 Part 3 Chapter 17, 18 and 19 of Bessie's Fortune by Mary Jane Holmes. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. 17. Old Friends Over this letter Bessie had a good cry with her face on Grey's shoulder and Grey's arms around her, and when he asked why she cried she said she did not know, only the world seemed a very dreary world with no one perfectly happy and it except themselves. But Bessie's tears in those days were like April showers, and she was soon as joyous and gay as ever, and entered heart and soul into the improvements and repairs which were to make Stonely habitable for the honorable John, who, greatly to their astonishment, came suddenly upon them one day when they were ankle deep in brick and mortar and lath and plaster, and all the other paraphernalia attendant upon repairing an old house. Neal was away so much, he said, and he was so lonely in his lodgings with no one to speak to but his landlady, that he had decided to come to Stonely though he did not mean to make the least trouble or be at all in the way. But a fine gentleman unaccustomed to wait upon himself is always in the way, and even Bessie's patience was taxed to its utmost during the weeks which followed. Fortunately for her Grey knew what was needed better than she did herself, for while she would have torn down one day what had been done the day before, he moved more cautiously and judiciously, so that the work really progressed rapidly, and sometime in March John MacPherson took possession of the two rooms which had been expressly designed for him and which, as they were fitted up and furnished with a reference to comfort rather than elegance, were exceedingly homelike and pleasant and suited the London gentleman perfectly. Here I shall live and die, blessing you with my last breath, he said to Bessie as he moved into his new quarters and seated himself in an armchair by a window which overlooked the park and the Manet Bridge not far away. He was very fond of Bessie whom he always called dear child, and once when she stood by him he put his arm about her and kissing her fondly said, I wish you could have been my daughter, it would have been the making of Neil. No, no, oh, no I couldn't, for there is Grey whom I love a great deal the best. Bessie answered hurriedly as she drew herself from him, half feeling as if a wrong had been done her husband by even a hint that she could ever have been the wife of another. By the time in April the Geryls went to London and met Neil at the Grand Hotel where he was staying a few days before leaving for India. Owing to Grey's tact the interview was tolerably free from embarrassment, though in Neil's heart there was a wild tumult of conflicting emotions as he stood with Bessie again face to face and heard her well remembered voice. How lovely she was in her young happy wifehood with the tired care worn look gone from her sweet face where only the light of perfect joy and peace was shining. Grey who without being in the least a break was something of a connoisseur in the details of dress had delighted to adorn his bride with everything which could enhance her beauty and Bessie wore her plumage well and there was a most striking contrast between the girl of 15 who in her washed linen gown and faded ribbons had once stood up in the park waving her handkerchief to Neil and the young matron of 20 who clad in faultless dinner dress with diamonds in her ears and on her fingers went forward to meet her cousin. And Neil recognized the difference and felt himself growing both hot and cold by turns as he took the hand extended to him and looked down upon the little lady whom, but for her bright face and clear innocent blue eyes, he would scarcely have known so complete was the transformation. For a moment Neil felt as if he preferred the old linen with its puth sleeves and antiquated appearance to the shimmer of the fawn-cuttered satin with its facings of delicate blue in the flesh of the solitaires. But as he watched her moving about the elegant rooms and discharging her duties as hostess just as kindly and thoughtfully as she had done at Stonely where the china was cracked and the silver was old he said to himself that the transformation was such as it should be and that satins and diamonds though out of place on little Bessie MacPherson of Stonely were fitting adornments for Mrs. Gray Gerald of Boston. He had called her Bessie as of old and the repeating the dear name to her and seeing the quick response of smile and questioning glance he knew so well nearly unmanned him and raised within him such a tempest of love and remorse and regret for what he had lost that it required all his fortitude and will not to break down entirely and to seem natural and at ease during the dinner to which Gray had invited him and which was served in the private parlor. Half an hour or more after dinner a servant brought in a card with Jack Trebellion's name upon it and in a moment Jack was with them shaking hands cordially with both Gray and Bessie and appearing as much at his ease as he did in the park when he first saw the latter and told her who the people were while she a shy country girl looked on wonderingly and made her quaint remarks. She did not look like a country girl now and Jack's eyes followed her admiringly as she moved about the room with a faint flush on her cheeks and a very little shyness perceptible in her manner. Once when standing near her he put a hand on either shoulder and looking down into her face said to her Do you know, Mrs. Gerald, how nearly my heart was broken when I thought you were dead and that for months the brightness of my life seemed blotted out? But it is all right now and I am glad for you that you are Gray Gerald's wife. You will be very happy with him. Yes, yes, very happy. Bessie answered and then scarcely knowing why she did so she asked him abruptly for Flossie and where she was. At Trebellion Castle Jack replied taking his hands from her shoulders and stepping back from her. She is there with her grandmother, a cantakarous old woman who leads Flossie a sorry life or would if she were not so light-hearted that trouble slips from her easily. No one could be happy with Mrs. Meredith, Bessie said. She is so cross and unreasonable and I pity poor Flossie who is made for sunshine. I wish she would go to America with us. I should be so glad to have her and I mean to write and ask her. Do you think she would like to go? Yes, no, I don't know. Jack answered thoughtfully while it seemed to Bessie that a shadow passed over his face and he sat for a few moments in a brown study as if revolving something in his mind. Then, rousing up, he said he must thief them as he was due at a party at the West End and it was time he was making his toilet. I shall be very glad to see you at Trebellion Castle, he said to Gray, and if you will come I will treat Mistress Bessie to the biggest fox hunt she ever saw. I have no end of hounds and horses and Flossie's an admirable horsewoman. Why, she can take the highest fence and clear the widest ditch in the county. Come and see her do it. Goodbye. The next day Bessie wrote to Flossie urging her to go with her to her new home and saying that she knew she would like America and be very happy there. A week later Neil started for India. He said goodbye at the hotel to his father who had come from Wales to see him, but Gray and Bessie went with him to Southampton more he was to embark. It was hard for Neil to seem cheerful and natural, but he succeeded very well until the last when he said goodbye to Bessie. Then he broke down entirely and taking her in his arms cried over her as a mother cries over the child she is losing. You have always been my good angel Bessie, he said, and if ever I make anything of myself it will all be owing to you. Goodbye and may God bless you and make you the happiest woman in the world as you deserve to be. I may never see you again and I may. If I succeed and really think I am a man and not a sneak as you have always known me I shall come to you some time and show you that there was something in Neil McPherson besides selfishness and conceit. Goodbye. Releasing her he turned to Gray, who during this little scene had considerably turned his back upon them and stood looking from the window as unconcernedly as if no tall handsome cousin were kissing his wife and crying over her. He had perfect faith in Bessie and he pitted Neil and when the latter offered him his hand he took it and pressing it warmly said, Goodbye and God bless you. As long as I live you will have a friend in me. I think you will succeed in India, but if you fail try America. You are sure to succeed there if you only have the will and I can help you some perhaps. Goodbye. Neil made no answer except to ring Gray's hand and then he passed out from the old life to the new with a pretty equal chance for failure or success. This was in April and in the latter part of May the Gerald sailed for America, but before they did so Bessie received a letter from Flossie who was at her grandmother's home near Portrussian Ireland and who wrote his follows. Dear Bessie, I ought to have written you long ago and thanked you for your kind invitation to go with you to your American home. I should have liked it of all things in the world for to see America and know what it is like has been the dream of my life. You knew it is the paradise of my countrymen, the land into which Pat and Bridget entered when Johnny Bull came out. For various reasons however I must decline your invitation and I'm going to tell you all about it but the beginning and the end lie so far apart that I must go way back to the time when owing to some mistake Jack Trevelyan thought you died in Rome and because he thought so he made a hermit of himself and wandered off into the Tyrol and the Bavarian Alps where nobody spoke English and where all he knew of the civilized world was what he gleaned from German papers. Nobody could communicate with him for when he wrote to his steward as he did sometimes he never said where a letter could reach him or where he was going next. At last however he concluded to go home and got as far as Paris where Grandma and I happened to be staying. This was last August and I was in the rue de Rivelli one day near Place Vendôme when who should turn from a side street a few rods in advance of me but Jack himself looking very rough and queer with a long beard and a shocking hat. He did not see me and was walking so fast that I had to run to overtake him and even then I might not have captured him if I had not taken the handle of my umbrella and hooked it into his collar behind. This brought him to a standstill and nearly threw him down. He ought to have seen the expression of his face when he turned to see who was garotting him in broad daylight for he thought it was that. Flossy, he exclaimed, what are you about and what is this you have hitched to me? You see the umbrella was still hooked to his coat collar and flopping itself open. If you stand still I will show you what it is, I said laughing till I cried at the comical appearance he presented with the passersby looking on wonderingly. I do not think he liked it very well. No one likes to be made ridiculous but we were soon walking together very amicably and he was telling me where he had been and that he was now on his way to Trevelyan Castle. I have not seen you Flossy, he said, and I wish you could have heard how sadly and low he spoke. I have not seen you since Bessie died in Rome. You were with her I believe. Bessie died in Rome, I exclaimed. What do you mean? Bessie did not die in Rome. She is not dead at all. She has gone to America in the same ship with Grey Gerald. He stopped more suddenly than he did when I hooked him with the umbrella and turning toward me asked me if I was telling him the truth. Then we walked on as far as the Chantidisee where we sat down and I told him everything which had happened at Rome and after we left there as far as I knew. But I doubt if he heard half of what I was saying. The only point he did seem to understand was that you were not dead and that you had gone to America in the same ship with Mr. Gerald. It was Neil who had told me that, and to him I referred Jack for any further information concerning you. But I do not think he stopped to get it, for he went straight to London to Travalion Castle where his presence was needed. And then, after a time he invited Grandma and me to visit there because he was lonely without any ladies in the house. And we went and I was perfectly happy, for you know it was once my home and it is going to be. But wait till I tell you how Jack has changed and how he used to go away by himself and stay for hours alone and come back with such a tired look on his face and ask me to tell him again if Mr. Gerald's kindness to you in Rome. Grandma said he was in love with you and I think so too. But wait till I tell you how he came home from London after seeing you there as Mrs. Gerald and how he raved about your beauty and grace and elegance and the lovely dress you wore the night he called, blue he said he believed it was and he wanted me to have one like it as if what became your lilies and roses would suit my black face and turned up Irish nose. But men know nothing of color or anything else, at least Jack does not, as you will see when I tell you if I ever come to that. Well, it was like this. You were married to Mr. Gerald and now I'm going to tell you how your letter came and Jack brought it to me and stood staring at me while I read it and then he said, she asked you to go to America. Yes, I answered without looking up and he continued. Are you going? I'd like to, I said, I would rather go to America than to any other place in all the world. Rather than stay here with me, he asked. Something in his voice made me look up and then, and then, I do not believe I can tell you except that I suddenly found out that I had been carrying a great deal for Sir Jack Trevelyan. Yes, a great deal. Well, he... Well, I may as well tell you, for Sir Jack is not the man to say he loves a girl if he does not and he told me he loved me and wanted me for his wife. And I, well, I discovered up my face so he could not see it and cried with all my might I was so happy and glad. I know what transpired at Stonely and that I am not his first choice, but I am satisfied. How could he help loving you? I am sure I could not if I were a man and so we are to be married in June, here in Grandma's house, where she brought me the minute she heard of the engagement. It is highly improper for you to stay at Trevelyan Castle a day under the circumstances. She said, as if Sir Jack, as my promised husband, had been suddenly transformed into a monster who would work me harm. I wish you could come to the wedding and so does Jack. He is here and has been for a week and, when I finish this letter, we are going out to sit upon the rocks and see the tide come in and the moon rise and shall naturally sentimentalize a little and he will tell me how much he loves me and call me his Irish lassie. He has done that a hundred times, but when he gets too spoony and demonstrative I ask him if he loves me better than he did you and that quiets him, for like your president or king, George somebody or other, he cannot tell a lie and says, Not better perhaps, but differently, just as you are different from her. She is fair, you know, and you are dark, and so I infer that his love for you was white and his love for me black. Ah, bien, je suis contente. And now I must close for Jack, as come in, hat in hand, and bids me hurry, as there is the funniest specimen of an American down on the rocks that he ever saw. Her name is Mrs. Rossiter Brown and her daughter married an Irish lord who lives near Dublin. I have met so few Americans that I must really see this one. Jack says it is better than a play to hear her talk. So good-bye, from your loving flossy. P.S. I have seen Mrs. Rossiter Brown who knows you and Gray and all his relations back to the flood. Is she a fair specimen of Americans? But of course not, even I know better than that. Mr. Gerald is not at all like her, neither I fancy are his people. Mrs. Brown has recently arrived and is to spend the summer with her daughter Lady Hardy, who is not with her. She talks so funny, and her slang is so original, and her grammar so droll that I find her charming. And, if many of the Americans are like her, you are to be congratulated, as you can never lack variety. Once more, good-bye, Florence Meredith. 18. Home Again Great were the rejoicings both in Boston and Allington over the return of the Travellers, and great the surprise of all when it was known that Bessie had come back in heiress to no mean fortune. But just who the great uncle was from whom her money had come to her, none except Gray's father and Mr. Sanford ever knew, and if they had, you would have remembered the peddler of more than forty years ago, whose disappearance had caused no remark and awakened no suspicion. Could Bessie have had her way she would have told the story fearlessly and moved the bones of her kinsmen to another resting place, but Gray and Mr. Sanford overruled her, both for Hanna's sake and for the sake of Gray's father, who could not have borne the talk it would have created. Mr. Gerald had never been the same since that night when he heard his father's confession, and he was fast growing into a morbid, misanthropic man whom his wife not without reason feared one day be crazy. Every year he shrank more and more from meeting his fellow men, and at last he abandoned business altogether, and remained mostly at home in a room which he called his office and where he saw only those he was obliged to see. The money lying in his bank in Hanna's name but which he knew was intended for someone else, and the shares in the mines and quarries of Wales troubled him greatly, for somewhere in the world there were people to whom they belonged, and he sometimes felt that if he and his sister were guiltless of their father's crime, they were at least thieves and robbers because of the silence upon which he himself had insisted. More than once recently he had resolved to tell Grey and let him decide the matter, and it was upon this very thing he was brooding on the morning when his son was announced. Grey had reached Allington the previous day and found his mother there waiting to receive him. I wanted your father to come with me but he would not. He dislikes Allington worse than I do and mopes all day in his room just as his father did. I wonder if there is any insanity in the family, she said to Grey who answered cheerily. Not a bit of it, mother, and if there is Bessie's advent among us will exorcise the demon. I am going to Boston to see father and shall bring him back with me a different man entirely. He found his father in his room moping as his mother had said and was struck with a change in him even during the few months he had been away. He stooped more than ever and there was in his whole appearance an air of weakness and brokenness of spirit pitiable to see in a man who had once been so proud and strong. Grey, my boy, how are you? I am glad to see you. Very glad, he said, as his son entered the room and when Grey sat down by him and taking his thin white hand pressed it gently and said, Poor father, you are not well, are you? He did a most astonishing thing. He laid his head on his son's arm and sobbed aloud. No, Grey, I am sick. In mind, not in body. And I have been sick, these. How old are you, Grey? Twenty-six my next birthday, Grey replied and he continued. Yes, you were fourteen when your grandfather died. Twelve years ago and for twelve years I have been sick. Very sick. Oh, Grey, if I dared to tell you and ask you what to do. You need not tell me, Grey said to him. I know what you mean and have known it ever since Grandpa died, for I was there that night, unknown to you or anyone, was in the kitchen by the stove and heard what Grandpa told you. Don't you remember how sick I was after it? Well, that was what ailed me. And Hannah knows, I told her, and together we have tried to find his heirs and father, we have found them, or her, for there is but one direct heir of his sister Elizabeth and that. And that is Bessie, my wife. Oh, father, look up, bear up. You must not faint. Grey continued in alarm as he felt his father press heavily against him and saw the ghastly powder on his face. Bessie, your wife, the heir. And does she know what we do? Mr. Gerald gasped and Grey replied. Yes, everything, and knew it before I married her. Listen, and I will tell you all. Ringing the bell, Grey bade the servant who appeared bring a glass of wine which he made his father swallow and then, supporting him with his arm, he told him everything, from the night when he had knelt upon the snow in the woods and asked to be forgiven for his grandfather's sin down to the present time. And you knew it all these years when I was trying to hide it from you, Mr. Gerald said, and you have worked while I have only sat still and brooded, and you have found the heir in Bessie. Are you sure it is Bessie? Oh, Grey, God bless you, my boy. You do not know what a load of care you have taken from me, for, though my father's sin is none the less, it does not hurt me as much, and I feel as if I could forgive him all. I do not believe he was so much in fault. The Petler struck him first, you know. I must see Hannah and hear the story again. What time do you return to Allington? Grey told him, and he continued, I shall go with you, first to see Hannah, and then to Grey's Park in the evening. Poor Hannah, she has had such a lonely life. Three hours later, and Mr. Gerald was driven to the house in the pasture land in the Phaeton which Lucy had sent to the station to meet Grey, who walked to Grey's Park, where Bessie greeted him as rapturously as if weeks instead of hours had passed since she saw him. Mr. Gerald had expected to find his sister alone, and was a little disappointed to see the reverend Mr. Sanford there, causally taking tea in the pleasant south room, where the morning glories were trained across the windows and the early June roses were looking in. Oh, Burton, how glad I am to see you, and how well you are looking! Hannah cried as she went forward to meet her brother, in whom she saw a change as if he had suddenly grown young. And he did feel younger and happier than he had in years. And as soon as Mr. Sanford took his leave, which he did immediately after tea, Burton plunged at once into the principal object of his visit. I have come, he said, to open the doors and windows of that ghostly room and let in the light and air of heaven. Grey has told me everything and I feel like a new man. Even the—the—the thing father did does not seem to me quite as it did. Would you mind telling me again the particulars of the quarrel? How it commenced, I mean. Nothing more. He had risen as he was talking and going into the bedroom threw back the heavy curtains and opening the windows and blind sat down in his father's chair, while Hannah stood beside him and told him how both men had drank until their reason was clouded and how the peddler had called her father a cheat and a liar and struck him first, and how. But here her brother stopped her and said, That will do. I am satisfied that what father did was done in self-defense, and so the world would have said and acquitted him too, I am sure. I almost wish you had told at the time. We should have lived it down, though I might never have married Geraldine and never have had Grey. No, sister, you did right, and having kept it so long we must keep it still. No use to unearth it now, though I would give half my life and every dollar I own. Yes, I'd give everything except my boy Grey to know it had never been there, and he pointed to the corner of the room where the bed was still standing and under which was the hidden grave. Bessie is willing we should tell and if I thought we ought I should be willing too, Hannah said, but her brother shook his head. It can do no good to anyone so that the poor man rest in peace. You have found his heirs and restitution can be made. The money is safe in the bank. And now I must go for Geraldine is waiting for me, Burton said, adding as he stood a moment by the door. I feel twenty years younger than I did and you Hannah, why you look thirty years younger and are really a handsome woman for your age. By the way shall you live here or with Grey? I don't know yet where I shall live, Hannah replied, and her cheeks were scarlet as she said goodbye and watched him as he drove away. Nineteen Joel Rogers Monument It was a very merry party which met next day at the farmhouse and Mr. Gerald was the merriest of them all, though he could not understand exactly why he was so light-hearted and glad. The fact that Joel Rogers died by his father's hand remained the same, but it did not now affect him as it once had done. Bessie seemed to have taken all the shame and pain away. He was very fond of her, always calling her daughter when he addressed her, and when after dinner was over she came and sat at his side and laying her hand on his said to him, Father, there is something I very much wish to do and I want your consent. He answered unhesitatingly, You shall have it, no matter what you ask. Thanks, Bessie said, with a triumphant look at Grey who was standing near. I thought you would not oppose me even if Grey did. You see, I have so much money that it burns my fingers and I think I must have lived in America long enough to have caught your fever for change, or else the smell of plaster and painted stonely awakened in me a desire for more, for what I wish to do is to tear down this old house and build another one where we can spend our summers. This house, though very nice and comfortable, is falling to pieces and will tumble down in some high wind. The plastering is off in two of the rooms upstairs and part of the roof has fallen in over the bedroom and woodshed. Aunt Hannah says the snow was suffered to lie there last winter while she was with us in Wales. So you see, we must do something and I have the plan of such a pretty place which I want to call stonely cottage after my old home. Your room and Aunt Hannah's are to be the pleasantest of all with a bow window and a fireplace in both and there is to be a fireplace in the hall which is to be finished in oak with a wide staircase and a tall clock on the landing and the windows are to have little colored paints of glass at the top and the floors are to be inlaid and waxed with rugs of matting instead of carpets as we want everything cool for summer and we will have a big piazza where we can have tea or breakfast or even a dance if we like. Won't that be nice? Bessie had talked very rapidly with the feeling that she did not have the sympathy of her hearers. She had conceived the idea of pulling down the old house and building a new one while she was in Wales alleging to herself as one reason that both Hannah and Gray would enjoy themselves better under a roof which did not cover a grave while the other reason was not then quite clear enough in her own mind to be put into words but she had said nothing to anyone until the morning of the day when she broached the subject to his father. Together with Gray she had gone over the old house which from having been shut up so long seemed more dilapidated than ever but Gray opposed her plan and Hannah opposed it while Mr. Gerald grew hot and cold by turns as he thought what might possibly be brought to light if the house were removed and any excavations made as there might be. As if divining what was in his mind Bessie continued, I do not mean to have the new house just where this one stands but farther to the right. We can fill up the cellar with the debris and have loads of earth brought in and make a kind of plateau with its terrace all around it. We can make that plateau so lovely with shrubs and flowers and grass. I once saw one like what I have in mind at a country place in England and in one corner under a willow tree was a little grave. The only son of the house had been buried there and I thought it's so lovely to have a monument of flowers and trees and singing birds. Looking into the blue eyes fixed so earnestly upon him Mr. Gerald read what she meant and said to her, you shall do as you like if Hannah doesn't object. Hannah too began to get a glimpse of the truth and so did Gray and when she said, you are all willing it is settled. They answered yes and Gray went with her to choose the site for the new house which in her impetuosity she declared should be commenced at once saying she would remain in Allington during the summer and superintendent herself. It was Bessie who chose the site to the right of the old building and near a great flat rock which she said she meant to have in a corner of the yard as it would be such a nice playhouse for children. Yes a very nice playhouse for children. Gray said winding his arms around her and kissing her blushing cheek and then they sat down upon the rock and talked of and planned the house and Bessie told him all that was in her mind in regard to the plateau which she meant to make as beautiful as a garden so that no one would ever dream it held a grave. I ought to do something for him she said and as my grandmother was fond of flowers and grass and singing birds so I am sure was he and he shall have them in abundance and maybe he will know that his sister's granddaughter is doing it for him and be glad. In the light of this new idea Mr. Gerald Hannah and Gray entered heart and soul into Bessie's project and within a week a plan for the cottage had been drawn and a contract made with the builders who were to commence work at once. Neither Hannah nor Bessie were present when the walls of the main building went crashing down into the cellar they were to fill but when it came to the bedroom and woodshed Hannah, Bessie, Gray and his father sat under a tree at a little distance watching nervously while the men took down timber after timber until the spot was clear and the ground as smooth as it usually is under a floor where there is no cellar. Oh, Bessie said with a sigh of relief as she turned to Gray who was sitting next to her but her eye went past him to Hannah who with her hands clasped tightly together sat as rigid as a block of marble gazing so intently at the spot which held so much horror for her that she did not at first know when Bessie stole softly to her side but when the young girl wound her arm around her neck and kissing her softly said, they have let him into the light and I am so glad it does not seem now like a hidden grave the tension on her nerves gave way and she burst into a paroxysm of tears the very last she ever shed over that hidden grave for like Bessie she felt better now that the sunlight was falling upon it and by and by when everything was accomplished and Bessie had carried out her idea she felt that the dead man's monument would be worthy of a far nobler personage than he who slept beneath it yielding to Bessie's earnest solicitations Gray decided to remain with her in Allington during the summer and superintendent person the work which owing to good management and the great number of men employed went on so rapidly that by the last of October everything was done except the furnishing which was to be put off until spring for before the autumn came it was known that Hannah would never occupy the house save as she went there a visitor the word spoken to her many years before by the Reverend Charles Sanford had been repeated and this time her answer had been yes Charlie if you do not think it too ridiculous for people as old as we are to marry why I am almost 60 but just as dear and young to me as if you were 16 was the reply of the Reverend Charles who was quite as much in love as he had been nearly 40 years before when he asked Hannah Gerald to be his wife of course after it was settled he went straight to Martha's grave and stayed there all the afternoon and did a little gardening around it and trained the rose bush around the headstone and picking a half open blossom put it in his buttonhole and silently apostaphize the dead woman at his feet telling her that though he was about to bring a new mistress to the home where she had reigned supreme he should not forget her and should so far as was consistent see that all her ideas were carried out especially as far as his health was concerned then he walked thoughtfully away whispering to himself Martha was a very good and excellent woman but I loved Hannah first and God forgive me if it is wrong to say it I think I'd love her the best then he went and told Miss McPherson who called him and Hannah fools to think of marrying at their time of life but said she was satisfied if they were then he told Lucy Gray who congratulated him warmly and was sure he would be happy then he told Bessie who cried at first because her and Hannah was not to live with her and then entered heart and soul into the affair and became as much interested in the wedding and the wedding outfit as if the bride elect had been a young girl in her teens instead of an elderly woman in her fifties then he told his senior warden who having himself been married three times had nothing to say but hurried home with the news which was all over Allington by the next day and was received differently according to the different natures of the receivers some were very glad and predicted that the rector would be far happier with Hannah than he had been with Martha while others wondered what that worthy woman would say if she knew that another was to fill her place and all calculated the ages of the respective parties making him out younger than he was and her a great deal older but neither he nor she ever knew what was said and they would not have cared if they had for both were supremely happy and thankful for the peace and blessedness which had crowned their later life 50 and even 60 is not so very old at least to those who have reached it and Hannah neither looked nor felt old when in her becoming traveling dress of seal brown she stood up in the parlors of her brother's house on Beacon Street and was made Mrs. Charles Sanford this was early in February and six weeks before on Christmas Eve there had come to that same house on Beacon Street a little black eyed black-haired boy as unlike either Bessie or Gray as a baby well could be he is not like anyone I have ever seen of your family the old nurse said when she brought the sturdy fellow to Bessie who the moment she looked at him exclaimed why Gray he is exactly like Neil his eyes his hair his expression and Neil will be so glad we must have his picture taken at once and sent to Neil with the lock of his hair Gray thought it doubtful if Neil would be quite as enthusiastic over Bessie's baby as she seemed to think but when a few hours later she drew his face down to hers and whispered to him we will call baby Neil McPherson won't we he fondly kissed the little mother and answered hesitatingly yes darling we will call our baby Neil McPherson if you like and so with a birth a christening and a wedding the winter passed rapidly at number blank Beacon Street and by the first of May Bessie was again in Allington armed and equipped for settling Stonely Cottage and giving the finishing touches to the plateau which with the advance of summer began to show marks of great beauty and to attract general attention Bessie's idea of raising a two feet above the level of the ground had been carried out and the sods which had been placed upon it and the terrace around it in the autumn were fresh and green as velvet in the early spring while of the roses and lilies and flowering shrubs which had been planted with so much care not one had died and many of them blossomed as freely as plants of older growth the plateau was Bessie's a special pride and care particularly that corner of it over which the bedroom once stood here she had an immense bed of pansies heart shaped and perfect in outline and in the center across where only white daisies were growing grandmother liked pansies and daisies the best and I thought perhaps he did too and then mother's name was Daisy you know she said to Hannah who rightly guessed that this bank of flowers was Bessie's in memoriam not only to her uncle but to her mother as well and very beautiful the heart shaped bed of human faced pansies with the daisy cross in the center looked all the summer long and many admired and commented upon it but only five persons ever knew that the white cross marked a grave end of chapter 17 through 19 part 3 chapter 20 of Bessie's fortune by Mary Jane Holmes this LibriVox recording is in the public domain 20 after five years noiselessly as I be springtime her crown of their dear weaves and all the trees on all the hills open their thousand leaves so noiselessly and quickly have the years come and gone since we first saw our heroine Bessie a little girl on the sands of Abertswith and now we present her to our readers for the last time a sweet-faced lovely matron of 26 who with her husband was awaiting at the Allington station one bright June afternoon for the incoming train from New York just behind the station where the horses would not be startled by the engine stood the family carriage a large roomy vehicle bought for comfort rather than show and which seemed to be full of children though in reality there are only three first Neil the boy of five years and a half who with his dark eyes and hair and bright olive complexion was the very image of the Neil for whom he was named and who was a most lovable and affectionate child next to Neil was the three-year-old Robin with blue eyes and golden hair like the blind Robin for whom he was named and next was the girl baby who came nearly a year and a half ago and to whom Gray said when he first took her in his arms I thank God for giving you to me my little daughter and I am sure you look just as your mother did when she first opened her eyes at stonely yes I am very glad for you little Bessie McPherson and so that was the name they gave the baby with lustrous blue eyes and wavy hair and the same sweet patient expression about the mouth as there was about the mouth of the young girl mother whom Neil and Robin called Bessie Mama while to their sister they gave the name of baby Bessie and baby Bessie was in the roomy carriage sitting on Jenny's lap and playing peekaboo with Robin while Neil stood on the opposite seat engaged in a hot altercation with another boy about his own age who dressed in black which gave him a peculiar look was seated at a little distance in a most elegant carriage with servants in livery and who when asked by someone standing near what his name was had answered I am Lord Rossiter Hardy and I am waiting for my mother who is coming from New York and he was going to bring me a bicycle something in the boy's tone of superiority irritated Neil who was thoroughly democratic and he called out foe a lord why you are nobody but Ross Hardy and your grandmother hush Neil or I'll tell your father and look where you are standing with your dirty fate on the cushions come down directly or I'll be after helping you said Jenny where upon Neil turned his attention to her and a spirited battle ensued in which Robin also took part and which was only brought to an end by the sound of the train in the distance there's the whistle out with you or you'll not be in time to create your uncle Jenny cried and with the bound Neil was upon the ground and rushing through the station joined his mother who with gray was looking anxiously at the few passengers alighting from the train first came lady Augusta Hardy habited in the deepest of crepe poor Teddy had died a few months before and with her little son Rossiter who was now the heir of Hardy Manor she was spending the summer at home and with her foreign heirs and levered servants brought from Dublin was creating quite a sensation to Ellington with about to the Gerald's who were among the few she condescended to notice she passed on to where her coachman and footman waited for her while Bessie ran hastily down the platform towards a tall sickly looking man who almost taught her as he walked while a sudden pallor about his lips told how weak he was oh Neil I am so glad and so sorry to I did not think you were like this Bessie cried as she took both his hands in hers and standing on tiptoe kissed the quivering lips which could not for a moment speak to her you are very tired she continued as gray came up and after greeting the stranger cordially offered him his arm you are tired from the voyage and the journey here it is so hot and dusty but you will rest now our house is so cool and the air here is so pure there let me help you too and in her eagerness Bessie passed her arm through Niels or rather put it around him and thus supported the sick man went slowly to the open carriage where Jenny had the children with the exception of little Neil who finding himself overlooked was cultivating the station master and telling him that the dark looking man was his uncle Neil from India and that they were to have ice cream for dinner in honor of his arrival and he was to go to the table and have two saucers full in her anxiety for her cousin Bessie had forgotten her children but at the side of them she exclaimed oh Neil look here are two of my babies Robin and Bessie and the boy over there throwing stones is your namesake I hope they will not trouble you Robin and Bessie I mean for you are to go in the carriage with them and Gray will take little Neil in the Fayton yes thank you Neil replied too sick and tired to care for anything just then and leaning back in the carriage he closed his eyes wearily and did not open them again until they were more than halfway to the stonely cottage then Robin who had been regarding the stranger curiously laid his little dimpled hand on the thin wasted one and said is you see with a start Neil's eyes unclosed and he looked for the first time on Bessie's children with such a pain in his heart as he had hoped he might never feel again over and over he had said to himself that she should never know how the very thought of them hurt and almost maddened him and how in his foolish anger he had burned the lock of hair which he had sent to him from the head of her firstborn and he said it to himself again now that he was face to face with the little ones and though every nerve in his body thrilled at the touch of the soft hand on his he tried to smile and said no I am not asleep I am only tired what is your name my little man Robin three years old and this is baby Bessie and this is Bessie Mama was the prompt reply and Neil rejoined yes I knew your mama when she was a little girl no bigger than you and her hands felt just as yours feel I pace for you every night when mama puts me to bed I say God bless uncle Neil the child continued then two great tears gathered in the sick man's eyes but he brushed them away quickly while Bessie took the boy in her lap and kept him from talking anymore by this time they were in the road which led from the highway to the house this had formerly been little more than a lane but under Bessie's supervision it had been transformed into a broad avenue bordered with trees and footpaths on either side and seats beneath the trees which though young had grown rapidly and already cast cool shadows upon the grass this is the place that is stonely cottage Bessie said pointing to the house where Gray was waiting for them with the boy Neil at his side and this is Neil my eldest we think he is like you Bessie continued as she alighted from the carriage and presented the child to her cousin oh I ate a bit like him was the boy's mental comment while Neil the elder said quickly heaven forbid that he should be like me they took him to his room at once the pleasant south room whose windows overlook the plateau now all ablaze with flowers you must lie down and rest till dinner I ordered it at seven tonight I will send you up some tea at once I hope you will be comfortable and ask for what you want Bessie said as she flitted about the room anxious to make her guest feel at home he was very tired and sank down upon the inviting looking lounge saying as he did so oh Bessie you do not know how glad I am to be here with you and Gray nor yet how it affects me I am not always as bad as this I shall be better by and by God bless you he drew her face down to his and kissed it fervently then she went softly out and left him there alone poor Neil he was greatly to be pitied his life in India had been a failure from first to last he had no talent for business and as he thoroughly disliked the business he was in it was not strange that he was dismissed by his employers within six months after his arrival in Calcutta then he tried something else and still something else and was just beginning to feel some interest in his work and to hope for success when a malaria fever seized upon him and reduced him to a mere wreck of his former self then it was that his father died suddenly at Stoneley and as it seemed desirable that someone should attend to what little there was left to him Neil returned to England going first to Wales and then to London where he took the very lodgings which Bessie had occupied years before and at which he had rebelled as dingy and second class how sorry he was now that he had wounded Bessie so unnecessarily and how well he understood from actual experience the poverty which could only afford such apartments as Mrs. Buncher's except the little his father had left him he had scarcely a shilling in the world and the future looked very dreary and desolate on that first evening in April when the once fashionable and fastidious Neil McPherson took possession of his cheerless rooms on Abingdon Road and threw himself down upon the hair cloth sofa with a neck in his head and a neck in his heart as he thought of all the past and remembered the sweet faced girl who had once been there and who had left there an atmosphere of peace and quiet which reconciled him at last to his surroundings of all his large circle of acquaintance in London there was not one whom he cared to meet and so he stayed mostly in his room only going out on unpassionable hours for a stroll in Kensington Gardens and occasionally to the park where he always sat down in the place where Bessie had sat in her faded linen when he drove by with Blanche once only he joined the crowd on Saturday afternoon and saw the elite go by the princess with her children the dukes and duchesses the lords and ladies and lastly Lady Blanche Paxton who wrote alone in her glory the man who was almost an imbecile when she married him was an idiot now and had a keeper to look after him and on Blanche's face there was an expression of ennui and discontent which told Neil that she was scarcely happier than himself even with her hundreds of thousands and her home on Grovener Square it was about this time that Neil received a most cordial letter from Gray and Bessie urging him to spend the summer with them in Allington and to stay as much longer as he pleased always if you will for our home is yours Bessie wrote and after a severe conflict with his love and his pride Neil accepted the invitation and left England with a feeling that he might never see it again the voyage was a rough one and as he was sick all the way he had scarcely strength to stand when he reached Allington and only excitement and sheer will kept him up until he found himself in the cool pretty room which had been prepared for him and which it seemed to him he could never leave again just as the twilight was beginning to fall Miss Betsy drove up the avenue stiff straight and severe in her best black silk and white India shawl which she only wore on rare occasions why she wore them now she hardly knew and she had hesitated a little before deciding to do so I do not want the dude to think me a scarecrow she said to herself though who cares what he thinks I did not favor his coming and they know it I told them they would have him on their hands for life and Bessie actually said they might have a worse thing I don't know about that but I do know he will not sit down upon me from this it will be seen that Miss Betsy's attitude toward the young man was anything but friendly as she started to make her first call upon him didn't come down to dinner I don't like that he will be having all his meals in his room first you will know better begin as you can hold out she said sharply and Bessie replied with tears in her eyes oh auntie don't be so hard upon poor Neil you do not know how weak and sick and changed he is just think of his lodging with Mrs. Buncher in London and coming out as a second-class passenger did he do that Miss Betsy asked quickly while the lines about her mouth softened as she went upstairs to meet the dude who looked like anything but a dude as he rose to greet her in his shabby clothes which nevertheless were worn with a certain grace which made you forget their shabbiness while his manner though a little constrained had in it that air of good breeding and courtesy inseparable from Neil Miss Betsy had expected to see him thin and worn but she was not prepared for the white wasted face which turned so wistfully to her or for the expression of the dark eyes so like her brother Hugh Archie's father Hugh had been her favorite brother the one nearest her age with whom she had played and robbed in the old garden at Stonley he had been with her at Monte Carlo when her lover was brought to her dead and in the frightened face which had looked at her then there was the same look at what she saw now in Neil as he came slowly forward she had expected a dandy with enough invalidism about him to make him interesting to himself at least but she saw a broken sorry young man as far removed from dandy ism as it was possible for Neil to be and she felt herself melting at once he was her own flesh and blood near to her even then Bessy he was sick he was subdued he had crossed as a second class passenger and this went further toward reconciling her to him than anything he could have done why Neil my boy she said as she took both his hands I am sorry to see you so weak sit down don't try to stand or rather lie down and I will sit beside you she arranged his fellows and made him lie down again he protesting the while and saying with a faint smile it hardly seems right for a great hulking fellow like me to be lying here but I am very tired and weak and in proof thereof the perspiration came out in great drops upon his forehead and hands and about his palate lips miss Betsy did not talk long with him that night but when she left him she promised to come again next day and bring him some wine which she had made herself and which was sure to do him good sleep well tonight and you will be better tomorrow she said but Neil did not sleep well and he was not better on the moral and for many days he kept his room seeming to take little interest in anything around him except Bessy at sight of her he always brightened and made an effort to be careful and to talk but nothing she could do avail to arouse him from his state of apathy all life and hope have gone out of me he said to her one day and I sometimes wonder what has become of that fine a fide swell I used to know as Neil McPherson I never felt this more I think than the day I hesitated before paying my penny for a chair in the park because I did not know as I could afford it that was the time I saw Blanche go by in her grand carriage where I might have sat I suppose but I preferred my hired chair and sent no regret after her and her ten thousand a year I saw Jack too that day did I tell you he stumbled upon me and I think would have offered me money if he had dared I am glad he did not he was staying in London at Langham's and flossy was with him I did not see her but he told me of her and of his twin boys Jack and Giles whom flossy calls Jack and Gil roguish little bears he says they were with all their mothers Irish in them even to her broke he has grown stout with years and seemed very happy as he deserves to be everybody is happy but myself everybody of some use while I am a mere leech a sponge a non entity in everybody's way and I often wish I were dead nobody would miss me don't interrupt me please he continued as he saw Bessie about to speak don't interrupt me and do not misunderstand me I know you and Gray would be sorry just at first but you have each other and you have your children you would not miss me long or be sorry except for my wasted life no Bessie I would far rather die and I think I shall this was Neil's state of mind and nothing could rouse him from it until one day in August when Miss Betsy drove over to Stonely Cottage and went up to his room where he sat as usual by the window looking out upon the plateau where Bessie's children were frolicking with their nurse of late he had even some interest in the children and once or twice it had them in his room and had held baby Bessie on his knee and kissed her fat hands and the boy Neil who saw everything has said to his mother in speaking of it he looked as if he wanted to cry when sister pat his face and said I love you and when I asked him if he didn't wish he was his baby he looked so white and said yes Neil will you give her to me I told him no sir re I'd give him my ball and velocity and jack knife but not baby this was the day before Miss Betsy came straight and prim as usual but with a different look on her face and tone in her voice from anything Neil had known and she asked him how he was feeling and then sitting down beside him began abruptly I say Neil why don't you browse yourself I've been talking to the doctor and he says you have no particular disease except that you seem discouraged and hopeless and have made up your mind that you must die yes auntie that is just it hopeless and discouraged and want to die oh so badly Neil replied as he leaned back in his chair what use for me to live who wants me I do the words rang sharply through the room and Neil started as if a pistol had been fired at him you want me you he said staring blankly at her as she went on rapidly yes I want you and have come to tell you so I am an odd old woman hard to be moved but I am not quite callous yet I did not like you years ago when those letters passed between us and you would not accept my offer because you thought it degrading I am glad now you did not for if you had bestie would not have been Grey's wife but yours and you are not fit to be her husband or in fact anybody's you are only fit to live with me and to see to my business I am cheated at every turn and I need somebody who is honest to look after my rents and investments you can do this it is not hard and will pay in the end I am old and lonesome and want somebody to speak to besides the cat somebody to sit at my table and say good morning to me in short I want you for my son or grandson if you like that better I shall be queer and cranky and hard to get along with the times but I shall mean well always I shall give you a thousand dollars a year to manage my affairs and when I die I shall divide with you and Bessie I have made a new will to that effect this very morning so you see I am in earnest what do you say he said nothing at first but cried like a child while Miss Betsy cried to a little and blew her nose loudly and told him not to be a fool but to go outdoors on the plateau where the children were and sit there in the shade and try to get some strength for she wanted him very soon then she went away and he dragged himself out to the plateau and let Neil and Robin play that he was a bulky horse who would not go not withstanding their shouts and blows with dandelions and blades of grass while baby Bessie pelted him with daisies from the white cross and panties from the border from that day on Neil's improvement was rapid and when on the last day of September the Gerald's returned to their house in Boston they left him domesticated with Miss Betsy and to all appearance happy and contented he would never be very strong again for the malaria contracted in India had undermined his constitution but he was able to do all his aunt required of him even to overseeing at times the hands in the cotton mill in office he had once spurned with contempt and from which he undoubtedly shrank a little although he never made a sign to that effect a year or more after his arrival in America he wrote to Jack Trevelyan as follows I hardly think you would know the once fastidious Neil McPherson if you could see him now in a noisy cotton mill screaming at the top of his voice to the stupid operatives and button hold confidentially by the brother Jonathan's who address him as square and speak of his aunt as the old woman but it is astonishing how soon one gets accustomed to things and I really am very happy especially when scouting the country on my beautiful bay a present for my aunt who gave it to me on condition that I would take care of it myself think of me in overalls and knit jacket curing a horse and betting him down for I do all that in fact I do everything even to splitting the kindlings when the chore boy that's what they call him here does not come ah well I have learned many things in this land of democracy and I'm content though in my heart I believe I still have a hankering after old aristocratic England provided I could be one of the aristocrats I suppose you know that poor Blanche died last winter of fever in Naples but perhaps you do not know that she left me ten thousand pounds fifty thousand dollars they count that in America and I actually do not know what to do with it my aunt gives me a thousand a year for spending money and when she dies I shall have as nearly as I can estimate it half a million which in this country makes me a rich man if Bessie had not provided for old Anthony and Dorothy I should care for them but as she has I believe I shall use the interest of Blanche's money in paying for scholarships in India and China and Japan and Greece and I'll call them the Blanche Trevelyan and the Bessie McPherson scholarships that will please Bessie for she is great on missions both at home and abroad in her kitchen is a regular soup house in the winter for every beggar in Boston knows Mrs. Gray Gerald Jack you don't know what a lovely woman Bessie is sweeter and prettier even than when she was a girl and you and I were both in love with her and Gray well you ought to see how he worships her why she is never within his reach that he does not put his hands upon her and if he thinks no one is looking on he always kisses her and by Joe she kisses him back as if she liked it and I well I bear it now with a good deal of equanimity heels they say can get used to being and so I am getting accustomed to think of Bessie as Gray's wife instead of mine and I really have quite an uncle-ish feeling for her children indeed I intend to make them my heirs and so goodbye to you old chap with love to Flossie and the twins from your Yankee fight friend Neil McPherson and now our story winds to a close and we are dropping the curtain upon the characters who go out one by one and pass from our site forever in the cozy rectory Hannah Gerald's last days are passing happily and peacefully with a Reverend Charles Sanford who loves her just as dearly and thinks her just as fair as on that night years and years ago when she walked with him under the chestnut trees and while her heart was breaking with its load of care and pain sent him from her with no other explanation than that it could not be at Gray's Park Lucy Gray lives her life of sweet unselfishness looked up to by the villagers as the lady par excellence of the town and idolized by the little ones from Boston who know no spot quite as attractive as her house in the park Miss Betsy and Neil still scramble along together he indolent at times and prone to laps into his old habits of luxurious ease for which she rates him sharply though on the whole she pets him as she has never petted a human being before boys will be boys she says forgetting that Neil is over 30 years of age and she keeps his breakfast warm for him and gets up to let him in when he has stayed later than usual at the rich house or he is a frequent visitor for he and Alan Brown are fast friends and boon companions together they ride and drive and row on the lakes around Allington together they smoke and lounge on the broad piazza of the rich house but Neil never drinks or plays with Alan or anyone else for his aunt made it a condition of her friendship that he should never touch a drop of anything which could intoxicate or soil his hands with cards even for amusement the shadow of that awful tragedy at Monte Carlo is over her still and she looks upon anything like card playing a savoring of the pit. Alan Brown is a young man of elegant leisure who takes perfumed baths and wears an overcoat which comes nearly to his feet and a collar which cuts his ears. He is a graduate from Harvard and his mother says his school and has cost over $15,000 though where under the sun and moon the money went she can't contrive. Mrs. Rossiter Brown is very proud of her son and of her daughter the Lady Augusta who comes home nearly every summer with the retinue of servants and her little boy who calls himself Lord Rossiter Brown Hardy and Neil Gerald when he is angry with him a little Yankee while Neil promptly returns the compliment by calling him a freckled faced patty. In the old home on Beacon Street Mrs. Gerald Dean still affects her air of exclusiveness and invalidism although a good deal softened and improved by the grandchildren of whom she is very fond and whose baby hands and baby prattle have found their way to her heart making her better because a less selfish woman. In the street and among men Bertrand Gerald holds his head as high as ever for all his shame and dread are buried in the grave under the white cross a stony cottage where Bessie spends every summer with her children and where Gray spends as much time as possible. He is a man of business now and many go to him for counsel and advice and this except in the hottest weather keeps him in the city during the week. But every Saturday afternoon the Gerald carriage with Bessie and the children in it stands behind the station waiting for the train the first sound of which in the distance is caught up and repeated by Neil and Robin while baby Bessie claps her hands and calls out Popeyes coming and very soon Papa comes with an expression of perfect content on his fine face as he kisses his wife and babies and then in the delicious coolness of the late afternoon is driven up the shaded avenue to the cottage where the plateau is bright with flowers and where the daisy cross in its purple heart of pansies gleams white and pure in the summer sunshine end of chapter 20 the end of Bessie's fortune by Mary Jane Holmes recorded by Céline Mejore