University of Virginia Library

53. CHAPTER LIII.
MAGDALEN AT ROGER'S HOME.

IT had been some consolation to Roger to know that an
Irving was living at Millbank, even if it was no longer
his, but to have it pass into the hands of strangers was
terrible to him, and on the day of the sale he lived over again
the sorrow he had felt when first his fortune was taken from
him.

He had requested Frank to inform him at once with regard to
the purchaser, and had waited almost as impatiently as Magdalen
herself, until Frank's telegram flashed along the wires,
“Sold to Guy Seymour, for Magdalen.”

Then for a moment Roger's heart gave a great throb of joy,
and a hope or expectation of something, he knew not what, flitted
through his mind. He had seen in a paper that Guy Seymour
had returned from Europe with his family, and from the same
paper learned that Mr. Grey was dead. There was no bitterness
then in Roger's heart towards the man whose enemy he
had been. Arthur Grey was dead, and gone to One who would
deal justly with him; and Roger was sorry he had ever felt so
hard towards him, for he had been the father of Magdalen, and
she was as dear to him now as she had been in the years gone
by, when she made the very brightness of his life. He could
not forget her, though her name was never on his lips, save as
he bore it night and morning to the Throne of Grace, or whispered
it to himself in the loneliness of his room, or up among
the pines, where she always seemed near to him. He had given
up all hope of ever calling her his own. His unanswered letter
had driven him to that, and still the days were brighter and life
seemed far more desirable after he knew that she had returned,
that the same sky smiled on them both by day, and the same
stars kept watch over them at night.

“Guy Seymour bought it for Magdalen,” he said, as he held

the telegram in his trembling hand. “Yes, I see; her father
has left her rich, and she has bought Millbank, and means perhaps
to live there; but not alone, surely not alone in that great
house;” and then Roger went off into a train of speculation
as to Magdalen's probable intentions. Was Guy to be there
with Alice, or was there a prospective husband across the sea?
Roger grew hot and faint when he thought of that, and felt a
headache coming on, and said to his partner that he would go
home and rest a while. He told Hester of the telegram, and
with a woman's ready wit she guessed what Magdalen's intentions
might be, but gave no sign to Roger. She saw how pale
he was looking, and was prepared to hear of his headache, and
made him some tea, and told him to keep still and not bother
about Frank's affairs.

“You've just tired yourself to death over 'em,” she said,
“and it's no wonder you are sick.”

He was better the next day, and went as usual to his office,
but the next morning his headache had returned with redoubled
violence. And while Magdalen was making her way to the
old-fashioned farm-house covered with vines and surrounded
with flowers and shrubs, he was sleeping quietly upon the
couch in his room, unmindful of the great happiness in store
for him, — the great surprise, coming nearer and nearer as
Magdalen hastened her footsteps, her heart beating almost to
bursting when at a sudden turn in the road she came upon the
house which they told her was Mr. Irving's.

“The first one round the corner. You'll know it by the
heaps of flowers, and the pretty yard,” a boy had said, and
Magdalen had almost run, so eager was she to be there.

“Oh, how beautiful! I should know Roger lived here,” she
said, as she stopped to admire the velvety turf in which patches
of bright flowers were blooming, the fanciful beds, the borders
and walks, and the signs of taste and care everywhere visible.

She did not think of the old house, with its low windows and
doors, and signs of antiquity. She saw only the marks of cultivation
around it, and thought it was Roger's home. The

windows of an upper room were open, and a rustic basket of
ivy and geraniums and verbenas was standing in one of them,
while a book with the paper folder in it was in the other, and
across both white curtains were hanging, the summer wind
moving them in and out with a slow, gentle motion.

“I know that this is Roger's room,” Magdalen said, and a
vague desire seized her that he might receive Millbank from
her there.

Old Hester Floyd had finished her work and was about to
“tidy herself up a little,” when a rustling movement at the
door attracted her attention, and she turned to find Magdalen
standing there, her dark eyes bright as diamonds, her cheeks
flushed and burning with excitement, her lips apart and her
hands clasped together, as she bent slightly forward across the
kitchen threshold. With a scream, Hester bounded toward
her, and dragging her into the room, exclaimed, “Magdalen,
Magdalen, I knew it, I knew it. I said something was going
to happen when the rooster crowed so this morning, — somebody
going to come; but I did not dream of you, Magdalen,
oh! Magdalen.” She kept repeating the name, and with her
hard, rough hands held and rubbed the soft white fingers she
had clasped; then, as the joy kept growing, she sobbed aloud
and broke down entirely.

“Oh! Magdalen,” she said, “I am so glad for him. He has
wanted you and missed you all the time, though he never
mentioned your name.”

Something in the face or manner of the younger woman
must have communicated itself to the mind of the elder, for
Magdalen had given no reason for her sudden appearance at
Schodick, or sign of what she meant to do. But Hester took
her coming as a good omen for Roger, and kept repeating,
“I'm so glad, so glad for Roger.”

“How do you know he wants me, if, as you say, he never
mentions my name?” Magdalen asked, and Hester replied,
“How do we know the sun shines when we can't hear it?

We can see and feel, can't we? And so I know you ain't long
out of Roger's mind, and ain't been since we moved here, and
he brung the candle-box cradle with him just because you once
slept in it.”

“Did Roger do that? Did he bring my cradle from Millbank?
Why didn't you tell me before?” Magdalen asked,
her eyes shining with tears of joy at this proof of Roger's love.

“I thought I did write it to you,” Hester replied; “I meant
to, but might of forgot but he brought it by express; and it's
upstairs now, and in it —”

Hester stopped abruptly, thinking it might be premature to
speak of the cribby quilt, which did not now stand so good a
chance of reaching the heathen as it had done one hour before.

“Where is Roger?” Magdalen asked, and Hester told her
of the headache he had complained of ever since the day of the
sale, adding, “He's in his room, which is fixed up as nice as
anybody's; his books and pictures and a little recess for his
bed, just like any gentleman.”

“Does he know who bought Millbank?” Magdalen asked
next, and Hester replied:

“Yes, Frank telegraphed that Mr. Seymour bought it for
you, and Roger was as white as a ghost, and has been sick ever
since. Magdalen, what did you buy Millbank for? Be you
goin' to git married?”

Hester asked this question a little anxiously, and Magdalen's
eyes fairly danced as she replied, “I think so, Hester, but
I'm not quite certain. I did not buy Millbank for myself,
though, I bought it for Roger, and —”

Hester's hand deepened its grasp on Magdalen's, and
Hester's face was almost as white as her cap border, as she
bent forward to listen, saying eagerly, “and what, Magdalen?
You bought it for Roger and what?”

“And have given it to him. I was the means of his losing
it. It is right that I should give it back, and I am here to do so.
The deed is in my pocket, made out to him, to Roger, — see,”
and she held the precious document toward Hester, who was

on her knees now, kissing even the dress of the young girl thus
making restitution.

She could hardly believe it true, and she took the paper in
her hands and pressed it to her lips, then opened it reverently,
and glancing at its contents, whispered, “It is, it is. It reads
like the deed of the tavern stand. It must be true. Oh, Magdalen,
Roger can't live there alone. Who is to live with
him?”

“You and I, Hester, if he will let us. Do you think he
will?” Magdalen said, with a merry gleam in her bright eyes.

“Do I think he will? Ask him, and see what he says.”

Old Hester had risen to her feet, but she still held Magdalen's
hand, and leading her into the next room, pointed to the
stair door, and said, “He is up there; come on if you want to
see him.”

At the head of the stairs Hester paused a moment to reconnoitre,
— then whispered softly, “He's asleep on the lounge.
Shall we go back?”

“No, leave me here with him,” Magdalen replied, and nodding
assent, Hester stole softly down the stairs, while Magdalen
stepped carefully across the threshold of the room, and closing
the door behind her stood looking upon Roger.