Part 34 (1/2)
”Mr. Van Berg,” she resumed, looking into his face with an expression that made his heart beat more quickly, ”your life was endangered on my account this afternoon.”
”That's a pleasant thought to me,” he said, taking her hand, ”that is if you are not offended that I presumed to be your knight.”
”It is a dreadful thought to me,” she answered, earnestly; then in a strange and excited manner she added: ”You cannot know--death to some is a horrible thing--it prevents so much--I've known--let it come to the old and sad--I could welcome it--but to such as you--O merciful Heaven! Grant me, please grant me, the favor I would ask,” she continued, clinging to his hand. ”They say this man Sibley is very pa.s.sionate and revengeful. He may still try to carry out his dreadful purpose. Please shun him, please avoid him--in mercy do. I've more than I can bear now; and if--if--”
and she buried her face in her hands.
”And can my poor life be of such value to you, Miss Burton?” he asked, in a deep low tone.
”Ah! you cannot understand,” she said, with a sudden and pa.s.sionate gesture, ”and I entreat you not to ask me to explain. From the first you have been kind to me. I have felt from the day we met that I had found a friend in you; and your risk, your care for me to-day, gives you a peculiar claim as a friend, but in mercy do not ask me to explain why I am so urgent in my request. I cannot, indeed I cannot--at least not now, in this place. Something happened--Sudden death in one young, strong, and full of hope, like you, seems to me horrible--horrible. In mercy promise to incur no risk on my account,” she said pa.s.sionately, and almost wildly.
”My poor little friend, how needlessly frightened you are!” he said, soothingly and gently. ”There, I will promise you anything that a man of honor can. But a word against you, Jennie Burton, touches me close, very close. As said the Earl of Kent, 'It invades the region of my heart.'”
She looked up swiftly and questioningly, and then a sudden crimson suffused her face. With a strong and uncontrollable instinct she appeared to shrink from him.
”Kent served one who had lost the power to make return,” she said, shaking her head sadly as she turned away.
”Let me reply with Kent again,” he earnestly responded. ”'You have that in your countenance'--in your character--'which I would fain call master'; and I am mastered, nor can I be shaken from my allegiance. I can at least imitate Kent's faithfulness, if not his obtrusiveness, in the service of his king. You have already claimed me as a friend, and so much at least I shall ever be. Let me win more if I can.”
She became very quiet now, and looked steadily into his flushed, eager face with an expression of sorrowful regret and pain that would have restrained him had a ten-fold stronger and more impetuous love been seeking utterance, and by a gesture, simple yet eloquently impressive, she put her finger to her lips. Then giving him her hand she said, with strong emphasis:
”Mr. Van Berg, I would value such a FRIEND as you could be to me more than I can tell you.”
”I shall be to you all that you will permit,” he said, gently yet firmly. ”As you now appear I could as soon think of urging my clamorous human love on a sad-eyed saint that had suffered some cruel form of martyrdom for her faith, and then, as the legends teach, had been sent from heaven among us mortals upon some errand of mercy.”
”Your words are truer than you think,” she replied, the pallor deepening in her face. ”I have suffered a strange, cruel form of martyrdom. But I am not a saint, only a weak woman. I would value such a friend as you could be exceedingly. Indeed--indeed,” she continued hesitatingly, ”there are peculiar reasons why I wish we might meet as friends occasionally. If you knew--if you knew all--you would not ask to be more. Can you trust one who is clouded by sadness and mystery?”
He took her hand in both of his and answered, ”Jennie Burton, there could no greater misfortune befall me than to lose my faith in you. I a.s.sociate you with all that is most sacred to me. Every instinct of my heart a.s.sures me that although the mystery that enshrouds your life may be as cold as death, it is, as far as you are concerned, as white as snow.”
”Yes, and as far as another is concerned also,” she said solemnly. ”Your trust is generous, and I am very, very grateful.
Perhaps--possibly I may--some time--tell you, for you risked your life for me; and--and--there is another reason. But I have never spoken of it yet. Good-night.”
”Stay,” he said, ”I cannot begin being a true friend to you by being a false friend to another. I am ashamed that I have been so preoccupied with myself that I have not spoken of it before. Mr.
Stanton resented Sibley's insulting language more promptly than I did. I have been basely accepting a grat.i.tude that rightly belongs to him, and I a.s.sure you he is in far more danger from Sibley than I am.”
Her brow contracted in a sudden frown, and there was something like irritation in her tones as she said:
”Danger again! and to another, for my sake! Must I be tortured with fear and anxiety, because a low fellow, true to his nature, will be scurrilous? Mr. Van Berg,” she continued, with a sudden flash of her eyes, ”are you and Mr. Stanton quarrelling with Mr.
Sibley on your own account, or on mine? From henceforth I refuse to have the remotest relation to such a quarrel. No remarks of a man like Sibley can insult me, and hereafter any friend of mine who lowers himself to resent them, or has aught to do with the fellow, will both wound and humiliate me.”
”After such words, Miss Burton,” Van Berg answered with a smile, ”rest a.s.sured I shall avoid him as I would a pestilence. But remember, I have been as guilty as Stanton, yes, more so; for Stanton received the first provocation, and he is naturally more impetuous than I am. But I have been thanked, as well as warned and justly rebuked. I think,” he added, as if the words cost him an effort, ” that if you will kindly ask Stanton to have nothing more to do with Sibley, he will accede to your wishes; and whatever he promises, he will perform.”
”Is your friend, then, so honorable a man?” she asked.
”He is, indeed,” replied Van Berg, earnestly, while a generous flush suffused his face, ”a true, n.o.ble-hearted fellow. He shows his worst side at once, but you would discover new and good traits hin him every day.”
She turned away with a low laugh. ”Since you are so loyal to your old friend,” she said, ”I think you will prove true to your new one. I shall put Mr. Stanton to the test, and discover whether he will give up his quarrel with Mr. Sibley for the sake of such poor thanks as I can give. Once more, good-night.”