, girls. Bemember ! "
" But, Papa, they do say they live queerly t " ventured
the irrepressible Selina. " Mrs. Wyllys "
' " Is a fool ! see that you don't become another in listen-
ing to her twaddle 1 " was the i^eremptory reply.
Orrin Wyllys, hearing accidentally of his cousin's in-
disposition, called at noon, and was conducted by Phoebe,
by warrant of the relationship, into Eoy's presence. The
chamber was heated usually by the furnace register, but
Hoy lay in bed gazing at the glowing pile of coals in the
grate. There was a happy ray in his eyes, spontaneity in
the gayety with which he welcomed his guest, that did not
accord with the tatter's preconceived ideas of the dolor
of a sick-room.
" You look like an invalid don't you ! " was Wyllys'
second remark. '^ This is the cheeriest place I have been
in to-day. It is wh^t the English call beastly weather,
out-of-doors. I don't blame anybody for keeping his
bed. I thought you showed me the room across the hall
as yours when you took me through the house, that night,
the last of your quasi widowerhood.'"
" We changed the arrangement afterward," rejoined
Eoy, carelessly. "But it is a luxury is'n't it? to lie
still on a stormy day, and stare a fire like that out of
counteaance ; especially on a holiday, when there are no
phantoms of unsaid lectures to torment one's reveries. I
am enjoying it amazingly. I hadn't the remotest concep-
tion that being sick was so delightful."
JE88AM1NE. 809
" By Jove ! I should tLink you would luxuriate in it,
unless you have less brains than I give you credit for !
With BXihouri for head-nurse, too ! I say I get out of that !
I can play the sentimental sufferer as well as you, and I
have a native bias for lazy luxury, which you haven't. I
dare say, you cunning dog! if all were told, there is
some dainty mess preparing for you below stairs, a
triumph of conjugal affection and culinary skill, that
should be tasted by none but an educated appetite. A
Teuton like yourself would be as well suited with bretzels
and sauerkraut, washed down by a gallon of lager. I
am a devout predestinarian, and here lies the case. I
have a canine hunger upon me. I am on my way home
to luncheon. Without, ^ the day is dark and cold and
dreary.' I am led to this comer of cosiness and comfort
and fairy fare to dispossess yoiu Impostor 1 how dare
you lie there, and grin at my emptiness and agony I Con-
fess ! what did you have for . breakfast ? What do you
mean to devour for lunch ? What do you hope to con-
sume for dinner ? "
Eoy could never resist the infection of this merry
banter, seldom indulged in by Orrin except when with
him. It brou^t back their early days "when you
thrashed the big boys for bullying me " ^he liked to re-
mind the other when they slept, played, and studied to-
gether. Orrin had his foibles, and a graver fault or so,
but he was hisy^'^'^n^, as he had told Dr. Baxter, and the
boyish love for his gallant senior was still strong upon
him. His laugh now was hearty and mischievous.
"Such a breakfast!" he said. "Gotten up in strict
conformity with the injunction * Feed a cold ' "
" And you will have a fever to starve ! " interjected
810 JESSAMINE.
WylljB. ^^That would be poetical justice 1 But go
on!"
" Imprimis ; " resumed Fordliam, " a cup of Turkisli
cofFee, fragrant and clear. Item, cream toast. Knowest
thou the taste thereof ? Of real cream toast ? light, rich,
smooth, that sootheth the inflamed membrane of the
throat, and maketh the diaphragm to rejoice exceed-
ingly? Item, broiled chicken a marvel of juicy tender-
ness; an omelette aux fines herbes which was an inspira-
tion"
" For Heaven's sake 1 " Orrin feigned to tear his hair.
"If you don't want to be murdered in your bed, hold
your tongue I "
Roy was in a paroxysm of laughter ; Wyllys, scowling
horribly, had snatched the poker and was making adroit
passes at him, like the cunning master of fence he was,
when Jessie, ignorant of the liberty Phoebe had taken,
and supposing her patient to be alone, entered. She had
a waiter in one hand containing a silver pitcher and
goblet, and a plate in the other, heaped with hotliouse
grapes. Transfixed with astonishment at the spectacle
within she stopped on the threshold. Her amazement
was not lessened when Orrin, replacing his weapon on
the hearth, threw himself into a chair and covered his
face with his handkerchief.
" A victim of covetousnees 1 " exclaimed Roy, trying
to check his merriment.
" Of misplaced confidence ! " uttered Orrin, gloomily,
removing his cambric, and arising with a show of mel-
ancholy composure. "I hope I have the pleasure of
seeing you quite well, Mrs. Fordham 1 I should judge so
from your blooming appearance, but having just had a
JESSAMINE. 311
notable lesson in the deceitf ulness of outward seeming,
I am sceptical as to the evidence of the senses and human
reason.'*
" A dash of scepticism is like vaccine virus, a useful
thing, where there is fear of infection," said Jessie, not
comprehending what had gone before, and not choosing
to ask questions of him.
She bowed in passing him, making of her full hands a
tacit excuse for the cavalier salutation, a pretext that
was transparent to the person she intended to slight.
Depositing her burden upon a table, she bent over it,
pretending to re-arrange the grapes and stir the contents
of the pitcher, that her face might cool before he had a
chance to scrutinize it. His presence in this place was
odious to her. What had she, in her self-abasement and
earnest reachings after a nobler life than he had ever
thought of, or aspired to, to do with his masquerad-
ing tricks and persiflage f His mummery, then and
there, was more than heartless it was an insult to her,
with the recollection of her broken vows and blighted
life, dogging every thought of possible happiness. Her
residence in Hamilton had no severer trial than these
chance encounters with him ^her husband's nearest of kin.
" Nectar and grapes of Eshcol ! " he exclaimed in a
tone of calm despair, referring to the contents of waiter
and plate. " You may not believe it, Mrs. Fordham ^in
fact I don't expect you to, for it is the nature of your sex
to trust and trust again, but you are nourishing a ser-
pent ! a base trickster ! yet one of whose want of origi-
nality I am ashamed. The interesting invalid dodge is
the stalest and flimsiest known to the guild of artful
dodgers. Now, if I were in his place "
312 JESSAMINE.
" I am heartily glad ybu are not I " escaped Jessie,
against her will to treat hi in with civility for Eoy's sake.
Her emphasis of sincerity was unmistakable and
wrought with various effect upon her two auditors.
" So am I ! " laughed Hoy, his eyes alight with more
than mirth. " The grapes you cannot touch, my grasping
friend I They were a present to me, not an hour since,
from Miss Fanny Provost a basketful, wreathed with
exquisite flowers. She believes in the reality of my in-
teresting invalidism. As for the nectar give him a sip
Jessie, please 1 It is not fair that one man should
monopolize all the good things of life."
Jessie poured out the draught, without jest or smile ;
then stood back with a gesture that bade him help him-
self if he would. She would not be a party to the sport,
Orrin perceived.
" A missish, spiteful show . of disdain 1 " he thought,
contemptuously. " She is hardly worth a scene 1 "
To show that he was not repelled or overawed, he ad-
vanced a step ; took up the goblet with a profound obei-
sance ; stared her in the eyes, and swallowed a moulM ul.
Iloy^s shout of exultation and the uncontrollable grimace
of the dupe, moved Jessie to a smile, but she did not
speak.
"Wit5hes' broth?" queried Orrin, with the tragical
gi'avity of one who has made up his mind to die like a
man.
" So Socrates might have glared and growled 1 " said
Roy. " ' The hemlock, jailor ? ' " mimicking the other's
tone. " Not this time, my dear fellow I Only sage tea,
sweetened with honey and stiffened with alum ^an in-
comparable gargle, according to such eminent authorities
JWSSAMmS. 313
as Miss Eanice Kirke, her sister, and, last and least, Dr.
Bradley."
Orrin took up his hat, undismayed to the last.
" Sage tea 1 I go home a wiser, if not a better man ! I
am glad to see there is nothing the matter with yon, Roy,
while 1 lament, as one of yonr blood and lineage, over
your unblushing hypocrisy. Mrs. Fordham ^"
"You used to call her * Jessie,'" interrupted Roy. " I
said, ' Cousin Hester,' yesterday, to your bride. Shall I
imitate your formal address ? "
" No ! But my little wife is august in nobody's eyes.
Whereas, Mrs. Fordham Cousin Jessie 1 beg your
pardon ! Wliich shall it be ? "
His back was to Roy ; his meaning gaze upon herself
was, to her perception, audacious insolence. Not daring
to resent it in Roy's hearing, she yet obeyed the wifely
impulse to seek his protection.
" That is for your cousin to decide. My name belongs
to him ! " She said it proudly, flashing her wide eyes
from one to the other, and moving involuntarily nearer
to Roy.
Wyllys caught up the last words.
" His relations should be yours, if the partnership be in
good faith, and on equal terms."
" That is for him to decide ! " answered she, precisely
as before.
" Thank you ! I do not shirk the responsibility," said
Roy putting himself in the breach as usual, when he saw
her non-plussed or disturbed. " Another sip of nectar,
Orrin, before you breast the storm ? "
A wry face was the response, and the most fascinating
man in Hamilton bowed himself out. As he drew the
14
314 JESSAMINE.
door to after him, he glanced across the hall. The room
Koy had showed him as his was opposite, and the door
open. There was lire in that grate also ; a lady's sewing-
chair in front of it, and a work-box he recognized as
Jessie's on the small table beside it On the back of the
chair hung a linen apron, with pockets, such as he had
seen her wear when engaged in household tasks in
Dundee, or gardening. He guessed directly that she had
(^topped in there to lay it off when she brought up the
gargle. That this was her apartment, he was sure, when
another step revealed a bureau with a ladies' dressing-
case open upon it. .
" Separate apartments ! " he mused, picking his steps
lightly down the cottage stairs. "Very unsentimental!
Very un-American! decidedly independent and jolly.
But, in this case, what is the meaning of it ? "
He believed he had the clue to the mystery before he
inserted his latch-key in the door of his or his wife's
house. Jessie Fordham could not forget that Jessie
Kirke had loved him. The decent show of conjugal
felicity he had witnessed that day was a hollow crust
below which the lava still surged and seethed. Jessie
was more faithful to the one great passion of her life,
and less philosophical than he had been ready to believe.
Her scrupulous avoidance of him whenever this could
be done without awakening suspicion ; the half bitter
retorts that fell now and then from the lips she would
t)*ain to the utterance of conventional lies ; the indignant
sparkle of the eyes that answered the searching appeal
of his what were all these but the ill-concealed tokens
of an attachment that had so inwrought itself with the
fibres of heart and being as to defy her strenuous at^
JESSAMINE, 315
tempts to pluck it forth, or keep it out of sight. It was
a revelation to him, and a flattering one one that merited
serious consideration.
The devil gat hold of him in that hour ; sifted him as
wheat, bringing all that was base in his nature upper-
most. Heretofore, he had shunned everything that
could secure for him the reputation of a cioisbeo. When
a woman was once married, she became an object of in-
difference to him. He accounted the pursuit of such, a
hazardous and flavorless exhibition of Lothario-ism
which the refined age should frown down. He was not
a gourmand or libertine, he had often proudly asserted
to himself. Pleasures of that stamp he left to men of
grosser tastes and coarser grain. He had meant to allow
his cousin all the domestic peace which should honestly
fall to his share, and to cultivate amicable relations with
his cousin-in-law Roy's wife, who had given conclusive
evidence of intelligent appreciation of himself.
But if Jessie were unhappy ; not on terms with her
respectable husband, cleverly as both dissembled if
Jessie still loved him
" C^est une autre chose ! " he muttered between his
teeth, and complacently knocking the snow oflE his boots
upon the marble steps of his " mansion."
His most heartless propositions always sought cover in
the facile foreign tongue.
A writer in the last generation defined an egotist to be
" One who would bum down his neighbor's house to boil
an egg for himself."
Orrin Wyllys was an Egotist.
CnAPTEE XXIL
HE snow-stonn waxed furious as the day wore on.
Jessie unclosed the blinds of the windows oppo-
site tlie bed, tliat Hoy might see it in all its might
and beauty.
" It is A foot deep in the street," she said.
" The evergreens in the Campus are loaded ; the firs
and junipers are like enormous sugar-loaves, and some of
the slighter trees cedar and arbor-vitse are bowed
nearly double. There is one" ^laughing with almost
her olden glee ^' the ambitious arbor-vit near the east
gate, which you said last Sunday, ^ carried too much sail
aloft for a gale,' whose crown not only touches the
ground, but is frozen there, while the roots hold firm.
I wish you could see it 1 It reminds me of the poor lady
who, in her rage to be ultra-fashionable, had her hair
dressed very d la ChinoisejdTSigged up so high and
twisted so tightly on the back of her head, that she could
not get her heels to the floor. I do enjoy a grand old-
JESSAMINE. 317
fashioned enow-Btorml None of the petulant flurries
with swirling flakes, that spend their strength in an hour,
but such a tempest as this, that does not abate under a
day and a night. One has such a delicious feeling of
home comfort and seclusion ^the almost certainty that
strangers will not intermeddle with fireside joys and in-
terests while the household is shut in 1 was about to
say tucked in snugly by the great white veil."
Eoy liked to hear her talk. Her girlish prattle was
more charming to him than the profoundest disquisitions
of scholars, or the brilliant repartee of literary coteries.
Aware of this, and that part of her nuraely duty was to
amuse the patient ; ignorant that his heart was leaping
with a new-born hope, so sweet and sudden that his head
whirled dizzily under its influence, and the world took on
rarest robes of beauty, she rambled on, her eyes bent
upon the driving fleeces without. She had never been
handsomer than now. Every trace of the shock that had
prostrated nervous forces and reason, three months be-
fore, was gone from figure and countenance, while she
thought only of gratifying her companion and her own
fancy for a wild, winter day. Not dreaming of the im-
passioned gaze that dwelt upon her, she stx)d in an
attitude of careless grace, a half smile playing about her
mouth.
"As she used to stand in the oriel, at sunset ! " thought
Koy, with an unheard sigh. " Is all that, then,
*^ ^ The tender grace of a day that is dead ' ?
Can it ' never come back to me ? ' "
"I can think how Old Windbeam would wrap this
mantle about his head and shoulders," resumed Jessie,
318 JSaSAMMR
more Boftly. ^^ IIow blackly the pines show against bis
sides I The meadows ai*e an immense mSrinffue/
Willow Creek is frozen and invisible mider the snow
BO tightly locked within its banks that its groans can be
heard, in the pauses of the storm, all the way to the Par-
sonage. I used to lie awake on sharp, frosty nights, and
hear the rumble of the imprisoned air running all the
way from the upper bridge down to the falls. The holly-
berries on the tree by the front porch peep out saucily
from the little woolly piles that collect upon the spikes
and leaves ; the church-yard is level from fence to fence
oh,Eoyr'
With the cry, she sank down upon a low seat, weeping
as from the depths of a riven heart.
" Under the snow ! under the snow ! " she reiterated, in
a transport of distress. " I cannot bear to think of it 1 "
" Come to me, dear Jessie 1 " said Fordham, in gentle
command. He hardly expected that she would obey,
but she did, groping her way by reason of the blinding
tears, and sobbing unrestrainedly. He had not seen her
weep before since the night of her arrival at the cottage.
" Sit here 1 " he said, designating a chair at his side.
" I have something to say when you can hear it. These
teare will ease your burdened heart, and they are due to
the memory of the dear ones who are for a little while
out of our sight."
She had stifled her sobs, but her head was still bowed ;
her frame heaved in the ground-swell of the passing
storm.
" For a little while ! Out of our sight 1 " he repeated,
thoughtfully ^longingly. " We shall be together all of
us very soon. Did you ever ask yourself if you would
JESSAMINE. 31^
be able to await the call of tJie Master all your appointed
time ; ever imagine what a crushing load mortality and
its ills would be to you, if, * while in the body pent,' you
could be a witness of the blessedness of those who are
' forever with the Loed ' ? Dear child 1 The Father leads
us as wisely as lovingly ! "
The expression of his religious faith and experience
never sounded like cant, even in the ears of the scoffer.
It was a part of his life. His utterances were fearless,
simple, fervent, enforcing respect for their author, although
the listener might not be in sympathy with their spirit.
Jessie ceased to weep or sigh while he talked ; presently
showed her tear-stained face, tremulous with sad smiles,
and laid her hand timidly upon his.
" Thank you 1 Every Word is a drop of comfort. But
so much talking is bad for your throat, and the fever will
return if you are agitated. It was childish and selfish in
me to give way as I did. But," her lip quivering anew
" it came in upon me like a flood ! the happy by-gone
hours and the dear old manse ! Just how it all looked, as
I had seen it, a hundred times in the winter weather I al-
ways loved. And the changes and where they are
now ! "
" I ought to thank you for allowing me to sorrow with
and try to console you. Don't be afraid of me, dear 1
afraid to bring your trials, with your pleasures, to your
friend. If left to yourself, just now, if I had not called
you to me, you would have rushed away to hide your
tears in your own room. You never wound me except
when you act and look as if you stood in dread of my dis-
pleasure or criticism. Won't you be candid and tell me
why this is so ? Am I a very cruel taskmaster % Do you
830 JBaBAMINE.
not believe me when I say that I desire no otiier earth] j
good as I do to make you contented happy, if that
can be."
" I do believe it 1 I should be slow to see and to be
convinced if I did not 1 " began Jessie, the truth trembling
upon her tongue. The temptation to unbosom herself
without fear and reserve was very strong. ** But I feel
myself to be unworthy of your regard, and the goodness
you show me. And you are so wise and discreet so self-
contained "
A pang changed his features. He stirred restlessly,
biting his lip to keep back a repetition of the word " self-
contained ! " that would have been a groan.
" You are suffering ! " said Jessie, anxiously. "'I have
made you worsp 1 "
" No ; a passing pain that is all 1 You always make
me better. What should I have done without you, to-day,
my kind nurse ? "
A perverse tit, one of her spoiled-child fi'eaks^ seized
Jessie.
" Phoebe would have taken excellent care of you ! "
she said, demurely, casting down her eyes to hide the
gleam of mischief darting up to the surface. "She
wanted to make brown gravy soup, and roast a fat duck
for your dinner, with mince-pie ' to leave a nice taste in
his mouth, ma'am.' And she persists in the belief that a
gargle of red-peppertea, with mustard-draughts upon your
feet, and a cayenne poultice about your throat 'would
pull you through,' when doctor's stuffs fail. .As to so-
ciety, yonr cousin, or, maybe. Dr. Baxter would have
come in to cheer you up. What a godsend a big linen
sheet would be to the good President, on a day like tliis,
jmSAMINB. 321
with a listener who is hors du combat with a hoarse
cold ! "
" I have not needed to be cheered up, since I saw the
first glimpse of your face, this morning 1 " answered Eoy,
unguardedly. Conficious that he was trenching upon for-
bidden ground, he diverted the conversation. " What a
flow of spirits Orrin has ! I did hurt my throat laughing
at his tragieo-oomico envy of my surroundings. I wish
he had a homey one like this, if it were shared by a con-
genial companion, a woman who was more nearly his
equal, mentally and morally, than the one he has chosen.
He would be much happier than he can hope to bo in the
splendid pile he calls by that name."
" He* seems perfectly satisfied with wife and house," re-
turned Jessie, dryly. " And the marriage was certainly
one of preference on Miss Sanford's part. Not that I
admire or like her, and I know her better than you do.
But I am persuaded that we waste oar pity when we ex-
pend it on either of them."
They chatted, then, of various matters in the familiar
style in which their convereations were generally carried
on, until the day closing in abont them, the fii^ spread a
mellow radiance over the area immediately around it :
the white bed and the noble head laid high on the pil-
lows ; upon Jessie's earnest face and crown of raven hair.
It was the hour and the scene for the confidential talk of
husband and wife ; the outpouring of true soul to true ;
the only unrestrained heart-communion this side the
Land where subterfuge and disguise are unknown ; speech
as far more excellent and satisfying than the language of
unwedded lovers as the perfume from the unfolded lily
sui-passes that which steals from the bud.
14*
822 JEBSAMINK
Between these two, love was neither named nor hinted
at. The wife's hands lay crossed upon her knees, and the
husband did not offer to hold or touch them, or stroke
the beautiful hair with which the betrothed had toyed
unrebuked. It was an anomalous intimacy, the restraints
and courtesies of which would have been laughed at as
affectations, if the story of them were not totally discred-
ited by the world outside " the great white veil " that
shut them into their home, theirs in name and in fact
Jessie got up, at length, stepping over the carpet with-
out rustle or jar, " the poetry of motion," thought the
looker-on, and laid more coals upon the fiery mass in the
grate. Many-colbred flames shot up through and darted,
like living serpents, along the pile ; the low crackling
and hissing of the igniting lumps awoke a cricket in the
chimney-comer. Jessie, kneeling on the rug, glanced
over her shoulder, on hearing the cheery chirp, and
smiled at Bov.
" You don't treat the crickets on your hearth as Gruff-
and Tackleton boasted that he did ' crunch 'em, sir 1 '
I like to hear the little busybodies don't you ? "
Without rising, when she had seemed to hearken for a
while, she began to sing, ^yy had not heard a note from
her, even in church, since their marriage, and he held bis
breath, lay motionless, lest she should awaken from her
reverie. It was an old ballad she was crooning half
Scotch, and with a thought of pathos in the melody, al-
though the words were not plaintive.
" ^Tis rare to see the morning bleeze,
Like a bonfire, frae the sea ;
'Tis fair to see the bumie kiss
The Up o^ the flowery lea.
JESSAMINE. 323
And fine it is on green hillglde
Where hums the bonnie bee,
But rarer, fairer, finer far.
Is the Ingleside to me."
A light roseate film hid her from Roy's eyes. The
Ingleside, where she now knelt I his and hers 1 did she
really love it so well as not to pine for the haunts of her
girlhood ? And what had pressed that cry from her that
was still echoing through his heart-chambers ? the appeal
that would have meant in a loving wife uncontrollable
yearning for the sympathy of him who best knew her
needs and her sorrows ?
" O, Hoy ! " she had said, hands outstretched as if to
fasten upon his for support in the deep waters. It im-
ported more a million times more, that childlike wail
to him than all she had afterward expressed of gratitude
and esteem. In that hour, consecrate forever by what his
musings brought forth, he resolved to woo and win a
second time the only woman he had ever loved ; who he
had believed was lost to him for all time, chained as she
was to his side, forced into a relation she abhorred by
vows her dying father and he impatient, ruthless lover I
^had put into her mouth. He would be very wary, very
patient, but love like his must conquer in the end*
Doubts might oppose him in tlie broad light of day and
common-sense, but he would not be turned aside. He
did not underrate the difficulties that lay in the way of
this novel wooing. Jessie was no longer the fresh-heart-
ed, impetuous girl who had laid her hand confidingly in
his (his palm thrilled now in the recollection !) as he sat
by her in the oriel-window, the shadows of the tossing
jessamine-bells " joy-bells," he called them cast upon
324 JESSAMINE,
her white dress and the carpet by the April sanshine ;
the dewiness' and scents of the Spring morning in the air;
the " light that was never on land and sea '* glorifying the
eyes uplifted to his.
Faulty, but frank, with a mind stored with crade
riches, a heart whose capacity for love and Love's Bacri-
fices even he had divined rather than discovered she had
been easily won, though not lightly sought. Now, the
luxuriant womanliness, the growth of which he marked
from day to day in h&r phyaiquey had not kept pace with
the chastened development of her inner nature. If he
had said in that early stage of " Love's Young Dream "
" She is like no other girl I ever met ! " she was now a
veritable unique a gem a monarch might be proud to
set in his diadem.
For all that, he would win her! Should she arise
from her lowly place by the ingle, and without a word of
explanation or excuse for what was past, again give him
her hand, saying merely, ^* I love you 1 " he would let all
that had been enigmatical in their intercourse go from
his remembrance at once and entirely ; would trust her
with his honor and affections, above all and through all
that might stagger his faith in another. Was his a piti*
f ul, cringing spirit ? Was it a high or a mean type of
human love that made him, possessing his tried soul in
more abundant patience, say in the prospect of the tedi-
ous and cautious, it might be the arduous, approach to
the goal of his desires, that must be his, if he would make
success a certainty ;
^' And they seemed unto him hut a few days for the lov4
he had to her ! "
%
CHAPTER XXTTI,
BS. OERIN WYLLTS had "run in very sociably''
to chat for an hour with her dear cousin, Mrs.
Fordham.
" Orrin brought me to the door," she said,
divestirig herself of her fur cloak, and untying
the coquettish hood that half covered her head. "I
knew Mr. Fordham would be at the meeting in the Town
Hall. Orrin promised to meet him there. He can't bear
for me to be alone, so he offered to leave me to a com-
fortable dish of gossip with you while he attended to the
interests of the * dear people.' Of course, it is very grat-
ifying to 'have one's husband so popular, but I often tell
Orrin that I don't see one-tenth nor one-hundredth part
as much of him as I ought to. I don't believe there is
another man in the United States who is so run after.
Not that this surprises me," tittering and trying to blush.
" I, of all people alive, ought to have most charity with
such devotion. It is a consolation to be assured that he
326 JESSAMINE,
regrets these numerous draughts upon his time as mnch
80 I do, and I am not disposed to be jealous. I do think
mutual confidence is just the sweetest thing in the world.
Between married lovers, I mean. What are you so busy
about?"
Jessie's work-basket was heaped with calico and flannel.
" Making clothes for some poor children," she answered,
" If you will excuse me, I will go on with my work, as
the garments are sadly needed."
" Certainly 1 I shall be more at my ease if you do not
seem to mind my being here. You are the most indus-
trious woman I know. It positively fatigues one to watch
yon. I suppose, though, there is everything in being
trained to such habits from childhood. Now, I haven't
a thing to do from morning to night, which is lucky, for
I have always been so carefully waited upon from my
cradle up to the present hour, when my darling husband
will hardly let me put my foot to the ground without his
assistance. You can't imagine how auxpetits soins he is
in the retirement of our sweet, sweet home 1 True, the
house is large, preposterously large as I told my dear,
indulgent father when he bought it. And as Orrin is
fond of style, and I have always been used to it, we keep
up a ridiculous establishment when one considere the size
of the family. Now, I dare say, you keep but two or
three women-servants, and maybe no man at all, as you
have no carriage of your own ? "
" Phoebe is our only servant," said Jessie, unperturbed
at having to state the mortifying fact with which Mrs.
Wyllys was already acquainted.
" Is it possible I " looking curiously about her through
her gold eye-glass. "Yet everything about your little
JB88AM1NEL 327
place is as neat as a pin. What a valuable creatare she
must be! I declare I mnst tell Orrin that! ^Five ser-
vants to wait upon two people, my love 1 ' I said to him
this very evening. * It is frightful extravagance ! ' But
he insists that I shall be relieved from all drudgery,
knowing how delicately I have been reared. If I were
fond of work, I should be puzzled how to employ myself
at the hours when there are no visitors. When I am
ennui/ie in Orrin's absence, I have only to run across the
street to my uncle's, Judge Provost's, to find plenty of
society. What a houseful of children they have 1 I told
Oi-rin yesterday, that it was lucky he never fancied
Jeannie Provost (who, to whisper a secret, was just per-
fectly crazy after him !) My uncle has a large fortune,
but it will be cut up by the rule of long division at his
death. How fast you sewl Tour proUgea are some of
your Dundee parishioners, I suppose ? " condescendingly
to the woman of low estate.
" No. The few poor there are so well cared for by
their neighbors as not to require my help. This is work
allotted me by the Managers of the Hamilton Charitable
Society. There is much suffering here this winter."
"Ahl" indifferently. "Orrin doesn't approve of my
attending these Women's Societies. He says it would
unsex me that he so admires my thorough womanliness !
And, after all, when people can give money to the col-
lectors and visitors and agents, and all that kind of nui-
sance, there is no use in doing anything else. The de-
mands upon us in the name of charity, are just perfectly
awful ! I said to Orrin dear, generous soul ! this very
morning ^My sweet love, you must positively bear in
mind that we are not q;mte made of money ! ' "
32S JEaSAMIKEL
A photograph npon a haudsome easel attracted her at-
tention, and the eye-glass was on duty.
" Is that a fancy picture, or a portrait ? '*
^ It is a likeness of my sister."
^' Indeed I Is she single or married ? What is her
name ? "
" Her name is Eanice Kirke."
" Ah ! a spinster f She is a very nice-looking person !
As yon were saying, the winter is severe 1 Bat the skat-
ing and sleighing are snperb ! I was on the ice several
times last week with Orrin. He's such a splendid
skater : I am so proud to be seen with him I I suppose
you must have heard how much attention we attract
whenever we appear ? "
" I see very little of general society, this winter," Jes*
Bie politely evaded the inquiry. " I am not in the way
of hearing about gay assemblies of any kind."
" Oh, yes ! I forgot you were wearing black. But yoo
shouldn't bury yourself too much, even to keep your
house in this lovely order. I have seen you out driving
several times with Mrs. Baxter, and said to Orrin what a
convenience you must find her carriage. And while I
think of it, do let me call by for you some day in the
sleigh I Orrin and I have spoken of doing it, scores of
times, but to confess the truth, we are just AlitHe selfish I
We 80 enjoy riding together, that we neglect our friends.
Before I married Orrin, some ofilcious friends advised
me not to expect much attention from him after the
wedding, ^ because he was a ladies' man.' Such were
notoriously indiflFerent to their wives' comfort, I was in-
formed. Even my cousin the Attoniey-general's lady
said to me, *My dear Hester! Mr. Wyllys is channing
JESSAMINE. 329
but I am afraid he is too cbartuing to take kindly to
domesticity 1 ' I nearly cried myself sick ! But I turned
a deaf ear to the croakers, and obeyed the dictates of my
own heart. Kow, I am reaping the reward of my wise
action. It may sound boastful in me, but I don't be-
lieve my Orrin has his equal as a husband in the uni-
vei'se. His devotion to me is miraculous. I understand
that we have the reputation of being the most love-sick
couple in town, but I don't care ! Let those that laugh
win and I have won ! The women try to ridicule us
because they are envious. It is not for me to say why
the men do it I " A giggle and a violent sidewise toss of
the head. " The worst they can say is, that we are more
in love with one another now, than we were before our
marriage. It is true, and we glory in it. My only fear
is, that my darling husband may become too domestic in
his perfect content with his wife and his home. It is
very sweet and beautiful in him, but I often force him
to go abroad, both with, and without me, to counteract
this tendency."
Jessie stitched on diligently, with a half smile the visi-
tor mistook for pleased interest in her theme, when it
was in reality, made up of amusement and contempt.
She could have had no surer evidence of how completely
she had outgrown girlish foibles and unworthy rivalries ;
how iirmly established she was upon her new plane of
principle, reasoning, and views, than the equanimity
with which she suffered Hester's patronage and open ex-
ultation over herself. Her contemptuous amusement in
retrospection, embraced the would-be belle, who, although
" nothing but a poor minister's daughter," had vied with
the heiress in stylo and popularity. She even had a
880 JE3SAMINS.
passing thought of ridicule for the memory of the dark-
greeu walking dresB, trimmed with fur, and the sweeping
green plume. Such paltry contests as they looked to her
now ! such an insignificant opponent was this brainless,
conceited creature before her I
Her boastins: Mrs. Fordham valued at its true worth.
Through Mi*s. Baxter she had learned that the exactions,
caresshigs, and braggadocio of Wyllys^s bride made him
the laughing stock of his associates. Her fortune was
settled upon herself in terms that put it beyond his man-
agement, and his graceful insotunance had occasionally
proved insufficient to cover his chagrin at her unsparing
use of the power this arrangement gave her. Elated to
rapture at her success in securing him, she paraded their
mutual affection ad natiseam in whatever company they
entered; people said, dragged him abroad against his
will in order to do this. In tlie lai^ circle of her hus-
band's acquaintances, she was received with a degree of
distinction, she chose to believe was homage to her
charms and worth, and superadded to the egregious van-
ity and pretension of the heiress, her complacency in the
dignity of the married woman was ludicrous beyond de-
scription.
She was arrayed to-night in a blue Irish poplin, bor-
dered on oversldrt, sleeves and basque with ermine ; there
were diamonds in her ears, upon her fingera, and clustered
in her brooch, and artificial fiowere in her hair.
" How I envy you for the easy time you have with your
dress;" she remarked, incidentally to Jessie. "That is
the only advantage one has in wearuig mourning. You
cannot imagine what a deal of time and labor I must ex-
pend upon my toilette. Orrin is even harder to please in
JESSAMINE, 331
these matters than I am. If be had his way I should
always be in full dress."
Her voice had always upon Jessie a peculiar and un-
pleasant effect, akin to that produced by the touch of
8ome viscid substance. But she was Mrs. Orrin Wyllys.
This was the end of his " dream of fair women I " to be-
come the petted henchman of a homely, seliish, arbitrary,
silly, and wealthy wife.
"How can you endure to touch that coarse work?"
was her next essay, with a gesture of her be-ringed fingers
like filliping off an obnoxious insect. " Why, that is a
flannel petticoat isn't it ? "
" Yes."
"Does Mr. Fordham ever catch yoij at that sort of
sewing ? "
" Sometimes."
Jessie had her quiet little smile of satisfaction at the
thought of the delightful evenings she had had since this
task was commenced, for Rov read aloud to her while she
sewed.
" 1 am astonished he tolerates it I Orrin is so fastidi-
ous ; has such an exalted appreciation of my refinement,
that I wouldn't dare let him see me handle such a gar-
ment. I think the more careful we are to maintain
a certain degree of modest reserve in the presence
of our husbands, the more we shrink from all things
common and unclean, the better they will love us. I
dread lowering myself to the level of a commonplace
woman in my beloved Orrin's eyes ; would keep myself
his divinity while I can. But 1 know I am an exception
in this respect, that with most married couples, disen-
chantment comes with the wane of the honeymoon."
332 JESaAMINK
Jessie nnderstood the thitist conveyed in the borrowed
phrases, enunciated with monkey -like gravity. She bad *
had others like it from the same source. The narrow soul
and heart of the speaker had never let her forgive Mrs.
Fordham for having once played in her sight the pai-t of
chief favorite upon Orrin's list of belles. He had glossed
over the circumstance of his pointed attentions to tlie
country girl, by representing her relations to his cousin ;
had sworn sounding oaths, more loud than deep, that he
had never whispered to her of love and his wife listened
and disbelieved. At any rate, the Hamilton wiseacres
gave the poorer woman the credit of the conquest, and
the knowledge of this was the Banquo at Hester's coi-ona-
tion-feast.
" But you and our good cousin Roy are such awfully
practical people I " ran on the chatterer. " I have told
Orrin twenty times that I didn't believe your husband
kissed you once aweek. I should be disconsolate if mine
did not kiss me whenever he went out and came in not
to mention dozens of times besides. However, as my
blessed, charitable old love says, people differ wonderfully
in temperament. Now, we are so ardent ! '^
" As you say, diversity of temperament accounts for
much tha( seems singular in action," remarked Jessiefcom-
posed ly.
There was a strange aching at her heart as she said it.
Looking at the flat, flaccid visage of her interlocutor, she
would have declared it to be impossible for her to wound
her by this inane twaddle, peppered with weak spite.
Yet she had set a nerve ajar.
" If I had a husband " the " practical " woman was
saying to herself "his kisses would be too dear and
JESSAMINE, 333
sacred to be counted over and boasted of to others. If I
had a husband ! Heaven help me I I have none 1 "
The china-bhie eyes of the shallow pate over there
would have glittered with malicious delight in her own
shrewdness, had she guessed how near to the truth was
her description of the external intercourse of those whom
the church and the world named as one.
"It is awfully nice to be married!" she rattled on,
growing more and more confidential. " There is such solid
comfort in the reflection that your destiny is accomplished.
No more need for anxiety and setting one's cap, and all
that. I shall never forget the delicious peace that filled
my whole soul when I first heard myself called ^ Mrs.
Wyllysl' when I appreciated that the irrevocable step
was taken. Still, it seems very sudden. It is just a year
siuco I heard Orrin spoken of as your beau a funny
mistake, as you know, but I didn't then. Oh ! how angry
I was ! for I had determined, even then, that he should
fall in love with me. Maybe you recollect the time ? It
was one day when we were playing billiards at Judge
Provost's, and somebody Fanny, I believe said he was
your teacher. Afterward, the girls began talking about
Mr. Fordham's attentions to another young lady never
supposing that he was engaged to you all the fime. By
the way did I ever tell you that my dear, upright, kind-
hearted husband charged me to mention to you ih&ithat
was all a foolish mistake ? "
" What was a mistake ? "
Jessie looked up, arresting the swift, even motion of
her fingers.
"Why, the story of Mr. Fordham's engagement to
Maria Dunn, a young lady of our city."
334 JEBSAMINS.
" r recollect that you stated it as a fact," returned Jes-
sie, pointedly. " She was an intimate friend of yours, you
said, and that you had the tale directly from her. You
said, moreover, that Mr. Fordliam had called upon you, in
company with her."
Hester's thin skin was mottled with mulberry.
" Well, yes ! wo were a good deal together, at one time,
and she certainly did lead me to believe that Mr. Ford-
ham was in love with her now I- come to think of it. I
have forgotten the exact circumstances, but there was
some talk about it and she did all she could to excite
sympathy, until she took a fancy to marry another man.
A miserably poor match she made a clerk upon a salary
of two thousand dollars 1 and her father with seven chil-
dren 1 Thetiy she vowed there had never been any
attachment between herself and Mr. Fordham. She was
related to the friends he was visiting, and he happened to
act as her escort once or twice. For my part, I am sure
he never gave her reason to think that he cared a rush for
her. She was one of those girls who are always running
after the men, and fancy that every gentleman who looks
at them is going to propose on the spot. If there is one
creature whom I despise above all others, it is a woman
who thinks marriage the chief end of her existence. I
really thought I had spoken to you about this, long ago.
Dear Orrin told me to do it, just after we were married.
Ho said you might allude to the affair in talking with Mr.
Fordham, and I might be drawn into a libel-suit or fuss
of some kind, I can't see how I came to forget it I
am usually so particular in following his advice 1 '*
Jessie gathered nothing intelligible from the monologue
after this. The gleam of her needle was a dull sparK be-
JESSAMINE, 335
fore her eyes, and the viscid drawl had some vague 'asso-
ciation in. her mind with the slimy trail of a snake.
Once, the slender steel broke between her fingers. Twice
she understood, from the other's interrogative intonation
that she waited a reply, and she supplied one at random.
A sharp thought aroused her at last, to put a question
in her turn.
" You say Mr. "Wyllys told you to correct the unfavor-
able impression he fancied this story might have pro-
duced upon my mind. When did he first refer to the sub-
ject?"
" O, for that matter, he asked me about it before we
were engaged. And, wasn't I properly frightened when
I found you had told tales out of school ? Of course, I
made as light of it as possible, and when he paid his first
visit to B , I set it all straight by telling him I was
certain it was a fabrication. I had had reasons for doubt-
ing Maria's veracity and honor in other respects. Would
you believe it? The girl actually tried to attract Orrin's
notice, after she knew he was engaged to me ! "
Jessie had no means of determining how much, or how
little truth there was in this statement. It mattered noth-
ing to her who had been the more culpable in the decep-
tion practised upon her the intriguing husband, or the
foolish wife. It was probable both had prevaricated
grossly and maliciously. It was certain that they had
together wrought her great and irreparable harm. The
long-delayed explanation was worse than useless. The
one maligned by the mischievous gossip had been cast off,
and alienated. She should never have the courage to
confess the whole wrong to him now.
Unless
CHAPTER XXIV.
I HEN Eoy retnnied his cousin was with him,
Mrs. Wyllys launched herself into the hall at
sound of their voices, her bright azure train ^ wide
dispread ; ' her arms extended like the yards of a
ship.
^^ My darling I " casting her entire weight against his
chest, a hand upon each shoulder, and putting up a tight
knot of a month for the kiss marital. ^^ What an eternity
you have been absent I I have been ever so uneasy
about you 1 "
8he re-entered the sitting-room, hanging by her clasped
hands upon his arm, and warbling in her thin falsetto,
" Now you have come, all my fears are removed,
Let me forget that so long yon have zovecL I "
It was not in human nature, even such a gentlemanly
nature as Hoy's, to remain unmoved by the spectacle.
His risible muscles were still rebellious when he invited
JE88AMINE. 837
Orrin to seat liimself near the fire, and observed in tones
that would waver, despite politeness and pity, that " the
night was very cold."
An awkward little pause ensued. Orrin's chair was at
Jessie's right hand, and he turjied slightly in that direc-
tion while stooping to warm his hands at the blazing
hearth, as if expecting some hospitable demonstration
from her. She folded her work as neatly as if handling
satin instead of flannel, laid it within her basket and set
it back, and, with a word of apology, left the room to or-
der refreshments for the guests. On her return, she en-
tered from the parlors that she might more easily reach a
divan on the opposite side of the hearth from Orrin.
Hester was whispering to her husband, and Eoy, whose
seat was next that Jessie had taken, glanced down at her
with a smile of cheerful greeting, as she made the ex-
change. She met it with eyes that well-nigh destroyed
his composure. Mournful to wretchedness ; appealing
to supplication, they seemed to lay her soul open to his
regards; to ask of him was it succor or forgiveness?
it could not be affection !
She, at least, ought to have known Wyllys too well to
imagine if she thought of him at all ^that the silent by-
play would pass unnoticed and uncomprehended by him.
In his bachelorhood, the expression of aversion to his
proximity, and the mute resort to her husband's protec-
tion, would have amused and incited him to the exercise
of more potent fascinations. But Jessie's demeanor, of
late, had irked him unreasonably. He could have sup-
ported an overt show of vindictiveness better than the
dignified indifference that baffled his attempts to re-estab-
lish their confidential relations. Manoeuvre as he might,
. 16
33S JESaAMIKB.
and as he did, he conld never see her for one instant
alone, and this, he was sure, was not accidental. Upon
one pretext or another, he called at the cottage at all
hours most frequently when he knew Boy was engaged
in his professional duties. '^ Mrs. Fordham begged to be
excused," occasionally ; oftener kept him waiting below
until the, to him, inopportune burst of Mrs. Baxter into
the parlor, or Fanny Provost's entrance through the side-
porch next her home, prevented a tite-d^tey
He could not believe that she had taken her, whom he
swore at inwardly as a ^^ chattering cockatoo,'' into her
confidence in a matter so delicate as her unextinguished
passion for himself, but it was plain that the coincidences
which damaged his plans were somebody's work. For a
while he derived some compensation for his disappoint-
ment from the additional evidence thus furnished him
by the short-sighted novice in scheming, that her shyness
was the fruit of cowardice ; that lively coals of love for
him still lurked beneath the ashes with which she would
fain keep them smothered. But his best powers of
finesse had not elicited a flash from these. Adroit ref-
erences to scenes and words which she could not recall
without emotion, if the wonted fires were still there, had
produced as little visible effect as did his ardent protesta-
tions of cousinly attachment. She treated him as she did
a dozen other gentlemen ^neither worse nor better.
Mortification and amazement at his non-success were but
human. Displeasure and the inclination to retaliate upon
the instrument of his discomfiture were unprofessional,
and the display of them impolitic to the last degree.
That he admitted these feelings, was to be accounted for
plausibly only upon the hypothesis that contact with the
JESSAMINE. 339
Bonr whey of his wife's temper had not improved his
own. In times past, he had been too rational, as well as
too firmly entrenched in his self-appreciation, to descend
to serious meditation upon the practice of a quality so
vulgar, and usually so unreraunerative as revenge. Two
whole months had gone by since he laid his plans of ad-
vance upon the fortification of matronly propriety, and
womanly pride, and he had not gained an inch that he
could discover.
It was fortunate for Jessie's self-respect that in her
harshest judgment of his motives and character, she
never surmised what was his present purpose. With her
natural propensity to blame herself for the sins others
committed against her, she would have leaped to the in-
ference that he had seen warrant in her former indis-
cretion and inconstancy, for the belief that neither moral
nor religious principle would serve her successfully in
resisting his declaration of undiminished attachment;
that she who had played false to the lover, would be un-
faithful to the husband, if a similar magnet were pre-
sented to her vacillating heart. She saw, indeed, that he
courted her notice and friendship; believed that she read in
his conduct lingering fears that she might yet betray his
perfidy to Eoy, if she were not propitiated by such sugar-
plums of attention as other women liked. The con-
viction of his cowardice had dealt the heaviest blow at
the idol that crnmbled into common dust on that Sep-
tember day. All vestige of godhood had departed be-
neath the shock. A brave man might sin ; a good man
might, under extreme provocation, be cruel. The caitiff
who slunk away, whining, at sight of the lifted scourge
340 JESSAMINE.
which ehonld punish him for the crime he could not
deny, must forfeit love with esteem.
Wyllys' mood, at sight of the rapid- signal or query
that passed from hasband to wife, was the exact reverse
of amiable, and he was not pacified by Hester's conduct.
Hitching her chair close to her lord's, she stroked Lis
hair and beard, smiling affectedly, in amorous languish-
ment, at her lately purchased vassal, and purring like a cat.
So soon as he could decently seek deliverance from the
absurd situation, Orrin slipped from under the crawling
fingers, and began to examine the books upon the centre-
table.
" Isn't he looking well ? " said his tormentor to ^oj^
showing all her prominent teeth in the affectionate leer
she sent after him.
"Very well. His health has always been excellent, I
believe," rejoined Eoy. "Although his active habits
have hindered the gain of so much as a pound of super-
fluous flesh."
It hurt him to see his gay and gallant clansman in the
humiliating position of a led bear, at the mercy of a
marmoset, but he could not be anything but civil in his
own house.
" Oh ! Oh I don't hint at the possibility of his ever get-
ting ^^.' I think lean people are just ^(t? sweet! I
wouldn't have him altered by the change of a single hair
in his mustache. Women ought to think their hus-
bands perfect, oughtn't they. Cousin Jessie ? "
" If they are perfect I " was the reply.
Mra. Wyllys accomplished a compound toss of her head ;
her ear-rings fairly jingling, and the flowers in her sandy
braids and f rizettes quivering like aspens in an east wind.
JESSAMINE, 341
" That is rank heresy 1 Love that isn't blind is no
love at all. I wouldn't give a fig for the constancy of a
wife who could detect the slightest flaw in the man she
has promised to love, honor, and obey. Would you now,
Mr. Fordham "
" If you would have my candid opinion, I should prefer
intelligent and discriminafing esteem to blind adoration,"
was the courteous rejoinder, at which the lady bridled.
" I might have expected some such answer in this staid,
matter-of-fact household 1 Now, Orrin and I "
" You are true to your penchant for Mrs. Norton, I
perceive ! " Orrin interrupted her unceremoniously, look-
ing across at Jessie. " This is a handsome English
edition of her poems."
" Yes ! I have had it for several years."
" Is that an implication that you would not procure it
now, if you did not possess it ? "
'* I imply nothing, except that she is popular with most
young girls."
" Woman, then, in her maturity of mind and affection,
grows out of the taste for the ' female Byron ' ^f or that is
Mrs. Norton's sohriquet in the literary world?" he said,
interrogatively, and in suave deference to her judgment.
"What some contend poetry should be, ^the lyrical
expression of passion, sounds extravagant to one who
has studied life for herself. Must this be so ? Are there
no recesses far down in the heart where the dew will lie
all day ? Because we have learned to think in sober and
weighty prose, must we blush to remember that our souls
once melted through our eyes as we sang, ^ Thy Name
was Once the Magic Spell,' or read, ' The Tryst,' and
*I Cannot Love Thee?'"
343 JBBSAMnrE.
** I have a song, called * I do not Love Thee,' " in-
terpoBed Mrs. Wyllys. " It is just the sweetest thing yon
ever heard. Let me see I How does the air go ? " hnna-
ming. " I do not love thee 1 No 1 I do not love thee 1 "
" I am tempted to doabt the decline of your admira-
tion for our poetess," pursued Wyllys to Jessie, vrith
royal disregard of his beloved's vocalization. ^^ The booi^
opens of itself at the last-named poem."
" Do read it aloud, lovey 1 " begged Hester, eagerly.
'^ I should so like to hear it ! And he does read poetry
BO exquisitely ! " to the Fordhams. ^^It is just perfectly
delightful to listen to him I I tell him that was the way
he captivated me, with his reading and his singing. They
are too sweet 1 ''
" Let us have it, Orrin I " said Koy, good-humoredly,
desirous to relieve him from the saccharine shower. ^^ I
never read it, I think. But I was always ^ matter-of-
fact,' as Mrs. Wyllys has already discovered. Perhaps
the ^lyrical expression of passion' had less hold upon
my adolescent imagination than it generally has upon im*
pressible youth."
He resigned himself patiently to the hearing of an
ultra-pathetic love-song.
Jessie knew every line of the poem already. She had
said it over to herself, scores of times, last Summer, tos&-
ing wakef uUy upon her pillow at midnight, until the pine
boughs seemed to have caught the rhythm ; or pacing the
garden walks with hurrying feet; or hanging over the
railing of the rustic foot-bridge. But she could not help
listening, as the cunning modulations of the reader drew
out the simple fervor of each line.
A steely-blue ray shot from beneath his eyelashes in
J
JE88AMINE. S43
her direction, as he turned a leaf. She did not see it.
Perfectly still, yet attentive, she had leaned her head
against the high back of her husband's chair, and was
looking straight before her.
The oold dieigrast,
Wondeifal and most nnjust,
found no expression in attitude and feature.
The reader's voice mellowed; the emphasis of sup-
pressed emotion was more artistic and effective.
Seems to me tiiat I ahonld gaess
By what a world of bittemeBs,
By what a gulf of hopeless oare,
Oar two hearts diyided are.
And I praise thee as I go,
Wandering, weary, full of woe
To my own unwilling hearfc,
Cheating it to take thy part,
By rehearsing each rare merit
Which tb^ nature doth inherit ;
How thy heart is good and trae.
And thy face most fair to view ;
How tiie powers of thy mind
Flatterers in the wisest find.
And the talents to thee given.
Seem as held in tnist for Heaven,
Laboring on for noble ends,
Steady to thy boyhood's friends,
Slow to give or take offence,
Fnll of earnest eloquence.
How, in brief, there dwells in thee
All that^s generons and free,
All that may most aptly move
Hy spirit to an answering love.
344 JESSAMINE.
" Was'nt it too funny that she didn't give in to such a
splendid fellow?" queried Hester, sniffing away the
emotion she had tried to sop up with her laced handker-
chief. " I never can hear dear Orrinread without crying,
no matter what the subject is. I couldn't have helped
falling in love with him, I know. It was queer, now I "
fretfully, as she saw Jessie's countenance. " I don't see
what there is amusing about it 1 "
Jessie held her head erect a movement full of spirit
and gladness and laughed. It was no mirthless soond^
but a ripple of real joyousness.
" Very queer 1 " she answered, merrily. " Mr. Wylly a I
we must call upon you to explain the phenomenon. You
evidently understand it. Tou read the poem con amore^^
She sprang up to serve her guests from the waiter
Phcebe had placed upon the table. Koy followed her.
" They tell me you make a delicious article of domestic
wine, Mrs. Fordham of elderberries, or grapes, or
currants or something," said Mrs. Wyllys, bent upon
patronage at every turn. " I hope you are going to treat
us to some of it now."
" * They ' are mistaken 1 " returned Jessie, the merry ring
yet in her voice. "I never attempted anything of the
kind. The best substitute I can offer you for the beverage
you had promised yourself, is Rhenish or Mai^sala which
Mr. Fordham procured abroad."
" I can answer for her, I believe, Mrs. Wyllys, that
her efforts in that line have been confined to the brewing
of flax-seed lemonade, and sage tea ! " chimed in Roy.
Whereat Jessie laughed again, as she had not done at
Orrin's adventure with the gargle.
^Wyllys arose to receive a glass of wine from her hand,
JESSAMINE. 345
and, in taking it, looked steadily, reproachfully, passion-
ately, into her eyes. They sustained the scrutiny without
quailing, a glint of roguish defiance playing within them,
and her lips curling at the corners, as she turned away.
He had a misgiving then that his power over her was at
an end. This was not acting, but the flashing of a stream
where the sunshine reached to . its bed ; was filtrated
through pure, sweet waters. If she were disenchanted,
he knew whom he had to thank for it. He could have
hated his Hester for the over-fondness that had made
him ridiculous to optics which erst surveyed him with
timid and worshipful reverence, as Semele may have re-
garded high Jove.
He was not sorry he had wedded as he did. He had
too just an appreciation of the inconveniences of living
beyond one's means ; the diflSculties that environ a man
of expensive tastes and a moderate income, and the
thousand goods of wealth, to regret the investment,
which had assuredly yielded more than cent, per cent.,
whether he estimated either the afFection or the money
he had put into the speculation. He was wise in his
generation. Hester was the richest spoil that had ever
been laid in his way, and he had not hesitated as to the
line of duty. But he did wish she had not wheedled
him into this visit, that she might have another opportu-
nity to play the fool herself, and force a like part upon
him. Jessie's laughter had stung him unreasonably, and
in his avarice of the praise of his kind, he grudged the
loss of a moiety of Roy's affectionate admiration.
Fordham did not return to the sitting-room when he
had escorted his guests to the outer door. He bade his
wife " Good-night," in the liall.
15*
346 JEaSAMINE.
" Mnst you work to-night ? " she asked, imploringly.
" I meant I hoped that is, I thought we would have a
pleasant chat over my fire."
Her manner was agitated, her eye restless; bat be
scarcely noted this, or that she stammered strangely in
preferring the petition.
"Don't tempt me 1"
He would have made his answer playful. It was a
sickly show, and repulsed Jessie more effectually than
sternness would have done.^
With a burning blush, she dropped the hand she had
laid lightly on his sleeve ; murmured an apology, and
hurried upstairs, forgetting that she had intended to sit
for a while longer in the lower iwm. In her own chamber,
she walked the floor in an agony of shame and despair.
" He would never have my love now, if it were offered
him I " she said, wringing her hands. "He knows me too
well I The glamour of that happy love-summer has
gone ! gone I To-night, I feel further off from him than
ever. He despises me afl I deserve I But righteous pun-
ishment is as hard to bear as unjust condemnation. And
I have suffered so much, and so long 1 I could have been
wholly frank with him, if he had but gone and sat with
me ten minutes if he had been himself^ instead of
shrinking from my touch ^rejecting my companionship."
" The book opened of itself at that place 1 " Boy was
thinking at that moment. He had been to the sitting-
room for the volume, carried it into the library, and re-
read the poem again and yet again, detecting what he im-
agined was a tear blister on the second page. " What can
I do 2 What course is left to me save that which I am
pursuing } Am I still odious to her t "
JESBAMINB. 347
The girl at the spring smiled down upon him from the
wall ; seemed to hold out the green leaf-cup for his ac-
ceptance. He could see the glisten of the water upon it ;
fancy that he heard in the stillness the tinkle of tlie
bright beads as they fell into the basin. The eyes that
gave back her look were very patient, but just now it w^as
a patience that had in it much of the weariness of hope
deferred.
" I have put a cup of bitterness to your lips, my bird of
beauty 1 '' was his unselfish lament
Mr. Wyllys " had builded better than he knew," that
evening.
" I wouldn't be as cold-blooded as that woman, for all '
the gold of Golconda I '' exclaimed Hester, before the
steps of the Fordham cottage were cold from the touch
of her Parisian gaiters.
^^ Maybe you mean diamonds," said her husband curtly.
^^ It is a safe plan not to use terms unless you are certain
they are correct."
^' Gold or diamonds, it makes no difference 1 I don't
pick my words when I am out of patience. It's precious
Httle she has of either commodity, I guess I " laughing
spitefully.
^' Take care of that rough place in the crossing," cau-
tioned Wyllys, in a less acrimonious tone, thus reminded
what store his spouse possessed of the valuables specified,
and, by inevitable association of ideas, of his profitable in-
vestment.
" She frets me always 1 " continued the sweet creature,
hanging, according to custom, basket-wise upon his arm.
"This evening she was positively rude* How provok-
348 JESSAMINE,
ingly she langhed at that sweet piece yoa read so di-
vinely that I was in tears all the way through. You
meant it for her, I could see well enough, you smart, sly
creature 1 And it served her just right! las good as
told her she did not care a snap for her husband, before
you came in. And she took it as coolly as if I had paid
her a compliment It is cmfuL what seared consciences
some people have. I take to myself the credit of having
seen through her from the beginning, when that horrid old
matchmaker, Mrs. Baxter, who always puts me in mind of
a grinning hyena, was trying to put her off on you. As
if you would have married a girl who was next door to a
beggar 1 What is it, petty ? "
" I trod on a pebble 1 "
He had almost flung her arms from their hold. For he
remembered the story he had told Jessie in the conserva-
tory, of the woman who was married for her money, and
gloried in it.
" What a pity 1 " gabbled his owner. " I am morally
certain that she married Mr. Fordham, poor fellow ! to
get a home. If that isn't disgustingly immoral a perfect
sale of one's self in the shambles, as you may say, I don't
know what is. To be sure, your cousin is one of the very
quiet, non-exacting kind, and I hope doesn't suffer as yon
would, darling love, if she were your wifel" pinching
his arm with her claw-like fingers. " For you and I are
9uoh turtles, dearie 1 "
CHAPTER XXT.
PRING was forward in Hamilton that year. Mrs.
Baxter, walking on the presidential portico at
noon of a bright day in the third week of April,
complimented the extraordinary benignity of that
usually coy month, by sporting the first wliite
dress of the season.
A knot of irreverent students collected about the win-
dow of one of the college dormitories, catching glimpses of
her snowy draperies fluttering from pillar to pillar of the
porch, made merry over profane pleasantries, touching
" flourishing almond trees," and " antique angels."
"Wonder if she wears that red flannel night-cap to
ward ofE the rheumatism I " said one, directing his puny
arrow of wit at the " individualizing " scarlet scarf, now
wound into a turban about her classic head, the silken
fringes sweeping her shoulder. *
" It is a piratical flag 1 " rejoined another. " And there I
she is signalling some poor wretch on to his doom ! "
The Lady President had waved her handkerchief to
850 JBSaAMINR
some one in or near the college, and halted at the top of
the front Btepe to receive him.
" Who is the latest victim ? " asked those in the rear of
the party, as the foremost craned his neck to peer upon
the campus.
^' One who is able to take care of himself,^' was the
response. ''No less a personage than his Eoyal High-
ness."
This sobriquet^ let me explain, was applied to Professor
Fordham in no nnkind or depreciatory spirit by his
classes. Originally intended as a play upon his Chris-
tian name, it grew into popular esteem as descriptive of
tlieir pride in his manly carriage and knightly demeanor.
The quintette at the window watched him with interest
and admiration now, as he strode along the gravelled
avenue leading to the Presidents' house.
'' He would march up to the cannon's month in the
same style,'' commented the chief speaker. ''Did yoa
ever see better shoulders { "
"Did you ever see a better Tmwi f " interrogated the
fifth of the group a grave senior, who had not spoken
before.
And to the honor of the watchers, as of the watched,
be it recorded that a hearty acquiescence in his verdict
followed the question.
The goodly man found abundant faVor, likewise in
Mrs. Baxter's eyes, as she invited him to enter her abode.
" * Will yon walk into my parlor f '
Said the spider to the fly."
Sang one of the graceless rascals in the dormitory, as a
commentary npon the, to them, dumb show.
JESSAMINE. 351
It was to Fordham anything but dumb. Mrs. Baxter
was excruciatingly voluble in excusing herself for " what
you must, I am certain, regard as an unparalleled lib-
erty, my dear Professor 1 " she continued, when he was
seated.
" I am gratefully at your service whenever you can
make use of me, madam," was the reply, which was
more sincere than professions of the kind usually are.
Mrs. Baxter's genuine love for her young cousin, and her
numberless acts of neighborly kindness, had greatly en-
deared her to Jessie's husband. Her peculiarities of
manner and phraseology weighed nothing with him
when compared with her sound principles and generous
heart.
" Thanh you I I knew I might make the venture
with you I My own mind being ill at ease, I could not
resist the impulse to waylay you and unburden " ^mak-
ing aa though she would clutch her heart, then sprawling
both hands, her arms widely divergent lines from her
heaving bust ^^ unhwrden myself to you, as the person
most likely to sympathize with and ameliorate my anx-
ieties. I had nearly said, my maternal anxieties. And
indeed, Mr. Fordham, I could scarcely love your dear
wife more, if she were, in truth, my child. Dear to me
as the representative of the beloved friend of my youth,
she has enhanced that partiality a thousandfold by her
own worth and loveliness. This is my apology ^this and
the solicitude to which I have referred, for what may ap-
pear to you indelicate interference with your domestic
affairs."
The polite interest with which her auditor had received
her prefatory remarks was supplanted by uneasiness, in-
352 JESSAMINE.
stant and intense, as he perceived the drift of her speech.
He had made a motion to rise when the words, " your
dear wife," passed her writhing lips.
She hindered him with outstretched hands.
" Not tliat there is any cause for new and immediate
alarm," she hastened to assure him. " But I was in to
see her this moraing. She keeps bravely up when you
are at home, I dare say."
" She never complains. I have had my apprehensions
that the untimely heat of the weather has been prejudi-
cial to her strength. Her appetite is variable, and she is
paler than she was in the winter, but I attributed "
" Yes 1 of course ! " interrupted Mrs. Baxter. Once
bent upon an harangue, she was about as easily checked
as a Yellowstone geyser in full play. " I am not surprised
that your fears have not been awakened. I taxed her, to-
day, with having deceived you as to the extent of her
lassitude and depression. I surprised her lying on the
sofa in her room, with the traces of fresh and copious
tears upon her cheeks. She tried to laugh me out of my
fears by talk of nervousness and hysteria, and would
doubtless have succeeded, such are her spirit and address
^but, Mr. Fordham ! her precise likeness in look and
manner at that moment to her sainted mother sent a
poignant fear through my soul 1 Far be it from me to
censure the dead, but I have always maintained I shall
ever believe that my precious Ginevra's life might have
been spared ^prolonged for years ^had her husband con-
ferred with those who were conversant with her idiosyn-
crasies spiritual and physical. Although ^I will reveal
to you, my dear sir, under the seal of a secrecy you will
see the expediency of respecting, what I have never lisped
JESSAMINE. 353
to her daughter, or even to the best of husbands and
men ^Dr. Baxter. My cousin Ginevra carried a blighted
heart to Dundee when she went thither as Mr. Kirke's
bride. An unfortunate misunderstanding had alienated
her from one to whom her girlish affections were given.
It is needless to enter into particulars. It is enough to
say that they had loved and they were parted. She had
not seen or heard from him for two years, most of which
time she had passed abroad ; indeed, she believed him to
be the husband of another when she accepted Mr. Kirke.
I own to you that my instinct and my reason opposed
this fatal step. I expostulated with her.
" * Jane ! ' said she (you can imagine how Jessie would
utter it !) * say no more. My resolution is taken. This
is a good man, and he loves me ! In this union I shall
I may find rest, quiet, and in some measure, peace. I
have been storm-tossed until I have no strength left for
struggling ! '
" Upon the eve of her marriage, the man whom she
loved returned and sought an interview. I was with her
in her chamber when his card, requesting this favor, was
handed her. At sight of the familiar characters the
buried love sprang up alive, strong, importunate ! It was
a fearful scene that resurrection! "What should she
have done ? "
" Confessed all to her promised husband ! " came low
and sternly from the man's heart. " He would have re-
signed her to her lover without a word of blame. I knew
Mr. Kirke well. I do not speak unadvisedly."
" Such was my counsel. But she would not heed it.
She refused to look again upon the face of him whose
heart was breaking with love and vain regrets, and went
B54 JBBSAMINB.
right on to her bridaL And her daughter, if sabjected to
a like test, would act as she did."
^^ You say that Jessie is not well ? '' said Boj, shortly.
There were limits to his fortitude. He could not hear
other lips tell what would be Jessie's action were an ab-
honent marriage forced upon her by conscience or honor.
^^ In my estimation, she is yery far " arms again di-
vergent ^^ very far from well, even taking into consider-
ation the provocatives to languor you alluded to, just
now. Furthermore and again let me beg you to receive
this intimation in the spirit in whidi I offer it I further-
more, she is homesick for Dundee and her sister. I ad-
verted to them casually to assure myself that my views
on this point were correct, and her eyes filled again di-
rectly.
^ ^ I had hoped to see Euna this month,' she said, ^ but
the change in the college vacation, abolishing the inter-
mediate, and making one long term instead of two short
ones, has prevented it'
" But when I remarked * I wish Eunice could pay
you a visit, were it only from Saturday to Monday 1 ' the
loyal wife (such a stanch advocate as you have in her,
Mr. Fordham 1), took alarm.
^^^ Indeed, Cousin Jane, no one could take kinder care
of me than Hoy does 1 ' she said, warmly. ^ He spoils and
pets me beyond reason, and when he is in the house, I
desire no other society.'
^^ ^ But my precious girl I ' I remonstrated ; ^ he cannot
be with you all the time t '
" I wish you had seen the smile with which she replied
^ Ah I but I have the memory of his goodness to live
on iu his absence I '
JEmAMm^. 355
"She is true and fond, Mr. Pordhatn! Nevertheless,
she does need change of air and scene. Her mother
pined herself into an untimely grave in her longing for a
sight of her old home and the faces of beloved ones."
Boy was silent ; his eyes downcast, his lips whitening
with the pressure this story had brought to bear upon him.
It was not so much the consciousness that, in sending his
wife away, he would rob his life of repression and self-
denial of tlie little sunshine left to it, as the thought that
she was sickening of his companionship ; could not live
and grow in his shadow. This was the naked truth, dis-
guise it as she might from her cousin ; deny it to herself
as she probably did. In every point of Mrs. Baxter's
description, he recognized this terrible sense of bondage,
crushing spirit and life ; heard, even in her tribute to his
loving watchfulness over her health and bodily comfort,
the plaint embodied in the poem he had learned by
heart:
'^ Like a chaindd thing, caressed
By the hand it knows the best,
Bj the hand which, day by day,
Visits its imprisoned stay,
Bringing gifts of fruit and blossom
From the green earth's plenteous bosom ;
All but that for whioh it pines,
In these narrow, close confines,
With a sad and ceaseless sigh,
Wild and wingM Liberty I " ^
With a deep inspiration which was the farewell to more
hopeful dreams than he knew, until then, he had nursed,
he collected his senses to reply.
" It was my intention to take Jessie to Dundee in June,
at the beginning of my vacation. She set the time her^
356 JESSAMINE.
self I can see now, in compliance with what she believed
were my wishes. But she shall go at once. I thank you
for your more than friendly concern for her, your frank
dealing with me."
He arose to go. The lady scanned his face somewhat
uneasily. There was something there that foiled her
penetration.
" You understand, my dear sir, that nothing would
have tempted me to intermeddle in this affair, were the
case precisely what you have supposed. But there is an
undercurrent, Mr. Pordham, the effect of which I can
trace, that seriously complicates anything like hysterical
depression. And loving the child as we do as every-
one does, it behooves us to watch her warily, minister to
her intelligently as tenderly. The affection between the
sisters is unusually strong, and we should remember that
the dear lamb has known no other mother."
" I have offered, several times during the winter, to take
her to visit Eunice. "We were to have gone at Christmas,
bat Jessie had a severe cold that confined her to the house
a fortnight."
" I remember 1 To be quite sincere with you not that
I consider it a dangerous symptom ^but I wish she were
rid of that little hacking cough. She makes light of it
Says it is nervous, or from the stomach. But I do not
like it I"
She attended him to the portico, disclaiming, caution-
ing, and thanking him, gesticulating through it all as
the wickedest of the wicked, quintette of observers had it
" like a lunatic windmill." They espied no change in
the Professor's gait or air. He walked fij-mly, head erect
and countenance composed. And their distance from
JESSAMINE. ^ 357
him was too great to allow them to note the want of color
in his complexion.
He entered his own house, more slowly than he had
trodden the pavement. Jessie had fallen into the habit
common to wives who hail their husbands' return as
cheering events, of meeting him in the hall, sometimes at
the front door. She appeared from the sitting-room,
while he was hangmg up his hat and dusting his boots.
He was particular in all that pertained to personal neat-
ness.
" Your step sounds weary," she said. " It is very
warm, really debilitating, to-day ^is it not ? "
During his brief answer he surveyed her narrowly, the
dread that had been gnawing his heart all the way home
shai-pening his vision in the search for signs of debility
and disease.
She, too, wore a white dress, but a black grenadine
shawl was folded over her chest, and Eoy's eye rested
aghast upon the thin hand that held it together. What
had he been thinking of, not to discern the inroads of the
destroyer in this, and in the finer oval of hel* face ; in
the slight cough that succeeded her question, and the hur-
ried breathing he could hear in approaching her ? If his
awakening should have come too late !
" I believe I have the Spring fever," he said, affecting
to suppress a yawn, " This weather puts one in mind of
country delights; makes him crave the smell of the
freshly upturned earth, and the sight of green and
growing things."
" Then take a look at my conservatory," she returned,
playfully, leading the way to the open bay-window.
The Bill, without and within, was crowded with plants.
358 . JESSAMmE.
She had been at work among them for an honr, and they
were in their freshest trim. The praning-scissors lay
npon the shelf, and, taking them np, she clipped a sprig
of heliotrope, another of mignonette, a rose-bud, and a
bit of citron-aloes,, bonnd them together with silk from
her work-basket, and offered them smilingly.
" Thank you. They are very sweet, very beantif nl !
How does the jessamine thrive % "
" Not so well as it should ungrateful little thing 1 **
touching the leaves of a stunted vine which was honored
with a china fiower-pot and the sunniest stand in the win-
dow. ^' I am afraid it cannot flourish in this high lati-
tude. It needs warmer earth, less fitful sunshine. Or it
may be that I am killing it with kindness," she added,
shaking her head pensively.
Roy detected another meaning in her thoughtf nlness.
Ungenial influences, unwelcome assiduity of attention,
were sapping her vitality, and the analc^ between her
lot and that of her fading favorite was wearing upon her
imagination.
" We will try again.'*
He had to clear his throat before he could speak. Jes-
sie smiled slightly, with no misgiving of the communica-
tion that awaited her. She even stooped to pick off a few
withered leaves that had previously escaped her notice.
The two were side by side within the recess ; so near to-
gether that the warm breeze blew the light folds of the
wife's dress over the husband's arm ; but she recked no
more of the wretchedness kept down by his strong will
than if a thousand leagues of ocean divided them.
'^ I have been thinking seriously all the way home of
taking you to Dundee, and leaving you in Eunice's charge
JE88AMnrE. 859
for a time/' continaed Eoy, presently. ".Ton are not so
rosy and light-footed here as you were among the moun-
tains. And the sudden variations of our climate affect
the human Jessamine also 1 You should have a change,
and without delay.'*
" I am very well entirely contented 1 " she interposed,
reddening vividly.
"Tou are kind to say so!" gratefully. "But there
are other reasons why you should anticipate the date
originally set for your visit to your old home. Eunice
has been very self-denying and patient, and she should
have her reward. While you are regaining health and
strength, winning back your lost roses, you can accumu-
late a plentiful supply of seeds and roots of all descrip-
tions, besides studying floriculture with your sister ^if it
be true, as you would make me believe, that she excels
you in skill. For in your absence I shall have a real
conservatory built back of this room, and our long talked-
of oriel run out here."
Jessie made a desperate effort to jest away the discus-
sion.
"Oht as to the oriel, I have quite abandoned the
project since Mrs. Wyllys told me shaving learned from
the Provosts that we meditated something of the sort
that oriels had ^ gone out entirely ; that no stylish house
nowadays is disfigured by them.' The only thing re-
Bembling tlie obsolete excrescences that would be admit-
ted into a modem ^ establishment ' is a mullioned window,
my good sir I I should never hold up my head in Ham-
ilton again if I were to offend so boldly against the rules
of art governing the best society I "
The toss of her head and her tones were Mrs. Orrin's
360 JESSAMINE.
to the life. But Eoy had hard work to smile. In his
Btate of mind, badinage was like jesting over a death-
bed.
" Mrs. Wyllys mnst look the other way, then at the
majestic proportions of her cupola, if she likes, for the
oriel is to be a fact next month. The work will be better
done if I am on the ground to oversee operations, and it
would not be pleasant for you to remain in the house
while it is in confusion, not to mention the risk of taking
cold from the damp walls and the open room, while the
wall is down. It will be a convenience all around, you
see."
" K you really think that I will be in the way ^^
" I did not say that 1 " The correction was so prompt
as to sound sharp. " But my judgment tells me tliat the
plan I suggest is the best for both of us. / My mind will
be easier with regard to you if you are safe and happy in
Eunice's care."
Jessie had turned her face quite away, and seemed to
be gazing at some object in the street.
" I see 1 " she said, finally. " When do you wish me to
go?"
" Whenever it suits your convenience. If you desire
my escort, we had best leave Hamilton on Saturday of
this or the next week."
" I can travel alone easily if it is not convenient for
you to leave your classes. If you go on Saturday you
lose Monday also. This is Tuesday. I can be ready by
Thursday morning. If the change Jbe as needful as you
suppose, the sooner it is made the better. As to an es-
cort, a lady needs none when there is no change of cars."
Eoy pinched the succulent stems of his flowers until the
JE8BAMINB. S61
perfume was hot and Bicklj. How impatient she was to
be gone I She had gasped when he opened the door of
escape from her cage, as if she akeadj saw '^ wild and
winged liberty" beyond.
"You do not think it necessary to notify Eunice of
your coming, then t " he inquired.
" You can telegraph on Thursday morning, when you
are fairly rid of me. Euna is always at home, and
always ready and glad to see me. My visit will make
her very happy."
The rising tears broke through her assumed lightness.
She struggled to drive them back, and failing, walked
abruptly from the room.
And tlius the question was settled.
Jessie began to pack that afternoon ; working so dili-
gently as to be wan and appetiteless by supper time. Fanny
Provost and her betrothed, Lieutenant Averill, who was
in Hamilton on furlough, called in the evening. Warren
Provost and Selina Bradley came in afterward, and the
hostess revived visibly in their society. Her eyes and
color were brilliant; her laugh ready; her repartee
pointed and felicitous. The young people, regretting the
near prospect of her departure, fell to rallying her upon
her partiality for country life, and she defended the
preference with spirit. Then, at Fanny's earnest request,
she told the authentic legend of Dundee and "auld
Davie," appearing to forget herself and her slavery
(thought Roy), in her enthusiasm. .
" The women fought too ! " ejaculated Selina, when it
was finished. " They were made of different stufE from me,
or any other young lady of this generation that I know.
I go into convulsions at the sight of an empty gun."
16
863 JSBBAMIBfR
^^ They were warring for home and freedom ! " rejoined
Jeeeie. ^^ To avoid captivity I would fight in the open
field in the ranks. And bo would you. But the love of
liberty is oftener a passion with us mountaineers^ than
with lowlanders."
She caught her breath strangely- something between
a sob and a laugh ^which she tried tc cover with a cough.
'* A Bdi]d oeaaelesB dgh ! "
repeated the haunting demon in Eoy's heart
The hilarious talk went on, unchecked by his occa-
sional fits of abstraction. Jessie was like another being
in the anticipation of liberation.
^^ Heartlessly cheerful I '' said Selina, with her usual
aptitude for making unlucky observations.
" One would think you two were tilled of each other
already ! " she subjoined. ^^And you haven't been mar-
ried more than half a year 1 I shall tell this to papa. He
raved over your mutual attachment and your devoted at-
tentions to Mr. Fordham when he was sick, Jessie I "
^' Say, at the same time, that she does not go, of her own
accord 1 " said Eoy ^' but because I try to be as careful
of her health as she was of mine. Although, K you had
ever visited Dandee, you would not be scandalized by her
desire to revisit it"
Fanny, observing Jessie's quick, hot blush and averted
eyes, and divining that something was ajar, came to the
relief of the hardly pressed couple,
" Did Jessie ever tell you, Mr. Fordham," she said, in
her liveliest tone ^' of the astounding poetical effort put
forth by her admirer, Mr. Lowndes, the rich student, they
used to call him entitled, ^Jessie the flower o' Dun-
JSaaAMINK 863
dee ' 1 The graceless youths of his class set it to the
good old Scotch tune of that name. It was in a different
metre very ^/icommon, I believe, and the fun of the
joke was in fitting the words in, after the manner of
' Ancient Uncle Edward.' I will get you a copy, and
Warren here shall teach you how to sing it."
vvWV ^
^
^
.^
'-r^^i -r~
^ f'^ /w -
CHAPTER XXVL
BDE weather changed on the morrow.
Coming home at nightfall, Roy found Jessie
standing at the western window, surveying sorrow-
fully the unfavorable aspect of the heavens.
"It will be very unpleasant travelling in the
rain I'' she remarked as he entered. "The sun went
dowA behind a portentous bank of clouds. And the wind
is veering to the storm-quarter."
It was evident that the possibility of a single day's
delay made her restless and anxious.
" The signs portend nothing worse than April showers,
I hope," he encouraged her to believe. " Or, should there
be 9k steady rain, you will soon run out of it into the
region of blue skies and milder airs. I see no reason
for altering your arrangements. Tou will be sheltered
and dry in the cars."
" True ! " she answered, musingly, returning to her con-
templation of the unpromising horizon.
JESSAMINE. 865
She was perturbed, however, and unusually taciturn
while they were at Bupper ; dull and spiritless during the
hour they spent together in the sitting-room ; arousing
herself with apparent effort to reply to his remarks, and
rarely offering one of her own accord. JRoy's attempts at
cheerful conversation were less evenly sustained than
was customaiy with him in her presence. It was not his
intention that this last evening should be one of gloomy
constraint, but it approximated this more nearly every mo-
ment. Both were abstracted, and each was unwilling that
the other should discover the direction in which his and
her thoughts were straying. So the pauses in the sluggish
flow of talk became more and more frequent, until, at
nine o'clock, Jessie arose, with a sigh of relief.
" I must get a good night's rest, if I am to travel, to-
morrow. Will you excuse me if I go upstairs, thus eaiiy ? "
" Do not let me detain you a moment. Is there noth-
ing I can do to assist you ? "
"Nothing ^thank youl There will be time to strap
my trunks in the morning. You still think I had better
go whatever may be the weather?" stopping with the
door in her hand.
" I do, certainly ; that is, if you are not afraid of adding
to your cold if you are well enough."
"My cold is nothing. I have ordered breakfast at
half -past six. I am glad the train does not leave so early
as it did last year. Good-night 1 "
The cold, indifferent accents sank to the bottom of his
heart like lead. What a millstone about this woman's
neck was her marriage vow I His endeavors to make it
lighter, and her existence endurable the work to which
he had given his best energies and wisest deliberations ;
366 JESSAMINE,
the Belf-abnegation and prayerful struggle he had ac-
cepted as the penalty of his grievous indiscretion, had
proved futile. He had guarded eye, tongue, and action
for five months ; drilled them in friendly looks, words,
and deeds, lest a glimmer of the affection that glowed
a pent but consuming fire in his soul should offend or
dismay her ; had ministered to her with a lover's con-
stancy and tenderness without a hint of love's reward.
And this was the end! Some significant glance, an
intonation, an excess of solicitude for her welfare, had
betrayed his design to win her anew, and she liad
taken the alarm ; was terrified and reluctant, without the
power of escape. Or her constitution physical and spir-
itual had succumbed to the attrition of duty against
womanly instinct. With vain care he had kept her shackles
out of sight. Everything in her surroundings ; the very-
pronunciation of her name by acquaintances, had re-
minded her continually of her anomalous position. Nei-
ther wife, nor maid, she stood, according to her morbid
perceptions, alone and banned, without so much as a title
to the shelter of his roof, except as a bondwoman. She
could not forget that she was a slave. The untamable
heart in which the " love of liberty '' was a " passion,"
was beating itself to death against die bars he had fool-
ishly hoped to cushion and wreathe until she should cease
to feel them as a restraint.
She had not loved him when she married him. That
this change in her sentiments was not a passing girhsh
caprice, he had evidence in the words she had written to
him while the right of free speech remained to her.
^^ Months of doubt and suffering have brought me to
the determination to confess this without reserve."
JEBaAMINEL 367
"Douht and suffering!" What were these to the
horrors of her actaal bondage ?
" From which I cannot release her 1 " he repeated, for
the thousandth time.
His habit was to go to the library when she left him
for the night, but he lingered, this evening, in the apart-
ment he had fitted up for her with such fond pride;
which she had made a sacred place * by her abiding.
There was a cruel pleasure in noting the tokens of her
recent presence ; in inhaling the odors of the flowers she
had tended ; in touching the books she had handled.
She could never be more to him than she was now. He
believed that she must, from this hour, be less ; that the
solace of her friendship would be withheld. Else, why
her anxiety to be away from him ? her chafing at the
threatened delay of a day in her flight back to the only
real home she had ever known? Was the memory of
the evanescent phantaay of her girlhood the brief space
during which she had deluded herself into the belief
that she loved him, so sore and hateful that she would
shun the sight of one who kept it in constant remem-
brance ? Could it be true that he had, in the face of
these fi-ightful odds, cherished a hope that he might yet
persuade her into a preference for his companionship ?
A loud ring at the door-bell startled him into con-
sciousness of the hour and place. Phoebe had gone up
to bed, and Mr. Fordham went himself to admit the un-
seasonable visitor.
" Good-evening ! " said a familiar voice when the door
was unclosed, and Dr. Baxter walked in as naturally and
coolly as if it were not. ten o'clock at night, and he
plentifully besprinkled with rain. ^^ I was out thinking
868 JBaaAMINB,
^ and walking, after the warm day ^and chandng to
observe that I was at your door, I stopped to say ^ Q-ood-
bye' to the lassie to your wife. Mrs. Baxter men-
tioned to-night, at tea, that she was going to Dundee to-
morrow."
He had obeyed Boy's impulse in the direction of the
sitting-room, but declined to take a chair. His cravat
was a damp string ; the handkerchief twisted about his
left hand bore marks of terrific usage, and when he re-
moved his hat, every one of his stiff gray hairs appeared
to have gone into business on its own account, so distinct
was its independent existence. His eyes were like those
of a partially awakened somnambulist, and his voice had
dreamy inflections. Had his own mood been less sad^
Boy must have smiled at the grotesque apparition, un-
couth even to one so familiar with the peculiarities of the
good man, as was his coadjutor in the business of his
life. As it was, he appreciated gratefully the love the
old scholar bore his former ward, and the new proof of
this, evinced by his stepping without the charmed circle
of metaphysical or scientific lucubrations to ]^y this, for
him, rare visit of neighborly courtesy and affectionate
interest.
^^ I am sorry Jessie has retired," he said) sincerely.
" She would have been happy to see you. But, in view
of to-morrow's journey, she went up to her chamber an
hour ago. I am afraid she is asleep by this time."
The doctor shook himself out of a menacing relapse.
" Ell I asleep ^is she ? Ah, well 1 that is as it should
be. Don't disturb her i I merely called to kiss her, and
bid her ^ God speed.' She is a dear and a good girL
Her price is above rubies. She carries our love and best
JSaSAMINK 86d
wishes with her into her retirement. Since she is not
up, I will leave my message with you. I believe it
seems to me that I Jiad a message " with an ominous
twitch of the handkerchief, and a dreamier accent.
" She will appreciate your kind remembrance of her,
Bir. She prizes your friendship very fondly."
" Ah 1 " another mental shoulder-jog. " We shall
hardly see her again until autumn, I presume? I infer
as much from what Mrs. Baxter Ipias told me of her
plans."
" There has been no definite time set for her return,"
said Koy, evasively, his heart heavier tlian before at the
thought that Jessie had expressed to her cousin a desire
for a long sojourn in the country.
Yet if he had failed to keep her with him now, what
warrant had he for confidence in his ability to lure her
back?
" You will be lonely without her f " the worthy Presi-
dent observed,- something in the atmosphere of this, her
especial apartment, conveying to his straying wits an in-
distinct perception of the void her absence would make
in the daily life of the man before him. In his own way,
he missed his restless and faithful Jane when she was
not at home.
" I shall I "
Not another word before the lips were closely sealed.
The doctor looked at him quickly and keenly, then
' pat out his hand to pat his shoulder.
" Keep up a brave heart, my lad ! although the desire
of your eyes be removed from your side, for a few weeks.
Nothing cheats time of heaviness, like work and hope.
One you will find here in your accustcned avocations*
1ft*
370 JESSAMINE.
The Beoond will cnlminate in fruition when you are re-
united to her you love, and, please God ^in the blessed
nessof a father's love and delight, when your firstborn is
given into your arms. It is a joy He has seen fit to deny
me. I shall take my name down into the grave with me.
His will be done 1 But I have not, on that account, the
less sympathy with you at this juncture. Say to our Jes-
sie that our prayers will follow her. You will go to her
at the beginning of vacation, of course. And should you
wish to run down to Dundee, for a day or two, each,
week during the remainder of term-time, I will gladly
take your classes. Ton can recompense me by letting
me christen the heir'' a fatherly smile overspreading
the dry face. " The advent is expected towards the last
of July, Mrs. Baxter says."
Conscious that, in the drunkenness of his astonishment,
he returned a lame and seemingly ungracious reply to
offer and congratulations, Koy made no movement to de-
tain the eccentric guest, when he, after another dazed
look around the apartment, as if wondering how he had
got there, espied the door, and approached it with the
briefest of " Good-nights." While the master of the
house stood rooted to the floor, the visitant accomplished
his exit, unchallenged and unattended. Another man
would -have taken mortal offence at the lack of respectful
ceremony. The doctor, in his semi-trance, had not an
idea of the commotion he had excited.
" I am not surprised that I am an offence in her eyes
that she must accuse me in her heart, of being less than
man," muttered the husband, at length, passing a shaking
hand over his pale forehead. " She ought to hate me for
my seeming indifference my unfeeling silence. She
JE8aAMINE. 371
would if she were not an angel. My poor girl f And
she has borne it all, without a murmur ; like the brave,
true woman she is. God forgive me I I can never par-
don myself I V
He was sitting, his arms crossed upon the table, and his
head laid upon them, when Jessie glided in stealthily.
Over her white wrapper she had thrown a crimson shawl,
and her long hair was loose upon her shoulders. What-
ever resolve had drained her cheeks and lips of bloom,
and lighted the steady flame in her eyes, had been acted
upon with precipitancy, lest her nerve should fail.
She baited upon the threshold, on seeing the bowed
figure; then advanced more rapidly, but without noise.
"Royf are you awake f
" Yes."
ut he did not lift his face.
" Are you sick ! '
NoI"
" Can you listen to me for a few minutes ? '^
" As long as you wish."
His voice was hollow and tremulous to plaintiveness ;
but she took heart from its exceeding, if mournful, gentle-
ness.
" I cannot sleep to-night," she commenced, hurriedly,
" still less can I leave you to-morrow, without expressing
to you, however feebly, my sense of the goodness and
mercy you have showed me from the hour I entered this
house, until now. I may have appeared unobservant and
unthankful ; may have seemed to accept your benefits as
if they were my due, when, in reality, I was unworthy of
the least of them all; but it was because I did not know
in what form to express my gratitude. If, in my acqui-
272 JSaSAMINE.
escenoe in your proposal that I should go to nay sister for
a season, I have used few words ;' have not thanked you
for this fresh proof of your delicate watchfulness over
my comfort and happiness, I beg you to attribute my
shortcomings to other reasons than insetxsibility or miscon-
struction of your motives. I was entirely unprepared f or
the suggestion. It was a shock to me, because I had
dared to believe that you would see fit to let me remain
here with you until vacation, when we could go to Dun-
dee together."
Standing on the other side of the table, she saw a
slight but eager change in the expression of the mute
form. It was as if his hearing were strained for her next
utterance, but the features were still concealed.
On the roof of the bay-window, the soft, large drops of
the April shower were beginning to fall in musical
whispers.
Jessie put out a hand upon the marble top of the table
to steady hei'self, as she resumed. There was that in this
continued silence that awed and made her incoherent
It was unlike Hoy's usual reception of her advances his
ready and indulgent courtesy. Her heart beat pain-
fully and fast, but she did not swerve from her resolu-
tion.
" I know you so well ^your purity of purpose ; the
standard of excellence you set for your motive and deed ;
your earnest desire to make me happy ^that I fear yon
will, when I am gone, accuse yourself of want of skill or
judgment in your treatment of me. I want you to re-
member then, that I broke through the reserve we have
aided one another to maintain, to assure you that, in no
one particular would I have had your action different
JESSAMINE. 373
from what it has been that, in language and demeanor
you have been alike noble. Deserving your reprobation,
I have received tender respect ; having forfeited by my
fickleness and falsehood all claim to kindness, I have
been cherished as the truest wife in the land might hope
to be. Something tells me that, when we part to-morrow,
it will be to meet no more in time. It may be that the
presentiment is bom of my distempered imagination ;
but it has drawn my whole soul out in a longing I cannot
frame into speech, to be at peace with you ; to feel your
hand again upon my head ; to hear you call me once
just once more, by the holy name of Wife 1
" For I am your wife, Roy ! Unworthy as I am of the
title, it is the only glory I have. Until yesterday, 1 had
dreamed of saying this to you in very different language
and circumstances. It is just that this expectation should
be disappointed. I do not appeal from my sentence of
exile. But, by the memory of the love you once had for
me and I was full of faults then as . now do not send
me away, unf orgi ven, and sita/rving for your affection my
husband 1 "
When he looked up, she was kneeling at his side, her
eyes streaming with the tears that had impeded her utter-
ance.
Still dumbly, he drew her to him ; put back the hair
from her face, every line of his own astir with a passion
of pity and adoration she hardly dared to look upon. It
was a minute before he could articulate. Then the tense
lips were moved into womanly softness.
" You can forgive mej then, my Wife ! Thank God ! "
He laid his cheek to hers, and she felt the great sobs of
the breast against which she leaned.
874
But for a long time, there was nothtng more Baid.
Except by the rain-drope whispering over their heads,
broken, now and then, by the wind into little goBhes that
Bounded like laughter, happy to tearf ulneBS.
CHAPTER XXVIL
N the plenitude of her cousinly compassion for the
lonely husband, Mrs. Baxter coaxed her spouse
into escorting her to Mr. Fordham's, on Thursday
^ening. The wind had settled into an easterly
gale, after yesterday's genial warmth ; the day
had been unpleasant, and the clouds were still dripping
at irregular intervals, as if wrung by impatient hands.
" But it is an act of common humanity to visit the poor
fellow in his solitude, my dear, while his desolation is
fresh upon him ! " she sighed^ sympathetically.
" Mr. Fordham was in the library," said Phoebe, with
an air of bewilderment at the lady's query, and to the
library the consoler accordingly tripped, with footfall of
down, and countenance robed in decorous and becoming
pensiveness.
Her light tap was unanswered, but uncertain of this,
she took the benefit of the doubt, and entering bounc-
ingly, as was her habit, she surprised Jessie, sittipg upon
376 JESaAMINE.
her husband's knee, one hand buried in his hair, the
other clutching his beard, in a fashion at once undigni-
fied and saucy. Both were laughing so heartily that
their neglect of the warning knock was explained.
When the confusion of mutual explanations was over,
Mrs. Baxter learned, to her amazement, that the journey
to Dundee was postponed until after the College Com-
mencement.
" 1 wovJMt go when I found that Roy wanted to get
rid of me 1 " said the transformed wife. " When I put
him into the confessional, he owned who was his fellow-
conspirator in the scheme for my banishment. For shame,
Cousin Jane I I have long suspected you of a weakness
for the handsome Professor, but you sit convicted of a
deliberate attempt to remove him from the guardianship
of his legal protector, that your designs upon his affec-
tions might be more vigorously prosecuted. And no
sooner do you suppose that the coast is clear, than you pre-
sent yourself, arrayed in your best dress and choicest
smiles, and with actually a rose-bud in your brooch 1 to
make sure of your game. I shall never trust in human
friendship again 1 "
" You are ungenerous to triumiph over me so openly
and in the poor, dear doctor's hearing 1 " returned her
cousin, holding her fan before her face, with a theatrical
show of detected guilt.
" I ought to have some compensation for the excruciat-
ing anguish tiie discovery cost me," retorted Jessie.
" Tongue cannot describe the tremendous struggle I went
through before I could bring myself to undertake the in-
vestigation of your perfidy and his susceptibility. I
know just how Esther felt when she screwed her courage
JESaAMINB. 877
to the Bticking-point, and made up her mind and her
toilette to face Ahasaerus and a possible gallows."
Eoy was pretending to listen to the doctor's elaborate
disquisition upon an important political question, but he
stole a sidelong glance at the sparkling face, across the
hearth, and smiled, in gladness of content.
She was his blithe, lovesome witch again. The baleful *
enchantment that had ensnared her fancy and distracted
her thoughts from dwelling upon him and his love (he
refused to believe that he had ever lost her heart) waa
destroyed, and, by him, remembered no more as a thing
of dread. More to spare him pain than to shield Orrin,
Jessie had not entered into the particulai's of her
estrangement, or revealed who was the prime agent in
bringing it about. Wyllys' name was not mentioned by
either.
" I had a bad, wild dream ^" she thus explained her
defection. " A dream that made me doubt you Heaven
myself everything I that robbed me of love and hope,
with faith. I was susceptible, giddy, undisciplined ; and
I was grievously tempted by an evil spirit. Maybe"
humbly " I am no better or wiser now ; but I am ready
and thankful to give myself up to your guidance. I
ought to be a good woman in future ; for I have been
dealt with very tenderly by my Heavenly Father and
by you, my best earthly friend ! "
Eoy had no fear. His second wooing was, he felt,
crowned with richer, more enduring success than the
first had been. He cared not to ask, or to conjecture by
what art his image had been clouded over, since he saw
it now clearly mirrored in a heart tried by refining fires.
The christening feast was not held until December, at
878 JB88AMINK
which date Master Eirke Lanneau Fordham was four
months old.
Eunice had taken her school and cottage for a year,
and the interesting y*^^^ could not be appointed until she
could make her arrangements to be with her sister.
Work for the good of others, and wholesome meditation,
had brought to her, as they must to all healthy, God-
fearing souls, healing and peace during the months she
had spent in her new domicile. With the June vacation
had come Jessie and her husband ; and when the little
claimant upon their love and care arrived, the lonely
woman, who had put thoughts of her own wifehood and
maternity from her forever, when she turned the key
upon the souvenirs of her one love-dream, opened her
heart and took in, with the babe, comfort and hope that
were, to her, fresh and beautiful life. What Boy's
arguments and Jessie's entreaties could not accomplish,
the innocent young eyes and clinging baby-fingers
effected within a month after her nephew's birth. If
Kirke went to Hamilton, she would f oUow, she promised,
and early December saw her domesticated in the Ford-
ham household.
" I wish Orrin Wyllys and his wife were not coming,
tliis evening 1 " said Jessie, confidentially, to her sister, as
they were arraying the boy for the grand 'dccasion.
Eunice looked in no wise surprised at the impetuous
exclamation, albeit it was the first avowal of dislike of
Koy's relative she had ever heard from Jessie's lips.
" It would not have been expedient to omit them from
your list of invitations, my dear! " she returned, with her
slow, bright smile. " For Koy's sake, you must disguise
your antipathy."
JESSAMINE. 379
" Antipathy isn't too strong a word, Euna I You can-
not understand what reason I have to distrust that man !
to despise both himself and his wife 1 And the d^iut of
Papa's boy ought to be all brightness to Mamma ! " sus-
pending the process of the toilette to strangle him with
caresses.
"He cannot hurt you now, love. Even poisonous
breath soon passes from finely-tempered steel."
The look and tone silenced the other. Eunice's insight
of the tempter's true character was deeper than she had
imagined. Even she never dreamed how, and at what
cost, the knowledge was gained.
Miss Kirke was an attractive feature of the assembly
that night.- Many thought her handsomer than her more
lively sister. There was not one present who would not
have ridiculed the idea of a comparison between her
classic beauty and Mrs. Wyllys' shrewish physiognomy.
Once, the two ladies talked together for five minutes,
near the centre of the front parlor, the light from the
chandelier streaming on both. Eunice was dressed with
her usual just taste, in a lustreless mourning silk, a tiny
illusion ruff enhancing the fairness of neck and face,
her abundant hair arranged simply without ornament.
She possessed the rare accomplishment of standing still
without stiffness, and no nervous play of fingers or feat-
ures marred the exquisite repose of her bearing, as she
listened to or replied to her companion.
Hester was in the full glory of brocade, diamonds, and
point lace, with French flowers twisted in her pale
tresses, and trailing bramble-wise down her back. She
fidgeted incessantly ; her skin was muddy with bilious-
ness and discontent ; she perked her faint eyebrows into
880 JJSSSAMINB.
a frown, every other minute ; her laugh was forced, and
the viscid tones had a twang of pain or ill-humor. She
was getting very tired of keeping up the appearance of
conjugal felicity with so little assistance from her lord ;
growing bitterly conscious of the motives that had im-
pelled him to the uncongenial marriage, and disposed to
eye jealously every woman to whom he paid the most
trifling attention.
" I suppose you are baby-mad, like the rest ? " she said,
pulling viciously at the golden chain of her bouquet-
holder. " 1 am in a deplorable minority here, to-night.
Christening-parties are always a bore to me. I am so
sincere, you know, so apt to say what I think, that I can
never go into raptures over the little monkeys, as every-
body else does. I presume, now, that it is considered
rather a nice child if there is such a thing ^isn't it? "
" We think him a noble little fellow ; but we do not
require the rest of the world to agree with us," replied
Eunice, with unruffled politeness.
" I detest children 1 just perfectly abominate babies I
I wouldn't have one for a kingdom. And Orrin loves
his own ease too much to want them. He is an awjhd
hypocrite, Miss Kirke. You were very wise not to get
married. He can't abide children " raising her voice
" although he is making a fodl of himself over that bun-
dle of lace, lawn, and flannel yonder."
Eunice, inwardly provoked at the irreverent and in-
elegant description of the royal cherub, could yet respond,
with apparent composure.
" He does it from a sense of duty, or a desire to please,
probably."
She followed the direction of the wife's scornful eyea.
IJHSSAMINS. 381
The folding- doors were open, and through the arch,
way, they had a view of the mother, tempting her boy
with a flower she had taken from a bouquet, near by,
laughing at his open mouth, starting eyes, and fluttering
arms, as he tried to seize it. Orrin had approached her
while his wife was speaking to Eunice ; accosted her be-
fore she was aware of his vicinity. His remark, deliv-
ered with his most insinuating smile, and in his inimita-
ble manner, was evidently a compliment to the beauty of
the child ; but she met it with lightness bordering upon
contempt. Dropping the flower, she lifted the babe from
his temporary throne on the stuffed back of an easy chair,
and walked away.
Mrs. Wyllys tittered shrilly, and clapped her hands.
" A decided rebuff ! " she sneered, more loudly than
good breeding would have counselled. " It is strange.
Miss Karke, that your lady-killer is so slow to learn the
mortifying fact that he ceases to be irresistible when he
has been guilty of the mistake of matrimony.''
Orrin, nervously sensitive to her tones, heard and saw
her, while he affected to do neither ; saw, likewise, by
whom she was standing, and that she showed beside her
neighbor as a tawdry, artificial rose, faded and tumbled,
does when near a stately, living lily.
Seeing and admitting all this, he heaved an inaudible
sigh that did not touch his eyes or chasten his careless
smile. His inward moan was not '^ Me miserable I "
or "Fool that I was 1 " or anything else poetical or tragic ;
but " If I could have afforded it ! "
" The fair Euna will wear better than mia ca/ra sposa ! "
he owned, candidly. " But money outlasts beauty, and
is more necessary to a man's happiness. Love is only a
382 JESSAMINE.
liixuiy; an indulgence too costly for the enjoyment of
most wedded pairs. Beryl eyes and a Greek profile wonld
not have paid my debts, nor the future claims of carriage
makers, and horse-jockeys, and yacht-builders. Uo ! I
have done all that man could, in the like circumstances-
Better bread buttered on both sides by Hester, than a dry
slice with Eunice."
He owed Miss Kirke no grudge ; found placid satis-
faction in reviewing their intercourse, akin to that he ex-
perienced in the contemplation of a fine, m^zzo-tinto en-
graving or a moonlit landscape. But Jessie irritated and
piqued him. If her gay insensibility were bravado, he
would yet make her drop the mask. His wife was right
in afiirming that the passion for conquest was not extinct
after a year of married bliss.
" She did worship me in those daysl " he ruminated.
" Worshipped me madly and entirely, as men are seldom
loved, as few women are capable of loving. Does she
take me for an idiot in supposing that I credit the
thoroughness of her cure ! "
Lounging in a desultory way through the rooms, bowing
to this, and exchanging a pleasant word with that one of
the friends collected to do honor to the infant scion of
the house, he contrived to waylay Jessie in the hall. She
had transferred the baby to the nurse's care, and was re-
turning to her guests. A tierce impulse possessed Him as
he marked her happy face, flushed by excitement into
loveliness that had never been hers in her girlhood. She
was passing him vriith a slight and nonchalant bow, when
he arrested her.
" Can I speak with you for a moment ? "
JEaSAMINE. 383
"Now?'' she said, dubiously, looking toward . the
parlors crowded with company.
^^Now! I can wait no longer 1 Is any one in the
library?"
Before she could reply, he had pushed the door back,
and led her in. The room was not needed for the use of
the guests, and was unlighted except by the low fire in the
gmte.
" I will light the gas 1 " said Jessie, trying to withdraw
her hand from his clutch.
He tightened the grasp. It is said that every man is a
savage at some time of his life. The brutish devil was
rampant now in the polished citizen of the world, the in-
dolent epicure. If he were ever to regain his lost influ-
ence, it must be by a coup d^dtat by threats, rather than
flattery. He would show her what she risked in attempt-
ing to dupe and foil him. A desperate expedient, but
the case was not a hopeful one.
"What affectation of prudery is this?" he asked,
roughly. " Time was when you were less scrupulous about
granting me interviews in the firelight. Do you imagine,
silly child, that your overacted farce of wifely devotion
blinds me as it does the fools you have called together to-
night to witness this pretty display of domestic felicity ?
Or " his tone changing suddenly " that any amount of
coldness and cruelty can extinguish my love for you?
the love you once confessed in my arms was recipro-
cated by yourself, then the betrothed of him, who now
believes you to be his loyal consort ? You have found it
an easy task to deceive him, because it is not in him to
worship you as I do. You may struggle to escape from
me, but you know I am speaking the truth, and leaving
884 JE88A3fmB.
half of it untold. Don't drive me to distraction, Jessie I
or I shall divulge that which your husband, with all his
phlegmatic philosophy, may resent. Resent, possibly,
upon me-^ertainly upon you-in treatment you wiU find
it hard to bear. I have warned you before, that generous
forgiveness of an offence to his dignity and self-love is a
height of virtue unknown to Eoy Fordham. I warn you
that you are dealing with a desperate, because a miserable
man ! "
"This is a specimen of the superior manliness, the
lofty magnanimity you vaunt as your characteristics is
it?''
She had wrested her hand from him. The faint, red
glare revealed the outlines of a figure drawn up to its
full height, and instinct with anger and defiance. The
clear accents were stinging hailstones.
" I am not afraid of you, if I do shrink from your
touch. I am glad you have given me this opportunity to
say what you ought to know. You played upon my inex-
perience and loneliness, when I was committed a too
trustful child to your care by my betrothed and my
father. You tampered with my active imagination and
my credulity_, until you wrought in my mind false and
florid views of life ; and when your train was ready to
be fired, insinuated suspicions which you knew were
groundless 1 of Roy Fordham's honor, and his fidelity to
me."
" I suggested no suspicions ! " he interrupted.
" You nourished the germs planted by Hester Sanford's
slander. And when I did not know where, or upon what
I stood; when my brain was teeming with unhealthy
fancies, and my heart sick with fever and thirst, you
JESSAMINE. 385
offered me what yon called love dragged from me the
admission that it was returned."
" Since perfect frankness is the order of the day, allow
me to observe that the * dragging ' was not a difficult
process 1 " interjected Wyllys, offensively.
" I am willing to allow your amendment;-^if yon will
consent to have me repeat this story in detail to all who
are assembled in the other room," she returned, undaunted.
" I should enjoy the task, because it would pave the way
for an avowal I should exult in proclaiming to the uni-
verse. It is that I value the least hair of my husband's
head more than I ever did you body, soul, and what you
denominate as your heart; that I had rather serve him
as a bond-slave, and never receive a word or glance of
affection, if I might live near and for him than to reign
an Empress at your side ; that I never comprehend the
height, depth and fulness of his condescension and love
at any other time as when I reflect that these are bestowed
upon a woman who was once misled into the conviction
that yon were a true man, and that she cared for you. I
stand ready to say all this and more. I am no weak
girl, now, to be terrified by bugbears. There is a per-
f ectness, even of human love, that casteth out fear. You
forget this when you threaten me with my husband's
displeasure."
She laughed, and all the comers of the quiet room
caught up the mirthful echoes.
" Why, if Eoy stood where you do, I could tell him all
you have said, without a blush or tremor. That I have
never done this, you owe to my reluctance to betray to
him the baseness of one in whose veins runs the same
blood as in his. I would spare him the pain and shame
17
886 JESSAMINE.
of seeing you for what you are. But I wish he knew
everything 1 "
"I think he does 1"
While she wscS speaking, a shape had loomed into mo-
tion from a recess formed by two bookcases at the further
end of the library, and was now at her side. As her hus-
band's voice greeted her astonished ears, she felt his sup-
porting arm about her.
" Hush, my darling 1 " he said, at her stifled scream.
" I came in for a book just before you entered. After
hearing Mr. Wyllys' preliminary remark I thought it best
to let you vindicate yourself without my help. Not that
I needed to hear your justification, but I meant that he
should. We will go back to our friends, now. Shall I
tell Mrs, Wyllys that you are waiting to take her home % '*
to Orrin.
" If you please,'' was the equally formal reply.
A week later, Selina Bradley brought Mrs. Baxter a
piece of startling news.
" It is certainly true 1 " she insisted, as the other looked
her incredulity, " The house and furniture are offered
for sale. It is very doubtful when they will return.
They may reside abroad for years ^take up their perma-
nent abode in Paris. Mr. Wyllys affects to treat the plan
as one they have been considering this great while, but
there are queer stories afloat. Hester is indiscreet, you
know. They had a violent scene in the hearing of the
servants on their return from the Fordhams' christening
party. The most unlikely, but a popular, rumor is that
Hester was furiously jealous of her husband's attentions
to Jessie, or her sister, that night. She threatened to
JESSAMINE. 387
leave him, and go home to her father, unless he would
take his oath never to speak to either of them again/'
"You may well say ^unlikely!'" Mrs. Baxter said,
eyeing the doctor apprehensively, as he sat up to his eye-
brows in a book at a distant mndow. " They are going
to Paris, you say % '^
The doctor had lowered his volimie, let go his cravat,
and pushed up his spectacles.
" So Hester says, and is in ecstasies (apparently) at the
prospect. As for Mr. Wyllys, he professes to think
American society a very wishy-washy affair compared
with Parisian circles."
" Humph ! " snorted the doctor. " They could not
choose more wisely and consistently. Paris is the world's
repertory of gilded shams 1 "
He tied a double knot in his handkerchief.