"You may want somenecessaries, said he; and as you have set no price on your services, weshall not differ about the wages if you are attentive and faithful."
Alonzo gave his employer no room to complain; nor had he any reason tobe discontented with his situation. Mr. Grafton regularly advanced himtwenty crowns at the commencement of every month, and boarded him in hisfamily. Alonzo dressed himself in deep mourning. He sought no company;he found consolation only in solitude, if consolation it could becalled.
As he was walking out early one morning, he discovered something lyingin the street, which he at first supposed to be a small piece of silk:he took it up and found it to be a curiously wrought purse, containing afew guineas with some small pieces of silver, and something at thebottom carefully wrapped in a piece of paper; he unfolded it, and wasthunderstruck at beholding an elegant miniature of Melissa! Her sweetlypensive features, her expressive countenance, her soul-enlivening eye!The shock was almost too powerful for his senses. Wildered in a maze ofwonders, he knew not what to conjecture. Melissa's miniature found inthe streets of Paris, after she had some time been dead! He viewed it,he clasped it to his bosom.--"Such, said he, did she appear, ere thecorroding cankers of grief had blighted her heavenly charms! By whatprovidential miracle am I possessed of the likeness, when the originalis no more? What benevolent angel has taken pity on my sufferings, andconveyed to me this inestimable prize?"
But though he had thus become possessed of what he esteemed mostvaluable, what right had he to withhold it from the lawful owner, couldthe owner indeed be found? Perhaps the person who had lost it would partwith it; perhaps the money contained in the purse was of more value tothat person than the miniature. At any rate, justice required that heshould endeavour to find to whom it belonged: this he might do byadvertising, which he immediately concluded upon, resolving, should theowner appear, to purchase the miniature, if possibly within his power.
Passing into another street, he saw several hand-bills stuck up on thewalls of houses; stepping up to one, he read as follows:
"Lost, between the hours of nine and ten last evening, in the _Rue deLoir_, a small silk purse, containing a few pieces of money, and alady's miniature. One hundred crowns will be given to the person who mayhave found it, and will restore it to the owner at the _American Hotel_,near the _Louvre_, Room No. 4."
It was printed both in the French and English languages. By the rewardhere offered, Alonzo was convinced that the miniature belonged to someperson who set a value upon it. Determined to explicate the mystery,he proceeded immediately to the place, found the room mentioned in thebill, and knocked at the door. A servant appeared, of whom Alonzoenquired for the lodger. The servant answered him in French, whichAlonzo did not understand: he replied in his own language, but found itwas unintelligible to the servant. A grave middle aged gentleman thencame to the door from within the room and ended their jabbering at eachother: he, in the English language, desired Alonzo to walk in. It was anapartment, neatly furnished; no person was therein except the gentlemanand servant before mentioned, and a person who sat writing in a cornerof the room, with his back towards them.
Alonzo informed the gentleman that he had called according to thedirection in a bill of advertisement to enquire for the person who thepreceding night, had lost a purse and miniature. The person who waswriting had hitherto taken no notice of what had passed; but at thesound of Alonzo's voice, after he had entered the room, he started andturned about, and at mention of the miniature, he rose up. Alonzo fixedhis eyes upon him: they both stood for a few moments silent: for a shorttime their recollection was confused and imperfect, but the mists ofdoubt were soon dissipated. "Edgar!"--"Alonzo!" they alternatelyexclaimed. It was indeed Edgar, the early friend and fellow student ofAlonzo--the brother of Melissa! In an instant they were in each othersarms.
* * * * *
Edgar and Alonzo retired to a separate room. Edgar informed Alonzo thatthe news of Melissa's death reached him, by a letter from his father,while with the army; that he immediately procured a furlough, andvisited his father, whom, with his mother, he found in inconsolabledistress.--"The letter which my uncle had written, said Edgar,announcing her death, mentioned with what patience and placidity sheendured her malady, and with what calmness and resignation she met theapproach of death. Her last moments, like her whole life, were unruffledand serene. She is in heaven Alonzo--she is an angel!"--Swelling griefhere choaked the utterance of Edgar; for some time he could proceed nofarther, and Alonzo, with bursting bosom, mingled his tears.
"My father, resumed Edgar, bent on uniting her to Beauman or at least ofpreventing her union with you, had removed her to a desolate familymansion, and placed her under the care of an aunt. At that place, heeither suspected, or really discovered that you had recourse to herwhile my aunt was absent on business. She was therefore no longerentrusted to the care of her aunt, but my father immediately formed andexecuted the plan of sending her to his brother in South Carolina, underpretence of restoring her to health by change of climate, as her healthin reality had began rapidly to decay. There it was designed thatBeauman should shortly follow her, with recommendations from my fatherto her uncle, urging him to use all possible means which might tend topersuade her to become the wife of Beauman. But change of climate onlyencreased the load of sorrows, and she soon sunk beneath them. Theletter mentioned nothing of her troubles: possibly my uncle's familyknew nothing of them: to them, probably,
----"She never told her love, But sat like Patience on a monument Smiling at grief; while sad concealment, Like a worm in the bud, Fed on her damask cheek.
"My father's distress was excessive: often did he accuse himself ofbarbarity, and he once earnestly expressed a wish that he had consentedto her union with you. My father, I know, is parsimonious, but hesincerely loved his children. Inflexible as is his nature, the untimelydeath of a truly affectionate and only daughter will, I much fear,precipitate him, and perhaps my mother also, to a speedy grave.
"As soon as my feelings would permit, I repaired to your father's, andmade enquiry concerning you. I found your parents content in theirhumble state, except that your father had been ill, but was recovering.Of you they had heard nothing since your departure, and they deeplylamented your absence. And from Vincent I could obtain no fartherinformation.
"Sick of the world, I returned to the army. An American consul was soonto sail for Holland:--I solicited and obtained the appointment ofsecretary. I hoped by visiting distant countries, in some measure torelieve my mind from the deep melancholy with which it was oppressed. Wewere to proceed first to Paris, where we have been a few days; to-morrowwe are to depart for Holland. The consul is the man who introduced youinto the room where you found me.
"Last evening I lost the miniature which I suppose you have found: thechain to which it was suspended around my neck, had broken while I waswalking the street. I carefully wrapped it in paper and deposited it inmy purse, which I probably dropped on replacing it in my pocket, and didnot discover the loss until this morning. I immediately made diligentsearch, but not finding it, I put up bills of advertisement. Thelikeness was taken in my sister's happiest days. After I had enteredupon my professional studies in New-York, I became acquainted with aminiature painter, who took my likeness. He afterwards went into thecountry, and as I found he was to pass near my father's, I engaged himto call there and take my sister's likeness also. We exchanged them soonafter. It was dear to me, even while the original remained; but sinceshe is gone it has become a most precious and valuable relique."
All the tender powers of Alonzo's soul were called into action byEdgar's recital. The "days of other years"--the ghosts of sepulcheredblessings, passed in painful review. Added to these, the penuriouscondition of his parents, his father's recent illness, and his probableinability to procure the bread of his family, all tended more deeply tosink his spirits in the gulf of melancholy and misery. He howeverinformed Edgar of all that had happened since they parted atVincent's--respecting
the old mansion Melissa's extraordinarydisappearance therefrom, the manner in which he was informed of herdeath, his departure from America, capture, escape, Beauman's death,arrival in France, and his finding the miniature. To Edgar as well asAlonzo, Melissa's sudden and unaccountable removal from the mansion wasmysterious and inexplicable.
As Edgar was to depart early the next morning, they neither slept norseparated that night.
"If it were not for your reluctance to revisit your native country, saidEdgar, I should urge you to accompany me to Holland, and thence returnwith me to America. Necessity and duty require that I should not be longabsent, as my parents want my assistance, and they are now childless."
"Suffer me, answered Alonzo, to bury myself in this city for thepresent: should I ever again awake to real life, I will seek you out
Alonzo and Melissa; Or, The Unfeeling Father: An American Tale Page 23
