mamma, but you are beautiful," insisted Harold; "it isn't only my love that makes you look so to me, though I do love you dearly – dearly."
"Mamma knows we all do," said Violet; "we should be monsters of ingratitude if we did not."
"As I should be if I were not filled with thankfulness to God that he has blessed me with such dutiful and affectionate children," added the mother.
"Mamma, how soon will we go to Viamede?" asked Violet; and that question being answered, another quickly followed. "We will not leave Molly behind?"
"No, certainly not; nor Aunt Enna, if they will kindly consent to go with us."
"Consent, mamma! I'm sure they cannot help being delighted to go. May I run and tell them?"
"Yes, my child; I know you always enjoy being the bearer of pleasant news."
Molly heard it with great pleasure and gratitude to her cousin; Enna with even childish delight. Neither had a thought of declining.
Isadore Conly, also, was very much pleased, and sure she should vastly enjoy the winter with her relations, spite of many an envious prognostication to the contrary on the part of her mother and Virginia. They would not go on any account, they averred, and were glad they had been overlooked in the invitation – mean as it was in Elsie not to include them – for life at Viamede could not fail to be a very dull affair for that winter at least.
But Elsie, of course, heard none of these unkind remarks, and seeing the happiness she was conferring not only upon more distant relations but upon her children also, who showed increasing pleasure in the thought of the expected visit to their lovely southern home as the time drew near, she felt fully repaid for the sacrifice of feeling she was making.
CHAPTER VIII
"'Tis easier for the generous to forgive Than for offence to ask it."
The only noteworthy incident of the journey of our friends took place at New Orleans, where they halted for a few days of rest to all, and sight-seeing on the part of the young people.
Mr. Horace Dinsmore, who had some business matters to attend to in connection with Elsie's property in the city, was hurrying back to his hotel one afternoon, when a beggar accosted him, asking for a little help, holding out a very forlorn hat to receive it.
There seemed something familiar in the voice, and Mr. Dinsmore stopped and looked earnestly at its owner.
A seamed, scarred face, thin, cadaverous, framed in with unkempt hair and scraggy beard – an attenuated form clothed in rags – these were what met his view, surely for the first time, for there was nothing familiar about either.
No, not for the first time; for, with a start of recognition and a muttered curse, the mendicant dropped his hat, then stooped, hastily snatched it from the ground, and rushed away down an alley.
"Ah, I know you now!" cried Mr. Dinsmore, giving instant pursuit.
He could not be mistaken in the peculiarly maimed hand stretched out to regain the hat.
Its owner fled as if for his life, but, weak from disease and famine, could not distance his pursuer.
At last, finding the latter close at his heels, he stopped and faced him, leaning, panting and trembling, against a wall.
"George Boyd, is it you? reduced to such a condition as this!" exclaimed Mr. Dinsmore, eying him searchingly.
"You've mistaken your man, sir," panted the fugitive. "My name's Brown – Sam Brown at your service."
"Then why did you run away from me?" coolly inquired the gentleman. "No, I cannot mistake that hand," pointing to the maimed member.
"And you'd like to hang me, I suppose," returned the other bitterly. "But I don't believe you could do it here. Beside, what's the use? I'll not cumber the ground much longer, can't you see that? Travilla himself," he added, with a fierce oath, "can hardly wish me anything worse than I've come to. I'm literally starving – can hardly get enough food to keep soul and body together from one day to another."
"Then come with me and I will feed you," Mr. Dinsmore said, his whole soul moved with pity for the miserable wretch. "Yonder is a restaurant; let us go there, and I will pay for all you can eat."
"You don't mean it?" cried Boyd in incredulous surprise.
"I do; every word of it. Will you come?"
"A strange question to ask a starving man. Of course I will; only too gladly."
They crossed the street, entered the eating-house, and Mr. Dinsmore ordered a substantial meal set before Boyd. He devoured it with wolfish voracity, his entertainer watching him for a moment, then turning away in pained disgust.
Time after time plate and cup were filled and emptied, but at last he declared his appetite fully satisfied. Mr. Dinsmore paid the reckoning, and they passed out into the street together.
"Well, sir," said Boyd, "I'm a thousand times obliged. Shall be more so if you will accommodate me with a small loan – or gift if you like, for I haven't a cent in the world."
"How much do you think you deserve at my hands?" asked Mr. Dinsmore somewhat severely, for the request seemed to him a bold one under the circumstances.
"I leave that to your generosity, sir," was the cool reply.
"Which you expect to be great enough to allow you to escape the justice that should have been meted out to you years ago?"
"I've never harmed a hair of your head nor of any one belonging to you; though I owe a heavy scare to both you and Travilla," was the insolent rejoinder.
"No, your imprisonment was the due reward of your lawless and cruel deeds."
"Whatever I may have done," retorted the wretch with savage ferocity, "it was nothing compared to the injury inflicted upon me. I suffered inconceivable torture. Look at me and judge if I do not speak the truth; look at these fearful scars, these almost blinded eyes." He finished with a torrent of oaths and curses directed at Travilla.
"Stop!" said Mr. Dinsmore authoritatively, "you are speaking against the sainted dead, and he entirely innocent of the cause of your sufferings."
"What! is he dead? When? where? how did he die?"
"At Ion, scarce two months ago, calmly, peacefully, trusting with undoubting faith in the atoning blood of Christ."
Boyd stood leaning against the outer wall of the restaurant; he was evidently very weak; he seemed awe-struck, and did not speak again for a moment; then, "I did not know it," he said in a subdued tone. "So he's gone! And his wife? She was very fond of him."
"She was indeed. She is in this city with her family, on her way to Viamede."
"I'm sorry for her; never had any grudge against her," said Boyd. "And my aunt?"
"Is still living and in good health, but beginning to feel the infirmities of age. She has long mourned for you as worse than dead. You look ill able to stand; let me help you to your home."
"Home? I have none." There was a mixture of scorn and despair
