CHAPTER 16.
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Mr. Waverly had come down from his chamber on the morning after the abduction of Ada, and was preparing to go out and renew the search, abandoned as hopeless on the night before. There was a heavy weight upon his heart. To a certain extent the anger felt against the mother of his children, when he learned that she had gained possession of one of them, had subsided; and he thought of her with tenderer feelings. Better than before could he sympathize with her in the painful separation which the law had made between her and her offspring. He felt something of bitterness in his own spirit. Still, not for a moment did he waver in his purpose to regain Ada at all hazards.
He had entered the parlors and was standing in one of them, his mind in the final determination as to what he would first do, when he heard light footsteps coming down the stairs. A form glided by, and before he could see who it was, the street door opened and the person passed from the house. Going quickly to the window, he saw that it wasAlice.
"Wretched girl!" he murmured, "you have betrayed me."
The first impulse of Mr. Waverly was to follow Alice and prevent her escape. But a moment's reflection satisfied him that this would be useless so far as it was likely to lead to the recovery of his child. She was either ignorant, or affected to be ignorant of the movements of the mother from the moment she got Ada into her possession; and, in either case, he saw that no reliable intelligence could possibly be gained from her. And so he let her go her own way without an effort at interference.
"I have no faith in her," he said to himself. "This is all a part of the plot, and she an actor in the whole nefarious scheme!"
As Mr. Waverly stood at the window, he saw that the rain was falling fast, in a driving shower, and that the wind swayed to and fro, the nearly leafless branches of the trees. Though the atmosphere within the house was as warm as summer, he was conscious that it was raw and chilly outside.
"She will hardly venture forth with the child on a morning like this," Mr. Waverly remarked to himself, so soon as he perceived how really inclement it was.
As he said this, he observed a woman go hurriedly by the window and ascend the steps of his house. Immediately afterwards, the bell was rung violently. Mr. Waverly did not wait for a servant to go to the door, but opened it himself.
"Biddy!" he ejaculated.
"Mr. Waverly, good morning to you."
There was a mixture of assurance, doubt, and importance in the woman's manner. Instantly Mr. Waverly associated her untimely arrival with the abduction of Ada. Stepping back a pace or two, to give her room to enter, he said —
"Come in, Biddy."
The woman followed into the passage.
"Well, Biddy."
Mr. Waverly's tones expressed the eager impatience he felt to know the purpose of her visit at this particular time.
"Is all right with you at home?" asked the woman, as she fixed her sharp, black eyes upon the face of Mr. Waverly.
"Far from it, Biddy. Ada has been stolen from me," replied Mr. Waverly without hesitation.
"I feared as much. I thought I could not be mistaken," said Biddy.
"How? What do you mean? Speak, woman! Do you know where I can find my child?"
Mr. Waverly had become strongly agitated on the instant.
"I think I do," Biddy answered, with a coolness of manner, in marked contrast with that of the other.
"O! tell me then where I can find her, and you will lay me under an everlasting obligation."
Mr. Waverly, in the anxious distress of the moment, clasped his hands involuntarily together, while an imploring expression came into his face.
Biddy instantly felt her power over the wretched man, and, in the same moment resolved to use it for her own advantage.
"I've already had a world of trouble on your account, Mr. Waverly," she said. "A world of trouble, as you well know; and small profit has it been to me so far. Small profit, did I say! Indeed, it's been a loss and detriment to me from the beginning."
"Woman! What do you mean?" exclaimed Mr. Waverly, in a stern voice, breaking in upon Biddy's statement of her own case.
"I mean," said the wretch, undisturbed by the strong excitement of Mr. Waverly, "just what I have been saying to you. I've had a world of trouble on your account, and small profit. That's all Mr. Waverly. And now I'm just debating whether or not to take any more trouble upon myself — for him who forgets his friends, the moment he finds no more use for them. I know where Mrs. Waverly and the baby are."
"Wretch! You, too, are in league against me! You, too, have aided in this wicked work!"
"No, Mr. Waverly: I've had nothing to do with carrying off the child," replied Biddy, in a modified tone. "Only I happened, just by accident to discover the fugitives. Mrs. Waverly came to the house where I am living as chambermaid."
"And is she there now?"
"Yes."
"Where? Quick! Tell me Biddy, that I may recover my child. Say! where do you live?"
"Mr. Waverly." The woman spoke with coolness. "Mr. Waverly, as I've just told you; I've had a world of trouble on your — "
"Don't mention that again!" sharply retorted Mr. Waverly.
"If money is what you want, say so. Restore to me my child, and you can have your own price!"
"I only want something for the loss I've suffered on your account made up to me," returned the woman, seeking now to justify herself in the eyes of Mr. Waverly.
"Will a hundred dollars satisfy you?"
"Yes sir." And Biddy made a low courtesy.
"Very well; take me to my child, and I will put the money into your hands the moment she is restored to me. But, I warn you not to deceive me. If you do — "
Mr. Waverly checked himself.
"As to deceiving you," replied Biddy in a deprecating tone, "that is impossible. It is gospel truth that I am telling you. Mrs. Waverly came last evening to the hotel where I am staying in Camden and if you'll go with me you'll find both her and Ada."
At this moment a carriage which Mr. Waverly had ordered to attend him early in the morning, drew up to the door.
"Come then," said he, and leading the way from the house, Biddy followed him.
"At whose hotel?" Mr. Waverly asked, as the driver stood holding the door of the carriage. The answer being given, he said:
"To Imperial Hotel, Camden, and at your best speed."
The driver closed the door, mounted his box, and giving his horses the whip, dashed off at a rapid rate.
Shrinking back into a corner of the vehicle, Mr. Waverly let his thoughts go forward to the scene of meeting with the woman, who, a few short months before, had been separated from him, and who, since that time had but once passed before his eyes. He was now to meet her in anger, and tear from her bosom the child she had borne, and loved with an almost infinite tenderness. Eager as he had before been for the recovery of Ada, his heart, now that it fully realized the painful work which had to be done, shrank from its performance with a sense of painful reluctance. It would be an act of cruelty to wrest from the mother, her child; but, an act more cruel still, he felt to leave it in her possession.
Mr. Waverly was in this state of mind when he reached the river. In crossing over to the other side, some change took place in his feelings. The image of his repudiated wife became less distinct in his mind, and he became filled with the old eagerness to get Ada back again into his possession. This he was resolved to accomplish at all hazards.
On arriving at the hotel, Mr. Waverly made known to the landlord who he was, and the purpose of his visit.
"Has she come down from her room, yet?" he inquired so soon as this was all explained.
"No, sir. At least I have not seen her," was replied.
Inquiry was made of McCarty and other servants in the house, but all said that the woman who came in company with the child on the evening previous, had not come down from her room.
Accompanied by the landlord, Mr. Waverly proceeded to the chamber occupied by her who had been his wife. He felt strangely. Now that he regarded her as completely in his power; now that all uncertainty about his absent child was removed — a great change had taken place in his state, and another current of thought was flowing through his mind.
There was a pause at the door on gaining it. "I will enter alone," said Mr. Waverly, after a few moments of hurried thought.
The landlord bowed and retired some distance, to a part of the entry, where Biddy and several other servants were standing.
Mr. Waverly then knocked lightly upon the chamber door. All was silent within. He knocked again, bending his ear close to the panels, but there came no sound of voice or movement.
A louder rap followed, and with the same result.
A doubt flashed suddenly through the mind of Mr. Waverly, and seizing, impulsively, the door, swung it open and entered the chamber. With the quickness of lightning, his eyes were in every part of the room.
It was empty!
The mother had left, hours before, amid storm and darkness, with her sleeping child clasped tightly to her bosom!
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