Darkness and Daylight - Mary J. Holmes (great novels of all time .txt) 📗

“lonesomer than it has ever been before; and the nights will be so dark, for when the morning comes there’ll be no Miggie here. She will look sweetly in her coffin, but you can’t see her, can you? You can FEEL how beautiful she is, perhaps; and I shall braid her hair just as she used to wear it.”

There was a perceptible tremor in Richard’s frame, and perceiving it, Nina continued quickly,

“We shall never forget her, shall we? and we’ll often fancy we hear her singing through the halls, even though we know she’s far away heading the choir in Heaven. That will be a pleasanter sound, won’t it, than the echo of the bell when the villagers count the eighteen strokes and a half, and know it tolls for Miggie? The hearse wheels, too—how often we shall hear them grinding through the gravel, as they will grind, making a little track when they come up, and a deeper one when they go away, for they’ll carry Miggie then.”

“Oh, Nina! hush, hush! No, no!” and Richard’s voice was choked with tears, which ran over his face like rain.

Nina had achieved her object, and, with a most satisfied expression she watched him as he wept. Her’s was a triple task, caring for Richard, caring for Arthur, and caring for Edith, but most faithfully did she perform it. Every day, when the sun was low in the western sky, she stole away to Grassy Spring, speaking blessed words of comfort to the despairing Arthur, who waited for her coming as for the visit of an angel. She was dearer to him now since he had confessed his sin to Edith, and could she have been restored to reason he would have compelled himself to make her his wife in reality as well as in name. She was a sweet creature, he knew; and he always caressed her with unwonted tenderness ere he sent her back to the sick room, where Edith ever bemoaned her absence, missing her at once, asking for pretty Nina, with the golden hair. She apparently did not remember that Nina stood between herself and Arthur St. Claire, or, if she did, she bore no malice for the patient, all-enduring girl who nursed her with so much care, singing to her the plaintive German air once sung to Dr. Griswold, and in which Edith would often join, taking one part, while Nina sang the other; and the members of the household, when they heard the strange melody, now swelling load and full, as some fitful fancy took possession of the crazy vocalists, and now sinking to a plaintive wail, would shudder, and turn aside to weep, for there was that in the music which reminded them of the hearse wheels grinding down the gravel, and of the village bell giving the eighteen strokes. Sometimes, for nearly a whole night those songs of the olden time would echo through the house, and with each note she sang the fever burned more fiercely in Edith’s veins, and her glittering black eyes flashed with increased fire, while her fingers clutched at her tangled hair, as if they thus would keep time to the thrilling strain. Her hair troubled her, it was so heavy, so thick, so much in her way, and when she manifested a propensity to relieve herself of the burden by tearing it from the roots the physician commanded them to cut away those beautiful shining braids, Edith’s crowning glory.

It was necessary, he said, and the sharp, polished scissors were ready for the task, when Nina, stepping in between them and the blue-black locks, saved the latter from the nurse’s barbaric hand. She remembered well when her own curls had fallen one by one beneath the shears of an unrelenting nurse, and she determined at all hazards to spare Edith from a like fancied indignity.

“Miggie’s hair shall not be harmed,” she said, covering with her apron the wealth of raven tresses. “I can keep her from pulling it. I can manage her;” and the sequel proved that she was right.

It was a singular power that blue-eyed blonde possessed over the dark-eyed brunette, who became at last as obedient to Nina’s will as Nina once had been to her’s, and it was amusing to watch Nina flitting about Edith, now reasoning with, now coaxing, and again threatening her capricious patient, who was sure eventually to do as she was bidden.

Only once while the delirium lasted did Edith refer to Arthur, and then she said reproachfully, “Oh, Nina, what made him do so?”

They were alone, and bending over her, Nina replied, “I am so sorry, Miggie, and I’ll try to have the ugly thing SCRATCHED OUT.”

This idea once fixed in Nina’s mind could not easily be dislodged, and several times she went to Richard, asking him to SCRATCH IT OUT! Wishing to humor her as far as possible he always answered that he would if he knew what she meant. Nina felt that she must not explain, and with vigilant cunning she studied how to achieve her end without betraying Arthur. It came to her one night, and whispering to Edith, “I am going to get it fixed,” she glided from the room and sought the library where she was sure of finding Richard. It was nearly eleven o’clock, but he had not yet retired, and with his head bent forward he sat in his accustomed place, the firelight shining on his face, which had grown fearfully haggard and white within the last two weeks. He heard Nina’s step, and knowing who it was, asked if Edith were worse.

“No,” returned Nina, “she’ll live, too, If you’ll only scratch it out.”

He was tired of asking what she meant, and he made no answer. But Nina was too intent upon other matters to heed his silence. Going to his secretary she arranged materials for writing, and then taking his hand, said, in the commanding tone she used toward Edith when at all refractory, “Come and write. ‘Tis the only chance of saving her life.”

“Write what?” he asked, as he rose from his chair and suffered her to lead him to the desk.

He had written occasionally since his blindness, but it was not a frequent thing, and his fingers closed awkwardly about the pen she placed in his hand. Feeling curious to know the meaning of all this, he felt for the paper and then said to her,

“I am ready for you to dictate.”

But dictation was no part of Nina’s intentions. The lines traced upon that sheet would contain a secret which Richard must not know; and with a merry laugh, as she thought how she would cheat him, she replied,

“No, SIR. Only Miggie and I can read what you write. Nina will guide your hand and trace the words.”

Dipping the pen afresh into the ink, she bade him take it, and grasping his fingers, guided them while they wrote as follows;

“I, THE BLIND MAN, RICHARD HARRINGTON,—

“That last was my name,” interrupted Richard, who was rewarded by a slight pull of the hair, as Nina said,

“Hush, be quiet.”

A great blot now came after the “Harrington,” and wiping it up with the unresisting Richard’s coat sleeve, Nina continued:

“—DO HEREBY SOLEMNLY—”

She was not sure whether “swear” or “declare” would be the more proper word, and she questioned Richard, who decided upon “swear” as the stronger of the two, and she went on:

“—SWEAR THAT THE MARRIAGE OF—

“As true as you live you can’t SEE?” she asked, looking curiously into the sightless eyes.

“No; I can’t see,” was the response, and satisfied that she was safe, Nina made him write,

“—ARTHUR ST. CLAIRE AND NINA BERNARD, PERFORMED AT MY HOUSE, IN MY PRESENCE, AND BY ME—”

Nina didn’t know what, but remembering a phrase she had often heard used, and thinking it might be just what was needed, she said,

“Does ‘NULL AND VOID’ mean ‘SCRATCHED OUT?’”

“Yes,” he answered, smiling in spite of himself, and Nina added with immense capitals,

“—NULL AND VOID,” to what she had already written.

“I reckon it will be better to have your name,” she said, and the cramped fingers were compelled to add: “RICHARD HARRINGTON, COLLINGWOOD, November 25th 18—”

“There!” and Nina glanced with an unusual amount of satisfaction at the wonderful hieroglyphics which covered nearly an entire page of foolscap, so large were the letters and so far apart the words. “That’ll cure her, sure,” and folding it up, she hastened back to Edith’s chamber.

Old Rachel watched that night, but Nina had no difficulty in coaxing her from the room, telling her she needed sleep, and Miggie was so much more quiet when alone with her. Rachel knew this was true, and after an hour or so withdrew to another apartment, leaving Edith alone with Nina. For a time Edith slept quietly, notwithstanding that Nina rattled the spoons and upset a chair hoping thus to wake her.

Meanwhile Richard’s curiosity had been thoroughly roused with regard to the SCRATCHING OUT, and knowing Victor was still up, he summoned him to his presence, repeating to him what had just occurred and saying, “If you find that paper read it. It is surely right for me to know what I have written.”

“Certainly,” returned Victor, bowing himself from the room.

Rightly guessing that Nina would read it aloud to Edith, he resolved to be within hearing distance, and when he heard Rachel leave the chamber he drew near the door, left ajar for the purpose of admitting fresher air. From his position he saw that Edith was asleep, while Nina, with the paper clasped tightly in her hand, sat watching her. Once the latter thought she heard a suspicious sound, and stealing to the door she looked up and down the hall where a lamp was burning, showing that it was empty.

“It must have been the wind,” she said, resuming her seat by the bedside, while Victor Dupres, gliding from the closet where he had taken refuge, stood again at his former post, waiting for that deep slumber to end.

“Nina, are you here?” came at last from the pale lips, and the bright, black eyes unclosed looking wistfully about the room.

Silent and motionless Victor stood, while Nina, bending over Edith, answered, “Yes, Miggie, I am here, and I’ve brought you something to make you well. HE wrote it—Richard did—just now, in the library. Can you see if I bring the lamp?” and thrusting the paper into Edith’s hands she held the lamp close to her eyes.

“You havn’t strength, have you?” she continued, as Edith paid no heed. “Let me do it for you,” and taking the crumpled sheet, she read in tones distinct and dear:

“I, THE BLIND MAN, RICHARD HARRINGTON, DO HEREBY SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT THE MARRIAGE OF ARTHUR ST. CLAIRE AND NINA BERNARD, PERFORMED AT MY HOUSE, IN MY PRESENCE, AND BY ME, IS NULL AND VOID. RICHARD HARRINGTON, COLLINGWOOD, NOVEMBER 5TH, 18—”

Slowly a faint color deepened on Edith’s cheek, a soft lustre was kindled in her eye, and the great tears dropped from her long lashes. Her intellect was too much clouded for her to reason clearly upon anything, and she did not, for a moment, doubt the validity of what she heard. Richard could annul the marriage if he would, she was sure, and now that he had done so, the bitterness of death was past,—the dark river forded, and she was saved. Nina had steered the foundering bark into a calm, quiet sea, and exulting in her good work, she held Edith’s head upon her bosom, and whispered to her of the joyous future when she would live with Arthur.

As a child listens to an exciting tale only comprehends in part, so Edith listened to Nina, a smile playing about her mouth and dancing in