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Page 76
The only other anxiety besetting him arose from the loss of the ring.
He looked upon it as a talisman of excellent virtue, and moreover
perceived that in case Balder should pick it up, it might become the
means of identifying its owner and obstructing his plans. But these
were mere contingencies. The probability was that young Helwyse would
ultimately appear at his uncle's house, and would there be ensnared in
the seductive meshes of Manetho's web. The ring was most likely at the
bottom of the Sound. So, smiling his subtle feminine smile, the
Egyptian fell asleep, to dream of the cordial welcome he would give
his expected guest.
Towards midnight of the same day he approaches the house by way of the
winding avenue, his violin-case safe in hand. He steps out joyfully
beneath the wide-spread minuet of twinkling stars. On his way he comes
to a moss-grown bench at the foot of a mighty elm,--the bench on which
he sat with Helen during the stirring moments of their last interview.
Manetho's soul overflows to-night with flattering hopes, and he has
spare emotion for any demand. He drops on his knees beside this
decayed old bench, and kisses it twice or thrice with tender
vehemence; stretches out his arms to embrace the air, and ripples
forth a half-dozen sentences,--pleading, insinuating, passionate. He
can love her again as much as ever, now that the wrong done him is on
the eve of requital.
But his mood is no less fickle than melting. Already he is up and
away, almost dancing along the shadowed, romantic tree-aisle, his eyes
glistening black in the starlight,--no longer with a lover's luxurious
sorrow, but with the happy anticipation of an artless child, promised
a holiday and playthings. So lightsome and expansive is Manetho's
heart, the hollow hemisphere of heaven seems none too roomy for it!
Evil as well as good knows its moments of bliss,--its hours! Hell is
the heaven of devils, and they want no better. Often do the wages of
sin come laden with a seeming blessing that those of virtue lack. The
sinner looks upon Satan's face, and it is to him as the face of God!
But from the womb of this grim truth is born a noble consolation. Were
hell mere torment, and joy in heaven only, where were the good man's
merit? Only when the choice lies between two heavens--the selfish and
the unselfish--is the battle worthy the fighting! No human soul dies
from earth that attains not heaven,--that heaven which the heart
chiefly sought while in this world; and herefrom is the genesis of
virtue. Sin brings its self-inflicted penalties there as here; but
hell is still the happiness of man, heaven of God!
Reaching the house, Manetho passed through the open door, crossed the
hall with his customary noiselessness, and entered the conservatory.
Despite the darkness, he was at once aware of the motionless group
beneath the palm-trees. A stranger in the house was something so
unprecedented that he could not repress a throb of alarm. Nurse looked
up and beckoned him. Drawing near, he heard the long, deep breathing
of the sleeper. With a sudden fore-glimpse of the truth, he knelt
down, and bent over the upturned countenance.
Though the beard was close-shaven and the hair cropped short, there
could be no doubt about the face. His guest had come before him, and
was lying defenceless at his feet; but Manetho harbored no thought of
violence. He pressed his slender hands together with an impulse of
sympathy. "Poor fellow!" he whispered, "how he has suffered! How the
horror of blood-guiltiness must have tortured him! The noble Helwyse
hair,--all gone! Too dear a price to pay for the mere sacrifice of a
human life! And pain and all might have been spared him,--poor fellow!
poor fellow!" Manetho lacked but little of shedding true tears over
the evidence of his dearest foe's useless dread and anguish. Did he
wish Balder to bring undulled nerves to his own torture-chamber?
His lament over, Manetho turned to Nurse for such information
regarding the guest's arrival and behavior as she might have to
communicate. Of his own affair with Balder he made no mention. The
conversation was carried on by signs, according to a code long since
grown up between the two. When the tale was told, Nurse was despatched
to make ready Helen's room for the new-comer, and thither did the two
laboriously bear him, and laid him, still sleeping, on his mother's
bed.
XXVI.
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