by T. S. Arthur
“Yes.”
Mrs. Markland’s eyes fell to the ground, and she sat, for a long time, so entirely abstracted, as almost to lose her consciousness of external things.
“The dew is rather heavy this evening,” said her husband, arousing her by the words. She arose, and they went together into the sitting-room, where they found all but Fanny. Soon after, Mr. Markland went to his library, and gave up his thoughts entirely to the new business in which he was engaged with Mr. Lyon. How, golden was the promise that lured him on! He was becoming impatient to tread with swift feet the path to large wealth and honourable distinction that was opening before him. A new life had been born in his mind—it was something akin to ambition. In former times, business was regarded as the means by which a competency might be obtained; and he pursued it with this end. Having secured wealth, he retired from busy life, hoping to find ample enjoyment in the seclusion of an elegant rural home. But, already, restlessness had succeeded to inactivity, and now his mind was gathering up its latent strength for new efforts, in new and broader fields, and under the spur of a more vigorous impulse.
“Edward!” It was the low voice of his wife, and the soft touch of her hand, that startled the dreaming enthusiast from visions of wealth and power that dazzled him with their brilliancy.
“Come, Edward, it is growing late,” said his wife.
“How late?” he replied, looking up from the paper he had covered with various memoranda, and clusters of figures.
“It is past eleven o’clock.”
“That cannot be, Agnes. It is only a short time since I left the table.
“Full three hours. All have retired and are sleeping. Ah, my husband! I do not like this new direction your thoughts are taking. To me, there is in it a prophecy of evil to us all.”
“A mere superstitious impression, Agnes dear: nothing more, you may depend upon it. I am in the vigour of manhood. My mind is yet clear, strong, and suggestive—and my reason, I hope, more closely discriminating, as every man’s should be with each added year of his life. Shall I let all these powers slumber in disgraceful inactivity! No, Agnes, it cannot, must not be.”
Mr. Markland spoke with a fervid enthusiasm, that silenced his wife—confusing her thoughts, but in no way inspiring her with confidence. Hitherto, he had felt desirous of concealing from her the fact that he was really entering into new business responsibilities; but now, in his confident anticipations of success, he divulged a portion of the enlarged range of operations in which he was to be an active co-worker.
“We have enough, Edward,” was the almost mournfully-uttered reply of Mrs. Markland—”why, then, involve yourself in business cares? Large transactions like those bring anxious days and wakeful nights. They are connected with trouble, fatigue, disappointment, and, Edward! sometimes ruin!”
Very impressively were the last words spoken; but Mr. Markland answered almost lightly—
“None of your imagined drawbacks have any terror for me, Agnes. As for the ruin, I shall take good care not to invite that by any large risks or imprudent speculations. There are few dangers for wise and prudent men, in any business. It is the blind who fall into the ditch—the reckless who stumble. You may be very certain that your husband will not shut his eyes in walking along new paths, nor attempt the navigation of unaccustomed seas without the most reliable charts.”
To this, Mrs. Markland could answer nothing. But his words gave her no stronger confidence in the successful result of his schemes; for well assured was she, in her perceptive Christian philosophy, that man’s success in any pursuit was no accidental thing, nor always dependent on his own prudence; the ends he had in view oftener determining the result, than any merit or defect in the means employed. So, the weight of concern which this new direction of her husband’s active purpose had laid upon her heart, was in no way lightened by his confident assurances.
CHAPTER XVI.
MR. MARKLAND went to the city early on the next morning. Fanny had not made her appearance when he left. This fact, at any other time, would have excited his attention, and caused an earnest inquiry as to the cause of her absence from the morning meal. But now his thoughts were too intently fixed on other things. He had suddenly become an aeriel castle-builder, and all his mind was absorbed in contemplating the magnificent structures that were rising up at the creative touch of imagination.
Mr. Brainard, upon whom he called immediately upon his arrival in the city, was not so easily satisfied on the subject of Mr. Lyon’s alleged return to the city. He happened to know Mr. Willet, and, while he admitted that there was a general resemblance between the two men, did not consider it sufficiently striking to deceive any one as to the identity of either.
“But I was deceived,” confidently asserted Mr. Markland.
“That is not so remarkable under the circumstances,” was answered. “You had Lyon distinctly in your thought, from being most positively assured of his recent presence in your neighbourhood, and when a stranger, bearing some resemblance to him, suddenly came in sight, I do not wonder that you were on the instant deceived. I might have been.”
“I am sure of it. The likeness between the two men is remarkable.”
“But Willet has no hair mole on his cheek; and to that mark, you will remember, Lamar particularly testified.”
“The mark may only have been in his mind, and not on the face of the person he met. Believing it to be Mr. Lyon, he saw the hair mole, as well as the other peculiarities of his countenance.”
“No such explanations can satisfy me,” replied Mr. Brainard. “I have thought over the matter a great deal since I saw you, and my mind is pretty well made up to withdraw from this whole business while I am at liberty to do so, without pecuniary loss or any compromise of honour.”
“And let such a golden opportunity pass?” said Markland, in a voice husky with disappointment.
“If you will,” was calmly answered. “I am a firm believer in the ‘bird in the hand’ doctrine. There are a great many fine singers in the bush, but I want to see them safely caged before I neglect the door that shuts in the bird I possess already.”
“But you surely cannot be in earnest about withdrawing from this business,” said Markland.
“Very much in earnest. Since yesterday, I have turned the matter over in my mind constantly, and viewed it in many lights and from many positions; and my deliberate convictions are, that it is wisest for me to have nothing whatever to do with these splendid schemes; and if you will be governed by an old stager’s advice, resolve to act likewise.”
“When my hands are once fairly on the plough,” answered Mr. Markland, “I never look back. Before engaging in any new business, I thoroughly examine its promise, and carefully weigh all the probabilities of success or failure. After my decision is made, I never again review the ground over which I travelled in coming to a decision, but pass onward with faith and vigour in the accomplishment of all that I have undertaken. More men are ruined by vacillation than from any other cause.”
“My observation brings me to another conclusion,” quietly returned Mr. Brainard. The earnest enthusiasm of the one, and the immovable coolness of the other, were finely contrasted.
“And what is that?” inquired Mr. Markland.
“Why, that more men are ruined by a blind perseverance in going the wrong way, than from any other cause. Were we infallible in judgment, it might be well enough to govern ourselves in all important matters on the principle you indicate. But, as we are not, like wise navigators, we should daily make new observations, and daily examine our charts. The smallest deviation from a right line will make an immense error in the course of a long voyage.”
“Wise business men are in little danger of making errors,” said Markland, confidently.
“A great many sad mistakes are made daily,” returned Mr. Brainard.
“Not by wise men.”
“If a man’s projects succeed,” was rejoined, “we applaud his sound business judgment; if they fa
il, we see the cause of failure so plainly, that we are astonished at his want of forethought in not seeing it at the beginning. But, sir, there’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will. Success or failure, I am well convinced, do not always depend on the man himself.”
“Is there no virtue, then, in human prudence?” asked Mr. Markland.
“I am not prepared to say how far we may depend on human prudence,” replied the other; “but I know this, that if we fail to use it, we will fail in most of our undertakings. Human prudence must be exercised in all cases; but, too often, we let our confident hopes take the place of prudence, as I think you are doing now.”
“But surely, Mr. Brainard,” said Markland, in an earnest, appealing way, “you do not intend receding from this business?”
“My mind is fully made up,” was answered.
“And so is mine,” firmly replied Markland.
“To do what?”
“To take the whole interest myself.”
“What?”
“To invest forty thousand dollars, instead of the proposed twenty, at once.”
“You show strong faith, certainly.”
“My faith, you may be sure, is well grounded. Mr. Fenwick has already put in that sum, and he is not the man to go blindly into any business. Apart from my own clear intuitions, founded on the most careful investigations, I would almost be willing to take risks in any schemes that Mr. Fenwick approved, in the substantial way of investment.”
“A very different man am I,” said Mr. Brainard. “Twenty years of sharp experience are sufficient to make me chary of substituting others’ business judgment for my own.”
“Ah, well!” returned Markland, his manner showing him to be disappointed and annoyed. “I cannot but regret your hasty decision in this matter. So far as it concerns myself, even if I saw cause to recede, which I do not, I am too far committed, with both Fenwick and Lyon, to hesitate.”
“Every man must decide in such cases for himself,” said Brainard. “I always do. If you are fully assured in every particular, and have confidence in your men, your way is of course clear.”
“It is clear,” was confidently answered, “and I shall walk in it with full assurance of a successful end.”
CHAPTER XVII.
IT was some time after her father left for the city, before Fanny came down from her room. She was pale, and looked as if she had passed a sleepless night. Her mother’s concerned inquiries were answered evasively, and it was very apparent that she wished to avoid question and observation.
Aunt Grace again sought, in her obtrusive way, to penetrate the mystery of Fanny’s changed exterior, but was no more successful than on the preceding evening.
“Don’t worry her with so many questions, sister,” said Mrs. Markland, aside, to Aunt Grace; “I will know all in good time.”
“Your good time may prove a very bad time,” was answered, a little sharply.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Mrs. Markland, turning her eyes full upon the face of her companion.
“I mean that in any matter affecting so deeply a girl like Fanny, the mother’s time for knowing all about it is now. Something is wrong, you may depend upon it.”
At the commencement of this conversation, Fanny retired from the room.
“The child’s mind has been disturbed by the unfortunate letter from Mr. Lyon. The something wrong goes not beyond this.”
“Unfortunate! You may well say unfortunate. I don’t know what has come over Edward. He isn’t the same man that he was, before that foreign adventurer darkened our sunny home with his presence. Unfortunate! It is worse than unfortunate! Edward’s sending that letter at all was more a crime than a mistake. But as to the wrong in regard to Fanny, I am not so sure that it only consists in a disturbance of her mind.”
There was a look of mystery, blended with anxious concern, in the countenance of Aunt Grace, that caused Mrs. Markland to say, quickly—
“Speak out what is in your thoughts, Grace. Have no concealments with me, especially on a subject like this.”
“I may be over-suspicious—I may wrong the dear child—but—”
Aunt Grace looked unusually serious.
“But what?” Mrs. Markland had grown instantly pale at the strange words of her husband’s sister.
“John, the gardener, says that he saw Mr. Lyon on the day after Edward went to New York.”
“Where?”
“Not far from here.”
“Deceived, as Edward was. John saw our new neighbour, Mr. Willet.”
“Maybe so, and maybe not; and I am strongly inclined to believe in the maybe not. As for that Lyon, I have no faith in him, and never had, as you know, from the beginning. And I shouldn’t be at all surprised if he were prowling about here, trying to get stolen interviews with Fanny.”
“Grace! How dare you suggest such a thing?” exclaimed Mrs. Markland, with an energy and indignation almost new to her character.
Grace was rather startled by so unexpected a response from her sister-in-law, and for a moment or two looked abashed.
“Better be scared than hurt, you know, Agnes,” she replied, coolly, as soon as she had recovered herself.
“Not if scared by mere phantoms of our own diseased imaginations,” said Mrs. Markland.
“There is something more solid than a phantom in the present case, I’m afraid. What do you suppose takes Fanny away so often, all by herself, to the Fountain Grove?”
“Grace Markland! What can you mean by such a question?” The mother of Fanny looked frightened.
“I put the question to you for answer,” said Grace, coolly. “The time was, and that time is not very distant, when Fanny could scarcely be induced to go a hundred yards from the house, except in company. Now, she wanders away alone, almost daily; and if you observe the direction she takes, you will find that it is toward Fountain Grove. And John says that it was near this place that he met Mr. Lyon.”
“Mr. Willet, you mean,” said Mrs. Markland, firmly.
“None are so blind as those who will not see,” retorted Aunt Grace, in her impulsive way. “If any harm comes to the child, you and Edward will have none but yourselves to blame. Forewarned, forearmed, is a wise saying, by which you seem in no way inclined to profit.”
Even while this conversation was in progress, the subject of it had taken herself away to the sweet, retired spot where, since her meeting with Mr. Lyon, she had felt herself drawn daily with an almost irresistible influence. As she passed through the thick, encircling grove that surrounded the open space where the beautiful summer-house stood and the silvery waters sported among the statues, she was startled by a rustling noise, as of some one passing near. She stopped suddenly, her heart beating with a rapid motion, and listened intently. Was she deceived, or did her eyes really get uncertain glimpses of a form hurriedly retiring through the trees? For nearly a minute she stood almost as still as one of the marble figures that surrounded the fountain. Then, with slow, almost stealthy footsteps, she moved onward, glancing, as she did so, from side to side, and noting every object in the range of vision with a sharp scrutiny. On gaining the summer-house, the first object that met her eyes was a folded letter, lying upon the marble table. To spring forward and seize it was the work of an instant. It bore her own name, and in the now familiar hand of Lee Lyon!
A strong agitation seized upon the frame of the young girl, as she caught up the unexpected letter. It was some moments before her trembling fingers could break the seal and unfold the missive. Then her eyes drank in, eagerly, its contents:
“MY EVER DEAR FANNY:—Since our meeting at the fountain, I cannot say to you all that I would say in any letter under care to your father, and so I entrust this to a faithful messenger, who will see that it reaches your hands. I am now far to the South again, in prosecution of most important business, the safe progress of which would be interrupted, and the whole large result endangered, were your father to know of my visit at Woodbine Lo
dge at a time when he thought me hundreds of miles distant. So, for his sake, as well as my own, be discreet for a brief period. I will not long permit this burden of secrecy to lie upon your dear young heart—oh no! I could not be so unjust to you. Your truest, best, wisest counsellor is your mother, and she should know all that is in your heart. Keep your secret only for a little while, and then I will put you in full liberty to speak of all that has just occurred. None will approve your discretion more than your parents, I know, when all the grave reasons for this concealment are disclosed. Dear Fanny! how ever-present to me you are. It seems, often, as if you were moving by my side. In lonely moments, how like far off, sweet music, comes your voice stealing into my heart. Beloved one!—”
A sudden sound of approaching feet caused Fanny to crumple the letter, scarcely half read, in her hand, and thrust it into her bosom. Turning towards the point from whence the noise came, she perceived the form of her mother, who was only a few paces distant. Mrs. Markland saw the letter in Fanny’s hand, and also saw the hasty motion of concealment. When she entered the summer-house where her daughter, who had risen up hurriedly, stood in the attitude of one suddenly alarmed, she marked with deep concern the agitated play of her countenance, and the half-guilty aversion of her eyes.
“My dear child!” she said, in a low, serious voice, as she laid a hand upon her, “what am I to understand by the singular change that has passed over you, and particularly by the strong disturbance of this moment? Why are you here alone? And why are you so startled at your mother’s appearance?”
Fanny only bowed her face upon her mother’s bosom, and, sobbed violently.
As the wildness of her emotion subsided, Mrs. Markland said:—
“Speak freely to your best friend, my darling child! Hide nothing from one who loves you better than any human heart can love you.”
But Fanny answered not, except by a fresh gush of tears.
“Have you nothing to confide to your mother?” inquired Mrs. Markland in as calm a voice as she could assume, after waiting long enough for the heart of her daughter to beat with a more even stroke.
