Bessies Fortune | Page 2

Peter did live a hermit life and wear a
drab overcoat which must have dated back more years than she could
remember. No one had ever breathed a word of censure against the
peculiar man, who was never known to smile, and who seldom spoke
except he was spoken to, and who, with his long white hair falling
around his thin face, looked like some old picture of a saint, when on
Sunday he sat in his accustomed pew by the door, and like the publican,
seemed almost to smite upon his breast as he confessed himself to be a
miserable sinner.
Had Burton Jerrold remained at home and been content to till the
barren soil of his father's rocky farm, not his handsome face, or
polished manners, or adoration of herself as the queen of queens, could
have won a second thought from Geraldine, for she hated farmers, who
smelled of the barn and wore cowhide boots, and would sooner have
died than been a farmer's wife. But Burton had never tilled the soil, nor
worn cowhide boots nor smelled of the barn, for when he was a mere
boy, his mother died, and an old aunt, who lived in Boston, took him
for her own, and gave him all the advantages of a city education until
he was old enough to enter one of the principal banks as a clerk; then
she died and left him all her fortune, except a thousand dollars which
she gave to his sister Hannah, who still lived at home upon the farm,
and was almost as silent and peculiar as the father himself.
"Marry one of the Grey girls if you can," the aunt had said to her

nephew upon her death bed. "It is a good family, and blood is worth
more than money; it goes further toward securing you a good position
in Boston society. The Jerrold blood is good, for aught I know, though
not equal to that of the Greys. Your father is greatly respected in
Allington, where he is known, but he is a codger of the strictest type,
and clings to everything old-fashioned and outre. He has resisted all my
efforts to have him change the house into something more modern,
even when, for the sake of your mother, I offered to do it at my own
expense. Especially was I anxious to tear down that projection which
he calls a lean-to, but when I suggested it to him, and said I would
bring a carpenter at once, he flew into such a passion as fairly
frightened me. 'The lean-to should not be touched for a million of
dollars; he preferred it as it was,' he said; so I let him alone. He is a
strange man, and--and--Burton, I may be mistaken, but I have thought
there was something he was hiding. Else, why does he never smile, or
talk, or look you straight in the face? And why is he always brooding,
with his head bent down and his hands clenched together? Yes, there is
something hidden, and Hannah knows it, and this it is which turned her
hair grey so early, and has made her as queer and reticent as your father.
There is a secret between them, but do not try to discover it. There may
be disgrace of some kind which would affect your whole life, so let it
alone. Make good use of what I leave you, and marry one of the Greys.
Lucy is the sweeter and the more amiable, but Geraldine is more
ambitious and will help you to reach the top."
This was the last conversation Mrs. Wetherby ever held with her
nephew, for in two days more she was dead, and Burton buried her in
Mt. Auburn, and went back to the house which was now his, conscious
of three distinct ideas which even during the funeral had recurred to
him constantly. First, that he was the owner of a large house and twenty
thousand dollars; second, that he must marry one of the Greys, if
possible; and third, that there was some secret between his father and
his sister Hannah; something which had made them what they were;
something which had given his father the name of the half-crazy hermit,
and to his sister that of the recluse; something which he must never try
to unearth, lest it bring disquiet and disgrace.

That last word had an ugly sound to Burton Jerrold, who was more
ambitious even than his aunt, more anxious that people in high
positions should think well of him, and he shivered as he repeated it to
himself, while all sorts of fancies flitted though his brain.
"Nonsense!" he exclaimed at last, as he arose, and, walking to the
window, looked out upon the common,