The Old Man's Bride CHAPTER 6.
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It was eleven o'clock, the time at which the collector was to receive his money, and yet, Helen, who had been out nearly three hours, had not yet returned. For more than an hour, Mr. and Mrs. Lee sat awaiting, momentarily, the return of their daughter. Thought was busy; but their feelings too much oppressed for conversation. And so both remained silent.
Eleven o'clock had come, and still Helen was absent, and now each listened for a knock at the door in a state of nervous anxiety. Both startled, at length, at a loud, impatient rap. Mrs. Lee answered the summons, and there stood the hard-featured collector.
"Well, madam?" spoke the man, with a rude familiarity of tone, "I'm here."
"Will you walk in, sir?" said Mrs. Lee.
He entered, and was conducted to the small sitting-room.
"Good day." Mr. Lee arose, and handed him a chair.
"Well, sir," said the collector, as he sat down, "I'm here at the hour. Is the money which you promised me, ready?"
"I didn't promise you any money," replied Mr. Lee, so much fretted at the man's insolent manner that he could not control his feelings.
"Didn't promise to pay me sixty-four dollars at eleven o'clock, today!"
"No, sir."
"Ah, what did you promise then?" asked the collector, in a voice still more insolent and annoying.
"I promised nothing. I had no present means of paying your bill, and I told you so."
"Too bad! I ought to have known you were merely trifling with me to gain time. But, it will be worse for you; mark my word for it! Promised nothing, ha? I wonder why I'm here at precisely eleven o'clock?"
"My daughter promised, under excitement of feeling, wrongly promised — to pay your bill this morning," said Mr. Lee, speaking more firmly, and in that manly, reactive tone which always subdues vulgar impertinence. "That she is making an effort to keep her promise, her absence for some hours is to me sufficient evidence. We look for her return every moment. Whether she will bring the money or not, is more than I can tell. I almost hope she will not. You can await her return, or leave the house, as best suits your fancy. In either case, it is of little consequence to me. Your rudeness, I might better call it insolence, has made me quite indifferent. As to the consequences which you have so freely threatened, I stand in no fear."
The collector did not anticipate a reaction like this. It came upon him so suddenly, that he cowered under the fixed gaze of Mr. Lee, who, at once conscious of the power he had gained, kept his eye upon him as he would have done upon a wild beast. He was still holding him thus at bay, when the street door was heard to open; then light feet came along the passage.
"Remember, sir!" said Mr. Lee, sternly, "not an improper word or tone to my child, under any circumstances. If she has not the money for you, it is no fault of hers."
Helen entered the room as he was speaking. So altered was the expression of her face, that her parents hardly recognized her.
"My child!" exclaimed Mr. Lee, "what has happened?"
She did not answer him, but turning to the collector, said, somewhat sternly, "Here, as I expected."
As she spoke, she drew from her pocket the purse received from Mr. Bullfinch, adding, as she commenced counting out the pieces of gold,
"I have kept my promise. Your money is ready for you."
Not another word was spoken, until the collector, after receiving the amount of his bill, and passing a receipt, uttered a subdued good day. He was rougher and ruder as a collector, than as a man. To a great extent, his business had encrusted his feelings with a hard and jagged exterior. For the first time, in many weeks, he was touched by what he saw; and, as a thought of his own daughter came into his mind, accompanied with a question as to the price Helen Lee might have paid for gold, a low chill ran along his nerves.
"I didn't think it was quite so hard with them," he said to himself, as he left the house. "Money is often gained at too great a cost, and has been in this instance, I greatly fear. Ah, me! This is a hard business. I sometimes wish I were well out of it. A man must have iron nerves, and a heart like steel."
Thus musing to himself, he passed on his way. The inner softness — was hidden by the rough, jagged, acquired exterior.
"My dear child!" said Mr. Lee, catching hold of his daughter, the moment they were freed from the collector's presence, and speaking in a voice of deep concern, "What have you done? Where did you get all this money? Speak, my child! Oh, speak!"
Helen had dreaded this meeting with her parents. While hurrying homeward, her thoughts had gone forward, picturing the interview which had now come, and she had sought to prepare herself for it, and to fix a rule of action. Alas! of how little avail do we often find preparation for a great heart-trial! It proved of no avail now. For a brief time only, did Helen struggle against overmastering emotion; then with a low, bursting sob, she let her head fall upon his bosom. How still she lay there; all the strength of mind she could rally, striving for external composure. This was at length gained; when raising herself up, and laying her bands upon her father's temples, she pressed backwards his fast whitening locks, and said, with a loving smile, which seemed like sun-light suddenly breaking on her pale face —
"You shall know all, soon."
"All what, dear Helen? All what? I am frightened. What have you done? Why concealment now? Speak out, my child; speak now, if you love me."
"Have you seen Mr. Bullfinch?" asked Mrs. Lee. She had her own thoughts, and she wished to verify them as quickly as possible.
"I have," replied Helen; the smile she had assumed, fading from her countenance.
"And you received this money from him?" continued Mrs. Lee.
"Yes, mother. To his kindness, are we indebted for timely relief!"
"Helen!" Mr. Lee held his daughter from him, and gazed into her face with a look of intense anguish. "Helen!" and he spoke with solemnity, "At what price, my child? At whatprice?"
"You will know that soon, dear father!" replied Helen, now regaining her self-possession. "Mr. Bullfinch will be here tonight."
She moved away a pace or two, saying that she had lessons to give during the morning.
"I cannot remain in doubt, Helen," said Mr. Lee; "suspense like this is more than I am able to bear."
"You shall know all in good time. But do not urge me now," returned Helen; "for I can speak no further."
"Has Mr. Bullfinch asked you to marry him?" said Mr. Lee, advancing towards Helen, and grasping the hand a few moments before withdrawn from him. She tried to escape, but her father kept a firm hold.
"Speak, dear. Say yes or no. I ask but a word." A. breathless silence followed. Then, with averted eyes, she answered, "Yes."
"I feared as much," returned Mr. Lee, sadly. "I feared as much. Oh!" clasping his hands together and looking upwards, "has it come to this — to this!"
"And you have given consent?" he added, a few moments after. But Helen, instead of answering, went hastily from the room. A little while afterwards she came down from her chamber, and without saying anything to her parents, or even turning her face toward them as she passed through the room where they were sitting, left the house to give her lessons in music as usual.
"Dreadful! dreadful! dreadful! That it should come to this!" almost sobbed Mr. Lee.
"Come to what?" asked Mrs. Lee, who had, from the first, been far less moved than her husband.
Mr. Lee gazed at his wife, in undisguised wonder, for a short time.
"Come to what, did you say?" he at length asked in a half rebuking voice.
"What dreadful consequence do you fear? Mr. Bullfinch's proposals are, of course, perfectly honorable."
"Honorable! Good Heavens — this from you!"
Mr. Lee was strongly excited. His wife looked rebuked; but it was more from his manner, than from any clear comprehension of the error she had committed in seeming to favor the marriage of her daughter with Mr. Bullfinch; for both understood clearly enough, that this question was now to come up for consideration and decision. After a few moments, Mrs. Lee said —
"If Mr. Bullfinch comes to us with honorable proposals for the hand of our daughter, and she is willing to accept his offer, what will you do!"
"Never, while I live, will I consent to so unnatural a sacrifice," replied Mr. Lee, warmly.
"But — if Helen has already accepted his offer. What then?"
"She has not done so."
"She has taken from him, a gift of money," said Mrs. Lee.
"No — no — no," replied the father. "Not a gift, but a loan. Only an advance on the tuition of his niece. It can be nothing more."
"She had a purse full of gold. It could not have contained less than two or three hundred dollars. Mr. Lee groaned aloud.
"My own impression is," said Mrs. Lee, and the tone in which she spoke did not indicate much distress of mind arising from the conviction, "that Helen has consented to become the wife of Mr. Bullfinch. If this is so, opposition on our part will be unavailing. As something inevitable, let us look at it with at least a degree of calmness."
"Calmness! Oh, Helen!" said Mr. Lee, reproachfully.
"Mr. Bullfinch, besides having large wealth, is a man in good social standing," resumed his wife. "The only drawback is his age. But, if Helen can accept this, she may be happier with him than as the wife of a younger man, less favorably circumstanced, and with an undisciplined character. Think, Mr. Lee, from what a condition of toil, anxiety, and suffering — she will at once be lifted."
"Into gilded misery," said Mr. Lee, bitterly, "and there is none misery as hard to endure as that. Do not talk so to me. From your lips I did not expect to hear words like these.Would you sell your child's happiness for gold?"
"Happiness!" returned Mrs. Lee, in a voice of equal bitterness. "For her, poor child! there has been little for a year or two past, that we might call by that name. Any change has in it a promise of good; and this one, it seems to me, of great good."
"Good in such a life-companionship! Oh, Helen! Poverty has strangely altered you, or you never would speak thus. Never — never! Poor child! How sadly her white face told the story of her heart-despair in prospect of so fearful a sacrifice. But it cannot — it must not take place."
"Do you know anything bad of Mr. Bullfinch?" asked Mrs. Lee.
"Oh, Helen! Helen! You will drive me distracted. Are you not a woman and a mother? How, then, can you favor such a marriage? In it, there cannot be a single element of conjunction — nothing of a true marriage. The union will be merely external, and attended by a sphere of repulsion, on one side at least, which will be the fruitful of untold misery. An old man, sixty years of age, and a confirmed sensualist at that — and a pure young girl, in the bloom of innocent maidenhood! The angels would weep at such a union! I could smile, and thank God for the death of my child, as I stood by her newly-made grave — if death had snatched her from a fate like this!"
"You look only at the shadows in this, picture, Mr. Lee," said his wife, in answer. "It has strong lights, as well as deep shadows. They must be allowed to blend under our vision, if we would truly appreciate the picture. Look for a moment at our present condition. Could anything be more hopeless? Could there be for our child a rougher way in life, or a stormier sky?"
"Rougher and stormier, a thousand fold!" replied Mr. Lee. "A very paradise are her present surroundings — to what they will be, if so sad a fate as to become the wife of old Adam Bullfinch awaits her!"
"I cannot see and feel as you do," said Mrs. Lee. "Helen must act her own good pleasure in the matter. If she thinks she can be happy as the cherished wife of Mr. Bullfinch, why should we object? Above the thousand ills that are now sapping the very foundations of her life, she will be at once removed. It is no use to talk about it. I cannot see anything so dreadful in such a marriage. Old men are proverbially tender and indulgent to their young wives. Better be an old man's darling, you know — than a young man's slave."
"Spare me, Helen! Spare me!" exclaimed Mr. Lee, putting up his hands, while an expression of blended pain and disgust darkened his countenance. "From another, I might have borne this with some patience; but, from you — it is terrible. Never, never, shall my voice sanction so fearful an outrage of all that is pure, and good, and holy!"
Under this strong reaction, Mrs. Lee remained silent. Yet did she not feel the force of her husband's objection. Already her imagination was picturing in warm colors — the proud, social elevation that her daughter would attain. To be lifted at once from extreme poverty — to ease, wealth, and abundance, was a change which she could not contemplate, without a feeling of lively satisfaction. For, looking at this consummation, so devoutly to be wished, she could not see the painful steps by which it must be attained. So dazzledwere her eyes by the glitter of the golden exterior — that the ghastly skeleton, shrouded in gorgeous attire, was wholly invisible.
Thus were the parents of Helen Lee affected, when the prospect of so great a change in the future life of their daughter was suddenly presented. Mrs. Lee had been a woman of the world — we will not say a heartless woman of the world, for that would be giving rather too unfavorable an impression of her character. She had a higher appreciation of external things, than of internal things; for she comprehended them much more clearly. A condition in life, and its power to give happiness, she could understand; but she was not able clearly to realize how a state of mind could make or mar everything. They were all very unhappy in consequence of their poverty, and the evils it entailed upon them; and it seemed to her that wealth would restore the sunshine. The prospect of this, presented so unexpectedly, dazzled her.
Not so her husband. He had ever been unworldly. A man of pure, deep feeling, he understood how much of life's happiness depends upon states of mind. Helen's true character — its purity, delicacy, and womanly sensibility — he understood much better than his wife; and he at once comprehended, and with a distinctness that made him shudder — theconsequences which would inevitably follow such a marriage as was proposed.
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