Beulah - Page 319/348

Mrs. Asbury noticed her emotion, and asked, with some surprise: "Did you never see this before?"

"No; it was always covered, and hung too high for me to lift the

crape." Beulah's eyes were riveted on the canvas. Mrs. Asbury

watched her a moment, and said: "It is an undetermined question in my mind whether beauty, such as

this, is not a curse. In this instance assuredly it proved so, for

it wrecked the happiness of both husband and wife. My dear child, do

you know your guardian's history?"

"I know nothing of him, save that he is my best friend."

"When I first saw Guy Hartwell he was one of the noblest men I ever

met, commanding universal admiration and esteem. It was before his

marriage. He was remarkably handsome, as you can readily imagine he

must have been, and his manners possessed a singular fascination for

all who came within the circle of his acquaintance. Even now, after

the lapse of ten years, I remember his musical, ringing laugh; a

laugh I have never heard since. His family were aristocratic and

wealthy, and Guy was his mother's idol. She was a haughty, imperious

woman, and her 'boy,' as she fondly termed him, was her pride. His

only sister (Mrs. Chilton, or, rather, Mrs. Lockhart) was his

senior, and he had a younger brother, Harry, who was extremely wild;

ran away from home and spent most of his time at sea. Guy was

naturally of a happy, genial temperament; fond of study; fond of

art, flowers, poetry, everything that was noble and beautiful, that

could minister to highly cultivated tastes. Mr. Chilton was

unfortunate in his speculations; lost his fortune, and died soon

after Pauline's birth, leaving his wife and child dependent on her

mother and brother. May and the old lady often disagreed, and only

Guy could harmonize their discords. During a visit to New Orleans he

accidentally met the original of this portrait; her family were

almost destitute, but he aided them very liberally. She was very

beautiful, and, in an unlucky hour, he determined to marry her. She

was a mere child, and he placed her for a while at a school, where

she enjoyed every educational advantage. He was completely

fascinated; seemed to think only of Creola, and hastened the

marriage. His mother and sister bitterly opposed the match,

ridiculed his humble and portionless bride; but he persisted, and

brought her here, a beautiful, heedless girl. Guy built that house,

and his mother and sister occupied one near him, which was burnt

before you knew anything about them. Of course his wife went

constantly into society, and, before six months elapsed, poor Guy

discovered that he had made a fatal mistake. She did not love him;

had married him merely for the sake of an elegant home, and money to

lavish as her childish whims dictated. Ah, Beulah! it makes my heart

ache to think of the change this discovery wrought in Guy's nature.

He was a proud man, naturally; but now he became repulsive, cold,

and austere. The revolution in his deportment and appearance was

almost incredible. His wife was recklessly imprudent, and launched

into the wildest excesses which society sanctioned. When he

endeavored to restrain her, she rebelled, and, without his

knowledge, carried on a flirtation with one whom she had known

previous to her marriage. I believe she was innocent in her folly,

and merely thoughtlessly fed her vanity with the adulation excited

by her beauty. Poor child! she might have learned discretion, but,

unfortunately, Mrs. Chilton had always detested her, and now,

watching her movements, she discovered Creola's clandestine meetings

with the gentleman whom her husband had forbidden her to recognize

as an acquaintance. Instead of exerting herself to rectify the

difficulties in her brother's home, she apparently exulted in the

possession of facts which allowed her to taunt him with his wife's

imprudence and indifference. He denied the truth of her assertions;

she dared him to watch her conduct, and obtained a note which

enabled him to return home one day at an unusually early hour and

meet the man he had denounced in his own parlor. Guy ordered him out

of the house, and, without addressing his wife, rode back to see his

patients; but that night he learned from her that before he ever met

her an engagement existed between herself and the man he so

detested. He was poor, and her mother had persuaded her to marry Guy

for his fortune. She seemed to grow frantic, cursed the hour of her

marriage, professed sincere attachment to the other, and, I firmly

believe, became insane from that moment. Then and there they parted.

Creola returned to her mother, but died suddenly a few weeks after

leaving her husband. They had been married but a year. I have always

thought her mind diseased, and it was rumored that her mother died

insane. Doubtless Guy's terrible rage drove her to desperation;

though he certainly had cause to upbraid. I have often feared that

he would meet the object of his hatred, and once, and only once

afterward, that man came to the city. Why, I never knew; but my

husband told me that he saw him at a concert here some years ago.

Poor Guy! how he suffered; yet how silently he bore it; how

completely he sheathed his heart of fire in icy vestments. He never

alluded to the affair in the remotest manner; never saw her after

that night. He was sitting in our library, waiting to see my

husband, when he happened to open the letter announcing her death. I

was the only person present, and noticed that a change passed over

his countenance; I spoke to him, but he did not reply; I touched

him, but he took no notice whatever, and sat for at least an hour

without moving a muscle or uttering a word. Finally George came and

spoke to him appealingly. He looked up and smiled. Oh, what a smile!

May I never see such another; it will haunt me while I live! Without

a word he folded the letter, replaced it in the envelope, and left

us. Soon after his mother died, and he went immediately to Europe.

He was absent two years, and came back so stern, so cynical, so

unlike his former self, I scarcely knew him. Mrs. Chilton took

charge of his house from the hour of his separation from Creola; but

they were not congenial. He was vastly her superior, save in

intellect, which none of the Hartwell family ever lacked. My husband

is very much attached to Guy; thinks he has not an equal, yet mourns

over the blight which fell upon him in the very morn of his glorious

manhood. About a year after his return from Europe he took you to

his house as an adopted child. I wondered at it, for I knew how

imbittered his whole soul had become. But the heart must have an

idol; he was desolate and miserable, and took you home to have

something to love and interest him. You never knew him in the prime

of his being, for, though comparatively young in years, he had grown

prematurely old in feeling before you saw him. Poor Guy! may a

merciful and loving God preserve him wherever he may be, and bring

him to a knowledge of that religion which alone can comfort a nature

like his--so noble, so gifted, yet so injured, so imbittered."