University of Virginia Library

35. CHAPTER XXXV.
THE SPOTTED PAPER.

WHAT Master Gridley may have said to Myrtle
Hazard that served to calm her after this exciting
scene cannot now be recalled. That Murray Bradshaw
thought he was inflicting a deadly injury on her was plain
enough. That Master Gridley did succeed in convincing
her that no great harm had probably been done her is
equally certain.

Like all bachelors who have lived a lonely life, Master
Byles Gridley had his habits, which nothing short of some
terrestrial convulsion — or perhaps, in his case, some instinct
that drove him forth to help somebody in trouble —
could possibly derange. After his breakfast, he always sat
and read awhile, — the paper, if a new one came to hand,
or some pleasant old author, — if a little neglected by the
world of readers, he felt more at ease with him, and loved
him all the better.

But on the morning after his interview with Myrtle
Hazard, he had received a letter which made him forget
newspapers, old authors, almost everything, for the moment.
It was from the publisher with whom he had had
a conversation, it may be remembered, when he visited the
city, and was to this effect: That Our Firm propose to
print and stereotype the work originally published under
the title of “Thoughts on the Universe”; said work to
be remodelled according to the plan suggested by the Author,
with the corrections, alterations, omissions, and additions

proposed by him; said work to be published under
the following title, to wit: — —; said work to be
printed in 12mo, on paper of good quality, from new types,
etc., etc., and for every copy thereof printed the author to
receive, etc., etc.

Master Gridley sat as in a trance, reading this letter
over and over, to know if it could be really so. So it
really was. His book had disappeared from the market
long ago, as the elm seeds that carpet the ground and
never germinate disappear. At last it had got a certain
value as a curiosity for book-hunters. Some one of them,
keener-eyed than the rest, had seen that there was a meaning
and virtue in this unsuccessful book, for which there
was a new audience educated since it had tried to breathe
before its time. Out of this had grown at last the publisher's
proposal. It was too much: his heart swelled with
joy, and his eyes filled with tears.

How could he resist the temptation? He took down his
own particular copy of the book, which was yet to do him
honor as its parent, and began reading. As his eye fell on
one paragraph after another, he nodded approval of this
sentiment or opinion, he shook his head as if questioning
whether this other were not to be modified or left out, he
condemned a third as being no longer true for him as
when it was written, and he sanctioned a fourth with his
hearty approval. The reader may like a few specimens
from this early edition, now a rarity. He shall have them,
with Master Gridley's verbal comments. The book, as its
name implied, contained “Thoughts” rather than consecutive
trains of reasoning or continuous disquisitions. What
he read and remarked upon were a few of the more pointed
statements which stood out in the chapters he was turning

over. The worth of the book must not be judged by these
almost random specimens.

“The best thought, like the most perfect digestion, is done
unconsciously. — Develop that. — Ideas at compound interest
in the mind. — Be aye sticking in an idea, — while
you 're sleeping it 'll be growing. Seed of a thought to-day,
— flower to-morrow — next week — ten years from
now, etc. — Article by and by for the....

“Can the Infinite be supposed to shift the responsibility
of the ultimate destiny of any created thing to the finite?
Our theologians pretend that it can. I doubt. — Heretical.
Stet.

“Protestantism means None of your business. But it is
afraid of its own logic. — Stet. No logical resting-place
short of None of your business.

“The supreme self-indulgence is to surrender the will to
a spiritual director. — Protestantism gave up a great
luxury. — Did it though?

“Asiatic modes of thought and speech do not express
the relations in which the American feels himself to stand to
his Superiors in this or any other sphere of being. Republicanism
must have its own religious phraseology, which
is not that borrowed from Oriental despotisms.

“Idols and dogmas in place of character; pills and theories
in place of wholesome living. See the histories of
theology and medicine passim. — Hits 'em.

“`Of such is the kingdom of heaven.' Do you mean
to say, Jean Chauvin, that

`Heaven LIES about us in our infancy'?

“Why do you complain of your organization? Your
soul was in a hurry, and made a rush for a body. There

are patient spirits that have waited from eternity, and
never found parents fit to be born of. — How do you know
anything about all that? Dele.

“What sweet, smooth voices the negroes have! A hundred
generations fed on bananas. — Compare them with
our apple-eating white folks! — It won't do. Bananas
came from the West Indies.

“To tell a man's temperament by his handwriting. See
if the dots of his i's run ahead or not, and if they do, how
far. — I have tried that — on myself.

“Marrying into some families is the next thing to being
canonized. — Not so true now as twenty or thirty years
ago. As many bladders, but more pins.

“Fish and dandies only keep on ice. — Who will take?
Explain in note how all warmth approaching blood heat
spoils fops and flounders.

“Flying is a lost art among men and reptiles. Bats fly,
and men ought to. Try a light turbine. Rise a mile
straight, fall half a mile slanting, — rise half a mile
straight, fall half a mile slanting, and so on. Or slant up
and slant down. — Poh! You ain't such a fool as to think
that is new, — are you?

“Put in my telegraph project. Central station. Cables
with insulated wires running to it from different quarters
of the city. These form the centripetal system. From
central station, wires to all the livery stables, messenger
stands, provision shops, etc., etc. These form the centrifugal
system. Any house may have a wire in the nearest
cable at small cost.

“Do you want to be remembered after the continents have
gone under, and come up again, and dried, and bred new
races? Have your name stamped on all your plates and

cups and saucers. Nothing of you or yours will last like
those. I never sit down at my table without looking at the
china service, and saying, `Here are my monuments.
That butter-dish is my urn. This soup-plate is my memorial
tablet.' — No need of a skeleton at my banquets! I
feed from my tombstone and read my epitaph at the bottom
of every teacup. — Good.”

He fell into a revery as he finished reading this last
sentence. He thought of the dim and dread future, — all
the changes that it would bring to him, to all the living,
to the face of the globe, to the order of earthly things.
He saw men of a new race, alien to all that had ever lived,
excavating with strange, vast engines the old ocean-bed
now become habitable land. And as the great scoops
turned out the earth they had fetched up from the unexplored
depths, a relic of a former simple civilization revealed
the fact that here a tribe of human beings had
lived and perished. — Only the coffee-cup he had in his
hand half an hour ago. — Where would he be then? and
Mrs. Hopkins, and Gifted, and Susan, and everybody?
and President Buchanan? and the Boston State-House?
and Broadway? — O Lord, Lord, Lord! And the sun
perceptibly smaller, according to the astronomers, and the
earth cooled down a number of degrees, and inconceivable
arts practised by men of a type yet undreamed of, and all
the fighting creeds merged in one great universal —

A knock at his door interrupted his revery. Miss Susan
Posey informed him that a gentleman was waiting below
who wished to see him.

“Show him up to my study, Susan Posey, if you please,”
said Master Gridley.

Mr. Penhallow presented himself at Mr. Gridley's door,
with a countenance expressive of a very high state of excitement.

“You have heard the news, Mr. Gridley, I suppose?”

“What news, Mr. Penhallow?”

“First, that my partner has left very unexpectedly to
enlist in a regiment just forming. Second, that the great
land-case is decided in favor of the heirs of the late Malachi
Withers.”

“Your partner must have known about it yesterday?”

“He did, even before I knew it. He thought himself
possessed of a very important document, as you know, of
which he has made, or means to make, some use. You
are aware of the artifice I employed to prevent any possible
evil consequences from any action of his. I have the
genuine document, of course. I wish you to go over with
me to The Poplars, and I should be glad to have good
old Father Pemberton go with us; for it is a serious matter,
and will be a great surprise to more than one of the
family.

They walked together to the old house, where the old
clergyman had lived for more than half a century. He
was used to being neglected by the people who ran after
his younger colleague; and the attention paid him in
asking him to be present on an important occasion, as he
understood this to be, pleased him greatly. He smoothed
his long white locks, and called a granddaughter to help
make him look fitly for such an occasion, and, being at last
got into his grandest Sunday aspect, took his faithful staff,
and set out with the two gentlemen for The Poplars. On
the way, Mr. Penhallow explained to him the occasion of
their visit, and the general character of the facts he had to

announce. He wished the venerable minister to prepare
Miss Silence Withers for a revelation which would materially
change her future prospects. He thought it might
be well, also, if he would say a few words to Myrtle Hazard,
for whom a new life, with new and untried temptations,
was about to open. His business was, as a lawyer,
to make known to these parties the facts just come to his
own knowledge affecting their interests. He had asked
Mr. Gridley to go with him, as having intimate relations
with one of the parties referred to, and as having been the
principal agent in securing to that party the advantages
which were to accrue to her from the new turn of events.
“You are a second parent to her, Mr. Gridley,” he said.
“Your vigilance, your shrewdness, and your — spectacles
have saved her. I hope she knows the full extent of her obligations
to you, and that she will always look to you for
counsel in all her needs. She will want a wise friend, for
she is to begin the world anew.”

What had happened, when she saw the three grave gentlemen
at the door early in the forenoon, Mistress Kitty
Fagan could not guess. Something relating to Miss Myrtle,
no doubt: she was n't goin' to be married right off to
Mr. Clement, — was she, — and no church, nor cake, nor
anything? The gentlemen were shown into the parlor.
“Ask Miss Withers to go into the library, Kitty,” said
Master Gridley. “Dr. Pemberton wishes to speak with
her.” The good old man was prepared for a scene with
Miss Silence. He announced to her, in a kind and delicate
way, that she must make up her mind to the disappointment
of certain expectations which she had long
entertained, and which, as her lawyer, Mr. Penhallow,
had come to inform her and others, were to be finally relinquished
from this hour.

To his great surprise, Miss Silence received this communication
almost cheerfully. It seemed more like a relief
to her than anything else. Her one dread in this world
was her “responsibility”; and the thought that she might
have to account for ten talents hereafter, instead of one,
had often of late been a positive distress to her. There was
also in her mind a secret disgust at the thought of the hungry
creatures who would swarm round her if she should
ever be in a position to bestow patronage. This had
grown upon her as the habits of lonely life gave her more
and more of that fastidious dislike to males in general, as
such, which is not rare in maidens who have seen the roses
of more summers than politeness cares to mention.

Father Pemberton then asked if he could see Miss Myrtle
Hazard a few moments in the library before they went
into the parlor, where they were to meet Mr. Penhallow
and Mr. Gridley, for the purpose of receiving the lawyer's
communication.

What change was this which Myrtle had undergone
since love had touched her heart, and her visions of worldly
enjoyment had faded before the thought of sharing and
ennobling the life of one who was worthy of her best affections,
— of living for another, and of finding her own
noblest self in that divine office of woman? She had laid
aside the bracelet which she had so long worn as a kind
of charm as well as an ornament. One would have said
her features had lost something of that look of imperious
beauty which had added to her resemblance to the dead
woman whose glowing portrait hung upon her wall. And
if it could be that, after so many generations, the blood of
her who had died for her faith could show in her descendant's
veins, and the soul of that elect lady of her race

look out from her far-removed offspring's dark eyes, such
a transfusion of the martyr's life and spiritual being might
well seem to manifest itself in Myrtle Hazard.

The large-hearted old man forgot his scholastic theory
of human nature as he looked upon her face. He thought
he saw in her the dawning of that grace which some are
born with; which some, like Myrtle, only reach through
many trials and dangers; which some seem to show for a
while and then lose; which too many never reach while
they wear the robes of earth, but which speaks of the
kingdom of heaven already begun in the heart of a child
of earth. He told her simply the story of the occurrences
which had brought them together in the old house, with
the message the lawyer was to deliver to its inmates. He
wished to prepare her for what might have been too sudden
a surprise.

But Myrtle was not wholly unprepared for some such
revelation. There was little danger that any such announcement
would throw her mind from its balance after
the inward conflict though which she had been passing.
For her lover had left her almost as soon as he had told
her the story of his passion, and the relation in which he
stood to her. He, too, had gone to answer his country's call
to her children, not driven away by crime and shame and
despair, but quitting all — his new-born happiness, the art
in which he was an enthusiast, his prospects of success and
honor — to obey the higher command of duty. War was
to him, as to so many of the noble youth who went forth,
only organized barbarism, hateful but for the sacred cause
which alone redeemed it from the curse that blasted the
first murderer. God only knew the sacrifice such young
men as he made.

How brief Myrtle's dream had been! She almost
doubted, at some moments, whether she would not awake
from it, as from her other visions, and find it all unreal.
There was no need of fearing any undue excitement of her
mind after the alternations of feeling she had just experienced.
Nothing seemed of much moment to her which
could come from without, — her real world was within,
and the light of its day and the breath of its life came from
her love, made holy by the self-forgetfulness on both sides
which was born with it.

Only one member of the household was in danger of
finding the excitement more than she could bear. Miss
Cynthia knew that all Murray Bradshaw's plans, in which
he had taken care that she should have a personal interest,
had utterly failed. What he had done with the means of
revenge in his power, — if, indeed, they were still in his
power, — she did not know. She only knew that there
had been a terrible scene, and that he had gone, leaving it
uncertain whether he would ever return. It was with
fear and trembling that she heard the summons which went
forth, that the whole family should meet in the parlor to
listen to a statement from Mr. Penhallow. They all
gathered as requested, and sat round the room, with the
exception of Mistress Kitty Fagan, who knew her place
too well to be sittin' down with the likes o' them, and
stood with attentive ears in the doorway.

Mr. Penhallow then read from a printed paper the decision
of the Supreme Court in the land-case so long pending,
where the estate of the late Malachi Withers was the
claimant, against certain parties pretending to hold under
an ancient grant. The decision was in favor of the estate.

“This gives a great property to the heirs,” Mr. Penhallow

remarked, “and the question as to who these heirs are
has to be opened. For the will under which Silence
Withers, sister of the deceased, has inherited, is dated
some years previous to the decease, and it was not very
strange that a will of later date should be discovered. Such
a will has been discovered. It is the instrument I have
here.”

Myrtle Hazard opened her eyes very widely, for the
paper Mr. Penhallow held looked exactly like that which
Murray Bradshaw had burned, and, what was curious, had
some spots on it just like some she had noticed on that.

“This will,” Mr. Penhallow said, “signed by witnesses
dead or absent from this place, makes a disposition of the
testator's property in some respects similar to that of the
previous one, but with a single change, which proves to be
of very great importance.”

Mr. Penhallow proceeded to read the will. The important
change in the disposition of the property was
this. In case the land-claim was decided in favor of the
estate, then, in addition to the small provision made for
Myrtle Hazard, the property so coming to the estate
should all go to her. There was no question about the
genuineness and the legal sufficiency of this instrument.
Its date was not very long after the preceding one, at a
period when, as was well known, he had almost given up
the hope of gaining his case, and when the property was
of little value compared to that which it had at present.

A long silence followed this reading. Then, to the surprise
of all, Miss Silence Withers rose, and went to Myrtle
Hazard, and wished her joy with every appearance of
sincerity. She was relieved of a great responsibility.
Myrtle was young and could bear it better. She hoped

that her young relative would live long to enjoy the blessings
Providence had bestowed upon her, and to use them
for the good of the community, and especially the promotion
of the education of deserving youth. If some fitting person
could be found to advise Myrtle, whose affairs would
require much care, it would be a great relief to her.

They all went up to Myrtle and congratulated her on her
change of fortune. Even Cynthia Badlam got out a phrase
or two which passed muster in the midst of the general
excitement. As for Kitty Fagan, she could not say a
word, but caught Myrtle's hand and kissed it as if it belonged
to her own saint, and then, suddenly applying her
apron to her eyes, retreated from a scene which was too
much for her, in a state of complete mental beatitude and
total bodily discomfiture.

Then Silence asked the old minister to make a prayer,
and he stretched his hands up to Heaven, and called down
all the blessings of Providence upon all the household, and
especially upon this young handmaiden, who was to be
tried with prosperity, and would need all aid from above
to keep her from its dangers.

Then Mr. Penhallow asked Myrtle if she had any
choice as to the friend who should have charge of her
affairs.

Myrtle turned to Master Byles Gridley, and said, “You
have been my friend and protector so far, — will you continue
to be so hereafter?”

Master Gridley tried very hard to begin a few words
of thanks to her for her preference, but finding his voice a
little uncertain, contented himself with pressing her hand
and saying, “Most willingly, my dear daughter!”