Part 16 (1/2)
”Yes,” replied Mrs. Arnot, sadly, completing in thought her friend's unfinished sentence. ”But I had no part in the act, and no knowledge of it until a short time since. I am now doing all I can to procure your son's speedy release. My husband's action has been perfectly legal, and we, who would temper justice with mercy, must do so in a legal way.
Permit me to introduce you to my friend, Mr. Melville. He can both advise us and carry out such arrangements as are necessary;” and Mrs.
Haldane saw that Mrs. Arnot was accompanied by a gentleman, whom in her distress she had not hitherto noticed.
The janitor now opened the door, and ushered them into a very plain apartment, used both as an office and reception-room. Mrs. Haldane was so overcome by her emotion that her friend led her to a chair, and continued her rea.s.suring words in a low voice designed for her ears alone:
”Mr. Melville is a lawyer, and knows how to manage these matters. You may trust him implicitly. I will give security for your son's future appearance, should it be necessary, and I am quite satisfied it will not be, as my husband has promised me that he will not prosecute if the money is refunded.”
”I would have paid ten times the amount--anything rather than have suffered this public disgrace,” sobbed the poor woman, who, true to her instincts and life-long habit of thought, dwelt more upon the consequent shame of her son's act than its moral character.
”Mr. Melville says he will give bail in his own name for me,” resumed Mrs. Arnot, ”as, of course, I do not wish to appear to be acting in opposition to my husband. Indeed, I am not, for he is willing that some such an arrangement should be made. He has very many in his employ, and feels that he must be governed by rigid rules. Mr. Melville a.s.sures me that he can speedily effect Egbert's release. Perhaps it will save you pain to go at once to our house and meet your son there.”
”No,” replied the mother, rising, ”I wish to see him at once. I _do_ appreciate _your_ kindness, but I cannot go to the place which shelters your husband. I can never forgive him. Nor can I go to a hotel. I would rather stay in this prison until I can hide myself and my miserable son in our own home. Oh, how dark and dreadful are G.o.d's ways! To think that the boy that I had brought up in the Church, as it were, should show such unnatural depravity!” Then, stepping to the door, she said to the under-sheriff in waiting, ”Please take me to my son at once, if possible.”
”Would you like me to go with you?” asked Mrs. Arnot, gently.
”Yes, yes! for I may faint on the way. Oh, how differently this day is turning out from what I expected! I was in hopes that Egbert could meet me in a little trip to New York, and I find him in prison!”
CHAPTER XV
HALDANE'S RESOLVE
It was not in accordance with nature nor with Haldane's peculiar temperament that he should remain long under a stony paralysis of shame and despair. Though tall and manlike in appearance, he was not a man.
Boyish traits and impulses still lingered; indeed, they had been fostered and maintained longer than usual by a fond and indulgent mother. It was not an evidence of weakness, but rather a wholesome instinct of nature, that his thoughts should gradually find courage to go to that mother as his only source of comfort and help. She, at least, would not scorn him, and with her he might find a less dismal refuge than his narrow cell, should it be possible to escape imprisonment. If it were not, he was too young and unacquainted with misfortune not to long for a few kind words of comfort.
He did not even imagine that Mrs. Arnot, the wife of his employer, would come near him in his deep disgrace. Even the thought of her kindness and his requital of it now stung him to the quick, and he fairly writhed as he pictured to himself the scorn that must have been on Laura's face as she saw him on his way to prison like a common thief.
As he remembered how full of rich promise life was but a few days since, and how all had changed even more swiftly and unexpectedly than the grotesque events of a horrid dream, he bowed his head in his hands and sobbed like a grief-stricken child.
”O mother, mother,” he groaned, ”if I could only hear your voice and feel your touch, a little of this crus.h.i.+ng weight might be lifted off my heart!”
Growing calmer after a time, he was able to consider his situation more connectedly, and he was about to summon the sheriff in charge of the prison, that he might telegraph his mother, when he heard her voice as, in the company of that official, she was seeking her way to him.
He shrank back in his cell. His heart beat violently as he heard the rustle of her dress. The sheriff unlocked the grated iron door which led to the long, narrow corridor into which the cells opened, and to which prisoners had access during the day.
”He's in that cell, ladies,” said the officer's voice, and then, with commendable delicacy, withdrew, having first ordered the prisoners in his charge to their cells.
”Lean upon my arm,” urged a gentle voice, which Haldane recognized as that of Mrs. Arnot.
”O, this is awful!” moaned the stricken woman; ”this is more than _I_ can endure.”
The p.r.o.noun she used threw a chill on the heart of her son, but when she tottered to the door of his cell he sprang forward with the low, appealing cry:
”Mother!”
But the poor gentlewoman was so overcome that she sank down on a bench by the door, and, with her face buried in her hands, as if to shut out a vision that would blast her, she rocked back and forth in anguish, as she groaned:
”O Egbert, Egbert! you have disgraced me, you have disgraced your sisters, you have disgraced yourself beyond remedy. O G.o.d! what have I done to merit this awful, this overwhelming disaster?”