by T. S. Arthur
When the doctor entered, he found her lying upon the bed, with the body of her child hugged tightly to her bosom. Little Emma had crept away into a corner of the room, and looked frightened. Henry was crouching in a chair, with the tears running down his cheeks in streams.
“You are too late, doctor,” said the mother, in a tone so calm, so clear, and yet to his ear so thrilling, that he started, and felt a chill pass through his frame. There was something in the sound of that voice in ill accordance with the scene.
As she spoke, she glanced at the physician with bright, tearless eyes for a moment; and then, turning away her head, she laid her cheek against that of the corpse, and drew the lifeless body with trembling eagerness to her heart.
“This is all vain, my dear madam!” urged Dr. R—, approaching the bedside, and laying his hand upon her. “Come! Be a woman. To bear is to conquer our fate. No sorrow of yours can call back the happy spirit of your child. And, surely, you would not call her back, if you could, to live over the days of anguish and pain that were meted out to her?”
“I cannot give up my child, doctor. Oh, I cannot give up my child! It will break my heart!” she replied, her voice rising and trembling more and more at each sentence, until it gave way, and the hot tears came raining over her face, and falling upon the insensible cheek of her child.
“‘The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away,’ Mrs. Gaston. Can you not look up, even in this sore affliction, and say, ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord?’ It is your only hope. An arm of flesh cannot support you now. You must look to the Strong for strength.”
As Doctor R—thus urged her to reason and duty, the tears of the bereaved mother gradually ceased to flow. She grew calmer, and regained, in some degree, her self-possession. As she did so, she slowly disengaged her arm from the body of her child, placed its head, as carefully as if it had been asleep, upon the pillow, and then arose, and stood with her hands tightly clasped across her forehead.
“I am but a weak woman, doctor, and you must bear with me,” said she, in a changed voice. “I used to have fortitude; but I feel that I am breaking fast. I am not what I was.”
The last two sentences were spoken in a tone so sad and mournful, that the doctor could scarcely keep back the tears.
“You have friends here, I suppose,” he remarked, “who will be with you on this afflicting occasion?”
“I have no friends,” she replied, in the same sad voice. “I and my children are alone in this hard world. Would to heaven we were all with Ella!” Her tears again gushed forth and flowed freely.
“Then I must send some one who will assist you in your present need,” said Dr. R—; and turning away he left the room, and, getting into his chaise, rode off at a brisk pace. In about a quarter of an hour, he returned with a woman who took charge of the body of the child, and performed for it the last sad offices that the dead require.
Upon close inquiry, he ascertained from Mrs. Gaston that she was in a state of extreme destitution; that so far from having the means to bury her dead child, she was nearly without food to give to her living ones. To meet this pressing need, he went to a few benevolent friends, and procured money sufficient to inter the corpse, and about ten dollars over. This he gave to her after the funeral, at which there were only three mourners, the mother and her two children.
CHAPTER IV.
LIZZY GLENN AROUSES THE INTEREST OF A STRANGER.
BERLAPS was leaning over his counter late in the afternoon of the second day from that on which the person calling herself Lizzy Glenn had applied for and obtained work, when a young man entered and asked for some article of dress. While the tailor was still engaged in waiting upon him, the young woman came in, carrying a small bundle in her hand. Her vail was drawn over her face as she entered; but was thrown partly aside as she retired to the back part of the store, where she stood awaiting the leisure of the man from whom she had obtained work. As she passed him, the customer turned and looked at her earnestly for a moment or two, and then asked in a whisper—
“Who is that?”
“Only one of our sewing-girls,” replied Berlaps, indifferently.
“What is her name?”
“I forget. She’s a girl to whom we gave out work day before yesterday.”
This paused the man to look at her more attentively. The young woman, becoming conscious that she was an object of close scrutiny by a stranger, turned partly away, so that her face could not be seen.
“There is something singularly familiar about her,” mused the young man as he left the store. “Who can she be? I have certainly seen her before.”
“Ah, good-afternoon, Perkins!” said a familiar voice, while a friendly hand was laid upon his arm. “You seem to be in a browner mood than usual!”
“I am a little thoughtful, or abstracted, just as you please,” replied the individual addressed.
“Are you, indeed? May I ask the reason?”
“The reason hardly seems to be a sufficient one—and, therefore, I will not jeopardize your good opinion of me by mentioning it.”
“O, very well! I am content to have my friends conceal from me their weaknesses.”
The two young men then walked on arm and arm for some distance. They seemed to be walking more for the sake of a little conversation than for any thing else, for they went slowly, and after winding about among the labyrinthine streets for ten or twenty minutes, took their way back again.
“There she is again, as I live!” Perkins exclaimed, half pausing, as the young woman he had seen at the tailor’s passed quickly by them on their turning a corner.
“You’ve noticed her before, then?” remarked the friend, whose name was Milford.
“I saw her a little while ago in a clothing store; and her appearance instantly arrested my attention. Do you know who she is?”
“I do not. But I’d give something to know. You saw her in a clothing store?”
“Yes. In the shop of that close-fisted Berlaps. She is one of his seamstresses—a new one, by the way—to whom he has just given work. So he informed me.”
“Indeed! She must be in great extremity to work for his pay. It is only the next remove, I am told, from actual starvation.”
“But tell me what you know of her, Milford. She seems to have attracted your notice, as well as mine.”
“I know nothing of her whatever,” replied the young man, “except that I have met her five or six times during the last two weeks, upon the Warren Bridge, on her way to Charlestown. Something in her appearance arrested my attention the first time I saw her. But I have never been able to catch more than a glimpse of her face. Her vail is usually drawn.”
“Who can she visit in Charlestown?”
“No one, I have good reason to think.”
“Why so?”
“I had once the curiosity to follow her as far as I deemed it prudent and courteous. She kept on entirely through the town—at least through the thickly settled portion of it. Her step was too quick for the step of one who was merely going to pay a friendly visit.”
“You have had, if I understand you, at least a glimpse of her countenance?”
“Yes. Once, in passing her, her vail was half drawn aside, as if to get a freer draught of air.”
“And her face?”
“Was thin and pale.”
“And beautiful?”
“So I should call it. Not pretty—not a mere doll’s face—but intellectually beautiful; yet full of softness. In fact, the face of a woman with a mind and heart. But sorrow had touched her—and pain. And, above all, the marks of crushed affection were too plainly visible upon her young countenance. All this could be seen at the single glance I obtained, before her vail was drawn hurriedly down.”
“Strange that she should seek so to hide her face from every eye. Can it be that she is some one we have known, who has fallen so low?”
“No, I think not,” replied Milford. “I am certain that I have never seen her before. Her face is a strang
e one to me. At least, the glance I had revealed no familiar feature.”
“Well, I, for one, am resolved to know more about her,” remarked Perkins, as the two friends paused before separating. “Since she has awakened so sudden, and yet so strong an interest in my mind, I should feel that I was not doing right if I made no effort to learn something of her true position in our city, where, I am much inclined to think, she is a stranger.”
The young men, after a few more words, separated, Perkins getting into an “hourly” and going oyer to Charlestown to see a man on some business who could not be at his house until late in the day. The transaction of this business took more time than he had expected, and it was nearly an hour after nightfall before he returned to Boston. After passing the “draw,” as he crossed the old bridge, he perceived by the light of a lamp, some distance ahead, a female figure hurrying on with rapid steps.
“It’s the strange girl I saw at Berlaps’, as I live!” he mentally ejaculated, quickening his pace. “I must see where she hides herself away.”
The night was very dark, and the form of the stranger, as she hurried forward, was soon buried in obscurity. In a little while, she emerged into the little circle of light that diffused itself around the lamp that stood at the termination of the bridge, and in the next moment was again invisible. Perkins now pressed forward, and was soon clear of the bridge, and moving along the dark, lonely avenue that led up to the more busy part of the city. He had advanced here but a few paces, when a faint scream caused him to bound onward at full speed. In a moment after, he came to the corner of a narrow, dark street, down which he perceived two forms hurrying; one, a female, evidently struggling against the superior force of the other.
His warning cry, and the sound of his rapidly advancing footsteps, caused the man to relax his hold, when the female figure glided away with wind-like fleetness. The man hesitated an instant; but, before Perkins reached the spot where he stood, ran off in an opposite direction to that taken by the woman.
Here was an adventure calculated to give to the mind of Perkins a new and keener interest in the young seamstress. He paused but a moment, and then ran at the height of his speed in the direction the female form, which he had good reason to believe was hers, had taken. But she was nowhere to be seen. Either she had sought a shelter in one of the houses, or had hurried forward with a fleetness that carried her far beyond his reach.
Thoughtful and uneasy in mind, he could hardly tell why, he sought his lodgings; and, retiring at once to his chamber, seated himself by a table upon which were books and papers, and soon became lost in sad memories of the past that strongly linked themselves, why he could not tell, for they had no visible connection, with the present. For a long time he sat in this abstract mood, his hand shading his face from the light. At last he arose slowly and went to a drawer, from which he took a small morocco case, and, returning with it to the table, seated himself again near the lamp. He opened the case, and let the light fall strongly upon the miniature of a most beautiful female. Her light brown hair, that fell in rich and glossy ringlets to her neck, relieved tastefully her broad white forehead, and the gentle roundness of her pure cheeks, that were just tinged with the flush of health and beauty. But these took not away from the instant attraction of her dark hazel eyes, that beamed tenderly upon the gazer’s face. Perkins bent for many minutes over this sweet image; then pressing it to his lips, he murmured, as he leaned back, and lifted his eyes to the ceiling—
“Where, where in the spirit-land dost thou dwell, dear angel? In what dark and undiscovered cave of the ocean rests, in dreamless sleep, thy beautiful but unconscious body? Snatched from me in the bloom of youth, when fresh flowers blossomed in thy young heart to bless me with their fragrance, how hast thou left me in loneliness and desolation of spirit! And yet thou seemest near to me, and, of late, nearer and dearer than ever. Oh, that I could hear thy real voice, even if spoken to the ear of my spirit, and see once more thy real face, were it only a spiritual presence!”
The young man then fell into a dreamy state of mind, in which we will leave him for the present.
CHAPTER V.
SOME OF THE TROUBLES OF A NEEDLEWOMAN.—A FRIEND IN NEED.
THE prompt assistance rendered, by Dr. R—to Mrs. Gaston came just in time. It enabled her to pay her month’s rent, due for several days, to settle the amount owed to Mrs. Grubb, and lay in more wood for the coming winter. This consumed all her money, and left her once more dependent upon the meagre reward of her hard labor to supply food and clothing for herself and her two remaining children. From a state of almost complete paralysis of mind, consequent upon the death of Ella, her necessities aroused her. On the second day after the child had been taken, she again resumed her suspended toil. The sight of the unfinished garment which had been laid aside after bending over it nearly the whole night previous to the morning upon which Ella died, awakened a fresh emotion of grief in her bosom. As this gradually subsided, she applied herself with patient assiduity to her task, which was not finished before twelve o’clock that night, when she laid herself down with little Emma in her arms, and soon lost all care and trouble in profound sleep.
Hasty pudding and molasses composed the morning meal for all. After breakfast, Mrs. Gaston took the two jackets, which had been out now five days to the shop.
“Why, bless me, Mrs. Gaston, I thought you had run off with them jackets!” was Michael’s coarse salutation as she came in. The poor, heart-oppressed seamstress could not trust herself to reply, but laid her work upon the counter in silence. Berlaps, seeing her, came forward.
“These kind of doings will never answer, madam!” he said angrily. “I could have sold both jackets ten times over, if they’d been here three days ago, as by rights they ought to have been. I can’t give you work, if you are not, more punctual. You needn’t think to get along at our tack, unless you plug it in a little faster than all this comes to.”
“I’ll try and do better after this,” said Mrs. Gaston, faintly.
“You’ll have to, let me tell you, or we’ll cry ‘quits.’ All my women must have nimble fingers.”
“These jackets are not much to brag of,” broke in Michael, as he tossed them aside. “I think we had better not trust her with any more cloth roundabouts. She has botched the button-holes awfully; and the jackets are not more than half pressed. Just look how she has held on the back seam of this one, and drawn the edges of the lappels until they set seven ways for Sunday! They’re murdered outright, and ought to be hung, with a basin under them to catch the blood.”
“What was she to have for them?” asked Berlaps.
“Thirty cents a-piece, I believe,” replied the salesman.
“Don’t give her but a quarter, then. I’m not going to pay full price to have my work botched up after that style!” And, so saying, Berlaps turned away and walked back to his desk.
Lizzy Glenn, as she had called herself, entered at the moments and heard the remark of the tailor. She glided noiselessly by Mrs. Gaston, and stood further down the store, with both her body and face turned partly from her, where she waited patiently for the interview between her and Michael to terminate.
The poor, heart-crushed creature did not offer the slightest remonstrance to this act of cruel oppression, but took the half dollar thrown her by Michael for the two jackets with an air of meek resignation. She half turned to go away after doing so, but a thought of her two remaining children caused her to hesitate.
“Have’n’t you some more trowsers to give out?” she asked, turning again toward Michael.
The sound of her voice reached the ear of the young female who had just entered, causing her to start, and look for an instant toward the speaker. But she slowly resumed her former position with a sigh, after satisfying herself by a single glance at the woman, whose voice had fallen upon her ear with a strange familiarity.
“We haven’t any more ready, ma’am, just now.”
“What have you to give out? Any thing?”
>
“Yes. Here are some unbleached cotton shirts, at seven cents. You can have some of them, if you choose.”
“I will take half a dozen,” said Mrs. Gaston in a desponding tone. “Any thing is better than nothing.”
“Well, Miss Lizzy Glenn,” said Michael, with repulsive familiarity, as Mrs. Gaston turned from the counter and left the store, “what can I do for you this morning?”
The young seamstress made no reply, but laid her bundle upon the counter and unrolled it. It contained three fine shirts, with linen bosoms and collars, very neatly made.
“Very well done, Lizzy,” said Michael, approvingly, as he inspected the two rows of stitching on the bosoms and other parts of the garments that required to be sewed neatly.
“Have you any more ready?” she asked, shrinking back as she spoke, with a feeling of disgust, from the bold, familiar attendant.
“Have you any more fine shirts for Lizzy Glenn?” called Michael, back to Berlaps, in a loud voice.
“I don’t know. How has she made them?”
“First rate.”
“Then let her have some more, and pay her for those just brought in.”
“That’s your sorts!” responded Michael, as he took seventy-five cents from the drawer and threw the money upon the counter. “Good work, good pay, and prompt at that. Will you take three more?”
