When, therefore, there was an opportunity of hearing directly from the mysterious mother herself, it was not natural for Roger to wait, even if a dozen funerals had been in progress, and he demanded that Hester should bring him the letters at once.
“Bring them into this room. I would rather read mother’s letter here,” he said, and Hester departed to do his bidding.
She was not absent long, and when she returned she gave into Roger’s hands a fresh sheet of note-paper, which had never been folded, together with a soiled, stained letter, which looked as if some parts of it might have come in contact with the sea.
“Nobody knows I found this one but Aleck, and, perhaps, you better say nothing about it,” Hester suggested, as she passed him poor Jessie’s letter, and then turned to leave the room.
Roger bolted the door after her, for he would not be disturbed while he read these messages from the dead,—one from the erring woman who for years had slept far down in the ocean depths, and the other from the man who lay there in his coffin. He took his father’s first, but that was a mere nothing. It only read:
“Millbank, April —.
“My Dear Boy—For many days I have had a presentiment that I had not much longer to live, and, as death begins to stare me in the face, my thoughts turn toward you, my dear Roger——”
Here came a great blot, as if the ink had dropped from the pen or the pen had dropped from the hand; the writing ceased, and that was all there was for the boy from his father. But it showed that he had been last in the thoughts of the dead man, and his tears fell fast upon his father’s farewell words. Then, reverently, carefully, gently, as if it were some sea-wrecked spectre he was handling, he took the other letter, experiencing a kind of chilly sensation as he opened it, and inhaled the musty odor pervading it. The letter was mailed in New York, and the superscription was not like the delicate writing inside. It was a man’s chirography,—a bold, dashing hand,—and for a moment Roger sat studying the explicit direction:
“William H. Irving, Esq.,
“(Millbank)