Elfie

“ Oh, Elfie! unless you had lived as I have lived for the last three years, in the midst of ‘war’s alarms,’ you could never realize what a blessed relief there is in the feeling sure that we may sleep in peace for one night!”
“Oh! Alberta, what a life for you—for you, a daughter of the house of Goldsborough—reared in luxury and refinement! How can you bear it? Why do you bear it? Why do you not accept Erminie’s offer, and seek refuge with her?” earnestly inquired Elfie. ”

“ But when the two girls alighted and Elfie had a nearer view and saw wounded men piled like slaughtered cattle in those ambulances, and bleeding men carried up the steps of the hospital; and when they entered the building and she found the atmosphere pervaded with the scent of fresh blood, and the staircase slippery with gore, she could restrain herself no longer, but screamed and hid her face against Erminie’s black robe.
“Elfie! Elfie! if you cannot command your feelings, my dear, you must return to the carriage. You can do no good here unless you are calm and strong,” whispered Erminie. ”

“ Little Elfie goes to the window, throws open the shutters, and stands on balcony in her fluttering white robe, and the limelight.
Elfie. Yes, they are here. Why, they are carrying torches!— (Lady B. groans) —and banners, too! I think they have a band.... Who is that tall, stout gentleman, in the white hat, on horseback, and the lady in a pony-trap, with, oh, such a beautiful complexion! There is an inscription on one of the flags—I can read it quite plainly. "Thanks to the generous Donor!" (That must be you, Grandmother!) And there are children who dance, and scatter flowers. ”

“ So, Elfie dear, let us drop the subject, if you please.”
“But how will the Provost Marshal act upon your information?”
“I do not know. They never tell anything. They hear all that they can, but they tell nothing. It is not their business to do so.”
“Then I don’t see what there was in the interview to distress you so much,” said Elfie, rising and touching the bell.
“Oh, my dear, it is this. Though I have done only my duty—a most painful duty to me—I feel like an informer and a spy. Oh, Elfie, this awful war, that upsets not only all material but all moral life!” wept Erminie. ”

“ And then she ran down to the library and joined Erminie.
“I feel very sorry that your father has gone, Elfie,” said the gentle girl, in a sympathizing tone.
“So do I. But then he’s gone ‘where glory waits’ him, and all that, you know, and—it’s a great relief!”
“Elfie!”
“Well it is, Minie. Bless the dear old governor! he is just as little of a nuisance as one of the male persuasion can be reasonably expected to be; but they are all nuisances, Minie, and it is a great relief to get rid of them.”
“Oh, Elfie, your father, dear!” ”

“ Elfie (throwing her arms around Lady B.'s neck) . I do like you, Grandma; you have such a kind face! And oh, what pains you must have taken to find something that will do for everybody!
Lady B. (disengaging herself peevishly) . Yes, yes, child. I trust that what I have chosen will indeed do for everybody,—but I do not like to be messed about. Monkshood, you know what you have to do.
Elfie. Oh, I am sure he does, Grandma! See how benevolently he smiles. You're such a good old man, you will take care that all the poor people are fed, won't you? ”

“ Elfie! are you quite distracted?” exclaimed Erminie, in distress.
“No, my dear, I am not ‘distracted;’ I am only drafted!” said Elfie.
“Drafted!” exclaimed all, in a breath.
“Yes, drafted, friends and fellow citizens!”
“Elfie, you are crazed,” said Erminie.
“No, not ‘crazed’—conscripted! You always hit upon the right initial, but not on the right word!” replied Elfie.
“You do not mean to say, in sober earnest, that you are drafted, Miss Fielding? Such a thing was never heard of! Women have enlisted, and have served; but always when disguised as men. ”

“ For whatever else the Free Sword may be, he is a gentleman. And none but a caitiff would keep a girl a prisoner against her will to please anybody,” said Elfie, confidently.
“I do think, if my dear Vittorio suspected that you are really and truly here against your will, he would do everything in his power to restore you to your friends. But you see, Elfie, he knew of the attachment existing between you and Albert, and he cannot understand your reluctance to remain with him. He judges all women by his own wife, who left all to follow him and share his fate.” ”

“ While they had been speaking, Albert Goldsborough, with his hand clasped in Elfie’s, had dropped into one of those light and fitful slumbers that attend the dying.
When Erminie had left her, Elfie remained holding the hand of the sinking man until he awoke with a start, and looking up at her with a smile, murmured faintly:
“Yes, you are there. It is no dream. You are there.” ”

“ No toils, no perils, no privations shall dismay me, Vittorio! I dread but one evil in this world: separation from you; and that evil you have promised that I shall never suffer. Remember, dearest, remember!”
These were the words addressed to the Free Sword by his devoted wife before she left him, raised the curtain, and entered the hut.
She found Elfie still sobbing. She went and knelt down by the pallet, and gently inquired:
“Why, Elfie—Elfie, dear! what is the matter? Why should you weep? Why should any one weep whose best beloved is not in deadly peril as mine is? Speak to me, Elfie! ”

“ And so Elfie spent the time in walking impatiently up and down the hall, until at length Erminie made her appearance in bonnet and shawl.
“You will go to the hospital first?” inquired Elfie, anxiously, thinking and speaking as if the hospital in which Albert Goldsborough lay were the only one in the city.
“Yes, dear; for your sake I will go to ‘the’ hospital first. After which we will visit the others. But, Elfie, dear, excuse me if I repeat my warning of yesterday. Be as kind as you please; but take care not to compromise yourself.” ”

“ And when I saw his face blanched, and his eyes drawn in, and his lips wrung with the agony he was trying to bear in silence, I—I could—couldn’t be unkind to him!” wept Elfie, burying her face in Erminie’s mantle.
“Nor would I have you be unkind, Elfie, my dear,” said Miss Rosenthal, caressing her. “Be as kind as you please. Do everything for him that Christian love inspires. Only take care that you give him no hold upon your future life.”
“Oh, Erminie! Erminie! I never had much self-control! And since my soul has been so torn between my old love and my hatred of treason, I have less! ”

“ At heart she loves him still; loves him more than ever, that he has proved his love, by daring so much for her sake! But Elfie is given to heroics—real heroics and mock heroics. She has embraced the cause of the Union! It is her cue to hate ‘treason’ and to love ‘patriotism.’ And left to herself she will sacrifice her lover, whom she adores, for her country that she only thinks she adores! But let Goldsborough succeed in carrying her off, and making her his wife, by force if you like to call it so, and Elfie will be as happy as a queen in the greenwood. ”

“ Now, Elfie, in the face of such facts as history gives, when men so honestly differed in such mighty issues that they were ready to sacrifice each other and to yield up their own lives, each in defence of his own peculiar convictions, what have you to say?”
“Why, that there are many wrong ways and but one right one, if we could only find it,” said Elfie.
“Yes, if we could only find it,” smiled Goldsborough; “but in the difficulty each must take the way he thinks to be the right way; and to him it will be the right way. Elfie, my darling, the days of intolerance are passing away. ”

“ Elfie shuddered. "Does God know everything?" she said.
"Yes; everything we say and do," answered Susie. "He knows how many times you stole things, although you may forget."
"Well, I don't care," said Elfie defiantly. "He don't love me."
"O Elfie, he does; and it makes him sorry, and angry too, when we do anything that is wrong;" and Susie burst into tears.
"Don't cry, don't cry, Susie, and I'll never do it any more. I'll try and get some honest work, though it is so hard," said Elfie, and her tears broke out afresh. ”

“ Goldsborough, if you would like some of these sandwiches, and will promise not to scalp me, I will free your hands long enough for you to satisfy your hunger,” said Elfie’s lover.
“You poltroon! I would see you eaten up by snakes sooner than I would touch a morsel of food from your thievish and blood-stained hands! If I cannot free myself in any other way, I can by starving myself to death!” exclaimed Elfie.
“Two words to that, Mrs. Albert Goldsborough! You may think you have a right to destroy yourself. ”

“ And you will go with us, Erminie?”
“No, dear; I have failed to persuade you to give up the excursion, but I cannot join you in it.”
“You are afraid of the guerrillas, or stragglers, or deserters,” mocked Elfie.
“No, really I am not—honestly not,” said Erminie.
“Then why not go with us?”
113“Because, Elfie, I don’t like to leave my poor wounded boys in the hospitals. There are some of them that look for their ‘sister,’ as they call me, every day.”
“You make yourself a slave to those same boys,” crossly exclaimed Elfie. ”

“ We will stop it soon,” she replied, in a low and soothing tone, repressing all exhibition of the despair that was nearly breaking her heart.
“I—I am dying, Elfie! Pray—pray—for me, darling,” he gasped.
Elfie sank on her knees, and spreading her arms over him, prayed fervently:
“Oh, Heavenly Father, forgive him, forgive, and receive him and bless him, for our Savior’s sake,” she cried over and over again, in the earnestness of her supplication.
“Amen, Amen,” he breathed, at every interval of her prayer.
“Oh, my love, my love! Christ will atone to God for all your sins. ”

“ And besides, you may preach all day and yet you will never make me believe that light is darkness, or that treason is patriotism! Bosh! Who do you think is a fool?” snapped Elfie, abruptly turning her face away.
“I think every narrow-minded and prejudiced person is a fool, for that matter, Elfie! I do not wish to convince you of anything in particular, Elfie! I only wish to engage your charitable construction for those who happen to differ from you in opinion—and especially for the lover, of whom it pains you so much to think ill.” ”

“ And that’s all,” said Elfie, with a sigh of relief.
“Well, I declare I never heard such a story in my life!” exclaimed Erminie, while Lieutenant Ethel looked grave, and Britomarte seemed amused.
“Now see here, friends,” said Elfie, as if she were upon her defence, “I told no fibs to the enrolling officer—not one. If he enrolled me it was all his doings, not mine. You know they are a very suspicious set, those enrollers. They are always suspecting us of suppressing the name of some favorite friend or relative, to keep him from catching cold in the draft.” ”

“ I have one idol, one religion, one rule of action! Elfrida, nearly four years have passed since I left all, to share the fortunes of Vittorio Corsoni, my beloved! Dark enough those fortunes have been, Heaven knows! But I have never repented becoming his wife—never, Elfie! Neither of us have known a shadow of turning in our attachment to each other. And now I would not exchange my condition as the outlaw’s wife to be the most honored lady in the land! Nor would he part with me for a kingdom! We are all in all to each other. He is more to me than ever lover or husband was to woman before! ”

“ After that they rode on more quietly through the woods, though Elfie did not cease to use her tongue, even if she could not use her hands.
“Yes, you murderer! don’t think but what I’ll have you hanged for killing Mim, for I’m sure you have killed him!” Elfie exclaimed, for the first time bursting into tears of passionate sorrow as well as of rage.
“That little tiny fellow! What if I did? You didn’t call him a man, did you?” chuckled Mutchison.
“Yes, you monster! a thousand times more of a man than you and your master either, ever was!” sobbed Elfie. ”

“ It's all along of the tables and chairs, and sleeping in beds, I suppose," said Elfie, a little disdainfully.
"Church has nothing to do with tables and chairs," said Susie. "We go there to hear about God and the Lord Jesus Christ."
"Well, there ain't no God for poor people that don't have tables and chairs," said Elfie.
"O Elfie, don't say that; God loves you, and wants you to know and love him." ”

“ Dear Elfie, her plans are generous and kind. Tell her, with my love, that her Church must not be a shrine for Armine, but that perhaps he and it will be fit for each other in some five years’ time. Meantime, if she wants to make somebody happy, there’s that excellent hardworking curate of Eleanor’s, who has done more good in Kenminster than I ever saw done there before. ”

“ Oh, he has a way with him, that Canadian boy! The latest is that he has invited Elfie to stay a month with him in Alberta when he gets his first holiday. He has raved to her over Polly. Elfie, I believe, has accepted his invitation regardless of the wishes of either family. The poor little soul is really better, I believe, for his companionship. She is not so fretful and she actually takes her medicine without a fight and goes to bed at decent hours upon the merest hint of his Lordship's desire in the matter. ”