Marshall Saunders

“ Dr. Camperdown watched them out of sight, the smile on his face dying away, as his keen eyes caught sight of poor, mis-shapen little Judy, half-hidden behind the window curtains, her face convulsed with envy and annoyance. Such amusements were not for her. She never would be strong and well like other girls.
Dr. Camperdown’s gaze softened. Springing from his sleigh, he anchored Polypharmacy to a snowdrift, and casting off his huge raccoon coat, like an animal shedding its skin, he took a book from a pocket in it, and made his way to the drawing room. ”

“ His term was inadvisedly chosen, and Zeb flashed him a wicked glance over the bone that her little, sharp teeth were gnawing. Stargarde to her dismay saw that there was a smouldering fire of distrust and dislike between her two guests, that at any moment might break into open flame. Zeb was jealous of Dr. Camperdown. With ready, quick suspicion, she divined the fact that his sympathies were not with her kind. He would take away from her and her fellow-paupers the beautiful woman who at present lived only for them, and she hated him accordingly. ”

“ She did not understand then as she did later on that it was the spirit of love that glorified Stargarde Turner’s face. Her great heart beat only for others. She was so permeated and suffused with a sweet charity toward all men that it shone constantly out of every line of her beautiful countenance.
Vivienne’s eyes went from Stargarde to Mr. Armour. He had a wonderful amount of self-control, yet he could not hide the fact that he admired this charming woman, that he listened intently to every word that fell from her lips. ”

“ The simple MacDaly knew that his master was rich and powerful, and he did not dare to brave him.”
“And how do you feel about it all?”
“It is horrible,” whispered Vivienne raising her hands as if to lift some heavy weight from her shoulders. “To think of all these years of agony, my mother’s death, my father’s martyrdom, Stanton’s slow misery, my unhappiness, and all through the sin of one man. Now all seems brightness except the living death that has come upon the one who has caused all this trouble. If he never comes out of it, Judy, if he has no chance for repentance!” ”

“ Colonibel not at all embarrassed with you?” said Vivienne. “She was not polite to you the other day, though of course it was on my account, not on yours.”
“Embarrassed, did you say, me dear?” replied Mrs. Macartney gayly. “Faith, there’s no such word in society. You must keep a bold front, whatever you do, or you’ll get the gossips after you. Dip your tongue in honey or gall, whichever you like, and hold your head high, and there’s no such thing as quailing before the face of mortal man or woman. ”

“ An alarming suspicion crept into Vivienne’s mind. “Are you an anarchist?” she asked anxiously.
“Oh, no, no,” laughed Stargarde; “a socialist if you will, in the broad sense of the term, a Christian socialist; but an anarchist never.”
“Are you a loyal subject to the Queen?”
Stargarde bent her beautiful head. “I am, God bless her! Not loyalty alone do I give her, but tender love and reverence. May all her descendants rule as wisely as she has done.”
Stargarde when she spoke used as many gestures as Vivienne herself. ”

“ Stargarde looked down at her compassionately. “Sometimes,” said Vivienne, struggling with an emotion that she could not altogether hide, “sometimes I fancy that there is something I do not understand. Judy once gave me a hint of it. Mammy Juniper in her ravings urges the wicked Ephraim to make restitution to some one that I think is my father. Do you know what she means, Stargarde?”
“Go to Stanton,” said her friend, with a lovely smile of pity and affection. Then leaning forward till Vivienne felt her sweet breath on her face added, “You need comforting; let me rock you.” ”

“ The very moon and stars would be plucked from the sky if the parent had the power to gratify the child in that way. Nothing, nothing is denied it. And what happens? The parent dies, the child with its shameless disregard of the rights of others is let loose in the world. With what disastrous results we see in the case of Flora Colonibel. Oh, pity her, pity her, my child,” and Stargarde gazed imploringly at Vivienne, her blue eyes dimmed with tears.
Vivienne witnessed Stargarde’s emotion with a kind of awe, and by a gentle glance essayed to comfort her. ”

“ The drawing room was a long apartment having an archway in the middle, from which hung heavy velvet curtains, that however did not keep from Vivienne’s ears and those of her guest, the impatient rustling of Mrs. Colonibel’s gown as she fidgeted to and fro.
Vivienne was deeply annoyed, yet Mrs. Macartney’s face was so ludicrous that she had difficulty in concealing a smile as she murmured: “Would you feel more comfortable in another room?”
“Faith, no, me dear; sit it out. You’ve as good right to be here as she has. Just hear her now; she isn’t mad, is she?” ”

“ Come, Stargarde, will you say grace and pour the tea?”
“Yes, Brian,” taking the chair that he placed for her, and examining approvingly and with feminine minuteness of observation the spotless cleanliness of the little table.
“You have picked up wonderfully,” said Camperdown a few minutes later, moving the lamp in order that he might have a better view of her features. “I was worried about you two weeks ago.”
“I am in excellent health now, thanks to your doses,” said Stargarde with a laughing grimace that revealed to him the two rows of teeth that Zilla in her vile slang called “white nuns.” ”

“ Vivienne had taken in the meaning of his words, but found herself unable to make any remark. Lord Vaulabel flashed a quick glance at his wife, as if he were seeking advice.
With a sweet warning smile, Lady Vaulabel slightly shook her head and looked at the girl’s pallid face.
“Miss Delavigne,” said his excellency kindly, “the Vaulabels do not forget. I often linger over the romantic records of the days of old; the chivalrous feats of the men of my family I do not consider any more self-sacrificing than the patient help that the Delavignes often gave them at great inconvenience to themselves. ”

“ Colonibel sat at a table, staring with wide-open, glassy eyes at some account books before her.
“Speak for me, Miss Delavigne,” she said with a gasp of relief. “I have offended Stanton mortally. You can feel for me on account of your father.”
Armour turned on his heel and his face underwent an immediate change; Vivienne stretched out her hand to him. Though he were a prey to ten-fold more evil passions than the ones which possessed him, he yet was the man that she loved. He took her hand silently, then he said sternly to his cousin: “Go; you make me forget you are a woman. ”

“ Camperdown’s thoughts ran back to the day when he had acquainted Zilla with her relationship to Stargarde. The child’s passion of astonishment and joy when she found that she was connected with a woman whom she not only loved and admired, but who was the acme of respectability to her, had not seemed to decrease as time went by. She still loved him more intensely perhaps, but Stargarde was her pride and delight, her own blood relation, and the person in the world for whom she had the most reverence. ”

“ You would be with me as constantly as Mascerene there,” and she pointed to a huge, black dog lying with watchful head on his paws behind her davenport.
“You will marry me some day,” said the man doggedly. “If I thought you would not, I would tie a stone around my neck and drop into the harbor to-morrow. No, I would not,” he added bitterly. “We don’t do that sort of thing nowadays. I’d have the stone in my heart instead of around my neck and I’d live on, a sour, ugly old man, till God saw fit to rid the world of me. Do you know what love, even hopeless love, does for a man, Stargarde? ”

“ With a smile of ineffable affection, he gently pushed her inside the door. “Go in, my darling; you will take cold. Don’t tire yourself with the cripples. Good-night.”
“Zeb,” he said, when he returned to the sleigh, “come up here, I want to talk to you,” and fishing under the wolfskin he drew her up and set her beside him.
“I think I’d like to be a reformer, Zeb, it’s so easy to go about telling other people what they ought to do. But when it comes home to self, that’s a different matter. Zeb, I’m not what I ought to be.” ”

“ To his Indian mind, the obsequious manner in which the gentlemen of a party always served and ministered in every possible way to their “squaws,” was the most remarkable thing in the social intercourse of white people.
“Makeum no good,” he soliloquized, surveying a little lady’s delicate foot extended for a skate that Valentine was putting on with an empressement as great as if kneeling at her feet were the most supreme happiness that could be bestowed upon him. ”

“ Vivienne wondered why Stargarde should feel any responsibility for Colonel Armour’s actions, but dismissed the thought from her mind on reflecting that to Stargarde all men were brothers.
She put her hand through Stargarde’s arm and pressed it gently as they walked up and down the path. “Do not worry about him. He will return. Think what a glorious day this is.”
“Ah, yes,” said Stargarde, turning her face up toward the deep blue of the sky. “It is a pleasure to live.” ”

“ Camperdown burst into such a roar of laughter that Stargarde was obliged to take him into the pantry to continue their conversation, lest the cripples should be startled by his merriment.
“She is so odd,” said Stargarde pleadingly. “To-day she has gone off somewhere, because I had the cripples coming. She wants one person’s time and attention. Oh, Brian, save that little lamb for the dear Lord.” ”

“ You hate her. People will hate each other; you can’t help it. Now let us consider the subject without any appeal to higher motives, which would only be an embarrassment in your case, Flora. You can’t help hating her; do you hate yourself?”
“No,” indignantly, “you know I don’t.”
“No,” he repeated in accents of blandishment; “out of all the world the person set up for your love and adoration is Flora Colonibel. Now in hating Miss Delavigne, and in showing that you hate her, are you doing Flora Colonibel good service?” ”

“ Her voice failed, and with a heavy sob she dropped her head on her breast.
Camperdown looked at her in obvious distress. She so seldom gave way; he could see that she was suffering extremely. “Don’t cry, Stargarde; don’t cry,” he said uneasily. “It will all come out right. We may find her yet.”
“I am a coward,” said the woman, suddenly lifting her moist, beautiful eyes to his face; “but sometimes I can’t help it, Brian; it overcomes me. I never sit by a sick-bed, I never kneel by a dying person without thinking of her. Where is she? Is there some one to care for her? ”

“ Who’s to look after them?”
“A neighbor, an elder child.”
“A neighbor,” repeated Camperdown, in what would have been accents of scorn, had he not remembered he was talking to the woman he so much loved and respected; “a neighbor; and suppose the neighbor a worse rascal than yourself? Leave the respectable poor and take the vicious and criminal classes. Wild beasts look after their own; but suppose the beast is out and the young alone. Who steps in as tender nurse?”
“The city should be a tender nurse to the children of the poor,” responded Stargarde sadly. ”

“ Perfectly and most harmoniously; a youth fitted in every way to attract and embosom in himself the affections of the master who, progressing at a nimble pace through a settlement inhabited by the curious people known as the French, thrusts his white hand in the gutter and picks out the treasure-trove, enunciating and proclaiming with his accustomed clearness, ‘What’ll you take for him?’ throws the money and brings him home and his fortune’s made. ”

“ He knew that I would take care of you; and in his fatherly affection he would not have your name coupled with his dishonored one. He wishes to be considered dead, and so he is by every one here but myself and one or two others.”
“There is an immense load off my mind,” said Vivienne, laying a hand on her breast; “but I am not happy yet.”
349“You will not be happy till you give up your will to mine,” said Armour persuasively. “You will marry me?”
“No, no; never,” she said, with eyes devouring every line of his face. “I will never marry a man who does not love me as I love him. ”