as sinful as lack of righteousness.  There, I’ve said it all and shocked you, but I can’t help that.  Nesbit’s face haunts me so that I can’t rid myself of it, sleeping or waking.  I am all the time picturing terrible possibilities.  Think of all that Nesbit has had to endure.  Think of how that selfish woman wrecked his past, and ask yourself if there is any justice—­not mercy—­bare justice, in letting her wreck his future, now that the child’s death has severed the last link that bound them together.  Has any thing been spared Nesbit?  Has not his heart been wrung again and again?  Put yourself in his place, Berkeley, and acknowledge that after so much tempest, he is entitled to some sunshine, How can Pocahontas stand it?  Could I, if it were you?  Could I endure to see you suffer?  Do you think that if you were in Nesbit’s place I would not come to you, and put my arms round you, and draw your head to my bosom and whisper—­’Dear love, if to all this bitterness I can bring one single drop of sweet, take it freely, fully from my lips and from my love?’”

CHAPTER XXIII.

Berkeley Mason went on to New York in ample time to meet the incoming Cunarder.  His sister accompanied him, and as it was her first visit to the Empire City, Mason arranged to have nearly a week for lionizing before the arrival of the travelers.  Percival was allowed to come from Hoboken and join the party, in order that his mother’s eyes might be gladdened by the sight of him the instant she should land.

At the last moment, General Smith was prevented from joining his family in Paris according to his original intention, and having old-fashioned notions relative to the helplessness of ladies, and no sort of confidence in Blanche’s ability to distinguish herself as her mother’s courier and protector, he cabled privately to Nesbit Thorne, requesting him to defer his Eastern journey for a month, and escort his aunt and cousin home.  Thorne changed his plans readily enough.  He only contemplated prolonged travel as an expedient to fill the empty days, and if he could be of service to his relatives, held himself quite at their disposal.

Pocahontas was ignorant of this change of programme, or it is certain that she would have remained in Virginia.  Her feelings toward Thorne had undergone no change, but, after the long struggle, there had come to her a quiescence that was almost peace.  So worn and tempest-tossed had been her mind, that she clung to even this semblance of rest, and would hardly yet have risked the re-opening of the battle, which a meeting with Thorne would be sure to inaugurate.

She was glad to see her old friend General Smith again, for between the two existed a hearty affection, and more than glad to see Percival.  That young gentleman’s joy at being released from the thralldom of school, coupled with the exhilaration of seeing his friends, and the prospect of a speedy reunion with his mother and Blanche, appeared to well-nigh craze him.  It certainly required unusual vents for its exuberance—­such as standing on his head in the elevator, promenading the halls on his hands, and turning “cart-wheels” down the passages, accomplishments acquired with labor and pain from his colored confreres in the South.