University of Virginia Library

5. CHAPTER V.

It was about ten o'clock when Philip Clow, the rich mulatto, left his habitation,
and proceeded in the direction of Washington street. About the
same time a young girl of exquisite beauty of feature and form, and an expression
remarkably gentle and pure upon her youthful face, was seated at
her needle in a small parlor in the rear of a millinery. It was Frederica!
None who have read `Jemmy Daily' will have forgotten Frederica, we are
quite sure. She was now in her eighteenth year, and although we remember
how beautiful she was as a little girl of ten, yet each summer since then
had added to her charms, and now she had not her peer in Boston for loveliness,
unless it might be Grace Weldon. Yet many would give the palm
to Frederica, even with this comparison. Both, indeed, were equally beautiful!
But their style of beauty was so different that judgment could not
be given, for the eye, bewildered by the conflicting charms, would refuse to
decide! Grace was tall and graceful, with dark brown or chestnut hair, large
rich brown eyes, full of fire and tenderness, and a bright complexion, just
shaded with brunette. Her air was remarkable for its sweet dignity, and
her step was light and elastic as that of a mountain roe. Her heart was
gushing over with joy and mirth, and her laugh was heard all the day long,
just as birds sing all day long. Her mind was accurately cultivated, and intelligence
and good sense beamed from her looks. She was skilled in drawing,
embroidery, and music; but her greatest ornaments were her filial love,
her love for home, and her accomplishments in housewifery; for though
born to luxury, and an heiress, she had been wisely educated by her father

to be a poor man's wife, if need were! Grace knew that she was beautiful,
but she knew she was good also; that her mind was fairer than her person;
therefore she was not vain. She, however, was glad she was beautiful,
for James Daily's sake; for she knew he loved her both because she was
beautiful and good. Altogether Grace Weldon was a charming person, and
one who would turn any man's head who had head and heart enough to appreciate
female virtue and worth.

Now what shall we say of Frederica? She was inferior to Grace only
in the eultivation of her mind. As an orphan and the protége of Mrs.
Daily, whose apprentice she was, she was denied the advantages which
wealth and a different social position had conferred upon Grace. She had,
however, closely improved the opportunities Mrs. Daily conferred upon her,
and James Daily was by no means a bad teacher; and, boarding in the same
house, he devoted much of his leisure time to the improvement of her mind.
He taught her many of the graces of female education — first learning them
himself that he might impart them to her. Thus her mind became cultivated,
and intellectually she rose superior to the humble circumstances in which
she was placed. Frederica's eyes were a deep, sunny blue, large, and frankly
opened, and beaming with purity and truth. Her complexion was as fair
as the lily, and a tint of the moss rose bloomed in her cheeks, which were
delieately oval. Her hair was light flaxen, soft as floss, and, till of late, fell
thick and abundant in shining masses upon her neck; but recently she had
imprisoned as much as she could of it in a comb behind; but a good many
truant tresses escaped the confinement, and now danced upon her neck at
every motion of her head as she sat at her work. There was an expression
upon her pure countenance like that of one of Raphael's angels — calm, devotional,
tender! The beauty of her mouth was wonderful, and seemed
formed only for words of love and prayer. One would never look for a
merry laugh from the infantile beauty of those half-parted lips, as one would
from the ruby mouth of Grace; though Frederica never spoke without a
smile. At the least movement of her lips a smile went rippling away from
its corners, just as shining circles are formed in the sunny lake, when its
calm surface is broken by a pebble.

She was now seated on a low chair, arranging flowers in the sides of a
fashionable hat. The hat was for Grace Weldon, though the two maidens
were unacquainted. Grace had entered the shop a day or two before, and,
struck with the gentle beauty of Frederica, she became interested in her,
and ordered a bonnet, requesting Frederica to trim it, saying, `Trim it in
your own taste, for I know you can do nothing ill!'

Frederica was now trimming the boanet for the beautiful stranger, and as
she worked at it, the words of praise she had spoken came often to her
mind, and she felt happy to reflect that she was kindly regarded by one
whom she felt it would be happiness to know and love.

`A light placed upon a table higher than her head, cast its light upon her —
the lovely bonnet-girl. She was dressed in a neat blue and brown muslin,
the blue in it harmonizing with the deep azure of her eyes, and the brown
with her hair. This little matter of taste in the selection of colors, spoke
volumes for the refined delicacy of her mind. She wore no ornaments of
any kind, save a plain ring, which James had given her on her last birthday.
That one ring, however, was dearer to her than every thing else she
had on earth, save, perhaps, a silvery lock of her aged father's hair — the
old blind German, whose death cast her upon the benevolence of Mrs. Daily.

The light fell full upon her, revealing the maidenly outlines of her
youthful form just developing into the rich fullness of their womanly beauty.
The attitude in which she sat was inconceivably graceful, yet natural, and
the movements of her fingers, which were very white and pretty, were captivating.
She speaks, as if to herself.

`There, that orange flower with the rose-bud, will be very becoming together,'
she said, holding it up and surveying it. `Delicate orange and
scarlet are most becoming to a fair brunette, and I observed that Miss Weldon,
though very fair, had a shade of brown, the least thought of it in the
world! How very beautiful she is! And how richly and yet tastefully she
was dressed! I don't know how it was, but I thought of James while I
was gazing on her noble and youthful face! Ah, me! James doesn't love
Frederica as he loved her when she was a little girl! But I love him
more — more every day! (There, that sprig of jasmine will make it look
lovely!) Why did I think of James when I looked at Miss Weldon? Oh,
I can tell, I think! It is Mr. Weldon James is with. Can it possibly be
her father? I have heard James, a long time ago, speak of Mr. Weldon's
daughter, and said she was at school in Troy. Can ti be that this beautiful
stranger is the same?'

As Frederica asked herself this question, she sighed heavily, and the bonnet
gradually fell heavily upon her knee, while her face became, all at once, very
sad and thoughtful. Tears, at length, filled her large blue eyes, and when
she found they were dropping fast upon the ribbon of the bonnet, she brushed
them away and resumed her work.

`Yes, it must be the same; for there is no other Miss Weldon who can
be so beautiful as James said his little friend was. Yes, she must be the
same who was so kind and charitable to him when he was a poor little boy,
and lived close by us, when father and poor little Brickett were living. I
hope it is not — for — because,' — and Frederica sighed and looked very
sad. `No, no! I wouldn't wish her to love James, or that he should love
her. It would break my heart! Dear James does not know how I love
him with all my being! He is insensible to my silent devotion! He gave
me this ring; but there was wanting something, which I sought for timidly
with my eyes, in look or word, with the gift, which his face expressed not;
yet all was kindly in its expression. He looks affectionately upon me as I
would have a brother look, but not as I would have James look! He regards
poor Frederica only as a sister, while poor Frederica adores him,
trembles with joy at his footsteps' most distant sound, and is filled with happiness
at the slightest tones of his voice when addressed by it! Yet he sees
not that I love him — not as a sister loves, but with a love which absorbs all
my being, and makes him an idol of the purest and profoundest worship!'
She had to cease working with her fingers upon the flowers in the hat, to
brush away the tears, for they blinded her eyes.

`Poor Frederica! she was right in her conjecture of the state of James's
feelings towards her. It will be remembered, that after the old German
basket-maker's death, Mrs. Daily took Frederica and adopted her as her
own child. The youthful, or rather childish friendship, which had existed
between James and the beautiful little German girl, had continued from
year to year without interruption. They were as sister and brother, knowing
no difference whatsoever, until James had reached his eighteenth year, and
Frederica her fifteenth. From this time a gradual change began to form
itself in their feelings. James's brotherly regard deepened and strengthened

in its character, and from calling her Frederica, he began to address her by
the endearing title of `sister;' while, as a brother, he began to take the
most cordial interest in the improvement of her mind. Precisely at the
same time that this more gentle and endearing deportment began to manifest
itself on the part of James, a change of an opposite nature was taking place
in the feelings of Frederica. The sisterly love which she had felt towards
James, began to assume a tenderer sentiment in her heart; and love for him,
the most pure, the most tender, yet strong and deep as her own being, took
possession of her soul.

James could not be blind to the change which he discovered in her; but
unsuspecting himself, (for he knew he had no heart to give to any one in
love save to Grace Weldon, whom he had truly loved from a boy,) he attributed
the blushing embarrassment, the quick dropping eye-lid when he
rested his gaze upon her, the hesitating accents of her stammering replies
when they were alone together, to the modesty and bashfulness peculiar to
young girls just verging into womanhood. He never dreamed that she
loved him with trembling! Thus it went on for nearly three years, up to
the time of our story; James living in the same house, seeing her daily,
treating her as a sister, kindly and tenderly, yet never suspecting that the
lonely orphan was living only in his life! He had entered and found her in
tears, and passing his arm around her, kissed her, and sought her confidence.
This very tenderness made her still more unhappy; for she felt how hard it
would be to turn the current of deep love, so brotherly as his, into the channel
through which her own flowed.

Frederica now took up the hat and held it out, to observe, first the effect
of the flowers inside, and then turned it this way and that, to view the general
effect.

`It is very pretty! It will become her looks, and make her still more
beautiful and winning! If it should be Miss Grace Weldon for whom I
have done this — yet why do I let such emotions rise within my bosom? If
James loves her, shall I wish her less lovely? Can I hate or deform what
he loves? Oh, no! Yet — yet I would rather he would not see her in this
beautiful hat! But after all, it may not be Grace, and I have no reason to
believe James loves Grace; and I — perhaps if he knew,' she said, blushing,
and looking down, `it was more than sisterly love I entertain towards
him, he might remember I was not his sister, and love me as I love him!
Ah, it is a charming hat, and will make her look very lovely! When James
comes I will ask him if Miss Weldon is returned to —. No! I will not
ask him!' she said with spirit. `I will not let him detect even my
thought! Ah, me! Frederica,' said the lovely, ingenuous-hearted bonnet-girl;
`if James love you not, you will be so unhappy that this world will
have to you neither sun-light, nor music, nor flowers! There is a step! It
does not sound like James's! Yet it must be! the door opens with a pass-key!'

She half rose, and then reseated herself with a beating heart, and a
heightened color deepening the rose of her cheeks. The entrance to Mrs.
Daily's dwelling was by a narrow, paved court, from the street, the front
door being in the north side, the house standing end to the street. The shop
occupied the half on the right of the door, upon the street, while the half
on the left hand served for the habitation. There was a communication between
the shop and the back part of the sitting-room Frederica was in, as
well as a door opening from it into the front entry. It was the echo of the
step coming into the brick passage, which Frederica had heard.

The step was heavier in the entry than James's, and she began to feel
some vague apprehensions, for she was up alone in the house, Mrs. Daily
having a little while before retired, when the door opened, and James Daily
entered. The moment she saw him she shrieked, and stood tremblingly
gazing upon him with looks of anxious inquiry, but unable to utter a word.
His face was sprinkled with blood, and those parts visible were deadly white.
His coat was torn, and soiled with mud; he was without a hat, and altogether
looked like a man who had had a fierce encounter with one of his species.

`Do not be alarmed, sister,' he said, smiling; but the bloody stripes upon his
face made his smile look so ghastly that she shuddered. `I am no so much
hurt as I seem!'

`Oh, James, James!' she cried, casting herself upon his shoulder, her
affectionate alarm breaking out into words and tears, `Say, say you are not
badly hurt? I shall die to know you are in danger! Oh, who has done
this? Where are your wounds? Let me — let Frederica be — be —.'
She could proceed no farther! A paroxysm of nervous weeping choked
her utterance, and James was forced with soothing words to calm her excited
fears!'

`It is nothing, dearest sister! I have been roughly handled, but I am
only a little lamed! Let me have water and a towel, and I will soon show
you my face as sound as ever; and when I take off this torn coat and put
on my dressing gown, which you will get for me, I shall be quite as good as
new! So, be a good, dear girl, and don't spoil your eyes!'

`Are you really unhurt, dear James?'

`Yes, I assure you. It is nothing of consequence!'

`You look so fearfully!'

`Then haste, child, and bring me the basin of water, and I promise you
if you find a scratch as big as the prick of a needle on my face, I'll stay at
home a week, and you shall doctor it homeopathically!'

Her anxiety disappeared with his cheerfulness, and hastening for the
water and napkin, she soon had the happiness to see him remove the blood
from his face, leaving it without a wound. And when his dressing gown
replaced his soiled coat, he looked, save being a little pale, quite as if he
was altogether a very different person from the sanguinary looking individual
who had a few moments before entered the house. He now proceeded to
satisfy Frederica's curiosity, by informing her briefly that he had seen a
burglar leaving a house with booty, and pursued him, when, after a desperate
struggle, the thief escaped from him, leaving him in the plight she had
beheld him in when he entered.

`But the blood?' she said, not yet satisfied of James's safety.

`He drew a knife upon me, and in wresting it from him, and to save myself
from his revengeful assaults, I wounded him in the arm. It was his
blood which you saw.'

Frederica clasped her hands together in deep gratitude for his escape, and
then pressing her head upon his hand, in which he held hers, she wept for
very joy. He drew her towards him, to kiss her, with that pure, brotherly
affection which so beautifully characterized his love for her; but she gently
withdrew herself from his embrace, influenced by a feeling which it is difficult
to analyze, but not difficult to be understood by those who have studied
the delicate mechanism of a female heart.