One evening, months after Priscilla's departure, when Moodie (or shall we call him Fauntleroy?) was sitting alone in the state-chamber of the old governor, there came footsteps up the staircase.There was a pause on the landing-place.A lady's musical yet haughty accents were heard making an inquiry from some denizen of the house, who had thrust a head out of a contiguous chamber.There was then a knock at Moodie's door.
"Come in!" said he.
And Zenobia entered.The details of the interview that followed being unknown to me,--while, notwithstanding, it would be a pity quite to lose the picturesqueness of the situation,--I shall attempt to sketch it, mainly from fancy, although with some general grounds of surmise m regard to the old man's feelings.
She gazed wonderingly at the dismal chamber.Dismal to her, who beheld it only for an instant; and how much more so to him, into whose brain each bare spot on the ceiling, every tatter of the paper-hangings, and all the splintered carvings of the mantelpiece, seen wearily through long years, had worn their several prints! Inexpressibly miserable is this familiarity with objects that have been from the first disgustful.
"I have received a strange message," said Zenobia, after a moment's silence, "requesting, or rather enjoining it upon me, to come hither.
Rather from curiosity than any other motive,--and because, though a woman, I have not all the timidity of one,--I have complied.Can it be you, sir, who thus summoned me?""It was," answered Moodie.
"And what was your purpose?" she continued."You require charity, perhaps? In that case, the message might have been more fitly worded.
But you are old and poor, and age and poverty should be allowed their privileges.Tell me, therefore, to what extent you need my aid.""Put up your purse," said the supposed mendicant, with an inexplicable smile."Keep it,--keep all your wealth,--until I demand it all, or none!
My message had no such end in view.You are beautiful, they tell me;and I desired to look at you."
He took the one lamp that showed the discomfort and sordidness of his abode, and approaching Zenobia held it up, so as to gain the more perfect view of her, from top to toe.So obscure was the chamber, that you could see the reflection of her diamonds thrown upon the dingy wall, and flickering with the rise and fall of Zenobia's breath.It was the splendor of those jewels on her neck, like lamps that burn before some fair temple, and the jewelled flower in her hair, more than the murky, yellow light, that helped him to see her beauty.But he beheld it, and grew proud at heart; his own figure, in spite of his mean habiliments, assumed an air of state and grandeur.
"It is well," cried old Moodie."Keep your wealth.You are right worthy of it.Keep it, therefore, but with one condition only."Zenobia thought the old man beside himself, and was moved with pity.
"Have you none to care for you?" asked she."No daughter?--no kind-hearted neighbor?--no means of procuring the attendance which you need? Tell me once again, can I do nothing for you?""Nothing," he replied."I have beheld what I wished.Now leave me.
Linger not a moment longer, or I may be tempted to say what would bring a cloud over that queenly brow.Keep all your wealth, but with only this one condition: Be kind--be no less kind than sisters are--to my poor Priscilla!"And, it may be, after Zenobia withdrew, Fauntleroy paced his gloomy chamber, and communed with himself as follows,--or, at all events, it is the only solution which I can offer of the enigma presented in his character:--"I am unchanged,--the same man as of yore!" said he."True, my brother's wealth--he dying intestate--is legally my own.I know it;yet of my own choice, I live a beggar, and go meanly clad, and hide myself behind a forgotten ignominy.Looks this like ostentation? Ah!
but in Zenobia I live again! Beholding her, so beautiful,--so fit to be adorned with all imaginable splendor of outward state,--the cursed vanity, which, half a lifetime since, dropt off like tatters of once gaudy apparel from my debased and ruined person, is all renewed for her sake.Were I to reappear, my shame would go with me from darkness into daylight.Zenobia has the splendor, and not the shame.Let the world admire her, and be dazzled by her, the brilliant child of my prosperity!
It is Fauntleroy that still shines through her!" But then, perhaps, another thought occurred to him.
"My poor Priscilla! And am I just to her, in surrendering all to this beautiful Zenobia? Priscilla! I love her best,--I love her only!--but with shame, not pride.So dim, so pallid, so shrinking,--the daughter of my long calamity! Wealth were but a mockery in Priscilla's hands.What is its use, except to fling a golden radiance around those who grasp it?
Yet let Zenobia take heed! Priscilla shall have no wrong!" But, while the man of show thus meditated,--that very evening, so far as I can adjust the dates of these strange incidents,--Priscilla poor, pallid flower!--was either snatched from Zenobia's hand, or flung wilfully away!
