Between such persons as Mr. Whitlaw and Susan, these sort of compacts do not take long in arranging; and it was soon agreed, that when he rang, which he was to do with peculiar gentleness, she should pass near the door by accident, open it, and admit him.
This had been done repeatedly; and it was the angry blush which melted on Selina’s cheek, and a half smile that showed itself in the good-humoured dimples of her father upon these occasions, which, being read amiss, had led to the éclaircissement. It was not one interview, however, which had sufficed to arrange these visits, or to reward Susan for her successful management of them. At a certain hour in each day, the young woman had repaired to a place indicated; and Whitlaw, who was now as anxious to examine her respecting others as he had been to interest her for himself, again kept the appointment, and again had the satisfaction of finding his agent faithful to it.
He immediately perceived that the girl had something new and important to communicate, and after the prologue of a few gentle words on both sides, they prepared mutually to open their hearts, and relieve themselves of the load of intelligence that oppressed them.
“I have got news for you, now, Mr. Whitlaw,” said Susan; “but I misdoubt if you will like it much — at least if you hold fast to your intention of marrying my young lady. What blood do you think she’s come of, Mr.Whitlaw? — and she so pale and delicate too!”
“What blood?” repeated Whitlaw. “Why, d — d English blood, I suppose. What d’ye mean, my dear?”
“I mean almost more than you will believe, I think; and yet, it is as true as that you’re tall and I’m short. I mean, Mr. Whitlaw, that Miss Croft’s mother came of a nigger.”
“Not possible!”
“’Tis true though, as sure as you stand there. I saw the old negress myself, as came to claim the relationship; and an ugly old monster she is as ever my eyes looked upon. Do you think, Mr. Whitlaw, that there will be any danger of the likeness coming upon the children over again? I have heard tell that it does sometimes happen with the gout, and with red hair, and fits, and a great many things; but I’m sure I should be sorry to see a lawful-born child of yours look like a nigger; — that would be a pity!”
“Black blood!” muttered Whitlaw, who seemed hardly conscious that he spoke.
“Yes, sir, black blood! God knows, there is no good in mincing the matter, for the creture is as black as your boot.”
“Black blood, Susan? Is it true? are you very, very sure there is no mistake? You darling, beautiful creature! I will doat upon you for ever for this. But, Susan, I must see her once more — only once; you need not be jealous, my dear, but I must positively see her once again, and without her father too. How can you manage this?”
“Easy enough, Mr. Whitlaw, if you can come to-morrow afternoon. My master has a party of three or four gentlemen to dine with him. Miss Croft never dines at table on these occasions, but is always dressed and ready to receive them in the drawing-room, afterwards. Now, your time will be to come just before sunset, and then you’ll be sure of her.”
“Good! To-morrow, before sun-down, I’ll be there, Susan, if I never make another visit on earth. But remember, you are at hand, dear girl! Once you failed me — last Monday, you know, and I was sent off. If you fail me to-morrow, Susan, I will never see you more.”
“Don’t be afraid, Mr. Whitlaw. I’ll come down straight from dressing her, and bide at the front door looking about me till you come; so there’ll be no need of knocking or ringing at all.”
“Excellent! And now good-b’ye, dear Susan! I must reserve all I had to say to you till next time — I have a hundred things to think of. Good-b’ye.”
And so they parted; — Susan to return with eye of lynx to spy into the sick heart of her young mistress; and Whitlaw, to enjoy the prospect of a revenge more admirably suited to his wishes, than any his own ingenious faculties could have conceived.
For many hours he meditated upon it with a fulness of delight which left no room for thoughts of mere human wisdom and policy; but at length it occurred to him, that if he managed well, he might first gratify his longing to revenge the affront he had received, and then turn the discovery to handsome profit. So delightful were these speculations, that not even the gaming-table had stimulant sufficient to occupy him during this interval, and he passed the moments in anxious but not unhappy idleness till the hour of appointment arrived.
True to her promise, Susan stood gaily dressed at the door; and as she made way for Whitlaw to pass, she whispered, “There she is all alone, and dismal enough, I promise you, since she found out her black nigger grandmother.”
Whitlaw bounded up the stairs like the squirrel of his native woods: he feared lest the father of the young creature whose feelings he was going to outrage might start forth and stop him.
Without giving the slightest signal of his approach, Whitlaw opened the door and entered.
Selina was sitting near a table on which lay an open volume; but her head rested upon a fair hand which entirely covered her eyes, and it was evident that she was not reading. The opening door roused her: she looked up and saw Whitlaw.
As usual, her heightened colour proclaimed some species of emotion; but it was not now, as formerly, mistaken for the blush of love, albeit that it was “celestial, rosy red.” She rose from her seat, and her eyes said as plainly as eyes could speak, “How dare you enter here?”
“Don’t disturb yourself, Miss Selina,” said Whitlaw, with a degree of effrontery that very literally struck her dumb. “Sit still,” he continued: “a pretty girl, if she’s as yellow as a guinea; may always sit, provided there’s nobody by but the man that’s her lover.”
He approached very near her as he spoke, and a feeling of deep disgust made her spring aside as if some noxious reptile was coming upon her.
“Well, now, if I don’t believe that you’re afraid of me! Why, that’s instinct, my pretty girl. You know, I expect, that black blood is black blood, let it be filtered down ever so; and maybe you think I’m come to treat you as coloured folks is always treated in this country when they don’t know how to behave themselves? A pretty game you’ve been after playing, you and your father, haven’t you? But near as I was to be taken in, I don’t bear malice; and besides, my dear, if you had done caught me, our marriage, you know, would have been just no marriage at all; for the law says, that if a white man demeans himself to marry one of a coloured race, it’s just all one as if they wasn’t married at all. But I’m a faithful lover, my pretty miss, and to let you down gentle like, I’m willing, if you behaves yourself, to make you my favourite mistress after all.”
Choking with mingled sensations of shame and indignation, the unhappy Selina could only articulate, “Go! — go! — go!”
“Go? When you’ve been a little longer in this country, you’ll know your place better, my dear. I don’t mean to go, little lady, till I’ve proved that a friend in need is a friend indeed. Instead of going, I will just place myself here, Miss Selina; and you may sit down too, if you will — I shan’t object.”
A dreadful sensation of sickness that made her fear she was fainting obliged her to obey him, for in truth it rendered her totally incapable of escape.
“My!” exclaimed her tormenter, “you do look pale enough now for one of negro breed, that’s a fact. I expect you’ll be all the better for a glass of water, my dear.”
So saying, he rose and rang the bell. A female slave answered it.
“Bring a glass of water here, blacky,” said Whitlaw, pointing to Selina to show her for whom it was required. The girl left the room, and returning instantly, poured out a glass of water with anxious haste, and presented it to her almost fainting mistress. Selina took it eagerly, and used the strength it gave her in rising to leave the room.
“No, no, my girl, you must not go yet,” said the wretch, putting himself in a truly national attitude, balancing himself on one chair and throwing a leg over the back of another, while the trembling and wholly subdued Selina stoo
d before him. “I’ve got to tell you that for a handsome consideration — a neat bit out of the Nixton estate perhaps — Go out of the room, smut!” he cried, stopping short in his proposals, and addressing the negress, who stared at him with astonishment and dislike, but, obedient to the white man’s word, she immediately left the room. “There now,” he continued, “see if I arn’t honourable! — Maybe she’s your cousin, though. — But what I say must be between ourselves, my dear, or it won’t be worth hearing. What I was going to propose was this, that your father should make over to me a part, you see, of the Nixton estate, upon condition, signed and sealed, if you will, that I keep the secret of your being come of negro blood; and then, maybe, I’ll be so civil as to be still willing to buy the remainder; ‘cause you see you couldn’t inherit it in this country, my dear: — not to mention that you’d be turned out neck and heels of every room where you put your foot, unless ’tis to wait upon us white, or the like of that. But if you’ll consent to this proposal, I’ll undertake to get you smuggled out of the country before it gets wind at all, — that is, provided you wouldn’t like better to stay in it as my favourite miss.”
A deep groan was the only answer he received, and at the same moment Selina fell prostrate on the ground.
Mr. Whitlaw thought it was now time to escape, and he did so, after turning one very fiendish glance of triumph upon the unconscious girl; determined, however, to repeat his kind proposal to her father in writing, which, whether it were received as an insult or a bargain, would be almost equally satisfactory to him.
When Selina recovered her senses, she found herself on her bed, with her room darkened and all the appareil of invalidism about her. She felt little or no weakness of body however, and her first impulse led her to rise, in order to seek her father; but she recollected that he was not alone, and quickly replacing her head on the pillow, and bidding her maid return to tell her when his guests were departed, she determined to pass the interval in meditating on her own strange and greatly altered situation.
Had the disclosure which so overwhelmed her been made in any other country, its effect upon her mind would have been totally different. In England it is probable that such an incredible statement would have been treated only as a jest. Very lovely portraits of the two females through whom the detested stain had reached her were among the boasted treasures of her inheritance, and the early death of both had probably contributed to the utter oblivion of their female ancestor. Mr. Croft, in marrying the only daughter and heiress of a respectable London merchant; had not deemed it necessary to inquire into the lineage of her mother, who survived her birth but a few hours; especially as it was well known that the property he received with her was from this mother’s fortune, which had luckily been settled on her child at her marriage, the father afterwards becoming bankrupt.
Selina’s education, though sedulously attended to on some points, had given her very little general information; and the impressions she received on most subjects were more influenced by her own high-wrought imagination, than by any previous knowledge acquired from good authority. The appearance and condition of the slave population as they met her at New Orleans was equally unexpected and revolting: she knew little or nothing on the subject of their history or their wrongs, and her deeply-religious spirit was shocked to feel a sort of impious misdoubting of the justice of Heaven, as their degraded and terrible position was developed before her. From this most painful and guilty thought she was relieved by the persuasion which soon took possession of her mind, that this dreadful spectacle was the result of the immutable command of God. “Well might wretched Cain say,” exclaimed she, as she turned with loathing from the objects which perpetually met her eyes, “well might he say prophetically for his whole race, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear!’”
With opinions and feelings such as these, the state of her mind at suddenly finding herself branded as one still stained by the accursed “MARK” may in some degree be conceived. In common with most young people of a fanciful temperament and poetical turn of thought, she conceived herself somewhat apart from and above the common herd. Neither her fortune nor her beauty created any such feeling, but she had believed herself favoured by Heaven with a soul of higher tone than was usually accorded to mortals. Poor girl! — the descent from these visions to the hateful reality was too violent.
For two long hours she lay ruminating on her past and present lot before her father came to her. With all his earnest wishes to heal the wound her mind had received, he was unable to utter a word that could give her consolation. Mr. Croft was a true-hearted and truth-speaking Englishman. In such a cause he might perhaps have wished to deceive; but he knew not how to do it. All the inquiries he had made by means of the clue furnished him by Juno, who had delivered many letters and memoranda into his hands, had tended to convince him that her statement was true, and he now came to announce to his daughter the only news he thought likely to console her; namely, that he had determined upon sailing for Europe by the first vessel that left the port with that destination.
Selina had risen from her bed before his entrance, her maid having announced the departure of his guests; and she met him with such an appearance of restored composure, that half his uneasiness vanished, and he spoke cheerfully of their speedy departure.
His daughter listened to him with a quiet smile, but seemed to evade the subject, as if not yet sufficiently restored to enter upon it.
“To-morrow, dear father,” said she, “tomorrow settle all about it. I will come down and take a biscuit and a glass of wine with you, and then I will go to rest.”
Perfectly satisfied by the composure of her manner, and anxious, late as it was for business, to go out immediately in the hope of finding one or two persons whom it was necessary he should see before his departure, he led her to the parlour which they usually occupied in the morning, and having ordered and partaken with her the refreshment she desired, prepared to leave her, saying, “Good night, dear love! it is not yet too late for me to do several things which will save time to-morrow.”
Selina rose and approached him. “Give me your blessing and a kiss, dear father!” she said, resting her head upon his bosom.
“God bless thee, my sweet child!” he replied, pressing her fair forehead with his lips, “ God bless thee, dearest!”
She withdrew gently from his embrace, and sat down without speaking. He looked at her fondly for a moment, repeated his “God bless you, dearest!” and withdrew.
The room she was in opened upon the garden. She drew back the curtain, and seeing the bright moonlight reflected by a thousand beautiful blossoms, she walked out into the midst of them. Nothing could be more delicious than the feel and the fragrance of the air at that hour. The day had been oppressively warm, but now a breeze played among the myrtles, the oranges, and the tuberoses, which, to a tamer fancy than Selina’s, might have recalled the gales of Eden. She removed the comb and the ribbon which confined her hair, and giving her long coal-black tresses to the wind, seemed to enjoy the freedom with which they fanned her cheek. She stood thus for many minutes inhaling the rich odour of the shrubs with a feeling that seemed to approach to ecstasy.
At length the spell was broken, and she moved on; but her step and action were hurried and unquiet. She went from tree to tree plucking the flowers, till she had collected almost more than she could carry; and then retreating hastily to the house, she regained her chamber, dismissed her maid, who was in attendance there, and carefully securing her door, remained alone.
VOLUME III.
CHAPTER I.
IT will be necessary that I should again lose sight of my hero for a short time, that the reader may be enabled to understand the position of those whom accident had made of importance to his future destiny.
After quitting the mansion of Frederick Steinmark, Juno lost no time in letting Colonel Dart understand that it was necessary he should forthwith, for his own especial well-being and safety, despatch a civil epistle to the
German proprietor of Reichland, assuring him that if he stood in need of an excellent gardener, the best thing he could do would be to purchase a slave known by the name of Cæsar Bush from the factory of Mr. Oglevie, near New Orleans.
Colonel Dart had done so many things of greater importance at the bidding of Juno, that it was not very likely she should find much trouble in obtaining his compliance with this new behest; nor, in fact did she, though the little gentleman did look rather more puzzled than usual at the request.
“But what the devil is it to me, Juno, who that German idiot that works his grounds with white men has for a gardener? Why for shouldn’t he go on as he began, without owning a slave? He’ll be sure to get ruined at last, and it isn’t I that have any right to stop him.”
“I well know that it is not for the master of all,” replied Juno, “to trouble himself with the concerns of any such mean, ignorant, foreign whites as the people at Reichland: but neither have the people at Reichland, in good truth, anything to do with this matter, excepting as we have the wit to make them act and do for the furtherance of the affairs of others. It is needful for the safety of Paradise Plantation, and for the more precious safety still of him who is the master of it, that this young slave Cæsar, who will act faithfully by my orders, should be stationed near us. This is all; and the man called Frederick Steinmark is only to be a tool in our hands.”
Collected Works of Frances Trollope Page 34
