As the fair speaker ceased, and turned away from this doubtless unspeakably painful performance of what she deemed her last worldly duty, as well as an acceptable opening act in the life of penance to which she had resolved now to devote herself, an audible murmur of applause ran through the throng, who, in spite of their wish not to appear intrusive, had paused at a little distance, to listen to and witness the unexpected and singular scene. Among the voices which had been thus more distinctly raised was that of a stranger, who, having arrived a few minutes before, given his horse to the waiter, shook hands with the hunter and the chief, to whom he appeared well known, had joined the crowd to see what was going on, and who had been particularly emphatic in the open expression of his admiration. The remembered tones of his voice, though attracting no attention from others, instantly reached the quick ears of one of the more silent actors of the little scene we have been describing. She threw a quick, eager glance around her; and, having soon singled out from the now scattering crowd, the person of whom her sparkling eye seemed in search, she flew forward towards him, with the joyful cry:
“My father! my white father! I am glad, O, so glad you have come!” and she eagerly grasped his outstretched hand, shook it, kissed him, and, being now relieved from the embarrassment she had keenly felt in the position in which she had just been so unexpectedly placed, appeared to be all joy and animation.
“Come, come, Fluella, don’t shake my arm off, nor bother me now with questions,” laughingly said the gentleman, thus affectionately beset, as he pulled the joyous girl along towards the spot where the wondering Mrs. Elwood and her son were standing. “You must not quite monopolize me; here are others who may wish to see me.”
“Arthur!” exclaimed Mrs. Elwood, with a look of astonishment, after once or twice parting her lips to speak, and then pausing, as if in doubt, as the other was coming up with his face too much averted to be fairly seen by her; “it is—it is—Arthur Elwood!”
“Yes, you are right, sister Alice,” responded the hard-visaged little man thus addressed, extending his hand. “It is the same odd stick of an old bachelor that he always was. But who is this?” he added, with an inclination of the head towards Claud. “Your son, I suppose?”
The formal introduction to each other of the (till then) personally unacquainted uncle and nephew; the full developing to the astonished mother and son of the fact, already inferred from what they had just witnessed, that this, their eccentric kinsman, was no other than the foster-father of Fluella,—that he was the owner of large tracts of the most valuable wild lands around these lakes, the oversight of which, together with the unexpected tutelary care of the Elwood family since their removal to the settlement, he had intrusted to the prudent and faithful Phillips,—and, finally, the melancholy mingling of sorrows for the untimely death of the fated brother, husband, and father of these deeply-sympathizing co-relatives, now, like chasing lights and shadows from alternating sunshine and cloud on a landscape, followed in rapid succession, in unfolding to the mournfully happy circle their mutual positions and bonds of common interest.
“Evil has its antidotes,” remarked Arthur Elwood, as the conversation on these subjects began to flag and give room for other thoughts growing out of the association; “evil has its antidotes, and sorrow its alleviating joys. And especially shall we realize this, if the suggestions of that self-sacrificing girl, who has just addressed you so feelingly, be now followed. What say you, Claud?”
“They will be,” promptly responded the young man, at once comprehending all which the significant question involved; “they will be, on my part, uncle Arthur, joyfully,—proudly.”
“And you, Fluella?” persisted the saucy querist, turning to the blushing girl.
“He has not asked me yet,” she quickly replied, with a look in which maiden pride, archness, and unuttered happiness, were charmingly blended. “If he should, and you should command me”——