CHAPTER XXV.
The winter was marked by an unusual severity of cold, which prolongedthe rigor of mid-season until late in February, and despite the effortsof penitentiary officials who made unprecedented requisitions upon theboard of inspectors, for additional clothing, the pent human herdsuffered keenly.
Alarmed by the rapidly increasing rate of sickness within the "walls,"Mr. Singleton demanded a sanitary commission, which, after apparentlythorough investigation, reported no visible local cause for themortality among the convicts; but the germs of disease grew swiftly asother evil weeds, and the first week in March saw a hideous harvest ofdiphtheria of the most malignant type.
At the earliest intimation of the character of the pestilence, thewarden's wife fled with her little children to her mother's home in aneighboring county; maternal solicitude having extinguished her womanlyreluctance to desert her husband, at a juncture when her presence andassistance would so materially have cheered, and lightened his labors.An attempt was made to isolate the first case in the hospital, but thecots in that spacious apartment filled beyond the limits ofaccommodation; and soon, a large proportion of the cells on the groundfloor held each its victim of the fatal disease, that as the scythe ofdeath cut a wide swath through convict ranks. Consulting physicianswalked through the infected ward, altered prescriptions, adviseddisinfectants which were liberally used, until the building seemed toexhale pungent, wholesome, but unsavory odors; yet there was noabatement in the virulence of the type. When the twenty-third case wasentered on the hospital list, the trustees and inspectors determined toremove all who showed no symptom of the contagion, to an old,long-abandoned cotton factory several miles distant; where the vacanthouses of former operatives would afford temporary shelter; and todiminish the chances of carrying infection, each prisoner was carefullyexamined by the attending physician, and then furnished with anentirely new suit of clothing.
When the nature of the epidemic could no longer be concealed from theinmates, instinctive horror drove them from the neighborhood of thevictims, and like frightened sheep they huddled in remote corners,removed as far as possible from the infected precincts, and loath tominister to the needs of the sufferers.
Two men, and as many women, selected and detailed as nurses in theirrespective wards, openly rebelled; and while Doctor Moffat and Mr.Singleton were discussing the feasibility of procuring outsideassistance, the door of the dispensary adjoining the hospital, opened,and Beryl walked up to the table, where medicines were weighed andmixed.
"Put me to work among the sick. I want to help you."
"You! What could you do? I should as soon take a magnolia blossom toscrub the pots and pans of a filthy kitchen," answered the doctor,looking up over his spectacles from the powder he was grinding in aglass mortar.
"I can follow your directions; I can obey orders; and physicians deemthat the sine qua non in nurses. Closed lips, open ears, willing handsare supposed to outweigh any amount of unlicensed brains. Try me."
"No. I am not willing. Go back up-stairs, and stay there," said thewarden.
"Why may I not assist in nursing?"
"In the first place you are not fit to mix with those poor creatures,in yonder; their oaths would curdle your blood; and in the second, youare not strong, and would be sure to take the disease at once."
"I am perfectly well; my lungs are now as healthy as yours, and I amnot afraid of diphtheria. You detailed nurses, who refused to serve; Ivolunteer; have you any right to reject me?"
"Yes, the right to protect and save your life, which is worth twenty ofthose already in danger," replied Mr. Singleton, pausing in his task offilling capsules with quinine.
"Who made you a judge of the value of souls? My life belongs first toGod, who gave it, next to myself; and if I choose to jeopardize it, inwork among my suffering comrades in disgrace, you must not usurp theauthority to prevent me."
"Has it become so intolerable that you desire to commit suicide, underthe specious plea of philanthropic martyrdom?" said Doctor Moffat,whose keen black eyes scanned her closely, from beneath shaggy graybrows.
"I think I may safely say, no such selfish motive underlies myresolution. My heart is full of pity, and of dread for some women here,who admit their guilt, yet have sought no pardon from the Maker theirsins insult. Sick souls cry out to me louder than dying bodies; and whodare deny me the privilege of ministering to both? The parable of thesparrows is no fable to me; and if, while trying to comfort my unhappyassociates here, God calls me out of this dark stony vineyard, His willalone overrules all; and I can meet His face in peace. We say: 'Lordwhat wilt Thou have us to do?' and when the answer comes, pointing usto perilous and loathsome labors, will He forget if we shut our eyes,and turn away, coveting the sunny fields into which He sent others totoil? Let me go to my work."
During almost eighteen months, both men had studied her character asmanifested in the trying phases of prison existence, finding no flaw;to-day they looked up reverently at the graceful form in its homespununiform, at the calm, colorless face, wearing its crown of meekness,with an inalienable, proud air of cold repose.
"To keep you here is about as sacrilegious as it would have been tothrust St. Catherine among the chain-gang in the galleys," muttered thedoctor.
"No doubt duty called her to much worse places; therefore, when shedied, the angels buried her on Sinai," answered the prisoner; beforewhose wistful eyes drifted the memory of Luini's picture.
"You have set your heart on this; nothing less will content you?"
"While the necessity continues, nothing less will content me."
"Remember, you voluntarily take your life in your own hands."
"I assume the entire responsibility for any risk incurred."
"Then, I wish you God speed; for the harvest is white, the laborersfew."
"Why, doctor! I relied on you to help me keep her out of reach. Ifanything happens, how shall I pacify Susie? She made me promise everypossible care of her favorite. Look here, only an hour ago I received aletter and this package marked, 'One for Ned; the other for MissBeryl.' Two little red flannel safety bags, cure-alls, to be tiedaround our necks, close to our noses, as if we could not smell them ahalf mile off? Assafoetida, garlic, camphor, 'jimson weed,' valerianpowder--phew! What not? Mixed as a voudoo chowder, and a scent twice asloud!"
"Be thankful your wife is not here to enforce the wearing of thesanitary sachet," said the doctor, allowing himself a grimace ofcontemptuous disgust.
"So I am! but being a bachelor, answerable only to yourself, you cannotunderstand how absence does not exonerate me from the promise made whenshe started away. I would sooner face an 'army with banners,' than thatlittle brown-eyed woman of mine when she takes the lapel of my coat inone hand, raises the forefinger of the other, turns her head sidewayslike a thrush watching a wriggling worm, and says, in a voice thatrises as fast as the sound a mouse makes racing up the treble of thepiano keys: 'Ump! whew! Didn't I tell you so? The minute my back wasturned, of course you made ducks and drakes of all your promises. Showme a "Flying Jenney," that the tip end of any idiot's little finger canspin around, and I'll christen it Edward McTwaddle Singleton!' Seemsfunny to you, doctor? Just wait till you are married, and your Susanshuts the door and interviews you, picking a whole flock of crows, tillyou wonder if it isn't raining black feathers. When I am taken to tawabout this nursing business, I shall lose no time in laying the blameon you."
"I will assure Mrs. Singleton that you endeavored to dissuade me; andthat you faithfully kept your promise to shield me from danger."
"Which she will not believe, because she knows that I have the power tolock you up indefinitely. Besides, if you live to explain matters,there will be no necessity; but suppose you do not? You are runninginto the jaws of an awful danger, and if--"
His frank, pleasant countenance clouded, he gnawed his mustache, andthe question ended in a long sigh. After a moment, a low, sweet voicecompleted the sentence:
"If I should die, your tende
r-hearted wife is so truly and faithfullymy friend, that she could not regret to hear I have entered into myrest."
There was a brief silence, during which the physician crossed thefloor, opened a glass door and surveyed the stock of drugs. When hecame back, and took up the pestle, he spoke with solemn emphasis:
"This is the most malignant type of an always dangerous disease that Ihave ever encountered; and constant exposure to it, without thecareful, persistent use of tonic and disinfectant precautions, would betantamount to walking unvaccinated into a pest-house, where people weredying of confluent small-pox. I have no desire to frighten, but it isproper that I should warn you; and insist upon the duty of watchingyour own health as closely as the symptoms of the victims you aredesirous of nursing. Will you follow the regimen I shall prescribe foryourself?"
"Implicitly."
The warden finished filling the capsules, rose and looked at his watch.
"As far as the chances go, it is 'heads I win, tails you lose'; andsorry enough I am to see you come down and dare the pestilence; butsince you are, I might as well say what I was asked to tell you lastnight. For your sake I kept silent; now since you persist, I wash myhands of all responsibility for the consequences. You have heard thehistory of the woman Iva Le Bougeois, better known in the 'walls' asthe 'Bloody Duchess'. Two days ago the scourge struck her down; she isvery ill, the worst symptoms have appeared, and she is almost franticwith terror. Last night, at 12 o'clock, I was going the rounds of thesick wards, and found her wringing her hands, and running up and downthe cell like a maniac. I tried to quiet and encourage her, but shepaid no more attention than if stone deaf; and when I started to leaveher, she seized my arm, and begged me to ask you to come and stay withher. She thinks if you would sing for her, she could listen, and forgetthe horrible things that haunt her. It is positively sickening to seeher terror at the thought of death. Poor, desperate creature."
"Yet you withheld her message when I might have comforted her?"
"It was a crazy whim. In hardened cases like hers, death-bed remorsecounts for very little. Her conscience is lashing her; could you quietthat? Could you bleach out the blood that spots her soul?"
"Yes, by leading her to One who can."
"Remember, you asked me as a special favor to keep you as far apart aspossible from all of her class."
"At that time, overwhelmed by the misery of my own fate, I was pitilessto the sufferings of others. The rod that smote me was very cruel then;but by degrees it seems to bud like Aaron's with precious promise, thatmay expand into the immortal flowers of souls redeemed. I dwelt toolong in the seat of the Pharisees; I shall live closer to God, walkinghumbly among the Publicans. Will you show me the way to the woman whowishes to see me?"
"Not yet. There are some instructions that must be carefully weighedbefore I can install you as nurse, in that dismal mire of moral andphysical corruption. Singleton, send the hospital steward to me."
There are spectacles which brand themselves so ineffaceably uponmemory, that time has no power to impair their vividness; and of suchwere some of the scenes witnessed by the new nurse.
Sitting on the side of her cot, from which the gray blanket had beendragged and folded half across her shoulders, where one hand held it,while the other clutched savagely at her throat; with her bare delicatefeet beating a tattoo on the white sanded floor, and her thin nostrilsdilated in the battle for breath, Iva Le Bougeois moaned in abjectterror. The coarse, unbleached "domestic" night-gown that fell to herankles was streaked across the bosom with some dark brown fluid; andsimilar marks stained the pillow where her restless head had tossed.The hot eyes and parched red lips seemed to have drained all thetainted blood from her olive cheeks, save where, just beneath the lowerlids, ominous terra-cotta rings had been painted and glazed by thedisease.
As Beryl pushed open the iron door, and held up the lantern, that itsbrightness might stream into the cell, where even at five o'clock inthe afternoon of a rainy day darkness reigned, the rays flashed backfrom the glowing eyes chatoyant as a cougar's.
"Your message was not delivered until to-day, and I lost no time incoming."
The small head, where short, straight, blue-black locks, rumpled anddisordered, were piled elfishly around the low brow, was thrown up withthe swift movement of some startled furry animal, alert even in thethroes of death.
"Is all hope over? Did they tell you there is no chance for me?"
The voice was hoarse and thick, the articulation indistinct andsmothered.
"No. They think you very ill, but still hope the remedies will saveyou. The doctor says your fine constitution ought to conquer thedisease."
"I am beyond the remedy--because I can't swallow any longer. Since thedoctor left me, I have tried and tried. See--"
From a bench within reach, she lifted a small yellow bowl, whichcontained a dark mixture, put it to her lips, and chafing her swollenglands, attempted several times to swallow the liquid. A gurgling soundbetrayed the futility of the effort, the medicine gushed from her nose,the eyes seemed starting from their sockets, and even the husky cry ofthe sufferer was strangled, as she cowered down.
"Compose yourself; nervousness increases the difficulty. Once I haddiphtheria, and could not swallow for two days, yet I recovered. Bequiet, and let me try to help you."
Kneeling in front of her, Beryl turned up the wick of the lantern, andwith a small brush attached to a silver wire, finally succeeded incauterizing and removing a portion of the poisonous growth that wasrapidly narrowing the avenue of breath. The spasm of coughing thatensued was Nature's auxiliary effort, and temporarily relieved thetightening clutch.
After a few moments, a dose of the medicine was successfullyadministered; and then the slender, shapely brown hand of the womangrasped the nurse's blue homespun dress.
"Don't leave me! Save me. Oh, don't let me strangle here alone--in thedark; don't let me die! I'm not fit. I know where I shall go. It's notthe devil I dread; I have known many devils in this world,--but God. Iam afraid of God!"
"Lie down, and cover your shoulders. If it comforts you to have me, Iwill stay gladly. The doctor, the warden, all of us will do what we canto cure you; but the help you need most, can come only from one whosepity is greater and tenderer than ours, your merciful God. Lift up yourheart in prayer to him; ask him to forgive your sins, and spare you tolead a better life."
"He would not hear, because He knows how black my heart has been allthese years; since I gave myself up to hate and cursing. You can'tunderstand--you are not one of us. You are as much out of place here,as one of the angels would be, held over the flames of torment till thewings singed. From the first time we saw you in the chapel, and moreand more ever since, we found out you did not belong here. I have beenso wicked--so wicked--!"
She paused, panting, then hurried on.
"When the chaplain tried to talk to me, and gave me a book to read, Idashed it back in his face, and insulted him. One Saturday they sent meto sweep out and dust the chapel, and when I finished, I laid down onone of the benches to rest. You went in to practise, not knowing I wasthere; and began to sing. As I listened, something seemed to stir andwake up in my heart, and somehow the music shook me out of myself.There was one hymn, so solemn, so thrilling, and the end of every versewas, 'Oh, Lamb of God! I come!'--and you sang it with a great cry, asif you were running to meet some one. I had not wept--for oh! I don'tknow how long--not since--. Then you played on the organ somevariations on a tune--'The Sweet By-and-by'--and the tears started, andI seemed but a leaf in a wild storm. That was the song my little boyused to sing! There was a Sunday-school in the basement of a churchnext to our house, and he would stand at the window, and listen till hecaught the tune, and learned the words. Oh, that hymn! Every note stungme like a whip lash when I heard it again. My child's face as I saw himthe last time I put him to bed; when he opened his drowsy eyes, andraised up to kiss me good-night, came back to me, and seemed to sing,'In the sweet by-and-by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.'No-
-never--never! Oh, my boy! My beautiful angel Max--there is no roomfor me, on that heavenly shore! Oh! my darling--there is NO 'Sweetby-and-by' FOR MOTHER NOW."
She had started up, with arms clasped around her knees, and herconvulsed face lifted toward the low ceiling of the cell, writhed, asshe drew her breath in hissing gasps.
"You loved your little boy?"
"You are not a mother, or you wouldn't ask me that If ever you had feltyour baby's sweet warm lips on yours, you would know that it ismother-love that makes tigers of women. Because I idolized my littleone, I could not bear the cruel wrong of having him torn from me,taught to despise me; and so I loved him best when I slew him, and Iwas so mad, with the delirium of pain and rage and despair, that Iforgot I was putting the gulf of perdition between us. Rather thansubmit to separation in this world, than have him raised by them, toturn away from his mother as a thing too vile to wear his father'sname, I lost him for ever and ever! My son, my star-eyed darling."
"Listen to me. You loved him so tenderly, that no matter how wilful ordisobedient he might have been, you forgave him every offence; and whenhe sobbed on your bosom, you felt he was doubly dear, and hugged himcloser to your heart? Even stronger and deeper is God's love for us.Dare you call yourself more pitiful, more tender than your Father inheaven, who gave you the capacity to love your child, because He socompassionately loves His children? We sin, we go far astray, we thinkmercy is exhausted, and the door shut against us; but when we trulyrepent and go back, and kneel, and pray to be forgiven, Christ Himselfunbars the door and leads us in; and our Father, loving those whom Hecreated, pardons all; and only requires that we sin no more. God doesnot follow us; we must humbly go back all the distance we have putbetween us by our wickedness; but the heavens will fall before He failsto keep His promise to forgive, when we do genuinely repent of ourwrongdoing."
"It is easy for the good to believe that. You are innocent of anycrime, and you are punished for other people's sins, not for your own;so you can't understand how I dread the thought of God, because I knowthe blackness of my heart, when, to get my revenge, I sold my soul toSatan. Oh! the horror of feeling that I can't undo the bargain; thatpay-day has come! I had the vengeance, I snatched out of God's hands,and for a while I gloated over it; but now the awful price! My littleone in heaven with the angels; knowing that his mother is adevil--eternally."
Her head had fallen upon her knees, and in the frenzy of despair sherocked to and fro.
"Don't you remember that the most sinful woman Christ met on earth, wasthe one of all others that He first revealed Himself to, when He cameout of the grave? Because she was so nearly lost, and He had forgivenso much, in order to save her, her purified heart was doubly dear, andhe honored her more than the disciples, who had escaped the depth ofher wickedness. Try to find comfort in the belief, that if sincereremorse and contrition redeemed the soul of Mary Magdalen, the sameSavior who pitied and pardoned her will not deny your prayer."
"God believed her, because she proved her repentance by leading a new,purer life. But I have no chance left to prove mine. If she had beencut off in the midst of her sins, as I am, she would have been obligedto pay in her ruined soul to the Satan she had served so long. When Iam called to the settlement, it seems an insult and a mockery to askGod, whom I have defied, to save me. If I could only have a little timeto show my penitence."
"Perhaps you may be spared; but if not, God sees your contrition justas fully now as if you lived fifty years to show it in good works. Hesees you are sincerely remorseful, and would be a true Christian, if Heallowed you an opportunity. That is the blessedness of our religion,that when Christ gives us a new heart, purified by repentance and faithin Him, He says it makes clean hands, in His sight, no matter how blackthey might have been. One of the thieves was already on the cross, inthe agonies of death, with his sins fresh on his soul, and no possiblechance of atoning for his past, by future dedication of his life togood; but Christ saw his heart was genuinely repentant, and though theman did not escape crucifixion by humanity, his pardoned soul met Jesusthat same day in Paradise. It is not acceptance of our good deeds,though they are required, it is forgiveness of our sins, that makesChrist so precious. Pray from the very bottom of your heart, to God,and try to take hold of the promise to the truly penitent; andtrust--trust Him."
For a moment the crouching figure was still, as if the sufferermentally grasped at some shred of hope; then she fell back on herpillow, and groaned.
"Do you know all I have done? Do you think there is any mercy for--"
"Hush, every word taxes your failing strength. Compose yourself."
"I can't! As long as I have breath let me tell you. If I shut my eyes,horrible things seem to be pouncing upon me; dreadful shapes laugh, andbeckon to me, and I see--oh! pity me! I see my murdered child, with theblood spouting, foaming, the velvety brown eyes I loved to kiss,staring and glazed as I dragged his little body to--"
With a gurgling scream she paused, shivered, panted.
"It is a feverish dream. Your child is safe in heaven; ask your Fatherto let you see his face among the angels."
"It's not fever; it's the past, my own crimes that come to follow me tojudgment and accuse me. The hand of my first-born pointing over thelast bar at the mother who killed him! Do you wonder I am afraid todie? I don't deny my bloody deeds--but after all it was a foul wrongthat drove me to desperation; and God knows, man's injustice brought meto my sin. I was a spoiled, motherless child, married at sixteen to aman whose family despised me, because my pretty face had ruined theirscheme of a match with an heiress, whose money was needed to retrievetheir fortunes. They never forgave the marriage, and after a few years,mischief began to brew.
"I loved my husband, but his nature was too austere to deal patientlywith my freakish, petulant, volcanic temper; and when he lectured mefor my frivolity, obstinacy plunged me into excesses of gayety, that atheart I did not enjoy. His mother and sister shunned me more and more,poisoned his mind with wicked and unfounded suspicions, and so we grewmutually distrustful. He tired of me, and he showed it. I loved him.Oh! I loved him better, and better, as I saw him drifting away. Heneglected me, spent his leisure where he met the woman he had onceintended to marry. I was so maddened with jealous heart-ache, some evilspirit prompted me to try and punish him with the same pangs. That wasmy first sin of deception; I pretended an attachment I never felt,hoping to rekindle my husband's affection. Like many another heart-sickwife, I was caught in my own snare; and while I was as innocent of anywrong as my own baby boy, his father was glad of a pretext to excusehis alienation. People slandered me; and because I loved Allen sodeeply, I was too proud to defend myself, until too late.
"God is my witness, my husband was the only man I ever loved; ah! howdear he was to me! His very garments were precious; and I have kissedand cried over his gloves, his slippers. The touch of his hand wasworth all the world to me, but he withheld it. When you know yourhusband loves you, he may ill treat, may trample you under his feet,but you can forgive him all; you caress the heel that bruises you.Allen ceased to show me ordinary consideration, stung me with sneers,threatened separation; even shrunk from the boy, because he was mine.
"There came a day, when some fiend forged a letter, and the same vilehand laid it in my husband's desk. Only God knows whose is the guilt ofthat black deed, but I believe it was his sister's work. Allen cursedme as unworthy to be the mother of his child, and swore he would befree. On my knees I begged him to hear, and acquit me. I confessed allmy yearning love for him, I assured him I was the victim of a foulplot; and that if he would only take me back to the heaven of hisheart, he would find that no man ever had a more devoted wife. Hewanted an excuse to put me out of his way; he repulsed me with scorn,and before the sun set, he forsook me, and took up his abode with hismother and sister. Oh! the cruel wrong of that dreadful, parting scene!"
She sprang from the cot, breathless from the passionate recital,beating the air with one small slender hand, while the other tore atthe
swollen cords of her tortured throat.
Beryl caught the round, prettily turned wrist, and felt the feeblethread of pulse that was only a wild flutter, under the olive satin ofthe hot skin.
"This excitement only hastens the end you dread. Lie down, and I willpray for you."
"I shall soon lie down for ever. Let me walk a little, before my feetslide into the grave."
She staggered twice across the length of the cell, then tottered andfell back on the cot. At every respiration the thin nostrils flared,and the glazed ring below the eyes lost its sullen red tinge, took onblue shadows.
"I did not know then I was to lose my child also; but before long, allthe scheme was made clear. Allen sued for a divorce. He wanted to shakeme off; and he persuaded himself all the foul things my enemies hadconcocted must be true. I had lost his love; I was too proud to show mytorn heart to the world; and men make the laws to suit themselves, andthey help each other to break chains that gall, so Allen was set free.I shut myself up in two rooms, with my boy, and saw no one. Even then,though my heart was breaking, and I wept away the lonely days--longingfor the sight of my husband's face, starving for the sound of hisvoice--I bore up; because I knew I was innocent, and unjustly censured,and I had my child to comfort me. He slept in my arms and kept mehuman; and we were all the world to each other.
"Then the last blow fell. There came a note, whose every word bit myheart like an adder. Allen demanded the boy, whom the law gave to hisguardianship; and I was warned I must make no attempt to see him afterhe was taken away, because he would be taught to forget me. I refused.I dared the officer to lay hands on my little one, and I was so franticwith grief, the man had compassion, and left me. Two nights afterward,I rocked him to sleep and put him in bed. His arms fell from my neck;half aroused, he nestled his face to mine--kissed me. I went into thenext room, to finish a shirt I was making for him, and I shut the door,fearing the noise of the machine would wake him. I sewed half an hour,and--when I went back, the bed was empty, my child was gone.
"I think I went utterly mad then. I can remember putting my lips to thedent on the little ruffled pillow, where his head had lain, andswearing that I would have my revenge.
"That night turned me to stone; every tender feeling seemed to petrify.When I learned that Allen was soon to marry the woman for whom he hadcast me off, and that my boy was to have a new mother to teach him tohate me, it did not grieve me; I had lost all power of suffering; butit woke up a legion of fiends where my heart used to beat, and I bidedmy time. Happy women in happy homes think me a monster. With theirhusbands' arms around them, and their babies prattling at their knees,they bear my wrongs so meekly, and shudder at my depravity. When Ithought of Allen, who was my first and last and only love, giving myplace to some other woman, who was no more worthy than I knew myself tobe; and of the baby, who had slept on my heart, and was so dear becausehe had his father's eyes and his father's brown curls, growing up todeny and condemn his innocent but disgraced mother, it was more than Icould bear. I was not insane; oh, no! But I was possessed by more thanseven devils; and revenge was all this world could give me. Myhusband's family had ruined me; so I would spoil their match a secondtime.
"The wedding was to be very private, but I bribed a servant and gotinto the house, and stood behind the damask curtains. Allen's motherand sister came in, leading my boy; and they were so close to me Icould see the long silky lashes resting against my baby's brow, as hisgreat brown eyes looked wonderingly at a horseshoe of roses danglingfrom the chandelier. Then my husband, my handsome husband--my darling'sfather, walked in, with the bride on his arm, and the minister metthem, saying: 'Dearly beloved--.' I ceased to be a woman then, I was afury, a wild beast--and two minutes later my darlings were mine oncemore, safe from that other woman--dead at my feet. Then the ball Iaimed at my own breast missed its destination. I fell on my slaughteredidols; seeing in a bloody mist the wide eyes of my baby boy, and themangled face of the husband whose kiss was the only heaven I shall everknow. I meant to die with them, but I failed; so they sent me here.That was years ago; but I was a stone until that day in the chapel,when you sang my Max's song, 'By-and-By'."
There was a brief silence, and Beryl's voice wavered as she said verygently:
"Your trials were fiery; and though the crime was frightfully black,God judges us according to the natures we are born with, and thetemptations that betray us; and He forgives all, if we are truepenitents and throw ourselves trustingly on His mercy. Now take thispowder; it will make you sleep."
"Will you stay with me? I shall not trouble anybody much longer. Say aprayer for my sinful soul, that is going down into the eternal night."
"Let us pray together, that your pardoned soul may find blessed andeternal peace."
Coming softly to the door, the doctor looked in through the ironlattice, saw the figure of the nurse kneeling on the sanded floor, withher bronzed head close to the pillow where the moaning victim's lay;and involuntarily he took off his cloth cap, and bowed his gray head tolisten to the brief but solemn petition that went up from the dungeonto the supreme and unerring Judge.
When he returned to the same spot an hour later, Beryl sat on the sideof the cot, with one hand clasping the brown wrist thrown across herlap, the other pressed gently over the sufferer's hot, aching eyes; andwonderfully sweet was the rich voice that chanted low:
"Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me. And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God! I come, I come! Just as I am, and waiting not To rid my soul of one dark blot, To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God! I come, I come!"
The noon sun was shining over a wet world, kindling into diamonds thecrystal fringe of rain drops hanging from the green lances of willows,where a tufted red bird arched his scarlet throat in madrigal--whenfour men lifted a cot, and bore it with its apparently dying burden toa spot upon which the warm light fell in a golden flood.
Between the Destroying Angel and his gasping prey, stepped two,anointed with the chrism of the Priesthood of Cure; and undismayed bythe strident, sibilant, fitful breath that distorted the blue lips ofthe victim, they parried the sweep of the scythe of death, with thetiny, glittering steel blade surgery cunningly fashions; and throughits silver canula, tracheotomy recalled the vanishing spirit,triumphantly renewed the lease of life.
At sunset on the same day, Beryl followed the warden to the door of thelarge hospital.
"Of all pitiful sights here, this has harrowed me the most. The doctorsdid all they could, and the chaplain worked hard to save her soul, butshe was like flint, till just before the end, when she raised up, andheard her child crying down in the work-room, where it had been put tosleep. We could scarcely hold her; she fought like a panther to get outof bed, till the blood gushed from her nose, and though she could notspeak plainly, she pointed, and we made out: 'Baby--Dovie'. The doctorwould not consent that we should expose the child to the risk, but Icould not hold out against that poor creature's pleading wild eyes, soI just brought the little one. What a strangling cry she gave, when Iput it in her arms, and how the tears poured! She was almost gone, andwe saw that she wanted to tell us something about the child, but wecould not understand. The doctor put a pencil in her hand, and held asheet of paper before her, and she tried to scrawl her wishes, but allwe can read is: 'Her father won't ever own her. Baptize--her Dovie--EveWerneth's baby. Don't ever tell her she was born in jail. Raise her agood--good--.' She had a sort of spasm then, and squeezed the child sotight, it screamed. In five minutes, she was dead. Only nineteen yearsold, and the little one just two years; and not yet weaned! I don'tknow what to do; so I brought you. If I touch the child, it seemsfrightened almost to death, but maybe you can coax it away. Poor littlething! What a mercy if it could die!"
"Will you let me have the care of it? Take it, and keep it up in mycell?"
"I shall be only too thankful, if you will lift the load from myshoulders."
"Tell the s
teward to bring me a cup of warm, sweetened milk and acracker. The poor little lamb must be almost famished."
Through an open window streamed the radiance of a daffodil sky, fleckedwith curling plumes of drifting fire, and the glory fell like abenediction on the iron cot, where lay the body of the early dead; asmall, slight, blond girl wearing prematurely the crown of maternity,whose thorns had torn and stained the smooth brow of mere childhood.The half-opened eyes, fixed in their filmy blue glaze, seemed a prayerfor the pretty infant, whose head, a glistening tangle of yellow curls,was nestled down against the bare white throat of the rigid mother;while the dimpled hands pulled fretfully at the blood-spattered gown,that was buttoned across the breast.
As clusters of wild snowy violets springing up in the midst of mud andmire, in a noxious swamp, look doubly pure and sweet because of fetidsurroundings,--so this blossom of the slums, this human bud, withpetals of innocence folded close in the calyx of babyhood, seemedsupremely and pathetically fair, as she stood leaning against the cot,the little rosy feet on tip-toe, pressing toward her mother; tears onthe pink velvet of the round cheeks, on the golden lashes beneath thebig blue eyes that grew purplish behind the mist.
The Macedonia of suffering humanity lies always within a stone's throw;and the "cry for help" had found speedy response in more than onebenevolent heart.
A gray-haired widow from the "Sheltering Arms," to which Sister Serenabelonged, and a Sister of Charity from the hospital in X---, werealready ministering tenderly in the crowded ward; and both had essayedto coax away the little figure clutching her mother's gown; but theflaring white cap of one, and the flapping black drapery of the other,frightened the trembling child.
Into the group stole Beryl; followed closely by the yellow cat, whichhad become her shadow. Kneeling beside the baby, she kissed it softly,took one of the hands, patted her own cheek with it, and lifted the catto the mattress, where it began to purr. The silky shock of yellowcurls was lifted, the wide eyes stared wonderingly first at Beryl'sface bending near, then at the cat; and by degrees, the lovely waifsuffered an arm to draw her farther and farther, while her rose-redmouth parted in a smile, that showed six little teeth, and with onehand fastened in the cat's fur, she was finally lifted and borne away;Beryl's soft cheek nestled against hers, the bronzed head bent down tothe yellow ringlets; one arm holding the baby and the cat, while theother white hand closed warmly over the child's bare, cold, dimpledfeet.
At the Mercy of Tiberius Page 25
