The Greys had been gone little more than three years and a half, and the
soft winds of June were kissing the ripples of the sea on the morning
when they finally embarked for America. They had travelled all over
Europe, from sunny France to colder, bleaker Russia, but had stopped the
longest at the Isle of Ischia, where at the “Piccola Sentinella” another
little life came into their midst, and Guy Seymour nearly went wild with
joy over his beautiful little boy, whose soft, blue eyes and golden
brown hair were so much like Alice’s. Magdalen was permitted to name the
wonderful baby, and without a moment’s hesitancy she said, “I would like
him to be called after the best man I ever knew—‘Roger Irving.’”
“Oh, Magdalena mia, you don’t forget him, do you? Love once love
forever, is your maxim,” Guy said, playfully; but he approved the name,
and so did Alice, who knew more of Magdalen’s heart-history now than she
once had done, and who with Guy had revolved many plans for bringing
Roger and Magdalen together.
Mr. Grey did not assent quite so readily to the name, though he did not
oppose it. He merely said, “Roger sounds rather old for a baby; but do
as you like,—do as you like.”
So they called the baby Roger Irving, and Magdalen was godmother, and
her tears fell like a baptismal shower upon the little face as she
thought of her own babyhood, and the man whom she had loved so long, and
who was continually in her thoughts. She knew he was not married; she
had heard that from the Burleighs who came one day to the “Piccola
Sentinella,” bringing news direct from home.
“Not married yet, and is not likely to be,” Mrs. Franklin Irving had
said, as she sat talking with Magdalen, whose voice was rather unsteady
when she asked for Roger.
Quick to read expressions of thought and feeling, Bell noted the flush
on the young girl’s face, and the tremor in her voice, and felt that she
had the key to Roger’s bachelorhood. She had met him twice,—once in
Boston and once at Millbank,—and had liked him very much, and shown her
liking in many ways, and even laid a little snare, hoping to entangle
him for _Grace_. This Frank saw, and told her “to hang up her fiddle,
for Roger’s heart was disposed of long ago to one who loved him in
return, but who was laboring under some mistake.”
Bell had forgotten this, but it came back to her again with Magdalen at
her side, and she told her “rumor said there was a cause for Roger’s
celibacy; that he loved a young girl who had once lived with him, and
that he was only waiting for chance to bring her in his way again.” Then
she told how popular he was, and how greatly beloved by the people in
Schodick and vicinity, and how fast he was growing rich.