ELIZABETH PHIPPS TRAIN La* 3 0044 MADAM OF THE IVIES BY ELIZABETH PHIPPS TRAIN A SOCIAL HIGHWAYMAN THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PROFESSIONAL BEAUTY A MARITAL LIABILITY ISSUED IN THE LOTOS LIBRARY Tall i6mo. Illustrated. Buckram, 75 cents per volume A QUEEN OF HEARTS i2mo. Cloth, ornamental, {1.25 MADAM OF THE IVIES izmo. Cloth, ornamental, $1.25 MADAM OF THE IVIES BY Elizabeth Phipps Train PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1898 Copyright, 1896, by NATIONAL PRESS AGENCY, LIMITED Copyright, 1898, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY Madam of the Ivies CHAPTER I. " WANTED A young woman to perform the cus tomary duties of companion to an elderly lady. To a person of the requisite qualifications, willing to live in strict retirement, a liberal salary and comfortable home are offered. References required. Apply to M. H. E., The Ivies, Eldon." T READ the above advertisement aloud to my mother in a voice that trembled somewhat, notwithstanding all my efforts to render it calm and even. " Here it is, mother dear," I said, with a foolish little laugh that meant nothing, and yet concealed much. " I have searched long enough for it, in all conscience." " For what, my dear?" my mother asked, with innocent surprise in her pretty, faded blue eyes. on/* <-*on, r ? i< <- * \JIL O v > ^.; O MADAM OF THE IVIES " For a response to the various appeals I have made to the future," I replied. She looked bewilderment itself. " You mean ?" she began, and paused in helpless perplexity. " I mean that those few lines that I have just read to you represent the only attention that Fate has ever vouchsafed to my in cessant applications for assistance in un ravelling the tangled thread of my destiny," I answered, in a tone of solemn signifi cance. " But I don t see, Dorothy " " No, of course you don t, you unsuper- stitious little soul !" I cried, with a laugh that was really now the proper thing, the precious little woman s utter lack of comprehension was so genuine and amusing. " You were born a generation too early for endowment with all the marvellous psychical gifts which are the birthright of my era. We of this age can look into the future as well as divine the thoughts of our fellows, and in this bit of typographical matter I can see what life holds in store for me as if I were at the end 6 MADAM OF THE IVIES instead of the beginning of existence. I see Kismet written all over this advertisement, where you see but the expressed needs of a fellow-mortal." She still looked dubious and uncertain. " What is it you mean?" she asked, a lit tle impatiently for her. Her want of sympathy with my mood somewhat sobered and steadied it. Mother and daughter as we were, loving each other fondly though we did, we were of such ab solutely contrasting natures and tempera ments that we rarely understood each other by intuition ; we never fully entered into each other s joys and sorrows. I went over to the low chair where she sat with her sew ing lying idle in her lap, and knelt down beside her. I took her small hands, worn with much labour and ceaseless industry, into mine, and raised an earnest and serious face to hers. " Dearest," I said, " you are going to be annoyed with me again ; you are going to feel again that you have just cause to con sider me foolish and inconsequent. Forgive 7 MADAM OF THE IVIES me first, and then I will explain what cause there is for your pardon." She smiled indulgently at me, for, indeed, she was never very fierce even in her most intolerant moods, and, leaning forward, she kissed me lightly on the brow. The touch of her lips almost undid me, there seemed such a suggestion of finality in the caress. It was as if she were giving sanction to my own thought, that I was about to pass for ever from close and inti mate contact with herself, the familiar, if uncomprehending, companion of this first chapter of my life, which I felt was swiftly nearing its conclusion. I drew in my breath sharply to restrain threatening emotion, and obeyed her injunction to proceed with my explanation. " Mother," I began, " you will say that it is only one of my ridiculous fancies when I tell you that I have an impression, which amounts to conviction, that some strange tie is already forming itself between me and this lady of the initials who needs a companion. It is no chance that has brought her necessity MADAM OF THE IVIES to my knowledge ; it is the natural action of that subtle agency which governs our lives. I can almost hear this woman calling me to her side ; I feel that she has long been wait ing for me ; I long to share her 4 strict retire ment ; I feel the mysterious bond that exists between us tightening itself and abridging the distance that parts us. I shall reply at once to her cry for companionship, which I know to be a summons directed at me alone of all the world, and when the doors of The Ivies open to me, as open they surely will, they will receive within them, not a tempo rary guest, but a lifelong inmate, who shall finally leave them only to enter upon a new sphere of existence which baffles the re searches of even the most advanced psy chics." I tried to round out my period with an other laugh, but the attempt was a wretched failure. My voice broke, I slid quite down upon the floor at my mother s side, and burst into a really hysterical fit of weeping, which, better than any verbal appeal, deprecated the maternal resentment, for the thin, worn, lov- 9 MADAM OF THE IVIES ing hand quickly stole forward and rested soothingly upon my head. " Why, Dorothy, Dorothy love, what is it ? There there ! What ails my child to night *?" And my downcast head was raised from its position and tenderly pillowed on the loving breast which had been its earliest resting-place. For a while I let it remain there, for it was borne in upon me, in that strange prophecy of spirit which had come upon me, that not often in the days to come would it recover that dear place of repose. Yet, inexplicable as it may seem, the attitude vaguely constrained me, and I was glad after a brief assumption of it to withdraw from it ; for, even then, scarcely five minutes since I had learnt of the existence of such a per son as this lady of The Ivies, I felt myself rather of her world than of my accustomed one, and was conscious of a dawning but forceful aloofness from an environment to which I had become habituated by necessity rather than through accord of sympathy. There would be little use in my making comment upon, or attempting explanation 10 MADAM OF THE IVIES of, the singular and, to my mother and mat ter-of-fact married sister Marion, provoking vein of subtle influence which ran through my nature, frequently and irresistibly deter mining me in a choice of ways incompati ble with what they considered the dictates of good judgment and sober common sense. It is an element of character or tempera ment too metaphysical in its nature for my analysis, but it has done my mental balance much injury in the estimation of those who are nearest me in blood, and has placed me without the bar in the matter of family councils. That my intuitions have generally proved correct weighs little against the fact that they are wholly spontaneous and formed without logical sequence, for my kindred are as rational in drawing their conclusions as I am unreasonable. As I sprang to my feet, determined to regain my self-poise, my mother sank back upon her seat with a little sigh, which I knew indicated a silent protest against this weakness that threatened my mentality. " Have you already seen this lady, Dor- MADAM OF THE IVIES othy*?" she asked, hoping, perhaps, to find me not so much at fault as she anticipated. " Never," I replied, uncompromisingly. " She is personally as unknown to me as to you ; and yet," I concluded, dreamily, " I fancy she is no stranger to me." " You have heard of her by report, then *?" " Not even in the vaguest fashion." " Dorothy, Dorothy !" shaking her head in expostulation and foreboding ; " you will end in a madhouse if you encourage yourself in your dangerous proclivities." I laughed. " Not I," I returned, with provoking se renity ; " I have just told you that I am to end my days at The Ivies." " Do you really mean to apply for the po sition ?" " I really mean to assume the position." " Dorothy, do stop jesting, child, and ex plain to me what your intentions regarding this advertisement actually are." I saw that she was becoming annoyed by the tone of flippancy beneath which I was trying to shield a cowardly purpose that did MADAM OF THE IVIES not quite dare declare itself, and so came boldly forth from behind my cover. " Mother," I said, standing straight before her, with resolution, which she must have seen it would be useless to seek to vanquish, written all over my face, " I have not been talking so idly and wildly as you imagine. You know, although you wholly disapprove of the habit, that I am apt to form my determinations while you and Marion are listening to the exposition of a subject. You know, also, though you will not admit it, that my instincts are rarely at fault. Now, here is a matter which will allow me to prove beyond peradventure the validity of my in tuitions. I have never in my life heard of this lady whose advertisement I have just read ; I do not know whether she is old or young, rich or poor, amiable or the reverse ; I do not know anything about Eldon, or where it may be situated ; but, so sure am I that from the beginning of my life it was ordained that I am to spend the major part of my existence within its boundaries, intro duced to its neighbourhood by the require- 13 MADAM OF THE IVIES ments of this mysterious M. H. E., that to morrow morning I shall pack up all your wealth of worldly possessions and settle them and you at Marion s, as we have arranged to do in event of my obtaining a position, and in the afternoon I shall gather together my own goods and chattels and depart for Eldon, wherever it may be, intending to be settled before nightfall as companion for life to the lady who has expressed her need of me." My poor mother regarded me in helpless amazement. Once she opened her lips as if to speak, doubtless in remonstrance, but, thinking better of it, she closed them again, contenting herself with a silent shake of the head, which suggested all sorts of dire con sequences to the course of action I was bent on pursuing. This tacit admission on her part of the futility of argument or expostu lation struck me so irresistibly that I could not but laugh as I stooped over her and sought to win her compliance by caresses. " Don t think so badly of me, dear," I said. " It will all come out right, never fear. I will prove my right to be governed by impulse." 14 MADAM OF THE IVIES My mother was of a yielding nature, ac customed to submit to the stronger forces to which she had given birth. She shunned responsibility of every sort, and it was char acteristic of her to act in matters of moment as she did now ; that is, to avoid committing herself to any direct line of action by allow ing others to decide for her, contenting her self with the assertion that she washed her hands of the whole business, and that, what ever befell, she could not be held accountable for bringing it about. Twenty-four hours later I had accom plished my resolve, and had written, with trembling but determined ringers, " Finis" to the prologue of my life s drama. Urged by that potent but inexplicable influence which was so wont to direct me, I had resolutely snapped the link that bound me to my de pendent girlhood by establishing my mother in her married daughter s comfortable home, and, having thus burnt my ships behind me, I found myself confronted with the prospect of a journey into a strange land of promise, with no compass to direct my future steps 5 MADAM OF THE IVIES save the few printed characters on the bit of paper slipped under the palm of my glove for ready reference ; with no guide-book to inform me of what nature and habits were the people with whom I purposed dwelling ; with no surety of attaining the goal for which I was striving except a moral cer tainty bred within my own breast, at whose authenticity I was aware all save myself would scoff and sneer. My efforts in my mother s behalf occupied the greater part of the next day, and I found that the first train to Eldon that I should be free to take was one that left New York at four-fifteen in the afternoon. It may show my faith in what my family were wont to call my superstitions to say that, so sure was I that I should not require one, I did not even concern myself to look up a return train. But, as I was being whirled through a barren and desolate landscape in the chill dreariness of a February twilight, my inner ally, that unrecognisable " encourager of hesitancy," somewhat deserted me, and left me a prey to a sudden despondency, and to 16 MADAM OF THE IVIES miserable doubts and reflections as to whether I had indeed done altogether wisely to per mit myself to be so uncompromisingly di rected by mere impulse. For a brief while I abandoned myself to actual self-torture, in flicting upon my quaking heart all manner of wretched forebodings and baleful pre dictions, and reproaching myself bitterly for the precipitancy of my conduct. Then, recognising the danger of losing hope and courage when self-control and assurance were my chief stock-in-trade, I drew forth the tiny advertisement and fortified my sinking soul with its perusal. Truly there was some witchery about the crumpled thing, for no sooner had my eyes fallen upon it than the subtle essence of hope and cheer again crept through my veins, bringing renewed boldness and conviction to my spirit. I was still under the sway of this brighter mood when there came a perceptible slack ening in the speed of the train, the brake- man s voice rang out in accents which only an expectant ear could have discovered to con ceal the announcement of " Eldon, Eldon !" 2 7 and almost before I was conscious of move ment I found myself standing on the station platform, companioned by but one other passenger, a tall man wrapped in a heavy ulster, which gave a burly outline to his figure, watching with longing eyes the swift retreat of what I felt to be my last friend, the onward-speeding train, that seemed abandon ing me in noisy defection to a lonely and unknown fate. I think I might have been standing there now, wrapped in the homesick misery that seemed to envelop me, had it not been for the consideration of my fellow-passenger. Later I learnt why he had been induced, to cast aside conventional restraint and address me. It was because I appeared to stand so alone and unprotected in that dismal wintry dusk, he said ; a man with any spark of chivalry in him would have risked long odds in the way of resentment of his conduct rather than miss an opportunity of being of service to a damsel so obviously " all forlorn." I laughed, with a warm reserve of appreciation deep down in my heart, nevertheless, when, 18 MADAM OF THE IVIES some months after, David Spencer told me this ; but at the moment mirth had no place in my emotions. " Can I be of service, madam *?" That was the welcome question which formed my greeting to Eldon, and so gravely and solici tously was it uttered that no thought of im pertinence could possibly be associated with it. I turned gratefully. " You are very kind," I said. " If I could find a carriage of any sort " and I looked about the deserted place with doubtful glance. " Of course," he assented. " There is one here ; it stands behind the station. May I secure it for you *?" " Thank you, but I will not trouble you. If it is here I can doubtless find it, and" with a smile at the emptiness of the place " I should not think there was danger of its being engaged." At that moment the station-master made his appearance, and as I gave him the check for my trunk for I had even gone the length of bringing it with me he touched his hat 9 MADAM OF THE IVIES to my companion with a " Good evening, doctor," while the latter, with a courteous salutation, moved away and disappeared round the corner of the station. " I wish to go to The Ivies ; is there a con veyance here that can also carry my trunk ?" I asked. My companion looked at me with visible interest, not to say curiosity. " The Ivies !" he exclaimed. " Is Madam expecting you *?" I was annoyed at what I considered un warrantable curiosity. " That is neither here nor there," I re plied, haughtily. " What I wish to know is whether or not the carriage in waiting here can accommodate my trunk." The fellow had decent manners. He again raised his hat, and remarked, with an apologetic air, " I only asked, miss, because I thought Madam would be sending for you if she knew you was comin ." " She does not know," I answered, mol lified by his excuse. MADAM OF THE IVIES " Then I don t know just what you ll do," he said. " It s a long pull to walk, and there ain t no other ways of gettin there as I knows of." " What do you mean ?" I asked, in some dismay, for my new friend might after all have been mistaken as to the carriage behind the station. " That gentleman whom you called doctor assured me that there was a conveyance here." The man nodded. " So there was," he assented ; " but it was one he had ordered for himself." " Are you sure *?" I asked. " Certain," he replied. " He lives five mile or so from here, does Dr. Spencer, and he always has a carriage from the Banks House to meet him when he comes back from a trip to New York." " Nevertheless," I said, with faith in the chivalry of the man who had offered to assist a friendless stranger, " I think I shall find that carriage still waiting. I will look." And I suited the action to the word. MADAM OF THE IVIES As I turned the corner of the building I confess my heart beat rather quickly, for it would mean much to me if my hopes were disappointed. Besides, I fear I had a girl s natural curiosity as to the extent of the im pression I had made upon this casual ac quaintance ; my vanity was in arms to dis cover whether it had been of sufficient degree to prevail over that regard for his own crea ture comforts which weighs heavily against the inherent instincts of courtesy in man. It was with a sigh of relief and a thrill of gratified self-consciousness that I perceived the vehicle still standing at its post. Still, its rightful claimant might have ensconced himself within it, thinking that we could both share its capacious bosom, for it was a veritable ark, cumbersome and anti quated, but a welcome place of refuge all the same. Of course, if such should prove the fact, I should be in as bad a case as ever, for it was not likely that I would consent to make a journey in the dark, shut up in a carriage with an unknown, however chiv alrous man. MADAM OF THE IVIES The driver was standing patiently, or rather doggedly, by his horse, and him I accosted. " Are you waiting for anyone in par ticular ?" I asked. He moved forward and regarded me in quiringly. " Doctor said there was a lady " he began. " Yes ; I am she. But the doctor had already engaged you, had he not *?" " Yes. But doctor said that warn t no matter ; he d walk." " I am sorry to have incommoded him," I said, mendaciously, for I should have felt far more regret to have been obliged to accom modate him. " Can you take me to The Ivies ?" An expression of surprise, similar to that I had seen upon the station-master s face, enlivened the driver s stolid countenance. " The Ivies !" he ejaculated. " Is Madam expecting you *?" This repetition of the other s question was so significant of the fact that visitors were rarely entertained in the house which I had 23 MADAM OF THE IVIES already come to look upon as my future home, that I began to feel that I purposed invading a place of isolation and exile. I took refuge from a cold reaction that was beginning to settle about the region of my heart in sharp rebuke. " That is not what I asked you !" I said ; " nor can I see that it in any way concerns you. All I require of you is to take me and my truflfc thither. Can you do so ?" The man nodded, a trifle surlily. " Guess I can," he answered. " Where s the trunk*? I ll fetch it if you ll get in." A few moments later he returned, bearing the trunk upon his shoulder and accompanied by the station-master. While the trunk was being strapped upon the rack behind me, I could hear the two men conversing in low tones. I could catch occasional words which they uttered, but the full dialogue was indis tinguishable. I gleaned enough, however, to satisfy me that my appearance and desti nation formed the topic under discussion, and the tone of both voices was one of wonder and surprise. 24 MADAM OF THE IVIES Before we started, the station-master pre sented himself at the door, peering with un mistakable curiosity into the carriage. " Hope you won t think I meant any offence, miss, just now," he said. " I have too high a respect for Madam to be disre spectful to any of her friends." I felt that the apology was largely tentative, and declined rising to the lure couched in the word " friends." Not by disclosing the fact that I had no personal acquaintance with this " Madam," or by asserting in what capacity I hoped to become an inmate of The Ivies, would I lay the spirit of inquisitiveness that I had inadvertently aroused in the man. " Very well," I returned, and drew to the door. A minute later we had started on our way. CHAPTER II. T HAD ample time for reflection as we jogged along. It seemed to me that we traversed a huge section of country, though I have since learnt that not more than six miles intervened between the Eldon station and The Ivies. But my excited and nervous condition doubtless made me impatient, and for that reason the distance appeared twice its real length. Evening had quite set in, and the dusk was so heavy that I could distinguish little of the passing landscape. I had let down one of the windows, and the wintry air came in with a rawness and bleakness which seemed to bespeak a high altitude. Then, too, the position of the carriage was such that I knew we must be constantly ascending, and I wondered if The Ivies were perched like an eagle s eyrie on a mountain-top. Finally, when I had about concluded that 26 MADAM OF THE IVIES the drive would never end, the carriage turned abruptly to the right, and, passing be tween two high granite posts, whose grim outlines stood forth like shadowy sentinels in the gloom, we entered a dark, heavily-shaded avenue, which formed a considerable interval between gates and house. An overwhelming desire to learn what I could of these close surroundings of my new home for so, despite my occasional lapses from absolute conviction, I still confidently believed my destination was to become prompted me to lean far out of the window, and challenge the more pronounced teatures of the landscape to reveal themselves to my gaze. We were still ascending, more gradually now, however, and on the left, through spaces intervening between tall and heavily com pacted trees, which I later discovered to be poplars, I could discern a steep embankment, shelving abruptly down from the road along which we were driving. It was impossible to determine its depth, owing to the obscurity of the fast-descending night, but that it was 27 MADAM OF THE IVIES considerable I divined from the fact that, as we passed along its poplar-fringed brink, I saw, quite below me, the dim and indistinct silhouette of what appeared to be either a white or a grey house. A little farther on, and the always moderate pace of the horse de generated into a walk, and then into a mere pretence of movement ; the driver called " Whoa !" in a subdued tone, in harmony with the hush that pervaded the surround ings ; and I knew that I had reached my place of destination, and that The Ivies, in all its mystery and strangeness, lay before me. I shall never forget that one moment of misgiving and trepidation which I experienced while the driver was dismounting from his perch. A very panic of irresolution and diffidence took possession of my being. I scored myself for a rash and audacious fool ; I took heed of all the remonstrances which had ever been directed at me by my mother and sister ; I shrank like a timid child from the indefinable prospect that confronted me ; I meditated retreat, ignominious flight, shame- 28 MADAM OF THE IVIES faced return to even that roof beneath which my mother had sought refuge, and where I knew that my abject failure would meet with scant sympathy and copious comments of the " I told you so" variety. Then I made a supreme effort and pulled myself resolutely together. The driver opened the carriage door, and in another instant I found myself standing before a short flight of broad stone steps, with a bearing as composed and assured as if I had never known a qualm or scruple in my life. No sooner had my foot touched terra firma than I felt myself again reassured by that strange, mysterious inner conscious ness that I was being directed by an invisible agency according to a preordained and un erring plan. As I paused there briefly, surveying with eyes that were rather contemplative than curious the imposing pile of stone and granite which reared its huge proportions high into the darkness, a sense of well-being and rest- fulness stole soothingly over me ; I felt that this was in very deed home that I had come to ; that the previous conditions of my life 29 MADAM OF THE IVIES had been artificial and ill-adapted ; that I had heretofore been miscast in the rdle which had been given me to play ; that for the first time since my birth I found myself properly circumstanced and congenially disposed. It was a most singular sensation that pervaded me ; I can best describe it as one of calm and peaceful satisfaction, as an intuitive per ception of means at hand to gratify vague longings and aspirations which had up to the present time caused me to appear a creature of fitful disposition and unsteady purpose. I felt as might feel an animal that has for years been exposed to a false element, and that finds itself suddenly transferred to its proper habitat. Yet sober common-sense did not wholly abandon me, for I took the precaution to order the man to allow my trunk to remain on the rack, and to himself await my reap pearance. Then I mounted the steps and rang the bell with steady hand. A most intense silence seemed to envelop the house ; even my summons was of a faint and subdued nature. It took the form of a 30 MADAM OF THE IVIES sweet, solemn, silvery tinkling, as of a fairy chime, fading with minor cadences into the distance. One could almost feel how rarely a like sound disturbed the hush and repose of the dwelling. Almost directly I heard a shuffling step approaching from within, the door was softly and with grave ceremony thrown open, and an old man of slight stature and feeble frame stood before me, the light of a bronze hanging lantern above the en trance illumining with startling distinctness his singularly white face and silvery straggling locks. In his hand he held a tiny old-fash ioned salver, and it was apparent that his custom was to receive upon it the cards, without admitting the persons, of such stray visitors as should seek to invade the retire ment in which his mistress dwelt, for, scarce waiting for my question as to whether she would receive me, he held it forth, and, still barring my entrance with his small person, said, " Mrs. Eldredge desires to be ex cused." " Will you tell her," I returned, depositing my card in the small receptacle, " that I am 31 MADAM OF THE IVIES come in response to her advertisement, and say that as I have travelled from a distance I hope she will see me, unless the position be already filled." My explanation caused him to take a different view of my intrusion, for now the door was thrown hospitably open, and, as I obeyed his request to enter, I found myself in a delightfully quaint old hall, with high raftered ceiling, and far reaches of impene trable gloom which bespoke spacious depths and offered a wide field for the imagination. With ancient ceremony the aged butler threw open the door of a small reception- room, standing aside for me to pass in, but, fascinated by the romantic aspect of the wide hall, and invited to linger in its shadows by the cheery blaze of a huge hickory log that burnt in the cavernous fireplace, I smilingly negatived his suggestion, and begged to be allowed to wait where I was. He was absent but a few moments. Scarcely had I become penetrated by the welcome warmth of the fire than he reap peared and desired me to follow him. He led 32 MADAM OF THE IVIES the way up a broad and winding staircase, whose ascent was broken by two or three wide landings, each a small room in itself, and thence across a large upper hall fitted as a picture-gallery, the vast dimensions of which were broken by a magnificently carved circu lar balustrade, brought, as I afterwards learnt, from one of the old Doria palaces, which enclosed a great well that reached from en trance-hall to roof, where an enormous sky light of stained glass shed a modified glow upon the space beneath. Daylight having quite faded, silver sconces suspended against the walls gave partial and fitful illumination to the place, the candles shirking their actual duty, however, to co quet among the brighter surroundings of the gilded frames that lined the mighty stretches of wall. Rugs innumerable covered the polished oaken floor, and, had it been pos sible for the noiseless footstep of my com panion to become less audible, I should have thought that he took heed to so stifle it as our progress increased. We paused at last before a closed door, upon which he tapped 3 33 so reverently that I was reminded of a priest approaching a holy shrine. A low-toned, exquisitely modulated voice gave us permission to enter. The old ser vant opened the door, announced me, and immediately withdrew, leaving me in the presence of a woman, the charm of whose unusual personality, the magnificence of whose matured beauty, rendered me wholly oblivious of her environment. What was the emotion that seized upon me as my eyes first fell upon Madam? Was it reverence, awe, timidity, affright at my own audacity in offering myself as com panion to such as she? Was it the spell exercised upon inferior natures by extraor dinary strength of character united to almost perfect physical form *? Was it fear *? Was it alarm *? Or was it was it not, rather the birth-agony of a love unique in its nature, passionate in its intensity, soul-en nobling in its development, which, though I have known warm family affection, though I have felt strong attachment to two or three close friends, though I have since become the 34 MADAM OF THE IVIES proud and happy wife of a man who holds my very soul in his keeping, has stood apart and aloof, on a pinnacle of its own, elevated and sanctified beyond all the other emotions of my life *? The most positive memory I retain of that first meeting is the impression produced upon my mind by Madam. So profound was that impression that in seeking to recall her like ness now, since her visible presence has passed from before my eyes, I invariably picture her as I then saw her, notwithstand ing the fact that in after-days I formed a so much better acquaintance with her features and expression. My mind, harking back into the past, conjures up the grandeur of a solitary figure, waiting, in patient, silent dignity, like a noble statue, among the ruins of a shattered world. Sculptured as by an artist s hand directed by a poet s brain, the rare contour of her face was classic in its mould, and superbly intellectual in its wondrous beauty. Mind, soul, and heart the trinity of man s personality shone through the lovely mask 35 MADAM OF THE IVIES that disclosed, rather than concealed, her spiritual being. She was sitting, as I entered in obedience to her bidding, in a high-backed chair of carved ebony, with her feet, arched like those of a Spanish princess, resting on a little foot stool. About her lay folds of rich black drapery, unrelieved by any touch of colour or gleam of precious metal. One ornament, if so it might be called, and one only, she wore, and that was the sole jewel I ever saw her assume. It was a ring of gold overlaid with black enamel, and set with a single diamond of great size and, doubtless, of great intrinsic value. It was her engage ment ring, which, upon the death of her husband, she had had encrusted with en amel, and this was held secure by a tiny guard so small as to well-nigh escape obser vation, the symbol of her marriage. She must have been at that time about sixty years old, although she had the ap pearance of a greater age. This was due to the absolute whiteness of her still luxuriant hair, which was somewhat hidden from sight 36 MADAM OF THE IVIES by a coiffure of finest black lace, that looked like an enamelled arabesque traced upon sil ver. Her figure was tall, commanding, and very erect ; her face gentle, and filled with the pathos of supreme suffering and self- renunciation ; her manner that of a high bred gentlewoman, into whose mind the reflection that she is a being superior to the meanest of those about her has never ob truded. Her eyes brown, kindly, and wist ful were very beautiful, and touched one s deepest sympathies by reason of a strange look of appeal that lay in their depths. As the servant pronounced my name she rose from her chair, and extended a cordial hand to me, saying, in a slow, gentle voice, " You are the lady who has volunteered to consider the thought of sharing my soli tude 1 ? Will you not come close to the fire 1 ? You must be chilled from your long ride." She motioned to a chair directly facing her own, and resumed her seat. I had touched the long, fragile fingers with devout 37 MADAM OF THE IVIES reverence, and, still standing before her, made the amende for my presumptuous appearance in her house. " Madam," I said, " I had the temerity to think I could fulfil your requirements. Par don me for the audacious thought. I had not at that time seen you, and was unaware how little worthy of you my companionship would be. My discovery has come in good season, however, and I beg you to allow me to withdraw." There was great regret as well as firm con viction in my voice. My disappointment was as intense as my assurance of disquali fication. I longed to be of service to this woman ; all my romantic impulses were stirred by the perception of her beauty and tragic isolation ; and yet I was convinced of my own inadequacy as regarded her needs. I sighed involuntarily and was about to turn away, but she stretched out a detaining hand, while a little smile of amusement flitted across the gravity of her expression. " Nay, my child, be not so hasty in your decisions," she returned. " After all, it is I 38 MADAM OF THE IVIES who should be the judge of your capabili ties unless, indeed, you are already discour aged by the loneliness of this place, and use your modesty to conceal the real reason of your flight ?" The words were in the form of an interrog atory and I hastened to deny their false accu sation. I spoke with considerable warmth, and the smile deepened on Madam s face. " You are quite young," she remarked. " Not more than eighteen or twenty, I should say. That is in itself a strong rec ommendation to me. I should like some thing youthful about me in my old age. But my longing is a selfish one. Youth needs youth and gaiety and bright surround ings. My home is no place for it to shelter in." She gave a little sigh, as if her thoughts were introspective, and I took advantage of the pause to tell her how little I prized the pleasures which were so dear to most girls of my age, and how devoid of terrors I held solitude. I think the eagerness in my voice touched 39 MADAM OF THE IVIES and won her, for a slight flush crept into her face as she listened. " You have probably never dreamt of a household so quiet and monotonous as this," she said. " We are all old people who in habit it, Franklin, poor Mayberry, and I. And I I am, in addition, blind." I cried aloud at this, so shocked and star tled was I. Blind ! those beautiful eyes with their profound depths ! " You are surprised," she exclaimed, while I could have bitten out my tongue from annoyance at my own inadvertence. " Ah ! my old eyes are sad hypocrites, my dear, and * assume a virtue when they have it not. Now, shall I begin my catechism ?" There is no need to go into the detail of question and answer by means of which Madam became convinced that my endow ments were sufficient for the position I cov eted. I had received, at the expense of a well-to-do uncle, an excellent education, and, being naturally of a studious habit of mind, had ranged even beyond the lead of my pre ceptors into the fields of general knowledge. 40 MADAM OF THE IVIES I could speak with confidence of my lin gual familiarity with French, German, and Italian, besides being able to claim a toler ably intimate acquaintance with the most celebrated literary productions of each of these nations. Nor had my English ac quirements suffered neglect. Well stocked had I been by native harvesting before being allowed to stray afield in search of foreign gleaning. I had an excellent ear for music, and a fair contralto voice, which had been carefully cultivated,- so that my singing really afforded pleasure to even critical listeners ; I had a knowledge of book-keeping sufficient to make me an exceedingly accurate domestic accountant ; I could read aloud for hours without fatigue of my well-trained vocal muscles, and thoughts and ideas were bred rapidly enough in my brain, even if these were at times too odd and original for easy assimilation by those to whom I might chance to utter them, to ensure my being a fairly entertaining and easy conversation alist. 41 MADAM OF THE IVIES I did not offer Madam this frank inven tory of my accomplishments as I offer it to my readers. She was supplied with the op portunity of discovering it for herself which is denied you. I am not egotistical in thus acknowledging my gifts and attainments ; they were merely the stock-in-trade by means of which I hoped to secure a living, and it seems necessary to the telling of my tale that I should make mention without mock modesty of the extent to which I was equipped for my career. The manner of Madam s interrogatory re vealed to me her possession of great tact and cleverness. So adroitly she led me on to disclose my abilities that I am sure I re vealed my whole scope and character within fifteen minutes of entering her boudoir, while at the time I had almost no suspicion of the probe she was so skilfully inserting. It was not until afterwards, when I was alone in my chamber, that I realised how much per sonal information she had extracted from me. " My dear," she said, finally, " you are 42 MADAM OF THE IVIES very tired. Your voice betrays a certain strain and weariness which will be followed by an exhausting reaction if you do not get immediate rest. If you are satisfied with my terms" they were very liberal ones " let Franklin dismiss your carriage, and let us try for a week, by practical experience, the question of our mutual suitability. Will you do so 1 ?" My vanity whispered that beneath the outward calmness of her manner it could de tect a strain of suppressed eagerness as to my decision, which flattered me beyond words. I gladly assented to her proposal, and, in obedience to her request, rang the bell and gave the old butler the order to send off the waiting carriage. Madam further desired him to tell the housekeeper to prepare my room, and as she departed she extended to me her right hand with the gesture of one asking a charity. " Will you allow me a more personal in quisition, my child ?" she asked, with some hesitation. " Will you mind it very much if I touch your face and read your expression 43 MADAM OF THE IVIES by the only method that remains to me*? Perhaps you will even be good enough to colour for me the crude sketch which is all my rude fingers are able to form *?" I knelt at her side, and she passed her slender fingers deftly, shrewdly, over my features. I thrilled beneath her gentle touch almost as might a maiden beneath the caress of her lover. " A goodly growth," she remarked, as her hand dwelt upon the thick masses of my hair. " Its colour *?" " Chestnut, my mother calls it, Madam," I replied. " With golden lights threading it *?" she asked, a little eagerly. " It is indeed of changeable shades," I re turned, modestly, for I well knew that my only patent of beauty was composed of the sun-flecked hair that was my mother s pride, together with the white and perfect teeth which were my own delight. Madam drew a tiny chain from its seclusion beneath the bosom of her gown, and opened a massive locket, as large as a man s watch, 44 MADAM OF THE IVIES that depended from it. I could tell by its construction that it was divided into four compartments, but only one of these was revealed to my curious gaze. That held the miniature of a radiant, blooming girl, upon whose exquisite brow rested the suggestion of a dawning matronhood which, when it assumes natural and graceful possession of a woman s face, enhances a thousandfold the beauty of immaturity. It was Madam. No one could for an instant doubt that. But oh ! Madam with hope and joy and anticipation irradiating the features whereon havoc had since marked its course. " Is it such as this was *?" she asked, hold ing the case towards me. " Much the same, I think," I replied. " Only yours was doubtless more beautiful, Madam." She sighed and closed the case. Probably for the sake of one who had admired and loved their beauty, she mourned the fading of her locks. And so together we painted for her en- 45 MADAM OF THE IVIES lightenment a sufficient likeness of my out ward aspect. " Hazel eyes, chestnut hair, perfect health, which implies a fair complexion, good fea tures, and a nobly shaped and well-set head, you should be something of a beauty, my dear," my appraiser concluded, with a hu morous little smile. " And yet, Madam, I am not," I answered, truthfully. " My mouth is far too large, my face is too thin, my skin too colourless, and withal I am too tall and lanky to be attractive to lovers of beauty." 4 6 CHAPTER III. TT was her pleasure to accompany me to my room, whither I led her according to her direction, her hand resting on my arm. We were nearly of equal height, which made it specially easy for me to become her guide. She left me after a little, having assured herself that things had been made comfort able for my reception. And, indeed, a far more captious person than I, and one used to much greater luxury, could scarcely have found anything to complain of in the small suite of rooms chamber, sitting-room and bath that had been recently appointed, in view of the fact that Madam was about to receive into her house a new inmate. I made a cursory inspection of my apart ments, disposed my belongings for the night, and, after refreshing myself with the dainty supper which Madam insisted I should take 47 MADAM OF THE IVIES in my own room, being firmly of the opinion that I was too fatigued to dine below stairs, went to the window and stood for some time gazing in dreamy abstraction out into the night. A small crescent of light hung low in the heavens, and shed the tenderest of possible illuminations over the world. The night was so still that an almost unearthly hush seemed to have fallen from its wings. On the left, winding away into unfathomable distance, was the avenue which had been my way hither, and far below on the right, dimly and partially discernible through the sombre branches of the grim and forbidding poplars, gleamed forth that cold and spectral mass of masonry that formed the house which had attracted my notice as I approached The Ivies. Almost beneath me it lay, for I was in a wing of the house in close proximity to the cliff that overhung it. Its utter gloom (there were no lights about it) and air of ghostly mystery struck old and chill upon my fancy. I felt it to be a house with a history, and 4 8 MADAM OF THE IVIES fell a-wondering what that history might be ; whether I should ever learn it ; whether it had connection with the tragedy which seemed to stalk nakedly and yet closely masked about the house in which I had elected to take up my abode. Would the time come when the secrets of Madam s life would be matters of familiar detail to me? Would my courage and the support of that inner monitor on which I so largely depended be sufficient to counteract the loneliness and depression of my surroundings ? Brave and possessed of enthusiasm for my mistress though I was, independent of the diversions of youth as I had professed my self, I could not close my eyes to the fact that I had never before been tested by such extreme conditions as these, and I wondered if, after the novelty of the situation had worn off, I should be able to find enough matter of interest in the place to hold at bay a natural and by no means exaggerated yearning for occupation and diversion. I fell asleep still revolving in my mind the possibilities in the case. 4 49 MADAM OF THE IVIES The next morning was as different from the afternoon that had preceded it as it is possible for two days at the same season of the year to be. Whereas the evening had been cold, bleak, and dreary, suggestive of the desolation and abomination of winter, the dawn was balmy, mild, and pleasant, indicative of spring and all things vernal and joyous. I made a hasty toilet with my window thrown wide open to the pure country air, which was deliciously invigorating to my city-bred lungs. Then I went out into the long corridor on which my rooms opened, and which led to the large upper hall that I have already described. Having gained this, I paused at the balustrade, admiring its carven beauties, and gazing down into the hall beneath, feasting my eyes upon the har monious picture of still-life the splendid apartment presented. My occupation of it the previous after noon had been too brief and the light too insufficient for me to discover half its beau ties ; but now they stood in the brilliant 50 MADAM OF THE IVIES morning sunshine, fully revealed to my ad miring eyes. Especially did the sunlight bring into prominence a stained-glass win dow of enormous proportions, which made a glowing bit of mural decoration of the farther end of the hall. It had for subject Christ and the repentant Magdalene, and was a masterpiece of design and effective colour ing. About the walls ran low book-cases of dark mahogany, filled to overflowing with books in costly bindings, suggesting the thought that formerly one of the uses of the place had been that of library. The shelves which topped these cases were cov ered with beautiful vases, curios, ornaments of modern and antique design ; and above these, pictures lined the spaces, extending away up the vast stretches of the walls until they overflowed into the gallery above. While I stood thus, enjoying to the full this rare feast of beauty, I heard a weak, un certain footstep behind me. It never crossed my mind that it could be Madam. Despite her blindness, there was no faltering or inde cision in any of her movements. I turned, 51 MADAM OF THE IVIES therefore, expecting to confront some ser vant ; and such, indeed, proved to be the case. But the servant was of a type far dif ferent from any I had ever formed acquaint ance with. The woman who had approached me so silently that until she stood within arm s length I had been unaware of her presence, was of so strange and singular an appear- ( ance that involuntarily I shrank from nearer association, with a recoil of my person of which I was at once ashamed. She was a creature so inharmonious of aspect, of such woful incongruity of design and fulfilment, so evidently an embodiment of a living grief, that one instinctively shunned contact with so unmistakable an abstraction of despair. Have you ever seen a garden so fair and gracious in appearance that to gaze upon it satisfies every aesthetic craving of your nature ; a garden whose form and design seem absolutely perfect, whose flowers are of the rarest species and most exquisite de velopment, in which the sun is fain to linger 52 MADAM OF THE IVIES like a lover, and over whose pleasant paths and verdure the blue skies brood tenderly and peacefully 1 ? Have you, later, beheld this scene of natural and cultivated loveli ness after it has been devastated and laid waste by some monstrous cataclysm, after it has been swept and ravaged by ruthless winds, and all its gentle features have been marred and distorted by stress and storm ? That is the only parallel I can think of to the impression this woman produced upon my mind at first sight. Later I came to pity her, to tolerate her presence without shrink ing, to endeavour to cheer and comfort her even, but it took a mighty effort to conquer my natural reluctance to approach within the circumference of that depressing atmos phere which she exhaled. All the buoy ancy of my young spirit shrank from the contagion of her misery. She had been probably in youth some what above medium height, but her spare form had so yielded to the crushing weight of adversity that she was bowed and bent almost to deformity. One would have taken 53 MADAM OF THE IVIES her for a dwarf at a casual glance. Her face still preserved traces of a once marvel lous comeliness, and this very suggestion of former beauty, disfigured and despoiled as it was, marred her countenance far more deeply than native ugliness would have done. Her features were as small and regular as those of a French doll ; her eyes, originally blue, were now, through constant weeping, quite devoid of colour. Her cheeks, of ghastly whiteness, had so long been the mere water courses of her tears that they were ploughed with lines worse than the wrinkles of ex treme age. All this was repellent enough, but the most repulsive feature of her person ality was the strange incongruity that ex isted between her scarred and pallid counte nance and the glorious mass of golden hair that rippled riotously back from her seamed brow. I have never in my life seen, in col our or texture, the like of her hair. It was like a flood of sunshine falling upon a deso late, devastated ruin. There was not a grey thread in it. It had not faded in any degree, nor had it lost any of its rich abundance. 54 MADAM OF THE IVIES On the head of a girl, accompanied by the bloom and freshness of youth, it would have aroused the admiration of the beholder. On the head of this jaded, wan, miserable woman it jarred upon the sight. Its inharmony smote upon one s sensibilities as might the introduction of a waltz motif into a funeral march. She addressed me as I turned to confront her. I had unconsciously endowed her with a gentle, perhaps plaintive, intonation ; in stead of which there issued from her drawn lips a harsh, raucous whisper, which in creased the repugnance with which she in spired me. " This is Miss Lothrop *?" she asked. I bowed. " I am Mrs. May berry, Madam s house keeper," she continued. " Madam tells me you are to become her companion." Again I bowed assent. " You will not allow yourself to be dis couraged or dissuaded by the dreariness of this place ?" " I think not." 55 MADAM OF THE IVIES As I uttered this commonplace phrase, imagine my surprise at seeing this curious creature fling herself upon her knees beside me, seize a fold of my gown in her thin, claw-like fingers, and lift a pleading, be seeching face to mine, while she cried, in a very agony of entreaty, " Ah ! do not, do not ! I have seen, this morning, upon my mistress s face the first ray of brightness that has crossed it since O God ! since when since when *?" She let go her clutch upon my skirt, and, covering her face with her hands, burst into a fit of uncontrollable weeping, cowering like a whipped dog at my feet. It was evident that she was stirred by some powerful memory, and I felt miserably embarrassed in the presence of this passion ate outburst, which I knew not how to com fort or to soothe. However, I could reas sure her upon the point which had seemed to provoke the attack, the probability of my remaining at The Ivies, and this I proceeded to do. I was engaged in this attempt when her 56 MADAM OF THE IVIES quick and carefully trained ears detected a sound that escaped my own, the sound of her mistress s firm and stately tread approach ing from her boudoir. She rose at once, and, catching my hand to her lips, pressed a trem ulous kiss upon it, while she whispered, quickly, " My dear, you will be doing mis sionary work if you remain," and then, gliding noiselessly out of sight, left me to meet Madam and conduct her down the wide staircase to the dainty morning-room in which it was her custom to breakfast. As far as comfort and luxury were con cerned, life at The Ivies was ideal. The staff of domestics was limited in number, but fully adequate in service. It consisted of the housekeeper and butler whom I have named, an old general out-of-door servant, who slept in a room in the stable, and at tended to the grounds and to the pair of ancient coach-horses that alone composed Madam s stud, and a cook and housemaid, middle-aged women, nieces of Franklin, who had occupied the same positions since they were girls. Mayberry also served as Madam s 57 MADAM OF THE IVIES maid, and I soon discovered that she was ex ceedingly jealous of any attempt to rob her of the performance of her duties in this capacity. My work proved to be thoroughly con genial, and in no degree onerous. Madam fulfilled my most extravagant anticipations, and charmed and fascinated me by her many gifts and rare intellectuality. The most cul tured minds might have found her a conge nial companion ; to a young, ardent, impres sionable girl, such as I then was, she appeared almost divinely endowed and accomplished. She never, after that first mention of it, made allusion to her blindness, but I felt sure it must have been of recent date, for she had made no attempt to train her other senses to the assistance of this defect, as would natu rally have been the case if the affliction had been of very long standing. At the end of the first week she questioned me as to my willingness to remain, and the fervour of my response set that matter for ever at rest between us. From day to day I could see that she grew dependent upon me, 58 MADAM OF THE IVIES and this flattered me and increased my en thusiasm for my work. Work ! It was scarcely that, the service which was required of me. It was employment, it is true, but the sort of employment that was dearest to my soul, and which was amusement as well as occupation to one of my tastes. Old Franklin and Mayberry, grateful to me for the benefit which they insisted I was doing their beloved mistress (I think I was the only being who came in contact with Madam of whom the housekeeper was never jealous), studied my comfort to a degree that led me to remonstrate with them. Un der their united efforts my rooms, always attractive and amply supplied, attained such luxurious equipment that I felt constrained to speak of it to Madam, fearing that should she ever discover the numerous additions my apartment was continually receiving she might think me guilty of soliciting them. However, I had scarcely opened the subject than she laid her hand lightly on my lips. " My little Dorothy," she said, " on one matter Mayberry, Franklin, and I are in per- 59 MADAM OF THE IVIES feet accord. We all agree in thinking that nothing in this great house can be put to better use than in helping to detain and at tract the sunbeam that has strayed through the closed shutters of our lives. Let them have their way, my child. It is a great pleasure to these old people. Do not de prive them of it." The retirement of our existence was well- nigh complete. Madam received absolutely no one, even the clergyman of Eldon parish having abandoned all attempts to penetrate within the walls of the secluded dwelling. Yet, although priestly counsel was not ac ceptable to her, Madam was not unmindful of the necessities and privations of the poor, and every month a generous cheque was despatched by me in her name to Mr. Booth, the rector, to be disbursed as he saw fit. Before long I suggested an amendment to this custom, which, as she was constantly urging upon me the necessity of exercise in the open air, Madam gladly adopted. It was to the effect that, instead of continuing this method of general relief, she should allow 60 MADAM OF THE IVIES me to become her almoner among the poor. It would give aim and object to my walks, and I felt that by its means I could bring outside interest into Madam s life. I had been at The Ivies about three months when one day, in the middle of May, I rose in the morning with a tight iron band about my head. The weather for a week had been an almost incessant downpour, so wet that only an amphibious creature could have found it inviting. Madam and I had been deeply interested in a new German work which I had been reading aloud, and either application to its dazzling text, or too close confinement to the house, or perhaps a combination of both causes, had resulted in this acute physical depression. Feeling a longing for fresh air, and believing that a brisk walk would be my best medicine, I obtained Madam s consent to postpone my usual morning duties until later in the day, and started out on an errand that would carry me well into the village, a distance of perhaps four miles. Although I was a stranger to its people, 61 MADAM OF THE IVIES for I had only recently begun to administer Madam s bounty among the poor, I was by this time fairly familiar with the little ham let. I had called upon Mr. Booth to ac quaint him personally with the change Madam proposed making, and had found him more than pleased to welcome an assist ant in his parish work. He was an agree able man, earnest, sincere, but extremely modest and retiring ; a bachelor, living alone, with a maid-of-all-work to minister to his needs. Save the few poor people whom I visited, he was the sole acquaintance I had made in the place. I had done my errand, not without some physical discomfort, for the living-room of the cottage in which I had been received was close from the fumes of tobacco and strong vegetables and over-heated by a fire burning in the range, and was returning through the village street, when I felt my self overcome by a distressing dizziness. It came upon me suddenly, but not before I had found strength enough to push open a little gate close by me, and stagger up the 62 MADAM OF THE IVIES narrow path which led to the doorstep of a quaint little house which I had frequently noted in my walks. I remember seeing a lady sewing in the window, but that was my last gleam of con sciousness, until I found myself lying on a sofa in a cosy sitting-room, having my brow bathed by a large, comfortale-looking woman, whose head was turned aside to ad dress someone out of my range of vision. She did not observe the unclosing of my eyes, and I hastily shut them again, being so weak and languid of spirit that I had no in clination to meet or respond to interroga tories. " I think indeed, I am sure she is Mrs. Eldredge s companion, David," she was say ing. " Poor child, she is young to be doomed to live within such shadows !" " There are worse fates than that, mother. A girl who is forced to earn her own living may consider herself fortunate if shadows are the only evil she has to combat." I recognised the voice immediately. Its cheery tones had comforted me once before. 63 MADAM OF THE IVIES " She seems a fragile creature to fight her way through life ; and, too, she has more beauty than it is altogether safe for a work ing-woman to be adorned with. Look, David, what richness and abundance !" She laid her hand upon my hair, from which she had drawn the pins that the strain upon my head might be relieved ; its masses overflowed the couch and fell upon the floor. I felt that I had no right to lie there and listen to further flattery, and, suddenly open ing my eyes, met her solicitous gaze. " Ah, that is right, my dear," she said, kindly. " You are better ? David, she has come to herself." Dr. Spencer came forward. " Do not try to exert yourself quite yet," he said, as I made a motion as if to rise. " Please rest as you are until my mother shall have prepared a cup of tea for you. You will be all right then, I think." I was more than willing to follow his ad vice, and with a little nod of acquiescence again closed my eyes. My hostess bustled away, and silence took possession of the 6 4 MADAM OF THE IVIES room. Presently curiosity got the better of my lassitude, and I opened my lids again to discover what my companion might be about. He was standing at the window with his hands in his pockets, looking out into the street with an expression upon his face which assured me that he had forgotten there was such a person in existence as Dorothy Loth- rop, and that his thoughts were far distant from the present scene. He was a tall man, broad-shouldered, and vigorous of frame, with a strong, intelligent face, blue eyes, and fair hair. I could not tell his age very exactly, for there was a look of mature gravity and wide experience about the eyes and mouth at variance with the rest of his appearance. He might have been anywhere between thirty-five and forty. I had been prepossessed in his favour from the moment he addressed me on my arrival at the Eldon station, and this second good turn he had done me quite won my heart. It occurred to me that I owed him an acknowl edgment of his former kindness and act of self-sacrifice, and I seized the present occa- 5 65 MADAM OF THE IVIES sion to make it. Perhaps I was also urged to break the silence by a less commendable motive, for I do not believe that any woman likes to have her presence in a room ignored by a man, even if she be in a dying condi tion. " Dr. Spencer " I began. He turned at once with a start. It was proof that he had forgotten me. " I am much better. I want to thank you now, while I have the opportunity, for your great consideration in giving up your carriage to me the night I arrived in Eldon." His expression of surprise, as he scruti nised me closely, was most disconcerting to my vanity. It was more than apparent that he had not recognised me. And yet his mother had remarked upon my beauty ! "Oh!" he returned, coming forward, " were you the lady who was stranded that night on our inhospitable shore? Pardon me ; I had thought it an older woman." 66 CHAPTER IV. mirror had told me that I had grown younger since coming to Eldon. The hollows in my cheeks had rounded out, I could no longer say that I was too white for beauty, and the anxious and harassed ex pression which the unsatisfactory and unset tled conditions of my life prior to my de parture from New York had graven on my features had wholly given place to the nat ural serenity and animation of my age. I was somewhat mollified by his explanation, feeling it flattering to my present appearance. I smiled. " Yes," I replied, " it was I, and I was stranded, that is a fact. But for your chival rous assistance I shudder to think what might have become of me." He laughed, and at that moment his mother re-entered the room, bearing on a 67 MADAM OF THE IVIES small tray a cup of steaming tea, the mere sight of which seemed to infuse new strength into my veins. I was not disappointed in its effect upon me, for after drinking it I felt like a new creature. " I am very sorry to have given you so much trouble," I said to Mrs. Spencer, as she took the empty cup from my hand. " I must introduce myself to you in proper form. I am Miss Lothrop, companion to Mrs. Eldridge, of The Ivies." " Yes, I thought so," returned the good woman, with evident pleasure in her own perspicacity. " You are not wholly un known to us, my dear young lady. My son has heard you gratefully spoken of by many of his poor patients, besides which, Mr. Booth has mentioned you to us. I hope your interest in charitable work is not proving too great a tax upon your strength." "Not at all," I replied, with decision. " This attack is merely the result of confine ment. It is a great pleasure to do some good in the world, even if it be only to administer another s bounty." 68 MADAM OF THE IVIES She looked at me approvingly, and the doctor even turned a kindly glance upon me. " But you have an excellent home mis sion," Mrs. Spencer remarked, not without emotion. " Even without venturing beyond the doors of The Ivies you have ample op portunity for good work in ministering to the broken and bruised spirit of that noble woman who is its mistress. I do not know whether you are acquainted with the sad circumstances of " " Mother !" I welcomed the warning exclamation that served as interruption. I divined that my hostess was one of those simple, garrulous, kindly souls that dearly love a bit of gossip, and the expression of the son s face assured me that this weakness of his mother s was intolerable to him. I had no wish to hear from strange lips details which dear Madam had chosen to withhold from me. To listen to the sad story that had wrecked her life, without her permission, seemed to me treason able intrusion upon sacred ground. 6 9 MADAM OF THE IVIES Mrs. Spencer s round, rosy face flushed a deep crimson. " Oh, David, my dear, pardon me ; I quite forgot," she said, hurriedly, and with more embarrassment, it seemed to me, than the occasion warranted. Both mother and son were so evidently discomposed by her untoward allusion that it appeared wisdom on my part to create a diversion by rising to depart. This action restored the atmosphere to its normal serenity, and drew forth strong expressions of remon strance from my hosts. Neither considered me fit for the long walk back, and Dr. Spencer urged that I should allow him to drive me home in his dog-cart. I thanked him cordially, but declined his offer, saying that I feared the advent of a stranger might disturb Mrs. Eldredge, who often took her exercise on the wide verandah at this hour. But Mrs. Spencer insisted. " You are not fit to walk ; is she, David ? Physician s orders, you know, my dear ! Do let my son drive you. He is no stranger to Madam. Why " 70 MADAM OF THE IVIES Again that warning " Mother !" checked the voluble utterance. She broke abruptly off again and turned aside to hide her con fusion. Then the doctor took up the argu ment. " You are quite right, Miss Lothrop," he said, " in thinking that my appearance might distress Mrs. Eldredge, but I am equally reasonable in asserting that you are in no fit condition to walk home. Let us com promise. If you will permit me to drive you to the gates of The Ivies, I will allow you to walk thence to the house. Is it a bargain *?" I was glad to fall in with this proposition, and while Dr. Spencer was gone for the trap I had a nice cosy little chat with his mother. I had much ado, however, to fend her off the forbidden subject, for, without making direct allusion to it, she persisted in flutter ing so dangerously near it that I was in a state of much alarm lest I should be abso lutely obliged to cover my ears with my hands in order to avoid gleaning unwelcome information. As it was, she gave me to 71 MADAM OF THE IVIES understand by veiled hints and innuendoes that the events which had desolated The Ivies had also laid waste her son s life. " It is a dreadful blow to me that David should throw himself away upon a poor, miserable little village like this. The loss of ambition is to a man what the loss of vanity is to a woman ; it simply lets him run to seed. And a man of David s splendid attainments, too ! Ah, my dear, we mothers do not lose the burden of our children s beings when we are delivered of them ; we carry them with us to the grave." The good soul followed me out to the dog-cart and tucked the rug round me with motherly solicitude, and I finally drove away from her comfortable neighbourhood with her warm entreaties for future visits ringing in my ears. The drive home was pleasant. I found the doctor an agreeable and interesting com panion, and I gathered from him much in formation of an impersonal character con cerning Eldon and its surroundings. He left me at the gate with as cordial an ex- 72 MADAM OF THE IVIES pression of anticipation of our future meet ing as that which his mother had infused into her farewells, and I made my way up the long avenue reflecting pleasurably upon this new and genial element which had come so unexpectedly into my life. I had covered about half the distance be tween house and gateway when, to my un bounded amazement, I came upon Madam, who had ventured out quite alone, and who was standing absorbed in thought, leaning against the rustic fence which guarded the steep descent of the cliff. I could not see her face, for it was turned in the direction of the Stone House, at which she was intently gazing. I purposely made my approach audible, that my sudden appearance should not startle her, but she took no heed of me until I laid a light touch upon her shoulder, at the same time greeting her by name. Then, drawing a long, long breath, as if she were compel ling her spirit back from a distant journey into the Past, she looked round and wel comed me with a smile. 73 MADAM OF THE IVIES "Dorothy?" " Yes, Madam." " I have missed you, child. The sun-dial marks no hours while Dorothy is absent." I raised her hand to my lips. " Is not this too long a stroll for you with out companionship, dear Madam?" " I have brought a trusty staff with me, you see." She held up a stout, gold-headed ebony cane, of which she frequently made use. " Besides, though he does not dream I suspect it, I have a shrewd idea that my good Franklin exercises a vigilant watch upon my movements when I occasionally stray from the verandah." And, sure enough, looking round, I espied the old man dodging among the poplars as he made a surrepti tious way back to the house, secure in the thought that I was with his mistress. " May I wait for you, Madam ?" " Certainly, though I am about returning." She paused an instant, and a wistful shadow crossed her beautiful face. After a moment she resumed her speech. " Dorothy," she said, " this is an anniver- 74 MADAM OF THE IVIES sary. Forty years ago to-day I came, a happy, joyous bride, to that house yonder." Again she turned her poor blind eyes upon the melancholy pile of masonry. " My child, it is an unlucky house, a house of sad disaster and misfortune to all whom it has sheltered ; but, ah ! I would like to see it again. I would give much to look once more upon the walls within which I spent so many happy hours." I was well aware that she lived, when alone, almost wholly within the memories of past events, and I felt it distinctly gratify ing that she should give evidence of being so much at one with me as to address me in tones of retrospection. I said no word to disturb the current of her thoughts, but softly withdrew the ebony stick from her grasp, and slipped the hand which had held it within my strong young arm. We waited thus in silence a little, and presently she went on. " Dorothy, I must see it ; I must !" she cried, and there was deep, uncontrollable yearning in her voice. " Look at it, child ; 75 MADAM OF THE IVIES look closely at it, until it seems as familiar to you as the face of a friend. Then de scribe it to me ; but describe it faithfully, for its image is graven on my heart, and I shall know if your observation is at fault." I halted a few minutes, earnestly scru tinising the prospect before me, for I was anxious to fulfil her request to the very best of my ability, and I was afraid lest she should detect carelessness or slovenliness in my description. " I see," I began at length, " a gloomy, grey mass of rubble-stone, rising cold and grim against a background of dark woods. It forms a house of unattractive and even forbidding exterior. This house is three- storeyed, with a balcony across its front, en closed and supported by heavy wrought-iron brackets and balustrade. The windows are without blinds, and white inside shutters en hance the nakedness of their appearance. There are two doors of entrance, that upon the ground-floor opening upon a neglected, grass-grown driveway" here I felt Madam shiver as if with cold " and appearing to 76 MADAM OF THE IVIES have been of but secondary consideration to the architect of the dwelling, for a larger and more imposing doorway exists in the next storey, access to which is gained by means of a flight of broken and moss-stained stone steps. The house is square and of uncom promising regularity of outline, and seems to be built against a cliff or ledge of rocks." I felt a sudden movement of eagerness from my companion, and Madam inter rupted me abruptly. " Yes, yes, it is so. I know it well, that ledge. It forms the back of the lower half of the house, and its surface is covered with a rude platform, which communicates with the house by means of a door opening upon a landing of the inner staircase. Ah, the dear old platform ! How many happy hours have I spent there ! Ah, dear old house that has widowed me ! Ah, dear, hal lowed ground that still echoes with the tread of the feet which you betrayed ! God knows you have done me bitter harm and injury, but oh ! I love you still ! I love you still !" I had never seen her moved from her stern 77 MADAM OF THE IVIES self-control before, and I knew not how to meet her demand upon my sympathy. But I took refuge in silence. That, at least, does not jar, even if it fails to comfort. Finally she made a movement as if to leave the spot, but turned to me before de parting, with another request. " Dorothy, I should like once more to stand upon that platform. Could we make a pilgrimage thither together some day, do you think? Just you and I*?" " Indeed, yes, dear Madam," I replied, without an instant s hesitation. I think, if she had proposed our taking a trip to Jericho in a flying-machine, I should have acqui esced in the idea, I was so eager to encourage her confidence in me. So, unmarked by special event, time passed on until I had been a year in Madam s ser vice. A closer love and sympathy had grown up between us than exists oftentimes between mother and daughter. I know that Madam trusted me and that she had confi dence in my discretion, yet I was as ignorant of the history of her life, of the tragedy 78 MADAM OF THE IVIES that had devastated The Ivies, as I was upon the day when I first became a member of its limited household. One fact, and one only, connected with Madam s relations to life outside her own home, I had gained ; that was the fact of the presence somewhere in the world of a son who had expatriated himself for some cause unknown to me. She had herself mentioned him to me, else I should have known noth ing of him, for her servants were too faithful to their allegiance to her to gossip ever so slightly of things that concerned their mis tress. She had alluded to letters received from him, and so I knew that a correspond ence was maintained between them, but I was not called upon either to read or to answer these communications. I supposed, as I afterwards learnt was the case, that Mrs. Mayberry served her at such times. One day, however, as we were sitting at twilight in her boudoir, the month being February, and the brilliant flames on the hearth all the illumination we required, she said to me, 79 MADAM OF THE IVIES " Dorothy, I am afraid I must lay a new duty upon you." " Even then my burden of employment will be a light one, Madam," I answered. " Poor Mayberry s handwriting is getting so tremulous that it is becoming almost un decipherable. It is a serious misfortune to me, for, clever amanuensis as you are, my dear, you cannot be of such special service to me as my poor old housekeeper has been." " Indeed, Madam, are you sure*?" I asked, somewhat chagrined at the idea that that poor wreck of a woman could do better duty than I. " Yes, sure," she replied. " I will tell you why. She has acquired a very faithful imi tation of my own handwriting. In olden times it was her wont to try to fashion her self by such a poor model as I. She was a clever girl, and you would be surprised to know how accurately she copied me in many respects. I have spoken to you of my son Darracott. He lives abroad, travel ling from place to place, for he is a restless man and ill content with monotony." 80 MADAM OF THE IVIES She paused, and sat awhile with her un seeing gaze bent upon the glowing fire, while I occupied myself with reflections upon the selfishness of a son who could allow a blind mother to drag out so desolate and lonely an existence as this of Madam s because, for sooth, monotony wearied him. Youth is apt to leap at hasty conclusions. " Mayberry has been my means of com municating with him," she went on, pres ently. " She has read his letters to me, and answered them in the first person for me, because, my dear, my son is not aware of the affliction which has befallen me, and it has been my aim and wish to keep it from him." I cried aloud at this. I could not help it. " Oh, Madam !" I said ; " it is not right ; it is not fair to him !" She smiled very sadly. " Little girl," she replied, " you speak with the impulsiveness of your age and ignorance. Not fair ! Is there question of fairness in adding fresh fuel to the heap which con sumes a martyr 1 ? Darracott should never 6 8l MADAM OF THE IVIES have been informed of this ill-fortune which has afflicted me if I could have prevented it ; but, alas ! he complains that he can no longer decipher my handwriting, which is, in fact, Mayberry s, and argues some condition of ill health from this evidence of infirmity. He has questioned me so closely that I find it impossible longer to evade him, and I am therefore obliged, most unwillingly, to dis close the truth to him. So, little Dorothy, you must hereafter be the link that joins my absent boy to his mother." And so it was that I began to write long letters to Darracott Chester, for I found that it was by a previous marriage that this son had been born to Madam. I shall never forget the first letter I wrote him. It in formed him of his mother s affliction, but so lightly was the subject treated that it might have had to do with a mere passing indisposition, rather than with a dire bereave ment which seems, of all physical calami ties, the worst. The casual manner in which she alluded to the matter, and the effort to appear careless and indifferent concerning it, 82 MADAM OF THE IVIES gave to the letter a tone of self-effacement and self-abnegation that brought tears to my eyes as I penned it. " If he has the heart of a man and not a stone in his breast," I said to myself as I sealed it, " he will come home to her, whether he dreads monotony or not." And, indeed, the return mail brought to Madam a letter filled with reproach. It was rather a strange letter, I thought, for while it was all that was dutiful, and was marked with sincere distress and sorrow for her afflic tion, it lacked totally in tenderness and filial love. But it fulfilled my expectations in one respect. Its writer was about to return to Eldon. This prospect, when Madam disclosed it to her household, created the wildest excite ment. The effect it produced upon the most prominent trio was widely different. Franklin was jubilant at the thought of Mr. Chester s return ; Mayberry, absurd and un reasonable as I thought the idea, was, appar ently, paralysed and shocked by the intelli gence ; while Madam herself, dearly as I 83 MADAM OF THE IVIES believed she loved him, did not seem wholly happy in the idea of her son s home-coming. Uninstmcted as I was in knowledge of the events which influenced these various senti ments, I made no attempt to fathom their cause, and contented myself with girlish and romantic speculations concerning the new inmate which The Ivies would soon receive. It would be nearly a month before Mr. Chester would arrive, he wrote, and during that month I found occasion heartily to wel come the fact that a man of strength and in telligence would soon be installed beneath our roof. For during that month strange things occurred, which filled me with fear and foreboding, and which yet seemed so wild and improbable that I could not bring myself to mention them even to my good friends the Spencers. For my good friends the Spencers had cer tainly become. Madam always spoke of them in the warmest terms, and cordially encouraged my intimacy with them. I never had cared for a large circle of acquaintances, but it was exceedingly pleasant to me to be 8 4 MADAM OF THE IVIES able to vary what was assuredly a monoto nous existence with visits to such a conge nial house as theirs. There was but one drawback to my friendship. David Spencer had grown to love me, and had told me so. I had been obliged to refuse his love, and although he had begged me to allow his offer to make no difference in our mutual relations, and I had promised that it should be so, yet it was but natural that I should feel somewhat constrained in the presence of a man whom I had rejected. I had thought it only honourable towards Madam that I should acquaint her with the matter. I was surprised by the manner in which she received my confidence. " Is it actually impossible for you to love this good fellow, my dear *?" she asked, with great earnestness. " Impossible, indeed," I replied. She sighed deeply. " I wish it might have been different," she said, as if communing with herself. " It would have seemed like atonement." Then the subject dropped between us. 85 MADAM OF THE IVIES I have made allusion to the fact that about this time strange and suspicious cir cumstances began to arouse my curiosity and alarm. The first of these occurred one evening, or rather one late afternoon, as I was returning from a charitable expedition to the village. My nature is quite a fearless one. I am without the natural feminine reluctance to going about after dark unprotected, nor am I unduly disturbed by strange happenings. But, on the other hand, I have more than the average curiosity of my sex, although, being aware of this weakness, I have made myself mistress of it, and where I feel it to be unwise and indiscreet I am able to place a strong curb upon it. But on ordinary occasions it rises to the surface, and quite transcends any impediment of fear or timid ity which might hamper its gratification. I was strolling up the avenue, then, some time after dusk had fallen, when, at about the spot where I had found Madam standing many months ago, I came to an abrupt halt. I had chanced to look down at the Stone 86 MADAM OF THE IVIES House standing amidst its shadows, and I could have sworn that I saw a figure flit by one of its windows. I approached the edge of the cliff and scanned the house closely. There was certainly a shutter open, for a dark space intervened between the outlines of a casement where, as in the other win dows, should have been gleaming whiteness. This in itself was strange, for never in all the time I had been at The Ivies had I seen any sign of occupancy or caretaking about the place. Indeed, I had sometimes wondered that Madam did not have the house aired occasionally. Still, unusual as this evidence of life in the grim mansion was, it did not seem to me then suspicious. I thought that perhaps during my absence Madam had availed her self of the aid of either Mayberry or Frank lin to carry out her intention of revisiting the scene of her former happiness, and my chief sensation as I continued my home ward way was one of regret and disappoint ment that I had not been with her on that occasion. 8? MADAM OF THE IVIES But as I reached the door of The Ivies, Franklin opened it with an expression of annoyance on his face. " Have you happened to see Mrs. May- berry, Miss Lothrop 1 ?" he asked, fretfully. " Here is Madam wanting her, and she is not to be found about the house." "No, I have not met her," I answered. Then I remembered what I had just seen. " Do you think she could be down at the Stone House, Franklin *?" I suggested. The old man looked at me in amazement as profound as if I had said, " Do you think she could be at the bottom of the sea 4 ?" He did not even reply to my question. Contenting himself with ejaculating, " The Stone House !" he continued, " Then you have seen nothing of her, Miss *?" And as I replied in the negative, he stood aside to let me pass, suggesting at the same time that I should go to Madam and see if I could ren der the assistance she needed. CHAPTER V. T7 ARLY the next morning I made a special expedition down the avenue to discover if the shutter still remained open, but found that such was not the case. Two days later, as I was starting out for my usual exercise, I met Mayberry hovering about the lower hall. As she observed me she came forward and said, as if in a casual way, " Miss Lothrop, will you permit me to caution you a little *? This neighbourhood is an isolated one. I do not think it quite wise or safe for a young girl to be out alone hereabouts after dark." There was a look of anxiety on her face, a forced attempt at carelessness about her manner, that made me suspect the genuine ness of her concern for me. " Madam has always seemed to consider 8 9 MADAM OF THE IVIES it safe enough," I returned. " Is there any special reason for alarm*?" She hastened to reassure me upon this point, and I was about to assert my deter mination to continue my wanderings un mindful of her warning, thanking her, never theless, for her solicitude, when I was struck by the thought that if there were any under hand proceedings in progress in which she had a share it would be as well to throw her off her guard so far as I was concerned. " Perhaps you are right," I said. " After all, there is never any telling what sort of persons may be prowling about a lonely neighbourhood. I will return before dark. Thank you, Mrs. Mayberry." I had evidently relieved her mind, for she smiled and proceeded to open the door for me with all the obsequiousness that a hum ble servant would show to a deeply respected mistress. She had certain ways and man nerisms that I detested, a cringing, servile de portment being that which most revolted me. I fulfilled my promise to her and came back before twilight fell. I took pains, also, 90 MADAM OF THE IVIES to let her know of my return, but, almost immediately after, I again stole out of doors and took several turns up and down the avenue, mounting guard over the Stone House, expecting I know not what develop ments to reward my observation. But my vague anticipations were doomed to disap pointment. The dwelling gave forth no signs of life or habitation. It remained simply the cold white corpse of a once happy home. Two or three days after this, however, I was detained by the very severe illness of one of Madam s beneficiaries until an unusually late hour. So late was it that Dr. Spencer, whom I met as I was passing through the village, remonstrated with me concerning my being out at such a time, and insisted upon accompanying me as far as the gates. As I approached the Stone House I detected perhaps no one but a person bent on dis covery would have noted it a line of light, a mere luminous thread, gleaming through the interstice of the shutters of one window. I paused some moments, watching it closely. I gained nothing further from my obser- 91 MADAM OF THE IVIES vation, however, and, fearing to delay Mad am s dinner-hour by my absence, shortly after forsook my post and went back to The Ivies, in a state of great doubt and per plexity. I could not see my course clear in the matter. Had I been instructed in the story of Madam s life, I should have better known how to act. As it was, I feared to touch raw wounds, to make trouble for my beloved mistress, by alluding to a mystery which might be connected with past suffering and sorrow. But I did resolve upon one thing, that I would put a few questions to old Franklin, and, possibly, take him into my confidence. Accordingly, that night, after I had conducted Madam back to the boudoir when dinner was over, I asked her to excuse me for a few moments, and returned again to the dining-room, where I found the ancient servitor clearing the table. " Franklin," I began, " does anyone ever go into the Stone House for any purpose whatever *?" The old fellow had greeted my appearance 92 MADAM OF THE IVIES with a welcoming smile, for, as I have said, I was a favourite with him, and he was always gratified if I singled him out for special notice. At my words, however, his face fell into gloom, and his voice, as he re plied to my question, was grave and troubled. " No one, Miss Lothrop," he said, with curt brevity. " Who has the keys to it *?" I continued, determined not to be discouraged by his ap parent disrelish of the subject. " Mrs. Mayberry," he answered. " Don t you ever go down there, to see if things are as they should be*? Does not Madam expect someone to see that it is kept in proper repair *? She has told me that she has an affection for the place ; is it not your duty to see that the house does not suffer from neglect*?" I almost regretted my questions, so shock ing an effect did they produce upon the faithful old soul. His aged face worked, his lips trembled, and his hands, which held a tray of glasses, shook so that their burden jingled noisily. 93 MADAM OF THE IVIES " O Miss Lothrop," he begged, " don t ask me to go down there ! What is wrong *? I will send proper persons to make any repairs that may be necessary, but I cannot go down there myself. I cannot no, indeed I can not. Madam knows that I have never been down there since that cursed day, and she would not ask it of me. Mr. Chester will soon be home now ; can t whatever s wrong wait till he comes ? Can t it, now ? Can t it, miss*?" His voice quite broke down at the last with emotion and anxiety. I saw that for some unknown reason he was too powerfully affected by the neigh bourhood of the curious old dwelling to serve me as aid in unravelling its mysteries. I thought it better, therefore, to throw him wholly off the scent, for, as he was not available as coadjutor, he might be ob structive, if suspicious. " Oh, I do not know that anything is really wrong there," I replied. " I daresay things are in very good condition. I was only speculating about it, and, as I have a woman s curiosity, Franklin, I thought I 94 MADAM OF THE IVIES would ask you to let me go over the house some time with you, if you were in the habit of visiting it occasionally." He gave an unaffected shudder. " I would as soon go into a house where I had committed murder," he remarked, gloomily. " But perhaps Mrs. Mayberry would take me down there some time ; doesn t she ever go down to air it*?" The housekeeper herself answered me. She had come out from behind a screen that hid the pantry, and advanced softly as she spoke. " Mrs. Mayberry has too much considera tion for your nerves, my dear young lady," she said, in her harsh, unpleasant tones, which no effort on her part could render pliant or agreeable, " to subject you to the influence of that dreary dwelling. No one enters it, even to care for it no one," she repeated, emphatically. "And yet," I said, in a lowered tone, for Franklin, probably glad to shift upon other shoulders the burden of a theme he 95 MADAM OF THE IVIES shrank from discussing, had moved away and was busying himself about the table, and I did not wish him to catch my words, " as I came up the avenue this evening I am sure I saw the glimmer of a light in the house." If she was in any way concerned in the mystery, she was too wary to be caught napping. Her air of mingled surprise and incredulity was inimitable, and if she was acting a part I thought she possessed a rare gift of dissembling. "Oh, that could not be !" she said; "un less, indeed, the Stone House is becoming haunted." I laughed, and went back to Madam, wondering, as I went, if she perhaps thought to arouse in me superstitious fears, thinking that if she succeeded I should of my own accord give up protracted wanderings which would oblige me to pass the dismal dwelling after nightfall. Two weeks passed without further event, and I was about concluding that I had really imagined the singular incidents which had 9 6 MADAM OF THE IVIES aroused my suspicion, when they received fresh confirmation. I had been reading one evening to Madam, and later she had fallen into a somewhat confidential mood with me, and had dwelt at some length upon the character of her son, whose advent we were now expecting from day to day. She spoke of him in flat tering terms, yet in a sort of strange and dis tant way, that appeared to me unlike the usual attitude of mother to son. Mingled with the strong admiration which marked her regard for him there was a kind of veiled respect such as we accord our superiors, but which we rarely testify towards our equals. It evinced an aloofness in intimate sympa thy, I thought, and it created in me a feel ing of awe of the man who had inspired such sentiments in one so near as a mother. " Dorothy," she said, " you will soon see one of the noblest men that I have ever known. He is not handsome, my son Dar- racott, and you will not perhaps be able to discover in him the outward semblance of a hero. But learn to know him well, see him 7 97 MADAM OF THE IVIES tested by experience, and you will feel, as I do, that the world seldom produces men of such a type as his." "And yet you do not love him," I felt like saying, though, of course, I gave no such license to my speech. When I returned to my own rooms for the night, I put on a loose wrapper, and, as was my custom, seated myself beside my comfortable fire for an hour s reading before going to bed. But my thoughts refused to centre themselves upon my book. I felt it borne in upon me that I was living a romance amid an environment of strange shadow and mystery. I could spare no thought for the consideration of fictitious narrative. Who was this man who was so soon to invade the seclusion of our lives here in this old mansion 4 ? I knew his name and his relationship to my mistress, but who was he? Of what characteristics was he com posed *? What was his nature ; what were his habits ; what his likes and dislikes ; his tastes, sympathies, prejudices ? Would his MADAM OF THE IVIES presence in the house constrain me *? Would my society be unwelcome to him *? What could be the cause of the incompatibility between him and Madam"? These and kindred reflections were occupying my mind when a timid knock at my door brought me back from dreamland. " Come in," I called. The handle turned, and Mrs. Mayberry appeared upon the thresh old. I urged her to enter, and she did so, carefully closing the door behind her. Her face was even whiter than usual, and I could see that there was an intense tremulousness in all her muscles, which she only com manded by immense effort. " I am sorry to disturb you, Miss Lothrop," she said, and I observed that she was glad to steady herself by the support of the back of a chair, " but I have no one else to go to, as I never trouble Madam with domestic, mat ters. One of the maids has burst a blood vessel, and I do not know what remedies to apply. I have had no experience in similar cases, and I thought you might be able to offer me some suggestion." 99 MADAM OF THE IVIES I rose at once from my chair. At first it did not occur to me that the woman was not speaking the literal truth. I had a horror of blood myself, and thought her unusual agita tion was due to a like sentiment. My impulse was to go to the sufferer. " Has the hemorrhage stopped *?" I asked. " Nearly," she replied. " I will go to her at once," I said. " My father died of consumption ; I am perfectly informed regarding the proper remedies. Come." I spoke somewhat peremptorily, as one having authority ; but she made no motion of compliance. Indeed, she stretched out a hand as if to detain me. " No," she responded ; " tell me what to do. The girl is of a strange disposition ; she has begged me to allow no one to come near her." " That is nonsense !" I returned, impa tiently. " Of course she must have proper medical attention at once. All I can do is to suggest temporary relief. You must wake Holmes (the gardener) and despatch him for Dr. Spencer." 100 MADAM OF THE IVIES " Dr. Spencer !" There was a wildness in the ejaculation that first awoke my doubts of her story. She gave a hoarse, hysterical little laugh that struck painfully on the ear ; it suggested a pathetically overwrought con dition. " Yes, Dr. Spencer," I repeated. " I would not take the responsibility of this woman s life into my hands." Even I, prejudiced against her as I was, melted beneath the tragic alarm that came into her glance as I spoke ! It was apparent that my words first gave her cause for grave apprehension. " Is it so dangerous as that *?" she mut tered. I nodded. She wrung her hands in dis tress. " Even then he must not come," she said. " How foolish !" I exclaimed, out of pa tience at the delay. " As if Madam would permit any sentimental considerations to stand in the way of such necessity as this. Besides, she need not see the doctor at all. Indeed, she need not even know that he is 101 MADAM OF THE IVIES here, until he is gone. I will take all the responsibility of his coming upon my own shoulders. You need not fear Madam." It seemed as if my words had suggested a welcome excuse to her. " Yes, I fear Madam ; it is that," she re sponded, with obstinate firmness. " I must not send for him ; Madam would not like it." " You are a fool !" I cried, at the end of my forbearance. " Then, if you will have it so, I shall go myself to Madam, and ask her permission. I will not consent to allow you to trifle with the life of a fellow-being so nonsensically. Let me go, Mayberry ! I command it !" For she had thrown herself in most melo dramatic fashion upon my skirts, and was holding me fast with her poor thin weak hands. " You must not go you shall not !" she exclaimed. " You do not know the reason why Dr. Spencer never comes to this house, do you *? I see by your look you don t. Then let me tell you that Madam would MADAM OF THE IVIES rather die than have him enter her doors. Now will you be satisfied?" Although at the time I had not much confidence in her statement, yet her agitation was so great and sincere that I had not the courage to insist upon a suggestion which carried such terror with it. " I wash my hands of you," I said. " If this girl dies I shall lay her death at your door. You will neither send for the doctor nor will you let me see her. There is some mystery at work here ; I am sure of it ; and I tell you frankly that when Mr. Chester comes I shall share my suspicions with him. Now I will describe what you are to do for the maid." The misery in her face was appalling. " Miss Lothrop," she burst forth, with tears of agony coursing down her seamed cheeks, " what have I done to you that you should hunt me like this *? Haven t I tried to make you comfortable ever since you came to The Ivies? Haven t I waited on you to the best of my power ? Haven t I studied all your wants and tried to fulfil 103 MADAM OF THE IVIES them ? Have I ever caused you annoyance, or have I been in any way disrespectful *? If I have not been all I should be to you, tell me, and I will humbly beg your pardon. There must be some reason why you are bent on persecuting me." " You are talking nonsense !" I returned, firmly, yet feeling a little shamefaced, never theless, for it was true that she had rendered me every attention since I had made one of the household. " It is no personal motive that influences me against the course of conduct you are pursuing, but an aversion to secret proceedings in general. I feel that my duty to Madam impels me to discover to her your strange and incomprehensible actions." The dwarfed creature drew herself up, with a look of passionate adoration upon her face that positively ennobled it. For a brief moment she seemed invested with absolute dignity of bearing. " And I," she responded, in a tone as firm as my own, if less musical, " I feel that my duty to Madam impels me to sacrifice more than my life itself to conceal from her the 104 MADAM OF THE IVIES motive for these actions. More than this I cannot say. But let me warn you, Miss Lothrop, that if you meddle in matters of which you know nothing, you will some day live to repent it. Now I must go. Will you be so good as to tell me what I must do for my patient *?" Once more she was the servile dependant. I sketched a line of action for her, and she took her departure, hoarsely murmuring her thanks as she went. In the morning I asked Franklin how his niece was, and, as I suspected, evoked his surprise by my inquiry. Neither of the women was ill ; why had I thought that such was the case? I evaded his question. In the course of the morning an event oc curred which, for a time, eclir. sed all recol lection of Mayberry s queer pioceedings. I was engaged in singing to Madam about eleven o clock. We were wont to vary our occupations by a little music, of which she was passionately fond. She had, in especial, a liking for old ballads, although she had also a classical taste, and was well acquainted MADAM OF THE IVIES with the works of modern composers. I had been singing an old English song, " She wandered down the mountain-side," and the vibration of my voice was still echoing through the room, when a knock came upon the door. I rose, as was my custom, to an swer it. I expected to find either Franklin or Mayberry standing without, but, to my amazement, my eyes fell upon the figure of a stranger ! It did not require wonderful intuition to tell me who stood before me, but my first thought was for Madam. I feared for the effect of this surprise ; therefore I acted as if I had a right to govern the con duct of the new-comer. Quickly glancing at my beloved mistress, who sat, calm and unsuspecting, with her gaze turned full upon us, and her mind obviously still beneath the spell of the ballad, I placed a warning finger on my lips, and with my other hand with held the stranger from entering the room. I felt that I must prepare Madam. I was but an instant thus hesitating, but in that instant Madam awoke from her abstraction. 106 MADAM OF THE IVIES " Did I not hear a knock, Dorothy ?" she asked. " I thought you opened the door, child. I feel that it is still open. What is it?" There is certainly a prescience in maternal affection. Before the man had time to obey the impulse which I saw I could no longer restrain, so fearful had been the effect upon him of that manifestation of the awful afflic tion which had come upon his mother during her wretched loneliness, she had cried out his name cried it with an intonation that gave the lie to my conclusion that there was no love for him in her heart. In another moment his arms were about her, and I was standing upon the other side of the closed door. The home-coming of its master naturally made a considerable difference in the simple domestic routine of The Ivies. A more ceremonious manner of living always fol lows upon the installation of a male head of a household. Madam and I had preferred informality ; Darracott Chester, although a man of few requirements, wished those re- 107 MADAM OF THE IVIES quirements properly fulfilled. Our house hold began to broaden itself out ; unused rooms were denuded of their swathings and opened to the light of day ; more elaborate and more numerous courses were served at meals, which now became a function rather than an incident of our days ; the stables re ceived fresh accessions, and an air of birth or resurrection, rather than the customary one of death and decay, began to invest the place. As for my dear lady herself, I could see that the return of her son had brought a living interest into her existence to which she had long been a stranger. 1 08 CHAPTER VI. TT was not a great while before the news of Darracott Chester s return crept through the neighbourhood. By degrees former ac quaintances presented themselves at The Ivies, and these no longer found their in quiries greeted by the old formula of exclu sion. Presently it seemed to me that every one within a radius of twenty miles had called, with the exception of Dr. Spencer and his mother. They only, of all whom I visited, refrained from asking news of the traveller or mentioning him in any connec tion. And yet I knew that formerly David Spencer and Darracott Chester had been close friends. What had caused the breach between them 1 ? , Notwithstanding the fact that Madam had prepared me for the absence of heroic attri butes in her son s appearance, I was distinctly disappointed in him at first sight. He was 109 MADAM OF THE IVIES neither tall nor short, graceful nor awkward, handsome nor homely. My first impression of him was one of exceeding mediocrity. Meeting him in the street, I should never have glanced at him twice, nor have be stowed a second thought upon him. Meet ing him in the close familiarity of daily in tercourse, I looked at him many times, and soon grew to think of him with a fair degree of exclusiveness. I am going to make no secret of his at traction for me. I am not the heroine of this story, and my love affairs are merely in cidental to the true narrative. I shall be honest and frank at the outset of my ac quaintance with Darracott, and take the reader immediately into my confidence, ac knowledging with no false modesty or re serve that I had not been thirty-six hours beneath the same roof with him before I had wholly changed my first impressions of him, and had fallen under the charm of his personality. This personality was strangely com pounded. It was an odd mixture of con- MADAM OF THE IVIES tradictory qualities ; and this peculiar in congruity possibly was the reason of the fascination it exerted over those who came to know him well. I do not think that strangers cared for him at all, nor do I think that young girls in general would have found him interesting. For there was nothing of the haughty and mysterious hero about him. He was a silent and, in company, an indif ferent man. He had certain tastes which strongly appealed to him, and concerning which he waxed enthusiastic. Beyond these tastes he appeared to feel little interest in life, and after I came to know him well I often remonstrated with him because he did not exert himself to be more generally en tertaining. But he had done with that sort of thing, he would reply ; he was growing an old man (he was, in point of fact, thirty- nine years old), and he meant in future merely to humour his own inclinations. This would give one the impression that he was a selfish man, while, in truth, self was his last consideration. One of the charac teristics which most won me to him was a MADAM OF THE IVIES rare and never-failing thoughtfulness, which anticipated the need of others almost before it was experienced. Yet I felt it illustrative of the contrariety of his nature that, while so considerate of the small requirements of those about him, he could yet have left one to whom he was bound by the closest ties of na ture to a desolate, lonely, and bereft old age. One morning, after Darracott had been at home some ten days, I received a note from Mrs. Spencer, containing an invitation, or rather a request, that I should dine and pass the evening of the following day with them. " We feel sadly forsaken of late," she wrote. " David has grown dull and dispir ited, and I am too old a story to entertain him. Do come and cheer us up, there s a good child. David will bring you safely home, if you will allow him to do so." It happened that, as I was presenting the case to Madam, and asking for leave of absence, her son entered the room. Ob serving that I was reading a letter, he was about to withdraw with a word of apology, when I prevented him. 112 MADAM OF THE IVIES " It is nothing but a note of invitation," I said. " Do not go. I shall be through in a moment. May I finish*?" As I concluded the note I discovered that he was regarding me with a look of unusual interest in his eyes. " So you are a familiar friend of the Spen cers," he remarked. " How are they David and his mother *?" "Well," I answered. "Shall I go, Madam*?" " Of course, my child." " Do you really think you are capable of cheering up a man *?" Darracott asked, in a bantering tone. " I have not seen Spencer for years ; is he become one of the lugu brious sort 4 ?" I repudiated the suggestion with so much spirit that perhaps the warmth of my man ner implied a particular interest in the man I was defending, for my interlocutor laughed knowingly, which so filled me with a desire to prove indifference to David Spencer that I was inspired to make a most unusual re quest of my mistress. 8 113 MADAM OF THE IVIES " Could Holmes drive in for me about ten o clock, Madam," I asked. " I should pre fer not to trouble Dr. Spencer to see me home." She gave a ready assent, but her son con tinued to tease me by begging me to con sider the doctor s disappointment. " You will simply be forced to go back the next day and cheer him up again !" he protested. " What a mission you have found in life, Miss Lothrop ! Mother, you are not half so solicitous for my welfare as Mrs. Spencer is for David s. I have never heard you suggest that Miss Lothrop should exert herself to cheer me up. Why is it *? Have I not as great need of cheering as David Spencer, or is it that there is a difference in the solicitude of mothers ?" His tone, which had been of a jesting character in the beginning of his speech, had grown hard and bitter as he concluded. I saw there was some reminiscence, plain to his mother, but uncomprehended by me, that gave sharp and stinging emphasis to his otherwise careless words. Before he had 114 MADAM OF THE IVIES fairly finished speaking, however, I knew that he repented his cruelty. Nothing less than cruelty could have produced so distressing an effect upon Madam. She was not one to display emotional disturbance, unless for some grave reason, but now her features worked convulsively, her cheeks turned to an ashen pallor, and her hands clasped each other tightly, while her sightless eyes fell abashed to the floor like those of a child who has been detected in a flagrant fault. I knew that I had no right to interpose between mother and son, but the contem plation of that tacit acknowledgment of error, of the self-abasement of my beloved lady, proved too much for my sense of pro priety. I flew to her side and, falling on my knees, threw a protecting arm about her drooping shoulders. " You are a coward !" I cried, turning an enraged, reproachful face upon the master of the house, beneath whose roof I was merely a hired dependant. " You are worse than that. ; you are brutal and unmanly, to dis tress by your veiled insinuations one who, "5 MADAM OF THE IVIES through affliction if not through relationship, should be sacred from your shafts. Madam, Madam, do not heed " But my dear lady had by this time recovered herself, and I was interrupted by the placing of a soft hand over my impetuous lips. " Dorothy, Dorothy, hush !" she entreated. " You know nothing about it, my child. I deserve it all and more. Nay, Dare, my son," oh ! what an infinity of tenderness and remorse was there in the gentle voice as it addressed the man who, repentant and eager to atone, approached with a preliminary ejaculation of " Mother !" " nay, you need not seek to make amends for your just im plications ; they are grounded on fact ; it is but common retribution that I should be re minded of my sin." But the man, upright and honest in his acknowledgment of error, would not allow his culpability to be thus condoned. His manliness had been stirred to bitter self- revolt even before I had made my attack upon him, and his self-respect would not permit itself to be satisfied without apology. 1x6 MADAM OF THE IVIES " You are too lenient to me, my mother," he returned, and his voice was very deep and grave. " With all her ignorance, Miss Lothrop is the better judge of my conduct. Before her, I wish to assure you of my deep regret and sincere sorrow for my miserable and gratuitous reflections upon the past, and to ask you to pardon my lack of considera tion and respect." The words were well enough, and they were uttered with a certain emotion ; but I felt that one kiss laid upon the faded cheek, one loving touch of the bowed form, would have been worth all the correct apologies in the world to Madam. She sighed and ex tended her beautiful hand to him, and he raised it with graceful courtesy to his lips. I was much abashed, now that the moment of excitement was over, at the thought of my outbreak. Yet I was too proud, and still too resentful of his treatment of Madam, to acknowledge my want of proper decorum. But after he had left the room, which he did almost immediately, I made my excuses to my mistress. 117 MADAM OF THE IVIES I spent a charming evening at the Spen cers . Both mother and son were in good spirits, and the hours sped rapidly away. I told Dr. Spencer that I had arranged to have Holmes come for me, and, probably under standing my motive, he considerately made no comment on the arrangement. I must not forget, by the way, to mention a little incident which occurred before I set out for my visit. Franklin had come to my room during the afternoon with a very distressed face. " Miss Lothrop," he began, " I am afraid we are going to have trouble with the new servants. They and Mrs. Mayberry are all at odds, and there s rowing below-stairs about all the time." " What seems to be the trouble *?" I asked. " What do they complain of?" " They don t complain exactly," he re plied. " But they ve taken it into their heads the stupid fools ! that the Stone House is haunted, and the idea sends May- berry into fits. She gets regularly violent when they talk about it, and they talk more 118 MADAM OF THE IVIES than they otherwise would simply to tease her." " H m !" I -murmured. " I wonder what they say about the house ; do you know, Franklin " " Well, miss, they do say that when they come home from the village at night a couple of them have families living in Eldon, and they go back and forth often they sometimes see a ghostly figure standing at one of the windows and hear a woman s voice singing or screeching in the house. It s nonsense, miss, of course, but it may in time make it impossible for my mistress to secure servants willing to live here." " And what does Mayberry have to say to all this?" " She gets quite violent and excited, miss, and calls them hard names. She s changed a good bit of late, Mrs. Mayberry has. I I wouldn t like to say it to anyone but you, Miss Lothrop, but she really does not prop erly attend to her duties in the house here, and I am obliged to look after things a good deal more closely than my position requires, 119 MADAM OF THE IVIES for fear my mistress and Mr. Chester will not be properly cared for." I chewed the cud of this reflection as I strolled down to the village. I, of course, had detected long since the change in the housekeeper, but it was not my place to comment upon it. Since the night when I had received her appeal for advice I had very seldom come in contact with her, and new interests at The Ivies had rendered me somewhat inattentive to the claims of my village friends and pensioners, so that I had had little occasion to dwell upon the thought of the Stone House or its singular mani festations. I would have loved dearly to take my kind hosts into my confidence this evening, and ask their advice as to the whole affair, but I had never broken through my rule not to gossip with anyone of events connected with my life at The Ivies. About ten o clock I heard the sound of wheels stopping before the doctor s gate, and prepared to depart. " Will you be so good as to call out to Holmes that I am coming *?" I suggested MADAM OF THE IVIES to my host ; " it will save the old man s getting out." He complied, and, a few moments later, accompanied me out to the carriage. I was surprised to discover that the dog-cart had been sent for me, but my surprise was greatly increased when I saw that Darracott Chester himself had come to drive me home. I felt a momentary awkwardness at the prospect of a meeting between two men who, I was convinced, no longer entertained feelings of friendship for each other, but I might have spared myself needless worry, for they sa luted each other with polite, if distant, cour tesy. I mounted the cart and we drove rapidly away. I had felt constrained in the society of Darracott ever since the scene of the pre ceding day, and I had sought to avoid him as much as possible. I had a guilty consciousness of having gone beyond my province in taking up the cudgels in Madam s defence, and I was well aware that, righteous though my indignation was, there had been no warrant for my exhibiting it. But I can- MADAM OF THE IVIES not feel easy in the position of debtor, and I knew that I owed the man beside me an apology. I made one or two tentative remarks, hoping to open up a channel through which I could glide easily and gracefully into the broad waters of general regret for any over- zealous manifestation of my exceeding love for my mistress, thinking that so I could vindicate my late imprudence without actual self-humiliation. But in some inscrutable fashion, effective, but apparently careless in design, my companion turned the drift of my attempts quite away from their goal. At last I was forced to come boldly to the point. " It is very good of you to have come for me to-night, Mr. Chester," I said. " I look upon the attention as a mark of your for giveness." " For what ?" he asked, and I saw he was determined to force an issue. " For my failure in respect towards you yesterday," I murmured. " There is no reason why you should need MADAM OF THE IVIES forgiveness on that account," he replied. " If a man s conduct is such that it arouses the scorn of others, he would be singularly unreasonable to hold them responsible for manifesting their just contempt." " But a dependant should better exercise self-control," I returned. " I should remem ber that I was not engaged to discipline the morals or the manners of the household. It was the place of the mistress, not of the ser vant, to resent your cruel words ; for they were cruel, you know, Mr. Chester." He nodded his head, and in the moonlight I saw a bitter expression settle about his mouth. " Yes," he said, " they were I suppose." " You suppose !" I cried, a little hotly, tor memory brought before my eyes the vision of my dear lady as she had looked when those words were uttered. " Of course they were cruel ! And to Madam of all per sons in this world ! To Madam who can never have caused pain to the smallest of living things !" He turned and looked at me. His brow 123 MADAM OF THE IVIES was a little lifted, and there was a quizzical and yet stern smile in his eyes. " I am a man of average proportions, Miss Lothrop ; scarcely infinitesimal enough to be reckoned outside your category." " You mean " I paused in amaze ment, absolutely unable to construe him. " I mean," he replied, quickly, and with a hard, metallic ring in his voice, " that no one living in this world to-day has ever caused me pain and suffering equal to that which my mother has inflicted upon me." " Oh !" I cried, protestingly ; " I cannot no, I cannot believe it. If it is so, it was an unconscious act on her part." He gave a short laugh. " No, I think not," he answered. " Invol untary, perhaps ; but not unconscious. She is aware of it." " Then she is deeply repentant also," I said, recalling now the peculiarities which I had noted in Madam s regard for her only son. He shook his head. " One does not sincerely repent a cruelty 124 MADAM OF THE IVIES while still practising it," he returned, sen- tentiously. My love and veneration for Madam flared up hotly at this. " You calumniate her !" I burst forth. " It is treason for me to discuss her with you. Let us change the subject, Mr. Chester. You are wounding me beyond words." We were turning into the avenue as I spoke, and he curbed the eager pace of the horse into a walk before he answered. Then, letting the rains fall slack on the animal s back, he turned sideways on the seat and looked squarely and earnestly down upon me. " Miss Lothrop," he began, and there was no longer either bitterness or cynicism in his voice, only gravity and obviously controlled emotion, " it is not my habit to discuss my mother or my own feelings and sentiments with others. But neither is it my habit so to forget myself as I did yesterday. If that incident had taken place before almost any one else in the world I should have been too proud or too indifferent to attempt to justify 125 MADAM OF THE IVIES myself; but with you it is different. What you have done for my mother has given you a claim upon my regard second to none in the world. I cannot bear you to think me wantonly and wilfully cruel. I hold myself generally pretty well in hand ; but yesterday some devil got inside me while you were reading that letter and pulled all the pins out of my self-command. Perhaps I was jealous of the claims of others upon that cheeriness which has brought new life within our old walls," he made an effort to lighten his tone a bit, but a rather unsuccessful one, " or perhaps your reference to your friends in the village brought back to my mind wretched memories which undid me." He broke off abruptly. I made no reply. What was there for me to say *? The horse was walking slowly up the avenue. The moon had gone under a cloud. My heart was beating violently, partly in unaltered cham pionship of the mother s cause, partly in sym pathy with the son s wrong, of whose nature I was still ignorant ; partly in accord with the mystery and romance of our surroundings. 126 MADAM OF THE IVIES Finally, my companion again broke the silence. " You say nothing, Miss Lothrop ! Ap parently I am not a very good special pleader in my own behalf. You cannot yet find it possible to condone my fault." The moon had come out again and was shining brightly. Glancing up, I met his look, and a peculiarity in his gaze made my own eyes fall beneath it. " Your fault was not committed against me," I murmured, weakly. " But in your presence." " For that I grant you full pardon. That fact had no part in my resentment." " It was a large factor in my remorse." " The actual offence was far more fla grant." " It had some justification. A mother may not fail utterly in maternal love with out reaping some natural consequences from her sin of omission." I shook my head. " She has longed for your return. Her joy at your home-coming is irreconcilable with your insinuation." 127 MADAM OF THE IVIES " How your hair shines in the moon light !" he exclaimed, irrelevantly. " Your lace scarf has fallen back ; may I replace it *?" He dropped the reins into my hands and set about the slight task, taking an unwar rantable time to fulfil it. " It is almost the exact shade that my mother s was," he remarked, very gently. " I always thought my mother s hair the most beautiful in the world. Yours is very like it, Miss Lothrop. When I was a boy I was ever longing to touch my mother s, but I never dared to. You see I am less in awe of you." For an instant for so brief an instant that I could not resent it his hand rested on my head, gently, tenderly, with a touch that was almost a caress. Before he had time to with draw it a strange and eerie cry came cleaving the night air, smiting upon our senses with a wierd, almost supernatural significance. So ghostly and sudden was the wild appeal that it forced exclamations from us both. " What was it ?" I asked, and it was no coquettish impulse that drew me closer to my companion. 128 MADAM OF THE IVIES " I have no idea," he replied, and clucked to the horse, plunging an inquiring gaze hither and yon into the shadows which lin gered on either side the avenue. " Oh !" My exclamation was half a cry. Darracott turned quickly. " What is it ?" he asked. " The Stone House !" " What of it ?" " I am sure it came from there. There have been such strange Oh ! look look !" In thinking it over afterwards I was moved to deepest shame and mortification by a recollection of my conduct. Abject terror aroused by the vision before me quite overcame all maidenly modesty, and I am afraid I almost threw myself into my com panion s arms in my uncontrollable fright. His first impulse apparently was to take ad vantage of my appeal to his protection, for he started to put his arm about me ; but evidently he thought better of this and drew himself somewhat away, with a movement of recoil that brought me to my senses. Yet I was more concerned with my terror 9 129 MADAM OF THE IVIES than with his very apparent reluctance to comfort me by a tangible proof of his near presence. " What is it ?" I gasped, in a hoarse whisper. " I don t know," he said, in a tone of equal uncertainty. Then he added, reas suringly, " You need not be so alarmed. You cannot come to any harm, you know, while I am with you Good God !" For again at that moment came thrilling through the night the cry that had first startled us. This time, however, the sound took shape and meaning. " Help help help !" As it broke upon the horse s ears, the creature shivered and trembled, as they say animals will when conscious of a supernatural presence. We were now just abreast of the Stone House. Mr. Chester turned to me. "What shall I do<?" he asked. "It is for you to say. I must go down and inves tigate. Are you afraid to sit here and wait for me, or shall I drive you home first and then come back*?" 130 MADAM OF THE IVIES " Neither," I replied, ashamed already of my momentary weakness. " I shall go down there with you. That is the voice of a woman in distress ; she may need the assistance of one of her own sex." CHAPTER VII. TJ"E made no attempt to dissuade me, but helped me down from the dog-cart and tied the horse to one of the poplars. Then, hand in hand, that so he might best support and assist me, we made our way down the embankment, slippery and wet with moisture that always seemed to ooze from its sides, and soon stood below upon that unknown and mysterious territory which I had so often contemplated, but had never before invaded. As we approached the house, a strange and ghostly spectacle greeted us. The gaunt, gleaming pile of stone, shining with spectral lustre in the silvery light, seemed staring blankly into the night through the pale medium of its myriad white shutters. One window alone gleamed with the darkness of an evil eye, and framed the vision that had attracted our startled gaze. A woman, from 132 MADAM OF THE IVIES whose lips doubtless the faint, despairing cry had proceeded, stood close pressed against the casement. We could see her form quite distinctly in the bright moonlight, but not until the house was very, very near could we distinguish her features ; then I discovered that the figure was that of a girl, apparently not much older than I, and that the face, surrounded by a tangle of fair hair, though distorted by terror and distress, was yet of a startling, wonderful beauty. When she saw us approach she ceased her heart-rending cries, threw her hands above her head, and, clasping them over her disordered hair in an easy, graceful attitude, stood leaning care lessly against the window, while the woful expression of the lovely countenance gave way to one of curiosity. " What is she *?" I panted, breathlessly, turning to my escort. But the terrible pallor of his face brought me to an involuntary pause, such a storm of conflicting emotions did it betray ! recognition, amazement, pain, and infinite aversion. He seemed irresolute, as if about to turn back from a loathsome 133 MADAM OF THE IVIES object ; but even in the midst of the tumult of his emotions I was able to command an answer from him. I saw a shudder convulse him as I repeated my question. " What is she !" he reiterated, with his eyes still fixed upon what appeared to me a really exquisite picture, one quite devoid of cause for this horror which it seemed to arouse in him then suddenly his voice changed from exceeding harshness to a most exquisite gentleness as he transferred his gaze to my awe-struck, wondering face. " I can not tell you what she is. It is enough for you to know that she is one who is un worthy to touch the hem of your garment. I must go to her, but, God willing, you shall never come in contact with such as she. Turn back, turn back, Miss Lothrop, I beg of you, and wait for me in the dog-cart." " I cannot," I replied, firmly. " I do not know, nor do I care to know, what she is. She is suffering and in distress, and needs at least a woman s sympathy. Mr. Chester, my mind is made up. I shall go with you come." 134 MADAM OF THE IVIES He looked at me a moment in a manner that made my eyes fall in confusion, and then, seeing my determination, he took my hand and, placing it on his arm, walked swiftly towards the back of the house with a directness and purpose that showed his en tire familiarity with the place. As we moved out of sight of the solitary figure at the win dow her cries recommenced, and there was such a ghostly vibration in the sweet, be seeching tones as they echoed through the dense woods that, as we mounted the cliff leading to the rickety old platform, which Madam had described so lovingly, I trem bled and shuddered despite my efforts at self-command. We reached the rough landing-place, and Mr. Chester tried the door. It was securely fastened. Without further delay he picked up a stone and broke one of the side-lights, thrust in his arm, and slid back the bolt which alone locked the entrance. Then, throwing the door quickly open, he drew me within the house. It was dark as mid night. No moonbeams penetrated the ob- MADAM OF THE IVIES scurity, and it seemed that the shadows were almost palpable. However, Mr. Chester was prepared for the emergency ; he had brought with him one of the dog-cart lanterns, and this he proceeded at once to light, for the brightness of the night had rendered this hitherto unnecessary. As the flame gleamed through the dark ness, I discovered that we were standing upon the staircase-landing with which I had become acquainted through Madam s de scription, while about us gloomed the dis mal atmosphere of a deserted, long-disused, damp, and dreary dwelling. The scene was chill and depressing beyond description. However, urged onward by our concern for the girl whose cries had summoned us to her relief, we wasted no time in idle in spection, but pressed hurriedly on up the stairs and along a narrow corridor until we reached the room at whose window had appeared that wild and distraught vision. A brief but convincing search showed us that the girl was no longer within the apart ment. It was quite vacant, barren even of 136 MADAM OF THE IVIES furniture, and so dispiriting was its effect upon me that I was glad when my com panion led me hastily from it. We made a rapid investigation of the other rooms upon that floor, but with no better success. Then Mr. Chester hesitated for a moment in the hall, undecided whether to go up or down in furtherance of his purpose. As we halted there, in the same stern silence which had accompanied our entrance and research up to this instant, a signal came to us through the night, a sad and distressing signal which wrung my heart ; although it wrought no softening of the rigid lines in my companion s face. It was the sound of sobbing, hushed and pitiful, like that of a little child who has been forbidden to weep. However bitter a man s feelings towards a woman may be, such sounds issuing from her lips must impel him to her aid. Darra- cott turned to me. " She is below there," he said, shortly. " Once more will you not remain here and avoid meeting herV You shall have the lantern." 137 MADAM OF THE IVIES His intonation, hurried as it was, indi cated what his own wish in the matter was, but I negatived it promptly. All my sym pathies were with that desolate creature whose wailing still smote upon the air. " Go on hurry !" I cried ; and so we passed down the stairs and, still led by the mournful sounds, wound our way in and out of narrow passages, through kitchen and servants offices, until we came to a sort of cellar in the back of the house. As the light fell into the place the weeping ceased, and a more terrible picture of misery and despair than that which met our eyes I cannot well imagine. Two walls of the room were of the rough, unfinished stone of the cliff, on which green, slimy dampness had formed, and down their dark and slippery sides tiny streams of black ooze trickled upon the earthy floor beneath. The roof and the other walls were also cov ered with the deadly moisture, and thick grey festoons of dusty cobwebs draped the scarcely visible woodwork. In the most remote corner of this vile and 138 MADAM OF THE IVIES dreadful den was huddled together a shape less mass, almost covered by a veil of fair hair, thrown forward over the bent figure, evidently for the purpose of concealment. The beautiful mantle, discovered by the lan tern, gleamed and shone like a vein of gold in a dark setting of rough ore. " Let me speak to her," I said, all fear overcome by pity. There was no reply from my companion. I glanced at him, and I hope that never again shall I see in a man s face such awful evidence of contending emotions as I read in his. There was more than assent to my proposition in his eyes ; there was absolute appeal. He nodded. " Yes, do, for God s sake !" he muttered. " It is beyond me." I left him standing in the doorway, and approached the crouching figure. " Are you ill *?" I asked, speaking as gen tly as possible. I laid my hand softly upon the shrinking form. The girl, feeling my touch, raised her bowed head and tossed back the weight 139 MADAM OF THE IVIES of lustrous hair, looking at me with two dull, mournful blue eyes, in whose vacancy I read the clue to her strange actions. " No, I am not ill," she answered, in a soft minor key. " No, not ill, but oh ! so dusty so, so dusty !" with dainty disgust. " If I could only have a cloth to wipe away the cobwebs ! They are choking me, you know ! I d like to wipe my hands, too ; they re all wet with dampness see !" She held up two tiny palms, and, as I stooped to warm them with my own, I shrank back in horror they were stained with a deep crimson. " Mr. Chester !" I cried, forced to the ap peal ; " come here !" He approached reluc tantly. I suspected that he feared recogni tion, and continued, in an aside, " You need not be afraid ; she is quite insane." I could see that my words were a great shock from the start he gave as I spoke. Then personal feeling yielded to humane solicitude. " Alice," he said, gravely, as he stood beside her, " do you know me *?" 140 MADAM OF THE IVIES " Yes," she replied, nodding and smiling, " of course ! How do you do *? Once upon a time a spider spun a cobweb and a king watched it you are the king. Couldn t you give me a duster 1 ?" We saw that any attempt upon her intel ligence was useless, but she was amenable to persuasion. She shrank somewhat from Darracott, but had apparently conceived a strong confidence in me. She was very docile with me, and allowed me to coax her into compliance with my suggestions. The first of these regarded her hands, which I at once proceeded to bind comfortably with strips torn from my own handkerchief and that of my companion. The wounds were neither deep nor very painful ; rather abrasions than wounds, indeed ; caused, I afterwards assured myself, by her own as saults upon the window against which we had seen her leaning. I was in the midst of this occupation when Darracott, who had been standing by, gloomily regarding the operation, suddenly and roughly interrupted it. With an im- 141 MADAM OF THE IVIES pulsive movement he deposited the lantern upon the floor and, stooping, laid his hands impetuously upon my own. " Let me do that !" he ejaculated, rudely. " Drop her hands. I cannot bear to see you touch them !" I looked at him in surprise, and the girl gave a wild cry and crowded up to me as if for protection. My woman s heart was stirred with pity for her, and I threw an arm tenderly about her shoulder. Whatever her offence had been, her malady had wiped it out. She was guiltless in her affliction as a child in its ignorance. " No !" I returned, warming to my role as I felt the wretched creature nestle confidingly within my embrace. " She is my charge ; I will not abandon her." " You shall !" he exclaimed ; and to my surprise I discovered that his eyes were filled with hatred and passionate determination. " You shall not take her in your arms. I will not have it. You do not know what she is !" He placed a hand on the shoulder of each of us, as if by main force he would 142 MADAM OF THE IVIES draw us apart. But I held the trembling girl safe clasped in my arms, and so cir cumstanced, united by the hands that would have severed us, I looked up and put to him the first question I had ever uttered con cerning the mysteries of those lives with which destiny had so closely associated me. " Then you shall tell me," I cried. " Who is she *" A moment he hesitated, glaring fiercely down upon us both ; then he gave a short, dreary laugh, as of one sick at heart. " She is my wife," he said. At that instant, I am sure the unbalanced mind of the stricken girl temporarily read justed itself, and she recognised him. As tonishment, and perhaps a more intimate and personal sensation, had caused my clasp somewhat to relax its hold. Before I could recover from the shock of this unexpected intelligence my arms were empty. The girl had bounded to her feet and was speeding to the door. I gave a cry. It was echoed from the threshold. There, barring the de serter s further progress, was a figure I knew 143 MADAM OF THE IVIES well, the stunted, dwarfed, drooping, repul sive figure of Mrs. Mayberry ! A ray from the lantern falling upon the heads of the two women disclosed a feature which they possessed in common, that seemed to denote the existence of a tie of blood between them. The sunny, rippling cloud of hair that fell like a mantle of cloth-of-gold about the shoulders of the girl was but the counterfeit of the decorously arranged tresses which crowned the head of the woman. That inherited trait betrayed a near and unmistakable relationship. I looked quickly, interrogatively, at Darracott. He nodded gloomily. " Her daughter," he muttered. " Yes, my wife and her daughter." I transferred my gaze to the door. May- berry had pushed the girl from her path and had entered the room. Her face was white with horrible fear and miserable uncertainty. She shook like a culprit before a dreaded judge ; her lips twitched convulsively, and it was obvious that she was wholly possessed by a sense of unpardonable guiltiness. Alto- 144 MADAM OF THE IVIES gether, she was a wretched, pitiable object, arousing rather the aversion than the sym pathy of the beholder. As she advanced into the room she essayed to speak, but sev eral attempts were necessary before her words came freely forth. Then they gushed like a torrent. " Sir, sir, I couldn t help it. I had no where else to hide her. She should have been turned adrift again but for her affliction. Forgive me forgive me, sir. I had no right, I know I had none ; but what could I do *? I had meant it only to be for a little while. Don t oh, Mr. Chester, don t let my mistress know what I have done ! I could not bear it, sir. I could not have her turn against me ; it would break my heart. Oh, sir, it would, it would " And so on and so forth ; a ceaseless, egotistical reitera tion of the personal pronoun, " I I I." No word of pleading for the hapless girl, who stood surveying the situation with smil ing indifference from her vantage post by the door. No selfless entreaty for her par don, no attempt to implore leniency for her 10 145 MADAM OF THE IVIES in her affliction, no prayer for forgiveness of that offence which had turned the husband s heart against the wife. Nothing but a thoroughly selfish effort in her own behalf; a voluble outpouring of words with but one object in view, that of self-exculpation. Her eloquence was becoming wearisome. Dar- racott raised a hand in protest. The stern, uncompromising look had again settled upon his face. " That will do," he interrupted. " I have nothing to reproach you with. Your po sition has been a difficult one. I should have preferred complete openness on your part, and so, I believe, would your mistress. Duplicity never avails much. Now let us see what arrangements can be made for your daughter s proper bestowal." She looked at him with shrinking, terrified eyes. Oh ! how despicable a trait is moral cowardice ! " May she not stay here, sir *?" " No." " She cannot go to the village. No one would take in an insane girl." 146 MADAM OF THE IVIES " I do not mean to ask anyone to do so." There was an instant s pause. Then, with quavering voice and with all the strength of protestation at her command, the woman burst forth imploringly, " You would not insult my mistress by bringing the girl beneath her roof! Oh, sir, you would not !" " It is my roof. Your daughter has a legal claim to its shelter." For once the woman s resolution proved itself worthy the name. She rose to a mo mentary pitch of actual heroism in her de votion to her mistress. She regarded the man before her with flaming eyes, and it must be borne in mind that she feared him only in less degree than Madam. " She shall never seek shelter beneath Madam s roof while I have arms to hold her back," she said, doggedly. Darracott considered her in silence a few moments. Then he appeared to form a sudden resolve. " We will see," he remarked ; and, turning to me, announced his readiness to depart. MADAM OF THE IVIES " I shall return," he said to the housekeeper, "after I have taken Miss Lothrop home. Remain here with your daughter." But I would not desert the twain, and fearlessly told him so. He looked tired and spent, and evidently had no heart to seek to combat my decision. "As you will," he said, and was about to pass from the room when Mayberry threw herself before him. " You are not going to ask Madam " she began ; but his patience was at an end. He brushed her aside as one does a trouble some fly and strode from the room, taking care to avoid contact with the girl, who still stood at the door, with a childish smile on her face, stretching out a playful hand to him as he passed her. The fifteen or twenty minutes of Darra- cott s absence (I do not think it could have been more than that) dragged heavily away. The interval was wearisome enough to me, occupied as it was by a ceaseless monologue from Mrs. Mayberry. This was largely composed of self-commiseration and despair, 148 MADAM OF THE IVIES and was accompanied by a continuous flood of tears, caused sometimes by violent out bursts of grief and sometimes by mere whim pering and moaning. She constantly reit erated her conviction that Mr. Chester had gone to secure his mother s consent to his purpose of bringing the stricken girl to The Ivies, and worked herself into paroxysms of alarm and apprehension concerning Madam s resentment of her own conduct when she should hear of her duplicity. Her behaviour, her miserable egotism, which totally excluded her suffering child from her consideration, filled me with dis gust. I tried to interrupt the wretched ex hibition by seeking to call her attention to her daughter, who was regarding her from a distance with curious and pleased glances ; apparently the girl was diverted and amused by the spectacle of her mother s abject loss of self-control, and looked upon it as simply a successful effort on the latter s part to enter tain her. At any unusually loud outburst she would clap her hands applaudingly, and give vent to an encouraging and gratified crow. 149 MADAM OF THE IVIES At last I grew so heartily sick of the busi ness that I dropped all disguise from my feelings, and accosted the qualifying Niobe with actual harshness. " For Heaven s sake, Mrs. Mayberry," I said, giving free rein to my contempt, " do stop thinking about yourself for a time. What of it if Mr. Chester has gone to ask his mother s permission to take your daugh ter home ; why shouldn t he do so *? And how could Madam do less than receive her? Whatever she has done in the past, only a woman bereft of the commonest humanity could visit the result of former iniquities upon her now, or hold her responsible in her present condition. And Madam has the soul of an angel. She would not dream of excluding that poor child from her natural asylum." Mayberry turned her streaming eyes upon me with a look of weak scorn for the opinion of one so ignorant as I. " You don t know what you are talking about," she cried. " Madam has the soul of an angel, it is true ; but even an angel would 150 MADAM OF THE IVIES not forgive my wretched girl the misery she has caused. She shall never, never go back to that home she has ruined. She has made her bed ; let her lie on it. She has sown a crop of thorns in many lives ; let her live as she may upon the fruit they have borne in her own." The look she turned upon poor Alice was so fierce and resentful that the girl shrank back, and crouched coweringly down against the wall. I was about to interpose between them and confine myself wholly to the daughter when I was restrained by the sound of advancing footsteps, and, turning towards the door, I discovered, to my infinite relief, that Darracott had returned ; nor had he re turned alone. Beside him, distinguished from the enshrouding gloom by the rays from a second lantern which he carried aloft in his hand, appeared the stately, command ing figure of my dear lady, enveloped in heavy wraps, her unseeing progress being guided by the careful assistance of her son, upon whose arm she leant. Its habitual expression of calm resignation and gentle endurance had vanished from her MADAM OF THE IVIES face ; a look of stern suffering and anguish rigidly suppressed gave to it the semblance of a mask of Nemesis. I could not wonder at the deprecating cry that burst from May- berry s lips as her eyes rested upon that tragic countenance. But Madam frowned as she heard the sound, and, leaving the support of her son s arm, advanced into the room, with one firm, white hand outstretched to guard her person from harm. " Hush, woman !" she commanded, in tones such as I had never heard issue from her lips. " What words are those you utter *? Is it not of your own child you are speaking?" Mayberry sprang forward and threw her self in her favourite attitude before Madam, clutching her skirts with imploring, working fingers as she cried out, " Oh, Madam, Madam ! she is no longer my child. Have I not cast her off? Did I not break the tie between us that accursed day when Madam interrupted the wretched creature with magnificent scorn. She drew herself away from the clinging fingers, and her sight- 152 MADAM OF THE IVIES less eyes were ablaze with indignation and with the fires of passionate, unquenchable retrospection. " No longer your child !" she repeated. " And how can that be, since you both still exist *? Have you not borne her *? Have you not suffered for her nursed, tended, petted, and caressed her ? Have you not felt her arms about your neck ? Have you not rocked her on your bosom, and heard her voice calling you by the dearest name on earth ? Have you not longed, as only we mothers can, to hear the sound of that name once more*? Have you not hungered and thirsted for it^ And now that it has come to you, now that your heart s yearning desire is granted, do you stop to consider her faults and turn away from her in her hour of need *? Good God ! It is not. possible ! Why, woman, know that if I could once more hope to hear my lost boy s voice call ing me mother, I would go to him though my road lay through the vilest, most terrible paths that this world can show, assured that my mission would sanctify the way." 153 CHAPTER VIII. T HAVE never seen anything so superb as she was in her splendid scorn of this weaker character. Her face fairly glowed with the passion of maternity, and her words rang on the air like the vibration of hot metal being beaten into shape. When she paused, the poor shamed creature whom she addressed slunk again to her side and clutched the edge of her mistress s gown in her nerveless, trembling hands. " Ah, Madam, Madam, think how she has wronged you !" " / may think of that, but should you *? Should you, her mother, think of wrong done a stranger, when your child, stricken and suffering, calls to you *?" " I do long to help her," she wailed, mis erably ; " but what can I do *? Where can I take her?" There was an impressive pause. Madam 154 MADAM OF THE IVIES turned her poor eyes vaguely about, as if in search of someone. I had been looking at Darracott, constrained to watch him by reason of the swift play of emotion on his countenance. The bitterness of his ex pression when Madam made allusion to her lost son, an allusion which was then, of course, quite without meaning to me, was such as for a brief instant made me waver in my strong allegiance to my dear lady. There must have been potent cause for such a look. And yet Madam ! As she waited, glancing thus irresolutely about, the mask of repression again settled over his features, eclipsing self-betrayal. He took a few steps forward, and touched his mother s arm, sig nificantly, with his strong right hand. The touch sent a thrill coursing through her being that broke up all its icy self-restraint. Her stately head drooped, her face worked with emotion, and her beautiful eyes melted and grew bright with unshed tears. With a quick, proud, and yet tender gesture, she drew Darracott s hand from her arm and clasped it within her own. MADAM OF THE IVIES " My son has bidden you bring your daughter again beneath his roof. Have you or I a right to express inclination or hesi tation in a matter wherein his authority is as absolute as his generosity and clemency are uncommon and noble *?" For a brief instant, I, watching the man with a passionate interest that bore no kin ship to idle curiosity, saw a flash of bright ness light up his eyes. The next moment his hand was withdrawn from the detaining clasp, and his business-like tones eliminated all tragic element from the interview. " My mother must not remain here, May- berry. The place is unfit for her. Make your daughter ready, and when I have taken my mother and Miss Lothrop home I will return for you." My dear lady turned quickly to him as he spoke, and I flushed with pleasure as she said, with unmistakable affection in her voice, " My little Dorothy ! Where is she, my son?" I went forward, and took her hand ten derly in mine. Her fingers closed eagerly 156 MADAM OF THE IVIES over my own, as if she found comfort in the contact. Mayberry, in the presence of such magnanimity as had been shown her, was, for once, too overawed for lachrymose indulgence. With an indistinguishable mur mur she moved away from our little group, and took up her station by the side of the insane girl, who had been watching the whole interview with marked delight. Just as we were about to turn away, the witless creature gave a sudden cry and would have sprung forward to Madam s side, had not Mayberry fallen swiftly upon her and re strained her by actual force of arm. I felt Madam shudder, and as she turned eagerly towards the door, as if desiring to escape, I anticipated her wish and led her from the dark and horrible den. No word was spoken as we drove home ; but as we got out of the carriage and were about to enter the house, Madam turned to Darracott. " My son my dear son," I heard her say, with a heart-breaking tremble in her voice, " I thank you." MADAM OF THE IVIES But there was no corresponding emotion in the tone in which he replied, " There is no occasion for gratitude, mother. A man has no choice in a matter of plain duty." As she and I mounted the steps, she sighed so heavily that it made my heart ache for her unknown trouble. But I was tongue-tied by ignorance and could only manifest my sympathy by infusing surpass ing tenderness into the ministrations I was allowed to perform for her, in place of May- berry, whom she would not see again that night, she said. When I had helped her to undress and had made her comfortable, she bade me throw a wrapper about her and send Franklin to her, as she wished to give him instructions relating to the disposal of Mayberry s daughter. " I shall have a fierce struggle to over come the old man s objections to harbour ing the girl," she remarked, with a sad little smile. " But he must yield a point which my son has not thought fit to contend. My son my dear son !" she repeated, 158 MADAM OF THE IVIES caressingly. "Dorothy, did I not tell you he was of heroic mould ? But I forget. How must all the sad mystery of these events define itself to you ? You must be taught to understand them, even if it costs me something of your regard to enlighten you. To-morrow, perhaps perhaps I can find strength to tell you. It is your due, my child my comforter." My tears moistened her hands as she took my face between her palms to kiss it. She made no comment upon them, however ; only her kiss was more tender, more loving than usual. I could not bear to go to bed without seeing Darracott once more, for I felt per suaded that, although far less visible to others, his suffering that night fully equalled, if it had not largely exceeded, that of the two bereaved mothers. There was in my heart a passionate sympathy for this man whom Fate had used so harshly ; a yearning desire to do something for his comfort, some thing that might testify in ever so slight a degree to the depth and sincerity of my pity 159 MADAM OF THE IVIES and regret for the ill-usage he had received, and which I was now, perforce, obliged to believe in. If my heart throbbed somewhat miserably when I thought of the wretched fact which, transpiring through the revela tions of the night, had stabbed my heart with most poignant anguish, the fact that, underlying every other circumstance of this yet unrevealed tragedy, loomed most distinct and dreadful before me, the fact that Darra- cott Chester had a living wife, in justice to myself let me say that I resolutely refused to heed my own despair, and stifled the in sistent consideration that sought to dominate my mind by occupying all my energies with preparations for the reception of the woman who was about to return to the roof she had disgraced. Franklin and I had scarcely time to carry out Madam s directions before we heard the wheels of the returning carriage crunching the gravel. I felt that mine might be an embarrassing presence to the mother and husband of the unfortunate girl, and, there fore, withdrew from the hastily prepared 1 60 MADAM OF THE IVIES suite set apart for her use, and betook my self to a task more in harmony with my feelings and less repugnant to that sick un dercurrent of protest that was pulsing through my being. Since the master s return I had never been in the pretty morning-room in which Madam and I had been wont formerly to take our meals. Franklin had informed me that in olden times it had been dedicated to Mr. Chester s use, and that he would again oc cupy it as a sort of den or sanctum. I knew that the greater portion of his time was spent there, and that it was his habit to linger in it long after the rest of the house hold had retired. To-night I resolved to take a liberty. Thinking that it would be some time be fore he would have finished seeing after the proper establishment of his wife, and expect ing also that he would be somewhat detained in Madam s room when he should go to say his customary good-night to her, I dared to take advantage of the interval for the pur pose of invading the den, in order to see that 161 MADAM OF THE IVIES the fire was burning cheerfully, and to lay a tray-cloth upon his centre-table, whereon it was my intention to prepare a modest repast. Say what you will, you sentimentalists, there is nothing that inspires new hope in a dis couraged soul, that reanimates a drooping spirit, like the vision of a bright wood-fire and the sight of good cheer. As I live, although I hoped and meant to waylay the master in the hall before he should enter the room, and solace that miserable heart-sickness that I knew would later con quer my attempts to subdue it, by extract ing a brief word or two from his wary lips, I had no desire, nor did I intend, to allow him to find me in possession of this apart ment, which was so peculiarly his own. I make this statement that no charge of un- maidenliness or boldness may be brought against me as I narrate the events which transpired. I was as quick in the performance of my self-imposed duties as I could be, but all things seemed to conspire against me. In the first place, the fire had burnt almost out, 162 MADAM OF THE IVIES and I was obliged to fan it with the bellows most vigorously and persistently before I could produce the effect which I desired. It must be a brilliant, joyous flame to enliven and inspire ; a sulky, unwilling fire is worse than none. Then I was a stranger to the butler s pantry and store-room, and some minutes were wasted in the search for the various articles I required. I have great faith in the virtue of a hot drink, and I knew enough of masculine nature to feel convinced that neither tea nor coffee would so comfort it as would a more ardent bever age. Hot Scotch was the solace of my brother-in-law s fits of depression, and I be thought me to afford the object of my present ministrations the opportunity of applying the same balm to his spirits. I had no difficulty in discovering a case- bottle of whiskey, lemons, and sugar, but alcohol with which to inflame the spirit- lamp I found in the pantry was nowhere forthcoming. In vain I searched all Frank lin s preserves, growing nervous and cross as I felt the precious time wearing itself away. 163 MADAM OF THE IVIES At last I dared delay no longer, and a sud den inspiration came to me, which I hast ened to carry into effect. I returned to the morning-room, and, pos sessing myself of the poker, knelt down upon the hearth and drew forward a little bed of glowing bits of charcoal. I had filled the small saucepan belonging to the useless lamp with water, and I now pro ceeded to heat this by holding it over the hot embers. With my eyes roaming alter nately from my task to the door, and ears stretched to their utmost to detect the sound of approaching footsteps (for I felt that I could hear such traversing the floor of the echoing hall in time to escape from the room before they should enter), I knelt at my task, urging the water to boil with all the impetu osity of a woman s impatient soul. If long ing had had effect upon my purpose, the steam would have arisen as the pan touched the coals. But, alas ! it is the watched ket tle that does not boil, and so this occasion proved. As for the hundredth time I lifted the cover from the little vessel and peered 164 MADAM OF THE IVIES anxiously within, to try to discover some indications of the desired seething of the water, I heard a muffled sound, and there came upon me that inexplicable conscious ness of another presence in the room not yet discovered. My eyes sped to the door. Vacancy there. I half rose, nervously spilling some of the water from the pan upon my hand as I did so. The water was hot, if not boiling, and a stifled cry escaped me. I quickly placed the pan upon the hearth, and with that nat ural impulse which we share with the brutes, and which is probably a trait inherited from a common ancestor, raised my hand and ap plied to it the simple salve which instinct directs us to resort to upon such occasions I held the injured place to my mouth. " What is this, Miss Lothrop? you have hurt yourself!" It was well, indeed, that the pan was no longer in my grasp. So startled was I by the salutation that, without doubt, I should have done myself grievous injury with the steaming contents. Turning quickly in the 165 MADAM OF THE IVIES direction opposite the door upon which I had concentrated my attention, I saw, hur riedly advancing towards me the intruder whose advent I had been dreading. Then I remembered that there was another entrance to the room, rarely used, and quite forgotten by me. I am sure my face must have been ma hogany-coloured. The close proximity to the leaping flames had scorched my cheeks, and to this artificially acquired crimson was added a flush compounded, it seemed to me, of all the blood in my body. I was em barrassed and confused beyond description. " It is nothing nothing," I stammered, hurriedly, twisting my handkerchief about the smarting member. " I am just going, Mr. Chester. I was only trying to heat a little water. I thought Oh, how tired you do look !" After all, concern for him was far more predominant in my mind than the meaner consideration of self, and it quickly van quished my wounded and abashed self- consciousness. I never had seen a man 1 66 MADAM OF THE IVIES look so utterly fagged and spent as he did just then. When the mask does happen to fall from contained and reserved natures, the revelation comes like a shock upon those who have never chanced before to see the same countenance au naturel. He paid no heed to my ejaculation. I saw that his rapid glance had taken in the details of my preparations for his refresh ment, and, though he made no allusion to them just then, he looked at me an instant in quite a wonderful way, that somehow made me glad I was just who I was, even if another woman was his wife. " Let me see your hand, please," he then said, in quite a matter-of-fact way, coming forward until he stood close to me. His own hands were in his pockets, and he did not withdraw them or offer to touch mine, as I unwrapped it and held it up for his in spection. " Whew !" he whistled, as he peered down at it. " A vile burn. Wait here a moment, Miss Lothrop, will you ? I ll get some soda for it." 167 MADAM OF THE IVIES He was turning away as he spoke, but I detained him. " Oh, it is nothing !" I said. " I am going to my room at once, and will put some vaseline on it. It really doesn t amount to anything at all. Good-night." " Nonsense ! It amounts to a good deal," he said. " Vaseline s no good. Soda will take the fire out at once. Wait." I did not dare offer any further objection, for his tone seemed to show some annoy ance, and I thought it unfair to harass him any more that night. Therefore I held my peace and seated myself to await his return. But before he came my heart misgave me. I was overborne with the thought of the unconventionality of my situation, and it began to attain enormous and horrid pro portions of indecency in my sight. What, I reflected, would Madam say at my being closeted with her son (a married man, too !) at that hour of the night ! I could not bear the thought. I rose hurriedly to my feet and made for the door. My decision had come too late, however, for 1 68 MADAM OF THE IVIES already I saw Darracott approaching from the farther end of the hall. I summoned all my resolution. I would be firm and de cided. It was too late for me to be philan dering down here, and no persuasion should avail to make me remain. I proceeded coolly on my way. As we came up with each other he accosted me. " Where are you going ?" he asked, still with that annoyed expression in his voice. " To my room," I replied. " Nonsense ! What for T Now, it is a difficult thing to explain to a man your ideas of the unfitness of remain ing alone and unchaperoned with him. It seems to offer suggestions which you fear will make you appear either ridiculous or expectant in his sight. I hesitated. " I suppose you are tired out with all our demands upon you," he continued. " Well, I don t wonder. Just come back a moment, however. It won t take but a minute to apply this soda, and then you shall go. Really, Miss Lothrop, I beg of you to allow 169 MADAM OF THE IVIES me to do this much for you ; it will afford us both infinite relief." I held out my hand. " Can t you put it on here *?" I asked. He shook his head. " No ; I must have some water to moisten it with. Why, what is the matter*?" he went on, quickly and with sudden sus picion ; " you are not afraid of me, Miss Lothrop, are you *? The events of this even ing have not made you suspicious of me?" His face had flushed hotly, and he had drawn himself up a little proudly. I would have gone through fiery flames with him after that speech. " Suspicious of you !" I repeated, and laughed. " Come, Mr. Chester." " Ah ! that s better," he said, and we re turned to the morning-room. The place did look cosy and cheery as we entered it. Its intrinsic beauty was consid erable, and to this had been added much extraneous adornment in the way of rare and costly trophies of foreign travel. The master of the house had evidently thought 170 MADAM OF THE IVIES to ameliorate this enforced and humdrum monotony, which was so uncongenial to his nature, by surrounding himself with memen toes of a wider and more varied manner of living. The air was just touched with that aroma of good tobacco which is wont to pervade the atmosphere of most bachelors quarters, and which, to my nostrils at least, is a comfortable and delicious fragrance ; and the fire on the hearth my fire was leaping and crackling according to my fond est wishes. The little meal, spread tempt ingly upon the table, added the final touch to a very attractive picture of still-life. Darracott conducted me to a position where the rays from an exquisitely-shaded bronze reading-lamp would fall upon my hand, and, adding a little water to the soda he had brought, mixed a paste with which he coated the scalded spot. Then I offered him my handkerchief to wrap round it, but he refused to avail himself of it. " It is too bad to press any more of your wardrobe into dispensary use," he said. " Wait a moment." 171 MADAM OF THE IVIES He went to a cabinet, and after a brief search returned with a square of such linen as I had hitherto but dreamt of. This was bordered with lace that fairies might have woven from cobwebs. The hue of both lace and linen was of that mellow richness that only is obtainable from the palette of time. " What is that ?" I exclaimed, with bated breath, for I have a reverence for all ex quisite things. " A chalice veil." " What are you going to do with it *?" " Bind it upon a wound gained in my ser vice." . I withdrew my hand before he could fulfil his intention. " You shall not. It is a desecration a folly !" " Not nearly so great a one as the stanch ing of those other wounds with your hand kerchief. Your hand, please." " Nonsense !" I cried. " I will not permit it. I will not allow you to soil so precious a thing by such a service !" He had by this time possessed himself 172 MADAM OF THE IVIES again of my hand, and was holding it very gently in his own, gazing thoughtfully down upon it. " Our minds frame similar thoughts con cerning different objects," he said, and shook out the beautiful web. " I will not have it ; really, I will not !" I exclaimed, vehemently, and would have drawn away my hand a second time, but he made it tenderly a prisoner with his other fingers. " But I will and therefore you shall !" he returned. " Miss Lothrop, you are acting foolishly. Don t you see I want to give you a memento as a slight acknowledgment of my gratitude to you *? Let me wrap your hand in the rarest possession I have, and even then I shall only have hinted at the recognition of the debt I owe you for your devotion to me and mine." I struggled no longer. I saw that he really wished to give me this priceless arti cle, and it seemed tactless to make further protest. But I insisted upon first throwing my own handkerchief over the plaster into MADAM OF THE IVIES which the soda had now formed, thereby protecting the chalice veil from injury. His efforts for my relief were quite concluded, and I bade him good-night. He laughed as I did so. " Now, what a meaningless phrase has that which you have just uttered come to be !" he said. " Much use has killed all its significance for us. You speak it as casually as if it were a matter of course that the wish it embodies would be fulfilled ; and yet, Miss Lothrop, you can scarcely for a moment be lieve that a man who has just received be neath his roof the shattered remains of a wife who has disgraced and deserted him could by any chance pass a good-night now, could you *?" It seemed to me that his question was only a means of prolonging the interview, and this I had no mind for, so I moved to wards the door and made my answer stand ing on the threshold. " No," I replied, with keen sympathy. " No, I could not. I will change my vale diction. Auf wiedersehen" 174 MADAM OF THE IVIES " I would rather have it a bientdt" he said. Then, as I smiled and nodded, he remarked, quickly, " By the way, Miss Lothrop, how much do you know of the true meaning of this occurrence which has taken place to-night ? Has my mother seen fit to enlighten you concerning our family history?" " No." " And you are thinking me, doubtless, a monster, to have alienated the affections of both mother and wife ! Are you not *?" I made no reply. I felt the subject dan gerous territory. " You are non-committal. Come back a moment. I have something to say to you. Perhaps, if I say it, I may, notwithstanding other things, have a good night. You will not come *?" as I shook my head. " Good God ! What is the matter with me, Miss Lothrop ? All women seem to shrink from me ! Why are you afraid of me *?" " I am not afraid," I said, advancing again into the room. " Mr. Chester, I know al most nothing of the past events of your life, 175 MADAM OF THE IVIES and my acquaintance with you is of recent date ; but I think no woman would need to be endowed with extraordinary perspicacity to feel assured that she might trust you at any time and under all circumstances. Now I am tired, and so are you ; it is awfully late, and I must go to bed." He was leaning against the mantelpiece, looking earnestly at me. He held out his hand. " Yes," he said, " you look tired. Go. But shake hands on the truth of your state ment, won t you *?" I drew near and laid my hand in his. His fingers closed tightly upon it. " You do look tired, Dorothy," he re peated, the name appearing to slip out with out his being aware of it. " I can with perfect assurance wish you a good-night. Women of your calibre have no uneasy memories to disturb their slumbers. Good night, and good-bye." 176 CHAPTER IX. T STARTED, and there must have been actual terror in my face. Without meaning to do so, in my sudden alarm I clutched his ringers as if I would hold him back from leaving me. " Good-bye *?" I cried out. " You are not going away again !" His face suddenly glowed with emotion, and his eyes lighted with joy. He drew me a little nearer by a swift gesture, as my hand lay in his. "And if I am what then?" he asked, holding his breath for my answer. " Why nothing," I stammered, weakly ; but there were tears of bitter disappointment in my eyes, and I was forced to drop my head that he might not see them. He let fall my hand with a short laugh. " Exactly !" he exclaimed. " That is just 177 MADAM OF THE IVIES what my going away means to every living soul in this world nothing." I can only hope that there may be some excuse made for my next action on the ground of my over-excited condition, for I had been through a great strain during the past few hours ; else my conduct would seem unpardonable. When those last words, uttered in a tone that was indescribably hope less and heart-sick, fell from Darracott s lips, I could not conquer their appeal to my love and sympathy. I did not stop to reason as to maidenliness or propriety. My spirit was rent and torn with compassion and solici tude for this man who had been so long a wanderer and wayfarer, and who was again, I thought, about to be driven forth from the comfort and shelter of his own home. I looked bravely up into his face, letting him read all the passionate regret in mine, and held out the hand he had dropped, beseech ingly. " You are wrong you are wrong !" I cried. " It is not true that no one takes heed of your going or coming. Your 178 MADAM OF THE IVIES mother rejoices to have you with her, and I " I had the grace to pause a moment. " You 2" I wonder that that look in his eyes did not vanquish my temerity ; but it did not. " I " I repeated ; " I also would have you remain here in your own home." And then I felt my face burning hot with shame, and I dropped it into my hands and turned away. I was overwhelmed, mortified, and horribly abashed ; and yet I would not go till I had the assurance from his own lips that he would not leave us. I heard him draw a long breath, and there was silence for a few moments in the room. When he spoke there was bitter self-reproach in his voice. " Miss Lothrop," he said, " I do not won der any longer that women shrink from me. They have divined in me the latent villainy of which I was myself unconscious. A proper return I have made for your kind interest in my well-being. I have been like a beast that turns and rends him who has cared for. it. I do not ask your forgive ness. I can only say that I have allowed 179 MADAM OF THE IVIES myself to fall a victim to circumstances which have offered me a temptation beyond any I have ever known. I shall never par don my own weakness. Good-night." He went forward and drew aside the por tiere that shrouded the entrance to the hall. As I passed out I lifted my eyes an instant to his. " You have not promised to stay," I sug gested, wistfully. " I never intended anything else," he re plied, with marked self-disgust. " I allowed you to remain under the misconception for my own selfish ends." " But misconception *?" I persisted. " Did you not say good-bye ?" " Intending only to convey its literal mean ing, God be with you, " he returned. " And now, again, and ever again, good-bye !" I echoed the word and passed on my way. At the first bend in the staircase I looked behind me. The portiere was still drawn aside, and I saw a dark, almost indistinguish able figure still standing beneath its folds. The next day I found myself abandoned 180 MADAM OF THE IVIES to my own society until quite late in the after noon. I was scarcely dressed when Franklin # brought me a message from Madam to the effect that, as she had certain matters to oc cupy her attention during the day, I might dispose of my time as I chose until five o clock, when she begged that I would come to her boudoir for tea, as usual. Franklin also informed me that, as both his master and mistress preferred to have breakfast and luncheon served to them in their own rooms, I might choose between following their ex ample or having those meals in solitary state in the great dining-room. Naturally I preferred the former method, and spent a quiet day, with my thoughts for my only companions. Just before our usual luncheon-hour I was attracted to the window by the sound of wheels on the gravel. I looked out and saw a groom waiting with the empty dog-cart before the main entrance. A few moments later Darracott came down the steps and got into the vehicle. The groom was dismissed, and Darracott drove away alone. iSi MADAM OF THE IVIES Half an hour later the sound of returning wheels took me again to the window. What was my surprise to see that Darracott was no longer alone in the cart ; that he had brought a companion with him, and that that com panion was none other than David Spencer. I put two and two together, and the result was a conclusion that stress of circumstance had been remedial of disruption, and that the need for the physician had resulted in the recall of the friend. When Franklin appeared for the purpose of serving my luncheon, I felt that my par ticipation in the occurrences of the past night warranted me in putting a question to him. " Is Mrs. Mayberry s daughter worse," I asked, " that Dr. Spencer has been sent for?" There was a gleam of malignant satis faction in the old man s face as he replied in the affirmative. " The servants were not so utterly mis taken in their suspicions, Franklin," I haz arded. 182 MADAM OF THE IVIES " No, miss," he answered. " I could not have believed it of Mrs. Mayberry." " She is greatly to be pitied, poor woman !" I said. " She is greatly to blame for all that has happened, the weak fool !" he ejaculated, harshly. " If she hadn t thought to make her daughter a lady " He broke off, evidently remembering that it was not his place to discuss events even with so familiar a member of the household as I. So impatient was I for my interview with Madam that it seemed to me five o clock would never come. I knew that Dr. Spen cer was still in the house, for I had been on the alert for his departure, and was convinced that it had not taken place. But when my little travelling-clock finally struck five sil very chimes, and I was about to leave my room, Franklin reappeared with a request from his master that I would give him a few moments interview in the morning-room. I despatched a message to Madam to inform her why my attendance upon her would be somewhat delayed, and with beating heart 183 MADAM OF THE IVIES and wondering spirit descended the wide staircase to Mr. Chester s sanctum. Naturally I was somewhat embarrassed at the thought of again meeting the man to whom I had so lately revealed my most sacred feelings. But his nonchalance and matter-of-fact reception of me soon put me at ease and banished my wretched self-con sciousness. He saluted me pleasantly and naturally, with none of that dangerously provocative emotional disturbance which had characterised his manner the previous night ; and motioned me to a seat, standing mean while himself. " Miss Lothrop," he began, " I have had a long interview with my mother this morn ing, one result of which has been our mutual conclusion that you should be informed of every detail necessary to a thorough under standing of the wretched circumstances which surround the unhappy fate of the woman whom you helped to succour last night, and who must, unwelcome as the necessity is, spend the rest of those days whose term threatens to be very short beneath this roof. 184 MADAM OF THE IVIES My mother desires herself to relate to you the miserable history, and I am selfishly will ing to allow her to do so. When you shall have heard it, you shall decide whether or not you wish to remain in so tainted a house hold as this. It is asking much, perhaps too much, of a pure young girl, such as you are, to request you to do so, but I would neither ask nor allow it but for the strong conviction I have that your presence and companion ship have become a necessity to my mother, which I feel that she cannot afford to dis pense with. She is sadly broken and dis tressed by this fresh disaster that has befallen us, and I dread its consequences upon her. For her sake I would permit request, in deed a sacrifice which otherwise I would not tolerate ; for to desire you to live in a house polluted by the presence of the woman who is legally my wife is to ask you to place yourself in a position unbecoming your girl ish innocence." He paused a moment, turning restlessly away from me and fingering in an embar rassed fashion a Japanese idol that stood 185 MADAM OF THE IVIES upon the mantelpiece. Before I could frame a reply he went on : " Miss Lothrop, you have in your heart accused me of injustice and coldness, even of cruelty, towards my mother. I cannot bear that you should listen to her history and mine until I have first corrected the false impression under which you labour, and prepared you to do better justice to a man who has actual faults enough to stagger under without being burdened with short comings which do not belong to him. May I bore you with a few words explanatory of that filial attitude of mine which I know you harshly condemn?" I bowed, and he continued : " Ever since my birth my mother has been the heroine of my dreams. I will not dwell upon the passionate love and admira tion I felt for her as a lad, nor upon the ex tent to which I idealised her in my young manhood. I told you last night how I had often longed to lay my hand upon her hair and dared not, and I might have added something concerning my covetousness of 186 MADAM OF THE IVIES the caresses of which a mother is usually prodigal towards her children, but which were coldly withheld from me. But it is not worth while to stir up all the sick mem ory of those years that are gone for ever. My mother had no love for me, and there fore no caresses. A circumstance alienated her natural affection from me before I was born. My grandmother explained the oc currence to me, one day, when I was a small lad making moan to her concerning the irreparable loss of my mother s love. She did it, doubtless, with the view of recon ciling me to an inevitable fact, but her ex planation and intention fell short of their mark. I decided then, and I have never al tered my conclusion, that my mother s atti tude towards me was wholly without justifi cation. She has herself admitted, and she will doubtless so inform you, with boundless self-reproach (for she has a noble disposition to acknowledge freely the few faults that mar a well-nigh perfect character), that accident was the thief which robbed me of my nat ural heritage ; but I cannot feel that the 187 MADAM OF THE IVIES reason condones the theft. She has visited upon me the effects of her own bereavement. Before I was born, even, she turned from me because I was the innocent reminder of a grief to which she could never become recon ciled. I cannot forgive the injustice, Miss Lothrop. It has cankered my whole life. Never, since that day when I sought sympa thy from- my grandmother, have I mentioned the subject to a living soul, but I knew that you had been judging me, and with no leniency. I prize your regard, and I desired to extenuate my conduct in your sight. In your future judgment of me in relation to my mother, I trust you will bear in mind the fact that she has plainly demonstrated to me from my earliest childhood that she had no affection to bestow upon me, and that my society was uncongenial to her. Now that she has become bereft of more welcome sources of love, she would perhaps turn to me as a makeshift ; but I do not stand ready to make of my affection a mere stop-gap." He paused, frowning heavily. Then, in a lighter tone, he said, 1 88 MADAM OF THE IVIES " What an insufferably egotistical bore you must think me ! I have finished now, however. Thank you for your attention. How is the hand to-day*?" Although his speech had been delivered in a cold, matter-of-fact voice, obviously free from any purpose of arousing my sympathy through rhetorical effect, and with a manner as unemotional and impersonal as if he had been stating the case of a wholly indifferent person, yet his recital had stirred me pro foundly. Nothing in life seems to me so cruel or inexcusable as the withholding or withdrawing of a mother s love from her child. And to think that my dear lady, she who had seemed to me a well-spring of all virtue and goodness, should have been guilty of this grave and heinous offence ! I was shocked and pained beyond measure. The strange and hitherto inexplicable quality of her regard for her son became now clearly defined. That constraint, that timidity, that deprecating tentativeness, which resembled nothing so much as the first bashful advances of a timorous lover, 189 MADAM OF THE IVIES now bore plain significance to me. O un happy mother, to have so causelessly alien ated the love of the only being of natural affiliation that Destiny had left to your old age ! O sadly entreated son, with all that wealth of native tenderness which even now, after long years of cold disregard, showed its vein of rich ore through the enforced evenness of speech, thrown back, like worth less dross, upon an outraged heart ! I tried to make some suitable reply, but I found it difficult to command my voice. A pathetic vision of that lonely boyhood and loveless youth rose painfully before me. My heart ached for the child who had become the man that stood before me, and all I could say, as I rose and held out my hand to him, were simple words with which I might have comforted the child. " I am so sorry for you," I said, stupidly. But I fancy my words conveyed more than I imagined, for his fingers closed quite grate fully over mine, while his face flushed and his eyes brightened. " Oh, I didn t mean to cry baby," he said, 190 MADAM OF THE IVIES lightly. " I only wanted you to appreciate the situation that is all. Now, my mother is waiting for you. By the way, you will find Spencer with her." There was a sort of questioning penetration in the look that accompanied this last remark. " Yes," I replied ; " I saw him come." " His presence here is welcome to you ? There has been a reconciliation, you know. You are glad of it*?" " Very glad," I returned, emphatically. His look grew even more questioning. " Well, he is a good fellow, David Spen cer. I also am glad to have him about the house again. Send him down to me when you go up, will you ?" I assented, and left the room. I felt that it was just as well to leave that veiled in ference, which both his look and manner had implied, uncontradicted. Darracott Chester was a married man ; his wife was in the house, but a few rooms distant from us ; what necessity was there for another woman to set him right concerning her love affairs ? 191 MADAM OF THE IVIES It was a very great pleasure to see the entente cordiale which had been established between my dear lady and the good friend to whom, though I could not marry him, I was yet strongly attached. As I entered the room they were sitting on either side the fire, and Madam s face, though it bore traces of recent storm and stress, had yet a glad, joyful look upon it. Dr. Spencer rose, and she stretched out her hand to me. " It is you, Dorothy," she said. " One of my boys has come back to me " There was a pathetic little break in her voice, but she immediately conquered it. " It is a hap piness I had scarcely dared hope for. Come and welcome his return, my dear." A little later, after we had had our tea and David Spencer had left us, Madam bade me draw a chair quite close to her, and then, with what was very obviously a strong effort to overcome a powerful reluctance, she be gan to relate to me the sad tragedy of The Ivies. I give it in her own words. " Dorothy, my child," she said, breaking an interval of silence, which she had per- 192 haps spent in trying to embolden a reluctant spirit to face the ghosts of bygone events, " if the love and gratitude I feel for you were to be subjected to a great proof, none could be selected more distressing to me than this which I have voluntarily imposed upon myself. I am going to rehearse to you pages from one of the saddest records ever written in the heart of a mother, and I can not perform the task without exposing the fact that I myself am largely responsible for the causes which render the history so tragic a one. My child, I have failed wholly and unpardonably in the noblest mission that God vouchsafes to us women the mission of motherhood. Two opportunities have been afforded me of manifesting my fitness for the divine vocation, and both have I wasted, one through lack, and the other through excess, of ardour. Oh, it is a sad confession for a woman to make, this that she has been unappreciative of God-given occasions ! It is no less sad for her to be forced to acknowledge that she has taken idolatrous advantage of them." She sighed 13 93 MADAM OF THE IVIES heavily and paused an instant ; then, in a firmer tone, continued : " I must begin far back in the past, at the period of my first marriage. My dear, have you ever, watching in the early dawn, ob served the sun rise slowly above the horizon in great splendour, which promised marvel lous things for the new day, only to behold it, even before its full glory was made mani fest, pass into a dark and gloomy cloud which eclipsed its false prophecy, and made of the span of time that followed its course a dark and dreary interval, hopeless of re covered brightness? Such a transition as that, Dorothy, is typical of my life. " I was an only child, with every talent cultivated to its utmost extent by parents who idolised me. I was considered to have more than average personal endowments, and was petted and indulged as the only children of the wealthy are wont to be. No sus picion of trouble or disappointment over shadowed my girlhood, and I was even so fortunate as to love passionately the man whom my father selected for my husband. 194 MADAM OF THE IVIES I was married to Frederic Chester on my nineteenth birthday, and as his parents were then living here he caused the Stone House to be redecorated and refitted for our tem porary use. The place had always been the abode of misfortune ; no tenant had ever occupied it without experiencing some ter rible sorrow or calamity while living beneath its roof. This I did not learn until later, though much about the house affected me unpleasantly at first sight. But in the flush and assurance of perfect happiness I was contemptuous of the idea that trouble could touch me. And, for a time, it seemed in deed as if I wore an amulet against misfor tune. Perhaps the great joy of that year was enough for one lifetime. My husband and I knew no discord ; no jarring of tastes and sympathies marred our happiness. We had ample wealth, health, and love what more could we desire"? "On the first anniversary of our wedding-day the blow fell. I was then not strong enough to accompany my husband in his daily rides ; but, knowing how much he enjoyed them, I 195 MADAM OF THE IVIES insisted that he should continue them with out me. On that day he had set off as usual, and, as the time for his return drew near, I went upon the balcony to watch for and welcome him. I was standing there, on the outlook, when I discovered him coming, not up our own drive, but up the poplar avenue. As he perceived me, he stopped to call out that he had a message for his mother, but would come back immediately. I nodded, and, crying Au revoir! he rose in his saddle to throw me a kiss, when, suddenly, Frank lin s two little children, who had been play ing behind the poplars, rushed across the road just in front of the horse. Their light, flut tering dresses frightened the nervous animal, who plunged wildly, and before my husband, taken thus at a disadvantage, could regain his mastery of the terrified creature, it had backed to the edge of the avenue, where, rearing madly on its hind legs, it lost hold of the crumbling earth, and I, helpless to aid, saw both horse and rider fall heavily over the cliff." Here recollection became too strong for 196 MADAM OF THE IVIES even her self-mastery, and she stopped her re cital and covered her face with her hands, as if to shut out the painful scene which mem ory vividly reproduced before her mental vision. I dared not speak. It seemed as if words of mere human sympathy, heartfelt as they might be, would seem like a casual in terruption of sacred reading. Therefore I held my peace, and after a little she regained her composure and proceeded. 197 CHAPTER X. "AT that time no fence guarded the cliff, and this neglect of a simple precaution against danger was a cause of self- reproach with my poor father-in-law during the remainder of his life. The accident had been immediately fatal to both the animal and its master. No spark of life lingered in either when they were raised from the spot. " I need not dwell upon the extent of my despair and grief. It is only necessary to say that the shock precipitated an event which was near at hand, and within twenty-four hours I passed from one of the happiest, one of the most joyous and hopeful young crea tures upon whom the sun of love and pros perity ever shone, into a state of wretched and desperate widowhood and motherhood which is so gloomy, even in retrospect, that I cannot bear to recall it. " O my child, I have fallen short of the 198 MADAM OF THE IVIES standard which God required of me ! I have failed to fulfil the demands His infinite wis dom has laid upon me. I have erred lament ably, and have been weighed in the balance and found miserably deficient. But a little, a little plea I must offer in extenuation, founded upon the awful agony of that pe riod. Dorothy, it was a sudden and terrible call to arms in a life that had never dreamt of warfare. It found me unfurnished with weapons of defence ; ill-equipped, unpre pared. I knew not how to meet the emer gency. Bred in the lap of peace, shel tered from even a rude breath, ignorant of even the meaning of stress and conflict, how could I be expected valiantly to face and de fend myself from the enemy ! And, alas ! I did not. I proved myself a coward ; yes, even more than that a cruel coward. " My baby, that should have been wel comed as a solace in the bitter hour of my bereavement, became an object of aversion to me. So associated was he with my grief that his presence grew to be insupportable. I de livered him over almost entirely to the care 199 MADAM OF THE IVIES of his grandmother and nurse, and avoided him whenever it was possible for me to do so. It was all but a crime that I committed against my firstborn in my wicked selfish ness, and I sometimes think that God has seen fit to punish my sin by laying His chastening Hand, heavy with retribution, upon the heart which coldly neglected one child to make an idol of another. " I was removed to The Ivies. Here I passed ten quiet, uneventful years beneath the roof of my husband s father and mother. Tenderly they loved me, and no daughter was ever more carefully watched over and minis tered unto than was their daughter-in-law. During those years my attachment for the child grew no stronger. I could not bring myself (alas ! I fear I made slight effort to do so) to overcome my coldness towards him. And yet he was a good little lad, and gave me almost no trouble. Through the long perspective of my advanced years I now look back upon the childhood of my son Darra- cott, and the vision of its loneliness and dreariness fills me with yearning pity and MADAM OF THE IVIES ceaseless remorse. I was oblivious of its pathos then. Thank God, the boy had his grandmother to love and make much of him. Her devotion in some measure re paired my unpardonable fault. " Finally, the old people died. I found life at The Ivies unbearable without them, and determined upon placing Darracott at school and creating a new existence for my self by a long sojourn abroad. For three years I devoted myself to foreign travel, greatly enjoying the variety and excitement of constant change and movement after the extreme quiet and monotony of my home- life. I was furnished with excellent letters of introduction, and found ample opportuni ties afforded me for the indulgence of my natural inclination for gaiety, which had long been kept under restraint. " One evening, at a ball at the British Embassy in Madrid, I met Mr. Eldredge, a man who was many years my senior, but who was a person of finest endowments and most finished culture, and who interested me extremely by his brilliant conversational 2OI MADAM OF THE IVIES abilities. I experienced a keen delight in his society. We met frequently, and saw much of each other ; and when, a few months later, he asked me to become his wife, I accepted him. I had never thought to feel again as happy as I did in my marriage with Mr. Eldredge. He was a man of slender means, and had frankly explained to me be fore asking me to marry him, that he had an income sufficient only for a bachelor s mod erate requirements. But I had ample wealth at my command. My widow s jointure was a handsome one, added to which, as guar dian of my son s minority, I had control of a very large amount of income from his estate. After a few months more of travel, Mr. Eldredge and I returned to Eldon, where, shortly after, my child was born." Her voice fell to a whisper, and the ten der stress she laid upon the words " my child" was far more indicative of the depth of her maternal affection than any amount of oft-repeated asseverations would have been. The mere change of formula and intonation suggested, unintentionally, the 202 MADAM OF THE IVIES immeasurable distance intervening between her regard for the elder and the younger son. To the first she had alluded merely as " my son, my first-born, the infant ;" to the second she gave a peculiarly tender and dis tinctive title, implying an especially near relationship " my child." " I cannot describe him to you, Dorothy," she went on presently. " I dare not trust myself to speak of his beauty, of his gentle, lovable nature, and of his sweet, winning ways. Everything that Darracott was not Gerald was. Demonstrative, ardent, and im pulsive, overflowing with animal spirits, he was a wonderful contrast to his quiet, re served elder brother. Still, even then I was not blind to the fact that of the two boys Darracott possessed the nobler quali ties. A more generous stepson never lived. Mr. Eldredge bestowed upon him in large measure the affection which his own mother withheld, and the two were closely united. Until he died my second husband was always honoured with the position of master of The Ivies, and had he been actual owner of 203 MADAM OF THE IVIES the house and estate greater respect and def erence could not have been accorded him than that Darracott insisted upon his re ceiving. " My oldest son s bosom friend and con stant companion was David Spencer, and the two lads, much akin in tastes and interests, were almost inseparable comrades. Just as Gerald was ready to enter college, his father died. Darracott at once took upon his own shoulders the burden of management of the estate, and, as my own health was rather delicate, he insisted upon procuring a housekeeper for me. " What enormous gates turn upon small hinges ! The trifling circumstance of my need of assistance opened the door to all my future trouble. Mrs. Mayberry, a widow with one child, a girl of thirteen years, applied for the position and was engaged. She was a very beautiful woman of a weak, blonde type, somewhat faded and worn in conse quence of a hard struggle with the world. Her child, having been placed at school, did not accompany her hither. Four years 204 MADAM OF THE IVIES passed, and Mayberry fulfilled her duties ad mirably. My eldest son had gone abroad for a long period of foreign travel, and David Spencer had just begun to practise his profession at Eldon, being almost as con stant a visitor at The Ivies as when my boys were at home. Gerald s last year at college was almost completed, and, as he was to join Darracott abroad immediately after his grad uation, he decided to bid me good-bye at the college commencement and not return to Eldon. " Just before I left to attend his gradua tion exercises, Mayberry asked my permission to bring her daughter Alice to The Ivies for a visit. Naturally I gave my consent, little dreaming what misery it would entail upon me. On my return, therefore, I found the girl ensconced here, and bestowed upon her a cordial welcome, not only for her mother s sake, but because I was really pleased to have a creature so young and beautiful as she about the house. " Alice Mayberry was the loveliest being I have ever beheld. You have seen her wreck ; 205 MADAM OF THE IVIES imagine, then, what she must have been in the first flush of her dangerous beauty. She charmed everyone with her wonderful fair ness and joyous gaiety, and seemed like a butterfly, as graceful, as radiant, as frivolous. I had been home but a few days when I noticed that, although both my sons were absent, David Spencer s visits here were quite as frequent as they had formerly been, and soon I observed that if Alice, of whom I made a great pet, was not with me he ap peared restless and discontented. From Mrs. Spencer I learnt that the girl was a constant guest at the cottage, and finally I thought it wise to caution Mayberry gently concerning the intimacy existing between the two young people. She affirmed that there was nothing in it, but I believe that, naturally ambitious for her daughter and anxious concerning the girl s future, she secretly encouraged matters, hoping to secure a good home and husband for Alice. Affairs stood thus when I was one day greatly astonished by receiving a cable from Darracott informing me that he was to sail at once for home, having received 206 MADAM OF THE IVIES advices relating to certain investments that disturbed him. In due time he arrived, and, as the positive date of his coming was uncer tain, he gave me a pleasant surprise. " Alice and I were singing duets together one evening in my boudoir when the door opened softly and my son stood before us. I saw at once what an impression her beauty made upon him ; and, as the days passed, his admiration for her became positive infatuation. I use the word advisedly Darracott s passion for the girl was simply infatuation ; I am convinced that never did he experience any deeper emotion towards Alice Mayberry than that. She merely cap tivated his senses and bereft him of his judgment ; although the blow which her cruelty dealt him was as severe in its imme diate effect as though she had been the ob ject of a more worthy love. " David Spencer chanced to be away from home just then, in attendance upon a wealthy patient who had taken him South in his pro fessional capacity. When I discovered how things were going with Darracott, I warned 207 MADAM OF THE IVIES him against yielding to Alice s charms, tell ing him that I believed he would only create unhappiness for himself by so doing, as I thought her already secretly plighted to David. It could scarcely be expected that my influence with him would be very strong ; nor was it of much avail. He listened to me with his usual deference, and then told me frankly that he should question Alice, and if she denied any such engagement and would accept him he should marry her at once. " I had always determined never to inter fere in my sons love affairs, believing it folly to do so ; still I did urge him to consider well his decision before carrying it out, feel ing convinced, though I was fond of Alice, that she was not the woman to satisfy a grave, intellectual man like Darracott. How ever, he was completely under her spell, and my expostulations went for naught. Finally, he came to me one day and informed me that he was to be married without delay. He had offered himself to the girl, at the same time questioning her closely as to her 208 MADAM OF THE IVIES relations with David. These she assured him were merely of a friendly character, and she accepted my son without hesitation. I was much distressed, for I felt how unwise Darracott s choice was, and I was also firmly persuaded that David looked upon Alice as in some way bound to him. I felt nervous and unhappy about the affair, and in conse quence went to Mrs. Spencer before the wedding, and asked her if she knew whether there was any understanding between Alice and her son. She was much disturbed by the suggestion, and I saw that such an idea was most unwelcome to her. The daughter of my housekeeper was not the woman she would wish to see her David marry, and she frankly told me so, affirming at the same time her belief that his interest in the girl had been merely of a volatile nature. " I returned home and summoned May- berry. To her I put a similar query. She stoutly maintained that there was nothing between the two. I was not yet convinced, however, and begged Darracott to write at once to David and inform him of his in- i 4 209 MADAM OF THE IVIES tended marriage. He was not altogether pleased at my insistence, but finally agreed to do as I desired. I know that the letter was written, but I also know that it was never received." Here Madam paused, and looked at me significantly. "You think Mayberry withheld it ?" I asked. " I believe so," she replied. " She always took charge of the mail-bag, and I think she was not above duplicity. Her whole heart was set on the marriage. In due time the wedding, very private and quiet, according to Darracott s desire, took place, here at home, and I was left alone while the honey moon was fulfilled. " No letter had come from David, and my anxiety in his behalf was still keen and alert. At that time it did not occur to me that a letter might be intercepted by a member of my own household, and I inferred from David s silence either that, as he was travel ling from place to place, the letter had not been forwarded, or else that the news it con- MADAM OF THE IVIES tained was so painful and distressing to him that he found it impossible to send his con gratulations on an event which entailed so much suffering upon himself. "One day, however, about a week after the marriage, I was sitting alone in this room, when David Spencer himself suddenly appeared. I had no idea that his immediate return was expected, and was so taken by surprise at seeing him that I forgot that the events which had intervened since his de parture might still be unknown to him. " Why, David, my dear boy ! I cried, cordially, for he was a very great favourite of mine ; when did you return *? I am delighted to see you back. " * Thank you, Mrs. Eldredge, he replied, brightly. Where s Dare ? " Still absent, I returned. " Absent ! he echoed. Why, my mother wrote me that he had arrived some time ago! - " Then I remembered all my fears and apprehensions, and began to tremble at the certainty that they were about to be fulfilled. MADAM OF THE IVIES " David, I said, very gravely, haven t you been home yet*? " He shook his head, and his face was full of perplexity and questioning. " * No ; I was impatient to see Dare and He broke off abruptly, but my sinking heart filled in the missing name. " Then, Dorothy, there fell upon me one of the saddest duties I have ever had to per form that of telling the hopeful, loyal, un suspecting fellow that he had been betrayed and cheated in his dearest anticipations. It was a fearful shock to him, poor fellow ! and the worst of it all to me was that his former affection for Darracott seemed by the revelation turned to gall. Nothing could convince him that the fault lay with the woman he loved ; it was the man who had robbed him, and whom he held responsible, not alone for the theft, but for a deliberately planned and skilfully executed purpose of alienating Alice s affection from himself. When he left the house a little later he left a message for Darracott to the effect that it was his desire that they should never MADAM OF THE IVIES meet again ; that he neither wished nor would receive explanations or excuses from him ; that in future they should be strangers to each other. And my son, proud and con fident of his wife s integrity, accepted the message without protest. And so it was that two men, who from their birth had been united by the closest ties of friendship, fell apart and became enemies. Never, from that day to this, did David Spencer again enter my son s home. " Darracott and his wife took up their abode here. I offered to move away and live elsewhere ; but he, ever kind and consid erate, would not listen to this. Mrs. May- berry continued to administer the household, though no longer receiving a salary for so doing. She was now mother of the mistress of The Ivies, and the position of affairs might have been a little embarrassing had it not been for the delicate tact which kept her almost entirely in her own apartments. " It was not long before it became ap parent that matters were not going quite smoothly with the newly married couple. 213 MADAM OF THE IVIES She was restless and pined for gaiety ; he was grave and studious and absorbed in his duties. In fact, they hadn t a taste or sym pathy in common, and the bond of their love was too weak to unite them. He was marvellously patient with her cuprices, hu mouring her whims with wonderful kind ness. I have since thought that a swift awakening to the quality of the affection he bore her caused him to exercise this divine forbearance and tolerance towards her child ish, silly whims. " Six months after Darracott s marriage my child came home to celebrate his twenty- first birthday. He had changed and devel oped into a glorious specimen of manhood. Shall I show him to you, Dorothy ?" She raised her hand to her neck, and drew from its resting-place upon her heart the large oval locket which I had been shown once before. Touching a spring, she opened it, disclosing a most charming face. The eyes were rich, dark, and lustrous, like those of Madam, only that they were brimming with fun and mischief; the features were ex- 214 MADAM OF THE IVIES quisitely chiselled, and the mouth as deli cately curved as that of a child ; the com plexion was a clear olive, glowing with health and with the swift coursing of youth ful blood ; and on the smooth brow lay a thick, close-cut crop of dark rings. No wonder that such a splendid young Apollo had been the darling of his mother s heart ! She held the portrait a moment silently be fore me that I might fully realise its beauty, then replaced it, and continued : " He was like a ray of sunlight in the house, and from the moment of his entrance within them the walls rang with mirth and laughter. He and Alice were like two chil dren ; inseparable, constant comrades, ever planning some frolic or amusement to be guile the hours. Darracott was absent much of the time, and warmly thanked Gerald for so brightening Alice s life. His trust in both was perfect and entire as mine can I say more 4 ? I would have staked my life on my child s honour. There were many hospital ities exchanged between us and our neigh bours, and everywhere Gerald and Alice were 215 MADAM OF THE IVIES favourites. But, little by little, I saw a change steal over the former ; he became irritable and unlike himself, annoyed at trifles, and especially impatient with Darra- cott, from whom he would bear nothing. Ah, I blame myself, Dorothy, that I didn t foresee what was coming and avert the crime before it was too late ! At last, a day ar rived, a terrible day, when, Heaven help me ! I woke from my careless, happy life to learn that my child, my Gerald, had committed the basest breach of honour and fidelity. He and his brother s wife had fled together ! " Now you know it, Dorothy ! Now the secret of my life is revealed to you ! Do you wonder that I seek to hide my shamed and stricken head, and that Darracott Chester became a wanderer on the face of the earth *? Do you wonder that the tidings of my child s death, coming to me only a few months after he had committed that fearful act of treachery towards one who had been a constant benefactor to him, were almost welcome news to me, or that in the illness which fell upon me my agony was so intense 216 MADAM OF THE IVIES and dreadful that blindness came to the eyes that shrank from the gaze of all men, and especially from the look of my first-born*? Do you think that, after such humiliation, I could bear ever again to look upon the world *? For, oh ! my boy my boy ! Was I not, through my wretched weakness and partiality, to blame for the fostering of that root of deadly self-indulgence which, spring ing into vigorous life, choked all the better impulses of your nature, and allowed vicious tendencies to nest and breed in its branches ! Oh, Gerald ! my child my child !" She was greatly moved. The strong structure which had withstood such awful storms of adversity, now, undermined by the constant fretting of harrowing reflections, was shaken to its foundations by the breath of memory. I took both her hands in mine, and laid my cheek caressingly upon them. How much more dreadful was the truth than my wildest surmises had con ceived it ! How terrible was the work of this girl who was now sheltered beneath the roof she had so disgraced ! The ruin of six 217 MADAM OF THE IVIES lives wrought by mere foolish, unchecked vanity ! " Madam," I cried, involuntarily, " dear Madam, how could you have her back"? It was too noble too forgiving ! Surely she had no claim on you !" " No, no claim, Dorothy ; but oh, my dear, you cannot dream how I yearn for my child ! There is no depth into which I would not sink, no height I would not scale, to see my Gerald once again. Yet he was base. Yes, I can bear to say it, great though my love is. He, who had received nothing but kindness and benefits from his brother ; he, whose father had, by Darracott s gen erosity, been invested with the dignity and honours of the first gentleman of the county ; he, living beneath his brother s roof and at his expense, had yet betrayed that brother s trust ! Could anything be more vile % And yet and yet, I, his mother, intense as is my abhorrence of his deed, would not see him punished for it. My love, selfish and unjust in its partiality, would yet spare him retribu tion. And so, as I would not that even the 218 MADAM OF THE IVIES shadow of my anger should touch him, I cannot repulse the woman whom he has loved. I will not speak to her ; she has ruined the lives of both my boys ; but yet, in a manner, she is sacred to me." She paused. The tears were running down my cheeks, and though she could not see them she felt them moistening the beautiful hands against which I had tenderly pressed my face. " Dear little girl !" she murmured, disen gaging one hand and stroking my hair caressingly. " Yours is the first overt mani festation of sympathy I have ever received, Dorothy, and it is welcome to me beyond expression." For a few moments we remained thus, silent, but linked closely together through the bond of common emotion. Presently she started and drew herself suddenly aloof from me, as if ridding herself of a temp tation. " Oh, how selfish I am !" she cried. " How wrapped in my own egotism still, notwithstanding the lesson I have received ! 219 MADAM OF THE IVIES It is of myself and my own sorrows and griefs I have been prating this half-hour. It is for my own miserable and justly inflicted sufferings that I have been seeking to arouse your compassion and pity. It is my own self-abnegation I have permitted you to laud as the means of bringing back that wretched girl to the home of which she was so incon siderate and careless a mistress ! And yet what am I, what are my anguish and woe, what are my wrongs and wretchedness, what my clemency and mercy, compared with my son Darracott, his heroic endurance and noble forbearance ! Oh ! little Dorothy, you thought me fulsome in my praise of him that day when I told you he was modelled on heroic lines ! I knew you did, and I also divined the disappointment you experi enced upon seeing him for the first time. It is true that in appearance he may fall short of a girlish ideal ; but live with him, watch his daily life, penetrate beneath the outer crust of reserve and apparent indiffer ence under which extreme sensitiveness seeks to shelter itself, and you will discover a char- MADAM OF THE IVIES acter that cannot fail to arouse the enthusiasm of your earnest nature ; and, once compre hending the wonderful depths, the splendid magnanimity, the glorious unselfishness of that character, you ll no longer wonder that, of all the men I have ever known, I hold in highest esteem and profoundest veneration him whose love I would sacrifice my own life to gain, now that to gain it is too late my noble and dearly beloved son, Darra- cott." She was very greatly moved, and I feared the effect upon her of such serious emotion. Therefore I determined to withdraw, and so allow her to recover her self-control. In most earnest phrases I thanked her for a confidence which had cost her so much, and raised her hand to kiss it, but she fore stalled my intention by drawing me down and pressing me closely, affectionately, to her heart, kissing me several times upon lips and cheek and brow. Then, releasing me, she motioned me to leave her, and, averting her face, covered it piteously with her slender white hands. 221 CHAPTER XL A LICE MAYBERRY lingered on for weeks. We never saw her, for she remained wholly in her mother s charge, confined to the rooms which had been assigned her. Everything which the ten- derest solicitude and love could have devised for her comfort and welfare were procured for her by her husband s orders. At that time, observing how considerate of her well- being he was, and how constantly he en deavoured to render her affliction less intol erable, I often speculated as to how much love for her might linger in the depths of a nature which was no open book to me, even after I had been subjected to a long and in timate companionship with it. Perhaps, I thought, Madam s conclusions had been mistaken after all, and the passion with which Alice Mayberry had inspired him had gone deeper than she believed, and its roots MADAM OF THE IVIES still clung to their places and were throwing out fresh shoots of tender regard. Later, I learnt how fallacious were my suspicions, and discovered beyond perad- venture that nothing instigated Darracott s magnanimous conduct towards his erring wife but a divine charity that held sacred and unaccountable a creature so punished by a Higher Dispensation. But at that time I had no such cause for reassurance, and spent many wretched hours dwelling upon a fear that was intolerable to me. These hours were not occupied by specu lation and reflection alone, however. May- berry utterly refused to share the care of her daughter with a nurse, and therefore her duties as housekeeper were sadly neglected. Madam talked of procuring a substitute, but I saw that the idea of another stranger in the house, under existing circumstances, was most unwelcome to her. Therefore I pro posed that I should myself undertake the position temporarily, and my proposition, after some demurring on the grounds of ex cessive employment, was gratefully accepted 223 MADAM OF THE IVIES by Madam. The demands of a double calling gave me little leisure for my own affairs, and I was grateful for occupation which took me out of myself and allowed me almost no time for retrospection. After that one scene in the morning-room there were no tender passages between Dar- racott and myself. He was careful to pre serve a distant courtesy in his manner to wards me, and I held myself as aloof from contact with him as possible. I had discov ered that association with him boded danger to my peace of mind, and the instinct of self-preservation led me to avoid him. On rare occasions he would join Madam and me in her boudoir for a cup of tea, and I was always hopeful, at such times, of a nearer rapprochement between mother and son. But, alas ! my hopes never fulfilled themselves. While he never again for an instant lost sight of the filial respect due a mother from her son, and ever manifested the most considerate thoughtfulness in his conduct towards her, there never transpired any abridgment of the unnatural distance 224 MADAM OF THE IVIES which separated them, such as I was con stantly on the alert for. As time went on I began to suspect that the presence in her home of this son whose love she was pow erless to win was a sorer trial to her than his absence had been, and I lamented in vain over the sad situation ; for I began to dis cover that my beloved lady was by degrees losing something of her strength and vitality, and I feared greatly lest she should fade into weakness before we, her constant associates, should fully realise her condition. I mentioned my fears to Dr. Spencer, who had resumed a partial intimacy at The Ivies ; but he seemed to think little of indications which had aroused my apprehensions. Ina bility to continue her customary exercise, shortness of breath, and a frequent and in voluntary placing of the hand over the region of the heart, appeared to him but the natural result of the recent severe strain upon her emotions. I was uneasy, nevertheless, and continued to watch her closely. One afternoon, late in May, the season being unusually advanced, 15 225 MADAM OF THE IVIES we were sitting, Madam, Dr. Spencer, and I, in the far end of the entrance hall, grouped about the French window of stained glass, one-half of which stood open to admit what faint breeze might be stirring. It wanted but a few minutes of the dinner-hour, and Darracott had not yet put in an appearance. We were most cosily established, and were engaged in a familiar, desultory discussion of village affairs when, suddenly, a light step came bounding across the turf outside, and in another moment a wonderfully beautiful vision filled the space left open to the even ing air. That side of the window which had been set ajar was the one on which was painted the form of the repentant Magdalene, and through the closed half streamed the rays of the setting sun, illumining with glory the majesty of the Divine Judge, and irradiating the gentle clemency of His features as He stood with upraised Hand, apparently pro nouncing pardon and invoking peace to rest upon the head of the weeping sinner who had thrust herself into the place of the peni- 226 MADAM OF THE IVIES tent Mary. For a moment, so exquisite was the picture that I forgot what menace it boded to my lady s tranquillity, and con tinued to gaze upon it in rapt ecstasy. Alice Chester, witless and distraught as she was, was at that moment the loveliest woman it is possible to imagine. She wore a loose gown of white, fashioned as simply and with as little regard to style and design as a night-robe. It fell about her in loose folds, and was confined at the waist by a cord and tassels. Her shining hair had been carefully plaited into a long, thick braid, which was left hanging far below her waist, but her restless motions and constant movement had ruffled all the loose tendrils and short locks, so that they formed a glistening aureola about her brow. She had apparently been cutting roses, for she had thrust a bunch of them into her girdle and carried another cluster in one hand ; from the fingers of the other dangled a pair of scissors, with which she had probably pro cured her floral booty. The excitement of her escape and recovered freedom had 227 MADAM OF THE IVIES brought a brilliant light into her blue eyes and painted a lovely flush upon her delicate skin. Oh, who, beholding her thus, the very incarnation of gentleness and girlish beauty, as sweet and innocent to the eye as one of the roses she held, could have suspected how dangerous a creature she was shortly to be come by reason of that awful taint which lay, like a worm in the calyx of a flower, beneath the surface of her apparent perfec tion *? Not I not I ; nor, in that preoc cupied moment, did David Spencer, either, bethink himself of it. We were both so absolutely spell-bound by the rare loveliness of the apparition, of which dear Madam in her blindness was wholly unconscious, that we had no thought to spare for considerations of far greater moment. So gentle had been the footfall of the wasted and sadly attenuated form which had settled like a bit of thistledown in our very midst, almost before we had had premonition of its coming, that it had made no impression even upon Madam s uncom- 228 MADAM OF THE IVIES monly alert hearing. And we might so easily have averted the catastrophe that fol lowed, but for the weak yielding to our charmed sensibilities ! An instant later, how bitterly and unavailingly did we both repent our fatal hesitancy ; for in that instant the girl bounded forward and threw herself at Madam s side. " Ah ah ! Here you are, dear Madam !" she cried, exultingly, in a soft little minor key, quite like the sighing of the breeze amid tense wires. " Here you are at last ! I ve looked so long for you. But I can t find Gerald anywhere ! Where is he ?" The unexpectedness of the encounter, added to the painful memories aroused by the girl s speech and tone, forced a sharp cry from my dear lady s usually guarded lips. She clutched Dr. Spencer s arm ner vously, meanwhile drawing shrinkingly away from the crouching bit of beautiful, mindless matter at her feet. " David, David !" she cried, in sharp, quavering accents ; " who is that ?" And her stately form shook with a weak submission 229 MADAM OF THE IVIES to mighty forces of emotion which wrung my very soul ; I had so long regarded her as a strong tower of endurance, built stanchly upon a bed of rock. The witless girl heard the question, and burst into a strange, but not unmusical laugh. " Why, Madam !" she exclaimed, before we could interpose to divert her and coax her away ; " indeed, that s an odd question now ! Who am I, do you ask *? I ll tell you who I am. I m Alice Mayberry, daughter of the housekeeper at The Ivies." She smiled and nodded gaily, as if pleased with her own intelligence ; then suddenly checked herself, as if another recollection had given the lie to her assertion. " No no !" she said, emphatically ; " I am wrong. Don t you remember, Alice, that girl married Dar- racott Chester 1 ? That s who I am Mrs. Darracott Chester, a lady of rank and position ; my mother said I would be. A good match for Who are you, and what right have you to interrupt Mrs. Dar racott Chester*?" She turned upon me quite 230 MADAM OF THE IVIES fiercely, with an assumption of dignity that would have been absurd had it not been so unutterably sad. I was trying to interrupt the flow of her reminiscent eloquence ; but, fearing to rouse that latent rebellion and ugliness which ever underlies imbecility, I was obliged to desist, and she rambled on. " Perhaps you did not know I was Mrs. Darracott ?" she suggested, somewhat more gently. "Well, you re right, you know; I m not, any more. I m Mrs. Gerald, I think I think I am am I not, Madam *?" She paused, to await a reply that did not come. Madam had buried her face in her hands, and was shaking like a strong oak in the grasp of a tempest. The girl regarded her a moment in evident curiosity ; then her mean ingless laugh again rang out. " Do you want to play peek-a-boo *?" she asked, as one would speak to a little child. " Well, in a minute. First I must find out who I am, you know. Alice Mayberry Mrs. Darracott Mrs. Gerald ! Oh ! which 231 MADAM OF THE IVIES is it *? can t you tell, any of you *? Well, there s one person knows the girl s mother. She says I m a lost soul." She smiled, as if pleased with the title. " A lost soul. Don t you think that s a good name for me*?" glancing around at us, " a lost soul !" There was such terrible pathos in the poor creature s smiling appropriation of that phrase of dire import, and her apparent uncon sciousness and disregard of the immeasurable wrong she had done the woman she ad dressed was so indicative of her deranged mentality, that David Spencer, strong man and injured lover though he was, was obliged to turn aside to conceal his emotion, while I felt my own tears rolling heavily down my cheeks. Suddenly Madam rose to her feet, and so abrupt and violent was the movement that it cast prostrate upon the ground the fragile form that had sought to lean upon her lap. Alice gave a surprised little cry, and remained as she had fallen, gazing up at the agitated face of the woman she had so bitterly injured with eyes wide-stretched and wondering. 232 MADAM OF THE IVIES " Oh, this is intolerable, beyond endur ance !" Madam cried out. " Will no one take her away?" I had never before realised how terribly sad is the supplication of suddenly conquered strength. Madam s despairing plea would have nerved me to greater tasks than this, and while Dr. Spencer, bound helpless and impotent by the same chain of memories that was strangling Madam s soul, stood pale and irresolute beside the chair from which he had risen upon Alice s advent, I raised the poor girl from the floor and searched my mind for a means of relieving Madam of her presence. My eyes fell upon the flowers at her waist, and suggested the excuse I wanted. " Have you seen the roses down in the garden behind the house?" I asked, tenta tively. She turned her lovely eyes, with their gentle vacancy of expression, upon me. " I don t seem to remember you," she said, shaking her head. " Are you, perhaps, Dar- racott s other wife *? Gerald said that some 233 MADAM OF THE IVIES other woman would suit him better than the girl he first married. Did you know her*? She was a beauty, they said ; but ah ! vain, I fear, and I cannot think just what I would call her. Wait a moment !" She looked bewildered, and as the smile died from her features a terrible blankness settled down upon them. Raising her finger to her fore head, she tapped with it lightly, as if to re call her errant memory. Suddenly the merry smile broke forth again. " I have it !" she cried, with a ringing laugh. " It was weak that I wanted to say. She was weak yes, weak weak weak ! Look !" She de tached one of the petals from a rose, and raising it to a level with her face, blew a soft breath and sent the tiny pink thing toss ing off into space. " There she goes ; pretty, isn t she"? I wish I could find Gerald I want him so ! Where is he, dear Madam *?" A sudden sharp cry from Madam startled us all. " My God ! my God ! I know not !" Throwing her hands upward, as if in sup plication, the poor tortured mother tottered 234 MADAM OF THE IVIES and sank into a chair that I had placed for her. A terrified look crept over Alice s face, and she ran to David, to whom she clung as if for protection, the while whimpering like a frightened baby. Evidently her touch aroused a strong feel ing of repulsion in the man who once had loved her, for he made an effort to thrust her off; but she clung the tighter and refused to let go her clutch upon him. I saw that he was of little avail, stirred and constrained by bitter memories as he was, and distractedly sought again a pretext for ridding Madam of this most unwelcome intruder. Deter mined to make one more effort to entice her away, and throwing all the persuasiveness I could muster into my voice, " Alice," I begged, " do come with me, like a good girl. Don t you see that you are distressing Gerald s mother ?" My words produced an effect quite dif ferent from what I had anticipated. In stantly her whimpering ceased ; she with drew herself from Dr. Spencer ; a terrible pallor overspread her face, and she gripped 235 MADAM OF THE IVIES her gown where it lay loose above her heart. Then, with a look almost of intelligence in those heretofore wandering eyes, she made a quick, graceful movement and, before we could intercept her, threw herself again be fore Madam, crying, with apparent sanity, and awful woe and anguish in her tremulous tones, " It is it is ! Gerald Gerald ! I told you I would go back to her ! Here !" She fumbled at her dress, which, being unable in her agitation to unfasten, she rent asunder, taking from within it a small packet. " I promised him to give it to his mother !" She thrust a little packet into Madam s fingers, and I sprang forward, determined to put an end to this harrowing scene, even if I must needs use force to do so. I stooped and threw my arms about the slender figure. " Come, come, Alice !" I urged. " I have something to show you. Come." I felt her form yielding to my touch, and she turned her head and looked up at me with submissive eyes that promised success to my intention. But alas ! in turning thus 236 MADAM OF THE IVIES to look into my face as I stood behind her she discovered what I, with my back to the window, remained ignorant of that Darra- cott Chester had entered the room and was standing a few paces away, silently regarding the scene with lowering brow. Her fragile form drew itself vigorously together. Its lax muscles grew tense ; a sudden determination seemed to endow the enfeebled organization with new strength. A cry loud, fierce, terrible burst from her lips, and before I could even suspect that an impulse had taken possession of her she had gathered her waning powers up for one su preme effort, and breaking from my hold had rushed towards the man behind me, with the scissors, diverted from their late gentle service to become the weapon of a fiercer purpose, glittering dangerously and treacherously, half hidden within her hand. No one suspected the actual menace of the assault save I, who alone saw the imple ment, and one other. How Madam in her blindness discovered the meaning of that wild cry, or what intuition guided her to 237 MADAM OF THE IVIES avert the tragic consequences it boded, I know not. Before I could warn Darracott by word or deed, however ; before David Spencer, with full possession of his senses, could realise what the distracted creature s sudden movement portended, Madam had divined all. There was a swift rush forward, and a quick crashing together of two women s forms ; two cries in unison rang out ; one- faint, spent, exhausted, the tired, fretful cry of an exasperated child ; the other a sound that I could never have believed it possible for my dear lady s gentle lips to utter a sound that was half-snarl, half-shout, veno mous, savage, menacing, filled with all the concentrated and long-suppressed hatred and animosity of the outraged mother, who had mistakenly thought she had learnt long since the lesson of patient endurance and full for giveness. Who knows what awful dregs of resentment remain, undreamt of, in breasts that believe they have successfully applied the great lesson of divine charity ? The old Adam is oftener hidden beneath an accumu- 238 MADAM OF THE IVIES lation of acquired Christian sentiment than routed in toto from our spirits. When we reached the two women (they had fallen to the ground, locked in each other s embrace) our first thought was that intense emotion had robbed them of con sciousness, and that they were both merely insensible. But it did not require the pro fessional mandate of the physician to apprise us of the sterner fate that had overtaken poor Alice. One glance at the beautiful face that lay upon Madam s bosom, where it had chanced to fall, was enough to assure us that the sudden fierce gust of passion which had swept over the flickering spirit of the unfortunate girl had sufficed to extinguish the feeble flame which had of late so fitfully performed its office. " The peace of God which passeth understanding" already gave repose to the recently distraught features. We separated her gently from Madam, across whose form she lay, and as we did so Darracott made a discovery that forced a terrified exclamation from his set lips. "My God! What is this T 239 MADAM OF THE IVIES He pointed to an ominous stain that ran along the white gown where the girl s side had pressed against his mother s. " She has fallen upon the scissors !" I cried, forgetting that the men had no know ledge of the dangerous instrument that had been hidden in the girl s hand. " Scissors !" they both ejaculated. " Yes !" I explained, hurriedly, while Dr. Spencer searched the slender body to find the whereabouts of the wound. " She meant to strike you with them, I think, Mr. Chester. Oh ! poor child poor child !" Then my thoughts fled from her to one of far greater consequence, and I turned to Madam, who still lay in that awful trance of unconsciousness which bears so horrible a likeness to death, white and still, but an imposing figure even in her prostration. I raised her head tenderly and placed it on my knee. Then I gathered her hands into mine, and was about to chafe them between my palms, when, in raising the right arm, which had been stretched along her side, I beheld a fearful sight. 240 MADAM OF THE IVIES " Oh ! here here !" I cried. The two men had lifted poor Alice and were placing her decently upon a lounge. They hastened towards me as I called out, and I pointed to my dear lady. The side against which her arm had lain was soaked with blood, and from it protruded the handles of the scissors, which but a few minutes since had been cutting roses from their stalks ! " Oh ! my God !" exclaimed Dr. Spencer ; but Darracott said nothing. I glanced up at him. His face was like that of the dead, or like that of the living who lay senseless upon my knee. Dr. Spencer tenderly examined the wound, as well as he could without removing the sharp blades. " They have gone deep, I fear," he said, finally. " However, though the wound must be an ugly one, it need not necessarily prove dangerous. We must get her to the morn ing-room, Dare ; can we do it together, do you think?" Darracott nodded. I know now what he suffered in those moments ; I suspected it 16 241 MADAM OF THE IVIES even then. That passionate love for his mother which he had thought chilled and benumbed by coldness and neglect had flamed hotly into life at sight of her thus laid low. " I will ring for May berry," I said, with a glance in the direction of the lounge. But at this suggestion Darracott broke his silence. " Wait !" he commanded, peremptorily, with scant regard as to whom he was ad dressing. "No more of that brood until she is removed." With reverent hands and tenderest care they raised Madam, and bore her to the morning-room. A temporary bed upon a wide and ample lounge was quickly impro vised by Franklin (who had appeared to an nounce dinner just as we were in the act of lifting Madam) and myself, and upon this we placed her. " Can you assist me, or will it be too much of an ordeal for you *?" the doctor asked. " I can send for my mother." I scorned the proposition, although Dar racott was disposed to favour it. 242 MADAM OF THE IVIES "No one shall do for Madam but I," I insisted. " If your mother will come to be of comfort to poor Mayberry, I shall be re lieved. After all, horrible as this is, she is a mother who has lost a daughter, and under fearful circumstances. She is greatly to be pitied." " My mother will come," he returned, briefly. " Will you go and send a mes senger for her, and then come back here at once, please 1 ? I shall need you immedi ately." 243 CHAPTER XII. TT is just ten years ago to-night since the occurrence of the tragic event with which my last chapter closed. I am writing these final words in that very morning-room which became hallowed to my husband and myself by the patiently endured suffering and convalescence of our dear mother. For Madam recovered from her injury, to our infinite joy, and as that period of illness served to knit closely together the hearts of parent and child, I think my dear lady grew almost to consider poor Alice a bene factor, rather than a false and treacherous enemy. But a sad interval of dreary days and wakeful nights intervened before our anxious hearts dared hope that our watching was to be rewarded according to our desires. That interval brought Darracott and me into close 244 MADAM OF THE IVIES communion, and I learnt to know and appre ciate those traits of character in him which Madam had so highly commended. Alice Mayberry, or Alice Chester, as I should properly call her (though it has never been easy for me to think of a woman so entirely his inferior as Darracott s wife), was buried with great privacy. By her grave stood but three persons besides the customary officials, Mrs. Spencer good, kindly soul, who lost sight of all resentment in her abun dant pity and sympathy Darracott, and David Spencer. I was obliged to remain in attendance upon Madam, whose precarious situation did not admit of my leaving her in other hands ; Mrs. Mayberry had mysteri ously disappeared from The Ivies upon the very night of her daughter s death. If, in his terribly apprehensive frame of mind, Darracott was capable of experiencing any feeling of gratification, I think that the relief afforded by the assurance that he would not be obliged again to encounter the house keeper was the source of such emotion. Whither Mrs. Mayberry went, or in what 245 MADAM OF THE IVIES fashion, what her fate has been, or where she now is, we have never learnt. I alone, I think, of all who dwelt within The Ivies, felt real sympathy and sorrow for the poor creature. Her moral weakness was like a physical deformity in my eyes, and I could not but feel it an extenuating circum stance in her wretched system of double- dealing and pitiful treachery towards a mis tress whom she adored even while she cheated and betrayed her. Therefore it was that I begged to be allowed to inform her of the double tragedy which had taken place within our beautiful old hall, instead of letting her hear of it through the medium of servants who felt for her only an intolerable aversion. It was a sad, a miserably distasteful mission I undertook to perform worse even in ful filment than in anticipation, and that is say ing much. I sought Mrs. Mayberry first in her own room, and then in Alice s apart ment, but she had discovered her daughter s absence and was herself engaged in a search. I was hurrying down the stairs, impatient at the delay, for Dr. Spencer was awaiting my 246 MADAM OF THE IVIES assistance and I was eager to return to the morning-room, when I met Franklin, who seemed to have aged ten years since morning. " Do you know where Mrs. Mayberry is ?" I asked, in a hushed voice, for the presence of Death brooded over the place. The old man s face took on a look of sav age hatred. He made a gesture in the di rection of the terrace. " Roaming about outside," he replied, suc cinctly. " She s crazy-like herself." A certain satisfaction in his expression suggested to me a wretched foreboding. " Oh, Franklin !" I cried ; " you have not told her?" He nodded grimly. " Indeed I have," he returned, drily. " Few pleasures come in my way, nowadays." He chuckled vindictively. I cast one look upon him filled with withering contempt and scorn, and hastened on. He had not overshot the mark in describ ing Mayberry s condition as " crazy-like." She scarcely recognised me as I came up with her, and I had actually to lay hands on 247 MADAM OF THE IVIES her in order to gain her attention. She was almost running up and down the broad gravel sweep, wringing her hands, tossing her head, muttering and crying to herself, calling out fierce, denunciatory epithets and broken sen tences ; appealing now to the forgiveness of God for the result of her own misdeeds, which she wholly attributed to others, and, again, reviling the memory of the poor mis guided girl whose spirit had gone forth to meet its Judge. When I succeeded in arresting her steps, I actually shrank from the wretched spectacle she presented. It was difficult to show ten der regard for so wild an object. But I did my best. " Mrs. Mayberry," I began, gently, " you know Alice is dead?" Her eyes roamed restlessly about, but she nodded. " Yes," she said. " A good thing ! She has cheated the hangman." I shuddered and drew away. What nature had the woman *? Yet I had pity for the ter rible retribution that had overtaken her. 248 MADAM OF THE IVIES " Hush !" I said. " How can you speak thus of your own child*?" " She would have killed Madam," she re turned, sullenly. " It is not so," I answered, glad to be able to say something in the dead girl s favor. " She had no thought of harming Madam." For the first time the wander ing gaze fixed itself steadily on mine. A dawning hope enkindled the working fea tures. " What ? what *?" she stammered, un certainly, as if she had not heard aright. " It was not Madam whom she attacked," I replied, quietly, " but her son." The woman s face became positively radiant. " Oh !" she burst forth, wildly ; " is this true 1 ? Say is it? is it?" I related the details of the scene to her, and gained such reward as I might have ex pected from one of her small and despicable calibre. Her face glowed with satisfaction, and she cast a sly, insinuating look upon me as I concluded. 249 MADAM OF THE IVIES " Ah ! she had method in her madness, after all, my poor Alice !" she croaked, in those tones which, always horrible to me, were doubly so now by reason of the sinister exultation they manifested. " I can forgive her if she did not aim at Madam. It is ex cusable for a jealous wife to attack her husband when she sees him paying court elsewhere." There was no mistaking the meaning of her glance or the point of her remark. Both were tipped with venom and plainly directed at me. My sympathy congealed into cold contempt. I withdrew the reassuring hand I had placed on her shoulder. " You are a malignant and worthless woman !" I said, with freezing dignity, turn ing to leave her. " You are beneath the consideration of even the most kindly dis posed. I came here to comfort you as well as I might, but you have turned my regard for your trouble into disgust for your char acter. I will leave you. Your daughter still lies in the hall. If you have any natural humanity in you, I would advise your pay- 250 MADAM OF THE IVIES ing some attention to her removal ; else it may fall to the lot of unfriendly servants to look after it." With this I left her and re-entered the house. I never have seen her since. It was a great comfort to me, and to Darracott also, to avail ourselves of good Mrs. Spencer s offer to become a temporary resident at The Ivies. My position, with Madam confined to her room through ill ness, and with possible conjecture and sus picions rife among the servants, such as I should never have dreamt of but for Mrs. Mayberry s malicious speech, was somewhat awkward and uncomfortable. I felt greatly relieved to have another and an older woman at the head of the household as matron of the establishment. I had abstracted from Madam s fingers the little packet which Alice had given her, and held it for its owner s re ception when she should be sufficiently re covered to bear the emotion which I knew the sight of it must arouse. It was evidently a letter from her son, folded into small com pass and tied about with narrow black ribbon 251 MADAM OF THE IVIES a legacy which should have been long ago delivered into her possession. Notwithstanding the very great anxiety by which I was oppressed during my dear lady s illness, I think that period was by far the happiest of my life. In the first place, there is no privilege so dear to a true woman as that of ministering to others, of feeling herself of vital consequence to the welfare of someone dear to her. Then, I was an object of the most watchful care of two men, one of whom was dear to me as a kind and devoted friend, while for the other I was daily growing more and more conscious of a deep and increasing love. Oh ! those long, delicious hours spent with Darracott by the bedside of one whom we both adored ! And the delightful strolls up and down the terrace when, our patient sleep ing, Mrs. Spencer insisted upon assuming our post that we might gain the much-needed refreshment of the outer air ! No chapter in the man s life was left un- revealed to me during that interval. Freely, but with no egotism, he made me acquainted 252 MADAM OF THE IVIES with all his past, until I came to know him as intimately as I believe every woman should know the man she marries. There were some pages not quite so admirable as others ; some places which showed evil influences at work in the noble mind ; some scenes where passion and revolt against an untoward fate threat ened to circumvent the firmness and up rightness of a fine and honourable soul ; but these only endeared my hero more warmly to me. I loved him, not for his virtues alone, but for his weaknesses also. He spoke to me freely of the passionate sufferings of his boyhood, when, for no fault of his own, he had been deprived of the one blessing which seemed to him of all others most to be desired. The loss of his mother s love was an injury to which he had never become reconciled. " It was not merely the fact that she had no affection to bestow upon me that wounded and tortured me," he said, " but the additional circumstance of witnessing her lavish de- monstrativeness towards Gerald. And when that day arrived upon which her darling and 253 MADAM OF THE IVIES idol committed against me, beneath my very roof, the vilest act of treachery which one man can commit against another, even then it was for him and his sin that her heart bled, although her sense of justice inclined her to espouse my injuries." " But she loves you now she does, she does," was my constantly reiterated rejoinder ; at which he would smile incredulously and shake his head. One day, to this oft-repeated response of mine he returned a reply that aroused fresh suspicions of Mrs. Mayberry in my mind. " If she loved me, really loved me with genuine and not perfunctory affection," he said, " would she have constantly besought me in her letters not to return, to remain away from my home, to absent myself from her society until she should be better able to bear the companionship of one so closely associated with her grief and loss*?" Then it was that a light dawned upon me. " Did you know that Mrs. Mayberry wrote those letters ?" I asked. " Might it not be that she expressed in them sentiments 254 MADAM OF THE IVIES of her own, which were entire strangers to her mistress s breast 1 ?" He looked surprised. " Mayberry !" he exclaimed. " Oh, no ; they were in my mother s handwriting." " Or in an excellent imitation of it," I re turned ; and then for the first time I made him aware of the fact that Madam had em ployed her housekeeper as amanuensis, that she might keep from him the knowledge of her affliction. From the look that came into his face as I threw this strong doubt upon that con clusion which he had formed concerning his mother s wish to keep him at a distance, I imagined that this last act of treachery of Mayberry s as I could not but believe it, and as I afterwards proved it to be had been the thorn that rankled sorest in that sadly misprized filial affection of his. He seemed much brighter, in far gayer spirits, after my suggestion had taken effect. A few days after this, late one afternoon, I was sitting by Madam s bedside. Darracott was also in the room, but at a distance, sit- 255 MADAM OF THE IVIES ting by a window reading. Madam had re covered consciousness and was aware of her condition and surroundings, but Dr. Spencer had forbidden conversation or exertion of any sort, for she was still very weak from loss of blood. She lay with her eyes wide open, gazing steadfastly before her, but see ing nothing. Presently she spoke : " Who is with me*? you, little Dorothy *?" " Yes, dear Madam." A brief silence. Then, " No harm came to him to my child, Dorothy*?" I quivered at the appellation which had been hitherto reserved exclusively for another, and I could hear a deep breath drawn over there by the window. " No harm, dear Madam," I said. " Thank God ! O my God, I do thank Thee !" There was another pause ; and then I was possessed by an impulse to do something which would have disqualified me for ever as a nurse in Dr. Spencer s sight. I rose, and approaching her closely, knelt down and took her hand in mine. Then to her I put a 256 MADAM OF THE IVIES question that brought about results which were a better panacea for her ills than were all the doctor s medicaments. "And if he had been injured, dear Madam," I suggested, " what then ? It is only Darra- cott, you know not Gerald." Surely I was a bold and venturesome maiden. My dear lady threw my hand from her with some violence. " Only Darracott ! Only Darracott !" she exclaimed. " Only the son who has never from the moment of his birth given me one moment s anxiety ! Only the son who, child and man, has studied and considered my com fort and wishes in every respect ! Only my first-born, whose love and devotion I never prized until they began to slip away from my careless possession ! Only Darracott, the child and darling of my old age, for whose happiness and well-being I would gladly lay down my life ! Oh, Dorothy, how little you imagine when you say only Darracott that it is in very truth only Darracott who now fills every nook and corner of my heart !" The desperate longing and regret in her i 7 257 MADAM OF THE IVIES voice would have touched the most callous breast. I heard a movement behind me, and knew that Darracott had risen impulsively at her words. Turning, I raised my hand to stay his advance, for I divined what effect her words had produced upon him, but felt that not yet was the time fully ripe for a reconciliation. The genuineness of her love for him must be proved beyond the possi bility of a doubt, so that, in the future, re action from his present mood might not be permitted to breed suspicion in his mind. I rose from my kneeling posture and stood be side the bed, still holding Madam s white and shrunken hand within my own. " Dear Madam," I said, a little tremulously, for this was indeed a great, perhaps an un warrantable, responsibility I was taking upon myself, " do you remember a little packet that Alice gave you that sad afternoon 4 ?" She nodded her head in assent. " You remember that she said it was from your son Gerald*?" Another assenting motion. " It is, I think, a letter. What if it bids 258 MADAM OF THE IVIES you desert the son who remains to you, and adopt in his place, as daughter, the afflicted girl whom your dead son loved?" Madam had no knowledge of Alice s death, and this was indeed a crucial test I was subjecting her recently vaunted love to, a choice between the " child and darling of her old age" and the dying request of the idol of a lifetime. But not an instant did she hesitate in her answer. She withdrew her hand from my grasp, and, clasping it in its fellow, raised both as if in supplication, while a bright and beautiful light dawned upon her pallid countenance, giving it a heavenly radiance of expression. " Oh, if indeed God would afford me such an opportunity for atonement !" she cried, softly. " Oh, to be allowed a chance for even so slight a compensation !" " Then you would still cleave to Dar- racott? She hesitated a moment before replying. Then, in a slow and solemn tone, in linger ing, measured accents, she said, " If there could be choice given me to- 259 MADAM OF THE IVIES. day, not between my son Darracott and the woman who blighted his life, but between him and the brother who assisted in that ruin, I would choose not the son whom I idolised until he became a villain, but my beloved child whom I neglected until I dis covered that my heart was breaking for want of the love I had so long disregarded." The man behind me was striding impetu ously forward. I hurriedly asked another question before his presence should thrust mine aside. " And this tardy justice is not simply the result of awakened conscience, Madam*?" My utterance was almost breathless in its haste. My dear lady gave a sharp, quick cry, that was almost a sob. " Oh, no ! Oh, no no !" she returned. " The result of awakened love, Dorothy ! Father in Heaven, restore to me the heart of my boy !" I turned then, and sped from the room. 1 had no longer a right there. In the hall I met Dr. Spencer, and to him I made full confession of my guilt. I was obliged to 260 MADAM OF THE IVIES acknowledge it, for the tears were streaming down my face, and he was inquisitive con cerning their cause. He looked grave and shook his head, but I remained obstinate in. approval of my conduct. " Even if she should die from the effects of what you call my imprudence," I retorted, " the brief joy of reunion with her son is worth twenty years of continued estrange ment and suffering." But she did not die. From that hour she mended, having a cause to induce her recovery, and Dr. Spencer has always generously acknowledged that I was the physician to restore her to health. That evening Darracott and I took our stroll on the terrace after dinner. He seemed much preoccupied, and was but a dull com panion. Finally he said, " We have been doing my brother Gerald an injustice all this time." I glanced up at him inquiringly. His face looked tired and white, but it wore an expression of peace which was new to it. " I opened his letter this afternoon and 261 MADAM OF THE IVIES read it to my mother, by her wish. It seems that he and the woman, did not leave here together, as we had always supposed. He fled in order to preserve his honour, being aware of the temptations her society exposed him to ; and she followed him without his knowledge, discovered his asylum, and in sisted upon sharing it. I am glad that I can think more leniently of him, and I am also thankful that my mother s memories of him will be less painful." No one could doubt the sincerity of his words. To his noble nature it was, I knew, a matter of profound thanksgiving that the brother who had been so deeply indebted to him had been proved less unworthy his benefactions. My heart grew warm within me at this new evidence of his magnanimity. Truly, he was a worthy son even of Madam as I had first conceived her flawless, im peccable, above suspicion or reproach. Again silence fell between us. We were both busy with our own thoughts. Sud denly he put a question to me so abruptly that it almost rendered me speechless. 262 MADAM OF THE IVIES " How do you feel about widowers, Doro thy V" he asked. My heart gave a quick leap, and then I controlled its impetuosity and answered flip pantly with a counter-question. " Genus or individuals *?" " Oh, genus !" he replied, with a quizzical look in his grey eyes. " I don t fancy them," I returned, as coolly as he. "Why not? " They are apt to dwell too wearisomely upon the virtues of the departed." " But if the departed were without vir tue?" " It is a quality easily manufactured after death," I replied. " But if the widower under discussion be without imagination sufficient for the under taking *?" he continued ; and by that time he had taken both my hands into his, and I felt there was imminent danger of my whole body being likewise taken possession of. I trembled, but met his sallies bravely. I was proud of the evenness of my voice. 263 MADAM OF THE IVIES " You forget," I said. " We were en gaged in generalities. With individuals " I paused, and confess I broke down. Who could have gone on calmly, folded close to a man s heart, with its heavy throbs din ning into the ears and deafening the under standing ? " With individuals it is quite different, my darling, is it not? Of one individual you may make the exception which proves your rule. Dorothy, I arn a brave man to trust again a woman after my experience. But I do trust one, my beloved ; trust her as I have never before believed in anyone ; love her with a love beyond that I have given my mother ; and desire her oh, my dearest ! desire her as a man but once in the course of his whole existence desires a woman, with passionate reverence for her perfect woman hood, with unswerving faith in her integrity, with unutterable longing for her lifelong and intimate companionship. Dorothy, Dorothy how is it to be with me now in this crisis *? Is the one woman whom I so covet going to forgive my widowerhood and make amends 264 MADAM OF THE IVIES to me for a wretched past 1 ? Say, dear one, is she ?" You know what I answered. I have already told you that I became Darracott s wife. Few marriages, I believe, are as truly such as ours. As yet no cloud, save the passing away five years ago of our dear mother, has ever rested upon it. A more united trio than Darracott, Madam, and I could not well be imagined. Just before she peacefully yielded up her spirit to God, Madam said to me, one day, " My dear daughter Dorothy, when I go back into the past and review bygone events and actions, I can think of no single one in my whole life whose results have been so completely successful and happy as that of the insertion of my advertisement for a com panion." And so I, when in my turn I consider the various occasions upon which I have obeyed the leading of that indefinable impulse which, even now, after it has so splendidly triumphed over the opprobrium cast upon it by the slower judgment of others, my mother con- 265 MADAM OF THE IVIES tinues to distrust, I select as pre-eminent among them that of a long-past February afternoon when I was urged to burn my bridges behind me and set forth as applicant for the position of companion to my beloved Madam of The Ivies. THE END. 266 RECENT FICTION. By L Cope Cornford. 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LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA. _ 000030280 2 MADAM OF THE MES . ELIZABETH PHIPPS TRAIN