Part 3 (1/2)
And so I waited for her and Guy, and wondered I did not hear from them, and felt so glad and happy when I received the telegram, ”Shall be home to-night.” It was a bright day in May, but the evening set in cool, with a feeling of rain in the air, and I had a fire kindled in the parlor and in Daisy's room, for I remembered how she used to crouch on the rug before the grate and watch the blaze floating up the chimney with all the eagerness of a child. Then, although it hurt me sorely, I went to Simpson, who bought our carriage, and asked that it might be sent to the station so that Daisy should not feel the difference at once. And Jerry, our old coachman, went with it, and waited there just as Julia and I waited at home, for Julia had promised to stay a few days on purpose to see Daisy.
The train was late that night, an hour behind time, and the spring rain was falling outside and the gas was lighted within when I heard the sound of wheels stopping at the door and went to meet my brother. But only my brother. There was no Daisy with him. He came in alone, with such an awful look on his white face as made me cry out with alarm.
”What is it, Guy, and where is Daisy?” I asked, as he staggered against the bannister, where he leaned heavily.
He did not answer my question, but said, ”Take me to my room,” in a voice I would never have known for Guy's. I took him to his room and made him lie down, and brought him a gla.s.s of wine, and then, when he was strong enough to tell it, listened to the shameful story, and felt that henceforth and forever I must and would hate the woman who had wounded my Guy so cruelly.
And still there is some good in her,-some sense of right and justice, as was shown by what she did when Guy was at the worst of the terrible fever which followed his coming home. I watched him constantly. I would not even let Julia Hamilton share my vigils, and one night when I was worn out with fatigue and anxiety I fell asleep upon the lounge, where I threw myself for a moment. How long I slept I never knew, but it must have been an hour or more, for the last thing I remember was hearing the whistle of the Western train and the distant sound of thunder as if a storm were coming, and when I awoke the rain was falling heavily and the clock was striking twelve, which was an hour after the train was due. It was very quiet in the room, and darker than usual, for some one had shaded the lamp from my eyes as well as Guy's, so that at first I did not see distinctly, but I had an impression that there was a figure sitting by Guy near the bed. Julia most likely, I thought, and I called her by name, feeling my blood curdle in my veins and my heart stand still with something like fear when a voice I knew so well and never expected to hear again, answered softly:
”It is not Julia. _It's I._”
There was no faltering in her voice, no sound of apology. She spoke like one who had a right to be there, and this it was which so enraged me and made me lose my self-command. Starting to my feet, I confronted her as she sat in my chair, by Guy's bedside, with those queer blue eyes of hers fixed so questioningly upon me as if she wondered at my impertinence.
”_Miss McDonald_,” I said, laying great stress on the name, ”why are you here, and how did you dare come?”
”I _was_ almost afraid, it was so dark when I left the train, and it kept thundering so,” she replied, mistaking my meaning altogether, ”but there was no conveyance at the station and so I came on alone. I never knew Guy was sick. Why did you not write and tell me? Is he very bad?”
Her perfect composure and utter ignoring of the past provoked me beyond endurance, and without stopping to think what I was doing, I seized her arm, and drawing her into an adjoining room, said, in a suppressed whisper of rage:
”Very bad,-I should think so. We have feared and still fear he will die, and it's all your work, the result of your wickedness, and yet you presume to come here into his very room,-you who are no wife of his, and no woman either, to do what you have done.”
What more I said I do not remember. I only know Daisy put her hands to her head in a scared, helpless way, and said:
”I do not quite understand it all, or what you wish me to do.”
”Do?” I replied. ”I want you to leave this house immediately,-_now_, before Guy can possibly be harmed by your presence. Go back to the depot and take the next train home. It is due in an hour. You have time to reach it.”
”But it is so dark, and it rains and thunders so,” she said, with a shudder, as a heavy peal shook the house and the rain beat against the windows.
I think I must have been crazy with mad excitement, and her answer made me worse.
”You were not afraid to come here,” I said. ”You can go from here as well. Thunder will not hurt such as you.”
Even then she did not move, but crouched in a corner of the room farthest from me, reminding me of my kitten when I try to drive it from a place where it has been permitted to play. As that will not understand my _'scats_ and gestures so she did not seem to comprehend my meaning.
But I made her at last, and with a very white face and a strange look in her great staring blue eyes, she said:
”f.a.n.n.y,” (she always called me Miss Frances before). ”f.a.n.n.y, do you really mean me to go back in the dark, and the rain and the thunder?
Then I will, but I must tell you first what I came for, and you will tell Guy. He gave me ten thousand dollars when we first were married; settled it on me, they called it, and father was one of the trustees, and kept the paper for me till I was of age. So much I understand, but not why I can't give it back to Guy, for father says I can't. I never dreamed it was mine after the-the-the divorce.”
She spoke the word softly and hesitatingly, while a faint flush showed on her otherwise white face.
”If I am not Guy's wife, as they say, then I have no right to his money, and I told father so, and said I'd give it back, and he said I couldn't, and I said I could and would, and I wrote to Guy about it, and told him I was not so mean, and father kept the letter, and I did not know what I should do next till I was invited to visit Aunt Merriman in Detroit.
Then I took the paper,-the _settlement_, you know, from the box where father kept it, and put it in my pocket; here it is; see-” and she drew out a doc.u.ment and held it toward me while she continued: ”I started for Detroit under the care of a friend who stopped a few miles the other side, so you see I was free to come here if I liked, and I did so, for I wanted to see Guy and give him the paper, and tell him I'd never take a cent of his money. I am sorry he is sick. I did not think he'd care so much, and I don't know what to do with the paper unless I tear it up. I believe I'd better; then surely it will be out of the way.”
And before I could speak or think she tore the doc.u.ment in two, and then across again, and scattered the four pieces on the floor.
”Tell Guy, please,” she continued, ”what I have done, and that I never meant to take it, after-after-_that_,-you know,-and that I did not care for money only as father taught me I must have it, and that I am sorry he ever saw me, and I never really wanted to be married and can't be his wife again till I do.”