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Page 15
"It has not been opened for years," replied Miss Bond; "and I
remember, once before, Mabel wished it opened, and I refused, lest
forcing the lock might harm the marquetre, of which my poor mother was
so fond. It has never been opened since her death." But Mabel's desire
was of too much consequence, in her lover's eyes, to be passed over,
although all seemed agreed that if it were opened it could not be
played upon; so in a few minutes he procured a smith, who said he
would remove the hinges, and then unscrew the lock from the inside,
which would not injure the cover. This was done; but greatly to poor
Mabel's dismay, the cavity, where strings once had been, was filled
with old papers.
"Now, is not this provoking?" said Mabel, flinging out first one and
then another bundle of letters. "Is not this provoking?"
"No, no," exclaimed Sarah Bond, grasping a lean, long, parchment,
round which an abundance of tape was wound. "No. Who knows what may
be found here?" At once the idea was caught, Mabel thought no more
of the strings. "I cannot," said Sarah Bond to Mr. Goulding, "untie
this; can you?" Her fingers trembled, and she sank on her knees by the
clergyman's side. The eyes of the little group were fixed upon him;
not a word was spoken; every breath was hushed; slowly he unfastened
knot after knot; at last the parchment was unfolded; still, neither
Sarah Bond nor Mabel spoke; the latter gasped for breath--her lips
apart, her cheeks flushed; while Sarah's hands were clasped together,
locked upon her bosom, and every vestige of colour had deserted her
face.
"Be calm, my dear friend," he said, after glancing his eyes over the
parchment; "be calm. You have experienced enough of the changes and
chances of this world not to build too quickly upon any foundation but
the one--the goodness of God; I do believe this is an especial proof
of His Providence, for I do think this is Cornelius Bond Hobart's
original will in your uncle's favour."
It would be useless to attempt a description of the scene that
followed; but the joy at the _reality_ of the discovery was a heartful
temperate joy--the joy of chastened hearts. Sarah Bond, blessing God,
above all things, that, go the law as it would, her father's memory
would now be held as the memory of an honest man; that he had, as she
had said, copied, not forged the will. Mr. Goulding declared he should
find it difficult to forgive himself for having so long prevented the
old furniture from being sent, assuring her, the dread that Mabel was
unfit to contend with the privations to which the lives of humble men
are doomed, made him tremble for the happiness of the young friend who
had been consigned to his care by a dying mother; he feared to renew
the intercourse, until her character was developed; while poor Mabel
had little thought how closely she was watched along the humble and
thorny paths she had to traverse.
Sarah Bond's spirit was so chastened, that she regretted nothing save
the shadow cast upon her father's grave; and now that was removed,
she was indeed happy. She assured the rector how useful adversity had
been to them--how healthful it had rendered Mabel's mind--and how much
better, if they recovered what had been lost, they should know how to
employ their means of usefulness. Mr. Lycight's congratulations were
not so hearty as Mr. Goulding's; he felt that _now_ he was the curate
and Mabel the heiress; and he heard the kind good night which Mabel
spoke with a tingling ear. _He_, was proud in his own way; and pride,
as well as his affection, had been gratified by the idea of elevating
her he loved. Mabel saw this, and she wept during the sleepless night,
that he should believe her so unworthy and so ungrateful.
There was much to think of and to do; the witnesses were to be found,
and lawyers consulted, and proceedings taken, and much of the turmoil
and bitterness of the law to be endured, which it pains every honest
heart to think upon; and Mr. Cramp was seized with a sudden fit of
virtuous indignation against Mr. Alfred Bond, after Sarah Bond's
new "man of business" had succeeded in producing the only one of the
witnesses in existence, who, he also discovered, had been purposely
kept out of the way, on a former occasion, by some one or other. The
delays were vexatious, and the quirks and turns, and foldings, and
doubles innumerable; but they came to an end at last, and Mr. Alfred
Bond was obliged in his turn to vacate the old mansion, in which he
had revelled--a miser in selfish pleasures.
I have dwelt longer than was perhaps necessary on the _minuti�_ of
this relation, the principal events of which are so strongly impressed
upon my memory. But the more I have thought over the story, the more
I have been struck with the phases and impulses of Sarah Bond's
unobtrusive, but deep feeling mind; her self-sacrificing spirit, her
devotion to her father's will, her dread, when first in possession of
the property, that any _one_ act of liberality on her part might be
considered a reproach to his memory; her habits struggling with her
feelings, leading me to the conclusion that she would never have
become, even with the expanding love of her niece to enlarge her
views, thoroughly unmanacled from the parsimonious habits of her
father, but for her lesson in adversity, which, instead of teaching as
it does a worldly mind, the _value of money_, taught her higher nature
_its proper uses_.
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