Not Pretty, but Precious; And Other Short Stories Part 17

With a white face she met them at the gate. A word of explanation from the marquis--an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of mental anguish from the girl. Two fugitive tie-choppers from the woods turned back to find the colonel's body. Mrs.

Ruggles, carrying Alice in her arms to the door--the yaller-headed doll-baby that never washed a dish--did what she could to soothe her, but did it as silently as possible.

Mrs. Ruggles intercepted the returning tie-choppers in the lane. A look of eager joy was in their faces. The bruised colonel, a.s.sisted to the threshold, sank into the big arm-chair, and Alice was in his arms. Mrs.

Ruggles did not see their meeting, not at all. No, her back was toward them, but the corner of her ap.r.o.n made another journey to the corner of her eye as the father folded his lost child once more to his heart.

His desire to express his grat.i.tude to Mrs. Ruggles and her boy was equaled only by her fears that he would do so. As a last resort he called the marquis to him, and, while a tear stood on his rough cheek, drew a handful of money from his pocket. But a bony hand appeared majestically between them, and a voice said, "Not by no means. We're not them kind o'

persons. Markis-dee, put away the camfire."

Then a rickety gig rattled up to the gate: "Contusion--severe--no danger--there!--be lame a while--so!--the other bandage--bridge gone--creek half dry--bend your leg--so!--current turned up-stream--now the shoulder--not strange Crawfish Creek should run backward--he! he!" And the rickety gig rattled merrily off in search of broken bones.

Alice, meeting the marquis outside the door, approached him in a way that made him tremble. What was said will never be known, but she placed her white little hand upon his shoulder, the golden head bowed for a moment and her sweet lips touched his sunburnt face.

By remaining quiet that night the colonel would be able to get back to Thompson City in the morning. Before nine o'clock he was at rest in the bed-room. A couch for Alice had been prepared in the same room. In the other--kitchen, parlor and dining-hall--a blanket was thrown down for the marquis, and two chairs fixed for the bed of Mrs. Ruggles. Before retiring, however, she sat down at her lonely table, where, notwithstanding the tea she drank to keep them off, an unusual number of weak creepings came over her.

"I couldn't help it," was all she said to the tea-pot. Whether she referred to the tornado, or her kindness to the sufferers, or to the manner of rendering the kindness, no one knows. That was all she said to the tea-pot, but to her son, who sat for a while beside her, she spoke in a low tone: "Markis-dee, you could never c'verse with her. You're better'n she is. Put her out o' yer head. She laughed at ye."

"But she kissed me wi' tears in 'er eyes afterward," was his answer as he turned toward his bed on the floor.

An hour later the tea was exhausted, but Mrs. Ruggles yet sat at her lonely table, as still as the sleepers around her. The clock struck ten: she nervously drew a soiled paper from her bosom. Eleven: she rose with hesitation and set the tallow candle behind the door. Then she softly entered the bed-room and stood before the window where Alice lay. The sky was clear again. The moon shone on the face and form of the sleeping girl, making softer their graceful lines, richer the shadows in the golden hair, tenderer the tint of cheek and lip.

She stepped again into the shade and stole to the colonel's bedside. His disturbed mind had turned backward over the path of life from the sudden death escaped, and, sleeping or waking, his memory had been busy with the people and events of other days.

"John Miller!" she said, in a suppressed tone. He started. "John Miller, I know ye. Common name--I wa'n't sure afore to-day. When you pulled that money out o' yer pocket I see that in yer face that satisfied me. It's fer the good name o' the dead I've come. Elseways I never'd ha' troubled ye."

The astonished colonel shifted his position painfully, prepared to speak or to listen. "There yer girl lies in the light o' heaven. Nex' room my boy lies in the shadder an' dark. He don't know, an' he never will. John Miller, I married as honest an' as good a man as ever you see. Folks has come to me in sickness an' trouble, an' gone behin' my back to talk. Some said I done right to take him--'twas Christian in me. Some said I must ha'

been a fool. Some said we wa'n't married a-tall. Wasn't I a Peables?

Didn't I know 'twould be flung up to my face? Wasn't I prouder'n any on 'em?"

A moment's confusion and doubting of senses: then, as the suppressed voice went on, the colonel remembered. A dozen years ago; before he had meddled with railroads; back in the old town; soon after taking his father's shop; he was plaintiff; Ruggles worked in the first room; Porter's testimony; Becky Peables the sweetheart of both; burglary; loss trifling; George Ruggles, for one year; came back and married when released; went West. The old case had scarce crossed his mind for years.

"Yes, you sent him, an' I waited fer him. The day he come out I married him. We had to dig hard. I'd do it ag'in. Now his boy's saved yer girl's life to pay ye fer puttin' his father'n State's pris'n. Two year ago didn't Bill Porter--sick an' a-dyin'--hunt till he foun' me here? Didn't he go an' swear? Done fer spite. Didn't he sen' me the affydavy?--an' I've got it safe. Got it swore to by him, with the justice o' the peace's name signed, an' two witnissis, an' the judge's red seal on top o' that. Could I go back an' show that paper'n tell how 'twas? Too late! George was dead.

I couldn't go. My folks a'most disowned me when I took him. I said then I never'd step my foot into their doors. Them that gives me the col'

shoulder once don't do it no more. Come to me?--well an' good. Go to them?--never."

The bewildered colonel, promising every possible reparation, would have thrown himself at her feet, could he have done so, for the part he had taken in the prosecution. But she permitted no interruption, and continued: "He lay by the winder where yer girl lies. The moon come in on his bed as it does on her'n. In the night, when I see the light o' the sky shine there where he died, I feel his sperit in the room. I moved the bed to this corner, where it's darker. I wa'n't good enough to lie there. But 'twas on his mind. He said, 'Becky, if I could prove it to you afore I died!' An' I say, George's sperit sent Bill Porter here, an' sent you here, an' sent me into this room to-night. Now, fer the sake o'him an'

Markis-dee, go back an' tell the truth!"

Speaking the word "truth," she vanished across the light to her dark place of rest.

Next morning the colonel examined and copied the confession while a buggy waited for him at the door. Respecting the evident wishes of Mrs. Ruggles, he went away with no attempt to express the feelings that were uppermost in his heart.

She sleeps beside her husband in the orchard. Her old log-house has been replaced by a large white box, of which her son the marquis is proprietor.

Each year adds to his acres or his stock. An able-bodied wife, whose industry and English are equal to his own, sits near him at the door on a summer evening, while he smokes his pipe, takes an oak.u.m-headed child upon his knee, and gazes quietly in the direction of the spring and across the grain-fields where once he saw--or rather heard, without waiting to see--a forest swept down in a moment. He smokes and gazes as he sees again a dazzling creature ride down the dreary road, and wonders where on earth that face can be, and how much it has changed, and whether, through so many years, any memory of him can linger in her heart. He says nothing.

But he hugs closer the oak.u.m-headed child as he remembers the one romance in his hard, humdrum life.

CHAUNCEY HICKOX.

Under False Colors.

Chapter I.

Hoisting The Flag.

A dreary, murky November day brooded over Southampton, and an impenetrable fog hung over sea and sh.o.r.e alike, penetrating the clothing, chilling the blood and depressing the spirits of every unlucky person who was so unfortunate as to come within the range of its influence. The pa.s.sengers on the steamship America, from Bremen for New York via Southampton, found the brief period of their stay at the latter port almost unendurable; and while some paced the wet decks impatiently, others grumbled both loudly and deeply in the cabins, or shut themselves up in their state-rooms in sulky discomfort. Those who remained on deck had at least the amus.e.m.e.nt of watching for the steamboat which was to bring the Southampton pa.s.sengers--a pastime which, however, being indefinitely prolonged, began to grow wearisome. It came at last--a wretched little vessel, rather smaller than the smallest of the noisy tugs that puff and paddle on our American rivers--and the wet, sick, unsheltered pa.s.sengers were gradually transferred to the deck of the ship.

Among those who appeared to have suffered most severely from the rocking of the miserable little steamboat was a young, fair-haired girl, apparently about seventeen years of age, who seemed almost insensible. She would have fallen had not one of her fellow-travelers, a lady evidently not much her senior, thrown her arm around her; thus aided, she managed to reach the steamer's deck and to totter down the staircase leading to the ladies' cabin. The active, busy steward at once bustled up to the two young girls:

"Your names, ladies, if you please. I will point out your state-rooms in a moment. Miss Marion Nugent--Miss Rhoda Steele? Miss Nugent, berth No. 20, state-room G--"

"Cannot I occupy the same state-room with this young lady?" interrupted the taller girl, who was still lending the support of her arm to sustain her half-fainting companion.

"Do not leave me, please," murmured the sufferer.

The steward threw a compa.s.sionate glance upon the pair, went away, and after a short consultation with the unseen powers, returned and said that the arrangement had been effected, and that they could take possession at once of their state-room, into which he proceeded to usher them. It was more s.p.a.cious than such apartments usually are, and abounded with all those little contrivances for comfort and convenience for which the steamers of the North German Lloyds are justly famed. The invalid sank down on the soft-cushioned little sofa and gasped painfully for breath.

"For Heaven's sake, get me some wine or some brandy!" exclaimed her companion. "This poor thing seems very ill; and do tell the doctor to come here at once."

With a quick, energetic movement, as she spoke she unclasped the heavy waterproof cloak of the sufferer and threw it back, thus revealing a fair, pallid face, framed in loosened curls of silky golden hair. It was a face that must have looked singularly lovely when tinted with the rosy hues of health, so delicate were the features and so large and blue the half-closed eyes, but it was ghastly pale, and a livid, bluish tinge had settled around the small mouth, whose ruby hues had fled to give place to a sickly purple. The steward speedily returned with some brandy, the bull's-eye was thrown open, and the cold sea air and potent spirit soon a.s.serted their restorative powers. She sat up, a more natural color over-spreading her countenance, and she murmured inarticulately a few words of thanks, while the kind-hearted steward hastened away again in search of the doctor.

"I am subject to these attacks," she said, faintly; to her companion when they were again left alone. "Only feel how my heart is beating."

The ship's surgeon soon made his appearance. He was a young, light-haired, solemn-looking German, who shook his head and looked very grave as he listened to the labored breathing and felt the bounding, irregular pulse of the sufferer.

"It is a pity that the ship has started," he said in very good English, "for I hardly think you are fitted to bear the fatigues of a sea-voyage at this season of the year; and had we been still at anchor, I should have counseled you to return to sh.o.r.e. But it is too late now, and you must try to keep as quiet as possible. I would advise you to retire to your berth at once: it will probably be a stormy night, and you had better settle yourself comfortably before the motion begins to be unpleasant. I will see you again in the morning, and if you feel worse meanwhile, let me know at once."

The doctor and the steward then quitted the state-room, and its two occupants, being left alone, surveyed each other curiously.

The active and energetic girl who had acted as spokeswoman and directress throughout the brief scene we have just described had let fall her waterproof cloak and stood arrayed in a black velvet jacket and dark silk skirt, both much the worse for wear, and contrasting sadly with the neat but simple traveling costume of her companion. But about her slender, finely-proportioned figure there was an air of style and grace which lent an elegance even to her shabby and faded finery, and which was wanting in the owner of the fresher and more appropriate attire. Her face was beautiful, with a singular and weird beauty which owed nothing of its fascinations to the ordinary charms of delicate outlines and dainty coloring. Her features were small and attenuated, and her complexion was of a sallow paleness, whose lack of freshness seemed caused by dissipation and late hours or by the ravages of illness. Heavy ma.s.ses of soft silken hair, black as midnight, with bluish reflections on its l.u.s.trous waves _(bleu a force d'etre noir_, as Alexandre Dumas describes such tresses), untortured by crimping-pins or curling-tongs, were rolled back in plain folds above her low, broad brow. Her eyes would have lent beauty to a plainer face. Large almost to a fault, of that dark, clear blue which is too perfect and too transparent ever to look black even under the shadow of such long, thick eyelashes as shaded them in the present instance, they were perfectly magnificent; and their l.u.s.trous azure and ever-varying expression lent to the mobile countenance of their possessor its most potent and peculiar charm.

She was the first to speak. "Do you not think you had better retire to your berth?" she asked. "The rocking of the ship is increasing, and we had better, early as it is, settle ourselves for the night, before it becomes so violent as to prevent us from moving."

At this moment two porters made their appearance laden with packages. Two small new trunks--one marked R.S., the other M.N.--were deposited on the floor and identified by their possessors. The sick girl then attempted, with trembling hands, to disembarra.s.s herself of her apparel, but it was not without much a.s.sistance from her companion that she was enabled to remove her traveling costume and make her preparations for retiring. At last, however, she was ready, and was about to make an attempt to reach the upper berth, which was the one allotted to her by number, when a quick, imperative gesture from her companion stopped her.

"No, no," she said: "you must take the lower berth. I can reach the upper one without any trouble, and you are not strong enough for so much exertion."

"You are very, very kind," said the invalid, gratefully. She sank back on the pillow and watched the other for some minutes in silence, as she quietly and quickly gathered up and put in order the scattered articles with which the state-room was strewn.

"Will you not give me that little black bag?" she said at last. "Thanks!

that is it. I wished to be certain that I had put my letter of introduction in it. Ah! here it is, quite safe. It would never do for me to lose that letter, for the lady with whom I am going to live as governess has never seen me, and she might take me for an impostor were I to come without it. An English lady who was her most intimate friend engaged me for her. I wonder what New York is like?--very rough, and wild, no doubt, and I am afraid I shall be much annoyed by the rattlesnakes. You are going to New York too, are you not?"

"I am."