CHAPTER XXXI.

self might have conquered that difficult ad- | words quite as well as the first. After he versary, but what weapons had he to bring had shaken the pink, plump hand, he sat forth against the deacon's wife, he who was down on the opposite side of the table, and only a minister and a man? saw Phoebe, relieved against the light of the window, wiping a tender tear from her eye. All at once out of the darker and heavier trials which had abstracted him from common life, the young Nonconformist plunged back into the characteristic troubles of his position. As usual, he made no response to Phoebe, found nothing civil to say, but turned with desperation to Mrs. Tozer, who was luckily about to speak.

"AND now that's settled as far as we can settle it ow," said Tozer, as they left the magistrate's office, where John Brown, the famous Carlingford solicitor, had accompanied them, "you'll go and see some of the chapel folks, Mr. Vincent? It'll be took kind of you to lose no time, especially if you'd say a word just as it's all over, and let them know the news is true."

"Don't pay no attention to her, Mr. Vincent; she's a deal too feelin'. She oughtn't "I will go with you first," said Vincent, to be minded, and then she'll learn better," who contemplated the butterman's shop at said Mrs. Tozer. "I am sure it wasn't no that moment through a little halo of grati- wish of ours as you should ever stop away. tude and kindness. He went in to the back If we had been your own relations we parlor with the gratified deacon, where Mrs. | couldn't have been more took up; and Tozer sat reading over again the same Gazette where should a minister seek for sympathy in which poor Susan's history was summed if it isn't in his own flock? There aint noup and ended. It seemed like a year to body so safe to put your trust in, Mr. VinVincent since he had dined with his mother cent, as Salem folks. There's a many fine at this big table, amid the distant odors friends a young man may have when he's in of all the bacon and cheese. Mrs. Tozer put a prosperous way, but it aint to be supposed down the paper, and took off her spectacles they would stand by him in trouble; and it's as her visitor came in. "It's M. Vincent, then as you find the good of your real Phoebe," she said, with a little exclamation. friends," continued Mrs. Tozer, looking with "Dear, dear, I never thought as the pastor some significance at her husband. Tozer, would be such a strange sight in my house for his own part, rubbed his hands and sta—not as I was meaning nothing unkind, tioned himself with his back to the fire, as is Tozer, so there's no occasion to look at me. the custom of Englishmen of all degrees. I'm as glad as ever I can be to see the min- The husband and wife contemplated Vincent ister; and what a blessing as it's all settled, with complacence. With the kindest feeland the poor dear getting well too. Phoebe, ings in the world, they could not altogether you needn't be a-hiding behind me, child, as restrain a little triumph. It was impossible if the pastor was thinking of how you was now that the minister could mistake who dressed. She has on her morning wrapper, were his true friends. Mr. Vincent, as she was helping her mother in, and we didn't expect no visitors. Don't be standing there, as if it was any matter to the minister how you was dressed."

But just then, strangely enough, a vision of a tender smile, a glance up in his face, the touch of a soft hand, came to Vincent's mind. His fine friends! he had but one, "O ma, as if I ever thought of such a and she had stood by him in his trouble. thing!" said Phoebe, extending a pink un- From Tozer's complacence the minister's covered arm out of the loose sleeve of her mind went off with a bound of relief to that morning-dress to Vincent, and averting her sweet, fruitless sympathy which was dearer face; "but to see Mr. Vincent is so like old than help. From her soft, perfumy presence times-and everything has seemed so differ- to Mrs. Tozer's parlor, with that pervading ent-and it is so pleasant to feel as if it consciousness in it of the shop hard by and were all coming back again. O ma, to im- its store of provisions, what a wonderful agine that I ever supposed Mr. Vincent difference! It was not so easy to be gratecould notice my dress, or think of poor me!" added Phoebe, in a postscript under her breath. The minister heard the latter LIVING AGE. 941

THIRD SERIES.

ful as he had at first thought.

"Mr. Tozer has been my real friend indeed, and a most honest and thorough one,"

$6

said Vincent. "But I don't think I have ever she told me, and try to be a comfort to any other in Salem so sure and steady," heroh, I should indeed," said Phoebe, added the minister, after a little pause, half clasping those pink hands. Nobody could gratefully, half in bitterness. This senti- be more devoted than I should be." She cast down her eyes, and stood the image of ment was not, however, resented by the assembled family. Phoebe leaned over her the window. maidenly devotedness between Vincent and She struck him dumb, as she mother's chair, and whispered, "O ma, always did. He never was equal to the dear! didn't I always say he was full of emergency where Phoebe was cerned. feeling?" somewhat to the discomfiture of He took up his hat in his hands, and tried the person commented on; while Tozer to explain lamely how he must go awayhimself beamed upon the minister from be- how he had visits to make-duties to doand would have stuck fast, and lost Mrs. fore the blazing fire. Tozer's favor finally and forever, had not the butterman interposed.

"I said as we'd pull you through," said Tozer," and I said as I'd stand by you; "It's me as is to blame," said the worthy and both I'll do, sir, you take my word, if deacon. "If it hadn't have been as the pasyou'll but stick to your duty; and as for tor wouldn't pass the door without coming standing bail in a hundred pound or two," in, I'd not have had him here to-day; and continued the butterman, magnanimously, stanch and Mr. Vincent aint no call to if you women would think, you'd see. We're "for a poor young creature as couldn't be trouble himself about us; but Pigeon and nothing but innocent, I don't mind that, them, you see, as went off in a huff yesternor a deal more than that, to keep all things day-that's what the minister has got to do. straight. It's nothing but my duty. When a man is a responsible man, and well known in a place, it's his business to make use of his credit, Mr. Vincent, sir, and his character for the good of his friends."

"It may be your duty, but you know there aint a many as would have done it," said his straightforward wife, "as Mr. Vincent sees himself, and no need for nobody a-telling of him. There aint a many as would have stood up for the pastor, right and wrong, and finished off with the likes of this, and the minister don't need us to say so. Dear, dear, Mr. Vincent, you aint a-going away already, and us hasn't so much as seen you for I can't tell how long? I made sure you'd stop and take a bit of dinner at least, not making no ceremony," said Mrs. Tozer, "for there's always enough for a friend, and you can't take us wrong."

You sha'n't be kep' no longer, sir, in my house. Duty afore pleasure, that's my maxim. Good-mornin', and I hope as you wont meet with no unpleasantness; but if you should, Mr. Vincent, don't be disheartened, sir-we'll pull you through."

With this encouraging sentiment, Vincent was released from Mrs. Tozer's parlor. He drew a long breath when he got out to the fresh air in the street, and faced the idea of the Pigeons and other recusants whom he of them, all so many varieties of Mrs. Tozer's was now bound to visit. While he thought parlor, without the kindness which met him there, the heart of the young Nonconformist failed him. Nothing but gratitude to Tozer could have sent him forth at all on this mission of conciliation; but now on the threshold of it, smarting from even Tozer's wellintentioned patronage, a yearning for a little It was his duty to go away towards Grove personal comfort seized upon Vincent's mind. Street, where the poulterer's residence was ; Vincent had risen hurriedly to his feet, but his longing eyes strayed towards Grange under the strong stimulant of the butter- Lane, where consolation dwelt. And, beman's self-applause. Conscious as he was sides, was it not his duty to watch over the of all that Tozer had really done, the minis- real criminal, for whose mysterious wickedter found it hard to listen and echo, with due ness poor Susan had suffered? It was not difficult to foresee how that argument would humility and gratitude, the perfect satisfac- conclude. He wavered for a few minutes tion of the pair over their own generosity. opposite Masters' shop, gave a furtive glance He had no thanks to say when thus fore- back towards the butterman's, and then, stalled. "O ma, how can you make so much starting forward with sudden resolution, took of it?" cried Phoebe. "The minister will his hasty way to Lady Western's door; only think us so selfish ; and, oh, please, Mr. Vin- for a moment; only to see that all was safe, cent, when you go home, will you speak to and his prisoner still in custody. Vincent your mother, and ask her to let me come and quickening of his heart. To be detained in sighed over the thought with an involuntary help with her nursing? I should do what-such custody, the young man thought, would

be sweeter than heaven; and the wild hope which came and went like a meteor about his path, sprang up with sudden intensity, and took the breath from his lips, and the color from his cheek, as he entered at that green garden door.

Lady Western was by herself in the drawing-room-that room divided in half by the closed doors which Vincent remembered so well. She rose up out of the low chair in which she reposed, like some lovely swan amid billows of dark silken drapery, and held out her beautiful hand to him-both her beautiful hands with an effusion of kindness and sympathy. The poor young Nonconformist took them into his own, and forgot the very existence of Salem. The sweetness of the moment took all the sting out of his fate. He looked at her without saying anything, with his heart in his eyes. Consolation! It was all he had come for. He could have gone away thereafter and met all the Pigeons in existence; but more happiness still was in store for him-she pointed to a chair on the other side of her work-table. There was nobody else near to break the charm. The silken rustle of her dress, and that faint perfume which she always had about her pervaded the rosy atmosphere. Out of purgatory, out of bitter life beset with trouble, the young man had leared for one moment into paradise; and who could wonder that he resigned himself to the spell?

it is. Hush! she is ringing her bell. She has seen you come into the house."

"But I don't want to see Mrs. - Mrs. Mildmay," said Vincent, rising up. "I don't know why I came at all, if it were not to see the sun shining. It is dark down below where I am," said the young man, with an involuntary outburst of the passion which at that moment suddenly appeared to him in all its unreasonableness. "Forgive me. It was only a longing I had to see the light.”

Lady Western looked up with her sweet eyes in the minister's face. She was not ignorant of the condition of mind he was in, but she was sorry for him to the bottom of her heart. To cheer him a little could not harm any one. "Come back soon," she said, again holding out her hand with a smile. "I am so sorry for your troubles; and if we can do anything to comfort you, come back soon again, Mr. Vincent." When the poor Nonconformist came to himself after these words, he was standing outside the garden door, out of paradise, his heart throbbing, and his pulse beating in a kind of sweet delirium. In that very moment of delight he recognized, with a thrill of exaltation and anguish, the madness of his dream. No matter. What if his heart broke after? Now, at least, he could take the consolation. But if it was hard to face Mrs. Pigeon before, it may well be supposed that it was not easy now, with all this world of passionate fancies throbbing in his brain, to turn away from his elevation and encounter Salem and its irritated deacons. Vincent went slowly up Grange Lane, trying to make up his mind to his inevitable duty. When he was nearly opposite the house of Dr. Marjoribanks, he paused to look back. The garden door was again open, and somebody else was going into the enchanted house. Somebody else;

"I am so glad you have come," said Lady Western. "I am sure you must have hated me, and everything that recalled my name; but it was impossible for any one to be more grieved than I was, Mr. Vincent. Now, will you tell me about Rachel? She sits by herself in her own room. When I go in she gives me a look of fright which I cannot understand. Fright! Can you imagine Rachel frightened, Mr. Vincent-and of me?"-a tall, slight figure, in a loose, light-col"Ah, yes. I would not venture to come into the presence of the angels if I had guilt on my hands," said Vincent, not very well knowing what he said.

ored dress, which he recognized instinctively with an agony of jealous rage. A minute before he had allowed to himself, in an exquisite despair, that to hope was madness; "Mr. Vincent! what can you mean? You but the sight of his rival awoke other alarm me very much," said the young Dow- thoughts in the mind of the minister. With ager; "but perhaps it is about her little quick eyes he identified the companion of his girl. I don't think she knows where her midnight journey-he in whose name all daughter is. Indeed," said Lady Western, Susan's wretchedness had been wroughtwith a cloud on her beautiful face, "you he whom Lady Western could trust "with must not think I ever approved of my broth-life-to death." Vincent went back at the er's conduct; but when he was so anxious to have his child, I think she might have given in to him a little-don't you think so? The child might have done him good perhaps. She is very lovely, I hear. Did you see her? O Mr. Vincent, tell me about it. I cannot understand how you are connected with it all. She trusted in you so much, and now she is afraid of you. Tell me how

sight of him, and found the door now close shut, through which his steps had passed. Close shut-enclosing the other-shutting him out in the cold external gloom. He forgot all he had to do for himself and his friends-he forgot his duty, his family, everything in the world but hopeless love and passionate jealousy, as he paced up and down before Lady Western's door.