________________________________________________
_ After this Virginia went to the Judge's bedside every day, in the
morning, when Clarence took his sleep. She read his newspapers to him
when he was well enough. She read the detested Missouri Democrat, which
I think was the greatest trial Virginia ever had to put up with. To have
her beloved South abused, to have her heroes ridiculed, was more than she
could bear. Once, when the Judge was perceptibly better, she flung the
paper out of the window, and left the room. He called her back
penitently.
"My dear," he said, smiling admiration, "forgive an old bear. A selfish
old bear, Jinny; my only excuse is my love for the Union. When you are
not here, I lie in agony, lest she has suffered some mortal blow unknown
to me, Jinny. And if God sees fit to spare our great country, the day
will come when you will go down on your knees and thank Him for the
inheritance which He saved for your children. You are a good woman, my
dear, and a strong one. I have hoped that you will see the right. That
you will marry a great citizen, one unwavering in his service and
devotion to our Republic. "The Judge's voice trembled with earnestness
as he spoke. And the gray eyes under the shaggy brows were alight with
the sacred fire of his life's purpose. Undaunted as her spirit was, she
could not answer him then.
Once, only once, he said to her: "Virginia, I loved your father better
than any man I ever knew. Please God I may see him again before I die."
He never spoke of the piano. But sometimes at twilight his eyes would
rest on the black cloth that hid it.
Virginia herself never touched that cloth to her it seemed the shroud
upon a life of happiness that was dead and gone.
Virginia had not been with Judge Whipple during the critical week after
Stephen was brought home. But Anne had told her that his anxiety was a
pitiful thing to see, and that it had left him perceptibly weaker.
Certain it was that he was failing fast. So fast that on some days
Virginia, watching him, would send Ned or Shadrach in hot haste for Dr.
Polk.
At noon Anne would relieve Virginia,--Anne or her mother,--and
frequently Mr. Brinsmade would come likewise. For it is those who have
the most to do who find the most time for charitable deeds. As the hour
for their coming drew near, the Judge would be seeking the clock, and
scarce did Anne's figure appear in the doorway before the question had
arisen to his lips--
"And how is my young Captain to-day?"
That is what he called him,--"My young Captain." Virginia's choice of
her cousin, and her devotion to him, while seemingly natural enough, had
drawn many a sigh from Anne. She thought it strange that Virginia
herself had never once asked her about Stephen's condition and she spoke
of this one day to the Judge with as much warmth as she was capable of.
"Jinny's heart is like steel where a Yankee is concerned. If her best
friend were a Yankee--"
Judge Whipple checked her, smiling.
"She has been very good to one Yankee I know of," he said. "And as for
Mrs. Brice, I believe she worships her."
"But when I said that Stephen was much better to-day, she swept out of
the room as if she did not care whether he lived or died."
"Well, Anne," the Judge had answered, "you women are a puzzle to me.
I guess you don't understand yourselves," he added.
That was a strange month in the life of Clarence Colfax,--the last of his
recovery, while he was waiting for the news of his exchange. Bellegarde
was never more beautiful, for Mrs. Colfax had no whim of letting the
place run down because a great war was in progress. Though devoted to
the South, she did not consecrate her fortune to it. Clarence gave as
much as he could.
Whole afternoons Virginia and he would sit in the shaded arbor seat; or
at the cool of the day descend to the bench on the lower tier of the
summer garden, to steep, as it were, in the blended perfumes of the roses
and the mignonettes and the pinks. He was soberer than of old. Often
through the night he pondered on the change in her. She, too, was grave.
But he was troubled to analyze her gravity, her dignity. Was this merely
strength of character, the natural result of the trials through which she
had passed, the habit acquired of being the Helper and comforter instead
of the helped and comforted? Long years afterward the brightly colored
portrait of her remained in his eye,--the simple linen gown of pink or
white, the brown hair shining in the sunlight, the graceful poise of the
head. And the background of flowers--flowers everywhere, far from the
field of war.
Sometimes, when she brought his breakfast on a tray in the morning, there
was laughter in her eyes. In the days gone by they had been all
laughter.
They were engaged. She was to be his wife. He said it over to himself
many, many times in the day. He would sit for a space, feasting his eyes
upon her until she lifted her look to his, and the rich color flooded her
face. He was not a lover to sit quietly by, was Clarence. And yet, as
the winged days flew on, that is what he did, It was not that she did
not respond to his advances, he did not make them. Nor could he have
told why. Was it the chivalry inherited from a long life of Colfaxes who
were gentlemen? Not wholly. Something of awe had crept into his feeling
for her.
As the month wore on, and the time drew near for him to go back to the
war, a state that was not quite estrangement, and yet something very like
it, set in. Poor Clarence. Doubts bothered him, and he dared not give
them voice. By night he would plan his speeches,--impassioned,
imploring. To see her in her marvellous severity was to strike him dumb.
Horrible thought! Whether she loved him, whether she did not love him,
she would not give him up. Through the long years of their lives
together, he would never know. He was not a weak man now, was Clarence
Colfax. He was merely a man possessed of a devil, enchained by the power
of self-repression come upon her whom he loved.
And day by day that power seemed to grow more intense,--invulnerable.
Among her friends and in the little household it had raised Virginia to
heights which she herself did not seem to realize. She was become the
mistress of Bellegarde. Mrs. Colfax was under its sway, and doubly
miserable because Clarence would listen to her tirades no more.
"When are you to be married?" she had ventured to ask him once. Nor had
she taken pains to hide the sarcasm in her voice.
His answer, bringing with it her remembrance of her husband at certain
times when it was not safe to question him, had silenced her. Addison
Colfax had not been a quiet man. When he was quiet he was dangerous.
"Whenever Virginia is ready, mother," he had replied. Whenever Virginia
was ready! He knew in his heart that if he were to ask her permission to
send for Dr, Posthelwaite to-morrow that she would say yes. Tomorrow
came,--and with it a great envelope, an official, answer to Clarence's
report that he was fit for duty once more. He had been exchanged. He
was to proceed to Cairo, there to await the arrival of the transport
Indianapolis, which was to carry five hundred officers and men from
Sandusky Prison, who were going back to fight once more for the
Confederacy. O that they might have seen the North, all those brave men
who made that sacrifice. That they might have realized the numbers and
the resources and the wealth arrayed against them!
It was a cool day for September, a perfect day, an auspicious day, and
yet it went the way of the others before it. This was the very fulness
of the year, the earth giving out the sweetness of her maturity, the corn
in martial ranks, with golden plumes nodding. The forest still in its
glory of green. They walked in silence the familiar paths, and Alfred,
clipping the late roses for the supper table, shook his white head as
they passed him. The sun, who had begun to hurry on his southward
journey, went to bed at six. The few clothes Clarence was to take with
him had been packed by Virginia in his bag, and the two were standing in
the twilight on the steps of the house, when Ned came around the corner.
He called his young mistress by name, but she did not hear him. He
called again.
"Miss Jinny!"
She started as from a sleep, and paused.
"Yes, Mr. Johnson," said she, and smiled. He wore that air of mystery so
dear to darkeys.
"Gemmen to see you, Miss Jinny."
"A gentleman!" she said in surprise. "Where?"
The negro pointed to the lilac shrubbery.
"Thar!"
"What's all this nonsense, Ned?" said Clarence, sharply: "If a man is
there, bring him here at once."
"Reckon he won't come, Marse Clarence." said Ned, "He fearful skeered ob
de light ob day. He got suthin very pertickler fo' Miss Jinny."
"Do you know him?" Clarence demanded.
"No sah--yessah--leastwise I'be seed 'um. Name's Robimson."
The word was hardly out of his mouth before Virginia had leaped down the
four feet from the porch to the flower-bed and was running across the
lawn toward the shrubbery. Parting the bushes after her, Clarence found
his cousin confronting a large man, whom be recognized as the carrier who
brought messages from the South.
"What's the matter, Jinny?" he demanded.
"Pa has got through the lines," she said breathlessly. "He--he came up
to see me. Where is he, Robinson?"
"He went to Judge Whipple's rooms, ma'am. They say the Judge is dying.
I reckoned you knew it, Miss Jinny," Robinson added contritely.
"Clarence," she said, "I must go at once."
"I will go with you," he said; "you cannot go alone." In a twinkling Ned
and Sambo had the swift pair of horses harnessed, and the light carriage
was flying over the soft clay road toward the city. As they passed Mr.
Brinsmade's place, the moon hung like a great round lantern under the
spreading trees about the house. Clarence caught a glimpse of his
cousin's face in the light. She was leaning forward, her gaze fixed
intently on the stone posts which stood like monuments between the bushes
at the entrance. Then she drew back again into the dark corner of the
barouche. She was startled by a sharp challenge, and the carriage
stopped. Looking out, she saw the provost's guard like black card
figures on the road, and Ned fumbling for his pass.
On they drove into the city streets until the dark bulk of the Court
House loomed in front of them, and Ned drew rein at the little stairway
which led to the Judge's rooms. Virginia, leaping out of the carriage,
flew up the steps and into the outer office, and landed in the Colonel's
arms.
"Jinny!"
"Oh, Pa!" she cried. "Why do you risk your life in this way? If the
Yankees catch you--"
"They won't catch me, honey," he answered, kissing her. Then he held her
out at arm's length and gazed earnestly into her face. Trembling, she
searched his own. "Pa, how old you look!"
"I'm not precisely young, my dear," he said, smiling. His hair was
nearly white, and his face scared. But he was a fine erect figure of a
man, despite the shabby clothes he wore, and the mud-bespattered boots.
"Pa," she whispered, "it was foolhardy to come here. Why did you come to
St. Louis at all?"
"I came to see you, Jinny, I reckon. And when I got home to-night and
heard Silas was dying, I just couldn't resist. He's the oldest friend
I've got in St. Louis, honey and now--now--"
"Pa, you've been in battle?"
"Yes," he said.
"And you weren't hurt; I thank God for that," she whispered. After a
while: "Is Uncle Silas dying?"
"Yes, Jinny; Dr. Polk is in there now, and says that he can't last
through the night. Silas has been asking for you, honey, over and over.
He says you were very good to him,--that you and Mrs. Brice gave up
everything to nurse him."
"She did," Virginia faltered. "She was here night and day until her son
came home. She is a noble woman--"
"Her son?" repeated the Colonel. "Stephen Brice? Silas has done nothing
the last half-hour but call his name. He says he must see the boy before
he dies. Polk says he is not strong enough to come."
"Oh, no, he is not strong enough," cried Virginia. The Colonel looked
down at her queerly. "Where is Clarence?" he asked.
She had not thought of Clarence. She turned hurriedly, glanced around
the room, and then peered down the dark stairway.
"Why, he came in with me. I wonder why he did not follow me up?"
"Virginia."
"Yes, Pa."
"Virginia, are you happy?"
"Why, yes, Pa."
"Are you going to marry Clarence?" he asked.
"I have promised," she said simply.
Then after a long pause, seeing her father said nothing, she added,
"Perhaps he was waiting for you to see me alone. I will go down to see
if he is in the carriage."
The Colonel started with her, but she pulled him back in alarm.
"You will be seen, Pa," she cried. "How can you be so reckless?"
He stayed at the top of the passage, holding open the door that she might
have light. When she reached the sidewalk, there was Ned standing beside
the horses, and the carriage empty.
"Ned!"
"Yass'm, Miss Jinny."
"Where's Mr. Clarence?"
"He done gone, Miss Tinny."
"Gone?"
"Yass'm. Fust I seed was a man plump out'n Willums's, Miss Jinny. He
was a-gwine shufflin' up de street when Marse Clarence put out after him,
pos' has'e. Den he run."
She stood for a moment on the pavement in thought, and paused on the
stairs again, wondering whether it were best to tell her father. Perhaps
Clarence had seen--she caught her breath at the thought and pushed open
the door.
"Oh, Pa, do you think you are safe here?" she cried. "Why, yes, honey,
I reckon so," he answered. "Where's Clarence?"
"Ned says he ran after a man who was hiding in an entrance. Pa, I am
afraid they are watching the place."
"I don't think so, Jinny. I came here with Polk, in his buggy, after
dark."
Virginia, listening, heard footsteps on the stairs, and seized her
father's sleeve.
"Think of the risk you are running, Pa," she whispered. She would have
dragged him to the closet. But it was too late. The door opened, and
Mr. Brinsmade entered, and with him a lady veiled.
At sight of Mr. Carvel Mr. Brinsmade started back in surprise. How long
he stared at his old friend Virginia could not say. It seemed to her an
eternity. But Mrs. Brice has often told since how straight the Colonel
stood, his fine head thrown back, as he returned the glance. Then Mr.
Brinsmade came forward, with his hand outstretched.
"Comyn," said he, his voice breaking a little, "I have known you these
many years as a man of unstained honor. You are safe with me. I ask no
questions. God will judge whether I have done my duty."
Mr. Carvel took his friend's hand. "Thank you, Calvin," he said. "I
give you my word of honor as a gentleman that I came into this city for
no other reason than to see my daughter. And hearing that my old friend
was dying, I could not resist the temptation, sir--"
Mr. Brinsmade finished for him. And his voice shook.
"To come to his bedside. How many men do you think would risk their
lives so, Mrs. Brice?"
"Not many, indeed, Mr. Brinsmade," she answered. "Thank God he will now
die happy. I know it has been much on his mind."
The Colonel bowed over her hand.
"And in his name, madam,--in the name of my oldest and best friend,--I
thank you for what you have done for him. I trust that you will allow me
to add that I have learned from my daughter to respect and admire you.
I hope that your son is doing well."
"He is, thank you, Colonel Carvel. If he but knew that the Judge were
dying, I could not have kept him at home. Dr. Polk says that he must not
leave the house, or undergo any excitement."
Just then the door of the inner room opened, and Dr. Polk came out. He
bowed gravely to Mrs. Brice and Mr. Brinsmade, and he patted Virginia.
"The Judge is still asleep," he said gently. "And--he may not wake up in
this world."
Silently, sadly, they went together into that little room where so much
of Judge Whipple's life had been spent. How little it was! And how
completely they filled it,--these five people and the big Rothfield
covered with the black cloth. Virginia pressed her father's arm as they
leaned against it, and brushed her eyes. The Doctor turned the wick of
the night-lamp.
What was that upon the sleeper's face from which they drew back? A
smile? Yes, and a light. The divine light which is shed upon those who
have lived for others, who have denied themselves the lusts of the flesh,
For a long space, perhaps an hour, they stayed, silent save for a low
word now and again from the Doctor as he felt the Judge's heart.
Tableaux from the past floated before Virginia's eyes. Of the old days,
of the happy days in Locust Street, of the Judge quarrelling with her
father, and she and Captain Lige smiling nearby. And she remembered how
sometimes when the controversy was finished the Judge would rub his nose
and say:
"It's my turn now, Lige."
Whereupon the Captain would open the piano, and she would play the hymn
that he liked best. It was "Lead, Kindly Light."
What was it in Silas Whipple's nature that courted the pain of memories?
What pleasure could it have been all through his illness to look upon
this silent and cruel reminder of days gone by forever? She had heard
that Stephen Brice had been with the Judge when he had bid it in. She
wondered that he had allowed it, for they said that he was the only one
who had ever been known to break the Judge's will. Virginia's eyes
rested on Margaret Brice, who was seated at the head of the bed,
smoothing the pillows The strength of Stephen's features were in hers,
but not the ruggedness. Her features were large, indeed, yet stanch and
softened. The widow, as if feeling Virginia's look upon her, glanced up
from the Judge's face and smiled at her. The girl colored with pleasure,
and again at the thought which she had had of the likeness between mother
and son.
Still the Judge slept on, while they watched. And at length the thought
of Clarence crossed Virginia's mind.
Why had he not returned? Perhaps he was in the office without.
Whispering to her father, she stole out on tiptoe. The office was empty.
Descending to the street, she was unable to gain any news of Clarence
from Ned, who was becoming alarmed likewise.
Perplexed and troubled, she climbed the stairs again. No sound came from
the Judge's room Perhaps Clarence would be back at any moment. Perhaps
her father was in danger. She sat down to think,--her elbows on the desk
in front of her, her chin in her hand, her eyes at the level of a line of
books which stood on end.--Chitty's Pleadings, Blackstone, Greenleaf on
Evidence. Absently; as a person whose mind is in trouble, she reached
out and took one of them down and opened it. Across the flyleaf, in a
high and bold hand, was written the name, Stephen Atterbury Brice.
It was his desk! She was sitting in his chair!
She dropped the book, and, rising abruptly, crossed quickly to the other
side of the room. Then she turned, hesitatingly, and went back. This
was his desk--his chair, in which he had worked so faithfully for the man
who lay dying beyond the door. For him whom they all loved--whose last
hours they were were to soothe. Wars and schisms may part our bodies,
but stronger ties unite our souls. Through Silas Whipple, through his
mother, Virginia knew that she was woven of one piece with Stephen Brice.
In a thousand ways she was reminded, lest she drive it from her belief.
She might marry another, and that would not matter.
She sank again into his chair, and gave herself over to the thoughts
crowding in her heart. How the threads of his life ran next to hers, and
crossed and recrossed them. The slave auction, her dance with him, the
Fair, the meeting at Mr. Brinsmade's gate,--she knew them all. Her love
and admiration for his mother. Her dreams of him--for she did dream of
him. And now he had saved Clarence's life that she might marry her
cousin. Was it true that she would marry Clarence? That seemed to
her only a dream. It had never seemed real. Again she glanced at the
signature in the book, as if fascinated by the very strength of it. She
turned over a few pages of the book, "Supposing the defendant's counsel
essays to prove by means of--" that was his writing again, a marginal,
note. There were marginal notes on every page--even the last was covered
with them, And then at the end, "First reading, February, 1858. Second
reading, July, 1858. Bought with some of money obtained by first
article for M. D." That capacity for work, incomparable gift, was what
she had always coveted the most. Again she rested her elbows on the desk
and her chin on her hands, and sighed unconsciously.
She had not heard the step on the stair. She had not seen the door open.
She did not know that any one wage in the room until she heard his voice,
and then she thought that she was dreaming.
"Miss Carvel!"
"Yes?" Her head did not move. He took a step toward her.
"Miss Carvel!"
Slowly she raised her face to his, unbelief and wonder in her eyes,--
unbelief and wonder and fright. No; it could not be he. But when she
met the quality of his look, the grave tenderness of it, she trembled,
and our rendered her own to the page where his handwriting quivered and
became a blur.
He never knew the effort it cost her to rise and confront him. She
herself had not measured or fathomed the power which his very person
exhaled. It seemed to have come upon him suddenly. He needed not to
have spoken for her to have felt that. What it was she could not tell.
She knew alone that it was nigh irresistible, and she grasped the back of
the chair as though material support might sustain her.
"Is he--dead?"
She was breathing hard.
"No," she said. "Not--not yet, They are waiting for the end."
"And you?" he asked in grave surprise, glancing at the door of the
Judge's room.
Then she remembered Clarence.
"I am waiting for my cousin," she said.
Even as she spoke she was with this man again at the Brinsmade gate.
Those had been her very words! Intuition told her that he, too, was
thinking of that time. Now he had found her at his desk, and, as if that
were not humiliation enough, with one of his books taken down and laid
open at his signature. Suffused, she groped for words to carry her on.
"I am waiting for Clarence, Mr. Brice. He was here, and is gone
somewhere."
He did not seem to take account of the speech. And his silence--goad to
indiscretion--pressed her to add:--
"You saved him, Mr. Brice. I--we all--thank you so much. And that is
not all I want to say. It is a poor enough acknowledgment of what you
did,--for we have not always treated you well." Her voice faltered
almost to faintness, as he raised his hand in pained protest. But she
continued: "I shall regard it as a debt I can never repay. It is not
likely that in my life to come I can ever help you, but I shall pray for
that opportunity."
He interrupted her.
"I did nothing, Miss Carvel, nothing that the most unfeeling man in our
army would not do. Nothing that I would not have done for the merest
stranger."
"You saved him for me," she said.
O fateful words that spoke of themselves! She turned away from him for
very shame, and yet she heard him saying:--
"Yes, I saved him for you."
His voice was in the very note of the sadness which has the strength to
suffer, to put aside the thought of self. A note to which her soul
responded with anguish when she turned to him with the natural cry of
woman.
"Oh, you ought not to have come here to-night. Why did you come? The
Doctor forbade it. The consequences may kill you."
"It does not matter much," he answered. "The Judge was dying."
"How did you know?"
"I guessed it,--because my mother had left me."
"Oh, you ought not to have come!" she said again.
"The Judge has been my benefactor," he answered quietly. I could walk,
and it was my duty to come."
"You did not walk!" she gasped.
He smiled, "I had no carriage," he said.
With the instinct of her sex she seized the chair and placed it under
him. "You must sit down at once," she cried.
"But I am not tired," he replied.
"Oh, you must sit down, you must, Captain Brice." He started at the
title, which came so prettily from her lips, "Won't you please!" she said
pleadingly.
He sat down. And, as the sun peeps out of a troubled sky, she smiled.
"It is your chair," she said.
He glanced at the book, and the bit of sky was crimson. But still he
said nothing.
"It is your book," she stammered. "I did not know that it was yours when
I took it down. I--I was looking at it while I was waiting for
Clarence."
"It is dry reading," he remarked, which was not what he wished to say.
"And yet--"
"Yes?"
"And yet you have read it twice." The confession had slipped to her
lips.
She was sitting on the edge of his desk, looking down at him. Still he
did not look at her. All the will that was left him averted his head.
And the seal of honor was upon his speech. And he wondered if man were
ever more tempted.
Then the evil spread its wings, and soared away into the night. And the
moment was past. Peace seemed to come upon them both, quieting the
tumult in their hearts, and giving them back their reason. Respect like
wise came to the girl,--respect that was akin to awe. It was he who
spoke first.
"My mother has me how faithfully you nursed the Judge, Miss Carvel. It
was a very noble thing to do."
"Not noble at all," she replied hastily, "your mother did the most of it,
And he is an old friend of my father--"
"It was none the less noble," said Stephen, warmly, "And he quarrelled
with Colonel Carvel."
"My father quarrelled with him," she corrected. "It was well that I
should make some atonement. And yet mine was no atonement, I love Judge
Whipple. It was a--a privilege to see your mother every day--oh, how
he would talk of you! I think he loves you better than any one on this
earth."
"Tell me about him," said Stephen, gently.
Virginia told him, and into the narrative she threw the whole of her
pent-up self. How patient the Judge had been, and the joy he had derived
from Stephen's letters. "You were very good to write to him so often,"
she said. It seemed like a dream to Stephen, like one of the many dreams
of her, the mystery of which was of the inner life beyond our ken. He
could not recall a time when she had not been rebellious, antagonistic.
And now--as he listened to her voice, with its exquisite low tones and
modulations, as he sat there in this sacred intimacy, perchance to be the
last in his life, he became dazed. His eyes, softened, with supreme
eloquence cried out that she, was his, forever and forever. The magnetic
force which God uses to tie the worlds together was pulling him to her.
And yet the Puritan resisted.
Then the door swung open, and Clarence Colfax, out of breath, ran into
the room. He stopped short when he saw them, his hand fell to his sides,
and his words died on his lips. Virginia did not stir.
It was Stephen who rose to meet him, and with her eyes the girl followed
his motions. The broad and loosely built frame of the Northerner, his
shoulders slightly stooping, contrasted with Clarence's slighter figure,
erect, compact, springy. The Southerner's eye, for that moment, was
flint struck with the spark from the steel. Stephen's face, thinned by
illness, was grave. The eyes kindly, yet penetrating. For an instant
they stood thus regarding each other, neither offering a hand. It was
Stephen who spoke first, and if there was a trace of emotion in his
voice, one who was listening intently failed to mark it,
"I am glad to see that you have recovered, Colonel Colfax," he said.
"I should indeed be without gratitude if I did not thank Captain Brice
for my life," answered Clarence. Virginia flushed. She had detected the
undue accent on her cousin's last words, and she glanced apprehensively
at Stephen. His forceful reply surprised them both.
"Miss Carvel has already thanked me sufficiently, sir," he said. "I am
happy to have been able to have done you a good turn, and at the same
time to have served her so well. It was she who saved your life. It is
to her your thanks are chiefly due. I believe that I am not going too
far, Colonel Colfax," he added, "when I congratulate you both."
Before her cousin could recover, Virginia slid down from the desk and had
come between them. How her eyes shone and her lip trembled as she gazed
at him, Stephen has never forgotten. What a woman she was as she took
her cousin's arm and made him a curtsey.
"What you have done may seem a light thing to you, Captain Brice," she
said. "That is apt to be the way with those who have big hearts. You
have put upon Colonel Colfax, and upon me, a life's obligation."
When she began to speak, Clarence raised his head. As he glanced,
incredulous, from her to Stephen, his look gradually softened, and when
she had finished, his manner had become again frank, boyish, impetuous--
nay, penitent. He seized Stephen's hand.
"Forgive me, Brice," he cried. "Forgive me. I should have known
better. I--I did you an injustice, and you, Virginia. I was a fool--a
scoundrel." Stephen shook his head.
"No, you were neither," he said. Then upon his face came the smile of
one who has the strength to renounce, all that is dearest to him--that
smile of the unselfish, sweetest of all. It brought tears to Virginia.
She was to see it once again, upon the features of one who bore a cross,
--Abraham Lincoln. Clarence looked, and then he turned away toward the
door to the stairway, as one who walks blindly, in a sorrow.
His hand was on the knob when Virginia seemed to awake. She flew after
him:
"Wait!" she whispered.
Then she raised her eyes, slowly, to Stephen, who was standing motionless
beside his chair.
"Captain Brice!"
"Yes," he answered.
"My father is in the Judge's room," she said.
"Your father!" he exclaimed. "I thought--"
"That he was an officer in the Confederate Army. So he is." Her head
went up as she spoke.
Stephen stared at her, troubled. Suddenly her manner, changed. She took
a step toward him, appealingly,
"Oh, he is not a spy," she cried. "He has given Mr Brinsmade his word
that he came here for no other purpose than to see me. Then he heard
that the Judge was dying--"
"He has given his word to Mr. Brinsmade?
"Yes."
"Then," said Stephen, "what Mr. Brinsmade sanctions is not for me to
question."
She gave him yet another look, a fleeting one which he did not see. Then
she softly opened the door and passed into the room of the dying man.
Stephen followed her. As for Clarence, he stood for a space staring
after them. Then he went noiselessly down the stairs into the street. _
Read next: BOOK III: Volume 7: Chapter XI. Lead, Kindly Light
Read previous: BOOK III: Volume 7: Chapter IX. Bellegarde Once More
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