Dinah

Chapter I. Piokeee

Lsr a stately theatre of woods and waters in my country, at a proper bucolical distance from the soundins; of the sea, there stands a summer house, to which

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two or three years ago as the lustre of the season was mounting to its noon, came a lady and her son to re tire awhile from the gilded artificialities of city life. The patient vicar who is intrusted with the care of the human flock, must have laughed a little when he came to look over these people, who were expending the busiest portion of their time chiefly in meditating upon the disagreeable necessity of passing through the re mainder.

The house stands in a bosky silence ; the broken accents of the waters and the conversation of the birds seem no louder than a reposing poet would dream those of lazy-land to be ; though sometimes, of course, the storms come by here, roaring on high like ocean shells to the infant's ear. On the romantic fields about, a while ago, a native genius whose soul was sick with a multitude of parallelograms tried to subdue nature to an angular harmony. With some gentle touches of a rounded growth, the goddess accepted his landscape poem, and incorporated it as a fair chapter of her greater work around, which was to be read further in the scenic horroi* of the mountains in the distance and the waving forests rising over each other on the sides thereof in theatric grandeur.

The proprietor of this farm, at that period, was a gentleman by the name of Pompney, whose grand American ancestor was the pioneer who first settled the grant upon which the farm stands, and whose grand father, it was reported, (as he had returned to this place enriched with the money of romantic marine adven ture,) had been a sea-cook, and whose father, in con sequence, was a terrible " son of a sea-cook." From this extraordinary derivation of his blood, he had be come so saturated with pride of lineage that he went to the expense of keeping a poet to bring forth family traditions, (the same individual who discovered his genius in other walks of art, and sowed the grounds about with broken-nosed statues, &c.) After an ap prenticeship in seventeen variations of the pirate and twenty-six of his son, this ingenious native's talents culminated in the invention of an epic in poetic prose concerning the pioneer. The next day after his arrival, while wandering in the garret, (for sinister purposes, perhaps,) Charles discovered this manuscript. Its com mencement amused him. It was represented that one morning somewhere between the years 1600 and 1700, Sir Guy de Pompion, of Korman blood, left the white cliffs of his native home in the good ship Hottentot, (it being hinted that he was also in a state of intoxica tion,) to found for aye his noble race in the wilds of the !N^ew World — one of the rare instances where there were not three brothers of the original family who came over, but only one. On the voyage a severe storm arose, but throwing some of the steerage passengers overboard, they lightened the ship and she reached America in safety. In his native laud, his nature had been almost decomposed by some unexpected remarks from the lady of his soul. Having asked her one day, in the high jinks of his feelings, if she would have him for better or worse, she replied that she had come to the conclusion, from a minute investigation of his weak nesses, that it would only be for worse, and she had better not ; that she thought she could never become acclimated to him, for instance, (probably alluding to his fondness for tobacco and Hollands.)

In consequence of this unexpected confession, being desirous of getting as far into the woods as possible, he started off and linally reached these green forests with a grant of the lands about, and a suit of his ancestor's armor in his trunk, under the weight of which, when clad therein, he was continually falling down. Here he erected a stone house of the composite order, which was a decided proof, from its unrequired irregularity, that necessity was not the mother of invention in his case ; being assisted in the work by the circumambient sons of the forest, who at the same time freely extended to him their succor in the consumption of the well-known energetic beverages of the day. Indeed, as long as there were any of these in his rundlets, the eccentric aborigines were very friendly and polite ; but whenever his kegs smelt of emptiness, they were accustomed to declare war against him immediately, to surprise him, and take him prisoner, armor and all.

After a life of vicissitude in this respect, in which it seemed he was continually being captured, and con tinually ransoming himself with new stocks of the incendiary waters, he was finally slaughtered by a princess while, in the afternoon silence of a summerday, he was dreaming in quiet sorrow at a window, of one who was far away. In this wild daughter of the

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woods whom he took to himself with all the' solemnity of disappointed affection, he fancied, faithful creature, a rapturous contrast to her whom he left in his cradlehome. However, (to abbreviate an elongated narra tive,) for the purpose of furthering some social plan, in spite of his upraised and wounded wrist, she insinu- m ated into his soul a flinty dagger, and he died, leaving an heir of course.

After the poet had ingeniously manufactured this stirring tradition, of which the foregoing are the dry bones without the flesh of the poesy or even their own enamel, he submitted it to his friend, the descendant of this heroic pioneer. In the trueness of first thoughts the old gentleman immediately ducked down into ec stasies of admiration at it ; but afterwards, in the ine briety of reflection, came to object with growing firm ness to the disagreeable inference therefrom of being descended from a red Indian ; and although the male siren who sung the song, endeavored to persuade him in a silvery manner that he might trifle with the chastity of history enough to make this spendthrift female a beautiful Dutch girl taken captive in infancy from the Albany settlements, this only seemed to make the mat-

DINAH.

ter more unsatisfactory ; and indeed, towards the close of his career, the old gentleman, who had evidently ex perienced a sad reverse in his natural feelings, seemed disgusted with all the legends.

However they are*ambered in the belief of many farmers about the neighborhood, who love to dwell particularly upon this one of the pioneer — affirming further that he and his murderess are accustomed to rise, the one from his sarcophagus by the side of the church, and the other from her charnel-wigwam in the ancient Indian burial-ground, and wander in wrangling about the neighboring country, or even to the house again ; for, in expanding it from its humble origin, as the pioneer's dwelling, into a lofty modern romance, its successive owners had preserved in the morning fresh ness of a new architecture the sunset hue of the old -tra dition about it. Further, the inhabitants of the country have the more shadowy tradition that the spirits of the poor aborigines in whose midst the pioneer dwelt, on still summer days in the woods of the estate, are yet accustomed to sit down in grisly files to grand shadowy banquets, in ghostly continuance of some mysterious piety of their earthly lives. Noises not easily accounted for have been heard at unusual hours in different places of the neighborhood, and mysterious and wildly attired beings also have been frequently met, who could give no satisfactory account of themselves, and who also generally managed to disappear in the most unexpected and, as it were, unearthly manner, without a proper ex planation of their presence. The fact that, on several of these occasions spoons and other utensils have been missed from the neighborhood, has corroborated the possibility of these supernatural feasts — being taken

•without doubt by these ghostly beings for use at the same. So reason, in a triumphant manner, the Atlases of these traditions.

But let us chase from our minds all unseemly levity and idle thought. I will desecrate no longer the solemn dignity of these ancient woods and their legends. The chill of doubt, the flush of pride, the sparkle of cour age, the convulsion of remorse, the grandeur of fidelity, the hopes and fears of human hours, are also parts of a mystery.

Chapter II. The Noctuen"

THERE was nothing stirring in the silence of the night but the spoilt child of the winds, idling from the west in his dallying way. All the rest of the house hold had retired, and their limbs long since were pal sied in the exquisite idiocy of sleep, while Charles, the weary bearer to himself of the empty tales of this world, sat bent upon his bed with one boot off, listening in an ecstasy of revery to his own genius as she expatiated upon the absurdities of this mortal state. His mind reverted to the past, the darkness and the breeze in these lofty groves a hundred years back ! " So that is the romantic window in which the wild pioneer sat when the Indian slew him ! Pshaw ! the old fellow's ro mance is as insipid as reality is nowadays ! " Still re flecting, as he disrobed himself, upon the tradition of the pioneer, he fell down upon his pillows, and after a lengthy period of the night expended in the varied gymnastics of restlessness, or in sound repose, his con sciousness finally reached that state in which, though the soul has no longer its royal intercourse with the outer world, the imagination still makes use of the im mediate objects of the senses in the structure of its airy figments.

The night had now sunk into such a deep stillness that thought even would have seemed noisy ; the breeze moved the lacery of the curtains only in the hushed fairy way which some women's hands have, and that dark illumination, coming from the yet unariseii moon, which may be fancied to be, it is so faint, no more than the feeble effort of unhappy Darkness to assimilate her character to that of her brighter sister, had raised in feeble relief the various objects in the chamber, when the door of the room opened, and a person, with head bowed down upon his bosom, coming quietly in, walked slowly and irregularly to the win dow where the ancient pioneer left his life. There, with the air which people have when they reflect deeply upon some secret sorrow, he sank into the chair which stood by its side, and remained in that melan choly attitude. The dream, if it were not reality, was such a ^ cunning counterfeit that the recumbent young man endeavored, though in vain, to shake off the rigid spell which entranced his limbs, while the drops of per spiration" gathered upon his brow. If, indeed, this were creature of reality, with his soul thus wrapt far away in the ethereal depths of sorrowful abstraction, he had given up the wish, or the power had been suddenly wrested from him, of consummating the earthly errand which brought him hither, whether of deadly violence 1* or of softer crime. Just as the closing mist of sleep shut out this witch-like vision from his mind, the young man seemed to understand that a purring cat was rub bing her back against the chair of the phantom as if for recognition.

Soon the * clouds of unconsciousness floated away again, and disclosed to his disordered intelligence a curious series of dissolving phantasmagoria. "While he seemed to himself to be struggling to scrutinize the indistinguishable lineaments of his visitor halfturned towards him, they appeared to become dislimned or changed with wild rapidity into novel and grotesque shapes, although the same single expression of sadness, curiously enough, remained through them all, being perhaps the substratum of the thought which cunningly furnished forth the whole scene. This change succeeded also in the form as well as the face of the vis itant. As it had first seemed the figure of a youth struck motionless with sudden remorse at his unex ecuted intention, it now changed to that of an aged man bowed with years of degradation and misery. Then it assumed the romantic form of the hoofed fiend or satyr doing his worst and mocking sorrow, to be transformed as quickly into a phantom statue — the classic form of the emotion of sorrow chiselled out of the sleeper's eccentric brain. As rapidly as this dis order had taken place in the whole scene did it flit into sudden composure. The sleeper thought he saw the mystery more as if raising his countenance to gaze in vacancy upon the obscure scenery outside, and receive upon his brow the gentle air which came in wooingly. Had the spirit of the pioneer thus wandered again from his bed of dust to seek the sorrowful scene of his earthly existence ? A deep sigh, and a feeble, suppressed mut tering escaped his unearthly lips, and wringing those real hands whose dusty counterparts were crumbling beneath the sod, he started but to sink again at the bitterness of feelings which it seemed were to live for ever in his bosom. Here a new actor, apparently of the other sex, entered the scene, for a still image standing suddenly by the door discovered itself to the conscious ness of the sleeper as the fatal sweetheart of the past. "With the habiliments of woman thrown loosely around her and thus retained by one hand, which was dis closed with the face and bosom, the stooping shoulders and bare feet only by a whiter reflection, she seemed to have stopped for a startled moment to listen breath lessly in the silence, in playing over again the watch of her purposed victim in the old tragedy. And now apparently casting a rapid glance about the room, a glance which, from the movement of her head, seemed to the sleeper to rest for an anxious moment upon him, she sped rapidly, with firm but noiseless steps, to the mysterious personage in the embrasure. From his lips

there dropped a singular babble of surprise and

Here the shadows again fell like a curtain over the soul of the sleeper. The forms as they stood there, and the whole scene, faded at once into nothingness.

But his limbs stirred, for his entranced dream was breaking up, and he was emerging from the shadowy into the real world again. Disenthralled from the bond of his trance, he leaped in faint bewilderment upon the floor, and seizing the pitcher of water from its basin with a sleepy inspiration of defence, he rushed instinctively to the door and cried an alarm, in a voice weak with excitement. He glanced around the room, and down the shadowy corridor, along which the wind gently sighed, but could distinguish no moving object. The light of the rising moon stole through the leaves, and into the casement at the distant end. Amid her clear beams, he saw at the head of the staircase a cat who appeared unalarmed at his presence, as though consciously protected by friends, human or witch, to whom she seemed to be mewing lightly her adieux.

Had the instinctive cry of the young man been heard by any of the inmates of the household, they would, of course, have already spoken. But as the wide hall led away from the modern part of the remodelled house to the rough stone reminiscence of the pioneer, whose chamber Charles had selected for its coolness as his sleeping apartment, he was so far separated from the rest of the household that his voice had not been heard. He had at first turned back into his chamber, but now as he was walking towards the staircase, a dull, un earthly utterance suddenly broken off fell on his ear and stopped him in surprise. It seemed a clear reality indeed, but still an inarticulate babbling sound sud denly stopping, as when a drunken man asks an im proper question, and his lips are abruptly sealed by the hand of the impatient listener. A slight creaking ap peared to take place on the lower part of the staircase, to which he approached in bewilderment, and some thing like a secret anxious whisper was borne along to Jiis ear. The doors of the hall beneath were custom arily left open at night in the summer season, to take advantage of the cooling draughts of air, but naught there attracted his attention excepting upon the glass panels of one of them the half of the door-post's shadow cut by the planet's oblique flood. There was no creature to be seen, though lie plainly heard a retreating pattering noise, the footfalls of the now alarmed pussy.

" By Jove ! what is this ? " said he, as he wandered in quick yet quiet examination even upon the terrace outside, " there is no one, and yet that ejaculation. It seemed so distinct and peculiar ! — (a pause) — pshaw, it was the cat ! — (another pause) — to be sure ! I have been dreaming about the pioneer, and am half asleep now ; — how stupid — luckily no one has been disturbed. Gracious, this night air is quite cool to the — limbs — aw ! (yawning). Ha ! what is that ? Jove, how stupid I am. The slightest noise made by the breeze startles me. — "Well, this is amusing."

Returning to his room with uncertain feelings, he awaited in indefinite expectation some further develop ment, but after a varied reflection upon the singularity of his vision, as nothing further disturbed the deep silence, he commenced to pass the night in the hum drum manner of nature recuperating herself.

; . CHAPTER III.

NEIGHBOR LATTEA.

ONE day, soon after his arrival, Charles's aunt, a maiden lady who had now reached the age of from twenty-nine to seventy, and who was the permanent resident of the country-house, proceeded to visit an old gentleman of the neighborhood and his daughter, a lively young lady who had lately arrived from the metropolis, and for whom in callow times Charles had ruffled his pin-feathers in tender pride as her especial playmate. The indefinite idea of a union between these two families from motives connected with a long friendship, had frequently passed through the minds of the elder mem bers thereof, and as it is usual in these cases to keep the project with some secrecy from those most interested until the period when they think for themselves and marry whomsoever they please, it had not assumed a shape until Charles's late return from the old world, whither he went to finish his education, (by getting stoned by Arabs in ancient cities, or scouring deserts on the- top of camels,) and until the recent eman cipation of the young lady from a boarding-school, which came pretty near finishing her's. The aunt, and the young lady's father in particular, had already con versed frequently and with fervor upon the subject, the former taking a maiden aunt's interest in it ; and as she had dropped the alarming observation that the family union could be accomplished at any rate by his marrying her in case the young people should not fancy each other, the latter had also become quite frantic in his zeal for the proposition. It being observed by the two, with some sentiments of chagrin, since the advent of the young people in the neighborhood, that the young lady was disposed to be universal and love everybody, while the young man seemed possessed of scarce enough of the divine afflatus to bestow upon himself — the spinster, after much study, had hit upon an ingenious plan of directing the young people towards each other, which was immediately agreed to by the other conspirator, as he had discovered that he hadn't the slightest power of originating one himself.

On reaching the mansion of the old gentleman, Charles, who had accompanied his aunt, having nothing in particular to say as usual, accepted the challenge of the young lady to a game of billiards, and the relatives being thus left alone, the following colloquy took place between them.

SPINSTER, in a startling manner. " The Misses "White took riding lessons ! "

LAUKA'S PARENT. " Eh, did they, indeed ? "

AUNT, with severity. " They had eruptions, and were disappointed in their expectations."

" God bless me. You don't say so. Did they have eruptions because they were disappointed, or was it vice versa f "

" Oh, lor, how abstracted I am becoming, to be sure, Mr. "Wellwood. I was thinking of some dear, dear friends you are unacquainted with — aye — 'twas but the revery of friendship ! Forgive me ! "

" Well, I will this time," said the old gentleman, with a suspicious air.

" How natural the young people look together," said the old maid, after a pause.

" Yes, it's very natural for 'em to be together just now. It reminds me of an occurrence like it, which — "

" Certainly ! of course ! And do you remember our last conversation, Mr. Wellwood ? "

" Oh, yes, and we must press 'em," said the other, with sudden liveliness.

" But what if we should not succeed ? Aye, what if fate should have decreed that the union of our families may never take place — at least in this way, although — "

" Fate is all right. (Heavens ! She is commencing — it reminds me of a man I once knew, precisely in a similar condition of peril, by energetic measures, thus and thus, he saved himself. I must keep it up !) Hoo ray ! We must succeed. "We'll manage them. Yes, you take one side and I — "

" Oh ! I pray you do not get excited yet, Mr. Wellwood," said the old maid, somewhat pettishly. "In deed, you must reserve your energies. Do not "be in discreet, Mr. Wellwood, and have confidence in me."

" Well, I won't," replied the other, in a brief man ner, calming down.

Here, on a sudden, both were seized with a desire to talk to each other at once ; the spinster being filled with the immediate execution of her project, and the old gentleman being reminded of an occurrence which he had heard of. However, as the latter was obliged, after a few determined minutes, to give up, on suddenly recollecting that the point of his narrative was slightly indelicate, the old maid proceeded to unfold her plan more at leisure, and reduced it finally to an immediate execution. By the time she had finished, the young people had concluded their game, and soon after she took occasion to walk up and down with the young lady in the conservatory.

" Laura, my child," finally said she, after a myste rious silence, " I am about to reveal a secret which doesn't belong to me, which — "

" You are certainly correct. If it doesn't belong to you, you have no right to keep it a moment."

"Yes, well, there has been a subject upon my mind of which I have long wished to divest it. It may not be becoming in me, and indeed I don't know whether it is exactly right — "

" But as it is on your mind, Adeline, I don't see who is to do it, unless you do," said the young lady, persuasively.

" "Well, then, my dear, I will proceed. There are moments when we feel, as it were, that any slight de monstration of feeling, by acts of aifection observed in our friends in reference to parties not yet aware that those demonstrations indicate this affection, as connect ed with such feelings, enables us at once, as it were, to discriminate with reference to these feelings which — "

" Certainly," said Laura.

" And I say discriminate, although accompanying our diagnosis of the case, there may be natural feelings of interested intimacy which we ourselves must expe rience, and from this very interest which thus arises out of that collateral relationship, we may be said to be, in a measure, both the physician and patient."

" I do not know precisely what you intend to illus trate, Adeline, but I can fully appreciate the delicate difficulty of such a position. "What would the feelings of the physician in such a case be, for instance, if he lost his patient ? "

" Yes, this is a serious matter, and although having an intimate relation with social existence, I wish to con sider it here only as touching upon that more personal point which I referred to just now, to be sure, and being taken as connected with those demonstrations in any other matter referring to that point — •"

(" Gracious ! These — that — those — the other ! ) By the way," said the young lady, mildly, " before we pro ceed any further, allow me to observe, Adeline, that what ever this problem of social existence may be to which you refer, it appears to be one of a very abstruse nature.

"Would it not, therefore, be better to entertain a stricter economy in the employment of demonstratives ? They are a very useful part of speech, no doubt, but quite confusing when immoderately partaken of."

" Well, then, I will come to it at once — yes, ahem ! Have you not noticed the singular languishing air which has lately betrayed itself in my nephew Charles, my dear girl ? "

" Yes. I never saw such laziness and indifference in my life."

" Oh, no, not indifference, but melancholy and languishment. He is consumed with a secret passion ! "

" What ? "

" A longing, lingering passion," continued the old maid, with great hesitation. " Yes — and you — and you its sacred object ! "

" Oh dear — what did you say ? "

" Yes, he probably would have betrayed his ardent passion ere this to you, but no doubt he feared that he might be taken in, so to say — excuse the phrase."

" Ha ! ha ! Gracious heavens ! — but — "

" It has even got into his appetite. He can't eat or drink — think of it, my dearest girl — such is his pas sion for you ! That is, with any ease."

" But he sleeps with facility, I can assure you. While I was talking with him the other night, he posi tively went to sleep."

" Ah ! his passion sought refuge in the sweet vis ions of slumber. There all his maddening wishes seemed reality and — besides that, you are mistaken, he didn't go to sleep."

" Yes ! and what is more, I think — indeed — he snored !"

" It was his melancholy choking his natural utter ance."

" But such general indifference."

" Ah, there it is ; he is piqued with yours."

" But there might he some slight demonstration ! — Dear me ! " said the young lady, musing, " once in the city just after he returned from Europe, I remember he seated himself by my side and said, ' Laura ; ' then having raised his .eyes with an air of complaint he suddenly arose and walked oif. Though the conversa tion was brief, his manner was certainly fervent ! "

" Yes ! yes ! and now, my dearest girl — but let us go to the billiard-room. He must betray his passion. In your presence there must be moments when un guarded looks or words will reveal this preying, aye, consuming secret ! Certainly ! "

The placid object of this conversation had been making a most malignant run at billiards, the old gen tleman's part of the game being in fact principally to trot around, spot the balls, and mark the game. In consequence of this, and from the irritating fact that he didn't know how to commence the conversation which he desired to hold with the young man, his feel ings soon got into a high state of ferment.

" Bah ! " said he, " I give up the game."

" Ha ! ha ! " said the young man, lazily.

" Hang me if I want him for a son-in-law," mur mured the exasperated old gentleman.

" It is your shot," cried Charles finally.

" Ah ! you missed, eh ? " said the old gentleman, suddenly mollified, and forgetting altogether about the spinster's important project. With great deliberation he proceeded to execute an extraordinary scratch and immediately assumed a majestic look. Finding the expression of grandeur to be somewhat inconvenient however, he contracted himself to simpler dimensions, and proceeded in the natural tendency of his benevo lence to inform his young neighbor what he might ex pect for dinner, if he stayed.

" See him ! " said the aunt, in romantic vivacity, entering with Laura, " worshipping with secret, con suming passion, the cruel deity, the god of love — "

" Stuffed with olives, and swimming in his own gravy ! " said the young man, at this point. " Yes ! I'll come over to-morrow. If there is any thing I can adore, it is a fat little fellow in such a state."