Part 17

“Don't form hasty judgment,” Mrs. Porter said. “If I ever doubted, or feared my child's weakness on that man's account, I don't now. She's as good and pure as the day she was born. In fact, I don't believe she would have gone out to meet him that way if she hadn't been nearly crazy over the uncertainty as to what had happened to him. I don't blame her; I'd have done it myself if I'd cared as much for a man as she does about him--or thinks she does.”

“You say you heard what passed?” Hillhouse panted.

“Yes, and never since I was born have I heard such stuff as he poured into that poor child's ears. As I listened to his talk, one instant my heart would bleed with sympathy and the next I'd want to grab him by the throat and strangle him. He was all hell and all heaven's angels bound up in one human shape to entrap one frail human being. He went over all his suffering from babyhood up, saying he had had as much put on him as he could stand. He had come back by stealth and didn't want a soul but her to know he was here; he didn't intend ever to face the sneers of these folks and let them throw up his mother's sin to him. He'd been on a long and terrible debauch, but had sobered up and promised to stay that way if she would run away with him to some far-off place where no soul would ever know his history. He had no end of funds, he said; he'd made money on investments outside of Springtown, and he promised to gratify every wish of hers. She was to have the finest and best in the land, and get away from a miserable existence under my roof. Oh, I hate him--poisoning her mind against the mother who nursed her!”

“He wanted her to elope!” gasped Hillhouse--“to elope with a man just off of a long drunk and with a record like that behind him--_her_, that beautiful, patient child! But what did she say?”

“At first she refused to go, as well as I could make out, and then she told him she would have to think over it. He is to meet her at the same place next Friday night, and if she decides to go between now and then she will be ready.”

“Thank God, we've discovered it ahead of time!” Hillhouse said, fervently, and he got up, and, with his head hanging low and his bony hands clutched behind him over the tails of his long, black coat, he walked back and forth from the window to the door. “I tell you, Sister Porter,” he almost sobbed, “I can't give her up to him. I can't, I tell you. It isn't in me. I'd die rather than have her go off with him.”

“So would I--so would I, fearin' what I _now_ do,” Mrs. Porter said, without looking at him.

“_Fearing what you now do?_” Hillhouse paused in front of her.

“That's what I said.” The old woman raised her eyes to his. Hillhouse sank down into his chair, nursing a new-born alarm in his lap.

“What do you mean, Sister Porter?” he asked, in a low tone.

“Why, I mean that I never heard any thoroughly rational man on earth talk just as Floyd did last night. I may be away off. I may be wronging him badly, but not once in all his tirade did he say _right in so many words_ that he meant actually to marry her.”

“Great God, the damnable wretch!” Hillhouse sprang again to his feet. Mrs. Porter put out her hand and caught his arm and drew him down to his chair again.

“Don't decide hastily,” she urged him. “I laid awake all night trying to get it clear in my head. He had lots to say about the awful way the world had treated him, and that he felt, having no name, that he was unworthy of anybody as sweet and good as she was, but that if she would go off with him he'd feel that she had sacrificed everything for him and that that would recompense him for all he had lost. He even said that Providence sometimes worked that way, giving people a lot to bear at first, and then lifting them out of it all of a sudden.”

Hillhouse leaned forward till his elbows rested on his knees and he covered his ghastly face with his hands. For a moment he was silent. Mrs. Porter could hear him breathing heavily. Suddenly he looked at her from eyes that were almost bloodshot.

“_I_ understand him,” he declared. “He fell into a drunkard's hell, feeling that he was justified in such a course by his ill-luck, and now he has deliberately persuaded himself that both he and she would be justified in defying social customs--being a law unto themselves as it were. It is just the sort of thing a man of his erratic character would think of, and the damnable temptation is so dazzling that he is trying to make himself believe they have a right to it.”

“Really, that was what I was afraid of,” said Mrs. Porter, with a soft groan. “I heard him tell her that he would never be called by the name of Floyd again. Surely, a man has to have a name of some sort to get legally married, doesn't he?”

“Of course he has,” said Hillhouse. “But, my God, Sister Porter, what are you going to do?”

“That's the trouble,” answered the old woman. “I understand Cynthia well enough to know that she will not be coerced in the matter. She is going to think it all over, and if she decides to go with him no power on earth will stop her. She looks already better satisfied. The only thing I can see is for me to try to stir up her sympathies in some way. She's tender-hearted; she'd hate to be the cause of my suffering. We must work together, and in secret, Brother Hillhouse.

“Work together, but how?” the preacher groaned. “I can't think of a thing to do. If I appealed to her on the score of my love for her she would only balance that off by his, and all she imagines the scoundrel suffers.”

“Oh, his trouble is _real_ enough,” Mrs. Porter declared. “I tell you that in spite of my hatred for him, and even in spite of his cowardly insinuations against me ringing in my ears last night, I felt sorry for him. It would pierce a heart of stone to hear him talk as he did to her. If she resists, she will be a stronger woman than I would have been at her age and under the same circumstances. Pshaw! what would I have cared if I'd loved a man with all my heart and fate had deprived him of a name to give me--what would I have cared for the opinions of a little handful of people pent up here in the mountains when he was asking me to go with him out into the wide world and take my chances along with him? I don't know, Brother Hillhouse, but that I'd have gloried in the opportunity to say I was no better than he was. That's the way most women would look at it; that's the way, I'm afraid, _she_ will look at it.”

The preacher turned upon her, cold fury snapping in his eyes and voice. “You talk that way--_you!_” he snarled--“and you her mother! You are almost arguing that because _his_ father and mother branded him as they did that he and Cynthia have a right to--to brand their--their own helpless offspring the same way. Sin can't be compromised with.”

“Ah, you are right. I wasn't looking far enough ahead,” Mrs. Porter acknowledged. “No, we must save her. Heaven could not possibly bless such a step as that. I want her to hear somebody talk on that line. Say, Brother Hillhouse, if I can get her to come to church to-morrow, could you not, in a roundabout way, touch on that idea?”

“God knows I am willing to try anything--anything!” the minister said, despondently. “Yes, bring her, if she will come. She seems to listen to me. I'll do my best.”

“Well, I'll bring her,” Mrs. Sorter promised. “Good-morning. I'd better get back. They will wonder what's keeping me.”

XXXIII

FOR midsummer, the next morning was clear and cool. Nathan Porter rolled the family spring-wagon down to the creek and washed off the wheels and greased the axles.

“Your pa's getting ready to drive us to church, Cynthia,” Mrs. Porter adroitly said to the girl as she was removing the dishes from the table in the diningroom. “I wish you'd go with me. I hate to sit there with just your pa.”

There was an instant's hesitation visible in Cynthia's sudden pause in her work and the startled lift of her eyebrows. Then she said:

“All right, mother, if you want me to, I'll go.”

“Well, then, go get out your white muslin and flowered hat. They become you more than anything you wear.”

Without further words Cynthia left the room, and Mrs. Porter walked out into the hall and stood in the front door-way.

“Somehow, I imagine,” she mused, “that she was thinking it would be her last time at our church. I don't know what makes me think so, but she had exactly that look in her face. I do wish I could go in and tell mother all about it, but she's too old and childish to act with caution. I can't go to Nathan, either, for he'd laugh at me; he'd not only do that, but he'd tell it all over the country and drive Cynthia to meet Floyd ahead of time. No, no; I must do the best I can with Mr. Hillhouse's help. He loves her; he'd make her a good, safe husband, too, while that dare-devil would most likely tire of her in a short time, and take to drinking and leave her high and dry in some far-off place. No, Floyd won't do to risk.”

The service was not well attended that morning, owing to a revival in progress at Darley. Reports of the good music and high religious excitement had drawn away a goodly number of Hillhouse's parishioners. But, considering the odd nature of the discourse he had planned, this was perhaps in the young preacher's favor. Indeed, as he sat in his high-backed chair behind the little wooden stand, which held a ponderous open Bible, a glass pitcher of water, and a tumbler, Mrs. Porter, as she and Cynthia entered and took their usual places, thought he looked as if he had not slept the preceding night. His skin was yellow, his hair stood awry, and his eyes had a queer, shifting expression. Had his wily old ally doubted that he intended to fulfil his promise to publicly touch on the matter so near to them both, she could do so no longer after he had risen and stood unconsciously swaying from side to side, as he made some formal announcements in harsh, rigid tones. Indeed, he had the appearance of a man who could have talked of only one thing, thought of only one thing, that to which his whole being was nailed. His subject was that of the sins of the fathers being visited upon their children, even to the third and fourth generations. And Mrs. Porter shrank guiltily as his almost desperate voice rang out in the still room How was it possible for those around not to suspect--to know--that she had instigated the sermon and brought her unsuspecting child there to be swerved by it from the dangerous course she was pursuing? In former sermons Hillhouse had unfailingly allowed his glance to rest on Cynthia's face, but on this occasion he looked everywhere but at her. As he proceeded, he seemed to take on confidence in his theme; his tone rose high, clear, and firm, and quivered in the sheer audacity of his aim. He showed, from that lesson, the serious responsibility resting on each individual--each prospective mother and father. Then, all at once, it dawned on the congregation that Floyd's misfortune had inspired the discourse, and each man and woman bent breathlessly forward that they might not lose a word. The picture was now most clear to their intelligences. And seeing that they understood, and were sympathetically following him, Hillhouse swept on, the bit of restraint between his clinched teeth, to direct, personal reference.

“We can take it home to ourselves, brothers and sisters,” he went on, passionately. “Even in our own humble, uneventful lives here in the mountains, out of the great current of worldliness that flows through the densely populated portions of our land, we have seen a terrible result of this failure of man to do his duty to his posterity. Right here in our midst the hand of God has fallen so heavily that the bright hopes of sterling youth are crushed out completely. There was here among us a fine specimen of mental and physical manhood, a young soul full of hope and ambition. There was not a ripple on the calm surface of that life, not a cloud in the clear sky of its future, when, without warning, the shadow of God's hand spread over it. The awful past was unrolled--one man and woman, for selfish, personal desires, were at the root of it all. Some shallow thinkers claim that there is no hell, neither spiritual nor material. To convince such individuals I would point the scornful finger of proof to the agony of that young man. Are they--that selfish couple--enjoying the bliss of the redeemed and he, the helpless product of their sin, suffering as you know he must be suffering? In this case the tangible and visible must establish the verity of the vague and invisible. They are paying the debt--somewhere, somehow--you may count on that.” Mrs. Porter, with bated breath, eyed Cynthia askance. To her astonishment a flush had risen into the girl's cheeks, and there was in her steady eye something like the thin-spread tear of deep and glorified emotion, as she sat with tightly clasped hands, her breast tumultuously heaving. The house was very still, so still that the rustling of the leaves in the trees near the open windows now and then swept like the soft sighing of grief-stricken nature through the room. Hillhouse, a baffled, almost hunted look on his gaunt face, paused to take a sup of water, and for one instant his eyes met Cynthia's as he wiped his mouth on his handkerchief and with trembling hands returned it to his pocket. Mrs. Porter was conscious of the impression that he had not quite carried the subject to its logical climax, and was wondering how it had happened, when Hillhouse almost abruptly closed his discourse. He sat down, as if crushed by the weight of defeat, and looked steadily and despondently at the floor, while the congregation stood and sang the doxology. Then he rose and, with hands out-stretched as stiffly as those of a wired skeleton, he pronounced the benediction.

As they were turning to leave, Cynthia and her mother faced old Nathan, who stood waiting for them.

“Hillhouse don't look one bit well to-day,” he observed, as they were going out. “I'll bet he's been eatin' some o' the fool stuff women an' gals has been concoctin' to bewitch 'im with. They say the shortest road to a man's heart is through his stomach--it's the quickest route to a man's grave, too, I'm here to state to you.”

“Oh, do hush!” Mrs. Porter exclaimed, her mind on something foreign to Nathan's comment. “You two walk on; I'm going to shake hands with Brother Hillhouse and ask about his mother.”

She fell back behind the crowd surging through the door, and waited for the preacher to come down the aisle to her.

“I couldn't see exactly what you were driving at,” she said, extending her hand. “I never heard finer argument or argument put in better language than what you said, but it seemed to me you left off something.”

“I _did_,” he said, desperately. “I was going to end up with the evil tendencies he had inherited from his parents, and the pitfalls such a man would lead others into, but I couldn't drive my tongue to it. I had gone too far in dilating on his wrongs for that, and then I caught sight of Cynthia's face. I read it. I read through it down into the depths of her soul. What I was saying was only making her glory in the prospect of self-sacrifice in his behalf. When I saw that--when I realized that it will take a miracle of God to snatch her from him, I felt everything swimming about me. Her flushed face, her sparkling, piercing eyes, drove me wild. I started in to attack him behind his back and was foiled in the effort. But I won't give up. I can't lose her--I _can't_, I tell you! She was made for me. I was made for her, and she would realize it if this devil's dream would pass.”

Mrs. Porter sighed. “I don't know what to do,” she declared. “If I could trust him, I'd give in, but I can't. I can't let my only child go off with any man of his stamp, on those conditions. But I must run on--they are waiting for me. She must never suspect that this was done for her benefit.”

It was the afternoon of the day set for the meeting between Cynthia and Floyd. Mrs. Porter, still carrying her weighty secret, went into town actuated by nothing but the hope that she might accidentally meet Hillhouse. He seemed to be on the lookout for her, for he came down the street from the village square and waited for her to join him near the hitching-rack and public trough for the watering of horses.

“I was on the way to see you,” she said, looking about her cautiously, as if averse to being seen in his company.

“In answer to my prayer,” he replied. “I'm suffering great agony, Sister Porter.”

“Well, you are not any worse off than I am,” she made answer. “She's my only child.”

He leaned towards her till his face was close to her own. “Something must be done,” he said. “I'm ready for anything. I can't bear it any longer. Last night the devil rose in me and conquered me. I was ready to kill him.”

“And after all those beautiful things”--Mrs. Porter smiled calmly--“that you said about him in your sermon.”

“The feeling didn't last long,” Hillhouse said, gloomily. “It swept through me like a storm and left me on my knees praying God to spare her. Did she make any comment on my sermon?”

“No, but I saw it failed to affect her as we wanted it to. I have kept a close watch on her. At times she's had the appearance of a woman giving up all hope, and then again a rebellious look would come in her face, and she'd move about with a quick step, her head up and a defiant expression, as if she was telling herself that she had a right to her happiness, and would have it at any cost.”

“Ah, I guess she loves him,” Hillhouse sighed; “and she is fascinated by his hellish proposal and the thought that she is sacrificing something for his sake. I wish I could abuse him, but I can't. I can't blame him for trying to get her; it is no more than any man would do, any man who knows what she is.”

“I want to ask you one thing, Brother Hillhouse”--Mrs. Porter was looking at a row of cottages across the square--“and I ask it as a member of your church and a woman that don't want to commit unpardonable sin. So far, I've tried to obey the commandments to the letter. I want to know if I'd ever be forgiven if I was to descend to downright deception--lying with my tongue and lying in my actions--that is, I mean, if, by so doing, I could save my child from this thing?”

Hillhouse avoided her piercing eyes; his own shifted under lowering brows.

“If you could actually save her?” he said.

“Yes, if I could make her give him up--send him off?”

“I'll answer you this way,” Hillhouse replied.

“If she were in a room and a madman came searching for her with a pistol and a long knife bent upon killing her, and if he were to ask you, as you stood at the door, if she were inside, would you say yes?”

“Of course I wouldn't.”

“Well, there's your answer,” said the preacher. “He's a madman--mad in soul, brain, and body. He is seeking her eternal damnation, and the damnation of unborn souls. Lie?” He laughed sardonically. “Sister Porter, I could stand before God and lie that way, and wink at the angels hovering over the throne.”

“I reckon you are right,” said the woman; “but I wanted to make sure. And let me tell you something. If I _do_ resort to lying I'll put up a good one, and I'll back it up by acting that she nor no one else could see through. Let me alone. Leave it to me. It's my last card, but I feel like it's going to win. I'm going home now. I can hardly walk, I feel so weak at the knees. I haven't slept regular since this thing came up. I'm going crazy--I know I am.”

“Would you mind telling me what you intend to do?” Hillhouse asked, almost hopefully.

“No, I'm not ready to do that yet, but it will have a powerful effect on her. The only thing that bothered me was the sin of it, but since you think I'd have the right I'll throw my whole soul into it. She's so pure-minded that she won't suspect me.”

“God grant that you succeed,” Hillhouse said, fervently, and he stood as if rooted to the spot, and watched her till she had disappeared down the road leading to her home.

XXXIV

DURING supper that evening Mrs. Porter eyed her daughter furtively. Cynthia ate very little and seemed abstracted, paying no heed to her father's rambling, inconsequential remarks to her grandmother, who, in her white lace cap, sat across the table from him. Supper over, the family went out, leaving Cynthia to put the dishes away. Mrs. Radcliffe shambled quietly to her own room, and Porter took his pipe to his favorite chair on the porch. Being thus at liberty to carry out her own plans, Mrs. Porter stole unnoticed into Cynthia's room, and in the half-darkness looked about her. The room was in thorough order. The white bedspread was as smooth as a drift of snow, and the pillows had not a wrinkle or a crease. The old woman noiselessly opened the top drawer of the bureau; here everything was in its place. She looked in the next and the next with the same result. Then she stood erect in the centre of the room, an expression of perplexity on her face. Suddenly she seemed to have an inspiration, and she went to the girl's closet and opened the door. And there, under a soiled dress belonging to Cynthia, she found a travelling-bag closely packed.

With a soundless groan, Mrs. Porter dropped the dress, closed the closet-door, and moved back to the centre of the room.

“My God! my God!” she cried. “I can't stand it! She's fully made up her mind.”

Mrs. Porter left the room, and, passing her husband, whose placid face appeared intermittently in a red disk of light on the end of the porch, she went down the steps into the yard and thence around the house towards the orchard and grape-arbor. She paused among the trees, looking thoughtfully at the ground.

“If I'm going to do it,” she reflected, “I'd better throw out some hint in advance, to sort of lead up to it. I wonder if my mind is actually giving way? I am sure I've been through enough to--but somebody is coming.”

It was Cynthia, and she came daintily over the dewy grass.

“Mother, is that you?” she called out.

Mrs. Porter made no reply.

“Mother, is that--but why didn't you answer me?” Cynthia came up, a searching look of inquiry in her eyes.

Still Mrs. Porter showed not the slightest indication of being aware of her presence. Cynthia, in increasing surprise, laid her hand on her mother's arm, but Mrs. Porter shook it off impatiently.

“Look here, Nathan, if you don't quit following me up, dogging my steps, and bothering me with your--” Mrs. Porter broke off, looking blankly into Cynthia's face.

“Why, mother, what is the matter?” the girl exclaimed.

“Oh, you look like--you look like--” Mrs. Porter moved to a near-by apple-tree and leaned against its trunk, and with her head down she began to laugh softly, almost sillily. Cynthia drew near her again, and, catching the old woman by the shoulders, she turned her forcibly to her.

“Mother, what's the matter?” she demanded, her tone now quite full of alarm. .

“Oh, Cynthia, nothing is the matter with me! I'm all right, but, but, but--good gracious! just this minute you were--we were all at the table. Your pa was in his place, mother was in hers, and, how in the world”--Mrs. Porter was looking around in seeming astonishment--“how in the world did I get out here? I don't remember leaving the house. The last thing I recall was--”

“Mother, what's the matter?”

Mrs. Porter stared in a bewildered way at her daughter for a moment, then she put her hand to her brow with a weary gesture. “Something _must_ be wrong with me,” she declared. “I didn't want to mention it, but this evening as I was coming back from town I got rather warm, and all at once I heard a little sound and felt something give way in my head. Oh, Cynthia, I'm afraid--I'm afraid I'm going like your aunt Martha did. They say hers was a drop of blood on the brain. Do you suppose it could be that, daughter?”