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

if Providence failed, trust to Richard’s generosity not to betray his secret. He heard the uncertain footsteps in the hall, and forgetting that the eyes he so much dreaded could not see, he pulled his coat collar up around his face so as to conceal as much of it as possible.

“Mr. St. Claire? Is there such a person here?” and Richard Harrington had crossed the threshold of the door, and with his sightless eyes rolling around the room, stood waiting for an answer.

How well Arthur remembered that rich, full, musical voice. It seemed to him but yesterday since, he heard it before, and he shrank more and more from the reply which must be made to that question, and quickly, too, for the countenance of the blind man was beginning to wear a look of perplexity at the continued silence.

Summoning all his courage he stepped forward and taking the hand groping in the air, said rapidly, “Excuse me, Mr. Harrington, I hardly know what to say, I’ve come upon so queer an errand. You know Edith Hastings, the little girl who lived with Mrs. Atherton?”

He thought by introducing Edith at once to divert the blind man from himself; but Richard’s quick ear had caught a tone not wholly unfamiliar as he replied,

“Yes, I know Edith Hastings, and it seems to me I ought to know you, too. I’ve heard your name and voice before. Wasn’t it in Geneva?” and the eagle eves fastened themselves upon the wall just back of where Arthur stood.

Arthur fairly gasped for breath, and for an instant he was as blind as Richard himself; then, catching at the word Geneva, he answered, “Did you ever live in Geneva, sir?”

“Not in the village, but near there on the lake shore,” answered Richard, and Arthur continued,

“You probably attended the examinations then at the Academy, and heard me speak. I was a pupil there nearly two years before entering the college.”

Arthur fancied himself remarkably clever for having suggested an idea which seemed so perfectly to satisfy his companion and which was not a falsehood either. He had been a student in the Academy for nearly two years, had spoken at all the exhibitions, receiving the prize at one; he had seen Richard Harrington among the spectators, and had no doubt that Richard might have observed him, though not very closely, else he had never put himself in his power by the one single act which was embittering his young life.

“It is likely you are right,” said Richard, “I was often at the examinations, and since my misfortune I find myself recognizing voices as I never could have done when I had sight as well as hearing upon which to depend. But you spoke of Edith Hastings. I trust no harm has befallen the child. I am much interested in her and—wonder she has not been here long ere this. What would you tell me of her?”

Briefly Arthur related the particulars of his visit at Brier Hill, a visit which had ended so disastrously to Edith, and even before he reached the important point, Richard answered promptly, “She shall come here, I need her, I want her—want her for my sister, my child. I shall never have another;” then pressing his hands suddenly up on his forehead, whose blue veins seemed to swell with the intensity of his emotions, he continued. “But, no, Mr. St. Claire. It cannot be, she is too young, too merry-hearted, too full of life and love to be brought into the shadow of our household. She would die upon my hands. Her voice would grow sadder and more mournful with the coming of every season, until at last when I had learned to love her as my life, I should some morning listen for what, would never greet my ear again. It’s a great temptation, but it must not be. A crazy old man and his blind son are not fit guardians for a child like Edith Hastings. She must not walk in our darkness.”

“But might not her presence bring daylight to that darkness?” asked Arthur, gazing with mingled feelings of wonder and admiration upon the singularly handsome noble-looking man, who was indeed walking in thick darkness.

“She might,” said Richard. “Yes, she might bring the full rich daylight to us, but on her the shadow would fail with a fearful blackness if she linked her destiny with mine. Young man, do you like Edith Hastings, if so, take her yourself and if money–-”

Arthur here interrupted him with, “I have money of my own, sir; but I have no home at present. I am a student in college. I can do nothing with her there, but—” and his voice sunk almost to a whisper. “Years hence, I hope to have a home, and then, if you are tired of Edith I will take her. Meantime keep her at Collingwood for me. Is it a bargain?”

“You are young, I think,” said Richard, smiling at Arthur’s proposition, and smiling again, when in tones apologetical, as if to be only so old were something of which he ought to be ashamed, Arthur returned,

“I am nineteen this month.”

“And I was thirty, last spring,” said Richard. “An old man, you think, no doubt. But to return to Edith Hastings. My heart wants her so much, while my better judgment rebels against it. Will she be greatly disappointed if I refuse?”

“Oh, yes, yes,” said Arthur, grasping the hand laying on Richard’s knee. “I CAN’T go back to her without you. But, Mr. Harrington, before I urge it farther, let me ask as her friend, will she come here as a SERVANT, or an equal.”

There was an upward flashing of the keen black eyes, a flush upon the high, white forehead, and Richard impatiently stamped upon the floor as he answered proudly,

“She comes as an equal, or not at all. She shall be as highly educated and as thoroughly accomplished as if the blood of the Harrington’s flowed in her veins.”

“Then take her,” and Arthur seemed more anxious than before. “She will do justice to your training. She will be wondrously beautiful. She will grace the halls of Collingwood with the air of England’s queen. You will not be ashamed of her, and who knows but some day—”

Arthur began to stammer, and at last managed to finish with, “There is NOT such a vast difference in your ages. Twenty-one years is nothing when weighed against the debt of gratitude she will owe you—”

“There, I’ve made a fool of myself,” he thought, as he saw the forehead tie itself up in knots, and the corners of the mouth twitch with merriment.

“By that last speech you’ve proved how YOUNG and romantic you are,” answered Richard. “Winter and spring go not well together. Edith Hastings will never be my wife. But she shall come to Collingwood. I will return with you and bring her back myself.”

Ringing the bell for Victor, he bade him see that breakfast was served at once, saying that he was going with his friend to Albany.

“Without ME?” asked Victor in much surprise, and Richard replied,

“Yes, without you,” adding in an aside to Arthur, “Victor is so much accustomed to waiting upon me that he thinks himself necessary to every movement, but I’d rather travel alone with Edith, she’ll do as well as Victor, and I have a fancy to keep my movements a secret, at least until the child is fairly in the house. It will be a surprise to Mrs. Atherton; I’ll have John drive us to the next station, and meet me there to-morrow,”

So saying, he excused himself for a few moments and groped his way up stairs to make some necessary changes in his dress. For several minutes Arthur was alone, and free to congratulate himself upon his escape from detection.

“In my dread of recognition I undoubtedly aggravated its chances,” he thought. “Of course this Mr. Harrington did not observe me closely. It was night, and he was almost blind, even then. My voice and manner are all that can betray me, and as he is apparently satisfied on that point, I have nothing further to apprehend from him.”

Arthur liked to feel well—disagreeable reflections did not suit his temperament, and having thus dismissed from his mind the only thing annoying him at the present, he began to examine the books arrayed so carefully upon the shelves, whistling to himself as he did so, and pronouncing Arthur St. Claire a pretty good fellow after all, if he had a secret of which most people would not approve. He had just reached this conclusion when Richard reappeared, and breakfast was soon after announced by the valet, Victor. That being over, there was not a moment to be lost if they would reach the cars in time for the next train, and bidding his father a kind adieu, Richard went with Arthur to the carriage, and was driven to the depot of the adjoining town. More than one passenger turned their heads to look at the strangers as they came in, the elder led by the younger, who yet managed so skillfully that but few guessed how great a calamity had befallen the man with the dark hair, and black, glittering eyes. Arthur took a great pride in ministering to the wants of his companion, and in all he did there was a delicacy and tenderness which touched a chord almost fraternal in the heart of the blind man, who, as the day wore on, found himself drawn more and more toward his new acquaintance.

“I believe even I might be happy if both you and Edith could live with me,” he said, at last, when Albany was reached, and they were ascending the steps to the Delevan.

“Poor little Edith,” rejoined Arthur, “I wonder if she has been very lonely? Shall we go to her at once?”

“Yes,” answered Richard, and leaning on Arthur’s arm, he proceeded to the door of Edith’s room.

 

CHAPTER VIII.

RICHARD AND EDITH.

 

“Oh, Mr. Arthur, you did come back,” and forgetting, in her great joy, that Arthur was a gentleman, and she a waiting-maid, Edith wound her arms around his neck, and kissed him twice ere he well knew what she was doing.

For an instant the haughty young man felt a flush of insulted dignity, but it quickly vanished when he saw the tall form of Richard bending over the little girl and heard him saying to her,

“Have you no welcoming kiss for me?”

“Yes, forty hundred, if you like,” and in her delight Edith danced about the room like one insane.

Thrusting the locket slily into Arthur’s hand, she whispered,

“I slept with her last night, and dreamed it was not the first time either. Will you ask her when you see her if she ever knew me?”

“Yes, yes,” he answered, making a gesture for her to stop as Richard was about to speak.

“Edith, said Richard, winding his arm around her, “Edith, I have come to take you home—to take you to Collingwood to live with me. Do you wish to go?”

“Ain’t there ghosts at Collingwood?” asked Edith, who, now that what she most desired was just within her reach, began like every human being to see goblins in the path. “Ain’t there ghosts, at Collingwood?—a little boy with golden curls, and must I sleep in the chamber with him?”

“Poor child,” said Richard, “You too, have heard that idle tale. Shall I tell you of the boy with golden hair?” and holding her so close to him that he could feel the beating of her heart and hear her soft, low breathing, he told her all there was to tell of his half-brother Charlie, who died just one day after his young mother, and was buried