Stories with a Vengeance — page 90: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

86 YEARS AGO. Waiting seemed, at last, to be labour in vain; and Merret declarmg that Phil had thoroughly acted out his part, and done all that was necessary, we started back, and partook of a most jovial breakfast together —Merret impressing upon us both that it was utterly impossible for Harding to again offer to meet Canville, who was, by his con- duct, quite hors de société. For my part, I was only too glad for the affair to have had so peaceable an ending ; for thoughI should have had no remorse if Canville had been winged, and had to suffer the twinges he had caused in my arm, I was quite willing to give up my chance of revenge, so that Phil was safe. After awhile, my messmate gave me a hint, when, passing the claret, I engaged Merret in conversation, so that Phil was enabled to slip off, as I easily surmised,.to obtain news of Manette. It was quite a couple of hours before he returned, when the captain having been duly thanked, and taken his departure, we were able to chat without restraint. I had been able to perceive, on his re- turn, that something was wrong, and a dread seemed to come upon me that it was ill news respecting the wounded girl. Harding, too, was greatly agitated; and now, upon inquiring the cause, he told me that he had wronged Canville concerning his courage, for that he was dead. He had expired, m horrible torture, about an hour before, apparently from a severe attack of cholera. But as Harding was leaving the grounds, the old black woman brought him a few lines from Manette; and as she gave them, told him of what he already knew— his rival’s death—with such a malignant semblance of triumph, that he came away with the full conviction that she had poisoned the man whom she looked upon as the bitter enemy of her foster-child. IV. HARDING'S may have been only suspicions ; but versed as the old negro-woman was in fetishism, there was every probability that she had used some drug with whose deadly properties she was familiar. But Canville was supposed to have died of that dread a oogle —- scourge, cholera; and before I returned on ship-board, the young man’s sudden death had ceased, in that volatile city, to cause comment. I was heartily sick of the shore, having suffered a great deal from my wound through not taking proper precautions at first, and was glad to te once more on ooard the frigate, in spite of its privations and confinement; having found out that there is a reverse side to even pleasure, though mine was hardly a fair specimen of a pleasure trip. But my joy was not shared by Harding, who walked the quarter-deck for weeks after, sighing fiercely, and making himself generally disagreeable to the ship's com- pany. Time slipped by, and changes took place, foremost amongst which was Phil’s leaving the service, for which, of late, he had de- clared himself to be utterly unsuited, being in command of a fortune ample to make him dissatisfied with the midship- man’s berth, and the prospect of slow pro- motion. As I have before intimated, I visited New Orleans once more, and to pass there a far more pleasant time. Certainly I found no expectant lover awaitmg my return, but we were very good friends, not- withstanding. But, at this second visit, the pleasantest part of my sojourn was at the hone of my old messmate, now settled down upon an estate growing cotton for the Liverpool market. He told me one day, in confidence, that the old nurse had confessed, upon her death-bed, the crime of which we had sus- pected her; but he implored me to be careful, and not to mention it before his wife, whom I found now, though somewhat matronly, the same charming woman I had before encountered in Manette Levine. The scenes I have attempted to describe are still vividly impressed on my memory ; and, in the quiet of eventide, I can always recall that gay city and its semi-Hastern pictures, its dark-skinned beauties, and’ enervating climate; all springs freshly to memory once again, although these matters happened years ago. @ © = a JOO S CO)