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voice, which betrayed his own uneasiness,  that some untoward event has
occurred. Perhaps the negro and I had better retire, that you may question
Francis concerning that which hath befallen Mademoiselle Barb�rie, more at
your leisure.
The Alderman was recalled from a profound stupor, by this gentlemanlike and
considerate proposal. He bowed his acknowledgments, and permitted Mr. Van
Staats to quit the room; but when Euclid would have followed, he signed to the
negro to remain.
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 I may have occasion to question thee farther, he said, in a voice that had
lost most of that compass and depth for which it was so remarkable.  Stand
there, sirrah, and be in readiness to answer. And now, Mr. Francis, I desire
to know why my niece declines taking the breakfast with myself and my guest?
 Mon Dieu, Monsieur, it is not possible y r�pondre. Les sentiments des
demoiselles are nevair d�cides!
 Go then, and say to her, that my sentiments are decided to curtail certain
bequests and devises, which have consulted her interests more than strict
justice to others of my blood--ay, and even of my name, might dictate.
 Monsieur y r�fl�chira. Mam selle Alide be so young personne!
 Old or young, my mind is made up; and so to your Cour des F�es, and tell the
lazy minx as much. --Thou hast ridden that innocent, thou scowling imp of
darkness!
 Mais, pensez-y, je vous en prie, Monsieur. Mam selle shall nevair se sauver
encore; jamais, je vous en r�pond.
 What is the fellow jabbering about? exclaimed the Alderman, whose mouth
fell nearly to the degree that rendered the countenance of the valet so
singularly expressive of distress.  Where is my niece, Sir?--and what means
this allusion to her absence?
 La fille de Monsieur de Barb�rie n y est pas! cried Fran�ois, whose heart
was too full to utter more. The aged and affectionate domestic laid his hand
on his breast, with an air of acute suffering; and then, remembering the
presence of his superior, he turned, bowed with a manner of profound
condolence, struggled manfully with his own emotion, and succeeded in getting
out of the room with dignity and steadiness.
It is due to the character of Alderman Van Beverout, to say, that the blow
occasioned by the sudden death of the Flemish gelding, lost some of its force,
in consequence of so unlooked-for a report concerning the inexplicable absence
of his niece. Euclid was questioned, menaced, and even anathematized, more
than once, during the next ten minutes; but the cunning slave succeeded in
confounding himself so effectually with the rest of his connexions of the
half-blood, during the search which instantly followed the report of Fran�ois,
that his crime was partially forgotten.
On entering la Cour des F�es, it was, in truth, found to want her whose
beauty and grace had lent its chief attraction. The outer rooms, which were
small, and ordinarily occupied during the day by Fran�ois and the negress
called Dinah, and in the night by the latter only, were in the state in which
they might be expected to be seen. The apartment of the attendant furnished
evidence that its occupant had quitted it in haste, though there was every
appearance of her having retired to rest at the usual hour. Clothes were
scattered carelessly about; and though most of her personal effects had
disappeared, enough remained to prove that her departure had been hurried and
unforeseen.
On the other hand, the little saloon, with the dressing-room and bed-room of
la belle Barb�rie, were in a state of the most studied arrangement. Not an
article of furniture was displaced, a door ajar, or a window open. The
pavilion had evidently been quitted by its ordinary passage, and the door had
been closed in the customary manner, without using the fastenings. The bed had
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evidently not been entered, for the linen was smooth and untouched. In short,
so complete was the order of the place, that, yielding to a powerful natural
feeling, the Alderman called aloud on his truant niece, by name, as if he
expected to see her appear from some place, in which she had secreted her
person, in idle sport. But this touching expedient was vain. The voice sounded
hollow through the deserted rooms; and though all waited long to listen, there
came no playful or laughing answer back.
 Alida! cried the burgher, for the fourth and last time,  come forth, child;
I forgive thee thy idle sport, and all I have said of disinheritance was but a
jest. Come forth, my sister s daughter, and kiss thy old uncle!
The Patroon turned aside, as he heard a man so known for his worldliness
yielding to the power of nature; and the lord of a hundred thousand acres
forgot his own disappointment, in the force of sympathy.
 Let us retire, he said, gently urging the burgher to quit the place.  A
little reflection will enable us to decide what should be done.
The Alderman complied. Before quitting the place, however, its closets and
drawers were examined; and the search left no further doubts of the step which
the young heiress had taken. Her clothes, books, utensils for drawing, and
even the lighter instruments of music, had disappeared.
CHAPTER XIII.
 --Ay, that way goes the game,
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures--
Midsummer-Night s Dream
Thetide of existence floats downward, and with it go, in their greatest
strength, all those affections that unite families and kindred. We learn to
know our parents in the fullness of their reason, and commonly in the
perfection of their bodily strength. Reverence and respect both mingle with
our love; but the affection, with which we watch the helplessness of infancy,
the interest with which we see the ingenuous and young profiting by our care,
the pride of improvement, and the magic of hope, create an intensity of
sympathy in their favor, that almost equals the identity of self-love. There
is a mysterious and double existence, in the tie that binds the parent to the
child. With a volition and passions of its own, the latter has power to plant
a sting in the bosom of the former, that shall wound as acutely as the errors
which arise from mistakes, almost from crimes, of its own. But, when the
misconduct of the descendant can be traced to neglect, or to a vicious
instruction, then, indeed, even the pang of a wounded conscience may be added
to the sufferings of those who have gone before. Such, in some measure, was
the nature of the pain that Alderman Van Beverout was condemned to feel, when
at leisure to reflect on the ill-judged measure that had been taken by la
belle Barb�rie.
 She was a pleasant and coaxing minx, Patroon, said the burgher, pacing the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]