The Haunted Homestead Part 21

"Trufe, brudder! dat's me jes'! I'se de wretch! an' I wish how dis same wretch might hab de feber long o' de oder two, an' how I might die long of 'em, and how we might all go up to Marster's trone, and have de case 'cided whose wife dis 'ooman is for to be."

"Governor! What! do you mean to say that the new overseer is tampering with your wife's fidelity to you?"

"Hish-sh! he ain't fur off. Dunno what de debbil you mean wid your big words. But she lub fine dress, an' he gib it to her; she berry putty, mos' white, you know, an' he sen' me way off to de furres' fiel' to work."

"Why don't you talk to her?"

"'Taint no use; she 'ny eberyting."

"Why don't you speak to your master?"

"'Tain't no use; he won't nebber hear no 'plaints gin de oberseer."

"I am very sorry for you, poor fellow; and I would like to give you comfort and counsel, but I must hurry away from you, and try to get leave to go to town, and see poor dear Fannie. If I were you, Governor, I would speak to Major Hewitt upon this subject. He never would permit such a wrong done you."

"'Taint no use, I tell yer! But nebber min', Walley, listen yer; some ob dese yere days I fixes him!"

Valentine started at the demoniac look that, in a man usually so mild, accompanied these vague words; and, bidding the negro a hasty good-morning, he ran along the lane until he reached the house.

His own heart and brain were wild with grief and alarm as he hastened to the presence of his master, whom he did not doubt would now, in this extremity, permit him to go to the city.

Mr. Waring, in an irritable frame of mind, was walking up and down the front piazza, as Valentine stepped upon the floor.

"Well, what now?" he exclaimed, testily, at the sight of the young man's agitated countenance.

"My wife, sir; she has got the fever."

"Sorry to hear it, but--how did you hear it, sir? I hope no one from that place has had the temerity to set foot upon these premises, in face of the prohibition?"

"No, sir; I happened to meet with Governor, Major Hewitt's man, and he had seen an acquaintance of ours from the city, who came from Fannie's house this morning and brought the news."

"I wonder Major Hewitt does not take better care of his own interests than to permit stragglers from the city to infest his place. He will bring the pestilence among us before we know where we are," said Mr.

Waring, angrily.

"But, Fannie, sir--my poor wife----"

"Well, what of her? I am sorry, of course--really sorry, Valentine. It is a pity you ever got married; if you had not, neither you nor Fannie would have had so much trouble. It was a very foolish piece of business!"

"Perhaps it was, sir; but people who love each other have a sort of propensity to get married. It can't be helped, I suppose; it's a way they've got."

"And a bad way--very bad way--that I ought never to have sanctioned."

"Nor imitated, sir!"

"You are an impertinent fellow! But I overlook that. There is some difference, I should judge, between you and me, and I certainly ought never to have consented to your taking that girl."

"It is too late to say that now, sir!" said Valentine, with a sigh so heavy that Mr. Waring inquired, quickly:

"So you repent it, do you?"

"No; G.o.d Almighty knows I do not!" replied Valentine, with sorrowful earnestness; adding, "but, oh, sir, I am losing precious time. I came here to ask you for a permit to go to town and see my wife."

"A permit! A permit to go to town, and to visit a woman ill with the very pestilence we are all doing our best to guard against? A permit to go there, and take the fever just as sure as you go, and bring back and spread the contagion among hundreds, whom we are all doing our best to guard from the pestilence! Impossible, Valentine! I wonder you could be so unreasonable as to ask it!"

"Unreasonable that I should want to go and see my suffering wife?"

"Yes--under the circ.u.mstances. Yes, I am sorry for her, Valentine, and sorry for you, though I cannot say that your manner is very respectful.

Still, I am very sorry for you; and if it were possible for me to do anything for your relief, I would do it--as it is, I regret that I can do nothing."

"Oh, sir! Master Oswald, you could let me go to town," pleaded Valentine.

"At the imminent hazard of your own life, and the all but certainty of bringing the pestilence upon this plantation."

"All do not get the fever who are exposed to its influence; neither do they always spread contagion into the healthy places they chance to visit," reasoned the young man.

"The risk is too great," replied the master, curtly.

"Would you think it too great if your own wife were the one concerned, sir?" argued Valentine.

"Be more respectful, sirrah! There is some difference, I should say!"

retorted the master, angrily.

"Yes, there is a difference!" cried Valentine; "and when I see anything to respect----" Suddenly he stopped. Swift as lightning came the thought that if he refrained from provoking his master now and came to him an hour hence, when he should be in a better humor, the prayer that he now denied he might then grant. Controlling his rising indignation, he bowed, turned abruptly, and went off.

"Impudent rascal! he was just about to say something that I should have had to knock him down for; and then he thought better of it, and stopped--it's well he did! Poor fellow, I am sorry for him, too; but it is all his own fault! If he were not so presumptuous, he would not feel so badly. That is the very deuce of it; for that prevents him from seeing that there is a difference." Such were the reflections of Mr.

Waring as he continued to pace up and down the front piazza.

Valentine has mastered his anger, but he could not control the terrible anxiety that preyed upon his heart; Fannie suffering, Fannie dying, deserted, alone; little Coralie perishing from neglect--these were the torturing visions that maddened his brain.

He went and told Phaedra, who wept bitterly at the sad story; but yet sought to comfort her son, and inspire hope, by promising to go herself and tell Mrs. Waring, and get her to intercede with her husband for Valentine.

This was done, but with little success; for, though Mrs. Waring was moved to compa.s.sion, and went to her husband and besought him to take compa.s.sion upon Valentine and send him to seek his sick wife and trust in Providence to avert all evil consequences, Mr. Waring was not only firm in his refusal, but also exhibited no small degree of impatience at her interference. Unwilling to inflict a hopeless disappointment upon the poor fellow, Mrs. Waring tempered the report of her ill-success by saying that, though Mr. Waring had now refused her pet.i.tion, she still hoped that he would think better of it and grant the permit.

Yet all this time Fannie might be dying, and her child perishing for want--every moment was precious beyond price!

Phaedra sought her master's presence, and pleaded with him--pleaded by her long years of faithful service; by her devoted care of him in his feeble infancy; by the days of his childhood, when he and Valentine were playmates; by all the long years, as boys and as men, those two had pa.s.sed together, inseparable companions, until the marriage of each; by her own devoted attachment to them; by his love for his own wife; by every sweet affection and holy thought, to have compa.s.sion on her son, his own foster-brother, and let him go and minister to his sick--probably his dying wife. Phaedra pleaded with more eloquence, but with not more success, than the others.

Some substances melt under the action of water--others, in the same element, turn to stone. Instead of melting Mr. Waring's obduracy seemed to ossify under the effects of tears and entreaties. He told Phaedra, firmly, that he did not mean to gratify one man at the hazard of exposing many to contagion. And at the dinner-table, speaking partly in justification of his own line of conduct, and partly in apology for the manner in which he had met Mrs. Waring's intercession of the morning, he said:

"You emphasize this matter too much, madam; this Fannie is, after all, but one sufferer among thousands; you also mistake in endowing these creatures with the same acuteness of feelings that we possess; there is a difference, madam! there is a difference! I wish I could make people understand that there is a difference; neither Valentine nor Phaedra seem to have the slightest conception of this difference."

"I must confess that in that respect I share their obtusity," remarked madam, while Mr. Waring, in apparent self-satisfaction, went on with his dinner.

But was he really satisfied with himself? Who shall answer?

Meantime, Valentine wandered about, consumed with sorrow and anxiety.

Doubtless, he would have run away and endeavored to reach the town, but he knew how carefully the avenues thither were guarded, and how desperate was the attempt that he had already thrice before made to elude the police. It would involve a loss of several hours to make the attempt, which, if it should fail, as it was altogether likely to do, would entirely preclude him from all possible chance of seeing Fannie; therefore he thought best to make another appeal to his master before taking the last desperate step. He knew by experience that the hour after dinner always found Oswald Waring in his best humor.

It was then that he sought him.