a cold, bitter night, with the snow falling swiftly and silently, only to be caught up by the tempestuous bursts of wind, and swept into heavy drifts of dazzling whiteness. it was snowing hard all over the great city of new york, up-town as well as down. and in the open space in front of the fine old mansion in which mr. dexter lived, it had gathered in great heaps, on which bright streams of light shone from the curtained window of the comfortable library. but cold and dreary and desolate as it was without, within this richly furnished room was warmth, comfort and hospitality. the master of the house was lying with a shawl thrown over his slight figure, upon a couch, which had been drawn up in front of the great open wood-fire, and about him were gathered three or four of his best friends.
mr. van kuren was there, and his sister, whom the children always addressed as “aunt emma,” and who, on account of her delicate health, seldom ventured far away from 329home. it must have been business of importance that brought her from the great hotel, in which they were staying, to this mansion above the harlem river, on such a cold and tempestuous night. another guest, a portly, grey-haired, smooth-shaven man of judicial aspect, was the lawyer, who had been summoned by mr. dexter, in order to draw up a new will. neither of the van kuren children were present, harry having been sent away on a short trip with his tutor, while laura had remained at the hotel in the care of her english governess.
on a table, which had been drawn up closely to mr. dexter’s lounge, was an open letter, which each member of the company had carefully scrutinized in turn, and with many expressions of indignation and distrust. it was the letter which the money-lender had written and sent from his office at eldridge street, and which had been so cruelly planned to excite and distress the kindly old gentleman, that not only his lawyer, but his intimate friends, the van kurens, had been hastily summoned. the doctor fearing that the shock might prove serious, if not fatal, to the venerable patient.
“i am inclined to think, on the whole,” 330said mr. van kuren, after he had examined the money-lender’s letter for the twentieth time, “that there is not a word of truth in what he says, and that this has been written simply in the hope of bringing about a reconciliation with you. you know what my opinion of your nephew is and always has been. i told you when we talked the matter over in paris that he was not a man to be trusted, and i was not at all surprised to learn that he had been running his little pawnshop down on the east side, and, i have no doubt, swindling every one of the unfortunates who are compelled by their necessities to deal with him. if i were you, i would throw this letter into the fire, and dismiss all thought of the matter from my mind. don’t you agree with me, sir?” he added, turning to the kindly lawyer, who had been an attentive listener to his words.
“no, horace,” said mr. dexter, “i am inclined to think that there is some truth in what my nephew—rascal that he is—has hinted at, and that brings me to speak of a conversation that i had with your daughter laura at the time that we were so much together in paris. i did not mention this before, because she regarded it as a secret, and, 331i suppose, did not care to have her interest in the matter known.”
both mr. van kuren and his sister smiled broadly at the thought that laura, whom they regarded as a volatile and rather foolish young girl, should have been able to give their old friend any important or reliable information on a subject of vital importance to him, and miss van kuren rejoined: “i wouldn’t pay too much attention to my niece, if i were you, for she has, like most children of her age, some very romantic and silly notions.”
“but i assure you,” exclaimed mr. dexter, earnestly, “that what she told me on this occasion made quite an impression on me—an impression which has been growing stronger and stronger ever since. it was in paris, one morning when i called at your apartment, and there was no one there but miss laura. she intimated that she had something of importance to say to me, and when i encouraged her to go on she told me a story about a young boy of her acquaintance who, having come up to see me on an errand, recognized, or fancied that he recognized, the house and grounds as something that he had seen in his earliest childhood.
332“she gave me his address, and i actually wrote him a letter asking him to give me such information as he could about his family, but i never received any reply, for it was not long afterwards that i left paris for switzerland and italy, and subsequently sailed for new york. it is just possible, therefore, that his letter may be at this very moment following me about the continent of europe. i was rather inclined to believe that there was some grain of truth in the story, because i remembered the young lad myself quite distinctly, and he had a pleasant, bright, open face, and did not seem to be the sort of a boy who would invent a piece of pure fiction and try to palm it off as the truth.”
“who was the boy? do you recall his name?” said mr. van kuren.
“certainly i do. he is employed in the fire department in some capacity, and his name is bruce decker, and there was just enough similarity between his name and mine—dexter and decker—to suggest——”
“bruce decker!” interrupted mr. van kuren savagely; “well, i can tell you from my own personal experience with that young rascal, that he is quite capable of inventing any story, and of deceiving you with it as well. 333and so he took laura into his confidence, did he? well, i have no doubt he answered your letter, and you will be very fortunate if he doesn’t hunt you up, and establish some sort of a claim on you, before you realize what he’s doing! now i’ll tell you my experience with that bright, honest-looking, open-faced young scamp. he got acquainted with my children, i think it was by picking harry up in the road one afternoon, when he met with an accident, and i asked him up to dinner, so that i might see for myself, what sort of a boy he was. as you know quite well, i am very democratic in my ideas, and i don’t want harry to grow up with a notion that he’s made of better clay than the boy whose coat is not quite as good as his. in fact, i have no objection to his playing with boys in humbler circumstances than himself, providing only they are decent and honest, and as this decker lad made a very good impression on me—for there is no denying that he has a good face and decent manners—i saw no reason why he should not come to the house now and then, and i was glad to have harry go and visit him, when he was laid up in the hospital. the first thing i knew, the young vagabond had repaid me by entering into a sly 334correspondence with laura, and i discovered that she had actually been down to the hospital, to call on him, without saying a word to either her aunt or myself. as you can well imagine, i put a stop to the intimacy without a moment’s delay, and as i never heard either of the children mention the boy’s name again, i concluded that they had dismissed him from their thoughts, as i had from the house. now it seems though that he has found some means of communication with laura, and has been filling her head with this romantic story about recognizing your house and grounds. well, i shall put a stop to that, i can tell you, and i am very sorry to think that laura should disobey me, as she evidently has.”
“my dear horace,” exclaimed mr. dexter, raising himself with some difficulty as he spoke, “i am very sorry i said anything that will get your daughter into trouble, and i am sure that what she learned from this lad she learned from his own lips before you forbade the intimacy. in fact, if i remember rightly, she said as much to me herself. i still have the young man’s address, and to-morrow morning, or as soon as my health will allow it, i will either go to see him or send for him, and you may be sure that i will learn exactly 335how much truth there is in this story that he tells. meantime, let me beg of you to say nothing to miss laura, for it would really break my heart to think that i had been the means of getting her into trouble.”
the old gentleman seemed to be so deeply in earnest that both mr. van kuren and his sister readily promised to accede to his wishes, and mr. van kuren was even induced to forego the intention he had formed of going the very next morning to the quarters of the hook and ladder truck, and lodging a complaint with the chief of the battalion.
it was late when they finished their discussion, much later than they had thought, and as they arose to take their leave, a servant, coming in with an armful of wood for the fire, informed them that the snow had accumulated in such heavy drifts, as to make the roads almost impassable.
and this information was confirmed by a glance through the window at the storm which was raging without.
“you must not think of going home to-night!” exclaimed mr. dexter. “it will never do for you in the world, my dear emma, to think of going out into such an awful storm as this. no, there are plenty of rooms in 336the house, and i will have fires built at once, so that you will be just as comfortable as you would be at that big hotel you’re stopping at. not one of you shall leave the house to-night.”
“but just think of poor little laura all alone in that great, big hotel,” exclaimed miss van kuren. “suppose anything were to happen to her; why, i would never forgive myself to the last day of my life for leaving her there. and just fancy a fire breaking out in that place in the middle of the night! no, i really think that i ought to——”
“you’ll stay where you are, all of you,” put in the hospitable old gentleman, in a voice that was full of pleasant authority, “and as for the hotel, it’s warranted strictly fire-proof. and i’m sure laura is just as safe there as she would be if you were with her.”
and so it was settled that the van kurens and mr. dexter’s lawyer should remain all night. and an hour later the last light was extinguished in the old mansion, and there was no sound to be heard about it save the raging of the storm.
