CHAPTER XXXV.
MEETINGS AND PARTINGS.
"I am not mad; I would to heaven I were, For then 'tis like I should forget myself. Oh, if I could, what grief should I forget!"--SHAKESPEARE.
For one moment, so great was the surprise, that every shout was hushed, and the silence of death reigned. The next, a wild, fearful cry, that those who heard would never forget, rang out, and a man, amid the crowd, fell heavily to the ground.
There was a swaying to and fro, as the vast sea of human beings made way for those who raised Edgar Courtney, white and senseless, from the ground--a dark stream of blood oozing from his lips--and a murmur ran round: "He has burst a blood-vessel!" But in another moment he was forgotten, and every eye was riveted on the scaffold; every ear was strained to hear what was passing there.
Sibyl's mind, stunned by the many shocks it had lately received had sunk into a sort of lethargy, from which nothing could arouse her; and now she stared vaguely at Christie, like one in a dream.
But, with a passionate exclamation, Mr. Brantwell sprang forward and caught Christie's hand, exclaiming:
"Saved! saved! Sibyl is saved! Christie lives!"
And then the mob, catching up the words, sent forth shout after shout, until the very air seemed to ring.
"Saved! saved!" repeated Christie, with wild exultation; and then the unnatural strength that had hitherto borne her up gave way, and she sank fainting in the arms of Willard.
"Let us leave this horrible place," said Mr. Brantwell, drawing Sibyl's arm within his own, and leading her away.
"My carriage is near," said a gentleman who stood beside them, "and I beg you to make use of it."
"I shall do so with pleasure. Sir," to the sheriff, "I presume Miss Campbell may now accompany me to the hotel, since she is discovered to be innocent of the crime with which she is charged?"
The sheriff bowed in silence.
"Mr. Drummond, you had better bring this young girl also. You perceive she has fainted," said Mr. Brantwell.
The clergyman, with Sibyl, entered the carriage, followed by Drummond bearing Christie, and then the carriage drove rapidly away toward the hotel.
And the surprised and wondering crowd dispersed, to spread the astonishing news far and wide.
Sibyl, like one in a dream, had allowed herself hitherto to be led passively wherever they willed; but at the entrance of Willard, she started, like one who receives a galvanic shock; her face, a moment before like marble, grew crimson; her wild, black eyes lit fiercely up; and turning to Mr. Brantwell, she haughtily demanded:
"Why is he here? How _dare_ he ever enter my presence again?"
"My dear Sibyl, be reasonable," said the minister, delighted that even anger should rouse her from her apathy, "Mr. Drummond has saved your life."
"I would sooner die than owe my life to him!" she said, passionately.
"My dear Sibyl," said the minister, soothingly, as he cast a deprecating glance at Willard. "You mustn't talk like this; it's very wrong, you know."
"Let her speak, Mr. Brantwell; I deserve it all," said Willard, bitterly.
His words, the sound of his voice, wrought a revulsion in her feelings, and she cried out, in a tone of passionate reproach:
"Oh, Willard, Willard! how could you deceive me so? I loved you so much, so much Willard, and yet you deceived me! Oh, it was cruel, it was base, it was treacherous, it was unmanly to trifle with a poor young girl thus!"
"Sibyl, I am a wretch! I dare not ask you to forgive me!" he groaned, in bitterest remorse.
"And she--she is your wife, is she not?" she said, fixing her flaming eyes, on the pale, wan face of Christie.
"She is; but she had no part in deceiving you, Sibyl; all the blame must rest on me. As I deceived you, so did I deceive her, villain that I was," he replied.
"Mr. Drummond, she is dead, I fear," said Mr. Brantwell, looking in alarm at the white, rigid face of Christie.
"No, she has only swooned; she breaths yet."
"Here we are, at the hotel, thank Heaven!" said the minister, as the coach stopped.
A vast crowd had assembled here. For a moment all shrank from passing through it, but there was no help for it.
"My brother is here?" said Sibyl, in a hurried whisper.
"Yes."
"Take me to his room then," she said, passing her arm through that of the clergyman.
"You will take Mrs. Drummond to my apartment," said the minister, kindly; "the waiter will show you where it is. I will join you in a few moments."
Bearing the light form of his still senseless wife in his arms, Willard entered the room and laid her on the bed.
The wife of the host entered with restoratives, but it was long ere the heavy lids were raised from the sad blue eyes.
"My own Christie, you are better now?" said Willard, bending over her.
She smiled faintly, and pressed her hand to her heart.
"Yes, I will soon be better," she said, in a strange tone. "Willard, where is Sibyl?"
"With her brother, dearest."
"Have you told her all?"
"No, Christie, I have explained nothing."
"Send for her, then; for her brother, too, and Mr. Brantwell. I want to tell them all, and get Sibyl's forgiveness before I--"
"Before you--what?"
"Nothing, dearest Willard, Have you sent?"
A servant entered, and the message was delivered.
"But she has nothing to forgive you, Christie; you never wronged her."
"Oh, I did. I did, unintentionally, perhaps, but still I wronged her. Hark! they are coming, Willard."
There was a soft knock at the door. Willard opened it, and Mr. Brantwell, followed by Sibyl and Captain Campbell, entered. The young captain, pale, thin, and haggard, cast a fierce, implacable glance at Willard; but the sight of the frail, spiritual, attenuated form of Christie checked the fierce, passionate words that were already rising to his lips.
A great change was perceptible in Sibyl during these few minutes. The exhortations of the good clergyman had evidently not been without effect; for her pale, worn face had a calm, subdued look, as if she had at last realized the great danger she had escaped.
"Miss Sibyl--dear Miss Sibyl, can you ever forgive me?" said the sad, sweet voice of Christie, as she held out her hand and looked wistfully, imploringly into Sibyl's face.
"Oh, Christie, I have nothing to forgive you. You were not guilty," said Sibyl, sinking down by the bedside, and hiding her face in Christie's little thin hand.
"Not willfully, but still I wronged you. And there is another--will you not forgive him?"
"Never, so help me Heaven!" fiercely exclaimed Sibyl, springing up and casting upon him a glance of fire.
"Sibyl, I am dying! You will not refuse my last request? Oh, Sibyl, in a moment of thoughtless passion he married me; but all the time he loved you best. I can see it all now. He loved you then--he loves you now, better than all the world."
"And you can forgive him for the irreparable wrong he has done you--a deserted home, a blighted life, and an early death? Christie, you are an angel!"
"No, no; only a frail sinner, with so much to be forgiven herself, that she can easily, joyfully forgive that. Sibyl, my hours are numbered. Will you render them miserable by refusing my last request?"
"Oh, Christie, you know not what you ask!"
"Sibyl, do you not love Willard still?"
"Oh, I do--I do! Heaven forgive me, I do!" she said, passionately.
"And he loves you. Willard, come here--take Sibyl's hand. Now, Sibyl, promise when I am gone to be his wife."
There was a fierce struggle in the passionate heart of Sibyl--a last struggle between love and pride, and her burning sense of the great wrong he had done her. With her face bowed, her whole frame quivering, she did not look up--would not speak, until the little hand of Christie fell imploringly on her head.
"Sibyl, I cannot go until you promise me this. Oh, Sibyl, I love you both so much that I would willingly die to make you happy. You love one another still; why should this one fault, committed in a moment of thoughtlessness make your whole future lives miserable? Oh, Sibyl, we have all so much to be forgiven, can you not pardon this?"
Still no reply
"Sibyl, I am dying! if I can forgive the wrong done me, why--oh, why cannot you? Oh, Sibyl, cast out this false pride that will make you wretched all your life, and make my last moments happy by this promise. Oh, Sibyl, dearest Sibyl, consent!"
"Christie, you have conquered." said Sibyl, as she kissed through her fast-falling tears, the pale brow of the dying girl. Then rising, she placed her hand in Willard's, and said, with sad earnestness:
"Willard, we have both erred; let us forget the past. I love you still, and forgive you all."
He did not reply--he could not speak; but he raised the hand she extended to his lips, and turned toward the window.
"Oh, thank Heaven--thank Heaven for this!" cried Christie, exultingly. "Now I can die in peace."
There was a low rap at the door. Captain Campbell opened it, and Laura Courtney, pale, wild and excited, entered.
"Mrs. Courtney! _you_ here?" exclaimed Mr. Brantwell, in surprise.
"Oh, Mr. Brantwell, Edgar is dying--the doctor says so; and he is raving and saying the most frightful things. He wants to see Captain Campbell and his sister immediately."
"Me!" said Sibyl. "What can he want with me?"
"Oh, I do not know. He is saying such dreadful things! Come with me," said Mrs. Courtney, catching Sibyl's arm in a wild, terrified way and drawing her from the room.
Mr. Brantwell, Willard, and his dying girl-wife were left alone.
"I want to see Aunt Tom and Carl," said Christie, faintly. "Do you know where they are to be found?"
"They are on the island," said Mr. Brantwell, "and consequently have not heard of your arrival here. I will send a messenger over for them, if you wish."
"Yes, yes!" said Christie, eagerly; "send now--right away."
Mr. Brantwell left the room, and speedily returned to say that a man had gone, and Mrs. Tom and her nephew might be expected in a few hours.
And then the good clergyman came and sat down beside the dying girl, and, taking her hand in his, began talking in a low earnest tone, while Willard, with his head bowed on his hand, sat by the window, absorbed by many conflicting thoughts.
And thus an hour passed; and then Captain Campbell and his sister returned, pale and excited, as if by some strange tidings.
"Mr. Courtney?" said the minister, inquiringly.
"Is dead!" answered Captain Campbell, with a slight shudder.
"Is it possible? How very sudden!" said Mr. Brantwell, in surprise, "What was the matter?"
"He ruptured an artery this morning," replied the young man, beginning to pace the room with rapid strides: "and that, with the shock caused by the unexpected appearance of Christie, caused his death."
"Christie's appearance! How could that shock him?" said the minister, still more surprised.
"He thought her dead--thought himself her murderer, and fancied she had risen from the grave to accuse him," said Captain Campbell, excitedly.
"Thought himself her murderer!" said the minister, still repeating the young man's words, like an echo. "How was that?"
Both Christie and Willard fixed their eyes eagerly on the excited face of the young captain.
"Well, it was he who stabbed her that night on the beach. He has confessed it all," said Captain Campbell.
"He stabbed her!" exclaimed Willard, springing to his feet, while Christie uttered a faint cry; "and why, in the name of Heaven, should he try to murder her? What had she ever done to him?"
"Nothing. He did not mean to injure Christie. He mistook her for his wife."
"Mistook me for his wife!" said Christie, like one in a dream. "And did he want to kill his wife?"
"Yes; horrible as it seems, he wanted to kill her!" said Captain Campbell. "The way of it was this," he said, stopping suddenly in his excited walk, "Courtney was jealous of his wife; he fancied she had gone to keep an appointment with some one on the island"--a slight flush of crimson glowed for an instant on his dark cheek as he spoke--"and he determined to follow her there. He went. In the storm and darkness he met Christie. He thought her his wife, and stabbed her, and left her for dead on the ground. Some apparition that he met terrified him, and he fled from the island--first returning to the spot where he had left Christie; but finding the body gone, swept away by the tide, as he imagined. He returned the next evening to the parsonage; there he found his wife living, but hearing the rumor of Christie's death, he knew he had stabbed her in his blind fury. He heard, also, that my sister had gone to the island that night, and that a woman resembling her had been seen flying through the storm about the time the deed was committed, and the diabolical project entered his head of having her accused of the murder, and thus freeing himself forever from all possibility of blame. How well he succeeded, we all know; and Sibyl would have died an ignominious death for his crime, had not a retributive Providence sent Christie here at the eleventh hour to save her, and bring his crime to light; but too late to save her from the shame and humiliation of what has passed. May the foul fiend catch his soul for it!"
"Oh, brother! hush!" said Sibyl, laying her hand on his arm. "Remember you speak of the dead!"
"This is monstrous," said Mr. Brantwell, in a tone of horror. "I never dreamt that any man in his senses could have committed such a crime."
"He was not in his senses," said Sibyl, "he was crazed with jealousy."
"Was he not sane when he accused you--the double-dyed perjurer?" exclaimed Captain Campbell, fiercely, "Oh, why does God permit such frightful injustice to go so long unpunished? Where slept His thunderbolts that this demon in human form was not stricken dead where he stood?"
"Guy, my dear boy, be calm," interposed Mr. Brantwell. "God is His own interpreter; and in His own good time has seen fit to save your sister. Let what is past be forgotten--'let by-gones be by-gones.'"
"But Christie has not told us yet how she was saved." said Sibyl; "all that is still involved in mystery."
Faintly, and in broken sentences, for her strength was failing fast, Christie related all that the reader already knows. To explain the presence of Bertha on the island, it was necessary, however painful it might be, to tell her story; and Guy and Sibyl listened in sorrow and amazement.
"Then my father's wife lives yet," said Sibyl, slowly.
"And now I remember, though indistinctly, like a dream, of catching a glimpse of a tall, dark, handsome woman in the upper rooms of the old lodge, when I was a boy," said Guy, thoughtfully. "It is strange I thought so little of it at the time, for her presence there was singular. What terrible revelations time brings to light! Who would ever suppose my father could have done such a deed?"
"His child, too, may be living yet," said Mr. Brantwell. "How unfortunate that there is no clew to tell what may have been its fate."
Ere any one could reply, a bustle at the door arrested their attention; and, the next moment, Mrs. Tom entered, followed by Carl, and rushing to the bed, clasped Christie in her arms, laughing and crying hysterically.
"My own darling child! my own blessed baby! my dear, darling little Christie!" were her exclamations, between laughing, and crying, and hugging.
"Dear Aunt Tom! dear, good Aunt Tom! Oh, I am so glad, so glad to see you again!" said Christie, throwing her arms round her neck, her wan face flushing with joy.
"And to think that you was married, and I never knowed a word about it! Lor' sakes! an' to be killed, too, and come to life at the nick o' time!" said Mrs. Tom, with another hug, and a laugh, and a fresh burst of tears. "Carl, you great, lazy, idle vagabones, come over here and see Christie, 'stead o' standing there, shiftin' from one foot to another, like you had got into a nest o' young wipers."
Thus adjured, in the sharp, peremptory tone that reminded Christie of other days, Carl advanced and pressed his lips to Christie's cheek as gingerly as though he were afraid of burning himself. Evidently relieved when this was over, he edged off toward the door, and, at the invitation of Sibyl, took a seat, and sat down on the extreme edge of the chair.
And then, when Mrs. Tom had hugged and kissed Christie to her heart's content, and laughed and cried herself into something like composure, her first demand was to hear all that had happened "sence that there awful night."
And Sibyl, fearing to further agitate Christie, who had now fallen back, completely exhausted, on her pillow, led the bustling little woman over to the window, and seating herself near her, related all.
Mrs. Tom listened with many "lor' sakes'!" and "gracious me's!" and "oh's!" and "ah, Lord's!" until Sibyl began relating the maniac's story. As she proceeded, Mrs. Tom grew violently agitated; and before she could reach the end, the old lady had jumped up, and, pale and trembling, bent over Christie.
"Christie, look here," she said, excitedly, "that there crazy woman had a little child, had she, the time she was walled up in that room?"
"Yes," replied Christie, wonderingly.
"That there little child was left in Campbell's Lodge, with Mark Campbell, was it?" continued Mrs. Tom, more and more agitated.
"Yes, I believe so. Why, Aunt Tom, what's the matter?"
"And they never could find out what became of it after, could they?" again asked Mrs. Tom, sinking into a chair.
"No. Why, what in the world does ail you, Aunt Tom?" said Christie, in still increasing surprise.
"Oh, my Saviour! Oh, my dear Lord! Only to think on it! Christie, that there crazy woman is your mother! You are the little child that was left with Mark Campbell!"
In a moment nearly all present were on their feet, gazing in wonder and amaze on Mrs. Tom, and on each other, as if asking what in the world they were destined to hear next.
Christie, too weak now to betray any emotion, lay still, with her wondering blue eyes fixed on the old woman's face.
"Yes, you needn't stare, all of you; it's jest so," said Mrs. Tom, very much excited; "and the way of it was this: One morning airly, jest as I riz, Mark Campbell came into my cottage with something I took to be a bundle, under his cloak. He opened it, and you may guess the astonishment I was in, when, instead o' a bundle, he laid the sweetest, dearest, puttiest little baby on the table ever I seed. Lor' sakes! I was so completely consternified I hadn't a word to say, but jest stood starin' with my mouth wide open, fust at him and then at the baby that was sleepin' like a sweet little angel. Before I could ask him a single blessed question 'bout it, he sez to me:
"'Mrs. Tom, there's a child I want tooken care of. Ef you'll do it, I'll pay you; if you won't----"
"I don't know what he was going to say, for I broke out with the greatest string o' questions just then that ever was, asking him all about the baby; but he only looked fierce, and wouldn't tell me a word.
"'If you will take it, Mrs. Tom,' sez he, 'you shall be well rewarded for taking care of it; but you must never, while I live, breathe to a living soul that I left it with you. If you do,' sez he, 'it will be all the worse for you.'
"'And its mother,' sez I; 'Where's she?'
"My conscience! if you had seen him then! His face got like a thunder-cloud, and he said, in a voice that made me tremble--yes, even me, and there ain't many I'd tremble before, thank the Lord:
"'Never mention that word again, or I swear I'll blow your brains out as I would a rabbit's!'
"And then he rushed from the house, leaving me more astonished and frightened than ever I had been before in all my born days.
"But I kept the baby, and called it 'Christina,' after a sister I had once (Carl Henley's mother, poor thing! that went and heaved herself away on a vagabones of a fellow), and kept it till it grew up. Mark Campbell died a little while after, but we never spoke another word about the child; but now I know, arter hearing about the crazy woman, she was its mother."
Aunt Tom paused for breath, and Sibyl, with a great cry, sprang forward and clasped Christie in her arms.
"My sister! my sister! my dear little sister!" she exclaimed, through her fast falling tears. "Oh, Christie! oh, Christie! to discover you are my sister when it is too late!"
With her arms round Sibyl's neck, her golden head lying on her shoulder, Christie said, in a voice, so faint that Sibyl had to stoop down very low to hear her:
"I am going, Sibyl, dear sister Sibyl! Tell Guy, my brother, and Aunt Tom, to come and bid me good-by."
In a voice choked with sobs, Sibyl called them to the bedside, to receive that parting embrace. Guy's eyes were full of tears, and Mrs. Tom's sobs resounded audibly through the room.
"And now, Sibyl, my own, my darling sister, good-by, and Heaven bless you. Hush! do not weep so;" and the little wan arms clasped Sibyl's neck in a last embrace. "Dearest Sibyl, go now and send Willard to me."
Pressing a last kiss on the transparent brow, Sibyl arose, and beckoned Willard to approach.
Calm and tearless, but pale with a grief too intense for tears, he came over. A flush of love and joy lit up the wan face at his approach, her arms--with a last effort--encircled his neck; the golden head dropped on his breast, while the sweet beautiful lips murmured:
"Dear Willard! dearest Willard! good-by! I am going; going to heaven to pray for you and Sibyl. You will try to be very happy, and make her very happy, when I am gone--will you not? Lift me up, Willard, and carry me to the window, I want to see the beautiful sunlight once more."
He lifted the slight little form, and sat down, with her in his arms, beside the window. A bright ray of sunshine flashed in, and lit up with a sort of glory the angel-brow, the golden hair, and the sweet, pale face.
Colder and colder grew the hand in his; lower sank the head on his bosom; fainter and fainter beat the gentle, loving heart. No sound, save the suppressed sobs of Mrs. Tom, broke the stillness of the room.
Suddenly the closed eyes flew open, with a vivid, radiant light; the sweet lips parted in a smile of ineffable joy; and she half rose from her recumbent posture. The next, she fell back; the blue eyes closed; a slight shiver passed through her frame; and the streaming sunshine fell on the face of the dead.
* * * * *
One year after, there was a wedding--a very quiet, private one--at the little church of N----. And when it was over, Sibyl and Willard entered their plain, dark traveling carriage, and bidding good-by to their friends assembled in the parsonage, set out for Willard's Virginia home--where, in the unclouded sunshine of the future, they soon forgot, or learned to only look back with tender regret, to the sufferings and sorrows of the past.
Christie was not forgotten. The oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Drummond, a gentle, dark-eyed girl, bears her name.
* * * * *
Three months after the marriage of Sibyl, her brother led to the altar Laura Courtney, whose natural vivacity soon overcame the shock she had received by the sudden death of Edgar Courtney, her unloved husband; and three days later, in the good bark "Evening Star," she was dancing over the bright waves of the Atlantic, on her way to Europe with Captain Campbell.
Willard Drummond sent for Uncle Reuben and Bertha, and for several years they resided with him. But when at last the gentle maniac passed in peace away, her faithful cousin bade them farewell, and set out for his boyhood home, to pass his last days under the old roof-tree.
And Aunt Tom, good old Aunt Tom, staid still on the island, which no persuasions could ever induce her to leave, and there brought up Mr. Carl Henley in the way he should go; and employed her whole heart and soul in the, alas! vain labor of curing him of the sin of laziness. If any reader is concerned in knowing the future fate of that interesting young gentleman, I am happy to say, when he arrived at the years of discretion, he made the acquaintance of a strapping, strong-armed, red-cheeked German girl, who fell violently in love with the tallow-candle complexion and tow locks of the fascinating youth. Mr. Henley, after revolving the matter over profoundly in all its bearings, came to the conclusion that he might as well marry her as not, which he accordingly did, in the "fullness of time"--having previously extorted a promise from her to do all the work. Mrs. Tom, who had an invincible antipathy to "furriners," looked with dislike at first on her niece-in-law; but the unvarying good humor of Mrs. Henley, and her willingness to work, soon completely gained the good old lady's affections, and mastered her prejudices.
THE END.