Читать книгу Miss Hurd: An Enigma - Anna Katharine Green - Страница 5

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“The heart has reasons that reason does not know.”

“Well, we took her in; how could we help it? Though she was a strong woman, it was evident from the dark rings under her eyes that her physical powers were about exhausted; while her look and smile, both too tremulous to be forced, had an eloquence in them which my mother, as well as myself, found it impossible to resist.

“ ‘We will keep her one more night,’ decided the former; ‘but to-morrow you must take her to Y— and put her into the hands of Dr. Carter.’

“Y— was ten miles away, and Dr. Carter was a well known philanthropist of the place.

“Accordingly next morning I took her to Y—, where I gave her into the hands of this good clergyman, who promised to make inquiries in her regard and restore her if possible to her friends. But when I had left my charge behind me, and returned again to my mother’s house, I felt strangely uneasy and found it hard to interest myself in any of my usual pursuits. My mother, too, seemed restless, and interrupted her work more than once to step into the sitting-room and ask me some question about my ride. And yet it was a relief to us both to sit down by the evening lamp without the consciousness of that silent presence in our midst, and, when we finally bade each other good-night, it was with a cheerfulness we had neither shown nor felt during the two previous evenings.

“Imagine then my sensations when, upon entering the room at the usual hour in the morning, I again saw lying on the cupboard the cheap shawl and tawdry hat which I had supposed vanished from that spot forever. Had our self-constituted guest come back while I had been sleeping and was she even then under our roof? Hastening into the kitchen, I questioned my mother, and she, half smiling, half frowning, remarked apologetically:

“ ‘She arrived not two minutes after you went upstairs. If she had dropped at the door I should not have been surprised, so exhausted did she look and so incapable of standing. She is in her room now; I thought I would let her sleep till breakfast was ready.’

“ ‘We shall have to go ourselves, if we wish to get rid of her,’ said I. ‘What do you suppose she would do if left in undisputed possession of the house.’

“My mother laughed, but I was more than half in earnest, and I do not know to what lengths I might have been led, in my endeavor to shake ourselves loose of our fascinating but somewhat oppressive guest, if events had not presently occurred that made any action on my part unnecessary.

“We had finished breakfast, and our silent guest was engaged in sewing, with a wonderfully contented and happy look on her face, when I suddenly beheld her start to her feet and assume an expression that startled, if it did not alarm me. At the same minute a wagon drove up in front of the door, and I had barely time to observe that it contained a gentleman with a tall hat, when she flew from her place in the window, and with gesticulations of fright and entreaty, rushed into my mother’s bedroom and violently closed the door.

“The sound it made mingled with the knock that at this moment resounded from without, and stepping to the front door I opened it just as my mother came in from the kitchen,

“The gentleman who confronted us was sufficiently good-looking to merit attention, and he had the bearing, as well as the garb, of a city-bred man of some pretensions. Yet I did not know whether to like him or not, and was rather guarded in my greeting.

“He on the contrary was affable and made his inquiries in a tone of the utmost consideration and respect.

“ ‘I am looking,’ said he, ‘for a young woman who has inconsiderately left her home and friends, and who, I am told, has at present taken refuge with you. Have you not such a person here, and is not this her hat and shawl which I see?’

“ ‘There is a woman here who seems dumb,’ returned my mother, rapidly advancing. ‘She came to the house some two days ago; we find it inconvenient to keep her, and I am very glad to see any friend of hers who will take her away and treat her kindly. Are you her relative or—or—’

“ ‘She belongs to me,’ he declared, peering deprecatingly about for signs of the presence he sought.

“ ‘I will call her,’ said my mother.

“But I felt some doubts as to his intentions, and hastened to interpose.

“I fear she will not want to go with you,’ I objected ‘and I should not like to give her up against her will.’

“ ‘Oh,’ he asserted with the utmost confidence, ‘she will not refuse to go with me. Only bring us face to face, and you will soon see that I have complete influence over her.’

“Still doubtful, but not seeing how I could refuse him the interview he asked, I stepped to my mother’s bedroom door and opened it. Great God, what a picture greeted my eyes!

“Drawn up in the remotest corner in an attitude appalling to behold, I discerned the figure of our strange guest. She had caught up a stick of rough wood from the neighboring fireplace and now stood with it brandished high over her head, in an attitude of threat and defiance which was almost titanic in its suggestion of concentrated power and passion.

“My mother shrieked, but the gentleman against whom this menace seemed to be directed, calmly pushing his way in, uttered one word of whispered command and entreaty, and the rigid arm dropped, the blazing eyes fell, and the gleam of desperation, which had lent such force and splendor to her face, faded like a light that is blown out, and she came forward, dropping the stick from her inert hand.

“ ‘Will you go with me?’ he asked quietly and kindly, surveying her with manifest compassion, and yet with a determination that proved the extent of his control both over himself and her.

“She bowed her head, and heaving a deep sigh, passed us both with a little curtsey, and went directly to the cupboard. He did not offer to help her, but stood by with knitted brows, while she tied on the shabby little bonnet so out of keeping with her grand head, and wrapped about her shoulders, the precise shawl which added twenty years to her age and made her, when completely dressed, look like some respectable maiden lady, with a limited experience of life.

“I felt a pang of regret as he put on his own hat and made a motion for her to depart. My mother, meeting my eye, made a significant gesture, and obeying it, I followed them out to the wagon, where I stopped him as he was about to unhitch his horse.

“ ‘Are you,’ I whispered, approaching closely to his ear, ‘her keeper?’

“He turned upon me with an indignant gesture.

“ ‘She is not mad,’ he declared. And unfastening the hitching-strap, he jumped into the wagon.

“ ‘Then you have hypnotized her!’ I cried. ‘She shall not go with you unless you tell me—’

“ ‘I have not hypnotized her!’ he protested. ‘Would to God I had the power to do so!’ And seizing his whip, he gave a clip to the horse, which started forward on a jump down the road.

“This time she did not come back, and I have been asking myself ever since, what was the secret of her peculiarities and the cause of her terrible antagonism to a man whom she nevertheless acknowledged to be her master, and followed without any apparent demur.”