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Page 8
A sob choked all further utterance.
How oppressed was the cold-hearted, selfish man of the world! His
thoughts were all clouded, and his lips for a time sealed. As the
dying woman said, so he felt that it was. The time of her departure
had come. An instinct of self-protection--protection for his
feelings--caused him, after a few moments, to say, and he turned
partly from the bed as he spoke--
"Some of your friends should be with you, madam, at this time. Let me
go for them. Have you a sister or near relative in the city?"
The words and movement of Mr. Jasper restored at once the conscious
self-possession of the dying mother, and she raised herself partly up
with a quick motion, and a gleam of light in her countenance.
"Oh, sir," she said eagerly, "do not go yet. I have no sister, no near
relative; none but you to whom I can speak my last words and give my
last injunction. You were my husband's friend while he lived, and to
you has he committed the care of his widow and orphan. I am called,
alas, too soon! to follow him; and now, in the sight of God, and
in the presence of his spirit--for I feel that he is near us now--I
commit to you the care of this dear child. Oh, sir! be to her as a
father. Love her tenderly, and care for her as if she were your own.
Her heart is rich with affection, and upon you will its treasures be
poured out. Take her! take her as your own! Here I give to you, in
this the solemn hour of my departure, that which to me is above all
price."
And as she said this, with a suddenly renewed strength, she lifted
the child, and, ere Jasper could check the movement, placed her in his
arms. Then, with one long, eager, clinging kiss pressed upon the
lips of that child, she sank backward on the bed; and life, which had
flashed up brightly for a moment, went out in this world for ever.
CHAPTER III.
Leonard Jasper would have been less than human had he borne such an
assault upon his feelings without emotion; less than human had his
heart instantly and spontaneously rejected the dying mother's wildly
eloquent appeal. He was bewildered, startled, even deeply moved.
The moment he could, with propriety and a decent regard for
appearances, get away from the house where he had witnessed so painful
a scene, he returned to his place of business in a sobered, thoughtful
state of mind. He had not anticipated so direct a guardianship of
Ruben Elder's child as it was evident would now devolve upon him,
in consequence of the mother's death. Here was to be trouble for
him--this was his feeling so soon as there was a little time for
reaction--and trouble without profit. He would have to take upon
himself the direct charge of the little girl, and duly provide for her
maintenance and education.
"If there is property enough for this, well and good," he muttered
to himself; he had not yet become acquainted with the real state of
affairs. "If not," he added, firmly, "the loss will be hers; that is
all. I shall have sufficient trouble and annoyance, without being put
to expense."
For some time after his return to his store, Jasper refrained from
entering upon any business. During at least fifteen or twenty minutes,
he sat at his desk, completely absorbed in thought. At length he
called to Edward Claire, his principal clerk, and said that he wished
to speak a few words with him. The young man came back from the
counter to where he was sitting, wondering what had produced the very
apparent change in his employer's state of mind.
"Edward," said Mr. Jasper, in a low, serious voice, "there is a
little matter that I must get you to attend to for me. It is not very
pleasant, it is true; though nothing more than people are required to
do every day. You remember Mr. Elder, Ruben Elder, who formerly kept
store in Second street?"
"Very well."
"He died last week."
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