“Think of your own fair skin, you deem so superior,—of the education you rightly value,—the Christian teaching that has been sounded in your ears since childhood, and then say what good work you have done in this world! What have you to bring forward in comparison with the heroism and self-sacrifice of this poor woman, whom you despised? Young man, think twice, if you are capable of thought, before you again peril the good name of the industrious poor, who are under the especial care of the great Father in Heaven! Explore the secrets of your profession, but honor the sanctity of every humble home, and pry not into those things which a lawful pride and an honorable delicacy would hide from the eye of a stranger. Know, young man, that you have this day broken the laws of this free country, where no honest citizen can be deprived of liberty, on bare suspicion, and you yourself merit the punishment you would have brought on the guiltless. But go! I would do you no harm. Go, and be a wiser and better man for what you have heard to-day!”
Dr. Bates, with a crest-fallen air, turned in haste to leave the room, but his better feelings prevailed, and stepping back he said, “I am young, foolish, and conceited, I know, sir, and I hope I have learned a valuable lesson this day.” Then, going up to Daph, he added earnestly, “I have wronged you, good woman, and from the bottom of my heart I am sorry for it. If it should ever be in my power to serve you, I should be glad to make amends for what I have done.” “Now don’t, sir! don’t, please!” said Daph, dropping curtsy after curtsy, and murmuring, “the young gemman meant no harm, Ise sure,” while Dr. Bates slowly left the room. As soon as the doctor was out of sight, Mrs. Ray took Daph by the hand, and humbly asked her forgiveness.
“Now don’t, Miss’ Ray, I do be shamed!” said Daph, in great confusion, her own tears for the first time beginning to flow. “Don’t speak so to a poor cretur like me. We’s all poor sinners; it’s only the Lord Jesus,” sweet Miss Rose says, “that can make us clean.” The thought of having said so much in the presence of a “real gentleman” now overcame Daph, and she suddenly relapsed into silence.
“Come, Daph!” said Diedrich Stuyvesant, “it is time for you to be out of this place.”
“May I go free, sir?” said Daph, with a wondering, joyous look.
“Free as air!” was the reply of Mr. Stuyvesant; “there’s no power in New York can keep an innocent woman in such a place as this.”
Daph poured forth her thanks to her deliverer, and Diedrich Stuyvesant walked forth, followed by the woman.
He was detained but for a moment in the doorway by the officers, by whom Daph had been arrested, who pleaded that no action should be taken against them for their unwarrantable proceeding, and were glad to be assured that their fault, for this once, would be passed over.
It excited some wonder when the well-known citizen passed along the street, closely followed by Mrs. Ray and Daph; but he cared little for the remarks of the passers-by, his mind having been once made up to see Daph safely restored to the home from which she had been so rudely taken.
Diedrich Stuyvesant moved at what was an unwonted pace for him, and the house with the blue shutters was soon reached, and the door of the familiar room thrown open.