SAILOR 
 
 AMELIA C.BftRR
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 She Loved a 
 Sailor 
 
 New York 
 Dodd, Mead & Company
 
 Copyright 1890, 1891 
 
 by 
 
 DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 
 All rights reserved
 
 PS 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. LOVE AS A SAILOR, ..... i 
 
 II. JANE KETELTAS, 13 
 
 III. NELLY HAWORTH, 36 
 
 IV. JANE'S LOVER, ...... 56 
 
 V. A LITTLE LOVE AND A LITTLE MONET, . 73 
 
 VI LOVES RENUNCIATION, .... 93 
 
 VII. " WEDDING AND THIS WILL Do, WEDDING 
 
 AND WORSE WILL NEVER Do," . . in 
 
 VIII. LOVE 4.ND LIGHT WILL NOT HIDE, . 131 
 
 IX. MR. AND MRS. FORFAR, . . . .152 
 
 X. A FAMOUS ELECTION 174 
 
 XI. THE BROAD GATEWAY OF WRONG, . . 202 
 
 XII. THE HAND OF WOMAN 227 
 
 XIII. READY TO PERISH, 247 
 
 XIV. BAD AT BES~ . ... 268 
 XV. INVINCIBLE LOVE, 289 
 
 XVI. A TRIP TO ENGLAND, .... 306 
 
 XVII. FIRE ! 328 
 
 XVIII. IT FARED THUS, 354 
 
 XIX. OVERTAKEN, 387 
 
 XX. FORFAR PAYS ALL DEBTS, . . . 409 
 
 XXI. THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE, . 428 
 
 2061655
 
 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 LOVE AS A SAILOR. 
 
 " Far, far upon the sea, 
 
 The good ship speeding free, 
 Upon the deck we gather, young and old, 
 
 And view the flapping sail, 
 
 Spreading out before the gale, 
 Full and round, without a wrinkle or a fold ; 
 
 Or watch the wave's that glide 
 
 By the stately vessel's side, 
 
 And the wild sea birds that follow through the ail ; 
 Oh ! gayly goes the ship when the wind blows fair ! * 
 
 *' Follow, follow, round the earth, 
 The green earth and the sea ; 
 So love is with the lover's heart, 
 Wherever he may be." 
 
 WHEN the very old men of this generation 
 were very young men, some of them may 
 have stood upon the banks of the East River 
 and watched the "Arethusa" come flying in 
 before the wind, her deck crowded with home, 
 coming Americans, and the English mail safe 
 in her hold. She was a favorite packet ship in 
 those days when Andrew Jackson reigned at
 
 2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Washington and William the Fourth sat on the 
 throne of England ; when the names of Cal- 
 houn and Benton, Clay and Webster, were on 
 every American's lips ; and in England a young 
 man called Disraeli was beginning to be spoken 
 of as a successful novelist and a very unsuccess 
 ful politician. 
 
 On September the eleventh, A. D. 1833, the 
 "Arethusa" was approaching the American 
 shore. The sky and the sea were exquisitely 
 serene, and a tone of happy expectancy and 
 pleasant preparation filled the ship all day with 
 movement, with eager calls for attention, and 
 with hurried, smiling salutations. But with the 
 deepening twilight and the uprising moon, there 
 fell upon the little floating world a growing 
 stillness. For tranquillity and darkness are the 
 powers that call forth the hidden sweetness of 
 life ; and this is specially so at sea, when the 
 waters are brooding in the calm, celestial light 
 of the moon. 
 
 Some of the passengers leaned over the taff- 
 rails, smoking and talking softly ; others sat 
 dreaming of incoherent and mysterious things. 
 The deep hush of .the fathomless, colorless 
 waste of waters dulled all minds ; ideas were 
 few and slow. It was the hour of the heart. 
 and, if intellect were busy at all, its con 
 ceptions were unsubstantial as the woof of 
 dreams. 
 
 The night was warm, the ship jogging
 
 LOVE AS A SAILOK. 3 
 
 quietly along, and there was not a sail in 
 sight. Several ladies were on deck, and the 
 beautiful Virginia Mason was walking silently 
 with the Captain. Frequently he cast his 
 eyes down upon her fair face and tall, graceful 
 figure. In the mystical moonlight she looked 
 like a vision. He might have been walking 
 in a dream, so fateful and irresistible was the 
 spell that bound him. Speech was as impos 
 sible as it was useless and hopeless. For 
 though Captain Bradford, on the deck of his 
 own ship, might offer his arm to Virginia Ma 
 son, he knew that when he had brought her 
 safely to her native land, his opportunity was 
 over. She would remember him only as one 
 who had served her well ; but he, he must 
 carry in his heart, till its last faint beat, the 
 memory of her loveliness and sweetness. 
 
 These were always his first thoughts when 
 he saw her ; but it was very rarely that second 
 thoughts did not bring with them that confi 
 dence which springs from conscious desert and 
 inextinguishable hope. He loved her with no 
 fancied or simulated passion. At the first mo 
 ment when she charmed his eyes, he gave to 
 her his whole heart ; and instantly all the 
 lighter loves of his past years were hateful in 
 his memory. Hope, renunciation, and despair 
 had made the three weeks of the voyage a life 
 time of joy and torture. It was nearly over. 
 To-morrow they might part forever.
 
 4 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 The thought gave him a desperate courage. 
 Kw v^Jk- ^ to the stern of the ship, and they 
 civ. lown there. She let him fold a rug for 
 her feet and clasp her cloak round her throat, 
 and the service was such honor that it set 
 him upon the pinnacle of joy. All that 
 he had thought to say vanished from his 
 mind; he was silent, but it was a silence 
 penetrated with his personality and his longing. 
 
 " Look at the men in the rigging, Captain. 
 They go creeping about like men in a dream. 
 What are they doing ? " 
 
 " The wind is rising ; they are spreading the 
 canvas ; we shall soon be strutting with the 
 breeze. It has brought into our wake a 
 strange vessel." 
 
 " I see her. How she spreads her wings 
 and flies toward us! " 
 
 " If the breeze lasts, we shall doubtless be 
 in New York to-morrow. Is that good 
 news? " 
 
 His voice was passionately sad. She could 
 not but lift her eyes, and his eyes met hers 
 with a question in them she had often asked 
 herself a question hard to answer ; she had 
 been afraid to bring it to argument. But the 
 strength of Love's reason lies in its despite of 
 reason. Virginia's lover was most eloquent, 
 because she divined that for her sake he was 
 silent. 
 
 She looked shvlv at him. He was exceed-
 
 LOVE AS A SAILOR. 5 
 
 ingly handsome, and his blue uniform, with its 
 ornaments of gold braid and buttons, set off 
 finely a tall, well-knit figure, supple and strong 
 and full of manly grace. He had a large 
 countenance tanned with wind and sun ; and 
 on his clustering curls of short brown hair 
 rested the gold band of the sailor's cap which 
 partially covered them. But it was not these 
 physical advantages, so much as his simple 
 frankness, his modest na'ivett, his blunt down- 
 rightness to men, and his courteous gallantry 
 to women, which had touched both Virginia's 
 fancy and sympathy on their very best side. 
 
 So she looked up at the question, and then 
 looked far off to sea to answer it. " It is 
 partly good news. I shall be very sorry to 
 leave the 'Arefhusa' ; I shall be very glad to 
 see my home again." 
 
 " Will you remember the ship ? " 
 
 " I think I shall go sailing in her through 
 many a happy dream." 
 
 " And shall I be her captain? " 
 
 He spoke in a whisper, and, as Virginia did 
 not immediately answer, his heart failed him, 
 and the personal pride which was his weak 
 point chilled the sensitive current in which 
 both had been drifting to the same happy 
 point. Virginia was instantly conscious of 
 the change. She shivered slightly, and said : 
 " The wind is really rising. It will be better 
 for me to go down-stairs."
 
 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Then the Captain set his lips firmly, and 
 gave her his arm. He thought she understood 
 and reproved him, and he was too honest- 
 hearted to cover his sorrow and chagrin with 
 meaningless words. In absolute silence he led 
 her to the foot of the companion-way, and 
 then, lifting his cap, he bowed the "adieu" he 
 could not find heart to utter. It was a most 
 unhappy parting, promising to both a wakeful 
 and miserable night. 
 
 Major Thomas Mason was sitting with a 
 number of gentlemen, who were discussing 
 with great warmth the policy of President 
 Jackson. He rose when his daughter appeared, 
 and supported her to the door of her state 
 room. Fortunately, she had no companion ; 
 she could slip the bolt and be alone with the 
 strange, wistful longing and sorrow that in 
 vaded her. "Is this love?" She asked her 
 heart the question, and felt it sweetly beating 
 the answer in every throbbing pulse. Involun 
 tarily she smiled, and the light that spread 
 over her face was the light she had caught 
 from her lover's face as they walked the deck 
 together. 
 
 " He is so true ! so great in all things ! And 
 he loves me ; I fill his life ! He is thinking of 
 me now ! In the morning I will speak kindly 
 to him ! I will give him something to do for 
 me ! I will make him happy ! " 
 
 In the morning the kind intent was stiM
 
 LOVE AS A SAILOR. 7 
 
 stronger. She could not dismiss the face, at 
 once so imploring and despairing, which had 
 set itself in the gloom of the companion-way 
 the previous evening the face of the man that 
 loved her. She had had no intention of mak 
 ing him miserable, but the things we do 
 from design are of small account compared 
 with those which we do beyond our fore 
 thought. 
 
 She went on deck very early, while as yet 
 the damp, fresh air had in it the flavor of brine. 
 Her heart was troubled and sad ; she knew lit 
 tle of it ; the secret thoughts of love were all 
 unexplored ; her experience had revealed noth 
 ing to her. She stood looking at the gray- 
 green waves, and the gulls above them seeking 
 with cold dull eyes their dead prey. The fog 
 was still in the beards of the sailors, and they 
 were moving about the deck and the rigging 
 in a quiet, mournful way. 
 
 She speedily began to feel as if she had been 
 too eager in her kindness. There was a tumult 
 of indecision in her heart. She drew her cloak 
 tightly around her, as if by so doing she could 
 draw herself from all outward influences. Then 
 she saw Captain Bradford coming toward her, 
 He was not conscious of her presence, and he 
 was carrying his head high, with an indifferent, 
 domineering look. It was the mask behind 
 which he was hiding his sense of failure, but 
 Virginia could not know this, and his face
 
 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 frightened her a little, and made her more 
 cautious than she had intended to be. 
 
 Marius felt her glance instantly and he came 
 quickly to her side ; his face fresh and damp 
 with sea fog, but stamped with the mystical 
 self-signature of a man who knew how to sub 
 jugate his will, and be Caesar unto himself. 
 Virginia had for a moment a womanly fear 
 that she had lost her influence over him ; his 
 influence over her had never been so pro 
 nounced. He was not only a part of her own 
 vague longings and unrest, but the prodigious 
 disquiet of the ocean the rustling of the salt 
 air the bitter spray the veiling fog the ever 
 lasting threat of stormy winds were the atmos 
 phere in which she set this Sailor on the Sea, 
 absolute within the bounds covered by the 
 white sails that were spread or furled at his 
 command. 
 
 The authoritative manner, seen but for a 
 moment, had conquered her, as power of any 
 kind conquers. And of all professions, that of 
 a sailor touches the heart and the imagination 
 of women most deeply. The gay uniform of 
 the soldier, his sword and rifle and martial 
 music, may win a passing favor ; but woman's 
 deepest enthusiasm is for the sailor in his con 
 stant warfare with illimitable and mysterious 
 forces. He comes before her mind in a thou 
 sand heroic, picturesque situations, the embodi 
 ment of all that is tender and gallant and brave.
 
 LOVE AS A SAILOR, 9 
 
 It seemed almost as if the lovers had at the 
 moment of their meeting changed feelings, 
 Virginia was timid and embarrassed, the Cap 
 tain reflected the despotic moods of the long, 
 wakeful night. During it he had frequently 
 told himself that he would accept the position 
 to which Virginia's refusal to answer his preg 
 nant question relegated him. He must always 
 love her, but he would so far honor his love as 
 to hide it in his heart. When next it asked 
 recognition there must be a certainty it would 
 find a favorable answer. 
 
 Virginia advanced a step or two to meet 
 him, and put out her small gloved hand. He 
 looked at her with shining eyes, and clasped 
 the suggestive peacemaker with an honest fer 
 vor. They walked thus to the stern of the 
 vessel, and stood there gazing at the white 
 wake and the sea gulls. 
 
 " I have been watching them," said Virginia,, 
 " They seem so indifferent to everything 
 but eating; at that they labor imperturba- 
 bly." 
 
 " I do not like to see them in such numbers. 
 When the gulls spread their wings it is time 
 for the ship to furl hers. There are men on 
 every ship that believe them to be the spirits of 
 drowned sailors." 
 
 (i I think they are the air and the sea and 
 the elements which have taken wings to them 
 selves. They never can have been human and
 
 io SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 loved anything. Look at their eyes, so stern 
 and cold and cruel!" 
 
 " I have seen human eyes like them. There 
 was a gull that haunted a ship I knew. The 
 captain swore it was a dead mate whom he had 
 hated. Day after day he tried to shoot it. 
 He never could." 
 
 " Now I can feel why you do not permit the 
 passengers to fire at them." 
 
 "It is very unlucky; no doubt about it. 
 Who can tell how or where the soul loses itself 
 on its long journey upward ? You will call this 
 the most illogical of talk. I often think things 
 I do not pretend to understand. The sun will 
 drive away the mist soon, and we shall see land 
 all around us. Then it will be the parting 
 word, Miss Mason. Is it to be forever ? 
 I think you should answer me that ques 
 tion." 
 
 " It is not to be forever, Captain Bradford." 
 She drew a narrow strip of pink silk from her 
 glove, and said : 
 
 " I bought a dress like this at Burton's, on 
 Bold Street, Liverpool. I want two yards 
 more of the same silk. Will you bring it on 
 your next voyage ? " 
 
 " If there is any silk like it in England, I 
 will bring it when I come again." 
 
 " Our house is near Great Jones Street ; that 
 is a long way. Will you bring it to the house, 
 or shall I send to the ship for it?"
 
 LOVE AS A SAILOR. II 
 
 " If your house was at the end of the world, 
 I would gladly bring it in my own hands." 
 
 " Then we shall meet again. Here is the 
 sunshine, and the fog is turning to a golden 
 haze, and hark ! how that man huddled up in 
 the ' waist ' is singing." They listened a few 
 moments, and then the Captain hummed 
 gayly : 
 
 A sailor's life is the life for me ; 
 He takes his duty merrily. 
 If winds can whistle, he can sing, 
 Ready for all the sea can bring. 
 Beloved by mates, he loves his ship, 
 And toasts his girl, and drinks his flip ; 
 And this is the life of a sailor. 
 
 The melody was simple and monotonous, 
 and Virginia swayed gently to its time and 
 movement. But the sense of land was momen 
 tarily growing stronger ; the passengers were 
 full of exclamations and excitement ; two 
 news-boats were shouting for English papers, 
 and a pilot waiting to be taken on board. 
 The Captain could no longer delay. He 
 looked at her steadily, and said : 
 
 " I may not be able to see you again at this 
 time. If I hoped you would remember ! " 
 
 " I will forget nothing." And she held his 
 gaze for a moment with the soft brilliance of 
 her own. In that flash each saw a vision of 
 things invisible to others. Both were under 
 an influence too strong and sweet to be re 
 sisted, and it said to both alike, " Do all your
 
 12 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 heart tells you. Remember how august it is. 
 It contains the temple of love and of con 
 science, and a whisper is heard from the 
 extremity of one to the extremity of the 
 other." 
 
 The day afterward was long and wearisome. 
 They were in sight of New York ; they were 
 in the midst of vessels and schooners and 
 coast steamers passing to and fro with swag 
 gering turmoil; but many delays retarded 
 their progress, and it was nearly sunset when 
 the " Arethusa" cast anchor at her slip on the 
 East River. The Captain was on the gang 
 way. He bid Major Mason a courteous fare 
 well, and lifted his cap once more to the girl 
 who took his heart and hopes with her. A 
 carriage was in waiting ; there was a sudden 
 lifting of her head. It was like a last tender 
 thought. Then, fora moment, Captain Marius 
 Bradford felt as if life was over.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 JANE KETELTAS. 
 
 " How small of all that human hearts endure, 
 
 That part which laws or kings can cause or CUT* I* 
 
 " O Mother Holland ! true and deep, 
 Below all fresher loves we keep 
 
 A thought of thee ; 
 Though generations come and go, 
 A thought that still will burn and glow 
 
 In memory. 
 
 Ah me ! how sweet is love itself possess'd, 
 When but love's shadows are so rich in joy ! ** 
 
 IT had begun to rain when they left the 
 ship, and before their home in the upper 
 part of the city was reached they were in the 
 midst of the storm. But ere morning it had 
 rained its passion away, and the day broke 
 sunny and clear-skied. Major Mason's resi 
 dence was one of those square Georgian 
 houses, with large, lofty rooms, which were 
 so emblematical of the solid days in which 
 they were the fashion. These rooms were full 
 of handsome furniture, and the wide stairway 
 of carved wood rose boldly up from the broad 
 central hall. There was a small garden at the 
 northern end of the house, and a much larger 
 13
 
 '4 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 one behind it, and upon its fragrant space the 
 breakfast parlor opened. 
 
 Here Virginia found her father when she 
 came down-stairs the next morning. He was 
 standing on the hearthrug with a newspaper 
 in his hand. The south wind blowing in 
 through the open window brought with it a 
 fresh scent from the wet, late flowers ; and the 
 whole room had that air of refinement and 
 comfort which comes from a fine sense of its 
 purpose. Everything seemed to belong to it 
 specially, from the large open secretary to the 
 small round table with its white damask cloth 
 and its service of pink china and sterling 
 silver. 
 
 "Good morning, dear father! How deli 
 cious is the earthy smell of the garden ! " 
 
 " Very after so much brine and " he was 
 going to say bilge-water; but he looked at his 
 daughter, and could not utter a word with an 
 uncleanly association in her presence. 
 
 With small white hands she was rearranging 
 the pink cups and saucers and the shining 
 silver. Her dress of fawn chali fell in long, 
 soft folds to her sandaled feet. A deep collar 
 of embroidered India muslin encircled her 
 throat, and cuffs of the same were turned back 
 at the wrists to confine the large sleeves. Her 
 brown hair was braided down each side of the 
 face in berthes, and fastened high on her head 
 with a large Spanish comb of shell ; and the
 
 JAXE KETELTAS. 15 
 
 knots of pink ribbon which brightened the 
 whole costume gave her a fresh and cherry at- 
 mosphere, like that which surrounds a tree of 
 living roses. 
 
 " You are fresh as a flower, Virginia." 
 
 " You too, sir, look very well ; yet there is 
 a worry-line across your brow. Is anything 
 wrong, father?" 
 
 " Wrong ! Everything is wrong. President 
 Jackson seems to think he knows how to man 
 age the purse of the country as well as he 
 knew how to wield the sword of the country. 
 Nicholas Biddle " 
 
 " Oh ! that old Bank quarrel ; I thought you 
 had argued that question out on the ' Arethusa' 
 to the very last letter. I heard Mr. Kane say 
 that Jackson was an autocrat a tyrant an 
 irresponsible czar a " 
 
 "^Nonsense ! Kane, indeed ! How can 
 Kane, or any mere civilian, judge President 
 Jackson? When the people made him Presi 
 dent again, they must have known, from all 
 his past career, that he would always rule like 
 a commander-in-chief." 
 
 " I cannot understand why he, being Presi 
 dent of the United States, should wage war on 
 the United States Bank." 
 
 " My dear Virginia, can you understand why 
 the Bank should wage war upon the Govern 
 ment ? The fact that it is doing so is proof 
 positive of the evil of the institution. Political
 
 16 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 power ought to be regulated by the will of the 
 people. Can you imagine President Jackson 
 permitting any monetary consolidation to 
 usurp the right of the people? He will give 
 every member of it military law first." 
 " President Jackson's law, you mean ? " 
 "Yes, Miss, President Jackson's law." 
 " Father, I am a little tired of President 
 Jackson. Doubtless he is a great man, and 
 doth bestride our whole country like a Colos 
 sus, but I am far more interested in our trunks ; 
 and I was talking to Mrs. Duane last night 
 about the house, and she says the drawing- 
 room needs a new carpet." 
 
 " When stocks rise, and rents are paid ; but 
 
 in the mean time, Virginia, " and he shook 
 
 his handsome head mournfully to express the 
 alternative. Then a servant entered with 
 breakfast, and, while he busied himself with its 
 arrangement, father and daughter stood to 
 gether, and Major Mason let his eyes fall once 
 more upon the offensive article he had been 
 reading. 
 
 Above their heads was an old picture, the 
 likeness of one Geoffrey Mason, who had 
 fled for conscience sake to the Plymouth 
 Colony in A. D. 1676, and who had been the 
 founder of the American branch of the family. 
 The resemblance between the men was remark 
 able, though they were altogether dissimilar. 
 Geoffrey Mason had possessed all the bluff red-
 
 JANE KETELTAS. 17 
 
 and-white comeliness which is the sign of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race. But for a century after 
 his settlement, constant attrition with adverse 
 forces, spiritual and temporal, had been a refin 
 ing and sharpening process. The spirit threw 
 off with each generation a portion of its fleshly 
 swaddling bands, and the Masons, without los 
 ing their lofty stature, grew spare and muscular. 
 In this refinement the intellectual life also 
 shared ; it had become, as it were, oxidized in 
 the elements of struggle and conquest which 
 marked the beginnings of American empire. 
 Indeed, the word "oxidized" fitted the change 
 very well, for though the keener life represented 
 by oxygen had been largely assimilated, the 
 combination had seldom produced an acid 
 nature among them. 
 
 In the beginning of the past century another 
 Geoffrey Mason left his rocky farm in Massachu 
 setts, and sought in New York a wider arena. 
 He made a little money, which his son Arthur 
 increased a thousand-fold. Then the grandson 
 John had time and means for study and travel, 
 and the great-grandson Thomas had inherited 
 all the advantages of the four generations popu 
 larly supposed necessary for the evolution of a 
 gentleman. 
 
 Thomas had military instincts, and they had 
 been well nurtured by an association with Gen 
 eral Jackson in his most brilliant campaigns. 
 However, as the enthusiasm of youth evapo-
 
 18 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 rated, other instincts, equally strong, asserted 
 themselves. He thought that it was entirely 
 for his wife's and daughter's sake he so early 
 abandoned military life ; but in reality his tastes 
 led him to be a dilettante patron of music and 
 art, an observer of men, and a tireless reader of 
 books. 
 
 On his father's death he sold the Mason 
 residence near the Battery, and build for him 
 self the much more splendid house in which 
 he now stood by his daughter's side grumbling 
 at those malcontents who did not echo the 
 opinions of his favorite hero. The building of 
 this mansion had not escaped the notice of 
 that Fate which so often demands a sacrifice 
 for homes that are monuments to accumulated 
 wealth and human pride. The Masons had 
 scarcely entered it when the sacrifice was re 
 quired. Mrs. Mason was said to have taken a 
 cold and died from an inflammation. But who 
 has the oracle of their death? What human 
 prescience has foreseen the spot of earth on 
 which the soul must go to meet its fate ? Be 
 it near at hand, or far, far off, there is a Des 
 tiny or a Nemesis in it beyond our understand 
 ing. 
 
 Such thoughts were not strange to Major 
 Mason's mind, but at this hour he was alto 
 gether occupied by the political aspects of his 
 time. And as he stood beneath his ancestor, 
 the mysterious influence of lineage was re
 
 JANE KETELTAS. 1 9 
 
 imarkably clear, though its source was too 
 subtle to bear definition. Perhaps it was hid 
 den in the broad brow, or the large, round, 
 open eye which both alike possessed ; or in 
 that peculiar expression called into all faces 
 where political or national questions put per 
 sonal ones aside. 
 
 Father and daughter sat down to their 
 breakfast with a flash of intelligent gratitude. 
 The country might be going to ruin, but the 
 sense of home was sweet ; and the coffee and 
 the fish and the steak and hot biscuit consid 
 erably modified the Major's ideas of its possi 
 ble salvation. After all, New York was to be 
 relied on ; he could always put his trust in his 
 native city. Then he remembered that in 
 coming from the packet he had noticed a great 
 blank on Chatham Street. He had been told 
 that there was to be a large hotel built there; 
 and he reminded Virginia of the circumstance. 
 
 " As I go to the Custom House, I shall see 
 what changes have been made, and call upon 
 some friends in Park Place," he said. 
 
 " And as unpacking is out of the question 
 to-day, I will go and see Jane Keteltas." 
 
 " Give my respects to her father. I dare 
 say he is all nose at present, following Jack 
 son like a sleuth-hound. But 'he is a very 
 good son of old Holland. Tell him we have 
 been there, and that it stands just where it 
 did."
 
 20 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 John Paul Keteltas lived much further 
 north than the Masons ; in fact, his house, 
 though now in the center of the city, was then 
 in the suburbs. It was a commodious wooden 
 dwelling, surrounded by maple trees, and 
 standing in the midst of a fair garden. This 
 morning it was gay with dahlias and mari 
 golds, and the wide Dutch porch was a mass 
 of red and blue morning glories. 
 
 Jane, sitting at an upper window, had seen 
 the approach of her friend, and was standing 
 at the open gate to meet her. She was a 
 small but strikingly handsome girl, with a 
 brilliant color, and a great quantity of very 
 light hair. Her manner was warm and impul 
 sive, and her large gray eyes were brimming 
 with sensibility and willfulness. 
 
 They went hand-in-hand into a parlor off 
 the main hall a large room, very somberly 
 furnished, with an antiquated oak sideboard, 
 very much carved, and almost black with age. 
 There were chairs to match it, and a large 
 table, and a Fricsland cuckoo clock, with its 
 silver-sounding chimes. At the -table a man 
 of sixty years of age was sitting. He had 
 white hair and a fresh color in his cheeks. 
 His coat, of a precise cut, had a high standing 
 collar, and he wore a neckcloth of India mus 
 lin, folded with an extreme exactness. 
 
 He was writing and examining documents, 
 some loose like open bills, others folded in the
 
 JANE KETELTAS. 21 
 
 long, business-like suggestiveness of leases and 
 contracts. Virginia's entrance seemed to give 
 him pleasure ; he pushed aside his papers and 
 put his elbows on the table, in order to ques 
 tion her more comfortably. After a variety 
 of inquiries, he asked the name of the packet 
 on which they had come, and when Virginia 
 said the " Arethusa," he uttered a significant 
 " Humph-h ! " and looked at his daughter, who 
 at the same moment threw up her pretty 
 hands, with an exclamation : 
 
 " Eh, what did you say ? The ' Arethusa ' ? 
 Was Captain Nigel Forfar on her? " 
 
 "I saw him frequently, sir; and my father 
 talked with him. But he was either very 
 proud or very shy ; he kept much to himself." 
 
 " Proud ! Well, I can imagine it. The For- 
 fars are the first-born of all creation, in their 
 own opinion. There's no remedy for pride, 
 my dear, when it is born in a man. But shy? 
 Pray why should he be shy ? He was in the 
 army until his father went the way of all flesh. 
 Did you notice, my dear, if he was like me, 
 for instance? " 
 
 Virginia laughed merrily. " Oh, no, sir ; 
 not at all. He is very dark and swarthy, and 
 thin, and tall." 
 
 " But not disagreeable, eh ! my dear ? " 
 
 " Indeed, sir, he is quite handsome, but he 
 was not a favorite ; so domineering and ill- 
 tempered was he."
 
 22 SHE LOl'l-.D A SAILOR. 
 
 "The Forfars are masterful ; Nigel's father 
 had that way with him ; they like to be first 
 whatever will come of it, or wherever they are." 
 
 " But on a packet ship that could not be, 
 sir." 
 
 " Not on the ' Arethusa,' Captain Marius 
 Bradford commanding. For he is a born au 
 tocrat when he gets men and women in his 
 power. I know ! I know ! I have crossed 
 twice with him, and I have heard him say, do 
 this and do that, and go there and come'here. 
 The Roman centurion must have been a mild- 
 spoken gentleman in comparison. That's what 
 I say." 
 
 Virginia was red as a rose, and she looked 
 at him with eyes so full of contradiction that 
 he understood her unspoken denial, and added, 
 with an air of candor: 
 
 " But he's very polite to ladies, and he 
 minded his ship well, and he met a storm as if 
 he was delighted to see it. Doubtless there 
 are worse men afloat than Marius Bradford." 
 
 " Father sent his respects to you, Mr. 
 Keteltas, and said I was to tell you that Hol 
 land stands where she did." 
 
 " Generally speaking, that is perhaps true. 
 Holland is not moved with every wind of doc 
 trine or politics that blows. It is not her mis 
 sion to be a weathercock for other nations to 
 take warning by. Saw you Amsterdam, my 
 dear?"
 
 fANE KETELTAS. 23 
 
 " Yes, sir. I shall always see at the naming 
 of the word the long, black band of buildings 
 stretching out " 
 
 " Under a gray-blue sky of wonderful soft 
 ness, eh? " 
 
 " And the thousands of roofs and gables, 
 and above them the steeples and church 
 towers, with their campaniles and dark balus 
 trades." 
 
 " And the thousands of windows framed in 
 white, some leaning forward and some back 
 ward, eh, my dear ? " 
 
 "And the great spreading trees shielding the 
 massive slips and gateways like a wall of ver 
 dure, sir? " 
 
 " And the grave, solid-looking men on the 
 streets, and the sailors on the quays, with 
 their legs hanging over them, all silent and 
 motionless, smoking, smoking, smoking." 
 
 "And the ringing of the church bells above 
 the city like music in mid-air, and the fresh 
 wind blowing from the North Sea, sir? " 
 
 " O Amsterdam ! fair Amsterdam ! And 
 there, also, my dear, you would hear the good 
 Dutch?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. I did not understand it, but my 
 father said it was a very fine language." 
 
 " My dear, the finest of all the Gothic dia 
 lects ; rich, strong, sonorous." 
 
 " Very sonorous, sir ; but ' 
 
 " Listen to me. I must say you a verse of
 
 24 SHI: LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 the good Jacob Westerbaen, and you shall 
 confess it is a very suitable one : 
 
 " ' Moe gewandelt, moe geseeten, 
 Moe gedronken, moe gegeeten, 
 Moe te gast gaen alle daegh, 
 Bij de vrienden in den Haegh, 
 Raeckt ik weder op mijn Huisje.' " 
 
 " Indeed, sir, wonderfully sonorous ; it 
 sounds as if the tongue beat its words out 
 on a silver anvil. Now you must also translate 
 for me." 
 
 John Paul was delighted with the task. He 
 was at his best when his nature was set to the 
 tune of " Holland." His rosy face shone with 
 pleasure, his blue eyes had a veiled and 
 softened look, his voice had tones in it which 
 would have made his familiars in Wall Street 
 speculate and doubt and wonder, as the trans 
 lation fell with the proper spirit and inflections 
 from his lips : 
 
 Tired with wandering, tired with sitting, 
 Tired with drinking, tired with eating, 
 Tired with every busy plague, 
 Feasting, visiting the Hague, 
 Here again I find a dwelling. 
 
 Then he was himself a little ashamed of his 
 emotion so early in the morning, with all those 
 vouchers and mortgages at his finger tips. Yet 
 he was diviner for these few moments, though 
 the great goddess Utilitaria, whom John Paul 
 Keteltas worshiped, brought him sharply back 
 to the legitimate business of the hour.
 
 JANE KETELTAS. 25 
 
 " Now go away with Jane, my dear," he 
 said, drawing his papers quickly under his 
 eyes. " Jane is wondering if I have lost my 
 senses, I see that. Go away, go away ! " 
 
 They went up-stairs together, hand-in-hand, 
 leaning toward each other with low, loving 
 words and smiles. For they were true soul- 
 sisters, and their affection was not likely to 
 change with circumstances nor to fade away 
 with absence. Virginia had come with a long 
 story to tell of her travels and experience, but 
 all events seemed tame beside the unexpected 
 visit of Captain Nigel Forfar. 
 
 " Before old Mr. Forfar died, there was, I 
 know, some correspondence between him and 
 my father about me," said Jane, as she began 
 to lay out a dress of pale green silk, with a 
 pelerine of white lace. 
 
 " About you, Jane ? " 
 
 " Yes. Father had an extraordinary liking 
 for the old man. They had been playfellows 
 and schoolfellows, and there must have been 
 other ties. Why, father loaned him money 
 when he wished to buy the plantation next 
 his own, and I feel sure they had a plan of 
 marriage between Nigel Forfar and myself." 
 
 " So now Nigel Forfar is coming to look at 
 you. That is not a pleasant thought, Jane. 
 If I were you, I would refuse to see him." 
 
 " Father will insist upon my receiving him ; 
 and I rather think I shall like to do so ; but if
 
 26 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 he is as haughty and ill-natured as you say, I 
 can play that game with him. The Forfars, 
 you see, are a very old Southern family ; and 
 father says they were once earls of Forfar. 
 Forfar is in Scotland, I think." 
 
 " Nonsense, Jane. I do not believe it. 
 And suppose they were? The dead and gone 
 Forfars are nothing to yon, and as for the 
 living one, I think little of him. You know, 
 Jane, at sea a man's real character is apt to 
 show itself, and Captain Forfar was selfish and 
 ill-tempered and domineering." 
 
 " Then would you wear this lovely dress for 
 him, Virginia?" 
 
 " You may. I do not think he ever sees 
 anything beyond his own shadow. It is really 
 a lovely dress; it looks quite Parisian." 
 
 " It is Parisian. Mrs. Bond bought it for 
 me on the Rue Rivoli, and I have all the 
 proper accessories, even to the complexion of 
 my shoe-strings." 
 
 Then they drifted into a conversation which, 
 however far it diverged, came back constantly 
 to the " Arethusa " and Nigel Forfar. Jane 
 was much more interested on the latter subject 
 than she would permit either Virginia or her 
 self to believe ; for she was a lonely girl, cut 
 off by her father's ideas and economies from 
 many of the social pleasures that were part of 
 every-day life to her friend. 
 
 " And I am twenty-two, Virginia," she said
 
 JANE KETELTAS. 27 
 
 plaintively, " and have never had an offer of 
 marriage. I should like to have one, even if I 
 felt it right to refuse it." She was dressing 
 her fair hair in a lofty coronal on the top of 
 her head as she spoke, and she could not help 
 displaying its thick, rippling lengths, glossy 
 and shining and fuli of vitality. 
 
 At the dinner-table the unusual splendor of 
 her dress caused no remark. Keteltas under 
 stood far too well the times when speech or 
 silence would be the golden rule ; and he felt 
 that if he twitted Jane about their expected 
 visitor, she might make the visitor suffer for it, 
 the tendency of human nature being to pass 
 onward any snub it receives. 
 
 The afternoon, in spite of all there was to 
 tell and to speculate about, was a trifle ex 
 hausting. The sense of " watching" took the 
 sparkle out of conversation. Virginia also had 
 a thought she could not share. The love 
 which Marius Bradford had scarcely dared to 
 breathe she could not gossip about without a 
 sense of profanation. She had not even talked 
 of it with her own heart. It was, so far, a 
 sacred mystery, divined but not interpreted 
 a new-born emotion, which had not yet found 
 its speech. 
 
 Toward the close of her visit she suddenly 
 remembered her friend's brother. 
 
 " I have not asked after Harry. Where is 
 he now ? "
 
 28 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " At New Brunswick, in the theological 
 school. Father says he must be a minister. 
 They are simply trying to turn an eagle into 
 an owl. Harry ought to have gone to West 
 Point. Poor Harry ! I feel very foolish, 
 Virginia, in my silk and lace; wait until I take 
 them off, and I will walk part of the way home 
 with you." 
 
 " No, no ! You must not have a disappoint 
 ment in your pretty dress. If you take it off, 
 Nigel Forfar is sure to come while you are 
 looking your very worst. Some malicious 
 sprite whispered that in your ear. Wear your 
 dress till you get your desire, for if you begin 
 giving way to things you never know where 
 you may be carried. Upon my word, Jane, 
 you are a very pretty girl ; but I really hope 
 Captain Forfar may not be of my mind." 
 
 She kissed Jane with these words, and left her 
 standing under the porch. Her shoulders and 
 arms were covered only with lace, and she 
 gave a visible shiver as she turned in with a 
 farewell gesture. Virginia had a sympathetic 
 chill, and she hurried her steps a little, being 
 conscious of approaching change, and having a 
 natural instinct of home in its first uncer 
 tainty. 
 
 Major Mason was already there. He was 
 dressed for dinner, and had a copy of the New 
 York "Mirror" in his hand. But he was
 
 JANE KETELTAS. 29 
 
 discussing with the butler the quantity of wine 
 in the cellar, and the subject was too interest 
 ing to be suddenly dropped. She allowed him 
 to thoroughly talk it out, and then said: 
 
 "Captain Forfar, whom we met on the 
 ' Arethusa/ is to visit Mr. Keteltas." 
 
 " I should not have thought it." 
 
 " Jane says her father and his father were 
 playfellows and friends ; and that she believes 
 there is an intention of marriage in the gen 
 tleman's mind if she fills his ideal." 
 
 " I hope he will find her wanting. I think 
 Jane deserves a better husband. I under 
 stood he was from Tennessee. Why does he 
 come to New York by way of England ?" 
 
 " He went from New Orleans to Europe, and 
 has been there on a pleasure trip. T suppose 
 Jane is business, and he comes home by New 
 York to arrange his marriage." 
 
 " I am astonished at Keteltas, and yet not 
 so. Keteltas has a strong vein of romance 
 running through his practical nature. I think 
 if he loved the father he is capable of continu 
 ing his love to the third or fourth generation. 
 Ho\v does Jane take to the arrangement?" 
 
 " She likes it. Jane is romantic, and her 
 life has been very quiet. She is in love with 
 the ideal man, I can see that. All the good 
 qualities Forfar lacks she will invent for him ; 
 .j. his bad ones she will ignore. Jane told me 
 that Colonel Burr was married to Madame
 
 3 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Jumel last July ; and Miss Douglas is married 
 also ; Henry Inman is painting a fine picture 
 of her. Jane was at Long Branch a short 
 time this summer, and she says it is becoming 
 a fashionable resort. What have you seen 
 to-day, father ? " 
 
 " The sunniest, breeziest, liveliest city under 
 the sun. I have been down to the Battery, and 
 across to Hanover Square. Nothing except an 
 Italian sky could have been bluer than the 
 sky above New York to-day ; and the bright 
 red of the brick houses, and the golden green 
 of the trees, and all the stir and color of the 
 Broadway crowd, was enchanting." 
 
 " I wish I had been with you, father." 
 
 " I stood on the Battery some time, and 
 looked at the slanting sails of the great packets 
 on the horizon, and the red and black smoke 
 stacks of the crafts puffing and paddling about 
 the river, and the great ferryboats toiling be 
 tween shores. Everything, everywhere, was 
 moving moving fast. Even the man calling 
 ' ice-cream ' was out of sight before I could get 
 the twopenny piece I wanted to give him for 
 the sake of the familiar cry." 
 
 " Yet Jane says more than three thousand 
 people died from cholera last summer. I dare 
 say they were not missed in the crowd." 
 
 "To the sight they are not, but the heart 
 picks out the empty places. In many stores I 
 found vacancies that represent broken homes.
 
 JANE KETELTAS. 31 
 
 and losses never to be repaired. We left New 
 York just in time to escape the epidemic and 
 the presidential election." 
 
 " Are there many changes on Broadway ? " 
 
 " Some new buildings, and I am told that Mr. 
 Astor is going to pull down all the houses be 
 tween Barclay and Vesey Streets, and build a 
 grand hotel there. It is to eost him six hun 
 dred thousand dollars." 
 
 "Will it pay?" 
 
 "If he makes it splendid enough. Really, 
 Virginia, New York is fonder of display tharv 
 any Old World city we have visited." 
 
 " New York has plenty of money ; she is- 
 open-handed, and likes to spend it. Were 
 there many ladies out?" 
 
 " The lower part of Broadway was crowded 
 with open carriages full of ladies shopping. 
 And how pretty our women are ! Under 
 their large gay bonnets and bright-colored 
 parasols their delicate faces looked like 
 flowers. I stood at the Park awhile and 
 watched them passing ; it was easy to recog 
 nize those I knew, for the carriages were con 
 stantly getting tangled up with the hurrying 
 carts and drays, and the omnibuses racing and 
 rolling up and down the crowded thoroughfare." 
 
 "Oh, the omnibuses! Are they still run 
 ning ? " 
 
 " They have been redecorated. The 'Lady 
 Washington ' and the ' Lady Jackson' outvie
 
 3 2 SHK LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 each other in pictured beauty in scarlet and 
 yellow and apple-green. And the arrogance 
 of their drivers is something wonderful. They 
 think the street belongs to them. If we have 
 an autocrat in America, the omnibus driver is 
 the man." 
 
 " You forget King Andrew Jackson ! " 
 
 " The cases are not comparable. As for 
 Jackson being an autocrat, we had better have 
 one autocrat, than half a dozen. What could 
 the country do with Clay, Webster, Calhoun, 
 Benton, and Nicholas Biddle ? We ought to 
 be grateful that we have one man stronger 
 than all of them, and able to keep them in 
 order." 
 
 "Can Jackson do that?" 
 
 " He can do it. There is no living man 
 whose ' yea ' can stand against Jackson's ' nay.' 
 But when he comes to fighting ideas instead 
 of men, that is a different thing. I met Mr. 
 Jonas Hale in the Park, and went with him to 
 Tappan's store to buy some silk. There is an 
 * idea ' brooding in that man's mind that no 
 one will ever put down. It will carry all be 
 fore it." 
 
 "What do you mean, father?" 
 
 " Liberty. Emancipation." 
 
 "Abolition?" 
 
 " Yes. The Tappans are possessed by it. 
 They are the little leaven hid in the measure 
 of meal. You can't buy a yard of silk without
 
 IANE KETELTAS. 33 
 
 feeling it. Arthur Tappan's face was fairly 
 illumined when he spoke of the recent emanci 
 pation of the English slaves in the West 
 Indies. It was an irritating text to preach 
 from. We do not want England to set us 
 examples. I quite lost my temper on the 
 subject. The opera is a pleasanter one. The 
 new house is to be opened in November, and 
 I have bought one-third of a box for this 
 winter. Fanti is the prima donna." 
 
 He rose with these words, and lifted a maga 
 zine. 
 
 " It is a new American venture," he "aid 
 critically, reading aloud the contents. 
 
 "What is it called ?" 
 
 " The ' Knickerbocker.' I think I shall 
 adhere to my ' Mirror.' The ' Knicker 
 bocker' promises too much. Do you wish to 
 go out this evening, Virginia ? " 
 
 " No, sir. I am very weary." 
 
 " Then I shall take a quiet hour or two with 
 my books. I have also a fresh installment of 
 4 Pickwick Papers.' ' 
 
 " And you prefer Mr. Pickwick to me, 
 father ? " 
 
 " Mr. Pickwick is my guest, Virginia. 
 Thank God, I have you always with me ! " 
 
 The apology sent a flash of loving intelli 
 gence between them, and Virginia was not 
 sorry to be dismissed early. Even at twenty- 
 two there are hours when the head aches and
 
 34 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 the heart longs for solitude. The whole day 
 had been given to the hopes of others. She 
 now shut herself in her room, and dropped 
 with a happy abandon upon a couch, whose 
 soft and ample width said to her: " Come here 
 and rest." In a tew minutes her tired body 
 was asleep, and her diviner part, giad to es 
 cape fleshly orders, was away to the " Are- 
 thusa." 
 
 At that moment Marius Bradford was sitting 
 in the cabin of his ship, and a glove which 
 Virginia had lost lay across his palm. His 
 eyes regarded it with tender respect ; his lips 
 moved ; he bent his head and kissed it. Hope 
 filled his heart. He lifted up his handsome 
 face and let his eyes rest with an unwinking 
 gaze upon the seat she had always occupied 
 while on the " Arethusa." He was sure he 
 saw her there ; he was sure she called his name. 
 He stood listening with all his soul, and the 
 boatswain struck the ship* s bell and called 
 cheerily into the midnight : 
 
 "All's well !" 
 
 And, as if the sound awakened her, Virginia 
 moved and opened her eyes. There had been 
 a little shock, a trembling of the fleshly tunicle, 
 a vague solemnity which she did not under 
 stand. She rose and looked into the moonlit 
 room. 
 
 " I have been dreaming," she whispered. 
 " Marius, I have been dreaming of you dream-
 
 JANE KETELTAS. 35 
 
 ing that I loved you ! " She stood quite still a 
 few moments, and the white light touched her 
 with a soft, mystical radiance. " Marius ! 
 Marius ! " 
 
 And there was no need of further speech 
 with herself. At that moment she knew that 
 she loved him.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 NELLY HAWORTH. 
 
 "One master passion in the breast, 
 
 Like Aaron's serpent swallows up the rest." 
 
 " Beautiful as sweet, 
 
 And young as beautiful, and soft as young, 
 And gay as soft, and innocent as gay." 
 
 IN the cabin of the " Arethusa " Captain 
 Bradford sat with a thoughtful but not de 
 spondent face. He had eaten his breakfast, the 
 steward was removing the service, and above 
 his head there was the necessary tumult of 
 putting in the cargo. Through the open ports 
 a fresh breeze was blowing, and he turned his 
 hot face to it, feeling the breath of the sea in 
 its cool saltness like an invitation to come to 
 its deep, cradling billows. 
 
 He was thinking of Virginia. He had been 
 vowing to himself to win her, as a brave, honest 
 man should win a woman's love, without fear 
 and without deception. The very memory, of 
 her beauty cast a light upon his face, the 
 echoes of her voice were sweetly distinct 
 through all the clamor of the deck noises and 
 the dumb tumult of his own heart. 
 
 Suddenly he heard the tones of a woman's 
 36
 
 NELLY HA WORTH. 37 
 
 voice. It broke the happy, spellbound mood 
 in which he had been dreaming. " That is 
 Nelly Haworth," he muttered ; " and I shall 
 have to give her a disappointment." A 
 shadow passed over his face, and he turned in 
 his chair and looked toward the door of the 
 salon. A 'very handsome girl was standing 
 there. She had a look of anxious inquiry, and 
 she carried a small parcel in her hand. 
 
 " It's Nelly Haworth, Captain ; if ta likes to 
 see her." 
 
 "Come in, Nelly. How do you do? Sit 
 down." 
 
 " I'm middling comfortable, Captain. Hes ta 
 any good news for me? " 
 
 " I have not, Nelly. No man called John 
 Thomas Clitheroe is on board the ' Water 
 Witch.' I saw her mate, and I asked him the 
 question." 
 
 "It's a varry queer thing, Captain. John 
 Thomas told me the ' Water Witch.' Mebbe, 
 now, there may be another ship called the 
 * Water Witch.' " 
 
 " I should not wonder, Nelly. I never 
 thought of that. When I go back to Liver 
 pool, I will find out how many ' Water 
 Witches ' there are. You say John Thomas is 
 a ship-carpenter ? " 
 
 " To be sure ; a first-rate hand. And when 
 ta sees a man, Captain, as is a good carpenter, 
 ta sees one that is able to do lots of other things
 
 3& SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 better than most men can. Carpentering is a 
 trade as taxes a man's brains, Captain." 
 
 "No doubt, Nelly. I will take your letter 
 back with me, and if John Thomas Clitheroe 
 is on any ' Water Witch,' I will leave it with 
 her owners to be forwarded to him. Where 
 are you living now ? " 
 
 " A goodish way from here with an old 
 man and his daughter. They're varry kind 
 to me." 
 
 " Well, Nelly, I shall try once more to find 
 your lover. And I am glad you are doing so 
 well." 
 
 His voice and attitude evidently dismissed 
 
 the girl, and she was quick to feel it. Both her 
 
 iface and voice expressed a little anger and a 
 
 little reproach. " I'm not going to bother thee, 
 
 Captain, any longer," she said. 
 
 " I do not feel you to be a bother, Nelly. 
 Have I not always been kind to you ? " 
 
 "Thou hes that, Captain. I wer a desolate 
 lass, cold and sick and hungry, when thou 
 found me out on thy ship. Thou came across 
 my road as if God sent thee." 
 
 l< That is two years ago, Nelly. Now you 
 have a home and friends, and are doing well. 
 If I find any trace of John Thomas, I will send 
 a man to tell you, because, Nelly I think you 
 ought not to come to the ' Arethusa.' ' 
 
 " If ta doesn't want me to come, thou is 
 right to say so. I hev been knitting thee
 
 NELLY HA WORTH. 39 
 
 some gloves and hose for winter. There they 
 are, and a good-day to thee." She rose 
 proudly with the words, and pushed her little 
 present out of her reach. 
 
 " Nelly, stop. You do not understand me." 
 
 " Well enough, Captain. There's some 
 things women know by nature. Thou is too 
 soft to tell me thy mind, but ta thinks I hev 
 been a bit free. I wouldn't wonder if I hev, 
 to thy notion. New countries, new manners ; 
 but I meant nothing that a good lass might 
 not mean." 
 
 " I am sure of that, Nelly. And if I find 
 John Thomas I will give him a berth on the 
 'Arethusa.' Now good-morning." 
 
 " Will ta keep the bits of things I knit for 
 thee?" 
 
 " Glad to keep them, Nelly, and I will wear 
 them also. I am very much obliged to you, 
 Nelly." He rose with the words, and Nelly, 
 dropping a courtesy, went slowly up the com 
 panion-way. There was an expression of 
 wounded feeling and disappointment in her 
 face, which pained and annoyed the Captain. 
 He had been kind to the girl when she was in 
 great distress, and her gratitude, at first very 
 pleasant, had finally become a trifle embarrass 
 ing. He forgot that while he had many in 
 terests, poor Nelly was alone and friendless in 
 a strange country. 
 
 She had also lost track of her lover, and
 
 4 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Captain Bradford had offered to try and find 
 him, so that whatever of sentiment or romance 
 there was in Nelly's heart went out voluntarily 
 to one who had been her friend when she had 
 no other friend. Her Yorkshire nature and 
 training had also led her innocently into a 
 questionable position. She had never been 
 taught to think evil, or to suspect evil, where 
 no actual evil was apparent. But she had the 
 quick instinct of modesty, and she instantly 
 divined why Captain Bradford did not wish 
 her to come to the "Arethusa." His motive 
 was kind and right, and she acknowledged it ; 
 but still kind and right motives may, and do 
 very often, give a great deal of pain. 
 
 As she disappeared, Captain Bradford went 
 to the deck as if in a sudden hurry. He had 
 also an air of annoyance, and he put his hand 
 among his close brown curls and rumpled them 
 impatiently. Hitherto the visits of Nelly 
 Haworth had not worried him in any respect. 
 But he had met Virginia Mason, and many 
 things, once indifferent, had assumed import 
 ance. She had looked into his heart and puri 
 fied it ; and his love for her had exalted his 
 ideal of womanhood, and of the respect which 
 was its due. 
 
 After Nelly went, the day was long and 
 hard. He had no cause to reproach himself 
 about the girl, and yet her indignant, sorrow 
 ful face haunted him wherever he turned. It
 
 NELLY HA WORTH. 4 
 
 was not long before he resented this obstinate 
 intrusion, and this resentment was felt from 
 the stern to the bo\v of the "Arethusa." The 
 men who had begun the day singing and joking 
 were not able to continue it in the presence of 
 his silent attention to the business going on ; 
 and the sailors obeyed his decisive orders with 
 a prompt, attent obedience, which, had Vir 
 ginia been present, would have instantly re 
 called to her the comparison between the Cap 
 tain and the Roman centurion which John 
 Paul Keteltas had pleased himself with making. 
 " If the sun would only set ! " he muttered, 
 " I would go and see Jack. He says seven 
 o'clock, I think " ; and he took a slip of paper 
 from his pocket and re-read it : 
 
 Dear Marius : Come at seven. I am longing to see you. 
 1 have been to Philadelphia for the firm, and have just heard 
 of your arrival. Same place. JOHN RHEA. 
 
 The same place was a respectable house in 
 Rose Street, where the writer of the letter 
 lived. John Rhea and Marius Bradford had 
 had the same mother, and a long tie of 
 dependence and protection had made them 
 more than brothers. John was ten years 
 younger than Marius, and he owed to his elder 
 brother his education and the fine prospects 
 with which he was beginning life. And he 
 loved him truly ; not only with that affection 
 which a younger boy gives to his big brother, 
 but also with that admiring respect which is
 
 42 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 more like that given to a father. To John 
 Rhea, his brother Marius was the visible pre 
 sentment of all that was lovable and heroic ; 
 to Marius Bradford, his brother John was the 
 best-hearted, the cleverest, and the handsomest 
 young fellow in the world. 
 
 They met with an almost womanly embrace. 
 John kissed his brother's brown cheeks, and 
 held both his hands in his own like two child 
 ren playing. "Marius! Marius! Ycu are the 
 blessedest sight I have seen since you sailed 
 into last July's fog, and looked as big and 
 vapory as an Arabian genie. Let us have a 
 pipe, Marius. I have learned to smoke since 
 you were here." 
 
 " You might have learned something bet 
 ter and perhaps something worse. Say, 
 Jack, how like mother you do grow ! " 
 
 They were filling their pipes to the words,. 
 and they looked at each other for answer. 
 Then they pulled them into good condition, 
 and hitched their chairs closer. 
 
 " You seem to enjoy smoking, youngster ! " 
 
 "Who doesn't? It helps me every way. 
 My brain grows clear and my heart calm. I 
 wrote a song to my pipe last night, Marius 
 not a bad one, either." 
 
 " Poetry and law that won't do, Jack. 
 Let's heai the jingle, though. There never 
 was a poet in our house, nor among our kin 
 that I know of."
 
 NELLY HA WORTH. 43 
 
 Then Jack made a merry recitative to his 
 pipe, and Marius, with a pleased face, listened 
 to his homely laud : 
 
 MY LITTLE BROWN PIPE. 
 I have a little comforter 
 
 I carry in my pocket. 
 It is not any woman's face 
 
 Set in a golden locket ; 
 It is not any kind of purse ; 
 
 It is not book or letter ; 
 But yet at times I really think 
 
 That it is something better. 
 
 Oh, my pipe, my little brown pipe ! 
 
 How oft at morning early, 
 When vexed with thoughts of coming toil. 
 
 And just a little surly, 
 I sit with thee till things get clear 
 
 And all my plans grow steady, 
 And I can face the strife of life 
 
 With all my senses ready ! 
 
 No matter if my temper stands 
 
 At stormy, fair, or clearing, 
 My pipe has not for any mood 
 
 A word of angry sneering. 
 I always find it just the same 
 
 In care or joy or sorrow, 
 And what it is to-day I know 
 
 It's sure to be to-morrow. 
 
 It helps me through the stress of life, 
 
 It balances my losses, 
 It adds a charm to all my joys. 
 
 And lightens all my crosses. 
 For through its wreathing, misty veil 
 
 Joy has a softer splendor, 
 And life grows sweetly possible, 
 
 And love more truly tender.
 
 44 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Oh, I have many richer joys ! 
 
 I do not underrate them. 
 And every man knows what I mean 
 
 I do not need to state them. 
 But this I say I'd rather miss 
 
 A deal of what's called pleasure, 
 Than lose my little comforter, 
 
 My little smoky treasure. 
 
 "You have not put it badly, Jack, and what 
 you say is true enough from your point of 
 view. How like mother you do grow ! When 
 did you hear from home, Jack?" 
 
 " Last week. Everything goes on the same 
 there. Father is no better. He will never go 
 to sea again." 
 
 " Poor fellow ! Never go to sea again ! It 
 is as though the Almighty said to him, ' Im 
 prisonment for life, Abel Rhea.' You sent 
 him the money, and the tobacco, and the 
 bottles?" 
 
 " The day you left. Abigail Wood takes care 
 of him and the cottage. But if ever I have a 
 house of my own, the dear old man shall have 
 a share in it." 
 
 " That is right, Jack ; only, you might 
 marry a girl who is a bit above him, and she 
 wouldn't like it." 
 
 " Then she would be a bit above me, and so 
 the question would not come to issue." 
 
 " It is a blessed thing to be young, Jack, 
 and to have such enthusiasms ; as you grow 
 older "
 
 NELL Y HA WOR TH. 45 
 
 " I hope they will grow stronger." 
 
 " You have never been in love, Jack? " 
 
 " Never, that I know of." 
 
 Marius laughed a somber kind of laugh 
 and answered, " If you had ever felt love you 
 would know it." 
 
 " It isn't likely that you are that way ? " 
 
 " Well, it is. A young lady came over with 
 me this voyage, and I tell you, Jack, if I can 
 not get her for my wife, I do not care much 
 how soon I go to the bottom." 
 
 " Father and I being of no account at all. I 
 dare say she isn't worthy of you. First-rate 
 men generally fall in love with a poor kind of a 
 woman." 
 
 " You must not speak of her in that fashion, 
 Jack. I do not like it. She has not a fault, 
 that I can see." 
 
 " Pretty?" 
 
 " Pretty as a rose the fairest rose that ever 
 grew is nowhere near her. She is altogether 
 sweet and good. Have you passed your ex 
 amination yet ? " 
 
 " Yes, and a very good one, too. C. and C. 
 wish me to remain with them. They offer me 
 seven hundred dollars for the first year." 
 
 " Take it. You can live very well on seven 
 hundred dollars a year. Stay with a good firm, 
 and you will be counted one of them. And if 
 you fall short in money matters we have one 
 purse, have we not, Jack? "
 
 46 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " No one ever had a better brother than I 
 have, Marius." 
 
 " No two boys ever had a better mother. 
 She tied the knot between us. As for your 
 father, Jack, he is like my own a dear old 
 man ! Next summer we will go and see him." 
 
 " Our duty and pleasure both, Marius. His 
 rheumatism is very bad ; but Abigail says he 
 is quite happy because he has still the use 
 of his hands. He sits by the fire or in the 
 sunshine singing and making nets. Marius ! 
 Marius ! I thank you for this large life. But 
 for you I should have been away with the 
 whaleships." 
 
 Now, gratitude is the sweetest of heart 
 flowers ; so sweet that its perfume nearly al 
 ways draws forth a rain of happy tears. 
 Jack's words, solemn and tender, lifted both 
 into a higher atmosphere. They talked of 
 their dead mother, her heroic struggles and 
 hard life ; of their father, and his pluck, and 
 constant labor, and empty old age. And the 
 fret of the day fell off from the weary-hearted 
 Captain, in the realization that there is some 
 thing grander in life than life can give or 
 death can take away. 
 
 They spoke little after this, until their pipes 
 were out ; then the room, small and warm and 
 full of smoke, oppressed the man used to 
 chestfuls of rustling salt air, and he went to 
 the window and flung it open. His brother
 
 NELL Y HA WORTH. 47 
 
 followed, and made him observe a brick house 
 opposite. 
 
 " That is where the Tappan brothers live, 
 and that is Arthur Tappan at the door looking 
 at his roses." 
 
 " Tappan ? " 
 
 " The abolitionist. For that kindly-looking 
 gentleman the State of Georgia or of South 
 Carolina would give ten thousand dollars. 
 Either State would hang him with the great 
 est pleasure." 
 
 " If I were a slave owner I might feel that 
 way also. No man and no State likes to have 
 their domestic arrangements meddled with by 
 outsiders. If Tappan feels so badly about the 
 negroes, there are any number up North starv 
 ing and ignorant and going to the dev " 
 
 "But free, Marius free! England has just 
 set us an example by emancipating her slaves 
 in the West Indies." 
 
 " England be I beg your pardon, Jack ; 
 
 I leave England to the Almighty. But if 
 England is going to preach to us, and wash 
 her hands in our face, I for one will not listen 
 to her. I guess we can manage our own 
 affairs. Who are these Tappans ? " 
 
 " Wealthy silk merchants. The trouble has. 
 been brewing a long time. You remember the 
 rising of slaves under Nat Turner in Virginia 
 about three years ago ? " 
 
 " I remember the negroes killed more than
 
 48 SA-*' LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 sixty white women and little children. When 
 I heard that news, Jack, I was not much of an 
 abolitionist." 
 
 "The negroes must have had an excuse for 
 the deed." 
 
 " Don't talk to me that way, Jack, or you 
 and I will quarrel. Nothing but brutes kill 
 women and children." 
 
 "The 'Richmond Whig' said that another 
 uprising would deliver all blacks to the sword. 
 I suppose that meant black women and chil 
 dren." 
 
 " You have no precedent to suppose any 
 thing of the kind. The blacks were in no 
 danger. Men love their property too well to 
 destroy it. Every planter would have found 
 an excuse for his own slaves." 
 
 " The negro preachers make a deal of trou 
 ble ; they sow the seed the white abolitionist 
 gives them. Brodnax, in the Virginia Legis 
 lature, cried out ' that life was a burden to 
 the Southern planter ; that he was forced 
 to lock his doors at night, and open them 
 in the morning with a loaded pistol in his 
 hand.' " 
 
 " I am sorry for the Southern planter, but I 
 guess there is enough law in the land to re 
 move any evil. No need to take either the 
 sword or the pistol." 
 
 " Marius, do you think slavery right or 
 wrong ? "
 
 NELLY HA WORTH. 49 
 
 " I do not say the principle is right." 
 
 " Then if it is wrong, it cannot exist a mo 
 ment without sin. It ought to be abandoned 
 without regard to consequences. It is not a 
 political problem, it is a personal crime." 
 
 " If you want to know anything, address 
 yourself to a young man they can decide all 
 questions ! " Marius spoke with some warmth, 
 but the face of his brother, glowing with enthu 
 siasm, silenced him. He reflected instantly 
 that during our youth there is something in us 
 better than ourselves. It was easy to kill a 
 noble impulse, but in so doing he partially 
 killed the man. He was silent a moment, and 
 then said confidently : 
 
 "Jack, if abolition is right, it is of God, and 
 nothing on earth will stop it. You and I can 
 leave it in his hands. We have a foreign ele 
 ment here, who are ready for anything that 
 promises a chance for plunder or riot." 
 
 " I should say so. In Boston and Phila 
 delphia there has been hard work to keep it 
 down, and a small thing sways a city anyway. 
 At present the worst elements of New York 
 are fully occupied with boat racing. The river 
 steamers are running each other down for fifty 
 cents that is the fare to Albany, and the race 
 lasts all the way. You may judge what kind 
 of passengers they carry. Those who want to 
 stop at any intermediate place are in real 
 danger; the boats barely slow up, and they
 
 SO SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 and their baggage are flung out, with one 
 chance of reaching land and nine chances of 
 staying in the water." 
 
 " Why do New Yorkers tolerate such imposi 
 tion of private interests on public welfare ? " 
 
 " New Yorkers dearly love a race horse 
 race, boat race, money race, any kind of race. 
 You should see them on the Union track, 
 especially if it is a Southern mare against a 
 Northern one ! I have read of the English 
 Derby, and I suppose we get our hippie and 
 nautical inspiration that way." 
 
 They talked thus upon a variety of public 
 and private subjects, the one constantly drift 
 ing into the other, until about nine o'clock. 
 Then Marius had a sudden longing for motion, 
 and he bid his brother good-night. The streets 
 were flooded with moonlight, and very quiet 
 in that part of the town. He thought a 
 moment of his anchored ship, and she seemed 
 like a prison to him ; so he turned toward 
 Broadway and began to walk northward. 
 
 The beautiful dwelling-houses on each side 
 of the splendid thoroughfare were still open, 
 and in many of them there were signs of fes 
 tivity. The blaze of candles threw a glow upon 
 the pavement, and the moonlight sifted through 
 the shade trees, and mingled with it. Through 
 open windows the murmur of conversation and 
 the echoes of music and song floated. Broad 
 way was the favorite promenade, and it was by
 
 NELL Y JIA IVOR TH. 5 1 
 
 no means deserted. Many couples were stroll 
 ing in its pleasant lights and shadows, and now 
 and then a sailor, with his blue shirt open at the 
 throat, and his lass upon his arm, went down 
 the broad way singing "Alice Grey." 
 
 It was the song of the time. He had heard 
 his men drawling it on the mizzen-top and top 
 gallant, at the wheel and in the forecastle ; but 
 hitherto he had taken little note of it. It was 
 different now. He had fallen himself into a 
 condition which enabled him to divine that 
 sense of actual suffering in the commonplace 
 words which gave them in so many hearts a 
 pathetic echo. About Canal Street he stopped 
 to listen to a sailor lad rolling his way river- 
 ward to the complaining melody 
 
 She's all my fancy painted her, 
 
 She's lovely, she's divine ; 
 But her heart it is another's, 
 
 It never can be mine. 
 Yet loved I, as man never loved, 
 
 A love without decay ; 
 Oh, my heart ! my heart is breaking, 
 
 For the love of Alice Grey. 
 
 As he listened and let the mournful sylla 
 bles find their way into his own heart, he 
 heard the shouting and trampling of a noisy 
 crowd. The singer forgot his breaking heart 
 and ran riverward to meet it ; the Captain was 
 also instantly alert for the possible danger. 
 If the crowd should turn northward ? He
 
 5 2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 could think of only one house among the 
 many which might be in peril. For aught he 
 knew, Major Mason might be obnoxious to 
 the mob on the abolition question ; or if not 
 on that, on the English question, or the tariffs 
 or the Bank Charter. Tempers, in the heat 
 of the various discussions then pending, had 
 been burnt to tinder; a spark of any kind 
 would fire them. 
 
 He did not wait to see in which direction 
 the mob would move, but hasted up-town at a 
 rapid walk. At Spring Street he stopped to 
 listen. The crowd had evidently gone down 
 Broadway; a few scatterers from it were 
 noisily following him ; but they seemed good- 
 natured in their bluster and their hoarse 
 laughter, and he finally stayed a man, and 
 asked what the Canal Street crowd were 
 after? 
 
 "Good luck to ye, dear! We were aftef 
 having an illegant picnic up the river; racing 
 we were, all the way to Albany and back. A 
 lot of poor bodies on the ' Champlain,' and 
 ourselves on the ' Nimrod,' to their defiance. 
 And the ' Champlain ' pushing hard, but we 
 leaving her genteelly behint, and coming first 
 into dock. Glory be to the saints ! A great 
 race intirely." 
 
 " Was the ' Champlain ' far behind the 
 * Nimrod ' ? " 
 
 " The length of the ship itself and the
 
 NELL Y HA WORTH. 53 
 
 heart-scalded creatures crying for a fight on it ; 
 and ourselves shouting on the victory, and the 
 perlice nowhere, and not wanting to be any 
 where. Wur-rah ! it's myself that's tired with 
 the glory and honor " and he went onward 
 with his crushed hat on the top of his walking 
 stick, affronting the quiet night with a half 
 drunken crooning of a Whiteboy song. 
 
 Then Captain Bradford pursued his walk as 
 far as the Mason house. It was nearly ten 
 o'clock, and he had no other hope than that of 
 seeing the place. A man looks kindly at the 
 bank where he has a good deposit. A mother 
 looks fondly up to the window of her nursery. 
 A lover finds in the outside of the dwelling 
 which shelters his mistress an irresistible and 
 inexplicable charm. 
 
 There were lights burning, but the shades 
 were drawn, and the house was very still. He 
 resolved to indulge himself. He would walk 
 the block opposite it just twenty times, neither 
 more nor less ten times up, ten times down 
 and then go back to the "Arethusa." At 
 the third trip a carriage drove rapidly round 
 the corner, the front door opened, and he saw 
 Virginia standing in the lighted hall, with Jane 
 Keteltas-by her side. She kissed Jane fondly, 
 and walking to the door with her, watched the 
 carriage out of sight. 
 
 Now, if Marius had been strict with himself, 
 he ought to have been at the other extremity
 
 54 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 of the block ; but he began to loiter when he 
 saw the carriage, and he stood still when he 
 saw the door open. Then he made a new 
 bargain with himself : he would gaze at Vir 
 ginia until the last moment, and withdraw his 
 claim to the other seventeen trips. Even 
 while he was making it, Virginia moved 
 slightly. She was turning into the house, but 
 something arrested her. It was the ardent 
 gaze of her lover ; for no magnet is so power 
 ful as the human eye when it is full of purpose 
 or feeling. 
 
 Swiftly as a thought her eyes answered the 
 entreaty. She gazed forward, her vision 
 caught the vision that summoned it, and in 
 the bright moonlight, a figure so tall and so 
 conspicuous in its uniform could not be mis 
 taken. Marius lifted his cap, and on his out 
 stretched and upraised arm the moonlight 
 caught the glittering band. It flashed a 
 double recognition, and Virginia did not hesi 
 tate a moment to answer it. She sent a smile 
 across the empty street, and he caught the 
 glory and warmth of it in his heart. 
 
 A moment she stood with a charming and 
 conscious irresoluteness, and he divined that 
 she would not close the door while he lingered. 
 He lifted his cap again. She bent slightly 
 forward, and as he passed onward he heard 
 the door close, not as a careless heart would 
 close it, but slowly, with a soft reluctance.
 
 NELL Y HA WOR TH. 5 5 
 
 Oh, how glad and happy he was ! He 
 walked as if on air. He was conscious of no 
 effort, sensible of no fatigue. He only knew 
 that his steps kept time to some mysterious 
 music, that his lips kept constantly murmur 
 ing, " Oh, my love ! my love ! my love 1 "
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 JANE'S LOVER. 
 
 " The pleasure of pleasing is legitimate, and the desire tc 
 rule offensive." 
 
 " Politeness is the flower of humanity. He who is not polite 
 enough is not human enough." 
 
 " When Love begins to slacken and decay, 
 It uses an enforced ceremony; 
 There are no tricks in plain and simple faith." 
 
 THE little tableau which Captain Marius 
 had witnessed was not an unusual one. 
 When Jane stayed late with her friend, there 
 was an understanding that Virginia should 
 send her home. John Paul did not permit 
 his horses to leave their stable after the sun 
 had fallen, except on extraordinary occasions. 
 " They have done their day's work, and they 
 ought to have their night's rest," he always 
 said; "and if Jane is out amusing herself, 
 when she ought to be in her bed, the horses 
 are not to suffer. No, no ; one must be just 
 even to the dumb beasts." 
 
 On this day there had been so much to talk 
 about that ten o'clock had found Jane and 
 Virginia with still undiminished enthusiasm. 
 The morning had been devoted by Virginia
 
 JANE'S LOVER. 57 
 
 to the pleasant work of unpacking, and her 
 special treasures lay in rich confusion on the 
 bed, sofa, and chairs of her own room. Jane's 
 advent about noon was a real delight. The 
 two charming women went laughing up-stairs 
 together, and stood with admiring exclama 
 tions among the beautiful garments and adorn 
 ments Virginia had brought home. 
 
 For some time nothing else was thought of ; 
 but in a pause of their delightful examination, 
 Virginia asked, with a sudden curiosity, " Did 
 Mr. Forfar call on you last night ? " 
 
 " He never came near us. I kept on my 
 green silk, and was as cross and uncomfortable 
 as possibje. At tea-time father gave me one 
 sidelong look, and I felt like a fool, Virginia, 
 and not at all grateful to Mr. Forfar for the 
 experience. But he came this morning." 
 
 " He came this morning ? And were you as 
 pretty as possible ? " 
 
 " I did not want another look from father, 
 so I wore one of my usual morning gowns, 
 the 'prettiest I have, and I had a velvet band 
 around my brow and throat. My hair was 
 well dressed, and I have, as you may see, a 
 very good complexion to-day. He came 
 about ten. I was sitting at my worsted work, 
 and when he walked up the garden path I saw 
 him partially through the syringa bushes. Of 
 course I expected he would be brought to the 
 parlor at once ; but he must have asked for
 
 58 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 father, for he was taken to his business room, 
 and there he remained for two hours." 
 
 "Two hours, Jane ?" 
 
 "Two full hours. Dinner was nearly ready 
 when father brought him to the parlor. I was 
 on pins and needles by that time, and too 
 cross to lift my eyes, until father and Mr. For- 
 far stood at the frame-point. 'Jane,' said 
 father, 'here is Mr. Nigel Forfar. His father 
 was my friend, Jane, and I hope you and Nigel 
 will put another knot in the old tie.' What 
 could I do after that but rise and say some 
 thing cordial ? and I flashed him a look from 
 my eyes, as I lifted them, which is generally 
 successful." 
 
 " I have seen that flash, Jane. Could this 
 Southern gentleman resist it ? " 
 
 " He caught it in hfs own eyes, and flashed 
 it back on me. And such eyes, Virginia, I 
 never met so black, and so glowing ! ' I've 
 got my deathe with them,' as the old song 
 says." 
 
 She laughed, but there was something 
 troubled or serious below th^ affected mirth. 
 "He is very handsome, Virginia. You must 
 have thought so." 
 
 " He is tall and stately looking, and his face, 
 though swarthy, is finely formed. But his 
 manners are repellent, and every one on the 
 'Arethusa' thought his temper execrable." 
 
 " He disliked the captain."
 
 JANE'S LOVER. 59 
 
 " Disliked the captain ? How could any cne 
 do that ? " 
 
 " He said he was offensively authoritative 
 for the master of a mere packet ship." 
 
 " He had to be authoritative with Mr. Forfar. 
 The gentleman could not forget that he was a 
 slave owner. He wished the ship run to suit 
 his ways and likings, and treated Captain Brad 
 ford as if he was his property." 
 
 " Southern gentlemen are usually very haugh 
 ty. They have the habit of command from 
 their babyhood." 
 
 Then they should keep their habit at home 
 among their slaves. The captain of a mail 
 packet when once at sea allows no one to com 
 mand him ; and my father, and others on 
 board, regarded his pretensions as ridiculous, 
 and treated them with contempt." 
 
 " You need not get so angry about it, Vir 
 ginia ; and, really, I think Mr. Forfar must 
 have had a very unpleasant voyage." 
 
 " Very likely. I am quite sure his negro 
 valet did." 
 
 " And he says he does not think Captain 
 Bradford a good sailor." 
 
 " Captain Bradford is the best sailor that 
 crosses the Atlantic. Your father knows that. 
 Every one in Liverpool said so, and father and 
 I thought very highly of his seamanship. The 
 second night we were out, when off the coast 
 of Ireland, there was a storm. The captain
 
 6o SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 saw it coming, and he could have crept into a 
 small bay near us ; most sailors would have 
 done so ; but he set all sail and went out to 
 sea to meet the storm. That is Captain Brad 
 ford. Mr. Forfar was in his cabin ill with sea 
 sickness or fright." 
 
 " Oh, not fright, Virginia ! I am sure Mr. 
 Forfar is no coward." 
 
 " I do hope you are not going to fall in love 
 with this man, Jane. I am certain he will 
 make any woman miserable. He has an ill- 
 conditioned temper, exercising itself without 
 reason, and scolding on its own account." 
 
 " I am not afraid of him, Virginia, and you 
 see I am twenty-two years old." 
 
 Trten Virginia changed the subject. She 
 felt very kindly to Jane, and kindness is wis 
 dom. And she also knew that she was dis 
 posed to be unjust to Mr. Forfar. For, though 
 absent, he ruled her by the force of antipathy, 
 just as others possessed her by the force of 
 attraction. 
 
 The subject was not hard to change amid 
 the silks and laces, the fans and gloves, the 
 scarfs and scents, and jewelry of all kinds, by 
 which they were surrounded. Near ten o'clock 
 they began to realize that they had done noth 
 ing but admire and try effects, and tell and 
 listen to incidents connected with each sepa 
 rate purchase. Then the carriage was ordered, 
 and the pretty tableau enacted which sent
 
 JANE'S LOVER. 6 1 
 
 Marius Bradford back to the " Arethusa " in a 
 kind of mortal seventh heaven. 
 
 Virginia was also profoundly moved by the 
 event. That tall figure on the quiet moonlit 
 street, that momentary vision of the uncovered 
 head and gleaming cap, made her tremble 
 with a soft delight. She said a hurried good 
 night to her father, who was reading with 
 quiet smiles his installment of " Pickwick," 
 and then hastened to the solitude her heart 
 craved. With a careless movement she threw 
 aside some spangled gauzes, occupying the 
 chair which would give her the best view of 
 the spot upon which her lover had stood. 
 Her warm blushes tinged her cheeks with 
 loveliest color ; her eyes shone ; she was con 
 scious of a strange, sweet tenderness, new and 
 never felt before. Their transitory recogni 
 tion, though it had occupied but thirty 
 seconds, kept her waking for hours. Amid 
 the treasures of European markets she sat 
 indifferent, feeling that the little strip of rose 
 silk Marius was to match for her was of far 
 more importance. As the moon began to sink 
 she went softly to bed in its fading light, chill 
 and weary with that reaction which as surely 
 follows emotion as night follows day. 
 
 In the morning her first sense was one of an 
 noyance. The untidy room offended all her 
 instincts and habits. She reproached herself 
 for the babbling, useless day she had spent
 
 62 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 In its effects it had spoiled the pleasure she 
 derived from the unexpected sight of Marius. 
 How much sweeter to have dreamed herself to 
 sleep in a room spotless and orderly ! She 
 rose with determination in all her movements, 
 and began to put away and sort and side as 
 soon as it was daylight. Her moral nature 
 was too fine to endure disorder ; her spiritual 
 life too real not to be sensibly depressed by 
 its presence. 
 
 She worked steadily all day, and by the din 
 ner hour she had accomplished her aim ; the 
 room had regained its normal atmosphere of 
 purity and repose. Jane had not called, there 
 had been no delays, and she felt happy in the 
 sense of work accomplished. For a week af 
 terward there was bad weather, and she saw 
 nothing of her friend for girls did not then 
 have the penny post and messenger boys to 
 carry a thousand frivolous notes. They bore 
 the little uncertainties of their lives with 
 equanimity, trusting that all would turn out 
 well, and generally finding that it did so. 
 
 At length, one fine afternoon, she drove 
 over to the Keteltas house. Jane met her 
 with a slight embarrassment, and Virginia un 
 derstood the reason when she found Nigel 
 Forfar there. He had not approved of Vir- 
 . ginia on the ship, and he made her distinctly 
 feel that he did not approve of her as the 
 friend of the young lady whom he intended to
 
 JACK'S LOVER. 63 
 
 marry. It was in vain Virginia ignored her 
 previous experiences with the gentleman ; in 
 vain she told herself that a sea voyage generally 
 brought to the surface the unhumanized traits 
 in a man. Forfar seemed determined to wan, 
 tonly and willingly offend. 
 
 Assuming the Southern predilections of the 
 Keteltas household, he affected to feel it quite 
 in order to ridicule everything not Southern. 
 He complained that the City Hotel, at which 
 he was stopping, was conducted on the most 
 vulgar principles. " I am rung out of bed, and 
 rung in to every meal, as if I were a servant ; 
 and it is mine host's time, or else no other 
 time," he said indignantly. " As for dinner, 
 the most essential meal throughout the twenty- 
 four hours, it is eat in a hurry that is perfectly 
 disgraceful." 
 
 " There are so many essential things in a 
 New Yorker's twenty-four hours," said Vir 
 ginia. 
 
 He did not notice the apology, but walking 
 to the hearthrug as if it were an impregnable 
 vantage ground, continued : 
 
 " No gentleman eats amid rush and clamor. 
 And there is no conversation at table. If you 
 converse, you must lose your meal. In the 
 South our meals are taken in dignified repose ; 
 nothing is hurried ; even the soup has its proper 
 recognition." 
 
 " New York has no time for dignified din-
 
 64 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 ners, Mr. Forfar. Every one has something to 
 make, or something to learn, or something to 
 do ; people generally are apt to regard dinner 
 as a necessary but unfortunate waste of time." 
 
 "That is no excuse, Miss Mason. People 
 who do not pay attention to their meals will 
 transact all other affairs carelessly. They 
 should take a lesson from England on this 
 subject." 
 
 " New York is completely a la franqaise. 
 Paris is teaching us our paces." 
 
 "Then you will be led to revolution." 
 
 " We have been there." 
 
 " And to ruin." 
 
 " That is for our enemies." 
 
 "Pardon! I am committing an indiscre 
 tion, in talking of what ladies cannot under 
 stand." 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Virginia, and then, see* 
 ing the admiring and deprecating look on 
 Jane's face, she abandoned the controversy. 
 But every subject introduced tended toward 
 the same irritable point. Virginia lightly 
 skimmed the surfaces of events; Forfar would 
 neither see nor accept the social persiflage. 
 If they spoke of places both had visited in 
 Europe, Virginia's impressions were at once 
 assailed with realities. For the man had that 
 sort of learned stupidity which quotes books 
 and rests itself on figures and facts. 
 
 And after all, is there anything more power-
 
 JANE'S LOVER. 65 
 
 ful than stupidity? Wisdom is the little band 
 of pioneers, stupidity is the innumerable army. 
 Virginia could see that as Mr. Forfar quoted 
 Lord Melbourne and Mr. Peel, and fortified 
 himself with alps upon alps of statistics, Jane 
 was lost in admiration for a young man at once 
 so handsome and so undeniably clever. She 
 was not inclined to prolong such a visit. The 
 pain of disputing always exceeds its pleasure ; 
 it makes the mind deaf, and then it is best to 
 be also dumb. 
 
 Jane did not urge her to remain, though she 
 went to the door with her, and demonstra 
 tively pulled some late flowers and put them 
 into Virginia's girdle with a kiss. But she did 
 not speak of Nigel Forfar, and Virginia under 
 stood from her manner, not only that she had 
 determined to marry him, but also that she 
 had determined not to permit any unfavorable 
 discussion affecting her intention. 
 
 In this apparently ordinary and affectionate 
 parting, Virginia suffered a pang she had never 
 before felt the sense of a heart-snub, of de 
 sertion, of jealousy. Until she reached her 
 home she restrained the hot currents which 
 made her heart burn with anger and her eyes 
 fill with passionate tears. But the first mo 
 ments of her solitude were given up to uncon 
 trollable weeping. Jane, if she had not already- 
 done so, was quite ready to give up her friend 
 for her lover, and Virginia thought bitterly
 
 66 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 of this man, whom she had disliked on instinct, 
 taking her place in Jane's heart, and rifling it 
 gradually of all their sweet confidences and 
 little womanly secrets. 
 
 But there is always some comfort in every 
 trouble, if we will only look for it ; and in the 
 very tide of her sense of wrong, she remem 
 bered with a glow of satisfaction that she had 
 not uttered a word which could lead Jane to 
 suspect the love between Captain Bradford and 
 herself. 
 
 " What a wonder ! and what a piece of good 
 fortune ! " she said softly. " I never kept any 
 thing from Jane before. I told her all about 
 young Van Buren and Marcus White; but of 
 you, Marius ! " and she looked with large, ten 
 der eyes far away beyond mortal vision, " of 
 you, Marius, I never spoke at all ! " 
 
 Yet even with this source of comfort she was 
 greatly troubled, and her red eyes and look of 
 annoyance did not escape her father's notice. 
 But Major Mason was not a consolatory busy 
 body. He knew from personal experience how 
 much solace there is in those homely, orderly 
 duties which include the pleasure of others as 
 well as our own. He saw that her dinner in 
 his company, and her care for his satisfaction, 
 brought back her cheerfulness, and he quite 
 expected the confidence which came as they 
 quietly sat together in their after-dinner ses 
 sion.
 
 JANE'S LOVER. 67 
 
 " Father, put down your book ; I want to 
 talk to you a little." 
 
 " Would you like to go to the Park Thea 
 ter, Virginia ? I am at your service." 
 
 " No. I have been to a little play this 
 afternoon." 
 
 " A tragedy ? " 
 
 " It may turn out to be one. You know 
 how dearly I love Jane Keteltas. Once she 
 loved me, but now " 
 
 " Has she got a lover ? " 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Forfar." 
 
 " Then be content to resign her. A great 
 many women would prefer Mr. Forfar to a 
 lifelong friend." 
 
 " How can any woman like him ? He is so 
 domineering and so ill-tempered." 
 
 " They would look at his inches, at his aris 
 tocratic manner, and his really handsome face, 
 and ignore his ill temper. As for his com 
 manding way, women yearn naturally for a 
 master, and when they find one they are 
 happy to sing ' hosanna ' to him." 
 
 "Jane sang it in an adoring silence, nodding 
 her pretty head as chorus to all his assertions. 
 I came away before the play was over." 
 
 " Very proper. It is one of the most im 
 portant elements of good manners to know 
 when you personally are in the way." 
 
 " Father, be so kind as to close your book a 
 few minutes. I want you to comfort me
 
 68 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 about Jane. I think if she makes Forfar her 
 husband, she will make him her lord and mas 
 ter ; and he will be an unjust lord and a cruel 
 master." 
 
 " I am by no means sure, Virginia, that For 
 far will find a willing slave in your friend 
 Jane. I have a great respect for little, sandy- 
 haired women. It is the long, swan-necked 
 women who are easily cowed, and who fall 
 into fainting fits. A woman like Jane is usu 
 ally all sheer pluck." 
 
 " Do you put me among the swan-necked, 
 fainting tribe, father ? If you do, I consider 
 your theory without bottom. I should snap 
 my fingers at ,Mr. Forfar's commands. I 
 should contradict his authoritative assertions. 
 I should laugh at his pretensions." 
 
 "You are not in love with him. You do 
 not even admire him." 
 
 " Neither do you ' even admire him,' father. 
 Forfar is one of those people of whom we say 
 instinctively and emphatically, ' They are hate 
 ful and we hate them.' " 
 
 " Virginia ! " 
 
 " Excuse me, father. You may put the 
 sentiment in more Christian language, but the 
 sentiment is the same. There is a repulsive 
 atmosphere around Nigel Forfar that would 
 chill anything short of a mother's affection. I 
 wonder Jane is not sensitive to it." 
 
 " There may be a human chemistry to
 
 JANE'S LOVER. 69 
 
 account for it. Something is running in my 
 head from old school days, when I was taught 
 that two alien substances could be united by 
 a third that was sympathetic to both. Jane 
 and Nigel may be alien in their previous 
 separate conditions, but made one by the in 
 fluence of John Paul Keteltas, who is probably 
 sympathetic both with the young man and his 
 daughter." 
 
 " Chemistry may convince, but it does not 
 comfort. There is, however, some satisfaction 
 in Jane's small stature and sandy hair. You 
 are sure that they can be relied on, father?" 
 
 Major Mason laughed and closed his book, 
 with the air of a man who is conquered. 
 
 " I really do not know what to say, Virginia ; 
 I see in your case an evidence of persistence 
 in tall, slender women which might be fatal to 
 my hypothesis. Still, if you will consider it, 
 names are facts, and somehow imply the kind 
 of personality they stand for. What idea does 
 Delilah give you ? " 
 
 " I should think she was a tall, large woman, 
 with black velvety eyes and black hair. I 
 dare say she wore Tyrian purple, and many 
 gold ornaments about her throat and arms." 
 
 " I think you are right. If Delilah had been 
 a little woman, she would never have conde 
 scended to deceive Samson. She would have 
 taken him unshorn. Jael must have been a 
 large woman, or she would not have murdered
 
 7 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 her enemy sleeping. Judith's tactics would 
 never have suggested themselves to a little 
 woman, full of fire and force and passionate 
 recklessness. But I will tell you who was a 
 small, light-haired, probably freckled woman : 
 the Queen Jezebel the intrepid, courageous 
 partisan, who dared single-handed, and with a 
 great deal of success, the whole power of a 
 cruel and tyrannical priesthood. It is not very 
 orthodox, but I am not able to resist a sly 
 admiration for that clever little Phoeni 
 cian princess. Now, what do you think of 
 Jane ? " 
 
 " I think Janevj'\\\ perhaps hold her own 
 rights. But, father, in history and poetry, 
 large women seem to be the favorites. There 
 was Juno 
 
 " An ox-eyed, towering giantess. Any little 
 American girl would give her favors, and then 
 sail all round her." 
 
 "The Norse women, father? They were 
 large and stately, and they did whatever seemed 
 good in their own eyes." 
 
 " They are the exception that proves the 
 rule. They not only slashed their way 
 through history, but sat as queens over 
 their households." 
 
 " Perhaps I have a drop of the Norse elixir 
 in my blood." 
 
 " Very likely. The Masons come from a 
 part of Yorkshire in which the Norse settled.
 
 JANE'S LOVER. 7 1 
 
 But who has the formula of the elements 
 which are mingled potently in a fine nature ? 
 Have I satisfied you that if there should be 
 any struggle between Jane Keteltas and Nigel 
 Forfar, Jane will be very apt to give him a 
 deal of trouble? " 
 
 " But Love may tie both her will and her 
 hands. You know that you may kill a bird on 
 her nest, and she will not fly. Love has 
 clipped her wings." 
 
 " Nay, then, if you bring in Love, I have 
 nothing to say. Love sets all reason at 
 naught. I may as well go on with my book ; 
 an argument where Love intrudes is noth 
 ing but exceptions ; and the impossible is 
 precisely the thing most likely to hap 
 pen." 
 
 The comfort these reflections gave Virginia 
 was not great, but it was as much as people 
 ever receive from the discussion of probable 
 events. Mr. Mason left the unprofitable em 
 ployment with a little polite mental loitering, 
 but he was glad to reopen his new volume of 
 Lockhart's " Life of Scott," and put Jane 
 Keteltas out of his consideration. Virginia 
 went to her room earlier than usual. She 
 had a sense of deprivation and loneliness. 
 But a little reflection convinced her that 
 Jane's absorbing interest in Nigel Forfar was 
 only temporary. When the novelty of his 
 attentions was over, she would regain her
 
 72 .T.V/i LOl'ED A SAILOR. 
 
 influence over her. This hope somewhat com 
 forted her, for to be happy in life we must be 
 able bravely to blind ourselves. 
 
 Besides, when it came to thinking steadily of 
 her friend, she found it impossible. No matter 
 how often she brought back her mind to this 
 starting-point, in a few moments she found her 
 self following the " Arethusa." Jane was a 
 thousand leagues behind, and her heart was 
 full of the lonely man standing by the wheel 
 or the mainmast, or slowly pacing the deck. 
 
 She remembered one night when they were 
 just out of Liverpool, walking the deck with 
 her father and meeting him there. His face 
 was lifted to the rigging, where the boatswain 
 and two sailors were busy, and he stood aside 
 a little to let them pass more easily. In the 
 passing, her father said, " A fine night, Cap 
 tain " ; and the Captain lifted his cap and 
 answered: "A fine night, and a fine passage, 
 sir, if it so please God ! " She recalled every 
 detail of this meeting. She forgot Jane, and 
 Jane's probable fate, and, thinking of her own 
 lover with the fear and tenderness his constant 
 danger inspired, she went to sleep whispering 
 for him his own prayer " A fine passage, if it 
 so please God ! "
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A LITTLE LOVE AND A LITTLE MONEY. 
 
 " Cupid's fled, no man knows whither ; 
 But another Cupid's come, 
 With a brow of care and gloom, 
 Fixed upon the earthly mold, 
 Thinking of the sullen gold, 
 In his hand the bow no more, 
 At his back the household store 
 That the bridal gold must buy." 
 
 " The world is too much with us, late and soon ; 
 Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." 
 
 FOR a few weeks there was no great appa 
 rent change in the lives of Virginia Mason 
 and Jane Keteltas, yet from the seed of events 
 sown it was easy to predicate the future. For 
 unavoidably in all our plans we prophesy in 
 part ; the action of to-day generates the ac 
 tion of to-morrow ; and the thing we intend 
 brings with it a host of things we did not in 
 tend ; and in this twilight of perception the 
 best and the wisest have to labor. 
 
 The fortunes of Jane and Nigel Forfar were, 
 however, perceptibly moving onward to a well- 
 defined end. Jane was deeply in love with the 
 young Southerner, and Nigel appeared to be 
 fascinated by Jane's fair beauty and intellectual 
 73
 
 74 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 brightness. Evidently the course of this true 
 love was destined to run smoothly, with the 
 exception of such gusts and glooms as arose 
 from the tyrannical temper of Nigel, and 
 Jane's rebellions against it. 
 
 In their courtship, Virginia, though she was 
 unaware of it, had become a prominent ele 
 ment. She was the hinge on which their 
 veiled battle for supremacy turned. To spend 
 a day with her friend was Jane's way of de 
 claring her independence of thought and 
 action. Every such occasion gave Nigel a fit 
 of jealousy. He could not endure that the 
 woman he loved should care for the love of 
 any other creature but himself. " Am I not 
 sufficient?" he asked on every such offense; 
 and sometimes Jane said he was, and some 
 times she said he was not. 
 
 Virginia did not suffer as much in the un 
 certainty of her friend's visit as she would 
 have done had the change taken place a little 
 earlier. The hours that had been brightened 
 by Jane's visits and chatter were very agree 
 ably given to quiet dreams and memories of 
 Marius Bradford. Her father also claimed a 
 larger portion of her time and sympathy. He 
 was gloomy with a sense of coming events, 
 which, though uncertain, were portentous 
 because of their uncertainty. A feeling of re 
 sponsibility quite strange to her deadened, 
 like a soft pedal, the joyousness of her natural
 
 A LITTLE LOVE AND A LITTLE MONEY. 75 
 
 temper ; and her father's depression stole over 
 her life as silently and unconsciously as a fog 
 steals over the meadows. 
 
 The symptoms of this change began im 
 mediately after their return from Europe. 
 She remembered the first shadow of it. Fanny 
 Kemble was playing " The Stranger," and her 
 representation of Mrs. Haller had roused a 
 deep enthusiasm in New York. Virginia had 
 a singular reluctance to see her. Either 
 through a dream or a presentiment, or in some 
 occult way of soul-prescience, she had con 
 ceived a superstitious feeling against the play. 
 But she was ashamed to express her unreason 
 able fear, and reluctantly permitted her father 
 to take her to its last representation. Noth 
 ing particular seemed to occur, and yet 
 the connecting links between events are 
 as mysterious as those between trains of 
 thought. 
 
 In one of the intervals between acts Joseph 
 Cruger, of the law firm of " Gushing & 
 Cruger," said a few words to Major Mason. 
 Virginia did not hear their import, but she 
 saw that her father was much annoyed. 
 Generally she did not scruple to make in 
 quiries, but in this case it was not until the 
 following morning she felt able to ask : 
 
 " What did Mr. Cruger say to you last 
 night, father? I am sure it was something 
 disagreeable."
 
 76 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 "Something disastrous, Virginia. He told 
 me that stocks in which I am greatly inter- 
 ested have had a heavy fall, and, moreover, 
 that those abolition fanatics are making 
 trouble again, just when we have trouble 
 enough without their nonsense." 
 
 At this moment a visitor was announced, 
 who on entering presented a letter to Major 
 Mason. He was a very handsome young 
 man, and had a striking likeness to Captain 
 Bradford. Virginia walked to a window 
 overlooking Broadway, and speculated upon 
 this likeness. Had Captain Bradford a 
 brother ? She ransacked her memory for 
 some definite answer to the question, and she 
 had almost persuaded herself that a brother in 
 New York had been named to her, when she. 
 heard her father say to the stranger: 
 
 " Give this letter to any member of the firm. 
 Good-morning, Mr. Rhea." Then he turned 
 to Virginia and said, " We cannot do the shop 
 ping I intended to-day. I am needed down 
 town on business, Virginia." 
 
 " Then I will go and see Jane. I am afraid 
 you have bad news, father." 
 
 " I do not know how bad yet, so we will not 
 talk of it at the worst, a few thousands, and 
 we can still live without them." 
 
 The words haunted her as she walked slowly 
 up Broadway to Fourteenth Street. She was 
 old enough to understand that the loss of a few
 
 A LIT7^LE LOVE AND A LITTLE MOXEY. Ti 
 
 thousands might entail all the misery of large 
 wishes and means that did not go their length. 
 The gray, cold, somber day was in sympathy 
 with her mood. On either hand the gardens 
 had been laid waste by the frost, and the 
 trees above them blown thin by the winds. 
 Northward, the fields rolled away bare and 
 brown and desolate. It was only when she- 
 cast her eyes on the pleasant dwellings, with 
 their separate airs of comfort and elegance, 
 that she began to reason away her drifting 
 melancholy thoughts, and assure her heart that 
 sinceniothing can be accidental with God all 
 must be foreseen and provided for) 
 
 It was near noon when she arrived at the 
 Keteltas garden gates. John Paul had a 
 Dutchman's instinct about flowers and shrubs, 
 and his plot was still pleasant with Michael 
 mas daisies, rosemary, and hardy plants. The 
 fallen leaves had been removed, the dead vines 
 burned, the evergreens carefully attended to. 
 For in every season Keteltas got all the profit 
 and pleasure possible out of his flower plot 
 In a few years he knew that it would be too 
 valuable to grow roses and dahlias ; but until 
 the land came to its maturity of value, he was 
 disposed to grow the finest of roses and dah 
 lias, and to grow them abundantly. He had 
 bought it by the acre ; when he could sell it by 
 the square foot, the flowers would vanish from 
 it forever.
 
 78 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 He was walking about its firm, clean paths 
 when Virginia entered. His peering glance 
 and stoop forward arrested her steps. " Where 
 is Jane?" she asked, almost mechanically. 
 
 " Come, come ! you must find out where 
 Nigel Forfar is. Jane will be wherever it suits 
 the young man to be. She lives and moves 
 and has her being in him. Women never do 
 but they overdo ; never love but they over- 
 love." 
 
 " I think men should hardly complain of 
 that, Mr. Keteltas; if it be, as you say, that 
 Heaven made woman for man." 
 
 " Did I say that ? Then I was talking like 
 the foolish ones. But if Heaven did so, it was 
 while man was asleep. Had he been awake, 
 my dear, he would have put in a demurrer. 
 Go your ways in-doors ; Nigel and Jane are not 
 far off." 
 
 She found them in the ordinary parlor. 
 They were sitting on a sofa studying a map of 
 the United States. There are men who can 
 never take a journey without studying it on a 
 map, and Nigel Forfar was one of them. He 
 had the course marked out to Washington, 
 and in his pocket-book the probable stopping- 
 places and expenses. He had been all the 
 morning busy with such calculations, and was 
 not in the least tired. But Jane was exceed 
 ingly weary, and Virginia's entrance gave her 
 the longed-for opportunity of desertion.
 
 A LITTLE LOVE AND A LITTLE MONEY. 79 
 
 , " We are arranging our bridal journey, Miss 
 Mason," said the prospective husband. He 
 evidently thought that this explanation would 
 be regarded by Virginia as a polite dismissal. 
 But Jane had arrived at the point of rebellion, 
 and she had risen to meet her friend, and was 
 helping her to uncloak with all those sweet 
 formalities native to girls who are confidential 
 with each other. Their faces touched, they 
 whispered and laughed to the whisper, they 
 went to the mirror together, they kissed and 
 embraced, and were excessively affectionate ; 
 first, because it really pleased them to be so ; 
 second, because both enjoyed the fact that it 
 displeased Nigel Forfar. 
 
 After a little while they left him alone with 
 his map and his pocket-book, and went to 
 Jane's room. There three dressmakers were 
 at work, and every place was a litter of .silks 
 and bombazines, India muslins and Saxony 
 cloth. Then the great secret came out : 
 " Virginia, I am to be married at Christmas. 
 Nigel wants to go South, and I do believe he 
 is afraid to leave me under your influence. 
 He considers it demoralizing." 
 
 " He is very ungrateful. Several times on 
 the ' Arethusa ' he would have been publicly 
 reproved by the Captain but for my influence." 
 
 " Very impertinent of the Captain, I think." 
 
 " Are you actually going to trust yourself 
 with Mr. Forfar? I do not like this sudden
 
 8o SHE LOVED A SAILOF. 
 
 hurry, Jane. When you spoke of your marriage 
 a week ago, it was to be in May." 
 
 " Nigel has reasons for returning South, and 
 he does not wish to leave me. He supposes I 
 have no objections, and father thinks well of 
 the change." 
 
 " Mr. Forfar has a fathomless complaisance." 
 
 "Well, Virginia, we cannot escape either our 
 fate or our fate day. Nigel says he is sure our 
 marriage was ordained in heaven. He believes 
 everything is foreordained." 
 
 " That is a poetic fancy, Jane. If Nigel had 
 not come to see you, where would Fate be ? 
 Fate was at the mercy of this man's caprice, at 
 the mercy of a score of other circumstances. 
 No lover preordained by Fate for me." 
 
 " I do not think you are talking nicely, Vir 
 ginia. There is fate in marriage. Father says 
 so, also. If Fate does not bring you a husband, 
 what then ? " 
 
 " Love will bring me one. He will see that 
 we meet in some happy, unaware hour. As for 
 a short engagement " 
 
 ' ; It is better than a never ending one." 
 
 " And yet it cannot help having a flavor of 
 business and furniture and dress about it.' 
 
 " Well, it matters little to me ; and Nigel 
 says it makes a great deal of difference to him. 
 Nigel has a great many objections to a long 
 engagement." 
 
 " I have no doubt. He is methodical, and
 
 A LITTLE LOSE AND A LITTLE MONEY. 81 
 
 dancing attendance on you tumbles his plans 
 upside down. He is selfish, and he is com 
 pelled to make continual sacrifices. He is 
 proud and shy, and hates to be exhibited as an 
 engaged man. He is greedy, and looks upon 
 the presents he makes you as so much tribute 
 money. He is practical and business-like, and 
 would prefer to reduce the poetry of marriage 
 to a question and a ceremony. My dear Jane, 
 forgive me ! I do not like this hurry. Put 
 Forfar off until the spring. No one knows what 
 may happen before May." 
 
 " You are cruel, Virginia. You know I love 
 Nigel, and he does love me. Every one has 
 their own way of loving. You are so unjust to 
 Mr. Forfar. He says you are his enemy. He 
 feels it, Virginia and so do I." 
 
 She was crying a little, and Virginia was im 
 mediately angry with herself. What good was 
 there in telling people unpleasant truths? 
 And, after all, Forfar as a lover was entirely 
 out of her judgment, Love being a purely per 
 sonal poem, and having no obligation to be 
 intelligible or interesting to others. 
 
 She took her friend in her arms and kissed her 
 little pretense of tears away. Then, as they 
 turned over new garments and discussed the 
 perennial beauty of fashion, they grew r once 
 more loving and confidential. And Virginia 
 having abandoned her position, Jane was en 
 abled to presume a great deal more than she
 
 82 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 would otherwise have done. She took her re 
 venge in a continual covert praise of her lover, 
 she associated him with all her hopes and plans 
 of happiness, she quoted him as continually in 
 dorsing or dissenting from Virginia's own opin 
 ions. It was a rather conscious fantasia on 
 dress and Nigel Forfar. 
 
 In a couple of hours the feeling was over 
 strained. Jane was weary of her own triumph, 
 Virginia depressed with the effort to be sym 
 pathetic and enthusiastic. They went down 
 stairs and found that Nigel had left on some 
 flimsy pretense ; and Jane, in her heart, blamed 
 Virginia for her lover's defection. No effort 
 was made to detain her, and she said " good- 
 by " with a conscious constraint, and passed 
 into the street. It had, to her, a dull, wretched 
 look ; the men and women on it wore anxious 
 faces. She did not reflect that she saw every 
 thing through herself, and that it was the 
 shadow of her own mood which darkened both 
 nature and humanity. 
 
 Her spirits rose when she passed within the 
 portals of her home. Outside there was vari 
 ableness and many shadows of change and 
 turning; but Home was life's standing pleas 
 ure. She hasted to her room ; she shook off, 
 she washed off the very dust of the unhappy 
 day; she clothed herself in fresh garments, 
 and went down to meet her father suffused 
 with the elements of serenity and hope.
 
 4 LITTLE LOVE AND A LITTLE MONEY. 83 
 
 The Major had also suffered from a day full 
 of contradictious events ; she perceived this, 
 though culture and the habit of social restraint 
 prevented any expression of it during the ser 
 vice of dinner. To the faint tinkle of the 
 crystal and china and the leisurely movements 
 of the soft-footed servant, he spoke of the new 
 opera house, of the prima donna, of Mr. Clay 
 and Mr. Everett's visit, and of a large dinner 
 to be given them by Chancellor Kent ; and 
 suddenly, as he moved away from the table, of 
 the "Arethusa." 
 
 "The 'Sully' arrived this morning, Vir 
 ginia, and reports the ' Arethusa ' in her 
 wake." 
 
 Virginia blushed vividly ; that beautiful 
 blush which modesty drops between the eyes 
 and the feelings ; that effectual, marvelous veil 
 which keeps the senses circumspect and pre 
 serves youth from stepping out of its igno 
 rance and interrupting its happiness. Virginia 
 was full of joy and longing at the few casual 
 words uttered with so much indifference ; and 
 yet she was startled at the near approach of 
 love ; and her instinct was to fly from what 
 she most desired. 
 
 Fortunately, the movement from the table 
 and the walk across the hall into the parlor 
 hid all her timidity and embarrassment ; and 
 as she took her place on the hearth by her 
 father's side, she answered :
 
 84 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " I am glad the ' Arethusa ' will soon be 
 here. Captain Bradford brings me, I hope, 
 some silk I require to finish my dress for 
 Jane's wedding, and, as she is to be married 
 at Christmas, very little time is left to " 
 
 " You amaze me ! I thought Mr. Forfar 
 was going South until May." 
 
 " He has changed his mind ; and Jane has 
 given way to him. She says her father also 
 thinks well of an early marriage. What can a 
 girl do when her lover and father both urge ? 
 I am sure she will be disappointed in one re 
 spect : she has always declared in favor of a 
 magnificent wedding ceremony, and in so 
 much hurry it is impossible. If her mother 
 had been alive, she would have opposed such 
 imprudent haste." 
 
 " I have heard some rumors lately of Mr. 
 Keteltas and the widow Jay. It is three 
 years since Mrs. Keteltas died ; he may really 
 be thinking of his own affairs. Have you 
 heard any particulars concerning Jane's mar 
 riage ? " 
 
 " She promised to come here to-morrow and 
 tell me all the arrangements. They were not 
 quite completed to-day. Two months ago I 
 was her chief counselor. She would have 
 nothing I did not approve; and this afternoon 
 she was shy and reticent, and I think not very 
 sorry to see me go away. So much for friend 
 ship, father!"
 
 A LITTLE LOVE AND A LITTLE MONEY. 85 
 
 " Women's friendships are but pretty bows 
 of ribbon a lover easily unties them." 
 
 " Oh, indeed, father! I think they are of as 
 good material as men's friendships. You were 
 speaking last week of Mr. Drayton's friend, 
 who led him purposely into a rotton specula 
 tion. And there was Mr. Ogden's friend, who 
 used against him all the facts confided to him 
 In trust ; and Captain Dawson's friend, who 
 borrowed his money and then stole his daugh 
 ter. Neither hooks of steel or gold will now 
 grapple a friend to you. And I think men are 
 quite as faithless as women." 
 
 "Nevertheless, there is no David and Jona 
 than among women." 
 
 " And it is very little to men's credit that 
 "hey have to go back so far for an example of 
 masculine loyalty. Have you nothing fresher? 
 T dare say, also, that the ancient article in 
 friendship was just as false as the modern. 
 David himself, who really seems to have had a 
 capacity for friendship, complains of his own 
 familiar friend lifting up his heel against him. 
 And remember Caesar and Brutus, father." 
 
 " Politically, Virginia, men are often obliged 
 to be unfriendly to those they love. I am sure 
 that President Jackson suffers in the course he 
 feels himself compelled to take." 
 
 " On the contrary, I think he positively en 
 joys putting his will against the will and the 
 interests of the whole American people. I
 
 86 SHE LOFED A SAILOR. 
 
 heard Mr. Keteltas railing at him in good set 
 terms to-day." 
 
 At this moment Mr. Keteltas entered the 
 room. He came in crisp with the frosty air, 
 rosy as a winter apple, his shrewd smile and 
 peering bright eyes making quite a remarkable 
 impression above his white neckcloth and 
 primrose-colored vest. 
 
 " How are you, Major ? I heard you were 
 deep in the Delaware and Hudson stock ; also 
 in Camden and Amboy. I hope I have heard 
 a false report." 
 
 " I am sorry to admit that you have not, Mr. 
 Keteltas." 
 
 "Eh, what do you say? For my part, I 
 think the Creator was ill off for a turn of work 
 when he made Andrew Jackson. Why cannot 
 he let Biddle and the Bank alone ? Great fish 
 he is after ; but great fish break the net, and if 
 he ruins the Bank, he ruins the country also." 
 
 " President Jackson is my friend, Mr. Ketel 
 tas. He is actuated by the loftiest patriot 
 ism. You must think so if you consider the 
 subject." 
 
 " I, and men in general, think as our purses 
 think, Major. It is well known that Jackson 
 hates Biddle, and when Jackson hates he is 
 like an Indian on the war-path. He is bent on 
 Biddle's ruin, and quite ready to ruin the coun 
 try if he cannot accomplish it without." 
 
 '' Sir, the Bank of the United States has
 
 A LITTLE LOVE AND A LITTLE MONEY. 87 
 
 been too long the keeper of the public money. 
 It has used it to corrupt the political institu 
 tions of the country. It wants a new charter. 
 If it retains the public money, it can buy 
 up all Congress ; it can buy any privilege it 
 desires, with the public funds." 
 
 " The President has his veto." 
 
 " What can the veto avail against millions 
 of money ? Are our free institutions to fall un 
 der the dictation of a moneyed combination? " 
 
 " I will take leave to say that a moneyed 
 combination is better than the will of Andrew 
 Jackson and his Napoleonic ideas of his own 
 authority." 
 
 " Andrew Jackson has a great deal of plain 
 common sense." 
 
 " That is the popular nonsense talk. And 
 common sense is the most pernicious of doc 
 trines on questions of banking and currency." 
 
 " Men of your ideas, Mr. Keteltas, want a 
 banker in the Presidency." 
 
 "And it is my opinion that a banker would 
 be better than a mere fighter. Jackson's idea 
 of ruling is force of some kind or other." 
 
 " Force and right rule all things in this 
 world ; force before right arrives. But we for 
 get my daughter, Mr. Keteltas ; she does not 
 understand or feel any interest in this conver 
 sation. To-morrow I will convince you of 
 your error." 
 
 "Yes, yes, I was not thinking of Miss Vir-
 
 88 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 ginia, and she must kindly excuse me the 
 oversight. Indeed, I must be away, for I 
 promised a fair friend to go to the theater 
 with her a foolish thing for me to do." 
 
 " We all fall into temptation sometimes, 
 Mr. Ketaltas." 
 
 " That is so. Well, Major, I came to give 
 you good advice ; do not sell ; stocks will rise 
 again. If I can be of use in any way, my 
 name is John Paul Keteltas, and it is at your 
 service." 
 
 He was at the door of the room as he said 
 the words, and Major Mason followed him 
 with a frank and conspicuous pleasure. 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Keteltas," he said. 
 " When I have forgotten the strait that 
 brought your offer, I shall still warmly remem 
 ber the kindness that brought you here to say 
 those words." And John Paul went away 
 blushing at his own generosity, and feeling a 
 most unusuai glow as he walked with quick 
 ened steps toward the house of the widow 
 Jay in Spring Street. 
 
 For a few moments Major Mason had risen 
 above the strata of his anxieties. The little 
 breath of sympathy had been grateful to him ; 
 for he had one of those fine natures that are 
 capable of receiving a kindness a far rarer 
 excellence than that of doing one. He re 
 turned to his daughter with a smile over his 
 face, and, as he bent over the fire, said :
 
 A LITTLE LOVE AND A LITTLE MONEY. 89 
 
 " This was an unusual effort for Mr. Ketel- 
 tas to make, Virginia. How much better are 
 men than they themselves know ! " 
 
 " He never named his daughter. This quar 
 rel between the President and the Bank seems 
 to fill every man's measure of feeling. Is it 
 really such an important affair, father? " 
 
 " It has, at least, Virginia, that atmosphere 
 about it which we call the spirit of the time ; 
 and as long as it magnifies the subject, we shall 
 be deceived both as to its truth and its impor 
 tance. In the interim many will suffer, and 
 there will be dissension and bitter feeling." 
 Then, seeing that he had an interested lis 
 tener, he explained the quarrel in words 
 which he considered suitable to a woman's 
 comprehension of national and monetary 
 affairs. 
 
 " The United States Bank has been for 
 many years the place of deposit for the money 
 belonging to the Government. It has become 
 enormously wealthy and enormously powerful. 
 It is said to use its wealth for political pur 
 poses. Its first charter is nearly out. It nat 
 urally wants a new charter, and it has money 
 enough to buy every vote in Congress." 
 
 " Every vote that is buyable, you mean, 
 father?" 
 
 " Certainly. We must suppose there are 
 men whom no money could buy. Neverthe 
 less, it is asserted that Webster's checks for
 
 9 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 five thousand dollars have been honored when 
 he had not a dollar in the bank. You can 
 see how such an institution, having million- at 
 its command, hampers the Government ; is 
 stronger than the Government ; is the Govern 
 ment. Jackson regards it as a Babylonish 
 monster of iniquity, and believes its power to 
 be destructive to all constitutional liberty. 
 He has said it shall never be rechartered, and 
 it never will be. He has already begun to 
 remove the Government deposits, and to put 
 them in other banks. These favored banks are 
 in collision with the branches of the United 
 States Bank ; and in consequence there is an 
 awful scarcity of money, and great distress 
 among merchants who need credit to sustain 
 them. Stocks of every kind have fallen ; good 
 notes can hardly be discounted at nine per 
 cent., and I am afraid, Virginia, that this is 
 only the beginning of the trouble. But, in 
 deed, my dear girl, as you cannot help af 
 fairs in any way, you might just as well not 
 make yourself anxious about them." 
 
 "But they make you anxious, father ; and 
 whatever does that I must feel." 
 
 " Let us have a game of chess. You shall 
 be the United States Bank and I will be 
 General Jackson." 
 
 "You know you will checkmate me in a 
 dozen moves." 
 
 " That will carry out the proposition. The
 
 A LITTLE LOVE AND A LITTLE MONEY. 91 
 
 Bank is already checkmated in Jackson's mind. 
 He has only the moves to make." 
 
 Chess or conversation, it was the same ; no 
 subject long dismissed the central one ; and 
 the Major, having explained it to his daughter, 
 now felt at liberty to go on amplifying his 
 explanations. Virginia dutifully tried to un 
 derstand and to sympathize ; but, after all, the 
 long talk about deposits, discounts, and stocks 
 did not touch her half so sensibly as the com 
 mon words of loss and poverty which had 
 fallen from her father's lips in the morning: 
 " A few thousands, and we can still live with 
 out them." That simple resignation to a cur 
 tailed life brought the Bank trouble very close 
 to her comprehension. 
 
 She was weary and thoughtful, but the near 
 ness of the " Arethusa " filled her with tremu 
 lous hopes and happiness. She was sure that 
 her lover was at hand. And, as Love takes 
 the character of the souls into which it enters, 
 Marius had grown insensibly to harmonious 
 excellence in Virginia's imagination. She had 
 given to him the charm of her own nature 
 the charm of delicacy undulled ; of a mind 
 nimble and flexible, loving with an eternal 
 uprightness, always faithful and affectionate. 
 
 They played three games, and she' was con 
 scious of a superstitious disposition to fairly 
 beat her antagonist. But even in mock war 
 fare General Jackson's good fortune was vie-
 
 92 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 torious. Both sighed at the result. "The 
 Bank goes," said the Major. " That thin, stern 
 old man is its Fate. It will crumble before 
 him." He took his book and drew nearer to 
 the fire. There were no other words but " good 
 night " to say, and they fell with an uncon 
 scious sadness from Virginia's lips. 
 
 She saw that her father wished to be alone, 
 but she could not really leave him. Into the 
 solitude of her room she took the memory of 
 his pale, thoughtful face. She understood that 
 he was bravely and quietly facing financial 
 ruin, because he believed his private loss would 
 help the public gain. And it was no wrong to 
 him that, in the living, loving alcove of her 
 heart, she gave another a place very near to 
 him the young, handsome sailor, outriding; 
 wind and waves, and carrying his precious 
 fate of human life safely from shore to shore. 
 
 It was her custom always to read the pray 
 ers for the evening service. But she had now 
 come to one of those straits in life's journey 
 where humanity feels the need of something 
 closer and more personal than the general form. 
 Humbly kneeling, she read the wofds with a 
 reverent spirit, and then silently let that holy 
 imagination which is the eye of the soul rise 
 beyond the words. Then she was strengthened 
 and comforted ; for God listens to thoughts 
 and feelings, and inward words are the words 
 he hears.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LOVE'S RENUNCIATION. 
 
 " Now too the joy most like divine, 
 
 Of all I ever dreamt or knew, 
 To see thee, hear thee. call thee mine, 
 Oh, misery ! must I lose that, too?" 
 
 " For money, like the sword of kings, 
 Is the last reason of all things." 
 
 " And Circumstance, that unspiritual god 
 And miscreator, makes and helps along 
 Our coming evils, with a crutch-like rod." 
 
 AT sunset on this same evening, while Vin 
 ginia was casting off from her the influ 
 ence of the day's worry and dissatisfaction, the 
 " Arethusa" came to anchor in the bay. Her 
 passengers were removed on a small steamer, 
 but Captain Bradford did not leave his ship. 
 He was in high spirits, for he had the hope of 
 very soon seeing the woman whom he loved 
 with an entire and sacred affection. 
 
 He was sitting in placid happiness enjoying 
 the quiet cabin, when he heard a merry laugh 
 that went to his heart like music. 
 
 "Why, Jack!" he cried, as the young man 
 came with a glowing face to his side, " I did 
 not expect to see you to-night." 
 93
 
 94 SHE LOVED A BAILOR. 
 
 "A boat going down the river took me in; 
 and I knew you would get me back somehow 
 early in the morning; and, oh, Marius! I did 
 want to see you so much." 
 
 " Nothing wrong, I hope, Jack ? " 
 
 " Why do people in uncertainty always sus 
 pect wrong before right ? No, there is noth 
 ing at all wrong, Marius." 
 
 "Something pleasant, then ?" 
 
 " Yes, something wonderful, something de 
 lightful, something sweeter than you can im 
 agine. 
 
 " Why, Jack ! You never can have dared to 
 fall in love again." 
 
 " I am fathoms deep, I am unfathomably 
 deep in love. I am over head and heart. I 
 am the happiest and the most unhappy man in 
 New York." 
 
 He looked straight into his brother's eyes 
 with a frankness that in some way expressed 
 all he wished to. 
 
 "You are a most imprudent young man, 
 then. How are you going to live on seven 
 hundred dollars a year?" 
 
 " I have not come to that question yet, 
 Marius. When I do, I shall very likely have 
 a much larger income. You see the lady is a 
 good deal above me socially." 
 
 " You always were one to look upward, 
 Jack. Now, who is it? You must tell me 
 everything or nothing."
 
 LOVE'S RENUNCIATION. 95 
 
 " Do you remember the Miss Mason who 
 came back from Europe with you ? why, it 
 was on the last trip of the ' Arethusa.' That 
 is the reason I could not wait an hour to see 
 you. I thought you could tell me something 
 about her that I could talk of her to you. 
 Oh, Marius! I love her! I love her better 
 than my own life " 
 
 While he was speaking Marius rose and pre 
 tended to look for his pipe. If his brother 
 had struck him, he could not have felt the 
 blow more keenly, even in a physical sense. 
 He was sick, faint, blind ; he reeled like a 
 drunken man, and could find nothing but 
 a rough ejaculation to relieve the terrible 
 mental shock, and equally terrible physical 
 recoil. 
 
 But Jack was possessed by the selfish pas 
 sion of a lover. He perceived nothing of his 
 brother's misery ; he was only a trifle annoyed 
 at what he thought the " indifference " to his 
 own condition. Why did Marius not wait for 
 his pipe ? The movement, and the opening 
 and shutting of a drawer, broke the charm of 
 his confidence. 
 
 In a few moments the pipe was found and 
 filled, and Marius sat down again. His face 
 was white through all its tan of wind and sun ; 
 his hands trembled, he could not lift his eyes 
 to the eyes searching his for sympathy. It 
 struck Jack in a few minutes that something
 
 9 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOK. 
 
 was troubling his brother, and he said, with an 
 air of anxiety, " Marius, you look sick." 
 
 " I am very tired, Jack. The voyage has 
 been long and stormy. So you are in love 
 with Miss Mason ? Yes, she came over 
 with me on my last trip. She is a very 
 beautiful women. How did you find that 
 out?" 
 
 " Cruger & Gushing are Major Mason's 
 lawyers. There has been a deal of business 
 lately money matters and mortgages. I was 
 frequently sent to Major Mason's house with 
 letters and papers ; and at the third time, the 
 Major introduced me to Miss Mason. Always 
 afterward I talked with her, while he wrote 
 the answers to whatever information I brought. 
 I could not help loving her. I do not believe 
 any man could." 
 
 " Do you think she cares for you in that 
 way, Jack? " 
 
 " I hope so." 
 
 " Oh, Jack, ask yourself this question truly 
 and answer it truly: Do you really think 
 she returns your love? I mean, does she 
 feel toward you as you do to her? or is she 
 simply pleasant, as she would be to any vis 
 itor? Now, Jack, be true to yourself and to 
 her. Take a few minutes to think, and do not 
 be deceived." 
 
 " I have thought. I have done nothing else 
 but think for three weeks, and I do believe she
 
 LOVE'S DENUNCIATION. 97 
 
 feels an interest in me she does not feel for 
 ordinary callers. Once I " 
 
 " Go on." 
 
 " Once I caught her looking at me. I never 
 was looked at just in the same way. She 
 seemed trying to find out something in my 
 face, and her eyes were full of kindness. Do 
 you not think she was trying to find out if I 
 loved her ? " 
 
 " No. That would be very unlike her; very 
 unlike, indeed." 
 
 " Well, she looked at me, and when she saw 
 I had caught the look, she turned scarlet and 
 left the room. I was sent there to-day, but I 
 think she was out of the house. I can always 
 feel when she is present, even if I do not see 
 her. You are not as interested as I thought 
 you would be, Marius. I expected ' Jack's 
 love affair ' would be a wonderful thing to 
 you. I have been longing to see you." 
 
 "Jack, all that interests you interests me 
 also. My God! do you not know that?" He 
 spoke with great emotion, and looked almost 
 reproachfully into the young man's face. 
 
 " Of course I know it, Marius. That is the 
 reason I could not wait until morning. I 
 fancied we should sit up all night and talk of 
 Virginia that is her name. Virginia! I say 
 it thousands of times each day. I write it all 
 over my papers if I do not watch myself. I 
 tell you, she has made me go over many a
 
 98 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 page. I cannot trust myself ; her name creeps 
 into everything. Oh, Marius ! have you ever 
 been in love? If you have not you will cer 
 tainly think I am crazy." 
 
 Marius looked at him. The young man had 
 forgotten his own confidence on the same sub 
 ject ; for of all selfish things, youth is the 
 most selfish. Marius did not remind him of 
 the circumstance ; and he let Jack talk of the 
 mistress of his heart. He described her 
 dresses, her attitudes, and the situations in 
 which he had seen her. All her words were 
 retold, and her smiles analyzed and com 
 mented on. Marius listened, bearing bravely 
 and silently the torture, just as he would have 
 borne a physical amputation. 
 
 But it was a great relief when he persuaded 
 Jack to lie down and sleep. Then he trailed 
 his weary, heavy heart and body up the com 
 panion-way to the nearly deserted deck. The 
 watch was forward ; he went aft, and was alone 
 with his sorrow. For some time he leaned 
 over the stern in a maze of tangled thought 
 and feeling. He could not find a clew out of 
 it. Thought simply drifted. Sorrow filled 
 him to the eyes and ears. 
 
 All his life long he had lived for others. 
 The wages of his youth, the savings of his 
 manhood, he had given out with both hands. 
 And money had been the least of his kindness. 
 Love, free, full, self-denying love, had crowned
 
 LOVE'S RENUNCIATION. 99 
 
 every meaner gift. As for his brother Jack, 
 he had been the dearest of his hopes. He had 
 grudged him nothing of all the joys and privi 
 leges his own youth had missed. He loved 
 the lad with all his soul. He was father and 
 brother both to him. If any other man had 
 been his rival, he could have borne it better. 
 It would have been a natural sorrow. This 
 seemed unnatural, almost fratricidal, in spite 
 of its innocent ignorance ; and he could not 
 help reproaching Fate with this needless suf 
 fering. 
 
 " It was the very first draught of purely per 
 sonal joy I ever had," he said bitterly ; " and 
 Jack, of all men, takes the blessed cup from 
 my lips. It is hard ! It is too hard to bear! " 
 
 And oh ! how bitter are those moments of 
 temptation when we say " in vain we have 
 been loving and generous and self-sacrificing." 
 God has failed to recompense us, and we have 
 a sense of injustice and regret that we served 
 him. No thoughts are more cruel. They 
 touch the questions of infinity, and have an 
 infinite power to make us suffer. The soul of 
 Marius Bradford swelled to them, and, ere he 
 knew it, heavy tears dropped down into the 
 dark water beneath him. 
 
 But this was a blessed rain ; it softened and 
 soothed his aching heart. Grief that had been 
 solid and stubborn ran into motion ; he began 
 to pace the deck, and to set his turbulent
 
 TOO SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 thoughts in order. The great dusky water 
 way behind and beneath him, the majestic 
 constellations above, the silent city before him, 
 all spoke a language that he understood. 
 They hushed and quieted his heart. The 
 cradling swell of the water whispered, " Thou 
 art my son. Thy home is on my breast." 
 The stars said, " O true heart ! be steadfast in 
 duty; even we have our courses and our 
 goings-on, and are obedient to His will." 
 And when he turned to the dreaming city, he 
 thought of one of its homes as of a holy shrine. 
 The sleeping woman in it lay like a spotless 
 lily in his memory. God had made nothing 
 fairer, sweeter, purer. Involuntarily he bared 
 his head as he whispered her name. 
 
 Was there anything he would not do to 
 make her happy? If she was in danger, would 
 he not die smilingly if he could save her? If 
 she was perishing of thirst, would he not 
 gladly take the water from his own lips that 
 she might drink ? Well, then, here was a 
 strait no way different. Jack was younger, 
 handsomer, every way more desirable than he 
 was. Yes ; he must stand aside, and give 
 Jack a fair chance. " I can be a good brother 
 to her," he whispered. " God help me ! God 
 help me ! " 
 
 So he passed the night in renunciation, and 
 in such prayer as leaps from the soul as fire 
 leaps from the beaten iron. When the day
 
 LOVE'S RENUNCIATION. lot 
 
 dawned, he had grasped the strength of the 
 conflict. He was able to meet his brother, 
 and to look with a brave and honest kindness 
 in his face ; able to say : 
 
 " I did not tell you last night, Jack, that I 
 had a small parcel for Miss Mason a couple 
 of yards of silk she made a mistake about. I 
 wish you would take them to her." 
 
 " You know I will be delighted, Marius." 
 
 " My rough voyage has belated me. I shall 
 be busy enough to get ready for sailing time. 
 Give my respects to the young lady, and also 
 to Major Mason that is, if they care for 
 them ; but the captain, though a great man at 
 sea, is nobody on shore." 
 
 " Who would wish to forget you that had 
 ever sailed with you, Marius ? Where is the 
 parcel ? Get it for me. I am grateful for any 
 excuse to ask for Miss Mason." 
 
 With the silk in his hand he gayly left the 
 ship, and at the noon hour hastened up Broad 
 way on his pleasant errand. Some left-handed 
 influence was perhaps offended at his radiant 
 face, his happy step, his general air of satisfac 
 tion, for when he arrived at his destination he 
 found Miss Mason from home ; and was further 
 defrauded by a self-complacent servant, who 
 said, with an air of knowledge, that he had " bet- 
 ter leave the parcel," and this advice he had not 
 the courage to neglect. 
 
 He turned slowly away, irresolute and angry,
 
 102 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 and went northward instead of southward. He 
 was not only disappointed, he was very much 
 chagrined ; and his first impulse was to walk 
 away the influence of the unpleasant rencontre. 
 He was also aware of the friendship between 
 Virginia and Miss Keteltas, and there was 
 doubtless a vague hope in his heart of meeting 
 her somewhere on the road between the Mason 
 and Keteltas houses. 
 
 At Union Square he saw an acquaintance, 
 and stood talking with him about the opening 
 up of the streets running from the Park, and the 
 iron fencing with which the men under his di 
 rection were inclosing it. The day, though 
 bright, was very cold ; and the workmen had 
 built a fire, and were eating their dinners around 
 it ; some talking with great vehemence, others 
 smoking and listening. 
 
 " There is an abolitionist among them," said 
 Jack's friend, and he took Jack by the arm, 
 and led him to the excited group. A tall, 
 earnest man was in the center. He had a slip 
 of paper in his hand, with a rude woodcut on 
 it representing a negro chained and under the 
 lash ; and his thin, kind face was alight with 
 enthusiasm as he cried out, " I would not o\vn 
 a slave for all the wealth that bought-and-sold 
 sinews ever earned ! " 
 
 " Say, Mister," asked a long, lean fellow, 
 who had been listening with impatience, "why 
 don't they set themselves free ? Fifty, a hun-
 
 LOVE'S RENUNCIATION. 103 
 
 dred, two or three hundred, a thousand on a 
 plantation, and only one or two oppressors 
 over them ! Gosh ! the meanest white men 
 that ever lifted spade or shovel would have 
 turned the tables long ago." 
 
 At this point there was the confused mur 
 mur of a crowd coming up Broadway, and the 
 little congregation in the Square broke and 
 went toward it. The lecturer, with his hat 
 pushed back and a fine scorn in his eye, looked 
 after them a moment. 
 
 Jack, with his friend, followed the down 
 town movement. On the high banks on either 
 side of the way little groups were leaning 
 against the fences watching. It was only a 
 few minutes ere the crowd, with shouty and 
 singing, turned into Broadway. Jack kne-v th 
 rhyme, and lifted his voice with the restr 
 
 Ho ! for the Livingston horse ! 
 
 Boys, now open your lips, 
 Hats and caps fly up like a cloud. 
 With hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah ! 
 
 And hurrah for Eclipse ! 
 
 Ho ! for the Livingston horse ! 
 
 Boys, now open your lips, 
 Hearts break out with a mighty shout, 
 With hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah ! 
 
 And hurrah for Eclipse ! 
 
 The rough melody filled the clear air, and 
 the splendid animal, led by his groom, lifted 
 his head and stepped proudly to the adulation
 
 104 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 of his admirers. Being the noon resting hour, 
 workmen from all points lined Broadway and 
 shouted "Hurrah!" and "Eclipse!" and 
 threw their caps up to the magnificent crea 
 ture. 
 
 They watched him till his proud head was 
 no longer visible, and then Jack bid his com 
 panion " adieu " and hurried to his office. 
 The annoyance, put aside for half an hour, 
 returned with greater intensity. He longed 
 for night, that he might go to Marius with his 
 new trouble ; for he had the lover's faculty of 
 tormenting himself, and he felt sure that Vir 
 ginia had given orders to her servants to deny 
 her to him. 
 
 On the contrary, Virginia had very regret 
 fully left her home on a request from Jane 
 Keteltas so urgent as to force her compliance ; 
 and she did not return to it until the short 
 winter day had nearly vanished. As she 
 passed through the hall a servant said, " The 
 young gentleman from Cruger & Cushing's 
 brought a parcel here at noon, Miss Virginia." 
 
 " Where is it ? " 
 
 " I laid it on the table of the large parlor." 
 
 " Leave it there. I will get it after dinner." 
 
 " More trouble," she thought. " But noth 
 ing can be done until to-morrow, and why 
 bring to-morrow into to-day?" 
 
 She was depressed by fear, but she made a 
 careful toilet ; for certainly she expected
 
 LOVE'S RENUNCIATION. 105 
 
 Marius would call. The " Arethusa " was in 
 port, and " he is sure to come, " she whispered. 
 
 Major Mason was unusually cheerful, and 
 during the serving of dinner talked of the 
 President and the Bank with a gentlemanly 
 passion of enthusiasm. " Even if Jackson has 
 the battle to fight single-handed, he can do 
 it," he said admiringly. 
 
 " Is it not just possible that Jackson may be 
 wrong ? " 
 
 " Jackson is right constitutionally right, 
 morally right." 
 
 " New York is suffering dreadfully. Mr. 
 Keteltas says he never remembers such com 
 mercial distress ; there is almost a panic. He 
 thinks very ill of President Jackson." 
 
 " New York suffers nobly. She stands by 
 Jackson, right or wrong I mean, in prosperity 
 or adversity. As for Mr. Keteltas, and men 
 like him, why should they complain ? The 
 harder the times, the more interest they get 
 for loans and advances. All true patriots 
 .stand by the President. They know he is 
 right. And the opposition might as well sub 
 mit ; they cannot move Jackson by threats 
 of commercial ruin ; nor can he be bribed to 
 alter the course he thinks for the public good. 
 Very well ; it is the part of good citizens to 
 waive their own inclinations and support the 
 Government." 
 
 The injustice of this reasoning was evident to
 
 106 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Virginia ; but why should she join the opposi 
 tion party ? It is so easy and generally so wise 
 for women to answer arguments with a smile 
 and a little nod. To themselves it may mean 
 an entire approval of their reserved opinions ; 
 men generally accept it as an approval of theirs, 
 and prefer it to either reason or eloquence. 
 Major Mason thought his daughter sympathetic 
 and sensible ; and he talked away all the re 
 siduum of fret and uncertainty which his dis 
 putes with Mr. Jay and Mr. Cruger on the 
 same subject had left at the bottom of his 
 heart. 
 
 When they were alone he turned at once to 
 points more personal. " Why did Jane send 
 so hurriedly for you this morning ? " 
 
 " There has been a very unhappy dispute 
 about the wedding ceremony. Jane wishes to 
 be married in Trinity. Her father is quietly 
 in favor of the old Middle Church ; and Nigel 
 Forfar passionately and positively in favor of 
 it. He says ' he will die a bachelor rather than 
 submit to Episcopal mummeries.' He declared 
 that it was a point of conscience with him, and 
 that 'all the Forfars were firm as the adaman 
 tine hills upon points of conscience. If Jane 
 loved a mere ceremony better than him, she 
 must take her choice.' ' 
 
 " Did not the man see he was loving a mere 
 ceremony better than Jane ? " 
 
 " No one could have made his adamantine
 
 LOVE'S RENUNCIATION. 107 
 
 conscience see anything so reasonable. He 
 took up Jane's prayer-book and repeated scorn 
 fully : ' " With this ring I thee wed." I don't 
 wed Jane with any ring,' he said. 'The ring 
 is no more to the marriage than the seal ^s to 
 the letter. " With my body I thee worsJp." 
 I consider that idolatry. "With all my earthly 
 goods I thee endow." I do nothing of the 
 kind. I have made a very handsome settle 
 ment on Jane,' and then he added, with a 
 peculiar emphasis, ' I am willing to add to it 
 five thousand dollars if Jane will reasonably 
 submit to my will in this matter.' ' 
 
 " What did Mr. Keteltas say ? " 
 
 ".He said, 'Go to your room, Jane, and 
 think well about Nigel's offer. I take leave to 
 say, if Nigel is going to pay you every time he 
 wants his own way, he will be a poor man, and 
 you will be a rich woman, before green barley 
 is ripe again.' And then he turned to me and 
 added, ' Virginia, my dear, speak a few sensi 
 ble words to a foolish young woman.' " 
 
 " And Mr. Forfar ? " 
 
 " He was silent ; but I saw a queer smile 
 draw his mouth together when Mr. Keteltas 
 spoke of him buying his own will; and I ad 
 vised Jane to freely give up her plans, and on 
 no account to take money for a right for it 
 is her right to choose the church and the min 
 ister." 
 
 " Did she ? "
 
 ic8 SHE LGVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " She thought it a triumph to make Nigel 
 pay her. Jane is fond of money." 
 
 " Nigel had the triumph. She won a 
 money victory, Nigel a moral one. You know 
 which is the greater." 
 
 " Then he objected to a bridal veil. It was 
 English and Episcopal in its tendencies; very 
 likely French and papistical. He thought 
 Jane ought to wear a bonnet. A most offen 
 sive man. I came very near to a quarrel with 
 him myself." 
 
 " About Jane?" 
 
 " No, about Captain Bradford. There was 
 a very funny scene. Jane has a servant who 
 is a remarkably handsome girl, from Yorkshire, 
 I think, and she always waits on the table. 
 To-day, after the dispute, Mr. Keteltas went 
 downto vn, and Nigel went with him. They 
 were delayed, and did not get home till near 
 three o'clock. The dinner was ready at one, 
 and spoiled at three. Both men were dissatis 
 fied. Forfar said ' it reminded him of the din 
 ners on the 'Arethusa';' and then Mr. Ketel 
 tas remarked the ' Arethusa ' was in port after 
 a very bad voyage, stormy and dangerous. I 
 expressed my pleasure at the ship's safety; 
 and Forfar wished she had gone to the bot 
 tom and taken the Captain with her." 
 
 " What did you say?" 
 
 " I had no time to say anything. The girl, 
 Nelly, who had his plate full of pudding in her
 
 LOVE'S RENUNCIATION. 109. 
 
 hand, put it down in a passion at his side, and 
 said, ' Help thysen, master. I'll not wait on 
 thee. Thou art a right bad sort, and if I was 
 Miss Jane, I'd think twice about marrying 
 thee, and be sure to change my mind the 
 second time. I would, I would that ! " 
 
 The Major laughed heartily, for Virginia 
 imitated Nelly's excitement and patois very 
 cleverly. 
 
 " What did Forfar say ? " 
 
 " For a moment he was stupefied by her pas 
 sion. Nelly spoke with an incredible and irre 
 sistible eloquence. No one could stop her, 
 and indeed I think John Paul had a great deal 
 to do to prevent himself laughing heartily. I 
 looked full at Nelly and smiled my approval. 
 We understood each other in a moment. Jane 
 rose and ordered Nelly to leave the room in 
 stantly, and with a half sob Nelly answered, ' to 
 be sure, Miss. I'll leave the house too. I will 
 that.' " 
 
 " I like that girl, Virginia. I wish we could 
 employ her." 
 
 " I like her too." Forfar pushed his pudding 
 aside, and told Jane not to worry. ' She is one 
 of those barbarians from Yorkshire,' he said, 
 scornfully ; ' they have no manners.' Nelly 
 had the door open in her hand, and she heard 
 the slur on her country. It was not to be en 
 dured. She turned and answered him : 
 
 " ' I have no manners, heven't I ? Thou art
 
 no SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 right, master, if ta means manners of thy 
 sort and I don't want them either, not I ! ' 
 
 " I wonder if the girl knows Captain Brad 
 ford ? " 
 
 " Jane says she came over with him in the 
 4 Arethusa.' I dare say he was kind to her. 
 It would be like him." 
 
 " Yes, it would. You say she is hand 
 some?" 
 
 "Very." 
 
 On the long and suggestive text supplied 
 by these incidents much conversation was pos 
 sible ; and the Major was rather merry over 
 certain phases of it. But Virginia, as the 
 hours crept by, grew anxious and sad, and 
 found it difficult to continue the subject. 
 Every footstep made her heart beat ; a knock 
 at the door even as late as nine o'clock roused 
 her dying hopes. She stopped talking to 
 listen. Never had a servant been so dilatory 
 in opening a door before. Then the dreadful 
 delay before the man entered. He had a par 
 cel in his hand which the Major took with a 
 fresh interest ; " Some pamphlets Mr. Jay has 
 sent me," he said to Virginia ; and she trem 
 bled and was silent. The day was hopelessly 
 over.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ** WEDDING AND THIS WILL DO ; WEDDING 
 AND WORSE WILL NEVER DO." 
 
 " To wear out heart and nerves and brain, 
 And give ourselves a world of pain, 
 Be eager, angry, fierce, and hot, 
 Imperious, supple God knows what ; 
 O, false, unwise, absurd, and vain ! 
 
 Only, it is precisely this 
 That keeps us all alive." 
 
 " The way of love leads generally to marriage." 
 
 IN the morning Virginia remembered the 
 parcel brought by Cruger & Cushing's 
 young gentleman. She stood a moment at the 
 door of the large parlor, and then decided not 
 to trouble her father with it until after he had 
 taken his breakfast. " It is always time 
 enough for annoyance, and I am sure nothing 
 else comes from Mr. Cruger but annoyance." 
 she thought. It was a bitterly cold morning^ 
 with a prospect of snow, and she glanced into 
 the pale, delicate face of her father with some 
 anxiety. He had drawn his chair very close to 
 the fire, and was looking over the new penny 
 paper called the " Sun." 
 
 " It is really wonderful, Virginia," he said
 
 H2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 laying it across his knees, as she came to him 
 *' Every poor man can no\v have his news- 
 paper." 
 
 " How can a penny paper pay, father ? " 
 
 " Because it is creating for itself a vast 
 patronage among a class who have hitherto 
 considered newspapers a luxury. Mr. Hoe 
 has begun to make his fortune." 
 
 " I am glad some one is making money. I 
 think I never before heard of so much trouble 
 about money. Coffee is ready now, sir." 
 
 " Have the table drawn close to the fire, 
 Virginia. It is a dreadful morning. Hard 
 holidays, I fear, between the scarcity of money 
 and the severe weather. Did I tell you I saw 
 Dr. Wainwright yesterday ? He has really 
 given up Grace Church, and is going to Bos 
 ton." 
 
 " I am very sorry." 
 
 " Mr. Cooper joined us as we were talking." 
 
 " The novelist ? Is he back from Europe ? " 
 
 " A month ago." 
 
 " It was supposed that he found it so 
 superior to America that he would not return 
 to our Western barbarism." 
 
 " Perhaps the papers are unjust to him. 
 They would persuade us that his value of him 
 self and his work is beyond all bounds. To 
 me he appears a sensible gentleman." 
 
 " Mr. Cruger sent young Rhea with a parcel 
 here yesterday ; at least I suppose it was Mr.
 
 -WEDDING AND THIS WILL DO." 11$ 
 
 Rhea. I did not give it to you last night, be 
 cause I feared there would be annoyance in it ; 
 and it was too late to interfere in any business 
 matter. It will do after we have break 
 fasted? " 
 
 "Yes. Thank you for being so thoughtful, 
 Virginia. I dare say it is the papers relating 
 to a mortgage I have been compelled to ar 
 range. I have lost more than twenty thousand 
 dollars during the last sixty days." 
 
 " Father ! How has that happened ? " 
 
 " Fall of stocks, my dear. Delaware & Hud 
 son Canal Company, and Boston & Providence 
 Railroad Company. My share of Nicholas 
 Biddle's plutocracy." 
 
 " Of President Jackson's injustice and ill- 
 wili and " 
 
 " Of President Jackson's patriotism, Virginia. 
 I have received good at the hands of my 
 country, shall I not also receive evil, if my loss 
 means my country's gain ? No one likes to 
 lose money, but better lose money than lose 
 principle and honor and the general freedom 
 of the citizen. I have counted the cost, Vir 
 ginia. I am with Jackson in his quarrel with 
 the Bank." 
 
 " I think Jackson is a tyrannical autocrat." 
 
 " It takes one autocrat to put down another. 
 And the most cruel and degrading of all tyran 
 nies is that of money power. It has neither 
 heart nor intellect. It is simply brutalizing,
 
 H4 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 if it came to a fight on that subject, I 
 \vt>uld draw my sword and die cheerfully to 
 free America from the worst of all slaveries. 
 Indeed, it passes my comprehension that men 
 should be crying out against the slavery of the 
 negro, and not see and feel the golden gyves 
 of Nicholas Biddle's Bank." 
 
 " Can we ever get away from that subject ? 
 Everything we name turns to it. I heard 
 some children on the street talking about it 
 yesterday." 
 
 " Every man, woman, and child feels the 
 pinch of the Bank's cruel, greedy fingers. St. 
 Nicholas will buy few presents for his children 
 this year; Nicholas Biddle has stolen his 
 purse. How cold it is ! Some points below 
 zero, I am sure." 
 
 He turned his face to the blaze, and sipped 
 his coffee thoughtfully, until Virginia rose. 
 
 " Ring for the parcel now, Virginia. There 
 may be a letter of importance in it." 
 
 When the servant entered the room, Vir 
 ginia left it. A pitiful delicacy led her to be 
 lieve that her father would prefer meeting 
 anything unpleasant alone. He knew he was 
 sure of her sympathy when he was ready for 
 it. She went to the housekeeper with some 
 directions about warming the parlors, and then 
 listened patiently to her complaints of the 
 servants, and of the cold weather and hard 
 times. But all through the old lady's babble,
 
 "WEDDING AND THIS WILL DO." 115 
 
 her heart was aching with her own disappoint 
 ment and her father's anxieties. 
 
 In about an hour he called for her. When 
 she entered the room the pink silk lay in the 
 center of the table. A band of wintry sun 
 shine crossed it and the paper wrappings in 
 which it had been brought, but in spite of 
 this, it had a neglected and unwelcome air. 
 
 She went straight to it, and lifted its glis 
 tening folds. " Was this the contents of the 
 parcel, father ? And pray, why did Mr. Rhea 
 bring it ? " 
 
 " How can I tell, Virginia ? Martin brought 
 it to me. I expected papers, and I found silk." 
 
 She was heartsick, but anger was gathering, 
 and it gave her a fictitious strength. With 
 visible chagrin she turned over and over the 
 wrapping it had come in perhaps there had 
 been a note or message inside. But there was 
 nothing at all to identify the silk as hers but 
 the name of the Liverpool house on the out 
 side cover. She rang the bell impetuously, 
 and when Martin answered its call she ques 
 tioned him closely concerning it. 
 
 " Who brought this parcel ? " 
 
 " The young gentleman from Mr. Cruger's 
 office." 
 
 "Mr. Rhea?" 
 
 " Yes, Miss." 
 
 " Then give him his proper name in future. 
 What did he say? Tell me the exact words."
 
 n6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 "When I opened the door he said, ' Is Miss 
 Mason in?' I said, ' No, you wasn't in,' Miss, 
 *and I didn't think you would be in until 
 late.' " 
 
 " You had no authority to say that. What 
 else?" 
 
 " I said if the parcel was for you, he had 
 better leave it. He gave it to me, and went 
 away." 
 
 "Did he say from whom he received the 
 parcel ?" 
 
 " No, Miss." 
 
 " Did he leave any message ? '* 
 
 " No, Miss." 
 
 " What time was he here ? " 
 
 " Between twelve and one o'clock." 
 
 " You were eating your dinner?" 
 
 " Yes, Miss." 
 
 " And in too great hurry to give Mr. Rhea 
 time to explain anything. That will do." 
 
 As the door closed she turned to her father: 
 " How did Mr. Rhea get the parcel, do you 
 think?" 
 
 " Indeed, Virginia, I cannot imagine. Does 
 it matter ? Perhaps some friend of the firm 
 was on board the ' Arethusa,' and he was sent 
 to assist them in disembarking. Did you give 
 Captain Bradford the money to pay for the 
 silk?" 
 
 " I never thought of such a thing." 
 
 " Very woman-like. But the silk mercer
 
 "WEDDING AND THIS WILL DO" 1 1? 
 
 would think of it, and Captain Bradford doubt 
 less paid the price. He is just the man who 
 would send the silk by a strange hand, lest 
 you should think, if he brought it himself, he 
 wanted the money refunded. Don't you un 
 derstand this?" 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " How much are you owing for it ? " 
 
 " A sovereign." 
 
 " I will send it to the Arethusa.' " 
 
 " Oh, I do not think I would just yet. It 
 feels vulgar to do a thing like that." 
 
 " To pay what you owe ? " 
 
 " This is different ; it was a favor. If you 
 send the money, it is like saying, ' Much 
 obliged, and now we are clear of each other.' ' 
 
 c> * 
 
 " Well ? Is not that about right ? " 
 
 " I suppose so. No, I do not think it is. I 
 think Captain Bradford would rather have 
 thanks than money. Perhaps he may call. 
 If not " 
 
 " I shall send the money." 
 
 " When you are next at Mr. Cruger's, you 
 will doubtless see Mr. Rhea. Ask him how he 
 got the silk? Are you going out to-day?" 
 
 " Not unless I am compelled to go out. It 
 is too cold to leave the fire." 
 
 She lifted the silk, then, and left the room. 
 It hurt her sight; it hurt her touch. She 
 flung it on her bed, and fell down weeping 
 beside it.
 
 ll8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " He might have brought it ! " she sobbed. 
 " He said he would bring it. He said so much 
 to me so much that words could never say. 
 And I believed his eyes ! I thought I saw 
 a true soul through them. Oh, Marius ! Ma- 
 rius ! you have broken my heart in two." 
 
 She really felt at the moment as if the exag 
 geration was the fact. A crushing disappoint 
 ment overwhelmed her. Until that hour she 
 had not understood how completely Marius 
 had taken possession of her heart. The loss 
 of money the private grief of her father the 
 puplic distress none of these things were 
 remembered in the passionate sorrow whose 
 waves and billows went over her. 
 
 For the first great grief of womanhood had 
 found her out. And the bitter grapes of this, 
 hard harvest the noblest women press out 
 alone. The idea of sympathy or of consolation 
 never came to Virginia. The trial was one to- 
 be buried in her heart, though it wounded 'it 
 with every breath she drew. A wounded 
 heart! Oh, cruel words! full of a terrible 
 significance to thousands who endure and hide 
 endurance behind smiles. 
 
 A kind of resentment succeeded her grief. 
 She rose up and washed her face, and walked 
 swiftly about the room, murmuring, " Oh, if 
 the past were only mine ! Three weeks I 
 would wipe out forever ! I would forget abso 
 lutely the ' Arethusa.' I would forget for-
 
 ''WEDDING AND THIS WILL DO." 119 
 
 ever " she could not utter the name of the 
 man she would forget. There was still hope 
 at the bottom of her heart. 
 
 The feeling was not peculiar to Virginia. 
 Most people have had at some period of their 
 life this insane desire to rob the Past. They 
 have wished to annihilate certain events in 
 their career, being sure that they could only 
 bring forth sorrow. Let us be very thankful 
 that the Past is as unattainable to us as the 
 Future. If it were not, we should recklessly 
 Tob it ; and in so doing, impoverish the whole 
 of our future life. 
 
 Because our knowledge is so small ! our vis 
 ion is so short ! our faith is so weak ! If Vir 
 ginia had only 'known ! If she could have 
 seen ! If her faith, even in herself and her own 
 pure intuitions, had been stronger! Then her 
 grief would have been altered both in its direc 
 tion and its intensity. For, whatever her dis 
 appointment and suffering, that of Marius was 
 far greater. 
 
 It would have seemed as if the United States 
 Bank could hardly interfere in Captain Brad 
 ford's secret love affair; but it did. As soon 
 as Jack had returned to his office after his un 
 fortunate delivery of his brother's message, he 
 received orders to leave at once for Philadel 
 phia. For he filled the post of confidential 
 clerk, and the great law firm had some papers 
 containing Htollisfence to send to Mr. Biddle.
 
 120 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Jack had no time even to write to his brother. 
 Indeed, a letter never struck him as at all 
 necessary. Marius had sent a little silk to 
 Miss Mason, and Jack never supposed that his 
 brother had any interest in it beyond its safe 
 delivery. Miss Mason was a strictly personal 
 subject in Jack's thoughts ; that Marius was in 
 love with her was a supposition that simply 
 never entered Jack's mind. 
 
 When he had finished his business in Phila 
 delphia he thought of writing; but he re 
 flected that he would probably be back in 
 New York as soon as a letter, and he aban 
 doned the idea. After all, if he had written 
 he might never have named the silk. It had 
 failed as far as he was concerned, and he at 
 tached no further importance to it. But 
 Marius carried that parcel on his heart night 
 and day. He imagined Jack's giving it to 
 her. He imagined her pretty pleasure in the 
 perfect match ; her pretty surprise in discov 
 ering that Jack was his brother. He himself 
 was very proud of the handsome youth ; and 
 he mentally contrasted Jack's elegance and 
 fashionable appearance with the rougher type 
 of his own manhood. Yes, and he did Vir 
 ginia the injustice to believe that she would 
 prefer Jack to himself. 
 
 He was quite sure Jack would come to the 
 ship and take his tea with him. The day was 
 a hard one. They were putting in cargo, and
 
 "WEDDING AND THIS WILL DO." 121 
 
 he was blown about by the icy wind coming 
 down the Hudson ; but he put off his tea hour 
 to the time Jack usually reached him. Of 
 course Jack disappointed him ; and Marius 
 felt his absence to be specially cruel. " He 
 was afraid of the cold, I suppose," he said 
 bitterly to himself ; " or perhaps she asked him 
 to spend the evening with her." He drank 
 his solitary tea gloomily to the thought. But a 
 kinder one came as he sat in the midst of his 
 Indian incense. " I gave my chance to Jack, 
 and I must not grumble if he makes the most 
 of it. He ought to do so ; if he did not, J 
 would think little of him." 
 
 But as day after day passed, and Jack did 
 not come near the ship, his anger gathered.; 
 for he did not always remember to tell himself 
 that Jack was ignorant both of his self-denial 
 and his suffering ; th% self-denial and suffering 
 being real things, and Jack's ignorance of them 
 requiring a conscious effort to grasp. But he 
 was too busy, and perhaps too angry, to make 
 inquiries, and the " Arethusa " was on the 
 point of sailing when Jack, out of breath with 
 his rapid running, stood at last by the side of 
 his brother. For a moment Marius refused to 
 see him. He was heartsore, and not skilled in 
 hiding any feeling by which he was possessed. 
 
 " I was terrified lest you might have sailed 
 before I got here ! " 
 
 " You ? At last ? "
 
 122 SHE LOVED A SAILOR, 
 
 " I have been to Philadelphia. I left a few 
 hours after I last saw you." 
 
 Then Marius looked in the flushed face of 
 the speaker and smiled faintly. " You ought 
 to have sent me word, Jack." 
 
 'I wen*- in such a hurry, and I thought " 
 
 " Never mind. The silk ? Did you give it 
 to Miss Mason? " 
 
 " I had the worst luck. I went at noon with 
 it, and she was out " 
 
 " Then you have it yet. She must think me 
 a precious liar. I promised to bring it with 
 me. She has been expecting it for nearly a 
 week. It is too bad, Jack." 
 
 " She has the silk. A servant took it from 
 me, and of course he gave it to her that day." 
 
 " You let a servant take it to her? Jack, I 
 am ashamed of you." 
 
 " Don't look so blacW* Marius. I was too 
 dashed to have wit enough at the time to 
 keep my introduction until a more favorable 
 hour. But I fully intended to go to Mr. 
 Mason's that night, ask to see Miss Virginia, 
 give your message, and inquire as to the fate 
 of the parcel left. But it was Philadelphia for 
 me instead. I am just home. Of course you 
 were my first thought." 
 
 The eager, loving words went straight to 
 the wounded heart of Marius. He put his 
 hand upon Jack's shoulder and said : 
 
 " Well, well, I dare say it is all right. She
 
 "WEDDING AND THIS WILL DO." 1*3 
 
 has the silk, and she would care very little 
 whose hand brought it. I would not trouble 
 her again. It will look as if we wanted her 
 either to say 'thank you' or to pay the 
 money. When a thing begins unluckily, let it 
 alone, Jack. Now, my dear boy, we must say 
 ' good-by ' again. They are for the anchor, it 
 will soon be a-trip. God bless you ! Be good, 
 Jack." He rubbed his brown cheek against 
 the young fresh one so dear to him ; and then 
 turned away with a shout and a sharp order to 
 the boatswain that rung along the ship like a 
 trumpet. 
 
 A snowstorm was just beginning, and Jack 
 stood on the cold, windy slip, and watched 
 the " Arethusa" spread her sails and fill them 
 with the strong west wind. They looked 
 ghastly white between the black water and 
 the heavy sky. The men moved about ?.i the 
 driving flakes, blown hither and thither, and 
 were like men in some awful prison-house. 
 But Jack's gaze hardly took in their unreality ; 
 it was fixed upon the man wrapped in a pilot 
 coat, whose voice penetrated the misty space, 
 and whose brown radiating countenance was 
 firmly gazing out toward the stormy ocean. 
 
 " He looks like a king," thought Jack ; " and 
 the gleam of the gold band round his cap 
 might be his crown." 
 
 Marius was glad to face the sea again ; glad 
 to feel the strong wind blowing, and to know
 
 124 SHE LOVED A SAILOF. 
 
 that he would have to pitch his skill and his 
 stanch ship against the blind, blustering forces 
 of nature. His spirit rose to the struggle. 
 He forgot Virginia and all his chagrin and 
 heart-longing and heart-aching. He had fifty 
 lives and a valuable cargo in his keeping, and 
 as the wind howled louder, and the waves rose 
 in billowy mountains around the "Arethusa," 
 his spirits rose with them ; he was gay as a 
 bridegroom. The ship felt his influence, the 
 sailors caught his mood, every quick order met 
 a ready " Aye, aye, sir ! " Hurrying footsteps, 
 passing words, rattle of shifting chains and 
 blowing sails, all the bluster of nature, all the 
 shrill minor notes of human struggle and defi 
 ance, had in them tones which set the Cap 
 tain's heart beating to an heroic measure. 
 
 For two days and nights he had little space 
 for dreams of love. Its soft relaxing reveries 
 were impossible in the tumult of the storm. 
 When a thought of Virginia came, it was 
 usually with the shipping of a wave, or the 
 rending of a sail, or the breaking of a spar, and 
 it took to itself some of the quick strength of 
 its environment a momentary memory of a 
 fair, sweet face that always brought a fervent 
 " God bless her ! " from his lips, and a turning 
 with a new strength to his duty. 
 
 Somehow, as he sailed away from her, he 
 felt her closer to him. He did not know that 
 her soul was pursuing him with prayers and
 
 "WEDDING AND THIS WILL DO" 125 
 
 loving longings. But, oh! how many of our 
 comforts spring from unknown sources ! The 
 prayer we are ignorant of has sent our angel to 
 strengthen us ; the love we have forgotten 
 goes before, surrounds, and pervades us with 
 its comforting atmosphere. We cannot escape 
 soul influence ; good or bad, the circumference 
 of the earth will not prevent this force from 
 tending to that point to which its aspirations, 
 its hopes, its love or its hatred attract it. 
 
 And Virginia's soul kept a constant care and 
 prayer for her sailor lover. She watched daily, 
 hourly, for some news from him, until she 
 knew the " Arethusa " was out at sea ; and 
 then she settled herself in a firm conviction of 
 his truth and honor. Circumstances might 
 accuse him, but the diviner within told her 
 Marius was everything she believed him to be. 
 Unfortunately, Jack's absence delayed an 
 opportunity for explanation, and when he 
 returned, the business which had taken the 
 Major so often to Cruger's, and Jack so often 
 to the Mason house, was completed. 
 
 During this interval Virginia hoped every 
 evening to hear something about Mr. Rhea 
 and the parcel ; but the circumstance appeared 
 to have passed beyond hope of further men- 
 tion. It was not until the morning of Jane's 
 wedding that any reference was made to it. 
 This was in the middle of the festival week 
 between Christmas and the New Year. But
 
 126 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 there was little of the air of festivity about the 
 time. The weather was cruelly cold ; the city 
 miserably anxious and depressed. Everything 
 was uncertain and hopeless. But marrying 
 and dying go on though the heavens fall ; and 
 Jane and Forfar, in the importance of their 
 personal affairs, scarce gave a thought to pub 
 lic grievance. The twenty-ninth of December 
 was their bridal day, and the earth moved on 
 its axis specially for that event 
 
 It was one of the coldest and dreariest of 
 days and Major Mason shivered anticipatively 
 as he looked into the snow-bound street and at 
 the low thermometer. About ten o'clock Vir 
 ginia came down dressed for the ceremony. 
 She wore a gown of pink silk, and a large cloak 
 of minever lined with pink silk, and fastened 
 at the throat with a handsome silver clasp. 
 The Major looked with admiration at his beau 
 tiful daughter, and as he put on his gloves said : 
 
 " So that is the dress for which Captain 
 Bradford brought you some silk ? It is very 
 pretty. Did I tell you that I had paid for the 
 silk ? You may wear it with perfect satisfac 
 tion." 
 
 " You did not tell me, father. Whom did 
 you pay ? " 
 
 " I was in Cruger's last Monday, and I saw 
 young Rhea writing at his desk. He looked 
 at me when I entered, and smiled very pleas 
 antly ; and I thought perhaps he wished to
 
 -IV ED DING AXD THIS WILL DO." 12? 
 
 remind me of the silk; you see, he may have 
 paid Captain Bradford for it. Mr. Cruger and 
 I had a few words about some stock, and I 
 was a little ill-tempered, or I should have 
 asked him a few questions." 
 
 " Did you not ask him how he got the 
 silk?" 
 
 " No ; as I told you, I was annoyed at Mr. 
 Cruger, and when I passed through the outer 
 office Rhea lifted his eyes to me again. It 
 nettled me at the moment. I felt as if he was 
 dunning me, and I took a ten-dollar piece 
 from my purse, and laid it down beside him. 
 He looked astonished, and I said, ' Give it 
 with Miss Mason's and my own respects to 
 Captain Bradford. It is the price of the silk he 
 bought in Liverpool for Miss Mason.' He still 
 looked amazed, and I continued, ' I suppose 
 Captain Bradford gave you the silk?' He 
 said, ' Yes, sir,' and I added, ' All right, then ! 
 Can you give him the money, or will it be an 
 inconvenience?' He said it would be no in 
 convenience, and so I left it with him." 
 
 " I wish you had not. Oh, father! I fear 
 you have done something unkind." 
 
 " How ? How ? Nonsense ! You could not 
 permit yourself to owe Captain Bradford a 
 sovereign." 
 
 " I feel that too. But I think one of us 
 ought to have personally acknowledged and 
 paid the debt."
 
 t-s-5 SHE LOl'ED A SAILOA. 
 
 " Out of the question. He woulci never ex 
 pect such a thing especially this dreadful 
 weather." But the Major was again irritated 
 by the circumstance, and a sudden suspicious 
 thought made him glance inquisitively at his 
 daughter. In this querulous, unhappy mood 
 they started for Jane's wedding. 
 
 In spite of the chill and the gloomy sur 
 roundings the bride was exceedingly lovely. 
 Her simple dress of white satin was clasped 
 and buttoned with Roman cameos. Her fair 
 hair was braided down her face, and a long 
 veil of silver tulle covered it ; and from her 
 brow and throat crescents made of jewels of 
 great value depended. She was exceedingly 
 proud of the latter ornaments, and she made 
 Virginia carefully examine them 
 
 " They are Nigel's bridal gift," she said, 
 with a trembling delight. " He gave them to 
 me last night. They were bought at Bapst's 
 in Paris. He is a jeweler to the Crown, you 
 know. These are Indian table-diamonds, and 
 Nigel says the crescents were originally made 
 for Hortense Beauharnais, by Bonaparte's 
 order. Queen Hortense sold them last year 
 when she was in Paris very poor, and M. 
 Bapst bought them for me, as it appears. Is 
 it not singular? Nigel says the moment he 
 saw them he thought of them as my bridal 
 present." 
 
 " But he had not seen you then ?"
 
 "UT.DDIXG AND THIS WILL DO" 129 
 
 " Oh, but his father had talked to him about 
 me ! He says he has always looked upon me 
 as his wife ; ever since he was a boy. Isn't it 
 romantic? " 
 
 " My dear Jane, very romantic. But you 
 must take a warm cloak ; it is a miserably cold 
 morning, and I hope the church will be well 
 warmed." 
 
 " I am in a fever, I think. I do not feel the 
 cold. The church will be warmed, no doubt." 
 
 On the contrary, the church was cold and 
 dreary as a vault ; and the ceremony was hur 
 ried through as quickly as possible. The guests 
 shivered, and the only cheery persons present 
 were Virginia and young Harry Keteltas, who 
 had left his studies, and was in an irrepressibly 
 good humor, and disposed to make merry over 
 the event. But the wedding breakfast was not 
 a joyous feast, in spite of all attempts to be 
 lieve it so ; because the only people who really 
 had any interest in its success, preferred to 
 keep their own joy quite outside its participa 
 tion. Forfar, indeed, resented the intrusion of 
 so many strangers into his happiness ; and Jane 
 at this period of her life was but an echo of all 
 Forfar's opinions. 
 
 At three o'clock the bride and bridegoom 
 began their life journey together. Jane 
 waved her hand to her father and brother and 
 friend ; Nigel lifted his hat, and in a few mo 
 ments the past was all past and out of sight.
 
 13 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Keteltas turned in from the door with a sigh, 
 and the company followed him. 
 
 But the depression was greater now than 
 ever, and the wedding guests departed very 
 quickly. John Paul was glad when they left 
 him alone with his son and his pipe. It was 
 only to Virginia he said, " Come and see me 
 soon, my dear. I want to talk to .you."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL NOT HIDE 
 
 " For loyalty is still the same, 
 Whether it win or lose the game ; 
 True as the dial to the sun, 
 Although it be not shined upoa. 
 
 " My mind on its own center stands unmoved, 
 And stable as the fabric of the soul 
 Propt on itself. " 
 
 year 1834 inaugurated in most New 
 1 York families an era of economy and cur- 
 tailment. The Masons had been aware of ths 
 necessity for some time, and had rearranged 
 their household to meet it. The two men- 
 servants who had loitered with easy dignity 
 about their easy duties, were dismissed, and 
 Nelly Haworth, the Yorkshire girl who had so 
 recklessly thrown up her position in the Ketel- 
 ta's house, had cheerfully agreed to perform 
 their duties for considerably less than half their 
 wages. 
 
 About Nellie's .advent there had been some 
 hesitation in Virginia's mind. Under the in 
 fluence of anger, Jane had spoken of the girl's 
 acquaintance with Captain Bradford in dubious 
 terms : 
 
 IV
 
 13* SUE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " Ci rourse, Virginia, you have no necessity 
 to know anything about Nelly's love affairs ; 
 they will not interfere very much with her daily 
 duties, unless you or the Major should happen 
 to say a word against Captain Bradford.' 
 
 ""We are not likely to do so, Jane. We 
 know nothing but good of Captain Bradford." 
 
 " Perhaps you do not know as much as 
 others do. It is most certain that Nelly 
 spends every spare hour she has in knitting 
 things for his comfort, and on his last voyage 
 the ' Arethusa ' was no sooner at her pier than 
 he sent a sailor with a letter for her." 
 
 " How do you know Captain Bradford sent 
 the sailor?" 
 
 "The man had ' Arethusa ' on his cap ; be 
 sides, I heard him mention Captain Brad 
 ford." 
 
 "Yet I can imagine occasions for such inter 
 course which would be innocent, and even 
 honorable, to both parties. Perhaps the Cap 
 tain was the bearer of news from her relatives." 
 
 " As if there was not the mail for relatives to 
 send messages by ! " 
 
 " Well, it is none of my business to pry into 
 Nelly's friendships, and I think I shall engage 
 her. She is clean, orderly, -and understands 
 how to keep the rooms pleasant and to wait 
 on the dining-table ; you admit that much ? " 
 
 "She is simply worth a dozen ordinary 
 servants if you do not mind her free tongue
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL NOT HIDE. 133 
 
 and her queer patois ; your visitors will think 
 her vulgar, I fear." 
 
 " Nelly will not talk to the visitors." 
 " If you can prevent it." 
 " We shall not abuse Captain Bradford." 
 So, with a strange mingling of good-will and 
 reluctance, Nelly Haworth joined the Mason 
 family. The Major was at once delighted with 
 her. He liked her frank, handsome face, her 
 trig, tidy ways, her cheerful air ; and her blunt, 
 doric speech interested him very much. "You 
 know, Virginia, the Masons are a Yorkshire 
 family, originally, and it really seems to me as 
 if the patois had a homelike echo. Perhaps 
 my spiritual ears remember it." 
 
 " They have never heard it before." 
 " Oh, Virginia ! little do we know on that 
 subject. How old is my soul ? " 
 " How old is your body, father ? " 
 "That has nothing to do with the question 
 Virginia. My body changes continually; 
 years, decades, pass, and my soul is the same. 
 I am sure of its identity, I am sure of its re 
 sponsibility for deeds done years ago. My 
 soul has no age, and it does not grow old. It 
 had no age when it was incarnated in this 
 body. It will have no age when life ceases, 
 and it frees itself from its earthly vestment. 
 It will be no older when reincarnated on this 
 or on some other planet. It will not grow old 
 in eternity, and the ages flowing over it will
 
 134 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 leave less trace than the summer dew upon the 
 ocean." 
 
 " Father, Dr. Wainwright told you not to let 
 your mind dwell on such ideas. He said the 
 supernatural was beyond our understanding." 
 
 " Yet, if there be not a supernatural element 
 within us, then no evidence, and no miracle, 
 can ever authenticate the supernatural to us. 
 Virginia, there is in man a spiritual center 
 answering to a higher spiritual center in the 
 universe. All controversies and all dogmas 
 must come back to this the light of the super 
 natural without, supported by the kindling 
 sense of the supernatural within." 
 
 Virginia did not answer him, and he turned 
 his chair toward the fire and let his eyes fall 
 upon its glowing embers. She knew the mood 
 he had entered into, and knew also that he 
 would not care to be disturbed until he had 
 followed out the train of thought whose begin 
 nings he held. 
 
 It seemed a kind of sacrilege to sit at his 
 side considering her own small worries and 
 selfish anxieties, and after a short pause she 
 quietly rose and left the room. Six weeks had 
 elapsed since Jane's marriage a long, slow six 
 weeks, in which nothing pleasant had hap 
 pened. This monotony of depression had be 
 come irritating. She was weary of the never- 
 ceasing complaints about Jackson, and the 
 Bank, and the removal of the deposits, and
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL NOF HIDE. IJ5 
 
 the clearness of provisions, and the scarcity 
 of money. For the first time in her life she 
 had been checked in her private expenditure. 
 She had begun to spell the word " poverty " 
 with a kind of pitying wonder and fear for 
 herself in the hard, new lesson. 
 
 It seemed this day as if something must 
 happen to break that sameness which almost 
 doubles trials. She did not feel able to escape 
 the present, as her father was doing, by a soul 
 flight into the future. She was ignobly de 
 pressed and limited by the longings and disap 
 pointments of the more material life. And 
 the tyranny of the atmosphere the gray, cold 
 weather, the spiteful east wind affected her as 
 they had never done before. When she 
 reached her own room she looked into the 
 street and shuddered at the banks of soiled 
 snow, and the skeletons of trees stripped by 
 the winter winds. 
 
 " What is the matter with me ? " she asked, 
 almost angrily ; and she wisely sat down to 
 consider, and to answer to herself the ques 
 tion : " Is it the loss of money ? or the 
 marriage of Jane ? or the disappointment 
 about Marius ?" 
 
 She put the last question last, because it 
 was the first in her mind ; and it still remained 
 persistent and unanswered, after she had dis 
 posed of the other two with little mental query 
 or pain. " Well, then, it is Marius" she said.
 
 13 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 positively, putting her feet upon the fender, 
 and resolutely facing the truth. 
 
 " I am disappointed because he did not bring 
 the silk. I am annoyed because father sent 
 the money by Mr. Rhea without any inquiry 
 or visible expression of courtesy. I am wor 
 ried about Marius and Nelly." She hesitated 
 at this admission and blushed vividly as she 
 compelled herself to make it. " So far, true. 
 Now, what have been the consequences ? " 
 She considered them frankly, and as frankly 
 told herself the truth, when by honest self- 
 examination she reached it : 
 
 "I have been miserably selfish, and not only 
 unhappy myself but the cause of unhappiness 
 to others. I have fallen below all that duty 
 required of me. My father and the rest of 
 the household have a right to expect help, 
 sympathy, and refreshing cheerfulness. I have 
 not given them. I can see plainly that every 
 one has lately gone away from me disap 
 pointed ; just as they would turn from a spring 
 dried up. Even my father, whom I dearly 
 love,. I have not made happy. My lassitude 
 has exhausted him, my silence and preoccupa 
 tion depressed him. Would Marius desire or 
 approve this neglect of duty for his sake ? No ; 
 he would tell me to be happy myself, and to 
 be cheerful with others, and to trust him in 
 all things. I will do it." 
 
 She said the words slowly, and sat still a mo-
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL A r O7" HIDE. 13? 
 
 ment to realize her own promise. And when 
 she rose and lifted the work which she had 
 flung down with such discouragement, she was 
 a different woman. There was a smile upon 
 her face ; she had turned it to the east. 
 
 She did not continue her sewing. " I will 
 go out," she said. " If events will not come to 
 me, I will at least give them an opportunity to 
 meet me on the street." She dressed rapidly, 
 and resolved to take the broad sidewalk down 
 Broadway. As she passed the parlor she 
 peeped in with a smiling face, and said, 
 " Father, I am going for a walk." 
 
 " Have the carriage, Virginia, and drive. 
 You will get your feet wet." 
 
 " I would rather walk. I want to be in mo 
 tion. I want to touch people, and to feel the 
 crowd." 
 
 " Very well. I do not pretend to under 
 stand women, or anything they do; though 
 I have lived with them more than sixty 
 years." 
 
 He felt the laugh, with which she answered 
 this sally, to be refreshing. It had its old sym 
 pathetic, good-natured ring. It inspired him 
 to movement also. He remembered that Har 
 pers had just sent him " The Pilgrims of the 
 Rhine," and there was an occult flavor in Bul- 
 wer's novels which piqued his own leaning to 
 the supernatural. He rose for the book, and 
 stood a few moments at the Broadway window
 
 I3 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 to watch Virginia out of sight and catch her 
 last backward smile. 
 
 It was scarcely noon then, and the short 
 winter day was nearly over when she returned. 
 She went at once to the parlor, throwing off, 
 as she entered, the heavy velvet cloak she 
 wore. Her lovely face looked out of her large 
 bonnet like a flower out of its cup ; she untied 
 its strings, and with it in her hand stopped and 
 kissed her father, who was lying at eas3 in his 
 large chair, his face expressing nothing but 
 serenity and satisfaction. 
 
 " I have been visiting, father. I walked as 
 far as Atwell's music store, to see what new 
 songs he had ; and as I passed Park Place, 
 Margaret Hone was at her window, and saw 
 me. She asked me to come in and take lunch 
 with them, and hear all about Mr. Ray's party." 
 
 "Was it indeed such a fine affair?" 
 
 " The finest ever given in New York. The 
 house, Margaret says, is grand enough for a 
 duke. The ceilings are all exquisitely painted; 
 the moldings are gilded ; the ottomans and 
 curtains of the richest satin ; and the mirrors 
 and other decorations splendid beyond descrip 
 tion. Margaret also says that the dancing 
 and the supper equaled anything they saw 
 either in London or Paris." 
 
 " New York is doing pretty well. I am 
 sorry we did not go, Virginia if you re. 
 gret it."
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL NOT HIDE. 139 
 
 "Oh, no, father! How could I have found 
 any joy in dancing and making merry when I 
 knew you were anxious ? And it would not 
 have been right to spend money unnecessarily, 
 when you are losing it so unexpectedly and so 
 unavoidably ; and, as Mr. Hone thinks, so 
 unjustly." 
 
 " Mr. Hone has himself lost largely." 
 
 " Yes, and he is very angry at President 
 Jackson. He spoke with great feeling about 
 the suffering of the New York merchants. 
 The pressure is daily increasing. Father, 
 what is to be done ? He says Boston & Provi 
 dence railroad stock sold to-day at eighty-three 
 per cent. It used to sell at one hundred and 
 ninety per cent. And the petition of the New 
 York merchants, though presented to the 
 President by the best men of our city, has 
 totally failed." 
 
 " I told them it would fail. I was asked to 
 accompany this petition, and use my private 
 influence with my old General. I answered 
 then, ' There is absolutely no private affection, 
 and no private influence, which can move 
 President Jackson a hair's breadth in any pub 
 lic question.' " 
 
 "Mr. Hone told m he had just returned 
 from a meeting at the Exchange. He says 
 the whole street from William Street to a dis 
 tance below the Exchange was a solid mass of 
 men ; they were all in favor of the United
 
 14 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 States Bank, and the return of the deposits to 
 it." 
 
 " They ought to have been more patriotic. 
 Virginia, whatever men think to-day, while the 
 shoe is pinching them, the time will come 
 when all will acknowledge Jackson's far-seeing 
 policy. I can bear a little loss, because I look 
 beyond myself to my posterity ; all good men 
 can do so." 
 
 " You must try and go down town to-morrow, 
 father. I imagine, from what Mr. Hone said, 
 there was rather a funny scene with the 
 President." 
 
 " I have heard all about it, Virginia. An 
 old friend who was present called to see me 
 this afternoon, and we had a long talk." 
 
 " What does he say? " 
 
 "That opposition to Jackson is quite use 
 less; for he is as determined in 1834 to crum 
 ble the Bank to pieces as he was in 1815 to 
 drive the British army into the sea. He says 
 the United States is a great country, but not 
 great enough for two Presidents like Andrew 
 Jackson and Nicholas Biddle and Nicholas 
 Biddle will have to resign." 
 
 " Mr. Hone said the petition contained six 
 thousand of the best names in New York." 
 
 " Most of them obtained with the Bank's 
 money." 
 
 " And it was presented by a deputation of 
 bankers and merchants."
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL NOT HIDE. 141 
 
 "Of course; they represented their own 
 interests." 
 
 " They ought at least to have commanded 
 the President's respectful attention. Mr. Hone 
 says he simply flew into a passion. I suppose 
 you know what Andrew Jackson's passions are." 
 
 " I know nothing wrong of Andrew Jackson. 
 I will tell you just what happened. When the 
 deputation entered the President's presence, 
 he was writing and smoldng. Imagine now his 
 long pipe resting on the table, and the immense 
 steel pen he uses rushing over the paper in a 
 vain effort to emulate or express the fiery soul 
 behind it. As the deputation entered, he 
 pushed back his paper, rose and said: 
 
 " ' Now gentleman, what is your pleasure 
 with me ? ' 
 
 " Then Mr. King began to explain, in his 
 deliberate, dignified manner, but before he had 
 uttered many sentences, the President cut 
 short his speech 
 
 " ' Insolvent ! ' he cried, taking up Mr. 
 King's word. ' Insolvent,' you say. Well, 
 gentlemen, what do you come to me for? Go 
 to Nicholas Biddle. We have no money here, 
 gentlemen. Biddle has all the money. He 
 has millions in specie in his vaults, lying idle, 
 and you come to me to save you from break 
 ing? Go to Biddle.' 
 
 " Some one said something about restoring 
 the deposits, and he replied with anger:
 
 * SH2. ^CVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " ' I have said it befoie, and I say it again, I 
 never restore the deposits. I will never 
 recharter the United States Bank. I will 
 never sign a charter for any bank, so long as 
 ny name is Andre\v Jackson.' 
 
 ' * can imagine how he said this, Virginia, 
 and it called to my remembrance names that 
 the Indians gave him in his youth Sharp 
 Knife and Pointed Arrow ; though it is long, 
 long years since I have heard them." 
 
 " No one doubts that Jackson was a grert 
 general, but " 
 
 He was a great general because he is a great 
 man. And he looks it yet, in spite of his 
 years. I have seen him standing among 
 foreign Ministers in gold lace and jeweled 
 orders, surrounded by oTcers in splendid uni 
 forms ; only a tall, spare man in a black suit, 
 without a single decoration, and he looked 
 king of men for all that." 
 
 " How do you account for his great personal 
 influence ? " 
 
 " He has great personal dignity a kind or 
 game-cock look which I never saw in any other 
 man. His blue eyes shoot forth lightning; 
 his large features are written all over by a soul 
 on fire. His manner is frank and easy, though 
 commanding: yet his white hair, brushed 
 straight up from his brow, gives his long, 
 beardless face when in repose, a delicate, an 
 almost womanly look. If you saw him but a
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL NOT HIDE. M3 
 
 moment, Virginia, you would say ' that is a 
 great man,' and you would never forget him." 
 " All women seem to idolize him." 
 " Because wherever a woman is concerned, 
 he is a perfect Don Quixote. I believe he 
 would champion the poorest woman in the 
 land, if she was wounded by the tongue of 
 slander, or crushed by the touch of any sor 
 row. He had a good mother and a good wife, 
 and all women are sacred to him. So stern 
 and yet so gentle, his nature reminds me of 
 the great bow of Ulysses ; its strength makes 
 all other strengths seem weakness, yet it 
 responds to the lightest touch, 
 
 " 'And in a low tone beautifully it sang, 
 Voiced like a swallow.' " 
 
 "I begin to love Andrew Jackson, though 
 some one told me he was very careless about 
 his dress a cardinal sin in a public man." 
 
 " Some one wronged him. His linen slightly 
 ruffled, is always white and fine ; and his plain 
 black suit well made, and without a spot. He 
 carries his tasseled cane as if it were a sword ; 
 and his high white beaver hat, with its black 
 widower's band, is planted firmly on his head. 
 Dressed like an ordinary gentleman, yet if you 
 met him in a congress of crowned emperors, 
 you would say ' he is the greatest of all.' " 
 
 " Still, father, he has made so much trouble." 
 
 " He has not made the trouble. Any other
 
 144 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 man being President at this time would have 
 had the same question to settle ; and no other 
 man would have grappled with it as well. 
 Consider a moment, and you will see that his 
 treatment of the Bank question is only in ac 
 cord with his treatment of one equally impor 
 tant, the attempted secession of South Carolina 
 about the time we went to Europe." 
 
 " I remember. The word was then nullifi 
 cation. One heard nothing else ; it flavored 
 speech as the word ' deposits ' does now. I 
 was sick to death of it." 
 
 " Yet on that word hung the preservation of 
 our glorious Republic. If Calhoun, or some 
 others, had been President, we should have 
 had civil war, or a broken, dismembered Union. 
 But Jackson understood the people and the 
 question. I was in Washington when it first 
 came up; and he said then: 'South Carolina 
 wants her own will, and her own way ; and she 
 means rebellion, no matter what word she calls. 
 To-day it is the tariff; give her her own tariff, 
 and to-morrow she will cry slavery. She 
 means "Independence." She means to break 
 the Union ; and she shall not do it while An 
 drew Jackson is President.' ' 
 
 "That was a question worth fighting 
 about." 
 
 " It was a question that required a man like 
 Jackson to answer it. But all history shows 
 us that when the hour for great events strikes,
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL NOT HIDE. M5 
 
 up rises the man able to control them. Jack 
 son was ready, he was only waiting for the 
 signal. He answered South Carolina's de 
 fiance with the same frightful energy which 
 had once controlled the lawless men of the 
 Tennessee frontier; which had quelled mutiny 
 in the army, and terrified the discontented 
 citizens of New Orleans into sympathy, or 
 neutrality. While the militia of Charleston 
 were gasconading in blue cockades and pal 
 metto buttons, Jackson had sent General Scott 
 with troops to the seditious city, and a war 
 sloop had anchored in her harbor, to protect 
 the officers of the Government in their duty. 
 He stamped out Nullification in South Caro 
 lina as if it had been the rattlesnake on her 
 State flag ; as he will stamp out any attempt 
 to turn this free republic into a mere financial 
 autocracy. For my part, if I lose every dollar 
 I possess, I will remember the generations to 
 come, and still say, Thank God for Andrew 
 Jackson ! " 
 
 He had risen as he spoke, and as he closed 
 the sentence his fine, pale face was lit up by the 
 glowing soul behind it, and his eyes had in them 
 a light prophetic and triumphant. Virginia 
 put her arm around his neck and kissed him. 
 And just then the dinner bell rang ; and so, 
 smiling a little at this prosaic ending to their 
 lofty mood, Virginia took her father's arm, and 
 he led her to her seat in the dining-room.
 
 I4 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Nelly was standing behind her chair ; she was 
 quite silent, but yet in some way she contrived 
 to infuse into all her actions a sense of her 
 respect and kindness and perfect satisfaction 
 with her surroundings. Both father and 
 daughter enjoyed the feeling, without analyz 
 ing it. They eat their meal cheerfully, talking 
 of Mr. Ray's party and other local matters 
 flowing from this topic. 
 
 Suddenly Virginia said, " There is to be a 
 meeting in Chatham Street Chapel about the 
 exiled Poles. Such a lot of them as I saw 
 about the Park handsome, miserable-looking 
 men. Will you go, father ? " 
 
 " I cannot afford to help them, Virginia ; 
 and it does not please me to see so many 
 foreigners in New York. I think they will 
 make the next attempt to rule us. What do 
 you say to the opera to-night? We are 
 promised some wonderful Zingari music." 
 
 " I should like to go very much ; our box is 
 already paid for, and we ought to occupy it 
 sometimes." 
 
 " Then make yourself handsome, and we will 
 go. Suppose you wear that pink silk and er 
 mine cloak again. I have not seen them since 
 Jane's marriage, and I thought them very be 
 coming." 
 
 They were a little late ; the performance had 
 begun when they entered. A band of gypsies 
 were on the stage, and Virginia felt herself tin-
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL NOT HIDE. 1 47 
 
 gling all over to the poignant sounds of their 
 guitars, working in magic combinations with 
 the beating cymbals, and the dulcimers whipped 
 by the dusky fingers. The music stirred and 
 fretted her, as fire frets an inch from dry wood. 
 It seemed to tease, to challenge, to tell her 
 something she could not grasp. 
 
 She had often been in this first American 
 Opera House, but had never got over her sen 
 sation of pleasure in its splendor. As she re 
 moved her cloak her eyes wandered over the 
 tier of boxes painted in superb classical de 
 signs ; over the gilded panels, over the luxuri 
 ous sofas, and the hangings and upholstery of 
 richest satins. The music, the lights, the crowd 
 touched her at all points of her being; she 
 smiled with delight ; she was conscious of a 
 keener and kinder sense of life. 
 
 Their box was within sight of that owned by 
 Mr. Cruger, and she was glad to see that he 
 was not present. " If he were there, I am sure- 
 he would walk over with some bad news in the 
 interval ; he always does." As this thought 
 crossed her mind two ladies and an elderly 
 gentleman entered it. Virginia did not know 
 them, and she did not even speculate about 
 their identity. The face she feared to see in 
 that box was happily absent ; and it was mo 
 mentarily getting too late for Us appearance. 
 She had forgotten Mr. Cruger, when she was 
 conscious of a slight stir in the dreaded direc-
 
 M& SHE LOVf'.D A SAILOR. 
 
 tion. Her eyes were instantly fixed upon the 
 door. Two gentlemen entered ; one was Mr. 
 Rhea, and the other was Marius Bradford. 
 
 A lovely blush instantly covered her white 
 shoulders, her slender throat, her pale cheeks 
 and brow. Her face grew luminous. Her eyes 
 shone like stars. A kind of radiance quite 
 perceptible to a lover's vision surrounded her. 
 Recognition was instantaneous. The flash 
 from the eyes of Marius met the flash from 
 the eyes of Virginia half way. He could not, 
 for a moment, seat himself. He was struck 
 motionless and dumb by her beauty and sym 
 pathy, though he did not know it was sympa- 
 thy, and would have feared to hope so far. 
 
 From that moment the opera was over to 
 Virginia. She sat still, looking, not at the 
 stage, but at the mental vision behind the 
 curtains of her eyes. At the next interval she 
 spoke to the Major, and, with a slight re 
 luctance, he went to Mr. Cruger's box and 
 greeted the Captain. She had not said, 
 " Bring the gentleman here to see me "; she 
 trusted to the influence which Marius usually 
 exercised, and she was not wrong. In a few 
 moments she perceived they were coming to 
 her; and she rose with smiles and trembling 
 joy to meet them. 
 
 Marius was completely under the spell of his 
 great love. He could not utter a word when 
 she laid her hand in his ; but to a woman sc
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL NOT HIDE. 149 
 
 sensitive as Virginia, words were only a clumsy 
 interpretation of a sweet and subtle language. 
 In a glance, swift as light, unavoidable as the 
 beating of his heart, Marius, when he took her 
 hand, told the whole sweet story. 
 
 Fortunately, the music, the singing, the 
 necessity for general remark, made a screen be 
 hind which love revealed itself in ways hidden 
 and occult to all but the initiated. Marius sat 
 beside Virginia; he never could tell how this 
 arrangement had been managed. Jack sat 
 opposite to her, and the Major spoke to him, 
 when speech was permissible, with great 
 apparent favor. Then Miss Mason also added 
 a word or a smile or some slight movement of 
 understanding. And Jack was perfectly 
 happy. He knew so little of a woman like 
 Virginia that he believed her most obvious 
 favors to be her sweetest and most worthy 
 ones. 
 
 She appeared to say little to Marius, but he 
 was supremely blessed in that little. For 
 when she turned her face with the simplest 
 question to him, he felt the few words to be a 
 cypher, whose meaning was beyond words. 
 She lifted her eyes in the most casual way, 
 and his very soul leaped into his eyes to meet 
 her glance. And in that reciprocal flash both 
 felt all lingual sounds to be an intrusion, blun 
 dering and impertinent, falling far behind the 
 clear glory of a smile or glance.
 
 15 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 To at least three of the audience the opera 
 that night was exceedingly short. " Fanti 
 must have missed an act," Virginia said, with 
 a laugh, and then she turned for her cloak. 
 Marius had it in his hand, and she was 
 delighted at his readiness to seize an oppor 
 tunity. As he assisted her to clasp it, she 
 said : 
 
 " This is the dress for which you bought the 
 silk." 
 
 " It is the loveliest dress that woman ever 
 wore." 
 
 " No one has yet thanked you for your part 
 in it." 
 
 " Oh ! you know there is no question of 
 thanks." 
 
 " Why did not you bring it to me as you 
 promised ? " 
 
 " I could not." 
 
 " You disappointed me." 
 
 " God knows I would not willingly do that ; 
 I- 
 
 He was on the point of saying, " I love you 
 too well." With a conscious shiver he re 
 strained the words. But Virginia knew they 
 had been on his lips, and she looked a moment 
 at the bearded portals that shut them in. 
 There was some reproach in the look, though 
 she was not conscious of it, but Marius felt its 
 pang. 
 
 They had lingered a little, willingly enough
 
 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL NOT HIDE. 151 
 
 hindered by the crowd, and when they 
 reached the door, the Major's carriage had 
 been called, and he was just entering it. Jack 
 stood bareheaded at the door to assist Vir 
 ginia, and she gently drew her hand from the 
 arm of Marius, and put it into Jack's hand. 
 He took it with a few merry words, and she 
 answered them as merrily. Then the Major 
 leaned forward, and said : 
 
 " Good-night, Captain. Let us have the 
 pleasure of seeing you again. Come to dinner 
 to-morrow." 
 
 " I will. Good-night." 
 
 The carriage began to move ere the pleasant 
 words of farewell were all spoken ; but as it did 
 so, Marius saw the vision of a lovely face bend 
 ing toward him, and heard amid the clash and 
 outcry one eager word " to-morrow."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MR. AND MRS. FORFAR. 
 
 " There is nothing new under the sun ; 
 
 There is no new hope or despair ; 
 The agony just begun 
 
 Is as old as the earth and the air. 
 My secret soul of bliss 
 
 Is one with the singing stars, 
 And the ancient mountains miss 
 
 No hurt that my being mars." 
 
 " Time goes by turns, and chances change by course." 
 
 " Thine, too, the part 
 
 To prove, that still for him the laurels grow 
 Who reaches through the mind to pluck the heart." 
 
 VIRGINIA talked all the way home. She 
 was under an excitement which in its first 
 phase found a relief in speech. But her 
 father was silent, unconsciously antedating the 
 anxieties of the coming day. The meeting 
 with Captain Bradford did not appear to him 
 as a matter of any importance. He forgot it 
 as soon as the man was out of his sight. 
 
 Virginia found a far more sympathetic at 
 mosphere when she reached her room. Nelly 
 had voluntarily assumed the duties of a lady's 
 maid, and was sitting there before a bright 
 fire crimping the ruffles of Virginia's night 
 gown with a small penknife. She lifted her 
 152
 
 MR. AND MRS. FOR FAR. 153 
 
 pleasant face as Virginia entered, and immedi 
 ately rose to meet her. 
 
 " Eh, Miss! You do look well. You must 
 hev been heving a good time." 
 
 " I have had a very happy evening, Nelly. 
 Is it late?" 
 
 "Going up hill for twelve o'clock, Miss; 
 but I'm neither tired nor sleepy." 
 
 She busied herself in removing Virginia's 
 pretty cloak and dress ; she brought her 
 chamber gown, and loosened her hair, and 
 then produced a tray holding a plate of cold 
 prairie hen, a raspberry jam tartlet, and a 
 pitcher of milk. 
 
 " I think a deal of a bit of good eating, 
 Miss. If you hev hed a merry time you need 
 it ; and if you hevn't hed a merry time I'm 
 sure you need it a long sight more." 
 
 " It is just what I wanted, Nelly. And it is 
 nice to have some one watch for me, and care 
 for me." Then she looked suddenly into 
 Nelly's face, and said, " Did you know the 
 ' Arethusa ' was in port ? " 
 
 "To be sure, Miss. She hes been here since 
 the beginning of the week. I saw Captain 
 Bradford passing last Monday night." 
 
 " Did you speak to him ? " 
 
 " Not I. It was ten o'clock at night. I 
 was building up this fire, and going to draw 
 the blind, and I saw him pass on t' opposite 
 side of the street."
 
 154 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " Nelly, if you do not mind telling me, I 
 should like to [know all about your acquaint 
 ance with Captain Bradford." 
 
 "There's nothing to hide, Miss. I came 
 over in his ship, and I hedn't a shilling when I 
 hed paid my right there. I took a cold the 
 second day out, and hed a bad inflammation 
 on my lungs. And there wasn't any doctor 
 on board, and nobody who cared aught for me, 
 whether I lived or died ; nob-but a little lass 
 that went and told t' Captain. My word ! he 
 made a change, quick. He hed me taken to a 
 good bed, and he saw all done that ought to 
 be done, and he hired two decent women who 
 were on board to watch me, turn about night 
 and day. When I began to mend he gave me 
 good food, and that wasn't all. He asked me 
 about mysen, and v/hat I was going to do, and 
 he made me take two sovereigns when I left t* 
 ship, so that I needn't be worrited out of my 
 head again." 
 
 " Mrs. Forfar told me you used to go often 
 to see him." 
 
 " I did until he told me I hed better stay 
 away from the ' Arethusa.' ' 
 
 "Why, Nelly?" 
 
 " Varry kindly he said it, Miss ; and there 
 was a kinder meaning still in his heart. I 
 wasn't knowing much, right out of a Yorkshire 
 spinning village." 
 
 " He wrote to you, though ?"
 
 MR AND MRS. FORFAR. 155 
 
 "Aye, he did. It was about John Thomas 
 Clitheroe that is my young man a deal of 
 bother he lies given me but they all do." 
 
 "You mean your lover, Nelly?" 
 
 " To be sure. I promised to wed John 
 Thomas he's a Whitby lad, and a ship-car 
 penter ; but he went to China on the ' Water 
 Witch,' and I heard naught from him, and the 
 lasses were joking me, saying he hed run away 
 from me, and such like. So I came to Amer 
 ica, for I told mysen many a time, and times 
 again, now if John Thomas Clitheroe wants 
 me, he can come after me." 
 
 " And Captain Bradford was writing to you 
 about John Thomas?" 
 
 " He thought I hed better let him know 
 where I was, and he lies been looking after t' 
 lad for me. Last Tuesday morning he sent 
 me word he hed found him out, and hed writ 
 ten a letter to him, saying he would be glad to 
 hev him on the ' Arethusa.' " 
 
 " You must be very happy ? " 
 
 " Well, Miss, I am. It is worrity work 
 thinking about a lad away off in China, or 
 maybe in a worse place. But if John Thomas 
 gets under Captain Bradford, he'll hev as easy 
 a road to t' grave as a workingman can hev." 
 
 " You think a great deal of Captain Brad 
 ford, NeHy ? " 
 
 " I'd be a poor sort of a lass if I didn't." 
 
 " Mrs. Forfar believed that perhaps *
 
 156 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " I know well enough what Mrs. Forfar be 
 lieved. She hed a young man on her own 
 mind then, and she thought every other lass 
 was in t* same fix. She hes her young man 
 now, and I doan't mind saying he is a down 
 right blackguard." 
 
 " Nelly, you should not use such strong 
 words." 
 
 " I think them, Miss, and what is in comes 
 out. That's the Yorkshire way." 
 
 " I always felt sure that Captain Bradford 
 would never talk foolishness to a pretty girl 
 whom he had helped." 
 
 " He would bite his tongue out first. He 
 would that." 
 
 " Nor even look it, Nelly?" 
 
 " He's a bit above such ways. He'd no 
 more look a lie than he'd speak one." 
 
 " He was at the opera to-night, Nelly. I 
 think he is a very noble looking man." 
 
 "Well, Miss, they would be hard set that 
 tried to match him anywhere. I don't know 
 as ever I saw a grander-looking man in all my 
 life." 
 
 " He had a very rough passage this time." 
 
 " I wonder if he knows t' best way to drive 
 his ship. I always thought he took her over t' 
 roughest bit of water he could find." 
 
 "Do you know Mr. Rhea? He seems a 
 great deal with the Captain." 
 
 " Well, I'm sure I can't say if I know him.
 
 MR. AND MRS. FORFAR. 157 
 
 Is he a good-looking young man, who carries 
 himsen as if he thought New York was a deal 
 better for heving him in it?" 
 
 " I dare say he may feel that way, Nelly, 
 He looks like Captain Bradford." 
 
 " Happen he is some relation. He never 
 called him aught but Jack, and t' young man 
 seemed to be t' varry light of his counte 
 nance." 
 
 " Nelly, when John Thomas comes, you 
 must let' me know. I suppose you will want 
 to be married." 
 
 " When we hev saved a bit of brass to put a 
 roof over our heads. He'll hev got that much 
 sense anyway by this time, I do hope. When 
 he knew me first, he were in a craze to be mar 
 riedwhat fool isn't ? " 
 
 " How did you feel about it then, Nelly?" 
 
 " I were in t' same box. How we were to 
 live didn't come into our heads; as it might 
 hev done if we hed hed a bit of knowledge of 
 'rithmetic, and could hev reckoned things up a 
 bit. Anyway, we fell out one Sunday evening, 
 and John Thomas went to China, and I came 
 to New York." 
 
 " But now all will be right again ? " 
 
 " Happen so and happen not. If Fate parted 
 us, Captain Bradford will find himsen bested in 
 all his plans. Nobody is any match for what 
 hes to be" 
 
 " We must always hope for what we wish,
 
 158 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Nelly; that is always right. I think now I will 
 go to sleep." She rose with the words, and 
 Nelly carried away the tray, and left her alone 
 with her own sweet thoughts. 
 
 Then Virginia snuffed out the candles. The 
 burning wood made a light most consonant to 
 her dreamy, loitering mood ; and she sat in her 
 white gown before it till the room began to 
 chill, and the snowy bed was rosy in the glow 
 of the embers. Then she sank upon it smiling; 
 her fair still face growing whiter and whiter as 
 the fire died out and the light of the waning 
 moon came stealing in through the window. 
 It threw across the white bed and the white 
 sleeper a light mournful and mysterious, and 
 gave to the room an air of austere solitude and 
 of a life apart. 
 
 Wonderful as the night had been to Vir 
 ginia, it was more so to Marius. He endured 
 Jack's company, his transports and illusions, to 
 the very last moment, with a forced interest 
 and equanimity; but, oh, how glad he was to 
 find himself alone ! " At last ! " he said, with 
 a great sigh, and he turned with rapid steps 
 toward Broadway. He felt that he could not 
 sleep until he had seen the house in which she 
 dwelt ; a longing most natural, for love, as well 
 as religion, has its shrines and its pilgrimages. 
 The home of the beloved one is as precious 
 and sacred to the lover as the shrine of his 
 saint is to the devotee.
 
 MR. AND MRS. FORFAR. 159 
 
 He was tossed on the waves of a great con 
 flict. He felt as if in this matter both Fate 
 and Jack had been cruel to him. If he ac 
 cepted the Major's invitation to dinner, he felt 
 that he must be a traitor to his brother. "I 
 have no power to resist her charm," lie said 
 pitifully, wringing his strong hands. " In her 
 presence, I cannot force myself to even wish to 
 resist it. What shall I do ? " 
 
 He could come to no decision. The cold,, 
 wintry day broke and found him still sitting in 
 the saloon of his ship. He shivered when he 
 saw it first brightening the seaward port. Not 
 till then had he known that it was cold. The 
 cook was in the galley ; he asked for a cup of 
 coffee, drank it, and lay down. He had worn 
 out his capacity both for thought and feeling, 
 and he fell into a profound sleep. 
 
 Our first thoughts on waking have often a 
 remnant of the prophesying night, and are 
 well worth notice. The first thought Marius- 
 had was, " She loves me ! I saw it in her 
 eyes. I felt it in the touch of her hand. Oh r 
 joy! She loves me!" His second thought 
 drove the first out-of-doors. It was Jack, and 
 Jack's rights. He almost felt resentment at 
 the very word " rights." He had loved her 
 first. He loved her as Jack was incapable of 
 loving. Yes but he had promised himself to- 
 give Jack a chance. His heart then tried to 
 reason conscience away. What if Virginia
 
 160 sf/K LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 loved him ? Was it not cruel to make her 
 suffer for Jack's chance and his own idea of 
 brotherly honor? For a good man knows the 
 value of a true love ; he dares not hazard it ; 
 he will not squander it ; he fears to try it too 
 far. And yet ? Perhaps he was flattering him 
 self. His face was stern as he mused stern 
 and sad ; for there is a gloom in deep love as 
 in deep water ; a silence in it which suspends 
 both the tongue and the foot. 
 
 He went on deck and saw the winter morn 
 ing in yellow and white brightening the 
 river. The wind was most unusually favorable 
 for his outward voyage ; he wondered if there 
 was any reason for delay. It seemed easier to 
 give way to Jack when he was out at sea, out 
 of hearing and sight of his enthusiasms. He 
 was afraid of getting angry at his brother of 
 learning to dislike him. The thought made 
 him shudder. He walked quickly forward, 
 and began to investigate the condition of the 
 ship for sailing. 
 
 About the middle of the morning, one of 
 the agents for the line came on board, and he 
 asked him if there was any cause for delay. 
 
 " None at all. The cargo is in. We have 
 only two passengers ; a young man at the 
 office, and a traveler waiting at the hotel. 
 You can sail with the next tide, if you wish, 
 Captain. I will have the passengers and the 
 papers here."
 
 MR. AND MRS. FORFAR. i6r 
 
 It seemed the best solution of the difficulty. 
 He had proposed it in one of those moods in 
 which men leave to the turning up of a penny, 
 the drawing of a card, the accident of a verse, 
 or the answer to a question, the decision they 
 are not themselves able to reach. 
 
 He accepted the decision, but he had both 
 regret and sorrow in it ; he accepted it, though 
 rebellion against it was in his heart. At the 
 noon hour Jack called. He came forward with 
 a gloomy face. " Marius," he said, " I am as 
 miserable as I can be. I do not know what I 
 am doing." 
 
 " What is the matter, Jack ? " 
 
 " Why did she not ask me to dinner, as well 
 as you? " 
 
 " Perhaps she thought she owed me a little 
 courtesy for the silk. But it was not her who 
 asked me, it was the Major. Some people are 
 cut on too small a pattern to take a favor." 
 
 " I wish you were not going, Marius. When 
 I think of last night, I am sure Virginia paid 
 you a great deal of attention." 
 
 " I am not going." 
 
 "Not going to Major Mason's to-night! 
 What will Virginia think?" 
 
 "If I was you, Jack, I would speak of her as 
 Miss Mason ; she has not yet given you the 
 right to use the other name. I shall lift my 
 anchor this afternoon at fifteen minutes to 
 five, and go out to sea with the tide."
 
 162 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " Marius! " 
 
 " Jack ! " 
 
 " Will you not send a note explaining your 
 absence ? " 
 
 " Suppose you carry it for me. I do not 
 like to let any man go ashore on the last 
 day." 
 
 " I shall be glad to carry it. Write the 
 note, Marius, and I will go there at once." 
 
 "Try and get back before I sail." 
 
 There was a heart full of pathos in the 
 request, but Jack was not sensitive to it. He 
 took the note and hurried up Broadway with 
 it. This time Nelly answered his knock. 
 She said Miss Mason was at home, and took 
 him into the familiar parlor. After she had 
 told Virginia of his presence, she returned and 
 added fuel to the fire, and drew the blinds to 
 the pleasantest angle. Jack wondered at her 
 beautiful face, her magnificent coloring, and 
 her pretty figure, and did not feel the time 
 long until Virginia entered. 
 
 She met her visitor with smiles, and took 
 the letter. " It is directed to my father," she 
 said ; " are you to wait for an answer ? Is it 
 from Mr. Cruger ? " 
 
 " Oh no ! My brother sent me with it, be- 
 cause he wished me to explain " 
 
 "Your brother ? " 
 
 "Marius. Captain Bradford." 
 
 She had stood hitherto. She now sat down,
 
 MR. AND MRS. FOR FAR. 163 
 
 and requested Jack also to be seated. " Is 
 Captain Bradford your brother?" 
 
 "We had the same mother, Miss Mason." 
 " Yes? What are you to explain? Cannot 
 Captain Bradford dine with us to-night?" 
 
 " He is compelled to sail this afternoon. 
 He said I was to tell you this. He is very 
 much disappointed." 
 
 "And you are his brother? Mr. Rhea, how- 
 proud you must be of him ! " 
 
 " I am. There is nobody like Marius Brad 
 ford in the whole world. Why, he has been 
 both father and brother to me." And then, 
 led on by Virginia's sympathy and questions, 
 he told her the full story of the captain's self- 
 denying life. He told it well. Nature had 
 given him eloquence, love taught him how to- 
 breathe into the words a living soul. Jack 
 talked till both were in tears and smiles ; till 
 all barriers of social caste and form were 
 broken down, and they sat together like 
 brother and sister. 
 
 " But I must hurry back to him now," he 
 
 said, rising as the clock struck three. " He 
 
 asked me to try and see him before he sailed." 
 
 " Wait a few minutes. I will answer for my 
 
 father." She went to the desk and wrote : 
 
 To Captain Marius Bradford : 
 
 We regret very much your absence to-night, but understand 
 how Captain Bradford must always prefer duty to pleasure. 
 A good voyage to the " Arethusa," and our best wishes for her 
 Captain. VlRG.'NiA MASON.
 
 164 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 She folded the letter as letters were then 
 folded, and sealed it with a small circle of blue 
 wax. Then, going into the greenhouse, which 
 opened from this parlor, she gathered hastily 
 a lavish nosegay of scented geranium and 
 white hyacinths, and said : 
 
 " Hasten now, Mr. Rhea, or you will miss 
 your brother ; and I particularly wish him to 
 have the note and the flowers." 
 
 As Jack left her presence, Nelly entered 
 with a letter. It was from Mrs. Forfar, and 
 Virginia was delighted to see that it covered 
 many pages. It was the first long letter she 
 had received, and it was evidently written in 
 an extremely enthusiastic mood. Virginia 
 was ready to believe every word of it, but 
 Major Mason made a few allowances. " Let 
 ters are never quite truthful," he said; "they 
 reflect only the passing feeling; they say too 
 much, or too little." 
 
 In reality the Major had been sensitive to 
 an overestimate of satisfaction in Jane's letter ; 
 he was inclined to fear it was probably the 
 accentuated reverse of some condition exactly 
 opposite. Nor was he wrong. Many shadows 
 had already gathered on the horizon of Jane's 
 new life ; but these as yet were alternated by 
 frequent intervals of sunshine ; and in one of 
 these bright periods she had been led into that 
 exaggeration of her surroundings which is the 
 temptation of letter-writing.
 
 MR. AND MRS. FORFAR. 165 
 
 Her honeymoon voyage to New Orleans 
 had been all her fancy painted it. On the 
 packet they were dependent upon each other's 
 society, for they felt themselves to be far 
 removed from their prosaic companions, and 
 were rather proud of their isolation. But at 
 New Orleans they reached changed conditions. 
 Here Nigel Forfar was at home. He was con 
 tinually meeting in the hotel, or on- Canal 
 Street, some neighbor who was in " Orleans " 
 to buy slaves or to sell cotton. The bar of 
 the hotel was his favorite resort, and there he 
 gathered round him a continually changing 
 crowd, eager to hear what was going on at the 
 " No'th " about the all-important Abolition 
 question. 
 
 Now Jane also began to realize that she had 
 come almost into a new world. The city itself 
 was so unlike New York; she was constantly 
 raking among the ashes of her dreams for 
 memories which haunted her of its queer 
 houses, with their mysterious gardens ; of that 
 thick murmur of the river ; of the tattered 
 banners of the Spanish moss hanging every 
 where. And when Nigel was not by her side, 
 she was almost terrified by the strange mixture 
 of humanity before her : the long, swarthy, 
 indolent men, with their suave manners and 
 soft, slurring speech ; the stately black 
 women, coifed in many-colored turbans; the 
 veiled nuns and hooded monks ; the lovely
 
 1 66 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Creoles, with their dreamy eyes and warm 
 white faces. She felt like a stranger in a 
 foreign land among them, and her usual self- 
 assertion deserted her. 
 
 For the ladies of her own rank the wives 
 and daughters of the interior planters looked 
 at her with cool curiosity or disapproving 
 suspicion. If she went into the public parlor 
 of the hotel she could not avoid feeling it. 
 She was from the " No'th," and had she been 
 a white bird in a colony of blackbirds she 
 could not have been made more sensitive to 
 her lack of proper coloring. The tall, languid 
 women, with thick bands of black hair framing 
 cream-white faces, and large eyes, black as 
 night, regarded her rosy cheeks and fair hair 
 and blue eyes as almost improper. Her alert 
 manner, her quick intelligence, her style of 
 dress, her form of speech were all peculiar; 
 and, therefore, very likely wrong. The black 
 birds whispered suspiciously together about 
 the strange white bird, and the whisper built a 
 wall of separation which Jane could not sur 
 mount. 
 
 Nigel was particularly sensitive to this social 
 disapproval. He had that small nature which 
 sees through the eyes of others. He began to 
 have hours in which he despised the beauty 
 which could not assert itself. He knew the 
 ladies of his acquaintance were wondering at 
 his choice, and he felt himself doubtful of it.
 
 MR. AND MRS. FORFAR. 167 
 
 He knew, when Mrs. Latrobe or Mrs. Fontaine 
 turned their great black eyes on his face, with 
 ineffable languors in them, that they were 
 pitying him ; and at such moments he pitied 
 himself. 
 
 Jane was aware of all the inter-drama. One 
 evening a large company was gathered in the 
 hotel parlor. Nigel sat by the sofa on which 
 the lovely bride of Seflor Henrique reclined. 
 The dusky white of her shoulders and arms 
 was thrown into fine relief by a dress of dark 
 sapphire satin. A turban of softest tulle shaded 
 her pale face, and crowned with its transparent 
 film the thick rippling bands of her black hair. 
 Jane saw with indignation her fine eyes flash 
 and fall for the benefit of Nigel. Heartsick 
 with a sense of her loneliness, passionately re 
 sentful at the injustice and unkindness which 
 was wrecking her love and life, she walked al 
 most unconsciously to the piano, and touched 
 softly a few notes. 
 
 "Will Mrs. Fo'fah play for us? "said the 
 Sefiora, with covert sarcasm. She was quite 
 sure that Jane would be dashed by the very 
 suggestion. On the contrary, Jane saw in the 
 white keys a medium for the tumultuous feel 
 ings which surcharged her heart. Without re 
 garding the invitation, simply obeying some 
 interior urgent demand, she sat down before 
 the instrument, and in a moment her fingers 
 were flying over the keys, and her clear voice
 
 1 68 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 was thrilling every atom of the heavy atmos 
 phere : 
 
 He who has drunk of Love's sharp wine 
 Will drink thereof till death. 
 
 Strength makes joy, and Jane had suddenly- 
 found out her strength. The agony of a 
 moment had revealed to her a latent power 
 nothing she had ever learned, something she 
 remembered. It was marvelous. The song, 
 fresh and clear, had a lark's vivid, ardent, 
 velvety notes, and a recall soft and flute-like 
 as a wren's ; a soulful voice, that seemed to 
 gravitate above. She was amazed at her own 
 power. She went on exercising it for the pure 
 joy it gave her ; indifferent as to its effect 
 upon others ; only realizing with a kind of 
 wonder that it answered every increasing 
 demand upon it. 
 
 When she ceased, she found that she had 
 drawn from every part of the hotel a delighted 
 audience. The room was filled ; it had filled 
 without a word or a sound. Old and young 
 were standing with charmed senses around 
 her, and Nigel's gleaming eyes were fixed with 
 wonder and love upon her face Nigel, who 
 had always declared that he disliked music, 
 but who had found out through the apprecia 
 tion of others thje wonder of his wife's voice. 
 
 Jane hardly heard the murmurs of delight 
 that thanked her. A sudden inspiration had 
 tnken possession of her. She would show
 
 MR. AND MRS. 1-ORFAR. 169 
 
 these men and women that there was a beauty 
 in womanhood far beyond the sensuous cap- 
 tivation of mere form or color. A number of 
 fine verses had just been written by two young 
 men called Bryant and Whittier. Jane knew 
 them. From her lips they sprang, instinct 
 with the soul-fire in which they had their 
 birth. They were not all in exact sympathy 
 with Southern sentiment, but they went to 
 the truest depth of every heart. Jane was 
 transfigured as she interpreted them ; she had 
 a triumph that carried all before it even her 
 husband's nervous fear of a social blunder. 
 Nobody asked why she had done this thing ; 
 the power to do it was felt to be sufficient 
 warranty for its exercise. 
 
 Never had Nigel been so proud of his wife 
 as when he gave her his arm that night. It 
 was well that it was the closing act of their 
 stay in New Orleans, for Fortune seldom 
 answers an encore. Jane left with all her 
 honor unfaded ; a memory that men carried to 
 lonely plantations, a voice full of noble mes 
 sage that echoed more or less clearly in many 
 a heart for many a year. 
 
 Her voyage up the Mississippi to Memphis 
 was a kind of overture to her new life. It 
 filled her with a strange sadness. The drink 
 ing and gambling, the oaths and quarreling, 
 the popping of champagne corks, the gurgle of 
 liquors, were not kept out of the ladies' apart-
 
 17 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 merit by the slight partition supposed to ex 
 clude them. If she went on deck, her eyes 
 fell upon the gangs f slaves going from the 
 New Orleans slave market to till the tobacco 
 and cotton lands of the Upper Country. To 
 hear of slavery is one thing; to see it is 
 another. Looking into the unutterable sad 
 ness and gloom of the black faces beneath her 
 gaze, there were moments when Jane wanted 
 to shriek aloud ; when she vowed to herself 
 that she would have neither part nor lot in 
 such iniquity; when she hated herself for 
 letting her love blind her to the real position 
 she was to occupy a mistress and owner cf 
 slaves. 
 
 They landed at Memphis late in the after 
 noon. It had been raining all day, but the 
 rain had changed to fog ; a thick, clammy fog, 
 viscous to the touch. Up the muddy banks 
 the straining mules pulled with great difficulty 
 the carriage awaiting them ; and Jane looked 
 curiously at the town perched upon the high 
 bluff of the river. The business of the day 
 was over, and it had an ii violent and impassive 
 air. Few white men were in sight, and no 
 white women. Negroes, mules, and wagons 
 had the wide streets to themselves. They 
 drove so rapidly through them that Jane had 
 only a confused vision of red brick stores and 
 white houses in dim inclosed gardens. Every 
 where there were large willow trees, every-
 
 MR. AND MRS. FORFAR. 171 
 
 where peacocks calling with harsh ill-nature 
 into the misty night ; everywhere a lonely 
 sense of lives that shut themselves each in 
 their own tenement. 
 
 The Forfar place was a few miles out of 
 Memphis. They approached it in silence, for 
 Jane had a stubborn depression of spirit that 
 would not be reasoned with. She felt indif 
 ferent as to whether Nigel liked it or not. 
 The house stood at the head of a long avenue, 
 gray and spectral-looking in the grayness of 
 the foggy nightfall. A white man met them 
 at the door, a slow, melancholy creature, with 
 a mouth full of tobacco. Nigel introduced 
 him to Jane as " Mr. Clay," and he walked 
 into the house with them. The wide hall was 
 lull of servants. They smiled and courtesied, 
 and looked with gentle kindness at the young 
 white woman who had come to rule them. 
 Nigel spoke to one or two, and ordered supper 
 in. a voice thr.t struck Jane as an entirely new 
 one. 
 
 But she was too weary to speculate. She 
 ate a little supper, and was then taken to a 
 large ? bare apartment, with curtainless win 
 dows. " You shall furnish it as you desire, 
 Jane," said Nigel kindly. " Are you not glad 
 to be at home, dear ? " 
 
 That was sufficient. Yes, she was glad, and 
 she told him so with kisses and pleasant hopes 
 and words,
 
 I-J2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 The next morning was a lovely one, and 
 they went through the house together, and 
 Nigel made a note of what was required for 
 every room. Then he took her to the stables 
 and the offices, and showed her a little negro vil 
 lage of snow-white cabins set between rows of 
 live oaks. And everywhere there was the 
 same order and silence, the same respect from 
 passing servants, the same scrupulous cleanli 
 ness and methodical care. 
 
 " It is the best-kept plantation in Tennes 
 see," said Nigel proudly. " Clay is an excel 
 lent overseer; no idleness and no grumbling 
 here. Look at those cottages, Jane! could 
 anything be cleaner or prettier? Let aboli 
 tionists give the free negroes at the North 
 homes as good, before they say another word.'* 
 Then he drew her hand through his arm, 
 and spoke sweetly to her. "We shall be 
 very happy, Jane, my dear wife, shall we 
 not?" 
 
 " I need nothing but you, Nigel, to make me 
 happy." 
 
 They were on the threshold when she said so r 
 and he answered her with a kiss. And it was 
 with this kiss upon her lips that Jane wrote to 
 Virginia that long letter so full of hopes and 
 pleasant exaggerations a letter which she 
 wondered at in after days, and re-read with 
 mingled anger and mockery. 
 
 And she thought as she wrote it that Vir-
 
 MR. AND MRS. FORFAR 173, 
 
 ginia had passed out of her life that their 
 friendship was a broken thread time would 
 hardly tie again. But she soon learnt the les 
 son all learn sooner or later,(that few things in 
 life break off absolutely, and that there is often 
 a tremendous- vitality in what may be called 
 SeauencesT} 
 
 ^n-*^
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 b. FAMOUS ELECTION. 
 
 " For the masses live in obedience to passion, pursuing tneii 
 wn pleasures and the means of gratifying them ; but of what 
 is honorable and really delightful they have not the slightest 
 idea, inasmuch as they never had a taste of them. What 
 power of reasoning, then, could bring about a change on such 
 men as these ? For it is not possible, or at least not easy, to 
 change what has been impressed for a long time upon the 
 moral character." 
 
 " It is passion that brings ruin on rulers, even though they 
 be the very best of men ; wherefore the law is reason free from 
 passion." 
 
 /CITIES have their heroic periods, and 
 V though New York in A. D. 1834 was rest 
 less and riotous, its true citizens were moved 
 by noble and patriotic impulses. Most of them 
 had heard from their fathers' or their grand- 
 fathers' lips actual incidents of the fight for 
 liberty ; and the sword or rifle which had as 
 sisted in its achievement hung yet over the 
 hearthstone of their childhood's home, and had 
 an affectionate place in their memory. Theii 
 loyalty to their native land had still a strong 
 anti-British flavor. They believed in their own 
 opinions and their own handiwork, and wert
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION. i/5 
 
 even ideal and sentimental ; easily moved by a 
 song or a speech which appealed to their na 
 tional or their domestic feelings. 
 
 Up to this date, also, men were made honor 
 able by civic service. The mayoralty was in 
 the gift of the Governor and the Council, and 
 had always been awarded to some man whose 
 probity and worth were conspicuous. The 
 office of alderman was also a position implying 
 not only personal worth but public respect, an 
 occasion for wise and loyal service, and not an 
 opportunity for the making of money. 
 
 But in 1834 the people of New York, for the 
 first time, elected their Mayor ; and the elec 
 tion introduced into civic honors the element 
 of politics. It was an unfortunate time for any 
 innovation. The city's commerce was still 
 prostrate, the quarrel between the President 
 and the Bank being at its height, and the elec 
 tion of Mayor was to be the test of New 
 York's approval or disapproval of the Presi 
 dent's course. And, singular as it may appear 
 to-day, there was then a most imposing number 
 of wealthy business men who stood by the 
 President regardless of their personal interest 
 in the matter men such as Jesse Hoyt, or 
 John R. Livingston, who, at a great public 
 meeting, declared the Bank question to be, 
 " not whether their business was doing well or 
 verging to bankruptcy, but whether the gov 
 ernment established by their patriot fathers
 
 <7 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 was to be continued, or the nation was to be 
 controlled by a moneyed aristocracy." 
 
 Had this question come up for decision be 
 tween two parties of native-born Americans 
 only, it would have been determined with that 
 calm dignity which is made possible to all by 
 the ballot-box. But New York, with an insane 
 generosity and a prodigal trust in the very at 
 mosphere of freedom to reform and inform 
 men, had not only given shelter to all the pau 
 pers and criminals who chose to come to her 
 for refuge, but had also given them the right to 
 make her laws and elect her rulers. 
 
 The greater part of her foreign element 
 which was very large was composed of Irish 
 peasants, who could neither read nor write, and 
 who knew nothing whatever of civil liberty. 
 But they had the overweening self-estimation 
 of the Celtic nature, and its rapacious greed ; 
 they were equally sure of their natural ability 
 to take a share in the government, and to sell 
 that share of the privilege for some tangible 
 return in the currency. This party, impudent 
 and avaricious, were easily caught by the cries 
 of the Jackson party : " Gold and silver money, 
 and not notes with pictures on them and prom 
 ises to pay " ; *' Jackson, the poor man's 
 friend " ; " Jackson against a moneyed aris 
 tocracy." 
 
 It was evident, weeks before the expected 
 election, that this foreign mob might prove to
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION. 177 
 
 be unmanageable. Major Mason vainly pointed 
 out its unreliability, and the disgrace to the 
 Jackson party in condescending to use the votes 
 of such men. But they hung around Tammany 
 Hall, and crowded Nassau and Frankfort 
 Streets, and in their rags and bluster were so 
 evidently in the market that the temptation 
 to buy them was irresistible. 
 
 " I have just met Mr. Kane, Virginia," said 
 the Major, one day ; " and he declares that 
 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars have 
 been sent on from Washington to buy Irish 
 votes. Of course he said, also, the money had 
 been taken out of the deposits removed from 
 the United States Bank." 
 
 " Perhaps it was. What answer did you 
 make ? " 
 
 " I said, ' Why not surmise five hundred 
 thousand dollars it is just as easy, Mr. 
 Kane?' and I reminded him that the people 
 who gave Jackson the sword had also given 
 him the purse. That was a little bit of clap 
 trap. Virginia, but he could not or he would 
 not answer it, and so went away with an angry 
 shrug. Well, there will be a great struggle. 
 The anti-Jackson party are encamped in 
 Masonic Hall; and are crying Verplanck f 
 The Jackson men are at Tammany Hall, and 
 are crying Lawrence ! " 
 
 " Who is the best man ? " 
 
 " Lawrence is a great merchant and a good
 
 I?** SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 man. He can look both backward and for- 
 ward backward to Washington, and forward 
 to the men and women who are to make the 
 future of the United States. Mr. Verplanck 
 lost his seat in Congress because he would not 
 vote against the Bank. He is a fine scholar 
 and a gentleman, but not a popular man. I 
 think Lawrence will win on his own public 
 merits. I hope he will." 
 
 This conversation occurred as Virginia and 
 her father were eating breakfast on the morn 
 ing of the fourth of April. Virginia's 
 thoughts were on the " Arethusa," for it was 
 near the time of her return ; but the excite 
 ment was so great that even a maiden dream 
 ing of her lover could not avoid catching the 
 popular enthusiasm. 
 
 " Mr. Astor came home yesterday from 
 Havre." 
 
 " He will be in time to see the pulling down 
 of the houses between Barclay and Vesey 
 Streets, where he is going to build us such a 
 fine hotel." 
 
 "Yes; and in time to vote. Daniel Web 
 ster was leaving for Boston as Mr. Astor 
 landed. There were thousands on the wharves 
 near the steamboat cheering and saluting him. 
 I do not approve of Mr. Webster's politics, but 
 if ever a man was godlike in appearance, it is 
 Daniel Webster; and I acknowledge also that 
 mentally he has no peer on this continent."
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION. 1 79 
 
 "Yet he is for the United States Bank, and 
 against the President." 
 
 " No man is infallible, Virginia. For my 
 part, I wish the eighth was here ; the suspense 
 is becoming exhausting. I understand all busi 
 ness is to cease for the three days' voting." 
 
 The eighth came duly in its course. It was 
 a dreadful morning ; there was a fierce wind, 
 and the rain fell in blinding torrents. But 
 every one was at fever heat, and unconscious 
 of the tempest ; and they stood in the pelting 
 rain in long lines near the poll until twelve 
 o'clock, when the American flag was run up 
 on the Exchange and the voting began. 
 
 Major Mason had resolved to vote early and 
 then go home. But he was not able to do so. 
 The crowd, and the spirit of the crowd, took 
 possession of him physically and mentally, and 
 it was late when he returned. Virginia had 
 been miserably anxious for many hours ; she 
 had sent the coachman to look for him, and the 
 man had not come back. Then the cook's 
 lover had volunteered his services, and had 
 brought a terrific report of a city in the posses 
 sion of roughs, and a great civic battle, in which 
 hundreds had been slain. 
 
 It was getting dark, and the hoarse murmur 
 of a shouting mob could be distinctly heard. 
 The upper part of the city was deserted by 
 men ; only white-faced women watched at an 
 open door or window for the return of those
 
 l8o SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 who had gone into the political fray. Sud 
 denly Nelly cried out : 
 
 " Whatever do you think, Miss Virginia ? 
 Here comes the master, and with him, of all t' 
 men in this world, Captain Bradford and Mr. 
 Rhea." Nelly had put her pretty head out of 
 the front door on a momentary inspection, and 
 she ran back to Virginia with the good news. 
 
 " Does all look right, Nelly ? " 
 
 " As right as can be, when men are half 
 drowned in pouring rain." 
 
 "Nelly, I will run up-stairs a moment and 
 wash my eyes. I must not let the Major see I 
 have been crying. Bring them into the parlor 
 open the door yourself, Nelly and then be 
 in a hurry with dinner. I will be down in three 
 minutes." 
 
 It really did not take her any longer time to 
 bathe her eyes and face, and put those few 
 touches to her hair and ribbons which seem to 
 impart a distinct air of freshness and order. 
 Yet, when she returned to the parlor, there 
 was no one there but Nelly. 
 
 " Have they not come yet, Nelly ? " 
 
 " Master has gone up-stairs to change his 
 clothes, and much need to, Miss. Such a 
 sight as nobody ever saw ! Wet through, and 
 torn, too. Master has been having a time." 
 
 " But he is not hurt ? " 
 
 " Not he, Miss ; angry like, but all himsen, 
 as far as I could see."
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION'. 181 
 
 " The other gentlemen ? " 
 
 " They wouldn't come in, Miss ; and showed 
 their good sense in stepping out. Anybody 
 as wet and muddy hes no business out of t' 
 streets. Miss Virginia, what do you think? 
 John Thomas is here. He came to t' back 
 door, and I let him into t' kitchen, though he 
 is a sight. You see he is all t' way from 
 China." 
 
 " You did right, Nelly. Give him a good 
 dinner, and make him as comfortable as you 
 can. How is he ? " 
 
 " He looks and he talks as if he hed been 
 having a good time. John Thomas is that 
 kind as is never down in t' mouth when there's 
 a fight on hand. He was allays a bit trying 
 thet way. Here is the master conning, Miss." 
 
 Major Mason entered with a slight look of 
 injury. " Virginia, my dear, I have been in 
 great danger to-day. You did not meet me 
 when I came in." 
 
 " I had been watching many hours for you, 
 father, and very unhappy at your delay. When 
 Nelly saw you coming, I ran up-stairs a moment 
 to prepare for dinner. She said Captain Brad 
 ford and Mr. Rhea were with you. I thought 
 perhaps you would ask them to stay." 
 
 " I did not ask them to stay. Mr. Rhea 
 thought he would be needed by the committee, 
 and Captain Bradford thought he ought to stay 
 with him in case of another fieht."
 
 1 82 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " Then there has really been fighting?" 
 " Nelly is ringing the dinner-bell, and I am 
 ready for something to eat. Yes, Virginia, a 
 shameful fight. I voted early, but found my 
 self in a dense crowd, and amid so much ex 
 citement I could not get home." 
 
 " What time did the voting begin ?" 
 " At twelve o'clock." 
 
 " But we heard shouting before that time." 
 " I dare say. The Whigs had mounted on 
 wheels a really beautiful frigate which they had 
 called the ' Constitution.' She was full-rigged 
 and full-manned, her colors were flying, and she 
 was followed by at least five hundred men 
 dressed like sailors many of them were sailors. 
 As she passed through Wall Street such a thun 
 dering shout broke from the merchants at the 
 Exchange ! Such a ninefold thundering shout 
 you never heard, Virginia ; and the excited 
 people, quite heedless of the rain, fell into the 
 procession till it swelled to thousands. Every 
 one was singing the same bit of doggerel, but 
 it was wonderfully effective : 
 
 " ' Stand by the Constitution ! 
 
 Down with the Jackson reign ! 
 Hurrah for the Bank and the Union ! 
 Verplanck and the Whig campaign ! 
 Hurrah ! and Hurrah ! and again 
 Hurrah ! and Hurrah ! and again 
 Down with Old Hickory's reign !' 
 
 I and others felt that this bit of cleverness 
 was going to ruin a noble cause, arid I was
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION. 183 
 
 wondering what to do when I saw Captain 
 Bradford and Mr. Rhea standing on the Ex 
 change steps. I went to them. 'What is to 
 be done, Captain ? ' I said. ' This clever catch 
 penny is going to ruin us.' Would you like 
 me to get up an opposition frigate?' he asked, 
 all on fire in a moment. Before I could 
 answer, Mr. Livingston said, 'Yes, sir, if it 
 costs ten thousand dollars.' He was off like a 
 flash, and Rhea with him, and in a couple of 
 hours they were back with a rigged boat, fly 
 ing the Jackson veto, and crowded with the 
 men from the ' Arethusa ' and other ships in 
 the harbor. The two boats have followed 
 each other all day, and as the Irish surrounded 
 the ' veto ' with their shouts and their shilla- 
 lahs, you may be sure there was a constant 
 running fight on hand. Virginia, I am sorry 
 to say the Jackson party so honorable and 
 patriotic in itself has been shamefully dis 
 graced by its partisans this day." 
 
 " I am very sorry, too, father. Why do 
 people fight about politics ? " 
 
 '' Because politics include nearly all the sub 
 jects which touch men's interests. In most of 
 the Jackson wards it was peaceable enough ; 
 but in the Sixth Ward it was hell let loose 
 oaths and screams and yells and threats of 
 defiance made the poll more like an object on 
 which a mob was wreaking its vengeance than 
 a place for freemen to cast their votes."
 
 1 84 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " How dreadful ! Who were to blame ? " 
 "The men who have given the right ot 
 voting to human beings not capable of under 
 standing the glory of self-government. The 
 Irish of the Sixth Ward have one idea of ex 
 pressing their will fighting for it; and a great 
 mob of them, armed with clubs and knives, 
 flew, upon some slight provocation, to the 
 Whig assembly-room, and, before anything 
 could be done, left twenty men bleeding on 
 the floor, and literally sacked the place. 
 Those who reached the street were more dead 
 than alive ; and the Mayor was unable to send 
 help, his force being all on duty. So the Irish 
 to-night are in possession of a part of the city, 
 and great anxiety is felt." 
 
 " How can Christian men be so brutal ?" 
 " My dear, brutality is really very popular. 
 Nothing pleases men half so much as an occa 
 sional renewal of their alliance with brutes. I 
 am going early to bed, Virginia. I have 
 promised Captain Bradford to meet him at the 
 Exchange in the morning." 
 
 " Nelly's lover has arrived. You remember 
 I told you about John Thomas ? " 
 
 " Certainly ; very interesting ; tell Nelly I 
 rejoice with her," but the Major's compliment 
 was at this hour a mere form. He was scarce 
 conscious of it, and rather astonished at Vir 
 ginia reminding him of so small an affair when 
 such momentous issues were in the balance.
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION. 185 
 
 To Nelly, however, the momentous issue 
 was at his kitchen fireside. Virginia thought 
 her very quiet and sober about it. "Are you 
 really glad, Nelly?" she asked. "Is John 
 Thomas all you have been thinking him to 
 be?" 
 
 " I am that suited with meeting him again, 
 Miss, that I can put up with him 'most any 
 way." 
 
 " Is he going back to sea? " 
 
 " No, Miss. John Thomas is as much out 
 of place at sea as a blacksmith would be in 
 white kid gloves. He is going to seek work 
 in the building yards here ; and he is talking 
 about wedding, of course." 
 
 " Is he in earnest about it ? " 
 
 " He looks as solemn as if he had swallowed 
 t' church ; but I'll wait a bit, and see what's 
 what. There is plenty of big rogues among 
 men ; not so many little ones. And when I 
 differed a bit with him, he began to be varry 
 glumpish. It isn't fair, you know, when good 
 temper is all on one side. But he isn't pleased 
 with Captain Bradford to-night." 
 
 " Oh, indeed ! " 
 
 " I'm not taking his side, Miss. It stands 
 to reason the Major and Captain Bradford 
 know what's right ; but John Thomas he does 
 hate an Irishman that badly. And he didn't 
 like to hev to march with them, and to 
 morrow he says he'll be under his own orders,
 
 1 86 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 and he'll hev a good Yorkshire fling at them. 
 I doan't doubt it ; he hed allays a power of 
 forthput in him when his feelings got t' upper 
 hand of his reason." 
 
 Virginia did not pursue the conversation ; 
 she dismissed Nelly, and sat alone with her 
 own musings for an hour. She had always 
 a sense of fuller life in the mere knowledge that 
 the "Arethusa" was in port, and she was 
 almost grateful to the political circumstances 
 which had given Marius an opportunity for 
 pleasing her father. What if she had not seen 
 him ? There was to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
 and to-morrow, and surely in some day a 
 favoring hour ! And as Virginia was, like the 
 majority of women, disposed to run into the 
 thickets of poetry whenever she wanted to 
 hide herself from herself, she lifted a little 
 volume of sea songs, and, smiling faintly to 
 the talking letters, she let her eyes and heart 
 wander over the sensitized paper, and feel the 
 dead poet speaking for her. 
 
 If 'tis love to wish you near, 
 
 To tremble when the wind I hear, 
 
 Because at sea you floating rove ; v 
 If of you to dream at night, 
 To languish when you're out of sight 
 
 If this be loving, then I love. 
 
 If when you're gone, to count each hour, 
 To ask of every tender power 
 
 That you may kind and faithful prov ; 
 If, void of falsehood and deceit,
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION. 187 
 
 I feel a pleasure when we meet 
 If this be loving, then I love.* 
 
 The next morning Major Mason left home 
 very early. He was full of enthusiasm, and 
 cast his eyes frequently upon his sheathed and 
 shelved sword. It was evident that he thought 
 it might be needed, and that he would not be 
 at all averse to the wearing of it. The Whigs, 
 though thoroughly discomfited on the previous 
 day, had been preparing all night for the com 
 ing struggle. There were six thousand of 
 them in and around Masonic Hall, resolved to 
 go in a body to the Sixth Ward poll, and keep 
 it open to all voters ; for only Democrats had 
 been permitted to vote there on the previous 
 day. 
 
 Major Mason was among the six thousand. 
 It caused some surprise, and Mr. King said, 
 " You here, Major ! Glad to see you ! " 
 
 " I am a Jackson man," he answered 
 promptly, "but I will not see native-born 
 Americans kept from their own ballot-box by 
 Irish ruffians, Mr. King." 
 
 " That is what we expected from you, Major. 
 There is intense indignation, and a fixed re 
 solve in the minds of these six thousand men 
 to see justice done. The fifteen wards have 
 each offered us one hundred men, and with this 
 battalion we propose to protect at every poll 
 the sacred right of suffrage." 
 
 * Charles Dibdin.
 
 188 SHE LOVED A SAILOK. 
 
 "You will do as good citizens ought to do. 
 I am ready to go to any poll with you." 
 
 Indeed, just because he was a Jackson man, 
 the Major was the more determined to express 
 for the respectable portion of his party the bit 
 ter antagonism to anything unfair, or savoring 
 of brute force against intelligent choice. And 
 Virginia, though well aware of his excitable 
 temperament, was not uneasy. In the first place 
 she felt sure of Marius if he was with her 
 father, he would either keep him out of danger 
 or stand by him in it. In the second place, the 
 city was much quieter. The Major came home 
 early in the afternoon, and he came home 
 alone. But her pang of disappointment was 
 soon healed. 
 
 " Captain Bradford advised me to rest to-day. 
 He thinks the great struggle will occur to mor 
 row. All was sullenly quiet when I left the Ex 
 change, and he and Mr. Rhea promised to call 
 this evening and tell me the state of affairs." 
 
 " You should have asked them to dinner, 
 father." 
 
 " I did so ; but the captain said he must go 
 back to his ship for an hour or two, and Mr. 
 Rhea well, he did not seem of much con 
 sequence. I forgot to urge him." 
 
 Virginia laughed. " I assure you, father, 
 that Mr. Rhea believes himself to be of great 
 consequence. Did I not tell you he was Cap 
 tain Bradford's half-brother ? "
 
 A FAMOUS ELEC77ON. 189 
 
 ''Is he, really? I have noticed a resem 
 blance; but there is often a great difference in 
 likeness." 
 
 It was about eight o'clock when the brothers 
 arrived. The Major met them with frankness 
 and courtesy, and instantly turned to the elder 
 for information. 
 
 " All has gone pretty well, Major. The 
 Mayor and Sheriff, with a large posse, kept the 
 Sixth Ward poll open, and though threats and 
 stones were freely used citizens were able to 
 deposit their votes. But the Irish are drinking 
 constantly, and to-morrow we shall have the 
 result." 
 
 The subject was then dropped ; every one 
 was weary of it for the hour ; and the Major 
 and Marius fell into a discussion regarding the 
 practicability of ocean steamships, and from it 
 drifted easily enough toward the facilities it 
 would afford for a still larger foreign immigra 
 tion. It was a sore subject with the Major, 
 but Marius contrived to give it a humorous 
 turn. 
 
 " I was listening to an Irishman and an 
 Italian quarreling to-day," he said. " The 
 Italian insisted that it was a countryman of 
 his called Columbus who discovered America, 
 and that, in consequence, all Italians had a 
 right in it ; and the Irishman lifted his argu 
 ment with the contemptuous scorn and passion 
 of ignorance :
 
 19 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 4<< Columbus! is it Columbus you're nam 
 ing? St. Columbus was, as ivery one knows, 
 an Irishman born and bred. Isn't his cave on 
 the west coast and haven't I been in it my 
 self? And wasn't Father Denis telling me, 
 too, how the angels built the boat for him, 
 and steered the blessed saint right into New 
 York Bay ; and isn't that the good raison for 
 us fighting for what belongs to us? 
 
 " It is well there is three thousand miles of 
 water between us and Europe, Captain. I am 
 against steam or any other power that will 
 shorten the distance." 
 
 At this moment Virginia and Mr. Rhea 
 began to sing. Virginia's voice owed nothing 
 to culture, but its notes were sweet and suf 
 fused with feeling, and Marius thought it alto 
 gether melodious and charmful. Both jthe 
 Major and he ceased talking, and as song fol 
 lowed song the Major dozed a little, and Ma 
 rius drew close to the piano, and watched the 
 speaking faces before him. Jack was singing 
 with her. It seemed a natural concord, but 
 Marius had to look steadily into his brother's 
 face, and recall all there had been between 
 them, that so he might prevent the heartburn 
 ing of unbrotherly jealousy. But, indeed, had 
 he dared to think, or to hope, he would have 
 found plenty of reasons for hope. Virginia 
 turned to him with a light in her eyes she 
 never showed Jack. She encouraged him by
 
 ./ FAMOUS ELECTION. 19 1 
 
 smiles and gentle words to sing again some of 
 the songs she had heard him troll on the deck 
 of the " Arethusa," when the wind was his 
 only music. And he could not help feeling 
 the glow of the wish, and of the power to do 
 so, when she lifted a sheet of music, and, 
 pointing to its title, said, "You see I have not 
 forgotten ! " She struck a few chords, and 
 the captain's voice answered the call in a 
 burst of song that had the salt and sparkle 
 and movement of the sea in it : 
 
 Blow high, blow low, let tempests tear 
 
 The mainmast by the board ; 
 My heart with thoughts of thee, my dear, 
 
 And love well stored, 
 Shall brave all danger, scorn all fear, 
 The roaring winds, the raging sea, 
 In hopes on shore 
 To be once more 
 Safe moored, my love, with thee. 
 
 "Blow high, blow low"- they sang it to 
 gether, they sang it over and over, till their 
 voices and hearts blended as blend 
 
 Two notes of music 
 Made for each other, though dissimilar. 
 
 Suddenly the Major roused himself and stood 
 up. Captain Bradford perceived that it would 
 be good policy as well as good manners to end 
 his visit ; and he left while his welcome was yet 
 warm. " You will meet me in the morning,
 
 I9 2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Captain," was the Major's last word. He stood 
 with Virginia, bidding both young men " good 
 night," and no one but Virginia and Alarius 
 perceived any deeper meaning in the simple 
 words. 
 
 The next morning the Major was too sick 
 to leave his home. It had ceased raining, and 
 the windows were open to admit the scent 
 of the April day, bright and full of sweet 
 odors drifting through the lukewarm atmos 
 phere. But very early the confused noise of 
 shouting men made every heart turn sick with 
 apprehended trouble. " Is there any sound 
 more dreadful than the crying and shouting of 
 human beings? "said Virginia. "It is more 
 savage, more frightsome, more awful than I 
 can imagine the voices of any wild animals. 
 What are they doing, father ? " 
 
 " Mischief ! " answered the Major passion 
 ately " pulling down mischief men and 
 women both.' 
 
 "Women? Father!'' 
 
 " I say ' women.' I saw plenty of viragos 
 on the skirts of the crowd yesterday a ragged 
 fringe they made to it. There will be more of 
 them to-day." 
 
 " Not American women ? " 
 
 " I should think not. The wrath of man is 
 dreadful, but far more dreadful the wrath of 
 woman. And when that woman comes from 
 the west of Ireland ! I am thankful none of
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION. 193 
 
 us understood their unknown adjectives yester 
 day." 
 
 " But they can surely be restrained, or 
 punished ?" 
 
 " For speaking Gaelic? No, my dear. You 
 cannot punish a woman for uttering untranslat 
 able sounds, however vile and provoking they 
 may be felt to be." 
 
 As the day passed on, the tumult increased: 
 and the noise of trumpets and galloping of 
 horses was added to the human outcry. Major 
 Mason was in a fever of excitement ere Cap 
 tain Bradford called. He went to the door 
 himself when he saw him coming. The gloomy, 
 angry shadow of the day was on his face, and 
 at first he could scarcely bring down his voice 
 to its natural pitch. 
 
 " There has been a bad day, Captain, I fear." 
 
 " A dreadful day ! a shameful day for a free 
 city to record ! " 
 
 " Come in and tell us all. How did it 
 begin?" 
 
 " That provoking ship on wheels, with her 
 pretentious signal of 'The Constitution,' began 
 it. As she passed Masonic Hall the Whig 
 Committee sitting there saluted her with 
 cheers. The Irish mob, who had been drink 
 ing all night, were infuriated by these cheers, 
 and they rushed on the ' Constitution ' deter 
 mined to pull her plank from plank. Then 
 the Whigs inside rushed out to save her, and
 
 194 SHE LOT ED A SAILOR. 
 
 they and the sailors drove off the mob. But 
 they only went back to the Sixth Ward for re 
 inforcements, and in a few minutes a huge 
 crowd of dirty, ragged savages streamed with 
 frightful yells up Duane Street, picking up 
 brickbats and paving-stones and pulling up 
 palings as they came." 
 
 -Well, sir?" 
 
 " The Whigs and sailors fought bravely, but 
 the odds were too great ; and they were com 
 pelled to fly for refuge into the hall. Then 
 the hall was attacked ; but by this time the 
 Mayor and Sheriff, with forty watchmen, had 
 arrived. The Mayor held up his staff and 
 shouted ' Peace ' ; and the mob answered him 
 with stones and screams and a fierce attack 
 upon his guard. The citizens rushed to de 
 fend their Mayor, but after a hard fight, when 
 the Mayor and fifteen watchmen and many 
 citizens were severely wounded, they were 
 overpowered by numbers, and forced to fly by 
 the windows at the rear of the" building. 
 Then the mob took possession and gutted the 
 hall." 
 
 " And in the mean time what were the citi 
 zens doing, sir ? " 
 
 " The news of this outrage spread like wild 
 fire, and citizens of all political opinions were 
 soon filling Duane, Elm, Pearl, Cross, Au 
 gustus, and Chatham Streets a mass of de. 
 termined and enraged men. In fact, the fray
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION. 1 95 
 
 had. at this point, become a national and not a 
 political one. It was the American element 
 determined to force civic obedience from the 
 Irish element. A battle was imminent. The 
 city was in. a state of insurrection. The mili 
 tary from the Navy Yard were sent for. 
 They had just been embarked on board the 
 ' Brandywine ' and ' Vincennes.' ' 
 
 " Just as well. Too many Irish among them 
 to have done any good." 
 
 " The military station was next appealed to, 
 and General Ridgely refused help, because he 
 had no authority to give it." 
 
 " The stupid old martinet ! The necessity 
 was authority enough. General Jackson had 
 given him precedent for that. But perhaps he. 
 too, knew he had too many Irish to make his 
 help serviceable." 
 
 " A messenger was then sent flying to Gov 
 ernor's Island, and the city military, under Colo 
 nel Sandford, was called out, for there was no 
 more time to lose. The polls were deserted : 
 the mob shouting, '71? the arsenal!' A great 
 number of citizens, on hearing this cry, made, 
 by a variety of routes, for this point of danger, 
 and got there before the mob. As Americans 
 gathered round, they handed out arms to them 
 and I saw many strong Jackson men among 
 the Whigs at this time ; in reality all decent 
 men had forgotten their politics in the danger 
 to their city."
 
 I9 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " Right ! I would have joined the Whigs 
 myself for such a purpose. How great is a free 
 city ! For, in an emergency like this, you may 
 arm the mass of the people for its defense. 
 How went the fight ? " 
 
 " I was too much in it to know much about 
 it. You must have heard the shouts and curses 
 that sent terror to every heart for the space 
 of three hours. But when Colonel Sandford 
 marched down Broadway with his men in close 
 column, and drew up at the arsenal, the gleam 
 ing of the bayonets and the rattle of arms had 
 a wonderfully quietening influence on the mob. 
 You can scarcely imagine how quietly these 
 shouting brutes sneaked away to the polls again. 
 Sandford is now at the arsenal, and there is a 
 troop of cavalry at the City Hall. When the 
 polls closed they took the ballot-box of the 
 Sixth Ward into the City Hall and locked it 
 up. Six thousand angry, cursing furies fol 
 lowed it, but there it is ; and the election is 
 over.'' 
 
 " It has been a shameful outrage on Ameri 
 can hospitality. (Our city has been on the 
 verge of disaster for three days, because a 
 crowd of foreign ruffians, scarce one of whom 
 can read, chose to deny to the native-born citi 
 zens of New York the right of our own ballot- 
 box/) Though Lawrence is the Jackson man, 
 I shall not be sorry if he is beaten. I am a 
 good Democrat of the Jackson stripe, Captain.
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION. 197 
 
 but I am above all other things an Ameri. 
 can." 
 
 " I sail in the same boat, Major." 
 
 " Come up to-morrow night, if you can, and 
 drink a bumper to our success." 
 
 " I cannot. My ship has yet all her cargo to 
 take in. I shall have a double force working 
 day and night. They are now waiting for me, 
 and I must hurry away. I shall not see you 
 again at this time." He said the words to the 
 Major, but his eyes sought Virginia's eyes, and, 
 though neither could have defined it, they felt 
 that there was a good understanding between 
 them. 
 
 Indeed, Virginia was so happy that she took 
 herself to task for her selfishness. " People 
 are anxious all around me," she thought ; " is 
 it right to forget everything in the certainty 
 that Marius loves me?" For she had as yet 
 reflected too little to know that this very com 
 punction of happiness is in itself the soul of a 
 noble thanksgiving. 
 
 The Major was much depressed. He had 
 been three days on the tide-top of feeling ; it 
 was now ebb. The thought of his losses came 
 with that quick sinking of the heart that 
 gathering money troubles can so cruelly give. 
 Was it worth while to sacrifice property and 
 friends for ideals? A little passion overturned 
 everything. Men thought to be civilized went 
 back so easily to their primitive instincts. " I
 
 I9 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 am guilty myself," he said penitently. " In my 
 heart, I have slain all my political enemies. I 
 have only needed the power to second my 
 will." He rose with the thought and walked 
 sadly to the window. The silent crescent of the 
 moon moved in the heavens with a calm and 
 melancholy beauty, and as he gazed at it he 
 said: 
 
 " It is the firmament that shows his handi 
 work. No unruliness there, Virginia. Every 
 star knoweth its orbit, and keeps it. How 
 different are the ways of men! What must 
 He think of us ?" 
 
 " Surely men are growing better, father. 
 They have eternity to grow in." 
 
 "You are right, Virginia. For anything we 
 know, humanity may be only in its childhood ; 
 it may even yet be struggling and suffering in 
 its birth pains. And the end of all " 
 
 " What is the end, father? " 
 
 " To become spiritual beings ; that is the end 
 of all our efforts." 
 
 But for a few days longer the Major was 
 compelled to feel himself very much the crea 
 ture of a material existence. The anxiety 
 was by no means over. The morning after 
 election there were at least fifteen thousand 
 men in Wall Street and the adjacent points 
 waiting for the result. The count was exceed 
 ingly close, and the Whigs at the Exchange, 
 and the Jackson men at Tammany Hall,
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION. 199 
 
 shouted themselves hoarse alternately, as the 
 news was favorable to them. A little after 
 midnight, Mr. Lawrence, the Jackson candi 
 date, was declared to have won the mayor 
 alty. 
 
 Men then went home for a few hours, but not 
 until the character of the Common Council was 
 known did any one feel it possible to return to 
 his usual business and in spite of all personal 
 loss and inconvenience, an equally large num 
 ber crowded the Exchange and other points 
 until this final count was ascertained. Near 
 midnight of the next day it was declared to be 
 in favor of the Whigs, that party having a 
 decided majority among the aldermen and 
 assistants. 
 
 " So we have really lost, though we elected 
 the Mayor," said Major Mason ; " and Fish and 
 Rhinelander and others like them are to blame. 
 Certainly, ' the tools to those that can handle 
 them ' ; but we want tools, and not bludgeons 
 and paving-stones." 
 
 "Are you sure the Whigs have won ? " 
 
 " Virtually they have, and they are so con 
 scious of it that they will give a great Whig 
 banquet at Castle Garden on the i5th. There 
 are to be double rows of tables within the 
 outer circumference, and three pipes of wine, 
 and beer without stint is ordered for the thou 
 sands who are to share the feast. The ' Con 
 stitution' has been placed on the top of
 
 200 SHE LOT ED A SAILOR. 
 
 the entrance to the garden, and she will fire 
 salutes during the fite. I shall dine with 
 you, my dear, and much more to my satisfac 
 tion." 
 
 " I am grateful the affair is over ; and I 
 trust New York will find out her own mind 
 with less ado in the future. I have just seen 
 Mr. Astor pass ; he looks ill and feeble. I 
 wonder if he will really build the fine hotel he 
 promised New York. I think that is of far 
 more consequence than the politics of our 
 mayor and aldermen." 
 
 " I dare say he was going down town about 
 it. The demolition of the buildings on its site 
 begins immediately. It will be a great advan 
 tage and ornament to the city. Here is the 
 mail, my dear. What a romance it gives to 
 every morning! When its possibilities are 
 past, how often the day seems over, and life at 
 a standstill ! " 
 
 " I hope it may bring me a nice letter from 
 Jane. The three last ones have been full of 
 dissatisfaction." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear that." 
 
 " She says it is the climate and the slaves. 
 I fear it touches her still more nearly." 
 
 " When did you call on Mr. Keteltas ? " 
 
 "About a month ago." 
 
 " And I have kept out of his way for about 
 the same time. His Whiggery has been so 
 rabid. It was impossible for us to agree, and
 
 A FAMOUS ELECTION: 201 
 
 I did not wish to quarrel with him, even on 
 politics. But, if Jane makes any serious com 
 plaints, give her no advice until you have 
 found out the ground you step on. Between 
 husband and wife an interferer has a thankless 
 office perhaps, indeed, they deserve it. At 
 any rate, put the sign ' Danger ' on ail sides."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE BROAD GATEWAY OF WRONG. 
 
 " The power of one man over another is contrary to nature ; 
 it is only human law that makes one man a slave and another 
 a free man. In nature there is no such distinction ; wherefore 
 it is an unjust arrangement ; it is the result of force and com 
 pulsion. " Aristotle. 
 
 " But man over men 
 
 He made not lord ; such title to Himself 
 Reserving : human left from human free. " 
 
 Milton. 
 
 hint of dissatisfaction which Virginia 
 1 had spoken of in Jane's position was more 
 than justified by her letters. After that first 
 rose-colored effusion, the bright tints faded 
 away very rapidly. To say the least, it was 
 evident that Jane was not acclimating kindly, 
 either in a physical or social sense. She was 
 in a position requiring infinite love and pa 
 tience and toleration, and Jane was neither 
 patient nor tolerant. 
 
 The improvements promised her in the 
 house were made up to a certain extent. She 
 went into Memphis with* Nigel and bought 
 new furniture for the parlor and two of the 
 chambers; then Nigel professed to be short of 
 money. This profession was made with so 
 
 202
 
 THE BROAD GATEWAY OF WRONG. 203 
 
 many apologies and affectionate terms that 
 Jane accepted the curtailment at the time 
 almost cheerfully. But in reality she was 
 wounded by the partial preparations for her 
 honor and comfort. 
 
 " We ought to have bought furniture in New 
 Orleans," she said gloomily one morning, when 
 the poverty and inefficiency of the Memphis 
 stores annoyed her. 
 
 " The house is as well furnished now, Jane, 
 as any in the neighborhood ; as Mrs. Defoe's, 
 for instance." 
 
 " But she had not been accustomed to New 
 York houses and furnishings, Nigel. Why, at 
 the Pagets yesterday I saw a bed in a sitting- 
 room ! A very showy, snowy-looking affair : 
 but imagine it, a bed in a sitting-room ! " 
 
 " I would advise you to study the Pagets 
 a little less scornfully, Jane. They are the 
 people of this neighborhood. They are noted 
 for their refinement and elegance." 
 
 " I imagined that we were the people of the 
 neighborhood ; and, really, there is nothing at 
 all to study about the Pagets. I think them 
 exceedingly affected and commonplace." 
 
 " Jane Forfar ! " 
 
 " I should be very sorry to imitate them in 
 the most trifling matter, Nigel. Indeed, lino 
 gene Paget is always trying covertly to imitate 
 me. I wish she would not, she only caricatures 
 me."
 
 204 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 The Pagets were Jane's nearest neighbors, 
 and her bitterest enemies. Between Nigel and 
 Imogene Paget there had been a great deal of 
 that ceremonious and sentimental attention 
 which Southern men delighted to render and 
 Southern women delighted to receive. 
 
 Nigel understood Imogene's simple, senti 
 mental music, and could join her in its render 
 ing ; and the highest literary ideal of both was 
 quite satisfied with the fashionable " Annuals, '* 
 their simpering beauties, and pretty poetic 
 platitudes, and conventional stories. Nigel had 
 given Imogene an " Annual " for four consecu 
 tive years. He liked Imogene's way of dress 
 ing. He liked her assumption of frailty and 
 dependence. He liked her evident admiration 
 for himself. Her affected want of interest in 
 life since his marriage flattered him. He pitied 
 with all his heart the pale, drooping girl, who 
 always, on his entrance, looked up to him with 
 a melancholy smile, and then looked down to 
 sigh, and let her large eyes fill with tears. 
 
 Jane's sharp glances saw these things also, 
 though she affected not to see them. She 
 understood that'her young husband was play 
 ing a game of sentiment a dangerous game 
 but she thought she was able to checkmate 
 Miss Imogene Paget. A wife has so many 
 solid advantages to put against a mere ro 
 mantic affection. But Jane had been taught 
 very few womanly tactics. She did not know
 
 THE BROAD GA TE WA Y OF WRONG. 205 
 
 how to cover underhand enmity with smiles* 
 She could not stoop to conquer. She had not 
 the evil patience and the low cunning of 
 women amiably willing to do the devil's petty 
 wickednesses for him. 
 
 The influence of the Pagets was soon felt in 
 every part of her domestic arrangements, and 
 Jane resented it. To be told what Mrs. Paget 
 or Miss Imogene thought on any subject or 
 arrangement drove Jane at once to an oppo 
 site opinion. She believed, and she was not 
 wrong, that it was the Pagets who had inter 
 fered with her plan of refurnishing her hojuse. 
 She did not, indeed, hear Mrs. Paget's words, 
 but she divined them very closely : 
 
 " Really, Nigel, I should think you have 
 done enough. You know our first families do 
 not depend upon furniture for their social 
 respect ; we leave that to parvenus. I am 
 afraid the Soul6s and Tatams and Bezels will 
 feel your extravagance as a little personal. 
 Mrs. Forfar cannot expect to introduce 
 Northern prodigality among our best people 
 especially now, when the North is irritating us 
 beyond endurance. I should think Mrs. For 
 far would consider this, and efface her North- 
 ern fancies as much as possible. Or is it your 
 fault, Nigel?" 
 
 Exactly such a conversation as this occurred 
 the day after a visit which the Pagets had 
 made to the Forfar place. The newly fur-
 
 *o6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 nished parlor was a flat contradiction to all 
 Southern tradition. It was "so No'the'n," 
 Miss Imogene said regretfully ; " and she 
 feahed she would neveh be able to feel at 
 home again. Mrs. Fo'fah must please fo'give 
 her the feeling ; she was so fond of old ways, 
 and she could not enduah changes she nevah 
 could." 
 
 This calling of her " Mrs. Fo'fah " was one 
 of those small offenses Jane could not stand. 
 It seemed a trifle, but it roused in her an irre 
 pressible scorn and anger. In the days of her 
 early acquaintance with Nigel, his soft, slur 
 ring speech had been one of his charms ; but 
 she had grown to loathe the clipped syllables 
 and the drawling intonations. 
 
 " Why do those women call me ' Mrs. Fo' 
 fah?" she asked angrily. "Cannot they pro 
 nounce the letter ' r'? " 
 
 " It is the Southern way," in pointedly 
 Southern patois. 
 
 "They ought to correct it. A language 
 without consonants makes you believe that 
 the people who use it have no character. 
 What is ' force/ or ' father,' or ' mother,' or 
 'fortune,' or 'fortress,' or thousands of the 
 best and strongest words, without their ' r'?" 
 
 " What is it to you, Jane, if Southern peo 
 ple prefer to drop their ' r' ? " 
 
 " I don't like my name ruined." 
 
 '* ] gave you the name."
 
 THE BROAD GA TE WA Y OF WRONG. 207 
 
 " It is originally Scotch, and I am certain a 
 Scotchman would spit ' Fo'fah ' out of his 
 mouth." 
 
 Then Nigel rose with offended dignity, and, 
 putting on his wide straw hat, called for his 
 horse, and ostentatiously took the way to the 
 Paget place. 
 
 Jane sat down to write to Virginia. She 
 did not repeat the argument, but she allowed 
 its influence to pervade the letter, and to bring 
 under condemnation subjects more easily 
 handled. The weather was already hot. She 
 could not imagine how she. was to endure it at 
 midsummer. She had chills and fevers. She 
 had neither friends nor neighbors ; people dis 
 liked her on principle, without any other rea 
 son than that she came from the North. 
 There was not a book in the house, except 
 those she had brought with her, and she knew 
 them by heart. Her piano would not keep in 
 tune. And the slaves ! And the whole ques 
 tion of slavery ! It was horrible ! She felt 
 as if she had fallen asleep in New York, and, 
 on awakening in this strange, hot, haunted 
 place, had gradually come to see things un 
 speakable, and to know at last that it was hell. 
 
 This apparently trifling conversation about 
 a single letter was in reality an important and 
 critical turning point in many lives. Nigel 
 reached the Paget place in a mood peculiarly 
 sensitive to influence and interference. He
 
 eo8 SHE LOVED * SAILOR. 
 
 made no complaint, but men never hide a mai> 
 rimonial dispute, and Mrs. Paget knew there 
 had been one. 
 
 "Nigel," she said, "Mrs. Dezel was here 
 yesterday, and I do think it my duty to tell 
 you how people are talking. Of course, we all 
 know that you intend to run for the Legislature 
 next election, and no man has a better chance 
 if you only will not throw your chances 
 away." 
 
 " What am I doing wrong now, Madame ? " 
 
 " Has it not entered your mind that Mrs. 
 Forfar ought to have a maid? People say one 
 of two things either that you are not able to 
 afford her one, or that she is an Abolitionist, 
 and will not have a slave to wait upon her. It 
 is even currently reported that Mrs. Forfar 
 sweeps and dusts her own rooms rather than 
 have slaves around her. You know how sensi 
 tive our best people are now." 
 
 " Mrs. Forfar is excuse me, Madame. I 
 shall take care that Mrs. Forfar does no more 
 sweeping and dusting. That habit comes from 
 her Dutch father and mother. She is always 
 cleaning something. Such energy is frightful 
 and vulgar, I know, but it bad never struck me 
 in the light you speak of.' 
 
 "But you can see?" 
 
 "Oh, yes! I see what ruin is in it." He 
 was sipping strong coffee as he spoke, and at 
 intervals lifting his eyes consciously to catch
 
 THE BROAD GATEWAY OF WRONG. 209 
 
 the dreamy orbs of Miss Imogene, who lay 
 opposite him in a hammock, with a fan of pea 
 cocks' feathers in her hand, and a guitar on the 
 floor by her side. 
 
 " Have you a girl suitable, Nigel ? I mean 
 for a lady's maid. If not, I can hire you 
 one." 
 
 " I would rather buy," he said, " unless 
 Palma would do." 
 
 "Why not? She is a good seamstress, and 
 nearly white." 
 
 Nigel glanced at Imogene, then at Mrs. 
 Paget, and shrugged his shoulders most 
 expressively. A short silence followed, but it 
 was quickly broken by the Madame's purring 
 assertion : 
 
 " She durst not say a word. I should select 
 Palma. What if she does talk? Mrs. Forfar's 
 interests and yours are identical, I suppose? " 
 
 " Of course. And I shall give Palma orders 
 she will not dare to break. She has an insane 
 dread of the lash." 
 
 No more was said at that time, but at dusk 
 of the same day Forfar lit his cigar and strolled 
 slowly down to the negro quarters. He went 
 to a small cabin that appeared to have been 
 recently erected, and, pushing open the light 
 door, walked in. A woman was sitting alone 
 in the gloom. Her hands were dropped upon 
 her lap, her eyes were dropped upon her 
 hands. An intense despair darkened and sad
 
 210 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 dened her face. She was surrounded by coarse 
 cloth, and coarse garments made from it, and 
 an unfinished dress, scrimp and shapeless, had 
 fallen to her feet. 
 
 " Palma." 
 
 She stood up mechanically and uttered the 
 word " Master." 
 
 " Palma, you will come to the house in the 
 morning. Your work in future will be to wait 
 on Mrs. Forfar, and do her sewing. Under 
 stand you ? You are to be her maid." 
 
 "Yes, Master." 
 
 " And it will spare you one hundred lashes 
 to forget everything that happened before Mrs. 
 Forfar came here. Do you understand ? " 
 
 " Yes, master." 
 
 There was nothing more for him to say, and 
 yet he lingered, pushing the garments hither 
 and thither with his tasseled cane. Palma 
 stood erect ; her eyes, full of despair, were 
 fixed upon him, and he was aware of the in 
 quiry in them, and anxious to avoid it without 
 seeming to do so. 
 
 " Madame rises at seven. I hope you will 
 appreciate my remembrance of you, and be a 
 tmod girl." 
 
 He had the door in one hand and was about 
 to open it; then Palma, with a sudden recogni 
 tion of her departing opportunity, sprang for 
 ward. She dropped at his feet, and clasped 
 her hands upon them.
 
 THE BROAD GATEWAY OF WRONG, ait 
 
 " Master ! " she sobbed, " Master ! what has 
 become of my mother ? " 
 
 He made no answer ; only withdrew himself 
 haughtily from her touch, pushed wide the 
 door, and passed out into the night. The 
 sound of the woman weeping pursued and 
 even annoyed him. Under the large trees he 
 could not escape its influence. For trees have 
 human relations. And to what sorrows, and 
 fears, and agonies of wrong and injustice, had 
 these overshadowing branches been the wit 
 nesses ! Sometimes they seemed, in their 
 angry tossing to-and-fro, to protest against 
 them ; again, as on this night, they drooped 
 gloomily, their leaves utterly dumb, as if sul 
 len and heavy with a self-devouring, medi 
 tating, dogged melancholy. The dim, still air 
 was also full of bats silently swirling around 
 him, and one of them got into his shuddering 
 hair, and he remembered an unpleasant negro 
 superstition about the circumstance. 
 
 He was creepy and uncomfortable, and glad 
 to reach the more open space in which the 
 house stood. Jane was on the gallery. She 
 sat in a large rocking-chair, and had an air at 
 once sad and resentful. But at this moment 
 he felt the need of some nature sympathetic to 
 his own, and he spoke kindly to her, and ad 
 vised her to cover her head, if she were going 
 to remain in the night air. She was pleased 
 at the small thoughtfulness,- and went in to
 
 CIS SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 get ner linen sunbonnet. When she returned, 
 Nigel said : 
 
 " It is high time, my dear Jane, that you 
 ceased waiting upon yoursen. I am not always 
 here to attend to you, and I do not like you 
 running up and down stairs so much. In this 
 climate it is not considered healthy." He 
 knew that if he said, " In our circle it is not 
 considered ladylike," she would suspect at 
 once the interference of the Pagets, so he 
 chose the form that appeared most personally 
 thoughtful. 
 
 J;me was not inclined to be suspicious. 
 Honest in thought and word herself, it was 
 only on good evidence, or excellent circum 
 stantial proofs, she questioned the truthfulness 
 of others. She was grateful for the care Nigel's 
 words implied, but she declared "she would 
 much prefer her solitude and independence." 
 
 "Sometimes, Nigel," she said, "I am very 
 much depressed, and I cry a little, and it does 
 me good, and nobody any harm ; but if I had 
 a woman sitting in my room always, I should 
 feel her a dreadful incubus. I would have to 
 be under control at every moment of my life, 
 or she would often judge me unjustly. Then 
 she might talk to the other servants, and make 
 people think that you were unkind to me." 
 
 " People know me too well to imagine I 
 could be unkind to any woman. How much less 
 to you, my wife ? And, indeed, Jane, in your
 
 THE BROAD GA TE WA Y OF WRONG. 2 1 3 
 
 present delicate health, it would be of the 
 greatest benefit if you were compelled to con 
 trol yourself more. My darling, I know the 
 climate better than you do. and I cannot let 
 you be alone any longer. As it gets warmer, 
 you might faint in your chamber, and no one 
 near to give you assistance." 
 
 " But Nigel, dear." 
 
 " For my sake, Jane." 
 
 Then she gave in, and Nigel proceeded to 
 tell her that the girl Palma was to be her own 
 from that day. 
 
 " I will have the proper papers made out," 
 he said, "and I think you will find her a great 
 comfort. She is very quiet lately she has had 
 a little trouble ; but negroes soon forget. You 
 will find her much above the usual maid. 
 Palma has had advantages. She can even read 
 and write. But I would not be too familiar 
 with her. She has an infernal temper if she is 
 crossed." 
 
 " Do you think a woman of that kind is likely 
 to add to my happiness, Nigel ? Really, I 
 would rather be alone." 
 
 " Try her for two months. If you cannot 
 manage her, I will find a way to do it." He 
 puffed his cigar viciously, and was silent, and 
 suddenly less affectionate. 
 
 In the morning, when Jane awoke, the girl 
 Palma was standing at one of the windows of 
 her room. She lay quiet and watched her.
 
 214 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Her face it was impossible to see, but a great 
 deal could be inferred from her attitude, from 
 the long slender arms dropped so hopelessly 
 downward, and the intentness of her gaze out 
 ward. 
 
 " PaJma ' " 
 
 Palma turned quickly and came to the bed 
 side. She tried to smile, and showed her new 
 mistress an exceedingly handsome face, intelli 
 gent and sensitive ; and very nearly white. 
 
 " Palma, you are to wait on me, and to sew 
 for me." 
 
 " Master told me so. He says he has given 
 me to you. Oh, mistress ! I will try and serve 
 you well. I am in trouble now, but old Sybil 
 says the pain will go away, and that I shall for 
 get. Till then, please bear with me." 
 
 " Poor Palma ! You shall tell me your 
 trouble, and I will weep with you. Now bring 
 my coffee, Palma. You will not find me a hard 
 mistress." 
 
 In those few words mistress and slave un 
 locked each other's hearts. But for some 
 weeks neither ventured further than the 
 threshold of the sacred places. Often, when 
 Jane pretended to be asleep, she was really 
 watching the tall, silent woman, so sorrowfully 
 and patiently rolling the tiny hems into which 
 she set the tiniest of stitches. Often, when 
 Jane was asleep, Palma held her work in sus 
 pense, and watched her unconscious mistress,
 
 THE BROAD GATEWAY OF WRONG. 215 
 
 and wondered how much she might dare to tell 
 her. 
 
 In the mean time the season was advancing, 
 and the heat becoming exceedingly damp and 
 oppressive. It brought with it a riotous vege 
 table and reptile life, and a great human mel 
 ancholy. The garden after dusk, though 
 glimmering with fire-flies, was pervaded with 
 the very soul of sadness. The odors of the 
 soil, the heavy perfume of hot flowers, the 
 musky smell of hidden snakes, the misty air 
 laden with malaria, and full of unspeakable 
 and intangible things, was scarcely more de 
 pressing to Jane than the exhaustion of the 
 monotonous sunshine, resonant with cicadas 
 and the never-ending calls and songs of birds, 
 whose melody even became painful in its itera 
 tion. 
 
 She was also sick and depressed and suffer 
 ing from those vague fears and languors which 
 thrill the heart of a woman approaching mater 
 nity, no matter how often the experience comes 
 to her. If Jane had felt keenly before, she 
 now felt everything with a passionate force 
 and tenderness that almost terrified her. Of 
 course she was a little trying to live with ; she 
 wanted love more than meat or drink; gentle, 
 sympathetic words more than medicine. And 
 Nigel was not always equal to such demands. 
 
 One hot morning she awoke in a terror. 
 She looked toward the window where Palma
 
 216 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 was usually sitting, and the girl was not there. 
 It was a little earlier than usual, but the irre 
 pressible sunshine was flooding everything, 
 and angry tones from the yard at the back of 
 the house came in through the open window. 
 She slipped out of bed and stood still to listen. 
 Nigel's voice was uppermost, and in a few 
 moments she heard his step approaching her 
 room. When he entered it, Jane was ap 
 parently in a deep sleep. The instantaneous 
 piece of deception was altogether apart from 
 her character; she adopted it as unconsciously 
 as we wink the eyelid to protect the eye. 
 Nigel looked at her, walked from the bedside, 
 and purposely made a noise which he judged 
 would awaken her. She answered it as if it 
 had been a call : 
 
 "Good-morning, Nigel. Is it really late? 
 Where is Palma, I wonder?" 
 
 Then he kissed her, and she perceived the 
 worry and excitement on his face he wished 
 her to see. 
 
 "What is the matter, Nigel? You look a? 
 if something had made you very angry." 
 
 " Something has made me dreadfully angry, 
 Jane. I have just had a message from Mrs. 
 Paget. Those abolition thieves have been on 
 her plantation, and very likely on mine, and 
 who do you think their devilish cunning used 
 for an emissary? A child a mere child 
 Palma's sister July, only eleven years old; but
 
 THE BROAD GA TE WA Y OF WRONG. 2 1 7 
 
 the little imp can read. There was a terrible 
 row over there last night almost an insurrec 
 tion and Mrs. Paget sent Eugene Lanny at 
 daybreak over here, with a warning to me. 
 Fortunately, Lanny and two other gentlemen 
 were at the Paget's last night, or I dare not 
 think what those two poor ladies would have 
 done." 
 
 " Palma's sister ! I did not know that 
 Palma had a sister." 
 
 " I hire her to Mrs. Paget. Palma is unman 
 ageable when she has her sister with her. I 
 keep her at Mrs. Paget's as a hostage for 
 Palma's good behavior. When she forgets 
 herself, I do not allow her to see July. When 
 she is good, I permit them to meet occa 
 sionally." 
 
 Jane did not answer, but her cheeks were 
 flushed, and her eyes full of a light that Nigel 
 understood to mean rebellion. He did not 
 notice it, but went on with his tirade. 
 
 "The little minx! the wicked little imp. 
 But she got her deserts for her treachery." 
 
 "Oh, Nigel! Did she do anything wrong ? 
 How could a child be strong enough ? Insur 
 rection ! that is fire, murder, a child ! " 
 
 " A child ! Yes, but the emissary of some 
 abolition thief. If I could catch him, I would 
 burn him at the stake. I would make a day's 
 pleasure of it." 
 
 " If a man has committed a crime Nigel,
 
 2l8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 there is the law ; it might keep you from male- 
 ing a savage of yourself. Tell me quietly what 
 has happened." 
 
 " It is very hard to be quiet under such prov 
 ocation. Last night Mrs. Paget had a little 
 dance, and the negroes in the quarters took 
 advantage of it to hold what they call a 
 ' prayer-meeting,' and July was reading them 
 a paper a most bloodthirsty paper when 
 Lanny saw and heard them." 
 
 " Ho\v did Lanny happen to find out so 
 much ? I would not trust Eugene Lanny'* 
 word about an old slipper!" and she kicked 
 a slipper lying at her feet out of the way, with 
 a contempt that had something very personal 
 in it. 
 
 "In such a matter as this Lanny is to be 
 relied on. His horse was sick, and he went 
 secretly to the stable to see that his orders had 
 been attended to. Then, as he wanted to 
 finish his smoke, he walked round by the quar 
 ters a providential interference as it proved. 
 He heard a noise in Jasper's cabin, and some 
 one reading, and he says it struck him like an 
 inspiration that it was an abolitionist. So he 
 put his eye to one of the cracks between the 
 logs, and saw and heard July reading the dam 
 nable paper." 
 
 " Then the devil gave him the ' inspiration.' 
 What a scoundrel he must be to peep between 
 logs ! "
 
 THE BROAD GATEWAY OF WRONG. 219 
 
 " Jane ! do you know what you are saying ? " 
 
 "Yes, I know what I am saying. I vow it 
 was a most contemptible act. Why didn't he 
 open the door and go in, and take the paper 
 himself if it was so dangerous ? " 
 
 " Would you have done so ? " 
 
 "Yes, I would have done so. I would have 
 read the paper to the poor, ignorant creatures; 
 and if it was lies, then I would have explained 
 the truth to them. If slavery is a divine insti 
 tution, it can be surely defended. I hope 
 Eugene Lanny will never try to speak to me 
 again. The sneak ! " 
 
 " For God's sake, Jane, if you are going to 
 talk and act in that insane way, keep your 
 own room ! You will ruin me." 
 
 " I behave very well before all the first 
 families I meet. Can I not speak freely to 
 you ? What steps did Mr. Lanny take ? " 
 
 " Of course he went to the house and re 
 ported what he had seen and heard." 
 
 " Of course ! What then ? " 
 
 " It was decided not to punish all of those 
 present." 
 
 " That would be inconvenient to Mrs. Paget 
 perhaps expensive." 
 
 " But to make an example of Jasper, in 
 whose cabin the meeting was held ; of July, 
 who read the paper ; and of the man Randall, 
 whom Mr. Lanny heard praying to the Al 
 mighty to hasten the time and send them a
 
 r = o SHE LOVED A BAILOR. 
 
 Moses to lead them into freedom. Such 
 impiety ! Such presumption is abominable 1 
 Flogging is too small a punishment for it." 
 
 " Perhaps the Almighty did not think it was 
 impiety, Nigel. If slaves believe themselves 
 to be wronged if they are ' weary and heavy 
 laden,' you know who said, ' Come unto me.' " 
 
 Then Nigel walked to the window and 
 closed it, and to the door and looked along the 
 corridor for listeners. When he came back to 
 his wife's side, his face was black and stern 
 with anger. " Jane," he said, taking her 
 hands in a firm grip, and looking her steadily 
 in the face, "you must understand at once 
 that such talk is wicked and ruinous." 
 
 " It is from the Bible. You go to church 
 every Sunday." 
 
 " Do you want to kill me? I shall be held 
 accountable for your words and deeds. Lanny 
 will not speak to you, but he will say to me, 
 ' Mr. Forfar, your wife called me a scoundrel 
 and a sneak.' ' 
 
 " He is a scoundrel and a sneak." 
 
 " But, Jane, see what a position you put me 
 in, if I repudiate what my own wife says. If 
 I do not, I must answer your words at the risk 
 of my life. Lanny will certainly challenge 
 me." 
 
 Jane sat silent on the edge of her bed, one 
 bare foot tapping the floor with a passionate 
 rapidity.
 
 THE BROAD GATEWAY OF WRONG. 221 
 
 " You have yet to learn that Southern 
 people cannot be tampered with even in looks 
 or words. Listen, and I will tell you how 
 promptly these ungrateful conspirators were 
 punished. The ' prayer-meeting' as they 
 called it broke up at nine o'clock. Before 
 ten, Jasper had received fifty lashes, Randall 
 fifty, and July thirty. She was insensible at 
 the thirtieth, or she would have received ten 
 more." 
 
 " Oh, the poor little one ! God pity her I 
 Thirty lashes with those brutal cowhides! A 
 child eleven years old ! Nigel Forfar, it was a 
 he llish act ! How could God permit it ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Paget was exceedingly reasonable. 
 If the child would have told who gave her the 
 paper, she would have got off with a much 
 slighter punishment." 
 
 " She wouldn't tell ? " 
 
 "A devil of stuDbomriess was in her; she 
 would have died under the lash but she would 
 not tell. If she would have spoken, the rascal 
 might have now been in our hands." 
 
 " The nobile child ! The little martyr ! " 
 
 " Jane, do keep your senses. Remember 
 this. God has placed everyone, black and white, 
 in the position he wishes them to fill. It is 
 flat rebellion against God to want to get out of 
 it. God put men and women in slavery ; when 
 they plan to escape from it they plot against 
 God, and <hey deserve punishment."
 
 222 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " TJhen every white man who plans to be 
 come rich when he is poor, or honorable when 
 his is mean, plots against God. Nigel, you 
 cannot make me believe that wrong is right." 
 
 " No. I suppose you will not hold your 
 tongue until I am shot for its license. My 
 God ! " he cried, smiting his hands together, 
 "why did I do it ! " 
 
 " For money, sir. You married me for 
 money." 
 
 " I was not thinking of you." Then he flung 
 the door open, and left the room in a passion ; 
 and Jane began to dress herself, weeping bit 
 terly, and talking to herself as she did so in low 
 but impetuous words. She had not thought of 
 calling Palma, the need of action was^ so impera 
 tive. But ere her toilet was completed, Palma 
 entered with a cup of coffee. Jane looked at 
 her with a steady compassion, The girl was 
 beside herself with grief. Her eyes were 
 swollen, her pallor had the grayness of ashes, 
 her hands trembled so violently that there was 
 danger of the service falling from them. 
 
 Jane took it from her, set it on the table, 
 and then turned to the heart-broken girl and 
 clasped her hands. She began to cry again, 
 and her sobs shook her as a reed is shaken in a 
 tempest. The next moment Jane's arms were 
 round her; they were weeping and sobbing 
 together. 
 
 " My little July ! My darling sister ! I would
 
 THE BROAD GATEWAY OF WRONG. 223 
 
 have taken the flogging for her oh, how 
 gladly ! " * 
 
 " Can you get near her, Palma ? " 
 
 " I have been to her. Toby came at mid 
 night, woke me out of sleep, and told me. I 
 went in the dark across fields. She was just 
 coming to her senses her little back and 
 shoulders torn and bleeding. I nursed her till 
 I dared stay no longer. Oh, Miss Jane, if I 
 could tell you all ! if I could tell you all ! " 
 
 Such comfort as Jane could give she gave ; 
 such help as she could send she sent. Night 
 after night Palma crossed the fields in the dark, 
 thanking God that there was darkness to hide 
 her, praying to him, as she ran, for protection 
 against the snakes she dreaded, and the loos 
 ened dogs, and the still more dangerous white 
 men who might meet and question her. 
 
 No more words on the subject passed between 
 Nigel and his wife. He had really used the 
 argument most likely to influence Jane the 
 assurance that he would-be held responsible 
 for her words and acts and he understood that 
 it would be sufficient to make her prudent in 
 the expression of her opinions for the future. 
 For he had the greatest confidence in the affec 
 tion of his wife for him. It never entered his 
 head that women like Jane Keteltas love per 
 manently only what they respect. But though 
 the subject was not referred to, Jane knew that 
 it was stirring the community to its depths.
 
 J24 SHE LOVED A SAfLOR. 
 
 Every planter in the vicinity had some similar 
 experience. Every stranger in town was sus 
 pected of abolition motives, and Jane was 
 aware that Nigel was watching his slaves night 
 and day. 
 
 This event occurred at the end of August. 
 Nearly three weeks after it she was one day 
 very sick and fevered. It was a terribly hot 
 afternoon, and the whole house seemed to be 
 waiting for it to pass away. Palma lay on a 
 pallet by Jane's bedside in a deep sleep. The 
 girl was worn out by her night flights and 
 vigils, and Jane, though she wanted fresh 
 water imperatively, did not like to awaken her. 
 She put slippers on her bare feet, and went 
 down-stairs to the dining-room. She saw no 
 one and she heard no one. Nigel usually took 
 his siesta on the eastern corner of the piazza. 
 It was well shaded by vines, and in the early 
 part of the afternoon the coolest spot to be 
 found. A window that lighted a small hall 
 looked upon this shady corner : it was, of 
 course, open, but the green outside blinds were 
 closed. A momentary curiosity seized her; 
 she wished to know if Nigel was there ; if so, 
 and he was awake, she would ask him to prepare 
 for her one of the cool, refreshing sherry cob 
 blers he prided himself upon concocting. 
 
 As she approached the window she heard 
 voices Nigel's and that of a stranger. The 
 words, " Palma's brothers," arrested her atten 
 tion. She wondered what ne\" f.-^..Ki,=.
 
 THE BROAD GATEWAY OF WRONG. 225 
 
 coming to Palma through her brothers. And 
 she was a little curious also, for Palma had 
 never told her that she had brothers. At first 
 her attitude was indeterminate and only 
 slightly interested ; but gradually she forgot 
 everything in the mere act and tension of lis 
 tening. Her face was flushed with scorn, her 
 small hands clenched, her long, loosened, fair 
 hair seemed to radiate anger and emotion. 
 
 With tightly shut lips she went up-stairs, 
 making no effort to disguise her presence ; at 
 that moment quite indifferent as to whether 
 Nigel knew or did not know she had been a 
 witness to the bargain he had been making. 
 
 As she re-entered the room she turned the 
 key in the door, went to Palma, and awakened 
 her. The girl was evidently used to sudden 
 demands upon her intelligence. She sat up 
 instantly, with an expression at once cautious 
 and intent. Jane had, thrown herself upon the 
 bed, and she beckoned Palma to her side. 
 
 " Have you two brothers, Palma? Are they 
 in New York ?" 
 
 The questions were asked in a whisper, and 
 the girl, with a white, terrified face, answered 
 them with an affirmative nod of the head. 
 
 " Do you know a man called Wilkins ? " 
 
 " A slave trader, a slave hunter." 
 
 It was now Jane's turn to nod. 
 
 " My God ! Miss Jane, what is he going to 
 do?" 
 
 "Going to New York for your brothers.
 
 226 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 He is to take them to New Orleans and sell 
 them there." 
 
 Palma was stricken dumb. She stood still 
 looking at Jane, as if doubting her senses. 
 
 " Do you know where they are ? " 
 
 "With a man called Parker; he keeps a store 
 in William Street. I wrote to them there 
 often when master was away. Can Wilkins 
 take them in New York? Oh, Miss Jane, are 
 they also in danger of this hell ?" 
 
 " If they are not freed, I fear they are. But 
 they can be warned they must be warned. I 
 will find a way to do it. Palma, how do they 
 come to be in New York ? " 
 
 " My father sent them North to be educated 
 he sent me also, and little July, but oh, I 
 dare not tell you, Miss Jane ! I dare not ! 
 Master Nigel would kill me he said he would 
 give me one hundred if I did half a hundred 
 would kill me one lash would kill me. I 
 should die of the shame and the injustice." 
 
 " He shall not touch you. I swear he shall 
 not, unless he kill me first. Oh, I have heard 
 enough ; you may freely tell me all now. And 
 he shall not hurt your brothers. I have friends 
 in New York. I will send them word. Come 
 close to me, Palma. You must tell me all 
 now, and speak very softly. This is a thing 
 for you and me ; and no one else must know 
 it."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE HAND OF WOMAN. 
 
 ' ' Well, then, dear mistress, since I see that them. 
 Being human, hast a human heart, and knowest 
 No stubborn purpose, I will tell thee all, 
 The whole truth, nothing concealing." 
 
 Maidens of Trachis* 
 
 " Throned in the vaulted heart, his dread resort, 
 Inexorable Conscience holds his court ; 
 With still, small voice the plots of guilt disarms, 
 Bares his masked brow, his lifted arm alarms. 
 Hear him, ye tyrants ! hear this truth sublime : 
 ' He who allows oppression shares the crime.' " 
 
 THE dazzling sunshine the hot mid-after 
 noon. If Jane and Palma had thought of 
 fit time and circumstance, they would not, per 
 haps, have chosen such an hour for a tragical 
 confidence. But when the heart is dominated 
 by a great sorrow it is above nature; it even 
 in some measure fits nature to its own mood. 
 And to Jane the very monotony of the splen 
 did sunshine the quivering of the air in the 
 great heat and the buzzing of the myriads of 
 flies and insects who delighted in it had be 
 come an almost intolerable oppression and de 
 pression. It seemed fitting enough to her that 
 words of horror and wropg should pervade the
 
 228 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 hot, tainted air, and mingle with the buzzing 
 of the tormenting insects, and steal away 
 through the closed blinds, beyond the melan 
 choly garden, into the sullen shadows of the 
 swamp. 
 
 She 'drew Palma close to her side ; and, taking 
 her hand, said, " Who was your father, Palma ? " 
 
 " Master Stephen Forfar." 
 
 " My husband's father ? " 
 
 " Yes, Miss Jane." 
 
 "Then you are my husband's sister." She 
 looked at the girl with eyes bright and shining, 
 and full of a fierce inquiry after the truth. 
 
 " His slave. Miss Jane." 
 
 " I say his sister ; and July is his sister. Yet 
 he could rejoice in the child's suffering, and 
 never feel one thrill of admiration for her 
 loyalty! And this man is my husband! the 
 father of my unborn child ! Palma, I am in an 
 agony of horror and shame." 
 
 The girl sat still, with dropped eyes. She 
 had drawn her hand out of Jane's hand and 
 clasped them together on her knee. Her whole 
 attitude was one of self-restraint. It said as 
 plainly as words, " This sorrow and shame is 
 mine. I do not wish you to take any part in 
 it." 
 
 " Palma, who was your mother ? " 
 
 " She was called Tatelle Revel ; and was born 
 on the Revel place, near New Orleans. She 
 was nearly white, and was well taught and well
 
 THE HAND OF WOMAN. 229 
 
 reared. But when she was twenty years old 
 Master Revel died, and the Madame sold the 
 slaves and went to Paris to live. Master 
 Stephen Forfar was in New Orleans at the 
 time, and he bought my mother for nurse to 
 Master Nigel, whose mother died when he was 
 born. She was very fond of Master Nigel, and 
 very good to him. Old Master loved her as 
 his life, and for twenty-two years she lived here 
 as mistress of everything. She had four chil 
 dren my brothers Steve and Alexander, July, 
 and myself. The boys were sent to a school 
 in Ohio before they were ten years old ; and 
 they have never come back. July, and I also, 
 were sent there ; but three years ago I wanted 
 to see mother so much, and July fretted so 
 continually for her, that I came down the river 
 again. We were to go back, father said, in 
 September, for he always had a fear about us ; 
 but we thought little of any danger then. It 
 is not my father's fault we are slaves. He had 
 given my mother free papers for herself and all 
 her children put them into her hands, and 
 told her to keep them as her life, because he 
 knew he had trouble at his heart, and might 
 die at any moment. 
 
 "When I brought July home three summers 
 ago she was eight years old, and I was sixteen. 
 I had been in a good school for nine years, and 
 had learnt all they could teach me. I wanted 
 to go to France and study music and singing,
 
 230 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 and father and mother were pleased with the 
 idea. We had talked over my plans one 
 morning, and I was busy all the rest of the 
 day sewing on the dresses I was to take with 
 me. I was so happy, I sang all day long. At 
 nightfall mother looked into my room, and 
 told me I had done enough. It was her 
 custom to dress very handsomely for the even 
 ing, and I can see her yet in her black silk 
 gown, and gold bracelets, and a black lace 
 shawl folded around her. I threw down my 
 work and began to wash my face. Suddenly I 
 heard a shriek. Such a shriek, Miss Jane, you 
 cannot imagine ! It makes my ears ache to 
 remember it. July came screaming up-stairs; 
 I ran to meet her, and saw two men carrying 
 Master Stephen to his bed." 
 
 "Your father, you mean?" 
 
 "Yes. He was dead. My mother was in 
 sensible. Master Nigel was with the body. I 
 stayed with mother. It was some hours before 
 she came to herself. Her words to me were, 
 'Palma! Palma ! The red box in my trunk! 
 The red box ! Go for it ; quick, quick ! * 
 
 " I knew what she meant, and my own heart 
 sank with terror. I was shocked that I had 
 not thought of it before. Scarce taking 
 breath, I flew up-stairs. Mother's room was 
 open, her trunk was open, but the red box was 
 there. Mother was sitting up in bed watching 
 for me. I shall never forget the anguish of
 
 THE HAND OF WOMAN. 231 
 
 anxiety on it. When I held up the box, she 
 clasped her hands and fell back and began to 
 cry and to thank God. I put the box under 
 her pillow, and she sobbed herself to sleep in a 
 passion of grateful prayer. Miss Jane ! Miss 
 Jane ! The box was empty ! " 
 
 " Oh, Palma ! Palma ! " 
 
 " Our free papers were in it they were 
 gone ! We never saw them again." 
 
 At these words Jane gave a little shriek, and 
 turned her face into her pillow. The girl 
 stooped toward her and whispered : 
 
 " The box had been opened the papers 
 were stolen we were slaves at Master Nigel's 
 mercy. After the funeral mother tried to talk 
 to him. He sent her to the kitchen. In 
 another week he sent her to the slave market. 
 I stole away one afternoon and ran all the 
 way into Memphis to see her there." 
 
 " Palma ! Palma ! how could you bear it ? " 
 
 " She had the rough striped dress of a field 
 hand on. She had grown old. She was going 
 mad. I had to tell her who I was. O God ! If 
 I had never seen her so, I might bear it better! 
 My mother, my dear, good, gentle mother! 
 I shall never see her again ! Never, never ! " 
 
 " And now he wants to sell his brothers ! 
 his father's own children. God in heaven, how 
 can I trust him with my child ? Palma, I am 
 going to write to my friend in New York. I 
 will not let any one commit such a crime."
 
 232 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 She sat down at once and began to write to 
 Virginia. It was a shame and a trial to her. 
 If it had been possible, she would have hid her 
 husband's share in the crime, and she did beg 
 Virginia to remember that he was not a sinner 
 above all others in the matter. " No one here 
 would blame him for it," she wrote ; " it is the 
 outcome of an institution radically wrong." 
 And she vented on the institution the scorn 
 and the passion of anger she felt for the indi 
 vidual sin. 
 
 To get the letter safely posted was the next 
 thing to be done. She asked Nigel to go into 
 Memphis with her the next morning; "she 
 required a number of small articles," she said, 
 " no one could get but herself." 
 
 " Why not take Palma? " he asked. " Cato 
 \ ill drive you in perfect safety, and Palma will 
 be of more use in shopping than I can be. I 
 have to get money to-morrow for a man who 
 is going away to do some business for me." 
 
 She accepted the change without apparent 
 feeling, but she was inwardly delighted. Wil- 
 kins could not leave till Nigel had got money 
 for him. So, then, the letter would have at 
 least a day's advantage in time. Thus far 
 events were on their side. It was not until the 
 letter was posted that she remembered Virginia 
 had been at the White Sulphur Springs with 
 her Bather since the beginning of June. She 
 did not know whether she had returned to
 
 THE HAND OF ll'OMAN. 233 
 
 New York. A sudden resolve to write to the 
 boys themselves came to her, but was as sud 
 denly put aside. Any letter directed to them 
 would probably be detained. Nigel would not 
 have forgotten that precaution. She had done 
 her best. She very wisely let well alone, and 
 did not embarrass the Power behind her by a 
 superfluity of events to control. 
 
 Her faith in the unknown was not misplaced. 
 The letter arrived at the Mason House five 
 minutes before Virginia came back to it, after 
 nearly four months' absence. She did not, 
 however, open it at once. Nelly had a festival 
 lunch ready, and a budget of household news 
 to tell Virginia as she prepared herself for it ; 
 and they had no sooner sat down to it than 
 Mr. Keteltas joined them. 
 
 " My friend," he said, taking the Major's 
 hand, " you are welcome home. New York has 
 been doing badly in your absence. There was 
 one good man the less in it." 
 
 "Sit down and eat with us, Mr. Keteltas." 
 " I will. Many things have happened since 
 you went away, and I can give you the truth 
 on all matters. I have experienced yes." 
 "About the United States Bank ?" 
 " Who can speak with more knowledge ? 
 Congress had a wasted session of seven months. 
 Jackson is as much master of the situation as 
 he was at the beginning. In a word, opposi 
 tion to him is useless. You will see that in
 
 234 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 November ' Hurrah for Jackson ' will be the 
 cry, against which nothing will prevail." 
 " Right always prevails, my friend." 
 "Yes, yes ; but if God will not, man cannot. 
 And what is to be done with these abolition 
 fanatics if He will not take them in hand?" 
 
 " I heard there had been trouble in New 
 York." 
 
 " In New York, in Boston, in Philadelphia. 
 Newark and Norwich have the same spirit. In 
 the latter towns, if a negro appears there is a 
 riot, rrhese Irishmen, who are always talking 
 of the slavery of Ireland and the tyranny of 
 England, run a ' nagur,' as they call him, down 
 like a mad dog. j I thought they would burn 
 the city on the loth of July." 
 
 " They began in the theater, did they not?" 
 "Yes. An English actor there put them in 
 a passion ; they wouldn't have an English actor, 
 and as England had just freed her slaves in the 
 West Indies, they were all for slavery ; and 
 besides, as I heard one saying, if the ' nagur ' 
 was free he would be coming up North and 
 taking the bit of work out of their own hands. 
 So, having done what damage they could to the 
 theater, they resolved to express their opinion 
 in their usual way on the abolition question. 
 Some one called out 'The abolitionists,' some 
 one else ' Tappan ' and ' Rose Street,' and 
 away they went, yelling like a regiment of 
 ievils. They fired Tappan's house, and while
 
 THE HAND OF WOMAN. 235 
 
 they were burning his pictures and furniture 
 the firemen came thundering down upon them. 
 Imagine now the engines 41 and 37 driving the 
 mob before them ! The engines had been 
 running a race all the way to Rose Street a 
 neck-and-neck affair and the noise of the 
 crowds cheering them all the way there could 
 be heard even above the shouts of the 
 mob." 
 
 " What then ? " 
 
 " The firemen took possession of Tappan's 
 house, and the mob went for Rev. Mr. Ludlow's 
 church. Well, he deserved it. He had been 
 preaching abolition. That was not his duty, 
 Major, nor yet the doctrine he was licensed to 
 preach. They were five thousand strong when 
 they got to the church in Macdougal Street. 
 They all had paving-stones in their big, dirty 
 hands, and were striking and shouting as they 
 ran, 'All together.' If they had met a black 
 man they would have torn him to pieces." 
 
 " How were they checked ? " 
 
 "The National Guard was called out, and I 
 saw it file down Macdougal Street and make it 
 like a lane of steel. The stones flung by the 
 mob struck a shower of sparks from the bayo 
 nets and the barrels of the muskets, but the 
 Guard kept their tempers wonderfully. Only 
 two Sundays before there had been a riot be 
 tween negroes and whites at the Chatham 
 Street Chapel. In fact, there have been so
 
 236 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 many riots my friend, you would think rioting 
 was the solid business of the city." 
 
 " We have heard little or nothing of these 
 things. You can understand that at the White 
 Sulphur Springs abolition was an unmention 
 able subject," said Virginia. " I think it would 
 have been a brave man who would have 
 spoken the word in the presence of those 
 proud Virginians and Carolinians. But there 
 was considerable talk about a Dr. Graham, and 
 some new way of grinding flour which he pro 
 poses. It was said that Boston ladies were at 
 daggers' points about it, and that the longest 
 friendships had been broken on the subject of 
 Dr. Graham's bread." 
 
 " Speaking generally, that is perhaps true. 
 The daily bread has been a daily fight in many 
 families. In Newburyport, Dr. Graham's op 
 ponents went from door to door, showing spec 
 imens of his execrable compound of bran and 
 brickbats." 
 
 " That was not fair, Mr. Keteltas, unless 
 they let Dr. Graham make and bake the 
 bread." 
 
 " Well, my dear, perhaps so. But if the 
 Bostonians take to Graham bread, they have 
 consolations. My clerk was in Boston early in 
 August, and he saw a cargo of plover from 
 Cape Cod landed there ; fine, full-breasted 
 birds, sold at a penny apiece. Now even a 
 toast of Dr. Graham's bread could be eat with
 
 THE HAND OF WOMAN. 237 
 
 a broiled plover on it, eh, my dear ? But 1 
 suppose you had Andrew Jackson to seasori all 
 conversation with ? " 
 
 Virginia laughed. " Mr. Keteltas, how many 
 lives would have saved my father if he had 
 expressed his opinion of the President to those 
 fiery South Carolinians? I assure you, fifty 
 would not have lasted him through the sum 
 mer." 
 
 " Could not talk of abolition, nor of Jackson ! 
 What else, then, but Graham bread ? Was it 
 the staple? " 
 
 "Oh, no! Our talk was of horses and 
 Texas." 
 
 " Texas! I dare be bound. Colonel Austin 
 is back there." 
 
 "And Sam Houston is going! There was 
 great excitement at the Springs on the Texas 
 subject. It is said the President quietly en 
 courages the Americans. We spoke of him, 
 however, as ' the Government.' " 
 
 " I have not the least doubt the President 
 encourages the Texans. Anything that prom 
 ises a fight will be indorsed by Andrew Jack 
 son. The United States Bank will be under 
 his feet soon ; and he is getting another fight 
 ready. Why cannot he let the Mexicans 
 alone ? " 
 
 " Come, come, Mr. Keteltas ! why cannot 
 the Mexicans let the Americans alone ! " 
 
 " Let it pass. I will not talk on the subject.
 
 238 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 I have had trouble enough this summer on it. 
 My Harry is Texas-mad, and, instead of stick 
 ing to his concordance, he is filling his mind 
 with Stephen Austin and Sam Houston. If 
 men are to bring up sons, the Lord Almighty 
 ought to let fathers order the kind they can 
 manage. Harry is going to be a runaway min 
 ister. I feel it." 
 
 " My dear Mr. Keteltas, we must not dis 
 courage men who are carrying freedom into 
 the great West." 
 
 " I suppose not, even if they are Mormons. 
 Speaking of their colony, let me tell you it is 
 going to pieces. They are getting discouraged 
 with Joe Smith. He promised to save his fol 
 lowers from the cholera, and he cannot do it. 
 They are dying miserably in great numbers, 
 and a still greater number are deserting. It 
 has been a strange summer, full of unhappy in 
 cidents. Only last month all the stonecutters 
 in New York were on the riot because the stone 
 for the university is being cut by the convicts 
 at Sing Sing." 
 
 " Well, I know not the right and wrong of 
 that subject, Mr. Keteltas." 
 
 " Simply this : has the Government the same 
 right as individuals to buy in the cheapest mar 
 ket ? But we had another riot last month, 
 whose right you understand very well the 
 Irish and the Americans have been fighting 
 again. It was mostly confined to the Five
 
 THE HAND OF WOMAN. 239 
 
 Points district, but might have been very 
 serious/' 
 
 "That quarrel is a standing one, always 
 ready to lift. What provoked it? " 
 
 " The Irish began to raise an Irish regiment 
 to be called the O'Connell Guards, and the 
 Americans would not let them do it." 
 
 " Very proper. What do we want with Dan 
 O'Connell here ? We have American patriots 
 in plenty to name American regiments after." 
 
 " I think, father, we were well out of these 
 troubles. Have you heard from Jane lately, 
 Mr. Keteltas ? " 
 
 His face clouded suddenly, and he hesitated 
 a moment. " I do not know whether I have 
 heard from Jane or not. I can scarcely believe 
 Jane would write me letters so gloomy and dis 
 satisfied. She must be sick, or under a spell, 
 for she is not herself. I was in hopes you had 
 something pleasant to tell me about the girl ; 
 thought perhaps you would go and see her 
 when you were so far south." 
 
 " I did think of it, sir, but, as you know, Mr. 
 Forfar does not like me." 
 
 " You liked Jane once." 
 
 " I love Jane yet, sincerely." 
 
 There was a painful pause, a certain stiffner 
 and hesitation. John Paul sighed heavily, and 
 rose. " I will see you to-morrow about busi 
 ness, Major. It is on a better footing, I am 
 happy to say. Jackson is pulling down ou<
 
 240 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 great financial temple, but Americans are not 
 Philistines. I think we shall crawl out of the 
 ruins with nothing worse than a few bruises. 
 Good-afternoon." 
 
 He went away rather sadly, and Virginia 
 said : " I have a letter from Jane in my 
 pocket, father, but I have not yet read it, and 
 I could not bring myself to name it to Mr 
 Keteltas." 
 
 "It was wiser and kinder not, until you 
 knew what you had to read. I am very tired, 
 Virginia. Excuse me if I go to my room 
 until to-morrow. For then I shall need all the 
 strength I have ; many things will call for my 
 strictest attention." 
 
 It was then three o'clock in the afternoon, 
 and Virginia, left to her own devices, talked 
 some time with Nelly about the household, 
 and then, in a rather listless fashion, took 
 Jane's letter from her pocket. She lifted her 
 brows slightly at its length, for she had grown 
 a little tired of Jane's monotonous grievances ; 
 not that she had lost interest in whatever 
 interested her friend, but she was weary of 
 giving nothing but words. For the troubles 
 we can practically help do not wear out our 
 sympathy; it is trouble which we must pas 
 sively see, or hear of, that exhausts compassion 
 
 But this letter of Jane's struck a different 
 key in its very opening: " Virginia, my dearest 
 friend, help me ! Help the innocent and op-
 
 THE HAND OF WOMAN. 241 
 
 pressed out of what is worse than death ! 
 There is only you you only, to do it ! " 
 When she had read thus far, Virginia's whole 
 attitude had undergone a transformation. 
 She sat straight up, and there was the reflec 
 tion of a soul thoroughly attent on her fair, 
 serious face. She hastily scanned the letter, 
 and then went back and read it slowly word 
 by word ; horror, anger, ineffable pity spring 
 ing into her large eyes, and covering her 
 cheeks with a burning blush of sympathy. 
 
 When she was thoroughly mistress of the 
 situation which Jane had vividly described, 
 she stood up, and stood, still a few minutes, 
 thinking rapidly over the course she ought to 
 take. In the first place, she was sure it would 
 be imprudent to tell her father. His assist 
 ance could be certainly predicted ; he would 
 shield the boys with his o\vn life, if it were 
 necessary. But she remembered the trans 
 parent pallor of his face, his increasing feeble 
 ness, his passionate partisanship, and there 
 was no telling into what trouble such an in 
 terference with the law might bring him. 
 She thought with terror of the mobbing and 
 burning of the Tappans' house for a less 
 matter ; and it did not seem right to involve 
 her sick father in so serious a quarrel. 
 
 Then who ? Jane's own father was surely 
 the right person to interfere. Would he ? 
 That was very uncertain. But she must at
 
 24 2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 least give him the opportunity to do so. 
 There was also no time to be lost. The 
 slave hunter would follow the letter very 
 quickly; an hour's delay might be fatal. She 
 did not wait for a carnage, but went with 
 rapid steps to the Keteltas house. John 
 Paul was, as she expected, in his garden. 
 He had put on a homespun suit and a large 
 straw hat, and was busy raking up the first 
 fall of the maple leaves. When he saw Vir 
 ginia he turned white, and waited for her to 
 approach him. 
 
 "Well, my dear, what do you want?" 
 
 " Come into the house, Mr. Keteltas ; I 
 want you." 
 
 He followed her without a word. He felt 
 there was trouble, and no one argues with that 
 call. 
 
 She read him the letter all through, slowly 
 and carefully, lifting her eyes very often to 
 note what influence it had on him. She could 
 see nothing. His face was white and speech 
 less as a sheet of blank paper. He did not 
 make a single remark, until she asked : 
 
 " What will you do, Mr. Keteltas? " 
 
 " Nothing, my dear. Jane does not ask me 
 to interfere. She knows me better." 
 
 " But these two poor boys ? " 
 
 " I think for my daughter. I am sorry for 
 the boys ; but my daughter is my daughter 
 and my duty. I cannot serve both."
 
 THE HAND OF WOMAN. 243 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " 
 
 " Oh, no ; I tell you, I will not interfere be 
 tween a man and his wife never ! And also, 
 when that wife is my own daughter. I will 
 say to her 'Think as your husband thinks; 
 do as your husband does.' ' 
 
 " If he thinks cruelty, wrong, robbery of 
 freedom, yes, of life ? If he thinks theft and 
 murder? " 
 
 " My dear, you must talk reason to a reason 
 able old man. These boys are legally Nigel's 
 slaves. Or else they are free men. If they are 
 free, they must show their free papers. If they 
 -We not free, they must not rob their owner of 
 v heir lawful service." 
 
 " Lawful service ! " 
 
 " My dear, your scorn and anger is very 
 pretty, but it is not papers and proofs. I am a 
 good citizen. I will obey the laws. I am a 
 father. I love my Jane more than my life, so 
 I will not help her to disobey her husband, 
 who is to her the manifestation of the law. 
 Now, my dear, that is all I have to say about 
 those two runaway slaves." 
 
 " I am sorry I told you." 
 
 " Yes, I am sorry too. Jane did not send 
 you to me." 
 
 " At least you will say nothing to any one ? " 
 
 " It is not my business to say anything. I 
 wish not to the boys any evil. I cannot see it 
 to be my duty to help them ; nor yet to be my
 
 .244 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 duty to injure them. I will think I have 
 dreamed all you have read to me and all you 
 have said to me. Now we are awake, and we 
 will talk of some other thing." 
 
 " I cannot talk of any other thing, Mr. 
 Keteltas." 
 
 " Well, then, my dear, we will say ' good- 
 afternoon '; and I shall be glad to see you 
 when we can have again our nice talks about 
 the birds and the flowers. Come into the 
 garden ; I will show you my last rose. It was 
 so beautiful a week ago ! Then I admired it. 
 But now, my dear, when it is slowly fading and 
 dying, it has to me a far truer beauty. It said 
 to me an hour ago 'Farewell, John Paul ! I 
 sliall go away on to-nighf s chill wind? Then I 
 loved my rose, and I stooped down and kissed 
 it, and its fragrance which is its soul, my 
 dear was nearly gone. I got the least atom 
 on my lips." 
 
 He was talking thus with a real and not a 
 simulated affection as he led Virginia into the 
 garden. She looked at him angrily. " I have 
 not time to think of roses, Mr. Keteltas ; my 
 heart is full of those two boys. If I only knew 
 who to go to, how to save them ! " 
 
 He saw the tears in her eyes, and he felt 
 that she was at least asking him for advice, but 
 he answered coldly : 
 
 " I cannot tell you who to go to. I cannot 
 tell you how to save any one. My dear, go
 
 THE HAND OF WOMAN. 245 
 
 home and look after your own good father. 
 I will take leave to say he is not looking as 
 well as he might be." 
 
 As she hastily retraced her steps the public 
 clocks struck four, and she turned heartsick at 
 the sound. The hours were flying, and noth 
 ing done. Nelly met her with a face all sym 
 pathy and loving reproof. "You should hev 
 sent me, Miss, on any message you hed. I 
 think I could hev managed it." 
 
 Then Virginia looked into her bright, strong 
 face, and thought, "Why not? I am sure she 
 can manage it." She called Nelly into her 
 room, made her sit down, and read her Jane's 
 letter. There was no chill of caution in this 
 listener, and no want of that upright, down 
 right sympathy which defies all reasoning with. 
 
 " I niver heard tell, in all my life, of such a 
 bit of wickedness. It beats t' devil all to 
 pieces. I'll go and tell them two poor lads to 
 get out of t' way. I'll go this varry minute, if 
 you say so, Miss." 
 
 " But where must they hide themselves?" 
 
 "Well, I should say t' 'Arethusa' would be 
 a first-rate place." 
 
 "Oh, Nelly! is the ' Arethusa ' in port? 
 Are you sure ? " 
 
 " Well, Miss, she was yesterday ; and I 
 doan't think she will be ready to sail until to 
 morrow ; maybe the next day after. I saw the 
 captain last night. I was standing at t' gate
 
 24 SHE LOT ED A SAILOR. 
 
 watching for John Thomas, and he comes past 
 here. And I dropped him a courtesy, and told 
 him I was looking for you home and partic'lar 
 glad of it. And he smiled till you'd hev 
 thought it was fair sunshine, and so went down 
 Broadway, varry quick like." 
 
 While Nelly had been speaking, Virginia 
 had been thinking. " Nelly, neither you nor I 
 can manage this business, but Captain Brad 
 ford can. Will you go to the ' Arethusa ' 
 for me?" 
 
 "To be sure I will. I'll put on my bonnet 
 right away. What shall I say to him ? " 
 
 " I will write to him, Nelly." 
 
 " That will be a deal better, Miss. I should 
 be sure to say too much or too little. And 
 'tis such a strange story, he might think I were 
 just making it up." 
 
 " He would never doubt your word, I am 
 sure, Nelly." 
 
 "I doan't , swear to that, Miss. Men are 
 mostly infidels; you may happen make them 
 see what you could niver make them believe."
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 READY TO PERISH. 
 
 " Then spake the Lord ' We are not four, but fire ; 
 " He who protects " is here.' " 
 
 " Nor lies the babe nearer the nursing place, 
 Than Allah's smallest child to Allah's grace." 
 
 Rosary of Islitn. 
 
 " . ... hide the outcasts bewray not him that wandereth. 
 Let my outcasts dwell with thee .... be a covert to them 
 from the face of the spoiler." Isaiah xvi. 3, 4. 
 
 AT that same hour Captain Bradford was on 
 the deck of his ship giving orders about 
 the bestowal of certain pieces of cargo. He 
 was tired and a little cross. Nothing but the 
 sameness of every-day duty had come into his 
 life since the memorable events connected with 
 the election. When he next reached New 
 York, June was nearly half over, and Virginia 
 and the Major had left the city for a summer 
 at the White Sulphur Springs. 
 
 Jack also was very busy, and Marius saw 
 little of him. Perhaps he did not greatly miss 
 his brother at this time. It was a trial to listen 
 to him when the talk turned upon Virginia, as 
 it was sure to do. He could not quite forget 
 247
 
 24*> SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 how naturally Jack had gone with her to the 
 piano, and how finely their voices had mingled. 
 True, she had shown him great favor, but that 
 might be because he was Jack's brother. So 
 the June visit to New York, though he had 
 hoped something from it, brought nothing. 
 He did not even see Nelly. In August things 
 had been equally unpropitious. The Mason 
 house was deserted. Jack seemed dull and 
 preoccupied, and little inclined to talk of them. 
 The weather was frightfully hot, and the riots 
 had made the city very unpleasant. He scarce 
 ly left his ship. 
 
 It was the close of September when he ar 
 rived again. He had every reason to believe 
 the Masons would have returned ; he hoped 
 Jack and he might come to some better under 
 standing about them. The weather was now 
 cool and enchanting, and the city full of re 
 newed hope and life. His spirits rose when 
 he reached Broadway. He walked north as 
 far as the Masons' residence, but he saw no 
 one that night. As soon as he returned to the 
 "Arethusa," he heard Jack calling him. They 
 met with all their old frank affection, and as 
 soon as they began to smoke Jack said : 
 " Marius, I am engaged to be married." 
 A great roaring came into the ears of 
 Marius. His heart thumped against his breast. 
 He felt as if all the springs of life had suddenly 
 sunk deeper than the deepest bed of ocean.
 
 READY TO PERISH. 249 
 
 Then he knew no more until he found himself 
 on his bed, and felt that brandy was being 
 poured down his throat. He struck the glass 
 away, and slowly raised himself. His first mate 
 and Jack stood by his side. A kind of anger 
 came into his heart and strengthened him ; 
 then he made a mockery of his womanish weak 
 ness, rose hastily, and said, " Come, Jack, let 
 us finish our pipe." 
 
 The mate thought he had been working too 
 hard, and Jack readily accepted this idea. 
 '" You should not do so, Marius. I have heard 
 father regret just the same waste. Last time I 
 saw him he said, ' O that I had the strength I 
 wasted when I was a young man ! ' 
 
 " Never mind my strength, Jack. I guess it 
 will last my task out. You are engaged to be 
 married ? How long since?" 
 
 " More than a month ago." 
 
 " But she was not in New York then ?" 
 
 " No ; I went to see her." 
 
 " Is her father satisfied ? " 
 
 "Yes; pretty well. Her mother says we are 
 too young. Carrie is little over sixteen." 
 
 " Her mother? Carrie ? Who do you mean, 
 jack? Miss Mason has no mother." 
 
 " I am not speaking of Miss Mason. I gave 
 her up last May. She was so cold and unsym 
 pathetic ! A young man cannot throw his love 
 away on a marble statue. I went to see her 
 one night about three weeks after the election,
 
 250 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 and as long as I talked of it, and of you, she 
 was pleasant as sunshine. But when I tried 
 to turn the conversation upon my own feelings, 
 she evaded the subject, until I forced her to 
 listen. Then she was well, not at all as you 
 would wish your future wife to be. I made up 
 my mind that night to care no more about her." 
 
 " Having once loved her, Jack, how could 
 you cease to love her ? " 
 
 " If a girl does not care for me, why should 
 I . care for her ? The very next night I met 
 Carrie Gushing. She was just from school, and 
 sweet and pretty as a flower. She says she fell 
 in love with me as soon as she saw me ; and I 
 am sure I did with her. Carrie is Mr. Cushing's 
 only child ; she gets all she wants, and it is a 
 very happy thing for me that I have won her 
 favor." 
 
 "You are a lucky fellow, Jack, and what you 
 have said makes me very happy also." 
 
 "I should have told you when you were 
 here in August, but I was not quite sure then. 
 Say, Marius, what time is it ? I promised 
 Carrie to be there at five o'clock." 
 
 "Then you had better hurry, dear boy, 
 Jack ! " and the single word was so full of affec 
 tion that the young man could not resist its 
 power. He threw his arms across his brother's 
 shoulder, and kissed him with the same demon 
 strative frankness he had done when he was 
 ten years old.
 
 READY TO PERISH. 251 
 
 Left alone, Marius permitted himself to give 
 way to the physical weakness which had been 
 induced by Jack's phantom blow. He scarcely 
 yet felt able to grasp the blessed thought that 
 he might now love freely, love without any 
 drawback, love without any sense of wrong or 
 selfishness. But gradually the strength of this 
 position comforted him. Hope, that ever new 
 fine wine of life, made his heart glad ; he lifted 
 up his face as he had not done, for many 
 months. He was just beginning to think it 
 possible to call upon Major Mason and Vir 
 ginia, when he was sensitive to some presence 
 behind him. He turned and saw Nelly Ha- 
 worth. 
 
 " Why, Nelly ! " 
 
 " I hev brought thee a letter, Captain. Miss 
 Mason sent it, or I wouldn't hev come near t' 
 ' Arethusa.' Will ta read it, and send me back 
 as soon as iver ta can ? " 
 
 He took the letter from her hand, and 
 trembled with fear and joy as he did so. His 
 eyes ran all over the few eager words in a 
 moment : 
 
 Captain Bradford : 
 
 I am in a great perplexity. There is a cruel wrong to be 
 done ; will you help me to prevent it ? 
 Your friend, 
 
 VIRGINIA MASON. 
 
 He flushed scarlet with the honor done him. 
 He could scarcely write the few words neces-
 
 252 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 sary to answer her. They seemed so cold and 
 formal an expression of all that was in his 
 heart. But he bid Nelly hurry back with the 
 message, and promised to follow it in half an 
 hour. 
 
 It was then after five, and when he reached 
 the Mason house it was dark. Virginia met 
 him as he entered, and, holding his hand, led 
 him into the parlor. She was under strong 
 excitement. For an hour she had been walk 
 ing about the room, wondering how she was to 
 explain the shameful incidents to Captain 
 Bradford. When she saw him she brought 
 him to the lighted candles, and put Jane's let 
 ter into his hand. 
 
 " Read it, every word," she said. 
 
 Her voice was low, but tremulous with feel 
 ing, and Marius, glancing first into her face, 
 began to read. Standing by his side she 
 watched him watched the gradual knitting of 
 his brows, the setting of his mouth, the flam 
 ing of the rising passion .into his eyes and 
 cheeks. As he finished the infamous tale he 
 slowly gathered the paper between his strong 
 hands and crushed it together. The action 
 was involuntary. He did not know he had 
 done so until Virginia touched his hands. 
 
 " I would crush the tenfold villain to atoms ! " 
 he said. 
 
 " The boys though, Captain ! That is the first 
 thought. Will you help me to save them ? "
 
 READY TO PEXISH. 253 
 
 "As gladly as if they were my own brothers. 
 I will go at once." 
 
 " Their probable lodging is named in that 
 letter." She took the crushed paper from him, 
 and began to straighten it out with her beau 
 tiful hands. He could scarce refrain himself 
 from kissing them. He did touch them, and 
 felt as if he had touched some spring of won 
 drous bliss. 
 
 " Here it is 33 Spruce Street. I shall leave 
 all to you. Have you any idea what must be 
 done?" 
 
 " They must be taken to England. The 
 ' Arethusa ' can take them." 
 
 " Do you sail to-morrow ? " 
 
 " To-morrow, at four o'clock. But I can 
 make it later if necessary." 
 
 " Then I shall not see you again." There 
 was a loving trouble in her eyes; a longing 
 sadness in her voice. It made him tremble 
 with hope and love. 
 
 " But I will not doubt. You will do every 
 thing that is possible ; the boys are truly no 
 charge of yours but, if I may call you ' friend,' 
 save them for my sake." 
 
 Control, repression, restraint were no longer 
 possible. He flung them behind his back. He 
 looked with shining eyes straight into her eyes, 
 he took her hands in his hands, and said, with 
 a strong, sweet potency : 
 
 " Not for your sake, my love. Not for your
 
 254 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 sake, but for the sake of Justice and Mercy and 
 Eternal Right, I will save the boys, if I give 
 my life to do it. I would be a craven, coward 
 ly, cruel hound not to save them. But, oh, 
 Virginia! give me your love for Love's own 
 sweet sake. I am not worthy " 
 
 " You are most worthy." 
 
 " I am poor." 
 
 " You are rich." 
 
 " I am lowly born." 
 
 " You are noble by birth." 
 
 He drew her close to him and whispered, 
 *' What then, oh, loveliest and sweetest?" 
 
 She could not escape his beaming eyes, his 
 bending face, his encircling arms, the spirit of 
 compelling love that pervaded him. She went 
 to the heart that claimed her. He felt her 
 arms around his neck, her cheek against his 
 cheek, her lips whispering on his lips the divinest 
 music mortals ever hear. 
 
 He was in a rapture, and all impossible things 
 were then possible to him. For a few moments 
 heaven and earth had met. He had the token 
 in his soul of a love which bound him to im 
 mortality. They were both so blissful that 
 they wept as full souls weep, a happy rain that 
 kisses turned to smiles. 
 
 It would have been hard to part, if Duty 
 not severe, but strong and pleasant of aspect 
 had not said, "The clock stiikes seven. There 
 is work to be done, and you must be about it."
 
 READY TO PERISH. 255 
 
 " You will write and tell me all, dearest 
 Marius?" 
 
 "John Thomas will bring you word. I shall 
 need some one that I can rely on. If I do not 
 get the boys to-night, I cannot leave my ship 
 very well to-morrow. But John Thomas is 
 sufficient. Tell Nelly to send him to the 
 ' Arethusa ' at daybreak. If she talks to him 
 to-night, he will be in a proper mood for any 
 slave-hunter to-morrow. But I hope to have 
 the boys on the 'Arethusa ' in an hour's time. 
 My darling, write me a letter, and send it to 
 me to-morrow." 
 
 She smiled her promise, and then fled away 
 to a dreamful, happy solitude ; while Marius 
 walked with purposeful strides to 33 Spruce 
 Street. 
 
 It was a large boarding-house, and he was 
 readily shown to an attic room with a shelving 
 roof and dormer windows. Alexander, the 
 elder boy, was absent. Stephen sat at a table 
 writing. He was slightly deformed one of 
 those seraphic-looking hunchbacks who are old 
 when they are born, and who have a nature 
 too fine and high for mortal usage. He was 
 writing a hymn, and heaven was in his up 
 turned gaze. 
 
 When Captain Bradford entered, he sprang 
 to his feet. The haunting terror of his life 
 seized him in a moment, and he was not able 
 to throw off his suspicion at once.
 
 ?$(> SHE LOVED A SAILOR 
 
 Marius took both his hands firmly and 
 .jcMtly, and said, "Have no fear, Stephen; I 
 come as your true friend. Where is Alexan 
 der?" 
 
 " He went to Flushing, on business, this 
 afternoon." 
 
 " But he is coming home to-night ? " 
 
 " Not until to-morrow ? " 
 
 "What time to-morrow?" 
 
 " It may be noon. It may be later. It 
 depends upon the orders he took out there. 
 What is the matter, sir? Are we in danger? 
 
 " I fear so, Stephen in great danger. In 
 fact, there is no time for delay." Then he 
 gave him Jane's letter, and the boy compre 
 hended in a few moments the position. He 
 rose trembling, and deathly white with terror. 
 
 " What is to be done ?" he said. " What is 
 to be done, sir? I mean, how is Alexander to 
 be warned ? Where shall we go ? " 
 
 " I am the captain of an English ship. I 
 will take you on board to-night. You are safe 
 there." 
 
 " But my brother, sir ? I cannot leave my 
 brother." 
 
 " At daylight I will have a man to watch for 
 him, to warn him, and tell him where you are, 
 and how to reach the ship. Can you trust me, 
 Stephen ? " 
 
 He rose and looked searchingly into the 
 captain's face, and the clear gray eyes met his
 
 READY TO PERISH. 257 
 
 dark, glowing ones with such strong and loving 
 intelligence that the boy answered promptly, 
 " I can trust you fully. I will go with you 
 now." He was putting on his coat as he 
 spoke. 
 
 " Stop a moment. Write a letter to your 
 brother, and leave it on the table." 
 
 "That man Wilkins is sure to come here. 
 He would take it." 
 
 "You are right. Do not fear, I will man 
 age to warn him, I will surely save your brother. 
 Come." 
 
 They went out together into the warm* 
 starlit night the strong handsome man and 
 the lad, slight, pale and crippled. Stephen 
 stepped slowly. He was praying as he went, 
 and the Captain was conscious of a Presence, 
 greater than any mortal, walking with them. 
 
 " He will give his angels charge concerning 
 thee," muttered the boy ; and Marius walked, 
 never thought of hurrying, and had no fear of 
 molestation. They were encircled by an at 
 mosphere that was stronger than a rampart. 
 No man approached them ; several crossed 
 over to the other side. It was like walking in 
 a vision, and the sailors laughing with their 
 sweethearts, and the people passing to and fro, 
 seemed outside of the world they moved in. 
 
 When they stepped on board the " Are- 
 thusa," Marius turned to Stephen and said, 
 with a sharp kindness:
 
 ^5 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " Go down into the ship. You are free. 
 Thank God for it ! " 
 
 So far all was well, but he was troubled at 
 missing the boy Alexander. His return was 
 so uncertain, and John Thomas would only be 
 able to identify him by Stephen's description. 
 He had not a high opinion of the Yorkshire- 
 man's native cleverness in such emergencies, 
 though he knew he could rely on his courage. 
 After all, NeUy's intuition might have been 
 better. 
 
 At daylight John Thomas boarded the "Are- 
 thusa," and Nelly was with him. She was to 
 bring back any information there was to send, 
 and she was the bearer of a letter from Virginia 
 to the Captain. It was her first love letter to 
 him. He dismissed every other thought, and 
 fled like a boy to his cabin with it. And 
 blessed above all men he thought himself 
 when his heart came at last and alone into its 
 warm secret foldings. He gave himself one 
 half-hour's joy, and then, with his answer ready 
 for Nelly, went back to the salon. 
 
 Stephen was talking with Nelly and John 
 Thomas. He had described his brother so 
 fully that Nelly declared she could pick him 
 out of a hundred, but John Thomas only 
 scratched his head and wondered. Nelly 
 looked at him impatiently, and turned to 
 Marius " Captain, I'll look after John Thomas 
 tnysen."
 
 READY TO PERISH. 259 
 
 " If she'll nobbut point t' lad out to me, I'll 
 see as nobody hurts him, Captain." 
 
 "Then I will trust you, Nelly. After noon,, 
 I cannot leave the ship. If I did, I would not 
 have men enough to sail her. Now, mind !. 
 The 'Arethusa,' lifts her anchor at four o'clock- 
 You must have the boy here, by that time> 
 Nelly." 
 
 " If he is in town, Captain." 
 
 "And if not, what then, sir?" It was Ste 
 phen who spoke, and Marius could not bear the 
 anguish in his long, thin, white face. 
 
 " I will wait for him, Stephen. It cannot be 
 longer than twelve hours. The 'Arethusa' will 
 not be ready until Alexander is aboard her. 
 Now then, Stephen ! " 
 
 He followed Nelly and John Thomas on 
 deck, walked to the end of the wharf with 
 them, and again gave the man his instructions. 
 He answered, " Aye, aye, sir," but he turned 
 to Nelly, as soon as the captain was out of 
 hearing, for his final orders. 
 
 " What does ta think of all this, Nelly ? It is 
 a mixy-maxy business. If they'd take my no 
 tion about it, they'd let me go for that hound 
 Wilkins. I'd pummel him that well, he wouldn't 
 be able to move out of his bed for a week or 
 two." 
 
 " Of course you would. Now, forget ivery- 
 thing Captain Bradford said to you, and do 
 just as I say. Go to 33 Spruce Street, and
 
 260 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 stay round there till one o'clock. Ivery time 
 the clock strikes, ask if Mr. Forfar hes come 
 home, ana as soon as he does, give him his 
 brother's letter. When he is ready to run, keep 
 at his side till he steps on the 'Arethusa.' If 
 ta lets any man stop him, thou stops thy awn 
 wedding that's all about it." 
 
 " I'm none such a fool." 
 
 " If he hesn't come home to 33 Spruce 
 Street by one o'clock and men are thet con- 
 trary I'm sure he won't hev then go to Job 
 Parker's store, 63 William Street, and watch 
 round there till thou either sees him or me. 
 I'll be along about two o'clock to see thou 
 does thy duty." 
 
 " I'm sure thou needn't." 
 
 " If ta sees Wilkins and surely to good 
 ness, thou can't mistake such a blackguard 
 keep tiiy hands off him till I get there. 
 Then I'll give thee leave to do as ta likes 
 with him." 
 
 These instructions seemed clear enough to 
 Nelly, but she was doubtful of John Thomas 
 blundering them. Virginia shared her anxiety. 
 *' Do not wait a moment, Nelly," she urged. 
 4 ' Go and direct John Thomas." 
 
 " I am far better not there, ma'am, till the 
 young man comes home ; and I'm sure by his 
 brother's words and looks he'll niver get near 
 New York till afternoon." But at twelve o'clock 
 Nelly started down town, and found John
 
 READY TO PERISH. 261 
 
 Thomas at the post assigned him. He had 
 stood there all morning, " making himsen," as 
 Nelly said, " a laughing-stock and a wonder- 
 post for ivery one as lived near at hand." 
 
 " The landlady has told me three times that 
 Mr. Forfar won't be home till dark ; so, ta 
 sees, he willn't get on the 'Arethusa by four 
 o'clock." 
 
 " Won't he ? Thou shall see he will. Now, 
 then, if t* landlady didn't expect him till dark; 
 then it's nearly sure he goes straight from t' 
 boat to t' store he works at. And anybody 
 but a fool might hev known that, when he's 
 been collecting money. Come, let's off to Wil 
 liam Street. Why didn't ta bring thy kit of 
 tools, and look as if ta had some business of 
 thy awn in hand ? " 
 
 " New York is such a moidering place. I 
 allays feel as if I hed lost my mind in it. I 
 niver get used to it." 
 
 " That's the way with English folk. They 
 are easy to tell in a foreign country. They 
 doan't seem to hev any knack of making 
 themsens at home. Look at that Irish beggar! 
 You'd swear he felt as if a good deal of New 
 York was all his awn. Here ! Hold on a bit ! 
 That is Wilkins, I'll be bound for it. Look at 
 his face ; it is the varry color of tobacco and 
 the big hat over it ! He may well hide it a 
 worse-looking scoundrel I niver saw, I'm sure ! " 
 
 " There is a man with him."
 
 262 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " That will be an officer of some kind, and 
 one kind is meaner than another." 
 
 " Well, young Forfar isn't at 33 Spruce 
 Street, and I'm varry sure he isn't in Job 
 Parker's store : for we hev passed twenty 
 times, and there is nobody like him in it." 
 
 The two men went direct to Parker's store, 
 and they remained there for more than an 
 hour. Then they walked to Spruce Street, 
 made an inquiry, and returned. During this 
 interval, Parker himself came frequently to the 
 store door, and looked anxiously up the street. 
 Nelly felt sure he was watching for Alexander, 
 and that he desired to warn him, if he could. 
 It was evident, then, that he had not yet re 
 turned. Soon after three, Wilkins and his 
 companion again went to Spruce Street, and 
 Nelly felt as if this was the lad's opportunity. 
 
 " If he would nobbut come ! " said Nelly 
 impatiently ; and with the words Alexander 
 turned into the street. But Nelly's face was 
 the other way, and she did not see him until 
 he was going into the store. When she reached 
 the door, he was just handing Parker some 
 papers and a package of money. Nelly went 
 straight to him, and her face and manner, and 
 the letter she pushed into his hand, made him 
 all attention in a moment. 
 
 " Fly, my lad ! " she whispered. " English 
 packetship ' Arethusa.' Stephen is on her, 
 safe ! Wilkins, of Memphis, looking for thee.
 
 READY TO PERISH. 263 
 
 Fly ! fly ! Thou hesn't a minute to save 
 thysen in ! " 
 
 The emergency was one ever present to the 
 poor boy's mind. He glanced at his master, 
 and received a movement of warning. He tore 
 open Stephen's note. It said only ; " The 
 'Arethusa!' Fly to her! Fly for your free 
 dom ! We are waiting for you." 
 
 He threw off his coat, and went bareheaded 
 to the door. As he reached it, Wilkins and the 
 sheriff's assistant faced him. 
 
 "John Thomas!" screamed Nelly, "make 
 these fellows let me alone," and in an instant 
 John Thomas had thrown himself between 
 Nelly and Wilkins, and he was hitting out 
 with both hands very cleverly. It was a 
 moment or two before the men could disengage 
 themselves from the unexpected attack, and 
 that grace was seized by Alexander ; so that 
 he was nearly a block ahead ere they could 
 follow. But the odds were vastly against him. 
 Wilkins's shout of " A rescue ! Fifty dollars 
 for the runaway ! " soon sent a score of men 
 after him. And the hunters increased at every 
 step. 
 
 " Fifty dollars!" 
 
 "Stop thief! " 
 
 " Runaway nagur ! " 
 
 " One hundred dollars for him ! " 
 
 " Knock him down ! " 
 
 " Fling a brick at him ' "
 
 264 SHE LOl'ED A SAILOR. 
 
 " A hundred and fifty dollars ! " 
 
 And every moment the crowd increased be 
 hind him ; and every moment the likelihood 
 of being stopped by some one in front was 
 greater. Windows were flung open, brutal 
 women shouted and laughed, little children's 
 shrill halloing increased the clamor. Thank 
 God ! the river at last ! There was a fiercer 
 shout! a last run for liberty! In another 
 moment the "Arethusa " was in sight. Her 
 ensign beckoned him. He was on her wharf. 
 Her captain was lifting his cap and cheering 
 him. There was a cry from Stephen that gave 
 him fresh strength. He leaped on board, he 
 grasped Stephen's outstretched hands, he flung 
 his arms around him. 
 
 The crowd was pressing hard after. The 
 sheriff and Wilkins leaped on the deck. The 
 officer was approaching his prisoner. Instantly 
 the captain was before the boys. " Off, sirs ! " 
 he cried. " I will fling the first dog-of-a-man 
 into the river who touches a passenger of 
 mine ! " 
 
 " He is a runaway slave." 
 
 " He is as free as you are. Mr. Lewis, show 
 the flag, sir! " As he spoke there was a move 
 ment and a shout, and out flew the British 
 flag. " This is a British bottom, sir. On this 
 deck a slave cannot breathe." 
 
 He stepped loftily aside then, as if daring 
 their attempt. The two boys stood by the
 
 READY TO PERISH. 265 
 
 mainmast. Alexander's right arm was thrown 
 before his brother; his left was lifted to the 
 flag that drooped downward toward them. 
 The eyes of both were yet full of terror, but 
 they were raised with hope and imploration to 
 the bit of bunting that was their friend and 
 their salvation. 
 
 " The boys are mine," said Wilkins. " I 
 will have my property." Then, turning to the 
 crowd, who were talking and shouting on the 
 wharf, he cried out to them : " Gentlemen ! 
 help me to my own ! " 
 
 " Mate, pull in the gangway. Donald, up 
 with the anchor." 
 
 " Nothing of the kind ! Gentlemen, hold 
 on to the gangway ! " 
 
 " Mr. Lewis, throw it overboard." 
 
 In a moment the gangway was hanging 
 from the hands of two men on the wharf. 
 Then he turned to Wilkins. "You are on 
 your way to Liverpool. If any man will give 
 you a berth for love or money you can 
 have it. Dare not to come into my presence. 
 In Liverpool take the boys if you can get 
 them." 
 
 There was a great cheer from the passen 
 gers and sailors on the " Arethusa." A 
 cheer also, mingled with laughter, from the 
 crowd on the wharf. Success is the idol of 
 the mob the victor in any dispute is always 
 right.
 
 266 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 The packet was now going down the river 
 quickly enough to insure the boys' safety. In 
 the main, it was watched with pleasure. 
 
 "The poor lad has won his freedom; let 
 him have it ! " cried one. 
 
 " He was a good-looking boy," sighed a big 
 Irish woman. She was thinking of her own 
 sons. 
 
 " And he run like a red deer," said a tall 
 Scotchman, who had kept close to Alexander's 
 side. " Let me tell you, it wud ha'e ta'en a 
 braw man to catch the laddie. I wadna ha'e 
 suffered it. I said to mysel', let him win his 
 ain freedom if he can : if he canna, then, John 
 McGregor will win it for him. I wad ha'e 
 knocked the first man down that put finger on 
 him." 
 
 "Give the captain a cheer! He did right ! 
 Give him a cheer ! " And the crowd fixed their 
 eyes on the man standing yet with defiance 
 midship, his strong voice ringing out orders, 
 his gallant ship answering them with outswell- 
 ing sails. 
 
 Virginia heard from John Thomas that nighL 
 the whole triumphant transaction, for John 
 Thomas had kept very close behind the fugi 
 tive ; and the next morning there was a full 
 account of it in the "Sun.' : She read it with 
 pride and enthusiasm to her father, but the 
 Major listened with an equanimity that seemed 
 almost cruel.
 
 READY TO PERISH. 267 
 
 "Captain Bradford will get himself into 
 trouble if he does not mind." 
 
 " I think he did quite right." 
 
 " We are permitted to think as we wish ; but 
 actions have wider responsibilities, and Provi 
 dence has ordered 
 
 " My dear father, whenever people want to 
 say a severe thing they bring in Providence. 
 How can we help suffering with the slave, and 
 honoring men who succor those ready to perish ? 
 They are the Greathearts of their generation." 
 
 " Such men are thinly sown, Virginia. I 
 have not met many of them. They are widely 
 scattered." 
 
 " True ; but they know each other, and, afar 
 off, salute."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 BAD AT BEST. 
 
 " He who beateth his slave without fault, his atonement for 
 this is freeing him." 
 
 " A man who behaveth ill to his slave will not enter Para 
 dise." 
 
 " Him whom God hath ordained to be the slave of his 
 brother, his brother must not order him to do anything beyond 
 his power; and if he doth order such a work, he must himsetf 
 assist him in doing it." 
 
 " Forgive thy servant seventy times a day. " 
 
 Law s of Mohammed. 
 
 IT was about ten weeks after this event a 
 misty, chill evening in December when 
 Mr. Joe Wilkins again saw the city of Memphis. 
 His long absence had given Forfar much 
 anxiety, but the subject was one he did not 
 care to speak of to his neighbors. There was, 
 indeed, a kind of esprit de corps among slave 
 owners which forbade the discussion of the 
 most objectionable features of " the institu 
 tion," and even punished with social ostracism 
 those who flaunted them in the public eye. 
 
 Communication between New York and 
 Memphis was then roundabout, and not par- 
 268
 
 BAD AT BEST. 269 
 
 ticularly frequent. The New York " Herald " 
 was in its babyhood, and did not push inquiries 
 and information into all the dark and lonely 
 places of the Union ; and though all the daily 
 papers of the great city noticed the carrying off 
 of Wilkins and the officer, it was not likely that 
 any of these papers reached Memphis, and the 
 affair was not further commented on, and was 
 soon forgotten. 
 
 But Nigel was both anxious and angry. He 
 believed Wilkins had obtained possession of 
 the boys, carried them to New Orleans, and, 
 with their price in his pocket, gone to the new 
 land of plenty and promise called Texas. He 
 remembered how enthusiastic Wilkins had 
 been on the subject, and as week after week 
 passed away this conviction became in his 
 mind a settled one. It made him tingle all 
 over to be the dupe of such a man ; but if he 
 had been duped, those two boys had been sold, 
 and he felt an infernal pleasure in the compen 
 sation. 
 
 For though his slave stepmother had ever 
 recognized his right, and ever treated him with 
 respect and kindness, he remembered the fa 
 vors and the love given to her children as some 
 thing taken from himself. He resented the 
 relationship from his earliest conception of it, 
 and his action after his father's death was sim 
 ply the carrying out of a revenge he had 
 promised himself for many years. And he had
 
 270 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 an accommodating conscience ; he counted up 
 to it the money spent on educating those slave 
 children, and was sure the price of their bod 
 ies would barely replace the sum taken from 
 his patrimony; and his conscience accepted the 
 calculation and was satisfied. 
 
 He was sitting on his hearth that December 
 evening, busy with thoughts kindred to these, 
 when Wilkins suddenly entered the room. 
 Nigel looked at the man, and put his hand in 
 his breast, but he did not speak. 
 
 " Friends ! Captain," said the man, ad 
 vancing, "you should hear a man before you 
 speak in that way, "and he touched on his own 
 breast the pocket in which his derringer lay 
 ready to answer. 
 
 " You might have written, Wilkins, if you 
 conld not speak." 
 
 " I have been at sea ever since I touched 
 New York. Is there any post-office there, 
 sir?" 
 
 " Take a seat. Tell me what has happened. 
 You got the boys?" 
 
 " No. I Hid not." 
 
 " What then ? " 
 
 " I got to New York at midnight. I had the 
 warrant for their arrest out by noon next day. 
 I could not find the hunchback, but his land 
 lady said he was sure to be in his room at three 
 o'clock he's actually going to school yet, sir 
 and the other sprig had been sent to Flushr
 
 BAD AT BEST. 271 
 
 ing to collect money. His employer would 
 have nothing to say to me, one way or the 
 other; but, welcome or not welcome, I and an 
 officer hung round the store waiting. The boy 
 came back about half-past three. He knew me 
 in a moment, and ran ; and after fighting off a 
 man and woman who tried to hold us, we ran 
 after him. He fled straight as an arrow to a 
 ship called the ' Arethusa,' and her captain 
 jumped up England's interfering old flag, lifted 
 his anchor, and put out to-sea, with Joe Wil- 
 kins and a sheriff's officer on board." 
 
 " The ' Arethusa ' ? " screamed Nigel. " Cap 
 tain Bradford ? " 
 
 "The same, sir; and a more insolent tyrant 
 is not on this planet, sir. What I suffered on 
 that ship, sir, I'll never be able to tell. It was 
 a hell on earth, or on water, which is far worse. 
 But I'll take it all out of some nigger's hide 
 yet. No bed, no victuals but what the cook 
 threw to me, as if I was a dog the scrapings 
 of plates, sir ! No whisky, my tobacco done 
 the second day, sick as a dying dolphin, and 
 wet through the most of the time. And them 
 two boys, sir, parading up and down the quar 
 ter-deck with the captain and the best of the 
 passengers! Give me some whisky, sir! I'm 
 sick yet when I think of it." 
 
 Nigel passed the bottle but was unable to 
 speak. His rage scorned the poor expletives 
 of any human language he knew. He could
 
 27 2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 only finger the pistol in his breast, and think 
 of murder. 
 
 " We had one storm on the top of another 
 till we were nearly half over, and then we met 
 a ship homeward bound. The captain of the 
 * Arethusa ' told the officer with me that he 
 would put him on her if he desired it ; and, as he 
 would have been the derndest fool not to desire 
 it, I was left alone for the rest of the voyage. 
 When we got to Liverpool, he said to me : 
 ' Leave my ship quick ! If my boys take it 
 into their heads to raise a mob and catch a 
 slave-hun.ter, they will not leave enough of 
 your body to carry your mean, contemptible 
 soul back to Memphis.' He said that to me, 
 sir ; yes, he did." 
 
 " And you took' it from him ? " 
 . "I could not help it, for he added: 'You 
 had better go at once to a New Orleans packet. 
 You'll find one six streets to the left.' I saw 
 five or six of the sailors watching me, with very 
 ugly faces, and I was glad to slip away as 
 quietly as I could off one ship and on to an 
 other ; and may I be eternally flogged if ever I 
 go to sea again. No, sir ! Not for a galleon 
 full of gold, such as my grandfather took under 
 Lafitte." 
 
 " Captain Bradford ! The ' Arethusa ' ! " It 
 was all that Nigel could yet say, and he spit 
 the words out as if they burnt his tongue. 
 Wilkins amplified his story with one aggravat-
 
 BAD AT BEST. 273 
 
 ing detail after another, drinking deeply as he 
 talked, until he stumbled on to a couch and 
 fell into a drunken sleep. 
 
 Then Nigel rose and trod the floor back 
 ward and forward to the measure and pace of 
 his turbulent passions. His hatred of the boys, 
 his contempt of Wilkins, his disappointment 
 in his own revenge and profit every feeling 
 was lost in the tempest of rage that tossed his 
 soul against Marius Bradford. After a while 
 he was calmed sufficiently to reflect upon the 
 subject, and the devil of suspicion drove out 
 the devil of anger, and he began to try and dis 
 cover how Captain Bradford knew of his inten 
 tions. He had told no one in Memphis of 
 them. No one knew where Wilkins was going 
 to, nor for what purpose. No one even knew 
 that Wilkins was about his business. Not a 
 word had been said on the subject, except in 
 his own house on the gallery that afternoon. 
 A sudden thought came to him. Could Jane 
 have heard ? Or Palma ? Palma could write. 
 
 He put away the thought of Jane as pre 
 posterous. It must have been Palma. He 
 opened the doors to go up-stairs. Palma was 
 in the hall. She had Wilkins's hat in her hand, 
 and was looking at it when Nigel saw her. He 
 walked quickly to the stand and lifted a horse 
 whip. " Prying again ! " he hissed, and the 
 whip fell with a terrible force across the girl's 
 face and shoulders. She cowered and shud-
 
 274 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 dered, but she did not scream. Even in her 
 agony she remembered her mistress was yet 
 weak and nervous, and she bore the stinging 
 pain with patience. 
 
 When he had exhausted his passion, he 
 spurned her with his foot, and went to his wife's 
 room. There was only the blaze of firelight in 
 it, and Jane sat on the hearth with her baby 
 held close to her breast. She had been down to 
 the gates of the grave, and come back with its 
 pale, gray shadow on her face. But in her arms 
 she had brought safely back, through all dan 
 gers, the pretty boy she was gently rocking and 
 softly singing to. Nigel was very fond of his 
 boy, and when Jane turned with a faint smile 
 and lifted the child that he might kiss its rosy 
 face, he could not find it in his heart to scold 
 and bluster as he had intended. 
 
 She looked at him inquisitively; she saw that 
 he was very much annoyed ; but she had for 
 gotten Wilkins at that moment. When she 
 wrote to Virginia about Palma's brothers, she 
 had told her, " Whatever was done, not to say 
 anything in her letters about it. I may be very 
 ill soon, Virginia ; I may die. My letters may 
 be opened by Nigel. If the boys are saved, 
 put a leaf of sweet geranium in your next letter. 
 If there is no leaf, I shall know my effort has 
 failed." But the leaf had come nay, two 
 leaves had been sent ; and from them Jane 
 rightly divined both boys had been fortunate.
 
 BAD AT BEST. 275 
 
 And so much had happened since, that the cir 
 cumstance had faded somewhat in her mind. 
 Any mother with her first babe, in her breast 
 knows how the little face hides all other faces, 
 and how its small, urgent needs put all other 
 needs behind them. She talked of her baby 
 till she saw a shadow on her husband's face 
 then she said : 
 
 " I am afraid something has angered you, 
 Nigel." 
 
 He told her all, watching her countenance 
 the while for any flitting expression that might 
 feed the suspicion that lay at the bottom of 
 his heart, though he would not acknowledge it. 
 
 Nothing did feed it. Jane's eyes were cast 
 upon her child ; she uttered only those ejacula 
 tions of wonder or interest he had expected. 
 For at the time the letter was written to Vir 
 ginia, Jane had rehearsed the present scene too 
 often to make any serious blunder when she 
 had to play it. And Nigel could not bear to 
 accuse her. She had been so ill, a relapse 
 might kill her ; and he thought of his son with 
 out a mother, and of himself without a wife 
 yes, such thoughts do intrude every one has 
 them : horrible, selfish considerations, which 
 the heart instantly repudiates. One question 
 he did, however, ask : " Had she ever, heard 
 Virginia speak of Captain 'Bradford in a way 
 which would imply a special friendship between 
 them ?" and Jane could truly answer, " that she
 
 27 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 did not believe there was any friendship at all 
 between them." 
 
 " Then it is Palma or July," he said. " In 
 some way they have overheard, or been told 
 what Wilkins was going North for. Or Wil- 
 kins has been drunk, and talked ; and if any 
 negro heard him, they would find means to let 
 Palma or July know." 
 
 " It would have been quite natural, if they 
 were the girls' brothers." 
 
 But though Nigel had confessed to sending 
 after the two runaways, he had not said a word 
 of the relationship they held to him. And 
 Jane was now trying to forget it. The baby 
 had softened her heart to its father. And, in 
 deed, she was too physically weak to feel any 
 outside wrong very acutely. She had forgiven 
 her husband ; she had begun to love him anew. 
 After all, she had not, perhaps, made considera 
 tion enough for his education and surround 
 ings. 
 
 But she had not a moment's regret for having 
 betrayed his intentions. She had prevented 
 him committing a great crime ; and she did 
 not believe the intention of crime was as bad as 
 its perpetration. At any rate, the wrong was 
 checked with its projector it had no evil con 
 sequences for others. If the boys were to 
 save again, she would save them ; yes, always, 
 she must protest against a wrong, even if she 
 could not prevent it. But it had been pre-
 
 BAD AT BEST. 277 
 
 vented, and Nigel might never more be in such 
 a dreadful temptation. He was very dear to 
 her, and she must bear with him as he was 
 until, by her love and tact, she could make him 
 see slavery in its true relations. 
 
 These were the natural thoughts of a good 
 woman whom God had permitted to return to 
 life with a blessing in her hand. But as the 
 force and strength of her years returned to her, 
 it was more difficult for her to remember the 
 vows of patience and forbearance and consid 
 eration she had made. For it was a time which 
 had intensified feeling of every kind. The 
 slaveholders burned with a sense of the injus 
 tice done them. They said they were defamed 
 without any regard to the involuntary nature 
 of their position, of its peculiarities, surround 
 ings, and interests. They were sensitive to the 
 interference with their domestic life; they felt, 
 individually and nationally, all the indignation 
 which men feel when their private characters 
 are assailed and the members of their house 
 holds tampered with. Between North and 
 South there was the feeling which looks to 
 lynch law, instead of common law, for redress. 
 Nigel, who had always been a strict master, 
 became a stern and then a cruel one. There 
 was a similar change in every household, and 
 the first movements of emancipation were 
 doubtless full of suffering to the slave. 
 
 It was impossible for Jane to be quite
 
 2?3 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 ignorant of such changes. They could be read 
 in Palma's face and attitude. There was a cer 
 tain look which Jane knew as well as a written 
 bulletin it said, " They have been flogging 
 July again." There was often a shivering 
 shrinking in her own movements which revealed 
 her personal suffering. And Nigel was so 
 cruel and so insolent to her that Jane watched 
 the girl with fear and wonder. How could she 
 bear to nurse and fondle the child of the man 
 who so brutally wronged her? Might she not 
 be planning some awful revenge for her own 
 and July's injuries ? She had a haunting terror 
 about her little Paul, night and day. She 
 would not have him a moment out of her sight. 
 She awoke many times in a night with a 
 scream, and a horrible fear which nothing but 
 a visit to the child's cradle could satisfy. 
 
 Nigel resented this imaginary danger at first 
 with contempt, finally with anger. She re 
 minded him with shuddering anguish of little 
 children in their own vicinity who had been 
 made to pay the penalty of their father's or 
 mother's cruelty, and he refused to judge the 
 situation by " horrible exceptions." Still, no 
 life is all at once and altogether wretched. 
 There were many days yet when Jane was able 
 to shut her eyes to the sin and sorrow around 
 her, and enjoy the sunshine of Nigel's love. 
 For love dies hard ; it has a tenacity that 
 resists conviction and cruelty, and. even when
 
 BAD AT BEST. 279 
 
 all is apparently over, some spasms of linger 
 ing vitality almost simulate life, and lead hope 
 to bring on fresh disaster and disappointment. 
 
 In a certain way Jane was also very popular 
 in the neighborhood. Nigel was a strict ob 
 server of religious services, and a rather impor 
 tant pillar of the church which he patronized ; 
 and Jane's brightness and capacity made her 
 invaluable in the organizing and carrying out 
 of all the small theological schemes for getting 
 money. It was said that " Mrs. Forfar could 
 sing any pocket-book open " ; and her fine 
 cakes and charming bits of fancy-work were of 
 great account in the tea-meetings and holy 
 fairs of the locality. Nigel was always at his 
 best during such hilarious occasions, and the 
 pride he felt in his fair Northern wife did not 
 quite evaporate for many days after. 
 
 Indeed, Jane was in a great many ways 
 formed for society. Any party she ordered 
 was a success ; invitations to her own enter 
 tainments were eagerly sought. She was 
 copied and quoted to such an excess that 
 Mrs. Paget said, " Mrs. Forfar could do what 
 ever she liked ; it had become the fashion to 
 praise her." Mrs. Forfar's attitude toward 
 the Pagets had changed somewhat. As her 
 circle of friends increased, she regarded them 
 with contempt, and expressed her opinion by 
 scornful but eloquent silences. Mrs. Paget 
 and Imogene declared to Nigel that they
 
 280 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 had been ruined in public opinion by his wife. 
 But they were unable to make a single definite 
 charge. Jane had said nothing, and she had 
 done nothing, but yet the Pagets had become 
 unfashionable, and were quietly dropped by 
 many of the people whose favor was the very 
 breath of their nostrils. 
 
 But wherever Jane went she took her baby. 
 Ladies smiled, and supposed it was "the 
 No'the'n way " ; and Jane let it pass for that. 
 She had many a quarrel with Nigel on this 
 subject, but she held firm to one position " If 
 I go, baby goes ; if baby stays at home, I stay 
 at home also." Nigel's adamantine will simply 
 fretted itself to pieces against this rock of 
 mother love, and the baby always went or else 
 Jane always stayed at home. 
 
 To Mrs. Paget he could speak of these trials 
 with some freedom. She had known his 
 mother, she had petted him all his life. She 
 had expected him to marry Imogene, and she 
 believed that he still loved her daughter. If 
 Nigel was " out " with Jane, he was very much 
 " in " with the Pagets ; and whenever Jane 
 was afar off in sympathy with him, then he 
 found the fair Imogene particularly kind and 
 gentle. 
 
 Out of such elements as these the evolution 
 of almost any tragedy was possible ; and Jane 
 had often the feeling that she was but parrying 
 off an inevitable fate. And as the hot weather
 
 BAD AT BEST. 281 
 
 advanced again, her highly sensitive and 
 nervous condition made every hour of every 
 day a constant watch and warfare with herself. 
 The child also was sick and fretful. It an 
 noyed Nigel. It would not let him sleep at 
 night. He declared its wakefulness was caused 
 by too much sleep in the day, and he com 
 menced a regular plan of hostilities against 
 such an improper indulgence. If Paul was in 
 the cradle, he lifted him out of it. If the child 
 cried, as was most likely, he flung him into 
 Palma's arms, with some irritable remark on 
 its bad temper. 
 
 He nursed this petty wrong against his own 
 night rest until it became a monomania with 
 him to watch the poor infant and break its 
 daylight slumbers, until it was an open quarrel . 
 with his wife, until the child's day-sleeps were 
 matters of strategic arrangement, too often 
 rendered useless by Nigel's almost omnipres 
 ent watchfulness. He had no other work to 
 do; no living interest of any kind to occupy 
 him ; and this silly, cruel quarrel with his own 
 infant and its nervous, impulsive mother 
 became a matter of importance to him. He 
 made a grievance of it. Men full of vital 
 business, and driven throughout the day by 
 momentous interests, men with brains alive 
 and hands full, must conceive a human being 
 occupying his mind and time in such a small 
 barbarity a lunatic of the meanest kind.
 
 282 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 But Nigel was the outcome of circumstances 
 which left him hours and hours and days and 
 weeks and years, in which he had nothing" 
 to do. Mr. Clay managed the estate. Mr. 
 Bailey, his factor, managed his money matters. 
 Abstract thought, scientific reading, he had 
 no taste for. His culture was entirely super 
 ficial. His political ideas were on the wrong- 
 side, and were not strong enough to make him 
 an energetic partisan in politics. He was shut 
 up to his pipe and his nightly consultation 
 with his overseer. Jane and her baby, in a 
 pleasant mood, had ceased to be interesting ; 
 he felt the little excitement of a chronic 
 quarrel with her to be more agreeable ; and it 
 gave him the further outlet of a faint, sighing- 
 complaint to the sympathetic Imogene. 
 
 One very hot afternoon, as the sun began to 
 sink, Jane and Palma went quietly out of the 
 house. Palma had little Paul in her arms. 
 Their intention was to reach a small strip of 
 pine wood on the outskirts of the garden, and 
 rest there upon the fragrant, warm earth be 
 neath the trees. Jane generally had a book 
 or needle in her hand, but this afternoon 
 she was under the depressing influence of 
 malaria. She had no energy left. She had 
 no hope left. She was consumed by a vague 
 indifference to the present and a total despair 
 as to the future. 
 
 It was an effort to drag herself through the
 
 BAD AT BEST. 283 
 
 tawny, cruel sunshine ; through the garden full 
 of the heavy, hot perfume of Cape Jasmine 
 glinting with green lizards exhaling lush, 
 dense, depressing odors. But she felt better 
 when she reached the pine strip; for if every 
 soil makes its own tree, every tree also makes 
 its own soil. And who does not love the pine 
 earth brown and smooth, and spread with a 
 carpet of fragrant, thread-like leaves ? There 
 was no deep shade, only a beautiful gloom 
 surrounded by light ; a rarefied freshness that 
 was almost a stir in the air. They sat down 
 with a sigh of pleasure. There was no noise but 
 the grating, mournful voices of the men and 
 women in the fields ; and they came there only 
 as a soft tremulous sound. Paul watched the 
 grasshoppers, and pulled the fungi growing 
 around satiny, bright as silver, smooth as silk, 
 rainbow colored, sulphur colored, milk-white 
 domes growing in fairy circles. 
 
 Jane watched him with an impassive, indo 
 lent, meditative air ; Palma talked in baby 
 fashion to the child, throwing some of the 
 fungi away, but letting him fill his rosy hands 
 with others. The drowsy atmosphere soon 
 affected them ; in a quarter of an hour they 
 were all fast asleep. Jane awoke first. It was 
 almost dark underneath the trees. She was 
 frightened, and touched Palma, who sat up 
 with an instant alertness. " Lift him gently, 
 Palma. It is late : we must hasten home."
 
 284 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 The Southern twilight, with its silver and 
 purple stripes, its swirling bats, and damp, cloy 
 ing mist, was all around them. Jane's clothing 
 was quickly damp, and a strange depression 
 fell upon her. She went forward listlessly, 
 feeling her limbs too heavy to move, dragging 
 them as if they were weighted. She had so 
 walked in many a heavy dream. 
 
 " I will not go through the garden, Palma," 
 she said, wearily. " I am afraid. It is quite 
 dark among the shrubbery. There are all sorts 
 of creeping things and flying things there and 
 there may be also snakes. We will go through 
 the Quarters ; it is not many steps further." 
 
 " No, no, Miss Jane. Do not go that way.'* 
 
 " But why ? " 
 
 " Perhaps it is picking time, Miss Jane ; 
 some one is sure to be short. Please, Miss 
 Jane not that way." 
 
 " I will go through the Quarters." 
 
 They went on silently a little longer. Jane 
 breathed the hot, damp mist hardly, she threw 
 off her sunbonnet, she tried to hurry but could 
 not. The sun had quite gone, but they were 
 at the edge of the Quarters. Suddenly there 
 was a cracking, switching, lashing sound, and 
 then a terrible cry in the darkness. Jane stood 
 still, trembling from head to feet. Ere she 
 could speak there was a repetition of the sound 
 and of the cry. She turned her white face to 
 Palma.
 
 BAD AT BES7\ 285 
 
 " It is Gabe. He is always short. His fingers 
 are so stiff. He never can pick his task, unless 
 some one helps him and Mr. Clay measures 
 very hard these times." 
 
 " Do you mean they are whipping a man for 
 not picking a certain quantity of tobacco?" 
 
 "Yes, Miss Jane." 
 
 " Come on quickly. Carry the child to the 
 house. Do not wait for me." 
 
 All the forces of her soul were in open revolt. 
 She now walked quicker than Palma; walked 
 straight to a pen of undressed logs at the end 
 of the little street of cabins. The lash and the 
 cry, the lash and the cry, followed each other 
 as quickly as her steps. Ere she reached the 
 place of torture, the man had paid the penalty 
 for his short work ; and the lash now called 
 forth the shrill, sharp shriek of a woman. 
 Twice it smote Jane's ear, and then she rushed 
 into the pen. 
 
 A horn lantern stood on the earthen floor. 
 There was a horrible smell of warm blood, and 
 a far more horrible emanation of invisible spir 
 itual influences cruelty, human agony, and 
 despair. A girl was standing against a strong 
 post ; the overseer had the whip raised above 
 her. Nigel sat on the edge of a rude table, 
 smoking and counting the strokes. 
 
 Jane took in every detail at a glance before 
 any one was conscious of her presence. She 
 was at that moment a valiant little woman,
 
 266 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 who had no doubts of either God or herself, 
 and, with the majesty of a soul strong in in 
 finite pity and justice, she stepped swiftly to 
 the overseer, and called in clear, peremptory 
 tones : 
 
 " Stop, sir ! Put down that whip ! " and with 
 the order she flashed into Clay's face a look he 
 never forgot. 
 
 Then Nigel, stepping forward, said with a 
 cold politeness, " If Madame interferes, Mr. 
 Clay, that is sufficient. Go to your cabin, 
 Celia." He then offered Jane his arm and led 
 her toward the house. He never spoke to her, 
 and for a few moments Jane could neither 
 think nor speak. All her being was a storm of 
 feeling. But long before they reached the 
 house she had withdrawn her arm from her 
 husband's and was walking proudly alone. He 
 had to quicken his steps to keep up with her. 
 As they entered the door the light in the hall 
 showed her his dark face crimson with passion, 
 and his eyes burning with a sullen fire. 
 
 " Go into the parlor; I wish to speak with 
 you, Madame." 
 
 " I will never speak to you again, Nigel 
 Forfar." 
 
 And at that hour she felt that it would be 
 impossible for her to do so. She locked the 
 door of her room and knelt down at her boy's 
 cradle sobbing, blending with her sobs pitiful 
 little prayers to God for help and comfort.
 
 BAD AT BEST. 287 
 
 Palma watched her with a stony despair. 
 " She asks help from one who never helps ! " she 
 muttered. But Jane knew better. The thought 
 of what she might have to resign of what she 
 ought, perhaps to resign filled her soul with 
 the austere sweetness of sacrifice. And the 
 music of an old promise rang like a bugle in 
 her memory : " Grace to help! Grace to help! 
 Grace to help in every time of need ! " And she 
 said it over and over, tasting the sweetness of 
 it on her lips, until she became quiet and paci 
 fied. 
 
 Then she rose up, washed her face, and said r 
 " Palma, get me some bread and coffee. To 
 night I shall sit up and think. I must go away 
 from here. I will never speak to my husband 
 again." 
 
 But circumstances have a power no one can 
 resist, and that are beyond reasoning with. 
 When Jane had drank her coffee and become 
 calm, after she had sat silently musing about 
 an hour, Nigel came to her room. 
 
 " Jane, I wish to speak to you. Unlock the 
 door." Then, as there was no answer, " Your 
 brother Harry is here." 
 
 She rose with a cry of gladness and was going 
 down to him, but Nigel forcibly led her back. 
 He motioned Palma away, and then said, 
 " Jane, you have behaved very badly. You. 
 have grossly insulted me before my slaves. 
 Your action will compel me to even greater
 
 2S8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 severity to them. Such exhibicions do no 
 good." 
 
 Jane was silent. 
 
 " You know I love you Yes, I do love you ! 
 Come, let Harry be peacemaker between us. 
 I do not wish him to know 
 
 "I shall tell Harry everything, and ask him 
 to take me back to father." 
 
 The threat sprang from her without consid 
 eration, but it was a powerful one. To stand 
 well in the church and with his neighbors, that 
 was Nigel's great ambition. To be talked 
 about, to be made the subject of gossip in bar 
 rooms and paragraphs in newspapers, that was 
 his terror. He grasped in a moment all the 
 unpleasant social consequences of such a step, 
 and Jane had him really at her feet. He kissed 
 her fondly, he wooed her as he had scarcely 
 done when she was a maiden. He reminded 
 her that even God forgave those who were 
 sorry for their fault, and in twenty minutes she 
 had kissed his lips, and promised to come like 
 a happy wife to see her brbther. 
 
 But when .Nigel left her presence there was 
 an evil smile upon his lips, and he muttered 
 sarcastically as he stepped softly from step to 
 step : 
 
 "Well, well, if I have not the virtue to for 
 give as readily as Madame, I have at least the 
 prudence to forget as long as it suits me to 
 <do so."
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 INVINCIBLE LOVE. 
 
 " Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the law are e> 
 the Lord ; Love and the way of good works are from him.'' 
 Eccles. 
 
 " Heart with heart, and hand in hand, go upon your way.*' 
 
 " Love makes little much, when our joys are fe'w ; 
 And when most, his touch gives them golden hue." 
 
 A BOUT the time Joe Wilkins reached Mem- 
 /" phis again, Marius Bradford sailed the 
 " Arethusa " into New York Bay. It was a 
 cold, dull morning, with a pale gray light in 
 the east, a pale gray sea around, and low-lying 
 white mists about the shores. But Marius was 
 above the horizon around him ; he was on the 
 mountain tops of Love and Hope, and had the 
 sunshine in his heart. 
 
 Early in the afternoon he had brought his 
 ship to anchor, and was ready to attend to his 
 own affairs. He dressed with great care a 
 lover who does not do so is but a poor creature 
 and he was quite conscious that he was a 
 handsome man, not only in the eyes of women,, 
 but also in the regard of men. For his sailors 
 looked proudly at their captain as he stepped 
 from his ship to the wharf ; and standing still 
 with their hands upon their hips, watched his 
 289
 
 290 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 fine form out of sight. And the man could be 
 read in his walk, which was quick and elastic, 
 yet firm as that of one who steps from a high 
 to a low place. 
 
 He went northward very rapidly, without 
 turning his head to the right or the left, and 
 about two o'clock knocked at the door of 
 Major Mason's house. He had no irresolution 
 and no timidity. Virginia had told him that 
 he was beloved ; had promised to be his wife ; a 
 perfect understanding was between them ; and 
 a perfect love had cast out fear. 
 
 Lunch was over ; Major Mason was reclining 
 in his chair, more than half asleep ; Virginia 
 -sat at a table copying the score of a new song 
 she intended to send to Jane. The house was 
 perfectly still ; the silence in the room so great 
 that the slight movement of Virginia's pen 
 made distinct impressions of sound. Sud 
 denly some one touched the knocker; the ap 
 plication was impulsive, was in reality the im 
 petuous demand of a happy comer. The 
 Major stirred lazily, and took his crimson ban 
 danna from his face. Virginia turned her head 
 to the door, and sat waiting with the pen poised 
 in her hand. 
 
 In a moment she blushed vididly; she 
 dropped her pen, she stood upright, listening, 
 waiting. For the echo of a voice, the echo of 
 a step, had touched her senses with an instan 
 taneous conviction. She did not speak, she
 
 INVINCIBLE LOVE. 291 
 
 had scarcely time ; the door opened, and Ma- 
 rius entered. His eyes fell upon Virginia ; he 
 saw no one else. Before a word could be 
 spoken, he had taken her to his heart and 
 kissed her. 
 
 The Major's pale face was like a flame. He 
 stood up, the incarnation of angry amaze 
 ment; and, stepping toward the lovers, sepa 
 rated them by a word and an authoritative 
 motion. 
 
 " Captain ! " 
 
 "It is my fault, dear father. I I called him 
 by with a look it is my fault." 
 
 " Major, it is my fault. I ought to have had 
 better control. Sir, your daughter has done 
 me the inconceivable honor to love me to 
 promise to be my wife." 
 
 " Virginia ! and you never told me." 
 
 " It was my place, Major, to make the con 
 fession to you. I came at this hour to do so. 
 It is the first opportunity I have had since the 
 happiest hour of my life." 
 
 As he was speaking, Virginia quietly left the 
 room, and the father and lover, unembarrassed 
 by her presence, soon came to a gentlemanly 
 discussion of the subject. 
 
 " But, indeed, there is nothing to discuss," 
 said the Major, with a pathetic sadness. " If 
 Virginia has given her heart to you, it is the 
 idlest of forms to ask me for her hand : of 
 course -a necessary form, but I was going tc
 
 29 2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 say a few hard words, Captain. I will bury 
 them in my own heart. I have just lost my 
 daughter, sir ; be patient with me. I have no 
 one else." 
 
 " No, Major. You have not lost Virginia. 
 She has loved me since we sailed together 
 more than a year ago ; has she therefore loved 
 you less? Have you been sensible of any 
 change ? And why look for change now ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir. She has loved me less. I have 
 often been sensible of a change. If she was 
 thinking of you, could she also be thinking of 
 me? I tell you the heart has but one lord and 
 master lesser loves are many, but they give 
 place to the one supreme love." 
 
 " It is the natural way, Major." 
 
 " The ways of nature are nevertheless ex 
 tremely cruel, and hard to bear. So suddenly, 
 too. Why did you not tell me? let me sus 
 pect ? " 
 
 " I have seen Miss Mason but seldom ; unto 
 the very last hour of my last visit to New 
 York, I hardly dared to let hope live." 
 
 " And then, in one hour, all doubt gone ; 
 and you claim the uttermost as your right? 
 Impossible ! " 
 
 " Major, through many days and weeks my 
 ship keeps her nose to the sea. Sometimes it 
 is fair weather and fair wind ; but more often 
 the blasts strike her sails with musketry, and 
 her decks are washed by plunges of green
 
 INVINCIBLE LOVE. 293 
 
 water. She takes the blows passively, and. 
 with her head to harbor, doggedly pushes 
 along ; and then some hour the land is there, 
 and the harbor made, and all is well. It was 
 just so with my love for your daughter. 
 Through days and weeks of doubt and despair 
 T kept on loving ; and then, when I was here 
 last, there was a look, a word, that was like 
 the cry of ' land in sight' to the sailor. I 
 knew she loved me. I spoke what man 
 would not have spoken ? And I made the 
 loveliest heart-harbor that ever man found. 
 When will you give Virginia to me ? " 
 
 " Sir, you are too impetuous. You scarcely 
 yet know the woman you would marry." 
 " I knew her the first moment we met." 
 " Lovers' hyperboles are not facts, Captain. 
 I say you do not know Virginia. I say that 
 Virginia does not know you. It is my duty to 
 protect her when her own weakness would 
 betray her to a foolish step." He touched the 
 bell sharply, and remained silent until it was 
 answered. 
 
 " Request Miss Mason to come here." 
 In a few minutes Virginia answered the 
 summons. She went straight to her father. 
 She put her arms around his neck, and laid 
 her lips upon his lips. She murmured in his 
 ear the sweetest words of love and entreaty : 
 
 " I love Marius, father, just as dearest 
 mother loved you. I love him because he is
 
 294 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 so noble-hearted, so good. I don't mind that 
 he is poor." 
 
 " My darling ! He will scarcely ever be 
 with you. A sailor's wife hath always fear, 
 and her husband is the cause of her anxiety, 
 instead of being her support in it. In all the 
 trials of womanhood you may be alone. In 
 stead of being your daily comforter he will be 
 engaged in a ceaseless battle with winds and 
 waves that can never be conquered." 
 
 " A sailor's wife is the wife of a hero, father. 
 She catches heroism from him. And Marius 
 conquers the winds and waves every time they 
 try to be his master instead of his servant. 
 And I shall always have you with me. Can I 
 fear then ? Can I want any good thing with 
 my father by my side ? If I love Marius 
 much as his wife, I shall love you as your 
 daughter just as truly. Father, we have 
 always been so close to each other, so dear to 
 each other, for my sake love Marius now ; 
 you will soon love him for his own sake." 
 
 She had grown more eloquent and less timid 
 with every word. Her arms were still around 
 her father, but her head was thrown slightly 
 backward, and her beautiful, lifted face was so 
 radiant, so full of entreaty, so altogether persua 
 sive, that it was impossible to argue furtherwith 
 a power so compelling. Love made her for 
 the time that splendor of womanhood, whose 
 invincibility is in the confession of her weakness.
 
 INVINCIBLE LOVE. 295 
 
 The Major glanced at Marius, who stood 
 gazing at his lovely intercesssor with a face of 
 adoring affection. He put out his hand to him, 
 he laid Virginia's hand in her lover's; he left 
 them alone with their unspoken hopes and 
 happiness. 
 
 An old man's woes count double, and if 
 Marius was at the full-tide of joy, the Major 
 was at his lowest water-mark. He was disap 
 pointed in many respects in Virginia's choice. 
 She had gone out of her own circle for a hus 
 band. He could find no fault with Marius, but 
 even if he was perfect he did not want him for 
 a son-in-law. At that hour he was very un 
 happy, and he walked slowly about his desolate 
 room, shivering both in mind and in body. 
 For the gray, misty morning had become a 
 stormy afternoon, and the cloud-wet lawn, and 
 the ceaseless rain sweeping before a long, 
 lamentable blast, helped his disappointment to 
 depress him. 
 
 Near his window there was a very old tree 
 with which he had close sympathies. When 
 it put forth leaves in the spring he congratu 
 lated it ; he fed the birds that built in its 
 branches, and he resented with it the autumn 
 storms that left it bare. This afternoon it had 
 been rudely awakened out of its winter sleep, 
 and it was tossing its limbs, uttering angry 
 soughings and sighings, hating a high wind, and 
 knowing how near one was. Just so the Major
 
 29* SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 had been awakened out of his peaceful, 
 domestic life. The future had suddenly be 
 come restless and dark to him ; it had been 
 light and stable and full of understood and 
 beloved possibilities. He could not help feel 
 ing this rude awakening to changed and un 
 known circumstances. 
 
 ** Surely I have the capacity of leaping into 
 the dark as cheerfully as most men,*" he said, 
 grimly, ** but I wish I were a little younger." 
 
 For it is a dismal hour when we lift life's 
 garland and find that its leaves have nearly 
 dropped away a dismal hour, truly, if we have 
 no hope beyond. But this man knew on what 
 wings to mount above his fret and heartache. 
 His Bible lay open on its stand. He went to 
 it and laid his hand upon the page, and. thus 
 standing, with reverent heart recalled God's 
 promises to the aged and the lonely. It was 
 the first time in all his life that he had been 
 brought to a strait where he needed them, and 
 he said gratefully, as he turned away com- 
 forted r M O wonderful and blessed Book ! fit 
 ting into every fold of the human heart.** 
 
 And when the human heart is at one with 
 the heart of God, it cannot be miserable, for 
 then selfish cares fly away, and sorrow flies with 
 them. He lay down and slept heavily, and 
 when he awakened some one had been in his 
 room and lit the fire and gently drawn the cur 
 tains, and the pleasant place was full of leap-
 
 INVINCIBLE LOVE. 297 
 
 in^ lights and shadows. Then he dressed for 
 dinner and went down-stairs. Marios rose to 
 meet him, Virginia spoke to him with a kiss. 
 There was so much happiness in the room, he 
 could not help but catch it. And after dinner 
 Mr. Keteltas came in, and they had a game of 
 chess, and then some mulled wine and toast, 
 and Virginia and Marius sang together dear 
 old-fashioned musical ballads, long forgotten 
 " The Soldier's Tear," " He Never Said he 
 Loved," " The Sailor's Farewell to Home," 
 and, last of all, that fine pilgrim song which 
 old men still quaver feebly, and young men 
 might learn and roll onward : 
 
 Over die mountain ware. 
 See ! where they come ; 
 Storm-cloud and wi 
 
 Welcome them home. 
 
 Yet, where the sounding gale 
 
 Howls to the sea. 
 
 There their song peak along. 
 
 Deep-toned and free. 
 
 Pilgrims and Wanderers. 
 
 Hither w come : 
 
 Where the free dare to be. 
 
 This is our home. 
 
 Dim jtrew the forest patk. 
 
 Onward they trod, 
 
 Finn beat their noble beets, 
 
 Trusting in God. 
 
 Gray men and blooming malax 
 
 High rose their song.
 
 *9 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Hear it sweep, clear and deep, 
 Ever along. 
 
 Pilgrims and Wanderers, 
 
 Hither we come ; 
 
 Where the free dare to be, 
 
 This is our home. 
 
 And in the mean tyne the two old friends kept 
 up, over the board and the hearth, their discus 
 sion of the " greatest and best " of presidents, 
 and his late message. 
 
 " We shall not agree upon its main counts,, 
 so we will agree to differ, Mr. Keteltas ; but 
 what think you of the bringing it by express 
 in little more than twelve hours two hundred 
 and thirty miles? " 
 
 " It shows what money can do ; it costs seven 
 hundred dollars, and nobody wanted the mes 
 sage particularly. I see Jackson asks permis 
 sion of Congress to threaten and menace France 
 to bully her out of twenty-five million of 
 francs. He must know by this time that he can 
 take what power he pleases. It is very pretty 
 behavior in him to ask Congress at all, for he 
 will do in the end whatever he wants to do." 
 
 " The Constitution and the laws " 
 
 " Are but straws in his path. King William 
 of England, or poor Louis Philippe, may need 
 legislative sanction, but Andrew Jackson is 
 above all such petty trammels as bound Wash 
 ington or Jeff j:son." 
 
 " Being Andrew Jackson." 
 
 "Exactly; being Andrew Jackson. But, my
 
 INVINCIBLE LOVE. 299 
 
 friend, a political message ought not to contain 
 such words as ' reprisals,' ' seizures,' ' sequestra 
 tion,' and ' taking redress into our own hands.' 
 The Cabinet thought so also ; but a person who 
 knows told me that Jackson would not abate 
 a word for all their suggestions. 'Gentlemen,' 
 he said, 'I know them French. They won't 
 pay unless they are made to pay.' ' 
 
 " I am quite sure that Jackson will make them 
 pay ; and he is right. France owes us the 
 money." 
 
 " Well, it is a far cry back to spoliations com 
 mitted in' Napoleon's time." 
 
 " They were acknowledged four years ago, 
 and France then agreed to pay us twenty-five 
 million francs in six annual payments. She 
 has not paid her first installment yet, and now 
 the Chamber of Deputies refuse to make any 
 appropriation for the debt. I say, then, 
 Jackson does right to make them keep their 
 word." 
 
 " Jackson's most offensive quality to me is 
 his patronage of the United States Govern 
 ment. He really believes that Heaven ap 
 pointed him its savior." 
 
 "All great men have thought themselves 
 more or less inspired." 
 
 "Well, at present he has the right of the 
 strongest, and we must submit." 
 
 " There is a right of the wisest, but a right 
 of the strongest does not exist, my friend."
 
 300 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 To this undertone of states and kings, quar 
 rels about money and threats of war, Marius 
 and Virginia sung their antiphony of mutual 
 love simple, homely rhymes, which became 
 luminous in the light of their eyes, and full of 
 heavenly melody caught from the divine song 
 in their hearts. 
 
 Nothing was said to Keteltas on the subject, 
 and when he turned his mind from the great 
 national themes which absorbed the general 
 conversation, he spoke of Jane's severe illness, 
 and of his grandson. His face changed wonder 
 fully as soon as he uttered her name, and his 
 voice lost its sharp, argumentative tone ; it was 
 as gentle as a woman's. 
 
 " She is better, thank God ! but the little 
 woman is not happy, I think, Major; the life is 
 so strange to her. " I wish she was nearer to 
 me. I have been lonelier than you can imag 
 ine. And Harry is so restless. To roam and 
 to fight, that is his idea! He talks of Texas, 
 and Houston, and Liberty, till he almost sets 
 my old heart on fire." 
 
 " Is the pulpit box a natural place for so 
 strong and vivid and restless a spirit? It is 
 like tying an eagle to a perch, or putting a 
 yoke on a wild stag. If nature has told the 
 boy to go and fight for freedom, you cannot 
 put him into a pulpit to preach the straitest of 
 creeds, and expect him to stay there." 
 
 " I am thinking of bringing him to New
 
 INVINCIBLE LOVE. 301 
 
 York. I will put him into business. Eh ! 
 Major, what do you think of that ?" 
 
 " If he were my boy, I would buy him a rifle 
 and give him a thousand dollars, and let him 
 work out his own life ; it is often, to a good 
 youth, working out his salvation." 
 
 " He is all I have. I cannot make up my 
 heart to part with Harry. Well, I must go 
 now." He turned to Virginia and Marius 
 then, and said a few words to one about Jane, 
 and to the other about the coming of Atlantic 
 steamships, and so, talking of this and that, 
 went out of the room with an old-fashioned 
 grace and politeness that was very pleasant. 
 
 Major Mason went with him to the door, 
 and they lingered in the hall a little, talking at 
 the last moment of the great rise in value of 
 real estate on Long Island. 
 
 " Abraham Schermerhorn has sold his farm 
 of one hundred and seventy acres, three miles 
 out of Brooklyn,, for one hundred and two 
 thousand dollars ; and now he is worrying 
 because he sold it so cheap. He offered it to 
 me four years ago for eighteen thousand dol 
 lars. I wish I had bought it. You have a few 
 acres there, I believe ?" 
 
 " Virginia has. Her mother left the land 
 for her personal use." 
 
 " Then she is rich, if she knows how to sell 
 at the market hour. Look after her interests. 
 Major."
 
 302 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 "I will." He watched Keteltas go carefully 
 down the slippery steps for the rain had 
 ceased and it had begun to freeze and turn 
 toward his home. His air of loneliness struck 
 the major very painfully, for an old man is 
 lonely indeed who has no wife or daughter 
 near him. Then a feeling of gratitude came 
 into his heart. Virginia's choice would not, 
 at least, separate them. Her children would 
 grow up at his knees. He would go down to 
 the grave in the company of those he loved. 
 And, so wonderful a thing is thought, that, as 
 he delayed a moment in the hall to regulate 
 his watch by the great clock standing there, he 
 suddenly remembered an inscription he had 
 seen upon a Christian tomb in the Roman Cat 
 acombs : " Whatsoever impious man violates 
 this sepulcher, may he die the last of his peo 
 ple ! " He understood, as he slowly turned 
 the hands of his watch, how miserable such a 
 fate might be ; and the gentleness and the in 
 dulgent love and wisdom of his years and his 
 nature made him feel a tender regret for his 
 apparent want of sympathy in his child's hap 
 piness. 
 
 So he re-entered the parlor full of this loving, 
 .self-disparaging compunction. The music had 
 ceased. Virginia and Marius were sitting to 
 gether. He noticed particularly the great phys 
 ical beauty of Marius ; his fresh, free, open-air 
 look ; he liked his eager wooing ; the impetu-
 
 INVINCIBLE LOVE. 303 
 
 ous admiration that he cared not to hide ; the 
 exuberant joy in his love, which would have 
 made him, to those uninterested, almost offen 
 sively happy. His arm held close his treasure ; 
 his brown, glowing, bending face almost touched 
 the rose-like bloom of Virginia's cheek ; he 
 clasped her hand, and it lay in his like a white 
 lily just gathered. 
 
 Virginia smiled at her father. With eyes 
 and lips she smiled at the same time, and he 
 went to her and caressed her, and, as he did 
 so, looked into her lover's face and said: 
 
 " Marius." 
 
 The young man stood up to meet the word. 
 It was the recognition of his right. It was the 
 making of his own name the password into the 
 household and into the heart of its master. 
 
 " Marius, my son." 
 
 " Father." 
 
 " We are a threefold cord ; nothing shall 
 separate us ? " 
 
 " Nothing. Virginia binds us forever." 
 
 And then, as he looked at Marius and Vir 
 ginia, he was conscious of a fourth a tender, 
 ghostly Presence, who made the air sweet 
 around him, and the whole room sensitive, and 
 he was led by it to a large, half-faded pastel in 
 his room the shadowy verisimilitude of his own 
 love when she was a maiden of Virginia's age. 
 
 His sorrow for her loss was over ; he had be 
 gun rather to anticipate the joy of their meet-
 
 304 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 ing. There had been a time when he had never 
 passed the spot without lifting his eyes to this 
 picture of a vanished face ; but latterly it had 
 s eldom called him. He now stood before it ; 
 he demanded from it the memory he wanted ; 
 the spring day when he won her promise. The 
 apple trees were in full flower, and the bees de 
 lirious with delignt among them. And they 
 sat down under the pink and silvery domes to 
 gether, and looked through them to the blue 
 sky, and heard the robins singing to each other, 
 and the little frogs calling discreetly at the 
 edge of the brook. He remembered the lilac 
 dress she wore, and the spray of apple blossoms 
 at her bosom ; and, above all, the look in her 
 eyes and the smile on her lips, and the kiss that 
 sealed their betrothal. 
 
 And then, by some wonderful mental sym 
 pathy that abrogated time and distance, his 
 mind found its utterance through the mind of 
 the greatest of Greeks ; and in a low voice he 
 repeated a sentence from that glorious invoca 
 tion with which the elders of Thebes, half in 
 awe and half in wonder, celebrated the irresist- 
 ,ble and all-pervading power of Love mightier 
 than kings, strong as death, leveling all dis 
 tinction : 
 
 " Invincible Love ! Thou who dost rest 
 upon the delicate cheek of the maiden ; thou 
 who dost traverse all seas : surely none among 
 the immortals escape thee : nor yet, indeed, any
 
 INVINCIBLE LOVE. 305 
 
 among men, though they live but for a little 
 space." * 
 
 Also, that night Virginia did not write any 
 thing in her diary. She was too supremely 
 happy to think of writing her happiness down. 
 
 * Sophocles, " Antigone.''
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 
 
 '' Here the heart 
 
 May give a useful lesson to the head, 
 And Learning wiser grow without his books." 
 
 " Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure ; 
 Married in haste, we may repent at leisure." 
 
 44 The path of sorrow, and that path alone, 
 Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.'' 
 
 VIRGINIA'S betrothal was followed by a 
 year of great happiness. All the circum 
 stances of her life conduced toward this end, 
 and she did not seek for or invent imaginary 
 troubles. Marius had, indeed, been a little dis 
 appointed concerning his wish for a speedy 
 marriage, but Virginia was not inclined to 
 hurry forward the days of sweet content and 
 radiant hope, and the Major had positively set 
 himself against hurry in the matter. " I want 
 Virginia to be sure of her heart, Captain," he 
 said. " I want her to know you better, to know 
 you when the glamor of romance concerning 
 your profession has become a familiar thing. 
 In one year you can see each other only about 
 six weeks. How much can you learn of your 
 individual tastes and feelings in that time ? Do 
 306
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 307 
 
 not hurry happy days. Give every season of 
 life its full harvest." 
 
 But though these words had an unsympa 
 thetic ring, the heart of the father was full of 
 feeling for his daughter ; and one morning, 
 when the first leaves of the trees were still pale 
 and chilly, and spring showers, with moist vir 
 tue, were softly cleaving the buds, he said : 
 
 " Virginia, I have not been very well. I 
 think I want to feel the pulsing floor of the sea 
 again, and to hear the large music of waves 
 singing to waves. I have such restless memor 
 ies of the gray clouds and broken lights and 
 streaming storms and scudding sea-birds. The 
 ruddy dawns we watched on the ' Arethusa ' 
 haunt me, and last night when the moon rose I 
 could not help longing to see it once more drop 
 to the sea-line like an opal bow. Let us go to 
 Liverpool with Marius this May. We can re 
 main a few weeks in England, and return with 
 him in September." 
 
 She looked up like a song of thanksgiving. 
 Her face broke up into smiles, she put down 
 the cup in her hand, and stepped to her father's 
 side and kissed him. "You are the sweetest of 
 fathers ; you are like what my dear mother 
 would have been." 
 
 " It pleases me to be so, dear. Besides, it 
 will give you and Marius two whole months of 
 each other's society and that will shorten pro 
 bation If you are still satisfied with him in
 
 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 September, then, my darling, get your pretty 
 things in order, and we will have the wedding 
 in the spring. Who can we leave in charge of 
 the house ? " 
 
 " Nelly, of course." 
 
 " But I thought she was to be married next 
 month." 
 
 " I do not believe it. She said to me this 
 morning ' She was none sure of herself, and still 
 less sure of John Thomas.' I think there has 
 been what Nelly calls 'a difference' lately." 
 
 "You had better inquire about it, then. If 
 Nelly stays we can go with very easy minds." 
 
 After breakfast Virginia went to the large 
 parlor and found Nelly there. She was busy 
 with her duster, and the prompt way in which 
 she was handling the chairs, and the positive 
 flip of the cloth, were very indicative of some 
 mental altercation. 
 
 " Good-morning, Nelly." 
 
 " Good-morning, Miss. It isn't t* day for 
 dusting, but I feel as if it would do me good 
 to wipe things off a bit." 
 
 " Is something wrong, Nelly? Are you 
 sick ? " 
 
 " Well, Miss, though I'm none of them twit 
 tering women that hes a knack of making 
 things worse than they are, I'm feared I've 
 been making a fool of mysen about a lad as 
 never existed, only in my awn soft head and 
 heart. I've found out my mistake in time for
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 309 
 
 sure; but I feel just like somebody I liked was 
 dead." 
 
 " Sit down, Nelly, and tell me about it. I 
 dare say it is all your fault." 
 
 " No, Miss. It isn't my fault. John Thomas 
 hes been going to t' Wesleyan Chapel ivery 
 Sunday night lately with his landlady's daugh 
 ter a varry bonny lass. He says he wants to 
 save her soul, and that she is varry bad in her 
 mind about it. I said nothing against that for, 
 two or three weeks, and then I thought it was 
 about time t' job wer done. You remember, 
 Miss, three nights ago, I went down Broadway 
 pretty late, for some medicine for master, and 
 who should I meet but John Thomas and t' 
 lass whose soul he is so fain to save. They 
 looked most like sweethearting as iver I saw. 
 I said, ' Good-night, John Thomas. Is this t' 
 road to t' Wesleyan Chapel, my lad ? ' and he 
 were that dumfoundered he couldn't say a word 
 back." 
 
 " Perhaps he had no opportunity. I dare 
 say you went straight on." 
 
 " What would I stop for? But he came t' 
 next morning for his opportunity. I were 
 washing a few things out, and I never lifted 
 my eyes to notice him. He said, ' Morning, 
 Nelly,' and I said, ' Doan't thee Nelly me. Go 
 thy ways and talk to Abby Smith. I've got 
 thy measure, my lad, and it's a varry short one/ 
 4 Is that your meaning, Nelly Haworth ? ' he
 
 310 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 said, and I spoke back, sharp-like, ' Ay, that is 
 all I hev to say to thee on any subject.' Then 
 he went out, and slammed t' door after him ; 
 and I opened it quick and told him ' niver to 
 darken it again.' He stood still a minit, dazed- 
 like, and then walked himsen off, looking down 
 at his shoes as he went. I feel varry bad, Miss." 
 " He will come back to you again, Nelly." 
 " I doan't want him to come back." 
 " Did he not speak to you again ? " 
 " He hed nothing to say for himsen but as 
 for low-spirity looks ! if he could hev sold them 
 by t' yard they would hev set up an undertaker 
 for a year." 
 
 " Nelly, we think of going to England this 
 summer. Will you stay and take care of the 
 house ? " 
 
 " I'll be right glad to. I'll not marry till I 
 know what I'm marrying. My word! marrying 
 is an insane doo, anyhow you fix it. I hev all 
 my senses yet, Miss." 
 
 It was then the latter end of April, and the 
 " Arethusa " was expected early in May ; so 
 the days were full of preparation. And the 
 Major had that exaltation of heart which 
 always blessed the happiness-makers ; and 
 everything around was in accord with the 
 glorious weather and his own mental atmos 
 phere. Jackson's popularity and power was at 
 its highest point ; there was great enthusiasm 
 and energy about railway affairs ; the Erie
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 311 
 
 Railway was just beginning, the Boston and 
 Providence was nearly finished. Real estate 
 had taken a marvelous rise ; he had sold Vir 
 ginia's land for a small fortune; and there was 
 hope and prosperity in all public matters, ex 
 cepting on the Abolition question. 
 
 This prosperous national atmosphere is a 
 great aid to private content. The Major be 
 came almost young again in his daughter's 
 evident happiness ; for she went singing about 
 the house, and the song echoed in his own 
 heart ; while her smiles, and ready mirth, and 
 eager little ways of adding to his pleasure, im 
 parted to him unconsciously an innocent self- 
 estimation which was very exhilarating. They 
 went on board the " Arethusa " full of hope, 
 and ready to smile and chatter about every 
 trivial event. 
 
 And what a voyage it was ! only, with that 
 perversity which often dogs great happiness, 
 all nature seemed determined to shorten it. 
 The wind was too favorable, the " Arethusa " 
 went flying before it at a speed that took her 
 into Liverpool two days before her time ; and 
 it was amusing to see her captain frowning at 
 the swelling canvas, and upbraiding the favor 
 able breeze as if it was his unkindest enemy. 
 
 In travel and rest, in love-letter writing, in 
 reading, in dreams of Marius, in shopping, in 
 planning, and in writing to Jane Forfar about 
 her husband and her baby, and to Nelly about
 
 312 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 the house, the soft, cool English summer sped 
 away; and they were again at sea, with their 
 hearts and faces turned to New York. 
 
 How proudly Marius trod his little king 
 dom ! How trig and bright and clean every 
 inch of the " Arethusa " had been made for 
 Virginia's sake ! With what shy, pleased 
 looks the sailors watched their captain and 
 the girl who was to be his wife ! for Marius 
 had not been able to hide the fact from those 
 who knew him so well. They saw the glance 
 that strangers never noticed the leaping light 
 into his face when she answered it ; they un 
 derstood the overhauling the ship had got ; 
 the strictness about their own jackets and 
 caps ; the cook's frantic efforts to realize 
 almost impossible dinners and desserts. They 
 knew why the Captain growled sotto voce at 
 fair weather and fair winds, and looked so- 
 smiling and complacent when the sails flapped 
 idly by the mast, and the " Arethusa " just 
 loitered along in the charming September 
 weather. 
 
 "They look so happy," said the boatswain, 
 " I'd keep them drifting for a twelvemonth, if 
 I could whistle down the wind. I say my 
 prayers at the mainmast, and not in a church 
 pew, but I'll go to church to see this wedding." 
 
 An old sailor interrupted him with an almost 
 passionate anger. " What are you naming a 
 bell-house at sea for ? Do you want to bring;
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 3*3 
 
 ruin on crew, ship, and cargo? I'm blessed if 
 I haven't a mind to throw you overboard, 
 Sheridan." 
 
 The man turned white, and turned away, 
 muttering: "Pardon, mates! I didn't know 
 myself that I was naming anything so un- 
 mcky." 
 
 But the unfortunate six letters did not at 
 this time conjure any ill to the "Arethusa." 
 She came to her anchor with full sails and 
 crowded decks, and her captain sent every one 
 from her with a good word, and then took his 
 seat in Major Mason's carriage and drove home 
 with Virginia for his first meal on shore. 
 
 In the evening Jack and his bride called, 
 and Jack was as peacocky and uxorious as 
 young husbands usually are. There was but 
 one fair, good wife in the world, and Jack had 
 been so fortunate as to secure her. He looked 
 with positive coolness at his brother's choice. 
 The love of Marius and Virginia seemed to 
 Jack such a very poor affair, compared with 
 the astounding quality of Carrie's and his own 
 affection. He was, figuratively, at his wife's 
 feet all the evening. He was afraid that the 
 wind might blow upon her, or the night air chill 
 her, or the dark frighten her, only in the latter 
 case he was by her side, and bold as a lion for 
 her defense. 
 
 They had been married a month, and Mr. 
 'Gushing had given his daughter a pretty house
 
 3^4 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 near St. John's Park. So Jack was not only a 
 husband, he was a householder ; and Marius 
 could not help laughing at the lad's wise talk 
 about the dearness of provisions, and the old, 
 old trouble of servants. Besides which, he had 
 been promoted in the office, and he could talk 
 largely or mysteriously of great events. Marius 
 listened to him with immense delight. He 
 thoroughly enjoyed the young fellow's conceit 
 ed happiness, his excess of self-satisfaction, his 
 endless little chimes on the various sides of his 
 own good fortune. When Mr. and Mrs. Jack 
 Bradford left, he kissed them both with his old 
 tender admiration, and, happily, was not con- 
 scious that Jack was a trifle offended at the 
 elder brother's air, the tolerance and jocularity 
 of his brother. 
 
 " I think Virginia has spoiled Marius," he 
 said confidentially to Carrie ; and Carrie said, 
 with a toss of her pretty head, " It is to be 
 plainly seen that he is only your half-brother, 
 dear Jack. You are so superior to him every 
 way." And of course Jack believed his wife; 
 what men do not, when their wives speak com 
 fortable things? 
 
 " Isn't he set up?" asked Marius. " Did you 
 ever see such a young prince ? He thinks the 
 world was made for him." 
 
 " I think he is very disagreeable," answered 
 Virginia. " He was really selfish, Marius al 
 most rude. Joy should not make people selfish."
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 315 
 
 The Major smiled as he gave his opinioa 
 "Jack has a great deal to say about himself 
 and his wife, his business, his opinions, and his 
 friends. It is said that twelve bells afford scope 
 for nearly five hundred million permutations. 
 Jack's Ego has at least twelve bells." 
 
 The little chaffing about Jack's marriage 
 brought on a serious discussion relating to the 
 marriage of Virginia and Marius, and it was 
 finally agreed to celebrate it during the spring 
 visit of Marius to New York "April or May, 
 as it happens," said the Major. 
 
 " April, if the wind goes with my hopes and 
 longings, Major." 
 
 The next day Mr. Keteltas called very early 
 in the morning. They were eating breakfast, 
 and he seemed glad of the delicious cup of cof 
 fee Virginia placed at his side. " I have little 
 comfort in eating now, my dear, I am so lonely. 
 Harry has gone, too." 
 
 "Gone?" 
 
 " Off to Texas, my dear. The country has 
 gone mad on the subject, I think. You should 
 have seen the young fellows leaving two hun< 
 clred and forty of them all full of hope and 
 spirit. And the crowds that cheered them ! 
 And the cries for Houston and Crockett and 
 Jackson ! I was almost carried away with the 
 shouts. A few hundred Americans fighting for 
 their rights and liberty the whole power of 
 Mexico! It looks like a grand fight. Major!
 
 31 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 If I were only a young man, I too would gladly 
 shoulder a musket behind Sam Houston." 
 
 " A few against a many always touches a 
 noble heart ; and when that handful of men 
 are Americans our own brothers in race and 
 feeling well, it is right, it is good, to go and 
 help them. I am sure Harry did well. I 
 would have gone with him, too if I were only 
 twenty years younger." 
 
 " Give me leave to say that I almost forgot 
 that I was near sixty. When Harry, with his 
 bright face and cheery voice, shouted from the 
 deck, ' Hurrah for Liberty and Houston ! 
 Come along, father ! we want you too ! ' I 
 thind, Major, I really think I would have taken 
 the boy's invitation if some one had not just 
 at that moment hurrahed for Jackson too. I 
 hesitated at that cry, and at the moment the 
 ship was loosed, and off she went, and so saved 
 me from making an old fool of myself. It was 
 railways and real estate when you went away ; 
 it is Texas and Abolition now." 
 
 " Where will they end ? " 
 
 " Texas will end in the independence of a 
 great province; anon, the province will be in the 
 Union. That is the stake Jackson and Hous 
 ton are playing for. Abolition may end in 
 civil war, in horrors unmentionable. The State 
 of Mississippi has just offered five thousand 
 dollars for the delivery of any person buying 
 or sending within her borders Garrison's fire-
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 31 7 
 
 brand of a sheet, or any other abolition paper. 
 1 do not blame them much, and yet, when I 
 read Jane's letters, they make me shiver." 
 
 " When did you hear last from her ? " 
 
 " About a week since. Harry is going to see 
 her. I want to know the truth. I have just 
 come back from Boston." 
 
 " Boston?" 
 
 " Yes, my dear. Harry has talked me into 
 a fever of patriotism, I think, and when I had 
 an invitation to the Concord Jubilee I took 
 myself to Concord I and Deacon Sears. A 
 very solemn, noble celebration, and I heard a 
 young clergyman speak there, of whom, I take 
 leave to say, we shall all hear very soon the 
 Rev. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a fine young man 
 indeed." 
 
 "Who else of note was present ?" 
 
 " Well, Major, the greatest of all there, I 
 take it, were ten old gentlemen who had fought 
 in the battle of Concord. I think it an honor 
 to have shaken hands with them. Yes, I am 
 pleased I went ; for an odd time, it was better 
 than the Exchange. When did you hear from 
 Jane, my dear?" he said, turning to Virginia; 
 " let me know the truth of all she tells you." 
 
 " You can rely upon Harry, sir. He would 
 have sharp eyes for anything troubling his 
 sister." 
 
 " If Harry goes there he said he would 
 but young men with a rifle in their hand, and a
 
 3I 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 fight before them ! My dear, you cannot be 
 their surety. No, no." 
 
 Yet at that very hour Harry was sitting by 
 his sister's side, trying to discover the secrei 
 of her faded beauty, and the haunting look of 
 trouble in her once bright eyes. She had come 
 down to him on the previous evening as Nigel 
 had begged her to do "like a happy wife"; 
 and the first hours of their meeting had been 
 so full of question and answer, and of merry 
 interchange of talk, that Harry was quite satis 
 fied with the domestic happiness of his sister. 
 The first doubt came later on, when Jane, hav 
 ing exhausted her inquiries about Virginia's 
 regular life, suddenly asked : " Has she any 
 new lover ? or is Van Buren still hoping and 
 waiting? " 
 
 " I hardly know how to answer you, Jane. 
 A certain sea captain has been there a great 
 deal this past year, and the Major and Virginia 
 went to England in his ship last May. They 
 were still away as I have told you when I 
 left." 
 
 Jane's rapid mind instantly divined the truth, 
 and she endeavored to turn the subject at once. 
 Nigel would not permit it. His face was black 
 with suspicion, and he glanced with cruel 
 meaning at his wife, as he said to Harry : 
 
 " The master of the * Arethusa,' I suppose- 
 Captain Bradford ? " 
 
 " Yes, that is the name of the man, and the
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 3*9 
 
 ship also. I was on the point of remembering 
 them." 
 
 " I am not likely to forget them the very 
 scoundrel who ran off two of my slaves. Miss 
 Mason's lover ! Oh, I begin to see daylight 
 now ! " 
 
 Jane was sick at heart ; she pretended to 
 hear her baby crying, and left the room. She 
 was wringing her small hands despairingly as 
 she trailed her heavy feet and heart up-stairs. 
 The child was asleep in its cradle. Palma lay 
 vipon the floor at its side. She also was asleep. 
 Jane sat down and tried to think. Was it 
 worth while to lie the suspicion away ? Had 
 she not better tell Harry the truth? It 
 seemed a hopeless task to combat, or even 
 to endure, the horror of sin and cruelty which 
 gathered like dense clouds above and around 
 her. And the great horror was the bringing of 
 her child up in such an atmosphere. He 
 might grow like his surroundings. How could 
 she train him differently -without setting him 
 at variance with all he ought to love? Any 
 mother has only to put herself in Jane's place 
 to understand how this sore straight between 
 her husband and her child, her conscience and 
 her happiness, tore the poor loving, fearing, 
 upright heart with cruel and ever-deepening 
 lacerations. 
 
 She could come to no conclusion, and she 
 did not dare to delay ; she must go down again,
 
 3^0 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 and hide, as well as she was able, the \\rong 
 nd the indignation that made her inner self 
 burn and throb and resent the bonds of con- 
 ventional deception by which it was bound. 
 F"or it is in such hours as these we understand 
 fully the duality of our nature the outer and 
 the inner personality. The outer and fleshly 
 Jane was busied with the cares of the hostess; 
 she was ordering the supper table; she was 
 singing a song; she was adding to the con 
 versation a jest or a query. The inner and 
 nobler Jane was living over again that shame 
 ful scene in the cabin ; was really sick with the 
 shambles-like tainted air ; really shivering at 
 the sound of the lash and the cry; really burn 
 ing with wrong and indignation in the memory 
 of that terrible walk from the penal pen to the 
 house ; conscious yet of the silent, angry man 
 at her side; the awful gloom of the shadowing 
 trees the whir of invisible wings round her, 
 and the demoniac croaks and calls and whis 
 perings of the night birds and insects; evil 
 legions of darkness, hurting and defiling and 
 penetrating everywhere. 
 
 And the two women in one suffered and 
 smiled through four long hours. Then the 
 ordeal was over, and in the secrecy of her 
 room Jane dropped the fleshly veil, and gave 
 her nobler self a sufficient audience. In the 
 morning the duel was renewed ; " for the cor 
 ruptible body presseth down the soul, and the
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 321 
 
 earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind 
 that museth upon many things."* As she 
 bathed and combed out her long hair, and 
 dressed herself with a conscious desire to look 
 handsome, she was arguing one of the greatest 
 questions that troubles the heart of woman- 
 are the rights of Love above those of Truth 
 and Justice and Human Kindness? Should 
 she stand by Nigel in all that was cruel and 
 cowardly, through all the injustice of slavery, 
 counting the marriage obligation above all 
 moral ones? One Jane said "yes"; the other 
 Jane said a positive "no," enforcing the order 
 with a terrible penalty for its transgression 
 " for if thou sow upon the furrows of unright 
 eousness, thou shalt reap them sevenfold." 
 
 The wisest little treatise that ever man wrote 
 Ecclesiasticus was at her side, for it was 
 John Paul's counselor, and he had given a copy 
 of it to Jane as a marriage gift, saying, as he 
 put it into her hand : 
 
 " Ask of it in every perplexity, my little 
 Jane ; it will give you good counsel in all the 
 straits of life. It is better than your father, 
 for its wisdom is not weakened by earthly love, 
 nor swayed by worldly interest." 
 
 She had almost superstitious regard for its 
 oracles ; she feared to disobey them ; and there 
 fore, when she was determined to take her own 
 
 * Wisdom of Solomon, ix. 15.
 
 322 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 way, she did not inquire of them. This morn 
 ing, however, at the last moment, when the 
 servant had called her to breakfast, when she 
 was at the door of her room, she turned back 
 and opened the book : " Constantly enditre 
 and make not liaste in the time of trouble." 
 
 The verse pleased her, it gave her time ; she 
 put resolutely down all other thought but that 
 of delay; she was deaf to the sorrowful and in 
 dignant intercession going on in a sub-con 
 scious way, while she laughed and talked with 
 Harry, and kept intact that marital neutrality 
 which she had promised Nigel to observe. But 
 Harry during the night had reflected on many 
 little looks and words, and also on the omission 
 of many small marks of affection he might 
 reasonably have expected to witness between 
 his sister and her husband. The true Jane 
 troubled the eyes that looked at him, and 
 gave unconscious sadness to her voice, and 
 little indecisions to her manners which were 
 pathetic. 
 
 But the boat had only stopped at Memphis 
 to collect recruits, and these were to be on 
 board at the noon hour, and he had np time to 
 raise questions that could not be settled. If 
 Jane made no complaints, and he saw nothing 
 unkind in her treatment, it did not seem right 
 to ask questions which might raise doubts yet 
 latent. After all, Harry did not want to be de 
 layed ; he was sure of that, and it was so strong
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 3 2 3 
 
 a certainty that it permitted no uncertainty a 
 hearing. 
 
 So during his stay the decencies of domestic 
 life had a full observance. Nigel went to the 
 boat to see the gay, gallant troop of young 
 paladins sail southward, amid the shouts and 
 cheers of the thousands lining the high bluffs. 
 They were later than had been expected, and 
 Nigel did not then return home. He called on 
 the Pagets first, and had a cup of coffee, and 
 heard a new, marvelous story of abolition 
 doings on a neighboring plantation, and read 
 aloud a copy of the " Liberator " that had been 
 found in a room of the hotel ; and so lingered 
 away the hours, that it was nearly dusk when 
 he reached home. 
 
 Jane heard him coming. She had determined 
 to meet him pleasantly and ignore the trouble 
 entirely which she had agreed to ignore tem 
 porarily. When he opened the door, she turned 
 her head with a smile to greet him. " I am 
 so glad to see you, Nigel. Has Harry gone ? 
 How many recruits did they get in Memphis ? " 
 
 He treated her as if she was not there as if 
 she did not exist. He was deaf to her words. 
 He looked at her where she stood, all eager 
 and smiling, as if he looked into empty space. 
 Then she humbled herself and said : " I am 
 sorry I grieved you, Nigel." 
 
 He took the " Liberator " from his pocket, 
 and began to read, and then tear, as he read,
 
 324 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 every paragraph into shreds, and slowly burn 
 them. 
 
 " Nigel ! Will you not speak to me ? " 
 
 He was as one quite alone. Except as an 
 object to torture, his wife did not exist for him. 
 
 " I have served your purpose, I see, Nigel. 
 Harry has gone I have no one to appeal to ; 
 and you are so used to cruelty and deception 
 that you have no honor, and no shame in 
 dishonor left. This is Southern chivalry, in 
 deed ! " 
 
 He began to sing some silly, love-sick pas 
 sages that Miss Imogene generally warbled for 
 his delectation a song that he knew Jane par 
 ticularly hated, because she had watched its 
 translation by the two who affected it. She 
 left the room then, and went to the nursery. 
 But she had no heart even for her baby. She 
 sat down by the closed window, and looked 
 with a stern, melancholy face into the melan 
 choly garden. 
 
 A woodpecker was calling rain with an im 
 patient Plieu ! Plieu ! He was sitting on a 
 tree close by the window; he seemed almost 
 to be speaking to her. The Roman augurs 
 thought the call one of disaster ; Jane, without 
 knowing this, grew angry at the bird's persist 
 ent cry. She did not know that woodpeckers 
 work frequently into the night ; that the sav 
 age, indefatigable pickax of a bill was interro- 
 
 o ' *r> i 
 
 gating the tree for voids ; she thought there
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 325 
 
 was something sinister in the bird ; and she 
 rose with such an impatient movement of her 
 chair th"at it awakened little Paul, and he 
 began to cry loudly. 
 
 Nigel came into the room scolding at the 
 uproar. " There is no peace in this house," he 
 cried. He took the child from Palma's arms, 
 and, as it would not cease at his order, he 
 struck it. Then the mother interfered. There 
 was a cruel scene, which left Jane flaming with 
 anger, and little Paul sobbing with terror and 
 pain. Thus the thin veil of domestic respect 
 was rent from the face of domestic wrong antf 
 quarreling. After this exhibition of temper,, 
 Nigel cared no more to hide his disapproval ofc 
 his wife or his disagreements with her. He 
 seemed rather to take a pleasure in mortifying 
 her before her slaves. And they covertly hon 
 ored and pitied her; they knew she was suffer 
 ing for their sake. 
 
 A loving woman feels less the death of her 
 husband than the slow decay of his affection, 
 with its tantalizing quickenings and returns, 
 and its hopeless chills and relapses. During 
 the next three months Jane suffered continu 
 ally from wrongs whose pettiness increased her 
 suffering. She was attacked through her sec 
 tional prejudices. Beauty, manners, opinions, 
 in exact opposition to her own, were publicly 
 as well as privately admired. She was accused 
 of morbid ill-temper, of passionate outbreaks ;
 
 326 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 she was said to be an Abolitionist, to have con- 
 sequently given up going to church, and to be 
 perfectly irreligious. 
 
 Day after day, week after week, the trial 
 went on ; grew more bitter and more hopeless. 
 Nigel stayed longer and longer from his home, 
 and the intervals between their disputes grew 
 shorter and shorter, their reconciliations less and 
 less affectionate. But the discipline strength 
 ened and deepened Jane's character, and the 
 piety that had been a holy form, lived and 
 breathed in all her thoughts and feelings. She 
 had received a Word in her heart, " Strive for 
 the truth unto Death " ; and she was ready to 
 trust Him who is " a God of the afflicted ; an 
 helper of the oppressed ; an upholder of the 
 weak ; a protector of the forlorn ; a savior of 
 them that are without hope." * 
 
 Still she could do nothing to hurry events. 
 She felt that ere she took another decided step 
 she must be sure that it was on the right road. 
 She did not always hold herself blameless 
 about the saving of Palma's brothers. True, 
 there was absolutely no other way to rescue 
 the boys. She was sure that any appeal to 
 Nigel would have been worse than useless ; 
 and yet perhaps she ought to have made that 
 appeal. The thought that she had been in a 
 measure a traitor to her husband made her 
 
 * Judith, ix. II.
 
 A TRIP TO ENGLAND. 32? 
 
 patient many times when she would otherwise 
 have been beyond speaking to. 
 
 At the time she thought she did a good deal ; 
 she had a doubt about it sometimes when it 
 was too late to undo it. Surely it was a hard 
 strait for any wife. Who would dare to put 
 themselves in Jane's place, and say, " I would 
 have stood by my husband and let the boys 
 have gone into slavery. I would have remem 
 bered his happiness, and put from me all care 
 of their physical suffering and moral degrada 
 tion. I would have kept my home happy, 
 though they had died in pestilential bayous, or 
 burnt up with fevers, or perished under the 
 lash, or fretted their life out in the shame and 
 horror and wrong of their position ? " 
 
 But sorrowful as the weeks following Harry's 
 visit were, Jane grew in them to a nobler 
 stature than joy would ever have granted her. 
 For happiness diffuses and dissipates our finer 
 qualities, our most subtle excellencies ; but sor 
 row brings us all back to our central being, 
 limits the overflowing of life, and makes what 
 remains stronger, finer, richer. Jane was now 
 approaching the hour which was to test the 
 work of sorrow, and she was ready to meet it.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 FIRE! 
 
 " Threatening comets, when by night they rise, 
 Shoot sanguine streams, and sadden all the skies." 
 
 Dryden, 
 
 " If in some town a fire breaks out by chance, 
 The impetuous flames with lawless power advance ; 
 On ruddy wings the bright destruction flies, 
 Followed with ruin and amazing cries. 
 The flaky plague spreads swiftly with the wind, 
 And ghastly desolation howls behind." 
 
 Blackmore. 
 
 " And all that is befallen is done unto us for our wicked 
 works and great sins." 1 Esdras, viii. 86. 
 
 DURING these sad weeks in the which Jane 
 was growing through suffering to strength. 
 Virginia was resting her heart in the full measure 
 of contented and hopeful love. The bright 
 October days brought with them many outside 
 interests for the Major. The county was al 
 ready agitating the question of the next Presi 
 dent, and an Abolition Convention, appointed 
 to meet at Utica, was regarded with extreme 
 uneasiness and disapprobation. Gambling in 
 stocks was becoming an almost legitimate busi 
 ness ; and sudden reverses of fortune and dis 
 honorable appropriations of money followed 
 each other so quickly that the event of Monday 
 328
 
 FIRE r 3 2 9 
 
 was forgotten in the event of Tuesday. Men 
 had caught the fever of money-making ; they 
 were hastening to be rich, and ceasing to be 
 innocent and honorable in the unholy struggle. 
 
 But these things touched Virginia only on 
 the outside. She sat through the charming- 
 weather nearly all day long with some sewing 
 in her hand, her heart full of happy dreams, 
 her loving thoughts flying over the sea with 
 Marius. Sometimes the Major had a little 
 spasm of jealousy at her intentness of personal 
 meditation, at her privacy of happiness. He 
 had grown accustomed to come to her for 
 sympathy in all matters that touched his own 
 likings or dislikings ; and he fancied that he 
 missed somewhat of her usual ready response. 
 And he did miss it ; for it is certain that four 
 eyes see better than two eyes, earth at its 
 fairest and broadest, and heaven at its nearest; 
 so that if Virginia would not see with him, he 
 lost the illumination of her view ; the pleasant 
 womanly side-lights that stimulated his own 
 clearer vision. 
 
 He reflected with a sigh that she seemed to 
 care very little about the Utica meeting, and 
 he wondered vaguely how it was she should 
 have been so extremely enthusiastic concern 
 ing the Forfar boys, and then declare she was 
 glad when the people of Utica stopped Lewis 
 Tappan in the middle of his red-hot speech, 
 broke up the Convention, and compelled its
 
 33 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 members to leave the city. " They ought to 
 mind their own business," she said fretfully. 
 " I am sure we have all plenty to do, without 
 lifting burdens not meant for us." 
 
 The Presidential election was no more in. 
 teresting to her. The Major wanted to talk 
 about the chances of Mr. Webster and General 
 Harrison, and she listened without interest. 
 " Mr. Webster is such a grand-looking man, 
 I think he ought to be president," she said; 
 and then, perceiving that her father waited for 
 some further expression of her views, she asked, 
 with an affected concern : 
 
 " Who is General Harrison ? Have I ever 
 seen him ? I do not think I have ever heard 
 of him." 
 
 " He was commanding general in the battle 
 of the Thames." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! that Indian battle in which poor 
 brave Tecumseh was killed ; that is more 
 than twenty years ago." 
 
 " It is never too late to honor the brave, 
 Virginia." 
 
 " No. Poor Tecumseh ! I heard Mr. Ketel- 
 tas say that Harrison did not kill the Indian 
 chief ; he said it was a man called Johnson." 
 
 " I believe it is doubtful." 
 
 " But, then, it is not an honor that any one 
 need covet. Brave men are gentle men, and I 
 should say there was very little credit in kill 
 ing that unfortunate Indian chief."
 
 FIRE r 331 
 
 " I do not think you take much interest in 
 anything now, Virginia." 
 
 " But I do, father, just as much as ever. 
 Who will you vote for ? General Harrison ? " 
 
 " If you would only give me a moment's 
 thought, Virginia, you would know that I 
 should not vote for General Harrison." 
 
 Then Virginia blushed and put down her 
 work, and tried by an excessive attention to 
 atone for her want of interest in Mr. Webster 
 and General Harrison. 
 
 Something of the same kind occurred nearly 
 every day. Virginia had, in fact, an absorbing 
 affection for Marius, and if she was not con 
 stantly striving against its dominating power, 
 all other interests were lost in it. 
 
 One memorable night in December they were 
 sitting together. The weather was intensely, 
 cruelly cold, and Virginia was glad to be as 
 close to the fire as possible. Marius had just 
 left New York. If all was well he would be 
 back in February ; then the arrangements for 
 their marriage were to be decided upon. All 
 would be ready for April or May, and Virginia 
 felt sure winds and waves would go with love, 
 and bring the " Arethusa " to anchor in April. 
 
 She was thinking of all the pretty garments 
 she had made; thinking of the girls she would 
 ask to be her bridemaids ; thinking of the 
 sweet details which would make the ceremony 
 what she was determined it should be a
 
 33 2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 ering of all that was lovely and honorable ; that 
 so she might signify to every one her pride in 
 her chosen husband, her sense of his perfect 
 equality, and her intention to exact all suitable 
 respect for him. 
 
 The Major was reading a newspaper. He 
 had been grumbling all week at Governor Mc- 
 Duffie's message to the South Carolina Legis 
 lature ; for in it he had not only glorified 
 slavery that the Major would have smiled at 
 but he had asserted that " slavery was the 
 corner-stone of our republican edifice." The 
 whole North had protested against such a 
 claim ; the papers were full of the most indig 
 nant denials. Suddenly he shook his " Courier" 
 with a triumphant little flutter. " Listen to 
 this, Virginia, and then try and fit it to worthy 
 music. I shall enjoy hearing Marius roll it out, 
 as if he meant every one to hear it from stern 
 to bow." 
 
 " What is it, father? Some song for ' Jack 
 son, ho ' ? " 
 
 " No, Miss, it is not. It is an answer to 
 McDuffie's shameful statement that slavery is 
 the soul of our Republic : 
 
 " ' Its life ! its soul ! from slavery drawn ? 
 
 Foul, false, profane ! Go teach as well 
 That holy Truth's from falsehood born. 
 Or heaven refreshed by airs from hell. 
 
 " ' Rail on ! brethren of the South ! 
 
 You shall not hear a truth the les$.
 
 FIRE ! 333 
 
 No seal is on the Yankee's mouth, 
 No fetter on the Yankee press. 
 From our Green Mountains to the sea, 
 One voice shall thunder We are free ! ' " 
 
 " It is very good, father, and I suppose it 
 speaks for the general public. I know it speaks 
 for Marius, and I am sure he will sing it well." 
 
 Then there was another silence, and when the 
 Major spoke again it was on a very different 
 subject. "Virginia, do you remember how 
 Halley's comet looked?" 
 
 " I did not look at it, father. I have the 
 greatest objection to a comet. I would not 
 let my eyes catch its malevolent influence ; so 
 I cannot tell you how this year's visitor ap 
 peared to me. Why do you ask?" 
 
 "Only, some one is describing it here as 
 ' splendoring the night from horizon to horizon ; 
 marching in glory through the constellations,' 
 etc., etc., while in reality unless my eyes were 
 wrong it was wan and dim, and had a melan 
 choly radiance, that produced an indescribable 
 sadness. I saw it in Edinburgh through a 
 large telescope ; and that fine man, Professor 
 Wilson, and a rough, jocular, poetical genius 
 called Hogg, were with me. It impressed both 
 of them also in the same manner; it was really 
 a bluish, vague, leaden light, unlike the light 
 of either sun, moon, or star." 
 
 " I hold, with Milton, that comets shake 
 plagues and sorrows from their 'horrid hair! '
 
 334 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 What is that noise ? A bell ? The bell of 
 the old Dutch Church ! But it is like a bell 
 gone mad." 
 
 There was a moment's silence, followed by a 
 clash of bells and an indescribable sense of 
 tumult in the air above, and then by a gath 
 ering tumult in the city below them. Men 
 began to run pell-mell down the snow-bound 
 street, shrieking "Fire!" as they went. The 
 noise of the engines flying to the scene of 
 disaster, followed by excited citizens, was 
 heard with terrible meaning in the clear, 
 frosty atmosphere. The Major looked at his 
 watch. " It is only eight o'clock, Virginia. I 
 wonder if 
 
 " Father, if it was only noon, you ought not 
 to go out. It is really tempestuous weather, 
 and the thermometer is far below zero. You 
 can be of no use." 
 
 The Major knew his inability well, but he 
 felt it hard to submit to reason. For with 
 every moment the excitement increased. Very 
 soon the whole city was lit by the spreading 
 flames. The shouts of the firemen ; the shriek 
 ing of women and children ; the hoarse calls 
 of thousands fighting the flames, shouting for 
 water, shouting for help ; the rushing of horses 
 and wagons; the clamor of a hundred church 
 bells; the ever-nearing, ever-spreading fire, 
 lighting in lurid colors the streets, the river, the 
 raving citizens, and the moored silent shipping
 
 FIRE ! 335 
 
 made a terrible and not to be resisted excite 
 ment. 
 
 Virginia wandered from window to window. 
 The Major, having put his gold and papers into 
 a portable shape, shared her agonizing restless 
 ness. John Thomas, who happened to be in 
 the kitchen with Nelly, was sent out for news, 
 and came back nearly speechless with horror. 
 The lower part of the city was a sea of fire, and 
 men had gone all but mad with fright. No one 
 thought of sleep. The hours passed in incon 
 ceivable anxiety, and about midnight there 
 were constant and awful explosions. " They 
 are blowing up buildings ! " said the Major, 
 drawing his lips tight, and quite unconscious 
 that tears were rolling down his face. Soon 
 afterward Mr. Keteltas came. " Let me in, 
 friends," he said, "and get me a cup of coffee, 
 Virginia. I was forced to come to you, I could 
 bear it no longer alone." 
 
 The Major clasped his hand and Virginia had 
 the fires replenished, and helped Nelly to make 
 strong coffee for all to drink. " New York is 
 a bankrupt city to-night, Major. She is put 
 back twenty-five years by this calamity." 
 
 " I think not, Mr. Keteltas." 
 
 " And Boston and Philadelphia will get 
 ahead of us, Major." 
 
 " Not they." 
 
 " Now let President Jackson out with the 
 surplus millions. If he is a man at all, he will
 
 33 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 send the money at once to rebuild our dear, 
 beautiful city. We paid it to the govern- 
 ment most of it ; let us have it back ; we are 
 ruined, bankrupt ! Oh, New York! New York! 
 I would have given every house I have to the 
 flames, to have saved the rest. I would indeed ! 
 I am an old man I would have given my own 
 life." 
 
 " Come, come, Mr. Keteltas ; you will live to 
 see New York rise up fairer and fresher than 
 ever from her lustration by fire. A year will 
 put all better than it was." 
 
 " How can it be better? All the beautiful 
 streets, the grand warehouses, the noble public 
 buildings and churches ! Oh, what a calamity ! 
 What a ruinous calamity ! We will have a 
 right searching into it. I would not wonder if 
 politics are at the bottom of it or the Aboli 
 tionists. Why did they not let them have 
 their shriek out at Utica? Do you know that 
 every insurance office in New York refused to 
 insure Arthur Tappan ? He had to go to Boston 
 for insurance. I do not approve of such 
 bigotry. It is not like New York. It brings 
 ruin. Oh, the dreadful cold, and the ice on the 
 river so hard they could drive a wagon on it 
 yesterday ! How will the firemen get water ? 
 Listen ! They are using gunpowder again ! 
 God help us ! God help us ! " 
 
 At length the late, gray dawn broke over the 
 burnt city. Keteltas could no longer be re-
 
 FIRE I 337 
 
 strained. He was determined to go down the 
 street and find out what damage had been done. 
 The Major went with him. They returned very 
 shortly. There was a chain of marines from the 
 Navy Yard around the burnt precinct. No 
 one was calm enough to tell a sensible story. 
 But they saw the firemen dragging their en 
 gines home, many of them dead asleep with 
 exhaustion, others pulling unconsciously, and 
 ready to drop on the street. 
 
 Mr. Keteltas had his breakfast with the 
 Masons, and then pushed his way down town. 
 He had much property in the burnt district, 
 and he was not so hopeless of it as he had been 
 while the fire was raging. " There is nothing 
 for ill-luck but mending it," he said ; " we must 
 even go to building again." He promised to 
 return for dinner, and he was most eagerly 
 looked for. 
 
 " It is worse than our worst fears, Major," 
 he said, as he tucked a napkin into his vest 
 and looked approvingly at his soup. " As I 
 said, the river was frozen ; the ice was to cut 
 before any water could be got. Finally some 
 of the engines were lowered to the ice and 
 worked there. Will you imagine that ? In 
 Hanover Square there was a mountain, sixty 
 feet wide and thirty feet high, of silks, satins, 
 laces, cashmere shawls, and rich India goods. 
 They were thought at midnight to be quite safe 
 there ; an hour afterward thrv were in ashes
 
 33 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 with such amazing swiftness spread the fire 
 Half the First Ward is burnt up. Seven hun- 
 dred stores are gone. Forty millions of goods, 
 at a rough estimation." 
 
 " Where did the fire begin ? " 
 
 " In Merchant Street a bad place, narrow 
 and crooked, filled with high stores and dry 
 goods ; then to Pearl Street, on to Coenties 
 Slip, Wall Street down to the river, including 
 all South Street, Water Street, Exchange 
 Street, Post's stores, Lord's Row, William, 
 Beaver, and Stone Streets all gone ! The 
 Merchants' Exchange is a heap of ruins. Mr. 
 Schermerhorn told me the firemen became ex 
 hausted, the citizens despairing and apathetic, 
 the lower orders were mad with drink, and 
 total destruction seemed inevitable, when Cap 
 tain Nix with a body of marines from the Navy 
 Yard appeared." 
 
 Virginia's face lightened at the mention of 
 the marines, and she asked, " How did these 
 men, accustomed to the sea, fight fire ?" 
 
 "They did it as only men accustomed to 
 danger and well disciplined could do it. Mr. 
 Schermerhorn said their very appearance in 
 spired confidence and hope, and set good men 
 to work once more. Each marine carried in 
 his hands a small barrel of gunpowder, and 
 they followed their officers through the shower 
 of fire and sparks as calm and orderly as if they 
 were going to drill. Captain Nix walked in
 
 FIRE ! 339 
 
 front of them and pointed out the houses 
 necessary to be blown up ; and the men, led by 
 the lieutenants, did the work with the greatest 
 coolness and rapidity." 
 
 " The dear, brave fellows ! " 
 
 " Yes, my dear, they were brave. It takes 
 brave men to carry gunpowder through a 
 shower of burning debris ; and I take leave to 
 say few would have dared it. Captain Nix 
 deserves great praise." 
 
 " Every man with him deserves equal 
 praise," said the Major. " It was a noble 
 deed." 
 
 " The sea breeds heroes, father. Men who 
 live with danger and neighbor to death must 
 have stout hearts." 
 
 "They blew up one of my own buildings, 
 Major worth thirty thousand dollars. It gave 
 me a pang at my heart to see its skeleton 
 standing black and bare. But I complain not. 
 There are twenty thousand people out of work ; 
 crowds of both sexes are wandering in the 
 streets ; the cold is terrible, and they do not 
 seem to notice it. Many look demented." 
 
 " How did you get around ? " 
 
 " I do not know. I went into places and 
 over places I would not put foot into if I was 
 in my sober senses. I did not feel myself at 
 all that is the truth." 
 
 " It must be an awful scene, Mr. Keteltas ! " 
 
 " It is, Major. The streets are full of hot
 
 34 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 bricks and of burning goods. Boxes, bales, 
 desks, safes, papers, furniture are scattered ev 
 erywhere. United States soldiers are keeping 
 what guard they can ; but men, women, and 
 boys are stealing on all hands. The heat is infer 
 nal ; the cold is infernal. I saw crowds warming 
 themselves by fires made from India silks and 
 Irish linens. I saw a great mound of Hyson 
 tea burning. I saw hogsheads of sugar strewed 
 about, and people carrying it off in baskets. 
 The sidewalks on the Bowling Green hold a 
 million dollars worth of fine goods the owners 
 and their clerks are keeping guard over them, 
 and half frozen at their posts. Whitehall Slip 
 is piled with silks, sarsnets, and brocades. Some 
 of the richest families in New York have lost 
 all they had ; and I heard a class of foreign 
 scoundrels openly rejoicing over it. They were 
 prowling about the ruins, drunk with the liquor 
 they had stolen from the wharves, and telling 
 each other : ' This will make the aristocracy 
 haul in their horns ! they will make no more 
 five per cent, dividends ' miserable, ungrateful 
 wretches ! Did you hear the bell of the old 
 Dutch Church ring when the fire broke out?" 
 
 " Indeed we did, Mr. Keteltas," said Virginia. 
 " It was the most frantic cry that ever came 
 from a bell's mouth. Surely no mortal hand 
 rang that bell ; for cities have their guardian 
 angels, as well as men and women." 
 
 " Something like that everybody is saying
 
 FIRE! 341 
 
 The sexton declares when he went to the door 
 the bell was swinging like mad, and the door 
 locked and no one in the church. Dr. Mat 
 thews also told me a very singular thing. He 
 went to his fine church in Garden Street ; the 
 fire was all around it, and some one began to 
 play a dirge upon the organ the grandest mu 
 sic ever mortal ears heard. It began as the 
 fire struck the church, and lasted until the lofty 
 ceiling was all in a blaze. He says hundreds 
 heard the music. I know not what to think, 
 nor how to believe such things. ' 
 
 " In hours of such supreme feeling, may we 
 71 ot drop something of the flesh, may not spirit 
 ual senses, which we certainly possess, assert 
 themselves ? You admit that you walked to 
 day where in your ordinary state you would 
 not dare to put a foot. When the spiritual 
 hearing is opened, then spiritual sounds can be 
 discerned. Also, angels bent on succor may 
 need the help of numbers, or of inherent power ; 
 even as mortals do, and the cry of the bell may 
 have reached further than we can guess of." 
 
 " Of such questions I know nothing, Major ;' 
 no, nor does any other man but what think 
 you? Arthur Tappan escaped the general 
 ruin. After the sacking of his house last year 
 he built his store of stone, and covered every 
 window with boiler iron. It stood the fire for 
 more than an hour while everything was blaz 
 ing around it; and all his books, papers, and
 
 34 2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 one hundred thousand dollars' worth of rich 
 goods were removed by the blacks, who went 
 in a body to his help, and showed a pluck and 
 daring that was tremendous." 
 
 " I am glad to hear it ! A work of gratitude 
 like that makes my heart thrill. I call such 
 men brothers, whether they be black or white." 
 
 " The Chamber of Commerce has lost its 
 Charter the immense document, covered with 
 seals and ribbons, given to it by King George 
 the Third. Really, I am getting warm again. 
 The cold is frightful ; men are going about 
 with icicles hanging from their beards and 
 clothing, and their hair is stiff with frozen vapor. 
 Such a scene of desolation ! Such suffering! 
 Such ruin ! Many a man's life-labor gone in 
 an hour; thousands without shelter or daily 
 bread ! I must go home and rest now. To 
 morrow there will be work enough for all true 
 hearts and strong hands." 
 
 " Stay here, Mr. Keteltas." 
 
 " No, thank you, Major. I have to look over 
 my papers. I want to certify myself what I 
 'have really lost, and I want to write to Jane 
 and Harry." 
 
 The letter to his daughter John Paul wrote 
 before he slept. It was the expression, not 
 only of his own great losses, but the forcible 
 picture of the awful ruin and suffering of his 
 dear native city. He told it all to Jane ; he 
 told her how lonely he was ; how he longed to
 
 FIRE t 343 
 
 see her ; how he loved his little grandson. He 
 begged her to try and visit him soon ; he laid 
 upon the white sheet the outward symbols of 
 his affectionate, solitary spirit. 
 
 This message of love and sorrow did not 
 reach Memphis until after the New Year. 
 Jane had just received a glowing letter from 
 her brother Harry, describing that miraculous 
 assault of Milan against the old Spanish 
 Alamo. 
 
 "We are in possession of San Antonio! 
 Hurrah ! Two hundred Americans have taken 
 the city ! Hurrah ! I wish you could have 
 seen Milan leading us. I wish you could have 
 seen those Texans picking off the men with 
 their rifles, and never missing one shot in a 
 thousand. It was glorious, Jane ! This is life, 
 Jane ! Freedom ! Freedom ! Freedom ! Ring 
 the bells merrily with us, Jane : 
 
 " ' Tol de rol, tol de rol, tol de rol ! 
 The Texans have taken the Alamo ! 
 
 Alamo ! Alamo ! Alamo ! 
 The Texans have taken the Alamo ! 
 Tol de rol, tol de rol, tol de rol ! ' ' 
 
 For a couple of pages Harry thus expressed 
 his enthusiasm in the fight: his delight in the 
 exquisite land ; his wonder at its fertility; his 
 infatuation with the beautiful black-eyed sefio- 
 ritas ; his contempt for the effeminate, dazzlingly 
 dressed seflors. It was a letter of exclamations 
 and adjectives and inexpressible delights.
 
 344 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Nigel was charmed with it. He began to 
 feel the latent passion in his own blood. He 
 was holding his head an inch higher as he rode 
 into Memphis with the blazing little sheet in 
 his pocket. He read it there to constantly 
 gathering groups in Tobin's store. He sent 
 many a man away to buy a new rifle and take 
 a ticket for the Texas coast. The instinct 
 of liberty which, to the Anglo-Saxon and 
 Anglo-American, means dominance put un 
 der it all smaller passions. For a few hours 
 he despised the trifling wrongs he had been 
 nursing the petty thefts of his slaves, the 
 provoking, independent ways of his wife, the 
 innuendoes of his neighbors they all crept 
 into the dark corners of his heart, and he 
 could only see that handful of Americans 
 marching to liberty and conquest, defying 
 armies with their never-fail rifles and their 
 never-doubt courage. He was thinking O f 
 that gay paladin Milan and of the knightly 
 Sam Houston, and for a few hours he forgot 
 that his corn-crib had been robbed, that his 
 cotton had been undersold, and that young 
 Desart was taking his sentimental place in the 
 life of Imogene Paget. 
 
 Toward night he mounted his horse to 
 return home. He had had a happy, trium 
 phant day. He felt pleased with Jane for 
 being the occasion of his possessing a brother- 
 in-law so daring and so admirable. As he
 
 FIRE! 345 
 
 rode up Main Street, he stopped at the post- 
 office for letters, and received that of John 
 Paul's describing the fire. It was of course a 
 heavy letter, and it awakened suspicion at 
 once. What possible cause could there be for 
 such a volume of correspondence ? What was 
 it about? Being so intensely selfish and self- 
 conceited, he could think of no other subject 
 interesting enough to require such expansion 
 but Nigel Forfar. What had Jane been say 
 ing about him ? When he reached the out 
 skirts of the city it was still light ; he hesi 
 tated a moment, then he broke the large red 
 seal and read the letter. 
 
 He could not restrain his wicked joy in the 
 news it brought. " Good enough for the Abo 
 litionists !" he said, with satisfaction, and he 
 reined in his horse and stopped at Mrs. Paget's 
 door to give her the news also. 
 
 " New York is burnt to the ground "; that 
 was the concise way he put the information, 
 and Mrs. Paget and Imogene perceived at 
 once the anger of God. For it is the easiest 
 thing in the world to regard the calamities of 
 our enemies as judgments ; and very likely any 
 Northern Abolitionist would have taken a 
 conflagration in New Orleans to be an equally 
 patent expression of God's anger. 
 
 This view pleased Nigel extremely. He 
 exulted in the destruction of his enemies with 
 a Davidic fervor. He reached home in a state
 
 34^ SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 of sectional patriotism which led him to regard 
 his marriage almost as a sin against his land 
 and his people. He felt, doubtless, as the 
 Israelites felt who married the beautiful 
 daughters of Heth, and then suffered conscien 
 tious scruples concerning their weakness. 
 
 Jane was sitting in a rocking chair before 
 the fire when he entered her presence ; Palma 
 was on the floor playing with little Paul. 
 There was a gurgle of baby laughter, a soft 
 refrain of conversation between the mother 
 and the nurse, and the crackling of the cedar 
 logs burning and blazing upon the hearth. 
 The sounds were all low and pleasant, but 
 they were not in sympathy with his excited 
 mood. He said sternly to Palma, " Take 
 your young master up-stairs "; and then he sat 
 down beside Jane. 
 
 But the smile his entrance had evoked was 
 now gone. She was offended at the curt dis 
 missal of her child. She said coldly, " Sup 
 per will be ready in half an hour," and then 
 she resumed her gentle rocking, with her eyes 
 sadly fixed upon the smoke curling up the 
 chimney. 
 
 " Jane, New York is in ashes. Your father 
 has lost forty thousand dollars." 
 
 " Oh, Nigel ! It is not true ! Surely, it is 
 not true ! How did you hear it ? " 
 
 " From your own father," and he tossed the 
 letter into her lap.
 
 FIRE ! 347 
 
 " You have opened this letter, Nigel. You 
 are welcome to read all my letters, Nigel, but 
 I do want the pleasure of opening them espe 
 cially when they are from my father." 
 
 " Self-preservation is the strongest of all 
 motives. Letters that come from the North I 
 shall always open. I cannot afford to lose any 
 more slaves. I am quite sure you know some 
 thing about running off the boys Alexander 
 and Stephen, but you will give me no satisfac 
 tion on the subject." 
 
 "You mean your father's two sons? I may 
 as well tell you ; I have heard all of that shame 
 ful story, Nigel." 
 
 " I mean my slaves, Madam." 
 
 " About those unfortunate boys, I will at 
 least give you this satisfaction. I think who 
 ever ran them away to freedom did you the 
 greatest possible kindness. They saved you 
 from committing an infamous and unnatural 
 crime. If your wife is of any value in your 
 sight, they saved you your wife and child ; 
 for assuredly, had you sold your own flesh and 
 blood, and I known of the fact, I would no 
 more have lived with you than I would live 
 with a murderer whose hands were red with 
 blood. This is the truth." 
 
 " I am glad to know it. Permit me to say, I 
 shall sell Palma and July at the first good op 
 portunity. If you choose to leave me, you 
 can. I shall not, however, suffer vou to take
 
 34 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 my son away. I will have him reared in the 
 principles I profess and believe in." 
 
 Jane's heart trembled, but she occupied her 
 self with her letter, and when she had finished 
 it she covered her face with her hands and 
 wept. 
 
 " It is a judgment ! " he said. " It is a plain 
 God's judgment on New York. I am glad 
 the city is burnt, very glad; so are the Pagets." 
 
 " So you opened my letter in order to give 
 them its intelligence first. Nigel, you have 
 committed such a crime against your own wife 
 as could never have entered the mind of a gen 
 tleman. Until you admit your fault, and 
 apologize to me for it, I will not speak to 
 you." 
 
 Then she left him alone with his many-col 
 ored thoughts, each one chasing and displacing 
 the other. He ate his supper in solitude ; he 
 smoked and meditated on all kinds of petty 
 revenges. He had but a moment or two of 
 softer feelings ; and when they led him to the 
 room in which he knew Jane was, they fled 
 away at the sound of her voice, cooing and 
 singing to his son instead of to himself. Yet 
 he partially opened the door and looked in. 
 The child was undressed ; Jane held it in her 
 arms; he could see the soft, yellow curls of its 
 little head ; he heard it make a sweet, murmur 
 ing sound to her low singing, and he listened 
 awhile to her lullaby:
 
 FIRE ! 349 
 
 Sleep, little Paul, for, only think, 
 A lovely angel dressed in pink, 
 That never comes when it is light, 
 Is waiting now to say " Good-night.** 
 
 Just shut thine eyes, and thou wilt se 
 Her smiling face bend down to thee, 
 To kiss and bless thee in thy sleep, 
 And give thee golden dreams to keep. 
 
 Lie still as little birds that dream ; 
 Lie still as lilies on their stream ; 
 Lie still as unsung hymns of joy ; 
 Lie still lie still lie still, my boy ! 
 
 He closed the door and hesitated ; and to 
 hesitate about a good act is generally to give it 
 up. But he went away smiling. He saw that 
 Jane loved her son, and he perceived, from the 
 silent way in which she had accepted his threat 
 of separating her from him, that he had a pow 
 erful means of compulsion in his keeping. 
 
 We know so little of the heart that lies 
 nearest to us ! Jane was silent, because she 
 intended to act, aud not to talk. The threat- 
 enings against Palma and July would have been 
 sufficient to urge her to some action ; but when 
 she perceived that the thought of dividing her 
 from her little Paul was already in his mind, 
 she needed no further stimulus to movement 
 of some kind. She must go to her father first. 
 He was her best adviser. 
 
 But how was she to get to New York ? Nigel 
 had evidently considered the subject of revok 
 ing the deed which made Palma her own prop-
 
 35 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 erty. She did not understand if this could be 
 done without her consent, but she feared it 
 feared, at any rate, the misery that must come, 
 both to herself and Palma, if it was brought to 
 dispute. Then there was poor little July, 
 whose life had become a daily torture; she 
 could not leave her. Yet, if Nigel permitted 
 her to visit New York, he would certainly not 
 allow any of the slaves to attend her. 
 
 That night she said nothing to Palma of the 
 new threat. Besides, the house was thinly 
 built, and Nigel was always prowling about, 
 watching and listening. She decided, if the 
 next morning was fine, to take Paul for a' walk, 
 and in some open place consult with the poor 
 girl whose freedom was at stake ; despair often 
 evokes some latent sense, strong for the occa 
 sion. Jane resolved to call upon this desperate 
 counselor. 
 
 The morning was fine enough for her pur 
 pose one of those soft, warm days that are 
 common in a Southern January. But she was 
 melancholy, and fatigued with the somber 
 terrors that pursue anxious souls through the 
 shadows of the night. And there was no sun 
 shine only a gray, warm, misty atmosphere, 
 streaked by long flights of crows calling harshly 
 to each other. They left the house just as a 
 man belonging to Mrs. Paget galloped furi 
 ously into the yard. Jane went the more 
 hastily onward, avoiding the garden, and taking
 
 FIRE ! 35 l 
 
 almost unconsciously the path down the avenue 
 on which the negro cabins stood. All was 
 quiet there ; men and women were away at 
 their tasks. But as they approached a larger 
 log hut, Jane heard the faintest, sweetest, 
 mournfulest shadow of singing that ever fell 
 upon mortal ears. " The little children," said 
 Palma, in answer to her questioning look. 
 
 As they came nearer to the cabin, the 
 soft, musical cadences were more distinct, but 
 still low, and inexpressibly sorrowful. They 
 paused, naturally, at the open door, and Jane 
 looked in. About thirty little ones were in the 
 room, all dressed alike in coarse garments, all 
 sitting upon the earthen floor, patting their 
 small black hands, swaying their small bodies, 
 and singing together in such strange, pitiful 
 tones as could only come from the hearts of 
 children who had never known a childish joy 
 children amazed and terrified at their unsought 
 life, submitting to evil fate as dumb animals do, 
 troubled, wondering, uncomplaining. 
 
 De little chillen's feet so weary ! 
 
 So weary, so weary, Lord. 
 De little chillen's feet so weary. Lord ! 
 
 Call de little chillen, Lord. 
 Come ! Come ! Little chillen, come to Me / 
 
 Jane could not endure the sad, heart-break 
 ing song. She went in and called them to her, 
 and sent Palma to the house for cakes and 
 sweets, and begged Mammy to let them go out
 
 ,35 2 SHK LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 and play. But the favor seemed so shamefully 
 small and their amazed pleasure in it cut her 
 to the heart. She went away unable to 
 restrain herself, and amid low weeping and 
 -exclamations against the wrongs she saw every 
 where, she told Palma of the new danger ap 
 proaching her. 
 
 They talked long over the subject, but could 
 find no light on it, and could come to no deci 
 sion. Still, its discussion had broken up their 
 minds as the plow breaks the field. They 
 knew now their limitations, they were ready to 
 seize events. And the moving event was close 
 at hand. 
 
 When they returned to the house there was 
 a strong sense of something unusual. Jane 
 was told that Master Nigel had gone to the 
 Pagets as fast as his horse could carry him. 
 And the servant who had come for him, with 
 out daringto speak, had given to his fellows on 
 the Forfar place an intimation of tragedy and 
 death. Jane turned up her little nose con 
 temptuously " More abolition scare," she said 
 to herself. " I never saw such a lot of con 
 science cowards." 
 
 In about an hour, while she was still nursing 
 her anger and contempt, Nigel returned home. 
 He was in as hot haste as when he left it. He 
 sought out Jane at once and said : 
 
 " Jane, this is no time for you to indulge 
 temper. Mrs. Paget is dead. Imogene
 
 FIREJ 353 
 
 wants you to lend her some of your fine linen 
 to lay out the corpse. For some reason they 
 are out of a supply." 
 
 " She must have died suddenly ? " 
 
 " In a moment." 
 
 " How?" 
 
 " July had disobeyed a strict order, and she 
 was punishing her and fell dead. It is aw- 
 ful!" 
 
 " Fell dead ! with the whip in her hand ! I 
 am glad of it. God called her in the very act 
 of her sin. Let her answer to Him for her 
 cruelty. Miserable woman ! No ! I will not 
 suffer her to touch anything I possess." 
 
 " Give me the key of the linen-press. I shall 
 take what I want." 
 
 " Give them, then. You shall not bring 
 them back here. I will throw them into the 
 fire if you do." 
 
 " There is no use in such heroics, Jane. I 
 have heard them too often to be moved by 
 their false sympathy. And you simply must 
 go to the Pagets. The whole neighborhood is 
 there, or will be ; your absence will make a 
 great scandal." 
 
 " I simply will not go. There is no power 
 on earth can make me go voluntarily." 
 
 " I say, you shall go." 
 
 " We shall see."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 IT FARED THUS. 
 
 " And I know not 
 
 "Which way to look or turn. All near at hand 
 Is turned to evil; and upon my head 
 There falls a doom far worse than I can bear. " 
 
 " And over Icarian wave, 
 Coming with will to save, 
 May Delos' king Apollo gloriously advance 1 
 Yes, the dark sorrow and pain 
 Far from me Ares hath set. 
 lo Pan ! lo Pan ! once more, 
 And now, O Zeus ! yet again. 
 May our swift-sailing vessels be met 
 By the dawn, with clear light in its train." 
 
 JANE did not go to Mrs. Paget's funeral. 
 Before the time for the ceremony arrived, 
 she had made Nigel understand that the nega 
 tive offense of her absence might be better 
 than the positive way in which she would be 
 certain to express her feelings if she was com 
 pelled to go. Perhaps also he had some 
 doubts as to his power of compelling attend 
 ance. At any rate, she remained at home ; 
 and before Nigel returned she had heard all 
 about the event, July having stolen away, dur 
 ing the subsequent confusion and excitement, 
 to see her sister. The child was almost 
 
 354
 
 IT FARED THUS. 355 
 
 desperate. Miss Imogene said she was her 
 mother's murderer. She had heard rumors that 
 she was to be dreadfully punished, that she was 
 to be sold up the country, that she was to go to 
 the slave market at New Orleans all kinds of 
 undetermined terrors haunted her childish 
 heart, and she thought it a miraculous comfort 
 that she managed to weep for an hour on her 
 sister's breast, and reach her miserable place 
 again undiscovered. 
 
 " The funeral is over," said Palma gloomily. 
 "July says all the neighbors were there, and 
 many people from Memphis; and the minister 
 made an address, and said she was a shining 
 light, and a fine example of a good Christian." 
 
 Jane looked up at Palma. Her face was 
 white and swollen with weeping, and her eyes 
 were the eyes of angry, hopeless despair. 
 
 "What do you think, Palma?" 
 
 " I think she was once a cruel, wicked 
 woman, and that she is noiv a spirit in everlast 
 ing pain." 
 
 True idea of flying from a life that had become 
 intolerable had taken possession of Jane ; she 
 was attent to every movement, and ready ta 
 seize the first opportunity, but nothing occurred 
 for a week likely to help her. Then, one day, 
 Nigel received a letter telling him that his 
 factor in New Orleans had been stabbed to 
 death in a duel, and that his interests required 
 his immediate presence in that city. He was
 
 35 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 angry at the intelligence, but thought it best 
 to act as advised. A boat was leaving in two 
 hours, and he made haste to catch it. Every 
 one was running hither and thither at his 
 orders; but in the midst of his excitement he 
 did not forget to charge Mr. Clay to send July 
 to New Orleans with the next gang that left 
 Foster's market. 
 
 Jane remonstrated ; she said Palma would be 
 of no use to her if July was sold. She used 
 every argument she could think of ; she asked 
 permission to buy July herself ; she tried again 
 the pretty, coaxing arts which had once been 
 effectual for her desires. Nigel listened to her 
 with an angry, silent impatience. Finally, 
 when Jane had no plea but tears left, he 
 said : 
 
 " You should have gone to the funeral. If 
 you had, I would have given you the little imp 
 of Satan. Now I intend to sell her into the 
 blackest bondage I can find for her body and 
 soul. She shall pay for her devilish tempers. 
 I promised my friend, over her coffin, to attend 
 to July, and I mean to do so." 
 
 Then Jane dried her eyes, and thought only 
 of preventing such a fiendish revenge. And, 
 brave as she was, she resorted, in the first 
 place, to such deception as would allay sus 
 picion. 
 
 " I have done my duty now, Nigel. My 
 hancis are clean. If you like to undertake such
 
 IT FARED THUS. 357 
 
 a piece of cruelty, I cannot prevent you doing 
 so. But at least sell Palma with her sister." 
 
 " I intend to sell Palma, but not with her 
 sister. Oh, no ! " 
 
 "You gave Palma to me." 
 
 " The gift was never legalized. I can revoke 
 it." 
 
 " I do not understand your conception of 
 honor." 
 
 " Bring Paul here, and let me kiss him. I 
 have no time for senseless talk." 
 
 Very soon after Nigel had left, a negro 
 woman belonging to Paget Place, brought back 
 the linen borrowed by Miss Imogene. She 
 entered the room with it in her hands, and, 
 giving a polite message of thanks, was about to 
 put it upon the table. Jane arrested the inten 
 tion by an impetuous movement. She said 
 angrily : 
 
 "Throw it upon the fire! and tell Miss 
 Imogene nothing but fire could purify it." 
 
 The woman instantly obeyed the order, and 
 the white bundle fell among the blazing cedar 
 logs, and made a dull flame, and then a heap 
 of black tinder. And the two women, one 
 white and free, one black and bond, stood 
 watching it burn ; Jane with a still anger, the 
 slave with a sullen joy, and large lips mutter 
 ing : " How long, O Lord ! How long, O 
 Lord ! how long ? " 
 
 That night Jane slept none. She was tossed
 
 35 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 and tormented by schemes of escape which she 
 had no power to carry out. In fact, she had 
 no money, and there were then none of the 
 facilities for procuring it from a distance which 
 now exist. Before she could hear from her 
 father, Nigel would have returned. She could 
 not sell her jewels in Memphis ; the act, 
 coupled with her known dissatisfaction, would 
 arouse suspicion. And yet she must go and 
 she must save Palma and July. 
 
 She thought until she arrived at the point 
 when thought is no longer possible, and apathy 
 and sleep invade the weary' mind and heart. 
 It was then daylight, and, as she lay uncon 
 scious, the door was opened for her, even by 
 her husband's hand. He had forgotten in his 
 hurry a most important business engagement, 
 and at the first stopping-place he induced a 
 boy to ride back with a letter to Jane. 
 
 She rose to receive it. It had evidently 
 been written in a great hurry, and the small, 
 cramped letters were 1 difficult to decipher : 
 
 Dear Jane : 
 
 I forgot that Thompson's bill falls due to-morrow. You 
 will find the gold for it in the drawer you know of third left- 
 hand side. Give it to Clay ; he will settle the matter. In 
 drawer number two, right-hand side, there is a package of 
 three hundred and twenty dollars ; let Clay give it to Foster to 
 bring to me when he brings July. I shall require it in buying 
 another man for' the planting. I am sorry we parted so 
 coldly ; when I return we must try and come to some better 
 understanding. Kiss Paul for me. NIGEL.
 
 IT FARED THUS. 359 
 
 Wedded love has a marvelous vitality, and 
 this slight acknowledgment of wrong, this pale 
 expression of affection, made Jane's heart 
 glow and soften. She was determined to use 
 the power this letter gave her, but she dreamed 
 also of her husband's forgiveness ; of inducing 
 him to leave the South and enter into some 
 business in New York. She hoped her father 
 would bring such a thing to pass ; she was, in 
 fact, strong to work out her own idea of right 
 ing a dreadful wrong ; she was not strong 
 enough to suffer and to wait in patience for 
 God's time and God's way. 
 
 She stood still a few minutes with the letter 
 in her hand, and during that short interval her 
 plan was fully formed. She was going to take 
 a terrible risk, a risk that meant, if she failed, 
 for Palma and July slavery, for herself certain 
 and irrevocable separation from her husband. 
 She turned to the waiting servant. 
 
 " Awaken Mr. Clay. Tell him I wish to see 
 him as soon as possible. Tell him there is an 
 important letter from Master Nigel." 
 
 Then she dressed and went down-stairs. 
 The parlor was yet cold and cheerless ; she 
 sent for the boy who had brought the letter, 
 and was questioning him when Mr. Clay 
 arrived. 
 
 " Good-morning, Mr. Clay. Here is a mes 
 senger from Mr. Forfar. He says he was prom 
 ised four dollars. Will you ask him for any
 
 360 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 information he has, and if you think it right 
 pay him the money ? " 
 
 The overseer turned to the boy a tall, sham 
 bling, tawny youth and was satisfied with his 
 report. He paid him his wage and sent him 
 away. Then he looked at Jane for the mes 
 sage brought. He had a loyal admiration for 
 her ; in some respects he thought as she 
 thought ; his manner was at once kind and re 
 spectful, and Jane felt its unspoken friendliness. 
 
 " Mr. Clay, I will get you the money, and 
 you are to pay a bill due a man called Thomp 
 son "; she read the instructions about it as far 
 as they referred to Mr. Clay, and then looked 
 in his face. He nodded gravely ; it was evi 
 dent that he understood the affair. "And, Mr. 
 Clay, you are to help me to take the first boat 
 down the river and I am to bring July v.ith 
 me ! Oh, Mr. Clay, I am afraid she is to be 
 sold ! Is there no way of saving her? Surely 
 you can manage it." 
 
 He shook his head sympathetically. 
 
 " I wouldn't try to prevent it, Madame no 
 use she will be better off anywhere else." 
 
 " But Palma will break her heart." 
 
 " No no one does ; trouble dies if it isn't 
 nursed." 
 
 " Oh dear, what shall I do? I cannot be a 
 partner in such cruelty ! " 
 
 " I will take the girl to the boat. Perhaps 
 perhaps "
 
 IT FARED THUS. 361 
 
 "What, Mr. Clay?" 
 
 " Perhaps you might induce Mr. Forfar to 
 sell Palma with her sister. I should think he 
 would find it impossible to deny you that if 
 you wished it." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Clay. I do wish the sisters 
 to be together. You know about their mother? 
 Yes, I see you do. It is all so terrible. I will 
 pack a trunk and get the child ready ; will you 
 attend to all else? " 
 
 " I will do everything I can : and, Madame, 
 you must try and not feel for what you cannot 
 help. I had to learn that lesson, I assure you." 
 
 Jane put out her hand and mutely thanked 
 him. Then she asked, " How soon will there 
 be a boat ? " 
 
 " This afternoon the ' Alphonse Soule ' a 
 very good boat. You had better try and catch 
 it. But you must be at the dock about three. 
 Can you ? " 
 
 " Yes. You will bring July, then ? " 
 
 " On second thought, I think, if I were you, 
 Madame, I would tell the girl myself. She is 
 sure to suspect, and may make a scene. Tell 
 her Palma is to be sold with her. She will be 
 glad to get away if Palma is with her." 
 
 " Very well. But you will go with us to the 
 boat. I should like it." 
 
 " I will see you safely on board. The car- 
 riage will be ready at half-past one." 
 
 " Thank you,"
 
 3 62 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 She had thanked him already a thousand 
 times by her constant gentle manner ; her 
 courteous treatment ; her never-failing recog 
 nition of his social existence. He busied him 
 self in preparations for her comfort, and, amid 
 all the hurry incident to a journey, found time to 
 ride into Memphis and attend to Thompson's 
 bill, so that Jane might take the assurance 
 with her. 
 
 In a few words she made Palma understand 
 that they were on a desperate journey ; that 
 her own and July's freedom was the end of it ; 
 but she did not discuss the subject with her. 
 She was yet uncertain of everything but her 
 own intentions; and she felt that she must not 
 talk away her enthusiasm. She moved like a 
 woman in a dream ; she was quiet, swift, com 
 manding. 
 
 At three o'clock they were all safely on the 
 boat they were going down the river. Mr. 
 Clay had lifted his hat in farewell, and was rid 
 ing back to the plantation, chewing tobacco 
 furiously, either to aid or to quiet his thoughts. 
 Unconsciously, Jane was feeling a little hard 
 at the compulsion laid upon her unconsciously 
 resenting alike the swift conscience and the 
 kind heart which urged her to resign her love 
 and home for an ideal of mercy and justice. 
 She had many fleeting doubts, many sharp 
 pangs of wounded affection ; she was heart- 
 heavy, and there was a great strait b^ f ore her,
 
 IT FARED THUS. 3 6 3 
 
 ere she could say to the cowering girls, regard 
 ing her furtively with large sorrowful eyes 
 *' You are safe." 
 
 When they reached New Orleans it was dark. 
 They went at once to the pier at which the 
 New York packets lay ; and Jane paid the 
 stewardess to permit them to come on board. 
 But the ship did not sail until the afternoon of 
 the following day, and during the long hours of 
 tension and anxiety Jane sat motionless, hour 
 after hour. The strain of listening and waiting 
 was agonizing. She ate nothing all day, she 
 scarcely spoke a word ; all her strength was 
 needed for the cruel suspense she had to endure. 
 Palma and July also felt the extremity of mental 
 fear. A tap at the cabin door made July shriek. 
 Palma was on the point of losing consciousness 
 several times ; and about two o'clock in the 
 afternoon Jane's strength failed ; she dropped 
 into a deep sleep of exhaustion. When she 
 awoke it was dark, the ship was afloat was 
 some way down the river ; they could already 
 feel the salt breath of the sea. 
 
 Then she wept tears of joy, she thanked God, 
 she took her baby in her arms, she kissed Palma 
 and July, and told them they were truly on the 
 road to freedom. " Kneel down, both of you, 
 and thank God ; then sleep till daylight ; sleep 
 sweetly ; sleep as you never slept before ; no 
 one now shall wake you to slavery." 
 
 They arrived in New York early one cold
 
 364 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 morning, at the end of February. Jane went at 
 once to her father's house. John Paul had 
 just finished his lonely breakfast ; he was stand 
 ing at the window looking at the gray sky, and 
 predicting snow, when the carriage stopped at 
 his garden gate, and then, while he was still 
 wondering at the circumstance, drove up to his 
 door. He went to open it, and found Jane on 
 the step, with little Paul in her arms. 
 
 With a glad cry he took them to his heart ; 
 then he paid the carriage and shut his recov 
 ered treasure within his home. He was laugh 
 ing and crying and talking all at once. He had 
 the child in his arms as he gave one order after 
 another for breakfast, for fires, for the cradle 
 in the garret to be brought down-stairs. 
 
 The wonder and joy had been so great that 
 for a few minutes Palma and July were foi- 
 gotten. They stood together at the end of 
 the room, silent, their hearts full of their 
 lost mother, and of grand-looking white father, 
 who had always been so kind to them. John 
 Paul suddenly became conscious of their pres 
 ence, and he looked inquiringly at Jane. For 
 both, though very handsome, were poorly 
 dressed ; and beauty unadorned is unadorned, 
 and not adorned the most. Jane was in a mo 
 mentary dilemma. What was to be their posi 
 tion ? Her kindest thoughts, however, were 
 her quickest thoughts, and she said : 
 
 " They are Palma and July Forfar ; Nigel's
 
 IT FARED THUS. .365 
 
 half-sisters. They were to have been sold as 
 slaves, and I have brought them to you, father, 
 for succor and salvation." 
 
 " Come here, my dears," and he kissed them 
 kindly. " No one shall hurt you. Take my 
 word for it." 
 
 Palma slipped upon her knees and kissed his 
 hand, and July began to cry. 
 
 He lifted the girl at once, and drew July close 
 to his side, and Jane uncovered the child's 
 shoulders, and showed him where the lash had 
 cut away the flesh and scarred the slender 
 arms. He burned with anger, and as Jane 
 told in rapid words, with impetuous pity and 
 streaming eyes, the story she had just lived 
 through, the old man was aflame with wrath. 
 " Only God can judge such wrongs ! Only 
 God ! " he cried, and then he accepted still 
 more fully the charge of their care and 
 safety. 
 
 On talking more confidentially with Jane, he 
 said, "You must go a little while into hiding, 
 my girl. That man will be here anon, and take 
 little Paul from you. Oh, he can do it ! I 
 have thought of everything. I will go with 
 you. We will make Liverpool first, and leave 
 Palma and July in their brothers' care. Then, 
 my Jane, we will travel by our two selves, from 
 country to country, for one year ; or we will 
 stay 'where the broad ocean leans against the 
 land ' that is Holland, my dear ; I have some
 
 3^6 s/fE LOVED A SAILOX. 
 
 cousins there yet, and they will make us wel 
 come ; I know they will." 
 
 " Father, you are very good to me. Can you 
 leave your business so long ? " 
 
 " You are my business, Jane, at present. 
 But, indeed, I have little business since the 
 fire. I have my stores to rebuild, and to-day I 
 will see the architect, and leave all in his 
 charge. Indeed, I am sure it will be a good 
 thing for me to be away till New York is her 
 self again." 
 
 For a week, at least, they might consider 
 themselves secure. Mr. Clay, certainly, had 
 not a suspicion. He was not likely to write to 
 Nigel, and Nigel was expecting Foster with 
 July, and would not be likely to write to Clay 
 until he found Foster brought neither July nor 
 money. Then his letter of inquiry would have 
 to be answered. All this would take time, and 
 it was probable that Nigel, even then, knew 
 nothing of the flight of his wife and his slaves. 
 
 The greatest danger was over when they 
 were not discovered in New Orleans. For 
 there, if Nigel had happened to meet the cap 
 tain of the "Alphonse Soule," the latter would 
 have certainly spoken of Mrs. Forfar coming 
 down the river with him. Everything had 
 rested for a few hours on the chance of these 
 two men not meeting. But that fear was now 
 past, and Jane believed no danger possible for 
 at least another week.
 
 IT FARED THUS. 367 
 
 She went .out and bought suitable clothing 
 for a winter voyage, and then called upon Vir 
 ginia. It was a sad surprise. Jane spent the 
 whole day in the recital of her sufferings and 
 in the discussion of the position in which she 
 found herself. She met with a sincere sympa 
 thy, and yet she was conscious that Virginia 
 did not quite approve of her conduct to 
 Nigel. 
 
 "What would you have done?" she asked 
 anxiously, and Virginia could not say what she 
 would have done ; only, she thought, she would 
 have put her husband always first. But Vir 
 ginia was much in love, and very sensitive to 
 the rights of love ; she was judging Jane from 
 the lofty standpoint of her own ideals, and no 
 experience had yet taught her that ideals are 
 often poor measures for facts. 
 
 Nothing was said of Virginia's intended mar 
 riage. Jane spoke of Captain Bradford's assist 
 ance in the matter of the boys Alexander and 
 Stephen, and she listened to the details of their 
 rescue with a slight enthusiasm. But there 
 was a danger past, and the danger present 
 made the danger past of small interest. She re 
 membered also, in a vague way, what Harry 
 had said about Virginia's supposed engage 
 ment to Captain Bradford, but as Virginia did 
 not mention the subject, she had no desire to 
 open it. Her own trials were so pressing, the 
 troubles of matrimony so real, a love-affair ao-
 
 368 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 peared an almost childish pleasure a pleasure 
 a very long way behind her. 
 
 She stayed until dark with her friend, but 
 they parted without real grief. Jane thought 
 Virginia had been not only a little severe about 
 the loyalty of wives, but also rather indifferent 
 about little Paul. She told her father so, and 
 Mr. Keteltas excused Virginia on the ground 
 that she had no practical idea of the conditions 
 of wifehood and motherhood. " She is in a 
 paradise of love, my dear, and the serpent has 
 not yet entered it and I hope never will I 
 am sure I do. Virginia is a good girl." 
 
 And Virginia on her part had the sensation 
 of being rudely awakened to some sorrow. A 
 strange ominous depression invaded her own 
 happy dreams. In three months she hoped to 
 be herself a wife. In three months the bliss 
 ful time of wooing would be over. She felt al 
 most angry that these last days of love's proba 
 tion had been so forcibly tinged with such dark 
 matrimonial shadows. Jane's doleful prognos 
 tications seemed to invite trouble, and it was 
 hard to escape the unfortunate atmosphere she 
 had brought with her. For no one likes to see 
 an unhappy wife : she affronts their ideal, or 
 darkens their hopes, or asks them for sympathy 
 they do not give without some mental reserva 
 tion. 
 
 Jane was very sensitive to this reservation. 
 " Let us go away as soon as possible, father,"
 
 IT FARED THUS. 369 
 
 she pleaded. " I do not think any one but you 
 is really glad to see me." 
 
 John Paul was ready to grant her request. 
 In fact, he had long suffered from a self-accusa 
 tion he could find no apology to mitigate. 
 When Jane's first letters of dissatisfaction came, 
 he answered them rather sternly ; he reminded 
 her of her duty, and urged her to make the 
 best of circumstances she had voluntarily 
 chosen. But even while so writing, he was 
 compelled to reflect that he himself had not 
 only urged and hurried on the marriage, but 
 also willfully suffered Jane to be misled in the 
 very matter which had wrecked her happiness. 
 
 And, examining himself still more closely, 
 he sorrowfully admitted certain matrimonial 
 intentions of his own at the time, which he 
 supposed would be advanced by Jane's settle 
 ment. True, they had come to nothing; yet, 
 if they had never existed, he believed he would 
 have delayed Jane's marriage for a year. 
 There were other circumstances which had op 
 erated against Jane circumstances relating 
 to money, of which she knew nothing at all 
 entanglements going back to the days of 
 Nigel's father. He now asked his conscience 
 questions he ought to have asked it long ago, 
 and the answering of them made him very 
 severe with himself, and very tender with his 
 daughter. 
 
 Immediately after Jane's return to him, he
 
 37 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 wrote to the deserted husband. He sent back 
 the money Jane had taken for her traveling 
 expenses, and said : 
 
 Dear Nigel : 
 
 Jane has come home to me. She is ill, and looks ten years 
 older than when you married her. That is all wrong. There 
 has been a great mistake made, and I am going to take her to 
 Kurope for a year to think it over. When we return to New 
 York, you two must begin life entirely anew. I doubt if Jane 
 can ever go to the South again : well, then, I have so much in 
 terest in the property there as to give my voice for its sale. I 
 am a rich man, and can help you as well in one place as in 
 another. Jane's happiness is the first thing ; all must bend to 
 that. I will take good care of your wife and son, and I trust 
 bring them back in better case than I find them at this present. 
 Then, come to New York, and let us talk the past and the 
 future wisely and kindly over. Jane sends her love, and I 
 am still your true friend, 
 
 JOHN PAUL KETELTAS. 
 
 A few days after the posting of this letter 
 Jane was at sea. Crossing the Atlantic in 
 winter is seldom a pleasant experience, and all 
 of the party suffered from cold and from the 
 many insufficient comforts of a sea voyage at 
 that date. They were nearly five weeks on the 
 water. But at length the low water of the 
 Mersey was visible, and the port of Liverpool 
 made. The weather was very unpleasant and 
 gloomy. They only delayed long enough to 
 put Palma and July in their brothers' care, and 
 then hastened to the south of Europe. 
 
 But though many happy months were spent 
 neither was heartily satisfied. Jane felt the
 
 IT FARED THUS. 37* 
 
 inextinguishable longing of love. Away from 
 Nigel she found many excuses for him ; indeed, 
 she came to the conviction that all his faults 
 arose from his environments. And John Paul 
 longed for New York until the longing became 
 a real nostalgia. The grand streets of Euro 
 pean capitals bored him ; he- wanted to tread 
 the bright, gay Broadway of New York. The 
 American skies haunted him like a dream ; he 
 could feel the fresh breeze blowing across Man 
 hattan Island. He fancied himself among the 
 busy crowds in Wall and Pearl and South 
 Streets. He longed to hear the objectionable 
 name of Andrew Jackson ; to find some one 
 interested in the United States Bank to argue 
 with would have been far better to him than 
 all the operas ever sung. 
 
 Jane perceived this growing sickness, and 
 understood it. She also shared it, and one day 
 she asked herself why it should be any longer 
 borne? John Paul stood at the window of the 
 hotel, gazing mournfully into the mournful 
 square. The air was thick with November fog. 
 The sky was not visible. She knew by her 
 own heart that he was dreaming of New York 
 in the bright days of the Indian summer, feel 
 ing the soft airs and the mellow sunshine of 
 that heavenly season all around him. She 
 divined also that he would not complain; nor 
 take any step to hurry their return, and she 
 said, with a sudden eagerness:
 
 3 7 2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " Dear father, let us go back to New York. 
 What are we here for? Let us go back to 
 New York to-morrow to-day in an hour. I 
 can be ready." 
 
 " Oh, Jane ! Do you really think so? " 
 
 " I long to go home." 
 
 " So do I." 
 
 In a couple of hours they were on the road 
 to Liverpool. There a short delay was una 
 voidable, but it was brightened by a visit to 
 the happy family they had saved from a fate 
 worse than death. Both John Paul and Jane 
 recovered a healthy cheerfulness in the pretty 
 home which sheltered -it a little brick house 
 in a quiet street, but Alexander and Stephen 
 had united their purses in its furnishing, and 
 Palma kept it with a beautiful care and econ 
 omy. July was going to school, and happy as 
 a bird in spring-time ; it was indeed hard to be 
 lieve that the slave child and the free child 
 were identical. 
 
 As they left the house forever, Jane turned 
 her head for a last look. The two boys and 
 Palma and July stood on the steps watching 
 them away. The tall, slender figure of Palma 
 struck her most. Palma still wept for her lost 
 mother; still felt the shadow of slavery. John 
 Paul looked steadily at the four and then at 
 his own daughter. "She had paid the cost of 
 their freedom. " Every good thing has its 
 price," he thought ; " some one God or man
 
 IT FARED THUS. 373 
 
 pays for it. Has Jane paid too much, I 
 wonder?" Then he felt a sentiment of holy 
 pride in the fact that she had been able to lay 
 down her love and her own hopes for the 
 salvation of those ready to perish. There was 
 something like the love of God in it some 
 thing better, surely, than the love of Nigel 
 Forfar. He looked at Jane with a new re- 
 spect ; he understood now the serenity and the 
 gravity that made her beauty so much finer. 
 
 Their voyage home was long and rough ; it 
 was after Christmas when they reached Sandy 
 Hook and ran up the Stars and Stripes. John 
 Paul happened to be on deck when the cere 
 mony took place. Cold as it was, he could not 
 bear to lose a single landmark ; and when the 
 familiar slip was reached, his feet tingled with 
 the desire to tread it. 
 
 When he left New York, houses were very 
 scarce ; and he rented his home to an old busi 
 ness associate for a year. The time was not 
 out, and until some arrangement could be 
 made, he was compelled to go to a hotel. But 
 that was a small matter. He was in New York 
 again, and all other troubles were manageable 
 from that vantage ground. They landed about 
 noon on a clear, cold, sunny day, and went to 
 the City Hotel. 
 
 In an hour John Paul was on the street; 
 was renewing his business relations, and gath 
 ering together the dropped threads of his
 
 374 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 usual life. He came back at nightfall, de 
 lighted with, everything. All was going well. 
 New York was better than ever. He had the 
 promise of his own home in two weeks. His 
 stores were rebuilt and occupied. On the next 
 day he would resume the methodical life which 
 satisfied him far better than idling long days 
 away among pictures he did not understand, 
 and among people who had never heard of 
 General Andrew Jackson, and who had even 
 very dim and unworthy ideas of the great 
 United States, and no conception at all of the 
 tremendous questions then agitating its sov 
 ereign people. 
 
 It was just three years since Jane's marriage. 
 She was sitting in the comfortably warmed 
 room at twilight, playing with her child, and 
 thinking of the anniversary. Involuntarily 
 she said, " Poor Nigel ! " At the close of 
 every train of reflection the exclamation came 
 as a natural conclusion. She caught up Nigel's 
 son, and kissed him to the memory of his 
 father. At that hour she thought there had 
 been a great cruelty in the fate which set her 
 between her husband and a duty so evident 
 and yet so fatal to her happiness. They who 
 cross Destiny have sorrow enough. Had she 
 crossed Destiny ? Had she done evil to her 
 self that good might come to others? The 
 good she had seen, but was the root of bitter- 
 ness to remain with her ? She was troubling
 
 IT FARED THUS. 375 
 
 herself with such thoughts when John Paul 
 returned. 
 
 It was near the supper hour. The guests 
 were gathering in every room. The hotel was 
 ablaze with light and comfort, and the large 
 parlors were full of richly dressed women. Jane 
 felt the unconscious stimulation of numbers. 
 She was affected also by her father's radiant 
 face and manner. 
 
 "Come, Jane, put on that splendid dress of 
 ti&rive you bought in Paris. You will see 
 many old acquaintances. I want you to look 
 well, for there is no necessity to tell the world 
 that Nigel and you do not understand each 
 other." Jane looked approvingly at the purple 
 silk she wore, but John Paul shook his head. 
 " You look handsomer in the tigrive" 
 
 So, to please her happy father, she left the 
 child with its nurse, and arrayed herself in the 
 thick, soft, levantine satin, figured like a dull, 
 rich tiger-skin. It had long, loose sleeves, and 
 the gold bands encircling her arms and throat 
 and gleaming in her hair were exceedingly 
 handsome and becoming. John Paul took her 
 on his arm with great pride. He wished by her 
 splendid appearance to put a stop at once to all 
 suspicious questions or suppositions. 
 
 His plan appeared to be quite successful. A 
 great many old acquaintances met and wel 
 comed her home ; and not one of all dreamed 
 that the richly attired, brilliant woman carried
 
 37 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 a heavy heart beneath her silken vest. With a 
 cheerful abandon that was at least unselfish, she 
 fell graciously into her father's mood. She put 
 on the face and smiles and manners of a happy 
 wife, and the affectation brought her a passing 
 sense of the reality. 
 
 As they passed through a long, brilliantly 
 lighted corridor, Jane saw the nurse advancing 
 with her son. She stooped slightly, and 
 stretched out both her arms to the toddling 
 little babe. Her face was shining with maternal 
 love. Her splendid robe and golden orna 
 ments and coronal of light hair gave to her 
 small figure a transfiguring beauty. John Paul 
 stood by her side admiring his daughter, and 
 lovingly watching the short, swaying steps of 
 his grandson. 
 
 It was at this moment a tall, dark man opened 
 a door close by Jane's right hand, but slightly 
 behind her. He also stood watching the 
 exquisite tableau, but only for a moment or 
 two. Then he stepped between the mother 
 and son, and said one word : 
 
 "Jane!" 
 
 "Oh, Nigel! Nigel!" and she forgot the 
 child forgot her father forgot the whole 
 world, and found somehow, in a moment, every 
 one and everything in her husband. 
 
 John Paul greeted him a little coldly, and 
 then went away. He felt it was best to leave 
 Jane alone in the first hours of the reconcilia-
 
 IT FAKED THUS. 377 
 
 tion he was sure would follow. He went down 
 into the office and talked without interest of 
 the things which had been all day of such great 
 interest to him. This matrimonial problem 
 was to face again, and it was harder than any 
 business question. He would not force it, 
 however; they must send for him, then he 
 could stand on the defensive side and guard 
 Jane's interests best. 
 
 It was some hours before Nigel came to him. 
 '" Go and speak with Jane," he said ; " she can 
 not sleep until you do." He went with a sin 
 gular reluctance. As he climbed the stairs he 
 felt as if he was walking into a great darkness. 
 He could not by any effort compel the appear 
 ance of even a decent pretense of satisfaction 
 in the reconciliation. And yet he told himself 
 that it was the end most desirable the end he 
 really wished. 
 
 Jane was very happy. She leaned her head 
 on her father's breast, and said " Nigel had 
 forgiven her everything." She would now 
 scarcely admit that she had anything to for 
 give. She had taken on her own shoulders the 
 whole blame, and John Paul found himself 
 compelled to treat with Nigel on this basis. 
 
 " Nigel has shown me where I was wrong," 
 she said penitently. " Instead of complain 
 ing about the cruelties of slavery," he says, " I 
 ought to have done something to make it bet 
 ter. He is sure I might have lightened the lot
 
 3?8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 of all his slaves, made their homes brighter, 
 and taught them that obedience to law and 
 faithfulness in duty is demanded of all black 
 and white. Oh, father! I am ashamed of my 
 complaints of others when I think how much 
 I neglected myself. But I will do better ; yes, 
 I will alter everything, with God's help." 
 
 "Then you are going back, Jane? Think 
 twice, my girl, about that step." 
 
 " In the place where I have done wrong, in 
 that same place I must try and put the wrong- 
 right. Poor Nigel ! He says there have .been 
 the most dreadful reports about my leaving 
 him. Though he asserted that I had gone 
 with you to Europe, no one believed him. 
 He has so many enemies, all ready to blacken 
 his name, and they said shameful things about 
 him and Miss Paget. No one would notice 
 her ; she was obliged to go to her brother in 
 New Orleans. You see I can only put Nigel 
 right in Memphis by going back with him. We 
 shall be happy now. I am glad Imogene 
 Paget is gone ; yes, I can manage Nigel now." 
 
 " Jane ! Jane ! I fear ! I fear I know not 
 what." 
 
 " There is nothing to fear now, father. That 
 Miss Paget made all the trouble. I am glad 
 she is gone. I am very happy to-night, dear 
 father, very happy." 
 
 She was indeed so happy that she felt it pos 
 sible, nay, imperative, to see Virginia. At her
 
 IT FARED THUS. 379 
 
 last visit Virginia's happiness and her own mis 
 ery had been too great a contrast. She felt 
 that she must hasten to tell her how Nigel had 
 watched and waited for her return, how he had 
 left all to do so, how well their love had stood 
 such dreadful tests, how happy she was, how 
 much happier she was going to be in the work 
 of blessing before her. For, indeed, her hap 
 piness was not a selfish one ; in the first hours 
 of her reunion with her husband she had 
 called to mind the desolate homes she would 
 make pleasanter, the sorrowful women she 
 would help and comfort. 
 
 Full of such hopes and dreams, she went to 
 the Mason House. It struck her unhappily, 
 for houses have a physiognomy, and in some 
 subtile way reflect the prosperity or adversity, 
 the joy or sorrow, of their inhabitants. Nelly 
 Haworth opened the door. Jane looked at her 
 with such an air of intentional satisfaction as 
 roused in Nelly at once an antagonistic feeling. 
 
 " Well, Nelly ! You here yet ? I thought 
 you were married." 
 
 " I am married, Mrs. Forfar. I hed no more 
 sense than lots of other lasses." 
 
 " And where is John Thomas, Nelly ? " 
 
 " He is living here, ma'am minding the 
 horses and the like." 
 
 " I thought he was a sailor." 
 
 " He is Yorkshire, ma'am, and horses comes 
 as natural to a Yorkshire lad as water to a
 
 380 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 duck. John Thomas were allays after horses. 
 If he was dead, and anyone shook a bridle o'er 
 his grave, he would get up and trade or ride ; 
 he would that." 
 
 While this conversation was in progress, 
 Nelly had taken Jane into the familiar parlor, 
 had raised the shades a little and replenished 
 the fire. 
 
 " I'll tell Miss Mason you are here, ma'am. 
 She hes been varry poorly lately. I hope you 
 may raise her spirits a bit, I'm sure." 
 
 In about a quarter of an hour Virginia ap 
 peared. Jane had become slightly offended at 
 her delay, but when she saw the pale shadow 
 of her former friend, every other feeling was 
 lost in amazement and sympathy. Virginia 
 walked with slow and uncertain steps ; she was 
 much emaciated ; her whole appearance was 
 wan, almost diaphanous. She wore a large 
 white shawl, and Nelly followed with some furs 
 which she carefully folded about her feet. 
 
 " You are sick, Virginia, and I never heard 
 of it ! " 
 
 " I have been sick for nine months, Jane ; a 
 little weaker every day. I do not suffer much. 
 I am glad to see you looking so well and so 
 happy." 
 
 " I am happy, Virginia so happy at last ! 
 Nigel and I have come to a clear understand 
 ing. I am glad I went away ; he found out 
 when he missed me how dear I was to him."
 
 IT FARED THUS. 381 
 
 ' Ah, yes ! absence tries love cruelly tries 
 love, I should think." 
 
 She spoke with the pathos of actual suffering, 
 but Jane was too absorbed in her own circum 
 stances to detect any personality in the remark. 
 She entered into a detailed account of their 
 travel, of her father's longing for New York, of 
 the condition of the slaves whom she had saved, 
 of Nigel Forfar's misery at her flight and 
 absence, and the plans they had made for the 
 future improvement of their people. 
 
 " We have even considered their religious 
 education," she said, with a little conscious air 
 of spiritual satisfaction. " Nigel cannot allow 
 preaching, but I am to have a Sunday-school, 
 and read to them from the New Testament." 
 
 " Would it not be better to teach them 
 to read ? Then they could find their own 
 strength and comfort." 
 
 " Nigel says that those who can read become 
 dissatisfied and disobedient." 
 
 " I should not wonder," replied Virginia, with 
 a meaning which Jane did not catch. In fact, 
 she was so anxious to impress Virginia with a 
 sense of her great matrimonial satisfaction that 
 she lost sight of all events not tending to that 
 end. A joy so selfish and complaisant is a kind 
 of affront to the sorrowful, though Jane did 
 not intend it so. Virginia listened wearily, 
 saying but little, and that little having rather 
 an ethical than a personal character. And in a
 
 3^2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 certain sense she was glad when Jane went 
 away. Her babble of things so far off from 
 her drifting life was fatiguing ; she could not 
 catch hold of their various intents. Jane's 
 effusiveness made her melancholy ; for her own 
 thoughts had been so strongly and definitely 
 fixed for many months that she could not com 
 pel their attention. 
 
 As they were parting, Jane was again struck 
 with her old companion's visible weakness, and 
 she said once more, '' I am afraid you are very 
 ill, Virginia." 
 
 " I know I am very ill, Jane. When we part 
 to-day, it may be a final parting." 
 
 " And you can take it so calmly ? " 
 
 " I suffer, I assure you. Except in books, 
 few human beings are able to walk into the 
 grave with a steady cheerfulness." 
 
 " Yet heaven is better than earth, Virginia." 
 
 " Perhaps we trust so only its great light 
 is as impenetrable as the grave's profound dark 
 ness." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " But, truly, amid all fears, there is in the 
 soul a dauntless primitive confidence in the 
 place we call heaven ; nothing quite destroys 
 it." 
 
 " I think so too. When I was in great 
 trouble, I thought a great deal about heaven 
 and its perfect bliss." 
 
 " Perhaps, Jane, things are not so perfect
 
 IT FARED THUS. 3$ 
 
 there as we imagine. Heaven may be only an 
 other kind of life, with other hopes and trials, 
 and other lessons to learn. What have any of 
 us done to deserve perfect bliss ? Can the 
 mere act of death change us so materially ? 
 All I hope is, that ' His servants departed this 
 life in fear and faith ' may still be His servants 
 in the other the next life." 
 
 " You must not doubt, Virginia." 
 
 " It is not doubt, Jane, so much as uncer 
 tainty a sea of vague thought, tinged with the 
 moods of a sick body. A word would make 
 such a difference. Why does God not give it ?" 
 
 Jane stood troubled and restless, holding her 
 friend's hand. Virginia's words were casting 
 somber shadows over her own heart ; she went 
 away with a kiss and a silent pressure of the 
 hand. Yet she could not escape the influence 
 of her visit, and when John Paul returned at 
 night she carried her fears and reflections to 
 him. " I think she is dying, father. I never 
 saw any one so changed. Is it consump 
 tion ?" 
 
 " My dear, it is really a broken heart. In 
 deed, Jane, there is such a death. I had a 
 sweet little sister who went to the grave in 
 that sad, silent way. Virginia is dying of 
 grief. And yet a word, if it could be spoken 
 a kiss, if it could be given would cure her. 
 She was to have been married last April to 
 Captain Bradford The ' Arethusa ' left Liver.
 
 } M SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 pool some time last March ; she never reached 
 New York. No one has met a plank of her 
 not a passenger or sailor has come back with 
 the story of her fate. She has disappeared with 
 all on board as a stone dropped into mid-ocean 
 might disappear. I met Major Mason to-day ; 
 he too has failed. I think he will not long sur 
 vive his daughter." 
 
 " Nearly a year gone, and nothing heard ? " 
 " Nearly a year and utter silence." 
 ''Still I should not give up hope." 
 " Nor I. A sailor's life is made up of the ex 
 traordinary and the impossible. He may have 
 drifted to some lonely island, or been picked 
 up by some ship on a long cruise. But I would 
 not suggest this hope to her, for, God knows, 
 any conclusion is better than suspense." 
 
 A little later she told Nigel. She had said 
 to herself, " I will not tell Nigel, because it will 
 only be a temptation to him to rejoice over 
 Virginia and Captain Bradford "; but in Nigel's 
 presence the desire to please him put down all 
 other desires. He was sitting by her side, and 
 evidently revolving thoughts that irritated him. 
 Her smiles met with no response ; he said he 
 had a headache, and could not talk. Self-in 
 terest and self-pleasure will not be disciplined ; 
 Nigel must be amused, must be pleased, at any 
 cost, and she said : 
 
 " I saw Virginia Mason to day ; she is dying. * 
 He looked up with attention, and she con
 
 IT FARED THUS. 385 
 
 tinued : " Captain Bradford and the ' Are- 
 thusa ' were lost a year ago." 
 
 Then he leaped to his feet, his face alight 
 with pleasure. " I am very glad. Serve him 
 right ! Serve him right ! I must send Joe 
 Wilkins word upon my honor, a piece of very 
 good news ! " 
 
 " Virginia was to have been married to him 
 last April ; she is breaking her heart about 
 his loss." 
 
 " Perfect nonsense ! No woman, or man 
 either, ever yet died of love." 
 
 "You are right, Nigel. No woman could 
 love better than I love you ; and yet, though 
 I was very miserable when we were separated, 
 I did not pine away and die." 
 
 " We will not allude to our separation, Mrs. 
 Forfar, if you please. It is not a pleasant sub 
 ject to me." 
 
 He spoke with a sharp annoyance and an 
 angry face, and Jane relapsed into silence. 
 After all, she had gained nothing by using her 
 friend's sorrow to spice her own happiness. 
 And her feeling of pity for Virginia turned to 
 one of indignant self-assertion. What an af 
 fectation to die for Captain Bradford, as if she 
 loved him better than other women loved ! 
 Nigel was. her husband! They had lived 
 together two years, and married love 'was 
 strongest of all. Yet she did not affect death 
 as a solution of their disagreement. Virginia's
 
 3^6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 condition was a kind of reproach to herself. 
 She looked up again at Nigel's cross face, and 
 reflected that Virginia had always made trouble 
 between Nigel and herself. She determined 
 to never more name her to him, and supersti 
 tion effected what loving kindness could not do. 
 Only to her father she reiterated her opinions, 
 and John Paul answered, a little severely : 
 
 "Jane, my girl, it is not the same ; no, it is 
 not at all the same. Virginia's lover is, in her 
 imagination, yet all perfect. You have found 
 out that Nigel Forfar is but a very faulty man. 
 You had a great duty to perform ; very well, 
 duty gave you some comfort for loss of love ; 
 for no one can save life or liberty, if it be only 
 that of a little bird or a frightened animal, and 
 not feel that divine recompense in their heart. 
 You had your little Paul. You had change, 
 travel, and my own true father-love ; and I think 
 you knew, also, that I had such power over 
 Nigel as to bring him to your feet when, you 
 thought he had suffered enough. Come, come, 
 Virginia is a sorrowful woman ; we will be 
 sorry with her that is always right ; but to 
 udge her, that is God's part, Jane, indeed it
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 OVERTAKEN. 
 
 '''' And thou, who never yet of human wrong 
 Left the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis ! 
 
 Hear me, my mother Earth ! behold it, Heaven ! 
 
 Have I not had to wrestle with my lot ? 
 
 Have I not had my brain seared, my heart riven, 
 
 Hopes sapped, name blighted, Life's life lied away? 
 
 From mighty wrongs to petty perfidy, 
 
 Have I not seen what human things could do ? " 
 
 1 A HE information given by John Paul in so 
 few sentences included a tragedy which 
 had darkened all Virginia's life and hopes. 
 She had confidently expected Marius every 
 day during the latter part of April ; he had 
 promised her so much, and she had faith in 
 invincible Love ; she believed all things must 
 obey its desire. But as April drew to an end, 
 she grew first a little vexed at her disappoint 
 ment, then a trifle a very trifle uneasy. She 
 sewed less cheerily, sang less at her work, and 
 seemed to be ever listening. As May pro 
 gressed the Major found it hard to bear her 
 pitiful look of inquiry. He haunted the wharves 
 for her sake ; he talked with seafaring men ; he 
 tried, when he had lost all hope himself, to find 
 some comfort for Virginia. 
 387
 
 388 SHE LOVED A SAILOR, 
 
 But the sweet spring days went inexorably 
 past. Mav became June, June grew to hot 
 July, and August brought into port an unusual 
 number of ships and vessels. No one had 
 heard of, no one had seen, the "Arethusa." 
 Her owners grew nervous at any allusion to 
 their loss. They had accepted it as an inevi 
 table calamity. They had a new ship in the 
 " Arethusa's " place; they preferred the public 
 to forget that ships went to the bottom, or 
 were lost at sea and never found the harbor 
 they sailed for. Then the winter came again, 
 and every hour Hope and Virginia faded 
 away. 
 
 The anguish of these long days was at first 
 passionate and strong, full of implorations and 
 restlessness ; but as her loss became certain, a 
 still, nervous despair took possession of Vir 
 ginia, and its wear and tear of life was deep, 
 stealthy, not to be resisted. She wasted in a 
 scarcely perceptible manner ; it was only by 
 comparing her condition with what it had been 
 a month previously that the change was ap 
 parent the change that was constantly go 
 ing on. 
 
 So the condition which terrified Jane, and 
 made her instantly think of death, did not 
 strike those who lived with Virginia in the same 
 way. The Major admitted that she was fret 
 ting, and that she was ill in consequence: but 
 he said to himself, " Time cures all grief. In a
 
 OVERTAKEN'. 389 
 
 year or two she will forget." He was hardly 
 conscious that her cheeks had become white 
 like wax, that her perfect figure had lost its 
 symmetry, that she was weak and fragile, that 
 her once bright eyes were now nearly always 
 dilated with sadness, as if looking far, far off 
 into vacancy, or far, far down into the depths 
 of the soul. 
 
 The presence of a great and constant sorrow 
 soon makes a distinctive atmosphere. The 
 house was pervaded by melancholy spiritual 
 essences ; it was silent, as if sealed up ; the 
 sounds of music and song and laughter had 
 gone away from it. The Major no longer talked 
 of politics and literature he was watching his 
 only child in the great crisis of her life ; and he 
 knew that Virginia was not one of those women 
 who cry out in grief, " Let me forget," who re 
 quire to be amused, and who, while fretting for 
 one idol, are on the lookout for another to take 
 the vacated place. He understood that she 
 must bear her cross until it bore her ; that she 
 must dwell with sorrow until she made of it a 
 sanctuary to dwell in a hard lesson for youth 
 to learn; for who, under thirty years of age, 
 does not think, like Ajax, that they will escape 
 every calamity, in spite of the gods? easier 
 for the aging and weary, for they stretch out 
 arms to Him who is everywhere willing and 
 able to help and to shelter. 
 
 Virginia made a great impression upon Jane,
 
 39 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 though she did not visit her again. She could 
 not help wondering, as she went about her 
 shopping and visiting, how it felt to be quiet in 
 that silent house, sitting in the shadow of a 
 great sorrow perchance in the shadow of the 
 valley of death. In her troubles, Jane had 
 always known the strength of resistance. The 
 possibility of conquering them, or escaping 
 from them, was her first thought. But Virginia 
 could not fight a loss so intangible and vague. 
 There was no one to oppose, no right to assert ; 
 she could only sit still, and try to grow strong 
 through suffering. 
 
 And in her new-found happiness Jane could 
 not bear to go again into an atmosphere so 
 depressing and so ominous. She wrote Vir 
 ginia an affectionate letter before leaving New 
 York, and Virginia was vaguely pleased by its 
 tone of love and sympathy, and sent Jane in 
 return a note full of good wishes, and a gold 
 bracelet that she had always admired. 
 
 Nigel looked grimly at the present. " It is 
 worth five hundred dollars," he said. " The 
 girl must be dying, or she would not have given 
 it away." 
 
 In the beginning of February Nigel and Jane 
 went South again. John Paul had a long talk 
 with Nigel previous to the movement, and the 
 father, with the sad intelligence of age, tried to 
 buy for his daughter her husband's considera 
 tion. He did this so generously that, for some
 
 OVERTAKEN. 39 l 
 
 time, Nigel was influenced by the gift, and by 
 the larger promises which it included. 
 
 But, after all, he was a man who saw every 
 thing through the eyes of others, and the 
 approbation of the set in which he lived was to 
 him all that ambition of a loftier kind is to 
 nobler men. He was compelled to admit that 
 he had left Memphis in a sort of disgrace. His 
 friendship with Miss Paget had been gravely 
 questioned ; and many asserted that its equivo 
 cal character had driven his wife away from 
 him. And he found it impossible to discuss 
 this subject ; men declined to listen to his ex 
 planations, and he could not make them to 
 women. On the contrary, acquaintances of 
 the Pagets declared that Jane's abolition ten 
 dencies had caused all the trouble. There 
 was even a whisper accusing Jane of running 
 off four slaves ; but this charge was generally 
 conceded to be too abominable for belief. 
 Nigel also denied it. 
 
 " My father gave the two boys their educa 
 tion and freedom," he said, angrily. " I gave 
 the girls to my wife ; she had a perfect right to 
 take them North, if she wished." But Joe 
 Wilkins and Foster had spoken, however 
 guardedly, and it w r as well known that Nigel 
 and his overseer had quarreled furiously 
 on Nigel's return from New Orleans, and 
 that Mr. Clay had said many things about 
 Nigel and Nigel's household which men gen-
 
 39 2 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 erally believed, though they were not dis. 
 cussed. 
 
 Under these circumstances Nigel was par 
 ticularly anxious concerning the manner in 
 which Jane would be received on her return. 
 If the Wards and the Greens, the Blands and 
 the Seftons, called to welcome her, he felt that 
 it would be possible to overlook all her folly ; 
 for he could remind himself that John Paul 
 had paid most liberally forthe four slaves Jane 
 had taken away from him. As for their per 
 sonal disputes, he was not very averse to them. 
 Anything was better than the apathetic indif 
 ference he had witnessed in so many homes, 
 where the husband and wife never consulted 
 each other, never went out together, never had 
 the same friends or enemies, and never had any 
 personal quarrels. Jane's flashing eyes and 
 resolute little face was a piquant provocative ; 
 a dispute with her was something very like a 
 domestic drama. 
 
 On the journey he was fairly attentive he 
 did not know then how things might turn out ; 
 the child troubled him a little, but he made an 
 act of good-nature in tolerating the natural 
 noise of the human animal. " You know you 
 were once a baby, Nigel, and I daresay made 
 just as much noise as little Paul," said Jane, 
 and Nigel rather indignantly denied the sup 
 position. " I was never so ridiculously petted. 
 An old negro nurse took me in charge, and I
 
 OVERTAKEN. 393 
 
 was fed, and washed, and taken out, and put to 
 sleep, and nobody in the house was annoyed 
 by me." 
 
 " Annoyed, Nigel ? " 
 
 " All babies are annoying." 
 
 Jane was silent a few moments, then she 
 said : " I shall want a nurse when we get 
 home." 
 
 No answer. Nigel was thinking of Palma. 
 
 " Mr. Clay spoke to me once about a girl of 
 Squire Eland's, who 
 
 " Mr. Clay will interfere no more in my 
 affairs. I have discharged him." 
 
 " Oh, Nigel, he was so gentlemanly ! " 
 
 " Gentlemanly ! a nigger-driver ! " 
 
 " He was kind and considerate, if he was a 
 nigger-driver." 
 
 " Jane, if you will force me to talk on un 
 pleasant subjects, you must take the conse 
 quences. Mr. Clay told me when I came home 
 that he knew you were running away from me, 
 and was glad of it- -that he helped you all he 
 could, and would nave loaned you money if 
 you had needed it. Indeed, he said so many 
 insolent things that I should have challenged 
 him had he been a gentleman." 
 
 There was a long silence after this confi 
 dence ; but the question of a nurse naturally 
 came up for settlement as soon as they arrived 
 at home. "Only one woman in the house is 
 available," said Nigel ; " a strange hand whom
 
 394 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 I took for a debt against the Paget estate." 
 He rang the bell as he spoke, and ordered 
 Lucinda to be sent for. A feeling of rebellion 
 rose in Jane's heart at the summary treatment 
 of so important a question as Paul's constant 
 attendant ; and she was assuring herself 
 that she would not accept any woman she 
 did not instinctively trust, when Lucinda en 
 tered. 
 
 The eyes of the mother and the slave met. 
 Jane knew her instantly. It was the woman 
 who had brought back the borrowed linen, and 
 at her order flung it upon the blazing cedar 
 logs. There was a bond of sympathy already 
 between them. Jane accepted her with no 
 special reservations. Lucinda also appeared to 
 be pleased with her charge. She was a large 
 woman, with a broad, inscrutable face, not 
 garrulous nor inclined to laughter, but walking 
 about the room with the child on her arm 
 hours at a time, and apparently unconscious of 
 its weight. 
 
 " Sit down, Lucinda ; you must be tired." 
 " I am never tired, Miss Jane." 
 " But Master Paul is heavy." 
 " Li^ht as a feather to Lucinda." 
 Such conversations were frequent, but Jane 
 found it hard to get any closer to her nurse. 
 Lucinda believed not in any man, no, nor wo 
 man either. Jane was disappointed ; she had 
 hoped to find in Lucinda a ready helper. Hef
 
 OVERTAKEN. 395 
 
 chort ejaculation above the burning linen had 
 shown her to be religious, but when Jane spoke 
 to her about God, Lucinda listened as an Israel- 
 itish woman might have listened to a daughter 
 of Pharaoh praising Jehovah. In fact, the dis 
 couragements which assailed Jane on every 
 hand were enough to daunt the most enthu 
 siastic evangelist. 
 
 In the first place, her return had been marked 
 by a most flattering social reception. Every 
 family of any standing had called to welcome 
 her. She was consulted about the fashions, 
 and asked to show her pretty costumes, and 
 even allow them to be copied. And it gave 
 her pleasure to grant all such requests. She 
 had taken some singing lessons in Paris, and she 
 not only loaned her music, but gave many of 
 the young girls valuable aid in its study, and 
 for a time Mrs. Forfar was a very happy woman 
 indeed. 
 
 But this social falat, while it greatly flattered 
 Nigel, absorbed much of Jane's time. The 
 morning calls and evening receptions, the de 
 mands of the church and the world, left her lit 
 tle leisure for the care of her house, and still 
 less for any communion with her own soul. 
 She found also that any attempt to re-open 
 with Nigel the subject of improving the condi 
 tion of their slaves was abortive. He threw 
 cold water on all of her proposals, either by a 
 total want of interest in them or a totrl dis-
 
 39 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 belief in their efficacy. Sometimes, indeed, he 
 positively opposed her wishes. 
 
 She found also a singular reluctance to her 
 interference among the slaves themselves. 
 Her advice and help about their homes which 
 was the first direction her efforts took was 
 coldly, not to say sullenly, met. The condition 
 of their poor little cabins was just the one thing 
 left in their own discretion the only point at 
 which they touched freedom. And they did 
 not like Miss Jane's visits and suggestions, 
 even where the suggestions were made possible 
 by her gifts and help. Alas, Jane did not con 
 sider the hopelessness of heart with which she 
 had to deal ! These poor women asked them 
 selves why they should spend their resting 
 hours in beautifying homes that were in 
 no sense their own. To day they might 
 put them in order ; to-morrow they might be 
 hired out, or sold away, and another woman 
 enjoy, or destroy, the work of their weary 
 hands. 
 
 Thus, in some way or other, all her efforts 
 were negatived, either by conditions of the 
 people impossible for her to change, or by con 
 ditions of her own life equally imperative. Ni 
 gel did nothing to help her ; he quietly did 
 much to embarrass her. Nobody believed in 
 her, and those for whose sake she denied her 
 self some pleasures, and risked many hours of 
 marital disputing, were most of all indifferent
 
 OVERTAKEN. 397 
 
 were even unjust in their judgment of her at 
 tempts, and ungrateful for them. 
 
 Then the hot, languid weather returned. She 
 was physically sick ; she had no heart to per 
 severe ; all her little plans were abandoned ; 
 and she felt a sentiment of anger, mingled with 
 contempt, for men and women so hard to in 
 fluence, so ready to accept wrongs she would 
 have fought against, even unto death. Poor 
 Jane ! she was trying to work a miracle with 
 out omnipotent power. And every day she 
 was losing a little of that artificial power which 
 her own willing return and her father's 
 generosity had temporarily given her. Life 
 settled back to its monotonous duties and 
 commonplace claims ; and Nigel reverted 
 to his natural selfishness and irritability. 
 Plans, ideas, feelings conflicting with his plans, 
 ideas, feelings, were no longer tolerated, or 
 even met with argument. He angrily ignored 
 all resolutions of reform ; " they were," he said, 
 " merely like the unreasonable promises made 
 to a sick child." 
 
 "You have been crying for the moon, Jane, 
 and in order to pacify your clamorings, I pro- 
 mised you the moon. You ought to have 
 known, when I promised you impossible things, 
 that I never meant to that I never could 
 perform my promises. Can the Ethiopian 
 change his skin ? " he asked, with that provok 
 ing air of infallibility a text gives to an un-
 
 39^ SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 reasonable arguer. " Can you help those who 
 will not be helped ? Let the slaves alone ; 
 they are well enough satisfied." 
 
 The violation of this promise indicated the 
 violation of others more personal. At the 
 bottom of his heart, Nigel had never forgiven 
 his wife the scorn, the contempt, and the hu 
 miliating gossip which he had been compelled 
 to endure when she left him. He felt that no 
 one thoroughly believed the explanation Jane 
 and he had agreed to make. For the public is 
 a good diviner, and, when all protestations 
 are over, quietly returns to hints, insinuate^ 
 looks its primitive belief. 
 
 He found himself daily more unpopular , 
 daily treated with more formal respect and less- 
 kindly familiarity ; and he visited every such 
 snub upon his wife and child. For he was not 
 long in discovering that he could hurt Jane 
 twice over through her mother-love. And so 
 evil and dreadful a thing was this perversion of 
 what was holy to sinful uses, that he began 
 also to dislike the innocent child who was his 
 innocent tool. He pretended to think him a 
 trouble ; he ordered him out of his presence 
 with a sharp word, and very soon Paul hid 
 himself in his mother's arms when he heard 
 his father's voice, and answered even his invi 
 tations to " come to him " with sobbing terror. 
 And then the child's fear brought anger and 
 dislike. Though he was not three years old,
 
 OVERTAKEN. 399 
 
 Nigel began to discipline the baby ; to teach 
 him obedience and good manners ; in short, to 
 torture Jane through the torture of her irre 
 sponsible child. 
 
 The hot, dry, windy weather intensified all 
 these elements of domestic discord. Jane was 
 prostrate through the long, terribly sunny 
 days ; nothing but Paul's crying or complain 
 ing could rouse her from the apathy of suffering 
 which invaded her soul. She was in that 
 languid state when all the wheels of life run 
 slow ; the intense green of the foliage oppressed 
 and made her melancholy. The white, lonely 
 cabins and the hopeless men and women trail 
 ing off from them in the morning and coming 
 back to them at night, silent and weary, with 
 out any sense of home to come to, made her 
 wring her hands in despairing pity. She knew, 
 when she saw Nigel sauntering down to the 
 quarters in the gloom of the coming night, that 
 he was going to meet the overseer and hear 
 his report. Not infrequently long, piercing 
 cries came rushing through the shadows and 
 filled her ears with aching sound, and threw 
 her upon her knees in a passion of self-justifi 
 cation before God. " Father in heaven, I can 
 not help it ! If thou interfere not, what can I 
 do?" After such experiences it was hard to 
 meet Nigel, hard to smile at him, hard to love 
 him. She drew away silent, constrained, meas 
 uring in her conscience his share of the guilt
 
 4o SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 So the hot summer passed wearily away 
 Most of Jane's acquaintances went to the 
 " Springs." Nigel said they had been suffi 
 ciently from home, and Jane preferred New 
 York when a change was possible. She was 
 already dreaming of and planning for a visit 
 there. " Nigel was so much better and kinder 
 in New York " the poor wife yet believed his 
 faults to be bred in him by his surroundings; 
 if she could once more induce him to go North 
 with her, she was determined to join her father 
 in any plan likely to keep him there. 
 
 But these fretful, languid, unhappy days 
 were not fruitless ones ; in them, more than 
 ever, Jane turned her thoughts to God the 
 only refuge for women who have loved un 
 worthy men. She had also a brave soul, a 
 thing which all things serve ; she was far from 
 being that vanquished character who has given 
 up fighting for happiness, who is miserable 
 herself and makes all others miserable who 
 approach her. Whenever Nigel was in a mood 
 to begin the day cheerfully, she was instantly 
 ready to meet his mood. She had learned to 
 keep the child out of his sight, to avoid con 
 versation likely to irritate him, to say pleasant 
 and complimentary things in short, to prac 
 tice all the small domestic deceptions which 
 good wives learn, which are, indeed, a species 
 of virtue, being the atmosphere making the 
 existence of more real virtues possible.
 
 O VER TA KEN. 40 1 
 
 And Nigel was yet occasionally sensitive to 
 this heavenly tolerance. He understood the 
 love which made it possible to a woman of 
 Jane's quick temper, and sometimes it com 
 pelled him to assume a similar disposition. 
 Why not? It is said that all who look upon 
 the Apollo involuntarily erect themselves and 
 put on a more dignified air ; certainly, then, 
 the gentleness of a good woman should have 
 the same effect upon the soul. One thing is 
 certain: gloomy, cross thoughts affect our sur 
 roundings as rain affects the atmosphere; will 
 not kind and sunny ones have an equal power? 
 
 Toward the end of October Jane came 
 down to breakfast one morning, and found a 
 note from Mrs. Bland, asking her to spend the 
 day with her. " Of course you must go," said 
 Nigel, with a sullen air. " She is just home 
 from the ' Springs,' and wants to boast herself 
 to you. Let her. Colonel Bland has been 
 very distant to me lately; try, for once, and 
 say a good word for your husband." 
 
 " Do you think, Nigel, I ever say a bad word 
 about you ? " 
 
 " Women whimper, as a general rule, when 
 they are together. Leave Paul at home." 
 
 " I must take Paul with me. I do not trust 
 Lucinda. She hates all white people alike, I 
 think." 
 
 " Pshaw ! you might trust me, however." 
 
 The tone of the remark touched Jane.
 
 4 02 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 Perhaps she ought to answer the longing in it. 
 She would be miserable, but it might bring 
 father and son closer together. In a moment 
 such a thought flashed through her mind ; in 
 the next she answered, " Indeed, Nigel, I shall 
 be very happy to leave Paul in your care. 
 Please keep Lucinda in sight." 
 
 " Have no fear. Paul and I will soon make 
 up all our old quarrels." 
 
 "And have no new ones, Nigel dear?" and 
 she rose with the question, and looked at him 
 with eyes so blue and tender that he felt him 
 self the unkindness of refusing the kiss they so 
 certainly asked. 
 
 The day was not a pleasant one for visiting, 
 and Jane was physically very unfit for the con 
 straint and strain of so many hours with a 
 woman whom she felt bound to please and en 
 tertain. They talked over the company at the 
 " White Sulphur," the dresses and flirtations 
 and probable results. They talked of their 
 mutual friends who had remained at home, of 
 their financial embarrassments, and the negroes 
 likely to change hands. 
 
 "The Colonel does not think your husband 
 got the value of his claim upon the Paget estate 
 in Lucinda. She is a peculiar woman, likely 
 to lose her head again. I hear she is your 
 nurse." 
 
 Jane was instantly sick with terror. " Has 
 she been insane ? "
 
 VER TA KEN. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; I think that circumstance is 
 generally known." 
 
 " I must go home now. I really must. I 
 cannot be easy any longer, knowing this of 
 Lucinda." 
 
 "The Colonel thought I ought to tell you 
 when we heard she was your nurse." 
 
 " Thank you ; but you should have told me 
 when I first came." 
 
 " Perhaps I should it is difficult to inter 
 fere." 
 
 They were going up-stairs together, and it 
 struck Jane there was something else Mrs. 
 Bland wished to say, but she was in a hurry, 
 and only anxious that nothing might delay her. 
 However, at the last moment, Mrs. Bland, with 
 a marked consciousness, said, " Mrs. Forfar, 
 you might incidentally name to your husband 
 that Madame Lenoir is on a visit to her mother, 
 and that she has brought Tatelle with her. I 
 think he ought to be aware of her presence." 
 
 "Tatelle?" 
 
 " I would not name the circumstance if you 
 did not already know the mother of Palma 
 and July." 
 
 " Yes, I know, I know. Great God ! how 
 could he meet her?" 
 
 " The Colonel said I had better tell you 
 such subjects ought not to be opened ; so 
 many are now looking for precisely cases like 
 that very unjust, but it is so. You see, my
 
 44 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 dear, in all societies there are household tra. 
 gedies it does no good to reopen." 
 
 Jane comprehended little of the suave re 
 grets and apologies Mrs. Bland kept murmur 
 ing at her side. She felt, however, the mingled 
 kindness and selfishness of the information 
 given ; but more pressing than any other 
 thought was the fact of Luanda's mental con 
 dition, and the supposition that Nigel was 
 aware of it even when he proposed her as 
 nurse for his child. 
 
 " That is one of the evils of slavery," she 
 muttered bitterly. ''They think these poor 
 creatures know neither love nor hate, gratitude 
 nor revenge." 
 
 The night was really cold; the fog hid 
 everything ; there was a sense of death and 
 decay in the air a mournful stillness that 
 made Jane long to shriek aloud. It was one of 
 those hours when the most trifling anxiety 
 takes the form of a calamity: and Jane's fears 
 were by no means trifling. As the carriage 
 lumbered along the desolate lane, the tall 
 brown weeds in the wan, misty light terrified 
 her. She spoke to the coachman, and he, not 
 catching her words, only answered with a grin, 
 running from ear to ear ; and the bogie laugh 
 ter was but a part of the whole miserable, 
 gloomy, dreamlike hurry. She asked herself 
 wildly, "Am I sleeping? Shall I ever get 
 home to my little Paul ? Is the man taking
 
 O VER TA KEN. 45 
 
 the right way? " At length she saw the house, 
 gleaming white and ghostlike through the 
 damp and drifting fog. Lucinda came to the 
 door to meet her. 
 
 "Where is Master Paul?" she asked 
 angrily. 
 
 " Done gone wid Massa Nigel. Massa done 
 took him from me 'most two hours past." 
 
 Jane did not believe the woman, and Lu 
 cinda divined her fear, and silently mocked 
 her as she watched her miserable, hurried 
 glance into the nursery, into her own room, 
 into the parlor. She knew what Jane was 
 thinking and fearing, and felt a fierce regret 
 that was almost murder in her heart. 
 
 "Where is Master Nigel?" and she turned 
 on the woman with something in her face that 
 mastered her. 
 
 " Dunno, Miss Jane. He went down by de 
 quarters." 
 
 Jane instantly followed the road her hus 
 band had taken, followed him quite to the 
 dreadful pen, into which she had once before 
 intruded. There was a deathly stillness until 
 she crossed the threshold. Nigel and the 
 overseer stood silently together looking over a 
 work-book, and little Paul sat on the table, 
 watching with wide-open eyes a young man 
 crouching and sobbing in a corner. The rude 
 horn lantern was by his side, and his baby 
 hands were doubled up tight upon his knees:
 
 406 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 he was evidently under a great terror, or else 
 paralyzed with shock and pity for what he had 
 witnessed. 
 
 Jane lifted him in her arms, though she was 
 very unable to bear the burden, and went 
 tottering and stumbling in a frenzied haste to 
 the house. Any mother may imagine the 
 scene that followed. vVhen Nigel appeared, 
 Jane faced him with the just indignation of a 
 mother who feels that her child has been will 
 fully brutalized. Nigel at first attempted to ex 
 cuse himself; he had not intended taking Paul 
 into the calaboose ; it was an accident. But 
 when he saw that Jane would accept no excuse, 
 he asserted his right to take the child wherever 
 he desired. He grew insanely passionate, and 
 vowed he would have no squeamish boys 
 brought up under his name. " He shall learn 
 not only to see the idle punished, but to punish 
 them himself. I shall take him into Memphis 
 with me. He shall go wherever I go, and do 
 whatever I do. Mind, I am going to make a 
 Southern gentleman of him." 
 
 Indeed, Nigel lost all control over himself; 
 the whole household were witnesses to his 
 passion, and Jane was not able to stand before 
 it. And, strange as it may seem, Nigel had 
 the general sympathy; for the inner man. 
 when he takes control be it for good or evil 
 is the conqueror. The human animal respects 
 force, and that night Nigel absolutely domi-
 
 OVERTAKEN. 4 7 
 
 nated the trembling slaves around him. They 
 admired his temper, they eagerly sought to 
 pacify him; and neither men nor women, as 
 they whispered together in the dark kitchen, 
 had a word of respect for Jane. 
 
 "Miss Jane powerful stirrin' temper." 
 " Massa doin' no harm to de boy." 
 " Massa's own chile." 
 
 " Hi! Miss Jane find her massa to-night." 
 Of such tenor were the comments as the 
 house gradually settled into that strange quiet 
 which follows a domestic storm. The servants 
 stole off to their beds, and the candles were put 
 out in every room but two, one up-stairs, where 
 Jane sat with clasped hands thinking, thinking, 
 thinking, trying to find out what she ought to 
 do ; grieving most of all because she had been 
 told that night that she was an unloved wife 
 that Nigel regretted that he had married her 
 that he longed to be free. She feared, she 
 trembled at the visions her own imagination 
 evoked when she thought of these bitter 
 truths, forced by passion into a too late 1 speech. 
 Nigel had a satisfaction in having at length 
 voiced them. At any rate, there would no 
 longer be any necessity for an affectation of 
 affection. If Jane did not like the new era he 
 was resolved to inaugurate, she could go back 
 to her father. He was weary of being obligated 
 to the old Dutchman. Nigel felt his favors to 
 be chains around his hands and feet. He
 
 4 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 would shake them off. Then he began to think 
 of his debts, of his poverty, of Texas. Why 
 not go there? Go alone. His wife's father 
 really owned all he had let him take it and 
 take his daughter also. He could get an ad 
 vance from his factor, and in Western Texas 
 live the life he longed for, that Harry enjoyed 
 so thoroughly. He fancied he had a capacity 
 for an open-air, hard-riding, hard-fighting camp 
 life ; he, who delighted in cutting his days and 
 his employments, his dress and even his amuse 
 ments, to the conventional pattern ! 
 
 For there are certain moods in which we be 
 come disgusted with ourselves, lay the blame 
 of our actions upon our circumstances, and 
 imagine in escaping from them we shall also 
 escape from the hateful self we have got a 
 glimpse of. At this hour Nigel Forfarwas ex 
 periencing such a revulsion against all that he 
 had hitherto valued and observed. He was 
 mentally spurning every domestic tie and every 
 social demand. He was dreaming of an existence 
 of joyful freedom in a heavenly climate. And 
 in order to fully enjoy and follow out his dream 
 to a practical conclusion, he lit another cigar 
 and lay down upon a couch to smoke it. 
 
 He knew not that, from a dark angle of the 
 piazza., the woman called Tatelle stood watch 
 ing him with the hate of a wronged woman and 
 the fury of a robbed mother in her heart.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 FORFAR PAYS ALL DEBTS. 
 " But they that sin are enemies to their own life." [Tobit 
 
 Xii. 10.] 
 
 " For the Lord knoweth all them that sin against him, and 
 therefore delivereth he them unto death and destruction." [2 
 Esdras xv. 26.] 
 
 " For the destiny of which they were worthy, drew them 
 unto this end." [Wisdom of Solomon xix. 4.] 
 
 had followed Jane from Mem- 
 I phis to the Forfar place, most of the way 
 sitting on the flat board at the back of the 
 carriage, and perhaps, if such cause and effect 
 were well understood, she had been a sufficient 
 reason for the mental terrors which assailed the 
 unhappy wife and mother. She slipped off 
 before the gates were passed, and took her way 
 by a devious course to the quarters. She 
 visited only one woman, an aged negress, who 
 recognized her step and voice in an instant, 
 and answered it with a soft, glad whisper of: 
 " Tatelle ! Sistah Tateiile ! " 
 The conference that followed was one to 
 drive the mother frantic. She heard all the 
 story of July's sufferings, of the journey of 
 Wilkins to New York for her sons, and she 
 fully concurred with old Celia in the belief 
 409
 
 410 SHE LOVED A SA1LOK. 
 
 that they had really been brought back to Ne\v 
 Orleans and sold. The story of their escape 
 was a made-up story to cover the blackness of 
 the crime. As to the freeing of Palma and 
 July, the idea was scouted by both. "The 
 white woman took them to New Orleans and 
 no further," said the enraged mother. " Liver 
 pool ! England ! Ah, they put them far 
 enough away to prevent any one finding out." 
 
 In such bitter conversation the two women 
 Sat crouching in the dark cabin. They forgot 
 there was neither light nor fire ; they did not 
 know that the fog had changed to a soft, soak 
 ing, dismal rain ; their hearts were burning 
 with unpardonable wrong ; they were in a 
 fever of contemplated vengeance ; they talked 
 softer and softer, in sentences broken in two or 
 finished in mysterious passes over the face or 
 in touching of the hands. 
 
 When Tatelle left Celia's cabin, all was quiet 
 in the big house ; all was dark save in the rooms 
 where Jane watched and feared in miserable 
 anticipation of a woman's greatest trial, and in 
 the parlor where Nigel lay planning his new 
 and perfectly happy future. Tatelle hated 
 Jane, and she felt an angry impulse urging her 
 to settle with Jane first. She believed that 
 Jane had been as deeply involved in the sale of 
 her daughters as Nigel was, though she admitted 
 with Celia that she had been forced by fear of 
 Nigel to bring the girls to New Orleans; but
 
 FORFAR PAYS ALL DEBTS. 4i 
 
 that consideration only added contempt to 
 her hate. 
 
 She knew the house and the ways of the 
 house ; even if the doors had been locked, 
 access would have been easy to her. But the 
 doors were seldom locked so early, and a 
 movement of the handle in passing showed her 
 the way was without obstruction. She stood 
 some time on the piazza, feeding her hate and 
 her longing for vengeance with the sight of the 
 man who had so foully wronged her. He lay 
 at full length upon the sofa, with his hands 
 clasped above his head. He had thrown off 
 his black broadcloth coat, and his black velvet 
 vest was unbuttoned. A candle burned on the 
 side-board, but the main light of the room 
 came from the large wood fire to which fresh 
 logs had been recently added. She knew Nigel 
 well enough to be sure that as soon as his cigar 
 was out he would gradually cease thinking and 
 fall asleep. She waited patiently ; she felt the 
 hate in her heart gathering strength with every 
 moment. It was sending into her arms and 
 hands invincible power, and she stretched them 
 out in the dark, rainy atmosphere and looked 
 with a fierce joy at them. 
 
 The rain dripped on the gallery floor and on 
 the wooden steps ; a chill, sad wind rose, and 
 wandered mournfully through the tops of the 
 big trees ; the hounds in the kennels began to 
 bay ; what if they were loose ? The fright
 
 412 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 added fresh fuel to her angry impatience ; she 
 told herself, in awful words, it was the last 
 terror he should ever give her. She was mov 
 ing stealthily to the door, when she saw his 
 arms drop ; in a few moments he was asleep. 
 She hesitated no longer. She was sure of her 
 enemy now. 
 
 Her tall, large figure, in its wet, dark gar 
 ment, glided softly up to the unconscious man ; 
 she needed no fresh stimulant to her purpose, 
 but if she had, the complacent satisfaction of 
 his sleeping countenance would have given her 
 it. She took the prostrate body by the throat, 
 firmly, pitilessly, and then threw her weight 
 upon it. Nigel opened his eyes ; they were 
 full of agony and mortal fear. 
 
 " Where are my boys ? " she whispered 
 fiercely ; " where are my boys ? Where are my 
 daughters? Oh, you thief of soul and body, 
 you shall pay their price this night ! " 
 
 He struggled for his life; he struggled des 
 perately ; but that wet, awful weight would not 
 let him move ; those hands of iron would not 
 let him speak. But, oh ! how keen was his 
 hearing. The dreadful words she whispered in 
 his ears did not prevent him from listening with 
 agonizing intensity for some footstep ; for some 
 help. Oh, if Jane had only been with him 
 when this mad woman entered ! A tumult of 
 thoughts went like billows over him, blinded, 
 deafened, deadened all things ; crept to his
 
 FORFAR PAYS ALL DEBTS. 4'3 
 
 heart and brain, and said to him by every sense, 
 "This is death" And at that moment she 
 held him firmest ; and, stooping her face close 
 to his face, said, in a dreadful mutter of rage : 
 "O wicked soul, what is passing in you now?'' 
 
 She held him until her hands grew weary 
 with the tension ; until the lassitude of ex. 
 hausted feeling attacked her. Then she sat 
 down on the floor by his side and watched him. 
 If he had stirred, her strength would have come 
 back to her ; but he never moved, he never 
 would move again. Hour after hour passed, 
 and the murderess watched her victim with an 
 insane intentness. It did not enter her mind 
 to escape. She sat still until the gray day 
 light, drenched in rain, came noiselessly in 
 through the windows and found out, with sur 
 prised and awful wonder, the face of the dead 
 man. The house was very quiet. A cry from 
 little Paul startled all its echoes. Then a bell 
 rang, and there was the sound of bare feet 
 going hurriedly up-stairs. 
 
 Jane stood by the crib of her child ; Lucinda 
 was sullenly building the fire. When a girl 
 opened the door, Jane fretfully turned to her 
 " How late you are this morning! Have you 
 seen Master Nigel?" 
 
 " No, Miss Jane." 
 
 A sudden unreasonable terror turned her 
 heart cold. "See if there is any one sleeping 
 in the other rooms."
 
 4 r 4 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 The girl returned in a few moments. " No 
 body in any of them, Miss Jane." 
 
 " Go to the parlor, and see if Master Nigel 
 is sleeping there. If so, make up the fire " 
 and she shivered and looked toward the sput 
 tering, smoking mass Lucinda was building. 
 
 The girl came flying back, with horror in her 
 face, but unable to utter a word. She pointed 
 down-stairs, threw herself upon the floor, and 
 began to roll about with hideous contortions. 
 
 In a few moments Jane stood by the side of 
 her husband. Tatelle looked at her with the 
 cunning hatred of insanity. Jane returned her 
 gaze with one of passionate power. " You are 
 a murderess!" she said. "Sit still! Do not 
 dare to move ! Reuben, Gabe, Sally, Malinda ! 
 Quick! Come here." She kept her eyes upon 
 the crouching woman, and held her with them, 
 until the room filled and she was secured. 
 
 41 1 did it! I did it! I did it!" The mur 
 deress said the words over and over continually 
 with a triumphant hatred, until Jane answered 
 her with a passion equal to her own " You are 
 a wicked woman ! You are a murderess ! " 
 
 The news spread like wildfire. Men talked 
 it over in all their gathering places ; and women 
 spoke bitterly of Nigel Forfar for being the 
 cause of such an outrageous vengeance. It 
 put dreadful thoughts of murder into the minds 
 of their own slaves. It was a dangerous ex 
 ample. No one knew who might do likewise.
 
 FORFAR PAYS ALL DEBTS. 4 T 5 
 
 At sunset the murdered man was buried in 
 his own grounds. Under some great trees be 
 tween the garden and the swamp there was a 
 square acre in which three generations of For- 
 fars slept, old and young men, mothers and 
 maidens. A few weeks previously, on a lovely 
 Sabbath evening, Jane and Nigel had walked 
 there. Nigel told her incidents relating to the 
 dead men and women ; and they spent a 
 solemnly tender hour, until Jane made a remark 
 which wounded the easily wounded sensibilities 
 of her husband. The inscription upon every 
 stone began in the same way ; it struck her fin 
 ally, and she read aloud, in a slow, dubious 
 voice : 
 
 " ' Here rests Stephen John Forfar,' etc. 
 Men write ' he rests,' but what do they know 
 about it, Nigel ? " 
 
 " My family lived honorable lives, Jane, and 
 died in their beds, with all the consolations of 
 religion. Why should they not rest ? There 
 are no wandering ghosts among the Forfars." 
 
 His tone showed great offense, and she did 
 not take the trouble to explain her meaning. 
 Their conversations often terminated with this 
 air of misunderstanding, willful misunderstand 
 ing, generally, upon Nigel's part. She became 
 silent, and when they reached the gate she 
 passed through it. Nigel followed her. They 
 went on a few steps, and then Jane stopped 
 and said :
 
 4*6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " Shut the gate, Nigel. It is not well to 
 leave it open. It looks like it might be 
 tieeded." 
 
 " How sillily superstitious you are ! " 
 
 " Perhaps all women in my case are super 
 stitious. Shut it, to please me, Nigel." 
 
 " No, I will not humor such ridiculous feel 
 ings." 
 
 Then Jane stepped back and closed the gate, 
 and as she rejoined him, she added, in a con 
 ciliatory voice, " I have heard my father say 
 we should always protect graves, or else we 
 offend the dead." 
 
 " It is as much as I can do to please the 
 living, Jane." 
 
 " I think, also, we should wish to please the 
 dead, Nigel ; they are a great cloud of wit 
 nesses." 
 
 Trifling acts and words impress those in sor 
 row. That woeful day following Nigel's mur 
 der, Jane could not keep the circumstance of 
 this visit to the graveyard out of her mind. 
 If Nigel had shut the gate, could it have influ 
 enced his destiny? Great natural events turn 
 upon such little things; was the supernatural 
 affected by matters equally slight and appar 
 ently insignificant? Did Nigel, knowing her 
 condition and her superstition, purposely leave 
 it open, thinking, hoping that he left it 
 open for her? She put the doubt quickly 
 away. " I must not think ill of the dead,"
 
 FORFAR PAYS ALL DEBTS. 4^7 
 
 she moaned " he can never speak for him 
 self." 
 
 She saw Nigel's face no more after that first 
 awful vision of it in the presence of his insane 
 murderess. In the late afternoon a, large gath 
 ering of gentlemen carried their comrade to his 
 place among his ancestors. The rain plashed 
 heavily on them, and the sad autumn storm 
 filled the air with melancholy drifts of faded 
 leaves. Outside the fence the negroes stood 
 bareheaded, and full of passing pity. They 
 had had a day's rest, and they went back to 
 their cabins to whisper about their own fates. 
 It was the general opinion Miss Jane would 
 sell them all. They knew she hated the South, 
 and her sympathy had evidently not impressed 
 them as meaning anything practically kind. 
 They expected her to sell them. 
 
 John Paul had been sent for immediately on 
 the discovery of Nigel's murder. He arrived 
 soon after Jane had given birth to a daughter. 
 The child was scarcely a day old, the mother 
 was apparently at her last day. But John 
 Paul's presence was like a breath of fresh 
 strong air in a vault. It was felt throughout 
 the house, and it set everything into healthy 
 movement. So that when Jane was able to 
 leave her room, and take an interest in her af 
 fairs, all were ready for her consideration. 
 
 One clear, frosty day, John Paul, coming in 
 from a walk, found her standing over the era-
 
 4i 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 die of her infant. There was such an expres 
 sion of pain on her face that he instantly joined 
 her. " My dear Jane," he said, " I am sure 
 you have a sad thought ; tell it to me." 
 
 "Sad and strange, father. If I had not the 
 proof of it, I scarcely know how you would 
 believe it." She lifted a book lying near her 
 and made him look at it. 
 
 (<< A History of the Forfar Family to the 
 Time of their Emigration.'" He read the 
 title aloud, and Jane answered his questioning 
 look. 
 
 " Yes ; and, as you see, it is in old Scotch 
 and very hard to read, but you may spell this 
 out fairly enough : 
 
 ' and because of the cruel, shameful wrong wrought on this 
 poor orphan maid, a doom was set on all the males of Forfar 
 2 hat they should never see a daughter s face.' 
 
 My poor little girl is a doom child. She is the 
 first daughter born to the house since they 
 came to America, and Nigel did not live to see 
 her." 
 
 " My dear Jane, Nigel earned his own doom, 
 and there is no man to blame for it but him 
 self." 
 
 " Yea ! the wrong began with his father, and 
 the sins of the fathers are visited on the chil 
 dren." 
 
 " If Nigel had done right, he would not have 
 borne his father's wrong." 
 
 " That dreadful night, as I lay asleep upon
 
 FORFAR PAYS ALL DEBTS. 
 
 my bed, I had a dumb consciousness that, in the 
 dark, Nigel passed me, and that we exchanged 
 a thought, a word, in the passing. In the morn 
 ing I had forgiven him everything, everything, 
 as soon as I awakened before I knew that he 
 was dead. Oh, father, what did he say to me ? 
 When his soul was suddenly dismissed into the 
 cold, dark, empty space, where did it go? Is 
 God any more there than he is here ? What is 
 meant by heaven ? " 
 
 " Jane, my child, if you ask questions like 
 these, you must go to my friend Mason with 
 them. I am not wiser than what is written. I 
 confess, though, I asked him a somewhat simi 
 lar question when Marius Bradford disappeared. 
 ' You think he is in heaven, Major ; what do- 
 you mean by that ? " I said these words very 
 thoughtlessly, expecting an ordinary answer, 
 and I was a little startled at what he said." 
 
 " Tell me." 
 
 " He turned his large, thoughtful, far away 
 eyes upon my eyes, and spoke thus : ' My friend, 
 when the soul leaves the body, it is of necessity 
 in that place in the heavens where our planet 
 is at the moment of separation. Thus we are 
 in the heavens immediately after death, as in 
 deed we have been the whole of our lives, only 
 we are free from that weight which fixed us to 
 the planet. Consider, however, that our earth 
 travels in her orbit 26,800 leagues every hour; 
 then in one hour how far from its late habita-
 
 420 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 tion the soul may be ? ' And I answered him, 
 ' No, my friend, I will not consider about such 
 mysteries. I will say, into Thy hands I com 
 mit my spirit, and rest all and leave all these.' 
 But now there is a straight, plain duty before 
 you, Jane, and if you are well enough to think 
 and act, the sooner we do what is right and 
 the better the deed. Can you listen to me to 
 day ? " 
 
 " Yes. I am ready to do all you wish." 
 
 " This house and land, and the men and 
 women pertaining to it, are mine. I want 
 neither the house nor the land nor the men or 
 women servants. Do you ?" 
 
 " I wish to go away from here and never see 
 the place again." 
 
 " Listen then. I shall set the servants free. 
 I shall sell the house and land, and divide the 
 price among them. It is the wages of their 
 body labor and their soul travail, and I will 
 have none of it." 
 
 " I think you are right." 
 
 " The little babe is crying ; lift her, and then 
 sit down by me, and while she is in your arms 
 we will arrange this act of justice. Though 
 she will have no part in the good deed, it may 
 bring a blessing on her. And, Jane, at this 
 hour we will name her; we will call her after 
 your grandmother, Justine Diedrich, a good 
 woman." 
 
 So the babe Justine was of the council of
 
 FORFAR PAYS ALL DEBTS. 421 
 
 mercy, and when John Paul rose up from it he 
 went straight into Memphis, and made an offer 
 of the Forfar place to Nigel's late factor. The 
 man had intimated his wish to buy, and the 
 bargain was soon concluded ; though he said 
 that Mr. Keteltas drove a hard trade, asking 
 full price, and taking nothing in payment but 
 the metal coins which went by the name of 
 <( Jackson money." 
 
 In the mean time the slaves had been enjoy 
 ing a kind of long holiday. One of John Paul's 
 first acts was to pay off the overseer. Then he 
 called the men and women together, and told 
 them to be their own overseer, to do honest 
 work, and sooner or later he would estimate it. 
 They had begun to feel as if Miss Jane's rule 
 was going to be a very good one, and to dread 
 only lest there should be a change. " Dese 
 times too good to last," said faithful old 
 Toby ; and when all hands were ordered to the 
 bi^ house on the morning of the nth of 
 December, the sage shook his white head, and 
 asked sadly, " What I tole you ; too good times 
 to last." 
 
 For a muster at the big house had always 
 been the way in which some final break had 
 been announced. It meant separation and 
 sorrow and change, and the tendency of middle- 
 aged humanity is to abide the ills they know 
 rather than try what is remote and unfamiliar. 
 
 John Paul sat by a table on which there was
 
 422 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 \ large quanitity of gold and silver coin. His 
 grandson was on his knee. Jane and the babe 
 Justine occupied a large chair near at hand. 
 There was an air of pleasure and of solemn 
 happiness on their faces. The sunshine 
 streamed joyously into the room, the fire 
 crackled and leaped in its broad hearth alcove. 
 As the anxious men and women came slowly 
 in, they felt a burden roll from their hearts ; 
 they hoped they knew not what certainly 
 nothing like what actually came to them. 
 
 " Men and women," said John Paul, and his 
 voice trembled with the joy in his heart " men 
 and women, you and your children are free ! 
 from this hour, free forever ! " 
 
 There was a moment's dead silence, then a 
 sob, a cry, a shout, that made John Paul's heart 
 quiver, and his face shine, and the tears roll 
 unchecked down his rosy cheeks. Jane wept 
 without restraint ; she pressed her baby to her 
 breast, and prayed inwardly for the dear dead 
 she did not name. Who dare blame her for an 
 instinct so natural and so universal ? Where 
 is it forbidden that we pray for our dead ? Is 
 God's mercy so short that it reaches only earth ? 
 If we ascend into heaven, or go down into hell r 
 can we ever get beyond his love? Jane's heart 
 said to her, " Pray for the poor soul taken in 
 the very midst of its premeditated sins," and 
 she prayed, doubting nothing of the love of 
 God.
 
 FORFAR PA YS ALL DEBTS. 4 2 3 
 
 Many of the women and some of the men 
 had fallen on their knees. John Paul waited 
 till the first happy shock was over, then he 
 continued : 
 
 " I have sold the house and land, and the 
 price of it I will justly divide among you. In 
 two days a steamer will be waiting for all who 
 wish to be beyond the breath of slavery. I 
 will go with you to Cairo ; I will see you safe 
 on free soil. Does any one, old or young, wish 
 to remain here?" 
 
 No ; there was not one. Toby said, " I'se 
 near a hundred years ole, Massa ; many and 
 evil years, Massa; but I wants to go wid you. 
 I wants to die free." 
 
 It was well that the hurry of their departure 
 claimed something from the amazing joy of 
 their new condition. The first effect of over 
 whelming light is blindness ; and the first effect 
 of this sudden uplifting of despair and break 
 ing of bonds was a sobbing amazement and 
 excess of happiness that was almost sadness. 
 John Paul instantly perceived the invasion of 
 this soul-weakness. As the men and women 
 began to drop down and cry out, they knew 
 not why, he roused them by a peremptory call 
 to duty. 
 
 " Come, come," he cried, " you have but two 
 days to prepare. Yoke up the oxen and load 
 the wagons with the bacon, potatoes, and corn 
 meal laid up for the winter. You must take it
 
 4-4 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 with you. And Miss Jane will divide among 
 you blankets and bedding, and such furniture 
 as is suitable to your condition. The ' Amelia 
 Poole ' lies at the wharf. She is waiting to 
 take you to a new and happy life ; get her 
 loaded as soon as you can. Hurry, men ! 
 hurry ! Always make the most of a good 
 hour." 
 
 Then a passion of haste brought them back 
 to themselves. Jane took charge of the excited 
 women and directed their efforts. John Paul 
 opened up the smokehouse and cellar, and saw 
 the wagons loaded, and went with them to the 
 wharf, lest the men should rouse popular feel 
 ing by their imprudent rejoicing. " Keep 
 quiet, keep quiet!" he charged them. " You 
 will have plenty of time for triumph. Free 
 dom is not a whisper for a slave city." 
 
 He took them on board the "Amelia Poole " 
 in the dusk of the second evening. They stole 
 away quietly, a few by one street, and a few by 
 another ; some at one hour, others a little later. 
 There was no stir, no noise but the gathering 
 steam ; and it was not until Memphis was some 
 miles distant, and nothing visible but the irre 
 sistible sweep of the dark river, and the somber 
 line of the endless woods on its banks, that a 
 soft, low murmur of song began at the bow of 
 the boat. 
 
 John Paul walked toward it. He saw the 
 dusky crowd standing there, all their faces
 
 FORFAR PA YS ALL DEBTS. 425 
 
 turned one way to the North to freedom. 
 Though he could distinguish neither forms nor 
 sounds perfectly, that little congregation of 
 lifted faces, that unexpected, sincere intrusion 
 of droning solemn music into the still, dark 
 night, affected him to the very depths of his 
 nature. He saw and heard, as the angel who 
 kept the great water-way saw and heard, for 
 
 It is the soul that sees ; 
 
 It is the sympathy that hears. 
 
 The days of the voyage were occupied 
 in discussing the plans and hopes of the 
 freed men and women. Some preferred to 
 go to the inland towns. These were' the 
 house servants, who expected to find in hotels 
 and private houses profitable employment. 
 Others desired to buy land and build cabins ; 
 these were the field hands, who had generally 
 large families. To them John Paul gave 
 liberally ; to each single man and woman he 
 gave four hundred dollars. He talked to them 
 as he would have talked to his own sons and 
 daughters ; warning, advising, preparing them, 
 as well as warning and advice can ever prepare 
 a human being for the dangers and perplexi 
 ties of an unforeseen existence. 
 
 It was very cold 'weather when they reached 
 Cairo, but every one was on deck to catch the 
 first glimpse of free soil. They saw it as the 
 sun rose and sent bright rays of golden light
 
 426 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 across the level land. To them it was the 
 land of Canaan. They watched the boat near- 
 ing it with a silence more impressive than 
 speech, but when the anchor fell and the gang 
 way was laid for their crossing, a great shout 
 escaped them. 
 
 They pressed round John Paul, they kissed 
 his hands and his feet, they prayed, they went 
 over the gangway shouting with gladness, and 
 when their feet touched the free earth they 
 knelt down and laid their lips against it, and so 
 at last, all together, went up the steep hill 
 singing. A tall, powerful field hand, with a 
 red kerchief round his head, led them. His 
 voice, like a silver trumpet, rang out, seemed 
 to fill the horizon from east to west, and the 
 men, women, and children followed his lead, 
 keeping time with slow, stately footsteps and 
 clapping their unshackled hands to the wild 
 melody : 
 
 Hang up de sword in Zion ! 
 
 My Lord, what a morning ! 
 Hang up de sword in Zion ! 
 
 My Lord, what a morning ! 
 Ober Jordan in de morning light ! 
 In de morning light, 
 In de morning light, 
 My Lord, what a morning ! 
 
 And then again the loud, triumphant shout of 
 the leader : 
 
 Hang up de sword in Zion !
 
 FORFAR PAYS ALL DEBTS. 4*7 
 
 And far, and farther away with every move 
 ment, the shrill, sweet wonder of grateful 
 praise : 
 
 My Lord, what a morning ! 
 
 John Paul stood watching and listening until 
 the last flutter of red kerchiefs passed out of 
 sight ; until the last woman, with a babe at 
 her breast and four little children clinging to 
 her scant clothing, stood a moment at the 
 turning, and, with eyes fixed upon the anchored 
 boat, dropped it a parting courtesy. And some 
 how this humble, awkward tribute touched 
 John Paul more than all else. He lifted his 
 hat and wiped his eyes, and answered it with a 
 word of that sudden prayer which always finds 
 out the ear of God.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 
 
 I saw a gradual vision through my tears. 
 
 The sweet sad years, the melancholy years, 
 
 Those of my own life, who by turns had flung 
 
 A shadow across me. Straightway I was 'ware, 
 
 So weeping, how a mystic shape did move 
 
 Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair, 
 
 And a voice said in mastery, while I strove, 
 
 "Guess now who holds thee ?" " Death," I said ; but there 
 
 The silver answer rang " Not Death, but Love ! " 
 
 THE year which had been so fateful to Jane 
 Forfar which had seen her reunion with 
 Nigel, the birth of her daughter, the murder of 
 her husband, and the writing of " Finished " 
 across the whole page of her married life, was 
 not barren of events touching the life of 
 Virginia Mason. 
 
 When she parted with Jane in its beginning, 
 she thought they would see each other's faces 
 no more. Jane and John Paul were of the same 
 opinion. "I think Virginia will die very soon," 
 Jane said ; " she looks more hke heaven than 
 earth now." And John Paul answered, " I 
 think with you ; before a bird flies, we see that 
 it has wings." 
 
 But in March there occurred one of those 
 438
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 429 
 
 mysterious agitations which, like the \vind r 
 come from where no man knows. A sailor who 
 had been some time on the " Arethusa " spoke 
 to Major Mason. He scouted the idea of 
 Marius Bradford having been lost; ''none of 
 that kind, sir," he said, confidently, and the 
 Major somehow transmitted a breath of confi 
 dence to the dying girl. In the settlement of 
 a claim ; in a lawsuit ; in the arrest of a sailor 
 who still wore a cap bearing the name of the 
 "Arethusa"; in other slight and apparently 
 far-fetched ways, the unfortunate vessel came 
 again upon the lips of living men. 
 
 One afternoon Virginia was moved profound 
 ly by an urgent request from Jack Rhea. For 
 many months she had refused to see Jack. 
 She thought he sorrowed too little for his 
 brother ; she looked upon his buoyant hope in 
 the return of Marius as a comfortable way of 
 putting Marius out of his mind. In the sel 
 fishness of her own suffering she had indeed 
 done Jack much wrong. 
 
 " If I were you, I would search the ocean for 
 him ; I would not rest until I knew whether he 
 was dead or alive." She had said these words 
 to Jack, and felt, while saying them, a bitter, 
 unreasonable anger when she contrasted the 
 happiness and prosperity of one brother with 
 the unknown, sorrowful fate of the other. 
 Jack's satisfaction with his wife and child, and 
 general good fortune, irritated her. His confi-
 
 4JO SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 deuce was an offense to her own despair ; she 
 felt that she was unable to see him, and had 
 for many months steadily refused to do so. 
 
 But he came again one bright afternoon in 
 February, and he urged Nelly to procure him 
 an interview with Miss Mason. Twice that 
 day she had heard the " Arethusa " named ; 
 the word was stirring her heart when Jack 
 called ; and she suddenly resolved to see him. 
 He came into her presence with an air at once 
 solemn and hopeful. He was not so oppres 
 sively full of life and joy and confidence. She 
 put out her thin white hand, and welcomed 
 him kindly. 
 
 Jack drew his chair close to her sofa. " Vir 
 ginia," he said, " my father died this morning. 
 vVe brought him to us a year ago, and Carrie 
 had learned to love the dear old man very 
 much. He was so fond and proud of her and 
 of our little Maria. He died this morning." 
 
 " Poor father ! Grief kills the aged more 
 mercifully than the young. How he must 
 have mourned for Marius ! " 
 
 " No. He always said Marius would come 
 home. He watched every day and every hour 
 for him ; he was certain he would live to see 
 Marius." 
 
 " And then to be disappointed, even to the 
 last moment ! " 
 
 " Virginia, he was not disappointed. This 
 morning, about ten o'clock, when he had lain
 
 ///A HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 43 r 
 
 still and apparently lifeless for some hours, a 
 faint, flickering light came into his gray face. 
 His eyes looked far off, far off, and he saw 
 what filled them with a wonderful joy and 
 light, and then his lips parted. He began to 
 speak, but his words were thick and rapid like 
 people talking as they pass each other." 
 
 "Oh, Jack! what did you hear?" 
 
 " I heard him say ' Marius ' quite distinctly, 
 and, after a short pause, as if in answer to a 
 question, these four words 'Just before the 
 winter' As truly as I live, Virginia, I heard 
 these words in the very voice of Marius. And 
 the voice was neither sad nor weak ; it was 
 strong and pleasant, but low and faraway. As 
 truly as I live, Virginia, I believe that Marius 
 will return -just before the winter." 
 
 She listened to the positive words of the 
 young man with a swift conviction of their 
 truth. As he spoke she raised herself into a 
 sitting posture, her lips parted, her eyes 
 gleamed ; she said softly, when Jack ceased 
 speaking, " Just before the winter ! I will wait 
 for him." 
 
 " You will not be disappointed. Trust me, 
 trust God, Virginia. He bringeth all good 
 things to pass." Then Jack went away, but he 
 left a great consolation behind him. 
 
 When Major Mason returned home that day 
 he found the light of this new hope still upon 
 her face. She drew him close to her, and,
 
 43 2 -S7/A LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 holding his hands in hers, repeated what Jack 
 Rhea had said. " Do you believe it, father? " 
 
 "With all my soul, Virginia. Last week I 
 visited Mr. Rhea. I saw then that he was at 
 the very verge of this life. We spoke much of 
 Marius, and I told him how the cruel suspense 
 in which his fate was held made you suffer. I 
 think, ere his spirit left this planet for the star 
 of its desire and destiny, it visited Marius. If 
 in dreams the soul can go so far, see so much, 
 and bring back such secret intelligences, how 
 much more in the hour and article of death ? 
 He still retained so much power over his clay 
 tool as to speak through its cold lips the mes 
 sage given, he departed forever." 
 
 "I wonder if Marius knew?" 
 
 " When he comes, ask him." 
 
 The air of certainty with which the Major 
 spoke of this coming was charming. It was 
 like an elixir to Virginia. She would not ques 
 tion it away "When he comes, ask him." It 
 was evident her father regarded the return of 
 Marius with a positive expectation. 
 
 In Virginia's first weeks of suspense she had 
 suffered all the anguish of a soul in revolt. The 
 hard reasoning which would have taught her 
 to accept calmly an inevitable fact, simply be 
 cause the disappearance of Marius was a fact, 
 and was inevitable, she could not, she would 
 not, listen to. She prayed, she implored God 
 for her lover's return. She had faith in God's
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 433 
 
 sympathy, and in this loving imploration she 
 continued until her health failed. Then her 
 despair, which had been active, became a som 
 ber despondency ; her soul secretly and con 
 stantly fed on it, and it induced day by day a 
 languor near to annihilation. Continually she- 
 traced the same circle, asked the same question, 
 monotonously repeated, without any hope to 
 find an answer. 
 
 For it was one of Virginia's misfortunes that 
 she was not permitted to fight out the battle 
 alone. Into an afflicted soul the crowd think 
 they have a right to come ; it is like a con 
 quered city. Friends, acquaintances, covert 
 enemies, came to visit her with advices, .pro 
 testations, concealed reproaches. One said, 
 " Time will bring forgetfulness, and wherever 
 your dear one is, are you sure that he will con 
 tinue to love you ? Are you sure even that, 
 after five or even two years, you will continue 
 to love him?" Such inquiries were worse than 
 death. Jack spoke of the many virtues of 
 Marius. He wept as he counted over his acts 
 of loving-kindness, and Virginia was angry at 
 him for using the past tense. She fancied her 
 long sorrow wearied Jack, who had his living^ 
 loves to care for. 
 
 But worst of all miserable comforters were 
 those who pretended to bring her the consola 
 tions of heaven who told her of a God who 
 must be loved alone, and who jealously broke
 
 434 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 all earthly idols of a God who was angry at 
 any revolt against his will; pious preachers, 
 who went on repeating in a spiritual manner 
 phrases of purest egotism " What were health 
 and riches, human glory, human science, or 
 even human love? Nothing. Every day 
 brought some wretched example of their failure 
 to give lasting happiness. It was a bad calcu 
 lation to love any earthly thing; the only 
 infallible calculation was to love God. He 
 never died, he never failed, and he was master 
 of all events." Here was a spiritual logic be 
 yond dispute, and they expected Virginia to 
 believe their report. 
 
 But her whole moral nature revolted against 
 it. Her friends might die, might even cease 
 to love her: so much the more would she love 
 them. To detach herself wholly from the 
 creature, and give herself wholly to God, be 
 cause the creature might not be fully worthy 
 or fully reliable, ah ! that was not God's way 
 of loving man ! She felt it would kill her 
 spiritually and physically. She said, out of the 
 fullness of her sorrow, " I will not listen to such 
 consolation. If love and life are God's gifts, 
 how can I help weeping when he takes them 
 away? Was it not when God saw Job pros 
 trate with grief because of his bereavements 
 that he said of him, ' My servant Job, who has 
 not his equal upon the earth ? ' ' And until her 
 physical health gave way, she resisted all
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 435 
 
 spiritual poison ; she clung to her faith ia 
 God's love, as a child clings closer and closer to 
 the father who is chastising it. 
 
 Jack's visit, and the wonderful promise of it, 
 affected her very remarkably. It seemed to 
 suddenly arrest the stealthy undermining of her 
 life by sorrow. And in a few weeks this truce 
 with death was evident. She had visibly 
 gained. She began to forget her own sorrow, 
 and to think of her father's long patience with 
 his darkened days ; and when an invalid has 
 progressed thus far, love and care will do the 
 rest. 
 
 Nelly was quick to seize every favorable 
 symptom and nurse it, until it nursed the 
 patient. She would not allow that there had 
 been anything remarkable in the old fisher 
 man's message. The circumstance was not a 
 bit uncommon. 
 
 " Whya ! " she said, with the most matter-of- 
 fact air, " it's a varry common way with York 
 shire folk. There was old Dickie Umpleby a 
 stubborn soul as iver was and he wouldn't 
 forgive young Dick, till he got fair out of his 
 body, as it were ; then, when they were 
 straightening him for his burying, he whispered, 
 ' I forgive Dick '; and frightened Ann Oddy 
 into a screaming sickness. And Thwaite of 
 Top Farm spoke to his wife when she was kiss- 
 ing him in the parting moment : and what he 
 said no one knew, but it turned Lizzie Thwaite
 
 43 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 white as a snow-drift ; and she niver smiled at 
 aught again as long as she lived. And a lile 
 lad of Jimmy Hurd's at Beggarmonds, that 
 died on my awn mother's knee, came back a 
 moment with a word of comfort that dried 
 Peggy Hurd's tears and made her feel as if she 
 were a varry happy woman." Then Nelly 
 stopped talking, and began opening and shut 
 ting drawers. She wanted Virginia to ask 
 questions to talk to feel an interest in some 
 one outside her own life ; and she thought she 
 saw some evidence of this condition. In a few 
 moments Virginia said: 
 
 " Come here, Nelly, and finish your story. 
 What did that lile lad of Jimmy Hurd's say? " 
 
 " You see, Miss, he was the only lad-bairn 
 they had ; and his mother thought he hedn't a 
 fault no more he hed. He was nobbut three 
 years old when he took a fever and just burnt 
 up, as it were, in a day or two ; and Peggy 
 Hurd, that hed niver let him out of her sight, 
 was just beside hersen wi' the thought of the 
 poor lile chap in the great heaven, all by him- 
 sen. ' T' Hurds hev niver been church-goers/ 
 she said, ' and I niver heard tell of one o' them 
 heving a title clear, or even expecting to go 
 there ; and what iver will my poor baby do 
 there? He'll be that lonely he'll hev no one 
 to kiss and cuddle him, and no one to tak' a 
 bit of care of him ' ; and then she sobbed for 
 the lonely baby as if her heart would break in-
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 437 
 
 two. We thought he was quite gone, and 
 Peggy's face was bended o'er him. All of a 
 sudden she stopped crying, and looked with 
 her varry soul at the wee lad, and as sure as 
 you are there, Miss, he opened his eyes a mo 
 ment, and said, just as soft and sweet as iver 
 was ' God will take care of baby.' Now then, 
 what do you make of that ? " 
 
 " Oh, Nelly, I think God takes care of us 
 all." 
 
 " To be sure he does dead or alive he 
 cares for us. And Captain Bradford has nob- 
 but been away a bit over a year. Whitby lads 
 are three and four years away. John Thomas 
 says so. A matter of a year or two, what of 
 that? The captain hes been kept away, I'll 
 be bound, for some good end. Old Mr. Aslin, 
 the Wesleyan preacher, whenever he preached 
 a funeral sermon, said the brother or sister hed 
 been taken from t' evil to come. Varry well, 
 a man can be kept out of evil, as well as taken 
 from it. I'm sure nobody with a mite of sense 
 would want to be a married man in these 
 times flour eighteen dollars a barrel ; coal ten 
 dollars a ton ; meat that high one hates the 
 sight of a cow ; and " 
 
 " What are you talking about, Nelly?" 
 
 " The God's truth, Miss. The Major wouldn't 
 hev you told, but there hes been a sight of 
 trouble. Whya ! not a week since, there was 
 a big bread riot here in New York City, Miss."
 
 43 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 "Nelly! Nelly! And no one told me! " 
 
 " I would hev told you, Miss, if the mas 
 ter would hev let me. I think it would hev 
 stirred the life in you, and done you lots of 
 good." 
 
 " A riot for bread in New York ! Impos 
 sible ! " 
 
 " Not a bit impossible. It were a Monday 
 morning, when women and men worth aught 
 should hev been at their washing, or off to 
 their daily work ; but they hev been talking all 
 Sunday about not heving all they wanted, and 
 they felt as if they ought to take it. There 
 hed been a notice put up on Sunday ivery- 
 where, calling all t' ragamuffins together at 
 four o'clock in t' City Hall Park ; and they 
 were on hand you might hev wagered your life 
 they would be. Four o'clock meant night, and 
 night work ; any fool should hev known that, 
 but it seems a dispensation of politics to put 
 less than fools in ivery city office. They niver 
 hindered Moses Jaques the biggest idler of 
 all idlers from telling t' poor, shivering, sense 
 less crowd around him that they ought to hev 
 flour at their awn price. ' There is fifty-three 
 thousand barrels of flour in Ely Hart's store,' 
 he said ; ' let us go and offer him eight dollars 
 a barrel for it, and if he won't take it ' then 
 he stopped and looked at the mob, and they 
 were quick to take the hint. They poured 
 down Dey and Washington Streets, five thou-
 
 HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 439 
 
 sand of them, and soon bed the whole fifty- 
 three thousand barrels on t' pavement." 
 
 "What a shame ! " She was greatly excited, 
 and Nelly saw with delight a faint color spread 
 over her cheeks and throat. 
 
 " Wasn't it a shame ? Fifty-three thousand 
 barrels ! John Thomas said you could hear the 
 thud of the barrels, thrown from t' upper story, 
 above the shouts of men and the screaming of 
 the women ; and when the soldiers did get there 
 the street for far away was knee deep in flour." 
 
 "Why did not the mayor, the merchants, the 
 military interfere ? " 
 
 " Well, Miss, the United States being blest 
 vvi' a popilar government, hes to give idlers 
 more than their awn ill way. But if they were 
 to try such doos in Turkey as they put upon 
 decent people here, it wouldn't be long before 
 t' Sultan would nail their ears to t' church 
 doors." 
 
 " I am afraid I have been very selfish in my 
 sorrow, Nell)'-." 
 
 " Well, you hev, Miss. Sorrow is a child 
 that needs no nursing, and few childer get as 
 much. The master hes hed a sight of trouble 
 lately, and nobody to say a word of comfort to 
 him. I hev been sorry for him many a time 
 and oft. And I know he is wanting a bit of 
 pleasure now he will niver take unless you say 
 the word." 
 
 " What is it, Nelly?"
 
 440 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 " I heard him talking yesterday to Mr. Ketel- 
 tas. Mr. Keteltas thanked the Almighty that 
 terrible old man, President Jackson, would 
 soon be out of his place, and the master said 
 he would be very thankful to God if he could 
 only see him once more while he was in it 
 and so on they talked ; and I could see the 
 master's heart was deep in the matter, but he 
 would niver say a word to you about it ; not 
 he!" 
 
 " Nevertheless he must go, Nelly. He will 
 be much the better for such a change." 
 
 " And you too, Miss. To be sure, you hn* 
 hed a big trouble ; but if you'll count father 
 and home, money and friends, and God's love, 
 to sweeten all, and then reckon things up, 
 you'll agree that the bright side is a long chalk 
 ahead of the dark side." 
 
 "Thank you, Nelly. I wish you had spoken 
 as plainly long ago." 
 
 " It would hev been no use, Miss. You can 
 not cross the stile till you come to it ; and it 
 was Mr. Rhea's message gave me a license to 
 speak at all." 
 
 The result of this conversation was a mani 
 fest one. Major Mason went to Washington,* 
 and his daughter, wisely guided by Nelly, 
 gained a little strength every day. Indeed, 
 when her father returned, Virginia was able to 
 meet him with much of the demonstrative love 
 she had been used to give ; and also to feel a
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 44* 
 
 very pleasant curiosity in the events of the 
 visit. 
 
 It had been a delightful one. The Major 
 was quite excited over it, and when he found 
 Virginia ready to listen, he gave her a smile so 
 full of love and gratitude that her heart re 
 proached her severely ; and she drew her fa 
 ther's wasted face down to hers, and kissed it 
 fondly, and promised with the kiss to try and 
 accept God's will cheerfully, and wait even so 
 for the promise she hoped in. 
 
 " Then I am a very happy man to-night, 
 Virginia. I have my daughter back, and I 
 have had a good visit, spent many pleasant 
 hours with my old friend and comrade." 
 
 " You were at the White House ? " 
 
 " Often. A grand old man is Andrew Jack 
 son ! I went there first in the morning. He 
 was alone and smoking. He gave me a pipe, 
 and we talked over the days of our youth 
 together. Then we spoke of Texas, and he 
 leaped to his feet, and glowed like a hot coal, 
 and glorified Houston, and the men who had 
 fought and fallen for our gain, till I felt the 
 hot tears in my eyes, and the trumpet of bat 
 tle in my ears, and I went to his side and 
 clasped his hand, and we stood still and looked 
 at each other, while the splendid drama passed 
 like a burning thought between us." 
 
 " ' Faults ! ' he cried. ' No, sir ! these Texans 
 have no faults toward their fellow-men, and
 
 442 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 how they stand toward the Eternal is no 
 man's business. Houston has fought splen 
 didly, and refrained himself in the hour of vic 
 tory, as only a man with the heart of a hero 
 could^ave done.' After this visit I went often 
 in the evenings and talked with him." 
 
 " Does he give many entertainments at the 
 White House?" 
 
 " No ; he lives in the most modest simplicity. 
 Picture to yourself a large room barely fur 
 nished and lit by a chandelier in the center, 
 and at the further end of the room a plain 
 table covered with papers and the President's 
 large chair before it. Here he sits smoking 
 and writing, or listening to Mr. Livingston, the 
 Secretary of State, reading dispatches." 
 
 " I have read that he smokes only a pipe." 
 
 " A long reed pipe, with a bowl of red clay. 
 A backwoodsman from Tennessee, while I was 
 there, begged it from him, and went home the 
 proudest man in the universe." 
 
 " What about the ladies of his family, father? 
 Did you see them ? " 
 
 "Oh, yes! Mrs. Donelson, Mrs. Andrew 
 Jackson, and Mrs. Livingston were generally 
 sitting around the fire, either reading or sew- 
 ing. Five or six children, all under seven 
 years of age, played about the room." 
 
 "I should think children would trouble the 
 consideration of state papers." 
 
 " When they are too noisy, the President
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 443 
 
 would gently wave his pipe toward them, and 
 Mrs. Donelson rise and check their too rough 
 play. A great old man, Virginia, and carrying 
 the impress of his fine primitive nature. He 
 looked like a patriarch, a monarch, an Indian 
 chief. He is the typical American of an era 
 Time will never bring back." 
 
 "Yet no man has been more bitterly abused 
 and condemned. There are many ill charges 
 against him." 
 
 " Lies ! Let them have time and they will 
 fly on their own wings. One thing is certain ; 
 though Andrew Jackson has been abused, no 
 one has ever thought of ridiculing him. Ridi 
 cule is the lightning that kills a reputation. 
 Aristophanes was only a comedian, but he had 
 the power to toss his enemies among the popu 
 lace of a thousand cities for a thousand years. 
 But however much men may blame, no man 
 can find food for ridicule in Andrew Jack 
 son." 
 
 " He is old, but he seems to have many to 
 love him." 
 
 " He is still young ; his heart can never dry 
 up, so many fresh springs run into it." 
 
 " Does he speak eloquently ? " 
 
 " His words are current words, and ring well, 
 and when his voice leaves his lips it goes 
 straight to the heart of the listener." 
 
 " You look so happy and so much better, 
 father."
 
 444 SHE LOVED A SAILOtc. 
 
 "I have had a good two weeks, Virginia, 
 and the crown of it is in finding you, my child, 
 able once more to share my pleasure." 
 
 There is something very compelling in the 
 gentleness and indulgence of an aging father. 
 Virginia's heart ached with the thought that 
 she had darkened one whole year of the few 
 years remaining to him. Whatever she suffered 
 privately, she was resolved in the future to 
 make no shadow in her home. An armed soul 
 could dwell in a feeble body, and unselfishness 
 arms a soul at every point ; it has expedients 
 for all necessities, and consolations for all ex 
 tremities. 
 
 As the summer advanced the Major proposed 
 a long visit to Rockaway, and Virginia an 
 swered, "Indeed I shall like it, father. We 
 shall see the great ships go in and out, 
 and " 
 
 " And if Marius should come in any one of 
 them " 
 
 " I should know it as he passed me, though 
 there were miles of space between us." 
 
 " You think so, you feel so, Virginia ; but, as 
 a fact, Destiny loves surprises, and the great 
 events of our lives take us unawares." 
 
 So the sum, ner passed not unpleasantly away 
 in spite of business and financial prostration. 
 Indeed, this very year was a time of delirious 
 distress in New York's history. Failures were 
 so numerous that men ceased to number them.
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 445 
 
 Merchants were gasping for breath, and work- 
 ingmen, on the point of starvation, were be 
 ginning to form protective combinations a 
 phenomenon so strange in America that it was 
 judiciously pronounced "a European notion, 
 needless and incompatible with our free insti 
 tutions." 
 
 In May there was a general suspension of 
 banks, and the streets were crowded with de 
 spairing men and patrolled by troops to prevent 
 rioting. No goods were selling, no business 
 stirring, no houses building, and lots which a 
 year before brought any' price for fear they 
 might run away, were now not salable at all. 
 In England, also, everything was tending to a 
 like commercial crisis. 
 
 But men learn very soon how to make the 
 best of loss, and, in spite of it, to enjoy the 
 pleasures still remaining. Gradually New York 
 recovered her energy, and when the Major and 
 Virginia returned home in September, there 
 ivere no signs on the surface of life of the past 
 trouble. Vandenhoff, Forest, and Mr. Wallack 
 \vere playing in various theaters. Young Louis 
 Napoleon Bonaparte was just surrendering his 
 promenade on Broadway to Keokvjk and Black 
 Hawk and their bands of Sauk, Fpx, dnd Sioux 
 Indians; and the glorious fall weather, sunny, 
 cool, and full of cheerful vigor, was flooding 
 the streets with life and hope. 
 
 "fust before the winter" These words, so
 
 44 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 full of promise, were never long out of Virgin 
 ia's mind, and their influence, combined with 
 the fresh salt air, had made a great change in 
 her condition. She had been very near the 
 grave, and she had brought back from that mys 
 terious travel marks which time would never 
 quite efface; no, nor happiness; no, nor yet 
 love. But she was now able to take an interest 
 in life, and in some measure to perform its du 
 ties. Many thought she had lost beauty and 
 grace ; those who saw clearer perceived the 
 rarer delicacy of her bloom, and the refinement 
 of all that was before lovely and womanly in 
 her. 
 
 She watched, she waited, she listened even 
 in her sleep. Her life was all attention. And 
 every one in the house shared her vigil, though 
 little allusion was made to it. No sign, how 
 ever, came to her. September and October 
 passed, and November though the Indian 
 summer tinged its first days was gradually 
 taking on the cold, gray lights and darker 
 shadows of approaching winter. One night, as 
 she sat quiet by her father's side, there was a 
 quick knock at the door. Her face flushed, 
 but she shook her head in answer to his look. 
 " It is not the step of Marius." The Major 
 laid down his book and rose to welcome the 
 coming visitor. John Paul Keteltas came 
 hurriedly into the room. 
 
 " My friend," he said, " very bad news has
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 447 
 
 come to me. Nigel Forfar has been murdered, 
 and I must go to my Jane." 
 
 " Murdered ! " 
 
 " By the mother of those four children we 
 saved. This is the end of a bad marriage. I 
 must go to my Jane, who is ill and likely to be 
 a mother again ere I reach her." 
 
 "What can I do?" 
 
 " There are many things you can do for me, 
 my friend," and he sat down and took several 
 papers from his pocket, and as rapidly as pos 
 sible explained his desires to Major Mason. 
 
 " I a?k you to do these things for me," he 
 said, "because I may be some weeks from New 
 York. I shall make an end of all my interests 
 in Tennessee, and bring my daughter back with 
 me. Such changes are not made with a wish 
 and a word." 
 
 " What will Jane do with the plantation ? 
 Perhaps she may wish to live on it." 
 
 " My dear, the plantation is all mine. I own 
 the land and the house and the slaves, big and 
 little. I shall make the slaves free as I am. 
 I shall sell house and land, and divide the 
 money among them." 
 
 Then Virginia rose and kissed him, and he 
 continued : "Yes, my dear, I will have none of 
 the price of it, not one dollar. I will give my 
 poor Jane your kiss and your love, and I will 
 look to see you red and fresh as my finest roses 
 are when I come back again."
 
 <4 S SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 He did not delay longer. He was full of 
 anxious hurry, and he had the air of a man 
 who is pressed to the accomplishment of some 
 belated duty. His farewell words to the Major 
 indicated it : 
 
 a I must go quickly, lest worse come." 
 
 The Major could read no longer. He began 
 to walk about the floor and talk to Virginia. 
 " Forfar was a cruel man, but this is a great 
 retribution." 
 
 " I have heard you say that crime and punish 
 ment grow out of one stem in this case, how 
 true! Jane will be broken-hearted." 
 
 "I think not. The golden image of jane's 
 love has been long thrown down. Jane will 
 weep for a short time, and then forget. You 
 will see her here soon : her fair hair and fair 
 face showing very handsome in folds and veil 
 ings of blackest crape. I trust she may yet 
 have happiness enough to redeem her lost 
 years." 
 
 " Father, how can a woman forget her first 
 love?" 
 
 " Easily, if her first love teach her the lesson, 
 I know, from what John Paul has told me, that 
 Nigel Forfar took infinite pains to make his 
 wife despise him. He courted her hatred as 
 once he courted her love. Really, he never 
 forgave her the loss of the boys Alexander and 
 Stephen." 
 
 " Indeed, father, I was not sure if in that
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOUL^ BE. 449 
 
 matter Jane was just and right. A wife should 
 be loyal to her husband." 
 
 "Right or wrong?" 
 
 "Perhaps. At any rate, if Jane had done 
 her full duty to Nigel, and left the righting of 
 the wrong to God, this deed would have freed 
 the four children without her paying the price 
 she did." 
 
 " It was not in Jane's nature to wait. She 
 fought the wrong, and she fought her own 
 misery, from first to last." 
 
 " She was small and sandy haired you 
 know"; and Virginia smiled sadly. "I did 
 not fight, father ; I just fell prostrate." 
 
 " Against some blows, falling is the only 
 fencing, my dear." 
 
 "Poor Jane! She was so sanguine when I 
 last saw her ; so anxious to put all wrong right ; 
 so full of renewed love for her husband. I 
 think she can never get over such a blow." 
 
 " I tell you she will, and I think no worse of 
 Jane because I read her future so. She will 
 return with her father. She will rule the old 
 man absolutely through his grandchildren. 
 The large silent house will soon echo with 
 little feet and voices; and anon Jane will go 
 into society, and be very popular, and much 
 admired. I think she will marry young Van 
 Schaick : he is handsome and very rich, and he 
 told me that if he had not been in Europe 
 when Jane married Forfar, he would have
 
 45 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 given the Southerner a harder task to win her. 
 I think he loved Jane truly." 
 
 "Then he ought to have said so before he 
 went to Europe. He made Jane miserable 
 many a time. I despise a man who is always 
 arguing a question with himself, and never 
 able to come to a decision." 
 
 " It is better to argue a question without 
 deciding it than to decide it without arguing 
 it." 
 
 " Not in love, father. To show a warmth 
 that is not to be shared, or even communi 
 cated ! nothing is colder." 
 
 The subject of Jane's sudden trouble and of 
 her future, was not to be talked away or into 
 the background. Not even Nelly's decided 
 opinions on it could settle the tragedy in Vir 
 ginia's mind. It kept her waking all night ; it 
 filled her mind as she wearily went about her 
 occupations in the morning; it added a kind 
 of gloomy atmosphere to her own delayed 
 hopes and scarcely articulate doubts and fears. 
 The day was dark and rainy ; the trees deso 
 lated ; even her desperate hope could hardly 
 deny much longer the actual presence of winter. 
 
 The Major had begun to grow nervous and 
 anxious ; he could not endure to sit in the 
 company of such sharp yet dumb inquiry; he 
 felt that even while Virginia talked with him 
 her heart was fluttering with expectation or 
 sick with delay, and that it cost her a great effort
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 45 1 
 
 to understand and answer his remarks if there 
 was the slightest unusual movement. This 
 morning he found her especially listless and 
 unsettled, and he determined to go down town 
 and leave her at least that liberty of solitude 
 which her visible suffering asked. 
 
 About eleven o'clock Nelly looked into the 
 parlor with a face that at once startled Vir 
 ginia. " What is it, Nelly ? Nelly, what is 
 it?" 
 
 "John Thomas, Miss. He wants badly to 
 see you that is, I want him to tell you a bit 
 'if a story he lies heard." 
 
 " A story he has heard ! Where, Nelly ? " 
 
 " He took the master to the Exchange, and 
 ihen master told him not to keep the horses 
 standing in the cold and wet, but to run them 
 iack to stable. Well, Miss, he were obeying 
 orders, when Adam Casely hailed him ; Adam 
 was able seaman on the 'Arethusa.' " 
 
 " Nelly, what are you going to tell me ? " 
 
 " John Thomas, come in, and say your say. 
 Don't you be afraid, Miss. John Thomas was 
 niver the one to bring bad news to any one." 
 
 John Thomas came shyly in. He was a tall, 
 massive Yorkshire youth, dressed partly like an 
 hostler and partly like a sailor. His scrimp 
 corduroy nethers and big shoes gave him the 
 air of the stable, but he wore a sailor's blouse, 
 with its low, square collar, and his eyes re 
 minded one of the sea. He balanced his hat
 
 *52 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 .irmly between his hands, and was awkward and 
 uncertain, though he looked with an honest, 
 open-faced kindness straight into Virginia's 
 troubled eyes. 
 
 "John Thomas, what have you to tell me ? 
 Nothing sorrowful nothing disappointing?" 
 
 " Not I, Miss. I'm none of that kind. I 
 couldn't be hired for any amount of brass to 
 bring you bad news. T' long and t' short of 
 it is, I met Adam Casely, and he says that 
 Captain Bradford isn't many knots behind 
 him." 
 
 " Now, Miss, don't you take on. Hev a 
 mouthful of wine. There's nothing to cry 
 about." Then, turning to John Thomas 
 " Go on, my lad ! Tell your story straight, if 
 you hev that much mense and sense." 
 
 " I said, ' Adam, whativer hes come to the 
 41 Arethusa ? " ' and he said, 'Burned to t' 
 water's edge.' 'Where? 'says I. 'In a varry 
 bad quarter northeasterly off Newfoundland, 
 twenty-sixth day of April, 1836.' ' Come, I'll 
 get down and tie my horses,' said I, 'and we'll 
 hev a drink, and tell me all about it,' and he 
 said, 'I will.'" 
 
 Nelly looked at him indignantly. " Keep 
 thysen and Adam Casely out of it, will ta ? 
 Tell a straight story, now." 
 
 " Varry well, then. It was on the morning 
 of the 25th they found fire in the hold, and all 
 that day and night the captain fought it, as if
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 453 
 
 it was a man to wrestle with. He were black 
 and burned, and he hed the carpenters build 
 ing a big raft over his head, but he fought it 
 all the same like a madman, niver knowing if 
 the smoke choked or the flame burnt him, till 
 all was hopeless as doom. Then he came on 
 deck, stern and quiet, and ordered ivery one to 
 their places. Four women and two childer he 
 put in the big boat with the first officer, and as 
 many of the passengers as she would hold ; 
 others upon the raft. Adam and sixteen men 
 were in the captain's boat, and work enough to 
 save them all, for the fire had got its awn ill 
 way at last ; and before the captain left the 
 ship it was a wall of flame about him. No 
 screaming, no swearing, varry little speaking. 
 4 Do this, do that ; go now, go there,' was all 
 the captain said, but ivery one was taken safe 
 off." 
 
 " And the captain also ? " 
 
 " Well, Miss, Captain Bradford was the last 
 to leave the ' Arethusa.' She was then sway 
 ing about, and crying and roaring like a 
 creature in mortal pain. But though he 
 hedn't a moment to spare, he took the flag in 
 his hands, and lifted it to his lips, and then 
 run it well up, and the fire breezes blew it out, 
 and by the time he hed reached the boat the 
 mizzen-mast and yards were on fire, and the 
 flarr.r caught the stars and stripes ; and when 
 the captain saw that, he let his head fall into
 
 454 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 his burnt and blistered hands, and began to 
 sob like a little lad." 
 
 " Now, Miss ! now, Miss! I wouldn't cry if I 
 was you. Whya, I could laugh for varry joy 
 that God Almighty makes such men. Go on, 
 John Thomas." 
 
 " I asked Adam what next, and he said, 
 sorrow on sorrow. Till dark the boats kept 
 together, for they were to follow the captain's 
 boat back to Newfoundland, if so be they 
 could make it ; but a great fog came up with 
 the night chill, and in the morning they were 
 all alone. Please, Miss, I'd rayther not say 
 anything ab.out the next twelve days. Only 
 the captain and six men lived through them, 
 and they were at death's door when the 
 4 Polly Palmer,' a whaler out of Marblehead, 
 came alongside. By that time the captain was 
 varry bad ; the hunger and thirst and fever, 
 and the misery of arms burnt from finger ends 
 to shoulder blades, had left very little life in 
 him. He was quite off his senses, and, Adam 
 said, fretting himself beyond iverything for a 
 little maid he was to hev married." 
 
 He stopped a moment and looked at his 
 mistress and at his wife. Virginia stood up 
 right, with dilated eyes and flushed cheeks, 
 and hands firmly grasping the back of a chair. 
 Nelly stood beside her, crying with a frank 
 freeness, more sympathetic, however, than sor 
 rowful. She nodded imperatively to John
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 455 
 
 Thomas's look of inquiry, and he obeyed its 
 order. 
 
 " The captain of the ' Polly Palmer ' hed 
 just been married, and he hed a fellow-feeling 
 for his shipmate. Adam says they grew to be 
 varry close friends in all their troubles, and 
 they weren't few, for the ' Polly Palmer ' hed 
 little luck that summer, and she pushed a bit 
 too far north, and got shut in by the ice just 
 packed in it and a long winter to live through. 
 Some got through it, and some died, and it 
 was well on summer again before the ' Polly 
 Palmer ' could stir out of her ice prison, and then 
 her captain hed to load, and the whales off 
 where they shouldn't hev been, and hard to 
 find, and the men trusting all to Captain Marius, 
 who, Adam says, is a whaler beyond ivery- 
 thing, throwing the harpoon as if that was the 
 only business he hed iver hed in his life, and 
 leading the boats and working and loading as 
 if the ship and loading were his varry ransom." 
 
 " I know ! I know ! I know he would be 
 faithful ! But, oh ! John Thomas, where is he 
 now ?" 
 
 " He left the whaler at Marblehead, he and 
 his six men, and, as luck would hev it, the 
 ' Sprightly Ann ' and the ' Sea Rover ' were 
 just ready to lift anchor for New York. Bits 
 of boats both of them, but right enough for 
 coasters, only not able to take all together. 
 So Adam and two of his mates came in the
 
 45 6 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 4 Sprightly Ann,' and landed this morning at 
 nine o'clock. Captain Bradford and the other 
 three men are in the ' Sea Rover,' and like 
 enough to be at anchor now and the trouble 
 all over, Miss, and nothing but a sailor's for 
 tune after all. The sea is a hard mother to 
 her sons, Miss knocks them about all their 
 lives, and at the long end gives them a grave. 
 Nay, nay, Miss, I'd niver cry for a trouble that 
 is over ; it isn't worth the compliment," for 
 Virginia had broken down at last, and was 
 crying for very pride and joy in Nelly's arms. 
 
 That wise young woman knew better than to 
 encourage her. She turned first to her hus 
 band : " John Thomas, I'd go back to my 
 work, if I was thee ; " and then to Virginia : 
 " Come, Miss, you hevn't a minute to spare for 
 crying now. I should think you would like to 
 give some orders about dinner ; a man that hes 
 been on a whaler nearly twenty months wants 
 a bit of freshness in his victuals ; and I wouldn't 
 hev the captain see me in that gown, if I was 
 you ; it is varry unbecoming, and I allays said 
 so." 
 
 Nellie had touched the right key. A spirit 
 of pleasant hurry soon filled the house. There 
 was a little culinary discussion, and then Vir 
 ginia went to her drawers and took out the 
 pretty new dresses that had been made for her 
 bridal, and looked at them with that critical 
 eve which includes another's taste. None of
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 457 
 
 them seemed so appropriate as one made 
 specially for the sea a dark blue cloth, with a 
 loose waist falling away slightly from her white 
 throat, where it was closed with a silk kerchief 
 tied in a sailor's knot. Large shell combs held 
 up the coronal of her hair behind, and in front 
 it fell in these soft drooping curls which, what 
 ever the wearers of frizzes and pompadours and 
 bangs may think, are infinitely womanly and 
 enticing. 
 
 A soft blush on her cheeks, the very light of 
 love in her eyes. The Major came home for 
 lunch, and before she told him a word of the 
 wondrous story, he read it in her face, her 
 voice, her manner, her dress. And he rejoiced 
 in her joy. With a sweet thoughtfulness, he 
 resolved to go down to the wharf at which the 
 " Sprightly Ann " anchored and wait for the 
 " Sea Rover." 
 
 Then Virginia grew restless, anxious, dis 
 turbed with her happiness. Movement of 
 some kind became an imperative demand. 
 She went to her room and unlocked the drawer 
 in which her wedding robe had been laid away. 
 She spread out the rich white satin and lace, 
 the long blonde veil, the wreath of white 
 roses, the trimmed gloves, the satin slippers, 
 all the fair adornments she had locked from 
 her sight with such heart-breaking sorrow and 
 disappointment. 
 
 She was so occupied with this and kindred
 
 45 8 SHE LOVED A SAILOR. 
 
 occupations that she suddenly became aware 
 that the short winter afternoon was wearing 
 away into gloom and darkness. Marius had 
 not come. Her father had not returned. A 
 great fear clutched her by the heart. She 
 went hurriedly down-stairs and called Nelly. 
 Nellie put on a bravado of confidence, but 
 Virginia was sure she saw anxiety beneath it. 
 
 " Is it late, Nelly?" 
 
 "Only getting on to four o'clock. It is 
 early dark now, Miss." 
 
 " He has not come, Nelly." 
 
 "Wind and tide are beyond counting on, 
 Miss. The wind changed at noon. Tides 
 only come twice a day. He'll be here anon ; 
 I shouldn't wonder if master was waiting for 
 him." 
 
 But Nelly had caught Virginia's worry. 
 She lit an extraordinary number of candles 
 through the house, and always managed, in 
 placing them, to excuse herself for looking out 
 of the window. When she arranged the parlor 
 lights, Virginia did not speak. She had thrown 
 herself upon the sofa, and clasped her hands 
 above her eyes. All her being was held in sus 
 pense. All her strength was strained in the 
 act of waiting. She knew that it was now 
 dark in the street ; she could hear the rain 
 splashing on the pavement, and she could hear 
 nothing else. If only the trample of horses 
 would break the silence ! If only she could
 
 THE HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 459 
 
 hear a footstep ! Oh, any footstep would be 
 easier to endure than none. 
 
 Nelly was cross with anxiety and disappoint 
 ment. " Men were always that way. An aggra 
 vating set. Never coming when they were 
 wanted ; always in the way when they were 
 not wanted. The Major, too, loitering out-of- 
 doors at this hour. I'll give John Thomas a 
 dressing," she muttered, and, with the unjust 
 threat on her lips, she opened the front door to 
 take another look down the dim, wet street. 
 
 She drew herself up with a quick gasp. 
 There was a man in a sailor's dress opposite. 
 He crossed the street rapidly, he took the 
 steps at a bound, he held Nelly by both shoul 
 ders, and, half laughing and half crying, said : 
 
 " Nelly, Nelly, can I go in ? " 
 
 She pointed to the parlor door. He opened 
 it swiftly, silently, and in a moment he was 
 kneeling by Virginia's side. He had his arms 
 under and around her. He was kissing the 
 sobbing cries of joy from off her lips. His 
 thirsty eyes were drinking deep draughts of 
 love from her eyes. His ears were filled with 
 the music of her voice, and his whole soul 
 spoke in the short, glad words with which he 
 answered all her longing and all her hopes : 
 
 " My love ! my life ! my wife ! " 
 
 THE END.
 
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