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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19512-8.txt b/19512-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a27b85e --- /dev/null +++ b/19512-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13655 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's Daughters, by +May Agnes Fleming + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's Daughters + A Novel + +Author: May Agnes Fleming + +Release Date: October 9, 2006 [EBook #19512] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KATE DANTON, OR, CAPTAIN *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + + + + + + KATE DANTON; + + OR + + CAPTAIN DANTON'S DAUGHTERS + + _A Novel_ + + BY MAY AGNES FLEMING, + +AUTHOR OF "NORINE'S REVENGE," "GUY EARLSCOURT'S WIFE," "A WONDERFUL +WOMAN," "A TERRIBLE SECRET," "A MAD MARRIAGE," "ONE NIGHT'S MYSTERY," +ETC. + + + + +TORONTO: +_BELFORD BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS._ +MDCCCLXXVII. + +Printed and Stereotyped by +The Globe Printing Company, +26 & 28 King Street East, +Toronto. + +Bound by +Hunter, Rose & Co. +Toronto. + + + + + "----A woman's will dies hard, + In the field, or on the sward." + + + + + "There were three little women + Each fair in the face, + And their laughter with music + Filled all the green place; + As they wove pleasant thoughts + With the threads of their lace. + + Of the wind in the tree tops + The flowers in the glen, + Of the birds--the brown robin, + The wood dove, the wren, + They talked--but their thoughts + Were of three little men!" + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I.--Grace Danton + + II.--Kate Danton + + III.--A Change of Dynasty + + IV.--Rose Danton + + V.--Seeing a Ghost + + VI.--Rose's Adventure + + VII.--Hon. Lieutenant Reginald Stanford + + VIII.--The Ghost Again + + IX.--A Game for Two to Play at + + X.--The Revelation + + XI.--One Mystery Cleared Up + + XII.--Harry Danton + + XIII.--Love-making + + XIV.--Trying to be True + + XV.--One of Earth's Angels + + XVI.--Epistolary + + XVII.--"She Took Up the Burden of Life Again." + + XVIII.--"It's an Ill Wind Blows Nobody Good" + + XIX.--Via Crucis + + XX.--Bearing the Cross + + XXI.--Dr. Danton's Good Works + + XXII.--After the Cross, the Crown + + XXIII.--"Long have I been True to You, now I'm True no Longer" + + XXIV.--Coals of Fire + + XXV.--At Home + + + + +KATE DANTON. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GRACE DANTON. + + +A low room, oblong in shape, three high narrow windows admitting the +light through small, old-fashioned panes. Just at present there was not +much to admit, for it was raining hard, and the afternoon was wearing on +to dusk; but even the wet half-light showed you solid mahogany +furniture, old-fashioned as the windows themselves, black and shining +with age and polish; a carpet soft and thick, but its once rich hues dim +and faded; oil paintings of taste and merit, some of them portraits, on +the papered walls, the red glow of a large coal fire glinting pleasantly +on their broad gilded frames. + +At one of the windows, looking out at the ceaseless rain, a young lady +sat--a young lady, tall, rather stout than slender, and not pretty. Her +complexion was too sallow; her features too irregular; her dark hair too +scant, and dry and thin at the parting; but her eyes were fine, large, +brown and clear; her manner, self-possessed and lady-like. She was very +simply but very tastefully dressed, and looked every day of her +age--twenty six. + +The rainy afternoon was deepening into dismal twilight; and with her +cheek resting on her hand, the young lady sat with a thoughtful face. + +A long avenue, shaded by towering tamaracks, led down to stately +entrance-gates; beyond, a winding road, leading to a village, not to be +seen from the window. Swelling meadows, bare and bleak now, spread away +to the right and left of the thickly-wooded grounds; and beyond all, +through the trees, there were glimpses of the great St. Lawrence, turbid +and swollen, rushing down to the stormy Gulf. + +For nearly half an hour the young lady sat by the window, her solitude +undisturbed; no sign of life within or without the silent house. Then +came the gallop of horse's hoofs, and a lad rode up the avenue and +disappeared round the angle of the building. + +Ten minutes after there was a tap at the door, followed by the entrance +of a servant, with a dark Canadian face. + +"A letter, Miss Grace," said the girl, in French. + +"Bring in some more coal, Babette," said Miss Grace, also in French, +taking the letter. "Where is Miss Eeny?" + +"Practising in the parlour, Ma'moiselle." + +"Very well. Bring in the coal." + +Babette disappeared, and the young lady opened her letter. It was very +short. + + "Montreal, November, 5, 18--. + + "My Dear Grace--Kate arrived in this city a week ago, and + I have remained here since to show her the sights, and let her + recruit after her voyage. Ogden tells me the house is quite ready + for us, so you may expect us almost as soon as you receive this. We + will be down by the 7th, for certain. Ogden says that Rose is + absent. Write to her to return. + + "Yours sincerely, + Henry Danton." + + "P. S.--Did Ogden tell you we were to have a visitor--an invalid + gentleman--a Mr. Richards? Have the suite of rooms on the west side + prepared for him. H. D." + +The young lady refolded her note thoughtfully, and walking to the fire, +stood looking with grave eyes into the glowing coals. + +"So soon," she thought; "so soon; everything to be changed. What is +Captain Danton's eldest daughter like, I wonder? What is the Captain +like himself, and who can this invalid, Mr. Richards, be? I don't like +change." + +Babette came in with the coal, and Miss Grace roused herself from her +reverie. + +"Babette, tell Ledru to have dinner at seven. I think your master and +his daughter will be here to-night." + +"Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle! The young lady from England?" + +"Yes; and see that there are fires in all the rooms upstairs." + +"Yes, Miss Grace." + +"Is Miss Eeny still in the parlour?" + +"Yes, Miss Grace." + +Miss Grace walked out of the dining-room, along a carved and pictured +corridor, up a broad flight of shining oaken stairs, and tapped at the +first door. + +"Come in, Grace," called a pleasant voice, and Grace went in. + +It was a much more elegant apartment than the dining-room, with flowers, +and books, and birds, and pictures, and an open piano with music +scattered about. + +Half buried in a great carved and gilded chair, lay the only occupant of +the room--a youthful angel of fifteen, fragile in form, fair and +delicate of face, with light hair and blue eyes. A novel lying open in +her lap showed what her occupation had been. + +"I thought you were practising your music, Eeny," said Grace. + +"So I was, until I got tired. But what's that you've got? A letter?" + +Grace put it in her hand. + +"From papa!" cried the girl, vividly interested at once. "Oh, Grace! +Kate has come!" + +"Yes." + +The young lady laid down the letter and looked at her. + +"How oddly you said that! Are you sorry?" + +"Sorry! Oh, no." + +"You looked as if you were. How strange it seems to think that this +sister of mine, of whom I have heard so much and have never seen, should +be coming here for good! And papa--he is almost a stranger, too, Grace. +I suppose everything will be very different now." + +"Very, very different," Grace said, with her quiet eyes fixed on the +fire. "The old life will soon be a thing of the past. And we have been +very happy here; have we not, Eeny?" + +"Very happy," answered Eeny; "and will be still, I hope. Papa and Kate, +and Mr. Richards--I wonder who Mr. Richards is?--shall not make us +miserable." + +"I suppose, Eeny," said Grace, "I shall be quite forgotten when this +handsome Sister Kate comes. She ought to be very handsome." + +She looked up at an oval picture about the marble mantel, in a rich +frame--the photograph of a lovely girl about Eeny's age. The bright +young face looked at you with a radiant smile, the exuberant golden hair +fell in sunlight ripples over the plump white shoulders, and the blue +eyes and rosebud lips smiled on you together. A lovely face, full of the +serene promise of yet greater loveliness to come. Eeny's eyes followed +those of Grace. + +"You know better than that, Cousin Grace. Miss Kate Danton may be an +angel incarnate, but she can never drive you quite out of my heart. +Grace, how old is Kate?" + +"Twenty years old." + +"And Harry was three years older?" + +"Yes." + +"Grace, I wonder who Mr. Richards is?" + +"So do I." + +"Did Ogden say nothing about him?" + +"Not a word." + +"Will you write to Rose?" + +"I shall not have time. I wish you would write, Eeny. That is what I +came here to ask you to do." + +"Certainly, with pleasure," said Eeny. "Rose will wait for no second +invitation when she hears who have come. Will they arrive this evening?" + +"Probably. They may come at any moment. And here I am lingering. Write +the note at once, Eeny, and send Sam back to the village with it." + +She left the parlour and went down stairs, looking into the dining-room +as she passed. Babette was setting the table already, and silver and +cut-glass sparkled in the light of the ruby flame. Grace went on, up +another staircase, hurrying from room to room, seeing that all things +were in perfect order. Fires burned in each apartment, lamps stood on +the tables ready to be lit, for neither furnace nor gas was to be found +here. The west suite of rooms spoken of in the letter were the last +visited. A long corridor, lit by an oriel window, through which the +rainy twilight stole eerily enough, led to a baize door. The baize door +opened into a shorter corridor, terminated by a second door, the upper +half of glass. This was the door of a study, simply furnished, the walls +lined with book-shelves, surmounted by busts. Adjoining was a bathroom, +adjoining that a bedroom. Fires burned in all, and the curtained windows +commanded a wide western prospect of flower-garden, waving trees, +spreading fields, and the great St. Lawrence melting into the low +western sky. + +"Mr. Richards ought to be very comfortable here," thought Grace. "It is +rather strange Ogden did not speak of him." + +She went down stairs again and back to the dining-room. Eeny was there, +standing before the fire, her light shape and delicate face looking +fragile in the red fire-light. + +"Oh, Grace," said she, "I have just sent Babette in search of you. There +is a visitor in the parlour for you." + +"For me?" + +"Yes, a gentleman; young, and rather handsome. I asked him who I should +say wished to see you, and--what do you think?--he would not tell." + +"No! What did he say?" + +"Told me to mention to Miss Grace Danton that a friend wished to see +her. Mysterious, is it not?" + +"Who can it be?" said Grace, thoughtfully. "What does this mysterious +gentleman look like, Eeny?" + +"Very tall," said Eeny, "and very stately, with brown hair, and beard +and mustache--a splendid mustache, Grace! and beautiful, bright brown +eyes, something like yours. Very good-looking, very polite, and with the +smile of an angel. There you have him." + +"I am as much at a loss as ever," said Grace, leaving the dining-room. +"This is destined to be an evening of arrivals I think." + +She ran upstairs for the second time, and opened the parlour door. A +gentleman before the fire, in the seat Eeny had vacated, arose at her +entrance. Grace stood still an instant, doubt, amaze, delight, +alternately in her face; then with a cry of "Frank!" she sprang forward, +and was caught in the tall stranger's arms. + +"I thought you would recognize me in spite of the whiskers," said the +stranger. "Here, stand off and let me look at you; let me see the +changes six years have wrought in my sister Grace." + +He held her out at arm's length, and surveyed her smilingly. + +"A little older--a little graver, but otherwise the same. My solemn +Gracie, you will look like your own grandmother at thirty." + +"Well, I feel as if I had lived a century or two now. When did you +come?" + +"From Germany, last week; from Montreal at noon." + +"You have been a week in Montreal then?" + +"With Uncle Roosevelt--yes." + +"How good it seems to see you again, Frank. How long will you stay +here--in St. Croix?" + +"That depends--until I get tired, I suppose. So Captain Danton and his +eldest daughter are here from England?" + +"How did you learn that?" + +"Saw their arrival in Montreal duly chronicled." + +"What is she like, Grace?" + +"Who?" + +"Miss Kate Danton." + +"I don't know. I expect them every moment; I should think they came by +the same train you did." + +"Perhaps so--I rode second-class. I got talking to an old Canadian, and +found him such a capital old fellow, that I kept beside him all the way. +By-the-by, Grace, you've got into very comfortable quarters, haven't +you?" + +"Yes, Danton Hall is a very fine place." + +"How long is it you have been here?" + +"Four years." + +"And how often has the Captain been in that time?" + +"Twice; but he has given up the sea now, and is going to settle down." + +"I thought his eldest daughter was a fixture in England?" + +"So did I," said Grace; "but the grandmother with whom she lived has +died, it appears; consequently, she comes to her natural home for the +first time. That is her picture." + +Miss Danton's brother raised his handsome brown eyes to the exquisite +face, and took a long survey. + +"She ought to be a beauty if she looks like that. Belle blonde, and I +admire blondes so much! do you know, Grace, I think I shall fall in love +with her?" + +"Don't. It will be of no use." + +"Why not? I am a Danton--a gentleman--a member of the learned profession +of medicine and not so bad-looking. Why not, Grace?" + +He rose up as he said it, his brown eyes smiling. Not so bad-looking, +certainly. A fine-looking fellow, as he leaned against the marble +mantel, bronzed and bearded, and a thorough gentleman. + +"It is all of no use," Grace said, with an answering smile. "Doctor +Danton's numberless perfections will be quite lost on the heiress of +Danton Hall. She is engaged." + +"What a pity! Who is the lucky man?" + +"Hon. Lieutenant Reginald Stanford, of Stanford Royals, Northumberland, +England, youngest son of Lord Reeves." + +"Then mine is indeed a forlorn hope! What chance has an aspiring young +doctor against the son of a lord." + +"You would have no chance in any case," said Grace, with sudden +seriousness. "I once asked her father which his eldest daughter most +resembled, Rose or Eeny. 'Like neither,' was his reply. 'My daughter +Kate is beautiful, and stately, and proud as a queen.' I shall never +forget his own proud smile as he said it." + +"You infer that Miss Danton, if free, would be too proud to mate with a +mere plebeian professional man." + +"Yes." + +"Then resignation is all that remains. Is it improper to smoke in this +sacred chamber, Grace? I must have something to console me. Quite a +grand alliance for Danton's daughter, is it not?" + +"They do not seem to think so. I heard her father say he would not +consider a prince of the blood-royal too good for his peerless Kate." + +"The duse he wouldn't! What an uplifted old fellow he must be!" + +"Captain Danton is not old. His age is about forty-five, and he does not +look forty." + +"Then I'll tell you what to do, Grace--marry him!" + +"Frank, don't be absurd! Do you know you will have everything in this +room smelling of tobacco for a week. I can't permit it, sir." + +"Well, I'll be off," said her brother, looking at his watch, "I promised +to return in half an hour for supper." + +"Promised whom?" + +"M. le Curé. Oh, you don't know I am stopping at the presbytery. I +happened to meet the curate, Father Francis, in Montreal--we were +school-boys together--and he was about the wildest, most mischievous +fellow I ever met. We were immense friends--a fellow-feeling, you know, +makes us wondrous kind. Judge of my amazement on meeting him on Notre +Dame street, in soutane and broad-brimmed hat, and finding he had taken +to Mother Church. You might have knocked me down with a feather, I +assure you. Mutual confidences followed; and when he learned I was +coming to St. Croix, he told me that I must pitch my tent with him. +Capital quarters it is, too; and M. le Curé is the soul of hospitality. +Will you give me a glass of wine after that long speech, and to fortify +me for my homeward route?" + +Grace rang and ordered wine. Doctor Danton drank his glass standing, and +then drew on his gloves. + +"Have you to walk?" asked his sister. "I will order the buggy for you." + +"By no means. I rode up here on the Curé's nag, and came at the rate of +a funeral. The old beast seemed to enjoy himself, and to rather like +getting soaked through, and I have no doubt will return as he came. And +now I must go; it would never do to be found here by these grand +people--Captain and Miss Danton." + +His wet overcoat hung on a chair; he put it on while walking to the +door, with Grace by his side. + +"When shall I see you again, Frank?" + +"To-morrow. I want to have a look at our English beauty. By Jove! it +knows how to rain in Canada." + +The cold November blast swept in as Grace opened the front door, and the +rain fell in a downpour. In the black darkness Grace could just discern +a white horse fastened to a tree. + +"That is ominous, Grace," said her brother. "Captain Danton and his +daughter come heralded by wind and tempest. Take care it is not +prophetic of domestic squalls." + +He ran down the steps, but was back again directly. + +"Who was that pale, blue-eyed fairy I met when I entered?" + +"Eveleen Danton." + +"Give her my best regards--Doctor Frank's. She will be rather pretty, I +think; and if Miss Kate snubs me, perhaps I shall fall back on Miss +Eveleen. It seems to me I should like to get into so great a family. +Once more, _bon soir_, sister mine, and pleasant dreams." + +He was gone this time for good. His sister stood in the doorway, and +watched the white horse and its tall, dark rider vanish under the +tossing trees. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +KATE DANTON. + + +Grace went slowly back to the parlour and stood looking thoughtfully +into the fire. It was pleasant in that pleasant parlour, bright with the +illumination of lamp and fire--doubly pleasant in contrast with the +tumult of wind and rain without. Very pleasant to Grace, and she sighed +wearily as she looked up from the ruby coals to the radiant face smiling +down from over the mantel. + +"You will be mistress to-morrow," she thought; "the place I have held +for the last four years is yours from to-night. Beautiful as a queen. +What will your reign be like, I wonder?" + +She drew up the arm-chair her brother had vacated and sat down, her +thoughts drifting backward to the past. Backward four years, and she saw +herself, a penniless orphan, dependent on the bounty of that miserly +Uncle Roosevelt in Montreal. She saw again the stately gentleman who +came to her, and told her he was her father's third cousin, Captain +Danton, of Danton Hall. She had never seen him before; but she had heard +of her wealthy cousin from childhood, and knew his history. She knew he +had married in early youth an English lady, who had died ten years +after, leaving four children--a son, Henry, and three daughters, +Katherine, Rosina and Eveleen. The son, wild and wayward all his life, +broke loose at the age of twenty, forged his father's name, and fled to +New York, married an actress, got into a gambling affray, and was +stabbed. That was the end of him. The eldest daughter, born in England, +had been brought up by her maternal grandmother, who was rich, and whose +heiress she was to be. Mrs. Danton and her two youngest children resided +at the Hall, while the Captain was mostly absent. After her death, a +Canadian lady had taken charge of the house and Captain Danton's +daughters. All this Grace knew, and was quite unprepared to see her +distant kinsman, and to hear that the Canadian lady had married and +left, and that she was solicited to take her place. The Captain's terms +were so generous that Grace accepted at once; and, a week after, was +domesticated at the Hall, housekeeper and companion to his daughters. + +Four years ago. Looking back to-night, Grace sighed to think how +pleasant it had all been, now that it was over. It had been such a +quiet, untroubled time--she sole mistress, Rose's fits of ill-temper and +Eeny's fits of illness the only drawback. And now it was at an end +forever. The heiress of Danton Hall was coming to wield the sceptre, and +a new era would dawn with the morrow. + +There was a tap at the door, and a voice asking: "May I come in, Grace?" +and Grace woke up from her dreaming. + +"Yes, Eeny," she said; and Eeny came in, looking at her searchingly. + +"Have you been crying?" she asked, taking a stool at her feet. + +"Crying? no! What should I cry for?" + +"You look so solemn. I heard your visitor go, and ran up. Who was it?" + +"My brother, who has just returned from Germany." + +"Dear me! Didn't I say he had eyes like you? He's a Doctor, isn't he?" + +"Yes." + +"Grace, I thought you said you were poor?" + +"Well, I am poor--am I not?" + +"Then who paid for your brother studying medicine in Germany?" + +"Uncle Roosevelt. He is very fond of Frank." + +"Is your Uncle Roosevelt rich?" + +"I believe so. Very rich, and very miserly." + +"Has he sons and daughters?" + +"No; we are his nearest relatives." + +"Then, perhaps, he will leave you his fortune, Grace." + +"Hardly, I think. He may remember Frank in his will; but there is no +telling. He is very eccentric." + +"Grace, I hope he won't leave it to you," said Eeny soberly. + +"Really, why not, pray?" + +"Because, if you were rich you would go away. I should be sorry if you +left Danton Hall." + +Grace stooped to kiss the pale young face. + +"My dear Eeny, you forget that your beautiful sister Kate is coming. In +a week or two, you will have room in your heart for no one but her." + +"You know better than that," said Eeny; "perhaps she will be like Rose, +and I shall not love her at all." + +Grace smiled. + +"Do you mean to say you do not love Rose, then?" + +"Love Rose?" repeated Eeny, very much amazed at the question; "love +Rose, indeed! I should like to see any one who could love Rose. Grace, +where is your brother stopping? At the hotel?" + +"No; at Monsieur le Curé's. He knows Father Francis. Eeny, do you hear +that?" + +She started up, listening. Through the tempest of wind and rain, and the +surging of the trees, they could hear carriage wheels rattling rapidly +up to the house. + +"I hear it," said Eeny; "papa has come. O Grace, how pale you are!" + +"Am I?" Grace said, laying her hand on heart, and moving towards the +door. She paused in the act of opening it, and caught Eeny suddenly and +passionately to her heart. "Eeny, my darling, before they come, tell me +once more you will not let this new sister steal your heart entirely +from me. Tell me you will love me still." + +"Always, Grace," said Eeny; "there--the carriage has stopped!" + +Grace opened the door and went out into the entrance hall. The +marble-paved floor, the domed ceiling, the carved, and statued, and +pictured walls, were quite grand in the blaze of a great chandelier. An +instant later, and a loud knock made the house ring, and Babette flung +the front door wide open. A stalwart gentleman, buttoned up in a +great-coat, with a young lady on his aim, strode in. + +"Quite a Canadian baptism, papa," the silvery voice of the young lady +said; "I am almost drenched." + +Grace heard this, and caught a glimpse of Captain Danton's man, Ogden, +gallanting a pretty, rosy girl, who looked like a lady's maid, and then, +very, very pale, advanced to meet her master and his daughter. + +"My dear Miss Grace," the hearty voice of the sailor said, as he grasped +her hand, "I am delighted to see you. My daughter Kate, Miss Grace." + +My daughter Kate bowed in a dignified manner, scarcely looking at her. +Her eyes were fixed on a smaller, slighter figure shrinking behind her. + +"Hallo, Eeny!" cried the Captain, catching her in his arms; "trying to +play hide-and-go-seek, are you? Come out and let us have a look at you." + +He held her up over his head as if she had been a kitten, and kissed her +as he set her down, laughing and breathless. + +"You little whiff of thistle-down, why can't you get fat and rosy as you +ought? There, kiss your sister Kate, and bid her welcome." + +Eeny looked timidly up, and was mesmerized at one glance. Two lovely +eyes of starry radiance looked down into hers, and the loveliest face +Eeny ever saw was lighted with a bewitching smile. Two arms were held +out, and Eeny sprang into them, and kissed the exquisite face +rapturously. + +"You darling child!" the sweet voice said, and that was all; but she +held her close, with tears in the starry eyes. + +"There, there!" cried Captain Danton; "that will do. You two can hug +each other at your leisure by-and-by; but just at present I am very +hungry, and should like some dinner. The dining-room is in this +direction, isn't it, Grace? I think I know the way." + +He disappeared, and Kate Danton disengaged her new-found sister, still +holding her hand. + +"Come and show me to my room, Eeny," she said. "Eunice," to the rosy +lady's-maid, "tell Ogden to bring up the trunks and unpack at once. +Come." + +Still holding her sister's hand, Kate went upstairs, and Eeny had eyes +and ears for no one else. Eunice gave her young lady's order to Ogden, +and followed, and Grace was left standing alone. + +"Already," she thought, bitterly, "already I am forgotten!" + +Not quite. Captain Danton appeared at the head of the stairs, divested +of his great-coat. + +"I say, Ogden. Oh, Miss Grace, will you come upstairs, if you please? +Ogden, attend to the luggage, and wait for me in my dressing-room." + +He returned to the parlour, and Grace found him standing with his back +to the fire when she entered. A portly and handsome man, florid and +genial, with profuse fair hair, mustache and side-whiskers. He placed a +chair for her, courteously, and Grace sat down. + +"You are looking pale, Miss Grace," he said, regarding her. "You have +not been ill, I trust. Ogden told me you were all well." + +"I am quite well, thank you." + +"You wrote to Rose, I suppose? Where is it she has gone?" + +"To the house of Miss La Touche; a friend of hers, in Ottawa. Eeny has +written to her, and Rose will probably be here in a day or two, at +most." + +The Captain nodded. + +"As for you, my dear young lady, I find you have managed so admirably in +my absence, that I trust we shall retain you for many years yet. Perhaps +I am selfish in the wish, but it comes so naturally that you will pardon +the selfishness. Kate is in total ignorance of the mysteries of +housekeeping. Heaven help me and my friends if we had to depend on her +catering! Besides," laughing slightly, "some one is coming before long +to carry her off." + +Grace bowed gravely. + +"So you see, my fair kinswoman, you are indispensable. I trust we shall +prevail upon you to remain." + +"If you wish me to do so, Captain Danton, I shall, certainly." + +"Thank you. Is that rich old curmudgeon, your uncle, alive yet?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"And your brother? In Germany still, I suppose." + +"No, sir; my brother is in Canada--in St. Croix. He was here this +evening." + +"Indeed! Where is he stopping? We must get him to come here." + +"He is on a visit to M. le Curé, and I do not think means to stay long." + +The door opened as she said it, and Kate and Eeny came in. The sisters +had their arms around each other's waist, and Eeny seemed entranced. +Kate went over and stood beside her father, looking up fondly in his +face. + +"How pretty the rooms are, papa! My boudoir and bedroom are charming. +Eeny is going to chaperone me all over to-morrow--such a dear, romantic +old house." + +Grace sat and looked at her. How beautiful she was! She still wore +slight mourning, and her dress was black silk, that fell in full rich +folds behind her, high to the round white throat, where it was clasped +with a flashing diamond. A solitaire diamond blazed on her left +hand--those slender, delicate little hands--her engagement ring, no +doubt. They were all the jewels she wore. The trimming of her dress was +of filmy black lace, and all her masses of bright golden hair were +twisted coronet-wise round her noble and lovely head. She was very tall, +very slender; and the exquisite face just tinted with only the faintest +shadow of rose. "Beautiful, and stately, and proud as a queen!" Yes, she +looked all that, and Grace wondered what manner of man had won that +high-beating heart. There was a witchery in her glance, in her radiant +smile, in every graceful movement, that fascinated even her father's +sedate housekeeper, and that seemed to have completely captivated little +Eeny. In her beauty and her pride, as she stood there so graceful and +elegant, Grace thought her father was right when he said a prince was +not too good for his peerless daughter. + +He smiled down on her now as men do smile down on what is the apple of +their eye and the pride of their heart, and then turned to Eeny, +clinging to her stately sister. + +"Take care, Eeny! Don't let Kate bewitch you. Don't you know that she is +a sorceress, and throws a glamour over all she meets? She's uncanny, I +give you warning--a witch; that's the word for it!" + +Eeny's reply was to lift Kate's hand and kiss it. + +"Do witches ever eat, papa?" laughed Miss Danton; "because I am very +hungry. What time do we dine?" + +"What time, Miss Grace?" asked the Captain. + +"Immediately, if you wish, sir." + +"Immediately let it be, then." + +Grace rang and ordered dinner to be served. Thomas, the old butler, and +a boy in buttons made their appearance with the first course. Grace had +always presided, but this evening she sat beside Eeny, and Miss Kate +took the head of the table. + +"The first time, papa," she said. "If I make any blunders, tell me." + +"Oh, papa!" exclaimed Eeny, "I thought some one else was coming. A sick +gentleman--Mr. what?--oh, Richards?" + +The face of Captain Danton and his eldest daughter darkened suddenly at +the question. Grace saw it in surprise. + +"He will be here presently," he said, but he said it with an air of +restraint; and Kate, leaning forward with that radiant smile of hers, +began telling Eeny some story of their life at sea that made her forget +Mr. Richards. + +They adjourned to the drawing-room after dinner. A long, low, sumptuous +apartment, very stately and very grand, and decorated with exquisite +taste. + +"What a beautiful room!" Kate said. "We had nothing half so quaint and +old as this at home, papa?" + +There was a grand piano near one of the tall windows, with a music-rack +beside it, and the young lady went over and opened it, and ran her +fingers with a masterly touch over the keys. + +"That's right, Kate," said her father; "give us some music. How do you +like your piano?" + +"Like is not the word, papa. It is superb!" + +The white hands sparkled over the polished ivory keys, and the room was +filled with melody. Eeny stood by the piano with a rapt face. Captain +Danton sat in an arm-chair and listened with half-closed eyes, and Grace +sat down in a corner, and drew from her pocket her crochet. + +"Oh, Kate, how beautifully you play?" Eeny cried ecstatically, when the +flying hands paused, "I never heard anything like that. What was it?" + +"Only a German waltz, you little enthusiast! Don't you play?" + +"A little. Rose plays too, polkas and waltzes; but bah! not like that." + +"Who is your teacher?" + +"Monsieur De Lancey. He comes from Montreal twice a week to give us +lessons. But you play better than he does." + +"Little flatterer!" kissing her and laughing, and the white hands busy +again. "Papa, what will you have?" + +"A song, my dear." + +"Well, what do you like? Casta Diva?" + +"I'd be sorry to like it! can you sing the Lass o' Gowrie?" + +"I shall try, if you wish." + +She broke into singing as she spoke, and Grace's work dropped in her lap +as she listened. What an exquisite voice it was! So clear, so sweet, so +powerful. The mute-wrapped stillness that followed the song was the best +applause. Miss Danton rose up, laughing at her sister's entranced face. + +"Oh, don't stop!" Eeny cried, imploringly. "Sing again, Kate." + +There was a loud ring at the doorbell before Kate could answer. Captain +Danton and Grace had been listening an instant before to a carriage +rolling up the drive. The former started up now and hurried out of the +room; and Kate stood still, intently looking at the door. + +"Who is that?" said Eeny. "Mr. Richards?" + +Kate laid her hand on the girl's shoulder, and still stood silent and +intent. They could hear the door open, hear the voices of the Captain +and his man Ogden; and then there was a shuffling of feet in the hall +and up the stairs. + +"They are helping him upstairs," said Kate, drawing a long breath. "Yes, +it is Mr. Richards." + +Eeny looked as if she would like to ask some questions, but her sister +sat down again at the piano, and drowned her words in a storm of music. +Half an hour passed, nearly an hour, Miss Danton played on and on +without ceasing, and then her father came back. The girl looked at him +quickly and questioningly, but his high coloured face was as +good-humoured as ever. + +"Playing away still," he said, "and Eeny's eyes are like two midnight +moons. Do you know it is half-past ten, Miss Eeny, and time little girls +were in bed?" + +Grace rose up, and put her work in her pocket. Eeny came over, kissed +her father and sister good-night, and retired. Grace, with a simple +good-night, was following her example, but the cordial Captain held out +his hand. + +"Good-night, my little housekeeper," he said; "and pleasant dreams." + +Miss Danton held out her taper fingers, but her good-night was quiet and +cool. + +Her father's housekeeper, it would seem, did not impress her very +favourably, or she was too proud to be cordial with dependants. + +Up in her own room, Grace turned her lamp low, and sitting down by the +window, drew back the curtains. The rain still fell, the November wind +surged through the trees, and the blackness was impenetrable. Was this +wintry tempest, as her brother had said, ominous of coming trouble and +storms in their peaceful Canadian home? + +"I wonder how she and Rose will get on," thought Grace. "Rose's temper +is as gusty as this November night, and I should judge those purple eyes +can flash with the Danton fire, too. When two thunder-clouds meet, there +is apt to be an uproar. I shall not be surprised if there is war in the +camp before long." + +Her door opened softly. Grace turned round, and saw Eeny in a long +night-dress, looking like a spirit. + +"May I come in, Grace?" + +"It is time you were in bed," said Grace, turning up the lamp, and +beginning to unbraid her hair. + +Eeny came in and sat down on a low stool at Grace's feet. + +"Oh, Grace, isn't she splendid?" + +"Who?" + +"You know whom I mean--Kate." + +"She is very handsome," Grace said quietly, going on with her work. + +"Handsome! She is lovely? She is glorious! Grace, people talk about Rose +being pretty; but she is no more to Kate than--than just nothing at +all." + +"Did you come in merely to say that? If so, Miss Eveleen, I must request +you to depart, as I am going to say my prayers." + +"Directly," said Eeny, nestling more comfortably on her stool. "Did you +ever hear any one play and sing as she does?" + +"She plays and sings remarkably well." + +"Grace, what would you give to be as beautiful as she is?" + +"Nothing! And now go." + +"Yes. Isn't it odd that papa did not bring Mr. Richards into the +drawing-room. Ogden and papa helped him up stairs, and Ogden brought him +his supper." + +"Who told you that?" + +"Babette. Babette saw him, but he was so muffled up she could not make +him out. He is very tall and slim, she says, and looks like a young +man." + +"Eeny, how soon are you going?" + +"Oh, Grace," she said, coaxingly, "let me stay all night with you." + +"And keep me awake until morning, talking? Not I," said Grace. "Go!" + +"Please let me stay?" + +"No! Be off!" + +She lifted her up, led her to the door, and put her out, and Eeny ran +off to her own chamber. + +As Grace closed her door, she heard Kate Danton's silk dress rustle +upstairs. + +"Good-night, papa," she heard her say in that soft, clear voice that +made her think of silver bells. + +"Good-night, my dear," the Captain replied. And then the silk dress +rustled past, a door opened and shut, and Miss Danton had retired. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A CHANGE OF DYNASTY. + + +With the cold November sunlight flooding her room, Grace rose next +morning, dressed and went down stairs. Very neat and lady-like she +looked, in her spotted gingham wrapper, her snowy collar and cuffs, and +her dark hair freshly braided. + +A loud-voiced clock in the entrance-hall struck seven. No one seemed to +be astir in the house but herself, and her footsteps echoed weirdly in +the dark passages. A sleepy scullery maid was lighting the kitchen fire +when she got there, gaping dismally over her work; and Grace, leaving +some directions for Ma'am Ledru, the cook, departed again, this time for +the dining-room, where footman James was lighting another fire. Grace +opened the shutters, drew back the curtains, and let in the morning +sunburst in all its glory. Then she dusted and re-arranged the +furniture, swept up the marble hearth, and assisted Babette to lay the +cloth for breakfast. It was invariably her morning work; and the table +looked like a picture when she had done, with its old china and +sparkling silver. + +It was almost eight before she got through; and she ran upstairs for her +bonnet and shawl, and started for her customary half-hour's walk before +breakfast. She took the road leading to the village, still and deserted, +and came back all glowing from the rapid exercise. + +Captain Danton stood on the front steps smoking a meerschaum pipe, as +she came up the avenue. + +"Good morning, Hebe!" said the Captain. "The November roses are brighter +in Canada than elsewhere in August!" + +Grace laughed, and was going in, but he stopped her. + +"Don't go yet. I want some one to talk to. Where have you been?" + +"Only out for a walk, sir." + +"So early! What time do you get up, pray?" + +"About half-past six." + +"Primitive hours, upon my word. When is breakfast time?" + +"Nine, sir. The bell will ring in a moment." + +It rang as she spoke, and Grace tripped away to take off her bonnet and +smooth her hair, blown about by the morning wind. The Captain was in the +dining-room when she descended, standing in his favourite position with +his back to the fire, his coat-tails drawn forward, and his legs like +two sides of a triangle. + +"Are the girls up yet, Grace? Excuse the prefix; we are relatives, you +know. Ah! here is one of them. Good-morning, Mademoiselle." + +"Good-morning, papa," said Eeny, kissing him. "Where is Kate?" + +"Kate is here!" said the voice that was like silver bells; and Kate came +in, graceful and elegant in her white cashmere morning robe, with cord +and tassels of violet, and a knot of violet ribbon at the rounded +throat. "I have not kept you waiting, have I?" + +She kissed her father and sister, smiled and bowed to Grace and took her +place to preside. Very prettily and deftly the white hands fluttered +among the fragile china cups and saucers, and wielded the carved and +massive silver coffee-pot. + +Grace thought she looked lovelier in the morning sunshine than in the +garish lamplight, with that flush on her cheeks, and the beautiful +golden hair twisted in shining coils. + +Grace was very silent during breakfast, listening to the rest. The +Captain and his eldest daughter were both excellent talkers, and never +let conversation flag. Miss Danton rarely addressed her, but the +Captain's cordiality made amends for that. + +"I must see that brother of yours to-day, Grace," he said, "and get him +to come up here. The Curé, too, is a capital fellow--I beg his pardon--I +must bring them both up to dinner. Are the Ponsonbys, and the Landry's, +and the Le Favres in the old places yet?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I'll call on them, then--they don't know I'm here--and see if a little +company won't enliven our long Canadian winter. You three, Grace, Rose +and Eeny, have been living here like nonettes long enough. We must try +and alter things a little for you." + +The Captain's good-natured efforts to draw his taciturn housekeeper out +did not succeed very well. She had that unsocial failing of reserved +natures, silence habitually; and her reserve was always at its worst in +the presence of the Captain's brilliant daughter. That youthful beauty +fixed her blue eyes now and then on the dark, downcast face with an odd +look--very like a look of aversion. + +"What kind of person is this Miss Grace of yours, Eeny?" she asked her +sister, after breakfast. "Very stupid, isn't she?" + +"Stupid! Oh, dear, no! Grace is the dearest, best girl in the world, +except you, Kate. I don't know how we should ever get on without her." + +"I didn't know," said Kate, rather coldly; "she is so silent and +impenetrable. Come! You promised to show me through the house." + +They were alone in the dining-room. She walked over to the fire, and +stood looking thoughtfully up at the two portraits hanging over the +mantel--Captain Danton at twenty-seven, and his wife at twenty-four. + +"Poor mamma!" Kate said, with a rare tenderness in her voice. "How +pretty she was! Do you remember her, Eeny?" + +"No," said Eeny. "You know I was such a little thing, Kate. All I know +about her is what Margery tells me." + +"Who is Margery?" + +"My old nurse, and Harry's, and yours, and Rose's. She nursed us all, +babies, and took care of mamma when she died. She was mama's maid when +she got married, and lived with her all her life. She is here still." + +"I must see Margery, then. I shall like her, I know; for I like all +things old and storied, and venerable. I can remember mamma the last +time she was in England; her tall, slender figure, her dark, wavy hair, +and beautiful smile. She used to take me in her arms in the twilight and +sing me to sleep." + +"Dear Kate! But Grace has been a mother to me. Do you know, Margery says +Rose is like her?" + +"Whom? Mamma?" + +"Yes; all except her temper. Oh!" cried Eeny, making a sudden grimace, +"hasn't Rose got a temper!" + +Kate smiled. + +"A bad one?" + +"A bad one! You ought to see her tearing up and down the room in a +towering passion, and scolding. Mon Dieu!" cried Eeny, holding her +breath at the recollection. + +"Do you ever quarrel?" asked Kate, laughing. + +"About fifty times a day. Oh, what a blessing it was when she went to +Ottawa! Grace and I have been in paradise ever since. She'll behave +herself for a while when she comes home, I dare say, before you and +papa; but it won't be for long." + +Grace came in, and Kate drew Eeny away to show her over the house. It +was quite a tour. Danton Hall was no joke to go over. Upstairs and down +stairs; along halls and passages; the drawing-room, where they had been +last night; the winter drawing-room on the second floor, all gold and +crimson; a summer morning-room, its four sides glass, straw matting on +the floor, flower-pots everywhere, looking like a conservatory; the +library, where, perpetuated in oils, many Dantons hung, and where +book-shelves lined the walls; into what was once the nursery, where +empty cribs stood as in olden times, and where, under a sunny window, a +low rocker stood, Mrs. Danton's own chair; into Kate's fairy boudoir, +all fluted satin and brocatelle; into her bed-chamber, where everything +was white, and azure, and spotless as herself; into Eeny's room, pretty +and tasteful, but not so superb; into Rose's, very disordered, and +littered, and characteristic; into papa's, big, carpetless, fireless, +dreadfully grim and unlike papa himself; into Grace's, the perfection of +order and taste, and then Eeny stopped, out of breath. + +"There's lots more," she said; "papa's study, but he is writing there +now, and the green-room, and Mr. Richards' rooms, and----" + +"Never mind," said Kate, hastily, "we will not disturb papa or Mr. +Richards. Let us go and see old Margery." + +They found the old woman in a little room appropriated to her, knitting +busily, and looking bright, and hale, and hearty. She rose up and +dropped the young lady a stiff curtsey. + +"I'm very glad to see you, Miss," said Margery. "I nursed you often when +you was a little blue-eyed, curly-haired, rosy cheeked baby. You are +very tall and very pretty, Miss; but you don't look like your mother. +She don't look like her mother. You're Dantons, both of you; but Miss +Rose, she looks like her, and Master Harry--ah, poor, dear Master Harry! +He is killed; isn't he, Miss Kate?" + +Kate did not speak. She walked away from the old woman to a window, and +Eeny saw she had grown very pale. + +"Don't talk about Harry, Margery!" whispered Eeny, giving her a poke. +"Kate doesn't like it." + +"I beg your pardon, Miss," said Margery. "I didn't mean to offend; but I +nursed you all, and I knew your mamma when she was a little girl. I was +a young woman then, and I remember that sweet young face of hers so +well. Like Miss Rose, when she is not cross." + +Kate smiled at the winding up and went away. + +"Where now?" she asked, gayly. "I am not half tired of sight-seeing. +Shall we explore the outside for a change? Yes? Then come and let us get +our hats. Your Canadian Novembers are of Arctic temperature." + +"Wait until our Decembers tweak the top of your imperial nose off," said +Eeny, shivering in anticipation. "Won't you wish you were back in +England!" + +The yellow November sunshine glorified garden, lawn and meadow as Eeny +led her sister through the grounds. They explored the long orchard, +strolled down the tamarack walk, and wandered round the fish pond. But +garden and orchard were all black with the November frost, the trees +rattled skeleton arms, and the dead leaves drifted in the melancholy +wind. They strayed down the winding drive to the gate, and Kate could +see the village of St. Croix along the quarter of a mile of road leading +to it, with the sparkling river beyond. + +"I should like to see the village," she said, "but perhaps you are +tired." + +"Not so tired as that. Let us go." + +"If I fatigue you to death, tell me so," said Kate. "I am a great +pedestrian. I used to walk miles and miles daily at home." + +Miss Danton found St. Croix quite a large place, with dozens of +straggling streets, narrow wooden sidewalks, queer-looking, Frenchified +houses, shops where nothing seemed selling, hotels all still and +forlorn, and a church with a tall cross and its doors open. Sabbath +stillness lay over all--the streets were deserted, the children seemed +too indolent to play, the dogs too lazy to bark. The long, sluggish +canal, running like a sleeping serpent round the village, seemed to have +more of life than it had. + +"What a dull place!" said Kate. "Has everybody gone to sleep? Is it +always like this?" + +"Mostly," said Eeny. "You should hear Rose abuse it. It is only fit for +a lot of Rip Van Winkles, or the Seven Sleepers, she says. All the life +there is, is around the station when the train comes and goes." + +The sisters wandered along the canal until the village was left behind, +and they were in some desolate fields, sodden from the recent rains. A +black marsh spread beyond, and a great gloomy building reared itself +against the blue Canadian sky on the other side. + +"What old bastille is that?" asked Kate. + +"The St. Croix barracks," said Eeny uneasily. "Come away Kate. I am +afraid of the soldiers--they may see us." + +She turned round and uttered a scream. Two brawny redcoats were striding +across the wet field to where they stood. They reeled as they walked, +and set up a sort of Indian war-whoop on finding they were discovered. + +"Don't you run away, my little dears," said one, "we're coming as fast +as we can." + +"Oh, Kate!" cried Eeny, in terror, "what shall we do?" + +"Let us go at once," said Kate, "those men are intoxicated." + +They started together over the fields, but the men's long strides gained +upon them at every step. + +"I say, my dear," hiccoughed one, laying his big hand on Kate's +shoulder, "you musn't run away, you know. By George! you're a pretty +girl! give us a kiss!" + +He put his arms round her waist. Only for an instant; the next, with all +the blood of all the Dantons flushing her cheeks, she had sprung back +and struck him a blow in the face that made him reel. The blood started +from the drunken soldier's nose, and he stood for a second stunned by +the surprise blow; the next, with an imprecation, he would have caught +her, but that something caught him from behind, and held him as in a +vise. A big dog had come over the fields in vast bounds, and two rows of +formidable ivory held the warrior fast. The dog was not alone; his +master, a tall and stalwart gentleman, was beside the frightened girls, +with his strong grasp on the other soldier's collar. + +"You drunken rascal!" said the owner of the dog, "you shall get the +black hole for this to-morrow. Tiger, my boy, let go." The dog with a +growl released his hold. "And now be off, both of you, or my dog shall +tear you into mince-meat!" + +The drunken ruffians shrunk away discomfited, and Eeny held out both her +hands to their hero. + +"Oh, Doctor Danton! What should we have done without you?" + +"I don't know," said the Doctor. "You would have been in a very +disagreeable predicament, I am afraid. It is hardly safe for young +ladies to venture so far from the village unattended, while these +drunken soldiers are quartered here." + +"I often came alone before," said Eeny, "and no one molested me. Let me +make you acquainted with my sister--Kate, Doctor Danton." + +Kate held out her hand with that bewitching smile of hers. + +"Thank you and Tiger very much. I was not aware I had a namesake in St. +Croix." + +"He is Grace's brother," said Eeny, "and he is only here on a visit--he +is just from Germany." + +Kate bowed, patting Tiger's big head with her snowflake of a hand. + +"This is another friend we have to thank," she said. "How came you to be +so opportunely at hand, Doctor Danton?" + +"By the merest chance. Tiger and I take our morning constitutional along +these desolate fields and flats. I'll have these fellows properly +punished for their rudeness." + +"No, no," said Kate, "let them go. It is not likely to happen again. +Besides," laughing and blushing, "I punished one of them already, and +Tiger came to my assistance with the other." + +"You served him right," said the Doctor. "If you will permit me, Miss +Danton, I will escort you to the village." + +"Come home with us," said Eeny, "we will just be in time for luncheon, +and I know you want to see Grace." + +"A thousand thanks, Mademoiselle--but no--not this morning." + +Kate seconded the invitation; but Doctor Danton politely persisted in +refusing. He walked with them as far as St. Croix, then raised his hat, +said good-bye, whistled for Tiger, and was gone. + +The young ladies reached the hall in safety, in time to brush their hair +before luncheon, where, of course, nothing was talked of but their +adventure and their champion. + +"By George! if I catch these fellows, I'll break every bone in their +drunken skins," cried the irate Captain. "A pretty fix you two would +have been in, but for the Doctor. I'll ride down to the parsonage, or +whatever you call it, immediately after luncheon, and bring him back to +dinner, will he nill he--the Curé, too, if he'll come, for the Curé is a +very old friend." + +Captain Danton was as good as his word. As soon as luncheon was over, he +mounted his horse and rode away, humming a tune. Kate stood on the +steps, with the pale November sunlight gilding the delicate rose-bloom +cheeks, and making an aureole round the tinsel hair watching him out of +sight. Eeny was clinging round her as usual, and Grace stopped to speak +to her on her way across the hall. + +"You ought to go and practise, Eeny. You have not touched the piano +to-day, and to-morrow your teacher comes." + +"Yes, Eeny," said Kate, "go attend to your music. I am going upstairs, +to my room." + +She smiled, kissed her, opened the parlour door, pushed her in, and ran +up the broad staircase. Not to her own room, though, but along the quiet +corridor leading to the green baize door. The key of that door was in +her pocket; she opened it, locked it behind her, and was shut up with +the, as yet, invisible Mr. Richards. + +Eeny practised conscientiously three hours. It was then nearly five +o'clock, and the afternoon sun was dropping low in the level sky. She +rose up, closed the piano, and went in search of her sister. Upstairs +and down stairs and in my lady's chamber, but my lady was nowhere to be +found. Grace didn't know where she was. Eunice, the rosy English maid, +didn't know. Eeny was perplexed and provoked. Five o'clock struck, and +she started out in the twilight to hunt the grounds--all in vain. She +gave it up in half an hour, and came back to the house. The hall lamps +were lighted upstairs and down, and Eeny, going along the upper hall, +found what she wanted. The green baize door was unlocked, and her sister +Kate came out, relocked it, and put the key in her pocket. + +Eeny stood still, looking at her, too much surprised to speak. While she +had been hunting everywhere for her, Kate had been closeted with the +mysterious invalid all the afternoon. + +"Time to dress for dinner, I suppose, Eeny," she said looking at her +watch. "One must dress, if papa brings company. Did you see Eunice? Is +she in my room?" + +"I don't know. Have you been in there with Mr. Richards all the +afternoon?" + +"Yes; he gets lonely, poor fellow! Run away and dress." + +Eunice was waiting in her young lady's boudoir, where the fire shone +bright, the wax candles burned, the curtains were drawn, and everything +looked deliciously comfortable. Kate sank into an easy-chair, and Eunice +took the pins out of the beautiful glittering hair, and let it fall in a +shining shower around her. + +"What dress will you please to wear, miss?" + +"The black lace, I think, since there is to be company, and the pearls." + +She lay listlessly while Eunice combed out the soft, thick hair, and +twisted it coronet-wise, as she best liked to wear it. She stood +listless while her dress was being fastened, her eyes misty and dreamy, +fixed on the diamond ring she wore. Very lovely she looked in the soft, +rich lace, pale pearls on the exquisite throat; and she smiled her +approval of Eunice's skill when it was all over. + +"That will do, Eunice, thank you. You can go now." + +The girl went out, and Kate sank back in her chair, her blue eyes, +tender and dreamy, still fixed on the fire. Drifting into dream-land, +she lay twisting her flashing diamond round and round on her finger, and +heedless of the passing moments. The loud ringing of the dinner-bell +aroused her, and she arose with a little sigh from her pleasant reverie, +shook out her lace flounces, and tripped away down stairs. + +They were all in the dining-room when she entered--papa, Eeny, Grace and +strangers--Doctor Danton and a clerical-looking young man, with a pale +scholarly face and penetrating eyes, and who was presented as Father +Francis. + +"The Curé couldn't come," said the Captain. "A sick call. Very sorry. +Capital company, the Curé. Why can't people take sick at reasonable +hours, Father Francis?" + +"Ask Doctor Danton," said Father Francis. "I am not a physician--of the +bodies of men." + +"Don't ask me anything while the first course is in progress," said the +Doctor. "You ought to know better. I trust you have quite recovered from +your recent fright, Miss Danton." + +"A Danton frightened!" exclaimed her father. "The daughter of all the +Dantons that ever fought and fell, turn coward! Kate, deny the charge!" + +"Miss Danton is no coward," said the Doctor. "She gave battle like a +heroine." + +Kate blushed vividly. + +"As you are strong, be merciful," she said. "I own to being so +thoroughly frightened that I shall never go there alone again. I hope, +my preserver, Herr Tiger, is well." + +"Quite well. Had he known I was coming here, he would doubtless have +sent his regards." + +"Who is Herr Tiger?" asked the Captain. + +"A big Livonian blood-hound of mine, and my most intimate friend, with +the exception of Father Francis here." + +"Birds of a feather," said the young priest. "Not that I class myself +with Doctors and blood-hounds. You should have allowed Tiger to give +those fellows a lesson they would remember, Danton. Their drunken +insolence is growing unbearable." + +Dinner went on and ended. The ladies left the dining-room; the gentlemen +lingered, but not long. + +Kate was at the piano entrancing Eeny, and Grace sat at her crochet. +Miss Danton got up and made tea, and the young Doctor lay back in an +arm-chair talking to Eeny, and watched, with half-closed eyes, the +delicate hands floating deftly along the fragile china cups. + +"Give us some music, Kate," her father said, when it was over. "Grace, +put away your knitting, and be my partner in a game of whist. Father +Francis and the Doctor will stand no chance against us." + +The quartet sat down. Kate's hands flew up and down the shining octaves +of her piano, and filled the room with heavenly harmony, the waves of +music that ebbed, and flowed, and fascinated. She played until the card +party broke up, and then she wheeled round on her stool. + +"Who are the victors?" she asked. + +"We are," said the Doctor. "When I make up my mind to win, I always win. +The victory rests solely with me." + +"I'll vouch for your skill in cheating," said Grace. "Father Francis, I +am surprised that you countenance such dishonest proceedings." + +"I wouldn't in any one but my partner," said the young priest, crossing +over to the piano. "Don't cease playing, Miss Danton. I am devotedly +fond of music, and it is very rarely indeed I hear such music as you +have given us to-night. You sing, do you not?" + +"Sing!" exclaimed her father. "Kate sings like a nightingale. Sing us a +Scotch song, my dear." + +"What shall it be, papa?" + +"Anything. 'Auld Robin Gray,' if you like." + +Kate sang the sweet old Scottish ballad with a pathos that went to every +heart. + +"That is charming," said Father Francis. "Sing for me, now, Scots wha +hae." + +She glanced up at him brightly; it was a favourite of her own, and she +sang it for him as he had never heard it sung before. + +"Have you no favourite, Doctor Danton?" she asked, turning to him with +that dangerous smile of hers. "I want to treat all alike." + +"Do you sing 'Hear me, Norma'?" + +Her answer was the song. Then she arose from the instrument, and Father +Francis pulled out his watch. + +"What will the Curé think of us!" he exclaimed; "half-past eleven. +Danton, get up this instant and let us be off." + +"I had no idea it was so late," said the doctor, rising, despite the +Captain's protest. "Your music must have bewitched us, Miss Danton." + +They shook hands with the Captain and departed. + +Grace and Eeny went upstairs at once. Kate was lingering still in the +drawing-room when her father came back from seeing his guests off. + +"A fine fellow, that young doctor," said the Captain, in his hearty way; +"a remarkably fine fellow. Don't you think so, Kate?" + +"He is well-bred," said Kate, listlessly. "I think I prefer Father +Francis. Good-night, papa." + +She kissed her father and went slowly up to her room. Eunice was there +waiting to undress her, and Kate lay back in an arm chair while the girl +took down and combed out her long hair. She lay with half-closed eyes, +dreaming tenderly, not of this evening, not of Dr. Danton, but of +another, handsomer, dearer, and far away. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ROSE DANTON. + + +Next morning, when the family assembled at breakfast, Captain Danton +found a letter on his plate, summoning him in haste to Montreal. + +"Business, my dear," he said, answering his eldest daughter's enquiring +look; "business of moment." + +"Nothing concerning--" She paused, looking startled. "Nothing relating +to--" + +"To Mr. Richards. No, my dear. How do you ladies purpose spending the +day?" + +He looked at Grace, who smiled. + +"My duties are all arranged," she said. "There is no fear of the day +hanging heavily on my hands." + +"And you two?" + +"I don't know, papa," said Kate listlessly. "I can practise, and read, +and write letters, and visit Mr. Richards. I dare-say I will manage." + +"Let us have a drive," said Eeny. "We can drive with papa to the +station, and then get Thomas to take us everywhere. It's a lovely day, +and you have seen nothing of St. Croix and our country roads yet." + +Eeny's idea was applauded, and immediately after breakfast the barouche +was ordered out, and Thomas was in attendance. Mr. Ogden packed his +master's valise, and the trio entered the carriage and were driven off. + +"Attend to Mr. Richards as usual, Ogden," said the Captain, as Ogden +helped him into his overcoat. "I will be back to-morrow." + +Grace stood in the doorway and watched the barouche until the winding +drive hid it from view. Then she went back to attend to her +housekeeper's duties--to give the necessary orders for dinner, see that +the rooms were being properly arranged, and so forth. Everything was +going on well; the house was in exquisite order from attic to cellar. +Ogden shut up with Mr. Richards, the servants quietly busy, and Danton +Hall as still as a church on a week-day. Grace, humming a little tune, +took her sewing into the dining-room, where she liked best to sit, and +began stitching away industriously. The ticking of a clock on the mantel +making its way to twelve, the rattling of the stripped trees in the +fresh morning wind, were, for a time, the only sounds outdoor or in. +Then wheels rattled rapidly over the graveled drive, coming to the house +in a hurry, and Grace looked up in surprise. + +"Back so soon," she thought? "They cannot have driven far." + +But it was not the handsome new barouche--it was only a shabby little +buggy from the station, in which a young lady sat with a pile of trunks +and bandboxes. + +"Rose!" exclaimed Grace. "I quite forgot she was coming to-day." + +A moment later and the front door opened and shut with a bang, flying +feet came along the hall, a silk dress rustled stormily, the dining-room +door was flung open, and a young lady bounced in and caught Grace in a +rapturous hug. + +"You darling old thing!" cried a fresh young voice. "I knew I should +find you here, even if I hadn't seen you sitting at the window. Aren't +you glad to have me home again? And have you got anything to eat? I +declare I'm famished!" + +Pouring all this out in a breath, with kisses for commas, the young lady +released Grace, and flung herself into an arm-chair. + +"Ring the bell, Grace, and let us have something to eat. You don't know +how hungry I am. Are you alone? Where are the rest?" + +Grace, taking this shower of questions with constitutional phlegm, +arose, rang the bell, and ordered cakes and cold chicken; the young lady +meantime taking off her pretty black velvet turban, with its long +feather, flung it in a corner, and sent her shawl, gloves, and fur +collar flying after it. + +"Now, Rose," expostulated Grace, picking them up, "how often must I tell +you the floor is not the proper place to hang your things? I suppose you +will be having the whole house in a litter, as usual, now that you have +got home." + +"Why did you send for me then?" demanded Rose. "I was very well off. I +didn't want to come. Never got scolded once since I went away, and I +pitched my clothes everywhere! Say, Grace, how do you get on with the +new comers?" + +"Very well." + +Here Babette appeared with the young lady's lunch, and Miss Rose sat +down to it promptly. + +"What is she like, Kate--handsome?" + +"Very!" with emphasis. + +"Handsomer than I am?" + +"A thousand times handsomer!" + +"Bah! I don't believe it! Tall and fair, with light hair and blue eyes. +Am I right?" + +"Yes." + +"Then she is as insipid as milk and water--as insipid as you are, old +Madame Grumpy. And papa--he's big and loud-voiced, and red-faced and +jolly, I suppose?" + +"Miss Rose Danton, be a little more respectful, if you want me to answer +your questions." + +"Well, but isn't he? And Mr. Richards--who's Mr. Richards?" + +"I don't know." + +"Isn't he here?" + +"Yes, certainly." + +"Then why don't you know?" + +"Because I have not, like Rose Danton, a bump of inquisitiveness as +large as a turnip." + +"Now, Grace, don't be hateful. Tell me all you know about Mr. Richards." + +"And that is nothing. I have never even seen him. He is an invalid; he +keeps his rooms, night and day. His meals are carried upland no one sees +him but your father, and sister, and Ogden." + +"Mon Dieu!" cried Rose, opening her eyes very wide. "A mystery under our +very noses! What can it mean? There's something wrong somewhere, isn't +there?" + +"I don't know anything about it; it is none of my business, and I never +interfere in other people's." + +"You dear old Granny Grumpy! And now that I've had enough to eat, why +don't you ask me about my visit to Ottawa, and what kind of time I had?" + +"Because I really don't care anything about it. However, I trust you +enjoyed yourself." + +"Enjoyed myself!" shrilly cried Rose. "It was like being in paradise! I +never had such a splendid, charming, delightful time since I was born! I +never was so sorry for anything as for leaving." + +"Really!" + +"Oh, Grace! it was beautiful--so gay, so much company; and I do love +company! A ball to-night, a concert to-morrow, a sociable next evening, +the theatre, dinner-parties, matinees, morning calls, shopping and +receptions! Oh," cried Rose, rapturously, "it was glorious!" + +"Dear me!" said Grace, stitching away like a sewing-machine; "it must +have been a great trial to leave." + +"It was. But I am going back. Dear Ottawa! Charming Ottawa! I was +excessively happy in Ottawa!" + +She laid hold of a kitten slumbering peacefully on a rug as she spoke, +and went waltzing around the room, whistling a lively tune. Grace looked +at her, tried to repress a smile, failed, and continued her work. She +was very, very pretty, this second daughter of Captain Danton, and quite +unlike the other two. She was of medium height, but so plump and rounded +as to look less tall than she really was. Her profuse hair, of dark, +chestnut brown, hung in thick curls to her waist; her complexion was +dark, cheeks round and red as apples, her forehead low, her nose +perfection, her teeth like pearls, her eyes small, bright and hazel. +Very pretty, very sparkling, very piquant, and a flirt from her cradle. + +"Did you learn that new accomplishment in Ottawa, pray?" asked Grace. + +"What new accomplishment?" + +"Whistling." + +"Yes, Jules taught me." + +"Who is Jules?" + +"Jules La Touche--the son of the house--handsome as an angel, and my +devoted slave." + +"Indeed! Has he taught you anything else?" + +"Only to love him and to smoke cigarettes." + +"Smoke!" exclaimed Grace, horrified. + +"Yes, m'amour! I have a whole package in my trunk. If you mend my +stockings I will let you have some. I could not exist without cigarettes +now." + +"I shall have to mend your stockings in any case. As to the cigarettes, +permit me to decline. What will your papa say to such goings on?" + +"He will be charmed, no doubt. If he isn't, he ought to. Just fancy when +he is sitting alone of an evening over his meerschaum, what nice, +sociable smokes we can have together. Jules and I used to smoke together +by the hour. My darling Jules! how I long to go back to Ottawa and you +once more! Grace!" dropping the cat and whirling up to her, "would you +like to hear a secret?" + +"Not particularly; what is it?" + +"You won't tell--will you?" + +"I don't know; I must hear it first." + +"It's a great secret; I wouldn't tell anybody but you; and not you, +unless you promise profoundest silence." + +"I make no promises blindly. Tell me or not, just as you please. I don't +think much of your secrets, anyhow." + +"Don't you?" said Rose, nettled; "look here, then." + +She held out her left hand. On the third finger shone a shimmering opal +ring. + +"Well?" said Grace. + +"Well!" said Rose, triumphantly. "Jules gave me that; that is my +engagement ring." + +Grace sat and looked at her aghast. + +"No!" she said; "you don't mean it, Rose?" + +"I do mean it. I am engaged to Jules La Touche, and we are going to be +married in a year. That is my secret, and if you betray me I will never +forgive you." + +"And you are quite serious?" + +"Perfectly serious, _chčre grogneuse_." + +"Do Monsieur and Madame La Touche know?" + +"Certainly not. _Mon Dieu!_ We are too young. Jules is only twenty, and +I eighteen. We must wait; but I love him to distraction, and he adores +me! Tra-la-la!" + +She seized the cat once more, and went whirling round the room. + +Her waltz was suddenly interrupted. + +A gentleman, young, tall, and stately, stood, hat in hand, in the +doorway, regarding her. + +"Don't let me intrude," said the gentleman, politely advancing. "Don't +let me interrupt anybody, I beg!" + +Grace arose, smiling. + +"Rose, let me present my brother, Doctor Danton! Frank, Miss Rose +Danton!" + +Miss Rose dropped the kitten and her eyes, and made an elaborate +curtsey. + +"My entrance spoiled a very pretty tableau," said the Doctor, "and +disappointed pussy, I am afraid. Pray, continue your waltz, Miss Rose, +and don't mind me." + +"I don't," said Rose, carelessly, "my waltz was done, and I have to +dress." + +She ran out of the room, but put her head in again directly. + +"Grace!" + +"Yes!" + +"Will you come and curl my hair by-and-by?" + +"No, I haven't time." + +"What shall I do, then? Babette tears it out by the roots." + +"I am not busy," said the Doctor, blandly. "I haven't much experience in +curling young ladies' hair, but I am very willing to learn." + +"You are very kind," said his sister, "but we can dispense with your +services. You might get Eunice, I dare say, Rose; she has nothing else +to do." + +"Who's Eunice?" + +"Your sister's maid; you can ring for her; she understands hair-dressing +better than Babette." + +Rose ran up stairs. At the front window of the upper hall stood Ogden +and Eunice. + +Rose nodded familiarly to the valet, and turned to the girl. + +"Are you Eunice?" + +"Yes, Miss." + +"Are you busy?" + +"No, Miss." + +"Then come into my room, please, and comb my hair." + +Eunice followed the young lady, and Ogden returned to the mysterious +regions occupied by Mr. Richards. + +Once more the house was still; its one disturbing element was having her +hair curled; and Grace and her brother talked in peace below stairs. + +It was past luncheon-hour when the barouche rolled up to the door. Kate, +all aglow from her drive in the frosty air, stopped her laughing chat +with pale Eeny at the sight which met her eyes. Standing on the portico +steps, playing with a large dog Kate had reason to know, and +flirting--it looked like flirting--with the dog's master, stood a +radiant vision, a rounded girlish figure, arrayed in bright +maize-colored merino, elaborately trimmed with black lace and velvet, +the perfect shoulders and arms bare, the cheeks like blush roses, the +eyes sparkling as stars, and the golden-brown hair, freshly curled, +falling to her waist. + +"Oh, how beautiful!" Kate cried, under her breath. + +The next moment, Eeny ran up the steps, and favoured this vision of +youthful bloom with a kiss, while Kate followed more decorously. + +"How do, Eeny?" said Rose. "Kate!" + +She held out both her hands. Kate caught her in a sort of rapture in her +arms. + +"My sister!" she cried. "My darling Rose!" + +And then she stopped, for Doctor Danton was looking on with a +preternatural gravity that provoked her. + +"When did you come, Rose?" asked Eeny. + +"Two hours ago. Have you had a pleasant drive, Kate?" + +"Very, and I am hungry after it. We have kept Miss Grace waiting, I am +afraid; isn't it past luncheon-time? Come to my room with me, Rose. Are +you going, Doctor? Won't you stay to luncheon?" + +"Some other time. Good morning, ladies. Come, Tiger." + +He sauntered down the avenue, whistling, and the three sisters turned +into the house. + +"Very agreeable!" said Rose. "Grace's brother; and rather handsome." + +"Handsome!" exclaimed Kate. "He is not handsome, my pretty sister." She +took her in her arms again, and kissed her fondly. "My pretty sister! +how much I am going to love you!" + +Rose submitted to be kissed with a good grace, but with a little envious +pang at her vain, coquettish heart, to see how much more beautiful her +superb sister was than herself. She nestled luxuriously in an arm-chair, +while Eunice dressed her young mistress, chattering away in French like +a magpie. They descended together to luncheon; pale Eeny was totally +eclipsed by brilliant Rose, and all the afternoon they spent together +over the piano, and sauntering through the grounds. + +"Retribution, Eeny," said Grace, kissing Eeny's pale cheek. "You forgot +me for this dazzling Kate, and now you are nowhere. You must come back +to Grace again." + +"There is nobody like Grace," said Eeny, nestling close. "But Kate and +Rose won't be always like this. 'Love me little, love me long.' Wait +until Kate finds out what Rose is made of." + +But despite Eeny's prophecy, the two sisters got on remarkably well +together. + +Captain Danton did not return next day, according to promise, so they +were thrown entirely upon one another. Instead, there came a note from +Montreal, which told them that business would detain him in that city +for nearly a fortnight longer. "When I do return," ended the note, "I +will fetch an old friend to see Kate." + +"Who can it be?" wondered Kate. "There is no old friend of mine that I +am aware of in Montreal. Papa likes to be mysterious." + +"Yes," said Rose; "I should think so, when we have a mystery in the very +house." + +"What mystery?" + +"Mr. Richards, of course. He's a mystery worse than anything in the +'Mysteries of Udolpho.' Why can nobody get to see him but that +soft-stepping, oily-tongued little weasel, Ogden?" + +Kate looked at the pretty sister she loved so well, with the coldest +glances she had ever given her. + +"Mr. Richards is an invalid; he is unable to see any one, or quit his +room. What mystery is there in that?" + +"There's a mystery somewhere," said Rose, sagaciously. "Who is Mr. +Richards?" + +"A friend of papa's--and poor. Don't ask so many questions, Rose. I have +nothing more to say on the subject." + +"Then I must find out for myself--that is all," thought Rose; "and I +will, too, before long, in spite of half a dozen Ogdens." + +Rose tried with a zeal and perseverance worthy a better cause, and most +signally failed. Mr. Richards was invisible. His meals went up daily. +Ogden and Kate visited him daily, but the baize door was always locked, +and Ogden and Kate, on the subject, were dumb. Kate visited the invalid +at all hours, by night and by day. Ogden rarely left him except when +Miss Danton was there, and then he took a little airing in the garden. +Rose's room was near the corridor leading to the green baize room; and +often awaking "in the dead waste and middle of the night," she would +steal to that mysterious room to listen. But nothing was ever to be +heard, nothing ever to be seen--the mystery was fathomless. She would +wander outside at all hours, under Mr. Richards' window; and looking up, +wonder how he endured his prison, or what he could possibly be about--if +those dark curtains were never raised and he never looked at the outer +world. Once or twice a face had appeared, but it was always the keen, +thin face of Mr. Ogden; and Rose's curiosity, growing by what it fed on, +began to get insupportable. + +"What can it mean, Grace?" she would say to the housekeeper, to whom she +had a fashion, despite no end of snubbing, of confiding her secret +troubles. "There's something wrong; where there's secrecy, there's +guilt--I've always heard that." + +"Don't jump at conclusions, Miss Rose, and don't trouble yourself about +Mr. Richards; it is no affair of yours." + +"But I can't help troubling myself. What business have papa, and Kate, +and that nasty Ogden, to have a secret between them and I not know it? I +feel insulted, and I'll have revenge. I never mean to stop till I ferret +out the mystery. I have the strongest conviction I was born to be a +member of the detective police, and one of these days the mystery of Mr. +Richards will be a mystery no more." + +Grace had her own suspicions, but Grace was famous for minding her own +business, and kept her suspicions to herself. Rose's manoeuvring +amused her, and she let her go on. Every strategy the young lady could +conceive was brought to bear, and every stratagem was skilfully baffled. + +"Why don't you have Doctor Danton to see Mr. Richards, Kate?" she said +to her sister, one evening, meeting her coming out of Mr. Richards' +room. "I should think he was skilful." + +"Very likely," said Kate, with an air of reserve, "but Mr. Richards does +not require medical care." + +"Oh, he is not very bad, then? You should bring him down stairs in that +case; a little lively society--mine, for instance--might do him good." + +Kate's dark eyes flashed impatiently. + +"Rose," she said, sharply, "how often must I tell you Mr. Richards is +hypochondriacal and will not quit his room? Cease to talk on the +subject. Mr. Richards will not come down-stairs." + +She swept past--majestic and a little displeased. Rose shrugged her +plump shoulders and ran down stairs, for Doctor Danton was coming up the +avenue, and Rose, of late, had divided her attention pretty equally +between playing detective amateur and flirting with Doctor Danton. But +there was a visitor for Rose in the drawing-room; and the young Doctor, +entering the dining-room, found his sister alone, looking dreamily out +at the starry twilight. + +"Grace," he said, "I come to say good-bye; I am going to Montreal." + +Grace looked round at him with a sudden air of relief. + +"Oh, Frank! I am glad. When are you going?" + +Doctor Frank stared at her an instant in silence, and then hooked a +footstool towards him with his cane. + +"Well, upon my word, for a sister who has not seen me for six years, +that is affectionate. You're glad I'm going, are you?" + +"You know what I mean; it is about Rose Danton." + +"Well, what about Miss Rose?" + +"I am glad you are going to get out of her way. I am glad she will have +no chance to make a fool of you. I am glad you will have no time to fall +in love with her." + +"My pretty Rose! My dark-eyed darling! Grace, you are heartless." + +Grace looked at him, but his face was in shadow, and the tone of his +voice told nothing. + +"I don't know whether you are serious or not," she said. "For your own +sake, I hope you are not. Rose has been flirting with you, but I thought +you had penetration enough to see through her. I hope, I trust, Frank, +you have not allowed yourself to think seriously of her." + +"Why not?" said Doctor Danton; "she is very pretty, she has charming +ways, we are of the same blood, I should like to be married. It is very +nice to be married, I think. Why should I not think seriously of her?" + +"Because you might as well fall in love with the moon, and hope to win +it." + +"Do you mean she would not have me?" + +"Yes." + +"Trying, that. But why? Her conduct is encouraging. I thought she was in +love with me." + +Again Grace looked at him, puzzled; again his face was in shadow, and +his inscrutable voice baffled her. + +"I do not believe you ever thought any such thing. The girl is a +coquette born. She would flirt with Ogden, for the mere pleasure of +flirting. She flirts with you because there is no one else." + +"Trying!" repeated the Doctor. "Very! And you really think there is no +use in my proposing--you really think she will not marry me?" + +"I really think so." + +"And why? Don't break my heart without a reason. Is it because I am +poor?" + +"Because you are poor, and not handsome enough, or dashing enough for +the vainest, shallowest little flirt that ever made fools of men. Is +that plain enough?" + +"That's remarkably plain, and I am very much obliged to you. My darling +Rose! But hush! A silk dress rustles--here she comes!" + +The door opened; it was Rose, but not alone; both sisters were with her, +and Doctor Danton arose at once to make his adieus. + +"I depart to-morrow for Montreal," he said. "Farewell, Miss Danton." + +"Good-bye," letting the tips of her fingers touch his. "Bon voyage." + +She walked away to the window, cold indifference in every line of her +proud face. + +He held out his hand to Rose, glancing sideways at his sister. + +"Adieu, Miss Rose," he said; "I shall never forget the pleasant hours I +have passed at Danton Hall." + +He pressed the little plump hand, and Rose's rosy cheeks took a deeper +dye; but she only said, "Good-bye," and walked away to the piano, and +played a waltz. + +Eeny was the only one who expressed regret, and gave his hand a friendly +shake. + +"I am sorry you are going," she said. "Come back soon, Doctor Frank." + +Doctor Frank looked as if he would like to kiss her; but Kate was there, +queenly and majestic, and such an impropriety was not to be thought of. + +It was Kate, however, who spoke to him last, as he left the room. + +"Take good bye from me to Tiger," she said. "I shall be glad when Tiger +comes back to St. Croix." + +"'Love me, love my dog,'" quoted Rose. "How about Tiger's master, Kate?" + +"I shall always be pleased to see Doctor Danton," said Kate, with +supreme indifference. "Sing me a twilight song, Rose." + +Rose sang "Kathleen Mavourneen" in a sweet contralto voice. + +Kate stood listening to the exquisite words and air, watching Doctor +Danton's full figure fading out in the November gloom, and thinking of +some one she loved far away. + + "O hast thou forgotten how soon we must sever; + O hast thou forgotten how soon we must part? + It may be for years, and it may be forever, + Then why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart?" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +SEEING A GHOST. + + +Three days after the departure of Grace's brother, Captain Danton +returned to the Hall. Strange to say, the young Doctor had been missed +in these three days by the four Misses Danton. Even the stately Kate, +who would have gone to the block sooner than have owned it, missed his +genial presence, his pleasant laugh, and ever interesting conversation; +Rose missed her flirtee, and gaped wearily the slow hours away that had +flown coquetting with him; Eeny missed the pocketfuls of chocolate, +bon-bons, and the story books new from Montreal; and Grace missed him +most of all. But Eeny was the only one honest enough to own it, and she +declared the house was as lonely as a dungeon since Doctor Frank had +gone away. + +"One would think you had fallen in love with him, Eeny," said Rose. + +"No," retorted Eeny; "I leave that for you. But he was nice; I liked +him, and I wish he would come back. Don't you, Kate?" + +"I don't care, particularly," said Kate. "I wish papa would come." + +"And bring that unknown friend of yours. I say, Kate," said Rose +mischievously, "they say you're engaged--perhaps it's your fiancé." + +Up over Kate's pearly face the hot blood flew, and she turned hastily to +the nearest window. + +"Too late, ma soeur," said Rose, her eyes dancing. "You blush +beautifully. Won't I have a look at him when he comes, the conquering +hero, who can win our queenly Kate's heart." + +"Rose, hush!" cried Kate, yet not displeased, and with that roseate +light in her face still. + +Rose came over, and put her arm around her waist coaxingly. + +"Tell me about him, Kate. Is he handsome?" + +"Who? Reginald? Of course he is handsome." + +"I want to see him dreadfully! Have you his picture? Won't you show it +me?" + +There was a slender gold chain round Kate's neck, which she wore night +and day. A locket was attached, and her hand pressed it now, but she did +not take it out. + +"Some other time, my pet," she said, kissing Rose. "Come, let us go for +a ride." + +Rose was an accomplished horsewoman, and never looked so well as in a +side-saddle. She owned a spirited black mare, which she called Regina, +and she had ridden out every day with Doctor Frank while that gentleman +was in St. Croix. Kate rode well, too. A fleet-footed little pony, named +Arab, had been trained for her use, and the sisters galloped over the +country together daily. + +Eeny and Grace, both mortally afraid of horse-flesh, never rode. + +Between music, books, and riding, the three days' interval passed +pleasantly enough. + +Rose was an inveterate novel reader, and the hours Kate spent shut up +with that unfathomable mystery, Mr. Richards, her younger sister passed +absorbed in the last new novel. + +They had visitors too--the Ponsonbys, the Landrys, the Le Favres, and +everybody of note in the neighbourhood called. Father Francis, M. le +Curé, the Reverend Augustus Clare, the Episcopal incumbent of St. Croix, +an aristocratic young Englishman, came to see them in the evening to +hear Miss Danton sing, and to play backgammon. + +The Reverend Augustus, who was slim, and fair, and had face and hands +like a pretty girl, was very much impressed with the majestic daughter +of Captain Danton, who sang so magnificently, and looked at him with +eyes like blue stars. + +The day that brought her father home had been long and dull. There had +been no callers, and they had not gone out. A cold north wind had +shrieked around the house all day, rattling the windows, and tearing +frantically through the gaunt arms of the stripped trees. The sky was +like lead, the river black and turbid. As the afternoon wore on, great +flakes of snow came fluttering through the opaque air, slowly at first, +then faster, till all was blind, fluttering whiteness, and the black +earth was hidden. + +Kate stood by the dining-room window watching the fast-falling snow. It +had been a long day to her--a long, weary, aimless day. She had tried to +read, to play, to sing, to work; and failed in all. She had visited Mr. +Richards; she had wandered, in a lost sort of way, from room to room; +she had lain listlessly on sofas, and tried to sleep, all in vain. The +demon of ennui had taken possession of her; and now, at the end of every +resource, she stood looking drearily out at the wintry scene. She was +dressed for the evening, and looked like a picture, buttoned up in that +black velvet jacket, its rich darkness such a foil to her fair face and +shining golden hair. Grace was her only companion--Grace sitting +serenely braiding an apron for herself, Rose was fathoms deep in "Les +Miserables," and Eeny was drumming on the piano in the drawing-room. +There had been a long silence, but presently Grace looked up from her +work, and spoke. + +"This wintry scene is new to you, Miss Danton. You don't have such wild +snow storms in England?" + +Kate glanced round, a little surprised. + +It was very rarely indeed her father's housekeeper voluntarily addressed +her. + +"No," she said, "not like this; but I like it. We ought to have +sleighing to-morrow, if it continues." + +"Probably. We do not often have sleighing, though, in November." + +There was another pause. + +Kate yawned behind her white hand. + +"I wish Father Francis would come up," she said wearily. "He is the only +person in St. Croix worth talking to." + +The dark, short November afternoon was deepening with snowy night, when +through the ghostly twilight the buggy from the station whirled up to +the door, and two gentlemen alighted. Great-coats, with upturned +collars, and hats pulled down, disguised both, but Kate recognized her +father, the taller and stouter, with a cry of delight. + +"Papa!" she exclaimed; and ran out of the room to meet him. He was just +entering, his jovial laugh ringing through the house as he shook the +snow off, and caught her in his wet arms. + +"Glad to be home again, Kate! You don't mind a cold kiss, do you? Let me +present an old friend whom you don't expect, I'll wager." + +The gentleman behind him came forward. A gentleman neither very young, +nor very handsome, nor very tall; at once plain-looking and +proud-looking. The pale twilight was bright enough for Kate to recognize +him as he took off his hat. + +"Sir Ronald Keith!" she cried, intense surprise in every line of her +face; "why, who would have thought of seeing you in Canada?" + +She held out her hand frankly, but there was a marked air of restraint +in Sir Ronald's manner as he touched it and dropped it again. + +"I thought it would be an astonisher," said her father; "how are Grace +and Eeny?" + +"Very well." + +"And Rose? Has Rose got home?" + +"Yes, papa." + +At this juncture Ogden appeared, and his master turned to him. + +"Ogden, see that Sir Ronald's luggage is taken to his room, and then +hold yourself in readiness to attend him. This way, Sir Ronald, there is +just time to dress for dinner, and no more." + +He led his visitor to the bedroom regions, and Kate returned to the +drawing-room. Rose was there dressed beautifully, and with flowers in +her hair, and all curiosity to hear who their visitor was. There was a +heightened colour in Kate's face and an altered expression in her eyes +that puzzled Grace. + +"He is Sir Ronald Keith," she said, in reply to Rose. "I have known him +for years." + +"Sir Ronald; knight or baronet?" + +"Baronet, of course," Kate said, coldly; "and Scotch. Don't get into a +gale, Rose; you won't care about him; he is neither young nor handsome." + +"Is he unmarried?" + +"Yes." + +"And rich?" + +"His income is eight thousand a year." + +"_Mon Dieu!_ A baronet and eight thousand a year! Kate, I am going to +make a dead set at him. Lady Keith--Lady Rose Keith; that sounds +remarkably well, doesn't it? I always thought I should like to be 'my +lady.' Grace, how do I look?" + +Kate sat down to the piano, and drowned Rose's words in a storm of +music. Rose looked at her with pursed-up lips. + +"Kate is in one of her high and mighty moods," she thought. "I don't +pretend to understand her. If she is engaged in England, what difference +can it make to her whether I flirt with this Scotch baronet or not? What +do I care for her airs? I'll flirt if I please." + +She sat still, twisting her glossy ringlets round her fingers, while +Kate played on with that unsmiling face. Half an hour, and the +dinner-bell rang. Ten minutes after, Captain Danton and his guest stood +before them. + +For a moment Rose did not see him; her father's large proportions, as he +took her in his arms and kissed her, overshadowed every one else. + +"How my little Rose has grown!" the Captain said looking at her fondly; +"as plump as a partridge and as Rosy as her name. Sir Ronald--my +daughter Rose." + +Rose bowed with finished grace, thinking, with a profound sense of +disappointment: + +"What an ugly little man!" + +Then it was Eeny's turn, and presently they were all seated at the +table--the baronet at Kate's right hand, talking to her of Old England, +and of by-gone days, and of people the rest knew nothing about. Captain +Danton gallantly devoted himself to the other three, and told them he +had brought them all presents from Montreal. + +"Oh, papa, have you though!" cried Rose. "I dearly love presents; what +have you brought me?" + +"Wait until after dinner, little curiosity," said her father. "Grace, +whom do you think I met in Montreal?" + +"I don't know, sir." + +"Why, that brother of yours. I was loitering along the Champ de Mars, +when who should step up but Doctor Frank. Wasn't I astonished! I asked +what brought him there, and he told me he found St. Croix so slow he +couldn't stand it any longer. Complimentary to you, young ladies." + +Kate gave Rose a mischievous look, and Rose bit her lip and tossed back +her auburn curls. + +"I dare say St. Croix and its inhabitants can survive the loss," she +said. "Papa, the next time you go to Montreal I want you to take me. +It's a long time since I have been there." + +"I thought you were going back to Ottawa," said Grace. "You seem to have +forgotten all about it." + +Rose gave her an alarmed look; and finding a gap in the tęte-ŕ-tęte +between her sister and Sir Ronald, struck smilingly in. He was small and +he was homely, but he was a baronet and worth eight thousand a year, and +Rose brought all the battery of her charms to bear. In vain. She might +as well have tried to fascinate one of the gnarled old tamaracks +out-of-doors. Sir Ronald was utterly insensible to her brightest smiles +and glances, to her rosiest blushes and most honeyed words. He listened +politely, he answered courteously; but he was no more fascinated by +Captain Danton's second daughter than he was by Captain Danton's +housekeeper. + +Rose was disgusted, and retreated to a corner with a book, and sulked. +Grace, Kate, and Eeny, who all saw through the little game, were +exceedingly amused. + +"I told you it was of no use, Rose," said Kate, in a whisper, pausing at +the corner. "Do you always read with the book upside down? Sir Ronald is +made of flint, where pretty girls are concerned. You won't be 'my lady' +this time." + +"Sir Ronald is a stupid stick!" retorted Rose. "I wouldn't marry him if +he were a duke instead of a baronet. One couldn't expect anything better +from a Scotchman, though." + +It was the first experience Kate had had of Rose's temper. She drew back +now, troubled. + +"I hope we will not be troubled with him long!" continued Rose, +spitefully. "The place was stupid enough before, but it will be worse +with that sulky Scotchman prowling about. I tried to be civil to him +this evening. I shall never try again." + +With which Miss Rose closed her lips, and relapsed into her book, +supremely indifferent to her sister's heightened colour and flashing +eyes. She turned away in silence, and fifteen minutes after, Rose got up +and left the room, without saving good-night to any one. + +Rose kept her word. From that evening she was never civil to the Scotch +baronet, and took every occasion to snub him. But her incivility was as +completely thrown away as her charms had been. It is doubtful whether +Sir Ronald ever knew he was snubbed; and Kate, seeing it, smiled to +herself, and was friends with offended Rose once more. She and the +baronet were on the best of terms; he was always willing to talk to her, +always ready to be her escort when she walked or rode, always on hand to +turn her music and listen entranced to her singing. If it was not a +flirtation, it was something very like it, and Rose was nowhere. She +looked on with indignant eyes, and revenged herself to the best of her +power by flirting in her turn with the Reverend Augustus Clare. + +"He is nothing but a ninny!" she said to Grace; "and has eyes for no one +but Kate. Oh, how I wish my darling Jules were here, or even your +brother, Grace--he was better than no one!" + +"My brother is very much obliged to you." + +"You talk to me of my flirting propensities," continued the exasperated +Rose. "I should like to know what you call Kate's conduct with that +little Scotchman." + +"Friendship, my dear," Grace answered, repressing a smile. + +"Remember, they have known each other for years." + +"Friendship! Yes; it would be heartless coquetry if it were I. I hope +Lieutenant Reginald Stanford, of Stanford Royals, will like it when he +comes. Sir Ronald Keith is over head and ears in love with her, and she +knows it, and is drawing him on. A more cold-blooded flirtation no one +ever saw!" + +"Nonsense, Rose! It is only a friendly intimacy." + +But Rose, unable to stand this, bounced out of the room in a passion, +and sought consolation in her pet novels. + +Kate and Sir Ronald were certainly very much together; but, +notwithstanding their intimacy, she found time to devote two or three +hours every day to Mr. Richards. Rose's mystery was her mystery still. +She could get no further towards its solution. Mr. Richards might have +been a thousand miles away, for all any of the household saw of him; and +Grace, in the solitude of her own chamber, wondered over it a good deal +of late. + +She sat at her window one December night, puzzling herself about it. +Kate had not come down to dinner that day--she had dined with the +invalid in his rooms. When she had entered the drawing-room about nine +o'clock, she looked pale and anxious, and was absent and _distraite_ all +the evening. Now that the house was still and all were in their rooms, +Grace was wondering. Was Mr. Richards worse? Why, then, did they not +call in a Doctor? Who could he be, this sick stranger, in whom father +and daughter were so interested? Grace could not sleep for thinking of +it. The night was mild and bright, and she arose, wrapped a large shawl +around her, and took her seat by the window. How still it was, how +solemn, how peaceful! The full moon sailed through the deep blue sky, +silver-white, crystal-clear. Numberless stars shone sharp and keen. The +snowy ground glittered dazzlingly bright and cold; the trees stood like +grim, motionless sentinels, guarding Danton Hall. The village lay hushed +in midnight repose; the tall cross of the Catholic and the lofty spire +of the Episcopal church flashed in the moon's rays. Rapid river and +sluggish canal glittered in the silvery light. The night was noiseless, +hushed, beautiful. + +No; not noiseless. A step crunched over the frozen snow; from under the +still shadow of the trees a moving shadow came. A man, wrapped in a long +cloak, and with a fur cap down over his eyes, came round the angle of +the building and began pacing up and down the terrace. Grace's heart +stood still for an instant. Who was this midnight walker? Not Sir Ronald +Keith watching his lady's lattice--it was too tall for him. Not the +Captain--the cloaked figure was too slight. No one Grace knew, and no +ghost; for he stood still an instant, lit a cigar, and resumed his walk, +smoking. He had loitered up and down the terrace for about a quarter of +an hour, when another figure came out from the shadows and joined him. A +woman this time, with a shawl wrapped round her, and a white cloud on +her head. The moonlight fell full on her face--pale and beautiful. Grace +could hardly repress a cry--it was Kate Danton. + +The smoker advanced. Miss Danton took his arm, and together they walked +up and down, talking earnestly. Once or twice Kate looked up at the +darkened windows; but the watcher was not to be seen, and they walked +on. Half an hour, an hour, passed; the hall clock struck one, and then +the two midnight pedestrians disappeared round the corner and were gone. + +The moments passed, and still Grace sat wondering, and of her wonder +finding no end. What did it mean? Who was this man with whom the +proudest girl the sun ever shone on walked by stealth, and at midnight? +Who was he? Suddenly in the silence and darkness of the coming morning, +a thought struck her that brought the blood to her face. + +"Mr. Richards." + +She clasped her hands together. Conviction as positive as certainty +thrilled along every nerve. Mr. Richards, the recluse, was the midnight +walker--Mr. Richards, who was no invalid at all; and who, shut up all +day, came out in the dead of night, when the household were asleep, to +take the air in the grounds. There, in the solemn hush of her room, +Rose's thoughtless words came back to her like a revelation. + +"Where there is secrecy there is guilt." + +When the family met at breakfast, Grace looked at Kate with a new +interest. But the quiet face told nothing; she was a little pale; but +the violet eyes were as starry, and the smile as bright as ever. The +English mail had come in, and letters for her and her father lay on the +table. There was one, in a bold, masculine hand, with a coat-of-arms on +the seal, that brought the rosy blood in an instant to her face. She +walked away to one of the windows, to read it by herself. Grace watched +the tall, slender figure curiously. She was beginning to be a mystery to +her. + +"She is on the best of terms with Sir Ronald Keith," she thought; "she +meets some man by night in the grounds, and the sight of this +handwriting brings all the blood in her body to her face. I suppose she +loves him; I suppose he loves her. I wonder what he would think if he +knew what I know." + +The morning mail brought Rose a letter from Ottawa, which she devoured +with avidity, and flourished before Grace's eyes. + +"A love letter, Mistress Grace," she said. "My darling Jules is dying to +have me back. I mean to ask papa to let me go. It is as dull as a +monastery of La Trappe here." + +"What's the news from England, Kate?" asked her father, as they all sat +down to table. + +The rosy light was at its brightest in Kate's face, but Sir Ronald +looked as black as a thunder cloud. + +"Everybody is well, papa." + +"Satisfactory, but not explanatory. Everybody means the good people at +Stanford Royals, I suppose?" + +"Yes, papa." + +"Where is Reginald?" + +"At Windsor. But his regiment is ordered to Ireland." + +"To Ireland! Then he can't come over this winter?" + +"I don't know. He may get leave of absence." + +"I hope so--I hope so. Capital fellow is Reginald. Did you see him +before you left England, Sir Ronald?" + +"I met Lieutenant Stanford at a dinner party the week I left," said Sir +Ronald, stiffly--so stiffly, that the subject was dropped at once. + +After breakfast, Captain Danton retired to his study to answer his +letters, and Sir Ronald and Kate started for their morning ride across +the country. She had invited Rose to accompany them, and Rose had rather +sulkily declined. + +"I never admire spread-eagles," sneered the second Miss Danton, "and I +don't care for being third in these cases--I might be _de trop_. Sir +Ronald Keith's rather a stupid cavalier. I prefer staying at home, I +thank you." + +"As you please," Kate said, and went off to dress. + +Rose got a novel, and sat down at the upper half window to mope and +read. The morning was dark and overcast, the leaden sky threatened snow, +and the wailing December wind was desolation itself. The house was very +still; faint and far off the sound of Eeny's piano could be heard, and +now and then a door somewhere opening and shutting. Ogden came from Mr. +Richards' apartment, locked the door after him, put the key in his +pocket, and went away. Rose dropped her book and sat gazing at that +door--that Bluebeard's chamber--that living mystery in their +common-place Canadian home. While she looked at it, some one came +whistling up the stairs. It was her father, and he stopped at sight of +her. + +"You here, Rose, my dear; I thought you had gone out riding with Kate." + +"Kate doesn't want me, papa," replied Rose, with a French shrug. "She +has company she likes better." + +"What, Sir Ronald! Nonsense, Rose! Kate is Sir Ronald's very good +friend--nothing more." + +Rose gave another shrug. + +"Perhaps so, papa. It looks like flirting, but appearances are +deceitful. Papa!" + +"Yes, my dear." + +"I wish you would let me go back to Ottawa!" + +"To Ottawa! Why, you only left it the other day. What do you want to go +back to Ottawa for?" + +"It's so dull here, papa," answered Rose, fidgeting with her book, "and +I had such a good time there. I shall die of the dismals in this house +before the winter is over." + +"Then we must try and enliven it up a little for you. What would you +like, a house-warming?" + +"Oh, papa! that would be delightful." + +"All right, then, a house-warming it shall be. We must speak to Grace +and Kate about it; hold a council of war, you know, and settle +preliminaries. I can't spare my little Rosie just yet, and let her run +away to Ottawa." + +Rose gave him a rapturous kiss, and Captain Danton walked away, unlocked +the green baize door, and disappeared. + +When Kate came back from her ride, Rose informed her of her father's +proposal with sparkling eyes. Kate listened quietly, and made no +objection; neither did Grace; and so the matter was decided. + +Rose had no time to be lonely after that. Her father gave her _carte +blanche_ in the matter of dress and ornament, and Miss Rose's earthly +happiness was complete. She, and Kate, and Grace went to Montreal to +make the necessary purchases, to lasso dressmakers and fetch them back +to St. Croix. + +"I know a young woman I think will suit you," said Ma'am Ledru, the +cook. "She is an excellent dressmaker and embroideress; very poor, and +quite willing, I am sure, to go into the country. Her name is Agnes +Darling, and she lives in the Petite Rue de Saint Jacques." + +Rose hastened to the Petite Rue de Saint Jacques at once, and in a small +room of a tenement house found the seamstress; a little pale, dark-eyed, +dark-haired creature, with a face that was a history of trouble, though +her years could not have numbered twenty. There was no difficulty in +engaging her: she promised to be ready to return with them to St. Croix +the following morning. + +They only spent two days in the city, and were, of course, very busy all +the time. Grace took a few moments to try and find her brother, but +failed. He was not to be heard of at his customary address; he had been +talking of quitting Montreal, they told her there; probably he had done +so. + +The Dantons, with the pale little dressmaker, returned next day, all +necessaries provided. The business of the house-warming commenced at +once. Danton Hall--ever spotless under the reign of Grace--was rubbed up +and scrubbed down from garret to cellar. Invitations were sent out far +and wide. Agnes Darling's needle flew from early dawn till late at +night; and Grace and the cook, absorbed in cake and jelly-making, were +invisible all day long in the lower regions. Eeny and Rose went heart +and soul into the delightful fuss, all new to them, but Kate took little +interest in it. She was Sir Ronald's very good friend still, and, like +Mrs. Micawber, never deserted him. Captain Danton hid his diminished +head in his study, in Mr. Richard's rooms, or took refuge with the Curé +from the hubbub. + +The eventful night at last came round, clear, cold, and near Christmas. +The old ball-room of Danton Hall, disused so long, had been refitted, +waxed, and decorated; the long drawing-room was resplendent; the supper +table set in the dining-room was dazzling to look at, with silver, +Sčvres, and glittering glass; the dressing-rooms were in a state of +perfection; the servants all _en grande tenue_; and Danton Hall one +blaze of light. In the bedroom regions the mysteries of the toilet had +been going on for hours. Eunice was busy with her mistress; Agnes the +seamstress was playing _femme de chambre_ to Rose. Grace dressed herself +in twenty minutes, and then dressed Eeny, who only wore pink muslin and +a necklace of pearls, and looked fairy-like and fragile as ever. Grace, +in gray silk, with an emerald brooch, and her brown hair simply worn as +she always wore it, looked lady-like and unassuming. + +The guests came by the evening train from Montreal, and the carriages of +the nearer neighbours began coming in rapid succession. Kate stood by +her cordial father's side, receiving their guests. So tall, so stately, +so exquisitely dressed--all the golden hair twisted in thick coils +around her regal head, and one diamond star flashing in its amber +glitter. Lovely with that flush on the delicate cheeks, that streaming +light in the blue eyes. + +Rose was eclipsed. Rose looking her best, and very pretty, but nothing +beside her queenly sister. But Rose was very brilliant, flitting hither +and thither, dancing incessantly, and turning whiskered heads in all +directions. They could fall in love with pretty, coquettish Rose, those +very young gentlemen, who could only look at Kate from a respectful +distance in speechless admiration and awe. Rose was of their kind, and +they could talk to her; so Rose was the belle of the night, after all. + +Sir Ronald Keith and two or three officers from Montreal, with side +whiskers, a long pedigree, and a first-rate opinion of themselves, were +the only gentlemen who had the temerity to approach the goddess of the +ball--oh! excepting the Reverend Augustus Clare, who, in his intense +admiration, was almost tongue-tied, and Doctor Danton, who, to the +surprise of every one except the master of the Hall, walked in, the last +guest of all. + +"You look surprised, Miss Danton," he said, as they shook hands. "Did +not the Captain tell you I was coming?" + +"Not a word." + +"I returned to-day, knowing nothing of the house-warming. The Captain +met me, and, with his customary hospitality, insisted on my coming." + +"We are very glad he has done so. Your sister tried to find you when we +were in--good Heaven! what is that?" + +It was a sudden, startled scream, that made all pause who were standing +near. Butler Thomas appeared at the moment, flurried and in haste. + +"What's the matter?" asked Captain Danton; and the startled faces of his +guests reiterated the question. "Who cried out?" + +"Old Margery, sir. She's seen a ghost!" + +"Seen what?" + +"A ghost, sir; out in the tamarack walk?--She's fell down in a fit in +the hall." + +There was a little chorus of startled exclamations from the ladies. +Captain Danton came forward, his florid face changing to white; and +Kate, all her colour gone, dropped her partner's arm. + +"Come with me, Doctor Danton," he said. "Yes, Kate, you too. My friends, +do not let this foolish affair disturb you. Excuse us for a few moments, +and pray go on as if nothing had happened." + +They left the ball-room together. The music, that had stopped, resumed; +dancing recommenced, and "all went merry as a marriage-bell." There was +only one, perhaps, who thought seriously of what had taken place. Grace, +standing near the door talking to an elderly major from the city, heard +Thomas' last words to his master as they went out. + +"Ogden says it was him she seen, but Margery won't listen to him. Ogden +says he was out in the tamarack walk, and she mistook him in the +moonlight for a ghost." + +Grace's thoughts went back to the night when she had seen the mysterious +walker under the tameracks. No, it was not Ogden, that old Margery had +seen, else Captain Danton and his daughter would not have worn such pale +and startled faces going out. + +It was not Ogden, and it was not a ghost; but whose ghost did Margery +take it to be? The apparition in the tamarack walk must have resembled +some one she knew and now thought to be dead, else why should she think +it a spirit at all? + +The whiskered major, who took Grace for one of the Captain's daughter's, +and was slightly _ebris_, found her very _distraite_ all of a sudden, +and answering his questions vaguely and at random. He did his best to +interest her, and failed so signally that he got up and left in disgust. + +Grace sat still and watched the door. Half an hour +passed--three-quarters, and then her brother re-entered alone. She went +up to him at once, but his unreadable face told nothing. + +"Well," she asked, anxiously, "how is Margery?" + +"Restored and asleep." + +"Does she really think she saw a ghost?" + +"She really does, and was frightened into fits." + +"Whose ghost was it?" + +"My dear Grace," said the Doctor, "have sense. I believe the foolish old +woman mentioned some name to Miss Danton, but I never repeat nonsense. +She is in her dotage, I dare say, and sees double." + +"Margery is no more in her dotage than you are," said Grace, vexed. +"Perhaps she is not the only one who has seen the ghost of Danton Hall." + +"Grace! What do you mean?" + +"Excuse me, Doctor Frank, I never talk nonsense. You can keep your +professional secrets; I'll find out from Margery all the same. Here is +the Captain; he looks better than when he went out. Where is Kate?" + +"With Margery. She won't be left alone." + +As she spoke, Rose came up, her brightest smiles in full play. + +"I have been searching for you everywhere, Doctor Frank. You ought to be +sent to Coventry. Don't you know you engaged me for the German, and here +you stand talking to Grace. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, sir." + +"So I am," said the Doctor. "Adieu, Grace. Pardon this once, +Mademoiselle, and for the remainder of the evening, for the remainder of +my life, I am entirely at your service." + +Grace kept her station at the door watching for Kate. In another half +hour she appeared, slightly pale, but otherwise tranquil. She was +surrounded immediately by sundry "ginger-whiskered fellows," otherwise +the officers from Montreal, and lost to the housekeeper's view. + +The house-warming was a success. Somewhere in the big, busy world +perhaps, crime, and misery, and shame, and sorrow, and starvation, and +all the catalogue of earthly horrors, were rife, but not at Danton Hall. +Time trod on flowers; enchanted music drifted the bright hours away; the +golden side of life was uppermost; and if those gay dancers knew what +tears and trouble meant, their faces never showed it. Kate, with her +tranquil and commanding beauty, wore a face as serene as a summer's sky; +and her father playing whist, was laughing until all around laughed in +sympathy. No, there could be no hidden skeleton, or the masks those wore +who knew of its grisly presence were something wonderful. + +In the black and bitterly cold dawn of early morning the dancers went +shivering home. The first train bore the city guests, blue and fagged, +to Montreal; and Doctor Frank walked briskly through the piercing air +over the frozen snow to his hotel. And up in her room old Margery lay in +disturbed sleep, watched over by dozing Babette, and moaning out at +restless intervals. + +"Master Harry! Master Harry! O Miss Kate! it was Master Harry's ghost!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +ROSE'S ADVENTURE. + + +December wore out in wild snow-storms and wintry winds. Christmas came, +solemn and shrouded in white; and Kate Danton's fair hands decorated the +little village church with evergreens and white roses for Father +Francis; and Kate Danton's sweet voice sang the dear old "Adeste +Fideles" on Christmas morning. Kate Danton, too, with the princely +spirit that nature and habit had given her, made glad the cottages of +the poor with gifts of big turkeys, and woolly blankets, and barrels of +flour. They half adored, these poor people, the stately young lady, with +the noble and lovely face, so unlike anything St. Croix had ever seen +before. Proud as she was, she was never proud with them--God's poor +ones; she was never proud when she knelt in their midst, in that lowly +little church, and cried "Mea culpa" as humbly as the lowliest sinner +there. + +New-Year came with its festivities, bringing many callers from Montreal, +and passed; and Danton Hall fell into its customary tranquillity once +more. Sir Ronald Keith was still their guest; Doctor Frank was still an +inmate of the St. Croix Hotel, and a regular visitor at the Hall. More +letters had come for Kate from England; Lieutenant Stanford's regiment +had gone to Ireland, and he said nothing of leave of absence or a visit +to Canada. Rose got weekly epistles from Ottawa; her darling Jules +poured out floods of undying love in the very best French, and Rose +smiled over them complacently, and went down and made eyes at Doctor +Frank all the evening. And old Margery was not recovered yet from the +ghost-seeing fright, and would not remain an instant alone by night or +day for untold gold. + +The sunset of a bright January day was turning the western windows of +Danton Hall to sheets of beaten gold. The long, red lances of light +pierced through the black trees, tinged the piled up snow-drifts, and +made the low evening sky one blaze of crimson splendour. Eeny stood +looking thoughtfully out at the gorgeous hues of the wintry sunset and +the still landscape, where no living thing moved. She was in a cozy +little room called the housekeeper's room, but which Grace never used, +except when she made up her accounts, or when her favourite apartment, +the dining-room, was occupied. A bright fire burned in the grate, and +the curtained windows and carpeted floor were the picture of comfort. It +had been used latterly as a sewing-room, and Agnes Darling sat at the +other window embroidering a handkerchief for Rose. There had been a long +silence--the seamstress never talked much; and Eeny was off in a +daydream. Presently, a big dog came bounding tumultuously up the avenue, +and a tall man in an overcoat followed leisurely. + +"There!" exclaimed Eeny, "there's Tiger and Tiger's master. You haven't +seen Grace's brother yet, have you Agnes?" + +"No," said the seamstress, looking out, "is that he?" + +He was too far off to be seen distinctly; but a moment or two later he +was near. A sudden exclamation from the seamstress made Eeny look at her +in surprise. She had sprang up and sat down again, white, and startled, +and trembling. + +"What's the matter?" said Eeny. "Do you know Doctor Danton?" + +"Doctor Danton?" repeated Agnes. "Yes. Oh, what am I saying! No, I don't +know him." + +She sat down again, all pale and trembling, and scared. Doctor Frank was +ringing the bell, and was out of sight. Eeny gazed at her exceedingly +astonished. + +"What is the matter with you?" she reiterated. "What are you afraid of? +Do you know Doctor Danton?" + +"Don't ask me; please don't ask me!" cried the little seamstress, +piteously. "I have seen him before; but, oh, please don't say anything +about it!" + +She was in such a violent tremor--her voice was so agitated, that Eeny +good-naturedly said no more. She turned away, and looked again at the +paling glory of the sunset, not seeing it this time, but thinking of +Agnes Darling's unaccountable agitation at sight of Grace's brother. + +"Perhaps he has been a lover of hers," thought romantic Eeny, "and +false! She is very pretty, or would be, if she wasn't as pale as a +corpse. And yet I don't think Doctor Frank would be false to any one +either. I don't want to think so--I like him too well." + +Eeny left the sewing-room and went upstairs. She found Doctor Danton in +the dining-room with his sister and Rose, and Rose was singing a French +song for him. Eeny took her station by the window; she knew the +seamstress was in the daily habit of taking a little twilight walk in +her favourite circle, round and round the fish-pond, and she could see +from where she stood when she went out. + +"I'll show her to him," thought Eeny, "and see if it flurries him as it +did her. There is something between them, if one could get to the bottom +of it." + +Rose's song ended. The sunset faded out in a pale blank of dull +gray--twilight fell over the frozen ground. A little black figure, +wearing a shawl over its head, fluttered out into the mysterious +half-light, and began pacing slowly round the frozen fish-pond. + +"Doctor Frank," said Eeny, "come here and see the moon rise." + +"How romantic!" laughed Rose. But the Doctor went and stood by her side. + +The wintry crescent-moon was sailing slowly up, with the luminous +evening star resplendent beside her, glittering on the whitened earth. + +"Pretty," said the Doctor; "very. Solemn, and still, and white! What +dark fairy is that gliding round the fish-pond?" + +"That," said Eeny, "is Agnes Darling." + +"Who?" questioned Doctor Danton, suddenly and sharply. + +"Agnes Darling, our seamstress. Dear me, Doctor Danton, one would think +you knew her!" + +There had been a momentary change in his face, and Eeny's suspicious +eyes were full upon him--only momentary, though; it was gone directly, +and his unreadable countenance was as calm as a summer's sky. Doctor +Frank might have been born a duke, so radically and unaffectedly +nonchalant was he. + +"The name has a familiar sound; but I don't think I know your +seamstress. Go and play me a waltz, Eeny." + +There was no getting anything out of Doctor Danton which he did not +choose to tell. Eeny knew that, and went over to the piano, a little +provoked at the mystery they made of it. + +But destiny that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will, had made +up its mind for further revelations, and against destiny even Doctor +Frank was powerless. Destiny lost no time either--the revelation came +the very next evening. Kate and Eeny had been to St. Croix, visiting +some of Kate's poor pensioners, and evening was closing in when they +reached the Hall. A lovely evening--calm, windless, still; the moon's +silver disk brilliant in an unclouded sky, and the holy hush of eventide +over all. The solemn beauty of the falling night tempted Kate to linger, +while Eeny went on to the house. There was a group of tall pines, with a +rustic bench, near the entrance-gates. Kate sat down under the +evergreens, leaning against the trees, her dark form scarcely +distinguishable in their shadow. While she sat, a man and a woman +passed. Full in the moonlight she saw that it was Doctor Danton and +Agnes Darling. Distinct in the still keen air she heard his low, earnest +words. + +"Don't betray yourself--don't let them see you know me. Be on your +guard, especially with Eeny, who suspects. It will avoid disagreeable +explanations. It is best to let them think we have never met." + +They were gone. Kate sat petrified. What understanding was this between +Doctor Danton and their pale little seamstress? They knew each other, +and there were reasons why that acquaintance should be a secret. "It +would involve disagreeable explanations!" What could Doctor Frank mean? +The solution of the riddle that had puzzled Eeny came to her. Had they +been lovers at some past time?--was Doctor Frank a villain after all? + +The moon sailed up in the zenith, the blue sky was all sown with stars, +and the loud ringing of the dinner-bell reached her even where she sat. +She got up hastily, and hurried to the house, ran to her room, threw off +her bonnet and shawl, smoothed her hair, and descended to the +dining-room in her plain black silk dress. She was late; they were all +there--her father, Grace, Rose, Eeny, Sir Ronald, the Reverend Augustus +Clare, and Doctor Danton. + +"Runaway," said her father, "we had given you up. Where have you been?" + +"Star-gazing, papa. Down under the pines, near the gates, until five +minutes ago." + +Doctor Frank looked up quickly, and met the violet eyes fixed full upon +him. + +"I heard you, sir," that bright glance said. "Your secret is a secret no +longer." + +Doctor Danton looked down at his plate with just a tinge of colour in +his brown face. He understood her as well as if she had spoken; but, +except that faint and transient flush, it never moved him. He told them +stories throughout dinner of his adventures as a medical student in +Germany, and every one laughed except Kate. She could not laugh; the +laughter of the others irritated her. His words going up the avenue rang +in her ears; the pale, troubled face of the seamstress was before her +eyes. Something in the girl's sad, joyless face had interested her from +the first. Had Doctor Danton anything to do with that look of hopeless +trouble? + +With this new interest in her mind, Kate sent for the seamstress to her +room next morning. Some lace was to be sewn on a new dress. Eunice +generally did such little tasks for her mistress, but on this occasion +it was to be Agnes. The girl sat down with the rich robe by the window, +and bent assiduously over her work. Miss Danton, in a loose négligée, +lying half buried in the depths of a great carved and cushioned chair, +watched her askance while pretending to read. What a slender, diminutive +creature she was--how fixedly pale, paler still in contrast with her +black hair and great, melancholy dark eyes. She never looked up--she +went on, stitch, stitch, like any machine, until Kate spoke, suddenly: + +"Agnes!" + +The dark eyes lifted inquiringly. + +"How old are you?" + +"Twenty-two." + +"You don't look it. Are your parents living?" + +"No; dead these many years." + +"Have you brothers or sisters?" + +"No, I never had." + +"But you have other relatives--uncles, aunts, cousins?" + +"No, Miss Danton--none that I have ever seen." + +"What an isolated little thing you are! Have you lived in Montreal all +your life?" + +"Oh, no! I have only been in Montreal a few months. I was born and +brought up in New York." + +"In New York!" repeated Kate, surprised. And then there was a pause. +When had Doctor Danton been in New York? For the last four years he had +been in Germany; from Germany he had come direct to Canada, so Grace had +told her; where, then, had he known this New York girl? + +"Why did you come to Montreal?" asked Kate. + +There was a nervous contraction around the girl's mouth, and something +seemed to fade out of her face--not color, for she had none--but it +darkened with something like sudden anguish. + +"I had a friend," she said hastily, "a friend I lost; I heard I might +find that--that friend in Montreal, and so--" + +Her voice died away, and she put up one trembling hand to shade her +face. Kate came over and touched the hand lying on her black dress, +caressingly. She forgot her pride, as she often forgot it in her womanly +pity. + +"My poor little Agnes! Did you find that friend?" + +"No." + +"No?" repeated Kate. + +She thought the reply would be "yes"--she had thought the friend was +Doctor Frank. Agnes dropped her hand from before her face. + +"No," she said sadly, "I have not found him. I shall never find him +again in this world, I am afraid." + +Him! That little tell-tale pronoun! Kate knew by instinct the friend was +"him," men being at the bottom of all womanly distress in this lower +world. + +"Then it was not Doctor Danton?" + +Agnes looked up with a suddenly frightened face, her great eyes +dilating, her pale lips parting. + +"I saw you by accident coming up the avenue with him last evening," Kate +hastened to explain. "I chanced to hear a remark of his in passing; I +could not help it." + +Agnes clasped her hands together in frightened supplication. + +"You won't say anything about it?" she said, piteously. "Oh, please +don't say anything about it! I am so sorry you overheard. Oh, Miss +Danton, you won't tell?" + +"Certainly not," answered Kate, startled by her emotion. "I merely +thought he might be the friend you came in search of." + +"Oh, no, no! Doctor Danton has been my friend; I owe him more than I can +ever repay. He is the best, and noblest, and most generous of men. He +was my friend when I had no friend in the world--when, but for him, I +might have died. But he is not the one I came to seek." + +"I beg your pardon," said Kate, going back to her chair. "I have asked +too many questions." + +"No, no! You have a right to ask me, but I cannot tell. I am not very +old, but my heart is nearly broken." + +She dropped her work, covered her face with her slender hands, and broke +out into a fit of passionate crying. Kate was beside her in a moment, +soothing her, caressing her, as if she had been her sister. + +"I am sorry, I am sorry," she said; "it is all my fault. Don't cry, +Agnes; I will go now; you will feel better alone." + +She stooped and kissed her. Agnes looked up in grateful surprise, but +Miss Danton was gone. She ran down stairs and stood looking out of the +drawing-room window, at the sunlit, wintry landscape. + +So Doctor Frank was a hero after all, and not a villain. He had nothing +to do with this pale little girl's trouble. He was only her best friend +and wanted to hide it. + +"People generally like their good deeds to be known," mused Miss Danton. +"They want their right hand to see all that their left hand gives. Is +Doctor Frank a little better than the rest of mankind? I know he attends +the sick poor of St. Croix for nothing, and I know he is very pleasant, +and a gentleman. Is he that modern wonder, a good man, besides?" + +Her meditations were interrupted by the entrance of Rose, looking very +charming in a tight jacket and long black riding-skirt, a "jockey hat +and feather" on her curly head, and flourishing her riding-whip in her +gauntleted hand. + +"I thought you were out, Kate, with your little Scotchman," she said, +slapping her gaiter. "I saw him mount and ride off nearly an hour ago." + +"I have been in my room." + +"I wish Doctor Frank would come," said Rose. "I like some one to make +love to me when I ride." + +"Doctor Frank does not make love to you." + +"Does he not? How do you know?" + +"My prophetic soul tells me, and what is more, never will. All the +better for Doctor Frank, since you would not accept him or his love if +he offered them." + +"And how do you know that? I must own I thought him a prig at first, and +if I begin to find him delightful now, I suppose it is merely by force +of contrast with your black-browed, deadly-dull baronet. Will you come? +No? Well, then, adieu, and _au revoir_." + +Kate watched her mount and gallop down the avenue, kissing her hand as +she disappeared. + +"My pretty Rose," she thought, smiling, "she is only a spoiled child; +one cannot be angry, let her say what she will." + +Out beyond the gates, Rose's canter changed to a rapid gallop. She +managed her horse well, and speedily left the village behind, and was +flying along a broad, well-beaten country road, interspersed at remote +intervals with quaint French farm-houses. + +All at once, Regina slipped--there was a sheet of ice across the +road--struggled to regain her footing, fell, and would have thrown her +rider had not a man, walking leisurely along, sprung forward and caught +her in his arms. + +Rose was unhurt, and extricating herself from the stranger's +coat-sleeves, rose also. The hero of the moment made an attempt to +follow her example, uttered a groan, made a wry face, and came to a +halt. + +"Are you hurt?" Rose asked. + +"I have twisted an ankle on that confounded ice--sprained it, I am +afraid, in the struggle with the horse. If I can walk--but no, my +locomotive powers, I find, are at a standstill for the present. Now, +then, Mademoiselle, what are we to do?" + +He seated himself with great deliberation on a fallen tree and looked up +at her coolly, as he asked the question. + +Rose looked down into one of the handsomest faces she had ever seen, +albeit pallid just now with sharp pain. + +"I am so sorry," she said, in real concern. "You cannot walk, and you +must not stay here. What shall we--oh! what shall we do?" + +"I tell you," said the young man. "Do you see that old yellow farm-house +that looks like a church in Chinese mourning." + +"Yes." + +"Well--but it will be a great deal of trouble." + +"Trouble!" cried Rose. "Don't talk about trouble. Do you want me to go +to that farm-house!" + +"If you will be so kind. I stopped there last night. Tell old +Jacques--that's the proprietor--to send some kind of a trap down here +for me--a sled, if nothing else." + +"I'll be back in ten minutes," exclaimed Rose, mounting Regina with +wonderful celerity, and flying off. + +Old Jacques--a wizen little habitant--was distressed at the news, and +ran off instantly to harness up his old mare, and sled. Madame Jacques +placed a mattress on the sled and the vehicle started. + +"Who is the gentleman?" Rose asked carelessly, as they rode along. + +Old Jacques didn't know. He had stopped there last night, and paid them, +but hadn't told them his name or his business. + +A few minutes brought them to the scene of the tragedy. The stranger +lifted those dark eyes of his, and looked so unspeakably handsome, that +Rose was melted to deeper compassion than ever. + +"I am afraid you are nearly frozen to death," she said, springing +lightly to the ground. "Let us try if we cannot help you on to the +sled." + +"You are very kind," replied the stranger, laughing and accepting. "It +is worth while having a sprained ankle, after all." + +Rose and old Jacques got him on the sled between them though his lips +were white with suppressed pain in the effort. + +"I sent Jean Baptiste for Dr. Pillule," said old Jacques as he started +the mare. "Monsieur will be--what you call it--all right, when Dr. +Pillule comes." + +"Might I ask--but, perhaps it would be asking too much?" the stranger +said, looking at Rose. + +"What is it?" + +"Will you not return with us, and hear whether Dr. Pillule thinks my +life in danger?" + +Rose laughed. + +"I never heard of any one dying from a sprained ankle. _Malgré cela_, I +will return if you wish it, since you got it in my behalf." + +Rose's steed trotted peaceably beside the sled to the farm-house door. +All the way, the wounded hero lay looking up at the graceful girl, with +the rose-red cheeks and auburn curls, and thinking, perhaps, if he were +any judge of pictures, what a pretty picture she made. + +Rose assisted in helping him into the drawing room of the +establishment--which was a very wretched drawing-room indeed. There was +a leather lounge wheeled up before a large fire, and thereon the injured +gentleman was laid. + +Doctor Pillule had not yet arrived, and old Jacques stood waiting +further orders. + +"Jacques, fetch a chair. That is right; put it up here, near me. Now you +can go. Mademoiselle, do me the favour to be seated." + +Rose sat down, very near--dangerously near--the owner of the eyes. + +"May I ask the name of the young lady whom I have been fortunate enough +to assist." + +"My name is Rosina--Rose Danton." + +"Danton," repeated the young man slowly. "Danton; I know that name. +There is a place called Danton Hall over here--a fine old place, they +tell me--owned by one Captain Danton." + +"I am Captain Danton's second daughter." + +"Then, Miss Danton, I am very happy to make your acquaintance." + +He held out his hand, gravely. Rose shook hands, laughing and blushing. + +"I am much pleased to make yours, Mr. ----" laughing still, and looking +at him. + +"Reinecourt," said the gentleman. + +"Mr. Reinecourt; only I wish you had not sprained your ankle doing it." + +"I don't regret it. But you are under an obligation to me, are you not?" + +"Certainly." + +"Then I mean to have a return for what you owe me. I want you to come +and see me every day until I get well." + +Rose blushed vividly. + +"Oh, I don't know. You exact too much!" + +"Not a whit. I'll never fly to the rescue of another damsel in distress +as long as I live, if you don't." + +"But every day! Once a week will be enough." + +"If you insult me by coming once a week, I'll issue orders not to admit +you. Promise, Miss Danton; here comes Doctor Pillule." + +"I promise, then. There, I never gave you permission to kiss my hand." + +She arose precipitately, and stood looking out of the window, while the +Doctor attended to the sprain. + +Nearly half an hour passed. The ankle was duly bathed and bandaged, then +old Jacques and the Doctor went away, and she came over and looked +laughingly down at the invalid, a world of coquettish daring in her +dancing eyes. + +"Well, M. Reinecourt, when does M. le Médecin say you are going to die?" + +"When you think of leaving me, Mademoiselle." + +"Then summon your friends at once, for I not only think of it, but am +about to do it." + +"Oh, not so soon." + +"It is half-past two, Monsieur," pulling out her watch; "they will think +I am lost at home. I must go!" + +"Well, shake hands before you go." + +"It seems to me you are very fond of shaking hands, Mr. Reinecourt," +said Rose, giving him hers willingly enough, though. + +"And you really must leave me?" + +"I really must." + +"But you will come to-morrow?" still holding her hand. + +"Perhaps so--if I have nothing better to do." + +"You cannot do anything better than visit the sick, and oh, yes! do me +another favour. Fetch me some books to read--to pass the dismal hours of +your absence." + +"Very well; now let me go." + +He released her plump little hand, and Rose drew on her gloves. + +"Adieu, Mr. Reinecourt," moving to the door. + +"_Au revoir_, Miss Danton, until to-morrow morning." + +Rose rode home in delight. In one instant the world had changed. St. +Croix had become a paradise, and the keen air sweet as "Ceylon's spicy +breezes." As Alice Carey says, "What to her was our world with its +storms and rough weather," with that pallid face, those eyes of darkest +splendour, that magnetic voice, haunting her all the way. It was love at +sight with Miss Danton the second. What was the girlish fancy she had +felt for Jules La Touche--for Dr. Frank--for a dozen others, compared +with this. + +Joe, the stable-boy, led away Regina, and Rose entered the house. +Crossing the hall, she met Eeny going upstairs. + +"Well!" said Eeny, "and where have you been all day, pray?" + +"Out riding." + +"Where?" + +"Oh, everywhere! Don't bother!" + +"Do you know we have had luncheon?" + +"I don't care--I don't want luncheon." + +She ran past her sister, and shut herself up in her room. Eeny stared. +In all her experience of her sister she had never known her to be +indifferent to eating and drinking. For the first time in Rose's life, +love had taken away her appetite. + +All that afternoon she stayed shut up in her chamber, dreaming as only +eighteen, badly in love, does dream. When darkness fell, and the lamps +were lit, and the dinner-bell rang, she descended to the dining-room +indifferent for the first time whether she was dressed well or ill. + +"What does it matter?" she thought, looking in the glass; "he is not +here to see me." + +Doctor Frank and the Reverend Augustus Clare dropped in after dinner, +but Rose hardly deigned to look at them. She reclined gracefully on a +sofa, with half shut eyes, listening to Kate playing one of Beethoven's +"Songs without Words," and seeing--not the long, lamp-lit drawing-room +with all its elegant luxuries, or the friends around her, but the bare +best room of the old yellow farm-house, and the man lying lonely and ill +before the blazing fire. Doctor Danton sat down beside her and talked to +her; but Rose answered at random, and was so absorbed, and silent, and +preoccupied, as to puzzle every one. Her father asked her to sing. Rose +begged to be excused--she could not sing to-night. Kate looked at her in +wonder. + +"What is the matter with you, Rose?" she inquired; "are you ill? What is +it?" + +"Nothing," Rose answered, "only I don't feel like talking." + +And not feeling like it, nobody could make her talk. She retired +early--to live over again in dreams the events of that day, and to think +of the blissful morrow. + +An hour after breakfast next morning, Eeny met her going out, dressed +for her ride, and with a little velvet reticule stuffed full, slung over +her arm. + +"What have you got in that bag?" asked Eeny, "your dinner? Are you going +to a picnic?" + +Rose laughed at the idea of a January picnic, and ran off without +answering. An hour's brisk gallop brought her to the farm house, and old +Jacques came out, bowing and grinning, to take charge of her horse. + +"Monsieur was in the parlour--would Mademoiselle walk right into the +parlour? Dr. Pillule had been there and seen to Monsieur's ankle. +Monsieur was doing very well, only not able to stand up yet." + +Rose found Monsieur half asleep before the fire, and looking as handsome +as ever in his slumber. He started up at her entrance, holding out both +hands. + +"_Mon ange!_ I thought you were never coming. I was falling into +despair." + +"Falling into despair means falling asleep, I presume. Don't let me +disturb your dreams." + +"I am in a more blissful dream now than any I could dream asleep. Here +is a seat. Oh, don't sit so far off. Are those the books? How can I ever +thank you?" + +"You never can--so don't try. Here is Tennyson--of course you like +Tennyson; here is Shelley--here are two new and charming novels. Do you +read novels?" + +"I will read everything you fetch me. By-the-by, it is very fatiguing to +read lying down; won't you read to me?" + +"I can't read. I mean I can't read aloud." + +"Let me be the judge of that. Let me see--read 'Maud.'" + +Rose began and did her best, and read until she was tired. Mr. +Reinecourt watched her all the while as she sat beside him. + +And presently they drifted off into delicious talk of poetry and +romance; and Rose, pulling out her watch, was horrified to find that it +was two o'clock. + +"I must go!" she cried, springing up; "what will they think has become +of me?" + +"But you will come again to-morrow?" pleaded Mr. Reinecourt. + +"I don't know--you don't deserve it, keeping me here until this hour. +Perhaps I may, though--good-bye." + +Rose, saying this, knew in her heart she could not stay away if she +tried. Next morning she was there, and the next, and the next, and the +next. Then came a week of wild, snowy weather, when the roads were +heaped high, going out was an impossibility, and she had to stay at +home. Rose chafed desperately under the restraint, and grew so irritable +that it was quite a risk to speak to her. All her old high spirits were +gone. Her ceaseless flow of talk suddenly checked. She wandered about +the house aimlessly, purposelessly, listlessly, sighing wearily, and +watching the flying snow and hopeless sky. A week of this weather, and +January was at its close before a change for the better came. Rose was +falling a prey to green and yellow melancholy, and perplexing the whole +household by the unaccountable alteration in her. With the first gleam +of fine weather she was off. Her long morning rides were recommenced; +smiles and roses returned to her face, and Rose was herself again. + +It took that sprained ankle a very long time to get well. Three weeks +had passed since that January day when Regina had slipped on the ice, +and still Mr. Reinecourt was disabled; at least he was when Rose was +there. He had dropped the Miss Danton and taken to calling her Rose, of +late; but when she was gone, it was really surprising how well he could +walk, and without the aid of a stick. Old Jacques grinned knowingly. The +poetry reading and the long, long talks went on every day, and Rose's +heart was hopelessly and forever gone. She knew nothing more of Mr. +Reinecourt than that he was Mr. Reinecourt; still, she hardly cared to +know. She was in love, and an idiot; to-day sufficed for her--to-morrow +might take care of itself. + +"Rose, _chérie_," Mr. Reinecourt said to her one day, "you vindicate +your sex; you are free from the vice of curiosity. You ask no questions, +and, except my name, you know nothing of me." + +"Well, Mr. Reinecourt, whose fault is that?" + +"Do you want to know?" + +Rose looked at him, then away. Somehow of late she had grown strangely +shy. + +"If you like to tell me." + +"My humble little Rose! Yes, I will tell you. I must leave here soon; a +sprained ankle won't last forever, do our best." + +She looked at him in sudden alarm, her bright bloom fading out. He had +taken one of her little hands, and her fingers closed involuntarily over +his. + +"Going away!" she repeated. "Going away!" + +He smiled slightly. His masculine vanity was gratified by the +irrepressible confession of her love for him. + +"Not from you, my dear little Rose. To-morrow you will know all--where I +am going, and who I am." + +"Who you are! Are you not Mr. Reinecourt?" + +"Certainly!" half laughing. "But that is rather barren information, is +it not? Can you wait until to-morrow?" + +His smile, the clasp in which he held her hand, reassured her. + +"Oh, yes," she said, drawing a long breath, "I can wait!" + +That day--Rose remembered it afterward--he stood holding her hands a +long time at parting. + +"You will go! What a hurry you are always in," he said. + +"A hurry!" echoed Rose. "I have been here three hours. I should have +gone long ago. Don't detain me; good-bye!" + +"Good-bye, my Rose, my dear little nurse! Good-bye until we meet again." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +HON. LIEUTENANT REGINALD STANFORD. + + +Rose Danton's slumbers were unusually disturbed that night. Mr. +Reinecourt haunted her awake, Mr. Reinecourt haunted her asleep. What +was the eventful morrow to reveal? Would he tell her he loved her? Would +he ask her to be his wife? Did he care for her, or did he mean nothing +after all? + +No thought of Jules La Touche came to disturb her as she drifted off +into delicious memories of the past and ecstatic dreams of the future. +No thought of the promise she had given, no remorse at her own falsity, +troubled her easy conscience. What did she care for Jules La Touche? +What was he beside this splendid Mr. Reinecourt? She thought of +him--when she thought of him at all--with angry impatience, and she drew +his ring off her finger and flung it across the room. + +"What a fool I was," she thought, "ever to dream of marrying that silly +boy! Thank heaven I never told any one but Grace." + +Rose was feverish with impatience and anticipation when morning came. +She sat down to breakfast, tried to eat, and drink, and talk as usual, +and failed in all. As soon as the meal was over, unable to wait, she +dressed and ordered her horse. Doctor Frank was sauntering up the +avenue, smoking a cigar in the cold February sunshine, as she rode off. + +"Away so early, Di Vernon, and unescorted? May I--" + +"No," said Rose, brusquely, "you may not. Good morning!" + +Doctor Frank glanced after her as she galloped out of sight. + +"What is it?" he thought. "What has altered her of late? She is not the +same girl she was two weeks ago. Has she fallen in love, I wonder? Not +likely, I should think; and yet--" + +He walked off, revolving the question, to the house, while Rose was +rapidly shortening the distance between herself and her beloved. Old +Jacques was leaning over the gate as she rode up, and took off his hat +with Canadian courtesy to the young lady. + +"Is Mr. Reinecourt in, Mr. Jacques?" asked Rose, preparing to dismount. + +Jacques lifted his eyebrows in polite surprise. + +"Doesn't Mademoiselle know, then?" + +"Know what?" + +"That Monsieur has gone?" + +"Gone?" + +"Yes, Mademoiselle, half an hour ago. Gone for good." + +"But he will come back?" said Rose, faintly, her heart seeming suddenly +to stop beating. + +Old Jacques shook his head. + +"No, Mam'selle. Monsieur has paid me like a king, shook hands with +Margot and me, and gone forever." + +There was a dead pause. Rose clutched her bridle-rein, and felt the +earth spinning under her, her face growing-white and cold. + +"Did he leave no message--no message for me?" + +She could barely utter the words, the shock, the consternation were so +great. Something like a laugh shone in old Jacques' eyes. + +"No, Mademoiselle, he never spoke of you. He only paid us, and said +good-bye, and went away." + +Rose turned Regina slowly round in a stunned sort of way, and with the +reins loose on her neck, let her take her road homeward. A dull sense of +despair was all she was conscious of. She could not think, she could not +reason, her whole mind was lost in blank consternation. He was gone. She +could not get beyond that--he was gone. + +The boy who came to lead away her horse stared at her changed face; the +servant who opened the door opened his eyes, also, at sight of her. She +never heeded them; a feeling that she wanted to be alone was all she +could realize, and she walked straight to a little alcove opening from +the lower end of the long entrance-hall. An archway and a curtain of +amber silk separated it from the drawing-room, of which it was a sort of +recess. A sofa, piled high with downy pillows, stood invitingly under a +window. Among these pillows poor Rose threw herself, to do battle with +her despair. + +While she lay there in tearless rage, she heard the drawing-room door +open, and some one come in. + +"Who shall I say, sir?" insinuated the servant. + +"Just say a friend wishes to see Miss Danton," was the answer. + +That voice! Rose bounded from the sofa, her eyes wild, her lips apart. +Her hand shook as she drew aside the curtain and looked out. A gentleman +was there, but he sat with his back to her, and his figure was only +partially revealed. Rose's heart beat in great plunges against her side, +but she restrained herself and waited. Ten minutes, and there was the +rustle of a dress; Kate entered the room. The gentleman arose, there was +a cry of "Reginald!" and then Kate was clasped in the stranger's arms. +Rose could see his face now; no need to look twice to recognize Mr. +Reinecourt. + +The curtain dropped from Rose's hand, she stood still, breath coming and +going in gasps. She saw it all as by an electric light--Mr. Reinecourt +was Kate's betrothed husband, Reginald Stanford. He had known her from +the first; from the first he had coolly and systematically deceived her. +He knew that she loved him--he must know it--and had gone on fooling her +to the top of his bent. Perhaps he and Kate would laugh over it together +before the day was done. Rose clenched her hands, and her eyes flashed +at the thought. Back came the colour to her cheeks, back the light to +her eyes; anger for the moment quenched every spark of love. Some of the +old Danton pluck was in her, after all. No despair now, no lying on sofa +cushions any more in helpless woe. + +"How dared he do it--how dared he?" she thought "knowing me to be Kate's +sister. I hate him! oh, I hate him!" + +And here Rose broke down, and finding the hysterics would come, fled +away to her room, and cried vindictively for two hours. + +She got up at last, sullen and composed. Her mind was made up. She would +show Mr. Reinecourt (Mr. Reinecourt indeed)! how much she cared for him. +He should see the freezing indifference with which she could treat him; +he should see she was not to be fooled with impunity. + +Rose bathed her flushed and tear-stained face until every trace of the +hysterics was gone, called Agnes Darling to curl her hair and dress her +in a new blue glacé, in which she looked lovely. Then, with a glow like +fever on her cheeks, a fire like fever in her eyes, she went down +stairs. In the hall she met Eeny. + +"Oh, Rose! I was just going up to your room. Kate wants you." + +"Does she? What for?" + +"Mr. Stanford has come. He is with her in the drawing-room; and, Rose, +he is the handsomest man I ever saw." + +Rose shook back her curls disdainfully, and descended to the +drawing-room. _A la princesse_ she sailed in, and saw the late M. +Reinecourt seated by the window, Kate beside him, with, oh, such a happy +face! She arose at her sister's entrance, a smile of infinite content on +her face. + +"Reginald, my sister Rose. Rose, Mr. Stanford." + +Rose made the most graceful bow that ever was seen, not the faintest +sign of recognition in her face. She hardly glanced at Mr. Stanford--she +was afraid to trust herself too far--she was afraid to meet those +magnetic dark eyes. If he looked aback at her _sang-froid_, she did not +see it. She swept by as majestically as Kate herself, and took a distant +seat. + +Kate's face showed her surprise. Rose had been a puzzle to her of late; +she was more a puzzle now than ever. Rose was standing on her dignity, +that was evident; and Rose did not often stand on that pedestal. She +would not talk, or only in monosyllables. Her replies to Mr. Stanford +were pointedly cold and brief. She sat, looking very pretty in her blue +glacé and bright curls, her fingers toying idly with her châtelaine and +trinkets, and as unapproachable as a grand duchess. + +Mr. Stanford made no attempt to approach her. He sat and talked to his +betrothed of the old times and the old friends and places, and seemed to +forget there was any one else in the world. Rose listened, with a heart +swelling with angry bitterness--silent, except when discreetly addressed +by Kate, and longing vindictively to spring up and tell the handsome, +treacherous Englishman what she thought of him there and then. + +As luncheon hour drew near, her father, who had been absent, returned +with Sir Ronald Keith and Doctor Danton. They were all going upstairs; +but Kate, with a happy flush on her face, looked out of the drawing-room +door. + +"Come in papa," she said; "come in, Sir Ronald; there is an old friend +here." + +She smiled a bright invitation to the young Doctor, who went in also. +Reginald Stanford stood up. Captain Danton, with a delighted "Hallo!" +grasped both his hands. + +"Reginald, my dear boy, I am delighted, more than delighted, to see you. +Welcome to Canada, Sir Ronald; this is more than we bargained for." + +"I was surprised to find you here, Sir Ronald," said the young officer, +shaking the baronet's hand cordially; "very happy to meet you again." + +Sir Ronald, with a dark flush on his face, bowed stiffly, in silence, +and moved away. + +Doctor Frank was introduced, made his bow, and retreated to Rose's sofa. + +Capricious womanhood! Rose, that morning, had decidedly snubbed him; +Rose, at noon, welcomed him with her most radiant smile. Never, perhaps, +in all his experience had any young lady listened to him with such +flattering attention, with such absorbed interest. Never had bright eyes +and rosy lips given him such glances and smiles. She hung on his words; +she had eyes and ears for no one else, least of all for the supremely +handsome gentleman who was her sister's betrothed, and who talked to her +father; while Sir Ronald glowered over a book. + +The ringing of the luncheon-bell brought Grace and Eeny, and all were +soon seated around the Captain's hospitable board. + +Lieutenant Reginald Stanford laid himself out to be fascinating, and was +fascinating. There was a subtle charm in his handsome face, in his +brilliant smile and glance, in his pleasant voice, in his wittily-told +stories, and inexhaustible fund of anecdote and mimicry. Now he was in +Ireland, now in France, now in Scotland, now in Yorkshire; and the bad +English and the _patois_ and accent of all were imitated to the life. +With that face, that voice, that talent for imitation, Lieutenant +Stanford, in another walk of life, might have made his fortune on the +stage. His power of fascination was irresistible. Grace felt it, Eeny +felt it, all felt it, except Sir Ronald Keith. He sat like the Marble +Guest, not fascinated, not charmed, black and unsmiling. + +Rose, too--what was the matter with Rose? She, so acutely alive to +well-told stories, to handsome faces, so rigidly cold, and stately, and +uninterested now. She shrugged her dimpled shoulders when the table was +in a roar; she opened her rather small hazel eyes and stared, as if she +wondered, what they could see to laugh at. She did not even deign to +glance at him, the hero of the feast; and, in fact, so greatly overdid +her part as to excite the suspicions of that astute young man, Doctor +Danton. There is no effect without a cause. What was the cause of Rose's +icy indifference? He looked at her, then at Stanford, then back at her, +and set himself to watch. + +"She has met him before," thought the shrewd Doctor; "but where, if he +has just come from England? I'll ask him, I think." + +It was some time before there was a pause in the conversation. In the +first, Dr. Frank struck in. + +"How did you come, Mr. Stanford?" he asked. + +"On the Hysperia, from Southampton to New York." + +"How long ago?" inquired Kate, indirectly helping him; "a week?" + +"No," said Lieutenant Stanford, coolly carving his cold ham; "nearly +five." + +Every one stared. Kate looked blankly amazed. + +"Impossible!" she exclaimed; "five weeks since you landed in New York? +Surely not." + +"Quite true, I assure you. The way was this--" + +He paused and looked at Rose, who had spilled a glass of wine, trying to +lift it, in a hand that shook strangely. Her eyes were downcast, her +cheeks scarlet, her whole manner palpably and inexplicably embarrassed. + +"Four, weeks ago, I reached Canada. I did not write you, Kate, that I +was coming. I wished to give you a surprise. I stopped at +Belleplain--you know the town of Belleplain, thirty miles from here--to +see a brother officer I had known at Windsor. Travelling from Belleplain +in a confounded stage, I stopped half frozen at an old farm-house six +miles off. Next morning, pursuing my journey on foot, I met with a +little mishap." + +He paused provokingly to fill at his leisure a glass of sherry; and +Doctor Danton watching Rose under his eyelashes, saw the colour coming +and going in her traitor face. + +"I slipped on a sheet of ice," continued Mr. Stanford. "I am not used to +your horrible Canadian roads, remember, and strained my ankle badly. I +had to be conveyed back to the farm-house on a sled--medical attendance +procured, and for three weeks I have been a prisoner there. I could have +sent you word, no doubt, and put you to no end of trouble bringing me +here, but I did not like that; I did not care to turn Danton Hall into a +hospital, and go limping through life; so I made the best of a bad +bargain and stayed where I was." + +There was a general murmur of sympathy from all but Sir Ronald and Rose. +Sir Ronald sat like a grim statue in granite; and Rose, still fluttering +and tremulous, did not dare to lift her eyes. + +"You must have found it very lonely," said Doctor Danton. + +"No. I regretted not getting here, of course; but otherwise it was not +unpleasant. They took such capital care of me, you see, and I had a +select little library at my command; so, on the whole, I have been in +much more disagreeable quarters in my lifetime." + +Doctor Frank said no more. He had gained his point, and he was +satisfied. + +"It is quite clear," he thought. "By some hocus-pocus, Miss Rose has +made his acquaintance during those three weeks, and helped the slow time +to pass. He did not tell her he was her sister's lover, hence the +present frigidity. The long morning rides are accounted for now. I +wonder"--he looked at pretty Rose--"I wonder if the matter will end +here?" + +It seemed as if it would. Doctor Danton, coming every day to the Hall, +and closely observant always, saw no symptoms of thawing out on Rose's +part, and no effort to please on the side of Mr. Stanford. He treated +her as he treated Eeny and Grace, courteously, genially, but nothing +more. He was all devotion to his beautiful betrothed, and Kate--what +words can paint the infinite happiness of her face! All that was wanting +to make her beauty perfect was found. She had grown so gentle, so sweet, +so patient with all; she was so supremely blessed herself, she could +afford to stoop to the weaknesses of less fortunate mortals. That +indescribable change, the radiance of her eyes, the buoyancy of her +step, the lovely colour that deepened and died, the smiles that came so +rapidly now--all told how much she loved Reginald Stanford. + +Was it returned, that absorbing devotion? He was very devoted; he was +beside her when she sang; he sought her always when he entered the room, +he was her escort on all occasions; but--was it returned? It seemed to +Doctor Frank, watching quietly, that there was something +wanting--something too vague to be described, but lacking. Kate did not +miss it herself, and it might be only a fancy. Perhaps it was that she +was above and beyond him, with thoughts and feelings in that earnest +heart of hers he could never understand. He was very handsome, very +brilliant; but underlying the beauty and the brilliancy of the surface +there was shallowness, and selfishness, and falsity. + +He was walking up and down the tamarack walk, thinking of this and +smoking a cigar, one evening, about a week after the arrival of +Stanford. The February twilight fell tenderly over snowy ground, dark, +stripped trees, and grim old mansion. A mild evening, windless and +spring-like, with the full moon rising round and red. His walk commanded +a view of the great frozen fish-pond where a lively scene was going on. +Kate, Rose, and Eeny, strapped in skates, were floating round and round, +attended by the Captain and Lieutenant Stanford. + +Rose was the best skater on the pond, and looked charming in her +tucked-up dress, crimson petticoat, dainty boots, and coquettish hat and +plume. She flitted in a dizzying circle ahead of all the rest, +disdaining to join them. Stanford skated very well for an Englishman, +and assisted Kate, who was not very proficient in the art. Captain +Danton had Eeny by the hand, and the gay laughter of the party made the +still air ring. Grace stood on the edge of the pond watching them, and +resisting the Captain's entreaties to come on the ice and let him teach +her to skate. Her brother joined her, coming up suddenly, with Tiger at +his side. + +"Not half a bad tableau," the Doctor said, removing his inevitable +cigar; "lovely women, brave men, moonlight, and balmy breezes. You don't +go in for this sort of thing, _ma soeur_? No, I suppose not. Our +good-looking Englishman skates well, by the way. What do you think of +him, Grace?" + +"I think with you, that he is a good-looking young Englishman." + +"Nothing more?" + +"That the eldest Miss Danton is hopelessly and helplessly in love with +him, and that it is rather a pity. Rose would suit him better." + +"Ah! sagacious as usual, Grace. Who knows but the Hon. Reginald thinks +so too. Where is our dark Scotchman to-night?" + +"Sir Ronald? Gone to Montreal." + +"Is he coming back?" + +"I don't know. Very likely. If it were to murder Mr. Stanford he would +come back with pleasure." + +"He is a little jealous, then?" + +"Just a little. There is the Captain calling you. Go." + +They went over. Captain Danton whirled round and came to a halt at sight +of them. + +"Here, Frank," he said; "I'm getting tired of this. Take my skates, and +let us see what you are capable of on ice." + +Doctor Frank put on the skates, and struck off. + +Rose, flashing past, gave him a bright backward glance. + +"Catch me, Doctor Danton!" she cried. "Catch me if you can!" + +"A fair field and no favour!" exclaimed Stanford, wheeling round. "Come +on Danton; I am going to try, too." + +Eeny and Kate stood still to watch. + +The group on the bank were absorbed in the chase. Doctor Danton was the +better skater of the two; but fleet-footed Rose outstripped both. + +"Ten to one on the Doctor!" cried the Captain, excited. "Reginald is +nowhere!" + +"I don't bet," said Grace; "but neither will catch Rose if Rose likes." + +Round and round the fish-pond the trio flew--Rose still ahead, the +Doctor outstripping the Lieutenant. The chase was getting exciting. +There was no chance of gaining on Rose by following her. Danton tried +strategy. As she wheeled airily around, he abruptly turned, headed her +off, and caught her with a rebound in his arms. + +"By Jove!" cried the Captain, delighted, "he has her. Reginald, my boy, +you are beaten." + +"I told you you stood no chance, Stanford," said the Doctor. + +"What am I to have for my pains, Miss Rose?" + +"Stoop down and you'll see." + +He bent his head. A stinging box on the ear rewarded him, and Rose was +off, flying over the glittering ice and out of reach. + +"Beaten, Reginald," said Kate, as he drew near. "For shame, sir." + +"Beaten, but not defeated," answered her lover; "a Stanford never +yields. Rose shall be my prize yet." + +Rose had whirled round the pond, and was passing. He looked at her as he +spoke; but her answer was a flash of the eye and a curl of the lip as +she flew on. Kate saw it, and looked after her, puzzled and thoughtful. + +"Reginald," she said, when, the skating over, they were all sauntering +back to the house, "what have you done to Rose?" + +Reginald Stanford raised his dark eyebrows. + +"Done to her! What do you imagine I have done to her?" + +"Nothing; but why, then, does she dislike you so?" + +"Am I so unfortunate as to have incurred your pretty sister's dislike?" + +"Don't you see it? She avoids you. She will not talk to you, or sing for +you, or take your arm, or join us when we go out. I never saw her treat +any gentleman with such pointed coldness before." + +"Extraordinary," said Mr. Stanford, with profoundest gravity; "I am the +most unlucky fellow in the world. What shall I do to overcome your fair +sister's aversion?" + +"Perhaps you do not pay her attention enough. Rose knows she is very +pretty, and is jealously exacting in her demands for admiration and +devotion. Sir Ronald gave her mortal offence the first evening he came, +by his insensibility. She has never forgiven him, and never will. Devote +yourself more to her and less to me, and perhaps Rose will consent to +let you bask in the light of her smile." + +He looked at her with an odd glance. She was smiling, but in earnest +too. She loved her sister and her lover so well, that she felt +uncomfortable until they were friends; and her heart was too great and +faithful for the faintest spark of jealousy. He had lifted the hand that +wore his ring to his lips. + +"Your wishes are my law. I shall do my best to please Rose from +to-night." + +That evening, for the first time, Stanford took a seat beside Rose, and +did his best to be agreeable. Kate smiled approval from her place at the +piano, and Doctor Danton, on the other side of Rose, heard and saw all, +and did not quite understand. But Rose was still offended, and declined +to relent. It was hard to resist that persuasive voice, but she did. She +hardened herself resolutely at the thought of how he had deceived +her--he who was soon to be her sister's husband. Rose got up abruptly, +excused herself, and left the room. + +When the family were dispersing to their chambers that night, Reginald +lingered to speak to Kate. + +"I have failed, you see," he said. + +"Rose is a mystery," said Kate, vexed; "she has quite a new way of +acting. But you know," smiling radiantly, "a Stanford never yields." + +"True. It is discouraging, but I shall try again. Good-night, dearest +and best, and pleasant dreams--of me." + +He ascended to his bedroom, lamp in hand. A fire blazed in the grate; +and sitting down before it, his coat off, his slippers on, his hands in +his pockets, he gazed at it with knitted brow, and whistling softly. For +half an hour he sat, still as a statue. Then he got up, found his +writing-case, and sat down to indite a letter. He was singing the +fag-end of something as he dipped his pen in the ink. + + "Bind the sea to slumber stilly-- + Bind its odour to the lily-- + Bind the aspen ne'er to quiver-- + Then bind love to last forever!" + + * * * * * + + "Danton Hall, February 26, 18-- + + "My Dear Lauderdale: I think I promised, when I left + Windsor, to write to tell you how I got on in this horribly Arctic + region. It is nearly two months since I left Windsor, and my + conscience (don't laugh--I have discovered that I have a + conscience) gives me sundry twinges when I think of you. I don't + feel like sleeping to-night. I am full of my subject, so here goes. + + "In the first place, Miss Danton is well, and as much of in angel + as ever. In the second place, Danton Hall is delightful, and holds + more angels than one. In the third place, Ronald Keith is here, and + half mad with jealousy. The keenest north wind that has ever blown + since I came to Canada is not half so freezing as he. Alas, poor + Yorick! He is a fine fellow, too, and fought like a lion in the + Russian trenches; but there was Sampson, and David, and Solomon, + and Marc Antony--you know what love did to them one and all. + + "Kate refused him a year ago, in England--I found it out by + accident, not from her, of course; and yet here he is. It is the + old story of the moth and the candle, and sometimes I laugh, and + sometimes I am sorry for him. He has eight thousand a year, too; + and the Keiths are great people in Scotland, I hear. Didn't I + always try to impress it on you that it was better to be born + handsome than rich? I am not worth fifteen hundred shillings a + year, and in June (D. V.) beautiful Kate Danton is to be my wife. + Recant your heresy, and believe for the future. + + "Angel, No. 2.--I told you there were more than one--has hazel + eyes, pink cheeks, auburn curls, and the dearest little ways. She + is not beautiful--she is not stately--she does not play and sing + the soul out of your body, and yet--and yet----. Lauderdale, you + always told me my peerless fiancée was a thousand times too good + for me. I never believed you before. I do believe you now. She + soars beyond my reach sometimes. I don't pretend to understand her, + and--tell it not in Gath--I stand a little in awe of her. I never + was on speaking terms with her most gracious majesty, whom Heaven + long preserve; but, if I were, I fancy I should feel as I do + sometimes talking to Kate. She is perfection, and I am--well, I am + not, and she is very fond of me. Would she break her heart, do you + think, if she does not become Mrs. Reginald Stanford? June is the + time, but there is many a slip. I know what your answer will + be--'She will break her heart if she does!' It is a bad business, + old boy; but it is fate, or we will say so--and hazel eyes and + auburn curls are very, very tempting. + + "You used to think a good deal of Captain Danton, if I recollect + right. By the way, how old is the Captain? I ask, because there is + a housekeeper here, who is a distant cousin, one of the family, + very quiet, sensible, lady-like, and six and twenty, who may be + Mrs. Captain Danton one day. Mind, I don't say for certain, but I + have my suspicions. He couldn't do better. Grace--that's her + name--has a brother here, a doctor, very fine fellow, and so cute. + I catch him looking at me sometimes in a very peculiar manner, + which I think I understand. + + "You don't expect me before June, do you? Nevertheless, don't faint + if I return to our 'right little, tight little' island before that. + Meantime, write and let me know how the world wags with you; and, + only I know it is out of your line, I should ask you to offer a + prayer for your unfortunate friend + + "Reginald Stanford." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE GHOST AGAIN. + + +Rose Danton stood leaning against the low, old-fashioned chimney piece +in her bedroom staring at the fire with a very sulky face. Those who +fell in love with pretty Rose should have seen her in her sulky moods, +if they wished to be thoroughly disenchanted. Just at present, as she +stood looking gloomily into the fire, she was wondering how the +Honourable Reginald Stanford would feel on his wedding-day, or if he +would feel at all, if they should find her (Rose) robed in white, +floating in the fish-pond drowned! The fish-pond was large enough; and +Rose moodily recollected reading somewhere that when lovely woman stoops +to folly, and finds too late that men betray, the only way to hide that +folly from every eye, to bring repentance to her lover, to wring his +bosom, is to--die! + +The clock down stairs struck eleven. Rose could hear them dispersing to +their bedrooms. She could hear, and she held her breath to listen, Mr. +Stanford, going past her door, whistling a tune of Kate's. Of Kate's, of +course! He was happy and could whistle, and she was miserable and +couldn't. If she had not wept herself as dry as a wrung sponge, she must +have relapsed into hysterics once more; but as she couldn't, with a +long-drawn sigh, she resolved to go to bed. + +So to bed Rose went, but not to sleep. She tossed from side to side, +feverish and impatient; the more she tried to sleep, the more she +couldn't. It was quite a new experience for poor Rose, not used to +"tears at night instead of slumber." The wintry moonlight was shining +brightly in her room through the parted curtains, and that helped her +wakefulness, perhaps. As the clock struck twelve, she sprang up in +desperation, drew a shawl round her, and, in her night-dress, sat down +by the window, to contemplate the heavenly bodies. + +Hark! what noise was that? + +The house was as still as a vault; all had retired, and were probably +asleep. In the dead stillness, Rose heard a door open--the green baize +door of Bluebeard's room. Her chamber was very near that green door; +there could be no mistaking the sound. Once again she held her breath to +listen. In the profound hush, footsteps echoed along the uncarpeted +corridor, and passed her door. Was it Ogden on his way upstairs? No! the +footsteps paused at the next door--Kate's room; and there was a light +rap. Rose, aflame with curiosity, tip-toed to her own door, and applied +her ear to the key-hole. Kate's door opened; there was a whispered +colloquy; the listener could not catch the words, but the voice that +spoke to Kate was not the voice of Ogden. Five minutes--ten--then the +door shut, the footsteps went by her door again, and down stairs. + +Who was it? Not Ogden, not her father; could it be--could it be Mr. +Richards himself. + +Rose clasped her hands, and stood bewildered. Her own troubles had so +occupied her mind of late that she had almost forgotten Mr. Richards; +but now her old curiosity returned in full force. + +"If he has gone out," thought Rose, "what is to hinder me from seeing +his rooms. I would give the world to see them!" + +She stood for a moment irresolute. + +Then, impulsively, she seized a dressing-gown, covered her bright head +with the shawl, opened her door softly, and peeped out. + +All still and deserted. The night-lamp burned dim at the other end of +the long, chilly passage, but threw no light where she stood. + +The green baize door stood temptingly half open; no creature was to be +seen--no sound to be heard. Rose's heart throbbed fast; the mysterious +stillness of the night, the ghostly shimmer of the moonlight, the +mystery and romance of her adventure, set every pulse tingling, but she +did not hesitate. Her slippered feet crossed the hall lightly; she was +beside the green door. Then there was another pause--a moment's +breathless listening, but the dead stillness of midnight was unbroken. +She tip-toed down the short corridor, and looked into the room. The +study was quite deserted; a lamp burned on a table strewn with books, +papers, and writing materials. Rose glanced wonderingly around at the +book-lined walls. Mr. Richards could pass the dull hours if those were +all novels, she thought. + +The room beyond was unlit, save by the moon shining brightly through the +parted curtains. Rose examined it, too; it was Mr. Richard's bedroom, +but the bed had not been slept in that night. Everything was orderly and +elegant; no evidences of its occupant being an invalid. One rapid, +comprehensive glance was all the girl waited to take; then she turned to +hurry back to her own room, and found herself face to face with Ogden. + +The valet stood in the doorway, looking at her, his countenance wearing +its habitual calm and respectful expression. But Rose recoiled, and +turned as white as though she had been a ghost. + +"It is very late, Miss Rose," said Ogden calmly. "I think you had better +not stay here any longer." + +Rose clasped her hands supplicatingly. + +"Oh, Ogden! Don't tell papa! Pray, don't tell papa!" + +"I am very sorry, Miss Rose, but it would be as much as my place is +worth. I must!" + +He stood aside to let her pass. Rose, with all her flightiness, was too +proud to plead with a servant, and walked out in silence. + +Not an instant too soon. As she opened her door, some one came upstairs; +some one who was tall, and slight; and muffled in a long cloak. + +He passed through the baize door, before she had time to see his face, +closed it after him, and was gone. + +Rose locked her door, afraid of she know not what; and sat down on the +bedside to think. Who was this Mr. Richards who passed for an invalid, +and who was no invalid? Why was he shut up here, where no one could see +him, and why was all this mystery? Rose thought of "Jane Eyre" and Mr. +Rochester's wife, but Mr. Richards could not be mad or they never would +trust him out alone at night. What, too, would her father say to her +to-morrow? She quailed a little at the thought; she had never seen her +indulgent father out of temper in her life. He took the most +disagreeable contre-temps with imperturbable good-humour, but how would +he take this? + +"I should not like to offend papa," thought Rose, uneasily. "He is very +good to me, and does everything I ask him. I do hope he won't be angry. +I almost wish I had not gone!" + +There was no sleep for her that night. When morning came, she was almost +afraid to go down to breakfast and face her father; but when the bell +rang, and she did descend, her father was not there. + +Ogden came in with his master's excuses--Captain Danton was very busy, +and would breakfast in his study. The news took away Rose's morning +appetite; she sat crumbling her roll on her plate, and feeling that +Ogden had told him, and that that was the cause of his non-appearance. + +As they rose from the table, Ogden entered again, bowed gravely to Rose, +and informed her she was wanted in the study. + +Kate looked at her sister in surprise, and noticed with wonder her +changing face. But Rose, without a word, followed the valet, her heart +throbbing faster than it had throbbed last night. + +Captain Danton was pacing up and down his study when she entered, with +the sternest face she had ever seen him wear. In silence he pointed to a +seat, continuing his walk; his daughter sat down, pale, but otherwise +dauntless. + +"Rose!" he said, stopping before her, "what took you into Mr. Richards' +rooms last night?" + +"Curiosity, papa," replied Rose, readily, but in secret quaking. + +"Do you know you did a very mean act? Do you know you were playing the +spy?" + +The colour rushed to Rose's face, and her head dropped. + +"You knew you were forbidden to enter there; you knew you were prying +into what was no affair of yours; you knew you were doing wrong, and +would displease me; and yet in the face of all this, you deliberately +stole into his room like a spy, like a thief, to discover for yourself. +Rose Danton, I am ashamed of you!" + +Rose burst out crying. Her father was very angry, and deeply mortified; +and Rose really was very fond of her indulgent father. + +"Oh, papa! I didn't mean--I never thought--oh, please, papa, forgive +me!" + +Captain Danton resumed his walk up and down, his anger softened at the +sight of her distress. + +"Is it the first time this has occurred?" he asked, stopping again; "the +truth, Rose, I can forgive anything but a lie." + +"Yes, papa." + +"You never have been there before?" + +"No, never!" + +Again he resumed his walk, and again he stopped before her. + +"Why did you go last night?" + +"I couldn't sleep, papa. I felt worried about something, and I was +sitting by the window. I heard Mr. Richards' door open, and some one +come out and rap at Kate's room. Kate opened it, and I heard them +talking." + +Her father interrupted her. + +"Did you hear what they said?" he asked sharply. + +"No papa--only the sound of their voices. It was not your voice, nor +Ogden's; so I concluded it must be Mr. Richards' himself. I heard him go +down stairs, and then I peeped out. His door was open, and I--I--" + +"Went in!" + +"Yes, papa," very humbly. + +"Did you see Mr. Richards?" + +"I saw some one, tall and slight, come up stairs and go in, but I did +not see his face." + +"And that is all!" + +"Yes, papa." + +Once more he began pacing backward and forward, his face very grave, but +not so stern. Rose watched him askance, nervous and uncomfortable. + +"My daughter," he said at last, "you have done very wrong, and grieved +me more than I can say. This is a serious matter--more serious by far +than you imagine. You have discovered, probably, that other reasons than +illness confine Mr. Richards to his rooms." + +"Yes, papa." + +"Mr. Richards is not an invalid--at least not now--although he was ill +when he came here. But the reasons that keep him a prisoner in this +house are so very grave that I dare not confide them to you. This much I +will say--his life depends upon it." + +"Papa!" Rose cried, startled. + +"His life depends upon it," repeated Captain Danton. "Only three in this +house know his secret--myself, Ogden, and your sister Kate. Ogden and +Kate I can trust implicitly; can I place equal confidence in you?" + +"Yes, papa," very faintly. + +"Mr. Richards," pursued Captain Danton, with a slight tremor of voice, +"is the nearest and dearest friend I have on this earth. It would break +my heart, Rose, if an ill befell him. Do you see now why I am so anxious +to preserve his secret; why I felt so deeply your rash act of last +night?" + +"Forgive me, papa!" sobbed Rose. "I am sorry; I didn't know. Oh, please, +papa!" + +He stooped and kissed her. + +"My thoughtless little girl! Heaven knows how freely I forgive you--only +promise me your word of honour not to breathe a word of this." + +"I promise, papa." + +"Thank you, my dear. And now you may go; I have some writing to do. Go +and take a ride to cheer you up after all this dismal talk, and get back +your roses before luncheon time." + +He kissed her again and held the door open for her to pass out. Rose, +with a great weight off her mind went down the passage, and met Eeny +running upstairs. + +"I say, Rose," exclaimed her sister, "don't you want to go to a ball? +Well, there are invitations for the Misses Danton in the parlour." + +"A ball, Eeny? Where?" + +"At the Ponsonbys', next Thursday night. Sir Ronald, Doctor Frank, papa, +and Mr. Stanford are all invited." + +Rose's delight at the news banished all memory of the unpleasant scene +just over. A ball was the summit of Rose's earthly bliss, and a ball at +the Ponsonbys' really meant something. In ten minutes her every thought +was absorbed in the great question, "What shall I wear?" + +"To-day is Wednesday," thought Rose. "Thursday one, Friday two, Saturday +three, Monday four, Tuesday five, Wednesday six, Thursday seven. Plenty +of time to have my new silk made. I'll go and speak to Agnes at once." + +She tripped away to the sewing-room in search of the little seamstress. +The door was ajar; she pushed it open, but paused in astonishment at the +sight which met her eyes. + +The sewing-room was on the ground floor, its one window about five feet +from the ground. At this window which was open, sat the seamstress, her +work lying idly on her lap, twisting her fingers in a restless, nervous +sort of way peculiar to her. Leaning against the window from without, +his arm on the sill, stood Doctor Danton, talking as if he had known +Agnes Darling all his life. + +The noise of Rose's entrance, slight as it was, caught his quick ear. He +looked up and met her surprised eyes, coolly composedly. + +"Don't let me intrude!" said Rose, entering, when she found herself +discovered. "I did not expect to see Doctor Danton here." + +"Very likely," replied the imperturbable Doctor; "it is an old habit of +mine turning up in unexpected places. Besides, what was I to do? Grace +in the kitchen was invisible, Miss Kate had gone riding with Mr. +Stanford, Miss Rose was closeted mysteriously with papa. Miss Eeny, +practising the 'Battle of Prague,' was not to be disturbed. In my +distraction I came here, where Miss Darling has kindly permitted me to +remain and study the art of dressmaking." + +He made his speech purposely long, that Rose might not see Miss +Darling's confused face. But Rose saw it, and believed as much of the +gentleman's story as she chose. + +"And now that you have discovered it," said Rose, "I dare say we will +have you flying on all occasions to this refugium peccatorum. Are you +going? Don't let me frighten you away." + +"You don't; but I want to smoke a cigar under the tamaracks. You haven't +such a thing as a match about you, have you? No matter; I've got one +myself." + +He strolled away. Rose looked suspiciously at the still confused face of +the sewing-girl. + +"How do you come to know Doctor Danton?" she asked abruptly. + +"I--he--I mean the window was open and he was passing, and he stopped to +speak," stammered Agnes, more confusedly still. + +"I dare say," said Rose; "but he would not have stopped unless he had +known you before, would he?" + +"I--saw him once by accident before--I don't know him--" + +She stopped and looked piteously at Rose. She was a childish little +thing, very nervous, and evidently afraid of any more questions. + +"Well," said Rose, curtly; "if you don't choose to tell, of course you +needn't. He never was a lover of yours, was he?" + +"Oh, no! no! no!" + +"Then I don't see anything to get so confused about. What are you +working at?" + +"Miss Eeny's jacket." + +"Then Miss Eeny's jacket must wait, for I want my new silk made for +Thursday evening. Come up to my room, and get to work at once." + +Agnes rose obediently. Rose led the way, her mind straying back to the +scene in the sewing-room her entrance had disturbed. + +"Look here, Miss Darling," she broke out; "you must have known Doctor +Danton before. Now you needn't deny it. Your very face proves you +guilty. Tell the truth, and shame the----. Didn't you know him before +you came to Danton Hall?" + +They were in Roses room by this time. To the great surprise of that +inquisitive young lady, Agnes Darling sank down upon a lounge, covered +her face with her hands, and burst into tears. + +"Goodness me!" exclaimed the second Miss Danton, as soon as surprise +would let her speak, "what on earth is the matter with you? What are you +crying about? What has Doctor Danton done to you?" + +"Nothing! nothing!" cried the worried little seamstress. "Oh, nothing! +It is not that! I am very foolish and weak; but oh, please don't mind +me, and don't ask me about it. I can't help it, and I am very, very +unhappy." + +"Well," said Rose, after a blank pause; "stop crying. I didn't know you +would take it so seriously, or I shouldn't have asked you. Here's the +dress, and I want you to take a great deal of pains with it, Agnes. Take +my measure." + +Rose said no more to the seamstress on a subject so evidently +distressing; but that evening she took Doctor Frank himself to task. She +was at the piano, which Kate had vacated for a game of chess with Mr. +Stanford, and Grace's brother was devotedly turning her music. Rose +looked up at him abruptly, her fingers still rattling off a lively +mazurka. + +"Doctor Danton, what have you been doing to Agnes Darling?" + +"I! Doing! I don't understand!" + +"Of course you don't. Where was it you knew her?" + +"Who says I knew her?" + +"I do. There, no fibs; they won't convince me, and you will only be +committing sin for nothing. Was it in Montreal?" + +"Really, Miss Rose--" + +"That will do. She won't tell, she only cries. You won't tell; you only +equivocate. I don't care. I'll find out sooner or later." + +"Was she crying?" + +"I should think so. People like to make mysteries in this house, in my +opinion. Where there is secrecy there is something wrong. This morning +was not the first time you ever talked to Agnes Darling." + +"Perhaps not," replied Doctor Danton, with a very grave face; "but, poor +child! what right have I to make known the trials she has undergone? She +has been very unfortunate, and I once had the opportunity to befriend +her. That is all I know of her, or am at liberty to tell." + +There was that in Doctor Frank's face that, despite Rose's assurance, +forbade her asking any more questions. + +"But I shall never rest till I find out," thought the young lady. "I've +got at Mr. Richards' and I'll get at yours as sure as my name is Rose." + +The intervening days before the ball, Rose was too much absorbed in her +preparations, and anticipations of conquest, to give her mind much to +Agnes Darling and her secrets. That great and hidden trouble of her +life--her unfortunate love affair, was worrying her too. Mr. Stanford, +in pursuance of his promise to Kate, played the agreeable to her sister +with a provoking perseverance that was proof against any amount of +snubbing, and that nearly drove Rose wild. He would take a seat by her +side, always in Kate's presence, and talk to her by the hour, while she +could but listen, and rebel inwardly. Never, even while she chafed most, +had she loved him better. That power of fascination, that charm of face, +of voice, of smile, that had conquered her fickle heart the first time +she saw him, enthralled her more and more hopelessly with every passing +day. It was very hard to sit there, sullen and silent, and keep her eyes +averted, but the Danton pluck stood her in good stead, and the memory of +his treachery to her goaded her on. + +"It's of no use, Kate," he said to his lady-love; "our pretty Rose will +have nothing to say to me. I more than half believe she is in love with +that very clever Doctor Frank." + +"Dr. Frank? Oh, no; he is not half handsome enough for Rose." + +"He is a thoroughly fine fellow, though. Are you quite sure he has not +taken Rose captive?" + +"Quite. He is very well to flirt with--nothing more. Rose cares nothing +for him, but I am not so sure he does not care for her. Rose is very +pretty." + +"Very," smiled Mr. Stanford, "and knows it. I wonder if she will dance +with me the night of the ball?" + +The night of the ball came, bright, frosty, and calm. The large, roomy, +old-fashioned family carriage held Rose, Eeny, Sir Ronald, and Doctor +Danton, while Mr. Stanford drove Kate over in a light cutter. The +Ponsonbys, who were a very uplifted sort of people, had not invited +Grace; and Captain Danton, at the last moment, announced his intention +of staying at home also. + +"I am very comfortable where I am," said the Captain, lounging in an +arm-chair before the blazing fire; "and the trouble of dressing and +going out this cold night is more than the ball is worth. Make my +excuses, my dear; tell them I have had a sudden attack of gout, if you +like, or anything else that comes uppermost." + +"But, papa," expostulated Kate, very much surprised, for the master of +Danton Hall was eminently social in his habits, "I should like you to +come so much, and the Ponsonbys will be so disappointed." + +"They'll survive it, my dear, never fear. I prefer staying at home with +Grace and Father Francis, who will drop in by-and-by. There, Kate, my +dear, don't waste your breath coaxing. Reginald, take her away." + +Mr. Stanford, with the faintest shadow of a knowing smile on his face, +took Kate's arm and led her down stairs. + +"The brown eyes and serene face of your demure housekeeper have stronger +charms for my papa-in-law than anything within the four walls of the +Ponsonbys. What would Kate say, I wonder, if I told her?" + +As usual, Captain Danton's two daughters were the belles of the room. +Kate was queenly as ever, and as far out of the reach of everything +masculine, with one exception, as the moon; Rose, in a changeful silk, +half dove, half pink, that blushed as she walked, with a wreath of ivy +in her glossy hair, turned heads wherever she went. Doctor Frank had the +privilege of the first dance. After that she was surrounded by all the +most eligible young men in the room. Rose, with a glow on her rounded +cheeks, and a brilliancy in her eyes, that excitement had lent, danced +and flirted, and laughed, and sang, and watched furtively, all the +while, the only man present she cared one iota for. That eminently +handsome young officer, Mr. Stanford, after devoting himself, as in duty +bound, to his stately fiancée, resigned her, after a while, to an +epauletted Colonel from Montreal, and made himself agreeable to Helen +Ponsonby, and Emily Howard, and sundry other pretty girls. Rose watched +him angry and jealous inwardly, smiling and radiant outwardly. Their +fingers touched in the same set, but Rose never deigned him a glance. +Her perfumed skirts brushed him as she flew by in the redowa, but she +never looked up. + +"He shall see how little I care," thought jealous Rose. "I suppose he +thinks I am dying for him, but he shall find out how much he is +mistaken." + +With this thought in her mind, she sat down while her partner went for +an ice. It was the first time that night she had been a moment alone. +Mr. Stanford, leaning against a pillar idly, took advantage of it, and +was beside her before she knew it. Her cheeks turned scarlet, and her +heart quickened involuntarily as he sat down beside her. + +"I have been ignored so palpably all evening that I am half afraid to +come near you," he said; "will it be high treason to ask you to waltz +with me!" + +Alas for Rose's heroic resolutions! How was she to resist the persuasive +voice and smile of this man? How was she to resist the delight of +waltzing with him? She bowed in silence, still with averted eyes; and +Lieutenant Stanford, smiling slightly, drew her hand within his arm. Her +late partner came up with the ice, but Rose had got something better +than ice cream, and did not want it. The music of the German waltz +filled the long ball-room with harmony; his arm slid round her waist, +her hand was clasped in his, the wax floor slipped from under her feet, +and Rose floated away into elysium. + +The valse d'ecstase was over, and they were in a dim, half-lighted +conservatory. Tropical flowers bloomed around them, scenting the warm +air; delicious music floated entrancingly in. The cold white wintry moon +flooded the outer world with its frosty glory, and Rose felt as if +fairyland were no myth, and fairy tales no delusion. They were alone in +the conservatory; how they got there she never knew; how she came to be +clinging to his arm, forgetful of past, present, and future, she never +could understand. + +"Rose," said that most musical of voices; "when will you learn to forget +and forgive? See, here is a peace-offering!" + +He had a white camellia in his button-hole--a flower that half an hour +ago had been chief beauty of Kate's bouquet. He took it out now, and +twined its long stem in and out of her abundant curls. + +"Wear it," he said, "and I shall know I am forgiven. Wear it for my +sake, Rose." + +There was a rustling behind them of a lady's-dress, and the deep tones +of a man's voice talking. Rose started away from his side, the guilty +blood rushing to her face at sight of her elder sister on Doctor +Danton's arm. + +Kate's clear eyes fixed on her sister's flushed, confused face, on the +waxen camellia, her gift to her lover, and then turned upon Mr. +Stanford. That eminently nonchalant young Englishman was as cool as the +frosty winter night. + +"I should think you two might have selected some other apartment in the +house for a promenade, and not come interrupting here," he said, +advancing. "Miss Rose and I were enjoying the first tęte-ŕ-tęte we have +had since my arrival. But as you are here, Kate, and as I believe we are +to dance the German together--" + +"And you resign Miss Rose to me?" said Doctor Frank. + +"There is no alternative. Take good care of her, and adieu." + +He led Kate out of the conservatory. Doctor Frank offered his arm to +Rose, still hovering guiltily aloof. + +"And I believe you promised to initiate me into the mysteries of the +German. Well, do you want me?" + +This last was to a man-servant who had entered, and looked as if he had +something to say. + +"Yes, sir--if you are Doctor Danton." + +"I am Doctor Danton. What is it?" + +"It's a servant from the Hall, sir. Captain Danton's compliments, and +would you go there at once?" + +Rose gave a little scream, and clutched her companion's arm. + +"Oh, Doctor Frank, can papa be sick?" + +"No, Miss," said the man, respectfully, "it's not your father; it's the +young woman what sews, Thomas says--" hesitating. + +"Well," said Doctor Frank, "Thomas says what?" + +"Thomas says, sir, she see a ghost!" + +"A what?" + +"A ghost, sir; that's what Thomas says," replied the man, with a grin; +"and she's gone off into fainting-fits, and would you return at once, he +says. The sleigh is at the door." + +"Tell him I will be there immediately." + +He turned to Rose, smiling at her blank face. + +"What shall I do with you, Mademoiselle? To whom shall I consign you? I +must make my adieus to Mrs. Ponsonby and depart." + +Rose grasped his arm, and held it tight, her bewildered eyes fixed on +his face. + +"Seen a ghost!" she repeated blankly. "That is twice! Doctor Frank, is +Danton Hall haunted?" + +"Yes; haunted by the spirit of mischief in the shape of Rose Danton, +nothing worse." + +"But this is the second time. There was old Margery, and now Agnes +Darling. There must be something in it!" + +"Of course there is--an over-excited imagination. Miss Darling has seen +a tall tree covered with snow waving in the moonlight, and has gone into +fainting fits. Now, my dear Miss, don't hold me captive any longer; for, +trying as it is, I really must leave you." + +Rose dropped his arm. + +"Yes, go at once. Never mind me; I am going in search of Kate." + +It took some time to find Kate. When found, she was dancing with a +red-coated officer, and Rose had to wait until the dance was over. + +She made her way to her sister's side immediately. Miss Danton turned to +her with a brilliant smile, that faded at the first glance. + +"How pale you are, Rose! What is it?" + +"Am I pale?" said Rose, carelessly; "the heat, I dare-say. Do you know +Doctor Frank has gone?" + +"Gone! Where?" + +"To the Hall. Papa sent for him." + +"Papa? Oh, Rose--" + +"There! There is no occasion to be alarmed; papa is well enough; it is +Agnes Darling." + +"Agnes! What is the matter with Agnes?" + +"She has seen a ghost!" + +Kate stared--so did the young officer. + +"What did you say, Rose?" inquired Kate, wonderingly. + +"She--has--seen--a--ghost!" slowly repeated Rose; "as old Margery did +before her, you know; and, like Margery, has gone off into fits. Papa +sent for Doctor Frank, and he departed half an hour ago." + +Slowly out of Kate's face every trace of colour faded. She rose +abruptly, a frightened look in her blue eyes. + +"Rose, I must go home--I must see Agnes. Captain Grierson, will you be +kind enough to find Mr. Stanford and send him?" + +Captain Grierson hastened on his mission. Rose looked at her with wide +open eyes. + +"Go home--so early! Why, Kate, what are you thinking of?" + +"Of Agnes Darling. You can stay, if you like. Sir Ronald is your +escort." + +"Thank you. A charming escort he is, too--grimmer than old Time in the +primer. No; if you leave, so do I." + +Mr. Stanford sauntered up while she was speaking, and Rose drew back. + +"What is it, Kate? Grierson says you are going home." + +Kate's answer was an explanation. Mr. Reginald Stanford set up an +indecorous laugh. + +"A ghost! That's capital! Why did you not tell me before that Danton +Hall was haunted, Kate?" + +"I want to return immediately," was Kate's answer a little coldly. "I +must speak to Mr. Ponsonby and find Eeny. Tell Sir Ronald, please, and +hold yourself in readiness to attend us." + +She swept off with Rose to find their hostess. Mrs. Ponsonby's regrets +were unutterable, but Miss Danton was resolute. + +"How absurd, you know, Helen," she said, to her daughter, when they were +gone; "such nonsense about a sick seamstress." + +"I thought Kate Danton was proud," said Miss Helen. "That does not look +like it. I am not sorry she has gone, however, half the men in the room +were making idiots of themselves about her." + +Kate and Reginald Stanford returned as they had come, in the light +sleigh; and Sir Ronald, Rose and Eeny, in the carriage. Rose, wrapped in +her mantel, shrunk away in a corner, and never opened her lips. She +watched gloomily, and so did the baronet, the cutter flying past over +glittering snow, and Kate's sweet face, pale as the moonlight itself. + +Captain Danton met them in the entrance hall, his florid face less +cheery than usual. Kate came forward, her anxious inquiring eyes +speaking for her. + +"Better, my dear; much better," her father answered. "Doctor Frank works +miracles. Grace and he are with her; he has given her an opiate, and I +believe she is asleep." + +"But what is it, papa?" cried Rose. "Did she see a ghost!" + +"A ghost, my dear," said the Captain, chucking her under the chin. "You +girls are as silly as geese, and imagine you see anything you like. She +isn't able to tell what frightened her, poor little thing! Eunice is the +only one who seems to know anything at all about it." + +"And what does Eunice say?" asked Kate. + +"Why," said Captain Danton, "it seems Eunice and Agnes were to sit up +for you two young ladies, who are not able to take off your own clothes +yet, and they chose Rose's room so sit in. About two hours ago, Agnes +complained of toothache, and said she would go down stairs for some +painkiller that was in the sewing-room. Eunice, who was half-asleep, +remained where she was; and ten minutes after heard a scream that +frightened her out of her wits. We had all retired, but the night-lamp +was burning; and rushing out, she found Agnes leaning against the wall, +all white and trembling. The moment Eunice spoke to her, 'I saw his +ghost!' she said, in a choking whisper, and fell back in a dead faint in +Eunice's arms. I found her so when I came out, for Eunice cried lustily +for help, and Grace and all the servants were there in two minutes. We +did everything for her, but all in vain. She lay like one dead. Then +Grace proposed to send for her brother. We sent. He came, and brought +the dead to life." + +"An extraordinary tale," said Reginald Stanford. "When she came to life, +what did she say?" + +"Nothing. Doctor Frank gave her an opiate that soothed her and sent her +to sleep." + +As he spoke, Doctor Frank himself appeared, his calm face as +impenetrable as ever. + +"How is your patient, Doctor?" asked Kate. + +"Much better, Miss Kate. In a day or two we will have her all right, I +think. She is a nervous little creature, with an overstrung and highly +imaginative temperament. I wonder she has not seen ghosts long ago." + +"You are not thinking of leaving us," said Captain Danton. "No, no, I +won't hear of it. We can give you a bed and breakfast here equal to +anything down at the hotel, and it will save you a journey up to-morrow +morning. Is Grace with her yet?" + +"Yes, Grace insists on remaining till morning. There is no necessity, +though, for she will not awake." + +Kate gathered up the folds of her rich ball-dress, and ran up the +polished oaken stair, nodding adieu. Not to her own room, however, but +to that of the seamstress. + +The small chamber was dimly lighted by a lamp turned low. By the bedside +sat Grace, wrapped in a shawl; on the pillow lay the white face of Agnes +Darling, calm in her slumber, but colourless as the pillow itself. + +Kate bent over her, and Grace arose at her entrance. It was such a +contrast; the stately, beautiful girl, with jewelled flowers in her +hair, her costly robe trailing the carpetless floor, the perfume of her +dress and golden hair scenting the room, and the wan little creature, so +wasted and pale, lying asleep on the low bed. Her hands grasped the +bed-clothes in her slumber, and with every rise and fall of her breast, +rose and fell a little locket worn round her neck by a black cord. +Kate's fingers touched it lightly. + +"Poor soul!" she said; "poor little Agnes! Are you going to stay with +her until morning, Grace?" + +"Yes, Miss Danton." + +"I could not go to my room without seeing her; but now, there is no +necessity to linger. Good-morning." + +Miss Danton left the room. Grace sat down again, and looked at the +locket curiously. + +"I should like to open that and see whose picture it contains, and +yet--" + +She looked a little ashamed, and drew back the hand that touched it. But +curiosity--woman's intensest passion--was not to be resisted. + +"What harm can it be?" she thought. "She will never know." + +She lifted the locket, lightly touched the spring, and it flew open. It +contained more than a picture, although there was a picture of a +handsome, boyish face that somehow had to Grace a familiar look. A slip +of folded paper, a plain gold ring, and a tress of brown, curly hair +dropped out. Grace opened the little slip of paper, and read it with an +utterly confounded face. It was partly written and partly printed, and +was the marriage certificate of Agnes Grant and Henry Darling. It bore +date New York, two years before. + +Grace dropped the paper astounded. Miss Agnes Darling was a married +woman, then, and, childish as she looked, had been so for two years. +What were her reasons for denying it, and where was Henry Darling--dead +or deserted? + +She look at the pictured face again. Very good-looking, but very +youthful and irresolute. Whom had she ever seen that looked like that? +Some one, surely, for it was as familiar as her own in the glass; but +who, or where, or when, was all densest mystery. + +There was an uneasy movement of the sleeper. Grace, feeling guilty, put +back hastily the tress of hair--his, no doubt--the ring--a wedding-ring, +of course--and the marriage certificate. She closed the locket, and laid +it back on the fluttering heart. Poor little pale Agnes! that great +trouble of woman's life, loving and losing, had come to her then +already. + +In the cold, gray dawn of the early morning, Grace resigned her office +to Babette, the housemaid, and sought her room. Agnes Darling still +slept--the merciful sleep Doctor Frank's opiate had given her. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A GAME FOR TWO TO PLAY AT. + + +A cold, raw, rainy, dismal morning--the sky black and hopeless of +sunshine, the long bleak blasts complaining around the old house, and +rattling ghostily the skeleton trees. The rain was more sleet than rain; +for it froze as it fell, and clattered noisily against the blurred +window-glass. A morning for hot coffee and muffins, and roaring fires +and newspapers and easy-chairs, and in which you would not have the +heart to turn your enemy's dog from the door. + +Doctor Danton stood this wild and wintry February morning at his chamber +window, looking out absently at the slanting sleet, not thinking of +it--not thinking of the pale blank of wet mist shrouding the distant +fields and marshes, and village and river, but of something that made +him knit his brows in perplexed, reflection. + +"What was it she saw last, night?" he mused. "No spectre of the +imagination, and no bona-fide ghost. Old Margery saw something, and now +Agnes. I wonder--" + +He stopped, there was a knock at the door. + +"Come in," he said, and Grace entered. + +"I did not know you were up," said Grace. "But it is very fortunate as +it happens. I have just been to Miss Darling's room, and she is crying +out for you in the wildest Manner." + +"Ah!" said her brother, rising, "has she been awake long?" + +"Nearly an hour, Babette tells me, and all that time she has been +frantically calling for you. Her manner is quite frenzied, and I fear--" + +"What do you fear?" + +"That last night's fright has disordered her reason." + +"Heaven forbid! I will go to her at once." + +He left the room as he spoke, and ran upstairs to the chamber of the +seamstress. The gray morning twilight stole drearily through the closed +shutter, and the lamp burned dim and dismal still. Babette sat by the +bedside trying to soothe her charge in very bad English, and evidently +but with little success. The bed-clothes had been tossed off, the little +thin hands closed and unclosed in them--the great dark eyes were wide +and wild--the black hair all tossed and disordered on the pillow. + +Babette rose precipitately at the Doctor's entrance. + +"Here's the Doctor, Mees Darling. May I go now, Monsieur?" + +"Yes, you may go; but remain outside, in case I should, want you." + +He shut the door on Babette, and took her place by the sick girl's +bedside. + +Babette lingered in the passage, staring at the stormy morning, and +gaping forlornly. + +"I hope he won't be long," she thought. "I want to go to bed." + +Dr. Frank, however, was long. Eight struck somewhere in the house; that +was half an hour, and there was no sign of his coming. Babette shivered +under her shawl, and looked more drearily than ever at the lashing sleet. + +Nine--another hour, and no sign from the sick-room, yet. Babette rose up +in desperation, but just at that moment Grace came upstairs. + +"You here, Babette!" she said, surprised. "Who is with Agnes?" + +"The Doctor, Mademoiselle! he told me to wait until he came out, and I +have waited, and I am too sleepy to wait any longer. May I go, +Mademoiselle?" + +"Yes, go," said Grace, "I will take your place." + +Babette departed with alacrity, and Grace sat down by the storm-beaten +window. She listened for some sound from the sick-room, but none +rewarded her. Nothing was to be heard but the storm, without, and now +and then the opening and shutting of some door within. + +Another half-hour. Then the door of the seamstress's room opened, and +her brother came out. How pale he was--paler and graver than his sister +ever remembered seeing him before. + +"Well," she said, rising, "how is your patient?" + +"Better," he briefly answered, "very much better." + +"I thought she was worse, you look so pale." + +"Pale, do I? This dismal morning, I suppose. Grace," he said, lowering +his tone and looking at her fixedly, "whose ghost did old Margery say +she saw?" + +"Whose ghost! What a question!" + +"Answer it!" + +"Don't be so imperative, please. Master Harry's ghost, she said." + +"And Master Harry is Captain Danton's son?" + +"Was--he is dead now." + +"Yes, yes! he was killed in New York, I believe." + +"So they say. The family never speak of him. He was the black sheep of +the flock, you know. But why do you ask? Was it his ghost Agnes saw?" + +"Nonsense! Of course not! What should she know of Captain Danton's son? +Some one--one of the servants probably--came up the stairs and +frightened her out of her nervous wits. I have been trying to talk a +little sense into her foolish head these two hours." + +"And have you succeeded?" + +"Partly. But don't ask her any questions on the subject; and don't let +Miss Danton or any one who may visit her ask any questions. It upsets +her, and I won't be answerable for the consequences." + +"It is very strange," said Grace, looking at her brother intently, "very +strange that old Margery and Agnes Darling should both see an apparition +in this house. There must be something in it." + +"Of course there is--didn't I tell you so--an overheated imagination. I +have known more extraordinary optical illusions than that in my time. +How is Margery--better again?" + +"No, indeed. She will never get over her scare in this world. She keeps +a light in her room all night, and makes one of the maids sleep with +her, and won't be alone a moment, night or day." + +"Ah!" said Doctor Frank, with professional phlegm. "Of course! She is an +old woman, and we could hardly expect anything else. Does she talk much +of the ghost?" + +"No. The slightest allusion to the subject agitates her for the whole +day. No one dare mention ghosts in Margery's presence." + +"I hope you will all be equally discreet with Miss Darling. Time will +wear away the hallucination, if you women only hold your tongues. I must +caution Rose, who has an unfortunate habit of letting out whatever comes +uppermost. Ah! here she is!" + +"Were you talking of me?" inquired Miss Rose, tripping upstairs, fresh +and pretty, in a blue merino morning dress, with soft white trimmings. + +"Do I ever talk of any one else?" said Dr. Frank. + +"Pooh! How is Agnes Darling?" + +"As well as can be expected, after seeing a ghost!" + +"Did she see a ghost, though?" asked Rose, opening her hazel eyes. + +"Of course she did; and my advice to you, Miss Rose, is to go to bed +every night at dark, and to sleep immediately, with your head covered up +in the bed-clothes, or you may happen to see one too." + +"Thank you for your advice, which I don't want and won't take. Whose +ghost did she see?" + +"The ghost of Hamlet's father, perhaps--she doesn't know; before she +could take a second look it vanished in a cloud of blue flame, and she +swooned away!" + +"Doctor Danton," said Rose, sharply, "I wish you would talk sense. I'll +go and ask Agnes herself about it. I want to get at the bottom of this +affair." + +"A very laudable desire, which I regret being obliged to frustrate," +said Doctor Danton, placing himself between her and the door. + +"You!" cried Rose, drawing herself up. "What do you mean, sir?" + +"As Miss Agnes Darling's medical attendant, my dear Miss Rose,--deeply +as it wounds me to refuse your slightest request--I really must forbid +any step of the kind. The consequences might be serious." + +"And I am not to see her if I choose?" demanded Rose, her eyes quite +flashing. + +"Certainly you are to see her, and to fetch her jelly, and chicken, and +toast, and tea, if you will; but you are not to speak of the ghost. That +blood-curdling subject is absolutely tabooed in the sick-room, unless--" + +"Unless what?" inquired Rose, angrily. + +"Unless you want to make a maniac of her. I am serious in this; you must +not allude in the remotest way to the cause of her illness when you +visit her, or you may regret your indiscretion while you live." + +He spoke with a gravity that showed that he was in earnest. Rose +shrugged her shoulders impatiently, and walked to Agnes' door. Grace +followed at a sign from her brother, who ran down stairs. + +The sick girl was not asleep--she lay with her eyes wide open, staring +vacantly at the white wall. She looked at them, when they entered, with +a half-frightened, half-inquiring gaze. + +"Are you better, Agnes?" asked Rose, looking down at the colourless +face. + +"Oh, yes!" + +She answered nervously, her fingers twisting in and out of her +bed-clothes--her eyes wandering uneasily from one to the other. + +"Wouldn't you like something to eat?" inquired Rose, not knowing what +else to say. + +"Oh, no!" + +"You had better have some tea," said Grace decisively. "It will do you +good. I will fetch you up some presently. Rose, there is the breakfast +bell." + +Rose, with a parting nod to Agnes, went off, very much disappointed, and +in high dudgeon with Doctor Frank for not letting her cross-examine the +seamstress on the subject of the ghost. + +"The ghost she saw must have been Mr. Richards returning from his +midnight stroll," thought Rose, shrewdly. "My opinion is, he is the only +ghost in Danton Hall." + +There was very little allusion made to the affair of last night, at the +breakfast-table. It seemed to be tacitly understood that the subject was +disagreeable; and beyond an inquiry of the Doctor, "How is your patient +this morning?" nothing was said. But all felt vaguely there was some +mystery. Doctor Frank's theory of optical illusion satisfied no +one--there was something at the bottom that they did not understand. + +The stormy day grew stormier as it wore on. Rose sat down at the +drawing-room piano after breakfast, and tried to while away the forlorn +morning with music. Kate was there, trying to work off a bad headache +with a complicated piece of embroidery and a conversation with Mr. +Reginald Stanford. That gentleman sat on an ottoman at her feet, sorting +silks, and beads, and Berlin wool, and Rose was above casting even a +glance at them. Captain Danton, Sir Ronald, and the Doctor were playing +billiards at the other end of the rambling old house. And upstairs poor +Agnes Darling tossed feverishly on her hot pillow, and moaned, and slept +fitfully, and murmured a name in her troubled sleep, and Grace watching +her, and listening, heard the name "Harry." + +Some of the gloom of the wretched day seemed to play on Rose's spirits. +She sang all the melancholy songs she knew, in a mournful, minor key, +until the conversation of the other two ceased, and they felt as dismal +as herself. + +"Rose, don't!" Kate cried out in desperation at length. "Your songs are +enough to give one the horrors. Here is Reginald with a face as gloomy +as the day." + +Rose got up in displeased silence, closed the piano, and walked to the +door. + +"Pray don't!" said Stanford; "don't leave us. Kate and I have nothing +more to say to one another, and I have a thousand things to say to you." + +"You must defer them, I fear," replied Rose. "Kate will raise your +spirits with more enlivening music when I am gone." + +"A good idea," said Kate's lover, when the door closed; "come, my dear +girl, give us something a little less depressing than that we have just +been favoured with." + +"How odd," said Kate languidly, "that Rose will not like you. I cannot +understand it." + +"Neither can I," replied Mr. Stanford; "but since the gods have willed +it so, why, there is nothing for it but resignation. Here is 'Through +the woods, through the woods, follow and find me.' Sing that." + +Kate essayed, but failed. Her headache was worse, and singing an +impossibility. + +"I am afraid I must lie down," she said. "I am half blind with the pain. +You must seek refuge in the billiard-room, Reginald, while I go +upstairs." + +Mr. Stanford expressed his regrets, kissed her hand--he was very calm +and decorous with his stately lady-love--and let her go. + +"I wish Rose had stayed," he thought; "poor little girl! how miserable +she does look sometimes. I am afraid I have not acted quite right; and I +don't know that I am not going to make a scoundrel of myself; but how is +a fellow to help it? Kate's too beautiful and too perfect for mortal +man; and I am very mortal, indeed, and should feel uncomfortable married +to perfection." + +He walked to the curtained recess of the drawing-room, where Rose had +one morning battled with her despair, and threw himself down among the +pillows of the lounge. Those very pillows whereon his handsome head +rested had been soaked in Rose's tears, shed for his sweet sake--but how +was he to know that? It was such a cozy little nook, so still and dusky, +and shut in, that Mr. Stanford, whose troubles did not prey on him very +profoundly, closed his dark eyes, and went asleep in five minutes. + +And sleeping, Rose found him. Going to her room to read, she remembered +she had left her book on the sofa in the recess, and ran down stairs +again to get it. Entering the little room from the hall, she beheld Mr. +Stanford asleep, his head on his arm, his handsome face as perfect as +something carved in marble, in its deep repose. + +Rose stood still--any one might have stood and looked, and admired that +picture, but not as she admired. Rose was in love with him--hopelessly, +you know, therefore the more deeply. All the love that pride had tried, +and tried in vain, to crush, rose in desperation stronger than ever +within her. If he had not been her sister's betrothed, who could say +what might not have been? If that sister was one degree less beautiful +and accomplished, who could say what still might be? She had been such a +spoiled child all her life, getting whatever she wanted for the asking, +that it was very hard she should be refused now the highest boon she had +ever craved--Mr. Reginald Stanford. + +Did some mesmeric rapport tell him in his sleep she was there? Perhaps +so, for without noise, or cause, his eyes opened and fixed on Rose's +flushed and troubled face. She started away with a confused exclamation, +but Stanford, stretching out his arm, caught and held her fast. + +"Don't run away, Rose," he said, "How long have you been here? How long +have I been asleep?" + +"I don't know," said Rose, confusedly: "I came here for a book a moment +ago only. Let me go, Mr. Stanford." + +"Let you go? Surely not. Come, sit down here beside me, Rose. I have +fifty things to say to you." + +"You have nothing to say to me--nothing I wish to hear. Please let me +go." + +"On your dignity again, Rose?" he said, smiling, and mesmerizing her +with his dark eyes; "when will you have done wearing your mask?" + +"My mask!" Rose echoed, flushing; "what do you mean, Mr. Stanford?" + +"Treating me like this! You don't want to leave me now, do you? You +don't hate me as much as you pretend. You act very well, my pretty +little Rose; but you don't mean it--you know you don't!" + +"Will you let me go, Mr. Stanford?" haughtily. + +"No, my dear; certainly not. I don't get the chance of _tęte-ŕ-tęte_ +with you so often that I should resign the priceless privilege at a +word. We used to be good friends, Rose; why can't we be good friends +again?" + +"Used to be!" Rose echoed; and then her voice failed her. All her love +and her wounded pride rose in her throat and choked her. + +Reginald Stanford drew her closer to him, and tried to see the averted +face. + +"Won't you forgive me, Rose? I didn't behave well, I know; but I liked +you so much. Won't you forgive me?" + +A passionate outburst of tears, that would no longer be restrained, +answered him. + +"Oh! how could you do it? How could you do it? How could you deceive me +so?" sobbed Rose. + +Stanford drew her closer still. + +"Deceive you, my darling! How did I deceive you? Tell me, Rose, and +don't cry!" + +"You said--you said your name was Reinecourt, and it wasn't; and I +didn't know you were Kate's lover, or I never would have--would +have--oh! how could you do it?" + +"My dear little girl, I told you the truth. My name is Reinecourt." + +Rose looked up indignantly. + +"Reginald Reinecourt Stanford is my name; and the reason I only gave you +a third of it was, as I said before, because I liked you so much. You +know, my dear little Rose, if I had told you that day on the ice my name +was Reginald Stanford, you would have gone straight to the Hall, told +the news, and had me brought here at once. By that proceeding I should +have seen very little of you, of course. Don't you see?" + +"Ye-e-e-s," very falteringly. + +"I looked up that day from the ice," continued Stanford, "and saw such a +dear little curly-headed, bright-eyed, rose-cheeked fairy, that--no, I +can't tell you how I felt at the sight. I gave you my middle name, and +you acted the Good Samaritan to the wounded stranger--came to see me +every day, and made that sprained ankle the greatest boon of my life!" + +"Mr. Stanford--" + +"Call me Reginald." + +"I cannot. Let me go! What would Kate say?" + +"She will like it. She doesn't understand why you dislike me so much." + +He laughed as he said it. The laugh implied so much, that Rose started +up, colouring vividly. + +"This is wrong! I must go. Don't hold me, Mr. Stanford." + +"Reginald, if you please!" + +"I have no right to say Reginald." + +"Yes, you have a sister's right!" + +"Let me go!" said Rose, imperiously. "I ought not to be here." + +"I don't see why. It is very pleasant to have you here. You haven't told +me yet that you forgive me." + +"Of course I forgive you. It's of no consequence. Will you let me go, +Mr. Stanford?" + +"Don't be in such a hurry. I told you I had fifty things to--" + +He stopped short. The drawing-room door had opened, and Captain Danton's +voice could be heard talking to his two companions at billiards. + +"All deserted," said the Captain; "I thought we should find the girls +here. Come in. I dare-say somebody will be along presently." + +"Oh, let me go!" cried Rose, in dire alarm. "Papa may come in here. Oh, +pray--pray let me go!" + +"If I do, will you promise to be good friends with me in the future?" + +"Yes, yes! Let me go!" + +"And you forget and forgive the past?" + +"Yes--yes--yes! Anything, anything." + +Stanford, who had no more desire than Rose herself to be caught just +then by papa-in-law, released his captive, and Rose flew out into the +hall and upstairs faster than she had ever done before. + +How the four gentlemen got on alone in the drawing-room she never knew. +She kept her room all day, and took uncommon pains with her +dinner-toilet. She wore the blue glacé, in which she looked so charming, +and twisted some jeweled stars in her bright auburn hair. She looked at +herself in the glass, her eyes dancing, her cheeks flushed, her rosy +lips apart. + +"I am pretty," thought Rose. "I like my own looks better than I do +Kate's, and every one calls her beautiful. I suppose her eyes are +larger, and her nose more perfect, and her forehead higher; but it is +too pale and cold. Oh, if Reginald would only love me better than Kate!" + +She ran down-stairs as the last bell rang, eager and expectant, but only +to be disappointed. Grace was there; Eeny and Kate were there, and Sir +Ronald Keith; but where were the rest? + +"Where's papa?" said Rose, taking her seat. + +"Dining out," replied Kate, who looked pale and ill. "And Reginald and +Doctor Danton are with him. It is at Mr. Howard's. They drove off over +an hour ago." + +Rose's eyes fell and her colour faded. Until the meal was over, she +hardly opened her lips; and when it was concluded, she went back +immediately to her room. Where was the use of waiting when he would not +be there? + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE REVELATION. + + +Next morning, at breakfast, Captain Danton was back; but Reginald's +handsome face, and easy flow of conversation, were missing. George +Howard, it appeared, was going on a skating excursion some miles off, +that day, and had prevailed on Mr. Stanford to remain and accompany him. + +Rose felt about as desolate as if she had been shipwrecked on a desert +island. There was a pang of jealousy mingled with the desolation, too. +Emily Howard was a sparkling brunette, a coquette, an heiress, and a +belle. Was it the skating excursion or Emily's big black eyes that had +tempted him to linger? Perhaps Emily would go with them skating, and +Rose knew how charming piquant little Miss Howard was on skates. + +It was a miserable morning altogether, and Rose tormented herself in +true orthodox lover-like style. She roamed about the house aimlessly, +pulling out her watch perpetually to look at the hour, and sighing +drearily. She wondered at Kate, who sat so placidly playing some song +without words, with the Scotch baronet standing by the piano, absorbed. + +"What does she know of love?" thought Rose, contemptuously. "She is as +cold as a polar iceberg. She ought to marry that knight of the woeful +countenance beside her, and be my lady, and live in a castle, and eat +and sleep in velvet and rubies. It would just suit her." + +Doctor Danton came up in the course of the forenoon, to make a +professional call. His patient was better, calmer, less nervous, and +able to sit up in a rocking-chair, wrapped in a great shawl. Grace +persuaded him to stay to luncheon, and he did, and tried to win Miss +Rose out of the dismals, and got incontinently snubbed for his pains. + +But there was balm in Gilead for Rose. Just after luncheon a little +shell-like sleigh, with prancing ponies and jingling bells, whirled +musically up to the door. A pretty, blooming, black-eyed girl was its +sole occupant; and Rose, at the drawing-room window, ran out to meet +her. + +"My darling Emily!" cried Rose, kissing the young lady she had been +wishing at Jericho all day, "how glad I am to see you! Come in! You will +stay to dinner, won't you?" + +"No, dear," said Miss Howard, "I can't. I just came over for you; I am +alone, and want you to spend the evening. Don't say no; Mr. Stanford +will be home to dinner with George, and he will escort you back." + +"You pet!" cried Rose, with another rapturous kiss. "Just wait five +minutes while I run up and dress." + +Miss Howard was not very long detained. Rose was back, all ready, in +half an hour. + +"Would your sister come?" inquired Miss Howard, doubtfully, for she was +a good deal in awe of that tall majestic sister. + +"Who? Kate? Oh, she is out riding with Sir Ronald Keith. Never mind her; +we can have a better time by ourselves." + +The tiny sleigh dashed off with its fair occupants, and Rose's depressed +spirits went up to fever heat. It was the first of March, and March had +come in like a lamb--balmy, sunshiny, brilliant. Everybody looked at +them admiringly as the fairy sleigh and the two pretty girls flew +through the village, and thought, perhaps, what a fine thing it was to +be rich, and young, and handsome, and happy, like that. + +Miss Howard's home was about half a mile off, and a few minutes brought +them to it. + +The two girls passed the afternoon agreeably enough at the piano and +over new books, but both were longing for evening and the return of the +gentlemen. Miss Howard was only sixteen, and couldn't help admiring Mr. +Stanford, or wishing she were her brother George, and with him all day. + +The March day darkened slowly down. The sun fell low and dropped out of +sight behind the bright, frozen river, in a glory of crimson and purple. +The hues of the sunset died, the evening star shone steel-blue and +bright in the night-sky, and the two girls stood by the window watching +when the gentlemen returned. There was just light enough left to see +them plainly as they drew near the house, their skates slung over their +arms; but Mr. George Howard came in for very little of their regards. + +"Handsome fellow!" said Miss Howard, her eyes sparkling. + +"Who?" said Rose, carelessly, as if her heart was not beating time to +the word. "Reginald?" + +"Yes; he is the handsomest man I ever saw." + +Rose laughed--a rather forced laugh, though. + +"Don't fall in love with my handsome brother-in-law, Em. Kate won't like +it." + +"They are to be married next June, are they not?" asked Emily, not +noticing the insinuation, save by a slight colour, which the twilight +hid. + +"So they say." + +"They will be a splendid-looking pair. George and all the gentlemen say +that she is the only really beautiful woman they ever saw." + +"Tastes differ," said Rose with a shrug. "I don't think so. She is too +pale, and proud, and cold, and too far up in the clouds altogether. She +ought to go and be a nun; she would make a splendid lady-abbess." + +"She will make a splendid Mrs. Stanford." + +"Who?" said Mr. Stanford himself, sauntering in. "You, Miss Howard?" + +"No; another lady I know of. What kind of a time had you skating?" + +"Capital," replied her brother; "for an Englishman, Stanford knocks +everything. Hallo, Rose! who'd have thought it?" + +Rose emerged from the shadow of the window curtains, and shook hands +carelessly with Master George. + +"I drove over for her after you went," said his sister, "come, there's +the dinner-bell, and Mr. Stanford looks hungry." + +"And is hungry," said Mr. Stanford, giving her his arm. "I shall +astonish Mrs. Howard by my performance this evening." + +They were not a very large party--Mr. and Mrs. Howard, their son and +daughter, Mr. Stanford and Rose--but they were a very merry one. Mr. +Stanford had been in India once, three years ago, and told them +wonderful stories of tiger hunts, and Hindoo girls, and jungle +adventures, and Sepoy warfare, until he carried his audience away from +the frozen Canadian land to the burning sun and tropical splendours and +perils of far-off India. Then, after dinner, when Mr. Howard, Senior, +went to his library to write letters, and Mrs. Howard dozed in an +easy-chair by the fire, there was music, and sparkling chit-chat, racy +as the bright Moselle at dinner, and games at cards, and fortune-telling +by Mr. Howard, Junior; and it was twelve before Rose thought it +half-past ten. + +"I must go," said Rose, starting up. "I had no idea it was so late. I +must go at once." + +The two young ladies went upstairs for Miss Danton's wraps. When they +descended, the sleigh was waiting, and all went out together. The bright +March day had ended in a frosty, starlit, windless night. A tiny moon +glittered sparkling overhead, and silvering the snowy ground. + +"Oh, what a night!" cried Emily Howard. "You may talk about your blazing +India, Mr. Stanford, but I would not give our own dear snow-clad Canada +for the wealth of a thousand Indies. Good-night, darling Rose, and +pleasant dreams." + +Miss Howard kissed her. Mr. Howard came over, and made an attempt to do +the same. + +"Good-night, darling Rose, and dream of me." + +Rose's answer was a slap, and then Reginald was beside her, and they +were driving through the luminous dusk of the winter moonlight. + +"You may stop at the gate, my good fellow," said Mr. Stanford to the +driver; "the night is fine--we will walk the rest of the way--eh, Rose?" + +Rose's answer was a smile, and they were at the gates almost +immediately. Mr. Stanford drew her hand within his arm, and they +sauntered slowly, very slowly, up the dark, tree-shaded avenue. + +"How gloomy it is here!" said Rose, clinging to his arm with a delicious +little shiver; "and it is midnight, too. How frightened I should be +alone!" + +"Which means you are not frightened, being with me. Miss Rose, you are +delightful!" + +"Interpret it as you please. What should you say if the ghost were to +start out from these grim black trees and confront us?" + +"Say? Nothing. I would quietly faint in your arms. But this is not the +ghost's walk. Wasn't it in the tamarack avenue old Margery saw it?" + +"Let us go there!" + +"It is too late," said Rose. + +"No it is not. There is something delightfully novel in promenading with +a young lady at the witching hour of midnight, when graveyards yawn, and +gibbering ghosts in winding-sheets cut up cantrips before high heaven. +Come." + +"But Mr. Stanford--" + +"Reginald, I tell you. You promised, you know." + +"But really Reginald, it is too late. What if we were seen?" + +"Nonsense! Who is to see us! And if they do, haven't brothers and +sisters a right to walk at midnight as well as noonday if they choose? +Besides, we may see the spectre of Danton Hall, and I would give a +month's pay for the sight any time." + +They entered the tamarack walk as he spoke--bright enough at the +entrance, where the starlight streamed in, but in the very blackness of +darkness farther down. + +"How horribly dismal!" cried Rose, clinging to him more closely than +ever. "A murder might be committed here, and no one be the wiser." + +"A fit place for a ghostly promenade. Spectre of Danton, appear! Hist! +What is that?" + +Rose barely suppressed a shriek. He put his hand over her mouth, and +drew her silently into the shadow. + +As if his mocking words had evoked them, two figures entered the +tamarack walk as he spoke. + +The starlight showed them plainly--a man and a woman--the woman wrapped +in a shawl, leaning on the man's arm, and both walking very slowly, +talking earnestly. + +"No ghosts those," whispered Reginald Stanford. "Be quiet, Rose; we are +in for an adventure." + +"I ought to know that woman's figure," said Rose, in the same low tone. +"Look! Don't you?" + +"By--George! It can't be--Kate!" + +"It is Kate; and who is the man, and what does it mean?" + +Now Rose, maliciously asking the question, knew in her heart the man was +Mr. Richards. She did not comprehend, of course, but she knew it must be +all right; for Kate walked with him there under her father's sanction. + +Mr. Stanford made no reply; he was staring like one who cannot believe +his eyes. + +Kate's face shown in profile was plainly visible as they drew nearer. +The man's, shrouded by coat-collar and peaked cap, was all hidden, save +a well-shaped nose. + +"It is Kate," repeated Mr. Stanford, blankly. "And what does it mean?" + +"Hush-sh!" whispered Rose; "they will hear you." + +She drew him back softly. The two advancing figures were so very near +now that their words could be heard. It was Kate's soft voice that was +speaking. + +"Patience, dear," she was saying; "patience a little longer yet." + +"Patience!" cried the man, passionately. "Haven't I been patient? +Haven't I waited and waited, eating my heart out in solitude, and +loneliness, and misery? But for your love, Kate, your undying love and +faith in me--I should long ago have gone mad!" + +They passed out of hearing with the last words. Reginald Stanford stood +petrified; even Rose was desperately startled by the desperate words. + +"Take me away, Reginald," she said trembling. "Oh, let us go before they +come back." + +Her voice aroused him, and he looked down at her with a face as white as +the frozen snow. + +"You heard him?" he said. "You heard her? What does it mean?" + +"I don't know. I am frightened. Oh, let us go!" + +Too late! Kate and her companion had reached the end of the tamarack +walk, and were returning. As they drew near, she was speaking; again the +two listeners in the darkness heard her words. + +"Don't despair," she said earnestly. "Oh, my darling, never despair! +Come what will, I shall always love you--always trust you--always--" + +They passed out of hearing again--out of the dark into the lighted end +of the walk, and did not return. + +Reginald and Rose waited for a quarter of an hour, but they had +disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared. + +"Take me in," reiterated Rose, shivering. "I am nearly frozen." + +He turned with her up the walk, never speaking a word, very pale in the +light of the stars. No one was visible as they left the walk; all around +the house and grounds was hushed and still. The house door was locked, +but not bolted. Mr. Stanford opened it with a night-key, and they +entered, and went upstairs, still in silence. Rose reached her room +first, and paused with her hand on the handle of the door. + +"Good-night," she said shyly and wistfully. + +"Good-night," he answered, briefly, and was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +ONE MYSTERY CLEARED UP. + + +The fire burned low in Rose's pretty room, and the lamp was dim on the +table. The window-curtains were closed, and the sheets of the little +low, white bed turned down, the easy chair was before the hearth, and +everything was the picture of comfort. She flung off her wrappings on +the carpet, and sat down in the easy chair, and looked into the glowing +cinders, lost in perplexed thought. + +What would be the result of that night's adventure? Reginald Stanford, +good-natured and nonchalant, was yet proud. She had seen his face change +in the starlight, as once she had hardly thought it possible that +ever-laughing face could change; she had seen it cold and fixed as +stone. How would he act towards a lady, plighted to be his wife, and yet +who took midnight rambles with another man? Would the engagement be +broken off, and would he leave Canada forever in disgust? Or would he, +forsaking Kate, turn to Kate's younger sister for love and consolation? + +Rose's heart throbbed, and her face grew hot in the solitude of her +chamber, at the thought. He would demand an explanation, of course; +would it be haughtily refused by that haughty sister, or would the +mystery of Mr. Richards be opened for him? + +A clock down-stairs struck two. Rose remembered that late watching +involved pale cheeks and dull eyes, and got up, said her prayers with +sleepy devotion, and went to bed. + +The sunlight of another bright March day flooded her room when she awoke +from a troubled dream of Mr. Richards. It was only seven o'clock, but +she arose, dressed rapidly, and, before eight, opened the dining-room +door. + +Early as the hour was, the apartment was occupied. Grace sat at one of +the windows, braiding elaborately an apron, and Captain Danton stood +beside her, looking on. Grace glanced up, her colour heightening at +Rose's entrance. + +"Good morning, Miss Rose," said her father. "Early to bed and early to +rise, eh? When did you take to getting up betimes?" + +"Good morning, papa. I didn't feel sleepy, and so thought I would come +down." + +"What time did you get home last night?" + +"I left a little after twelve." + +"Did you enjoy yourself, my dear?" + +"Yes, papa." + +"Reginald was with you?" + +"Yes, papa." + +"It's all right, I suppose," said her father, pinching her blooming +cheek; "but if I were Kate, I wouldn't allow it. Young man are +changeable as chameleons, and these pink cheeks are tempting." + +The pink cheeks turned guiltily scarlet at the words. Grace, looking up +from her work, saw the tell-tale flush; but Captain Danton, going over +to the fire to read the morning paper, said nothing. + +Rose stood listlessly in her father's place, looking out of the window. +The wintry landscape, all glittering in the glorious sunshine, was very +bright; but the dreamy, hazel eyes were not looking at it. + +"Rose!" said Grace suddenly, "when did you hear from Ottawa?" + +Rose turned to her, roused from her dreaming. + +"What did you say?" + +"When did you hear from Ottawa--from M. Jules La Touche?" + +Again the colour deepened in Rose's face, and an angry light shone in +her eyes. + +"What do you want to know for?" + +"Because I want to know. That's reason enough, is it not?" replied +Grace, sewing away placidly. + +"I don't see that it's any affair of yours, Mistress Grace. Jules La +Touche is a nuisance!" + +"Oh, is he? He wasn't a month or two ago. Whom have you fallen in love +with now, Rose?" + +"It's no business of yours," said Rose angrily. + +"But if I choose to make it my business, my dear, sweet-tempered Rose, +what then? Do tell me the name of the last lucky man? I am dying to +know." + +"Die, then, for you won't know." + +"Suppose I know already." + +"What?" + +"It's not Mr. Stanford, is it?" + +Rose gave a gasp--in the suddenness of the surprise, colouring crimson. +Grace saw it all, as she placidly threaded her needle. + +"I wouldn't if I were you," she said quietly. "It's of no use, Rose. +Kate is handsomer than you are; and it will only be the old comedy of +'Love's Labour Lost' over again." + +"Grace Danton, what do you mean?" + +"Now, don't get excited, Rose, and don't raise your voice. Your father +might hear you, and that would not be pleasant. It is plain enough. Mr. +Stanford is very handsome, and very fascinating, and very hard to +resist, I dare say; but, still, he must be resisted. Mr. La Touche is a +very estimable young man, I have no doubt, and of a highly respectable +family; and, very likely, will make you an excellent husband. If I were +you, I would ask my papa to let me go on another visit to Ottawa, and +remain, say, until the end of May. It would do you good, I am sure." + +Rose listened to this harangue, her eyes flashing. + +"And if I were you, Miss Grace Danton, I would keep my advice until it +was asked. Be so good for the future, as to mind your own business, +attend to your housekeeping, and let other people's love affairs alone." + +With which Rose sailed stormily off, with very red cheeks, and very +bright, angry eyes, and sought refuge in a book. + +Grace, perfectly unmoved, quite used to Rose's temper, sewed serenely +on, and waited for the rest of the family to appear. + +Eeny was the next to enter, then came Sir Ronald Keith, who took a chair +opposite Captain Danton, and buried himself in another paper. To him, in +Kate's absence, the room was empty. + +The breakfast bell was ringing when that young lady appeared, beautiful +and bright as the sunny morning, in flowing white cashmere, belted with +blue, and her lovely golden hair twisted in a coronet of amber braids +round her head. She came over to where Rose sat, sulky and silent, and +kissed her. + +"_Bon jour, ma soeur!_ How do you feel after last night!" + +"Very well," said Rose, not looking at her. + +"Reginald came home with you?" smiled Kate, toying with Rose's pretty +curls. + +"Yes," she said, uneasily. + +"I am glad. I am so glad that you and he are friends at last." + +Rose fidgeted more uneasily still, and said nothing. + +"Why was it you didn't like him?" said Kate, coaxingly. "Tell me, my +dear." + +"I don't know. I liked him well enough," replied Rose, ungraciously. "He +was a stranger to me." + +"My darling, he will be your brother." + +Rose fixed her eyes sullenly on her book. + +"You will come to England with us, won't you, Rose--dear old +England--and my pretty sister may be my lady yet?" + +The door opened again. Mr. Stanford came in. + +Rose glanced up shyly. + +His face was unusually grave and pale; but all were taking their places, +and in the bustle no one noticed it. He did not look at Kate, who saw, +with love's quickness, that something was wrong. + +All through breakfast Mr. Stanford was very silent, for him. When he did +talk, it was to Captain Danton--seldom to any of the ladies. + +Grace watched him, wonderingly; Rose watched him furtively, and Kate's +morning appetite was effectually taken away. + +The meal ended, the family dispersed. + +The Captain went to his study, Sir Ronald mounted and rode off, Grace +went away to attend to her housekeeping affairs, Eeny to her studies, +and Rose hurried up to her room. + +The lovers were left alone. Kate took her embroidery. Mr. Stanford was +immersed in the paper Captain Danton had lately laid down. There was a +prolonged silence, during which the lady worked, and the gentleman read, +as if their lives depended on it. + +She lifted her eyes from her embroidery to glance his way, and found him +looking at her steadfastly--gravely. + +"What is it, Reginald?" she exclaimed, impatiently. "What is the matter +with you this morning?" + +"I am wondering!" said Stanford, gravely. + +"Wondering?" + +"Yes; if the old adage about seeing being believing is true." + +"I don't understand," said Kate, a little haughtily. + +Stanford laid down his paper, came over to where she sat, and took a +chair near her. + +"Something extraordinary has occurred, Kate, which I cannot comprehend. +Shall I tell you what it is?" + +"If you please." + +"It was last night, then. You know I spent the day and evening with the +Howards? It was late--past twelve, when I escorted Rose home; but the +night was fine, and tempted me to linger still longer. I turned down the +tamarack walk--" + +He paused. + +Kate's work had dropped in her lap, with a faint cry of dismay. + +"I had reached the lower end of the avenue," continued Reginald +Stanford, "and was turning, when I saw two persons--a man and a +woman--enter. 'Who can they be, and what can they be about here at this +hour?' I thought, and I stood still to watch. They came nearer. I saw in +the starlight her woman's face. I heard in the stillness her words. She +was telling the man how much she loved him, how much she should always +love him, and then they were out of sight and hearing. Kate, was that +woman you?" + +She sat looking at him, her blue eyes dilated, her lips apart, her hands +clasped, in a sort of trance of terror. + +"Was it you, Kate?" repeated her lover. "Am I to believe my eyes?" + +She roused herself to speak by an effort. + +"Oh, Reginald!" she cried, "what have you done! Why, why did you go +there?" + +There was dismay in her tone, consternation in her face, but nothing +else. No shame, no guilt, no confusion--nothing but that look of grief +and regret. + +A conviction that had possessed him all along that it was all right, +somehow or other, became stronger than ever now; but his face did not +show it--perhaps, unconsciously, in his secret heart he was hoping it +would not be all right. + +"Perhaps I was unfortunate in going there," he said, coldly; "but I +assure you I had very little idea of what I was to see and hear. Having +heard, and having seen, I am afraid I must insist on an explanation." + +"Which I cannot give you," said Kate, her colour rising, and looking +steadfastly in his dark eyes. + +"You cannot give me!" said Reginald, haughtily. "Do I understand you +rightly, Kate?" + +She laid her hand on his, with a gentle, caressing touch, and bent +forward. She loved him too deeply and tenderly to bear that cold, proud +tone. + +"We have never quarrelled yet, Reginald," she said, sweetly. "Let us not +quarrel now. I cannot give you the explanation you ask; but papa shall." + +He lifted the beautiful hand to his lips, feeling somehow, that he was +unworthy to touch the hem of her garment. + +"You are an angel, Kate--incapable of doing wrong. I ought to be content +without an explanation, knowing you as I do; but--" + +"But you must have one, nevertheless. Reginald, I am sorry you saw me +last night." + +He looked at her, hardly knowing what to say. She was gazing sadly out +at the sunny prospect. + +"Poor fellow!" she said, half to herself, "poor fellow! Those midnight +walks are almost all the comfort he has in this world, and now he will +be afraid to venture out any more." + +Still Stanford sat silent. + +Kate smiled at him and put away her work. + +"Wait for me here," she said, rising. "Papa is in his study. I will +speak to him." + +She left the room. Stanford sat and waited, and felt more uncomfortable +than he had ever felt in his life. He was curious, too. What family +mystery was about to be revealed to him? What secret was this hidden in +Danton Hall? + +"I have heard there is a skeleton in every house," he thought; "but I +never dreamed there was one hidden away in this romantic old mansion. +Perhaps I have seen the ghost of Danton Hall, as well as the rest. How +calmly Kate took it!--No sign of guilt or wrong-doing in her face. If I +ever turn out a villain, there will be no excuse for my villainy on her +part." + +Kate was absent nearly half an hour, but it seemed a little century to +the impatient waiter. When she entered, there were traces of tears on +her face, but her manner was quite calm. + +"Papa is waiting for you," she said, "in his study." + +He rose up, walked to the door, and stood there, irresolute. + +"Where shall I find you when I return?" + +"Here." + +She said it softly and a little sadly. Stanford crossed to where she +stood, and took her in his arms--a very unusual proceeding for him--and +kissed her. + +"I have perfect confidence in your truth, my dearest," he said. "I am as +sure of your goodness and innocence before your father's explanation as +I can possibly be after it." + +There was a witness to this loving declaration that neither of them +bargained for. Rose, getting tired of her own company, had run +down-stairs to entertain herself with her music. Stanford had left the +door ajar when he returned; and Rose was just in time to see the embrace +and hear the tender speech. Just in time, too, to fly before Reginald +left the drawing-room and took his way to the study. + +Rose played no piano that morning; but, locked in her own room, made the +most of what she had heard and seen. Kate had the drawing-room to +herself, and sat, with clasped hands, looking out at the bright March +morning. The business of the day went on in the house, doors opened and +shut, Grace and Eeny came in and went away again, Doctor Frank came up +to see Agnes Darling, who was nearly well; and in the study, Reginald +Stanford was hearing the story of Miss Danton's midnight stroll. + +"You must have heard it sooner or later," Captain Danton said, "between +this and next June. As well now as any other time." + +Stanford bowed and waited. + +"You have not resided in this house for so many weeks without hearing of +the invalid upstairs, whom Ogden attends, who never appears in our +midst, and about whom all in the house are more or less curious?" + +"Mr. Richards?" said Stanford, surprised. + +"Yes, Mr. Richards; you have heard of him. It was Mr. Richards whom you +saw with Kate last night." + +Reginald Stanford dropped the paper-knife he had been drumming with, and +stared blankly at Captain Danton. + +"Mr. Richards!" he echoed; "Mr. Richards, who is too ill to leave his +room!" + +"Not now," said Captain Danton, calmly; "he was when he first came here. +You know what ailed Macbeth--a sickness that physicians could not cure. +That is Mr. Richards' complaint--a mind diseased. Remorse and terror are +that unhappy young man's ailments and jailers." + +There was a dead pause. Reginald Stanford, still "far wide," gazed at +his father-in-law-elect, and waited for something more satisfactory. + +"It is not a pleasant story to tell," Captain Danton went on, in a +subdued voice; "the story of a young man's folly, and madness, and +guilt; but it must be told. The man you saw last night is barely +twenty-three years of age, but all the promise of his life is gone; from +henceforth he can be nothing more than a hunted outcast, with the stain +of murder on his soul." + +"Good heavens!" exclaimed his hearer; "and Kate walks with such a man, +alone, and at midnight?" + +"Yes," said Kate's father, proudly "and will again, please Heaven. Poor +boy! poor, unfortunate boy! If Kate and I were to desert him, he would +be lost indeed." + +"This is all Greek to me," said Stanford, coldly. "If the man be what +you say, a murderer, nothing can excuse Miss Danton's conduct." + +"Listen, Reginald, my dear boy--almost my son; listen, and you will have +nothing but pity for the poor man upstairs, and deeper love for my noble +daughter. But, first, have I your word of honour that what I tell you +shall remain a secret?" + +Reginald bowed. + +"Three years ago, this young man, whose name is not Richards," began +Captain Danton, "ran away from home, and began life on his own account. +He had been a wilful, headstrong, passionate boy always, but yet loving +and generous. He fled from his friends, in a miserable hour of passion, +and never returned to them any more; for the sick, sinful, broken-down, +wretched man who returned was as different from the hot-headed, +impetuous, happy boy, as day differs from night. + +"He fled from home, and went to New York. He was, as I am, a sailor; he +had command of a vessel at the age of nineteen; but he gave up the sea, +and earned a livelihood in that city for some months by painting and +selling water-colour sketches, at which he was remarkably clever. +Gradually his downward course began. The wine-bottle, the gaming-table, +were the first milestones on the road to ruin. The gambling-halls +became, at length, his continual haunt. One day he was worth thousands; +the next, he did not possess a stiver. The excitement grew on him. He +became, before the end of the year, a confirmed and notorious gambler. + +"One night the crisis in his life came. He was at a Bowery theatre, to +see a Christmas pantomime. It was a fairy spectacle, and the stage was +crowded with ballet-girls. There was one among them, the loveliest +creature, it seemed to him, he had ever seen, with whom, in one mad +moment, he fell passionately in love. A friend of his, by name Furniss, +laughed at his raptures. 'Don't you know her, Harry?' said he; 'she +boards in the same house with you. She is a little grisette, a little +shop-girl, only hired to look pretty, standing there, while this fairy +pantomime lasts. You have seen her fifty times.' + +"Yes, he had seen her repeatedly. He remembered it when his friend +spoke, and he had never thought of her until now. The new infatuation +took possession of him, body and soul. He made her acquaintance next +morning, and found out she was, as his friend had said, a shop-girl. +What did he care; if she had been a rag-picker, it would have been all +one to this young madman. In a fortnight he proposed; in a month they +were married, and the third step on the road to ruin was taken. + +"Had she been a good woman--an earnest and faithful wife--she might have +made a new man of him, for he loved her with a passionate devotion that +was part of his hot-headed nature. But she was bad--as depraved as she +was fair--and brought his downward course to a tragical climax +frightfully soon. + +"Before her marriage, this wretched girl had had a lover--discarded for +a more handsome and impetuous wooer. But she had known him longest, and, +perhaps, loved him best. At all events, he resumed his visits after +marriage, as if nothing had happened. The young husband, full of love +and confidence, suspected no wrong. He sanctioned the visits and was on +most friendly terms with the discarded suitor. For some months it went +on, this underhand and infamous intimacy, and the wronged husband saw +nothing. It was Furniss who first opened his eyes to the truth, and a +terrible scene ensued. The husband refused passionately to believe a +word against the truth and purity of the wife he loved, and called his +friend a liar and a slanderer. + +"'Very well,' said Furniss, coolly, 'bluster as much as you please, dear +boy, and, when you are tired, go home. It is an hour earlier than you +generally return. He will hardly have left. If you find your pretty +little idol alone, and at her prayers, disbelieve me. If you find Mr. +Crosby enjoying a _tęte-ŕ-tęte_ with her, then come back and apologize +for these hard names.'" + +"He went off whistling, and the half-maddened husband sprang into a +passing stage and rode home. It was past ten, but he was generally at +the gambling-table each night until after one, and his wife had usually +retired ere his return. He went upstairs softly, taking off his boots, +and noiselessly opened the door. There sat his wife, and by her side, +talking earnestly, the discarded lover. He caught his last words as he +entered: + +"'You know how I have loved--you know how I do love, a thousand times +better than he! Why should we not fly at once. It is only torture to +both to remain longer.' + +"They were the last words the unfortunate man ever uttered. The gambler +had been drinking--let us hope the liquor and the jealous fury made him +for the time mad. There was the flash, the report of a pistol; Crosby, +his guilty wife's lover, uttered a wild yell, sprang up in the air, and +fell back shot through the heart." + +There was another dead pause. Captain Danton's steady voice momentarily +failed, and Reginald Stanford sat in horrified silence. + +"What came next," continued the Captain, his voice tremulous, "the +madman never knew. He has a vague remembrance of his wife's screams +filling the room with people; of his finding himself out somewhere under +the stars, and his brain and heart on fire. He has a dim remembrance of +buying a wig and whiskers and a suit of sailor's clothes next day, and +of wandering down among the docks in search of a ship. By one of those +mysterious dispensations of Providence that happen every day, the first +person he encountered on the dock was myself. I did not know him--how +could I in that disguise--but he knew me instantly, and spoke. I +recognized his voice, and took him on board my ship, and listened to the +story I have just told you. With me he was safe. Detectives were +scouring the city for the murderer; but I sailed for England next day, +and he was beyond their reach. On the passage he broke down; all the +weeks we were crossing the Atlantic he lay wandering and delirious in a +raging brain-fever. We all thought, Doctor and all, that he never would +reach the other side; but life won the hard victory, and he slowly grew +better. Kate returned, as you know, with me. She, too, heard the +tragical story, and had nothing but pity and prayer for the +tempest-tossed soul. + +"When we reached Canada, he was still weak and ill. I brought him here +under an assumed name, and he remains shut up in his rooms all day, and +only ventures out at night to breathe the fresh air. His mind has never +recovered its tone since that brain fever. He has become a monomaniac on +one subject, the dread of being discovered, and hanged for murder. +Nothing will tempt him from his solitude--nothing can induce him to +venture out, except at midnight, when all are asleep. He is the ghost +who frightened Margery and Agnes Darling; he is the man you saw with +Kate last in the grounds. He clings to her as he clings to no one else. +The only comfort left him in this lower world are these nightly walks +with her. She is the bravest, the best, the noblest of girls; she leaves +her warm room, her bed, for those cold midnight walks with that unhappy +and suffering man." + +Once again a pause. Reginald Stanford looked at Captain Danton's pale, +agitated face. + +"You have told me a terrible story," he said. "I can hardly blame this +man for what he has done; but what claim has he on you that you should +feel for him and screen him as you do? What claim has he on my future +wife that she should take these nightly walks with him unknown to me?" + +"The strongest claim that man can have," was the answer; "he is my +son--he is Kate's only brother!" + +"My God! Captain Danton, what are you saying?" + +"The truth," Captain Danton answered, in a broken voice. "Heaven help +me--Heaven pity him! The wretched man whose story you have heard--who +dwells a captive under this roof--is my only son, Henry Danton." + +He covered his face with his hands. Reginald Stanford sat confounded. + +"I never dreamed of this," he said aghast. "I thought your son was +dead!" + +"They all think so," said the Captain, without looking up; "but you know +the truth. Some day, before long, you shall visit him, when I have +prepared him for your coming. You understand all you heard and saw now?" + +"My dear sir!" exclaimed Stanford, grasping the elder man's hand; +"forgive me! No matter what I saw, I must have been mad to doubt Kate. +Your secret is as safe with me as with yourself. I shall leave you now; +I must see Kate." + +"Yes, poor child! Love her and trust her with your whole heart, +Reginald, for she is worthy." + +Reginald Stanford went out, still bewildered by all he had heard, and +returned to the drawing-room. Kate sat as he had left her, looking +dreamily out at the bright sky. + +"My dearest," he said bending over her, and touching the white brow: +"can you ever forgive me for doubting you? You are the truest, the best, +the bravest of women." + +She lifted her loving eyes, filled with tears, to the handsome face of +her betrothed. + +"To those I love I hope I am--and more. Before I grow false or +treacherous, I pray Heaven that I may die." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +HARRY DANTON. + + +A spring-like afternoon. The March sun bright in the Canadian sky, the +wind soft and genial, and a silvery mist hanging over the river and +marshes. Little floods from the fast-melting snow poured through the +grounds; the ice-frozen fish-pond was thawing out under the melting +influence of the sunshine, and rubber shoes and tucked-up skirts were +indispensable outdoor necessaries. + +Rose Danton, rubber-shoes, tucked-up skirts, and all, was trying to kill +time this pleasant afternoon, sauntering aimlessly through the wet +grounds. Very pretty and coquettish she looked, with that crimson +petticoat showing under her dark silk dress; that jockey-hat and feather +set jauntily on her sunshiny curls; but her prettiness was only vanity +and vexation of spirit to Rose. Where was the good of pink-tinted +cheeks, soft hazel eyes, auburn curls, and a trim little foot and ankle, +when there was no living thing near to see and admire? What was the use +of dressing beautifully and looking charming for a pack of insensible +mortals, to whom it was an old story and not worth thinking about? The +sunny March day had no reflection in Rose's face; "sulky" is the only +word that will tell you how she looked. Poor Rose! It was rather hard to +be hopelessly in love, to be getting worse every day, and find it all of +no use. It was a little too bad to have everything she wanted for +eighteen years, and then be denied the fascinating young officer she had +set her whole heart on. For Mr. Stanford was lost again. Just as she +thought she had her bird snared for certain--lo! it spread its dazzling +wings and soared up to the clouds, and farther out of reach than ever. +In plain English, he had gone back to the old love and was off with the +new, just when she felt most sure of him. + +A whole week had passed since that night in the tamarack walk, that +night when he had seemed so tender and lover-like, the matchless +deceiver! And he had hardly spoken half a dozen words to her. He was +back at the footstool of his first sovereign, he was the most devoted of +engaged men; Kate was queen of the hour, Rose was nowhere. It was +trying, it was cruel, it was shameful. Rose cried and scolded in the +seclusion of her maiden bower, and hated Mr. Stanford, or said she did; +and could have seen her beautiful elder sister in her winding-sheet with +all the pleasure in life. + +So, this sunny afternoon, Rose was wandering listlessly hither and +thither, thinking the ice would soon break upon the fish-pond if this +weather lasted, and suicide would be the easiest thing in the world. She +walked dismally round and round it, and wondered what Mr. Stanford would +say, and how he would feel when some day, in the cold, sad twilight, +they would carry her, white, and lifeless, and dripping before him, one +more unfortunate gone to her death! She could see herself--robed in +white, her face whiter than her dress, her pretty auburn curls all wet +and streaming around her--carried into the desolate house. She could see +Reginald Stanford recoil, turn deadly pale, his whole future happiness +blasted at the sight. She pictured him in his horrible remorse giving up +Kate, and becoming a wanderer and a broken-hearted man all the rest of +his life. There was a dismal delight in these musings; and Rose went +round and round the fish-pond, revelling, so to speak, in them. + +As her watch pointed to three, one of the stable-helpers came round from +the stables leading two horses. She knew them--one was Mr. Stanford's, +the other Kate's. A moment later, and Mr. Stanford and Kate appeared on +the front steps, "booted and spurred," and ready for their ride. The +Englishman helped his lady into the saddle, adjusted her long skirt, and +sprang lightly across his own steed. Rose would have given a good deal +to be miles away; but the fish-pond must be passed, and she, the "maiden +forlorn," must be seen. Kate gayly touched her plumed-hat; Kate's +cavalier bent to his saddle-bow, and then they were gone out of sight +among the budding trees. + +"Heartless, cold-blooded flirt!" thought the second Miss Danton, +apostrophizing the handsomest of his sex. "I hope his horse may run away +with him and break his neck!" + +But Rose did not mean this, and the ready tears were in her eyes the +next instant with pity for herself. + +"It's too bad of him--it's too bad to treat me so! He knows I love him, +he made me think he loved me; and now to go and act like this. I'll +never stay here and see him marry Kate! I'd rather die first! I will die +or do something! I'll run away and become an actress or a nun--I don't +care much which. They're both romantic, and they are what people always +do in such cases--at least I have read a great many novels where they +did!" mused Miss Danton, still making her circle round the fish-pond. + +Grace, calling from one of the windows to a servant passing below, +caused her to look towards the house, just in time to see something +white flutter from an open bedroom window on the breeze. The bedroom +regions ran all around the third story of Danton Hall--six in each +range. Mr. Stanford's chamber was in the front of the house, and it was +from Mr. Stanford's room the white object had fluttered. Rose watched it +as it alighted on a little unmelted snowbank, and, hurrying over, picked +it up. It was part of a letter--a sheet of note-paper torn in half, and +both sides closely written. It was in Reginald Stanford's hand and +without more ado (you will be shocked to hear it, though) Miss Rose +deliberately commenced reading it. It began abruptly with part of an +unfinished sentence. + + --"That you call me a villain! Perhaps I shall not be a villain, + after all. The angel with the auburn ringlets is as much an angel + as ever; but, Lauderdale, upon my soul, I don't want to do anything + wrong, if I can help it. If it is _kismit_, as the Turks say, my + fate, what can I do? What will be, will be; if auburn ringlets and + yellow-brown eyes are my destiny, what am I--the descendant of many + Stanfords--that I should resist? Nevertheless, if destiny minds its + own business and lets me alone, I'll come up to the mark like a + man. Kate is glorious; I always knew it, but never so much as now. + Something has happened recently--no matter what--that has elevated + her higher than ever in my estimation. There is something grand + about the girl--something too great and noble in that high-strung + nature of hers, for such a reprobate as I! This is _entre nous_, + though; if I tell you I am a reprobate, it is in confidence. I am a + lucky fellow, am I not, to have two of earth's angels to choose + from? And yet sometimes I wish I were not so lucky; I don't want to + misbehave--I don't want to break anybody's heart; but still--" + +It came to an end as abruptly as it had begun. Rose's cheeks were +scarlet flame before she concluded. She understood it all. He was bound +to her sister; he was trying to be true, but he loved her! Had he not +owned it--might she not still hope? She clasped her hands in sudden, +ecstatic rapture. + +"He loves me best," she thought; "and the one he loves best will be the +one he will choose." + +She folded up the precious document, and hid it in her pocket. She +looked up at the window, but no more sheets of the unfinished letter +fluttered out. + +"Careless fellow!" she thought, "to leave such tell-tale letters loose. +If Kate had found it, or Grace, or Eeny! They could not help +understanding it. I wish I dared tell him; but I can't." + +She turned and went into the house. No more dreary rambles round the +fish-pond. Rose was happy again. + +Suicide was indefinitely postponed, and Kate might become the nun, not +she. Kate was his promised wife; but there is many a slip; and the +second Miss Danton ran up to her room, singing, "New hope may bloom." + +If Rose's heart had been broken, she would have dressed herself +carefully all the same. There was to be a dinner-party at the house that +evening, and among the guests a viscount recently come over to shoot +moose. The viscount was forty, but unmarried, with a long rent-roll, and +longer pedigree; and who knew what effect sparkling hazel eyes and +gold-bronzed hair, and honeyed smiles, might have upon him? So Eunice +was called in, and the auburn tresses freshly curled, and a sweeping +robe of silvery silk, trimmed with rich lace, donned. The lovely bare +neck and arms were adorned with pale pearls, and the falling curls were +jauntily looped back with clusters of pearl beads. + +"You do look lovely, Miss!" cried Eunice, in irrepressible admiration. +"I never saw you look so 'andsome before. The dress is the becomingest +dress you've got, and you look splendid, you do!" + +Rose flashed a triumphant glance at her own face in the mirror. + +"Do I, Eunice? Do I look almost as handsome as Kate?" + +"You are 'andsomer sometimes, Miss Rose, to my taste. If Miss Kate 'ad +red cheeks, now; but she's as w'ite sometimes as marble." + +"So she is; but some people admire that style. I suppose Mr. Stanford +does--eh, Eunice?" + +"I dare say he does, Miss." + +"Do you think Mr. Stanford handsome, Eunice?" carelessly. + +"Very 'andsome, Miss, and so pleasant. Not 'igh and 'aughty, like some +young gentlemen I've seen. Heverybody likes 'im." + +"What is Kate going to wear this evening?" said Rose, her heart +fluttering at the praise. + +"The black lace, miss, and her pearls. She looks best in blue, but she +will wear black." + +"How is Agnes Darling getting on?" asked Rose, jumping to another topic. +"I haven't seen her for two days." + +"Getting better, Miss; she is hable to be up halmost hall the time; but +she's failed away to a shadow. Is there hanythink more, Miss?" + +"Nothing more, thank you. You may go." + +Eunice departed; and Rose, sinking into a rocker, beguiled the time +until dinner with a book. She heard Mr. Stanford and Kate coming +upstairs together, laughing at something, and go to their rooms to +dress. + +"I wonder if he will miss part of his letter," she thought, nervously. +"What would he say if I gave it to him, and told him I had read it? No! +I dare not do that. I will say nothing about it, and let him fidget as +much as he likes over the loss." + +Rose descended to the drawing-room as the last bell rang, and found +herself bowing to half a dozen strangers--Colonel Lord Ellerton among +the rest. Lord Ellerton, who was very like Lord Dundreary every way you +took him, gave his arm to Kate, and Stanford, with a smile and an +indescribable glance, took possession of Rose. + +"Has your fairy godmother been dressing you, Rose? I never saw you look +so bewildering. What is it?" + +Rose shook back her curls saucily, though tingling to her finger-ends at +the praise. + +"My fairy godmother's goddaughter would not bewilder you much, if +Cleopatra yonder were not taken possession of by that ill-looking peer +of the realm. I am well enough as a dernier resort." + +"How much of that speech do you mean? Are you looking beautiful to +captivate the viscount?" + +"I am looking beautiful because I can't help it, and I never stoop to +captivate any one, Mr. Stanford--not even a viscount. By-the-by, you +haven't quarrelled with Kate, have you?" + +"Certainly not. Why should I?" + +"Of course--why should you! She has a perfect right to walk in the +grounds at midnight with any gentleman she chooses." + +She said it rather bitterly. Stanford smiled provokingly. + +"_Chacun ŕ son gout_, you know. If Kate likes midnight rambles, she must +have a cavalier, of course. When she is Mrs. Stanford I shall endeavour +to break her of that habit." + +"Did you tell her I was with you?" demanded Rose, her eyes flashing. + +"My dear Rose, I never tell tales. By-the-way, when shall we have +another moonlight stroll? It seems to me I see very little of you +lately." + +"We will have no more midnight strolls, Mr. Stanford," said Rose, +sharply; "and you see quite as much of me as I wish you to see. My +lord--I beg your pardon--were you addressing me?" + +She turned from Stanford, sitting beside her and talking under the cover +of the clatter of spoons and knives, and flashed the light of her most +dazzling smile upon Lord Ellerton, sitting opposite. Yes, the peer was +addressing her--some question he wanted to know concerning the native +Canadians, and which Kate was incapable of answering. + +Rose knew all about it, and took his lordship in tow immediately. All +the witcheries known to pretty little flirts were brought to bear on the +viscount, as once before they had been brought to bear on Sir Ronald +Keith. + +Kate smiled across at Reginald, and surrendered the peer at once. King +or Kaiser were less than nothing to her in comparison with that handsome +idol on the other side of the table. + +Dinner was over, and the ladies gone. In the drawing-room Kate seated +herself at the piano, to sing a bewildering duet with Rose. Before it +was ended the gentlemen appeared, and once more Lord Ellerton found +himself taken captive and seated beside Rose--how, he hardly knew. How +that tongue of hers ran! And all the time Lord Ellerton's eyes were +wandering to Kate. Like Sir Ronald, pretty Rose's witcheries fell short +of the mark; the stately loveliness of Kate eclipsed her, as the sun +eclipses stars. When at last he could, without discourtesy, get away, he +arose, bowed to the young lady, and, crossing the long, drawing-room, +took his stand by the piano, where Kate still sat and sung. Stanford was +leaning against the instrument, but he resigned his place to the +viscount, and an instant later was beside Rose. + +"Exchange is no robbery," he said. "Is it any harm to ask how you have +succeeded?" + +Rose looked up angrily into the laughing dark eyes. + +"I don't know what you mean." + +"My dear little artless Rose! Shall I put it plainer? When are you to be +Lady Ellerton?" + +"Mr. Stanford--" + +"My dear Rose, don't be cross. He is too old and too ugly--low be it +spoken--for the prettiest girl in Canada!" + +"Meaning me?" + +"Meaning you." + +"Why don't you except Kate?" + +"Because I think you are prettier than Kate?" + +"You don't! I know better! I don't believe you!" + +"Disbelieve me, then." + +"You think there is no one in the world like Kate." + +"Do I? Who told you?" + +"I don't need to be told; actions speak louder than words." + +"And what have my actions said?" + +"That you adore the ground she walks on, and hold her a little lower +than the angels." + +"So I do. That is, I don't precisely adore the ground she walks on--I am +not quite so far gone as that yet--but I hold her a little lower than +the angels, certainly." + +"That's enough then. Why don't you stay with her, and not come here +annoying me?" + +"Oh, I annoy you, do I? You don't mean it, Rose?" + +"Yes, I do," said Rose, compressing her lips. "What do you come for?" + +"Because--you won't be offended, will you?" + +"No." + +"Because I am very fond of you, then." + +"Fond of me!" said Rose, her heart thrilling--"and you engaged to Kate! +How dare you tell me so, Mr. Stanford?" + +Rose's words were all they should have been, but Rose's tone was +anything but severe. Stanford took an easier position on the sofa. + +"Because I like to tell the truth. Never mind the viscount, Rose; you +don't care about him, and if you only wait, and are a good girl, +somebody you do care about may propose to you one of these days. Here, +Doctor, there is room for another on our sofa." + +"Will I be _de trop_?" asked Doctor Frank, halting. + +"Not at all. Rose and I are discussing politics. She thinks Canada +should be annexed to the United States, and I don't. What are your views +on the matter?" + +Doctor Danton took the vacant seat and Stanford's conversational cue, +and began discussing politics, until Rose got up in disgust, and left. + +"I thought that would be the end of it," said Stanford. "Poor little +girl! the subject is too heavy for her." + +"Only I knew you were done for, Mr. Stanford," said Doctor Danton, "I +should have fancied I was interrupting a flirtation." + +"Not at all. Rose and I did not get on very well at first. I am afraid +she took a dislike to me, and I am merely trying to bring her to a more +Christian frame of mind. A fellow likes to be on good terms with his +sister." + +"So he does. I noticed you and our charming Miss Rose were at +daggers-drawn even before you got properly introduced; and I couldn't +account for it in any other way than by supposing you had made love to +her and deserted her--in some other planet, perhaps." + +Stanford looked with eyes of laughing wonder in the face of the +imperturbable Doctor, who never moved a muscle. + +"Upon my life, Danton," he exclaimed letting his hand fall lightly on +the Doctor's shoulder, "you ought to be burned for a wizard! What other +planet do you suppose it was?" + +"Has that sprained ankle of yours got quite strong again?" somewhat +irrelevantly inquired the physician. + +Reginald Stanford laughed. + +"Most astute of men! Who has been telling you tales?" + +"My own natural sagacity. How many weeks were you laid up?" + +"Three," still laughing. + +"I was here at the time, and I recollect the sudden passion Rose was +seized with for long rides every day. I couldn't imagine what was the +cause. I think I can, now." + +"Doctor Danton, your penetration does you credit. She's a dear little +girl, and the best of nurses." + +"And do you know--But perhaps you will be offended." + +"Not I. Out with it." + +"Well, then, I think it is a pity you were engaged before you sprained +that ankle." + +"Do you, really? Might I ask why?" + +"I think Rose would make such a charming Mrs. Stanford." + +"So do I," said Mr. Stanford, with perfect composure. "But won't Kate?" + +"Miss Danton is superb; she ought to marry an emperor; but no, destiny +has put her foot in it. Captain Danton's second daughter should be the +one." + +"You really think so?" + +"I really do." + +"How unfortunate!" said Stanford, stroking his mustache. "Do you think +it can be remedied?" + +"I think so." + +"By jilting--it's an ugly word, too--by jilting Kate?" + +"Precisely." + +"But she will break her heart." + +"No, she won't. I am a physician, and I know. Hearts never break, except +in women's novels. They're the toughest part of the human anatomy." + +"What a consolating thought! And you really advise me to throw over +Kate, and take to my bosom the fair, the fascinating Rose?" + +"You couldn't do better." + +"Wouldn't there be the deuce to pay if I did, though, with that +fire-eating father of hers? I should have my brains blown out before the +honey-moon was ended." + +"I don't see why, so that you marry one of his daughters, how can it +matter to him which? With a viscount and a baronet at the feet of the +peerless Kate, he ought to be glad to be rid of you." + +"It seems to me, Doctor Danton, you talk uncommonly plain English." + +"Is it too plain? I'll stop if you say so." + +"Oh, no. Pray continue. It does me good. And, besides, I don't know but +that I agree with you." + +"I thought you did. I have thought so for some time." + +"Were you jealous, Doctor? You used to be rather attentive to Rose, if I +remember rightly." + +"Fearfully jealous; but where is the use? She gave me my _coup de congé_ +long ago. That I am still alive, and talking to you is the most +convincing proof I can give that hearts do not break." + +"After all," said Stanford, "I don't believe you ever were very far gone +with Rose. My stately fiancée suits you better. If I take you at your +word, and she rejects the baronet and the viscount, you might try your +luck." + +"It would be worse than useless. I might as well love some bright, +particular star, and hope to win it, as Miss Danton. Ah! here she +comes!" + +Leaning on the arm of Lord Ellerton, Miss Danton came up smilingly. + +"Are you two plotting treason, that you sit there with such solemn faces +all the evening?" she asked. + +"You have guessed it," replied her lover; "it is treason. Doctor, I'll +think of what you have been saying." + +He arose. Lord Ellerton resigned his fair companion to her rightful +owner, and returned to Rose, who was looking over a book of beauty; and +Doctor Danton went over to Eeny, who was singing to herself at the +piano, and listened, with an odd little smile, to her song: + + "Smile again, my dearest love, + Weep not that I leave you; + I have chosen now to rove-- + Bear it, though it grieve you. + See! the sun, and moon, and stars, + Gleam the wide world over, + Whether near, or whether far, + On your loving rover. + + "And the sea has ebb and flow, + Wind and cloud deceive us; + Summer heat and winter snow + Seek us but to leave us. + Thus the world grows old and new-- + Why should you be stronger? + Long have I been true to you, + Now I'm true no longer. + + "As no longer yearns my heart, + Or your smiles enslave me, + Let me thank you ere we part, + For the love you gave me. + See the May flowers wet with dew + Ere their bloom is over-- + Should I not return to you, + Seek another lover." + +Doctor Danton laughed. + + "'Long have I been true to you, + Now I'm true no longer!'" + +"Those are most atrocious sentiments you are singing--do you not know +it, Miss Eeny?" + +Mr. Stanford beside Kate, Lord Ellerton listening politely to Rose, and +Doctor Frank with Eeny, never found time flying, and were surprised to +discover it was almost midnight. The guests departed, "the lights were +fled, the garlands dead, and the banquet-hall deserted" by everybody but +Reginald Stanford and Captain Danton. They were alone in the long, +dimly-lighted drawing-room. + +"You will take Kate's place to night," the Captain was saying, "and be +Harry's companion in his constitutional. I told him that another knew +his secret. I related all the circumstances." + +"How did he take it? Was he annoyed?" + +"No; he was a little startled at first, but he allowed I could not do +otherwise. Poor fellow! He is anxious to see you now. If you will get +your overcoat, you will find him here when you return." + +Mr. Stanford ran upstairs in a hurry, and returned in fur cap and +overcoat in ten minutes. A young man, tall and slender, but pale to +ghastliness, with haggard cheeks and hollow eyes, stood, wrapped in a +long cloak, beside the Captain. He had been handsome, you could see, +even through that bloodless pallor, and there was a look in his great +blue eyes that startlingly reminded you of Kate. + +"You two know each other already," said the Captain. "I claim you both +as sons." + +Reginald grasped Harry Danton's extended hand, and shook it heartily. + +"Being brothers, I trust we shall soon be better acquainted," he said. +"I am to supply Kate's place to-night in the tamarack walk. I trust no +loiterers will see us." + +"I trust not," said Harry, with an apprehensive shiver. "I have been +seen by so many, and have frightened so many that I begin to dread +leaving my room night or day." + +"There is nothing to dread, I fancy," said Stanford, cheerfully, as they +passed out, and down the steps. "They take you for a ghost, you know. +Let them keep on thinking so, and you are all right. You have given +Danton Hall all it wanted to make it perfect--it is a haunted house." + +"It is haunted," said his companion, gloomily. "What am I better than +any other evil spirit? Oh, Heaven!" he cried, passionately, "the horror +of the life I lead! Shut up in the prison I dare not leave, haunted +night and day by the vision of that murdered man, every hope and +blessing that life holds gone forever! I feel sometimes as though I were +going mad!" + +He lifted his cap and let the chill night wind cool his burning +forehead. There was a long, blank pause. When Reginald Stanford spoke, +his voice was low and subdued. + +"Are you quite certain the man you shot was shot dead? You hardly waited +to see, of course; and how are you to tell positively the wound was +fatal?" + +"I wish to Heaven there could be any doubt of it!" groaned the young +man. "My aim is unerring; I saw him fall, shot through the heart." + +His voice died away in a hoarse whisper. Again there was a pause. + +"Your provocation was great," said Reginald. "If anything can extenuate +killing a fellow-creature, it is that. Are you quite positive--But +perhaps I have no right to speak on this matter." + +"Speak, speak!" broke out Harry Danton. "I am shut up in these horrible +rooms from week's end to week's end, until it is the only thing that +keeps me from going mad--talking of what I have done. What were you +going to say?" + +"I wanted to ask you if you were quite certain--beyond the shadow of +doubt--of your wife's guilt? We sometimes make terrible mistakes in +these matters." + +"There was no mistake," replied his companion, with a sudden look of +anguish, "there could be none. I saw and heard as plainly as I see and +hear you now. There could be no mistake." + +"Do you know where your--where she is now?" + +"No!" with that look of anguish still. "No, I have never heard of her +since that dreadful night. She may be dead, or worse than dead, long ere +this." + +"You loved her very much," said Reginald, impelled to say it by the +expression of that ghastly face. + +"Loved her?" he repeated. "I have no words to tell you how I loved her. +I thought her all that was pure, and innocent, and beautiful, and +womanly, and she--oh, fool, that I was to believe her as I did!--to +think, as she made me think, that I had her whole heart!" + +"Would you like to have some one try and trace her out for you? Her fate +may be ascertained yet. I will go to New York, if you wish, and do my +best." + +"No, no," was the reply. "What use would it be? If you discovered her +to-morrow, what would it avail? Better let her fate remain forever +unknown than find my worst fears realized. False, wicked, degraded, as I +know her, I cannot forget how madly I loved her--I cannot forget that I +love her yet." + +They walked up and down the tamarack-walk in the frosty starlight, all +still and peaceful around them--the sky, sown with silver stars, so +serene--the earth, white with its snowy garb, all hushed and +tranquil--nothing disturbed but the heart of man, all things at peace +but his storm-tossed soul. + +"I am keeping you here," said Harry, "and it is growing late, and cold. +I am selfish and exacting in my misery, as, I fear, poor Kate knows. Let +us go in." + +They walked to the house. When they entered, Reginald secured the door, +and the two young men went upstairs together. Ogden sat sleepily on a +chair, and started up at sight of them. Harry Danton held out his hand, +with a faint sad smile. + +"Good night," he said; "I am glad to have added another to the list of +my friends. I hope we shall meet soon again. Good night, and pleasant +dreams." + +"We shall meet as often as you wish," answered Reginald. "You have my +deepest sympathy. Good night." + +The white, despairing face haunted Reginald Stanford's dreams all night, +as if he had indeed been a ghost. He was glad when morning came, and he +could escape the spectres of dream-land in the business of everyday +life. He stopped in the hall on his way down stairs, to look out at the +morning, wet, and cold, and dark, and miserable. As he stood, some one +passed him, going up to the upper bedroom regions of the servants--a +small, pallid little creature, looking like a stray spirit in its black +dress--Agnes Darling. + +"Another ghost?" thought Mr. Stanford, running down stairs. "They are +not far wrong who call Danton Hall a haunted house." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +LOVE-MAKING. + + +A dismal March afternoon, an earth hard as iron, with black frost, a +wild wind troubling the gaunt trees, and howling mournfully around the +old house. A desolate, wintry afternoon, threatening storm; but despite +its ominous aspect, the young people at Danton Hall had gone off for a +long sleigh-ride. Reginald and Kate had the little shell-shaped cutter, +Rose, Eeny, Mr. Howard, Junior, Miss Howard, and Doctor Frank, in the +big three-seated family sleigh. Amid the jingling of silvery bells, +peals of girlish laughter, and a chorus of good-byes to the Captain and +Grace, standing on the stone stoop, they had departed. + +Captain Danton and his housekeeper spent the bleak March afternoon very +comfortably together. The fire burned brightly, the parlour was like +waxwork in its perfect order; Grace, with her sewing, sat by her +favourite window. Captain Danton, with the Montreal _True Witness_, sat +opposite, reading her the news. Grace was not very profoundly interested +in the political questions then disturbing Canada, or in the doings and +sayings of the Canadian Legislature; but she listened with a look of +pleased attention to all. Presently the Captain laid down the newspaper +and looked out. + +"The girls and boys will be caught in the storm, as I told them they +would. You and I were wisest, Grace, to stay at home." + +Grace smiled and folded up her work. + +"Where are you going?" asked the Captain. + +"To get the remainder of this embroidery from Agnes Darling. Do you know +what it is?" + +"How should I?" + +"Well, then, it is a part of Miss Kate's bridal outfit. June will soon +be here, although to-day does not look much like it." + +She went out and descended to the sewing-room. All alone, and sitting by +the window, her needle flying rapidly, was the pale seamstress. + +"Have you finished those bands, Miss Darling? Ah, I see you have and +very nicely. I am ready for them, and will take them upstairs. Are these +the sleeves you are working on?" + +Miss Darling replied in the affirmative, and Grace turned to depart. On +the threshold she paused. + +"You don't look very well, Miss Darling," she said, kindly; "don't work +too late. There is no hurry with the things." + +She returned to the parlour, where Captain Danton, who had become very +fond of his housekeeper's society of late, still sat. And Agnes Darling, +alone in the cosy little sewing-room, worked busily while the light +lasted. When it grew too dark for the fine embroidery, she dropped it in +her lap, and looked out at the wintry prospect. + +The storm that had been threatening all day was rising fast. The wind +had increased to a gale, and shook the windows and doors, and worried +the trees, and went shrieking off over the bleak marshes, to a wild gulf +and rushing river. Great snowflakes fluttered through the leaden air, +faster and faster, and faster, until presently all was lost in a dizzy +cloud of falling whiteness. A wild and desolate evening, making the +pleasant little room, with its rosy fire, and carpet, and pretty +furniture, tenfold pleasanter by contrast. A bleak and terrible evening +for all wayfarers--bitterly cold, and darkening fast. + +The seamstress sat while the dismal daylight faded drearily out, her +hands lying idly in her lap, her great, melancholy dark eyes fixed on +the fast-falling snow. The tokens of sickness and sorrow lingered more +marked than ever in that wasted form and colourless face, and the ruddy +glow of the fire-light flickered on her mourning dress. Weary and +lonely, she looked as the dying day. + +Presently, above the shrieking of the stormy wind, came another +sound--the loud jingling of sleigh-bells. Dimly through the fluttering +whiteness of the snow-storm she saw the sleighs whirl up to the door, +and their occupants, in a tumult of laughter, hurrying rapidly into the +house. She could hear those merry laughs, those feminine tones, and the +pattering of gaitered feet up the stairs. She could hear the deeper +voices of the gentlemen, as they stamped and shook the snow off their +hats and great-coats in the hall. She listened and looked out again at +the wintry twilight. + +"Oh!" she thought, with weary sadness, "what happy people there are in +the world! Women who love and are beloved, who have everything their +hearts desire--home, and friends, and youth, and hope, and happiness. +Women who scarcely know, even by hearsay, of such wretched castaways as +I." + +She walked from the window to the fire, and, leaning against the mantel, +fixed her eyes on the flickering flame. + +"My birthday," she said to herself, "this long, lonesome, desolate day. +Desolate as my lost life, as my dead heart. Only two-and twenty, and all +that makes life worth having, gone already." + +Again she walked to the window. Far away, and pale and dim through the +drifting snow, she could see the low-lying sky. + +"Not all!" was the better thought that came to her in her +bitterness--"not all, but oh! how far away the land of rest looks!" + +She leaned against the window, as she had leaned against the mantel, and +took from her bosom the locket she always wore. + +"This day twelvemonth he gave me this--his birthday gift. Oh, my +darling! My husband! where in all the wide world are you this stormy +night?" + +There was a rap at the door. She thrust the locket again in her bosom, +choked back the hysterical passion of tears rising in her heart, crossed +the room, and opened the door. Her visitor was Doctor Danton. + +"I thought I should find you here," he said, entering. + +"How are you to-day, Miss Darling? Not very well, as your face plainly +testifies; give me your hand--cold as ice! My dear child, what is the +trouble now?" + +At the kindness of his tone she broke down suddenly. She had been alone +so long brooding in solitude over her troubles, that she had grown +hysterical. It wanted but that kindly voice and look to open the closed +flood-gates of her heart. She covered her face with her hands, and broke +out into a passionate fit of crying. + +Doctor Frank led her gently to a seat, and stood leaning against the +chimney, looking into the dying fire, and not speaking. The hysterics +would pass, he knew, if she were let alone; and when the sobbing grew +less violent, he spoke. + +"You sit alone too much," he said quietly; "it is not good for you. You +must give it up, or you will break down altogether." + +"Forgive me," said Agnes, trying to choke back the sobs. "I am weak and +miserable, and cannot help it. I did not mean to cry now." + +"You are alone too much," repeated the Doctor; "it won't do. You think +too much of the past, and despond too much in the present. That won't do +either. You must give it up." + +His calm, authoritative tone soothed her somehow. The tears fell less +hotly, and she lifted her poor, pale face. + +"I am very foolish, but it is my birthday, and I could not help--" + +She broke down again. + +"It all comes of being so much alone," repeated Doctor Frank. "It won't +do. Agnes, how often must I tell you so? Do you know what they say of +you in the house?" + +"No," looking up in quick alarm. + +"They accuse you of having something on your mind. The servants look at +you with suspicion, and it all comes of your love of solitude, your +silence and sadness. Give it up, Agnes, give it up." + +"Doctor Danton," she cried, piteously, "what can I do? I am the most +unhappy woman in all the world. What can I do?" + +"There is no need of you being the most unhappy woman in the world; +there is no need of your being unhappy at all." + +She looked up at him in white, voiceless appeal, her lips and hands +trembling. + +"Don't excite yourself--don't be agitated. I have no news for you but I +think I may bid you hope with safety. I don't think it was a ghost you +saw that night." + +She gave a little cry, and then sat white and still, waiting. + +"I don't think it was a ghost," he repeated, lowering his voice. "I +don't think he is dead." + +She did not speak; she only sat looking up at him with that white, still +face. + +"There is no need of your wearing a widow's weeds, Agnes," he said, +touching her black dress; "I believe your husband to be alive." + +She never spoke. If her life had depended on it, she could not have +uttered a word--could not have removed her eyes from his face. + +"I have no positive proof of what I say, but a conviction that is equal +to any proof in my own mind. I believe your husband to be alive--I +believe him to be an inmate of this very house." + +He stopped in alarm. She had fallen back in her chair, the bluish pallor +of death overspreading her face. + +"I should have prepared you better," he said. "The shock was too sudden. +Shall I go for a glass of water?" + +She made a slight motion in the negative, and whispered the word, + +"Wait!" + +A few moments' struggle with her fluttering breath, and then she was +able to sit up. + +"Are you better again? Shall I go for the water?" + +"No, no! Tell me--" + +She could not finish the sentence. + +"I have no positive proof," said Doctor Danton, "but the strongest +internal conviction. I believe your husband to be in hiding in this +house. I believe you saw him that night, and no spirit." + +"Go on, go on!" she gasped. + +"You have heard of Mr. Richards, the invalid, shut upstairs, have you +not? Yes. Well, that mysterious individual is your husband." + +She rose up and stood by him, white as death. + +"Are you sure?" + +"Morally, yes. As I told you, I have no proof as yet and I should not +have told you so soon had I not seen you dying by inches before my eyes. +Can you keep up heart now, little despondent?" + +She clasped her hands over that wildly-throbbing heart, still not quite +sure that she heard aright. + +"You are to keep all this a profound secret," said the Doctor, "until I +can make my suspicions certainties. They say women cannot keep a +secret--is it true?" + +"I will do whatever you tell me. Oh, thank Heaven! thank Heaven for +this!" + +She had found her voice, and the hysterics threatened again. Doctor +Danton held up an authoritative finger. + +"Don't!" he said imperatively. "I won't have it! No more crying, or I +shall take back all I have said. Tell a woman good news, and she cries; +tell her bad news, and she does the same. How is a man to manage them?" + +He walked across the room, and looked out at the night, revolving that +profound question in his man's brain, and so unable to solve the enigma +as the thousands of his brethren who have perplexed themselves over the +same question before. After staring a moment at the blinding whirl of +snow he returned to the seamstress. + +"Are you all right again, and ready to listen to me?" + +Her answer was a question. + +"How have you found this out?" + +"I haven't found it out. I have only my own suspicions--very strong +ones, though." + +A shadow of doubt saddened and darkened her face. Her clasped hands +drooped and fell. + +"Only a suspicion, after all! I am afraid to hope, seems so unreal, so +improbable. If it were Harry, why should he be here? Why should Captain +Danton protect and shield him?" + +"That is what I am coming to. You knew very little of your husband +before you married him. Are you sure he did not marry you under an +assumed name?" + +A flash of colour darted across her colourless face at the words. Doctor +Danton saw it. + +"Are you sure Darling was your husband's name?" he reiterated, +emphatically. + +"I am not sure," she said faintly. "I have reason to think it was not." + +"Do you know what his name was?" + +"No." + +"Then I do. I think his name was Danton." + +"Danton!" + +"Henry Richard Danton--Captain Danton's only son." + +She looked at him in breathless wonder. + +"Captain Danton's only son," went on the Doctor. "You have not lived all +these months in this house without knowing that Captain Danton had a +son?" + +"I have heard it." + +"Three years ago this son ran away from home, and went to New York, +under an assumed name. Three years ago Henry Darling came first to New +York from Canada. Henry Darling commits a crime, and flies. A few months +after Captain Danton comes here, with a mysterious invalid, who is never +seen, who is too ill to leave his room by day, but quite able to go out +for midnight rambles in the grounds. Old Margery has known Captain +Danton's son from childhood. She sees Mr. Richards returning from one of +those midnight walks, and falls down in a fit. She says she has seen +Master Harry's ghost--Master Harry being currently believed to be dead. +Shortly after, you see Mr. Richards on a like occasion, and you fall +down in a fit. You say you have seen the apparition of your husband, +Henry Darling. Putting all this together, and adding it up, what does it +come to? Are you good at figures?" + +She could not answer him. The ungovernable astonishment of hearing what +she had heard, struck her speechless once more. + +"Don't take the trouble to speak," said Doctor Frank, "my news has +stunned you. I shall leave you to think it all over by yourself, and I +trust there will be an end of tears and melancholy faces. It is ever +darkest before the day dawns. Good-evening!" + +He was going, but she laid her hand on his arm. + +"Wait a moment," she said, finding her voice. "I am so confused and +bewildered that I hardly understand what you have said. But should it +all be true--you know--you know--" averting her face, "he believes me +guilty!" + +"We will undeceive him; I can give him proofs, 'strong as Holy Writ;' +and, if he loves you, he will be open to conviction. All will come right +after a while; only have patience and wait. Keep up a good heart, my +dear child, and trust in God." + +She dropped feebly into a chair, looking with a bewildered face at the +fire. + +"I can't realize it," she murmured. "It is like a scene in a novel. I +can't realize it." + +She heard the door close behind Doctor Frank--she heard a girlish voice +accost him in the hall. It was Miss Rose, in a rustling silk +dinner-dress, with laces, and ribbons, and jewels fluttering and +sparkling about her. + +"Is Agnes Darling in there?" she asked suspiciously. + +"Yes. I have just been making a professional call." + +"Professional! I thought she was well." + +"Getting well, my dear Miss Rose; getting well, I am happy to say. It is +the duty of a conscientious physician to see after his patients until +they are perfectly recovered." + +"I wonder if conscientious physicians find the duty more binding in the +case of young and pretty patients than in that of old and ugly ones?" + +"No," said Doctor Frank, impressively. "To professional eyes, the +suffering fellow-creature is a suffering fellow-creature, and nothing +more. Think better of us, my dear girl; think better of me." + +After dinner, in the drawing-room, Captain Danton, with Grace for a +partner, the Doctor with Eeny, sat down to a game of cards. Kate sat at +the piano, singing a fly-away duet with Miss Howard. Mr. Howard stood at +Miss Danton's right elbow devotedly turning the music; and in a little +cozy velvet sofa, just big enough for two, Reginald and Rose were +tęte-ŕ-tęte. + +In the changed days that came after, Doctor Frank remembered that +picture--the exquisite face at the piano, the slender and stately form, +the handsome man, and the pretty coquette on the sofa. The song sung +that night brought the tableau as vividly before him years and years +after, as when he saw it then. + +The song was ended. Miss Danton's ringed white fingers were flying over +the keys in a brilliant waltz. George Howard and Rose were floating +round and round, in air, as it seemed, and Stanford was watching with +half-closed eyes. And in the midst of all, above the ringing music and +the sighing of the wild wind, there came the clanging of sleigh-bells +and a loud ring at the house-door. Rose and George Howard ceased their +waltz. Kate's flying fingers stopped. The card-party looked up +inquisitively. + +"Who can it be," said the Captain, "'who knocks so loud, and knocks so +late,' this stormy night?" + +The servant who threw open the drawing-room door answered him. "M. La +Touche," announced Babette, and vanished. + +There was a little cry of astonishment from Rose; an instant's +irresolute pause. Captain Danton arose. The name was familiar to him +from his daughter. But Rose had recovered herself before he could +advance, and came forward, her pretty face flushed. + +"Where on earth did you drop from?" she asked, composedly shaking hands +with him. "Did you snow down from Ottawa?" + +"No," said M. La Touche. "I've snowed down from Laprairie. I came from +Montreal in this evening's train, and drove up here, in spite of wind +and weather." + +Captain Danton came forward; and Rose, still a little confused, +presented M. La Touche. The cordial Captain shook with his usual +heartiness the proffered hand of the young man, bade him welcome, and +put an instant veto on his leaving them that night. + +"There are plenty of bedrooms here, and it is not a night to turn an +enemy's dog from the door. My cousin, Miss Grace Danton, M. La Touche; +my daughter, Eveleen; and Doctor Frank Danton." + +M. La Touche bowed with native grace to these off-hand introductions, +and then was led off by Rose to the piano-corner, to be duly presented +there. She had not made up her mind yet whether she were vexed or +pleased to see her lover. Whatever little affection she had ever given +him--and it must have been of the flimsiest from the first--had +evaporated long ago, like smoke. But Rose had no idea of pining in +maiden solitude, even if she lost the fascinating Reginald, and she knew +that homely old saw about coming to the ground between two stools. + +M. La Touche had the good fortune to produce a pleasing impression upon +all to whom he was introduced. He was very good-looking, with dark +Canadian eyes and hair, and olive skin. He was rather small and slight, +and his large dark eyes were dreamy, and his smile as gentle as a +girl's. + +Mr. Stanford, resigned his place on the sofa to M. La Touche, and Rose +and the young Canadian were soon chattering busily in French. + +"Why did you not write and tell me you were coming?" + +"Because I did not know I was coming. Rose, I am the luckiest fellow +alive!" + +His dark eyes sparkled; his olive face flushed. Rose looked at him +wonderingly. + +"How?" + +"I have had a fortune left me. I am a rich man, and I have come here to +tell you, my darling Rose." + +"A fortune!" repeated Rose, opening her brown eyes. + +"Yes, _m'amour_! You have heard me speak of my uncle in Laprairie, who +is very rich? Well, he is dead, and has left all he possesses to me." + +Rose clasped her hands. + +"And how much is it?" + +"Forty thousand pounds!" + +"Forty thousand pounds!" repeated Rose, quite stunned by the magnitude +of the sum. + +"Am I not the luckiest fellow in the world?" demanded the young legatee +with exultation. "I don't care for myself alone, Rose, but for you. +There is nothing to prevent our marriage now." + +Rose wilted down suddenly, and began fixing her bracelets. + +"I shall take a share in the bank with my father," pursued the young +man; "and I shall speak to your father to-morrow for his consent to our +union!" + +Rose still twitched her bracelets, her colour coming and going. She +could see Reginald Stanford without looking up; and never had he been so +handsome in her eyes; never had she loved him as she loved him now. + +"You say nothing, Rose," said her lover. "_Mon Dieu!_ you cannot surely +love me less!" + +"Hush!" said Rose, rather sharply, "they will hear you. It isn't that, +but--but I don't want to be married just yet. I am too young." + +"You did not think so at Ottawa." + +"Well," said Rose, testily; "I think so now, and that is enough. I can't +get married yet; at least not before July." + +"I am satisfied to wait until July," said La Touche, smiling. "No doubt, +you will feel older and wiser by that time." + +"Does your father know?" asked Rose. + +"Yes, I told him before I left home. They are all delighted. My mother +and sisters send endless love." + +Rose remained silent for a moment, thoughtfully twisting her bracelet. +She liked wealth, but she liked Reginald Stanford better than all the +wealth in the world. Jules La Touche, with forty thousand pounds, was +not to be lightly thrown over; but she was ready at any moment to throw +him over for the comparatively poor Englishman. She had no wish to +offend her lover. Should her dearer hopes fail, he would be a most +desirable party. + +"What is the matter with you, Rose?" demanded Jules, uneasily. "You are +changed. You are not what you were in Ottawa. Even your letters of late +are not what they used to be. Why is it? What have I done?" + +"You foolish fellow," said Rose, smiling, "nothing! I am not changed. +You only fancy it." + +"Then I may speak to your father?" + +"Wait until to-morrow," said Rose. "I will think of it. You shall have +my answer after breakfast. Now, don't wear that long face--there is +really no occasion." + +Rose dutifully lingered by his side all the evening; but she stole more +glances at Kate's lover than she did at her own. Jules La Touche felt +the impalpable change in her; and yet it would have puzzled him to +define it. His nature was gentle and tender, and he loved the pretty, +fickle, rosy beauty with a depth and sincerity of which she was totally +unworthy. + +Upstairs, in her room, that night, Rose sat before the fire, toasting +her feet and thinking. Yes, thinking. She was not guilty of it often; +but to-night she was revolving the pros and cons of her own case. If she +refused to let Jules speak to her father, nothing would persuade him +that her love had not died out. He might depart in anger, and she might +lose him forever. That was the very last thing she wished. If she lost +Reginald, it would be some consolation to marry, immediately after, a +richer man. It would be revenge; it would prove how little she cared for +him; it would deprive him of the pleasure of thinking she was pining in +maiden loneliness for him. Then, too, the public announcement of her +engagement and approaching marriage to M. La Touche might arouse him to +the knowledge of how much he loved her. "How blessings brighten as they +take their flight!" and jealousy is infallible to bring dilatory lovers +to the point. No question of the right or wrong of the matter troubled +the second Miss Danton's easy conscience. + +On the whole, everything was in favour of M. La Touche's speaking to +papa. Rose resolved he should speak, took off her considering cap, and +went to bed. + +M. La Touche was not kept long in suspense next day; he got his answer +before breakfast. The morning was sunny and mild, but the snow lay piled +high on all sides; and Rose, running down stairs some ten minutes before +breakfast-time, found her lover in the open hall door, watching the +snowbirds and smoking a cigar. Rose went up to him with very pretty +shyness, and the young man flung away his cigar, and looked at her +anxiously. + +"What a lovely morning," said Rose; "what splendid sleighing we will +have." + +"I'm not going to talk of sleighing," said M. La Touche, resolutely. +"You promised me an answer this morning. What is it?" + +Rose began playing with her cord and tassels. + +"What is it?" reiterated the Canadian. "Yes or No?" + +"Yes!" + +M. La Touche's anxious countenance turned rapturous, but Miss Grace +Danton was coming down stairs, and he had to be discreet. Grace lingered +a few moments talking of the weather, and Rose took the opportunity of +making her escape. + +After breakfast, when the family were dispersing, M. La Touche followed +Captain Danton out of the room, and begged the favour of a private +interview. The Captain looked surprised, but agreed readily, and led the +way to his study, no shadow of the truth dawning on his mind. + +That awful ordeal of most successful wooers, "speaking to papa," was +very hard to begin; but M. La Touche, encouraged by the recollection of +the forty thousand pounds, managed to begin somehow. He made his +proposal with a modest diffidence that could not fail to please. + +"We have loved each other this long time," said the young man; "but I +never dreamed of speaking to you so soon. I was only a clerk in our +house, and Rose and I looked forward to years of waiting. This legacy, +however, has removed all pecuniary obstacles, and Rose has given me +consent to speak to you." + +Imagine the Captain's surprise. His little curly-haired Rose, whom he +looked upon as a tall child, engaged to be married! + +"Bless my soul!" exclaimed Captain Danton, naďvely; "you have taken me +completely aback! I give you my word of honour, I never thought of such +a thing!" + +"I hope you will not object, sir; I love your daughter most sincerely." + +The anxious inquiry was unneeded. Captain Danton had no idea of +objecting. He knew the La Touche family well by repute; he liked this +modest young wooer; and forty thousand pounds for his dowerless daughter +was not to be lightly refused. + +"Object!" he cried, grasping his hand. "Not I. If you and Rose love each +other, I am the last one in the world to mar your happiness. Take her, +my lad, with my best wishes for your happiness." + +The young Canadian tried to express his gratitude, but broke down at the +first words. + +"Never mind," said the Captain, laughing. "Don't try to thank me. Your +father knows, of course?" + +"Yes, sir. I spoke to him before I left Ottawa. He and all our family +are delighted with my choice." + +"And when is it to be?" asked the Captain, still laughing. + +"What?" + +"The wedding, of course!" + +M. La Touche's dark face reddened like a girl's. "I don't know, sir. We +have not come to that yet." + +"Let me help you over the difficulty, then. Make it a double wedding." + +"A double wedding?" + +"Yes. My daughter Kate is to be married to Mr. Stanford on the fifth of +June. Why not make it a double match." + +"With all my heart, sir, if Rose is willing!" + +"Go and ask her then. But first, of course, after this, you remain with +us for some time?" + +"I can stay a week or two; after that, business will compel me to +leave." + +"Well, business must be attended to. Go, speak to Rose, and success to +you!" + +Jules found Rose in the drawing-room, and alone. His face told how +eminently satisfactory his interview had been. He sat down beside her, +and related what had passed, ending with her father's proposal. + +"Do say yes, Rose," pleaded Jules. "June is as long as I can wait, and I +should like a double wedding of all things." + +Rose's face turned scarlet, and she averted her head. The familiar +announcement of Reginald's marriage to her sister, as a matter of +certainty, stung her to the heart. + +"You don't object, Rose?" he said uneasily. "You will be married the +same day?" + +"Settle it as you like," answered Rose petulantly. "If I must be +married, it doesn't much matter when." + +That day, when the ladies were leaving the dinner-table, Captain Danton +arose. + +"Wait one moment," he said; "I have a toast to propose before you go. +Fill your glasses and drink long life and prosperity to Mr. and Mrs. +Jules La Touche." + +Every one but Grace was electrified, and Rose fairly ran out of the +room. M. La Touche made a modest little speech of thanks, and then Mr. +Stanford held the door open for the ladies to pass. + +Rose was not in the drawing-room when they entered, and Kate ran up to +her room; but the door was locked, and Rose would not let her in. + +"Go away, Kate," she said, almost passionately. "Go away and leave me +alone." + +Rose kept her chamber all the evening, to the amazement of the rest. The +young Canadian was the lion of the hour, and bore his honours with that +retiring modesty which so characterized him, and which made him such a +contrast to the brilliant and self-conscious Mr. Stanford. + +Rose descended to the breakfast next morning looking shy and queer. +Before the meal was over, however, the bashfulness, quite foreign to her +usual character, wore pretty well away, and she agreed to join a +sleighing-party over to Richelieu, a neighbouring village. + +They were six in all--Kate and Mr. Stanford, Rose and Mr. La Touche, +Eeny and Doctor Frank. Sir Ronald Keith had departed some time +previously, for a tour through the country with Lord Ellerton, and his +memory was a thing of the past already. + +The Captain, an hour after their departure, sought out Grace in the +dining-room, where she sat at work. He looked grave and anxious, and, +sitting down beside her, said what he had to say with many misgivings. + +"I am double her age," he thought. "I have a son old enough to be her +husband; how can I hope?" + +But for all that he talked, and Grace listened, her sewing lying idly in +her lap; one hand shading her face, the other held in his. He talked +long and earnestly, and she listened, silent and with shaded face. + +"And now Grace, my dear, you have heard all; what do you say? When I +lose my girls, shall I go back to the old life, or shall I stay? I can't +stay unless you say yes, Grace. I am double your age, but I love you +very dearly, and will do my best to make you happy. My dear, what do you +say?" She looked up at him for the first time, her eyes full of tears. + +"Yes!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +TRYING TO BE TRUE. + + +Late that evening, the sleighing party returned in high good +spirits--all exhilaration after their long drive through the frosty air. +Crescent moon and silver stars spangled the deep Canadian sky, +glittering coldly bright in the hard white snow, as they jingled merrily +up to the door. + +"Oh, what a night!" Kate cried. "It is profanation to go indoors." + +"It is frostbitten noses to stay out," answered Reginald. "Moonlight is +very well in its place; but I want my dinner." + +The sleighing party had had one dinner that day, but were quite ready +for another. They had stopped at noon at a country inn, and fared +sumptuously on fried ham and eggs and sour Canadian bread, and then had +gone off rambling up the hills and into the woods. + +How it happened, no one but Reginald Stanford ever knew; but it did +happen that Kate was walking beside Jules La Touche up a steep, snowy +hill, and Reginald was by Rose's side in a dim, gloomy forest-path. Rose +had no objection. She walked beside him, looking very pretty, in a black +hat with long white plume and little white veil. They had walked on +without speaking until her foolish heart was fluttering, and she could +stand it no longer. She stopped short in the woodland aisle, through +which the pale March sunshine sifted, and looked up at him for the first +time. + +"Where are we going?" she asked. + +"For a walk," replied Mr. Stanford, "and a talk. You are not afraid, I +hope?" + +"Afraid?" said Rose, the colour flushing her face. "Of what should I be +afraid?" + +"Of me!" + +"And why should I be afraid of you?" + +"Perhaps because I may make love to you? Are you?" + +"No." + +"Come on, then." + +He offered his arm, and Rose put her gloved fingers gingerly in his +coat-sleeve, her heart fluttering more than ever. + +"You are going to be married," he said, "and I have had no opportunity +of offering my congratulations. Permit me to do it now." + +"Thank you." + +"Your M. La Touche is a pleasant little fellow, Rose. You and he have my +best wishes for your future happiness." + +"The 'pleasant little fellow' and myself are exceedingly obliged to +you!" her eyes flashing; "and now, Mr. Stanford, if you have said all +you have to say, suppose we go back?" + +"But I have not said all I have to say, nor half. I want to know why you +are going to marry him?" + +"And I want to know," retorted Rose, "what business it is of yours?" + +"Be civil Rose! I told you once before, if you recollect, that I was +very fond of you. Being fond of you, it is natural I should take an +interest in your welfare. What are you going to marry him for?" + +"For love!" said Rose, spitefully. + +"I don't believe it! Excuse me for contradicting you, my dear Rose; but +I don't believe it. He is a good-looking lamb-like little fellow, and he +is worth forty thousand pounds; but I don't believe it!" + +"Don't believe it, then. What you believe, or what you disbelieve, is a +matter of perfect indifference to me," said Rose, looking straight +before her with compressed lips. + +"I don't believe that, either. What is the use of saying such things to +me?" + +"Mr. Stanford, do you mean to insult me?" demanded Rose furiously. "Let +me go this instant. Fetch me back to the rest. Oh, if papa were here, +you wouldn't dare to talk to me like that. Reginald Stanford, let me go. +I hate you!" + +For Mr. Stanford had put his arm around her waist, and was looking down +at her with those darkly daring eyes. What could Rose do?--silly, +love-sick Rose. She didn't hate him, and she broke out into a perfect +passion of sobs. + +"Sit down, Rose," he said, very gently, leading her to a mossy knoll +under a tree; "and, my darling, don't cry. You will redden your eyes, +and swell your nose, and won't look pretty. Don't cry any more!" + +If Mr. Stanford had been trying for a week, he could have used no more +convincing argument. + +Rose wiped her eyes gracefully; but wouldn't look at him. + +"That's a good girl!" said Stanford. "I will agree to everything rather +than offend you. You love M. La Touche, and you hate me. Will that do?" + +"Let us go back," said Rose, stiffly, getting up. "I don't see what you +mean by such talk. I know it is wrong and insulting." + +"Do you feel insulted?" he asked, smiling down at her. + +"Let me alone!" cried Rose, the passionate tears starting to her eyes +again. "Let me alone, I tell you! You have no business to torment me +like this!" + +He caught her suddenly in his arms, and kissed her again and again. + +"Rose! Rose! my darling! you love me, don't you? My dear little Rose, I +can't let you marry Jules La Touche, or any one else." + +He released her just in time. + +"Rose! Rose!" Kate's clear voice was calling somewhere near. + +"Here we are," returned Stanford, in answer, for Rose was speechless; +and two minutes later they were face to face with Miss Danton and M. La +Touche. + +Mr. Stanford's face was clear as the blue March sky, but Rose looked as +flushed and guilty as she felt. She shrank from looking at her sister or +lover, and clung involuntarily to Reginald's arm. + +"Have you been plotting to murder any one?" asked Kate. "You look like +it." + +"We have been flirting," said Mr. Stanford, with the most perfect +composure. "You don't mind, do you? M. La Touche, I resign in your +favour. Come, Kate." + +Rose and Reginald did not exchange another word all day. Rose was very +subdued, very still. She hardly opened her lips all the afternoon to the +unlucky Jules. She hardly opened them at dinner, except to admit the +edibles, and she was unnaturally quiet all the evening. She retired into +a corner with some crochet-work, and declined conversation and coffee +alike, until bedtime. She went slowly and decorously upstairs, with that +indescribable subdued face, and bade everybody good-night without +looking at them. + +Eeny, who shared Grace's room, sat on a stool before the bedroom fire a +long time that night, looking dreamily into the glowing coals. + +Grace, sitting beside her, combing out her own long hair, watched her in +silence. + +Presently Eeny looked up. + +"How odd it seems to think of her being married." + +"Who?" + +"Rose. It seems queer, somehow. I don't mind Kate. I heard before ever +she came here that she was going to be married; but Rose--I can't +realize it." + +"I have known it this long time," said Grace. "She told me the day she +returned from Ottawa. I am glad she is going to do so well." + +"I like him very much," said Eeny; "but he seems too quiet for Rose. +Don't he?" + +"People like to marry their own opposite," answered Grace. "Not that but +Rose is getting remarkably quiet herself. She hadn't a word to say all +the evening." + +"It will be very lonely when June comes, won't it, Grace?" said Eeny, +with a little sigh. "Kate will go to England, Rose to Ottawa, your +brother is going to Montreal, and perhaps papa will take his ship again, +and there will be no one but you and I, Grace." + +Grace stooped down and kissed the delicate, thoughtful young face. + +"My dear little Eeny, papa is not going away." + +"Isn't he? How do you know?" + +"That is a secret," laughing and colouring. "If you won't mention it, I +will tell you." + +"I won't. What is it?" + +Grace stooped and whispered, her falling hair hiding her face. + +Eeny sprang up and clasped her hands. + +"Oh, Grace!" + +"Are you sorry, Eeny?" + +Eeny's arms were around her neck. Eeny's lips were kissing her +delightedly. + +"I am so glad! Oh, Grace, you will never go away any more!" + +"Never, my pet. And now, don't let us talk any longer; it is time to go +to bed." + +Rather to Eeny's surprise, there was no revelation made next morning of +the new state of affairs. When she gave her father his good-morning +kiss, she only whispered in his ear: + +"I am so glad, papa." + +And the Captain had smiled, and patted her pale cheek, and sat down to +breakfast, talking genially right and left. + +After breakfast, Doctor Frank, Mr. Stanford, and M. La Touche, with the +big dog Tiger at their heels, and guns over their shoulders, departed +for a morning's shooting. Captain Danton went to spend an hour with Mr. +Richards. Rose secluded herself with a book in her room, and Kate was +left alone. She tried to play, but she was restless that morning, and +gave it up. She tried to read. The book failed to interest her. She +walked to the window, and looked out at the sunshine glittering on the +melting snow. + +"I will go for a walk," she thought, "and visit some of my poor people +in the village." + +She ran up stairs for her hat and shawl, and sallied forth. Her poor +people in the village were always glad to see the beautiful girl who +emptied her purse so bountifully for them, and spoke to them so sweetly. +She visited half-a-dozen of her pensioners, leaving pleasant words and +silver shillings behind her, and then walked on to the Church of St. +Croix. The presbytery stood beside it, surrounded by a trim garden with +gravelled paths. Kate opened the garden gate, and walked up to where +Father Francis stood in the open doorway. + +"I have come to see you," she said, "since you won't come to see us. +Have you forgotten your friends at Danton Hall? You have not been up for +a week." + +"Too busy," said Father Francis; "the Curé is in Montreal, and all +devolves upon me. Come in." + +She followed him into the little parlour, and sat down by the open +window. + +"And what's the news from Danton Hall?" + +"Nothing! Oh!" said Kate, blushing and smiling, "except another +wedding!" + +"Another! Two more weddings, you mean?" + +"No!" said Kate, surprised: "only one. Rose, you know, father, to M. La. +Touche!" + +Father Francis looked at her a moment smilingly. "They haven't told you, +then?" + +"What?" + +"That your father is going to be married!" + +Her heart stood still; the room seemed to swim around in the suddenness +of the shock. + +"Father Francis!" + +"You have not been told? Are you surprised? I have been expecting as +much as this for some time." + +"You are jesting, Father Francis," she said, finding voice, which for a +moment had failed her; "it cannot be true!" + +"It is quite true. I saw your father yesterday, and he told me himself." + +"And to whom--?" + +She tried to finish the sentence, but her rebellious tongue would not. + +"To Grace! I am surprised that your father has not told you. If I had +dreamed it was in the slightest degree a secret, I certainly would not +have spoken." She did not answer. + +He glanced at her, and saw that her cheeks and lips had turned ashen +white, as she gazed steadfastly out of the window. + +"My child," said the priest, "you do not speak. You are not +disappointed--you are not grieved?" + +She arose to go, still pale with the great and sudden surprise. + +"You have given me a great shock in telling me this. I never dreamed of +another taking my dear dead mother's place. I am very selfish and +unreasonable, I dare say; but I thought papa would have been satisfied +to make my home his. I have loved my father very much, and I cannot get +used to the idea all in a moment of another taking my place." + +She walked to the door. Father Francis followed her. + +"One word," he said. "It is in your power, and in your power alone, to +make your father seriously unhappy. You have no right to do that; he has +been the most indulgent of parents to you. Remember that now--remember +how he has never grieved you, and do not grieve him. Can I trust you to +do this?" + +"You can trust me," said Kate, a little softened. "Good morning." + +She walked straight home, her heart all in a rebellious tumult. From the +first she had never taken very kindly to Grace; but just now she felt as +if she positively hated her. + +"How dare she marry him!" she thought, the angry blood hot in her +cheeks. "How dare she twine herself, with her quiet, Quakerish ways, +into his heart! He is twice her age, and it is only to be mistress where +she is servant now that she marries him. Oh, how could papa think of +such a thing?" + +She found Rose in the drawing-room when she arrived, listening to Eeny +with wide-open eyes of wonder. The moment Kate entered, she sprang up, +in a high state of excitement. + +"Have you heard the news, Kate? Oh, goodness, gracious me! What is the +world coming to! Papa is going to be married!" + +"I know it," said Kate coldly. + +"Who told you? Eeny's just been telling me, and Grace told her last +night. It's to Grace! Did you ever! Just fancy calling Grace mamma!" + +"I shall never call her anything of the sort." + +"You don't like it, then? I told Eeny you wouldn't like it. What are you +going to say to papa?" + +"Nothing." + +"No? Why don't you remonstrate! Tell him he's old enough and big enough +to have better sense." + +"I shall tell him nothing of the sort; and I beg you will not, either. +Papa certainly has the right to do as he pleases. Whether we like it or +not, doesn't matter much; Grace Danton will more than supply our +places." + +She spoke bitterly, and turned to go up to her own room. With her hand +on the door, she paused, and looked at Eeny. + +"You are pleased, no doubt, Eeny?" + +"Yes, I am," replied Eeny, stoutly. "Grace has always been like a mother +to me: I am glad she is going to be my mother in reality." + +"It is a fortunate thing you do," said Rose, "for you are the only one +who will have to put up with her. Thank goodness! I'm going to be +married." + +"Thank goodness!" repeated Eeny; "there will be peace in the house when +you're out of it. I don't know any one I pity half so much as that poor +M. La Touche." + +Kate saw Rose's angry retort in her eyes, and hurried away from the +coming storm. She kept her room until luncheon-time, and she found her +father alone in the dining-room when she entered. The anxious look he +gave her made her think of Father Francis' words. + +"I have heard all, papa," she said, smiling, and holding up her cheek. +"I am glad you will be happy when we are gone." + +He drew a long breath of relief as he kissed her. + +"Father Francis told you? You like Grace?" + +"I want to like every one you like, papa," she replied, evasively. + +Grace came in as she spoke, and, in spite of herself, Kate's face took +that cold, proud look it often wore; but she went up to her with +outstretched hand. She never shrank from disagreeable duties. + +"Accept my congratulations," she said, frigidly. "I trust you will be +happy." + +Two deep red spots, very foreign to her usual complexion, burned in +Grace's cheeks. Her only answer was a bow, as she took her seat at the +table. + +It was a most comfortless repast. There was a stiffness, a restraint +over all, that would not be shaken off--with one exception. Rose, who +latterly had been all in the downs, took heart of grace amid the general +gloom, and rattled away like the Rose of other days. To her the idea of +her father's marriage was rather a good joke than otherwise. She had no +deep feelings to be wounded, no tender memories to be hurt, and the +universal embarrassment tickled her considerably. + +"You ought to have heard everybody talking on stilts, Reginald," she +said, in the flow of her returned spirits, some hours later, when the +gentlemen returned. "Kate was on her dignity, you know, and as +unapproachable as a princess-royal, and Grace was looking disconcerted +and embarrassed, and papa was trying to be preternaturally cheerful and +easy, and Eeny was fidgety and scared, and I was enjoying the fun. Did +you ever hear of anything so droll as papa's getting married?" + +"I never heard of anything more sensible," said Reginald, resolutely. +"Grace is the queen of housekeepers, and will make the pink and pattern +of matrons. I have foreseen this for some time, and I assure you I am +delighted." + +"So is Kate," said Rose, her eyes twinkling. "You ought to have seen her +congratulating Grace. It was like the entrance of a blast of north wind, +and froze us all stiff." + +"I am glad June is so near," Kate said, leaning lightly on her lover's +shoulder; "I could not stay here and know that she was mistress." + +Mr. Stanford did not seem to hear; he was whistling to Tiger, lumbering +on the lawn. When he did speak, it was without looking at her. + +"I am going to Ottawa next week." + +"To Ottawa! With M. La Touche?" asked Kate, while Rose's face flushed +up. + +"Yes; he wants me to go, and I have said yes. I shall stay until the end +of April." + +Kate looked at him a little wistfully, but said nothing. Rose turned +suddenly, and ran upstairs. + +"We shall miss you--I shall miss you," she said at last. + +"It will not be for long," he answered, carelessly. "Come in and sing me +a song." + +The first pang of doubt that had ever crossed Kate's mind of her +handsome lover, crossed it now, as she followed him into the +drawing-room. + +"How careless he is!" she thought; "how willing to leave me! And +I--could I be contented anywhere in the world where he was not?" + +By some mysterious chance, the song she selected was Eeny's "smile +again, my dearest love; weep not that I leave thee." + +Stanford listened to it, his sunny face overcast. + +"Why did you sing that?" he asked abruptly, when she had done. + +"Don't you like it?" + +"No; I don't like cynicism set to music. Here is a French +chansonnette--sing me that." + +Kate sang for him song after song. The momentary pain the announcement +of his departure had given her wore away. + +"It is natural he should like change," she thought, "and it is dull +here. I am glad he is going to Ottawa, and yet I shall miss him. Dear +Reginald! What would life be worth without you?" + +The period of M. La Touche's stay was rapidly drawing to a close. March +was at its end, too--it was the last night of the month. The eve of +departure was celebrated at Danton Hall by a social party. The elder +Misses Danton on that occasion were as lovely and as much admired as +ever, and Messrs. Stanford and La Touche were envied by more than one +gentleman present. Grace's engagement to the Captain had got wind, and +she shared the interest with her step-daughters-elect. + +Early next morning the two young men left. There was breakfast almost +before it was light, and everybody got up to see them off. It was a most +depressing morning. March had gone out like an idiotic lamb, and April +came in in sapping rain and enervating mist. Ceaselessly the rain beat +against the window-glass, and the wind had a desolate echo that sounded +far more like winter than spring. + +Pale, in the dismal morning-light, Kate and Rose Danton bade their +lovers adieu, and watched them drive down the dripping avenue and +disappear. + +An hour before he had come down stairs that morning, Mr. Stanford had +written a letter. It was very short: + + "Dear Old Boy:--I'm off. In an hour I shall be on my way + to Ottawa, and from thence I will write you next. Do you know why + I am going? I am running away from myself! 'Lead us not into + temptation;' and Satan seems to have me hard and fast at Danton + Hall. Lauderdale, in spite of your bad opinion of me, I don't want + to be a villain if I can help it. I don't want to do any harm; I do + want to be true! And here it is impossible. I have got intoxicated + with flowing curls, and flashing dark eyes, and all the pretty, + bewitching, foolish, irresistible ways of that piquant little + beauty, whom I have no business under heaven to think of. I know + she is silly, and frivolous, and coquettish, and vain; but I love + her! There, the murder is out, and I feel better after it. But, + withal, I want to be faithful to the girl who loves me (ah! wretch + that I am!), and so I fly. A month out of sight of that sweet + face--a month out of hearing of that gay, young voice--a month + shooting, and riding, and exploring these Canadian wilds, will do + me good, and bring me back a new man. At least, I hope so; and + don't you set me down as a villain for the next four weeks, at + least." + + * * * * * + +The day of departure was miserably long and dull at the Hall. It rained +ceaselessly, and that made it worse. Rose never left her room; her plea +was headache. Kate wandered drearily up stairs and down stairs, and felt +desolate and forsaken beyond all precedent. + +There was a strange, forlorn stillness about the house, as if some one +lay dead in it; and from morning to night the wind never ceased its +melancholy complaining. + +Of course this abnormal state of things could not last. Sunshine came +next day, and the young ladies were themselves again. The preparations +for the treble wedding must begin in earnest now--shopping, dressmakers, +milliners, jewellers, all had to be seen after. A journey to Montreal +must be taken immediately, and business commenced. Kate held a long +consultation with Rose in her boudoir; but Rose, marvellous to tell, +took very little interest in the subject. She, who all her life made +dress the great concern of her existence, all at once, in this most +important crisis, grew indifferent. + +She accompanied Kate to Montreal, however, and helped in the selection +of laces, and silks, and flowers, and ribbons; and another dressmaker +was hunted up and carried back. + +It was a busy time after that; the needles of Agnes Darling, Eunice, and +the new dressmaker flew from morning until night. Grace lent her +assistance, and Kate was always occupied superintending, and being +fitted and refitted, and had no time to think how lonely the house was, +or how much she missed Reginald Stanford. She was happy beyond the power +of words to describe; the time was near when they would never part +again--when she would be his--his happy, happy wife. + +It was all different with Rose; she had changed in a most unaccountable +manner. All her movements were languid and listless, she who had been +wont to keep the house astir; she took no interest in the bridal dresses +and jewellery; she shrank from every one, and wanted to be alone. She +grew pale, and thin, and hysterical, and so petulant that it was a risk +to speak to her. What was the matter?--every one asked that question, +and Grace and Grace's brother were the only two who guessed within a +mile of the truth. + +And so April wore away. Time, that goes on forever--steadily, steadily, +for the happy and the miserable--was bringing the fated time near. The +snow had fled, the new grass and fresh buds were green on the lawn and +trees, and the birds sang their _glorias_ in the branches so lately +tossed by the wintry winds. + +Doctor Danton was still at St. Croix, but he was going away, too. He had +had an interview with Agnes Darling, whose hopes were on the ebb; and +once more had tried to engraft his own bright, sanguine nature on hers. + +"Never give up, Agnes," he said, cheerily. "Patience, patience yet a +little longer. I shall return for my sister's wedding, and I think it +will be all right then." + +Agnes listened and sighed wearily. The ghost of Danton Hall had been +very well behaved of late, and had frightened no one. The initiated knew +that Mr. Richards was not very well, and that the night air was +considered unhealthy, so he never left his rooms. The tamarack walk was +undisturbed in the lonely April nights--at least by all save Doctor +Frank, who sometimes chose to haunt the place, but who never saw +anything for his pains. + +May came--with it came Mr. Stanford, looking sunburned, and fresh, and +handsomer than ever. As on the evening of his departure from the Hall, +so on the eve of his departure from Ottawa, he had written to that +confidential friend: + + "Dear Lauderdale.--The month of probation has expired. To-morrow + I return to Danton Hall. Whatever happens, I have done my best. + If fate is arbitrary, am I to blame? Look for me in June, and + be ready to pay your respects to Mrs. Stanford." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ONE OF EARTH'S ANGELS. + + +Mr. Stanford's visit to Ottawa had changed him somehow, it seemed to +Kate. The eyes that love us are sharp; the heart that sets us up for its +idol is quick to feel every variation. Reginald was changed--vaguely, +almost indefinably, but certainly changed. He was more silent than of +old, and had got a habit of falling into long brown studies in the midst +of the most interesting conversation. He took almost as little interest +in the bridal paraphernalia as Rose, and sauntered lazily about the +grounds, or lay on the tender new grass under the trees smoking endless +cigars, and looking dreamily up at the endless patches of bright blue +sky, and thinking, thinking--of what? + +Kate saw it, felt it, and was uneasy. Grace saw it, too; for Grace had +her suspicions of that fascinating young officer, and watched him +closely. They were not very good friends somehow, Grace and Kate Danton; +a sort of armed neutrality existed between them, and had ever since Kate +had heard of her father's approaching marriage. She had never liked +Grace much--she liked her less than ever now. She was marrying her +father from the basest and most mercenary motives, and Kate despised +her, and was frigidly civil and polite whenever she met her. She took it +very quietly, this calm Grace, as she took all things, and was +respectful to Miss Danton, as became Miss Danton's father's housekeeper. + +"Don't you think Mr. Stanford has altered somehow, Frank, since he went +to Ottawa?" she said one day to her brother, as they sat alone together +by the dining-room window. + +Doctor Danton looked out. Mr. Stanford was sauntering down the avenue, a +fishing-rod over his shoulder, and his bride-elect on his arm. + +"Altered! How?" + +"I don't know how," said Grace, "but he has altered. There is something +changed about him; I don't know what. I don't think he is settled in his +mind." + +"My dear Grace, what are you talking about? Not settled in his mind! A +man who is about to marry the handsomest girl in North America?" + +"I don't care for that. I wouldn't trust Mr. Reginald Stanford as far as +I could see him." + +"You wouldn't? But then you are an oddity, Grace. What do you suspect +him of?" + +"Never mind; my suspicions are my own. One thing I am certain of--he is +no more worthy to marry Kate Danton than I am to marry a prince." + +"Nonsense! He is as handsome as Apollo, he sings, he dances, and talks +divinely. Are you not a little severe, Grace?" + +Grace closed her lips. + +"We won't talk about it. What do you suppose is the matter with Rose?" + +"I wasn't aware there was anything the matter. An excess of happiness, +probably; girls like to be married, you know, Grace." + +"Fiddlestick! She has grown thin; she mopes in her room all day long, +and hasn't a word for anyone--she who used to be the veriest chatterbox +alive." + +"All very naturally accounted for, my dear. M. La Touche is +absent--doubtless she is pining for him." + +"Just about as much as I am. I tell you, Frank, I hope things will go +right next June, but I don't believe it. Hush! here is Miss Danton." + +Miss Danton opened the door, and, seeing who were there, bowed coldly, +and retired again. Unjustly enough, the brother came in for part of the +aversion she felt for the sister. + +Meantime Mr. Stanford sauntered along the village with his fishing-rod, +nodding good-humouredly right and left. Short as had been his stay at +Danton Hall, he was very well known in the village, and had won golden +opinions from all sorts of people. From the black-eyed girls who fell in +love with his handsome face, to the urchins rolling in the mud, and to +whom he flung handfuls of pennies. The world and Mr. Stanford went +remarkably well with each other, and whistling all the way, he reached +his destination in half an hour--a clear, silvery stream, shadowed by +waving trees and famous in fishing annals. He flung himself down on the +turfy sward, lit a cigar, and began smoking and staring reflectively at +vacancy. + +The afternoon was lovely, warm as June, the sky was cloudless, and the +sunlight glittered in golden ripples on the stream. All things were +favourable; but Mr. Stanford was evidently not a very enthusiastic +disciple of Isaac Walton; for his cigar was smoked out, the stump thrown +away, and his fishing-rod lay unused still. He took it up at last and +dropped it scientifically in the water. + +"It's a bad business," he mused, "and hanging, drawing, and quartering +would be too good for me. But what the dickens is a fellow to do? And +then she is so fond of me, too--poor little girl!" + +He laid the fishing-rod down again, drew from an inner pocket a +note-book and pencil. From between the leaves he drew out a sheet of +pink-tinted, gilt-edged note paper, and, using the note-book for a desk, +began to write. It was a letter, evidently; and after he wrote the first +line, he paused, and looked at it with an odd smile. The line was, +"Angel of my Dreams." + +"I think she will like the style of that," he mused; "it's Frenchified +and sentimental, and she rather affects that sort of thing. Poor child! +I don't see how I ever got to be so fond of her." + +Mr. Stanford went on with his letter. It was in French, and he wrote +very slowly and thoughtfully. He filled the four sides, ending with +"Wholly thine, Reginald Stanford." Carefully he re-read, made some +erasures, folded, and put it in an envelope. As he sealed the envelope, +a big dog came bounding down the bank, and poked its cold, black nose +inquisitively in his face. + +"Ah! Tiger, _mein Herr_, how are you? Where is your master?" + +"Here," said Doctor Frank. "Don't let me intrude. Write the address, by +all means." + +"As if I would put you _au fait_ of my love letters," said Mr. Stanford, +coolly putting the letter in his note-book, and the note-book in his +pocket. "I thought you were off to-day?" + +"No, to-morrow. I must be up and doing now; I am about tired of St. +Croix and nothing to do." + +"Are you ever coming back!" + +"Certainly. I shall come back on the fourth of June, Heaven willing, to +see you made the happiest man in creation." + +"Have a cigar?" said Mr. Stanford, presenting his cigar-case. "I can +recommend them. You would be the happiest man in creation in my place, +wouldn't you?" + +"Most decidedly. But I wasn't born, like some men I know of, with a +silver spoon in my mouth. Beautiful wives drop into some men's arms, +ripe and ready, but I am not one of them." + +"Oh, don't despond! Your turn may come yet!" + +"I don't despond--I leave that to--but comparisons are odious." + +"Go on." + +"To Miss Rose Danton. She is pining on the stem, at the near approach of +matrimony, and growing as pale as spirit. What is the matter with her?" + +"You ought to know best. You're a doctor." + +"But love-sickness; I don't believe there is anything in the whole range +of physic to cure that. What's this--a fishing-rod?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Stanford, taking a more comfortable position on the +grass. "I thought I would try my luck this fine afternoon, but somehow I +don't seem to progress very fast." + +"I should think not, indeed. Let me see what I can do." + +Reginald watched him lazily, as he dropped the line into the placid +water. + +"What do you think about it yourself?" he asked, after a pause. + +"About what?" + +"This new alliance on the tapis. He's a very nice little fellow, I have +no doubt; but if I were a pretty girl, I don't think I should like nice +little fellows. He is just the last sort of a man in the world I could +fancy our bright Rose marrying." + +"Of course he is! It's a failing of the sex to marry the very last man +their friends would expect. But are you quite sure in this case; no +April day was ever more changeable than Rose Danton." + +"I don't know what you mean. They'll be married to a dead certainty." + +"What will you bet on the event?" + +"I'm not rich enough to bet; but if I were, it wouldn't be honourable, +you know." + +Doctor Frank gave him a queer look, as he hooked a fish out of the +water. + +"Oh, if it becomes a question of honour, I have no more to say. Do you +see this fellow wriggling on my hook?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, when this fish swims again, Rose Danton will be Mrs. La Touche, +and you know it." + +He said the last words so significantly, and with such a look, that all +the blood of all the Stanfords rushed red to Reginald's face. + +"The deuce take your inuendoes!" he exclaimed. "What do you mean?" + +"Don't ask me," said Doctor Frank. "I hate to tell a lie: and I won't +say what I suspect. Suppose we change the subject. Where is Sir Ronald +Keith?" + +"In New Brunswick, doing the wild-woods and shooting bears. Poor wretch! +With all his eight thousand a year, and that paradise in Scotland, Glen +Keith, I don't envy him. I never saw anyone so hopelessly hard hit as +he." + +"You're a fortunate fellow, Stanford; but I doubt if you know it. Sir +Ronald would be a far happier man in your place." + +The face of the young Englishman darkened suddenly. + +"Perhaps there is such a thing as being too fortunate, and getting +satiated. I wish I could be steadfast, and firm, and faithful forever to +one thing, like some men, but I can't. Sir Ronald's one of that kind, +and so are you, Danton; but I--" + +He threw his cigar into the water, and left the sentence unfinished. +There was a long silence. Doctor Frank fished away as if his life +depended on it; and Stanford lay and watched him, and thought--who knows +what? + +The May afternoon wore on, the slanting lines of the red sunset flamed +in the tree-tops, and shed its reflected glory on the placid water. The +hum of evening bustle came up from the village drowsily; and Doctor +Danton, laying down his line, looked at his watch. + +"Are you asleep, Stanford? Do you know it is six o'clock?" + +"By George!" said Reginald, starting up. "I had no idea it was so late. +Are you for the Hall?" + +"Of course. Don't I deserve my dinner in return for this string of +silvery fish? Come along." + +The two young men walked leisurely and rather silently homeward. As they +entered the gates, they caught sight of a young lady advancing slowly +towards them--a young lady dressed in pale pink, with ribbons fluttering +and curls flowing. + +"The first rose of summer!" said Doctor Frank. "The future Madame La +Touche!" + +"Have you come to meet us, Rose?" asked Stanford. "Very polite of you." + +"I won't be _de trop_," said the Doctor; "I'll go on." + +Rose turned with Reginald, and Doctor Danton walked away, leaving them +to follow at their leisure. + +In the entrance Hall he met Kate, stately and beautiful, dressed in +rustling silk, and with flowers in her golden hair. + +"Have you seen Mr. Stanford?" she asked, glancing askance at the fish. + +"Yes; he is in the grounds with Rose." + +She smiled, and went past. Doctor Frank looked after her with a glance +of unmistakable admiration. + +"Blind! blind! blind!" he thought. "What fools men are! Only children of +a larger growth, throwing away gold for the pitiful glistening of +tinsel." + +Kate caught a glimpse of a pink skirt, fluttering in and out among the +trees, and made for it. Her light step on the sward gave back no echo. +How earnestly Reginald was talking--how consciously Rose was listening +with downcast face! What was that he was giving her? A letter! Surely +not; and yet how much it looked like it. Another moment, and she was +beside them, and Rose had started away from Reginald's side, her face +crimson. If ever guilt's red banner hung on any countenance, it did on +hers; and Kate's eyes wandered wonderingly from one to the other. Mr. +Stanford was as placid as the serene sunset sky above them. Like +Talleyrand, if he had been kicked from behind, his face would never have +shown it. + +"I thought you were away fishing," said Kate. "Was Rose with you?" + +"I was not so blessed. I had only Doctor Frank--Oh, don't be in a hurry +to leave us; it is not dinner-time yet." + +This last to Rose, who was edging off, still the picture of confusion, +and one hand clutching something white, hidden in the folds of her +dress. With a confused apology, she turned suddenly, and disappeared +among the trees. Kate fixed her large, deep eyes suspiciously on her +lover's laughing face. + +"Well?" she said, inquiringly. + +"Well?" he repeated, mimicking her tone. + +"What is the meaning of all this?" + +Stanford laughed carelessly, and drew her hand within his arm. + +"It means, my dear, that pretty sister of yours is a goose! I paid her a +compliment, and she blushed after it, at sight of you, as if I had been +talking love to her. Come, let us have a walk before dinner." + +"I thought I saw you give her something? Was it a letter?" + +Not a muscle of his face moved; not a shadow of change was in his tone, +as he answered: + +"A letter! Of course not. You heard her the other day ask me for that +old English song that I sang? I wrote it out this afternoon, and gave it +to her. Are you jealous, Kate?" + +"Dreadfully! Don't you go paying compliments to Rose, sir; reserve them +for me. Come down the tamarack walk." + +Leaning fondly on his arm, Kate walked with her lover up and down the +green avenue until the dinner-bell summoned them in. + +And all the time, Rose, up in her own room, was reading, with flushed +cheeks and glistening eyes, that letter written by the brook-side, +beginning, "Angel of my Dreams." + +When the family assembled at dinner, it was found that Rose was absent. +A servant sent in search of her returned with word that Miss Rose had a +headache, and begged they would excuse her. + +Kate went up to her room immediately after dinner. But found it locked. +She rapped, and called, but there was no sign, and no response from +within. + +"She is asleep," thought Kate; and went down again. + +She tried again, some hours later, on her way to her own room, but still +was unable to obtain entrance or answer. If she could only have seen +her, sitting by the window reading and re-reading that letter in French, +beginning "Angel of my Dreams." + +Rose came down to breakfast next morning quite well again. The morning's +post had brought her a letter from Quebec, and she read it as she sipped +her coffee. + +"Is it from Virginie Leblanc?" asked Eeny. "She is your only +correspondent in Quebec." + +Rose nodded and went on reading. + +"What does she want?" Eeny persisted. + +"She wants me to pay her a visit," said Rose, folding up her letter. + +"And of course you won't go?" + +"No--yes--I don't know." + +She spoke absently, crumbling the roll on her plate, and not eating. She +lingered in the room after breakfast, when all the rest had left it, +looking out of the window. She was still there when, half an hour later, +Grace came in to sew; but not alone. Mr. Stanford was standing beside +her, and Grace caught his last low words: + +"It is the most fortunate thing that could have happened. Don't lose any +time." + +He saw Grace and stopped, spoke to her, and sauntered out of the room. +Rose did not turn from the window for fully ten minutes. When she did, +it was to ask where her father was. + +"In his study." + +She left the room and went to the study. Captain Danton looked up from +his writing, at her entrance, in some surprise. + +"Don't choke me, my dear, what is it?" + +"Papa, may I go to Quebec?" + +"Quebec? My dear, how can you go?" + +"Very easily, papa. Virginie wants me to go, and I should like to see +her. I won't stay there long." + +"But all your wedding finery, Rose--how is it to be made if you go +away?" + +"It is nearly all made, papa; and for what remains they can get along +just as well without me. Papa, say yes. I want to go dreadfully; and I +will only stay a week or so. Do say yes, there's a darling papa!" + +"Well, my dear, go, if you wish; but don't forget to come back in time. +It will never do for M. La Touche to come here the fourth of June and +find his bride missing." + +"I won't stay in Quebec until June, papa," said Rose, kissing him and +running out of the room. He called after her as she was shutting the +door: + +"Doctor Frank goes to Montreal this afternoon. If you are ready, you +might go with him." + +"Yes, papa; I'll be ready." + +Rose set to work packing at once, declining all assistance. She filled +her trunk with all her favourite dresses; stowed away all her +jewellery--taking a very unnecessary amount of luggage, one would think, +for a week's visit. + +Every one was surprised, at luncheon, when Rose's departure was +announced. None more so than Mr. Stanford. + +"It is just like Rose!" exclaimed Eeny; "she is everything by starts, +and nothing long. Flying off to Quebec for a week, just as she is going +to be married, with half her dresses unmade. It's absurd." + +The afternoon train for Montreal passed through St. Croix at three +o'clock. Kate and Reginald drove to the station with her, and saw her +safely seated beside Doctor Frank. Her veil of drab gauze was down over +her face, flushed and excited; and she kissed her sister good-bye +without lifting it. Reginald Stanford shook hands with her--a long, +warm, lingering clasp--and flashed a bright, electric glance that +thrilled to her inmost heart. An instant later, and the train was in +motion, and Rose was gone. + +The morning of the third day after brought a note from Quebec. Rose had +arrived safely, and the Leblanc family were delighted to see her. That +was all. + +That evening, Mr. Stanford made the announcement that he was to depart +for Montreal next morning. It was to Kate, of course. She had strolled +down to the gate to meet him, in the red light of the sunset, as he came +home from a day's gunning. He had taken, of late, to being absent a +great deal, fishing and shooting; and those last three days he had been +away from breakfast until dinner. + +"Going to Montreal?" repeated Kate. "What for?" + +"To see a friend of mine--Major Forsyth. He has come over lately, with +his wife, and I have just heard of it. Besides, I have a few purchases +to make." + +He was switching the tremulous spring flowers along the path with his +cane, and not looking at her as he spoke. + +"How long shall you be gone?" + +He laughed. + +"Montreal has no charms for me, you know," he replied; "I shall not +remain there long, probably not over a week." + +"The house will be lonely when you are gone--now that Rose is away." + +She sighed a little, saying it. Somehow, a vague feeling of uneasiness +had disturbed her of late--something wanting in Reginald--something she +could not define, which used to be there and was gone. She did not like +this readiness of his to leave her on all occasions. She loved him with +such a devoted and entire love, that the shortest parting was to her +acutest pain. + +"Are you coming in?" he asked, seeing her linger under the trees. + +"Not yet; the evening is too fine." + +"Then I must leave you. It will hardly be the thing, I suppose, to go to +dinner in this shooting-jacket." + +He entered the house and ran up to his room. The dinner-bell was ringing +before he finished dressing; but when he descended, Kate was still +lingering out of doors. He stood by the window watching her, as she came +slowly up the lawn. The yellow glory of the sunset made an aureole round +her tinseled hair; her slender figure robed in shimmering silk; her +motion floating and light. He remembered that picture long afterwards: +that Canada landscape, that blue silvery mist filling the air, and the +tall, graceful girl, coming slowly homeward, with the fading yellow +light in her golden hair. + +After dinner, when the moon rose--a crystal-white crescent--they all +left the drawing-room for the small hall and portico. Kate, a white +shawl on her shoulders, sat on the stone step, and sang, softly, "The +Young May Moon;" Mr. Stanford leaned lightly against one of the stone +pillars, smoking a cigar, and looking up at the blue, far-off sky, his +handsome face pale and still. + +"Sing 'When the Swallows Homeward Fly,' Kate," her father said. + +She sang the song, softly and a little sadly, with some dim +foreshadowing of trouble weighing at her heart. They lingered there +until the clock struck ten--Kate's songs and the moonlight charming the +hours away. When they went into the house, and took their night-lamps, +Stanford bade them good-bye. + +"I shall probably be off before any of you open your eyes on this mortal +life to-morrow morning," he said, "and so had better say good-bye now." + +"You leave by the eight A. M. train, then," said the Captain. "It seems +to me everybody is running off just when they ought to stay at home." + +Stanford laughed, and shook hands with Grace and Kate--with one as +warmly as with the other--and was gone. Kate's face looked pale and sad, +as she went slowly upstairs with that dim foreshadowing still at her +heart. + +Breakfast was awaiting the traveller next morning at half-past seven, +when he ran down stairs, ready for his journey. More than breakfast was +waiting. Kate stood by the window, looking out drearily at the matinal +sunlight. + +"Up so early, Kate?" her lover said, with an expression of rapture. "Why +did you take the trouble?" + +"It was no trouble," Kate said, slowly, feeling cold and strange. + +He sat down to table, but only drank a cup of coffee. As he arose, +Captain Danton and Grace came in. + +"We got up betimes to see you off," said the Captain. "A delightful +morning for your journey. There is Sam with the gig now. Look sharp, +Reginald; only fifteen minutes left." + +Reginald snatched up his overcoat. + +"Good-bye," he said, hurriedly shaking hands with the Captain, then with +Grace. Kate, standing by the window, never turned round. He went up to +her, very, very pale, as they all remembered afterward, holding out his +hand. + +"Good-bye, Kate." + +The hand she gave him was icy cold, her face perfectly colourless. The +cold fingers lingered around his for a moment; the deep, clear, violet +eyes were fixed wistfully on his face. That was her only good-bye--she +did not speak. In another moment he was out of the house; in another he +was riding rapidly down the avenue; in another he was gone--and forever. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +EPISTOLARY. + + +[From Madame Leblanc to Captain Danton.] + + Quebec, May 17, 18--. + + Dear Sir:--I write to you in the utmost distress and + confusion of mind. I hardly know how to break to you the news it is + my painful duty to reveal, lest some blame should attach itself to + me or mine, where I assure you none is deserved. Your daughter Rose + has left us--run away; in fact, I believe, eloped. I have reason to + think she was married yesterday; but to whom I have not yet + discovered. I beg to assure you, Captain Danton, that neither I nor + any one in my house had the remotest idea of her intention; and we + are all in the greatest consternation since the discovery has been + made. I would not for worlds such a thing had happened under my + roof, and I earnestly trust you will not hold me to blame. + + Six days ago, on the afternoon of the 11th, your daughter arrived + here. We were all delighted to see her, Virginie in particular; + for, hearing of her approaching marriage with M. La Touche, we were + afraid she might not come. We all noticed a change in her--her + manner different from what it used to be--a languor, an apathy to + all things--a general listlessness that nothing could arouse her + from. She, who used to be so full of life and spirits, was now the + quietest in the house, and seemed to like nothing so well as being + by herself and dreaming the hours away. On the evening of the third + day this lassitude left her. She grew restless and nervous--almost + feverishly so. Next morning this feverish restlessness grew worse. + She refused to leave the house in the afternoon to accompany my + daughter on a shopping expedition. Her plea was toothache, and + Virginie went alone. The early afternoon post brought her what I + believe she was waiting for--a letter. She ran up with it to her + own room, which she did not leave until dusk. I was standing in the + entrance-hall when she came down, dressed for a walk, and wearing a + veil over her face. I asked her where she was going. She answered + for a walk, it might help her toothache. An hour afterward Virginie + returned. Her first question was for Rose. I informed her she was + gone out. + + "Then," exclaimed Virginie, "it must have been Rose that I met in + the next street, walking with a gentleman. I thought the dress and + figure were hers, but I could not see her face for a thick veil. + The gentleman was tall and dark, and very handsome." + + Half an hour later, Rose came back. We teased her a little about + the gentleman; but she put it off quite indifferently, saying he + was an acquaintance she had encountered in the street, and that she + had promised to go with him next morning to call on a lady-friend + of hers, a Mrs. Major Forsyth. We thought no more about it; and + next morning, when the gentleman called in a carriage, Rose was + quite ready, and went away with him. It was then about eleven + o'clock, and she did not return until five in the afternoon. Her + face was flushed, her manner excited, and she broke away from + Virginie and ran up to her room. All the evening her manner was + most unaccountably altered, her spirits extravagantly high, and + colour like fever in her face. She and Virginie shared the same + room, and when they went upstairs for the night, she would not go + to bed. + + "You can go," she said to Virginie; "I have a long letter to write, + and you must not talk to me, dear." + + Virginie went to bed. She is a very sound sleeper, and rarely + wakes, when she lies down, until morning. She fell asleep, and + never awoke all night. It was morning when she opened her eyes. She + was alone. Rose was neither in the bed nor in the room. + + Virginie thought nothing of it. She got up, dressed, came down to + breakfast, expecting to find Rose before her. Rose was not before + her--she was not in the house. We waited breakfast until ten, + anxiously looking for her; but she never came. None of the servants + had seen her, but that she had gone out very early was evident; for + the house-door was unlocked and unbolted, when the kitchen-girl + came down at six in the morning. We waited all the forenoon, but + she never came. Our anxiety trebly increased when we made the + discovery that she had taken her trunk with her. How she had got it + out of the house was the profoundest mystery. We questioned the + servants; but they all denied stoutly. Whether to believe them or + not I cannot tell, but I doubt the housemaid. + + The early afternoon post brought Virginie a note. I inclose it. It + tells you all I can tell. I write immediately, distressed by what + has occurred, more than I can say. I earnestly trust the poor child + has not thrown herself away. I hope with all my heart it may not be + so bad as at first sight if seems. Believe me my dear sir, truly + sorry for what has occurred, and I trust you will acquit me of + blame. + + With the deepest sympathy, I remain, + + Yours, sincerely, + Mathilde Leblanc. + + +[Miss Rose Danton to Mlle. Virginie Leblanc. Inclosed in the preceding.] + + Wednesday Night. + + My Darling Virginie:--When you read this, we shall have + parted--perhaps forever. My pet, I am married! To-day, when + I drove away, it was not to call on Mrs. Major Forsyth, but be + married. Oh, my dearest, dearest Virginie, I am so happy, so + blessed--so--so--oh! I can't tell you of my unutterable joy! I am + going away to-night, in half an hour. I shall kiss you good-bye as + you sleep. In a day or two I leave Canada forever, to be happy, + beyond the power of words to describe, in another land. Adieu, my + pet. If we never meet, don't forget your happy, happy + Rose. + + +[Miss Grace Danton to Doctor Frank Danton.] + + Danton Hall, May 21, 18--. + + My Dear Frank:--Do you recollect your last words to me as you + left St. Croix: "Write to me, Grace. I think you will have news + to send me before long." Had you, as I had, a presentment of what + was to come? My worst forebodings are realized. Rose has eloped. + Reginald Stanford is a villain. They are married. There are no + positive proofs as yet, but I am morally certain of the fact. I + have long suspected that he admired that frivolous Rose more than + he had any right to do, but I hardly thought it would come to this. + Heaven forgive them, and Heaven pity Kate, who loved them both so + well! She knows nothing of the matter as yet. I dread the time when + the truth will be revealed. + + The morning of the 19th brought Captain Danton a letter from + Quebec, in a strange hand. It came after breakfast, and I carried + it myself into his study. I returned to the dining-room before he + opened it, and sat down to work; but in about fifteen minutes the + Captain came in, his face flushed, his manner more agitated and + excited than I had ever seen it. "Read that," was all that he could + say, thrusting the open letter into my hand. No wonder he was + agitated. It was from Madam Leblanc, and contained the news that + Rose had made a clandestine marriage, and was gone, no one knew + where. + + Inclosed there was a short and rapturous note from Rose herself, + saying that she had been married that day, and was blessed beyond + the power of words to describe, and was on the point of leaving + Canada forever. She did not give her new name. She said nothing of + her husband, but that she loved him passionately. There was but one + name mentioned in the letter, that of a Mrs. Major Forsyth, whom + she left home ostensibly to visit. + + From the moment I read the letter, I had no doubt to whom she was + married. Three days after Rose's departure for Quebec, Mr. Stanford + left us for Montreal. He was only to be absent a week. The week has + nearly expired, and there is no news of him. I knew instantly, as I + have said, with whom Rose had run away; but as I looked up, I saw + no shadow of a suspicion of the truth in Captain Danton's face. + + "What does it mean?" he asked, with a bewildered look. "I can't + understand it. Can you?" + + There was no use in disguising the truth; sooner or later he must + find it out. + + "I think I can," I answered. "I believe Rose left here for the very + purpose she has accomplished, and not to visit Virginie Leblanc." + + "You believe that letter, then?" + + "Yes: I fear it is too true." + + "But, heavens above! What would she elope for? We were all willing + she should marry La Touche." + + "I don't think it is with M. La Touche," I said, reluctantly. "I + wish it were. I am afraid it is worse than that." + + He stood looking at me, waiting, too agitated to speak. I told him + the worst at once. + + "I am afraid it is with Reginald Stanford." + + "Grace," he said, looking utterly confounded, "what do you mean?" + + I made him sit down, and told him what perhaps I should have told + him long ago, my suspicions of that young Englishman. I told him I + was certain Rose had been his daily visitor during those three + weeks' illness up the village; that she had been passionately in + love with him from the first, and that he was a villain and a + traitor. A thousand things, too slight to recapitulate, but all + tending to the same end, convinced me of it. He was changeful by + nature. Rose's pretty piquant beauty bewitched him; and this was + the end. + + "I hope I may be mistaken," I said; "for Kate's sake I hope so, for + she loves him with a love of which he is totally unworthy; but, I + confess, I doubt it." + + I cannot describe to you the anger of Captain Danton, and I pray I + may never witness the like again. When men like him, quiet and + good-natured by habit, do get into a passion, the passion is + terrible indeed. + + "The villain!" he cried, through his clenched teeth. "The cruel + villain! I'll shoot him like a dog!" + + I was frightened. I quail even now at the recollection, and the + dread of what may come. I tried to quiet him, but in vain; he shook + me off like a child. + + "Let me, alone, Grace!" he said, passionately. "I shall never rest + until I have sent a bullet through his brain!" + + It was then half-past eleven; the train for Montreal passed through + St. Croix at twelve. Captain Danton went out, and ordered round his + gig, in a tone that made the stable-boy stare. I followed him to + his room, and found him putting his pistols in his coat-pocket. I + asked him where he was going, almost afraid to speak to him, his + face was so changed. + + "To Montreal first," was his answer; "to look for that matchless + scoundrel; afterwards to Quebec, to blow out his brains, and those + of my shameful daughter!" + + I begged, I entreated, I cried. It was all useless. He would not + listen to me; but he grew quieter. + + "Don't tell Kate," he said. "I won't see her; say I have gone upon + business. If I find Stanford in Montreal, I will come back. Rose + may go to perdition her own way. If I don't--" He paused, his face + turning livid. "If I don't, I'll send you a despatch to say I have + left for Quebec." + + He ran down-stairs without saying good-bye, jumped into the gig, + and drove off. I was so agitated that I dared not go down stairs + when luncheon-hour came. Eeny came up immediately after, and asked + me if I was ill. I pleaded a headache as an excuse for remaining in + my room all day, for I dreaded meeting Kate. Those deep, clear eyes + of hers seem to have a way of reading one's very thoughts, and + seeing through all falsehoods. Eeny's next question was for her + father. I said he had gone to Montreal on sudden business, and I + did not know when he would return--probably soon. + + She went down-stairs to tell Kate, and I kept my chamber till the + afternoon. I went down to dinner, calm once more. It was + unspeakably dull and dreary, we three alone, where a few days ago + we were so many. No one came all evening, and the hours wore away, + long, and lonely, and silent. We were all oppressed and dismal. I + hardly dared to look at Kate, who sat playing softly in the dim + piano-recess. + + This morning brought me the dreaded despatch. Captain Danton had + gone to Quebec; Mr. Stanford was not in Montreal. + + I cannot describe to you how I passed yesterday. I never was so + miserable in all my life. It went to my heart to see Kate so happy + and busy with the dressmakers, giving orders about those + wedding-garments she is never to wear. It was a day of unutterable + wretchedness, and the evening was as dull and dreary as its + predecessor. Father Francis came up for an hour, and his sharp eyes + detected the trouble in my face. I would have told him if Kate had + not been there; but it was impossible, and I had to prevaricate. + + This morning has brought no news; the suspense is horrible. Heaven + help Kate! I can write no more. + + Your affectionate sister, + + Grace Danton + + +[Lieutenant R. R. Stanford to Major Lauderdale.] + + Quebec, May 17. + + Dear Lauderdale:--The deed is done, the game is up, the play + is played out--Reginald Reinecourt Stanford is a married man. + + You have read, when a guileless little chap in roundabouts, "The + Children of the Abbey," and other tales of like kidney. They were + romantic and sentimental, weren't they? Well, old fellow, not one + of them was half so romantic or sentimental as this marriage of + mine. There were villains in them, too--Colonel Belgrave, and so + forth--black-hearted monsters, without one redeeming trait. I tell + you, Lauderdale, none of these unmitigated rascals were half so bad + as I am. Think of me at my worst, a scoundrel of the deepest dye, + and you will about hit the mark. My dear little, pretty little Rose + is not much better; but she is such a sweet little sinner, that--in + short, I don't want her to reform. I am in a state of indescribable + beatitude, of course--only two days wedded--and immersed in the + joys of _la lune de miel_. Forsyth--you know Forsyth, of + "Ours"--was my aider and abettor, accompanied by Mrs. F. He made a + runaway match himself, and is always on hand to help + fellow-sufferers; on the ground, I suppose, that misery loves + company. + + To-morrow we sail in the Amphitrite for Southampton. It won't do to + linger, for my papa-in-law is a dead shot. When I see you, I'll + tell you all about it. Until then, adieu and _au revoir_. + + Reginald Stanford. + + +[Mrs. Reginald Stanford to Grace Danton.] + + Quebec, May 18. + + Dear Mamma Grace:--I suppose, before this, you have heard + the awful news that my Darling Reginald and I got married. Wouldn't + I like to see you as you read this? Don't I know that virtuous + scowl of yours so well, my precious mamma-in-law? Oh, you dear old + prude, it's so nice to be married, and Reginald is an angel! I love + him so much, and I am so happy; I never was half so happy in my + life. + + I suppose Madame Leblanc sent you the full, true, and particular + account of my going on. Poor old soul! What a rare fright she must + have got when she found out I was missing. And Virginie, too. + Virginie was so jealous to think I was going to be married before + her, as if I would ever have married that insipid Jules. How I wish + my darling Reginald had his fortune; but fortune or no fortune, I + love him with all my heart, and am going to be just as happy as the + day is long. + + I dare-say Kate is furious, and saying all kinds of hard things + about me. It is not fair if she is. I could not help Reginald's + liking me better than her, and I should have died if I had not got + him. There! I feel very sorry for her, though; I know how I should + feel if I lost him, and I dare say she feels almost as bad. Let her + take Jules. Poor Jules, I expect he will break his heart, and I + shall be shocked and disappointed if he does not. Let her take him. + He is rich and good-looking; and all those lovely wedding-clothes + will not go to waste. Ah! how sorry I am to leave them behind; but + it can't be helped. We are off to-morrow for England. I shall not + feel safe until the ocean is between us and papa. I suppose papa is + very angry; but where is the use? As long as Reginald marries one + of his daughters, I should think the particular one would be + immaterial. + + I am sorry I cannot be present at your wedding, Grace; I give you + _carte blanche_ to wear all the pretty things made for Mrs. Jules + La Touche, if they will fit you. Tell poor Jules, when he comes, + that I am sorry; but I loved Reginald so much that I could not help + it. Isn't he divinely handsome, Grace? If he knew I was writing to + you, he would send his love, so take it for granted. + + I should like to write more, but I am going on board in an hour. + Please tell Kate not to break her heart. It's of no use. + + Give my regard to that obliging brother of yours. I like him very + much. Perhaps I may write to you from England if you will not be + disagreeable, and will answer. I should like to hear the news from + Canada and Danton Hall. Rapturously thine, + + Rose Stanford. + + +[Grace Danton to Dr. Danton.] + + Danton Hall, May 30. + + Dear Frank:--"Man proposes--" You know the proverb, which + holds good in the case of women too. I know my prolonged silence + must have surprised you; but I have been so worried and anxious, of + late, that writing has become an impossibility. Danton Hall has + become a _maison de deuil_--a house of mourning indeed. I look back + as people look back on some dim, delightful dream to the days that + are gone, and wonder if indeed we were so merry and gay. The + silence of the grave reigns here now. The laughter, the music--all + the merry sounds of a happy household--have fled forever. A convent + of ascetic nuns could not be stiller, nor the holy sisterhood more + grave and sombre. Let me begin at the beginning, and relate events + as they occurred, if I can. + + The day after I wrote you last brought the first event, in the + shape of a letter from Rose to myself. A more thoroughly selfish + and heartless epistle could not have been penned. I always knew her + to be selfish, and frivolous, vain, and silly to the backbone--yea, + backbone and all; but still I had a sort of liking for her withal. + That letter effectually dispelled any lingering remains of that + weakness. It spoke of her marriage with Reginald Stanford in the + most shamelessly insolent and exultant tone. It alluded to her + sister and to poor Jules La Touche in a way that brought the + "bitter bad" blood of the old Dantons to my face. Oh, if I could + have but laid my hands on Mistress Rose at that moment, quiet as I + am, I think I would have made her ears tingle as they never tingled + before. + + I said nothing of the letter. My greatest anxiety now was lest + Captain Danton and Mr. Stanford should meet. I was in a state of + feverish anxiety all day, which even Kate noticed. You know she + never liked me, and latterly her aversion has deepened, though + Heaven knows, without any cause on my part, and she avoided me as + much as she possibly could without discourtesy. She inquired, + however, if anything had happened--if I had bad news from her + father, and looked at me in a puzzled manner when I answered "No." + I could not look at her; I could hardly speak to her; somehow I + felt about as guilty concealing the truth as if I had been in the + vile plot that had destroyed her happiness. + + Father Francis came up in the course of the day; and when he was + leaving, I called him into the library, and told him the truth. I + cannot tell you how shocked he was at Rose's perfidy, or how + distressed for Kate's sake. He agreed with me that it was best to + say nothing until Captain Danton's return. + + He came that night. It was late--nearly eleven o'clock, and I and + Thomas were the only ones up. Thomas admitted him; and I shall + never forget how worn, and pale, and haggard he looked as he came + in. + + "It was too late, Grace," were his first words. "They have gone." + + "Thank Heaven!" I exclaimed. "Thank Heaven you have not met them, + and that there is no blood shed. Oh, believe me, it is better as it + is." + + "Does Kate know?" he asked. + + "Not yet. No one knows but Father Francis. He thought as I did, + that it was better to wait until you returned." + + "My poor child! My poor Kate!" he said, in a broken voice, "who + will tell you this?" + + He was so distressed that I knelt down beside him, and tried to + sooth and comfort him. + + "Father Francis will," I said. "She venerates and esteems him more + highly than any other living being, and his influence over her is + greater. Let Father Francis tell her to-morrow." + + Captain Danton agreed that that was the very best thing that could + be done, and soon after retired. + + I went to my room, too, but not to sleep. I was too miserably + anxious about the morrow. The night was lovely--bright as day and + warm as midsummer. I sat by the window looking out, and saw Kate + walking up and down the tamarack avenue with that mysterious Mr. + Richards. They lingered there for over an hour, and then I heard + them coming softly upstairs, and going to their respective rooms. + + Next morning after breakfast, Captain Danton rode down to the + village and had an interview with Father Francis. Two hours after, + they returned to Danton Hall together, both looking pale and ill at + ease. Kate and I were in the drawing-room--she practising a new + song, I sewing. We both rose at their entrance--she gayly; I with + my heart beating thick and fast. + + "I am glad the beauty of the day tempted you out, Father Francis," + she said. "I wish our wanderers would come back. Danton Hall has + been as gloomy as an old bastille lately." + + I don't know what Father Francis said. I know he looked as though + the errand he had come to fulfil were unspeakably distasteful to + him. + + "Reginald ought to be home to-day," Kate said, walking to the + window, "and Rose next week. It seems like a century since they + went away." + + I could wait for no more--I hurried out of the room--crying, I am + afraid. Before I could go upstairs, Captain Danton joined me in the + hall. + + "Don't go," he said, hoarsely; "wait here. You may be wanted." + + My heart seemed to stand still in vague apprehension of--I hardly + know what. We stood there together waiting, as the few friends who + loved the ill-fated Scottish Queen so well, may have stood when she + laid her head on the block. I looked at that closed door with a + mute terror of what was passing within--every nerve strained to + hear the poor tortured girl's cry of anguish. No such cry ever + came. We waited ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, half an hour, an + hour, before that closed door opened. We shrank away, but it was + only Father Francis, very pale and sad. Our eyes asked the question + our tongues would not utter. + + "She knows all," he said, in a tremulous voice; "she has taken it + very quietly--too quietly. She has alarmed me--that unnatural calm + is more distressing than the wildest outburst of weeping." + + "Shall we go to her?" asked her father. + + "I think not--I think she is better alone. Don't disturb her + to-day. I will come up again this evening." + + "What did she say?" I asked. + + "Very little. She seemed stunned, as people are stunned by a sudden + blow. Don't linger here; she will probably be going up to her room, + and may not like to think you are watching her." + + Father Francis went away. Captain Danton retired to his study. I + remained in the recess, which you know is opposite the + drawing-room, with the door ajar. I wished to prevent Eeny or any + of the servants from disturbing her by suddenly entering. About an + hour after, the door opened, and she came out and went slowly + upstairs. I caught a glimpse of her face as she passed, and it had + turned to the pallor of death. I heard her enter the room and lock + the door, and I believe I sat and cried all the morning. + + She did not come down all day. I called in Eeny, and told her what + had happened, and shocked the poor child as she was never shocked + before. At dinner-time I sent her upstairs, to see if Kate would + not take some refreshment. Her knocking and calling remained + unanswered. She left in despair, and Kate never came down. + + Another sleepless night--another anxious morning. About eight + o'clock I heard Kate's bell ring, and Eunice go upstairs. Presently + the girl ran down and entered the room where I was. + + "If you please, Miss Grace, Miss Kate wants you," said Eunice, with + a scared face; "and oh, Miss, I think she's ill, she do look so + bad!" + + Wanted me! I dropped the silver I was holding, in sheer affright. + What could she want of me? I went upstairs, my heart almost choking + me with its rapid throbbing, and rapped at the door. + + She opened it herself. Well might Eunice think her ill. One night + had wrought such change as I never thought a night could work + before. She had evidently never lain down. She wore the dress of + yesterday, and I could see the bed in the inner room undisturbed. + Her face was so awfully corpse-like, her eyes so haggard and + sunken, her beauty so mysteriously gone, that I shrank before her + as if it had been the spectre of the bright, beautiful, radiant + Kate Danton. She leaned against the low mantelpiece, and motioned + me forward with a cold, fixed look. + + "You are aware," she said, in a hard, icy voice--oh so unlike the + sweet tones of only yesterday--"what Father Francis came here + yesterday to say. You and my father might have told me sooner; but + I blame nobody. What I want to say is this: From this hour I never + wish to hear from anyone the slightest allusion to the past; I + never want to hear the names of those who are gone. I desire you to + tell this to my father and sister. Your influence over them is + greater than mine." + + I bowed assent without looking up; I could feel the icy stare with + which she was regarding me, without lifting my eyes. + + "Father Francis mentioned a letter that R----"; she hesitated for a + moment, and finally said--"that she sent you. Will you let me see + it?" + + That cruel, heartless, insulting letter! I looked up imploringly, + with clasped hands. + + "Pray don't," I said. "Oh, pray don't ask me! It is unworthy of + notice--it will only hurt you more deeply still." + + She held out her hand steadily. + + "Will you let me see it?" + + What could I do? I took the letter from my pocket, bitterly + regretting that I had not destroyed it, and handed it to her. + + "Thank you." + + She walked to the window, and with her back to me read it + through--read it more than once, I should judge, by the length of + time it took her. When she faced me again, there was no sign of + change in her face. + + "Is this letter of any use to you? Do you want it?" + + "No! I only wish I had destroyed it long ago!" + + "Then, with your permission, I will keep it." + + "You!" I cried in consternation. "What can you want with that?" + + A strange sort of look passed across her face, darkening it, and + she held it tightly in her grasp. + + "I want to keep it for a very good reason," she said, between her + teeth; "if I ever forget the good turn Rose Danton has done me, + this letter will serve to remind me of it." + + I was so frightened by her look, and tone, and words, that I could + not speak. She saw it, and grew composed again instantly. + + "I need not detain you any longer," she said, looking at her watch. + "I have no more to say. You can tell my father and sister what I + have told you. I will go down to breakfast, and I am much obliged + to you." + + She turned from me and went back to the window. I left the room + deeply distressed, and sought the dining-room, where I found the + Captain and Eeny. I related the whole interview, and impressed upon + them the necessity of obeying her. The breakfast-bell rang while we + were talking, and she came in. + + Both Eeny and her father were as much shocked as I had been by the + haggard change in her; but neither spoke of it to her. We tried to + be at our ease during breakfast, and to talk naturally; but the + effort was a miserable failure. She never spoke, except when + directly addressed, and ate nothing. She sat down to the piano, as + usual, after breakfast, and practised steadily for two hours. Then + she took her hat and a book, and went out to the garden to read. At + luncheon-time she returned, with no better appetite, and after that + went up to Mr. Richards' room. She stayed with him two or three + hours, and then sat down to her embroidery-frame, still cold, and + impassionate, and silent. Father Francis came up in the evening; + but she was cold and unsocial with him as with the rest of us. So + that first day ended, and so every day has gone on since. What she + suffers, she suffers in solitude and silence; only her worn face, + haggard cheeks, and hollow eyes tell. She goes through the usual + routine of life with treadmill regularity, and is growing as thin + as a shadow. She neither eats, nor sleeps, nor complains; and she + is killing herself by inches. We are worried to-death about her; + and yet we are afraid to say one word in her hearing. Come to us, + Frank; you are a physician, and though you cannot "minister to a + mind diseased," you can at least tell us what will help her failing + body. Your presence will do Captain Danton good, too; for I never + saw him so miserable! We are all most unhappy, and any addition to + our family circle will be for the better. We do not go out; we have + few visitors; and the place is as lonely as a tomb. The gossip and + scandal have spread like wildfire; the story is in everybody's + mouth; even in the newspapers. Heaven forbid it should come to + Kate's ears! This stony calm of hers is not to be trusted. It + frightens me far more than any hysterical burst of sorrow. She has + evidently some deep purpose in her mind--I am afraid to think it + may be of revenge. Come to us, brother, and try if you can help us + in our trouble. + + Your affectionate sister, + Grace. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +"SHE TOOK UP THE BURDEN OF LIFE AGAIN." + + +The second train from Montreal passing through St. Croix on its way +to--somewhere else, was late in the afternoon of the fifth of June. +Instead of shrieking into the village depot at four P.M., it +was six when it arrived, and halted about a minute and a half to let the +passengers out and take passengers in. Few got in and fewer got out--a +sunburnt old Frenchman, a wizen little Frenchwoman, and their pretty, +dark-skinned, black-eyed daughter; and a young man, who was tall and +fair, and good-looking and gentlemanly, and not a Frenchman, judging by +his looks. But, although he did not look like one, he could talk like +one, and had kept up an animated discussion with pretty dark eyes in +capital Canadian French for the last hour. He lifted his hat politely +now, with "_Bon jour, Mademoiselle_," and walked away through the main +street of the village. + +It was a glorious summer evening. "The western sky was all aflame" with +the gorgeous hues of the sunset; the air was like amber mist, and the +shrill-voiced Canadian birds, with their gaudy plumage, sang their +vesper laudates high in the green gloom of the feathery tamaracks. + +A lovely evening with the soft hum of village life, the distant tinkling +cow-bells, the songs of boys and girls driving them home, far and faint, +and now and then the rumbling of cart-wheels on the dusty road. The +fields on either hand stretching as far as the eye could reach, green as +velvet; the giant trees rustling softly in the faint, sweet breeze; the +flowers bright all along the hedges, and over all the golden glory of +the summer sunset. + +The young man walked very leisurely along, swinging his light rattan. +Wild roses and sweetbrier sent up their evening incense to the radiant +sky. The young man lit a cigar, and sent up its incense too. + +He left the village behind him presently, and turned off by the pleasant +road leading to Danton Hall. Ten minutes brought him to it, changed +since he had seen it last. The pines, the cedars, the tamaracks were all +out in their summer-dress of living green; the flower-gardens were +aflame with flowers, the orchard was white with blossoms, and the red +light of the sunset was reflected with mimic glory in the still, broad +fish-pond. Climbing roses and honeysuckles trailed their fragrant +branches round the grim stone pillars of the portico. Windows and doors +stood wide to admit the cool, rising breeze; and a big dog, that had +gambolled up all the way, set up a bass bark of recognition. No living +thing was to be seen in or around the house; but, at the sound of the +bark, a face looked out from a window, about waist-high from the lawn. +The window was open, and the sweetbrier and the rose-vines made a very +pretty frame for the delicate young face. A pale and pensive face, lit +with luminous dark eyes, and shaded by soft, dark hair. + +The young man walked up, and rested his arm on the low sill. + +"Good-evening, Agnes." + +Agnes Darling held out her hand, with a look of bright pleasure. + +"I am glad to see you again, Doctor Danton; and Tiger, too." + +"Thanks. I thought I should find you sewing here. Have you ever left +off, night or day, since I left?" + +She smiled, and resumed her work. + +"I like to be busy; it keeps me from thinking. Not that I have been very +busy of late." + +"Of course not; the wedding-garments weren't wanted, were they? and all +the trousseaux vanity and vexation of spirit. You see others in the +world came to grief besides yourself, Miss Darling. Am I expected?" + +"Yes; a week ago." + +"Who's in the house?" + +"I don't know exactly. Miss Danton is in the orchard, I think, with a +book; Eeny is away for the day at Miss Howard's and the Captain went up +the village an hour ago. I dare say they will all be back for dinner." + +Doctor Frank took another position on the window-sill, and leaned +forward, saying with a lowered voice: + +"And how does the ghost get on, Agnes? Has it made its appearance +since?" + +Agnes Darling dropped her work, and looked up at him, with clasped +hands. + +"Doctor Danton, I have seen him!" + +"Whom? The ghost?" + +"No ghost; but my husband. It was Harry as plainly as ever I saw him." + +She spoke in a voice of intense agitation; but the young Doctor listened +with perfect coolness. + +"How was it, Agnes? Where did you see him?" + +"Walking in the tamarack avenue, one moonlight night, about a week ago, +with Miss Danton." + +"And you are positive it was your husband?" + +"Do you think I could make a mistake in such a matter? It was Harry--I +saw him clearly in the moonlight." + +"It's surprising you did not run out, and fall down in hysterics at his +feet." + +She sighed wearily. + +"No. I dared not. But, oh, Doctor Danton, when shall I see him? When +will you tell him I am innocent?" + +"Not just yet; it won't do to hurry matters in this case. You have +waited long and patiently; wait yet a little longer until the right time +comes. The happiness of knowing he is alive and well, and dwelling under +the same roof with you should reconcile you to that." + +"It does," she said, her tears falling softly. "Thank Heaven! he still +lives. I can hope now; but, oh, Doctor, do you really think him Captain +Danton's son?" + +"I am certain of it; and no one will give you a more cordial welcome +than Captain Danton, when I tell him the truth. Just now I have no +proof. Do you know what I am going to do, Agnes?" + +"No." + +"Crosby is married, and living in New York. I mean to take a journey to +New York shortly, and get a written declaration of your innocence from +him. There--no thanks now. Keep up a good heart, and wait patiently for +a month or two longer. Come, Tiger." + +He was gone, whistling a tune as he went. The entrance hall was +deserted, the dining-room was empty, and he ran up stairs to the +drawing-room. Grace was there with her back to the door; and coming up +noiselessly, he put his arm around her waist, and kissed her before she +was aware. + +She faced about, with a little cry, that changed to an exclamation of +delight, upon seeing who it was. + +"Oh, Frank! I am so glad! When did you come? I expected you a week ago." + +"I know it," said her brother; "and I could have come too; but it struck +me I should like to arrive to-day." + +"To-day! Why? Oh, I forgot the fifth of June. It is hard, Frank, isn't +it, just to think what might have been and what is." + +"How does she take it?" + +"She has been out nearly all day," replied Grace, knowing whom he meant; +"she feels it, of course, more than words can tell; but she never +betrays herself by look or action. I have never seen her shed a tear, or +utter one desponding word, from the day the news reached her until this. +Her face shows what she suffers, and that is beyond her power to +control." + +Doctor Frank walked thoughtfully to the window, and looked out at the +fading brilliance of the sunset. A moment later, and Eeny rode up on +horseback, sprang out other saddle on the lawn, and tripped up the +steps. + +Another moment, and she was in the drawing-room. + +"I saw you at the window," she said. "I am glad you have come back +again. Danton Hall is too dismal to be described of late. Ah! Dear old +Tiger, and how are you? Doctor Frank," lowering her voice, "do you know +what day this is?" + +Doctor Frank looked at her with a faint shadow of a smile on his face, +humming a line or two of a ballad. + +"'Long have I been true to you. Now I'm true no longer.' Too bad, Eeny, +we should lose the wedding, and one wedding, they say, makes many." + +"Too bad!" echoed Eeny, indignantly. "Oh, Doctor Frank, it was cruel of +Rose, wasn't it? You would hardly know poor Kate now." + +"Hush!" said the Doctor, "here she comes!" + +A tall, slender figure came out from the orchard path, book in hand, and +advanced slowly towards the house. Was it the ghost, the wraith, the +shadow of beautiful Kate Danton? The lovely golden hair, glittering in +the dying radiance of the sunset, and coiled in shining twists round the +head, was the same; the deep large eyes, so darkly blue, were clear and +cloudless as ever, and yet changed totally in expression. The queenly +grace that always characterized her, characterized her still; but how +wasted the supple form, how shadowy and frail it had grown. The haggard +change in the pale face, the nervous contraction of the mouth, the +sunken eyes, with those dark circles, told their eloquent tale. + +"Poor child!" Doctor Frank said, with a look of unspeakable pity and +tenderness; "it was cruel!" + +Eeny ran away to change her dress. Grace lightly dusted the furniture, +and her brother stood by the window and watched that fragile-looking +girl coming slowly up through the amber air. + +"How tired she looks!" he said. + +"Kate?" said Grace, coming over. "She is always like that now. Tired at +getting up, tired at lying down, listless and apathetic always. If +Reginald Stanford had murdered her, it would hardly have been a more +wicked act." + +Her brother did not reply. + +A few minutes later, Kate walked into the room, still with that slow, +weary step. She looked at the new-comer with listless indifference, +spoke a few words of greeting with cold apathy, and then retreated to +another window, and bent her eyes on her book. + +Captain Danton returned just as the dinner-bell was ringing; and his +welcome made up in cordiality what his daughter's lacked. He, too, had +changed. His florid face had lost much of its colour, and was grown +thin, and his eyes were ever wandering, with a look of mournful +tenderness, to his pale daughter. + +They were all rather silent. Grace and her brother and the Captain +talked in a desultory sort of way during dinner; but Kate never spoke, +except when directly addressed, and silence was Eeny's forte. She sat +down to the piano after dinner, according to her invariable custom, but +not to sing. She had never sung since that day. How could she? There was +not a song in all her collection that did not bring the anguish of some +recollection of him, so she only played brilliant new, soulless +fantasias, that were as empty as her heart. + +When she arose from the instrument, she resumed her book and sat down at +a table studiously; but Doctor Frank, watching her covertly, saw she did +not turn over a page in an hour. She was the first to retire--very +early, looking pale and jaded to death. Half an hour later, Eeny +followed her, and then Captain Danton pushed away the chess-board +impatiently. He had been playing with the Doctor, and began pacing +feverishly up and down the room. + +"What shall I do with her?" he exclaimed. "What shall I do to keep my +darling girl from dying before my eyes? Doctor Danton, you are a +physician; tell me what I shall do?" + +"Take her away from here," said the Doctor, emphatically. "It is this +place that is killing her. How can it be otherwise? Everything she sees +from morning till night brings back a thousand bitter recollections of +what is past and gone. Take her away, where there will be nothing to +recall her loss; take her where change and excitement will drown +thought. As her mind recovers its tone, so will her body. Take her +travelling for the summer." + +"Yes--yes," said Grace, earnestly. "I'm sure it is the very best thing +you can do." + +"But, my dear," said Captain Danton, smiling a little, "you forget that +the first week of July we are to be married." + +"Oh, put it off," Grace said; "what does a little delay matter? We are +not like Rose and Reginald; we are old and steady, and we can trust one +another and wait. A few month's delay is nothing, and Kate's health is +everything." + +"She might go with us," said the Captain; "suppose it took place this +month instead of next, and we made a prolonged wedding-tour, she might +accompany us." + +Grace shook her head. + +"She wouldn't go. Believe me, I know her, and she wouldn't go. She will +go with you alone, willingly--never with me." + +"She is unjust to you, and you are so generously ready to sacrifice your +own plans to hers." + +"Did you ever know a young lady yet who liked the idea of a +step-mother?" said Grace, with a smile. "I never did. Miss Danton's +dislike and aversion are unjust, perhaps; but perfectly natural. No, no, +the autumn or winter will be soon enough, and take Kate travelling." + +"Very well, my dear; be it as you say. Now, where shall we go? Back to +England?" + +"I think not," said Doctor Frank. "England has nearly as many painful +associations for her as Danton Hall. Take her where she has never been; +where all things are new and strange. Take her on a tour through the +United States, for instance." + +"A capital idea," exclaimed the Captain. "It is what she has wished for +often since we came to Canada. I'll take her South. I have an old +friend, a planter, in Georgia. I'll take her to Georgia." + +"You could not do better." + +"Let me see," pursued the Captain, full of the hopeful idea; "we must +stay a week or two in Boston, a week or two in New York; we must visit +Newport and Saratoga, rest ourselves in Philadelphia and Washington, and +then make straight for Georgia. How long will that take us, do you +suppose?" + +"Until October, I should say," returned the Doctor. "October will be +quite time enough to return here. If your daughter does not come back +with new life, then I shall give up her case in despair." + +"I will speak to her to-morrow," said the Captain, "and start the next +day. Since it must be done, it is best done quickly. I think myself it +will do her a world of good." + +Captain Danton was as good as his word. He broached the subject to his +daughter shortly after breakfast next morning. It was out in the +orchard, where she had strayed, according to custom, with a book. It was +not so much to read--her favourite authors, all of a sudden, had grown +flat and insipid, and nothing interested her--but she liked to be alone +and undisturbed, "in sunshine calm and sweet," with the scented summer +air blowing in her face. She liked to listen, dreamy and listless, and +with all the energy of her nature dead within her, to the soft murmuring +of the trees, to the singing of the birds overhead, and to watch the +pearly clouds floating through the melting azure above. She had no +strength or wish to walk now, as of old. She never passed beyond the +entrance-gates, save on Sunday forenoons, when she went slowly to the +little church of St. Croix, and listened drearily, as if he was speaking +an unknown tongue, to Father Francis, preaching patience and +long-suffering to the end. + +She was lying under a gnarled old apple-tree, the flickering shadow of +the leaves coming and going in her face, and the sunshine glinting +through her golden hair. She looked up, with a faint smile, at her +father's approach. She loved him very much still, but not as she had +loved him once; the power to love any one in that old trustful, devoted +way seemed gone forever. + +"My pale daughter," he said, looking down at her sadly, "what shall I do +to bring back your lost roses!" + +"Am I pale?" she said, indifferently. "What does it matter? I feel well +enough." + +"I don't think you do. You are gone to a shadow. Would you like a +change, my dear? Would you not like a pleasure tour this summer +weather?" + +"I don't care about it, papa." + +"But you will come to please me. I shall take you to the Southern +States, and fetch you back in the autumn my own bright Kate again." + +There was no light of pleasure or eagerness in her face. She only moved +uneasily on the grass. + +"You will come, my dear, will you not? Eunice will accompany you; and we +will visit all the great cities of this New World, that you have so +often longed to see." + +"I will do whatever you wish, papa," she said, apathetically. + +"And you will give Eunice her orders about the packing to-day, and be +ready to start to-morrow?" + +"Yes, papa." + +"Ogden will remain behind," continued her father, in a lowered voice. "I +have said nothing to any one else as yet about Harry. I shall go and +speak to them both about it now." + +"Yes, papa." + +She watched him striding away, with that look of weary listlessness that +had grown habitual to her, and rose from her grassy couch with a sigh, +to obey his directions. She found Eunice in the sewing room, with Agnes +Darling, and gave her her orders to pack up, and be prepared to start +next morning. Then she went back to her seat under the old apple-tree, +and lay on the warm grass in a state between sleeping and waking all day +long. + +The day of departure dawned cloudless and lovely. Grace, her +brother, and Eeny went to the station with the travellers, and saw +them off. Kate's farewell was very cold, even to Eeny. What was the +use of losing or being sorry to part with any one, since all the +world was false, and hollow, and deceitful? She had lost +something--heart--hope--conscience--she hardly knew what; but something +within her that had beat high, and hopeful, and trusting, was cold and +still as stone. + +The little party on the platform went back through the yellow haze of +the hot afternoon, to the quiet old house. Ah! how indescribably quiet +and lonely now! Some one might have lain dead in those echoing rooms, so +deadly was the stillness. + +There was one consolation for Grace and Eeny in their solitude. Doctor +Frank was going to remain in the village. It was chiefly at the +solicitation of Father Francis that he had consented. + +"Dr. Pillule is superannuated," said the young priest, "and +old-fashioned, and obstinately prejudiced against all modern +innovations, at the best. We want a new man among us--particularly now +that this fever is spreading." + +A low fever had been working its way, insidiously, among the people +since early spring, and increasing since the warm weather had come. +Perhaps the miasma, arising from the marshes, had been the cause; but +several had died, and many lay ill those sunny June days. + +"Your mission lies here," Father Francis said, emphatically. "You can do +good, Doctor Danton. Stay!" + +So Doctor Danton stayed, hanging out his shingle and taking up his abode +at the village hotel. Doctor Pillule all of a sudden, like the Moor of +Venice, found his occupation gone. Every one liked the pleasant young +Doctor, whose ways were so different from those of Doctor Pillule, and +who sat by their fevered bedsides, and talked to them so kindly. Every +one liked him; and he soon found himself busy enough, but never so busy +that some time, each day, he could not run up for half an hour to Danton +Hall. + +July came, and brought a letter from Captain Danton to Grace. Like many +others, he hated letter-writing, and, never performed that duty when he +could possibly avoid it. But Kate declined writing, absolutely; so it +fell to his lot. They were in New York, on the eve of departure for +Newport, and Kate had already benefited by the change. That was nearly +all; and it was the middle of July before the second arrived. They were +still at Newport, and the improvement in Kate was marked. The wan and +sickly look was rapidly passing away--the change, the excitement, the +sea-bathing, the gay life, were working wonders. + +"She has created somewhat of a sensation here," said the latter, "and +might be one of the belles, if she chose; but she doesn't choose. Her +coldness, her proud and petrified air, her strange and gloomy manner, +throws a halo of mystery around her, that has fixed all eyes upon her, +and set all tongues going. We are quite unknown here, and I don't choose +to enlighten any one. I dare say, more than one little romance has been +concocted, founded on poor Kate's settled gloom; but, beyond our names, +they really know nothing. Some of the young men look as if they would +like to be a little more friendly, but she freezes them with one flash +of her blue eyes." + +August came, burning and breezeless, and they were at Saratoga, drinking +Congress water, and finding life much the same as at Newport. Kate had +recovered her looks, the Captain's letters said; the beauty that had +made her so irresistible had returned, and made her more irresistible +than ever. There was nothing like her at Saratoga; but she was as deeply +wrapped in mystery as ever, and about as genial as a statue in Parian +marble. + +The end of August found them journeying southward. The beginning of +September, and they were domesticated in the friendly Georgian +homestead; and then, Kate, tired after all her wanderings, sank down in +the tropical warmth and beauty, and drew a breath of relief. She liked +it so much, this lovely southern land, where the gorgeous flowers +bloomed and the tropic birds flitted with the hues of Paradise on their +wings. She liked the glowing richness of the southern days and nights, +the forests and fields so unlike anything she had ever seen before; the +negroes with their strange talk and gaudy garments, the pleasant house +and the pleasant people. She liked it all, and the first sensation of +peace and rest she had felt all these months stole into her heart here. +And yet it had done her a world of good--she was a new being--outwardly +at least--although her heart felt as mute and still as ever. Her life's +shipwreck had been so sudden and so dreadful, she had been so stunned +and stupefied at first, and the after-anguish so horribly bitter, that +this haven of rest was as grateful as some green island of the sea to a +shipwrecked mariner. Here there was nothing to remind her of all that +was past and gone--here, where everything was new, her poor bruised +heart might heal. + +Captain Danton saw and thanked Heaven gratefully for the blessed change +in the daughter he loved, and yet she was not the Kate of old. All the +youth and joyousness of life's springtime was gone. She sang no more the +songs he loved; they were dead and buried in the dead past; her clear +laugh never rejoiced his heart now; her fleeting smile came cold and +pale as moonlight, on snow. She took no interest in the home she had +left; she made no inquiries for those who were there. + +"I have had a letter from Danton Hall," he would say; "and they are +well." And she would silently bend her head. Or, "I am writing to Danton +Hall; have you any message to send?" "Only my love to Eeny," would be +the answer; and then she would stray off and leave him alone. She was as +changed to him as she was changed in other things. Grace stood +between--an insuperable barrier. + +September drew to a close. October came, and with it the time for their +departure. Kate left reluctantly; she longed to stay there forever, in +that land of the sun, and forget and be at peace. It was like tearing +half-healed wounds open to go back to a place where everything her eye +rested on or her ear heard, from morning till night, recalled the bitter +past. But fate was inexorable; farewell must be said to beautiful +Georgia and the kind friends there; and the commencement of the second +week of October found them starting on their journey to their northern +home. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +"IT'S AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NOBODY GOOD." + + +They journeyed northward very slowly, stopping for a few days at all the +great cities, so that October was gone and part of November when they +reached Montreal. There they lingered a week, and then began the last +stage of their journey home. + +It was a desolate afternoon, near the middle of that most desolate +month, November, when Captain Danton and his daughter stepped into the +railway-fly at St. Croix, and were driven, as fast as the spavined old +nag would go, to Danton Hall. A desolate afternoon, with a low leaden +sky threatening snow, and earth like iron with hard black frost. A +wretched complaining wind that made your nerves ache, worried the +half-stripped trees, and now and then a great snowflake whirled in the +dull grey air. The village looked silent and deserted as they drove +through it, and a melancholy bell was slowly tolling, tolling, tolling +all the way. Kate shivered audibly, and wrapped her fur-lined mantle +closer around her. + +"What is that wretched bell for?" she asked. + +"It is the passing bell," replied the father, with a gloomy brow. "You +know the fever is in the village." + +"And someone is dead." + +She looked out with a dreary, shivering sigh over the bleak prospect. +Gaunt black trees, grim black marshes, dull black river, and low black +sky. Oh, how desolate! How desolate it all was--as desolate as her own +dead heart. What was the use of going away, what was the use of +forgetting for a few poor moments, and then coming back to the old +desolation and the old pain? What a weary, weary piece of business life +was at best, not worth the trouble and suffering it took to live! + +The drive to the Hall was such a short one, it hardly seemed to her they +were seated before they were driving up the leafless avenue, where the +trees loomed unnaturally large and black in the frosty air, and the dead +leaves whirled in great wild drifts under the horse's feet. The gloom +and desolation were here before them too. When they had gone away, +nearly six months before, those bleak avenues had been leafy arcades, +where the birds sang all the bright day long, flowers had bloomed +wherever her eye rested, and red roses and sweetbrier had twined +themselves around the low windows and stone pillars of the portico. Now +the trees were writhing skeletons, the flowers dead with the summer, +nothing left of the roses but rattling brown stalks, and the fish-pond +lying under the frowning wintry sky like a sheet of steel. + +She went up the stone steps and into the hall, still shivering miserably +under her wraps, and saw Grace, and Eeny, and the servants assembled to +welcome them, and listened like one in a dream. It all seemed so flat, +and dead, and unsatisfying, and the old time and the old memories were +back at her heart, until she almost went wild. She could see how Eeny +and Grace looked a little afraid of her, and how differently they +greeted her father; and how heartily and unaffectedly glad he was to be +with them once more. And then she was toiling wearily up the long, wide +stairway, followed by faithful Eunice, and had the four walls of her own +little sitting room around her at last. + +How pretty the room was! A fire burned brightly in the glittering steel +grate, the curtains were drawn, for it was already dusk, that short +November afternoon; and the ruddy, cheery light sparkled on the +pictures, and the book-case, and the inlaid table, and the two little +vases of scarlet geraniums Grace had planted there. + +Outside, in contrast to all this warmth, and brightness, and comfort, +she could hear the lamentable sighing of the wild November wind, and the +groaning of the tortured trees. But it brought no sense of comfort to +her, and she sat drearily back while Eunice dressed her for dinner, and +stared blankly into the fire, wondering if her whole life was to go on +like this. Only twenty-one, and life such a hopeless blank already! She +could look forward to her future life--a long, long vista of days, and +every day like this. + +By-and-by the dinner-bell rang, arousing her from her dismal reverie, +and she went down stairs, never taking the trouble to look at herself in +the glass, or to see how her maid had dressed her. Yet she looked +beautiful--coldly, palely beautiful--in that floating dress of deep +blue; and jewelled forget-me-nots in her rich amber hair. Her face and +figure had recovered all their lost roundness and symmetry, but the +former, except when she spoke or smiled, was as cold and still as +marble. + +Father Francis and Doctor Danton were in the dining-room when she +entered, but their welcome home was very apathetically met. She was +silent all through dinner, talking was such a tiresome exertion; nothing +interested her. She hardly looked up--she could feel, somehow, the young +priest's deep, clear eyes bent upon her in grave disapproval, against +which her proud spirit mutinied. + +"Why should I take the trouble to talk?" she thought; "What do I care +for Doctor Danton or his sister, or what interest have the things they +talk of for me?" + +So she listened as if they had been talking Greek. Only once was she +aroused to anything like interest. Their two guests were relating the +progress of that virulent fever in the village, and how many had already +been carried off. + +"I should think the cold weather would give it a check," said her +father. + +"It seems rather on the increase," replied the priest; "there are ten +cases in St. Croix now." + +"We heard the bell as we drove up this afternoon," said the Captain; +"for whom was it tolling?" + +"For poor old Pierre, the sexton. He took the fever only a week ago, and +was delirious nearly all the time." + +Kate lifted her eyes, hitherto listening, but otherwise meaningless. + +"Pierre, who used to light the fires and sweep the church?" + +"Yes; you knew him," said Father Francis looking at her; "he talked of +you more than once during his delirium. It seems you sang for him once, +and he never forgot it. It dwelt in his mind more than anything else, +during that last illness." + +A pang pierced Kate's heart. She remembered the day when she had strayed +into the church with Reginald, and found old Pierre sweeping. He had +made his request so humbly and earnestly, that she had sat down at the +little harmonium and played and sung a hymn. And he had never forgotten +it; he had talked of it in his dying hours. The sharpest remorse she had +ever felt in her life, for the good she might have done, she felt then. + +"My poor people have missed their Lady Bountiful," continued Father +Francis, with that grave smile of his--"missed her more than ever, in +this trying time. Do you remember Hermine Lacheur, Miss Danton?" + +"That pretty, gentle girl, with the great dark eyes, and black ringlets? +Oh, yes, very well." + +"The same. She was rather a pet of yours, I think. You taught her to +sing some little hymns in the choir. You will be sorry to hear she has +gone." + +"Dead!" Kate cried, struck and thrilled. + +"Dead," Father Francis said, a little tremor in his voice. "A most +estimable girl, beloved by every one. Like Pierre, she talked a great +deal of you in her last illness, and sang the hymns you taught her. +'Give my dear love to Miss Danton,' were almost her last words to me; +'she has been very kind to me. Tell her I will pray for her in Heaven.'" + +There was silence. + +"Oh," Kate thought, with unutterable bitterness of sorrow; "how happy I +might have been--how happy I might have made others, if I had given my +heart to God, instead of to His creatures. The bountiful blessings I +have wasted--youth, health, opulence--how many poor souls I might have +gladdened and helped!" + +She rose from the table, and walked over to the window. The blackness of +darkness had settled down over the earth, but she never saw it. Was it +too late yet? Had she found her mission on earth? Had she still +something to live for? Was she worthy of so great a charge? A few hours +before, and life was all a blank, without an object. Had Father Francis +been sent to point out the object for which she must henceforth live? +The poor and suffering were around her. It was in her power to alleviate +their poverty and soothe their suffering. The great Master of Earth and +Heaven had spent His life ministering to the afflicted and +humble--surely it was a great and glorious thing to be able to follow +afar off in His footsteps. The thoughts of that hour changed the whole +tenor of her mind--perhaps the whole course of her life. She had found +her place in the world, and her work to do. She might never be happy +herself, but she might make others happy. She might never have a home of +her own, but she might brighten and cheer other homes. As an unprofessed +Sister of Charity, she might go among those poor ones doing good; and +dimly in the future she could see the cloistered, grateful walls +shutting her from the troubles of this feverish life. Standing there by +the curtained window, her eyes fixed on the pitchy darkness, a new era +in her existence seemed to dawn. + +Miss Danton said nothing to any one about this new resolution of hers. +She felt how it would be opposed, how she would have to argue and combat +for permission; so she held her tongue. But next morning, an hour after +breakfast, she came to Grace, and in that tone of quiet authority she +always used to her father's housekeeper, requested the keys to the +sideboard. + +Grace looked surprised, but yielded them at once; and Kate, going to the +large, carved, old-fashioned, walnut wood buffet, abstracted two or +three bottles of old port, a glass jar of jelly, and another of +tamarinds; stowed away these spoils in a large morocco reticule, +returned the keys to Grace, and, going upstairs, dressed herself in her +plainest dress, mantle, and hat, took her reticule, and set off. She +smiled at herself as she walked down the avenue--she, the elegant, +fastidious Kate Danton, attired in those sombre garments, carrying that +well-filled bag, and turning, all in a moment, a Sister of Mercy. + +It was nearly noon when she returned, pale, and very tired, from her +long walk. Grace wondered more than ever, as she saw her dragging +herself slowly upstairs. + +"Where can she have been?" she mused, "in that dress and with that bag, +and what on earth can she have wanted the keys of the sideboard for?" + +Grace was enlightened some hours later, when Father Francis came up, and +informed the household that he had found Kate ministering to one of the +worst cases of fever in the village--a dying old woman. + +"She was sitting by the bedside reading to her," said the priest; "and +she had given poor old Madame Lange what she has been longing for weeks +past, wine. I assure you I was confounded at the sight." + +"But, good gracious!" cried the Captain, aghast, "she will take the +fever." + +"I told her so--I expostulated with her on her rashness, but all in +vain. I told her to send them as much wine and jellies as she pleased, +but to keep out of these pestiferous cottages. She only looked at me +with those big solemn eyes, and said: + +"'Father, if I were a professed Sister of Charity, you would call my +mission Heaven-sent and glorious; because I am not, you tell me I am +foolish and rash. I don't think I am either; I have no fear of the +fever; I am young, and strong, and healthy, and do not think I will take +it. Even if I do, and if I die, I shall die doing God's work. Better +such a death as that than a long, miserable, worthless life.'" + +"She is resolved, then?" + +"You would say so if you saw her face. Better not oppose her too much, I +think; her mind is set upon it, and it seems to make her happy. It is, +indeed, as she says, a noble work. God will protect her." + +Captain Danton sighed. It seemed to him a very dreary and dismal labour +for his bright Kate. But he had not the heart to oppose her in anything, +let it be never so mad and dangerous. He had never opposed her in the +days of her happiness, and it was late to begin now. + +So Kate's new life began. While the weeks of November were ending in +short, dark, dull days, and cold and windy nights, with the dying year, +many in the fever-stricken village were dying too. Into all these humble +dwellings the beautiful girl was welcomed as an angel of light. The +delicacies and rich wines that nourished and strengthened them they owed +to her bounty; the words of holy hope and consolation that soothed their +dying hours, her sweet voice read; the hymns that seemed a foretaste of +Heaven, her clear voice sang. Her white hands closed their dying eyes +and folded the rigid arms, and decked the room of death with flowers +that took away half its ghastliness. Her deft fingers arranged the folds +of the shroud, and the winding-sheet, and her gentle tones whispered +comfort and resignation to the sorrowing ones behind. How they blessed +her, how they loved her, those poor people, was known only to Heaven and +themselves. + +There were two others in all these stricken houses, at these beds of +death--Father Francis and Dr. Danton. They were her indefatigable +fellow-labourers in the good work, as unwearied in their zeal and +patience and as deeply beloved as she was. Perhaps it was that by +constantly preaching patience, she had learned patience herself. Perhaps +it was through seeing all his goodness and untiring devotion, she began +to realize after a while she had been unjust to Doctor Danton. She could +not help liking and respecting him. She heard his praises in every mouth +in the village, and she could not help owning they were well deserved. +Almost without knowing it, she was beginning to like and admire this +devoted young Doctor, who never wearied in his zeal, who was so gentle, +and womanly, and tender to the poor and suffering. Doing the brother +tardy justice, it began dimly to dawn on her mind that she might have +done the sister injustice too. She had never known anything of Grace but +what was good. Could it be that she had been prejudiced, and proud, and +unjust from first to last? + +She asked herself the question going home one evening from her mission +of mercy. The long-deferred wedding was to take place on Christmas eve, +and it was now the 7th of December. She was walking home alone, in the +yellow lustre of the wintry sunset, the snow lying white and high all +around her. Her new life had changed her somewhat; the hard look was +gone, her face was far more peaceful and gentle than when she had come. +Its luminous brightness was not there, perhaps; but the light that +remained was far more tender and sweet. She looked very lovely, this +cold, clear December, afternoon, in her dark, fur-trimmed mantle, her +pretty hat, fur-trimmed too, and the long black plume contrasting with +her amber-tinted hair. The frosty wind had lit a glow in her pale +cheeks, and deepened the light of her starry violet eyes. She looked +lovely, and so the gentleman thought, striding after her over the snowy +ground. She did not look around to see who it was, and it was only when +he stepped up by her side that she glanced at him, uttering a cry of +surprise. + +"Sir Ronald Keith! Is it really you? Oh, what a surprise!" + +She held out her gloved hand. He took it, held it, looking piercingly +into her eyes. + +"Not an unpleasant one, I hope? Are you glad to see me?" + +"Of course! How can you ask such a question? But I thought you were +hundreds of miles away, shooting moose, and bears, and wolves in New +Brunswick." + +"And so I was, and so I might have remained, had I not heard some news +that sent me to Canada like a bolt from a bow." + +"What news?" + +"Can you ask?" + +She lifted her clear eyes to his face, and read it there. The news that +she was free. The red blood flushed up in her face for a moment, and +then receded, leaving her as white as the snow. + +"I learned in the wilds of New Brunswick, where I fled to forget you, +Kate, that that man was, what I knew he would be, a traitor and a +villain. I only heard it two weeks ago, and I have never rested on my +way to you since. I am a fool and a madman, perhaps, but I can't help +hoping against hope. I love you so much, Kate, I have loved you so long, +that I cannot give you up. He is false, but I will be true. I love you +with all my heart and soul, better than I love my own life. Kate, don't +send me away again. Reginald Stanford does not stand between us now. +Think how I love you, and be my wife." + +She had tried to stop him, but he ran on impetuously. He was so haggard +and so agitated speaking to her, that she could not be angry, that she +could not help pitying him. + +"Don't," she said, gently; "don't, Sir Ronald. You are only paining +yourself and paining me. What I told you before, you force me to tell +you again. I don't love you, and I can't be your wife." + +"I don't expect you to love me yet," he said, eagerly; "how should you? +I will wait, I will do everything under Heaven you wish, only give me +hope. Give me a chance, Kate! I love you so truly and entirely, that it +will win a return sooner or later." + +"Ah! don't talk to me," she said, with an impatient sigh; "don't talk to +me of love. I have done with that, my heart feels like dust and ashes. I +am not worthy of you--I am not worthy of such devotion. I thank you, Sir +Ronald, for the honour you do me; but I cannot--I cannot marry you!" + +"And you will let that poltroon Stanford boast, as he does boast, that +you will live and die single for his sake!" he cried, bitterly. "He has +made it the subject of a bet in a London club-room with Major Lauderdale +of the Guards." + +"No!" said she, her face flushing, her eyes kindling; "he never did +that!" + +"He did do it. I have proof of it. You loved him so well--he +boasted--that you would never marry. He and Lauderdale made the bet." + +She drew a long, hard breath, her eyes flashing, her white teeth +clenched. + +"The dastard," she cried; "the mean, lying, cowardly dastard! Oh, if I +were a man!" + +"Take your revenge without being a man. Prove him a liar and a boaster. +Marry me!" + +She did not answer; but he read hope in her flushed and excited face. + +"Besides," he artfully went on, "what will you do here? You have no +longer a home when your father marries; unless you can consent to be +subject to the woman who was once his housekeeper. You will have no +place in the world; you will only be an incumbrance; your step-mother +will wish you out of the way, and your father will learn to wish as his +new wife does. Oh, Kate, come with me! Come to Glen Keith, and reign +there; we will travel over the world; you shall have every luxury that +wealth can procure; your every wish shall be gratified; you shall queen +it, my beautiful one, over the necks of those who have slighted and +humiliated you. Leave this hateful Canada, and come with me as my +wife--as Lady Keith!" + +"Don't! don't!" she cried, lifting her hand to stop his passionate +pleading. "You bewilder me; you take my breath away! Give me time; let +me think; my head is whirling now." + +"As long as you like, my dearest. I don't ask you for love now; that +will come by-and-by. Only give me hope, and I can wait--wait as long as +Jacob for Rachel, if necessary." + +He lifted her hand to his lips, but let it fall quickly again, for it +felt like ice. She was looking straight before her, at the pale, yellow +sunset, her dark eyes filled with a dusky fire, but her face as +colourless as the snowy ground. + +"Are you ill, Kate?" he said, in alarm; "have I distressed you? have I +agitated you by my sudden coming?" + +"You have agitated me," she replied. "My head is reeling. Don't talk to +me any more. I want to be alone and to think." + +They walked side by side the rest of the way in total silence. When they +reached the house, Kate ran up to her own room at once, while Captain +Danton came out into the hall to greet his old friend. The two men +lounged out in the grounds, smoking before-dinner cigars, and Sir Ronald +briefly stated the object of his return, and his late proposal to his +daughter. Captain Danton listened silently and a little anxiously. He +had known the Scottish baronet a long time; knew how wealthy he was, and +how passionately he loved his daughter; but for all that he had an +instinctive feeling that Kate would not be happy with him. + +"She has given you no reply, then?" he said, when Sir Ronald had +finished. + +"None, as yet; but she will shortly. Should that reply be favourable, +Captain Danton, yours, I trust, will be favourable also?" + +He spoke rather haughtily, and a flush deepened the florid hue of the +Captain's face. + +"My daughter shall please herself. If she thinks she can be happy as +your wife, I have nothing to say. You spoke of Reginald Stanford a +moment ago; do you know anything of his doings since he left Canada?" + +"Very little. He has sold his commission, and quitted the army--some +say, quitted England. His family, you know, have cast him off for his +dishonourable conduct." + +"I know--I received a letter from Stanford Royals some months ago, in +which his father expressed his strong regret, and his disapproval of his +son's conduct." + +"That is all you know about him?" + +"That is all. I made no inquiry--I thought the false hound beneath +notice." + +Captain Danton sighed. He had loved his pretty, bright-eyed, +auburn-haired Rose very dearly, and he could not quite forget her, in +spite of her misdoing. They sauntered up and down in the grey, cold, +wintry twilight, until the ringing of the dinner-bell summoned them +indoors. Kate was there, very beautiful, Sir Ronald thought, in that +dark, rich silk, and flashing ornaments in her golden hair. + +Long that night, after the rest of the household were sleeping, Kate sat +musing over the past, the present, and the future. She had dismissed +Eunice, and sat before the fire in a loose, white dressing-gown, her +lovely hair falling around her, her deep, earnest eyes fixed on the red +blaze. What should she do? Accept Sir Ronald Keith's offer, and achieve +a brilliant place in the world, or sink into insignificance in this +remote corner of the earth? It was all true what he had said: in a few +days her father would be married. Another would be mistress where she +had reigned--another, who might look upon her as an incumbrance and a +burden. She had been content to remain here while she held the first +place in her father's heart; but another held that place now, and would +hold it forever. What should she do in the long days, and months, and +years, that were to come? How should she drag through a useless and +monotonous existence in this dull place? Even now, earnestly as she +sought to do good in her mission of mercy, there were hours and hours of +wretched, unspeakable dreariness and desolation. When her work was +ended, when the fever was over, what would become of her then? That dim +vision of the cloister and veil was dim as ever in the far distance. No +ardent glow, no holy longing filled her heart at the thought, to tell +her she had found a vocation. Her life was unspeakable empty and +desolate, and must remain so forever, if she stayed here. Other thoughts +were at work, too, tempting her on. The recollection of Sir Ronald's +words about her recreant lover--the thought of his insolent and cowardly +boast stung her to the soul. Here was the way to revenge--the way to +give him the lie direct. As Sir Ronald Keith's wife, a life of splendour +and power awaited her. She thought of Glen Keith as she had seen it +once, old and storied, and gray and grand, with ivy and roses clustering +round its gray walls, and its waving trees casting inviting shadows. +Then, too, did he not deserve some return for this long, faithful, +devoted love? Other girls made marriages _de raison_ every day, and were +well content with their lot--why should she not? She could not forever +remain indifferent to his fidelity and devotion. She might learn to love +him by-and-by. + +The fire waned and burned low, the hours of the bleak winter night wore +on, and three o'clock of a new day struck before the solitary watcher +went to bed. + +The Scotch baronet was not kept long in suspense. Next morning, as Miss +Danton came down the stone steps, with something in a paper parcel for +her poor, sick pensioners, Sir Ronald Keith joined her. + +"I have passed a sleepless night," he said. "I shall never rest until I +have your answer. When am I to have it, Kate?" + +Her face turned a shade paler, otherwise there was no change, and her +voice was quite firm. + +"Now, if you wish." + +"And it is yes," he cried, eagerly. "For Heaven's sake, Kate, say it is +yes!" + +"It is yes; if you can take me for what I am. I don't love you; I don't +know that I shall ever love you, but I will try. If I marry you, I will +be your true and faithful wife, and your honour will be as sacred as my +salvation. If you can take me, knowing this, I am yours." + +He caught her in his arms, and broke out into a torrent of passionate +delight and thankfulness. She disengaged herself, cold and very pale. + +"Leave me now," she said. "I must go to the village alone. Don't ask too +much from me, Sir Ronald, or you may be disappointed." + +"Only one thing more, my darling. Your father is to be married on the +twenty-fourth. I am sure you will have no wish to linger in this house +after that. Will you not dispense with the usual formalities and +preparations, and be married on the same day?" + +"Yes, yes," she said, impatiently; "let it be as you wish! What does it +matter? Good-morning." + +She walked away rapidly over the frozen snow, leaving the successful +wooer to return to the house and relate his good luck. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +VIA CRUCIS. + + +So once more Miss Danton was "engaged;" once more preparations for a +double wedding went on; once more her wedding day was named. + +There was very little noise made about the matter this time. Father +Francis and Doctor Danton were almost the only two outside the household +who knew anything about it, and somehow these were the very two Kate +herself wished most to keep it from. + +She was ashamed of her mercenary marriage; in spite of herself she +despised herself for it, and she felt they must despise her for it too. +She shrank away guiltily under the clear steadfast, searching gaze of +Father Francis, feeling how low she must have fallen in his estimation. +She respected and esteemed the priest and the Doctor so much, that it +was humiliating to lose their respect by her own voluntary act. But it +was too late to draw back, even if she wished it; her fetters were +forged--she was bound beyond recall. + +Sir Ronald Keith had got the desire of his heart--Kate Danton was his +promised wife, and yet he was not quite happy. Are we ever quite happy, +I wonder, when we attain the end for which we have sighed and longed, +perhaps for years? Our imagination is so very apt to paint that desire +of our heart in rainbow-hues, and we are so very apt to find it, when it +comes, only dull gray, after all. + +Sir Ronald loved his beautiful and queenly affianced with a changeless +devotion nothing could alter. He had thought her promise to marry him +would satisfy him perfectly; but he had that promise, and he was not +satisfied. He wanted something more--he wanted love in return, although +he knew she did not love him; and he was dissatisfied. It is not exactly +pleasant, perhaps, to find the woman you love and are about to marry as +cold as an iceberg--to see her shrink at your approach, and avoid you on +all possible occasions. It is rather hard, no doubt, to put up with the +loose touch of cold fingers for your warmest caress, and heavy sighs in +answer to your most loving speeches. + +Sir Ronald had promised to be content without love; but he was not, and +was huffish and offended, and savagely jealous of Reginald Stanford and +all the hated past. + +So the baronet's wooing was on the whole rather gloomy, and depressing +to the spirits, even of the lookers-on; and Kate was failing away once +more to a pale, listless shadow, and Sir Ronald was in a state of +perpetual sulkiness. + +But the bridal-cakes and bridal-dresses were making, and the December +days were slipping by, one by one, bringing the fated time near. Miss +Danton still zealously and unweariedly continued her mission of love. No +weather kept her indoors, no pleadings of her future husband were strong +enough to make her give up one visit for his pleasure or accommodation. + +"Let me alone, Sir Ronald Keith," she would answer, wearily, and a +little impatiently; "it will not be for long. Let me alone!" + +The fever that had swept off so many was slowly dying out. The sick ones +were not so bad or so many now, but that Miss Danton, with a safe +conscience, might have given them up; but she would not. She never +wanted to be alone--she who had been so fond of solitude such a short +time ago. She was afraid of herself--afraid to think--afraid of that dim +future that was drawing so very near. Every feeling of heart and soul +revolted at the thought of that loveless marriage--the profanation of +herself seemed more than she could bear. + +"I shall turn desperate at the very altar!" she thought, with something +like despair. "I can't marry him--I can't! It sets me wild to think of +it. What a wretch I am! What a weak, miserable, cowardly wretch, not to +be able to face the fate I have chosen for myself! I don't know what to +do, and I have no one to consult--no one but Father Francis, and I am +afraid to speak to him. I don't love him; I loathe the thought of +marrying him; but it is too late to draw back. If one could only die, +and end it all!" + +Her arm lay across the window-sill; her head drooped and fell on it now, +with a heavy sigh. She was unspeakably miserable, and lonely, and +desolate; she was going to seal her misery for life by a loveless +marriage, which her soul abhorred, and she had no power to draw back. +She was like a rudderless ship, drifting without helm or compass among +shoals and quicksands--drifting helplessly to ruin. + +"If I dared only ask Father Francis, he would tell me what to do," she +thought, despondingly; "he is so wise and good, and knows what is best +for every one. He would tell me how to do what is right, and I want to +do what is right if I can. But I have neglected, and avoided, and +prevaricated with him so long that I have no right to trouble him now. +And I know he would tell me I am doing wrong; I have read it in his +face; and how can I do right?" + +She sat thinking drearily, her face lying on her arm. It was the +afternoon of the 14th--ten days more, and it would indeed, be too late. +The nearer the marriage approached, the more abhorrent it grew. The +waving trees of Glen-Keith cast inviting shadows no longer. It was all +darkness and desolation. Sir Ronald's moody, angry face frightened and +distressed her--it was natural, she supposed. She did not behave well, +but he knew she did not care for him; she had told him so, honestly and +plainly; and if he looked like that before marriage, how would he look +after? She was unutterably wretched, poor child; and a remorseful +conscience that would give her no rest did not add to her comfort. + +She sat there for a long time, her face hidden on her arm, quite still. +The short, wintry afternoon was wearing away; the cold, yellow sun hung +low in the pale western sky, and the evening wind was sighing mournfully +amid the trees when she rose up. She looked pale, but resolved; and she +dressed herself for a walk, with a veil over her face, and slowly +descended the stairs. + +As she opened the house door, Sir Ronald came out of the drawing-room, +not looking too well pleased at having been deserted all the afternoon. + +"Are you going out?" he asked. + +"Yes." + +"Where?" + +"Up the village." + +"Always up the village!" he exclaimed, impatiently, "and always alone. +May I not go with you? It is growing, late." + +"There is no occasion," she replied, looking at him proudly. "I need no +protector in St. Croix." + +She opened the door and went out, and walked rapidly down the bleak +avenue to the gates. The authoritative tone of the baronet stung her +proud spirit to the quick. + +"What right has he to talk to me like that?" she thought, angrily. "If I +loved him, I would not endure it; I don't love him, and I won't endure +it." + +Her eyes flashed as she walked along, lightly and rapidly, holding her +haughty head very erect. Greetings met her on every hand as she passed +through the village. She never paused until she reached the church, and +stood by the entrance gate of the little garden in front of the Curé's +house. There she paused irresolute. How peaceful it was--what a holy +hush seemed to linger round the place! All her courage left her, and she +stood as timid and fluttering as any school-girl. While she hesitated, +the door opened, and Father Francis stood looking at her. + +"Come in, Miss Danton," he said. "You look as if you were almost +afraid." + +She opened the little gate and went up the path, looking strangely +downcast and troubled. Father Francis held out his hand with a smile. + +"I thought you would come to see me before you left Canada," he said, +"although you seem to have rather forgotten your old friends of late. +Come in." + +"Are you alone?" Kate asked, following him into the little parlour. + +"Quite alone. The Curé has gone two miles off on a sick call. And how +are the good people of Danton Hall?" + +"Very well," Kate answered, taking a seat by the window and looking out +at the pale, yellow sunset. + +"That is, except yourself, Miss Danton. You have grown thin within the +last fortnight. What is the matter?" + +"I am not very happy," she said, with a little tremor of the voice; +"perhaps that is it." + +"Not happy?" repeated Father Francis, with a short, peculiar laugh. "I +thought when young ladies married baronets, the height of earthly +felicity was attained. It seems rather sordid, this marrying for wealth +and title. I hardly thought Kate Danton would do it; but it appears I +have made a foolish mistake." + +"Thank you," Kate said, very slowly. "I came here to ask you to be cruel +to me--to tell me hard truths. You know how to be cruel very well, +Father Francis." + +"Why do you come to me for hard truths?" said the priest, rather coldly. +"You have been deluding yourself all along; why don't you go on? What is +the use of telling you the truth? You will do as you like in the end." + +"Perhaps not. I have not fallen quite so low as you think. I dare say +you despise me, but you can hardly despise me more than I despise +myself." + +"Then why walk on in the path that leads you downward? Why not stop +before it is too late?" + +"It is too late now!" + +"Stuff and nonsense! That is more of your self-delusion. You, or rather +that pride of yours, which has been the great stumbling-block of your +life, leads you on in that self-delusion. Too late! It would not be too +late if you were before the altar! Better stop now and endure the +humiliation than render your own and this man's future life miserable. +You will never be happy as Sir Ronald Keith's wife; he will never be +happy as your husband. I know how you are trying to delude yourself; I +know you are trying to believe you will love him and be happy by-and-by. +Don't indulge such sophistry any longer; don't be led away by your own +pride and folly." + +"Pride and folly!" she echoed indignantly. + +"Yes, I repeat it. Your heart, your conscience, must own the truth of +what I say, if your lips will not. Would you ever have accepted Sir +Ronald Keith if your father had not been about to marry Grace Danton?" + +The sudden flush that overspread her face answered for her, though she +did not speak. She sat looking straight before her into vacancy, with a +hard, despairing look in her dark, deep eyes. + +"You know you would not. But your father is going to marry a most +excellent and most estimable woman; his affection is not wholly his +daughter's any longer; she must stand a little in the shade, and see +another reign where she used to be queen. She cannot hold the first +place in her father's heart and home; so she is ready to leave that home +with the first man who asks her. She does not love him; there is no +sympathy or feeling in common between them; they are not even of the +same religion; she knows that she will be wretched, and that she will +make him wretched too. But what does it all matter? Her pride is to be +wounded, her self-love humiliated, and every other consideration must +yield to that. She is ready to commit perjury, to swear to love and +honour a man who is no more to her than that peasant walking along the +road. She is ready to degrade herself and risk her soul by a mercenary +marriage sooner than bear that wound to pride!" + +"Go on!" Kate said, bitterly; "it is well to have one's heart lacerated +sometimes, I suppose. Pray go on." + +"I intend to go on. You have been used to queening it all your life--to +being flattered, and indulged, and pampered to the top of your bent, and +it will do you good. When you are this man's miserable wife, you shall +never say Father Francis might have warned me--Father Francis might have +saved me. You have ruled here with a ring and a clatter; you have been +pleased to dazzle and bewilder the simple people of St. Croix, to see +yourself looked up to as a sort of goddess. Your rank, and +accomplishments, and beauty--we are talking plain truth now, Miss +Danton--all these gifts that God has bestowed upon you so bountifully, +you have misused. It doesn't seem so to you, does it? You think you have +been very good, very charitable, very condescending. I don't deny that +you have done good, that you have been a sort of guardian angel to the +poor and the sick; but what was your motive? Was it that which makes +thousands of girls, as young, and rich, and handsome as yourself, resign +everything for the humble garb and lowly duties of a Sister of Charity? +Oh, no! You liked to be idolized, to be venerated, and looked up to as +an angel upon earth. That pride of yours which induces you to sell +yourself for so many thousand pounds per annum was at the bottom of it +all. You want to hold a foremost place in the great battle of life--you +want all obstacles to give way before you. It can't be; and your whole +life is a failure." + +"Go on," Kate reiterated, never stirring, never looking at him, and +white as death. + +"You have fancied yourself very good, very immaculate, and thanked +Heaven in an uplifted sort of way that you were not as other women, +false, and mean, and sordid. You wanted to walk through life in a +pathway of roses without thorns, to a placid death, and a heritage of +glory in Heaven. The trials of common people were not for you; sorrow, +and disappointment, and suffering were to pass Miss Danton by. You were +so good, and so far up in the clouds, nothing low or base could reach +you. Well, it was not to be. You were only clay, after all--the +porcelain of human clay, perhaps, but very brittle stuff withal. Trouble +did come; the man you had made a sort of idol of, to whom you had given +your whole heart, with a love so intense as to be sinful--this man +abandons you. The sister you have trusted and been fond of, deceives +you, and you find that trouble is something more than a word of two +syllables. You have been very great, and noble, and heroic all your +life, in theory--how do we find you in practice? Why, drooping like any +other lovelorn damsel, pining away without one effort at that greatness +and heroism you thought so much of; without one purpose to conquer +yourself, without one effort to be resigned to the will of Heaven. You +rebel against your father's marriage; everybody else ought to be lonely +and unhappy because you are; the world ought to wear crape, and the +light of the sun be darkened. But the world laughs and sings much as +usual, the sun shines as joyously. Your father's marriage will be an +accomplished fact, and our modern heroine says 'yes' to the first man +who asks her to marry him in a fit of spleen, because she will be Grace +Danton's step-daughter, and must retire a little into the background, +and look forward to the common humdrum life ordinary mortals lead. She +doesn't ask help where help alone is to be found; so in the hour of her +trial there is no light for her in earth or Heaven. Oh, my child! stop +and think what you are going to do before it is too late." + +"I can't think," she said, in a hollow voice. "I only know I am a +miserable, sinful, fallen creature. Help me, Father Francis; tell me +what I am to do." + +"Do not ask help from me," the young priest said, gravely; "ask it of +that compassionate Father who is in Heaven. Oh! my child, the way to +that land of peace and rest is the way of the Cross--the only way. There +are more thorns than roses under our feet, but we must go on like +steadfast soldiers to the end, bearing our cross, and keeping the +battle-cry of the brave old Crusaders in our hearts, 'God wills it.' +Your trouble has been heavy, my poor child, I don't doubt, but you +cannot be exempt from the common lot. I am sorry for you, Heaven knows, +and I would make your life a happy one if I could, in spite of all the +harsh things I may say. It is because I would not have your whole life +miserable that I talk to you like this. Your heart acknowledges the +truth of every word I have said; and remember there is but one recipe +for real happiness--goodness. Be good and you will be happy. It is a +hackneyed precept out of a copy-book," Father Francis said, with a +slight smile; "but believe me, it is the only infallible rule. Rouse +yourself to a better life, my dear Kate; begin a new and more perfect +life, and God will help you. Remember, dear child, 'There is a love that +never fails when earthly loves decay.'" + +She did not speak. She rose up, cold, and white, and rigid. The priest +arose too. + +"Are you going?" he asked. + +"Yes." + +"You are not offended with me for all this plain talk? I like you so +much, you know, that I want to see you happy." + +"Offended?" she answered, "oh, no! Some day I will thank you; I cannot +now." + +She opened the door and was gone, flitting along, a lonely figure in the +bleak winter twilight. She never paused in her rapid walk until she +reached Danton Hall; and then, pale and absorbed, she ran rapidly +upstairs, and shut herself into her room. Throwing off her bonnet and +mantle, she sat down to her writing-desk at once, and without waiting to +think, took up a pen and dashed off a rapid note: + + "Sir Ronald:--I have deceived you. I have done very wrong. + I don't love you--I never can; and I cannot be your wife. I am very + sorry; I ask you to forgive me--to be generous, and release me from + my promise. I should be miserable as your wife, and I would make + you miserable too. Oh! pray forgive me, and release me, for indeed + I cannot marry you. + + "Kate Danton." + +She folded the note rapidly, placed it in an envelope, wrote the +address, "Sir Ronald Keith," and sealed it. Still in the same rapid way, +as if she were afraid to pause, afraid to trust herself, she arose and +rang the bell. Eunice answered the summons, and stared aghast at her +mistress' face. + +"Do you know if Sir Ronald is in the house?" Miss Danton asked. + +"Yes, Miss; he's sitting in the library, reading a paper." + +"Is he alone?" + +"Yes, Miss." + +"Take this letter to him, then; and, Eunice, tell Miss Grace I will not +be down to dinner. You can fetch me a cup of tea here. I do not feel +very well." + +Eunice departed on her errand. Kate drew a long, long breath of relief +when she closed the door after her. She drew her favourite chair up +before the fire, took a book off the table, and seated herself +resolutely to read. She was determined to put off thought--to let events +take their course, and cease tormenting herself, for to-night at least. + +Eunice brought up the tea and a little trayful of dainties, drew the +curtain, and lit the lamp. Kate laid down her book and looked up. + +"Did you deliver the note, Eunice?" + +"Yes, Miss." + +"And my message to Miss Grace?" + +"Yes, Miss." + +"Very well, then--you may go." + +The girl went away, and Kate sat sipping her tea and reading. She sat +for upward of half an hour, and then she arose and took the way to the +apartments of Mr. Richards. It was after ten before she returned and +entered her sitting-room. She found Eunice waiting for her, and she +resigned herself into her hands at once. + +"I shall go to bed early to-night," she said. "My head aches. I must try +and sleep." + +Sleep mercifully came to her almost as soon as she laid her head on her +pillow. She slept as she had not done for many a night before, and awoke +next morning refreshed and strengthened for the new trials of the new +day. She dreaded the meeting with her discarded suitor, with a nervous +dread quite indescribable; but the meeting must be, and she braced +herself for the encounter with a short, fervent prayer, and went down +stairs. + +There was no one in the dining-room, but the table was laid. She walked +to the window, and stood looking out at the black, bare trees, writhing +and groaning in the morning wind, and the yellow sunshine glittering on +the frozen snow. While she stood, a quick, heavy tread crossed the +hall--a tread she knew well. Her heart throbbed; her breath came quick. +A moment later, and Sir Ronald entered, the open note she had sent him +in his hand. + +"What is the meaning of this folly, Kate?" he demanded, angrily, +striding towards her. "Here, take it back. You did not mean it." + +"I do mean it," Kate said, shrinking. "I have behaved very badly; I am +very sorry, but I mean it." + +His black brows contracted stormily over his gloomy eyes. + +"Do you mean to say you have jilted me? Have you been playing the +capricious coquette from first to last?" + +"I am very sorry! I am very sorry!" poor Kate faltered. "I have done +wrong! Oh, forgive me! And please don't be angry." + +He broke into a harsh laugh. + +"You are sorry! and you have done wrong! Upon my soul, Miss Danton, you +have a mild way of putting it. Here, take back this nonsensical letter. +I can't and won't free you from your engagement." + +He held the letter out, but she would not take it. The strong and proud +spirit was beginning to rise; but the recollection that she had drawn +this on herself held her in check. + +"I cannot take back one word in that letter. I made a great mistake in +thinking I could marry you; I see it now more than ever. I have owned my +fault. I have told you I am sorry. I can do no more. As a gentleman you +are bound to release me." + +"Of course," he said, with a bitter sneer. "As a gentleman, I am bound +to let you play fast and loose with me to your heart's content. You have +behaved very honourably to me, Miss Danton, and very much like a +gentlewoman. Is it because you have been jilted yourself, that you want +the pleasure of jilting another? It is hardly the thing to revenge +Reginald Stanford's doings on me." + +Up leaped the indignant blood to Kate's face; bright flashed the angry +fire from her eyes. + +"Go!" she cried, in a ringing tone of command. "Leave my father's house, +Sir Ronald Keith! I thought I was talking to a gentleman. I have found +my mistake. Go! If you were monarch of the world, I would not marry you +now." + +He ground his teeth with a savage oath of fury and rage. The letter she +had sent him was still in his hand. He tore it fiercely into fragments, +and flung them in a white shower at her feet. + +"I will go," he said; "but I shall remember this day, and so shall you. +I shall take good care to let the world know how you behave to an +honourable man when a dishonourable one deserts you." + +With the last unmanly taunt he was gone, banging the house door after +him until the old mansion shook. And Kate fled back to her room, and +fell down on her knees before her little white bed, and prayed with a +passionate outburst of tears for strength to bear her bitter, bitter +cross. + +Later in the day a man from the village hotel came to Danton Hall for +the baronet's luggage. Captain Danton, mystified and bewildered, sought +his daughter for an explanation of these strange goings on. Kate related +the rather humiliating story, leaving out Sir Ronald's cruel taunts, in +dread of a quarrel between him and her father. + +"Don't say anything about it, papa," Kate said, imploringly. "I have +behaved very badly, and I feel more wretched and sorry for it all than I +can tell you. Don't try to see Sir Ronald. He is justly very angry, and +might say things in his anger that would provoke a quarrel. I am +miserable enough now without that." + +Captain Danton promised, and quietly dispatched the Scotchman's +belongings. That evening Sir Ronald departed for Quebec, to take passage +for Liverpool. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +BEARING THE CROSS. + + +The dead blank that comes after excitement of any kind is very trying to +bear. The dull flow of monotonous life, following the departure of the +Scotch baronet, told severely on Kate. The feverish excitement of that +brief second engagement had sustained her, and kindled a brighter fire +in her blue eyes, and a hot glow on her pale cheeks. But in the stagnant +quiet that succeeded, the light grew dim, the roses faded, and the old +lassitude and weariness returned. She had not even the absorbing task of +playing amateur Sister of Charity, for the fever was almost gone, and +there was no more left for her to do. + +There was no scandal or _éclat_ this time about the broken-off marriage, +for it had been kept very secret--only in the kitchen-cabinet there were +endless surmisings and wonderings. + +The wedding garments made for the second time for Miss Danton were for +the second time put quietly away. + +Father Francis, in all his visits to Danton Hall, never made the +slightest allusion to the event that had taken place. Only, he laid his +hand on Kate's drooping head, with a "Heaven bless you, my child!" so +fervently uttered that she felt repaid for all the humiliation she had +undergone. + +So very quietly at Danton Hall December wore away, and Christmas-eve +dawned, Grace Danton's wedding-day. About ten in the morning the large, +roomy, old-fashioned family sleigh drove up before the front door, and +the bridal party entered, and were whirled to the church. A very select +party indeed; the bride and bridegroom, the bride's brother, and the +bridegroom's two daughters. + +Grace's brown velvet bonnet, brown silk dress, and seal jacket were not +exactly the prescribed attire for a bride; but with the hazel hair, +smooth and shining, and the hazel eyes full of happy light, Grace looked +very sweet and fair. + +Eeny, in pale silk and a pretty hat with a long white plume, looked fair +as a lily and happy as a queen, and very proud of her post of +bride-maid. + +And Kate, who was carrying her cross bravely now, very simply attired, +sat beside Doctor Frank and tried to listen and be interested in what he +was saying, and all the time feeling like one in some unnatural dream. +She saw the dull, gray, sunless sky, speaking of coming storm, the +desolate snow-covered fields, the quiet village, and the little church, +with its tall spire and glittering cross. She saw it all in a vague, +lost sort of way, and was in the church and seated in a pew, and +listening and looking on, like a person walking in her sleep. Her father +going to be married! How strange and unnatural it seemed. She had never +grown familiarized with the idea, perhaps because she would never +indulge it, and now he was kneeling on the altar steps, with Frank +Danton beside him, and Eeny at Grace's left hand, and the Curé and +Father Francis were there in stole and surplice, and the ceremony was +going on. She saw the ring put on Grace's finger, she heard the Curé's +French accented voice, "Henry Danton, wilt thou have Grace Danton to be +thy wedded wife?" and that firm, clear "I will," in reply. + +Then it was all over; they were married. Her pale face drooped on the +front rail of the pew, and wet it with a rain of hot tears. + +The wedding quartet were going into the sacristy to register their +names. She could linger no longer, although she felt as if she would +like to stay there and die, so she arose and went wearily after. Her +father looked at her with anxious, imploring eyes; she went up and +kissed him, with a smile on her colourless face. + +"I hope you will be very happy, papa," she whispered. + +And then she turned to Grace, and touched her cold lips to the bride's +flushed cheek. + +"I wish you very much happiness, Mrs. Danton," she said. + +Yes, she could never be mother--she was only Mrs. Danton, her father's +wife; but Father Francis gave her a kindly, approving glance, even for +this. She turned away from him with a weary sigh. Oh, what trouble and +mockery everything was? What a dreary, wretched piece of business life +was altogether! The sense of loneliness and desolation weighed on her +heart, this dull December morning, like lead. + +There was to be a wedding-breakfast, but the Curé, and Father Francis, +and Doctor Frank were the only guests. + +Kate sat at her father's side--Grace presided now, Grace was mistress of +the Hall--and listened in the same dazed and dreary way to the confusion +of tongues, the fire of toasts, the clatter of china and silver, and the +laughter of the guests. She sat very still, eating and drinking, because +she must eat and drink to avoid notice, and never thinking how beautiful +she looked in her blue silk dress, her neck and arms gleaming like ivory +against azure. What would it ever matter again how she looked? + +Captain and Mrs. Danton were going on a brief bridal-tour to +Toronto--not to be absent over a fortnight. They were to depart by the +two o'clock train; so, breakfast over, Grace hurried away to change her +dress. Dr. Frank was going to drive Eeny to the station, in the cutter, +to see them off, but Kate declined to accompany them. She shook hands +with them at the door; and then turned and went back into the empty, +silent house. + +A wedding, when the wedded pair, ashamed of themselves, go scampering +over the country in search of distraction and amusement, leaves any +household almost as forlorn as a funeral. Dead silence succeeds tumult +and bustle; those left behind sit down blankly, feeling a gap in their +circle, a loss never to be repaired. It was worse than usual at Danton +Hall. The wintry weather, precluding all possibility of seeking +forgetfulness and recreation out of doors, the absence of visitors--for +the Curé, Father Francis, Doctor Danton, and the Reverend Mr. Clare +comprised Kate's whole visiting list now--all tended to make dismalness +more dismal. She could remember this time last year, when Reginald and +Rose, and Sir Ronald, and all were with them--so many then, so few now; +only herself and Eeny left. + +The memory of the past time came back with a dulled sense of pain and +misery. She had suffered so much that the sense of suffering was +blunted--there was only a desolate aching of the heart when she thought +of it now. + +December and the old year died out, in a great winding-sheet of snow. +January came, and its first week dragged away, and the master and +mistress of the house were daily expected home. + +Late in the afternoon of a January day, Kate sat at the drawing-room +window, her chin resting on her hand, her eyes fixed on the white +darkness. The wind made such a racket and uproar within and without, +that she did not hear a modest tap at the door, or the turning of the +handle. It was only when a familiar voice sounded close to her elbow +that she started from her reverie. + +"If you please, Miss Kate." + +"Oh, is it you, Ogden? I did not hear you. What is the matter?" + +Mr. Ogden drew nearer and lowered his voice. + +"Miss Kate, have you been upstairs to-day?" + +Kate knew what he meant by this rather guarded question--had she been to +see Mr. Richards? + +"No," she said in alarm; "is there anything the matter?" + +"I am afraid there is, Miss Kate. I am afraid he is not very well." + +"Not very well!" repeated Miss Danton. "Do you mean to say he is ill, +Ogden?" + +"Yes, Miss Kate, I am afraid he is. He wasn't very well last night, and +this morning he is worse. He complains dreadful of headache, and he +ain't got no appetite whatsomever. He's been lying down pretty much all +day." + +"Why did you not tell me sooner?" Kate cried, with a pang of remorse at +her own neglect. "I will go to him at once." + +She hastened upstairs, and into her brother's rooms. The young man was +in the bedroom, lying on the bed, dressed, and in a sort of stupor. As +Kate bent over him, and spoke, he opened his eyes, dull and heavy. + +"Harry, dear," Kate said, kissing him, "what is the matter? Are you +ill?" + +Harry Danton made an effort to raise, but fell back on the pillow. + +"My head aches as if it would split open, and I feel as if I had a +ton-weight bearing down every limb. I think I am going to have the +fever." + +Kate turned pale. + +"Oh, Harry, for Heaven's sake don't think that! The fever has left the +village; why should you have it now?" + +He did not reply. The heavy stupor that deadened every sense bore him +down, and took away the power of speech. His eyes closed, and in another +moment he had dropped off into a deep, lethargic sleep. + +Kate arose and went out into the corridor, where she found Ogden +waiting. + +"He has fallen asleep," she said. "I want you to undress him, and get +him into bed properly, while I go and prepare a saline draught. I am +afraid he is going to be very ill." + +She passed on, and ran down stairs to her father's study, where the +medicine-chest stood. It took her some time to prepare the saline +draught; and when she returned to the bed-chamber, Ogden had finished +his task, and the sick man was safely in bed. He still slept--heavily, +deep--but his breathing was laboured and his lips parched. + +"I will give him this when he awakes," Kate said; "and I will sit up +with him all night. You can remain in the next room, Ogden, so as to be +within call, if wanted." + +Kate remained by her sick brother through the long hours of that wintry +night. She sat by the bedside, bathing the hot face and fevered hands, +and holding cooling drinks to the dry lips. The shaded lamp lit the room +dimly, too dimly to see to read; so she sat patiently, listening to the +snow-storm, and watching her sick brother's face. In the next room Mr. +Ogden slept the sleep of the just, in an arm-chair, his profound snoring +making a sort of accompaniment to the howling of the wind. + +The slow, slow hours dragged away, and morning came. It found the +patient worse, weak, prostrated, and deadly sick, but not delirious. + +"I know I have the fever, Kate," he said, in a weak whisper; "I am glad +of it. I only hope it will be merciful, and take me off." + +Kate went down to breakfast, which she could not eat, and then returned +to the sick-room. Her experience among the sick of the village had made +her skilful in the disease; but, despite all she could do, Harry grew +weaker and worse. She dared not summon help, she dared not call in the +Doctor, until her father's return. + +"He ought to be here to-day," she thought. "Heaven grant it! If he does +not and Harry keeps growing worse, I will go and speak to Father Francis +this evening." + +Fortunately this unpleasant duty was not necessary. The late afternoon +train brought the newly-wedded pair home. Kate and Eeny met them in the +hall, the latter kissing both with effusion, and Kate only shaking +hands, with a pale and anxious countenance. + +Mrs. Grace went upstairs with Eeny, to change her travelling costume, +and Captain Danton was left standing in the hall with his eldest +daughter. + +"What is it, my dear?" he asked; "what has gone wrong?" + +"Something very serious, I am afraid, papa. Harry is ill." + +"Ill! How?--when?--what is the matter with him?" + +"The fever," Kate said, in a whisper. "No one in the house knows it yet +but Ogden. He was taken ill night before last, but I knew nothing of it +till yesterday. I sat up with him last night, and did what I could, but +I fear he is getting worse. I wanted to call in the Doctor, but I dared +not until your return. What shall we do?" + +"Send for Doctor Frank immediately," replied her father, promptly; "I +have no fear of trusting him. He is the soul of honour, and poor Harry's +secret is as safe with him as with ourselves. Grace has heard the story. +I told her in Montreal. Of course, I could have no secrets from my wife. +I will go to the village myself, and at once; that is, as soon as I have +seen the poor boy. Let us go up now, my dear." + +Kate followed her father upstairs, and into the sick man's room. With +the approach of night he had grown worse, and was slightly delirious. He +did not know his father when he bent over and spoke to him. He was +tossing restlessly on his pillow, and muttering incoherently as he +tossed. + +"My poor boy! My poor Harry!" his father said, with tears in his-eyes. +"Misfortune seems to have marked him for its own. Remain with him, Kate; +I will go at once for Doctor Danton." + +Five minutes later the Captain was galloping towards the village hotel, +through the gray, gathering dusk. The young Doctor was in, seated in his +own room, reading a ponderous-looking volume. He arose to greet his +visitor, but stopped short at sight of his grave and anxious face. + +"There is nothing wrong, I hope?" he inquired; "nothing has happened at +the Hall?" + +The Captain looked around the little chamber with the same anxious +glance. + +"We are quite alone?" he said. + +"Quite," replied his brother-in-law, very much surprised. + +"I have a story to tell you--a secret to confide to you. Your services +are required at the Hall; but before I can avail myself of these +services, I have a sacred trust to confide to you--a trust I am certain +you will never betray." + +"I shall never betray any trust you may repose in me, Captain Danton," +the young man answered gravely. + +Some dim inkling of the truth was in his mind as he spoke. Captain +Danton drew his chair closer, and in a low, hurried voice began his +story. The story he had once before told Reginald Stanford, the story of +his unfortunate son. + +Doctor Frank listened with a face of changeless calm. No surprise was +expressed in his grave, earnest, listening countenance. When the Captain +had finished his narrative, with an account of the fever that rendered +his presence at once necessary, a faint flush dyed his forehead. + +"I shall be certain now," he thought. "I only saw Agnes Darling's +husband once, and then for a moment; but I shall know him again if I +ever see him." + +"I shall be with you directly," he said, rising; "as soon as they saddle +my horse." + +He rang the bell and gave the order. By the time his cap and coat were +on, and a few other preparations made, the hostler had the horse at the +door. + +It was quite dark now; but the road was white with snow and the two men +rode rapidly to the Hall with the strong January wind blowing in their +faces. They went upstairs at once, and Doctor Frank, with an odd +sensation, followed the master of Danton Hall across the threshold of +that mysterious Mr. Richards' room. + +The Captain's son lay in a feverish sleep, tossing wildly and raving +incoherently. Kate, sitting by his bedside, he mistook for some one +else, calling her "Agnes," and talking in disjointed sentences of days +and things long since past. + +"He thinks she is his wife," the Captain said, very sadly; "poor boy!" + +The Doctor turned up the lamp, and looked long and earnestly into the +fever-flushed face. His own seemed to have caught the reflection of that +red glow, when at last he looked up. + +"It is the fever," he said, "and a very serious case. You sat up last +night, your father tells me, Miss Kate?" + +"Yes," Kate answered. + +She was very white and thoroughly worn out. + +"You are not strong enough to do anything of the kind. You look +half-dead now. I will remain here all night, and do you at once go and +lie down." + +"Thank you very much," Kate said, gratefully. "I can sleep when I know +you are with him. Do you think there is any danger?" + +"I trust not. You and I have seen far more serious cases down there in +St. Croix, and we have brought them round. It is a very sad story, +his--I am very sorry for your brother." Kate stooped and kissed the hot +face, her tears falling on it. + +"Poor, poor Harry! The crime of that dreadful murder should not lie at +his door, but at that of the base wretch he made his wife!" + +"Are you quite sure, Miss Danton," said the young Doctor, seriously, +"that there may not have been some terrible mistake? From what your +father tells me, your brother had very little proof of his wife's +criminality beyond the words of his friend Furniss, who may have been +actuated by some base motive of his own." + +"He had the proof of his own senses," Kate said, indignantly; "he saw +the man Crosby with his wife, and heard his words. The guilt of Harry's +rash deed should rest far more on her than on him." + +She turned from the room, leaving her father and the young Doctor to +watch by the sick man all night. The Captain sought his wife, and +explained the cause of her brother's sudden summons; and Kate, in her +own room, quite worn out, lay down dressed as she was, and fell into a +profound, refreshing sleep, from which she did not wake until late next +morning. + +When she returned to her brother's chamber, she found the Doctor and the +Captain gone, and Grace keeping watch. Mrs. Danton explained that Frank +had been summoned away about an hour previously to attend a patient in +the village; and the Captain, at her entreaty, had gone to take some +rest. The patient was much the same, and was now asleep. + +"But you should not have come here, Mrs. Danton," Kate expostulated. +"You know this fever is infectious." + +Mrs. Danton smiled. + +"My life is of no more value than yours or my husband's. I am not +afraid--I should be very unhappy if I were not permitted to do what +little good I can." + +For the second time there flashed into Kate's mind the thought that she +had never done this woman justice. Here she was, generous and +self-sacrificing, risking her own safety by the sick-bed of her +husband's own son. Could it be that after all she had married her father +because she loved him, and not because he was Captain Danton of Danton +Hall? + +"Father Francis ought to know," she mused; "and Father Francis sings her +praises on every occasion. I know Eeny loves her dearly, and the +servants like and respect her in a manner I never saw surpassed. Can it +be that I have been blind, and unjust, and prejudiced from first to +last, and that my father's wife is a thousand times better than I am?" + +The two women sat together in the sick-room all the forenoon. Kate +talked to her step-mother far more socially and kindly than she had ever +talked to her before, and was surprised to find Grace had a ready +knowledge of every subject she started. She smiled at herself by and by +in a little pause in the conversation. + +"She is really very pleasant," she thought. "I shall begin to like her +presently, I am afraid." + +Early in the afternoon, Doctor Frank returned. There was little change +in his patient, and no occasion for his remaining. He stayed half an +hour, and then took his hat to leave. He had more pressing cases in the +village to attend, and departed promising to call again before +nightfall. + +The news of Mr. Richards' illness had spread by this time through the +house. The young Doctor knew this, and wondered if Agnes Darling had +heard it, and why she did not try to see him. He was thinking about it +as he walked briskly down the avenue, and resolving he must try and see +her that evening, when a little black figure stepped out from the shadow +of the trees and confronted him. + +"'Angels and ministers of grace defend us,'" ejaculated the Doctor; "I +thought it was a ghost, and I find it is only Agnes Darling. You look +about as pale as a ghost, though. What is the matter with you?" + +She clasped her hands and looked at him piteously. + +"He is sick. You have seen him? Oh, Doctor Danton! is it Harry?" + +"My dear Mrs. Danton, I am happy to tell you it is. Don't faint now, or +I shall tell you nothing more." + +She leaned against a tree, white and trembling; her hands clasped over +her beating heart. + +"And he is ill, and I may not see him. Oh, tell me what is the matter." + +"Fever. Don't alarm yourself unnecessarily. I do not think his life is +in any danger." + +"Thank God! Oh, thank God for that!" + +She covered her face with her slender hands, and he could see the +fast-falling tears. + +"My dear Agnes," he said, kindly. "I don't like to see you distress +yourself in this manner. Besides, there is no occasion. I think your +darkest days are over. I don't see why you may not go and nurse your +husband." + +Her hands dropped from before her face, her great dark eyes fixed +themselves on his face, dilated and wildly. + +"You would like it, wouldn't you? Well, I really don't think there is +anything to hinder. He is calling for you perpetually, if it will make +you happy to know it. Tell Miss Danton your story at once; tell her who +you are, and if she doubts your veracity, refer her to me. I have a +letter from Mr. Crosby, testifying in the most solemn manner your +innocence. I wrote to him, Agnes, as I could not find time to visit him. +Tell Miss Kate to-day, if you choose, and you may watch by your +husband's bedside to night. Good afternoon. Old Renaud is shouting out +with rheumatism; I must go and see after him." + +He strode away, leaving Agnes clinging to the tree, trembling and white. +The time had come, then. Her husband lived, and might be returned to her +yet. At the thought she fell down on her knees on the snowy ground, with +the most fervent prayer of thanksgiving in her heart she had ever +uttered. + +Some two hours later, and just as the dusk of the short winter day was +falling, Kate came out of her brother's sick-room. She looked jaded and +worn, as she lingered for a moment at the hall-window to watch the +grayish-yellow light fade out of the sky. She had spent the best part of +the day in the close chamber, and the bright outer air seemed +unspeakably refreshing. She went to her room, threw a large cloth mantle +round her shoulders, drew the fur-trimmed hood over her head, and went +out. + +The frozen fish-pond glittered like a sheet of ivory in the fading +light; and walking slowly around it, she saw a little familiar figure, +robed like a nun, in black. She had hardly seen the pale seamstress for +weeks, she had been too much absorbed in other things; but now, glad of +companionship, she crossed over to the fish-pond and joined her. As she +drew closer, and could see the girl's face in the cold, pale twilight, +she was struck with its pallor and indescribably mournful expression. + +"You poor, pale child!" Miss Danton said; "you look like some stray +spirit wandering ghostily around this place. What is the matter now, +that you look so wretchedly forlorn?" + +Agnes looked up in the beautiful, pitying face, with her heart in her +eyes. + +"Nothing," she said, tremulously, "but the old trouble, that never +leaves me. I think sometimes I am the most unhappy creature in the whole +wide world." + +"Every heart knoweth its own bitterness," Miss Danton said, steadily. +"Trouble seems to be the lot of all. But yours--you have never told me +what it is, and I think I would like to know." + +They were walking together round the frozen pond, and the face of the +seamstress was turned away from the dying light. Kate could not see it, +but she could hear the agitation in her voice when she spoke. + +"I am almost afraid to tell you. I am afraid, for oh, Miss Danton! I +have deceived you." + +"Deceived me, Agnes?" + +"Yes; I came here in a false character. Oh, don't be angry, please; but +I am not Miss Darling--I am a married woman." + +"Married! You?" + +She looked down in speechless astonishment at the tiny figure and +childlike face of the little creature beside her. + +"You married!" she repeated. "You small, childish-looking thing! And +where in the wide world is your husband?" + +Agnes Darling covered her face with her hands, and broke out into a +hysterical passion of tears. + +"Don't cry, you poor little unfortunate. Tell me if this faithless +husband is the friend I once heard you say you were in search of?" + +"Yes, yes," Agnes answered, through her sobs. "Oh, Miss Danton! Please, +please, don't be angry with me, for, indeed, I am very miserable." + +"Angry with you, my poor child," Kate said, tenderly; "no, indeed! But +tell me all about it. How did this cruel husband come to desert you? Did +he not love you?" + +"Oh, yes, yes, yes." + +"And you--did you love him?" + +"With my whole heart." + +The memory of her own dead love stung Kate to the very soul. + +"Oh!" she said, bitterly, "it is only a very old story, after all. We +are all alike; we give up our whole heart for a man's smile, and, +verily, we get our reward. This husband of yours took a fancy, I +suppose, to some new and fresher face, and threw you over for her sake?" + +Agnes Darling looked up with wide black eyes. + +"Oh, no, no! He loved me faithfully. He never was false, as you think. +It was not that; he thought I was false, and base, and wicked. Oh!" she +cried, covering her lace with her hands again; "I can't tell you how +base he thought me." + +"I think I understand," Kate said, slowly. "But how was it? It was not +true, of course." + +Agnes lifted her face, raised her solemn, dark eyes mournfully to the +gaze of the earnest blue ones. + +"It was not true," she replied simply; "I loved him with all my heart, +and him only. He was all the world to me, for I was alone, an orphan, +sisterless and brotherless. I had only one relative in the wide world--a +distant cousin, a young man, who boarded in the same house with me. I +was only a poor working-girl of New York, and my husband was far above +me--I thought so then, know it since. I knew very little of him. He +boarded in the same house, and I only saw him at the table. How he ever +came to love me--a little pale, quiet thing like me--I don't know; but +he did love me--he did--it is very sweet to remember that now. He loved +me, and he married me, but under an assumed name, under the name of +Darling, which I know now was not his real one." + +She paused a little, and Kate looked at her with sudden breathless +interest. How like this story was to another, terribly familiar. + +"We were married," Agnes went on, softly and sadly, "and I was happy. +Oh, Miss Danton, I can never tell you how unspeakably happy I was for a +time. But it was not for long. Troubles began to gather thick and fast +before many months. My husband was a gambler"--she paused a second or +two at Miss Danton's violent start--"and got into his old habits of +staying out very late at night, and often, when he had lost money, +coming home moody and miserable. I had no influence over him to stop +him. He had a friend, another gambler, and a very bad man, who drew him +on. It was very dreary sitting alone night after night until twelve or +one o'clock, and my only visitor was my cousin, the young man I told you +of. He was in love, and clandestinely engaged to a young lady, whose +family were wealthy and would not for a moment hear of the match. I was +his only confidante, and he liked to come in evenings and talk to me of +Helen. Sometimes, seeing me so lonely and low-spirited, he would stay +with me within half an hour of Harry's return; but Heaven knows neither +he nor I ever dreamed it could be wrong. No harm might ever have come of +it, for my husband knew and liked him, but for that gambling companion, +whose name was Furniss." + +She paused again, trembling and agitated, for Miss Danton had uttered a +sharp, involuntary exclamation. + +"Go on! Go on!" she said breathlessly. + +"This Furniss hated my cousin, for he was his successful rival with +Helen Hamilton, and took his revenge in the cruelest and basest manner. +He discovered that my cousin was in the habit of visiting me +occasionally in the evening, and he poisoned my husband's mind with the +foulest insinuations. + +"He told him that William Crosby, my cousin, was an old lover, and +that--oh, I cannot tell you what he said! He drove my husband, who was +violent and passionate, half mad, and sent him home one night early, +when he knew Will was sure to be with me. I remember that dreadful night +so well--I have terrible reason to remember it. Will sat with me, +talking of Helen, telling me he could wait no longer; that she had +consented, and they were going to elope the very next night. While he +was speaking the door was burst open, and Harry stood before us, livid +with fury, a pistol in his hand. A second later, and there was a +report--William Crosby sprang from his seat and fell forward, with a +scream I shall never forget. I think I was screaming too; I can hardly +recollect what I did, but the room was full in a moment, and my husband +was gone--how, I don't know. That was two years ago, and I have never +seen him since; but I think--" + +She stopped short, for Kate Danton had caught her suddenly and violently +by the arm, her eyes dilating. + +"Agnes!" she exclaimed, passionately; "what is it you have been telling +me? Who are you?" + +Agnes Darling held up her clasped hands. + +"Oh, Miss Danton," she cried, "for our dear Lord's sake, have pity on +me! I am your brother's wretched wife!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +DOCTOR DANTON'S GOOD WORKS. + + +The two women stood in the bleak twilight looking at each other--Agnes +with piteous, imploring eyes, Kate dazed and hopelessly bewildered. + +"My brother's wife!" she repeated. "You! Agnes Darling!" + +"Oh, dear Miss Danton, have pity on me! Let me see him. Let me tell him +I am innocent, and that I love him with my whole heart. Don't cast me +off! Don't despise me! Indeed, I am not the guilty creature he thinks +me!" + +"Agnes, wait," Kate said, holding out her hand. "I am so confounded by +this revelation that I hardly know what to do or say. Tell me how you +found out my brother was here? Did you know it when you came?" + +"Oh, no. I came as seamstress, with a lady from New York to Canada, and +when I left her I lived in the Petite Rue de St. Jacques. There you +found me; and I came here, never dreaming that I was to live in the same +house with my lost husband." + +"And how did you make the discovery? Did you see him?" + +"Yes, Miss Danton; the night you were all away at the party, you +remember. I saw him on the stairs, returning to his room. I thought then +it was a spirit, and I fainted, as you know, and Doctor Danton was sent +for, and he told me it was no spirit, but Harry himself." + +"Doctor Danton!" exclaimed Kate, in unbounded astonishment. "How did +Doctor Danton come to know anything about it?" + +"Why, it was he--oh, I haven't told you. I must go back to that dreadful +night when my cousin was shot. As I told you, the room was filled with +people, and among them there was a young man--a Doctor, he told us--who +made them lift poor Will on the bed, and proceeded to examine his wound. +It was not fatal." + +She stopped, for Kate had uttered a cry and grasped her arm. + +"Not fatal!" she gasped. "Oh, Agnes! Agnes! Tell me he did not die!" + +"He did not, thank Heaven. He lived, and lives still--thanks to the +skill and care of Doctor Danton." + +Kate clasped her hands with a fervent prayer of thanksgiving. + +"Oh, my poor Harry!" she cried, "immured so long in those dismal rooms, +when you were free to walk the world. But perhaps the punishment was +merited. Go on, Agnes; tell me all." + +"The wound was not fatal, but his state was very critical. Doctor Danton +extracted the bullet, and remained with him all night. I was totally +helpless. I don't remember anything about it, or anything that occurred +for nearly a fortnight. Then I was in a neighbour's room; and she told +me I had been very ill, and, but for the kindness and care of the young +Doctor, must have died. She told me William lived, and was slowly +getting better; but the good Doctor had hired a nurse to attend him, and +came to the house every day. I saw him that very afternoon, and had a +long talk with him. He told me his name was Doctor Danton, that he had +come from Germany on business, and must return in a very few days now. +He said he had friends in Canada, whom he had intended to visit, but +this unfortunate affair had prevented him. He had not the heart to leave +us in our forlorn and dangerous state. He would not tell his friends of +his visit to America at all, so they would have no chance to feel +offended. Oh, Miss Danton, I cannot tell you how good, how noble, how +generous he was. He left New York the following week; but before he went +he forced me to take money enough to keep me six months. I never felt +wholly desolate until I saw him go, and then I thought my heart would +break. Heaven bless him! He is the noblest man I ever knew." + +Kate's heart thrilled with a sudden response. And this was the man she +had slighted, and perhaps despised--this hero, this great, generous, +good man! + +"You are right," she said; "he is noble. And after that, Agnes, what did +you do?" + +"I dismissed the hired nurse, and took care of poor Will until he fully +recovered. Then he resumed his business; and I went back, sick and +sorrowful, to my old life. I can never tell you how miserable I was. The +husband I loved was lost to me forever. He had gone, believing me guilty +of the worst of crimes, and I should never see him again to tell him I +was innocent. The thought nearly broke my heart; but I lived and lived, +when, I only prayed, wickedly, I know, to die. I came to Canada--I came +here; and here I met my best friend once more. I saw Harry, or an +apparition, as I took it to be, until Doctor Danton assured me to the +contrary. He did not know, but he suspected the truth--he is so clever; +and now that he has seen him, and knows for certain, he told me to tell +you who I was. Miss Danton, I have told you the simple truth, as Heaven +hears me. I have been true and faithful in thought and word to the +husband I loved. Don't send me away; don't disbelieve and despise me." + +She lifted her streaming eyes and clasped hands in piteous supplication. +There were tears, too, in the blue eyes of Kate as she took the little +supplicant in her arms. + +"Despise you, my poor Agnes! What a wretch you must take me to be! No, I +believe you, I love you, you poor little broken-down child. I shall not +send you away. I know Harry loves you yet; he calls for you continually +in his delirium. I shall speak to papa; you shall see him to-night. Oh! +to think how much unnecessary misery there is in the world." + +She put her arm round her slender waist, and was drawing her towards the +house. Before they reached it, a big dog came bounding and barking up +the avenue and overtook them. + +"Be quiet, Tiger," said Kate, halting. "Let us wait for Tiger's master, +Agnes." + +Tiger's master appeared a moment later. One glance sufficed to show him +how matters stood. + +He lifted his hat with a quiet smile. + +"Good evening, Miss Danton; good evening, Mrs. Danton. I see you have +come to an understanding at last." + +"My brother--we all owe you a debt we can never repay," Kate said +gravely; "and Agnes here pronounces you an uncanonized saint." + +"So I am. The world will do justice to my stupendous merits by-and-by. +You have been very much surprised by Agnes' story, Miss Danton?" + +"Very much. We are going in to tell papa. You will come with us, +Doctor?" + +"If Mrs. Agnes does not make me blush by her laudations. Draw it mild, +Agnes, won't you. You have no idea how modest I am." + +He opened the front door and entered the hall as he spoke, followed by +the two girls. The drawing-room door was ajar, but Eeny and her teacher +were the only occupants of that palatial chamber. + +"Try the dining-room," suggested Kate; "it is near dinner-hour; we will +find some one there." + +Doctor Frank ran down-stairs, three steps at a time, followed more +decorously by his companions. Grace seated near the table, reading by +the light of a tall lamp, was the only occupant. She lifted her eyes in +astonishment at her brother's boisterous entrance. + +"Where is papa?" Kate asked. + +"Upstairs in the sick-room." + +"Then wait here, Doctor; wait here, Agnes! I will go for him." + +She ran lightly upstairs, and entered the sick man's bedroom. The shaded +lamp lit it dimly, and showed her her father sitting by the bedside +talking to his son. The invalid was better this evening--very, very +weak, but no longer delirious. + +"You are better, Harry dear, are you not?" his sister asked, stooping to +kiss him; "and you can spare papa for half an hour? Can't you, Harry?" + +A faint smile was his answer. He was too feeble to speak. Miss Danton +summoned Ogden from one of the outer rooms, left him in charge, and bore +her father off. + +"What has happened, my dear?" the Captain asked. "There is a whole +volume of news in your face." + +Kate clasped her hands around his arm, and looked up in his face with +her great earnest eyes. + +"The most wonderful thing, papa! Just like a play or a novel! Who do you +think is here?" + +"Who? Not Rose come back, surely?" + +"Rose? Oh, no!" Kate answered, with wonderful quietness. "You never +could guess. Harry's wife!" + +"What!" + +"Papa! Poor Harry was dreadfully mistaken. She was innocent all the +time. Doctor Frank knows all about it, and saved the life of the man +Harry shot. It is Agnes Darling, papa. Isn't it the strangest thing you +ever heard of?" + +They were at the dining-room door by this time--Captain Danton in a +state of the densest bewilderment, looking alternately at one and +another of the group before him. + +"What, in the name of all that's incomprehensible, does this mean? Kate, +in Heaven's name, what have you been talking about?" + +Miss Danton actually laughed at her father's mystified face. + +"Sit down, papa, and I'll tell you all about it. Here!" + +She wheeled up his chair and made him be seated, then leaning over the +back, in her clear, sweet voice, she lucidly repeated the tale Agnes +Darling had told her. The Captain and his wife sat utterly astounded; +and Agnes, with her face hidden, was sobbing in her chair. + +"Heaven bless me!" ejaculated the astonished master of Danton Hall. "Can +I believe my ears? Agnes Darling, Harry's wife!" + +"Yes, Captain," Doctor Frank said, "she is your son's wife--his innocent +and deeply-injured wife. The man Crosby, in what he believed to be his +dying hour, solemnly testified, in the presence of a clergyman, to her +unimpeachable purity and fidelity. It was the evil work of that villain +Furniss, from first to last. I have the written testimony of William +Crosby in my pocket at this moment. He is alive and well, and married to +the lady of whom he was speaking when your son shot him. I earnestly +hope you will receive this poor child, and unite her to her husband, for +I am as firmly convinced of her innocence as I am of my own existence at +this moment." + +"Receive her!" Captain Danton cried, with the water in his eyes. "That I +will, with all my heart. Poor little girl--poor child," he said, going +over and taking the weeping wife into his arms. "What a trial you have +undergone! But it is over now, I trust. Thank Heaven my son is no +murderer, and under Heaven, thanks to you, Doctor Danton. Don't cry, +Agnes--don't cry. I am heartily rejoiced to find I have another +daughter." + +"Oh, take me to Harry!" Agnes pleaded. "Let me tell him I am innocent! +Let me hear him say he forgives me!" + +"Upon my word, I think the forgiveness should come from the other side," +said the Captain. "He was always a hot-headed, foolish boy, but he has +received a lesson, I think, he will never forget. How say you, Doctor, +may this foolish little girl go to that foolish boy?" + +"I think not yet," the Doctor replied. "In his present weak state the +shock would be too much for him. He must be prepared first. How is he +this evening?" + +"Much better, not at all delirious." + +"I will go and have a look at him," said Doctor Frank, rising. "Don't +look so imploringly, Agnes; you shall see him before long. Miss Danton, +have the goodness to accompany me. If we find him much better, I will +let you break the news to him and then fetch Agnes. But mind, madame," +raising a warning finger to the sobbing little woman, "no hysterics! I +can't have my patient agitated. You promise to be very quiet, don't +you!" + +"Oh, yes! I'll try." + +"Very good. Now, Miss Danton." + +He ran up the stairs, followed by Kate. The sick man lay, as he had left +him, quietly looking at the shaded lamp, very feeble--very, very feeble +and wasted. The Doctor sat down beside him, felt his pulse, and asked +him a few questions, to which the faint replies were lucid and +intelligible. + +"No fever to-night. No delirium. You're fifty per cent. better. We will +have you all right now, in no time. Kate has brought an infallible +remedy." + +The sick man looked at his sister wonderingly. + +"Can you bear the shock of some very good news, Harry darling?" Kate +said stooping over him. + +"Good news!" he repeated feebly, and with an incredulous look. "Good +news for me!" + +"Yes, indeed, thou man of little faith! The best news you ever heard. +You won't agitate yourself, will you, if I tell you?" + +Doctor Frank arose before he could reply. + +"I leave you to tell him by yourself. I hear the dinner-bell; so adieu." + +He descended to the dining-room and took his place at the table. Captain +Danton's new-found daughter he compelled to take poor Rose's vacant +place; but Agnes did not even make a pretence of eating anything. She +sat with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her eyes fixed steadily +on the door, trying with all her might to be calm and wait. + +The appetite of the whole family was considerably impaired by the +revelation just made, and all waited anxiously the return of Kate. In +half an hour the dining-room door opened, and that young lady appeared, +very pale, and with traces of tears on her face, but smiling withal. + +Agnes sprang up breathlessly. + +"Come," Kate said, holding out her hand; "he is waiting for you!" + +With a cry of joy Agnes hurried out of the room and upstairs. + +At the green baize door Kate restrained her a moment. + +"You must be very quiet, Agnes--very calm, and not excite or agitate +him." + +"Oh, yes! yes! Oh, let me go!" + +Miss Danton opened the door and let her in. In a moment she was kneeling +by the bedside, her arms around his weak head, showering kisses and +tears on his pale, thin face. + +"Forgive me!" she said. "Forgive me, my own, my dear, my lost husband. +Oh, never think I was false. I never, never was, in thought or act, for +one moment. Say you forgive me, my darling, and love me still." + +Of course, Kate did not linger. When she again entered the dining-room, +she found one of those she had left, gone. + +"Where is Doctor Frank?" she asked. + +"Gone," Grace said. "A messenger came for him--some one sick in the +village. Do take your dinner. I am sure you must want it." + +"How good he is," Kate thought. "How energetic and self-sacrificing. If +I were a man, I should like to be such a man as he." + +After this night of good news, Harry Danton's recovery was almost +miraculously rapid. The despair that had deadened every energy, every +hope, was gone. He was a new man; he had something to live for; a place +in the world, and a lost character to retrieve. A week after that +eventful night, he was able to sit up; a fortnight, and he was rapidly +gaining vigour and strength, and health for his new life. + +Agnes, that most devoted little wife, had hardly left these three +mysterious rooms since she had first entered them. She was the best, the +most untiring, the most tender of nurses, and won her way to the hearts +of all. She was so gentle, so patient, so humble, it was impossible not +to love her; and Captain Danton sometimes wondered if he had ever loved +his lost, frivolous Rose as he loved his new daughter. + +It had been agreed upon that, to avoid gossip and inquiry, Harry was not +to show himself in the house, to the servants, but as soon as he was +fully recovered, to leave for Quebec, with his wife, and take command of +a vessel there. + +His father had written to the ship-owners--old friends of his--and had +cheerfully received their promise. + +The vessel was to sail for Plymouth early in March, and it was now late +in February. + +Of course, Agnes was to go with him. Nothing could have separated these +reunited married lovers now. + +The days went by, the preparations for the journey progressed, the eve +of departure came. The Danton family, with the Doctor and Father +Francis, were assembled in the drawing-room, spending that last evening +together. It was the first time, since his return to the Hall, Harry had +been there. How little any of them dreamed it was to be the last! + +They were not very merry, as they sat listening to Kate's music. Down in +that dim recess where the piano stood, she sat, singing for the first +time the old songs that Reginald Stanford had loved. She was almost +surprised at herself to find how easily she could sing them, how little +emotion the memories they brought awoke. Was the old love forever dead, +then? And this new content at her heart--what did it mean? She hardly +cared to ask. She could not have answered; she only knew she was happy, +and that the past had lost power to give her pain. + +It was late when they separated. Good-byes were said, and tender-hearted +little Agnes cried as she said good-bye to Doctor Frank. The priest and +the physician walked to the little village together, through the cold +darkness of the starless winter night. + +At the presbytery-gate they parted, Father Francis going in, Doctor +Danton continuing his walk to the distant cottage of a poor sick +patient. The man was dying. The young doctor lingered by his bedside +until all was over, and morning was gray in the eastern sky when he left +the house of death. + +But what other light was that red in the sky, beside the light of +morning? A crimson, lurid light that was spreading rapidly over the face +of the cloudy heavens, and lighting even the village road with its +unearthly glare? Fire! and in the direction of Danton Hall, growing +brighter and brighter, and redder with every passing second. Others had +seen it, too, and doors were flying open, and men and women flocking +out. + +"Fire! Fire!" a voice cried. "Danton Hall is on fire!" + +And the cry was taken up and echoed and reëchoed, and every one was +rushing pell-mell in the direction of the Hall. + +Doctor Frank was one of the first to arrive. The whole front of the old +mansion seemed a sheet of fire and the red flames rushed up into the +black sky with an awful roar. The family were only just aroused, and, +with the servants, were flocking out, half-dressed. Doctor Frank's +anxious eyes counted them; there were the Captain and Grace, Harry and +Agnes, and last of all, Kate. + +The servants were all there, but there was one missing still. Doctor +Frank was by Grace's side in a moment. + +"Where is Eeny?" + +"Eeny! Is she not here?" + +"No. Good Heaven, Grace! Is she in the house?" + +Grace looked around wildly. + +"Yes, yes! She must be! Oh, Frank--" + +But Frank was gone, even while she spoke, into the burning house. There +was still time. The lower hall and stairway were still free from fire, +only filled with smoke. + +He rushed through, and upstairs; in the second hall the smoke was +suffocating, and the burning brands were falling from the blazing roof. +Up the second flight of stairs he flew blinded, choked, singed. He knew +Eeny's room; the door was unlocked, and he rushed in. The smoke or fire +had not penetrated here yet, and on the bed the girl lay fast asleep, +undisturbed by all the uproar around her. + +To muffle her from head to foot in a blanket, snatch her up and fly out +of the room, was but the work of a few seconds. The rushing smoke +blinded and suffocated him, but he darted down the staircases as if his +feet were winged. Huge cinders and burning flakes were falling in a +fiery shower around him, but still he rushed blindly on. The lower hall +was gained, a breeze of the blessed cold air blew on his face. + +They were seen, they were saved, and a wild cheer arose from the +breathless multitude. Just at that instant, with his foot on the +threshold, an avalanche of fire seemed to fall on his head from the +burning roof. + +Another cry, this time a cry of wild horror arose from the crowd; he +reeled, staggered like a drunken man; some one caught Eeny out of his +arms as he fell to the ground. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +AFTER THE CROSS, THE CROWN. + + +The glare of a brilliant April sunset shone in the rainbow-hued western +sky, and on the fresh, green earth, all arrayed in the budding promise +of spring. + +Grace Danton stood by the window of a long, low room, looking +thoughtfully out at the orange and crimson dyes of the far-off sky. + +The room in which she stood was not at all like the vast old-fashioned +rooms of Danton Hall. It was long and narrow, and low-ceilinged, and +very plainly furnished. There was the bed in the centre, a low, +curtainless bed, and on it, pale, thin, and shadowy, lay Grace's +brother, as he had lain for many weary weeks. He was asleep now, deeply, +heavily, tossing no longer in the wild delirium of brain-fever, as he +had tossed for so many interminable days and nights. + +Grace dropped the curtain, and went back to her post by the bedside. As +she did so, the door softly opened, and Kate, in a dark, unrustling +dress and slippers of silence, came in. She had changed in those weeks; +she looked paler and thinner, and the violet eyes had a more tender +light, a sadder beauty than of old. + +"Still asleep," she said, softly, looking at the bed. "Grace, I think +your prayers have been heard." + +"I trust so, dear. Is your father in?" + +"No; he has ridden over to see how the builders get on. You must want +tea, Grace. Go, I will take your place." + +Grace arose and left the room, and Kate seated herself in the low chair, +with eyes full of tender compassion. What a shadow he was of his former +self--so pale, so thin, so wasted! The hand lying on the counterpane was +almost transparent, and the forehead, streaked with damp brown hair, was +like marble. + +"Poor fellow!" Kate thought, pushing these stray locks softly back, and +forgetting how dangerously akin pity is to love--"poor fellow!" + +Yes, it has come to this. Sick--dying, perhaps--Kate Danton found how +dear this once obnoxious young Doctor had grown to her heart. "How +blessings brighten as they take their flight!" Now that she was on the +verge of losing him forever, she discovered his value--discovered that +her admiration was very like love. How could she help it? Women admire +heroes so much! And was not this brave young Doctor a real hero? From +first to last, had not his life in St. Croix been one list of good and +generous deeds? + +The very first time she had ever seen him, he had been her champion, to +save her from the insults and rudeness of two drunken soldiers. He had +been a sort of guardian angel to poor Agnes in her great trouble. He had +saved her brother's life and honour. He had perilled his own life to +save that of her sister. The poor of St. Croix spoke of him only to +praise and bless him. Was not this house besieged every day with scores +of anxious inquirers? He was so good, so great, so noble, so +self-sacrificing, so generous--oh! how could she help loving him? Not +with the love that had once been Reginald Stanford's, whose only basis +was a fanciful girl's liking for a handsome face, but a love far deeper +and truer and stronger. She looked back now at the first infatuation, +and wondered at herself. The scales had fallen from her eyes, and she +saw her sister's husband in his true light--false, shallow, selfish, +dishonourable. + +"Oh," she thought, with untold thanksgiving in her heart, "what would +have become of me if I had married him?" + +There was another sore subject in her heart, too--that short-lived +betrothal to Sir Ronald Keith. How low she must have fallen when she +could do that! How she despised herself now for ever entertaining the +thought of that base marriage. She could thank Father Francis at last. +By the sick-bed of Doctor Frank she had learned a lesson that would last +her a lifetime. + +The radiance of the sunset was fading out of the sky, and the gray +twilight was filling the room. She rose up, drew back the green +curtains, and looked for a moment at the peaceful village street. When +she returned to the bedside, the sleeper was awake, his eyes calm and +clear for the first time. She restrained the exclamation of delight +which arose to her lips, and tried to catch the one faint word he +uttered: + +"Water?" + +She gently raised his head, her cheeks flushing, and held a glass of +lemonade to his lips. A faint smile thanked her; and then his eyes +closed, and he was asleep again. Kate sank down on her knees by the +bedside, grateful tears falling from her eyes, to thank God for the life +that would be spared. + +From that evening the young man rallied fast. + +The Doctor, who came from Montreal every day to see him, said it was all +owing to his superb constitution and wondrous vitality. But he was very, +very weak. It was days and days before he was strong enough to think, or +speak, or move. He slept, by fits and starts, nearly all day long, +recognizing his sister, and Kate, and Eeny, and the Captain, by his +bedside, without wondering how they came to be there, or what had ailed +him. + +But strength to speak and think was slowly returning; and one evening, +in the pale twilight, opening his eyes, he saw Kate sitting beside him, +reading. He lay and watched her, strong enough to think how beautiful +that perfect face was in the tender light, and to feel a delicious +thrill of pleasure, weak as he was, at having her for a nurse. + +Presently Kate looked from the book to the bed, and blushed beautifully +to find the earnest brown eyes watching her so intently. + +"I did not know you were awake," she said, composedly. "Shall I go and +call Grace?" + +"On no account. I don't want Grace. How long have I been sick?" + +"Oh, many weeks; but you are getting better rapidly now." + +"I can't recall it," he said, contracting his brows. "I know there was a +fire, and I was in the house; but it is all confused. How was it?" + +"The Hall was burned down, you know--poor old house!--and you rushed in +to save Eeny, and--" + +"Oh, I remember, I remember. A beam or something fell, and after that +all is oblivion. I have had a fever, I suppose?" + +"Yes, you have been a dreadful nuisance--talking all day and all night +about all manner of subjects, and frightening us out of our lives." + +The young man smiled. + +"What did I talk about? Anything very foolish?" + +"I dare say it was foolish enough, if one could have understood it, but +it was nearly all Greek to me. Sometimes you were in Germany, talking +about all manner of outlandish things; sometimes you were in New York, +playing Good Samaritan to Agnes Darling." + +"Oh, poor Agnes! Where is she?" + +"Taken to the high seas. She and Harry had to go, much against their +inclination, while you were so ill." + +"And Eeny--did Eeny suffer any harm that night?" + +"No; Doctor Frank was the only sufferer. The poor old house was burned +to the ground. I was so sorry." + +"And everything was lost?" + +"No, a great many things were saved. And they are building a new and +much more handsome Danton Hall, but I shall never love it as I did the +old place." + +"Where are we now?" + +"In the village. We have taken this cottage until the new house is +finished. Now don't ask any more questions. Too much talking isn't good +for you." + +"How very peremptory you are!" said the invalid, smiling; "and you have +taken care of me all this weary time. What a trouble I must have been!" + +"Didn't I say so! A shocking trouble. And now that you are able to +converse rationally, you are more trouble than ever, asking so many +questions. Go to sleep." + +"Won't you let me thank you first?" + +"No, thanks never would repay me for all the annoyance you have been. +Show your gratitude by obedience, sir--stop talking and go to sleep!" + +Perhaps Doctor Frank found it very pleasant to be ordered, for he obeyed +with a smile on his face. + +Of course, with such a nurse as Miss Danton, the man would be obstinate, +indeed, who would not rally. Doctor Frank was the reverse of obdurate, +and rallied with astonishing rapidity. His sister, Eeny, and Kate were +the most devoted, the most attentive of nurses; but the hours that +Captain Danton's eldest daughter sat by his bedside flew like so many +minutes. It was very pleasant to lie there, propped up with pillows, +with the April sunshine lying in yellow squares on the faded old carpet, +and watch that beautiful face, bending over some piece of elaborate +embroidery, or the humble dress of some village child. She read for him, +too, charming romances, and poetry as sweet as the ripple of a sunlit +brook, in that enchanting voice of hers; and Doctor Frank began to think +convalescence the most delightful state of being that ever was heard of, +and to wish it could last forever. + +But, like all the pleasant things of this checkered life, it came to an +end all too soon. The day arrived when he sat up in his easy chair by +the open window, with the scented breezes blowing in his face, and +watched dreamily the cows grazing in the fields, and the dark-eyed +French girls tripping up and down the dusty road. Then, a little later, +and he could walk about in the tiny garden before the cottage, and sit +up the whole day long. He was getting better fast; and Miss Danton, +concluding her occupation was gone, became very much like the Miss +Danton of old. Not imperious and proud--she never would be that +again--but reserved and distant, and altogether changed; the delightful +readings were no more, the pleasant _tęte-ŕ-tętes_ were among the things +of the past, the long hours spent by his side, with some womanly work in +her fingers, were over and gone. She was very kind and gentle still, and +the smile that always greeted him was very bright and sweet, but that +heavenly past was gone forever. Doctor Frank, about as clear-sighted as +his sex generally are, of course never guessed within a mile of the +truth. + +"What a fool I was!" he thought, bitterly, "flattering myself with such +insane dreams, because she was grateful to me for saving her sister's +life, and pitied me when she thought I was at death's door. Why, she +nursed every sick pauper in St. Croix as tenderly as she did me. She is +right to put me back in my place before I have made an idiot of myself!" + +So the convalescent gentleman became moody, and silent and generally +disagreeable; and Grace was the only one who guessed at his feelings and +was sorry for him. But he grew well in spite of hidden trouble, and +began to think of what he was to do in the future. + +"I'll go back to Montreal next week, I think," he said to his sister; +"now that the fever has gone, it won't pay to stay here. If I don't get +on in Montreal, I'll try New York." + +Man proposes, etc. That evening's mail brought him a letter that +materially altered all his plans. He sat so long silent and thoughtful +after reading it, that Grace looked at him in surprise. + +"You look as grave as an owl, Frank. Whom is your letter from?" + +Doctor Frank started out of his reverie to find Kate's eyes fixed +inquiringly upon him too. + +"From Messrs. Grayson & Hambert, my uncle's solicitors. He is dead." + +Grace uttered a little cry. + +"Dead! Frank! And you are his heir?" + +"Yes." + +"How much has he left?" Mrs. Danton asked, breathlessly. + +"Twenty thousand pounds." + +Grace clasped her hands. + +"Twenty thousand pounds? My dear Frank! You have no need to go slaving +at your profession now." + +Her brother looked at her in quiet surprise. + +"I shall slave at my profession all the same. This windfall will, +however, alter my plans a good deal. I must start for Montreal to-morrow +morning." + +He rose and left the room. Grace turned to her step-daughter. + +"I am afraid you must think us heartless, Kate; but we have known very +little of this uncle, and that little was not favourable. He was a +miser--a stern and hard man--living always alone and with few friends. I +am so thankful he left his money to Frank." + +Doctor Frank left St. Croix next morning for the city, and his absence +made a strange blank in the family. The spring days wore on slowly. +April was gone, and it was May. Captain Danton was absent the best part +of every day, superintending the erection of the new house, and the +three women were left alone. Miss Danton grew listless and languid. She +spent her days in purposeless loiterings in and out of the cottage, in +long reveries and solitary walks. + +The middle of May came without bringing the young Doctor, or even a +letter from him. The family were seated one moonlight night in the +large, old-fashioned porch in front of the cottage, enjoying the +moonlight and Eeny's piano. Kate sat in a rustic arm-chair just outside, +looking up at the silvery crescent swimming through pearly clouds, and +the flickering shadows of the climbing sweetbrier coming and going on +her fair face. Captain Danton smoked and Grace talked to him; and while +she sat, Father Francis opened the garden gate and joined them. + +"Have you heard from your brother yet?" he asked of Grace, after a few +moments' preliminary conversation. + +"No; it is rather strange that he does not write." + +"He told me to make his apologies. I had a letter from him to-day. He is +very busy preparing to go away." + +"Go away! Go where?" + +"To Germany; he leaves in a week." + +"And will he not come down to say good-bye?" inquired Grace, +indignantly. + +"Oh, certainly! He will be here in a day or two." + +"And how long is he going to stay abroad?" + +"That seems uncertain. A year or two, probably, at the very least." + +Grace stole a look at Kate, but Kate had drawn back into the shadow of +the porch, and her face was not to be seen. Father Francis lingered for +half an hour, and then departed; and as the dew was falling heavily, the +group in the porch arose to go in. The young lady in the easy-chair did +not stir. + +"Come in, Kate," her father said, "it is too damp to remain there." + +"Yes, papa, presently." + +About a quarter of an hour later, she entered the parlour to say +good-night, very pale, as they all noticed. + +"I knew sitting in the night air was bad," her father said. "You are as +white as a ghost." + +Miss Danton was very grave and still for the next two days--a little +sad, Grace thought. On the third day, Doctor Frank arrived. It was late +in the afternoon, and he was to depart again early next morning. + +"What are you running away for now?" asked his sister, with asperity. +"What has put this German notion in your head?" + +The young man smiled. + +"My dear Grace, don't wear that severe face. Why should I not go? What +is to detain me here?" + +This was such an unanswerable question that Grace only turned away +impatiently; and Kate, who was in the room, fancying the brother and +sister might wish to be alone, arose and departed. As the door closed +after her, Captain Danton's wife faced round and renewed the attack. + +"If you want to know what is to detain you here, I can tell you now. +Stay at home and marry Kate Danton." + +Her brother laughed, but in rather a constrained way. + +"That is easier said than done, sister mine. Miss Danton never did more +than tolerate me in her life--sometimes not even that. Impossibilities +are not so easily achieved as you think." + +"Suppose you try." + +"And be refused for my pains. No, thank you." + +"Very well," said Mrs. Grace with a shrug; "a wilful man must have his +way! You cannot tell whether you will be refused or not until you ask." + +"I have a tolerably strong conviction, though. No, Mrs. Grace, I shall +go to Germany, and forget my folly; for that I have been an idiot, I +don't deny." + +"And are so still! Do as you please, however; it is no affair of mine." + +Doctor Frank rode over to the new building to see how it progressed. It +was late when he returned with the Captain, and he found that Kate had +departed to spend the evening with Miss Howard. If he wanted further +proof of her indifference, surely he had it here. + +It was very late, and the family had retired before Miss Danton came +home. She was good enough though, to rise, very early next morning to +say good-bye. Doctor Frank took his hasty breakfast, and came into the +parlour, where he found her alone. + +"I thought I was not to have the pleasure of seeing you before I went," +he said, holding out his hand. "I have but ten minutes left: so +good-bye." + +His voice shook a little as he said it. In spite of every effort, her +fingers closed around his, and her eyes looked up at him with her whole +heart in their clear depths. + +"Kate!" he exclaimed, the colour rushing to his face with a sudden +thrill of ecstasy, and his hand closing tight over the slender fingers +he held. "Kate!" + +She turned away, her own cheeks dyed, not daring to meet that eager, +questioning look. + +"Kate!" he cried, appealingly; "it is because I love you I am going +away. I never thought to tell you." + + * * * * * + +Five minutes later Grace opened the door impetuously. + +"Frank, don't you know you will be la--Oh, I beg pardon." + +She closed it hastily, and retreated. The Captain, standing in the +doorway, looked impatiently at his watch. + +"What keeps the fellow? He'll be late to a dead certainty." + +Grace laughed. + +"There is no hurry, I think. I don't believe Frank will go to Germany +this time." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +LONG HAVE I BEEN TRUE TO YOU, NOW I'M TRUE NO LONGER. + + +Far away from the blue skies, and bracing breezes of Lower Canada, the +twilight of a dull April day was closing down over the din and tumult of +London. + +It had been a wretched day--a day of sopping rain and enervating mist. +The newly-lighted street-lamps blinked dismally through the wet fog, and +the pedestrians hurried along, poising umbrellas, and buttoned up to the +chin. + +At the window of a shabby-genteel London lodging-house a young woman +sat, this dreary April evening, looking out at the cheering prospect of +dripping roofs and muddy pavement. She sat with her chin resting on her +hands, staring vacantly at the passers-by, with eyes that took no +interest in what she saw. She was quite young, and had been very pretty, +for the loose, unkempt hair was of brightest auburn, the dull eyes of +hazel brown, and the features pretty and delicate. But the look of +intense sulkiness the girl's face wore would have spoiled a far more +beautiful countenance, and there were traces of sickness and trouble, +all too visible. She was dressed in a soiled silk, arabesqued with +stains, and a general air of neglect and disorder characterized her and +her surroundings. The carpet was littered and unswept, the chairs were +at sixes and sevens, and a baby's crib, wherein a very new and pink +infant reposed, stood in the middle of the room. + +The young woman sat at the window gazing sullenly out at the dismal +night for upwards of an hour, in all that time hardly moving. Presently +there was a tap at the door, and an instant after, it opened, and a +smart young person entered and began briskly laying the cloth for +supper. The young person was the landlady's daughter, and the girl at +the window only gave her one glance, and then turned unsocially away. + +"Ain't you lonesome here, Mrs. Stanford, all alone by yourself?" asked +the young person, as she lit the lamp. "Mother says it must be awful +dull for you, with Mr. Stanford away all the time." + +"I am pretty well used to it," answered Mrs. Stanford, bitterly. "I +ought to be reconciled to it by this time. Is it after seven?" + +"Yes, ma'am. Mr. Stanford comes home at seven, don't he? He ought to be +here soon, now. Mother says she wishes you would come down to the +parlour and sit with us of a day, instead of being moped up here." + +Mrs. Stanford made no reply whatever to this good-natured speech, and +the sulky expression seemed to deepen on her face. The young person, +finished setting the table, and was briskly departing, when Mrs. +Stanford's voice arrested her. + +"If Mr. Stanford is not here in half an hour, you can bring up dinner." + +As Mrs. Stanford spoke, the pink infant in the crib awoke and set up a +dismal wail. The young mother arose, with an impatient sigh, lifted the +babe, and sat down in a low nurse-chair, to soothe it to sleep again. +But the baby was fretful, and cried and moaned drearily, and resisted +every effort to be soothed to sleep. + +"Oh, dear, dear!" Rose cried, impatiently, giving it an irritated shake. +"What a torment you are! What a trouble and wretchedness everything is!" + +She swayed to and fro in her rocking-chair, humming drearily some +melancholy air, until, by-and-by, baby, worn out, wailingly dropped off +asleep again in her arms. + +As it did so, the door opened a second time, and the brisk young person +entered with the first course. Mrs. Stanford placed her first-born back +in the crib, and sat down to her solitary dinner. She ate very little. +The lodging-house soups and roasts had never been so distasteful before. +She pushed the things away, with a feeling of loathing, and went back to +her low chair, and fell into a train of dismal misery. Her thoughts went +back to Canada to her happy home at Danton Hall. + +Only one little year ago she had given the world for love, and thought +it well lost--and now! Love's young dream, splendid in theory, is not +always quite so splendid in practice. Love's young dream had wound up +after eleven months, in poverty, privation, sickness and trouble, a +neglectful husband, and a crying baby! How happy she had been in that +bright girlhood, gone forever! Life had been one long summer holiday, +and she dressed in silks and jewels, one of the queen-bees in the great +human hive. The silks and the jewels had gone to the pawnbroker long +ago, and here she sat, alone, in a miserable lodging-house, subsisting +on unpalatable food, sleeping on a hard mattress, sick and wretched, +with that whimpering infant's wails in her ears all day and all night. +Oh! how long ago it seemed since she had been bright, and beautiful, and +happy, and free--hundreds of years ago at the very least! She sighed in +bitter sorrow, as she thought of the past--the irredeemable past. + +"Oh, what a fool I was!" she thought, bursting into hysterical tears. +"If I had only married Jules La Touche, how happy I might have been! He +loved me, poor fellow, and would have been true always, and I would have +been rich, and happy, and honoured. Now I am poor, and sick, and +neglected, and despised, and I wish I were dead, and all the trouble +over!" + +Mrs. Stanford sat in her low chair, brooding over such dismal thoughts +as these, while the slow hours dragged on. The baby slept, for a wonder. +A neighbouring church clock struck the hours solemnly one after +another--ten, eleven, twelve! No Mr. Stanford yet, but that was nothing +new. As midnight, struck, Rose got up, secured the door, and going into +an inner room, flung herself, dressed as she was, on the bed, and fell +into the heavy, dreamless sleep of exhaustion. + +She slept so soundly that she never heard a key turn in the lock, about +three in the morning, or a man's unsteady step crossing the floor. The +lamp still burning on the table, enabled Mr. Reginald Stanford to see +what he was about, otherwise, serious consequences might have ensued. +For Mr. Stanford was not quite steady on his legs, and lurched as he +walked, as if his wife's sitting-room had been the deck of a +storm-tossed vessel. + +"I s'pose she's gone to bed," muttered Mr. Stanford, hiccoughing. "Don't +want to wake her--makes a devil of a row! I ain't drunk, but I don't +want to wake her." + +Mr. Stanford lurched unsteadily across the parlour, and reconnoitred the +bedroom. He nodded sagaciously, seeing his wife there asleep, and after +making one or two futile efforts to remove his boots, stretched himself, +boots and all, on a lounge in the sitting-room, and in two minutes was +as sound as one of the Seven Sleepers. + +It was late next morning before either of the happy pair awoke. A vague +idea that there was a noise in the air aroused the gentleman about nine +o'clock. The dense fog in his brain, that a too liberal allowance of +rosy wine is too apt to engender, took some time to clear away; but when +it did, he became conscious that the noise was not part of his dreams, +but some one knocking loudly at the door. + +Mr. Stanford staggered sleepily across the apartment, unlocked the door, +and admitted the brisk young woman who brought them their meals. + +Mr. Stanford, yawning very much, proceeded to make his toilet. Twelve +months of matrimony had changed the handsome ex-lieutenant, and not for +the better. He looked thinner and paler; his eyes were sunken, and +encircled by dark halos, telling of night revels and morning headaches. +But that wonderful beauty that had magnetized Rose Danton was there +still; the features as perfect as ever; the black eyes as lustrous; all +the old graceful ease and nonchalance of manner characterized him yet. +But the beauty that had blinded and dazzled her had lost its power to +charm. She had been married to him a year--quite long enough to be +disenchanted. That handsome face might fascinate other foolish moths; it +had lost its power to dazzle her long, long ago. Perhaps the +disenchantment was mutual; for the pretty, rose-cheeked, starry-eyed +girl who had captivated his idle fancy had become a dream of the past, +and his wife was a pale, sickly, peevish invalid, with frowsy hair and +slipshod feet. + +The clattering of the cups and saucers awoke the baby, who began +squalling dismally; and the baby's cries awoke the baby's mamma. Rose +got up, feeling cramped and unrefreshed, and came out into the parlour +with the infant in her arms. Her husband turned from a dreary +contemplation of the sun trying to force its way through a dull, yellow +fog, and dropped the curtain. + +"Good-morning, my dear," said Mr. Stanford, pouring out a cup of tea. +"How are you to-day? Can't you make that disagreeable youngster hold his +confounded tongue?" + +"What time did you get home last night?" demanded Mrs. Stanford, with +flashing eyes. + +"It wasn't last night, my dear," replied Mr. Stanford, serenely, +buttering his roll; "it was sometime this morning, I believe." + +"And of course you were drunk as usual!" + +"My love, pray don't speak so loudly; they'll hear you down stairs," +remonstrated the gentleman. "Really, I believe I had been imbibing a +little too freely. I hope I did not disturb you. I made as little noise +as possible on purpose, I assure you. I even slept in my boots, not +being in a condition to take them off. Wash your face, my dear, and comb +your hair--they both need it very much--and come take some breakfast. If +that baby of yours won't hold its tongue, please to throw it out of the +window." + +Mrs. Stanford's reply was to sink into the rocking-chair and burst into +a passion of tears. + +"Don't, pray!" remonstrated Mr. Stanford; "one's enough to cry at a +time. Do come and have some breakfast. You're hysterical this morning, +that is evident, and a cup of tea will do you good." + +"I wish I were dead!" burst out Rose, passionately. "I wish I had been +dead before I ever saw your face!" + +"I dare say, my love. I can understand your feelings, and sympathize +with them perfectly." + +"Oh, what a fool I was!" cried Rose, rocking violently backward and +forward; "to leave my happy home, my indulgent father, my true and +devoted lover, for you! To leave wealth and happiness for poverty, and +privation, and neglect, and misery! Oh, fool! fool! fool! that I was!" + +"Very true, my dear," murmured Mr. Stanford sympathetically. "I don't +mind confessing that I was a fool myself. You cannot regret your +marriage any more than I do mine." + +This was a little too much. Rose sprang up, flinging the baby into the +cradle, and faced her lord and master with cheeks of flame and eyes of +fire. + +"You villain!" she cried. "You cruel, cold-blooded villain, I hate you! +Do you hear, Reginald Stanford, I hate you! You have deceived me as +shamefully as ever man deceived woman! Do you think I don't know where +you were last night, or whom you were with? Don't I know it was with +that miserable, degraded Frenchwoman--that disgusting Madame +Millefleur--whom I would have whipped through the streets of London, if +I could." + +"I don't doubt it, my dear," murmured Mr. Stanford, still unruffled by +his wife's storm of passion. "Your gentle sex are famous for the mercy +they always show to their fairer sisters. Your penetration does you +infinite credit, Mrs. Stanford. I was with Madame Millefleur." + +Rose stood glaring at him, white and panting with rage too intense for +words. Reginald Stanford stood up, meeting her fierce regards with +wonderful coolness. + +"You're not going to tear my hair out, are you, Rose? You see the way of +it was this: Coming from the office where I have the honour to be +clerk--thanks to my marriage--I met Madame Millefleur, that most +bewitching and wealthy of French widows. She is in love with me, my +dear. It may seem unaccountable to you how any one can be in love with +me, but the fact is so. She is in love with me almost as much as pretty +Rose Danton was once upon a time, and gave me an invitation to accompany +her to the opera last night. Of course I was enchanted. The opera is a +rare luxury now, and la Millefleur is all the fashion. I had the +happiness of bending over her chair all the evening--don't glare so, my +love, it makes you quite hideous--and accepted a seat beside her in the +carriage when it was all over. A delicious _petit souper_ awaited us in +Madame's bijou of a boudoir; and I don't mind owning I was a little +disguised by sparkling Moselle when I came home. Open confessions are +good for the soul--there is one for you, my dear." + +Her face was livid as she listened, and he smiled up at her with a smile +that nearly drove her mad. + +"I hate you, Reginald Stanford!" was all she could say. "I hate you! I +hate you!" + +"Quite likely, my love; but I dare say I shall survive that. You would +rather I didn't come here any more, I suppose, Mrs. Stanford?" + +"I never want to see your hateful, wicked face again. I wish I had been +dead before I ever saw it." + +"And I wish whatever you wish, dearest and best," he said, with a +sneering laugh; "if you ever see my wicked, hateful face again, it shall +be no fault of mine. Perhaps you had better go back to Canada. M. La +Touche was very much in love with you last year, and may overlook this +little episode in your life, and take you to his bosom yet. Good +morning, Mrs. Stanford. I am going to call on Madame Millefleur." + +He took his hat and left the room, and Rose dropped down in her chair +and covered her face with her hands. + +If Kate Danton and Jules La Touche ever wished for revenge, they should +have seen the woman who so cruelly wronged them at that moment. +Vengeance more bitter, more terrible than her worst enemy could wish, +had overtaken and crushed her to the earth. + +How that long, miserable day passed, the poor child never knew. It came +to an end, and the longer, more miserable night followed. Another +morning, another day of unutterable wretchedness, and a second night of +tears and sleeplessness. The third day came and passed, and still +Reginald Stanford never returned. The evening of the third day brought +her a letter, with Napoleon's head on the corner. + + "Hotel Du Louvre, Paris, April 10. + + My Dear Mrs. Stanford:--For you have still the unhappiness + of bearing that odious name, although I have no doubt Captain + Danton will shortly take the proper steps to relieve you of it. + According to promise, I have rid you of my hateful presence, and + forever. You see I am in brilliant Paris, in a palatial hotel, + enjoying all the luxuries wealth can procure, and Madame Millefleur + is my companion. The contrast between my life this week and my life + last is somewhat striking. The frowning countenance of Mrs. + Stanford is replaced by the ever-smiling face of my dark-eyed + Adčle, and the shabby lodgings in Crown street, Strand, are + exchanged for this chamber of Eastern gorgeousness. I am happy, and + so, no doubt, are you. Go back to Canada, my dear Mrs. Stanford. + Papa will receive his little runaway with open arms, and kill the + fatted calf to welcome her. The dear Jules may still be faithful, + and you may yet be thrice blessed as Madame La Touche. Ah, I + forget--you belong to the Church, and so does he, that does not + believe in divorce. What a pity! + + "I beg you will feel no uneasiness upon pecuniary matters, my dear + Rose. I write by this post to our good landlady, inclosing the next + six months' rent, and in this you will find a check for all present + wants. + + "I believe this is all I have to say, and Adčle is waiting for me + to escort her on a shopping expedition. Adieu, my Rose; believe me, + with the best wishes for your future happiness, to be Ever your + friend, + + "Reginald Reinecourt Stanford." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +COALS OF FIRE. + + +One afternoon, about a fortnight after the receipt of that letter from +France, Rose Stanford sat alone once more in the shabby little parlour +of the London lodging-house. It was late in April, but a fire burned +feebly in the little grate, and she sat cowering over it wrapped in a +large shawl. She had changed terribly during these two weeks; she had +grown old, and hollow-eyed, a haggard, worn, wretched woman. + +It was her third day up, this April afternoon, for a low, miserable +fever had confined her to her bed, and worn her to the pallid shadow she +was now. She had just finished writing a letter, a long, sad letter, and +it lay in her lap while she sat shivering over the fire. It was a letter +to her father, a tardy prayer for forgiveness, and a confession of all +her misdoings and wrongs--of Reginald Stanford's rather, for, of course, +all the blame was thrown upon him, though, if Rose had told the truth, +she would have found herself the more in fault of the two. + +"I am sick, and poor, and broken-hearted," wrote Mrs. Stanford; "and I +want to go home and die. I have been very wicked, papa, but I have +suffered so much, that even those I have wronged most might forgive me. +Write to me at once, and say I may go home; I only want to go and die in +peace. I feel that I am dying now." + +She folded the letter with a weary sigh and a hand that shook like an +old woman's, and rising, rang the bell. The brisk young woman answered +the summons at once with a smile on her face, and Mrs. Stanford's baby +crowing in her arms. They had been very kind to the poor young mother +and the fatherless babe during this time of trial; but Mrs. Stanford was +too ill and broken down to think about it, or feel grateful. + +"Here, Jane," said Mrs. Stanford, holding out the letter, "give me the +baby, and post this letter." + +Jane obeyed; and Rose, with the infant in her lap, sat staring gloomily +at the red coals. + +"Two weeks before it will reach them, two weeks more before an answer +can arrive, and another two weeks before I can be with them. Oh, dear +me! dear me! how shall I drag out life during these interminable weeks. +If I could only die at once and end it all." + +Tears of unutterable wretchedness and loneliness and misery coursed down +her pale, thin cheeks. Surely no one ever paid more dearly for love's +short madness than this unfortunate little Rose. + +"Marry in haste and repent at leisure," she thought, with unspeakable +bitterness. "Oh, how happy I might have been to-day if I had only done +right last year. But I was mad and treacherous and false, and I dare-say +it serves me right. How can I ever look them in the face when I go +home?" + +The weary weeks dragged on, how wearily and miserably only Rose knew. +She never went out; she sat all day long in that shabby parlour, and +stared blankly at the passers-by in the street, waiting, waiting. + +The good-natured landlady and her daughter took charge of the baby +during those wretched weeks of expectation, or Mrs. Reginald Stanford's +only son would have been sadly neglected. + +April was gone; May came in, bringing the anniversary of Rose's +ill-starred marriage and finding her in that worst widowhood, a day of +ceaseless tears and regrets to the unhappy, deserted wife. The bright +May days went by, one after another, passing as wretched days and more +wretched nights do pass somehow; and June had taken its place. In all +this long, long time, no letter had come for Rose. How she watched and +waited for it; how she had strained her eyes day after day to catch +sight of the postman; how her heart leaped up and throbbed when she saw +him approach, and sank down in her breast like lead as he went by, only +those can know who have watched and waited like her. A sickening sense +of despair stole over her at last. They had forgotten her; they hated +and despised her, and left her to her fate. There was nothing for it but +to go to the alms-house and die, like any other pauper. + +She had been mad when she fancied they could forgive her. Her sins had +been too great. All the world had deserted her, and the sooner she was +dead and out of the way the better. + +She sat in the misty June twilight thinking this, with a sad, hopeless +kind of resignation. It was the fifth of June. Could she forget that +this very day twelvemonth was to have been her wedding-day? Poor +Jules--poor Kate! Oh, what a wretch she had been! + +She covered her face with her hands, tears falling like rain through her +thin fingers. + +"I wonder if they will be sorry for me, and forgive me, when they hear I +am dead?" she thought. "Oh, how I live, and live; when other women would +have died long ago with half this trouble. Only nineteen, and with +nothing left to wish for but death." + +There was a tap at the door. Before she could speak it was opened, and +Jane, the brisk, came rustling in. + +"There's a gentleman down-stairs, Mrs. Stanford, asking to see you." + +Rose sprang up, her lips apart, her eyes dilating. + +"To see me! A gentleman! Jane, is it Mr. Stanford?" + +Jane shook her head. + +"Not a bit like Mr. Stanford, ma'am; not near so 'andsome, though a very +fine-looking gentleman. He said, to tell you as 'ow a friend wanted to +see you." + +A friend! Oh, who could it be? She made a motion to Jane to show him +up--she was too agitated to speak. She stood with her hands clasped over +her beating heart, breathless, waiting. + +A man's quick step flew up the stairs; a tall figure stood in the +doorway, hat in hand. + +Rose uttered a faint cry. She had thought of her father, of Jules La +Touche, never once of him who stood before her. + +"Doctor Frank!" she gasped; and then she was holding to a chair for +support, feeling the walls swimming around her. + +Doctor Frank took her in his arms, and kissed her pale cheek as tenderly +and pityingly as her father might have done. + +"My poor child! My poor little Rose! What a shadow you are! Don't cry +so--pray don't!" + +She bowed her weary head against his shoulder, and broke out into +hysterical sobbing. It was so good to see that friendly familiar face +once more--she clung to him with a sense of unspeakable trust and +relief, and cried in the fullness of her heart. + +He let her tears flow for awhile, sitting beside her, and stroking the +faded, disordered hair away from the wan, pale face. + +"There! there!" he said, at last, "we have had tears enough now. Look up +and let me talk to you. What did you think when you received no answer +to your letter?" + +"I thought you all very cruel. I thought I was forgotten." + +"Of course you did; but you are not forgotten, and it is my fault that +you have had no letter. I wanted to surprise you; and I have brought a +letter from your father breathing nothing but love and forgiveness." + +"Give it to me!" cried Rose, breathlessly; "give it to me!" + +"Can't, unfortunately, yet awhile. I left it at my hotel. Don't look so +disappointed. I am going to take you there in half an hour. Hallo! Is +that the baby?" + +Reginald Stanford, Junior, asleep in his crib, set up a sudden squall at +this moment. + +Doctor Frank crossed the floor, and hoisted him up in a twinkling. + +"Why, he's a splendid little fellow, Rose, and the very image of--What +do you call him?" + +"Reginald," Rose said, in a very subdued tone. + +"Well, Master Reginald, you and I are going to be good friends, aren't +we, and you're not going to cry?" + +He hoisted him high in the air, and baby answered with a loud crow. + +"That's right. Babies always take to me, Rose. You don't know how many +dozens I have nursed in my time. But you don't ask me any questions +about home. Aren't you curious to know how they all get on?" + +"Papa is married, I suppose?" Rose said. + +"Of course--last January. And Danton Hall was burnt down; and they have +built up another twice as big and three times as handsome. And Mr. +Richards--you remember the mysterious invalid, Rose?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, Mr. Richards turned out to be your brother Harry, who lived shut +up there, because he thought he had committed a murder, some time +before, in New York. And Agnes Darling--you have not forgotten Agnes +Darling?" + +"Oh, no." + +"Agnes Darling turns out to be his wife. Quite a romance, isn't it? I +will tell you all the particulars another time. Just now, I want you to +put on your bonnet and come with me to my hotel. Don't ask me why--I +won't tell you. We will fetch the baby too. Go, get ready." + +Doctor Frank was imperative, and Rose yielded at once. It was so +indescribably delightful, after all these weeks of suspense and despair, +to see Frank Danton's friendly face, and to listen to his friendly +voice, commanding as one who had the right. Rose had her hat and shawl +on directly, and, with baby in her arms, followed him down stairs. A +hansom stood waiting. He helped her in, gave the cabman his orders, took +his place beside her, and they rattled off. + +"When am I going home?" Rose asked, suddenly. "Have you come to fetch +me?" + +"Not precisely. You are to return with me, however." + +"And when are we going?" + +"That is not quite decided yet. It is an after-consideration, and there +is no hurry. Are you particularly anxious to be back to Canada?" + +"I am tired of being lonely and homeless," poor Rose replied, the tears +starting. "I want to be at rest, and among the dear familiar faces. +Doctor Frank," she said, looking at him appealingly, "have they forgiven +me, do you think?" + +"Whom do you mean by they, Mrs. Stanford?" + +"Papa and--and Kate." + +"I have reason to think so. Of course, it must have been rather +disagreeable to Kate at first, to have her lover run away and leave her, +but I really think she has got over it. We must be resigned to the +inevitable, you know, my dear Rose, in this changeable world." + +Rose sighed, and looked out of the window. A moment later, and the cab +drew up before a stately hotel. + +"This is the place," said the Doctor. "Come!" + +He helped her out, gave his arm, and led her up a long flight of broad +stairs. It was quite a little journey through carpeted corridors to the +gentleman's apartments; but he reached the door at last. It opened into +a long vista of splendour, as it seemed to Rose, accustomed so long to +the shabby Strand lodgings. She had expected to find the Doctor's rooms +empty; but, to her surprise, within an inner apartment, whose door stood +wide, she saw a lady. The lady, robed in bright silk, tall and stately, +with golden hair twisted coronet wise round the shapely head, stood with +her back to them, looking out of the window. Something in that straight +and stately form struck with a nameless thrill to Rose Stanford's heart; +and she stood in the doorway, spell-bound. At the noise of their +entrance, the lady turned round, uttered an exclamation of pleasure, and +advanced towards them. Doctor Frank stood with a smile on his face, +enjoying Mrs. Stanford's consternation. Another second and she was +clasped in the lady's arms. + +"Rose! Rose! My dear little sister!" + +"Kate!" Rose murmured, faintly, all white and trembling. + +Kate looked up at the smiling face of the Doctor, a new light dawning on +her. + +"Oh, he has never told you! For shame, Frank, to shock her so! My +darling, did you not know I was here?" + +"No; he never told me," Rose said, sinking into a chair, and looking +hopelessly at her sister. "What does it mean, Kate? Is papa here?" + +"I leave the onerous duty of explaining everything to you, Kate," said +the Doctor, before Kate could reply. "I am going down stairs to smoke." + +"That provoking fellow!" Kate said, smilingly, looking after him; "it is +just like him." + +"Is papa here?" Rose repeated, wonderingly. + +"No, my dear; papa is at Danton Hall, with his wife. It was impossible +for him to come." + +"Then how do you happen to be here, and with Doctor Frank?" + +Kate laughed--such a sweet, clear, happy laugh--as she kissed Rose's +wondering face. + +"For the very best reason in the world, Mrs. Stanford! Because I happen +to be Doctor Frank's wife!" + +Rose sat, confounded, speechless--literally struck dumb--staring +helplessly. + +"His wife!" she repeated. "His wife!" and then sat lost in overwhelming +amaze. + +"Yes, my dear; his happy wife. I do not wonder you are astonished, +knowing the past; but it is a long story to tell. I am ashamed to think +how wicked and disagreeable, and perverse, I used to be; but it is all +over now. I think there is no one in all the wide world like Frank!" + +Her eyes filled as she said it, and she laid her face for a moment on +her sister's shoulder. + +"I was blind in those past days, Rose, and too prejudiced to do justice +to a noble man's worth. I love my husband with my whole heart--with an +affection that can never change." + +"And you forgive me?" + +"I forgave you long ago. Is this the baby? How pretty! Give him to me." + +She took Master Reginald in her arms, and kissed his chubby face. + +"To think that you should ever nurse Reginald Stanford's child! How +odd!" said Rose, languidly. + +The colour rushed into Mrs. Frank Danton's face for a second or two, as +she stooped over the baby. + +"Strange things happen in this world. I shall be very fond of the baby, +I know." + +"And Grace, whom you disliked so much, is your mother and sister both +together. How very queer!" + +Kate laughed. + +"It is odd, but quite true. Come, take your things off; you are not to +leave us again. We will send to your lodgings for your luggage." + +"How long have you been married?" asked Rose, as she obeyed. + +"Three weeks; and this is our bridal tour. We depart for Paris in two +days. You know Frank has had a fortune." + +"I don't know anything. Do tell me all about it--your marriage and +everything. I am dying of curiosity." + +Mrs. Doctor Danton seated herself in a low chair, with Reginald +Stanford's first-born in her lap, and began recapitulating as much of +the past as was necessary to enlighten Mrs. Stanford. + +"So he saved Eeny's life; and you nursed him, and fell in love with him, +and married him, and his old uncle dies and leaves him a fortune in the +nick of time. It sounds like a fairy tale; you ought to finish +with--'and they lived happy forever after!'" + +"Please Heaven, we will! Such real-life romance happens every day, +sister mine. Oh, by-the-by, guess who was at our wedding?" + +"Who?" + +"A very old friend of yours, my dear--Monsieur Jules La Touche." + +"No! Was he, though? How did you come to invite him?" + +"He chanced to be in the neighbourhood at the time. Do you know, Rose, I +should not be surprised if he accomplished his destiny yet, and became +papa's son-in-law." + +Rose looked up, breathlessly, thinking only of herself. + +"Impossible, Kate!--What do you mean?" + +"Not at all impossible, I assure you. Eeny was my bride-maid, and you +have no idea how pretty she looked; and so Monsieur La Touche seemed to +think, by the very marked attention he paid her. It would be an +excellent thing for her; he is in a fair way of becoming a millionaire." + +A pang of the bitterest envy and mortification she had ever felt, +pierced Rose Stanford's heart. Oh! what a miserable--what an unfortunate +creature she had been! She turned away, that her sister might not see +her face, and Kate carelessly went on. + +"Eeny always liked him, I know. She likes him better than ever now. I +shall not be at all surprised if we find her engaged when we go home." + +"Indeed!" Rose said, trying to speak naturally, and failing signally. +"And when are we going home?" + +"Early in November, I believe. Frank and I are to make Montreal our +home, for he will not give up his profession, of course; and you shall +come and live with us if you like the city better than St. Croix." + +Rose's slumbers that night were sadly disturbed. It was not the contrast +between her handsome bedroom and downy pillows, and the comfortless +little chamber she had slept in so long; it was not thought of her +sister's goodness and generosity: it was the image of Eeny, in silk and +jewels, the bride of Jules La Touche, the millionaire. + +Somehow, unacknowledged in her heart of hearts, there had lingered a +hope of vengeance on her husband, triumph for herself as the wife of her +deserted lover! There would be a divorce, and then she might legally +marry. She had no conscientious scruples about that sort of marriages, +and she took it for granted Monsieur La Touche could have none either. +But now these hopes were nipped in the bud. Eeny--younger, fresher, +fairer, perhaps--was to have him and the splendid position his wife must +attain; and she was to be a miserable, poor, deserted wife all her days. + +I am afraid Mrs. Stanford was not properly thankful for her blessings +that night. She had thought, only one day before, that to find her +friends and be forgiven by them would be the sum total of earthly +happiness; but now she had found them, and was forgiven, she was as +wretched as ever. + +The contrast between what she was and what she might have been was +rather striking, certainly; and the bitterest pang of all was the +thought she had no one to blame, from first to last, but herself. + +Oh, if she had only been true! This was what came of marrying for love, +and trampling under foot prudence, and honour, and truth. A month or two +of joy, and life-long regret and repentance! + +Doctor Danton, his wife, and sister, took a hurried scamper over London, +and departed for Paris. + +The weather in that gay capital was very warm, indeed, but delightful to +Rose, who had never crossed the Channel before. Paris was comparatively +familiar ground to the young Doctor; he took the two ladies sight-seeing +perpetually; and Mrs. Stanford almost forgot her troubles in the +delights of the brilliant French city. + +A nurse had been engaged for baby, so that troublesome young gentleman +no longer came between his mamma and life's enjoyment. Her diminished +wardrobe had been replenished too; and, well-fed and well-dressed, Rose +began to look almost like the sparkling, piquant Rose of other days. + +The Dantons had been three weeks in Paris, and were to leave in a day or +two en route for Switzerland. The Doctor had taken them for a last drive +through the Bois de Boulogne the sunny afternoon that was to be their +last for some time in the French capital. Kate and Rose, looking very +handsome, and beautifully dressed, lay back among the cushions, +attracting more than one glance of admiration from those who passed by. + +Mrs. Danton was chatting gayly with her husband, and Rose, poising a +dainty azure parasol, looked at the well-dressed Parisians around her. + +Suddenly, the hand so daintily holding the parasol grasped it tight, the +hot blood surged in a torrent to her face, and her eyes fixed and +dilated on two equestrians slowly approaching. A lady and gentleman--the +lady a Frenchwoman evidently, dark, rather good-looking, and not very +young; the gentleman, tall, eminently handsome, and much more youthful +than his fair companion, Rose Stanford and her false husband were face +to face! + +He had seen them, and grown more livid than death; his eyes fixed on +Doctor Danton and his beautiful wife, talking and laughing with such +infinitely happy faces. + +One glance told him how matters stood--told him the girl he had forsaken +was the happy wife of a better man. Then his glance met that of his +wife, pretty, and blooming and bright as when he had first fallen in +love with her; but those hazel eyes were flashing fire, and the pretty +face was fierce with rage and scorn. + +Then they were past; and Reginald Stanford and his wife had seen each +other for the last time on earth. + + * * * * * + +The summer flew by. They visited Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and were +back in Paris in October. About the middle of that month they sailed +from Havre to New York, and reached that city after a delightful +passage. It being Rose's first sight of the Empire City, they lingered a +week to show her the lions, and early in November were on the first +stage of their journey to Danton Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +AT HOME. + + +Late in the afternoon of a dark November day our travellers reached St. +Croix, and found the carriage from the Hall awaiting them at the +station. Rose leaned back in a corner, wrapped in a large shawl, and +with a heart too full of mingled feelings to speak. How it all came back +to her, with the bitterness of death, the last time her eyes had looked +upon these familiar objects--how happy she had been then, how hopeful; +how miserable she had been since, how hopeless now. The well-known +objects flitted before her eyes, seen through a mist of tears, so +well-known that it seemed only yesterday since she had last looked at +them, and these dreary intervening months only a wretched dream. Ah! no +dream, for there sat the English nurse with the baby in her arms, a +living proof of their reality. One by one the old places spun by, the +church, the presbytery, with Father Francis walking up and down the +little garden, his soutane tucked up, and his breviary in his hand, all +looking ghostly in the dim afternoon light. Now the village was passed, +they were flying through wide open gates, and under the shadow of the +dear old trees. There was Danton Hall, not the dingy, weather-beaten +Danton Hall she knew, but a much more modern, much more elegant mansion; +and there on the gray stone steps stood her father, handsome and portly, +and kindly as ever; and there was Grace beside him--dear, good Grace; +and there was Eeny, dressed in pale pink with fluttering ribbons, fair +and fragile, and looking like a rosebud. A little group of three persons +behind, at sight of whom Kate uttered an exclamation of delight. + +"Oh, Frank! there are Harry and Agnes! To think papa never told us! What +a charming surprise!" + +That was all Rose heard; then she was clasped in her father's stalwart +arms, and sobbing on his breast. They all clustered around her +first--their restored prodigal--and Grace kissed her lovingly, and +Eeny's soft arms were around her neck. Then the group in the background +came forward, and Rose saw a sunburned sailor's face, and knew that it +was her brother Harry who was kissing her, and her sister Agnes whose +arms clung around her. Then she looked at the third person, still +standing modestly in the background, and uttered a little cry. + +"Jules! M. La Touche!" + +He came forward, a smile on his face, and his hand frankly outstretched, +while Eeny blushingly hovered aloof. + +"I am very happy to see you again, Mrs. Stanford--very happy to see you +looking so well!" + +So they had met, and this was all! Then they were in the +drawing-room--how, Rose could not tell--it was all like a dream to her, +and Eeny had the babe in her arms, and was carrying it around to be +kissed and admired. "The beauty! The darling! The pet!" Eeny could not +find words enough to express her enthusiastic rapture at such a miracle +of babydom, and kissed Master Reginald into an angry fit of crying. + +They got up to their rooms at last. Rose broke down again in the +seclusion of her chamber, and cried until her eyes were as sore as her +heart. How happy they all looked, loving and beloved; and she, the +deserted wife, was an object of pity. While she sat crying, there was a +tap at the door. Hastily drying her eyes, she opened it, and admitted +Grace. + +"Have you been crying, Rose?" she said, tenderly taking both her hands, +and sitting down beside her. "My poor dear, you must try and forget your +troubles, and be happy with us. I know it is very sad, and we are all +sorry for you; but the husband you have lost is not worth grieving for. +Were you not surprised," smiling, "to see Mr. La Touche here?" + +"Hardly," said Rose, rather sulkily. "I suppose he is here in the +character of Eeny's suitor?" + +"More than that, my dear. He is here in the character of Eeny's +affianced husband. They are to be married next month." + +Rose uttered an exclamation--an exclamation of dismay. She certainly had +never dreamed of this. + +"The marriage would have taken place earlier, but was postponed in +expectation of your and Kate's arrival. That is why Harry and Agnes are +here. M. La Touche has a perfect home prepared for his bride in Ottawa. +Come, she is in Kate's room now. I will show you her trousseau." + +Rose went with her step-mother from her chamber into Eeny's +dressing-room. There was spread out the bridal outfit. Silks, in rich +stiffness, fit to stand alone; laces, jewels, bridal-veil, and wreath. +Rose looked with dazzled eyes, and a feeling of passionate, jealous envy +at her heart. It might have been hers, all this splendour--she might +have been mistress of the palace at Ottawa, and the wife of a +millionaire. + +But she had given up all for love of a handsome face; and that handsome +face smiled on another now, and was lost to her forever. She choked back +the rebellious throbbing of her heart, and praised the costly wedding +outfit, and was glad when she could escape and be alone again. It was +all bitter as the waters of Marah, to poor, widowed Rose; their +forgiveness, so ready and so generous, was heaping coals of fire on her +head; and at home, surrounded by kind friends and every comfort so long +a stranger to her, she felt even more desolate than she had ever done in +the dreary London lodgings. + +But while all were happy at Danton Hall, save Captain Danton's second +daughter, once the gayest among them, the days flew by, and Eveleen +Danton's wedding-day dawned. Such a lovely December day, brilliant, +cloudless, warm--just the day for a wedding. The little village church +was crowded with the rich and the poor, long before the carriages from +the Hall arrived. Very lovely looked the young bride, in her silken robe +of virgin white, her misty veil, and drooping, flower-crowned head. Very +sweet, and fair, and innocent, and as pale as her snowy dress, the +centre of all eyes, as she moved up the aisle, on her father's arm. +There were four bride-maids; the Demoiselles La Touche came from Ottawa +for the occasion. Miss Emily Howard, and Miss La Favre. The bride's +sisters shared with her the general admiration--Mrs. Dr. Danton; Mrs. +Stanford, all auburn ringlets, and golden brown silk, and no outward +sign of the torments within; Mrs. Harry Danton, fair as a lily, clinging +to her sailor-husband's arm, like some spirit of the sea; and last, but +not least, Captain Danton's wife, very simply dressed, but looking so +quietly happy and serene. Then it was all over, and the gaping +spectators saw the wedding party flocking back into the carriages, and +whirling away to the Hall. + +Mr. and Mrs. La Touche were to make but a brief tour, and return in time +for a Christmas house-warming. Doctor Frank and his wife went to their +Montreal home, and Mrs. Stanford remained at St. Croix. The family were +all to reassemble at Ottawa, to spend New Year with Madame La Touche. + +Rose found the intervening weeks very long and dreary at the Hall. +Captain Harry had gone back to his ship, and of course Agnes had gone +with him. They had wanted her to stay at home this voyage, but Agnes had +lifted such appealing eyes, and clung in so much alarm to Harry at the +bare idea of his leaving her, that they had given it up at once. So +Rose, with no companion except Grace, found it very dull, and sighed the +slow hours away, like a modern Mariana in the Moated Grange. + +But the merry New Year time came round at last; and all the Dantons were +together once more in Eeny's splendid home. It made Rose's heart ache +with envy to walk through those lovely rooms--long vistas of splendour +and gorgeousness. + +"It might have been mine!--It might have been mine!" that rebellious +heart of hers kept crying out. "I might have been mistress of all this +retinue of servants--these jewels and silks I might have worn! I might +have reigned like a queen in this stately house if I had only done +right!" + +But it was too late, and Mrs. Stanford had to keep up appearances, and +smiles, though the serpents of envy and regret gnawed at her vitals. It +was very gay there! Life seemed all made up of music, and dancing, and +feasting, and mirth, and skating, and sleighing, and dressing, and +singing. Life went like a fairy spectacle, or an Eastern drama, or an +Arcadian dream--with care, and trial, and trouble, monsters unknown even +by name. + +Mme. Jules La Touche played the rôle with charming grace--a little shy, +as became her youth and inexperience, but only the more charming for +that. They were very, very happy together, this quiet young pair--loving +one another very dearly, as you could see, and looking forward hopefully +to a future that was to be without a cloud. + +Mrs. La Touche and Mrs. Stanford were very much admired in society, no +doubt; but people went into raptures over Mrs. Frank Danton. Such eyes, +such golden hair, such rare smiles, such queenly grace, such singing, +such playing--surely nature had created this darling of hers in a +gracious mood, and meted out to her a double portion of her favours. You +might think other ladies--those younger sisters of hers +included--beautiful until she came; and then that stately presence, that +bewitching brightness and grace, eclipsed them as the sun eclipses +stars. + +"What a lucky fellow Danton is!" said the men. "One doesn't see such a +superb woman once in a century." + +And Doctor Frank heard it, and smiled, as he smoked his meerschaum, and +thought so too. + + * * * * * + +And so we leave them. Kate is happy; Eeny reigns right royally in her +Ottawa home; and Rose--well, poor Rose has no home, and flits about +between St. Croix, and Montreal, and Ottawa, all the year round. She +calls Danton Hall home, but she spends most of her time with Kate. It is +not so sumptuous, of course, as at Ottawa, in the rising young Doctor's +home; but she is not galled every moment of the day by the poignant +regrets that lacerate her heart at Eeny's. She hears of her husband +occasionally, as he wanders through the Continent, and the chain that +binds her to him galls her day and night. Little Reginald, able to trot +about on his own sturdy legs now, accompanies her in her migratory +flights, and is petted to death wherever he goes. He has come to grief +quite recently, and takes it very hard that grandpa should have +something else to nurse besides himself. This something else is a little +atom of humanity named Gracie, and is Captain Danton's youngest +daughter. + + +THE END. + + + * * * * * + +_By May Agnes Fleming._ + + + + +NORINE'S REVENGE. + +"Mrs. Fleming's stories are growing more and more popular every day. +Their delineations of character, lifelike conversations, flashes of wit, +constantly varying scenes, and deeply interesting plots, combine to +place their author in the very first rank of Modern Novelists." + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's +Daughters, by May Agnes Fleming + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KATE DANTON, OR, CAPTAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 19512-8.txt or 19512-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/5/1/19512/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's Daughters + A Novel + +Author: May Agnes Fleming + +Release Date: October 9, 2006 [EBook #19512] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KATE DANTON, OR, CAPTAIN *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>KATE DANTON;</h1> + +<h3>OR</h3> + +<h2>CAPTAIN DANTON'S DAUGHTERS</h2> + +<h4><i>A Novel</i></h4> + +<h2>BY MAY AGNES FLEMING,</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF "NORINE'S REVENGE," "GUY EARLSCOURT'S WIFE," "A WONDERFUL +WOMAN," "A TERRIBLE SECRET," "A MAD MARRIAGE," "ONE NIGHT'S MYSTERY," +ETC.</h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Printed and Stereotyped by</span><br /> +The Globe Printing Company,<br /> +26 & 28 King Street East,<br /> +Toronto.</h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bound by</span><br /> +Hunter, Rose & Co.<br /> +Toronto.</h4> + + + + +<h4>TORONTO:<br /> +<i>BELFORD BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS.</i><br /> +MDCCCLXXVII.</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"——A woman's will dies hard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the field, or on the sward."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There were three little women<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Each fair in the face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And their laughter with music<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Filled all the green place;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As they wove pleasant thoughts<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With the threads of their lace.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Of the wind in the tree tops<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The flowers in the glen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the birds—the brown robin,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The wood dove, the wren,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They talked—but their thoughts<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were of three little men!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.—Grace Danton</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.—Kate Danton</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.—A Change of Dynasty</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.—Rose Danton</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.—Seeing a Ghost</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.—Rose's Adventure</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.—Hon. Lieutenant Reginald Stanford</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.—The Ghost Again</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.—A Game for Two to Play at</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.—The Revelation</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.—One Mystery Cleared Up</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.—Harry Danton</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.—Love-making</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.—Trying to be True</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.—One of Earth's Angels</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.—Epistolary</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.—"She Took Up the Burden of Life Again."</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.—"It's an Ill Wind Blows Nobody Good"</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.—Via Crucis</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.—Bearing the Cross</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.—Dr. Danton's Good Works</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.—After the Cross, the Crown</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.—"Long have I been True to You, now I'm True no Longer"</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.—Coals of Fire</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.—At Home</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#By_May_Agnes_Fleming.">By May Agnes Fleming.</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>KATE DANTON.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>GRACE DANTON.</h3> + + +<p>A low room, oblong in shape, three high narrow windows admitting the +light through small, old-fashioned panes. Just at present there was not +much to admit, for it was raining hard, and the afternoon was wearing on +to dusk; but even the wet half-light showed you solid mahogany +furniture, old-fashioned as the windows themselves, black and shining +with age and polish; a carpet soft and thick, but its once rich hues dim +and faded; oil paintings of taste and merit, some of them portraits, on +the papered walls, the red glow of a large coal fire glinting pleasantly +on their broad gilded frames.</p> + +<p>At one of the windows, looking out at the ceaseless rain, a young lady +sat—a young lady, tall, rather stout than slender, and not pretty. Her +complexion was too sallow; her features too irregular; her dark hair too +scant, and dry and thin at the parting; but her eyes were fine, large, +brown and clear; her manner, self-possessed and lady-like. She was very +simply but very tastefully dressed, and looked every day of her +age—twenty six.</p> + +<p>The rainy afternoon was deepening into dismal twilight; and with her +cheek resting on her hand, the young lady sat with a thoughtful face.</p> + +<p>A long avenue, shaded by towering tamaracks, led down to stately +entrance-gates; beyond, a winding road, leading to a village, not to be +seen from the window. Swelling meadows, bare and bleak now, spread away +to the right and left of the thickly-wooded grounds; and beyond all, +through the trees, there were glimpses of the great St. Lawrence, turbid +and swollen, rushing down to the stormy Gulf.</p> + +<p>For nearly half an hour the young lady sat by the window, her solitude +undisturbed; no sign of life within or without the silent house. Then +came the gallop of horse's hoofs, and a lad rode up the avenue and +disappeared round the angle of the building.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes after there was a tap at the door, followed by the entrance +of a servant, with a dark Canadian face.</p> + +<p>"A letter, Miss Grace," said the girl, in French.</p> + +<p>"Bring in some more coal, Babette," said Miss Grace, also in French, +taking the letter. "Where is Miss Eeny?"</p> + +<p>"Practising in the parlour, Ma'moiselle."</p> + +<p>"Very well. Bring in the coal."</p> + +<p>Babette disappeared, and the young lady opened her letter. It was very +short.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">Montreal</span>, November, 5, 18—.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Grace</span>—Kate arrived in this city a week ago, and +I have remained here since to show her the sights, and let her +recruit after her voyage. Ogden tells me the house is quite ready +for us, so you may expect us almost as soon as you receive this. We +will be down by the 7th, for certain. Ogden says that Rose is +absent. Write to her to return.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Yours sincerely,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Henry Danton</span>."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"P. S.—Did Ogden tell you we were to have a visitor—an invalid +gentleman—a Mr. Richards? Have the suite of rooms on the west side +prepared for him. H. D."</p></div> + +<p>The young lady refolded her note thoughtfully, and walking to the fire, +stood looking with grave eyes into the glowing coals.</p> + +<p>"So soon," she thought; "so soon; everything to be changed. What is +Captain Danton's eldest daughter like, I wonder? What is the Captain +like himself, and who can this invalid, Mr. Richards, be? I don't like +change."</p> + +<p>Babette came in with the coal, and Miss Grace roused herself from her +reverie.</p> + +<p>"Babette, tell Ledru to have dinner at seven. I think your master and +his daughter will be here to-night."</p> + +<p>"Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle! The young lady from England?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and see that there are fires in all the rooms upstairs."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss Grace."</p> + +<p>"Is Miss Eeny still in the parlour?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss Grace."</p> + +<p>Miss Grace walked out of the dining-room, along a carved and pictured +corridor, up a broad flight of shining oaken stairs, and tapped at the +first door.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Grace," called a pleasant voice, and Grace went in.</p> + +<p>It was a much more elegant apartment than the dining-room, with flowers, +and books, and birds, and pictures, and an open piano with music +scattered about.</p> + +<p>Half buried in a great carved and gilded chair, lay the only occupant of +the room—a youthful angel of fifteen, fragile in form, fair and +delicate of face, with light hair and blue eyes. A novel lying open in +her lap showed what her occupation had been.</p> + +<p>"I thought you were practising your music, Eeny," said Grace.</p> + +<p>"So I was, until I got tired. But what's that you've got? A letter?"</p> + +<p>Grace put it in her hand.</p> + +<p>"From papa!" cried the girl, vividly interested at once. "Oh, Grace! +Kate has come!"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>The young lady laid down the letter and looked at her.</p> + +<p>"How oddly you said that! Are you sorry?"</p> + +<p>"Sorry! Oh, no."</p> + +<p>"You looked as if you were. How strange it seems to think that this +sister of mine, of whom I have heard so much and have never seen, should +be coming here for good! And papa—he is almost a stranger, too, Grace. +I suppose everything will be very different now."</p> + +<p>"Very, very different," Grace said, with her quiet eyes fixed on the +fire. "The old life will soon be a thing of the past. And we have been +very happy here; have we not, Eeny?"</p> + +<p>"Very happy," answered Eeny; "and will be still, I hope. Papa and Kate, +and Mr. Richards—I wonder who Mr. Richards is?—shall not make us +miserable."</p> + +<p>"I suppose, Eeny," said Grace, "I shall be quite forgotten when this +handsome Sister Kate comes. She ought to be very handsome."</p> + +<p>She looked up at an oval picture about the marble mantel, in a rich +frame—the photograph of a lovely girl about Eeny's age. The bright +young face looked at you with a radiant smile, the exuberant golden hair +fell in sunlight ripples over the plump white shoulders, and the blue +eyes and rosebud lips smiled on you together. A lovely face, full of the +serene promise of yet greater loveliness to come. Eeny's eyes followed +those of Grace.</p> + +<p>"You know better than that, Cousin Grace. Miss Kate Danton may be an +angel incarnate, but she can never drive you quite out of my heart. +Grace, how old is Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty years old."</p> + +<p>"And Harry was three years older?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Grace, I wonder who Mr. Richards is?"</p> + +<p>"So do I."</p> + +<p>"Did Ogden say nothing about him?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word."</p> + +<p>"Will you write to Rose?"</p> + +<p>"I shall not have time. I wish you would write, Eeny. That is what I +came here to ask you to do."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, with pleasure," said Eeny. "Rose will wait for no second +invitation when she hears who have come. Will they arrive this evening?"</p> + +<p>"Probably. They may come at any moment. And here I am lingering. Write +the note at once, Eeny, and send Sam back to the village with it."</p> + +<p>She left the parlour and went down stairs, looking into the dining-room +as she passed. Babette was setting the table already, and silver and +cut-glass sparkled in the light of the ruby flame. Grace went on, up +another staircase, hurrying from room to room, seeing that all things +were in perfect order. Fires burned in each apartment, lamps stood on +the tables ready to be lit, for neither furnace nor gas was to be found +here. The west suite of rooms spoken of in the letter were the last +visited. A long corridor, lit by an oriel window, through which the +rainy twilight stole eerily enough, led to a baize door. The baize door +opened into a shorter corridor, terminated by a second door, the upper +half of glass. This was the door of a study, simply furnished, the walls +lined with book-shelves, surmounted by busts. Adjoining was a bathroom, +adjoining that a bedroom. Fires burned in all, and the curtained windows +commanded a wide western prospect of flower-garden, waving trees, +spreading fields, and the great St. Lawrence melting into the low +western sky.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Richards ought to be very comfortable here," thought Grace. "It is +rather strange Ogden did not speak of him."</p> + +<p>She went down stairs again and back to the dining-room. Eeny was there, +standing before the fire, her light shape and delicate face looking +fragile in the red fire-light.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Grace," said she, "I have just sent Babette in search of you. There +is a visitor in the parlour for you."</p> + +<p>"For me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, a gentleman; young, and rather handsome. I asked him who I should +say wished to see you, and—what do you think?—he would not tell."</p> + +<p>"No! What did he say?"</p> + +<p>"Told me to mention to Miss Grace Danton that a friend wished to see +her. Mysterious, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"Who can it be?" said Grace, thoughtfully. "What does this mysterious +gentleman look like, Eeny?"</p> + +<p>"Very tall," said Eeny, "and very stately, with brown hair, and beard +and mustache—a splendid mustache, Grace! and beautiful, bright brown +eyes, something like yours. Very good-looking, very polite, and with the +smile of an angel. There you have him."</p> + +<p>"I am as much at a loss as ever," said Grace, leaving the dining-room. +"This is destined to be an evening of arrivals I think."</p> + +<p>She ran upstairs for the second time, and opened the parlour door. A +gentleman before the fire, in the seat Eeny had vacated, arose at her +entrance. Grace stood still an instant, doubt, amaze, delight, +alternately in her face; then with a cry of "Frank!" she sprang forward, +and was caught in the tall stranger's arms.</p> + +<p>"I thought you would recognize me in spite of the whiskers," said the +stranger. "Here, stand off and let me look at you; let me see the +changes six years have wrought in my sister Grace."</p> + +<p>He held her out at arm's length, and surveyed her smilingly.</p> + +<p>"A little older—a little graver, but otherwise the same. My solemn +Gracie, you will look like your own grandmother at thirty."</p> + +<p>"Well, I feel as if I had lived a century or two now. When did you +come?"</p> + +<p>"From Germany, last week; from Montreal at noon."</p> + +<p>"You have been a week in Montreal then?"</p> + +<p>"With Uncle Roosevelt—yes."</p> + +<p>"How good it seems to see you again, Frank. How long will you stay +here—in St. Croix?"</p> + +<p>"That depends—until I get tired, I suppose. So Captain Danton and his +eldest daughter are here from England?"</p> + +<p>"How did you learn that?"</p> + +<p>"Saw their arrival in Montreal duly chronicled."</p> + +<p>"What is she like, Grace?"</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Kate Danton."</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I expect them every moment; I should think they came by +the same train you did."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so—I rode second-class. I got talking to an old Canadian, and +found him such a capital old fellow, that I kept beside him all the way. +By-the-by, Grace, you've got into very comfortable quarters, haven't +you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Danton Hall is a very fine place."</p> + +<p>"How long is it you have been here?"</p> + +<p>"Four years."</p> + +<p>"And how often has the Captain been in that time?"</p> + +<p>"Twice; but he has given up the sea now, and is going to settle down."</p> + +<p>"I thought his eldest daughter was a fixture in England?"</p> + +<p>"So did I," said Grace; "but the grandmother with whom she lived has +died, it appears; consequently, she comes to her natural home for the +first time. That is her picture."</p> + +<p>Miss Danton's brother raised his handsome brown eyes to the exquisite +face, and took a long survey.</p> + +<p>"She ought to be a beauty if she looks like that. Belle blonde, and I +admire blondes so much! do you know, Grace, I think I shall fall in love +with her?"</p> + +<p>"Don't. It will be of no use."</p> + +<p>"Why not? I am a Danton—a gentleman—a member of the learned profession +of medicine and not so bad-looking. Why not, Grace?"</p> + +<p>He rose up as he said it, his brown eyes smiling. Not so bad-looking, +certainly. A fine-looking fellow, as he leaned against the marble +mantel, bronzed and bearded, and a thorough gentleman.</p> + +<p>"It is all of no use," Grace said, with an answering smile. "Doctor +Danton's numberless perfections will be quite lost on the heiress of +Danton Hall. She is engaged."</p> + +<p>"What a pity! Who is the lucky man?"</p> + +<p>"Hon. Lieutenant Reginald Stanford, of Stanford Royals, Northumberland, +England, youngest son of Lord Reeves."</p> + +<p>"Then mine is indeed a forlorn hope! What chance has an aspiring young +doctor against the son of a lord."</p> + +<p>"You would have no chance in any case," said Grace, with sudden +seriousness. "I once asked her father which his eldest daughter most +resembled, Rose or Eeny. 'Like neither,' was his reply. 'My daughter +Kate is beautiful, and stately, and proud as a queen.' I shall never +forget his own proud smile as he said it."</p> + +<p>"You infer that Miss Danton, if free, would be too proud to mate with a +mere plebeian professional man."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Then resignation is all that remains. Is it improper to smoke in this +sacred chamber, Grace? I must have something to console me. Quite a +grand alliance for Danton's daughter, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"They do not seem to think so. I heard her father say he would not +consider a prince of the blood-royal too good for his peerless Kate."</p> + +<p>"The duse he wouldn't! What an uplifted old fellow he must be!"</p> + +<p>"Captain Danton is not old. His age is about forty-five, and he does not +look forty."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll tell you what to do, Grace—marry him!"</p> + +<p>"Frank, don't be absurd! Do you know you will have everything in this +room smelling of tobacco for a week. I can't permit it, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be off," said her brother, looking at his watch, "I promised +to return in half an hour for supper."</p> + +<p>"Promised whom?"</p> + +<p>"M. le Curé. Oh, you don't know I am stopping at the presbytery. I +happened to meet the curate, Father Francis, in Montreal—we were +school-boys together—and he was about the wildest, most mischievous +fellow I ever met. We were immense friends—a fellow-feeling, you know, +makes us wondrous kind. Judge of my amazement on meeting him on Notre +Dame street, in soutane and broad-brimmed hat, and finding he had taken +to Mother Church. You might have knocked me down with a feather, I +assure you. Mutual confidences followed; and when he learned I was +coming to St. Croix, he told me that I must pitch my tent with him. +Capital quarters it is, too; and M. le Curé is the soul of hospitality. +Will you give me a glass of wine after that long speech, and to fortify +me for my homeward route?"</p> + +<p>Grace rang and ordered wine. Doctor Danton drank his glass standing, and +then drew on his gloves.</p> + +<p>"Have you to walk?" asked his sister. "I will order the buggy for you."</p> + +<p>"By no means. I rode up here on the Curé's nag, and came at the rate of +a funeral. The old beast seemed to enjoy himself, and to rather like +getting soaked through, and I have no doubt will return as he came. And +now I must go; it would never do to be found here by these grand +people—Captain and Miss Danton."</p> + +<p>His wet overcoat hung on a chair; he put it on while walking to the +door, with Grace by his side.</p> + +<p>"When shall I see you again, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow. I want to have a look at our English beauty. By Jove! it +knows how to rain in Canada."</p> + +<p>The cold November blast swept in as Grace opened the front door, and the +rain fell in a downpour. In the black darkness Grace could just discern +a white horse fastened to a tree.</p> + +<p>"That is ominous, Grace," said her brother. "Captain Danton and his +daughter come heralded by wind and tempest. Take care it is not +prophetic of domestic squalls."</p> + +<p>He ran down the steps, but was back again directly.</p> + +<p>"Who was that pale, blue-eyed fairy I met when I entered?"</p> + +<p>"Eveleen Danton."</p> + +<p>"Give her my best regards—Doctor Frank's. She will be rather pretty, I +think; and if Miss Kate snubs me, perhaps I shall fall back on Miss +Eveleen. It seems to me I should like to get into so great a family. +Once more, <i>bon soir</i>, sister mine, and pleasant dreams."</p> + +<p>He was gone this time for good. His sister stood in the doorway, and +watched the white horse and its tall, dark rider vanish under the +tossing trees.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>KATE DANTON.</h3> + + +<p>Grace went slowly back to the parlour and stood looking thoughtfully +into the fire. It was pleasant in that pleasant parlour, bright with the +illumination of lamp and fire—doubly pleasant in contrast with the +tumult of wind and rain without. Very pleasant to Grace, and she sighed +wearily as she looked up from the ruby coals to the radiant face smiling +down from over the mantel.</p> + +<p>"You will be mistress to-morrow," she thought; "the place I have held +for the last four years is yours from to-night. Beautiful as a queen. +What will your reign be like, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>She drew up the arm-chair her brother had vacated and sat down, her +thoughts drifting backward to the past. Backward four years, and she saw +herself, a penniless orphan, dependent on the bounty of that miserly +Uncle Roosevelt in Montreal. She saw again the stately gentleman who +came to her, and told her he was her father's third cousin, Captain +Danton, of Danton Hall. She had never seen him before; but she had heard +of her wealthy cousin from childhood, and knew his history. She knew he +had married in early youth an English lady, who had died ten years +after, leaving four children—a son, Henry, and three daughters, +Katherine, Rosina and Eveleen. The son, wild and wayward all his life, +broke loose at the age of twenty, forged his father's name, and fled to +New York, married an actress, got into a gambling affray, and was +stabbed. That was the end of him. The eldest daughter, born in England, +had been brought up by her maternal grandmother, who was rich, and whose +heiress she was to be. Mrs. Danton and her two youngest children resided +at the Hall, while the Captain was mostly absent. After her death, a +Canadian lady had taken charge of the house and Captain Danton's +daughters. All this Grace knew, and was quite unprepared to see her +distant kinsman, and to hear that the Canadian lady had married and +left, and that she was solicited to take her place. The Captain's terms +were so generous that Grace accepted at once; and, a week after, was +domesticated at the Hall, housekeeper and companion to his daughters.</p> + +<p>Four years ago. Looking back to-night, Grace sighed to think how +pleasant it had all been, now that it was over. It had been such a +quiet, untroubled time—she sole mistress, Rose's fits of ill-temper and +Eeny's fits of illness the only drawback. And now it was at an end +forever. The heiress of Danton Hall was coming to wield the sceptre, and +a new era would dawn with the morrow.</p> + +<p>There was a tap at the door, and a voice asking: "May I come in, Grace?" +and Grace woke up from her dreaming.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Eeny," she said; and Eeny came in, looking at her searchingly.</p> + +<p>"Have you been crying?" she asked, taking a stool at her feet.</p> + +<p>"Crying? no! What should I cry for?"</p> + +<p>"You look so solemn. I heard your visitor go, and ran up. Who was it?"</p> + +<p>"My brother, who has just returned from Germany."</p> + +<p>"Dear me! Didn't I say he had eyes like you? He's a Doctor, isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Grace, I thought you said you were poor?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I am poor—am I not?"</p> + +<p>"Then who paid for your brother studying medicine in Germany?"</p> + +<p>"Uncle Roosevelt. He is very fond of Frank."</p> + +<p>"Is your Uncle Roosevelt rich?"</p> + +<p>"I believe so. Very rich, and very miserly."</p> + +<p>"Has he sons and daughters?"</p> + +<p>"No; we are his nearest relatives."</p> + +<p>"Then, perhaps, he will leave you his fortune, Grace."</p> + +<p>"Hardly, I think. He may remember Frank in his will; but there is no +telling. He is very eccentric."</p> + +<p>"Grace, I hope he won't leave it to you," said Eeny soberly.</p> + +<p>"Really, why not, pray?"</p> + +<p>"Because, if you were rich you would go away. I should be sorry if you +left Danton Hall."</p> + +<p>Grace stooped to kiss the pale young face.</p> + +<p>"My dear Eeny, you forget that your beautiful sister Kate is coming. In +a week or two, you will have room in your heart for no one but her."</p> + +<p>"You know better than that," said Eeny; "perhaps she will be like Rose, +and I shall not love her at all."</p> + +<p>Grace smiled.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you do not love Rose, then?"</p> + +<p>"Love Rose?" repeated Eeny, very much amazed at the question; "love +Rose, indeed! I should like to see any one who could love Rose. Grace, +where is your brother stopping? At the hotel?"</p> + +<p>"No; at Monsieur le Curé's. He knows Father Francis. Eeny, do you hear +that?"</p> + +<p>She started up, listening. Through the tempest of wind and rain, and the +surging of the trees, they could hear carriage wheels rattling rapidly +up to the house.</p> + +<p>"I hear it," said Eeny; "papa has come. O Grace, how pale you are!"</p> + +<p>"Am I?" Grace said, laying her hand on heart, and moving towards the +door. She paused in the act of opening it, and caught Eeny suddenly and +passionately to her heart. "Eeny, my darling, before they come, tell me +once more you will not let this new sister steal your heart entirely +from me. Tell me you will love me still."</p> + +<p>"Always, Grace," said Eeny; "there—the carriage has stopped!"</p> + +<p>Grace opened the door and went out into the entrance hall. The +marble-paved floor, the domed ceiling, the carved, and statued, and +pictured walls, were quite grand in the blaze of a great chandelier. An +instant later, and a loud knock made the house ring, and Babette flung +the front door wide open. A stalwart gentleman, buttoned up in a +great-coat, with a young lady on his aim, strode in.</p> + +<p>"Quite a Canadian baptism, papa," the silvery voice of the young lady +said; "I am almost drenched."</p> + +<p>Grace heard this, and caught a glimpse of Captain Danton's man, Ogden, +gallanting a pretty, rosy girl, who looked like a lady's maid, and then, +very, very pale, advanced to meet her master and his daughter.</p> + +<p>"My dear Miss Grace," the hearty voice of the sailor said, as he grasped +her hand, "I am delighted to see you. My daughter Kate, Miss Grace."</p> + +<p>My daughter Kate bowed in a dignified manner, scarcely looking at her. +Her eyes were fixed on a smaller, slighter figure shrinking behind her.</p> + +<p>"Hallo, Eeny!" cried the Captain, catching her in his arms; "trying to +play hide-and-go-seek, are you? Come out and let us have a look at you."</p> + +<p>He held her up over his head as if she had been a kitten, and kissed her +as he set her down, laughing and breathless.</p> + +<p>"You little whiff of thistle-down, why can't you get fat and rosy as you +ought? There, kiss your sister Kate, and bid her welcome."</p> + +<p>Eeny looked timidly up, and was mesmerized at one glance. Two lovely +eyes of starry radiance looked down into hers, and the loveliest face +Eeny ever saw was lighted with a bewitching smile. Two arms were held +out, and Eeny sprang into them, and kissed the exquisite face +rapturously.</p> + +<p>"You darling child!" the sweet voice said, and that was all; but she +held her close, with tears in the starry eyes.</p> + +<p>"There, there!" cried Captain Danton; "that will do. You two can hug +each other at your leisure by-and-by; but just at present I am very +hungry, and should like some dinner. The dining-room is in this +direction, isn't it, Grace? I think I know the way."</p> + +<p>He disappeared, and Kate Danton disengaged her new-found sister, still +holding her hand.</p> + +<p>"Come and show me to my room, Eeny," she said. "Eunice," to the rosy +lady's-maid, "tell Ogden to bring up the trunks and unpack at once. +Come."</p> + +<p>Still holding her sister's hand, Kate went upstairs, and Eeny had eyes +and ears for no one else. Eunice gave her young lady's order to Ogden, +and followed, and Grace was left standing alone.</p> + +<p>"Already," she thought, bitterly, "already I am forgotten!"</p> + +<p>Not quite. Captain Danton appeared at the head of the stairs, divested +of his great-coat.</p> + +<p>"I say, Ogden. Oh, Miss Grace, will you come upstairs, if you please? +Ogden, attend to the luggage, and wait for me in my dressing-room."</p> + +<p>He returned to the parlour, and Grace found him standing with his back +to the fire when she entered. A portly and handsome man, florid and +genial, with profuse fair hair, mustache and side-whiskers. He placed a +chair for her, courteously, and Grace sat down.</p> + +<p>"You are looking pale, Miss Grace," he said, regarding her. "You have +not been ill, I trust. Ogden told me you were all well."</p> + +<p>"I am quite well, thank you."</p> + +<p>"You wrote to Rose, I suppose? Where is it she has gone?"</p> + +<p>"To the house of Miss La Touche; a friend of hers, in Ottawa. Eeny has +written to her, and Rose will probably be here in a day or two, at +most."</p> + +<p>The Captain nodded.</p> + +<p>"As for you, my dear young lady, I find you have managed so admirably in +my absence, that I trust we shall retain you for many years yet. Perhaps +I am selfish in the wish, but it comes so naturally that you will pardon +the selfishness. Kate is in total ignorance of the mysteries of +housekeeping. Heaven help me and my friends if we had to depend on her +catering! Besides," laughing slightly, "some one is coming before long +to carry her off."</p> + +<p>Grace bowed gravely.</p> + +<p>"So you see, my fair kinswoman, you are indispensable. I trust we shall +prevail upon you to remain."</p> + +<p>"If you wish me to do so, Captain Danton, I shall, certainly."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. Is that rich old curmudgeon, your uncle, alive yet?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"And your brother? In Germany still, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"No, sir; my brother is in Canada—in St. Croix. He was here this +evening."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! Where is he stopping? We must get him to come here."</p> + +<p>"He is on a visit to M. le Curé, and I do not think means to stay long."</p> + +<p>The door opened as she said it, and Kate and Eeny came in. The sisters +had their arms around each other's waist, and Eeny seemed entranced. +Kate went over and stood beside her father, looking up fondly in his +face.</p> + +<p>"How pretty the rooms are, papa! My boudoir and bedroom are charming. +Eeny is going to chaperone me all over to-morrow—such a dear, romantic +old house."</p> + +<p>Grace sat and looked at her. How beautiful she was! She still wore +slight mourning, and her dress was black silk, that fell in full rich +folds behind her, high to the round white throat, where it was clasped +with a flashing diamond. A solitaire diamond blazed on her left +hand—those slender, delicate little hands—her engagement ring, no +doubt. They were all the jewels she wore. The trimming of her dress was +of filmy black lace, and all her masses of bright golden hair were +twisted coronet-wise round her noble and lovely head. She was very tall, +very slender; and the exquisite face just tinted with only the faintest +shadow of rose. "Beautiful, and stately, and proud as a queen!" Yes, she +looked all that, and Grace wondered what manner of man had won that +high-beating heart. There was a witchery in her glance, in her radiant +smile, in every graceful movement, that fascinated even her father's +sedate housekeeper, and that seemed to have completely captivated little +Eeny. In her beauty and her pride, as she stood there so graceful and +elegant, Grace thought her father was right when he said a prince was +not too good for his peerless daughter.</p> + +<p>He smiled down on her now as men do smile down on what is the apple of +their eye and the pride of their heart, and then turned to Eeny, +clinging to her stately sister.</p> + +<p>"Take care, Eeny! Don't let Kate bewitch you. Don't you know that she is +a sorceress, and throws a glamour over all she meets? She's uncanny, I +give you warning—a witch; that's the word for it!"</p> + +<p>Eeny's reply was to lift Kate's hand and kiss it.</p> + +<p>"Do witches ever eat, papa?" laughed Miss Danton; "because I am very +hungry. What time do we dine?"</p> + +<p>"What time, Miss Grace?" asked the Captain.</p> + +<p>"Immediately, if you wish, sir."</p> + +<p>"Immediately let it be, then."</p> + +<p>Grace rang and ordered dinner to be served. Thomas, the old butler, and +a boy in buttons made their appearance with the first course. Grace had +always presided, but this evening she sat beside Eeny, and Miss Kate +took the head of the table.</p> + +<p>"The first time, papa," she said. "If I make any blunders, tell me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, papa!" exclaimed Eeny, "I thought some one else was coming. A sick +gentleman—Mr. what?—oh, Richards?"</p> + +<p>The face of Captain Danton and his eldest daughter darkened suddenly at +the question. Grace saw it in surprise.</p> + +<p>"He will be here presently," he said, but he said it with an air of +restraint; and Kate, leaning forward with that radiant smile of hers, +began telling Eeny some story of their life at sea that made her forget +Mr. Richards.</p> + +<p>They adjourned to the drawing-room after dinner. A long, low, sumptuous +apartment, very stately and very grand, and decorated with exquisite +taste.</p> + +<p>"What a beautiful room!" Kate said. "We had nothing half so quaint and +old as this at home, papa?"</p> + +<p>There was a grand piano near one of the tall windows, with a music-rack +beside it, and the young lady went over and opened it, and ran her +fingers with a masterly touch over the keys.</p> + +<p>"That's right, Kate," said her father; "give us some music. How do you +like your piano?"</p> + +<p>"Like is not the word, papa. It is superb!"</p> + +<p>The white hands sparkled over the polished ivory keys, and the room was +filled with melody. Eeny stood by the piano with a rapt face. Captain +Danton sat in an arm-chair and listened with half-closed eyes, and Grace +sat down in a corner, and drew from her pocket her crochet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Kate, how beautifully you play?" Eeny cried ecstatically, when the +flying hands paused, "I never heard anything like that. What was it?"</p> + +<p>"Only a German waltz, you little enthusiast! Don't you play?"</p> + +<p>"A little. Rose plays too, polkas and waltzes; but bah! not like that."</p> + +<p>"Who is your teacher?"</p> + +<p>"Monsieur De Lancey. He comes from Montreal twice a week to give us +lessons. But you play better than he does."</p> + +<p>"Little flatterer!" kissing her and laughing, and the white hands busy +again. "Papa, what will you have?"</p> + +<p>"A song, my dear."</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you like? Casta Diva?"</p> + +<p>"I'd be sorry to like it! can you sing the Lass o' Gowrie?"</p> + +<p>"I shall try, if you wish."</p> + +<p>She broke into singing as she spoke, and Grace's work dropped in her lap +as she listened. What an exquisite voice it was! So clear, so sweet, so +powerful. The mute-wrapped stillness that followed the song was the best +applause. Miss Danton rose up, laughing at her sister's entranced face.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't stop!" Eeny cried, imploringly. "Sing again, Kate."</p> + +<p>There was a loud ring at the doorbell before Kate could answer. Captain +Danton and Grace had been listening an instant before to a carriage +rolling up the drive. The former started up now and hurried out of the +room; and Kate stood still, intently looking at the door.</p> + +<p>"Who is that?" said Eeny. "Mr. Richards?"</p> + +<p>Kate laid her hand on the girl's shoulder, and still stood silent and +intent. They could hear the door open, hear the voices of the Captain +and his man Ogden; and then there was a shuffling of feet in the hall +and up the stairs.</p> + +<p>"They are helping him upstairs," said Kate, drawing a long breath. "Yes, +it is Mr. Richards."</p> + +<p>Eeny looked as if she would like to ask some questions, but her sister +sat down again at the piano, and drowned her words in a storm of music. +Half an hour passed, nearly an hour, Miss Danton played on and on +without ceasing, and then her father came back. The girl looked at him +quickly and questioningly, but his high coloured face was as +good-humoured as ever.</p> + +<p>"Playing away still," he said, "and Eeny's eyes are like two midnight +moons. Do you know it is half-past ten, Miss Eeny, and time little girls +were in bed?"</p> + +<p>Grace rose up, and put her work in her pocket. Eeny came over, kissed +her father and sister good-night, and retired. Grace, with a simple +good-night, was following her example, but the cordial Captain held out +his hand.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, my little housekeeper," he said; "and pleasant dreams."</p> + +<p>Miss Danton held out her taper fingers, but her good-night was quiet and +cool.</p> + +<p>Her father's housekeeper, it would seem, did not impress her very +favourably, or she was too proud to be cordial with dependants.</p> + +<p>Up in her own room, Grace turned her lamp low, and sitting down by the +window, drew back the curtains. The rain still fell, the November wind +surged through the trees, and the blackness was impenetrable. Was this +wintry tempest, as her brother had said, ominous of coming trouble and +storms in their peaceful Canadian home?</p> + +<p>"I wonder how she and Rose will get on," thought Grace. "Rose's temper +is as gusty as this November night, and I should judge those purple eyes +can flash with the Danton fire, too. When two thunder-clouds meet, there +is apt to be an uproar. I shall not be surprised if there is war in the +camp before long."</p> + +<p>Her door opened softly. Grace turned round, and saw Eeny in a long +night-dress, looking like a spirit.</p> + +<p>"May I come in, Grace?"</p> + +<p>"It is time you were in bed," said Grace, turning up the lamp, and +beginning to unbraid her hair.</p> + +<p>Eeny came in and sat down on a low stool at Grace's feet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Grace, isn't she splendid?"</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"You know whom I mean—Kate."</p> + +<p>"She is very handsome," Grace said quietly, going on with her work.</p> + +<p>"Handsome! She is lovely? She is glorious! Grace, people talk about Rose +being pretty; but she is no more to Kate than—than just nothing at +all."</p> + +<p>"Did you come in merely to say that? If so, Miss Eveleen, I must request +you to depart, as I am going to say my prayers."</p> + +<p>"Directly," said Eeny, nestling more comfortably on her stool. "Did you +ever hear any one play and sing as she does?"</p> + +<p>"She plays and sings remarkably well."</p> + +<p>"Grace, what would you give to be as beautiful as she is?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing! And now go."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Isn't it odd that papa did not bring Mr. Richards into the +drawing-room. Ogden and papa helped him up stairs, and Ogden brought him +his supper."</p> + +<p>"Who told you that?"</p> + +<p>"Babette. Babette saw him, but he was so muffled up she could not make +him out. He is very tall and slim, she says, and looks like a young +man."</p> + +<p>"Eeny, how soon are you going?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Grace," she said, coaxingly, "let me stay all night with you."</p> + +<p>"And keep me awake until morning, talking? Not I," said Grace. "Go!"</p> + +<p>"Please let me stay?"</p> + +<p>"No! Be off!"</p> + +<p>She lifted her up, led her to the door, and put her out, and Eeny ran +off to her own chamber.</p> + +<p>As Grace closed her door, she heard Kate Danton's silk dress rustle +upstairs.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, papa," she heard her say in that soft, clear voice that +made her think of silver bells.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, my dear," the Captain replied. And then the silk dress +rustled past, a door opened and shut, and Miss Danton had retired.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>A CHANGE OF DYNASTY.</h3> + + +<p>With the cold November sunlight flooding her room, Grace rose next +morning, dressed and went down stairs. Very neat and lady-like she +looked, in her spotted gingham wrapper, her snowy collar and cuffs, and +her dark hair freshly braided.</p> + +<p>A loud-voiced clock in the entrance-hall struck seven. No one seemed to +be astir in the house but herself, and her footsteps echoed weirdly in +the dark passages. A sleepy scullery maid was lighting the kitchen fire +when she got there, gaping dismally over her work; and Grace, leaving +some directions for Ma'am Ledru, the cook, departed again, this time for +the dining-room, where footman James was lighting another fire. Grace +opened the shutters, drew back the curtains, and let in the morning +sunburst in all its glory. Then she dusted and re-arranged the +furniture, swept up the marble hearth, and assisted Babette to lay the +cloth for breakfast. It was invariably her morning work; and the table +looked like a picture when she had done, with its old china and +sparkling silver.</p> + +<p>It was almost eight before she got through; and she ran upstairs for her +bonnet and shawl, and started for her customary half-hour's walk before +breakfast. She took the road leading to the village, still and deserted, +and came back all glowing from the rapid exercise.</p> + +<p>Captain Danton stood on the front steps smoking a meerschaum pipe, as +she came up the avenue.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Hebe!" said the Captain. "The November roses are brighter +in Canada than elsewhere in August!"</p> + +<p>Grace laughed, and was going in, but he stopped her.</p> + +<p>"Don't go yet. I want some one to talk to. Where have you been?"</p> + +<p>"Only out for a walk, sir."</p> + +<p>"So early! What time do you get up, pray?"</p> + +<p>"About half-past six."</p> + +<p>"Primitive hours, upon my word. When is breakfast time?"</p> + +<p>"Nine, sir. The bell will ring in a moment."</p> + +<p>It rang as she spoke, and Grace tripped away to take off her bonnet and +smooth her hair, blown about by the morning wind. The Captain was in the +dining-room when she descended, standing in his favourite position with +his back to the fire, his coat-tails drawn forward, and his legs like +two sides of a triangle.</p> + +<p>"Are the girls up yet, Grace? Excuse the prefix; we are relatives, you +know. Ah! here is one of them. Good-morning, Mademoiselle."</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, papa," said Eeny, kissing him. "Where is Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Kate is here!" said the voice that was like silver bells; and Kate came +in, graceful and elegant in her white cashmere morning robe, with cord +and tassels of violet, and a knot of violet ribbon at the rounded +throat. "I have not kept you waiting, have I?"</p> + +<p>She kissed her father and sister, smiled and bowed to Grace and took her +place to preside. Very prettily and deftly the white hands fluttered +among the fragile china cups and saucers, and wielded the carved and +massive silver coffee-pot.</p> + +<p>Grace thought she looked lovelier in the morning sunshine than in the +garish lamplight, with that flush on her cheeks, and the beautiful +golden hair twisted in shining coils.</p> + +<p>Grace was very silent during breakfast, listening to the rest. The +Captain and his eldest daughter were both excellent talkers, and never +let conversation flag. Miss Danton rarely addressed her, but the +Captain's cordiality made amends for that.</p> + +<p>"I must see that brother of yours to-day, Grace," he said, "and get him +to come up here. The Curé, too, is a capital fellow—I beg his pardon—I +must bring them both up to dinner. Are the Ponsonbys, and the Landry's, +and the Le Favres in the old places yet?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"I'll call on them, then—they don't know I'm here—and see if a little +company won't enliven our long Canadian winter. You three, Grace, Rose +and Eeny, have been living here like nonettes long enough. We must try +and alter things a little for you."</p> + +<p>The Captain's good-natured efforts to draw his taciturn housekeeper out +did not succeed very well. She had that unsocial failing of reserved +natures, silence habitually; and her reserve was always at its worst in +the presence of the Captain's brilliant daughter. That youthful beauty +fixed her blue eyes now and then on the dark, downcast face with an odd +look—very like a look of aversion.</p> + +<p>"What kind of person is this Miss Grace of yours, Eeny?" she asked her +sister, after breakfast. "Very stupid, isn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Stupid! Oh, dear, no! Grace is the dearest, best girl in the world, +except you, Kate. I don't know how we should ever get on without her."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know," said Kate, rather coldly; "she is so silent and +impenetrable. Come! You promised to show me through the house."</p> + +<p>They were alone in the dining-room. She walked over to the fire, and +stood looking thoughtfully up at the two portraits hanging over the +mantel—Captain Danton at twenty-seven, and his wife at twenty-four.</p> + +<p>"Poor mamma!" Kate said, with a rare tenderness in her voice. "How +pretty she was! Do you remember her, Eeny?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Eeny. "You know I was such a little thing, Kate. All I know +about her is what Margery tells me."</p> + +<p>"Who is Margery?"</p> + +<p>"My old nurse, and Harry's, and yours, and Rose's. She nursed us all, +babies, and took care of mamma when she died. She was mama's maid when +she got married, and lived with her all her life. She is here still."</p> + +<p>"I must see Margery, then. I shall like her, I know; for I like all +things old and storied, and venerable. I can remember mamma the last +time she was in England; her tall, slender figure, her dark, wavy hair, +and beautiful smile. She used to take me in her arms in the twilight and +sing me to sleep."</p> + +<p>"Dear Kate! But Grace has been a mother to me. Do you know, Margery says +Rose is like her?"</p> + +<p>"Whom? Mamma?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; all except her temper. Oh!" cried Eeny, making a sudden grimace, +"hasn't Rose got a temper!"</p> + +<p>Kate smiled.</p> + +<p>"A bad one?"</p> + +<p>"A bad one! You ought to see her tearing up and down the room in a +towering passion, and scolding. Mon Dieu!" cried Eeny, holding her +breath at the recollection.</p> + +<p>"Do you ever quarrel?" asked Kate, laughing.</p> + +<p>"About fifty times a day. Oh, what a blessing it was when she went to +Ottawa! Grace and I have been in paradise ever since. She'll behave +herself for a while when she comes home, I dare say, before you and +papa; but it won't be for long."</p> + +<p>Grace came in, and Kate drew Eeny away to show her over the house. It +was quite a tour. Danton Hall was no joke to go over. Upstairs and down +stairs; along halls and passages; the drawing-room, where they had been +last night; the winter drawing-room on the second floor, all gold and +crimson; a summer morning-room, its four sides glass, straw matting on +the floor, flower-pots everywhere, looking like a conservatory; the +library, where, perpetuated in oils, many Dantons hung, and where +book-shelves lined the walls; into what was once the nursery, where +empty cribs stood as in olden times, and where, under a sunny window, a +low rocker stood, Mrs. Danton's own chair; into Kate's fairy boudoir, +all fluted satin and brocatelle; into her bed-chamber, where everything +was white, and azure, and spotless as herself; into Eeny's room, pretty +and tasteful, but not so superb; into Rose's, very disordered, and +littered, and characteristic; into papa's, big, carpetless, fireless, +dreadfully grim and unlike papa himself; into Grace's, the perfection of +order and taste, and then Eeny stopped, out of breath.</p> + +<p>"There's lots more," she said; "papa's study, but he is writing there +now, and the green-room, and Mr. Richards' rooms, and——"</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Kate, hastily, "we will not disturb papa or Mr. +Richards. Let us go and see old Margery."</p> + +<p>They found the old woman in a little room appropriated to her, knitting +busily, and looking bright, and hale, and hearty. She rose up and +dropped the young lady a stiff curtsey.</p> + +<p>"I'm very glad to see you, Miss," said Margery. "I nursed you often when +you was a little blue-eyed, curly-haired, rosy cheeked baby. You are +very tall and very pretty, Miss; but you don't look like your mother. +She don't look like her mother. You're Dantons, both of you; but Miss +Rose, she looks like her, and Master Harry—ah, poor, dear Master Harry! +He is killed; isn't he, Miss Kate?"</p> + +<p>Kate did not speak. She walked away from the old woman to a window, and +Eeny saw she had grown very pale.</p> + +<p>"Don't talk about Harry, Margery!" whispered Eeny, giving her a poke. +"Kate doesn't like it."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, Miss," said Margery. "I didn't mean to offend; but I +nursed you all, and I knew your mamma when she was a little girl. I was +a young woman then, and I remember that sweet young face of hers so +well. Like Miss Rose, when she is not cross."</p> + +<p>Kate smiled at the winding up and went away.</p> + +<p>"Where now?" she asked, gayly. "I am not half tired of sight-seeing. +Shall we explore the outside for a change? Yes? Then come and let us get +our hats. Your Canadian Novembers are of Arctic temperature."</p> + +<p>"Wait until our Decembers tweak the top of your imperial nose off," said +Eeny, shivering in anticipation. "Won't you wish you were back in +England!"</p> + +<p>The yellow November sunshine glorified garden, lawn and meadow as Eeny +led her sister through the grounds. They explored the long orchard, +strolled down the tamarack walk, and wandered round the fish pond. But +garden and orchard were all black with the November frost, the trees +rattled skeleton arms, and the dead leaves drifted in the melancholy +wind. They strayed down the winding drive to the gate, and Kate could +see the village of St. Croix along the quarter of a mile of road leading +to it, with the sparkling river beyond.</p> + +<p>"I should like to see the village," she said, "but perhaps you are +tired."</p> + +<p>"Not so tired as that. Let us go."</p> + +<p>"If I fatigue you to death, tell me so," said Kate. "I am a great +pedestrian. I used to walk miles and miles daily at home."</p> + +<p>Miss Danton found St. Croix quite a large place, with dozens of +straggling streets, narrow wooden sidewalks, queer-looking, Frenchified +houses, shops where nothing seemed selling, hotels all still and +forlorn, and a church with a tall cross and its doors open. Sabbath +stillness lay over all—the streets were deserted, the children seemed +too indolent to play, the dogs too lazy to bark. The long, sluggish +canal, running like a sleeping serpent round the village, seemed to have +more of life than it had.</p> + +<p>"What a dull place!" said Kate. "Has everybody gone to sleep? Is it +always like this?"</p> + +<p>"Mostly," said Eeny. "You should hear Rose abuse it. It is only fit for +a lot of Rip Van Winkles, or the Seven Sleepers, she says. All the life +there is, is around the station when the train comes and goes."</p> + +<p>The sisters wandered along the canal until the village was left behind, +and they were in some desolate fields, sodden from the recent rains. A +black marsh spread beyond, and a great gloomy building reared itself +against the blue Canadian sky on the other side.</p> + +<p>"What old bastille is that?" asked Kate.</p> + +<p>"The St. Croix barracks," said Eeny uneasily. "Come away Kate. I am +afraid of the soldiers—they may see us."</p> + +<p>She turned round and uttered a scream. Two brawny redcoats were striding +across the wet field to where they stood. They reeled as they walked, +and set up a sort of Indian war-whoop on finding they were discovered.</p> + +<p>"Don't you run away, my little dears," said one, "we're coming as fast +as we can."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Kate!" cried Eeny, in terror, "what shall we do?"</p> + +<p>"Let us go at once," said Kate, "those men are intoxicated."</p> + +<p>They started together over the fields, but the men's long strides gained +upon them at every step.</p> + +<p>"I say, my dear," hiccoughed one, laying his big hand on Kate's +shoulder, "you musn't run away, you know. By George! you're a pretty +girl! give us a kiss!"</p> + +<p>He put his arms round her waist. Only for an instant; the next, with all +the blood of all the Dantons flushing her cheeks, she had sprung back +and struck him a blow in the face that made him reel. The blood started +from the drunken soldier's nose, and he stood for a second stunned by +the surprise blow; the next, with an imprecation, he would have caught +her, but that something caught him from behind, and held him as in a +vise. A big dog had come over the fields in vast bounds, and two rows of +formidable ivory held the warrior fast. The dog was not alone; his +master, a tall and stalwart gentleman, was beside the frightened girls, +with his strong grasp on the other soldier's collar.</p> + +<p>"You drunken rascal!" said the owner of the dog, "you shall get the +black hole for this to-morrow. Tiger, my boy, let go." The dog with a +growl released his hold. "And now be off, both of you, or my dog shall +tear you into mince-meat!"</p> + +<p>The drunken ruffians shrunk away discomfited, and Eeny held out both her +hands to their hero.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Doctor Danton! What should we have done without you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said the Doctor. "You would have been in a very +disagreeable predicament, I am afraid. It is hardly safe for young +ladies to venture so far from the village unattended, while these +drunken soldiers are quartered here."</p> + +<p>"I often came alone before," said Eeny, "and no one molested me. Let me +make you acquainted with my sister—Kate, Doctor Danton."</p> + +<p>Kate held out her hand with that bewitching smile of hers.</p> + +<p>"Thank you and Tiger very much. I was not aware I had a namesake in St. +Croix."</p> + +<p>"He is Grace's brother," said Eeny, "and he is only here on a visit—he +is just from Germany."</p> + +<p>Kate bowed, patting Tiger's big head with her snowflake of a hand.</p> + +<p>"This is another friend we have to thank," she said. "How came you to be +so opportunely at hand, Doctor Danton?"</p> + +<p>"By the merest chance. Tiger and I take our morning constitutional along +these desolate fields and flats. I'll have these fellows properly +punished for their rudeness."</p> + +<p>"No, no," said Kate, "let them go. It is not likely to happen again. +Besides," laughing and blushing, "I punished one of them already, and +Tiger came to my assistance with the other."</p> + +<p>"You served him right," said the Doctor. "If you will permit me, Miss +Danton, I will escort you to the village."</p> + +<p>"Come home with us," said Eeny, "we will just be in time for luncheon, +and I know you want to see Grace."</p> + +<p>"A thousand thanks, Mademoiselle—but no—not this morning."</p> + +<p>Kate seconded the invitation; but Doctor Danton politely persisted in +refusing. He walked with them as far as St. Croix, then raised his hat, +said good-bye, whistled for Tiger, and was gone.</p> + +<p>The young ladies reached the hall in safety, in time to brush their hair +before luncheon, where, of course, nothing was talked of but their +adventure and their champion.</p> + +<p>"By George! if I catch these fellows, I'll break every bone in their +drunken skins," cried the irate Captain. "A pretty fix you two would +have been in, but for the Doctor. I'll ride down to the parsonage, or +whatever you call it, immediately after luncheon, and bring him back to +dinner, will he nill he—the Curé, too, if he'll come, for the Curé is a +very old friend."</p> + +<p>Captain Danton was as good as his word. As soon as luncheon was over, he +mounted his horse and rode away, humming a tune. Kate stood on the +steps, with the pale November sunlight gilding the delicate rose-bloom +cheeks, and making an aureole round the tinsel hair watching him out of +sight. Eeny was clinging round her as usual, and Grace stopped to speak +to her on her way across the hall.</p> + +<p>"You ought to go and practise, Eeny. You have not touched the piano +to-day, and to-morrow your teacher comes."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Eeny," said Kate, "go attend to your music. I am going upstairs, +to my room."</p> + +<p>She smiled, kissed her, opened the parlour door, pushed her in, and ran +up the broad staircase. Not to her own room, though, but along the quiet +corridor leading to the green baize door. The key of that door was in +her pocket; she opened it, locked it behind her, and was shut up with +the, as yet, invisible Mr. Richards.</p> + +<p>Eeny practised conscientiously three hours. It was then nearly five +o'clock, and the afternoon sun was dropping low in the level sky. She +rose up, closed the piano, and went in search of her sister. Upstairs +and down stairs and in my lady's chamber, but my lady was nowhere to be +found. Grace didn't know where she was. Eunice, the rosy English maid, +didn't know. Eeny was perplexed and provoked. Five o'clock struck, and +she started out in the twilight to hunt the grounds—all in vain. She +gave it up in half an hour, and came back to the house. The hall lamps +were lighted upstairs and down, and Eeny, going along the upper hall, +found what she wanted. The green baize door was unlocked, and her sister +Kate came out, relocked it, and put the key in her pocket.</p> + +<p>Eeny stood still, looking at her, too much surprised to speak. While she +had been hunting everywhere for her, Kate had been closeted with the +mysterious invalid all the afternoon.</p> + +<p>"Time to dress for dinner, I suppose, Eeny," she said looking at her +watch. "One must dress, if papa brings company. Did you see Eunice? Is +she in my room?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Have you been in there with Mr. Richards all the +afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he gets lonely, poor fellow! Run away and dress."</p> + +<p>Eunice was waiting in her young lady's boudoir, where the fire shone +bright, the wax candles burned, the curtains were drawn, and everything +looked deliciously comfortable. Kate sank into an easy-chair, and Eunice +took the pins out of the beautiful glittering hair, and let it fall in a +shining shower around her.</p> + +<p>"What dress will you please to wear, miss?"</p> + +<p>"The black lace, I think, since there is to be company, and the pearls."</p> + +<p>She lay listlessly while Eunice combed out the soft, thick hair, and +twisted it coronet-wise, as she best liked to wear it. She stood +listless while her dress was being fastened, her eyes misty and dreamy, +fixed on the diamond ring she wore. Very lovely she looked in the soft, +rich lace, pale pearls on the exquisite throat; and she smiled her +approval of Eunice's skill when it was all over.</p> + +<p>"That will do, Eunice, thank you. You can go now."</p> + +<p>The girl went out, and Kate sank back in her chair, her blue eyes, +tender and dreamy, still fixed on the fire. Drifting into dream-land, +she lay twisting her flashing diamond round and round on her finger, and +heedless of the passing moments. The loud ringing of the dinner-bell +aroused her, and she arose with a little sigh from her pleasant reverie, +shook out her lace flounces, and tripped away down stairs.</p> + +<p>They were all in the dining-room when she entered—papa, Eeny, Grace and +strangers—Doctor Danton and a clerical-looking young man, with a pale +scholarly face and penetrating eyes, and who was presented as Father +Francis.</p> + +<p>"The Curé couldn't come," said the Captain. "A sick call. Very sorry. +Capital company, the Curé. Why can't people take sick at reasonable +hours, Father Francis?"</p> + +<p>"Ask Doctor Danton," said Father Francis. "I am not a physician—of the +bodies of men."</p> + +<p>"Don't ask me anything while the first course is in progress," said the +Doctor. "You ought to know better. I trust you have quite recovered from +your recent fright, Miss Danton."</p> + +<p>"A Danton frightened!" exclaimed her father. "The daughter of all the +Dantons that ever fought and fell, turn coward! Kate, deny the charge!"</p> + +<p>"Miss Danton is no coward," said the Doctor. "She gave battle like a +heroine."</p> + +<p>Kate blushed vividly.</p> + +<p>"As you are strong, be merciful," she said. "I own to being so +thoroughly frightened that I shall never go there alone again. I hope, +my preserver, Herr Tiger, is well."</p> + +<p>"Quite well. Had he known I was coming here, he would doubtless have +sent his regards."</p> + +<p>"Who is Herr Tiger?" asked the Captain.</p> + +<p>"A big Livonian blood-hound of mine, and my most intimate friend, with +the exception of Father Francis here."</p> + +<p>"Birds of a feather," said the young priest. "Not that I class myself +with Doctors and blood-hounds. You should have allowed Tiger to give +those fellows a lesson they would remember, Danton. Their drunken +insolence is growing unbearable."</p> + +<p>Dinner went on and ended. The ladies left the dining-room; the gentlemen +lingered, but not long.</p> + +<p>Kate was at the piano entrancing Eeny, and Grace sat at her crochet. +Miss Danton got up and made tea, and the young Doctor lay back in an +arm-chair talking to Eeny, and watched, with half-closed eyes, the +delicate hands floating deftly along the fragile china cups.</p> + +<p>"Give us some music, Kate," her father said, when it was over. "Grace, +put away your knitting, and be my partner in a game of whist. Father +Francis and the Doctor will stand no chance against us."</p> + +<p>The quartet sat down. Kate's hands flew up and down the shining octaves +of her piano, and filled the room with heavenly harmony, the waves of +music that ebbed, and flowed, and fascinated. She played until the card +party broke up, and then she wheeled round on her stool.</p> + +<p>"Who are the victors?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"We are," said the Doctor. "When I make up my mind to win, I always win. +The victory rests solely with me."</p> + +<p>"I'll vouch for your skill in cheating," said Grace. "Father Francis, I +am surprised that you countenance such dishonest proceedings."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't in any one but my partner," said the young priest, crossing +over to the piano. "Don't cease playing, Miss Danton. I am devotedly +fond of music, and it is very rarely indeed I hear such music as you +have given us to-night. You sing, do you not?"</p> + +<p>"Sing!" exclaimed her father. "Kate sings like a nightingale. Sing us a +Scotch song, my dear."</p> + +<p>"What shall it be, papa?"</p> + +<p>"Anything. 'Auld Robin Gray,' if you like."</p> + +<p>Kate sang the sweet old Scottish ballad with a pathos that went to every +heart.</p> + +<p>"That is charming," said Father Francis. "Sing for me, now, Scots wha +hae."</p> + +<p>She glanced up at him brightly; it was a favourite of her own, and she +sang it for him as he had never heard it sung before.</p> + +<p>"Have you no favourite, Doctor Danton?" she asked, turning to him with +that dangerous smile of hers. "I want to treat all alike."</p> + +<p>"Do you sing 'Hear me, Norma'?"</p> + +<p>Her answer was the song. Then she arose from the instrument, and Father +Francis pulled out his watch.</p> + +<p>"What will the Curé think of us!" he exclaimed; "half-past eleven. +Danton, get up this instant and let us be off."</p> + +<p>"I had no idea it was so late," said the doctor, rising, despite the +Captain's protest. "Your music must have bewitched us, Miss Danton."</p> + +<p>They shook hands with the Captain and departed.</p> + +<p>Grace and Eeny went upstairs at once. Kate was lingering still in the +drawing-room when her father came back from seeing his guests off.</p> + +<p>"A fine fellow, that young doctor," said the Captain, in his hearty way; +"a remarkably fine fellow. Don't you think so, Kate?"</p> + +<p>"He is well-bred," said Kate, listlessly. "I think I prefer Father +Francis. Good-night, papa."</p> + +<p>She kissed her father and went slowly up to her room. Eunice was there +waiting to undress her, and Kate lay back in an arm chair while the girl +took down and combed out her long hair. She lay with half-closed eyes, +dreaming tenderly, not of this evening, not of Dr. Danton, but of +another, handsomer, dearer, and far away.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>ROSE DANTON.</h3> + + +<p>Next morning, when the family assembled at breakfast, Captain Danton +found a letter on his plate, summoning him in haste to Montreal.</p> + +<p>"Business, my dear," he said, answering his eldest daughter's enquiring +look; "business of moment."</p> + +<p>"Nothing concerning—" She paused, looking startled. "Nothing relating +to—"</p> + +<p>"To Mr. Richards. No, my dear. How do you ladies purpose spending the +day?"</p> + +<p>He looked at Grace, who smiled.</p> + +<p>"My duties are all arranged," she said. "There is no fear of the day +hanging heavily on my hands."</p> + +<p>"And you two?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, papa," said Kate listlessly. "I can practise, and read, +and write letters, and visit Mr. Richards. I dare-say I will manage."</p> + +<p>"Let us have a drive," said Eeny. "We can drive with papa to the +station, and then get Thomas to take us everywhere. It's a lovely day, +and you have seen nothing of St. Croix and our country roads yet."</p> + +<p>Eeny's idea was applauded, and immediately after breakfast the barouche +was ordered out, and Thomas was in attendance. Mr. Ogden packed his +master's valise, and the trio entered the carriage and were driven off.</p> + +<p>"Attend to Mr. Richards as usual, Ogden," said the Captain, as Ogden +helped him into his overcoat. "I will be back to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Grace stood in the doorway and watched the barouche until the winding +drive hid it from view. Then she went back to attend to her +housekeeper's duties—to give the necessary orders for dinner, see that +the rooms were being properly arranged, and so forth. Everything was +going on well; the house was in exquisite order from attic to cellar. +Ogden shut up with Mr. Richards, the servants quietly busy, and Danton +Hall as still as a church on a week-day. Grace, humming a little tune, +took her sewing into the dining-room, where she liked best to sit, and +began stitching away industriously. The ticking of a clock on the mantel +making its way to twelve, the rattling of the stripped trees in the +fresh morning wind, were, for a time, the only sounds outdoor or in. +Then wheels rattled rapidly over the graveled drive, coming to the house +in a hurry, and Grace looked up in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Back so soon," she thought? "They cannot have driven far."</p> + +<p>But it was not the handsome new barouche—it was only a shabby little +buggy from the station, in which a young lady sat with a pile of trunks +and bandboxes.</p> + +<p>"Rose!" exclaimed Grace. "I quite forgot she was coming to-day."</p> + +<p>A moment later and the front door opened and shut with a bang, flying +feet came along the hall, a silk dress rustled stormily, the dining-room +door was flung open, and a young lady bounced in and caught Grace in a +rapturous hug.</p> + +<p>"You darling old thing!" cried a fresh young voice. "I knew I should +find you here, even if I hadn't seen you sitting at the window. Aren't +you glad to have me home again? And have you got anything to eat? I +declare I'm famished!"</p> + +<p>Pouring all this out in a breath, with kisses for commas, the young lady +released Grace, and flung herself into an arm-chair.</p> + +<p>"Ring the bell, Grace, and let us have something to eat. You don't know +how hungry I am. Are you alone? Where are the rest?"</p> + +<p>Grace, taking this shower of questions with constitutional phlegm, +arose, rang the bell, and ordered cakes and cold chicken; the young lady +meantime taking off her pretty black velvet turban, with its long +feather, flung it in a corner, and sent her shawl, gloves, and fur +collar flying after it.</p> + +<p>"Now, Rose," expostulated Grace, picking them up, "how often must I tell +you the floor is not the proper place to hang your things? I suppose you +will be having the whole house in a litter, as usual, now that you have +got home."</p> + +<p>"Why did you send for me then?" demanded Rose. "I was very well off. I +didn't want to come. Never got scolded once since I went away, and I +pitched my clothes everywhere! Say, Grace, how do you get on with the +new comers?"</p> + +<p>"Very well."</p> + +<p>Here Babette appeared with the young lady's lunch, and Miss Rose sat +down to it promptly.</p> + +<p>"What is she like, Kate—handsome?"</p> + +<p>"Very!" with emphasis.</p> + +<p>"Handsomer than I am?"</p> + +<p>"A thousand times handsomer!"</p> + +<p>"Bah! I don't believe it! Tall and fair, with light hair and blue eyes. +Am I right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Then she is as insipid as milk and water—as insipid as you are, old +Madame Grumpy. And papa—he's big and loud-voiced, and red-faced and +jolly, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Rose Danton, be a little more respectful, if you want me to answer +your questions."</p> + +<p>"Well, but isn't he? And Mr. Richards—who's Mr. Richards?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>"Isn't he here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly."</p> + +<p>"Then why don't you know?"</p> + +<p>"Because I have not, like Rose Danton, a bump of inquisitiveness as +large as a turnip."</p> + +<p>"Now, Grace, don't be hateful. Tell me all you know about Mr. Richards."</p> + +<p>"And that is nothing. I have never even seen him. He is an invalid; he +keeps his rooms, night and day. His meals are carried upland no one sees +him but your father, and sister, and Ogden."</p> + +<p>"Mon Dieu!" cried Rose, opening her eyes very wide. "A mystery under our +very noses! What can it mean? There's something wrong somewhere, isn't +there?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know anything about it; it is none of my business, and I never +interfere in other people's."</p> + +<p>"You dear old Granny Grumpy! And now that I've had enough to eat, why +don't you ask me about my visit to Ottawa, and what kind of time I had?"</p> + +<p>"Because I really don't care anything about it. However, I trust you +enjoyed yourself."</p> + +<p>"Enjoyed myself!" shrilly cried Rose. "It was like being in paradise! I +never had such a splendid, charming, delightful time since I was born! I +never was so sorry for anything as for leaving."</p> + +<p>"Really!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Grace! it was beautiful—so gay, so much company; and I do love +company! A ball to-night, a concert to-morrow, a sociable next evening, +the theatre, dinner-parties, matinees, morning calls, shopping and +receptions! Oh," cried Rose, rapturously, "it was glorious!"</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" said Grace, stitching away like a sewing-machine; "it must +have been a great trial to leave."</p> + +<p>"It was. But I am going back. Dear Ottawa! Charming Ottawa! I was +excessively happy in Ottawa!"</p> + +<p>She laid hold of a kitten slumbering peacefully on a rug as she spoke, +and went waltzing around the room, whistling a lively tune. Grace looked +at her, tried to repress a smile, failed, and continued her work. She +was very, very pretty, this second daughter of Captain Danton, and quite +unlike the other two. She was of medium height, but so plump and rounded +as to look less tall than she really was. Her profuse hair, of dark, +chestnut brown, hung in thick curls to her waist; her complexion was +dark, cheeks round and red as apples, her forehead low, her nose +perfection, her teeth like pearls, her eyes small, bright and hazel. +Very pretty, very sparkling, very piquant, and a flirt from her cradle.</p> + +<p>"Did you learn that new accomplishment in Ottawa, pray?" asked Grace.</p> + +<p>"What new accomplishment?"</p> + +<p>"Whistling."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jules taught me."</p> + +<p>"Who is Jules?"</p> + +<p>"Jules La Touche—the son of the house—handsome as an angel, and my +devoted slave."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! Has he taught you anything else?"</p> + +<p>"Only to love him and to smoke cigarettes."</p> + +<p>"Smoke!" exclaimed Grace, horrified.</p> + +<p>"Yes, m'amour! I have a whole package in my trunk. If you mend my +stockings I will let you have some. I could not exist without cigarettes +now."</p> + +<p>"I shall have to mend your stockings in any case. As to the cigarettes, +permit me to decline. What will your papa say to such goings on?"</p> + +<p>"He will be charmed, no doubt. If he isn't, he ought to. Just fancy when +he is sitting alone of an evening over his meerschaum, what nice, +sociable smokes we can have together. Jules and I used to smoke together +by the hour. My darling Jules! how I long to go back to Ottawa and you +once more! Grace!" dropping the cat and whirling up to her, "would you +like to hear a secret?"</p> + +<p>"Not particularly; what is it?"</p> + +<p>"You won't tell—will you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know; I must hear it first."</p> + +<p>"It's a great secret; I wouldn't tell anybody but you; and not you, +unless you promise profoundest silence."</p> + +<p>"I make no promises blindly. Tell me or not, just as you please. I don't +think much of your secrets, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Don't you?" said Rose, nettled; "look here, then."</p> + +<p>She held out her left hand. On the third finger shone a shimmering opal +ring.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said Grace.</p> + +<p>"Well!" said Rose, triumphantly. "Jules gave me that; that is my +engagement ring."</p> + +<p>Grace sat and looked at her aghast.</p> + +<p>"No!" she said; "you don't mean it, Rose?"</p> + +<p>"I do mean it. I am engaged to Jules La Touche, and we are going to be +married in a year. That is my secret, and if you betray me I will never +forgive you."</p> + +<p>"And you are quite serious?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly serious, <i>chère grogneuse</i>."</p> + +<p>"Do Monsieur and Madame La Touche know?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not. <i>Mon Dieu!</i> We are too young. Jules is only twenty, and +I eighteen. We must wait; but I love him to distraction, and he adores +me! Tra-la-la!"</p> + +<p>She seized the cat once more, and went whirling round the room.</p> + +<p>Her waltz was suddenly interrupted.</p> + +<p>A gentleman, young, tall, and stately, stood, hat in hand, in the +doorway, regarding her.</p> + +<p>"Don't let me intrude," said the gentleman, politely advancing. "Don't +let me interrupt anybody, I beg!"</p> + +<p>Grace arose, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Rose, let me present my brother, Doctor Danton! Frank, Miss Rose +Danton!"</p> + +<p>Miss Rose dropped the kitten and her eyes, and made an elaborate +curtsey.</p> + +<p>"My entrance spoiled a very pretty tableau," said the Doctor, "and +disappointed pussy, I am afraid. Pray, continue your waltz, Miss Rose, +and don't mind me."</p> + +<p>"I don't," said Rose, carelessly, "my waltz was done, and I have to +dress."</p> + +<p>She ran out of the room, but put her head in again directly.</p> + +<p>"Grace!"</p> + +<p>"Yes!"</p> + +<p>"Will you come and curl my hair by-and-by?"</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't time."</p> + +<p>"What shall I do, then? Babette tears it out by the roots."</p> + +<p>"I am not busy," said the Doctor, blandly. "I haven't much experience in +curling young ladies' hair, but I am very willing to learn."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind," said his sister, "but we can dispense with your +services. You might get Eunice, I dare say, Rose; she has nothing else +to do."</p> + +<p>"Who's Eunice?"</p> + +<p>"Your sister's maid; you can ring for her; she understands hair-dressing +better than Babette."</p> + +<p>Rose ran up stairs. At the front window of the upper hall stood Ogden +and Eunice.</p> + +<p>Rose nodded familiarly to the valet, and turned to the girl.</p> + +<p>"Are you Eunice?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss."</p> + +<p>"Are you busy?"</p> + +<p>"No, Miss."</p> + +<p>"Then come into my room, please, and comb my hair."</p> + +<p>Eunice followed the young lady, and Ogden returned to the mysterious +regions occupied by Mr. Richards.</p> + +<p>Once more the house was still; its one disturbing element was having her +hair curled; and Grace and her brother talked in peace below stairs.</p> + +<p>It was past luncheon-hour when the barouche rolled up to the door. Kate, +all aglow from her drive in the frosty air, stopped her laughing chat +with pale Eeny at the sight which met her eyes. Standing on the portico +steps, playing with a large dog Kate had reason to know, and +flirting—it looked like flirting—with the dog's master, stood a +radiant vision, a rounded girlish figure, arrayed in bright +maize-colored merino, elaborately trimmed with black lace and velvet, +the perfect shoulders and arms bare, the cheeks like blush roses, the +eyes sparkling as stars, and the golden-brown hair, freshly curled, +falling to her waist.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how beautiful!" Kate cried, under her breath.</p> + +<p>The next moment, Eeny ran up the steps, and favoured this vision of +youthful bloom with a kiss, while Kate followed more decorously.</p> + +<p>"How do, Eeny?" said Rose. "Kate!"</p> + +<p>She held out both her hands. Kate caught her in a sort of rapture in her +arms.</p> + +<p>"My sister!" she cried. "My darling Rose!"</p> + +<p>And then she stopped, for Doctor Danton was looking on with a +preternatural gravity that provoked her.</p> + +<p>"When did you come, Rose?" asked Eeny.</p> + +<p>"Two hours ago. Have you had a pleasant drive, Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Very, and I am hungry after it. We have kept Miss Grace waiting, I am +afraid; isn't it past luncheon-time? Come to my room with me, Rose. Are +you going, Doctor? Won't you stay to luncheon?"</p> + +<p>"Some other time. Good morning, ladies. Come, Tiger."</p> + +<p>He sauntered down the avenue, whistling, and the three sisters turned +into the house.</p> + +<p>"Very agreeable!" said Rose. "Grace's brother; and rather handsome."</p> + +<p>"Handsome!" exclaimed Kate. "He is not handsome, my pretty sister." She +took her in her arms again, and kissed her fondly. "My pretty sister! +how much I am going to love you!"</p> + +<p>Rose submitted to be kissed with a good grace, but with a little envious +pang at her vain, coquettish heart, to see how much more beautiful her +superb sister was than herself. She nestled luxuriously in an arm-chair, +while Eunice dressed her young mistress, chattering away in French like +a magpie. They descended together to luncheon; pale Eeny was totally +eclipsed by brilliant Rose, and all the afternoon they spent together +over the piano, and sauntering through the grounds.</p> + +<p>"Retribution, Eeny," said Grace, kissing Eeny's pale cheek. "You forgot +me for this dazzling Kate, and now you are nowhere. You must come back +to Grace again."</p> + +<p>"There is nobody like Grace," said Eeny, nestling close. "But Kate and +Rose won't be always like this. 'Love me little, love me long.' Wait +until Kate finds out what Rose is made of."</p> + +<p>But despite Eeny's prophecy, the two sisters got on remarkably well +together.</p> + +<p>Captain Danton did not return next day, according to promise, so they +were thrown entirely upon one another. Instead, there came a note from +Montreal, which told them that business would detain him in that city +for nearly a fortnight longer. "When I do return," ended the note, "I +will fetch an old friend to see Kate."</p> + +<p>"Who can it be?" wondered Kate. "There is no old friend of mine that I +am aware of in Montreal. Papa likes to be mysterious."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Rose; "I should think so, when we have a mystery in the very +house."</p> + +<p>"What mystery?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Richards, of course. He's a mystery worse than anything in the +'Mysteries of Udolpho.' Why can nobody get to see him but that +soft-stepping, oily-tongued little weasel, Ogden?"</p> + +<p>Kate looked at the pretty sister she loved so well, with the coldest +glances she had ever given her.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Richards is an invalid; he is unable to see any one, or quit his +room. What mystery is there in that?"</p> + +<p>"There's a mystery somewhere," said Rose, sagaciously. "Who is Mr. +Richards?"</p> + +<p>"A friend of papa's—and poor. Don't ask so many questions, Rose. I have +nothing more to say on the subject."</p> + +<p>"Then I must find out for myself—that is all," thought Rose; "and I +will, too, before long, in spite of half a dozen Ogdens."</p> + +<p>Rose tried with a zeal and perseverance worthy a better cause, and most +signally failed. Mr. Richards was invisible. His meals went up daily. +Ogden and Kate visited him daily, but the baize door was always locked, +and Ogden and Kate, on the subject, were dumb. Kate visited the invalid +at all hours, by night and by day. Ogden rarely left him except when +Miss Danton was there, and then he took a little airing in the garden. +Rose's room was near the corridor leading to the green baize room; and +often awaking "in the dead waste and middle of the night," she would +steal to that mysterious room to listen. But nothing was ever to be +heard, nothing ever to be seen—the mystery was fathomless. She would +wander outside at all hours, under Mr. Richards' window; and looking up, +wonder how he endured his prison, or what he could possibly be about—if +those dark curtains were never raised and he never looked at the outer +world. Once or twice a face had appeared, but it was always the keen, +thin face of Mr. Ogden; and Rose's curiosity, growing by what it fed on, +began to get insupportable.</p> + +<p>"What can it mean, Grace?" she would say to the housekeeper, to whom she +had a fashion, despite no end of snubbing, of confiding her secret +troubles. "There's something wrong; where there's secrecy, there's +guilt—I've always heard that."</p> + +<p>"Don't jump at conclusions, Miss Rose, and don't trouble yourself about +Mr. Richards; it is no affair of yours."</p> + +<p>"But I can't help troubling myself. What business have papa, and Kate, +and that nasty Ogden, to have a secret between them and I not know it? I +feel insulted, and I'll have revenge. I never mean to stop till I ferret +out the mystery. I have the strongest conviction I was born to be a +member of the detective police, and one of these days the mystery of Mr. +Richards will be a mystery no more."</p> + +<p>Grace had her own suspicions, but Grace was famous for minding her own +business, and kept her suspicions to herself. Rose's man[oe]uvring +amused her, and she let her go on. Every strategy the young lady could +conceive was brought to bear, and every stratagem was skilfully baffled.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you have Doctor Danton to see Mr. Richards, Kate?" she said +to her sister, one evening, meeting her coming out of Mr. Richards' +room. "I should think he was skilful."</p> + +<p>"Very likely," said Kate, with an air of reserve, "but Mr. Richards does +not require medical care."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he is not very bad, then? You should bring him down stairs in that +case; a little lively society—mine, for instance—might do him good."</p> + +<p>Kate's dark eyes flashed impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Rose," she said, sharply, "how often must I tell you Mr. Richards is +hypochondriacal and will not quit his room? Cease to talk on the +subject. Mr. Richards will not come down-stairs."</p> + +<p>She swept past—majestic and a little displeased. Rose shrugged her +plump shoulders and ran down stairs, for Doctor Danton was coming up the +avenue, and Rose, of late, had divided her attention pretty equally +between playing detective amateur and flirting with Doctor Danton. But +there was a visitor for Rose in the drawing-room; and the young Doctor, +entering the dining-room, found his sister alone, looking dreamily out +at the starry twilight.</p> + +<p>"Grace," he said, "I come to say good-bye; I am going to Montreal."</p> + +<p>Grace looked round at him with a sudden air of relief.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Frank! I am glad. When are you going?"</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank stared at her an instant in silence, and then hooked a +footstool towards him with his cane.</p> + +<p>"Well, upon my word, for a sister who has not seen me for six years, +that is affectionate. You're glad I'm going, are you?"</p> + +<p>"You know what I mean; it is about Rose Danton."</p> + +<p>"Well, what about Miss Rose?"</p> + +<p>"I am glad you are going to get out of her way. I am glad she will have +no chance to make a fool of you. I am glad you will have no time to fall +in love with her."</p> + +<p>"My pretty Rose! My dark-eyed darling! Grace, you are heartless."</p> + +<p>Grace looked at him, but his face was in shadow, and the tone of his +voice told nothing.</p> + +<p>"I don't know whether you are serious or not," she said. "For your own +sake, I hope you are not. Rose has been flirting with you, but I thought +you had penetration enough to see through her. I hope, I trust, Frank, +you have not allowed yourself to think seriously of her."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" said Doctor Danton; "she is very pretty, she has charming +ways, we are of the same blood, I should like to be married. It is very +nice to be married, I think. Why should I not think seriously of her?"</p> + +<p>"Because you might as well fall in love with the moon, and hope to win +it."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean she would not have me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Trying, that. But why? Her conduct is encouraging. I thought she was in +love with me."</p> + +<p>Again Grace looked at him, puzzled; again his face was in shadow, and +his inscrutable voice baffled her.</p> + +<p>"I do not believe you ever thought any such thing. The girl is a +coquette born. She would flirt with Ogden, for the mere pleasure of +flirting. She flirts with you because there is no one else."</p> + +<p>"Trying!" repeated the Doctor. "Very! And you really think there is no +use in my proposing—you really think she will not marry me?"</p> + +<p>"I really think so."</p> + +<p>"And why? Don't break my heart without a reason. Is it because I am +poor?"</p> + +<p>"Because you are poor, and not handsome enough, or dashing enough for +the vainest, shallowest little flirt that ever made fools of men. Is +that plain enough?"</p> + +<p>"That's remarkably plain, and I am very much obliged to you. My darling +Rose! But hush! A silk dress rustles—here she comes!"</p> + +<p>The door opened; it was Rose, but not alone; both sisters were with her, +and Doctor Danton arose at once to make his adieus.</p> + +<p>"I depart to-morrow for Montreal," he said. "Farewell, Miss Danton."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye," letting the tips of her fingers touch his. "Bon voyage."</p> + +<p>She walked away to the window, cold indifference in every line of her +proud face.</p> + +<p>He held out his hand to Rose, glancing sideways at his sister.</p> + +<p>"Adieu, Miss Rose," he said; "I shall never forget the pleasant hours I +have passed at Danton Hall."</p> + +<p>He pressed the little plump hand, and Rose's rosy cheeks took a deeper +dye; but she only said, "Good-bye," and walked away to the piano, and +played a waltz.</p> + +<p>Eeny was the only one who expressed regret, and gave his hand a friendly +shake.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry you are going," she said. "Come back soon, Doctor Frank."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank looked as if he would like to kiss her; but Kate was there, +queenly and majestic, and such an impropriety was not to be thought of.</p> + +<p>It was Kate, however, who spoke to him last, as he left the room.</p> + +<p>"Take good bye from me to Tiger," she said. "I shall be glad when Tiger +comes back to St. Croix."</p> + +<p>"'Love me, love my dog,'" quoted Rose. "How about Tiger's master, Kate?"</p> + +<p>"I shall always be pleased to see Doctor Danton," said Kate, with +supreme indifference. "Sing me a twilight song, Rose."</p> + +<p>Rose sang "Kathleen Mavourneen" in a sweet contralto voice.</p> + +<p>Kate stood listening to the exquisite words and air, watching Doctor +Danton's full figure fading out in the November gloom, and thinking of +some one she loved far away.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O hast thou forgotten how soon we must sever;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O hast thou forgotten how soon we must part?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It may be for years, and it may be forever,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>SEEING A GHOST.</h3> + + +<p>Three days after the departure of Grace's brother, Captain Danton +returned to the Hall. Strange to say, the young Doctor had been missed +in these three days by the four Misses Danton. Even the stately Kate, +who would have gone to the block sooner than have owned it, missed his +genial presence, his pleasant laugh, and ever interesting conversation; +Rose missed her flirtee, and gaped wearily the slow hours away that had +flown coquetting with him; Eeny missed the pocketfuls of chocolate, +bon-bons, and the story books new from Montreal; and Grace missed him +most of all. But Eeny was the only one honest enough to own it, and she +declared the house was as lonely as a dungeon since Doctor Frank had +gone away.</p> + +<p>"One would think you had fallen in love with him, Eeny," said Rose.</p> + +<p>"No," retorted Eeny; "I leave that for you. But he was nice; I liked +him, and I wish he would come back. Don't you, Kate?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care, particularly," said Kate. "I wish papa would come."</p> + +<p>"And bring that unknown friend of yours. I say, Kate," said Rose +mischievously, "they say you're engaged—perhaps it's your fiancé."</p> + +<p>Up over Kate's pearly face the hot blood flew, and she turned hastily to +the nearest window.</p> + +<p>"Too late, ma soeur," said Rose, her eyes dancing. "You blush +beautifully. Won't I have a look at him when he comes, the conquering +hero, who can win our queenly Kate's heart."</p> + +<p>"Rose, hush!" cried Kate, yet not displeased, and with that roseate +light in her face still.</p> + +<p>Rose came over, and put her arm around her waist coaxingly.</p> + +<p>"Tell me about him, Kate. Is he handsome?"</p> + +<p>"Who? Reginald? Of course he is handsome."</p> + +<p>"I want to see him dreadfully! Have you his picture? Won't you show it +me?"</p> + +<p>There was a slender gold chain round Kate's neck, which she wore night +and day. A locket was attached, and her hand pressed it now, but she did +not take it out.</p> + +<p>"Some other time, my pet," she said, kissing Rose. "Come, let us go for +a ride."</p> + +<p>Rose was an accomplished horsewoman, and never looked so well as in a +side-saddle. She owned a spirited black mare, which she called Regina, +and she had ridden out every day with Doctor Frank while that gentleman +was in St. Croix. Kate rode well, too. A fleet-footed little pony, named +Arab, had been trained for her use, and the sisters galloped over the +country together daily.</p> + +<p>Eeny and Grace, both mortally afraid of horse-flesh, never rode.</p> + +<p>Between music, books, and riding, the three days' interval passed +pleasantly enough.</p> + +<p>Rose was an inveterate novel reader, and the hours Kate spent shut up +with that unfathomable mystery, Mr. Richards, her younger sister passed +absorbed in the last new novel.</p> + +<p>They had visitors too—the Ponsonbys, the Landrys, the Le Favres, and +everybody of note in the neighbourhood called. Father Francis, M. le +Curé, the Reverend Augustus Clare, the Episcopal incumbent of St. Croix, +an aristocratic young Englishman, came to see them in the evening to +hear Miss Danton sing, and to play backgammon.</p> + +<p>The Reverend Augustus, who was slim, and fair, and had face and hands +like a pretty girl, was very much impressed with the majestic daughter +of Captain Danton, who sang so magnificently, and looked at him with +eyes like blue stars.</p> + +<p>The day that brought her father home had been long and dull. There had +been no callers, and they had not gone out. A cold north wind had +shrieked around the house all day, rattling the windows, and tearing +frantically through the gaunt arms of the stripped trees. The sky was +like lead, the river black and turbid. As the afternoon wore on, great +flakes of snow came fluttering through the opaque air, slowly at first, +then faster, till all was blind, fluttering whiteness, and the black +earth was hidden.</p> + +<p>Kate stood by the dining-room window watching the fast-falling snow. It +had been a long day to her—a long, weary, aimless day. She had tried to +read, to play, to sing, to work; and failed in all. She had visited Mr. +Richards; she had wandered, in a lost sort of way, from room to room; +she had lain listlessly on sofas, and tried to sleep, all in vain. The +demon of ennui had taken possession of her; and now, at the end of every +resource, she stood looking drearily out at the wintry scene. She was +dressed for the evening, and looked like a picture, buttoned up in that +black velvet jacket, its rich darkness such a foil to her fair face and +shining golden hair. Grace was her only companion—Grace sitting +serenely braiding an apron for herself, Rose was fathoms deep in "Les +Miserables," and Eeny was drumming on the piano in the drawing-room. +There had been a long silence, but presently Grace looked up from her +work, and spoke.</p> + +<p>"This wintry scene is new to you, Miss Danton. You don't have such wild +snow storms in England?"</p> + +<p>Kate glanced round, a little surprised.</p> + +<p>It was very rarely indeed her father's housekeeper voluntarily addressed +her.</p> + +<p>"No," she said, "not like this; but I like it. We ought to have +sleighing to-morrow, if it continues."</p> + +<p>"Probably. We do not often have sleighing, though, in November."</p> + +<p>There was another pause.</p> + +<p>Kate yawned behind her white hand.</p> + +<p>"I wish Father Francis would come up," she said wearily. "He is the only +person in St. Croix worth talking to."</p> + +<p>The dark, short November afternoon was deepening with snowy night, when +through the ghostly twilight the buggy from the station whirled up to +the door, and two gentlemen alighted. Great-coats, with upturned +collars, and hats pulled down, disguised both, but Kate recognized her +father, the taller and stouter, with a cry of delight.</p> + +<p>"Papa!" she exclaimed; and ran out of the room to meet him. He was just +entering, his jovial laugh ringing through the house as he shook the +snow off, and caught her in his wet arms.</p> + +<p>"Glad to be home again, Kate! You don't mind a cold kiss, do you? Let me +present an old friend whom you don't expect, I'll wager."</p> + +<p>The gentleman behind him came forward. A gentleman neither very young, +nor very handsome, nor very tall; at once plain-looking and +proud-looking. The pale twilight was bright enough for Kate to recognize +him as he took off his hat.</p> + +<p>"Sir Ronald Keith!" she cried, intense surprise in every line of her +face; "why, who would have thought of seeing you in Canada?"</p> + +<p>She held out her hand frankly, but there was a marked air of restraint +in Sir Ronald's manner as he touched it and dropped it again.</p> + +<p>"I thought it would be an astonisher," said her father; "how are Grace +and Eeny?"</p> + +<p>"Very well."</p> + +<p>"And Rose? Has Rose got home?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa."</p> + +<p>At this juncture Ogden appeared, and his master turned to him.</p> + +<p>"Ogden, see that Sir Ronald's luggage is taken to his room, and then +hold yourself in readiness to attend him. This way, Sir Ronald, there is +just time to dress for dinner, and no more."</p> + +<p>He led his visitor to the bedroom regions, and Kate returned to the +drawing-room. Rose was there dressed beautifully, and with flowers in +her hair, and all curiosity to hear who their visitor was. There was a +heightened colour in Kate's face and an altered expression in her eyes +that puzzled Grace.</p> + +<p>"He is Sir Ronald Keith," she said, in reply to Rose. "I have known him +for years."</p> + +<p>"Sir Ronald; knight or baronet?"</p> + +<p>"Baronet, of course," Kate said, coldly; "and Scotch. Don't get into a +gale, Rose; you won't care about him; he is neither young nor handsome."</p> + +<p>"Is he unmarried?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And rich?"</p> + +<p>"His income is eight thousand a year."</p> + +<p>"<i>Mon Dieu!</i> A baronet and eight thousand a year! Kate, I am going to +make a dead set at him. Lady Keith—Lady Rose Keith; that sounds +remarkably well, doesn't it? I always thought I should like to be 'my +lady.' Grace, how do I look?"</p> + +<p>Kate sat down to the piano, and drowned Rose's words in a storm of +music. Rose looked at her with pursed-up lips.</p> + +<p>"Kate is in one of her high and mighty moods," she thought. "I don't +pretend to understand her. If she is engaged in England, what difference +can it make to her whether I flirt with this Scotch baronet or not? What +do I care for her airs? I'll flirt if I please."</p> + +<p>She sat still, twisting her glossy ringlets round her fingers, while +Kate played on with that unsmiling face. Half an hour, and the +dinner-bell rang. Ten minutes after, Captain Danton and his guest stood +before them.</p> + +<p>For a moment Rose did not see him; her father's large proportions, as he +took her in his arms and kissed her, overshadowed every one else.</p> + +<p>"How my little Rose has grown!" the Captain said looking at her fondly; +"as plump as a partridge and as Rosy as her name. Sir Ronald—my +daughter Rose."</p> + +<p>Rose bowed with finished grace, thinking, with a profound sense of +disappointment:</p> + +<p>"What an ugly little man!"</p> + +<p>Then it was Eeny's turn, and presently they were all seated at the +table—the baronet at Kate's right hand, talking to her of Old England, +and of by-gone days, and of people the rest knew nothing about. Captain +Danton gallantly devoted himself to the other three, and told them he +had brought them all presents from Montreal.</p> + +<p>"Oh, papa, have you though!" cried Rose. "I dearly love presents; what +have you brought me?"</p> + +<p>"Wait until after dinner, little curiosity," said her father. "Grace, +whom do you think I met in Montreal?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir."</p> + +<p>"Why, that brother of yours. I was loitering along the Champ de Mars, +when who should step up but Doctor Frank. Wasn't I astonished! I asked +what brought him there, and he told me he found St. Croix so slow he +couldn't stand it any longer. Complimentary to you, young ladies."</p> + +<p>Kate gave Rose a mischievous look, and Rose bit her lip and tossed back +her auburn curls.</p> + +<p>"I dare say St. Croix and its inhabitants can survive the loss," she +said. "Papa, the next time you go to Montreal I want you to take me. +It's a long time since I have been there."</p> + +<p>"I thought you were going back to Ottawa," said Grace. "You seem to have +forgotten all about it."</p> + +<p>Rose gave her an alarmed look; and finding a gap in the tête-à-tête +between her sister and Sir Ronald, struck smilingly in. He was small and +he was homely, but he was a baronet and worth eight thousand a year, and +Rose brought all the battery of her charms to bear. In vain. She might +as well have tried to fascinate one of the gnarled old tamaracks +out-of-doors. Sir Ronald was utterly insensible to her brightest smiles +and glances, to her rosiest blushes and most honeyed words. He listened +politely, he answered courteously; but he was no more fascinated by +Captain Danton's second daughter than he was by Captain Danton's +housekeeper.</p> + +<p>Rose was disgusted, and retreated to a corner with a book, and sulked. +Grace, Kate, and Eeny, who all saw through the little game, were +exceedingly amused.</p> + +<p>"I told you it was of no use, Rose," said Kate, in a whisper, pausing at +the corner. "Do you always read with the book upside down? Sir Ronald is +made of flint, where pretty girls are concerned. You won't be 'my lady' +this time."</p> + +<p>"Sir Ronald is a stupid stick!" retorted Rose. "I wouldn't marry him if +he were a duke instead of a baronet. One couldn't expect anything better +from a Scotchman, though."</p> + +<p>It was the first experience Kate had had of Rose's temper. She drew back +now, troubled.</p> + +<p>"I hope we will not be troubled with him long!" continued Rose, +spitefully. "The place was stupid enough before, but it will be worse +with that sulky Scotchman prowling about. I tried to be civil to him +this evening. I shall never try again."</p> + +<p>With which Miss Rose closed her lips, and relapsed into her book, +supremely indifferent to her sister's heightened colour and flashing +eyes. She turned away in silence, and fifteen minutes after, Rose got up +and left the room, without saving good-night to any one.</p> + +<p>Rose kept her word. From that evening she was never civil to the Scotch +baronet, and took every occasion to snub him. But her incivility was as +completely thrown away as her charms had been. It is doubtful whether +Sir Ronald ever knew he was snubbed; and Kate, seeing it, smiled to +herself, and was friends with offended Rose once more. She and the +baronet were on the best of terms; he was always willing to talk to her, +always ready to be her escort when she walked or rode, always on hand to +turn her music and listen entranced to her singing. If it was not a +flirtation, it was something very like it, and Rose was nowhere. She +looked on with indignant eyes, and revenged herself to the best of her +power by flirting in her turn with the Reverend Augustus Clare.</p> + +<p>"He is nothing but a ninny!" she said to Grace; "and has eyes for no one +but Kate. Oh, how I wish my darling Jules were here, or even your +brother, Grace—he was better than no one!"</p> + +<p>"My brother is very much obliged to you."</p> + +<p>"You talk to me of my flirting propensities," continued the exasperated +Rose. "I should like to know what you call Kate's conduct with that +little Scotchman."</p> + +<p>"Friendship, my dear," Grace answered, repressing a smile.</p> + +<p>"Remember, they have known each other for years."</p> + +<p>"Friendship! Yes; it would be heartless coquetry if it were I. I hope +Lieutenant Reginald Stanford, of Stanford Royals, will like it when he +comes. Sir Ronald Keith is over head and ears in love with her, and she +knows it, and is drawing him on. A more cold-blooded flirtation no one +ever saw!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Rose! It is only a friendly intimacy."</p> + +<p>But Rose, unable to stand this, bounced out of the room in a passion, +and sought consolation in her pet novels.</p> + +<p>Kate and Sir Ronald were certainly very much together; but, +notwithstanding their intimacy, she found time to devote two or three +hours every day to Mr. Richards. Rose's mystery was her mystery still. +She could get no further towards its solution. Mr. Richards might have +been a thousand miles away, for all any of the household saw of him; and +Grace, in the solitude of her own chamber, wondered over it a good deal +of late.</p> + +<p>She sat at her window one December night, puzzling herself about it. +Kate had not come down to dinner that day—she had dined with the +invalid in his rooms. When she had entered the drawing-room about nine +o'clock, she looked pale and anxious, and was absent and <i>distraite</i> all +the evening. Now that the house was still and all were in their rooms, +Grace was wondering. Was Mr. Richards worse? Why, then, did they not +call in a Doctor? Who could he be, this sick stranger, in whom father +and daughter were so interested? Grace could not sleep for thinking of +it. The night was mild and bright, and she arose, wrapped a large shawl +around her, and took her seat by the window. How still it was, how +solemn, how peaceful! The full moon sailed through the deep blue sky, +silver-white, crystal-clear. Numberless stars shone sharp and keen. The +snowy ground glittered dazzlingly bright and cold; the trees stood like +grim, motionless sentinels, guarding Danton Hall. The village lay hushed +in midnight repose; the tall cross of the Catholic and the lofty spire +of the Episcopal church flashed in the moon's rays. Rapid river and +sluggish canal glittered in the silvery light. The night was noiseless, +hushed, beautiful.</p> + +<p>No; not noiseless. A step crunched over the frozen snow; from under the +still shadow of the trees a moving shadow came. A man, wrapped in a long +cloak, and with a fur cap down over his eyes, came round the angle of +the building and began pacing up and down the terrace. Grace's heart +stood still for an instant. Who was this midnight walker? Not Sir Ronald +Keith watching his lady's lattice—it was too tall for him. Not the +Captain—the cloaked figure was too slight. No one Grace knew, and no +ghost; for he stood still an instant, lit a cigar, and resumed his walk, +smoking. He had loitered up and down the terrace for about a quarter of +an hour, when another figure came out from the shadows and joined him. A +woman this time, with a shawl wrapped round her, and a white cloud on +her head. The moonlight fell full on her face—pale and beautiful. Grace +could hardly repress a cry—it was Kate Danton.</p> + +<p>The smoker advanced. Miss Danton took his arm, and together they walked +up and down, talking earnestly. Once or twice Kate looked up at the +darkened windows; but the watcher was not to be seen, and they walked +on. Half an hour, an hour, passed; the hall clock struck one, and then +the two midnight pedestrians disappeared round the corner and were gone.</p> + +<p>The moments passed, and still Grace sat wondering, and of her wonder +finding no end. What did it mean? Who was this man with whom the +proudest girl the sun ever shone on walked by stealth, and at midnight? +Who was he? Suddenly in the silence and darkness of the coming morning, +a thought struck her that brought the blood to her face.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Richards."</p> + +<p>She clasped her hands together. Conviction as positive as certainty +thrilled along every nerve. Mr. Richards, the recluse, was the midnight +walker—Mr. Richards, who was no invalid at all; and who, shut up all +day, came out in the dead of night, when the household were asleep, to +take the air in the grounds. There, in the solemn hush of her room, +Rose's thoughtless words came back to her like a revelation.</p> + +<p>"Where there is secrecy there is guilt."</p> + +<p>When the family met at breakfast, Grace looked at Kate with a new +interest. But the quiet face told nothing; she was a little pale; but +the violet eyes were as starry, and the smile as bright as ever. The +English mail had come in, and letters for her and her father lay on the +table. There was one, in a bold, masculine hand, with a coat-of-arms on +the seal, that brought the rosy blood in an instant to her face. She +walked away to one of the windows, to read it by herself. Grace watched +the tall, slender figure curiously. She was beginning to be a mystery to +her.</p> + +<p>"She is on the best of terms with Sir Ronald Keith," she thought; "she +meets some man by night in the grounds, and the sight of this +handwriting brings all the blood in her body to her face. I suppose she +loves him; I suppose he loves her. I wonder what he would think if he +knew what I know."</p> + +<p>The morning mail brought Rose a letter from Ottawa, which she devoured +with avidity, and flourished before Grace's eyes.</p> + +<p>"A love letter, Mistress Grace," she said. "My darling Jules is dying to +have me back. I mean to ask papa to let me go. It is as dull as a +monastery of La Trappe here."</p> + +<p>"What's the news from England, Kate?" asked her father, as they all sat +down to table.</p> + +<p>The rosy light was at its brightest in Kate's face, but Sir Ronald +looked as black as a thunder cloud.</p> + +<p>"Everybody is well, papa."</p> + +<p>"Satisfactory, but not explanatory. Everybody means the good people at +Stanford Royals, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa."</p> + +<p>"Where is Reginald?"</p> + +<p>"At Windsor. But his regiment is ordered to Ireland."</p> + +<p>"To Ireland! Then he can't come over this winter?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. He may get leave of absence."</p> + +<p>"I hope so—I hope so. Capital fellow is Reginald. Did you see him +before you left England, Sir Ronald?"</p> + +<p>"I met Lieutenant Stanford at a dinner party the week I left," said Sir +Ronald, stiffly—so stiffly, that the subject was dropped at once.</p> + +<p>After breakfast, Captain Danton retired to his study to answer his +letters, and Sir Ronald and Kate started for their morning ride across +the country. She had invited Rose to accompany them, and Rose had rather +sulkily declined.</p> + +<p>"I never admire spread-eagles," sneered the second Miss Danton, "and I +don't care for being third in these cases—I might be <i>de trop</i>. Sir +Ronald Keith's rather a stupid cavalier. I prefer staying at home, I +thank you."</p> + +<p>"As you please," Kate said, and went off to dress.</p> + +<p>Rose got a novel, and sat down at the upper half window to mope and +read. The morning was dark and overcast, the leaden sky threatened snow, +and the wailing December wind was desolation itself. The house was very +still; faint and far off the sound of Eeny's piano could be heard, and +now and then a door somewhere opening and shutting. Ogden came from Mr. +Richards' apartment, locked the door after him, put the key in his +pocket, and went away. Rose dropped her book and sat gazing at that +door—that Bluebeard's chamber—that living mystery in their +common-place Canadian home. While she looked at it, some one came +whistling up the stairs. It was her father, and he stopped at sight of +her.</p> + +<p>"You here, Rose, my dear; I thought you had gone out riding with Kate."</p> + +<p>"Kate doesn't want me, papa," replied Rose, with a French shrug. "She +has company she likes better."</p> + +<p>"What, Sir Ronald! Nonsense, Rose! Kate is Sir Ronald's very good +friend—nothing more."</p> + +<p>Rose gave another shrug.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so, papa. It looks like flirting, but appearances are +deceitful. Papa!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear."</p> + +<p>"I wish you would let me go back to Ottawa!"</p> + +<p>"To Ottawa! Why, you only left it the other day. What do you want to go +back to Ottawa for?"</p> + +<p>"It's so dull here, papa," answered Rose, fidgeting with her book, "and +I had such a good time there. I shall die of the dismals in this house +before the winter is over."</p> + +<p>"Then we must try and enliven it up a little for you. What would you +like, a house-warming?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, papa! that would be delightful."</p> + +<p>"All right, then, a house-warming it shall be. We must speak to Grace +and Kate about it; hold a council of war, you know, and settle +preliminaries. I can't spare my little Rosie just yet, and let her run +away to Ottawa."</p> + +<p>Rose gave him a rapturous kiss, and Captain Danton walked away, unlocked +the green baize door, and disappeared.</p> + +<p>When Kate came back from her ride, Rose informed her of her father's +proposal with sparkling eyes. Kate listened quietly, and made no +objection; neither did Grace; and so the matter was decided.</p> + +<p>Rose had no time to be lonely after that. Her father gave her <i>carte +blanche</i> in the matter of dress and ornament, and Miss Rose's earthly +happiness was complete. She, and Kate, and Grace went to Montreal to +make the necessary purchases, to lasso dressmakers and fetch them back +to St. Croix.</p> + +<p>"I know a young woman I think will suit you," said Ma'am Ledru, the +cook. "She is an excellent dressmaker and embroideress; very poor, and +quite willing, I am sure, to go into the country. Her name is Agnes +Darling, and she lives in the Petite Rue de Saint Jacques."</p> + +<p>Rose hastened to the Petite Rue de Saint Jacques at once, and in a small +room of a tenement house found the seamstress; a little pale, dark-eyed, +dark-haired creature, with a face that was a history of trouble, though +her years could not have numbered twenty. There was no difficulty in +engaging her: she promised to be ready to return with them to St. Croix +the following morning.</p> + +<p>They only spent two days in the city, and were, of course, very busy all +the time. Grace took a few moments to try and find her brother, but +failed. He was not to be heard of at his customary address; he had been +talking of quitting Montreal, they told her there; probably he had done +so.</p> + +<p>The Dantons, with the pale little dressmaker, returned next day, all +necessaries provided. The business of the house-warming commenced at +once. Danton Hall—ever spotless under the reign of Grace—was rubbed up +and scrubbed down from garret to cellar. Invitations were sent out far +and wide. Agnes Darling's needle flew from early dawn till late at +night; and Grace and the cook, absorbed in cake and jelly-making, were +invisible all day long in the lower regions. Eeny and Rose went heart +and soul into the delightful fuss, all new to them, but Kate took little +interest in it. She was Sir Ronald's very good friend still, and, like +Mrs. Micawber, never deserted him. Captain Danton hid his diminished +head in his study, in Mr. Richard's rooms, or took refuge with the Curé +from the hubbub.</p> + +<p>The eventful night at last came round, clear, cold, and near Christmas. +The old ball-room of Danton Hall, disused so long, had been refitted, +waxed, and decorated; the long drawing-room was resplendent; the supper +table set in the dining-room was dazzling to look at, with silver, +Sèvres, and glittering glass; the dressing-rooms were in a state of +perfection; the servants all <i>en grande tenue</i>; and Danton Hall one +blaze of light. In the bedroom regions the mysteries of the toilet had +been going on for hours. Eunice was busy with her mistress; Agnes the +seamstress was playing <i>femme de chambre</i> to Rose. Grace dressed herself +in twenty minutes, and then dressed Eeny, who only wore pink muslin and +a necklace of pearls, and looked fairy-like and fragile as ever. Grace, +in gray silk, with an emerald brooch, and her brown hair simply worn as +she always wore it, looked lady-like and unassuming.</p> + +<p>The guests came by the evening train from Montreal, and the carriages of +the nearer neighbours began coming in rapid succession. Kate stood by +her cordial father's side, receiving their guests. So tall, so stately, +so exquisitely dressed—all the golden hair twisted in thick coils +around her regal head, and one diamond star flashing in its amber +glitter. Lovely with that flush on the delicate cheeks, that streaming +light in the blue eyes.</p> + +<p>Rose was eclipsed. Rose looking her best, and very pretty, but nothing +beside her queenly sister. But Rose was very brilliant, flitting hither +and thither, dancing incessantly, and turning whiskered heads in all +directions. They could fall in love with pretty, coquettish Rose, those +very young gentlemen, who could only look at Kate from a respectful +distance in speechless admiration and awe. Rose was of their kind, and +they could talk to her; so Rose was the belle of the night, after all.</p> + +<p>Sir Ronald Keith and two or three officers from Montreal, with side +whiskers, a long pedigree, and a first-rate opinion of themselves, were +the only gentlemen who had the temerity to approach the goddess of the +ball—oh! excepting the Reverend Augustus Clare, who, in his intense +admiration, was almost tongue-tied, and Doctor Danton, who, to the +surprise of every one except the master of the Hall, walked in, the last +guest of all.</p> + +<p>"You look surprised, Miss Danton," he said, as they shook hands. "Did +not the Captain tell you I was coming?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word."</p> + +<p>"I returned to-day, knowing nothing of the house-warming. The Captain +met me, and, with his customary hospitality, insisted on my coming."</p> + +<p>"We are very glad he has done so. Your sister tried to find you when we +were in—good Heaven! what is that?"</p> + +<p>It was a sudden, startled scream, that made all pause who were standing +near. Butler Thomas appeared at the moment, flurried and in haste.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" asked Captain Danton; and the startled faces of his +guests reiterated the question. "Who cried out?"</p> + +<p>"Old Margery, sir. She's seen a ghost!"</p> + +<p>"Seen what?"</p> + +<p>"A ghost, sir; out in the tamarack walk?—She's fell down in a fit in +the hall."</p> + +<p>There was a little chorus of startled exclamations from the ladies. +Captain Danton came forward, his florid face changing to white; and +Kate, all her colour gone, dropped her partner's arm.</p> + +<p>"Come with me, Doctor Danton," he said. "Yes, Kate, you too. My friends, +do not let this foolish affair disturb you. Excuse us for a few moments, +and pray go on as if nothing had happened."</p> + +<p>They left the ball-room together. The music, that had stopped, resumed; +dancing recommenced, and "all went merry as a marriage-bell." There was +only one, perhaps, who thought seriously of what had taken place. Grace, +standing near the door talking to an elderly major from the city, heard +Thomas' last words to his master as they went out.</p> + +<p>"Ogden says it was him she seen, but Margery won't listen to him. Ogden +says he was out in the tamarack walk, and she mistook him in the +moonlight for a ghost."</p> + +<p>Grace's thoughts went back to the night when she had seen the mysterious +walker under the tameracks. No, it was not Ogden, that old Margery had +seen, else Captain Danton and his daughter would not have worn such pale +and startled faces going out.</p> + +<p>It was not Ogden, and it was not a ghost; but whose ghost did Margery +take it to be? The apparition in the tamarack walk must have resembled +some one she knew and now thought to be dead, else why should she think +it a spirit at all?</p> + +<p>The whiskered major, who took Grace for one of the Captain's daughter's, +and was slightly <i>ebris</i>, found her very <i>distraite</i> all of a sudden, +and answering his questions vaguely and at random. He did his best to +interest her, and failed so signally that he got up and left in disgust.</p> + +<p>Grace sat still and watched the door. Half an hour +passed—three-quarters, and then her brother re-entered alone. She went +up to him at once, but his unreadable face told nothing.</p> + +<p>"Well," she asked, anxiously, "how is Margery?"</p> + +<p>"Restored and asleep."</p> + +<p>"Does she really think she saw a ghost?"</p> + +<p>"She really does, and was frightened into fits."</p> + +<p>"Whose ghost was it?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Grace," said the Doctor, "have sense. I believe the foolish old +woman mentioned some name to Miss Danton, but I never repeat nonsense. +She is in her dotage, I dare say, and sees double."</p> + +<p>"Margery is no more in her dotage than you are," said Grace, vexed. +"Perhaps she is not the only one who has seen the ghost of Danton Hall."</p> + +<p>"Grace! What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, Doctor Frank, I never talk nonsense. You can keep your +professional secrets; I'll find out from Margery all the same. Here is +the Captain; he looks better than when he went out. Where is Kate?"</p> + +<p>"With Margery. She won't be left alone."</p> + +<p>As she spoke, Rose came up, her brightest smiles in full play.</p> + +<p>"I have been searching for you everywhere, Doctor Frank. You ought to be +sent to Coventry. Don't you know you engaged me for the German, and here +you stand talking to Grace. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, sir."</p> + +<p>"So I am," said the Doctor. "Adieu, Grace. Pardon this once, +Mademoiselle, and for the remainder of the evening, for the remainder of +my life, I am entirely at your service."</p> + +<p>Grace kept her station at the door watching for Kate. In another half +hour she appeared, slightly pale, but otherwise tranquil. She was +surrounded immediately by sundry "ginger-whiskered fellows," otherwise +the officers from Montreal, and lost to the housekeeper's view.</p> + +<p>The house-warming was a success. Somewhere in the big, busy world +perhaps, crime, and misery, and shame, and sorrow, and starvation, and +all the catalogue of earthly horrors, were rife, but not at Danton Hall. +Time trod on flowers; enchanted music drifted the bright hours away; the +golden side of life was uppermost; and if those gay dancers knew what +tears and trouble meant, their faces never showed it. Kate, with her +tranquil and commanding beauty, wore a face as serene as a summer's sky; +and her father playing whist, was laughing until all around laughed in +sympathy. No, there could be no hidden skeleton, or the masks those wore +who knew of its grisly presence were something wonderful.</p> + +<p>In the black and bitterly cold dawn of early morning the dancers went +shivering home. The first train bore the city guests, blue and fagged, +to Montreal; and Doctor Frank walked briskly through the piercing air +over the frozen snow to his hotel. And up in her room old Margery lay in +disturbed sleep, watched over by dozing Babette, and moaning out at +restless intervals.</p> + +<p>"Master Harry! Master Harry! O Miss Kate! it was Master Harry's ghost!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>ROSE'S ADVENTURE.</h3> + + +<p>December wore out in wild snow-storms and wintry winds. Christmas came, +solemn and shrouded in white; and Kate Danton's fair hands decorated the +little village church with evergreens and white roses for Father +Francis; and Kate Danton's sweet voice sang the dear old "Adeste +Fideles" on Christmas morning. Kate Danton, too, with the princely +spirit that nature and habit had given her, made glad the cottages of +the poor with gifts of big turkeys, and woolly blankets, and barrels of +flour. They half adored, these poor people, the stately young lady, with +the noble and lovely face, so unlike anything St. Croix had ever seen +before. Proud as she was, she was never proud with them—God's poor +ones; she was never proud when she knelt in their midst, in that lowly +little church, and cried "Mea culpa" as humbly as the lowliest sinner +there.</p> + +<p>New-Year came with its festivities, bringing many callers from Montreal, +and passed; and Danton Hall fell into its customary tranquillity once +more. Sir Ronald Keith was still their guest; Doctor Frank was still an +inmate of the St. Croix Hotel, and a regular visitor at the Hall. More +letters had come for Kate from England; Lieutenant Stanford's regiment +had gone to Ireland, and he said nothing of leave of absence or a visit +to Canada. Rose got weekly epistles from Ottawa; her darling Jules +poured out floods of undying love in the very best French, and Rose +smiled over them complacently, and went down and made eyes at Doctor +Frank all the evening. And old Margery was not recovered yet from the +ghost-seeing fright, and would not remain an instant alone by night or +day for untold gold.</p> + +<p>The sunset of a bright January day was turning the western windows of +Danton Hall to sheets of beaten gold. The long, red lances of light +pierced through the black trees, tinged the piled up snow-drifts, and +made the low evening sky one blaze of crimson splendour. Eeny stood +looking thoughtfully out at the gorgeous hues of the wintry sunset and +the still landscape, where no living thing moved. She was in a cozy +little room called the housekeeper's room, but which Grace never used, +except when she made up her accounts, or when her favourite apartment, +the dining-room, was occupied. A bright fire burned in the grate, and +the curtained windows and carpeted floor were the picture of comfort. It +had been used latterly as a sewing-room, and Agnes Darling sat at the +other window embroidering a handkerchief for Rose. There had been a long +silence—the seamstress never talked much; and Eeny was off in a +daydream. Presently, a big dog came bounding tumultuously up the avenue, +and a tall man in an overcoat followed leisurely.</p> + +<p>"There!" exclaimed Eeny, "there's Tiger and Tiger's master. You haven't +seen Grace's brother yet, have you Agnes?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the seamstress, looking out, "is that he?"</p> + +<p>He was too far off to be seen distinctly; but a moment or two later he +was near. A sudden exclamation from the seamstress made Eeny look at her +in surprise. She had sprang up and sat down again, white, and startled, +and trembling.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" said Eeny. "Do you know Doctor Danton?"</p> + +<p>"Doctor Danton?" repeated Agnes. "Yes. Oh, what am I saying! No, I don't +know him."</p> + +<p>She sat down again, all pale and trembling, and scared. Doctor Frank was +ringing the bell, and was out of sight. Eeny gazed at her exceedingly +astonished.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with you?" she reiterated. "What are you afraid of? +Do you know Doctor Danton?"</p> + +<p>"Don't ask me; please don't ask me!" cried the little seamstress, +piteously. "I have seen him before; but, oh, please don't say anything +about it!"</p> + +<p>She was in such a violent tremor—her voice was so agitated, that Eeny +good-naturedly said no more. She turned away, and looked again at the +paling glory of the sunset, not seeing it this time, but thinking of +Agnes Darling's unaccountable agitation at sight of Grace's brother.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he has been a lover of hers," thought romantic Eeny, "and +false! She is very pretty, or would be, if she wasn't as pale as a +corpse. And yet I don't think Doctor Frank would be false to any one +either. I don't want to think so—I like him too well."</p> + +<p>Eeny left the sewing-room and went upstairs. She found Doctor Danton in +the dining-room with his sister and Rose, and Rose was singing a French +song for him. Eeny took her station by the window; she knew the +seamstress was in the daily habit of taking a little twilight walk in +her favourite circle, round and round the fish-pond, and she could see +from where she stood when she went out.</p> + +<p>"I'll show her to him," thought Eeny, "and see if it flurries him as it +did her. There is something between them, if one could get to the bottom +of it."</p> + +<p>Rose's song ended. The sunset faded out in a pale blank of dull +gray—twilight fell over the frozen ground. A little black figure, +wearing a shawl over its head, fluttered out into the mysterious +half-light, and began pacing slowly round the frozen fish-pond.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Frank," said Eeny, "come here and see the moon rise."</p> + +<p>"How romantic!" laughed Rose. But the Doctor went and stood by her side.</p> + +<p>The wintry crescent-moon was sailing slowly up, with the luminous +evening star resplendent beside her, glittering on the whitened earth.</p> + +<p>"Pretty," said the Doctor; "very. Solemn, and still, and white! What +dark fairy is that gliding round the fish-pond?"</p> + +<p>"That," said Eeny, "is Agnes Darling."</p> + +<p>"Who?" questioned Doctor Danton, suddenly and sharply.</p> + +<p>"Agnes Darling, our seamstress. Dear me, Doctor Danton, one would think +you knew her!"</p> + +<p>There had been a momentary change in his face, and Eeny's suspicious +eyes were full upon him—only momentary, though; it was gone directly, +and his unreadable countenance was as calm as a summer's sky. Doctor +Frank might have been born a duke, so radically and unaffectedly +nonchalant was he.</p> + +<p>"The name has a familiar sound; but I don't think I know your +seamstress. Go and play me a waltz, Eeny."</p> + +<p>There was no getting anything out of Doctor Danton which he did not +choose to tell. Eeny knew that, and went over to the piano, a little +provoked at the mystery they made of it.</p> + +<p>But destiny that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will, had made +up its mind for further revelations, and against destiny even Doctor +Frank was powerless. Destiny lost no time either—the revelation came +the very next evening. Kate and Eeny had been to St. Croix, visiting +some of Kate's poor pensioners, and evening was closing in when they +reached the Hall. A lovely evening—calm, windless, still; the moon's +silver disk brilliant in an unclouded sky, and the holy hush of eventide +over all. The solemn beauty of the falling night tempted Kate to linger, +while Eeny went on to the house. There was a group of tall pines, with a +rustic bench, near the entrance-gates. Kate sat down under the +evergreens, leaning against the trees, her dark form scarcely +distinguishable in their shadow. While she sat, a man and a woman +passed. Full in the moonlight she saw that it was Doctor Danton and +Agnes Darling. Distinct in the still keen air she heard his low, earnest +words.</p> + +<p>"Don't betray yourself—don't let them see you know me. Be on your +guard, especially with Eeny, who suspects. It will avoid disagreeable +explanations. It is best to let them think we have never met."</p> + +<p>They were gone. Kate sat petrified. What understanding was this between +Doctor Danton and their pale little seamstress? They knew each other, +and there were reasons why that acquaintance should be a secret. "It +would involve disagreeable explanations!" What could Doctor Frank mean? +The solution of the riddle that had puzzled Eeny came to her. Had they +been lovers at some past time?—was Doctor Frank a villain after all?</p> + +<p>The moon sailed up in the zenith, the blue sky was all sown with stars, +and the loud ringing of the dinner-bell reached her even where she sat. +She got up hastily, and hurried to the house, ran to her room, threw off +her bonnet and shawl, smoothed her hair, and descended to the +dining-room in her plain black silk dress. She was late; they were all +there—her father, Grace, Rose, Eeny, Sir Ronald, the Reverend Augustus +Clare, and Doctor Danton.</p> + +<p>"Runaway," said her father, "we had given you up. Where have you been?"</p> + +<p>"Star-gazing, papa. Down under the pines, near the gates, until five +minutes ago."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank looked up quickly, and met the violet eyes fixed full upon +him.</p> + +<p>"I heard you, sir," that bright glance said. "Your secret is a secret no +longer."</p> + +<p>Doctor Danton looked down at his plate with just a tinge of colour in +his brown face. He understood her as well as if she had spoken; but, +except that faint and transient flush, it never moved him. He told them +stories throughout dinner of his adventures as a medical student in +Germany, and every one laughed except Kate. She could not laugh; the +laughter of the others irritated her. His words going up the avenue rang +in her ears; the pale, troubled face of the seamstress was before her +eyes. Something in the girl's sad, joyless face had interested her from +the first. Had Doctor Danton anything to do with that look of hopeless +trouble?</p> + +<p>With this new interest in her mind, Kate sent for the seamstress to her +room next morning. Some lace was to be sewn on a new dress. Eunice +generally did such little tasks for her mistress, but on this occasion +it was to be Agnes. The girl sat down with the rich robe by the window, +and bent assiduously over her work. Miss Danton, in a loose négligée, +lying half buried in the depths of a great carved and cushioned chair, +watched her askance while pretending to read. What a slender, diminutive +creature she was—how fixedly pale, paler still in contrast with her +black hair and great, melancholy dark eyes. She never looked up—she +went on, stitch, stitch, like any machine, until Kate spoke, suddenly:</p> + +<p>"Agnes!"</p> + +<p>The dark eyes lifted inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"How old are you?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty-two."</p> + +<p>"You don't look it. Are your parents living?"</p> + +<p>"No; dead these many years."</p> + +<p>"Have you brothers or sisters?"</p> + +<p>"No, I never had."</p> + +<p>"But you have other relatives—uncles, aunts, cousins?"</p> + +<p>"No, Miss Danton—none that I have ever seen."</p> + +<p>"What an isolated little thing you are! Have you lived in Montreal all +your life?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! I have only been in Montreal a few months. I was born and +brought up in New York."</p> + +<p>"In New York!" repeated Kate, surprised. And then there was a pause. +When had Doctor Danton been in New York? For the last four years he had +been in Germany; from Germany he had come direct to Canada, so Grace had +told her; where, then, had he known this New York girl?</p> + +<p>"Why did you come to Montreal?" asked Kate.</p> + +<p>There was a nervous contraction around the girl's mouth, and something +seemed to fade out of her face—not color, for she had none—but it +darkened with something like sudden anguish.</p> + +<p>"I had a friend," she said hastily, "a friend I lost; I heard I might +find that—that friend in Montreal, and so—"</p> + +<p>Her voice died away, and she put up one trembling hand to shade her +face. Kate came over and touched the hand lying on her black dress, +caressingly. She forgot her pride, as she often forgot it in her womanly +pity.</p> + +<p>"My poor little Agnes! Did you find that friend?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"No?" repeated Kate.</p> + +<p>She thought the reply would be "yes"—she had thought the friend was +Doctor Frank. Agnes dropped her hand from before her face.</p> + +<p>"No," she said sadly, "I have not found him. I shall never find him +again in this world, I am afraid."</p> + +<p>Him! That little tell-tale pronoun! Kate knew by instinct the friend was +"him," men being at the bottom of all womanly distress in this lower +world.</p> + +<p>"Then it was not Doctor Danton?"</p> + +<p>Agnes looked up with a suddenly frightened face, her great eyes +dilating, her pale lips parting.</p> + +<p>"I saw you by accident coming up the avenue with him last evening," Kate +hastened to explain. "I chanced to hear a remark of his in passing; I +could not help it."</p> + +<p>Agnes clasped her hands together in frightened supplication.</p> + +<p>"You won't say anything about it?" she said, piteously. "Oh, please +don't say anything about it! I am so sorry you overheard. Oh, Miss +Danton, you won't tell?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," answered Kate, startled by her emotion. "I merely +thought he might be the friend you came in search of."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, no! Doctor Danton has been my friend; I owe him more than I can +ever repay. He is the best, and noblest, and most generous of men. He +was my friend when I had no friend in the world—when, but for him, I +might have died. But he is not the one I came to seek."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," said Kate, going back to her chair. "I have asked +too many questions."</p> + +<p>"No, no! You have a right to ask me, but I cannot tell. I am not very +old, but my heart is nearly broken."</p> + +<p>She dropped her work, covered her face with her slender hands, and broke +out into a fit of passionate crying. Kate was beside her in a moment, +soothing her, caressing her, as if she had been her sister.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry, I am sorry," she said; "it is all my fault. Don't cry, +Agnes; I will go now; you will feel better alone."</p> + +<p>She stooped and kissed her. Agnes looked up in grateful surprise, but +Miss Danton was gone. She ran down stairs and stood looking out of the +drawing-room window, at the sunlit, wintry landscape.</p> + +<p>So Doctor Frank was a hero after all, and not a villain. He had nothing +to do with this pale little girl's trouble. He was only her best friend +and wanted to hide it.</p> + +<p>"People generally like their good deeds to be known," mused Miss Danton. +"They want their right hand to see all that their left hand gives. Is +Doctor Frank a little better than the rest of mankind? I know he attends +the sick poor of St. Croix for nothing, and I know he is very pleasant, +and a gentleman. Is he that modern wonder, a good man, besides?"</p> + +<p>Her meditations were interrupted by the entrance of Rose, looking very +charming in a tight jacket and long black riding-skirt, a "jockey hat +and feather" on her curly head, and flourishing her riding-whip in her +gauntleted hand.</p> + +<p>"I thought you were out, Kate, with your little Scotchman," she said, +slapping her gaiter. "I saw him mount and ride off nearly an hour ago."</p> + +<p>"I have been in my room."</p> + +<p>"I wish Doctor Frank would come," said Rose. "I like some one to make +love to me when I ride."</p> + +<p>"Doctor Frank does not make love to you."</p> + +<p>"Does he not? How do you know?"</p> + +<p>"My prophetic soul tells me, and what is more, never will. All the +better for Doctor Frank, since you would not accept him or his love if +he offered them."</p> + +<p>"And how do you know that? I must own I thought him a prig at first, and +if I begin to find him delightful now, I suppose it is merely by force +of contrast with your black-browed, deadly-dull baronet. Will you come? +No? Well, then, adieu, and <i>au revoir</i>."</p> + +<p>Kate watched her mount and gallop down the avenue, kissing her hand as +she disappeared.</p> + +<p>"My pretty Rose," she thought, smiling, "she is only a spoiled child; +one cannot be angry, let her say what she will."</p> + +<p>Out beyond the gates, Rose's canter changed to a rapid gallop. She +managed her horse well, and speedily left the village behind, and was +flying along a broad, well-beaten country road, interspersed at remote +intervals with quaint French farm-houses.</p> + +<p>All at once, Regina slipped—there was a sheet of ice across the +road—struggled to regain her footing, fell, and would have thrown her +rider had not a man, walking leisurely along, sprung forward and caught +her in his arms.</p> + +<p>Rose was unhurt, and extricating herself from the stranger's +coat-sleeves, rose also. The hero of the moment made an attempt to +follow her example, uttered a groan, made a wry face, and came to a +halt.</p> + +<p>"Are you hurt?" Rose asked.</p> + +<p>"I have twisted an ankle on that confounded ice—sprained it, I am +afraid, in the struggle with the horse. If I can walk—but no, my +locomotive powers, I find, are at a standstill for the present. Now, +then, Mademoiselle, what are we to do?"</p> + +<p>He seated himself with great deliberation on a fallen tree and looked up +at her coolly, as he asked the question.</p> + +<p>Rose looked down into one of the handsomest faces she had ever seen, +albeit pallid just now with sharp pain.</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry," she said, in real concern. "You cannot walk, and you +must not stay here. What shall we—oh! what shall we do?"</p> + +<p>"I tell you," said the young man. "Do you see that old yellow farm-house +that looks like a church in Chinese mourning."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well—but it will be a great deal of trouble."</p> + +<p>"Trouble!" cried Rose. "Don't talk about trouble. Do you want me to go +to that farm-house!"</p> + +<p>"If you will be so kind. I stopped there last night. Tell old +Jacques—that's the proprietor—to send some kind of a trap down here +for me—a sled, if nothing else."</p> + +<p>"I'll be back in ten minutes," exclaimed Rose, mounting Regina with +wonderful celerity, and flying off.</p> + +<p>Old Jacques—a wizen little habitant—was distressed at the news, and +ran off instantly to harness up his old mare, and sled. Madame Jacques +placed a mattress on the sled and the vehicle started.</p> + +<p>"Who is the gentleman?" Rose asked carelessly, as they rode along.</p> + +<p>Old Jacques didn't know. He had stopped there last night, and paid them, +but hadn't told them his name or his business.</p> + +<p>A few minutes brought them to the scene of the tragedy. The stranger +lifted those dark eyes of his, and looked so unspeakably handsome, that +Rose was melted to deeper compassion than ever.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you are nearly frozen to death," she said, springing +lightly to the ground. "Let us try if we cannot help you on to the +sled."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind," replied the stranger, laughing and accepting. "It +is worth while having a sprained ankle, after all."</p> + +<p>Rose and old Jacques got him on the sled between them though his lips +were white with suppressed pain in the effort.</p> + +<p>"I sent Jean Baptiste for Dr. Pillule," said old Jacques as he started +the mare. "Monsieur will be—what you call it—all right, when Dr. +Pillule comes."</p> + +<p>"Might I ask—but, perhaps it would be asking too much?" the stranger +said, looking at Rose.</p> + +<p>"What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Will you not return with us, and hear whether Dr. Pillule thinks my +life in danger?"</p> + +<p>Rose laughed.</p> + +<p>"I never heard of any one dying from a sprained ankle. <i>Malgré cela</i>, I +will return if you wish it, since you got it in my behalf."</p> + +<p>Rose's steed trotted peaceably beside the sled to the farm-house door. +All the way, the wounded hero lay looking up at the graceful girl, with +the rose-red cheeks and auburn curls, and thinking, perhaps, if he were +any judge of pictures, what a pretty picture she made.</p> + +<p>Rose assisted in helping him into the drawing room of the +establishment—which was a very wretched drawing-room indeed. There was +a leather lounge wheeled up before a large fire, and thereon the injured +gentleman was laid.</p> + +<p>Doctor Pillule had not yet arrived, and old Jacques stood waiting +further orders.</p> + +<p>"Jacques, fetch a chair. That is right; put it up here, near me. Now you +can go. Mademoiselle, do me the favour to be seated."</p> + +<p>Rose sat down, very near—dangerously near—the owner of the eyes.</p> + +<p>"May I ask the name of the young lady whom I have been fortunate enough +to assist."</p> + +<p>"My name is Rosina—Rose Danton."</p> + +<p>"Danton," repeated the young man slowly. "Danton; I know that name. +There is a place called Danton Hall over here—a fine old place, they +tell me—owned by one Captain Danton."</p> + +<p>"I am Captain Danton's second daughter."</p> + +<p>"Then, Miss Danton, I am very happy to make your acquaintance."</p> + +<p>He held out his hand, gravely. Rose shook hands, laughing and blushing.</p> + +<p>"I am much pleased to make yours, Mr. ——" laughing still, and looking +at him.</p> + +<p>"Reinecourt," said the gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Reinecourt; only I wish you had not sprained your ankle doing it."</p> + +<p>"I don't regret it. But you are under an obligation to me, are you not?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>"Then I mean to have a return for what you owe me. I want you to come +and see me every day until I get well."</p> + +<p>Rose blushed vividly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know. You exact too much!"</p> + +<p>"Not a whit. I'll never fly to the rescue of another damsel in distress +as long as I live, if you don't."</p> + +<p>"But every day! Once a week will be enough."</p> + +<p>"If you insult me by coming once a week, I'll issue orders not to admit +you. Promise, Miss Danton; here comes Doctor Pillule."</p> + +<p>"I promise, then. There, I never gave you permission to kiss my hand."</p> + +<p>She arose precipitately, and stood looking out of the window, while the +Doctor attended to the sprain.</p> + +<p>Nearly half an hour passed. The ankle was duly bathed and bandaged, then +old Jacques and the Doctor went away, and she came over and looked +laughingly down at the invalid, a world of coquettish daring in her +dancing eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, M. Reinecourt, when does M. le Médecin say you are going to die?"</p> + +<p>"When you think of leaving me, Mademoiselle."</p> + +<p>"Then summon your friends at once, for I not only think of it, but am +about to do it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, not so soon."</p> + +<p>"It is half-past two, Monsieur," pulling out her watch; "they will think +I am lost at home. I must go!"</p> + +<p>"Well, shake hands before you go."</p> + +<p>"It seems to me you are very fond of shaking hands, Mr. Reinecourt," +said Rose, giving him hers willingly enough, though.</p> + +<p>"And you really must leave me?"</p> + +<p>"I really must."</p> + +<p>"But you will come to-morrow?" still holding her hand.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so—if I have nothing better to do."</p> + +<p>"You cannot do anything better than visit the sick, and oh, yes! do me +another favour. Fetch me some books to read—to pass the dismal hours of +your absence."</p> + +<p>"Very well; now let me go."</p> + +<p>He released her plump little hand, and Rose drew on her gloves.</p> + +<p>"Adieu, Mr. Reinecourt," moving to the door.</p> + +<p>"<i>Au revoir</i>, Miss Danton, until to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>Rose rode home in delight. In one instant the world had changed. St. +Croix had become a paradise, and the keen air sweet as "Ceylon's spicy +breezes." As Alice Carey says, "What to her was our world with its +storms and rough weather," with that pallid face, those eyes of darkest +splendour, that magnetic voice, haunting her all the way. It was love at +sight with Miss Danton the second. What was the girlish fancy she had +felt for Jules La Touche—for Dr. Frank—for a dozen others, compared +with this.</p> + +<p>Joe, the stable-boy, led away Regina, and Rose entered the house. +Crossing the hall, she met Eeny going upstairs.</p> + +<p>"Well!" said Eeny, "and where have you been all day, pray?"</p> + +<p>"Out riding."</p> + +<p>"Where?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, everywhere! Don't bother!"</p> + +<p>"Do you know we have had luncheon?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care—I don't want luncheon."</p> + +<p>She ran past her sister, and shut herself up in her room. Eeny stared. +In all her experience of her sister she had never known her to be +indifferent to eating and drinking. For the first time in Rose's life, +love had taken away her appetite.</p> + +<p>All that afternoon she stayed shut up in her chamber, dreaming as only +eighteen, badly in love, does dream. When darkness fell, and the lamps +were lit, and the dinner-bell rang, she descended to the dining-room +indifferent for the first time whether she was dressed well or ill.</p> + +<p>"What does it matter?" she thought, looking in the glass; "he is not +here to see me."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank and the Reverend Augustus Clare dropped in after dinner, +but Rose hardly deigned to look at them. She reclined gracefully on a +sofa, with half shut eyes, listening to Kate playing one of Beethoven's +"Songs without Words," and seeing—not the long, lamp-lit drawing-room +with all its elegant luxuries, or the friends around her, but the bare +best room of the old yellow farm-house, and the man lying lonely and ill +before the blazing fire. Doctor Danton sat down beside her and talked to +her; but Rose answered at random, and was so absorbed, and silent, and +preoccupied, as to puzzle every one. Her father asked her to sing. Rose +begged to be excused—she could not sing to-night. Kate looked at her in +wonder.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with you, Rose?" she inquired; "are you ill? What is +it?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing," Rose answered, "only I don't feel like talking."</p> + +<p>And not feeling like it, nobody could make her talk. She retired +early—to live over again in dreams the events of that day, and to think +of the blissful morrow.</p> + +<p>An hour after breakfast next morning, Eeny met her going out, dressed +for her ride, and with a little velvet reticule stuffed full, slung over +her arm.</p> + +<p>"What have you got in that bag?" asked Eeny, "your dinner? Are you going +to a picnic?"</p> + +<p>Rose laughed at the idea of a January picnic, and ran off without +answering. An hour's brisk gallop brought her to the farm house, and old +Jacques came out, bowing and grinning, to take charge of her horse.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur was in the parlour—would Mademoiselle walk right into the +parlour? Dr. Pillule had been there and seen to Monsieur's ankle. +Monsieur was doing very well, only not able to stand up yet."</p> + +<p>Rose found Monsieur half asleep before the fire, and looking as handsome +as ever in his slumber. He started up at her entrance, holding out both +hands.</p> + +<p>"<i>Mon ange!</i> I thought you were never coming. I was falling into +despair."</p> + +<p>"Falling into despair means falling asleep, I presume. Don't let me +disturb your dreams."</p> + +<p>"I am in a more blissful dream now than any I could dream asleep. Here +is a seat. Oh, don't sit so far off. Are those the books? How can I ever +thank you?"</p> + +<p>"You never can—so don't try. Here is Tennyson—of course you like +Tennyson; here is Shelley—here are two new and charming novels. Do you +read novels?"</p> + +<p>"I will read everything you fetch me. By-the-by, it is very fatiguing to +read lying down; won't you read to me?"</p> + +<p>"I can't read. I mean I can't read aloud."</p> + +<p>"Let me be the judge of that. Let me see—read 'Maud.'"</p> + +<p>Rose began and did her best, and read until she was tired. Mr. +Reinecourt watched her all the while as she sat beside him.</p> + +<p>And presently they drifted off into delicious talk of poetry and +romance; and Rose, pulling out her watch, was horrified to find that it +was two o'clock.</p> + +<p>"I must go!" she cried, springing up; "what will they think has become +of me?"</p> + +<p>"But you will come again to-morrow?" pleaded Mr. Reinecourt.</p> + +<p>"I don't know—you don't deserve it, keeping me here until this hour. +Perhaps I may, though—good-bye."</p> + +<p>Rose, saying this, knew in her heart she could not stay away if she +tried. Next morning she was there, and the next, and the next, and the +next. Then came a week of wild, snowy weather, when the roads were +heaped high, going out was an impossibility, and she had to stay at +home. Rose chafed desperately under the restraint, and grew so irritable +that it was quite a risk to speak to her. All her old high spirits were +gone. Her ceaseless flow of talk suddenly checked. She wandered about +the house aimlessly, purposelessly, listlessly, sighing wearily, and +watching the flying snow and hopeless sky. A week of this weather, and +January was at its close before a change for the better came. Rose was +falling a prey to green and yellow melancholy, and perplexing the whole +household by the unaccountable alteration in her. With the first gleam +of fine weather she was off. Her long morning rides were recommenced; +smiles and roses returned to her face, and Rose was herself again.</p> + +<p>It took that sprained ankle a very long time to get well. Three weeks +had passed since that January day when Regina had slipped on the ice, +and still Mr. Reinecourt was disabled; at least he was when Rose was +there. He had dropped the Miss Danton and taken to calling her Rose, of +late; but when she was gone, it was really surprising how well he could +walk, and without the aid of a stick. Old Jacques grinned knowingly. The +poetry reading and the long, long talks went on every day, and Rose's +heart was hopelessly and forever gone. She knew nothing more of Mr. +Reinecourt than that he was Mr. Reinecourt; still, she hardly cared to +know. She was in love, and an idiot; to-day sufficed for her—to-morrow +might take care of itself.</p> + +<p>"Rose, <i>chérie</i>," Mr. Reinecourt said to her one day, "you vindicate +your sex; you are free from the vice of curiosity. You ask no questions, +and, except my name, you know nothing of me."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Reinecourt, whose fault is that?"</p> + +<p>"Do you want to know?"</p> + +<p>Rose looked at him, then away. Somehow of late she had grown strangely +shy.</p> + +<p>"If you like to tell me."</p> + +<p>"My humble little Rose! Yes, I will tell you. I must leave here soon; a +sprained ankle won't last forever, do our best."</p> + +<p>She looked at him in sudden alarm, her bright bloom fading out. He had +taken one of her little hands, and her fingers closed involuntarily over +his.</p> + +<p>"Going away!" she repeated. "Going away!"</p> + +<p>He smiled slightly. His masculine vanity was gratified by the +irrepressible confession of her love for him.</p> + +<p>"Not from you, my dear little Rose. To-morrow you will know all—where I +am going, and who I am."</p> + +<p>"Who you are! Are you not Mr. Reinecourt?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly!" half laughing. "But that is rather barren information, is +it not? Can you wait until to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>His smile, the clasp in which he held her hand, reassured her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," she said, drawing a long breath, "I can wait!"</p> + +<p>That day—Rose remembered it afterward—he stood holding her hands a +long time at parting.</p> + +<p>"You will go! What a hurry you are always in," he said.</p> + +<p>"A hurry!" echoed Rose. "I have been here three hours. I should have +gone long ago. Don't detain me; good-bye!"</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, my Rose, my dear little nurse! Good-bye until we meet again."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>HON. LIEUTENANT REGINALD STANFORD.</h3> + + +<p>Rose Danton's slumbers were unusually disturbed that night. Mr. +Reinecourt haunted her awake, Mr. Reinecourt haunted her asleep. What +was the eventful morrow to reveal? Would he tell her he loved her? Would +he ask her to be his wife? Did he care for her, or did he mean nothing +after all?</p> + +<p>No thought of Jules La Touche came to disturb her as she drifted off +into delicious memories of the past and ecstatic dreams of the future. +No thought of the promise she had given, no remorse at her own falsity, +troubled her easy conscience. What did she care for Jules La Touche? +What was he beside this splendid Mr. Reinecourt? She thought of +him—when she thought of him at all—with angry impatience, and she drew +his ring off her finger and flung it across the room.</p> + +<p>"What a fool I was," she thought, "ever to dream of marrying that silly +boy! Thank heaven I never told any one but Grace."</p> + +<p>Rose was feverish with impatience and anticipation when morning came. +She sat down to breakfast, tried to eat, and drink, and talk as usual, +and failed in all. As soon as the meal was over, unable to wait, she +dressed and ordered her horse. Doctor Frank was sauntering up the +avenue, smoking a cigar in the cold February sunshine, as she rode off.</p> + +<p>"Away so early, Di Vernon, and unescorted? May I—"</p> + +<p>"No," said Rose, brusquely, "you may not. Good morning!"</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank glanced after her as she galloped out of sight.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he thought. "What has altered her of late? She is not the +same girl she was two weeks ago. Has she fallen in love, I wonder? Not +likely, I should think; and yet—"</p> + +<p>He walked off, revolving the question, to the house, while Rose was +rapidly shortening the distance between herself and her beloved. Old +Jacques was leaning over the gate as she rode up, and took off his hat +with Canadian courtesy to the young lady.</p> + +<p>"Is Mr. Reinecourt in, Mr. Jacques?" asked Rose, preparing to dismount.</p> + +<p>Jacques lifted his eyebrows in polite surprise.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't Mademoiselle know, then?"</p> + +<p>"Know what?"</p> + +<p>"That Monsieur has gone?"</p> + +<p>"Gone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mademoiselle, half an hour ago. Gone for good."</p> + +<p>"But he will come back?" said Rose, faintly, her heart seeming suddenly +to stop beating.</p> + +<p>Old Jacques shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No, Mam'selle. Monsieur has paid me like a king, shook hands with +Margot and me, and gone forever."</p> + +<p>There was a dead pause. Rose clutched her bridle-rein, and felt the +earth spinning under her, her face growing-white and cold.</p> + +<p>"Did he leave no message—no message for me?"</p> + +<p>She could barely utter the words, the shock, the consternation were so +great. Something like a laugh shone in old Jacques' eyes.</p> + +<p>"No, Mademoiselle, he never spoke of you. He only paid us, and said +good-bye, and went away."</p> + +<p>Rose turned Regina slowly round in a stunned sort of way, and with the +reins loose on her neck, let her take her road homeward. A dull sense of +despair was all she was conscious of. She could not think, she could not +reason, her whole mind was lost in blank consternation. He was gone. She +could not get beyond that—he was gone.</p> + +<p>The boy who came to lead away her horse stared at her changed face; the +servant who opened the door opened his eyes, also, at sight of her. She +never heeded them; a feeling that she wanted to be alone was all she +could realize, and she walked straight to a little alcove opening from +the lower end of the long entrance-hall. An archway and a curtain of +amber silk separated it from the drawing-room, of which it was a sort of +recess. A sofa, piled high with downy pillows, stood invitingly under a +window. Among these pillows poor Rose threw herself, to do battle with +her despair.</p> + +<p>While she lay there in tearless rage, she heard the drawing-room door +open, and some one come in.</p> + +<p>"Who shall I say, sir?" insinuated the servant.</p> + +<p>"Just say a friend wishes to see Miss Danton," was the answer.</p> + +<p>That voice! Rose bounded from the sofa, her eyes wild, her lips apart. +Her hand shook as she drew aside the curtain and looked out. A gentleman +was there, but he sat with his back to her, and his figure was only +partially revealed. Rose's heart beat in great plunges against her side, +but she restrained herself and waited. Ten minutes, and there was the +rustle of a dress; Kate entered the room. The gentleman arose, there was +a cry of "Reginald!" and then Kate was clasped in the stranger's arms. +Rose could see his face now; no need to look twice to recognize Mr. +Reinecourt.</p> + +<p>The curtain dropped from Rose's hand, she stood still, breath coming and +going in gasps. She saw it all as by an electric light—Mr. Reinecourt +was Kate's betrothed husband, Reginald Stanford. He had known her from +the first; from the first he had coolly and systematically deceived her. +He knew that she loved him—he must know it—and had gone on fooling her +to the top of his bent. Perhaps he and Kate would laugh over it together +before the day was done. Rose clenched her hands, and her eyes flashed +at the thought. Back came the colour to her cheeks, back the light to +her eyes; anger for the moment quenched every spark of love. Some of the +old Danton pluck was in her, after all. No despair now, no lying on sofa +cushions any more in helpless woe.</p> + +<p>"How dared he do it—how dared he?" she thought "knowing me to be Kate's +sister. I hate him! oh, I hate him!"</p> + +<p>And here Rose broke down, and finding the hysterics would come, fled +away to her room, and cried vindictively for two hours.</p> + +<p>She got up at last, sullen and composed. Her mind was made up. She would +show Mr. Reinecourt (Mr. Reinecourt indeed)! how much she cared for him. +He should see the freezing indifference with which she could treat him; +he should see she was not to be fooled with impunity.</p> + +<p>Rose bathed her flushed and tear-stained face until every trace of the +hysterics was gone, called Agnes Darling to curl her hair and dress her +in a new blue glacé, in which she looked lovely. Then, with a glow like +fever on her cheeks, a fire like fever in her eyes, she went down +stairs. In the hall she met Eeny.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Rose! I was just going up to your room. Kate wants you."</p> + +<p>"Does she? What for?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Stanford has come. He is with her in the drawing-room; and, Rose, +he is the handsomest man I ever saw."</p> + +<p>Rose shook back her curls disdainfully, and descended to the +drawing-room. <i>A la princesse</i> she sailed in, and saw the late M. +Reinecourt seated by the window, Kate beside him, with, oh, such a happy +face! She arose at her sister's entrance, a smile of infinite content on +her face.</p> + +<p>"Reginald, my sister Rose. Rose, Mr. Stanford."</p> + +<p>Rose made the most graceful bow that ever was seen, not the faintest +sign of recognition in her face. She hardly glanced at Mr. Stanford—she +was afraid to trust herself too far—she was afraid to meet those +magnetic dark eyes. If he looked aback at her <i>sang-froid</i>, she did not +see it. She swept by as majestically as Kate herself, and took a distant +seat.</p> + +<p>Kate's face showed her surprise. Rose had been a puzzle to her of late; +she was more a puzzle now than ever. Rose was standing on her dignity, +that was evident; and Rose did not often stand on that pedestal. She +would not talk, or only in monosyllables. Her replies to Mr. Stanford +were pointedly cold and brief. She sat, looking very pretty in her blue +glacé and bright curls, her fingers toying idly with her châtelaine and +trinkets, and as unapproachable as a grand duchess.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford made no attempt to approach her. He sat and talked to his +betrothed of the old times and the old friends and places, and seemed to +forget there was any one else in the world. Rose listened, with a heart +swelling with angry bitterness—silent, except when discreetly addressed +by Kate, and longing vindictively to spring up and tell the handsome, +treacherous Englishman what she thought of him there and then.</p> + +<p>As luncheon hour drew near, her father, who had been absent, returned +with Sir Ronald Keith and Doctor Danton. They were all going upstairs; +but Kate, with a happy flush on her face, looked out of the drawing-room +door.</p> + +<p>"Come in papa," she said; "come in, Sir Ronald; there is an old friend +here."</p> + +<p>She smiled a bright invitation to the young Doctor, who went in also. +Reginald Stanford stood up. Captain Danton, with a delighted "Hallo!" +grasped both his hands.</p> + +<p>"Reginald, my dear boy, I am delighted, more than delighted, to see you. +Welcome to Canada, Sir Ronald; this is more than we bargained for."</p> + +<p>"I was surprised to find you here, Sir Ronald," said the young officer, +shaking the baronet's hand cordially; "very happy to meet you again."</p> + +<p>Sir Ronald, with a dark flush on his face, bowed stiffly, in silence, +and moved away.</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank was introduced, made his bow, and retreated to Rose's sofa.</p> + +<p>Capricious womanhood! Rose, that morning, had decidedly snubbed him; +Rose, at noon, welcomed him with her most radiant smile. Never, perhaps, +in all his experience had any young lady listened to him with such +flattering attention, with such absorbed interest. Never had bright eyes +and rosy lips given him such glances and smiles. She hung on his words; +she had eyes and ears for no one else, least of all for the supremely +handsome gentleman who was her sister's betrothed, and who talked to her +father; while Sir Ronald glowered over a book.</p> + +<p>The ringing of the luncheon-bell brought Grace and Eeny, and all were +soon seated around the Captain's hospitable board.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Reginald Stanford laid himself out to be fascinating, and was +fascinating. There was a subtle charm in his handsome face, in his +brilliant smile and glance, in his pleasant voice, in his wittily-told +stories, and inexhaustible fund of anecdote and mimicry. Now he was in +Ireland, now in France, now in Scotland, now in Yorkshire; and the bad +English and the <i>patois</i> and accent of all were imitated to the life. +With that face, that voice, that talent for imitation, Lieutenant +Stanford, in another walk of life, might have made his fortune on the +stage. His power of fascination was irresistible. Grace felt it, Eeny +felt it, all felt it, except Sir Ronald Keith. He sat like the Marble +Guest, not fascinated, not charmed, black and unsmiling.</p> + +<p>Rose, too—what was the matter with Rose? She, so acutely alive to +well-told stories, to handsome faces, so rigidly cold, and stately, and +uninterested now. She shrugged her dimpled shoulders when the table was +in a roar; she opened her rather small hazel eyes and stared, as if she +wondered, what they could see to laugh at. She did not even deign to +glance at him, the hero of the feast; and, in fact, so greatly overdid +her part as to excite the suspicions of that astute young man, Doctor +Danton. There is no effect without a cause. What was the cause of Rose's +icy indifference? He looked at her, then at Stanford, then back at her, +and set himself to watch.</p> + +<p>"She has met him before," thought the shrewd Doctor; "but where, if he +has just come from England? I'll ask him, I think."</p> + +<p>It was some time before there was a pause in the conversation. In the +first, Dr. Frank struck in.</p> + +<p>"How did you come, Mr. Stanford?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"On the Hysperia, from Southampton to New York."</p> + +<p>"How long ago?" inquired Kate, indirectly helping him; "a week?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Lieutenant Stanford, coolly carving his cold ham; "nearly +five."</p> + +<p>Every one stared. Kate looked blankly amazed.</p> + +<p>"Impossible!" she exclaimed; "five weeks since you landed in New York? +Surely not."</p> + +<p>"Quite true, I assure you. The way was this—"</p> + +<p>He paused and looked at Rose, who had spilled a glass of wine, trying to +lift it, in a hand that shook strangely. Her eyes were downcast, her +cheeks scarlet, her whole manner palpably and inexplicably embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"Four, weeks ago, I reached Canada. I did not write you, Kate, that I +was coming. I wished to give you a surprise. I stopped at +Belleplain—you know the town of Belleplain, thirty miles from here—to +see a brother officer I had known at Windsor. Travelling from Belleplain +in a confounded stage, I stopped half frozen at an old farm-house six +miles off. Next morning, pursuing my journey on foot, I met with a +little mishap."</p> + +<p>He paused provokingly to fill at his leisure a glass of sherry; and +Doctor Danton watching Rose under his eyelashes, saw the colour coming +and going in her traitor face.</p> + +<p>"I slipped on a sheet of ice," continued Mr. Stanford. "I am not used to +your horrible Canadian roads, remember, and strained my ankle badly. I +had to be conveyed back to the farm-house on a sled—medical attendance +procured, and for three weeks I have been a prisoner there. I could have +sent you word, no doubt, and put you to no end of trouble bringing me +here, but I did not like that; I did not care to turn Danton Hall into a +hospital, and go limping through life; so I made the best of a bad +bargain and stayed where I was."</p> + +<p>There was a general murmur of sympathy from all but Sir Ronald and Rose. +Sir Ronald sat like a grim statue in granite; and Rose, still fluttering +and tremulous, did not dare to lift her eyes.</p> + +<p>"You must have found it very lonely," said Doctor Danton.</p> + +<p>"No. I regretted not getting here, of course; but otherwise it was not +unpleasant. They took such capital care of me, you see, and I had a +select little library at my command; so, on the whole, I have been in +much more disagreeable quarters in my lifetime."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank said no more. He had gained his point, and he was +satisfied.</p> + +<p>"It is quite clear," he thought. "By some hocus-pocus, Miss Rose has +made his acquaintance during those three weeks, and helped the slow time +to pass. He did not tell her he was her sister's lover, hence the +present frigidity. The long morning rides are accounted for now. I +wonder"—he looked at pretty Rose—"I wonder if the matter will end +here?"</p> + +<p>It seemed as if it would. Doctor Danton, coming every day to the Hall, +and closely observant always, saw no symptoms of thawing out on Rose's +part, and no effort to please on the side of Mr. Stanford. He treated +her as he treated Eeny and Grace, courteously, genially, but nothing +more. He was all devotion to his beautiful betrothed, and Kate—what +words can paint the infinite happiness of her face! All that was wanting +to make her beauty perfect was found. She had grown so gentle, so sweet, +so patient with all; she was so supremely blessed herself, she could +afford to stoop to the weaknesses of less fortunate mortals. That +indescribable change, the radiance of her eyes, the buoyancy of her +step, the lovely colour that deepened and died, the smiles that came so +rapidly now—all told how much she loved Reginald Stanford.</p> + +<p>Was it returned, that absorbing devotion? He was very devoted; he was +beside her when she sang; he sought her always when he entered the room, +he was her escort on all occasions; but—was it returned? It seemed to +Doctor Frank, watching quietly, that there was something +wanting—something too vague to be described, but lacking. Kate did not +miss it herself, and it might be only a fancy. Perhaps it was that she +was above and beyond him, with thoughts and feelings in that earnest +heart of hers he could never understand. He was very handsome, very +brilliant; but underlying the beauty and the brilliancy of the surface +there was shallowness, and selfishness, and falsity.</p> + +<p>He was walking up and down the tamarack walk, thinking of this and +smoking a cigar, one evening, about a week after the arrival of +Stanford. The February twilight fell tenderly over snowy ground, dark, +stripped trees, and grim old mansion. A mild evening, windless and +spring-like, with the full moon rising round and red. His walk commanded +a view of the great frozen fish-pond where a lively scene was going on. +Kate, Rose, and Eeny, strapped in skates, were floating round and round, +attended by the Captain and Lieutenant Stanford.</p> + +<p>Rose was the best skater on the pond, and looked charming in her +tucked-up dress, crimson petticoat, dainty boots, and coquettish hat and +plume. She flitted in a dizzying circle ahead of all the rest, +disdaining to join them. Stanford skated very well for an Englishman, +and assisted Kate, who was not very proficient in the art. Captain +Danton had Eeny by the hand, and the gay laughter of the party made the +still air ring. Grace stood on the edge of the pond watching them, and +resisting the Captain's entreaties to come on the ice and let him teach +her to skate. Her brother joined her, coming up suddenly, with Tiger at +his side.</p> + +<p>"Not half a bad tableau," the Doctor said, removing his inevitable +cigar; "lovely women, brave men, moonlight, and balmy breezes. You don't +go in for this sort of thing, <i>ma soeur</i>? No, I suppose not. Our +good-looking Englishman skates well, by the way. What do you think of +him, Grace?"</p> + +<p>"I think with you, that he is a good-looking young Englishman."</p> + +<p>"Nothing more?"</p> + +<p>"That the eldest Miss Danton is hopelessly and helplessly in love with +him, and that it is rather a pity. Rose would suit him better."</p> + +<p>"Ah! sagacious as usual, Grace. Who knows but the Hon. Reginald thinks +so too. Where is our dark Scotchman to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Sir Ronald? Gone to Montreal."</p> + +<p>"Is he coming back?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Very likely. If it were to murder Mr. Stanford he would +come back with pleasure."</p> + +<p>"He is a little jealous, then?"</p> + +<p>"Just a little. There is the Captain calling you. Go."</p> + +<p>They went over. Captain Danton whirled round and came to a halt at sight +of them.</p> + +<p>"Here, Frank," he said; "I'm getting tired of this. Take my skates, and +let us see what you are capable of on ice."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank put on the skates, and struck off.</p> + +<p>Rose, flashing past, gave him a bright backward glance.</p> + +<p>"Catch me, Doctor Danton!" she cried. "Catch me if you can!"</p> + +<p>"A fair field and no favour!" exclaimed Stanford, wheeling round. "Come +on Danton; I am going to try, too."</p> + +<p>Eeny and Kate stood still to watch.</p> + +<p>The group on the bank were absorbed in the chase. Doctor Danton was the +better skater of the two; but fleet-footed Rose outstripped both.</p> + +<p>"Ten to one on the Doctor!" cried the Captain, excited. "Reginald is +nowhere!"</p> + +<p>"I don't bet," said Grace; "but neither will catch Rose if Rose likes."</p> + +<p>Round and round the fish-pond the trio flew—Rose still ahead, the +Doctor outstripping the Lieutenant. The chase was getting exciting. +There was no chance of gaining on Rose by following her. Danton tried +strategy. As she wheeled airily around, he abruptly turned, headed her +off, and caught her with a rebound in his arms.</p> + +<p>"By Jove!" cried the Captain, delighted, "he has her. Reginald, my boy, +you are beaten."</p> + +<p>"I told you you stood no chance, Stanford," said the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"What am I to have for my pains, Miss Rose?"</p> + +<p>"Stoop down and you'll see."</p> + +<p>He bent his head. A stinging box on the ear rewarded him, and Rose was +off, flying over the glittering ice and out of reach.</p> + +<p>"Beaten, Reginald," said Kate, as he drew near. "For shame, sir."</p> + +<p>"Beaten, but not defeated," answered her lover; "a Stanford never +yields. Rose shall be my prize yet."</p> + +<p>Rose had whirled round the pond, and was passing. He looked at her as he +spoke; but her answer was a flash of the eye and a curl of the lip as +she flew on. Kate saw it, and looked after her, puzzled and thoughtful.</p> + +<p>"Reginald," she said, when, the skating over, they were all sauntering +back to the house, "what have you done to Rose?"</p> + +<p>Reginald Stanford raised his dark eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"Done to her! What do you imagine I have done to her?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing; but why, then, does she dislike you so?"</p> + +<p>"Am I so unfortunate as to have incurred your pretty sister's dislike?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you see it? She avoids you. She will not talk to you, or sing for +you, or take your arm, or join us when we go out. I never saw her treat +any gentleman with such pointed coldness before."</p> + +<p>"Extraordinary," said Mr. Stanford, with profoundest gravity; "I am the +most unlucky fellow in the world. What shall I do to overcome your fair +sister's aversion?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you do not pay her attention enough. Rose knows she is very +pretty, and is jealously exacting in her demands for admiration and +devotion. Sir Ronald gave her mortal offence the first evening he came, +by his insensibility. She has never forgiven him, and never will. Devote +yourself more to her and less to me, and perhaps Rose will consent to +let you bask in the light of her smile."</p> + +<p>He looked at her with an odd glance. She was smiling, but in earnest +too. She loved her sister and her lover so well, that she felt +uncomfortable until they were friends; and her heart was too great and +faithful for the faintest spark of jealousy. He had lifted the hand that +wore his ring to his lips.</p> + +<p>"Your wishes are my law. I shall do my best to please Rose from +to-night."</p> + +<p>That evening, for the first time, Stanford took a seat beside Rose, and +did his best to be agreeable. Kate smiled approval from her place at the +piano, and Doctor Danton, on the other side of Rose, heard and saw all, +and did not quite understand. But Rose was still offended, and declined +to relent. It was hard to resist that persuasive voice, but she did. She +hardened herself resolutely at the thought of how he had deceived +her—he who was soon to be her sister's husband. Rose got up abruptly, +excused herself, and left the room.</p> + +<p>When the family were dispersing to their chambers that night, Reginald +lingered to speak to Kate.</p> + +<p>"I have failed, you see," he said.</p> + +<p>"Rose is a mystery," said Kate, vexed; "she has quite a new way of +acting. But you know," smiling radiantly, "a Stanford never yields."</p> + +<p>"True. It is discouraging, but I shall try again. Good-night, dearest +and best, and pleasant dreams—of me."</p> + +<p>He ascended to his bedroom, lamp in hand. A fire blazed in the grate; +and sitting down before it, his coat off, his slippers on, his hands in +his pockets, he gazed at it with knitted brow, and whistling softly. For +half an hour he sat, still as a statue. Then he got up, found his +writing-case, and sat down to indite a letter. He was singing the +fag-end of something as he dipped his pen in the ink.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Bind the sea to slumber stilly—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bind its odour to the lily—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bind the aspen ne'er to quiver—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then bind love to last forever!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>/P "<span class="smcap">Danton Hall</span>, February 26, 18—P/</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Lauderdale</span>: I think I promised, when I left +Windsor, to write to tell you how I got on in this horribly Arctic +region. It is nearly two months since I left Windsor, and my +conscience (don't laugh—I have discovered that I have a +conscience) gives me sundry twinges when I think of you. I don't +feel like sleeping to-night. I am full of my subject, so here goes.</p> + +<p>"In the first place, Miss Danton is well, and as much of in angel +as ever. In the second place, Danton Hall is delightful, and holds +more angels than one. In the third place, Ronald Keith is here, and +half mad with jealousy. The keenest north wind that has ever blown +since I came to Canada is not half so freezing as he. Alas, poor +Yorick! He is a fine fellow, too, and fought like a lion in the +Russian trenches; but there was Sampson, and David, and Solomon, +and Marc Antony—you know what love did to them one and all.</p> + +<p>"Kate refused him a year ago, in England—I found it out by +accident, not from her, of course; and yet here he is. It is the +old story of the moth and the candle, and sometimes I laugh, and +sometimes I am sorry for him. He has eight thousand a year, too; +and the Keiths are great people in Scotland, I hear. Didn't I +always try to impress it on you that it was better to be born +handsome than rich? I am not worth fifteen hundred shillings a +year, and in June (D. V.) beautiful Kate Danton is to be my wife. +Recant your heresy, and believe for the future.</p> + +<p>"Angel, No. 2.—I told you there were more than one—has hazel +eyes, pink cheeks, auburn curls, and the dearest little ways. She +is not beautiful—she is not stately—she does not play and sing +the soul out of your body, and yet—and yet——. Lauderdale, you +always told me my peerless fiancée was a thousand times too good +for me. I never believed you before. I do believe you now. She +soars beyond my reach sometimes. I don't pretend to understand her, +and—tell it not in Gath—I stand a little in awe of her. I never +was on speaking terms with her most gracious majesty, whom Heaven +long preserve; but, if I were, I fancy I should feel as I do +sometimes talking to Kate. She is perfection, and I am—well, I am +not, and she is very fond of me. Would she break her heart, do you +think, if she does not become Mrs. Reginald Stanford? June is the +time, but there is many a slip. I know what your answer will +be—'She will break her heart if she does!' It is a bad business, +old boy; but it is fate, or we will say so—and hazel eyes and +auburn curls are very, very tempting.</p> + +<p>"You used to think a good deal of Captain Danton, if I recollect +right. By the way, how old is the Captain? I ask, because there is +a housekeeper here, who is a distant cousin, one of the family, +very quiet, sensible, lady-like, and six and twenty, who may be +Mrs. Captain Danton one day. Mind, I don't say for certain, but I +have my suspicions. He couldn't do better. Grace—that's her +name—has a brother here, a doctor, very fine fellow, and so cute. +I catch him looking at me sometimes in a very peculiar manner, +which I think I understand.</p> + +<p>"You don't expect me before June, do you? Nevertheless, don't faint +if I return to our 'right little, tight little' island before that. +Meantime, write and let me know how the world wags with you; and, +only I know it is out of your line, I should ask you to offer a +prayer for your unfortunate friend</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Reginald Stanford</span>."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE GHOST AGAIN.</h3> + + +<p>Rose Danton stood leaning against the low, old-fashioned chimney piece +in her bedroom staring at the fire with a very sulky face. Those who +fell in love with pretty Rose should have seen her in her sulky moods, +if they wished to be thoroughly disenchanted. Just at present, as she +stood looking gloomily into the fire, she was wondering how the +Honourable Reginald Stanford would feel on his wedding-day, or if he +would feel at all, if they should find her (Rose) robed in white, +floating in the fish-pond drowned! The fish-pond was large enough; and +Rose moodily recollected reading somewhere that when lovely woman stoops +to folly, and finds too late that men betray, the only way to hide that +folly from every eye, to bring repentance to her lover, to wring his +bosom, is to—die!</p> + +<p>The clock down stairs struck eleven. Rose could hear them dispersing to +their bedrooms. She could hear, and she held her breath to listen, Mr. +Stanford, going past her door, whistling a tune of Kate's. Of Kate's, of +course! He was happy and could whistle, and she was miserable and +couldn't. If she had not wept herself as dry as a wrung sponge, she must +have relapsed into hysterics once more; but as she couldn't, with a +long-drawn sigh, she resolved to go to bed.</p> + +<p>So to bed Rose went, but not to sleep. She tossed from side to side, +feverish and impatient; the more she tried to sleep, the more she +couldn't. It was quite a new experience for poor Rose, not used to +"tears at night instead of slumber." The wintry moonlight was shining +brightly in her room through the parted curtains, and that helped her +wakefulness, perhaps. As the clock struck twelve, she sprang up in +desperation, drew a shawl round her, and, in her night-dress, sat down +by the window, to contemplate the heavenly bodies.</p> + +<p>Hark! what noise was that?</p> + +<p>The house was as still as a vault; all had retired, and were probably +asleep. In the dead stillness, Rose heard a door open—the green baize +door of Bluebeard's room. Her chamber was very near that green door; +there could be no mistaking the sound. Once again she held her breath to +listen. In the profound hush, footsteps echoed along the uncarpeted +corridor, and passed her door. Was it Ogden on his way upstairs? No! the +footsteps paused at the next door—Kate's room; and there was a light +rap. Rose, aflame with curiosity, tip-toed to her own door, and applied +her ear to the key-hole. Kate's door opened; there was a whispered +colloquy; the listener could not catch the words, but the voice that +spoke to Kate was not the voice of Ogden. Five minutes—ten—then the +door shut, the footsteps went by her door again, and down stairs.</p> + +<p>Who was it? Not Ogden, not her father; could it be—could it be Mr. +Richards himself.</p> + +<p>Rose clasped her hands, and stood bewildered. Her own troubles had so +occupied her mind of late that she had almost forgotten Mr. Richards; +but now her old curiosity returned in full force.</p> + +<p>"If he has gone out," thought Rose, "what is to hinder me from seeing +his rooms. I would give the world to see them!"</p> + +<p>She stood for a moment irresolute.</p> + +<p>Then, impulsively, she seized a dressing-gown, covered her bright head +with the shawl, opened her door softly, and peeped out.</p> + +<p>All still and deserted. The night-lamp burned dim at the other end of +the long, chilly passage, but threw no light where she stood.</p> + +<p>The green baize door stood temptingly half open; no creature was to be +seen—no sound to be heard. Rose's heart throbbed fast; the mysterious +stillness of the night, the ghostly shimmer of the moonlight, the +mystery and romance of her adventure, set every pulse tingling, but she +did not hesitate. Her slippered feet crossed the hall lightly; she was +beside the green door. Then there was another pause—a moment's +breathless listening, but the dead stillness of midnight was unbroken. +She tip-toed down the short corridor, and looked into the room. The +study was quite deserted; a lamp burned on a table strewn with books, +papers, and writing materials. Rose glanced wonderingly around at the +book-lined walls. Mr. Richards could pass the dull hours if those were +all novels, she thought.</p> + +<p>The room beyond was unlit, save by the moon shining brightly through the +parted curtains. Rose examined it, too; it was Mr. Richard's bedroom, +but the bed had not been slept in that night. Everything was orderly and +elegant; no evidences of its occupant being an invalid. One rapid, +comprehensive glance was all the girl waited to take; then she turned to +hurry back to her own room, and found herself face to face with Ogden.</p> + +<p>The valet stood in the doorway, looking at her, his countenance wearing +its habitual calm and respectful expression. But Rose recoiled, and +turned as white as though she had been a ghost.</p> + +<p>"It is very late, Miss Rose," said Ogden calmly. "I think you had better +not stay here any longer."</p> + +<p>Rose clasped her hands supplicatingly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ogden! Don't tell papa! Pray, don't tell papa!"</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry, Miss Rose, but it would be as much as my place is +worth. I must!"</p> + +<p>He stood aside to let her pass. Rose, with all her flightiness, was too +proud to plead with a servant, and walked out in silence.</p> + +<p>Not an instant too soon. As she opened her door, some one came upstairs; +some one who was tall, and slight; and muffled in a long cloak.</p> + +<p>He passed through the baize door, before she had time to see his face, +closed it after him, and was gone.</p> + +<p>Rose locked her door, afraid of she know not what; and sat down on the +bedside to think. Who was this Mr. Richards who passed for an invalid, +and who was no invalid? Why was he shut up here, where no one could see +him, and why was all this mystery? Rose thought of "Jane Eyre" and Mr. +Rochester's wife, but Mr. Richards could not be mad or they never would +trust him out alone at night. What, too, would her father say to her +to-morrow? She quailed a little at the thought; she had never seen her +indulgent father out of temper in her life. He took the most +disagreeable contre-temps with imperturbable good-humour, but how would +he take this?</p> + +<p>"I should not like to offend papa," thought Rose, uneasily. "He is very +good to me, and does everything I ask him. I do hope he won't be angry. +I almost wish I had not gone!"</p> + +<p>There was no sleep for her that night. When morning came, she was almost +afraid to go down to breakfast and face her father; but when the bell +rang, and she did descend, her father was not there.</p> + +<p>Ogden came in with his master's excuses—Captain Danton was very busy, +and would breakfast in his study. The news took away Rose's morning +appetite; she sat crumbling her roll on her plate, and feeling that +Ogden had told him, and that that was the cause of his non-appearance.</p> + +<p>As they rose from the table, Ogden entered again, bowed gravely to Rose, +and informed her she was wanted in the study.</p> + +<p>Kate looked at her sister in surprise, and noticed with wonder her +changing face. But Rose, without a word, followed the valet, her heart +throbbing faster than it had throbbed last night.</p> + +<p>Captain Danton was pacing up and down his study when she entered, with +the sternest face she had ever seen him wear. In silence he pointed to a +seat, continuing his walk; his daughter sat down, pale, but otherwise +dauntless.</p> + +<p>"Rose!" he said, stopping before her, "what took you into Mr. Richards' +rooms last night?"</p> + +<p>"Curiosity, papa," replied Rose, readily, but in secret quaking.</p> + +<p>"Do you know you did a very mean act? Do you know you were playing the +spy?"</p> + +<p>The colour rushed to Rose's face, and her head dropped.</p> + +<p>"You knew you were forbidden to enter there; you knew you were prying +into what was no affair of yours; you knew you were doing wrong, and +would displease me; and yet in the face of all this, you deliberately +stole into his room like a spy, like a thief, to discover for yourself. +Rose Danton, I am ashamed of you!"</p> + +<p>Rose burst out crying. Her father was very angry, and deeply mortified; +and Rose really was very fond of her indulgent father.</p> + +<p>"Oh, papa! I didn't mean—I never thought—oh, please, papa, forgive +me!"</p> + +<p>Captain Danton resumed his walk up and down, his anger softened at the +sight of her distress.</p> + +<p>"Is it the first time this has occurred?" he asked, stopping again; "the +truth, Rose, I can forgive anything but a lie."</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa."</p> + +<p>"You never have been there before?"</p> + +<p>"No, never!"</p> + +<p>Again he resumed his walk, and again he stopped before her.</p> + +<p>"Why did you go last night?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't sleep, papa. I felt worried about something, and I was +sitting by the window. I heard Mr. Richards' door open, and some one +come out and rap at Kate's room. Kate opened it, and I heard them +talking."</p> + +<p>Her father interrupted her.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear what they said?" he asked sharply.</p> + +<p>"No papa—only the sound of their voices. It was not your voice, nor +Ogden's; so I concluded it must be Mr. Richards' himself. I heard him go +down stairs, and then I peeped out. His door was open, and I—I—"</p> + +<p>"Went in!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa," very humbly.</p> + +<p>"Did you see Mr. Richards?"</p> + +<p>"I saw some one, tall and slight, come up stairs and go in, but I did +not see his face."</p> + +<p>"And that is all!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa."</p> + +<p>Once more he began pacing backward and forward, his face very grave, but +not so stern. Rose watched him askance, nervous and uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>"My daughter," he said at last, "you have done very wrong, and grieved +me more than I can say. This is a serious matter—more serious by far +than you imagine. You have discovered, probably, that other reasons than +illness confine Mr. Richards to his rooms."</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Richards is not an invalid—at least not now—although he was ill +when he came here. But the reasons that keep him a prisoner in this +house are so very grave that I dare not confide them to you. This much I +will say—his life depends upon it."</p> + +<p>"Papa!" Rose cried, startled.</p> + +<p>"His life depends upon it," repeated Captain Danton. "Only three in this +house know his secret—myself, Ogden, and your sister Kate. Ogden and +Kate I can trust implicitly; can I place equal confidence in you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa," very faintly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Richards," pursued Captain Danton, with a slight tremor of voice, +"is the nearest and dearest friend I have on this earth. It would break +my heart, Rose, if an ill befell him. Do you see now why I am so anxious +to preserve his secret; why I felt so deeply your rash act of last +night?"</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, papa!" sobbed Rose. "I am sorry; I didn't know. Oh, please, +papa!"</p> + +<p>He stooped and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"My thoughtless little girl! Heaven knows how freely I forgive you—only +promise me your word of honour not to breathe a word of this."</p> + +<p>"I promise, papa."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, my dear. And now you may go; I have some writing to do. Go +and take a ride to cheer you up after all this dismal talk, and get back +your roses before luncheon time."</p> + +<p>He kissed her again and held the door open for her to pass out. Rose, +with a great weight off her mind went down the passage, and met Eeny +running upstairs.</p> + +<p>"I say, Rose," exclaimed her sister, "don't you want to go to a ball? +Well, there are invitations for the Misses Danton in the parlour."</p> + +<p>"A ball, Eeny? Where?"</p> + +<p>"At the Ponsonbys', next Thursday night. Sir Ronald, Doctor Frank, papa, +and Mr. Stanford are all invited."</p> + +<p>Rose's delight at the news banished all memory of the unpleasant scene +just over. A ball was the summit of Rose's earthly bliss, and a ball at +the Ponsonbys' really meant something. In ten minutes her every thought +was absorbed in the great question, "What shall I wear?"</p> + +<p>"To-day is Wednesday," thought Rose. "Thursday one, Friday two, Saturday +three, Monday four, Tuesday five, Wednesday six, Thursday seven. Plenty +of time to have my new silk made. I'll go and speak to Agnes at once."</p> + +<p>She tripped away to the sewing-room in search of the little seamstress. +The door was ajar; she pushed it open, but paused in astonishment at the +sight which met her eyes.</p> + +<p>The sewing-room was on the ground floor, its one window about five feet +from the ground. At this window which was open, sat the seamstress, her +work lying idly on her lap, twisting her fingers in a restless, nervous +sort of way peculiar to her. Leaning against the window from without, +his arm on the sill, stood Doctor Danton, talking as if he had known +Agnes Darling all his life.</p> + +<p>The noise of Rose's entrance, slight as it was, caught his quick ear. He +looked up and met her surprised eyes, coolly composedly.</p> + +<p>"Don't let me intrude!" said Rose, entering, when she found herself +discovered. "I did not expect to see Doctor Danton here."</p> + +<p>"Very likely," replied the imperturbable Doctor; "it is an old habit of +mine turning up in unexpected places. Besides, what was I to do? Grace +in the kitchen was invisible, Miss Kate had gone riding with Mr. +Stanford, Miss Rose was closeted mysteriously with papa. Miss Eeny, +practising the 'Battle of Prague,' was not to be disturbed. In my +distraction I came here, where Miss Darling has kindly permitted me to +remain and study the art of dressmaking."</p> + +<p>He made his speech purposely long, that Rose might not see Miss +Darling's confused face. But Rose saw it, and believed as much of the +gentleman's story as she chose.</p> + +<p>"And now that you have discovered it," said Rose, "I dare say we will +have you flying on all occasions to this refugium peccatorum. Are you +going? Don't let me frighten you away."</p> + +<p>"You don't; but I want to smoke a cigar under the tamaracks. You haven't +such a thing as a match about you, have you? No matter; I've got one +myself."</p> + +<p>He strolled away. Rose looked suspiciously at the still confused face of +the sewing-girl.</p> + +<p>"How do you come to know Doctor Danton?" she asked abruptly.</p> + +<p>"I—he—I mean the window was open and he was passing, and he stopped to +speak," stammered Agnes, more confusedly still.</p> + +<p>"I dare say," said Rose; "but he would not have stopped unless he had +known you before, would he?"</p> + +<p>"I—saw him once by accident before—I don't know him—"</p> + +<p>She stopped and looked piteously at Rose. She was a childish little +thing, very nervous, and evidently afraid of any more questions.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Rose, curtly; "if you don't choose to tell, of course you +needn't. He never was a lover of yours, was he?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! no! no!"</p> + +<p>"Then I don't see anything to get so confused about. What are you +working at?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Eeny's jacket."</p> + +<p>"Then Miss Eeny's jacket must wait, for I want my new silk made for +Thursday evening. Come up to my room, and get to work at once."</p> + +<p>Agnes rose obediently. Rose led the way, her mind straying back to the +scene in the sewing-room her entrance had disturbed.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Miss Darling," she broke out; "you must have known Doctor +Danton before. Now you needn't deny it. Your very face proves you +guilty. Tell the truth, and shame the——. Didn't you know him before +you came to Danton Hall?"</p> + +<p>They were in Roses room by this time. To the great surprise of that +inquisitive young lady, Agnes Darling sank down upon a lounge, covered +her face with her hands, and burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"Goodness me!" exclaimed the second Miss Danton, as soon as surprise +would let her speak, "what on earth is the matter with you? What are you +crying about? What has Doctor Danton done to you?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing! nothing!" cried the worried little seamstress. "Oh, nothing! +It is not that! I am very foolish and weak; but oh, please don't mind +me, and don't ask me about it. I can't help it, and I am very, very +unhappy."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Rose, after a blank pause; "stop crying. I didn't know you +would take it so seriously, or I shouldn't have asked you. Here's the +dress, and I want you to take a great deal of pains with it, Agnes. Take +my measure."</p> + +<p>Rose said no more to the seamstress on a subject so evidently +distressing; but that evening she took Doctor Frank himself to task. She +was at the piano, which Kate had vacated for a game of chess with Mr. +Stanford, and Grace's brother was devotedly turning her music. Rose +looked up at him abruptly, her fingers still rattling off a lively +mazurka.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Danton, what have you been doing to Agnes Darling?"</p> + +<p>"I! Doing! I don't understand!"</p> + +<p>"Of course you don't. Where was it you knew her?"</p> + +<p>"Who says I knew her?"</p> + +<p>"I do. There, no fibs; they won't convince me, and you will only be +committing sin for nothing. Was it in Montreal?"</p> + +<p>"Really, Miss Rose—"</p> + +<p>"That will do. She won't tell, she only cries. You won't tell; you only +equivocate. I don't care. I'll find out sooner or later."</p> + +<p>"Was she crying?"</p> + +<p>"I should think so. People like to make mysteries in this house, in my +opinion. Where there is secrecy there is something wrong. This morning +was not the first time you ever talked to Agnes Darling."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," replied Doctor Danton, with a very grave face; "but, poor +child! what right have I to make known the trials she has undergone? She +has been very unfortunate, and I once had the opportunity to befriend +her. That is all I know of her, or am at liberty to tell."</p> + +<p>There was that in Doctor Frank's face that, despite Rose's assurance, +forbade her asking any more questions.</p> + +<p>"But I shall never rest till I find out," thought the young lady. "I've +got at Mr. Richards' and I'll get at yours as sure as my name is Rose."</p> + +<p>The intervening days before the ball, Rose was too much absorbed in her +preparations, and anticipations of conquest, to give her mind much to +Agnes Darling and her secrets. That great and hidden trouble of her +life—her unfortunate love affair, was worrying her too. Mr. Stanford, +in pursuance of his promise to Kate, played the agreeable to her sister +with a provoking perseverance that was proof against any amount of +snubbing, and that nearly drove Rose wild. He would take a seat by her +side, always in Kate's presence, and talk to her by the hour, while she +could but listen, and rebel inwardly. Never, even while she chafed most, +had she loved him better. That power of fascination, that charm of face, +of voice, of smile, that had conquered her fickle heart the first time +she saw him, enthralled her more and more hopelessly with every passing +day. It was very hard to sit there, sullen and silent, and keep her eyes +averted, but the Danton pluck stood her in good stead, and the memory of +his treachery to her goaded her on.</p> + +<p>"It's of no use, Kate," he said to his lady-love; "our pretty Rose will +have nothing to say to me. I more than half believe she is in love with +that very clever Doctor Frank."</p> + +<p>"Dr. Frank? Oh, no; he is not half handsome enough for Rose."</p> + +<p>"He is a thoroughly fine fellow, though. Are you quite sure he has not +taken Rose captive?"</p> + +<p>"Quite. He is very well to flirt with—nothing more. Rose cares nothing +for him, but I am not so sure he does not care for her. Rose is very +pretty."</p> + +<p>"Very," smiled Mr. Stanford, "and knows it. I wonder if she will dance +with me the night of the ball?"</p> + +<p>The night of the ball came, bright, frosty, and calm. The large, roomy, +old-fashioned family carriage held Rose, Eeny, Sir Ronald, and Doctor +Danton, while Mr. Stanford drove Kate over in a light cutter. The +Ponsonbys, who were a very uplifted sort of people, had not invited +Grace; and Captain Danton, at the last moment, announced his intention +of staying at home also.</p> + +<p>"I am very comfortable where I am," said the Captain, lounging in an +arm-chair before the blazing fire; "and the trouble of dressing and +going out this cold night is more than the ball is worth. Make my +excuses, my dear; tell them I have had a sudden attack of gout, if you +like, or anything else that comes uppermost."</p> + +<p>"But, papa," expostulated Kate, very much surprised, for the master of +Danton Hall was eminently social in his habits, "I should like you to +come so much, and the Ponsonbys will be so disappointed."</p> + +<p>"They'll survive it, my dear, never fear. I prefer staying at home with +Grace and Father Francis, who will drop in by-and-by. There, Kate, my +dear, don't waste your breath coaxing. Reginald, take her away."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford, with the faintest shadow of a knowing smile on his face, +took Kate's arm and led her down stairs.</p> + +<p>"The brown eyes and serene face of your demure housekeeper have stronger +charms for my papa-in-law than anything within the four walls of the +Ponsonbys. What would Kate say, I wonder, if I told her?"</p> + +<p>As usual, Captain Danton's two daughters were the belles of the room. +Kate was queenly as ever, and as far out of the reach of everything +masculine, with one exception, as the moon; Rose, in a changeful silk, +half dove, half pink, that blushed as she walked, with a wreath of ivy +in her glossy hair, turned heads wherever she went. Doctor Frank had the +privilege of the first dance. After that she was surrounded by all the +most eligible young men in the room. Rose, with a glow on her rounded +cheeks, and a brilliancy in her eyes, that excitement had lent, danced +and flirted, and laughed, and sang, and watched furtively, all the +while, the only man present she cared one iota for. That eminently +handsome young officer, Mr. Stanford, after devoting himself, as in duty +bound, to his stately fiancée, resigned her, after a while, to an +epauletted Colonel from Montreal, and made himself agreeable to Helen +Ponsonby, and Emily Howard, and sundry other pretty girls. Rose watched +him angry and jealous inwardly, smiling and radiant outwardly. Their +fingers touched in the same set, but Rose never deigned him a glance. +Her perfumed skirts brushed him as she flew by in the redowa, but she +never looked up.</p> + +<p>"He shall see how little I care," thought jealous Rose. "I suppose he +thinks I am dying for him, but he shall find out how much he is +mistaken."</p> + +<p>With this thought in her mind, she sat down while her partner went for +an ice. It was the first time that night she had been a moment alone. +Mr. Stanford, leaning against a pillar idly, took advantage of it, and +was beside her before she knew it. Her cheeks turned scarlet, and her +heart quickened involuntarily as he sat down beside her.</p> + +<p>"I have been ignored so palpably all evening that I am half afraid to +come near you," he said; "will it be high treason to ask you to waltz +with me!"</p> + +<p>Alas for Rose's heroic resolutions! How was she to resist the persuasive +voice and smile of this man? How was she to resist the delight of +waltzing with him? She bowed in silence, still with averted eyes; and +Lieutenant Stanford, smiling slightly, drew her hand within his arm. Her +late partner came up with the ice, but Rose had got something better +than ice cream, and did not want it. The music of the German waltz +filled the long ball-room with harmony; his arm slid round her waist, +her hand was clasped in his, the wax floor slipped from under her feet, +and Rose floated away into elysium.</p> + +<p>The valse d'ecstase was over, and they were in a dim, half-lighted +conservatory. Tropical flowers bloomed around them, scenting the warm +air; delicious music floated entrancingly in. The cold white wintry moon +flooded the outer world with its frosty glory, and Rose felt as if +fairyland were no myth, and fairy tales no delusion. They were alone in +the conservatory; how they got there she never knew; how she came to be +clinging to his arm, forgetful of past, present, and future, she never +could understand.</p> + +<p>"Rose," said that most musical of voices; "when will you learn to forget +and forgive? See, here is a peace-offering!"</p> + +<p>He had a white camellia in his button-hole—a flower that half an hour +ago had been chief beauty of Kate's bouquet. He took it out now, and +twined its long stem in and out of her abundant curls.</p> + +<p>"Wear it," he said, "and I shall know I am forgiven. Wear it for my +sake, Rose."</p> + +<p>There was a rustling behind them of a lady's-dress, and the deep tones +of a man's voice talking. Rose started away from his side, the guilty +blood rushing to her face at sight of her elder sister on Doctor +Danton's arm.</p> + +<p>Kate's clear eyes fixed on her sister's flushed, confused face, on the +waxen camellia, her gift to her lover, and then turned upon Mr. +Stanford. That eminently nonchalant young Englishman was as cool as the +frosty winter night.</p> + +<p>"I should think you two might have selected some other apartment in the +house for a promenade, and not come interrupting here," he said, +advancing. "Miss Rose and I were enjoying the first tête-à-tête we have +had since my arrival. But as you are here, Kate, and as I believe we are +to dance the German together—"</p> + +<p>"And you resign Miss Rose to me?" said Doctor Frank.</p> + +<p>"There is no alternative. Take good care of her, and adieu."</p> + +<p>He led Kate out of the conservatory. Doctor Frank offered his arm to +Rose, still hovering guiltily aloof.</p> + +<p>"And I believe you promised to initiate me into the mysteries of the +German. Well, do you want me?"</p> + +<p>This last was to a man-servant who had entered, and looked as if he had +something to say.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir—if you are Doctor Danton."</p> + +<p>"I am Doctor Danton. What is it?"</p> + +<p>"It's a servant from the Hall, sir. Captain Danton's compliments, and +would you go there at once?"</p> + +<p>Rose gave a little scream, and clutched her companion's arm.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Doctor Frank, can papa be sick?"</p> + +<p>"No, Miss," said the man, respectfully, "it's not your father; it's the +young woman what sews, Thomas says—" hesitating.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Doctor Frank, "Thomas says what?"</p> + +<p>"Thomas says, sir, she see a ghost!"</p> + +<p>"A what?"</p> + +<p>"A ghost, sir; that's what Thomas says," replied the man, with a grin; +"and she's gone off into fainting-fits, and would you return at once, he +says. The sleigh is at the door."</p> + +<p>"Tell him I will be there immediately."</p> + +<p>He turned to Rose, smiling at her blank face.</p> + +<p>"What shall I do with you, Mademoiselle? To whom shall I consign you? I +must make my adieus to Mrs. Ponsonby and depart."</p> + +<p>Rose grasped his arm, and held it tight, her bewildered eyes fixed on +his face.</p> + +<p>"Seen a ghost!" she repeated blankly. "That is twice! Doctor Frank, is +Danton Hall haunted?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; haunted by the spirit of mischief in the shape of Rose Danton, +nothing worse."</p> + +<p>"But this is the second time. There was old Margery, and now Agnes +Darling. There must be something in it!"</p> + +<p>"Of course there is—an over-excited imagination. Miss Darling has seen +a tall tree covered with snow waving in the moonlight, and has gone into +fainting fits. Now, my dear Miss, don't hold me captive any longer; for, +trying as it is, I really must leave you."</p> + +<p>Rose dropped his arm.</p> + +<p>"Yes, go at once. Never mind me; I am going in search of Kate."</p> + +<p>It took some time to find Kate. When found, she was dancing with a +red-coated officer, and Rose had to wait until the dance was over.</p> + +<p>She made her way to her sister's side immediately. Miss Danton turned to +her with a brilliant smile, that faded at the first glance.</p> + +<p>"How pale you are, Rose! What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Am I pale?" said Rose, carelessly; "the heat, I dare-say. Do you know +Doctor Frank has gone?"</p> + +<p>"Gone! Where?"</p> + +<p>"To the Hall. Papa sent for him."</p> + +<p>"Papa? Oh, Rose—"</p> + +<p>"There! There is no occasion to be alarmed; papa is well enough; it is +Agnes Darling."</p> + +<p>"Agnes! What is the matter with Agnes?"</p> + +<p>"She has seen a ghost!"</p> + +<p>Kate stared—so did the young officer.</p> + +<p>"What did you say, Rose?" inquired Kate, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"She—has—seen—a—ghost!" slowly repeated Rose; "as old Margery did +before her, you know; and, like Margery, has gone off into fits. Papa +sent for Doctor Frank, and he departed half an hour ago."</p> + +<p>Slowly out of Kate's face every trace of colour faded. She rose +abruptly, a frightened look in her blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"Rose, I must go home—I must see Agnes. Captain Grierson, will you be +kind enough to find Mr. Stanford and send him?"</p> + +<p>Captain Grierson hastened on his mission. Rose looked at her with wide +open eyes.</p> + +<p>"Go home—so early! Why, Kate, what are you thinking of?"</p> + +<p>"Of Agnes Darling. You can stay, if you like. Sir Ronald is your +escort."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. A charming escort he is, too—grimmer than old Time in the +primer. No; if you leave, so do I."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford sauntered up while she was speaking, and Rose drew back.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Kate? Grierson says you are going home."</p> + +<p>Kate's answer was an explanation. Mr. Reginald Stanford set up an +indecorous laugh.</p> + +<p>"A ghost! That's capital! Why did you not tell me before that Danton +Hall was haunted, Kate?"</p> + +<p>"I want to return immediately," was Kate's answer a little coldly. "I +must speak to Mr. Ponsonby and find Eeny. Tell Sir Ronald, please, and +hold yourself in readiness to attend us."</p> + +<p>She swept off with Rose to find their hostess. Mrs. Ponsonby's regrets +were unutterable, but Miss Danton was resolute.</p> + +<p>"How absurd, you know, Helen," she said, to her daughter, when they were +gone; "such nonsense about a sick seamstress."</p> + +<p>"I thought Kate Danton was proud," said Miss Helen. "That does not look +like it. I am not sorry she has gone, however, half the men in the room +were making idiots of themselves about her."</p> + +<p>Kate and Reginald Stanford returned as they had come, in the light +sleigh; and Sir Ronald, Rose and Eeny, in the carriage. Rose, wrapped in +her mantel, shrunk away in a corner, and never opened her lips. She +watched gloomily, and so did the baronet, the cutter flying past over +glittering snow, and Kate's sweet face, pale as the moonlight itself.</p> + +<p>Captain Danton met them in the entrance hall, his florid face less +cheery than usual. Kate came forward, her anxious inquiring eyes +speaking for her.</p> + +<p>"Better, my dear; much better," her father answered. "Doctor Frank works +miracles. Grace and he are with her; he has given her an opiate, and I +believe she is asleep."</p> + +<p>"But what is it, papa?" cried Rose. "Did she see a ghost!"</p> + +<p>"A ghost, my dear," said the Captain, chucking her under the chin. "You +girls are as silly as geese, and imagine you see anything you like. She +isn't able to tell what frightened her, poor little thing! Eunice is the +only one who seems to know anything at all about it."</p> + +<p>"And what does Eunice say?" asked Kate.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Captain Danton, "it seems Eunice and Agnes were to sit up +for you two young ladies, who are not able to take off your own clothes +yet, and they chose Rose's room so sit in. About two hours ago, Agnes +complained of toothache, and said she would go down stairs for some +painkiller that was in the sewing-room. Eunice, who was half-asleep, +remained where she was; and ten minutes after heard a scream that +frightened her out of her wits. We had all retired, but the night-lamp +was burning; and rushing out, she found Agnes leaning against the wall, +all white and trembling. The moment Eunice spoke to her, 'I saw his +ghost!' she said, in a choking whisper, and fell back in a dead faint in +Eunice's arms. I found her so when I came out, for Eunice cried lustily +for help, and Grace and all the servants were there in two minutes. We +did everything for her, but all in vain. She lay like one dead. Then +Grace proposed to send for her brother. We sent. He came, and brought +the dead to life."</p> + +<p>"An extraordinary tale," said Reginald Stanford. "When she came to life, +what did she say?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing. Doctor Frank gave her an opiate that soothed her and sent her +to sleep."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, Doctor Frank himself appeared, his calm face as +impenetrable as ever.</p> + +<p>"How is your patient, Doctor?" asked Kate.</p> + +<p>"Much better, Miss Kate. In a day or two we will have her all right, I +think. She is a nervous little creature, with an overstrung and highly +imaginative temperament. I wonder she has not seen ghosts long ago."</p> + +<p>"You are not thinking of leaving us," said Captain Danton. "No, no, I +won't hear of it. We can give you a bed and breakfast here equal to +anything down at the hotel, and it will save you a journey up to-morrow +morning. Is Grace with her yet?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Grace insists on remaining till morning. There is no necessity, +though, for she will not awake."</p> + +<p>Kate gathered up the folds of her rich ball-dress, and ran up the +polished oaken stair, nodding adieu. Not to her own room, however, but +to that of the seamstress.</p> + +<p>The small chamber was dimly lighted by a lamp turned low. By the bedside +sat Grace, wrapped in a shawl; on the pillow lay the white face of Agnes +Darling, calm in her slumber, but colourless as the pillow itself.</p> + +<p>Kate bent over her, and Grace arose at her entrance. It was such a +contrast; the stately, beautiful girl, with jewelled flowers in her +hair, her costly robe trailing the carpetless floor, the perfume of her +dress and golden hair scenting the room, and the wan little creature, so +wasted and pale, lying asleep on the low bed. Her hands grasped the +bed-clothes in her slumber, and with every rise and fall of her breast, +rose and fell a little locket worn round her neck by a black cord. +Kate's fingers touched it lightly.</p> + +<p>"Poor soul!" she said; "poor little Agnes! Are you going to stay with +her until morning, Grace?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss Danton."</p> + +<p>"I could not go to my room without seeing her; but now, there is no +necessity to linger. Good-morning."</p> + +<p>Miss Danton left the room. Grace sat down again, and looked at the +locket curiously.</p> + +<p>"I should like to open that and see whose picture it contains, and +yet—"</p> + +<p>She looked a little ashamed, and drew back the hand that touched it. But +curiosity—woman's intensest passion—was not to be resisted.</p> + +<p>"What harm can it be?" she thought. "She will never know."</p> + +<p>She lifted the locket, lightly touched the spring, and it flew open. It +contained more than a picture, although there was a picture of a +handsome, boyish face that somehow had to Grace a familiar look. A slip +of folded paper, a plain gold ring, and a tress of brown, curly hair +dropped out. Grace opened the little slip of paper, and read it with an +utterly confounded face. It was partly written and partly printed, and +was the marriage certificate of Agnes Grant and Henry Darling. It bore +date New York, two years before.</p> + +<p>Grace dropped the paper astounded. Miss Agnes Darling was a married +woman, then, and, childish as she looked, had been so for two years. +What were her reasons for denying it, and where was Henry Darling—dead +or deserted?</p> + +<p>She look at the pictured face again. Very good-looking, but very +youthful and irresolute. Whom had she ever seen that looked like that? +Some one, surely, for it was as familiar as her own in the glass; but +who, or where, or when, was all densest mystery.</p> + +<p>There was an uneasy movement of the sleeper. Grace, feeling guilty, put +back hastily the tress of hair—his, no doubt—the ring—a wedding-ring, +of course—and the marriage certificate. She closed the locket, and laid +it back on the fluttering heart. Poor little pale Agnes! that great +trouble of woman's life, loving and losing, had come to her then +already.</p> + +<p>In the cold, gray dawn of the early morning, Grace resigned her office +to Babette, the housemaid, and sought her room. Agnes Darling still +slept—the merciful sleep Doctor Frank's opiate had given her.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>A GAME FOR TWO TO PLAY AT.</h3> + + +<p>A cold, raw, rainy, dismal morning—the sky black and hopeless of +sunshine, the long bleak blasts complaining around the old house, and +rattling ghostily the skeleton trees. The rain was more sleet than rain; +for it froze as it fell, and clattered noisily against the blurred +window-glass. A morning for hot coffee and muffins, and roaring fires +and newspapers and easy-chairs, and in which you would not have the +heart to turn your enemy's dog from the door.</p> + +<p>Doctor Danton stood this wild and wintry February morning at his chamber +window, looking out absently at the slanting sleet, not thinking of +it—not thinking of the pale blank of wet mist shrouding the distant +fields and marshes, and village and river, but of something that made +him knit his brows in perplexed, reflection.</p> + +<p>"What was it she saw last, night?" he mused. "No spectre of the +imagination, and no bona-fide ghost. Old Margery saw something, and now +Agnes. I wonder—"</p> + +<p>He stopped, there was a knock at the door.</p> + +<p>"Come in," he said, and Grace entered.</p> + +<p>"I did not know you were up," said Grace. "But it is very fortunate as +it happens. I have just been to Miss Darling's room, and she is crying +out for you in the wildest Manner."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said her brother, rising, "has she been awake long?"</p> + +<p>"Nearly an hour, Babette tells me, and all that time she has been +frantically calling for you. Her manner is quite frenzied, and I fear—"</p> + +<p>"What do you fear?"</p> + +<p>"That last night's fright has disordered her reason."</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid! I will go to her at once."</p> + +<p>He left the room as he spoke, and ran upstairs to the chamber of the +seamstress. The gray morning twilight stole drearily through the closed +shutter, and the lamp burned dim and dismal still. Babette sat by the +bedside trying to soothe her charge in very bad English, and evidently +but with little success. The bed-clothes had been tossed off, the little +thin hands closed and unclosed in them—the great dark eyes were wide +and wild—the black hair all tossed and disordered on the pillow.</p> + +<p>Babette rose precipitately at the Doctor's entrance.</p> + +<p>"Here's the Doctor, Mees Darling. May I go now, Monsieur?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you may go; but remain outside, in case I should, want you."</p> + +<p>He shut the door on Babette, and took her place by the sick girl's +bedside.</p> + +<p>Babette lingered in the passage, staring at the stormy morning, and +gaping forlornly.</p> + +<p>"I hope he won't be long," she thought. "I want to go to bed."</p> + +<p>Dr. Frank, however, was long. Eight struck somewhere in the house; that +was half an hour, and there was no sign of his coming. Babette shivered +under her shawl, and looked more drearily than ever at the lashing sleet.</p> + +<p>Nine—another hour, and no sign from the sick-room, yet. Babette rose up +in desperation, but just at that moment Grace came upstairs.</p> + +<p>"You here, Babette!" she said, surprised. "Who is with Agnes?"</p> + +<p>"The Doctor, Mademoiselle! he told me to wait until he came out, and I +have waited, and I am too sleepy to wait any longer. May I go, +Mademoiselle?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, go," said Grace, "I will take your place."</p> + +<p>Babette departed with alacrity, and Grace sat down by the storm-beaten +window. She listened for some sound from the sick-room, but none +rewarded her. Nothing was to be heard but the storm, without, and now +and then the opening and shutting of some door within.</p> + +<p>Another half-hour. Then the door of the seamstress's room opened, and +her brother came out. How pale he was—paler and graver than his sister +ever remembered seeing him before.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, rising, "how is your patient?"</p> + +<p>"Better," he briefly answered, "very much better."</p> + +<p>"I thought she was worse, you look so pale."</p> + +<p>"Pale, do I? This dismal morning, I suppose. Grace," he said, lowering +his tone and looking at her fixedly, "whose ghost did old Margery say +she saw?"</p> + +<p>"Whose ghost! What a question!"</p> + +<p>"Answer it!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be so imperative, please. Master Harry's ghost, she said."</p> + +<p>"And Master Harry is Captain Danton's son?"</p> + +<p>"Was—he is dead now."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes! he was killed in New York, I believe."</p> + +<p>"So they say. The family never speak of him. He was the black sheep of +the flock, you know. But why do you ask? Was it his ghost Agnes saw?"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! Of course not! What should she know of Captain Danton's son? +Some one—one of the servants probably—came up the stairs and +frightened her out of her nervous wits. I have been trying to talk a +little sense into her foolish head these two hours."</p> + +<p>"And have you succeeded?"</p> + +<p>"Partly. But don't ask her any questions on the subject; and don't let +Miss Danton or any one who may visit her ask any questions. It upsets +her, and I won't be answerable for the consequences."</p> + +<p>"It is very strange," said Grace, looking at her brother intently, "very +strange that old Margery and Agnes Darling should both see an apparition +in this house. There must be something in it."</p> + +<p>"Of course there is—didn't I tell you so—an overheated imagination. I +have known more extraordinary optical illusions than that in my time. +How is Margery—better again?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed. She will never get over her scare in this world. She keeps +a light in her room all night, and makes one of the maids sleep with +her, and won't be alone a moment, night or day."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Doctor Frank, with professional phlegm. "Of course! She is an +old woman, and we could hardly expect anything else. Does she talk much +of the ghost?"</p> + +<p>"No. The slightest allusion to the subject agitates her for the whole +day. No one dare mention ghosts in Margery's presence."</p> + +<p>"I hope you will all be equally discreet with Miss Darling. Time will +wear away the hallucination, if you women only hold your tongues. I must +caution Rose, who has an unfortunate habit of letting out whatever comes +uppermost. Ah! here she is!"</p> + +<p>"Were you talking of me?" inquired Miss Rose, tripping upstairs, fresh +and pretty, in a blue merino morning dress, with soft white trimmings.</p> + +<p>"Do I ever talk of any one else?" said Dr. Frank.</p> + +<p>"Pooh! How is Agnes Darling?"</p> + +<p>"As well as can be expected, after seeing a ghost!"</p> + +<p>"Did she see a ghost, though?" asked Rose, opening her hazel eyes.</p> + +<p>"Of course she did; and my advice to you, Miss Rose, is to go to bed +every night at dark, and to sleep immediately, with your head covered up +in the bed-clothes, or you may happen to see one too."</p> + +<p>"Thank you for your advice, which I don't want and won't take. Whose +ghost did she see?"</p> + +<p>"The ghost of Hamlet's father, perhaps—she doesn't know; before she +could take a second look it vanished in a cloud of blue flame, and she +swooned away!"</p> + +<p>"Doctor Danton," said Rose, sharply, "I wish you would talk sense. I'll +go and ask Agnes herself about it. I want to get at the bottom of this +affair."</p> + +<p>"A very laudable desire, which I regret being obliged to frustrate," +said Doctor Danton, placing himself between her and the door.</p> + +<p>"You!" cried Rose, drawing herself up. "What do you mean, sir?"</p> + +<p>"As Miss Agnes Darling's medical attendant, my dear Miss Rose,—deeply +as it wounds me to refuse your slightest request—I really must forbid +any step of the kind. The consequences might be serious."</p> + +<p>"And I am not to see her if I choose?" demanded Rose, her eyes quite +flashing.</p> + +<p>"Certainly you are to see her, and to fetch her jelly, and chicken, and +toast, and tea, if you will; but you are not to speak of the ghost. That +blood-curdling subject is absolutely tabooed in the sick-room, unless—"</p> + +<p>"Unless what?" inquired Rose, angrily.</p> + +<p>"Unless you want to make a maniac of her. I am serious in this; you must +not allude in the remotest way to the cause of her illness when you +visit her, or you may regret your indiscretion while you live."</p> + +<p>He spoke with a gravity that showed that he was in earnest. Rose +shrugged her shoulders impatiently, and walked to Agnes' door. Grace +followed at a sign from her brother, who ran down stairs.</p> + +<p>The sick girl was not asleep—she lay with her eyes wide open, staring +vacantly at the white wall. She looked at them, when they entered, with +a half-frightened, half-inquiring gaze.</p> + +<p>"Are you better, Agnes?" asked Rose, looking down at the colourless +face.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!"</p> + +<p>She answered nervously, her fingers twisting in and out of her +bed-clothes—her eyes wandering uneasily from one to the other.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't you like something to eat?" inquired Rose, not knowing what +else to say.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!"</p> + +<p>"You had better have some tea," said Grace decisively. "It will do you +good. I will fetch you up some presently. Rose, there is the breakfast +bell."</p> + +<p>Rose, with a parting nod to Agnes, went off, very much disappointed, and +in high dudgeon with Doctor Frank for not letting her cross-examine the +seamstress on the subject of the ghost.</p> + +<p>"The ghost she saw must have been Mr. Richards returning from his +midnight stroll," thought Rose, shrewdly. "My opinion is, he is the only +ghost in Danton Hall."</p> + +<p>There was very little allusion made to the affair of last night, at the +breakfast-table. It seemed to be tacitly understood that the subject was +disagreeable; and beyond an inquiry of the Doctor, "How is your patient +this morning?" nothing was said. But all felt vaguely there was some +mystery. Doctor Frank's theory of optical illusion satisfied no +one—there was something at the bottom that they did not understand.</p> + +<p>The stormy day grew stormier as it wore on. Rose sat down at the +drawing-room piano after breakfast, and tried to while away the forlorn +morning with music. Kate was there, trying to work off a bad headache +with a complicated piece of embroidery and a conversation with Mr. +Reginald Stanford. That gentleman sat on an ottoman at her feet, sorting +silks, and beads, and Berlin wool, and Rose was above casting even a +glance at them. Captain Danton, Sir Ronald, and the Doctor were playing +billiards at the other end of the rambling old house. And upstairs poor +Agnes Darling tossed feverishly on her hot pillow, and moaned, and slept +fitfully, and murmured a name in her troubled sleep, and Grace watching +her, and listening, heard the name "Harry."</p> + +<p>Some of the gloom of the wretched day seemed to play on Rose's spirits. +She sang all the melancholy songs she knew, in a mournful, minor key, +until the conversation of the other two ceased, and they felt as dismal +as herself.</p> + +<p>"Rose, don't!" Kate cried out in desperation at length. "Your songs are +enough to give one the horrors. Here is Reginald with a face as gloomy +as the day."</p> + +<p>Rose got up in displeased silence, closed the piano, and walked to the +door.</p> + +<p>"Pray don't!" said Stanford; "don't leave us. Kate and I have nothing +more to say to one another, and I have a thousand things to say to you."</p> + +<p>"You must defer them, I fear," replied Rose. "Kate will raise your +spirits with more enlivening music when I am gone."</p> + +<p>"A good idea," said Kate's lover, when the door closed; "come, my dear +girl, give us something a little less depressing than that we have just +been favoured with."</p> + +<p>"How odd," said Kate languidly, "that Rose will not like you. I cannot +understand it."</p> + +<p>"Neither can I," replied Mr. Stanford; "but since the gods have willed +it so, why, there is nothing for it but resignation. Here is 'Through +the woods, through the woods, follow and find me.' Sing that."</p> + +<p>Kate essayed, but failed. Her headache was worse, and singing an +impossibility.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid I must lie down," she said. "I am half blind with the pain. +You must seek refuge in the billiard-room, Reginald, while I go +upstairs."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford expressed his regrets, kissed her hand—he was very calm +and decorous with his stately lady-love—and let her go.</p> + +<p>"I wish Rose had stayed," he thought; "poor little girl! how miserable +she does look sometimes. I am afraid I have not acted quite right; and I +don't know that I am not going to make a scoundrel of myself; but how is +a fellow to help it? Kate's too beautiful and too perfect for mortal +man; and I am very mortal, indeed, and should feel uncomfortable married +to perfection."</p> + +<p>He walked to the curtained recess of the drawing-room, where Rose had +one morning battled with her despair, and threw himself down among the +pillows of the lounge. Those very pillows whereon his handsome head +rested had been soaked in Rose's tears, shed for his sweet sake—but how +was he to know that? It was such a cozy little nook, so still and dusky, +and shut in, that Mr. Stanford, whose troubles did not prey on him very +profoundly, closed his dark eyes, and went asleep in five minutes.</p> + +<p>And sleeping, Rose found him. Going to her room to read, she remembered +she had left her book on the sofa in the recess, and ran down stairs +again to get it. Entering the little room from the hall, she beheld Mr. +Stanford asleep, his head on his arm, his handsome face as perfect as +something carved in marble, in its deep repose.</p> + +<p>Rose stood still—any one might have stood and looked, and admired that +picture, but not as she admired. Rose was in love with him—hopelessly, +you know, therefore the more deeply. All the love that pride had tried, +and tried in vain, to crush, rose in desperation stronger than ever +within her. If he had not been her sister's betrothed, who could say +what might not have been? If that sister was one degree less beautiful +and accomplished, who could say what still might be? She had been such a +spoiled child all her life, getting whatever she wanted for the asking, +that it was very hard she should be refused now the highest boon she had +ever craved—Mr. Reginald Stanford.</p> + +<p>Did some mesmeric rapport tell him in his sleep she was there? Perhaps +so, for without noise, or cause, his eyes opened and fixed on Rose's +flushed and troubled face. She started away with a confused exclamation, +but Stanford, stretching out his arm, caught and held her fast.</p> + +<p>"Don't run away, Rose," he said, "How long have you been here? How long +have I been asleep?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Rose, confusedly: "I came here for a book a moment +ago only. Let me go, Mr. Stanford."</p> + +<p>"Let you go? Surely not. Come, sit down here beside me, Rose. I have +fifty things to say to you."</p> + +<p>"You have nothing to say to me—nothing I wish to hear. Please let me +go."</p> + +<p>"On your dignity again, Rose?" he said, smiling, and mesmerizing her +with his dark eyes; "when will you have done wearing your mask?"</p> + +<p>"My mask!" Rose echoed, flushing; "what do you mean, Mr. Stanford?"</p> + +<p>"Treating me like this! You don't want to leave me now, do you? You +don't hate me as much as you pretend. You act very well, my pretty +little Rose; but you don't mean it—you know you don't!"</p> + +<p>"Will you let me go, Mr. Stanford?" haughtily.</p> + +<p>"No, my dear; certainly not. I don't get the chance of <i>tête-à-tête</i> +with you so often that I should resign the priceless privilege at a +word. We used to be good friends, Rose; why can't we be good friends +again?"</p> + +<p>"Used to be!" Rose echoed; and then her voice failed her. All her love +and her wounded pride rose in her throat and choked her.</p> + +<p>Reginald Stanford drew her closer to him, and tried to see the averted +face.</p> + +<p>"Won't you forgive me, Rose? I didn't behave well, I know; but I liked +you so much. Won't you forgive me?"</p> + +<p>A passionate outburst of tears, that would no longer be restrained, +answered him.</p> + +<p>"Oh! how could you do it? How could you do it? How could you deceive me +so?" sobbed Rose.</p> + +<p>Stanford drew her closer still.</p> + +<p>"Deceive you, my darling! How did I deceive you? Tell me, Rose, and +don't cry!"</p> + +<p>"You said—you said your name was Reinecourt, and it wasn't; and I +didn't know you were Kate's lover, or I never would have—would +have—oh! how could you do it?"</p> + +<p>"My dear little girl, I told you the truth. My name is Reinecourt."</p> + +<p>Rose looked up indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Reginald Reinecourt Stanford is my name; and the reason I only gave you +a third of it was, as I said before, because I liked you so much. You +know, my dear little Rose, if I had told you that day on the ice my name +was Reginald Stanford, you would have gone straight to the Hall, told +the news, and had me brought here at once. By that proceeding I should +have seen very little of you, of course. Don't you see?"</p> + +<p>"Ye-e-e-s," very falteringly.</p> + +<p>"I looked up that day from the ice," continued Stanford, "and saw such a +dear little curly-headed, bright-eyed, rose-cheeked fairy, that—no, I +can't tell you how I felt at the sight. I gave you my middle name, and +you acted the Good Samaritan to the wounded stranger—came to see me +every day, and made that sprained ankle the greatest boon of my life!"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Stanford—"</p> + +<p>"Call me Reginald."</p> + +<p>"I cannot. Let me go! What would Kate say?"</p> + +<p>"She will like it. She doesn't understand why you dislike me so much."</p> + +<p>He laughed as he said it. The laugh implied so much, that Rose started +up, colouring vividly.</p> + +<p>"This is wrong! I must go. Don't hold me, Mr. Stanford."</p> + +<p>"Reginald, if you please!"</p> + +<p>"I have no right to say Reginald."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you have a sister's right!"</p> + +<p>"Let me go!" said Rose, imperiously. "I ought not to be here."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why. It is very pleasant to have you here. You haven't told +me yet that you forgive me."</p> + +<p>"Of course I forgive you. It's of no consequence. Will you let me go, +Mr. Stanford?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be in such a hurry. I told you I had fifty things to—"</p> + +<p>He stopped short. The drawing-room door had opened, and Captain Danton's +voice could be heard talking to his two companions at billiards.</p> + +<p>"All deserted," said the Captain; "I thought we should find the girls +here. Come in. I dare-say somebody will be along presently."</p> + +<p>"Oh, let me go!" cried Rose, in dire alarm. "Papa may come in here. Oh, +pray—pray let me go!"</p> + +<p>"If I do, will you promise to be good friends with me in the future?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes! Let me go!"</p> + +<p>"And you forget and forgive the past?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—yes—yes! Anything, anything."</p> + +<p>Stanford, who had no more desire than Rose herself to be caught just +then by papa-in-law, released his captive, and Rose flew out into the +hall and upstairs faster than she had ever done before.</p> + +<p>How the four gentlemen got on alone in the drawing-room she never knew. +She kept her room all day, and took uncommon pains with her +dinner-toilet. She wore the blue glacé, in which she looked so charming, +and twisted some jeweled stars in her bright auburn hair. She looked at +herself in the glass, her eyes dancing, her cheeks flushed, her rosy +lips apart.</p> + +<p>"I am pretty," thought Rose. "I like my own looks better than I do +Kate's, and every one calls her beautiful. I suppose her eyes are +larger, and her nose more perfect, and her forehead higher; but it is +too pale and cold. Oh, if Reginald would only love me better than Kate!"</p> + +<p>She ran down-stairs as the last bell rang, eager and expectant, but only +to be disappointed. Grace was there; Eeny and Kate were there, and Sir +Ronald Keith; but where were the rest?</p> + +<p>"Where's papa?" said Rose, taking her seat.</p> + +<p>"Dining out," replied Kate, who looked pale and ill. "And Reginald and +Doctor Danton are with him. It is at Mr. Howard's. They drove off over +an hour ago."</p> + +<p>Rose's eyes fell and her colour faded. Until the meal was over, she +hardly opened her lips; and when it was concluded, she went back +immediately to her room. Where was the use of waiting when he would not +be there?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>THE REVELATION.</h3> + + +<p>Next morning, at breakfast, Captain Danton was back; but Reginald's +handsome face, and easy flow of conversation, were missing. George +Howard, it appeared, was going on a skating excursion some miles off, +that day, and had prevailed on Mr. Stanford to remain and accompany him.</p> + +<p>Rose felt about as desolate as if she had been shipwrecked on a desert +island. There was a pang of jealousy mingled with the desolation, too. +Emily Howard was a sparkling brunette, a coquette, an heiress, and a +belle. Was it the skating excursion or Emily's big black eyes that had +tempted him to linger? Perhaps Emily would go with them skating, and +Rose knew how charming piquant little Miss Howard was on skates.</p> + +<p>It was a miserable morning altogether, and Rose tormented herself in +true orthodox lover-like style. She roamed about the house aimlessly, +pulling out her watch perpetually to look at the hour, and sighing +drearily. She wondered at Kate, who sat so placidly playing some song +without words, with the Scotch baronet standing by the piano, absorbed.</p> + +<p>"What does she know of love?" thought Rose, contemptuously. "She is as +cold as a polar iceberg. She ought to marry that knight of the woeful +countenance beside her, and be my lady, and live in a castle, and eat +and sleep in velvet and rubies. It would just suit her."</p> + +<p>Doctor Danton came up in the course of the forenoon, to make a +professional call. His patient was better, calmer, less nervous, and +able to sit up in a rocking-chair, wrapped in a great shawl. Grace +persuaded him to stay to luncheon, and he did, and tried to win Miss +Rose out of the dismals, and got incontinently snubbed for his pains.</p> + +<p>But there was balm in Gilead for Rose. Just after luncheon a little +shell-like sleigh, with prancing ponies and jingling bells, whirled +musically up to the door. A pretty, blooming, black-eyed girl was its +sole occupant; and Rose, at the drawing-room window, ran out to meet +her.</p> + +<p>"My darling Emily!" cried Rose, kissing the young lady she had been +wishing at Jericho all day, "how glad I am to see you! Come in! You will +stay to dinner, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear," said Miss Howard, "I can't. I just came over for you; I am +alone, and want you to spend the evening. Don't say no; Mr. Stanford +will be home to dinner with George, and he will escort you back."</p> + +<p>"You pet!" cried Rose, with another rapturous kiss. "Just wait five +minutes while I run up and dress."</p> + +<p>Miss Howard was not very long detained. Rose was back, all ready, in +half an hour.</p> + +<p>"Would your sister come?" inquired Miss Howard, doubtfully, for she was +a good deal in awe of that tall majestic sister.</p> + +<p>"Who? Kate? Oh, she is out riding with Sir Ronald Keith. Never mind her; +we can have a better time by ourselves."</p> + +<p>The tiny sleigh dashed off with its fair occupants, and Rose's depressed +spirits went up to fever heat. It was the first of March, and March had +come in like a lamb—balmy, sunshiny, brilliant. Everybody looked at +them admiringly as the fairy sleigh and the two pretty girls flew +through the village, and thought, perhaps, what a fine thing it was to +be rich, and young, and handsome, and happy, like that.</p> + +<p>Miss Howard's home was about half a mile off, and a few minutes brought +them to it.</p> + +<p>The two girls passed the afternoon agreeably enough at the piano and +over new books, but both were longing for evening and the return of the +gentlemen. Miss Howard was only sixteen, and couldn't help admiring Mr. +Stanford, or wishing she were her brother George, and with him all day.</p> + +<p>The March day darkened slowly down. The sun fell low and dropped out of +sight behind the bright, frozen river, in a glory of crimson and purple. +The hues of the sunset died, the evening star shone steel-blue and +bright in the night-sky, and the two girls stood by the window watching +when the gentlemen returned. There was just light enough left to see +them plainly as they drew near the house, their skates slung over their +arms; but Mr. George Howard came in for very little of their regards.</p> + +<p>"Handsome fellow!" said Miss Howard, her eyes sparkling.</p> + +<p>"Who?" said Rose, carelessly, as if her heart was not beating time to +the word. "Reginald?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he is the handsomest man I ever saw."</p> + +<p>Rose laughed—a rather forced laugh, though.</p> + +<p>"Don't fall in love with my handsome brother-in-law, Em. Kate won't like +it."</p> + +<p>"They are to be married next June, are they not?" asked Emily, not +noticing the insinuation, save by a slight colour, which the twilight +hid.</p> + +<p>"So they say."</p> + +<p>"They will be a splendid-looking pair. George and all the gentlemen say +that she is the only really beautiful woman they ever saw."</p> + +<p>"Tastes differ," said Rose with a shrug. "I don't think so. She is too +pale, and proud, and cold, and too far up in the clouds altogether. She +ought to go and be a nun; she would make a splendid lady-abbess."</p> + +<p>"She will make a splendid Mrs. Stanford."</p> + +<p>"Who?" said Mr. Stanford himself, sauntering in. "You, Miss Howard?"</p> + +<p>"No; another lady I know of. What kind of a time had you skating?"</p> + +<p>"Capital," replied her brother; "for an Englishman, Stanford knocks +everything. Hallo, Rose! who'd have thought it?"</p> + +<p>Rose emerged from the shadow of the window curtains, and shook hands +carelessly with Master George.</p> + +<p>"I drove over for her after you went," said his sister, "come, there's +the dinner-bell, and Mr. Stanford looks hungry."</p> + +<p>"And is hungry," said Mr. Stanford, giving her his arm. "I shall +astonish Mrs. Howard by my performance this evening."</p> + +<p>They were not a very large party—Mr. and Mrs. Howard, their son and +daughter, Mr. Stanford and Rose—but they were a very merry one. Mr. +Stanford had been in India once, three years ago, and told them +wonderful stories of tiger hunts, and Hindoo girls, and jungle +adventures, and Sepoy warfare, until he carried his audience away from +the frozen Canadian land to the burning sun and tropical splendours and +perils of far-off India. Then, after dinner, when Mr. Howard, Senior, +went to his library to write letters, and Mrs. Howard dozed in an +easy-chair by the fire, there was music, and sparkling chit-chat, racy +as the bright Moselle at dinner, and games at cards, and fortune-telling +by Mr. Howard, Junior; and it was twelve before Rose thought it +half-past ten.</p> + +<p>"I must go," said Rose, starting up. "I had no idea it was so late. I +must go at once."</p> + +<p>The two young ladies went upstairs for Miss Danton's wraps. When they +descended, the sleigh was waiting, and all went out together. The bright +March day had ended in a frosty, starlit, windless night. A tiny moon +glittered sparkling overhead, and silvering the snowy ground.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a night!" cried Emily Howard. "You may talk about your blazing +India, Mr. Stanford, but I would not give our own dear snow-clad Canada +for the wealth of a thousand Indies. Good-night, darling Rose, and +pleasant dreams."</p> + +<p>Miss Howard kissed her. Mr. Howard came over, and made an attempt to do +the same.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, darling Rose, and dream of me."</p> + +<p>Rose's answer was a slap, and then Reginald was beside her, and they +were driving through the luminous dusk of the winter moonlight.</p> + +<p>"You may stop at the gate, my good fellow," said Mr. Stanford to the +driver; "the night is fine—we will walk the rest of the way—eh, Rose?"</p> + +<p>Rose's answer was a smile, and they were at the gates almost +immediately. Mr. Stanford drew her hand within his arm, and they +sauntered slowly, very slowly, up the dark, tree-shaded avenue.</p> + +<p>"How gloomy it is here!" said Rose, clinging to his arm with a delicious +little shiver; "and it is midnight, too. How frightened I should be +alone!"</p> + +<p>"Which means you are not frightened, being with me. Miss Rose, you are +delightful!"</p> + +<p>"Interpret it as you please. What should you say if the ghost were to +start out from these grim black trees and confront us?"</p> + +<p>"Say? Nothing. I would quietly faint in your arms. But this is not the +ghost's walk. Wasn't it in the tamarack avenue old Margery saw it?"</p> + +<p>"Let us go there!"</p> + +<p>"It is too late," said Rose.</p> + +<p>"No it is not. There is something delightfully novel in promenading with +a young lady at the witching hour of midnight, when graveyards yawn, and +gibbering ghosts in winding-sheets cut up cantrips before high heaven. +Come."</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Stanford—"</p> + +<p>"Reginald, I tell you. You promised, you know."</p> + +<p>"But really Reginald, it is too late. What if we were seen?"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! Who is to see us! And if they do, haven't brothers and +sisters a right to walk at midnight as well as noonday if they choose? +Besides, we may see the spectre of Danton Hall, and I would give a +month's pay for the sight any time."</p> + +<p>They entered the tamarack walk as he spoke—bright enough at the +entrance, where the starlight streamed in, but in the very blackness of +darkness farther down.</p> + +<p>"How horribly dismal!" cried Rose, clinging to him more closely than +ever. "A murder might be committed here, and no one be the wiser."</p> + +<p>"A fit place for a ghostly promenade. Spectre of Danton, appear! Hist! +What is that?"</p> + +<p>Rose barely suppressed a shriek. He put his hand over her mouth, and +drew her silently into the shadow.</p> + +<p>As if his mocking words had evoked them, two figures entered the +tamarack walk as he spoke.</p> + +<p>The starlight showed them plainly—a man and a woman—the woman wrapped +in a shawl, leaning on the man's arm, and both walking very slowly, +talking earnestly.</p> + +<p>"No ghosts those," whispered Reginald Stanford. "Be quiet, Rose; we are +in for an adventure."</p> + +<p>"I ought to know that woman's figure," said Rose, in the same low tone. +"Look! Don't you?"</p> + +<p>"By—George! It can't be—Kate!"</p> + +<p>"It is Kate; and who is the man, and what does it mean?"</p> + +<p>Now Rose, maliciously asking the question, knew in her heart the man was +Mr. Richards. She did not comprehend, of course, but she knew it must be +all right; for Kate walked with him there under her father's sanction.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford made no reply; he was staring like one who cannot believe +his eyes.</p> + +<p>Kate's face shown in profile was plainly visible as they drew nearer. +The man's, shrouded by coat-collar and peaked cap, was all hidden, save +a well-shaped nose.</p> + +<p>"It is Kate," repeated Mr. Stanford, blankly. "And what does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"Hush-sh!" whispered Rose; "they will hear you."</p> + +<p>She drew him back softly. The two advancing figures were so very near +now that their words could be heard. It was Kate's soft voice that was +speaking.</p> + +<p>"Patience, dear," she was saying; "patience a little longer yet."</p> + +<p>"Patience!" cried the man, passionately. "Haven't I been patient? +Haven't I waited and waited, eating my heart out in solitude, and +loneliness, and misery? But for your love, Kate, your undying love and +faith in me—I should long ago have gone mad!"</p> + +<p>They passed out of hearing with the last words. Reginald Stanford stood +petrified; even Rose was desperately startled by the desperate words.</p> + +<p>"Take me away, Reginald," she said trembling. "Oh, let us go before they +come back."</p> + +<p>Her voice aroused him, and he looked down at her with a face as white as +the frozen snow.</p> + +<p>"You heard him?" he said. "You heard her? What does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I am frightened. Oh, let us go!"</p> + +<p>Too late! Kate and her companion had reached the end of the tamarack +walk, and were returning. As they drew near, she was speaking; again the +two listeners in the darkness heard her words.</p> + +<p>"Don't despair," she said earnestly. "Oh, my darling, never despair! +Come what will, I shall always love you—always trust you—always—"</p> + +<p>They passed out of hearing again—out of the dark into the lighted end +of the walk, and did not return.</p> + +<p>Reginald and Rose waited for a quarter of an hour, but they had +disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared.</p> + +<p>"Take me in," reiterated Rose, shivering. "I am nearly frozen."</p> + +<p>He turned with her up the walk, never speaking a word, very pale in the +light of the stars. No one was visible as they left the walk; all around +the house and grounds was hushed and still. The house door was locked, +but not bolted. Mr. Stanford opened it with a night-key, and they +entered, and went upstairs, still in silence. Rose reached her room +first, and paused with her hand on the handle of the door.</p> + +<p>"Good-night," she said shyly and wistfully.</p> + +<p>"Good-night," he answered, briefly, and was gone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>ONE MYSTERY CLEARED UP.</h3> + + +<p>The fire burned low in Rose's pretty room, and the lamp was dim on the +table. The window-curtains were closed, and the sheets of the little +low, white bed turned down, the easy chair was before the hearth, and +everything was the picture of comfort. She flung off her wrappings on +the carpet, and sat down in the easy chair, and looked into the glowing +cinders, lost in perplexed thought.</p> + +<p>What would be the result of that night's adventure? Reginald Stanford, +good-natured and nonchalant, was yet proud. She had seen his face change +in the starlight, as once she had hardly thought it possible that +ever-laughing face could change; she had seen it cold and fixed as +stone. How would he act towards a lady, plighted to be his wife, and yet +who took midnight rambles with another man? Would the engagement be +broken off, and would he leave Canada forever in disgust? Or would he, +forsaking Kate, turn to Kate's younger sister for love and consolation?</p> + +<p>Rose's heart throbbed, and her face grew hot in the solitude of her +chamber, at the thought. He would demand an explanation, of course; +would it be haughtily refused by that haughty sister, or would the +mystery of Mr. Richards be opened for him?</p> + +<p>A clock down-stairs struck two. Rose remembered that late watching +involved pale cheeks and dull eyes, and got up, said her prayers with +sleepy devotion, and went to bed.</p> + +<p>The sunlight of another bright March day flooded her room when she awoke +from a troubled dream of Mr. Richards. It was only seven o'clock, but +she arose, dressed rapidly, and, before eight, opened the dining-room +door.</p> + +<p>Early as the hour was, the apartment was occupied. Grace sat at one of +the windows, braiding elaborately an apron, and Captain Danton stood +beside her, looking on. Grace glanced up, her colour heightening at +Rose's entrance.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Miss Rose," said her father. "Early to bed and early to +rise, eh? When did you take to getting up betimes?"</p> + +<p>"Good morning, papa. I didn't feel sleepy, and so thought I would come +down."</p> + +<p>"What time did you get home last night?"</p> + +<p>"I left a little after twelve."</p> + +<p>"Did you enjoy yourself, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa."</p> + +<p>"Reginald was with you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa."</p> + +<p>"It's all right, I suppose," said her father, pinching her blooming +cheek; "but if I were Kate, I wouldn't allow it. Young man are +changeable as chameleons, and these pink cheeks are tempting."</p> + +<p>The pink cheeks turned guiltily scarlet at the words. Grace, looking up +from her work, saw the tell-tale flush; but Captain Danton, going over +to the fire to read the morning paper, said nothing.</p> + +<p>Rose stood listlessly in her father's place, looking out of the window. +The wintry landscape, all glittering in the glorious sunshine, was very +bright; but the dreamy, hazel eyes were not looking at it.</p> + +<p>"Rose!" said Grace suddenly, "when did you hear from Ottawa?"</p> + +<p>Rose turned to her, roused from her dreaming.</p> + +<p>"What did you say?"</p> + +<p>"When did you hear from Ottawa—from M. Jules La Touche?"</p> + +<p>Again the colour deepened in Rose's face, and an angry light shone in +her eyes.</p> + +<p>"What do you want to know for?"</p> + +<p>"Because I want to know. That's reason enough, is it not?" replied +Grace, sewing away placidly.</p> + +<p>"I don't see that it's any affair of yours, Mistress Grace. Jules La +Touche is a nuisance!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, is he? He wasn't a month or two ago. Whom have you fallen in love +with now, Rose?"</p> + +<p>"It's no business of yours," said Rose angrily.</p> + +<p>"But if I choose to make it my business, my dear, sweet-tempered Rose, +what then? Do tell me the name of the last lucky man? I am dying to +know."</p> + +<p>"Die, then, for you won't know."</p> + +<p>"Suppose I know already."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"It's not Mr. Stanford, is it?"</p> + +<p>Rose gave a gasp—in the suddenness of the surprise, colouring crimson. +Grace saw it all, as she placidly threaded her needle.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't if I were you," she said quietly. "It's of no use, Rose. +Kate is handsomer than you are; and it will only be the old comedy of +'Love's Labour Lost' over again."</p> + +<p>"Grace Danton, what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Now, don't get excited, Rose, and don't raise your voice. Your father +might hear you, and that would not be pleasant. It is plain enough. Mr. +Stanford is very handsome, and very fascinating, and very hard to +resist, I dare say; but, still, he must be resisted. Mr. La Touche is a +very estimable young man, I have no doubt, and of a highly respectable +family; and, very likely, will make you an excellent husband. If I were +you, I would ask my papa to let me go on another visit to Ottawa, and +remain, say, until the end of May. It would do you good, I am sure."</p> + +<p>Rose listened to this harangue, her eyes flashing.</p> + +<p>"And if I were you, Miss Grace Danton, I would keep my advice until it +was asked. Be so good for the future, as to mind your own business, +attend to your housekeeping, and let other people's love affairs alone."</p> + +<p>With which Rose sailed stormily off, with very red cheeks, and very +bright, angry eyes, and sought refuge in a book.</p> + +<p>Grace, perfectly unmoved, quite used to Rose's temper, sewed serenely +on, and waited for the rest of the family to appear.</p> + +<p>Eeny was the next to enter, then came Sir Ronald Keith, who took a chair +opposite Captain Danton, and buried himself in another paper. To him, in +Kate's absence, the room was empty.</p> + +<p>The breakfast bell was ringing when that young lady appeared, beautiful +and bright as the sunny morning, in flowing white cashmere, belted with +blue, and her lovely golden hair twisted in a coronet of amber braids +round her head. She came over to where Rose sat, sulky and silent, and +kissed her.</p> + +<p>"<i>Bon jour, ma soeur!</i> How do you feel after last night!"</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Rose, not looking at her.</p> + +<p>"Reginald came home with you?" smiled Kate, toying with Rose's pretty +curls.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, uneasily.</p> + +<p>"I am glad. I am so glad that you and he are friends at last."</p> + +<p>Rose fidgeted more uneasily still, and said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Why was it you didn't like him?" said Kate, coaxingly. "Tell me, my +dear."</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I liked him well enough," replied Rose, ungraciously. "He +was a stranger to me."</p> + +<p>"My darling, he will be your brother."</p> + +<p>Rose fixed her eyes sullenly on her book.</p> + +<p>"You will come to England with us, won't you, Rose—dear old +England—and my pretty sister may be my lady yet?"</p> + +<p>The door opened again. Mr. Stanford came in.</p> + +<p>Rose glanced up shyly.</p> + +<p>His face was unusually grave and pale; but all were taking their places, +and in the bustle no one noticed it. He did not look at Kate, who saw, +with love's quickness, that something was wrong.</p> + +<p>All through breakfast Mr. Stanford was very silent, for him. When he did +talk, it was to Captain Danton—seldom to any of the ladies.</p> + +<p>Grace watched him, wonderingly; Rose watched him furtively, and Kate's +morning appetite was effectually taken away.</p> + +<p>The meal ended, the family dispersed.</p> + +<p>The Captain went to his study, Sir Ronald mounted and rode off, Grace +went away to attend to her housekeeping affairs, Eeny to her studies, +and Rose hurried up to her room.</p> + +<p>The lovers were left alone. Kate took her embroidery. Mr. Stanford was +immersed in the paper Captain Danton had lately laid down. There was a +prolonged silence, during which the lady worked, and the gentleman read, +as if their lives depended on it.</p> + +<p>She lifted her eyes from her embroidery to glance his way, and found him +looking at her steadfastly—gravely.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Reginald?" she exclaimed, impatiently. "What is the matter +with you this morning?"</p> + +<p>"I am wondering!" said Stanford, gravely.</p> + +<p>"Wondering?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; if the old adage about seeing being believing is true."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand," said Kate, a little haughtily.</p> + +<p>Stanford laid down his paper, came over to where she sat, and took a +chair near her.</p> + +<p>"Something extraordinary has occurred, Kate, which I cannot comprehend. +Shall I tell you what it is?"</p> + +<p>"If you please."</p> + +<p>"It was last night, then. You know I spent the day and evening with the +Howards? It was late—past twelve, when I escorted Rose home; but the +night was fine, and tempted me to linger still longer. I turned down the +tamarack walk—"</p> + +<p>He paused.</p> + +<p>Kate's work had dropped in her lap, with a faint cry of dismay.</p> + +<p>"I had reached the lower end of the avenue," continued Reginald +Stanford, "and was turning, when I saw two persons—a man and a +woman—enter. 'Who can they be, and what can they be about here at this +hour?' I thought, and I stood still to watch. They came nearer. I saw in +the starlight her woman's face. I heard in the stillness her words. She +was telling the man how much she loved him, how much she should always +love him, and then they were out of sight and hearing. Kate, was that +woman you?"</p> + +<p>She sat looking at him, her blue eyes dilated, her lips apart, her hands +clasped, in a sort of trance of terror.</p> + +<p>"Was it you, Kate?" repeated her lover. "Am I to believe my eyes?"</p> + +<p>She roused herself to speak by an effort.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Reginald!" she cried, "what have you done! Why, why did you go +there?"</p> + +<p>There was dismay in her tone, consternation in her face, but nothing +else. No shame, no guilt, no confusion—nothing but that look of grief +and regret.</p> + +<p>A conviction that had possessed him all along that it was all right, +somehow or other, became stronger than ever now; but his face did not +show it—perhaps, unconsciously, in his secret heart he was hoping it +would not be all right.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I was unfortunate in going there," he said, coldly; "but I +assure you I had very little idea of what I was to see and hear. Having +heard, and having seen, I am afraid I must insist on an explanation."</p> + +<p>"Which I cannot give you," said Kate, her colour rising, and looking +steadfastly in his dark eyes.</p> + +<p>"You cannot give me!" said Reginald, haughtily. "Do I understand you +rightly, Kate?"</p> + +<p>She laid her hand on his, with a gentle, caressing touch, and bent +forward. She loved him too deeply and tenderly to bear that cold, proud +tone.</p> + +<p>"We have never quarrelled yet, Reginald," she said, sweetly. "Let us not +quarrel now. I cannot give you the explanation you ask; but papa shall."</p> + +<p>He lifted the beautiful hand to his lips, feeling somehow, that he was +unworthy to touch the hem of her garment.</p> + +<p>"You are an angel, Kate—incapable of doing wrong. I ought to be content +without an explanation, knowing you as I do; but—"</p> + +<p>"But you must have one, nevertheless. Reginald, I am sorry you saw me +last night."</p> + +<p>He looked at her, hardly knowing what to say. She was gazing sadly out +at the sunny prospect.</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow!" she said, half to herself, "poor fellow! Those midnight +walks are almost all the comfort he has in this world, and now he will +be afraid to venture out any more."</p> + +<p>Still Stanford sat silent.</p> + +<p>Kate smiled at him and put away her work.</p> + +<p>"Wait for me here," she said, rising. "Papa is in his study. I will +speak to him."</p> + +<p>She left the room. Stanford sat and waited, and felt more uncomfortable +than he had ever felt in his life. He was curious, too. What family +mystery was about to be revealed to him? What secret was this hidden in +Danton Hall?</p> + +<p>"I have heard there is a skeleton in every house," he thought; "but I +never dreamed there was one hidden away in this romantic old mansion. +Perhaps I have seen the ghost of Danton Hall, as well as the rest. How +calmly Kate took it!—No sign of guilt or wrong-doing in her face. If I +ever turn out a villain, there will be no excuse for my villainy on her +part."</p> + +<p>Kate was absent nearly half an hour, but it seemed a little century to +the impatient waiter. When she entered, there were traces of tears on +her face, but her manner was quite calm.</p> + +<p>"Papa is waiting for you," she said, "in his study."</p> + +<p>He rose up, walked to the door, and stood there, irresolute.</p> + +<p>"Where shall I find you when I return?"</p> + +<p>"Here."</p> + +<p>She said it softly and a little sadly. Stanford crossed to where she +stood, and took her in his arms—a very unusual proceeding for him—and +kissed her.</p> + +<p>"I have perfect confidence in your truth, my dearest," he said. "I am as +sure of your goodness and innocence before your father's explanation as +I can possibly be after it."</p> + +<p>There was a witness to this loving declaration that neither of them +bargained for. Rose, getting tired of her own company, had run +down-stairs to entertain herself with her music. Stanford had left the +door ajar when he returned; and Rose was just in time to see the embrace +and hear the tender speech. Just in time, too, to fly before Reginald +left the drawing-room and took his way to the study.</p> + +<p>Rose played no piano that morning; but, locked in her own room, made the +most of what she had heard and seen. Kate had the drawing-room to +herself, and sat, with clasped hands, looking out at the bright March +morning. The business of the day went on in the house, doors opened and +shut, Grace and Eeny came in and went away again, Doctor Frank came up +to see Agnes Darling, who was nearly well; and in the study, Reginald +Stanford was hearing the story of Miss Danton's midnight stroll.</p> + +<p>"You must have heard it sooner or later," Captain Danton said, "between +this and next June. As well now as any other time."</p> + +<p>Stanford bowed and waited.</p> + +<p>"You have not resided in this house for so many weeks without hearing of +the invalid upstairs, whom Ogden attends, who never appears in our +midst, and about whom all in the house are more or less curious?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Richards?" said Stanford, surprised.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Richards; you have heard of him. It was Mr. Richards whom you +saw with Kate last night."</p> + +<p>Reginald Stanford dropped the paper-knife he had been drumming with, and +stared blankly at Captain Danton.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Richards!" he echoed; "Mr. Richards, who is too ill to leave his +room!"</p> + +<p>"Not now," said Captain Danton, calmly; "he was when he first came here. +You know what ailed Macbeth—a sickness that physicians could not cure. +That is Mr. Richards' complaint—a mind diseased. Remorse and terror are +that unhappy young man's ailments and jailers."</p> + +<p>There was a dead pause. Reginald Stanford, still "far wide," gazed at +his father-in-law-elect, and waited for something more satisfactory.</p> + +<p>"It is not a pleasant story to tell," Captain Danton went on, in a +subdued voice; "the story of a young man's folly, and madness, and +guilt; but it must be told. The man you saw last night is barely +twenty-three years of age, but all the promise of his life is gone; from +henceforth he can be nothing more than a hunted outcast, with the stain +of murder on his soul."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" exclaimed his hearer; "and Kate walks with such a man, +alone, and at midnight?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Kate's father, proudly "and will again, please Heaven. Poor +boy! poor, unfortunate boy! If Kate and I were to desert him, he would +be lost indeed."</p> + +<p>"This is all Greek to me," said Stanford, coldly. "If the man be what +you say, a murderer, nothing can excuse Miss Danton's conduct."</p> + +<p>"Listen, Reginald, my dear boy—almost my son; listen, and you will have +nothing but pity for the poor man upstairs, and deeper love for my noble +daughter. But, first, have I your word of honour that what I tell you +shall remain a secret?"</p> + +<p>Reginald bowed.</p> + +<p>"Three years ago, this young man, whose name is not Richards," began +Captain Danton, "ran away from home, and began life on his own account. +He had been a wilful, headstrong, passionate boy always, but yet loving +and generous. He fled from his friends, in a miserable hour of passion, +and never returned to them any more; for the sick, sinful, broken-down, +wretched man who returned was as different from the hot-headed, +impetuous, happy boy, as day differs from night.</p> + +<p>"He fled from home, and went to New York. He was, as I am, a sailor; he +had command of a vessel at the age of nineteen; but he gave up the sea, +and earned a livelihood in that city for some months by painting and +selling water-colour sketches, at which he was remarkably clever. +Gradually his downward course began. The wine-bottle, the gaming-table, +were the first milestones on the road to ruin. The gambling-halls +became, at length, his continual haunt. One day he was worth thousands; +the next, he did not possess a stiver. The excitement grew on him. He +became, before the end of the year, a confirmed and notorious gambler.</p> + +<p>"One night the crisis in his life came. He was at a Bowery theatre, to +see a Christmas pantomime. It was a fairy spectacle, and the stage was +crowded with ballet-girls. There was one among them, the loveliest +creature, it seemed to him, he had ever seen, with whom, in one mad +moment, he fell passionately in love. A friend of his, by name Furniss, +laughed at his raptures. 'Don't you know her, Harry?' said he; 'she +boards in the same house with you. She is a little grisette, a little +shop-girl, only hired to look pretty, standing there, while this fairy +pantomime lasts. You have seen her fifty times.'</p> + +<p>"Yes, he had seen her repeatedly. He remembered it when his friend +spoke, and he had never thought of her until now. The new infatuation +took possession of him, body and soul. He made her acquaintance next +morning, and found out she was, as his friend had said, a shop-girl. +What did he care; if she had been a rag-picker, it would have been all +one to this young madman. In a fortnight he proposed; in a month they +were married, and the third step on the road to ruin was taken.</p> + +<p>"Had she been a good woman—an earnest and faithful wife—she might have +made a new man of him, for he loved her with a passionate devotion that +was part of his hot-headed nature. But she was bad—as depraved as she +was fair—and brought his downward course to a tragical climax +frightfully soon.</p> + +<p>"Before her marriage, this wretched girl had had a lover—discarded for +a more handsome and impetuous wooer. But she had known him longest, and, +perhaps, loved him best. At all events, he resumed his visits after +marriage, as if nothing had happened. The young husband, full of love +and confidence, suspected no wrong. He sanctioned the visits and was on +most friendly terms with the discarded suitor. For some months it went +on, this underhand and infamous intimacy, and the wronged husband saw +nothing. It was Furniss who first opened his eyes to the truth, and a +terrible scene ensued. The husband refused passionately to believe a +word against the truth and purity of the wife he loved, and called his +friend a liar and a slanderer.</p> + +<p>"'Very well,' said Furniss, coolly, 'bluster as much as you please, dear +boy, and, when you are tired, go home. It is an hour earlier than you +generally return. He will hardly have left. If you find your pretty +little idol alone, and at her prayers, disbelieve me. If you find Mr. +Crosby enjoying a <i>tête-à-tête</i> with her, then come back and apologize +for these hard names.'"</p> + +<p>"He went off whistling, and the half-maddened husband sprang into a +passing stage and rode home. It was past ten, but he was generally at +the gambling-table each night until after one, and his wife had usually +retired ere his return. He went upstairs softly, taking off his boots, +and noiselessly opened the door. There sat his wife, and by her side, +talking earnestly, the discarded lover. He caught his last words as he +entered:</p> + +<p>"'You know how I have loved—you know how I do love, a thousand times +better than he! Why should we not fly at once. It is only torture to +both to remain longer.'</p> + +<p>"They were the last words the unfortunate man ever uttered. The gambler +had been drinking—let us hope the liquor and the jealous fury made him +for the time mad. There was the flash, the report of a pistol; Crosby, +his guilty wife's lover, uttered a wild yell, sprang up in the air, and +fell back shot through the heart."</p> + +<p>There was another dead pause. Captain Danton's steady voice momentarily +failed, and Reginald Stanford sat in horrified silence.</p> + +<p>"What came next," continued the Captain, his voice tremulous, "the +madman never knew. He has a vague remembrance of his wife's screams +filling the room with people; of his finding himself out somewhere under +the stars, and his brain and heart on fire. He has a dim remembrance of +buying a wig and whiskers and a suit of sailor's clothes next day, and +of wandering down among the docks in search of a ship. By one of those +mysterious dispensations of Providence that happen every day, the first +person he encountered on the dock was myself. I did not know him—how +could I in that disguise—but he knew me instantly, and spoke. I +recognized his voice, and took him on board my ship, and listened to the +story I have just told you. With me he was safe. Detectives were +scouring the city for the murderer; but I sailed for England next day, +and he was beyond their reach. On the passage he broke down; all the +weeks we were crossing the Atlantic he lay wandering and delirious in a +raging brain-fever. We all thought, Doctor and all, that he never would +reach the other side; but life won the hard victory, and he slowly grew +better. Kate returned, as you know, with me. She, too, heard the +tragical story, and had nothing but pity and prayer for the +tempest-tossed soul.</p> + +<p>"When we reached Canada, he was still weak and ill. I brought him here +under an assumed name, and he remains shut up in his rooms all day, and +only ventures out at night to breathe the fresh air. His mind has never +recovered its tone since that brain fever. He has become a monomaniac on +one subject, the dread of being discovered, and hanged for murder. +Nothing will tempt him from his solitude—nothing can induce him to +venture out, except at midnight, when all are asleep. He is the ghost +who frightened Margery and Agnes Darling; he is the man you saw with +Kate last in the grounds. He clings to her as he clings to no one else. +The only comfort left him in this lower world are these nightly walks +with her. She is the bravest, the best, the noblest of girls; she leaves +her warm room, her bed, for those cold midnight walks with that unhappy +and suffering man."</p> + +<p>Once again a pause. Reginald Stanford looked at Captain Danton's pale, +agitated face.</p> + +<p>"You have told me a terrible story," he said. "I can hardly blame this +man for what he has done; but what claim has he on you that you should +feel for him and screen him as you do? What claim has he on my future +wife that she should take these nightly walks with him unknown to me?"</p> + +<p>"The strongest claim that man can have," was the answer; "he is my +son—he is Kate's only brother!"</p> + +<p>"My God! Captain Danton, what are you saying?"</p> + +<p>"The truth," Captain Danton answered, in a broken voice. "Heaven help +me—Heaven pity him! The wretched man whose story you have heard—who +dwells a captive under this roof—is my only son, Henry Danton."</p> + +<p>He covered his face with his hands. Reginald Stanford sat confounded.</p> + +<p>"I never dreamed of this," he said aghast. "I thought your son was +dead!"</p> + +<p>"They all think so," said the Captain, without looking up; "but you know +the truth. Some day, before long, you shall visit him, when I have +prepared him for your coming. You understand all you heard and saw now?"</p> + +<p>"My dear sir!" exclaimed Stanford, grasping the elder man's hand; +"forgive me! No matter what I saw, I must have been mad to doubt Kate. +Your secret is as safe with me as with yourself. I shall leave you now; +I must see Kate."</p> + +<p>"Yes, poor child! Love her and trust her with your whole heart, +Reginald, for she is worthy."</p> + +<p>Reginald Stanford went out, still bewildered by all he had heard, and +returned to the drawing-room. Kate sat as he had left her, looking +dreamily out at the bright sky.</p> + +<p>"My dearest," he said bending over her, and touching the white brow: +"can you ever forgive me for doubting you? You are the truest, the best, +the bravest of women."</p> + +<p>She lifted her loving eyes, filled with tears, to the handsome face of +her betrothed.</p> + +<p>"To those I love I hope I am—and more. Before I grow false or +treacherous, I pray Heaven that I may die."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>HARRY DANTON.</h3> + + +<p>A spring-like afternoon. The March sun bright in the Canadian sky, the +wind soft and genial, and a silvery mist hanging over the river and +marshes. Little floods from the fast-melting snow poured through the +grounds; the ice-frozen fish-pond was thawing out under the melting +influence of the sunshine, and rubber shoes and tucked-up skirts were +indispensable outdoor necessaries.</p> + +<p>Rose Danton, rubber-shoes, tucked-up skirts, and all, was trying to kill +time this pleasant afternoon, sauntering aimlessly through the wet +grounds. Very pretty and coquettish she looked, with that crimson +petticoat showing under her dark silk dress; that jockey-hat and feather +set jauntily on her sunshiny curls; but her prettiness was only vanity +and vexation of spirit to Rose. Where was the good of pink-tinted +cheeks, soft hazel eyes, auburn curls, and a trim little foot and ankle, +when there was no living thing near to see and admire? What was the use +of dressing beautifully and looking charming for a pack of insensible +mortals, to whom it was an old story and not worth thinking about? The +sunny March day had no reflection in Rose's face; "sulky" is the only +word that will tell you how she looked. Poor Rose! It was rather hard to +be hopelessly in love, to be getting worse every day, and find it all of +no use. It was a little too bad to have everything she wanted for +eighteen years, and then be denied the fascinating young officer she had +set her whole heart on. For Mr. Stanford was lost again. Just as she +thought she had her bird snared for certain—lo! it spread its dazzling +wings and soared up to the clouds, and farther out of reach than ever. +In plain English, he had gone back to the old love and was off with the +new, just when she felt most sure of him.</p> + +<p>A whole week had passed since that night in the tamarack walk, that +night when he had seemed so tender and lover-like, the matchless +deceiver! And he had hardly spoken half a dozen words to her. He was +back at the footstool of his first sovereign, he was the most devoted of +engaged men; Kate was queen of the hour, Rose was nowhere. It was +trying, it was cruel, it was shameful. Rose cried and scolded in the +seclusion of her maiden bower, and hated Mr. Stanford, or said she did; +and could have seen her beautiful elder sister in her winding-sheet with +all the pleasure in life.</p> + +<p>So, this sunny afternoon, Rose was wandering listlessly hither and +thither, thinking the ice would soon break upon the fish-pond if this +weather lasted, and suicide would be the easiest thing in the world. She +walked dismally round and round it, and wondered what Mr. Stanford would +say, and how he would feel when some day, in the cold, sad twilight, +they would carry her, white, and lifeless, and dripping before him, one +more unfortunate gone to her death! She could see herself—robed in +white, her face whiter than her dress, her pretty auburn curls all wet +and streaming around her—carried into the desolate house. She could see +Reginald Stanford recoil, turn deadly pale, his whole future happiness +blasted at the sight. She pictured him in his horrible remorse giving up +Kate, and becoming a wanderer and a broken-hearted man all the rest of +his life. There was a dismal delight in these musings; and Rose went +round and round the fish-pond, revelling, so to speak, in them.</p> + +<p>As her watch pointed to three, one of the stable-helpers came round from +the stables leading two horses. She knew them—one was Mr. Stanford's, +the other Kate's. A moment later, and Mr. Stanford and Kate appeared on +the front steps, "booted and spurred," and ready for their ride. The +Englishman helped his lady into the saddle, adjusted her long skirt, and +sprang lightly across his own steed. Rose would have given a good deal +to be miles away; but the fish-pond must be passed, and she, the "maiden +forlorn," must be seen. Kate gayly touched her plumed-hat; Kate's +cavalier bent to his saddle-bow, and then they were gone out of sight +among the budding trees.</p> + +<p>"Heartless, cold-blooded flirt!" thought the second Miss Danton, +apostrophizing the handsomest of his sex. "I hope his horse may run away +with him and break his neck!"</p> + +<p>But Rose did not mean this, and the ready tears were in her eyes the +next instant with pity for herself.</p> + +<p>"It's too bad of him—it's too bad to treat me so! He knows I love him, +he made me think he loved me; and now to go and act like this. I'll +never stay here and see him marry Kate! I'd rather die first! I will die +or do something! I'll run away and become an actress or a nun—I don't +care much which. They're both romantic, and they are what people always +do in such cases—at least I have read a great many novels where they +did!" mused Miss Danton, still making her circle round the fish-pond.</p> + +<p>Grace, calling from one of the windows to a servant passing below, +caused her to look towards the house, just in time to see something +white flutter from an open bedroom window on the breeze. The bedroom +regions ran all around the third story of Danton Hall—six in each +range. Mr. Stanford's chamber was in the front of the house, and it was +from Mr. Stanford's room the white object had fluttered. Rose watched it +as it alighted on a little unmelted snowbank, and, hurrying over, picked +it up. It was part of a letter—a sheet of note-paper torn in half, and +both sides closely written. It was in Reginald Stanford's hand and +without more ado (you will be shocked to hear it, though) Miss Rose +deliberately commenced reading it. It began abruptly with part of an +unfinished sentence.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>—"That you call me a villain! Perhaps I shall not be a villain, +after all. The angel with the auburn ringlets is as much an angel +as ever; but, Lauderdale, upon my soul, I don't want to do anything +wrong, if I can help it. If it is <i>kismit</i>, as the Turks say, my +fate, what can I do? What will be, will be; if auburn ringlets and +yellow-brown eyes are my destiny, what am I—the descendant of many +Stanfords—that I should resist? Nevertheless, if destiny minds its +own business and lets me alone, I'll come up to the mark like a +man. Kate is glorious; I always knew it, but never so much as now. +Something has happened recently—no matter what—that has elevated +her higher than ever in my estimation. There is something grand +about the girl—something too great and noble in that high-strung +nature of hers, for such a reprobate as I! This is <i>entre nous</i>, +though; if I tell you I am a reprobate, it is in confidence. I am a +lucky fellow, am I not, to have two of earth's angels to choose +from? And yet sometimes I wish I were not so lucky; I don't want to +misbehave—I don't want to break anybody's heart; but still—"</p></div> + +<p>It came to an end as abruptly as it had begun. Rose's cheeks were +scarlet flame before she concluded. She understood it all. He was bound +to her sister; he was trying to be true, but he loved her! Had he not +owned it—might she not still hope? She clasped her hands in sudden, +ecstatic rapture.</p> + +<p>"He loves me best," she thought; "and the one he loves best will be the +one he will choose."</p> + +<p>She folded up the precious document, and hid it in her pocket. She +looked up at the window, but no more sheets of the unfinished letter +fluttered out.</p> + +<p>"Careless fellow!" she thought, "to leave such tell-tale letters loose. +If Kate had found it, or Grace, or Eeny! They could not help +understanding it. I wish I dared tell him; but I can't."</p> + +<p>She turned and went into the house. No more dreary rambles round the +fish-pond. Rose was happy again.</p> + +<p>Suicide was indefinitely postponed, and Kate might become the nun, not +she. Kate was his promised wife; but there is many a slip; and the +second Miss Danton ran up to her room, singing, "New hope may bloom."</p> + +<p>If Rose's heart had been broken, she would have dressed herself +carefully all the same. There was to be a dinner-party at the house that +evening, and among the guests a viscount recently come over to shoot +moose. The viscount was forty, but unmarried, with a long rent-roll, and +longer pedigree; and who knew what effect sparkling hazel eyes and +gold-bronzed hair, and honeyed smiles, might have upon him? So Eunice +was called in, and the auburn tresses freshly curled, and a sweeping +robe of silvery silk, trimmed with rich lace, donned. The lovely bare +neck and arms were adorned with pale pearls, and the falling curls were +jauntily looped back with clusters of pearl beads.</p> + +<p>"You do look lovely, Miss!" cried Eunice, in irrepressible admiration. +"I never saw you look so 'andsome before. The dress is the becomingest +dress you've got, and you look splendid, you do!"</p> + +<p>Rose flashed a triumphant glance at her own face in the mirror.</p> + +<p>"Do I, Eunice? Do I look almost as handsome as Kate?"</p> + +<p>"You are 'andsomer sometimes, Miss Rose, to my taste. If Miss Kate 'ad +red cheeks, now; but she's as w'ite sometimes as marble."</p> + +<p>"So she is; but some people admire that style. I suppose Mr. Stanford +does—eh, Eunice?"</p> + +<p>"I dare say he does, Miss."</p> + +<p>"Do you think Mr. Stanford handsome, Eunice?" carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Very 'andsome, Miss, and so pleasant. Not 'igh and 'aughty, like some +young gentlemen I've seen. Heverybody likes 'im."</p> + +<p>"What is Kate going to wear this evening?" said Rose, her heart +fluttering at the praise.</p> + +<p>"The black lace, miss, and her pearls. She looks best in blue, but she +will wear black."</p> + +<p>"How is Agnes Darling getting on?" asked Rose, jumping to another topic. +"I haven't seen her for two days."</p> + +<p>"Getting better, Miss; she is hable to be up halmost hall the time; but +she's failed away to a shadow. Is there hanythink more, Miss?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing more, thank you. You may go."</p> + +<p>Eunice departed; and Rose, sinking into a rocker, beguiled the time +until dinner with a book. She heard Mr. Stanford and Kate coming +upstairs together, laughing at something, and go to their rooms to +dress.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if he will miss part of his letter," she thought, nervously. +"What would he say if I gave it to him, and told him I had read it? No! +I dare not do that. I will say nothing about it, and let him fidget as +much as he likes over the loss."</p> + +<p>Rose descended to the drawing-room as the last bell rang, and found +herself bowing to half a dozen strangers—Colonel Lord Ellerton among +the rest. Lord Ellerton, who was very like Lord Dundreary every way you +took him, gave his arm to Kate, and Stanford, with a smile and an +indescribable glance, took possession of Rose.</p> + +<p>"Has your fairy godmother been dressing you, Rose? I never saw you look +so bewildering. What is it?"</p> + +<p>Rose shook back her curls saucily, though tingling to her finger-ends at +the praise.</p> + +<p>"My fairy godmother's goddaughter would not bewilder you much, if +Cleopatra yonder were not taken possession of by that ill-looking peer +of the realm. I am well enough as a dernier resort."</p> + +<p>"How much of that speech do you mean? Are you looking beautiful to +captivate the viscount?"</p> + +<p>"I am looking beautiful because I can't help it, and I never stoop to +captivate any one, Mr. Stanford—not even a viscount. By-the-by, you +haven't quarrelled with Kate, have you?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not. Why should I?"</p> + +<p>"Of course—why should you! She has a perfect right to walk in the +grounds at midnight with any gentleman she chooses."</p> + +<p>She said it rather bitterly. Stanford smiled provokingly.</p> + +<p>"<i>Chacun à son gout</i>, you know. If Kate likes midnight rambles, she must +have a cavalier, of course. When she is Mrs. Stanford I shall endeavour +to break her of that habit."</p> + +<p>"Did you tell her I was with you?" demanded Rose, her eyes flashing.</p> + +<p>"My dear Rose, I never tell tales. By-the-way, when shall we have +another moonlight stroll? It seems to me I see very little of you +lately."</p> + +<p>"We will have no more midnight strolls, Mr. Stanford," said Rose, +sharply; "and you see quite as much of me as I wish you to see. My +lord—I beg your pardon—were you addressing me?"</p> + +<p>She turned from Stanford, sitting beside her and talking under the cover +of the clatter of spoons and knives, and flashed the light of her most +dazzling smile upon Lord Ellerton, sitting opposite. Yes, the peer was +addressing her—some question he wanted to know concerning the native +Canadians, and which Kate was incapable of answering.</p> + +<p>Rose knew all about it, and took his lordship in tow immediately. All +the witcheries known to pretty little flirts were brought to bear on the +viscount, as once before they had been brought to bear on Sir Ronald +Keith.</p> + +<p>Kate smiled across at Reginald, and surrendered the peer at once. King +or Kaiser were less than nothing to her in comparison with that handsome +idol on the other side of the table.</p> + +<p>Dinner was over, and the ladies gone. In the drawing-room Kate seated +herself at the piano, to sing a bewildering duet with Rose. Before it +was ended the gentlemen appeared, and once more Lord Ellerton found +himself taken captive and seated beside Rose—how, he hardly knew. How +that tongue of hers ran! And all the time Lord Ellerton's eyes were +wandering to Kate. Like Sir Ronald, pretty Rose's witcheries fell short +of the mark; the stately loveliness of Kate eclipsed her, as the sun +eclipses stars. When at last he could, without discourtesy, get away, he +arose, bowed to the young lady, and, crossing the long, drawing-room, +took his stand by the piano, where Kate still sat and sung. Stanford was +leaning against the instrument, but he resigned his place to the +viscount, and an instant later was beside Rose.</p> + +<p>"Exchange is no robbery," he said. "Is it any harm to ask how you have +succeeded?"</p> + +<p>Rose looked up angrily into the laughing dark eyes.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean."</p> + +<p>"My dear little artless Rose! Shall I put it plainer? When are you to be +Lady Ellerton?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Stanford—"</p> + +<p>"My dear Rose, don't be cross. He is too old and too ugly—low be it +spoken—for the prettiest girl in Canada!"</p> + +<p>"Meaning me?"</p> + +<p>"Meaning you."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you except Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Because I think you are prettier than Kate?"</p> + +<p>"You don't! I know better! I don't believe you!"</p> + +<p>"Disbelieve me, then."</p> + +<p>"You think there is no one in the world like Kate."</p> + +<p>"Do I? Who told you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't need to be told; actions speak louder than words."</p> + +<p>"And what have my actions said?"</p> + +<p>"That you adore the ground she walks on, and hold her a little lower +than the angels."</p> + +<p>"So I do. That is, I don't precisely adore the ground she walks on—I am +not quite so far gone as that yet—but I hold her a little lower than +the angels, certainly."</p> + +<p>"That's enough then. Why don't you stay with her, and not come here +annoying me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I annoy you, do I? You don't mean it, Rose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do," said Rose, compressing her lips. "What do you come for?"</p> + +<p>"Because—you won't be offended, will you?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Because I am very fond of you, then."</p> + +<p>"Fond of me!" said Rose, her heart thrilling—"and you engaged to Kate! +How dare you tell me so, Mr. Stanford?"</p> + +<p>Rose's words were all they should have been, but Rose's tone was +anything but severe. Stanford took an easier position on the sofa.</p> + +<p>"Because I like to tell the truth. Never mind the viscount, Rose; you +don't care about him, and if you only wait, and are a good girl, +somebody you do care about may propose to you one of these days. Here, +Doctor, there is room for another on our sofa."</p> + +<p>"Will I be <i>de trop</i>?" asked Doctor Frank, halting.</p> + +<p>"Not at all. Rose and I are discussing politics. She thinks Canada +should be annexed to the United States, and I don't. What are your views +on the matter?"</p> + +<p>Doctor Danton took the vacant seat and Stanford's conversational cue, +and began discussing politics, until Rose got up in disgust, and left.</p> + +<p>"I thought that would be the end of it," said Stanford. "Poor little +girl! the subject is too heavy for her."</p> + +<p>"Only I knew you were done for, Mr. Stanford," said Doctor Danton, "I +should have fancied I was interrupting a flirtation."</p> + +<p>"Not at all. Rose and I did not get on very well at first. I am afraid +she took a dislike to me, and I am merely trying to bring her to a more +Christian frame of mind. A fellow likes to be on good terms with his +sister."</p> + +<p>"So he does. I noticed you and our charming Miss Rose were at +daggers-drawn even before you got properly introduced; and I couldn't +account for it in any other way than by supposing you had made love to +her and deserted her—in some other planet, perhaps."</p> + +<p>Stanford looked with eyes of laughing wonder in the face of the +imperturbable Doctor, who never moved a muscle.</p> + +<p>"Upon my life, Danton," he exclaimed letting his hand fall lightly on +the Doctor's shoulder, "you ought to be burned for a wizard! What other +planet do you suppose it was?"</p> + +<p>"Has that sprained ankle of yours got quite strong again?" somewhat +irrelevantly inquired the physician.</p> + +<p>Reginald Stanford laughed.</p> + +<p>"Most astute of men! Who has been telling you tales?"</p> + +<p>"My own natural sagacity. How many weeks were you laid up?"</p> + +<p>"Three," still laughing.</p> + +<p>"I was here at the time, and I recollect the sudden passion Rose was +seized with for long rides every day. I couldn't imagine what was the +cause. I think I can, now."</p> + +<p>"Doctor Danton, your penetration does you credit. She's a dear little +girl, and the best of nurses."</p> + +<p>"And do you know—But perhaps you will be offended."</p> + +<p>"Not I. Out with it."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I think it is a pity you were engaged before you sprained +that ankle."</p> + +<p>"Do you, really? Might I ask why?"</p> + +<p>"I think Rose would make such a charming Mrs. Stanford."</p> + +<p>"So do I," said Mr. Stanford, with perfect composure. "But won't Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Danton is superb; she ought to marry an emperor; but no, destiny +has put her foot in it. Captain Danton's second daughter should be the +one."</p> + +<p>"You really think so?"</p> + +<p>"I really do."</p> + +<p>"How unfortunate!" said Stanford, stroking his mustache. "Do you think +it can be remedied?"</p> + +<p>"I think so."</p> + +<p>"By jilting—it's an ugly word, too—by jilting Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely."</p> + +<p>"But she will break her heart."</p> + +<p>"No, she won't. I am a physician, and I know. Hearts never break, except +in women's novels. They're the toughest part of the human anatomy."</p> + +<p>"What a consolating thought! And you really advise me to throw over +Kate, and take to my bosom the fair, the fascinating Rose?"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't do better."</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't there be the deuce to pay if I did, though, with that +fire-eating father of hers? I should have my brains blown out before the +honey-moon was ended."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why, so that you marry one of his daughters, how can it +matter to him which? With a viscount and a baronet at the feet of the +peerless Kate, he ought to be glad to be rid of you."</p> + +<p>"It seems to me, Doctor Danton, you talk uncommonly plain English."</p> + +<p>"Is it too plain? I'll stop if you say so."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. Pray continue. It does me good. And, besides, I don't know but +that I agree with you."</p> + +<p>"I thought you did. I have thought so for some time."</p> + +<p>"Were you jealous, Doctor? You used to be rather attentive to Rose, if I +remember rightly."</p> + +<p>"Fearfully jealous; but where is the use? She gave me my <i>coup de congé</i> +long ago. That I am still alive, and talking to you is the most +convincing proof I can give that hearts do not break."</p> + +<p>"After all," said Stanford, "I don't believe you ever were very far gone +with Rose. My stately fiancée suits you better. If I take you at your +word, and she rejects the baronet and the viscount, you might try your +luck."</p> + +<p>"It would be worse than useless. I might as well love some bright, +particular star, and hope to win it, as Miss Danton. Ah! here she +comes!"</p> + +<p>Leaning on the arm of Lord Ellerton, Miss Danton came up smilingly.</p> + +<p>"Are you two plotting treason, that you sit there with such solemn faces +all the evening?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"You have guessed it," replied her lover; "it is treason. Doctor, I'll +think of what you have been saying."</p> + +<p>He arose. Lord Ellerton resigned his fair companion to her rightful +owner, and returned to Rose, who was looking over a book of beauty; and +Doctor Danton went over to Eeny, who was singing to herself at the +piano, and listened, with an odd little smile, to her song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Smile again, my dearest love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Weep not that I leave you;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have chosen now to rove—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bear it, though it grieve you.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See! the sun, and moon, and stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gleam the wide world over,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether near, or whether far,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On your loving rover.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And the sea has ebb and flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wind and cloud deceive us;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Summer heat and winter snow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Seek us but to leave us.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus the world grows old and new—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Why should you be stronger?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long have I been true to you,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Now I'm true no longer.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"As no longer yearns my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or your smiles enslave me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let me thank you ere we part,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the love you gave me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See the May flowers wet with dew<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ere their bloom is over—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should I not return to you,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Seek another lover."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Doctor Danton laughed.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Long have I been true to you,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Now I'm true no longer!'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Those are most atrocious sentiments you are singing—do you not know +it, Miss Eeny?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford beside Kate, Lord Ellerton listening politely to Rose, and +Doctor Frank with Eeny, never found time flying, and were surprised to +discover it was almost midnight. The guests departed, "the lights were +fled, the garlands dead, and the banquet-hall deserted" by everybody but +Reginald Stanford and Captain Danton. They were alone in the long, +dimly-lighted drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"You will take Kate's place to night," the Captain was saying, "and be +Harry's companion in his constitutional. I told him that another knew +his secret. I related all the circumstances."</p> + +<p>"How did he take it? Was he annoyed?"</p> + +<p>"No; he was a little startled at first, but he allowed I could not do +otherwise. Poor fellow! He is anxious to see you now. If you will get +your overcoat, you will find him here when you return."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford ran upstairs in a hurry, and returned in fur cap and +overcoat in ten minutes. A young man, tall and slender, but pale to +ghastliness, with haggard cheeks and hollow eyes, stood, wrapped in a +long cloak, beside the Captain. He had been handsome, you could see, +even through that bloodless pallor, and there was a look in his great +blue eyes that startlingly reminded you of Kate.</p> + +<p>"You two know each other already," said the Captain. "I claim you both +as sons."</p> + +<p>Reginald grasped Harry Danton's extended hand, and shook it heartily.</p> + +<p>"Being brothers, I trust we shall soon be better acquainted," he said. +"I am to supply Kate's place to-night in the tamarack walk. I trust no +loiterers will see us."</p> + +<p>"I trust not," said Harry, with an apprehensive shiver. "I have been +seen by so many, and have frightened so many that I begin to dread +leaving my room night or day."</p> + +<p>"There is nothing to dread, I fancy," said Stanford, cheerfully, as they +passed out, and down the steps. "They take you for a ghost, you know. +Let them keep on thinking so, and you are all right. You have given +Danton Hall all it wanted to make it perfect—it is a haunted house."</p> + +<p>"It is haunted," said his companion, gloomily. "What am I better than +any other evil spirit? Oh, Heaven!" he cried, passionately, "the horror +of the life I lead! Shut up in the prison I dare not leave, haunted +night and day by the vision of that murdered man, every hope and +blessing that life holds gone forever! I feel sometimes as though I were +going mad!"</p> + +<p>He lifted his cap and let the chill night wind cool his burning +forehead. There was a long, blank pause. When Reginald Stanford spoke, +his voice was low and subdued.</p> + +<p>"Are you quite certain the man you shot was shot dead? You hardly waited +to see, of course; and how are you to tell positively the wound was +fatal?"</p> + +<p>"I wish to Heaven there could be any doubt of it!" groaned the young +man. "My aim is unerring; I saw him fall, shot through the heart."</p> + +<p>His voice died away in a hoarse whisper. Again there was a pause.</p> + +<p>"Your provocation was great," said Reginald. "If anything can extenuate +killing a fellow-creature, it is that. Are you quite positive—But +perhaps I have no right to speak on this matter."</p> + +<p>"Speak, speak!" broke out Harry Danton. "I am shut up in these horrible +rooms from week's end to week's end, until it is the only thing that +keeps me from going mad—talking of what I have done. What were you +going to say?"</p> + +<p>"I wanted to ask you if you were quite certain—beyond the shadow of +doubt—of your wife's guilt? We sometimes make terrible mistakes in +these matters."</p> + +<p>"There was no mistake," replied his companion, with a sudden look of +anguish, "there could be none. I saw and heard as plainly as I see and +hear you now. There could be no mistake."</p> + +<p>"Do you know where your—where she is now?"</p> + +<p>"No!" with that look of anguish still. "No, I have never heard of her +since that dreadful night. She may be dead, or worse than dead, long ere +this."</p> + +<p>"You loved her very much," said Reginald, impelled to say it by the +expression of that ghastly face.</p> + +<p>"Loved her?" he repeated. "I have no words to tell you how I loved her. +I thought her all that was pure, and innocent, and beautiful, and +womanly, and she—oh, fool, that I was to believe her as I did!—to +think, as she made me think, that I had her whole heart!"</p> + +<p>"Would you like to have some one try and trace her out for you? Her fate +may be ascertained yet. I will go to New York, if you wish, and do my +best."</p> + +<p>"No, no," was the reply. "What use would it be? If you discovered her +to-morrow, what would it avail? Better let her fate remain forever +unknown than find my worst fears realized. False, wicked, degraded, as I +know her, I cannot forget how madly I loved her—I cannot forget that I +love her yet."</p> + +<p>They walked up and down the tamarack-walk in the frosty starlight, all +still and peaceful around them—the sky, sown with silver stars, so +serene—the earth, white with its snowy garb, all hushed and +tranquil—nothing disturbed but the heart of man, all things at peace +but his storm-tossed soul.</p> + +<p>"I am keeping you here," said Harry, "and it is growing late, and cold. +I am selfish and exacting in my misery, as, I fear, poor Kate knows. Let +us go in."</p> + +<p>They walked to the house. When they entered, Reginald secured the door, +and the two young men went upstairs together. Ogden sat sleepily on a +chair, and started up at sight of them. Harry Danton held out his hand, +with a faint sad smile.</p> + +<p>"Good night," he said; "I am glad to have added another to the list of +my friends. I hope we shall meet soon again. Good night, and pleasant +dreams."</p> + +<p>"We shall meet as often as you wish," answered Reginald. "You have my +deepest sympathy. Good night."</p> + +<p>The white, despairing face haunted Reginald Stanford's dreams all night, +as if he had indeed been a ghost. He was glad when morning came, and he +could escape the spectres of dream-land in the business of everyday +life. He stopped in the hall on his way down stairs, to look out at the +morning, wet, and cold, and dark, and miserable. As he stood, some one +passed him, going up to the upper bedroom regions of the servants—a +small, pallid little creature, looking like a stray spirit in its black +dress—Agnes Darling.</p> + +<p>"Another ghost?" thought Mr. Stanford, running down stairs. "They are +not far wrong who call Danton Hall a haunted house."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>LOVE-MAKING.</h3> + + +<p>A dismal March afternoon, an earth hard as iron, with black frost, a +wild wind troubling the gaunt trees, and howling mournfully around the +old house. A desolate, wintry afternoon, threatening storm; but despite +its ominous aspect, the young people at Danton Hall had gone off for a +long sleigh-ride. Reginald and Kate had the little shell-shaped cutter, +Rose, Eeny, Mr. Howard, Junior, Miss Howard, and Doctor Frank, in the +big three-seated family sleigh. Amid the jingling of silvery bells, +peals of girlish laughter, and a chorus of good-byes to the Captain and +Grace, standing on the stone stoop, they had departed.</p> + +<p>Captain Danton and his housekeeper spent the bleak March afternoon very +comfortably together. The fire burned brightly, the parlour was like +waxwork in its perfect order; Grace, with her sewing, sat by her +favourite window. Captain Danton, with the Montreal <i>True Witness</i>, sat +opposite, reading her the news. Grace was not very profoundly interested +in the political questions then disturbing Canada, or in the doings and +sayings of the Canadian Legislature; but she listened with a look of +pleased attention to all. Presently the Captain laid down the newspaper +and looked out.</p> + +<p>"The girls and boys will be caught in the storm, as I told them they +would. You and I were wisest, Grace, to stay at home."</p> + +<p>Grace smiled and folded up her work.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?" asked the Captain.</p> + +<p>"To get the remainder of this embroidery from Agnes Darling. Do you know +what it is?"</p> + +<p>"How should I?"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, it is a part of Miss Kate's bridal outfit. June will soon +be here, although to-day does not look much like it."</p> + +<p>She went out and descended to the sewing-room. All alone, and sitting by +the window, her needle flying rapidly, was the pale seamstress.</p> + +<p>"Have you finished those bands, Miss Darling? Ah, I see you have and +very nicely. I am ready for them, and will take them upstairs. Are these +the sleeves you are working on?"</p> + +<p>Miss Darling replied in the affirmative, and Grace turned to depart. On +the threshold she paused.</p> + +<p>"You don't look very well, Miss Darling," she said, kindly; "don't work +too late. There is no hurry with the things."</p> + +<p>She returned to the parlour, where Captain Danton, who had become very +fond of his housekeeper's society of late, still sat. And Agnes Darling, +alone in the cosy little sewing-room, worked busily while the light +lasted. When it grew too dark for the fine embroidery, she dropped it in +her lap, and looked out at the wintry prospect.</p> + +<p>The storm that had been threatening all day was rising fast. The wind +had increased to a gale, and shook the windows and doors, and worried +the trees, and went shrieking off over the bleak marshes, to a wild gulf +and rushing river. Great snowflakes fluttered through the leaden air, +faster and faster, and faster, until presently all was lost in a dizzy +cloud of falling whiteness. A wild and desolate evening, making the +pleasant little room, with its rosy fire, and carpet, and pretty +furniture, tenfold pleasanter by contrast. A bleak and terrible evening +for all wayfarers—bitterly cold, and darkening fast.</p> + +<p>The seamstress sat while the dismal daylight faded drearily out, her +hands lying idly in her lap, her great, melancholy dark eyes fixed on +the fast-falling snow. The tokens of sickness and sorrow lingered more +marked than ever in that wasted form and colourless face, and the ruddy +glow of the fire-light flickered on her mourning dress. Weary and +lonely, she looked as the dying day.</p> + +<p>Presently, above the shrieking of the stormy wind, came another +sound—the loud jingling of sleigh-bells. Dimly through the fluttering +whiteness of the snow-storm she saw the sleighs whirl up to the door, +and their occupants, in a tumult of laughter, hurrying rapidly into the +house. She could hear those merry laughs, those feminine tones, and the +pattering of gaitered feet up the stairs. She could hear the deeper +voices of the gentlemen, as they stamped and shook the snow off their +hats and great-coats in the hall. She listened and looked out again at +the wintry twilight.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she thought, with weary sadness, "what happy people there are in +the world! Women who love and are beloved, who have everything their +hearts desire—home, and friends, and youth, and hope, and happiness. +Women who scarcely know, even by hearsay, of such wretched castaways as +I."</p> + +<p>She walked from the window to the fire, and, leaning against the mantel, +fixed her eyes on the flickering flame.</p> + +<p>"My birthday," she said to herself, "this long, lonesome, desolate day. +Desolate as my lost life, as my dead heart. Only two-and twenty, and all +that makes life worth having, gone already."</p> + +<p>Again she walked to the window. Far away, and pale and dim through the +drifting snow, she could see the low-lying sky.</p> + +<p>"Not all!" was the better thought that came to her in her +bitterness—"not all, but oh! how far away the land of rest looks!"</p> + +<p>She leaned against the window, as she had leaned against the mantel, and +took from her bosom the locket she always wore.</p> + +<p>"This day twelvemonth he gave me this—his birthday gift. Oh, my +darling! My husband! where in all the wide world are you this stormy +night?"</p> + +<p>There was a rap at the door. She thrust the locket again in her bosom, +choked back the hysterical passion of tears rising in her heart, crossed +the room, and opened the door. Her visitor was Doctor Danton.</p> + +<p>"I thought I should find you here," he said, entering.</p> + +<p>"How are you to-day, Miss Darling? Not very well, as your face plainly +testifies; give me your hand—cold as ice! My dear child, what is the +trouble now?"</p> + +<p>At the kindness of his tone she broke down suddenly. She had been alone +so long brooding in solitude over her troubles, that she had grown +hysterical. It wanted but that kindly voice and look to open the closed +flood-gates of her heart. She covered her face with her hands, and broke +out into a passionate fit of crying.</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank led her gently to a seat, and stood leaning against the +chimney, looking into the dying fire, and not speaking. The hysterics +would pass, he knew, if she were let alone; and when the sobbing grew +less violent, he spoke.</p> + +<p>"You sit alone too much," he said quietly; "it is not good for you. You +must give it up, or you will break down altogether."</p> + +<p>"Forgive me," said Agnes, trying to choke back the sobs. "I am weak and +miserable, and cannot help it. I did not mean to cry now."</p> + +<p>"You are alone too much," repeated the Doctor; "it won't do. You think +too much of the past, and despond too much in the present. That won't do +either. You must give it up."</p> + +<p>His calm, authoritative tone soothed her somehow. The tears fell less +hotly, and she lifted her poor, pale face.</p> + +<p>"I am very foolish, but it is my birthday, and I could not help—"</p> + +<p>She broke down again.</p> + +<p>"It all comes of being so much alone," repeated Doctor Frank. "It won't +do. Agnes, how often must I tell you so? Do you know what they say of +you in the house?"</p> + +<p>"No," looking up in quick alarm.</p> + +<p>"They accuse you of having something on your mind. The servants look at +you with suspicion, and it all comes of your love of solitude, your +silence and sadness. Give it up, Agnes, give it up."</p> + +<p>"Doctor Danton," she cried, piteously, "what can I do? I am the most +unhappy woman in all the world. What can I do?"</p> + +<p>"There is no need of you being the most unhappy woman in the world; +there is no need of your being unhappy at all."</p> + +<p>She looked up at him in white, voiceless appeal, her lips and hands +trembling.</p> + +<p>"Don't excite yourself—don't be agitated. I have no news for you but I +think I may bid you hope with safety. I don't think it was a ghost you +saw that night."</p> + +<p>She gave a little cry, and then sat white and still, waiting.</p> + +<p>"I don't think it was a ghost," he repeated, lowering his voice. "I +don't think he is dead."</p> + +<p>She did not speak; she only sat looking up at him with that white, still +face.</p> + +<p>"There is no need of your wearing a widow's weeds, Agnes," he said, +touching her black dress; "I believe your husband to be alive."</p> + +<p>She never spoke. If her life had depended on it, she could not have +uttered a word—could not have removed her eyes from his face.</p> + +<p>"I have no positive proof of what I say, but a conviction that is equal +to any proof in my own mind. I believe your husband to be alive—I +believe him to be an inmate of this very house."</p> + +<p>He stopped in alarm. She had fallen back in her chair, the bluish pallor +of death overspreading her face.</p> + +<p>"I should have prepared you better," he said. "The shock was too sudden. +Shall I go for a glass of water?"</p> + +<p>She made a slight motion in the negative, and whispered the word,</p> + +<p>"Wait!"</p> + +<p>A few moments' struggle with her fluttering breath, and then she was +able to sit up.</p> + +<p>"Are you better again? Shall I go for the water?"</p> + +<p>"No, no! Tell me—"</p> + +<p>She could not finish the sentence.</p> + +<p>"I have no positive proof," said Doctor Danton, "but the strongest +internal conviction. I believe your husband to be in hiding in this +house. I believe you saw him that night, and no spirit."</p> + +<p>"Go on, go on!" she gasped.</p> + +<p>"You have heard of Mr. Richards, the invalid, shut upstairs, have you +not? Yes. Well, that mysterious individual is your husband."</p> + +<p>She rose up and stood by him, white as death.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?"</p> + +<p>"Morally, yes. As I told you, I have no proof as yet and I should not +have told you so soon had I not seen you dying by inches before my eyes. +Can you keep up heart now, little despondent?"</p> + +<p>She clasped her hands over that wildly-throbbing heart, still not quite +sure that she heard aright.</p> + +<p>"You are to keep all this a profound secret," said the Doctor, "until I +can make my suspicions certainties. They say women cannot keep a +secret—is it true?"</p> + +<p>"I will do whatever you tell me. Oh, thank Heaven! thank Heaven for +this!"</p> + +<p>She had found her voice, and the hysterics threatened again. Doctor +Danton held up an authoritative finger.</p> + +<p>"Don't!" he said imperatively. "I won't have it! No more crying, or I +shall take back all I have said. Tell a woman good news, and she cries; +tell her bad news, and she does the same. How is a man to manage them?"</p> + +<p>He walked across the room, and looked out at the night, revolving that +profound question in his man's brain, and so unable to solve the enigma +as the thousands of his brethren who have perplexed themselves over the +same question before. After staring a moment at the blinding whirl of +snow he returned to the seamstress.</p> + +<p>"Are you all right again, and ready to listen to me?"</p> + +<p>Her answer was a question.</p> + +<p>"How have you found this out?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't found it out. I have only my own suspicions—very strong +ones, though."</p> + +<p>A shadow of doubt saddened and darkened her face. Her clasped hands +drooped and fell.</p> + +<p>"Only a suspicion, after all! I am afraid to hope, seems so unreal, so +improbable. If it were Harry, why should he be here? Why should Captain +Danton protect and shield him?"</p> + +<p>"That is what I am coming to. You knew very little of your husband +before you married him. Are you sure he did not marry you under an +assumed name?"</p> + +<p>A flash of colour darted across her colourless face at the words. Doctor +Danton saw it.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure Darling was your husband's name?" he reiterated, +emphatically.</p> + +<p>"I am not sure," she said faintly. "I have reason to think it was not."</p> + +<p>"Do you know what his name was?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Then I do. I think his name was Danton."</p> + +<p>"Danton!"</p> + +<p>"Henry Richard Danton—Captain Danton's only son."</p> + +<p>She looked at him in breathless wonder.</p> + +<p>"Captain Danton's only son," went on the Doctor. "You have not lived all +these months in this house without knowing that Captain Danton had a +son?"</p> + +<p>"I have heard it."</p> + +<p>"Three years ago this son ran away from home, and went to New York, +under an assumed name. Three years ago Henry Darling came first to New +York from Canada. Henry Darling commits a crime, and flies. A few months +after Captain Danton comes here, with a mysterious invalid, who is never +seen, who is too ill to leave his room by day, but quite able to go out +for midnight rambles in the grounds. Old Margery has known Captain +Danton's son from childhood. She sees Mr. Richards returning from one of +those midnight walks, and falls down in a fit. She says she has seen +Master Harry's ghost—Master Harry being currently believed to be dead. +Shortly after, you see Mr. Richards on a like occasion, and you fall +down in a fit. You say you have seen the apparition of your husband, +Henry Darling. Putting all this together, and adding it up, what does it +come to? Are you good at figures?"</p> + +<p>She could not answer him. The ungovernable astonishment of hearing what +she had heard, struck her speechless once more.</p> + +<p>"Don't take the trouble to speak," said Doctor Frank, "my news has +stunned you. I shall leave you to think it all over by yourself, and I +trust there will be an end of tears and melancholy faces. It is ever +darkest before the day dawns. Good-evening!"</p> + +<p>He was going, but she laid her hand on his arm.</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment," she said, finding her voice. "I am so confused and +bewildered that I hardly understand what you have said. But should it +all be true—you know—you know—" averting her face, "he believes me +guilty!"</p> + +<p>"We will undeceive him; I can give him proofs, 'strong as Holy Writ;' +and, if he loves you, he will be open to conviction. All will come right +after a while; only have patience and wait. Keep up a good heart, my +dear child, and trust in God."</p> + +<p>She dropped feebly into a chair, looking with a bewildered face at the +fire.</p> + +<p>"I can't realize it," she murmured. "It is like a scene in a novel. I +can't realize it."</p> + +<p>She heard the door close behind Doctor Frank—she heard a girlish voice +accost him in the hall. It was Miss Rose, in a rustling silk +dinner-dress, with laces, and ribbons, and jewels fluttering and +sparkling about her.</p> + +<p>"Is Agnes Darling in there?" she asked suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I have just been making a professional call."</p> + +<p>"Professional! I thought she was well."</p> + +<p>"Getting well, my dear Miss Rose; getting well, I am happy to say. It is +the duty of a conscientious physician to see after his patients until +they are perfectly recovered."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if conscientious physicians find the duty more binding in the +case of young and pretty patients than in that of old and ugly ones?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Doctor Frank, impressively. "To professional eyes, the +suffering fellow-creature is a suffering fellow-creature, and nothing +more. Think better of us, my dear girl; think better of me."</p> + +<p>After dinner, in the drawing-room, Captain Danton, with Grace for a +partner, the Doctor with Eeny, sat down to a game of cards. Kate sat at +the piano, singing a fly-away duet with Miss Howard. Mr. Howard stood at +Miss Danton's right elbow devotedly turning the music; and in a little +cozy velvet sofa, just big enough for two, Reginald and Rose were +tête-à-tête.</p> + +<p>In the changed days that came after, Doctor Frank remembered that +picture—the exquisite face at the piano, the slender and stately form, +the handsome man, and the pretty coquette on the sofa. The song sung +that night brought the tableau as vividly before him years and years +after, as when he saw it then.</p> + +<p>The song was ended. Miss Danton's ringed white fingers were flying over +the keys in a brilliant waltz. George Howard and Rose were floating +round and round, in air, as it seemed, and Stanford was watching with +half-closed eyes. And in the midst of all, above the ringing music and +the sighing of the wild wind, there came the clanging of sleigh-bells +and a loud ring at the house-door. Rose and George Howard ceased their +waltz. Kate's flying fingers stopped. The card-party looked up +inquisitively.</p> + +<p>"Who can it be," said the Captain, "'who knocks so loud, and knocks so +late,' this stormy night?"</p> + +<p>The servant who threw open the drawing-room door answered him. "M. La +Touche," announced Babette, and vanished.</p> + +<p>There was a little cry of astonishment from Rose; an instant's +irresolute pause. Captain Danton arose. The name was familiar to him +from his daughter. But Rose had recovered herself before he could +advance, and came forward, her pretty face flushed.</p> + +<p>"Where on earth did you drop from?" she asked, composedly shaking hands +with him. "Did you snow down from Ottawa?"</p> + +<p>"No," said M. La Touche. "I've snowed down from Laprairie. I came from +Montreal in this evening's train, and drove up here, in spite of wind +and weather."</p> + +<p>Captain Danton came forward; and Rose, still a little confused, +presented M. La Touche. The cordial Captain shook with his usual +heartiness the proffered hand of the young man, bade him welcome, and +put an instant veto on his leaving them that night.</p> + +<p>"There are plenty of bedrooms here, and it is not a night to turn an +enemy's dog from the door. My cousin, Miss Grace Danton, M. La Touche; +my daughter, Eveleen; and Doctor Frank Danton."</p> + +<p>M. La Touche bowed with native grace to these off-hand introductions, +and then was led off by Rose to the piano-corner, to be duly presented +there. She had not made up her mind yet whether she were vexed or +pleased to see her lover. Whatever little affection she had ever given +him—and it must have been of the flimsiest from the first—had +evaporated long ago, like smoke. But Rose had no idea of pining in +maiden solitude, even if she lost the fascinating Reginald, and she knew +that homely old saw about coming to the ground between two stools.</p> + +<p>M. La Touche had the good fortune to produce a pleasing impression upon +all to whom he was introduced. He was very good-looking, with dark +Canadian eyes and hair, and olive skin. He was rather small and slight, +and his large dark eyes were dreamy, and his smile as gentle as a +girl's.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford, resigned his place on the sofa to M. La Touche, and Rose +and the young Canadian were soon chattering busily in French.</p> + +<p>"Why did you not write and tell me you were coming?"</p> + +<p>"Because I did not know I was coming. Rose, I am the luckiest fellow +alive!"</p> + +<p>His dark eyes sparkled; his olive face flushed. Rose looked at him +wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"I have had a fortune left me. I am a rich man, and I have come here to +tell you, my darling Rose."</p> + +<p>"A fortune!" repeated Rose, opening her brown eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, <i>m'amour</i>! You have heard me speak of my uncle in Laprairie, who +is very rich? Well, he is dead, and has left all he possesses to me."</p> + +<p>Rose clasped her hands.</p> + +<p>"And how much is it?"</p> + +<p>"Forty thousand pounds!"</p> + +<p>"Forty thousand pounds!" repeated Rose, quite stunned by the magnitude +of the sum.</p> + +<p>"Am I not the luckiest fellow in the world?" demanded the young legatee +with exultation. "I don't care for myself alone, Rose, but for you. +There is nothing to prevent our marriage now."</p> + +<p>Rose wilted down suddenly, and began fixing her bracelets.</p> + +<p>"I shall take a share in the bank with my father," pursued the young +man; "and I shall speak to your father to-morrow for his consent to our +union!"</p> + +<p>Rose still twitched her bracelets, her colour coming and going. She +could see Reginald Stanford without looking up; and never had he been so +handsome in her eyes; never had she loved him as she loved him now.</p> + +<p>"You say nothing, Rose," said her lover. "<i>Mon Dieu!</i> you cannot surely +love me less!"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said Rose, rather sharply, "they will hear you. It isn't that, +but—but I don't want to be married just yet. I am too young."</p> + +<p>"You did not think so at Ottawa."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Rose, testily; "I think so now, and that is enough. I can't +get married yet; at least not before July."</p> + +<p>"I am satisfied to wait until July," said La Touche, smiling. "No doubt, +you will feel older and wiser by that time."</p> + +<p>"Does your father know?" asked Rose.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I told him before I left home. They are all delighted. My mother +and sisters send endless love."</p> + +<p>Rose remained silent for a moment, thoughtfully twisting her bracelet. +She liked wealth, but she liked Reginald Stanford better than all the +wealth in the world. Jules La Touche, with forty thousand pounds, was +not to be lightly thrown over; but she was ready at any moment to throw +him over for the comparatively poor Englishman. She had no wish to +offend her lover. Should her dearer hopes fail, he would be a most +desirable party.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with you, Rose?" demanded Jules, uneasily. "You are +changed. You are not what you were in Ottawa. Even your letters of late +are not what they used to be. Why is it? What have I done?"</p> + +<p>"You foolish fellow," said Rose, smiling, "nothing! I am not changed. +You only fancy it."</p> + +<p>"Then I may speak to your father?"</p> + +<p>"Wait until to-morrow," said Rose. "I will think of it. You shall have +my answer after breakfast. Now, don't wear that long face—there is +really no occasion."</p> + +<p>Rose dutifully lingered by his side all the evening; but she stole more +glances at Kate's lover than she did at her own. Jules La Touche felt +the impalpable change in her; and yet it would have puzzled him to +define it. His nature was gentle and tender, and he loved the pretty, +fickle, rosy beauty with a depth and sincerity of which she was totally +unworthy.</p> + +<p>Upstairs, in her room, that night, Rose sat before the fire, toasting +her feet and thinking. Yes, thinking. She was not guilty of it often; +but to-night she was revolving the pros and cons of her own case. If she +refused to let Jules speak to her father, nothing would persuade him +that her love had not died out. He might depart in anger, and she might +lose him forever. That was the very last thing she wished. If she lost +Reginald, it would be some consolation to marry, immediately after, a +richer man. It would be revenge; it would prove how little she cared for +him; it would deprive him of the pleasure of thinking she was pining in +maiden loneliness for him. Then, too, the public announcement of her +engagement and approaching marriage to M. La Touche might arouse him to +the knowledge of how much he loved her. "How blessings brighten as they +take their flight!" and jealousy is infallible to bring dilatory lovers +to the point. No question of the right or wrong of the matter troubled +the second Miss Danton's easy conscience.</p> + +<p>On the whole, everything was in favour of M. La Touche's speaking to +papa. Rose resolved he should speak, took off her considering cap, and +went to bed.</p> + +<p>M. La Touche was not kept long in suspense next day; he got his answer +before breakfast. The morning was sunny and mild, but the snow lay piled +high on all sides; and Rose, running down stairs some ten minutes before +breakfast-time, found her lover in the open hall door, watching the +snowbirds and smoking a cigar. Rose went up to him with very pretty +shyness, and the young man flung away his cigar, and looked at her +anxiously.</p> + +<p>"What a lovely morning," said Rose; "what splendid sleighing we will +have."</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to talk of sleighing," said M. La Touche, resolutely. +"You promised me an answer this morning. What is it?"</p> + +<p>Rose began playing with her cord and tassels.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" reiterated the Canadian. "Yes or No?"</p> + +<p>"Yes!"</p> + +<p>M. La Touche's anxious countenance turned rapturous, but Miss Grace +Danton was coming down stairs, and he had to be discreet. Grace lingered +a few moments talking of the weather, and Rose took the opportunity of +making her escape.</p> + +<p>After breakfast, when the family were dispersing, M. La Touche followed +Captain Danton out of the room, and begged the favour of a private +interview. The Captain looked surprised, but agreed readily, and led the +way to his study, no shadow of the truth dawning on his mind.</p> + +<p>That awful ordeal of most successful wooers, "speaking to papa," was +very hard to begin; but M. La Touche, encouraged by the recollection of +the forty thousand pounds, managed to begin somehow. He made his +proposal with a modest diffidence that could not fail to please.</p> + +<p>"We have loved each other this long time," said the young man; "but I +never dreamed of speaking to you so soon. I was only a clerk in our +house, and Rose and I looked forward to years of waiting. This legacy, +however, has removed all pecuniary obstacles, and Rose has given me +consent to speak to you."</p> + +<p>Imagine the Captain's surprise. His little curly-haired Rose, whom he +looked upon as a tall child, engaged to be married!</p> + +<p>"Bless my soul!" exclaimed Captain Danton, naïvely; "you have taken me +completely aback! I give you my word of honour, I never thought of such +a thing!"</p> + +<p>"I hope you will not object, sir; I love your daughter most sincerely."</p> + +<p>The anxious inquiry was unneeded. Captain Danton had no idea of +objecting. He knew the La Touche family well by repute; he liked this +modest young wooer; and forty thousand pounds for his dowerless daughter +was not to be lightly refused.</p> + +<p>"Object!" he cried, grasping his hand. "Not I. If you and Rose love each +other, I am the last one in the world to mar your happiness. Take her, +my lad, with my best wishes for your happiness."</p> + +<p>The young Canadian tried to express his gratitude, but broke down at the +first words.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said the Captain, laughing. "Don't try to thank me. Your +father knows, of course?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. I spoke to him before I left Ottawa. He and all our family +are delighted with my choice."</p> + +<p>"And when is it to be?" asked the Captain, still laughing.</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"The wedding, of course!"</p> + +<p>M. La Touche's dark face reddened like a girl's. "I don't know, sir. We +have not come to that yet."</p> + +<p>"Let me help you over the difficulty, then. Make it a double wedding."</p> + +<p>"A double wedding?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. My daughter Kate is to be married to Mr. Stanford on the fifth of +June. Why not make it a double match."</p> + +<p>"With all my heart, sir, if Rose is willing!"</p> + +<p>"Go and ask her then. But first, of course, after this, you remain with +us for some time?"</p> + +<p>"I can stay a week or two; after that, business will compel me to +leave."</p> + +<p>"Well, business must be attended to. Go, speak to Rose, and success to +you!"</p> + +<p>Jules found Rose in the drawing-room, and alone. His face told how +eminently satisfactory his interview had been. He sat down beside her, +and related what had passed, ending with her father's proposal.</p> + +<p>"Do say yes, Rose," pleaded Jules. "June is as long as I can wait, and I +should like a double wedding of all things."</p> + +<p>Rose's face turned scarlet, and she averted her head. The familiar +announcement of Reginald's marriage to her sister, as a matter of +certainty, stung her to the heart.</p> + +<p>"You don't object, Rose?" he said uneasily. "You will be married the +same day?"</p> + +<p>"Settle it as you like," answered Rose petulantly. "If I must be +married, it doesn't much matter when."</p> + +<p>That day, when the ladies were leaving the dinner-table, Captain Danton +arose.</p> + +<p>"Wait one moment," he said; "I have a toast to propose before you go. +Fill your glasses and drink long life and prosperity to Mr. and Mrs. +Jules La Touche."</p> + +<p>Every one but Grace was electrified, and Rose fairly ran out of the +room. M. La Touche made a modest little speech of thanks, and then Mr. +Stanford held the door open for the ladies to pass.</p> + +<p>Rose was not in the drawing-room when they entered, and Kate ran up to +her room; but the door was locked, and Rose would not let her in.</p> + +<p>"Go away, Kate," she said, almost passionately. "Go away and leave me +alone."</p> + +<p>Rose kept her chamber all the evening, to the amazement of the rest. The +young Canadian was the lion of the hour, and bore his honours with that +retiring modesty which so characterized him, and which made him such a +contrast to the brilliant and self-conscious Mr. Stanford.</p> + +<p>Rose descended to the breakfast next morning looking shy and queer. +Before the meal was over, however, the bashfulness, quite foreign to her +usual character, wore pretty well away, and she agreed to join a +sleighing-party over to Richelieu, a neighbouring village.</p> + +<p>They were six in all—Kate and Mr. Stanford, Rose and Mr. La Touche, +Eeny and Doctor Frank. Sir Ronald Keith had departed some time +previously, for a tour through the country with Lord Ellerton, and his +memory was a thing of the past already.</p> + +<p>The Captain, an hour after their departure, sought out Grace in the +dining-room, where she sat at work. He looked grave and anxious, and, +sitting down beside her, said what he had to say with many misgivings.</p> + +<p>"I am double her age," he thought. "I have a son old enough to be her +husband; how can I hope?"</p> + +<p>But for all that he talked, and Grace listened, her sewing lying idly in +her lap; one hand shading her face, the other held in his. He talked +long and earnestly, and she listened, silent and with shaded face.</p> + +<p>"And now Grace, my dear, you have heard all; what do you say? When I +lose my girls, shall I go back to the old life, or shall I stay? I can't +stay unless you say yes, Grace. I am double your age, but I love you +very dearly, and will do my best to make you happy. My dear, what do you +say?" She looked up at him for the first time, her eyes full of tears.</p> + +<p>"Yes!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>TRYING TO BE TRUE.</h3> + + +<p>Late that evening, the sleighing party returned in high good +spirits—all exhilaration after their long drive through the frosty air. +Crescent moon and silver stars spangled the deep Canadian sky, +glittering coldly bright in the hard white snow, as they jingled merrily +up to the door.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a night!" Kate cried. "It is profanation to go indoors."</p> + +<p>"It is frostbitten noses to stay out," answered Reginald. "Moonlight is +very well in its place; but I want my dinner."</p> + +<p>The sleighing party had had one dinner that day, but were quite ready +for another. They had stopped at noon at a country inn, and fared +sumptuously on fried ham and eggs and sour Canadian bread, and then had +gone off rambling up the hills and into the woods.</p> + +<p>How it happened, no one but Reginald Stanford ever knew; but it did +happen that Kate was walking beside Jules La Touche up a steep, snowy +hill, and Reginald was by Rose's side in a dim, gloomy forest-path. Rose +had no objection. She walked beside him, looking very pretty, in a black +hat with long white plume and little white veil. They had walked on +without speaking until her foolish heart was fluttering, and she could +stand it no longer. She stopped short in the woodland aisle, through +which the pale March sunshine sifted, and looked up at him for the first +time.</p> + +<p>"Where are we going?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"For a walk," replied Mr. Stanford, "and a talk. You are not afraid, I +hope?"</p> + +<p>"Afraid?" said Rose, the colour flushing her face. "Of what should I be +afraid?"</p> + +<p>"Of me!"</p> + +<p>"And why should I be afraid of you?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps because I may make love to you? Are you?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Come on, then."</p> + +<p>He offered his arm, and Rose put her gloved fingers gingerly in his +coat-sleeve, her heart fluttering more than ever.</p> + +<p>"You are going to be married," he said, "and I have had no opportunity +of offering my congratulations. Permit me to do it now."</p> + +<p>"Thank you."</p> + +<p>"Your M. La Touche is a pleasant little fellow, Rose. You and he have my +best wishes for your future happiness."</p> + +<p>"The 'pleasant little fellow' and myself are exceedingly obliged to +you!" her eyes flashing; "and now, Mr. Stanford, if you have said all +you have to say, suppose we go back?"</p> + +<p>"But I have not said all I have to say, nor half. I want to know why you +are going to marry him?"</p> + +<p>"And I want to know," retorted Rose, "what business it is of yours?"</p> + +<p>"Be civil Rose! I told you once before, if you recollect, that I was +very fond of you. Being fond of you, it is natural I should take an +interest in your welfare. What are you going to marry him for?"</p> + +<p>"For love!" said Rose, spitefully.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe it! Excuse me for contradicting you, my dear Rose; but +I don't believe it. He is a good-looking lamb-like little fellow, and he +is worth forty thousand pounds; but I don't believe it!"</p> + +<p>"Don't believe it, then. What you believe, or what you disbelieve, is a +matter of perfect indifference to me," said Rose, looking straight +before her with compressed lips.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe that, either. What is the use of saying such things to +me?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Stanford, do you mean to insult me?" demanded Rose furiously. "Let +me go this instant. Fetch me back to the rest. Oh, if papa were here, +you wouldn't dare to talk to me like that. Reginald Stanford, let me go. +I hate you!"</p> + +<p>For Mr. Stanford had put his arm around her waist, and was looking down +at her with those darkly daring eyes. What could Rose do?—silly, +love-sick Rose. She didn't hate him, and she broke out into a perfect +passion of sobs.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Rose," he said, very gently, leading her to a mossy knoll +under a tree; "and, my darling, don't cry. You will redden your eyes, +and swell your nose, and won't look pretty. Don't cry any more!"</p> + +<p>If Mr. Stanford had been trying for a week, he could have used no more +convincing argument.</p> + +<p>Rose wiped her eyes gracefully; but wouldn't look at him.</p> + +<p>"That's a good girl!" said Stanford. "I will agree to everything rather +than offend you. You love M. La Touche, and you hate me. Will that do?"</p> + +<p>"Let us go back," said Rose, stiffly, getting up. "I don't see what you +mean by such talk. I know it is wrong and insulting."</p> + +<p>"Do you feel insulted?" he asked, smiling down at her.</p> + +<p>"Let me alone!" cried Rose, the passionate tears starting to her eyes +again. "Let me alone, I tell you! You have no business to torment me +like this!"</p> + +<p>He caught her suddenly in his arms, and kissed her again and again.</p> + +<p>"Rose! Rose! my darling! you love me, don't you? My dear little Rose, I +can't let you marry Jules La Touche, or any one else."</p> + +<p>He released her just in time.</p> + +<p>"Rose! Rose!" Kate's clear voice was calling somewhere near.</p> + +<p>"Here we are," returned Stanford, in answer, for Rose was speechless; +and two minutes later they were face to face with Miss Danton and M. La +Touche.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford's face was clear as the blue March sky, but Rose looked as +flushed and guilty as she felt. She shrank from looking at her sister or +lover, and clung involuntarily to Reginald's arm.</p> + +<p>"Have you been plotting to murder any one?" asked Kate. "You look like +it."</p> + +<p>"We have been flirting," said Mr. Stanford, with the most perfect +composure. "You don't mind, do you? M. La Touche, I resign in your +favour. Come, Kate."</p> + +<p>Rose and Reginald did not exchange another word all day. Rose was very +subdued, very still. She hardly opened her lips all the afternoon to the +unlucky Jules. She hardly opened them at dinner, except to admit the +edibles, and she was unnaturally quiet all the evening. She retired into +a corner with some crochet-work, and declined conversation and coffee +alike, until bedtime. She went slowly and decorously upstairs, with that +indescribable subdued face, and bade everybody good-night without +looking at them.</p> + +<p>Eeny, who shared Grace's room, sat on a stool before the bedroom fire a +long time that night, looking dreamily into the glowing coals.</p> + +<p>Grace, sitting beside her, combing out her own long hair, watched her in +silence.</p> + +<p>Presently Eeny looked up.</p> + +<p>"How odd it seems to think of her being married."</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"Rose. It seems queer, somehow. I don't mind Kate. I heard before ever +she came here that she was going to be married; but Rose—I can't +realize it."</p> + +<p>"I have known it this long time," said Grace. "She told me the day she +returned from Ottawa. I am glad she is going to do so well."</p> + +<p>"I like him very much," said Eeny; "but he seems too quiet for Rose. +Don't he?"</p> + +<p>"People like to marry their own opposite," answered Grace. "Not that but +Rose is getting remarkably quiet herself. She hadn't a word to say all +the evening."</p> + +<p>"It will be very lonely when June comes, won't it, Grace?" said Eeny, +with a little sigh. "Kate will go to England, Rose to Ottawa, your +brother is going to Montreal, and perhaps papa will take his ship again, +and there will be no one but you and I, Grace."</p> + +<p>Grace stooped down and kissed the delicate, thoughtful young face.</p> + +<p>"My dear little Eeny, papa is not going away."</p> + +<p>"Isn't he? How do you know?"</p> + +<p>"That is a secret," laughing and colouring. "If you won't mention it, I +will tell you."</p> + +<p>"I won't. What is it?"</p> + +<p>Grace stooped and whispered, her falling hair hiding her face.</p> + +<p>Eeny sprang up and clasped her hands.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Grace!"</p> + +<p>"Are you sorry, Eeny?"</p> + +<p>Eeny's arms were around her neck. Eeny's lips were kissing her +delightedly.</p> + +<p>"I am so glad! Oh, Grace, you will never go away any more!"</p> + +<p>"Never, my pet. And now, don't let us talk any longer; it is time to go +to bed."</p> + +<p>Rather to Eeny's surprise, there was no revelation made next morning of +the new state of affairs. When she gave her father his good-morning +kiss, she only whispered in his ear:</p> + +<p>"I am so glad, papa."</p> + +<p>And the Captain had smiled, and patted her pale cheek, and sat down to +breakfast, talking genially right and left.</p> + +<p>After breakfast, Doctor Frank, Mr. Stanford, and M. La Touche, with the +big dog Tiger at their heels, and guns over their shoulders, departed +for a morning's shooting. Captain Danton went to spend an hour with Mr. +Richards. Rose secluded herself with a book in her room, and Kate was +left alone. She tried to play, but she was restless that morning, and +gave it up. She tried to read. The book failed to interest her. She +walked to the window, and looked out at the sunshine glittering on the +melting snow.</p> + +<p>"I will go for a walk," she thought, "and visit some of my poor people +in the village."</p> + +<p>She ran up stairs for her hat and shawl, and sallied forth. Her poor +people in the village were always glad to see the beautiful girl who +emptied her purse so bountifully for them, and spoke to them so sweetly. +She visited half-a-dozen of her pensioners, leaving pleasant words and +silver shillings behind her, and then walked on to the Church of St. +Croix. The presbytery stood beside it, surrounded by a trim garden with +gravelled paths. Kate opened the garden gate, and walked up to where +Father Francis stood in the open doorway.</p> + +<p>"I have come to see you," she said, "since you won't come to see us. +Have you forgotten your friends at Danton Hall? You have not been up for +a week."</p> + +<p>"Too busy," said Father Francis; "the Curé is in Montreal, and all +devolves upon me. Come in."</p> + +<p>She followed him into the little parlour, and sat down by the open +window.</p> + +<p>"And what's the news from Danton Hall?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing! Oh!" said Kate, blushing and smiling, "except another +wedding!"</p> + +<p>"Another! Two more weddings, you mean?"</p> + +<p>"No!" said Kate, surprised: "only one. Rose, you know, father, to M. La. +Touche!"</p> + +<p>Father Francis looked at her a moment smilingly. "They haven't told you, +then?"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"That your father is going to be married!"</p> + +<p>Her heart stood still; the room seemed to swim around in the suddenness +of the shock.</p> + +<p>"Father Francis!"</p> + +<p>"You have not been told? Are you surprised? I have been expecting as +much as this for some time."</p> + +<p>"You are jesting, Father Francis," she said, finding voice, which for a +moment had failed her; "it cannot be true!"</p> + +<p>"It is quite true. I saw your father yesterday, and he told me himself."</p> + +<p>"And to whom—?"</p> + +<p>She tried to finish the sentence, but her rebellious tongue would not.</p> + +<p>"To Grace! I am surprised that your father has not told you. If I had +dreamed it was in the slightest degree a secret, I certainly would not +have spoken." She did not answer.</p> + +<p>He glanced at her, and saw that her cheeks and lips had turned ashen +white, as she gazed steadfastly out of the window.</p> + +<p>"My child," said the priest, "you do not speak. You are not +disappointed—you are not grieved?"</p> + +<p>She arose to go, still pale with the great and sudden surprise.</p> + +<p>"You have given me a great shock in telling me this. I never dreamed of +another taking my dear dead mother's place. I am very selfish and +unreasonable, I dare say; but I thought papa would have been satisfied +to make my home his. I have loved my father very much, and I cannot get +used to the idea all in a moment of another taking my place."</p> + +<p>She walked to the door. Father Francis followed her.</p> + +<p>"One word," he said. "It is in your power, and in your power alone, to +make your father seriously unhappy. You have no right to do that; he has +been the most indulgent of parents to you. Remember that now—remember +how he has never grieved you, and do not grieve him. Can I trust you to +do this?"</p> + +<p>"You can trust me," said Kate, a little softened. "Good morning."</p> + +<p>She walked straight home, her heart all in a rebellious tumult. From the +first she had never taken very kindly to Grace; but just now she felt as +if she positively hated her.</p> + +<p>"How dare she marry him!" she thought, the angry blood hot in her +cheeks. "How dare she twine herself, with her quiet, Quakerish ways, +into his heart! He is twice her age, and it is only to be mistress where +she is servant now that she marries him. Oh, how could papa think of +such a thing?"</p> + +<p>She found Rose in the drawing-room when she arrived, listening to Eeny +with wide-open eyes of wonder. The moment Kate entered, she sprang up, +in a high state of excitement.</p> + +<p>"Have you heard the news, Kate? Oh, goodness, gracious me! What is the +world coming to! Papa is going to be married!"</p> + +<p>"I know it," said Kate coldly.</p> + +<p>"Who told you? Eeny's just been telling me, and Grace told her last +night. It's to Grace! Did you ever! Just fancy calling Grace mamma!"</p> + +<p>"I shall never call her anything of the sort."</p> + +<p>"You don't like it, then? I told Eeny you wouldn't like it. What are you +going to say to papa?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing."</p> + +<p>"No? Why don't you remonstrate! Tell him he's old enough and big enough +to have better sense."</p> + +<p>"I shall tell him nothing of the sort; and I beg you will not, either. +Papa certainly has the right to do as he pleases. Whether we like it or +not, doesn't matter much; Grace Danton will more than supply our +places."</p> + +<p>She spoke bitterly, and turned to go up to her own room. With her hand +on the door, she paused, and looked at Eeny.</p> + +<p>"You are pleased, no doubt, Eeny?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am," replied Eeny, stoutly. "Grace has always been like a mother +to me: I am glad she is going to be my mother in reality."</p> + +<p>"It is a fortunate thing you do," said Rose, "for you are the only one +who will have to put up with her. Thank goodness! I'm going to be +married."</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness!" repeated Eeny; "there will be peace in the house when +you're out of it. I don't know any one I pity half so much as that poor +M. La Touche."</p> + +<p>Kate saw Rose's angry retort in her eyes, and hurried away from the +coming storm. She kept her room until luncheon-time, and she found her +father alone in the dining-room when she entered. The anxious look he +gave her made her think of Father Francis' words.</p> + +<p>"I have heard all, papa," she said, smiling, and holding up her cheek. +"I am glad you will be happy when we are gone."</p> + +<p>He drew a long breath of relief as he kissed her.</p> + +<p>"Father Francis told you? You like Grace?"</p> + +<p>"I want to like every one you like, papa," she replied, evasively.</p> + +<p>Grace came in as she spoke, and, in spite of herself, Kate's face took +that cold, proud look it often wore; but she went up to her with +outstretched hand. She never shrank from disagreeable duties.</p> + +<p>"Accept my congratulations," she said, frigidly. "I trust you will be +happy."</p> + +<p>Two deep red spots, very foreign to her usual complexion, burned in +Grace's cheeks. Her only answer was a bow, as she took her seat at the +table.</p> + +<p>It was a most comfortless repast. There was a stiffness, a restraint +over all, that would not be shaken off—with one exception. Rose, who +latterly had been all in the downs, took heart of grace amid the general +gloom, and rattled away like the Rose of other days. To her the idea of +her father's marriage was rather a good joke than otherwise. She had no +deep feelings to be wounded, no tender memories to be hurt, and the +universal embarrassment tickled her considerably.</p> + +<p>"You ought to have heard everybody talking on stilts, Reginald," she +said, in the flow of her returned spirits, some hours later, when the +gentlemen returned. "Kate was on her dignity, you know, and as +unapproachable as a princess-royal, and Grace was looking disconcerted +and embarrassed, and papa was trying to be preternaturally cheerful and +easy, and Eeny was fidgety and scared, and I was enjoying the fun. Did +you ever hear of anything so droll as papa's getting married?"</p> + +<p>"I never heard of anything more sensible," said Reginald, resolutely. +"Grace is the queen of housekeepers, and will make the pink and pattern +of matrons. I have foreseen this for some time, and I assure you I am +delighted."</p> + +<p>"So is Kate," said Rose, her eyes twinkling. "You ought to have seen her +congratulating Grace. It was like the entrance of a blast of north wind, +and froze us all stiff."</p> + +<p>"I am glad June is so near," Kate said, leaning lightly on her lover's +shoulder; "I could not stay here and know that she was mistress."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford did not seem to hear; he was whistling to Tiger, lumbering +on the lawn. When he did speak, it was without looking at her.</p> + +<p>"I am going to Ottawa next week."</p> + +<p>"To Ottawa! With M. La Touche?" asked Kate, while Rose's face flushed +up.</p> + +<p>"Yes; he wants me to go, and I have said yes. I shall stay until the end +of April."</p> + +<p>Kate looked at him a little wistfully, but said nothing. Rose turned +suddenly, and ran upstairs.</p> + +<p>"We shall miss you—I shall miss you," she said at last.</p> + +<p>"It will not be for long," he answered, carelessly. "Come in and sing me +a song."</p> + +<p>The first pang of doubt that had ever crossed Kate's mind of her +handsome lover, crossed it now, as she followed him into the +drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"How careless he is!" she thought; "how willing to leave me! And +I—could I be contented anywhere in the world where he was not?"</p> + +<p>By some mysterious chance, the song she selected was Eeny's "smile +again, my dearest love; weep not that I leave thee."</p> + +<p>Stanford listened to it, his sunny face overcast.</p> + +<p>"Why did you sing that?" he asked abruptly, when she had done.</p> + +<p>"Don't you like it?"</p> + +<p>"No; I don't like cynicism set to music. Here is a French +chansonnette—sing me that."</p> + +<p>Kate sang for him song after song. The momentary pain the announcement +of his departure had given her wore away.</p> + +<p>"It is natural he should like change," she thought, "and it is dull +here. I am glad he is going to Ottawa, and yet I shall miss him. Dear +Reginald! What would life be worth without you?"</p> + +<p>The period of M. La Touche's stay was rapidly drawing to a close. March +was at its end, too—it was the last night of the month. The eve of +departure was celebrated at Danton Hall by a social party. The elder +Misses Danton on that occasion were as lovely and as much admired as +ever, and Messrs. Stanford and La Touche were envied by more than one +gentleman present. Grace's engagement to the Captain had got wind, and +she shared the interest with her step-daughters-elect.</p> + +<p>Early next morning the two young men left. There was breakfast almost +before it was light, and everybody got up to see them off. It was a most +depressing morning. March had gone out like an idiotic lamb, and April +came in in sapping rain and enervating mist. Ceaselessly the rain beat +against the window-glass, and the wind had a desolate echo that sounded +far more like winter than spring.</p> + +<p>Pale, in the dismal morning-light, Kate and Rose Danton bade their +lovers adieu, and watched them drive down the dripping avenue and +disappear.</p> + +<p>An hour before he had come down stairs that morning, Mr. Stanford had +written a letter. It was very short:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Old Boy</span>:—I'm off. In an hour I shall be on my way +to Ottawa, and from thence I will write you next. Do you know why I +am going? I am running away from myself! 'Lead us not into +temptation;' and Satan seems to have me hard and fast at Danton +Hall. Lauderdale, in spite of your bad opinion of me, I don't want +to be a villain if I can help it. I don't want to do any harm; I do +want to be true! And here it is impossible. I have got intoxicated +with flowing curls, and flashing dark eyes, and all the pretty, +bewitching, foolish, irresistible ways of that piquant little +beauty, whom I have no business under heaven to think of. I know +she is silly, and frivolous, and coquettish, and vain; but I love +her! There, the murder is out, and I feel better after it. But, +withal, I want to be faithful to the girl who loves me (ah! wretch +that I am!), and so I fly. A month out of sight of that sweet +face—a month out of hearing of that gay, young voice—a month +shooting, and riding, and exploring these Canadian wilds, will do +me good, and bring me back a new man. At least, I hope so; and +don't you set me down as a villain for the next four weeks, at +least."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The day of departure was miserably long and dull at the Hall. It rained +ceaselessly, and that made it worse. Rose never left her room; her plea +was headache. Kate wandered drearily up stairs and down stairs, and felt +desolate and forsaken beyond all precedent.</p> + +<p>There was a strange, forlorn stillness about the house, as if some one +lay dead in it; and from morning to night the wind never ceased its +melancholy complaining.</p> + +<p>Of course this abnormal state of things could not last. Sunshine came +next day, and the young ladies were themselves again. The preparations +for the treble wedding must begin in earnest now—shopping, dressmakers, +milliners, jewellers, all had to be seen after. A journey to Montreal +must be taken immediately, and business commenced. Kate held a long +consultation with Rose in her boudoir; but Rose, marvellous to tell, +took very little interest in the subject. She, who all her life made +dress the great concern of her existence, all at once, in this most +important crisis, grew indifferent.</p> + +<p>She accompanied Kate to Montreal, however, and helped in the selection +of laces, and silks, and flowers, and ribbons; and another dressmaker +was hunted up and carried back.</p> + +<p>It was a busy time after that; the needles of Agnes Darling, Eunice, and +the new dressmaker flew from morning until night. Grace lent her +assistance, and Kate was always occupied superintending, and being +fitted and refitted, and had no time to think how lonely the house was, +or how much she missed Reginald Stanford. She was happy beyond the power +of words to describe; the time was near when they would never part +again—when she would be his—his happy, happy wife.</p> + +<p>It was all different with Rose; she had changed in a most unaccountable +manner. All her movements were languid and listless, she who had been +wont to keep the house astir; she took no interest in the bridal dresses +and jewellery; she shrank from every one, and wanted to be alone. She +grew pale, and thin, and hysterical, and so petulant that it was a risk +to speak to her. What was the matter?—every one asked that question, +and Grace and Grace's brother were the only two who guessed within a +mile of the truth.</p> + +<p>And so April wore away. Time, that goes on forever—steadily, steadily, +for the happy and the miserable—was bringing the fated time near. The +snow had fled, the new grass and fresh buds were green on the lawn and +trees, and the birds sang their <i>glorias</i> in the branches so lately +tossed by the wintry winds.</p> + +<p>Doctor Danton was still at St. Croix, but he was going away, too. He had +had an interview with Agnes Darling, whose hopes were on the ebb; and +once more had tried to engraft his own bright, sanguine nature on hers.</p> + +<p>"Never give up, Agnes," he said, cheerily. "Patience, patience yet a +little longer. I shall return for my sister's wedding, and I think it +will be all right then."</p> + +<p>Agnes listened and sighed wearily. The ghost of Danton Hall had been +very well behaved of late, and had frightened no one. The initiated knew +that Mr. Richards was not very well, and that the night air was +considered unhealthy, so he never left his rooms. The tamarack walk was +undisturbed in the lonely April nights—at least by all save Doctor +Frank, who sometimes chose to haunt the place, but who never saw +anything for his pains.</p> + +<p>May came—with it came Mr. Stanford, looking sunburned, and fresh, and +handsomer than ever. As on the evening of his departure from the Hall, +so on the eve of his departure from Ottawa, he had written to that +confidential friend:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Lauderdale</span>.—The month of probation has expired. +To-morrow I return to Danton Hall. Whatever happens, I have done my +best. If fate is arbitrary, am I to blame? Look for me in June, and +be ready to pay your respects to Mrs. Stanford."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>ONE OF EARTH'S ANGELS.</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Stanford's visit to Ottawa had changed him somehow, it seemed to +Kate. The eyes that love us are sharp; the heart that sets us up for its +idol is quick to feel every variation. Reginald was changed—vaguely, +almost indefinably, but certainly changed. He was more silent than of +old, and had got a habit of falling into long brown studies in the midst +of the most interesting conversation. He took almost as little interest +in the bridal paraphernalia as Rose, and sauntered lazily about the +grounds, or lay on the tender new grass under the trees smoking endless +cigars, and looking dreamily up at the endless patches of bright blue +sky, and thinking, thinking—of what?</p> + +<p>Kate saw it, felt it, and was uneasy. Grace saw it, too; for Grace had +her suspicions of that fascinating young officer, and watched him +closely. They were not very good friends somehow, Grace and Kate Danton; +a sort of armed neutrality existed between them, and had ever since Kate +had heard of her father's approaching marriage. She had never liked +Grace much—she liked her less than ever now. She was marrying her +father from the basest and most mercenary motives, and Kate despised +her, and was frigidly civil and polite whenever she met her. She took it +very quietly, this calm Grace, as she took all things, and was +respectful to Miss Danton, as became Miss Danton's father's housekeeper.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think Mr. Stanford has altered somehow, Frank, since he went +to Ottawa?" she said one day to her brother, as they sat alone together +by the dining-room window.</p> + +<p>Doctor Danton looked out. Mr. Stanford was sauntering down the avenue, a +fishing-rod over his shoulder, and his bride-elect on his arm.</p> + +<p>"Altered! How?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know how," said Grace, "but he has altered. There is something +changed about him; I don't know what. I don't think he is settled in his +mind."</p> + +<p>"My dear Grace, what are you talking about? Not settled in his mind! A +man who is about to marry the handsomest girl in North America?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care for that. I wouldn't trust Mr. Reginald Stanford as far as +I could see him."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't? But then you are an oddity, Grace. What do you suspect +him of?"</p> + +<p>"Never mind; my suspicions are my own. One thing I am certain of—he is +no more worthy to marry Kate Danton than I am to marry a prince."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! He is as handsome as Apollo, he sings, he dances, and talks +divinely. Are you not a little severe, Grace?"</p> + +<p>Grace closed her lips.</p> + +<p>"We won't talk about it. What do you suppose is the matter with Rose?"</p> + +<p>"I wasn't aware there was anything the matter. An excess of happiness, +probably; girls like to be married, you know, Grace."</p> + +<p>"Fiddlestick! She has grown thin; she mopes in her room all day long, +and hasn't a word for anyone—she who used to be the veriest chatterbox +alive."</p> + +<p>"All very naturally accounted for, my dear. M. La Touche is +absent—doubtless she is pining for him."</p> + +<p>"Just about as much as I am. I tell you, Frank, I hope things will go +right next June, but I don't believe it. Hush! here is Miss Danton."</p> + +<p>Miss Danton opened the door, and, seeing who were there, bowed coldly, +and retired again. Unjustly enough, the brother came in for part of the +aversion she felt for the sister.</p> + +<p>Meantime Mr. Stanford sauntered along the village with his fishing-rod, +nodding good-humouredly right and left. Short as had been his stay at +Danton Hall, he was very well known in the village, and had won golden +opinions from all sorts of people. From the black-eyed girls who fell in +love with his handsome face, to the urchins rolling in the mud, and to +whom he flung handfuls of pennies. The world and Mr. Stanford went +remarkably well with each other, and whistling all the way, he reached +his destination in half an hour—a clear, silvery stream, shadowed by +waving trees and famous in fishing annals. He flung himself down on the +turfy sward, lit a cigar, and began smoking and staring reflectively at +vacancy.</p> + +<p>The afternoon was lovely, warm as June, the sky was cloudless, and the +sunlight glittered in golden ripples on the stream. All things were +favourable; but Mr. Stanford was evidently not a very enthusiastic +disciple of Isaac Walton; for his cigar was smoked out, the stump thrown +away, and his fishing-rod lay unused still. He took it up at last and +dropped it scientifically in the water.</p> + +<p>"It's a bad business," he mused, "and hanging, drawing, and quartering +would be too good for me. But what the dickens is a fellow to do? And +then she is so fond of me, too—poor little girl!"</p> + +<p>He laid the fishing-rod down again, drew from an inner pocket a +note-book and pencil. From between the leaves he drew out a sheet of +pink-tinted, gilt-edged note paper, and, using the note-book for a desk, +began to write. It was a letter, evidently; and after he wrote the first +line, he paused, and looked at it with an odd smile. The line was, +"Angel of my Dreams."</p> + +<p>"I think she will like the style of that," he mused; "it's Frenchified +and sentimental, and she rather affects that sort of thing. Poor child! +I don't see how I ever got to be so fond of her."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford went on with his letter. It was in French, and he wrote +very slowly and thoughtfully. He filled the four sides, ending with +"Wholly thine, Reginald Stanford." Carefully he re-read, made some +erasures, folded, and put it in an envelope. As he sealed the envelope, +a big dog came bounding down the bank, and poked its cold, black nose +inquisitively in his face.</p> + +<p>"Ah! Tiger, <i>mein Herr</i>, how are you? Where is your master?"</p> + +<p>"Here," said Doctor Frank. "Don't let me intrude. Write the address, by +all means."</p> + +<p>"As if I would put you <i>au fait</i> of my love letters," said Mr. Stanford, +coolly putting the letter in his note-book, and the note-book in his +pocket. "I thought you were off to-day?"</p> + +<p>"No, to-morrow. I must be up and doing now; I am about tired of St. +Croix and nothing to do."</p> + +<p>"Are you ever coming back!"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. I shall come back on the fourth of June, Heaven willing, to +see you made the happiest man in creation."</p> + +<p>"Have a cigar?" said Mr. Stanford, presenting his cigar-case. "I can +recommend them. You would be the happiest man in creation in my place, +wouldn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Most decidedly. But I wasn't born, like some men I know of, with a +silver spoon in my mouth. Beautiful wives drop into some men's arms, +ripe and ready, but I am not one of them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't despond! Your turn may come yet!"</p> + +<p>"I don't despond—I leave that to—but comparisons are odious."</p> + +<p>"Go on."</p> + +<p>"To Miss Rose Danton. She is pining on the stem, at the near approach of +matrimony, and growing as pale as spirit. What is the matter with her?"</p> + +<p>"You ought to know best. You're a doctor."</p> + +<p>"But love-sickness; I don't believe there is anything in the whole range +of physic to cure that. What's this—a fishing-rod?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mr. Stanford, taking a more comfortable position on the +grass. "I thought I would try my luck this fine afternoon, but somehow I +don't seem to progress very fast."</p> + +<p>"I should think not, indeed. Let me see what I can do."</p> + +<p>Reginald watched him lazily, as he dropped the line into the placid +water.</p> + +<p>"What do you think about it yourself?" he asked, after a pause.</p> + +<p>"About what?"</p> + +<p>"This new alliance on the tapis. He's a very nice little fellow, I have +no doubt; but if I were a pretty girl, I don't think I should like nice +little fellows. He is just the last sort of a man in the world I could +fancy our bright Rose marrying."</p> + +<p>"Of course he is! It's a failing of the sex to marry the very last man +their friends would expect. But are you quite sure in this case; no +April day was ever more changeable than Rose Danton."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean. They'll be married to a dead certainty."</p> + +<p>"What will you bet on the event?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not rich enough to bet; but if I were, it wouldn't be honourable, +you know."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank gave him a queer look, as he hooked a fish out of the +water.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if it becomes a question of honour, I have no more to say. Do you +see this fellow wriggling on my hook?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, when this fish swims again, Rose Danton will be Mrs. La Touche, +and you know it."</p> + +<p>He said the last words so significantly, and with such a look, that all +the blood of all the Stanfords rushed red to Reginald's face.</p> + +<p>"The deuce take your inuendoes!" he exclaimed. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Don't ask me," said Doctor Frank. "I hate to tell a lie: and I won't +say what I suspect. Suppose we change the subject. Where is Sir Ronald +Keith?"</p> + +<p>"In New Brunswick, doing the wild-woods and shooting bears. Poor wretch! +With all his eight thousand a year, and that paradise in Scotland, Glen +Keith, I don't envy him. I never saw anyone so hopelessly hard hit as +he."</p> + +<p>"You're a fortunate fellow, Stanford; but I doubt if you know it. Sir +Ronald would be a far happier man in your place."</p> + +<p>The face of the young Englishman darkened suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps there is such a thing as being too fortunate, and getting +satiated. I wish I could be steadfast, and firm, and faithful forever to +one thing, like some men, but I can't. Sir Ronald's one of that kind, +and so are you, Danton; but I—"</p> + +<p>He threw his cigar into the water, and left the sentence unfinished. +There was a long silence. Doctor Frank fished away as if his life +depended on it; and Stanford lay and watched him, and thought—who knows +what?</p> + +<p>The May afternoon wore on, the slanting lines of the red sunset flamed +in the tree-tops, and shed its reflected glory on the placid water. The +hum of evening bustle came up from the village drowsily; and Doctor +Danton, laying down his line, looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>"Are you asleep, Stanford? Do you know it is six o'clock?"</p> + +<p>"By George!" said Reginald, starting up. "I had no idea it was so late. +Are you for the Hall?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. Don't I deserve my dinner in return for this string of +silvery fish? Come along."</p> + +<p>The two young men walked leisurely and rather silently homeward. As they +entered the gates, they caught sight of a young lady advancing slowly +towards them—a young lady dressed in pale pink, with ribbons fluttering +and curls flowing.</p> + +<p>"The first rose of summer!" said Doctor Frank. "The future Madame La +Touche!"</p> + +<p>"Have you come to meet us, Rose?" asked Stanford. "Very polite of you."</p> + +<p>"I won't be <i>de trop</i>," said the Doctor; "I'll go on."</p> + +<p>Rose turned with Reginald, and Doctor Danton walked away, leaving them +to follow at their leisure.</p> + +<p>In the entrance Hall he met Kate, stately and beautiful, dressed in +rustling silk, and with flowers in her golden hair.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen Mr. Stanford?" she asked, glancing askance at the fish.</p> + +<p>"Yes; he is in the grounds with Rose."</p> + +<p>She smiled, and went past. Doctor Frank looked after her with a glance +of unmistakable admiration.</p> + +<p>"Blind! blind! blind!" he thought. "What fools men are! Only children of +a larger growth, throwing away gold for the pitiful glistening of +tinsel."</p> + +<p>Kate caught a glimpse of a pink skirt, fluttering in and out among the +trees, and made for it. Her light step on the sward gave back no echo. +How earnestly Reginald was talking—how consciously Rose was listening +with downcast face! What was that he was giving her? A letter! Surely +not; and yet how much it looked like it. Another moment, and she was +beside them, and Rose had started away from Reginald's side, her face +crimson. If ever guilt's red banner hung on any countenance, it did on +hers; and Kate's eyes wandered wonderingly from one to the other. Mr. +Stanford was as placid as the serene sunset sky above them. Like +Talleyrand, if he had been kicked from behind, his face would never have +shown it.</p> + +<p>"I thought you were away fishing," said Kate. "Was Rose with you?"</p> + +<p>"I was not so blessed. I had only Doctor Frank—Oh, don't be in a hurry +to leave us; it is not dinner-time yet."</p> + +<p>This last to Rose, who was edging off, still the picture of confusion, +and one hand clutching something white, hidden in the folds of her +dress. With a confused apology, she turned suddenly, and disappeared +among the trees. Kate fixed her large, deep eyes suspiciously on her +lover's laughing face.</p> + +<p>"Well?" she said, inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Well?" he repeated, mimicking her tone.</p> + +<p>"What is the meaning of all this?"</p> + +<p>Stanford laughed carelessly, and drew her hand within his arm.</p> + +<p>"It means, my dear, that pretty sister of yours is a goose! I paid her a +compliment, and she blushed after it, at sight of you, as if I had been +talking love to her. Come, let us have a walk before dinner."</p> + +<p>"I thought I saw you give her something? Was it a letter?"</p> + +<p>Not a muscle of his face moved; not a shadow of change was in his tone, +as he answered:</p> + +<p>"A letter! Of course not. You heard her the other day ask me for that +old English song that I sang? I wrote it out this afternoon, and gave it +to her. Are you jealous, Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Dreadfully! Don't you go paying compliments to Rose, sir; reserve them +for me. Come down the tamarack walk."</p> + +<p>Leaning fondly on his arm, Kate walked with her lover up and down the +green avenue until the dinner-bell summoned them in.</p> + +<p>And all the time, Rose, up in her own room, was reading, with flushed +cheeks and glistening eyes, that letter written by the brook-side, +beginning, "Angel of my Dreams."</p> + +<p>When the family assembled at dinner, it was found that Rose was absent. +A servant sent in search of her returned with word that Miss Rose had a +headache, and begged they would excuse her.</p> + +<p>Kate went up to her room immediately after dinner. But found it locked. +She rapped, and called, but there was no sign, and no response from +within.</p> + +<p>"She is asleep," thought Kate; and went down again.</p> + +<p>She tried again, some hours later, on her way to her own room, but still +was unable to obtain entrance or answer. If she could only have seen +her, sitting by the window reading and re-reading that letter in French, +beginning "Angel of my Dreams."</p> + +<p>Rose came down to breakfast next morning quite well again. The morning's +post had brought her a letter from Quebec, and she read it as she sipped +her coffee.</p> + +<p>"Is it from Virginie Leblanc?" asked Eeny. "She is your only +correspondent in Quebec."</p> + +<p>Rose nodded and went on reading.</p> + +<p>"What does she want?" Eeny persisted.</p> + +<p>"She wants me to pay her a visit," said Rose, folding up her letter.</p> + +<p>"And of course you won't go?"</p> + +<p>"No—yes—I don't know."</p> + +<p>She spoke absently, crumbling the roll on her plate, and not eating. She +lingered in the room after breakfast, when all the rest had left it, +looking out of the window. She was still there when, half an hour later, +Grace came in to sew; but not alone. Mr. Stanford was standing beside +her, and Grace caught his last low words:</p> + +<p>"It is the most fortunate thing that could have happened. Don't lose any +time."</p> + +<p>He saw Grace and stopped, spoke to her, and sauntered out of the room. +Rose did not turn from the window for fully ten minutes. When she did, +it was to ask where her father was.</p> + +<p>"In his study."</p> + +<p>She left the room and went to the study. Captain Danton looked up from +his writing, at her entrance, in some surprise.</p> + +<p>"Don't choke me, my dear, what is it?"</p> + +<p>"Papa, may I go to Quebec?"</p> + +<p>"Quebec? My dear, how can you go?"</p> + +<p>"Very easily, papa. Virginie wants me to go, and I should like to see +her. I won't stay there long."</p> + +<p>"But all your wedding finery, Rose—how is it to be made if you go +away?"</p> + +<p>"It is nearly all made, papa; and for what remains they can get along +just as well without me. Papa, say yes. I want to go dreadfully; and I +will only stay a week or so. Do say yes, there's a darling papa!"</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear, go, if you wish; but don't forget to come back in time. +It will never do for M. La Touche to come here the fourth of June and +find his bride missing."</p> + +<p>"I won't stay in Quebec until June, papa," said Rose, kissing him and +running out of the room. He called after her as she was shutting the +door:</p> + +<p>"Doctor Frank goes to Montreal this afternoon. If you are ready, you +might go with him."</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa; I'll be ready."</p> + +<p>Rose set to work packing at once, declining all assistance. She filled +her trunk with all her favourite dresses; stowed away all her +jewellery—taking a very unnecessary amount of luggage, one would think, +for a week's visit.</p> + +<p>Every one was surprised, at luncheon, when Rose's departure was +announced. None more so than Mr. Stanford.</p> + +<p>"It is just like Rose!" exclaimed Eeny; "she is everything by starts, +and nothing long. Flying off to Quebec for a week, just as she is going +to be married, with half her dresses unmade. It's absurd."</p> + +<p>The afternoon train for Montreal passed through St. Croix at three +o'clock. Kate and Reginald drove to the station with her, and saw her +safely seated beside Doctor Frank. Her veil of drab gauze was down over +her face, flushed and excited; and she kissed her sister good-bye +without lifting it. Reginald Stanford shook hands with her—a long, +warm, lingering clasp—and flashed a bright, electric glance that +thrilled to her inmost heart. An instant later, and the train was in +motion, and Rose was gone.</p> + +<p>The morning of the third day after brought a note from Quebec. Rose had +arrived safely, and the Leblanc family were delighted to see her. That +was all.</p> + +<p>That evening, Mr. Stanford made the announcement that he was to depart +for Montreal next morning. It was to Kate, of course. She had strolled +down to the gate to meet him, in the red light of the sunset, as he came +home from a day's gunning. He had taken, of late, to being absent a +great deal, fishing and shooting; and those last three days he had been +away from breakfast until dinner.</p> + +<p>"Going to Montreal?" repeated Kate. "What for?"</p> + +<p>"To see a friend of mine—Major Forsyth. He has come over lately, with +his wife, and I have just heard of it. Besides, I have a few purchases +to make."</p> + +<p>He was switching the tremulous spring flowers along the path with his +cane, and not looking at her as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"How long shall you be gone?"</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"Montreal has no charms for me, you know," he replied; "I shall not +remain there long, probably not over a week."</p> + +<p>"The house will be lonely when you are gone—now that Rose is away."</p> + +<p>She sighed a little, saying it. Somehow, a vague feeling of uneasiness +had disturbed her of late—something wanting in Reginald—something she +could not define, which used to be there and was gone. She did not like +this readiness of his to leave her on all occasions. She loved him with +such a devoted and entire love, that the shortest parting was to her +acutest pain.</p> + +<p>"Are you coming in?" he asked, seeing her linger under the trees.</p> + +<p>"Not yet; the evening is too fine."</p> + +<p>"Then I must leave you. It will hardly be the thing, I suppose, to go to +dinner in this shooting-jacket."</p> + +<p>He entered the house and ran up to his room. The dinner-bell was ringing +before he finished dressing; but when he descended, Kate was still +lingering out of doors. He stood by the window watching her, as she came +slowly up the lawn. The yellow glory of the sunset made an aureole round +her tinseled hair; her slender figure robed in shimmering silk; her +motion floating and light. He remembered that picture long afterwards: +that Canada landscape, that blue silvery mist filling the air, and the +tall, graceful girl, coming slowly homeward, with the fading yellow +light in her golden hair.</p> + +<p>After dinner, when the moon rose—a crystal-white crescent—they all +left the drawing-room for the small hall and portico. Kate, a white +shawl on her shoulders, sat on the stone step, and sang, softly, "The +Young May Moon;" Mr. Stanford leaned lightly against one of the stone +pillars, smoking a cigar, and looking up at the blue, far-off sky, his +handsome face pale and still.</p> + +<p>"Sing 'When the Swallows Homeward Fly,' Kate," her father said.</p> + +<p>She sang the song, softly and a little sadly, with some dim +foreshadowing of trouble weighing at her heart. They lingered there +until the clock struck ten—Kate's songs and the moonlight charming the +hours away. When they went into the house, and took their night-lamps, +Stanford bade them good-bye.</p> + +<p>"I shall probably be off before any of you open your eyes on this mortal +life to-morrow morning," he said, "and so had better say good-bye now."</p> + +<p>"You leave by the eight A. M. train, then," said the Captain. "It seems +to me everybody is running off just when they ought to stay at home."</p> + +<p>Stanford laughed, and shook hands with Grace and Kate—with one as +warmly as with the other—and was gone. Kate's face looked pale and sad, +as she went slowly upstairs with that dim foreshadowing still at her +heart.</p> + +<p>Breakfast was awaiting the traveller next morning at half-past seven, +when he ran down stairs, ready for his journey. More than breakfast was +waiting. Kate stood by the window, looking out drearily at the matinal +sunlight.</p> + +<p>"Up so early, Kate?" her lover said, with an expression of rapture. "Why +did you take the trouble?"</p> + +<p>"It was no trouble," Kate said, slowly, feeling cold and strange.</p> + +<p>He sat down to table, but only drank a cup of coffee. As he arose, +Captain Danton and Grace came in.</p> + +<p>"We got up betimes to see you off," said the Captain. "A delightful +morning for your journey. There is Sam with the gig now. Look sharp, +Reginald; only fifteen minutes left."</p> + +<p>Reginald snatched up his overcoat.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye," he said, hurriedly shaking hands with the Captain, then with +Grace. Kate, standing by the window, never turned round. He went up to +her, very, very pale, as they all remembered afterward, holding out his +hand.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, Kate."</p> + +<p>The hand she gave him was icy cold, her face perfectly colourless. The +cold fingers lingered around his for a moment; the deep, clear, violet +eyes were fixed wistfully on his face. That was her only good-bye—she +did not speak. In another moment he was out of the house; in another he +was riding rapidly down the avenue; in another he was gone—and forever.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>EPISTOLARY.</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[From Madame <span class="smcap">Leblanc</span> to Captain <span class="smcap">Danton</span>.]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Quebec</span>, May 17, 18—.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:—I write to you in the utmost distress and +confusion of mind. I hardly know how to break to you the news it is +my painful duty to reveal, lest some blame should attach itself to +me or mine, where I assure you none is deserved. Your daughter Rose +has left us—run away; in fact, I believe, eloped. I have reason to +think she was married yesterday; but to whom I have not yet +discovered. I beg to assure you, Captain Danton, that neither I nor +any one in my house had the remotest idea of her intention; and we +are all in the greatest consternation since the discovery has been +made. I would not for worlds such a thing had happened under my +roof, and I earnestly trust you will not hold me to blame.</p> + +<p>Six days ago, on the afternoon of the 11th, your daughter arrived +here. We were all delighted to see her, Virginie in particular; +for, hearing of her approaching marriage with M. La Touche, we were +afraid she might not come. We all noticed a change in her—her +manner different from what it used to be—a languor, an apathy to +all things—a general listlessness that nothing could arouse her +from. She, who used to be so full of life and spirits, was now the +quietest in the house, and seemed to like nothing so well as being +by herself and dreaming the hours away. On the evening of the third +day this lassitude left her. She grew restless and nervous—almost +feverishly so. Next morning this feverish restlessness grew worse. +She refused to leave the house in the afternoon to accompany my +daughter on a shopping expedition. Her plea was toothache, and +Virginie went alone. The early afternoon post brought her what I +believe she was waiting for—a letter. She ran up with it to her +own room, which she did not leave until dusk. I was standing in the +entrance-hall when she came down, dressed for a walk, and wearing a +veil over her face. I asked her where she was going. She answered +for a walk, it might help her toothache. An hour afterward Virginie +returned. Her first question was for Rose. I informed her she was +gone out.</p> + +<p>"Then," exclaimed Virginie, "it must have been Rose that I met in +the next street, walking with a gentleman. I thought the dress and +figure were hers, but I could not see her face for a thick veil. +The gentleman was tall and dark, and very handsome."</p> + +<p>Half an hour later, Rose came back. We teased her a little about +the gentleman; but she put it off quite indifferently, saying he +was an acquaintance she had encountered in the street, and that she +had promised to go with him next morning to call on a lady-friend +of hers, a Mrs. Major Forsyth. We thought no more about it; and +next morning, when the gentleman called in a carriage, Rose was +quite ready, and went away with him. It was then about eleven +o'clock, and she did not return until five in the afternoon. Her +face was flushed, her manner excited, and she broke away from +Virginie and ran up to her room. All the evening her manner was +most unaccountably altered, her spirits extravagantly high, and +colour like fever in her face. She and Virginie shared the same +room, and when they went upstairs for the night, she would not go +to bed.</p> + +<p>"You can go," she said to Virginie; "I have a long letter to write, +and you must not talk to me, dear."</p> + +<p>Virginie went to bed. She is a very sound sleeper, and rarely +wakes, when she lies down, until morning. She fell asleep, and +never awoke all night. It was morning when she opened her eyes. She +was alone. Rose was neither in the bed nor in the room.</p> + +<p>Virginie thought nothing of it. She got up, dressed, came down to +breakfast, expecting to find Rose before her. Rose was not before +her—she was not in the house. We waited breakfast until ten, +anxiously looking for her; but she never came. None of the servants +had seen her, but that she had gone out very early was evident; for +the house-door was unlocked and unbolted, when the kitchen-girl +came down at six in the morning. We waited all the forenoon, but +she never came. Our anxiety trebly increased when we made the +discovery that she had taken her trunk with her. How she had got it +out of the house was the profoundest mystery. We questioned the +servants; but they all denied stoutly. Whether to believe them or +not I cannot tell, but I doubt the housemaid.</p> + +<p>The early afternoon post brought Virginie a note. I inclose it. It +tells you all I can tell. I write immediately, distressed by what +has occurred, more than I can say. I earnestly trust the poor child +has not thrown herself away. I hope with all my heart it may not be +so bad as at first sight if seems. Believe me my dear sir, truly +sorry for what has occurred, and I trust you will acquit me of +blame.</p> + +<p>With the deepest sympathy, I remain,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yours, sincerely,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Mathilde Leblanc</span>.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Miss <span class="smcap">Rose Danton</span> to Mlle. <span class="smcap">Virginie Leblanc</span>. +Inclosed in the preceding.]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Wednesday Night</span>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Darling Virginie</span>:—When you read this, we shall have +parted—perhaps forever. My pet, I am married! To-day, when I drove +away, it was not to call on Mrs. Major Forsyth, but be married. Oh, +my dearest, dearest Virginie, I am so happy, so +blessed—so—so—oh! I can't tell you of my unutterable joy! I am +going away to-night, in half an hour. I shall kiss you good-bye as +you sleep. In a day or two I leave Canada forever, to be happy, +beyond the power of words to describe, in another land. Adieu, my +pet. If we never meet, don't forget your happy, happy +<span class="smcap">Rose</span>.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Miss <span class="smcap">Grace Danton</span> to <span class="smcap">Doctor Frank Danton</span>.]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Danton Hall</span>, May 21, 18—.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Frank</span>:—Do you recollect your last words to me as +you left St. Croix: "Write to me, Grace. I think you will have news +to send me before long." Had you, as I had, a presentment of what +was to come? My worst forebodings are realized. Rose has eloped. +Reginald Stanford is a villain. They are married. There are no +positive proofs as yet, but I am morally certain of the fact. I +have long suspected that he admired that frivolous Rose more than +he had any right to do, but I hardly thought it would come to this. +Heaven forgive them, and Heaven pity Kate, who loved them both so +well! She knows nothing of the matter as yet. I dread the time when +the truth will be revealed.</p> + +<p>The morning of the 19th brought Captain Danton a letter from +Quebec, in a strange hand. It came after breakfast, and I carried +it myself into his study. I returned to the dining-room before he +opened it, and sat down to work; but in about fifteen minutes the +Captain came in, his face flushed, his manner more agitated and +excited than I had ever seen it. "Read that," was all that he could +say, thrusting the open letter into my hand. No wonder he was +agitated. It was from Madam Leblanc, and contained the news that +Rose had made a clandestine marriage, and was gone, no one knew +where.</p> + +<p>Inclosed there was a short and rapturous note from Rose herself, +saying that she had been married that day, and was blessed beyond +the power of words to describe, and was on the point of leaving +Canada forever. She did not give her new name. She said nothing of +her husband, but that she loved him passionately. There was but one +name mentioned in the letter, that of a Mrs. Major Forsyth, whom +she left home ostensibly to visit.</p> + +<p>From the moment I read the letter, I had no doubt to whom she was +married. Three days after Rose's departure for Quebec, Mr. Stanford +left us for Montreal. He was only to be absent a week. The week has +nearly expired, and there is no news of him. I knew instantly, as I +have said, with whom Rose had run away; but as I looked up, I saw +no shadow of a suspicion of the truth in Captain Danton's face.</p> + +<p>"What does it mean?" he asked, with a bewildered look. "I can't +understand it. Can you?"</p> + +<p>There was no use in disguising the truth; sooner or later he must +find it out.</p> + +<p>"I think I can," I answered. "I believe Rose left here for the very +purpose she has accomplished, and not to visit Virginie Leblanc."</p> + +<p>"You believe that letter, then?"</p> + +<p>"Yes: I fear it is too true."</p> + +<p>"But, heavens above! What would she elope for? We were all willing +she should marry La Touche."</p> + +<p>"I don't think it is with M. La Touche," I said, reluctantly. "I +wish it were. I am afraid it is worse than that."</p> + +<p>He stood looking at me, waiting, too agitated to speak. I told him +the worst at once.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid it is with Reginald Stanford."</p> + +<p>"Grace," he said, looking utterly confounded, "what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>I made him sit down, and told him what perhaps I should have told +him long ago, my suspicions of that young Englishman. I told him I +was certain Rose had been his daily visitor during those three +weeks' illness up the village; that she had been passionately in +love with him from the first, and that he was a villain and a +traitor. A thousand things, too slight to recapitulate, but all +tending to the same end, convinced me of it. He was changeful by +nature. Rose's pretty piquant beauty bewitched him; and this was +the end.</p> + +<p>"I hope I may be mistaken," I said; "for Kate's sake I hope so, for +she loves him with a love of which he is totally unworthy; but, I +confess, I doubt it."</p> + +<p>I cannot describe to you the anger of Captain Danton, and I pray I +may never witness the like again. When men like him, quiet and +good-natured by habit, do get into a passion, the passion is +terrible indeed.</p> + +<p>"The villain!" he cried, through his clenched teeth. "The cruel +villain! I'll shoot him like a dog!"</p> + +<p>I was frightened. I quail even now at the recollection, and the +dread of what may come. I tried to quiet him, but in vain; he shook +me off like a child.</p> + +<p>"Let me, alone, Grace!" he said, passionately. "I shall never rest +until I have sent a bullet through his brain!"</p> + +<p>It was then half-past eleven; the train for Montreal passed through +St. Croix at twelve. Captain Danton went out, and ordered round his +gig, in a tone that made the stable-boy stare. I followed him to +his room, and found him putting his pistols in his coat-pocket. I +asked him where he was going, almost afraid to speak to him, his +face was so changed.</p> + +<p>"To Montreal first," was his answer; "to look for that matchless +scoundrel; afterwards to Quebec, to blow out his brains, and those +of my shameful daughter!"</p> + +<p>I begged, I entreated, I cried. It was all useless. He would not +listen to me; but he grew quieter.</p> + +<p>"Don't tell Kate," he said. "I won't see her; say I have gone upon +business. If I find Stanford in Montreal, I will come back. Rose +may go to perdition her own way. If I don't—" He paused, his face +turning livid. "If I don't, I'll send you a despatch to say I have +left for Quebec."</p> + +<p>He ran down-stairs without saying good-bye, jumped into the gig, +and drove off. I was so agitated that I dared not go down stairs +when luncheon-hour came. Eeny came up immediately after, and asked +me if I was ill. I pleaded a headache as an excuse for remaining in +my room all day, for I dreaded meeting Kate. Those deep, clear eyes +of hers seem to have a way of reading one's very thoughts, and +seeing through all falsehoods. Eeny's next question was for her +father. I said he had gone to Montreal on sudden business, and I +did not know when he would return—probably soon.</p> + +<p>She went down-stairs to tell Kate, and I kept my chamber till the +afternoon. I went down to dinner, calm once more. It was +unspeakably dull and dreary, we three alone, where a few days ago +we were so many. No one came all evening, and the hours wore away, +long, and lonely, and silent. We were all oppressed and dismal. I +hardly dared to look at Kate, who sat playing softly in the dim +piano-recess.</p> + +<p>This morning brought me the dreaded despatch. Captain Danton had +gone to Quebec; Mr. Stanford was not in Montreal.</p> + +<p>I cannot describe to you how I passed yesterday. I never was so +miserable in all my life. It went to my heart to see Kate so happy +and busy with the dressmakers, giving orders about those +wedding-garments she is never to wear. It was a day of unutterable +wretchedness, and the evening was as dull and dreary as its +predecessor. Father Francis came up for an hour, and his sharp eyes +detected the trouble in my face. I would have told him if Kate had +not been there; but it was impossible, and I had to prevaricate.</p> + +<p>This morning has brought no news; the suspense is horrible. Heaven +help Kate! I can write no more.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your affectionate sister,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Grace Danton</span>.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Lieutenant R. R. <span class="smcap">Stanford</span> to Major <span class="smcap">Lauderdale</span>.]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Quebec</span>, May 17.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Lauderdale</span>:—The deed is done, the game is up, the +play is played out—Reginald Reinecourt Stanford is a married man.</p> + +<p>You have read, when a guileless little chap in roundabouts, "The +Children of the Abbey," and other tales of like kidney. They were +romantic and sentimental, weren't they? Well, old fellow, not one +of them was half so romantic or sentimental as this marriage of +mine. There were villains in them, too—Colonel Belgrave, and so +forth—black-hearted monsters, without one redeeming trait. I tell +you, Lauderdale, none of these unmitigated rascals were half so bad +as I am. Think of me at my worst, a scoundrel of the deepest dye, +and you will about hit the mark. My dear little, pretty little Rose +is not much better; but she is such a sweet little sinner, that—in +short, I don't want her to reform. I am in a state of indescribable +beatitude, of course—only two days wedded—and immersed in the +joys of <i>la lune de miel</i>. Forsyth—you know Forsyth, of +"Ours"—was my aider and abettor, accompanied by Mrs. F. He made a +runaway match himself, and is always on hand to help +fellow-sufferers; on the ground, I suppose, that misery loves +company.</p> + +<p>To-morrow we sail in the Amphitrite for Southampton. It won't do to +linger, for my papa-in-law is a dead shot. When I see you, I'll +tell you all about it. Until then, adieu and <i>au revoir</i>.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Reginald Stanford</span>.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[Mrs. <span class="smcap">Reginald Stanford</span> to <span class="smcap">Grace Danton</span>.]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Quebec</span>, May 18.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mamma Grace</span>:—I suppose, before this, you have heard +the awful news that my Darling Reginald and I got married. Wouldn't +I like to see you as you read this? Don't I know that virtuous +scowl of yours so well, my precious mamma-in-law? Oh, you dear old +prude, it's so nice to be married, and Reginald is an angel! I love +him so much, and I am so happy; I never was half so happy in my +life.</p> + +<p>I suppose Madame Leblanc sent you the full, true, and particular +account of my going on. Poor old soul! What a rare fright she must +have got when she found out I was missing. And Virginie, too. +Virginie was so jealous to think I was going to be married before +her, as if I would ever have married that insipid Jules. How I wish +my darling Reginald had his fortune; but fortune or no fortune, I +love him with all my heart, and am going to be just as happy as the +day is long.</p> + +<p>I dare-say Kate is furious, and saying all kinds of hard things +about me. It is not fair if she is. I could not help Reginald's +liking me better than her, and I should have died if I had not got +him. There! I feel very sorry for her, though; I know how I should +feel if I lost him, and I dare say she feels almost as bad. Let her +take Jules. Poor Jules, I expect he will break his heart, and I +shall be shocked and disappointed if he does not. Let her take him. +He is rich and good-looking; and all those lovely wedding-clothes +will not go to waste. Ah! how sorry I am to leave them behind; but +it can't be helped. We are off to-morrow for England. I shall not +feel safe until the ocean is between us and papa. I suppose papa is +very angry; but where is the use? As long as Reginald marries one +of his daughters, I should think the particular one would be +immaterial.</p> + +<p>I am sorry I cannot be present at your wedding, Grace; I give you +<i>carte blanche</i> to wear all the pretty things made for Mrs. Jules +La Touche, if they will fit you. Tell poor Jules, when he comes, +that I am sorry; but I loved Reginald so much that I could not help +it. Isn't he divinely handsome, Grace? If he knew I was writing to +you, he would send his love, so take it for granted.</p> + +<p>I should like to write more, but I am going on board in an hour. +Please tell Kate not to break her heart. It's of no use.</p> + +<p>Give my regard to that obliging brother of yours. I like him very +much. Perhaps I may write to you from England if you will not be +disagreeable, and will answer. I should like to hear the news from +Canada and Danton Hall. Rapturously thine,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Rose Stanford</span>.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>[<span class="smcap">Grace Danton</span> to <span class="smcap">Dr. Danton</span>.]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Danton Hall</span>, May 30.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Frank</span>:—"Man proposes—" You know the proverb, which +holds good in the case of women too. I know my prolonged silence +must have surprised you; but I have been so worried and anxious, of +late, that writing has become an impossibility. Danton Hall has +become a <i>maison de deuil</i>—a house of mourning indeed. I look back +as people look back on some dim, delightful dream to the days that +are gone, and wonder if indeed we were so merry and gay. The +silence of the grave reigns here now. The laughter, the music—all +the merry sounds of a happy household—have fled forever. A convent +of ascetic nuns could not be stiller, nor the holy sisterhood more +grave and sombre. Let me begin at the beginning, and relate events +as they occurred, if I can.</p> + +<p>The day after I wrote you last brought the first event, in the +shape of a letter from Rose to myself. A more thoroughly selfish +and heartless epistle could not have been penned. I always knew her +to be selfish, and frivolous, vain, and silly to the backbone—yea, +backbone and all; but still I had a sort of liking for her withal. +That letter effectually dispelled any lingering remains of that +weakness. It spoke of her marriage with Reginald Stanford in the +most shamelessly insolent and exultant tone. It alluded to her +sister and to poor Jules La Touche in a way that brought the +"bitter bad" blood of the old Dantons to my face. Oh, if I could +have but laid my hands on Mistress Rose at that moment, quiet as I +am, I think I would have made her ears tingle as they never tingled +before.</p> + +<p>I said nothing of the letter. My greatest anxiety now was lest +Captain Danton and Mr. Stanford should meet. I was in a state of +feverish anxiety all day, which even Kate noticed. You know she +never liked me, and latterly her aversion has deepened, though +Heaven knows, without any cause on my part, and she avoided me as +much as she possibly could without discourtesy. She inquired, +however, if anything had happened—if I had bad news from her +father, and looked at me in a puzzled manner when I answered "No." +I could not look at her; I could hardly speak to her; somehow I +felt about as guilty concealing the truth as if I had been in the +vile plot that had destroyed her happiness.</p> + +<p>Father Francis came up in the course of the day; and when he was +leaving, I called him into the library, and told him the truth. I +cannot tell you how shocked he was at Rose's perfidy, or how +distressed for Kate's sake. He agreed with me that it was best to +say nothing until Captain Danton's return.</p> + +<p>He came that night. It was late—nearly eleven o'clock, and I and +Thomas were the only ones up. Thomas admitted him; and I shall +never forget how worn, and pale, and haggard he looked as he came +in.</p> + +<p>"It was too late, Grace," were his first words. "They have gone."</p> + +<p>"Thank Heaven!" I exclaimed. "Thank Heaven you have not met them, +and that there is no blood shed. Oh, believe me, it is better as it +is."</p> + +<p>"Does Kate know?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Not yet. No one knows but Father Francis. He thought as I did, +that it was better to wait until you returned."</p> + +<p>"My poor child! My poor Kate!" he said, in a broken voice, "who +will tell you this?"</p> + +<p>He was so distressed that I knelt down beside him, and tried to +sooth and comfort him.</p> + +<p>"Father Francis will," I said. "She venerates and esteems him more +highly than any other living being, and his influence over her is +greater. Let Father Francis tell her to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Captain Danton agreed that that was the very best thing that could +be done, and soon after retired.</p> + +<p>I went to my room, too, but not to sleep. I was too miserably +anxious about the morrow. The night was lovely—bright as day and +warm as midsummer. I sat by the window looking out, and saw Kate +walking up and down the tamarack avenue with that mysterious Mr. +Richards. They lingered there for over an hour, and then I heard +them coming softly upstairs, and going to their respective rooms.</p> + +<p>Next morning after breakfast, Captain Danton rode down to the +village and had an interview with Father Francis. Two hours after, +they returned to Danton Hall together, both looking pale and ill at +ease. Kate and I were in the drawing-room—she practising a new +song, I sewing. We both rose at their entrance—she gayly; I with +my heart beating thick and fast.</p> + +<p>"I am glad the beauty of the day tempted you out, Father Francis," +she said. "I wish our wanderers would come back. Danton Hall has +been as gloomy as an old bastille lately."</p> + +<p>I don't know what Father Francis said. I know he looked as though +the errand he had come to fulfil were unspeakably distasteful to +him.</p> + +<p>"Reginald ought to be home to-day," Kate said, walking to the +window, "and Rose next week. It seems like a century since they +went away."</p> + +<p>I could wait for no more—I hurried out of the room—crying, I am +afraid. Before I could go upstairs, Captain Danton joined me in the +hall.</p> + +<p>"Don't go," he said, hoarsely; "wait here. You may be wanted."</p> + +<p>My heart seemed to stand still in vague apprehension of—I hardly +know what. We stood there together waiting, as the few friends who +loved the ill-fated Scottish Queen so well, may have stood when she +laid her head on the block. I looked at that closed door with a +mute terror of what was passing within—every nerve strained to +hear the poor tortured girl's cry of anguish. No such cry ever +came. We waited ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, half an hour, an +hour, before that closed door opened. We shrank away, but it was +only Father Francis, very pale and sad. Our eyes asked the question +our tongues would not utter.</p> + +<p>"She knows all," he said, in a tremulous voice; "she has taken it +very quietly—too quietly. She has alarmed me—that unnatural calm +is more distressing than the wildest outburst of weeping."</p> + +<p>"Shall we go to her?" asked her father.</p> + +<p>"I think not—I think she is better alone. Don't disturb her +to-day. I will come up again this evening."</p> + +<p>"What did she say?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Very little. She seemed stunned, as people are stunned by a sudden +blow. Don't linger here; she will probably be going up to her room, +and may not like to think you are watching her."</p> + +<p>Father Francis went away. Captain Danton retired to his study. I +remained in the recess, which you know is opposite the +drawing-room, with the door ajar. I wished to prevent Eeny or any +of the servants from disturbing her by suddenly entering. About an +hour after, the door opened, and she came out and went slowly +upstairs. I caught a glimpse of her face as she passed, and it had +turned to the pallor of death. I heard her enter the room and lock +the door, and I believe I sat and cried all the morning.</p> + +<p>She did not come down all day. I called in Eeny, and told her what +had happened, and shocked the poor child as she was never shocked +before. At dinner-time I sent her upstairs, to see if Kate would +not take some refreshment. Her knocking and calling remained +unanswered. She left in despair, and Kate never came down.</p> + +<p>Another sleepless night—another anxious morning. About eight +o'clock I heard Kate's bell ring, and Eunice go upstairs. Presently +the girl ran down and entered the room where I was.</p> + +<p>"If you please, Miss Grace, Miss Kate wants you," said Eunice, with +a scared face; "and oh, Miss, I think she's ill, she do look so +bad!"</p> + +<p>Wanted me! I dropped the silver I was holding, in sheer affright. +What could she want of me? I went upstairs, my heart almost choking +me with its rapid throbbing, and rapped at the door.</p> + +<p>She opened it herself. Well might Eunice think her ill. One night +had wrought such change as I never thought a night could work +before. She had evidently never lain down. She wore the dress of +yesterday, and I could see the bed in the inner room undisturbed. +Her face was so awfully corpse-like, her eyes so haggard and +sunken, her beauty so mysteriously gone, that I shrank before her +as if it had been the spectre of the bright, beautiful, radiant +Kate Danton. She leaned against the low mantelpiece, and motioned +me forward with a cold, fixed look.</p> + +<p>"You are aware," she said, in a hard, icy voice—oh so unlike the +sweet tones of only yesterday—"what Father Francis came here +yesterday to say. You and my father might have told me sooner; but +I blame nobody. What I want to say is this: From this hour I never +wish to hear from anyone the slightest allusion to the past; I +never want to hear the names of those who are gone. I desire you to +tell this to my father and sister. Your influence over them is +greater than mine."</p> + +<p>I bowed assent without looking up; I could feel the icy stare with +which she was regarding me, without lifting my eyes.</p> + +<p>"Father Francis mentioned a letter that R——"; she hesitated for a +moment, and finally said—"that she sent you. Will you let me see +it?"</p> + +<p>That cruel, heartless, insulting letter! I looked up imploringly, +with clasped hands.</p> + +<p>"Pray don't," I said. "Oh, pray don't ask me! It is unworthy of +notice—it will only hurt you more deeply still."</p> + +<p>She held out her hand steadily.</p> + +<p>"Will you let me see it?"</p> + +<p>What could I do? I took the letter from my pocket, bitterly +regretting that I had not destroyed it, and handed it to her.</p> + +<p>"Thank you."</p> + +<p>She walked to the window, and with her back to me read it +through—read it more than once, I should judge, by the length of +time it took her. When she faced me again, there was no sign of +change in her face.</p> + +<p>"Is this letter of any use to you? Do you want it?"</p> + +<p>"No! I only wish I had destroyed it long ago!"</p> + +<p>"Then, with your permission, I will keep it."</p> + +<p>"You!" I cried in consternation. "What can you want with that?"</p> + +<p>A strange sort of look passed across her face, darkening it, and +she held it tightly in her grasp.</p> + +<p>"I want to keep it for a very good reason," she said, between her +teeth; "if I ever forget the good turn Rose Danton has done me, +this letter will serve to remind me of it."</p> + +<p>I was so frightened by her look, and tone, and words, that I could +not speak. She saw it, and grew composed again instantly.</p> + +<p>"I need not detain you any longer," she said, looking at her watch. +"I have no more to say. You can tell my father and sister what I +have told you. I will go down to breakfast, and I am much obliged +to you."</p> + +<p>She turned from me and went back to the window. I left the room +deeply distressed, and sought the dining-room, where I found the +Captain and Eeny. I related the whole interview, and impressed upon +them the necessity of obeying her. The breakfast-bell rang while we +were talking, and she came in.</p> + +<p>Both Eeny and her father were as much shocked as I had been by the +haggard change in her; but neither spoke of it to her. We tried to +be at our ease during breakfast, and to talk naturally; but the +effort was a miserable failure. She never spoke, except when +directly addressed, and ate nothing. She sat down to the piano, as +usual, after breakfast, and practised steadily for two hours. Then +she took her hat and a book, and went out to the garden to read. At +luncheon-time she returned, with no better appetite, and after that +went up to Mr. Richards' room. She stayed with him two or three +hours, and then sat down to her embroidery-frame, still cold, and +impassionate, and silent. Father Francis came up in the evening; +but she was cold and unsocial with him as with the rest of us. So +that first day ended, and so every day has gone on since. What she +suffers, she suffers in solitude and silence; only her worn face, +haggard cheeks, and hollow eyes tell. She goes through the usual +routine of life with treadmill regularity, and is growing as thin +as a shadow. She neither eats, nor sleeps, nor complains; and she +is killing herself by inches. We are worried to-death about her; +and yet we are afraid to say one word in her hearing. Come to us, +Frank; you are a physician, and though you cannot "minister to a +mind diseased," you can at least tell us what will help her failing +body. Your presence will do Captain Danton good, too; for I never +saw him so miserable! We are all most unhappy, and any addition to +our family circle will be for the better. We do not go out; we have +few visitors; and the place is as lonely as a tomb. The gossip and +scandal have spread like wildfire; the story is in everybody's +mouth; even in the newspapers. Heaven forbid it should come to +Kate's ears! This stony calm of hers is not to be trusted. It +frightens me far more than any hysterical burst of sorrow. She has +evidently some deep purpose in her mind—I am afraid to think it +may be of revenge. Come to us, brother, and try if you can help us +in our trouble.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your affectionate sister,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Grace</span>.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>"SHE TOOK UP THE BURDEN OF LIFE AGAIN."</h3> + + +<p>The second train from Montreal passing through St. Croix on its way +to—somewhere else, was late in the afternoon of the fifth of June. +Instead of shrieking into the village depot at four <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, it +was six when it arrived, and halted about a minute and a half to let the +passengers out and take passengers in. Few got in and fewer got out—a +sunburnt old Frenchman, a wizen little Frenchwoman, and their pretty, +dark-skinned, black-eyed daughter; and a young man, who was tall and +fair, and good-looking and gentlemanly, and not a Frenchman, judging by +his looks. But, although he did not look like one, he could talk like +one, and had kept up an animated discussion with pretty dark eyes in +capital Canadian French for the last hour. He lifted his hat politely +now, with "<i>Bon jour, Mademoiselle</i>," and walked away through the main +street of the village.</p> + +<p>It was a glorious summer evening. "The western sky was all aflame" with +the gorgeous hues of the sunset; the air was like amber mist, and the +shrill-voiced Canadian birds, with their gaudy plumage, sang their +vesper laudates high in the green gloom of the feathery tamaracks.</p> + +<p>A lovely evening with the soft hum of village life, the distant tinkling +cow-bells, the songs of boys and girls driving them home, far and faint, +and now and then the rumbling of cart-wheels on the dusty road. The +fields on either hand stretching as far as the eye could reach, green as +velvet; the giant trees rustling softly in the faint, sweet breeze; the +flowers bright all along the hedges, and over all the golden glory of +the summer sunset.</p> + +<p>The young man walked very leisurely along, swinging his light rattan. +Wild roses and sweetbrier sent up their evening incense to the radiant +sky. The young man lit a cigar, and sent up its incense too.</p> + +<p>He left the village behind him presently, and turned off by the pleasant +road leading to Danton Hall. Ten minutes brought him to it, changed +since he had seen it last. The pines, the cedars, the tamaracks were all +out in their summer-dress of living green; the flower-gardens were +aflame with flowers, the orchard was white with blossoms, and the red +light of the sunset was reflected with mimic glory in the still, broad +fish-pond. Climbing roses and honeysuckles trailed their fragrant +branches round the grim stone pillars of the portico. Windows and doors +stood wide to admit the cool, rising breeze; and a big dog, that had +gambolled up all the way, set up a bass bark of recognition. No living +thing was to be seen in or around the house; but, at the sound of the +bark, a face looked out from a window, about waist-high from the lawn. +The window was open, and the sweetbrier and the rose-vines made a very +pretty frame for the delicate young face. A pale and pensive face, lit +with luminous dark eyes, and shaded by soft, dark hair.</p> + +<p>The young man walked up, and rested his arm on the low sill.</p> + +<p>"Good-evening, Agnes."</p> + +<p>Agnes Darling held out her hand, with a look of bright pleasure.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you again, Doctor Danton; and Tiger, too."</p> + +<p>"Thanks. I thought I should find you sewing here. Have you ever left +off, night or day, since I left?"</p> + +<p>She smiled, and resumed her work.</p> + +<p>"I like to be busy; it keeps me from thinking. Not that I have been very +busy of late."</p> + +<p>"Of course not; the wedding-garments weren't wanted, were they? and all +the trousseaux vanity and vexation of spirit. You see others in the +world came to grief besides yourself, Miss Darling. Am I expected?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; a week ago."</p> + +<p>"Who's in the house?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know exactly. Miss Danton is in the orchard, I think, with a +book; Eeny is away for the day at Miss Howard's and the Captain went up +the village an hour ago. I dare say they will all be back for dinner."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank took another position on the window-sill, and leaned +forward, saying with a lowered voice:</p> + +<p>"And how does the ghost get on, Agnes? Has it made its appearance +since?"</p> + +<p>Agnes Darling dropped her work, and looked up at him, with clasped +hands.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Danton, I have seen him!"</p> + +<p>"Whom? The ghost?"</p> + +<p>"No ghost; but my husband. It was Harry as plainly as ever I saw him."</p> + +<p>She spoke in a voice of intense agitation; but the young Doctor listened +with perfect coolness.</p> + +<p>"How was it, Agnes? Where did you see him?"</p> + +<p>"Walking in the tamarack avenue, one moonlight night, about a week ago, +with Miss Danton."</p> + +<p>"And you are positive it was your husband?"</p> + +<p>"Do you think I could make a mistake in such a matter? It was Harry—I +saw him clearly in the moonlight."</p> + +<p>"It's surprising you did not run out, and fall down in hysterics at his +feet."</p> + +<p>She sighed wearily.</p> + +<p>"No. I dared not. But, oh, Doctor Danton, when shall I see him? When +will you tell him I am innocent?"</p> + +<p>"Not just yet; it won't do to hurry matters in this case. You have +waited long and patiently; wait yet a little longer until the right time +comes. The happiness of knowing he is alive and well, and dwelling under +the same roof with you should reconcile you to that."</p> + +<p>"It does," she said, her tears falling softly. "Thank Heaven! he still +lives. I can hope now; but, oh, Doctor, do you really think him Captain +Danton's son?"</p> + +<p>"I am certain of it; and no one will give you a more cordial welcome +than Captain Danton, when I tell him the truth. Just now I have no +proof. Do you know what I am going to do, Agnes?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Crosby is married, and living in New York. I mean to take a journey to +New York shortly, and get a written declaration of your innocence from +him. There—no thanks now. Keep up a good heart, and wait patiently for +a month or two longer. Come, Tiger."</p> + +<p>He was gone, whistling a tune as he went. The entrance hall was +deserted, the dining-room was empty, and he ran up stairs to the +drawing-room. Grace was there with her back to the door; and coming up +noiselessly, he put his arm around her waist, and kissed her before she +was aware.</p> + +<p>She faced about, with a little cry, that changed to an exclamation of +delight, upon seeing who it was.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Frank! I am so glad! When did you come? I expected you a week ago."</p> + +<p>"I know it," said her brother; "and I could have come too; but it struck +me I should like to arrive to-day."</p> + +<p>"To-day! Why? Oh, I forgot the fifth of June. It is hard, Frank, isn't +it, just to think what might have been and what is."</p> + +<p>"How does she take it?"</p> + +<p>"She has been out nearly all day," replied Grace, knowing whom he meant; +"she feels it, of course, more than words can tell; but she never +betrays herself by look or action. I have never seen her shed a tear, or +utter one desponding word, from the day the news reached her until this. +Her face shows what she suffers, and that is beyond her power to +control."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank walked thoughtfully to the window, and looked out at the +fading brilliance of the sunset. A moment later, and Eeny rode up on +horseback, sprang out other saddle on the lawn, and tripped up the +steps.</p> + +<p>Another moment, and she was in the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"I saw you at the window," she said. "I am glad you have come back +again. Danton Hall is too dismal to be described of late. Ah! Dear old +Tiger, and how are you? Doctor Frank," lowering her voice, "do you know +what day this is?"</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank looked at her with a faint shadow of a smile on his face, +humming a line or two of a ballad.</p> + +<p>"'Long have I been true to you. Now I'm true no longer.' Too bad, Eeny, +we should lose the wedding, and one wedding, they say, makes many."</p> + +<p>"Too bad!" echoed Eeny, indignantly. "Oh, Doctor Frank, it was cruel of +Rose, wasn't it? You would hardly know poor Kate now."</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said the Doctor, "here she comes!"</p> + +<p>A tall, slender figure came out from the orchard path, book in hand, and +advanced slowly towards the house. Was it the ghost, the wraith, the +shadow of beautiful Kate Danton? The lovely golden hair, glittering in +the dying radiance of the sunset, and coiled in shining twists round the +head, was the same; the deep large eyes, so darkly blue, were clear and +cloudless as ever, and yet changed totally in expression. The queenly +grace that always characterized her, characterized her still; but how +wasted the supple form, how shadowy and frail it had grown. The haggard +change in the pale face, the nervous contraction of the mouth, the +sunken eyes, with those dark circles, told their eloquent tale.</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" Doctor Frank said, with a look of unspeakable pity and +tenderness; "it was cruel!"</p> + +<p>Eeny ran away to change her dress. Grace lightly dusted the furniture, +and her brother stood by the window and watched that fragile-looking +girl coming slowly up through the amber air.</p> + +<p>"How tired she looks!" he said.</p> + +<p>"Kate?" said Grace, coming over. "She is always like that now. Tired at +getting up, tired at lying down, listless and apathetic always. If +Reginald Stanford had murdered her, it would hardly have been a more +wicked act."</p> + +<p>Her brother did not reply.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later, Kate walked into the room, still with that slow, +weary step. She looked at the new-comer with listless indifference, +spoke a few words of greeting with cold apathy, and then retreated to +another window, and bent her eyes on her book.</p> + +<p>Captain Danton returned just as the dinner-bell was ringing; and his +welcome made up in cordiality what his daughter's lacked. He, too, had +changed. His florid face had lost much of its colour, and was grown +thin, and his eyes were ever wandering, with a look of mournful +tenderness, to his pale daughter.</p> + +<p>They were all rather silent. Grace and her brother and the Captain +talked in a desultory sort of way during dinner; but Kate never spoke, +except when directly addressed, and silence was Eeny's forte. She sat +down to the piano after dinner, according to her invariable custom, but +not to sing. She had never sung since that day. How could she? There was +not a song in all her collection that did not bring the anguish of some +recollection of him, so she only played brilliant new, soulless +fantasias, that were as empty as her heart.</p> + +<p>When she arose from the instrument, she resumed her book and sat down at +a table studiously; but Doctor Frank, watching her covertly, saw she did +not turn over a page in an hour. She was the first to retire—very +early, looking pale and jaded to death. Half an hour later, Eeny +followed her, and then Captain Danton pushed away the chess-board +impatiently. He had been playing with the Doctor, and began pacing +feverishly up and down the room.</p> + +<p>"What shall I do with her?" he exclaimed. "What shall I do to keep my +darling girl from dying before my eyes? Doctor Danton, you are a +physician; tell me what I shall do?"</p> + +<p>"Take her away from here," said the Doctor, emphatically. "It is this +place that is killing her. How can it be otherwise? Everything she sees +from morning till night brings back a thousand bitter recollections of +what is past and gone. Take her away, where there will be nothing to +recall her loss; take her where change and excitement will drown +thought. As her mind recovers its tone, so will her body. Take her +travelling for the summer."</p> + +<p>"Yes—yes," said Grace, earnestly. "I'm sure it is the very best thing +you can do."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear," said Captain Danton, smiling a little, "you forget that +the first week of July we are to be married."</p> + +<p>"Oh, put it off," Grace said; "what does a little delay matter? We are +not like Rose and Reginald; we are old and steady, and we can trust one +another and wait. A few month's delay is nothing, and Kate's health is +everything."</p> + +<p>"She might go with us," said the Captain; "suppose it took place this +month instead of next, and we made a prolonged wedding-tour, she might +accompany us."</p> + +<p>Grace shook her head.</p> + +<p>"She wouldn't go. Believe me, I know her, and she wouldn't go. She will +go with you alone, willingly—never with me."</p> + +<p>"She is unjust to you, and you are so generously ready to sacrifice your +own plans to hers."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever know a young lady yet who liked the idea of a +step-mother?" said Grace, with a smile. "I never did. Miss Danton's +dislike and aversion are unjust, perhaps; but perfectly natural. No, no, +the autumn or winter will be soon enough, and take Kate travelling."</p> + +<p>"Very well, my dear; be it as you say. Now, where shall we go? Back to +England?"</p> + +<p>"I think not," said Doctor Frank. "England has nearly as many painful +associations for her as Danton Hall. Take her where she has never been; +where all things are new and strange. Take her on a tour through the +United States, for instance."</p> + +<p>"A capital idea," exclaimed the Captain. "It is what she has wished for +often since we came to Canada. I'll take her South. I have an old +friend, a planter, in Georgia. I'll take her to Georgia."</p> + +<p>"You could not do better."</p> + +<p>"Let me see," pursued the Captain, full of the hopeful idea; "we must +stay a week or two in Boston, a week or two in New York; we must visit +Newport and Saratoga, rest ourselves in Philadelphia and Washington, and +then make straight for Georgia. How long will that take us, do you +suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Until October, I should say," returned the Doctor. "October will be +quite time enough to return here. If your daughter does not come back +with new life, then I shall give up her case in despair."</p> + +<p>"I will speak to her to-morrow," said the Captain, "and start the next +day. Since it must be done, it is best done quickly. I think myself it +will do her a world of good."</p> + +<p>Captain Danton was as good as his word. He broached the subject to his +daughter shortly after breakfast next morning. It was out in the +orchard, where she had strayed, according to custom, with a book. It was +not so much to read—her favourite authors, all of a sudden, had grown +flat and insipid, and nothing interested her—but she liked to be alone +and undisturbed, "in sunshine calm and sweet," with the scented summer +air blowing in her face. She liked to listen, dreamy and listless, and +with all the energy of her nature dead within her, to the soft murmuring +of the trees, to the singing of the birds overhead, and to watch the +pearly clouds floating through the melting azure above. She had no +strength or wish to walk now, as of old. She never passed beyond the +entrance-gates, save on Sunday forenoons, when she went slowly to the +little church of St. Croix, and listened drearily, as if he was speaking +an unknown tongue, to Father Francis, preaching patience and +long-suffering to the end.</p> + +<p>She was lying under a gnarled old apple-tree, the flickering shadow of +the leaves coming and going in her face, and the sunshine glinting +through her golden hair. She looked up, with a faint smile, at her +father's approach. She loved him very much still, but not as she had +loved him once; the power to love any one in that old trustful, devoted +way seemed gone forever.</p> + +<p>"My pale daughter," he said, looking down at her sadly, "what shall I do +to bring back your lost roses!"</p> + +<p>"Am I pale?" she said, indifferently. "What does it matter? I feel well +enough."</p> + +<p>"I don't think you do. You are gone to a shadow. Would you like a +change, my dear? Would you not like a pleasure tour this summer +weather?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care about it, papa."</p> + +<p>"But you will come to please me. I shall take you to the Southern +States, and fetch you back in the autumn my own bright Kate again."</p> + +<p>There was no light of pleasure or eagerness in her face. She only moved +uneasily on the grass.</p> + +<p>"You will come, my dear, will you not? Eunice will accompany you; and we +will visit all the great cities of this New World, that you have so +often longed to see."</p> + +<p>"I will do whatever you wish, papa," she said, apathetically.</p> + +<p>"And you will give Eunice her orders about the packing to-day, and be +ready to start to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa."</p> + +<p>"Ogden will remain behind," continued her father, in a lowered voice. "I +have said nothing to any one else as yet about Harry. I shall go and +speak to them both about it now."</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa."</p> + +<p>She watched him striding away, with that look of weary listlessness that +had grown habitual to her, and rose from her grassy couch with a sigh, +to obey his directions. She found Eunice in the sewing room, with Agnes +Darling, and gave her her orders to pack up, and be prepared to start +next morning. Then she went back to her seat under the old apple-tree, +and lay on the warm grass in a state between sleeping and waking all day +long.</p> + +<p>The day of departure dawned cloudless and lovely. Grace, her +brother, and Eeny went to the station with the travellers, and saw +them off. Kate's farewell was very cold, even to Eeny. What was the +use of losing or being sorry to part with any one, since all the +world was false, and hollow, and deceitful? She had lost +something—heart—hope—conscience—she hardly knew what; but something +within her that had beat high, and hopeful, and trusting, was cold and +still as stone.</p> + +<p>The little party on the platform went back through the yellow haze of +the hot afternoon, to the quiet old house. Ah! how indescribably quiet +and lonely now! Some one might have lain dead in those echoing rooms, so +deadly was the stillness.</p> + +<p>There was one consolation for Grace and Eeny in their solitude. Doctor +Frank was going to remain in the village. It was chiefly at the +solicitation of Father Francis that he had consented.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Pillule is superannuated," said the young priest, "and +old-fashioned, and obstinately prejudiced against all modern +innovations, at the best. We want a new man among us—particularly now +that this fever is spreading."</p> + +<p>A low fever had been working its way, insidiously, among the people +since early spring, and increasing since the warm weather had come. +Perhaps the miasma, arising from the marshes, had been the cause; but +several had died, and many lay ill those sunny June days.</p> + +<p>"Your mission lies here," Father Francis said, emphatically. "You can do +good, Doctor Danton. Stay!"</p> + +<p>So Doctor Danton stayed, hanging out his shingle and taking up his abode +at the village hotel. Doctor Pillule all of a sudden, like the Moor of +Venice, found his occupation gone. Every one liked the pleasant young +Doctor, whose ways were so different from those of Doctor Pillule, and +who sat by their fevered bedsides, and talked to them so kindly. Every +one liked him; and he soon found himself busy enough, but never so busy +that some time, each day, he could not run up for half an hour to Danton +Hall.</p> + +<p>July came, and brought a letter from Captain Danton to Grace. Like many +others, he hated letter-writing, and, never performed that duty when he +could possibly avoid it. But Kate declined writing, absolutely; so it +fell to his lot. They were in New York, on the eve of departure for +Newport, and Kate had already benefited by the change. That was nearly +all; and it was the middle of July before the second arrived. They were +still at Newport, and the improvement in Kate was marked. The wan and +sickly look was rapidly passing away—the change, the excitement, the +sea-bathing, the gay life, were working wonders.</p> + +<p>"She has created somewhat of a sensation here," said the latter, "and +might be one of the belles, if she chose; but she doesn't choose. Her +coldness, her proud and petrified air, her strange and gloomy manner, +throws a halo of mystery around her, that has fixed all eyes upon her, +and set all tongues going. We are quite unknown here, and I don't choose +to enlighten any one. I dare say, more than one little romance has been +concocted, founded on poor Kate's settled gloom; but, beyond our names, +they really know nothing. Some of the young men look as if they would +like to be a little more friendly, but she freezes them with one flash +of her blue eyes."</p> + +<p>August came, burning and breezeless, and they were at Saratoga, drinking +Congress water, and finding life much the same as at Newport. Kate had +recovered her looks, the Captain's letters said; the beauty that had +made her so irresistible had returned, and made her more irresistible +than ever. There was nothing like her at Saratoga; but she was as deeply +wrapped in mystery as ever, and about as genial as a statue in Parian +marble.</p> + +<p>The end of August found them journeying southward. The beginning of +September, and they were domesticated in the friendly Georgian +homestead; and then, Kate, tired after all her wanderings, sank down in +the tropical warmth and beauty, and drew a breath of relief. She liked +it so much, this lovely southern land, where the gorgeous flowers +bloomed and the tropic birds flitted with the hues of Paradise on their +wings. She liked the glowing richness of the southern days and nights, +the forests and fields so unlike anything she had ever seen before; the +negroes with their strange talk and gaudy garments, the pleasant house +and the pleasant people. She liked it all, and the first sensation of +peace and rest she had felt all these months stole into her heart here. +And yet it had done her a world of good—she was a new being—outwardly +at least—although her heart felt as mute and still as ever. Her life's +shipwreck had been so sudden and so dreadful, she had been so stunned +and stupefied at first, and the after-anguish so horribly bitter, that +this haven of rest was as grateful as some green island of the sea to a +shipwrecked mariner. Here there was nothing to remind her of all that +was past and gone—here, where everything was new, her poor bruised +heart might heal.</p> + +<p>Captain Danton saw and thanked Heaven gratefully for the blessed change +in the daughter he loved, and yet she was not the Kate of old. All the +youth and joyousness of life's springtime was gone. She sang no more the +songs he loved; they were dead and buried in the dead past; her clear +laugh never rejoiced his heart now; her fleeting smile came cold and +pale as moonlight, on snow. She took no interest in the home she had +left; she made no inquiries for those who were there.</p> + +<p>"I have had a letter from Danton Hall," he would say; "and they are +well." And she would silently bend her head. Or, "I am writing to Danton +Hall; have you any message to send?" "Only my love to Eeny," would be +the answer; and then she would stray off and leave him alone. She was as +changed to him as she was changed in other things. Grace stood +between—an insuperable barrier.</p> + +<p>September drew to a close. October came, and with it the time for their +departure. Kate left reluctantly; she longed to stay there forever, in +that land of the sun, and forget and be at peace. It was like tearing +half-healed wounds open to go back to a place where everything her eye +rested on or her ear heard, from morning till night, recalled the bitter +past. But fate was inexorable; farewell must be said to beautiful +Georgia and the kind friends there; and the commencement of the second +week of October found them starting on their journey to their northern +home.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>"IT'S AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NOBODY GOOD."</h3> + + +<p>They journeyed northward very slowly, stopping for a few days at all the +great cities, so that October was gone and part of November when they +reached Montreal. There they lingered a week, and then began the last +stage of their journey home.</p> + +<p>It was a desolate afternoon, near the middle of that most desolate +month, November, when Captain Danton and his daughter stepped into the +railway-fly at St. Croix, and were driven, as fast as the spavined old +nag would go, to Danton Hall. A desolate afternoon, with a low leaden +sky threatening snow, and earth like iron with hard black frost. A +wretched complaining wind that made your nerves ache, worried the +half-stripped trees, and now and then a great snowflake whirled in the +dull grey air. The village looked silent and deserted as they drove +through it, and a melancholy bell was slowly tolling, tolling, tolling +all the way. Kate shivered audibly, and wrapped her fur-lined mantle +closer around her.</p> + +<p>"What is that wretched bell for?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"It is the passing bell," replied the father, with a gloomy brow. "You +know the fever is in the village."</p> + +<p>"And someone is dead."</p> + +<p>She looked out with a dreary, shivering sigh over the bleak prospect. +Gaunt black trees, grim black marshes, dull black river, and low black +sky. Oh, how desolate! How desolate it all was—as desolate as her own +dead heart. What was the use of going away, what was the use of +forgetting for a few poor moments, and then coming back to the old +desolation and the old pain? What a weary, weary piece of business life +was at best, not worth the trouble and suffering it took to live!</p> + +<p>The drive to the Hall was such a short one, it hardly seemed to her they +were seated before they were driving up the leafless avenue, where the +trees loomed unnaturally large and black in the frosty air, and the dead +leaves whirled in great wild drifts under the horse's feet. The gloom +and desolation were here before them too. When they had gone away, +nearly six months before, those bleak avenues had been leafy arcades, +where the birds sang all the bright day long, flowers had bloomed +wherever her eye rested, and red roses and sweetbrier had twined +themselves around the low windows and stone pillars of the portico. Now +the trees were writhing skeletons, the flowers dead with the summer, +nothing left of the roses but rattling brown stalks, and the fish-pond +lying under the frowning wintry sky like a sheet of steel.</p> + +<p>She went up the stone steps and into the hall, still shivering miserably +under her wraps, and saw Grace, and Eeny, and the servants assembled to +welcome them, and listened like one in a dream. It all seemed so flat, +and dead, and unsatisfying, and the old time and the old memories were +back at her heart, until she almost went wild. She could see how Eeny +and Grace looked a little afraid of her, and how differently they +greeted her father; and how heartily and unaffectedly glad he was to be +with them once more. And then she was toiling wearily up the long, wide +stairway, followed by faithful Eunice, and had the four walls of her own +little sitting room around her at last.</p> + +<p>How pretty the room was! A fire burned brightly in the glittering steel +grate, the curtains were drawn, for it was already dusk, that short +November afternoon; and the ruddy, cheery light sparkled on the +pictures, and the book-case, and the inlaid table, and the two little +vases of scarlet geraniums Grace had planted there.</p> + +<p>Outside, in contrast to all this warmth, and brightness, and comfort, +she could hear the lamentable sighing of the wild November wind, and the +groaning of the tortured trees. But it brought no sense of comfort to +her, and she sat drearily back while Eunice dressed her for dinner, and +stared blankly into the fire, wondering if her whole life was to go on +like this. Only twenty-one, and life such a hopeless blank already! She +could look forward to her future life—a long, long vista of days, and +every day like this.</p> + +<p>By-and-by the dinner-bell rang, arousing her from her dismal reverie, +and she went down stairs, never taking the trouble to look at herself in +the glass, or to see how her maid had dressed her. Yet she looked +beautiful—coldly, palely beautiful—in that floating dress of deep +blue; and jewelled forget-me-nots in her rich amber hair. Her face and +figure had recovered all their lost roundness and symmetry, but the +former, except when she spoke or smiled, was as cold and still as +marble.</p> + +<p>Father Francis and Doctor Danton were in the dining-room when she +entered, but their welcome home was very apathetically met. She was +silent all through dinner, talking was such a tiresome exertion; nothing +interested her. She hardly looked up—she could feel, somehow, the young +priest's deep, clear eyes bent upon her in grave disapproval, against +which her proud spirit mutinied.</p> + +<p>"Why should I take the trouble to talk?" she thought; "What do I care +for Doctor Danton or his sister, or what interest have the things they +talk of for me?"</p> + +<p>So she listened as if they had been talking Greek. Only once was she +aroused to anything like interest. Their two guests were relating the +progress of that virulent fever in the village, and how many had already +been carried off.</p> + +<p>"I should think the cold weather would give it a check," said her +father.</p> + +<p>"It seems rather on the increase," replied the priest; "there are ten +cases in St. Croix now."</p> + +<p>"We heard the bell as we drove up this afternoon," said the Captain; +"for whom was it tolling?"</p> + +<p>"For poor old Pierre, the sexton. He took the fever only a week ago, and +was delirious nearly all the time."</p> + +<p>Kate lifted her eyes, hitherto listening, but otherwise meaningless.</p> + +<p>"Pierre, who used to light the fires and sweep the church?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; you knew him," said Father Francis looking at her; "he talked of +you more than once during his delirium. It seems you sang for him once, +and he never forgot it. It dwelt in his mind more than anything else, +during that last illness."</p> + +<p>A pang pierced Kate's heart. She remembered the day when she had strayed +into the church with Reginald, and found old Pierre sweeping. He had +made his request so humbly and earnestly, that she had sat down at the +little harmonium and played and sung a hymn. And he had never forgotten +it; he had talked of it in his dying hours. The sharpest remorse she had +ever felt in her life, for the good she might have done, she felt then.</p> + +<p>"My poor people have missed their Lady Bountiful," continued Father +Francis, with that grave smile of his—"missed her more than ever, in +this trying time. Do you remember Hermine Lacheur, Miss Danton?"</p> + +<p>"That pretty, gentle girl, with the great dark eyes, and black ringlets? +Oh, yes, very well."</p> + +<p>"The same. She was rather a pet of yours, I think. You taught her to +sing some little hymns in the choir. You will be sorry to hear she has +gone."</p> + +<p>"Dead!" Kate cried, struck and thrilled.</p> + +<p>"Dead," Father Francis said, a little tremor in his voice. "A most +estimable girl, beloved by every one. Like Pierre, she talked a great +deal of you in her last illness, and sang the hymns you taught her. +'Give my dear love to Miss Danton,' were almost her last words to me; +'she has been very kind to me. Tell her I will pray for her in Heaven.'"</p> + +<p>There was silence.</p> + +<p>"Oh," Kate thought, with unutterable bitterness of sorrow; "how happy I +might have been—how happy I might have made others, if I had given my +heart to God, instead of to His creatures. The bountiful blessings I +have wasted—youth, health, opulence—how many poor souls I might have +gladdened and helped!"</p> + +<p>She rose from the table, and walked over to the window. The blackness of +darkness had settled down over the earth, but she never saw it. Was it +too late yet? Had she found her mission on earth? Had she still +something to live for? Was she worthy of so great a charge? A few hours +before, and life was all a blank, without an object. Had Father Francis +been sent to point out the object for which she must henceforth live? +The poor and suffering were around her. It was in her power to alleviate +their poverty and soothe their suffering. The great Master of Earth and +Heaven had spent His life ministering to the afflicted and +humble—surely it was a great and glorious thing to be able to follow +afar off in His footsteps. The thoughts of that hour changed the whole +tenor of her mind—perhaps the whole course of her life. She had found +her place in the world, and her work to do. She might never be happy +herself, but she might make others happy. She might never have a home of +her own, but she might brighten and cheer other homes. As an unprofessed +Sister of Charity, she might go among those poor ones doing good; and +dimly in the future she could see the cloistered, grateful walls +shutting her from the troubles of this feverish life. Standing there by +the curtained window, her eyes fixed on the pitchy darkness, a new era +in her existence seemed to dawn.</p> + +<p>Miss Danton said nothing to any one about this new resolution of hers. +She felt how it would be opposed, how she would have to argue and combat +for permission; so she held her tongue. But next morning, an hour after +breakfast, she came to Grace, and in that tone of quiet authority she +always used to her father's housekeeper, requested the keys to the +sideboard.</p> + +<p>Grace looked surprised, but yielded them at once; and Kate, going to the +large, carved, old-fashioned, walnut wood buffet, abstracted two or +three bottles of old port, a glass jar of jelly, and another of +tamarinds; stowed away these spoils in a large morocco reticule, +returned the keys to Grace, and, going upstairs, dressed herself in her +plainest dress, mantle, and hat, took her reticule, and set off. She +smiled at herself as she walked down the avenue—she, the elegant, +fastidious Kate Danton, attired in those sombre garments, carrying that +well-filled bag, and turning, all in a moment, a Sister of Mercy.</p> + +<p>It was nearly noon when she returned, pale, and very tired, from her +long walk. Grace wondered more than ever, as she saw her dragging +herself slowly upstairs.</p> + +<p>"Where can she have been?" she mused, "in that dress and with that bag, +and what on earth can she have wanted the keys of the sideboard for?"</p> + +<p>Grace was enlightened some hours later, when Father Francis came up, and +informed the household that he had found Kate ministering to one of the +worst cases of fever in the village—a dying old woman.</p> + +<p>"She was sitting by the bedside reading to her," said the priest; "and +she had given poor old Madame Lange what she has been longing for weeks +past, wine. I assure you I was confounded at the sight."</p> + +<p>"But, good gracious!" cried the Captain, aghast, "she will take the +fever."</p> + +<p>"I told her so—I expostulated with her on her rashness, but all in +vain. I told her to send them as much wine and jellies as she pleased, +but to keep out of these pestiferous cottages. She only looked at me +with those big solemn eyes, and said:</p> + +<p>"'Father, if I were a professed Sister of Charity, you would call my +mission Heaven-sent and glorious; because I am not, you tell me I am +foolish and rash. I don't think I am either; I have no fear of the +fever; I am young, and strong, and healthy, and do not think I will take +it. Even if I do, and if I die, I shall die doing God's work. Better +such a death as that than a long, miserable, worthless life.'"</p> + +<p>"She is resolved, then?"</p> + +<p>"You would say so if you saw her face. Better not oppose her too much, I +think; her mind is set upon it, and it seems to make her happy. It is, +indeed, as she says, a noble work. God will protect her."</p> + +<p>Captain Danton sighed. It seemed to him a very dreary and dismal labour +for his bright Kate. But he had not the heart to oppose her in anything, +let it be never so mad and dangerous. He had never opposed her in the +days of her happiness, and it was late to begin now.</p> + +<p>So Kate's new life began. While the weeks of November were ending in +short, dark, dull days, and cold and windy nights, with the dying year, +many in the fever-stricken village were dying too. Into all these humble +dwellings the beautiful girl was welcomed as an angel of light. The +delicacies and rich wines that nourished and strengthened them they owed +to her bounty; the words of holy hope and consolation that soothed their +dying hours, her sweet voice read; the hymns that seemed a foretaste of +Heaven, her clear voice sang. Her white hands closed their dying eyes +and folded the rigid arms, and decked the room of death with flowers +that took away half its ghastliness. Her deft fingers arranged the folds +of the shroud, and the winding-sheet, and her gentle tones whispered +comfort and resignation to the sorrowing ones behind. How they blessed +her, how they loved her, those poor people, was known only to Heaven and +themselves.</p> + +<p>There were two others in all these stricken houses, at these beds of +death—Father Francis and Dr. Danton. They were her indefatigable +fellow-labourers in the good work, as unwearied in their zeal and +patience and as deeply beloved as she was. Perhaps it was that by +constantly preaching patience, she had learned patience herself. Perhaps +it was through seeing all his goodness and untiring devotion, she began +to realize after a while she had been unjust to Doctor Danton. She could +not help liking and respecting him. She heard his praises in every mouth +in the village, and she could not help owning they were well deserved. +Almost without knowing it, she was beginning to like and admire this +devoted young Doctor, who never wearied in his zeal, who was so gentle, +and womanly, and tender to the poor and suffering. Doing the brother +tardy justice, it began dimly to dawn on her mind that she might have +done the sister injustice too. She had never known anything of Grace but +what was good. Could it be that she had been prejudiced, and proud, and +unjust from first to last?</p> + +<p>She asked herself the question going home one evening from her mission +of mercy. The long-deferred wedding was to take place on Christmas eve, +and it was now the 7th of December. She was walking home alone, in the +yellow lustre of the wintry sunset, the snow lying white and high all +around her. Her new life had changed her somewhat; the hard look was +gone, her face was far more peaceful and gentle than when she had come. +Its luminous brightness was not there, perhaps; but the light that +remained was far more tender and sweet. She looked very lovely, this +cold, clear December, afternoon, in her dark, fur-trimmed mantle, her +pretty hat, fur-trimmed too, and the long black plume contrasting with +her amber-tinted hair. The frosty wind had lit a glow in her pale +cheeks, and deepened the light of her starry violet eyes. She looked +lovely, and so the gentleman thought, striding after her over the snowy +ground. She did not look around to see who it was, and it was only when +he stepped up by her side that she glanced at him, uttering a cry of +surprise.</p> + +<p>"Sir Ronald Keith! Is it really you? Oh, what a surprise!"</p> + +<p>She held out her gloved hand. He took it, held it, looking piercingly +into her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Not an unpleasant one, I hope? Are you glad to see me?"</p> + +<p>"Of course! How can you ask such a question? But I thought you were +hundreds of miles away, shooting moose, and bears, and wolves in New +Brunswick."</p> + +<p>"And so I was, and so I might have remained, had I not heard some news +that sent me to Canada like a bolt from a bow."</p> + +<p>"What news?"</p> + +<p>"Can you ask?"</p> + +<p>She lifted her clear eyes to his face, and read it there. The news that +she was free. The red blood flushed up in her face for a moment, and +then receded, leaving her as white as the snow.</p> + +<p>"I learned in the wilds of New Brunswick, where I fled to forget you, +Kate, that that man was, what I knew he would be, a traitor and a +villain. I only heard it two weeks ago, and I have never rested on my +way to you since. I am a fool and a madman, perhaps, but I can't help +hoping against hope. I love you so much, Kate, I have loved you so long, +that I cannot give you up. He is false, but I will be true. I love you +with all my heart and soul, better than I love my own life. Kate, don't +send me away again. Reginald Stanford does not stand between us now. +Think how I love you, and be my wife."</p> + +<p>She had tried to stop him, but he ran on impetuously. He was so haggard +and so agitated speaking to her, that she could not be angry, that she +could not help pitying him.</p> + +<p>"Don't," she said, gently; "don't, Sir Ronald. You are only paining +yourself and paining me. What I told you before, you force me to tell +you again. I don't love you, and I can't be your wife."</p> + +<p>"I don't expect you to love me yet," he said, eagerly; "how should you? +I will wait, I will do everything under Heaven you wish, only give me +hope. Give me a chance, Kate! I love you so truly and entirely, that it +will win a return sooner or later."</p> + +<p>"Ah! don't talk to me," she said, with an impatient sigh; "don't talk to +me of love. I have done with that, my heart feels like dust and ashes. I +am not worthy of you—I am not worthy of such devotion. I thank you, Sir +Ronald, for the honour you do me; but I cannot—I cannot marry you!"</p> + +<p>"And you will let that poltroon Stanford boast, as he does boast, that +you will live and die single for his sake!" he cried, bitterly. "He has +made it the subject of a bet in a London club-room with Major Lauderdale +of the Guards."</p> + +<p>"No!" said she, her face flushing, her eyes kindling; "he never did +that!"</p> + +<p>"He did do it. I have proof of it. You loved him so well—he +boasted—that you would never marry. He and Lauderdale made the bet."</p> + +<p>She drew a long, hard breath, her eyes flashing, her white teeth +clenched.</p> + +<p>"The dastard," she cried; "the mean, lying, cowardly dastard! Oh, if I +were a man!"</p> + +<p>"Take your revenge without being a man. Prove him a liar and a boaster. +Marry me!"</p> + +<p>She did not answer; but he read hope in her flushed and excited face.</p> + +<p>"Besides," he artfully went on, "what will you do here? You have no +longer a home when your father marries; unless you can consent to be +subject to the woman who was once his housekeeper. You will have no +place in the world; you will only be an incumbrance; your step-mother +will wish you out of the way, and your father will learn to wish as his +new wife does. Oh, Kate, come with me! Come to Glen Keith, and reign +there; we will travel over the world; you shall have every luxury that +wealth can procure; your every wish shall be gratified; you shall queen +it, my beautiful one, over the necks of those who have slighted and +humiliated you. Leave this hateful Canada, and come with me as my +wife—as Lady Keith!"</p> + +<p>"Don't! don't!" she cried, lifting her hand to stop his passionate +pleading. "You bewilder me; you take my breath away! Give me time; let +me think; my head is whirling now."</p> + +<p>"As long as you like, my dearest. I don't ask you for love now; that +will come by-and-by. Only give me hope, and I can wait—wait as long as +Jacob for Rachel, if necessary."</p> + +<p>He lifted her hand to his lips, but let it fall quickly again, for it +felt like ice. She was looking straight before her, at the pale, yellow +sunset, her dark eyes filled with a dusky fire, but her face as +colourless as the snowy ground.</p> + +<p>"Are you ill, Kate?" he said, in alarm; "have I distressed you? have I +agitated you by my sudden coming?"</p> + +<p>"You have agitated me," she replied. "My head is reeling. Don't talk to +me any more. I want to be alone and to think."</p> + +<p>They walked side by side the rest of the way in total silence. When they +reached the house, Kate ran up to her own room at once, while Captain +Danton came out into the hall to greet his old friend. The two men +lounged out in the grounds, smoking before-dinner cigars, and Sir Ronald +briefly stated the object of his return, and his late proposal to his +daughter. Captain Danton listened silently and a little anxiously. He +had known the Scottish baronet a long time; knew how wealthy he was, and +how passionately he loved his daughter; but for all that he had an +instinctive feeling that Kate would not be happy with him.</p> + +<p>"She has given you no reply, then?" he said, when Sir Ronald had +finished.</p> + +<p>"None, as yet; but she will shortly. Should that reply be favourable, +Captain Danton, yours, I trust, will be favourable also?"</p> + +<p>He spoke rather haughtily, and a flush deepened the florid hue of the +Captain's face.</p> + +<p>"My daughter shall please herself. If she thinks she can be happy as +your wife, I have nothing to say. You spoke of Reginald Stanford a +moment ago; do you know anything of his doings since he left Canada?"</p> + +<p>"Very little. He has sold his commission, and quitted the army—some +say, quitted England. His family, you know, have cast him off for his +dishonourable conduct."</p> + +<p>"I know—I received a letter from Stanford Royals some months ago, in +which his father expressed his strong regret, and his disapproval of his +son's conduct."</p> + +<p>"That is all you know about him?"</p> + +<p>"That is all. I made no inquiry—I thought the false hound beneath +notice."</p> + +<p>Captain Danton sighed. He had loved his pretty, bright-eyed, +auburn-haired Rose very dearly, and he could not quite forget her, in +spite of her misdoing. They sauntered up and down in the grey, cold, +wintry twilight, until the ringing of the dinner-bell summoned them +indoors. Kate was there, very beautiful, Sir Ronald thought, in that +dark, rich silk, and flashing ornaments in her golden hair.</p> + +<p>Long that night, after the rest of the household were sleeping, Kate sat +musing over the past, the present, and the future. She had dismissed +Eunice, and sat before the fire in a loose, white dressing-gown, her +lovely hair falling around her, her deep, earnest eyes fixed on the red +blaze. What should she do? Accept Sir Ronald Keith's offer, and achieve +a brilliant place in the world, or sink into insignificance in this +remote corner of the earth? It was all true what he had said: in a few +days her father would be married. Another would be mistress where she +had reigned—another, who might look upon her as an incumbrance and a +burden. She had been content to remain here while she held the first +place in her father's heart; but another held that place now, and would +hold it forever. What should she do in the long days, and months, and +years, that were to come? How should she drag through a useless and +monotonous existence in this dull place? Even now, earnestly as she +sought to do good in her mission of mercy, there were hours and hours of +wretched, unspeakable dreariness and desolation. When her work was +ended, when the fever was over, what would become of her then? That dim +vision of the cloister and veil was dim as ever in the far distance. No +ardent glow, no holy longing filled her heart at the thought, to tell +her she had found a vocation. Her life was unspeakable empty and +desolate, and must remain so forever, if she stayed here. Other thoughts +were at work, too, tempting her on. The recollection of Sir Ronald's +words about her recreant lover—the thought of his insolent and cowardly +boast stung her to the soul. Here was the way to revenge—the way to +give him the lie direct. As Sir Ronald Keith's wife, a life of splendour +and power awaited her. She thought of Glen Keith as she had seen it +once, old and storied, and gray and grand, with ivy and roses clustering +round its gray walls, and its waving trees casting inviting shadows. +Then, too, did he not deserve some return for this long, faithful, +devoted love? Other girls made marriages <i>de raison</i> every day, and were +well content with their lot—why should she not? She could not forever +remain indifferent to his fidelity and devotion. She might learn to love +him by-and-by.</p> + +<p>The fire waned and burned low, the hours of the bleak winter night wore +on, and three o'clock of a new day struck before the solitary watcher +went to bed.</p> + +<p>The Scotch baronet was not kept long in suspense. Next morning, as Miss +Danton came down the stone steps, with something in a paper parcel for +her poor, sick pensioners, Sir Ronald Keith joined her.</p> + +<p>"I have passed a sleepless night," he said. "I shall never rest until I +have your answer. When am I to have it, Kate?"</p> + +<p>Her face turned a shade paler, otherwise there was no change, and her +voice was quite firm.</p> + +<p>"Now, if you wish."</p> + +<p>"And it is yes," he cried, eagerly. "For Heaven's sake, Kate, say it is +yes!"</p> + +<p>"It is yes; if you can take me for what I am. I don't love you; I don't +know that I shall ever love you, but I will try. If I marry you, I will +be your true and faithful wife, and your honour will be as sacred as my +salvation. If you can take me, knowing this, I am yours."</p> + +<p>He caught her in his arms, and broke out into a torrent of passionate +delight and thankfulness. She disengaged herself, cold and very pale.</p> + +<p>"Leave me now," she said. "I must go to the village alone. Don't ask too +much from me, Sir Ronald, or you may be disappointed."</p> + +<p>"Only one thing more, my darling. Your father is to be married on the +twenty-fourth. I am sure you will have no wish to linger in this house +after that. Will you not dispense with the usual formalities and +preparations, and be married on the same day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," she said, impatiently; "let it be as you wish! What does it +matter? Good-morning."</p> + +<p>She walked away rapidly over the frozen snow, leaving the successful +wooer to return to the house and relate his good luck.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>VIA CRUCIS.</h3> + + +<p>So once more Miss Danton was "engaged;" once more preparations for a +double wedding went on; once more her wedding day was named.</p> + +<p>There was very little noise made about the matter this time. Father +Francis and Doctor Danton were almost the only two outside the household +who knew anything about it, and somehow these were the very two Kate +herself wished most to keep it from.</p> + +<p>She was ashamed of her mercenary marriage; in spite of herself she +despised herself for it, and she felt they must despise her for it too. +She shrank away guiltily under the clear steadfast, searching gaze of +Father Francis, feeling how low she must have fallen in his estimation. +She respected and esteemed the priest and the Doctor so much, that it +was humiliating to lose their respect by her own voluntary act. But it +was too late to draw back, even if she wished it; her fetters were +forged—she was bound beyond recall.</p> + +<p>Sir Ronald Keith had got the desire of his heart—Kate Danton was his +promised wife, and yet he was not quite happy. Are we ever quite happy, +I wonder, when we attain the end for which we have sighed and longed, +perhaps for years? Our imagination is so very apt to paint that desire +of our heart in rainbow-hues, and we are so very apt to find it, when it +comes, only dull gray, after all.</p> + +<p>Sir Ronald loved his beautiful and queenly affianced with a changeless +devotion nothing could alter. He had thought her promise to marry him +would satisfy him perfectly; but he had that promise, and he was not +satisfied. He wanted something more—he wanted love in return, although +he knew she did not love him; and he was dissatisfied. It is not exactly +pleasant, perhaps, to find the woman you love and are about to marry as +cold as an iceberg—to see her shrink at your approach, and avoid you on +all possible occasions. It is rather hard, no doubt, to put up with the +loose touch of cold fingers for your warmest caress, and heavy sighs in +answer to your most loving speeches.</p> + +<p>Sir Ronald had promised to be content without love; but he was not, and +was huffish and offended, and savagely jealous of Reginald Stanford and +all the hated past.</p> + +<p>So the baronet's wooing was on the whole rather gloomy, and depressing +to the spirits, even of the lookers-on; and Kate was failing away once +more to a pale, listless shadow, and Sir Ronald was in a state of +perpetual sulkiness.</p> + +<p>But the bridal-cakes and bridal-dresses were making, and the December +days were slipping by, one by one, bringing the fated time near. Miss +Danton still zealously and unweariedly continued her mission of love. No +weather kept her indoors, no pleadings of her future husband were strong +enough to make her give up one visit for his pleasure or accommodation.</p> + +<p>"Let me alone, Sir Ronald Keith," she would answer, wearily, and a +little impatiently; "it will not be for long. Let me alone!"</p> + +<p>The fever that had swept off so many was slowly dying out. The sick ones +were not so bad or so many now, but that Miss Danton, with a safe +conscience, might have given them up; but she would not. She never +wanted to be alone—she who had been so fond of solitude such a short +time ago. She was afraid of herself—afraid to think—afraid of that dim +future that was drawing so very near. Every feeling of heart and soul +revolted at the thought of that loveless marriage—the profanation of +herself seemed more than she could bear.</p> + +<p>"I shall turn desperate at the very altar!" she thought, with something +like despair. "I can't marry him—I can't! It sets me wild to think of +it. What a wretch I am! What a weak, miserable, cowardly wretch, not to +be able to face the fate I have chosen for myself! I don't know what to +do, and I have no one to consult—no one but Father Francis, and I am +afraid to speak to him. I don't love him; I loathe the thought of +marrying him; but it is too late to draw back. If one could only die, +and end it all!"</p> + +<p>Her arm lay across the window-sill; her head drooped and fell on it now, +with a heavy sigh. She was unspeakably miserable, and lonely, and +desolate; she was going to seal her misery for life by a loveless +marriage, which her soul abhorred, and she had no power to draw back. +She was like a rudderless ship, drifting without helm or compass among +shoals and quicksands—drifting helplessly to ruin.</p> + +<p>"If I dared only ask Father Francis, he would tell me what to do," she +thought, despondingly; "he is so wise and good, and knows what is best +for every one. He would tell me how to do what is right, and I want to +do what is right if I can. But I have neglected, and avoided, and +prevaricated with him so long that I have no right to trouble him now. +And I know he would tell me I am doing wrong; I have read it in his +face; and how can I do right?"</p> + +<p>She sat thinking drearily, her face lying on her arm. It was the +afternoon of the 14th—ten days more, and it would indeed, be too late. +The nearer the marriage approached, the more abhorrent it grew. The +waving trees of Glen-Keith cast inviting shadows no longer. It was all +darkness and desolation. Sir Ronald's moody, angry face frightened and +distressed her—it was natural, she supposed. She did not behave well, +but he knew she did not care for him; she had told him so, honestly and +plainly; and if he looked like that before marriage, how would he look +after? She was unutterably wretched, poor child; and a remorseful +conscience that would give her no rest did not add to her comfort.</p> + +<p>She sat there for a long time, her face hidden on her arm, quite still. +The short, wintry afternoon was wearing away; the cold, yellow sun hung +low in the pale western sky, and the evening wind was sighing mournfully +amid the trees when she rose up. She looked pale, but resolved; and she +dressed herself for a walk, with a veil over her face, and slowly +descended the stairs.</p> + +<p>As she opened the house door, Sir Ronald came out of the drawing-room, +not looking too well pleased at having been deserted all the afternoon.</p> + +<p>"Are you going out?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Where?"</p> + +<p>"Up the village."</p> + +<p>"Always up the village!" he exclaimed, impatiently, "and always alone. +May I not go with you? It is growing, late."</p> + +<p>"There is no occasion," she replied, looking at him proudly. "I need no +protector in St. Croix."</p> + +<p>She opened the door and went out, and walked rapidly down the bleak +avenue to the gates. The authoritative tone of the baronet stung her +proud spirit to the quick.</p> + +<p>"What right has he to talk to me like that?" she thought, angrily. "If I +loved him, I would not endure it; I don't love him, and I won't endure +it."</p> + +<p>Her eyes flashed as she walked along, lightly and rapidly, holding her +haughty head very erect. Greetings met her on every hand as she passed +through the village. She never paused until she reached the church, and +stood by the entrance gate of the little garden in front of the Curé's +house. There she paused irresolute. How peaceful it was—what a holy +hush seemed to linger round the place! All her courage left her, and she +stood as timid and fluttering as any school-girl. While she hesitated, +the door opened, and Father Francis stood looking at her.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Miss Danton," he said. "You look as if you were almost +afraid."</p> + +<p>She opened the little gate and went up the path, looking strangely +downcast and troubled. Father Francis held out his hand with a smile.</p> + +<p>"I thought you would come to see me before you left Canada," he said, +"although you seem to have rather forgotten your old friends of late. +Come in."</p> + +<p>"Are you alone?" Kate asked, following him into the little parlour.</p> + +<p>"Quite alone. The Curé has gone two miles off on a sick call. And how +are the good people of Danton Hall?"</p> + +<p>"Very well," Kate answered, taking a seat by the window and looking out +at the pale, yellow sunset.</p> + +<p>"That is, except yourself, Miss Danton. You have grown thin within the +last fortnight. What is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"I am not very happy," she said, with a little tremor of the voice; +"perhaps that is it."</p> + +<p>"Not happy?" repeated Father Francis, with a short, peculiar laugh. "I +thought when young ladies married baronets, the height of earthly +felicity was attained. It seems rather sordid, this marrying for wealth +and title. I hardly thought Kate Danton would do it; but it appears I +have made a foolish mistake."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," Kate said, very slowly. "I came here to ask you to be cruel +to me—to tell me hard truths. You know how to be cruel very well, +Father Francis."</p> + +<p>"Why do you come to me for hard truths?" said the priest, rather coldly. +"You have been deluding yourself all along; why don't you go on? What is +the use of telling you the truth? You will do as you like in the end."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not. I have not fallen quite so low as you think. I dare say +you despise me, but you can hardly despise me more than I despise +myself."</p> + +<p>"Then why walk on in the path that leads you downward? Why not stop +before it is too late?"</p> + +<p>"It is too late now!"</p> + +<p>"Stuff and nonsense! That is more of your self-delusion. You, or rather +that pride of yours, which has been the great stumbling-block of your +life, leads you on in that self-delusion. Too late! It would not be too +late if you were before the altar! Better stop now and endure the +humiliation than render your own and this man's future life miserable. +You will never be happy as Sir Ronald Keith's wife; he will never be +happy as your husband. I know how you are trying to delude yourself; I +know you are trying to believe you will love him and be happy by-and-by. +Don't indulge such sophistry any longer; don't be led away by your own +pride and folly."</p> + +<p>"Pride and folly!" she echoed indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I repeat it. Your heart, your conscience, must own the truth of +what I say, if your lips will not. Would you ever have accepted Sir +Ronald Keith if your father had not been about to marry Grace Danton?"</p> + +<p>The sudden flush that overspread her face answered for her, though she +did not speak. She sat looking straight before her into vacancy, with a +hard, despairing look in her dark, deep eyes.</p> + +<p>"You know you would not. But your father is going to marry a most +excellent and most estimable woman; his affection is not wholly his +daughter's any longer; she must stand a little in the shade, and see +another reign where she used to be queen. She cannot hold the first +place in her father's heart and home; so she is ready to leave that home +with the first man who asks her. She does not love him; there is no +sympathy or feeling in common between them; they are not even of the +same religion; she knows that she will be wretched, and that she will +make him wretched too. But what does it all matter? Her pride is to be +wounded, her self-love humiliated, and every other consideration must +yield to that. She is ready to commit perjury, to swear to love and +honour a man who is no more to her than that peasant walking along the +road. She is ready to degrade herself and risk her soul by a mercenary +marriage sooner than bear that wound to pride!"</p> + +<p>"Go on!" Kate said, bitterly; "it is well to have one's heart lacerated +sometimes, I suppose. Pray go on."</p> + +<p>"I intend to go on. You have been used to queening it all your life—to +being flattered, and indulged, and pampered to the top of your bent, and +it will do you good. When you are this man's miserable wife, you shall +never say Father Francis might have warned me—Father Francis might have +saved me. You have ruled here with a ring and a clatter; you have been +pleased to dazzle and bewilder the simple people of St. Croix, to see +yourself looked up to as a sort of goddess. Your rank, and +accomplishments, and beauty—we are talking plain truth now, Miss +Danton—all these gifts that God has bestowed upon you so bountifully, +you have misused. It doesn't seem so to you, does it? You think you have +been very good, very charitable, very condescending. I don't deny that +you have done good, that you have been a sort of guardian angel to the +poor and the sick; but what was your motive? Was it that which makes +thousands of girls, as young, and rich, and handsome as yourself, resign +everything for the humble garb and lowly duties of a Sister of Charity? +Oh, no! You liked to be idolized, to be venerated, and looked up to as +an angel upon earth. That pride of yours which induces you to sell +yourself for so many thousand pounds per annum was at the bottom of it +all. You want to hold a foremost place in the great battle of life—you +want all obstacles to give way before you. It can't be; and your whole +life is a failure."</p> + +<p>"Go on," Kate reiterated, never stirring, never looking at him, and +white as death.</p> + +<p>"You have fancied yourself very good, very immaculate, and thanked +Heaven in an uplifted sort of way that you were not as other women, +false, and mean, and sordid. You wanted to walk through life in a +pathway of roses without thorns, to a placid death, and a heritage of +glory in Heaven. The trials of common people were not for you; sorrow, +and disappointment, and suffering were to pass Miss Danton by. You were +so good, and so far up in the clouds, nothing low or base could reach +you. Well, it was not to be. You were only clay, after all—the +porcelain of human clay, perhaps, but very brittle stuff withal. Trouble +did come; the man you had made a sort of idol of, to whom you had given +your whole heart, with a love so intense as to be sinful—this man +abandons you. The sister you have trusted and been fond of, deceives +you, and you find that trouble is something more than a word of two +syllables. You have been very great, and noble, and heroic all your +life, in theory—how do we find you in practice? Why, drooping like any +other lovelorn damsel, pining away without one effort at that greatness +and heroism you thought so much of; without one purpose to conquer +yourself, without one effort to be resigned to the will of Heaven. You +rebel against your father's marriage; everybody else ought to be lonely +and unhappy because you are; the world ought to wear crape, and the +light of the sun be darkened. But the world laughs and sings much as +usual, the sun shines as joyously. Your father's marriage will be an +accomplished fact, and our modern heroine says 'yes' to the first man +who asks her to marry him in a fit of spleen, because she will be Grace +Danton's step-daughter, and must retire a little into the background, +and look forward to the common humdrum life ordinary mortals lead. She +doesn't ask help where help alone is to be found; so in the hour of her +trial there is no light for her in earth or Heaven. Oh, my child! stop +and think what you are going to do before it is too late."</p> + +<p>"I can't think," she said, in a hollow voice. "I only know I am a +miserable, sinful, fallen creature. Help me, Father Francis; tell me +what I am to do."</p> + +<p>"Do not ask help from me," the young priest said, gravely; "ask it of +that compassionate Father who is in Heaven. Oh! my child, the way to +that land of peace and rest is the way of the Cross—the only way. There +are more thorns than roses under our feet, but we must go on like +steadfast soldiers to the end, bearing our cross, and keeping the +battle-cry of the brave old Crusaders in our hearts, 'God wills it.' +Your trouble has been heavy, my poor child, I don't doubt, but you +cannot be exempt from the common lot. I am sorry for you, Heaven knows, +and I would make your life a happy one if I could, in spite of all the +harsh things I may say. It is because I would not have your whole life +miserable that I talk to you like this. Your heart acknowledges the +truth of every word I have said; and remember there is but one recipe +for real happiness—goodness. Be good and you will be happy. It is a +hackneyed precept out of a copy-book," Father Francis said, with a +slight smile; "but believe me, it is the only infallible rule. Rouse +yourself to a better life, my dear Kate; begin a new and more perfect +life, and God will help you. Remember, dear child, 'There is a love that +never fails when earthly loves decay.'"</p> + +<p>She did not speak. She rose up, cold, and white, and rigid. The priest +arose too.</p> + +<p>"Are you going?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You are not offended with me for all this plain talk? I like you so +much, you know, that I want to see you happy."</p> + +<p>"Offended?" she answered, "oh, no! Some day I will thank you; I cannot +now."</p> + +<p>She opened the door and was gone, flitting along, a lonely figure in the +bleak winter twilight. She never paused in her rapid walk until she +reached Danton Hall; and then, pale and absorbed, she ran rapidly +upstairs, and shut herself into her room. Throwing off her bonnet and +mantle, she sat down to her writing-desk at once, and without waiting to +think, took up a pen and dashed off a rapid note:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir Ronald</span>:—I have deceived you. I have done very wrong. +I don't love you—I never can; and I cannot be your wife. I am very +sorry; I ask you to forgive me—to be generous, and release me from +my promise. I should be miserable as your wife, and I would make +you miserable too. Oh! pray forgive me, and release me, for indeed +I cannot marry you.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">Kate Danton</span>."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>She folded the note rapidly, placed it in an envelope, wrote the +address, "Sir Ronald Keith," and sealed it. Still in the same rapid way, +as if she were afraid to pause, afraid to trust herself, she arose and +rang the bell. Eunice answered the summons, and stared aghast at her +mistress' face.</p> + +<p>"Do you know if Sir Ronald is in the house?" Miss Danton asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss; he's sitting in the library, reading a paper."</p> + +<p>"Is he alone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss."</p> + +<p>"Take this letter to him, then; and, Eunice, tell Miss Grace I will not +be down to dinner. You can fetch me a cup of tea here. I do not feel +very well."</p> + +<p>Eunice departed on her errand. Kate drew a long, long breath of relief +when she closed the door after her. She drew her favourite chair up +before the fire, took a book off the table, and seated herself +resolutely to read. She was determined to put off thought—to let events +take their course, and cease tormenting herself, for to-night at least.</p> + +<p>Eunice brought up the tea and a little trayful of dainties, drew the +curtain, and lit the lamp. Kate laid down her book and looked up.</p> + +<p>"Did you deliver the note, Eunice?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss."</p> + +<p>"And my message to Miss Grace?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then—you may go."</p> + +<p>The girl went away, and Kate sat sipping her tea and reading. She sat +for upward of half an hour, and then she arose and took the way to the +apartments of Mr. Richards. It was after ten before she returned and +entered her sitting-room. She found Eunice waiting for her, and she +resigned herself into her hands at once.</p> + +<p>"I shall go to bed early to-night," she said. "My head aches. I must try +and sleep."</p> + +<p>Sleep mercifully came to her almost as soon as she laid her head on her +pillow. She slept as she had not done for many a night before, and awoke +next morning refreshed and strengthened for the new trials of the new +day. She dreaded the meeting with her discarded suitor, with a nervous +dread quite indescribable; but the meeting must be, and she braced +herself for the encounter with a short, fervent prayer, and went down +stairs.</p> + +<p>There was no one in the dining-room, but the table was laid. She walked +to the window, and stood looking out at the black, bare trees, writhing +and groaning in the morning wind, and the yellow sunshine glittering on +the frozen snow. While she stood, a quick, heavy tread crossed the +hall—a tread she knew well. Her heart throbbed; her breath came quick. +A moment later, and Sir Ronald entered, the open note she had sent him +in his hand.</p> + +<p>"What is the meaning of this folly, Kate?" he demanded, angrily, +striding towards her. "Here, take it back. You did not mean it."</p> + +<p>"I do mean it," Kate said, shrinking. "I have behaved very badly; I am +very sorry, but I mean it."</p> + +<p>His black brows contracted stormily over his gloomy eyes.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you have jilted me? Have you been playing the +capricious coquette from first to last?"</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry! I am very sorry!" poor Kate faltered. "I have done +wrong! Oh, forgive me! And please don't be angry."</p> + +<p>He broke into a harsh laugh.</p> + +<p>"You are sorry! and you have done wrong! Upon my soul, Miss Danton, you +have a mild way of putting it. Here, take back this nonsensical letter. +I can't and won't free you from your engagement."</p> + +<p>He held the letter out, but she would not take it. The strong and proud +spirit was beginning to rise; but the recollection that she had drawn +this on herself held her in check.</p> + +<p>"I cannot take back one word in that letter. I made a great mistake in +thinking I could marry you; I see it now more than ever. I have owned my +fault. I have told you I am sorry. I can do no more. As a gentleman you +are bound to release me."</p> + +<p>"Of course," he said, with a bitter sneer. "As a gentleman, I am bound +to let you play fast and loose with me to your heart's content. You have +behaved very honourably to me, Miss Danton, and very much like a +gentlewoman. Is it because you have been jilted yourself, that you want +the pleasure of jilting another? It is hardly the thing to revenge +Reginald Stanford's doings on me."</p> + +<p>Up leaped the indignant blood to Kate's face; bright flashed the angry +fire from her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Go!" she cried, in a ringing tone of command. "Leave my father's house, +Sir Ronald Keith! I thought I was talking to a gentleman. I have found +my mistake. Go! If you were monarch of the world, I would not marry you +now."</p> + +<p>He ground his teeth with a savage oath of fury and rage. The letter she +had sent him was still in his hand. He tore it fiercely into fragments, +and flung them in a white shower at her feet.</p> + +<p>"I will go," he said; "but I shall remember this day, and so shall you. +I shall take good care to let the world know how you behave to an +honourable man when a dishonourable one deserts you."</p> + +<p>With the last unmanly taunt he was gone, banging the house door after +him until the old mansion shook. And Kate fled back to her room, and +fell down on her knees before her little white bed, and prayed with a +passionate outburst of tears for strength to bear her bitter, bitter +cross.</p> + +<p>Later in the day a man from the village hotel came to Danton Hall for +the baronet's luggage. Captain Danton, mystified and bewildered, sought +his daughter for an explanation of these strange goings on. Kate related +the rather humiliating story, leaving out Sir Ronald's cruel taunts, in +dread of a quarrel between him and her father.</p> + +<p>"Don't say anything about it, papa," Kate said, imploringly. "I have +behaved very badly, and I feel more wretched and sorry for it all than I +can tell you. Don't try to see Sir Ronald. He is justly very angry, and +might say things in his anger that would provoke a quarrel. I am +miserable enough now without that."</p> + +<p>Captain Danton promised, and quietly dispatched the Scotchman's +belongings. That evening Sir Ronald departed for Quebec, to take passage +for Liverpool.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3>BEARING THE CROSS.</h3> + + +<p>The dead blank that comes after excitement of any kind is very trying to +bear. The dull flow of monotonous life, following the departure of the +Scotch baronet, told severely on Kate. The feverish excitement of that +brief second engagement had sustained her, and kindled a brighter fire +in her blue eyes, and a hot glow on her pale cheeks. But in the stagnant +quiet that succeeded, the light grew dim, the roses faded, and the old +lassitude and weariness returned. She had not even the absorbing task of +playing amateur Sister of Charity, for the fever was almost gone, and +there was no more left for her to do.</p> + +<p>There was no scandal or <i>éclat</i> this time about the broken-off marriage, +for it had been kept very secret—only in the kitchen-cabinet there were +endless surmisings and wonderings.</p> + +<p>The wedding garments made for the second time for Miss Danton were for +the second time put quietly away.</p> + +<p>Father Francis, in all his visits to Danton Hall, never made the +slightest allusion to the event that had taken place. Only, he laid his +hand on Kate's drooping head, with a "Heaven bless you, my child!" so +fervently uttered that she felt repaid for all the humiliation she had +undergone.</p> + +<p>So very quietly at Danton Hall December wore away, and Christmas-eve +dawned, Grace Danton's wedding-day. About ten in the morning the large, +roomy, old-fashioned family sleigh drove up before the front door, and +the bridal party entered, and were whirled to the church. A very select +party indeed; the bride and bridegroom, the bride's brother, and the +bridegroom's two daughters.</p> + +<p>Grace's brown velvet bonnet, brown silk dress, and seal jacket were not +exactly the prescribed attire for a bride; but with the hazel hair, +smooth and shining, and the hazel eyes full of happy light, Grace looked +very sweet and fair.</p> + +<p>Eeny, in pale silk and a pretty hat with a long white plume, looked fair +as a lily and happy as a queen, and very proud of her post of +bride-maid.</p> + +<p>And Kate, who was carrying her cross bravely now, very simply attired, +sat beside Doctor Frank and tried to listen and be interested in what he +was saying, and all the time feeling like one in some unnatural dream. +She saw the dull, gray, sunless sky, speaking of coming storm, the +desolate snow-covered fields, the quiet village, and the little church, +with its tall spire and glittering cross. She saw it all in a vague, +lost sort of way, and was in the church and seated in a pew, and +listening and looking on, like a person walking in her sleep. Her father +going to be married! How strange and unnatural it seemed. She had never +grown familiarized with the idea, perhaps because she would never +indulge it, and now he was kneeling on the altar steps, with Frank +Danton beside him, and Eeny at Grace's left hand, and the Curé and +Father Francis were there in stole and surplice, and the ceremony was +going on. She saw the ring put on Grace's finger, she heard the Curé's +French accented voice, "Henry Danton, wilt thou have Grace Danton to be +thy wedded wife?" and that firm, clear "I will," in reply.</p> + +<p>Then it was all over; they were married. Her pale face drooped on the +front rail of the pew, and wet it with a rain of hot tears.</p> + +<p>The wedding quartet were going into the sacristy to register their +names. She could linger no longer, although she felt as if she would +like to stay there and die, so she arose and went wearily after. Her +father looked at her with anxious, imploring eyes; she went up and +kissed him, with a smile on her colourless face.</p> + +<p>"I hope you will be very happy, papa," she whispered.</p> + +<p>And then she turned to Grace, and touched her cold lips to the bride's +flushed cheek.</p> + +<p>"I wish you very much happiness, Mrs. Danton," she said.</p> + +<p>Yes, she could never be mother—she was only Mrs. Danton, her father's +wife; but Father Francis gave her a kindly, approving glance, even for +this. She turned away from him with a weary sigh. Oh, what trouble and +mockery everything was? What a dreary, wretched piece of business life +was altogether! The sense of loneliness and desolation weighed on her +heart, this dull December morning, like lead.</p> + +<p>There was to be a wedding-breakfast, but the Curé, and Father Francis, +and Doctor Frank were the only guests.</p> + +<p>Kate sat at her father's side—Grace presided now, Grace was mistress of +the Hall—and listened in the same dazed and dreary way to the confusion +of tongues, the fire of toasts, the clatter of china and silver, and the +laughter of the guests. She sat very still, eating and drinking, because +she must eat and drink to avoid notice, and never thinking how beautiful +she looked in her blue silk dress, her neck and arms gleaming like ivory +against azure. What would it ever matter again how she looked?</p> + +<p>Captain and Mrs. Danton were going on a brief bridal-tour to +Toronto—not to be absent over a fortnight. They were to depart by the +two o'clock train; so, breakfast over, Grace hurried away to change her +dress. Dr. Frank was going to drive Eeny to the station, in the cutter, +to see them off, but Kate declined to accompany them. She shook hands +with them at the door; and then turned and went back into the empty, +silent house.</p> + +<p>A wedding, when the wedded pair, ashamed of themselves, go scampering +over the country in search of distraction and amusement, leaves any +household almost as forlorn as a funeral. Dead silence succeeds tumult +and bustle; those left behind sit down blankly, feeling a gap in their +circle, a loss never to be repaired. It was worse than usual at Danton +Hall. The wintry weather, precluding all possibility of seeking +forgetfulness and recreation out of doors, the absence of visitors—for +the Curé, Father Francis, Doctor Danton, and the Reverend Mr. Clare +comprised Kate's whole visiting list now—all tended to make dismalness +more dismal. She could remember this time last year, when Reginald and +Rose, and Sir Ronald, and all were with them—so many then, so few now; +only herself and Eeny left.</p> + +<p>The memory of the past time came back with a dulled sense of pain and +misery. She had suffered so much that the sense of suffering was +blunted—there was only a desolate aching of the heart when she thought +of it now.</p> + +<p>December and the old year died out, in a great winding-sheet of snow. +January came, and its first week dragged away, and the master and +mistress of the house were daily expected home.</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon of a January day, Kate sat at the drawing-room +window, her chin resting on her hand, her eyes fixed on the white +darkness. The wind made such a racket and uproar within and without, +that she did not hear a modest tap at the door, or the turning of the +handle. It was only when a familiar voice sounded close to her elbow +that she started from her reverie.</p> + +<p>"If you please, Miss Kate."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is it you, Ogden? I did not hear you. What is the matter?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Ogden drew nearer and lowered his voice.</p> + +<p>"Miss Kate, have you been upstairs to-day?"</p> + +<p>Kate knew what he meant by this rather guarded question—had she been to +see Mr. Richards?</p> + +<p>"No," she said in alarm; "is there anything the matter?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid there is, Miss Kate. I am afraid he is not very well."</p> + +<p>"Not very well!" repeated Miss Danton. "Do you mean to say he is ill, +Ogden?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss Kate, I am afraid he is. He wasn't very well last night, and +this morning he is worse. He complains dreadful of headache, and he +ain't got no appetite whatsomever. He's been lying down pretty much all +day."</p> + +<p>"Why did you not tell me sooner?" Kate cried, with a pang of remorse at +her own neglect. "I will go to him at once."</p> + +<p>She hastened upstairs, and into her brother's rooms. The young man was +in the bedroom, lying on the bed, dressed, and in a sort of stupor. As +Kate bent over him, and spoke, he opened his eyes, dull and heavy.</p> + +<p>"Harry, dear," Kate said, kissing him, "what is the matter? Are you +ill?"</p> + +<p>Harry Danton made an effort to raise, but fell back on the pillow.</p> + +<p>"My head aches as if it would split open, and I feel as if I had a +ton-weight bearing down every limb. I think I am going to have the +fever."</p> + +<p>Kate turned pale.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Harry, for Heaven's sake don't think that! The fever has left the +village; why should you have it now?"</p> + +<p>He did not reply. The heavy stupor that deadened every sense bore him +down, and took away the power of speech. His eyes closed, and in another +moment he had dropped off into a deep, lethargic sleep.</p> + +<p>Kate arose and went out into the corridor, where she found Ogden +waiting.</p> + +<p>"He has fallen asleep," she said. "I want you to undress him, and get +him into bed properly, while I go and prepare a saline draught. I am +afraid he is going to be very ill."</p> + +<p>She passed on, and ran down stairs to her father's study, where the +medicine-chest stood. It took her some time to prepare the saline +draught; and when she returned to the bed-chamber, Ogden had finished +his task, and the sick man was safely in bed. He still slept—heavily, +deep—but his breathing was laboured and his lips parched.</p> + +<p>"I will give him this when he awakes," Kate said; "and I will sit up +with him all night. You can remain in the next room, Ogden, so as to be +within call, if wanted."</p> + +<p>Kate remained by her sick brother through the long hours of that wintry +night. She sat by the bedside, bathing the hot face and fevered hands, +and holding cooling drinks to the dry lips. The shaded lamp lit the room +dimly, too dimly to see to read; so she sat patiently, listening to the +snow-storm, and watching her sick brother's face. In the next room Mr. +Ogden slept the sleep of the just, in an arm-chair, his profound snoring +making a sort of accompaniment to the howling of the wind.</p> + +<p>The slow, slow hours dragged away, and morning came. It found the +patient worse, weak, prostrated, and deadly sick, but not delirious.</p> + +<p>"I know I have the fever, Kate," he said, in a weak whisper; "I am glad +of it. I only hope it will be merciful, and take me off."</p> + +<p>Kate went down to breakfast, which she could not eat, and then returned +to the sick-room. Her experience among the sick of the village had made +her skilful in the disease; but, despite all she could do, Harry grew +weaker and worse. She dared not summon help, she dared not call in the +Doctor, until her father's return.</p> + +<p>"He ought to be here to-day," she thought. "Heaven grant it! If he does +not and Harry keeps growing worse, I will go and speak to Father Francis +this evening."</p> + +<p>Fortunately this unpleasant duty was not necessary. The late afternoon +train brought the newly-wedded pair home. Kate and Eeny met them in the +hall, the latter kissing both with effusion, and Kate only shaking +hands, with a pale and anxious countenance.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Grace went upstairs with Eeny, to change her travelling costume, +and Captain Danton was left standing in the hall with his eldest +daughter.</p> + +<p>"What is it, my dear?" he asked; "what has gone wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Something very serious, I am afraid, papa. Harry is ill."</p> + +<p>"Ill! How?—when?—what is the matter with him?"</p> + +<p>"The fever," Kate said, in a whisper. "No one in the house knows it yet +but Ogden. He was taken ill night before last, but I knew nothing of it +till yesterday. I sat up with him last night, and did what I could, but +I fear he is getting worse. I wanted to call in the Doctor, but I dared +not until your return. What shall we do?"</p> + +<p>"Send for Doctor Frank immediately," replied her father, promptly; "I +have no fear of trusting him. He is the soul of honour, and poor Harry's +secret is as safe with him as with ourselves. Grace has heard the story. +I told her in Montreal. Of course, I could have no secrets from my wife. +I will go to the village myself, and at once; that is, as soon as I have +seen the poor boy. Let us go up now, my dear."</p> + +<p>Kate followed her father upstairs, and into the sick man's room. With +the approach of night he had grown worse, and was slightly delirious. He +did not know his father when he bent over and spoke to him. He was +tossing restlessly on his pillow, and muttering incoherently as he +tossed.</p> + +<p>"My poor boy! My poor Harry!" his father said, with tears in his-eyes. +"Misfortune seems to have marked him for its own. Remain with him, Kate; +I will go at once for Doctor Danton."</p> + +<p>Five minutes later the Captain was galloping towards the village hotel, +through the gray, gathering dusk. The young Doctor was in, seated in his +own room, reading a ponderous-looking volume. He arose to greet his +visitor, but stopped short at sight of his grave and anxious face.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing wrong, I hope?" he inquired; "nothing has happened at +the Hall?"</p> + +<p>The Captain looked around the little chamber with the same anxious +glance.</p> + +<p>"We are quite alone?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Quite," replied his brother-in-law, very much surprised.</p> + +<p>"I have a story to tell you—a secret to confide to you. Your services +are required at the Hall; but before I can avail myself of these +services, I have a sacred trust to confide to you—a trust I am certain +you will never betray."</p> + +<p>"I shall never betray any trust you may repose in me, Captain Danton," +the young man answered gravely.</p> + +<p>Some dim inkling of the truth was in his mind as he spoke. Captain +Danton drew his chair closer, and in a low, hurried voice began his +story. The story he had once before told Reginald Stanford, the story of +his unfortunate son.</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank listened with a face of changeless calm. No surprise was +expressed in his grave, earnest, listening countenance. When the Captain +had finished his narrative, with an account of the fever that rendered +his presence at once necessary, a faint flush dyed his forehead.</p> + +<p>"I shall be certain now," he thought. "I only saw Agnes Darling's +husband once, and then for a moment; but I shall know him again if I +ever see him."</p> + +<p>"I shall be with you directly," he said, rising; "as soon as they saddle +my horse."</p> + +<p>He rang the bell and gave the order. By the time his cap and coat were +on, and a few other preparations made, the hostler had the horse at the +door.</p> + +<p>It was quite dark now; but the road was white with snow and the two men +rode rapidly to the Hall with the strong January wind blowing in their +faces. They went upstairs at once, and Doctor Frank, with an odd +sensation, followed the master of Danton Hall across the threshold of +that mysterious Mr. Richards' room.</p> + +<p>The Captain's son lay in a feverish sleep, tossing wildly and raving +incoherently. Kate, sitting by his bedside, he mistook for some one +else, calling her "Agnes," and talking in disjointed sentences of days +and things long since past.</p> + +<p>"He thinks she is his wife," the Captain said, very sadly; "poor boy!"</p> + +<p>The Doctor turned up the lamp, and looked long and earnestly into the +fever-flushed face. His own seemed to have caught the reflection of that +red glow, when at last he looked up.</p> + +<p>"It is the fever," he said, "and a very serious case. You sat up last +night, your father tells me, Miss Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Kate answered.</p> + +<p>She was very white and thoroughly worn out.</p> + +<p>"You are not strong enough to do anything of the kind. You look +half-dead now. I will remain here all night, and do you at once go and +lie down."</p> + +<p>"Thank you very much," Kate said, gratefully. "I can sleep when I know +you are with him. Do you think there is any danger?"</p> + +<p>"I trust not. You and I have seen far more serious cases down there in +St. Croix, and we have brought them round. It is a very sad story, +his—I am very sorry for your brother." Kate stooped and kissed the hot +face, her tears falling on it.</p> + +<p>"Poor, poor Harry! The crime of that dreadful murder should not lie at +his door, but at that of the base wretch he made his wife!"</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure, Miss Danton," said the young Doctor, seriously, +"that there may not have been some terrible mistake? From what your +father tells me, your brother had very little proof of his wife's +criminality beyond the words of his friend Furniss, who may have been +actuated by some base motive of his own."</p> + +<p>"He had the proof of his own senses," Kate said, indignantly; "he saw +the man Crosby with his wife, and heard his words. The guilt of Harry's +rash deed should rest far more on her than on him."</p> + +<p>She turned from the room, leaving her father and the young Doctor to +watch by the sick man all night. The Captain sought his wife, and +explained the cause of her brother's sudden summons; and Kate, in her +own room, quite worn out, lay down dressed as she was, and fell into a +profound, refreshing sleep, from which she did not wake until late next +morning.</p> + +<p>When she returned to her brother's chamber, she found the Doctor and the +Captain gone, and Grace keeping watch. Mrs. Danton explained that Frank +had been summoned away about an hour previously to attend a patient in +the village; and the Captain, at her entreaty, had gone to take some +rest. The patient was much the same, and was now asleep.</p> + +<p>"But you should not have come here, Mrs. Danton," Kate expostulated. +"You know this fever is infectious."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Danton smiled.</p> + +<p>"My life is of no more value than yours or my husband's. I am not +afraid—I should be very unhappy if I were not permitted to do what +little good I can."</p> + +<p>For the second time there flashed into Kate's mind the thought that she +had never done this woman justice. Here she was, generous and +self-sacrificing, risking her own safety by the sick-bed of her +husband's own son. Could it be that after all she had married her father +because she loved him, and not because he was Captain Danton of Danton +Hall?</p> + +<p>"Father Francis ought to know," she mused; "and Father Francis sings her +praises on every occasion. I know Eeny loves her dearly, and the +servants like and respect her in a manner I never saw surpassed. Can it +be that I have been blind, and unjust, and prejudiced from first to +last, and that my father's wife is a thousand times better than I am?"</p> + +<p>The two women sat together in the sick-room all the forenoon. Kate +talked to her step-mother far more socially and kindly than she had ever +talked to her before, and was surprised to find Grace had a ready +knowledge of every subject she started. She smiled at herself by and by +in a little pause in the conversation.</p> + +<p>"She is really very pleasant," she thought. "I shall begin to like her +presently, I am afraid."</p> + +<p>Early in the afternoon, Doctor Frank returned. There was little change +in his patient, and no occasion for his remaining. He stayed half an +hour, and then took his hat to leave. He had more pressing cases in the +village to attend, and departed promising to call again before +nightfall.</p> + +<p>The news of Mr. Richards' illness had spread by this time through the +house. The young Doctor knew this, and wondered if Agnes Darling had +heard it, and why she did not try to see him. He was thinking about it +as he walked briskly down the avenue, and resolving he must try and see +her that evening, when a little black figure stepped out from the shadow +of the trees and confronted him.</p> + +<p>"'Angels and ministers of grace defend us,'" ejaculated the Doctor; "I +thought it was a ghost, and I find it is only Agnes Darling. You look +about as pale as a ghost, though. What is the matter with you?"</p> + +<p>She clasped her hands and looked at him piteously.</p> + +<p>"He is sick. You have seen him? Oh, Doctor Danton! is it Harry?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Mrs. Danton, I am happy to tell you it is. Don't faint now, or +I shall tell you nothing more."</p> + +<p>She leaned against a tree, white and trembling; her hands clasped over +her beating heart.</p> + +<p>"And he is ill, and I may not see him. Oh, tell me what is the matter."</p> + +<p>"Fever. Don't alarm yourself unnecessarily. I do not think his life is +in any danger."</p> + +<p>"Thank God! Oh, thank God for that!"</p> + +<p>She covered her face with her slender hands, and he could see the +fast-falling tears.</p> + +<p>"My dear Agnes," he said, kindly. "I don't like to see you distress +yourself in this manner. Besides, there is no occasion. I think your +darkest days are over. I don't see why you may not go and nurse your +husband."</p> + +<p>Her hands dropped from before her face, her great dark eyes fixed +themselves on his face, dilated and wildly.</p> + +<p>"You would like it, wouldn't you? Well, I really don't think there is +anything to hinder. He is calling for you perpetually, if it will make +you happy to know it. Tell Miss Danton your story at once; tell her who +you are, and if she doubts your veracity, refer her to me. I have a +letter from Mr. Crosby, testifying in the most solemn manner your +innocence. I wrote to him, Agnes, as I could not find time to visit him. +Tell Miss Kate to-day, if you choose, and you may watch by your +husband's bedside to night. Good afternoon. Old Renaud is shouting out +with rheumatism; I must go and see after him."</p> + +<p>He strode away, leaving Agnes clinging to the tree, trembling and white. +The time had come, then. Her husband lived, and might be returned to her +yet. At the thought she fell down on her knees on the snowy ground, with +the most fervent prayer of thanksgiving in her heart she had ever +uttered.</p> + +<p>Some two hours later, and just as the dusk of the short winter day was +falling, Kate came out of her brother's sick-room. She looked jaded and +worn, as she lingered for a moment at the hall-window to watch the +grayish-yellow light fade out of the sky. She had spent the best part of +the day in the close chamber, and the bright outer air seemed +unspeakably refreshing. She went to her room, threw a large cloth mantle +round her shoulders, drew the fur-trimmed hood over her head, and went +out.</p> + +<p>The frozen fish-pond glittered like a sheet of ivory in the fading +light; and walking slowly around it, she saw a little familiar figure, +robed like a nun, in black. She had hardly seen the pale seamstress for +weeks, she had been too much absorbed in other things; but now, glad of +companionship, she crossed over to the fish-pond and joined her. As she +drew closer, and could see the girl's face in the cold, pale twilight, +she was struck with its pallor and indescribably mournful expression.</p> + +<p>"You poor, pale child!" Miss Danton said; "you look like some stray +spirit wandering ghostily around this place. What is the matter now, +that you look so wretchedly forlorn?"</p> + +<p>Agnes looked up in the beautiful, pitying face, with her heart in her +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," she said, tremulously, "but the old trouble, that never +leaves me. I think sometimes I am the most unhappy creature in the whole +wide world."</p> + +<p>"Every heart knoweth its own bitterness," Miss Danton said, steadily. +"Trouble seems to be the lot of all. But yours—you have never told me +what it is, and I think I would like to know."</p> + +<p>They were walking together round the frozen pond, and the face of the +seamstress was turned away from the dying light. Kate could not see it, +but she could hear the agitation in her voice when she spoke.</p> + +<p>"I am almost afraid to tell you. I am afraid, for oh, Miss Danton! I +have deceived you."</p> + +<p>"Deceived me, Agnes?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I came here in a false character. Oh, don't be angry, please; but +I am not Miss Darling—I am a married woman."</p> + +<p>"Married! You?"</p> + +<p>She looked down in speechless astonishment at the tiny figure and +childlike face of the little creature beside her.</p> + +<p>"You married!" she repeated. "You small, childish-looking thing! And +where in the wide world is your husband?"</p> + +<p>Agnes Darling covered her face with her hands, and broke out into a +hysterical passion of tears.</p> + +<p>"Don't cry, you poor little unfortunate. Tell me if this faithless +husband is the friend I once heard you say you were in search of?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," Agnes answered, through her sobs. "Oh, Miss Danton! Please, +please, don't be angry with me, for, indeed, I am very miserable."</p> + +<p>"Angry with you, my poor child," Kate said, tenderly; "no, indeed! But +tell me all about it. How did this cruel husband come to desert you? Did +he not love you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, yes, yes."</p> + +<p>"And you—did you love him?"</p> + +<p>"With my whole heart."</p> + +<p>The memory of her own dead love stung Kate to the very soul.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she said, bitterly, "it is only a very old story, after all. We +are all alike; we give up our whole heart for a man's smile, and, +verily, we get our reward. This husband of yours took a fancy, I +suppose, to some new and fresher face, and threw you over for her sake?"</p> + +<p>Agnes Darling looked up with wide black eyes.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, no! He loved me faithfully. He never was false, as you think. +It was not that; he thought I was false, and base, and wicked. Oh!" she +cried, covering her lace with her hands again; "I can't tell you how +base he thought me."</p> + +<p>"I think I understand," Kate said, slowly. "But how was it? It was not +true, of course."</p> + +<p>Agnes lifted her face, raised her solemn, dark eyes mournfully to the +gaze of the earnest blue ones.</p> + +<p>"It was not true," she replied simply; "I loved him with all my heart, +and him only. He was all the world to me, for I was alone, an orphan, +sisterless and brotherless. I had only one relative in the wide world—a +distant cousin, a young man, who boarded in the same house with me. I +was only a poor working-girl of New York, and my husband was far above +me—I thought so then, know it since. I knew very little of him. He +boarded in the same house, and I only saw him at the table. How he ever +came to love me—a little pale, quiet thing like me—I don't know; but +he did love me—he did—it is very sweet to remember that now. He loved +me, and he married me, but under an assumed name, under the name of +Darling, which I know now was not his real one."</p> + +<p>She paused a little, and Kate looked at her with sudden breathless +interest. How like this story was to another, terribly familiar.</p> + +<p>"We were married," Agnes went on, softly and sadly, "and I was happy. +Oh, Miss Danton, I can never tell you how unspeakably happy I was for a +time. But it was not for long. Troubles began to gather thick and fast +before many months. My husband was a gambler"—she paused a second or +two at Miss Danton's violent start—"and got into his old habits of +staying out very late at night, and often, when he had lost money, +coming home moody and miserable. I had no influence over him to stop +him. He had a friend, another gambler, and a very bad man, who drew him +on. It was very dreary sitting alone night after night until twelve or +one o'clock, and my only visitor was my cousin, the young man I told you +of. He was in love, and clandestinely engaged to a young lady, whose +family were wealthy and would not for a moment hear of the match. I was +his only confidante, and he liked to come in evenings and talk to me of +Helen. Sometimes, seeing me so lonely and low-spirited, he would stay +with me within half an hour of Harry's return; but Heaven knows neither +he nor I ever dreamed it could be wrong. No harm might ever have come of +it, for my husband knew and liked him, but for that gambling companion, +whose name was Furniss."</p> + +<p>She paused again, trembling and agitated, for Miss Danton had uttered a +sharp, involuntary exclamation.</p> + +<p>"Go on! Go on!" she said breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"This Furniss hated my cousin, for he was his successful rival with +Helen Hamilton, and took his revenge in the cruelest and basest manner. +He discovered that my cousin was in the habit of visiting me +occasionally in the evening, and he poisoned my husband's mind with the +foulest insinuations.</p> + +<p>"He told him that William Crosby, my cousin, was an old lover, and +that—oh, I cannot tell you what he said! He drove my husband, who was +violent and passionate, half mad, and sent him home one night early, +when he knew Will was sure to be with me. I remember that dreadful night +so well—I have terrible reason to remember it. Will sat with me, +talking of Helen, telling me he could wait no longer; that she had +consented, and they were going to elope the very next night. While he +was speaking the door was burst open, and Harry stood before us, livid +with fury, a pistol in his hand. A second later, and there was a +report—William Crosby sprang from his seat and fell forward, with a +scream I shall never forget. I think I was screaming too; I can hardly +recollect what I did, but the room was full in a moment, and my husband +was gone—how, I don't know. That was two years ago, and I have never +seen him since; but I think—"</p> + +<p>She stopped short, for Kate Danton had caught her suddenly and violently +by the arm, her eyes dilating.</p> + +<p>"Agnes!" she exclaimed, passionately; "what is it you have been telling +me? Who are you?"</p> + +<p>Agnes Darling held up her clasped hands.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Danton," she cried, "for our dear Lord's sake, have pity on +me! I am your brother's wretched wife!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3>DOCTOR DANTON'S GOOD WORKS.</h3> + + +<p>The two women stood in the bleak twilight looking at each other—Agnes +with piteous, imploring eyes, Kate dazed and hopelessly bewildered.</p> + +<p>"My brother's wife!" she repeated. "You! Agnes Darling!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear Miss Danton, have pity on me! Let me see him. Let me tell him +I am innocent, and that I love him with my whole heart. Don't cast me +off! Don't despise me! Indeed, I am not the guilty creature he thinks +me!"</p> + +<p>"Agnes, wait," Kate said, holding out her hand. "I am so confounded by +this revelation that I hardly know what to do or say. Tell me how you +found out my brother was here? Did you know it when you came?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. I came as seamstress, with a lady from New York to Canada, and +when I left her I lived in the Petite Rue de St. Jacques. There you +found me; and I came here, never dreaming that I was to live in the same +house with my lost husband."</p> + +<p>"And how did you make the discovery? Did you see him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss Danton; the night you were all away at the party, you +remember. I saw him on the stairs, returning to his room. I thought then +it was a spirit, and I fainted, as you know, and Doctor Danton was sent +for, and he told me it was no spirit, but Harry himself."</p> + +<p>"Doctor Danton!" exclaimed Kate, in unbounded astonishment. "How did +Doctor Danton come to know anything about it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it was he—oh, I haven't told you. I must go back to that dreadful +night when my cousin was shot. As I told you, the room was filled with +people, and among them there was a young man—a Doctor, he told us—who +made them lift poor Will on the bed, and proceeded to examine his wound. +It was not fatal."</p> + +<p>She stopped, for Kate had uttered a cry and grasped her arm.</p> + +<p>"Not fatal!" she gasped. "Oh, Agnes! Agnes! Tell me he did not die!"</p> + +<p>"He did not, thank Heaven. He lived, and lives still—thanks to the +skill and care of Doctor Danton."</p> + +<p>Kate clasped her hands with a fervent prayer of thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my poor Harry!" she cried, "immured so long in those dismal rooms, +when you were free to walk the world. But perhaps the punishment was +merited. Go on, Agnes; tell me all."</p> + +<p>"The wound was not fatal, but his state was very critical. Doctor Danton +extracted the bullet, and remained with him all night. I was totally +helpless. I don't remember anything about it, or anything that occurred +for nearly a fortnight. Then I was in a neighbour's room; and she told +me I had been very ill, and, but for the kindness and care of the young +Doctor, must have died. She told me William lived, and was slowly +getting better; but the good Doctor had hired a nurse to attend him, and +came to the house every day. I saw him that very afternoon, and had a +long talk with him. He told me his name was Doctor Danton, that he had +come from Germany on business, and must return in a very few days now. +He said he had friends in Canada, whom he had intended to visit, but +this unfortunate affair had prevented him. He had not the heart to leave +us in our forlorn and dangerous state. He would not tell his friends of +his visit to America at all, so they would have no chance to feel +offended. Oh, Miss Danton, I cannot tell you how good, how noble, how +generous he was. He left New York the following week; but before he went +he forced me to take money enough to keep me six months. I never felt +wholly desolate until I saw him go, and then I thought my heart would +break. Heaven bless him! He is the noblest man I ever knew."</p> + +<p>Kate's heart thrilled with a sudden response. And this was the man she +had slighted, and perhaps despised—this hero, this great, generous, +good man!</p> + +<p>"You are right," she said; "he is noble. And after that, Agnes, what did +you do?"</p> + +<p>"I dismissed the hired nurse, and took care of poor Will until he fully +recovered. Then he resumed his business; and I went back, sick and +sorrowful, to my old life. I can never tell you how miserable I was. The +husband I loved was lost to me forever. He had gone, believing me guilty +of the worst of crimes, and I should never see him again to tell him I +was innocent. The thought nearly broke my heart; but I lived and lived, +when, I only prayed, wickedly, I know, to die. I came to Canada—I came +here; and here I met my best friend once more. I saw Harry, or an +apparition, as I took it to be, until Doctor Danton assured me to the +contrary. He did not know, but he suspected the truth—he is so clever; +and now that he has seen him, and knows for certain, he told me to tell +you who I was. Miss Danton, I have told you the simple truth, as Heaven +hears me. I have been true and faithful in thought and word to the +husband I loved. Don't send me away; don't disbelieve and despise me."</p> + +<p>She lifted her streaming eyes and clasped hands in piteous supplication. +There were tears, too, in the blue eyes of Kate as she took the little +supplicant in her arms.</p> + +<p>"Despise you, my poor Agnes! What a wretch you must take me to be! No, I +believe you, I love you, you poor little broken-down child. I shall not +send you away. I know Harry loves you yet; he calls for you continually +in his delirium. I shall speak to papa; you shall see him to-night. Oh! +to think how much unnecessary misery there is in the world."</p> + +<p>She put her arm round her slender waist, and was drawing her towards the +house. Before they reached it, a big dog came bounding and barking up +the avenue and overtook them.</p> + +<p>"Be quiet, Tiger," said Kate, halting. "Let us wait for Tiger's master, +Agnes."</p> + +<p>Tiger's master appeared a moment later. One glance sufficed to show him +how matters stood.</p> + +<p>He lifted his hat with a quiet smile.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Miss Danton; good evening, Mrs. Danton. I see you have +come to an understanding at last."</p> + +<p>"My brother—we all owe you a debt we can never repay," Kate said +gravely; "and Agnes here pronounces you an uncanonized saint."</p> + +<p>"So I am. The world will do justice to my stupendous merits by-and-by. +You have been very much surprised by Agnes' story, Miss Danton?"</p> + +<p>"Very much. We are going in to tell papa. You will come with us, +Doctor?"</p> + +<p>"If Mrs. Agnes does not make me blush by her laudations. Draw it mild, +Agnes, won't you. You have no idea how modest I am."</p> + +<p>He opened the front door and entered the hall as he spoke, followed by +the two girls. The drawing-room door was ajar, but Eeny and her teacher +were the only occupants of that palatial chamber.</p> + +<p>"Try the dining-room," suggested Kate; "it is near dinner-hour; we will +find some one there."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank ran down-stairs, three steps at a time, followed more +decorously by his companions. Grace seated near the table, reading by +the light of a tall lamp, was the only occupant. She lifted her eyes in +astonishment at her brother's boisterous entrance.</p> + +<p>"Where is papa?" Kate asked.</p> + +<p>"Upstairs in the sick-room."</p> + +<p>"Then wait here, Doctor; wait here, Agnes! I will go for him."</p> + +<p>She ran lightly upstairs, and entered the sick man's bedroom. The shaded +lamp lit it dimly, and showed her her father sitting by the bedside +talking to his son. The invalid was better this evening—very, very +weak, but no longer delirious.</p> + +<p>"You are better, Harry dear, are you not?" his sister asked, stooping to +kiss him; "and you can spare papa for half an hour? Can't you, Harry?"</p> + +<p>A faint smile was his answer. He was too feeble to speak. Miss Danton +summoned Ogden from one of the outer rooms, left him in charge, and bore +her father off.</p> + +<p>"What has happened, my dear?" the Captain asked. "There is a whole +volume of news in your face."</p> + +<p>Kate clasped her hands around his arm, and looked up in his face with +her great earnest eyes.</p> + +<p>"The most wonderful thing, papa! Just like a play or a novel! Who do you +think is here?"</p> + +<p>"Who? Not Rose come back, surely?"</p> + +<p>"Rose? Oh, no!" Kate answered, with wonderful quietness. "You never +could guess. Harry's wife!"</p> + +<p>"What!"</p> + +<p>"Papa! Poor Harry was dreadfully mistaken. She was innocent all the +time. Doctor Frank knows all about it, and saved the life of the man +Harry shot. It is Agnes Darling, papa. Isn't it the strangest thing you +ever heard of?"</p> + +<p>They were at the dining-room door by this time—Captain Danton in a +state of the densest bewilderment, looking alternately at one and +another of the group before him.</p> + +<p>"What, in the name of all that's incomprehensible, does this mean? Kate, +in Heaven's name, what have you been talking about?"</p> + +<p>Miss Danton actually laughed at her father's mystified face.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, papa, and I'll tell you all about it. Here!"</p> + +<p>She wheeled up his chair and made him be seated, then leaning over the +back, in her clear, sweet voice, she lucidly repeated the tale Agnes +Darling had told her. The Captain and his wife sat utterly astounded; +and Agnes, with her face hidden, was sobbing in her chair.</p> + +<p>"Heaven bless me!" ejaculated the astonished master of Danton Hall. "Can +I believe my ears? Agnes Darling, Harry's wife!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Captain," Doctor Frank said, "she is your son's wife—his innocent +and deeply-injured wife. The man Crosby, in what he believed to be his +dying hour, solemnly testified, in the presence of a clergyman, to her +unimpeachable purity and fidelity. It was the evil work of that villain +Furniss, from first to last. I have the written testimony of William +Crosby in my pocket at this moment. He is alive and well, and married to +the lady of whom he was speaking when your son shot him. I earnestly +hope you will receive this poor child, and unite her to her husband, for +I am as firmly convinced of her innocence as I am of my own existence at +this moment."</p> + +<p>"Receive her!" Captain Danton cried, with the water in his eyes. "That I +will, with all my heart. Poor little girl—poor child," he said, going +over and taking the weeping wife into his arms. "What a trial you have +undergone! But it is over now, I trust. Thank Heaven my son is no +murderer, and under Heaven, thanks to you, Doctor Danton. Don't cry, +Agnes—don't cry. I am heartily rejoiced to find I have another +daughter."</p> + +<p>"Oh, take me to Harry!" Agnes pleaded. "Let me tell him I am innocent! +Let me hear him say he forgives me!"</p> + +<p>"Upon my word, I think the forgiveness should come from the other side," +said the Captain. "He was always a hot-headed, foolish boy, but he has +received a lesson, I think, he will never forget. How say you, Doctor, +may this foolish little girl go to that foolish boy?"</p> + +<p>"I think not yet," the Doctor replied. "In his present weak state the +shock would be too much for him. He must be prepared first. How is he +this evening?"</p> + +<p>"Much better, not at all delirious."</p> + +<p>"I will go and have a look at him," said Doctor Frank, rising. "Don't +look so imploringly, Agnes; you shall see him before long. Miss Danton, +have the goodness to accompany me. If we find him much better, I will +let you break the news to him and then fetch Agnes. But mind, madame," +raising a warning finger to the sobbing little woman, "no hysterics! I +can't have my patient agitated. You promise to be very quiet, don't +you!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! I'll try."</p> + +<p>"Very good. Now, Miss Danton."</p> + +<p>He ran up the stairs, followed by Kate. The sick man lay, as he had left +him, quietly looking at the shaded lamp, very feeble—very, very feeble +and wasted. The Doctor sat down beside him, felt his pulse, and asked +him a few questions, to which the faint replies were lucid and +intelligible.</p> + +<p>"No fever to-night. No delirium. You're fifty per cent. better. We will +have you all right now, in no time. Kate has brought an infallible +remedy."</p> + +<p>The sick man looked at his sister wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"Can you bear the shock of some very good news, Harry darling?" Kate +said stooping over him.</p> + +<p>"Good news!" he repeated feebly, and with an incredulous look. "Good +news for me!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, thou man of little faith! The best news you ever heard. +You won't agitate yourself, will you, if I tell you?"</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank arose before he could reply.</p> + +<p>"I leave you to tell him by yourself. I hear the dinner-bell; so adieu."</p> + +<p>He descended to the dining-room and took his place at the table. Captain +Danton's new-found daughter he compelled to take poor Rose's vacant +place; but Agnes did not even make a pretence of eating anything. She +sat with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her eyes fixed steadily +on the door, trying with all her might to be calm and wait.</p> + +<p>The appetite of the whole family was considerably impaired by the +revelation just made, and all waited anxiously the return of Kate. In +half an hour the dining-room door opened, and that young lady appeared, +very pale, and with traces of tears on her face, but smiling withal.</p> + +<p>Agnes sprang up breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Come," Kate said, holding out her hand; "he is waiting for you!"</p> + +<p>With a cry of joy Agnes hurried out of the room and upstairs.</p> + +<p>At the green baize door Kate restrained her a moment.</p> + +<p>"You must be very quiet, Agnes—very calm, and not excite or agitate +him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! yes! Oh, let me go!"</p> + +<p>Miss Danton opened the door and let her in. In a moment she was kneeling +by the bedside, her arms around his weak head, showering kisses and +tears on his pale, thin face.</p> + +<p>"Forgive me!" she said. "Forgive me, my own, my dear, my lost husband. +Oh, never think I was false. I never, never was, in thought or act, for +one moment. Say you forgive me, my darling, and love me still."</p> + +<p>Of course, Kate did not linger. When she again entered the dining-room, +she found one of those she had left, gone.</p> + +<p>"Where is Doctor Frank?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Gone," Grace said. "A messenger came for him—some one sick in the +village. Do take your dinner. I am sure you must want it."</p> + +<p>"How good he is," Kate thought. "How energetic and self-sacrificing. If +I were a man, I should like to be such a man as he."</p> + +<p>After this night of good news, Harry Danton's recovery was almost +miraculously rapid. The despair that had deadened every energy, every +hope, was gone. He was a new man; he had something to live for; a place +in the world, and a lost character to retrieve. A week after that +eventful night, he was able to sit up; a fortnight, and he was rapidly +gaining vigour and strength, and health for his new life.</p> + +<p>Agnes, that most devoted little wife, had hardly left these three +mysterious rooms since she had first entered them. She was the best, the +most untiring, the most tender of nurses, and won her way to the hearts +of all. She was so gentle, so patient, so humble, it was impossible not +to love her; and Captain Danton sometimes wondered if he had ever loved +his lost, frivolous Rose as he loved his new daughter.</p> + +<p>It had been agreed upon that, to avoid gossip and inquiry, Harry was not +to show himself in the house, to the servants, but as soon as he was +fully recovered, to leave for Quebec, with his wife, and take command of +a vessel there.</p> + +<p>His father had written to the ship-owners—old friends of his—and had +cheerfully received their promise.</p> + +<p>The vessel was to sail for Plymouth early in March, and it was now late +in February.</p> + +<p>Of course, Agnes was to go with him. Nothing could have separated these +reunited married lovers now.</p> + +<p>The days went by, the preparations for the journey progressed, the eve +of departure came. The Danton family, with the Doctor and Father +Francis, were assembled in the drawing-room, spending that last evening +together. It was the first time, since his return to the Hall, Harry had +been there. How little any of them dreamed it was to be the last!</p> + +<p>They were not very merry, as they sat listening to Kate's music. Down in +that dim recess where the piano stood, she sat, singing for the first +time the old songs that Reginald Stanford had loved. She was almost +surprised at herself to find how easily she could sing them, how little +emotion the memories they brought awoke. Was the old love forever dead, +then? And this new content at her heart—what did it mean? She hardly +cared to ask. She could not have answered; she only knew she was happy, +and that the past had lost power to give her pain.</p> + +<p>It was late when they separated. Good-byes were said, and tender-hearted +little Agnes cried as she said good-bye to Doctor Frank. The priest and +the physician walked to the little village together, through the cold +darkness of the starless winter night.</p> + +<p>At the presbytery-gate they parted, Father Francis going in, Doctor +Danton continuing his walk to the distant cottage of a poor sick +patient. The man was dying. The young doctor lingered by his bedside +until all was over, and morning was gray in the eastern sky when he left +the house of death.</p> + +<p>But what other light was that red in the sky, beside the light of +morning? A crimson, lurid light that was spreading rapidly over the face +of the cloudy heavens, and lighting even the village road with its +unearthly glare? Fire! and in the direction of Danton Hall, growing +brighter and brighter, and redder with every passing second. Others had +seen it, too, and doors were flying open, and men and women flocking +out.</p> + +<p>"Fire! Fire!" a voice cried. "Danton Hall is on fire!"</p> + +<p>And the cry was taken up and echoed and reëchoed, and every one was +rushing pell-mell in the direction of the Hall.</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank was one of the first to arrive. The whole front of the old +mansion seemed a sheet of fire and the red flames rushed up into the +black sky with an awful roar. The family were only just aroused, and, +with the servants, were flocking out, half-dressed. Doctor Frank's +anxious eyes counted them; there were the Captain and Grace, Harry and +Agnes, and last of all, Kate.</p> + +<p>The servants were all there, but there was one missing still. Doctor +Frank was by Grace's side in a moment.</p> + +<p>"Where is Eeny?"</p> + +<p>"Eeny! Is she not here?"</p> + +<p>"No. Good Heaven, Grace! Is she in the house?"</p> + +<p>Grace looked around wildly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes! She must be! Oh, Frank—"</p> + +<p>But Frank was gone, even while she spoke, into the burning house. There +was still time. The lower hall and stairway were still free from fire, +only filled with smoke.</p> + +<p>He rushed through, and upstairs; in the second hall the smoke was +suffocating, and the burning brands were falling from the blazing roof. +Up the second flight of stairs he flew blinded, choked, singed. He knew +Eeny's room; the door was unlocked, and he rushed in. The smoke or fire +had not penetrated here yet, and on the bed the girl lay fast asleep, +undisturbed by all the uproar around her.</p> + +<p>To muffle her from head to foot in a blanket, snatch her up and fly out +of the room, was but the work of a few seconds. The rushing smoke +blinded and suffocated him, but he darted down the staircases as if his +feet were winged. Huge cinders and burning flakes were falling in a +fiery shower around him, but still he rushed blindly on. The lower hall +was gained, a breeze of the blessed cold air blew on his face.</p> + +<p>They were seen, they were saved, and a wild cheer arose from the +breathless multitude. Just at that instant, with his foot on the +threshold, an avalanche of fire seemed to fall on his head from the +burning roof.</p> + +<p>Another cry, this time a cry of wild horror arose from the crowd; he +reeled, staggered like a drunken man; some one caught Eeny out of his +arms as he fell to the ground.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3>AFTER THE CROSS, THE CROWN.</h3> + + +<p>The glare of a brilliant April sunset shone in the rainbow-hued western +sky, and on the fresh, green earth, all arrayed in the budding promise +of spring.</p> + +<p>Grace Danton stood by the window of a long, low room, looking +thoughtfully out at the orange and crimson dyes of the far-off sky.</p> + +<p>The room in which she stood was not at all like the vast old-fashioned +rooms of Danton Hall. It was long and narrow, and low-ceilinged, and +very plainly furnished. There was the bed in the centre, a low, +curtainless bed, and on it, pale, thin, and shadowy, lay Grace's +brother, as he had lain for many weary weeks. He was asleep now, deeply, +heavily, tossing no longer in the wild delirium of brain-fever, as he +had tossed for so many interminable days and nights.</p> + +<p>Grace dropped the curtain, and went back to her post by the bedside. As +she did so, the door softly opened, and Kate, in a dark, unrustling +dress and slippers of silence, came in. She had changed in those weeks; +she looked paler and thinner, and the violet eyes had a more tender +light, a sadder beauty than of old.</p> + +<p>"Still asleep," she said, softly, looking at the bed. "Grace, I think +your prayers have been heard."</p> + +<p>"I trust so, dear. Is your father in?"</p> + +<p>"No; he has ridden over to see how the builders get on. You must want +tea, Grace. Go, I will take your place."</p> + +<p>Grace arose and left the room, and Kate seated herself in the low chair, +with eyes full of tender compassion. What a shadow he was of his former +self—so pale, so thin, so wasted! The hand lying on the counterpane was +almost transparent, and the forehead, streaked with damp brown hair, was +like marble.</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow!" Kate thought, pushing these stray locks softly back, and +forgetting how dangerously akin pity is to love—"poor fellow!"</p> + +<p>Yes, it has come to this. Sick—dying, perhaps—Kate Danton found how +dear this once obnoxious young Doctor had grown to her heart. "How +blessings brighten as they take their flight!" Now that she was on the +verge of losing him forever, she discovered his value—discovered that +her admiration was very like love. How could she help it? Women admire +heroes so much! And was not this brave young Doctor a real hero? From +first to last, had not his life in St. Croix been one list of good and +generous deeds?</p> + +<p>The very first time she had ever seen him, he had been her champion, to +save her from the insults and rudeness of two drunken soldiers. He had +been a sort of guardian angel to poor Agnes in her great trouble. He had +saved her brother's life and honour. He had perilled his own life to +save that of her sister. The poor of St. Croix spoke of him only to +praise and bless him. Was not this house besieged every day with scores +of anxious inquirers? He was so good, so great, so noble, so +self-sacrificing, so generous—oh! how could she help loving him? Not +with the love that had once been Reginald Stanford's, whose only basis +was a fanciful girl's liking for a handsome face, but a love far deeper +and truer and stronger. She looked back now at the first infatuation, +and wondered at herself. The scales had fallen from her eyes, and she +saw her sister's husband in his true light—false, shallow, selfish, +dishonourable.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she thought, with untold thanksgiving in her heart, "what would +have become of me if I had married him?"</p> + +<p>There was another sore subject in her heart, too—that short-lived +betrothal to Sir Ronald Keith. How low she must have fallen when she +could do that! How she despised herself now for ever entertaining the +thought of that base marriage. She could thank Father Francis at last. +By the sick-bed of Doctor Frank she had learned a lesson that would last +her a lifetime.</p> + +<p>The radiance of the sunset was fading out of the sky, and the gray +twilight was filling the room. She rose up, drew back the green +curtains, and looked for a moment at the peaceful village street. When +she returned to the bedside, the sleeper was awake, his eyes calm and +clear for the first time. She restrained the exclamation of delight +which arose to her lips, and tried to catch the one faint word he +uttered:</p> + +<p>"Water?"</p> + +<p>She gently raised his head, her cheeks flushing, and held a glass of +lemonade to his lips. A faint smile thanked her; and then his eyes +closed, and he was asleep again. Kate sank down on her knees by the +bedside, grateful tears falling from her eyes, to thank God for the life +that would be spared.</p> + +<p>From that evening the young man rallied fast.</p> + +<p>The Doctor, who came from Montreal every day to see him, said it was all +owing to his superb constitution and wondrous vitality. But he was very, +very weak. It was days and days before he was strong enough to think, or +speak, or move. He slept, by fits and starts, nearly all day long, +recognizing his sister, and Kate, and Eeny, and the Captain, by his +bedside, without wondering how they came to be there, or what had ailed +him.</p> + +<p>But strength to speak and think was slowly returning; and one evening, +in the pale twilight, opening his eyes, he saw Kate sitting beside him, +reading. He lay and watched her, strong enough to think how beautiful +that perfect face was in the tender light, and to feel a delicious +thrill of pleasure, weak as he was, at having her for a nurse.</p> + +<p>Presently Kate looked from the book to the bed, and blushed beautifully +to find the earnest brown eyes watching her so intently.</p> + +<p>"I did not know you were awake," she said, composedly. "Shall I go and +call Grace?"</p> + +<p>"On no account. I don't want Grace. How long have I been sick?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, many weeks; but you are getting better rapidly now."</p> + +<p>"I can't recall it," he said, contracting his brows. "I know there was a +fire, and I was in the house; but it is all confused. How was it?"</p> + +<p>"The Hall was burned down, you know—poor old house!—and you rushed in +to save Eeny, and—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I remember, I remember. A beam or something fell, and after that +all is oblivion. I have had a fever, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you have been a dreadful nuisance—talking all day and all night +about all manner of subjects, and frightening us out of our lives."</p> + +<p>The young man smiled.</p> + +<p>"What did I talk about? Anything very foolish?"</p> + +<p>"I dare say it was foolish enough, if one could have understood it, but +it was nearly all Greek to me. Sometimes you were in Germany, talking +about all manner of outlandish things; sometimes you were in New York, +playing Good Samaritan to Agnes Darling."</p> + +<p>"Oh, poor Agnes! Where is she?"</p> + +<p>"Taken to the high seas. She and Harry had to go, much against their +inclination, while you were so ill."</p> + +<p>"And Eeny—did Eeny suffer any harm that night?"</p> + +<p>"No; Doctor Frank was the only sufferer. The poor old house was burned +to the ground. I was so sorry."</p> + +<p>"And everything was lost?"</p> + +<p>"No, a great many things were saved. And they are building a new and +much more handsome Danton Hall, but I shall never love it as I did the +old place."</p> + +<p>"Where are we now?"</p> + +<p>"In the village. We have taken this cottage until the new house is +finished. Now don't ask any more questions. Too much talking isn't good +for you."</p> + +<p>"How very peremptory you are!" said the invalid, smiling; "and you have +taken care of me all this weary time. What a trouble I must have been!"</p> + +<p>"Didn't I say so! A shocking trouble. And now that you are able to +converse rationally, you are more trouble than ever, asking so many +questions. Go to sleep."</p> + +<p>"Won't you let me thank you first?"</p> + +<p>"No, thanks never would repay me for all the annoyance you have been. +Show your gratitude by obedience, sir—stop talking and go to sleep!"</p> + +<p>Perhaps Doctor Frank found it very pleasant to be ordered, for he obeyed +with a smile on his face.</p> + +<p>Of course, with such a nurse as Miss Danton, the man would be obstinate, +indeed, who would not rally. Doctor Frank was the reverse of obdurate, +and rallied with astonishing rapidity. His sister, Eeny, and Kate were +the most devoted, the most attentive of nurses; but the hours that +Captain Danton's eldest daughter sat by his bedside flew like so many +minutes. It was very pleasant to lie there, propped up with pillows, +with the April sunshine lying in yellow squares on the faded old carpet, +and watch that beautiful face, bending over some piece of elaborate +embroidery, or the humble dress of some village child. She read for him, +too, charming romances, and poetry as sweet as the ripple of a sunlit +brook, in that enchanting voice of hers; and Doctor Frank began to think +convalescence the most delightful state of being that ever was heard of, +and to wish it could last forever.</p> + +<p>But, like all the pleasant things of this checkered life, it came to an +end all too soon. The day arrived when he sat up in his easy chair by +the open window, with the scented breezes blowing in his face, and +watched dreamily the cows grazing in the fields, and the dark-eyed +French girls tripping up and down the dusty road. Then, a little later, +and he could walk about in the tiny garden before the cottage, and sit +up the whole day long. He was getting better fast; and Miss Danton, +concluding her occupation was gone, became very much like the Miss +Danton of old. Not imperious and proud—she never would be that +again—but reserved and distant, and altogether changed; the delightful +readings were no more, the pleasant <i>tête-à-têtes</i> were among the things +of the past, the long hours spent by his side, with some womanly work in +her fingers, were over and gone. She was very kind and gentle still, and +the smile that always greeted him was very bright and sweet, but that +heavenly past was gone forever. Doctor Frank, about as clear-sighted as +his sex generally are, of course never guessed within a mile of the +truth.</p> + +<p>"What a fool I was!" he thought, bitterly, "flattering myself with such +insane dreams, because she was grateful to me for saving her sister's +life, and pitied me when she thought I was at death's door. Why, she +nursed every sick pauper in St. Croix as tenderly as she did me. She is +right to put me back in my place before I have made an idiot of myself!"</p> + +<p>So the convalescent gentleman became moody, and silent and generally +disagreeable; and Grace was the only one who guessed at his feelings and +was sorry for him. But he grew well in spite of hidden trouble, and +began to think of what he was to do in the future.</p> + +<p>"I'll go back to Montreal next week, I think," he said to his sister; +"now that the fever has gone, it won't pay to stay here. If I don't get +on in Montreal, I'll try New York."</p> + +<p>Man proposes, etc. That evening's mail brought him a letter that +materially altered all his plans. He sat so long silent and thoughtful +after reading it, that Grace looked at him in surprise.</p> + +<p>"You look as grave as an owl, Frank. Whom is your letter from?"</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank started out of his reverie to find Kate's eyes fixed +inquiringly upon him too.</p> + +<p>"From Messrs. Grayson & Hambert, my uncle's solicitors. He is dead."</p> + +<p>Grace uttered a little cry.</p> + +<p>"Dead! Frank! And you are his heir?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"How much has he left?" Mrs. Danton asked, breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Twenty thousand pounds."</p> + +<p>Grace clasped her hands.</p> + +<p>"Twenty thousand pounds? My dear Frank! You have no need to go slaving +at your profession now."</p> + +<p>Her brother looked at her in quiet surprise.</p> + +<p>"I shall slave at my profession all the same. This windfall will, +however, alter my plans a good deal. I must start for Montreal to-morrow +morning."</p> + +<p>He rose and left the room. Grace turned to her step-daughter.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you must think us heartless, Kate; but we have known very +little of this uncle, and that little was not favourable. He was a +miser—a stern and hard man—living always alone and with few friends. I +am so thankful he left his money to Frank."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank left St. Croix next morning for the city, and his absence +made a strange blank in the family. The spring days wore on slowly. +April was gone, and it was May. Captain Danton was absent the best part +of every day, superintending the erection of the new house, and the +three women were left alone. Miss Danton grew listless and languid. She +spent her days in purposeless loiterings in and out of the cottage, in +long reveries and solitary walks.</p> + +<p>The middle of May came without bringing the young Doctor, or even a +letter from him. The family were seated one moonlight night in the +large, old-fashioned porch in front of the cottage, enjoying the +moonlight and Eeny's piano. Kate sat in a rustic arm-chair just outside, +looking up at the silvery crescent swimming through pearly clouds, and +the flickering shadows of the climbing sweetbrier coming and going on +her fair face. Captain Danton smoked and Grace talked to him; and while +she sat, Father Francis opened the garden gate and joined them.</p> + +<p>"Have you heard from your brother yet?" he asked of Grace, after a few +moments' preliminary conversation.</p> + +<p>"No; it is rather strange that he does not write."</p> + +<p>"He told me to make his apologies. I had a letter from him to-day. He is +very busy preparing to go away."</p> + +<p>"Go away! Go where?"</p> + +<p>"To Germany; he leaves in a week."</p> + +<p>"And will he not come down to say good-bye?" inquired Grace, +indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, certainly! He will be here in a day or two."</p> + +<p>"And how long is he going to stay abroad?"</p> + +<p>"That seems uncertain. A year or two, probably, at the very least."</p> + +<p>Grace stole a look at Kate, but Kate had drawn back into the shadow of +the porch, and her face was not to be seen. Father Francis lingered for +half an hour, and then departed; and as the dew was falling heavily, the +group in the porch arose to go in. The young lady in the easy-chair did +not stir.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Kate," her father said, "it is too damp to remain there."</p> + +<p>"Yes, papa, presently."</p> + +<p>About a quarter of an hour later, she entered the parlour to say +good-night, very pale, as they all noticed.</p> + +<p>"I knew sitting in the night air was bad," her father said. "You are as +white as a ghost."</p> + +<p>Miss Danton was very grave and still for the next two days—a little +sad, Grace thought. On the third day, Doctor Frank arrived. It was late +in the afternoon, and he was to depart again early next morning.</p> + +<p>"What are you running away for now?" asked his sister, with asperity. +"What has put this German notion in your head?"</p> + +<p>The young man smiled.</p> + +<p>"My dear Grace, don't wear that severe face. Why should I not go? What +is to detain me here?"</p> + +<p>This was such an unanswerable question that Grace only turned away +impatiently; and Kate, who was in the room, fancying the brother and +sister might wish to be alone, arose and departed. As the door closed +after her, Captain Danton's wife faced round and renewed the attack.</p> + +<p>"If you want to know what is to detain you here, I can tell you now. +Stay at home and marry Kate Danton."</p> + +<p>Her brother laughed, but in rather a constrained way.</p> + +<p>"That is easier said than done, sister mine. Miss Danton never did more +than tolerate me in her life—sometimes not even that. Impossibilities +are not so easily achieved as you think."</p> + +<p>"Suppose you try."</p> + +<p>"And be refused for my pains. No, thank you."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Mrs. Grace with a shrug; "a wilful man must have his +way! You cannot tell whether you will be refused or not until you ask."</p> + +<p>"I have a tolerably strong conviction, though. No, Mrs. Grace, I shall +go to Germany, and forget my folly; for that I have been an idiot, I +don't deny."</p> + +<p>"And are so still! Do as you please, however; it is no affair of mine."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank rode over to the new building to see how it progressed. It +was late when he returned with the Captain, and he found that Kate had +departed to spend the evening with Miss Howard. If he wanted further +proof of her indifference, surely he had it here.</p> + +<p>It was very late, and the family had retired before Miss Danton came +home. She was good enough though, to rise, very early next morning to +say good-bye. Doctor Frank took his hasty breakfast, and came into the +parlour, where he found her alone.</p> + +<p>"I thought I was not to have the pleasure of seeing you before I went," +he said, holding out his hand. "I have but ten minutes left: so +good-bye."</p> + +<p>His voice shook a little as he said it. In spite of every effort, her +fingers closed around his, and her eyes looked up at him with her whole +heart in their clear depths.</p> + +<p>"Kate!" he exclaimed, the colour rushing to his face with a sudden +thrill of ecstasy, and his hand closing tight over the slender fingers +he held. "Kate!"</p> + +<p>She turned away, her own cheeks dyed, not daring to meet that eager, +questioning look.</p> + +<p>"Kate!" he cried, appealingly; "it is because I love you I am going +away. I never thought to tell you."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Five minutes later Grace opened the door impetuously.</p> + +<p>"Frank, don't you know you will be la—Oh, I beg pardon."</p> + +<p>She closed it hastily, and retreated. The Captain, standing in the +doorway, looked impatiently at his watch.</p> + +<p>"What keeps the fellow? He'll be late to a dead certainty."</p> + +<p>Grace laughed.</p> + +<p>"There is no hurry, I think. I don't believe Frank will go to Germany +this time."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3>LONG HAVE I BEEN TRUE TO YOU, NOW I'M TRUE NO LONGER.</h3> + + +<p>Far away from the blue skies, and bracing breezes of Lower Canada, the +twilight of a dull April day was closing down over the din and tumult of +London.</p> + +<p>It had been a wretched day—a day of sopping rain and enervating mist. +The newly-lighted street-lamps blinked dismally through the wet fog, and +the pedestrians hurried along, poising umbrellas, and buttoned up to the +chin.</p> + +<p>At the window of a shabby-genteel London lodging-house a young woman +sat, this dreary April evening, looking out at the cheering prospect of +dripping roofs and muddy pavement. She sat with her chin resting on her +hands, staring vacantly at the passers-by, with eyes that took no +interest in what she saw. She was quite young, and had been very pretty, +for the loose, unkempt hair was of brightest auburn, the dull eyes of +hazel brown, and the features pretty and delicate. But the look of +intense sulkiness the girl's face wore would have spoiled a far more +beautiful countenance, and there were traces of sickness and trouble, +all too visible. She was dressed in a soiled silk, arabesqued with +stains, and a general air of neglect and disorder characterized her and +her surroundings. The carpet was littered and unswept, the chairs were +at sixes and sevens, and a baby's crib, wherein a very new and pink +infant reposed, stood in the middle of the room.</p> + +<p>The young woman sat at the window gazing sullenly out at the dismal +night for upwards of an hour, in all that time hardly moving. Presently +there was a tap at the door, and an instant after, it opened, and a +smart young person entered and began briskly laying the cloth for +supper. The young person was the landlady's daughter, and the girl at +the window only gave her one glance, and then turned unsocially away.</p> + +<p>"Ain't you lonesome here, Mrs. Stanford, all alone by yourself?" asked +the young person, as she lit the lamp. "Mother says it must be awful +dull for you, with Mr. Stanford away all the time."</p> + +<p>"I am pretty well used to it," answered Mrs. Stanford, bitterly. "I +ought to be reconciled to it by this time. Is it after seven?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am. Mr. Stanford comes home at seven, don't he? He ought to be +here soon, now. Mother says she wishes you would come down to the +parlour and sit with us of a day, instead of being moped up here."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stanford made no reply whatever to this good-natured speech, and +the sulky expression seemed to deepen on her face. The young person, +finished setting the table, and was briskly departing, when Mrs. +Stanford's voice arrested her.</p> + +<p>"If Mr. Stanford is not here in half an hour, you can bring up dinner."</p> + +<p>As Mrs. Stanford spoke, the pink infant in the crib awoke and set up a +dismal wail. The young mother arose, with an impatient sigh, lifted the +babe, and sat down in a low nurse-chair, to soothe it to sleep again. +But the baby was fretful, and cried and moaned drearily, and resisted +every effort to be soothed to sleep.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, dear!" Rose cried, impatiently, giving it an irritated shake. +"What a torment you are! What a trouble and wretchedness everything is!"</p> + +<p>She swayed to and fro in her rocking-chair, humming drearily some +melancholy air, until, by-and-by, baby, worn out, wailingly dropped off +asleep again in her arms.</p> + +<p>As it did so, the door opened a second time, and the brisk young person +entered with the first course. Mrs. Stanford placed her first-born back +in the crib, and sat down to her solitary dinner. She ate very little. +The lodging-house soups and roasts had never been so distasteful before. +She pushed the things away, with a feeling of loathing, and went back to +her low chair, and fell into a train of dismal misery. Her thoughts went +back to Canada to her happy home at Danton Hall.</p> + +<p>Only one little year ago she had given the world for love, and thought +it well lost—and now! Love's young dream, splendid in theory, is not +always quite so splendid in practice. Love's young dream had wound up +after eleven months, in poverty, privation, sickness and trouble, a +neglectful husband, and a crying baby! How happy she had been in that +bright girlhood, gone forever! Life had been one long summer holiday, +and she dressed in silks and jewels, one of the queen-bees in the great +human hive. The silks and the jewels had gone to the pawnbroker long +ago, and here she sat, alone, in a miserable lodging-house, subsisting +on unpalatable food, sleeping on a hard mattress, sick and wretched, +with that whimpering infant's wails in her ears all day and all night. +Oh! how long ago it seemed since she had been bright, and beautiful, and +happy, and free—hundreds of years ago at the very least! She sighed in +bitter sorrow, as she thought of the past—the irredeemable past.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a fool I was!" she thought, bursting into hysterical tears. +"If I had only married Jules La Touche, how happy I might have been! He +loved me, poor fellow, and would have been true always, and I would have +been rich, and happy, and honoured. Now I am poor, and sick, and +neglected, and despised, and I wish I were dead, and all the trouble +over!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stanford sat in her low chair, brooding over such dismal thoughts +as these, while the slow hours dragged on. The baby slept, for a wonder. +A neighbouring church clock struck the hours solemnly one after +another—ten, eleven, twelve! No Mr. Stanford yet, but that was nothing +new. As midnight, struck, Rose got up, secured the door, and going into +an inner room, flung herself, dressed as she was, on the bed, and fell +into the heavy, dreamless sleep of exhaustion.</p> + +<p>She slept so soundly that she never heard a key turn in the lock, about +three in the morning, or a man's unsteady step crossing the floor. The +lamp still burning on the table, enabled Mr. Reginald Stanford to see +what he was about, otherwise, serious consequences might have ensued. +For Mr. Stanford was not quite steady on his legs, and lurched as he +walked, as if his wife's sitting-room had been the deck of a +storm-tossed vessel.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose she's gone to bed," muttered Mr. Stanford, hiccoughing. "Don't +want to wake her—makes a devil of a row! I ain't drunk, but I don't +want to wake her."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford lurched unsteadily across the parlour, and reconnoitred the +bedroom. He nodded sagaciously, seeing his wife there asleep, and after +making one or two futile efforts to remove his boots, stretched himself, +boots and all, on a lounge in the sitting-room, and in two minutes was +as sound as one of the Seven Sleepers.</p> + +<p>It was late next morning before either of the happy pair awoke. A vague +idea that there was a noise in the air aroused the gentleman about nine +o'clock. The dense fog in his brain, that a too liberal allowance of +rosy wine is too apt to engender, took some time to clear away; but when +it did, he became conscious that the noise was not part of his dreams, +but some one knocking loudly at the door.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford staggered sleepily across the apartment, unlocked the door, +and admitted the brisk young woman who brought them their meals.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanford, yawning very much, proceeded to make his toilet. Twelve +months of matrimony had changed the handsome ex-lieutenant, and not for +the better. He looked thinner and paler; his eyes were sunken, and +encircled by dark halos, telling of night revels and morning headaches. +But that wonderful beauty that had magnetized Rose Danton was there +still; the features as perfect as ever; the black eyes as lustrous; all +the old graceful ease and nonchalance of manner characterized him yet. +But the beauty that had blinded and dazzled her had lost its power to +charm. She had been married to him a year—quite long enough to be +disenchanted. That handsome face might fascinate other foolish moths; it +had lost its power to dazzle her long, long ago. Perhaps the +disenchantment was mutual; for the pretty, rose-cheeked, starry-eyed +girl who had captivated his idle fancy had become a dream of the past, +and his wife was a pale, sickly, peevish invalid, with frowsy hair and +slipshod feet.</p> + +<p>The clattering of the cups and saucers awoke the baby, who began +squalling dismally; and the baby's cries awoke the baby's mamma. Rose +got up, feeling cramped and unrefreshed, and came out into the parlour +with the infant in her arms. Her husband turned from a dreary +contemplation of the sun trying to force its way through a dull, yellow +fog, and dropped the curtain.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, my dear," said Mr. Stanford, pouring out a cup of tea. +"How are you to-day? Can't you make that disagreeable youngster hold his +confounded tongue?"</p> + +<p>"What time did you get home last night?" demanded Mrs. Stanford, with +flashing eyes.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't last night, my dear," replied Mr. Stanford, serenely, +buttering his roll; "it was sometime this morning, I believe."</p> + +<p>"And of course you were drunk as usual!"</p> + +<p>"My love, pray don't speak so loudly; they'll hear you down stairs," +remonstrated the gentleman. "Really, I believe I had been imbibing a +little too freely. I hope I did not disturb you. I made as little noise +as possible on purpose, I assure you. I even slept in my boots, not +being in a condition to take them off. Wash your face, my dear, and comb +your hair—they both need it very much—and come take some breakfast. If +that baby of yours won't hold its tongue, please to throw it out of the +window."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stanford's reply was to sink into the rocking-chair and burst into +a passion of tears.</p> + +<p>"Don't, pray!" remonstrated Mr. Stanford; "one's enough to cry at a +time. Do come and have some breakfast. You're hysterical this morning, +that is evident, and a cup of tea will do you good."</p> + +<p>"I wish I were dead!" burst out Rose, passionately. "I wish I had been +dead before I ever saw your face!"</p> + +<p>"I dare say, my love. I can understand your feelings, and sympathize +with them perfectly."</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a fool I was!" cried Rose, rocking violently backward and +forward; "to leave my happy home, my indulgent father, my true and +devoted lover, for you! To leave wealth and happiness for poverty, and +privation, and neglect, and misery! Oh, fool! fool! fool! that I was!"</p> + +<p>"Very true, my dear," murmured Mr. Stanford sympathetically. "I don't +mind confessing that I was a fool myself. You cannot regret your +marriage any more than I do mine."</p> + +<p>This was a little too much. Rose sprang up, flinging the baby into the +cradle, and faced her lord and master with cheeks of flame and eyes of +fire.</p> + +<p>"You villain!" she cried. "You cruel, cold-blooded villain, I hate you! +Do you hear, Reginald Stanford, I hate you! You have deceived me as +shamefully as ever man deceived woman! Do you think I don't know where +you were last night, or whom you were with? Don't I know it was with +that miserable, degraded Frenchwoman—that disgusting Madame +Millefleur—whom I would have whipped through the streets of London, if +I could."</p> + +<p>"I don't doubt it, my dear," murmured Mr. Stanford, still unruffled by +his wife's storm of passion. "Your gentle sex are famous for the mercy +they always show to their fairer sisters. Your penetration does you +infinite credit, Mrs. Stanford. I was with Madame Millefleur."</p> + +<p>Rose stood glaring at him, white and panting with rage too intense for +words. Reginald Stanford stood up, meeting her fierce regards with +wonderful coolness.</p> + +<p>"You're not going to tear my hair out, are you, Rose? You see the way of +it was this: Coming from the office where I have the honour to be +clerk—thanks to my marriage—I met Madame Millefleur, that most +bewitching and wealthy of French widows. She is in love with me, my +dear. It may seem unaccountable to you how any one can be in love with +me, but the fact is so. She is in love with me almost as much as pretty +Rose Danton was once upon a time, and gave me an invitation to accompany +her to the opera last night. Of course I was enchanted. The opera is a +rare luxury now, and la Millefleur is all the fashion. I had the +happiness of bending over her chair all the evening—don't glare so, my +love, it makes you quite hideous—and accepted a seat beside her in the +carriage when it was all over. A delicious <i>petit souper</i> awaited us in +Madame's bijou of a boudoir; and I don't mind owning I was a little +disguised by sparkling Moselle when I came home. Open confessions are +good for the soul—there is one for you, my dear."</p> + +<p>Her face was livid as she listened, and he smiled up at her with a smile +that nearly drove her mad.</p> + +<p>"I hate you, Reginald Stanford!" was all she could say. "I hate you! I +hate you!"</p> + +<p>"Quite likely, my love; but I dare say I shall survive that. You would +rather I didn't come here any more, I suppose, Mrs. Stanford?"</p> + +<p>"I never want to see your hateful, wicked face again. I wish I had been +dead before I ever saw it."</p> + +<p>"And I wish whatever you wish, dearest and best," he said, with a +sneering laugh; "if you ever see my wicked, hateful face again, it shall +be no fault of mine. Perhaps you had better go back to Canada. M. La +Touche was very much in love with you last year, and may overlook this +little episode in your life, and take you to his bosom yet. Good +morning, Mrs. Stanford. I am going to call on Madame Millefleur."</p> + +<p>He took his hat and left the room, and Rose dropped down in her chair +and covered her face with her hands.</p> + +<p>If Kate Danton and Jules La Touche ever wished for revenge, they should +have seen the woman who so cruelly wronged them at that moment. +Vengeance more bitter, more terrible than her worst enemy could wish, +had overtaken and crushed her to the earth.</p> + +<p>How that long, miserable day passed, the poor child never knew. It came +to an end, and the longer, more miserable night followed. Another +morning, another day of unutterable wretchedness, and a second night of +tears and sleeplessness. The third day came and passed, and still +Reginald Stanford never returned. The evening of the third day brought +her a letter, with Napoleon's head on the corner.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>/P "<span class="smcap">Hotel Du Louvre, Paris</span>, April 10. P/</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Mrs. Stanford</span>:—For you have still the unhappiness +of bearing that odious name, although I have no doubt Captain +Danton will shortly take the proper steps to relieve you of it. +According to promise, I have rid you of my hateful presence, and +forever. You see I am in brilliant Paris, in a palatial hotel, +enjoying all the luxuries wealth can procure, and Madame Millefleur +is my companion. The contrast between my life this week and my life +last is somewhat striking. The frowning countenance of Mrs. +Stanford is replaced by the ever-smiling face of my dark-eyed +Adèle, and the shabby lodgings in Crown street, Strand, are +exchanged for this chamber of Eastern gorgeousness. I am happy, and +so, no doubt, are you. Go back to Canada, my dear Mrs. Stanford. +Papa will receive his little runaway with open arms, and kill the +fatted calf to welcome her. The dear Jules may still be faithful, +and you may yet be thrice blessed as Madame La Touche. Ah, I +forget—you belong to the Church, and so does he, that does not +believe in divorce. What a pity!</p> + +<p>"I beg you will feel no uneasiness upon pecuniary matters, my dear +Rose. I write by this post to our good landlady, inclosing the next +six months' rent, and in this you will find a check for all present +wants.</p> + +<p>"I believe this is all I have to say, and Adèle is waiting for me +to escort her on a shopping expedition. Adieu, my Rose; believe me, +with the best wishes for your future happiness, to be Ever your +friend,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">Reginald Reinecourt Stanford</span>."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3>COALS OF FIRE.</h3> + + +<p>One afternoon, about a fortnight after the receipt of that letter from +France, Rose Stanford sat alone once more in the shabby little parlour +of the London lodging-house. It was late in April, but a fire burned +feebly in the little grate, and she sat cowering over it wrapped in a +large shawl. She had changed terribly during these two weeks; she had +grown old, and hollow-eyed, a haggard, worn, wretched woman.</p> + +<p>It was her third day up, this April afternoon, for a low, miserable +fever had confined her to her bed, and worn her to the pallid shadow she +was now. She had just finished writing a letter, a long, sad letter, and +it lay in her lap while she sat shivering over the fire. It was a letter +to her father, a tardy prayer for forgiveness, and a confession of all +her misdoings and wrongs—of Reginald Stanford's rather, for, of course, +all the blame was thrown upon him, though, if Rose had told the truth, +she would have found herself the more in fault of the two.</p> + +<p>"I am sick, and poor, and broken-hearted," wrote Mrs. Stanford; "and I +want to go home and die. I have been very wicked, papa, but I have +suffered so much, that even those I have wronged most might forgive me. +Write to me at once, and say I may go home; I only want to go and die in +peace. I feel that I am dying now."</p> + +<p>She folded the letter with a weary sigh and a hand that shook like an +old woman's, and rising, rang the bell. The brisk young woman answered +the summons at once with a smile on her face, and Mrs. Stanford's baby +crowing in her arms. They had been very kind to the poor young mother +and the fatherless babe during this time of trial; but Mrs. Stanford was +too ill and broken down to think about it, or feel grateful.</p> + +<p>"Here, Jane," said Mrs. Stanford, holding out the letter, "give me the +baby, and post this letter."</p> + +<p>Jane obeyed; and Rose, with the infant in her lap, sat staring gloomily +at the red coals.</p> + +<p>"Two weeks before it will reach them, two weeks more before an answer +can arrive, and another two weeks before I can be with them. Oh, dear +me! dear me! how shall I drag out life during these interminable weeks. +If I could only die at once and end it all."</p> + +<p>Tears of unutterable wretchedness and loneliness and misery coursed down +her pale, thin cheeks. Surely no one ever paid more dearly for love's +short madness than this unfortunate little Rose.</p> + +<p>"Marry in haste and repent at leisure," she thought, with unspeakable +bitterness. "Oh, how happy I might have been to-day if I had only done +right last year. But I was mad and treacherous and false, and I dare-say +it serves me right. How can I ever look them in the face when I go +home?"</p> + +<p>The weary weeks dragged on, how wearily and miserably only Rose knew. +She never went out; she sat all day long in that shabby parlour, and +stared blankly at the passers-by in the street, waiting, waiting.</p> + +<p>The good-natured landlady and her daughter took charge of the baby +during those wretched weeks of expectation, or Mrs. Reginald Stanford's +only son would have been sadly neglected.</p> + +<p>April was gone; May came in, bringing the anniversary of Rose's +ill-starred marriage and finding her in that worst widowhood, a day of +ceaseless tears and regrets to the unhappy, deserted wife. The bright +May days went by, one after another, passing as wretched days and more +wretched nights do pass somehow; and June had taken its place. In all +this long, long time, no letter had come for Rose. How she watched and +waited for it; how she had strained her eyes day after day to catch +sight of the postman; how her heart leaped up and throbbed when she saw +him approach, and sank down in her breast like lead as he went by, only +those can know who have watched and waited like her. A sickening sense +of despair stole over her at last. They had forgotten her; they hated +and despised her, and left her to her fate. There was nothing for it but +to go to the alms-house and die, like any other pauper.</p> + +<p>She had been mad when she fancied they could forgive her. Her sins had +been too great. All the world had deserted her, and the sooner she was +dead and out of the way the better.</p> + +<p>She sat in the misty June twilight thinking this, with a sad, hopeless +kind of resignation. It was the fifth of June. Could she forget that +this very day twelvemonth was to have been her wedding-day? Poor +Jules—poor Kate! Oh, what a wretch she had been!</p> + +<p>She covered her face with her hands, tears falling like rain through her +thin fingers.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if they will be sorry for me, and forgive me, when they hear I +am dead?" she thought. "Oh, how I live, and live; when other women would +have died long ago with half this trouble. Only nineteen, and with +nothing left to wish for but death."</p> + +<p>There was a tap at the door. Before she could speak it was opened, and +Jane, the brisk, came rustling in.</p> + +<p>"There's a gentleman down-stairs, Mrs. Stanford, asking to see you."</p> + +<p>Rose sprang up, her lips apart, her eyes dilating.</p> + +<p>"To see me! A gentleman! Jane, is it Mr. Stanford?"</p> + +<p>Jane shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit like Mr. Stanford, ma'am; not near so 'andsome, though a very +fine-looking gentleman. He said, to tell you as 'ow a friend wanted to +see you."</p> + +<p>A friend! Oh, who could it be? She made a motion to Jane to show him +up—she was too agitated to speak. She stood with her hands clasped over +her beating heart, breathless, waiting.</p> + +<p>A man's quick step flew up the stairs; a tall figure stood in the +doorway, hat in hand.</p> + +<p>Rose uttered a faint cry. She had thought of her father, of Jules La +Touche, never once of him who stood before her.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Frank!" she gasped; and then she was holding to a chair for +support, feeling the walls swimming around her.</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank took her in his arms, and kissed her pale cheek as tenderly +and pityingly as her father might have done.</p> + +<p>"My poor child! My poor little Rose! What a shadow you are! Don't cry +so—pray don't!"</p> + +<p>She bowed her weary head against his shoulder, and broke out into +hysterical sobbing. It was so good to see that friendly familiar face +once more—she clung to him with a sense of unspeakable trust and +relief, and cried in the fullness of her heart.</p> + +<p>He let her tears flow for awhile, sitting beside her, and stroking the +faded, disordered hair away from the wan, pale face.</p> + +<p>"There! there!" he said, at last, "we have had tears enough now. Look up +and let me talk to you. What did you think when you received no answer +to your letter?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you all very cruel. I thought I was forgotten."</p> + +<p>"Of course you did; but you are not forgotten, and it is my fault that +you have had no letter. I wanted to surprise you; and I have brought a +letter from your father breathing nothing but love and forgiveness."</p> + +<p>"Give it to me!" cried Rose, breathlessly; "give it to me!"</p> + +<p>"Can't, unfortunately, yet awhile. I left it at my hotel. Don't look so +disappointed. I am going to take you there in half an hour. Hallo! Is +that the baby?"</p> + +<p>Reginald Stanford, Junior, asleep in his crib, set up a sudden squall at +this moment.</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank crossed the floor, and hoisted him up in a twinkling.</p> + +<p>"Why, he's a splendid little fellow, Rose, and the very image of—What +do you call him?"</p> + +<p>"Reginald," Rose said, in a very subdued tone.</p> + +<p>"Well, Master Reginald, you and I are going to be good friends, aren't +we, and you're not going to cry?"</p> + +<p>He hoisted him high in the air, and baby answered with a loud crow.</p> + +<p>"That's right. Babies always take to me, Rose. You don't know how many +dozens I have nursed in my time. But you don't ask me any questions +about home. Aren't you curious to know how they all get on?"</p> + +<p>"Papa is married, I suppose?" Rose said.</p> + +<p>"Of course—last January. And Danton Hall was burnt down; and they have +built up another twice as big and three times as handsome. And Mr. +Richards—you remember the mysterious invalid, Rose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Richards turned out to be your brother Harry, who lived shut +up there, because he thought he had committed a murder, some time +before, in New York. And Agnes Darling—you have not forgotten Agnes +Darling?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no."</p> + +<p>"Agnes Darling turns out to be his wife. Quite a romance, isn't it? I +will tell you all the particulars another time. Just now, I want you to +put on your bonnet and come with me to my hotel. Don't ask me why—I +won't tell you. We will fetch the baby too. Go, get ready."</p> + +<p>Doctor Frank was imperative, and Rose yielded at once. It was so +indescribably delightful, after all these weeks of suspense and despair, +to see Frank Danton's friendly face, and to listen to his friendly +voice, commanding as one who had the right. Rose had her hat and shawl +on directly, and, with baby in her arms, followed him down stairs. A +hansom stood waiting. He helped her in, gave the cabman his orders, took +his place beside her, and they rattled off.</p> + +<p>"When am I going home?" Rose asked, suddenly. "Have you come to fetch +me?"</p> + +<p>"Not precisely. You are to return with me, however."</p> + +<p>"And when are we going?"</p> + +<p>"That is not quite decided yet. It is an after-consideration, and there +is no hurry. Are you particularly anxious to be back to Canada?"</p> + +<p>"I am tired of being lonely and homeless," poor Rose replied, the tears +starting. "I want to be at rest, and among the dear familiar faces. +Doctor Frank," she said, looking at him appealingly, "have they forgiven +me, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"Whom do you mean by they, Mrs. Stanford?"</p> + +<p>"Papa and—and Kate."</p> + +<p>"I have reason to think so. Of course, it must have been rather +disagreeable to Kate at first, to have her lover run away and leave her, +but I really think she has got over it. We must be resigned to the +inevitable, you know, my dear Rose, in this changeable world."</p> + +<p>Rose sighed, and looked out of the window. A moment later, and the cab +drew up before a stately hotel.</p> + +<p>"This is the place," said the Doctor. "Come!"</p> + +<p>He helped her out, gave his arm, and led her up a long flight of broad +stairs. It was quite a little journey through carpeted corridors to the +gentleman's apartments; but he reached the door at last. It opened into +a long vista of splendour, as it seemed to Rose, accustomed so long to +the shabby Strand lodgings. She had expected to find the Doctor's rooms +empty; but, to her surprise, within an inner apartment, whose door stood +wide, she saw a lady. The lady, robed in bright silk, tall and stately, +with golden hair twisted coronet wise round the shapely head, stood with +her back to them, looking out of the window. Something in that straight +and stately form struck with a nameless thrill to Rose Stanford's heart; +and she stood in the doorway, spell-bound. At the noise of their +entrance, the lady turned round, uttered an exclamation of pleasure, and +advanced towards them. Doctor Frank stood with a smile on his face, +enjoying Mrs. Stanford's consternation. Another second and she was +clasped in the lady's arms.</p> + +<p>"Rose! Rose! My dear little sister!"</p> + +<p>"Kate!" Rose murmured, faintly, all white and trembling.</p> + +<p>Kate looked up at the smiling face of the Doctor, a new light dawning on +her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he has never told you! For shame, Frank, to shock her so! My +darling, did you not know I was here?"</p> + +<p>"No; he never told me," Rose said, sinking into a chair, and looking +hopelessly at her sister. "What does it mean, Kate? Is papa here?"</p> + +<p>"I leave the onerous duty of explaining everything to you, Kate," said +the Doctor, before Kate could reply. "I am going down stairs to smoke."</p> + +<p>"That provoking fellow!" Kate said, smilingly, looking after him; "it is +just like him."</p> + +<p>"Is papa here?" Rose repeated, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"No, my dear; papa is at Danton Hall, with his wife. It was impossible +for him to come."</p> + +<p>"Then how do you happen to be here, and with Doctor Frank?"</p> + +<p>Kate laughed—such a sweet, clear, happy laugh—as she kissed Rose's +wondering face.</p> + +<p>"For the very best reason in the world, Mrs. Stanford! Because I happen +to be Doctor Frank's wife!"</p> + +<p>Rose sat, confounded, speechless—literally struck dumb—staring +helplessly.</p> + +<p>"His wife!" she repeated. "His wife!" and then sat lost in overwhelming +amaze.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear; his happy wife. I do not wonder you are astonished, +knowing the past; but it is a long story to tell. I am ashamed to think +how wicked and disagreeable, and perverse, I used to be; but it is all +over now. I think there is no one in all the wide world like Frank!"</p> + +<p>Her eyes filled as she said it, and she laid her face for a moment on +her sister's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I was blind in those past days, Rose, and too prejudiced to do justice +to a noble man's worth. I love my husband with my whole heart—with an +affection that can never change."</p> + +<p>"And you forgive me?"</p> + +<p>"I forgave you long ago. Is this the baby? How pretty! Give him to me."</p> + +<p>She took Master Reginald in her arms, and kissed his chubby face.</p> + +<p>"To think that you should ever nurse Reginald Stanford's child! How +odd!" said Rose, languidly.</p> + +<p>The colour rushed into Mrs. Frank Danton's face for a second or two, as +she stooped over the baby.</p> + +<p>"Strange things happen in this world. I shall be very fond of the baby, +I know."</p> + +<p>"And Grace, whom you disliked so much, is your mother and sister both +together. How very queer!"</p> + +<p>Kate laughed.</p> + +<p>"It is odd, but quite true. Come, take your things off; you are not to +leave us again. We will send to your lodgings for your luggage."</p> + +<p>"How long have you been married?" asked Rose, as she obeyed.</p> + +<p>"Three weeks; and this is our bridal tour. We depart for Paris in two +days. You know Frank has had a fortune."</p> + +<p>"I don't know anything. Do tell me all about it—your marriage and +everything. I am dying of curiosity."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Doctor Danton seated herself in a low chair, with Reginald +Stanford's first-born in her lap, and began recapitulating as much of +the past as was necessary to enlighten Mrs. Stanford.</p> + +<p>"So he saved Eeny's life; and you nursed him, and fell in love with him, +and married him, and his old uncle dies and leaves him a fortune in the +nick of time. It sounds like a fairy tale; you ought to finish +with—'and they lived happy forever after!'"</p> + +<p>"Please Heaven, we will! Such real-life romance happens every day, +sister mine. Oh, by-the-by, guess who was at our wedding?"</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"A very old friend of yours, my dear—Monsieur Jules La Touche."</p> + +<p>"No! Was he, though? How did you come to invite him?"</p> + +<p>"He chanced to be in the neighbourhood at the time. Do you know, Rose, I +should not be surprised if he accomplished his destiny yet, and became +papa's son-in-law."</p> + +<p>Rose looked up, breathlessly, thinking only of herself.</p> + +<p>"Impossible, Kate!—What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all impossible, I assure you. Eeny was my bride-maid, and you +have no idea how pretty she looked; and so Monsieur La Touche seemed to +think, by the very marked attention he paid her. It would be an +excellent thing for her; he is in a fair way of becoming a millionaire."</p> + +<p>A pang of the bitterest envy and mortification she had ever felt, +pierced Rose Stanford's heart. Oh! what a miserable—what an unfortunate +creature she had been! She turned away, that her sister might not see +her face, and Kate carelessly went on.</p> + +<p>"Eeny always liked him, I know. She likes him better than ever now. I +shall not be at all surprised if we find her engaged when we go home."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" Rose said, trying to speak naturally, and failing signally. +"And when are we going home?"</p> + +<p>"Early in November, I believe. Frank and I are to make Montreal our +home, for he will not give up his profession, of course; and you shall +come and live with us if you like the city better than St. Croix."</p> + +<p>Rose's slumbers that night were sadly disturbed. It was not the contrast +between her handsome bedroom and downy pillows, and the comfortless +little chamber she had slept in so long; it was not thought of her +sister's goodness and generosity: it was the image of Eeny, in silk and +jewels, the bride of Jules La Touche, the millionaire.</p> + +<p>Somehow, unacknowledged in her heart of hearts, there had lingered a +hope of vengeance on her husband, triumph for herself as the wife of her +deserted lover! There would be a divorce, and then she might legally +marry. She had no conscientious scruples about that sort of marriages, +and she took it for granted Monsieur La Touche could have none either. +But now these hopes were nipped in the bud. Eeny—younger, fresher, +fairer, perhaps—was to have him and the splendid position his wife must +attain; and she was to be a miserable, poor, deserted wife all her days.</p> + +<p>I am afraid Mrs. Stanford was not properly thankful for her blessings +that night. She had thought, only one day before, that to find her +friends and be forgiven by them would be the sum total of earthly +happiness; but now she had found them, and was forgiven, she was as +wretched as ever.</p> + +<p>The contrast between what she was and what she might have been was +rather striking, certainly; and the bitterest pang of all was the +thought she had no one to blame, from first to last, but herself.</p> + +<p>Oh, if she had only been true! This was what came of marrying for love, +and trampling under foot prudence, and honour, and truth. A month or two +of joy, and life-long regret and repentance!</p> + +<p>Doctor Danton, his wife, and sister, took a hurried scamper over London, +and departed for Paris.</p> + +<p>The weather in that gay capital was very warm, indeed, but delightful to +Rose, who had never crossed the Channel before. Paris was comparatively +familiar ground to the young Doctor; he took the two ladies sight-seeing +perpetually; and Mrs. Stanford almost forgot her troubles in the +delights of the brilliant French city.</p> + +<p>A nurse had been engaged for baby, so that troublesome young gentleman +no longer came between his mamma and life's enjoyment. Her diminished +wardrobe had been replenished too; and, well-fed and well-dressed, Rose +began to look almost like the sparkling, piquant Rose of other days.</p> + +<p>The Dantons had been three weeks in Paris, and were to leave in a day or +two en route for Switzerland. The Doctor had taken them for a last drive +through the Bois de Boulogne the sunny afternoon that was to be their +last for some time in the French capital. Kate and Rose, looking very +handsome, and beautifully dressed, lay back among the cushions, +attracting more than one glance of admiration from those who passed by.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Danton was chatting gayly with her husband, and Rose, poising a +dainty azure parasol, looked at the well-dressed Parisians around her.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, the hand so daintily holding the parasol grasped it tight, the +hot blood surged in a torrent to her face, and her eyes fixed and +dilated on two equestrians slowly approaching. A lady and gentleman—the +lady a Frenchwoman evidently, dark, rather good-looking, and not very +young; the gentleman, tall, eminently handsome, and much more youthful +than his fair companion, Rose Stanford and her false husband were face +to face!</p> + +<p>He had seen them, and grown more livid than death; his eyes fixed on +Doctor Danton and his beautiful wife, talking and laughing with such +infinitely happy faces.</p> + +<p>One glance told him how matters stood—told him the girl he had forsaken +was the happy wife of a better man. Then his glance met that of his +wife, pretty, and blooming and bright as when he had first fallen in +love with her; but those hazel eyes were flashing fire, and the pretty +face was fierce with rage and scorn.</p> + +<p>Then they were past; and Reginald Stanford and his wife had seen each +other for the last time on earth.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The summer flew by. They visited Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and were +back in Paris in October. About the middle of that month they sailed +from Havre to New York, and reached that city after a delightful +passage. It being Rose's first sight of the Empire City, they lingered a +week to show her the lions, and early in November were on the first +stage of their journey to Danton Hall.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3>AT HOME.</h3> + + +<p>Late in the afternoon of a dark November day our travellers reached St. +Croix, and found the carriage from the Hall awaiting them at the +station. Rose leaned back in a corner, wrapped in a large shawl, and +with a heart too full of mingled feelings to speak. How it all came back +to her, with the bitterness of death, the last time her eyes had looked +upon these familiar objects—how happy she had been then, how hopeful; +how miserable she had been since, how hopeless now. The well-known +objects flitted before her eyes, seen through a mist of tears, so +well-known that it seemed only yesterday since she had last looked at +them, and these dreary intervening months only a wretched dream. Ah! no +dream, for there sat the English nurse with the baby in her arms, a +living proof of their reality. One by one the old places spun by, the +church, the presbytery, with Father Francis walking up and down the +little garden, his soutane tucked up, and his breviary in his hand, all +looking ghostly in the dim afternoon light. Now the village was passed, +they were flying through wide open gates, and under the shadow of the +dear old trees. There was Danton Hall, not the dingy, weather-beaten +Danton Hall she knew, but a much more modern, much more elegant mansion; +and there on the gray stone steps stood her father, handsome and portly, +and kindly as ever; and there was Grace beside him—dear, good Grace; +and there was Eeny, dressed in pale pink with fluttering ribbons, fair +and fragile, and looking like a rosebud. A little group of three persons +behind, at sight of whom Kate uttered an exclamation of delight.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Frank! there are Harry and Agnes! To think papa never told us! What +a charming surprise!"</p> + +<p>That was all Rose heard; then she was clasped in her father's stalwart +arms, and sobbing on his breast. They all clustered around her +first—their restored prodigal—and Grace kissed her lovingly, and +Eeny's soft arms were around her neck. Then the group in the background +came forward, and Rose saw a sunburned sailor's face, and knew that it +was her brother Harry who was kissing her, and her sister Agnes whose +arms clung around her. Then she looked at the third person, still +standing modestly in the background, and uttered a little cry.</p> + +<p>"Jules! M. La Touche!"</p> + +<p>He came forward, a smile on his face, and his hand frankly outstretched, +while Eeny blushingly hovered aloof.</p> + +<p>"I am very happy to see you again, Mrs. Stanford—very happy to see you +looking so well!"</p> + +<p>So they had met, and this was all! Then they were in the +drawing-room—how, Rose could not tell—it was all like a dream to her, +and Eeny had the babe in her arms, and was carrying it around to be +kissed and admired. "The beauty! The darling! The pet!" Eeny could not +find words enough to express her enthusiastic rapture at such a miracle +of babydom, and kissed Master Reginald into an angry fit of crying.</p> + +<p>They got up to their rooms at last. Rose broke down again in the +seclusion of her chamber, and cried until her eyes were as sore as her +heart. How happy they all looked, loving and beloved; and she, the +deserted wife, was an object of pity. While she sat crying, there was a +tap at the door. Hastily drying her eyes, she opened it, and admitted +Grace.</p> + +<p>"Have you been crying, Rose?" she said, tenderly taking both her hands, +and sitting down beside her. "My poor dear, you must try and forget your +troubles, and be happy with us. I know it is very sad, and we are all +sorry for you; but the husband you have lost is not worth grieving for. +Were you not surprised," smiling, "to see Mr. La Touche here?"</p> + +<p>"Hardly," said Rose, rather sulkily. "I suppose he is here in the +character of Eeny's suitor?"</p> + +<p>"More than that, my dear. He is here in the character of Eeny's +affianced husband. They are to be married next month."</p> + +<p>Rose uttered an exclamation—an exclamation of dismay. She certainly had +never dreamed of this.</p> + +<p>"The marriage would have taken place earlier, but was postponed in +expectation of your and Kate's arrival. That is why Harry and Agnes are +here. M. La Touche has a perfect home prepared for his bride in Ottawa. +Come, she is in Kate's room now. I will show you her trousseau."</p> + +<p>Rose went with her step-mother from her chamber into Eeny's +dressing-room. There was spread out the bridal outfit. Silks, in rich +stiffness, fit to stand alone; laces, jewels, bridal-veil, and wreath. +Rose looked with dazzled eyes, and a feeling of passionate, jealous envy +at her heart. It might have been hers, all this splendour—she might +have been mistress of the palace at Ottawa, and the wife of a +millionaire.</p> + +<p>But she had given up all for love of a handsome face; and that handsome +face smiled on another now, and was lost to her forever. She choked back +the rebellious throbbing of her heart, and praised the costly wedding +outfit, and was glad when she could escape and be alone again. It was +all bitter as the waters of Marah, to poor, widowed Rose; their +forgiveness, so ready and so generous, was heaping coals of fire on her +head; and at home, surrounded by kind friends and every comfort so long +a stranger to her, she felt even more desolate than she had ever done in +the dreary London lodgings.</p> + +<p>But while all were happy at Danton Hall, save Captain Danton's second +daughter, once the gayest among them, the days flew by, and Eveleen +Danton's wedding-day dawned. Such a lovely December day, brilliant, +cloudless, warm—just the day for a wedding. The little village church +was crowded with the rich and the poor, long before the carriages from +the Hall arrived. Very lovely looked the young bride, in her silken robe +of virgin white, her misty veil, and drooping, flower-crowned head. Very +sweet, and fair, and innocent, and as pale as her snowy dress, the +centre of all eyes, as she moved up the aisle, on her father's arm. +There were four bride-maids; the Demoiselles La Touche came from Ottawa +for the occasion. Miss Emily Howard, and Miss La Favre. The bride's +sisters shared with her the general admiration—Mrs. Dr. Danton; Mrs. +Stanford, all auburn ringlets, and golden brown silk, and no outward +sign of the torments within; Mrs. Harry Danton, fair as a lily, clinging +to her sailor-husband's arm, like some spirit of the sea; and last, but +not least, Captain Danton's wife, very simply dressed, but looking so +quietly happy and serene. Then it was all over, and the gaping +spectators saw the wedding party flocking back into the carriages, and +whirling away to the Hall.</p> + +<p>Mr. and Mrs. La Touche were to make but a brief tour, and return in time +for a Christmas house-warming. Doctor Frank and his wife went to their +Montreal home, and Mrs. Stanford remained at St. Croix. The family were +all to reassemble at Ottawa, to spend New Year with Madame La Touche.</p> + +<p>Rose found the intervening weeks very long and dreary at the Hall. +Captain Harry had gone back to his ship, and of course Agnes had gone +with him. They had wanted her to stay at home this voyage, but Agnes had +lifted such appealing eyes, and clung in so much alarm to Harry at the +bare idea of his leaving her, that they had given it up at once. So +Rose, with no companion except Grace, found it very dull, and sighed the +slow hours away, like a modern Mariana in the Moated Grange.</p> + +<p>But the merry New Year time came round at last; and all the Dantons were +together once more in Eeny's splendid home. It made Rose's heart ache +with envy to walk through those lovely rooms—long vistas of splendour +and gorgeousness.</p> + +<p>"It might have been mine!—It might have been mine!" that rebellious +heart of hers kept crying out. "I might have been mistress of all this +retinue of servants—these jewels and silks I might have worn! I might +have reigned like a queen in this stately house if I had only done +right!"</p> + +<p>But it was too late, and Mrs. Stanford had to keep up appearances, and +smiles, though the serpents of envy and regret gnawed at her vitals. It +was very gay there! Life seemed all made up of music, and dancing, and +feasting, and mirth, and skating, and sleighing, and dressing, and +singing. Life went like a fairy spectacle, or an Eastern drama, or an +Arcadian dream—with care, and trial, and trouble, monsters unknown even +by name.</p> + +<p>Mme. Jules La Touche played the rôle with charming grace—a little shy, +as became her youth and inexperience, but only the more charming for +that. They were very, very happy together, this quiet young pair—loving +one another very dearly, as you could see, and looking forward hopefully +to a future that was to be without a cloud.</p> + +<p>Mrs. La Touche and Mrs. Stanford were very much admired in society, no +doubt; but people went into raptures over Mrs. Frank Danton. Such eyes, +such golden hair, such rare smiles, such queenly grace, such singing, +such playing—surely nature had created this darling of hers in a +gracious mood, and meted out to her a double portion of her favours. You +might think other ladies—those younger sisters of hers +included—beautiful until she came; and then that stately presence, that +bewitching brightness and grace, eclipsed them as the sun eclipses +stars.</p> + +<p>"What a lucky fellow Danton is!" said the men. "One doesn't see such a +superb woman once in a century."</p> + +<p>And Doctor Frank heard it, and smiled, as he smoked his meerschaum, and +thought so too.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And so we leave them. Kate is happy; Eeny reigns right royally in her +Ottawa home; and Rose—well, poor Rose has no home, and flits about +between St. Croix, and Montreal, and Ottawa, all the year round. She +calls Danton Hall home, but she spends most of her time with Kate. It is +not so sumptuous, of course, as at Ottawa, in the rising young Doctor's +home; but she is not galled every moment of the day by the poignant +regrets that lacerate her heart at Eeny's. She hears of her husband +occasionally, as he wanders through the Continent, and the chain that +binds her to him galls her day and night. Little Reginald, able to trot +about on his own sturdy legs now, accompanies her in her migratory +flights, and is petted to death wherever he goes. He has come to grief +quite recently, and takes it very hard that grandpa should have +something else to nurse besides himself. This something else is a little +atom of humanity named Gracie, and is Captain Danton's youngest +daughter.</p> + + +<p>THE END.</p> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2><a name="By_May_Agnes_Fleming." id="By_May_Agnes_Fleming."></a><i>By May Agnes Fleming.</i></h2> + + +<p>NORINE'S REVENGE.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Fleming's stories are growing more and more popular every day. +Their delineations of character, lifelike conversations, flashes of wit, +constantly varying scenes, and deeply interesting plots, combine to +place their author in the very first rank of Modern Novelists."</p> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's +Daughters, by May Agnes Fleming + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KATE DANTON, OR, CAPTAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 19512-h.htm or 19512-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/5/1/19512/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's Daughters + A Novel + +Author: May Agnes Fleming + +Release Date: October 9, 2006 [EBook #19512] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KATE DANTON, OR, CAPTAIN *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + + + + + + KATE DANTON; + + OR + + CAPTAIN DANTON'S DAUGHTERS + + _A Novel_ + + BY MAY AGNES FLEMING, + +AUTHOR OF "NORINE'S REVENGE," "GUY EARLSCOURT'S WIFE," "A WONDERFUL +WOMAN," "A TERRIBLE SECRET," "A MAD MARRIAGE," "ONE NIGHT'S MYSTERY," +ETC. + + + + +TORONTO: +_BELFORD BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS._ +MDCCCLXXVII. + +Printed and Stereotyped by +The Globe Printing Company, +26 & 28 King Street East, +Toronto. + +Bound by +Hunter, Rose & Co. +Toronto. + + + + + "----A woman's will dies hard, + In the field, or on the sward." + + + + + "There were three little women + Each fair in the face, + And their laughter with music + Filled all the green place; + As they wove pleasant thoughts + With the threads of their lace. + + Of the wind in the tree tops + The flowers in the glen, + Of the birds--the brown robin, + The wood dove, the wren, + They talked--but their thoughts + Were of three little men!" + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I.--Grace Danton + + II.--Kate Danton + + III.--A Change of Dynasty + + IV.--Rose Danton + + V.--Seeing a Ghost + + VI.--Rose's Adventure + + VII.--Hon. Lieutenant Reginald Stanford + + VIII.--The Ghost Again + + IX.--A Game for Two to Play at + + X.--The Revelation + + XI.--One Mystery Cleared Up + + XII.--Harry Danton + + XIII.--Love-making + + XIV.--Trying to be True + + XV.--One of Earth's Angels + + XVI.--Epistolary + + XVII.--"She Took Up the Burden of Life Again." + + XVIII.--"It's an Ill Wind Blows Nobody Good" + + XIX.--Via Crucis + + XX.--Bearing the Cross + + XXI.--Dr. Danton's Good Works + + XXII.--After the Cross, the Crown + + XXIII.--"Long have I been True to You, now I'm True no Longer" + + XXIV.--Coals of Fire + + XXV.--At Home + + + + +KATE DANTON. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GRACE DANTON. + + +A low room, oblong in shape, three high narrow windows admitting the +light through small, old-fashioned panes. Just at present there was not +much to admit, for it was raining hard, and the afternoon was wearing on +to dusk; but even the wet half-light showed you solid mahogany +furniture, old-fashioned as the windows themselves, black and shining +with age and polish; a carpet soft and thick, but its once rich hues dim +and faded; oil paintings of taste and merit, some of them portraits, on +the papered walls, the red glow of a large coal fire glinting pleasantly +on their broad gilded frames. + +At one of the windows, looking out at the ceaseless rain, a young lady +sat--a young lady, tall, rather stout than slender, and not pretty. Her +complexion was too sallow; her features too irregular; her dark hair too +scant, and dry and thin at the parting; but her eyes were fine, large, +brown and clear; her manner, self-possessed and lady-like. She was very +simply but very tastefully dressed, and looked every day of her +age--twenty six. + +The rainy afternoon was deepening into dismal twilight; and with her +cheek resting on her hand, the young lady sat with a thoughtful face. + +A long avenue, shaded by towering tamaracks, led down to stately +entrance-gates; beyond, a winding road, leading to a village, not to be +seen from the window. Swelling meadows, bare and bleak now, spread away +to the right and left of the thickly-wooded grounds; and beyond all, +through the trees, there were glimpses of the great St. Lawrence, turbid +and swollen, rushing down to the stormy Gulf. + +For nearly half an hour the young lady sat by the window, her solitude +undisturbed; no sign of life within or without the silent house. Then +came the gallop of horse's hoofs, and a lad rode up the avenue and +disappeared round the angle of the building. + +Ten minutes after there was a tap at the door, followed by the entrance +of a servant, with a dark Canadian face. + +"A letter, Miss Grace," said the girl, in French. + +"Bring in some more coal, Babette," said Miss Grace, also in French, +taking the letter. "Where is Miss Eeny?" + +"Practising in the parlour, Ma'moiselle." + +"Very well. Bring in the coal." + +Babette disappeared, and the young lady opened her letter. It was very +short. + + "Montreal, November, 5, 18--. + + "My Dear Grace--Kate arrived in this city a week ago, and + I have remained here since to show her the sights, and let her + recruit after her voyage. Ogden tells me the house is quite ready + for us, so you may expect us almost as soon as you receive this. We + will be down by the 7th, for certain. Ogden says that Rose is + absent. Write to her to return. + + "Yours sincerely, + Henry Danton." + + "P. S.--Did Ogden tell you we were to have a visitor--an invalid + gentleman--a Mr. Richards? Have the suite of rooms on the west side + prepared for him. H. D." + +The young lady refolded her note thoughtfully, and walking to the fire, +stood looking with grave eyes into the glowing coals. + +"So soon," she thought; "so soon; everything to be changed. What is +Captain Danton's eldest daughter like, I wonder? What is the Captain +like himself, and who can this invalid, Mr. Richards, be? I don't like +change." + +Babette came in with the coal, and Miss Grace roused herself from her +reverie. + +"Babette, tell Ledru to have dinner at seven. I think your master and +his daughter will be here to-night." + +"Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle! The young lady from England?" + +"Yes; and see that there are fires in all the rooms upstairs." + +"Yes, Miss Grace." + +"Is Miss Eeny still in the parlour?" + +"Yes, Miss Grace." + +Miss Grace walked out of the dining-room, along a carved and pictured +corridor, up a broad flight of shining oaken stairs, and tapped at the +first door. + +"Come in, Grace," called a pleasant voice, and Grace went in. + +It was a much more elegant apartment than the dining-room, with flowers, +and books, and birds, and pictures, and an open piano with music +scattered about. + +Half buried in a great carved and gilded chair, lay the only occupant of +the room--a youthful angel of fifteen, fragile in form, fair and +delicate of face, with light hair and blue eyes. A novel lying open in +her lap showed what her occupation had been. + +"I thought you were practising your music, Eeny," said Grace. + +"So I was, until I got tired. But what's that you've got? A letter?" + +Grace put it in her hand. + +"From papa!" cried the girl, vividly interested at once. "Oh, Grace! +Kate has come!" + +"Yes." + +The young lady laid down the letter and looked at her. + +"How oddly you said that! Are you sorry?" + +"Sorry! Oh, no." + +"You looked as if you were. How strange it seems to think that this +sister of mine, of whom I have heard so much and have never seen, should +be coming here for good! And papa--he is almost a stranger, too, Grace. +I suppose everything will be very different now." + +"Very, very different," Grace said, with her quiet eyes fixed on the +fire. "The old life will soon be a thing of the past. And we have been +very happy here; have we not, Eeny?" + +"Very happy," answered Eeny; "and will be still, I hope. Papa and Kate, +and Mr. Richards--I wonder who Mr. Richards is?--shall not make us +miserable." + +"I suppose, Eeny," said Grace, "I shall be quite forgotten when this +handsome Sister Kate comes. She ought to be very handsome." + +She looked up at an oval picture about the marble mantel, in a rich +frame--the photograph of a lovely girl about Eeny's age. The bright +young face looked at you with a radiant smile, the exuberant golden hair +fell in sunlight ripples over the plump white shoulders, and the blue +eyes and rosebud lips smiled on you together. A lovely face, full of the +serene promise of yet greater loveliness to come. Eeny's eyes followed +those of Grace. + +"You know better than that, Cousin Grace. Miss Kate Danton may be an +angel incarnate, but she can never drive you quite out of my heart. +Grace, how old is Kate?" + +"Twenty years old." + +"And Harry was three years older?" + +"Yes." + +"Grace, I wonder who Mr. Richards is?" + +"So do I." + +"Did Ogden say nothing about him?" + +"Not a word." + +"Will you write to Rose?" + +"I shall not have time. I wish you would write, Eeny. That is what I +came here to ask you to do." + +"Certainly, with pleasure," said Eeny. "Rose will wait for no second +invitation when she hears who have come. Will they arrive this evening?" + +"Probably. They may come at any moment. And here I am lingering. Write +the note at once, Eeny, and send Sam back to the village with it." + +She left the parlour and went down stairs, looking into the dining-room +as she passed. Babette was setting the table already, and silver and +cut-glass sparkled in the light of the ruby flame. Grace went on, up +another staircase, hurrying from room to room, seeing that all things +were in perfect order. Fires burned in each apartment, lamps stood on +the tables ready to be lit, for neither furnace nor gas was to be found +here. The west suite of rooms spoken of in the letter were the last +visited. A long corridor, lit by an oriel window, through which the +rainy twilight stole eerily enough, led to a baize door. The baize door +opened into a shorter corridor, terminated by a second door, the upper +half of glass. This was the door of a study, simply furnished, the walls +lined with book-shelves, surmounted by busts. Adjoining was a bathroom, +adjoining that a bedroom. Fires burned in all, and the curtained windows +commanded a wide western prospect of flower-garden, waving trees, +spreading fields, and the great St. Lawrence melting into the low +western sky. + +"Mr. Richards ought to be very comfortable here," thought Grace. "It is +rather strange Ogden did not speak of him." + +She went down stairs again and back to the dining-room. Eeny was there, +standing before the fire, her light shape and delicate face looking +fragile in the red fire-light. + +"Oh, Grace," said she, "I have just sent Babette in search of you. There +is a visitor in the parlour for you." + +"For me?" + +"Yes, a gentleman; young, and rather handsome. I asked him who I should +say wished to see you, and--what do you think?--he would not tell." + +"No! What did he say?" + +"Told me to mention to Miss Grace Danton that a friend wished to see +her. Mysterious, is it not?" + +"Who can it be?" said Grace, thoughtfully. "What does this mysterious +gentleman look like, Eeny?" + +"Very tall," said Eeny, "and very stately, with brown hair, and beard +and mustache--a splendid mustache, Grace! and beautiful, bright brown +eyes, something like yours. Very good-looking, very polite, and with the +smile of an angel. There you have him." + +"I am as much at a loss as ever," said Grace, leaving the dining-room. +"This is destined to be an evening of arrivals I think." + +She ran upstairs for the second time, and opened the parlour door. A +gentleman before the fire, in the seat Eeny had vacated, arose at her +entrance. Grace stood still an instant, doubt, amaze, delight, +alternately in her face; then with a cry of "Frank!" she sprang forward, +and was caught in the tall stranger's arms. + +"I thought you would recognize me in spite of the whiskers," said the +stranger. "Here, stand off and let me look at you; let me see the +changes six years have wrought in my sister Grace." + +He held her out at arm's length, and surveyed her smilingly. + +"A little older--a little graver, but otherwise the same. My solemn +Gracie, you will look like your own grandmother at thirty." + +"Well, I feel as if I had lived a century or two now. When did you +come?" + +"From Germany, last week; from Montreal at noon." + +"You have been a week in Montreal then?" + +"With Uncle Roosevelt--yes." + +"How good it seems to see you again, Frank. How long will you stay +here--in St. Croix?" + +"That depends--until I get tired, I suppose. So Captain Danton and his +eldest daughter are here from England?" + +"How did you learn that?" + +"Saw their arrival in Montreal duly chronicled." + +"What is she like, Grace?" + +"Who?" + +"Miss Kate Danton." + +"I don't know. I expect them every moment; I should think they came by +the same train you did." + +"Perhaps so--I rode second-class. I got talking to an old Canadian, and +found him such a capital old fellow, that I kept beside him all the way. +By-the-by, Grace, you've got into very comfortable quarters, haven't +you?" + +"Yes, Danton Hall is a very fine place." + +"How long is it you have been here?" + +"Four years." + +"And how often has the Captain been in that time?" + +"Twice; but he has given up the sea now, and is going to settle down." + +"I thought his eldest daughter was a fixture in England?" + +"So did I," said Grace; "but the grandmother with whom she lived has +died, it appears; consequently, she comes to her natural home for the +first time. That is her picture." + +Miss Danton's brother raised his handsome brown eyes to the exquisite +face, and took a long survey. + +"She ought to be a beauty if she looks like that. Belle blonde, and I +admire blondes so much! do you know, Grace, I think I shall fall in love +with her?" + +"Don't. It will be of no use." + +"Why not? I am a Danton--a gentleman--a member of the learned profession +of medicine and not so bad-looking. Why not, Grace?" + +He rose up as he said it, his brown eyes smiling. Not so bad-looking, +certainly. A fine-looking fellow, as he leaned against the marble +mantel, bronzed and bearded, and a thorough gentleman. + +"It is all of no use," Grace said, with an answering smile. "Doctor +Danton's numberless perfections will be quite lost on the heiress of +Danton Hall. She is engaged." + +"What a pity! Who is the lucky man?" + +"Hon. Lieutenant Reginald Stanford, of Stanford Royals, Northumberland, +England, youngest son of Lord Reeves." + +"Then mine is indeed a forlorn hope! What chance has an aspiring young +doctor against the son of a lord." + +"You would have no chance in any case," said Grace, with sudden +seriousness. "I once asked her father which his eldest daughter most +resembled, Rose or Eeny. 'Like neither,' was his reply. 'My daughter +Kate is beautiful, and stately, and proud as a queen.' I shall never +forget his own proud smile as he said it." + +"You infer that Miss Danton, if free, would be too proud to mate with a +mere plebeian professional man." + +"Yes." + +"Then resignation is all that remains. Is it improper to smoke in this +sacred chamber, Grace? I must have something to console me. Quite a +grand alliance for Danton's daughter, is it not?" + +"They do not seem to think so. I heard her father say he would not +consider a prince of the blood-royal too good for his peerless Kate." + +"The duse he wouldn't! What an uplifted old fellow he must be!" + +"Captain Danton is not old. His age is about forty-five, and he does not +look forty." + +"Then I'll tell you what to do, Grace--marry him!" + +"Frank, don't be absurd! Do you know you will have everything in this +room smelling of tobacco for a week. I can't permit it, sir." + +"Well, I'll be off," said her brother, looking at his watch, "I promised +to return in half an hour for supper." + +"Promised whom?" + +"M. le Cure. Oh, you don't know I am stopping at the presbytery. I +happened to meet the curate, Father Francis, in Montreal--we were +school-boys together--and he was about the wildest, most mischievous +fellow I ever met. We were immense friends--a fellow-feeling, you know, +makes us wondrous kind. Judge of my amazement on meeting him on Notre +Dame street, in soutane and broad-brimmed hat, and finding he had taken +to Mother Church. You might have knocked me down with a feather, I +assure you. Mutual confidences followed; and when he learned I was +coming to St. Croix, he told me that I must pitch my tent with him. +Capital quarters it is, too; and M. le Cure is the soul of hospitality. +Will you give me a glass of wine after that long speech, and to fortify +me for my homeward route?" + +Grace rang and ordered wine. Doctor Danton drank his glass standing, and +then drew on his gloves. + +"Have you to walk?" asked his sister. "I will order the buggy for you." + +"By no means. I rode up here on the Cure's nag, and came at the rate of +a funeral. The old beast seemed to enjoy himself, and to rather like +getting soaked through, and I have no doubt will return as he came. And +now I must go; it would never do to be found here by these grand +people--Captain and Miss Danton." + +His wet overcoat hung on a chair; he put it on while walking to the +door, with Grace by his side. + +"When shall I see you again, Frank?" + +"To-morrow. I want to have a look at our English beauty. By Jove! it +knows how to rain in Canada." + +The cold November blast swept in as Grace opened the front door, and the +rain fell in a downpour. In the black darkness Grace could just discern +a white horse fastened to a tree. + +"That is ominous, Grace," said her brother. "Captain Danton and his +daughter come heralded by wind and tempest. Take care it is not +prophetic of domestic squalls." + +He ran down the steps, but was back again directly. + +"Who was that pale, blue-eyed fairy I met when I entered?" + +"Eveleen Danton." + +"Give her my best regards--Doctor Frank's. She will be rather pretty, I +think; and if Miss Kate snubs me, perhaps I shall fall back on Miss +Eveleen. It seems to me I should like to get into so great a family. +Once more, _bon soir_, sister mine, and pleasant dreams." + +He was gone this time for good. His sister stood in the doorway, and +watched the white horse and its tall, dark rider vanish under the +tossing trees. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +KATE DANTON. + + +Grace went slowly back to the parlour and stood looking thoughtfully +into the fire. It was pleasant in that pleasant parlour, bright with the +illumination of lamp and fire--doubly pleasant in contrast with the +tumult of wind and rain without. Very pleasant to Grace, and she sighed +wearily as she looked up from the ruby coals to the radiant face smiling +down from over the mantel. + +"You will be mistress to-morrow," she thought; "the place I have held +for the last four years is yours from to-night. Beautiful as a queen. +What will your reign be like, I wonder?" + +She drew up the arm-chair her brother had vacated and sat down, her +thoughts drifting backward to the past. Backward four years, and she saw +herself, a penniless orphan, dependent on the bounty of that miserly +Uncle Roosevelt in Montreal. She saw again the stately gentleman who +came to her, and told her he was her father's third cousin, Captain +Danton, of Danton Hall. She had never seen him before; but she had heard +of her wealthy cousin from childhood, and knew his history. She knew he +had married in early youth an English lady, who had died ten years +after, leaving four children--a son, Henry, and three daughters, +Katherine, Rosina and Eveleen. The son, wild and wayward all his life, +broke loose at the age of twenty, forged his father's name, and fled to +New York, married an actress, got into a gambling affray, and was +stabbed. That was the end of him. The eldest daughter, born in England, +had been brought up by her maternal grandmother, who was rich, and whose +heiress she was to be. Mrs. Danton and her two youngest children resided +at the Hall, while the Captain was mostly absent. After her death, a +Canadian lady had taken charge of the house and Captain Danton's +daughters. All this Grace knew, and was quite unprepared to see her +distant kinsman, and to hear that the Canadian lady had married and +left, and that she was solicited to take her place. The Captain's terms +were so generous that Grace accepted at once; and, a week after, was +domesticated at the Hall, housekeeper and companion to his daughters. + +Four years ago. Looking back to-night, Grace sighed to think how +pleasant it had all been, now that it was over. It had been such a +quiet, untroubled time--she sole mistress, Rose's fits of ill-temper and +Eeny's fits of illness the only drawback. And now it was at an end +forever. The heiress of Danton Hall was coming to wield the sceptre, and +a new era would dawn with the morrow. + +There was a tap at the door, and a voice asking: "May I come in, Grace?" +and Grace woke up from her dreaming. + +"Yes, Eeny," she said; and Eeny came in, looking at her searchingly. + +"Have you been crying?" she asked, taking a stool at her feet. + +"Crying? no! What should I cry for?" + +"You look so solemn. I heard your visitor go, and ran up. Who was it?" + +"My brother, who has just returned from Germany." + +"Dear me! Didn't I say he had eyes like you? He's a Doctor, isn't he?" + +"Yes." + +"Grace, I thought you said you were poor?" + +"Well, I am poor--am I not?" + +"Then who paid for your brother studying medicine in Germany?" + +"Uncle Roosevelt. He is very fond of Frank." + +"Is your Uncle Roosevelt rich?" + +"I believe so. Very rich, and very miserly." + +"Has he sons and daughters?" + +"No; we are his nearest relatives." + +"Then, perhaps, he will leave you his fortune, Grace." + +"Hardly, I think. He may remember Frank in his will; but there is no +telling. He is very eccentric." + +"Grace, I hope he won't leave it to you," said Eeny soberly. + +"Really, why not, pray?" + +"Because, if you were rich you would go away. I should be sorry if you +left Danton Hall." + +Grace stooped to kiss the pale young face. + +"My dear Eeny, you forget that your beautiful sister Kate is coming. In +a week or two, you will have room in your heart for no one but her." + +"You know better than that," said Eeny; "perhaps she will be like Rose, +and I shall not love her at all." + +Grace smiled. + +"Do you mean to say you do not love Rose, then?" + +"Love Rose?" repeated Eeny, very much amazed at the question; "love +Rose, indeed! I should like to see any one who could love Rose. Grace, +where is your brother stopping? At the hotel?" + +"No; at Monsieur le Cure's. He knows Father Francis. Eeny, do you hear +that?" + +She started up, listening. Through the tempest of wind and rain, and the +surging of the trees, they could hear carriage wheels rattling rapidly +up to the house. + +"I hear it," said Eeny; "papa has come. O Grace, how pale you are!" + +"Am I?" Grace said, laying her hand on heart, and moving towards the +door. She paused in the act of opening it, and caught Eeny suddenly and +passionately to her heart. "Eeny, my darling, before they come, tell me +once more you will not let this new sister steal your heart entirely +from me. Tell me you will love me still." + +"Always, Grace," said Eeny; "there--the carriage has stopped!" + +Grace opened the door and went out into the entrance hall. The +marble-paved floor, the domed ceiling, the carved, and statued, and +pictured walls, were quite grand in the blaze of a great chandelier. An +instant later, and a loud knock made the house ring, and Babette flung +the front door wide open. A stalwart gentleman, buttoned up in a +great-coat, with a young lady on his aim, strode in. + +"Quite a Canadian baptism, papa," the silvery voice of the young lady +said; "I am almost drenched." + +Grace heard this, and caught a glimpse of Captain Danton's man, Ogden, +gallanting a pretty, rosy girl, who looked like a lady's maid, and then, +very, very pale, advanced to meet her master and his daughter. + +"My dear Miss Grace," the hearty voice of the sailor said, as he grasped +her hand, "I am delighted to see you. My daughter Kate, Miss Grace." + +My daughter Kate bowed in a dignified manner, scarcely looking at her. +Her eyes were fixed on a smaller, slighter figure shrinking behind her. + +"Hallo, Eeny!" cried the Captain, catching her in his arms; "trying to +play hide-and-go-seek, are you? Come out and let us have a look at you." + +He held her up over his head as if she had been a kitten, and kissed her +as he set her down, laughing and breathless. + +"You little whiff of thistle-down, why can't you get fat and rosy as you +ought? There, kiss your sister Kate, and bid her welcome." + +Eeny looked timidly up, and was mesmerized at one glance. Two lovely +eyes of starry radiance looked down into hers, and the loveliest face +Eeny ever saw was lighted with a bewitching smile. Two arms were held +out, and Eeny sprang into them, and kissed the exquisite face +rapturously. + +"You darling child!" the sweet voice said, and that was all; but she +held her close, with tears in the starry eyes. + +"There, there!" cried Captain Danton; "that will do. You two can hug +each other at your leisure by-and-by; but just at present I am very +hungry, and should like some dinner. The dining-room is in this +direction, isn't it, Grace? I think I know the way." + +He disappeared, and Kate Danton disengaged her new-found sister, still +holding her hand. + +"Come and show me to my room, Eeny," she said. "Eunice," to the rosy +lady's-maid, "tell Ogden to bring up the trunks and unpack at once. +Come." + +Still holding her sister's hand, Kate went upstairs, and Eeny had eyes +and ears for no one else. Eunice gave her young lady's order to Ogden, +and followed, and Grace was left standing alone. + +"Already," she thought, bitterly, "already I am forgotten!" + +Not quite. Captain Danton appeared at the head of the stairs, divested +of his great-coat. + +"I say, Ogden. Oh, Miss Grace, will you come upstairs, if you please? +Ogden, attend to the luggage, and wait for me in my dressing-room." + +He returned to the parlour, and Grace found him standing with his back +to the fire when she entered. A portly and handsome man, florid and +genial, with profuse fair hair, mustache and side-whiskers. He placed a +chair for her, courteously, and Grace sat down. + +"You are looking pale, Miss Grace," he said, regarding her. "You have +not been ill, I trust. Ogden told me you were all well." + +"I am quite well, thank you." + +"You wrote to Rose, I suppose? Where is it she has gone?" + +"To the house of Miss La Touche; a friend of hers, in Ottawa. Eeny has +written to her, and Rose will probably be here in a day or two, at +most." + +The Captain nodded. + +"As for you, my dear young lady, I find you have managed so admirably in +my absence, that I trust we shall retain you for many years yet. Perhaps +I am selfish in the wish, but it comes so naturally that you will pardon +the selfishness. Kate is in total ignorance of the mysteries of +housekeeping. Heaven help me and my friends if we had to depend on her +catering! Besides," laughing slightly, "some one is coming before long +to carry her off." + +Grace bowed gravely. + +"So you see, my fair kinswoman, you are indispensable. I trust we shall +prevail upon you to remain." + +"If you wish me to do so, Captain Danton, I shall, certainly." + +"Thank you. Is that rich old curmudgeon, your uncle, alive yet?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"And your brother? In Germany still, I suppose." + +"No, sir; my brother is in Canada--in St. Croix. He was here this +evening." + +"Indeed! Where is he stopping? We must get him to come here." + +"He is on a visit to M. le Cure, and I do not think means to stay long." + +The door opened as she said it, and Kate and Eeny came in. The sisters +had their arms around each other's waist, and Eeny seemed entranced. +Kate went over and stood beside her father, looking up fondly in his +face. + +"How pretty the rooms are, papa! My boudoir and bedroom are charming. +Eeny is going to chaperone me all over to-morrow--such a dear, romantic +old house." + +Grace sat and looked at her. How beautiful she was! She still wore +slight mourning, and her dress was black silk, that fell in full rich +folds behind her, high to the round white throat, where it was clasped +with a flashing diamond. A solitaire diamond blazed on her left +hand--those slender, delicate little hands--her engagement ring, no +doubt. They were all the jewels she wore. The trimming of her dress was +of filmy black lace, and all her masses of bright golden hair were +twisted coronet-wise round her noble and lovely head. She was very tall, +very slender; and the exquisite face just tinted with only the faintest +shadow of rose. "Beautiful, and stately, and proud as a queen!" Yes, she +looked all that, and Grace wondered what manner of man had won that +high-beating heart. There was a witchery in her glance, in her radiant +smile, in every graceful movement, that fascinated even her father's +sedate housekeeper, and that seemed to have completely captivated little +Eeny. In her beauty and her pride, as she stood there so graceful and +elegant, Grace thought her father was right when he said a prince was +not too good for his peerless daughter. + +He smiled down on her now as men do smile down on what is the apple of +their eye and the pride of their heart, and then turned to Eeny, +clinging to her stately sister. + +"Take care, Eeny! Don't let Kate bewitch you. Don't you know that she is +a sorceress, and throws a glamour over all she meets? She's uncanny, I +give you warning--a witch; that's the word for it!" + +Eeny's reply was to lift Kate's hand and kiss it. + +"Do witches ever eat, papa?" laughed Miss Danton; "because I am very +hungry. What time do we dine?" + +"What time, Miss Grace?" asked the Captain. + +"Immediately, if you wish, sir." + +"Immediately let it be, then." + +Grace rang and ordered dinner to be served. Thomas, the old butler, and +a boy in buttons made their appearance with the first course. Grace had +always presided, but this evening she sat beside Eeny, and Miss Kate +took the head of the table. + +"The first time, papa," she said. "If I make any blunders, tell me." + +"Oh, papa!" exclaimed Eeny, "I thought some one else was coming. A sick +gentleman--Mr. what?--oh, Richards?" + +The face of Captain Danton and his eldest daughter darkened suddenly at +the question. Grace saw it in surprise. + +"He will be here presently," he said, but he said it with an air of +restraint; and Kate, leaning forward with that radiant smile of hers, +began telling Eeny some story of their life at sea that made her forget +Mr. Richards. + +They adjourned to the drawing-room after dinner. A long, low, sumptuous +apartment, very stately and very grand, and decorated with exquisite +taste. + +"What a beautiful room!" Kate said. "We had nothing half so quaint and +old as this at home, papa?" + +There was a grand piano near one of the tall windows, with a music-rack +beside it, and the young lady went over and opened it, and ran her +fingers with a masterly touch over the keys. + +"That's right, Kate," said her father; "give us some music. How do you +like your piano?" + +"Like is not the word, papa. It is superb!" + +The white hands sparkled over the polished ivory keys, and the room was +filled with melody. Eeny stood by the piano with a rapt face. Captain +Danton sat in an arm-chair and listened with half-closed eyes, and Grace +sat down in a corner, and drew from her pocket her crochet. + +"Oh, Kate, how beautifully you play?" Eeny cried ecstatically, when the +flying hands paused, "I never heard anything like that. What was it?" + +"Only a German waltz, you little enthusiast! Don't you play?" + +"A little. Rose plays too, polkas and waltzes; but bah! not like that." + +"Who is your teacher?" + +"Monsieur De Lancey. He comes from Montreal twice a week to give us +lessons. But you play better than he does." + +"Little flatterer!" kissing her and laughing, and the white hands busy +again. "Papa, what will you have?" + +"A song, my dear." + +"Well, what do you like? Casta Diva?" + +"I'd be sorry to like it! can you sing the Lass o' Gowrie?" + +"I shall try, if you wish." + +She broke into singing as she spoke, and Grace's work dropped in her lap +as she listened. What an exquisite voice it was! So clear, so sweet, so +powerful. The mute-wrapped stillness that followed the song was the best +applause. Miss Danton rose up, laughing at her sister's entranced face. + +"Oh, don't stop!" Eeny cried, imploringly. "Sing again, Kate." + +There was a loud ring at the doorbell before Kate could answer. Captain +Danton and Grace had been listening an instant before to a carriage +rolling up the drive. The former started up now and hurried out of the +room; and Kate stood still, intently looking at the door. + +"Who is that?" said Eeny. "Mr. Richards?" + +Kate laid her hand on the girl's shoulder, and still stood silent and +intent. They could hear the door open, hear the voices of the Captain +and his man Ogden; and then there was a shuffling of feet in the hall +and up the stairs. + +"They are helping him upstairs," said Kate, drawing a long breath. "Yes, +it is Mr. Richards." + +Eeny looked as if she would like to ask some questions, but her sister +sat down again at the piano, and drowned her words in a storm of music. +Half an hour passed, nearly an hour, Miss Danton played on and on +without ceasing, and then her father came back. The girl looked at him +quickly and questioningly, but his high coloured face was as +good-humoured as ever. + +"Playing away still," he said, "and Eeny's eyes are like two midnight +moons. Do you know it is half-past ten, Miss Eeny, and time little girls +were in bed?" + +Grace rose up, and put her work in her pocket. Eeny came over, kissed +her father and sister good-night, and retired. Grace, with a simple +good-night, was following her example, but the cordial Captain held out +his hand. + +"Good-night, my little housekeeper," he said; "and pleasant dreams." + +Miss Danton held out her taper fingers, but her good-night was quiet and +cool. + +Her father's housekeeper, it would seem, did not impress her very +favourably, or she was too proud to be cordial with dependants. + +Up in her own room, Grace turned her lamp low, and sitting down by the +window, drew back the curtains. The rain still fell, the November wind +surged through the trees, and the blackness was impenetrable. Was this +wintry tempest, as her brother had said, ominous of coming trouble and +storms in their peaceful Canadian home? + +"I wonder how she and Rose will get on," thought Grace. "Rose's temper +is as gusty as this November night, and I should judge those purple eyes +can flash with the Danton fire, too. When two thunder-clouds meet, there +is apt to be an uproar. I shall not be surprised if there is war in the +camp before long." + +Her door opened softly. Grace turned round, and saw Eeny in a long +night-dress, looking like a spirit. + +"May I come in, Grace?" + +"It is time you were in bed," said Grace, turning up the lamp, and +beginning to unbraid her hair. + +Eeny came in and sat down on a low stool at Grace's feet. + +"Oh, Grace, isn't she splendid?" + +"Who?" + +"You know whom I mean--Kate." + +"She is very handsome," Grace said quietly, going on with her work. + +"Handsome! She is lovely? She is glorious! Grace, people talk about Rose +being pretty; but she is no more to Kate than--than just nothing at +all." + +"Did you come in merely to say that? If so, Miss Eveleen, I must request +you to depart, as I am going to say my prayers." + +"Directly," said Eeny, nestling more comfortably on her stool. "Did you +ever hear any one play and sing as she does?" + +"She plays and sings remarkably well." + +"Grace, what would you give to be as beautiful as she is?" + +"Nothing! And now go." + +"Yes. Isn't it odd that papa did not bring Mr. Richards into the +drawing-room. Ogden and papa helped him up stairs, and Ogden brought him +his supper." + +"Who told you that?" + +"Babette. Babette saw him, but he was so muffled up she could not make +him out. He is very tall and slim, she says, and looks like a young +man." + +"Eeny, how soon are you going?" + +"Oh, Grace," she said, coaxingly, "let me stay all night with you." + +"And keep me awake until morning, talking? Not I," said Grace. "Go!" + +"Please let me stay?" + +"No! Be off!" + +She lifted her up, led her to the door, and put her out, and Eeny ran +off to her own chamber. + +As Grace closed her door, she heard Kate Danton's silk dress rustle +upstairs. + +"Good-night, papa," she heard her say in that soft, clear voice that +made her think of silver bells. + +"Good-night, my dear," the Captain replied. And then the silk dress +rustled past, a door opened and shut, and Miss Danton had retired. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A CHANGE OF DYNASTY. + + +With the cold November sunlight flooding her room, Grace rose next +morning, dressed and went down stairs. Very neat and lady-like she +looked, in her spotted gingham wrapper, her snowy collar and cuffs, and +her dark hair freshly braided. + +A loud-voiced clock in the entrance-hall struck seven. No one seemed to +be astir in the house but herself, and her footsteps echoed weirdly in +the dark passages. A sleepy scullery maid was lighting the kitchen fire +when she got there, gaping dismally over her work; and Grace, leaving +some directions for Ma'am Ledru, the cook, departed again, this time for +the dining-room, where footman James was lighting another fire. Grace +opened the shutters, drew back the curtains, and let in the morning +sunburst in all its glory. Then she dusted and re-arranged the +furniture, swept up the marble hearth, and assisted Babette to lay the +cloth for breakfast. It was invariably her morning work; and the table +looked like a picture when she had done, with its old china and +sparkling silver. + +It was almost eight before she got through; and she ran upstairs for her +bonnet and shawl, and started for her customary half-hour's walk before +breakfast. She took the road leading to the village, still and deserted, +and came back all glowing from the rapid exercise. + +Captain Danton stood on the front steps smoking a meerschaum pipe, as +she came up the avenue. + +"Good morning, Hebe!" said the Captain. "The November roses are brighter +in Canada than elsewhere in August!" + +Grace laughed, and was going in, but he stopped her. + +"Don't go yet. I want some one to talk to. Where have you been?" + +"Only out for a walk, sir." + +"So early! What time do you get up, pray?" + +"About half-past six." + +"Primitive hours, upon my word. When is breakfast time?" + +"Nine, sir. The bell will ring in a moment." + +It rang as she spoke, and Grace tripped away to take off her bonnet and +smooth her hair, blown about by the morning wind. The Captain was in the +dining-room when she descended, standing in his favourite position with +his back to the fire, his coat-tails drawn forward, and his legs like +two sides of a triangle. + +"Are the girls up yet, Grace? Excuse the prefix; we are relatives, you +know. Ah! here is one of them. Good-morning, Mademoiselle." + +"Good-morning, papa," said Eeny, kissing him. "Where is Kate?" + +"Kate is here!" said the voice that was like silver bells; and Kate came +in, graceful and elegant in her white cashmere morning robe, with cord +and tassels of violet, and a knot of violet ribbon at the rounded +throat. "I have not kept you waiting, have I?" + +She kissed her father and sister, smiled and bowed to Grace and took her +place to preside. Very prettily and deftly the white hands fluttered +among the fragile china cups and saucers, and wielded the carved and +massive silver coffee-pot. + +Grace thought she looked lovelier in the morning sunshine than in the +garish lamplight, with that flush on her cheeks, and the beautiful +golden hair twisted in shining coils. + +Grace was very silent during breakfast, listening to the rest. The +Captain and his eldest daughter were both excellent talkers, and never +let conversation flag. Miss Danton rarely addressed her, but the +Captain's cordiality made amends for that. + +"I must see that brother of yours to-day, Grace," he said, "and get him +to come up here. The Cure, too, is a capital fellow--I beg his pardon--I +must bring them both up to dinner. Are the Ponsonbys, and the Landry's, +and the Le Favres in the old places yet?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I'll call on them, then--they don't know I'm here--and see if a little +company won't enliven our long Canadian winter. You three, Grace, Rose +and Eeny, have been living here like nonettes long enough. We must try +and alter things a little for you." + +The Captain's good-natured efforts to draw his taciturn housekeeper out +did not succeed very well. She had that unsocial failing of reserved +natures, silence habitually; and her reserve was always at its worst in +the presence of the Captain's brilliant daughter. That youthful beauty +fixed her blue eyes now and then on the dark, downcast face with an odd +look--very like a look of aversion. + +"What kind of person is this Miss Grace of yours, Eeny?" she asked her +sister, after breakfast. "Very stupid, isn't she?" + +"Stupid! Oh, dear, no! Grace is the dearest, best girl in the world, +except you, Kate. I don't know how we should ever get on without her." + +"I didn't know," said Kate, rather coldly; "she is so silent and +impenetrable. Come! You promised to show me through the house." + +They were alone in the dining-room. She walked over to the fire, and +stood looking thoughtfully up at the two portraits hanging over the +mantel--Captain Danton at twenty-seven, and his wife at twenty-four. + +"Poor mamma!" Kate said, with a rare tenderness in her voice. "How +pretty she was! Do you remember her, Eeny?" + +"No," said Eeny. "You know I was such a little thing, Kate. All I know +about her is what Margery tells me." + +"Who is Margery?" + +"My old nurse, and Harry's, and yours, and Rose's. She nursed us all, +babies, and took care of mamma when she died. She was mama's maid when +she got married, and lived with her all her life. She is here still." + +"I must see Margery, then. I shall like her, I know; for I like all +things old and storied, and venerable. I can remember mamma the last +time she was in England; her tall, slender figure, her dark, wavy hair, +and beautiful smile. She used to take me in her arms in the twilight and +sing me to sleep." + +"Dear Kate! But Grace has been a mother to me. Do you know, Margery says +Rose is like her?" + +"Whom? Mamma?" + +"Yes; all except her temper. Oh!" cried Eeny, making a sudden grimace, +"hasn't Rose got a temper!" + +Kate smiled. + +"A bad one?" + +"A bad one! You ought to see her tearing up and down the room in a +towering passion, and scolding. Mon Dieu!" cried Eeny, holding her +breath at the recollection. + +"Do you ever quarrel?" asked Kate, laughing. + +"About fifty times a day. Oh, what a blessing it was when she went to +Ottawa! Grace and I have been in paradise ever since. She'll behave +herself for a while when she comes home, I dare say, before you and +papa; but it won't be for long." + +Grace came in, and Kate drew Eeny away to show her over the house. It +was quite a tour. Danton Hall was no joke to go over. Upstairs and down +stairs; along halls and passages; the drawing-room, where they had been +last night; the winter drawing-room on the second floor, all gold and +crimson; a summer morning-room, its four sides glass, straw matting on +the floor, flower-pots everywhere, looking like a conservatory; the +library, where, perpetuated in oils, many Dantons hung, and where +book-shelves lined the walls; into what was once the nursery, where +empty cribs stood as in olden times, and where, under a sunny window, a +low rocker stood, Mrs. Danton's own chair; into Kate's fairy boudoir, +all fluted satin and brocatelle; into her bed-chamber, where everything +was white, and azure, and spotless as herself; into Eeny's room, pretty +and tasteful, but not so superb; into Rose's, very disordered, and +littered, and characteristic; into papa's, big, carpetless, fireless, +dreadfully grim and unlike papa himself; into Grace's, the perfection of +order and taste, and then Eeny stopped, out of breath. + +"There's lots more," she said; "papa's study, but he is writing there +now, and the green-room, and Mr. Richards' rooms, and----" + +"Never mind," said Kate, hastily, "we will not disturb papa or Mr. +Richards. Let us go and see old Margery." + +They found the old woman in a little room appropriated to her, knitting +busily, and looking bright, and hale, and hearty. She rose up and +dropped the young lady a stiff curtsey. + +"I'm very glad to see you, Miss," said Margery. "I nursed you often when +you was a little blue-eyed, curly-haired, rosy cheeked baby. You are +very tall and very pretty, Miss; but you don't look like your mother. +She don't look like her mother. You're Dantons, both of you; but Miss +Rose, she looks like her, and Master Harry--ah, poor, dear Master Harry! +He is killed; isn't he, Miss Kate?" + +Kate did not speak. She walked away from the old woman to a window, and +Eeny saw she had grown very pale. + +"Don't talk about Harry, Margery!" whispered Eeny, giving her a poke. +"Kate doesn't like it." + +"I beg your pardon, Miss," said Margery. "I didn't mean to offend; but I +nursed you all, and I knew your mamma when she was a little girl. I was +a young woman then, and I remember that sweet young face of hers so +well. Like Miss Rose, when she is not cross." + +Kate smiled at the winding up and went away. + +"Where now?" she asked, gayly. "I am not half tired of sight-seeing. +Shall we explore the outside for a change? Yes? Then come and let us get +our hats. Your Canadian Novembers are of Arctic temperature." + +"Wait until our Decembers tweak the top of your imperial nose off," said +Eeny, shivering in anticipation. "Won't you wish you were back in +England!" + +The yellow November sunshine glorified garden, lawn and meadow as Eeny +led her sister through the grounds. They explored the long orchard, +strolled down the tamarack walk, and wandered round the fish pond. But +garden and orchard were all black with the November frost, the trees +rattled skeleton arms, and the dead leaves drifted in the melancholy +wind. They strayed down the winding drive to the gate, and Kate could +see the village of St. Croix along the quarter of a mile of road leading +to it, with the sparkling river beyond. + +"I should like to see the village," she said, "but perhaps you are +tired." + +"Not so tired as that. Let us go." + +"If I fatigue you to death, tell me so," said Kate. "I am a great +pedestrian. I used to walk miles and miles daily at home." + +Miss Danton found St. Croix quite a large place, with dozens of +straggling streets, narrow wooden sidewalks, queer-looking, Frenchified +houses, shops where nothing seemed selling, hotels all still and +forlorn, and a church with a tall cross and its doors open. Sabbath +stillness lay over all--the streets were deserted, the children seemed +too indolent to play, the dogs too lazy to bark. The long, sluggish +canal, running like a sleeping serpent round the village, seemed to have +more of life than it had. + +"What a dull place!" said Kate. "Has everybody gone to sleep? Is it +always like this?" + +"Mostly," said Eeny. "You should hear Rose abuse it. It is only fit for +a lot of Rip Van Winkles, or the Seven Sleepers, she says. All the life +there is, is around the station when the train comes and goes." + +The sisters wandered along the canal until the village was left behind, +and they were in some desolate fields, sodden from the recent rains. A +black marsh spread beyond, and a great gloomy building reared itself +against the blue Canadian sky on the other side. + +"What old bastille is that?" asked Kate. + +"The St. Croix barracks," said Eeny uneasily. "Come away Kate. I am +afraid of the soldiers--they may see us." + +She turned round and uttered a scream. Two brawny redcoats were striding +across the wet field to where they stood. They reeled as they walked, +and set up a sort of Indian war-whoop on finding they were discovered. + +"Don't you run away, my little dears," said one, "we're coming as fast +as we can." + +"Oh, Kate!" cried Eeny, in terror, "what shall we do?" + +"Let us go at once," said Kate, "those men are intoxicated." + +They started together over the fields, but the men's long strides gained +upon them at every step. + +"I say, my dear," hiccoughed one, laying his big hand on Kate's +shoulder, "you musn't run away, you know. By George! you're a pretty +girl! give us a kiss!" + +He put his arms round her waist. Only for an instant; the next, with all +the blood of all the Dantons flushing her cheeks, she had sprung back +and struck him a blow in the face that made him reel. The blood started +from the drunken soldier's nose, and he stood for a second stunned by +the surprise blow; the next, with an imprecation, he would have caught +her, but that something caught him from behind, and held him as in a +vise. A big dog had come over the fields in vast bounds, and two rows of +formidable ivory held the warrior fast. The dog was not alone; his +master, a tall and stalwart gentleman, was beside the frightened girls, +with his strong grasp on the other soldier's collar. + +"You drunken rascal!" said the owner of the dog, "you shall get the +black hole for this to-morrow. Tiger, my boy, let go." The dog with a +growl released his hold. "And now be off, both of you, or my dog shall +tear you into mince-meat!" + +The drunken ruffians shrunk away discomfited, and Eeny held out both her +hands to their hero. + +"Oh, Doctor Danton! What should we have done without you?" + +"I don't know," said the Doctor. "You would have been in a very +disagreeable predicament, I am afraid. It is hardly safe for young +ladies to venture so far from the village unattended, while these +drunken soldiers are quartered here." + +"I often came alone before," said Eeny, "and no one molested me. Let me +make you acquainted with my sister--Kate, Doctor Danton." + +Kate held out her hand with that bewitching smile of hers. + +"Thank you and Tiger very much. I was not aware I had a namesake in St. +Croix." + +"He is Grace's brother," said Eeny, "and he is only here on a visit--he +is just from Germany." + +Kate bowed, patting Tiger's big head with her snowflake of a hand. + +"This is another friend we have to thank," she said. "How came you to be +so opportunely at hand, Doctor Danton?" + +"By the merest chance. Tiger and I take our morning constitutional along +these desolate fields and flats. I'll have these fellows properly +punished for their rudeness." + +"No, no," said Kate, "let them go. It is not likely to happen again. +Besides," laughing and blushing, "I punished one of them already, and +Tiger came to my assistance with the other." + +"You served him right," said the Doctor. "If you will permit me, Miss +Danton, I will escort you to the village." + +"Come home with us," said Eeny, "we will just be in time for luncheon, +and I know you want to see Grace." + +"A thousand thanks, Mademoiselle--but no--not this morning." + +Kate seconded the invitation; but Doctor Danton politely persisted in +refusing. He walked with them as far as St. Croix, then raised his hat, +said good-bye, whistled for Tiger, and was gone. + +The young ladies reached the hall in safety, in time to brush their hair +before luncheon, where, of course, nothing was talked of but their +adventure and their champion. + +"By George! if I catch these fellows, I'll break every bone in their +drunken skins," cried the irate Captain. "A pretty fix you two would +have been in, but for the Doctor. I'll ride down to the parsonage, or +whatever you call it, immediately after luncheon, and bring him back to +dinner, will he nill he--the Cure, too, if he'll come, for the Cure is a +very old friend." + +Captain Danton was as good as his word. As soon as luncheon was over, he +mounted his horse and rode away, humming a tune. Kate stood on the +steps, with the pale November sunlight gilding the delicate rose-bloom +cheeks, and making an aureole round the tinsel hair watching him out of +sight. Eeny was clinging round her as usual, and Grace stopped to speak +to her on her way across the hall. + +"You ought to go and practise, Eeny. You have not touched the piano +to-day, and to-morrow your teacher comes." + +"Yes, Eeny," said Kate, "go attend to your music. I am going upstairs, +to my room." + +She smiled, kissed her, opened the parlour door, pushed her in, and ran +up the broad staircase. Not to her own room, though, but along the quiet +corridor leading to the green baize door. The key of that door was in +her pocket; she opened it, locked it behind her, and was shut up with +the, as yet, invisible Mr. Richards. + +Eeny practised conscientiously three hours. It was then nearly five +o'clock, and the afternoon sun was dropping low in the level sky. She +rose up, closed the piano, and went in search of her sister. Upstairs +and down stairs and in my lady's chamber, but my lady was nowhere to be +found. Grace didn't know where she was. Eunice, the rosy English maid, +didn't know. Eeny was perplexed and provoked. Five o'clock struck, and +she started out in the twilight to hunt the grounds--all in vain. She +gave it up in half an hour, and came back to the house. The hall lamps +were lighted upstairs and down, and Eeny, going along the upper hall, +found what she wanted. The green baize door was unlocked, and her sister +Kate came out, relocked it, and put the key in her pocket. + +Eeny stood still, looking at her, too much surprised to speak. While she +had been hunting everywhere for her, Kate had been closeted with the +mysterious invalid all the afternoon. + +"Time to dress for dinner, I suppose, Eeny," she said looking at her +watch. "One must dress, if papa brings company. Did you see Eunice? Is +she in my room?" + +"I don't know. Have you been in there with Mr. Richards all the +afternoon?" + +"Yes; he gets lonely, poor fellow! Run away and dress." + +Eunice was waiting in her young lady's boudoir, where the fire shone +bright, the wax candles burned, the curtains were drawn, and everything +looked deliciously comfortable. Kate sank into an easy-chair, and Eunice +took the pins out of the beautiful glittering hair, and let it fall in a +shining shower around her. + +"What dress will you please to wear, miss?" + +"The black lace, I think, since there is to be company, and the pearls." + +She lay listlessly while Eunice combed out the soft, thick hair, and +twisted it coronet-wise, as she best liked to wear it. She stood +listless while her dress was being fastened, her eyes misty and dreamy, +fixed on the diamond ring she wore. Very lovely she looked in the soft, +rich lace, pale pearls on the exquisite throat; and she smiled her +approval of Eunice's skill when it was all over. + +"That will do, Eunice, thank you. You can go now." + +The girl went out, and Kate sank back in her chair, her blue eyes, +tender and dreamy, still fixed on the fire. Drifting into dream-land, +she lay twisting her flashing diamond round and round on her finger, and +heedless of the passing moments. The loud ringing of the dinner-bell +aroused her, and she arose with a little sigh from her pleasant reverie, +shook out her lace flounces, and tripped away down stairs. + +They were all in the dining-room when she entered--papa, Eeny, Grace and +strangers--Doctor Danton and a clerical-looking young man, with a pale +scholarly face and penetrating eyes, and who was presented as Father +Francis. + +"The Cure couldn't come," said the Captain. "A sick call. Very sorry. +Capital company, the Cure. Why can't people take sick at reasonable +hours, Father Francis?" + +"Ask Doctor Danton," said Father Francis. "I am not a physician--of the +bodies of men." + +"Don't ask me anything while the first course is in progress," said the +Doctor. "You ought to know better. I trust you have quite recovered from +your recent fright, Miss Danton." + +"A Danton frightened!" exclaimed her father. "The daughter of all the +Dantons that ever fought and fell, turn coward! Kate, deny the charge!" + +"Miss Danton is no coward," said the Doctor. "She gave battle like a +heroine." + +Kate blushed vividly. + +"As you are strong, be merciful," she said. "I own to being so +thoroughly frightened that I shall never go there alone again. I hope, +my preserver, Herr Tiger, is well." + +"Quite well. Had he known I was coming here, he would doubtless have +sent his regards." + +"Who is Herr Tiger?" asked the Captain. + +"A big Livonian blood-hound of mine, and my most intimate friend, with +the exception of Father Francis here." + +"Birds of a feather," said the young priest. "Not that I class myself +with Doctors and blood-hounds. You should have allowed Tiger to give +those fellows a lesson they would remember, Danton. Their drunken +insolence is growing unbearable." + +Dinner went on and ended. The ladies left the dining-room; the gentlemen +lingered, but not long. + +Kate was at the piano entrancing Eeny, and Grace sat at her crochet. +Miss Danton got up and made tea, and the young Doctor lay back in an +arm-chair talking to Eeny, and watched, with half-closed eyes, the +delicate hands floating deftly along the fragile china cups. + +"Give us some music, Kate," her father said, when it was over. "Grace, +put away your knitting, and be my partner in a game of whist. Father +Francis and the Doctor will stand no chance against us." + +The quartet sat down. Kate's hands flew up and down the shining octaves +of her piano, and filled the room with heavenly harmony, the waves of +music that ebbed, and flowed, and fascinated. She played until the card +party broke up, and then she wheeled round on her stool. + +"Who are the victors?" she asked. + +"We are," said the Doctor. "When I make up my mind to win, I always win. +The victory rests solely with me." + +"I'll vouch for your skill in cheating," said Grace. "Father Francis, I +am surprised that you countenance such dishonest proceedings." + +"I wouldn't in any one but my partner," said the young priest, crossing +over to the piano. "Don't cease playing, Miss Danton. I am devotedly +fond of music, and it is very rarely indeed I hear such music as you +have given us to-night. You sing, do you not?" + +"Sing!" exclaimed her father. "Kate sings like a nightingale. Sing us a +Scotch song, my dear." + +"What shall it be, papa?" + +"Anything. 'Auld Robin Gray,' if you like." + +Kate sang the sweet old Scottish ballad with a pathos that went to every +heart. + +"That is charming," said Father Francis. "Sing for me, now, Scots wha +hae." + +She glanced up at him brightly; it was a favourite of her own, and she +sang it for him as he had never heard it sung before. + +"Have you no favourite, Doctor Danton?" she asked, turning to him with +that dangerous smile of hers. "I want to treat all alike." + +"Do you sing 'Hear me, Norma'?" + +Her answer was the song. Then she arose from the instrument, and Father +Francis pulled out his watch. + +"What will the Cure think of us!" he exclaimed; "half-past eleven. +Danton, get up this instant and let us be off." + +"I had no idea it was so late," said the doctor, rising, despite the +Captain's protest. "Your music must have bewitched us, Miss Danton." + +They shook hands with the Captain and departed. + +Grace and Eeny went upstairs at once. Kate was lingering still in the +drawing-room when her father came back from seeing his guests off. + +"A fine fellow, that young doctor," said the Captain, in his hearty way; +"a remarkably fine fellow. Don't you think so, Kate?" + +"He is well-bred," said Kate, listlessly. "I think I prefer Father +Francis. Good-night, papa." + +She kissed her father and went slowly up to her room. Eunice was there +waiting to undress her, and Kate lay back in an arm chair while the girl +took down and combed out her long hair. She lay with half-closed eyes, +dreaming tenderly, not of this evening, not of Dr. Danton, but of +another, handsomer, dearer, and far away. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ROSE DANTON. + + +Next morning, when the family assembled at breakfast, Captain Danton +found a letter on his plate, summoning him in haste to Montreal. + +"Business, my dear," he said, answering his eldest daughter's enquiring +look; "business of moment." + +"Nothing concerning--" She paused, looking startled. "Nothing relating +to--" + +"To Mr. Richards. No, my dear. How do you ladies purpose spending the +day?" + +He looked at Grace, who smiled. + +"My duties are all arranged," she said. "There is no fear of the day +hanging heavily on my hands." + +"And you two?" + +"I don't know, papa," said Kate listlessly. "I can practise, and read, +and write letters, and visit Mr. Richards. I dare-say I will manage." + +"Let us have a drive," said Eeny. "We can drive with papa to the +station, and then get Thomas to take us everywhere. It's a lovely day, +and you have seen nothing of St. Croix and our country roads yet." + +Eeny's idea was applauded, and immediately after breakfast the barouche +was ordered out, and Thomas was in attendance. Mr. Ogden packed his +master's valise, and the trio entered the carriage and were driven off. + +"Attend to Mr. Richards as usual, Ogden," said the Captain, as Ogden +helped him into his overcoat. "I will be back to-morrow." + +Grace stood in the doorway and watched the barouche until the winding +drive hid it from view. Then she went back to attend to her +housekeeper's duties--to give the necessary orders for dinner, see that +the rooms were being properly arranged, and so forth. Everything was +going on well; the house was in exquisite order from attic to cellar. +Ogden shut up with Mr. Richards, the servants quietly busy, and Danton +Hall as still as a church on a week-day. Grace, humming a little tune, +took her sewing into the dining-room, where she liked best to sit, and +began stitching away industriously. The ticking of a clock on the mantel +making its way to twelve, the rattling of the stripped trees in the +fresh morning wind, were, for a time, the only sounds outdoor or in. +Then wheels rattled rapidly over the graveled drive, coming to the house +in a hurry, and Grace looked up in surprise. + +"Back so soon," she thought? "They cannot have driven far." + +But it was not the handsome new barouche--it was only a shabby little +buggy from the station, in which a young lady sat with a pile of trunks +and bandboxes. + +"Rose!" exclaimed Grace. "I quite forgot she was coming to-day." + +A moment later and the front door opened and shut with a bang, flying +feet came along the hall, a silk dress rustled stormily, the dining-room +door was flung open, and a young lady bounced in and caught Grace in a +rapturous hug. + +"You darling old thing!" cried a fresh young voice. "I knew I should +find you here, even if I hadn't seen you sitting at the window. Aren't +you glad to have me home again? And have you got anything to eat? I +declare I'm famished!" + +Pouring all this out in a breath, with kisses for commas, the young lady +released Grace, and flung herself into an arm-chair. + +"Ring the bell, Grace, and let us have something to eat. You don't know +how hungry I am. Are you alone? Where are the rest?" + +Grace, taking this shower of questions with constitutional phlegm, +arose, rang the bell, and ordered cakes and cold chicken; the young lady +meantime taking off her pretty black velvet turban, with its long +feather, flung it in a corner, and sent her shawl, gloves, and fur +collar flying after it. + +"Now, Rose," expostulated Grace, picking them up, "how often must I tell +you the floor is not the proper place to hang your things? I suppose you +will be having the whole house in a litter, as usual, now that you have +got home." + +"Why did you send for me then?" demanded Rose. "I was very well off. I +didn't want to come. Never got scolded once since I went away, and I +pitched my clothes everywhere! Say, Grace, how do you get on with the +new comers?" + +"Very well." + +Here Babette appeared with the young lady's lunch, and Miss Rose sat +down to it promptly. + +"What is she like, Kate--handsome?" + +"Very!" with emphasis. + +"Handsomer than I am?" + +"A thousand times handsomer!" + +"Bah! I don't believe it! Tall and fair, with light hair and blue eyes. +Am I right?" + +"Yes." + +"Then she is as insipid as milk and water--as insipid as you are, old +Madame Grumpy. And papa--he's big and loud-voiced, and red-faced and +jolly, I suppose?" + +"Miss Rose Danton, be a little more respectful, if you want me to answer +your questions." + +"Well, but isn't he? And Mr. Richards--who's Mr. Richards?" + +"I don't know." + +"Isn't he here?" + +"Yes, certainly." + +"Then why don't you know?" + +"Because I have not, like Rose Danton, a bump of inquisitiveness as +large as a turnip." + +"Now, Grace, don't be hateful. Tell me all you know about Mr. Richards." + +"And that is nothing. I have never even seen him. He is an invalid; he +keeps his rooms, night and day. His meals are carried upland no one sees +him but your father, and sister, and Ogden." + +"Mon Dieu!" cried Rose, opening her eyes very wide. "A mystery under our +very noses! What can it mean? There's something wrong somewhere, isn't +there?" + +"I don't know anything about it; it is none of my business, and I never +interfere in other people's." + +"You dear old Granny Grumpy! And now that I've had enough to eat, why +don't you ask me about my visit to Ottawa, and what kind of time I had?" + +"Because I really don't care anything about it. However, I trust you +enjoyed yourself." + +"Enjoyed myself!" shrilly cried Rose. "It was like being in paradise! I +never had such a splendid, charming, delightful time since I was born! I +never was so sorry for anything as for leaving." + +"Really!" + +"Oh, Grace! it was beautiful--so gay, so much company; and I do love +company! A ball to-night, a concert to-morrow, a sociable next evening, +the theatre, dinner-parties, matinees, morning calls, shopping and +receptions! Oh," cried Rose, rapturously, "it was glorious!" + +"Dear me!" said Grace, stitching away like a sewing-machine; "it must +have been a great trial to leave." + +"It was. But I am going back. Dear Ottawa! Charming Ottawa! I was +excessively happy in Ottawa!" + +She laid hold of a kitten slumbering peacefully on a rug as she spoke, +and went waltzing around the room, whistling a lively tune. Grace looked +at her, tried to repress a smile, failed, and continued her work. She +was very, very pretty, this second daughter of Captain Danton, and quite +unlike the other two. She was of medium height, but so plump and rounded +as to look less tall than she really was. Her profuse hair, of dark, +chestnut brown, hung in thick curls to her waist; her complexion was +dark, cheeks round and red as apples, her forehead low, her nose +perfection, her teeth like pearls, her eyes small, bright and hazel. +Very pretty, very sparkling, very piquant, and a flirt from her cradle. + +"Did you learn that new accomplishment in Ottawa, pray?" asked Grace. + +"What new accomplishment?" + +"Whistling." + +"Yes, Jules taught me." + +"Who is Jules?" + +"Jules La Touche--the son of the house--handsome as an angel, and my +devoted slave." + +"Indeed! Has he taught you anything else?" + +"Only to love him and to smoke cigarettes." + +"Smoke!" exclaimed Grace, horrified. + +"Yes, m'amour! I have a whole package in my trunk. If you mend my +stockings I will let you have some. I could not exist without cigarettes +now." + +"I shall have to mend your stockings in any case. As to the cigarettes, +permit me to decline. What will your papa say to such goings on?" + +"He will be charmed, no doubt. If he isn't, he ought to. Just fancy when +he is sitting alone of an evening over his meerschaum, what nice, +sociable smokes we can have together. Jules and I used to smoke together +by the hour. My darling Jules! how I long to go back to Ottawa and you +once more! Grace!" dropping the cat and whirling up to her, "would you +like to hear a secret?" + +"Not particularly; what is it?" + +"You won't tell--will you?" + +"I don't know; I must hear it first." + +"It's a great secret; I wouldn't tell anybody but you; and not you, +unless you promise profoundest silence." + +"I make no promises blindly. Tell me or not, just as you please. I don't +think much of your secrets, anyhow." + +"Don't you?" said Rose, nettled; "look here, then." + +She held out her left hand. On the third finger shone a shimmering opal +ring. + +"Well?" said Grace. + +"Well!" said Rose, triumphantly. "Jules gave me that; that is my +engagement ring." + +Grace sat and looked at her aghast. + +"No!" she said; "you don't mean it, Rose?" + +"I do mean it. I am engaged to Jules La Touche, and we are going to be +married in a year. That is my secret, and if you betray me I will never +forgive you." + +"And you are quite serious?" + +"Perfectly serious, _chere grogneuse_." + +"Do Monsieur and Madame La Touche know?" + +"Certainly not. _Mon Dieu!_ We are too young. Jules is only twenty, and +I eighteen. We must wait; but I love him to distraction, and he adores +me! Tra-la-la!" + +She seized the cat once more, and went whirling round the room. + +Her waltz was suddenly interrupted. + +A gentleman, young, tall, and stately, stood, hat in hand, in the +doorway, regarding her. + +"Don't let me intrude," said the gentleman, politely advancing. "Don't +let me interrupt anybody, I beg!" + +Grace arose, smiling. + +"Rose, let me present my brother, Doctor Danton! Frank, Miss Rose +Danton!" + +Miss Rose dropped the kitten and her eyes, and made an elaborate +curtsey. + +"My entrance spoiled a very pretty tableau," said the Doctor, "and +disappointed pussy, I am afraid. Pray, continue your waltz, Miss Rose, +and don't mind me." + +"I don't," said Rose, carelessly, "my waltz was done, and I have to +dress." + +She ran out of the room, but put her head in again directly. + +"Grace!" + +"Yes!" + +"Will you come and curl my hair by-and-by?" + +"No, I haven't time." + +"What shall I do, then? Babette tears it out by the roots." + +"I am not busy," said the Doctor, blandly. "I haven't much experience in +curling young ladies' hair, but I am very willing to learn." + +"You are very kind," said his sister, "but we can dispense with your +services. You might get Eunice, I dare say, Rose; she has nothing else +to do." + +"Who's Eunice?" + +"Your sister's maid; you can ring for her; she understands hair-dressing +better than Babette." + +Rose ran up stairs. At the front window of the upper hall stood Ogden +and Eunice. + +Rose nodded familiarly to the valet, and turned to the girl. + +"Are you Eunice?" + +"Yes, Miss." + +"Are you busy?" + +"No, Miss." + +"Then come into my room, please, and comb my hair." + +Eunice followed the young lady, and Ogden returned to the mysterious +regions occupied by Mr. Richards. + +Once more the house was still; its one disturbing element was having her +hair curled; and Grace and her brother talked in peace below stairs. + +It was past luncheon-hour when the barouche rolled up to the door. Kate, +all aglow from her drive in the frosty air, stopped her laughing chat +with pale Eeny at the sight which met her eyes. Standing on the portico +steps, playing with a large dog Kate had reason to know, and +flirting--it looked like flirting--with the dog's master, stood a +radiant vision, a rounded girlish figure, arrayed in bright +maize-colored merino, elaborately trimmed with black lace and velvet, +the perfect shoulders and arms bare, the cheeks like blush roses, the +eyes sparkling as stars, and the golden-brown hair, freshly curled, +falling to her waist. + +"Oh, how beautiful!" Kate cried, under her breath. + +The next moment, Eeny ran up the steps, and favoured this vision of +youthful bloom with a kiss, while Kate followed more decorously. + +"How do, Eeny?" said Rose. "Kate!" + +She held out both her hands. Kate caught her in a sort of rapture in her +arms. + +"My sister!" she cried. "My darling Rose!" + +And then she stopped, for Doctor Danton was looking on with a +preternatural gravity that provoked her. + +"When did you come, Rose?" asked Eeny. + +"Two hours ago. Have you had a pleasant drive, Kate?" + +"Very, and I am hungry after it. We have kept Miss Grace waiting, I am +afraid; isn't it past luncheon-time? Come to my room with me, Rose. Are +you going, Doctor? Won't you stay to luncheon?" + +"Some other time. Good morning, ladies. Come, Tiger." + +He sauntered down the avenue, whistling, and the three sisters turned +into the house. + +"Very agreeable!" said Rose. "Grace's brother; and rather handsome." + +"Handsome!" exclaimed Kate. "He is not handsome, my pretty sister." She +took her in her arms again, and kissed her fondly. "My pretty sister! +how much I am going to love you!" + +Rose submitted to be kissed with a good grace, but with a little envious +pang at her vain, coquettish heart, to see how much more beautiful her +superb sister was than herself. She nestled luxuriously in an arm-chair, +while Eunice dressed her young mistress, chattering away in French like +a magpie. They descended together to luncheon; pale Eeny was totally +eclipsed by brilliant Rose, and all the afternoon they spent together +over the piano, and sauntering through the grounds. + +"Retribution, Eeny," said Grace, kissing Eeny's pale cheek. "You forgot +me for this dazzling Kate, and now you are nowhere. You must come back +to Grace again." + +"There is nobody like Grace," said Eeny, nestling close. "But Kate and +Rose won't be always like this. 'Love me little, love me long.' Wait +until Kate finds out what Rose is made of." + +But despite Eeny's prophecy, the two sisters got on remarkably well +together. + +Captain Danton did not return next day, according to promise, so they +were thrown entirely upon one another. Instead, there came a note from +Montreal, which told them that business would detain him in that city +for nearly a fortnight longer. "When I do return," ended the note, "I +will fetch an old friend to see Kate." + +"Who can it be?" wondered Kate. "There is no old friend of mine that I +am aware of in Montreal. Papa likes to be mysterious." + +"Yes," said Rose; "I should think so, when we have a mystery in the very +house." + +"What mystery?" + +"Mr. Richards, of course. He's a mystery worse than anything in the +'Mysteries of Udolpho.' Why can nobody get to see him but that +soft-stepping, oily-tongued little weasel, Ogden?" + +Kate looked at the pretty sister she loved so well, with the coldest +glances she had ever given her. + +"Mr. Richards is an invalid; he is unable to see any one, or quit his +room. What mystery is there in that?" + +"There's a mystery somewhere," said Rose, sagaciously. "Who is Mr. +Richards?" + +"A friend of papa's--and poor. Don't ask so many questions, Rose. I have +nothing more to say on the subject." + +"Then I must find out for myself--that is all," thought Rose; "and I +will, too, before long, in spite of half a dozen Ogdens." + +Rose tried with a zeal and perseverance worthy a better cause, and most +signally failed. Mr. Richards was invisible. His meals went up daily. +Ogden and Kate visited him daily, but the baize door was always locked, +and Ogden and Kate, on the subject, were dumb. Kate visited the invalid +at all hours, by night and by day. Ogden rarely left him except when +Miss Danton was there, and then he took a little airing in the garden. +Rose's room was near the corridor leading to the green baize room; and +often awaking "in the dead waste and middle of the night," she would +steal to that mysterious room to listen. But nothing was ever to be +heard, nothing ever to be seen--the mystery was fathomless. She would +wander outside at all hours, under Mr. Richards' window; and looking up, +wonder how he endured his prison, or what he could possibly be about--if +those dark curtains were never raised and he never looked at the outer +world. Once or twice a face had appeared, but it was always the keen, +thin face of Mr. Ogden; and Rose's curiosity, growing by what it fed on, +began to get insupportable. + +"What can it mean, Grace?" she would say to the housekeeper, to whom she +had a fashion, despite no end of snubbing, of confiding her secret +troubles. "There's something wrong; where there's secrecy, there's +guilt--I've always heard that." + +"Don't jump at conclusions, Miss Rose, and don't trouble yourself about +Mr. Richards; it is no affair of yours." + +"But I can't help troubling myself. What business have papa, and Kate, +and that nasty Ogden, to have a secret between them and I not know it? I +feel insulted, and I'll have revenge. I never mean to stop till I ferret +out the mystery. I have the strongest conviction I was born to be a +member of the detective police, and one of these days the mystery of Mr. +Richards will be a mystery no more." + +Grace had her own suspicions, but Grace was famous for minding her own +business, and kept her suspicions to herself. Rose's manoeuvring +amused her, and she let her go on. Every strategy the young lady could +conceive was brought to bear, and every stratagem was skilfully baffled. + +"Why don't you have Doctor Danton to see Mr. Richards, Kate?" she said +to her sister, one evening, meeting her coming out of Mr. Richards' +room. "I should think he was skilful." + +"Very likely," said Kate, with an air of reserve, "but Mr. Richards does +not require medical care." + +"Oh, he is not very bad, then? You should bring him down stairs in that +case; a little lively society--mine, for instance--might do him good." + +Kate's dark eyes flashed impatiently. + +"Rose," she said, sharply, "how often must I tell you Mr. Richards is +hypochondriacal and will not quit his room? Cease to talk on the +subject. Mr. Richards will not come down-stairs." + +She swept past--majestic and a little displeased. Rose shrugged her +plump shoulders and ran down stairs, for Doctor Danton was coming up the +avenue, and Rose, of late, had divided her attention pretty equally +between playing detective amateur and flirting with Doctor Danton. But +there was a visitor for Rose in the drawing-room; and the young Doctor, +entering the dining-room, found his sister alone, looking dreamily out +at the starry twilight. + +"Grace," he said, "I come to say good-bye; I am going to Montreal." + +Grace looked round at him with a sudden air of relief. + +"Oh, Frank! I am glad. When are you going?" + +Doctor Frank stared at her an instant in silence, and then hooked a +footstool towards him with his cane. + +"Well, upon my word, for a sister who has not seen me for six years, +that is affectionate. You're glad I'm going, are you?" + +"You know what I mean; it is about Rose Danton." + +"Well, what about Miss Rose?" + +"I am glad you are going to get out of her way. I am glad she will have +no chance to make a fool of you. I am glad you will have no time to fall +in love with her." + +"My pretty Rose! My dark-eyed darling! Grace, you are heartless." + +Grace looked at him, but his face was in shadow, and the tone of his +voice told nothing. + +"I don't know whether you are serious or not," she said. "For your own +sake, I hope you are not. Rose has been flirting with you, but I thought +you had penetration enough to see through her. I hope, I trust, Frank, +you have not allowed yourself to think seriously of her." + +"Why not?" said Doctor Danton; "she is very pretty, she has charming +ways, we are of the same blood, I should like to be married. It is very +nice to be married, I think. Why should I not think seriously of her?" + +"Because you might as well fall in love with the moon, and hope to win +it." + +"Do you mean she would not have me?" + +"Yes." + +"Trying, that. But why? Her conduct is encouraging. I thought she was in +love with me." + +Again Grace looked at him, puzzled; again his face was in shadow, and +his inscrutable voice baffled her. + +"I do not believe you ever thought any such thing. The girl is a +coquette born. She would flirt with Ogden, for the mere pleasure of +flirting. She flirts with you because there is no one else." + +"Trying!" repeated the Doctor. "Very! And you really think there is no +use in my proposing--you really think she will not marry me?" + +"I really think so." + +"And why? Don't break my heart without a reason. Is it because I am +poor?" + +"Because you are poor, and not handsome enough, or dashing enough for +the vainest, shallowest little flirt that ever made fools of men. Is +that plain enough?" + +"That's remarkably plain, and I am very much obliged to you. My darling +Rose! But hush! A silk dress rustles--here she comes!" + +The door opened; it was Rose, but not alone; both sisters were with her, +and Doctor Danton arose at once to make his adieus. + +"I depart to-morrow for Montreal," he said. "Farewell, Miss Danton." + +"Good-bye," letting the tips of her fingers touch his. "Bon voyage." + +She walked away to the window, cold indifference in every line of her +proud face. + +He held out his hand to Rose, glancing sideways at his sister. + +"Adieu, Miss Rose," he said; "I shall never forget the pleasant hours I +have passed at Danton Hall." + +He pressed the little plump hand, and Rose's rosy cheeks took a deeper +dye; but she only said, "Good-bye," and walked away to the piano, and +played a waltz. + +Eeny was the only one who expressed regret, and gave his hand a friendly +shake. + +"I am sorry you are going," she said. "Come back soon, Doctor Frank." + +Doctor Frank looked as if he would like to kiss her; but Kate was there, +queenly and majestic, and such an impropriety was not to be thought of. + +It was Kate, however, who spoke to him last, as he left the room. + +"Take good bye from me to Tiger," she said. "I shall be glad when Tiger +comes back to St. Croix." + +"'Love me, love my dog,'" quoted Rose. "How about Tiger's master, Kate?" + +"I shall always be pleased to see Doctor Danton," said Kate, with +supreme indifference. "Sing me a twilight song, Rose." + +Rose sang "Kathleen Mavourneen" in a sweet contralto voice. + +Kate stood listening to the exquisite words and air, watching Doctor +Danton's full figure fading out in the November gloom, and thinking of +some one she loved far away. + + "O hast thou forgotten how soon we must sever; + O hast thou forgotten how soon we must part? + It may be for years, and it may be forever, + Then why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart?" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +SEEING A GHOST. + + +Three days after the departure of Grace's brother, Captain Danton +returned to the Hall. Strange to say, the young Doctor had been missed +in these three days by the four Misses Danton. Even the stately Kate, +who would have gone to the block sooner than have owned it, missed his +genial presence, his pleasant laugh, and ever interesting conversation; +Rose missed her flirtee, and gaped wearily the slow hours away that had +flown coquetting with him; Eeny missed the pocketfuls of chocolate, +bon-bons, and the story books new from Montreal; and Grace missed him +most of all. But Eeny was the only one honest enough to own it, and she +declared the house was as lonely as a dungeon since Doctor Frank had +gone away. + +"One would think you had fallen in love with him, Eeny," said Rose. + +"No," retorted Eeny; "I leave that for you. But he was nice; I liked +him, and I wish he would come back. Don't you, Kate?" + +"I don't care, particularly," said Kate. "I wish papa would come." + +"And bring that unknown friend of yours. I say, Kate," said Rose +mischievously, "they say you're engaged--perhaps it's your fiance." + +Up over Kate's pearly face the hot blood flew, and she turned hastily to +the nearest window. + +"Too late, ma soeur," said Rose, her eyes dancing. "You blush +beautifully. Won't I have a look at him when he comes, the conquering +hero, who can win our queenly Kate's heart." + +"Rose, hush!" cried Kate, yet not displeased, and with that roseate +light in her face still. + +Rose came over, and put her arm around her waist coaxingly. + +"Tell me about him, Kate. Is he handsome?" + +"Who? Reginald? Of course he is handsome." + +"I want to see him dreadfully! Have you his picture? Won't you show it +me?" + +There was a slender gold chain round Kate's neck, which she wore night +and day. A locket was attached, and her hand pressed it now, but she did +not take it out. + +"Some other time, my pet," she said, kissing Rose. "Come, let us go for +a ride." + +Rose was an accomplished horsewoman, and never looked so well as in a +side-saddle. She owned a spirited black mare, which she called Regina, +and she had ridden out every day with Doctor Frank while that gentleman +was in St. Croix. Kate rode well, too. A fleet-footed little pony, named +Arab, had been trained for her use, and the sisters galloped over the +country together daily. + +Eeny and Grace, both mortally afraid of horse-flesh, never rode. + +Between music, books, and riding, the three days' interval passed +pleasantly enough. + +Rose was an inveterate novel reader, and the hours Kate spent shut up +with that unfathomable mystery, Mr. Richards, her younger sister passed +absorbed in the last new novel. + +They had visitors too--the Ponsonbys, the Landrys, the Le Favres, and +everybody of note in the neighbourhood called. Father Francis, M. le +Cure, the Reverend Augustus Clare, the Episcopal incumbent of St. Croix, +an aristocratic young Englishman, came to see them in the evening to +hear Miss Danton sing, and to play backgammon. + +The Reverend Augustus, who was slim, and fair, and had face and hands +like a pretty girl, was very much impressed with the majestic daughter +of Captain Danton, who sang so magnificently, and looked at him with +eyes like blue stars. + +The day that brought her father home had been long and dull. There had +been no callers, and they had not gone out. A cold north wind had +shrieked around the house all day, rattling the windows, and tearing +frantically through the gaunt arms of the stripped trees. The sky was +like lead, the river black and turbid. As the afternoon wore on, great +flakes of snow came fluttering through the opaque air, slowly at first, +then faster, till all was blind, fluttering whiteness, and the black +earth was hidden. + +Kate stood by the dining-room window watching the fast-falling snow. It +had been a long day to her--a long, weary, aimless day. She had tried to +read, to play, to sing, to work; and failed in all. She had visited Mr. +Richards; she had wandered, in a lost sort of way, from room to room; +she had lain listlessly on sofas, and tried to sleep, all in vain. The +demon of ennui had taken possession of her; and now, at the end of every +resource, she stood looking drearily out at the wintry scene. She was +dressed for the evening, and looked like a picture, buttoned up in that +black velvet jacket, its rich darkness such a foil to her fair face and +shining golden hair. Grace was her only companion--Grace sitting +serenely braiding an apron for herself, Rose was fathoms deep in "Les +Miserables," and Eeny was drumming on the piano in the drawing-room. +There had been a long silence, but presently Grace looked up from her +work, and spoke. + +"This wintry scene is new to you, Miss Danton. You don't have such wild +snow storms in England?" + +Kate glanced round, a little surprised. + +It was very rarely indeed her father's housekeeper voluntarily addressed +her. + +"No," she said, "not like this; but I like it. We ought to have +sleighing to-morrow, if it continues." + +"Probably. We do not often have sleighing, though, in November." + +There was another pause. + +Kate yawned behind her white hand. + +"I wish Father Francis would come up," she said wearily. "He is the only +person in St. Croix worth talking to." + +The dark, short November afternoon was deepening with snowy night, when +through the ghostly twilight the buggy from the station whirled up to +the door, and two gentlemen alighted. Great-coats, with upturned +collars, and hats pulled down, disguised both, but Kate recognized her +father, the taller and stouter, with a cry of delight. + +"Papa!" she exclaimed; and ran out of the room to meet him. He was just +entering, his jovial laugh ringing through the house as he shook the +snow off, and caught her in his wet arms. + +"Glad to be home again, Kate! You don't mind a cold kiss, do you? Let me +present an old friend whom you don't expect, I'll wager." + +The gentleman behind him came forward. A gentleman neither very young, +nor very handsome, nor very tall; at once plain-looking and +proud-looking. The pale twilight was bright enough for Kate to recognize +him as he took off his hat. + +"Sir Ronald Keith!" she cried, intense surprise in every line of her +face; "why, who would have thought of seeing you in Canada?" + +She held out her hand frankly, but there was a marked air of restraint +in Sir Ronald's manner as he touched it and dropped it again. + +"I thought it would be an astonisher," said her father; "how are Grace +and Eeny?" + +"Very well." + +"And Rose? Has Rose got home?" + +"Yes, papa." + +At this juncture Ogden appeared, and his master turned to him. + +"Ogden, see that Sir Ronald's luggage is taken to his room, and then +hold yourself in readiness to attend him. This way, Sir Ronald, there is +just time to dress for dinner, and no more." + +He led his visitor to the bedroom regions, and Kate returned to the +drawing-room. Rose was there dressed beautifully, and with flowers in +her hair, and all curiosity to hear who their visitor was. There was a +heightened colour in Kate's face and an altered expression in her eyes +that puzzled Grace. + +"He is Sir Ronald Keith," she said, in reply to Rose. "I have known him +for years." + +"Sir Ronald; knight or baronet?" + +"Baronet, of course," Kate said, coldly; "and Scotch. Don't get into a +gale, Rose; you won't care about him; he is neither young nor handsome." + +"Is he unmarried?" + +"Yes." + +"And rich?" + +"His income is eight thousand a year." + +"_Mon Dieu!_ A baronet and eight thousand a year! Kate, I am going to +make a dead set at him. Lady Keith--Lady Rose Keith; that sounds +remarkably well, doesn't it? I always thought I should like to be 'my +lady.' Grace, how do I look?" + +Kate sat down to the piano, and drowned Rose's words in a storm of +music. Rose looked at her with pursed-up lips. + +"Kate is in one of her high and mighty moods," she thought. "I don't +pretend to understand her. If she is engaged in England, what difference +can it make to her whether I flirt with this Scotch baronet or not? What +do I care for her airs? I'll flirt if I please." + +She sat still, twisting her glossy ringlets round her fingers, while +Kate played on with that unsmiling face. Half an hour, and the +dinner-bell rang. Ten minutes after, Captain Danton and his guest stood +before them. + +For a moment Rose did not see him; her father's large proportions, as he +took her in his arms and kissed her, overshadowed every one else. + +"How my little Rose has grown!" the Captain said looking at her fondly; +"as plump as a partridge and as Rosy as her name. Sir Ronald--my +daughter Rose." + +Rose bowed with finished grace, thinking, with a profound sense of +disappointment: + +"What an ugly little man!" + +Then it was Eeny's turn, and presently they were all seated at the +table--the baronet at Kate's right hand, talking to her of Old England, +and of by-gone days, and of people the rest knew nothing about. Captain +Danton gallantly devoted himself to the other three, and told them he +had brought them all presents from Montreal. + +"Oh, papa, have you though!" cried Rose. "I dearly love presents; what +have you brought me?" + +"Wait until after dinner, little curiosity," said her father. "Grace, +whom do you think I met in Montreal?" + +"I don't know, sir." + +"Why, that brother of yours. I was loitering along the Champ de Mars, +when who should step up but Doctor Frank. Wasn't I astonished! I asked +what brought him there, and he told me he found St. Croix so slow he +couldn't stand it any longer. Complimentary to you, young ladies." + +Kate gave Rose a mischievous look, and Rose bit her lip and tossed back +her auburn curls. + +"I dare say St. Croix and its inhabitants can survive the loss," she +said. "Papa, the next time you go to Montreal I want you to take me. +It's a long time since I have been there." + +"I thought you were going back to Ottawa," said Grace. "You seem to have +forgotten all about it." + +Rose gave her an alarmed look; and finding a gap in the tete-a-tete +between her sister and Sir Ronald, struck smilingly in. He was small and +he was homely, but he was a baronet and worth eight thousand a year, and +Rose brought all the battery of her charms to bear. In vain. She might +as well have tried to fascinate one of the gnarled old tamaracks +out-of-doors. Sir Ronald was utterly insensible to her brightest smiles +and glances, to her rosiest blushes and most honeyed words. He listened +politely, he answered courteously; but he was no more fascinated by +Captain Danton's second daughter than he was by Captain Danton's +housekeeper. + +Rose was disgusted, and retreated to a corner with a book, and sulked. +Grace, Kate, and Eeny, who all saw through the little game, were +exceedingly amused. + +"I told you it was of no use, Rose," said Kate, in a whisper, pausing at +the corner. "Do you always read with the book upside down? Sir Ronald is +made of flint, where pretty girls are concerned. You won't be 'my lady' +this time." + +"Sir Ronald is a stupid stick!" retorted Rose. "I wouldn't marry him if +he were a duke instead of a baronet. One couldn't expect anything better +from a Scotchman, though." + +It was the first experience Kate had had of Rose's temper. She drew back +now, troubled. + +"I hope we will not be troubled with him long!" continued Rose, +spitefully. "The place was stupid enough before, but it will be worse +with that sulky Scotchman prowling about. I tried to be civil to him +this evening. I shall never try again." + +With which Miss Rose closed her lips, and relapsed into her book, +supremely indifferent to her sister's heightened colour and flashing +eyes. She turned away in silence, and fifteen minutes after, Rose got up +and left the room, without saving good-night to any one. + +Rose kept her word. From that evening she was never civil to the Scotch +baronet, and took every occasion to snub him. But her incivility was as +completely thrown away as her charms had been. It is doubtful whether +Sir Ronald ever knew he was snubbed; and Kate, seeing it, smiled to +herself, and was friends with offended Rose once more. She and the +baronet were on the best of terms; he was always willing to talk to her, +always ready to be her escort when she walked or rode, always on hand to +turn her music and listen entranced to her singing. If it was not a +flirtation, it was something very like it, and Rose was nowhere. She +looked on with indignant eyes, and revenged herself to the best of her +power by flirting in her turn with the Reverend Augustus Clare. + +"He is nothing but a ninny!" she said to Grace; "and has eyes for no one +but Kate. Oh, how I wish my darling Jules were here, or even your +brother, Grace--he was better than no one!" + +"My brother is very much obliged to you." + +"You talk to me of my flirting propensities," continued the exasperated +Rose. "I should like to know what you call Kate's conduct with that +little Scotchman." + +"Friendship, my dear," Grace answered, repressing a smile. + +"Remember, they have known each other for years." + +"Friendship! Yes; it would be heartless coquetry if it were I. I hope +Lieutenant Reginald Stanford, of Stanford Royals, will like it when he +comes. Sir Ronald Keith is over head and ears in love with her, and she +knows it, and is drawing him on. A more cold-blooded flirtation no one +ever saw!" + +"Nonsense, Rose! It is only a friendly intimacy." + +But Rose, unable to stand this, bounced out of the room in a passion, +and sought consolation in her pet novels. + +Kate and Sir Ronald were certainly very much together; but, +notwithstanding their intimacy, she found time to devote two or three +hours every day to Mr. Richards. Rose's mystery was her mystery still. +She could get no further towards its solution. Mr. Richards might have +been a thousand miles away, for all any of the household saw of him; and +Grace, in the solitude of her own chamber, wondered over it a good deal +of late. + +She sat at her window one December night, puzzling herself about it. +Kate had not come down to dinner that day--she had dined with the +invalid in his rooms. When she had entered the drawing-room about nine +o'clock, she looked pale and anxious, and was absent and _distraite_ all +the evening. Now that the house was still and all were in their rooms, +Grace was wondering. Was Mr. Richards worse? Why, then, did they not +call in a Doctor? Who could he be, this sick stranger, in whom father +and daughter were so interested? Grace could not sleep for thinking of +it. The night was mild and bright, and she arose, wrapped a large shawl +around her, and took her seat by the window. How still it was, how +solemn, how peaceful! The full moon sailed through the deep blue sky, +silver-white, crystal-clear. Numberless stars shone sharp and keen. The +snowy ground glittered dazzlingly bright and cold; the trees stood like +grim, motionless sentinels, guarding Danton Hall. The village lay hushed +in midnight repose; the tall cross of the Catholic and the lofty spire +of the Episcopal church flashed in the moon's rays. Rapid river and +sluggish canal glittered in the silvery light. The night was noiseless, +hushed, beautiful. + +No; not noiseless. A step crunched over the frozen snow; from under the +still shadow of the trees a moving shadow came. A man, wrapped in a long +cloak, and with a fur cap down over his eyes, came round the angle of +the building and began pacing up and down the terrace. Grace's heart +stood still for an instant. Who was this midnight walker? Not Sir Ronald +Keith watching his lady's lattice--it was too tall for him. Not the +Captain--the cloaked figure was too slight. No one Grace knew, and no +ghost; for he stood still an instant, lit a cigar, and resumed his walk, +smoking. He had loitered up and down the terrace for about a quarter of +an hour, when another figure came out from the shadows and joined him. A +woman this time, with a shawl wrapped round her, and a white cloud on +her head. The moonlight fell full on her face--pale and beautiful. Grace +could hardly repress a cry--it was Kate Danton. + +The smoker advanced. Miss Danton took his arm, and together they walked +up and down, talking earnestly. Once or twice Kate looked up at the +darkened windows; but the watcher was not to be seen, and they walked +on. Half an hour, an hour, passed; the hall clock struck one, and then +the two midnight pedestrians disappeared round the corner and were gone. + +The moments passed, and still Grace sat wondering, and of her wonder +finding no end. What did it mean? Who was this man with whom the +proudest girl the sun ever shone on walked by stealth, and at midnight? +Who was he? Suddenly in the silence and darkness of the coming morning, +a thought struck her that brought the blood to her face. + +"Mr. Richards." + +She clasped her hands together. Conviction as positive as certainty +thrilled along every nerve. Mr. Richards, the recluse, was the midnight +walker--Mr. Richards, who was no invalid at all; and who, shut up all +day, came out in the dead of night, when the household were asleep, to +take the air in the grounds. There, in the solemn hush of her room, +Rose's thoughtless words came back to her like a revelation. + +"Where there is secrecy there is guilt." + +When the family met at breakfast, Grace looked at Kate with a new +interest. But the quiet face told nothing; she was a little pale; but +the violet eyes were as starry, and the smile as bright as ever. The +English mail had come in, and letters for her and her father lay on the +table. There was one, in a bold, masculine hand, with a coat-of-arms on +the seal, that brought the rosy blood in an instant to her face. She +walked away to one of the windows, to read it by herself. Grace watched +the tall, slender figure curiously. She was beginning to be a mystery to +her. + +"She is on the best of terms with Sir Ronald Keith," she thought; "she +meets some man by night in the grounds, and the sight of this +handwriting brings all the blood in her body to her face. I suppose she +loves him; I suppose he loves her. I wonder what he would think if he +knew what I know." + +The morning mail brought Rose a letter from Ottawa, which she devoured +with avidity, and flourished before Grace's eyes. + +"A love letter, Mistress Grace," she said. "My darling Jules is dying to +have me back. I mean to ask papa to let me go. It is as dull as a +monastery of La Trappe here." + +"What's the news from England, Kate?" asked her father, as they all sat +down to table. + +The rosy light was at its brightest in Kate's face, but Sir Ronald +looked as black as a thunder cloud. + +"Everybody is well, papa." + +"Satisfactory, but not explanatory. Everybody means the good people at +Stanford Royals, I suppose?" + +"Yes, papa." + +"Where is Reginald?" + +"At Windsor. But his regiment is ordered to Ireland." + +"To Ireland! Then he can't come over this winter?" + +"I don't know. He may get leave of absence." + +"I hope so--I hope so. Capital fellow is Reginald. Did you see him +before you left England, Sir Ronald?" + +"I met Lieutenant Stanford at a dinner party the week I left," said Sir +Ronald, stiffly--so stiffly, that the subject was dropped at once. + +After breakfast, Captain Danton retired to his study to answer his +letters, and Sir Ronald and Kate started for their morning ride across +the country. She had invited Rose to accompany them, and Rose had rather +sulkily declined. + +"I never admire spread-eagles," sneered the second Miss Danton, "and I +don't care for being third in these cases--I might be _de trop_. Sir +Ronald Keith's rather a stupid cavalier. I prefer staying at home, I +thank you." + +"As you please," Kate said, and went off to dress. + +Rose got a novel, and sat down at the upper half window to mope and +read. The morning was dark and overcast, the leaden sky threatened snow, +and the wailing December wind was desolation itself. The house was very +still; faint and far off the sound of Eeny's piano could be heard, and +now and then a door somewhere opening and shutting. Ogden came from Mr. +Richards' apartment, locked the door after him, put the key in his +pocket, and went away. Rose dropped her book and sat gazing at that +door--that Bluebeard's chamber--that living mystery in their +common-place Canadian home. While she looked at it, some one came +whistling up the stairs. It was her father, and he stopped at sight of +her. + +"You here, Rose, my dear; I thought you had gone out riding with Kate." + +"Kate doesn't want me, papa," replied Rose, with a French shrug. "She +has company she likes better." + +"What, Sir Ronald! Nonsense, Rose! Kate is Sir Ronald's very good +friend--nothing more." + +Rose gave another shrug. + +"Perhaps so, papa. It looks like flirting, but appearances are +deceitful. Papa!" + +"Yes, my dear." + +"I wish you would let me go back to Ottawa!" + +"To Ottawa! Why, you only left it the other day. What do you want to go +back to Ottawa for?" + +"It's so dull here, papa," answered Rose, fidgeting with her book, "and +I had such a good time there. I shall die of the dismals in this house +before the winter is over." + +"Then we must try and enliven it up a little for you. What would you +like, a house-warming?" + +"Oh, papa! that would be delightful." + +"All right, then, a house-warming it shall be. We must speak to Grace +and Kate about it; hold a council of war, you know, and settle +preliminaries. I can't spare my little Rosie just yet, and let her run +away to Ottawa." + +Rose gave him a rapturous kiss, and Captain Danton walked away, unlocked +the green baize door, and disappeared. + +When Kate came back from her ride, Rose informed her of her father's +proposal with sparkling eyes. Kate listened quietly, and made no +objection; neither did Grace; and so the matter was decided. + +Rose had no time to be lonely after that. Her father gave her _carte +blanche_ in the matter of dress and ornament, and Miss Rose's earthly +happiness was complete. She, and Kate, and Grace went to Montreal to +make the necessary purchases, to lasso dressmakers and fetch them back +to St. Croix. + +"I know a young woman I think will suit you," said Ma'am Ledru, the +cook. "She is an excellent dressmaker and embroideress; very poor, and +quite willing, I am sure, to go into the country. Her name is Agnes +Darling, and she lives in the Petite Rue de Saint Jacques." + +Rose hastened to the Petite Rue de Saint Jacques at once, and in a small +room of a tenement house found the seamstress; a little pale, dark-eyed, +dark-haired creature, with a face that was a history of trouble, though +her years could not have numbered twenty. There was no difficulty in +engaging her: she promised to be ready to return with them to St. Croix +the following morning. + +They only spent two days in the city, and were, of course, very busy all +the time. Grace took a few moments to try and find her brother, but +failed. He was not to be heard of at his customary address; he had been +talking of quitting Montreal, they told her there; probably he had done +so. + +The Dantons, with the pale little dressmaker, returned next day, all +necessaries provided. The business of the house-warming commenced at +once. Danton Hall--ever spotless under the reign of Grace--was rubbed up +and scrubbed down from garret to cellar. Invitations were sent out far +and wide. Agnes Darling's needle flew from early dawn till late at +night; and Grace and the cook, absorbed in cake and jelly-making, were +invisible all day long in the lower regions. Eeny and Rose went heart +and soul into the delightful fuss, all new to them, but Kate took little +interest in it. She was Sir Ronald's very good friend still, and, like +Mrs. Micawber, never deserted him. Captain Danton hid his diminished +head in his study, in Mr. Richard's rooms, or took refuge with the Cure +from the hubbub. + +The eventful night at last came round, clear, cold, and near Christmas. +The old ball-room of Danton Hall, disused so long, had been refitted, +waxed, and decorated; the long drawing-room was resplendent; the supper +table set in the dining-room was dazzling to look at, with silver, +Sevres, and glittering glass; the dressing-rooms were in a state of +perfection; the servants all _en grande tenue_; and Danton Hall one +blaze of light. In the bedroom regions the mysteries of the toilet had +been going on for hours. Eunice was busy with her mistress; Agnes the +seamstress was playing _femme de chambre_ to Rose. Grace dressed herself +in twenty minutes, and then dressed Eeny, who only wore pink muslin and +a necklace of pearls, and looked fairy-like and fragile as ever. Grace, +in gray silk, with an emerald brooch, and her brown hair simply worn as +she always wore it, looked lady-like and unassuming. + +The guests came by the evening train from Montreal, and the carriages of +the nearer neighbours began coming in rapid succession. Kate stood by +her cordial father's side, receiving their guests. So tall, so stately, +so exquisitely dressed--all the golden hair twisted in thick coils +around her regal head, and one diamond star flashing in its amber +glitter. Lovely with that flush on the delicate cheeks, that streaming +light in the blue eyes. + +Rose was eclipsed. Rose looking her best, and very pretty, but nothing +beside her queenly sister. But Rose was very brilliant, flitting hither +and thither, dancing incessantly, and turning whiskered heads in all +directions. They could fall in love with pretty, coquettish Rose, those +very young gentlemen, who could only look at Kate from a respectful +distance in speechless admiration and awe. Rose was of their kind, and +they could talk to her; so Rose was the belle of the night, after all. + +Sir Ronald Keith and two or three officers from Montreal, with side +whiskers, a long pedigree, and a first-rate opinion of themselves, were +the only gentlemen who had the temerity to approach the goddess of the +ball--oh! excepting the Reverend Augustus Clare, who, in his intense +admiration, was almost tongue-tied, and Doctor Danton, who, to the +surprise of every one except the master of the Hall, walked in, the last +guest of all. + +"You look surprised, Miss Danton," he said, as they shook hands. "Did +not the Captain tell you I was coming?" + +"Not a word." + +"I returned to-day, knowing nothing of the house-warming. The Captain +met me, and, with his customary hospitality, insisted on my coming." + +"We are very glad he has done so. Your sister tried to find you when we +were in--good Heaven! what is that?" + +It was a sudden, startled scream, that made all pause who were standing +near. Butler Thomas appeared at the moment, flurried and in haste. + +"What's the matter?" asked Captain Danton; and the startled faces of his +guests reiterated the question. "Who cried out?" + +"Old Margery, sir. She's seen a ghost!" + +"Seen what?" + +"A ghost, sir; out in the tamarack walk?--She's fell down in a fit in +the hall." + +There was a little chorus of startled exclamations from the ladies. +Captain Danton came forward, his florid face changing to white; and +Kate, all her colour gone, dropped her partner's arm. + +"Come with me, Doctor Danton," he said. "Yes, Kate, you too. My friends, +do not let this foolish affair disturb you. Excuse us for a few moments, +and pray go on as if nothing had happened." + +They left the ball-room together. The music, that had stopped, resumed; +dancing recommenced, and "all went merry as a marriage-bell." There was +only one, perhaps, who thought seriously of what had taken place. Grace, +standing near the door talking to an elderly major from the city, heard +Thomas' last words to his master as they went out. + +"Ogden says it was him she seen, but Margery won't listen to him. Ogden +says he was out in the tamarack walk, and she mistook him in the +moonlight for a ghost." + +Grace's thoughts went back to the night when she had seen the mysterious +walker under the tameracks. No, it was not Ogden, that old Margery had +seen, else Captain Danton and his daughter would not have worn such pale +and startled faces going out. + +It was not Ogden, and it was not a ghost; but whose ghost did Margery +take it to be? The apparition in the tamarack walk must have resembled +some one she knew and now thought to be dead, else why should she think +it a spirit at all? + +The whiskered major, who took Grace for one of the Captain's daughter's, +and was slightly _ebris_, found her very _distraite_ all of a sudden, +and answering his questions vaguely and at random. He did his best to +interest her, and failed so signally that he got up and left in disgust. + +Grace sat still and watched the door. Half an hour +passed--three-quarters, and then her brother re-entered alone. She went +up to him at once, but his unreadable face told nothing. + +"Well," she asked, anxiously, "how is Margery?" + +"Restored and asleep." + +"Does she really think she saw a ghost?" + +"She really does, and was frightened into fits." + +"Whose ghost was it?" + +"My dear Grace," said the Doctor, "have sense. I believe the foolish old +woman mentioned some name to Miss Danton, but I never repeat nonsense. +She is in her dotage, I dare say, and sees double." + +"Margery is no more in her dotage than you are," said Grace, vexed. +"Perhaps she is not the only one who has seen the ghost of Danton Hall." + +"Grace! What do you mean?" + +"Excuse me, Doctor Frank, I never talk nonsense. You can keep your +professional secrets; I'll find out from Margery all the same. Here is +the Captain; he looks better than when he went out. Where is Kate?" + +"With Margery. She won't be left alone." + +As she spoke, Rose came up, her brightest smiles in full play. + +"I have been searching for you everywhere, Doctor Frank. You ought to be +sent to Coventry. Don't you know you engaged me for the German, and here +you stand talking to Grace. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, sir." + +"So I am," said the Doctor. "Adieu, Grace. Pardon this once, +Mademoiselle, and for the remainder of the evening, for the remainder of +my life, I am entirely at your service." + +Grace kept her station at the door watching for Kate. In another half +hour she appeared, slightly pale, but otherwise tranquil. She was +surrounded immediately by sundry "ginger-whiskered fellows," otherwise +the officers from Montreal, and lost to the housekeeper's view. + +The house-warming was a success. Somewhere in the big, busy world +perhaps, crime, and misery, and shame, and sorrow, and starvation, and +all the catalogue of earthly horrors, were rife, but not at Danton Hall. +Time trod on flowers; enchanted music drifted the bright hours away; the +golden side of life was uppermost; and if those gay dancers knew what +tears and trouble meant, their faces never showed it. Kate, with her +tranquil and commanding beauty, wore a face as serene as a summer's sky; +and her father playing whist, was laughing until all around laughed in +sympathy. No, there could be no hidden skeleton, or the masks those wore +who knew of its grisly presence were something wonderful. + +In the black and bitterly cold dawn of early morning the dancers went +shivering home. The first train bore the city guests, blue and fagged, +to Montreal; and Doctor Frank walked briskly through the piercing air +over the frozen snow to his hotel. And up in her room old Margery lay in +disturbed sleep, watched over by dozing Babette, and moaning out at +restless intervals. + +"Master Harry! Master Harry! O Miss Kate! it was Master Harry's ghost!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +ROSE'S ADVENTURE. + + +December wore out in wild snow-storms and wintry winds. Christmas came, +solemn and shrouded in white; and Kate Danton's fair hands decorated the +little village church with evergreens and white roses for Father +Francis; and Kate Danton's sweet voice sang the dear old "Adeste +Fideles" on Christmas morning. Kate Danton, too, with the princely +spirit that nature and habit had given her, made glad the cottages of +the poor with gifts of big turkeys, and woolly blankets, and barrels of +flour. They half adored, these poor people, the stately young lady, with +the noble and lovely face, so unlike anything St. Croix had ever seen +before. Proud as she was, she was never proud with them--God's poor +ones; she was never proud when she knelt in their midst, in that lowly +little church, and cried "Mea culpa" as humbly as the lowliest sinner +there. + +New-Year came with its festivities, bringing many callers from Montreal, +and passed; and Danton Hall fell into its customary tranquillity once +more. Sir Ronald Keith was still their guest; Doctor Frank was still an +inmate of the St. Croix Hotel, and a regular visitor at the Hall. More +letters had come for Kate from England; Lieutenant Stanford's regiment +had gone to Ireland, and he said nothing of leave of absence or a visit +to Canada. Rose got weekly epistles from Ottawa; her darling Jules +poured out floods of undying love in the very best French, and Rose +smiled over them complacently, and went down and made eyes at Doctor +Frank all the evening. And old Margery was not recovered yet from the +ghost-seeing fright, and would not remain an instant alone by night or +day for untold gold. + +The sunset of a bright January day was turning the western windows of +Danton Hall to sheets of beaten gold. The long, red lances of light +pierced through the black trees, tinged the piled up snow-drifts, and +made the low evening sky one blaze of crimson splendour. Eeny stood +looking thoughtfully out at the gorgeous hues of the wintry sunset and +the still landscape, where no living thing moved. She was in a cozy +little room called the housekeeper's room, but which Grace never used, +except when she made up her accounts, or when her favourite apartment, +the dining-room, was occupied. A bright fire burned in the grate, and +the curtained windows and carpeted floor were the picture of comfort. It +had been used latterly as a sewing-room, and Agnes Darling sat at the +other window embroidering a handkerchief for Rose. There had been a long +silence--the seamstress never talked much; and Eeny was off in a +daydream. Presently, a big dog came bounding tumultuously up the avenue, +and a tall man in an overcoat followed leisurely. + +"There!" exclaimed Eeny, "there's Tiger and Tiger's master. You haven't +seen Grace's brother yet, have you Agnes?" + +"No," said the seamstress, looking out, "is that he?" + +He was too far off to be seen distinctly; but a moment or two later he +was near. A sudden exclamation from the seamstress made Eeny look at her +in surprise. She had sprang up and sat down again, white, and startled, +and trembling. + +"What's the matter?" said Eeny. "Do you know Doctor Danton?" + +"Doctor Danton?" repeated Agnes. "Yes. Oh, what am I saying! No, I don't +know him." + +She sat down again, all pale and trembling, and scared. Doctor Frank was +ringing the bell, and was out of sight. Eeny gazed at her exceedingly +astonished. + +"What is the matter with you?" she reiterated. "What are you afraid of? +Do you know Doctor Danton?" + +"Don't ask me; please don't ask me!" cried the little seamstress, +piteously. "I have seen him before; but, oh, please don't say anything +about it!" + +She was in such a violent tremor--her voice was so agitated, that Eeny +good-naturedly said no more. She turned away, and looked again at the +paling glory of the sunset, not seeing it this time, but thinking of +Agnes Darling's unaccountable agitation at sight of Grace's brother. + +"Perhaps he has been a lover of hers," thought romantic Eeny, "and +false! She is very pretty, or would be, if she wasn't as pale as a +corpse. And yet I don't think Doctor Frank would be false to any one +either. I don't want to think so--I like him too well." + +Eeny left the sewing-room and went upstairs. She found Doctor Danton in +the dining-room with his sister and Rose, and Rose was singing a French +song for him. Eeny took her station by the window; she knew the +seamstress was in the daily habit of taking a little twilight walk in +her favourite circle, round and round the fish-pond, and she could see +from where she stood when she went out. + +"I'll show her to him," thought Eeny, "and see if it flurries him as it +did her. There is something between them, if one could get to the bottom +of it." + +Rose's song ended. The sunset faded out in a pale blank of dull +gray--twilight fell over the frozen ground. A little black figure, +wearing a shawl over its head, fluttered out into the mysterious +half-light, and began pacing slowly round the frozen fish-pond. + +"Doctor Frank," said Eeny, "come here and see the moon rise." + +"How romantic!" laughed Rose. But the Doctor went and stood by her side. + +The wintry crescent-moon was sailing slowly up, with the luminous +evening star resplendent beside her, glittering on the whitened earth. + +"Pretty," said the Doctor; "very. Solemn, and still, and white! What +dark fairy is that gliding round the fish-pond?" + +"That," said Eeny, "is Agnes Darling." + +"Who?" questioned Doctor Danton, suddenly and sharply. + +"Agnes Darling, our seamstress. Dear me, Doctor Danton, one would think +you knew her!" + +There had been a momentary change in his face, and Eeny's suspicious +eyes were full upon him--only momentary, though; it was gone directly, +and his unreadable countenance was as calm as a summer's sky. Doctor +Frank might have been born a duke, so radically and unaffectedly +nonchalant was he. + +"The name has a familiar sound; but I don't think I know your +seamstress. Go and play me a waltz, Eeny." + +There was no getting anything out of Doctor Danton which he did not +choose to tell. Eeny knew that, and went over to the piano, a little +provoked at the mystery they made of it. + +But destiny that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will, had made +up its mind for further revelations, and against destiny even Doctor +Frank was powerless. Destiny lost no time either--the revelation came +the very next evening. Kate and Eeny had been to St. Croix, visiting +some of Kate's poor pensioners, and evening was closing in when they +reached the Hall. A lovely evening--calm, windless, still; the moon's +silver disk brilliant in an unclouded sky, and the holy hush of eventide +over all. The solemn beauty of the falling night tempted Kate to linger, +while Eeny went on to the house. There was a group of tall pines, with a +rustic bench, near the entrance-gates. Kate sat down under the +evergreens, leaning against the trees, her dark form scarcely +distinguishable in their shadow. While she sat, a man and a woman +passed. Full in the moonlight she saw that it was Doctor Danton and +Agnes Darling. Distinct in the still keen air she heard his low, earnest +words. + +"Don't betray yourself--don't let them see you know me. Be on your +guard, especially with Eeny, who suspects. It will avoid disagreeable +explanations. It is best to let them think we have never met." + +They were gone. Kate sat petrified. What understanding was this between +Doctor Danton and their pale little seamstress? They knew each other, +and there were reasons why that acquaintance should be a secret. "It +would involve disagreeable explanations!" What could Doctor Frank mean? +The solution of the riddle that had puzzled Eeny came to her. Had they +been lovers at some past time?--was Doctor Frank a villain after all? + +The moon sailed up in the zenith, the blue sky was all sown with stars, +and the loud ringing of the dinner-bell reached her even where she sat. +She got up hastily, and hurried to the house, ran to her room, threw off +her bonnet and shawl, smoothed her hair, and descended to the +dining-room in her plain black silk dress. She was late; they were all +there--her father, Grace, Rose, Eeny, Sir Ronald, the Reverend Augustus +Clare, and Doctor Danton. + +"Runaway," said her father, "we had given you up. Where have you been?" + +"Star-gazing, papa. Down under the pines, near the gates, until five +minutes ago." + +Doctor Frank looked up quickly, and met the violet eyes fixed full upon +him. + +"I heard you, sir," that bright glance said. "Your secret is a secret no +longer." + +Doctor Danton looked down at his plate with just a tinge of colour in +his brown face. He understood her as well as if she had spoken; but, +except that faint and transient flush, it never moved him. He told them +stories throughout dinner of his adventures as a medical student in +Germany, and every one laughed except Kate. She could not laugh; the +laughter of the others irritated her. His words going up the avenue rang +in her ears; the pale, troubled face of the seamstress was before her +eyes. Something in the girl's sad, joyless face had interested her from +the first. Had Doctor Danton anything to do with that look of hopeless +trouble? + +With this new interest in her mind, Kate sent for the seamstress to her +room next morning. Some lace was to be sewn on a new dress. Eunice +generally did such little tasks for her mistress, but on this occasion +it was to be Agnes. The girl sat down with the rich robe by the window, +and bent assiduously over her work. Miss Danton, in a loose negligee, +lying half buried in the depths of a great carved and cushioned chair, +watched her askance while pretending to read. What a slender, diminutive +creature she was--how fixedly pale, paler still in contrast with her +black hair and great, melancholy dark eyes. She never looked up--she +went on, stitch, stitch, like any machine, until Kate spoke, suddenly: + +"Agnes!" + +The dark eyes lifted inquiringly. + +"How old are you?" + +"Twenty-two." + +"You don't look it. Are your parents living?" + +"No; dead these many years." + +"Have you brothers or sisters?" + +"No, I never had." + +"But you have other relatives--uncles, aunts, cousins?" + +"No, Miss Danton--none that I have ever seen." + +"What an isolated little thing you are! Have you lived in Montreal all +your life?" + +"Oh, no! I have only been in Montreal a few months. I was born and +brought up in New York." + +"In New York!" repeated Kate, surprised. And then there was a pause. +When had Doctor Danton been in New York? For the last four years he had +been in Germany; from Germany he had come direct to Canada, so Grace had +told her; where, then, had he known this New York girl? + +"Why did you come to Montreal?" asked Kate. + +There was a nervous contraction around the girl's mouth, and something +seemed to fade out of her face--not color, for she had none--but it +darkened with something like sudden anguish. + +"I had a friend," she said hastily, "a friend I lost; I heard I might +find that--that friend in Montreal, and so--" + +Her voice died away, and she put up one trembling hand to shade her +face. Kate came over and touched the hand lying on her black dress, +caressingly. She forgot her pride, as she often forgot it in her womanly +pity. + +"My poor little Agnes! Did you find that friend?" + +"No." + +"No?" repeated Kate. + +She thought the reply would be "yes"--she had thought the friend was +Doctor Frank. Agnes dropped her hand from before her face. + +"No," she said sadly, "I have not found him. I shall never find him +again in this world, I am afraid." + +Him! That little tell-tale pronoun! Kate knew by instinct the friend was +"him," men being at the bottom of all womanly distress in this lower +world. + +"Then it was not Doctor Danton?" + +Agnes looked up with a suddenly frightened face, her great eyes +dilating, her pale lips parting. + +"I saw you by accident coming up the avenue with him last evening," Kate +hastened to explain. "I chanced to hear a remark of his in passing; I +could not help it." + +Agnes clasped her hands together in frightened supplication. + +"You won't say anything about it?" she said, piteously. "Oh, please +don't say anything about it! I am so sorry you overheard. Oh, Miss +Danton, you won't tell?" + +"Certainly not," answered Kate, startled by her emotion. "I merely +thought he might be the friend you came in search of." + +"Oh, no, no! Doctor Danton has been my friend; I owe him more than I can +ever repay. He is the best, and noblest, and most generous of men. He +was my friend when I had no friend in the world--when, but for him, I +might have died. But he is not the one I came to seek." + +"I beg your pardon," said Kate, going back to her chair. "I have asked +too many questions." + +"No, no! You have a right to ask me, but I cannot tell. I am not very +old, but my heart is nearly broken." + +She dropped her work, covered her face with her slender hands, and broke +out into a fit of passionate crying. Kate was beside her in a moment, +soothing her, caressing her, as if she had been her sister. + +"I am sorry, I am sorry," she said; "it is all my fault. Don't cry, +Agnes; I will go now; you will feel better alone." + +She stooped and kissed her. Agnes looked up in grateful surprise, but +Miss Danton was gone. She ran down stairs and stood looking out of the +drawing-room window, at the sunlit, wintry landscape. + +So Doctor Frank was a hero after all, and not a villain. He had nothing +to do with this pale little girl's trouble. He was only her best friend +and wanted to hide it. + +"People generally like their good deeds to be known," mused Miss Danton. +"They want their right hand to see all that their left hand gives. Is +Doctor Frank a little better than the rest of mankind? I know he attends +the sick poor of St. Croix for nothing, and I know he is very pleasant, +and a gentleman. Is he that modern wonder, a good man, besides?" + +Her meditations were interrupted by the entrance of Rose, looking very +charming in a tight jacket and long black riding-skirt, a "jockey hat +and feather" on her curly head, and flourishing her riding-whip in her +gauntleted hand. + +"I thought you were out, Kate, with your little Scotchman," she said, +slapping her gaiter. "I saw him mount and ride off nearly an hour ago." + +"I have been in my room." + +"I wish Doctor Frank would come," said Rose. "I like some one to make +love to me when I ride." + +"Doctor Frank does not make love to you." + +"Does he not? How do you know?" + +"My prophetic soul tells me, and what is more, never will. All the +better for Doctor Frank, since you would not accept him or his love if +he offered them." + +"And how do you know that? I must own I thought him a prig at first, and +if I begin to find him delightful now, I suppose it is merely by force +of contrast with your black-browed, deadly-dull baronet. Will you come? +No? Well, then, adieu, and _au revoir_." + +Kate watched her mount and gallop down the avenue, kissing her hand as +she disappeared. + +"My pretty Rose," she thought, smiling, "she is only a spoiled child; +one cannot be angry, let her say what she will." + +Out beyond the gates, Rose's canter changed to a rapid gallop. She +managed her horse well, and speedily left the village behind, and was +flying along a broad, well-beaten country road, interspersed at remote +intervals with quaint French farm-houses. + +All at once, Regina slipped--there was a sheet of ice across the +road--struggled to regain her footing, fell, and would have thrown her +rider had not a man, walking leisurely along, sprung forward and caught +her in his arms. + +Rose was unhurt, and extricating herself from the stranger's +coat-sleeves, rose also. The hero of the moment made an attempt to +follow her example, uttered a groan, made a wry face, and came to a +halt. + +"Are you hurt?" Rose asked. + +"I have twisted an ankle on that confounded ice--sprained it, I am +afraid, in the struggle with the horse. If I can walk--but no, my +locomotive powers, I find, are at a standstill for the present. Now, +then, Mademoiselle, what are we to do?" + +He seated himself with great deliberation on a fallen tree and looked up +at her coolly, as he asked the question. + +Rose looked down into one of the handsomest faces she had ever seen, +albeit pallid just now with sharp pain. + +"I am so sorry," she said, in real concern. "You cannot walk, and you +must not stay here. What shall we--oh! what shall we do?" + +"I tell you," said the young man. "Do you see that old yellow farm-house +that looks like a church in Chinese mourning." + +"Yes." + +"Well--but it will be a great deal of trouble." + +"Trouble!" cried Rose. "Don't talk about trouble. Do you want me to go +to that farm-house!" + +"If you will be so kind. I stopped there last night. Tell old +Jacques--that's the proprietor--to send some kind of a trap down here +for me--a sled, if nothing else." + +"I'll be back in ten minutes," exclaimed Rose, mounting Regina with +wonderful celerity, and flying off. + +Old Jacques--a wizen little habitant--was distressed at the news, and +ran off instantly to harness up his old mare, and sled. Madame Jacques +placed a mattress on the sled and the vehicle started. + +"Who is the gentleman?" Rose asked carelessly, as they rode along. + +Old Jacques didn't know. He had stopped there last night, and paid them, +but hadn't told them his name or his business. + +A few minutes brought them to the scene of the tragedy. The stranger +lifted those dark eyes of his, and looked so unspeakably handsome, that +Rose was melted to deeper compassion than ever. + +"I am afraid you are nearly frozen to death," she said, springing +lightly to the ground. "Let us try if we cannot help you on to the +sled." + +"You are very kind," replied the stranger, laughing and accepting. "It +is worth while having a sprained ankle, after all." + +Rose and old Jacques got him on the sled between them though his lips +were white with suppressed pain in the effort. + +"I sent Jean Baptiste for Dr. Pillule," said old Jacques as he started +the mare. "Monsieur will be--what you call it--all right, when Dr. +Pillule comes." + +"Might I ask--but, perhaps it would be asking too much?" the stranger +said, looking at Rose. + +"What is it?" + +"Will you not return with us, and hear whether Dr. Pillule thinks my +life in danger?" + +Rose laughed. + +"I never heard of any one dying from a sprained ankle. _Malgre cela_, I +will return if you wish it, since you got it in my behalf." + +Rose's steed trotted peaceably beside the sled to the farm-house door. +All the way, the wounded hero lay looking up at the graceful girl, with +the rose-red cheeks and auburn curls, and thinking, perhaps, if he were +any judge of pictures, what a pretty picture she made. + +Rose assisted in helping him into the drawing room of the +establishment--which was a very wretched drawing-room indeed. There was +a leather lounge wheeled up before a large fire, and thereon the injured +gentleman was laid. + +Doctor Pillule had not yet arrived, and old Jacques stood waiting +further orders. + +"Jacques, fetch a chair. That is right; put it up here, near me. Now you +can go. Mademoiselle, do me the favour to be seated." + +Rose sat down, very near--dangerously near--the owner of the eyes. + +"May I ask the name of the young lady whom I have been fortunate enough +to assist." + +"My name is Rosina--Rose Danton." + +"Danton," repeated the young man slowly. "Danton; I know that name. +There is a place called Danton Hall over here--a fine old place, they +tell me--owned by one Captain Danton." + +"I am Captain Danton's second daughter." + +"Then, Miss Danton, I am very happy to make your acquaintance." + +He held out his hand, gravely. Rose shook hands, laughing and blushing. + +"I am much pleased to make yours, Mr. ----" laughing still, and looking +at him. + +"Reinecourt," said the gentleman. + +"Mr. Reinecourt; only I wish you had not sprained your ankle doing it." + +"I don't regret it. But you are under an obligation to me, are you not?" + +"Certainly." + +"Then I mean to have a return for what you owe me. I want you to come +and see me every day until I get well." + +Rose blushed vividly. + +"Oh, I don't know. You exact too much!" + +"Not a whit. I'll never fly to the rescue of another damsel in distress +as long as I live, if you don't." + +"But every day! Once a week will be enough." + +"If you insult me by coming once a week, I'll issue orders not to admit +you. Promise, Miss Danton; here comes Doctor Pillule." + +"I promise, then. There, I never gave you permission to kiss my hand." + +She arose precipitately, and stood looking out of the window, while the +Doctor attended to the sprain. + +Nearly half an hour passed. The ankle was duly bathed and bandaged, then +old Jacques and the Doctor went away, and she came over and looked +laughingly down at the invalid, a world of coquettish daring in her +dancing eyes. + +"Well, M. Reinecourt, when does M. le Medecin say you are going to die?" + +"When you think of leaving me, Mademoiselle." + +"Then summon your friends at once, for I not only think of it, but am +about to do it." + +"Oh, not so soon." + +"It is half-past two, Monsieur," pulling out her watch; "they will think +I am lost at home. I must go!" + +"Well, shake hands before you go." + +"It seems to me you are very fond of shaking hands, Mr. Reinecourt," +said Rose, giving him hers willingly enough, though. + +"And you really must leave me?" + +"I really must." + +"But you will come to-morrow?" still holding her hand. + +"Perhaps so--if I have nothing better to do." + +"You cannot do anything better than visit the sick, and oh, yes! do me +another favour. Fetch me some books to read--to pass the dismal hours of +your absence." + +"Very well; now let me go." + +He released her plump little hand, and Rose drew on her gloves. + +"Adieu, Mr. Reinecourt," moving to the door. + +"_Au revoir_, Miss Danton, until to-morrow morning." + +Rose rode home in delight. In one instant the world had changed. St. +Croix had become a paradise, and the keen air sweet as "Ceylon's spicy +breezes." As Alice Carey says, "What to her was our world with its +storms and rough weather," with that pallid face, those eyes of darkest +splendour, that magnetic voice, haunting her all the way. It was love at +sight with Miss Danton the second. What was the girlish fancy she had +felt for Jules La Touche--for Dr. Frank--for a dozen others, compared +with this. + +Joe, the stable-boy, led away Regina, and Rose entered the house. +Crossing the hall, she met Eeny going upstairs. + +"Well!" said Eeny, "and where have you been all day, pray?" + +"Out riding." + +"Where?" + +"Oh, everywhere! Don't bother!" + +"Do you know we have had luncheon?" + +"I don't care--I don't want luncheon." + +She ran past her sister, and shut herself up in her room. Eeny stared. +In all her experience of her sister she had never known her to be +indifferent to eating and drinking. For the first time in Rose's life, +love had taken away her appetite. + +All that afternoon she stayed shut up in her chamber, dreaming as only +eighteen, badly in love, does dream. When darkness fell, and the lamps +were lit, and the dinner-bell rang, she descended to the dining-room +indifferent for the first time whether she was dressed well or ill. + +"What does it matter?" she thought, looking in the glass; "he is not +here to see me." + +Doctor Frank and the Reverend Augustus Clare dropped in after dinner, +but Rose hardly deigned to look at them. She reclined gracefully on a +sofa, with half shut eyes, listening to Kate playing one of Beethoven's +"Songs without Words," and seeing--not the long, lamp-lit drawing-room +with all its elegant luxuries, or the friends around her, but the bare +best room of the old yellow farm-house, and the man lying lonely and ill +before the blazing fire. Doctor Danton sat down beside her and talked to +her; but Rose answered at random, and was so absorbed, and silent, and +preoccupied, as to puzzle every one. Her father asked her to sing. Rose +begged to be excused--she could not sing to-night. Kate looked at her in +wonder. + +"What is the matter with you, Rose?" she inquired; "are you ill? What is +it?" + +"Nothing," Rose answered, "only I don't feel like talking." + +And not feeling like it, nobody could make her talk. She retired +early--to live over again in dreams the events of that day, and to think +of the blissful morrow. + +An hour after breakfast next morning, Eeny met her going out, dressed +for her ride, and with a little velvet reticule stuffed full, slung over +her arm. + +"What have you got in that bag?" asked Eeny, "your dinner? Are you going +to a picnic?" + +Rose laughed at the idea of a January picnic, and ran off without +answering. An hour's brisk gallop brought her to the farm house, and old +Jacques came out, bowing and grinning, to take charge of her horse. + +"Monsieur was in the parlour--would Mademoiselle walk right into the +parlour? Dr. Pillule had been there and seen to Monsieur's ankle. +Monsieur was doing very well, only not able to stand up yet." + +Rose found Monsieur half asleep before the fire, and looking as handsome +as ever in his slumber. He started up at her entrance, holding out both +hands. + +"_Mon ange!_ I thought you were never coming. I was falling into +despair." + +"Falling into despair means falling asleep, I presume. Don't let me +disturb your dreams." + +"I am in a more blissful dream now than any I could dream asleep. Here +is a seat. Oh, don't sit so far off. Are those the books? How can I ever +thank you?" + +"You never can--so don't try. Here is Tennyson--of course you like +Tennyson; here is Shelley--here are two new and charming novels. Do you +read novels?" + +"I will read everything you fetch me. By-the-by, it is very fatiguing to +read lying down; won't you read to me?" + +"I can't read. I mean I can't read aloud." + +"Let me be the judge of that. Let me see--read 'Maud.'" + +Rose began and did her best, and read until she was tired. Mr. +Reinecourt watched her all the while as she sat beside him. + +And presently they drifted off into delicious talk of poetry and +romance; and Rose, pulling out her watch, was horrified to find that it +was two o'clock. + +"I must go!" she cried, springing up; "what will they think has become +of me?" + +"But you will come again to-morrow?" pleaded Mr. Reinecourt. + +"I don't know--you don't deserve it, keeping me here until this hour. +Perhaps I may, though--good-bye." + +Rose, saying this, knew in her heart she could not stay away if she +tried. Next morning she was there, and the next, and the next, and the +next. Then came a week of wild, snowy weather, when the roads were +heaped high, going out was an impossibility, and she had to stay at +home. Rose chafed desperately under the restraint, and grew so irritable +that it was quite a risk to speak to her. All her old high spirits were +gone. Her ceaseless flow of talk suddenly checked. She wandered about +the house aimlessly, purposelessly, listlessly, sighing wearily, and +watching the flying snow and hopeless sky. A week of this weather, and +January was at its close before a change for the better came. Rose was +falling a prey to green and yellow melancholy, and perplexing the whole +household by the unaccountable alteration in her. With the first gleam +of fine weather she was off. Her long morning rides were recommenced; +smiles and roses returned to her face, and Rose was herself again. + +It took that sprained ankle a very long time to get well. Three weeks +had passed since that January day when Regina had slipped on the ice, +and still Mr. Reinecourt was disabled; at least he was when Rose was +there. He had dropped the Miss Danton and taken to calling her Rose, of +late; but when she was gone, it was really surprising how well he could +walk, and without the aid of a stick. Old Jacques grinned knowingly. The +poetry reading and the long, long talks went on every day, and Rose's +heart was hopelessly and forever gone. She knew nothing more of Mr. +Reinecourt than that he was Mr. Reinecourt; still, she hardly cared to +know. She was in love, and an idiot; to-day sufficed for her--to-morrow +might take care of itself. + +"Rose, _cherie_," Mr. Reinecourt said to her one day, "you vindicate +your sex; you are free from the vice of curiosity. You ask no questions, +and, except my name, you know nothing of me." + +"Well, Mr. Reinecourt, whose fault is that?" + +"Do you want to know?" + +Rose looked at him, then away. Somehow of late she had grown strangely +shy. + +"If you like to tell me." + +"My humble little Rose! Yes, I will tell you. I must leave here soon; a +sprained ankle won't last forever, do our best." + +She looked at him in sudden alarm, her bright bloom fading out. He had +taken one of her little hands, and her fingers closed involuntarily over +his. + +"Going away!" she repeated. "Going away!" + +He smiled slightly. His masculine vanity was gratified by the +irrepressible confession of her love for him. + +"Not from you, my dear little Rose. To-morrow you will know all--where I +am going, and who I am." + +"Who you are! Are you not Mr. Reinecourt?" + +"Certainly!" half laughing. "But that is rather barren information, is +it not? Can you wait until to-morrow?" + +His smile, the clasp in which he held her hand, reassured her. + +"Oh, yes," she said, drawing a long breath, "I can wait!" + +That day--Rose remembered it afterward--he stood holding her hands a +long time at parting. + +"You will go! What a hurry you are always in," he said. + +"A hurry!" echoed Rose. "I have been here three hours. I should have +gone long ago. Don't detain me; good-bye!" + +"Good-bye, my Rose, my dear little nurse! Good-bye until we meet again." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +HON. LIEUTENANT REGINALD STANFORD. + + +Rose Danton's slumbers were unusually disturbed that night. Mr. +Reinecourt haunted her awake, Mr. Reinecourt haunted her asleep. What +was the eventful morrow to reveal? Would he tell her he loved her? Would +he ask her to be his wife? Did he care for her, or did he mean nothing +after all? + +No thought of Jules La Touche came to disturb her as she drifted off +into delicious memories of the past and ecstatic dreams of the future. +No thought of the promise she had given, no remorse at her own falsity, +troubled her easy conscience. What did she care for Jules La Touche? +What was he beside this splendid Mr. Reinecourt? She thought of +him--when she thought of him at all--with angry impatience, and she drew +his ring off her finger and flung it across the room. + +"What a fool I was," she thought, "ever to dream of marrying that silly +boy! Thank heaven I never told any one but Grace." + +Rose was feverish with impatience and anticipation when morning came. +She sat down to breakfast, tried to eat, and drink, and talk as usual, +and failed in all. As soon as the meal was over, unable to wait, she +dressed and ordered her horse. Doctor Frank was sauntering up the +avenue, smoking a cigar in the cold February sunshine, as she rode off. + +"Away so early, Di Vernon, and unescorted? May I--" + +"No," said Rose, brusquely, "you may not. Good morning!" + +Doctor Frank glanced after her as she galloped out of sight. + +"What is it?" he thought. "What has altered her of late? She is not the +same girl she was two weeks ago. Has she fallen in love, I wonder? Not +likely, I should think; and yet--" + +He walked off, revolving the question, to the house, while Rose was +rapidly shortening the distance between herself and her beloved. Old +Jacques was leaning over the gate as she rode up, and took off his hat +with Canadian courtesy to the young lady. + +"Is Mr. Reinecourt in, Mr. Jacques?" asked Rose, preparing to dismount. + +Jacques lifted his eyebrows in polite surprise. + +"Doesn't Mademoiselle know, then?" + +"Know what?" + +"That Monsieur has gone?" + +"Gone?" + +"Yes, Mademoiselle, half an hour ago. Gone for good." + +"But he will come back?" said Rose, faintly, her heart seeming suddenly +to stop beating. + +Old Jacques shook his head. + +"No, Mam'selle. Monsieur has paid me like a king, shook hands with +Margot and me, and gone forever." + +There was a dead pause. Rose clutched her bridle-rein, and felt the +earth spinning under her, her face growing-white and cold. + +"Did he leave no message--no message for me?" + +She could barely utter the words, the shock, the consternation were so +great. Something like a laugh shone in old Jacques' eyes. + +"No, Mademoiselle, he never spoke of you. He only paid us, and said +good-bye, and went away." + +Rose turned Regina slowly round in a stunned sort of way, and with the +reins loose on her neck, let her take her road homeward. A dull sense of +despair was all she was conscious of. She could not think, she could not +reason, her whole mind was lost in blank consternation. He was gone. She +could not get beyond that--he was gone. + +The boy who came to lead away her horse stared at her changed face; the +servant who opened the door opened his eyes, also, at sight of her. She +never heeded them; a feeling that she wanted to be alone was all she +could realize, and she walked straight to a little alcove opening from +the lower end of the long entrance-hall. An archway and a curtain of +amber silk separated it from the drawing-room, of which it was a sort of +recess. A sofa, piled high with downy pillows, stood invitingly under a +window. Among these pillows poor Rose threw herself, to do battle with +her despair. + +While she lay there in tearless rage, she heard the drawing-room door +open, and some one come in. + +"Who shall I say, sir?" insinuated the servant. + +"Just say a friend wishes to see Miss Danton," was the answer. + +That voice! Rose bounded from the sofa, her eyes wild, her lips apart. +Her hand shook as she drew aside the curtain and looked out. A gentleman +was there, but he sat with his back to her, and his figure was only +partially revealed. Rose's heart beat in great plunges against her side, +but she restrained herself and waited. Ten minutes, and there was the +rustle of a dress; Kate entered the room. The gentleman arose, there was +a cry of "Reginald!" and then Kate was clasped in the stranger's arms. +Rose could see his face now; no need to look twice to recognize Mr. +Reinecourt. + +The curtain dropped from Rose's hand, she stood still, breath coming and +going in gasps. She saw it all as by an electric light--Mr. Reinecourt +was Kate's betrothed husband, Reginald Stanford. He had known her from +the first; from the first he had coolly and systematically deceived her. +He knew that she loved him--he must know it--and had gone on fooling her +to the top of his bent. Perhaps he and Kate would laugh over it together +before the day was done. Rose clenched her hands, and her eyes flashed +at the thought. Back came the colour to her cheeks, back the light to +her eyes; anger for the moment quenched every spark of love. Some of the +old Danton pluck was in her, after all. No despair now, no lying on sofa +cushions any more in helpless woe. + +"How dared he do it--how dared he?" she thought "knowing me to be Kate's +sister. I hate him! oh, I hate him!" + +And here Rose broke down, and finding the hysterics would come, fled +away to her room, and cried vindictively for two hours. + +She got up at last, sullen and composed. Her mind was made up. She would +show Mr. Reinecourt (Mr. Reinecourt indeed)! how much she cared for him. +He should see the freezing indifference with which she could treat him; +he should see she was not to be fooled with impunity. + +Rose bathed her flushed and tear-stained face until every trace of the +hysterics was gone, called Agnes Darling to curl her hair and dress her +in a new blue glace, in which she looked lovely. Then, with a glow like +fever on her cheeks, a fire like fever in her eyes, she went down +stairs. In the hall she met Eeny. + +"Oh, Rose! I was just going up to your room. Kate wants you." + +"Does she? What for?" + +"Mr. Stanford has come. He is with her in the drawing-room; and, Rose, +he is the handsomest man I ever saw." + +Rose shook back her curls disdainfully, and descended to the +drawing-room. _A la princesse_ she sailed in, and saw the late M. +Reinecourt seated by the window, Kate beside him, with, oh, such a happy +face! She arose at her sister's entrance, a smile of infinite content on +her face. + +"Reginald, my sister Rose. Rose, Mr. Stanford." + +Rose made the most graceful bow that ever was seen, not the faintest +sign of recognition in her face. She hardly glanced at Mr. Stanford--she +was afraid to trust herself too far--she was afraid to meet those +magnetic dark eyes. If he looked aback at her _sang-froid_, she did not +see it. She swept by as majestically as Kate herself, and took a distant +seat. + +Kate's face showed her surprise. Rose had been a puzzle to her of late; +she was more a puzzle now than ever. Rose was standing on her dignity, +that was evident; and Rose did not often stand on that pedestal. She +would not talk, or only in monosyllables. Her replies to Mr. Stanford +were pointedly cold and brief. She sat, looking very pretty in her blue +glace and bright curls, her fingers toying idly with her chatelaine and +trinkets, and as unapproachable as a grand duchess. + +Mr. Stanford made no attempt to approach her. He sat and talked to his +betrothed of the old times and the old friends and places, and seemed to +forget there was any one else in the world. Rose listened, with a heart +swelling with angry bitterness--silent, except when discreetly addressed +by Kate, and longing vindictively to spring up and tell the handsome, +treacherous Englishman what she thought of him there and then. + +As luncheon hour drew near, her father, who had been absent, returned +with Sir Ronald Keith and Doctor Danton. They were all going upstairs; +but Kate, with a happy flush on her face, looked out of the drawing-room +door. + +"Come in papa," she said; "come in, Sir Ronald; there is an old friend +here." + +She smiled a bright invitation to the young Doctor, who went in also. +Reginald Stanford stood up. Captain Danton, with a delighted "Hallo!" +grasped both his hands. + +"Reginald, my dear boy, I am delighted, more than delighted, to see you. +Welcome to Canada, Sir Ronald; this is more than we bargained for." + +"I was surprised to find you here, Sir Ronald," said the young officer, +shaking the baronet's hand cordially; "very happy to meet you again." + +Sir Ronald, with a dark flush on his face, bowed stiffly, in silence, +and moved away. + +Doctor Frank was introduced, made his bow, and retreated to Rose's sofa. + +Capricious womanhood! Rose, that morning, had decidedly snubbed him; +Rose, at noon, welcomed him with her most radiant smile. Never, perhaps, +in all his experience had any young lady listened to him with such +flattering attention, with such absorbed interest. Never had bright eyes +and rosy lips given him such glances and smiles. She hung on his words; +she had eyes and ears for no one else, least of all for the supremely +handsome gentleman who was her sister's betrothed, and who talked to her +father; while Sir Ronald glowered over a book. + +The ringing of the luncheon-bell brought Grace and Eeny, and all were +soon seated around the Captain's hospitable board. + +Lieutenant Reginald Stanford laid himself out to be fascinating, and was +fascinating. There was a subtle charm in his handsome face, in his +brilliant smile and glance, in his pleasant voice, in his wittily-told +stories, and inexhaustible fund of anecdote and mimicry. Now he was in +Ireland, now in France, now in Scotland, now in Yorkshire; and the bad +English and the _patois_ and accent of all were imitated to the life. +With that face, that voice, that talent for imitation, Lieutenant +Stanford, in another walk of life, might have made his fortune on the +stage. His power of fascination was irresistible. Grace felt it, Eeny +felt it, all felt it, except Sir Ronald Keith. He sat like the Marble +Guest, not fascinated, not charmed, black and unsmiling. + +Rose, too--what was the matter with Rose? She, so acutely alive to +well-told stories, to handsome faces, so rigidly cold, and stately, and +uninterested now. She shrugged her dimpled shoulders when the table was +in a roar; she opened her rather small hazel eyes and stared, as if she +wondered, what they could see to laugh at. She did not even deign to +glance at him, the hero of the feast; and, in fact, so greatly overdid +her part as to excite the suspicions of that astute young man, Doctor +Danton. There is no effect without a cause. What was the cause of Rose's +icy indifference? He looked at her, then at Stanford, then back at her, +and set himself to watch. + +"She has met him before," thought the shrewd Doctor; "but where, if he +has just come from England? I'll ask him, I think." + +It was some time before there was a pause in the conversation. In the +first, Dr. Frank struck in. + +"How did you come, Mr. Stanford?" he asked. + +"On the Hysperia, from Southampton to New York." + +"How long ago?" inquired Kate, indirectly helping him; "a week?" + +"No," said Lieutenant Stanford, coolly carving his cold ham; "nearly +five." + +Every one stared. Kate looked blankly amazed. + +"Impossible!" she exclaimed; "five weeks since you landed in New York? +Surely not." + +"Quite true, I assure you. The way was this--" + +He paused and looked at Rose, who had spilled a glass of wine, trying to +lift it, in a hand that shook strangely. Her eyes were downcast, her +cheeks scarlet, her whole manner palpably and inexplicably embarrassed. + +"Four, weeks ago, I reached Canada. I did not write you, Kate, that I +was coming. I wished to give you a surprise. I stopped at +Belleplain--you know the town of Belleplain, thirty miles from here--to +see a brother officer I had known at Windsor. Travelling from Belleplain +in a confounded stage, I stopped half frozen at an old farm-house six +miles off. Next morning, pursuing my journey on foot, I met with a +little mishap." + +He paused provokingly to fill at his leisure a glass of sherry; and +Doctor Danton watching Rose under his eyelashes, saw the colour coming +and going in her traitor face. + +"I slipped on a sheet of ice," continued Mr. Stanford. "I am not used to +your horrible Canadian roads, remember, and strained my ankle badly. I +had to be conveyed back to the farm-house on a sled--medical attendance +procured, and for three weeks I have been a prisoner there. I could have +sent you word, no doubt, and put you to no end of trouble bringing me +here, but I did not like that; I did not care to turn Danton Hall into a +hospital, and go limping through life; so I made the best of a bad +bargain and stayed where I was." + +There was a general murmur of sympathy from all but Sir Ronald and Rose. +Sir Ronald sat like a grim statue in granite; and Rose, still fluttering +and tremulous, did not dare to lift her eyes. + +"You must have found it very lonely," said Doctor Danton. + +"No. I regretted not getting here, of course; but otherwise it was not +unpleasant. They took such capital care of me, you see, and I had a +select little library at my command; so, on the whole, I have been in +much more disagreeable quarters in my lifetime." + +Doctor Frank said no more. He had gained his point, and he was +satisfied. + +"It is quite clear," he thought. "By some hocus-pocus, Miss Rose has +made his acquaintance during those three weeks, and helped the slow time +to pass. He did not tell her he was her sister's lover, hence the +present frigidity. The long morning rides are accounted for now. I +wonder"--he looked at pretty Rose--"I wonder if the matter will end +here?" + +It seemed as if it would. Doctor Danton, coming every day to the Hall, +and closely observant always, saw no symptoms of thawing out on Rose's +part, and no effort to please on the side of Mr. Stanford. He treated +her as he treated Eeny and Grace, courteously, genially, but nothing +more. He was all devotion to his beautiful betrothed, and Kate--what +words can paint the infinite happiness of her face! All that was wanting +to make her beauty perfect was found. She had grown so gentle, so sweet, +so patient with all; she was so supremely blessed herself, she could +afford to stoop to the weaknesses of less fortunate mortals. That +indescribable change, the radiance of her eyes, the buoyancy of her +step, the lovely colour that deepened and died, the smiles that came so +rapidly now--all told how much she loved Reginald Stanford. + +Was it returned, that absorbing devotion? He was very devoted; he was +beside her when she sang; he sought her always when he entered the room, +he was her escort on all occasions; but--was it returned? It seemed to +Doctor Frank, watching quietly, that there was something +wanting--something too vague to be described, but lacking. Kate did not +miss it herself, and it might be only a fancy. Perhaps it was that she +was above and beyond him, with thoughts and feelings in that earnest +heart of hers he could never understand. He was very handsome, very +brilliant; but underlying the beauty and the brilliancy of the surface +there was shallowness, and selfishness, and falsity. + +He was walking up and down the tamarack walk, thinking of this and +smoking a cigar, one evening, about a week after the arrival of +Stanford. The February twilight fell tenderly over snowy ground, dark, +stripped trees, and grim old mansion. A mild evening, windless and +spring-like, with the full moon rising round and red. His walk commanded +a view of the great frozen fish-pond where a lively scene was going on. +Kate, Rose, and Eeny, strapped in skates, were floating round and round, +attended by the Captain and Lieutenant Stanford. + +Rose was the best skater on the pond, and looked charming in her +tucked-up dress, crimson petticoat, dainty boots, and coquettish hat and +plume. She flitted in a dizzying circle ahead of all the rest, +disdaining to join them. Stanford skated very well for an Englishman, +and assisted Kate, who was not very proficient in the art. Captain +Danton had Eeny by the hand, and the gay laughter of the party made the +still air ring. Grace stood on the edge of the pond watching them, and +resisting the Captain's entreaties to come on the ice and let him teach +her to skate. Her brother joined her, coming up suddenly, with Tiger at +his side. + +"Not half a bad tableau," the Doctor said, removing his inevitable +cigar; "lovely women, brave men, moonlight, and balmy breezes. You don't +go in for this sort of thing, _ma soeur_? No, I suppose not. Our +good-looking Englishman skates well, by the way. What do you think of +him, Grace?" + +"I think with you, that he is a good-looking young Englishman." + +"Nothing more?" + +"That the eldest Miss Danton is hopelessly and helplessly in love with +him, and that it is rather a pity. Rose would suit him better." + +"Ah! sagacious as usual, Grace. Who knows but the Hon. Reginald thinks +so too. Where is our dark Scotchman to-night?" + +"Sir Ronald? Gone to Montreal." + +"Is he coming back?" + +"I don't know. Very likely. If it were to murder Mr. Stanford he would +come back with pleasure." + +"He is a little jealous, then?" + +"Just a little. There is the Captain calling you. Go." + +They went over. Captain Danton whirled round and came to a halt at sight +of them. + +"Here, Frank," he said; "I'm getting tired of this. Take my skates, and +let us see what you are capable of on ice." + +Doctor Frank put on the skates, and struck off. + +Rose, flashing past, gave him a bright backward glance. + +"Catch me, Doctor Danton!" she cried. "Catch me if you can!" + +"A fair field and no favour!" exclaimed Stanford, wheeling round. "Come +on Danton; I am going to try, too." + +Eeny and Kate stood still to watch. + +The group on the bank were absorbed in the chase. Doctor Danton was the +better skater of the two; but fleet-footed Rose outstripped both. + +"Ten to one on the Doctor!" cried the Captain, excited. "Reginald is +nowhere!" + +"I don't bet," said Grace; "but neither will catch Rose if Rose likes." + +Round and round the fish-pond the trio flew--Rose still ahead, the +Doctor outstripping the Lieutenant. The chase was getting exciting. +There was no chance of gaining on Rose by following her. Danton tried +strategy. As she wheeled airily around, he abruptly turned, headed her +off, and caught her with a rebound in his arms. + +"By Jove!" cried the Captain, delighted, "he has her. Reginald, my boy, +you are beaten." + +"I told you you stood no chance, Stanford," said the Doctor. + +"What am I to have for my pains, Miss Rose?" + +"Stoop down and you'll see." + +He bent his head. A stinging box on the ear rewarded him, and Rose was +off, flying over the glittering ice and out of reach. + +"Beaten, Reginald," said Kate, as he drew near. "For shame, sir." + +"Beaten, but not defeated," answered her lover; "a Stanford never +yields. Rose shall be my prize yet." + +Rose had whirled round the pond, and was passing. He looked at her as he +spoke; but her answer was a flash of the eye and a curl of the lip as +she flew on. Kate saw it, and looked after her, puzzled and thoughtful. + +"Reginald," she said, when, the skating over, they were all sauntering +back to the house, "what have you done to Rose?" + +Reginald Stanford raised his dark eyebrows. + +"Done to her! What do you imagine I have done to her?" + +"Nothing; but why, then, does she dislike you so?" + +"Am I so unfortunate as to have incurred your pretty sister's dislike?" + +"Don't you see it? She avoids you. She will not talk to you, or sing for +you, or take your arm, or join us when we go out. I never saw her treat +any gentleman with such pointed coldness before." + +"Extraordinary," said Mr. Stanford, with profoundest gravity; "I am the +most unlucky fellow in the world. What shall I do to overcome your fair +sister's aversion?" + +"Perhaps you do not pay her attention enough. Rose knows she is very +pretty, and is jealously exacting in her demands for admiration and +devotion. Sir Ronald gave her mortal offence the first evening he came, +by his insensibility. She has never forgiven him, and never will. Devote +yourself more to her and less to me, and perhaps Rose will consent to +let you bask in the light of her smile." + +He looked at her with an odd glance. She was smiling, but in earnest +too. She loved her sister and her lover so well, that she felt +uncomfortable until they were friends; and her heart was too great and +faithful for the faintest spark of jealousy. He had lifted the hand that +wore his ring to his lips. + +"Your wishes are my law. I shall do my best to please Rose from +to-night." + +That evening, for the first time, Stanford took a seat beside Rose, and +did his best to be agreeable. Kate smiled approval from her place at the +piano, and Doctor Danton, on the other side of Rose, heard and saw all, +and did not quite understand. But Rose was still offended, and declined +to relent. It was hard to resist that persuasive voice, but she did. She +hardened herself resolutely at the thought of how he had deceived +her--he who was soon to be her sister's husband. Rose got up abruptly, +excused herself, and left the room. + +When the family were dispersing to their chambers that night, Reginald +lingered to speak to Kate. + +"I have failed, you see," he said. + +"Rose is a mystery," said Kate, vexed; "she has quite a new way of +acting. But you know," smiling radiantly, "a Stanford never yields." + +"True. It is discouraging, but I shall try again. Good-night, dearest +and best, and pleasant dreams--of me." + +He ascended to his bedroom, lamp in hand. A fire blazed in the grate; +and sitting down before it, his coat off, his slippers on, his hands in +his pockets, he gazed at it with knitted brow, and whistling softly. For +half an hour he sat, still as a statue. Then he got up, found his +writing-case, and sat down to indite a letter. He was singing the +fag-end of something as he dipped his pen in the ink. + + "Bind the sea to slumber stilly-- + Bind its odour to the lily-- + Bind the aspen ne'er to quiver-- + Then bind love to last forever!" + + * * * * * + + "Danton Hall, February 26, 18-- + + "My Dear Lauderdale: I think I promised, when I left + Windsor, to write to tell you how I got on in this horribly Arctic + region. It is nearly two months since I left Windsor, and my + conscience (don't laugh--I have discovered that I have a + conscience) gives me sundry twinges when I think of you. I don't + feel like sleeping to-night. I am full of my subject, so here goes. + + "In the first place, Miss Danton is well, and as much of in angel + as ever. In the second place, Danton Hall is delightful, and holds + more angels than one. In the third place, Ronald Keith is here, and + half mad with jealousy. The keenest north wind that has ever blown + since I came to Canada is not half so freezing as he. Alas, poor + Yorick! He is a fine fellow, too, and fought like a lion in the + Russian trenches; but there was Sampson, and David, and Solomon, + and Marc Antony--you know what love did to them one and all. + + "Kate refused him a year ago, in England--I found it out by + accident, not from her, of course; and yet here he is. It is the + old story of the moth and the candle, and sometimes I laugh, and + sometimes I am sorry for him. He has eight thousand a year, too; + and the Keiths are great people in Scotland, I hear. Didn't I + always try to impress it on you that it was better to be born + handsome than rich? I am not worth fifteen hundred shillings a + year, and in June (D. V.) beautiful Kate Danton is to be my wife. + Recant your heresy, and believe for the future. + + "Angel, No. 2.--I told you there were more than one--has hazel + eyes, pink cheeks, auburn curls, and the dearest little ways. She + is not beautiful--she is not stately--she does not play and sing + the soul out of your body, and yet--and yet----. Lauderdale, you + always told me my peerless fiancee was a thousand times too good + for me. I never believed you before. I do believe you now. She + soars beyond my reach sometimes. I don't pretend to understand her, + and--tell it not in Gath--I stand a little in awe of her. I never + was on speaking terms with her most gracious majesty, whom Heaven + long preserve; but, if I were, I fancy I should feel as I do + sometimes talking to Kate. She is perfection, and I am--well, I am + not, and she is very fond of me. Would she break her heart, do you + think, if she does not become Mrs. Reginald Stanford? June is the + time, but there is many a slip. I know what your answer will + be--'She will break her heart if she does!' It is a bad business, + old boy; but it is fate, or we will say so--and hazel eyes and + auburn curls are very, very tempting. + + "You used to think a good deal of Captain Danton, if I recollect + right. By the way, how old is the Captain? I ask, because there is + a housekeeper here, who is a distant cousin, one of the family, + very quiet, sensible, lady-like, and six and twenty, who may be + Mrs. Captain Danton one day. Mind, I don't say for certain, but I + have my suspicions. He couldn't do better. Grace--that's her + name--has a brother here, a doctor, very fine fellow, and so cute. + I catch him looking at me sometimes in a very peculiar manner, + which I think I understand. + + "You don't expect me before June, do you? Nevertheless, don't faint + if I return to our 'right little, tight little' island before that. + Meantime, write and let me know how the world wags with you; and, + only I know it is out of your line, I should ask you to offer a + prayer for your unfortunate friend + + "Reginald Stanford." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE GHOST AGAIN. + + +Rose Danton stood leaning against the low, old-fashioned chimney piece +in her bedroom staring at the fire with a very sulky face. Those who +fell in love with pretty Rose should have seen her in her sulky moods, +if they wished to be thoroughly disenchanted. Just at present, as she +stood looking gloomily into the fire, she was wondering how the +Honourable Reginald Stanford would feel on his wedding-day, or if he +would feel at all, if they should find her (Rose) robed in white, +floating in the fish-pond drowned! The fish-pond was large enough; and +Rose moodily recollected reading somewhere that when lovely woman stoops +to folly, and finds too late that men betray, the only way to hide that +folly from every eye, to bring repentance to her lover, to wring his +bosom, is to--die! + +The clock down stairs struck eleven. Rose could hear them dispersing to +their bedrooms. She could hear, and she held her breath to listen, Mr. +Stanford, going past her door, whistling a tune of Kate's. Of Kate's, of +course! He was happy and could whistle, and she was miserable and +couldn't. If she had not wept herself as dry as a wrung sponge, she must +have relapsed into hysterics once more; but as she couldn't, with a +long-drawn sigh, she resolved to go to bed. + +So to bed Rose went, but not to sleep. She tossed from side to side, +feverish and impatient; the more she tried to sleep, the more she +couldn't. It was quite a new experience for poor Rose, not used to +"tears at night instead of slumber." The wintry moonlight was shining +brightly in her room through the parted curtains, and that helped her +wakefulness, perhaps. As the clock struck twelve, she sprang up in +desperation, drew a shawl round her, and, in her night-dress, sat down +by the window, to contemplate the heavenly bodies. + +Hark! what noise was that? + +The house was as still as a vault; all had retired, and were probably +asleep. In the dead stillness, Rose heard a door open--the green baize +door of Bluebeard's room. Her chamber was very near that green door; +there could be no mistaking the sound. Once again she held her breath to +listen. In the profound hush, footsteps echoed along the uncarpeted +corridor, and passed her door. Was it Ogden on his way upstairs? No! the +footsteps paused at the next door--Kate's room; and there was a light +rap. Rose, aflame with curiosity, tip-toed to her own door, and applied +her ear to the key-hole. Kate's door opened; there was a whispered +colloquy; the listener could not catch the words, but the voice that +spoke to Kate was not the voice of Ogden. Five minutes--ten--then the +door shut, the footsteps went by her door again, and down stairs. + +Who was it? Not Ogden, not her father; could it be--could it be Mr. +Richards himself. + +Rose clasped her hands, and stood bewildered. Her own troubles had so +occupied her mind of late that she had almost forgotten Mr. Richards; +but now her old curiosity returned in full force. + +"If he has gone out," thought Rose, "what is to hinder me from seeing +his rooms. I would give the world to see them!" + +She stood for a moment irresolute. + +Then, impulsively, she seized a dressing-gown, covered her bright head +with the shawl, opened her door softly, and peeped out. + +All still and deserted. The night-lamp burned dim at the other end of +the long, chilly passage, but threw no light where she stood. + +The green baize door stood temptingly half open; no creature was to be +seen--no sound to be heard. Rose's heart throbbed fast; the mysterious +stillness of the night, the ghostly shimmer of the moonlight, the +mystery and romance of her adventure, set every pulse tingling, but she +did not hesitate. Her slippered feet crossed the hall lightly; she was +beside the green door. Then there was another pause--a moment's +breathless listening, but the dead stillness of midnight was unbroken. +She tip-toed down the short corridor, and looked into the room. The +study was quite deserted; a lamp burned on a table strewn with books, +papers, and writing materials. Rose glanced wonderingly around at the +book-lined walls. Mr. Richards could pass the dull hours if those were +all novels, she thought. + +The room beyond was unlit, save by the moon shining brightly through the +parted curtains. Rose examined it, too; it was Mr. Richard's bedroom, +but the bed had not been slept in that night. Everything was orderly and +elegant; no evidences of its occupant being an invalid. One rapid, +comprehensive glance was all the girl waited to take; then she turned to +hurry back to her own room, and found herself face to face with Ogden. + +The valet stood in the doorway, looking at her, his countenance wearing +its habitual calm and respectful expression. But Rose recoiled, and +turned as white as though she had been a ghost. + +"It is very late, Miss Rose," said Ogden calmly. "I think you had better +not stay here any longer." + +Rose clasped her hands supplicatingly. + +"Oh, Ogden! Don't tell papa! Pray, don't tell papa!" + +"I am very sorry, Miss Rose, but it would be as much as my place is +worth. I must!" + +He stood aside to let her pass. Rose, with all her flightiness, was too +proud to plead with a servant, and walked out in silence. + +Not an instant too soon. As she opened her door, some one came upstairs; +some one who was tall, and slight; and muffled in a long cloak. + +He passed through the baize door, before she had time to see his face, +closed it after him, and was gone. + +Rose locked her door, afraid of she know not what; and sat down on the +bedside to think. Who was this Mr. Richards who passed for an invalid, +and who was no invalid? Why was he shut up here, where no one could see +him, and why was all this mystery? Rose thought of "Jane Eyre" and Mr. +Rochester's wife, but Mr. Richards could not be mad or they never would +trust him out alone at night. What, too, would her father say to her +to-morrow? She quailed a little at the thought; she had never seen her +indulgent father out of temper in her life. He took the most +disagreeable contre-temps with imperturbable good-humour, but how would +he take this? + +"I should not like to offend papa," thought Rose, uneasily. "He is very +good to me, and does everything I ask him. I do hope he won't be angry. +I almost wish I had not gone!" + +There was no sleep for her that night. When morning came, she was almost +afraid to go down to breakfast and face her father; but when the bell +rang, and she did descend, her father was not there. + +Ogden came in with his master's excuses--Captain Danton was very busy, +and would breakfast in his study. The news took away Rose's morning +appetite; she sat crumbling her roll on her plate, and feeling that +Ogden had told him, and that that was the cause of his non-appearance. + +As they rose from the table, Ogden entered again, bowed gravely to Rose, +and informed her she was wanted in the study. + +Kate looked at her sister in surprise, and noticed with wonder her +changing face. But Rose, without a word, followed the valet, her heart +throbbing faster than it had throbbed last night. + +Captain Danton was pacing up and down his study when she entered, with +the sternest face she had ever seen him wear. In silence he pointed to a +seat, continuing his walk; his daughter sat down, pale, but otherwise +dauntless. + +"Rose!" he said, stopping before her, "what took you into Mr. Richards' +rooms last night?" + +"Curiosity, papa," replied Rose, readily, but in secret quaking. + +"Do you know you did a very mean act? Do you know you were playing the +spy?" + +The colour rushed to Rose's face, and her head dropped. + +"You knew you were forbidden to enter there; you knew you were prying +into what was no affair of yours; you knew you were doing wrong, and +would displease me; and yet in the face of all this, you deliberately +stole into his room like a spy, like a thief, to discover for yourself. +Rose Danton, I am ashamed of you!" + +Rose burst out crying. Her father was very angry, and deeply mortified; +and Rose really was very fond of her indulgent father. + +"Oh, papa! I didn't mean--I never thought--oh, please, papa, forgive +me!" + +Captain Danton resumed his walk up and down, his anger softened at the +sight of her distress. + +"Is it the first time this has occurred?" he asked, stopping again; "the +truth, Rose, I can forgive anything but a lie." + +"Yes, papa." + +"You never have been there before?" + +"No, never!" + +Again he resumed his walk, and again he stopped before her. + +"Why did you go last night?" + +"I couldn't sleep, papa. I felt worried about something, and I was +sitting by the window. I heard Mr. Richards' door open, and some one +come out and rap at Kate's room. Kate opened it, and I heard them +talking." + +Her father interrupted her. + +"Did you hear what they said?" he asked sharply. + +"No papa--only the sound of their voices. It was not your voice, nor +Ogden's; so I concluded it must be Mr. Richards' himself. I heard him go +down stairs, and then I peeped out. His door was open, and I--I--" + +"Went in!" + +"Yes, papa," very humbly. + +"Did you see Mr. Richards?" + +"I saw some one, tall and slight, come up stairs and go in, but I did +not see his face." + +"And that is all!" + +"Yes, papa." + +Once more he began pacing backward and forward, his face very grave, but +not so stern. Rose watched him askance, nervous and uncomfortable. + +"My daughter," he said at last, "you have done very wrong, and grieved +me more than I can say. This is a serious matter--more serious by far +than you imagine. You have discovered, probably, that other reasons than +illness confine Mr. Richards to his rooms." + +"Yes, papa." + +"Mr. Richards is not an invalid--at least not now--although he was ill +when he came here. But the reasons that keep him a prisoner in this +house are so very grave that I dare not confide them to you. This much I +will say--his life depends upon it." + +"Papa!" Rose cried, startled. + +"His life depends upon it," repeated Captain Danton. "Only three in this +house know his secret--myself, Ogden, and your sister Kate. Ogden and +Kate I can trust implicitly; can I place equal confidence in you?" + +"Yes, papa," very faintly. + +"Mr. Richards," pursued Captain Danton, with a slight tremor of voice, +"is the nearest and dearest friend I have on this earth. It would break +my heart, Rose, if an ill befell him. Do you see now why I am so anxious +to preserve his secret; why I felt so deeply your rash act of last +night?" + +"Forgive me, papa!" sobbed Rose. "I am sorry; I didn't know. Oh, please, +papa!" + +He stooped and kissed her. + +"My thoughtless little girl! Heaven knows how freely I forgive you--only +promise me your word of honour not to breathe a word of this." + +"I promise, papa." + +"Thank you, my dear. And now you may go; I have some writing to do. Go +and take a ride to cheer you up after all this dismal talk, and get back +your roses before luncheon time." + +He kissed her again and held the door open for her to pass out. Rose, +with a great weight off her mind went down the passage, and met Eeny +running upstairs. + +"I say, Rose," exclaimed her sister, "don't you want to go to a ball? +Well, there are invitations for the Misses Danton in the parlour." + +"A ball, Eeny? Where?" + +"At the Ponsonbys', next Thursday night. Sir Ronald, Doctor Frank, papa, +and Mr. Stanford are all invited." + +Rose's delight at the news banished all memory of the unpleasant scene +just over. A ball was the summit of Rose's earthly bliss, and a ball at +the Ponsonbys' really meant something. In ten minutes her every thought +was absorbed in the great question, "What shall I wear?" + +"To-day is Wednesday," thought Rose. "Thursday one, Friday two, Saturday +three, Monday four, Tuesday five, Wednesday six, Thursday seven. Plenty +of time to have my new silk made. I'll go and speak to Agnes at once." + +She tripped away to the sewing-room in search of the little seamstress. +The door was ajar; she pushed it open, but paused in astonishment at the +sight which met her eyes. + +The sewing-room was on the ground floor, its one window about five feet +from the ground. At this window which was open, sat the seamstress, her +work lying idly on her lap, twisting her fingers in a restless, nervous +sort of way peculiar to her. Leaning against the window from without, +his arm on the sill, stood Doctor Danton, talking as if he had known +Agnes Darling all his life. + +The noise of Rose's entrance, slight as it was, caught his quick ear. He +looked up and met her surprised eyes, coolly composedly. + +"Don't let me intrude!" said Rose, entering, when she found herself +discovered. "I did not expect to see Doctor Danton here." + +"Very likely," replied the imperturbable Doctor; "it is an old habit of +mine turning up in unexpected places. Besides, what was I to do? Grace +in the kitchen was invisible, Miss Kate had gone riding with Mr. +Stanford, Miss Rose was closeted mysteriously with papa. Miss Eeny, +practising the 'Battle of Prague,' was not to be disturbed. In my +distraction I came here, where Miss Darling has kindly permitted me to +remain and study the art of dressmaking." + +He made his speech purposely long, that Rose might not see Miss +Darling's confused face. But Rose saw it, and believed as much of the +gentleman's story as she chose. + +"And now that you have discovered it," said Rose, "I dare say we will +have you flying on all occasions to this refugium peccatorum. Are you +going? Don't let me frighten you away." + +"You don't; but I want to smoke a cigar under the tamaracks. You haven't +such a thing as a match about you, have you? No matter; I've got one +myself." + +He strolled away. Rose looked suspiciously at the still confused face of +the sewing-girl. + +"How do you come to know Doctor Danton?" she asked abruptly. + +"I--he--I mean the window was open and he was passing, and he stopped to +speak," stammered Agnes, more confusedly still. + +"I dare say," said Rose; "but he would not have stopped unless he had +known you before, would he?" + +"I--saw him once by accident before--I don't know him--" + +She stopped and looked piteously at Rose. She was a childish little +thing, very nervous, and evidently afraid of any more questions. + +"Well," said Rose, curtly; "if you don't choose to tell, of course you +needn't. He never was a lover of yours, was he?" + +"Oh, no! no! no!" + +"Then I don't see anything to get so confused about. What are you +working at?" + +"Miss Eeny's jacket." + +"Then Miss Eeny's jacket must wait, for I want my new silk made for +Thursday evening. Come up to my room, and get to work at once." + +Agnes rose obediently. Rose led the way, her mind straying back to the +scene in the sewing-room her entrance had disturbed. + +"Look here, Miss Darling," she broke out; "you must have known Doctor +Danton before. Now you needn't deny it. Your very face proves you +guilty. Tell the truth, and shame the----. Didn't you know him before +you came to Danton Hall?" + +They were in Roses room by this time. To the great surprise of that +inquisitive young lady, Agnes Darling sank down upon a lounge, covered +her face with her hands, and burst into tears. + +"Goodness me!" exclaimed the second Miss Danton, as soon as surprise +would let her speak, "what on earth is the matter with you? What are you +crying about? What has Doctor Danton done to you?" + +"Nothing! nothing!" cried the worried little seamstress. "Oh, nothing! +It is not that! I am very foolish and weak; but oh, please don't mind +me, and don't ask me about it. I can't help it, and I am very, very +unhappy." + +"Well," said Rose, after a blank pause; "stop crying. I didn't know you +would take it so seriously, or I shouldn't have asked you. Here's the +dress, and I want you to take a great deal of pains with it, Agnes. Take +my measure." + +Rose said no more to the seamstress on a subject so evidently +distressing; but that evening she took Doctor Frank himself to task. She +was at the piano, which Kate had vacated for a game of chess with Mr. +Stanford, and Grace's brother was devotedly turning her music. Rose +looked up at him abruptly, her fingers still rattling off a lively +mazurka. + +"Doctor Danton, what have you been doing to Agnes Darling?" + +"I! Doing! I don't understand!" + +"Of course you don't. Where was it you knew her?" + +"Who says I knew her?" + +"I do. There, no fibs; they won't convince me, and you will only be +committing sin for nothing. Was it in Montreal?" + +"Really, Miss Rose--" + +"That will do. She won't tell, she only cries. You won't tell; you only +equivocate. I don't care. I'll find out sooner or later." + +"Was she crying?" + +"I should think so. People like to make mysteries in this house, in my +opinion. Where there is secrecy there is something wrong. This morning +was not the first time you ever talked to Agnes Darling." + +"Perhaps not," replied Doctor Danton, with a very grave face; "but, poor +child! what right have I to make known the trials she has undergone? She +has been very unfortunate, and I once had the opportunity to befriend +her. That is all I know of her, or am at liberty to tell." + +There was that in Doctor Frank's face that, despite Rose's assurance, +forbade her asking any more questions. + +"But I shall never rest till I find out," thought the young lady. "I've +got at Mr. Richards' and I'll get at yours as sure as my name is Rose." + +The intervening days before the ball, Rose was too much absorbed in her +preparations, and anticipations of conquest, to give her mind much to +Agnes Darling and her secrets. That great and hidden trouble of her +life--her unfortunate love affair, was worrying her too. Mr. Stanford, +in pursuance of his promise to Kate, played the agreeable to her sister +with a provoking perseverance that was proof against any amount of +snubbing, and that nearly drove Rose wild. He would take a seat by her +side, always in Kate's presence, and talk to her by the hour, while she +could but listen, and rebel inwardly. Never, even while she chafed most, +had she loved him better. That power of fascination, that charm of face, +of voice, of smile, that had conquered her fickle heart the first time +she saw him, enthralled her more and more hopelessly with every passing +day. It was very hard to sit there, sullen and silent, and keep her eyes +averted, but the Danton pluck stood her in good stead, and the memory of +his treachery to her goaded her on. + +"It's of no use, Kate," he said to his lady-love; "our pretty Rose will +have nothing to say to me. I more than half believe she is in love with +that very clever Doctor Frank." + +"Dr. Frank? Oh, no; he is not half handsome enough for Rose." + +"He is a thoroughly fine fellow, though. Are you quite sure he has not +taken Rose captive?" + +"Quite. He is very well to flirt with--nothing more. Rose cares nothing +for him, but I am not so sure he does not care for her. Rose is very +pretty." + +"Very," smiled Mr. Stanford, "and knows it. I wonder if she will dance +with me the night of the ball?" + +The night of the ball came, bright, frosty, and calm. The large, roomy, +old-fashioned family carriage held Rose, Eeny, Sir Ronald, and Doctor +Danton, while Mr. Stanford drove Kate over in a light cutter. The +Ponsonbys, who were a very uplifted sort of people, had not invited +Grace; and Captain Danton, at the last moment, announced his intention +of staying at home also. + +"I am very comfortable where I am," said the Captain, lounging in an +arm-chair before the blazing fire; "and the trouble of dressing and +going out this cold night is more than the ball is worth. Make my +excuses, my dear; tell them I have had a sudden attack of gout, if you +like, or anything else that comes uppermost." + +"But, papa," expostulated Kate, very much surprised, for the master of +Danton Hall was eminently social in his habits, "I should like you to +come so much, and the Ponsonbys will be so disappointed." + +"They'll survive it, my dear, never fear. I prefer staying at home with +Grace and Father Francis, who will drop in by-and-by. There, Kate, my +dear, don't waste your breath coaxing. Reginald, take her away." + +Mr. Stanford, with the faintest shadow of a knowing smile on his face, +took Kate's arm and led her down stairs. + +"The brown eyes and serene face of your demure housekeeper have stronger +charms for my papa-in-law than anything within the four walls of the +Ponsonbys. What would Kate say, I wonder, if I told her?" + +As usual, Captain Danton's two daughters were the belles of the room. +Kate was queenly as ever, and as far out of the reach of everything +masculine, with one exception, as the moon; Rose, in a changeful silk, +half dove, half pink, that blushed as she walked, with a wreath of ivy +in her glossy hair, turned heads wherever she went. Doctor Frank had the +privilege of the first dance. After that she was surrounded by all the +most eligible young men in the room. Rose, with a glow on her rounded +cheeks, and a brilliancy in her eyes, that excitement had lent, danced +and flirted, and laughed, and sang, and watched furtively, all the +while, the only man present she cared one iota for. That eminently +handsome young officer, Mr. Stanford, after devoting himself, as in duty +bound, to his stately fiancee, resigned her, after a while, to an +epauletted Colonel from Montreal, and made himself agreeable to Helen +Ponsonby, and Emily Howard, and sundry other pretty girls. Rose watched +him angry and jealous inwardly, smiling and radiant outwardly. Their +fingers touched in the same set, but Rose never deigned him a glance. +Her perfumed skirts brushed him as she flew by in the redowa, but she +never looked up. + +"He shall see how little I care," thought jealous Rose. "I suppose he +thinks I am dying for him, but he shall find out how much he is +mistaken." + +With this thought in her mind, she sat down while her partner went for +an ice. It was the first time that night she had been a moment alone. +Mr. Stanford, leaning against a pillar idly, took advantage of it, and +was beside her before she knew it. Her cheeks turned scarlet, and her +heart quickened involuntarily as he sat down beside her. + +"I have been ignored so palpably all evening that I am half afraid to +come near you," he said; "will it be high treason to ask you to waltz +with me!" + +Alas for Rose's heroic resolutions! How was she to resist the persuasive +voice and smile of this man? How was she to resist the delight of +waltzing with him? She bowed in silence, still with averted eyes; and +Lieutenant Stanford, smiling slightly, drew her hand within his arm. Her +late partner came up with the ice, but Rose had got something better +than ice cream, and did not want it. The music of the German waltz +filled the long ball-room with harmony; his arm slid round her waist, +her hand was clasped in his, the wax floor slipped from under her feet, +and Rose floated away into elysium. + +The valse d'ecstase was over, and they were in a dim, half-lighted +conservatory. Tropical flowers bloomed around them, scenting the warm +air; delicious music floated entrancingly in. The cold white wintry moon +flooded the outer world with its frosty glory, and Rose felt as if +fairyland were no myth, and fairy tales no delusion. They were alone in +the conservatory; how they got there she never knew; how she came to be +clinging to his arm, forgetful of past, present, and future, she never +could understand. + +"Rose," said that most musical of voices; "when will you learn to forget +and forgive? See, here is a peace-offering!" + +He had a white camellia in his button-hole--a flower that half an hour +ago had been chief beauty of Kate's bouquet. He took it out now, and +twined its long stem in and out of her abundant curls. + +"Wear it," he said, "and I shall know I am forgiven. Wear it for my +sake, Rose." + +There was a rustling behind them of a lady's-dress, and the deep tones +of a man's voice talking. Rose started away from his side, the guilty +blood rushing to her face at sight of her elder sister on Doctor +Danton's arm. + +Kate's clear eyes fixed on her sister's flushed, confused face, on the +waxen camellia, her gift to her lover, and then turned upon Mr. +Stanford. That eminently nonchalant young Englishman was as cool as the +frosty winter night. + +"I should think you two might have selected some other apartment in the +house for a promenade, and not come interrupting here," he said, +advancing. "Miss Rose and I were enjoying the first tete-a-tete we have +had since my arrival. But as you are here, Kate, and as I believe we are +to dance the German together--" + +"And you resign Miss Rose to me?" said Doctor Frank. + +"There is no alternative. Take good care of her, and adieu." + +He led Kate out of the conservatory. Doctor Frank offered his arm to +Rose, still hovering guiltily aloof. + +"And I believe you promised to initiate me into the mysteries of the +German. Well, do you want me?" + +This last was to a man-servant who had entered, and looked as if he had +something to say. + +"Yes, sir--if you are Doctor Danton." + +"I am Doctor Danton. What is it?" + +"It's a servant from the Hall, sir. Captain Danton's compliments, and +would you go there at once?" + +Rose gave a little scream, and clutched her companion's arm. + +"Oh, Doctor Frank, can papa be sick?" + +"No, Miss," said the man, respectfully, "it's not your father; it's the +young woman what sews, Thomas says--" hesitating. + +"Well," said Doctor Frank, "Thomas says what?" + +"Thomas says, sir, she see a ghost!" + +"A what?" + +"A ghost, sir; that's what Thomas says," replied the man, with a grin; +"and she's gone off into fainting-fits, and would you return at once, he +says. The sleigh is at the door." + +"Tell him I will be there immediately." + +He turned to Rose, smiling at her blank face. + +"What shall I do with you, Mademoiselle? To whom shall I consign you? I +must make my adieus to Mrs. Ponsonby and depart." + +Rose grasped his arm, and held it tight, her bewildered eyes fixed on +his face. + +"Seen a ghost!" she repeated blankly. "That is twice! Doctor Frank, is +Danton Hall haunted?" + +"Yes; haunted by the spirit of mischief in the shape of Rose Danton, +nothing worse." + +"But this is the second time. There was old Margery, and now Agnes +Darling. There must be something in it!" + +"Of course there is--an over-excited imagination. Miss Darling has seen +a tall tree covered with snow waving in the moonlight, and has gone into +fainting fits. Now, my dear Miss, don't hold me captive any longer; for, +trying as it is, I really must leave you." + +Rose dropped his arm. + +"Yes, go at once. Never mind me; I am going in search of Kate." + +It took some time to find Kate. When found, she was dancing with a +red-coated officer, and Rose had to wait until the dance was over. + +She made her way to her sister's side immediately. Miss Danton turned to +her with a brilliant smile, that faded at the first glance. + +"How pale you are, Rose! What is it?" + +"Am I pale?" said Rose, carelessly; "the heat, I dare-say. Do you know +Doctor Frank has gone?" + +"Gone! Where?" + +"To the Hall. Papa sent for him." + +"Papa? Oh, Rose--" + +"There! There is no occasion to be alarmed; papa is well enough; it is +Agnes Darling." + +"Agnes! What is the matter with Agnes?" + +"She has seen a ghost!" + +Kate stared--so did the young officer. + +"What did you say, Rose?" inquired Kate, wonderingly. + +"She--has--seen--a--ghost!" slowly repeated Rose; "as old Margery did +before her, you know; and, like Margery, has gone off into fits. Papa +sent for Doctor Frank, and he departed half an hour ago." + +Slowly out of Kate's face every trace of colour faded. She rose +abruptly, a frightened look in her blue eyes. + +"Rose, I must go home--I must see Agnes. Captain Grierson, will you be +kind enough to find Mr. Stanford and send him?" + +Captain Grierson hastened on his mission. Rose looked at her with wide +open eyes. + +"Go home--so early! Why, Kate, what are you thinking of?" + +"Of Agnes Darling. You can stay, if you like. Sir Ronald is your +escort." + +"Thank you. A charming escort he is, too--grimmer than old Time in the +primer. No; if you leave, so do I." + +Mr. Stanford sauntered up while she was speaking, and Rose drew back. + +"What is it, Kate? Grierson says you are going home." + +Kate's answer was an explanation. Mr. Reginald Stanford set up an +indecorous laugh. + +"A ghost! That's capital! Why did you not tell me before that Danton +Hall was haunted, Kate?" + +"I want to return immediately," was Kate's answer a little coldly. "I +must speak to Mr. Ponsonby and find Eeny. Tell Sir Ronald, please, and +hold yourself in readiness to attend us." + +She swept off with Rose to find their hostess. Mrs. Ponsonby's regrets +were unutterable, but Miss Danton was resolute. + +"How absurd, you know, Helen," she said, to her daughter, when they were +gone; "such nonsense about a sick seamstress." + +"I thought Kate Danton was proud," said Miss Helen. "That does not look +like it. I am not sorry she has gone, however, half the men in the room +were making idiots of themselves about her." + +Kate and Reginald Stanford returned as they had come, in the light +sleigh; and Sir Ronald, Rose and Eeny, in the carriage. Rose, wrapped in +her mantel, shrunk away in a corner, and never opened her lips. She +watched gloomily, and so did the baronet, the cutter flying past over +glittering snow, and Kate's sweet face, pale as the moonlight itself. + +Captain Danton met them in the entrance hall, his florid face less +cheery than usual. Kate came forward, her anxious inquiring eyes +speaking for her. + +"Better, my dear; much better," her father answered. "Doctor Frank works +miracles. Grace and he are with her; he has given her an opiate, and I +believe she is asleep." + +"But what is it, papa?" cried Rose. "Did she see a ghost!" + +"A ghost, my dear," said the Captain, chucking her under the chin. "You +girls are as silly as geese, and imagine you see anything you like. She +isn't able to tell what frightened her, poor little thing! Eunice is the +only one who seems to know anything at all about it." + +"And what does Eunice say?" asked Kate. + +"Why," said Captain Danton, "it seems Eunice and Agnes were to sit up +for you two young ladies, who are not able to take off your own clothes +yet, and they chose Rose's room so sit in. About two hours ago, Agnes +complained of toothache, and said she would go down stairs for some +painkiller that was in the sewing-room. Eunice, who was half-asleep, +remained where she was; and ten minutes after heard a scream that +frightened her out of her wits. We had all retired, but the night-lamp +was burning; and rushing out, she found Agnes leaning against the wall, +all white and trembling. The moment Eunice spoke to her, 'I saw his +ghost!' she said, in a choking whisper, and fell back in a dead faint in +Eunice's arms. I found her so when I came out, for Eunice cried lustily +for help, and Grace and all the servants were there in two minutes. We +did everything for her, but all in vain. She lay like one dead. Then +Grace proposed to send for her brother. We sent. He came, and brought +the dead to life." + +"An extraordinary tale," said Reginald Stanford. "When she came to life, +what did she say?" + +"Nothing. Doctor Frank gave her an opiate that soothed her and sent her +to sleep." + +As he spoke, Doctor Frank himself appeared, his calm face as +impenetrable as ever. + +"How is your patient, Doctor?" asked Kate. + +"Much better, Miss Kate. In a day or two we will have her all right, I +think. She is a nervous little creature, with an overstrung and highly +imaginative temperament. I wonder she has not seen ghosts long ago." + +"You are not thinking of leaving us," said Captain Danton. "No, no, I +won't hear of it. We can give you a bed and breakfast here equal to +anything down at the hotel, and it will save you a journey up to-morrow +morning. Is Grace with her yet?" + +"Yes, Grace insists on remaining till morning. There is no necessity, +though, for she will not awake." + +Kate gathered up the folds of her rich ball-dress, and ran up the +polished oaken stair, nodding adieu. Not to her own room, however, but +to that of the seamstress. + +The small chamber was dimly lighted by a lamp turned low. By the bedside +sat Grace, wrapped in a shawl; on the pillow lay the white face of Agnes +Darling, calm in her slumber, but colourless as the pillow itself. + +Kate bent over her, and Grace arose at her entrance. It was such a +contrast; the stately, beautiful girl, with jewelled flowers in her +hair, her costly robe trailing the carpetless floor, the perfume of her +dress and golden hair scenting the room, and the wan little creature, so +wasted and pale, lying asleep on the low bed. Her hands grasped the +bed-clothes in her slumber, and with every rise and fall of her breast, +rose and fell a little locket worn round her neck by a black cord. +Kate's fingers touched it lightly. + +"Poor soul!" she said; "poor little Agnes! Are you going to stay with +her until morning, Grace?" + +"Yes, Miss Danton." + +"I could not go to my room without seeing her; but now, there is no +necessity to linger. Good-morning." + +Miss Danton left the room. Grace sat down again, and looked at the +locket curiously. + +"I should like to open that and see whose picture it contains, and +yet--" + +She looked a little ashamed, and drew back the hand that touched it. But +curiosity--woman's intensest passion--was not to be resisted. + +"What harm can it be?" she thought. "She will never know." + +She lifted the locket, lightly touched the spring, and it flew open. It +contained more than a picture, although there was a picture of a +handsome, boyish face that somehow had to Grace a familiar look. A slip +of folded paper, a plain gold ring, and a tress of brown, curly hair +dropped out. Grace opened the little slip of paper, and read it with an +utterly confounded face. It was partly written and partly printed, and +was the marriage certificate of Agnes Grant and Henry Darling. It bore +date New York, two years before. + +Grace dropped the paper astounded. Miss Agnes Darling was a married +woman, then, and, childish as she looked, had been so for two years. +What were her reasons for denying it, and where was Henry Darling--dead +or deserted? + +She look at the pictured face again. Very good-looking, but very +youthful and irresolute. Whom had she ever seen that looked like that? +Some one, surely, for it was as familiar as her own in the glass; but +who, or where, or when, was all densest mystery. + +There was an uneasy movement of the sleeper. Grace, feeling guilty, put +back hastily the tress of hair--his, no doubt--the ring--a wedding-ring, +of course--and the marriage certificate. She closed the locket, and laid +it back on the fluttering heart. Poor little pale Agnes! that great +trouble of woman's life, loving and losing, had come to her then +already. + +In the cold, gray dawn of the early morning, Grace resigned her office +to Babette, the housemaid, and sought her room. Agnes Darling still +slept--the merciful sleep Doctor Frank's opiate had given her. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A GAME FOR TWO TO PLAY AT. + + +A cold, raw, rainy, dismal morning--the sky black and hopeless of +sunshine, the long bleak blasts complaining around the old house, and +rattling ghostily the skeleton trees. The rain was more sleet than rain; +for it froze as it fell, and clattered noisily against the blurred +window-glass. A morning for hot coffee and muffins, and roaring fires +and newspapers and easy-chairs, and in which you would not have the +heart to turn your enemy's dog from the door. + +Doctor Danton stood this wild and wintry February morning at his chamber +window, looking out absently at the slanting sleet, not thinking of +it--not thinking of the pale blank of wet mist shrouding the distant +fields and marshes, and village and river, but of something that made +him knit his brows in perplexed, reflection. + +"What was it she saw last, night?" he mused. "No spectre of the +imagination, and no bona-fide ghost. Old Margery saw something, and now +Agnes. I wonder--" + +He stopped, there was a knock at the door. + +"Come in," he said, and Grace entered. + +"I did not know you were up," said Grace. "But it is very fortunate as +it happens. I have just been to Miss Darling's room, and she is crying +out for you in the wildest Manner." + +"Ah!" said her brother, rising, "has she been awake long?" + +"Nearly an hour, Babette tells me, and all that time she has been +frantically calling for you. Her manner is quite frenzied, and I fear--" + +"What do you fear?" + +"That last night's fright has disordered her reason." + +"Heaven forbid! I will go to her at once." + +He left the room as he spoke, and ran upstairs to the chamber of the +seamstress. The gray morning twilight stole drearily through the closed +shutter, and the lamp burned dim and dismal still. Babette sat by the +bedside trying to soothe her charge in very bad English, and evidently +but with little success. The bed-clothes had been tossed off, the little +thin hands closed and unclosed in them--the great dark eyes were wide +and wild--the black hair all tossed and disordered on the pillow. + +Babette rose precipitately at the Doctor's entrance. + +"Here's the Doctor, Mees Darling. May I go now, Monsieur?" + +"Yes, you may go; but remain outside, in case I should, want you." + +He shut the door on Babette, and took her place by the sick girl's +bedside. + +Babette lingered in the passage, staring at the stormy morning, and +gaping forlornly. + +"I hope he won't be long," she thought. "I want to go to bed." + +Dr. Frank, however, was long. Eight struck somewhere in the house; that +was half an hour, and there was no sign of his coming. Babette shivered +under her shawl, and looked more drearily than ever at the lashing sleet. + +Nine--another hour, and no sign from the sick-room, yet. Babette rose up +in desperation, but just at that moment Grace came upstairs. + +"You here, Babette!" she said, surprised. "Who is with Agnes?" + +"The Doctor, Mademoiselle! he told me to wait until he came out, and I +have waited, and I am too sleepy to wait any longer. May I go, +Mademoiselle?" + +"Yes, go," said Grace, "I will take your place." + +Babette departed with alacrity, and Grace sat down by the storm-beaten +window. She listened for some sound from the sick-room, but none +rewarded her. Nothing was to be heard but the storm, without, and now +and then the opening and shutting of some door within. + +Another half-hour. Then the door of the seamstress's room opened, and +her brother came out. How pale he was--paler and graver than his sister +ever remembered seeing him before. + +"Well," she said, rising, "how is your patient?" + +"Better," he briefly answered, "very much better." + +"I thought she was worse, you look so pale." + +"Pale, do I? This dismal morning, I suppose. Grace," he said, lowering +his tone and looking at her fixedly, "whose ghost did old Margery say +she saw?" + +"Whose ghost! What a question!" + +"Answer it!" + +"Don't be so imperative, please. Master Harry's ghost, she said." + +"And Master Harry is Captain Danton's son?" + +"Was--he is dead now." + +"Yes, yes! he was killed in New York, I believe." + +"So they say. The family never speak of him. He was the black sheep of +the flock, you know. But why do you ask? Was it his ghost Agnes saw?" + +"Nonsense! Of course not! What should she know of Captain Danton's son? +Some one--one of the servants probably--came up the stairs and +frightened her out of her nervous wits. I have been trying to talk a +little sense into her foolish head these two hours." + +"And have you succeeded?" + +"Partly. But don't ask her any questions on the subject; and don't let +Miss Danton or any one who may visit her ask any questions. It upsets +her, and I won't be answerable for the consequences." + +"It is very strange," said Grace, looking at her brother intently, "very +strange that old Margery and Agnes Darling should both see an apparition +in this house. There must be something in it." + +"Of course there is--didn't I tell you so--an overheated imagination. I +have known more extraordinary optical illusions than that in my time. +How is Margery--better again?" + +"No, indeed. She will never get over her scare in this world. She keeps +a light in her room all night, and makes one of the maids sleep with +her, and won't be alone a moment, night or day." + +"Ah!" said Doctor Frank, with professional phlegm. "Of course! She is an +old woman, and we could hardly expect anything else. Does she talk much +of the ghost?" + +"No. The slightest allusion to the subject agitates her for the whole +day. No one dare mention ghosts in Margery's presence." + +"I hope you will all be equally discreet with Miss Darling. Time will +wear away the hallucination, if you women only hold your tongues. I must +caution Rose, who has an unfortunate habit of letting out whatever comes +uppermost. Ah! here she is!" + +"Were you talking of me?" inquired Miss Rose, tripping upstairs, fresh +and pretty, in a blue merino morning dress, with soft white trimmings. + +"Do I ever talk of any one else?" said Dr. Frank. + +"Pooh! How is Agnes Darling?" + +"As well as can be expected, after seeing a ghost!" + +"Did she see a ghost, though?" asked Rose, opening her hazel eyes. + +"Of course she did; and my advice to you, Miss Rose, is to go to bed +every night at dark, and to sleep immediately, with your head covered up +in the bed-clothes, or you may happen to see one too." + +"Thank you for your advice, which I don't want and won't take. Whose +ghost did she see?" + +"The ghost of Hamlet's father, perhaps--she doesn't know; before she +could take a second look it vanished in a cloud of blue flame, and she +swooned away!" + +"Doctor Danton," said Rose, sharply, "I wish you would talk sense. I'll +go and ask Agnes herself about it. I want to get at the bottom of this +affair." + +"A very laudable desire, which I regret being obliged to frustrate," +said Doctor Danton, placing himself between her and the door. + +"You!" cried Rose, drawing herself up. "What do you mean, sir?" + +"As Miss Agnes Darling's medical attendant, my dear Miss Rose,--deeply +as it wounds me to refuse your slightest request--I really must forbid +any step of the kind. The consequences might be serious." + +"And I am not to see her if I choose?" demanded Rose, her eyes quite +flashing. + +"Certainly you are to see her, and to fetch her jelly, and chicken, and +toast, and tea, if you will; but you are not to speak of the ghost. That +blood-curdling subject is absolutely tabooed in the sick-room, unless--" + +"Unless what?" inquired Rose, angrily. + +"Unless you want to make a maniac of her. I am serious in this; you must +not allude in the remotest way to the cause of her illness when you +visit her, or you may regret your indiscretion while you live." + +He spoke with a gravity that showed that he was in earnest. Rose +shrugged her shoulders impatiently, and walked to Agnes' door. Grace +followed at a sign from her brother, who ran down stairs. + +The sick girl was not asleep--she lay with her eyes wide open, staring +vacantly at the white wall. She looked at them, when they entered, with +a half-frightened, half-inquiring gaze. + +"Are you better, Agnes?" asked Rose, looking down at the colourless +face. + +"Oh, yes!" + +She answered nervously, her fingers twisting in and out of her +bed-clothes--her eyes wandering uneasily from one to the other. + +"Wouldn't you like something to eat?" inquired Rose, not knowing what +else to say. + +"Oh, no!" + +"You had better have some tea," said Grace decisively. "It will do you +good. I will fetch you up some presently. Rose, there is the breakfast +bell." + +Rose, with a parting nod to Agnes, went off, very much disappointed, and +in high dudgeon with Doctor Frank for not letting her cross-examine the +seamstress on the subject of the ghost. + +"The ghost she saw must have been Mr. Richards returning from his +midnight stroll," thought Rose, shrewdly. "My opinion is, he is the only +ghost in Danton Hall." + +There was very little allusion made to the affair of last night, at the +breakfast-table. It seemed to be tacitly understood that the subject was +disagreeable; and beyond an inquiry of the Doctor, "How is your patient +this morning?" nothing was said. But all felt vaguely there was some +mystery. Doctor Frank's theory of optical illusion satisfied no +one--there was something at the bottom that they did not understand. + +The stormy day grew stormier as it wore on. Rose sat down at the +drawing-room piano after breakfast, and tried to while away the forlorn +morning with music. Kate was there, trying to work off a bad headache +with a complicated piece of embroidery and a conversation with Mr. +Reginald Stanford. That gentleman sat on an ottoman at her feet, sorting +silks, and beads, and Berlin wool, and Rose was above casting even a +glance at them. Captain Danton, Sir Ronald, and the Doctor were playing +billiards at the other end of the rambling old house. And upstairs poor +Agnes Darling tossed feverishly on her hot pillow, and moaned, and slept +fitfully, and murmured a name in her troubled sleep, and Grace watching +her, and listening, heard the name "Harry." + +Some of the gloom of the wretched day seemed to play on Rose's spirits. +She sang all the melancholy songs she knew, in a mournful, minor key, +until the conversation of the other two ceased, and they felt as dismal +as herself. + +"Rose, don't!" Kate cried out in desperation at length. "Your songs are +enough to give one the horrors. Here is Reginald with a face as gloomy +as the day." + +Rose got up in displeased silence, closed the piano, and walked to the +door. + +"Pray don't!" said Stanford; "don't leave us. Kate and I have nothing +more to say to one another, and I have a thousand things to say to you." + +"You must defer them, I fear," replied Rose. "Kate will raise your +spirits with more enlivening music when I am gone." + +"A good idea," said Kate's lover, when the door closed; "come, my dear +girl, give us something a little less depressing than that we have just +been favoured with." + +"How odd," said Kate languidly, "that Rose will not like you. I cannot +understand it." + +"Neither can I," replied Mr. Stanford; "but since the gods have willed +it so, why, there is nothing for it but resignation. Here is 'Through +the woods, through the woods, follow and find me.' Sing that." + +Kate essayed, but failed. Her headache was worse, and singing an +impossibility. + +"I am afraid I must lie down," she said. "I am half blind with the pain. +You must seek refuge in the billiard-room, Reginald, while I go +upstairs." + +Mr. Stanford expressed his regrets, kissed her hand--he was very calm +and decorous with his stately lady-love--and let her go. + +"I wish Rose had stayed," he thought; "poor little girl! how miserable +she does look sometimes. I am afraid I have not acted quite right; and I +don't know that I am not going to make a scoundrel of myself; but how is +a fellow to help it? Kate's too beautiful and too perfect for mortal +man; and I am very mortal, indeed, and should feel uncomfortable married +to perfection." + +He walked to the curtained recess of the drawing-room, where Rose had +one morning battled with her despair, and threw himself down among the +pillows of the lounge. Those very pillows whereon his handsome head +rested had been soaked in Rose's tears, shed for his sweet sake--but how +was he to know that? It was such a cozy little nook, so still and dusky, +and shut in, that Mr. Stanford, whose troubles did not prey on him very +profoundly, closed his dark eyes, and went asleep in five minutes. + +And sleeping, Rose found him. Going to her room to read, she remembered +she had left her book on the sofa in the recess, and ran down stairs +again to get it. Entering the little room from the hall, she beheld Mr. +Stanford asleep, his head on his arm, his handsome face as perfect as +something carved in marble, in its deep repose. + +Rose stood still--any one might have stood and looked, and admired that +picture, but not as she admired. Rose was in love with him--hopelessly, +you know, therefore the more deeply. All the love that pride had tried, +and tried in vain, to crush, rose in desperation stronger than ever +within her. If he had not been her sister's betrothed, who could say +what might not have been? If that sister was one degree less beautiful +and accomplished, who could say what still might be? She had been such a +spoiled child all her life, getting whatever she wanted for the asking, +that it was very hard she should be refused now the highest boon she had +ever craved--Mr. Reginald Stanford. + +Did some mesmeric rapport tell him in his sleep she was there? Perhaps +so, for without noise, or cause, his eyes opened and fixed on Rose's +flushed and troubled face. She started away with a confused exclamation, +but Stanford, stretching out his arm, caught and held her fast. + +"Don't run away, Rose," he said, "How long have you been here? How long +have I been asleep?" + +"I don't know," said Rose, confusedly: "I came here for a book a moment +ago only. Let me go, Mr. Stanford." + +"Let you go? Surely not. Come, sit down here beside me, Rose. I have +fifty things to say to you." + +"You have nothing to say to me--nothing I wish to hear. Please let me +go." + +"On your dignity again, Rose?" he said, smiling, and mesmerizing her +with his dark eyes; "when will you have done wearing your mask?" + +"My mask!" Rose echoed, flushing; "what do you mean, Mr. Stanford?" + +"Treating me like this! You don't want to leave me now, do you? You +don't hate me as much as you pretend. You act very well, my pretty +little Rose; but you don't mean it--you know you don't!" + +"Will you let me go, Mr. Stanford?" haughtily. + +"No, my dear; certainly not. I don't get the chance of _tete-a-tete_ +with you so often that I should resign the priceless privilege at a +word. We used to be good friends, Rose; why can't we be good friends +again?" + +"Used to be!" Rose echoed; and then her voice failed her. All her love +and her wounded pride rose in her throat and choked her. + +Reginald Stanford drew her closer to him, and tried to see the averted +face. + +"Won't you forgive me, Rose? I didn't behave well, I know; but I liked +you so much. Won't you forgive me?" + +A passionate outburst of tears, that would no longer be restrained, +answered him. + +"Oh! how could you do it? How could you do it? How could you deceive me +so?" sobbed Rose. + +Stanford drew her closer still. + +"Deceive you, my darling! How did I deceive you? Tell me, Rose, and +don't cry!" + +"You said--you said your name was Reinecourt, and it wasn't; and I +didn't know you were Kate's lover, or I never would have--would +have--oh! how could you do it?" + +"My dear little girl, I told you the truth. My name is Reinecourt." + +Rose looked up indignantly. + +"Reginald Reinecourt Stanford is my name; and the reason I only gave you +a third of it was, as I said before, because I liked you so much. You +know, my dear little Rose, if I had told you that day on the ice my name +was Reginald Stanford, you would have gone straight to the Hall, told +the news, and had me brought here at once. By that proceeding I should +have seen very little of you, of course. Don't you see?" + +"Ye-e-e-s," very falteringly. + +"I looked up that day from the ice," continued Stanford, "and saw such a +dear little curly-headed, bright-eyed, rose-cheeked fairy, that--no, I +can't tell you how I felt at the sight. I gave you my middle name, and +you acted the Good Samaritan to the wounded stranger--came to see me +every day, and made that sprained ankle the greatest boon of my life!" + +"Mr. Stanford--" + +"Call me Reginald." + +"I cannot. Let me go! What would Kate say?" + +"She will like it. She doesn't understand why you dislike me so much." + +He laughed as he said it. The laugh implied so much, that Rose started +up, colouring vividly. + +"This is wrong! I must go. Don't hold me, Mr. Stanford." + +"Reginald, if you please!" + +"I have no right to say Reginald." + +"Yes, you have a sister's right!" + +"Let me go!" said Rose, imperiously. "I ought not to be here." + +"I don't see why. It is very pleasant to have you here. You haven't told +me yet that you forgive me." + +"Of course I forgive you. It's of no consequence. Will you let me go, +Mr. Stanford?" + +"Don't be in such a hurry. I told you I had fifty things to--" + +He stopped short. The drawing-room door had opened, and Captain Danton's +voice could be heard talking to his two companions at billiards. + +"All deserted," said the Captain; "I thought we should find the girls +here. Come in. I dare-say somebody will be along presently." + +"Oh, let me go!" cried Rose, in dire alarm. "Papa may come in here. Oh, +pray--pray let me go!" + +"If I do, will you promise to be good friends with me in the future?" + +"Yes, yes! Let me go!" + +"And you forget and forgive the past?" + +"Yes--yes--yes! Anything, anything." + +Stanford, who had no more desire than Rose herself to be caught just +then by papa-in-law, released his captive, and Rose flew out into the +hall and upstairs faster than she had ever done before. + +How the four gentlemen got on alone in the drawing-room she never knew. +She kept her room all day, and took uncommon pains with her +dinner-toilet. She wore the blue glace, in which she looked so charming, +and twisted some jeweled stars in her bright auburn hair. She looked at +herself in the glass, her eyes dancing, her cheeks flushed, her rosy +lips apart. + +"I am pretty," thought Rose. "I like my own looks better than I do +Kate's, and every one calls her beautiful. I suppose her eyes are +larger, and her nose more perfect, and her forehead higher; but it is +too pale and cold. Oh, if Reginald would only love me better than Kate!" + +She ran down-stairs as the last bell rang, eager and expectant, but only +to be disappointed. Grace was there; Eeny and Kate were there, and Sir +Ronald Keith; but where were the rest? + +"Where's papa?" said Rose, taking her seat. + +"Dining out," replied Kate, who looked pale and ill. "And Reginald and +Doctor Danton are with him. It is at Mr. Howard's. They drove off over +an hour ago." + +Rose's eyes fell and her colour faded. Until the meal was over, she +hardly opened her lips; and when it was concluded, she went back +immediately to her room. Where was the use of waiting when he would not +be there? + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE REVELATION. + + +Next morning, at breakfast, Captain Danton was back; but Reginald's +handsome face, and easy flow of conversation, were missing. George +Howard, it appeared, was going on a skating excursion some miles off, +that day, and had prevailed on Mr. Stanford to remain and accompany him. + +Rose felt about as desolate as if she had been shipwrecked on a desert +island. There was a pang of jealousy mingled with the desolation, too. +Emily Howard was a sparkling brunette, a coquette, an heiress, and a +belle. Was it the skating excursion or Emily's big black eyes that had +tempted him to linger? Perhaps Emily would go with them skating, and +Rose knew how charming piquant little Miss Howard was on skates. + +It was a miserable morning altogether, and Rose tormented herself in +true orthodox lover-like style. She roamed about the house aimlessly, +pulling out her watch perpetually to look at the hour, and sighing +drearily. She wondered at Kate, who sat so placidly playing some song +without words, with the Scotch baronet standing by the piano, absorbed. + +"What does she know of love?" thought Rose, contemptuously. "She is as +cold as a polar iceberg. She ought to marry that knight of the woeful +countenance beside her, and be my lady, and live in a castle, and eat +and sleep in velvet and rubies. It would just suit her." + +Doctor Danton came up in the course of the forenoon, to make a +professional call. His patient was better, calmer, less nervous, and +able to sit up in a rocking-chair, wrapped in a great shawl. Grace +persuaded him to stay to luncheon, and he did, and tried to win Miss +Rose out of the dismals, and got incontinently snubbed for his pains. + +But there was balm in Gilead for Rose. Just after luncheon a little +shell-like sleigh, with prancing ponies and jingling bells, whirled +musically up to the door. A pretty, blooming, black-eyed girl was its +sole occupant; and Rose, at the drawing-room window, ran out to meet +her. + +"My darling Emily!" cried Rose, kissing the young lady she had been +wishing at Jericho all day, "how glad I am to see you! Come in! You will +stay to dinner, won't you?" + +"No, dear," said Miss Howard, "I can't. I just came over for you; I am +alone, and want you to spend the evening. Don't say no; Mr. Stanford +will be home to dinner with George, and he will escort you back." + +"You pet!" cried Rose, with another rapturous kiss. "Just wait five +minutes while I run up and dress." + +Miss Howard was not very long detained. Rose was back, all ready, in +half an hour. + +"Would your sister come?" inquired Miss Howard, doubtfully, for she was +a good deal in awe of that tall majestic sister. + +"Who? Kate? Oh, she is out riding with Sir Ronald Keith. Never mind her; +we can have a better time by ourselves." + +The tiny sleigh dashed off with its fair occupants, and Rose's depressed +spirits went up to fever heat. It was the first of March, and March had +come in like a lamb--balmy, sunshiny, brilliant. Everybody looked at +them admiringly as the fairy sleigh and the two pretty girls flew +through the village, and thought, perhaps, what a fine thing it was to +be rich, and young, and handsome, and happy, like that. + +Miss Howard's home was about half a mile off, and a few minutes brought +them to it. + +The two girls passed the afternoon agreeably enough at the piano and +over new books, but both were longing for evening and the return of the +gentlemen. Miss Howard was only sixteen, and couldn't help admiring Mr. +Stanford, or wishing she were her brother George, and with him all day. + +The March day darkened slowly down. The sun fell low and dropped out of +sight behind the bright, frozen river, in a glory of crimson and purple. +The hues of the sunset died, the evening star shone steel-blue and +bright in the night-sky, and the two girls stood by the window watching +when the gentlemen returned. There was just light enough left to see +them plainly as they drew near the house, their skates slung over their +arms; but Mr. George Howard came in for very little of their regards. + +"Handsome fellow!" said Miss Howard, her eyes sparkling. + +"Who?" said Rose, carelessly, as if her heart was not beating time to +the word. "Reginald?" + +"Yes; he is the handsomest man I ever saw." + +Rose laughed--a rather forced laugh, though. + +"Don't fall in love with my handsome brother-in-law, Em. Kate won't like +it." + +"They are to be married next June, are they not?" asked Emily, not +noticing the insinuation, save by a slight colour, which the twilight +hid. + +"So they say." + +"They will be a splendid-looking pair. George and all the gentlemen say +that she is the only really beautiful woman they ever saw." + +"Tastes differ," said Rose with a shrug. "I don't think so. She is too +pale, and proud, and cold, and too far up in the clouds altogether. She +ought to go and be a nun; she would make a splendid lady-abbess." + +"She will make a splendid Mrs. Stanford." + +"Who?" said Mr. Stanford himself, sauntering in. "You, Miss Howard?" + +"No; another lady I know of. What kind of a time had you skating?" + +"Capital," replied her brother; "for an Englishman, Stanford knocks +everything. Hallo, Rose! who'd have thought it?" + +Rose emerged from the shadow of the window curtains, and shook hands +carelessly with Master George. + +"I drove over for her after you went," said his sister, "come, there's +the dinner-bell, and Mr. Stanford looks hungry." + +"And is hungry," said Mr. Stanford, giving her his arm. "I shall +astonish Mrs. Howard by my performance this evening." + +They were not a very large party--Mr. and Mrs. Howard, their son and +daughter, Mr. Stanford and Rose--but they were a very merry one. Mr. +Stanford had been in India once, three years ago, and told them +wonderful stories of tiger hunts, and Hindoo girls, and jungle +adventures, and Sepoy warfare, until he carried his audience away from +the frozen Canadian land to the burning sun and tropical splendours and +perils of far-off India. Then, after dinner, when Mr. Howard, Senior, +went to his library to write letters, and Mrs. Howard dozed in an +easy-chair by the fire, there was music, and sparkling chit-chat, racy +as the bright Moselle at dinner, and games at cards, and fortune-telling +by Mr. Howard, Junior; and it was twelve before Rose thought it +half-past ten. + +"I must go," said Rose, starting up. "I had no idea it was so late. I +must go at once." + +The two young ladies went upstairs for Miss Danton's wraps. When they +descended, the sleigh was waiting, and all went out together. The bright +March day had ended in a frosty, starlit, windless night. A tiny moon +glittered sparkling overhead, and silvering the snowy ground. + +"Oh, what a night!" cried Emily Howard. "You may talk about your blazing +India, Mr. Stanford, but I would not give our own dear snow-clad Canada +for the wealth of a thousand Indies. Good-night, darling Rose, and +pleasant dreams." + +Miss Howard kissed her. Mr. Howard came over, and made an attempt to do +the same. + +"Good-night, darling Rose, and dream of me." + +Rose's answer was a slap, and then Reginald was beside her, and they +were driving through the luminous dusk of the winter moonlight. + +"You may stop at the gate, my good fellow," said Mr. Stanford to the +driver; "the night is fine--we will walk the rest of the way--eh, Rose?" + +Rose's answer was a smile, and they were at the gates almost +immediately. Mr. Stanford drew her hand within his arm, and they +sauntered slowly, very slowly, up the dark, tree-shaded avenue. + +"How gloomy it is here!" said Rose, clinging to his arm with a delicious +little shiver; "and it is midnight, too. How frightened I should be +alone!" + +"Which means you are not frightened, being with me. Miss Rose, you are +delightful!" + +"Interpret it as you please. What should you say if the ghost were to +start out from these grim black trees and confront us?" + +"Say? Nothing. I would quietly faint in your arms. But this is not the +ghost's walk. Wasn't it in the tamarack avenue old Margery saw it?" + +"Let us go there!" + +"It is too late," said Rose. + +"No it is not. There is something delightfully novel in promenading with +a young lady at the witching hour of midnight, when graveyards yawn, and +gibbering ghosts in winding-sheets cut up cantrips before high heaven. +Come." + +"But Mr. Stanford--" + +"Reginald, I tell you. You promised, you know." + +"But really Reginald, it is too late. What if we were seen?" + +"Nonsense! Who is to see us! And if they do, haven't brothers and +sisters a right to walk at midnight as well as noonday if they choose? +Besides, we may see the spectre of Danton Hall, and I would give a +month's pay for the sight any time." + +They entered the tamarack walk as he spoke--bright enough at the +entrance, where the starlight streamed in, but in the very blackness of +darkness farther down. + +"How horribly dismal!" cried Rose, clinging to him more closely than +ever. "A murder might be committed here, and no one be the wiser." + +"A fit place for a ghostly promenade. Spectre of Danton, appear! Hist! +What is that?" + +Rose barely suppressed a shriek. He put his hand over her mouth, and +drew her silently into the shadow. + +As if his mocking words had evoked them, two figures entered the +tamarack walk as he spoke. + +The starlight showed them plainly--a man and a woman--the woman wrapped +in a shawl, leaning on the man's arm, and both walking very slowly, +talking earnestly. + +"No ghosts those," whispered Reginald Stanford. "Be quiet, Rose; we are +in for an adventure." + +"I ought to know that woman's figure," said Rose, in the same low tone. +"Look! Don't you?" + +"By--George! It can't be--Kate!" + +"It is Kate; and who is the man, and what does it mean?" + +Now Rose, maliciously asking the question, knew in her heart the man was +Mr. Richards. She did not comprehend, of course, but she knew it must be +all right; for Kate walked with him there under her father's sanction. + +Mr. Stanford made no reply; he was staring like one who cannot believe +his eyes. + +Kate's face shown in profile was plainly visible as they drew nearer. +The man's, shrouded by coat-collar and peaked cap, was all hidden, save +a well-shaped nose. + +"It is Kate," repeated Mr. Stanford, blankly. "And what does it mean?" + +"Hush-sh!" whispered Rose; "they will hear you." + +She drew him back softly. The two advancing figures were so very near +now that their words could be heard. It was Kate's soft voice that was +speaking. + +"Patience, dear," she was saying; "patience a little longer yet." + +"Patience!" cried the man, passionately. "Haven't I been patient? +Haven't I waited and waited, eating my heart out in solitude, and +loneliness, and misery? But for your love, Kate, your undying love and +faith in me--I should long ago have gone mad!" + +They passed out of hearing with the last words. Reginald Stanford stood +petrified; even Rose was desperately startled by the desperate words. + +"Take me away, Reginald," she said trembling. "Oh, let us go before they +come back." + +Her voice aroused him, and he looked down at her with a face as white as +the frozen snow. + +"You heard him?" he said. "You heard her? What does it mean?" + +"I don't know. I am frightened. Oh, let us go!" + +Too late! Kate and her companion had reached the end of the tamarack +walk, and were returning. As they drew near, she was speaking; again the +two listeners in the darkness heard her words. + +"Don't despair," she said earnestly. "Oh, my darling, never despair! +Come what will, I shall always love you--always trust you--always--" + +They passed out of hearing again--out of the dark into the lighted end +of the walk, and did not return. + +Reginald and Rose waited for a quarter of an hour, but they had +disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared. + +"Take me in," reiterated Rose, shivering. "I am nearly frozen." + +He turned with her up the walk, never speaking a word, very pale in the +light of the stars. No one was visible as they left the walk; all around +the house and grounds was hushed and still. The house door was locked, +but not bolted. Mr. Stanford opened it with a night-key, and they +entered, and went upstairs, still in silence. Rose reached her room +first, and paused with her hand on the handle of the door. + +"Good-night," she said shyly and wistfully. + +"Good-night," he answered, briefly, and was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +ONE MYSTERY CLEARED UP. + + +The fire burned low in Rose's pretty room, and the lamp was dim on the +table. The window-curtains were closed, and the sheets of the little +low, white bed turned down, the easy chair was before the hearth, and +everything was the picture of comfort. She flung off her wrappings on +the carpet, and sat down in the easy chair, and looked into the glowing +cinders, lost in perplexed thought. + +What would be the result of that night's adventure? Reginald Stanford, +good-natured and nonchalant, was yet proud. She had seen his face change +in the starlight, as once she had hardly thought it possible that +ever-laughing face could change; she had seen it cold and fixed as +stone. How would he act towards a lady, plighted to be his wife, and yet +who took midnight rambles with another man? Would the engagement be +broken off, and would he leave Canada forever in disgust? Or would he, +forsaking Kate, turn to Kate's younger sister for love and consolation? + +Rose's heart throbbed, and her face grew hot in the solitude of her +chamber, at the thought. He would demand an explanation, of course; +would it be haughtily refused by that haughty sister, or would the +mystery of Mr. Richards be opened for him? + +A clock down-stairs struck two. Rose remembered that late watching +involved pale cheeks and dull eyes, and got up, said her prayers with +sleepy devotion, and went to bed. + +The sunlight of another bright March day flooded her room when she awoke +from a troubled dream of Mr. Richards. It was only seven o'clock, but +she arose, dressed rapidly, and, before eight, opened the dining-room +door. + +Early as the hour was, the apartment was occupied. Grace sat at one of +the windows, braiding elaborately an apron, and Captain Danton stood +beside her, looking on. Grace glanced up, her colour heightening at +Rose's entrance. + +"Good morning, Miss Rose," said her father. "Early to bed and early to +rise, eh? When did you take to getting up betimes?" + +"Good morning, papa. I didn't feel sleepy, and so thought I would come +down." + +"What time did you get home last night?" + +"I left a little after twelve." + +"Did you enjoy yourself, my dear?" + +"Yes, papa." + +"Reginald was with you?" + +"Yes, papa." + +"It's all right, I suppose," said her father, pinching her blooming +cheek; "but if I were Kate, I wouldn't allow it. Young man are +changeable as chameleons, and these pink cheeks are tempting." + +The pink cheeks turned guiltily scarlet at the words. Grace, looking up +from her work, saw the tell-tale flush; but Captain Danton, going over +to the fire to read the morning paper, said nothing. + +Rose stood listlessly in her father's place, looking out of the window. +The wintry landscape, all glittering in the glorious sunshine, was very +bright; but the dreamy, hazel eyes were not looking at it. + +"Rose!" said Grace suddenly, "when did you hear from Ottawa?" + +Rose turned to her, roused from her dreaming. + +"What did you say?" + +"When did you hear from Ottawa--from M. Jules La Touche?" + +Again the colour deepened in Rose's face, and an angry light shone in +her eyes. + +"What do you want to know for?" + +"Because I want to know. That's reason enough, is it not?" replied +Grace, sewing away placidly. + +"I don't see that it's any affair of yours, Mistress Grace. Jules La +Touche is a nuisance!" + +"Oh, is he? He wasn't a month or two ago. Whom have you fallen in love +with now, Rose?" + +"It's no business of yours," said Rose angrily. + +"But if I choose to make it my business, my dear, sweet-tempered Rose, +what then? Do tell me the name of the last lucky man? I am dying to +know." + +"Die, then, for you won't know." + +"Suppose I know already." + +"What?" + +"It's not Mr. Stanford, is it?" + +Rose gave a gasp--in the suddenness of the surprise, colouring crimson. +Grace saw it all, as she placidly threaded her needle. + +"I wouldn't if I were you," she said quietly. "It's of no use, Rose. +Kate is handsomer than you are; and it will only be the old comedy of +'Love's Labour Lost' over again." + +"Grace Danton, what do you mean?" + +"Now, don't get excited, Rose, and don't raise your voice. Your father +might hear you, and that would not be pleasant. It is plain enough. Mr. +Stanford is very handsome, and very fascinating, and very hard to +resist, I dare say; but, still, he must be resisted. Mr. La Touche is a +very estimable young man, I have no doubt, and of a highly respectable +family; and, very likely, will make you an excellent husband. If I were +you, I would ask my papa to let me go on another visit to Ottawa, and +remain, say, until the end of May. It would do you good, I am sure." + +Rose listened to this harangue, her eyes flashing. + +"And if I were you, Miss Grace Danton, I would keep my advice until it +was asked. Be so good for the future, as to mind your own business, +attend to your housekeeping, and let other people's love affairs alone." + +With which Rose sailed stormily off, with very red cheeks, and very +bright, angry eyes, and sought refuge in a book. + +Grace, perfectly unmoved, quite used to Rose's temper, sewed serenely +on, and waited for the rest of the family to appear. + +Eeny was the next to enter, then came Sir Ronald Keith, who took a chair +opposite Captain Danton, and buried himself in another paper. To him, in +Kate's absence, the room was empty. + +The breakfast bell was ringing when that young lady appeared, beautiful +and bright as the sunny morning, in flowing white cashmere, belted with +blue, and her lovely golden hair twisted in a coronet of amber braids +round her head. She came over to where Rose sat, sulky and silent, and +kissed her. + +"_Bon jour, ma soeur!_ How do you feel after last night!" + +"Very well," said Rose, not looking at her. + +"Reginald came home with you?" smiled Kate, toying with Rose's pretty +curls. + +"Yes," she said, uneasily. + +"I am glad. I am so glad that you and he are friends at last." + +Rose fidgeted more uneasily still, and said nothing. + +"Why was it you didn't like him?" said Kate, coaxingly. "Tell me, my +dear." + +"I don't know. I liked him well enough," replied Rose, ungraciously. "He +was a stranger to me." + +"My darling, he will be your brother." + +Rose fixed her eyes sullenly on her book. + +"You will come to England with us, won't you, Rose--dear old +England--and my pretty sister may be my lady yet?" + +The door opened again. Mr. Stanford came in. + +Rose glanced up shyly. + +His face was unusually grave and pale; but all were taking their places, +and in the bustle no one noticed it. He did not look at Kate, who saw, +with love's quickness, that something was wrong. + +All through breakfast Mr. Stanford was very silent, for him. When he did +talk, it was to Captain Danton--seldom to any of the ladies. + +Grace watched him, wonderingly; Rose watched him furtively, and Kate's +morning appetite was effectually taken away. + +The meal ended, the family dispersed. + +The Captain went to his study, Sir Ronald mounted and rode off, Grace +went away to attend to her housekeeping affairs, Eeny to her studies, +and Rose hurried up to her room. + +The lovers were left alone. Kate took her embroidery. Mr. Stanford was +immersed in the paper Captain Danton had lately laid down. There was a +prolonged silence, during which the lady worked, and the gentleman read, +as if their lives depended on it. + +She lifted her eyes from her embroidery to glance his way, and found him +looking at her steadfastly--gravely. + +"What is it, Reginald?" she exclaimed, impatiently. "What is the matter +with you this morning?" + +"I am wondering!" said Stanford, gravely. + +"Wondering?" + +"Yes; if the old adage about seeing being believing is true." + +"I don't understand," said Kate, a little haughtily. + +Stanford laid down his paper, came over to where she sat, and took a +chair near her. + +"Something extraordinary has occurred, Kate, which I cannot comprehend. +Shall I tell you what it is?" + +"If you please." + +"It was last night, then. You know I spent the day and evening with the +Howards? It was late--past twelve, when I escorted Rose home; but the +night was fine, and tempted me to linger still longer. I turned down the +tamarack walk--" + +He paused. + +Kate's work had dropped in her lap, with a faint cry of dismay. + +"I had reached the lower end of the avenue," continued Reginald +Stanford, "and was turning, when I saw two persons--a man and a +woman--enter. 'Who can they be, and what can they be about here at this +hour?' I thought, and I stood still to watch. They came nearer. I saw in +the starlight her woman's face. I heard in the stillness her words. She +was telling the man how much she loved him, how much she should always +love him, and then they were out of sight and hearing. Kate, was that +woman you?" + +She sat looking at him, her blue eyes dilated, her lips apart, her hands +clasped, in a sort of trance of terror. + +"Was it you, Kate?" repeated her lover. "Am I to believe my eyes?" + +She roused herself to speak by an effort. + +"Oh, Reginald!" she cried, "what have you done! Why, why did you go +there?" + +There was dismay in her tone, consternation in her face, but nothing +else. No shame, no guilt, no confusion--nothing but that look of grief +and regret. + +A conviction that had possessed him all along that it was all right, +somehow or other, became stronger than ever now; but his face did not +show it--perhaps, unconsciously, in his secret heart he was hoping it +would not be all right. + +"Perhaps I was unfortunate in going there," he said, coldly; "but I +assure you I had very little idea of what I was to see and hear. Having +heard, and having seen, I am afraid I must insist on an explanation." + +"Which I cannot give you," said Kate, her colour rising, and looking +steadfastly in his dark eyes. + +"You cannot give me!" said Reginald, haughtily. "Do I understand you +rightly, Kate?" + +She laid her hand on his, with a gentle, caressing touch, and bent +forward. She loved him too deeply and tenderly to bear that cold, proud +tone. + +"We have never quarrelled yet, Reginald," she said, sweetly. "Let us not +quarrel now. I cannot give you the explanation you ask; but papa shall." + +He lifted the beautiful hand to his lips, feeling somehow, that he was +unworthy to touch the hem of her garment. + +"You are an angel, Kate--incapable of doing wrong. I ought to be content +without an explanation, knowing you as I do; but--" + +"But you must have one, nevertheless. Reginald, I am sorry you saw me +last night." + +He looked at her, hardly knowing what to say. She was gazing sadly out +at the sunny prospect. + +"Poor fellow!" she said, half to herself, "poor fellow! Those midnight +walks are almost all the comfort he has in this world, and now he will +be afraid to venture out any more." + +Still Stanford sat silent. + +Kate smiled at him and put away her work. + +"Wait for me here," she said, rising. "Papa is in his study. I will +speak to him." + +She left the room. Stanford sat and waited, and felt more uncomfortable +than he had ever felt in his life. He was curious, too. What family +mystery was about to be revealed to him? What secret was this hidden in +Danton Hall? + +"I have heard there is a skeleton in every house," he thought; "but I +never dreamed there was one hidden away in this romantic old mansion. +Perhaps I have seen the ghost of Danton Hall, as well as the rest. How +calmly Kate took it!--No sign of guilt or wrong-doing in her face. If I +ever turn out a villain, there will be no excuse for my villainy on her +part." + +Kate was absent nearly half an hour, but it seemed a little century to +the impatient waiter. When she entered, there were traces of tears on +her face, but her manner was quite calm. + +"Papa is waiting for you," she said, "in his study." + +He rose up, walked to the door, and stood there, irresolute. + +"Where shall I find you when I return?" + +"Here." + +She said it softly and a little sadly. Stanford crossed to where she +stood, and took her in his arms--a very unusual proceeding for him--and +kissed her. + +"I have perfect confidence in your truth, my dearest," he said. "I am as +sure of your goodness and innocence before your father's explanation as +I can possibly be after it." + +There was a witness to this loving declaration that neither of them +bargained for. Rose, getting tired of her own company, had run +down-stairs to entertain herself with her music. Stanford had left the +door ajar when he returned; and Rose was just in time to see the embrace +and hear the tender speech. Just in time, too, to fly before Reginald +left the drawing-room and took his way to the study. + +Rose played no piano that morning; but, locked in her own room, made the +most of what she had heard and seen. Kate had the drawing-room to +herself, and sat, with clasped hands, looking out at the bright March +morning. The business of the day went on in the house, doors opened and +shut, Grace and Eeny came in and went away again, Doctor Frank came up +to see Agnes Darling, who was nearly well; and in the study, Reginald +Stanford was hearing the story of Miss Danton's midnight stroll. + +"You must have heard it sooner or later," Captain Danton said, "between +this and next June. As well now as any other time." + +Stanford bowed and waited. + +"You have not resided in this house for so many weeks without hearing of +the invalid upstairs, whom Ogden attends, who never appears in our +midst, and about whom all in the house are more or less curious?" + +"Mr. Richards?" said Stanford, surprised. + +"Yes, Mr. Richards; you have heard of him. It was Mr. Richards whom you +saw with Kate last night." + +Reginald Stanford dropped the paper-knife he had been drumming with, and +stared blankly at Captain Danton. + +"Mr. Richards!" he echoed; "Mr. Richards, who is too ill to leave his +room!" + +"Not now," said Captain Danton, calmly; "he was when he first came here. +You know what ailed Macbeth--a sickness that physicians could not cure. +That is Mr. Richards' complaint--a mind diseased. Remorse and terror are +that unhappy young man's ailments and jailers." + +There was a dead pause. Reginald Stanford, still "far wide," gazed at +his father-in-law-elect, and waited for something more satisfactory. + +"It is not a pleasant story to tell," Captain Danton went on, in a +subdued voice; "the story of a young man's folly, and madness, and +guilt; but it must be told. The man you saw last night is barely +twenty-three years of age, but all the promise of his life is gone; from +henceforth he can be nothing more than a hunted outcast, with the stain +of murder on his soul." + +"Good heavens!" exclaimed his hearer; "and Kate walks with such a man, +alone, and at midnight?" + +"Yes," said Kate's father, proudly "and will again, please Heaven. Poor +boy! poor, unfortunate boy! If Kate and I were to desert him, he would +be lost indeed." + +"This is all Greek to me," said Stanford, coldly. "If the man be what +you say, a murderer, nothing can excuse Miss Danton's conduct." + +"Listen, Reginald, my dear boy--almost my son; listen, and you will have +nothing but pity for the poor man upstairs, and deeper love for my noble +daughter. But, first, have I your word of honour that what I tell you +shall remain a secret?" + +Reginald bowed. + +"Three years ago, this young man, whose name is not Richards," began +Captain Danton, "ran away from home, and began life on his own account. +He had been a wilful, headstrong, passionate boy always, but yet loving +and generous. He fled from his friends, in a miserable hour of passion, +and never returned to them any more; for the sick, sinful, broken-down, +wretched man who returned was as different from the hot-headed, +impetuous, happy boy, as day differs from night. + +"He fled from home, and went to New York. He was, as I am, a sailor; he +had command of a vessel at the age of nineteen; but he gave up the sea, +and earned a livelihood in that city for some months by painting and +selling water-colour sketches, at which he was remarkably clever. +Gradually his downward course began. The wine-bottle, the gaming-table, +were the first milestones on the road to ruin. The gambling-halls +became, at length, his continual haunt. One day he was worth thousands; +the next, he did not possess a stiver. The excitement grew on him. He +became, before the end of the year, a confirmed and notorious gambler. + +"One night the crisis in his life came. He was at a Bowery theatre, to +see a Christmas pantomime. It was a fairy spectacle, and the stage was +crowded with ballet-girls. There was one among them, the loveliest +creature, it seemed to him, he had ever seen, with whom, in one mad +moment, he fell passionately in love. A friend of his, by name Furniss, +laughed at his raptures. 'Don't you know her, Harry?' said he; 'she +boards in the same house with you. She is a little grisette, a little +shop-girl, only hired to look pretty, standing there, while this fairy +pantomime lasts. You have seen her fifty times.' + +"Yes, he had seen her repeatedly. He remembered it when his friend +spoke, and he had never thought of her until now. The new infatuation +took possession of him, body and soul. He made her acquaintance next +morning, and found out she was, as his friend had said, a shop-girl. +What did he care; if she had been a rag-picker, it would have been all +one to this young madman. In a fortnight he proposed; in a month they +were married, and the third step on the road to ruin was taken. + +"Had she been a good woman--an earnest and faithful wife--she might have +made a new man of him, for he loved her with a passionate devotion that +was part of his hot-headed nature. But she was bad--as depraved as she +was fair--and brought his downward course to a tragical climax +frightfully soon. + +"Before her marriage, this wretched girl had had a lover--discarded for +a more handsome and impetuous wooer. But she had known him longest, and, +perhaps, loved him best. At all events, he resumed his visits after +marriage, as if nothing had happened. The young husband, full of love +and confidence, suspected no wrong. He sanctioned the visits and was on +most friendly terms with the discarded suitor. For some months it went +on, this underhand and infamous intimacy, and the wronged husband saw +nothing. It was Furniss who first opened his eyes to the truth, and a +terrible scene ensued. The husband refused passionately to believe a +word against the truth and purity of the wife he loved, and called his +friend a liar and a slanderer. + +"'Very well,' said Furniss, coolly, 'bluster as much as you please, dear +boy, and, when you are tired, go home. It is an hour earlier than you +generally return. He will hardly have left. If you find your pretty +little idol alone, and at her prayers, disbelieve me. If you find Mr. +Crosby enjoying a _tete-a-tete_ with her, then come back and apologize +for these hard names.'" + +"He went off whistling, and the half-maddened husband sprang into a +passing stage and rode home. It was past ten, but he was generally at +the gambling-table each night until after one, and his wife had usually +retired ere his return. He went upstairs softly, taking off his boots, +and noiselessly opened the door. There sat his wife, and by her side, +talking earnestly, the discarded lover. He caught his last words as he +entered: + +"'You know how I have loved--you know how I do love, a thousand times +better than he! Why should we not fly at once. It is only torture to +both to remain longer.' + +"They were the last words the unfortunate man ever uttered. The gambler +had been drinking--let us hope the liquor and the jealous fury made him +for the time mad. There was the flash, the report of a pistol; Crosby, +his guilty wife's lover, uttered a wild yell, sprang up in the air, and +fell back shot through the heart." + +There was another dead pause. Captain Danton's steady voice momentarily +failed, and Reginald Stanford sat in horrified silence. + +"What came next," continued the Captain, his voice tremulous, "the +madman never knew. He has a vague remembrance of his wife's screams +filling the room with people; of his finding himself out somewhere under +the stars, and his brain and heart on fire. He has a dim remembrance of +buying a wig and whiskers and a suit of sailor's clothes next day, and +of wandering down among the docks in search of a ship. By one of those +mysterious dispensations of Providence that happen every day, the first +person he encountered on the dock was myself. I did not know him--how +could I in that disguise--but he knew me instantly, and spoke. I +recognized his voice, and took him on board my ship, and listened to the +story I have just told you. With me he was safe. Detectives were +scouring the city for the murderer; but I sailed for England next day, +and he was beyond their reach. On the passage he broke down; all the +weeks we were crossing the Atlantic he lay wandering and delirious in a +raging brain-fever. We all thought, Doctor and all, that he never would +reach the other side; but life won the hard victory, and he slowly grew +better. Kate returned, as you know, with me. She, too, heard the +tragical story, and had nothing but pity and prayer for the +tempest-tossed soul. + +"When we reached Canada, he was still weak and ill. I brought him here +under an assumed name, and he remains shut up in his rooms all day, and +only ventures out at night to breathe the fresh air. His mind has never +recovered its tone since that brain fever. He has become a monomaniac on +one subject, the dread of being discovered, and hanged for murder. +Nothing will tempt him from his solitude--nothing can induce him to +venture out, except at midnight, when all are asleep. He is the ghost +who frightened Margery and Agnes Darling; he is the man you saw with +Kate last in the grounds. He clings to her as he clings to no one else. +The only comfort left him in this lower world are these nightly walks +with her. She is the bravest, the best, the noblest of girls; she leaves +her warm room, her bed, for those cold midnight walks with that unhappy +and suffering man." + +Once again a pause. Reginald Stanford looked at Captain Danton's pale, +agitated face. + +"You have told me a terrible story," he said. "I can hardly blame this +man for what he has done; but what claim has he on you that you should +feel for him and screen him as you do? What claim has he on my future +wife that she should take these nightly walks with him unknown to me?" + +"The strongest claim that man can have," was the answer; "he is my +son--he is Kate's only brother!" + +"My God! Captain Danton, what are you saying?" + +"The truth," Captain Danton answered, in a broken voice. "Heaven help +me--Heaven pity him! The wretched man whose story you have heard--who +dwells a captive under this roof--is my only son, Henry Danton." + +He covered his face with his hands. Reginald Stanford sat confounded. + +"I never dreamed of this," he said aghast. "I thought your son was +dead!" + +"They all think so," said the Captain, without looking up; "but you know +the truth. Some day, before long, you shall visit him, when I have +prepared him for your coming. You understand all you heard and saw now?" + +"My dear sir!" exclaimed Stanford, grasping the elder man's hand; +"forgive me! No matter what I saw, I must have been mad to doubt Kate. +Your secret is as safe with me as with yourself. I shall leave you now; +I must see Kate." + +"Yes, poor child! Love her and trust her with your whole heart, +Reginald, for she is worthy." + +Reginald Stanford went out, still bewildered by all he had heard, and +returned to the drawing-room. Kate sat as he had left her, looking +dreamily out at the bright sky. + +"My dearest," he said bending over her, and touching the white brow: +"can you ever forgive me for doubting you? You are the truest, the best, +the bravest of women." + +She lifted her loving eyes, filled with tears, to the handsome face of +her betrothed. + +"To those I love I hope I am--and more. Before I grow false or +treacherous, I pray Heaven that I may die." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +HARRY DANTON. + + +A spring-like afternoon. The March sun bright in the Canadian sky, the +wind soft and genial, and a silvery mist hanging over the river and +marshes. Little floods from the fast-melting snow poured through the +grounds; the ice-frozen fish-pond was thawing out under the melting +influence of the sunshine, and rubber shoes and tucked-up skirts were +indispensable outdoor necessaries. + +Rose Danton, rubber-shoes, tucked-up skirts, and all, was trying to kill +time this pleasant afternoon, sauntering aimlessly through the wet +grounds. Very pretty and coquettish she looked, with that crimson +petticoat showing under her dark silk dress; that jockey-hat and feather +set jauntily on her sunshiny curls; but her prettiness was only vanity +and vexation of spirit to Rose. Where was the good of pink-tinted +cheeks, soft hazel eyes, auburn curls, and a trim little foot and ankle, +when there was no living thing near to see and admire? What was the use +of dressing beautifully and looking charming for a pack of insensible +mortals, to whom it was an old story and not worth thinking about? The +sunny March day had no reflection in Rose's face; "sulky" is the only +word that will tell you how she looked. Poor Rose! It was rather hard to +be hopelessly in love, to be getting worse every day, and find it all of +no use. It was a little too bad to have everything she wanted for +eighteen years, and then be denied the fascinating young officer she had +set her whole heart on. For Mr. Stanford was lost again. Just as she +thought she had her bird snared for certain--lo! it spread its dazzling +wings and soared up to the clouds, and farther out of reach than ever. +In plain English, he had gone back to the old love and was off with the +new, just when she felt most sure of him. + +A whole week had passed since that night in the tamarack walk, that +night when he had seemed so tender and lover-like, the matchless +deceiver! And he had hardly spoken half a dozen words to her. He was +back at the footstool of his first sovereign, he was the most devoted of +engaged men; Kate was queen of the hour, Rose was nowhere. It was +trying, it was cruel, it was shameful. Rose cried and scolded in the +seclusion of her maiden bower, and hated Mr. Stanford, or said she did; +and could have seen her beautiful elder sister in her winding-sheet with +all the pleasure in life. + +So, this sunny afternoon, Rose was wandering listlessly hither and +thither, thinking the ice would soon break upon the fish-pond if this +weather lasted, and suicide would be the easiest thing in the world. She +walked dismally round and round it, and wondered what Mr. Stanford would +say, and how he would feel when some day, in the cold, sad twilight, +they would carry her, white, and lifeless, and dripping before him, one +more unfortunate gone to her death! She could see herself--robed in +white, her face whiter than her dress, her pretty auburn curls all wet +and streaming around her--carried into the desolate house. She could see +Reginald Stanford recoil, turn deadly pale, his whole future happiness +blasted at the sight. She pictured him in his horrible remorse giving up +Kate, and becoming a wanderer and a broken-hearted man all the rest of +his life. There was a dismal delight in these musings; and Rose went +round and round the fish-pond, revelling, so to speak, in them. + +As her watch pointed to three, one of the stable-helpers came round from +the stables leading two horses. She knew them--one was Mr. Stanford's, +the other Kate's. A moment later, and Mr. Stanford and Kate appeared on +the front steps, "booted and spurred," and ready for their ride. The +Englishman helped his lady into the saddle, adjusted her long skirt, and +sprang lightly across his own steed. Rose would have given a good deal +to be miles away; but the fish-pond must be passed, and she, the "maiden +forlorn," must be seen. Kate gayly touched her plumed-hat; Kate's +cavalier bent to his saddle-bow, and then they were gone out of sight +among the budding trees. + +"Heartless, cold-blooded flirt!" thought the second Miss Danton, +apostrophizing the handsomest of his sex. "I hope his horse may run away +with him and break his neck!" + +But Rose did not mean this, and the ready tears were in her eyes the +next instant with pity for herself. + +"It's too bad of him--it's too bad to treat me so! He knows I love him, +he made me think he loved me; and now to go and act like this. I'll +never stay here and see him marry Kate! I'd rather die first! I will die +or do something! I'll run away and become an actress or a nun--I don't +care much which. They're both romantic, and they are what people always +do in such cases--at least I have read a great many novels where they +did!" mused Miss Danton, still making her circle round the fish-pond. + +Grace, calling from one of the windows to a servant passing below, +caused her to look towards the house, just in time to see something +white flutter from an open bedroom window on the breeze. The bedroom +regions ran all around the third story of Danton Hall--six in each +range. Mr. Stanford's chamber was in the front of the house, and it was +from Mr. Stanford's room the white object had fluttered. Rose watched it +as it alighted on a little unmelted snowbank, and, hurrying over, picked +it up. It was part of a letter--a sheet of note-paper torn in half, and +both sides closely written. It was in Reginald Stanford's hand and +without more ado (you will be shocked to hear it, though) Miss Rose +deliberately commenced reading it. It began abruptly with part of an +unfinished sentence. + + --"That you call me a villain! Perhaps I shall not be a villain, + after all. The angel with the auburn ringlets is as much an angel + as ever; but, Lauderdale, upon my soul, I don't want to do anything + wrong, if I can help it. If it is _kismit_, as the Turks say, my + fate, what can I do? What will be, will be; if auburn ringlets and + yellow-brown eyes are my destiny, what am I--the descendant of many + Stanfords--that I should resist? Nevertheless, if destiny minds its + own business and lets me alone, I'll come up to the mark like a + man. Kate is glorious; I always knew it, but never so much as now. + Something has happened recently--no matter what--that has elevated + her higher than ever in my estimation. There is something grand + about the girl--something too great and noble in that high-strung + nature of hers, for such a reprobate as I! This is _entre nous_, + though; if I tell you I am a reprobate, it is in confidence. I am a + lucky fellow, am I not, to have two of earth's angels to choose + from? And yet sometimes I wish I were not so lucky; I don't want to + misbehave--I don't want to break anybody's heart; but still--" + +It came to an end as abruptly as it had begun. Rose's cheeks were +scarlet flame before she concluded. She understood it all. He was bound +to her sister; he was trying to be true, but he loved her! Had he not +owned it--might she not still hope? She clasped her hands in sudden, +ecstatic rapture. + +"He loves me best," she thought; "and the one he loves best will be the +one he will choose." + +She folded up the precious document, and hid it in her pocket. She +looked up at the window, but no more sheets of the unfinished letter +fluttered out. + +"Careless fellow!" she thought, "to leave such tell-tale letters loose. +If Kate had found it, or Grace, or Eeny! They could not help +understanding it. I wish I dared tell him; but I can't." + +She turned and went into the house. No more dreary rambles round the +fish-pond. Rose was happy again. + +Suicide was indefinitely postponed, and Kate might become the nun, not +she. Kate was his promised wife; but there is many a slip; and the +second Miss Danton ran up to her room, singing, "New hope may bloom." + +If Rose's heart had been broken, she would have dressed herself +carefully all the same. There was to be a dinner-party at the house that +evening, and among the guests a viscount recently come over to shoot +moose. The viscount was forty, but unmarried, with a long rent-roll, and +longer pedigree; and who knew what effect sparkling hazel eyes and +gold-bronzed hair, and honeyed smiles, might have upon him? So Eunice +was called in, and the auburn tresses freshly curled, and a sweeping +robe of silvery silk, trimmed with rich lace, donned. The lovely bare +neck and arms were adorned with pale pearls, and the falling curls were +jauntily looped back with clusters of pearl beads. + +"You do look lovely, Miss!" cried Eunice, in irrepressible admiration. +"I never saw you look so 'andsome before. The dress is the becomingest +dress you've got, and you look splendid, you do!" + +Rose flashed a triumphant glance at her own face in the mirror. + +"Do I, Eunice? Do I look almost as handsome as Kate?" + +"You are 'andsomer sometimes, Miss Rose, to my taste. If Miss Kate 'ad +red cheeks, now; but she's as w'ite sometimes as marble." + +"So she is; but some people admire that style. I suppose Mr. Stanford +does--eh, Eunice?" + +"I dare say he does, Miss." + +"Do you think Mr. Stanford handsome, Eunice?" carelessly. + +"Very 'andsome, Miss, and so pleasant. Not 'igh and 'aughty, like some +young gentlemen I've seen. Heverybody likes 'im." + +"What is Kate going to wear this evening?" said Rose, her heart +fluttering at the praise. + +"The black lace, miss, and her pearls. She looks best in blue, but she +will wear black." + +"How is Agnes Darling getting on?" asked Rose, jumping to another topic. +"I haven't seen her for two days." + +"Getting better, Miss; she is hable to be up halmost hall the time; but +she's failed away to a shadow. Is there hanythink more, Miss?" + +"Nothing more, thank you. You may go." + +Eunice departed; and Rose, sinking into a rocker, beguiled the time +until dinner with a book. She heard Mr. Stanford and Kate coming +upstairs together, laughing at something, and go to their rooms to +dress. + +"I wonder if he will miss part of his letter," she thought, nervously. +"What would he say if I gave it to him, and told him I had read it? No! +I dare not do that. I will say nothing about it, and let him fidget as +much as he likes over the loss." + +Rose descended to the drawing-room as the last bell rang, and found +herself bowing to half a dozen strangers--Colonel Lord Ellerton among +the rest. Lord Ellerton, who was very like Lord Dundreary every way you +took him, gave his arm to Kate, and Stanford, with a smile and an +indescribable glance, took possession of Rose. + +"Has your fairy godmother been dressing you, Rose? I never saw you look +so bewildering. What is it?" + +Rose shook back her curls saucily, though tingling to her finger-ends at +the praise. + +"My fairy godmother's goddaughter would not bewilder you much, if +Cleopatra yonder were not taken possession of by that ill-looking peer +of the realm. I am well enough as a dernier resort." + +"How much of that speech do you mean? Are you looking beautiful to +captivate the viscount?" + +"I am looking beautiful because I can't help it, and I never stoop to +captivate any one, Mr. Stanford--not even a viscount. By-the-by, you +haven't quarrelled with Kate, have you?" + +"Certainly not. Why should I?" + +"Of course--why should you! She has a perfect right to walk in the +grounds at midnight with any gentleman she chooses." + +She said it rather bitterly. Stanford smiled provokingly. + +"_Chacun a son gout_, you know. If Kate likes midnight rambles, she must +have a cavalier, of course. When she is Mrs. Stanford I shall endeavour +to break her of that habit." + +"Did you tell her I was with you?" demanded Rose, her eyes flashing. + +"My dear Rose, I never tell tales. By-the-way, when shall we have +another moonlight stroll? It seems to me I see very little of you +lately." + +"We will have no more midnight strolls, Mr. Stanford," said Rose, +sharply; "and you see quite as much of me as I wish you to see. My +lord--I beg your pardon--were you addressing me?" + +She turned from Stanford, sitting beside her and talking under the cover +of the clatter of spoons and knives, and flashed the light of her most +dazzling smile upon Lord Ellerton, sitting opposite. Yes, the peer was +addressing her--some question he wanted to know concerning the native +Canadians, and which Kate was incapable of answering. + +Rose knew all about it, and took his lordship in tow immediately. All +the witcheries known to pretty little flirts were brought to bear on the +viscount, as once before they had been brought to bear on Sir Ronald +Keith. + +Kate smiled across at Reginald, and surrendered the peer at once. King +or Kaiser were less than nothing to her in comparison with that handsome +idol on the other side of the table. + +Dinner was over, and the ladies gone. In the drawing-room Kate seated +herself at the piano, to sing a bewildering duet with Rose. Before it +was ended the gentlemen appeared, and once more Lord Ellerton found +himself taken captive and seated beside Rose--how, he hardly knew. How +that tongue of hers ran! And all the time Lord Ellerton's eyes were +wandering to Kate. Like Sir Ronald, pretty Rose's witcheries fell short +of the mark; the stately loveliness of Kate eclipsed her, as the sun +eclipses stars. When at last he could, without discourtesy, get away, he +arose, bowed to the young lady, and, crossing the long, drawing-room, +took his stand by the piano, where Kate still sat and sung. Stanford was +leaning against the instrument, but he resigned his place to the +viscount, and an instant later was beside Rose. + +"Exchange is no robbery," he said. "Is it any harm to ask how you have +succeeded?" + +Rose looked up angrily into the laughing dark eyes. + +"I don't know what you mean." + +"My dear little artless Rose! Shall I put it plainer? When are you to be +Lady Ellerton?" + +"Mr. Stanford--" + +"My dear Rose, don't be cross. He is too old and too ugly--low be it +spoken--for the prettiest girl in Canada!" + +"Meaning me?" + +"Meaning you." + +"Why don't you except Kate?" + +"Because I think you are prettier than Kate?" + +"You don't! I know better! I don't believe you!" + +"Disbelieve me, then." + +"You think there is no one in the world like Kate." + +"Do I? Who told you?" + +"I don't need to be told; actions speak louder than words." + +"And what have my actions said?" + +"That you adore the ground she walks on, and hold her a little lower +than the angels." + +"So I do. That is, I don't precisely adore the ground she walks on--I am +not quite so far gone as that yet--but I hold her a little lower than +the angels, certainly." + +"That's enough then. Why don't you stay with her, and not come here +annoying me?" + +"Oh, I annoy you, do I? You don't mean it, Rose?" + +"Yes, I do," said Rose, compressing her lips. "What do you come for?" + +"Because--you won't be offended, will you?" + +"No." + +"Because I am very fond of you, then." + +"Fond of me!" said Rose, her heart thrilling--"and you engaged to Kate! +How dare you tell me so, Mr. Stanford?" + +Rose's words were all they should have been, but Rose's tone was +anything but severe. Stanford took an easier position on the sofa. + +"Because I like to tell the truth. Never mind the viscount, Rose; you +don't care about him, and if you only wait, and are a good girl, +somebody you do care about may propose to you one of these days. Here, +Doctor, there is room for another on our sofa." + +"Will I be _de trop_?" asked Doctor Frank, halting. + +"Not at all. Rose and I are discussing politics. She thinks Canada +should be annexed to the United States, and I don't. What are your views +on the matter?" + +Doctor Danton took the vacant seat and Stanford's conversational cue, +and began discussing politics, until Rose got up in disgust, and left. + +"I thought that would be the end of it," said Stanford. "Poor little +girl! the subject is too heavy for her." + +"Only I knew you were done for, Mr. Stanford," said Doctor Danton, "I +should have fancied I was interrupting a flirtation." + +"Not at all. Rose and I did not get on very well at first. I am afraid +she took a dislike to me, and I am merely trying to bring her to a more +Christian frame of mind. A fellow likes to be on good terms with his +sister." + +"So he does. I noticed you and our charming Miss Rose were at +daggers-drawn even before you got properly introduced; and I couldn't +account for it in any other way than by supposing you had made love to +her and deserted her--in some other planet, perhaps." + +Stanford looked with eyes of laughing wonder in the face of the +imperturbable Doctor, who never moved a muscle. + +"Upon my life, Danton," he exclaimed letting his hand fall lightly on +the Doctor's shoulder, "you ought to be burned for a wizard! What other +planet do you suppose it was?" + +"Has that sprained ankle of yours got quite strong again?" somewhat +irrelevantly inquired the physician. + +Reginald Stanford laughed. + +"Most astute of men! Who has been telling you tales?" + +"My own natural sagacity. How many weeks were you laid up?" + +"Three," still laughing. + +"I was here at the time, and I recollect the sudden passion Rose was +seized with for long rides every day. I couldn't imagine what was the +cause. I think I can, now." + +"Doctor Danton, your penetration does you credit. She's a dear little +girl, and the best of nurses." + +"And do you know--But perhaps you will be offended." + +"Not I. Out with it." + +"Well, then, I think it is a pity you were engaged before you sprained +that ankle." + +"Do you, really? Might I ask why?" + +"I think Rose would make such a charming Mrs. Stanford." + +"So do I," said Mr. Stanford, with perfect composure. "But won't Kate?" + +"Miss Danton is superb; she ought to marry an emperor; but no, destiny +has put her foot in it. Captain Danton's second daughter should be the +one." + +"You really think so?" + +"I really do." + +"How unfortunate!" said Stanford, stroking his mustache. "Do you think +it can be remedied?" + +"I think so." + +"By jilting--it's an ugly word, too--by jilting Kate?" + +"Precisely." + +"But she will break her heart." + +"No, she won't. I am a physician, and I know. Hearts never break, except +in women's novels. They're the toughest part of the human anatomy." + +"What a consolating thought! And you really advise me to throw over +Kate, and take to my bosom the fair, the fascinating Rose?" + +"You couldn't do better." + +"Wouldn't there be the deuce to pay if I did, though, with that +fire-eating father of hers? I should have my brains blown out before the +honey-moon was ended." + +"I don't see why, so that you marry one of his daughters, how can it +matter to him which? With a viscount and a baronet at the feet of the +peerless Kate, he ought to be glad to be rid of you." + +"It seems to me, Doctor Danton, you talk uncommonly plain English." + +"Is it too plain? I'll stop if you say so." + +"Oh, no. Pray continue. It does me good. And, besides, I don't know but +that I agree with you." + +"I thought you did. I have thought so for some time." + +"Were you jealous, Doctor? You used to be rather attentive to Rose, if I +remember rightly." + +"Fearfully jealous; but where is the use? She gave me my _coup de conge_ +long ago. That I am still alive, and talking to you is the most +convincing proof I can give that hearts do not break." + +"After all," said Stanford, "I don't believe you ever were very far gone +with Rose. My stately fiancee suits you better. If I take you at your +word, and she rejects the baronet and the viscount, you might try your +luck." + +"It would be worse than useless. I might as well love some bright, +particular star, and hope to win it, as Miss Danton. Ah! here she +comes!" + +Leaning on the arm of Lord Ellerton, Miss Danton came up smilingly. + +"Are you two plotting treason, that you sit there with such solemn faces +all the evening?" she asked. + +"You have guessed it," replied her lover; "it is treason. Doctor, I'll +think of what you have been saying." + +He arose. Lord Ellerton resigned his fair companion to her rightful +owner, and returned to Rose, who was looking over a book of beauty; and +Doctor Danton went over to Eeny, who was singing to herself at the +piano, and listened, with an odd little smile, to her song: + + "Smile again, my dearest love, + Weep not that I leave you; + I have chosen now to rove-- + Bear it, though it grieve you. + See! the sun, and moon, and stars, + Gleam the wide world over, + Whether near, or whether far, + On your loving rover. + + "And the sea has ebb and flow, + Wind and cloud deceive us; + Summer heat and winter snow + Seek us but to leave us. + Thus the world grows old and new-- + Why should you be stronger? + Long have I been true to you, + Now I'm true no longer. + + "As no longer yearns my heart, + Or your smiles enslave me, + Let me thank you ere we part, + For the love you gave me. + See the May flowers wet with dew + Ere their bloom is over-- + Should I not return to you, + Seek another lover." + +Doctor Danton laughed. + + "'Long have I been true to you, + Now I'm true no longer!'" + +"Those are most atrocious sentiments you are singing--do you not know +it, Miss Eeny?" + +Mr. Stanford beside Kate, Lord Ellerton listening politely to Rose, and +Doctor Frank with Eeny, never found time flying, and were surprised to +discover it was almost midnight. The guests departed, "the lights were +fled, the garlands dead, and the banquet-hall deserted" by everybody but +Reginald Stanford and Captain Danton. They were alone in the long, +dimly-lighted drawing-room. + +"You will take Kate's place to night," the Captain was saying, "and be +Harry's companion in his constitutional. I told him that another knew +his secret. I related all the circumstances." + +"How did he take it? Was he annoyed?" + +"No; he was a little startled at first, but he allowed I could not do +otherwise. Poor fellow! He is anxious to see you now. If you will get +your overcoat, you will find him here when you return." + +Mr. Stanford ran upstairs in a hurry, and returned in fur cap and +overcoat in ten minutes. A young man, tall and slender, but pale to +ghastliness, with haggard cheeks and hollow eyes, stood, wrapped in a +long cloak, beside the Captain. He had been handsome, you could see, +even through that bloodless pallor, and there was a look in his great +blue eyes that startlingly reminded you of Kate. + +"You two know each other already," said the Captain. "I claim you both +as sons." + +Reginald grasped Harry Danton's extended hand, and shook it heartily. + +"Being brothers, I trust we shall soon be better acquainted," he said. +"I am to supply Kate's place to-night in the tamarack walk. I trust no +loiterers will see us." + +"I trust not," said Harry, with an apprehensive shiver. "I have been +seen by so many, and have frightened so many that I begin to dread +leaving my room night or day." + +"There is nothing to dread, I fancy," said Stanford, cheerfully, as they +passed out, and down the steps. "They take you for a ghost, you know. +Let them keep on thinking so, and you are all right. You have given +Danton Hall all it wanted to make it perfect--it is a haunted house." + +"It is haunted," said his companion, gloomily. "What am I better than +any other evil spirit? Oh, Heaven!" he cried, passionately, "the horror +of the life I lead! Shut up in the prison I dare not leave, haunted +night and day by the vision of that murdered man, every hope and +blessing that life holds gone forever! I feel sometimes as though I were +going mad!" + +He lifted his cap and let the chill night wind cool his burning +forehead. There was a long, blank pause. When Reginald Stanford spoke, +his voice was low and subdued. + +"Are you quite certain the man you shot was shot dead? You hardly waited +to see, of course; and how are you to tell positively the wound was +fatal?" + +"I wish to Heaven there could be any doubt of it!" groaned the young +man. "My aim is unerring; I saw him fall, shot through the heart." + +His voice died away in a hoarse whisper. Again there was a pause. + +"Your provocation was great," said Reginald. "If anything can extenuate +killing a fellow-creature, it is that. Are you quite positive--But +perhaps I have no right to speak on this matter." + +"Speak, speak!" broke out Harry Danton. "I am shut up in these horrible +rooms from week's end to week's end, until it is the only thing that +keeps me from going mad--talking of what I have done. What were you +going to say?" + +"I wanted to ask you if you were quite certain--beyond the shadow of +doubt--of your wife's guilt? We sometimes make terrible mistakes in +these matters." + +"There was no mistake," replied his companion, with a sudden look of +anguish, "there could be none. I saw and heard as plainly as I see and +hear you now. There could be no mistake." + +"Do you know where your--where she is now?" + +"No!" with that look of anguish still. "No, I have never heard of her +since that dreadful night. She may be dead, or worse than dead, long ere +this." + +"You loved her very much," said Reginald, impelled to say it by the +expression of that ghastly face. + +"Loved her?" he repeated. "I have no words to tell you how I loved her. +I thought her all that was pure, and innocent, and beautiful, and +womanly, and she--oh, fool, that I was to believe her as I did!--to +think, as she made me think, that I had her whole heart!" + +"Would you like to have some one try and trace her out for you? Her fate +may be ascertained yet. I will go to New York, if you wish, and do my +best." + +"No, no," was the reply. "What use would it be? If you discovered her +to-morrow, what would it avail? Better let her fate remain forever +unknown than find my worst fears realized. False, wicked, degraded, as I +know her, I cannot forget how madly I loved her--I cannot forget that I +love her yet." + +They walked up and down the tamarack-walk in the frosty starlight, all +still and peaceful around them--the sky, sown with silver stars, so +serene--the earth, white with its snowy garb, all hushed and +tranquil--nothing disturbed but the heart of man, all things at peace +but his storm-tossed soul. + +"I am keeping you here," said Harry, "and it is growing late, and cold. +I am selfish and exacting in my misery, as, I fear, poor Kate knows. Let +us go in." + +They walked to the house. When they entered, Reginald secured the door, +and the two young men went upstairs together. Ogden sat sleepily on a +chair, and started up at sight of them. Harry Danton held out his hand, +with a faint sad smile. + +"Good night," he said; "I am glad to have added another to the list of +my friends. I hope we shall meet soon again. Good night, and pleasant +dreams." + +"We shall meet as often as you wish," answered Reginald. "You have my +deepest sympathy. Good night." + +The white, despairing face haunted Reginald Stanford's dreams all night, +as if he had indeed been a ghost. He was glad when morning came, and he +could escape the spectres of dream-land in the business of everyday +life. He stopped in the hall on his way down stairs, to look out at the +morning, wet, and cold, and dark, and miserable. As he stood, some one +passed him, going up to the upper bedroom regions of the servants--a +small, pallid little creature, looking like a stray spirit in its black +dress--Agnes Darling. + +"Another ghost?" thought Mr. Stanford, running down stairs. "They are +not far wrong who call Danton Hall a haunted house." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +LOVE-MAKING. + + +A dismal March afternoon, an earth hard as iron, with black frost, a +wild wind troubling the gaunt trees, and howling mournfully around the +old house. A desolate, wintry afternoon, threatening storm; but despite +its ominous aspect, the young people at Danton Hall had gone off for a +long sleigh-ride. Reginald and Kate had the little shell-shaped cutter, +Rose, Eeny, Mr. Howard, Junior, Miss Howard, and Doctor Frank, in the +big three-seated family sleigh. Amid the jingling of silvery bells, +peals of girlish laughter, and a chorus of good-byes to the Captain and +Grace, standing on the stone stoop, they had departed. + +Captain Danton and his housekeeper spent the bleak March afternoon very +comfortably together. The fire burned brightly, the parlour was like +waxwork in its perfect order; Grace, with her sewing, sat by her +favourite window. Captain Danton, with the Montreal _True Witness_, sat +opposite, reading her the news. Grace was not very profoundly interested +in the political questions then disturbing Canada, or in the doings and +sayings of the Canadian Legislature; but she listened with a look of +pleased attention to all. Presently the Captain laid down the newspaper +and looked out. + +"The girls and boys will be caught in the storm, as I told them they +would. You and I were wisest, Grace, to stay at home." + +Grace smiled and folded up her work. + +"Where are you going?" asked the Captain. + +"To get the remainder of this embroidery from Agnes Darling. Do you know +what it is?" + +"How should I?" + +"Well, then, it is a part of Miss Kate's bridal outfit. June will soon +be here, although to-day does not look much like it." + +She went out and descended to the sewing-room. All alone, and sitting by +the window, her needle flying rapidly, was the pale seamstress. + +"Have you finished those bands, Miss Darling? Ah, I see you have and +very nicely. I am ready for them, and will take them upstairs. Are these +the sleeves you are working on?" + +Miss Darling replied in the affirmative, and Grace turned to depart. On +the threshold she paused. + +"You don't look very well, Miss Darling," she said, kindly; "don't work +too late. There is no hurry with the things." + +She returned to the parlour, where Captain Danton, who had become very +fond of his housekeeper's society of late, still sat. And Agnes Darling, +alone in the cosy little sewing-room, worked busily while the light +lasted. When it grew too dark for the fine embroidery, she dropped it in +her lap, and looked out at the wintry prospect. + +The storm that had been threatening all day was rising fast. The wind +had increased to a gale, and shook the windows and doors, and worried +the trees, and went shrieking off over the bleak marshes, to a wild gulf +and rushing river. Great snowflakes fluttered through the leaden air, +faster and faster, and faster, until presently all was lost in a dizzy +cloud of falling whiteness. A wild and desolate evening, making the +pleasant little room, with its rosy fire, and carpet, and pretty +furniture, tenfold pleasanter by contrast. A bleak and terrible evening +for all wayfarers--bitterly cold, and darkening fast. + +The seamstress sat while the dismal daylight faded drearily out, her +hands lying idly in her lap, her great, melancholy dark eyes fixed on +the fast-falling snow. The tokens of sickness and sorrow lingered more +marked than ever in that wasted form and colourless face, and the ruddy +glow of the fire-light flickered on her mourning dress. Weary and +lonely, she looked as the dying day. + +Presently, above the shrieking of the stormy wind, came another +sound--the loud jingling of sleigh-bells. Dimly through the fluttering +whiteness of the snow-storm she saw the sleighs whirl up to the door, +and their occupants, in a tumult of laughter, hurrying rapidly into the +house. She could hear those merry laughs, those feminine tones, and the +pattering of gaitered feet up the stairs. She could hear the deeper +voices of the gentlemen, as they stamped and shook the snow off their +hats and great-coats in the hall. She listened and looked out again at +the wintry twilight. + +"Oh!" she thought, with weary sadness, "what happy people there are in +the world! Women who love and are beloved, who have everything their +hearts desire--home, and friends, and youth, and hope, and happiness. +Women who scarcely know, even by hearsay, of such wretched castaways as +I." + +She walked from the window to the fire, and, leaning against the mantel, +fixed her eyes on the flickering flame. + +"My birthday," she said to herself, "this long, lonesome, desolate day. +Desolate as my lost life, as my dead heart. Only two-and twenty, and all +that makes life worth having, gone already." + +Again she walked to the window. Far away, and pale and dim through the +drifting snow, she could see the low-lying sky. + +"Not all!" was the better thought that came to her in her +bitterness--"not all, but oh! how far away the land of rest looks!" + +She leaned against the window, as she had leaned against the mantel, and +took from her bosom the locket she always wore. + +"This day twelvemonth he gave me this--his birthday gift. Oh, my +darling! My husband! where in all the wide world are you this stormy +night?" + +There was a rap at the door. She thrust the locket again in her bosom, +choked back the hysterical passion of tears rising in her heart, crossed +the room, and opened the door. Her visitor was Doctor Danton. + +"I thought I should find you here," he said, entering. + +"How are you to-day, Miss Darling? Not very well, as your face plainly +testifies; give me your hand--cold as ice! My dear child, what is the +trouble now?" + +At the kindness of his tone she broke down suddenly. She had been alone +so long brooding in solitude over her troubles, that she had grown +hysterical. It wanted but that kindly voice and look to open the closed +flood-gates of her heart. She covered her face with her hands, and broke +out into a passionate fit of crying. + +Doctor Frank led her gently to a seat, and stood leaning against the +chimney, looking into the dying fire, and not speaking. The hysterics +would pass, he knew, if she were let alone; and when the sobbing grew +less violent, he spoke. + +"You sit alone too much," he said quietly; "it is not good for you. You +must give it up, or you will break down altogether." + +"Forgive me," said Agnes, trying to choke back the sobs. "I am weak and +miserable, and cannot help it. I did not mean to cry now." + +"You are alone too much," repeated the Doctor; "it won't do. You think +too much of the past, and despond too much in the present. That won't do +either. You must give it up." + +His calm, authoritative tone soothed her somehow. The tears fell less +hotly, and she lifted her poor, pale face. + +"I am very foolish, but it is my birthday, and I could not help--" + +She broke down again. + +"It all comes of being so much alone," repeated Doctor Frank. "It won't +do. Agnes, how often must I tell you so? Do you know what they say of +you in the house?" + +"No," looking up in quick alarm. + +"They accuse you of having something on your mind. The servants look at +you with suspicion, and it all comes of your love of solitude, your +silence and sadness. Give it up, Agnes, give it up." + +"Doctor Danton," she cried, piteously, "what can I do? I am the most +unhappy woman in all the world. What can I do?" + +"There is no need of you being the most unhappy woman in the world; +there is no need of your being unhappy at all." + +She looked up at him in white, voiceless appeal, her lips and hands +trembling. + +"Don't excite yourself--don't be agitated. I have no news for you but I +think I may bid you hope with safety. I don't think it was a ghost you +saw that night." + +She gave a little cry, and then sat white and still, waiting. + +"I don't think it was a ghost," he repeated, lowering his voice. "I +don't think he is dead." + +She did not speak; she only sat looking up at him with that white, still +face. + +"There is no need of your wearing a widow's weeds, Agnes," he said, +touching her black dress; "I believe your husband to be alive." + +She never spoke. If her life had depended on it, she could not have +uttered a word--could not have removed her eyes from his face. + +"I have no positive proof of what I say, but a conviction that is equal +to any proof in my own mind. I believe your husband to be alive--I +believe him to be an inmate of this very house." + +He stopped in alarm. She had fallen back in her chair, the bluish pallor +of death overspreading her face. + +"I should have prepared you better," he said. "The shock was too sudden. +Shall I go for a glass of water?" + +She made a slight motion in the negative, and whispered the word, + +"Wait!" + +A few moments' struggle with her fluttering breath, and then she was +able to sit up. + +"Are you better again? Shall I go for the water?" + +"No, no! Tell me--" + +She could not finish the sentence. + +"I have no positive proof," said Doctor Danton, "but the strongest +internal conviction. I believe your husband to be in hiding in this +house. I believe you saw him that night, and no spirit." + +"Go on, go on!" she gasped. + +"You have heard of Mr. Richards, the invalid, shut upstairs, have you +not? Yes. Well, that mysterious individual is your husband." + +She rose up and stood by him, white as death. + +"Are you sure?" + +"Morally, yes. As I told you, I have no proof as yet and I should not +have told you so soon had I not seen you dying by inches before my eyes. +Can you keep up heart now, little despondent?" + +She clasped her hands over that wildly-throbbing heart, still not quite +sure that she heard aright. + +"You are to keep all this a profound secret," said the Doctor, "until I +can make my suspicions certainties. They say women cannot keep a +secret--is it true?" + +"I will do whatever you tell me. Oh, thank Heaven! thank Heaven for +this!" + +She had found her voice, and the hysterics threatened again. Doctor +Danton held up an authoritative finger. + +"Don't!" he said imperatively. "I won't have it! No more crying, or I +shall take back all I have said. Tell a woman good news, and she cries; +tell her bad news, and she does the same. How is a man to manage them?" + +He walked across the room, and looked out at the night, revolving that +profound question in his man's brain, and so unable to solve the enigma +as the thousands of his brethren who have perplexed themselves over the +same question before. After staring a moment at the blinding whirl of +snow he returned to the seamstress. + +"Are you all right again, and ready to listen to me?" + +Her answer was a question. + +"How have you found this out?" + +"I haven't found it out. I have only my own suspicions--very strong +ones, though." + +A shadow of doubt saddened and darkened her face. Her clasped hands +drooped and fell. + +"Only a suspicion, after all! I am afraid to hope, seems so unreal, so +improbable. If it were Harry, why should he be here? Why should Captain +Danton protect and shield him?" + +"That is what I am coming to. You knew very little of your husband +before you married him. Are you sure he did not marry you under an +assumed name?" + +A flash of colour darted across her colourless face at the words. Doctor +Danton saw it. + +"Are you sure Darling was your husband's name?" he reiterated, +emphatically. + +"I am not sure," she said faintly. "I have reason to think it was not." + +"Do you know what his name was?" + +"No." + +"Then I do. I think his name was Danton." + +"Danton!" + +"Henry Richard Danton--Captain Danton's only son." + +She looked at him in breathless wonder. + +"Captain Danton's only son," went on the Doctor. "You have not lived all +these months in this house without knowing that Captain Danton had a +son?" + +"I have heard it." + +"Three years ago this son ran away from home, and went to New York, +under an assumed name. Three years ago Henry Darling came first to New +York from Canada. Henry Darling commits a crime, and flies. A few months +after Captain Danton comes here, with a mysterious invalid, who is never +seen, who is too ill to leave his room by day, but quite able to go out +for midnight rambles in the grounds. Old Margery has known Captain +Danton's son from childhood. She sees Mr. Richards returning from one of +those midnight walks, and falls down in a fit. She says she has seen +Master Harry's ghost--Master Harry being currently believed to be dead. +Shortly after, you see Mr. Richards on a like occasion, and you fall +down in a fit. You say you have seen the apparition of your husband, +Henry Darling. Putting all this together, and adding it up, what does it +come to? Are you good at figures?" + +She could not answer him. The ungovernable astonishment of hearing what +she had heard, struck her speechless once more. + +"Don't take the trouble to speak," said Doctor Frank, "my news has +stunned you. I shall leave you to think it all over by yourself, and I +trust there will be an end of tears and melancholy faces. It is ever +darkest before the day dawns. Good-evening!" + +He was going, but she laid her hand on his arm. + +"Wait a moment," she said, finding her voice. "I am so confused and +bewildered that I hardly understand what you have said. But should it +all be true--you know--you know--" averting her face, "he believes me +guilty!" + +"We will undeceive him; I can give him proofs, 'strong as Holy Writ;' +and, if he loves you, he will be open to conviction. All will come right +after a while; only have patience and wait. Keep up a good heart, my +dear child, and trust in God." + +She dropped feebly into a chair, looking with a bewildered face at the +fire. + +"I can't realize it," she murmured. "It is like a scene in a novel. I +can't realize it." + +She heard the door close behind Doctor Frank--she heard a girlish voice +accost him in the hall. It was Miss Rose, in a rustling silk +dinner-dress, with laces, and ribbons, and jewels fluttering and +sparkling about her. + +"Is Agnes Darling in there?" she asked suspiciously. + +"Yes. I have just been making a professional call." + +"Professional! I thought she was well." + +"Getting well, my dear Miss Rose; getting well, I am happy to say. It is +the duty of a conscientious physician to see after his patients until +they are perfectly recovered." + +"I wonder if conscientious physicians find the duty more binding in the +case of young and pretty patients than in that of old and ugly ones?" + +"No," said Doctor Frank, impressively. "To professional eyes, the +suffering fellow-creature is a suffering fellow-creature, and nothing +more. Think better of us, my dear girl; think better of me." + +After dinner, in the drawing-room, Captain Danton, with Grace for a +partner, the Doctor with Eeny, sat down to a game of cards. Kate sat at +the piano, singing a fly-away duet with Miss Howard. Mr. Howard stood at +Miss Danton's right elbow devotedly turning the music; and in a little +cozy velvet sofa, just big enough for two, Reginald and Rose were +tete-a-tete. + +In the changed days that came after, Doctor Frank remembered that +picture--the exquisite face at the piano, the slender and stately form, +the handsome man, and the pretty coquette on the sofa. The song sung +that night brought the tableau as vividly before him years and years +after, as when he saw it then. + +The song was ended. Miss Danton's ringed white fingers were flying over +the keys in a brilliant waltz. George Howard and Rose were floating +round and round, in air, as it seemed, and Stanford was watching with +half-closed eyes. And in the midst of all, above the ringing music and +the sighing of the wild wind, there came the clanging of sleigh-bells +and a loud ring at the house-door. Rose and George Howard ceased their +waltz. Kate's flying fingers stopped. The card-party looked up +inquisitively. + +"Who can it be," said the Captain, "'who knocks so loud, and knocks so +late,' this stormy night?" + +The servant who threw open the drawing-room door answered him. "M. La +Touche," announced Babette, and vanished. + +There was a little cry of astonishment from Rose; an instant's +irresolute pause. Captain Danton arose. The name was familiar to him +from his daughter. But Rose had recovered herself before he could +advance, and came forward, her pretty face flushed. + +"Where on earth did you drop from?" she asked, composedly shaking hands +with him. "Did you snow down from Ottawa?" + +"No," said M. La Touche. "I've snowed down from Laprairie. I came from +Montreal in this evening's train, and drove up here, in spite of wind +and weather." + +Captain Danton came forward; and Rose, still a little confused, +presented M. La Touche. The cordial Captain shook with his usual +heartiness the proffered hand of the young man, bade him welcome, and +put an instant veto on his leaving them that night. + +"There are plenty of bedrooms here, and it is not a night to turn an +enemy's dog from the door. My cousin, Miss Grace Danton, M. La Touche; +my daughter, Eveleen; and Doctor Frank Danton." + +M. La Touche bowed with native grace to these off-hand introductions, +and then was led off by Rose to the piano-corner, to be duly presented +there. She had not made up her mind yet whether she were vexed or +pleased to see her lover. Whatever little affection she had ever given +him--and it must have been of the flimsiest from the first--had +evaporated long ago, like smoke. But Rose had no idea of pining in +maiden solitude, even if she lost the fascinating Reginald, and she knew +that homely old saw about coming to the ground between two stools. + +M. La Touche had the good fortune to produce a pleasing impression upon +all to whom he was introduced. He was very good-looking, with dark +Canadian eyes and hair, and olive skin. He was rather small and slight, +and his large dark eyes were dreamy, and his smile as gentle as a +girl's. + +Mr. Stanford, resigned his place on the sofa to M. La Touche, and Rose +and the young Canadian were soon chattering busily in French. + +"Why did you not write and tell me you were coming?" + +"Because I did not know I was coming. Rose, I am the luckiest fellow +alive!" + +His dark eyes sparkled; his olive face flushed. Rose looked at him +wonderingly. + +"How?" + +"I have had a fortune left me. I am a rich man, and I have come here to +tell you, my darling Rose." + +"A fortune!" repeated Rose, opening her brown eyes. + +"Yes, _m'amour_! You have heard me speak of my uncle in Laprairie, who +is very rich? Well, he is dead, and has left all he possesses to me." + +Rose clasped her hands. + +"And how much is it?" + +"Forty thousand pounds!" + +"Forty thousand pounds!" repeated Rose, quite stunned by the magnitude +of the sum. + +"Am I not the luckiest fellow in the world?" demanded the young legatee +with exultation. "I don't care for myself alone, Rose, but for you. +There is nothing to prevent our marriage now." + +Rose wilted down suddenly, and began fixing her bracelets. + +"I shall take a share in the bank with my father," pursued the young +man; "and I shall speak to your father to-morrow for his consent to our +union!" + +Rose still twitched her bracelets, her colour coming and going. She +could see Reginald Stanford without looking up; and never had he been so +handsome in her eyes; never had she loved him as she loved him now. + +"You say nothing, Rose," said her lover. "_Mon Dieu!_ you cannot surely +love me less!" + +"Hush!" said Rose, rather sharply, "they will hear you. It isn't that, +but--but I don't want to be married just yet. I am too young." + +"You did not think so at Ottawa." + +"Well," said Rose, testily; "I think so now, and that is enough. I can't +get married yet; at least not before July." + +"I am satisfied to wait until July," said La Touche, smiling. "No doubt, +you will feel older and wiser by that time." + +"Does your father know?" asked Rose. + +"Yes, I told him before I left home. They are all delighted. My mother +and sisters send endless love." + +Rose remained silent for a moment, thoughtfully twisting her bracelet. +She liked wealth, but she liked Reginald Stanford better than all the +wealth in the world. Jules La Touche, with forty thousand pounds, was +not to be lightly thrown over; but she was ready at any moment to throw +him over for the comparatively poor Englishman. She had no wish to +offend her lover. Should her dearer hopes fail, he would be a most +desirable party. + +"What is the matter with you, Rose?" demanded Jules, uneasily. "You are +changed. You are not what you were in Ottawa. Even your letters of late +are not what they used to be. Why is it? What have I done?" + +"You foolish fellow," said Rose, smiling, "nothing! I am not changed. +You only fancy it." + +"Then I may speak to your father?" + +"Wait until to-morrow," said Rose. "I will think of it. You shall have +my answer after breakfast. Now, don't wear that long face--there is +really no occasion." + +Rose dutifully lingered by his side all the evening; but she stole more +glances at Kate's lover than she did at her own. Jules La Touche felt +the impalpable change in her; and yet it would have puzzled him to +define it. His nature was gentle and tender, and he loved the pretty, +fickle, rosy beauty with a depth and sincerity of which she was totally +unworthy. + +Upstairs, in her room, that night, Rose sat before the fire, toasting +her feet and thinking. Yes, thinking. She was not guilty of it often; +but to-night she was revolving the pros and cons of her own case. If she +refused to let Jules speak to her father, nothing would persuade him +that her love had not died out. He might depart in anger, and she might +lose him forever. That was the very last thing she wished. If she lost +Reginald, it would be some consolation to marry, immediately after, a +richer man. It would be revenge; it would prove how little she cared for +him; it would deprive him of the pleasure of thinking she was pining in +maiden loneliness for him. Then, too, the public announcement of her +engagement and approaching marriage to M. La Touche might arouse him to +the knowledge of how much he loved her. "How blessings brighten as they +take their flight!" and jealousy is infallible to bring dilatory lovers +to the point. No question of the right or wrong of the matter troubled +the second Miss Danton's easy conscience. + +On the whole, everything was in favour of M. La Touche's speaking to +papa. Rose resolved he should speak, took off her considering cap, and +went to bed. + +M. La Touche was not kept long in suspense next day; he got his answer +before breakfast. The morning was sunny and mild, but the snow lay piled +high on all sides; and Rose, running down stairs some ten minutes before +breakfast-time, found her lover in the open hall door, watching the +snowbirds and smoking a cigar. Rose went up to him with very pretty +shyness, and the young man flung away his cigar, and looked at her +anxiously. + +"What a lovely morning," said Rose; "what splendid sleighing we will +have." + +"I'm not going to talk of sleighing," said M. La Touche, resolutely. +"You promised me an answer this morning. What is it?" + +Rose began playing with her cord and tassels. + +"What is it?" reiterated the Canadian. "Yes or No?" + +"Yes!" + +M. La Touche's anxious countenance turned rapturous, but Miss Grace +Danton was coming down stairs, and he had to be discreet. Grace lingered +a few moments talking of the weather, and Rose took the opportunity of +making her escape. + +After breakfast, when the family were dispersing, M. La Touche followed +Captain Danton out of the room, and begged the favour of a private +interview. The Captain looked surprised, but agreed readily, and led the +way to his study, no shadow of the truth dawning on his mind. + +That awful ordeal of most successful wooers, "speaking to papa," was +very hard to begin; but M. La Touche, encouraged by the recollection of +the forty thousand pounds, managed to begin somehow. He made his +proposal with a modest diffidence that could not fail to please. + +"We have loved each other this long time," said the young man; "but I +never dreamed of speaking to you so soon. I was only a clerk in our +house, and Rose and I looked forward to years of waiting. This legacy, +however, has removed all pecuniary obstacles, and Rose has given me +consent to speak to you." + +Imagine the Captain's surprise. His little curly-haired Rose, whom he +looked upon as a tall child, engaged to be married! + +"Bless my soul!" exclaimed Captain Danton, naively; "you have taken me +completely aback! I give you my word of honour, I never thought of such +a thing!" + +"I hope you will not object, sir; I love your daughter most sincerely." + +The anxious inquiry was unneeded. Captain Danton had no idea of +objecting. He knew the La Touche family well by repute; he liked this +modest young wooer; and forty thousand pounds for his dowerless daughter +was not to be lightly refused. + +"Object!" he cried, grasping his hand. "Not I. If you and Rose love each +other, I am the last one in the world to mar your happiness. Take her, +my lad, with my best wishes for your happiness." + +The young Canadian tried to express his gratitude, but broke down at the +first words. + +"Never mind," said the Captain, laughing. "Don't try to thank me. Your +father knows, of course?" + +"Yes, sir. I spoke to him before I left Ottawa. He and all our family +are delighted with my choice." + +"And when is it to be?" asked the Captain, still laughing. + +"What?" + +"The wedding, of course!" + +M. La Touche's dark face reddened like a girl's. "I don't know, sir. We +have not come to that yet." + +"Let me help you over the difficulty, then. Make it a double wedding." + +"A double wedding?" + +"Yes. My daughter Kate is to be married to Mr. Stanford on the fifth of +June. Why not make it a double match." + +"With all my heart, sir, if Rose is willing!" + +"Go and ask her then. But first, of course, after this, you remain with +us for some time?" + +"I can stay a week or two; after that, business will compel me to +leave." + +"Well, business must be attended to. Go, speak to Rose, and success to +you!" + +Jules found Rose in the drawing-room, and alone. His face told how +eminently satisfactory his interview had been. He sat down beside her, +and related what had passed, ending with her father's proposal. + +"Do say yes, Rose," pleaded Jules. "June is as long as I can wait, and I +should like a double wedding of all things." + +Rose's face turned scarlet, and she averted her head. The familiar +announcement of Reginald's marriage to her sister, as a matter of +certainty, stung her to the heart. + +"You don't object, Rose?" he said uneasily. "You will be married the +same day?" + +"Settle it as you like," answered Rose petulantly. "If I must be +married, it doesn't much matter when." + +That day, when the ladies were leaving the dinner-table, Captain Danton +arose. + +"Wait one moment," he said; "I have a toast to propose before you go. +Fill your glasses and drink long life and prosperity to Mr. and Mrs. +Jules La Touche." + +Every one but Grace was electrified, and Rose fairly ran out of the +room. M. La Touche made a modest little speech of thanks, and then Mr. +Stanford held the door open for the ladies to pass. + +Rose was not in the drawing-room when they entered, and Kate ran up to +her room; but the door was locked, and Rose would not let her in. + +"Go away, Kate," she said, almost passionately. "Go away and leave me +alone." + +Rose kept her chamber all the evening, to the amazement of the rest. The +young Canadian was the lion of the hour, and bore his honours with that +retiring modesty which so characterized him, and which made him such a +contrast to the brilliant and self-conscious Mr. Stanford. + +Rose descended to the breakfast next morning looking shy and queer. +Before the meal was over, however, the bashfulness, quite foreign to her +usual character, wore pretty well away, and she agreed to join a +sleighing-party over to Richelieu, a neighbouring village. + +They were six in all--Kate and Mr. Stanford, Rose and Mr. La Touche, +Eeny and Doctor Frank. Sir Ronald Keith had departed some time +previously, for a tour through the country with Lord Ellerton, and his +memory was a thing of the past already. + +The Captain, an hour after their departure, sought out Grace in the +dining-room, where she sat at work. He looked grave and anxious, and, +sitting down beside her, said what he had to say with many misgivings. + +"I am double her age," he thought. "I have a son old enough to be her +husband; how can I hope?" + +But for all that he talked, and Grace listened, her sewing lying idly in +her lap; one hand shading her face, the other held in his. He talked +long and earnestly, and she listened, silent and with shaded face. + +"And now Grace, my dear, you have heard all; what do you say? When I +lose my girls, shall I go back to the old life, or shall I stay? I can't +stay unless you say yes, Grace. I am double your age, but I love you +very dearly, and will do my best to make you happy. My dear, what do you +say?" She looked up at him for the first time, her eyes full of tears. + +"Yes!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +TRYING TO BE TRUE. + + +Late that evening, the sleighing party returned in high good +spirits--all exhilaration after their long drive through the frosty air. +Crescent moon and silver stars spangled the deep Canadian sky, +glittering coldly bright in the hard white snow, as they jingled merrily +up to the door. + +"Oh, what a night!" Kate cried. "It is profanation to go indoors." + +"It is frostbitten noses to stay out," answered Reginald. "Moonlight is +very well in its place; but I want my dinner." + +The sleighing party had had one dinner that day, but were quite ready +for another. They had stopped at noon at a country inn, and fared +sumptuously on fried ham and eggs and sour Canadian bread, and then had +gone off rambling up the hills and into the woods. + +How it happened, no one but Reginald Stanford ever knew; but it did +happen that Kate was walking beside Jules La Touche up a steep, snowy +hill, and Reginald was by Rose's side in a dim, gloomy forest-path. Rose +had no objection. She walked beside him, looking very pretty, in a black +hat with long white plume and little white veil. They had walked on +without speaking until her foolish heart was fluttering, and she could +stand it no longer. She stopped short in the woodland aisle, through +which the pale March sunshine sifted, and looked up at him for the first +time. + +"Where are we going?" she asked. + +"For a walk," replied Mr. Stanford, "and a talk. You are not afraid, I +hope?" + +"Afraid?" said Rose, the colour flushing her face. "Of what should I be +afraid?" + +"Of me!" + +"And why should I be afraid of you?" + +"Perhaps because I may make love to you? Are you?" + +"No." + +"Come on, then." + +He offered his arm, and Rose put her gloved fingers gingerly in his +coat-sleeve, her heart fluttering more than ever. + +"You are going to be married," he said, "and I have had no opportunity +of offering my congratulations. Permit me to do it now." + +"Thank you." + +"Your M. La Touche is a pleasant little fellow, Rose. You and he have my +best wishes for your future happiness." + +"The 'pleasant little fellow' and myself are exceedingly obliged to +you!" her eyes flashing; "and now, Mr. Stanford, if you have said all +you have to say, suppose we go back?" + +"But I have not said all I have to say, nor half. I want to know why you +are going to marry him?" + +"And I want to know," retorted Rose, "what business it is of yours?" + +"Be civil Rose! I told you once before, if you recollect, that I was +very fond of you. Being fond of you, it is natural I should take an +interest in your welfare. What are you going to marry him for?" + +"For love!" said Rose, spitefully. + +"I don't believe it! Excuse me for contradicting you, my dear Rose; but +I don't believe it. He is a good-looking lamb-like little fellow, and he +is worth forty thousand pounds; but I don't believe it!" + +"Don't believe it, then. What you believe, or what you disbelieve, is a +matter of perfect indifference to me," said Rose, looking straight +before her with compressed lips. + +"I don't believe that, either. What is the use of saying such things to +me?" + +"Mr. Stanford, do you mean to insult me?" demanded Rose furiously. "Let +me go this instant. Fetch me back to the rest. Oh, if papa were here, +you wouldn't dare to talk to me like that. Reginald Stanford, let me go. +I hate you!" + +For Mr. Stanford had put his arm around her waist, and was looking down +at her with those darkly daring eyes. What could Rose do?--silly, +love-sick Rose. She didn't hate him, and she broke out into a perfect +passion of sobs. + +"Sit down, Rose," he said, very gently, leading her to a mossy knoll +under a tree; "and, my darling, don't cry. You will redden your eyes, +and swell your nose, and won't look pretty. Don't cry any more!" + +If Mr. Stanford had been trying for a week, he could have used no more +convincing argument. + +Rose wiped her eyes gracefully; but wouldn't look at him. + +"That's a good girl!" said Stanford. "I will agree to everything rather +than offend you. You love M. La Touche, and you hate me. Will that do?" + +"Let us go back," said Rose, stiffly, getting up. "I don't see what you +mean by such talk. I know it is wrong and insulting." + +"Do you feel insulted?" he asked, smiling down at her. + +"Let me alone!" cried Rose, the passionate tears starting to her eyes +again. "Let me alone, I tell you! You have no business to torment me +like this!" + +He caught her suddenly in his arms, and kissed her again and again. + +"Rose! Rose! my darling! you love me, don't you? My dear little Rose, I +can't let you marry Jules La Touche, or any one else." + +He released her just in time. + +"Rose! Rose!" Kate's clear voice was calling somewhere near. + +"Here we are," returned Stanford, in answer, for Rose was speechless; +and two minutes later they were face to face with Miss Danton and M. La +Touche. + +Mr. Stanford's face was clear as the blue March sky, but Rose looked as +flushed and guilty as she felt. She shrank from looking at her sister or +lover, and clung involuntarily to Reginald's arm. + +"Have you been plotting to murder any one?" asked Kate. "You look like +it." + +"We have been flirting," said Mr. Stanford, with the most perfect +composure. "You don't mind, do you? M. La Touche, I resign in your +favour. Come, Kate." + +Rose and Reginald did not exchange another word all day. Rose was very +subdued, very still. She hardly opened her lips all the afternoon to the +unlucky Jules. She hardly opened them at dinner, except to admit the +edibles, and she was unnaturally quiet all the evening. She retired into +a corner with some crochet-work, and declined conversation and coffee +alike, until bedtime. She went slowly and decorously upstairs, with that +indescribable subdued face, and bade everybody good-night without +looking at them. + +Eeny, who shared Grace's room, sat on a stool before the bedroom fire a +long time that night, looking dreamily into the glowing coals. + +Grace, sitting beside her, combing out her own long hair, watched her in +silence. + +Presently Eeny looked up. + +"How odd it seems to think of her being married." + +"Who?" + +"Rose. It seems queer, somehow. I don't mind Kate. I heard before ever +she came here that she was going to be married; but Rose--I can't +realize it." + +"I have known it this long time," said Grace. "She told me the day she +returned from Ottawa. I am glad she is going to do so well." + +"I like him very much," said Eeny; "but he seems too quiet for Rose. +Don't he?" + +"People like to marry their own opposite," answered Grace. "Not that but +Rose is getting remarkably quiet herself. She hadn't a word to say all +the evening." + +"It will be very lonely when June comes, won't it, Grace?" said Eeny, +with a little sigh. "Kate will go to England, Rose to Ottawa, your +brother is going to Montreal, and perhaps papa will take his ship again, +and there will be no one but you and I, Grace." + +Grace stooped down and kissed the delicate, thoughtful young face. + +"My dear little Eeny, papa is not going away." + +"Isn't he? How do you know?" + +"That is a secret," laughing and colouring. "If you won't mention it, I +will tell you." + +"I won't. What is it?" + +Grace stooped and whispered, her falling hair hiding her face. + +Eeny sprang up and clasped her hands. + +"Oh, Grace!" + +"Are you sorry, Eeny?" + +Eeny's arms were around her neck. Eeny's lips were kissing her +delightedly. + +"I am so glad! Oh, Grace, you will never go away any more!" + +"Never, my pet. And now, don't let us talk any longer; it is time to go +to bed." + +Rather to Eeny's surprise, there was no revelation made next morning of +the new state of affairs. When she gave her father his good-morning +kiss, she only whispered in his ear: + +"I am so glad, papa." + +And the Captain had smiled, and patted her pale cheek, and sat down to +breakfast, talking genially right and left. + +After breakfast, Doctor Frank, Mr. Stanford, and M. La Touche, with the +big dog Tiger at their heels, and guns over their shoulders, departed +for a morning's shooting. Captain Danton went to spend an hour with Mr. +Richards. Rose secluded herself with a book in her room, and Kate was +left alone. She tried to play, but she was restless that morning, and +gave it up. She tried to read. The book failed to interest her. She +walked to the window, and looked out at the sunshine glittering on the +melting snow. + +"I will go for a walk," she thought, "and visit some of my poor people +in the village." + +She ran up stairs for her hat and shawl, and sallied forth. Her poor +people in the village were always glad to see the beautiful girl who +emptied her purse so bountifully for them, and spoke to them so sweetly. +She visited half-a-dozen of her pensioners, leaving pleasant words and +silver shillings behind her, and then walked on to the Church of St. +Croix. The presbytery stood beside it, surrounded by a trim garden with +gravelled paths. Kate opened the garden gate, and walked up to where +Father Francis stood in the open doorway. + +"I have come to see you," she said, "since you won't come to see us. +Have you forgotten your friends at Danton Hall? You have not been up for +a week." + +"Too busy," said Father Francis; "the Cure is in Montreal, and all +devolves upon me. Come in." + +She followed him into the little parlour, and sat down by the open +window. + +"And what's the news from Danton Hall?" + +"Nothing! Oh!" said Kate, blushing and smiling, "except another +wedding!" + +"Another! Two more weddings, you mean?" + +"No!" said Kate, surprised: "only one. Rose, you know, father, to M. La. +Touche!" + +Father Francis looked at her a moment smilingly. "They haven't told you, +then?" + +"What?" + +"That your father is going to be married!" + +Her heart stood still; the room seemed to swim around in the suddenness +of the shock. + +"Father Francis!" + +"You have not been told? Are you surprised? I have been expecting as +much as this for some time." + +"You are jesting, Father Francis," she said, finding voice, which for a +moment had failed her; "it cannot be true!" + +"It is quite true. I saw your father yesterday, and he told me himself." + +"And to whom--?" + +She tried to finish the sentence, but her rebellious tongue would not. + +"To Grace! I am surprised that your father has not told you. If I had +dreamed it was in the slightest degree a secret, I certainly would not +have spoken." She did not answer. + +He glanced at her, and saw that her cheeks and lips had turned ashen +white, as she gazed steadfastly out of the window. + +"My child," said the priest, "you do not speak. You are not +disappointed--you are not grieved?" + +She arose to go, still pale with the great and sudden surprise. + +"You have given me a great shock in telling me this. I never dreamed of +another taking my dear dead mother's place. I am very selfish and +unreasonable, I dare say; but I thought papa would have been satisfied +to make my home his. I have loved my father very much, and I cannot get +used to the idea all in a moment of another taking my place." + +She walked to the door. Father Francis followed her. + +"One word," he said. "It is in your power, and in your power alone, to +make your father seriously unhappy. You have no right to do that; he has +been the most indulgent of parents to you. Remember that now--remember +how he has never grieved you, and do not grieve him. Can I trust you to +do this?" + +"You can trust me," said Kate, a little softened. "Good morning." + +She walked straight home, her heart all in a rebellious tumult. From the +first she had never taken very kindly to Grace; but just now she felt as +if she positively hated her. + +"How dare she marry him!" she thought, the angry blood hot in her +cheeks. "How dare she twine herself, with her quiet, Quakerish ways, +into his heart! He is twice her age, and it is only to be mistress where +she is servant now that she marries him. Oh, how could papa think of +such a thing?" + +She found Rose in the drawing-room when she arrived, listening to Eeny +with wide-open eyes of wonder. The moment Kate entered, she sprang up, +in a high state of excitement. + +"Have you heard the news, Kate? Oh, goodness, gracious me! What is the +world coming to! Papa is going to be married!" + +"I know it," said Kate coldly. + +"Who told you? Eeny's just been telling me, and Grace told her last +night. It's to Grace! Did you ever! Just fancy calling Grace mamma!" + +"I shall never call her anything of the sort." + +"You don't like it, then? I told Eeny you wouldn't like it. What are you +going to say to papa?" + +"Nothing." + +"No? Why don't you remonstrate! Tell him he's old enough and big enough +to have better sense." + +"I shall tell him nothing of the sort; and I beg you will not, either. +Papa certainly has the right to do as he pleases. Whether we like it or +not, doesn't matter much; Grace Danton will more than supply our +places." + +She spoke bitterly, and turned to go up to her own room. With her hand +on the door, she paused, and looked at Eeny. + +"You are pleased, no doubt, Eeny?" + +"Yes, I am," replied Eeny, stoutly. "Grace has always been like a mother +to me: I am glad she is going to be my mother in reality." + +"It is a fortunate thing you do," said Rose, "for you are the only one +who will have to put up with her. Thank goodness! I'm going to be +married." + +"Thank goodness!" repeated Eeny; "there will be peace in the house when +you're out of it. I don't know any one I pity half so much as that poor +M. La Touche." + +Kate saw Rose's angry retort in her eyes, and hurried away from the +coming storm. She kept her room until luncheon-time, and she found her +father alone in the dining-room when she entered. The anxious look he +gave her made her think of Father Francis' words. + +"I have heard all, papa," she said, smiling, and holding up her cheek. +"I am glad you will be happy when we are gone." + +He drew a long breath of relief as he kissed her. + +"Father Francis told you? You like Grace?" + +"I want to like every one you like, papa," she replied, evasively. + +Grace came in as she spoke, and, in spite of herself, Kate's face took +that cold, proud look it often wore; but she went up to her with +outstretched hand. She never shrank from disagreeable duties. + +"Accept my congratulations," she said, frigidly. "I trust you will be +happy." + +Two deep red spots, very foreign to her usual complexion, burned in +Grace's cheeks. Her only answer was a bow, as she took her seat at the +table. + +It was a most comfortless repast. There was a stiffness, a restraint +over all, that would not be shaken off--with one exception. Rose, who +latterly had been all in the downs, took heart of grace amid the general +gloom, and rattled away like the Rose of other days. To her the idea of +her father's marriage was rather a good joke than otherwise. She had no +deep feelings to be wounded, no tender memories to be hurt, and the +universal embarrassment tickled her considerably. + +"You ought to have heard everybody talking on stilts, Reginald," she +said, in the flow of her returned spirits, some hours later, when the +gentlemen returned. "Kate was on her dignity, you know, and as +unapproachable as a princess-royal, and Grace was looking disconcerted +and embarrassed, and papa was trying to be preternaturally cheerful and +easy, and Eeny was fidgety and scared, and I was enjoying the fun. Did +you ever hear of anything so droll as papa's getting married?" + +"I never heard of anything more sensible," said Reginald, resolutely. +"Grace is the queen of housekeepers, and will make the pink and pattern +of matrons. I have foreseen this for some time, and I assure you I am +delighted." + +"So is Kate," said Rose, her eyes twinkling. "You ought to have seen her +congratulating Grace. It was like the entrance of a blast of north wind, +and froze us all stiff." + +"I am glad June is so near," Kate said, leaning lightly on her lover's +shoulder; "I could not stay here and know that she was mistress." + +Mr. Stanford did not seem to hear; he was whistling to Tiger, lumbering +on the lawn. When he did speak, it was without looking at her. + +"I am going to Ottawa next week." + +"To Ottawa! With M. La Touche?" asked Kate, while Rose's face flushed +up. + +"Yes; he wants me to go, and I have said yes. I shall stay until the end +of April." + +Kate looked at him a little wistfully, but said nothing. Rose turned +suddenly, and ran upstairs. + +"We shall miss you--I shall miss you," she said at last. + +"It will not be for long," he answered, carelessly. "Come in and sing me +a song." + +The first pang of doubt that had ever crossed Kate's mind of her +handsome lover, crossed it now, as she followed him into the +drawing-room. + +"How careless he is!" she thought; "how willing to leave me! And +I--could I be contented anywhere in the world where he was not?" + +By some mysterious chance, the song she selected was Eeny's "smile +again, my dearest love; weep not that I leave thee." + +Stanford listened to it, his sunny face overcast. + +"Why did you sing that?" he asked abruptly, when she had done. + +"Don't you like it?" + +"No; I don't like cynicism set to music. Here is a French +chansonnette--sing me that." + +Kate sang for him song after song. The momentary pain the announcement +of his departure had given her wore away. + +"It is natural he should like change," she thought, "and it is dull +here. I am glad he is going to Ottawa, and yet I shall miss him. Dear +Reginald! What would life be worth without you?" + +The period of M. La Touche's stay was rapidly drawing to a close. March +was at its end, too--it was the last night of the month. The eve of +departure was celebrated at Danton Hall by a social party. The elder +Misses Danton on that occasion were as lovely and as much admired as +ever, and Messrs. Stanford and La Touche were envied by more than one +gentleman present. Grace's engagement to the Captain had got wind, and +she shared the interest with her step-daughters-elect. + +Early next morning the two young men left. There was breakfast almost +before it was light, and everybody got up to see them off. It was a most +depressing morning. March had gone out like an idiotic lamb, and April +came in in sapping rain and enervating mist. Ceaselessly the rain beat +against the window-glass, and the wind had a desolate echo that sounded +far more like winter than spring. + +Pale, in the dismal morning-light, Kate and Rose Danton bade their +lovers adieu, and watched them drive down the dripping avenue and +disappear. + +An hour before he had come down stairs that morning, Mr. Stanford had +written a letter. It was very short: + + "Dear Old Boy:--I'm off. In an hour I shall be on my way + to Ottawa, and from thence I will write you next. Do you know why + I am going? I am running away from myself! 'Lead us not into + temptation;' and Satan seems to have me hard and fast at Danton + Hall. Lauderdale, in spite of your bad opinion of me, I don't want + to be a villain if I can help it. I don't want to do any harm; I do + want to be true! And here it is impossible. I have got intoxicated + with flowing curls, and flashing dark eyes, and all the pretty, + bewitching, foolish, irresistible ways of that piquant little + beauty, whom I have no business under heaven to think of. I know + she is silly, and frivolous, and coquettish, and vain; but I love + her! There, the murder is out, and I feel better after it. But, + withal, I want to be faithful to the girl who loves me (ah! wretch + that I am!), and so I fly. A month out of sight of that sweet + face--a month out of hearing of that gay, young voice--a month + shooting, and riding, and exploring these Canadian wilds, will do + me good, and bring me back a new man. At least, I hope so; and + don't you set me down as a villain for the next four weeks, at + least." + + * * * * * + +The day of departure was miserably long and dull at the Hall. It rained +ceaselessly, and that made it worse. Rose never left her room; her plea +was headache. Kate wandered drearily up stairs and down stairs, and felt +desolate and forsaken beyond all precedent. + +There was a strange, forlorn stillness about the house, as if some one +lay dead in it; and from morning to night the wind never ceased its +melancholy complaining. + +Of course this abnormal state of things could not last. Sunshine came +next day, and the young ladies were themselves again. The preparations +for the treble wedding must begin in earnest now--shopping, dressmakers, +milliners, jewellers, all had to be seen after. A journey to Montreal +must be taken immediately, and business commenced. Kate held a long +consultation with Rose in her boudoir; but Rose, marvellous to tell, +took very little interest in the subject. She, who all her life made +dress the great concern of her existence, all at once, in this most +important crisis, grew indifferent. + +She accompanied Kate to Montreal, however, and helped in the selection +of laces, and silks, and flowers, and ribbons; and another dressmaker +was hunted up and carried back. + +It was a busy time after that; the needles of Agnes Darling, Eunice, and +the new dressmaker flew from morning until night. Grace lent her +assistance, and Kate was always occupied superintending, and being +fitted and refitted, and had no time to think how lonely the house was, +or how much she missed Reginald Stanford. She was happy beyond the power +of words to describe; the time was near when they would never part +again--when she would be his--his happy, happy wife. + +It was all different with Rose; she had changed in a most unaccountable +manner. All her movements were languid and listless, she who had been +wont to keep the house astir; she took no interest in the bridal dresses +and jewellery; she shrank from every one, and wanted to be alone. She +grew pale, and thin, and hysterical, and so petulant that it was a risk +to speak to her. What was the matter?--every one asked that question, +and Grace and Grace's brother were the only two who guessed within a +mile of the truth. + +And so April wore away. Time, that goes on forever--steadily, steadily, +for the happy and the miserable--was bringing the fated time near. The +snow had fled, the new grass and fresh buds were green on the lawn and +trees, and the birds sang their _glorias_ in the branches so lately +tossed by the wintry winds. + +Doctor Danton was still at St. Croix, but he was going away, too. He had +had an interview with Agnes Darling, whose hopes were on the ebb; and +once more had tried to engraft his own bright, sanguine nature on hers. + +"Never give up, Agnes," he said, cheerily. "Patience, patience yet a +little longer. I shall return for my sister's wedding, and I think it +will be all right then." + +Agnes listened and sighed wearily. The ghost of Danton Hall had been +very well behaved of late, and had frightened no one. The initiated knew +that Mr. Richards was not very well, and that the night air was +considered unhealthy, so he never left his rooms. The tamarack walk was +undisturbed in the lonely April nights--at least by all save Doctor +Frank, who sometimes chose to haunt the place, but who never saw +anything for his pains. + +May came--with it came Mr. Stanford, looking sunburned, and fresh, and +handsomer than ever. As on the evening of his departure from the Hall, +so on the eve of his departure from Ottawa, he had written to that +confidential friend: + + "Dear Lauderdale.--The month of probation has expired. To-morrow + I return to Danton Hall. Whatever happens, I have done my best. + If fate is arbitrary, am I to blame? Look for me in June, and + be ready to pay your respects to Mrs. Stanford." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ONE OF EARTH'S ANGELS. + + +Mr. Stanford's visit to Ottawa had changed him somehow, it seemed to +Kate. The eyes that love us are sharp; the heart that sets us up for its +idol is quick to feel every variation. Reginald was changed--vaguely, +almost indefinably, but certainly changed. He was more silent than of +old, and had got a habit of falling into long brown studies in the midst +of the most interesting conversation. He took almost as little interest +in the bridal paraphernalia as Rose, and sauntered lazily about the +grounds, or lay on the tender new grass under the trees smoking endless +cigars, and looking dreamily up at the endless patches of bright blue +sky, and thinking, thinking--of what? + +Kate saw it, felt it, and was uneasy. Grace saw it, too; for Grace had +her suspicions of that fascinating young officer, and watched him +closely. They were not very good friends somehow, Grace and Kate Danton; +a sort of armed neutrality existed between them, and had ever since Kate +had heard of her father's approaching marriage. She had never liked +Grace much--she liked her less than ever now. She was marrying her +father from the basest and most mercenary motives, and Kate despised +her, and was frigidly civil and polite whenever she met her. She took it +very quietly, this calm Grace, as she took all things, and was +respectful to Miss Danton, as became Miss Danton's father's housekeeper. + +"Don't you think Mr. Stanford has altered somehow, Frank, since he went +to Ottawa?" she said one day to her brother, as they sat alone together +by the dining-room window. + +Doctor Danton looked out. Mr. Stanford was sauntering down the avenue, a +fishing-rod over his shoulder, and his bride-elect on his arm. + +"Altered! How?" + +"I don't know how," said Grace, "but he has altered. There is something +changed about him; I don't know what. I don't think he is settled in his +mind." + +"My dear Grace, what are you talking about? Not settled in his mind! A +man who is about to marry the handsomest girl in North America?" + +"I don't care for that. I wouldn't trust Mr. Reginald Stanford as far as +I could see him." + +"You wouldn't? But then you are an oddity, Grace. What do you suspect +him of?" + +"Never mind; my suspicions are my own. One thing I am certain of--he is +no more worthy to marry Kate Danton than I am to marry a prince." + +"Nonsense! He is as handsome as Apollo, he sings, he dances, and talks +divinely. Are you not a little severe, Grace?" + +Grace closed her lips. + +"We won't talk about it. What do you suppose is the matter with Rose?" + +"I wasn't aware there was anything the matter. An excess of happiness, +probably; girls like to be married, you know, Grace." + +"Fiddlestick! She has grown thin; she mopes in her room all day long, +and hasn't a word for anyone--she who used to be the veriest chatterbox +alive." + +"All very naturally accounted for, my dear. M. La Touche is +absent--doubtless she is pining for him." + +"Just about as much as I am. I tell you, Frank, I hope things will go +right next June, but I don't believe it. Hush! here is Miss Danton." + +Miss Danton opened the door, and, seeing who were there, bowed coldly, +and retired again. Unjustly enough, the brother came in for part of the +aversion she felt for the sister. + +Meantime Mr. Stanford sauntered along the village with his fishing-rod, +nodding good-humouredly right and left. Short as had been his stay at +Danton Hall, he was very well known in the village, and had won golden +opinions from all sorts of people. From the black-eyed girls who fell in +love with his handsome face, to the urchins rolling in the mud, and to +whom he flung handfuls of pennies. The world and Mr. Stanford went +remarkably well with each other, and whistling all the way, he reached +his destination in half an hour--a clear, silvery stream, shadowed by +waving trees and famous in fishing annals. He flung himself down on the +turfy sward, lit a cigar, and began smoking and staring reflectively at +vacancy. + +The afternoon was lovely, warm as June, the sky was cloudless, and the +sunlight glittered in golden ripples on the stream. All things were +favourable; but Mr. Stanford was evidently not a very enthusiastic +disciple of Isaac Walton; for his cigar was smoked out, the stump thrown +away, and his fishing-rod lay unused still. He took it up at last and +dropped it scientifically in the water. + +"It's a bad business," he mused, "and hanging, drawing, and quartering +would be too good for me. But what the dickens is a fellow to do? And +then she is so fond of me, too--poor little girl!" + +He laid the fishing-rod down again, drew from an inner pocket a +note-book and pencil. From between the leaves he drew out a sheet of +pink-tinted, gilt-edged note paper, and, using the note-book for a desk, +began to write. It was a letter, evidently; and after he wrote the first +line, he paused, and looked at it with an odd smile. The line was, +"Angel of my Dreams." + +"I think she will like the style of that," he mused; "it's Frenchified +and sentimental, and she rather affects that sort of thing. Poor child! +I don't see how I ever got to be so fond of her." + +Mr. Stanford went on with his letter. It was in French, and he wrote +very slowly and thoughtfully. He filled the four sides, ending with +"Wholly thine, Reginald Stanford." Carefully he re-read, made some +erasures, folded, and put it in an envelope. As he sealed the envelope, +a big dog came bounding down the bank, and poked its cold, black nose +inquisitively in his face. + +"Ah! Tiger, _mein Herr_, how are you? Where is your master?" + +"Here," said Doctor Frank. "Don't let me intrude. Write the address, by +all means." + +"As if I would put you _au fait_ of my love letters," said Mr. Stanford, +coolly putting the letter in his note-book, and the note-book in his +pocket. "I thought you were off to-day?" + +"No, to-morrow. I must be up and doing now; I am about tired of St. +Croix and nothing to do." + +"Are you ever coming back!" + +"Certainly. I shall come back on the fourth of June, Heaven willing, to +see you made the happiest man in creation." + +"Have a cigar?" said Mr. Stanford, presenting his cigar-case. "I can +recommend them. You would be the happiest man in creation in my place, +wouldn't you?" + +"Most decidedly. But I wasn't born, like some men I know of, with a +silver spoon in my mouth. Beautiful wives drop into some men's arms, +ripe and ready, but I am not one of them." + +"Oh, don't despond! Your turn may come yet!" + +"I don't despond--I leave that to--but comparisons are odious." + +"Go on." + +"To Miss Rose Danton. She is pining on the stem, at the near approach of +matrimony, and growing as pale as spirit. What is the matter with her?" + +"You ought to know best. You're a doctor." + +"But love-sickness; I don't believe there is anything in the whole range +of physic to cure that. What's this--a fishing-rod?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Stanford, taking a more comfortable position on the +grass. "I thought I would try my luck this fine afternoon, but somehow I +don't seem to progress very fast." + +"I should think not, indeed. Let me see what I can do." + +Reginald watched him lazily, as he dropped the line into the placid +water. + +"What do you think about it yourself?" he asked, after a pause. + +"About what?" + +"This new alliance on the tapis. He's a very nice little fellow, I have +no doubt; but if I were a pretty girl, I don't think I should like nice +little fellows. He is just the last sort of a man in the world I could +fancy our bright Rose marrying." + +"Of course he is! It's a failing of the sex to marry the very last man +their friends would expect. But are you quite sure in this case; no +April day was ever more changeable than Rose Danton." + +"I don't know what you mean. They'll be married to a dead certainty." + +"What will you bet on the event?" + +"I'm not rich enough to bet; but if I were, it wouldn't be honourable, +you know." + +Doctor Frank gave him a queer look, as he hooked a fish out of the +water. + +"Oh, if it becomes a question of honour, I have no more to say. Do you +see this fellow wriggling on my hook?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, when this fish swims again, Rose Danton will be Mrs. La Touche, +and you know it." + +He said the last words so significantly, and with such a look, that all +the blood of all the Stanfords rushed red to Reginald's face. + +"The deuce take your inuendoes!" he exclaimed. "What do you mean?" + +"Don't ask me," said Doctor Frank. "I hate to tell a lie: and I won't +say what I suspect. Suppose we change the subject. Where is Sir Ronald +Keith?" + +"In New Brunswick, doing the wild-woods and shooting bears. Poor wretch! +With all his eight thousand a year, and that paradise in Scotland, Glen +Keith, I don't envy him. I never saw anyone so hopelessly hard hit as +he." + +"You're a fortunate fellow, Stanford; but I doubt if you know it. Sir +Ronald would be a far happier man in your place." + +The face of the young Englishman darkened suddenly. + +"Perhaps there is such a thing as being too fortunate, and getting +satiated. I wish I could be steadfast, and firm, and faithful forever to +one thing, like some men, but I can't. Sir Ronald's one of that kind, +and so are you, Danton; but I--" + +He threw his cigar into the water, and left the sentence unfinished. +There was a long silence. Doctor Frank fished away as if his life +depended on it; and Stanford lay and watched him, and thought--who knows +what? + +The May afternoon wore on, the slanting lines of the red sunset flamed +in the tree-tops, and shed its reflected glory on the placid water. The +hum of evening bustle came up from the village drowsily; and Doctor +Danton, laying down his line, looked at his watch. + +"Are you asleep, Stanford? Do you know it is six o'clock?" + +"By George!" said Reginald, starting up. "I had no idea it was so late. +Are you for the Hall?" + +"Of course. Don't I deserve my dinner in return for this string of +silvery fish? Come along." + +The two young men walked leisurely and rather silently homeward. As they +entered the gates, they caught sight of a young lady advancing slowly +towards them--a young lady dressed in pale pink, with ribbons fluttering +and curls flowing. + +"The first rose of summer!" said Doctor Frank. "The future Madame La +Touche!" + +"Have you come to meet us, Rose?" asked Stanford. "Very polite of you." + +"I won't be _de trop_," said the Doctor; "I'll go on." + +Rose turned with Reginald, and Doctor Danton walked away, leaving them +to follow at their leisure. + +In the entrance Hall he met Kate, stately and beautiful, dressed in +rustling silk, and with flowers in her golden hair. + +"Have you seen Mr. Stanford?" she asked, glancing askance at the fish. + +"Yes; he is in the grounds with Rose." + +She smiled, and went past. Doctor Frank looked after her with a glance +of unmistakable admiration. + +"Blind! blind! blind!" he thought. "What fools men are! Only children of +a larger growth, throwing away gold for the pitiful glistening of +tinsel." + +Kate caught a glimpse of a pink skirt, fluttering in and out among the +trees, and made for it. Her light step on the sward gave back no echo. +How earnestly Reginald was talking--how consciously Rose was listening +with downcast face! What was that he was giving her? A letter! Surely +not; and yet how much it looked like it. Another moment, and she was +beside them, and Rose had started away from Reginald's side, her face +crimson. If ever guilt's red banner hung on any countenance, it did on +hers; and Kate's eyes wandered wonderingly from one to the other. Mr. +Stanford was as placid as the serene sunset sky above them. Like +Talleyrand, if he had been kicked from behind, his face would never have +shown it. + +"I thought you were away fishing," said Kate. "Was Rose with you?" + +"I was not so blessed. I had only Doctor Frank--Oh, don't be in a hurry +to leave us; it is not dinner-time yet." + +This last to Rose, who was edging off, still the picture of confusion, +and one hand clutching something white, hidden in the folds of her +dress. With a confused apology, she turned suddenly, and disappeared +among the trees. Kate fixed her large, deep eyes suspiciously on her +lover's laughing face. + +"Well?" she said, inquiringly. + +"Well?" he repeated, mimicking her tone. + +"What is the meaning of all this?" + +Stanford laughed carelessly, and drew her hand within his arm. + +"It means, my dear, that pretty sister of yours is a goose! I paid her a +compliment, and she blushed after it, at sight of you, as if I had been +talking love to her. Come, let us have a walk before dinner." + +"I thought I saw you give her something? Was it a letter?" + +Not a muscle of his face moved; not a shadow of change was in his tone, +as he answered: + +"A letter! Of course not. You heard her the other day ask me for that +old English song that I sang? I wrote it out this afternoon, and gave it +to her. Are you jealous, Kate?" + +"Dreadfully! Don't you go paying compliments to Rose, sir; reserve them +for me. Come down the tamarack walk." + +Leaning fondly on his arm, Kate walked with her lover up and down the +green avenue until the dinner-bell summoned them in. + +And all the time, Rose, up in her own room, was reading, with flushed +cheeks and glistening eyes, that letter written by the brook-side, +beginning, "Angel of my Dreams." + +When the family assembled at dinner, it was found that Rose was absent. +A servant sent in search of her returned with word that Miss Rose had a +headache, and begged they would excuse her. + +Kate went up to her room immediately after dinner. But found it locked. +She rapped, and called, but there was no sign, and no response from +within. + +"She is asleep," thought Kate; and went down again. + +She tried again, some hours later, on her way to her own room, but still +was unable to obtain entrance or answer. If she could only have seen +her, sitting by the window reading and re-reading that letter in French, +beginning "Angel of my Dreams." + +Rose came down to breakfast next morning quite well again. The morning's +post had brought her a letter from Quebec, and she read it as she sipped +her coffee. + +"Is it from Virginie Leblanc?" asked Eeny. "She is your only +correspondent in Quebec." + +Rose nodded and went on reading. + +"What does she want?" Eeny persisted. + +"She wants me to pay her a visit," said Rose, folding up her letter. + +"And of course you won't go?" + +"No--yes--I don't know." + +She spoke absently, crumbling the roll on her plate, and not eating. She +lingered in the room after breakfast, when all the rest had left it, +looking out of the window. She was still there when, half an hour later, +Grace came in to sew; but not alone. Mr. Stanford was standing beside +her, and Grace caught his last low words: + +"It is the most fortunate thing that could have happened. Don't lose any +time." + +He saw Grace and stopped, spoke to her, and sauntered out of the room. +Rose did not turn from the window for fully ten minutes. When she did, +it was to ask where her father was. + +"In his study." + +She left the room and went to the study. Captain Danton looked up from +his writing, at her entrance, in some surprise. + +"Don't choke me, my dear, what is it?" + +"Papa, may I go to Quebec?" + +"Quebec? My dear, how can you go?" + +"Very easily, papa. Virginie wants me to go, and I should like to see +her. I won't stay there long." + +"But all your wedding finery, Rose--how is it to be made if you go +away?" + +"It is nearly all made, papa; and for what remains they can get along +just as well without me. Papa, say yes. I want to go dreadfully; and I +will only stay a week or so. Do say yes, there's a darling papa!" + +"Well, my dear, go, if you wish; but don't forget to come back in time. +It will never do for M. La Touche to come here the fourth of June and +find his bride missing." + +"I won't stay in Quebec until June, papa," said Rose, kissing him and +running out of the room. He called after her as she was shutting the +door: + +"Doctor Frank goes to Montreal this afternoon. If you are ready, you +might go with him." + +"Yes, papa; I'll be ready." + +Rose set to work packing at once, declining all assistance. She filled +her trunk with all her favourite dresses; stowed away all her +jewellery--taking a very unnecessary amount of luggage, one would think, +for a week's visit. + +Every one was surprised, at luncheon, when Rose's departure was +announced. None more so than Mr. Stanford. + +"It is just like Rose!" exclaimed Eeny; "she is everything by starts, +and nothing long. Flying off to Quebec for a week, just as she is going +to be married, with half her dresses unmade. It's absurd." + +The afternoon train for Montreal passed through St. Croix at three +o'clock. Kate and Reginald drove to the station with her, and saw her +safely seated beside Doctor Frank. Her veil of drab gauze was down over +her face, flushed and excited; and she kissed her sister good-bye +without lifting it. Reginald Stanford shook hands with her--a long, +warm, lingering clasp--and flashed a bright, electric glance that +thrilled to her inmost heart. An instant later, and the train was in +motion, and Rose was gone. + +The morning of the third day after brought a note from Quebec. Rose had +arrived safely, and the Leblanc family were delighted to see her. That +was all. + +That evening, Mr. Stanford made the announcement that he was to depart +for Montreal next morning. It was to Kate, of course. She had strolled +down to the gate to meet him, in the red light of the sunset, as he came +home from a day's gunning. He had taken, of late, to being absent a +great deal, fishing and shooting; and those last three days he had been +away from breakfast until dinner. + +"Going to Montreal?" repeated Kate. "What for?" + +"To see a friend of mine--Major Forsyth. He has come over lately, with +his wife, and I have just heard of it. Besides, I have a few purchases +to make." + +He was switching the tremulous spring flowers along the path with his +cane, and not looking at her as he spoke. + +"How long shall you be gone?" + +He laughed. + +"Montreal has no charms for me, you know," he replied; "I shall not +remain there long, probably not over a week." + +"The house will be lonely when you are gone--now that Rose is away." + +She sighed a little, saying it. Somehow, a vague feeling of uneasiness +had disturbed her of late--something wanting in Reginald--something she +could not define, which used to be there and was gone. She did not like +this readiness of his to leave her on all occasions. She loved him with +such a devoted and entire love, that the shortest parting was to her +acutest pain. + +"Are you coming in?" he asked, seeing her linger under the trees. + +"Not yet; the evening is too fine." + +"Then I must leave you. It will hardly be the thing, I suppose, to go to +dinner in this shooting-jacket." + +He entered the house and ran up to his room. The dinner-bell was ringing +before he finished dressing; but when he descended, Kate was still +lingering out of doors. He stood by the window watching her, as she came +slowly up the lawn. The yellow glory of the sunset made an aureole round +her tinseled hair; her slender figure robed in shimmering silk; her +motion floating and light. He remembered that picture long afterwards: +that Canada landscape, that blue silvery mist filling the air, and the +tall, graceful girl, coming slowly homeward, with the fading yellow +light in her golden hair. + +After dinner, when the moon rose--a crystal-white crescent--they all +left the drawing-room for the small hall and portico. Kate, a white +shawl on her shoulders, sat on the stone step, and sang, softly, "The +Young May Moon;" Mr. Stanford leaned lightly against one of the stone +pillars, smoking a cigar, and looking up at the blue, far-off sky, his +handsome face pale and still. + +"Sing 'When the Swallows Homeward Fly,' Kate," her father said. + +She sang the song, softly and a little sadly, with some dim +foreshadowing of trouble weighing at her heart. They lingered there +until the clock struck ten--Kate's songs and the moonlight charming the +hours away. When they went into the house, and took their night-lamps, +Stanford bade them good-bye. + +"I shall probably be off before any of you open your eyes on this mortal +life to-morrow morning," he said, "and so had better say good-bye now." + +"You leave by the eight A. M. train, then," said the Captain. "It seems +to me everybody is running off just when they ought to stay at home." + +Stanford laughed, and shook hands with Grace and Kate--with one as +warmly as with the other--and was gone. Kate's face looked pale and sad, +as she went slowly upstairs with that dim foreshadowing still at her +heart. + +Breakfast was awaiting the traveller next morning at half-past seven, +when he ran down stairs, ready for his journey. More than breakfast was +waiting. Kate stood by the window, looking out drearily at the matinal +sunlight. + +"Up so early, Kate?" her lover said, with an expression of rapture. "Why +did you take the trouble?" + +"It was no trouble," Kate said, slowly, feeling cold and strange. + +He sat down to table, but only drank a cup of coffee. As he arose, +Captain Danton and Grace came in. + +"We got up betimes to see you off," said the Captain. "A delightful +morning for your journey. There is Sam with the gig now. Look sharp, +Reginald; only fifteen minutes left." + +Reginald snatched up his overcoat. + +"Good-bye," he said, hurriedly shaking hands with the Captain, then with +Grace. Kate, standing by the window, never turned round. He went up to +her, very, very pale, as they all remembered afterward, holding out his +hand. + +"Good-bye, Kate." + +The hand she gave him was icy cold, her face perfectly colourless. The +cold fingers lingered around his for a moment; the deep, clear, violet +eyes were fixed wistfully on his face. That was her only good-bye--she +did not speak. In another moment he was out of the house; in another he +was riding rapidly down the avenue; in another he was gone--and forever. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +EPISTOLARY. + + +[From Madame Leblanc to Captain Danton.] + + Quebec, May 17, 18--. + + Dear Sir:--I write to you in the utmost distress and + confusion of mind. I hardly know how to break to you the news it is + my painful duty to reveal, lest some blame should attach itself to + me or mine, where I assure you none is deserved. Your daughter Rose + has left us--run away; in fact, I believe, eloped. I have reason to + think she was married yesterday; but to whom I have not yet + discovered. I beg to assure you, Captain Danton, that neither I nor + any one in my house had the remotest idea of her intention; and we + are all in the greatest consternation since the discovery has been + made. I would not for worlds such a thing had happened under my + roof, and I earnestly trust you will not hold me to blame. + + Six days ago, on the afternoon of the 11th, your daughter arrived + here. We were all delighted to see her, Virginie in particular; + for, hearing of her approaching marriage with M. La Touche, we were + afraid she might not come. We all noticed a change in her--her + manner different from what it used to be--a languor, an apathy to + all things--a general listlessness that nothing could arouse her + from. She, who used to be so full of life and spirits, was now the + quietest in the house, and seemed to like nothing so well as being + by herself and dreaming the hours away. On the evening of the third + day this lassitude left her. She grew restless and nervous--almost + feverishly so. Next morning this feverish restlessness grew worse. + She refused to leave the house in the afternoon to accompany my + daughter on a shopping expedition. Her plea was toothache, and + Virginie went alone. The early afternoon post brought her what I + believe she was waiting for--a letter. She ran up with it to her + own room, which she did not leave until dusk. I was standing in the + entrance-hall when she came down, dressed for a walk, and wearing a + veil over her face. I asked her where she was going. She answered + for a walk, it might help her toothache. An hour afterward Virginie + returned. Her first question was for Rose. I informed her she was + gone out. + + "Then," exclaimed Virginie, "it must have been Rose that I met in + the next street, walking with a gentleman. I thought the dress and + figure were hers, but I could not see her face for a thick veil. + The gentleman was tall and dark, and very handsome." + + Half an hour later, Rose came back. We teased her a little about + the gentleman; but she put it off quite indifferently, saying he + was an acquaintance she had encountered in the street, and that she + had promised to go with him next morning to call on a lady-friend + of hers, a Mrs. Major Forsyth. We thought no more about it; and + next morning, when the gentleman called in a carriage, Rose was + quite ready, and went away with him. It was then about eleven + o'clock, and she did not return until five in the afternoon. Her + face was flushed, her manner excited, and she broke away from + Virginie and ran up to her room. All the evening her manner was + most unaccountably altered, her spirits extravagantly high, and + colour like fever in her face. She and Virginie shared the same + room, and when they went upstairs for the night, she would not go + to bed. + + "You can go," she said to Virginie; "I have a long letter to write, + and you must not talk to me, dear." + + Virginie went to bed. She is a very sound sleeper, and rarely + wakes, when she lies down, until morning. She fell asleep, and + never awoke all night. It was morning when she opened her eyes. She + was alone. Rose was neither in the bed nor in the room. + + Virginie thought nothing of it. She got up, dressed, came down to + breakfast, expecting to find Rose before her. Rose was not before + her--she was not in the house. We waited breakfast until ten, + anxiously looking for her; but she never came. None of the servants + had seen her, but that she had gone out very early was evident; for + the house-door was unlocked and unbolted, when the kitchen-girl + came down at six in the morning. We waited all the forenoon, but + she never came. Our anxiety trebly increased when we made the + discovery that she had taken her trunk with her. How she had got it + out of the house was the profoundest mystery. We questioned the + servants; but they all denied stoutly. Whether to believe them or + not I cannot tell, but I doubt the housemaid. + + The early afternoon post brought Virginie a note. I inclose it. It + tells you all I can tell. I write immediately, distressed by what + has occurred, more than I can say. I earnestly trust the poor child + has not thrown herself away. I hope with all my heart it may not be + so bad as at first sight if seems. Believe me my dear sir, truly + sorry for what has occurred, and I trust you will acquit me of + blame. + + With the deepest sympathy, I remain, + + Yours, sincerely, + Mathilde Leblanc. + + +[Miss Rose Danton to Mlle. Virginie Leblanc. Inclosed in the preceding.] + + Wednesday Night. + + My Darling Virginie:--When you read this, we shall have + parted--perhaps forever. My pet, I am married! To-day, when + I drove away, it was not to call on Mrs. Major Forsyth, but be + married. Oh, my dearest, dearest Virginie, I am so happy, so + blessed--so--so--oh! I can't tell you of my unutterable joy! I am + going away to-night, in half an hour. I shall kiss you good-bye as + you sleep. In a day or two I leave Canada forever, to be happy, + beyond the power of words to describe, in another land. Adieu, my + pet. If we never meet, don't forget your happy, happy + Rose. + + +[Miss Grace Danton to Doctor Frank Danton.] + + Danton Hall, May 21, 18--. + + My Dear Frank:--Do you recollect your last words to me as you + left St. Croix: "Write to me, Grace. I think you will have news + to send me before long." Had you, as I had, a presentment of what + was to come? My worst forebodings are realized. Rose has eloped. + Reginald Stanford is a villain. They are married. There are no + positive proofs as yet, but I am morally certain of the fact. I + have long suspected that he admired that frivolous Rose more than + he had any right to do, but I hardly thought it would come to this. + Heaven forgive them, and Heaven pity Kate, who loved them both so + well! She knows nothing of the matter as yet. I dread the time when + the truth will be revealed. + + The morning of the 19th brought Captain Danton a letter from + Quebec, in a strange hand. It came after breakfast, and I carried + it myself into his study. I returned to the dining-room before he + opened it, and sat down to work; but in about fifteen minutes the + Captain came in, his face flushed, his manner more agitated and + excited than I had ever seen it. "Read that," was all that he could + say, thrusting the open letter into my hand. No wonder he was + agitated. It was from Madam Leblanc, and contained the news that + Rose had made a clandestine marriage, and was gone, no one knew + where. + + Inclosed there was a short and rapturous note from Rose herself, + saying that she had been married that day, and was blessed beyond + the power of words to describe, and was on the point of leaving + Canada forever. She did not give her new name. She said nothing of + her husband, but that she loved him passionately. There was but one + name mentioned in the letter, that of a Mrs. Major Forsyth, whom + she left home ostensibly to visit. + + From the moment I read the letter, I had no doubt to whom she was + married. Three days after Rose's departure for Quebec, Mr. Stanford + left us for Montreal. He was only to be absent a week. The week has + nearly expired, and there is no news of him. I knew instantly, as I + have said, with whom Rose had run away; but as I looked up, I saw + no shadow of a suspicion of the truth in Captain Danton's face. + + "What does it mean?" he asked, with a bewildered look. "I can't + understand it. Can you?" + + There was no use in disguising the truth; sooner or later he must + find it out. + + "I think I can," I answered. "I believe Rose left here for the very + purpose she has accomplished, and not to visit Virginie Leblanc." + + "You believe that letter, then?" + + "Yes: I fear it is too true." + + "But, heavens above! What would she elope for? We were all willing + she should marry La Touche." + + "I don't think it is with M. La Touche," I said, reluctantly. "I + wish it were. I am afraid it is worse than that." + + He stood looking at me, waiting, too agitated to speak. I told him + the worst at once. + + "I am afraid it is with Reginald Stanford." + + "Grace," he said, looking utterly confounded, "what do you mean?" + + I made him sit down, and told him what perhaps I should have told + him long ago, my suspicions of that young Englishman. I told him I + was certain Rose had been his daily visitor during those three + weeks' illness up the village; that she had been passionately in + love with him from the first, and that he was a villain and a + traitor. A thousand things, too slight to recapitulate, but all + tending to the same end, convinced me of it. He was changeful by + nature. Rose's pretty piquant beauty bewitched him; and this was + the end. + + "I hope I may be mistaken," I said; "for Kate's sake I hope so, for + she loves him with a love of which he is totally unworthy; but, I + confess, I doubt it." + + I cannot describe to you the anger of Captain Danton, and I pray I + may never witness the like again. When men like him, quiet and + good-natured by habit, do get into a passion, the passion is + terrible indeed. + + "The villain!" he cried, through his clenched teeth. "The cruel + villain! I'll shoot him like a dog!" + + I was frightened. I quail even now at the recollection, and the + dread of what may come. I tried to quiet him, but in vain; he shook + me off like a child. + + "Let me, alone, Grace!" he said, passionately. "I shall never rest + until I have sent a bullet through his brain!" + + It was then half-past eleven; the train for Montreal passed through + St. Croix at twelve. Captain Danton went out, and ordered round his + gig, in a tone that made the stable-boy stare. I followed him to + his room, and found him putting his pistols in his coat-pocket. I + asked him where he was going, almost afraid to speak to him, his + face was so changed. + + "To Montreal first," was his answer; "to look for that matchless + scoundrel; afterwards to Quebec, to blow out his brains, and those + of my shameful daughter!" + + I begged, I entreated, I cried. It was all useless. He would not + listen to me; but he grew quieter. + + "Don't tell Kate," he said. "I won't see her; say I have gone upon + business. If I find Stanford in Montreal, I will come back. Rose + may go to perdition her own way. If I don't--" He paused, his face + turning livid. "If I don't, I'll send you a despatch to say I have + left for Quebec." + + He ran down-stairs without saying good-bye, jumped into the gig, + and drove off. I was so agitated that I dared not go down stairs + when luncheon-hour came. Eeny came up immediately after, and asked + me if I was ill. I pleaded a headache as an excuse for remaining in + my room all day, for I dreaded meeting Kate. Those deep, clear eyes + of hers seem to have a way of reading one's very thoughts, and + seeing through all falsehoods. Eeny's next question was for her + father. I said he had gone to Montreal on sudden business, and I + did not know when he would return--probably soon. + + She went down-stairs to tell Kate, and I kept my chamber till the + afternoon. I went down to dinner, calm once more. It was + unspeakably dull and dreary, we three alone, where a few days ago + we were so many. No one came all evening, and the hours wore away, + long, and lonely, and silent. We were all oppressed and dismal. I + hardly dared to look at Kate, who sat playing softly in the dim + piano-recess. + + This morning brought me the dreaded despatch. Captain Danton had + gone to Quebec; Mr. Stanford was not in Montreal. + + I cannot describe to you how I passed yesterday. I never was so + miserable in all my life. It went to my heart to see Kate so happy + and busy with the dressmakers, giving orders about those + wedding-garments she is never to wear. It was a day of unutterable + wretchedness, and the evening was as dull and dreary as its + predecessor. Father Francis came up for an hour, and his sharp eyes + detected the trouble in my face. I would have told him if Kate had + not been there; but it was impossible, and I had to prevaricate. + + This morning has brought no news; the suspense is horrible. Heaven + help Kate! I can write no more. + + Your affectionate sister, + + Grace Danton + + +[Lieutenant R. R. Stanford to Major Lauderdale.] + + Quebec, May 17. + + Dear Lauderdale:--The deed is done, the game is up, the play + is played out--Reginald Reinecourt Stanford is a married man. + + You have read, when a guileless little chap in roundabouts, "The + Children of the Abbey," and other tales of like kidney. They were + romantic and sentimental, weren't they? Well, old fellow, not one + of them was half so romantic or sentimental as this marriage of + mine. There were villains in them, too--Colonel Belgrave, and so + forth--black-hearted monsters, without one redeeming trait. I tell + you, Lauderdale, none of these unmitigated rascals were half so bad + as I am. Think of me at my worst, a scoundrel of the deepest dye, + and you will about hit the mark. My dear little, pretty little Rose + is not much better; but she is such a sweet little sinner, that--in + short, I don't want her to reform. I am in a state of indescribable + beatitude, of course--only two days wedded--and immersed in the + joys of _la lune de miel_. Forsyth--you know Forsyth, of + "Ours"--was my aider and abettor, accompanied by Mrs. F. He made a + runaway match himself, and is always on hand to help + fellow-sufferers; on the ground, I suppose, that misery loves + company. + + To-morrow we sail in the Amphitrite for Southampton. It won't do to + linger, for my papa-in-law is a dead shot. When I see you, I'll + tell you all about it. Until then, adieu and _au revoir_. + + Reginald Stanford. + + +[Mrs. Reginald Stanford to Grace Danton.] + + Quebec, May 18. + + Dear Mamma Grace:--I suppose, before this, you have heard + the awful news that my Darling Reginald and I got married. Wouldn't + I like to see you as you read this? Don't I know that virtuous + scowl of yours so well, my precious mamma-in-law? Oh, you dear old + prude, it's so nice to be married, and Reginald is an angel! I love + him so much, and I am so happy; I never was half so happy in my + life. + + I suppose Madame Leblanc sent you the full, true, and particular + account of my going on. Poor old soul! What a rare fright she must + have got when she found out I was missing. And Virginie, too. + Virginie was so jealous to think I was going to be married before + her, as if I would ever have married that insipid Jules. How I wish + my darling Reginald had his fortune; but fortune or no fortune, I + love him with all my heart, and am going to be just as happy as the + day is long. + + I dare-say Kate is furious, and saying all kinds of hard things + about me. It is not fair if she is. I could not help Reginald's + liking me better than her, and I should have died if I had not got + him. There! I feel very sorry for her, though; I know how I should + feel if I lost him, and I dare say she feels almost as bad. Let her + take Jules. Poor Jules, I expect he will break his heart, and I + shall be shocked and disappointed if he does not. Let her take him. + He is rich and good-looking; and all those lovely wedding-clothes + will not go to waste. Ah! how sorry I am to leave them behind; but + it can't be helped. We are off to-morrow for England. I shall not + feel safe until the ocean is between us and papa. I suppose papa is + very angry; but where is the use? As long as Reginald marries one + of his daughters, I should think the particular one would be + immaterial. + + I am sorry I cannot be present at your wedding, Grace; I give you + _carte blanche_ to wear all the pretty things made for Mrs. Jules + La Touche, if they will fit you. Tell poor Jules, when he comes, + that I am sorry; but I loved Reginald so much that I could not help + it. Isn't he divinely handsome, Grace? If he knew I was writing to + you, he would send his love, so take it for granted. + + I should like to write more, but I am going on board in an hour. + Please tell Kate not to break her heart. It's of no use. + + Give my regard to that obliging brother of yours. I like him very + much. Perhaps I may write to you from England if you will not be + disagreeable, and will answer. I should like to hear the news from + Canada and Danton Hall. Rapturously thine, + + Rose Stanford. + + +[Grace Danton to Dr. Danton.] + + Danton Hall, May 30. + + Dear Frank:--"Man proposes--" You know the proverb, which + holds good in the case of women too. I know my prolonged silence + must have surprised you; but I have been so worried and anxious, of + late, that writing has become an impossibility. Danton Hall has + become a _maison de deuil_--a house of mourning indeed. I look back + as people look back on some dim, delightful dream to the days that + are gone, and wonder if indeed we were so merry and gay. The + silence of the grave reigns here now. The laughter, the music--all + the merry sounds of a happy household--have fled forever. A convent + of ascetic nuns could not be stiller, nor the holy sisterhood more + grave and sombre. Let me begin at the beginning, and relate events + as they occurred, if I can. + + The day after I wrote you last brought the first event, in the + shape of a letter from Rose to myself. A more thoroughly selfish + and heartless epistle could not have been penned. I always knew her + to be selfish, and frivolous, vain, and silly to the backbone--yea, + backbone and all; but still I had a sort of liking for her withal. + That letter effectually dispelled any lingering remains of that + weakness. It spoke of her marriage with Reginald Stanford in the + most shamelessly insolent and exultant tone. It alluded to her + sister and to poor Jules La Touche in a way that brought the + "bitter bad" blood of the old Dantons to my face. Oh, if I could + have but laid my hands on Mistress Rose at that moment, quiet as I + am, I think I would have made her ears tingle as they never tingled + before. + + I said nothing of the letter. My greatest anxiety now was lest + Captain Danton and Mr. Stanford should meet. I was in a state of + feverish anxiety all day, which even Kate noticed. You know she + never liked me, and latterly her aversion has deepened, though + Heaven knows, without any cause on my part, and she avoided me as + much as she possibly could without discourtesy. She inquired, + however, if anything had happened--if I had bad news from her + father, and looked at me in a puzzled manner when I answered "No." + I could not look at her; I could hardly speak to her; somehow I + felt about as guilty concealing the truth as if I had been in the + vile plot that had destroyed her happiness. + + Father Francis came up in the course of the day; and when he was + leaving, I called him into the library, and told him the truth. I + cannot tell you how shocked he was at Rose's perfidy, or how + distressed for Kate's sake. He agreed with me that it was best to + say nothing until Captain Danton's return. + + He came that night. It was late--nearly eleven o'clock, and I and + Thomas were the only ones up. Thomas admitted him; and I shall + never forget how worn, and pale, and haggard he looked as he came + in. + + "It was too late, Grace," were his first words. "They have gone." + + "Thank Heaven!" I exclaimed. "Thank Heaven you have not met them, + and that there is no blood shed. Oh, believe me, it is better as it + is." + + "Does Kate know?" he asked. + + "Not yet. No one knows but Father Francis. He thought as I did, + that it was better to wait until you returned." + + "My poor child! My poor Kate!" he said, in a broken voice, "who + will tell you this?" + + He was so distressed that I knelt down beside him, and tried to + sooth and comfort him. + + "Father Francis will," I said. "She venerates and esteems him more + highly than any other living being, and his influence over her is + greater. Let Father Francis tell her to-morrow." + + Captain Danton agreed that that was the very best thing that could + be done, and soon after retired. + + I went to my room, too, but not to sleep. I was too miserably + anxious about the morrow. The night was lovely--bright as day and + warm as midsummer. I sat by the window looking out, and saw Kate + walking up and down the tamarack avenue with that mysterious Mr. + Richards. They lingered there for over an hour, and then I heard + them coming softly upstairs, and going to their respective rooms. + + Next morning after breakfast, Captain Danton rode down to the + village and had an interview with Father Francis. Two hours after, + they returned to Danton Hall together, both looking pale and ill at + ease. Kate and I were in the drawing-room--she practising a new + song, I sewing. We both rose at their entrance--she gayly; I with + my heart beating thick and fast. + + "I am glad the beauty of the day tempted you out, Father Francis," + she said. "I wish our wanderers would come back. Danton Hall has + been as gloomy as an old bastille lately." + + I don't know what Father Francis said. I know he looked as though + the errand he had come to fulfil were unspeakably distasteful to + him. + + "Reginald ought to be home to-day," Kate said, walking to the + window, "and Rose next week. It seems like a century since they + went away." + + I could wait for no more--I hurried out of the room--crying, I am + afraid. Before I could go upstairs, Captain Danton joined me in the + hall. + + "Don't go," he said, hoarsely; "wait here. You may be wanted." + + My heart seemed to stand still in vague apprehension of--I hardly + know what. We stood there together waiting, as the few friends who + loved the ill-fated Scottish Queen so well, may have stood when she + laid her head on the block. I looked at that closed door with a + mute terror of what was passing within--every nerve strained to + hear the poor tortured girl's cry of anguish. No such cry ever + came. We waited ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, half an hour, an + hour, before that closed door opened. We shrank away, but it was + only Father Francis, very pale and sad. Our eyes asked the question + our tongues would not utter. + + "She knows all," he said, in a tremulous voice; "she has taken it + very quietly--too quietly. She has alarmed me--that unnatural calm + is more distressing than the wildest outburst of weeping." + + "Shall we go to her?" asked her father. + + "I think not--I think she is better alone. Don't disturb her + to-day. I will come up again this evening." + + "What did she say?" I asked. + + "Very little. She seemed stunned, as people are stunned by a sudden + blow. Don't linger here; she will probably be going up to her room, + and may not like to think you are watching her." + + Father Francis went away. Captain Danton retired to his study. I + remained in the recess, which you know is opposite the + drawing-room, with the door ajar. I wished to prevent Eeny or any + of the servants from disturbing her by suddenly entering. About an + hour after, the door opened, and she came out and went slowly + upstairs. I caught a glimpse of her face as she passed, and it had + turned to the pallor of death. I heard her enter the room and lock + the door, and I believe I sat and cried all the morning. + + She did not come down all day. I called in Eeny, and told her what + had happened, and shocked the poor child as she was never shocked + before. At dinner-time I sent her upstairs, to see if Kate would + not take some refreshment. Her knocking and calling remained + unanswered. She left in despair, and Kate never came down. + + Another sleepless night--another anxious morning. About eight + o'clock I heard Kate's bell ring, and Eunice go upstairs. Presently + the girl ran down and entered the room where I was. + + "If you please, Miss Grace, Miss Kate wants you," said Eunice, with + a scared face; "and oh, Miss, I think she's ill, she do look so + bad!" + + Wanted me! I dropped the silver I was holding, in sheer affright. + What could she want of me? I went upstairs, my heart almost choking + me with its rapid throbbing, and rapped at the door. + + She opened it herself. Well might Eunice think her ill. One night + had wrought such change as I never thought a night could work + before. She had evidently never lain down. She wore the dress of + yesterday, and I could see the bed in the inner room undisturbed. + Her face was so awfully corpse-like, her eyes so haggard and + sunken, her beauty so mysteriously gone, that I shrank before her + as if it had been the spectre of the bright, beautiful, radiant + Kate Danton. She leaned against the low mantelpiece, and motioned + me forward with a cold, fixed look. + + "You are aware," she said, in a hard, icy voice--oh so unlike the + sweet tones of only yesterday--"what Father Francis came here + yesterday to say. You and my father might have told me sooner; but + I blame nobody. What I want to say is this: From this hour I never + wish to hear from anyone the slightest allusion to the past; I + never want to hear the names of those who are gone. I desire you to + tell this to my father and sister. Your influence over them is + greater than mine." + + I bowed assent without looking up; I could feel the icy stare with + which she was regarding me, without lifting my eyes. + + "Father Francis mentioned a letter that R----"; she hesitated for a + moment, and finally said--"that she sent you. Will you let me see + it?" + + That cruel, heartless, insulting letter! I looked up imploringly, + with clasped hands. + + "Pray don't," I said. "Oh, pray don't ask me! It is unworthy of + notice--it will only hurt you more deeply still." + + She held out her hand steadily. + + "Will you let me see it?" + + What could I do? I took the letter from my pocket, bitterly + regretting that I had not destroyed it, and handed it to her. + + "Thank you." + + She walked to the window, and with her back to me read it + through--read it more than once, I should judge, by the length of + time it took her. When she faced me again, there was no sign of + change in her face. + + "Is this letter of any use to you? Do you want it?" + + "No! I only wish I had destroyed it long ago!" + + "Then, with your permission, I will keep it." + + "You!" I cried in consternation. "What can you want with that?" + + A strange sort of look passed across her face, darkening it, and + she held it tightly in her grasp. + + "I want to keep it for a very good reason," she said, between her + teeth; "if I ever forget the good turn Rose Danton has done me, + this letter will serve to remind me of it." + + I was so frightened by her look, and tone, and words, that I could + not speak. She saw it, and grew composed again instantly. + + "I need not detain you any longer," she said, looking at her watch. + "I have no more to say. You can tell my father and sister what I + have told you. I will go down to breakfast, and I am much obliged + to you." + + She turned from me and went back to the window. I left the room + deeply distressed, and sought the dining-room, where I found the + Captain and Eeny. I related the whole interview, and impressed upon + them the necessity of obeying her. The breakfast-bell rang while we + were talking, and she came in. + + Both Eeny and her father were as much shocked as I had been by the + haggard change in her; but neither spoke of it to her. We tried to + be at our ease during breakfast, and to talk naturally; but the + effort was a miserable failure. She never spoke, except when + directly addressed, and ate nothing. She sat down to the piano, as + usual, after breakfast, and practised steadily for two hours. Then + she took her hat and a book, and went out to the garden to read. At + luncheon-time she returned, with no better appetite, and after that + went up to Mr. Richards' room. She stayed with him two or three + hours, and then sat down to her embroidery-frame, still cold, and + impassionate, and silent. Father Francis came up in the evening; + but she was cold and unsocial with him as with the rest of us. So + that first day ended, and so every day has gone on since. What she + suffers, she suffers in solitude and silence; only her worn face, + haggard cheeks, and hollow eyes tell. She goes through the usual + routine of life with treadmill regularity, and is growing as thin + as a shadow. She neither eats, nor sleeps, nor complains; and she + is killing herself by inches. We are worried to-death about her; + and yet we are afraid to say one word in her hearing. Come to us, + Frank; you are a physician, and though you cannot "minister to a + mind diseased," you can at least tell us what will help her failing + body. Your presence will do Captain Danton good, too; for I never + saw him so miserable! We are all most unhappy, and any addition to + our family circle will be for the better. We do not go out; we have + few visitors; and the place is as lonely as a tomb. The gossip and + scandal have spread like wildfire; the story is in everybody's + mouth; even in the newspapers. Heaven forbid it should come to + Kate's ears! This stony calm of hers is not to be trusted. It + frightens me far more than any hysterical burst of sorrow. She has + evidently some deep purpose in her mind--I am afraid to think it + may be of revenge. Come to us, brother, and try if you can help us + in our trouble. + + Your affectionate sister, + Grace. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +"SHE TOOK UP THE BURDEN OF LIFE AGAIN." + + +The second train from Montreal passing through St. Croix on its way +to--somewhere else, was late in the afternoon of the fifth of June. +Instead of shrieking into the village depot at four P.M., it +was six when it arrived, and halted about a minute and a half to let the +passengers out and take passengers in. Few got in and fewer got out--a +sunburnt old Frenchman, a wizen little Frenchwoman, and their pretty, +dark-skinned, black-eyed daughter; and a young man, who was tall and +fair, and good-looking and gentlemanly, and not a Frenchman, judging by +his looks. But, although he did not look like one, he could talk like +one, and had kept up an animated discussion with pretty dark eyes in +capital Canadian French for the last hour. He lifted his hat politely +now, with "_Bon jour, Mademoiselle_," and walked away through the main +street of the village. + +It was a glorious summer evening. "The western sky was all aflame" with +the gorgeous hues of the sunset; the air was like amber mist, and the +shrill-voiced Canadian birds, with their gaudy plumage, sang their +vesper laudates high in the green gloom of the feathery tamaracks. + +A lovely evening with the soft hum of village life, the distant tinkling +cow-bells, the songs of boys and girls driving them home, far and faint, +and now and then the rumbling of cart-wheels on the dusty road. The +fields on either hand stretching as far as the eye could reach, green as +velvet; the giant trees rustling softly in the faint, sweet breeze; the +flowers bright all along the hedges, and over all the golden glory of +the summer sunset. + +The young man walked very leisurely along, swinging his light rattan. +Wild roses and sweetbrier sent up their evening incense to the radiant +sky. The young man lit a cigar, and sent up its incense too. + +He left the village behind him presently, and turned off by the pleasant +road leading to Danton Hall. Ten minutes brought him to it, changed +since he had seen it last. The pines, the cedars, the tamaracks were all +out in their summer-dress of living green; the flower-gardens were +aflame with flowers, the orchard was white with blossoms, and the red +light of the sunset was reflected with mimic glory in the still, broad +fish-pond. Climbing roses and honeysuckles trailed their fragrant +branches round the grim stone pillars of the portico. Windows and doors +stood wide to admit the cool, rising breeze; and a big dog, that had +gambolled up all the way, set up a bass bark of recognition. No living +thing was to be seen in or around the house; but, at the sound of the +bark, a face looked out from a window, about waist-high from the lawn. +The window was open, and the sweetbrier and the rose-vines made a very +pretty frame for the delicate young face. A pale and pensive face, lit +with luminous dark eyes, and shaded by soft, dark hair. + +The young man walked up, and rested his arm on the low sill. + +"Good-evening, Agnes." + +Agnes Darling held out her hand, with a look of bright pleasure. + +"I am glad to see you again, Doctor Danton; and Tiger, too." + +"Thanks. I thought I should find you sewing here. Have you ever left +off, night or day, since I left?" + +She smiled, and resumed her work. + +"I like to be busy; it keeps me from thinking. Not that I have been very +busy of late." + +"Of course not; the wedding-garments weren't wanted, were they? and all +the trousseaux vanity and vexation of spirit. You see others in the +world came to grief besides yourself, Miss Darling. Am I expected?" + +"Yes; a week ago." + +"Who's in the house?" + +"I don't know exactly. Miss Danton is in the orchard, I think, with a +book; Eeny is away for the day at Miss Howard's and the Captain went up +the village an hour ago. I dare say they will all be back for dinner." + +Doctor Frank took another position on the window-sill, and leaned +forward, saying with a lowered voice: + +"And how does the ghost get on, Agnes? Has it made its appearance +since?" + +Agnes Darling dropped her work, and looked up at him, with clasped +hands. + +"Doctor Danton, I have seen him!" + +"Whom? The ghost?" + +"No ghost; but my husband. It was Harry as plainly as ever I saw him." + +She spoke in a voice of intense agitation; but the young Doctor listened +with perfect coolness. + +"How was it, Agnes? Where did you see him?" + +"Walking in the tamarack avenue, one moonlight night, about a week ago, +with Miss Danton." + +"And you are positive it was your husband?" + +"Do you think I could make a mistake in such a matter? It was Harry--I +saw him clearly in the moonlight." + +"It's surprising you did not run out, and fall down in hysterics at his +feet." + +She sighed wearily. + +"No. I dared not. But, oh, Doctor Danton, when shall I see him? When +will you tell him I am innocent?" + +"Not just yet; it won't do to hurry matters in this case. You have +waited long and patiently; wait yet a little longer until the right time +comes. The happiness of knowing he is alive and well, and dwelling under +the same roof with you should reconcile you to that." + +"It does," she said, her tears falling softly. "Thank Heaven! he still +lives. I can hope now; but, oh, Doctor, do you really think him Captain +Danton's son?" + +"I am certain of it; and no one will give you a more cordial welcome +than Captain Danton, when I tell him the truth. Just now I have no +proof. Do you know what I am going to do, Agnes?" + +"No." + +"Crosby is married, and living in New York. I mean to take a journey to +New York shortly, and get a written declaration of your innocence from +him. There--no thanks now. Keep up a good heart, and wait patiently for +a month or two longer. Come, Tiger." + +He was gone, whistling a tune as he went. The entrance hall was +deserted, the dining-room was empty, and he ran up stairs to the +drawing-room. Grace was there with her back to the door; and coming up +noiselessly, he put his arm around her waist, and kissed her before she +was aware. + +She faced about, with a little cry, that changed to an exclamation of +delight, upon seeing who it was. + +"Oh, Frank! I am so glad! When did you come? I expected you a week ago." + +"I know it," said her brother; "and I could have come too; but it struck +me I should like to arrive to-day." + +"To-day! Why? Oh, I forgot the fifth of June. It is hard, Frank, isn't +it, just to think what might have been and what is." + +"How does she take it?" + +"She has been out nearly all day," replied Grace, knowing whom he meant; +"she feels it, of course, more than words can tell; but she never +betrays herself by look or action. I have never seen her shed a tear, or +utter one desponding word, from the day the news reached her until this. +Her face shows what she suffers, and that is beyond her power to +control." + +Doctor Frank walked thoughtfully to the window, and looked out at the +fading brilliance of the sunset. A moment later, and Eeny rode up on +horseback, sprang out other saddle on the lawn, and tripped up the +steps. + +Another moment, and she was in the drawing-room. + +"I saw you at the window," she said. "I am glad you have come back +again. Danton Hall is too dismal to be described of late. Ah! Dear old +Tiger, and how are you? Doctor Frank," lowering her voice, "do you know +what day this is?" + +Doctor Frank looked at her with a faint shadow of a smile on his face, +humming a line or two of a ballad. + +"'Long have I been true to you. Now I'm true no longer.' Too bad, Eeny, +we should lose the wedding, and one wedding, they say, makes many." + +"Too bad!" echoed Eeny, indignantly. "Oh, Doctor Frank, it was cruel of +Rose, wasn't it? You would hardly know poor Kate now." + +"Hush!" said the Doctor, "here she comes!" + +A tall, slender figure came out from the orchard path, book in hand, and +advanced slowly towards the house. Was it the ghost, the wraith, the +shadow of beautiful Kate Danton? The lovely golden hair, glittering in +the dying radiance of the sunset, and coiled in shining twists round the +head, was the same; the deep large eyes, so darkly blue, were clear and +cloudless as ever, and yet changed totally in expression. The queenly +grace that always characterized her, characterized her still; but how +wasted the supple form, how shadowy and frail it had grown. The haggard +change in the pale face, the nervous contraction of the mouth, the +sunken eyes, with those dark circles, told their eloquent tale. + +"Poor child!" Doctor Frank said, with a look of unspeakable pity and +tenderness; "it was cruel!" + +Eeny ran away to change her dress. Grace lightly dusted the furniture, +and her brother stood by the window and watched that fragile-looking +girl coming slowly up through the amber air. + +"How tired she looks!" he said. + +"Kate?" said Grace, coming over. "She is always like that now. Tired at +getting up, tired at lying down, listless and apathetic always. If +Reginald Stanford had murdered her, it would hardly have been a more +wicked act." + +Her brother did not reply. + +A few minutes later, Kate walked into the room, still with that slow, +weary step. She looked at the new-comer with listless indifference, +spoke a few words of greeting with cold apathy, and then retreated to +another window, and bent her eyes on her book. + +Captain Danton returned just as the dinner-bell was ringing; and his +welcome made up in cordiality what his daughter's lacked. He, too, had +changed. His florid face had lost much of its colour, and was grown +thin, and his eyes were ever wandering, with a look of mournful +tenderness, to his pale daughter. + +They were all rather silent. Grace and her brother and the Captain +talked in a desultory sort of way during dinner; but Kate never spoke, +except when directly addressed, and silence was Eeny's forte. She sat +down to the piano after dinner, according to her invariable custom, but +not to sing. She had never sung since that day. How could she? There was +not a song in all her collection that did not bring the anguish of some +recollection of him, so she only played brilliant new, soulless +fantasias, that were as empty as her heart. + +When she arose from the instrument, she resumed her book and sat down at +a table studiously; but Doctor Frank, watching her covertly, saw she did +not turn over a page in an hour. She was the first to retire--very +early, looking pale and jaded to death. Half an hour later, Eeny +followed her, and then Captain Danton pushed away the chess-board +impatiently. He had been playing with the Doctor, and began pacing +feverishly up and down the room. + +"What shall I do with her?" he exclaimed. "What shall I do to keep my +darling girl from dying before my eyes? Doctor Danton, you are a +physician; tell me what I shall do?" + +"Take her away from here," said the Doctor, emphatically. "It is this +place that is killing her. How can it be otherwise? Everything she sees +from morning till night brings back a thousand bitter recollections of +what is past and gone. Take her away, where there will be nothing to +recall her loss; take her where change and excitement will drown +thought. As her mind recovers its tone, so will her body. Take her +travelling for the summer." + +"Yes--yes," said Grace, earnestly. "I'm sure it is the very best thing +you can do." + +"But, my dear," said Captain Danton, smiling a little, "you forget that +the first week of July we are to be married." + +"Oh, put it off," Grace said; "what does a little delay matter? We are +not like Rose and Reginald; we are old and steady, and we can trust one +another and wait. A few month's delay is nothing, and Kate's health is +everything." + +"She might go with us," said the Captain; "suppose it took place this +month instead of next, and we made a prolonged wedding-tour, she might +accompany us." + +Grace shook her head. + +"She wouldn't go. Believe me, I know her, and she wouldn't go. She will +go with you alone, willingly--never with me." + +"She is unjust to you, and you are so generously ready to sacrifice your +own plans to hers." + +"Did you ever know a young lady yet who liked the idea of a +step-mother?" said Grace, with a smile. "I never did. Miss Danton's +dislike and aversion are unjust, perhaps; but perfectly natural. No, no, +the autumn or winter will be soon enough, and take Kate travelling." + +"Very well, my dear; be it as you say. Now, where shall we go? Back to +England?" + +"I think not," said Doctor Frank. "England has nearly as many painful +associations for her as Danton Hall. Take her where she has never been; +where all things are new and strange. Take her on a tour through the +United States, for instance." + +"A capital idea," exclaimed the Captain. "It is what she has wished for +often since we came to Canada. I'll take her South. I have an old +friend, a planter, in Georgia. I'll take her to Georgia." + +"You could not do better." + +"Let me see," pursued the Captain, full of the hopeful idea; "we must +stay a week or two in Boston, a week or two in New York; we must visit +Newport and Saratoga, rest ourselves in Philadelphia and Washington, and +then make straight for Georgia. How long will that take us, do you +suppose?" + +"Until October, I should say," returned the Doctor. "October will be +quite time enough to return here. If your daughter does not come back +with new life, then I shall give up her case in despair." + +"I will speak to her to-morrow," said the Captain, "and start the next +day. Since it must be done, it is best done quickly. I think myself it +will do her a world of good." + +Captain Danton was as good as his word. He broached the subject to his +daughter shortly after breakfast next morning. It was out in the +orchard, where she had strayed, according to custom, with a book. It was +not so much to read--her favourite authors, all of a sudden, had grown +flat and insipid, and nothing interested her--but she liked to be alone +and undisturbed, "in sunshine calm and sweet," with the scented summer +air blowing in her face. She liked to listen, dreamy and listless, and +with all the energy of her nature dead within her, to the soft murmuring +of the trees, to the singing of the birds overhead, and to watch the +pearly clouds floating through the melting azure above. She had no +strength or wish to walk now, as of old. She never passed beyond the +entrance-gates, save on Sunday forenoons, when she went slowly to the +little church of St. Croix, and listened drearily, as if he was speaking +an unknown tongue, to Father Francis, preaching patience and +long-suffering to the end. + +She was lying under a gnarled old apple-tree, the flickering shadow of +the leaves coming and going in her face, and the sunshine glinting +through her golden hair. She looked up, with a faint smile, at her +father's approach. She loved him very much still, but not as she had +loved him once; the power to love any one in that old trustful, devoted +way seemed gone forever. + +"My pale daughter," he said, looking down at her sadly, "what shall I do +to bring back your lost roses!" + +"Am I pale?" she said, indifferently. "What does it matter? I feel well +enough." + +"I don't think you do. You are gone to a shadow. Would you like a +change, my dear? Would you not like a pleasure tour this summer +weather?" + +"I don't care about it, papa." + +"But you will come to please me. I shall take you to the Southern +States, and fetch you back in the autumn my own bright Kate again." + +There was no light of pleasure or eagerness in her face. She only moved +uneasily on the grass. + +"You will come, my dear, will you not? Eunice will accompany you; and we +will visit all the great cities of this New World, that you have so +often longed to see." + +"I will do whatever you wish, papa," she said, apathetically. + +"And you will give Eunice her orders about the packing to-day, and be +ready to start to-morrow?" + +"Yes, papa." + +"Ogden will remain behind," continued her father, in a lowered voice. "I +have said nothing to any one else as yet about Harry. I shall go and +speak to them both about it now." + +"Yes, papa." + +She watched him striding away, with that look of weary listlessness that +had grown habitual to her, and rose from her grassy couch with a sigh, +to obey his directions. She found Eunice in the sewing room, with Agnes +Darling, and gave her her orders to pack up, and be prepared to start +next morning. Then she went back to her seat under the old apple-tree, +and lay on the warm grass in a state between sleeping and waking all day +long. + +The day of departure dawned cloudless and lovely. Grace, her +brother, and Eeny went to the station with the travellers, and saw +them off. Kate's farewell was very cold, even to Eeny. What was the +use of losing or being sorry to part with any one, since all the +world was false, and hollow, and deceitful? She had lost +something--heart--hope--conscience--she hardly knew what; but something +within her that had beat high, and hopeful, and trusting, was cold and +still as stone. + +The little party on the platform went back through the yellow haze of +the hot afternoon, to the quiet old house. Ah! how indescribably quiet +and lonely now! Some one might have lain dead in those echoing rooms, so +deadly was the stillness. + +There was one consolation for Grace and Eeny in their solitude. Doctor +Frank was going to remain in the village. It was chiefly at the +solicitation of Father Francis that he had consented. + +"Dr. Pillule is superannuated," said the young priest, "and +old-fashioned, and obstinately prejudiced against all modern +innovations, at the best. We want a new man among us--particularly now +that this fever is spreading." + +A low fever had been working its way, insidiously, among the people +since early spring, and increasing since the warm weather had come. +Perhaps the miasma, arising from the marshes, had been the cause; but +several had died, and many lay ill those sunny June days. + +"Your mission lies here," Father Francis said, emphatically. "You can do +good, Doctor Danton. Stay!" + +So Doctor Danton stayed, hanging out his shingle and taking up his abode +at the village hotel. Doctor Pillule all of a sudden, like the Moor of +Venice, found his occupation gone. Every one liked the pleasant young +Doctor, whose ways were so different from those of Doctor Pillule, and +who sat by their fevered bedsides, and talked to them so kindly. Every +one liked him; and he soon found himself busy enough, but never so busy +that some time, each day, he could not run up for half an hour to Danton +Hall. + +July came, and brought a letter from Captain Danton to Grace. Like many +others, he hated letter-writing, and, never performed that duty when he +could possibly avoid it. But Kate declined writing, absolutely; so it +fell to his lot. They were in New York, on the eve of departure for +Newport, and Kate had already benefited by the change. That was nearly +all; and it was the middle of July before the second arrived. They were +still at Newport, and the improvement in Kate was marked. The wan and +sickly look was rapidly passing away--the change, the excitement, the +sea-bathing, the gay life, were working wonders. + +"She has created somewhat of a sensation here," said the latter, "and +might be one of the belles, if she chose; but she doesn't choose. Her +coldness, her proud and petrified air, her strange and gloomy manner, +throws a halo of mystery around her, that has fixed all eyes upon her, +and set all tongues going. We are quite unknown here, and I don't choose +to enlighten any one. I dare say, more than one little romance has been +concocted, founded on poor Kate's settled gloom; but, beyond our names, +they really know nothing. Some of the young men look as if they would +like to be a little more friendly, but she freezes them with one flash +of her blue eyes." + +August came, burning and breezeless, and they were at Saratoga, drinking +Congress water, and finding life much the same as at Newport. Kate had +recovered her looks, the Captain's letters said; the beauty that had +made her so irresistible had returned, and made her more irresistible +than ever. There was nothing like her at Saratoga; but she was as deeply +wrapped in mystery as ever, and about as genial as a statue in Parian +marble. + +The end of August found them journeying southward. The beginning of +September, and they were domesticated in the friendly Georgian +homestead; and then, Kate, tired after all her wanderings, sank down in +the tropical warmth and beauty, and drew a breath of relief. She liked +it so much, this lovely southern land, where the gorgeous flowers +bloomed and the tropic birds flitted with the hues of Paradise on their +wings. She liked the glowing richness of the southern days and nights, +the forests and fields so unlike anything she had ever seen before; the +negroes with their strange talk and gaudy garments, the pleasant house +and the pleasant people. She liked it all, and the first sensation of +peace and rest she had felt all these months stole into her heart here. +And yet it had done her a world of good--she was a new being--outwardly +at least--although her heart felt as mute and still as ever. Her life's +shipwreck had been so sudden and so dreadful, she had been so stunned +and stupefied at first, and the after-anguish so horribly bitter, that +this haven of rest was as grateful as some green island of the sea to a +shipwrecked mariner. Here there was nothing to remind her of all that +was past and gone--here, where everything was new, her poor bruised +heart might heal. + +Captain Danton saw and thanked Heaven gratefully for the blessed change +in the daughter he loved, and yet she was not the Kate of old. All the +youth and joyousness of life's springtime was gone. She sang no more the +songs he loved; they were dead and buried in the dead past; her clear +laugh never rejoiced his heart now; her fleeting smile came cold and +pale as moonlight, on snow. She took no interest in the home she had +left; she made no inquiries for those who were there. + +"I have had a letter from Danton Hall," he would say; "and they are +well." And she would silently bend her head. Or, "I am writing to Danton +Hall; have you any message to send?" "Only my love to Eeny," would be +the answer; and then she would stray off and leave him alone. She was as +changed to him as she was changed in other things. Grace stood +between--an insuperable barrier. + +September drew to a close. October came, and with it the time for their +departure. Kate left reluctantly; she longed to stay there forever, in +that land of the sun, and forget and be at peace. It was like tearing +half-healed wounds open to go back to a place where everything her eye +rested on or her ear heard, from morning till night, recalled the bitter +past. But fate was inexorable; farewell must be said to beautiful +Georgia and the kind friends there; and the commencement of the second +week of October found them starting on their journey to their northern +home. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +"IT'S AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NOBODY GOOD." + + +They journeyed northward very slowly, stopping for a few days at all the +great cities, so that October was gone and part of November when they +reached Montreal. There they lingered a week, and then began the last +stage of their journey home. + +It was a desolate afternoon, near the middle of that most desolate +month, November, when Captain Danton and his daughter stepped into the +railway-fly at St. Croix, and were driven, as fast as the spavined old +nag would go, to Danton Hall. A desolate afternoon, with a low leaden +sky threatening snow, and earth like iron with hard black frost. A +wretched complaining wind that made your nerves ache, worried the +half-stripped trees, and now and then a great snowflake whirled in the +dull grey air. The village looked silent and deserted as they drove +through it, and a melancholy bell was slowly tolling, tolling, tolling +all the way. Kate shivered audibly, and wrapped her fur-lined mantle +closer around her. + +"What is that wretched bell for?" she asked. + +"It is the passing bell," replied the father, with a gloomy brow. "You +know the fever is in the village." + +"And someone is dead." + +She looked out with a dreary, shivering sigh over the bleak prospect. +Gaunt black trees, grim black marshes, dull black river, and low black +sky. Oh, how desolate! How desolate it all was--as desolate as her own +dead heart. What was the use of going away, what was the use of +forgetting for a few poor moments, and then coming back to the old +desolation and the old pain? What a weary, weary piece of business life +was at best, not worth the trouble and suffering it took to live! + +The drive to the Hall was such a short one, it hardly seemed to her they +were seated before they were driving up the leafless avenue, where the +trees loomed unnaturally large and black in the frosty air, and the dead +leaves whirled in great wild drifts under the horse's feet. The gloom +and desolation were here before them too. When they had gone away, +nearly six months before, those bleak avenues had been leafy arcades, +where the birds sang all the bright day long, flowers had bloomed +wherever her eye rested, and red roses and sweetbrier had twined +themselves around the low windows and stone pillars of the portico. Now +the trees were writhing skeletons, the flowers dead with the summer, +nothing left of the roses but rattling brown stalks, and the fish-pond +lying under the frowning wintry sky like a sheet of steel. + +She went up the stone steps and into the hall, still shivering miserably +under her wraps, and saw Grace, and Eeny, and the servants assembled to +welcome them, and listened like one in a dream. It all seemed so flat, +and dead, and unsatisfying, and the old time and the old memories were +back at her heart, until she almost went wild. She could see how Eeny +and Grace looked a little afraid of her, and how differently they +greeted her father; and how heartily and unaffectedly glad he was to be +with them once more. And then she was toiling wearily up the long, wide +stairway, followed by faithful Eunice, and had the four walls of her own +little sitting room around her at last. + +How pretty the room was! A fire burned brightly in the glittering steel +grate, the curtains were drawn, for it was already dusk, that short +November afternoon; and the ruddy, cheery light sparkled on the +pictures, and the book-case, and the inlaid table, and the two little +vases of scarlet geraniums Grace had planted there. + +Outside, in contrast to all this warmth, and brightness, and comfort, +she could hear the lamentable sighing of the wild November wind, and the +groaning of the tortured trees. But it brought no sense of comfort to +her, and she sat drearily back while Eunice dressed her for dinner, and +stared blankly into the fire, wondering if her whole life was to go on +like this. Only twenty-one, and life such a hopeless blank already! She +could look forward to her future life--a long, long vista of days, and +every day like this. + +By-and-by the dinner-bell rang, arousing her from her dismal reverie, +and she went down stairs, never taking the trouble to look at herself in +the glass, or to see how her maid had dressed her. Yet she looked +beautiful--coldly, palely beautiful--in that floating dress of deep +blue; and jewelled forget-me-nots in her rich amber hair. Her face and +figure had recovered all their lost roundness and symmetry, but the +former, except when she spoke or smiled, was as cold and still as +marble. + +Father Francis and Doctor Danton were in the dining-room when she +entered, but their welcome home was very apathetically met. She was +silent all through dinner, talking was such a tiresome exertion; nothing +interested her. She hardly looked up--she could feel, somehow, the young +priest's deep, clear eyes bent upon her in grave disapproval, against +which her proud spirit mutinied. + +"Why should I take the trouble to talk?" she thought; "What do I care +for Doctor Danton or his sister, or what interest have the things they +talk of for me?" + +So she listened as if they had been talking Greek. Only once was she +aroused to anything like interest. Their two guests were relating the +progress of that virulent fever in the village, and how many had already +been carried off. + +"I should think the cold weather would give it a check," said her +father. + +"It seems rather on the increase," replied the priest; "there are ten +cases in St. Croix now." + +"We heard the bell as we drove up this afternoon," said the Captain; +"for whom was it tolling?" + +"For poor old Pierre, the sexton. He took the fever only a week ago, and +was delirious nearly all the time." + +Kate lifted her eyes, hitherto listening, but otherwise meaningless. + +"Pierre, who used to light the fires and sweep the church?" + +"Yes; you knew him," said Father Francis looking at her; "he talked of +you more than once during his delirium. It seems you sang for him once, +and he never forgot it. It dwelt in his mind more than anything else, +during that last illness." + +A pang pierced Kate's heart. She remembered the day when she had strayed +into the church with Reginald, and found old Pierre sweeping. He had +made his request so humbly and earnestly, that she had sat down at the +little harmonium and played and sung a hymn. And he had never forgotten +it; he had talked of it in his dying hours. The sharpest remorse she had +ever felt in her life, for the good she might have done, she felt then. + +"My poor people have missed their Lady Bountiful," continued Father +Francis, with that grave smile of his--"missed her more than ever, in +this trying time. Do you remember Hermine Lacheur, Miss Danton?" + +"That pretty, gentle girl, with the great dark eyes, and black ringlets? +Oh, yes, very well." + +"The same. She was rather a pet of yours, I think. You taught her to +sing some little hymns in the choir. You will be sorry to hear she has +gone." + +"Dead!" Kate cried, struck and thrilled. + +"Dead," Father Francis said, a little tremor in his voice. "A most +estimable girl, beloved by every one. Like Pierre, she talked a great +deal of you in her last illness, and sang the hymns you taught her. +'Give my dear love to Miss Danton,' were almost her last words to me; +'she has been very kind to me. Tell her I will pray for her in Heaven.'" + +There was silence. + +"Oh," Kate thought, with unutterable bitterness of sorrow; "how happy I +might have been--how happy I might have made others, if I had given my +heart to God, instead of to His creatures. The bountiful blessings I +have wasted--youth, health, opulence--how many poor souls I might have +gladdened and helped!" + +She rose from the table, and walked over to the window. The blackness of +darkness had settled down over the earth, but she never saw it. Was it +too late yet? Had she found her mission on earth? Had she still +something to live for? Was she worthy of so great a charge? A few hours +before, and life was all a blank, without an object. Had Father Francis +been sent to point out the object for which she must henceforth live? +The poor and suffering were around her. It was in her power to alleviate +their poverty and soothe their suffering. The great Master of Earth and +Heaven had spent His life ministering to the afflicted and +humble--surely it was a great and glorious thing to be able to follow +afar off in His footsteps. The thoughts of that hour changed the whole +tenor of her mind--perhaps the whole course of her life. She had found +her place in the world, and her work to do. She might never be happy +herself, but she might make others happy. She might never have a home of +her own, but she might brighten and cheer other homes. As an unprofessed +Sister of Charity, she might go among those poor ones doing good; and +dimly in the future she could see the cloistered, grateful walls +shutting her from the troubles of this feverish life. Standing there by +the curtained window, her eyes fixed on the pitchy darkness, a new era +in her existence seemed to dawn. + +Miss Danton said nothing to any one about this new resolution of hers. +She felt how it would be opposed, how she would have to argue and combat +for permission; so she held her tongue. But next morning, an hour after +breakfast, she came to Grace, and in that tone of quiet authority she +always used to her father's housekeeper, requested the keys to the +sideboard. + +Grace looked surprised, but yielded them at once; and Kate, going to the +large, carved, old-fashioned, walnut wood buffet, abstracted two or +three bottles of old port, a glass jar of jelly, and another of +tamarinds; stowed away these spoils in a large morocco reticule, +returned the keys to Grace, and, going upstairs, dressed herself in her +plainest dress, mantle, and hat, took her reticule, and set off. She +smiled at herself as she walked down the avenue--she, the elegant, +fastidious Kate Danton, attired in those sombre garments, carrying that +well-filled bag, and turning, all in a moment, a Sister of Mercy. + +It was nearly noon when she returned, pale, and very tired, from her +long walk. Grace wondered more than ever, as she saw her dragging +herself slowly upstairs. + +"Where can she have been?" she mused, "in that dress and with that bag, +and what on earth can she have wanted the keys of the sideboard for?" + +Grace was enlightened some hours later, when Father Francis came up, and +informed the household that he had found Kate ministering to one of the +worst cases of fever in the village--a dying old woman. + +"She was sitting by the bedside reading to her," said the priest; "and +she had given poor old Madame Lange what she has been longing for weeks +past, wine. I assure you I was confounded at the sight." + +"But, good gracious!" cried the Captain, aghast, "she will take the +fever." + +"I told her so--I expostulated with her on her rashness, but all in +vain. I told her to send them as much wine and jellies as she pleased, +but to keep out of these pestiferous cottages. She only looked at me +with those big solemn eyes, and said: + +"'Father, if I were a professed Sister of Charity, you would call my +mission Heaven-sent and glorious; because I am not, you tell me I am +foolish and rash. I don't think I am either; I have no fear of the +fever; I am young, and strong, and healthy, and do not think I will take +it. Even if I do, and if I die, I shall die doing God's work. Better +such a death as that than a long, miserable, worthless life.'" + +"She is resolved, then?" + +"You would say so if you saw her face. Better not oppose her too much, I +think; her mind is set upon it, and it seems to make her happy. It is, +indeed, as she says, a noble work. God will protect her." + +Captain Danton sighed. It seemed to him a very dreary and dismal labour +for his bright Kate. But he had not the heart to oppose her in anything, +let it be never so mad and dangerous. He had never opposed her in the +days of her happiness, and it was late to begin now. + +So Kate's new life began. While the weeks of November were ending in +short, dark, dull days, and cold and windy nights, with the dying year, +many in the fever-stricken village were dying too. Into all these humble +dwellings the beautiful girl was welcomed as an angel of light. The +delicacies and rich wines that nourished and strengthened them they owed +to her bounty; the words of holy hope and consolation that soothed their +dying hours, her sweet voice read; the hymns that seemed a foretaste of +Heaven, her clear voice sang. Her white hands closed their dying eyes +and folded the rigid arms, and decked the room of death with flowers +that took away half its ghastliness. Her deft fingers arranged the folds +of the shroud, and the winding-sheet, and her gentle tones whispered +comfort and resignation to the sorrowing ones behind. How they blessed +her, how they loved her, those poor people, was known only to Heaven and +themselves. + +There were two others in all these stricken houses, at these beds of +death--Father Francis and Dr. Danton. They were her indefatigable +fellow-labourers in the good work, as unwearied in their zeal and +patience and as deeply beloved as she was. Perhaps it was that by +constantly preaching patience, she had learned patience herself. Perhaps +it was through seeing all his goodness and untiring devotion, she began +to realize after a while she had been unjust to Doctor Danton. She could +not help liking and respecting him. She heard his praises in every mouth +in the village, and she could not help owning they were well deserved. +Almost without knowing it, she was beginning to like and admire this +devoted young Doctor, who never wearied in his zeal, who was so gentle, +and womanly, and tender to the poor and suffering. Doing the brother +tardy justice, it began dimly to dawn on her mind that she might have +done the sister injustice too. She had never known anything of Grace but +what was good. Could it be that she had been prejudiced, and proud, and +unjust from first to last? + +She asked herself the question going home one evening from her mission +of mercy. The long-deferred wedding was to take place on Christmas eve, +and it was now the 7th of December. She was walking home alone, in the +yellow lustre of the wintry sunset, the snow lying white and high all +around her. Her new life had changed her somewhat; the hard look was +gone, her face was far more peaceful and gentle than when she had come. +Its luminous brightness was not there, perhaps; but the light that +remained was far more tender and sweet. She looked very lovely, this +cold, clear December, afternoon, in her dark, fur-trimmed mantle, her +pretty hat, fur-trimmed too, and the long black plume contrasting with +her amber-tinted hair. The frosty wind had lit a glow in her pale +cheeks, and deepened the light of her starry violet eyes. She looked +lovely, and so the gentleman thought, striding after her over the snowy +ground. She did not look around to see who it was, and it was only when +he stepped up by her side that she glanced at him, uttering a cry of +surprise. + +"Sir Ronald Keith! Is it really you? Oh, what a surprise!" + +She held out her gloved hand. He took it, held it, looking piercingly +into her eyes. + +"Not an unpleasant one, I hope? Are you glad to see me?" + +"Of course! How can you ask such a question? But I thought you were +hundreds of miles away, shooting moose, and bears, and wolves in New +Brunswick." + +"And so I was, and so I might have remained, had I not heard some news +that sent me to Canada like a bolt from a bow." + +"What news?" + +"Can you ask?" + +She lifted her clear eyes to his face, and read it there. The news that +she was free. The red blood flushed up in her face for a moment, and +then receded, leaving her as white as the snow. + +"I learned in the wilds of New Brunswick, where I fled to forget you, +Kate, that that man was, what I knew he would be, a traitor and a +villain. I only heard it two weeks ago, and I have never rested on my +way to you since. I am a fool and a madman, perhaps, but I can't help +hoping against hope. I love you so much, Kate, I have loved you so long, +that I cannot give you up. He is false, but I will be true. I love you +with all my heart and soul, better than I love my own life. Kate, don't +send me away again. Reginald Stanford does not stand between us now. +Think how I love you, and be my wife." + +She had tried to stop him, but he ran on impetuously. He was so haggard +and so agitated speaking to her, that she could not be angry, that she +could not help pitying him. + +"Don't," she said, gently; "don't, Sir Ronald. You are only paining +yourself and paining me. What I told you before, you force me to tell +you again. I don't love you, and I can't be your wife." + +"I don't expect you to love me yet," he said, eagerly; "how should you? +I will wait, I will do everything under Heaven you wish, only give me +hope. Give me a chance, Kate! I love you so truly and entirely, that it +will win a return sooner or later." + +"Ah! don't talk to me," she said, with an impatient sigh; "don't talk to +me of love. I have done with that, my heart feels like dust and ashes. I +am not worthy of you--I am not worthy of such devotion. I thank you, Sir +Ronald, for the honour you do me; but I cannot--I cannot marry you!" + +"And you will let that poltroon Stanford boast, as he does boast, that +you will live and die single for his sake!" he cried, bitterly. "He has +made it the subject of a bet in a London club-room with Major Lauderdale +of the Guards." + +"No!" said she, her face flushing, her eyes kindling; "he never did +that!" + +"He did do it. I have proof of it. You loved him so well--he +boasted--that you would never marry. He and Lauderdale made the bet." + +She drew a long, hard breath, her eyes flashing, her white teeth +clenched. + +"The dastard," she cried; "the mean, lying, cowardly dastard! Oh, if I +were a man!" + +"Take your revenge without being a man. Prove him a liar and a boaster. +Marry me!" + +She did not answer; but he read hope in her flushed and excited face. + +"Besides," he artfully went on, "what will you do here? You have no +longer a home when your father marries; unless you can consent to be +subject to the woman who was once his housekeeper. You will have no +place in the world; you will only be an incumbrance; your step-mother +will wish you out of the way, and your father will learn to wish as his +new wife does. Oh, Kate, come with me! Come to Glen Keith, and reign +there; we will travel over the world; you shall have every luxury that +wealth can procure; your every wish shall be gratified; you shall queen +it, my beautiful one, over the necks of those who have slighted and +humiliated you. Leave this hateful Canada, and come with me as my +wife--as Lady Keith!" + +"Don't! don't!" she cried, lifting her hand to stop his passionate +pleading. "You bewilder me; you take my breath away! Give me time; let +me think; my head is whirling now." + +"As long as you like, my dearest. I don't ask you for love now; that +will come by-and-by. Only give me hope, and I can wait--wait as long as +Jacob for Rachel, if necessary." + +He lifted her hand to his lips, but let it fall quickly again, for it +felt like ice. She was looking straight before her, at the pale, yellow +sunset, her dark eyes filled with a dusky fire, but her face as +colourless as the snowy ground. + +"Are you ill, Kate?" he said, in alarm; "have I distressed you? have I +agitated you by my sudden coming?" + +"You have agitated me," she replied. "My head is reeling. Don't talk to +me any more. I want to be alone and to think." + +They walked side by side the rest of the way in total silence. When they +reached the house, Kate ran up to her own room at once, while Captain +Danton came out into the hall to greet his old friend. The two men +lounged out in the grounds, smoking before-dinner cigars, and Sir Ronald +briefly stated the object of his return, and his late proposal to his +daughter. Captain Danton listened silently and a little anxiously. He +had known the Scottish baronet a long time; knew how wealthy he was, and +how passionately he loved his daughter; but for all that he had an +instinctive feeling that Kate would not be happy with him. + +"She has given you no reply, then?" he said, when Sir Ronald had +finished. + +"None, as yet; but she will shortly. Should that reply be favourable, +Captain Danton, yours, I trust, will be favourable also?" + +He spoke rather haughtily, and a flush deepened the florid hue of the +Captain's face. + +"My daughter shall please herself. If she thinks she can be happy as +your wife, I have nothing to say. You spoke of Reginald Stanford a +moment ago; do you know anything of his doings since he left Canada?" + +"Very little. He has sold his commission, and quitted the army--some +say, quitted England. His family, you know, have cast him off for his +dishonourable conduct." + +"I know--I received a letter from Stanford Royals some months ago, in +which his father expressed his strong regret, and his disapproval of his +son's conduct." + +"That is all you know about him?" + +"That is all. I made no inquiry--I thought the false hound beneath +notice." + +Captain Danton sighed. He had loved his pretty, bright-eyed, +auburn-haired Rose very dearly, and he could not quite forget her, in +spite of her misdoing. They sauntered up and down in the grey, cold, +wintry twilight, until the ringing of the dinner-bell summoned them +indoors. Kate was there, very beautiful, Sir Ronald thought, in that +dark, rich silk, and flashing ornaments in her golden hair. + +Long that night, after the rest of the household were sleeping, Kate sat +musing over the past, the present, and the future. She had dismissed +Eunice, and sat before the fire in a loose, white dressing-gown, her +lovely hair falling around her, her deep, earnest eyes fixed on the red +blaze. What should she do? Accept Sir Ronald Keith's offer, and achieve +a brilliant place in the world, or sink into insignificance in this +remote corner of the earth? It was all true what he had said: in a few +days her father would be married. Another would be mistress where she +had reigned--another, who might look upon her as an incumbrance and a +burden. She had been content to remain here while she held the first +place in her father's heart; but another held that place now, and would +hold it forever. What should she do in the long days, and months, and +years, that were to come? How should she drag through a useless and +monotonous existence in this dull place? Even now, earnestly as she +sought to do good in her mission of mercy, there were hours and hours of +wretched, unspeakable dreariness and desolation. When her work was +ended, when the fever was over, what would become of her then? That dim +vision of the cloister and veil was dim as ever in the far distance. No +ardent glow, no holy longing filled her heart at the thought, to tell +her she had found a vocation. Her life was unspeakable empty and +desolate, and must remain so forever, if she stayed here. Other thoughts +were at work, too, tempting her on. The recollection of Sir Ronald's +words about her recreant lover--the thought of his insolent and cowardly +boast stung her to the soul. Here was the way to revenge--the way to +give him the lie direct. As Sir Ronald Keith's wife, a life of splendour +and power awaited her. She thought of Glen Keith as she had seen it +once, old and storied, and gray and grand, with ivy and roses clustering +round its gray walls, and its waving trees casting inviting shadows. +Then, too, did he not deserve some return for this long, faithful, +devoted love? Other girls made marriages _de raison_ every day, and were +well content with their lot--why should she not? She could not forever +remain indifferent to his fidelity and devotion. She might learn to love +him by-and-by. + +The fire waned and burned low, the hours of the bleak winter night wore +on, and three o'clock of a new day struck before the solitary watcher +went to bed. + +The Scotch baronet was not kept long in suspense. Next morning, as Miss +Danton came down the stone steps, with something in a paper parcel for +her poor, sick pensioners, Sir Ronald Keith joined her. + +"I have passed a sleepless night," he said. "I shall never rest until I +have your answer. When am I to have it, Kate?" + +Her face turned a shade paler, otherwise there was no change, and her +voice was quite firm. + +"Now, if you wish." + +"And it is yes," he cried, eagerly. "For Heaven's sake, Kate, say it is +yes!" + +"It is yes; if you can take me for what I am. I don't love you; I don't +know that I shall ever love you, but I will try. If I marry you, I will +be your true and faithful wife, and your honour will be as sacred as my +salvation. If you can take me, knowing this, I am yours." + +He caught her in his arms, and broke out into a torrent of passionate +delight and thankfulness. She disengaged herself, cold and very pale. + +"Leave me now," she said. "I must go to the village alone. Don't ask too +much from me, Sir Ronald, or you may be disappointed." + +"Only one thing more, my darling. Your father is to be married on the +twenty-fourth. I am sure you will have no wish to linger in this house +after that. Will you not dispense with the usual formalities and +preparations, and be married on the same day?" + +"Yes, yes," she said, impatiently; "let it be as you wish! What does it +matter? Good-morning." + +She walked away rapidly over the frozen snow, leaving the successful +wooer to return to the house and relate his good luck. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +VIA CRUCIS. + + +So once more Miss Danton was "engaged;" once more preparations for a +double wedding went on; once more her wedding day was named. + +There was very little noise made about the matter this time. Father +Francis and Doctor Danton were almost the only two outside the household +who knew anything about it, and somehow these were the very two Kate +herself wished most to keep it from. + +She was ashamed of her mercenary marriage; in spite of herself she +despised herself for it, and she felt they must despise her for it too. +She shrank away guiltily under the clear steadfast, searching gaze of +Father Francis, feeling how low she must have fallen in his estimation. +She respected and esteemed the priest and the Doctor so much, that it +was humiliating to lose their respect by her own voluntary act. But it +was too late to draw back, even if she wished it; her fetters were +forged--she was bound beyond recall. + +Sir Ronald Keith had got the desire of his heart--Kate Danton was his +promised wife, and yet he was not quite happy. Are we ever quite happy, +I wonder, when we attain the end for which we have sighed and longed, +perhaps for years? Our imagination is so very apt to paint that desire +of our heart in rainbow-hues, and we are so very apt to find it, when it +comes, only dull gray, after all. + +Sir Ronald loved his beautiful and queenly affianced with a changeless +devotion nothing could alter. He had thought her promise to marry him +would satisfy him perfectly; but he had that promise, and he was not +satisfied. He wanted something more--he wanted love in return, although +he knew she did not love him; and he was dissatisfied. It is not exactly +pleasant, perhaps, to find the woman you love and are about to marry as +cold as an iceberg--to see her shrink at your approach, and avoid you on +all possible occasions. It is rather hard, no doubt, to put up with the +loose touch of cold fingers for your warmest caress, and heavy sighs in +answer to your most loving speeches. + +Sir Ronald had promised to be content without love; but he was not, and +was huffish and offended, and savagely jealous of Reginald Stanford and +all the hated past. + +So the baronet's wooing was on the whole rather gloomy, and depressing +to the spirits, even of the lookers-on; and Kate was failing away once +more to a pale, listless shadow, and Sir Ronald was in a state of +perpetual sulkiness. + +But the bridal-cakes and bridal-dresses were making, and the December +days were slipping by, one by one, bringing the fated time near. Miss +Danton still zealously and unweariedly continued her mission of love. No +weather kept her indoors, no pleadings of her future husband were strong +enough to make her give up one visit for his pleasure or accommodation. + +"Let me alone, Sir Ronald Keith," she would answer, wearily, and a +little impatiently; "it will not be for long. Let me alone!" + +The fever that had swept off so many was slowly dying out. The sick ones +were not so bad or so many now, but that Miss Danton, with a safe +conscience, might have given them up; but she would not. She never +wanted to be alone--she who had been so fond of solitude such a short +time ago. She was afraid of herself--afraid to think--afraid of that dim +future that was drawing so very near. Every feeling of heart and soul +revolted at the thought of that loveless marriage--the profanation of +herself seemed more than she could bear. + +"I shall turn desperate at the very altar!" she thought, with something +like despair. "I can't marry him--I can't! It sets me wild to think of +it. What a wretch I am! What a weak, miserable, cowardly wretch, not to +be able to face the fate I have chosen for myself! I don't know what to +do, and I have no one to consult--no one but Father Francis, and I am +afraid to speak to him. I don't love him; I loathe the thought of +marrying him; but it is too late to draw back. If one could only die, +and end it all!" + +Her arm lay across the window-sill; her head drooped and fell on it now, +with a heavy sigh. She was unspeakably miserable, and lonely, and +desolate; she was going to seal her misery for life by a loveless +marriage, which her soul abhorred, and she had no power to draw back. +She was like a rudderless ship, drifting without helm or compass among +shoals and quicksands--drifting helplessly to ruin. + +"If I dared only ask Father Francis, he would tell me what to do," she +thought, despondingly; "he is so wise and good, and knows what is best +for every one. He would tell me how to do what is right, and I want to +do what is right if I can. But I have neglected, and avoided, and +prevaricated with him so long that I have no right to trouble him now. +And I know he would tell me I am doing wrong; I have read it in his +face; and how can I do right?" + +She sat thinking drearily, her face lying on her arm. It was the +afternoon of the 14th--ten days more, and it would indeed, be too late. +The nearer the marriage approached, the more abhorrent it grew. The +waving trees of Glen-Keith cast inviting shadows no longer. It was all +darkness and desolation. Sir Ronald's moody, angry face frightened and +distressed her--it was natural, she supposed. She did not behave well, +but he knew she did not care for him; she had told him so, honestly and +plainly; and if he looked like that before marriage, how would he look +after? She was unutterably wretched, poor child; and a remorseful +conscience that would give her no rest did not add to her comfort. + +She sat there for a long time, her face hidden on her arm, quite still. +The short, wintry afternoon was wearing away; the cold, yellow sun hung +low in the pale western sky, and the evening wind was sighing mournfully +amid the trees when she rose up. She looked pale, but resolved; and she +dressed herself for a walk, with a veil over her face, and slowly +descended the stairs. + +As she opened the house door, Sir Ronald came out of the drawing-room, +not looking too well pleased at having been deserted all the afternoon. + +"Are you going out?" he asked. + +"Yes." + +"Where?" + +"Up the village." + +"Always up the village!" he exclaimed, impatiently, "and always alone. +May I not go with you? It is growing, late." + +"There is no occasion," she replied, looking at him proudly. "I need no +protector in St. Croix." + +She opened the door and went out, and walked rapidly down the bleak +avenue to the gates. The authoritative tone of the baronet stung her +proud spirit to the quick. + +"What right has he to talk to me like that?" she thought, angrily. "If I +loved him, I would not endure it; I don't love him, and I won't endure +it." + +Her eyes flashed as she walked along, lightly and rapidly, holding her +haughty head very erect. Greetings met her on every hand as she passed +through the village. She never paused until she reached the church, and +stood by the entrance gate of the little garden in front of the Cure's +house. There she paused irresolute. How peaceful it was--what a holy +hush seemed to linger round the place! All her courage left her, and she +stood as timid and fluttering as any school-girl. While she hesitated, +the door opened, and Father Francis stood looking at her. + +"Come in, Miss Danton," he said. "You look as if you were almost +afraid." + +She opened the little gate and went up the path, looking strangely +downcast and troubled. Father Francis held out his hand with a smile. + +"I thought you would come to see me before you left Canada," he said, +"although you seem to have rather forgotten your old friends of late. +Come in." + +"Are you alone?" Kate asked, following him into the little parlour. + +"Quite alone. The Cure has gone two miles off on a sick call. And how +are the good people of Danton Hall?" + +"Very well," Kate answered, taking a seat by the window and looking out +at the pale, yellow sunset. + +"That is, except yourself, Miss Danton. You have grown thin within the +last fortnight. What is the matter?" + +"I am not very happy," she said, with a little tremor of the voice; +"perhaps that is it." + +"Not happy?" repeated Father Francis, with a short, peculiar laugh. "I +thought when young ladies married baronets, the height of earthly +felicity was attained. It seems rather sordid, this marrying for wealth +and title. I hardly thought Kate Danton would do it; but it appears I +have made a foolish mistake." + +"Thank you," Kate said, very slowly. "I came here to ask you to be cruel +to me--to tell me hard truths. You know how to be cruel very well, +Father Francis." + +"Why do you come to me for hard truths?" said the priest, rather coldly. +"You have been deluding yourself all along; why don't you go on? What is +the use of telling you the truth? You will do as you like in the end." + +"Perhaps not. I have not fallen quite so low as you think. I dare say +you despise me, but you can hardly despise me more than I despise +myself." + +"Then why walk on in the path that leads you downward? Why not stop +before it is too late?" + +"It is too late now!" + +"Stuff and nonsense! That is more of your self-delusion. You, or rather +that pride of yours, which has been the great stumbling-block of your +life, leads you on in that self-delusion. Too late! It would not be too +late if you were before the altar! Better stop now and endure the +humiliation than render your own and this man's future life miserable. +You will never be happy as Sir Ronald Keith's wife; he will never be +happy as your husband. I know how you are trying to delude yourself; I +know you are trying to believe you will love him and be happy by-and-by. +Don't indulge such sophistry any longer; don't be led away by your own +pride and folly." + +"Pride and folly!" she echoed indignantly. + +"Yes, I repeat it. Your heart, your conscience, must own the truth of +what I say, if your lips will not. Would you ever have accepted Sir +Ronald Keith if your father had not been about to marry Grace Danton?" + +The sudden flush that overspread her face answered for her, though she +did not speak. She sat looking straight before her into vacancy, with a +hard, despairing look in her dark, deep eyes. + +"You know you would not. But your father is going to marry a most +excellent and most estimable woman; his affection is not wholly his +daughter's any longer; she must stand a little in the shade, and see +another reign where she used to be queen. She cannot hold the first +place in her father's heart and home; so she is ready to leave that home +with the first man who asks her. She does not love him; there is no +sympathy or feeling in common between them; they are not even of the +same religion; she knows that she will be wretched, and that she will +make him wretched too. But what does it all matter? Her pride is to be +wounded, her self-love humiliated, and every other consideration must +yield to that. She is ready to commit perjury, to swear to love and +honour a man who is no more to her than that peasant walking along the +road. She is ready to degrade herself and risk her soul by a mercenary +marriage sooner than bear that wound to pride!" + +"Go on!" Kate said, bitterly; "it is well to have one's heart lacerated +sometimes, I suppose. Pray go on." + +"I intend to go on. You have been used to queening it all your life--to +being flattered, and indulged, and pampered to the top of your bent, and +it will do you good. When you are this man's miserable wife, you shall +never say Father Francis might have warned me--Father Francis might have +saved me. You have ruled here with a ring and a clatter; you have been +pleased to dazzle and bewilder the simple people of St. Croix, to see +yourself looked up to as a sort of goddess. Your rank, and +accomplishments, and beauty--we are talking plain truth now, Miss +Danton--all these gifts that God has bestowed upon you so bountifully, +you have misused. It doesn't seem so to you, does it? You think you have +been very good, very charitable, very condescending. I don't deny that +you have done good, that you have been a sort of guardian angel to the +poor and the sick; but what was your motive? Was it that which makes +thousands of girls, as young, and rich, and handsome as yourself, resign +everything for the humble garb and lowly duties of a Sister of Charity? +Oh, no! You liked to be idolized, to be venerated, and looked up to as +an angel upon earth. That pride of yours which induces you to sell +yourself for so many thousand pounds per annum was at the bottom of it +all. You want to hold a foremost place in the great battle of life--you +want all obstacles to give way before you. It can't be; and your whole +life is a failure." + +"Go on," Kate reiterated, never stirring, never looking at him, and +white as death. + +"You have fancied yourself very good, very immaculate, and thanked +Heaven in an uplifted sort of way that you were not as other women, +false, and mean, and sordid. You wanted to walk through life in a +pathway of roses without thorns, to a placid death, and a heritage of +glory in Heaven. The trials of common people were not for you; sorrow, +and disappointment, and suffering were to pass Miss Danton by. You were +so good, and so far up in the clouds, nothing low or base could reach +you. Well, it was not to be. You were only clay, after all--the +porcelain of human clay, perhaps, but very brittle stuff withal. Trouble +did come; the man you had made a sort of idol of, to whom you had given +your whole heart, with a love so intense as to be sinful--this man +abandons you. The sister you have trusted and been fond of, deceives +you, and you find that trouble is something more than a word of two +syllables. You have been very great, and noble, and heroic all your +life, in theory--how do we find you in practice? Why, drooping like any +other lovelorn damsel, pining away without one effort at that greatness +and heroism you thought so much of; without one purpose to conquer +yourself, without one effort to be resigned to the will of Heaven. You +rebel against your father's marriage; everybody else ought to be lonely +and unhappy because you are; the world ought to wear crape, and the +light of the sun be darkened. But the world laughs and sings much as +usual, the sun shines as joyously. Your father's marriage will be an +accomplished fact, and our modern heroine says 'yes' to the first man +who asks her to marry him in a fit of spleen, because she will be Grace +Danton's step-daughter, and must retire a little into the background, +and look forward to the common humdrum life ordinary mortals lead. She +doesn't ask help where help alone is to be found; so in the hour of her +trial there is no light for her in earth or Heaven. Oh, my child! stop +and think what you are going to do before it is too late." + +"I can't think," she said, in a hollow voice. "I only know I am a +miserable, sinful, fallen creature. Help me, Father Francis; tell me +what I am to do." + +"Do not ask help from me," the young priest said, gravely; "ask it of +that compassionate Father who is in Heaven. Oh! my child, the way to +that land of peace and rest is the way of the Cross--the only way. There +are more thorns than roses under our feet, but we must go on like +steadfast soldiers to the end, bearing our cross, and keeping the +battle-cry of the brave old Crusaders in our hearts, 'God wills it.' +Your trouble has been heavy, my poor child, I don't doubt, but you +cannot be exempt from the common lot. I am sorry for you, Heaven knows, +and I would make your life a happy one if I could, in spite of all the +harsh things I may say. It is because I would not have your whole life +miserable that I talk to you like this. Your heart acknowledges the +truth of every word I have said; and remember there is but one recipe +for real happiness--goodness. Be good and you will be happy. It is a +hackneyed precept out of a copy-book," Father Francis said, with a +slight smile; "but believe me, it is the only infallible rule. Rouse +yourself to a better life, my dear Kate; begin a new and more perfect +life, and God will help you. Remember, dear child, 'There is a love that +never fails when earthly loves decay.'" + +She did not speak. She rose up, cold, and white, and rigid. The priest +arose too. + +"Are you going?" he asked. + +"Yes." + +"You are not offended with me for all this plain talk? I like you so +much, you know, that I want to see you happy." + +"Offended?" she answered, "oh, no! Some day I will thank you; I cannot +now." + +She opened the door and was gone, flitting along, a lonely figure in the +bleak winter twilight. She never paused in her rapid walk until she +reached Danton Hall; and then, pale and absorbed, she ran rapidly +upstairs, and shut herself into her room. Throwing off her bonnet and +mantle, she sat down to her writing-desk at once, and without waiting to +think, took up a pen and dashed off a rapid note: + + "Sir Ronald:--I have deceived you. I have done very wrong. + I don't love you--I never can; and I cannot be your wife. I am very + sorry; I ask you to forgive me--to be generous, and release me from + my promise. I should be miserable as your wife, and I would make + you miserable too. Oh! pray forgive me, and release me, for indeed + I cannot marry you. + + "Kate Danton." + +She folded the note rapidly, placed it in an envelope, wrote the +address, "Sir Ronald Keith," and sealed it. Still in the same rapid way, +as if she were afraid to pause, afraid to trust herself, she arose and +rang the bell. Eunice answered the summons, and stared aghast at her +mistress' face. + +"Do you know if Sir Ronald is in the house?" Miss Danton asked. + +"Yes, Miss; he's sitting in the library, reading a paper." + +"Is he alone?" + +"Yes, Miss." + +"Take this letter to him, then; and, Eunice, tell Miss Grace I will not +be down to dinner. You can fetch me a cup of tea here. I do not feel +very well." + +Eunice departed on her errand. Kate drew a long, long breath of relief +when she closed the door after her. She drew her favourite chair up +before the fire, took a book off the table, and seated herself +resolutely to read. She was determined to put off thought--to let events +take their course, and cease tormenting herself, for to-night at least. + +Eunice brought up the tea and a little trayful of dainties, drew the +curtain, and lit the lamp. Kate laid down her book and looked up. + +"Did you deliver the note, Eunice?" + +"Yes, Miss." + +"And my message to Miss Grace?" + +"Yes, Miss." + +"Very well, then--you may go." + +The girl went away, and Kate sat sipping her tea and reading. She sat +for upward of half an hour, and then she arose and took the way to the +apartments of Mr. Richards. It was after ten before she returned and +entered her sitting-room. She found Eunice waiting for her, and she +resigned herself into her hands at once. + +"I shall go to bed early to-night," she said. "My head aches. I must try +and sleep." + +Sleep mercifully came to her almost as soon as she laid her head on her +pillow. She slept as she had not done for many a night before, and awoke +next morning refreshed and strengthened for the new trials of the new +day. She dreaded the meeting with her discarded suitor, with a nervous +dread quite indescribable; but the meeting must be, and she braced +herself for the encounter with a short, fervent prayer, and went down +stairs. + +There was no one in the dining-room, but the table was laid. She walked +to the window, and stood looking out at the black, bare trees, writhing +and groaning in the morning wind, and the yellow sunshine glittering on +the frozen snow. While she stood, a quick, heavy tread crossed the +hall--a tread she knew well. Her heart throbbed; her breath came quick. +A moment later, and Sir Ronald entered, the open note she had sent him +in his hand. + +"What is the meaning of this folly, Kate?" he demanded, angrily, +striding towards her. "Here, take it back. You did not mean it." + +"I do mean it," Kate said, shrinking. "I have behaved very badly; I am +very sorry, but I mean it." + +His black brows contracted stormily over his gloomy eyes. + +"Do you mean to say you have jilted me? Have you been playing the +capricious coquette from first to last?" + +"I am very sorry! I am very sorry!" poor Kate faltered. "I have done +wrong! Oh, forgive me! And please don't be angry." + +He broke into a harsh laugh. + +"You are sorry! and you have done wrong! Upon my soul, Miss Danton, you +have a mild way of putting it. Here, take back this nonsensical letter. +I can't and won't free you from your engagement." + +He held the letter out, but she would not take it. The strong and proud +spirit was beginning to rise; but the recollection that she had drawn +this on herself held her in check. + +"I cannot take back one word in that letter. I made a great mistake in +thinking I could marry you; I see it now more than ever. I have owned my +fault. I have told you I am sorry. I can do no more. As a gentleman you +are bound to release me." + +"Of course," he said, with a bitter sneer. "As a gentleman, I am bound +to let you play fast and loose with me to your heart's content. You have +behaved very honourably to me, Miss Danton, and very much like a +gentlewoman. Is it because you have been jilted yourself, that you want +the pleasure of jilting another? It is hardly the thing to revenge +Reginald Stanford's doings on me." + +Up leaped the indignant blood to Kate's face; bright flashed the angry +fire from her eyes. + +"Go!" she cried, in a ringing tone of command. "Leave my father's house, +Sir Ronald Keith! I thought I was talking to a gentleman. I have found +my mistake. Go! If you were monarch of the world, I would not marry you +now." + +He ground his teeth with a savage oath of fury and rage. The letter she +had sent him was still in his hand. He tore it fiercely into fragments, +and flung them in a white shower at her feet. + +"I will go," he said; "but I shall remember this day, and so shall you. +I shall take good care to let the world know how you behave to an +honourable man when a dishonourable one deserts you." + +With the last unmanly taunt he was gone, banging the house door after +him until the old mansion shook. And Kate fled back to her room, and +fell down on her knees before her little white bed, and prayed with a +passionate outburst of tears for strength to bear her bitter, bitter +cross. + +Later in the day a man from the village hotel came to Danton Hall for +the baronet's luggage. Captain Danton, mystified and bewildered, sought +his daughter for an explanation of these strange goings on. Kate related +the rather humiliating story, leaving out Sir Ronald's cruel taunts, in +dread of a quarrel between him and her father. + +"Don't say anything about it, papa," Kate said, imploringly. "I have +behaved very badly, and I feel more wretched and sorry for it all than I +can tell you. Don't try to see Sir Ronald. He is justly very angry, and +might say things in his anger that would provoke a quarrel. I am +miserable enough now without that." + +Captain Danton promised, and quietly dispatched the Scotchman's +belongings. That evening Sir Ronald departed for Quebec, to take passage +for Liverpool. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +BEARING THE CROSS. + + +The dead blank that comes after excitement of any kind is very trying to +bear. The dull flow of monotonous life, following the departure of the +Scotch baronet, told severely on Kate. The feverish excitement of that +brief second engagement had sustained her, and kindled a brighter fire +in her blue eyes, and a hot glow on her pale cheeks. But in the stagnant +quiet that succeeded, the light grew dim, the roses faded, and the old +lassitude and weariness returned. She had not even the absorbing task of +playing amateur Sister of Charity, for the fever was almost gone, and +there was no more left for her to do. + +There was no scandal or _eclat_ this time about the broken-off marriage, +for it had been kept very secret--only in the kitchen-cabinet there were +endless surmisings and wonderings. + +The wedding garments made for the second time for Miss Danton were for +the second time put quietly away. + +Father Francis, in all his visits to Danton Hall, never made the +slightest allusion to the event that had taken place. Only, he laid his +hand on Kate's drooping head, with a "Heaven bless you, my child!" so +fervently uttered that she felt repaid for all the humiliation she had +undergone. + +So very quietly at Danton Hall December wore away, and Christmas-eve +dawned, Grace Danton's wedding-day. About ten in the morning the large, +roomy, old-fashioned family sleigh drove up before the front door, and +the bridal party entered, and were whirled to the church. A very select +party indeed; the bride and bridegroom, the bride's brother, and the +bridegroom's two daughters. + +Grace's brown velvet bonnet, brown silk dress, and seal jacket were not +exactly the prescribed attire for a bride; but with the hazel hair, +smooth and shining, and the hazel eyes full of happy light, Grace looked +very sweet and fair. + +Eeny, in pale silk and a pretty hat with a long white plume, looked fair +as a lily and happy as a queen, and very proud of her post of +bride-maid. + +And Kate, who was carrying her cross bravely now, very simply attired, +sat beside Doctor Frank and tried to listen and be interested in what he +was saying, and all the time feeling like one in some unnatural dream. +She saw the dull, gray, sunless sky, speaking of coming storm, the +desolate snow-covered fields, the quiet village, and the little church, +with its tall spire and glittering cross. She saw it all in a vague, +lost sort of way, and was in the church and seated in a pew, and +listening and looking on, like a person walking in her sleep. Her father +going to be married! How strange and unnatural it seemed. She had never +grown familiarized with the idea, perhaps because she would never +indulge it, and now he was kneeling on the altar steps, with Frank +Danton beside him, and Eeny at Grace's left hand, and the Cure and +Father Francis were there in stole and surplice, and the ceremony was +going on. She saw the ring put on Grace's finger, she heard the Cure's +French accented voice, "Henry Danton, wilt thou have Grace Danton to be +thy wedded wife?" and that firm, clear "I will," in reply. + +Then it was all over; they were married. Her pale face drooped on the +front rail of the pew, and wet it with a rain of hot tears. + +The wedding quartet were going into the sacristy to register their +names. She could linger no longer, although she felt as if she would +like to stay there and die, so she arose and went wearily after. Her +father looked at her with anxious, imploring eyes; she went up and +kissed him, with a smile on her colourless face. + +"I hope you will be very happy, papa," she whispered. + +And then she turned to Grace, and touched her cold lips to the bride's +flushed cheek. + +"I wish you very much happiness, Mrs. Danton," she said. + +Yes, she could never be mother--she was only Mrs. Danton, her father's +wife; but Father Francis gave her a kindly, approving glance, even for +this. She turned away from him with a weary sigh. Oh, what trouble and +mockery everything was? What a dreary, wretched piece of business life +was altogether! The sense of loneliness and desolation weighed on her +heart, this dull December morning, like lead. + +There was to be a wedding-breakfast, but the Cure, and Father Francis, +and Doctor Frank were the only guests. + +Kate sat at her father's side--Grace presided now, Grace was mistress of +the Hall--and listened in the same dazed and dreary way to the confusion +of tongues, the fire of toasts, the clatter of china and silver, and the +laughter of the guests. She sat very still, eating and drinking, because +she must eat and drink to avoid notice, and never thinking how beautiful +she looked in her blue silk dress, her neck and arms gleaming like ivory +against azure. What would it ever matter again how she looked? + +Captain and Mrs. Danton were going on a brief bridal-tour to +Toronto--not to be absent over a fortnight. They were to depart by the +two o'clock train; so, breakfast over, Grace hurried away to change her +dress. Dr. Frank was going to drive Eeny to the station, in the cutter, +to see them off, but Kate declined to accompany them. She shook hands +with them at the door; and then turned and went back into the empty, +silent house. + +A wedding, when the wedded pair, ashamed of themselves, go scampering +over the country in search of distraction and amusement, leaves any +household almost as forlorn as a funeral. Dead silence succeeds tumult +and bustle; those left behind sit down blankly, feeling a gap in their +circle, a loss never to be repaired. It was worse than usual at Danton +Hall. The wintry weather, precluding all possibility of seeking +forgetfulness and recreation out of doors, the absence of visitors--for +the Cure, Father Francis, Doctor Danton, and the Reverend Mr. Clare +comprised Kate's whole visiting list now--all tended to make dismalness +more dismal. She could remember this time last year, when Reginald and +Rose, and Sir Ronald, and all were with them--so many then, so few now; +only herself and Eeny left. + +The memory of the past time came back with a dulled sense of pain and +misery. She had suffered so much that the sense of suffering was +blunted--there was only a desolate aching of the heart when she thought +of it now. + +December and the old year died out, in a great winding-sheet of snow. +January came, and its first week dragged away, and the master and +mistress of the house were daily expected home. + +Late in the afternoon of a January day, Kate sat at the drawing-room +window, her chin resting on her hand, her eyes fixed on the white +darkness. The wind made such a racket and uproar within and without, +that she did not hear a modest tap at the door, or the turning of the +handle. It was only when a familiar voice sounded close to her elbow +that she started from her reverie. + +"If you please, Miss Kate." + +"Oh, is it you, Ogden? I did not hear you. What is the matter?" + +Mr. Ogden drew nearer and lowered his voice. + +"Miss Kate, have you been upstairs to-day?" + +Kate knew what he meant by this rather guarded question--had she been to +see Mr. Richards? + +"No," she said in alarm; "is there anything the matter?" + +"I am afraid there is, Miss Kate. I am afraid he is not very well." + +"Not very well!" repeated Miss Danton. "Do you mean to say he is ill, +Ogden?" + +"Yes, Miss Kate, I am afraid he is. He wasn't very well last night, and +this morning he is worse. He complains dreadful of headache, and he +ain't got no appetite whatsomever. He's been lying down pretty much all +day." + +"Why did you not tell me sooner?" Kate cried, with a pang of remorse at +her own neglect. "I will go to him at once." + +She hastened upstairs, and into her brother's rooms. The young man was +in the bedroom, lying on the bed, dressed, and in a sort of stupor. As +Kate bent over him, and spoke, he opened his eyes, dull and heavy. + +"Harry, dear," Kate said, kissing him, "what is the matter? Are you +ill?" + +Harry Danton made an effort to raise, but fell back on the pillow. + +"My head aches as if it would split open, and I feel as if I had a +ton-weight bearing down every limb. I think I am going to have the +fever." + +Kate turned pale. + +"Oh, Harry, for Heaven's sake don't think that! The fever has left the +village; why should you have it now?" + +He did not reply. The heavy stupor that deadened every sense bore him +down, and took away the power of speech. His eyes closed, and in another +moment he had dropped off into a deep, lethargic sleep. + +Kate arose and went out into the corridor, where she found Ogden +waiting. + +"He has fallen asleep," she said. "I want you to undress him, and get +him into bed properly, while I go and prepare a saline draught. I am +afraid he is going to be very ill." + +She passed on, and ran down stairs to her father's study, where the +medicine-chest stood. It took her some time to prepare the saline +draught; and when she returned to the bed-chamber, Ogden had finished +his task, and the sick man was safely in bed. He still slept--heavily, +deep--but his breathing was laboured and his lips parched. + +"I will give him this when he awakes," Kate said; "and I will sit up +with him all night. You can remain in the next room, Ogden, so as to be +within call, if wanted." + +Kate remained by her sick brother through the long hours of that wintry +night. She sat by the bedside, bathing the hot face and fevered hands, +and holding cooling drinks to the dry lips. The shaded lamp lit the room +dimly, too dimly to see to read; so she sat patiently, listening to the +snow-storm, and watching her sick brother's face. In the next room Mr. +Ogden slept the sleep of the just, in an arm-chair, his profound snoring +making a sort of accompaniment to the howling of the wind. + +The slow, slow hours dragged away, and morning came. It found the +patient worse, weak, prostrated, and deadly sick, but not delirious. + +"I know I have the fever, Kate," he said, in a weak whisper; "I am glad +of it. I only hope it will be merciful, and take me off." + +Kate went down to breakfast, which she could not eat, and then returned +to the sick-room. Her experience among the sick of the village had made +her skilful in the disease; but, despite all she could do, Harry grew +weaker and worse. She dared not summon help, she dared not call in the +Doctor, until her father's return. + +"He ought to be here to-day," she thought. "Heaven grant it! If he does +not and Harry keeps growing worse, I will go and speak to Father Francis +this evening." + +Fortunately this unpleasant duty was not necessary. The late afternoon +train brought the newly-wedded pair home. Kate and Eeny met them in the +hall, the latter kissing both with effusion, and Kate only shaking +hands, with a pale and anxious countenance. + +Mrs. Grace went upstairs with Eeny, to change her travelling costume, +and Captain Danton was left standing in the hall with his eldest +daughter. + +"What is it, my dear?" he asked; "what has gone wrong?" + +"Something very serious, I am afraid, papa. Harry is ill." + +"Ill! How?--when?--what is the matter with him?" + +"The fever," Kate said, in a whisper. "No one in the house knows it yet +but Ogden. He was taken ill night before last, but I knew nothing of it +till yesterday. I sat up with him last night, and did what I could, but +I fear he is getting worse. I wanted to call in the Doctor, but I dared +not until your return. What shall we do?" + +"Send for Doctor Frank immediately," replied her father, promptly; "I +have no fear of trusting him. He is the soul of honour, and poor Harry's +secret is as safe with him as with ourselves. Grace has heard the story. +I told her in Montreal. Of course, I could have no secrets from my wife. +I will go to the village myself, and at once; that is, as soon as I have +seen the poor boy. Let us go up now, my dear." + +Kate followed her father upstairs, and into the sick man's room. With +the approach of night he had grown worse, and was slightly delirious. He +did not know his father when he bent over and spoke to him. He was +tossing restlessly on his pillow, and muttering incoherently as he +tossed. + +"My poor boy! My poor Harry!" his father said, with tears in his-eyes. +"Misfortune seems to have marked him for its own. Remain with him, Kate; +I will go at once for Doctor Danton." + +Five minutes later the Captain was galloping towards the village hotel, +through the gray, gathering dusk. The young Doctor was in, seated in his +own room, reading a ponderous-looking volume. He arose to greet his +visitor, but stopped short at sight of his grave and anxious face. + +"There is nothing wrong, I hope?" he inquired; "nothing has happened at +the Hall?" + +The Captain looked around the little chamber with the same anxious +glance. + +"We are quite alone?" he said. + +"Quite," replied his brother-in-law, very much surprised. + +"I have a story to tell you--a secret to confide to you. Your services +are required at the Hall; but before I can avail myself of these +services, I have a sacred trust to confide to you--a trust I am certain +you will never betray." + +"I shall never betray any trust you may repose in me, Captain Danton," +the young man answered gravely. + +Some dim inkling of the truth was in his mind as he spoke. Captain +Danton drew his chair closer, and in a low, hurried voice began his +story. The story he had once before told Reginald Stanford, the story of +his unfortunate son. + +Doctor Frank listened with a face of changeless calm. No surprise was +expressed in his grave, earnest, listening countenance. When the Captain +had finished his narrative, with an account of the fever that rendered +his presence at once necessary, a faint flush dyed his forehead. + +"I shall be certain now," he thought. "I only saw Agnes Darling's +husband once, and then for a moment; but I shall know him again if I +ever see him." + +"I shall be with you directly," he said, rising; "as soon as they saddle +my horse." + +He rang the bell and gave the order. By the time his cap and coat were +on, and a few other preparations made, the hostler had the horse at the +door. + +It was quite dark now; but the road was white with snow and the two men +rode rapidly to the Hall with the strong January wind blowing in their +faces. They went upstairs at once, and Doctor Frank, with an odd +sensation, followed the master of Danton Hall across the threshold of +that mysterious Mr. Richards' room. + +The Captain's son lay in a feverish sleep, tossing wildly and raving +incoherently. Kate, sitting by his bedside, he mistook for some one +else, calling her "Agnes," and talking in disjointed sentences of days +and things long since past. + +"He thinks she is his wife," the Captain said, very sadly; "poor boy!" + +The Doctor turned up the lamp, and looked long and earnestly into the +fever-flushed face. His own seemed to have caught the reflection of that +red glow, when at last he looked up. + +"It is the fever," he said, "and a very serious case. You sat up last +night, your father tells me, Miss Kate?" + +"Yes," Kate answered. + +She was very white and thoroughly worn out. + +"You are not strong enough to do anything of the kind. You look +half-dead now. I will remain here all night, and do you at once go and +lie down." + +"Thank you very much," Kate said, gratefully. "I can sleep when I know +you are with him. Do you think there is any danger?" + +"I trust not. You and I have seen far more serious cases down there in +St. Croix, and we have brought them round. It is a very sad story, +his--I am very sorry for your brother." Kate stooped and kissed the hot +face, her tears falling on it. + +"Poor, poor Harry! The crime of that dreadful murder should not lie at +his door, but at that of the base wretch he made his wife!" + +"Are you quite sure, Miss Danton," said the young Doctor, seriously, +"that there may not have been some terrible mistake? From what your +father tells me, your brother had very little proof of his wife's +criminality beyond the words of his friend Furniss, who may have been +actuated by some base motive of his own." + +"He had the proof of his own senses," Kate said, indignantly; "he saw +the man Crosby with his wife, and heard his words. The guilt of Harry's +rash deed should rest far more on her than on him." + +She turned from the room, leaving her father and the young Doctor to +watch by the sick man all night. The Captain sought his wife, and +explained the cause of her brother's sudden summons; and Kate, in her +own room, quite worn out, lay down dressed as she was, and fell into a +profound, refreshing sleep, from which she did not wake until late next +morning. + +When she returned to her brother's chamber, she found the Doctor and the +Captain gone, and Grace keeping watch. Mrs. Danton explained that Frank +had been summoned away about an hour previously to attend a patient in +the village; and the Captain, at her entreaty, had gone to take some +rest. The patient was much the same, and was now asleep. + +"But you should not have come here, Mrs. Danton," Kate expostulated. +"You know this fever is infectious." + +Mrs. Danton smiled. + +"My life is of no more value than yours or my husband's. I am not +afraid--I should be very unhappy if I were not permitted to do what +little good I can." + +For the second time there flashed into Kate's mind the thought that she +had never done this woman justice. Here she was, generous and +self-sacrificing, risking her own safety by the sick-bed of her +husband's own son. Could it be that after all she had married her father +because she loved him, and not because he was Captain Danton of Danton +Hall? + +"Father Francis ought to know," she mused; "and Father Francis sings her +praises on every occasion. I know Eeny loves her dearly, and the +servants like and respect her in a manner I never saw surpassed. Can it +be that I have been blind, and unjust, and prejudiced from first to +last, and that my father's wife is a thousand times better than I am?" + +The two women sat together in the sick-room all the forenoon. Kate +talked to her step-mother far more socially and kindly than she had ever +talked to her before, and was surprised to find Grace had a ready +knowledge of every subject she started. She smiled at herself by and by +in a little pause in the conversation. + +"She is really very pleasant," she thought. "I shall begin to like her +presently, I am afraid." + +Early in the afternoon, Doctor Frank returned. There was little change +in his patient, and no occasion for his remaining. He stayed half an +hour, and then took his hat to leave. He had more pressing cases in the +village to attend, and departed promising to call again before +nightfall. + +The news of Mr. Richards' illness had spread by this time through the +house. The young Doctor knew this, and wondered if Agnes Darling had +heard it, and why she did not try to see him. He was thinking about it +as he walked briskly down the avenue, and resolving he must try and see +her that evening, when a little black figure stepped out from the shadow +of the trees and confronted him. + +"'Angels and ministers of grace defend us,'" ejaculated the Doctor; "I +thought it was a ghost, and I find it is only Agnes Darling. You look +about as pale as a ghost, though. What is the matter with you?" + +She clasped her hands and looked at him piteously. + +"He is sick. You have seen him? Oh, Doctor Danton! is it Harry?" + +"My dear Mrs. Danton, I am happy to tell you it is. Don't faint now, or +I shall tell you nothing more." + +She leaned against a tree, white and trembling; her hands clasped over +her beating heart. + +"And he is ill, and I may not see him. Oh, tell me what is the matter." + +"Fever. Don't alarm yourself unnecessarily. I do not think his life is +in any danger." + +"Thank God! Oh, thank God for that!" + +She covered her face with her slender hands, and he could see the +fast-falling tears. + +"My dear Agnes," he said, kindly. "I don't like to see you distress +yourself in this manner. Besides, there is no occasion. I think your +darkest days are over. I don't see why you may not go and nurse your +husband." + +Her hands dropped from before her face, her great dark eyes fixed +themselves on his face, dilated and wildly. + +"You would like it, wouldn't you? Well, I really don't think there is +anything to hinder. He is calling for you perpetually, if it will make +you happy to know it. Tell Miss Danton your story at once; tell her who +you are, and if she doubts your veracity, refer her to me. I have a +letter from Mr. Crosby, testifying in the most solemn manner your +innocence. I wrote to him, Agnes, as I could not find time to visit him. +Tell Miss Kate to-day, if you choose, and you may watch by your +husband's bedside to night. Good afternoon. Old Renaud is shouting out +with rheumatism; I must go and see after him." + +He strode away, leaving Agnes clinging to the tree, trembling and white. +The time had come, then. Her husband lived, and might be returned to her +yet. At the thought she fell down on her knees on the snowy ground, with +the most fervent prayer of thanksgiving in her heart she had ever +uttered. + +Some two hours later, and just as the dusk of the short winter day was +falling, Kate came out of her brother's sick-room. She looked jaded and +worn, as she lingered for a moment at the hall-window to watch the +grayish-yellow light fade out of the sky. She had spent the best part of +the day in the close chamber, and the bright outer air seemed +unspeakably refreshing. She went to her room, threw a large cloth mantle +round her shoulders, drew the fur-trimmed hood over her head, and went +out. + +The frozen fish-pond glittered like a sheet of ivory in the fading +light; and walking slowly around it, she saw a little familiar figure, +robed like a nun, in black. She had hardly seen the pale seamstress for +weeks, she had been too much absorbed in other things; but now, glad of +companionship, she crossed over to the fish-pond and joined her. As she +drew closer, and could see the girl's face in the cold, pale twilight, +she was struck with its pallor and indescribably mournful expression. + +"You poor, pale child!" Miss Danton said; "you look like some stray +spirit wandering ghostily around this place. What is the matter now, +that you look so wretchedly forlorn?" + +Agnes looked up in the beautiful, pitying face, with her heart in her +eyes. + +"Nothing," she said, tremulously, "but the old trouble, that never +leaves me. I think sometimes I am the most unhappy creature in the whole +wide world." + +"Every heart knoweth its own bitterness," Miss Danton said, steadily. +"Trouble seems to be the lot of all. But yours--you have never told me +what it is, and I think I would like to know." + +They were walking together round the frozen pond, and the face of the +seamstress was turned away from the dying light. Kate could not see it, +but she could hear the agitation in her voice when she spoke. + +"I am almost afraid to tell you. I am afraid, for oh, Miss Danton! I +have deceived you." + +"Deceived me, Agnes?" + +"Yes; I came here in a false character. Oh, don't be angry, please; but +I am not Miss Darling--I am a married woman." + +"Married! You?" + +She looked down in speechless astonishment at the tiny figure and +childlike face of the little creature beside her. + +"You married!" she repeated. "You small, childish-looking thing! And +where in the wide world is your husband?" + +Agnes Darling covered her face with her hands, and broke out into a +hysterical passion of tears. + +"Don't cry, you poor little unfortunate. Tell me if this faithless +husband is the friend I once heard you say you were in search of?" + +"Yes, yes," Agnes answered, through her sobs. "Oh, Miss Danton! Please, +please, don't be angry with me, for, indeed, I am very miserable." + +"Angry with you, my poor child," Kate said, tenderly; "no, indeed! But +tell me all about it. How did this cruel husband come to desert you? Did +he not love you?" + +"Oh, yes, yes, yes." + +"And you--did you love him?" + +"With my whole heart." + +The memory of her own dead love stung Kate to the very soul. + +"Oh!" she said, bitterly, "it is only a very old story, after all. We +are all alike; we give up our whole heart for a man's smile, and, +verily, we get our reward. This husband of yours took a fancy, I +suppose, to some new and fresher face, and threw you over for her sake?" + +Agnes Darling looked up with wide black eyes. + +"Oh, no, no! He loved me faithfully. He never was false, as you think. +It was not that; he thought I was false, and base, and wicked. Oh!" she +cried, covering her lace with her hands again; "I can't tell you how +base he thought me." + +"I think I understand," Kate said, slowly. "But how was it? It was not +true, of course." + +Agnes lifted her face, raised her solemn, dark eyes mournfully to the +gaze of the earnest blue ones. + +"It was not true," she replied simply; "I loved him with all my heart, +and him only. He was all the world to me, for I was alone, an orphan, +sisterless and brotherless. I had only one relative in the wide world--a +distant cousin, a young man, who boarded in the same house with me. I +was only a poor working-girl of New York, and my husband was far above +me--I thought so then, know it since. I knew very little of him. He +boarded in the same house, and I only saw him at the table. How he ever +came to love me--a little pale, quiet thing like me--I don't know; but +he did love me--he did--it is very sweet to remember that now. He loved +me, and he married me, but under an assumed name, under the name of +Darling, which I know now was not his real one." + +She paused a little, and Kate looked at her with sudden breathless +interest. How like this story was to another, terribly familiar. + +"We were married," Agnes went on, softly and sadly, "and I was happy. +Oh, Miss Danton, I can never tell you how unspeakably happy I was for a +time. But it was not for long. Troubles began to gather thick and fast +before many months. My husband was a gambler"--she paused a second or +two at Miss Danton's violent start--"and got into his old habits of +staying out very late at night, and often, when he had lost money, +coming home moody and miserable. I had no influence over him to stop +him. He had a friend, another gambler, and a very bad man, who drew him +on. It was very dreary sitting alone night after night until twelve or +one o'clock, and my only visitor was my cousin, the young man I told you +of. He was in love, and clandestinely engaged to a young lady, whose +family were wealthy and would not for a moment hear of the match. I was +his only confidante, and he liked to come in evenings and talk to me of +Helen. Sometimes, seeing me so lonely and low-spirited, he would stay +with me within half an hour of Harry's return; but Heaven knows neither +he nor I ever dreamed it could be wrong. No harm might ever have come of +it, for my husband knew and liked him, but for that gambling companion, +whose name was Furniss." + +She paused again, trembling and agitated, for Miss Danton had uttered a +sharp, involuntary exclamation. + +"Go on! Go on!" she said breathlessly. + +"This Furniss hated my cousin, for he was his successful rival with +Helen Hamilton, and took his revenge in the cruelest and basest manner. +He discovered that my cousin was in the habit of visiting me +occasionally in the evening, and he poisoned my husband's mind with the +foulest insinuations. + +"He told him that William Crosby, my cousin, was an old lover, and +that--oh, I cannot tell you what he said! He drove my husband, who was +violent and passionate, half mad, and sent him home one night early, +when he knew Will was sure to be with me. I remember that dreadful night +so well--I have terrible reason to remember it. Will sat with me, +talking of Helen, telling me he could wait no longer; that she had +consented, and they were going to elope the very next night. While he +was speaking the door was burst open, and Harry stood before us, livid +with fury, a pistol in his hand. A second later, and there was a +report--William Crosby sprang from his seat and fell forward, with a +scream I shall never forget. I think I was screaming too; I can hardly +recollect what I did, but the room was full in a moment, and my husband +was gone--how, I don't know. That was two years ago, and I have never +seen him since; but I think--" + +She stopped short, for Kate Danton had caught her suddenly and violently +by the arm, her eyes dilating. + +"Agnes!" she exclaimed, passionately; "what is it you have been telling +me? Who are you?" + +Agnes Darling held up her clasped hands. + +"Oh, Miss Danton," she cried, "for our dear Lord's sake, have pity on +me! I am your brother's wretched wife!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +DOCTOR DANTON'S GOOD WORKS. + + +The two women stood in the bleak twilight looking at each other--Agnes +with piteous, imploring eyes, Kate dazed and hopelessly bewildered. + +"My brother's wife!" she repeated. "You! Agnes Darling!" + +"Oh, dear Miss Danton, have pity on me! Let me see him. Let me tell him +I am innocent, and that I love him with my whole heart. Don't cast me +off! Don't despise me! Indeed, I am not the guilty creature he thinks +me!" + +"Agnes, wait," Kate said, holding out her hand. "I am so confounded by +this revelation that I hardly know what to do or say. Tell me how you +found out my brother was here? Did you know it when you came?" + +"Oh, no. I came as seamstress, with a lady from New York to Canada, and +when I left her I lived in the Petite Rue de St. Jacques. There you +found me; and I came here, never dreaming that I was to live in the same +house with my lost husband." + +"And how did you make the discovery? Did you see him?" + +"Yes, Miss Danton; the night you were all away at the party, you +remember. I saw him on the stairs, returning to his room. I thought then +it was a spirit, and I fainted, as you know, and Doctor Danton was sent +for, and he told me it was no spirit, but Harry himself." + +"Doctor Danton!" exclaimed Kate, in unbounded astonishment. "How did +Doctor Danton come to know anything about it?" + +"Why, it was he--oh, I haven't told you. I must go back to that dreadful +night when my cousin was shot. As I told you, the room was filled with +people, and among them there was a young man--a Doctor, he told us--who +made them lift poor Will on the bed, and proceeded to examine his wound. +It was not fatal." + +She stopped, for Kate had uttered a cry and grasped her arm. + +"Not fatal!" she gasped. "Oh, Agnes! Agnes! Tell me he did not die!" + +"He did not, thank Heaven. He lived, and lives still--thanks to the +skill and care of Doctor Danton." + +Kate clasped her hands with a fervent prayer of thanksgiving. + +"Oh, my poor Harry!" she cried, "immured so long in those dismal rooms, +when you were free to walk the world. But perhaps the punishment was +merited. Go on, Agnes; tell me all." + +"The wound was not fatal, but his state was very critical. Doctor Danton +extracted the bullet, and remained with him all night. I was totally +helpless. I don't remember anything about it, or anything that occurred +for nearly a fortnight. Then I was in a neighbour's room; and she told +me I had been very ill, and, but for the kindness and care of the young +Doctor, must have died. She told me William lived, and was slowly +getting better; but the good Doctor had hired a nurse to attend him, and +came to the house every day. I saw him that very afternoon, and had a +long talk with him. He told me his name was Doctor Danton, that he had +come from Germany on business, and must return in a very few days now. +He said he had friends in Canada, whom he had intended to visit, but +this unfortunate affair had prevented him. He had not the heart to leave +us in our forlorn and dangerous state. He would not tell his friends of +his visit to America at all, so they would have no chance to feel +offended. Oh, Miss Danton, I cannot tell you how good, how noble, how +generous he was. He left New York the following week; but before he went +he forced me to take money enough to keep me six months. I never felt +wholly desolate until I saw him go, and then I thought my heart would +break. Heaven bless him! He is the noblest man I ever knew." + +Kate's heart thrilled with a sudden response. And this was the man she +had slighted, and perhaps despised--this hero, this great, generous, +good man! + +"You are right," she said; "he is noble. And after that, Agnes, what did +you do?" + +"I dismissed the hired nurse, and took care of poor Will until he fully +recovered. Then he resumed his business; and I went back, sick and +sorrowful, to my old life. I can never tell you how miserable I was. The +husband I loved was lost to me forever. He had gone, believing me guilty +of the worst of crimes, and I should never see him again to tell him I +was innocent. The thought nearly broke my heart; but I lived and lived, +when, I only prayed, wickedly, I know, to die. I came to Canada--I came +here; and here I met my best friend once more. I saw Harry, or an +apparition, as I took it to be, until Doctor Danton assured me to the +contrary. He did not know, but he suspected the truth--he is so clever; +and now that he has seen him, and knows for certain, he told me to tell +you who I was. Miss Danton, I have told you the simple truth, as Heaven +hears me. I have been true and faithful in thought and word to the +husband I loved. Don't send me away; don't disbelieve and despise me." + +She lifted her streaming eyes and clasped hands in piteous supplication. +There were tears, too, in the blue eyes of Kate as she took the little +supplicant in her arms. + +"Despise you, my poor Agnes! What a wretch you must take me to be! No, I +believe you, I love you, you poor little broken-down child. I shall not +send you away. I know Harry loves you yet; he calls for you continually +in his delirium. I shall speak to papa; you shall see him to-night. Oh! +to think how much unnecessary misery there is in the world." + +She put her arm round her slender waist, and was drawing her towards the +house. Before they reached it, a big dog came bounding and barking up +the avenue and overtook them. + +"Be quiet, Tiger," said Kate, halting. "Let us wait for Tiger's master, +Agnes." + +Tiger's master appeared a moment later. One glance sufficed to show him +how matters stood. + +He lifted his hat with a quiet smile. + +"Good evening, Miss Danton; good evening, Mrs. Danton. I see you have +come to an understanding at last." + +"My brother--we all owe you a debt we can never repay," Kate said +gravely; "and Agnes here pronounces you an uncanonized saint." + +"So I am. The world will do justice to my stupendous merits by-and-by. +You have been very much surprised by Agnes' story, Miss Danton?" + +"Very much. We are going in to tell papa. You will come with us, +Doctor?" + +"If Mrs. Agnes does not make me blush by her laudations. Draw it mild, +Agnes, won't you. You have no idea how modest I am." + +He opened the front door and entered the hall as he spoke, followed by +the two girls. The drawing-room door was ajar, but Eeny and her teacher +were the only occupants of that palatial chamber. + +"Try the dining-room," suggested Kate; "it is near dinner-hour; we will +find some one there." + +Doctor Frank ran down-stairs, three steps at a time, followed more +decorously by his companions. Grace seated near the table, reading by +the light of a tall lamp, was the only occupant. She lifted her eyes in +astonishment at her brother's boisterous entrance. + +"Where is papa?" Kate asked. + +"Upstairs in the sick-room." + +"Then wait here, Doctor; wait here, Agnes! I will go for him." + +She ran lightly upstairs, and entered the sick man's bedroom. The shaded +lamp lit it dimly, and showed her her father sitting by the bedside +talking to his son. The invalid was better this evening--very, very +weak, but no longer delirious. + +"You are better, Harry dear, are you not?" his sister asked, stooping to +kiss him; "and you can spare papa for half an hour? Can't you, Harry?" + +A faint smile was his answer. He was too feeble to speak. Miss Danton +summoned Ogden from one of the outer rooms, left him in charge, and bore +her father off. + +"What has happened, my dear?" the Captain asked. "There is a whole +volume of news in your face." + +Kate clasped her hands around his arm, and looked up in his face with +her great earnest eyes. + +"The most wonderful thing, papa! Just like a play or a novel! Who do you +think is here?" + +"Who? Not Rose come back, surely?" + +"Rose? Oh, no!" Kate answered, with wonderful quietness. "You never +could guess. Harry's wife!" + +"What!" + +"Papa! Poor Harry was dreadfully mistaken. She was innocent all the +time. Doctor Frank knows all about it, and saved the life of the man +Harry shot. It is Agnes Darling, papa. Isn't it the strangest thing you +ever heard of?" + +They were at the dining-room door by this time--Captain Danton in a +state of the densest bewilderment, looking alternately at one and +another of the group before him. + +"What, in the name of all that's incomprehensible, does this mean? Kate, +in Heaven's name, what have you been talking about?" + +Miss Danton actually laughed at her father's mystified face. + +"Sit down, papa, and I'll tell you all about it. Here!" + +She wheeled up his chair and made him be seated, then leaning over the +back, in her clear, sweet voice, she lucidly repeated the tale Agnes +Darling had told her. The Captain and his wife sat utterly astounded; +and Agnes, with her face hidden, was sobbing in her chair. + +"Heaven bless me!" ejaculated the astonished master of Danton Hall. "Can +I believe my ears? Agnes Darling, Harry's wife!" + +"Yes, Captain," Doctor Frank said, "she is your son's wife--his innocent +and deeply-injured wife. The man Crosby, in what he believed to be his +dying hour, solemnly testified, in the presence of a clergyman, to her +unimpeachable purity and fidelity. It was the evil work of that villain +Furniss, from first to last. I have the written testimony of William +Crosby in my pocket at this moment. He is alive and well, and married to +the lady of whom he was speaking when your son shot him. I earnestly +hope you will receive this poor child, and unite her to her husband, for +I am as firmly convinced of her innocence as I am of my own existence at +this moment." + +"Receive her!" Captain Danton cried, with the water in his eyes. "That I +will, with all my heart. Poor little girl--poor child," he said, going +over and taking the weeping wife into his arms. "What a trial you have +undergone! But it is over now, I trust. Thank Heaven my son is no +murderer, and under Heaven, thanks to you, Doctor Danton. Don't cry, +Agnes--don't cry. I am heartily rejoiced to find I have another +daughter." + +"Oh, take me to Harry!" Agnes pleaded. "Let me tell him I am innocent! +Let me hear him say he forgives me!" + +"Upon my word, I think the forgiveness should come from the other side," +said the Captain. "He was always a hot-headed, foolish boy, but he has +received a lesson, I think, he will never forget. How say you, Doctor, +may this foolish little girl go to that foolish boy?" + +"I think not yet," the Doctor replied. "In his present weak state the +shock would be too much for him. He must be prepared first. How is he +this evening?" + +"Much better, not at all delirious." + +"I will go and have a look at him," said Doctor Frank, rising. "Don't +look so imploringly, Agnes; you shall see him before long. Miss Danton, +have the goodness to accompany me. If we find him much better, I will +let you break the news to him and then fetch Agnes. But mind, madame," +raising a warning finger to the sobbing little woman, "no hysterics! I +can't have my patient agitated. You promise to be very quiet, don't +you!" + +"Oh, yes! I'll try." + +"Very good. Now, Miss Danton." + +He ran up the stairs, followed by Kate. The sick man lay, as he had left +him, quietly looking at the shaded lamp, very feeble--very, very feeble +and wasted. The Doctor sat down beside him, felt his pulse, and asked +him a few questions, to which the faint replies were lucid and +intelligible. + +"No fever to-night. No delirium. You're fifty per cent. better. We will +have you all right now, in no time. Kate has brought an infallible +remedy." + +The sick man looked at his sister wonderingly. + +"Can you bear the shock of some very good news, Harry darling?" Kate +said stooping over him. + +"Good news!" he repeated feebly, and with an incredulous look. "Good +news for me!" + +"Yes, indeed, thou man of little faith! The best news you ever heard. +You won't agitate yourself, will you, if I tell you?" + +Doctor Frank arose before he could reply. + +"I leave you to tell him by yourself. I hear the dinner-bell; so adieu." + +He descended to the dining-room and took his place at the table. Captain +Danton's new-found daughter he compelled to take poor Rose's vacant +place; but Agnes did not even make a pretence of eating anything. She +sat with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her eyes fixed steadily +on the door, trying with all her might to be calm and wait. + +The appetite of the whole family was considerably impaired by the +revelation just made, and all waited anxiously the return of Kate. In +half an hour the dining-room door opened, and that young lady appeared, +very pale, and with traces of tears on her face, but smiling withal. + +Agnes sprang up breathlessly. + +"Come," Kate said, holding out her hand; "he is waiting for you!" + +With a cry of joy Agnes hurried out of the room and upstairs. + +At the green baize door Kate restrained her a moment. + +"You must be very quiet, Agnes--very calm, and not excite or agitate +him." + +"Oh, yes! yes! Oh, let me go!" + +Miss Danton opened the door and let her in. In a moment she was kneeling +by the bedside, her arms around his weak head, showering kisses and +tears on his pale, thin face. + +"Forgive me!" she said. "Forgive me, my own, my dear, my lost husband. +Oh, never think I was false. I never, never was, in thought or act, for +one moment. Say you forgive me, my darling, and love me still." + +Of course, Kate did not linger. When she again entered the dining-room, +she found one of those she had left, gone. + +"Where is Doctor Frank?" she asked. + +"Gone," Grace said. "A messenger came for him--some one sick in the +village. Do take your dinner. I am sure you must want it." + +"How good he is," Kate thought. "How energetic and self-sacrificing. If +I were a man, I should like to be such a man as he." + +After this night of good news, Harry Danton's recovery was almost +miraculously rapid. The despair that had deadened every energy, every +hope, was gone. He was a new man; he had something to live for; a place +in the world, and a lost character to retrieve. A week after that +eventful night, he was able to sit up; a fortnight, and he was rapidly +gaining vigour and strength, and health for his new life. + +Agnes, that most devoted little wife, had hardly left these three +mysterious rooms since she had first entered them. She was the best, the +most untiring, the most tender of nurses, and won her way to the hearts +of all. She was so gentle, so patient, so humble, it was impossible not +to love her; and Captain Danton sometimes wondered if he had ever loved +his lost, frivolous Rose as he loved his new daughter. + +It had been agreed upon that, to avoid gossip and inquiry, Harry was not +to show himself in the house, to the servants, but as soon as he was +fully recovered, to leave for Quebec, with his wife, and take command of +a vessel there. + +His father had written to the ship-owners--old friends of his--and had +cheerfully received their promise. + +The vessel was to sail for Plymouth early in March, and it was now late +in February. + +Of course, Agnes was to go with him. Nothing could have separated these +reunited married lovers now. + +The days went by, the preparations for the journey progressed, the eve +of departure came. The Danton family, with the Doctor and Father +Francis, were assembled in the drawing-room, spending that last evening +together. It was the first time, since his return to the Hall, Harry had +been there. How little any of them dreamed it was to be the last! + +They were not very merry, as they sat listening to Kate's music. Down in +that dim recess where the piano stood, she sat, singing for the first +time the old songs that Reginald Stanford had loved. She was almost +surprised at herself to find how easily she could sing them, how little +emotion the memories they brought awoke. Was the old love forever dead, +then? And this new content at her heart--what did it mean? She hardly +cared to ask. She could not have answered; she only knew she was happy, +and that the past had lost power to give her pain. + +It was late when they separated. Good-byes were said, and tender-hearted +little Agnes cried as she said good-bye to Doctor Frank. The priest and +the physician walked to the little village together, through the cold +darkness of the starless winter night. + +At the presbytery-gate they parted, Father Francis going in, Doctor +Danton continuing his walk to the distant cottage of a poor sick +patient. The man was dying. The young doctor lingered by his bedside +until all was over, and morning was gray in the eastern sky when he left +the house of death. + +But what other light was that red in the sky, beside the light of +morning? A crimson, lurid light that was spreading rapidly over the face +of the cloudy heavens, and lighting even the village road with its +unearthly glare? Fire! and in the direction of Danton Hall, growing +brighter and brighter, and redder with every passing second. Others had +seen it, too, and doors were flying open, and men and women flocking +out. + +"Fire! Fire!" a voice cried. "Danton Hall is on fire!" + +And the cry was taken up and echoed and reechoed, and every one was +rushing pell-mell in the direction of the Hall. + +Doctor Frank was one of the first to arrive. The whole front of the old +mansion seemed a sheet of fire and the red flames rushed up into the +black sky with an awful roar. The family were only just aroused, and, +with the servants, were flocking out, half-dressed. Doctor Frank's +anxious eyes counted them; there were the Captain and Grace, Harry and +Agnes, and last of all, Kate. + +The servants were all there, but there was one missing still. Doctor +Frank was by Grace's side in a moment. + +"Where is Eeny?" + +"Eeny! Is she not here?" + +"No. Good Heaven, Grace! Is she in the house?" + +Grace looked around wildly. + +"Yes, yes! She must be! Oh, Frank--" + +But Frank was gone, even while she spoke, into the burning house. There +was still time. The lower hall and stairway were still free from fire, +only filled with smoke. + +He rushed through, and upstairs; in the second hall the smoke was +suffocating, and the burning brands were falling from the blazing roof. +Up the second flight of stairs he flew blinded, choked, singed. He knew +Eeny's room; the door was unlocked, and he rushed in. The smoke or fire +had not penetrated here yet, and on the bed the girl lay fast asleep, +undisturbed by all the uproar around her. + +To muffle her from head to foot in a blanket, snatch her up and fly out +of the room, was but the work of a few seconds. The rushing smoke +blinded and suffocated him, but he darted down the staircases as if his +feet were winged. Huge cinders and burning flakes were falling in a +fiery shower around him, but still he rushed blindly on. The lower hall +was gained, a breeze of the blessed cold air blew on his face. + +They were seen, they were saved, and a wild cheer arose from the +breathless multitude. Just at that instant, with his foot on the +threshold, an avalanche of fire seemed to fall on his head from the +burning roof. + +Another cry, this time a cry of wild horror arose from the crowd; he +reeled, staggered like a drunken man; some one caught Eeny out of his +arms as he fell to the ground. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +AFTER THE CROSS, THE CROWN. + + +The glare of a brilliant April sunset shone in the rainbow-hued western +sky, and on the fresh, green earth, all arrayed in the budding promise +of spring. + +Grace Danton stood by the window of a long, low room, looking +thoughtfully out at the orange and crimson dyes of the far-off sky. + +The room in which she stood was not at all like the vast old-fashioned +rooms of Danton Hall. It was long and narrow, and low-ceilinged, and +very plainly furnished. There was the bed in the centre, a low, +curtainless bed, and on it, pale, thin, and shadowy, lay Grace's +brother, as he had lain for many weary weeks. He was asleep now, deeply, +heavily, tossing no longer in the wild delirium of brain-fever, as he +had tossed for so many interminable days and nights. + +Grace dropped the curtain, and went back to her post by the bedside. As +she did so, the door softly opened, and Kate, in a dark, unrustling +dress and slippers of silence, came in. She had changed in those weeks; +she looked paler and thinner, and the violet eyes had a more tender +light, a sadder beauty than of old. + +"Still asleep," she said, softly, looking at the bed. "Grace, I think +your prayers have been heard." + +"I trust so, dear. Is your father in?" + +"No; he has ridden over to see how the builders get on. You must want +tea, Grace. Go, I will take your place." + +Grace arose and left the room, and Kate seated herself in the low chair, +with eyes full of tender compassion. What a shadow he was of his former +self--so pale, so thin, so wasted! The hand lying on the counterpane was +almost transparent, and the forehead, streaked with damp brown hair, was +like marble. + +"Poor fellow!" Kate thought, pushing these stray locks softly back, and +forgetting how dangerously akin pity is to love--"poor fellow!" + +Yes, it has come to this. Sick--dying, perhaps--Kate Danton found how +dear this once obnoxious young Doctor had grown to her heart. "How +blessings brighten as they take their flight!" Now that she was on the +verge of losing him forever, she discovered his value--discovered that +her admiration was very like love. How could she help it? Women admire +heroes so much! And was not this brave young Doctor a real hero? From +first to last, had not his life in St. Croix been one list of good and +generous deeds? + +The very first time she had ever seen him, he had been her champion, to +save her from the insults and rudeness of two drunken soldiers. He had +been a sort of guardian angel to poor Agnes in her great trouble. He had +saved her brother's life and honour. He had perilled his own life to +save that of her sister. The poor of St. Croix spoke of him only to +praise and bless him. Was not this house besieged every day with scores +of anxious inquirers? He was so good, so great, so noble, so +self-sacrificing, so generous--oh! how could she help loving him? Not +with the love that had once been Reginald Stanford's, whose only basis +was a fanciful girl's liking for a handsome face, but a love far deeper +and truer and stronger. She looked back now at the first infatuation, +and wondered at herself. The scales had fallen from her eyes, and she +saw her sister's husband in his true light--false, shallow, selfish, +dishonourable. + +"Oh," she thought, with untold thanksgiving in her heart, "what would +have become of me if I had married him?" + +There was another sore subject in her heart, too--that short-lived +betrothal to Sir Ronald Keith. How low she must have fallen when she +could do that! How she despised herself now for ever entertaining the +thought of that base marriage. She could thank Father Francis at last. +By the sick-bed of Doctor Frank she had learned a lesson that would last +her a lifetime. + +The radiance of the sunset was fading out of the sky, and the gray +twilight was filling the room. She rose up, drew back the green +curtains, and looked for a moment at the peaceful village street. When +she returned to the bedside, the sleeper was awake, his eyes calm and +clear for the first time. She restrained the exclamation of delight +which arose to her lips, and tried to catch the one faint word he +uttered: + +"Water?" + +She gently raised his head, her cheeks flushing, and held a glass of +lemonade to his lips. A faint smile thanked her; and then his eyes +closed, and he was asleep again. Kate sank down on her knees by the +bedside, grateful tears falling from her eyes, to thank God for the life +that would be spared. + +From that evening the young man rallied fast. + +The Doctor, who came from Montreal every day to see him, said it was all +owing to his superb constitution and wondrous vitality. But he was very, +very weak. It was days and days before he was strong enough to think, or +speak, or move. He slept, by fits and starts, nearly all day long, +recognizing his sister, and Kate, and Eeny, and the Captain, by his +bedside, without wondering how they came to be there, or what had ailed +him. + +But strength to speak and think was slowly returning; and one evening, +in the pale twilight, opening his eyes, he saw Kate sitting beside him, +reading. He lay and watched her, strong enough to think how beautiful +that perfect face was in the tender light, and to feel a delicious +thrill of pleasure, weak as he was, at having her for a nurse. + +Presently Kate looked from the book to the bed, and blushed beautifully +to find the earnest brown eyes watching her so intently. + +"I did not know you were awake," she said, composedly. "Shall I go and +call Grace?" + +"On no account. I don't want Grace. How long have I been sick?" + +"Oh, many weeks; but you are getting better rapidly now." + +"I can't recall it," he said, contracting his brows. "I know there was a +fire, and I was in the house; but it is all confused. How was it?" + +"The Hall was burned down, you know--poor old house!--and you rushed in +to save Eeny, and--" + +"Oh, I remember, I remember. A beam or something fell, and after that +all is oblivion. I have had a fever, I suppose?" + +"Yes, you have been a dreadful nuisance--talking all day and all night +about all manner of subjects, and frightening us out of our lives." + +The young man smiled. + +"What did I talk about? Anything very foolish?" + +"I dare say it was foolish enough, if one could have understood it, but +it was nearly all Greek to me. Sometimes you were in Germany, talking +about all manner of outlandish things; sometimes you were in New York, +playing Good Samaritan to Agnes Darling." + +"Oh, poor Agnes! Where is she?" + +"Taken to the high seas. She and Harry had to go, much against their +inclination, while you were so ill." + +"And Eeny--did Eeny suffer any harm that night?" + +"No; Doctor Frank was the only sufferer. The poor old house was burned +to the ground. I was so sorry." + +"And everything was lost?" + +"No, a great many things were saved. And they are building a new and +much more handsome Danton Hall, but I shall never love it as I did the +old place." + +"Where are we now?" + +"In the village. We have taken this cottage until the new house is +finished. Now don't ask any more questions. Too much talking isn't good +for you." + +"How very peremptory you are!" said the invalid, smiling; "and you have +taken care of me all this weary time. What a trouble I must have been!" + +"Didn't I say so! A shocking trouble. And now that you are able to +converse rationally, you are more trouble than ever, asking so many +questions. Go to sleep." + +"Won't you let me thank you first?" + +"No, thanks never would repay me for all the annoyance you have been. +Show your gratitude by obedience, sir--stop talking and go to sleep!" + +Perhaps Doctor Frank found it very pleasant to be ordered, for he obeyed +with a smile on his face. + +Of course, with such a nurse as Miss Danton, the man would be obstinate, +indeed, who would not rally. Doctor Frank was the reverse of obdurate, +and rallied with astonishing rapidity. His sister, Eeny, and Kate were +the most devoted, the most attentive of nurses; but the hours that +Captain Danton's eldest daughter sat by his bedside flew like so many +minutes. It was very pleasant to lie there, propped up with pillows, +with the April sunshine lying in yellow squares on the faded old carpet, +and watch that beautiful face, bending over some piece of elaborate +embroidery, or the humble dress of some village child. She read for him, +too, charming romances, and poetry as sweet as the ripple of a sunlit +brook, in that enchanting voice of hers; and Doctor Frank began to think +convalescence the most delightful state of being that ever was heard of, +and to wish it could last forever. + +But, like all the pleasant things of this checkered life, it came to an +end all too soon. The day arrived when he sat up in his easy chair by +the open window, with the scented breezes blowing in his face, and +watched dreamily the cows grazing in the fields, and the dark-eyed +French girls tripping up and down the dusty road. Then, a little later, +and he could walk about in the tiny garden before the cottage, and sit +up the whole day long. He was getting better fast; and Miss Danton, +concluding her occupation was gone, became very much like the Miss +Danton of old. Not imperious and proud--she never would be that +again--but reserved and distant, and altogether changed; the delightful +readings were no more, the pleasant _tete-a-tetes_ were among the things +of the past, the long hours spent by his side, with some womanly work in +her fingers, were over and gone. She was very kind and gentle still, and +the smile that always greeted him was very bright and sweet, but that +heavenly past was gone forever. Doctor Frank, about as clear-sighted as +his sex generally are, of course never guessed within a mile of the +truth. + +"What a fool I was!" he thought, bitterly, "flattering myself with such +insane dreams, because she was grateful to me for saving her sister's +life, and pitied me when she thought I was at death's door. Why, she +nursed every sick pauper in St. Croix as tenderly as she did me. She is +right to put me back in my place before I have made an idiot of myself!" + +So the convalescent gentleman became moody, and silent and generally +disagreeable; and Grace was the only one who guessed at his feelings and +was sorry for him. But he grew well in spite of hidden trouble, and +began to think of what he was to do in the future. + +"I'll go back to Montreal next week, I think," he said to his sister; +"now that the fever has gone, it won't pay to stay here. If I don't get +on in Montreal, I'll try New York." + +Man proposes, etc. That evening's mail brought him a letter that +materially altered all his plans. He sat so long silent and thoughtful +after reading it, that Grace looked at him in surprise. + +"You look as grave as an owl, Frank. Whom is your letter from?" + +Doctor Frank started out of his reverie to find Kate's eyes fixed +inquiringly upon him too. + +"From Messrs. Grayson & Hambert, my uncle's solicitors. He is dead." + +Grace uttered a little cry. + +"Dead! Frank! And you are his heir?" + +"Yes." + +"How much has he left?" Mrs. Danton asked, breathlessly. + +"Twenty thousand pounds." + +Grace clasped her hands. + +"Twenty thousand pounds? My dear Frank! You have no need to go slaving +at your profession now." + +Her brother looked at her in quiet surprise. + +"I shall slave at my profession all the same. This windfall will, +however, alter my plans a good deal. I must start for Montreal to-morrow +morning." + +He rose and left the room. Grace turned to her step-daughter. + +"I am afraid you must think us heartless, Kate; but we have known very +little of this uncle, and that little was not favourable. He was a +miser--a stern and hard man--living always alone and with few friends. I +am so thankful he left his money to Frank." + +Doctor Frank left St. Croix next morning for the city, and his absence +made a strange blank in the family. The spring days wore on slowly. +April was gone, and it was May. Captain Danton was absent the best part +of every day, superintending the erection of the new house, and the +three women were left alone. Miss Danton grew listless and languid. She +spent her days in purposeless loiterings in and out of the cottage, in +long reveries and solitary walks. + +The middle of May came without bringing the young Doctor, or even a +letter from him. The family were seated one moonlight night in the +large, old-fashioned porch in front of the cottage, enjoying the +moonlight and Eeny's piano. Kate sat in a rustic arm-chair just outside, +looking up at the silvery crescent swimming through pearly clouds, and +the flickering shadows of the climbing sweetbrier coming and going on +her fair face. Captain Danton smoked and Grace talked to him; and while +she sat, Father Francis opened the garden gate and joined them. + +"Have you heard from your brother yet?" he asked of Grace, after a few +moments' preliminary conversation. + +"No; it is rather strange that he does not write." + +"He told me to make his apologies. I had a letter from him to-day. He is +very busy preparing to go away." + +"Go away! Go where?" + +"To Germany; he leaves in a week." + +"And will he not come down to say good-bye?" inquired Grace, +indignantly. + +"Oh, certainly! He will be here in a day or two." + +"And how long is he going to stay abroad?" + +"That seems uncertain. A year or two, probably, at the very least." + +Grace stole a look at Kate, but Kate had drawn back into the shadow of +the porch, and her face was not to be seen. Father Francis lingered for +half an hour, and then departed; and as the dew was falling heavily, the +group in the porch arose to go in. The young lady in the easy-chair did +not stir. + +"Come in, Kate," her father said, "it is too damp to remain there." + +"Yes, papa, presently." + +About a quarter of an hour later, she entered the parlour to say +good-night, very pale, as they all noticed. + +"I knew sitting in the night air was bad," her father said. "You are as +white as a ghost." + +Miss Danton was very grave and still for the next two days--a little +sad, Grace thought. On the third day, Doctor Frank arrived. It was late +in the afternoon, and he was to depart again early next morning. + +"What are you running away for now?" asked his sister, with asperity. +"What has put this German notion in your head?" + +The young man smiled. + +"My dear Grace, don't wear that severe face. Why should I not go? What +is to detain me here?" + +This was such an unanswerable question that Grace only turned away +impatiently; and Kate, who was in the room, fancying the brother and +sister might wish to be alone, arose and departed. As the door closed +after her, Captain Danton's wife faced round and renewed the attack. + +"If you want to know what is to detain you here, I can tell you now. +Stay at home and marry Kate Danton." + +Her brother laughed, but in rather a constrained way. + +"That is easier said than done, sister mine. Miss Danton never did more +than tolerate me in her life--sometimes not even that. Impossibilities +are not so easily achieved as you think." + +"Suppose you try." + +"And be refused for my pains. No, thank you." + +"Very well," said Mrs. Grace with a shrug; "a wilful man must have his +way! You cannot tell whether you will be refused or not until you ask." + +"I have a tolerably strong conviction, though. No, Mrs. Grace, I shall +go to Germany, and forget my folly; for that I have been an idiot, I +don't deny." + +"And are so still! Do as you please, however; it is no affair of mine." + +Doctor Frank rode over to the new building to see how it progressed. It +was late when he returned with the Captain, and he found that Kate had +departed to spend the evening with Miss Howard. If he wanted further +proof of her indifference, surely he had it here. + +It was very late, and the family had retired before Miss Danton came +home. She was good enough though, to rise, very early next morning to +say good-bye. Doctor Frank took his hasty breakfast, and came into the +parlour, where he found her alone. + +"I thought I was not to have the pleasure of seeing you before I went," +he said, holding out his hand. "I have but ten minutes left: so +good-bye." + +His voice shook a little as he said it. In spite of every effort, her +fingers closed around his, and her eyes looked up at him with her whole +heart in their clear depths. + +"Kate!" he exclaimed, the colour rushing to his face with a sudden +thrill of ecstasy, and his hand closing tight over the slender fingers +he held. "Kate!" + +She turned away, her own cheeks dyed, not daring to meet that eager, +questioning look. + +"Kate!" he cried, appealingly; "it is because I love you I am going +away. I never thought to tell you." + + * * * * * + +Five minutes later Grace opened the door impetuously. + +"Frank, don't you know you will be la--Oh, I beg pardon." + +She closed it hastily, and retreated. The Captain, standing in the +doorway, looked impatiently at his watch. + +"What keeps the fellow? He'll be late to a dead certainty." + +Grace laughed. + +"There is no hurry, I think. I don't believe Frank will go to Germany +this time." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +LONG HAVE I BEEN TRUE TO YOU, NOW I'M TRUE NO LONGER. + + +Far away from the blue skies, and bracing breezes of Lower Canada, the +twilight of a dull April day was closing down over the din and tumult of +London. + +It had been a wretched day--a day of sopping rain and enervating mist. +The newly-lighted street-lamps blinked dismally through the wet fog, and +the pedestrians hurried along, poising umbrellas, and buttoned up to the +chin. + +At the window of a shabby-genteel London lodging-house a young woman +sat, this dreary April evening, looking out at the cheering prospect of +dripping roofs and muddy pavement. She sat with her chin resting on her +hands, staring vacantly at the passers-by, with eyes that took no +interest in what she saw. She was quite young, and had been very pretty, +for the loose, unkempt hair was of brightest auburn, the dull eyes of +hazel brown, and the features pretty and delicate. But the look of +intense sulkiness the girl's face wore would have spoiled a far more +beautiful countenance, and there were traces of sickness and trouble, +all too visible. She was dressed in a soiled silk, arabesqued with +stains, and a general air of neglect and disorder characterized her and +her surroundings. The carpet was littered and unswept, the chairs were +at sixes and sevens, and a baby's crib, wherein a very new and pink +infant reposed, stood in the middle of the room. + +The young woman sat at the window gazing sullenly out at the dismal +night for upwards of an hour, in all that time hardly moving. Presently +there was a tap at the door, and an instant after, it opened, and a +smart young person entered and began briskly laying the cloth for +supper. The young person was the landlady's daughter, and the girl at +the window only gave her one glance, and then turned unsocially away. + +"Ain't you lonesome here, Mrs. Stanford, all alone by yourself?" asked +the young person, as she lit the lamp. "Mother says it must be awful +dull for you, with Mr. Stanford away all the time." + +"I am pretty well used to it," answered Mrs. Stanford, bitterly. "I +ought to be reconciled to it by this time. Is it after seven?" + +"Yes, ma'am. Mr. Stanford comes home at seven, don't he? He ought to be +here soon, now. Mother says she wishes you would come down to the +parlour and sit with us of a day, instead of being moped up here." + +Mrs. Stanford made no reply whatever to this good-natured speech, and +the sulky expression seemed to deepen on her face. The young person, +finished setting the table, and was briskly departing, when Mrs. +Stanford's voice arrested her. + +"If Mr. Stanford is not here in half an hour, you can bring up dinner." + +As Mrs. Stanford spoke, the pink infant in the crib awoke and set up a +dismal wail. The young mother arose, with an impatient sigh, lifted the +babe, and sat down in a low nurse-chair, to soothe it to sleep again. +But the baby was fretful, and cried and moaned drearily, and resisted +every effort to be soothed to sleep. + +"Oh, dear, dear!" Rose cried, impatiently, giving it an irritated shake. +"What a torment you are! What a trouble and wretchedness everything is!" + +She swayed to and fro in her rocking-chair, humming drearily some +melancholy air, until, by-and-by, baby, worn out, wailingly dropped off +asleep again in her arms. + +As it did so, the door opened a second time, and the brisk young person +entered with the first course. Mrs. Stanford placed her first-born back +in the crib, and sat down to her solitary dinner. She ate very little. +The lodging-house soups and roasts had never been so distasteful before. +She pushed the things away, with a feeling of loathing, and went back to +her low chair, and fell into a train of dismal misery. Her thoughts went +back to Canada to her happy home at Danton Hall. + +Only one little year ago she had given the world for love, and thought +it well lost--and now! Love's young dream, splendid in theory, is not +always quite so splendid in practice. Love's young dream had wound up +after eleven months, in poverty, privation, sickness and trouble, a +neglectful husband, and a crying baby! How happy she had been in that +bright girlhood, gone forever! Life had been one long summer holiday, +and she dressed in silks and jewels, one of the queen-bees in the great +human hive. The silks and the jewels had gone to the pawnbroker long +ago, and here she sat, alone, in a miserable lodging-house, subsisting +on unpalatable food, sleeping on a hard mattress, sick and wretched, +with that whimpering infant's wails in her ears all day and all night. +Oh! how long ago it seemed since she had been bright, and beautiful, and +happy, and free--hundreds of years ago at the very least! She sighed in +bitter sorrow, as she thought of the past--the irredeemable past. + +"Oh, what a fool I was!" she thought, bursting into hysterical tears. +"If I had only married Jules La Touche, how happy I might have been! He +loved me, poor fellow, and would have been true always, and I would have +been rich, and happy, and honoured. Now I am poor, and sick, and +neglected, and despised, and I wish I were dead, and all the trouble +over!" + +Mrs. Stanford sat in her low chair, brooding over such dismal thoughts +as these, while the slow hours dragged on. The baby slept, for a wonder. +A neighbouring church clock struck the hours solemnly one after +another--ten, eleven, twelve! No Mr. Stanford yet, but that was nothing +new. As midnight, struck, Rose got up, secured the door, and going into +an inner room, flung herself, dressed as she was, on the bed, and fell +into the heavy, dreamless sleep of exhaustion. + +She slept so soundly that she never heard a key turn in the lock, about +three in the morning, or a man's unsteady step crossing the floor. The +lamp still burning on the table, enabled Mr. Reginald Stanford to see +what he was about, otherwise, serious consequences might have ensued. +For Mr. Stanford was not quite steady on his legs, and lurched as he +walked, as if his wife's sitting-room had been the deck of a +storm-tossed vessel. + +"I s'pose she's gone to bed," muttered Mr. Stanford, hiccoughing. "Don't +want to wake her--makes a devil of a row! I ain't drunk, but I don't +want to wake her." + +Mr. Stanford lurched unsteadily across the parlour, and reconnoitred the +bedroom. He nodded sagaciously, seeing his wife there asleep, and after +making one or two futile efforts to remove his boots, stretched himself, +boots and all, on a lounge in the sitting-room, and in two minutes was +as sound as one of the Seven Sleepers. + +It was late next morning before either of the happy pair awoke. A vague +idea that there was a noise in the air aroused the gentleman about nine +o'clock. The dense fog in his brain, that a too liberal allowance of +rosy wine is too apt to engender, took some time to clear away; but when +it did, he became conscious that the noise was not part of his dreams, +but some one knocking loudly at the door. + +Mr. Stanford staggered sleepily across the apartment, unlocked the door, +and admitted the brisk young woman who brought them their meals. + +Mr. Stanford, yawning very much, proceeded to make his toilet. Twelve +months of matrimony had changed the handsome ex-lieutenant, and not for +the better. He looked thinner and paler; his eyes were sunken, and +encircled by dark halos, telling of night revels and morning headaches. +But that wonderful beauty that had magnetized Rose Danton was there +still; the features as perfect as ever; the black eyes as lustrous; all +the old graceful ease and nonchalance of manner characterized him yet. +But the beauty that had blinded and dazzled her had lost its power to +charm. She had been married to him a year--quite long enough to be +disenchanted. That handsome face might fascinate other foolish moths; it +had lost its power to dazzle her long, long ago. Perhaps the +disenchantment was mutual; for the pretty, rose-cheeked, starry-eyed +girl who had captivated his idle fancy had become a dream of the past, +and his wife was a pale, sickly, peevish invalid, with frowsy hair and +slipshod feet. + +The clattering of the cups and saucers awoke the baby, who began +squalling dismally; and the baby's cries awoke the baby's mamma. Rose +got up, feeling cramped and unrefreshed, and came out into the parlour +with the infant in her arms. Her husband turned from a dreary +contemplation of the sun trying to force its way through a dull, yellow +fog, and dropped the curtain. + +"Good-morning, my dear," said Mr. Stanford, pouring out a cup of tea. +"How are you to-day? Can't you make that disagreeable youngster hold his +confounded tongue?" + +"What time did you get home last night?" demanded Mrs. Stanford, with +flashing eyes. + +"It wasn't last night, my dear," replied Mr. Stanford, serenely, +buttering his roll; "it was sometime this morning, I believe." + +"And of course you were drunk as usual!" + +"My love, pray don't speak so loudly; they'll hear you down stairs," +remonstrated the gentleman. "Really, I believe I had been imbibing a +little too freely. I hope I did not disturb you. I made as little noise +as possible on purpose, I assure you. I even slept in my boots, not +being in a condition to take them off. Wash your face, my dear, and comb +your hair--they both need it very much--and come take some breakfast. If +that baby of yours won't hold its tongue, please to throw it out of the +window." + +Mrs. Stanford's reply was to sink into the rocking-chair and burst into +a passion of tears. + +"Don't, pray!" remonstrated Mr. Stanford; "one's enough to cry at a +time. Do come and have some breakfast. You're hysterical this morning, +that is evident, and a cup of tea will do you good." + +"I wish I were dead!" burst out Rose, passionately. "I wish I had been +dead before I ever saw your face!" + +"I dare say, my love. I can understand your feelings, and sympathize +with them perfectly." + +"Oh, what a fool I was!" cried Rose, rocking violently backward and +forward; "to leave my happy home, my indulgent father, my true and +devoted lover, for you! To leave wealth and happiness for poverty, and +privation, and neglect, and misery! Oh, fool! fool! fool! that I was!" + +"Very true, my dear," murmured Mr. Stanford sympathetically. "I don't +mind confessing that I was a fool myself. You cannot regret your +marriage any more than I do mine." + +This was a little too much. Rose sprang up, flinging the baby into the +cradle, and faced her lord and master with cheeks of flame and eyes of +fire. + +"You villain!" she cried. "You cruel, cold-blooded villain, I hate you! +Do you hear, Reginald Stanford, I hate you! You have deceived me as +shamefully as ever man deceived woman! Do you think I don't know where +you were last night, or whom you were with? Don't I know it was with +that miserable, degraded Frenchwoman--that disgusting Madame +Millefleur--whom I would have whipped through the streets of London, if +I could." + +"I don't doubt it, my dear," murmured Mr. Stanford, still unruffled by +his wife's storm of passion. "Your gentle sex are famous for the mercy +they always show to their fairer sisters. Your penetration does you +infinite credit, Mrs. Stanford. I was with Madame Millefleur." + +Rose stood glaring at him, white and panting with rage too intense for +words. Reginald Stanford stood up, meeting her fierce regards with +wonderful coolness. + +"You're not going to tear my hair out, are you, Rose? You see the way of +it was this: Coming from the office where I have the honour to be +clerk--thanks to my marriage--I met Madame Millefleur, that most +bewitching and wealthy of French widows. She is in love with me, my +dear. It may seem unaccountable to you how any one can be in love with +me, but the fact is so. She is in love with me almost as much as pretty +Rose Danton was once upon a time, and gave me an invitation to accompany +her to the opera last night. Of course I was enchanted. The opera is a +rare luxury now, and la Millefleur is all the fashion. I had the +happiness of bending over her chair all the evening--don't glare so, my +love, it makes you quite hideous--and accepted a seat beside her in the +carriage when it was all over. A delicious _petit souper_ awaited us in +Madame's bijou of a boudoir; and I don't mind owning I was a little +disguised by sparkling Moselle when I came home. Open confessions are +good for the soul--there is one for you, my dear." + +Her face was livid as she listened, and he smiled up at her with a smile +that nearly drove her mad. + +"I hate you, Reginald Stanford!" was all she could say. "I hate you! I +hate you!" + +"Quite likely, my love; but I dare say I shall survive that. You would +rather I didn't come here any more, I suppose, Mrs. Stanford?" + +"I never want to see your hateful, wicked face again. I wish I had been +dead before I ever saw it." + +"And I wish whatever you wish, dearest and best," he said, with a +sneering laugh; "if you ever see my wicked, hateful face again, it shall +be no fault of mine. Perhaps you had better go back to Canada. M. La +Touche was very much in love with you last year, and may overlook this +little episode in your life, and take you to his bosom yet. Good +morning, Mrs. Stanford. I am going to call on Madame Millefleur." + +He took his hat and left the room, and Rose dropped down in her chair +and covered her face with her hands. + +If Kate Danton and Jules La Touche ever wished for revenge, they should +have seen the woman who so cruelly wronged them at that moment. +Vengeance more bitter, more terrible than her worst enemy could wish, +had overtaken and crushed her to the earth. + +How that long, miserable day passed, the poor child never knew. It came +to an end, and the longer, more miserable night followed. Another +morning, another day of unutterable wretchedness, and a second night of +tears and sleeplessness. The third day came and passed, and still +Reginald Stanford never returned. The evening of the third day brought +her a letter, with Napoleon's head on the corner. + + "Hotel Du Louvre, Paris, April 10. + + My Dear Mrs. Stanford:--For you have still the unhappiness + of bearing that odious name, although I have no doubt Captain + Danton will shortly take the proper steps to relieve you of it. + According to promise, I have rid you of my hateful presence, and + forever. You see I am in brilliant Paris, in a palatial hotel, + enjoying all the luxuries wealth can procure, and Madame Millefleur + is my companion. The contrast between my life this week and my life + last is somewhat striking. The frowning countenance of Mrs. + Stanford is replaced by the ever-smiling face of my dark-eyed + Adele, and the shabby lodgings in Crown street, Strand, are + exchanged for this chamber of Eastern gorgeousness. I am happy, and + so, no doubt, are you. Go back to Canada, my dear Mrs. Stanford. + Papa will receive his little runaway with open arms, and kill the + fatted calf to welcome her. The dear Jules may still be faithful, + and you may yet be thrice blessed as Madame La Touche. Ah, I + forget--you belong to the Church, and so does he, that does not + believe in divorce. What a pity! + + "I beg you will feel no uneasiness upon pecuniary matters, my dear + Rose. I write by this post to our good landlady, inclosing the next + six months' rent, and in this you will find a check for all present + wants. + + "I believe this is all I have to say, and Adele is waiting for me + to escort her on a shopping expedition. Adieu, my Rose; believe me, + with the best wishes for your future happiness, to be Ever your + friend, + + "Reginald Reinecourt Stanford." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +COALS OF FIRE. + + +One afternoon, about a fortnight after the receipt of that letter from +France, Rose Stanford sat alone once more in the shabby little parlour +of the London lodging-house. It was late in April, but a fire burned +feebly in the little grate, and she sat cowering over it wrapped in a +large shawl. She had changed terribly during these two weeks; she had +grown old, and hollow-eyed, a haggard, worn, wretched woman. + +It was her third day up, this April afternoon, for a low, miserable +fever had confined her to her bed, and worn her to the pallid shadow she +was now. She had just finished writing a letter, a long, sad letter, and +it lay in her lap while she sat shivering over the fire. It was a letter +to her father, a tardy prayer for forgiveness, and a confession of all +her misdoings and wrongs--of Reginald Stanford's rather, for, of course, +all the blame was thrown upon him, though, if Rose had told the truth, +she would have found herself the more in fault of the two. + +"I am sick, and poor, and broken-hearted," wrote Mrs. Stanford; "and I +want to go home and die. I have been very wicked, papa, but I have +suffered so much, that even those I have wronged most might forgive me. +Write to me at once, and say I may go home; I only want to go and die in +peace. I feel that I am dying now." + +She folded the letter with a weary sigh and a hand that shook like an +old woman's, and rising, rang the bell. The brisk young woman answered +the summons at once with a smile on her face, and Mrs. Stanford's baby +crowing in her arms. They had been very kind to the poor young mother +and the fatherless babe during this time of trial; but Mrs. Stanford was +too ill and broken down to think about it, or feel grateful. + +"Here, Jane," said Mrs. Stanford, holding out the letter, "give me the +baby, and post this letter." + +Jane obeyed; and Rose, with the infant in her lap, sat staring gloomily +at the red coals. + +"Two weeks before it will reach them, two weeks more before an answer +can arrive, and another two weeks before I can be with them. Oh, dear +me! dear me! how shall I drag out life during these interminable weeks. +If I could only die at once and end it all." + +Tears of unutterable wretchedness and loneliness and misery coursed down +her pale, thin cheeks. Surely no one ever paid more dearly for love's +short madness than this unfortunate little Rose. + +"Marry in haste and repent at leisure," she thought, with unspeakable +bitterness. "Oh, how happy I might have been to-day if I had only done +right last year. But I was mad and treacherous and false, and I dare-say +it serves me right. How can I ever look them in the face when I go +home?" + +The weary weeks dragged on, how wearily and miserably only Rose knew. +She never went out; she sat all day long in that shabby parlour, and +stared blankly at the passers-by in the street, waiting, waiting. + +The good-natured landlady and her daughter took charge of the baby +during those wretched weeks of expectation, or Mrs. Reginald Stanford's +only son would have been sadly neglected. + +April was gone; May came in, bringing the anniversary of Rose's +ill-starred marriage and finding her in that worst widowhood, a day of +ceaseless tears and regrets to the unhappy, deserted wife. The bright +May days went by, one after another, passing as wretched days and more +wretched nights do pass somehow; and June had taken its place. In all +this long, long time, no letter had come for Rose. How she watched and +waited for it; how she had strained her eyes day after day to catch +sight of the postman; how her heart leaped up and throbbed when she saw +him approach, and sank down in her breast like lead as he went by, only +those can know who have watched and waited like her. A sickening sense +of despair stole over her at last. They had forgotten her; they hated +and despised her, and left her to her fate. There was nothing for it but +to go to the alms-house and die, like any other pauper. + +She had been mad when she fancied they could forgive her. Her sins had +been too great. All the world had deserted her, and the sooner she was +dead and out of the way the better. + +She sat in the misty June twilight thinking this, with a sad, hopeless +kind of resignation. It was the fifth of June. Could she forget that +this very day twelvemonth was to have been her wedding-day? Poor +Jules--poor Kate! Oh, what a wretch she had been! + +She covered her face with her hands, tears falling like rain through her +thin fingers. + +"I wonder if they will be sorry for me, and forgive me, when they hear I +am dead?" she thought. "Oh, how I live, and live; when other women would +have died long ago with half this trouble. Only nineteen, and with +nothing left to wish for but death." + +There was a tap at the door. Before she could speak it was opened, and +Jane, the brisk, came rustling in. + +"There's a gentleman down-stairs, Mrs. Stanford, asking to see you." + +Rose sprang up, her lips apart, her eyes dilating. + +"To see me! A gentleman! Jane, is it Mr. Stanford?" + +Jane shook her head. + +"Not a bit like Mr. Stanford, ma'am; not near so 'andsome, though a very +fine-looking gentleman. He said, to tell you as 'ow a friend wanted to +see you." + +A friend! Oh, who could it be? She made a motion to Jane to show him +up--she was too agitated to speak. She stood with her hands clasped over +her beating heart, breathless, waiting. + +A man's quick step flew up the stairs; a tall figure stood in the +doorway, hat in hand. + +Rose uttered a faint cry. She had thought of her father, of Jules La +Touche, never once of him who stood before her. + +"Doctor Frank!" she gasped; and then she was holding to a chair for +support, feeling the walls swimming around her. + +Doctor Frank took her in his arms, and kissed her pale cheek as tenderly +and pityingly as her father might have done. + +"My poor child! My poor little Rose! What a shadow you are! Don't cry +so--pray don't!" + +She bowed her weary head against his shoulder, and broke out into +hysterical sobbing. It was so good to see that friendly familiar face +once more--she clung to him with a sense of unspeakable trust and +relief, and cried in the fullness of her heart. + +He let her tears flow for awhile, sitting beside her, and stroking the +faded, disordered hair away from the wan, pale face. + +"There! there!" he said, at last, "we have had tears enough now. Look up +and let me talk to you. What did you think when you received no answer +to your letter?" + +"I thought you all very cruel. I thought I was forgotten." + +"Of course you did; but you are not forgotten, and it is my fault that +you have had no letter. I wanted to surprise you; and I have brought a +letter from your father breathing nothing but love and forgiveness." + +"Give it to me!" cried Rose, breathlessly; "give it to me!" + +"Can't, unfortunately, yet awhile. I left it at my hotel. Don't look so +disappointed. I am going to take you there in half an hour. Hallo! Is +that the baby?" + +Reginald Stanford, Junior, asleep in his crib, set up a sudden squall at +this moment. + +Doctor Frank crossed the floor, and hoisted him up in a twinkling. + +"Why, he's a splendid little fellow, Rose, and the very image of--What +do you call him?" + +"Reginald," Rose said, in a very subdued tone. + +"Well, Master Reginald, you and I are going to be good friends, aren't +we, and you're not going to cry?" + +He hoisted him high in the air, and baby answered with a loud crow. + +"That's right. Babies always take to me, Rose. You don't know how many +dozens I have nursed in my time. But you don't ask me any questions +about home. Aren't you curious to know how they all get on?" + +"Papa is married, I suppose?" Rose said. + +"Of course--last January. And Danton Hall was burnt down; and they have +built up another twice as big and three times as handsome. And Mr. +Richards--you remember the mysterious invalid, Rose?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, Mr. Richards turned out to be your brother Harry, who lived shut +up there, because he thought he had committed a murder, some time +before, in New York. And Agnes Darling--you have not forgotten Agnes +Darling?" + +"Oh, no." + +"Agnes Darling turns out to be his wife. Quite a romance, isn't it? I +will tell you all the particulars another time. Just now, I want you to +put on your bonnet and come with me to my hotel. Don't ask me why--I +won't tell you. We will fetch the baby too. Go, get ready." + +Doctor Frank was imperative, and Rose yielded at once. It was so +indescribably delightful, after all these weeks of suspense and despair, +to see Frank Danton's friendly face, and to listen to his friendly +voice, commanding as one who had the right. Rose had her hat and shawl +on directly, and, with baby in her arms, followed him down stairs. A +hansom stood waiting. He helped her in, gave the cabman his orders, took +his place beside her, and they rattled off. + +"When am I going home?" Rose asked, suddenly. "Have you come to fetch +me?" + +"Not precisely. You are to return with me, however." + +"And when are we going?" + +"That is not quite decided yet. It is an after-consideration, and there +is no hurry. Are you particularly anxious to be back to Canada?" + +"I am tired of being lonely and homeless," poor Rose replied, the tears +starting. "I want to be at rest, and among the dear familiar faces. +Doctor Frank," she said, looking at him appealingly, "have they forgiven +me, do you think?" + +"Whom do you mean by they, Mrs. Stanford?" + +"Papa and--and Kate." + +"I have reason to think so. Of course, it must have been rather +disagreeable to Kate at first, to have her lover run away and leave her, +but I really think she has got over it. We must be resigned to the +inevitable, you know, my dear Rose, in this changeable world." + +Rose sighed, and looked out of the window. A moment later, and the cab +drew up before a stately hotel. + +"This is the place," said the Doctor. "Come!" + +He helped her out, gave his arm, and led her up a long flight of broad +stairs. It was quite a little journey through carpeted corridors to the +gentleman's apartments; but he reached the door at last. It opened into +a long vista of splendour, as it seemed to Rose, accustomed so long to +the shabby Strand lodgings. She had expected to find the Doctor's rooms +empty; but, to her surprise, within an inner apartment, whose door stood +wide, she saw a lady. The lady, robed in bright silk, tall and stately, +with golden hair twisted coronet wise round the shapely head, stood with +her back to them, looking out of the window. Something in that straight +and stately form struck with a nameless thrill to Rose Stanford's heart; +and she stood in the doorway, spell-bound. At the noise of their +entrance, the lady turned round, uttered an exclamation of pleasure, and +advanced towards them. Doctor Frank stood with a smile on his face, +enjoying Mrs. Stanford's consternation. Another second and she was +clasped in the lady's arms. + +"Rose! Rose! My dear little sister!" + +"Kate!" Rose murmured, faintly, all white and trembling. + +Kate looked up at the smiling face of the Doctor, a new light dawning on +her. + +"Oh, he has never told you! For shame, Frank, to shock her so! My +darling, did you not know I was here?" + +"No; he never told me," Rose said, sinking into a chair, and looking +hopelessly at her sister. "What does it mean, Kate? Is papa here?" + +"I leave the onerous duty of explaining everything to you, Kate," said +the Doctor, before Kate could reply. "I am going down stairs to smoke." + +"That provoking fellow!" Kate said, smilingly, looking after him; "it is +just like him." + +"Is papa here?" Rose repeated, wonderingly. + +"No, my dear; papa is at Danton Hall, with his wife. It was impossible +for him to come." + +"Then how do you happen to be here, and with Doctor Frank?" + +Kate laughed--such a sweet, clear, happy laugh--as she kissed Rose's +wondering face. + +"For the very best reason in the world, Mrs. Stanford! Because I happen +to be Doctor Frank's wife!" + +Rose sat, confounded, speechless--literally struck dumb--staring +helplessly. + +"His wife!" she repeated. "His wife!" and then sat lost in overwhelming +amaze. + +"Yes, my dear; his happy wife. I do not wonder you are astonished, +knowing the past; but it is a long story to tell. I am ashamed to think +how wicked and disagreeable, and perverse, I used to be; but it is all +over now. I think there is no one in all the wide world like Frank!" + +Her eyes filled as she said it, and she laid her face for a moment on +her sister's shoulder. + +"I was blind in those past days, Rose, and too prejudiced to do justice +to a noble man's worth. I love my husband with my whole heart--with an +affection that can never change." + +"And you forgive me?" + +"I forgave you long ago. Is this the baby? How pretty! Give him to me." + +She took Master Reginald in her arms, and kissed his chubby face. + +"To think that you should ever nurse Reginald Stanford's child! How +odd!" said Rose, languidly. + +The colour rushed into Mrs. Frank Danton's face for a second or two, as +she stooped over the baby. + +"Strange things happen in this world. I shall be very fond of the baby, +I know." + +"And Grace, whom you disliked so much, is your mother and sister both +together. How very queer!" + +Kate laughed. + +"It is odd, but quite true. Come, take your things off; you are not to +leave us again. We will send to your lodgings for your luggage." + +"How long have you been married?" asked Rose, as she obeyed. + +"Three weeks; and this is our bridal tour. We depart for Paris in two +days. You know Frank has had a fortune." + +"I don't know anything. Do tell me all about it--your marriage and +everything. I am dying of curiosity." + +Mrs. Doctor Danton seated herself in a low chair, with Reginald +Stanford's first-born in her lap, and began recapitulating as much of +the past as was necessary to enlighten Mrs. Stanford. + +"So he saved Eeny's life; and you nursed him, and fell in love with him, +and married him, and his old uncle dies and leaves him a fortune in the +nick of time. It sounds like a fairy tale; you ought to finish +with--'and they lived happy forever after!'" + +"Please Heaven, we will! Such real-life romance happens every day, +sister mine. Oh, by-the-by, guess who was at our wedding?" + +"Who?" + +"A very old friend of yours, my dear--Monsieur Jules La Touche." + +"No! Was he, though? How did you come to invite him?" + +"He chanced to be in the neighbourhood at the time. Do you know, Rose, I +should not be surprised if he accomplished his destiny yet, and became +papa's son-in-law." + +Rose looked up, breathlessly, thinking only of herself. + +"Impossible, Kate!--What do you mean?" + +"Not at all impossible, I assure you. Eeny was my bride-maid, and you +have no idea how pretty she looked; and so Monsieur La Touche seemed to +think, by the very marked attention he paid her. It would be an +excellent thing for her; he is in a fair way of becoming a millionaire." + +A pang of the bitterest envy and mortification she had ever felt, +pierced Rose Stanford's heart. Oh! what a miserable--what an unfortunate +creature she had been! She turned away, that her sister might not see +her face, and Kate carelessly went on. + +"Eeny always liked him, I know. She likes him better than ever now. I +shall not be at all surprised if we find her engaged when we go home." + +"Indeed!" Rose said, trying to speak naturally, and failing signally. +"And when are we going home?" + +"Early in November, I believe. Frank and I are to make Montreal our +home, for he will not give up his profession, of course; and you shall +come and live with us if you like the city better than St. Croix." + +Rose's slumbers that night were sadly disturbed. It was not the contrast +between her handsome bedroom and downy pillows, and the comfortless +little chamber she had slept in so long; it was not thought of her +sister's goodness and generosity: it was the image of Eeny, in silk and +jewels, the bride of Jules La Touche, the millionaire. + +Somehow, unacknowledged in her heart of hearts, there had lingered a +hope of vengeance on her husband, triumph for herself as the wife of her +deserted lover! There would be a divorce, and then she might legally +marry. She had no conscientious scruples about that sort of marriages, +and she took it for granted Monsieur La Touche could have none either. +But now these hopes were nipped in the bud. Eeny--younger, fresher, +fairer, perhaps--was to have him and the splendid position his wife must +attain; and she was to be a miserable, poor, deserted wife all her days. + +I am afraid Mrs. Stanford was not properly thankful for her blessings +that night. She had thought, only one day before, that to find her +friends and be forgiven by them would be the sum total of earthly +happiness; but now she had found them, and was forgiven, she was as +wretched as ever. + +The contrast between what she was and what she might have been was +rather striking, certainly; and the bitterest pang of all was the +thought she had no one to blame, from first to last, but herself. + +Oh, if she had only been true! This was what came of marrying for love, +and trampling under foot prudence, and honour, and truth. A month or two +of joy, and life-long regret and repentance! + +Doctor Danton, his wife, and sister, took a hurried scamper over London, +and departed for Paris. + +The weather in that gay capital was very warm, indeed, but delightful to +Rose, who had never crossed the Channel before. Paris was comparatively +familiar ground to the young Doctor; he took the two ladies sight-seeing +perpetually; and Mrs. Stanford almost forgot her troubles in the +delights of the brilliant French city. + +A nurse had been engaged for baby, so that troublesome young gentleman +no longer came between his mamma and life's enjoyment. Her diminished +wardrobe had been replenished too; and, well-fed and well-dressed, Rose +began to look almost like the sparkling, piquant Rose of other days. + +The Dantons had been three weeks in Paris, and were to leave in a day or +two en route for Switzerland. The Doctor had taken them for a last drive +through the Bois de Boulogne the sunny afternoon that was to be their +last for some time in the French capital. Kate and Rose, looking very +handsome, and beautifully dressed, lay back among the cushions, +attracting more than one glance of admiration from those who passed by. + +Mrs. Danton was chatting gayly with her husband, and Rose, poising a +dainty azure parasol, looked at the well-dressed Parisians around her. + +Suddenly, the hand so daintily holding the parasol grasped it tight, the +hot blood surged in a torrent to her face, and her eyes fixed and +dilated on two equestrians slowly approaching. A lady and gentleman--the +lady a Frenchwoman evidently, dark, rather good-looking, and not very +young; the gentleman, tall, eminently handsome, and much more youthful +than his fair companion, Rose Stanford and her false husband were face +to face! + +He had seen them, and grown more livid than death; his eyes fixed on +Doctor Danton and his beautiful wife, talking and laughing with such +infinitely happy faces. + +One glance told him how matters stood--told him the girl he had forsaken +was the happy wife of a better man. Then his glance met that of his +wife, pretty, and blooming and bright as when he had first fallen in +love with her; but those hazel eyes were flashing fire, and the pretty +face was fierce with rage and scorn. + +Then they were past; and Reginald Stanford and his wife had seen each +other for the last time on earth. + + * * * * * + +The summer flew by. They visited Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and were +back in Paris in October. About the middle of that month they sailed +from Havre to New York, and reached that city after a delightful +passage. It being Rose's first sight of the Empire City, they lingered a +week to show her the lions, and early in November were on the first +stage of their journey to Danton Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +AT HOME. + + +Late in the afternoon of a dark November day our travellers reached St. +Croix, and found the carriage from the Hall awaiting them at the +station. Rose leaned back in a corner, wrapped in a large shawl, and +with a heart too full of mingled feelings to speak. How it all came back +to her, with the bitterness of death, the last time her eyes had looked +upon these familiar objects--how happy she had been then, how hopeful; +how miserable she had been since, how hopeless now. The well-known +objects flitted before her eyes, seen through a mist of tears, so +well-known that it seemed only yesterday since she had last looked at +them, and these dreary intervening months only a wretched dream. Ah! no +dream, for there sat the English nurse with the baby in her arms, a +living proof of their reality. One by one the old places spun by, the +church, the presbytery, with Father Francis walking up and down the +little garden, his soutane tucked up, and his breviary in his hand, all +looking ghostly in the dim afternoon light. Now the village was passed, +they were flying through wide open gates, and under the shadow of the +dear old trees. There was Danton Hall, not the dingy, weather-beaten +Danton Hall she knew, but a much more modern, much more elegant mansion; +and there on the gray stone steps stood her father, handsome and portly, +and kindly as ever; and there was Grace beside him--dear, good Grace; +and there was Eeny, dressed in pale pink with fluttering ribbons, fair +and fragile, and looking like a rosebud. A little group of three persons +behind, at sight of whom Kate uttered an exclamation of delight. + +"Oh, Frank! there are Harry and Agnes! To think papa never told us! What +a charming surprise!" + +That was all Rose heard; then she was clasped in her father's stalwart +arms, and sobbing on his breast. They all clustered around her +first--their restored prodigal--and Grace kissed her lovingly, and +Eeny's soft arms were around her neck. Then the group in the background +came forward, and Rose saw a sunburned sailor's face, and knew that it +was her brother Harry who was kissing her, and her sister Agnes whose +arms clung around her. Then she looked at the third person, still +standing modestly in the background, and uttered a little cry. + +"Jules! M. La Touche!" + +He came forward, a smile on his face, and his hand frankly outstretched, +while Eeny blushingly hovered aloof. + +"I am very happy to see you again, Mrs. Stanford--very happy to see you +looking so well!" + +So they had met, and this was all! Then they were in the +drawing-room--how, Rose could not tell--it was all like a dream to her, +and Eeny had the babe in her arms, and was carrying it around to be +kissed and admired. "The beauty! The darling! The pet!" Eeny could not +find words enough to express her enthusiastic rapture at such a miracle +of babydom, and kissed Master Reginald into an angry fit of crying. + +They got up to their rooms at last. Rose broke down again in the +seclusion of her chamber, and cried until her eyes were as sore as her +heart. How happy they all looked, loving and beloved; and she, the +deserted wife, was an object of pity. While she sat crying, there was a +tap at the door. Hastily drying her eyes, she opened it, and admitted +Grace. + +"Have you been crying, Rose?" she said, tenderly taking both her hands, +and sitting down beside her. "My poor dear, you must try and forget your +troubles, and be happy with us. I know it is very sad, and we are all +sorry for you; but the husband you have lost is not worth grieving for. +Were you not surprised," smiling, "to see Mr. La Touche here?" + +"Hardly," said Rose, rather sulkily. "I suppose he is here in the +character of Eeny's suitor?" + +"More than that, my dear. He is here in the character of Eeny's +affianced husband. They are to be married next month." + +Rose uttered an exclamation--an exclamation of dismay. She certainly had +never dreamed of this. + +"The marriage would have taken place earlier, but was postponed in +expectation of your and Kate's arrival. That is why Harry and Agnes are +here. M. La Touche has a perfect home prepared for his bride in Ottawa. +Come, she is in Kate's room now. I will show you her trousseau." + +Rose went with her step-mother from her chamber into Eeny's +dressing-room. There was spread out the bridal outfit. Silks, in rich +stiffness, fit to stand alone; laces, jewels, bridal-veil, and wreath. +Rose looked with dazzled eyes, and a feeling of passionate, jealous envy +at her heart. It might have been hers, all this splendour--she might +have been mistress of the palace at Ottawa, and the wife of a +millionaire. + +But she had given up all for love of a handsome face; and that handsome +face smiled on another now, and was lost to her forever. She choked back +the rebellious throbbing of her heart, and praised the costly wedding +outfit, and was glad when she could escape and be alone again. It was +all bitter as the waters of Marah, to poor, widowed Rose; their +forgiveness, so ready and so generous, was heaping coals of fire on her +head; and at home, surrounded by kind friends and every comfort so long +a stranger to her, she felt even more desolate than she had ever done in +the dreary London lodgings. + +But while all were happy at Danton Hall, save Captain Danton's second +daughter, once the gayest among them, the days flew by, and Eveleen +Danton's wedding-day dawned. Such a lovely December day, brilliant, +cloudless, warm--just the day for a wedding. The little village church +was crowded with the rich and the poor, long before the carriages from +the Hall arrived. Very lovely looked the young bride, in her silken robe +of virgin white, her misty veil, and drooping, flower-crowned head. Very +sweet, and fair, and innocent, and as pale as her snowy dress, the +centre of all eyes, as she moved up the aisle, on her father's arm. +There were four bride-maids; the Demoiselles La Touche came from Ottawa +for the occasion. Miss Emily Howard, and Miss La Favre. The bride's +sisters shared with her the general admiration--Mrs. Dr. Danton; Mrs. +Stanford, all auburn ringlets, and golden brown silk, and no outward +sign of the torments within; Mrs. Harry Danton, fair as a lily, clinging +to her sailor-husband's arm, like some spirit of the sea; and last, but +not least, Captain Danton's wife, very simply dressed, but looking so +quietly happy and serene. Then it was all over, and the gaping +spectators saw the wedding party flocking back into the carriages, and +whirling away to the Hall. + +Mr. and Mrs. La Touche were to make but a brief tour, and return in time +for a Christmas house-warming. Doctor Frank and his wife went to their +Montreal home, and Mrs. Stanford remained at St. Croix. The family were +all to reassemble at Ottawa, to spend New Year with Madame La Touche. + +Rose found the intervening weeks very long and dreary at the Hall. +Captain Harry had gone back to his ship, and of course Agnes had gone +with him. They had wanted her to stay at home this voyage, but Agnes had +lifted such appealing eyes, and clung in so much alarm to Harry at the +bare idea of his leaving her, that they had given it up at once. So +Rose, with no companion except Grace, found it very dull, and sighed the +slow hours away, like a modern Mariana in the Moated Grange. + +But the merry New Year time came round at last; and all the Dantons were +together once more in Eeny's splendid home. It made Rose's heart ache +with envy to walk through those lovely rooms--long vistas of splendour +and gorgeousness. + +"It might have been mine!--It might have been mine!" that rebellious +heart of hers kept crying out. "I might have been mistress of all this +retinue of servants--these jewels and silks I might have worn! I might +have reigned like a queen in this stately house if I had only done +right!" + +But it was too late, and Mrs. Stanford had to keep up appearances, and +smiles, though the serpents of envy and regret gnawed at her vitals. It +was very gay there! Life seemed all made up of music, and dancing, and +feasting, and mirth, and skating, and sleighing, and dressing, and +singing. Life went like a fairy spectacle, or an Eastern drama, or an +Arcadian dream--with care, and trial, and trouble, monsters unknown even +by name. + +Mme. Jules La Touche played the role with charming grace--a little shy, +as became her youth and inexperience, but only the more charming for +that. They were very, very happy together, this quiet young pair--loving +one another very dearly, as you could see, and looking forward hopefully +to a future that was to be without a cloud. + +Mrs. La Touche and Mrs. Stanford were very much admired in society, no +doubt; but people went into raptures over Mrs. Frank Danton. Such eyes, +such golden hair, such rare smiles, such queenly grace, such singing, +such playing--surely nature had created this darling of hers in a +gracious mood, and meted out to her a double portion of her favours. You +might think other ladies--those younger sisters of hers +included--beautiful until she came; and then that stately presence, that +bewitching brightness and grace, eclipsed them as the sun eclipses +stars. + +"What a lucky fellow Danton is!" said the men. "One doesn't see such a +superb woman once in a century." + +And Doctor Frank heard it, and smiled, as he smoked his meerschaum, and +thought so too. + + * * * * * + +And so we leave them. Kate is happy; Eeny reigns right royally in her +Ottawa home; and Rose--well, poor Rose has no home, and flits about +between St. Croix, and Montreal, and Ottawa, all the year round. She +calls Danton Hall home, but she spends most of her time with Kate. It is +not so sumptuous, of course, as at Ottawa, in the rising young Doctor's +home; but she is not galled every moment of the day by the poignant +regrets that lacerate her heart at Eeny's. She hears of her husband +occasionally, as he wanders through the Continent, and the chain that +binds her to him galls her day and night. Little Reginald, able to trot +about on his own sturdy legs now, accompanies her in her migratory +flights, and is petted to death wherever he goes. He has come to grief +quite recently, and takes it very hard that grandpa should have +something else to nurse besides himself. This something else is a little +atom of humanity named Gracie, and is Captain Danton's youngest +daughter. + + +THE END. + + + * * * * * + +_By May Agnes Fleming._ + + + + +NORINE'S REVENGE. + +"Mrs. Fleming's stories are growing more and more popular every day. +Their delineations of character, lifelike conversations, flashes of wit, +constantly varying scenes, and deeply interesting plots, combine to +place their author in the very first rank of Modern Novelists." + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's +Daughters, by May Agnes Fleming + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KATE DANTON, OR, CAPTAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 19512.txt or 19512.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/5/1/19512/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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