Van Berg had been so near that he could not help overhearing Mrs.
Mayhew's words which had led to the abrupt and silent departure of her daughter from the parlor.
"There is some misunderstanding here,"he thought,"whose effects are becoming outrageously cruel.The poor girl was driven away from the supper-table,and now she is driven out of the parlor.
She has been an anomaly from the moment I saw her,and I now mean to fathom the mystery.Her exquisite face indicates that she is almost desperate from some kind of trouble.She is becoming ill--she is wasting under it.Sibley would be a fatal malady to any respectable girl,but I must give up all pretence of skill at diagnosis if he is the cause;for were her heart set on him why the mischief can't she go to him with all her old reckless flippancy?
There is no need of any elopement,as Ik fears.She can easily compel her mother to go to the city,and her father would have no power to prevent the alliance,were she bent upon it.I believe her family misunderstand and are wronging her,and I may have occasion to go down on my knees myself,metaphorically,and ask her pardon for my superior airs."These and kindred other thoughts passed through his mind as he slowly paced up and down a side piazza which he often sought when he wished to be alone.Stanton,having lost Miss Burton for the evening,soon joined him,and threw himself dejectedly into a chair.
"Van,"he said,"I used to be rather self-complacent.I thought I had learned to take life so philosophically that I should have a good time as long as my health lasted.But to-night I feel as if life were a horribly heavy burden which I,an overladen jackass,must carry for many a weary day.How little we know what we are and what is before us!I've been a fool;I am a fool!""Well,Ik,"replied Van Berg with a shrug,"I imagine there is a pair of us.My reason--all that's decent in me--refuses to regard Sibley as the cause of your cousin's most evident distress.For heaven's sake don't confirm your words of this afternoon,or I shall feel like taking the first train,in order to escape from the most exasperating paradox that ever contradicted a man's senses.""Van,you are right.I am mortified with myself beyond measure,and I am bitterly ashamed that my aunt,her own mother,should have so grossly misjudged her.Sibley,no doubt,IS the occasion of her trouble in part,for she seems fairly to writhe under the false position in which he has placed her by leading every one to associate her name with his;but I now believe that she loathes and detests him more than you or I can.Certainly no woman could speak of a man in harsher or more scathing terms than she spoke of him to-night.Well,to sum up the whole miserable trough,by taking her mother's view for granted,I made such a mess of it that I doubt if she ever speaks civilly to either of us again.""Why!was my name mentioned?"asked Van Berg,quickly.
"Yes,confound it all!When things are going wrong there is a miserable fatality about them,and the worst always happens.She asked me point-blank if you shared my estimate of her,and I suppose got the impression you did.""Well really,Stanton,"said Van Berg,with some irritation,"Ithink you must have been unfortunate in your language.""Worse than unfortunate.The whole blunder is unpardonable.
Still,do me justice.I could not answer her question with a bold lie.And what would have been its use?How could you explain your bearing towards her at the supper table?Your manner would have frozen Jezebel herself.""I was an infernal fool,"groaned Van Berg.
"It is due to us both that I should say I told her you had tried to form a good opinion of her,and very reluctantly received the view her mother suggested.I said,in effect,you wished to think well of her,although she had treated you so badly.""Treated me badly!I have treated her a thousandfold worse.She,at least,has never insulted me,and I can never forgive myself for the insult I have offered her.
"Well,I hope to find her in the mood to accept an apology in the morning,"said Stanton.
"I'm in a confoundedly awkward position to apologize,"growled Van Berg."Any reference to such an affair will be like another insult;"and the friends parted in an unsatisfactory state of mind towards each other,and especially towards themselves.
But that was a sad and memorable night to Ida Mayhew.She felt that it might be her last on earth;for her dark purpose was rapidly taking definite form.
she was passing into that unhealthful condition of mental excitement,in which the salutary restraints of the physical nature lose their power.In the place of drowsiness and weariness,she began to experience an unnatural exaltation which would make any reckless folly possible,if it took the guise of sublime and tragic action.
Few realize to what degree the mind can become warped and disordered,even with a brief time,by trouble and the violation of the laws of health;and some,by education and temperament,are peculiarly predisposed to abnormal conditions.Science has taught men how to build ships with water-tight compartments,so that if disaster crushes in on one side,the other parts may save from sinking.
There are fortunate people who are built on the same safe principle.
They have cultivated minds,and varied resources in artistic and scientific pursuits.Above all else,they may have faith in God and a better life to come;such possessions are like the compartments of a modern ship.Few disasters can destroy them all,and in the loss of one or more the soul is kept afloat by the others.