"If he is ill, I must see him, Richard," I managed to reply.

"Oh, no!" said he; "I thought you were foolishly scared to hear him groan yesterday, but if he does not get better I will send him home to his friends." This he said carelessly, as he walked out of the room humming a lively air.

How coolly he talks about the lad! thought I, half ashamed of my suspicions. Perhaps I have wronged him. I have been too impetuous in my surmises.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The time drew near for his brother's arrival. He was prompt to the hour.

"Well, Agnes," said he, "I have pa.s.sed a sleepless night. I hope you will relieve my mind of its anxiety."

"Mr. Bristed," said I, covering my eyes with my hand, for I could not endure his eager gaze, "I must first tell you I am married to your brother Richard."

"Married to Richard!" he exclaimed, starting up violently agitated; and seizing my shoulder with nervous gripe he set me off from him at arm's length--"You married to Richard! why, Agnes, that cannot be; has he not a wife now living in France? But be calm, child," said he, "be calm,"

patting me gently on the head; "perhaps I am misinformed; we will talk of this hereafter. Now about Herbert. Tell me what you know."

This question recalled me. I then informed him of the idiotic pupil who had been received in the house about a fortnight since, and how my suspicions as to his ident.i.ty had been aroused the day previous.

He could scarcely wait till I had finished my account. "Come, quick!

come! show me the way to the room!"

I led him up the stairs in the direction of the suspected chamber. As we neared the door a low moan could be heard distinctly.

"O my G.o.d, it is Herbert!" he exclaimed. "Quick, where is the key?"

"I have no key--you must pry the lock open." No sooner said than done--he burst open the door and entered. I followed. Alas! our surmises proved too true! There upon the couch lay the wasted form of poor Herbert.

As he recognized us his wan face lighted up with an angelic smile, and he endeavored to raise himself at our coming, but he was too weak, and his head sank nerveless back upon the pillow.

Silently and hushed, as in the chamber of death, we stepped to his bedside. He held out his thin hand to his uncle, who clasped it between his own, and, kneeling by his couch, bowed his head and sobbed aloud. His first moments of bitter grief subsiding, he said to me, "Send for some wine." Then, stroking the child's fair forehead, he groaned, "O Herbert, Herbert, have I found you at last, sick and alone!"

Herbert attempted to reply, but his voice was weak and faint; we could not distinguish his words. A servant brought the wine, and I moistened his colorless lips with it. How I felt, it is useless to describe. Words would fail to express my terror.

The rich, warm juice of the grape and the application of stimulants seemed to restore him to life. His first effort on recovering was to call me by name. I answered by bending over him and bathing his pale forehead.

At this he smiled, pleased and happy.

"Now, Herbert, my poor boy," said Mr. Bristed, "if it will not fatigue you too much to talk, tell us how you came here. Who brought you? Why did you leave Bristed Hall?"

"Uncle Richard brought me," said he, heaving a melancholy sigh. "He came after you had gone, uncle, and told me that Agnes Reef was sick and going to die, and wanted to see me and you, and that if you were home you would let me go, because you loved her; and I thought so too. He gave me this ring which Agnes sent so I would know it was her." And, saying this, he held up a thin, transparent hand, and there, indeed, upon it gleamed one of my rings, so loose that the wasted fingers could scarce retain it.

"My ring! So Richard gave you that," said I, with scorn I could not conceal, even in the sick chamber.

"Yes," he murmured, "and he told me he would bring me straight back before uncle got home, and he brought me here into this room, but Agnes was not here. I could not find her. Then he locked the door and would not let me out, and I have been hungry and cold. And when I cried, he would kick me, and that made me sick, I think. Do take me home, uncle, before he comes, and I will never go away again!"

CHAPTER XIX.

During this recital Mr. Bristed and I exchanged glances of horror. We could not speak. When it was finished, he said:

"Agnes, order the coach. I must take him away from this place."

I felt that the boy was too feeble to move, but I dared not suggest it. I too wanted him removed from the baneful influences of the house. We proposed to carry him down on the pallet, and thus convey him to the carriage. One hour or more elapsed before everything was in readiness.

While we were moving him Richard appeared, unannounced. A wild, unearthly scream from Herbert first gave notice of his arrival.

"O uncle! Miss Reef! save me! He will beat me to death!"

His uncle endeavored to calm him with his a.s.surance of protection, and, turning to Richard, in a voice husky with emotion said:

"Look, this, is your work! If there is a G.o.d ruling the universe, your punishment, though tardy, must be sure."

"I see nothing strange about it," said Richard, with an a.s.sumption of indifference which made his handsome face look to me at that moment like that of a Judas. "If he is my child, as you say, why should he not be here? Who has a better right to him than I? The little imp professes to dislike me, but that is some of your teaching, and I will soon cure him of it."

"You cannot have him, Richard. He must go with me."

"I know my rights, and I will use them," he replied, excitedly. "Move that boy at your peril;" and he clapped his hand upon his silver-mounted pocket-pistol. He had evidently been drinking. His day at the race-course had maddened him. He was in a dangerous mood to oppose. This Mr. Bristed evidently saw, as I did, for he beckoned me to go out for a.s.sistance. As I was moving toward the door for that purpose, Richard's eye lit upon me.

"Ah, ha!" shouted he, coming toward me. "So you are the one who has been prying into my affairs. It is you I must thank for this interference. Out of this room directly! Get you gone!"

I should have obeyed, but a sound from Herbert's bed arrested me--a sound that awed me more than the angry voice of Richard! I hurried to the bedside. Mr. Bristed was there before me. I looked at the sinking boy. A stronger hand than his father's grasped him now. _That_ hand was _Death's_!

No need now to remove the little sufferer from his couch to the carriage in waiting. He would be borne soon by the white-robed angels from the reach of us all!

Even Richard, whose cruel grasp he had eluded, seemed awed as the little spirit burst from its tenement, and a transcendent smile settled on the thin, waxen face, and the white hands folded themselves across the breast with an air of unutterable peace.

CHAPTER XX.

Early the next morning Mr. Bristed accompanied the lifeless body of little Herbert to Bristed Hall. He begged me to go with him, but I refused his solicitations. I had other duties before me, which I must perform. I should have been glad to have rid myself from every one, but that could not be. Richard did not return, and I was alone; the days dragged heavily away. I felt that I stood on the brink of a yawning chasm from which I could turn neither to the right nor the left. The thought of remaining with Richard was abhorrent, and the prospect of leaving him and commencing life anew was also a dreadful alternative.

What shall I do?--I reflected, as I went my weary way through the cla.s.ses. Richard solved that question for me when he returned after an absence of three days.

My pupils had just retired when a message came that he had returned and desired to see me in the library. With a heavy heart I went to meet him.

He was not alone. A tall, pa.s.sionate-looking woman, with dark hair and restless eyes, sat beside him. She was richly appareled, and gazed at me with a haughty stare as I entered.

Richard nodded to me a bare recognition and said, "I have sent for you, as I wish you to inform your pupils that they must leave in the morning.

I have other uses for this building."

At this cool announcement I staggered. Good G.o.d! would he undo me? What plan had he now in view? "Remove my pupils!" I exclaimed.