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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/29776-8.txt b/29776-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5478fd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/29776-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8840 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pretty Madcap Dorothy, by Laura Jean Libbey + +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: Pretty Madcap Dorothy + How She Won a Lover + +Author: Laura Jean Libbey + +Release Date: August 24, 2009 [EBook #29776] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRETTY MADCAP DOROTHY *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +PRETTY MADCAP DOROTHY + +OR +How She Won a Lover + + +A Romance of the Jolliest Girl in the Book-Bindery, and +a magnificent Love Story of the life of a Beautiful, +Willful New York Working Girl. + + +BY MISS LAURA JEAN LIBBEY + + +HART SERIES No. 19. + +COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY GEO. MONRO'S SONS + +Published by +THE ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANY, +CLEVELAND, O., U.S.A. + + + + +CONTENTS. + PAGE +Chapter I 5 +Chapter II 12 +Chapter III 20 +Chapter IV 32 +Chapter V 38 +Chapter VI 45 +Chapter VII 53 +Chapter VIII 60 +Chapter IX 66 +Chapter X 73 +Chapter XI 79 +Chapter XII 86 +Chapter XIII 92 +Chapter XIV 98 +Chapter XV 105 +Chapter XVI 111 +Chapter XVII 118 +Chapter XVIII 124 +Chapter XIX 131 +Chapter XX 138 +Chapter XXI 144 +Chapter XXII 151 +Chapter XXIII 157 +Chapter XXIV 163 +Chapter XXV 168 +Chapter XXVI 174 +Chapter XXVII 180 +Chapter XXVIII 186 +Chapter XXIX 192 +Chapter XXX 198 +Chapter XXXI 204 +Chapter XXXII 209 +Chapter XXXIII 214 +Chapter XXXIV 220 +Chapter XXXV 226 +Chapter XXXVI 232 +Chapter XXXVII 238 +Chapter XXXVIII 242 +Chapter XXXIX 247 + + + + +Pretty Madcap Dorothy + +OR + +How She Won a Lover + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +"It's so hard for working-girls to get acquainted. They never meet a +rich young man, and they don't want a poor one. It seems to me that a +girl who has to commence early to work for her living might just as well +give up forever all hopes of a lover and of marrying," declared Nadine +Holt, one of the prettiest girls in the immense book-bindery, to the +group of companions who were gathered about her. "It's get up at +daylight, swallow your breakfast, and hurry to work; and it's dark +before you are out on the street again. How can we ever expect to meet a +marriageable fellow?" + +"Do you know what _I_ think, girls?" cried a shrill but very sweet young +voice, from the direction of the window-ledge, adding breathlessly: "I +believe if fate has any lover in store for a girl, that he will be sure +to just happen to come where she is, on one mission or another. That's +the way that it all happens in novels, I took particular pains to +notice. These people who write must know just how it is, I reckon." + +"Well, now, who would ever have imagined that a chit of a thing like +_you_, Dorothy Glenn, would have the impudence to put in your oar, or +that you ever thought of lovers, or marrying, and you only sixteen a day +or so ago?" cried one. "It's absurd!" + +"I wasn't saying anything about _my_ ever marrying, I was just telling +you what I thought about ever meeting the fellow who is intended for +you--'_the_ right _one_'--as you call it." + +"What if you were in a desert?" suggested Nadine, with a curl of her red +lip. "Surely you couldn't expect a young man would ever find a business +that would bring him out there to you, could you?" + +"Why not?" cried pretty little Dorothy. "Of course fate would send my +Prince Charming even into a desert to find me," cooed Dorothy. "And as +to the business that would bring him--why, he could come there to +capture the ostriches which are to be found only in the heart of the +desert--so there! You know the old adage: 'People meet where hills and +mountains don't.' I tell you there's some truth in that." + +"It's a good thing to have so much assurance and hope," said Nadine, +with a curl of her lip. "I trust that you may find plenty of lovers in +the future, though I doubt it." + +"I have plenty now," declared Dorothy, waltzing nimbly about the floor, +as only a bright, happy, thoughtless young girl can who is free from +care. "I couldn't count all who make eyes at me now, so what will it be +when I get as old as the rest of you girls?"--this a trifle maliciously, +for every one of them was at least twenty, and that seemed rather +_passée_ to this bit of femininity of sweet sixteen. + +Some one noticed that the huge clock on the mantel wanted just three +minutes to one, so the fragments of luncheon were crammed back into +their baskets, and the girls, chatting and laughing, went back to their +work, for they had a very particular foreman. But one of their number, +Jessie Staples, hung back to have a word with Dorothy. + +"I hope that you will not grow into a flirt," she said, slipping her arm +about Dorothy's waist and looking into the young girl's flushed face +with serious eyes, adding: "This brings me to the question that I +intended asking you this noon. Where did you meet that young car +conductor who walked up as far as your home with you last night? Do tell +me, little Dorothy." + +"Were you spying upon me, you mean thing?" cried Dorothy Glenn, blushing +as fiery red as the crimson heart of a peony, and stamping angrily the +tiniest of little feet; and she flung her companion's arm from her as +though it had stung her. + +"Can't you tell me?" pleaded Jessie, earnestly. "Remember, you have no +one to warn you. You are an orphan in this great, cold world, and--and +you are so young that you don't know life, and can not realize that +every young man who smiles into your eyes and says flattering things is +_not_ in love. When you have no relative to confide in, you ought to +have a girl friend older and wiser than yourself. Let me be that friend +to you, Dorothy." + +As she listened, the momentary anger died out of the girl's face. She +couldn't keep angry with anybody very long, and quite before Jessie had +finished her sentence a pair of plump white arms were thrown round her +neck and Dorothy's soft, peachy pink cheek was nestling against her own, +while the sweet young voice whispered: + +"Won't you breathe it, Jess, if I tell you the greatest secret in the +whole wide world? Promise on your word and honor that you won't and I'll +tell you, and it will fairly make you hold your breath. It's just like +those grand love stories all of us girls like to crowd around together +at lunch hour and read in the Fireside Companion, when we pick up the +special copies they throw around; only this is in real life, you know." + +"I promise," returned Jessie Staples, gravely; "only I hope this isn't a +ruse to turn off the question about the young car conductor whom I saw +you with." + +"Oh, no! the secret is about him," laughed Dorothy, gleefully, "and it +will make you open your eyes wider than they are now when you hear it; +and it's so dreadfully romantic, too. You know how Nadine Holt has been +boasting of late about the handsome new conductor on the Broadway car, +on whom she has 'made a mash,' as she phrases it. Well, the young man +you saw me talking to--is he." + +"What?" gasped Jessie. "Do you mean it was Nadine's beau to whom you +were talking?" + +"He's _not_ her beau!" declared Dorothy, flushing up redly and angrily. +"He doesn't care a snap of his finger for Nadine. He told me so." + +"He--told--you--so?" repeated Jessie Staples, too amazed at the instant +to frame any other remark, while the thought flashed through her brain +how deeply Nadine Holt loved this handsome young man, and that she was +confident of a proposal of marriage from him sooner or later. She had +often told Jessie as much as that of late. + +"It was only last week that I first met him," Dorothy went on, "and it +happened in this way: I came down, just by chance, on his car, and--and +I noticed that he looked at me rather admiringly, as he changed my +fifty-cent piece, while standing beside me; and--and I noticed, too, +that he leaned against me a little more than the occasion demanded, or +at least I fancied so; but perhaps it was the jolting of the car. I took +little shy peeps at him. I wanted to see what he looked like, Nadine had +been sounding his praises so. I found he was dreadfully nice, quite the +handsomest young fellow I had ever seen--elegantly formed, straight as +an arrow, with such a beautiful dark mustache, dark hair, and laughing +black eyes, and the whitest of white hands. When he helped me off the +car he held my hand so tightly and so long that I felt terribly +embarrassed and did not know what to do or say. But, oh! he was _so_ +polite! I dropped my eyes and never looked at him as I stepped off. How +I ever got into the other car I never knew. A moment later the other +conductor came around for my fare, and then--oh, horrors! I could not +find my pocket-book. I searched frantically in every pocket. 'I--I must +have _lost_ my purse,' I faltered, beginning to cry, for I saw he did +not believe me, and thought that I meant to beat my way, as they call +it, when just at that instant puffing and panting, up came the other +conductor--the handsome fellow whom I had just left. + +"'You dropped your purse on the seat of my car,' he said, raising his +hat from his dark curls. 'Permit me to return it to you.' + +"I was so overjoyed to get it that I forgot to thank him. I remembered +later that I had not done so. And what do you think? that very evening +he called with a book I had also left on the seat, and which I had +entirely forgotten. My name and address were written on the fly-leaf. +Just at that moment one of the young men from the book-bindery happened +along who knew him, and he introduced us. I did not invite him in, but +we stood and talked for an hour or more on the steps, and he asked at +length for the pleasure of my company to go with him to the theater the +following evening, if my folks were willing. + +"I told him I had no relatives to consult, and that I'd like ever so +much to go, but--but I had heard that he was Nadine Holt's regular +company. Oh, Jess, how angry he got when I said that! He flushed to the +very roots of his dark hair. You ought to have seen him. + +"'Pardon me, but I am _not_!' he replied, 'though I hear that she is +circulating such a story; but there is no better authority on the +subject than myself. I have spoken to her a few times; but it is +ridiculous for a girl to presume, if a man is pleasant to her, that he +wants to marry her. I cannot even say that I admire Miss Nadine Holt. As +a rule a man like myself does not admire a girl whose acquaintance he +can form through a handkerchief flirtation. + +"I thought of telling Nadine that, but you know what a fury she is. Why, +she would almost kill me, I believe, if she once got an inkling that I +knew about it. + +"Well, to make a long story short, it so chanced that he happened along +our street every night after that, and always found me, quite by chance, +sitting out on the steps, and so he stopped for a chat. And now comes +the most wonderful part of the affair. He is no _real_ street-car +conductor at all. I don't mean just that, but--oh, Jess! this is what I +mean: he--he bet with a number of young gentlemen the last election and +lost the wager. If he lost he was to come to New York and be a +street-car conductor for three months, and that is what he did. He is a +young lawyer in a small town near here, and has great expectations, he +says. + +"His time will be up to-morrow, Jessie, and then he is going back to his +home, and--and I shall never see him again. He is like a prince in +disguise--such as we read about. I always thought him too grand and +polite to be only a street-car conductor." + +Jessie Staples felt greatly relieved in her heart that he was going away +so soon, but she was too wise to say so to Dorothy, knowing that if one +attempts to break up an infatuation on the part of a girl of that age, +ten to one it makes matters only worse. + +"Life will never be the same to me after Harry Langdon goes, for, +Jessie, I--I have learned to care for him. I couldn't help myself though +I tried hard not to, and to be gay and jolly before all the girls. But, +oh, Jessie, pity me! My heart is breaking! I wish I could die!" + +They did not notice, as they moved on, that the door near where they had +stood talking was partly ajar, nor did they see the girl who had paused +in the entry outside almost at the very beginning of their +conversation. It was Nadine Holt, and she had heard every word, from +beginning to end, that Dorothy had uttered; and even after they had +passed on she stood there, cold and motionless as a statue cut in +marble. + +"Great God in heaven! this explains Harry Langdon's sudden coolness," +she muttered, with a great, choking sob; "but if Dorothy Glenn attempts +to take my lover from me--let her beware! this earth will not be broad +enough to hold the two of us. It will be war to the very death between +us, and we shall see which one of us shall win him!" + +By a violent effort Nadine controlled her wild grief and passed into the +work-room. It was only her indomitable pride that kept her from taking +her hat and sacque and going straight home and to her bed, there to weep +her very heart out--aye, weep her very life out, if she could. If her +lover was fickle, Nadine told herself that she did not care to live and +face the dull, cold world, for what is life and the world to a young +girl if the lover on whom she has set her heart and her hopes proves +false to her? + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +From the moment that Nadine Holt heard the story of the perfidy of her +lover she was a changed being. + +She went wearily enough to the lodging-house she called home, and paced +the floor up and down the live-long night. + +"He was pleased enough with me before Dorothy Glenn's pink-and-white +baby face came between us," she moaned, clinching her hands tightly +together and bursting ever and anon into a flood of tears. + +She looked around at the little, stuffy room, and thought of all her +girlish day-dreams--of the sweet hopes she had had of soon leaving those +dingy four walls, and of having a little bower of a cottage to call +"home," with a handsome young husband all her own to love her. + +She had pictured every scene to herself--just how each cozy room should +be furnished, and what vines and flowers should grow in the garden, and +the pretty dresses she would wear, and how she would stand at the window +and watch for handsome Harry to come home each night, and what a dear, +cozy life they would lead, loving each other so dearly. + +And now what of those vanished day-dreams? Ah! God in heaven pity her! +they lay in ruins around her, and heart-wrecked, heart-broken, she was +facing the cold, bleak world again. + +It had been by the greatest effort that she had looked in Dorothy's face +during the day that followed without betraying her bitter hatred of her; +but as the hours crept on, and she saw Dorothy's glance wander uneasily +now and then toward the clock, her intense rage grew almost +uncontrollable. + +"She is longing for the hours to pass, so that she may join _him_," +thought Nadine, and her black eyes fairly scintillated at the thought. + +Suddenly Dorothy raised her curly head from her work. + +"Girls!" she exclaimed, shrilly and eagerly, "have you all forgotten +that Monday is Labor Day? What are you going to do with yourselves?" + +A score or more of voices answered at random that they thought it had +been decided long since that they were all going up the Hudson on an +excursion. + +"I can't go on the excursion with you, girls," returned Dorothy, "for +I've got another engagement." + +"Bring your company with you," chorused a dozen or more of the girls. + +Dorothy glanced up hastily and met Nadine's burning eyes fixed intently +upon her. + +She started, turned deathly pale, and then turned defiantly away, +wondering if Nadine could by any means suspect that the engagement she +had was to accompany handsome Harry Langdon to the matinée. + +She wondered vaguely if Jessie, to whom she had confided this, had +betrayed her. + +The look in Nadine Holt's eyes as they met her own startled her. + +The bell which released the girls from the work-room that night had +scarcely rung ere Dorothy had on her sacque and sailor hat and was +fairly flying down the steps and out into the street. + +"I hope to goodness that I shall escape Jack to-night!" she muttered. +"He can not get out as soon as I do, and I will be almost home while he +is waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs;" and a little, light, +airy laugh bubbled from her red lips. + +Jack, as she called him, was one of the gilders in the book-bindery--a +tall, handsome, manly young fellow of four-and-twenty, whose only +failing was that he loved little Dorothy Glenn to distraction. + +"Yes, I shall escape Jack, sure, to-night!" laughed Dorothy again. + +But the laugh died from her lips, for at that instant there was the +sound of hurried footsteps behind her--footsteps she knew but too +well--and the next instant Jack Garner stood beside her. + +"Dorothy!" he panted, "Why didn't you wait for me, little girl?" + +Dorothy started guiltily. + +"Why, gracious! is it you, Jack?" she cried. "I certainly thought you +had gone home long ago, and so I hurried away." + +His handsome face brightened; the dark shadow was quickly dispelled from +his earnest, brown eyes. + +"Do you know, Dorothy," he said, "I was half afraid that you had run +away from me intentionally; and yet I could hardly bring myself to +believe it, the thought gave me such a sharp pang of pain at the heart." +The girl laughed a little nervously. + +"I wanted to talk to you about Labor Day," he said earnestly; "but I +fear what I have to say will grieve you, dear." ("Oh, gracious goodness, +that's just what I expected!" was the thought that flashed through her +guilty little brain.) "Dorothy," he said, huskily, "I'm afraid that I +will not be able to get off Labor Day, although it is a legal holiday +and I had set my heart upon taking you somewhere. We have found that +there is some work which must be got out, or it will mean a heavy loss +to our employers. I was the only one whom they felt they could call upon +to help them in their dilemma, and I could not refuse them, even though +a vision of your pretty, disappointed face rose up before my mind's eye. +I knew you would be expecting me to take you somewhere on Labor Day. Oh! +Dorothy, how can I make amends for it?" + +To his great surprise, she laughed gayly. + +"Don't trouble yourself about me, Jack," she exclaimed. "I won't mind it +one bit;" and her pink-and-white face fairly dimpled over with smiles. + +He opened his brown eyes wide and looked at her in surprise, remembering +quite well that for many a week past Dorothy had been looking forward to +this holiday and calculating how she should spend it. + +"But you will be so disappointed, little one," he reiterated, earnestly, +and not a little puzzled by the way she took it. + +Again she laughed--a little, light, airy laugh that somehow grated on +his nerves. + +"I was thinking," he continued, "that perhaps you would like to go +somewhere with my cousin Barbara--go up the river, or to a matinée, or +some place like that. I would pay all the bills, of course, and--" + +"Go with your cousin Barbara?" she cut in. "No, I guess not. It's just +like you not to want me to have a good time. If _you_ can't be there, +Jack Garner, pray excuse me from going with _her_!" + +He looked down at her with grieved eyes. + +"Barbara is not as young and gay as you are, I know, dear," he said, +huskily; "but, oh! if you only knew what a good, gentle soul she is, and +how kind her heart is! She would go out of her way--do anything she +could to give you a few hours' pleasure, because--because she knows how +dear you are to me." + +Dorothy shrugged her shoulders and curled her pretty red lips +scornfully. Barbara Hallenbeck, his quiet, sedate cousin, was +four-and-twenty. No wonder that gay little Dorothy did not consider her +quite companionable for a day's outing. + +"She would be very glad to take you to the matinée, Dorothy," he +persisted. "_Do_ consent to go with her, and then I will feel quite +happy, for I shall feel sure that you are having a pleasant day, even if +I am not with you. Otherwise, I should be so troubled, thinking of you +sitting all alone in the house." + +She looked up innocently into his face. + +"I need not stay in the house if I do not like," she retorted. "There's +a number of girls from the bindery going on an excursion up the river, +and they have invited me." + +Poor, innocent Jack! it did not occur to him then that, although she had +remarked she was invited, she had not said she was going. He jumped at +conclusions readily enough. + +"I am so glad, Dorothy!" he exclaimed, joyfully. "I know if you are with +a crowd of the girls the day will pass pleasantly for you. But you will +not forget in the midst of all your happiness to give a thought to me, +will you?" he whispered, with a world of tenderness in his voice. + +"Of course not," she said, promptly. + +"Especially when your eye rests upon our betrothal-ring," he added, +wistfully. + +Dorothy blushed alarmingly red, then paled as quickly, at the mention of +the ring. + +The truth may as well be told here and now: Dorothy, like many another +silly, thoughtless young girl, had drifted into an engagement with Jack +just to get the ring which he wore on his finger, which she had admired +with all her heart and longed to possess. + +But with Dorothy, possession had dimmed her appreciation for the little +turquois and pearl affair which adorned her finger, and at which +handsome Harry Langdon had glanced so contemptuously only the evening +before, and then down at the elegant monogrammed diamond ring which +glistened on his own white, shapely hand. + +Only that very day Dorothy had wished with all her heart that she could +get up some excuse to break what Jack considered an engagement, and give +him back his little cheap pearl and turquois ring; but the occasion did +not seem to be quite ripe, and Jack, poor fellow! had been kinder to her +than ever that day. + +At the corner she hesitated. It would never do to walk much farther with +Jack and stand a chance of meeting handsome Harry Langdon, she told +herself. + +"I have a little shopping to do, and I shall have to leave you here," +she said, hastily; and she made her parting very brief with Jack. + +He noticed it, and a sudden fear stirred his heart. He looked after the +slender figure flitting away through the slanting sunshine, with his +soul in his eyes. + +"She is so dear to me," he murmured. "I--I often think I would go mad if +I were to lose her." + +He walked slowly down the street, but, contrary to his usual custom, he +did not turn his footsteps homeward, but proceeded aimlessly along the +crowded thoroughfare. + +How far he went Jack Garner never knew. Suddenly in turning a corner the +first object his eyes fell upon was Dorothy, and by her side a tall, +handsome dark-eyed young man whose arm was linked with hers, and they +were walking along, deeply engaged in conversation, oblivious to the +whole world. + +He stood quite still; the heart in his bosom seemed to almost tear +itself asunder with one mighty throb. Was it Dorothy, or did his eyes +deceive him? He quickened his pace until he stood beside them. The +impulse was strong within him to seize the girl's hand and tear her from +her companion. The blood surged like fire through his veins. + +But before he could put his mad thought into execution the crowd on the +thronged thoroughfare swept between them. + +In that instant Dorothy's companion called a cab and placed the girl in +it. The door closed with a bang, and the next instant the vehicle was +whirling down the avenue, and turning around the first corner was +instantly lost to sight. + +Quick as the lightning's flash Jack leaped upon a passing car. He felt +intuitively that the stranger was taking Dorothy to her home. This car +would pass the door. He would confront them there, even though they had +gone by another street. + +By a strange fatality he had in his breast pocket a small revolver which +a friend had asked him to call for that day at a store where it was +being repaired, and bring to him, as Jack would be passing that way. It +was an unlucky moment for Jack, Heaven knows, when he consented to call +for the fatal revolver for his friend. + +As his hand touched it in his breast pocket a terrible thought flashed +across his excited brain. + +Ten minutes later he reached the cottage where Dorothy boarded. One of +the bindery girls was sitting on the porch as he came up. + +"Why, hello, Jack!" she cried. "What are you doing here?" + +"Where's Dorothy?" he interrupted, quickly. "Is she in the house yet? I +want the truth. You must tell me!" + +The girl looked in Jack's face, and dared not tell him all. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Jessie Staples--for it was she--looked at Jack Garner with troubled +eyes. She knew how much he cared for Dorothy, and she realized that it +would never do to tell him that his fickle sweetheart had gone riding +with another man. He was hot-tempered, and in jealousy there is little +reason. Like the wise girl that she was, Jessie made excuses for her +friend. + +"No, Dorothy is not here, Jack," she said, presently; "but I feel sure +she would have been had she known you were coming. She has gone to spend +the evening with one of the girls, who sent her lover specially to bring +Dorothy over, with the request that he was not to come back without her; +and no doubt Dorothy will pass Sunday with her." + +"Which one of the girls is it?" he inquired. + +"I don't really know that," said Jessie, a little faintly. + +Jack Garner drew a great, long breath of relief, and the old happy +smile lighted up his face in an instant. + +What a foolish fellow he had been to mistrust Dorothy! he told himself. +But, after all, he was glad he had come and seen Jessie and thus had the +horrible doubt removed from his mind. + +"Well, it does not matter so much, Jess, that I did not see her. I did +not want anything in particular. I am glad she will have a pleasant time +this evening and to-morrow. And about your holiday. I suppose you will +be going on the excursion with the rest of the girls on Monday?" + +"Oh, yes!" replied Jessie lightly but constrainedly. + +He drew nearer and looked wistfully into her face. + +"I can not go, unfortunately," he said, "but I hope, Jess, that you will +see that Dorothy has as good a time as the rest of the girls." He +stopped a moment, and looked down confusedly, as if at a loss to know +how to proceed with the rest of his sentence, but concluded at length to +break right into it boldly. "If I were there I would treat all you girls +to as much ice-cream as you could eat," he went on with a laugh. "But, +seeing that I am _not_ to be one of the party, I want you to do the +honors for me, Jess, and here's the money to pay for it, with my +compliments to the crowd." + +And as he spoke he drew a crisp bill from his vest pocket and thrust it +into Jessie's hand. + +"Oh, Jack," cried the girl, "you are too good and too kind!" and she +felt rather guilty as she took it, for she knew that he was giving it +solely that they would make it pleasant for pretty little Dorothy, and +she knew that Dorothy was not to be there. + +Only that day she had confessed to her that she had made an engagement +to go to the matinée with the handsome car conductor. + +But there would be a tragedy if Jack got an inkling of this, she well +knew. She had deceived him, poor fellow; but was it not for the best, +under the circumstances? + +Jack went to his home with a light heart, and much relieved in feelings. +It was well for him that he did not know just how Dorothy was passing +those very moments. + +When Harry Langdon had met Dorothy on the street that afternoon he had +quite hoped to slip by her unnoticed. Not that he was displeased to see +her; but the girl was dressed so cheaply, and, to make matters worse, +she carried her little dinner-basket on her arm, and he knew that if any +of his friends were to see him they would smile in derision, for they +could not help knowing by the dinner-basket that his companion was a +working-girl. + +His pride was the one fault of his life. He felt that he was quite +handsome enough to woo and win an heiress, if one chanced in his way. In +fact, that was what he was looking for. + +It would never do to be seen walking along the streets with this pretty +little working-girl, and it was for this very reason that Langdon had +called a cab to take her home. + +"The ride is too short," he said, as they reached the cottage where +Dorothy lived, and where Jessie Staples was awaiting her on the porch. +"Let us go around a few blocks; I want to talk to you about the +arrangements for the outing." + +Nothing loath, Dorothy consented, and away they whirled down the street; +and it was very fortunate too, for in less than three minutes later Jack +had appeared at the cottage. + +"I have been wondering if you really cared to go to the matinée on Labor +Day," said Langdon, in his low, sweet, smooth voice, which had never yet +failed to capture the hearts of susceptible young girls. "I was +wondering if you would not prefer a sail up the river. I understand that +there is to be quite an excursion to West Point." + +The truth is Langdon had just discovered that several of his +acquaintances were to be at the matinée on that day, and he regretted +that he had invited Dorothy to go, realizing how terribly ashamed he +would be of the shabby clothes of the girl whose only recommendation was +her pretty young face, and he had determined that he should not take +Dorothy to that matinée, at any cost. + +"Why, I would just as soon go to the excursion as to the matinée," +declared Dorothy; "but there's one objection--all the rest of the girls +in the book-bindery are going up on the boat to West Point, and among +them Nadine Holt." + +Langdon smothered back a fierce imprecation behind his silky curled +mustache. + +"Then we will abandon the West Point trip." he said, laughingly. "But we +can go to Staten Island, besides, I think it will be quite as enjoyable, +for, now that I think of it, there will be an immense crowd there. The +picnic grounds are to be thrown open to the public, and they are to have +a grand garden _fete_, with dancing and so forth." + +"Oh, I should enjoy that more than I could tell you!" cried Dorothy, +clapping her hands, her blue eyes expanding wide with expectancy. "I +adore dancing, and I was never at a garden-party in all my life, and I +have read so much about them." + +"We can remain all the afternoon and evening, have refreshments, and +then come home on the steamer. It will be a beautiful moonlight night, +and when the band plays on the deck you will enjoy it hugely, Dorothy." + +The girl's eyes sparkled and her cheeks glowed. + +Soon afterward the cab stopped before Dorothy's cottage again, and, with +a shy, sweet smile, she bade her admirer "good-night," and flitted up +the steps and into the hall, and directly into the arms of Jessie +Staples, who was awaiting her there. + +"Oh, Dorothy!" she began, reproachfully, "how _could_ you do it?" + +"Do what?" cried Dorothy, with a very innocent air. + +"Come riding home from work with that stranger!" cried Jessie, +reproachfully. + +The gayest laugh that ever was heard broke from Dorothy's ripe red lips, +and her blue eyes fairly danced. + +"I did not think that _you_, of all other girls, would be jealous, +Jessie Staples!" she declared. + +"I am not jealous," responded the girl, quietly--"only I pity you for +your want of sense in being fascinated by a handsome stranger, when you +have such a lover as honest, warm-hearted Jack Garner, who fairly +worships the ground you walk on. Every one knows that--and--and pities +him." + +Dorothy's red lips curled scornfully, and she turned away on her heel. + +"He is only a gilder in the bindery," she declared, "while the one I +came home with is a grand high-toned, wealthy young fellow, and so +aristocratic. He thought nothing of bringing me home in a cab, while +Jack Garner would have fainted at the idea. He is so frightened if he +spends a dollar of his hard-earned wages. It's no fun going around with +a _poor_ fellow. I hate them! So there!" + +With that Jessie took the bill from her pocket, and told all that poor +Jack had said about treating to the ice-cream. + +Dorothy looked astounded, but turned the matter off by saying: + +"It is a good thing to have him stand treat once in his life-time, I +declare!" + +But, nevertheless, she felt ashamed deep down in her own heart for the +way she had spoken of poor Jack. Still she would not listen to Jessie's +admonition, declaring, too, that she meant to go on an excursion on +Labor Day with Harry Langdon, even though it made an enemy of Jack for +life. She was tired of Jack, anyhow. + +"You will rue it if you go with that stranger. Trouble will come of it +as sure as you live." Those were Jessie's last words to Dorothy as they +parted an hour later, and they rang in Dorothy's brain for many and many +a long day afterward; and these two girls, who had been such steadfast +friends parted from each other in coldness and in anger for the first +time in their lives. + +The sun rose bright and golden on the eventful morning, and Dorothy was +in high glee as she looked out from her curtained window, and the +visions of a joyous day flitted before her. + +At two o'clock Langdon put in a prompt appearance, and Dorothy was quite +ready, and he could not help but own to himself that she looked as fair +and pretty and quite as stylish as any young girl you would meet in a +day's travel in her neat navy-blue merino dress, with its white duck +vest and broad, white cuffs and sailor collar, and the white sailor hat, +with the white silk band about it to match. And nothing could have been +more dainty than her neat kid boots and gloves. + +Langdon raised his hat to this fair young vision of loveliness with all +the gallantry he was capable of, and away they went in high spirits and +high glee, and with never a thought in Dorothy's heart of poor Jack +toiling at that moment in the book-bindery. + +It was a delightful sail down the bay, and when they arrived at their +destination they found the island thronged with a merry group of +pleasure seekers. + +The hours flew by on golden wings. Dusk gathered. Night soon drew her +sable curtains, and pinned them with a star. + +They dined sumptuously at the Hotel Castleton, and then went back to the +picnic grounds, which were ablaze with light and color, resounding to +the merry strains of music, the babble of gay voices and joyous +laughter, and the sound of feet keeping step in the dance. + +Never had Dorothy enjoyed herself so well. Harry Langdon was the prince +of escorts. He knew how to make himself agreeable and entertaining. He +whispered tender words into his companion's ears, held her little hand, +and conveyed to her in a thousand different ways that this was the +happiest day of his life, because she was by his side. + +At length the hour drew near for the picknickers to leave the grounds, +for the boat had already steamed into the dock. In twenty minutes' time +she was to start back to the city. + +"Have you had a pleasant time, Dorothy?" asked her companion, smiling +down into her pleased, flushed face. + +"I have had the most pleasant hours of my life!" declared Dorothy. "It +has been like heaven here; I am sorry to go. And oh! how dark and drear +to-morrow will be in the bindery, after such a pleasant outing here." + +"You need not return to the bindery to-morrow unless you wish," +whispered Langdon, still holding the girl's little hand in his. + +Dorothy's heart beat high. Was handsome Harry Langdon about to propose +to her? she wondered. + +But no! the words she was waiting for did not fall from his lips, +although he had plenty of opportunity as they walked down the gayly +festooned path that led to the wharf. + +"Perhaps he means to wait until he gets on the boat," she thought, with +a fluttering heart. + +Poor little Dorothy! there was no one to warn her against him. How was +she to realize that the thought of marriage had never entered his head, +and that he was of the kind who smile on and flatter women and then ride +away, little caring how many broken hearts are left behind? + +Dorothy's pretty, innocent face had captivated his fancy, but he would +never have dreamed of making her his wife. + +As they neared the boat, so great was the crowd clambering on board that +Dorothy would have been separated from her companion had she not clung +to his arm. + +"You need never go back to the book-bindery, Dorothy," he managed to +whisper again. + +At that moment they stepped aboard the steamer and started toward the +upper deck. + +It had been a happy day for Dorothy, but a most miserable one for poor +Jack. Contrary to his expectations, he finished the task allotted to him +much sooner than he had anticipated, and by two o'clock he was ready to +quit the book-bindery for the day. + +Hurrying home, he quickly changed his clothing, smiling the while as he +thought of putting the wish into execution that had been in his heart +all day, of joining the crowd up at West Point; and how delighted +Dorothy would be to see him--what a surprise it would be to her! + +His mother and his cousin watched him out of sight from their humble +cottage door, and then turned back to their duties with a sigh. They had +hoped that he would spend the day with them. + +With a joyful heart Jack boarded the boat for West Point, but when he +reached there and found that Dorothy was not among the group, his +disappointment knew no bounds. + +"My tender-hearted little darling!" he thought. "She would not join them +for a day's pleasure because she thought I could not go, and she is +having a lonely time of it at home." + +Back to the city Jack posted in all haste, and although the hour was +late when he reached there--the clocks in the belfries sounding the hour +of nine--still he could not refrain from stopping a moment at the +cottage, just to let Dorothy know how cruelly fate had tricked him. + +To his great consternation, he learned there, from the lady who kept the +boarding-house, that Dorothy--his Dorothy--had left the house at two +o'clock that afternoon with handsome Mr. Langdon, and that they had +started for Staten Island for a day's outing. + +He stood quite still, stupefied with amazement too great for words, and +a white, awful horror broke over his face and shone in his eyes. + +"Tell me about him again!" he cried, hoarsely. "What was he like--this +man who took Dorothy away?" And as he listened to the description his +face grew stormy with terrible wrath, for it tallied exactly with that +of the man who had put Dorothy in the cab and rode away with her. + +Like a lightning's flash Jack tore down to the Staten Island wharf, and +was just in time to catch the out-going boat. He would surprise them, he +told himself, and tear little Dorothy, his promised bride, from his +rival's arms, or die in the attempt. + +All the way down the bay Jack paced the deck in a tumult of fury that +increased with every breath he drew. + +The half hour that it took to reach his destination seemed as endless as +the pangs of purgatory to lost souls. He never knew how the journey was +made, or how he reached the island--flaming with lights on this gala +night, and gorgeous with flags and gilded banners. + +There were few passengers going down to Staten Island. The steamer had +come to take the revellers back to the city, and the gang-plank was no +sooner lowered than the crowd rushed aboard with happy laughter and gay +repartee. Among the first to gain a foothold on the stairway that led to +the upper deck were Harry Langdon and Dorothy; and here, face to face, +they met--Jack! + +"Unhand that young girl!" he cried, sternly, facing Langdon. "You have +no right to be here with her." + +Langdon started back, and glanced in haughty amazement at the +broad-shouldered, fair-haired young man confronting him. + +But without waiting for him to answer, Jack turned to Dorothy, holding +out his hands to her, saying huskily: + +"Leave him, little one, and come with me." + +But Dorothy threw back her head with rising anger. + +"How _dare_ you, Jack Garner!" she cried, stamping her tiny foot, her +blue eyes flashing. "I shall never speak to you again for +this--_never_!" + +"Step out of our way," cried Dorothy's companion, "and allow this young +lady and myself to pass!" + +"You shall never pass me with her!" cried Jack, furiously, his hand +stealing involuntarily to his breast pocket. + +"Step aside; we wish to go on deck!" returned Langdon, haughtily, "and +we intend to do so!" + +"You will never go on deck with her, unless it be over my dead body!" +cried Garner, his face white as death, his voice trembling with +excitement, and his brown eyes flashing like living coals of fire. + +"_You_ can not prevent me," retorted Langdon, in a sneering, +contemptuous voice. Then, turning to Dorothy, he added: "I am glad that +I am here to stand between you and this intrusive fellow. Come; I will +thrust him aside, and we will go on deck, my dear." + +The familiarity with which he addressed his companion stung Jack to +madness. + +"You can pass on deck alone, but not one step shall you proceed with +that young girl! Try it at your peril!" shouted Jack, hoarsely. + +Langdon did not heed the terrible warning, but attempted to push past +with his companion; and in that instant the passengers crowding up from +below heard the wild, piercing, terrified cry of the young girl ring out +on the night air, and mingled with it the report of a revolver--three +shots in quick succession--and the voice of a man crying out in mortal +agony: "My God! I am shot!" and the next instant a beautiful, +fair-haired girl plunged from the deck down, down into the dark, mad +waves, and the seething waters closed quickly over her golden head and +white, lovely, childish face. + +In an instant there was the most intense excitement and confusion on +board the steamer. Young girls fainted, women cried aloud, and strong +men stood fairly paralyzed with horror. Great God! the steamer was +backing slowly over the spot where the girl had gone down, and where she +would reappear. Nothing could save her now. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +All in an instant the cry rang from lip to lip: "There's a man +overboard!" Will he save her? Oh, heavens, is he too late to save the +life of the beautiful, rash girl who had plunged into the mad waters +scarcely a moment before, or will it mean death for both of them? + +He had disappeared beneath the steamer. The next moment that passed +seemed the length of eternity to the horrified spectators who lined the +dock and the decks, straining their eyes looking down into the dark +waters lighted up so fitfully by the pallid moonlight. + +He rose, and a great cry broke from every lip. He was alone, and almost +instantly he disappeared again. And again he rose, still alone. Every +heart sank. People held their breath. Useless, useless to hope. The poor +girl's fate was sealed. + +Then a mighty cheer broke forth. The waters parted, and they saw him +again. This time he was making for the shore, holding in one arm the +body of the luckless young girl whom he had risked his own life to save. + +Suddenly they heard him utter a sharp cry. + +"A rope! A rope! I am sinking!" + +In less time than it takes to tell it, a score or more of strong arms +hurled one out to him, and he caught it in the nick of time. + +Then amidst the greatest excitement he was drawn to the deck with his +inanimate burden. + +So intense had been the excitement that the passengers who had stood +nearest the principals in the bitter quarrel which had taken place had +lost track entirely of the fact that a tragedy had almost been enacted +in their midst. + +And when they began to inquire into the matter no one could tell what +had become of the man who had cried out that he had been shot, and they +considered it a false alarm. + +Had this lovely young girl anything to do with this matter, or was it a +coincidence that at the self-same moment she had flung herself into the +water? + +Meanwhile, kindly hands took the burden from the young man's arms. As he +was drawn on deck some one in the crowd cried out in consternation: + +"Great Heavens! It's Jack Garner! And the girl whom he has saved is +little Dorothy Glenn!" + +There was much speculation as to why the girl had attempted to commit +suicide; but Jack's friend, a fellow-workman in the book-bindery, +declared quickly that it never could have been a case of attempted +suicide--the girl must have fallen overboard, and Jack had of course +sprung to the rescue. + +This looked plausible enough; and what they had all expected to be a +great sensation seemed to turn out but an accident pure and simple. + +As for Langdon, he had suddenly disappeared in the crowd after striking +at the revolver which Jack had drawn upon him and crying out mockingly +that he was shot when it was discharged, simply to get Jack into trouble +and to get sympathy for himself. + +They found it no easy matter to restore the girl to consciousness, and +at this juncture an old gentleman, a retired doctor who had been in the +cabin when the accident had happened, came hurriedly to her assistance +when he heard that she was beyond the skill of those attending her in +the ladies' cabin. + +"Stand back!" he cried, forcing his way through the crowd of women. "How +do you suppose you can bring her to while you stand round her and +exclude the air? And by all that's wonderful, although you poured brandy +down her throat, no one seemed to know enough to open her dress!" + +And forthwith he began hurriedly to open the dress at the throat. But as +he did so a low cry broke from his lips, and his florid old face turned +deathly white. + +"My God, it is she!" he cried, hoarsely; and despite the curious throng +about him, the old doctor burst into tears and wept like a child. + +He felt that some explanation was due, and in a broken, husky voice he +said, pointing to a small, irregular mark over the girl's chest: + +"I have been searching for her for sixteen years by night and by day, +and finally abandoned all hope of finding her. She--she is not a +relative, as you may suppose. A few words will explain: + +"Some sixteen years ago I had a beautiful ward, as fair a young girl as +ever the sun shone on, and I, a lonely old man who had outlived all his +kinsfolk, loved her with all the devotion of my heart. + +"She was happy enough in my home--aye, as happy as the day was long, +but, like many another young girl, the bitter trial of life came with +her first dream of love. She fell in love with a scoundrel. I knew the +man better than she, and refused my consent. But young girls are +willful, and the upshot of the whole matter was--she eloped with him. It +was the most terrible blow of my life. Two years went by, in which I +neither saw nor heard of her. Then unexpectedly I received a short, +hastily written letter from my heart-broken Alice. + +"'When you read this I shall be no more,' she wrote. 'Oh, Doctor Bryan, +I have paid the penalty of my folly with my life. I am slowly dying of +starvation. For myself, I bow to the fate I have brought upon my own +head. But the result of my folly does not rest here. It falls upon the +head of an innocent little babe whom I must leave behind me. Oh, Doctor +Bryan, this is the prayer that in the last moments of my life I make to +you: + + "'Plead with the little one's father to let her come to + you. If he keeps her, may God in heaven pity her + future. He will blast her life as he did mine, or--if + it suits his pleasure, he will abandon her on the + streets to starve, as I am doing now. If I could think + that she would be with you, I would die without this + heavy load on my heart. She is so fair and + beautiful--my poor little baby! She has only one + blemish--the same scar is upon her bosom that is upon + mine, and which I have heard you say was upon the bosom + of my mother--the birthmark of the three spears. + + "'I can not write any more. My hand trembles so that I + can scarcely hold the pen. + + "'Good-bye, Doctor Bryan. Never forget your poor, + heart-broken ALICE.' + +"I searched for her night and day," repeated the old man, with a sob in +his voice. "Alice died at sea, and the fate of the little one could not +be learned, nor that of the father. I never ceased searching until the +last year. Then I said to myself, 'It is useless--useless. Alice's baby +is dead.' But I have found her most miraculously at last, thank God!" + +This revelation created the most intense excitement among the women, who +had listened breathlessly to the _dénouement_. + +He had scarcely ceased speaking ere Dorothy opened her eyes. She found +to her great consternation a crowd surrounding her. + +But in an instant memory returned to her, and with a startled cry she +struggled up to a sitting posture, gazing in blank bewilderment upon the +crowd that had gathered about her. + +"I--I fainted and fell backward," she began; but the old gentleman bent +quickly over her, interrupting, hastily: + +"Yes, you fell backward and down into the water, my child, and came near +drowning. Where is the young man who saved her?" he cried. "Will some +one fetch him here at once to me, so that I may thank him? Oh, child, +child!" he cried, again bending over Dorothy, "I would have recognized +you among ten thousand! You look at me with your mother's eyes!" + +"My mother?" cried Dorothy, in awe, thinking that she had not heard +aright, or that the gentleman had mistaken her for some one else. "I--I +am an orphan; my name is Dorothy Glenn." + +The old gentleman did not utter the words that sprang to his lips when +she mentioned the name Glenn, though his face darkened for an instant +with bitter memory. + +"But will you tell me," cried Dorothy, with a piteous sob, "what has +become of my escort, Mr. Langdon?" + +Nobody seemed to know, and it soon became apparent to everyone--even to +the girl herself--that in her peril he had miserably deserted her rather +than risk his life to save hers. + +"Another young man periled his life for you," some one answered; but who +it was Dorothy could not learn, and in that moment she was glad enough +to call for Jack--poor, faithful Jack Garner. + +But he did not come this time at her bidding. No one told her that he +was suffering from a severe contusion on the side of the head, and was +scarcely conscious of the message that was sent him at that time. + +"You have no need of their protection. From this time henceforth you +shall be under my watchful care, little Dorothy;" and very briefly, and +to her intense amazement, Mr. Bryan told her the story that he had +already related to those about her. "I shall take you home with me," he +said, "and you shall never again know want." + +To the girl it seemed as though what she had heard was but the wild +vagaries of a dream, from which she should awaken presently and find +herself back in the old book-bindery with the other girls. But the +exclamations of the people who pressed around her congratulating her +upon her good fortune, which read so much like a romance, were real +enough, for they all knew Doctor Bryan, the wealthy old retired +physician, whose elegant country place was just outside of New York. + +The loss of Dorothy's handsome lover, who had forsaken her in so +shameful a manner, would have been a terrible blow to her had she had +time to think and brood over the matter. But this new excitement that +had come so suddenly upon her, making part and parcel of her life, threw +her thoughts in quite a different channel. How surprised Harry Langdon +would be when he heard the wonderful news, and how all the book-bindery +girls would hold their breath in astonishment too great for words when +she did not come to work on the following day, but got a letter from her +instead, explaining the wonderful change in her fortunes! Nadine Holt +would be green with envy, and so would the rest of the girls, down in +the secret depths of their hearts. There was only one among them who +would rejoice because her working-days among them were over, and that +was Jessie Staples, who had always declared Dorothy was born to be a +real lady. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Great was the consternation at Gray Gables, as the Bryan mansion was +called, when the doctor drove up to the door in the old family carriage, +and the housekeeper, looking from the window, saw a young girl seated by +his side. + +For many years past he had had the strongest aversion to young girls, +and it was over sixteen years since one had crossed that threshold. No +wonder that the housekeeper was amazed to see him assist her from the +carriage and lead her by the hand up the broad walk toward the porch. + +"Great Heaven!" cried Mrs. Kemp, as they drew nearer, "it looks like +Miss Alice; but it couldn't be her; for long years have passed +since--since the night she ran away. It must be her daughter--yes, that +is it!" + +All of a tremble, she hastened to the door, and flung it open wide. She +could see by Mr. Bryan's face that something unusual had occurred, even +before her eyes rested on the fair young creature beside him. + +"Mrs. Kemp," he said, huskily, "I have here with me one who will +surprise you greatly when you hear her name--nay, astound you." + +"I can see for myself that she bears a striking resemblance to--to--" +and the rest of the sentence was lost in a choking sob. + +"I am sorry that I make you feel so bad," said the fresh young voice; +and the next instant a pair of plump arms were about the old lady's neck +and a soft, velvety cheek was pressed close to hers. "Doctor Bryan has +told me all my history," the girl cried in the same breath--"how he has +been searching for me all these years, finding me at last; and that I am +hereafter to live in this grand old place. And I have been fairly crying +with joy all the way up from New York to-day. I could not help but +scream with delight, though I know it quite horrified Doctor Bryan, when +I saw the house and the magnificent grounds around it. As soon as I take +off my hat I want to run into the garden and see the rose-bushes with +real roses growing on them, and see what a house is like. I've always +lived in a tenement flat or boarding-house." + +It made Mrs. Kemp laugh, even through her tears, at the girl's wild +enthusiasm. She was like an untrained, untutored child, despite her +years, she thought. + +The doctor's eyes grew moist as he listened, and during the few days +that followed he watched her from his study window with unfeigned +delight. She appeared to him more like a child of seven than a young +lady of seventeen. + +She was too busy in looking over the place, for the next fortnight, to +carry out her intention of writing to the girls. + +She seemed to have been lifted into a different world, where the dark +past lay far behind her. + +At this juncture an event happened which cast a dark shadow over all +poor Dorothy's after life. + +She was out in the garden one day with Mrs. Kemp, when the doctor joined +them, holding a telegram in his hand. + +"I have just received word from Harry that he will be here to-morrow," +he said, with a pleased expression on his face. "I hope that you will +see that a room is put in readiness for him." + +"To be sure, sir," responded the housekeeper, with a little courtesy. + +His footsteps had scarcely died away ere Dorothy turned eagerly to her +companion. + +"Who is Harry?" she asked, with all a young girl's curiosity. + +"He is a young gentleman who has been studying medicine with Dr. Bryan +for the last year," returned the housekeeper, adding, with a slight +frown on her comely face: "The doctor is quite fond of him. He has been +away for the last three months, and the house has been so nice and quiet +without him." + +"By the way you speak one wouldn't fancy that you liked this Mr. Harry," +laughed Dorothy. + +The housekeeper turned grimly away. + +"But what is he like?" persisted Dorothy, pursuing the subject. + +"Is he young--is he handsome?" + +"Handsome is as handsome does," replied Mrs. Kemp, ominously. + +"Doesn't he do handsome?" retorted Dorothy, throwing back her curly head +with a rich mellow laugh, adding: "But what is he like, anyhow? Is he +dark or fair, young or old?" + +"No doubt he will strike you as being quite handsome," returned Mrs. +Kemp, thoughtfully. "He has very dark eyes and dark waving hair. Young +girls would consider him quite good looking." + +"And will he, too, live in the house with us?" asked Dorothy, curiously. + +"You had better ask Doctor Bryan," responded Mrs. Kemp, evasively. + +The next morning, as Dorothy stepped out into the garden to gather +flowers for the breakfast-table, she came suddenly upon a young man +pacing up and down under the trees with his hands in his pockets, +smoking a cigar. + +When he heard the light, pattering footsteps he wheeled round, and was +just about to raise his hat to the vision of girlish loveliness before +him when a low cry of intense astonishment broke from his lips. + +"Dorothy Glenn, by all that is wonderful!" he exclaimed. + +The amazement was mutual. + +"Harry Langdon!" the girl shrieked, turning pale as death. + +"What in the name of Heaven brings you to this house?" he cried, +hoarsely, catching her wrist and holding it in a tight grip. + +"You have no right to know, after the way you deserted me in my peril," +flashed Dorothy. + +"But how came you here," he repeated, "of all places in the world? I +must know!" + +The girl briefly outlined how it happened, her anger rising against her +questioner with every word; and as he listened his face was a study. + +"Dorothy," he said, in his low, smooth voice, "you accuse me of not +trying to save you when you fell overboard. But let me speak just one +word in my own defense: You remember just what was taking place as we +reached the deck. You heard the shot, but you fainted and did not know +what happened. The bullet whizzed by me, and I fell back on the deck +stunned--unconscious. I did not recover until long after the steamer +reached New York. All the people had dispersed long before I returned to +consciousness. I made diligent search for you, and to my great horror it +soon dawned upon me that not one whom you knew could tell me whither you +had gone." + +Dorothy was young and guileless, or he could never have fooled her so +easily. But the story seemed very plausible to her ears, and her face +brightened. + +It was a great load lifted from her heart--her trustful belief that +handsome Mr. Langdon had not been false to her after all. + +"Now, Dorothy, I have something to say to you," he began. "Walk down +this path with me, for you must listen intently to what I have to say to +you. I have a little confession to make to you, and a favor to ask, and +surely you are too kind of heart and too good a friend to me to refuse. +I had intended telling you this upon our return on the boat. My name is +not Harry Langdon, as you have believed, but Harry Langdon Kendal. + +"I am studying medicine with Doctor Bryan, instead of law, as I once led +you to believe. And as to the great expectations I told you about, I +confess that they exist only in my mad hopes that Doctor Bryan, who is +alone in the world, without kith or kin, might take a fancy to leave me +something some day. He does not know of my rash wager, and that by +losing it I was forced to go to New York and place myself on a street +car as conductor for a while. He would disapprove of it if he knew, and, +Dorothy, you must never tell him--promise me that here and now--he must +never know that we have ever met before!" + +Dorothy did not hesitate to give him the required assurance, for which +he thanked her so profusely that it brought the warm blushes in a +flood-tide to the girl's dimpled cheeks; and Mrs. Kemp wondered why +Dorothy looked so happy as she entered the house. + +Left to himself, Kendal paced excitedly under the trees, puffing away +vigorously at his cigar. + +"A devil of a fix this," he muttered, setting his white teeth hard +together. "Great Heaven! this is a romance in real life more strangely +weird than any fiction. Who would have thought of finding this girl +here, of all persons in the world, and under such circumstances! And +then, to make matters worse, I have been making violent love to the +girl. It was all very well to make desperate love to the little New York +working-girl, but to make love to Miss Glenn, the doctor's _protégée_, +is quite another matter. I shall be expected to ask for her hand in +marriage, of course, and she without a dollar. No, thanks! I'd rather +that some other fellow would woo and win the little blue-eyed fairy. +When it comes to marrying I must have a girl with money, who can put up +the needful for both if necessary. If she will only keep my secret I +will be but too grateful!" + +Meanwhile, Dorothy had stolen up to her own room, and at that moment was +standing before the mantel, resting her elbows on it, her dimpled chin +upon her hands, gazing wistfully into the mirror's depths at the lovely +young face it reflected. + +"Oh, how my cheeks burn!" she cried, excitedly, "and how my heart thumps +even yet. I was sure he would hear it. I thought I should never see him +again, but it is fate that brings us together here. I shall always +believe in it firmly and truly after this. He cares for me. He as much +as told me so on the night that we went to the moonlight picnic on +Staten Island, and the fortune-teller who told my fortune said--when all +of us bindery girls visited her one day--'I see a short journey for you, +miss--a dark young man and a marriage-ring;'" and for the next ten +minutes Dorothy capered around the room, dancing in such hoidenish, +girlish glee that she would fairly have shocked the old housekeeper +could she have seen her. "It's all coming true!" cried Dorothy, +breathlessly, to herself. But not one thought did she give to poor Jack, +whose betrothal-ring she carried pinned to her pocket. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +How the hours passed up to luncheon time Dorothy never afterward +realized, her foolish little heart was in such a flutter of excitement. + +She knew she should meet Harry at the table, and oh! it would be so hard +to pretend before Doctor Bryan and the stern, keen-eyed old housekeeper +that they were strangers. + +She had but two dresses as yet, which the housekeeper had provided her +with, and she tried on each of them in succession to see which looked +best on her. + +Which should it be? The pale-blue merino or the rose-pink cashmere? + +After much studying and slipping on and off, Dorothy decided upon +wearing the rose-pink. + +She was scarcely dressed ere the luncheon bell rang. + +Taking up her handkerchief, Dorothy flew down the stairway, pausing +before the doorway to catch her breath and to summon courage to enter. + +But the longer she stood there the more difficult it seemed to get +courage enough to open the door and face the music. At length she heard +Doctor Bryan inquire surprisedly of Mrs. Kent: + +"Where can Dorothy be, I wonder?" + +And the next instant they heard a faint voice exclaim: + +"Here I am, please." + +And, turning to see from whence the sound proceeded, they all saw +distinctly that the door was open the space of an inch, and that a +human eye was applied to the crack, while four little fingers clutched +it frantically to keep it open. + +"Come in, Dorothy," commanded Mr. Bryan, inwardly highly amused at the +girl's bashfulness in venturing in when she saw a stranger seated at the +board. + +Dorothy opened the door, stumbled over the mat, and, with a face red as +a beet, walked awkwardly to the table and took her seat, which happened +to be directly opposite Harry's. + +She did not dare for the life of her to look at him, for she knew that +his black eyes were bent upon her. She felt them scorching down into her +soul. + +"Dorothy," said Mr. Bryan, pompously, "allow me to present to you my +young friend, Mr. Kendal." + +"I am right glad to see him, sir," said Dorothy, faintly, without +raising her eyes. + +Noticing her embarrassment, Doctor Bryan quickly turned the conversation +into another channel; but he soon observed that his young friend was +looking at the girl across the table, almost convulsed with laughter. + +It took but one glance that way to see the cause. + +In her great confusion Dorothy was making dire efforts to eat her soup +with a fork, catching occasionally a stray bean. + +"Remove the soup plates!" roared the doctor to the servant who stood in +waiting, and who was also grinning at the girl's discomfiture. + +It was the most confusing meal that Dorothy had ever sat down to. + +And when she arose from the table she was far hungrier than when she sat +down. + +She had scarcely eaten a good solid mouthful. + +Oh, it was so hard to act out such a falsehood as handsome Harry had +prevailed upon her to do. + +During the fortnight that followed, she became more used to the +situation, but it was no little wonder, both to the housekeeper and +Doctor Bryan, what excellent friends they were getting to be in so short +a time. + +It could not be that they were falling in love with each other; and the +doctor looked rather serious at the last thought. + +As for Dorothy, it was quite a clear case; she was deeply in love with +Harry Kendal. Like all girls, her day-dreams were rosy. It was so sweet +to wander with him through the grand grounds surrounding Gray Gables, or +sit in the sunshine in the clover meadow beyond, with the babbling brook +at their feet, and the great branches of the oak trees over their heads, +and listen to him while he read such sweet poems to her--poems of how +some lover loved a lassie, and how bright was their future. + +But still there was a change in him; he wasn't just like he used to be +when she was only Dorothy Glenn, working for her living in the +book-bindery. And just to show him that she did not notice the change, +and did not care, she was so gay and hoidenish, so full of repartee and +laughter, that she saw him open his eyes in wonder more than once; and +Doctor Bryan gave her the _soubriquet_ of "Madcap Dorothy," which seemed +to suit her exactly. + +There was no prank that could ever have entered a roguish girl's brain +which she did not play upon Kendal. + +This phase of her character rather annoyed Kendal than pleased him; and +it seemed to him that she took a special delight in teasing him. She hid +his slippers, slipped briars into his couch, turned tack-points upward +in his lounging chairs, and substituted periodicals a month old for his +morning journals and magazines, until he almost grew to detest her for +becoming the torment of his life. Shrewd as he was in the ways of young +girls, he did not know that this is the course which many a young girl +pursues toward a young man with whom she has fallen in love, and would +not have him know it for the whole world. + +If there was anything which Kendal detested, it was a girl who was +always on the lookout to turn every word and action into a joke. He +preferred them modest and flower-like; still, he was in duty bound to +treat her as well as he could because she was under that roof. + +And there was another reason why he began to abhor Dorothy. Before her +appearance on the scene, there had been a wild hope in his heart that +some day he might possibly inherit a good portion of Doctor Bryan's +money. For two years or more he had left no stone unturned to get into +the old gentleman's good graces. + +True, Dorothy was as much of a stranger to Doctor Bryan as he himself +was, but who knew but that, by some freak of unlucky fate, he might take +a notion to leave the girl all of his fortune? He wished to Heaven she +had never crossed the threshold of Gray Gables. + +At this turn of affairs it occurred to him that it would not be a bad +idea to test the old gentleman's friendship for himself; and the +greatest of all tests, he believed, was to borrow money from him. If +Doctor Bryan refused this little favor, he reasoned to himself, all his +hopes in regard to inheriting the old gentleman's money, in time to +come, would be dashed. He would ask him for a small loan; and on the +very day this occurred to him he proceeded to put it into execution, +saying to himself: + + "'He either fears his fate too much, + Or his deserts are small, + Who fears to put it to, the touch + To win or lose it all.'" + +He knew that he should find the doctor in his study directly after +luncheon, and here he presented himself with some trepidation. + +"Come in," called the doctor, in answer to his knock. + +"Oh, it's _you_, is it, Harry?" he exclaimed, placing a chair for him, +which the young man took rather awkwardly. + +"It is not often I trouble you in your study, sir," began Harry, "but I +have something of importance to say to you, and I beg that you will +pardon the intrusion. I chose a time when we will be least apt to be +interrupted." + +"I wouldn't advise you to begin it if it will take long to tell," said +Mr. Bryan, "for we might be interrupted at any moment. I am expecting an +old friend, who is to accompany me on a horse-back ride. He ought to +have been here by this time." + +Harry fidgeted nervously about in his chair. It required something of +an effort to make his request carelessly. + +"You are the only one," he began, a little disconcertedly, "I feel sure, +who can help me in my present dilemma." + +The old doctor wheeled suddenly around in his chair, and all in an +instant the object of the young man's visit flashed over his mind. + +"To my mind he is come to tell me that he has fallen head over heels in +love with little Dorothy, and wants to marry her;" and with the thought +a broad smile crept up to the lips the white beard covered. + +He had never been in love himself--but, for all that, he always +sympathized with young folks in their tender affairs of the heart, and +many a secret sigh escaped his lips for the lost opportunities of the +past. + +"Well," he began, brusquely, "why don't you proceed, my boy?" + +"It is such a delicate matter," began Kendal, "that I scarcely know how +to frame the words. You have always been so kind to me in the past, that +the remembrance of it has led me to dare hope that your goodness will +not desert me in the present emergency." + +"Well," said the old gentleman, rather enjoying the young man's evident +discomfiture, "pray go on." + +"The boon I have to ask," began Kendal, "will either make or mar my +future." + +"Is it so bad as that?" returned the old gentleman with assumed +innocence. + +"You could never imagine what it is that I wish to ask," continued the +young man. + +"I might guess, perhaps," laughed the doctor, with a roguish twinkle in +his eye. + +"Surely you--you couldn't have noticed the one great wish of my heart," +gasped Kendal. "I--" + +At that moment the expected visitor was announced. + +"Come and see me in my library this evening," said Doctor Bryan, +grasping the young man's hand, "and we will talk over the matter you +have so much at heart, and I will give you my answer in regard to it." + +"You are too good, sir," cried Kendal, in bewilderment. + +At that moment the entrance of the visitor put a stop to all further +conversation, and Kendal arose and took his leave after an exchange of +greetings. + +"How could he possibly have divined that I was thinking of asking him +for money?" he pondered. + +He heard Dorothy singing at the top of her voice in the drawing-room, +and he turned on his heel in the hallway, and walked in an opposite +direction with a frown of impatience on his face. + +Dorothy saw him pass the door, and she bit her lip with vexation. + +"Of course he heard me playing on the piano, for I thumped as loud as +ever I could; but he did not come in. It seems to me he is trying 'to +cool off,' as we girls in the bindery used to say." + +Dorothy tiptoed over to the window as she heard the front door slam +after him, and if he had looked back he would have seen a very defiant +though tear-stained face peering earnestly after him from behind the +lace curtains. + +Kendal walked disconsolately enough through the spacious grounds and out +into the main road, little dreaming that a strange fate was drawing him +onward with each step he took. + +He had traveled a mile or more over the country road, when suddenly he +was startled by the sound of horses' hoofs. + +The next instant, from around the bend in the road, a horse dashed +riderless, covered with foam, and so near him that he had to spring +aside or its hoofs would have been buried in his brain. One glance, and +a cry of horror broke from his lips. It was Doctor Bryan's horse. + +Great God! where was he? Kendal realized that there had been a terrible +accident, and that at that moment the doctor lay dying--perhaps dead--by +the road-side. + +In all haste he rushed down the road in the direction whence the horse +had come, and around the first bend he beheld the prostrate figure of +Doctor Bryan lying covered with dust, his friend bending over him. + +In an instant he was by his side. One glance, and his worst fears were +realized--the old gentleman had been mortally injured--he was dying. He +held out his hand when he saw Kendal bending over him, and nodded assent +as his companion briefly and hurriedly related how the terrible accident +had come about. + +"I was just about to go for you," said the friend. "The doctor has +something to say to you. Surely it was the work of Providence that you +happened along just now." + +Kendal bent over the prostrate form. + +"I--I am dying, Harry!" gasped the doctor; "but that--of which we +were--talking--this--afternoon--is--uppermost--in--my--mind. +You--you--wished--me--to--give my--consent--to--to--your--wooing--and +wedding little--Dorothy. I--give--it--to +you--here--and--now--with--my--blessing--for--I--know--she--cares--for +you. Six months--from--to-day--at--noon--my--will--must be read; and on +that day you--must marry her--if ever--aye--you must--be wedded--ere +that noon-hour--shall have waned. Then--then--within that hour--you +shall know--the contents of--my will; and--remember, too, +that--it--is--irrevocable!" + +Harry Kendal reeled back, like one dazed by an awful blow. + +The suddenness of this affair had taken his breath away. But before he +could raise his voice in protest, or utter one word of the terrible +mistake which the old gentleman was laboring under, Doctor Bryan +breathed his last, and he found himself betrothed, as it were, to +Dorothy, and by the most terrible mistake that ever a man labored under. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +A fortnight had passed since the fatal accident in Brighton Woods, and +life at Gray Gables had once more resumed the even tenor of its regular +routine. + +The first words that Doctor Bryan had gasped out to his friend, when he +regained consciousness and found himself fatally injured, were: + +"Tell--tell--them at home--that--everything--must go--on--the +same--until--after--my will--has--been read--and that--must not +be--until--six--months--after--my--decease." + +The sudden loss of Doctor Bryan, the kind-hearted old gentleman who had +raised her from poverty to great wealth, was a severe blow to Dorothy. +For in that short length of time she had learned to love him, as a +daughter might have done, with all the strength of her passionate, +girlish heart. + +The old housekeeper and the servants, who had been in his employ a +quarter of a century or more, mourned for him and refused to be +comforted. + +Great was the excitement in the household when the friend who had +accompanied Doctor Bryan on that fatal ride broke to them the strange +compact between the doctor and Kendal, to which he had been a witness. + +He readily decided that it was best not to tell Dorothy the exact +situation of affairs, and that it would probably be more in accordance +with a young girl's romantic idea of marriage for Kendal to woo her on +his own account, and gain her consent, ere he breathed to her that this +was Doctor Bryan's wish. + +And this was the course that Kendal followed. He allowed fully a month +to transpire ere he made the slightest advances to her. Long and +carefully he had thought the matter over in his own mind, and had +concluded that there was no way out of the strange betrothal into which +he had been forced, as it were, against his will. + +He made up his mind to accept the situation gracefully and become +engaged to Dorothy, and if he found out that she had not been remembered +in the old gentleman's will, he could break it without one word of +warning or the least compunction. He noticed, too, that Dorothy was +growing quite shy of him of late. She had been quite fond of him in the +past; it would never do to allow her to grow indifferent to him. He +made up his mind to settle the matter--as far as the engagement was +concerned--at the first opportunity; and one presented itself on the +very day he made this resolve. + +Dorothy was in the conservatory that afternoon, when he suddenly +surprised her, stealing up on tip-toe behind her, clasped her in his +arms, holding his hands over her eyes, whispering: + +"Guess who it is, Dorothy." + +The struggle to escape those firm arms suddenly ceased. The girl was +dumbfounded with amazement. + +"Is it--can it be you, Harry--Mr. Kendal?" she gasped, breathlessly. + +"Do you wish it were some one else, Dorothy?" he whispered, releasing +her from his arms, but catching her hands in a tight clasp and looking +eagerly down into her eyes. + +The girl's face flushed burning red, and her gaze fell beneath a pair of +dark eyes that seemed to search into her very soul. But in an instant +she recovered something of her old hoidenish composure; and in that +moment she remembered, too, how he had seemed to slight her of late, and +her pride rebelled hotly. + +"How dare you frighten me so, Harry Kendal?" she cried, drawing back and +stamping her little foot, her blue eyes blazing angrily. + +"Are you so very displeased?" he inquired, reproachfully, adding +quietly: "If that is the case, I beg your pardon. I shall never so +trespass again;" and he dropped her hand and turned away, walking +moodily to the window. + +"Gracious! I have done it now!" thought Dorothy, repenting on the +instant; and, as he made no effort to turn around or speak to her +again, she advanced slowly to where he stood idly drumming upon the +window-sill. + +"I wasn't so very angry," she began, hesitatingly, picking nervously at +the blue ribbons which tied her long, curling hair. "I said I wasn't so +very angry!" repeated Dorothy, nervously. He heard her, but never turned +his head, and Dorothy was at a loss what to say next to mend matters. +"Would you like a rose?" she stammered. + +"Thanks--no!" replied Kendal, shortly, still without turning his head. +Then, after a brief pause: + +"Or would you like me to show you a new book of poems I just bought?" + +"You needn't mind. Pray don't trouble yourself," he responded. + +Dorothy looked at him an instant, quite as though she was ready to cry; +then the best thing that could have happened, under the circumstances, +came to her relief. + +She grew angry. + +"I wouldn't show you the book now, to save your life!" she cried, her +breath coming and going in panting gasps, and her cheeks flaming as +scarlet as the deep-red rose she had brought him as a peace-offering; +"nor would I give you this flower. I'd tear it up and stamp it beneath +my feet first--you are so mean!" + +He turned with a very tantalizing smile, and looked at her out of the +corners of his eyes. + +She had hidden her face in her hands, but by the panting of her breast +he saw that she was weeping, that a storm of sobs was shaking her +childish frame. + +He stooped and passed his arm lightly around the slim waist, his hand +holding hers. + +Dorothy trembled. + +"Won't you let me comfort you?" he asked, in that low, winning voice of +his. + +The thought flashed across Dorothy's brain that, if she pushed him from +her, he would never again put his arms about her, and she meekly endured +the caress for an instant; and not being repulsed, he grew bold enough +to kiss the rosy cheek that peeped out from between the white fingers. + +"I have something to say to you, Dorothy," he whispered. "It is this: I +love you! Will you be my wife?" + +Dorothy had always imagined just how a lover should propose, but she had +never imagined anything so commonplace as this. + +He stooped to caress her again, but she drew back. + +"You frighten me!" she cried; and at these words he instantly released +her. + +"It is alarming--being kissed--and especially when you're not used to +it. But that does not answer my question. Will you marry me, or will you +not?" + +"I don't know!" cried Dorothy, faintly. "You mustn't ask me; you must +talk to Mrs. Kemp about it." + +"I might talk to Mrs. Kemp about changing my room in the house, or ask +her concerning anything belonging to the household, but I couldn't think +of asking her to find me a wife and to seal the bargain for me. The +'Yes' or 'No' must be said by the girl herself, as she is the one who is +to live with me and to make the best or the worst of the bargain +through life. Now, Dorothy, I want a plain, straightforward answer. +Tell me, will you be my bride?" + +She colored and smiled, and the sort of shy half fear which always +assailed her at his approach came over her now more strongly than ever, +and the quick blood came rushing to her finger-ends. + +"I--don't know what to say!" gasped Dorothy. "I couldn't marry anybody, +I think." + +His arms dropped from about her. + +"Am I to understand, then," he asked, in a constrained voice, "that you +refuse me?" + +"Oh, I don't know!" cried Dorothy, melting into fresh, quick tears. +"I--I--should want to ask somebody about it first before I said 'Yes.'" + +He had quite believed that she would accept him on the spot the moment +he proposed, and her failure to do this made him almost catch his breath +in astonishment. + +This uncertainty in the matter gave more zest to his ardor. + +"You dislike me?" he questioned, wondering if that could possibly be. + +"Oh, no, no! I like you. Won't you believe me?" + +He stepped back and looked at her with a sarcastic smile--looked at the +little figure leaning against the fountain, with one hand resting on the +rim of it, the other held out imploringly toward him. + +"Believe you? Why do you insist upon making me uncivil?" he replied. "I +do _not_ believe you! I dare say you fancy that you are telling the +truth; but if another man were to come on the scene with a few thousands +a year more, and a higher position in the social scale, you would have +a very different answer for him at your tongue's end." + +He looks at her--looks at the innocently wooing arms--at the +tear-stained, dimpled, tremulous face, and, now that he thinks that he +can not win her, all in an instant he falls madly in love with her. + +"You must answer me, here and now!" he cried; but Dorothy turned from +him, and, like a startled fawn, slipped through his outstretched hands, +through the conservatory, and out of the corridor beyond, leaving him +staring after her, his handsome face pale with emotion. + +Dorothy never paused until she reached her own room. + +She closed and locked the door with trembling hands and beating heart; +then, after the fashion of young girls, she laughed and cried +hysterically all in a breath, dancing around the room in a mad fashion, +clapping her hands and sobbing out: + +"Oh, at last--at last, my hero, my ideal has turned from a block of +marble to human clay, and tells me that he loves me and wants me to be +his wife--me--a silly little thing like me!" and she paused before the +glass, wondering what he saw in the pink-and-white face reflected there +to love forever and ever. She wished she knew. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Dorothy's merriment was soon interrupted by a loud knock at the door, +and when she opened it, panting with her exertion of dancing around the +room, she found Mrs. Kemp standing there, with a white, frightened face. + +"What in the world is the matter here, child?" she cried, in alarm. "I +was afraid there were burglars, or Heaven knows what, up here in this +room." + +Dorothy burst into a peal of laughter that amazed the old lady and made +the very walls echo with her bright young voice. + +"Oh, something so funny has just happened!" she gasped. "You will be as +much surprised as I was, Mrs. Kemp, when you hear it." + +The housekeeper knew just what had happened, for, although unknown to +Dorothy, she was in the conservatory when she had entered; but before +she could make her presence known Kendal had appeared upon the scene, +and the proposal of marriage had followed so quickly upon the heels of +it that she felt she could not leave without embarrassing both, so she +waited there until they had quitted the conservatory. + +As soon as she thought it practicable she followed Dorothy to her room +to congratulate her, and the sight that met her view surprised her--the +girl's face, instead of being flushed with tell-tale blushes and covered +with confusion, as she had expected, was convulsed with laughter. + +"Oh, do come in!" cried Dorothy, excitedly. "I have something that I +want to tell you--I want you to decide for me what is best to do." + +"I will give you the best advice I can," said the old housekeeper, +drawing the girl down beside her on the sofa, and putting her arm about +her. + +"I've just had a--a proposal of--of marriage. There! the whole secret is +out!" cried Dorothy, breathlessly. + +But the good old lady did not look a particle amazed, much to Dorothy's +surprise. + +"You do not ask me who it is that wants me," cried the girl, in bitter +disappointment. + +Mrs. Kemp smiled. + +"It was very easy to see that for myself," she responded. "Every one +could tell that Harry Kendal was very fond of you, my dear, and that +sooner or later he would ask you to marry him. But tell me, what answer +did you make him?" + +"I--I ran away without making any answer at all," confessed Dorothy, +shamefacedly. "I thought I could write him a note and put my answer in +it--ever so much better than to look up into his face and tell him," she +faltered. "I wonder that girls can ever say 'Yes' right up and down, +then and there; it seems so bold a thing to do. Why, I never felt so +embarrassed in my life. When I tried to say something my tongue cleaved +to the roof of my mouth. I trembled from head to foot, and--oh, +gracious!--he must have heard how my heart thumped. I know I must have +acted like the greatest simpleton the world ever held. Wasn't it +wonderful to think that he wanted to marry me? I can't understand it." + +"It is not so very wonderful, but very natural," responded Mrs. Kemp, +warmly. "I do not know whether it is wise to tell you so or not, but you +are really beautiful. Every one thinks so hereabouts. And then you are +not too young to marry--you are seventeen." + +"But I'm not a bit wise," persisted Dorothy. + +"You are quite wise enough to suit the exacting eyes of love," declared +the housekeeper, reassuringly, "and that is all that is needed. The +greatest of all questions, however, is: Do you think you care for Mr. +Kendal? Let me tell you two things, my dear--never marry a man whom you +do not love; and if the one whom you do love asks you, do not coquet +with him." + +"Will you help me to write the note to him?" cried Dorothy, drawing up a +hassock, and slipping down upon it at her companion's feet. "I want to +write it stiff and proud, as though I didn't care much, and I want to +get all the big words in it that I can." + +"Of course I will help you," replied Mrs. Kemp. "But it's many a year +since I wrote a love letter, and I'm a little awkward at it now. But as +long as it conveys the idea of 'Yes' to him, your ardent lover will +think it the grandest epistle that ever a young girl wrote." + +Such a time as there was over that letter! + +Over and over again it was copied, this word erased, and that word +inserted, until at the very best it looked more like the map of Scotland +than anything else. + +Dorothy was terribly in earnest over it. + +One would almost have thought, to have seen her, that her life was at +stake over the result of it; but at last it was finished, and one of +the servants was called to take it to Mr. Kendal's room. + +Harry was pacing restlessly up and down when it was delivered to him. He +took it eagerly and broke the seal, for he had recognized Dorothy's +cramped, school-girl chirography at once. + +"She is mine!" he cried, triumphantly; and with the knowledge that he +had won her without a doubt, his ardor suddenly cooled; he did not know +whether he was pleased or sorry over the result of his wooing. + +After he had read the letter over carefully, he fell to scrutinizing the +chirography. + +"The first thing I shall have to do will be to teach the girl how to +write a legible letter," he thought. + +Only the day before she had written a letter to Jack, which contained +but the few words that she was well and happy, and that a great change +of fortune had come into her life. But the letter bore neither date, +postmark, nor signature, and he could not tell where it had been posted. + +But it was the first intimation which Jack had had that she was in the +land of the living, and to have seen his face as he read it would have +touched a heart of stone. + +Tears sprang to his eyes, strong young man though he was, and he covered +the half-written page with burning kisses. To him those irregular, +girlish strokes were dearer than anything else this wide world held, +because they were Dorothy's. + +Although she had suddenly disappeared, and all her friends had turned +against her in the bindery, declaring that she had eloped with the +handsome, dark-eyed stranger, he still believed her true. He had been +searching for her ever since, without rest--almost without food--day and +night, until he had almost worn himself out. + +He believed she was in the city somewhere, that she had been ashamed to +return to the bindery after that scene on the steamer, and had gone some +place else to work, and he walked the streets for hours at a time, +searching for her among the crowds of working-girls as they trooped down +Broadway in laughing, chattering groups each evening, only to turn away, +alas! disappointed and almost broken-hearted. + +And thus another month dragged its slow length by. It was well that he +did not know where Dorothy was, or what was occurring during those days +of suspense. + +The news of her betrothal to handsome Harry Kendal had spread over the +entire village, and it caused no little sensation in Yonkers, on the +outskirts of which Gray Gables was situated; for every one had said that +this was the way the affair would terminate when the doctor brought the +handsome young stranger beneath the same roof with dashing, dark-eyed +Harry Kendal, the _beau-idéal_ of all the girls. + +But there was some disappointment when they learned that the marriage +would not take place for nearly half a year yet. + +"It's all very well _now_, with rosy love in their sky; but delays are +dangerous," said some people, shaking their heads ominously. + +Dorothy was as happy as the day was long, for she was learning to fairly +adore her lover, and treated him in a childish fashion which rather +amused every one who saw them together. + +If he brought her a box of _bonbons_ she would spring up and throw her +arms about his neck, like an overgrown baby, and end by giving him a +hearty smack straight on the lips--no matter who was present. + +Once or twice he had attempted to expostulate with her sternly, coldly, +but his manner so frightened her that she almost went into hysterics, +and turning away with a white, set face, he would say no more. + +What could he expect? he asked himself, grimly. He had asked an +untutored school-girl to be his wife--he had sown the wind, and now he +was commencing to reap the whirlwind. Every one else seemed highly +delighted over Dorothy's childish, romping ways; but as for himself, +they rankled upon his proud, sensitive, haughty nature. + +He loved her in such a cool, lordly manner, and poor little Dorothy was +always impressed with his superiority. She was obliged to acknowledge +that Harry Kendal was her master. She could never make him her slave. + +At this juncture an event happened that changed the current of poor +Dorothy's after life. It was election night, and the bonfires were +blazing on hill and vale, and all the young people of the village were +wild with enthusiasm over the affair. + +A great bonfire had been built in the road in front of Gray Gables, as +had been the custom for years. The old doctor had been very patriotic. + +"This year there is no one to cheer the boys on in their good work," +said the housekeeper, sadly, as they were all standing out on the porch. + +"I'll do it," cried Dorothy, and before the echo of her words had died +away rousing cheers broke from her lips, that were answered back +heartily by the crowd assembled with an enthusiastic "Hip, hip, hurrah, +and a tiger!" for the young lady of Gray Gables. + +Kendal was mortally angry, and his face grew dark. He strode up to her +and grasped her shoulder, his fingers unwittingly clinching deeply into +the soft flesh. + +"For Heaven's sake, stop, you tom-boy!" he cried. "Stop disgracing me!" + +She flung up her little head proudly. If he had spoken to her alone she +would not have cared, but before all these people! Oh, it was +unbearable. She would resent it if it killed her. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +For an instant their eyes met--his blazing dark and stormy in the clear, +bright moonlight, and his face white and wrathy; even his hands were +clinched fiercely. + +All in an instant the old fire and pride blazed up in Dorothy Glenn's +heart. + +"You shall not coerce me as if I were your very slave!" she said, +smiting her little hands together and pushing him from her, forgetting +in her great anger whether or not her action accorded well with her +dignity. "They cheered me, and I shall respond!" and before he could +utter one word of protest she had sped like a swallow down the graveled +path and out through the great arched gateway into the very midst of the +throng of merry maidens and young men who were gathered with hilarious +glee around the roaring bonfire. + +The great stacks of burning barrels and boxes sent forth a glare of red +light and columns of flame shooting skyward, lighting up the scene with +a grand, weird beauty that lent a splendor to the night. + +Great sparks flew heavenward, and the crackling sounds mingled with the +rousing cheers that rent the air. + +They all saw Dorothy, the village favorite, flying toward them, and the +great throng parted to make way for her. Then the sport of the evening +went on with renewed vigor. + +"Pile on the barrels!" cried one enthusiastic fellow. "Whether the +election is going Democratic or Republican, let's all give three cheers +for the incoming governor!" and a loud huzza that made the old town ring +broke from a couple of hundred throats, but mingled with it sounded a +wild cry of mortal terror in Dorothy's agonizing voice. + +"Oh, my God! my eyes--my eyes! the sparks--the sparks have flown into +them! They are burning! Oh, God!" + +And with that agonizing cry she fell backward in a dead faint in the +midst of the dazed crowd. + +In an instant the greatest confusion prevailed, and the shouts of +laughter were turned to sobs of wailing. + +Kind hands quickly raised her and bore her to the house. We will pass +gently, dear reader, over the two weeks that followed, for Gray Gables +was buried in the deepest sorrow. + +One of the most pitiful calamities that ever could have befallen a human +being had happened to beautiful, hapless Madcap Dorothy. Poor child! she +was blind! + +Never again would she see the light of the golden sunshine--never again +see the green, waving grass and the budding flowerets--never see the +blue sky, with its fleecy clouds, or the heavens at night blazing with +the soft, pale light of the twinkling stars--never again look upon a +human face. But while her life lasted she would grope through a world of +darkness--blind! + +The shock had been terrible to both Mrs. Kemp and Harry Kendal, and oh! +in her pitiful condition how she clung to them! + +"You will not throw me off now because I am blind, Harry?" she wailed, +laying her head against his bosom and weeping as she had never before +wept in all her young life. + +"No!" he said, huskily; and that promise reassured her. + +She clasped her white arms around his neck and clung to him in the +abandonment of her pitiful woe. + +She was wild and willful Madcap Dorothy no longer. + +During the first days of her trial friends flocked to see her, but as +they grew used to the situation they dropped off, and she was left with +only the old housekeeper, and her lover, and the servants of Gray Gables +for her companions. + +At first she grieved over the terrible calamity with all the bitterness +of her soul, then by degrees she became reconciled to it. + +But the one great anxiety of her life was in regard to her lover. He had +promised to love her still and be true to her; but would he--would he? +The very thought alarmed her soul and became the one terror of her life. + +The blind are always acute in other senses. + +She felt intuitively, as the days wore on, that he was growing cold +toward her. It was pitiful to see her grasp the hands of the little maid +that had been engaged to take care of her, and hear her beg her to dress +her prettily, and to see that every curl was in place, and the lace at +her throat and sleeves fresh and white. + +"Oh, Katy, do I look very horrible?" she would whisper, in a breath of +intense agony, over and over again a hundred times during the day. "Are +there not cruel scars on my face? Oh, God! the terrible fire burned my +eyes to their sockets--dry. Surely I must be a thing so horrible to the +sight, that people who see me turn away quickly, suppressing a cry on +their lips. Is it not so?" + +"Oh, no, miss! Believe me, there is not a scar on your pretty face. Your +cheeks have lost a little of their bloom, that is all, and the white +lids gently cover your poor eyes, and the long lashes sweep your cheeks. +You look as though you were walking in your sleep." + +"But tell me, Katy," sobbed Dorothy, "do you think Harry does--do you +think Harry could love me as well as before?" + +"And why not, miss?" returned the little maid. "Surely, with your +affliction, he should love you doubly more than he ever did before. You +needn't fear about my not dressing you in your prettiest, Miss Dorothy. +Sure, I'm always making little bows and fancy things for your dresses, +and twining the loveliest of flowers in your pretty golden hair!" + +Dorothy would smile faintly, piteously, and sigh ever so gently. + +Oh, God! the pity of groping around those rooms day in and day out! What +mattered it if she sat by the open window, as she had been wont to do? +She could not see her lover strolling under the maple-trees, even though +she heard his voice and knew he was there. + +She would look upon his darkly handsome face never again in this world; +and at times Dorothy's soul grew so bitter over her terrible misfortune +that she wished she could die. As for Harry Kendal, after the first +shock of intense pity over Dorothy's unhappy fate was past, he grew +morose and taciturn. + +It was bad enough to wed a maiden whom he did not love with all his +heart and soul--such as he had heard it expressed in the burning, +eloquent words of authors and poets--but to go through life with a blind +woman at his side! The very thought made his soul shudder and grow sick +within him. + +He dared not make any attempt to break their engagement just then, for +public sentiment was strongly with the girl; but the chains that bound +him to her began to grow very heavy. + +Surely she ought not wish to hold him in thraldom now. It was irksome +for him to go where she was, to passively receive her caresses as well +as attempt to stay her burning tears, and to be obliged to assure her +over and over again, with every breath, that he would be sure to be true +to her. + +Alas! what a slender thread of circumstances in this world changes our +fate for weal or for woe! + +Ever since the accident had happened, and the doctors had all pronounced +the terrible decree that poor Dorothy would go through life totally +blind, the poor old housekeeper had been maturing a plan in her head +which she thought would be a world of comfort to the poor girl. + +Mrs. Kemp had a niece whom she had kept at boarding-school all the +girl's life, for she was an orphan, and she said to herself: "How grand +a plan it would be to bring the girl to Gray Gables to be a companion to +Dorothy until she marries!" + +Her niece was a bright, gay creature, and would be just the one to cheer +Dorothy up. + +Mrs. Kemp concluded to put this plan into execution at once, as there +was no one to say nay in regard to it, and she wrote to her niece to +come on without delay, little dreaming that this one action would prove +the curse of three lives--aye, the bitterest curse that ever wrung a +human heart, and that heart poor, hapless Dorothy's. + +Ah, me! how often in this world that which we mean for the greatest good +turns out the source of the cruelest woe. + +Dorothy heard of the plan, and agreed to it eagerly. + +"Oh, thank you--thank you for the happy thought, Mrs. Kemp!" she cried; +"for I am lonely--so pitifully lonely. Yes, I would give the world for a +girl of my own age to be a companion to me until--until I marry Harry." + +Kendal received the intelligence with a look of interest in his eyes. + +"When does your niece come, Mrs. Kemp?" he inquired. + +"I expect Iris to come to-morrow," she replied. And on the following +afternoon Iris Vincent arrived. + +The carriage met her at the depot. Harry went for her himself. Dorothy +stood at the window, with Katy, her faithful little maid, awaiting Iris' +coming with the greatest impatience. + +At last the carriage stopped before the arched gateway, and she heard +the sound of voices, then a peal of light, girlish laughter ringing out +above all the rest. + +"Has she come?" whispered Dorothy. + +"Yes, miss," murmured the little maid, in a low voice. + +"What is she like?" questioned Dorothy, eagerly. + +Faithful little Katy looked out of the window, then at Dorothy, a sudden +lump rising in her throat and a great fear at her heart. + +She dared not tell her that the strange young girl was as beautiful as a +poet's dream--slim as a young willow, dressed in the height of fashion, +and, worse still--oh, a thousand times worse!--she was bringing all her +charms to bear upon handsome Harry Kendal, who was walking up the +graveled walk with her. + +"Why don't you answer me?" cried Dorothy, impatiently. + +"She--she is about your height," stammered Katy, "and--and she is very +plain, and--and not so fair as you;" and Katy lifted up her face to +heaven, clasping her hands, whispering to herself: "May God forgive me! +It is my first lie!" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +Mrs. Kemp hastened to the door to meet her niece, and the next moment +the echo of a gay young voice, bright and joyous, rang through the +corridor. + +"She must be a very happy girl, and light of heart," sighed Dorothy. + +Katy, the maid, had nothing to say. Much to Dorothy's surprise, they did +not come to the room in which she was awaiting them, and she heard them +go on to the drawing-room, and the door close behind them. + +Ten, twenty minutes, half an hour passed, still they did not come to +her, though the sound of their merry laughter fell upon her ears from +time to time. Katy tried to arouse her mistress' interest, but it was +useless--the girl never moved from her position, sitting pale and white +in the great arm-chair, with her sightless eyes turned toward the door. + +Suddenly she turned to Katy with a great sob. + +"They have forgotten me," she said. + +Katy had come to this conclusion long before. + +"I will tell them you are waiting," she replied, and as she spoke she +hurried from the room to the drawing-room. On the threshold she came +face to face with Mr. Kendal, and at a glance she could not help but +notice the happy, flushed look on his face. + +"Miss Dorothy sent me in search of you, sir," she said, with a low +courtesy. The smile on his lips died away in an instant, giving place to +a dark frown of impatience. + +"What does she want?" he asked, sharply. + +"She says she is so lonesome, sir, and sent me to tell you so." + +"Is there a minute of my life that she is not sending for me--expecting +me to be at her beck and call?" he said. "I am going out into the +conservatory to get some flowers for Miss Vincent. I guess it won't hurt +Dorothy to wait a little while, will it?" + +"Is that what I shall tell her?" asked the girl, quietly. + +"Tell her whatever you like," he said to the girl, hurrying on and +leaving her standing there with a very white, sorrowful face. + +Slowly she walked back to the breakfast-room, her heart burning with +indignation. Dorothy met her eagerly. + +"Are they coming?" she asked. + +"Very soon now, miss," replied Katy. + +"What delayed them?" + +"I--I think they were getting a cup of tea for the strange young lady, +miss. You know she came quite a long way, and she must be very tired." + +"Why, that is very true," said Dorothy. "I wonder that I never thought +of that before. It seemed as though I was not missed," and a sigh +trembled over the girl's pale lips as she spoke. + +A few moments later Kendal's step was heard in the corridor. + +Dorothy sprang eagerly to meet him, and threw her arms impulsively +around his neck. + +Was it only her fancy, or did he draw back from the usual caress as +though he did not care to receive it? + +Oh! surely not. Since this horrible blindness had come upon her, her +imagination was running riot against her judgment. The one great fear of +her life was that he might cease to love her, now that this great +affliction had come upon her, and she noted every word, every action, +and every touch of his dear hand, and weighed it over in her mind, for +hours at a time, when she found herself alone. + +God pity her if that love should ever fail her! + +"Shall Miss Vincent see me soon, Harry?" she asked, nestling her head +against his shoulder, her little hands seeking his. + +"Very soon now," he responded. Was it her fancy, or did even his voice +seem changed? + +"Do you like her?" asked Dorothy, wistfully. + +"Like her?" he cried. "Why, she is charming!" + +"Is she fair of face?" asked Dorothy, slowly. + +"The most beautiful girl I have ever seen!" he cried, enthusiastically, +all forgetful of the girl by his side, to whom his troth was plighted. + +The words struck Dorothy's heart with a cold chill, as a blast of icy +winter wind strikes death to the heart of a tender hot-house flower when +its chill breath sweeps across it. + +"They say you went down to the train to meet her," said Dorothy. + +"Yes; Mrs. Kemp wanted me to," he responded; "and I shall never forget +that meeting with her niece while life lasts, it was so ludicrous. I +arrived at the depot just as the train had stopped, and the passengers +were already pouring from the car. In my haste to reach the throng I +slipped upon a banana peel, and the next instant I was plunging headlong +forward, bumping straight into an old lady carrying numerous bundles and +boxes, who had just alighted from the train. + +"There was a crash and a yell, and a roar of laughter from the +by-standers; and no wonder, for I had crashed directly into a huge jar +of jam which she held in her hand, and in less time than it takes to +tell it I was completely besmeared with it from head to foot. For once +in my life I got enough jam in my mouth, and as I scrambled to my feet I +beheld a young lady standing before me screaming with laughter. + +"At a glance I knew it could be none other than Miss Vincent. What I +said as I hastily stepped up to her is but a confused memory to me. I +managed to articulate that I had been sent from Gray Gables with a +carriage for her. The more I said the more she screamed with laughter, +in which I could not help joining to have saved my life. + +"'What! ride through the town with a jammed-up man like that!' she +ejaculated. 'Why, that would be too sweet for anything--so sweet that +all the bees in the clover fields we passed would come flying after us +to enjoy the sport.' + +"The laugh that followed fairly made the rafters of the old depot ring; +and at this juncture a friend in need came to my assistance--one of my +old chums--and in a trice had stripped off my coat and hat, and replaced +them by a new overcoat and Derby hat which he had just purchased. And +when the luckless jam was washed from my face 'Richard was himself +again.' + +"'Now you look something like a respectable human being,' she declared, +as I helped her into the carriage. + +"And all during the drive home we had the greatest kind of a laugh over +my ludicrous mishap. It was forming each other's acquaintance under +difficulties, as she phrased it. I can truthfully say that I never was +so much embarrassed before a young girl in all my life. But do you know, +Dorothy," he went on, "that that laughable incident which happened made +us better acquainted with each other during that half hour's ride home +than if we had met under ordinary circumstances and known each other for +long months?" + +Dorothy laughed heartily at the highly amusing scene which he pictured +so graphically, and said to herself that now she could understand why +Harry and this strange young girl were laughing so gayly together as +they came up the graveled walk. + +"You will be sure to like her," cried Harry, enthusiastically. "I will +go and fetch her to you now." + +But just as he was about to put his intention into execution, they heard +the voice of Mrs. Kemp and her niece outside, and they entered an +instant later. + +"Dorothy," said Mrs. Kemp, "my niece, Iris, is here. Iris, this is +Dorothy. I am sure you two girls will love each other dearly." + +Dorothy, turned hastily toward the direction from whence the sound +proceeded, holding out her little white hands nervously, a great hectic +flush stealing up into her pale face. + +"Welcome to Gray Gables, Miss Vincent--Iris," she said in her sweet, +tremulous, girlish voice. "I--I would cross the room to where you are +standing, if I could, but I can not. I can not look upon your face to +welcome you, for--I am--blind!" + +There was a _frou-frou_ of skirts upon the velvet carpet, and the next +moment Iris Vincent's arms were about her. + +"There could not be a sweeter welcome, Dorothy--if I may call you +so--and I am sure we shall get on famously together," murmured Miss +Vincent, and a pair of ripe red lips met Dorothy's; but the kiss was as +light as the brush of a butterfly's wings against the petals of a rose, +and there was no warmth in the clasp of the soft, ringed fingers. + +Somehow, although the stranger's voice was sweet as the sound of a +silver lute, and her manner caressing, Dorothy did not feel quite at +home with her. + +"If I should judge by the tone of her voice and the words she utters, my +fancy would lead me to believe that she was very beautiful," thought +Dorothy. "But then Katy said that she was plain, very plain of face, +although Harry has said that she was beautiful. No doubt he wanted to +leave a good impression on my mind regarding her." + +The evening that followed was a happy one for Dorothy, because, even +without being coaxed, Harry signified his intention of remaining in the +house, instead of going out to the club, as was his custom. + +It had always been a deep grievance of Dorothy's that her musical +accomplishments were so meager. + +She only knew a few accompaniments that she had picked up, while Miss +Vincent played divinely. + +And her voice--ah! it sounded like the chiming of silver bells. And +then, too, she knew so many beautiful songs, and they were all such +tender love songs. + +She was so glad that Harry liked them, too, and her poor face would +flush scarlet, and her white lids droop over her sightless eyes, as the +sweet singer's voice rose and thrilled over some tender love words; for +she felt sure that her Harry was looking at her with all love's tender +passion in his glorious dark eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +It was quite late when the group that was gathered in the drawing-room +dispersed that evening; but when the girls found themselves alone in +their own room, which they were to share together, they sat down for a +comfortable chat ere they retired. + +"Do you think you will like Gray Gables?" asked Dorothy. + +"It seems pleasant enough," returned Iris, with a yawn; "but it's not +the house so much, it's the people in the neighborhood. Are there many +young folks hereabouts?" + +"Quite a number." + +"Are they very jolly, or are they terribly dull?" + +"Well, about as jolly as Mr. Kendal," laughed Dorothy. "He's not so very +jolly, and yet he is wonderfully good company." + +"Yes, he is indeed," assented Miss Vincent. "Is he rich?" she asked, +point-blank, in the very next breath. + +"No," returned Dorothy; "but he may be well off some day, I hope." + +"Handsome and poor! That's too bad--that's a poor combination!" sighed +Miss Vincent, her countenance falling. "But tell me about him, Dorothy, +and--and how he ever happened to take a fancy to a quiet little mouse +like yourself. I have heard that it was your guardian's wish, as he was +dying, and that the idea was quite a surprise to him--to Mr. Kendal, I +mean. Is that true?" + +"Yes," assented Dorothy, thoughtlessly enough. + +She would not have answered the question in that way could she have seen +the eager anxiety on the face of the girl who asked it. + +"Does he make love to you very much?" whispered Iris, laying her soft +cheek close against the blind girl's. "Forgive the question, but, do you +know, I have always had a longing to know just what engaged people said +to each other and how they acted--whether they grew more affectionate, +or, after the grand climax of an engagement had been entered into, +if--if somehow they did not act a little constrained toward each other." + +Dorothy laughed long and merrily at the quaint ideas of her new friend. +But, then, no doubt all girls wished to know that. She had done so +herself once. + +"You do not answer me," murmured Miss Vincent. "Now, please don't be +unkind, Dorothy, when I'm just dying to know." + +"Well," said Dorothy, waxing very confidential, after the fashion of +girls, "I'll tell you _my_ experience; but mind, I don't say that it is +like every other girl's. Harry has been just a trifle bashful ever since +the afternoon that he asked me to--to be his wife, and just a little +constrained; but I always account for it in this way: that he does not +want me to think him silly and spoony. He has grown, oh! ever so +dignified. Why, he hardly ever says anything more about love--he thinks +he has said all there is to say. And his caresses are the same way--just +a little bit constrained, you know." + +Iris Vincent had learned all she cared to know. + +"Thank you, dear, ever so much, for gratifying my curiosity," she said +aloud; but in her own heart she said: + +"I knew it--I knew it! Handsome Harry Kendal does not love this girl +with whom they have forced him into a betrothal. No wonder he looks sad +and melancholy, with a prospect before him of marrying a blind wife! Ah, +me! it is too dreadful a fate to even contemplate." + +She looked complacently in the mirror at her own face. Well might Harry +Kendal have remarked that it was as beautiful as a poet's dream. + +Nothing could have been more exquisitely lovely than the deep, velvety, +violet eyes, almost purple in their glorious depths, and the bronze-gold +hair, such as Titian loved to paint, that fell in heavy curls to her +slender waist. + +One would scarcely meet in a life-time a girl of such wondrous +loveliness. Iris was only twenty, but already she had broken hearts by +the score. + +She had only to smile at a man with those ripe, red, perfect lips, and +give him one glance from those mesmeric eyes, and he was straightway her +slave. And she gloried in her power. + +Thrice she had broken up betrothals, and three young girls were +heart-broken in consequence, and had lifted up their anguished voices +and cursed her for her fatal beauty. But Iris only laughed her mellow, +wicked little laugh when she heard of it, and said: + +"Poor little simpletons! Before they engage themselves they ought to +have been sure that they held their lovers' hearts completely. It were +better for them to realize before than after marriage that the men they +meant to stake their all upon could prove fickle at the first +opportunity when a pretty girl crossed their paths." + +And who could say that there was not some little truth in this? + +The two girls whose paths were to cross so bitterly slept peacefully +side by side that night; but long after Iris' eyes had closed in +slumber, Dorothy lay awake with oh! such a heavy load on her heart. + +She wished she was gay and bright, like Iris, and oh! what would she not +have given only to see--only to see once again! And she turned her face +to where she knew the moonlight lay in great yellow bars on the floor, +and sobbed as she had never sobbed since she had become blind, and fell +asleep with the tear-drops staining her pale face, a long, deep sigh +trembling over her lips. + +Both girls awoke early the next morning. + +"When do you have breakfast?" asked Iris, with a yawn. + +"At eight o'clock," said Dorothy; "so we need not be in a hurry about +getting up. It can not be more than six now." + +"Oh, dear! then I shall have to get up at once," cried Iris; "for it +takes me fully that long to dress." + +"Two hours!" cried Dorothy, amazed, adding: "Why, just put on a wrapper. +Nobody here ever thinks of making a toilet to appear at the +breakfast-table. There is no one but Mrs. Kemp, Harry, you and I." + +She could not catch Iris' unintelligible reply, but she noticed that the +girl was not to be persuaded. + +She commenced dressing at once. + +Soon Dorothy detected a strange odor of burning paper in the room. + +"What is that?" she cried, in alarm. "Oh, Miss Vincent, the house must +be on fire!" + +Iris laughed long and loud. + +"You delightful, innocent little goose!" she cried. "I am only curling +my bangs with an iron heated over the gas, and I'm trying the tongs on +paper to see that they are not too hot. I put my curls up in paper last +night, but the horrid old things wouldn't curl because of the damp +atmosphere, and--" She did not finish the sentence for Dorothy supplied +it in her own mind--"her new friend was desirous of looking her best." + +Harry was pacing impatiently up and down the breakfast-room when they +entered. + +"Good-morning, Miss Vincent; good-morning, Dorothy!" he exclaimed, +eagerly; and Dorothy's heart gave a quick start, noting that he called +her name last. + +And another thing struck Dorothy quite forcibly. To her great surprise, +she noticed that Iris spoke in quite a different tone from what she did +when they were alone together in their own room. + +There her accents were drawling, but now they were so wonderfully sweet +and musical that Dorothy was struck with wonder. She never knew that a +person could speak in two different tones of voice like this. + +At the breakfast-table the conversation was bright and merry, though +outside the rain had commenced to patter against the window-pane. + +Dorothy felt strangely diffident, for only a small portion of the +conversation was directed now and then to her, and Harry and Miss +Vincent kept up such a lively chatter that there was scarcely an +opportunity to get in a word edgewise. + +The conversation turned upon horseback riding, and it brought a strange +pang to Dorothy's heart, for that had been the most pleasurable +accomplishment she had learned during the first few weeks she had been +at Gray Gables, and she loved it passionately. + +In the very hour when they told her that she would for evermore be +blind--stone-blind--the cry that had sprung to her lips was, "And can I +never again ride Black Beauty?" and she bowed her head in a storm of +wild and tempestuous grief. + +For many a day after Harry would not even have the name of Black Beauty +mentioned in her hearing. And now how strange that he should bring up +the subject in her presence! + +"I am sorry it is raining, Miss Vincent," he said, "for I had promised +myself such a pleasure for this morning. I had intended asking you to +join me in a canter over the country. This is just the season of the +year to enjoy the bracing air. We have a little horse in the stable that +would delight you, if you are a judge of equine flesh. Its very name +indicates what it is--Black Beauty. You ride, of course?"--this +interrogatively. + +"Oh, yes!" declared Iris; "and I always thought it would be the height +of my ambition if I could own a horse." + +"That would be a very slight ambition to gratify," returned Harry +Kendal. "You may have--" + +He was about to add, "Black Beauty," but at that instant his eyes fell +upon Dorothy. She was leaning forward, her sightless eyes turned in his +direction, with a world of anguish in them that would have melted a +heart of stone. + +Mrs. Kemp saw the storm approaching, and said, hastily: + +"I have always been thinking of buying a pony for my niece, and if she +is a very good girl, she may get one for Christmas." + +Harry looked his thanks to Mrs. Kemp for coming to his rescue so timely. + +Dorothy lingered after the others had left the breakfast-room, and +called to Harry to wait a minute, as she wished to speak with him. + +He had a guilty conscience; he knew what was coming. She meant to ask +him if he intended offering Black Beauty to Miss Vincent, and, of +course, he made up his mind to deny it. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +The long weeks that had passed since the never-to-be-forgotten steamboat +incident on Labor Day passed like a nightmare to poor Jack Garner. + +Slowly but surely the knowledge had come to him that Dorothy, his little +sweetheart, had faded like a dream from his life; and as this became a +settled fact in his mind, his whole nature seemed to change. + +He grew reckless, morbid, and gay by turns, until his old mother grew +terrified, fearing for his reason. His whole heart had been in his work +before and his one aim in life had been to make money. + +He had saved quite a snug little sum, which he very prudently placed in +the bank. + +Now, to his mother's horror, his recklessness lost him his position, and +he did not have enough ambition to try and secure another place, but +commenced to draw his little hoard from the bank, and his money was +disappearing like snow before a summer's sun. + +He began coming in late at nights, as well, and the widow, who listened +for his footsteps, cried out in anguish: "Would to God that I had died +ere I had lived to see this horrible change take place in my idolized +son!" + +His cousin Barbara keenly felt the change in him. It was she who +comforted the poor old mother, and who pleaded with Jack to try and take +up the duties of life again, and to forget faithless Dorothy. + +But he would only shake his head, and answer that he would never cease +to love Dorothy and search for her while life lasted. But troubles never +seem to come singly. One day, as Jack was pacing restlessly up and down +Broadway--the vantage-ground which he always sought at six o'clock each +evening, to scan the faces of the working-girls as they passed, with the +lingering hope in his heart that some day, sooner or later, his +vigilance would be rewarded by seeing Dorothy--a terrible accident +happened which almost cost him his life. + +An old sign on one of the corner buildings, which had done service many +a year, suddenly fell, and Jack--poor Jack, was knocked senseless to the +pavement. + +Surely it was the workings of Providence that Jessie Staples happened +along just at that critical moment. + +With a wild, bitter cry she sprang forward, flinging herself upon the +prostrate body, shrieking out as she saw his handsome, white face with +the stains of blood upon it: + +"Oh, Heaven have mercy! It is Jack--Jack Garner!" + +Kindly hands raised him. No, he was not dead--only stunned, and terribly +bruised. + +A cab was hastily summoned, and, accompanied by Jessie, he was taken +home. + +The girl broke the sad news gently to Jack's mother and to Barbara. It +was many and many a day before Jack left his couch; the accident had +proved more dangerous than had been at first anticipated, for brain +fever had set in. + +Every day on her way home from the book-bindery Jessie would go several +blocks out of her way to see how Jack was getting along, and Barbara and +his mother soon discovered that it was something more than mere +friendship that actuated the girl's visits. Although against their +expostulations, every cent that she could scrape together, over and +above the cost of the bare necessities of her living, she would expend +for fruit to bring to Jack. + +"I feel such a great pity for him," she would say; "for he has never, +never been the same since Dorothy disappeared so suddenly." And they +would look at the girl with wistful eyes, realizing that in her case, +surely, pity was akin to love. + +They guessed Jessie's secret long before she knew it herself, and they +felt sorry for her; for they knew her hopes were useless--that Jack +could never return the girl's love. + +Jack's mother and Barbara talked the matter over carefully, and +concluded that it was best for the girl's peace of mind to break up this +infatuation, if they could, at once. + +At this epoch an event happened which turned the tide of affairs into a +strange channel. + +By the death of a relative Jack suddenly found himself possessed of a +fortune. + +He heard the startling news with a white, calm, unmoved face, while his +mother and Barbara almost went wild with joy over it. + +"It matters little to me now," he said. "Wealth has no charms for me." +And they well knew why. + +The intelligence came like a thunderbolt to Jessie Staples. + +It was Mrs. Garner who told about it while the family were gathered +about the tea-table. + +The girl's face grew white as death, and she looked over at Jack with +startled eyes. + +Before she could ask the question that sprang to her lips, Mrs. Garner +added: + +"Of course this will make a great change in Jack's prospects. He says +that we shall soon leave the little cottage and go out West +somewhere--Barbara and I and himself--and that we will leave New York +City far behind us, as there is no tie that binds him here now." + +Jessie tried to speak, but the words refused to come to her icy lips. +She made an effort to raise her eyes to Jack's face, with a careless +smile; but it was a failure--a dire failure. + +The table seemed to suddenly rise and dance before her. + +She rose hastily, with a wild prayer that she might get quickly out of +the room, for she felt her throat choking up with great sobs, and +realized that in an instant more she would have burst into tears. + +Poor Jessie Staples took one step forward, then fell unconscious at +Jack's feet. + +"Why, what in the world can be the matter with Jessie?" he cried, +raising her in his strong arms. "Is she ill? Let us send for a +physician--quick!" + +"Stay!" said his mother, as he deposited Jessie on the sofa and turned +quickly to put this last thought into execution. "Jessie's trouble is +one which no physician can alleviate. It is an affair of the heart." + +Jack looked at his mother in amazement. + +"An affair of the heart?" he repeated. "Surely not, mother. Why, I have +known Jessie ever since I can remember, and I never knew her to have a +beau." + +"Perhaps she has given her heart to some one who does not return her +love--who may not even know of it," suggested Mrs. Garner, quietly. + +"Impossible," declared Jack. "I have known her for years, I say, and if +there was an affair of the heart between Jessie and any of the young men +at the bindery, I should have known something of it." + +Mrs. Garner came nearer and laid her hand on her son's arm. + +"Are you _sure_, Jack?" she asked, in a low voice. + +He gave a great start. + +"I know of one whom she loves, and who, she knows, never thinks of her. +When his life hung in jeopardy her secret was revealed to me." + +"Surely you _do not_--you _can not_ mean, mother--that she--that I--" + +"Yes, that is what I mean," returned Mrs. Garner, quietly. "Jessie +Staples loves _you_, my boy; but do not be hard on the poor girl. +Remember, love goes where it is sent. She never intended that you should +know it. She did not breathe a word about it to any one. It was by the +merest chance that we made the discovery, and she does not dream that we +know it." + +Jack sank down in the nearest chair, quite overcome with dismay. + +His mother came and bent over him, smoothing the fair hair back from his +damp brow with a trembling hand, but uttering no word. + +At last he broke the deep silence: + +"What am I to say--what am I to do, mother, if--if--your surmises be +actually true?" + +"They are not surmises, my boy," returned his mother; "they are truths." + +"You know that I like Jessie," he went on, huskily; "but as for any +other sentiment--why, it would be impossible. My life will always be +tinged with the bitter sorrow of that other love-dream which was so +cruelly shattered. I--I wish to Heaven you had not told me your +suspicions about Jessie, mother." + +"Her secret fell from my lips in an unguarded moment," she answered, +slowly, "and I am sorry you know all. Yet it must be a source of comfort +to you to know that although Dorothy Glenn was false to you, there is +_one_ heart which beats only for you." + +Jack started to his feet, a dull pallor creeping into his face as he +drew back from his mother's touch. + +"Dorothy is _not false_ to me!" he cried. "If an angel from heaven +should tell me so I would not believe it. She is my betrothed bride. She +wears my betrothal-ring upon her little hand. No matter where she is, +she is true to me--true as God's promise. Shame has caused her to hide +herself from me, because she was so foolish as to go with another on an +excursion on Labor Day. But I have forgiven all that long ago. Oh, +Heaven! if I could but let her know it!" + +Mrs. Garner shook her head. + +"A young girl who can leave you for months without a word does not care +for you, my boy," she answered, sadly. "Surely there is great truth in +the words that 'Love is blind,' if you can not be made to see this." + +Still the noble lover shook his head. There was no power on earth strong +enough to shake his faith in Dorothy's love. + +Mrs. Garner had said all that she could say for Jessie, and she bowed +her head, and great tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt great pity +for Jessie. Why could not her son love her? She had heard the story of +jilted lovers turning to some sympathizing heart for solace, and in time +learning to love their consoler, and she wondered if this might not +mercifully happen to her darling, idolized boy. + +She watched him as he paced excitedly up and down the room. Suddenly he +turned to her, and during all the long after years of sorrow and pain +she never forgot the expression of his face. + +"Mother!" he cried, hoarsely, "if my Dorothy ever proved false to me, I +should be tempted to--to--kill her--and--then--kill--myself!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +The _contretemps_ which had been so cleverly averted--of giving the +pony, Black Beauty, to Miss Vincent, and Dorothy's keen +resentment--should have proved a lesson to Harry Kendal and warned him +not to play with edged tools. + +He was a little careful of what he said to Iris for the next few days, +when Dorothy was present; but gradually this restraint began to wear +off, and he grew to be almost reckless in the way he laughed and carried +on with the girl, even though his _fiancée_ was in the room. This +attention was certainly not discouraged by Iris Vincent. + +He smiled to see her go in raptures over everything in and about Gray +Gables, and she, with her glorious dark eyes, always smiled back at him. +Their chats grew longer and more frequent; they were fast becoming +excellent friends. + +They had sent for Iris Vincent to become Dorothy's companion, but it was +whispered among the old servants of the household that she was proving +herself to be more frequently the companion of Mr. Kendal, and they +talked about it in alarm, wondering how it would all end. They felt +indignant, too, that such a bold flirtation--for it had certainly come +to that--should be carried on right in the face of poor, blind Dorothy. + +"Some one ought to give her a hint of what is going on," cried indignant +little Katy, the maid. But there was no one who could find it in his or +her heart to warn her of what was transpiring. The blow would be more +than she could bear, for she loved Harry Kendal better than life itself. + +They wondered if little Dorothy guessed that he led Iris to the table, +while she, blind as she was, groped her way as best she could to her own +seat. They hated to see him lavish attentions on the beauty, and it +drove them almost out of their self-possession to see their eyes meet in +that provoking, mutual smile. + +Dorothy was beginning to feel Harry's neglect, but no thought of the +true cause of it ever dawned upon her. + +Ah! could she have seen how they paced the grounds together arm in arm, +and how near they sat together on the step of the front porch, and in +what a lover-like manner he bent his dark head over her little, white +hands, the sight would have killed Dorothy. + +"I wonder if they think we are fools!" whispered the servants, +indignantly, one to the other; and their blood boiled with rage at this +open love-making. + +But even the attention of handsome Harry Kendal seemed to pall upon the +beauty. Gray Gables was dull; she wanted more life, more gayety. + +"Why not give a grand ball," she suggested, "and invite the whole +country-side?" + +She longed for more hearts to conquer. Iris was one of those vain, +shallow girls who must and will have a sentimental flirtation with some +young man always on hand. She, like those of her mischievous class, +really meant no harm while doing a great deal of wrong. Such a girl, +from mere vanity and pastime, will try to outshine a companion and even +win the heart of a betrothed lover from his sweetheart, caring little +for the broken vows and the ruined lives strewn along her path. + +Harry Kendal seized eagerly upon the idea, because it would please Iris. +Mrs. Kemp knew no other than her beautiful, willful niece's pleasure. No +one consulted Dorothy. She seemed to have been left entirely out of the +calculation. + +For the first time since Iris Vincent had come to Gray Gables, Dorothy +regretted her presence there. + +What would be the ball to her? Surely they ought to know that she could +take no part in it, for she was blind. + +When she found herself alone with Iris she spoke of this, but the girl +turned it off with a little laugh. + +"Even so," she declared, "Gray Gables ought not to be shut up and +barricaded. You need to have a little life to keep your spirits up. You +are just dying for some kind of liveliness. And poor Harry! every one +is feeling sorry for him. They say he is growing so dull." + +"Do they say that?" cried Dorothy, the color deepening in her cheeks. + +"Yes--and more," assented Iris. "And for that reason I would advise you +to study appearances, so that every one may know that he is happy--at +least, let them think he is." + +The words struck Dorothy with a cold chill, as her companion had +intended that they should. + +"Then let the ball be given, by all means," returned Dorothy, with a +little quiver in her voice. + +And so the matter was arranged. + +For the next week Iris and Harry were busy with the invitations. They +sat side by side, comparing them as they made them out, and never once +seemed to note Dorothy's presence. + +If any one on the list did not quite suit their fancy, they were quickly +rejected; but Dorothy noticed that he never once turned to her, his +betrothed bride, and asked her opinion. + +There was one young girl to whom Dorothy had been quite attached, who +lived very near Gray Gables, and who had run over to see her almost +every day, up to the time Iris had come. Since then her visits had been +less and less frequent; within the last fortnight they had ceased +altogether. + +Dorothy was very anxious, of course, that this young girl should be +invited; but Iris put in a demurrer at once. + +"Of all the girls I ever met, I dislike her the most," declared Iris. + +She was very careful not to tell the real reason why. + +This same young girl had been the first to notice her flirtation with +Harry Kendal. They had had quite a stormy little scene over it, for the +girl had attempted to rebuke Iris, in her modest way, and she had +retorted by flashing out that it was none of her business, anyway, +saying that she would flirt with Harry Kendal just as much as she +pleased, and that it was a shame for such a handsome young fellow to +marry a girl stone blind. + +They had parted in anger. No wonder, we repeat, that Iris objected to +inviting Dorothy's friend to the grand ball. + +"Oh! of course we must invite her," said Dorothy, when her friend's name +was brought under discussion. "Mustn't we, Harry?" + +He turned away and walked moodily to the window without replying. If +Iris did not like her, that settled the matter. He dared not put in one +word in the girl's favor, though Dorothy was clamoring for his opinion. + +"You must settle the matter, Harry," said Dorothy. + +"Let me suggest a better way," he replied, gallantly, as he took his +seat at the table again. "You two girls arrange it between yourselves." + +"But we do not think we will come to an agreement," pouted Iris. "You +will have to choose for Dorothy and me." + +He gave her a startled, sweeping look, and she knew by that that he +would not dare go against her for Dorothy. + +"I must decline," he said again, for he felt nervous with those +sightless eyes turned eagerly in his direction. + +"You must say 'Yes' or 'No,'" said Dorothy, never dreaming that his +answer would be in the negative, for on the week that she had first come +to Gray Gables he had said: "I must introduce you at once to Alice Lee, +who lives across the way. She is a lovely, quiet girl, and I know you +will like her." And Dorothy had liked gentle Alice Lee. + +She thought of this now as the question of inviting her to the ball had +come up, and never for a moment had she doubted the result of his +decision. + +"You must answer 'Yes' or 'No,'" pouted Iris, impatiently. "Come, we are +wasting time." + +Iris leaned over close to his chair--so near that the dark rings of her +hair brushed his cheek, thrilling him to the soul. + +"You must choose," she whispered; and he knew that it was a challenge as +to which he should please--herself or Dorothy. + +Closer, closer still she leaned, until his very pulses grew mad with the +nearness of her presence, and with child-like confidence her soft little +hand crept into his, and nestled there securely. + +There was no one to see, though Dorothy--God help her!--sat so near her. +The touch of that little hand was magical. In the mad impulse of the +moment he raised it to his lips and kissed it, and Iris knew that she +had won the battle even before he spoke. + +"Alice Lee had better not be invited to the ball," he said, huskily. +"That is my decision." + +Dorothy sank back in her chair as though a sudden blow had been struck +her. She never once dreamed that her betrothed lover would decide +against her. + +It fairly took her breath away, and a sudden new sensation shot through +her heart that had never found lodgment there before. + +She drew back and said no more, a deathly pallor overspreading her face. +She did not interfere again, and she suffered them to arrange the +invitations after that to please themselves. + +She rose quietly at length and made her way to the window, great tears +rising to her sightless eyes. + +They did not even notice her absence, but chatted and laughed quite the +same. + +After they had finished Harry proposed that they should take the +invitations to be mailed. This Iris gayly assented to, and they left the +room without once making any excuse to Dorothy for leaving her there +alone. + +The fact was that they were not even aware that she had seated herself +in the bay window behind the great, heavy _portières_. + +For the first time Dorothy wished that Iris had not come. She was +already beginning to feel the weight of the iron hand that was soon to +crush her--jealousy. + +She awaited their coming with the greatest impatience, but it was long +hours ere they returned. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Harry Kendal did not intend being untrue to Dorothy when he let himself +drift into that platonic friendship with Iris, the beauty, which had +developed into such a dangerous flirtation. + +Gradually the girl's fascinations seemed to overpower him, and before +he quite realized it, Iris had become part and parcel of his life. + +On the way to the postoffice a little event had happened which had +almost changed the current of his life. + +They had taken the short cut from Gray Gables to the postoffice, which +lay over the hills, and were walking along arm in arm when suddenly +Iris' foot slipped upon a stone, and she stumbled headlong in the path +with a little, terrified cry. + +In an instant Harry had raised her, and to his utter consternation she +clung to him half fainting. + +"Oh, Mr. Kendal--Harry--I--I have sprained my ankle! I can not walk!" +she said; and a low cry of pain broke from her lips. + +He gathered her close in his arms, and did everything in his power to +soothe her. + +"I am so sorry--so sorry that I let you undertake this trip with me. Let +me carry you back to the house." + +"My--my ankle is not sprained," she faltered; "it was only wrenched a +little as it turned over against that stone. We will sit down on this +log a few moments, and after a little rest I will be all right again." + +To this Kendal willingly assented, but he did not remove his arm from +the slender waist. + +"I am so thankful that it is no worse, Iris," he breathed, huskily. + +"Would you have cared so very much if I had sprained my ankle?" she +faltered, looking up into his face with those great, dark, mesmeric eyes +that no one had ever yet been able to resist. + +He looked away from her quickly and did not reply. + +"Would you?" persisted Iris, in her low, musical voice. + +Throwing prudence to the winds, he turned to her suddenly and clasped +her still closer in his arms. + +"Does not your own heart teach you that, Iris?" he returned, hoarsely. + +"Oh! if I could only believe what my heart would fain tell me," she +murmured, "I--I would be so happy!" + +"If it told you that I--I love you," he cried, "then it would--" + +The rest of the sentence died away on his lips for there, directly in +the path before him, stood Mrs. Kemp. She might have been blind to all +her beautiful niece's short-comings, but she was not a woman to so mix +right and wrong as to permit Iris to listen to a word of love from one +she knew belonged, in the sight of God, to another. + +Iris was equal to the occasion. + +"Oh, aunt!" she cried, "I am so glad that you happened along just now. +I--I hurt my foot, and it was so painful that I had to sit down and +rest; and Mr. Kendal was kind enough to remain here with me a few +moments, although--although--besides the invitations we had to mail, he +had other important letters to go out to-day." + +"Are you quite sure your ankle is not sprained, my dear?" cried Mrs. +Kemp, in alarm. "The wisest thing to do will be to come home with me at +once, and we will send for a doctor to examine it." + +Iris sprang to her feet with a wicked little laugh. + +"See, it is better now--almost as good as new," she declared, "thanks +to Mr. Kendal for insisting upon my sitting down here to rest." + +Had it been any one else but Iris, Kendal would have said the affair had +been a clever little ruse to give him the opportunity to make love to +her. + +But in this instance it never occurred to him but that Iris was telling +the plain facts--that her ankle had been wrenched, and with a few +moments' rest it was as good as ever again. + +Mrs. Kemp looked greatly relieved. + +"We may as well be going," said Iris, hoping that her aunt would pass on +and leave them to enjoy the _téte-à-téte_ which she had interrupted at +such an inopportune time. + +"I will go with you both as far as the postoffice," said Mrs. Kemp; and +the good soul did not notice the expression of annoyance on both faces, +and, very much against the will of each, she accompanied them there and +back. + +Iris was bitterly annoyed, but she was diplomatic enough to conceal it; +and she could see, too, by Harry's face that he was disappointed in +being so ruthlessly cheated out of a _téte-à-téte_ with her. + +They loitered long by the way, trusting that Mrs. Kemp would become +impatient with their delay, and excuse herself, to get back to the house +in time to superintend dinner, which was quite a feature at Gray Gables. + +"You do not seem to be in any hurry to-day," laughed Iris, eyeing her +aunt sideways. + +"No; for it is not often that I indulge myself in going out for a +stroll," answered Mrs. Kemp, "and I need to make the most of it. If I am +not back at the usual time Dorothy will superintend affairs--bless her +dear little heart! Why, she's a regular little jewel about the house, +even with her affliction." + +This praise of Dorothy was anything but pleasant to Iris, especially +when Kendal was present, and she turned the conversation at once into +another channel. + +As they neared the house they met one of the servants hurrying down the +road. + +"You are the very person I am looking for, ma'am," he cried, +breathlessly. "There is something the matter with the range, and they +are all in a stew over it, not knowing what to do until you come." + +"Good gracious! if I step out of the house for a moment something is +sure to happen," cried the good old lady, despairingly. "Say that I will +be there directly, John;" and much to Iris' relief, she hurriedly left +them. + +"Why need we hasten?" said Kendal, in a low voice. "This is the +pleasantest part of the afternoon." + +"I am in no hurry," assented the girl. + +"We will linger here in this delightful spot, and I will gather you some +autumn leaves," cried Harry. "Would you like that?" + +"Yes," she assented; "if you will help me to weave them into garlands." + +"Nothing would give me more pleasure," he declared; "that is, if you are +not afraid of the old tradition becoming true." + +She looked up into his face, blushing as crimson as the heart of a +deep-red rose. + +"I have never heard it," she said. "Do tell me what it is." + +"Bye and bye, with your permission, while we are weaving the garlands," +Harry answered, with a rich, mellow laugh. "If I should tell you +beforehand, you might refuse to accept my services altogether." + +"Is it so bad as that?" laughed Iris. + +"You had better use the word _good_ instead of bad. The idea would be +more pleasant." + +"Not knowing what you are talking about, and not possessing the key to +solve the riddle of your incomprehensible words, I had better make no +further reply, lest I get into deep water," she pouted. "But really you +have aroused my curiosity." + +"Well, when we have the first wreath made, then, and not until then, +will I tell you what they say of the youth and maiden who weave autumn +leaves for each other, and together. Come and sit on this mossy ledge. I +will spread my overcoat upon it. It shall be your throne." + +"I will be a queen, but where will be my king?" laughed Iris, gayly. + +"Your king will come a-wooing all in good time," he answered, his dark +eyes seeking hers with a meaning glance, which the beauty and coquette +understood but too well. + +In less time than it takes to tell it, Kendal had gathered about her +heaps of the beautiful, shining leaves. + +"Oh, aren't they lovely!" cried Iris, delightedly. "I fairly adore +autumn leaves." + +"I did not know that you had such an eye for the beautiful in nature," +he retorted, rather pleased. + +"I adore everything that is handsome," she said, in a low voice, +returning his look of a few moments ago with interest. + +An hour flew by on golden wings, and the wreaths grew beneath their +touch. + +"Now you look indeed a queen!" cried Harry, raising one gracefully, and +laying it on the girl's dark curls. "You remind me just now of pictures +I have seen of Undine and the woodland nymphs." + +"Ah! but Undine had no heart," declared Iris. + +"In some respects you are like Undine," he retorted. "She never knew she +had a heart till she was conscious of its loss. Ah, but you do look +bewitching, Miss Vincent--Iris, with that wreath of autumn foliage on +your head, like a crown of dying sunset. When I see the leaves turn in +the autumn, lines that I read somewhere always recur to me: + + "'As bathed in blood the trailing vines appear, + While 'round them, soft and low, the wild wind grieves; + The heart of autumn must have broken here, + And poured her treasure out upon the leaves.'" + +"What pretty poetry!" sighed Iris. "Why, it seems to me that you have +some beautiful sentiment, set to rhyme, to express almost every thought! +You must love poetry. Does--does Dorothy care for it?" + +"No," he returned, in a low voice, and looked away from her with a moody +brow. + +"That is strange," mused Iris. "I should think that you would inspire +her with a love for it." + +"If it is not in one's soul, how can you expect to find it there," he +retorted, rather bitterly. "No, Dorothy has no love for poetry, flowers, +or birds, nor, in fact, anything that other young girls care for. I +imagine she would quite as soon prefer a garden filled with hollyhocks +and morning-glories to the daintiest flowers that ever bloomed. Alas, +there are few tastes in common between us!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +"What a pity!" sighed Iris, and her hand crept sympathizingly into his. +The gloomy look deepened on his face. + +"Do you believe that there is a true mate for each heart, Iris?" he +asked, suddenly. + +"I might better ask _you_ that question," she answered, evasively. "You +are engaged--_you_ seem to have found a heart that is the mate for your +own." + +"Do you think there is such a thing as making a mistake, even in so +grave a matter?" he asked, huskily, "and that those who discover their +error should keep on straying further and further in the wrong path? Do +you not believe that there should be the most ardent love between those +who wed--and that where there is a lack of it the two should separate, +and each go his or her own way?" + +Iris drooped her head; but ere she could reply--utter the words that +sprang to her lips--an exclamation of the deepest annoyance, mingled +with a fierce imprecation, was ground out from between Kendal's teeth. + +There, directly in the path before them, stood Alice Lee. + +Had she been standing there long? If so, she must have heard every word +that had been uttered. + +Alice Lee had heard, and every word had cut to her heart like the sharp +point of a sword. + +She had feared this, but had tried to reason the matter out in her own +mind; but although circumstances did look tellingly against the beauty +who had come to Gray Gables to be Dorothy Glenn's companion, yet she had +tried to make herself believe that her suspicions were groundless. + +"Have you been eavesdropping?" cried Iris, springing to her feet, her +black eyes flashing luridly. + +A thousand thoughts flashed through Alice Lee's mind in an instant. + +No; she was too proud to let them realize that she had overheard the +perfidy of Dorothy's treacherous lover. + +No; better plead ignorance, until she had time to think over the matter, +for Dorothy's sake, if not for her own. + +"I have but just turned the bend in the road," she replied, with sweet +girlish dignity. "Your question, Miss Vincent, surprises me," she said. +"I have no need to answer it, I think." + +"But you always do happen around just when people least expect you, +Alice Lee." + +"I hope my old friends will always find my presence welcome," returned +Alice, quietly. + +"To be sure, you are welcome," interposed Kendal. "Miss Vincent and I +were only conversing upon the salient points of a new novel we finished +reading yesterday. If you would care to hear it, I shall be pleased to +go over the plot with you, and hear your opinion regarding it." + +"I fear it would not benefit you, for I am not much of a novel reader, +and understand very little of plots and plotting." + +Was this a quiet drive at them? both thought as they looked up +instantly. + +But the soft, gray eyes of Alice Lee looked innocently enough from one +to the other. + +She seemed in no hurry to pass on, and Iris felt that for the second +time that afternoon her _téte-à-téte_ with handsome Harry Kendal was to +be broken up, and from this moment henceforth she owed Alice Lee more of +a grudge than ever, and she felt sure that the girl knew it. + +Upon one point Alice was determined--that no matter how coldly Iris +Vincent might treat her, she should not leave Dorothy's lover alone with +her and in her power--she would stand by her poor little blind friend, +who needed her aid in this terrible hour more than she would ever know, +God help her! + +Although long silences fell between the trio, still Alice lingered, +chatting so innocently that they could not find it in their hearts to be +very angry with her; and they could not bring themselves to believe that +she had a purpose in her guileless actions. + +There was no alternative but to walk homeward with her; but they did not +ask her in when they reached the gates of Gray Gables, and so Alice had +no excuse to enter to see Dorothy and warn her, but was obliged to pass +on. + +Mrs. Kemp and two or three of the servants were on the porch, so that +there was no opportunity to exchange but a few whispered words. They +were just about to part when Iris happened to think that Kendal had not +told her what was said of those who gather and weave autumn leaves +together, as he had promised. + +She paused suddenly and looked up archly into his face. + +"What about the autumn-leaf mystery?" she exclaimed. "You know you were +to tell me all about it?" + +"Do you promise not to be angry with me, Iris?" he answered, in his +deep, musical voice. "You know I can not help old adages--I do not make +them." + +"Why should I be angry?" she exclaimed, having a rather faint idea of +what was coming. + +"Well, then," said Kendal, fixing his dark eyes full upon her, "it is +said that the youth and maiden who twine the ruby and golden leaves +together are intended for each other. There, are you so very angry?" + +Iris dropped his arm with a little cry, and fled precipitately into the +house. + +He walked on slowly through the great hall and into the library. He knew +Dorothy would be waiting for him, and he did not feel equal to the +ordeal of meeting her just then. + +He wanted a moment to think. He felt that he was standing on the brink +of a fearful abyss, and that one more step must prove fatal to him. + +Which way should he turn? He was standing face to face with the terrible +truth now, that he loved Iris Vincent madly--loved her better than his +own life--he, the betrothed of another. + +But with that knowledge came another. Iris could be nothing to him, for +they were both poor. + +He was sensible enough to sit down and look the future in the face. He +realized that if he should marry Iris on the spur of the moment, that +would be only the beginning of the end. + +It would be all gay and bright with them for a few brief weeks, or +perhaps for a few months; then their sky would change, for Iris was not +a girl to endure poverty for love's sake. She wanted the luxuries of +life--these he could not give her; and there would be reproaches from +the lips that now had only smiles for him. + +She would want diamonds and silks, and all the other feminine +extravagances so dear to the hearts of other women, and he was only a +struggling doctor, who would have to fight a hand-to-hand battle with +grim poverty. And sitting there in the arm-chair, before the glowing +grate, where he had flung himself, he pictured a life of poverty that +would spread out before him if he defied the world for love's sake. + +A dingy office; a worn coat, and trousers shiny at the knees; a necktie +with a ragged edge; an unkempt beard, a last season's hat, and hunger +gnawing at his vitals. + +The picture filled him with the most abject horror. + +He was stylish and fastidious to a fault. He loved Iris; but did he not +equally love his own ease? He could barely tolerate Dorothy, the poor, +tender, plain little creature who lavished a world of love upon him; but +he swallowed the bitter draught of having to endure her by always +remembering that she was heiress, in all probability, to a cool million +of money, and money had been his idol all his life long. He could not +exist without it. + +He was not one of the kind who could face the world manfully and snatch +from it its treasures by the sweat of his brow. No, he could not give up +this dream of wealth that was almost as much as life to him. + +In the very midst of his reverie a light step crossed the library, but +he did not hear it. It was Dorothy. + +She stole up quietly and knelt on the hassock beside his chair. + +"What were you thinking of, Harry?" she said. + +He was equal to the occasion. + +"Of what or whom should I be thinking but yourself, Dorothy?" he +replied. + +"It could not have been a very pleasant thought, I fear, for you sighed +deeply," she murmured. + +"That is all your fancy, Dorothy," he declared--"that my thoughts were +not pleasant. True, I may have sighed, but did you never hear of such a +thing as a sigh of contentment?" + +She laughed merrily. + +"I have heard of it, but thought the words rather misplaced." + +"I assure you they are quite true and practicable." + +"Where is Iris?" she asked, suddenly. + +"I am sure I do not know," he answered, trying to speak carelessly. + +"I want to have a real long talk with you, Harry," she said. "I have +heard that there should be nothing but the utmost confidence between +engaged lovers. Shall it not be so with us?" + +"Of course," he answered, starting rather guiltily, for he had a faint +intuition of what was coming. + +"Harry," she whispered, "I want you to tell me--is it true--what they +are all saying--that you have ceased to love me?" + +"All saying!" he echoed. "Who is saying it? What old busybodies are +sticking their noses in my affairs now?" he cried, with something on his +lips that sounded very like an imprecation. + +"But it isn't true, is it, Harry?" she breathed. "I should want to die +if I thought it was." + +"Look here, Dorothy," he cried, "if you want to believe all these +mischief-makers tell you, you will have enough to do all through your +life. You will have to either believe me or believe them. Now, which +shall it be?" + +"But answer my question, 'Yes' or 'No?'" pleaded Dorothy. "I--I am +waiting for your answer, Harry." + +There was a slight rustle in the doorway, and glancing up with a start, +Kendal saw Iris Vincent standing there, looking on the tender scene with +a scornful smile, and the words he would have answered died away unsaid +on his lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +With a scornful toss of her head, Iris wheeled about. She would not +enter the room, though she was just dying to know what they were +saying--as Kendal sat in the arm-chair before the glowing coals, while +Dorothy knelt on the hassock at his feet. + +But that one glance of Iris had proved fatal to Kendal's peace of mind, +and the hope swept over his soul that she would not think that he was +talking love to Dorothy. + +His silence perplexed the girl kneeling at his feet. + +"I try to picture what our future life will be together, Harry," she +murmured. + +"Don't let us talk about it!" he exclaimed, impatiently. + +"But I like to," she insisted. "It is my constant thought by night and +by day. And, oh! I shall try to make you so happy. I shall go out dining +with you every day, if you like, and I will always wear a little veil +over my face, that no one need know as they pass us by that your bride +is blind. And I shall try to be so wise, and learn to talk with you upon +the subjects you love best. You will not be ashamed of me, will you, +Harry?" + +This with wistful eagerness pitiful to behold. + +"I do wish, Dorothy, that you would cease your harping on the same old +subject!" he cried, worriedly. "You annoy me so!" + +"Annoy you?" whispered Dorothy, half under her breath. "Why, I did not +know that we could say anything to those we love which could make them +vexed at us, because I thought we were: + + "'Two souls with but a single thought, + Two hearts that beat as one.' + +It seems, Harry, as though we had so little time to talk with each other +now. And, oh! how I miss those little chats we used to have together; +don't you?" + +"You talk like a child, Dorothy," he cried. "Do you expect me to be +dancing attendance upon you all the time?" + +"No; I have ceased to expect that," murmured the girl, choking back a +sob--"especially lately." + +"I hope," he cried, "that you are not getting to be one of those +exacting creatures who are jealous if a man is not at their side every +moment? I could never endure that." + +With a sudden impulse, Dorothy threw her arms about his neck and nestled +her snow-white cheek against his. + +"Let me tell you the truth, Harry," she whispered. "I am trying not to +be jealous, as hard as ever I can; but, oh! there seems such a coldness +between us lately. My intuition--my heart tells me so. Everything has +changed since Iris came," she repeated. "I am glad you have some one to +go with you on your rambles, as I used to do--some one to walk and read +with you, as I once did. But when I think of it, and picture you two +together, and know that she takes the same place by your side that I was +wont to take, can you wonder that my heart throbs with a slow, dull +pain?" + +"Women magnify everything!" cried Kendal, harshly. "I suppose you will +begrudge me a moment's comfort where another young girl is concerned, +because you can not participate in it." + +"I wonder that you can find comfort, as you phrase it, with another," +said Dorothy, with a little tremor in her voice. "I have never heard +that any other society was satisfying to an engaged lover than that of +the sweetheart whom he avers to love." + +Kendal laughed a little low, tantalizing laugh which grated keenly on +the girl's ears. + +"Men differ in their tastes and inclinations," he retorted laconically. +"I do not choose to be tied down and governed by one woman's whims, nor +to be dictated to." + +"You should not speak of it in that way, Harry," whispered the girl in a +choking voice; "rather, you should say to yourself that you would not do +the slightest thing that might cause me one pang of annoyance. He who +truly loves finds no interest, no attraction but in the one face, the +one presence. I have known many betrothed young men, and I never yet +knew one who paid the girl he loved so little courtesy as to flirt, ever +so slightly, with another." + +She could not see the flush that burned his face, for he knew that every +word she uttered was but too true. He felt guilty in her sweet, innocent +presence. Had he but loved her, he would have found no pleasure whatever +in Iris Vincent's dangerous coquetries. + +He would not have encouraged her by smile, word, or deed. + +A wave of pity swept over his heart for Dorothy as he looked down into +the pure, uplifted face. But it was only short-lived, for at that +instant he heard Iris' silvery laughter from an adjoining room. + +"I propose that we finish this interesting subject at some future time," +he said, carelessly. "I have some important letters to write, and if you +will excuse me for a little while, I should be very glad." + +Sorrowfully Dorothy rose from the hassock and slowly quitted the room. + +With lagging steps she made her way to her own room, her heart as heavy +as lead in her bosom. + +She had entered the library with buoyant steps and a light heart; aye, +even a little snatch of song on her lips, for she had made up her mind +that she would wait there until Harry came and have a good talk with +him. + +She had been so sure that he would take her in his arms and soothe away +her fears, laughing at them in his own way as being the most ridiculous +fancies which her sensitive little brain had conjured up. + +And ah! how different had been the reality. + +He had rudely repulsed her--and she his promised wife! Katy noticed how +gloomy she was, and ran quickly to her young mistress' side. + +"Oh, Miss Dorothy," she cried, "you do look so pale. Let me place you in +a chair and bring you some wine." + +Dorothy shook her head. + +"I am not ill, Katy," she said, wearily, "only I--I have a slight +headache. If you will leave me by myself I will take a short rest if I +can, then I shall be all right." + +But Katy insisted upon bringing her a cordial, if not the wine, and +surely she was forgiven for putting a few drops of a sleeping potion in +the glass ere she handed it to her mistress. She well knew that she had +not slept soundly for some time past. + +Surely she was breaking down slowly from some terrible mental strain. +She realized but too well what that mental strain was. + +Dorothy allowed her to lead her passively to the sofa, and to deposit +her among the cushions. + +"You will ring when you want me, Miss Dorothy," she said, placing a +table with a bell on it close by her side. + +"Yes," said Dorothy, wearily. "Now go and leave me, that's a good girl;" +and Katy passed into the next apartment, drawing the curtains softly +behind her. There she sat down and waited until her mistress should fall +asleep. It almost made the girl's heart bleed to hear the great sighs +that broke from Dorothy's lips. + +"Poor soul! poor soul!" she cried; "how unhappy she is!" + +But soon the potion began to take effect, and the sighs soon melted into +deep, irregular breathing, and then Katy knew that she slept. + +An hour passed, and yet another, still she did not waken, though there +were loud sounds of mirth and revelry in the drawing-room beneath. The +maid recognized Iris' voice and that of Harry Kendal. + +"The grand rascal!" muttered the girl; "how I feel like choking that +man! He doesn't care any more for that poor blind girl in there, that +he's engaged to, than the dust which sticks to his patent leather shoes. +I believe the truth is slowly beginning to dawn upon her." + +At that moment she heard Dorothy's voice calling her, and she went +quickly to her side. + +"Oh, how long have I slept, Katy?" she cried. + +"An hour or such a matter," responded the girl. "They have all been to +dinner, but I thought sleep would be better for you." + +"How long since?" cried Dorothy, springing from the sofa. "And did they +not send up for me?" asking both questions in a breath, and waiting +with feverish impatience for an answer. + +"No," said the girl, bluntly. + +"Did they forget me?" whispered Dorothy, in a voice so hollow that the +tone frightened the little maid. + +"It looks very much like it, Miss Dorothy," she answered; "but I did not +forget you; I brought you up a whole trayful of things." + +"I can not eat," sighed Dorothy, and she murmured under her breath: +"Yes, they forgot me--forgot me! Come here, my good girl," she went on, +very nervously; "there is something I want you to do for me." + +Katy came close to her side. Dorothy reached out her hand and caught the +girl's arm in her trembling grasp. + +"I want you to slip down quietly, Katy," she said--"mind, very +quietly--and see what they are doing down in the drawing-room. I hear +Mr. Kendal's voice and Miss Vincent's. Take notice if Mrs. Kemp is with +them, or if they are alone." + +"Are you going down to-night, Miss Dorothy?" asked Katy. + +"If it isn't too late," she answered, in a tremulous voice, adding: "I +want you to lay out the prettiest dress I have, and some nice ribbon for +my hair, before you go. I can be dressing while you are gone; it will +save that much time." + +Katy did as she was bid, and a few moments later was creeping +noiselessly down the back stairway, which led to the drawing-room. +Drawing the heavy silken _portières_ aside, she peered cautiously in. +As she expected, Mr. Kendal and Miss Vincent were enjoying each other's +society, quite alone. But that was not the worst of it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +Katy gazed long and earnestly at the picture before her. + +Miss Vincent sat at the piano, magnificently dressed in a pale blue +chiffon evening dress, with great clusters of pink roses at her belt, at +her throat, and in the meshes of her jetty curls. + +Beside her, turning over the music, and bending like a lover over her, +was Harry Kendal. + +And as the girl watched she saw him suddenly lift to his lips the little +white hand that was straying over the keys. + +"Do let me persuade you to sing for me, Iris," he was saying. "In what +have I so far offended you that you are so ungracious to me this +evening, Iris?" he murmured, reproachfully. + +"I do not know that I am any different to-night from what I have always +been," pouted the beauty. "I simply do not feel like singing, that is +all." + +"You have changed your mood very suddenly, Iris," he declared. "You +asked me to come into the drawing-room to hear you sing, and now you +tell me that you have changed your mind. What am I to think?" + +"Whatever you please," she answered, curtly. + +"Tell me one thing, Iris," he murmured, a little hoarsely, bending +nearer over the pretty, willful coquette; "were the words of the song +you intended to sing suggestive of a sudden coldness between two very +near and very dear friends?" + +"I will not listen to you!" cried Iris, petulantly. + +"I repeat, what have I done to offend you, my dear girl?" he cried. + +"Say to yourself that it was surely not my intention nor my will. You +asked me to come to the library to listen to some poems. When I stepped +into the room I saw at a glance that you had quite forgotten the +appointment, Harry, by the picture that met my glance." + +He knew in an instant to what she referred--he sitting in the arm-chair +with Dorothy by his side, her arms twined about him. + +"I did not ask her in there, Iris," he said, huskily. "I found her in +there when I entered the apartment. She was evidently waiting for me. +She met me with tears and reproaches, and if there is anything that is +detestable to a man it is that line of conduct, believe me." + +Iris shrugged her shoulders, but made no reply. + +"Why did you not come in when you came to the door?" he asked, bending +dangerously near the fatally beautiful face so near his own. + +"Because I thought that two was company--three would be a crowd," she +responded, proudly tossing back her jetty curls. + +"_You_ would always be welcome to _me_, Iris," he said, huskily. "You +know that but too well by this time, don't you?" and his hand closed +tightly over the one lying lightly in her lap, and his head drooped +nearer still. + +"Great Scott! they are almost kissing each other, the two vipers!" +panted Katy to herself, her blood fairly boiling in her veins at the +sight of this billing and cooing. "Oh, if I only dared put poor Miss +Dorothy on her guard!" + +She could not refrain from bursting in upon them at this critical +instant, and in less time than it takes to tell it she had bounded into +the room. + +"A-hem, a-hem!" she coughed, pantingly; "but if you please, miss," +turning and addressing herself to Iris, "the housekeeper is looking for +you, and wants you to come to her." + +"Certainly," said Iris, springing up from the piano stool with a face +flushed as red as a peony and a very confused look in her eyes; "I will +go at once;" and with an assumed smile on her face she glided from the +room, muttering below her breath: + +"I'd like to choke that little imp of a maid! Whenever I am talking to +Harry Kendal, if I turn around I find her at my elbow." + +Katy was about to follow Miss Vincent from the room, when Harry called +to her. + +"Remain a moment," he said. "I wish to see you." + +With a little courtesy Katy obeyed. + +For a moment or two he stood quite still in the center of the room, +toying nervously with the medallion on his watch chain, and a very +perceptible frown on his dark, handsome face. + +"Tell me, how long have you been standing there, girl?" + +She hung her head, but did not answer; but that silence told him quite +as much as words. + +"The wisest girls are those who never see or hear anything," he +declared, eyeing her sharply. + +Again Katy courtesied, making no reply. She knew quite well what he +meant. + +"I may as well come to the point and say that you are not to mention to +any one anything that has taken place in this house--especially in this +room to-night. Now here is something that may help you to remember the +old adage that 'silence is golden.'" And as he spoke he thrust a bill +into the girl's hand, motioning her from the drawing-room, and turning +abruptly on his heel, he sauntered slowly across the room and flung +himself down in an easy chair. + +Katy hurried quickly upstairs. + +"The grand rascal!" she muttered; "to pay me to help deceive Miss +Dorothy! How my fingers tingled to box his ears! I longed to stamp my +foot and cry out: 'You handsome villain--engaged to marry one young girl +and making love to another! Oh! for shame! for shame!' It's a pity that +Miss Dorothy hasn't a good big brother to give him the trouncing he so +richly deserves. The Lord knows it's an unhappy life Miss Dorothy will +lead with him, and it would be a blessing in disguise if something +should happen to prevent the marriage from taking place. As for that +sly, black minx, Iris Vincent, she must have a soul as hard as adamant +and cruel as death to cheat a poor blind girl out of her lover, and to +try all her arts to win him from her. They fairly make love to each +other in her very presence; and she, poor soul! never knows it, because +she is blind! The curse of God will surely fall on them, and they will +be punished for their treachery to poor Miss Dorothy--and she so +trustful and innocent! I wish I could think of some plan to break that +up. Goodness knows, I wouldn't do such a thing for anything in the wide +world. I have always believed that the angels take terrible vengeance +upon any girl who takes another girl's lover from her by her wicked +coquetries." + +By this time she had reached Dorothy's _boudoir_. She found her young +mistress waiting for her with the greatest impatience. + +"Well," said Dorothy, quite as soon as she had opened the door, "who's +down there?" + +For an instant the inclination was strong within Katy's heart to tell +the whole truth of what she had seen and heard. It was not the dollar, +which seemed to burn in her pocket, that made her hold her tongue, but +the fear of giving poor blind Dorothy pain, that caused her to hold her +peace. + +"Only Mr. Kendal, miss." + +"I thought I heard voices," she said, wonderingly. + +"Miss Vincent was there when I entered the room, but left a moment or so +after," answered Katy, truthfully. + +"Were they talking together? And what were they talking about?" asked +Dorothy, eagerly. + +"That I can not say, miss," returned the girl, flushing to the roots of +her hair, and inwardly thankful that her poor young mistress could not +see the distress which she knew must be mirrored on her face. + +"Were they speaking so low that you could not hear them?" inquired +Dorothy, quickly. + +"Oh, no, miss! quite loud; but I was not listening." + +Dorothy gave a sigh of relief. + +"If it were not so late, I would go down stairs," she said, +reflectively. "But then, there's the ball to-morrow night. I will be up +late, so I suppose it would be just as well for me to rest to-night, for +I want to look my best, Katy. I would give the world to look bright and +gay as any girl there. I could hear the music, the patter of dancing +feet, and the sound of merry laughter. And, oh, Katy! perhaps I might +forget for a few brief moments my terrible affliction. I know Harry will +be happy amid the brilliant throng, and that thought alone will be joy +enough for me. You shall sit with me, Katy, to hold my wraps, my +flowers, my fan, and--and you must watch sharp, and tell me, Katy, if he +dances with any pretty girl the second time." + +She felt that she must make a confidant of some one, even though it was +Katy, the maid. + +"You must not think for one moment I am jealous, Katy," she said, "for I +assure you I am not; only as host I should not like him to pay too much +courtesy to any one person, you know." + +"Certainly not," assented Katy. + +"I have asked Iris what she intends to wear, but for some reason she +does not tell me, so I want you to notice particularly what she has on, +and if she looks very pretty. But then, I think she is sure to look +nice." + +"I shall look very closely, you may be sure of that," responded Katy, +"and tell you of everything that goes on--who's dancing, and who's +sitting in corners flirting, and just who Mr. Kendal dances with. Will +he take you in to supper, miss?" she asked, suddenly. + +She was sorry the moment after that she had asked the question, for +Dorothy's poor, sightless eyes filled with great tears. + +"You know that he would like to," she murmured, faintly, "but it would +be a ghastly sight--a poor blind girl sitting at the festal board with +the gay guests. Oh! why did God put such a terrible affliction upon me?" +throwing out her little white hands and beating the air as she sobbed +aloud in her agony. "Why can I not enter into his joys, and share them +with him as others do? Oh, Katy! will I not make but a sorry wife for my +handsome king--my idol? I wonder what he can find about me to hold me +still dear in his eyes, for I am no longer pretty, willful, madcap +Dorothy, as they once called me." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +The night of the ball came at last--the night which had been looked +forward to so anxiously for weeks by many a maiden and brave swain. + +By the time night had drawn her sable curtains over the sleeping earth +all the preparations had been completed at Gray Gables, and when the +lights were lighted it presented such a brilliant spectacle that those +who witnessed never forgot it. + +The guests began to arrive early, in order to have a long evening of +enjoyment. + +Late that afternoon an odd discussion had arisen which came near +wrecking the whole affair. + +Mrs. Kemp, Iris, and Dorothy were all seated in the general sitting-room +discussing the last but by no means least important matter of who +should receive the guests. + +"You are the young lady of the house," said Mrs. Kemp, turning to +Dorothy with a puzzled air, "and of course every one expects you to +perform that pleasant duty; but--" + +"Oh, no, no!" cut in Dorothy. "My--my affliction makes that an +impossibility. _You_ must do it, Mrs. Kemp." + +"Really, child, my presence is so much of a necessity in looking after +the servants and overlooking affairs in general that I assure you I can +not be spared even for a brief half hour; so, as near as I can see, Iris +must take your place for that occasion, with Mr. Kendal, to welcome your +guests. What do you say, my dear?" she asked, turning anxiously to the +beauty, who sat disconsolately by the window, listening to the +conversation, feeling confident as to how the debate must end--in _her +own_ favor. + +"I'm sure I do not mind doing so, if the arrangement suits Mr. Kendal +and--Dorothy." + +Harry entered the room at this stage, and of course the matter was +quickly laid before him. + +"Why, yes, Iris can help me receive the guests," he declared. "What a +happy thought! I supposed I alone was to be delegated to that task. Yes, +let us settle it in that manner, by all means." + +As usual, no one thought of consulting Dorothy's opinion. Indeed, they +scarcely missed her presence when, a few moments later, she slipped from +the room to have a good cry over the matter. + +Katy was startled as she beheld her white face as she groped her way +into the room. She sat so still that Dorothy imagined herself quite +alone. + +"I--I can not bear it!" she sobbed, flinging herself face downward on +the carpet with a wretched little sob. "In everything she seems to come +between me and my lover! Oh, I wish to Heaven that Iris Vincent would go +away! Harry has not been the same to me since she has been beneath this +roof. They tell me it is my imagination, but my heart tells me it is no +idle fancy. _She_ will be standing by my lover's side receiving _my_ +guests! Oh, angels up in Heaven, forgive me if the pangs of jealousy, +cruel as death, spring up in my poor heart at that bitter thought!" And +another thought: "Harry is beginning to depend so much upon her society. +Now, if I ask, 'Where is Harry?' the answer is, 'Out driving or walking +or singing with Iris.' Katy tells me she is very plain of face--nay, +even homely. If she were beautiful I should be in terror too horrible +for words. It is wicked of me, but, oh! I can not help but thank God she +is not fair of face, to attract my darling from me." + +Tears rolled down Katy's cheeks as she listened. Not for the world would +she have let her poor young mistress know that her grief had had a +witness. She kept perfectly quiet, making no sound, scarcely breathing, +until Dorothy passed slowly into an inner apartment, and she was +heartily glad that she touched her bell a moment after. + +Katy hurried to her with alacrity, taking pains, however, to tiptoe to +the door, open it, and close it again, quite as if she had just come in +from the corridor. + +"Now, Katy," said her young mistress, "you must make haste to help me +dress. I am impatient. I feel dreadfully nervous, as though a great +calamity was to take place. I feel just such a strange sensation as +seemed to clutch at my heart before that terrible accident happened that +has blighted my whole life." + +"Oh, dear Miss Dorothy, _please_ don't talk so!" cried Katy, aghast. +"I'm sure it isn't right, if I may make so bold as to say so to you. I +have always heard it said: 'Never cross a bridge of trouble until you +come to it.'" + +"'Coming events cast their shadows before,'" quoted Dorothy, slowly. + +"I have made your dress look so lovely, Miss Dorothy," she cried, +bravely attempting to turn her thoughts into another channel, "and it's +right sorry I am that you can't see it. Every one will say that it is +the prettiest dress at the ball. You said I might fix it any way that I +liked, so long as it looked grand." + +"How have you arranged it, Katy?" asked Dorothy, with a faint smile, +being girl enough to forget her sorrow for an instant in speaking of her +ball dress. + +"It is your new white tulle, miss, that I picked out--the one that you +had made to go to parties in, providing you were ever asked to any, the +first week you came to Gray Gables, you remember." + +"Oh, yes," murmured Dorothy, clasping her little hands. "I--I remember +so well how nice it looked on me, too." + +"You looked like an angel in it!" declared Katy; resuming: "Well, it's +that one, miss, and I have been embroidering flowers all over the front +of it as a surprise for you, and, oh, they look perfectly magnificent on +it!--just as though some one stood near you and threw a great handful +of blossoms over you and they clung to your white tulle dress just where +they fell." + +"What kind of flowers are they?" asked Dorothy, delightedly. + +"Wisteria blossoms," said Katy. + +Dorothy sprang to her feet, pale as death. + +"You have embroidered purple wisteria blossoms all over my ball dress?" +she whispered, in an awful voice. + +"Yes," returned the girl, wondering what was coming next. + +"Oh, Katy!" she cried, in a choking voice, "don't you know that purple +wisteria blossoms mean tears?" + +"I don't believe in all those old women's superstitions, miss," declared +Katy, stoutly. "I imagine that it was got up by some muddy-complexioned +creature, whose only annoyance was that the pretty blossoms didn't look +good on her, and consequently she gave them a bad name to keep others +from wearing them. There's plenty of such things being done." + +This explanation, or rather explosion of the pet superstition, amused +Dorothy vastly. + +"Well, I shall not mind the old adage about wisteria blossoms and tears. +I'll wear the dress anyhow, Katy, come what may. But do you know what +Iris is going to wear? I haven't been able to find out." + +"Nor has any one, ma'am," muttered Katy. "She has been making up her +ball dress in her own room for the past fortnight, and keeps the door +securely fastened; but we shall see very soon now, for it is quite time +to dress, and she has to be ready first to receive the guests. I heard +Mr. Kendal telling her so, a few moments since, as they passed through +the corridor just as I opened the door." + +She saw Dorothy turn a shade paler, and her head drooped, but she made +no reply. + +"Shall I commence now to arrange your toilet?" she asked, anxious to +dress her mistress, and then don her own new dress for the gala +occasion. + +"I don't want to go into the ball-room until all the guests have +arrived, and then I want to slip in quietly," said Dorothy; "so you need +not hurry." + +It was a sorry task at best for Katy, dressing her poor, blind mistress +for the ball. + +Ah! it was pitiful to see her sitting so patiently there with her back +to the mirror, while the maid, with great tears rolling down her cheeks, +fastened the clouds of tulle here and there with the dark blossoms, and +twined them in the golden curls that fell about her white neck. + +Oh, how radiantly fair she looked! And Katy knew that no one gazing in +those beautiful violet eyes would ever realize that the lovely girl was +blind--stone blind. + +Her hand trembled violently as, an hour later, she clung to her maid's +arm, and timidly, shrinkingly entered the great ball-room crowded with +guests. No one noticed their entrance, the throng was so great, and she +had her heart's desire. She slipped into a corner without her presence +being commented on. + +She did not know that a little place among a bower of ferns had been +previously arranged for her by Katy, where she could sit and hear the +music without being seen herself; nor would Katy be seen by the guests. + +"Tell me," she whispered, nervously clutching the girl's hand, "where is +Harry, and is--is Miss Vincent with him, and how does she look?" + +Before Katy could frame a reply the last question was rudely answered by +a stranger. Two young ladies at that instant dropped down into seats so +near Dorothy that she could easily have touched them had she reached out +her hand from her screen of palms and roses. + +"What a magnificent-looking girl that Iris Vincent is!" cried one of the +young girls. "The fame of her great beauty is spreading everywhere; but +I never dreamed she was as beautiful as the description I have heard of +her, and I find she far surpasses it. I wonder that poor, blind Dorothy +Glenn is not jealous that her affianced husband should pay the girl so +much attention." + +"This is the first time I have seen her," replied her companion, "and I, +too, am amazed at her marvelous beauty. As I stepped into the ball-room +she was the first person I beheld, and she has dazzled my eyes ever +since. Oh, it was a wonderful picture she made, standing under a slender +palm tree, in her white tulle dress flecked with gold and pearls, and +those blood-red rubies encircling her white throat and perfect arms and +coiled in her jetty curls; and then those glorious dark eyes! No wonder +men lose their hearts over her at the first fatal glance into their +wonderful, mesmeric depths. She is fairer than the fairest of poets' +dreams." + +Dorothy listened with bated breath, then turned quickly to Katy. + +"Have you deceived me--_me_, a poor blind girl?" she cried in a terrible +voice that sounded like a cry from the tomb. "You told me that the girl +who had come beneath this roof was homely and terribly plain. _They_ +say she is beautiful. Oh, God! have you deceived me? I must know the +truth at once." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +"Katy," repeated Dorothy, in a shrill, awful whisper, "tell me, have you +willfuly deceived me? You have said Miss Vincent was plain--nay, more, +that she was homely--and on all sides of me I hear them speaking of her +wonderful beauty." + +Katy sank back shivering in her seat. + +"It's fine feathers that make fine birds to-night," she rejoined, +faintly. "No wonder they think Iris Vincent looks well to-night. She's +rigged out like a real peacock; and her face is painted, too. I can see +it clear across the room; and I am quite sure that Mr. Kendal has +noticed it; and I've heard him say that if there's anything which he +detests, it's girls who whiten their faces with chalk." + +Still Dorothy did not feel comforted. A nameless fear which she could +scarcely define by words had crept into her heart, and a smoldering +flame of jealousy burst suddenly forth; and that was the beginning of a +terrible end. + +She leaned wearily back in her seat, and looked so white that Katy was +frightened. + +"Shall I get you a glass of ice-water, Miss Dorothy?" she cried. + +The pale lips murmured assent, and she flew to do her mistress' bidding. + +Left to herself, Dorothy sprang hastily to her feet. + +"It almost seems as if I shall go mad!" she murmured--"yes, mad--with +this terrible fear clutching at my heart! I must have air. I am +stifling!" + +All unmindful of the errand upon which she had sent Katy, Dorothy rose +hastily to her feet, and, remembering that there was a rear entrance +leading from the ball-room near where she sat, she groped her way +thither. + +The night air fanned her feverish cheek, but it did not cool the fever +in her brain or the fire that seemed eating into her very heart. A +thousand fancies, so weird and strange that they terrified her, seemed +to take possession of her brain. She had relied so entirely upon what +they had told her--that Miss Vincent was very plain--that the feeling of +jealousy had never before occurred to her; for well she knew that Harry +Kendal was a beauty-worshiper, and that no matter how much he might be +thrown in contact with a girl who was plain of face, he would never +dream of being anything else than simply courteous to her. + +Now affairs seemed to take on a new and hideous form. + +She recalled each and every incident that had taken place since Miss +Vincent's arrival, and + + "Trifles light as air + Seemed confirmation strong as Holy Writ" + +as she viewed them now. + +"Even the guests notice how attentive he is to her," she said to +herself, with a bitter sob, wringing her cold little hands and clutching +them tightly over her heart. + +Suddenly she heard the sound of voices, and sank down upon a seat at +hand until they should pass by. + +She did not know that the seat which she had selected on the broad +piazza was directly back of one of the large, vine-wreathed, fluted +pillars, and in the dense shadow. + +This time she readily divined that the voices must belong to two +light-hearted, happy girls. + +"Are you having a good time, Grace, dear?" asked one. + +"Oh, quite the jolliest I have ever had in all my life!" was the reply. +"I haven't missed one dance, and all my partners have been so +handsome--quite the prettiest fellows in the ball-room! And how is it +with you?" + +"Oh, I'm enjoying myself, too!" laughed the other girl, "But did you +notice what a ninny I had in that last waltz-quadrille? Don't you hate +partners who stand away off, and barely touch your finger-tips as they +dance with you? Upon my word, I'd rather have the straight-as-a-mackerel +kind, who hold you so tight you can scarcely catch your breath!" + +And at this both girls went off into uproarious laughter, when suddenly +one of them exclaimed: + +"Have you yet had a waltz with handsome Harry Kendal?" + +"No," returned the other, ruefully. "At the last ball I went to he was +almost wild to put his name down for every waltz with me. But, after +all, I can not wonder at that when I see how greatly he is infatuated +with the beauty of the ball to-night--the fair Iris Vincent." + +"Have you heard all the talk to-night about that?" chimed in the other, +her voice sinking to a low, confidential tone. "Every one has noticed +it, and it is the talk of the ball-room." + +"It is shameful for him to carry on so," returned her companion, "when +every one knows that his wedding day with poor, blind Dorothy Glenn is +so near at hand." + +"Do you know," said the other, slowly, "that I doubt if he will ever +marry Dorothy now? You must remember that he became engaged to her +before that terrible accident. And do you know there is great diversity +of opinion as to whether the poor fellow should marry her or not. It is +very nice to read about in books--of lovers proving true to their +_fiancées_ through every trouble and tribulation--but I tell you they +don't do it in real life. When trouble comes to a girl, nine lovers out +of ten fly from her 'to seek pastures new;' and, after all, to come +right down to the fine point, between you and me, could you really blame +Harry Kendal if he were to break off with Dorothy? He is young and +handsome, and I say that it would be a bitter shame for him to go +through life with a blind girl for a wife; and when I think of it I +actually feel indignant with the girl for holding him to his engagement +under such circumstances. She ought to know that in time he would +actually hate her for it. She can share none of his joys. Why, she would +be only a pitiful burden to handsome Harry Kendal! That girl whom he +seems so infatuated with would be a thousand times more suitable for +him. Oh, what a handsome couple they do make! And every one can see, +though they think they hide it so well, how desperately they are in love +with each other." + +They moved on, little dreaming of the ruin and blight they had left +behind them. + +They were scarcely out of hearing when the great cry that had been +choked back so long burst forth in a wild, piercing wail of agony that +meant the breaking then and there of a human heart. But the dance-music +inside, to which the joyous, merry feet kept time, completely drowned +it. + +Dorothy had risen from her chair, and the look on her face was terrible +to behold. + +"Let me quite understand it," she whispered--"let me try to realize and +grasp the awful truth: Harry Kendal, my lover, has ceased to care for +me, and is lavishing his attention, nay, more, his affection, upon +another and one who in return loves him; and they say that I should give +him up to her--I, who love him better than my own life! He is all I have +left me in my terrible affliction, and they would take even him from me +and give him to another. They said it was not right for me to cling to +him, and to burden him with a blind wife through life--that the thought +is torture to him. Oh, God in Heaven! can it be true?" + +And again the angels at the great White Throne were startled with the +piercing cries of woe that broke from the girl's white lips, which once +more the dance-music mercifully drowned. + +"I will go to him and confront him with what I have heard. He shall +choose between us before all the people assembled here to-night. I will +fling myself upon my knees at his feet, crying out: 'Oh, my darling! my +love! my life! tell me that the cruel rumors which I have heard are +false--that you do not hate me because--because of the awful affliction +that Heaven has seen fit to put upon me! Turn from the girl by your side +to me--to me, your promised bride! She can never love you as I do. You +are my all--my world! If I were to die to-day--aye, within this hour--my +soul could not leave this earth while you were here! I would cling to +you in life or in death!'" + +With a swift motion Dorothy turned and re-entered the house, forgetful +of her blindness, and to count the steps which she had taken, +remembering only that she was undergoing the greatest trial of her life. + +Swift as a fluttering swallow she hastened across the broad piazza, but +in the confusion of her whirling brain she had mistaken the direction. + +One instant more, too quick for a cry, too quick for a moan, she had +stepped off the veranda, and fell with a terrible thud down five feet +below, and lay, stunned and unconscious, on the graveled walk. + +The shock was so sudden, so terrible that surely God in His mercy was +kind in that the fearful pain of the fall was not realized by her. + +The moments dragged themselves wearily by as she lay there. Fully half +an hour elapsed. No one missed her save Katy, no one thought of looking +for her out in the cold and darkness, which was penetrated only by the +dim light of the stars. The dew of night fell silently, pityingly upon +the white, upturned face and curling golden hair, which lay tangled +among the sharp pebbles. Gradually consciousness dawned upon her brain. +The warm blood crept back to the chilled veins and pulsed feebly, but +with it came the remembrance of the terrible blow that had fallen upon +her. + +Dorothy staggered to her feet, but as she did so a strange electric +shock seemed to pass through her body and balls of fire to whirl before +her eyes. But as they cleared away a great cry broke from the girl's +lips: + +"Oh, God! can it be true? Heaven has restored my sight to me as +miraculously as it was taken from me!" + +Once again she saw the blue sky, with its myriads of golden-hearted +stars, bending over her; the great stone house, with its lighted +windows, and beyond, the tall, dark oak trees, with their great, +widespread tossing branches; and she fell upon her knees and kissed the +very stones at her feet and the green blades of waving grass that she +never once thought she would see again, and she raised her white arms to +heaven with such piteous cries of thankfulness that the angels must have +heard and wept over. + +Yes, Dorothy's sight had been restored to her as miraculously as it had +been taken from her. + +But even in the midst of her great joy the dregs of woe still lingered +as memory brought back to her the terrible ordeal through which she had +passed. + +With bated breath she turned and crept swiftly back to the house and up +to the long windows that opened out on the porch, sobbing bitterly to +herself that she would see at last if her lover was true or false to +her. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +With her heart throbbing with the most intense excitement, Dorothy +pushed aside the great clusters of crimson creepers and thick green +leaves, pressed her white face close against the window-pane, and gazed +in upon the gorgeous scene. + +For an instant the great blaze of light dazzled her weak eyes, and +everything seemed to swim before her. + +But gradually, little by little, she began to distinguish objects, and +at last her eyes fell upon the face of Harry Kendal. + +With a great cry, the girl clutched her hands tightly over her heart. +She never thought that she would look upon his face again in this world. + +It was _his_ face--the face of her hero, her king, before which all else +paled as the moonbeams pale before the glaring light of the rising sun. +Then suddenly she saw the face beside him into which he was gazing, and +it was then that the heart in her bosom almost turned to stone. + +Never in all her life had she beheld such a vision of loveliness, and +she knew in an instant that the proud beauty must be Iris Vincent. + +Slowly Dorothy crept around to the other side of the porch, up to the +window, that she might have a better view of them, and perhaps she could +hear what they were saying. + +But as she reached it, to her great disappointment she saw them link +arms and stroll out of the ball-room toward the conservatory, and +thither she bent her steps, intent upon reaching it before they did. + +She had barely screened herself behind a tall _jardinière_ of roses and +flowering plants, ere, laughing and chattering, the two entered the +floral bower. + +"The ball is a grand success, Iris," he was saying, gayly; "they all +seem to be enjoying themselves immensely. How is it with you?" + +"It is a night that will stand out forever in my life," she responded, +glancing up at him with those dangerously dark eyes, and a smile on her +red lips. + +The girl who watched them breathlessly from behind the roses clutched +her hands over her heart. + +The sight maddened her. They were so near each other, their heads bent +so close; and while she gazed, suddenly Kendal bent still closer and +kissed the girl's lips. + +Dorothy tried to cry aloud, to spring out and confront them. Her brain +reeled; the blood, chill as ice, stood still in her veins, and without a +cry, or even a moan she sank down unconscious in her hiding-place. + +"What is that sound?" cried Iris, with a start. + +"Only some of the clumsy servants in the corridor without," replied +Kendal. "But, Iris, are you trying to avoid me? I have brought you here +to tell you something, and you must listen. The time has come when we +must fully understand each other. You know quite as well as I that the +life we are leading, Iris, can not go on like this forever. From the +first moment we met the attraction I felt toward you changed the whole +current of my life." + +Iris hid her face in the bouquet of white hyacinths which she carried. + +"It is too late to talk of that now," she murmured. "Your heart went +out to another before--before I met you." + +"There is such a thing as affections waning when one discovers that +one's heart is not truly mated, Iris," he cried. + +She did not answer; and thus emboldened by her silence, he went on, +huskily: + +"Let me give you the whole history of my meeting with Dorothy Glenn, +from first to last, and you will understand the situation better. You +can realize, Iris, that an acquaintance which commences through a +flirtation, as it were, can never end in true love. Such an acquaintance +is not a lasting one. Come and sit down on this rustic seat, Iris, and +listen; and as we sit here in the dim, mellow light, you shall judge me, +and your decision shall seal my fate." + +At the self-same moment in which Harry Kendal was beginning his +narrative, there was quite a commotion at the outer gate which guarded +the main entrance of Gray Gables. + +One of the servants, lounging lazily at his post of duty, was suddenly +startled out of the doze into which he had fallen by the shadow of a +woman flitting hurriedly past him. + +"Hold on, there! Hold on, I say! Who are you, and what do you want?" + +A figure clad in a long dark cloak, hooded and veiled, stopped short +with a little exclamation, which he could not quite catch. + +"Hold on, there! Where are you going?" he repeated, springing to her +side. "There is something going on here to-night. You can't enter these +grounds until I know who you are and what your business is." + +"This is Gray Gables, is it not?" exclaimed a tremulous voice from +behind the veil. + +"I should have supposed you would have found that out before you entered +the grounds," declared the man, suspiciously. + +She saw her mistake, and started. + +"I only wanted to make sure that I was right," she said, apologetically. +"I--I have business with the housekeeper; I want to see her." + +Before she could utter another word he whistled sharply. His call +brought a small lad to his side. + +"Tell Mrs. Kemp there's a young woman here who would like to see her. +What name, please?" he asked, abruptly, turning to the veiled figure. + +"I--I am afraid she wouldn't know; but you might, mention the name--Miss +Mead"--this rather stutteringly. + +Very soon the answer came back that the housekeeper did not know Miss +Mead, and hadn't time to see strangers. + +"But I must see her!" implored the excited voice from behind the thick +veil. "Do let me go to the house to her. I will detain her but a moment, +I assure you. She would be so sorry if she missed seeing me." + +With no suspicion of the terrible catastrophe that was to follow on the +heels of it, the man without further ado allowed her to pass. + +The stranger sped quickly up the graveled walk, and, as Dorothy had done +but a short time before, drew cautiously up to the brilliantly lighted +window, threw back her veil, and peered breathlessly in upon the +gorgeous scene. + +As the light fell athwart her, you and I, dear reader, can easily +recognize the marble-white face of--Nadine Holt. + +"So!" she muttered, between her clinched teeth, "I have tracked my +false, perfidious lover to his home at last. When Harry Kendal lighted +the fire of love in my heart, he little knew that the blaze would in +time consume himself. I am not one to be made love to and cast off at +will, as he shall soon see. + +"From the hour that he eloped with Dorothy Glenn, on that memorable +Labor Day, life lost all its charms for me, and I vowed to Heaven that I +would find them, and deal out vengeance to them. They crushed my heart, +and now I shall crush theirs. Ah, how I watched for him in the crowded +streets, the ferries, and on the elevated roads! + +"I believed sooner or later that I should find him, and I was right. +Only a week ago I met him face to face, but he did not know me because +of the thick veil I wore. I might have raised my veil and he would never +have recognized in the pinched and haggard features the countenance of +Nadine Holt, whose beauty he was wont to praise so lavishly. Ah, the +traitor! + +"He turned into a florist's shop, and he never dreamed who the woman was +who entered the place and stood silently beside him while he gave the +order for the great decorations for the grand ball which was to take +place at his home in Gray Gables, in Yonkers, a fortnight from that +date. + +"When he quitted the shop I flew out after him; but all in an instant he +disappeared from my sight as though the ground had suddenly opened and +swallowed him. But I laughed aloud. What cared I then. I knew just +where to find him. The place was written indelibly on my brain in +letters of fire--Gray Gables, Yonkers! + +"Only Heaven knows how I have worked to get a day off and to earn extra +money to make this little trip! And now I am here to face him. Is he +married to Dorothy Glenn, I wonder? It would take only that knowledge to +make a fiend incarnate of me!" + +At that moment one of the servants passing along the porch stopped short +at sight of the young woman in black, with the death-white face and +flashing black eyes, peering into the ball-room from the long porch +window. + +"They are having a great time in there," he said, jerking his head with +a nod in the direction of the ball-room. + +"Yes!" returned Nadine Holt, sharply. + +Then it occurred to her that she could find out something about the +lover who had deserted her. And there was another thing which puzzled +her greatly. The name which he had given the florist was not the one by +which she had known him--she would find out all by this man. Now he was +calling himself Mr. Harry Kendal--that was the name he had given the +florist. + +"In whose honor is the ball given, my good fellow?" she asked, with an +assumption of carelessness. + +For a moment he looked stupidly at her. + +"I mean, who is giving the ball?" she added. + +"Oh, it's Mr. Kendal, ma'am--leastwise, he and Miss Dorothy are giving +it together." + +She started as though a serpent had stung her, then stood perfectly +still and looked at the man with gleaming eyes. + +"Miss Dorothy--who?" she asked, knowing full well what his answer must +be. + +"Miss Dorothy Glenn, ma'am," he replied. "But she won't be 'miss' very +long, for she is soon to marry Mr. Kendal." + +"Soon to marry him!" she repeated, vaguely, saying in the next breath, +"then they are not _already_ married," muttering the words more to +herself than to the man. "Where does this girl, Dorothy live?" she +asked, suddenly. + +"That I couldn't say, ma'am," he replied. "I only came to Gray Gables +to-day, to work. I know only the little that I have heard the servants +say while at their work this afternoon. They say Miss Dorothy is very +beautiful." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The white face into which the man gazed grew whiter still, the eyes +dilated, and her heart twinged with a pang of jealousy more bitter than +death to endure. + +People always made that remark when speaking of Dorothy. It was that +fatal gift which had won her lover from her, Nadine said to herself, and +which had wrecked her life. + +Oh! if she could but destroy that pink-and-white beauty! + +The thought was born in Nadine Holt's breast all in an instant, and +seemed to fire her whole being. + +She knew her lover's passionate adoration of a beautiful face, and then +and there the thought came to her: How long would he love Dorothy Glenn +if that pretty pink-and-white face were seamed and scarred? + +She laughed--a low, strange, eerie laugh that quite startled the man as +he walked away. + +Left to herself, Nadine Holt deliberately opened the hall door and stole +into the house. She had but one purpose in view, and that was to +confront her lover and Dorothy before all the invited guests. + +There was nothing about the dark figure to attract especial attention, +and she glided through the corridor unnoticed. + +Was it the hand of fate most terrible that guided her toward the +conservatory? The dark figure glided like a shadow toward the open door, +and then paused abruptly, for the low sound of voices fell upon her ear, +and one of them she recognized as that of her perfidious lover. + +Through the softened pearly gloom she saw him sitting on the rustic +bench close--very close--to the slender, girlish figure in fleecy white, +and the sight made the blood in her veins turn to molten fire. + +Like an evil spirit she crept toward them. She would--she _must_--know +what he was saying to his companion in that leafy bower. + +She said to herself, of course it was Dorothy, and that they had stolen +away from the lights and the music for a few tender words with each +other, after the fashion of love-sick lovers. + +It had not been so very long ago since he had been talking with her in +just that lover-like way, only their courtship had taken place in the +public parks, sitting on the benches, or walking lovingly arm in arm +along the crowded thoroughfares; and he had brought Dorothy to his own +grand home--Dorothy, her hated rival!--to enjoy this paradise of a +place, and to make love to her in this Eden bower of roses and scented, +murmuring, tinkling fountains. + +"Dorothy!" he murmured in his rich, low, musical voice. How plainly she +heard the name! The rest of the sentence she could not catch, though she +crept nearer and nearer, and strained every nerve to listen. "I love you +as I have never loved anything in this life before," she heard him say, +"and my future without you would be unendurable. I can not endure it--I +will not!" + +The poor wretch who listened grew mad as she heard the tender words +whispered into the ears of another by her false lover. + +She crouched still lower, and her hand, as she threw it out wildly, came +in contact with something hard and cold. It was a long, thin, +sharp-bladed knife which the gardener had been using only that day to +trim the bushes, and which, in his hurry, he had carelessly forgotten. +She realized instantly what it was, and, with the thought, a diabolical +idea crept into her brain. + +"Why should Dorothy Glenn live to enjoy the smiles of the man whose love +she has robbed me of," she muttered below her breath, "while my heart +hungers and my soul quivers in endless torture for the affection that +is denied me? I can endure it no longer!" + +The mad desire to spoil the fair beauty of her rival overpowered her +until the thought possessed her and rendered her almost a fiend +incarnate. + +Grasping the long, sharp-bladed knife tightly, Nadine Holt raised her +right arm slowly, cautiously. Not so much as a leaf rustled to warn the +two sitting on the rustic bench of the terrible danger that hung over +them. + +Harry Kendal's low, musical voice sank to a lower cadence. He drew the +slender figure of the girl nearer and that action was fatal. + +There was a quick, whizzing sound, followed by an awful cry of terror +from Iris, and Kendal's hand, resting lightly about her waist, was +deluged in blood. + +"Murder! murder! Oh, heavens!" shrieked Iris, and she fell at his feet +in a swoon. + +In the commotion Nadine Holt turned like a pantheress and made her +escape from the conservatory and from the house. + +"Murder! murder!" Those terrible cries that rent the air were the first +sounds that Dorothy heard as her benumbed brain gained consciousness. +And as she staggered, benumbed and dazed, to her feet she almost fell +over a slimy knife lying there, and at that instant a strong hand flung +back the rose-vines and Harry Kendal, white and quivering with wrath, +confronted her. + +"Dorothy Glenn!" he cried, in a horrible voice fairly reverberating with +intense emotion, "You! Oh, you cruel, wicked girl! You--you fiend! to do +what you have done!" and reaching out his hand he flung her backward +from him as though she were a scorpion whose very touch was +contamination. "Fly up to your own room," he cried, hoarsely, "and do +not leave it for a moment until I come to you there! Have nothing to +say; refuse to speak to any one!" and catching her fiercely by the +shoulder, he fairly dragged her through the conservatory toward the rear +door, which communicated with a back stairway that led up to her room. + +Faint and dazed, Dorothy had not offered the least resistance to this +cruel treatment. Her brain seemed stupefied by the whirling, confusing +events taking place so rapidly around her. She only realized two things: +that she had betrayed her presence in the conservatory when she fell to +the floor upon hearing her lover speak words of affection to her rival, +and that Harry was bitterly angry with her for being there. She did not +remember that she had lost consciousness. It seemed to her that as her +senses were about leaving her strange cries recalled them. + +It occurred to her that in his excitement and anger her lover had not +noticed that she had regained her sight. + +Wearily Dorothy ascended the steep, narrow stairway and entered her own +room. A soft, low, dim light flooded the apartment, upon which she had +not gazed for many and many a long day. + +Katy was not there, and she flung herself into the nearest arm-chair, +sobbing wretchedly, although on that night she had cause to cry out to +Heaven and rejoice for God's mercy to her for so unexpectedly restoring +her sight. But, ah, me! how strange it is that all the blessings Heaven +can shower upon us seem as dross when the one love we crave proves +fickle. + +Dorothy did not have the heart to cry out joyfully and thankfully. Her +head drooped on her breast with a low, quivering sigh, and her hands +fell in her lap. + +Suddenly something around the bottom of her dress caught her eye, and +she started to her feet with a low cry. + +"It is blood!" she cried out in an awful voice. + +No sooner had the door closed behind Dorothy ere Kendal flew back to +Iris' side. + +No one had heard the terrible cries. He thanked Heaven for that. The +music had drowned them. + +He had quite believed that Iris was dying. A hasty examination showed +him that it was only a slight wound on the shoulder, from which blood +was flowing profusely. + +"Thank God it is no worse!" he cried, breathing freely. + +He quickly set about restoring Iris, and in a moment she opened her +eyes. + +"Murder! murder!" she would have cried again, but he put his hand +instantly over her red lips. + +"Hush! hush! in Heaven's name!" he cried. "You will alarm the whole +household. You are not seriously hurt!" + +"Some one was trying to murder me!" shrieked Iris, hysterically. + +"No, no!" he returned, quickly. "Listen, Iris, for Heaven's sake! One of +the panes of glass of the conservatory directly overhead was broken, +and--and a little part of it fell in, grazing your shoulder. It is a +deep and painful scratch, I can well understand; but it is only a +scratch, I can assure you." + +"Oh, it has ruined my dress!" cried the girl, in anger and dismay, never +thinking for an instant of doubting the truth of his assertion. "I can +not appear in the ball-room again. No one must know that we were here +together," she went on, hastily--"not one human soul! You must give out +that I--I became suddenly indisposed and went to my own room." + +"Yes, I think your suggestions are best," he agreed. + +The guests received this explanation of the sudden absence of the beauty +of the ball with regret, and more than one whisper went the rounds of +the room how this seemed to disturb handsome Harry Kendal, for his face +was very pale, and he seemed so nervous. + +At the earliest opportunity Harry Kendal slipped away from the merry +throng and up to Dorothy's apartment, hastily knocking at the door. + +She opened it herself. + +"Step out into the corridor," he said, sternly; "I want to speak to +you." + +And trembling with apprehension caused by his stern manner, Dorothy +obeyed. + +She could see, even in the dim light, that his face was white as death. + +"I have come to have an understanding with you, Dorothy Glenn!" he cried +hoarsely. "Your dastardly action of to-night has forever placed a +barrier between you and me! I am here to say this to you: here and now I +sever our betrothal! The same roof shall no longer shelter us both! +Either you leave this house to-night, or I'll go!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +It was the most pitiful scene that pen could describe. The beautiful +young girl, in her dress of fleecy white, with the faded purple blossoms +on her breast entwined among the meshes of her disheveled golden hair, +crouching back among the green leaves, and the white-faced, handsome, +angry man clutching her white arm, crying out hoarsely that never again +should they both breathe the same air beneath that roof--that she must +leave Gray Gables within the hour, or he would. + +"I did not know that I had done so terribly wrong," moaned the girl, +shrinking back from those angry, fiery eyes that glowered down so +fiercely into her own. + +A laugh that was more horrible than the wildest imprecation could have +been broke from his lips. + +"You seem to have a remarkably mixed idea of right and wrong," he +retorted, sternly, relaxing his hold and standing before her with rigid, +folded arms, his anger growing more intense with each passing instant as +he looked down into the girl's agonized face. + +Had she done so very, very wrong in remaining in the conservatory, and +in listening to her betrothed make love to her rival? she wondered +vaguely. + +Surely, she should have been the one to have cried out in bitter anger, +not he. + +"Let me tell you how it all came about," she gasped, faintly. + +"I--I was in the ball-room with Katy, when it grew so warm that I sent +for an ice. She did not return as soon as I had expected her, and--and I +groped my way out into the garden to await her there. But as I stepped +from the porch a wonderful thing happened, Harry. I--I missed my footing +and fell headlong down the steps to the graveled walk below, and the +shock restored my sight. Oh! look at me, Harry!" she exclaimed, with +quivering intensity, holding out her white arms toward him. "I can see +now. I can see your idolized face, oh, my beloved! I--I came here to +tell you this--to tell you the wonderful tidings! I intended to send to +the ball-room for you, but before I could put my intention into +execution I--I heard steps approaching, and drew back among the +screening leaves till they should pass. You came in with Iris Vincent, +and I heard what you said, and my brain whirled--I grew dazed. You--you +know the rest!" + +He was not overwhelmed by the great tidings that she had regained her +sight, as she had expected he would be. Instead, he retorted brusquely: + +"It was a pity that your sight returned to you to enable you to do so +dastardly a deed; and I am beginning to have my doubts whether or not +you have not been duping us all along, and, under that guise, spying +upon us--which seems to be your forte. This revelation makes me angrier +than ever," he went on, "for it leaves you with no possible hope of +pardon for your atrocious conduct, which merits the whole world's scorn +and contempt!" + +"I see it all!" cried Dorothy, springing to her feet and facing him. +"You have prearranged this quarrel with me to break our betrothal, that +you might wed your new love--Iris Vincent. But, just for pure spite, I +will not release you--never! I will tell the whole world of your +duplicity. An engagement is a solemn thing. It takes two to enter into +it and two to break it." + +The scorn on his handsome face deepened. + +"I do not very well see how you can marry a man when he makes up his +mind not to have you," he declared. "That is a difficult feat, and I +shall have to see it done before I can be convinced that it can be +accomplished," he replied, icily, adding: "There are many women in this +world who would stand back and watch such a proceeding with the wildest +anxiety, I imagine;" this sneeringly. + +"You shall never marry Iris Vincent!" Dorothy panted. "I--I would +prevent it at any cost. Once before you forsook me when I needed you +most; you left me to die when I fell from the steamer down into +the dark water, when we were returning from Staten Island, that +never-to-be-forgotten night; so why should I be surprised at your +willingness to desert me now?" + +He turned on his heel. + +"It is now two o'clock in the morning," he said. "My duty requires me to +go down to the ball-room and bid the guests adieu as they take their +departure, and when that is over I shall leave this house until this +difficulty has been settled. The reading of Doctor Bryan's will is to +take place at noon. I shall be present then, and after that--well--well, +we shall see what will take place." + +With these words Kendal quitted the room, and left Dorothy standing +there with the tears falling like rain down her cheeks--surely the most +piteous object in the whole wide world. + +When Kendal found himself alone his intense anger against Dorothy began +to cool a little. + +"It is true she attempted to do a horrible deed," he muttered; "but I +must not forget that love for me prompted her to it, and show her _some_ +mercy." + +After all the guests had taken their departure, and the house had +settled down into the darkness and quiet of the waning night, Kendal +paced his room in a greatly perturbed state of mind, thinking the matter +over. + +He was terribly in love with Iris, he admitted to himself; but he had +done wrong, fearfully wrong, in breaking off his engagement with Dorothy +until after the reading of the will. Iris was beautiful, bewitching--his +idea of all that a proud, imperious, willful sweetheart should be--but +Dorothy would have what was much better than all this, the golden +shekels; and then, too, now that the girl was no longer blind, she would +have plenty of admirers; and he could have cursed himself for those +hasty words, that no longer should she live under the same roof with +himself. + +It was daylight when he threw himself down on the bed, fairly worn out; +and his head no sooner touched the pillow than he fell into a deep +sleep, and it was almost noon ere he opened his eyes again, and then it +was the slow, measured chime of the clock as it struck the half hour +which awakened him. + +"Great Heaven! half past eleven!" he ejaculated, springing from the +couch. "I shall barely have time to get downstairs to be present at the +reading of the will. I must make all haste; but first of all I must find +out how Iris is, and if her shoulder pains her much." + +He rang the bell hastily, and to the servant who answered the summons he +gave his verbal message to Miss Vincent. But in a very short time the +man returned, placing a letter in his hand. + +Kendal was mystified, for he saw that it was Iris' delicate chirography. +He tore open the envelope with the fever of impatience, and as his eye +fell upon the delicately written lines his handsome face turned white as +marble. + + "My DEAR HARRY," it commenced, "you will feel greatly + surprised at the contents of this letter. I think it + best to break into the subject at once, and to tell you + the plain truth of just what has happened. + + "Shortly after I left you and retired to my own + apartments the pain in my shoulder became so intense + that, remembering there was a young surgeon among the + invited guests, I sent for him at once. I can never + tell you just exactly how it came about, but the upshot + of the whole matter was that he asked me to marry him. + + "I wanted time to consider it; but he said it must be + then and there, within the hour, or never. I demurred, + but he was resolute. + + "I realized that I held my future in my own hands, and + that I had to decide upon my own destiny at once. + + "He is a millionaire's son, and you are only a poor, + struggling physician. Can you wonder that it could + terminate only in one way? + + "I accepted him, and by the time that you are reading + this we shall be married and far away. So good-bye, + Harry. Try and forgive me, if you can. + + "IRIS." + +With a horrible imprecation, Kendal tore the note into a thousand +fragments, hurled them upon the floor, and ground his heel into them. + +"False!" he cried. "I might have known it. It is always these beautiful +women who are so heartless. They draw men on with their smiles and their +bewitching fascinations, only to throw them over when a more eligible +_parti_ appears upon the scene." + +Deeply as he had been smitten with her charms, her action caused an +instantaneous revulsion of feeling. + +"'What care I how fair she be, if she be not fair to me?'" he cried out, +bitterly, to himself. "What a fool I was, to be duped by her so long! +The iron has entered deep into my soul, but she shall see that she can +not quite crush me. I will live to be revenged upon Iris Vincent if it +costs me my life! If Dorothy inherits the million, I will marry her +before the sun sets to-night. I only wish that I had known the way that +affairs were shaping themselves. I--I should not have treated Dorothy so +harshly." + +It seemed as though all in an instant his heart went back to her in the +rebound. + +He rushed hurriedly down into the dining-room, there to be met by Mrs. +Kemp, who advanced toward him with a white, startled face. + +"Oh, Mr. Kendal," she gasped, breathlessly, "you can never in the world +guess what has happened!" + +"I rather think I can," retorted the young man, harshly: "your niece, +Miss Vincent, has eloped with the millionaire's son across the way." + +"That--that is not what I had reference to," said Mrs. Kemp, with a sob. +"I--I admit that Iris has eloped, but it is not she whom I meant, but +Dorothy." + +"What of her?" cried Kendal, sharply, little dreaming the truth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +For an instant Kendal looked at the housekeeper in amazement. + +"What of Dorothy?" he repeated, breathlessly. + +"She has disappeared too!" returned the housekeeper, faintly, adding: +"She did not go with Iris, as you may imagine." + +"No?" he echoed, faintly, inquiringly. + +"No," she responded; "she went alone. She said to Katy, last night, 'If +you wake up on the morrow, and do not find me here, do not weep. I shall +be where I will be better off. No one will miss me--no one will know or +care whither I have gone.' Katy thought them idle words, and paid little +heed to them; but this morning, when she awoke and found that Dorothy +was not in her room, in the greatest of alarm she came to me and told me +what had occurred. At that moment I was just smarting under the blow of +Iris' elopement, and words fail to describe my feelings at this second +and most terrible catastrophe, for I realized how it would affect you, +my poor boy." + +Kendal had sunk down into the nearest chair, white as death, and +trembling like an aspen-leaf. + +He could hardly grasp the meaning of her words. "Dorothy gone--Iris fled +with another!" His lips twitched convulsively, but he uttered no sound. + +"I made diligent search for Iris and Dorothy," Mrs. Kemp went on, +tearfully. "I found my niece had been married at the rectory, and had +taken the first train to the city with her newly made husband; they +intend starting on the steamer which leaves New York for Europe to-day. +So, of course, there was nothing to be done in Iris' case, so I turned +my attention to Dorothy. But, as I remarked before, it was useless. I +think she must have gone to New York City, and if she has, trying to +find her will be like hunting for a needle in a hay-stack. I was shocked +that she should have left to-day, because she well knew that this was +the day on which the will was to be read, and that concerns her so +vitally. Ah! here is the lawyer now," and before Kendal could frame a +reply the gentleman was ushered into the old-fashioned library. + +He greeted both Mrs. Kemp and the young man gravely, and they knew by +his demeanor that he had heard what occurred. + +His very first words assured them of that fact, and he went on to say +that Dorothy's disappearance, however, would make no difference in the +reading of Doctor Bryan's will, which was set for that day and hour. + +"As my time is rather limited," he continued, "you will, I trust, pardon +me if I proceed to business at once." + +He looked sharply from one to the other, and, as they both bowed assent, +he opened the satchel he had brought with him, and proceeded to take out +the document which meant so much to Kendal, unfolded it with great +precision, and in his high, metallic voice he read it through slowly and +impressively. + +Kendal had quite imagined that the old doctor would leave him a goodly +share of his vast estate--perhaps something like a hundred thousand or +so--indeed, he would not have been surprised to have learned that the +doctor had left him a quarter of a million dollars. + +To his unspeakable horror he found that he had been cut off without a +dollar; all had been left to Dorothy, without reserve or condition, save +one, and that condition was a most important one: that she should marry +Kendal six months after his decease, or relinquish the fortune +bequeathed to her. + +"I may as well explain to you my old friend's idea in making this will," +said the lawyer, turning to the young man. "He wished Miss Glenn to +marry you, and thought this the most expedient and effectual way of +bringing about the marriage of two young people whose interests he had +so deeply at heart. Had he lived long enough to have made a new will, I +am sure it would have been entirely different." + +But not one word of all this did Harry Kendal hear. His brain was on +fire. He only realized one thing--that he was a beggar on the face of +God's earth; and, to make matters worse, he had by his own rash act +driven Dorothy from beneath that roof, thereby cutting off his own +chance of marrying her and being master of Gray Gables. + +He clinched his hand and ground his handsome white teeth together in +terrible rage. + +There was but one thing to do, and that was to find Dorothy ere the +fortnight waned, and marry her at once--that is, if he could ever +persuade her to forgive him. + +He had parted from her in bitter anger, and said words to her that women +never forgive when uttered by those whom they love. The worst part of +the whole affair was, their quarrel had been over another girl. + +"No steps will be taken until the fortnight has elapsed," said the +lawyer in his metallic voice; "and at the expiration of that time, if we +do not congratulate you, Mr. Kendal, upon your marriage to Miss Dorothy, +we shall have to make great changes at Gray Gables. Allow me to wish you +both a very good-morning." + +With these brief words the brisk little lawyer took a hasty departure. + +Mrs. Kemp and Kendal stood looking at each other long after his +departure with faces pale as death. + +It was the housekeeper who broke the silence. + +"I am sorry for you, Mr. Kendal," she said. "It is a terrible thing to +have one's hopes dashed after that fashion--and when one doesn't deserve +it, either. You were always so good and faithful and true to Dorothy, +sir; even keeping your promise with her through the most terrible +affliction that ever could have befallen her--that of blindness. It is +dreadful to think that the moment she regained her sight, and believing +herself to be the possessor of a great fortune, that she should show +every one so plainly that she thought you were not good enough for her +to marry by running away from you, Mr. Kendal!" + +Every word she so innocently uttered cut him like a sharp sword. + +"Not good enough for her?" he echoed, crushing back the imprecation that +sprang to his lips. His blood boiled at the construction which she put +upon the matter. It was a terrible blow to his pride, yet he dared not +utter the truth until he should know whether or not he should be able to +find Dorothy and marry her within the allotted fortnight. + +Without a word Kendal turned on his heel and quitted the room, slamming +the door after him with a decided bang. + +Before the sun set that night he was in New York City again and +searching for Dorothy. + +It meant a fortune for him. He _must_ find her. He dared not think of +what failure would mean to him--of the ruin that would stare him in the +face. + +The idea suggested itself to him that in all probability Dorothy would +seek out her old companions of the book-bindery. He felt that it would +be rather daring to go there, where he would meet Nadine Holt, after his +so abrupt desertion of her; but his anxiety over Dorothy overcame all +scruples, and late that afternoon the girls of the Hollingsworth +book-bindery were astonished at the door being flung suddenly open and +seeing the handsome young man whom they had known as the street-car +conductor and Nadine Holt's lover standing on the threshold. + +His eyes ran rapidly over the scores of girls at their tables, resting +at length upon a fair, pale thoughtful young girl standing nearest him. +He remembered having often seen her with Dorothy. He recollected, too, +that her name was Nannie Switzer. He stepped up to her and raised his +hat with that courteous bow that was always so fascinating to young +girls. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, "but, finding myself in your vicinity, I +dropped in to look up my old friend. I refer to the young girl with whom +I used to see you so much--Dorothy Glenn." + +To his utmost surprise, the young girl burst into a flood of tears. + +"Oh, sir, you can not tell how your words affect me!" she sobbed. + +"Why?" he asked, surprisedly. + +The girl hung her pretty head, and her blue eyes sought the floor in the +greatest embarrassment. + +"Will you tell me why?" he repeated, earnestly. "It is my right to know, +is it not, Miss Nannie?" + +"Well, you see, sir," she stammered, confusedly, "we have not seen or +heard anything from Dorothy Glenn since Labor Day and every one +hereabouts thought that--that _you_ knew where she was." + +He flushed a dark crimson and gave a guilty start. + +"I am so glad to know that our suspicions were groundless," she +breathed, thankfully; adding: "I am indeed sorry that I can not tell you +where Dorothy is; we would all give the world to know, I assure you." + +He could not help asking next, in a low, husky voice: + +"What of Nadine Holt? Where is she?" + +Again the girl's face clouded. + +"She has worked right along here with us up to a week ago," she +answered, "and then Nadine went away suddenly, without saying so much as +good-bye to any of us." She could not help but add: "She has changed so +greatly that you would never know her. She is no longer the dark-eyed +beauty whom you remember; she looks ten years older. She never smiles +now, and there is a horrible look in her eyes--like the cunning gleam +one sees in the eyes of the insane; and, oh! sir, let me warn +you--_you_, of all men--for the love of Heaven, do not cross her path! +Remember, I--I warn you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +Harry Kendal threw back his dark, handsome head with a gesture of +disdain and looked at the girl. + +"I do not know of any reason why you should warn _me_, above all other +men, that it is dangerous to cross Miss Holt's path," he said. "Almost +any young man will flirt with a pretty girl when he finds her so _very_ +willing. She understood that it was only a flirtation; but when I met +your little friend Dorothy, of course all that nonsense with Nadine +ceased." + +"Nadine did not call it a flirtation," returned the girl, gravely. "You +might call it that. She thought of it differently, I am sure." + +"Where is Jessie Staples?" he asked, abruptly, to change the +embarrassing subject. + +"She, too, has left the bindery," was the unexpected reply. "There have +been great changes among the people in this book-bindery within the last +few months. A young man connected with the place had quite a sum of +money left him, and Jessie Staples was a great favorite with this young +man's mother, so at their invitation Jessie went to live with them." + +Finding that she had nothing more to tell him, Kendal soon after took +his departure. + +He was desperate as he walked along the street. + +"What in the name of Heaven shall I do?" he cried. "One day of the +fortnight has already passed, and I have not even the slightest clew to +Dorothy's whereabouts." And in that hour in which he realized that she +was indeed lost to him he knew how well he actually loved the girl. +Iris' fickleness had killed his mad infatuation at one blow, and, +man-like, his heart returned at once to its old allegiance. + +Now that he knew that it was only a question of the merest chance of +ever finding Dorothy, his very soul seemed to grow wild with anxiety. + +Suddenly a thought born of desperation occurred to him--why not consult +a fortune-teller as a last resort? It just flashed across his brain, an +advertisement he had read and laughed over in one of the New York papers +a few days before: + +"Madame ----, seventh daughter of the seventh daughter, reveals to those +who wish to consult her all the main incidents of their past, present, +and future life; brings together the hearts of those who are suffering +from the pangs of lovers' quarrels, though the whole wide earth should +separate them; indicates the whereabouts of missing ones, though they +should be hidden as deeply and securely from sight as the bowels of the +earth. The madame can with ease secure for you the love of any person +whom you may choose to win, put each and every person in the way of +making fabulous fortunes in the shortest possible space of time, and all +this for the small sum of fifty cents. Madame can be found, between the +hours of nine and twelve in the forenoon, one and six in the afternoon, +and from seven until eleven in the evening, by those who wish to consult +her marvelous powers, on the fourth floor of the last tenement house on +Hester Street. Visitors will please take note that Madame's consultation +studio is in the rear of the building. A candle lights the way." + +By dint of much perseverance Kendal found the place. + +Taking the candle, he groped his way through the long, narrow, grimy +passage, and found himself at length standing before Room 106, as the +advertisement had indicated. + +His loud, impatient knock was answered, after some little delay, by a +tall figure hooded and cloaked, the face almost concealed by a long, +thick veil that was thrown about the head, and which reached almost to +the feet. + +In a black-gloved hand this strange apparition held a lighted candle. + +"I trust I have found the right place," said Kendal. "I am in search of +Madame Morlacci, the fortune-teller." + +At the sound of the deep, rich, mellow voice, the figure started back as +though it had been struck a sudden blow, the black-shrouded hand that +held the candle shook as if from palsy. + +"Come in," replied a muffled voice, that sounded like nothing human, it +was so weird. + +Kendal stepped fearlessly into the room, the corners of which were in +deepest gloom, which the flickering rays of the candle could not +penetrate. + +"Well," said Kendal, impatiently, "I should be grateful to commence the +preliminaries of this fortune-telling business at your earliest +convenience, if you please, madam; my time is somewhat limited." + +Kendal drew forth his pocket-book, took out a bank-bill and handed it to +the strange creature; but, to his intense surprise, she flung it back +almost in his face. + +"I can tell you all you wish to know without a fee," cried the hoarse, +muffled voice, which somehow made every drop of blood in Kendal's veins +run cold as he heard it. + +"That would not be very profitable to you, I am sure, madame," he said, +wonderingly. + +"That makes no difference to you," was the almost rude answer. He felt +quite disconcerted; he hardly knew what to say next. This certainly was +an odd _contretemps_, to say the least. "You are here to learn the +whereabouts of--a woman?" she whispered, in a deep, uncanny voice. "Is +it not so?" + +"By Heaven! you are quite right," cried Kendal, in amazement, quite +startled out of his usual politeness. + +This woman had never laid eyes on him before, he told himself. Now, how, +in the name of all that was wonderful, could she have known this? He had +sneered at fortune-telling all his whole life through; now he began to +wonder if there was not something in it, after all. + +"This woman, who is young, and by some called beautiful, will be your +evil genius!" she hissed. "You wronged her through your +fickle-mindedness, and wrecked her young life." + +"Great God!" he cried, "are you woman or devil, or a combination of +both? But go on--go on!" he cried, excitedly. "I see you know all my +past. There is no use in my attempting to hide anything from you. But +tell me, where shall I find this young woman of whom you speak? I must +track her down." + +A laugh that was horrible to hear broke from the lips of the veiled +woman opposite him. + +"That you will never be able to do!" she cried, fiercely. "Though she +may cross your path at will, you might as well hunt for a particular +grain of sand along the sea-shore, a needle in a haystack, a special +blade of grass in a whole field. You may recognize this fact, and abide +by it. But, hark you! listen to what I have to say: The fates have +decreed that your heart shall be wrung as you have wrung hers--pang for +pang!" + +"Who and what are you," he cried, "who talk to me in this way? You act +more like a vengeful spirit than a woman unconcerned in my affairs. Who +and what are you, anyhow?" + +"I tell you only what I see," was the muttered response. + +"See where?" demanded Kendal in agitation. + +"That is not for you to know." + +"But I shall--I will know!" he cried, furiously. "There is something +underneath all this trumpery. I am not a man to be trifled with in +this fashion, I can tell you, with your fortune-telling +nonsense--humbuggery!" + +"Then, pray, what brings you here? what is your object in coming?" asked +the other, with a covert sneer. + +"To hear what lies you could trump up," replied Kendal boldly. + +"Our interview is ended," said the veiled figure, rising and pointing +her long arm toward the door. + +He knew that he must temporize with her if he would find out Dorothy's +whereabouts, which he was beginning to believe she might find out for +him. + +"Will you pardon me?" he asked, humbling himself. "I--I must know more." + +"You have heard all that I have to say, Harry Kendal!" she cried. + +Who was this creature who knew him--aye, knew his name, his most secret +affairs? He must--he would know. + +With a quick bound he cleared the space which divided them, and in a +trice he had grasped her wrists firmly and torn the veil from her face. + +This was followed by a mighty cry. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +The instant Harry Kendal sprang toward the veiled woman she sprang +backward, as though anticipating the movement, and quick as a flash she +overturned the candle, just as he tore the veil from her face. + +A low, taunting laugh broke from her lips through the inky darkness of +the room. In a trice she had torn herself free from his grasp, and like +a flash she had sped from the room and down the narrow hall and +stairway, like a storm-driven swallow, leaving her companion stumbling +about the place, and giving vent to curses loud and deep as he fumbled +about his vest pocket for matches. + +The veiled woman never stopped until she reached the street, then paused +for a moment and looked back as she reached the nearest gas lamp. + +As the flickering rays of the street lamp fell athwart her face, the +features of Nadine Holt were clearly revealed, her black eyes blazing, +and her jet black hair streaming wildly about her face. + +"How strange!" she panted, "that this idea of fortune telling should +have come to me as a means of gaining my living! I was driven to do +something. And that he should have been the very first patron to come to +me--he, of all others! He is tracking me down because I maimed the girl +whom he is so soon to wed--yes, tracking me down to throw me into +prison--and yet he was once my lover! It is always the way. When a man's +heart grows cold to one love, and another's face has charmed him, it +seems to me as though men have a cruel, feverish desire to thrust the +first love from them at whatever cost. But I will be revenged upon him! +I will live to make his very life a torture; but I shall do it through +Dorothy Glenn. I will go to Dorothy Glenn at once, and we shall see what +will happen then." + +Meanwhile, after much fumbling and imprecations loud and deep, Kendal +succeeded in striking a match and finding the overturned bit of wax +taper, which he hastily lighted, peering cautiously into the inky +darkness which surrounded him. + +He was tired and exhausted, and he told himself that he would turn in at +the nearest hotel, take a good night's rest, and mature his plans on the +morrow for finding Dorothy. + +Meanwhile, let us go back, dear reader, to the hour in which our +heroine, little Dorothy, decided to leave Gray Gables. + +For some moments after Harry Kendal had left her in anger in the +corridor she stood quite still--stood there long after the sound of his +footsteps had died away, trying to realize the full purport of his +words--that their engagement was at an end, and that they had parted +forever. + +The whole world seemed to stand still about her. Then, like one suddenly +dazed, she turned and crept into her own room. Katy was there awaiting +her. + +She suffered the girl to place her in a chair, to take the faded +blossoms from her hand and from her corsage, to unfasten the strings of +pearls, and to remove her ball dress. + +By degrees she had informed Katy of her regaining her sight, and the +poor girl's joy knew no bounds. + +She wondered greatly how Dorothy could feel so downcast in such an hour, +and she never once heeded Dorothy's sad words--that she was going to +leave Gray Gables before the dawn, as there was no one there who loved +her. + +It was so late when Katy sought her own couch that she soon dropped into +a deep sleep. This Dorothy had watched for with the greatest impatience. +She soon rose, robed herself in a dark dress and Katy's long cloak, and +was soon ready for the great undertaking which she had mapped out for +herself. + +Hastily writing a note, she placed it where Katy's eyes would be sure to +fall upon it early the next morning; then she stole quietly from the +room. The great clock in the corridor below struck three as she passed +it with bated breath and trembling in every limb. + +She opened the door softly and stole out into the chill, raw night. + +There was no one in this wide world to miss her, no one to care what +became of her! She was in every one's way. Only one thought suggested +itself to her--to end it all. Perhaps Harry Kendal would feel very sorry +when the news came to him on the morrow that she was dead--she whom he +had spurned so cruelly only the night before. And perhaps he would throw +himself beside her cold, dead body and wish that he had been less cruel +to her, and cry out: + +"Oh, if God would but roll back His universe and give me yesterday!" + +She had no fixed destination, but walked on and on, until she suddenly +found herself down by the Yonkers Boat Club House, that stretched its +dark shadow afar out into the river. It was connected with the shore by +a long, narrow plank walk. + +Mechanically Dorothy crept down the narrow, winding stairway that led to +it. Midway on the plank walk she paused, clung desperately to the rail +and looked fearfully down into the dark, flowing river that rushed on so +madly but a few feet below her. + +Only a few flickering stars would see and know all, she told herself. +There would be but a plunge, a deathly shiver as her warm body came in +contact with the icy waves, a moment of choking, a terrible sensation, +then all would be over--her troubles would be at an end! + +What cared she for the wealth of a hundred Gray Gables and princely +estates when love's boon was denied her? + +Even in that hour and in that weird place she thought of the words +another heart-broken girl had uttered long years before: + + "You have learned to love another, + You have broken every vow; + We have parted from each other, + And my heart is lonely now. + + "Oh! was it well to sever + This fond heart from thine forever? + Can I forget thee? Never! + Farewell, lost love, forever! + + "We have met, and we have parted, + But I uttered scarce a word; + But, God! how my poor heart started + When thy well-known voice I heard! + + "Oh! woman's love will grieve her, + And woman's pride will leave her; + Life has fled when love deceives her, + Farewell--farewell forever!" + +"I am so young to die!" sobbed Dorothy. "I haven't done very much good +in the world, but surely I have done no wrong." + +Then it occurred to her suddenly--a little trifle which she had quite +forgotten: + +She had taken Nadine Holt's lover from her, and the girl was +broken-hearted over his loss; and now Heaven had, in turn, taken him +from her. This was God's vengeance upon her. + +Could even Nadine Holt see her now she would feel sorry and find pity +for her. + +Suddenly, to her intense amazement, Dorothy saw a man hurrying along the +high cliff just above where she stood. He was advancing toward her with +hasty strides that broke almost into a run. + +Dorothy noticed that he carried a large black bundle in his arms, and +that he was heading directly toward the boat house. + +She saw him lean forward, raise the bundle quickly and dash it into the +river, turn rapidly, and break into a quick run in the opposite +direction. + +The bundle did not quite reach the water's edge, she saw; he had missed +his aim. + +Dorothy stopped short and peered over the rails at it, wondering what it +could contain. + +As she did so she observed that there was motion within the small, dark +bundle. It contained some living thing, she felt quite sure. + +Dare she go and examine it? she asked herself. Perhaps it was some poor +animal doomed to death that was bound up in that unsightly bundle. + +Her heart stirred with pity at the thought, and at that moment a cry, +faint and muffled, broke the stillness of the night. + +It emanated from the dark bundle. Quick as a flash Dorothy retraced her +steps until she reached the bank, and down this she clambered with +alacrity. + +But when she was almost within reach of the bundle it rolled down into +the water with a splash, and the mad waves covered it. + +With a cry Dorothy sprang forward just in time, and caught it as the +undertow was bearing it out into the deep water. + +Again there was a quick cry and struggle within the bundle. In a +twinkling Dorothy had torn off the wrappings. + +"Oh, God in Heaven!" she cried, "it is a little child!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +The cry died away in Dorothy's throat as her terrified eyes fell upon +the bundle which she held in her arms. + +Yes, it was a little child. + +"Oh, the cruelty of it!" she sobbed aloud. Some one had doomed it to +death on this bitter night, and she thanked Heaven for bringing her to +that spot to save its life. + +Wrapping it quickly in the ends of her long thick cloak, Dorothy hurried +to the nearest shelter with it. + +This happily proved to be a small cottage on the outskirts of the town. +A solitary ray of light shone from one of the windows, and without +hesitation Dorothy hastened up the little narrow path to the porch and +rang the bell. + +She quite believed that she would know the inmates of the cottage, for +she well knew every one in the village. + +It was a strange woman that opened the door at length and peered out at +her, and a shrill voice cried: + +"Why, as I live, Maria, it's a woman standing out here with a child in +her arms! Why, what in the world can you want?" she cried, addressing +Dorothy. + +"I thought I should see some one here whom I knew," faltered Dorothy. + +"No; we are strangers here," replied the woman. "We have just moved into +this cottage to-day. We are from down country, my man and me, and my +girl Maria. We don't know any one hereabouts, so I can't direct you. +But, dear me! it's an uncanny time of night for a woman to be out. You +ought to be careful of your little baby, if you have no thought for +yourself, ma'am." + +Dorothy tried to speak, but words seemed to fail her. + +"But won't you come in and rest for a bit?" asked the woman, pityingly. +"I can't let you go away without at least warming yourself by the fire. +I am sitting up with my sick daughter." + +Dorothy gladly accepted the kindly offer and entered. + +Dorothy was about to tell the woman the story of how she had rescued the +little one, when it occurred to her that this would necessitate her +explaining how she herself had come to be in that locality at that hour, +and this she shrank from doing. + +The woman was a stranger in the neighborhood, she argued to herself, and +would never know her again. Why not hold her peace? But, then, what +would she do with the little one that Fate had thrown so strangely upon +her mercy? + +She quite believed that it did not belong to any one in the +neighborhood, nor had she heard of a little one like this. She saw that +the clothing upon it was of the daintiest texture, and the embroidery +upon it was of the finest. + +"Oh, what a beautiful little baby!" cried the woman, her heart at once +warming toward the little stranger. "How much it looks like you!" she +added, turning to Dorothy. + +"What!" cried the girl, in amazement. + +"I said your baby looked like you," repeated the woman. + +She wondered why the young girl flushed to the roots of her golden hair. + +"We must go now," said Dorothy at length; "and I thank you, madame, for +your hospitality." + +The woman, with clouded eyes, looked after the slender figure as it +disappeared. + +"A lovely but very mysterious young woman!" she ejaculated. "I hope +everything is all right. She is so very young. It is a great pity for +the little child." + +Meanwhile, Dorothy struggled on through the dim light of the fast dying +night, and soon found herself at the railway station without any seeming +volition of her own. + +In her pocket was her purse, which the good old doctor in one of his +generous moods had filled to overflowing. She had had no occasion to use +it until now. + +The poor little one had commenced to cry now, and when Dorothy hushed +its cries it cuddled up to her with a grateful sob and nestled its head +on her arm. + +Why shouldn't she keep the baby that fate had sent directly into her +arms? she asked herself? + +Yes, she would keep it. For was there not a bond of sympathy between +this poor little one, whom those who should have loved and cared for had +consigned to a watery grave, and herself, who had sought the same +watery grave to end her own wretched existence? + +"You and I will live for each other, baby," she sobbed, holding the wee +mite closer. "I will keep you for my very own, and I will pray for the +time to come when you will be big enough for me to tell you all my +sorrows. You will put your little arms around my neck and your soft, +warm cheek against mine, and try to comfort me." + +Dorothy had made her resolve, little dreaming that it would end in a +tragedy. + +She boarded the train, and was soon steaming away toward New York +city--the great, cruel city of New York, rampant with wickedness and +crime. + +More than one passenger noticed the lovely young girl with the tiny +infant in her arms, and marveled as to whether or not it could possibly +belong to her; for surely the girl could not be a day over sixteen, or +seventeen, at most. + +All unconscious of this close scrutiny, Dorothy watched the little one +with wondering eyes all the way until she reached the metropolis. + +Her first idea was to seek a boarding place, and then she could look +about her. + +To her dismay, among the half score to which she walked until she could +almost drop down from exhaustion, no one cared to take her and the child +in; and it seemed to her, too, that they were rude in refusing her, and +more than one actually shut the door in her face. + +She was tired--so tired--carrying the heavy child in her arms. She had +given the name Miss Brown to each instance, and at last one landlady +came out bluntly and said to her: + +"It would sound a deal more proper to call yourself Mrs. Brown, if you +please, ma'am," at the same time pointing to the child in her arms. + +Then it dawned upon Dorothy's mind why every one had refused them +shelter, even for money. + +"Why shouldn't I call myself Mrs. instead of Miss Brown? One name is as +good as another," she said to herself. It was all the same to her; +anything, so that she would not be separated from this poor little baby, +whom she had learned to love in those short hours with all the strength +of her yearning heart. + +At the next boarding house, recklessly enough, Dorothy gave the name of +Mrs. Brown, and she found no trouble in securing accommodations there. + +"Poor child! she seems so young to be left a widow!" exclaimed the +landlady, in relating to her other boarders that night that she had let +room sixteen to such a pretty young woman, with the loveliest little +angel of a baby that ever was born. + +No one ever yet took a false position without finding himself ere long +hedged in with difficulties. + +And so poor Dorothy found it. + +She was continually plied with questions by the rest of the boarders as +to how long since her husband had died, and how long since she had taken +off mourning, or if she had put on mourning at all for him, and if baby +reminded her of its poor, dear, dead papa. + +Dorothy's alarm at this can more readily be imagined than described. She +almost felt like bursting into a flood of tears and running from the +room. + +It had gone so far now that she was ashamed to tell the truth; and then +there was the terrible fear that if people knew it was not her very own +they would take it from her; and she had learned to love it with all the +fondness of her desperate, lonely heart. + +And then, too, it seemed to know her and feel sorry for her. + +It knew her, and would coo to her, and cry for her to take it. + +She had named it, long since, little Pearl, because she had fished it +from the water. But, to tell the truth, she found it a terrible +responsibility on her hands. + +She did not know what to do with the child. + +She could not go out and leave it in the house, and she couldn't take it +with her. + +She had been searching for a situation the last few days, and, to her +unspeakable horror, she found that no one wanted a young woman +encumbered with a child. + +Had she been older, she would have known better than to have assumed +such a responsibility; but Dorothy was young, and had some of life's +bitterest lessons yet to learn. + +Dorothy had turned her face resolutely against the fortune which Doctor +Bryan had left. + +She quite believed, if she was not there to receive it, it would go to +Kendal, her faithless lover. + +She wanted him to have it. She did not care for any of it. + +She had been only a working girl when Doctor Bryan sought her out and +took her to his home; she could be only a working girl again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +In the hour of Dorothy's desolation her heart went back to Jack Garner, +who had loved her so in other days. Poor Jack! whom she had thrown over +so cruelly for a handsomer, wealthier fellow, only to be deserted by him +in turn for the first pretty face that had crossed his path. + +And that very day came the turning point of her life. + +She had answered an advertisement a few days before by letter to an +intelligence office, and in the course of a week she received the +following reply: + + "MY DEAR MADAM--Replying to your note, would say your + communication was hardly explicit enough for us to + determine whether you would suit our patron or not. + + "The party we refer to is Mrs. Garner, a widow. Her + family consists of one son, a niece who lives with + them, and a young lady. + + "They wish a companion for Mrs. Garner. She requires a + somewhat elderly woman. Even the child would not be so + objectionable, if the right person were secured." + +The letter dropped from Dorothy's hand, and she uttered a low cry; but +presently picking it up, and reading it eagerly through again, she found +a postscript added to it which read as follows: + + "Call, if you please, at the Garner homestead + to-morrow, at 10:30 A. M., if convenient." + +Dorothy's heart beat quickly. Could it be possible that this Garner +family and the one she had known were one and the same? Oh, no! it +could not be, for they were poor, very poor, and these people lived in a +fashionable quarter. + +Jack might plod along all his life and never have a dollar ahead. Poor +Jack! And her eyes grew moist as she thought of him. Ah, how well he had +loved her! + +Dorothy knew quite well that according to the requirements of the +advertiser she would not suit on account of her youth. An older person +than herself was wanted; yet the thought of the possibility of taking +little Pearl with her caused her to ponder over the matter very +carefully. Surely there was _some_ way to meet the difficulty. + +"I am afraid I will not get the situation I was telling you of last +night," said Dorothy to her landlady; and she told her why. + +"Youth and beauty, although the greatest blessings Heaven can give us, +often bring with them a certain train of disadvantages. I once knew a +young and most lovely girl who, on this very account, could not get +work. She resorted to a desperate measure, but it insured success. +Perhaps it might in _your_ case. She put on, over her golden curls, a +dark wig with plenty of gray in it, seamed a wrinkle or two under her +long lashes with a camel's hair pencil, and put on a pair of glasses. +She secured a position as housekeeper in an eccentric old bachelor's +family, which consisted of only himself and his aged parents. Well, the +old folks soon passed away, the old bachelor soon following them, and +every dollar he had on earth he left to his housekeeper, to 'keep her +from the poor house to which she would soon have to go in her old age,' +as he phrased it. It was a large fortune, and she is enjoying it to-day +with a young husband and dear little children gathered about her, and +she often speaks of it when I see her, and tells me all her good luck +came from putting on that wig, donning the spectacles, and lining her +face to make it look old. She never would have gained that position +otherwise, for she was very fair and childish in appearance." + +"I think I will do the same thing!" cried Dorothy, enthusiastically. "It +can do no harm, anyway. It is a terrible deceit to practice, but if I +secure the position, and the people learn to like me, in a very short +time I will reveal the truth to them, and I think they will find pardon +for me and keep me in their employ." + +"I am sure they will," assented her companion, "and all I can say is, I +hope you may have as great good luck as the girl I told you about." + +Dorothy smiled faintly. + +"I--I would never care to be--be rich," she faltered. "There are some +people whom Heaven intended to always work for a living--I am one of +them." + +"If you think of buying a wig, I have one to sell you," said the +landlady. "I used to be in the theatrical business, and had all those +things. I will show you how to make up for a middle-aged woman, so that +even your own folks wouldn't know you in broad daylight." + +Dorothy was a little dubious upon hearing all this. She wondered if it +was not to sell the outfit that the landlady had suggested all this. +However, she passively placed herself in her hands, and the work of +transformation began. + +"Now, look!" exclaimed the landlady, at length. "What do you think of +yourself now?" and she placed a hand glass before her. + +Dorothy uttered a low cry. Could that face be her own at which she gazed +in the mirror's depths? Was she the old woman represented there? And +from the bottom of her heart she thanked God that it was only +make-believe; that beneath it all her face was still young and fair, +without the ravaging touch of Time's withering hand. + +But it touched her heart keenly to see her little Pearl, whom she was +learning to fairly idolize, shrink from her. + +"I must, indeed, look greatly changed," she said, with a sob. + +Hastily dressing the little one, and taking her with her, Dorothy wended +her way to her destination. + +She had always looked upon a little child much the same as a little girl +admires a big wax doll. _Now_ she was beginning to realize that a real +live baby must be washed and dressed and fed and attended to; that it +wouldn't go to sleep or keep awake when people wished; in short, she was +beginning to understand that it could be a darling little nuisance at +times, even to those who adored the dimpled bit of precious humanity the +most. + +Fairly panting with carrying so heavy a burden in her slender arms, +Dorothy reached at length the avenue and number--a magnificent brown +stone mansion in the center of the block. + +With beating heart she ascended the steps and touched the bell. + +A very polite servant answered her summons and ushered her into a +spacious drawing-room. + +"Madame will be with you presently, as she is expecting you," he said, +indicating a seat. + +Little Pearl commenced to cry, and Dorothy was at her wit's end to know +what to do with her. + +She was all flushed with nervousness by the time she heard footsteps in +the corridor approaching the room. + +An instant later the silken _portières_ were swept aside by a white, +jeweled hand, and a white-haired lady entered. + +Dorothy rose to her feet, and caught her breath with a low cry that died +in her throat. + +The room seemed to whirl around her. She stood face to face with Jack's +mother! + +Dorothy had never seen her but once or twice before in those old days. + +She remembered every lineament of her face perfectly, however. How could +she help it, when Mrs. Garner bore such a striking resemblance to her +fair-haired, handsome son? But she could not understand it; it almost +seemed as if she was in a dream to find Mrs. Garner here surrounded by +such elegance as this. + +But before she could collect her scattered senses the lady advanced +toward her, saying, in her sweet, kind voice: + +"You are very punctual, Mrs. Brown. This is in itself a great +recommendation. You are tired holding the baby in your arms. I will ring +for one of the servants to relieve you for a little while, if you wish." + +Dorothy never remembered in what words she thanked her, and she was even +too confused to keep the thread of the conversation, but was conscious +that she was replying at random. Yet the kind old lady did not seem to +notice her confusion. + +"I want some one for a companion," said the lady, slowly. "I have +recently lost my niece, Miss Barbara Hallenbeck, and her death preys +heavily upon my mind." + +Dorothy was shocked at the news, but she could utter no comment. + +"I am soon to lose my son," went on Mrs. Garner, slowly. + +Dorothy sprang to her feet with a gasping cry: + +"Jack dying!" + +Poor, dear, faithful Jack Garner, who had loved her so well! It seemed +to Dorothy that every pulse in her body quivered, and her heart was +almost bursting at the news. + +In that one hour the girl's heart was revealed to her. + +She was face to face with the truth at last: she loved Jack Garner--yes, +she loved Jack! + +In that moment of time the past seemed to glide before her mental vision +like a vast panorama. + +She turned with a gesture of woe pitiful to behold to his dear old +mother. + +"You are about to lose your only son?" she gasped. "May Heaven pity +you!" She was almost about to add: "If I could save his life by giving +my own, oh, how gladly I would do it!" + +Mrs. Garner saw the look on her face, and rightly interpreted it. + +"Do not misunderstand me," she added, hastily. "I do not mean that I am +to lose him by death. My son is soon to be married." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +For a moment the room seemed to whirl around Dorothy. The words seemed +to strike into her very brain as they fell from Mrs. Garner's lips. "My +son is soon to be married!" and the four walls seemed to repeat and +re-echo them. + +"I shall lose a son, but I shall gain a dear daughter," added the old +lady, softly. + +For an instant, as Dorothy sat trembling there, the impulse was strong +upon her to fly from the house. The very air seemed to stifle her. + +While she hesitated, fate settled the matter for her. The front door was +opened by some one who had a latch-key, and a voice that thrilled every +fiber of her being addressed some question to a servant passing through +the corridor. + +"Here is my son coming at last!" exclaimed the old lady, in pleased +eagerness. + +"Jack--Jack, my dear!" she called; "I am in the drawing-room. Step in a +moment, my son;" and before Dorothy could collect her scattered senses +the _portières_ were parted by a strong, white hand, and Jack Garner +stood on the threshold. + +Ah! how changed he was in those few short months! The boyish expression +had vanished. He looked older, more care-worn. The fair, handsome face +was graver; the blue eyes were surely more thoughtful. Even his fair +chestnut hair seemed to have taken on a deeper, more golden hue. + +He crossed the room, bent over his mother, and kissed her. + +"This is my son--Mrs. Brown, Mr. Garner," said the old lady, her voice +lingering over the words with pardonable pride. + +It was a terrible moment for Dorothy. + +Would Jack know her? Would not those keen, grave, searching eyes +penetrate her disguise? + +He gave but a casual glance to the small, slim figure clad in black, and +bowed courteously, then turned away. + +The greatest ordeal of her life was past. + +She had met Jack--Jack who had loved her so--face to face, and he had +not recognized her. + +She rallied from her confused thoughts by a great effort, for Mrs. +Garner was speaking to her. + +"I was saying, that as we seem mutually pleased with each other, we may +as well consider the arrangement as settled between us." + +Dorothy bowed. She could not utter a word in protest to save her life, +although she had quite made up her mind not to remain under that roof. + +"Your duties will be light, and I feel sure you will find ours a +pleasant home. I will ring for one of the servants to show you to your +room;" and suiting the action to the word, she touched the bell, and an +instant later a neat little maid appeared, who courtesied and asked +Dorothy to follow her. + +"Madame will find her little child has already been taken to her +apartments," said the girl, opening the door at the further end of the +upper corridor. + +Yes, little Pearl was there, cooing with delight at her new +surroundings, and over the cup of hot milk and crackers on the little +stand close beside her. + +The girl rose hastily as Dorothy entered, set down the child, and +quitted the apartment. + +Upon finding herself alone with Pearl, Dorothy snatched the child up in +her arms, sank down in the depths of a great easy-chair, and sobbed as +though her heart would break. + +"Oh, little Pearl! how I wish that we had never come here!" she moaned. +"It makes me feel so sad." + +The baby's blue eyes looked up into her own in wonder, but her soft +cooing and the clasp of her little soft, warm fingers could not comfort +Dorothy. + +After luncheon she was called into Mrs. Garner's room. + +"I am not feeling well," she said, motioning Dorothy to a seat. "I +should like you to read to me until I fall asleep. Take any of the books +from the book-case in the library. I have no choice." + +The silent little figure in black bowed, and glided out of the room. + +It was dusk in the library as she entered it, and while she pondered as +to whether she should call some one to light the gas, to enable her to +read the titles on the volumes, she heard Jack's voice. + +But instead of passing, he entered, and proceeded to light the gas. With +a beating heart Dorothy drew still further back, and at that moment +another person entered the room. + +"I knew I should find you here, Jack," said a voice that sounded +terribly familiar to the figure in the window hidden by the silken +draperies. "I have come to ask a little favor of you. I hope you will +not find it in your heart to refuse me." + +Before the last comer in the room had ceased speaking, Dorothy knew who +it was--Jessie Staples! + +A great lump rose in her throat, and her heart beat. She knew that she +should have slipped from her place of concealment and quitted the room, +but she seemed to have been held spell-bound by a power she could not +control. She leaned heavily against the wall and listened with painful +intensity to the conversation that was taking place between her old +lover and Jessie, although she knew that it was wrong for her to do so. + +"A favor you would ask of me?" repeated Jack, quickly. "Why, consider it +granted beforehand," he returned, "if it is within my power." + +"You are more than kind," murmured Jessie, adding: "The fact is, I have +too painful a headache to attend the opera with you to-night, but I want +you to go and enjoy yourself, and take some young girl in my place. I--I +do not want to mar your happiness for this evening." + +"I am quite sorry to seem unkind," he returned, "but really, Jessie, I +beg that you will not ask me to take any one else to the opera, if you +can not go. Although I promised beforehand, I trust you will not hold me +to anything like that. I do not feel inclined to entertain any of your +friends this evening, especially when you are not present. But, really, +Jessie, I think it might do you good to go--the lights, and the music, +and the gay throng, might divert your thoughts from yourself, and act as +a wonderful panacea in banishing your headache." + +"No--no!" returned Jessie; "believe me, I shall feel much better at +home. But you must go. I could not forgive myself if I were to be the +cause of your losing one hour of happiness, and I know, Jack, that you +enjoy affairs of that kind so much. Go, if only to please me." + +"If you are sure that it _will_ please you, Jessie, I can not withstand +your entreaties," he returned, thoughtfully. "Still, I have the hope +that you may change your mind at the eleventh hour, and be ready to go +with me," he added, laughingly. "I have a few letters to write, and will +see you after I finish them. Remember it is not every night that one can +hear Patti;" and with a few more pleasant words he quitted the room. + +For some moments after he had left, Jessie Staples stood leaning against +the mantel, gazing thoughtfully into the fire; then she was startled by +a step close beside her. + +She turned her head suddenly and saw a dark figure just leaving the +room. + +"Stay!" she called out; and the figure hesitated on the threshold. "Come +here!" and the dark-robed figure advanced slowly and stood before her. +"You are Mrs. Brown, the new companion?" she said, interrogatively. + +"Yes," murmured a stifled voice. + +"May I ask how long you have been standing in the room?" Miss Staples +inquired, rather curiously. "I did not see you come in." + +"I beg your pardon," came the faint answer. "I entered a few moments +before you did, and when the gentleman entered and you commenced +speaking, I--I hardly knew how to make my presence known, the +conversation was so personal. I tried to make my escape from the room as +soon as it was possible. I--I hope you are not angry with me." + +"No," said Miss Staples, slowly. "I am sure the facts are as you stated +them. You may resume your duties. That is all I wish to say," said Miss +Staples. + +Still the slight figure hesitated. + +Poor Dorothy, how she longed to fling herself in Jessie's arms and cry +out: + +"Oh, Jessie, Jessie! don't you know me? I am Dorothy--your poor little +friend Dorothy whom you used to love so dearly in the old days." + +Still she dared not; no, she dared not betray her identity. And with one +lingering glance she turned and slowly left the library, holding, +tightly clutched in her hand, one of the volumes from the great +book-case. + +She had caught up the first one which she laid her hand on. + +"You have been gone some time, Mrs. Brown," said Mrs. Garner, fretfully, +as she entered the _boudoir_. "Let me see your selection. What book have +you brought me? Why, as I live, it is the dictionary!" she exclaimed, in +a most astonished voice. "Did you think I had need of that?" + +The old lady flushed painfully. It was well known that it was one of her +weak points to guard carefully from the world that she had no education +whatever. + +She would rather have died than to have let people know that she had at +one time been a poor working-woman; and now this stranger, who had been +only a hours beneath her roof, had discovered it. + +She did not know what remark to make to Mrs. Brown, she was so aghast +when the dictionary was handed her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +"You have made a very wise selection, Mrs. Brown," she said. "I quite +agree with you that there is no book more instructive than the +dictionary. You may read me twenty pages, or such a matter. I deem it +very instructive, indeed--to you." + +With a gasp, Dorothy took the book. Oh, how tedious it was, pronouncing +word after word, and giving their definitions! + +Every now and then Mrs. Garner would nod her head, remarking that such +and such a word it would be well for her to take extra pains to +remember, as they were in such general use in every-day conversation. + +At length she ceased to make remarks altogether, and when Dorothy +glanced up at her through the blue glasses which she wore, she found +that the old lady was fast asleep, and with a very tired look on her +face. + +Dorothy laid down the book with a sigh, crossed her thin little white +hands in her lap, and gave herself up to conflicting thoughts. + +Only a little while before Jack had loved her so devotedly, and now he +was about to marry Jessie, her friend of other days, whom he scarcely +noticed when she was only Dorothy's friend. + +While she was meditating over the matter, one of the maids put her head +in at the door. + +"If you please, Mrs. Brown, would you mind coming to Miss Staples a few +moments?" she asked. "Her maid has leave of absence this week, and she +misses her services." + +"I will go with pleasure," said Dorothy, rising and following her at +once. + +As she entered the pretty blue-and-gold _boudoir_, she saw that Jessie +had changed her mind about going to the opera that evening, for she was +already dressed in opera attire. + +"You wished to see me?" said Dorothy, in a husky voice. + +"If you please, Mrs. Brown," said Jessie. "I should like you to +accompany Mr. Garner and myself to the opera to-night, as my maid--that +is, if Jack's mother has no objection, of course." + +She did not catch the murmured words her companion uttered. + +"There are a few little finishing touches to my toilet which I would +like to have you help me with. In that velvet case on the center-table +you will find a necklace of sapphires and diamonds. You may fetch it to +me." + +With trembling hands Dorothy clasped the necklace around Miss Staples' +firm white throat. + +"They are very beautiful--don't you think so?" she asked, looking at +Dorothy with the old-time burst of enthusiasm which she remembered so +well. + +"Yes," returned Dorothy, in a low voice. + +"They are Mr. Garner's gift to me. To-day is my birthday," she went on, +"and this is Mr. Garner's gift--beautiful, is it not?" + +"Yes," said Dorothy, in the same low, wistful voice. + +"He is so considerate of my wishes; I had merely expressed the words +that I admired sapphires and diamonds, and see! he has presented me with +this lovely set!" + +"The gentleman must have a very generous heart," said Dorothy, faintly. + +Jessie Staples started and looked at her searchingly. + +"Do you know that your voice reminds me of the voice of a young girl +whom I once knew and loved dearly?" she said, huskily. + +Oh, how those words thrilled every fiber of Dorothy's being! + +"She was a very fair young girl," continued Jessie, thoughtfully, "but +she went astray." + +The bracelet that Dorothy was holding fell to the floor with a crash. + +"Oh, I--I must have broken it!" she sobbed. + +"Never mind," said Miss Staples; "you could not help it. Accidents are +liable to happen at any time. It is not past mending, I am sure. Do not +allow it to trouble you." + +She quite believed that Mrs. Brown was a trifle awkward--probably a +little nervous, and she did her best to reassure her. + +"You must not feel badly about it," she repeated kindly. "I, too, am +nervous sometimes. Why, only to-night I dropped my cup of chocolate, +breaking the cup into bits, my hands were so nervous. I had such a +headache all day, that I did not feel able to go down to the table. Even +now I am by no means free from the terrible pain in my head. We shall +leave the opera early," she went on, adding: "No doubt you are pleased +to hear that." + +"It does not matter much to me, madame," came the faint reply. + +"The carriage will be here in half an hour. I trust you will be ready, +Mrs. Brown. Please have my wraps in readiness then. One of the maids +will tell you where to find them. You will not have much time to get +your own wraps." + +At the hour named, Dorothy stood ready, and a few minutes later Mr. +Garner appeared in the corridor. + +Taking Jessie's arm, he led her down to the carriage, seated her, helped +in the little dark figure, and then proceeded carefully to tuck Jessie +in with all the robes. + +They were only ordinary attentions bestowed upon her companion, but they +rankled deeply, like the thrust of a sharp sword, in the heart of the +girl who sat there witnessing it all. + +They talked upon indifferent subjects, but it seemed to Dorothy that +every word held a double meaning. + +Oh, how solicitous he was for her comfort! how he gathered the wraps +about her, anxiously inquiring if she felt the cold air! how low and +tender his words seemed to the girl sitting opposite them, and both +seemed entirely oblivious to her presence. + +The curtain was up when they reached their box, but all through the +opera the little dark figure who shrank back behind the silken hangings +saw nothing, heard nothing; she was watching so intently the old lover +who was so near, and yet, alas! so far from her. + +In the old days she had loved Jessie Staples, but now, as she saw her +old friend and Jack Garner all in all to each other, she grew in a +single hour to almost hate her for usurping her place in his heart. + +True, there was not the same devotion that he had been wont to pay her; +but then, Jack was older now and graver. How he had come by this sudden +wealth puzzled her. Then, by degrees it all came back to her--how he +used to say that some day there was a bare possibility of his being +wealthy---that he had some expectations from a distant relative. Surely +those expectations must have been realized, or he could not be in the +position which he was now enjoying. How strange that the Garners had +lifted Jessie Staples out of the old life, and that she now was Jack's +betrothed bride. And she wondered vaguely if he had forgotten the +Dorothy he had loved so well. + +Suddenly he turned toward her, and at that moment Jessie rose hastily to +her feet. + +"We will get home as quickly as possible," he said, hurriedly. "Miss +Staples is indisposed." + +Jessie leaned heavily on his arm, and they went quickly out of the +building and into the carriage. + +All the way home his arm supported her, and her head leaned helplessly +on his shoulder. + +Dorothy followed with her wraps up to Miss Staple's _boudoir_. + +"Thank you--that will do," she said, wearily, dismissing her at her +door, and Dorothy turned away. + +One of the maids had rocked little Pearl to sleep, and the babe lay +slumbering quietly in her crib. + +Dorothy did not go toward it, as was her wont upon entering her room at +night--indeed, she had forgotten about the child until she heard her +cough, a little later on. + +She was just about to cross the room to the little one, when one of the +maids came hurriedly to her door. + +"Would you mind sitting up with Miss Staples?" she cried, breathlessly; +"she is anything but well. It looks to me as though she has a fever, but +she will not hear to having a doctor called, or even of letting Mrs. +Garner know how ill she is. She declares that, with a good night's rest, +she will be all right in the morning." + +Dorothy went hastily to Jessie Staples' room, while the girl remained to +take charge of the child for the night. + +She found Jessie as the maid had declared--quite ill and +feverish-looking, but still wearing the soft chiffon dress she had worn +at the opera, with the sapphire necklace gleaming on her white throat, +and bracelets shining on her polished arms. + +Dorothy went quickly up to her. + +"You must let me remove these things, and get you into bed at once," she +said coaxingly but firmly. "Your face is scarlet, and your hands +tremble. You must take some hot lemonade, and go quietly to sleep." + +Jessie was quite passive under her commands, but the pain in her head +did not seem to abate. + +For long hours, Dorothy worked patiently with her to allay the fever, +but it seemed to increase with every moment. + +She wanted to arouse the household, and send for a doctor, but Jessie +pleaded most pitifully. + +"You are very, very ill," cried Dorothy, in agony. "I must send for some +one, or you will die!" + +"Hush! I want to die!" cried Jessie, in a low whisper; "that is just it; +I do not want to live." + +Dorothy tried to soothe her, thinking it was but the idle vagaries of a +wandering mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +"Hush!" cried Jessie, sinking back on her pillow, and clutching +frantically the hand that held hers. "You must not call any one. I want +to die! I am so tired of living. I want to tell you my story, Mrs. +Brown--it seems to me that I shall go wild if I do not tell some one; +and you seem so sympathetic and kind. May I trust you?" she whispered, +with a great tremor in her voice. + +"Yes," said Dorothy, slowly; "anything that you may say to me I will +hold sacred." + +"You are very good," returned the other. "You would think," she began, +quickly, "that with wealth, and being the _fiancée_ of a noble young man +like Mr. Garner, and so soon to marry him, that I was the happiest girl +in the world." + +"Yes," returned the other, choking back a sob. + +"I was not always surrounded by wealth and affluence, as you see me +now," commenced Jessie Staples, burying her head in her pillow. "Only a +few short months ago I was poorer than you are now, and worked for my +daily bread. Among the companions who stood side by side with me was +one, a lovely girl whom I loved with all my heart. + +"She was gay and thoughtless, the life of the work-room, with her +bright, girlish, mischievous pranks. Though they called her 'Madcap +Dorothy,' yet every one loved her for her bright, winning ways. + +"There was one employed in the same place whom I had loved ever since I +could remember--loved in secret, making no sign, for it was hopeless--as +he loved pretty Madcap Dorothy, and loved her with all the strength of +his great, noble, manly heart. + +"I was her best friend, even though she was in secret my rival. I did +not care for myself. I only wanted to see the two whom I loved so well +happy. One of them was Jack Garner, and the other Dorothy; and I will +tell you of her." + +"She was young, and gay, and pretty, as I have said, and she knew it. +She knew that she had all of Jack's heart, but she longed for more +heroes to conquer. + +"One fatal day--oh, how well I remember it!--she fell in love with a +handsome, black-eyed stranger--a car conductor on Broadway. That was the +beginning of the end for Jack, who loved her so. One fatal day she ran +away with the stranger and was never heard of again. + +"Rumor has it that later on he tired of her, and was soon to lead to the +altar a proud and lovely young girl--a school-girl--who had never known +what it was to earn her bread, as did poor, pretty Madcap Dorothy. + +"Dorothy's desertion nearly cost Jack Garner his life. I went and nursed +him and took care of him; and when he recovered, his mother was stricken +low, and I in turn nursed her. + +"In the darkest hour of that terrible illness, when we were all gathered +about her bedside, waiting for the angel of death to stoop and bear her +away to that bright land that knows no grief nor partings, suddenly she +beckoned Jack near her. + +"'Oh, mother, is there anything that you wish?' he cried. 'Anything that +I can do for you? Tell me if there is.' + +"'Yes,' she whispered, 'there is one thing you could do, my son, that +would make death easier to me. I--I could die happy if you would do as I +ask.' + +"'I promise you beforehand, mother,' he cried, 'if there is anything +which I can do, it shall be done.' + +"Feebly her hand crept toward mine and drew it toward Jack's, clasping +them both together. + +"'She has saved your life, my boy,' she whispered, 'and she has been as +faithful as an angel to me--unto the last of mine. If you care for your +mother's wishes, ask her to marry you, here and now. I love her as +dearly as my life, Jack. My one wish in this world is to see you wedded +to each other. You must say "Yes" or "No."' + +"He buried his head in his hands, and I could see his stalwart form +shake like a reed in a blast. + +"He hesitated, but only for an instant. Slowly he raised his head, and I +could see that his face was as white as death, in the dim-shaded light +of the lamp. Then slowly he stretched out his hand toward me. + +"'You know of my past, Jessie,' he said, huskily, 'and you know that my +life-hopes were blasted. Will you take me under these conditions--if not +for my sake, for--for my mother's?' + +"I could not tell you the emotions that swept through my heart in that +one moment of time. + +"I do not know in what words I answered him; but, even without scarcely +realizing what I did, my hand crept into his strong, cold one, and I +nodded my head. I could not have spoken to have saved my life--my heart +was too full for utterance. + +"Mrs. Garner did not die that night, and she has always said ever since +that she believed that promise brought her back from the gates of death +to be a living witness to our happiness. + +"Three months passed, with, oh! such unspeakable joy for me. My lover +was all that a lover could be; still, there were times when I thought +Jack's heart was not in his words, but was far away with the girl who +had so cruelly jilted him. + +"At length the wedding invitations were printed and sent out, and only a +week later the terrible _dénouement_ came that has shattered all my +hopes. + +"I was about to enter Mrs. Garner's _boudoir_ one night, when I heard +the sound of voices. + +"Playfully I drew back, for I had recognized Jack's voice. I had a +little gift for him, and I was hesitating a moment as to whether I +should take it in and lay it on his lap, or wait until the next morning +and give it to him in the library. Jack was pacing up and down, and I +saw through the door, which was slightly ajar, that his face was very +pale and stormy--and this was something unusual with calm, placid, +courteous Jack. + +"'For Heaven's sake, don't nag me any more, mother,' he cried, 'or you +will drive me mad! Constant dripping will in time wear out even a stone. +I have ruined my life to satisfy one of your whims; surely that ought +to suffice. If I can't have peace in the house, I will take my hat and +walk out of it. I can not endure this eternal nagging, that I must treat +Jessie better--more as becomes a betrothed lover. You know very well +that I do not love her. My marriage with her will be all your doing. My +heart is with Dorothy; and when a man loves as I loved her, even if that +love is destroyed, no one can ever fill the same niche in his +affections. It is an impossibility. So, have done with this subject, +mother, at once and forever. + +"'I shall marry Jessie, because I am pledged to do so. I will make her +life as happy as I can. She need never know that my heart is not hers, +although she will bear my name.' + +"I--I--never knew how I groped my way into an adjoining room," continued +Jessie, "and there I sank down unconscious. + +"How long I remained there I never knew. When I came to, Mrs. Garner, +greatly frightened, was kneeling beside me and laving my face with +eau-de-Cologne. + +"And I knew by the fearful look in her eyes that she suspected that I +had found out about Jack not caring for me. + +"'Tell me what is the matter, my little Jessie!' she said, clasping me +in her arms and pillowing my head on her breast. + +"In broken gasps I told her, adding that I was going away--back to the +poverty from which they had taken me, and Jack should never see my face +again. Oh! how she prayed and pleaded with me on her bended knees, +crying out: + +"'If you love me, Jessie, do not break from Jack. I am sure he did not +mean all he said. He was only incensed a little at me. He would not have +you know it for the whole wide world. Oh, believe me, Jessie! Do not try +to break my heart by your rash action. The marriage invitations have +gone forth. What could we say to the people? Think of the scandal, +Jessie, and save us from it. Let my words be a prayer to you. I am older +than you are, Jessie. Let me tell you how this will be: + +"'There might be in his heart only deep respect for you, but when he +marries you, he will learn to love you. Every man loves his wife.' + +"Against my own will and my better judgment, I allowed her to persuade +me. + +"I made no mention to Jack of what I had learned, but every day it has +eaten into my heart like a worm in the heart of a rose. + +"I loved him so well, I was only too willing to hold to him. I did not +have the strength to follow the dictates of my own will; and now, God +help me! the day is drawing nearer and nearer. What shall I do? + +"My brain is going mad with the torturous thought that I shall stand at +the altar by the side of a man who does not love me--whose heart is +given to another. + +"Every time that he stoops to kiss my lips I am sure he wishes they were +hers. + +"His thoughts are with her. I am a mere shadow to his life; she was the +substance. + +"People about me look upon me with envy, but you can realize that I am +more to be pitied than the poorest beggar on the street. Tell me," she +cried, eagerly, "do you think any one on this earth ever had a sorrow +equal to mine?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +As the hours wore on, poor Jessie Staples grew so alarmingly worse, and +the fever increased so rapidly, that, despite her entreaties, Dorothy +felt that she must summon medical aid. + +Soon after the entire household had gathered about Jessie, in the +greatest alarm. + +A physician was sent for at once--Doctor Crandall, whom Mrs. Garner had +known for long years. + +It so happened that the doctor lay very ill himself from an attack of +_la grippe_, and, penning a line or so to Mrs. Garner, he explained that +he had sent as a substitute a young doctor whom he had taken into his +office to act for him during his illness. He felt sure they could rest +Miss Staples' case with all safety in his hands. + +That was the beginning of the terrible end. + +Surely a cruel fate must have brought the situation about. It happened +in this way: + +When Harry Kendal had exerted every means to find Dorothy, and had +failed, he commenced to look about for something to do. + +It occurred to him that perhaps the best person to whom he could apply +was Doctor Crandall, who had been the life-long friend of his old +benefactor, Doctor Bryan. + +Kendal's appeal was not in vain. He was taken in at once. Indeed, his +coming was most opportune, he was told. + +It so happened that his very first call was to the home of Mrs. Garner. + +"Garner!" The name sounded very familiar to him. His brow darkened as he +heard it. Was not that the name of the young man who had been Dorothy +Glenn's lover when he first met little Dorothy in the book-bindery? Of +course, it was absurd to imagine that there could be anything in common +between these wealthy Garners and that poor fellow who worked hard at +his trade. Still he hated the name. + +When he reached the mansion and was ushered into the corridor, to his +intense surprise, the first person whom he met face to face was Jack +Garner! He recognized Jack at once; but the light in the corridor was +low, and, besides, he had turned up his coat-collar, and with the heavy +beard he had grown, Garner, as it was not to be wondered at, did not +know him. Besides, Jack had seen him but twice--once as he was putting +Dorothy into a coach, and again on the Staten Island boat, in the dim, +uncertain moonlight. + +"Your patient is this way, doctor," he said, motioning him up the broad +stairway. + +A sudden, strange thought came to Kendal: What if he should find Dorothy +there? + +He no sooner entered the room and uttered the first word than the slim +figure in black, wearing the blue glasses, started violently. Dorothy +recognized him at once, despite the heavy beard. + +"How in the world came he here?" she gasped to herself, in the greatest +amazement. + +But she had no opportunity to think long over the matter, for Jessie +required the most immediate attention. + +"I think it will be best to send you a practical nurse," he said, as he +took his departure. + +He spoke to Doctor Crandall about it immediately upon his return to the +office. + +"There is only one young woman whom I can think of just at present," +said the doctor. "She is not what you might call a trained nurse, but +she claims to have had a little experience. We shall have to secure her +in a case of emergency. I shall send for her to-night; she will probably +be there in the morning when you arrive." + +As Kendal ascended the steps of the palatial home of the Garners, he +came face to face with a woman who was standing in the vestibule, just +in the act of touching the bell. One glance, and he fairly reeled back. + +"Nadine Holt!" he cried, aghast, "is it you--_you_?" + +"We meet again at last!" hissed the girl, confronting him with +death-white face. "I knew I should find you sooner or later, and I have +been on your track." + +"Hush! hush! Nadine," he cried; "what do you mean? In Heaven's name, +don't speak so loud! Every one is listening. You will ruin me." + +"That is what I intend to do!" she shrieked, clutching frantically at +his arm with her long, thin fingers. "You deserted me and wedded +another." + +"What put such a notion in your head, anyhow, Nadine?" he said, +evasively, thinking it best to temporize with the raging fury +confronting him. + +"I heard all about it," she panted, hoarsely. + +"Then some one has been cruelly maligning me," he cried; "and you, of +all people in the world, Nadine, should not have believed it. Hush! some +one is coming. I hear footsteps. Meet me later. I want to have a long +talk with you. But, by the way, what are you doing here at this house, +Nadine?" + +"Did I not tell you that I answered Doctor Crandall's advertisement for +a nurse, and that this is my errand here? But what are _you_ doing +here?" + +"I may as well tell you the truth, Nadine," he said, despairingly, +seeing that it would all come out sooner or later. "I--I have been +studying medicine since I met you, and they have engaged me as +physician. But now that surprises are in order, I suppose you know who +lives here?" + +"No," she answered. + +"It is your old friend Garner, who used to be in the book-bindery. He +has acquired sudden wealth--Heaven knows how. His mother is living with +him, and also that pretty girl whom I used to think was so quiet--Miss +Staples." + +Before Nadine could reply, her amazement was so great, the door was +opened by the quiet footman, and they were ushered into the +drawing-room. + +Kendal had barely time to whisper to Nadine: "These people do not know +that I am the same one whom they used to know as the car conductor. +Don't give me away," ere the door opened, and Mrs. Garner made her +appearance. + +"Ah! you have brought a nurse with you, doctor," she said, in a tone of +great relief. + +So saying, she led the way to the sick-room. + +Nadine's entrance caused the greatest surprise to both Mr. Garner and +Jessie. + +No one thought of noticing the plain, dark little figure half hidden by +the curtains in the bay window, or they would have seen Dorothy start +and fairly gasp for breath as her eyes fell upon the nurse Kendal had +brought with him, and heard them discuss the point that Nadine must be +installed there as nurse. + +Her brain fairly reeled, and it flashed over her mind what a villain +Kendal really was. + +She had quite believed all this long time that he had parted from Nadine +Holt, and here he had been keeping up Nadine's friendship clandestinely +through it all. + +Of course Iris Vincent was expecting to marry him. + +It was clear that Kendal had a good many irons in the fire. + +She only wished that Iris Vincent knew of his friendship for Nadine. + +Dorothy wondered if Nadine would penetrate her disguise. + +Nadine assumed her duties at once, and the first thing which she did was +to order the slim creature about, scarcely giving her a moment's rest. + +Nadine had always heard that this was the way paid nurses invariably +did. + +She took every opportunity to consult Doctor Kendal and waylay him for +long chats. Even Jessie noticed this, as ill as she was; and she +noticed, too, that the young doctor resented it; and Nadine herself was +not slow in perceiving his lack of interest in herself. + +"How very interested you are in your pretty white-faced patient," Nadine +said, on the second day of her stay there. "I almost believe you have +fallen in love with Jessie Staples, and mean to bring her quickly back +to health, and--and marry her." + +Kendal turned from her with a fierce imprecation, and muttering +something that sounded very like "the cursed jealousy of some women," +abruptly quitted the room, slamming the door after him. + +Then Nadine felt _sure_ that she had stumbled upon the terrible truth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +Whenever a jealous woman is looking for something with which to feed the +green-eyed monster, she usually finds it, or imagines she does, which +amounts to the same thing. It was so with Nadine. + +No one mentioned to Nadine the fact that Jessie was betrothed to Jack +Garner. Even had she heard it, she would not have believed it. She would +have imagined that it was a falsehood made up for her benefit. + +She could not endure the kindly looks he gave Jessie, nor endure to see +him bend over her, raise her from her pillow, and, while one strong arm +supported her, coax her to take her medicine. + +Such sights as these were more terrible for Nadine to endure than the +pangs of death; and for hours afterward she would feel an almost +uncontrollable desire to strangle the sick girl. + +In Nadine's heart there rose a mad wish that Jessie would die before +Harry Kendal became too fond of her. + +While Jessie slept and she was not buried in the depths of a newspaper +to kill time, she would be brooding over this subject: If Jessie Staples +would only die! + +One day, while in this morbid mood, her eyes fell upon a fatal paragraph +that riveted her attention with breathless interest. + +It spoke of the death of a once noted court beauty who had been in her +time the toast of all Europe. Men had fought duels for her sake, and +courtiers thought it a great honor to risk life and limb to do her +bidding, being repaid by only a smile or one glance from her wine-dark +eyes. + +It happened that while riding about in her pony-cart she had, by chance, +one day encountered a poor tradesman's son who had stopped by a brook at +which her own horse was slaking his thirst, to give his steed a drink. + +One glance at the fair, handsome Saxon face, and the girl who had +laughed to scorn full many a lover, felt her heart going from her +keeping to this bonny stranger. + +Although he was poor--only a tradesman's son--and she had wealth untold, +yet the beauty was not fair in his eyes. + +He passed her by with only a gracious bow, as any courtier might, for he +was in a hurry to reach the side of his beloved Gretchen. She was only a +peasant maid, but in his eyes she was more beautiful than a queen. + +He loved the pretty Gretchen with all his heart. + +When my lady came to inquire about him, and learned he had a pretty +little sweetheart, she grew very wroth, but she said never a word. + +On that day she sent for Gretchen, and employed her as her maid. But +from that hour there was a change in Gretchen's life. + +Slowly but surely she faded, although her distracted lover did +everything in his power to prolong the life of the maid he loved. + +In the early spring-time, while robins sang and the trees put forth +their blossoms, he gazed his last on all that was mortal of poor +Gretchen. + +The great lady tried her best to comfort Gretchen's lover, but he would +not be comforted. + +His hopes were buried in Gretchen's grave, and she could not turn his +thoughts to herself, and ere the first moon waned, they laid him, too, +beside his Gretchen, in his last home. + +The great lady never smiled again, and soon after the doors of the +convent closed upon one of the most beautiful women of her time. + +On her death-bed she called one and all of those about her to listen to +her tragic story. + +She cried out that they must not touch her hand, for it was stained with +human blood; and it was then that her horrible story was brought to +light. + +And in an awful whisper, while the long shadows deepened, she made this +terrible revelation: that years, before she had murdered her maid, +Gretchen, because the girl was loved by him whom she would have won. + +By night and by day she pondered upon how it should be done, then +suddenly the way and means occurred to her. + +There was a powerful drug of which she had heard that gave women the +most marvelous of complexions, but which sooner or later caused death. + +Gretchen should take it; it could be placed in the basin of water in +which she was wont to bathe her face each morning, and it would enter +the body through the pores of the skin. In this way the doctors would be +completely baffled, for they would not be able to trace the poison. + +She put this dastardly plot into execution, and her cruel heart did not +upbraid her, though she saw the girl droop and fade daily before her +eyes. + +When she looked out of her window and saw Gretchen and her lover pacing +up and down the primrose path in the moonlight, a horrible laugh would +break from the great lady's ripe, red lips. + +"There will be but a few more of these meetings, tender partings and +kisses under the larch-tree boughs." + +She had never dreamed, this false, cruel beauty, that a man's heart +could be constant to a dead love and spurn a living one. + +All these years she had lived to rue it; but neither prayers, nor +suffering, nor pangs of conscience could atone for the terrible crime +committed. + +During all the years that had passed since Gretchen had been lying in +that lonely grave, she had never known one moment's peace of mind, until +this hour when she lay dying and had confessed all. + +Slowly, twice, thrice, Nadine Holt read the story through, and as she +read, a terrible thought came into her own mind. + +Why could not she procure this same drug and administer it in the same +way to Jessie Staples? + +She took the paper up to her room and hid it very carefully in her +satchel. + +True, Jessie had taken her in this time without saying one word of the +past unpleasantness, treating her as though that quarrel had never been. + +But Nadine was different. She was one of the kind that "never forgets, +never forgives" while life lasts. + +When the household was wrapped in deep sleep that night, Nadine stole +out upon her terrible mission. + +Several careful druggists refused to fill her order; but this did not +daunt her. She knew that among the lot she would soon come across a +catch-penny, and in this supposition she was quite right. + +She soon found a place, and secured the deadly drug which she called +for, and she stole into the house again without any one being the wiser +for her midnight trip. + +The light was burning low in the sick-room as she entered it, and Mrs. +Brown sat half dozing in her chair by the bedside. + +She started up as Nadine crossed the threshold. + +"You needn't mind staying any longer," she remarked, brusquely; "I will +take charge of the patient now." + +"No," said the other, quietly but firmly. "It is between twelve and one +that the most important medicine must be administered." + +"Don't you suppose I am capable of giving it?" retorted Nadine angrily +enough. "You don't seem to realize what is the business of a paid +nurse!" + +The other made no remark, but still she lingered. Had she a suspicion +that there was anything amiss? + +She was a strange creature, anyhow, with that old-looking face, the +great mass of thick black hair studded with gray, and the thick blue +glasses. + +Where had she seen some one of whom this creature reminded her so +strangely and so strongly? + +Even the tone of her voice, although it sounded hoarse and unnatural, +was somehow familiar to her. + +The very way in which Mrs. Brown crested her head she had seen somewhere +before, and it had made quite an impression upon her at the time. + +"I can not help thinking that she is always spying upon every movement +of mine, and she listens--I am sure she does--to every word the doctor +and I say; and these people who watch others so much always need +watching themselves." + +Seeing that Nadine Holt was determined to banish her from the sick-room, +Dorothy quitted the apartment with a very heavy heart, though she could +not have told why. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +The days that followed were dark ones to the Garner household, for +Jessie began to fail rapidly. + +She grew so weak that the entire household began to grow terribly +alarmed over her condition. Even the doctor had grave apprehension for +his patient. + +"The case of Miss Staples puzzles me completely," he said to Doctor +Crandall, when he returned to his office one afternoon. "I have never +known of symptoms like hers;" and he minutely described the strange turn +the case had taken which had baffled him completely. + +"As soon as I am able to be about I will go with you and see for myself +just where the trouble is." + +Meanwhile, a serious matter was agitating the brain of poor Jessie +Staples. + +She realized before any of the rest did that her condition was becoming +alarming, and her wedding-day was drawing nearer and nearer. + +But when that day dawned, a secret voice in her heart whispered that she +would be "the bride of death," and not Jack Garner's. + +She wondered if Heaven meant it for the best, that she must give up the +life that might have held so much for her. She had longed for death many +a time; but now that it seemed imminent, her very soul grew frightened +because of one thought: she would have to leave Jack behind her. It +seemed to her that though she should be buried fathoms deep, her soul +would cling to earth--and Jack. What if, in time to come, he should +forget her! Ah! that was the bitterest stroke of all; and she realized +that, no matter how deeply a person may love, when the object of that +affection dies, time brings balm to his woe, and mellows it into +forgetfulness or to a shadowy memory. + +If she were to die, would he ever love another, and stand with that +other before the altar? + +In her day-dreams, in times gone by, Jessie had pictured to herself--as +girls will in those rosy moments--how she would stand at the altar, and +listen with whirling brain and beating heart to those sweet, solemn +words that would bind her forever to the man she loved with more than a +passing love. She pictured how she would walk down the aisle, leaning on +his arm--that great, strong arm that would be her support for +evermore--a great mist of happy tears in her eyes as she clung to him. + +She even pictured to herself how he would help her into the coach, and +how they would drive away out into the great wide world together, to be +separated never again. + +Instead of all this, now she would be lying in her grave, with blue +forget-me-nots and pale primroses on her breast. + +Jack would be going through that scene with another as his bride; and as +the years rolled by he would forget her, or think of her only now and +then at times--not with keen regret, but with faint, vague indifference. + +Oh, God! if it had been _he_ who was destined to die, she would have +shut herself up from the world, and would have lived only for his +memory. + +Her last prayer would have been, when death's dew gathered on her brow, +to be buried beside him. + +But men are more fickle than women. How few of them remain true to a +dead love! + +As she tossed to and fro on her pillow, these thoughts tortured her more +than tongue could tell. + +Then a strange fancy took possession of her. + +The more she thought of it, the more her heart longed to accomplish it, +until she could not restrain the longing that seemed to take entire +possession of her. + +And one day, when she seemed even more ill than usual, she could no +longer restrain the impulse to send for Jack. + +He came quickly at her bidding, sat down by her couch, caught the +little white hand--ah! terribly thin and white now--in his, and raised +it to his lips. + +"Did you wish me to sit with you, Jessie?" he said. "Or would you like +me to read to you?" + +"No; I want to talk to you, Jack," she said, with a little quiver in her +voice. + +"Have you ever thought how near it is to--to our wedding-day, Jack," she +whispered, faintly. + +"Yes," said Jack, with never a thought of what was coming. + +"What--what would you do if I were still ill when it dawned?" + +"The ceremony could be performed just the same," he answered, promptly. +"There would be no wedding at the church, no invited guests; that would +be all the difference." + +"Would you wish to marry me if--if you knew that I would never be well +again, and that perhaps death would be hovering very, very near to claim +me, and to part me from you?" + +"I will keep to my part of the compact, Jessie," he said, huskily. + +"But what if I should die before it, Jack?" she questioned, faintly. + +"I do not know what you mean, Jessie," he said, gravely--"what you are +trying to get at." + +"Oh, Jack! I mean this: I--I want to belong to you in life and in death. +I do not want you to have any other love but me, even if I should be +taken from you. I want you to be true to me forever. I could not rest in +my grave, though they burled me fathoms deep, if you ever called +another--wife! If I am to die, Jack, you must promise me one +thing--that you will never wed--another!" + +"How can you talk of such a thing, my dear Jessie?" he said, +reproachfully. "You pain me beyond measure." + +"You will give me that promise, will you not, Jack?" she pleaded. "The +pangs of death will be easier to bear if my mind is but at rest on that +subject." + +"You are going to get well soon, and the ceremony will take place as we +have arranged," he said, soothingly; but she shook her head. + +"If I should not, Jack," she whispered, fixing her burning eyes +wistfully on his face, "let me have the assurance from your lips that +you will never, never put another in my place." + +"If it will settle any doubts in your mind, I give you the promise that +you ask," he answered, in a low, grave voice; and it was worth that +promise to see the girl's pale face light up with a swift flush of joy. + +"Oh, thank you--thank you, Jack!" she sobbed. + +At that moment a strange incident was taking place in Dorothy's room. + +Almost thoroughly exhausted with night-watching, Dorothy had fallen +asleep in a chair, in which she had sat down for a few moments' rest. + +Was it only a vision? she wondered, or did she hear some one call her +name softly: "Dorothy! Dorothy!" + +She turned her head quickly, but she could see no one, although some one +was whispering: + +"Why do you nurse Jessie so carefully? If it is destined that she should +die, I wonder that you grieve when you know that her death will bring +freedom to Jack Garner and love to you!" + +The idea was so startling that for a time it nearly took her breath +away. + +"Let her drift quietly on to the end which is near. If you do not work +too zealously to save her, your reward will be the heart of him whom you +_love at last_. Take warning, and heed my words!" + +Dorothy sprang from her chair, quivering with excitement. + +She had been fast asleep, and the words that still rang in her ears +shocked her yet, even though she knew it was but a dream--though such a +vivid one--and the voice that whispered those words to her seemed so +like Jack's. + +Still the idea was in her head. If Jessie Staples died, her lover would +be free again, and she knew what that would mean for herself. + +She tried to put the thought from her, but she could not; it haunted her +continually. + +She tried to tell herself that even if Jessie were to die, she would +never make herself known to Jack. + +But, even after she had said all that, she knew in her own mind that she +would be sure to let Jack know at last, for she would never realize a +moment's happiness until she was once more what she had been to Jack in +the past. + +It had been such a slight affair that had parted them, and that had +drifted two hearts asunder. + + Alas! how light a cause may move + Dissensions between hearts that love-- + Hearts that the world in vain had tried, + And sorrow but more closely tied; + That stood the storm when waves were rough, + Yet in a sunny hour fell off, + Like ships that have gone down at sea + When heaven was all tranquillity." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +During the week that followed, the words that Dorothy had heard in her +dream constantly recurred to her. + +At first she fought against the feeling that seemed to be forced upon +her. + +She cried out to herself that Jessie must live; but with that thought +always came the one that, if Jessie recovered, it would mean the +downfall of all her own future happiness. + +At last her growing love for Jack Garner conquered her. She yielded to +it. It was like the intoxication of rare wine, of sweet, subtle perfume, +until at last, in secret, she confessed to herself that she loved him. +She thought of nothing but that she loved Jack with all the strength and +fervor of her despairing soul, and the only barrier between them +was--Jessie. + +To make matters all the worse, the sick girl made a confidante of her, +and would talk to her for long hours at a time over her approaching +marriage--that is, if she should recover. + +Every word she said was like the sharp thrust of a sword to Dorothy; but +day by day Dorothy could not help but notice the terrible change that +was taking place in Jessie Staples. + +Every afternoon her couch was drawn to the bay-window. She liked to be +propped up where she could look out into the sunlit garden, with its +green foliage and bright-hued flowers; for it was in the garden that +Jack could be seen, pacing up and down under the trees, smoking his +afternoon cigar. + +She would always call for Jack when she saw him, and when he came into +the room she would hold out her arms to him with a strange, low cry. + +He would always kneel down by her side, talk to her, try to cheer her. +Sleep would never come to her unless he sat by her side, holding her +hands in his. + +It was with great relief that Mr. Garner heard at length that Doctor +Crandall was so much better that he would visit Jessie the next +afternoon. + +When he came Doctor Kendal took him at once to the sick-room, and there +they held a long and secret consultation. + +"I am obliged to say, sir, that I shall have to abandon the case," said +Kendal. "I am completely dumbfounded with it. I have most carefully +followed out your every suggestion, and yet the patient fails rapidly +before my eyes day after day." + +Doctor Crandall looked thoughtful. + +When he left Jessie's couch he found Mr. Garner awaiting him in the +library. + +"What do you think of her, sir?" he asked, quickly. + +"There is not much the matter," he replied; "a good tonic, rest, and a +little cheerful society will soon set the young lady right again." + +"It is the first time that you have seen her, doctor," said Jack, rather +dubiously. "You never saw her in health, sir. You do not know how +alarmingly she has changed for the worse. She had a brilliant color, but +it has all gone." + +"It will soon return," said the doctor, encouragingly; and with a few +further words he left Jack, more mystified than ever. + +For forty odd years he had enjoyed a large practice, but in all that +time he had never had a case exactly like this. + +He made up his mind then and there that there was something about this +case which was beyond him--there was something about it that he could +not fathom, that was shrouded in mystery. + +He wired without delay, an urgent message to an eminent physician with +whom he was on excellent terms. It was almost midnight when Doctor +Schimpf arrived at the Garner mansion. + +His friend, Doctor Crandall, was awaiting him, and together they made +their way at once to the sick-room. + +"This is an urgent case, I suppose," said Doctor Schimpf. + +"I am afraid so," was the reply. "You will be able to judge when you see +the patient." + +Doctor Schimpf's stern face grew sterner still as he made his +examination of poor Jessie. Then the doctors quitted the room and +commenced their consultation. + +Nadine Holt looked after them with a strange smile on her face, her +black eyes glittering. + +"Well," said Doctor Crandall, "I wonder if we both have the same opinion +in regard to this case." + +"It can admit of but one," returned Doctor Schimpf, with a shake of his +head. + +"And that is?" + +"It is a case of slow poisoning," was the answer. + +Doctor Crandall grasped his friend's hand. + +"That was my view exactly," he said, huskily. + +"There is but one way to proceed," returned Doctor Schimpf: "we must set +a watch upon the inmates of the sick-room, and discover who is the +perpetrator of this awful crime; and in the meantime make minute +inquiries if there is any one under this roof who would be likely to be +benefited by this poor girl's death. I propose that we proceed without +an hour's delay." + +"Agreed!" returned the other, promptly. "And I would suggest, as well, +that a woman be secured, if possible, to undertake this task of +ferreting out who is responsible for this awful crime that will soon +terminate fatally if not nipped in the bud." + +The next morning a young colored girl duly presented herself at the +Garner mansion. + +"I have brought you an assistant," said Doctor Crandall, leading her +into the presence of Dorothy and Nadine Holt, and bowing to each in +turn. "She is to obey your orders implicitly, and wait upon you. The +medicines we have left are of an extremely pungent odor, and likely to +overcome a person unused to them. She can attend to mixing the +preparations for you, if you both consider her competent to do so, which +you can tell after a short trial;" adding, besides: "One drop of this +stains the hands, and it can not be got off for months. I thought this +might be sufficient reason for placing this young girl at your +disposal." + +"You are very thoughtful, sir," said Nadine Holt, sweetly; but Dorothy +spoke never a word. + +Both doctors turned and looked keenly at her; then the conversation +drifted quickly into another channel; but both had made up their minds +that this boded no good for the slender, dark-looking woman with the +blue glasses who hovered continually about the sick girl's couch. + +As the doctors were leaving, under guise of giving a few words of +instruction to Myra, the mulatto girl, they whispered hurriedly in her +ear. + +"I understand," she answered, with a nod of her head. "Nothing shall +escape my eye." + +The next day Doctor Crandall made minute inquiries regarding every +member of the household, and every addition that had been made to it for +the past few months; and he learned, casually, that the only person +under that roof with whose history the Garners were not thoroughly +acquainted was--Mrs. Brown. + +Furthermore, he discovered that she had secured the place without proper +recommendations. This he considered a serious affair. He was quite +willing to give her the benefit of a doubt; still, it was too grave a +matter of which he had charge. Every moment of time wasted in +discovering the perpetrator of the awful crime was dangerous to Miss +Staples, his beautiful patient, exposed to such deadly peril. + +All unmindful of the espionage placed upon her, Dorothy went about her +duties in the same faithful manner. + +In the morning she read to and amused old Mrs. Garner. In the afternoon +she attended to all the duties of the household; for in the midst of +their difficulties their housekeeper had left them. + +In the evening she relieved Nadine Holt from her arduous duties in the +sick-room. + +The only gleam of brightness that fell athwart her path was meeting Jack +Garner at the table three times a day. Her life merged into one great +longing to be near him. + +She tried to picture how it would be when Jessie recovered and he should +marry her. Of course, they would still dwell beneath that roof. Could +the same home that held them hold her? + +She could not endure seeing them so happy in each other's love. Whenever +Jack entered the sick-room, Dorothy always made some pretense to leave +it. + +The sight of him bringing a flower to Jessie would be enough to almost +break her heart with poignant grief. + +She could not help but notice how handsome he was growing day by day. + +Oh, what would she not have given for just one of the kindly words he +used to speak to her, a tender look, a caress! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + +Not one thought did Dorothy give to Harry Kendal during these days. It +is strange what a power some young girls possess in throwing off all +tender thoughts from their hearts when the object of them has proven +himself unworthy. + +All love for Harry Kendal had gone out of her heart when she saw him +choose Iris' society instead of her own, and she at the time his +betrothed bride. + +Dorothy's only hope was that Kendal would not penetrate her disguise, +and never know what had become of her. + +She did not know but what he was now betrothed to Iris, and _she did not +care_. She was glad to be rid of him at any cost. She only wished that +Nadine Holt--who was still so insanely in love with her false +lover--knew how treacherous he was. She wished she dare tell her about +Iris. + +In her hours of loneliness little Pearl was a great comfort to Dorothy. +She almost lost sight of her troubles at times in taking care of the +child, who was quite as desolate in the world as herself. + +She never forgot one morning that broke sunny enough for her, but ended +in desolation more bitter to endure than death. + +Mrs. Garner and herself were seated at the breakfast table, when Jack +entered and took his seat opposite Dorothy. He bent his fair, handsome +head, and kissed his mother as he passed her, and bowed courteously to +"Mrs. Brown." + +Both noticed that his fair, handsome face was very pale, and his right +hand looked bruised. Mrs. Garner spoke of it at once. + +"What is the matter--what has happened, Jack, my boy?" she asked, +earnestly. "What does your agitation mean? You must tell me at once. +Your--your appearance alarms me more than I can tell you." + +He tried to laugh the matter off, but his mother would not be persuaded +to change the subject. + +"Well, then, if you _must_ know, I will tell you when--we--are--alone," +he said, a little unsteadily. + +"You need not mind Mrs. Brown," she answered, quickly. "I do not +hesitate speaking before her on any topic." + +Dorothy rose hurriedly to her feet. + +"I--I have finished my breakfast," she said, in the low tone she had +assumed, and which so charmed every one; "and if you will excuse me, I +shall be grateful." + +Jack bowed courteously; but Mrs. Garner held out a fluttering hand to +stay her steps. + +"Do not go very far, Mrs. Brown," she said. "I may need you at any +moment. Step into the conservatory and wait for further orders there." + +With a bow of assent Dorothy glided from the room. She was sorry that +Mrs. Garner had requested her to remain in the conservatory, for she +knew full well that more or less of the conversation between mother and +son must needs reach her ears. + +The door had no sooner closed behind the slim, retreating figure ere +Mrs. Garner turned quickly to her son, who was now pacing up and down +the breakfast-room, with his arms folded tightly over his breast, his +head crested proudly erect and a strange look in his eyes. + +"Well, Jack." she said, at length, seeing that he was in no hurry to +break the silence, "what is the matter? You used to tell your mother all +your troubles when you were a little boy. Come to me with them now. +Something has happened to disturb you greatly. I can see it in your +face. Tell me what it is, my boy. Tell your mother what annoys you, my +dear." + +"You are right, mother; something _has_ happened to disturb me," he +said. "I ought not to worry you with it, but if you care to hear it you +shall know all. You remember a conversation we had several months ago +about--about little Dorothy, mother?" + +"We _did_ have a conversation about that girl, but I do not remember +specially all that was said." + +"You remember that I told you then, mother, that--that I still loved +Dorothy, and if I ever came across the man who lured her away from me it +would go hard with him or with me." + +"I was in hopes that you were getting over that nonsense," she said, +"especially since your betrothal to poor Jessie." + +"I told you then, as I tell you now, mother, that I shall never forget +Dorothy nor cease to love her. But for the story I have to tell: An hour +since, as I was taking an early morning stroll to get a cigar, a little +incident happened which caused me to pause and to quite forget my +errand. It was only a little lame boy singing for pennies on the street, +and the song that he sang touched my heart, as it has not been touched +for long months, and thrilled every fiber of my being with a sharp, keen +pain. + +"You have heard the same song, mother. You remember how I rose and +abruptly left the room when some young girl commenced to sing it in our +drawing-room only a few short weeks ago. To-day I listened to it, +spellbound; and the boy's accompaniment on the violin held me as one +fascinated. I tried to move away, but could not, as you can judge by +what occurred afterward. There was a strange fate in my standing there. + +"I stood quite still and listened to the well-remembered words which +carried me back so forcibly to my own past with Dorothy: + + "'Far away in summer meadows, + Where the merry sunbeams played, + Oft I lingered 'mid the clover + Singing to a village maid. + She was fairer than the fairest, + Ever faithful, fond and true, + And she wore beneath her bonnet + Amber tresses tied with blue. + + "'Ere the summer days departed, + We had made a solemn vow, + And I never, never wearied + Kissing her sweet cheek and brow. + She was dearer than the dearest, + Pure as drops of morning dew, + And adown her back were hanging, + Amber tresses tied with blue. + + "''Twas decreed that fate should part us + Ere the leaves of autumn fell, + And two loving hearts were severed, + That had loved each other well. + She was all I had to cherish, + We have bade our last adieu. + Still I see in every vision + Amber tresses tied with blue.' + +Just at that moment a step sounded on the pavement. + +"A man rushed down, hatless, from an adjacent mansion, and in a +twinkling seized the offending young musician by the throat, and hurled +him from the sidewalk, crying, fiercely: + +"'I will teach you to come here every morning and to sing that accursed +song of all others in front of my door. I have ordered you away twice +before. I'll teach you better than to come back again.' + +"The unprovoked assault upon the helpless cripple awoke all the anger in +my nature. + +"I sprang forward and separated them; but when I saw who the cripple's +assailant was, my amazement knew no bounds. + +"It was the young doctor who comes here to attend Jessie. + +"He turned on me with terrible ferocity; then I recognized the fumes of +wine on his breath. + +"'This is the second time you have interfered in my business, Garner!' +he cried, fairly foaming with rage. 'Once when you attempted to take +Dorothy Glenn from me on the Staten Island boat, and--now.' + +"I fell back as though he had struck me a terrible blow. In an instant I +recognized him. I had been looking for him ever since Dorothy's flight. +I had caught but a fleeting glimpse of him in the past, and his +whiskers made such a change in him, no wonder I did not recognize him as +he crossed our threshold; and this accounted for the manner in which he +had managed to avoid me in my own household. + +"'You! You fiend incarnate, have I found you at last? I could kill you +here and now!' I cried as my fingers tightened around his throat. 'But I +will give you one chance to save yourself. Name your own place as to +where you will meet me. I did not recognize you before. You shall tell +me what you have done with Dorothy Glenn, or I will kill you!' + +"Those words seemed to recall him to his senses. He drew back defiantly, +and his flashing black eyes met mine, while a terrible sneer curled his +lips. + +"'You shall never know whether Dorothy Glenn is living or dead!' he +cried. + +"I could have borne anything better than those scathing words from the +lips of the man who had taken from me the girl I loved. + +"'You will find me at my home up to the hour of noon,' he said. 'Make +any arrangements you deem necessary.' + +"I turned on my heel and left him; and here I am, awaiting a summons +from him." + +Mrs. Garner had risen slowly to her feet. The import of his words had +just begun to dawn upon her. + +"Jack!" she cried, wildly, throwing herself upon her knees at his feet, +"is it to be a duel? Oh, my God, Jack, answer me!" + +They heard a crash in the conservatory, but both were too excited to +mind it. + +"Let me go in your place," cried a hoarse voice from the doorway of the +conservatory. "Pardon me, but I could not help overhearing all;" and +Mrs. Brown advanced excitedly into the breakfast-room, and up to Jack's +side. "Let me go in your place," she repeated. "Let me give my life for +yours. I--I have nothing left to live for; you have." + +Jack was deeply touched. + +"You forget your little child," he said, gently. "Besides, any man might +reasonably take up the quarrel of a lady, and, if need be, die in her +defense, be she friend or stranger; but no woman should make such a +sacrifice for a man. I thank you for the kindness of heart that prompted +the words; but it can not be. I am sorry that you overheard my words to +my mother. See! she has swooned away. I beg that you will take care of +her, and let none of the household know what is about to occur." + +As Jack Garner uttered the words, he kissed the prostrate form of his +mother, and, turning, walked hastily out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + +Dorothy then set about restoring Jack's mother, and with the first +breath of returning consciousness she fled from the room and up to her +own. + +She was just about to seize her hat and cloak, and to dash out into the +street, in the mad hope of overtaking him, all heedless of little +Pearl's cry, as she woke from her sleep and held out her hand, when +there came a sudden knock upon the door. + +It was the colored maid. + +"If you please, ma'am, you are wanted in Miss Staples' room." + +"I--I can not go now," cried Dorothy, incoherently. "I have an urgent +errand that I must attend to at once." + +"But you must come, madame," said the girl, slowly, but very +impressively. + +"It is impossible," returned Dorothy, attempting to pass her by. "Every +moment of my time is precious." + +"But madame must go to the sick-room," reiterated the girl so earnestly +that Dorothy paused. + +"I will look in at the sick-room one moment," she said. "Then you--you +must not detain me." + +Suddenly she turned and asked: + +"Do you know whether Mr. Garner is in the house?" + +"He is in the library, ma'am." + +"You are sure?" gasped Dorothy. + +"Quite sure, ma'am. He also has had a message to come to the sick-room. +I stopped and gave it to him myself on my way here." + +Thus assured that he had not yet left the house, Dorothy breathed a +great sigh of intense relief. + +"I--I do not mind going to the sick-room with you now," she whispered, +in a low, unsteady voice; and, all unconscious of what was to accrue +from it, Dorothy followed her companion from the room and up to Jessie's +chamber. + +The silence of death was upon all things as she parted the silken +_portières_ and entered the room where the sick girl lay, white and +gasping, upon the couch. + +The two doctors made way for her, motioning her to advance to the couch. + +"Oh! she is not dying--not dying?" gasped Dorothy, with a wild wail of +terror. "You must not tell me that!" + +"Are you so very much surprised?" asked Doctor Crandall, slowly and +impressively. + +"Oh, she must not die---she must not die!" she cried. "Where is all your +vaunted skill if you can not save her life?" + +"Man can work against the skill of man," significantly replied Doctor +Crandall, "but not against the will of Heaven." + +"But is she dying?" wailed Dorothy, grasping the ice-cold hands. + +"She shall not die if we can save her," simultaneously echoed both +doctors. + +They uttered the words in so strange a tone that Dorothy turned and +looked at them in wonder. + +At that moment Mr. Garner entered the room. His face was still very +pale, but he was outwardly calm. + +He was just in time to catch the last words, and he stepped up hurriedly +to the doctor ere he could utter another word to Dorothy. + +"Do you say that my betrothed is dying?" he cried, hoarsely, flinging +himself on his knees beside the couch, on the side opposite to where +Dorothy was. + +"What we have to say had better be deferred for a few moments, until he +is more calm and better able to bear the shock," said Doctor Schimpf, +nodding in the direction where Mr. Garner knelt prostrated with grief. + +Dorothy had become strangely calm, and both doctors noticed that she +intently watched the actions of young Mr. Garner. + +"I think I have unearthed the secret of the whole affair," whispered +Doctor Crandall to his friend. "Watch the gaze Mrs. Brown is bending +upon the betrothed lover of the girl who lies sick unto death!" + +He motioned the doctor back into the recess of the bay-window. + +"Let me finish my story here," he whispered under his breath. "This is +what I would say: This strange woman in the black dress loves Mr. +Garner. Ah! you start, my friend. So did I when the thought first +flashed across my mind. Within the last few moments this thought has +settled into a conviction. She is the only one interested in the death +of Miss Staples. Look carefully into the chain of evidence I present to +you, and you will have the same opinion that I have formed, no doubt. + +"In the first place, as we both know, Miss Staples' sudden attack of +illness dated from a few days after this mysterious young woman crossed +this threshold. + +"Who she is, or whence she came, no one seems to have been clever enough +to find out. + +"She has come and gone from this house, alone, and at all hours, no one +questioning her movements. + +"She has taken full charge of the patient, from midnight until early +morning, and each forenoon our patient seems to have grown alarmingly +worse. We have both discovered the presence of arsenic, which has been +administered to her. + +"And now last, but by no means least, I have been observing this +mysterious woman with keen scrutiny. I could stake my life upon it she +wears a wig, that her complexion is a 'made-up' one. By this you will +understand me to say that the lines we see traced upon her face are the +work of art, not time. The eyes covered by those blue glasses are bright +as stars. In short, she is not the middle-aged personage that she +appears, but is a young woman, or rather a fiend incarnate, in disguise. + +"I propose within the next few moments to lay the matter before Mr. +Garner, and to gain his sanction to compel her to throw off this +disguise before she leaves this room, to confront her with the evidence +of her crime, and to force her to make a full confession at the bedside +of her would-be victim." + +"I quite agree with your plan," assented the other. "But there is one +precaution which we must not forget: the key must be turned in the lock +and removed, if you would have your bird securely caged. Delays are +dangerous. Let Mr. Garner be told the terrible truth without a moment's +delay, and we will rest the case wholly with him." + +Without attracting attention, Doctor Crandall called Mr. Garner into the +recess of the bay-window, while Doctor Schimpf engaged Dorothy in +conversation to pass the time away. + +To attempt to describe Jack Garner's astonishment, which gradually +deepened into the most intense horror as the terrible story was unfolded +to him, can better be imagined than described. + +"Jessie suffering from the effects of poison?" he gasped, incredulously. +"Great Heaven! how can I believe such an uncanny tale? Miss Staples has +not an enemy in the whole world, I am sure. No one could have a motive +in attempting to put her out of the way." + +"Will you answer one question?" said the doctor, looking earnestly at +the young man. + +"Anything which you may ask," quickly returned the other. + +"Did you ever have any other sweetheart than Miss Staples? Did any other +woman ever love you in the past?" + +For a moment Jack hesitated, and his fair, handsome face flushed; then +he frankly raised his eyes and met the keen gaze fixed upon him. + +"I have no hesitancy in acknowledging that I did have a romance in my +life before my betrothal to poor Jessie. But she knew about it from +beginning to end." + +"Did you give this girl up for Miss Staples? Pardon me for asking such a +direct question, but your answer is vitally important." + +The handsome face into which the old doctor gazed grew very white, and +the lines about the firm mouth deepened into an expression of pain. + +"My little sweetheart disappeared one day with a handsomer man than I," +he said, huskily, "and from that time to this I have never looked upon +her false but fair face." + +"Did she love you in those days?" was the next query. + +"I wonder that you can ask the question," said Jack, with a touch of +haughty bitterness. "Does it look very much as though she loved me when +she ran away with another man? On the contrary, any one could see that, +in pursuing the course she did toward me, she must have detested me. I +never saw this Mrs. Brown before we engaged her as a companion to my +mother, nor has Jessie, I am sure. I am completely at sea," Jack added, +"and therefore I leave the matter entirely with you. If Jessie is dying +of slow poison, I beseech you to discover the perpetrator of the deed, +at any cost--aye, and though it takes every dollar of my fortune, the +wretch shall be punished to the full extent of the law." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + +Quietly the doctors filed into the room, and one of them turned the key +in the door. + +It was Dr. Crandall who undertook the delicate task of unmasking the +suspected would-be murderess. + +"I will tell you," he said, slowly. "The poor girl on the couch beside +which you have often knelt is dying of slow poison, administered to her +by some person beneath this roof." + +Dorothy sprang from her chair and reeled backward, looking at him with +widely dilated eyes. She never knew how it happened, but in that instant +of time a terrible thought came to her. Could Jack Garner be guilty of +administering it to her, to free himself from the bonds he so cruelly +hated? + +Oh, God! how the thought tortured her. She would not--she could not +believe it. + +"Some one under this roof has been guilty of this most atrocious act," +continued the doctor, in a stern voice. "We suspect--we know the guilty +party, and that party is in this very room!" + +Dorothy clasped her hands in dumb agony, and her terrified eyes never +left the form of him who had once been her lover. + +"You do not answer me, Mrs. Brown," said the doctor, frowning. "What +have you to say?" + +"What could I say?" she sobbed, piteously. + +"The one who is guilty of this diabolical deed must be held accountable +for it," said the doctor, facing her sternly. "A just punishment must +and shall be meted out to the wicked party. If you say that you will not +admit the truth, then I will turn the affair over to Mr. Garner, here +and now!" + +What would they do with Jack? In imagination she saw him in a prison +cell, perhaps doomed to drag out all the after years of his life there, +and the thought seemed to drive her to madness. + +"I will take it upon myself, and Jack shall go free," she said to +herself--"yes blameless and free." + +Slowly the doctor stepped around to Jack's side. + +"What have you to say in this matter, Mr. Garner?" he said. + +"Let me answer instead of him," Dorothy panted, hoarsely. "He knows +nothing about it. Oh, hear me!--listen to me, I pray you! It is I--I +whom you must hold guilty. Do with me as you will!" + +Both of the doctors nodded toward each other. A groan broke from +Garner's lips--this acknowledgement was so terrible for him to hear from +this strange woman's lips. + +"Who are you, and what was your motive for this horrible crime?" asked +the doctor, sternly. "You must make a clean breast of why you attempted +to poison Miss Staples, here and now." + +There was one person in that room who listened to Dorothy's most +extraordinary confession, white with terror, and that was--Nadine Holt. + +She knew full well that the stranger was entirely guiltless; then why +under heaven had she placed herself in such a horrible position? + +Nadine recovered her outward composure by a great effort, and listened +intently to what they were saying. + +"You must reveal your identity here and now," Doctor Crandall was +repeating, vehemently, "or I shall force you to do so. When we once +become convinced who you are, and your motive for this crime, then we +will know how to proceed against you. In the first place, I order you to +remove both the wig and glasses which we have discovered that you are +wearing. Your identity is the first step in this matter." + +Like a flash Dorothy flung herself at Jack Garner's feet. + +Ere he could put out his hand toward her, Doctor Crandall had sprung +forward, and with a quick motion gently but deftly snatched the wig from +her head and the glasses from her eyes, and Dorothy--Dorothy Glenn stood +revealed, in all her terror, before the astonished gaze of Jack Garner +and Nadine Holt. + +"You--you!" cried Jack, in horror too great for words. + +"Save me--save me!" gasped the girl. + +He wondered that he did not go mad, then and there at the sight of her. + +"Let me go!" she panted, imploring. + +The doctor shook his head. + +"You must be held answerable for your crime," he said, sternly. "You +showed no pity to the girl lying here so helpless, and why should it be +shown you? She lies here in a deep sleep, and when she awakens we shall +know whether it is life or death she has to face. We hope it is life, +but we can not be too sure. In the interim, while we decide your fate, +you should thank Heaven that your plans are frustrated. We can not +decide, until the crisis is past, as to what is best to be done." + +"Jack," she whispered again, "let me go far away and leave you with +Jessie. She will recover, and you will marry her and be happy after all, +and I--I will never cross your path again." + +He tore away the white little hands that clung to him, and turned to the +doctors. They were awed at the sight of his white, desperate face. + +"You have both assured me that Miss Staples will not die from this +poisoning," he said, hoarsely; "and I--I, the one most vitally +interested in this affair, say to you: Open that door and let her go her +way." + +Ah, God! that they should meet and part like this, after all those weary +months of heartache! + +"God only knows her object in coming here in disguise and committing +this awful crime," was his mental thought; but aloud, he only said: + +"Go, and may Heaven forgive you! Go to the father of your child." + +A terrible lump rose in his throat; he could say no more. + +The little one had crept out of Dorothy's arms, and out into the middle +of the floor; but Dorothy never, in that awful moment, thought of the +child. She was so stunned that the full import of his words did not +strike her just then. + +She only knew that he was opening the door for her, and harshly +commanding her to go. + +Like a storm-driven swallow, with one quick glance in his face, the girl +turned and fled from the room, and out of the house. + +"You were too generous toward her," cried one of the doctors. "See! she +has abandoned her little child, Mr. Garner." + +Then suddenly the doctor stopped short, and looked first at the +fair-haired, beautiful babe, then at Mr. Garner, and said no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + +When Dorothy fled so precipitately from the room, she fairly ran into +the arms of a man who was crouching at one side, listening intently. +With a muttered imprecation, he drew back, and it was then Dorothy saw +his face. + +"Hush! On your life, don't dare to make an outcry!" cried the harsh +voice of Harry Kendal. + +Before she could utter the scream that welled up from her heart, he had +seized her in his strong arms, thrown a dark shawl over her head, dashed +out into the street with her, and into a cab in waiting. + +Too weak to struggle, too weak to cry out, her head fell backward upon +her abductor's shoulder, and she knew no more. + +When she awoke to consciousness of what was transpiring about her, she +found herself still in the coach beside Kendal, and the vehicle was +whirling along through the sunshine and shadow of a country road with +alarming rapidity. + +"Dorothy--my darling Dorothy!" he cried, clasping her hands and +showering kisses upon her upturned face. "Oh, Dorothy, my little bride +that is to be, why did you fly from me so cruelly the morning after the +great ball at our home in Yonkers?" + +"Do not speak to me! Stop this coach immediately, and let me get out!" +she cried. "How dare you attempt to thrust your unwelcome face in my way +again? Go back to Iris Vincent, for whom you left me; or to Nadine Holt, +whose heart and whose life you have wrecked. I know you for what you +are, and I abhor you a thousand times more than I ever imagined I +fancied you." + +"Do you mean that you do not wish to go back to the Yonkers home and +marry me?" he demanded. + +But before she could find time to reply, he went on: + +"You were terribly foolish to grow so jealous of Iris Vincent as to run +away from me. Why, I--I was merely flirting with her because she was +pretty. + +"Why, she is married now, and at the other end of the world, for aught I +know or care. I can only add that, from the moment I learned of your +disappearance, I have been searching for you night and day. Oh, Dorothy, +now that I have found you, do not treat me like this, I beseech you! Let +us kiss and make up. We are driving direct toward the parsonage, where +we are to be married. + +"Few men would care for you so much upon making the terrible discovery +that you had fled from home and directly to the arms of an old lover, +remaining under his roof until you were cast out from it by that lover +himself. I do not know even what your quarrel with him was about. I do +not ask to know. The object which took me there, I do not mind telling +you. I had a quarrel with your lover, Jack Garner. We were to meet early +this morning to settle the affair of honor; but as he did not show up to +make the arrangements, I forced my way into his house, in order that I +might not miss him. I heard him turning you from his door. Then +amazement held me spell-bound. I shall take this into account when--when +I have my settlement with him, later on. Any indignity offered to you +shall be my affair, as your husband, to settle." + +Dorothy had drawn back from him listening with horror to the words that +fell from his lips. + +"The duel must be averted at any cost," she told herself; yet she could +not--oh, she could not!--marry him. "I must think of some way out of +this," thought Dorothy, in the wildest agony. "I must save myself, and +save him, too." + +But in a moment, while she was pondering over the affair, the vehicle +came to a sudden stop, and, looking out, she saw it was standing before +the wide entrance-gate of a parsonage. + +"Here we are!" cried Kendal, holding out his hand to her. + +"I have not said that I would marry you," she cried. "How dared you +bring me here?" + +"That fact was settled between you and me so long ago that you surprise +me by your words," he said, angrily. + +"There is such a thing as a person changing her mind," said Dorothy, as +she leaped from the carriage, and stood facing him under the trees. + +"Surely you do not mean that you have changed yours?" retorted Kendal, +knowing that his best policy was to temporize with her. + +"I have, indeed," declared the girl; "and you will therefore oblige me, +Mr. Kendal, by re-entering your carriage and driving along." + +"Do you think I would leave you here, Dorothy," he said, in his most +winning voice--"here, at this strange parsonage? I should say not! If +you object to marrying me now, I know it is only through pique; but +still I say that I shall await your own good time; and, as the song +goes, 'When love has conquered pride and anger, you will call me back +again.' Do get in, Dorothy, darling; do not make a scene here. See! they +are watching us from the window. Get in, and we will drive on to +Yonkers. It is only four miles farther up the road. I promise you you +shall have your own way. Mrs. Kemp is at the old home. You will be +welcomed with open arms." + +"Take your hand off my arm, or I shall scream!" cried the girl, +struggling to free herself. + +Quick as a flash he seized her, and, with the rapidity of lightning, +thrust her back into the coach. + +"Drive on--drive on!" Kendal yelled to the driver--"you know where!" and +despite Dorothy's wild, piercing cries, the coach fairly flew down the +white, winding road, and was soon lost to view amid the dense trees. + +It soon became evident to Dorothy that she was only losing her strength +in shouting for help. + +Kendal was leaning back in his seat, with the most mocking smile on his +lips that ever was seen. + +"It is a pity to waste so much breath on the desert air," he sneered. "I +would advise you to stop before you become exhausted, as there is no one +to hear you and to come to your aid." + +But Dorothy did not heed, and renewed her cries the more vociferously. + +He had said thoughtlessly, that her cries would startle the horses, +never dreaming that this would indeed be the case. But, much to his +alarm, he noticed that their speed was increasing with every instant of +time. It broke upon him all too soon that they were indeed running away, +and that the driver was powerless to check them. + +In great alarm, Kendal sprang to his feet and threw open the door. That +action was fatal; for at that instant the horses suddenly swerved to the +right, and he was flung head foremost from the vehicle; the wheels +passed over him, and the next instant the coach collided with a large +tree by the road-side, and Dorothy knew no more. + +Up this lonely path walked a woman, young and very fair, but with a face +white as it would ever be in death. And as her despairing eyes traveled +up and down the scene they suddenly encountered the white upturned face +of a woman lying in the long grass. + +With a great cry she reached her side. + +"Dead!" she whispered in a voice of horror, as she knelt beside the +figure lying there, and placed her hand over her heart. But no; the +heart beneath her light touch beat ever so faintly. "Thank God! this +poor creature is not dead," murmured the stranger, fervently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + +Dorothy opened her eyes wide, looking up in wonder at the pale, sweet +face bending over her. + +"Poor child!" murmured a sweet, pathetic voice. + +A kindly hand raised her, gently but firmly, from the dew-wet grass, and +pushed the damp, golden curls back from her face. + +The caressing touch thrilled the girl's being through every fiber. + +"You ask why I am here!" she sobbed. "Let me tell you: I came here to +die. Death would have come to me, I feel sure, if you had not crossed my +path. I should have crept to the brink of the bank yonder, and thrown +myself down into the river, and ended a life that is not worth the +living." + +"You must have seen a great deal of trouble to cause you to talk like +that." + +"I have seen more trouble than any other person on earth," retorted +Dorothy, bitterly. + +"Have you lost friends, or those nearer and dearer to you?" came the +gentle question, and Dorothy did not hesitate, strangely enough, to +answer it. + +"I never had a relative that I can remember," she answered, with a +little sob. "But I have lost my lover--my lover! He is to wed another, +and that other a girl who was once my dearest friend." + +"Your story is a sad one," replied the stranger, soothingly; "but it +might have been worse--much worse. What if you had lost a husband whom +you loved, or a little child whom you idolized? That would have been +trouble before which such as you are grieving over now would have paled +as the stars pale before a strong noon-day sun. + +"I do not ask you your story, my poor girl, but listen, and I will tell +you mine, and you can then judge how much mightier is my grief than +yours." + +"If you look through the trees yonder you will see a great stone mansion +on the brow of the hill. + +"It is my home. I live there with a dear young husband who adores me; my +slightest wish is his law. + +"I have liveried servants who anticipate and execute my slightest wish. +I have all that wealth can buy and love can lavish upon me, but, God +help me! I am the most unhappy creature that walks this flower-strewn +earth. + +"I have endured a sorrow so great that the wonder is it has not turned +my brain. Some few months since I was happy in the love of a little +child. Oh! I idolized my babe with a love that seemed greater than human +affection. It was the loadstar of my life. + +"'Take care! Beware!' cried one and all. 'Such idolatry is not wise; it +displeases Heaven.' + +"I laughed, and did not heed. One day we discharged a worthless servant +and he cried out to my husband, as he turned away from the door: 'You +shall repent this! I will yet wring the heart of you and yours to the +very core; and in that moment, remember me!' + +"A week passed. One night I suddenly awoke from a troubled dream about +my babe. + +"I put out my hand. It was not in its little crib of white and gold. I +sprang from my couch with wild cries that alarmed the household, for I +could not find my child. She was gone, as if the earth had opened and +swallowed her. But on the pillow of the crib the servants found a note +which bore these words: + +"'My revenge is complete. It is useless to search for your child, for by +the time this meets your eye your little one will have found a watery +grave.' + +"I was wild with grief for days and weeks. And when I became somewhat +rational, and could understand what was passing about me, I learned the +terrible truth--the sad, pitiful story: my babe had indeed found a +watery grave. They found a little shoe, its cape, and portions of its +dress floating on the waves the next morning. But the body was never +recovered; it had drifted out to sea. Now you will not wonder why I +wander up and down this lonely path at midnight--why I listen on my +bended knees for hours to the whispering voice of the waves. It seems to +me like the voice of my little child; and some day I shall follow her +into the dark, cold waves, and be at rest with my darling whose tiny +hands beckon me down to death in the cold, watery depths whose waves are +glinted by the golden light of the flickering stars." + +Dorothy scarcely breathed, so intense was her effort to restrain herself +until the other had finished. + +In fewer words than we can explain it she had flung her arms about the +stranger's neck and breathed out to her the startling story of that +never-to-be-forgotten night when she had rescued from the waves the +child this poor young mother was describing. + +"Oh, take me to my child!" she cried. "Now--now! Let not an instant's +time elapse. Every moment is precious. I can not wait--I can not!" + +Then Dorothy had her own story to tell: that she dared not return to +Jack Garner's home, where she had left little Pearl; and she told her +the whole story from beginning to end. Then came another revelation: + +"Jack Garner is my husband's partner!" the strange lady cried. "Come +back with me, and leave it to me to fully establish your innocence of +the atrocious crime of which they believe you guilty. + +"We have never visited at each other's homes, strangely enough, because +of some slight disagreement in the firm at the very time Mr. Garner was +taken in. + +"Come and talk it over with my husband. We will do whatever he decides." + +Oh, the great rejoicing in the old stone mansion! The horses were +hitched up without an instant's delay, and driven like mad into the +city, arriving at the Garner mansion just as the clock was striking +twelve. + +The old servant who answered the loud peal of the bell was shocked at +the sight of the beautiful lady who rushed past him in the corridor, +crying out: "Oh, for the love of Heaven, bring quickly to me the baby +whom you call Pearl!" + +Dorothy and the lady's husband followed. + +The great disturbance awoke Jack Garner. He heard the scurrying of feet +past his door. They stopped at the next room, where the little abandoned +babe was sleeping. + +The next instant a great, wild, happy cry rent the air, which the +angels must have heard and wept rejoicingly over; and he heard the +joyful cry: + +"Yes; it is my child--my own little, lost child!" + +Robing himself hurriedly, Jack quickly opened the door; but his partner +was standing there, and thrust him back. + +Jack knew of the loss of the little one, and his partner explained to +him how mysteriously it had been found, and by Jack's old sweetheart, +Dorothy Glenn. + +"Then the child she had here was not her own?" cried Jack, white as +death. + +And as the whole story began to dawn upon him, Jack buried his fair, +handsome, haggard face in his hands, and wept for joy. + +But when his partner touched upon the subject of Dorothy's being accused +of poisoning Miss Staples, he sprang up hastily and grasped the other's +hand. + +"The accusation was not true," cried Jack. "Dorothy was not guilty. A +girl whom Jessie had known for years, and who was at her bedside, did +the deed. She wrote a full confession. I found it under my plate at the +dinner-table. Nadine Holt has fled to escape just punishment. Oh, how I +wish I could find poor, abused Dorothy, to tell her the truth!" + +And when he found Dorothy was beneath that roof, and at Jessie Staples' +bedside, his joy knew no bounds. + +He sought her there at once to crave her pardon for the unjust +suspicion, and no one ever knew just exactly what passed between the +sick girl lying there, Dorothy, and her old lover. + +In his great generous-heartedness, Jack sent hurriedly out to learn the +fate of the hapless Kendal. He was not dead, they soon discovered, but +in a very critical condition. And Jack's generosity went so far as to +bring his rival beneath that roof, and nurse him back to health and +strength. + +From the first, even while lying on her sick-bed, Jessie took the +greatest interest in the young doctor who, she remembered, had always +been so kind to her; and as soon as she was able, she begged that her +chair might be drawn up to his bedside, that she might show him her +kindly sympathy. And in the days and weeks that they were thus thrown +together, Jessie learned to care for the handsome, dark-eyed Harry +Kendal quite as much as she had ever cared for Jack. + +One day, when the sun was shining, and the birds were twittering to each +other of early spring, Harry Kendal asked the pale, sweet girl who knelt +beside his couch to be his bride. + +And she answered him, through her bitter tears, that though she had been +mad enough to learn to love him, it could never be, for she was +betrothed to Jack. + +Jack had entered the room unperceived by both, and had heard all, and +with the magnanimity so characteristic of him, he stepped nobly forward +and placed Jessie's hand in that of the man she loved. + +"I absolve you from your promise, my dear girl," he said. "You must wed +him whom you love best. Never mind me." + +"But you?" sobbed Jessie. "I--I will accept my freedom only on one +condition, Jack; and that is, that you ask Dorothy to fill my +place--aye, to take her own old place again in your heart and life!" + +"Not now," he said; "but perhaps I may speak to her some time in the +future." + +And he must have spoken to her, for three weeks later there was a double +wedding at the Garner mansion; and there never were two more beautiful +brides than Jessie and Dorothy, nor two happier young husbands than +Harry Kendal and Jack Garner; and Jack never ceased blessing the fates +that gave to him for his bride, after all his trials, pretty Madcap +Dorothy. But, then, the course of true love never did ran smooth. + + +THE END. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original text have been corrected for this electronic edition. + +In Chapter XXXII, "couriers thought it a great honor" was changed to +"courtiers thought it a great honor". + +In Chapter XXXV, "unprovoked assult" was changed to "unprovoked +assault". + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Pretty Madcap Dorothy, by Laura Jean Libbey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRETTY MADCAP DOROTHY *** + +***** This file should be named 29776-8.txt or 29776-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/7/29776/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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: Pretty Madcap Dorothy + How She Won a Lover + +Author: Laura Jean Libbey + +Release Date: August 24, 2009 [EBook #29776] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRETTY MADCAP DOROTHY *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 411px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="411" height="600" alt="cover" title="" /> +</div> + +<h1>PRETTY MADCAP DOROTHY<br /> +<span style="font-size: 50%;">OR</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 80%;">How She Won a Lover</span></h1> + + +<p class="center" style="margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;">A Romance of the Jolliest Girl in the Book-Bindery, and +a magnificent Love Story of the life of a Beautiful, +Willful New York Working Girl.</p> + +<h2>BY MISS LAURA JEAN LIBBEY</h2> + + +<p class="center">HART SERIES No. 19.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1891, by Geo. Monro's Sons</span></p> + +<p class="center">Published by<br /> +THE ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANY,<br /> +CLEVELAND, O., U. S. A.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum"> </td> +<td class="chappage"><span style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter I</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_I">5</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter II</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_II">12</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter III</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_III">20</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter IV</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_IV">32</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter V</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_V">38</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter VI</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_VI">45</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter VII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_VII">53</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter VIII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_VIII">60</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter IX</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_IX">66</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter X</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_X">73</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XI</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XI">79</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XII">86</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XIII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XIII">92</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XIV</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XIV">98</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XV</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XV">105</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XVI</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XVI">111</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XVII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XVII">118</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XVIII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XVIII">124</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XIX</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XIX">131</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XX</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XX">138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXI</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXI">144</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXII">151</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXIII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXIII">157</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXIV</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXIV">163</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXV</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXV">168</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXVI</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXVI">174</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXVII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXVII">180</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXVIII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXVIII">186</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXIX</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXIX">192</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXX</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXX">198</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXXI</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXXI">204</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXXII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXXII">209</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXXIII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXXIII">214</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXXIV</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXXIV">220</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXXV</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXXV">226</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXXVI</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXXVI">232</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXXVII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXXVII">238</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXXVIII</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXXVIII">242</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">Chapter XXXIX</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#Chapter_XXXIX">247</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<h1>Pretty Madcap Dorothy<br /> +<span style="font-size: 50%;">OR</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 80%;">How She Won a Lover</span></h1> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_I" id="Chapter_I"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter I.</span></h2> + + +<p>"It's so hard for working-girls to get acquainted. They never meet a +rich young man, and they don't want a poor one. It seems to me that a +girl who has to commence early to work for her living might just as well +give up forever all hopes of a lover and of marrying," declared Nadine +Holt, one of the prettiest girls in the immense book-bindery, to the +group of companions who were gathered about her. "It's get up at +daylight, swallow your breakfast, and hurry to work; and it's dark +before you are out on the street again. How can we ever expect to meet a +marriageable fellow?"</p> + +<p>"Do you know what <i>I</i> think, girls?" cried a shrill but very sweet young +voice, from the direction of the window-ledge, adding breathlessly: "I +believe if fate has any lover in store for a girl, that he will be sure +to just happen to come where she is, on one mission or another. That's +the way that it all happens in novels, I took particular pains to +notice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> These people who write must know just how it is, I reckon."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, who would ever have imagined that a chit of a thing like +<i>you</i>, Dorothy Glenn, would have the impudence to put in your oar, or +that you ever thought of lovers, or marrying, and you only sixteen a day +or so ago?" cried one. "It's absurd!"</p> + +<p>"I wasn't saying anything about <i>my</i> ever marrying, I was just telling +you what I thought about ever meeting the fellow who is intended for +you—'<i>the</i> right <i>one</i>'—as you call it."</p> + +<p>"What if you were in a desert?" suggested Nadine, with a curl of her red +lip. "Surely you couldn't expect a young man would ever find a business +that would bring him out there to you, could you?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" cried pretty little Dorothy. "Of course fate would send my +Prince Charming even into a desert to find me," cooed Dorothy. "And as +to the business that would bring him—why, he could come there to +capture the ostriches which are to be found only in the heart of the +desert—so there! You know the old adage: 'People meet where hills and +mountains don't.' I tell you there's some truth in that."</p> + +<p>"It's a good thing to have so much assurance and hope," said Nadine, +with a curl of her lip. "I trust that you may find plenty of lovers in +the future, though I doubt it."</p> + +<p>"I have plenty now," declared Dorothy, waltzing nimbly about the floor, +as only a bright, happy, thoughtless young girl can who is free from +care. "I couldn't count all who make eyes at me now, so what will it be +when I get as old as the rest of you girls?"—this a trifle maliciously, +for every one of them was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> at least twenty, and that seemed rather +<i>passée</i> to this bit of femininity of sweet sixteen.</p> + +<p>Some one noticed that the huge clock on the mantel wanted just three +minutes to one, so the fragments of luncheon were crammed back into +their baskets, and the girls, chatting and laughing, went back to their +work, for they had a very particular foreman. But one of their number, +Jessie Staples, hung back to have a word with Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"I hope that you will not grow into a flirt," she said, slipping her arm +about Dorothy's waist and looking into the young girl's flushed face +with serious eyes, adding: "This brings me to the question that I +intended asking you this noon. Where did you meet that young car +conductor who walked up as far as your home with you last night? Do tell +me, little Dorothy."</p> + +<p>"Were you spying upon me, you mean thing?" cried Dorothy Glenn, blushing +as fiery red as the crimson heart of a peony, and stamping angrily the +tiniest of little feet; and she flung her companion's arm from her as +though it had stung her.</p> + +<p>"Can't you tell me?" pleaded Jessie, earnestly. "Remember, you have no +one to warn you. You are an orphan in this great, cold world, and—and +you are so young that you don't know life, and can not realize that +every young man who smiles into your eyes and says flattering things is +<i>not</i> in love. When you have no relative to confide in, you ought to +have a girl friend older and wiser than yourself. Let me be that friend +to you, Dorothy."</p> + +<p>As she listened, the momentary anger died out of the girl's face. She +couldn't keep angry with any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>body very long, and quite before Jessie had +finished her sentence a pair of plump white arms were thrown round her +neck and Dorothy's soft, peachy pink cheek was nestling against her own, +while the sweet young voice whispered:</p> + +<p>"Won't you breathe it, Jess, if I tell you the greatest secret in the +whole wide world? Promise on your word and honor that you won't and I'll +tell you, and it will fairly make you hold your breath. It's just like +those grand love stories all of us girls like to crowd around together +at lunch hour and read in the Fireside Companion, when we pick up the +special copies they throw around; only this is in real life, you know."</p> + +<p>"I promise," returned Jessie Staples, gravely; "only I hope this isn't a +ruse to turn off the question about the young car conductor whom I saw +you with."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! the secret is about him," laughed Dorothy, gleefully, "and it +will make you open your eyes wider than they are now when you hear it; +and it's so dreadfully romantic, too. You know how Nadine Holt has been +boasting of late about the handsome new conductor on the Broadway car, +on whom she has 'made a mash,' as she phrases it. Well, the young man +you saw me talking to—is he."</p> + +<p>"What?" gasped Jessie. "Do you mean it was Nadine's beau to whom you +were talking?"</p> + +<p>"He's <i>not</i> her beau!" declared Dorothy, flushing up redly and angrily. +"He doesn't care a snap of his finger for Nadine. He told me so."</p> + +<p>"He—told—you—so?" repeated Jessie Staples, too amazed at the instant +to frame any other remark, while the thought flashed through her brain +how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> deeply Nadine Holt loved this handsome young man, and that she was +confident of a proposal of marriage from him sooner or later. She had +often told Jessie as much as that of late.</p> + +<p>"It was only last week that I first met him," Dorothy went on, "and it +happened in this way: I came down, just by chance, on his car, and—and +I noticed that he looked at me rather admiringly, as he changed my +fifty-cent piece, while standing beside me; and—and I noticed, too, +that he leaned against me a little more than the occasion demanded, or +at least I fancied so; but perhaps it was the jolting of the car. I took +little shy peeps at him. I wanted to see what he looked like, Nadine had +been sounding his praises so. I found he was dreadfully nice, quite the +handsomest young fellow I had ever seen—elegantly formed, straight as +an arrow, with such a beautiful dark mustache, dark hair, and laughing +black eyes, and the whitest of white hands. When he helped me off the +car he held my hand so tightly and so long that I felt terribly +embarrassed and did not know what to do or say. But, oh! he was <i>so</i> +polite! I dropped my eyes and never looked at him as I stepped off. How +I ever got into the other car I never knew. A moment later the other +conductor came around for my fare, and then—oh, horrors! I could not +find my pocket-book. I searched frantically in every pocket. 'I—I must +have <i>lost</i> my purse,' I faltered, beginning to cry, for I saw he did +not believe me, and thought that I meant to beat my way, as they call +it, when just at that instant puffing and panting, up came the other +conductor—the handsome fellow whom I had just left.</p> + +<p>"'You dropped your purse on the seat of my car,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> he said, raising his +hat from his dark curls. 'Permit me to return it to you.'</p> + +<p>"I was so overjoyed to get it that I forgot to thank him. I remembered +later that I had not done so. And what do you think? that very evening +he called with a book I had also left on the seat, and which I had +entirely forgotten. My name and address were written on the fly-leaf. +Just at that moment one of the young men from the book-bindery happened +along who knew him, and he introduced us. I did not invite him in, but +we stood and talked for an hour or more on the steps, and he asked at +length for the pleasure of my company to go with him to the theater the +following evening, if my folks were willing.</p> + +<p>"I told him I had no relatives to consult, and that I'd like ever so +much to go, but—but I had heard that he was Nadine Holt's regular +company. Oh, Jess, how angry he got when I said that! He flushed to the +very roots of his dark hair. You ought to have seen him.</p> + +<p>"'Pardon me, but I am <i>not</i>!' he replied, 'though I hear that she is +circulating such a story; but there is no better authority on the +subject than myself. I have spoken to her a few times; but it is +ridiculous for a girl to presume, if a man is pleasant to her, that he +wants to marry her. I cannot even say that I admire Miss Nadine Holt. As +a rule a man like myself does not admire a girl whose acquaintance he +can form through a handkerchief flirtation.</p> + +<p>"I thought of telling Nadine that, but you know what a fury she is. Why, +she would almost kill me, I believe, if she once got an inkling that I +knew about it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>"Well, to make a long story short, it so chanced that he happened along +our street every night after that, and always found me, quite by chance, +sitting out on the steps, and so he stopped for a chat. And now comes +the most wonderful part of the affair. He is no <i>real</i> street-car +conductor at all. I don't mean just that, but—oh, Jess! this is what I +mean: he—he bet with a number of young gentlemen the last election and +lost the wager. If he lost he was to come to New York and be a +street-car conductor for three months, and that is what he did. He is a +young lawyer in a small town near here, and has great expectations, he +says.</p> + +<p>"His time will be up to-morrow, Jessie, and then he is going back to his +home, and—and I shall never see him again. He is like a prince in +disguise—such as we read about. I always thought him too grand and +polite to be only a street-car conductor."</p> + +<p>Jessie Staples felt greatly relieved in her heart that he was going away +so soon, but she was too wise to say so to Dorothy, knowing that if one +attempts to break up an infatuation on the part of a girl of that age, +ten to one it makes matters only worse.</p> + +<p>"Life will never be the same to me after Harry Langdon goes, for, +Jessie, I—I have learned to care for him. I couldn't help myself though +I tried hard not to, and to be gay and jolly before all the girls. But, +oh, Jessie, pity me! My heart is breaking! I wish I could die!"</p> + +<p>They did not notice, as they moved on, that the door near where they had +stood talking was partly ajar, nor did they see the girl who had paused +in the entry outside almost at the very beginning of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +conversation. It was Nadine Holt, and she had heard every word, from +beginning to end, that Dorothy had uttered; and even after they had +passed on she stood there, cold and motionless as a statue cut in +marble.</p> + +<p>"Great God in heaven! this explains Harry Langdon's sudden coolness," +she muttered, with a great, choking sob; "but if Dorothy Glenn attempts +to take my lover from me—let her beware! this earth will not be broad +enough to hold the two of us. It will be war to the very death between +us, and we shall see which one of us shall win him!"</p> + +<p>By a violent effort Nadine controlled her wild grief and passed into the +work-room. It was only her indomitable pride that kept her from taking +her hat and sacque and going straight home and to her bed, there to weep +her very heart out—aye, weep her very life out, if she could. If her +lover was fickle, Nadine told herself that she did not care to live and +face the dull, cold world, for what is life and the world to a young +girl if the lover on whom she has set her heart and her hopes proves +false to her?</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_II" id="Chapter_II"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span></h2> + + +<p>From the moment that Nadine Holt heard the story of the perfidy of her +lover she was a changed being.</p> + +<p>She went wearily enough to the lodging-house she called home, and paced +the floor up and down the live-long night.</p> + +<p>"He was pleased enough with me before Dorothy Glenn's pink-and-white +baby face came between us,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> she moaned, clinching her hands tightly +together and bursting ever and anon into a flood of tears.</p> + +<p>She looked around at the little, stuffy room, and thought of all her +girlish day-dreams—of the sweet hopes she had had of soon leaving those +dingy four walls, and of having a little bower of a cottage to call +"home," with a handsome young husband all her own to love her.</p> + +<p>She had pictured every scene to herself—just how each cozy room should +be furnished, and what vines and flowers should grow in the garden, and +the pretty dresses she would wear, and how she would stand at the window +and watch for handsome Harry to come home each night, and what a dear, +cozy life they would lead, loving each other so dearly.</p> + +<p>And now what of those vanished day-dreams? Ah! God in heaven pity her! +they lay in ruins around her, and heart-wrecked, heart-broken, she was +facing the cold, bleak world again.</p> + +<p>It had been by the greatest effort that she had looked in Dorothy's face +during the day that followed without betraying her bitter hatred of her; +but as the hours crept on, and she saw Dorothy's glance wander uneasily +now and then toward the clock, her intense rage grew almost +uncontrollable.</p> + +<p>"She is longing for the hours to pass, so that she may join <i>him</i>," +thought Nadine, and her black eyes fairly scintillated at the thought.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Dorothy raised her curly head from her work.</p> + +<p>"Girls!" she exclaimed, shrilly and eagerly, "have you all forgotten +that Monday is Labor Day? What are you going to do with yourselves?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>A score or more of voices answered at random that they thought it had +been decided long since that they were all going up the Hudson on an +excursion.</p> + +<p>"I can't go on the excursion with you, girls," returned Dorothy, "for +I've got another engagement."</p> + +<p>"Bring your company with you," chorused a dozen or more of the girls.</p> + +<p>Dorothy glanced up hastily and met Nadine's burning eyes fixed intently +upon her.</p> + +<p>She started, turned deathly pale, and then turned defiantly away, +wondering if Nadine could by any means suspect that the engagement she +had was to accompany handsome Harry Langdon to the matinée.</p> + +<p>She wondered vaguely if Jessie, to whom she had confided this, had +betrayed her.</p> + +<p>The look in Nadine Holt's eyes as they met her own startled her.</p> + +<p>The bell which released the girls from the work-room that night had +scarcely rung ere Dorothy had on her sacque and sailor hat and was +fairly flying down the steps and out into the street.</p> + +<p>"I hope to goodness that I shall escape Jack to-night!" she muttered. +"He can not get out as soon as I do, and I will be almost home while he +is waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs;" and a little, light, +airy laugh bubbled from her red lips.</p> + +<p>Jack, as she called him, was one of the gilders in the book-bindery—a +tall, handsome, manly young fellow of four-and-twenty, whose only +failing was that he loved little Dorothy Glenn to distraction.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I shall escape Jack, sure, to-night!" laughed Dorothy again.</p> + +<p>But the laugh died from her lips, for at that in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>stant there was the +sound of hurried footsteps behind her—footsteps she knew but too +well—and the next instant Jack Garner stood beside her.</p> + +<p>"Dorothy!" he panted, "Why didn't you wait for me, little girl?"</p> + +<p>Dorothy started guiltily.</p> + +<p>"Why, gracious! is it you, Jack?" she cried. "I certainly thought you +had gone home long ago, and so I hurried away."</p> + +<p>His handsome face brightened; the dark shadow was quickly dispelled from +his earnest, brown eyes.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Dorothy," he said, "I was half afraid that you had run +away from me intentionally; and yet I could hardly bring myself to +believe it, the thought gave me such a sharp pang of pain at the heart." +The girl laughed a little nervously.</p> + +<p>"I wanted to talk to you about Labor Day," he said earnestly; "but I +fear what I have to say will grieve you, dear." ("Oh, gracious goodness, +that's just what I expected!" was the thought that flashed through her +guilty little brain.) "Dorothy," he said, huskily, "I'm afraid that I +will not be able to get off Labor Day, although it is a legal holiday +and I had set my heart upon taking you somewhere. We have found that +there is some work which must be got out, or it will mean a heavy loss +to our employers. I was the only one whom they felt they could call upon +to help them in their dilemma, and I could not refuse them, even though +a vision of your pretty, disappointed face rose up before my mind's eye. +I knew you would be expecting me to take you somewhere on Labor Day. Oh! +Dorothy, how can I make amends for it?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>To his great surprise, she laughed gayly.</p> + +<p>"Don't trouble yourself about me, Jack," she exclaimed. "I won't mind it +one bit;" and her pink-and-white face fairly dimpled over with smiles.</p> + +<p>He opened his brown eyes wide and looked at her in surprise, remembering +quite well that for many a week past Dorothy had been looking forward to +this holiday and calculating how she should spend it.</p> + +<p>"But you will be so disappointed, little one," he reiterated, earnestly, +and not a little puzzled by the way she took it.</p> + +<p>Again she laughed—a little, light, airy laugh that somehow grated on +his nerves.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking," he continued, "that perhaps you would like to go +somewhere with my cousin Barbara—go up the river, or to a matinée, or +some place like that. I would pay all the bills, of course, and—"</p> + +<p>"Go with your cousin Barbara?" she cut in. "No, I guess not. It's just +like you not to want me to have a good time. If <i>you</i> can't be there, +Jack Garner, pray excuse me from going with <i>her</i>!"</p> + +<p>He looked down at her with grieved eyes.</p> + +<p>"Barbara is not as young and gay as you are, I know, dear," he said, +huskily; "but, oh! if you only knew what a good, gentle soul she is, and +how kind her heart is! She would go out of her way—do anything she +could to give you a few hours' pleasure, because—because she knows how +dear you are to me."</p> + +<p>Dorothy shrugged her shoulders and curled her pretty red lips +scornfully. Barbara Hallenbeck, his quiet, sedate cousin, was +four-and-twenty. No wonder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> that gay little Dorothy did not consider her +quite companionable for a day's outing.</p> + +<p>"She would be very glad to take you to the matinée, Dorothy," he +persisted. "<i>Do</i> consent to go with her, and then I will feel quite +happy, for I shall feel sure that you are having a pleasant day, even if +I am not with you. Otherwise, I should be so troubled, thinking of you +sitting all alone in the house."</p> + +<p>She looked up innocently into his face.</p> + +<p>"I need not stay in the house if I do not like," she retorted. "There's +a number of girls from the bindery going on an excursion up the river, +and they have invited me."</p> + +<p>Poor, innocent Jack! it did not occur to him then that, although she had +remarked she was invited, she had not said she was going. He jumped at +conclusions readily enough.</p> + +<p>"I am so glad, Dorothy!" he exclaimed, joyfully. "I know if you are with +a crowd of the girls the day will pass pleasantly for you. But you will +not forget in the midst of all your happiness to give a thought to me, +will you?" he whispered, with a world of tenderness in his voice.</p> + +<p>"Of course not," she said, promptly.</p> + +<p>"Especially when your eye rests upon our betrothal-ring," he added, +wistfully.</p> + +<p>Dorothy blushed alarmingly red, then paled as quickly, at the mention of +the ring.</p> + +<p>The truth may as well be told here and now: Dorothy, like many another +silly, thoughtless young girl, had drifted into an engagement with Jack +just to get the ring which he wore on his finger, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> she had admired +with all her heart and longed to possess.</p> + +<p>But with Dorothy, possession had dimmed her appreciation for the little +turquois and pearl affair which adorned her finger, and at which +handsome Harry Langdon had glanced so contemptuously only the evening +before, and then down at the elegant monogrammed diamond ring which +glistened on his own white, shapely hand.</p> + +<p>Only that very day Dorothy had wished with all her heart that she could +get up some excuse to break what Jack considered an engagement, and give +him back his little cheap pearl and turquois ring; but the occasion did +not seem to be quite ripe, and Jack, poor fellow! had been kinder to her +than ever that day.</p> + +<p>At the corner she hesitated. It would never do to walk much farther with +Jack and stand a chance of meeting handsome Harry Langdon, she told +herself.</p> + +<p>"I have a little shopping to do, and I shall have to leave you here," +she said, hastily; and she made her parting very brief with Jack.</p> + +<p>He noticed it, and a sudden fear stirred his heart. He looked after the +slender figure flitting away through the slanting sunshine, with his +soul in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"She is so dear to me," he murmured. "I—I often think I would go mad if +I were to lose her."</p> + +<p>He walked slowly down the street, but, contrary to his usual custom, he +did not turn his footsteps homeward, but proceeded aimlessly along the +crowded thoroughfare.</p> + +<p>How far he went Jack Garner never knew. Suddenly in turning a corner the +first object his eyes fell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> upon was Dorothy, and by her side a tall, +handsome dark-eyed young man whose arm was linked with hers, and they +were walking along, deeply engaged in conversation, oblivious to the +whole world.</p> + +<p>He stood quite still; the heart in his bosom seemed to almost tear +itself asunder with one mighty throb. Was it Dorothy, or did his eyes +deceive him? He quickened his pace until he stood beside them. The +impulse was strong within him to seize the girl's hand and tear her from +her companion. The blood surged like fire through his veins.</p> + +<p>But before he could put his mad thought into execution the crowd on the +thronged thoroughfare swept between them.</p> + +<p>In that instant Dorothy's companion called a cab and placed the girl in +it. The door closed with a bang, and the next instant the vehicle was +whirling down the avenue, and turning around the first corner was +instantly lost to sight.</p> + +<p>Quick as the lightning's flash Jack leaped upon a passing car. He felt +intuitively that the stranger was taking Dorothy to her home. This car +would pass the door. He would confront them there, even though they had +gone by another street.</p> + +<p>By a strange fatality he had in his breast pocket a small revolver which +a friend had asked him to call for that day at a store where it was +being repaired, and bring to him, as Jack would be passing that way. It +was an unlucky moment for Jack, Heaven knows, when he consented to call +for the fatal revolver for his friend.</p> + +<p>As his hand touched it in his breast pocket a terrible thought flashed +across his excited brain.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>Ten minutes later he reached the cottage where Dorothy boarded. One of +the bindery girls was sitting on the porch as he came up.</p> + +<p>"Why, hello, Jack!" she cried. "What are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"Where's Dorothy?" he interrupted, quickly. "Is she in the house yet? I +want the truth. You must tell me!"</p> + +<p>The girl looked in Jack's face, and dared not tell him all.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_III" id="Chapter_III"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span></h2> + + +<p>Jessie Staples—for it was she—looked at Jack Garner with troubled +eyes. She knew how much he cared for Dorothy, and she realized that it +would never do to tell him that his fickle sweetheart had gone riding +with another man. He was hot-tempered, and in jealousy there is little +reason. Like the wise girl that she was, Jessie made excuses for her +friend.</p> + +<p>"No, Dorothy is not here, Jack," she said, presently; "but I feel sure +she would have been had she known you were coming. She has gone to spend +the evening with one of the girls, who sent her lover specially to bring +Dorothy over, with the request that he was not to come back without her; +and no doubt Dorothy will pass Sunday with her."</p> + +<p>"Which one of the girls is it?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"I don't really know that," said Jessie, a little faintly.</p> + +<p>Jack Garner drew a great, long breath of relief,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> and the old happy +smile lighted up his face in an instant.</p> + +<p>What a foolish fellow he had been to mistrust Dorothy! he told himself. +But, after all, he was glad he had come and seen Jessie and thus had the +horrible doubt removed from his mind.</p> + +<p>"Well, it does not matter so much, Jess, that I did not see her. I did +not want anything in particular. I am glad she will have a pleasant time +this evening and to-morrow. And about your holiday. I suppose you will +be going on the excursion with the rest of the girls on Monday?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!" replied Jessie lightly but constrainedly.</p> + +<p>He drew nearer and looked wistfully into her face.</p> + +<p>"I can not go, unfortunately," he said, "but I hope, Jess, that you will +see that Dorothy has as good a time as the rest of the girls." He +stopped a moment, and looked down confusedly, as if at a loss to know +how to proceed with the rest of his sentence, but concluded at length to +break right into it boldly. "If I were there I would treat all you girls +to as much ice-cream as you could eat," he went on with a laugh. "But, +seeing that I am <i>not</i> to be one of the party, I want you to do the +honors for me, Jess, and here's the money to pay for it, with my +compliments to the crowd."</p> + +<p>And as he spoke he drew a crisp bill from his vest pocket and thrust it +into Jessie's hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jack," cried the girl, "you are too good and too kind!" and she +felt rather guilty as she took it, for she knew that he was giving it +solely that they would make it pleasant for pretty little Dorothy, and +she knew that Dorothy was not to be there.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>Only that day she had confessed to her that she had made an engagement +to go to the matinée with the handsome car conductor.</p> + +<p>But there would be a tragedy if Jack got an inkling of this, she well +knew. She had deceived him, poor fellow; but was it not for the best, +under the circumstances?</p> + +<p>Jack went to his home with a light heart, and much relieved in feelings. +It was well for him that he did not know just how Dorothy was passing +those very moments.</p> + +<p>When Harry Langdon had met Dorothy on the street that afternoon he had +quite hoped to slip by her unnoticed. Not that he was displeased to see +her; but the girl was dressed so cheaply, and, to make matters worse, +she carried her little dinner-basket on her arm, and he knew that if any +of his friends were to see him they would smile in derision, for they +could not help knowing by the dinner-basket that his companion was a +working-girl.</p> + +<p>His pride was the one fault of his life. He felt that he was quite +handsome enough to woo and win an heiress, if one chanced in his way. In +fact, that was what he was looking for.</p> + +<p>It would never do to be seen walking along the streets with this pretty +little working-girl, and it was for this very reason that Langdon had +called a cab to take her home.</p> + +<p>"The ride is too short," he said, as they reached the cottage where +Dorothy lived, and where Jessie Staples was awaiting her on the porch. +"Let us go around a few blocks; I want to talk to you about the +arrangements for the outing."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>Nothing loath, Dorothy consented, and away they whirled down the street; +and it was very fortunate too, for in less than three minutes later Jack +had appeared at the cottage.</p> + +<p>"I have been wondering if you really cared to go to the matinée on Labor +Day," said Langdon, in his low, sweet, smooth voice, which had never yet +failed to capture the hearts of susceptible young girls. "I was +wondering if you would not prefer a sail up the river. I understand that +there is to be quite an excursion to West Point."</p> + +<p>The truth is Langdon had just discovered that several of his +acquaintances were to be at the matinée on that day, and he regretted +that he had invited Dorothy to go, realizing how terribly ashamed he +would be of the shabby clothes of the girl whose only recommendation was +her pretty young face, and he had determined that he should not take +Dorothy to that matinée, at any cost.</p> + +<p>"Why, I would just as soon go to the excursion as to the matinée," +declared Dorothy; "but there's one objection—all the rest of the girls +in the book-bindery are going up on the boat to West Point, and among +them Nadine Holt."</p> + +<p>Langdon smothered back a fierce imprecation behind his silky curled +mustache.</p> + +<p>"Then we will abandon the West Point trip." he said, laughingly. "But we +can go to Staten Island, besides, I think it will be quite as enjoyable, +for, now that I think of it, there will be an immense crowd there. The +picnic grounds are to be thrown open to the public, and they are to have +a grand garden <i>fete</i>, with dancing and so forth."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>"Oh, I should enjoy that more than I could tell you!" cried Dorothy, +clapping her hands, her blue eyes expanding wide with expectancy. "I +adore dancing, and I was never at a garden-party in all my life, and I +have read so much about them."</p> + +<p>"We can remain all the afternoon and evening, have refreshments, and +then come home on the steamer. It will be a beautiful moonlight night, +and when the band plays on the deck you will enjoy it hugely, Dorothy."</p> + +<p>The girl's eyes sparkled and her cheeks glowed.</p> + +<p>Soon afterward the cab stopped before Dorothy's cottage again, and, with +a shy, sweet smile, she bade her admirer "good-night," and flitted up +the steps and into the hall, and directly into the arms of Jessie +Staples, who was awaiting her there.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dorothy!" she began, reproachfully, "how <i>could</i> you do it?"</p> + +<p>"Do what?" cried Dorothy, with a very innocent air.</p> + +<p>"Come riding home from work with that stranger!" cried Jessie, +reproachfully.</p> + +<p>The gayest laugh that ever was heard broke from Dorothy's ripe red lips, +and her blue eyes fairly danced.</p> + +<p>"I did not think that <i>you</i>, of all other girls, would be jealous, +Jessie Staples!" she declared.</p> + +<p>"I am not jealous," responded the girl, quietly—"only I pity you for +your want of sense in being fascinated by a handsome stranger, when you +have such a lover as honest, warm-hearted Jack Garner, who fairly +worships the ground you walk on. Every one knows that—and—and pities +him."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>Dorothy's red lips curled scornfully, and she turned away on her heel.</p> + +<p>"He is only a gilder in the bindery," she declared, "while the one I +came home with is a grand high-toned, wealthy young fellow, and so +aristocratic. He thought nothing of bringing me home in a cab, while +Jack Garner would have fainted at the idea. He is so frightened if he +spends a dollar of his hard-earned wages. It's no fun going around with +a <i>poor</i> fellow. I hate them! So there!"</p> + +<p>With that Jessie took the bill from her pocket, and told all that poor +Jack had said about treating to the ice-cream.</p> + +<p>Dorothy looked astounded, but turned the matter off by saying:</p> + +<p>"It is a good thing to have him stand treat once in his life-time, I +declare!"</p> + +<p>But, nevertheless, she felt ashamed deep down in her own heart for the +way she had spoken of poor Jack. Still she would not listen to Jessie's +admonition, declaring, too, that she meant to go on an excursion on +Labor Day with Harry Langdon, even though it made an enemy of Jack for +life. She was tired of Jack, anyhow.</p> + +<p>"You will rue it if you go with that stranger. Trouble will come of it +as sure as you live." Those were Jessie's last words to Dorothy as they +parted an hour later, and they rang in Dorothy's brain for many and many +a long day afterward; and these two girls, who had been such steadfast +friends parted from each other in coldness and in anger for the first +time in their lives.</p> + +<p>The sun rose bright and golden on the eventful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> morning, and Dorothy was +in high glee as she looked out from her curtained window, and the +visions of a joyous day flitted before her.</p> + +<p>At two o'clock Langdon put in a prompt appearance, and Dorothy was quite +ready, and he could not help but own to himself that she looked as fair +and pretty and quite as stylish as any young girl you would meet in a +day's travel in her neat navy-blue merino dress, with its white duck +vest and broad, white cuffs and sailor collar, and the white sailor hat, +with the white silk band about it to match. And nothing could have been +more dainty than her neat kid boots and gloves.</p> + +<p>Langdon raised his hat to this fair young vision of loveliness with all +the gallantry he was capable of, and away they went in high spirits and +high glee, and with never a thought in Dorothy's heart of poor Jack +toiling at that moment in the book-bindery.</p> + +<p>It was a delightful sail down the bay, and when they arrived at their +destination they found the island thronged with a merry group of +pleasure seekers.</p> + +<p>The hours flew by on golden wings. Dusk gathered. Night soon drew her +sable curtains, and pinned them with a star.</p> + +<p>They dined sumptuously at the Hotel Castleton, and then went back to the +picnic grounds, which were ablaze with light and color, resounding to +the merry strains of music, the babble of gay voices and joyous +laughter, and the sound of feet keeping step in the dance.</p> + +<p>Never had Dorothy enjoyed herself so well. Harry Langdon was the prince +of escorts. He knew how to make himself agreeable and entertaining. He +whis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>pered tender words into his companion's ears, held her little hand, +and conveyed to her in a thousand different ways that this was the +happiest day of his life, because she was by his side.</p> + +<p>At length the hour drew near for the picknickers to leave the grounds, +for the boat had already steamed into the dock. In twenty minutes' time +she was to start back to the city.</p> + +<p>"Have you had a pleasant time, Dorothy?" asked her companion, smiling +down into her pleased, flushed face.</p> + +<p>"I have had the most pleasant hours of my life!" declared Dorothy. "It +has been like heaven here; I am sorry to go. And oh! how dark and drear +to-morrow will be in the bindery, after such a pleasant outing here."</p> + +<p>"You need not return to the bindery to-morrow unless you wish," +whispered Langdon, still holding the girl's little hand in his.</p> + +<p>Dorothy's heart beat high. Was handsome Harry Langdon about to propose +to her? she wondered.</p> + +<p>But no! the words she was waiting for did not fall from his lips, +although he had plenty of opportunity as they walked down the gayly +festooned path that led to the wharf.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he means to wait until he gets on the boat," she thought, with +a fluttering heart.</p> + +<p>Poor little Dorothy! there was no one to warn her against him. How was +she to realize that the thought of marriage had never entered his head, +and that he was of the kind who smile on and flatter women and then ride +away, little caring how many broken hearts are left behind?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>Dorothy's pretty, innocent face had captivated his fancy, but he would +never have dreamed of making her his wife.</p> + +<p>As they neared the boat, so great was the crowd clambering on board that +Dorothy would have been separated from her companion had she not clung +to his arm.</p> + +<p>"You need never go back to the book-bindery, Dorothy," he managed to +whisper again.</p> + +<p>At that moment they stepped aboard the steamer and started toward the +upper deck.</p> + +<p>It had been a happy day for Dorothy, but a most miserable one for poor +Jack. Contrary to his expectations, he finished the task allotted to him +much sooner than he had anticipated, and by two o'clock he was ready to +quit the book-bindery for the day.</p> + +<p>Hurrying home, he quickly changed his clothing, smiling the while as he +thought of putting the wish into execution that had been in his heart +all day, of joining the crowd up at West Point; and how delighted +Dorothy would be to see him—what a surprise it would be to her!</p> + +<p>His mother and his cousin watched him out of sight from their humble +cottage door, and then turned back to their duties with a sigh. They had +hoped that he would spend the day with them.</p> + +<p>With a joyful heart Jack boarded the boat for West Point, but when he +reached there and found that Dorothy was not among the group, his +disappointment knew no bounds.</p> + +<p>"My tender-hearted little darling!" he thought. "She would not join them +for a day's pleasure be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>cause she thought I could not go, and she is +having a lonely time of it at home."</p> + +<p>Back to the city Jack posted in all haste, and although the hour was +late when he reached there—the clocks in the belfries sounding the hour +of nine—still he could not refrain from stopping a moment at the +cottage, just to let Dorothy know how cruelly fate had tricked him.</p> + +<p>To his great consternation, he learned there, from the lady who kept the +boarding-house, that Dorothy—his Dorothy—had left the house at two +o'clock that afternoon with handsome Mr. Langdon, and that they had +started for Staten Island for a day's outing.</p> + +<p>He stood quite still, stupefied with amazement too great for words, and +a white, awful horror broke over his face and shone in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Tell me about him again!" he cried, hoarsely. "What was he like—this +man who took Dorothy away?" And as he listened to the description his +face grew stormy with terrible wrath, for it tallied exactly with that +of the man who had put Dorothy in the cab and rode away with her.</p> + +<p>Like a lightning's flash Jack tore down to the Staten Island wharf, and +was just in time to catch the out-going boat. He would surprise them, he +told himself, and tear little Dorothy, his promised bride, from his +rival's arms, or die in the attempt.</p> + +<p>All the way down the bay Jack paced the deck in a tumult of fury that +increased with every breath he drew.</p> + +<p>The half hour that it took to reach his destination seemed as endless as +the pangs of purgatory to lost souls. He never knew how the journey was +made, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> how he reached the island—flaming with lights on this gala +night, and gorgeous with flags and gilded banners.</p> + +<p>There were few passengers going down to Staten Island. The steamer had +come to take the revellers back to the city, and the gang-plank was no +sooner lowered than the crowd rushed aboard with happy laughter and gay +repartee. Among the first to gain a foothold on the stairway that led to +the upper deck were Harry Langdon and Dorothy; and here, face to face, +they met—Jack!</p> + +<p>"Unhand that young girl!" he cried, sternly, facing Langdon. "You have +no right to be here with her."</p> + +<p>Langdon started back, and glanced in haughty amazement at the +broad-shouldered, fair-haired young man confronting him.</p> + +<p>But without waiting for him to answer, Jack turned to Dorothy, holding +out his hands to her, saying huskily:</p> + +<p>"Leave him, little one, and come with me."</p> + +<p>But Dorothy threw back her head with rising anger.</p> + +<p>"How <i>dare</i> you, Jack Garner!" she cried, stamping her tiny foot, her +blue eyes flashing. "I shall never speak to you again for +this—<i>never</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Step out of our way," cried Dorothy's companion, "and allow this young +lady and myself to pass!"</p> + +<p>"You shall never pass me with her!" cried Jack, furiously, his hand +stealing involuntarily to his breast pocket.</p> + +<p>"Step aside; we wish to go on deck!" returned Langdon, haughtily, "and +we intend to do so!"</p> + +<p>"You will never go on deck with her, unless it be over my dead body!" +cried Garner, his face white as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> death, his voice trembling with +excitement, and his brown eyes flashing like living coals of fire.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> can not prevent me," retorted Langdon, in a sneering, +contemptuous voice. Then, turning to Dorothy, he added: "I am glad that +I am here to stand between you and this intrusive fellow. Come; I will +thrust him aside, and we will go on deck, my dear."</p> + +<p>The familiarity with which he addressed his companion stung Jack to +madness.</p> + +<p>"You can pass on deck alone, but not one step shall you proceed with +that young girl! Try it at your peril!" shouted Jack, hoarsely.</p> + +<p>Langdon did not heed the terrible warning, but attempted to push past +with his companion; and in that instant the passengers crowding up from +below heard the wild, piercing, terrified cry of the young girl ring out +on the night air, and mingled with it the report of a revolver—three +shots in quick succession—and the voice of a man crying out in mortal +agony: "My God! I am shot!" and the next instant a beautiful, +fair-haired girl plunged from the deck down, down into the dark, mad +waves, and the seething waters closed quickly over her golden head and +white, lovely, childish face.</p> + +<p>In an instant there was the most intense excitement and confusion on +board the steamer. Young girls fainted, women cried aloud, and strong +men stood fairly paralyzed with horror. Great God! the steamer was +backing slowly over the spot where the girl had gone down, and where she +would reappear. Nothing could save her now.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_IV" id="Chapter_IV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.</span></h2> + + +<p>All in an instant the cry rang from lip to lip: "There's a man +overboard!" Will he save her? Oh, heavens, is he too late to save the +life of the beautiful, rash girl who had plunged into the mad waters +scarcely a moment before, or will it mean death for both of them?</p> + +<p>He had disappeared beneath the steamer. The next moment that passed +seemed the length of eternity to the horrified spectators who lined the +dock and the decks, straining their eyes looking down into the dark +waters lighted up so fitfully by the pallid moonlight.</p> + +<p>He rose, and a great cry broke from every lip. He was alone, and almost +instantly he disappeared again. And again he rose, still alone. Every +heart sank. People held their breath. Useless, useless to hope. The poor +girl's fate was sealed.</p> + +<p>Then a mighty cheer broke forth. The waters parted, and they saw him +again. This time he was making for the shore, holding in one arm the +body of the luckless young girl whom he had risked his own life to save.</p> + +<p>Suddenly they heard him utter a sharp cry.</p> + +<p>"A rope! A rope! I am sinking!"</p> + +<p>In less time than it takes to tell it, a score or more of strong arms +hurled one out to him, and he caught it in the nick of time.</p> + +<p>Then amidst the greatest excitement he was drawn to the deck with his +inanimate burden.</p> + +<p>So intense had been the excitement that the passengers who had stood +nearest the principals in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> bitter quarrel which had taken place had +lost track entirely of the fact that a tragedy had almost been enacted +in their midst.</p> + +<p>And when they began to inquire into the matter no one could tell what +had become of the man who had cried out that he had been shot, and they +considered it a false alarm.</p> + +<p>Had this lovely young girl anything to do with this matter, or was it a +coincidence that at the self-same moment she had flung herself into the +water?</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, kindly hands took the burden from the young man's arms. As he +was drawn on deck some one in the crowd cried out in consternation:</p> + +<p>"Great Heavens! It's Jack Garner! And the girl whom he has saved is +little Dorothy Glenn!"</p> + +<p>There was much speculation as to why the girl had attempted to commit +suicide; but Jack's friend, a fellow-workman in the book-bindery, +declared quickly that it never could have been a case of attempted +suicide—the girl must have fallen overboard, and Jack had of course +sprung to the rescue.</p> + +<p>This looked plausible enough; and what they had all expected to be a +great sensation seemed to turn out but an accident pure and simple.</p> + +<p>As for Langdon, he had suddenly disappeared in the crowd after striking +at the revolver which Jack had drawn upon him and crying out mockingly +that he was shot when it was discharged, simply to get Jack into trouble +and to get sympathy for himself.</p> + +<p>They found it no easy matter to restore the girl to consciousness, and +at this juncture an old gentleman, a retired doctor who had been in the +cabin when the accident had happened, came hurriedly to her as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>sistance +when he heard that she was beyond the skill of those attending her in +the ladies' cabin.</p> + +<p>"Stand back!" he cried, forcing his way through the crowd of women. "How +do you suppose you can bring her to while you stand round her and +exclude the air? And by all that's wonderful, although you poured brandy +down her throat, no one seemed to know enough to open her dress!"</p> + +<p>And forthwith he began hurriedly to open the dress at the throat. But as +he did so a low cry broke from his lips, and his florid old face turned +deathly white.</p> + +<p>"My God, it is she!" he cried, hoarsely; and despite the curious throng +about him, the old doctor burst into tears and wept like a child.</p> + +<p>He felt that some explanation was due, and in a broken, husky voice he +said, pointing to a small, irregular mark over the girl's chest:</p> + +<p>"I have been searching for her for sixteen years by night and by day, +and finally abandoned all hope of finding her. She—she is not a +relative, as you may suppose. A few words will explain:</p> + +<p>"Some sixteen years ago I had a beautiful ward, as fair a young girl as +ever the sun shone on, and I, a lonely old man who had outlived all his +kinsfolk, loved her with all the devotion of my heart.</p> + +<p>"She was happy enough in my home—aye, as happy as the day was long, +but, like many another young girl, the bitter trial of life came with +her first dream of love. She fell in love with a scoundrel. I knew the +man better than she, and refused my consent. But young girls are +willful, and the upshot of the whole matter was—she eloped with him. It +was the most terrible blow of my life. Two years went by, in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> I +neither saw nor heard of her. Then unexpectedly I received a short, +hastily written letter from my heart-broken Alice.</p> + +<p>"'When you read this I shall be no more,' she wrote. 'Oh, Doctor Bryan, +I have paid the penalty of my folly with my life. I am slowly dying of +starvation. For myself, I bow to the fate I have brought upon my own +head. But the result of my folly does not rest here. It falls upon the +head of an innocent little babe whom I must leave behind me. Oh, Doctor +Bryan, this is the prayer that in the last moments of my life I make to +you:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Plead with the little one's father to let her come to +you. If he keeps her, may God in heaven pity her +future. He will blast her life as he did mine, or—if +it suits his pleasure, he will abandon her on the +streets to starve, as I am doing now. If I could think +that she would be with you, I would die without this +heavy load on my heart. She is so fair and +beautiful—my poor little baby! She has only one +blemish—the same scar is upon her bosom that is upon +mine, and which I have heard you say was upon the bosom +of my mother—the birthmark of the three spears.</p> + +<p>"'I can not write any more. My hand trembles so that I +can scarcely hold the pen.</p> + +<p style="margin-bottom: 0em;">"'Good-bye, Doctor Bryan. Never forget your poor, +heart-broken</p> + +<p style="margin-top: 0em; text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps;">Alice.'</p></div> + +<p>"I searched for her night and day," repeated the old man, with a sob in +his voice. "Alice died at sea, and the fate of the little one could not +be learned, nor that of the father. I never ceased searching until the +last year. Then I said to myself, 'It is useless—use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>less. Alice's baby +is dead.' But I have found her most miraculously at last, thank God!"</p> + +<p>This revelation created the most intense excitement among the women, who +had listened breathlessly to the <i>dénouement</i>.</p> + +<p>He had scarcely ceased speaking ere Dorothy opened her eyes. She found +to her great consternation a crowd surrounding her.</p> + +<p>But in an instant memory returned to her, and with a startled cry she +struggled up to a sitting posture, gazing in blank bewilderment upon the +crowd that had gathered about her.</p> + +<p>"I—I fainted and fell backward," she began; but the old gentleman bent +quickly over her, interrupting, hastily:</p> + +<p>"Yes, you fell backward and down into the water, my child, and came near +drowning. Where is the young man who saved her?" he cried. "Will some +one fetch him here at once to me, so that I may thank him? Oh, child, +child!" he cried, again bending over Dorothy, "I would have recognized +you among ten thousand! You look at me with your mother's eyes!"</p> + +<p>"My mother?" cried Dorothy, in awe, thinking that she had not heard +aright, or that the gentleman had mistaken her for some one else. "I—I +am an orphan; my name is Dorothy Glenn."</p> + +<p>The old gentleman did not utter the words that sprang to his lips when +she mentioned the name Glenn, though his face darkened for an instant +with bitter memory.</p> + +<p>"But will you tell me," cried Dorothy, with a piteous sob, "what has +become of my escort, Mr. Langdon?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>Nobody seemed to know, and it soon became apparent to everyone—even to +the girl herself—that in her peril he had miserably deserted her rather +than risk his life to save hers.</p> + +<p>"Another young man periled his life for you," some one answered; but who +it was Dorothy could not learn, and in that moment she was glad enough +to call for Jack—poor, faithful Jack Garner.</p> + +<p>But he did not come this time at her bidding. No one told her that he +was suffering from a severe contusion on the side of the head, and was +scarcely conscious of the message that was sent him at that time.</p> + +<p>"You have no need of their protection. From this time henceforth you +shall be under my watchful care, little Dorothy;" and very briefly, and +to her intense amazement, Mr. Bryan told her the story that he had +already related to those about her. "I shall take you home with me," he +said, "and you shall never again know want."</p> + +<p>To the girl it seemed as though what she had heard was but the wild +vagaries of a dream, from which she should awaken presently and find +herself back in the old book-bindery with the other girls. But the +exclamations of the people who pressed around her congratulating her +upon her good fortune, which read so much like a romance, were real +enough, for they all knew Doctor Bryan, the wealthy old retired +physician, whose elegant country place was just outside of New York.</p> + +<p>The loss of Dorothy's handsome lover, who had forsaken her in so +shameful a manner, would have been a terrible blow to her had she had +time to think and brood over the matter. But this new excitement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> that +had come so suddenly upon her, making part and parcel of her life, threw +her thoughts in quite a different channel. How surprised Harry Langdon +would be when he heard the wonderful news, and how all the book-bindery +girls would hold their breath in astonishment too great for words when +she did not come to work on the following day, but got a letter from her +instead, explaining the wonderful change in her fortunes! Nadine Holt +would be green with envy, and so would the rest of the girls, down in +the secret depths of their hearts. There was only one among them who +would rejoice because her working-days among them were over, and that +was Jessie Staples, who had always declared Dorothy was born to be a +real lady.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_V" id="Chapter_V"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter V.</span></h2> + + +<p>Great was the consternation at Gray Gables, as the Bryan mansion was +called, when the doctor drove up to the door in the old family carriage, +and the housekeeper, looking from the window, saw a young girl seated by +his side.</p> + +<p>For many years past he had had the strongest aversion to young girls, +and it was over sixteen years since one had crossed that threshold. No +wonder that the housekeeper was amazed to see him assist her from the +carriage and lead her by the hand up the broad walk toward the porch.</p> + +<p>"Great Heaven!" cried Mrs. Kemp, as they drew nearer, "it looks like +Miss Alice; but it couldn't be her; for long years have passed +since—since the night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> she ran away. It must be her daughter—yes, that +is it!"</p> + +<p>All of a tremble, she hastened to the door, and flung it open wide. She +could see by Mr. Bryan's face that something unusual had occurred, even +before her eyes rested on the fair young creature beside him.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Kemp," he said, huskily, "I have here with me one who will +surprise you greatly when you hear her name—nay, astound you."</p> + +<p>"I can see for myself that she bears a striking resemblance to—to—" +and the rest of the sentence was lost in a choking sob.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry that I make you feel so bad," said the fresh young voice; +and the next instant a pair of plump arms were about the old lady's neck +and a soft, velvety cheek was pressed close to hers. "Doctor Bryan has +told me all my history," the girl cried in the same breath—"how he has +been searching for me all these years, finding me at last; and that I am +hereafter to live in this grand old place. And I have been fairly crying +with joy all the way up from New York to-day. I could not help but +scream with delight, though I know it quite horrified Doctor Bryan, when +I saw the house and the magnificent grounds around it. As soon as I take +off my hat I want to run into the garden and see the rose-bushes with +real roses growing on them, and see what a house is like. I've always +lived in a tenement flat or boarding-house."</p> + +<p>It made Mrs. Kemp laugh, even through her tears, at the girl's wild +enthusiasm. She was like an untrained, untutored child, despite her +years, she thought.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>The doctor's eyes grew moist as he listened, and during the few days +that followed he watched her from his study window with unfeigned +delight. She appeared to him more like a child of seven than a young +lady of seventeen.</p> + +<p>She was too busy in looking over the place, for the next fortnight, to +carry out her intention of writing to the girls.</p> + +<p>She seemed to have been lifted into a different world, where the dark +past lay far behind her.</p> + +<p>At this juncture an event happened which cast a dark shadow over all +poor Dorothy's after life.</p> + +<p>She was out in the garden one day with Mrs. Kemp, when the doctor joined +them, holding a telegram in his hand.</p> + +<p>"I have just received word from Harry that he will be here to-morrow," +he said, with a pleased expression on his face. "I hope that you will +see that a room is put in readiness for him."</p> + +<p>"To be sure, sir," responded the housekeeper, with a little courtesy.</p> + +<p>His footsteps had scarcely died away ere Dorothy turned eagerly to her +companion.</p> + +<p>"Who is Harry?" she asked, with all a young girl's curiosity.</p> + +<p>"He is a young gentleman who has been studying medicine with Dr. Bryan +for the last year," returned the housekeeper, adding, with a slight +frown on her comely face: "The doctor is quite fond of him. He has been +away for the last three months, and the house has been so nice and quiet +without him."</p> + +<p>"By the way you speak one wouldn't fancy that you liked this Mr. Harry," +laughed Dorothy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>The housekeeper turned grimly away.</p> + +<p>"But what is he like?" persisted Dorothy, pursuing the subject.</p> + +<p>"Is he young—is he handsome?"</p> + +<p>"Handsome is as handsome does," replied Mrs. Kemp, ominously.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't he do handsome?" retorted Dorothy, throwing back her curly head +with a rich mellow laugh, adding: "But what is he like, anyhow? Is he +dark or fair, young or old?"</p> + +<p>"No doubt he will strike you as being quite handsome," returned Mrs. +Kemp, thoughtfully. "He has very dark eyes and dark waving hair. Young +girls would consider him quite good looking."</p> + +<p>"And will he, too, live in the house with us?" asked Dorothy, curiously.</p> + +<p>"You had better ask Doctor Bryan," responded Mrs. Kemp, evasively.</p> + +<p>The next morning, as Dorothy stepped out into the garden to gather +flowers for the breakfast-table, she came suddenly upon a young man +pacing up and down under the trees with his hands in his pockets, +smoking a cigar.</p> + +<p>When he heard the light, pattering footsteps he wheeled round, and was +just about to raise his hat to the vision of girlish loveliness before +him when a low cry of intense astonishment broke from his lips.</p> + +<p>"Dorothy Glenn, by all that is wonderful!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>The amazement was mutual.</p> + +<p>"Harry Langdon!" the girl shrieked, turning pale as death.</p> + +<p>"What in the name of Heaven brings you to this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> house?" he cried, +hoarsely, catching her wrist and holding it in a tight grip.</p> + +<p>"You have no right to know, after the way you deserted me in my peril," +flashed Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"But how came you here," he repeated, "of all places in the world? I +must know!"</p> + +<p>The girl briefly outlined how it happened, her anger rising against her +questioner with every word; and as he listened his face was a study.</p> + +<p>"Dorothy," he said, in his low, smooth voice, "you accuse me of not +trying to save you when you fell overboard. But let me speak just one +word in my own defense: You remember just what was taking place as we +reached the deck. You heard the shot, but you fainted and did not know +what happened. The bullet whizzed by me, and I fell back on the deck +stunned—unconscious. I did not recover until long after the steamer +reached New York. All the people had dispersed long before I returned to +consciousness. I made diligent search for you, and to my great horror it +soon dawned upon me that not one whom you knew could tell me whither you +had gone."</p> + +<p>Dorothy was young and guileless, or he could never have fooled her so +easily. But the story seemed very plausible to her ears, and her face +brightened.</p> + +<p>It was a great load lifted from her heart—her trustful belief that +handsome Mr. Langdon had not been false to her after all.</p> + +<p>"Now, Dorothy, I have something to say to you," he began. "Walk down +this path with me, for you must listen intently to what I have to say to +you. I have a little confession to make to you, and a favor to ask, and +surely you are too kind of heart and too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> good a friend to me to refuse. +I had intended telling you this upon our return on the boat. My name is +not Harry Langdon, as you have believed, but Harry Langdon Kendal.</p> + +<p>"I am studying medicine with Doctor Bryan, instead of law, as I once led +you to believe. And as to the great expectations I told you about, I +confess that they exist only in my mad hopes that Doctor Bryan, who is +alone in the world, without kith or kin, might take a fancy to leave me +something some day. He does not know of my rash wager, and that by +losing it I was forced to go to New York and place myself on a street +car as conductor for a while. He would disapprove of it if he knew, and, +Dorothy, you must never tell him—promise me that here and now—he must +never know that we have ever met before!"</p> + +<p>Dorothy did not hesitate to give him the required assurance, for which +he thanked her so profusely that it brought the warm blushes in a +flood-tide to the girl's dimpled cheeks; and Mrs. Kemp wondered why +Dorothy looked so happy as she entered the house.</p> + +<p>Left to himself, Kendal paced excitedly under the trees, puffing away +vigorously at his cigar.</p> + +<p>"A devil of a fix this," he muttered, setting his white teeth hard +together. "Great Heaven! this is a romance in real life more strangely +weird than any fiction. Who would have thought of finding this girl +here, of all persons in the world, and under such circumstances! And +then, to make matters worse, I have been making violent love to the +girl. It was all very well to make desperate love to the little New York +working-girl, but to make love to Miss Glenn, the doctor's <i>protégée</i>, +is quite another matter. I shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> be expected to ask for her hand in +marriage, of course, and she without a dollar. No, thanks! I'd rather +that some other fellow would woo and win the little blue-eyed fairy. +When it comes to marrying I must have a girl with money, who can put up +the needful for both if necessary. If she will only keep my secret I +will be but too grateful!"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Dorothy had stolen up to her own room, and at that moment was +standing before the mantel, resting her elbows on it, her dimpled chin +upon her hands, gazing wistfully into the mirror's depths at the lovely +young face it reflected.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how my cheeks burn!" she cried, excitedly, "and how my heart thumps +even yet. I was sure he would hear it. I thought I should never see him +again, but it is fate that brings us together here. I shall always +believe in it firmly and truly after this. He cares for me. He as much +as told me so on the night that we went to the moonlight picnic on +Staten Island, and the fortune-teller who told my fortune said—when all +of us bindery girls visited her one day—'I see a short journey for you, +miss—a dark young man and a marriage-ring;'" and for the next ten +minutes Dorothy capered around the room, dancing in such hoidenish, +girlish glee that she would fairly have shocked the old housekeeper +could she have seen her. "It's all coming true!" cried Dorothy, +breathlessly, to herself. But not one thought did she give to poor Jack, +whose betrothal-ring she carried pinned to her pocket.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_VI" id="Chapter_VI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.</span></h2> + + +<p>How the hours passed up to luncheon time Dorothy never afterward +realized, her foolish little heart was in such a flutter of excitement.</p> + +<p>She knew she should meet Harry at the table, and oh! it would be so hard +to pretend before Doctor Bryan and the stern, keen-eyed old housekeeper +that they were strangers.</p> + +<p>She had but two dresses as yet, which the housekeeper had provided her +with, and she tried on each of them in succession to see which looked +best on her.</p> + +<p>Which should it be? The pale-blue merino or the rose-pink cashmere?</p> + +<p>After much studying and slipping on and off, Dorothy decided upon +wearing the rose-pink.</p> + +<p>She was scarcely dressed ere the luncheon bell rang.</p> + +<p>Taking up her handkerchief, Dorothy flew down the stairway, pausing +before the doorway to catch her breath and to summon courage to enter.</p> + +<p>But the longer she stood there the more difficult it seemed to get +courage enough to open the door and face the music. At length she heard +Doctor Bryan inquire surprisedly of Mrs. Kent:</p> + +<p>"Where can Dorothy be, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>And the next instant they heard a faint voice exclaim:</p> + +<p>"Here I am, please."</p> + +<p>And, turning to see from whence the sound proceeded, they all saw +distinctly that the door was open<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> the space of an inch, and that a +human eye was applied to the crack, while four little fingers clutched +it frantically to keep it open.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Dorothy," commanded Mr. Bryan, inwardly highly amused at the +girl's bashfulness in venturing in when she saw a stranger seated at the +board.</p> + +<p>Dorothy opened the door, stumbled over the mat, and, with a face red as +a beet, walked awkwardly to the table and took her seat, which happened +to be directly opposite Harry's.</p> + +<p>She did not dare for the life of her to look at him, for she knew that +his black eyes were bent upon her. She felt them scorching down into her +soul.</p> + +<p>"Dorothy," said Mr. Bryan, pompously, "allow me to present to you my +young friend, Mr. Kendal."</p> + +<p>"I am right glad to see him, sir," said Dorothy, faintly, without +raising her eyes.</p> + +<p>Noticing her embarrassment, Doctor Bryan quickly turned the conversation +into another channel; but he soon observed that his young friend was +looking at the girl across the table, almost convulsed with laughter.</p> + +<p>It took but one glance that way to see the cause.</p> + +<p>In her great confusion Dorothy was making dire efforts to eat her soup +with a fork, catching occasionally a stray bean.</p> + +<p>"Remove the soup plates!" roared the doctor to the servant who stood in +waiting, and who was also grinning at the girl's discomfiture.</p> + +<p>It was the most confusing meal that Dorothy had ever sat down to.</p> + +<p>And when she arose from the table she was far hungrier than when she sat +down.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>She had scarcely eaten a good solid mouthful.</p> + +<p>Oh, it was so hard to act out such a falsehood as handsome Harry had +prevailed upon her to do.</p> + +<p>During the fortnight that followed, she became more used to the +situation, but it was no little wonder, both to the housekeeper and +Doctor Bryan, what excellent friends they were getting to be in so short +a time.</p> + +<p>It could not be that they were falling in love with each other; and the +doctor looked rather serious at the last thought.</p> + +<p>As for Dorothy, it was quite a clear case; she was deeply in love with +Harry Kendal. Like all girls, her day-dreams were rosy. It was so sweet +to wander with him through the grand grounds surrounding Gray Gables, or +sit in the sunshine in the clover meadow beyond, with the babbling brook +at their feet, and the great branches of the oak trees over their heads, +and listen to him while he read such sweet poems to her—poems of how +some lover loved a lassie, and how bright was their future.</p> + +<p>But still there was a change in him; he wasn't just like he used to be +when she was only Dorothy Glenn, working for her living in the +book-bindery. And just to show him that she did not notice the change, +and did not care, she was so gay and hoidenish, so full of repartee and +laughter, that she saw him open his eyes in wonder more than once; and +Doctor Bryan gave her the <i>soubriquet</i> of "Madcap Dorothy," which seemed +to suit her exactly.</p> + +<p>There was no prank that could ever have entered a roguish girl's brain +which she did not play upon Kendal.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>This phase of her character rather annoyed Kendal than pleased him; and +it seemed to him that she took a special delight in teasing him. She hid +his slippers, slipped briars into his couch, turned tack-points upward +in his lounging chairs, and substituted periodicals a month old for his +morning journals and magazines, until he almost grew to detest her for +becoming the torment of his life. Shrewd as he was in the ways of young +girls, he did not know that this is the course which many a young girl +pursues toward a young man with whom she has fallen in love, and would +not have him know it for the whole world.</p> + +<p>If there was anything which Kendal detested, it was a girl who was +always on the lookout to turn every word and action into a joke. He +preferred them modest and flower-like; still, he was in duty bound to +treat her as well as he could because she was under that roof.</p> + +<p>And there was another reason why he began to abhor Dorothy. Before her +appearance on the scene, there had been a wild hope in his heart that +some day he might possibly inherit a good portion of Doctor Bryan's +money. For two years or more he had left no stone unturned to get into +the old gentleman's good graces.</p> + +<p>True, Dorothy was as much of a stranger to Doctor Bryan as he himself +was, but who knew but that, by some freak of unlucky fate, he might take +a notion to leave the girl all of his fortune? He wished to Heaven she +had never crossed the threshold of Gray Gables.</p> + +<p>At this turn of affairs it occurred to him that it would not be a bad +idea to test the old gentleman's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> friendship for himself; and the +greatest of all tests, he believed, was to borrow money from him. If +Doctor Bryan refused this little favor, he reasoned to himself, all his +hopes in regard to inheriting the old gentleman's money, in time to +come, would be dashed. He would ask him for a small loan; and on the +very day this occurred to him he proceeded to put it into execution, +saying to himself:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'He either fears his fate too much,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or his deserts are small,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who fears to put it to, the touch<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To win or lose it all.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He knew that he should find the doctor in his study directly after +luncheon, and here he presented himself with some trepidation.</p> + +<p>"Come in," called the doctor, in answer to his knock.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's <i>you</i>, is it, Harry?" he exclaimed, placing a chair for him, +which the young man took rather awkwardly.</p> + +<p>"It is not often I trouble you in your study, sir," began Harry, "but I +have something of importance to say to you, and I beg that you will +pardon the intrusion. I chose a time when we will be least apt to be +interrupted."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't advise you to begin it if it will take long to tell," said +Mr. Bryan, "for we might be interrupted at any moment. I am expecting an +old friend, who is to accompany me on a horse-back ride. He ought to +have been here by this time."</p> + +<p>Harry fidgeted nervously about in his chair. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> required something of +an effort to make his request carelessly.</p> + +<p>"You are the only one," he began, a little disconcertedly, "I feel sure, +who can help me in my present dilemma."</p> + +<p>The old doctor wheeled suddenly around in his chair, and all in an +instant the object of the young man's visit flashed over his mind.</p> + +<p>"To my mind he is come to tell me that he has fallen head over heels in +love with little Dorothy, and wants to marry her;" and with the thought +a broad smile crept up to the lips the white beard covered.</p> + +<p>He had never been in love himself—but, for all that, he always +sympathized with young folks in their tender affairs of the heart, and +many a secret sigh escaped his lips for the lost opportunities of the +past.</p> + +<p>"Well," he began, brusquely, "why don't you proceed, my boy?"</p> + +<p>"It is such a delicate matter," began Kendal, "that I scarcely know how +to frame the words. You have always been so kind to me in the past, that +the remembrance of it has led me to dare hope that your goodness will +not desert me in the present emergency."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the old gentleman, rather enjoying the young man's evident +discomfiture, "pray go on."</p> + +<p>"The boon I have to ask," began Kendal, "will either make or mar my +future."</p> + +<p>"Is it so bad as that?" returned the old gentleman with assumed +innocence.</p> + +<p>"You could never imagine what it is that I wish to ask," continued the +young man.</p> + +<p>"I might guess, perhaps," laughed the doctor, with a roguish twinkle in +his eye.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>"Surely you—you couldn't have noticed the one great wish of my heart," +gasped Kendal. "I—"</p> + +<p>At that moment the expected visitor was announced.</p> + +<p>"Come and see me in my library this evening," said Doctor Bryan, +grasping the young man's hand, "and we will talk over the matter you +have so much at heart, and I will give you my answer in regard to it."</p> + +<p>"You are too good, sir," cried Kendal, in bewilderment.</p> + +<p>At that moment the entrance of the visitor put a stop to all further +conversation, and Kendal arose and took his leave after an exchange of +greetings.</p> + +<p>"How could he possibly have divined that I was thinking of asking him +for money?" he pondered.</p> + +<p>He heard Dorothy singing at the top of her voice in the drawing-room, +and he turned on his heel in the hallway, and walked in an opposite +direction with a frown of impatience on his face.</p> + +<p>Dorothy saw him pass the door, and she bit her lip with vexation.</p> + +<p>"Of course he heard me playing on the piano, for I thumped as loud as +ever I could; but he did not come in. It seems to me he is trying 'to +cool off,' as we girls in the bindery used to say."</p> + +<p>Dorothy tiptoed over to the window as she heard the front door slam +after him, and if he had looked back he would have seen a very defiant +though tear-stained face peering earnestly after him from behind the +lace curtains.</p> + +<p>Kendal walked disconsolately enough through the spacious grounds and out +into the main road, little dreaming that a strange fate was drawing him +onward with each step he took.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>He had traveled a mile or more over the country road, when suddenly he +was startled by the sound of horses' hoofs.</p> + +<p>The next instant, from around the bend in the road, a horse dashed +riderless, covered with foam, and so near him that he had to spring +aside or its hoofs would have been buried in his brain. One glance, and +a cry of horror broke from his lips. It was Doctor Bryan's horse.</p> + +<p>Great God! where was he? Kendal realized that there had been a terrible +accident, and that at that moment the doctor lay dying—perhaps dead—by +the road-side.</p> + +<p>In all haste he rushed down the road in the direction whence the horse +had come, and around the first bend he beheld the prostrate figure of +Doctor Bryan lying covered with dust, his friend bending over him.</p> + +<p>In an instant he was by his side. One glance, and his worst fears were +realized—the old gentleman had been mortally injured—he was dying. He +held out his hand when he saw Kendal bending over him, and nodded assent +as his companion briefly and hurriedly related how the terrible accident +had come about.</p> + +<p>"I was just about to go for you," said the friend. "The doctor has +something to say to you. Surely it was the work of Providence that you +happened along just now."</p> + +<p>Kendal bent over the prostrate form.</p> + +<p>"I—I am dying, Harry!" gasped the doctor; "but that—of which we +were—talking—this—afternoon—is—uppermost—in—my—mind. +You—you—wished—me—to—give my—consent—to—to—your—wooing—and +wedding little—Dorothy. I—give—it—to +you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>—here—and—now—with—my—blessing—for—I—know—she—cares—for +you. Six months—from—to-day—at—noon—my—will—must be read; and on +that day you—must marry her—if ever—aye—you must—be wedded—ere +that noon-hour—shall have waned. Then—then—within that hour—you +shall know—the contents of—my will; and—remember, too, +that—it—is—irrevocable!"</p> + +<p>Harry Kendal reeled back, like one dazed by an awful blow.</p> + +<p>The suddenness of this affair had taken his breath away. But before he +could raise his voice in protest, or utter one word of the terrible +mistake which the old gentleman was laboring under, Doctor Bryan +breathed his last, and he found himself betrothed, as it were, to +Dorothy, and by the most terrible mistake that ever a man labored under.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_VII" id="Chapter_VII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VII.</span></h2> + + +<p>A fortnight had passed since the fatal accident in Brighton Woods, and +life at Gray Gables had once more resumed the even tenor of its regular +routine.</p> + +<p>The first words that Doctor Bryan had gasped out to his friend, when he +regained consciousness and found himself fatally injured, were:</p> + +<p>"Tell—tell—them at home—that—everything—must go—on—the +same—until—after—my will—has—been read—and that—must not +be—until—six—months—after—my—decease."</p> + +<p>The sudden loss of Doctor Bryan, the kind-hearted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> old gentleman who had +raised her from poverty to great wealth, was a severe blow to Dorothy. +For in that short length of time she had learned to love him, as a +daughter might have done, with all the strength of her passionate, +girlish heart.</p> + +<p>The old housekeeper and the servants, who had been in his employ a +quarter of a century or more, mourned for him and refused to be +comforted.</p> + +<p>Great was the excitement in the household when the friend who had +accompanied Doctor Bryan on that fatal ride broke to them the strange +compact between the doctor and Kendal, to which he had been a witness.</p> + +<p>He readily decided that it was best not to tell Dorothy the exact +situation of affairs, and that it would probably be more in accordance +with a young girl's romantic idea of marriage for Kendal to woo her on +his own account, and gain her consent, ere he breathed to her that this +was Doctor Bryan's wish.</p> + +<p>And this was the course that Kendal followed. He allowed fully a month +to transpire ere he made the slightest advances to her. Long and +carefully he had thought the matter over in his own mind, and had +concluded that there was no way out of the strange betrothal into which +he had been forced, as it were, against his will.</p> + +<p>He made up his mind to accept the situation gracefully and become +engaged to Dorothy, and if he found out that she had not been remembered +in the old gentleman's will, he could break it without one word of +warning or the least compunction. He noticed, too, that Dorothy was +growing quite shy of him of late. She had been quite fond of him in the +past; it would never do to allow her to grow indifferent to him. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +made up his mind to settle the matter—as far as the engagement was +concerned—at the first opportunity; and one presented itself on the +very day he made this resolve.</p> + +<p>Dorothy was in the conservatory that afternoon, when he suddenly +surprised her, stealing up on tip-toe behind her, clasped her in his +arms, holding his hands over her eyes, whispering:</p> + +<p>"Guess who it is, Dorothy."</p> + +<p>The struggle to escape those firm arms suddenly ceased. The girl was +dumbfounded with amazement.</p> + +<p>"Is it—can it be you, Harry—Mr. Kendal?" she gasped, breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Do you wish it were some one else, Dorothy?" he whispered, releasing +her from his arms, but catching her hands in a tight clasp and looking +eagerly down into her eyes.</p> + +<p>The girl's face flushed burning red, and her gaze fell beneath a pair of +dark eyes that seemed to search into her very soul. But in an instant +she recovered something of her old hoidenish composure; and in that +moment she remembered, too, how he had seemed to slight her of late, and +her pride rebelled hotly.</p> + +<p>"How dare you frighten me so, Harry Kendal?" she cried, drawing back and +stamping her little foot, her blue eyes blazing angrily.</p> + +<p>"Are you so very displeased?" he inquired, reproachfully, adding +quietly: "If that is the case, I beg your pardon. I shall never so +trespass again;" and he dropped her hand and turned away, walking +moodily to the window.</p> + +<p>"Gracious! I have done it now!" thought Dorothy, repenting on the +instant; and, as he made no effort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> to turn around or speak to her +again, she advanced slowly to where he stood idly drumming upon the +window-sill.</p> + +<p>"I wasn't so very angry," she began, hesitatingly, picking nervously at +the blue ribbons which tied her long, curling hair. "I said I wasn't so +very angry!" repeated Dorothy, nervously. He heard her, but never turned +his head, and Dorothy was at a loss what to say next to mend matters. +"Would you like a rose?" she stammered.</p> + +<p>"Thanks—no!" replied Kendal, shortly, still without turning his head. +Then, after a brief pause:</p> + +<p>"Or would you like me to show you a new book of poems I just bought?"</p> + +<p>"You needn't mind. Pray don't trouble yourself," he responded.</p> + +<p>Dorothy looked at him an instant, quite as though she was ready to cry; +then the best thing that could have happened, under the circumstances, +came to her relief.</p> + +<p>She grew angry.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't show you the book now, to save your life!" she cried, her +breath coming and going in panting gasps, and her cheeks flaming as +scarlet as the deep-red rose she had brought him as a peace-offering; +"nor would I give you this flower. I'd tear it up and stamp it beneath +my feet first—you are so mean!"</p> + +<p>He turned with a very tantalizing smile, and looked at her out of the +corners of his eyes.</p> + +<p>She had hidden her face in her hands, but by the panting of her breast +he saw that she was weeping, that a storm of sobs was shaking her +childish frame.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>He stooped and passed his arm lightly around the slim waist, his hand +holding hers.</p> + +<p>Dorothy trembled.</p> + +<p>"Won't you let me comfort you?" he asked, in that low, winning voice of +his.</p> + +<p>The thought flashed across Dorothy's brain that, if she pushed him from +her, he would never again put his arms about her, and she meekly endured +the caress for an instant; and not being repulsed, he grew bold enough +to kiss the rosy cheek that peeped out from between the white fingers.</p> + +<p>"I have something to say to you, Dorothy," he whispered. "It is this: I +love you! Will you be my wife?"</p> + +<p>Dorothy had always imagined just how a lover should propose, but she had +never imagined anything so commonplace as this.</p> + +<p>He stooped to caress her again, but she drew back.</p> + +<p>"You frighten me!" she cried; and at these words he instantly released +her.</p> + +<p>"It is alarming—being kissed—and especially when you're not used to +it. But that does not answer my question. Will you marry me, or will you +not?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know!" cried Dorothy, faintly. "You mustn't ask me; you must +talk to Mrs. Kemp about it."</p> + +<p>"I might talk to Mrs. Kemp about changing my room in the house, or ask +her concerning anything belonging to the household, but I couldn't think +of asking her to find me a wife and to seal the bargain for me. The +'Yes' or 'No' must be said by the girl herself, as she is the one who is +to live with me and to make the best or the worst of the bargain +through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> life. Now, Dorothy, I want a plain, straightforward answer. +Tell me, will you be my bride?"</p> + +<p>She colored and smiled, and the sort of shy half fear which always +assailed her at his approach came over her now more strongly than ever, +and the quick blood came rushing to her finger-ends.</p> + +<p>"I—don't know what to say!" gasped Dorothy. "I couldn't marry anybody, +I think."</p> + +<p>His arms dropped from about her.</p> + +<p>"Am I to understand, then," he asked, in a constrained voice, "that you +refuse me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know!" cried Dorothy, melting into fresh, quick tears. +"I—I—should want to ask somebody about it first before I said 'Yes.'"</p> + +<p>He had quite believed that she would accept him on the spot the moment +he proposed, and her failure to do this made him almost catch his breath +in astonishment.</p> + +<p>This uncertainty in the matter gave more zest to his ardor.</p> + +<p>"You dislike me?" he questioned, wondering if that could possibly be.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, no! I like you. Won't you believe me?"</p> + +<p>He stepped back and looked at her with a sarcastic smile—looked at the +little figure leaning against the fountain, with one hand resting on the +rim of it, the other held out imploringly toward him.</p> + +<p>"Believe you? Why do you insist upon making me uncivil?" he replied. "I +do <i>not</i> believe you! I dare say you fancy that you are telling the +truth; but if another man were to come on the scene with a few thousands +a year more, and a higher position in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> social scale, you would have +a very different answer for him at your tongue's end."</p> + +<p>He looks at her—looks at the innocently wooing arms—at the +tear-stained, dimpled, tremulous face, and, now that he thinks that he +can not win her, all in an instant he falls madly in love with her.</p> + +<p>"You must answer me, here and now!" he cried; but Dorothy turned from +him, and, like a startled fawn, slipped through his outstretched hands, +through the conservatory, and out of the corridor beyond, leaving him +staring after her, his handsome face pale with emotion.</p> + +<p>Dorothy never paused until she reached her own room.</p> + +<p>She closed and locked the door with trembling hands and beating heart; +then, after the fashion of young girls, she laughed and cried +hysterically all in a breath, dancing around the room in a mad fashion, +clapping her hands and sobbing out:</p> + +<p>"Oh, at last—at last, my hero, my ideal has turned from a block of +marble to human clay, and tells me that he loves me and wants me to be +his wife—me—a silly little thing like me!" and she paused before the +glass, wondering what he saw in the pink-and-white face reflected there +to love forever and ever. She wished she knew.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_VIII" id="Chapter_VIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII.</span></h2> + + +<p>Dorothy's merriment was soon interrupted by a loud knock at the door, +and when she opened it, panting with her exertion of dancing around the +room, she found Mrs. Kemp standing there, with a white, frightened face.</p> + +<p>"What in the world is the matter here, child?" she cried, in alarm. "I +was afraid there were burglars, or Heaven knows what, up here in this +room."</p> + +<p>Dorothy burst into a peal of laughter that amazed the old lady and made +the very walls echo with her bright young voice.</p> + +<p>"Oh, something so funny has just happened!" she gasped. "You will be as +much surprised as I was, Mrs. Kemp, when you hear it."</p> + +<p>The housekeeper knew just what had happened, for, although unknown to +Dorothy, she was in the conservatory when she had entered; but before +she could make her presence known Kendal had appeared upon the scene, +and the proposal of marriage had followed so quickly upon the heels of +it that she felt she could not leave without embarrassing both, so she +waited there until they had quitted the conservatory.</p> + +<p>As soon as she thought it practicable she followed Dorothy to her room +to congratulate her, and the sight that met her view surprised her—the +girl's face, instead of being flushed with tell-tale blushes and covered +with confusion, as she had expected, was convulsed with laughter.</p> + +<p>"Oh, do come in!" cried Dorothy, excitedly. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> have something that I +want to tell you—I want you to decide for me what is best to do."</p> + +<p>"I will give you the best advice I can," said the old housekeeper, +drawing the girl down beside her on the sofa, and putting her arm about +her.</p> + +<p>"I've just had a—a proposal of—of marriage. There! the whole secret is +out!" cried Dorothy, breathlessly.</p> + +<p>But the good old lady did not look a particle amazed, much to Dorothy's +surprise.</p> + +<p>"You do not ask me who it is that wants me," cried the girl, in bitter +disappointment.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kemp smiled.</p> + +<p>"It was very easy to see that for myself," she responded. "Every one +could tell that Harry Kendal was very fond of you, my dear, and that +sooner or later he would ask you to marry him. But tell me, what answer +did you make him?"</p> + +<p>"I—I ran away without making any answer at all," confessed Dorothy, +shamefacedly. "I thought I could write him a note and put my answer in +it—ever so much better than to look up into his face and tell him," she +faltered. "I wonder that girls can ever say 'Yes' right up and down, +then and there; it seems so bold a thing to do. Why, I never felt so +embarrassed in my life. When I tried to say something my tongue cleaved +to the roof of my mouth. I trembled from head to foot, and—oh, +gracious!—he must have heard how my heart thumped. I know I must have +acted like the greatest simpleton the world ever held. Wasn't it +wonderful to think that he wanted to marry me? I can't understand it."</p> + +<p>"It is not so very wonderful, but very natural," re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>sponded Mrs. Kemp, +warmly. "I do not know whether it is wise to tell you so or not, but you +are really beautiful. Every one thinks so hereabouts. And then you are +not too young to marry—you are seventeen."</p> + +<p>"But I'm not a bit wise," persisted Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"You are quite wise enough to suit the exacting eyes of love," declared +the housekeeper, reassuringly, "and that is all that is needed. The +greatest of all questions, however, is: Do you think you care for Mr. +Kendal? Let me tell you two things, my dear—never marry a man whom you +do not love; and if the one whom you do love asks you, do not coquet +with him."</p> + +<p>"Will you help me to write the note to him?" cried Dorothy, drawing up a +hassock, and slipping down upon it at her companion's feet. "I want to +write it stiff and proud, as though I didn't care much, and I want to +get all the big words in it that I can."</p> + +<p>"Of course I will help you," replied Mrs. Kemp. "But it's many a year +since I wrote a love letter, and I'm a little awkward at it now. But as +long as it conveys the idea of 'Yes' to him, your ardent lover will +think it the grandest epistle that ever a young girl wrote."</p> + +<p>Such a time as there was over that letter!</p> + +<p>Over and over again it was copied, this word erased, and that word +inserted, until at the very best it looked more like the map of Scotland +than anything else.</p> + +<p>Dorothy was terribly in earnest over it.</p> + +<p>One would almost have thought, to have seen her, that her life was at +stake over the result of it; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> at last it was finished, and one of +the servants was called to take it to Mr. Kendal's room.</p> + +<p>Harry was pacing restlessly up and down when it was delivered to him. He +took it eagerly and broke the seal, for he had recognized Dorothy's +cramped, school-girl chirography at once.</p> + +<p>"She is mine!" he cried, triumphantly; and with the knowledge that he +had won her without a doubt, his ardor suddenly cooled; he did not know +whether he was pleased or sorry over the result of his wooing.</p> + +<p>After he had read the letter over carefully, he fell to scrutinizing the +chirography.</p> + +<p>"The first thing I shall have to do will be to teach the girl how to +write a legible letter," he thought.</p> + +<p>Only the day before she had written a letter to Jack, which contained +but the few words that she was well and happy, and that a great change +of fortune had come into her life. But the letter bore neither date, +postmark, nor signature, and he could not tell where it had been posted.</p> + +<p>But it was the first intimation which Jack had had that she was in the +land of the living, and to have seen his face as he read it would have +touched a heart of stone.</p> + +<p>Tears sprang to his eyes, strong young man though he was, and he covered +the half-written page with burning kisses. To him those irregular, +girlish strokes were dearer than anything else this wide world held, +because they were Dorothy's.</p> + +<p>Although she had suddenly disappeared, and all her friends had turned +against her in the bindery, declaring that she had eloped with the +handsome, dark-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>eyed stranger, he still believed her true. He had been +searching for her ever since, without rest—almost without food—day and +night, until he had almost worn himself out.</p> + +<p>He believed she was in the city somewhere, that she had been ashamed to +return to the bindery after that scene on the steamer, and had gone some +place else to work, and he walked the streets for hours at a time, +searching for her among the crowds of working-girls as they trooped down +Broadway in laughing, chattering groups each evening, only to turn away, +alas! disappointed and almost broken-hearted.</p> + +<p>And thus another month dragged its slow length by. It was well that he +did not know where Dorothy was, or what was occurring during those days +of suspense.</p> + +<p>The news of her betrothal to handsome Harry Kendal had spread over the +entire village, and it caused no little sensation in Yonkers, on the +outskirts of which Gray Gables was situated; for every one had said that +this was the way the affair would terminate when the doctor brought the +handsome young stranger beneath the same roof with dashing, dark-eyed +Harry Kendal, the <i>beau-idéal</i> of all the girls.</p> + +<p>But there was some disappointment when they learned that the marriage +would not take place for nearly half a year yet.</p> + +<p>"It's all very well <i>now</i>, with rosy love in their sky; but delays are +dangerous," said some people, shaking their heads ominously.</p> + +<p>Dorothy was as happy as the day was long, for she was learning to fairly +adore her lover, and treated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> him in a childish fashion which rather +amused every one who saw them together.</p> + +<p>If he brought her a box of <i>bonbons</i> she would spring up and throw her +arms about his neck, like an overgrown baby, and end by giving him a +hearty smack straight on the lips—no matter who was present.</p> + +<p>Once or twice he had attempted to expostulate with her sternly, coldly, +but his manner so frightened her that she almost went into hysterics, +and turning away with a white, set face, he would say no more.</p> + +<p>What could he expect? he asked himself, grimly. He had asked an +untutored school-girl to be his wife—he had sown the wind, and now he +was commencing to reap the whirlwind. Every one else seemed highly +delighted over Dorothy's childish, romping ways; but as for himself, +they rankled upon his proud, sensitive, haughty nature.</p> + +<p>He loved her in such a cool, lordly manner, and poor little Dorothy was +always impressed with his superiority. She was obliged to acknowledge +that Harry Kendal was her master. She could never make him her slave.</p> + +<p>At this juncture an event happened that changed the current of poor +Dorothy's after life. It was election night, and the bonfires were +blazing on hill and vale, and all the young people of the village were +wild with enthusiasm over the affair.</p> + +<p>A great bonfire had been built in the road in front of Gray Gables, as +had been the custom for years. The old doctor had been very patriotic.</p> + +<p>"This year there is no one to cheer the boys on in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> their good work," +said the housekeeper, sadly, as they were all standing out on the porch.</p> + +<p>"I'll do it," cried Dorothy, and before the echo of her words had died +away rousing cheers broke from her lips, that were answered back +heartily by the crowd assembled with an enthusiastic "Hip, hip, hurrah, +and a tiger!" for the young lady of Gray Gables.</p> + +<p>Kendal was mortally angry, and his face grew dark. He strode up to her +and grasped her shoulder, his fingers unwittingly clinching deeply into +the soft flesh.</p> + +<p>"For Heaven's sake, stop, you tom-boy!" he cried. "Stop disgracing me!"</p> + +<p>She flung up her little head proudly. If he had spoken to her alone she +would not have cared, but before all these people! Oh, it was +unbearable. She would resent it if it killed her.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_IX" id="Chapter_IX"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter IX.</span></h2> + + +<p>For an instant their eyes met—his blazing dark and stormy in the clear, +bright moonlight, and his face white and wrathy; even his hands were +clinched fiercely.</p> + +<p>All in an instant the old fire and pride blazed up in Dorothy Glenn's +heart.</p> + +<p>"You shall not coerce me as if I were your very slave!" she said, +smiting her little hands together and pushing him from her, forgetting +in her great anger whether or not her action accorded well with her +dignity. "They cheered me, and I shall respond!" and before he could +utter one word of protest she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> sped like a swallow down the graveled +path and out through the great arched gateway into the very midst of the +throng of merry maidens and young men who were gathered with hilarious +glee around the roaring bonfire.</p> + +<p>The great stacks of burning barrels and boxes sent forth a glare of red +light and columns of flame shooting skyward, lighting up the scene with +a grand, weird beauty that lent a splendor to the night.</p> + +<p>Great sparks flew heavenward, and the crackling sounds mingled with the +rousing cheers that rent the air.</p> + +<p>They all saw Dorothy, the village favorite, flying toward them, and the +great throng parted to make way for her. Then the sport of the evening +went on with renewed vigor.</p> + +<p>"Pile on the barrels!" cried one enthusiastic fellow. "Whether the +election is going Democratic or Republican, let's all give three cheers +for the incoming governor!" and a loud huzza that made the old town ring +broke from a couple of hundred throats, but mingled with it sounded a +wild cry of mortal terror in Dorothy's agonizing voice.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my God! my eyes—my eyes! the sparks—the sparks have flown into +them! They are burning! Oh, God!"</p> + +<p>And with that agonizing cry she fell backward in a dead faint in the +midst of the dazed crowd.</p> + +<p>In an instant the greatest confusion prevailed, and the shouts of +laughter were turned to sobs of wailing.</p> + +<p>Kind hands quickly raised her and bore her to the house. We will pass +gently, dear reader, over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> two weeks that followed, for Gray Gables +was buried in the deepest sorrow.</p> + +<p>One of the most pitiful calamities that ever could have befallen a human +being had happened to beautiful, hapless Madcap Dorothy. Poor child! she +was blind!</p> + +<p>Never again would she see the light of the golden sunshine—never again +see the green, waving grass and the budding flowerets—never see the +blue sky, with its fleecy clouds, or the heavens at night blazing with +the soft, pale light of the twinkling stars—never again look upon a +human face. But while her life lasted she would grope through a world of +darkness—blind!</p> + +<p>The shock had been terrible to both Mrs. Kemp and Harry Kendal, and oh! +in her pitiful condition how she clung to them!</p> + +<p>"You will not throw me off now because I am blind, Harry?" she wailed, +laying her head against his bosom and weeping as she had never before +wept in all her young life.</p> + +<p>"No!" he said, huskily; and that promise reassured her.</p> + +<p>She clasped her white arms around his neck and clung to him in the +abandonment of her pitiful woe.</p> + +<p>She was wild and willful Madcap Dorothy no longer.</p> + +<p>During the first days of her trial friends flocked to see her, but as +they grew used to the situation they dropped off, and she was left with +only the old housekeeper, and her lover, and the servants of Gray Gables +for her companions.</p> + +<p>At first she grieved over the terrible calamity with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> all the bitterness +of her soul, then by degrees she became reconciled to it.</p> + +<p>But the one great anxiety of her life was in regard to her lover. He had +promised to love her still and be true to her; but would he—would he? +The very thought alarmed her soul and became the one terror of her life.</p> + +<p>The blind are always acute in other senses.</p> + +<p>She felt intuitively, as the days wore on, that he was growing cold +toward her. It was pitiful to see her grasp the hands of the little maid +that had been engaged to take care of her, and hear her beg her to dress +her prettily, and to see that every curl was in place, and the lace at +her throat and sleeves fresh and white.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Katy, do I look very horrible?" she would whisper, in a breath of +intense agony, over and over again a hundred times during the day. "Are +there not cruel scars on my face? Oh, God! the terrible fire burned my +eyes to their sockets—dry. Surely I must be a thing so horrible to the +sight, that people who see me turn away quickly, suppressing a cry on +their lips. Is it not so?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, miss! Believe me, there is not a scar on your pretty face. Your +cheeks have lost a little of their bloom, that is all, and the white +lids gently cover your poor eyes, and the long lashes sweep your cheeks. +You look as though you were walking in your sleep."</p> + +<p>"But tell me, Katy," sobbed Dorothy, "do you think Harry does—do you +think Harry could love me as well as before?"</p> + +<p>"And why not, miss?" returned the little maid.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> "Surely, with your +affliction, he should love you doubly more than he ever did before. You +needn't fear about my not dressing you in your prettiest, Miss Dorothy. +Sure, I'm always making little bows and fancy things for your dresses, +and twining the loveliest of flowers in your pretty golden hair!"</p> + +<p>Dorothy would smile faintly, piteously, and sigh ever so gently.</p> + +<p>Oh, God! the pity of groping around those rooms day in and day out! What +mattered it if she sat by the open window, as she had been wont to do? +She could not see her lover strolling under the maple-trees, even though +she heard his voice and knew he was there.</p> + +<p>She would look upon his darkly handsome face never again in this world; +and at times Dorothy's soul grew so bitter over her terrible misfortune +that she wished she could die. As for Harry Kendal, after the first +shock of intense pity over Dorothy's unhappy fate was past, he grew +morose and taciturn.</p> + +<p>It was bad enough to wed a maiden whom he did not love with all his +heart and soul—such as he had heard it expressed in the burning, +eloquent words of authors and poets—but to go through life with a blind +woman at his side! The very thought made his soul shudder and grow sick +within him.</p> + +<p>He dared not make any attempt to break their engagement just then, for +public sentiment was strongly with the girl; but the chains that bound +him to her began to grow very heavy.</p> + +<p>Surely she ought not wish to hold him in thraldom now. It was irksome +for him to go where she was, to passively receive her caresses as well +as attempt to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> stay her burning tears, and to be obliged to assure her +over and over again, with every breath, that he would be sure to be true +to her.</p> + +<p>Alas! what a slender thread of circumstances in this world changes our +fate for weal or for woe!</p> + +<p>Ever since the accident had happened, and the doctors had all pronounced +the terrible decree that poor Dorothy would go through life totally +blind, the poor old housekeeper had been maturing a plan in her head +which she thought would be a world of comfort to the poor girl.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kemp had a niece whom she had kept at boarding-school all the +girl's life, for she was an orphan, and she said to herself: "How grand +a plan it would be to bring the girl to Gray Gables to be a companion to +Dorothy until she marries!"</p> + +<p>Her niece was a bright, gay creature, and would be just the one to cheer +Dorothy up.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kemp concluded to put this plan into execution at once, as there +was no one to say nay in regard to it, and she wrote to her niece to +come on without delay, little dreaming that this one action would prove +the curse of three lives—aye, the bitterest curse that ever wrung a +human heart, and that heart poor, hapless Dorothy's.</p> + +<p>Ah, me! how often in this world that which we mean for the greatest good +turns out the source of the cruelest woe.</p> + +<p>Dorothy heard of the plan, and agreed to it eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you—thank you for the happy thought, Mrs. Kemp!" she cried; +"for I am lonely—so pitifully lonely. Yes, I would give the world for a +girl of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> own age to be a companion to me until—until I marry Harry."</p> + +<p>Kendal received the intelligence with a look of interest in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"When does your niece come, Mrs. Kemp?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"I expect Iris to come to-morrow," she replied. And on the following +afternoon Iris Vincent arrived.</p> + +<p>The carriage met her at the depot. Harry went for her himself. Dorothy +stood at the window, with Katy, her faithful little maid, awaiting Iris' +coming with the greatest impatience.</p> + +<p>At last the carriage stopped before the arched gateway, and she heard +the sound of voices, then a peal of light, girlish laughter ringing out +above all the rest.</p> + +<p>"Has she come?" whispered Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"Yes, miss," murmured the little maid, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"What is she like?" questioned Dorothy, eagerly.</p> + +<p>Faithful little Katy looked out of the window, then at Dorothy, a sudden +lump rising in her throat and a great fear at her heart.</p> + +<p>She dared not tell her that the strange young girl was as beautiful as a +poet's dream—slim as a young willow, dressed in the height of fashion, +and, worse still—oh, a thousand times worse!—she was bringing all her +charms to bear upon handsome Harry Kendal, who was walking up the +graveled walk with her.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you answer me?" cried Dorothy, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"She—she is about your height," stammered Katy, "and—and she is very +plain, and—and not so fair as you;" and Katy lifted up her face to +heaven, clasping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> her hands, whispering to herself: "May God forgive me! +It is my first lie!"</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_X" id="Chapter_X"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter X.</span></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Kemp hastened to the door to meet her niece, and the next moment +the echo of a gay young voice, bright and joyous, rang through the +corridor.</p> + +<p>"She must be a very happy girl, and light of heart," sighed Dorothy.</p> + +<p>Katy, the maid, had nothing to say. Much to Dorothy's surprise, they did +not come to the room in which she was awaiting them, and she heard them +go on to the drawing-room, and the door close behind them.</p> + +<p>Ten, twenty minutes, half an hour passed, still they did not come to +her, though the sound of their merry laughter fell upon her ears from +time to time. Katy tried to arouse her mistress' interest, but it was +useless—the girl never moved from her position, sitting pale and white +in the great arm-chair, with her sightless eyes turned toward the door.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she turned to Katy with a great sob.</p> + +<p>"They have forgotten me," she said.</p> + +<p>Katy had come to this conclusion long before.</p> + +<p>"I will tell them you are waiting," she replied, and as she spoke she +hurried from the room to the drawing-room. On the threshold she came +face to face with Mr. Kendal, and at a glance she could not help but +notice the happy, flushed look on his face.</p> + +<p>"Miss Dorothy sent me in search of you, sir," she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> said, with a low +courtesy. The smile on his lips died away in an instant, giving place to +a dark frown of impatience.</p> + +<p>"What does she want?" he asked, sharply.</p> + +<p>"She says she is so lonesome, sir, and sent me to tell you so."</p> + +<p>"Is there a minute of my life that she is not sending for me—expecting +me to be at her beck and call?" he said. "I am going out into the +conservatory to get some flowers for Miss Vincent. I guess it won't hurt +Dorothy to wait a little while, will it?"</p> + +<p>"Is that what I shall tell her?" asked the girl, quietly.</p> + +<p>"Tell her whatever you like," he said to the girl, hurrying on and +leaving her standing there with a very white, sorrowful face.</p> + +<p>Slowly she walked back to the breakfast-room, her heart burning with +indignation. Dorothy met her eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Are they coming?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Very soon now, miss," replied Katy.</p> + +<p>"What delayed them?"</p> + +<p>"I—I think they were getting a cup of tea for the strange young lady, +miss. You know she came quite a long way, and she must be very tired."</p> + +<p>"Why, that is very true," said Dorothy. "I wonder that I never thought +of that before. It seemed as though I was not missed," and a sigh +trembled over the girl's pale lips as she spoke.</p> + +<p>A few moments later Kendal's step was heard in the corridor.</p> + +<p>Dorothy sprang eagerly to meet him, and threw her arms impulsively +around his neck.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>Was it only her fancy, or did he draw back from the usual caress as +though he did not care to receive it?</p> + +<p>Oh! surely not. Since this horrible blindness had come upon her, her +imagination was running riot against her judgment. The one great fear of +her life was that he might cease to love her, now that this great +affliction had come upon her, and she noted every word, every action, +and every touch of his dear hand, and weighed it over in her mind, for +hours at a time, when she found herself alone.</p> + +<p>God pity her if that love should ever fail her!</p> + +<p>"Shall Miss Vincent see me soon, Harry?" she asked, nestling her head +against his shoulder, her little hands seeking his.</p> + +<p>"Very soon now," he responded. Was it her fancy, or did even his voice +seem changed?</p> + +<p>"Do you like her?" asked Dorothy, wistfully.</p> + +<p>"Like her?" he cried. "Why, she is charming!"</p> + +<p>"Is she fair of face?" asked Dorothy, slowly.</p> + +<p>"The most beautiful girl I have ever seen!" he cried, enthusiastically, +all forgetful of the girl by his side, to whom his troth was plighted.</p> + +<p>The words struck Dorothy's heart with a cold chill, as a blast of icy +winter wind strikes death to the heart of a tender hot-house flower when +its chill breath sweeps across it.</p> + +<p>"They say you went down to the train to meet her," said Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"Yes; Mrs. Kemp wanted me to," he responded; "and I shall never forget +that meeting with her niece while life lasts, it was so ludicrous. I +arrived at the depot just as the train had stopped, and the passengers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +were already pouring from the car. In my haste to reach the throng I +slipped upon a banana peel, and the next instant I was plunging headlong +forward, bumping straight into an old lady carrying numerous bundles and +boxes, who had just alighted from the train.</p> + +<p>"There was a crash and a yell, and a roar of laughter from the +by-standers; and no wonder, for I had crashed directly into a huge jar +of jam which she held in her hand, and in less time than it takes to +tell it I was completely besmeared with it from head to foot. For once +in my life I got enough jam in my mouth, and as I scrambled to my feet I +beheld a young lady standing before me screaming with laughter.</p> + +<p>"At a glance I knew it could be none other than Miss Vincent. What I +said as I hastily stepped up to her is but a confused memory to me. I +managed to articulate that I had been sent from Gray Gables with a +carriage for her. The more I said the more she screamed with laughter, +in which I could not help joining to have saved my life.</p> + +<p>"'What! ride through the town with a jammed-up man like that!' she +ejaculated. 'Why, that would be too sweet for anything—so sweet that +all the bees in the clover fields we passed would come flying after us +to enjoy the sport.'</p> + +<p>"The laugh that followed fairly made the rafters of the old depot ring; +and at this juncture a friend in need came to my assistance—one of my +old chums—and in a trice had stripped off my coat and hat, and replaced +them by a new overcoat and Derby hat which he had just purchased. And +when the luckless jam was washed from my face 'Richard was himself +again.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>"'Now you look something like a respectable human being,' she declared, +as I helped her into the carriage.</p> + +<p>"And all during the drive home we had the greatest kind of a laugh over +my ludicrous mishap. It was forming each other's acquaintance under +difficulties, as she phrased it. I can truthfully say that I never was +so much embarrassed before a young girl in all my life. But do you know, +Dorothy," he went on, "that that laughable incident which happened made +us better acquainted with each other during that half hour's ride home +than if we had met under ordinary circumstances and known each other for +long months?"</p> + +<p>Dorothy laughed heartily at the highly amusing scene which he pictured +so graphically, and said to herself that now she could understand why +Harry and this strange young girl were laughing so gayly together as +they came up the graveled walk.</p> + +<p>"You will be sure to like her," cried Harry, enthusiastically. "I will +go and fetch her to you now."</p> + +<p>But just as he was about to put his intention into execution, they heard +the voice of Mrs. Kemp and her niece outside, and they entered an +instant later.</p> + +<p>"Dorothy," said Mrs. Kemp, "my niece, Iris, is here. Iris, this is +Dorothy. I am sure you two girls will love each other dearly."</p> + +<p>Dorothy, turned hastily toward the direction from whence the sound +proceeded, holding out her little white hands nervously, a great hectic +flush stealing up into her pale face.</p> + +<p>"Welcome to Gray Gables, Miss Vincent—Iris," she said in her sweet, +tremulous, girlish voice. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>—I would cross the room to where you are +standing, if I could, but I can not. I can not look upon your face to +welcome you, for—I am—blind!"</p> + +<p>There was a <i>frou-frou</i> of skirts upon the velvet carpet, and the next +moment Iris Vincent's arms were about her.</p> + +<p>"There could not be a sweeter welcome, Dorothy—if I may call you +so—and I am sure we shall get on famously together," murmured Miss +Vincent, and a pair of ripe red lips met Dorothy's; but the kiss was as +light as the brush of a butterfly's wings against the petals of a rose, +and there was no warmth in the clasp of the soft, ringed fingers.</p> + +<p>Somehow, although the stranger's voice was sweet as the sound of a +silver lute, and her manner caressing, Dorothy did not feel quite at +home with her.</p> + +<p>"If I should judge by the tone of her voice and the words she utters, my +fancy would lead me to believe that she was very beautiful," thought +Dorothy. "But then Katy said that she was plain, very plain of face, +although Harry has said that she was beautiful. No doubt he wanted to +leave a good impression on my mind regarding her."</p> + +<p>The evening that followed was a happy one for Dorothy, because, even +without being coaxed, Harry signified his intention of remaining in the +house, instead of going out to the club, as was his custom.</p> + +<p>It had always been a deep grievance of Dorothy's that her musical +accomplishments were so meager.</p> + +<p>She only knew a few accompaniments that she had picked up, while Miss +Vincent played divinely.</p> + +<p>And her voice—ah! it sounded like the chiming of silver bells. And +then, too, she knew so many beauti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>ful songs, and they were all such +tender love songs.</p> + +<p>She was so glad that Harry liked them, too, and her poor face would +flush scarlet, and her white lids droop over her sightless eyes, as the +sweet singer's voice rose and thrilled over some tender love words; for +she felt sure that her Harry was looking at her with all love's tender +passion in his glorious dark eyes.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XI" id="Chapter_XI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XI.</span></h2> + + +<p>It was quite late when the group that was gathered in the drawing-room +dispersed that evening; but when the girls found themselves alone in +their own room, which they were to share together, they sat down for a +comfortable chat ere they retired.</p> + +<p>"Do you think you will like Gray Gables?" asked Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"It seems pleasant enough," returned Iris, with a yawn; "but it's not +the house so much, it's the people in the neighborhood. Are there many +young folks hereabouts?"</p> + +<p>"Quite a number."</p> + +<p>"Are they very jolly, or are they terribly dull?"</p> + +<p>"Well, about as jolly as Mr. Kendal," laughed Dorothy. "He's not so very +jolly, and yet he is wonderfully good company."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he is indeed," assented Miss Vincent. "Is he rich?" she asked, +point-blank, in the very next breath.</p> + +<p>"No," returned Dorothy; "but he may be well off some day, I hope."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>"Handsome and poor! That's too bad—that's a poor combination!" sighed +Miss Vincent, her countenance falling. "But tell me about him, Dorothy, +and—and how he ever happened to take a fancy to a quiet little mouse +like yourself. I have heard that it was your guardian's wish, as he was +dying, and that the idea was quite a surprise to him—to Mr. Kendal, I +mean. Is that true?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," assented Dorothy, thoughtlessly enough.</p> + +<p>She would not have answered the question in that way could she have seen +the eager anxiety on the face of the girl who asked it.</p> + +<p>"Does he make love to you very much?" whispered Iris, laying her soft +cheek close against the blind girl's. "Forgive the question, but, do you +know, I have always had a longing to know just what engaged people said +to each other and how they acted—whether they grew more affectionate, +or, after the grand climax of an engagement had been entered into, +if—if somehow they did not act a little constrained toward each other."</p> + +<p>Dorothy laughed long and merrily at the quaint ideas of her new friend. +But, then, no doubt all girls wished to know that. She had done so +herself once.</p> + +<p>"You do not answer me," murmured Miss Vincent. "Now, please don't be +unkind, Dorothy, when I'm just dying to know."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Dorothy, waxing very confidential, after the fashion of +girls, "I'll tell you <i>my</i> experience; but mind, I don't say that it is +like every other girl's. Harry has been just a trifle bashful ever since +the afternoon that he asked me to—to be his wife, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> just a little +constrained; but I always account for it in this way: that he does not +want me to think him silly and spoony. He has grown, oh! ever so +dignified. Why, he hardly ever says anything more about love—he thinks +he has said all there is to say. And his caresses are the same way—just +a little bit constrained, you know."</p> + +<p>Iris Vincent had learned all she cared to know.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, dear, ever so much, for gratifying my curiosity," she said +aloud; but in her own heart she said:</p> + +<p>"I knew it—I knew it! Handsome Harry Kendal does not love this girl +with whom they have forced him into a betrothal. No wonder he looks sad +and melancholy, with a prospect before him of marrying a blind wife! Ah, +me! it is too dreadful a fate to even contemplate."</p> + +<p>She looked complacently in the mirror at her own face. Well might Harry +Kendal have remarked that it was as beautiful as a poet's dream.</p> + +<p>Nothing could have been more exquisitely lovely than the deep, velvety, +violet eyes, almost purple in their glorious depths, and the bronze-gold +hair, such as Titian loved to paint, that fell in heavy curls to her +slender waist.</p> + +<p>One would scarcely meet in a life-time a girl of such wondrous +loveliness. Iris was only twenty, but already she had broken hearts by +the score.</p> + +<p>She had only to smile at a man with those ripe, red, perfect lips, and +give him one glance from those mesmeric eyes, and he was straightway her +slave. And she gloried in her power.</p> + +<p>Thrice she had broken up betrothals, and three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> young girls were +heart-broken in consequence, and had lifted up their anguished voices +and cursed her for her fatal beauty. But Iris only laughed her mellow, +wicked little laugh when she heard of it, and said:</p> + +<p>"Poor little simpletons! Before they engage themselves they ought to +have been sure that they held their lovers' hearts completely. It were +better for them to realize before than after marriage that the men they +meant to stake their all upon could prove fickle at the first +opportunity when a pretty girl crossed their paths."</p> + +<p>And who could say that there was not some little truth in this?</p> + +<p>The two girls whose paths were to cross so bitterly slept peacefully +side by side that night; but long after Iris' eyes had closed in +slumber, Dorothy lay awake with oh! such a heavy load on her heart.</p> + +<p>She wished she was gay and bright, like Iris, and oh! what would she not +have given only to see—only to see once again! And she turned her face +to where she knew the moonlight lay in great yellow bars on the floor, +and sobbed as she had never sobbed since she had become blind, and fell +asleep with the tear-drops staining her pale face, a long, deep sigh +trembling over her lips.</p> + +<p>Both girls awoke early the next morning.</p> + +<p>"When do you have breakfast?" asked Iris, with a yawn.</p> + +<p>"At eight o'clock," said Dorothy; "so we need not be in a hurry about +getting up. It can not be more than six now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear! then I shall have to get up at once," cried Iris; "for it +takes me fully that long to dress."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>"Two hours!" cried Dorothy, amazed, adding: "Why, just put on a wrapper. +Nobody here ever thinks of making a toilet to appear at the +breakfast-table. There is no one but Mrs. Kemp, Harry, you and I."</p> + +<p>She could not catch Iris' unintelligible reply, but she noticed that the +girl was not to be persuaded.</p> + +<p>She commenced dressing at once.</p> + +<p>Soon Dorothy detected a strange odor of burning paper in the room.</p> + +<p>"What is that?" she cried, in alarm. "Oh, Miss Vincent, the house must +be on fire!"</p> + +<p>Iris laughed long and loud.</p> + +<p>"You delightful, innocent little goose!" she cried. "I am only curling +my bangs with an iron heated over the gas, and I'm trying the tongs on +paper to see that they are not too hot. I put my curls up in paper last +night, but the horrid old things wouldn't curl because of the damp +atmosphere, and—" She did not finish the sentence for Dorothy supplied +it in her own mind—"her new friend was desirous of looking her best."</p> + +<p>Harry was pacing impatiently up and down the breakfast-room when they +entered.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, Miss Vincent; good-morning, Dorothy!" he exclaimed, +eagerly; and Dorothy's heart gave a quick start, noting that he called +her name last.</p> + +<p>And another thing struck Dorothy quite forcibly. To her great surprise, +she noticed that Iris spoke in quite a different tone from what she did +when they were alone together in their own room.</p> + +<p>There her accents were drawling, but now they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> so wonderfully sweet +and musical that Dorothy was struck with wonder. She never knew that a +person could speak in two different tones of voice like this.</p> + +<p>At the breakfast-table the conversation was bright and merry, though +outside the rain had commenced to patter against the window-pane.</p> + +<p>Dorothy felt strangely diffident, for only a small portion of the +conversation was directed now and then to her, and Harry and Miss +Vincent kept up such a lively chatter that there was scarcely an +opportunity to get in a word edgewise.</p> + +<p>The conversation turned upon horseback riding, and it brought a strange +pang to Dorothy's heart, for that had been the most pleasurable +accomplishment she had learned during the first few weeks she had been +at Gray Gables, and she loved it passionately.</p> + +<p>In the very hour when they told her that she would for evermore be +blind—stone-blind—the cry that had sprung to her lips was, "And can I +never again ride Black Beauty?" and she bowed her head in a storm of +wild and tempestuous grief.</p> + +<p>For many a day after Harry would not even have the name of Black Beauty +mentioned in her hearing. And now how strange that he should bring up +the subject in her presence!</p> + +<p>"I am sorry it is raining, Miss Vincent," he said, "for I had promised +myself such a pleasure for this morning. I had intended asking you to +join me in a canter over the country. This is just the season of the +year to enjoy the bracing air. We have a little horse in the stable that +would delight you, if you are a judge of equine flesh. Its very name +indicates what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> it is—Black Beauty. You ride, of course?"—this +interrogatively.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!" declared Iris; "and I always thought it would be the height +of my ambition if I could own a horse."</p> + +<p>"That would be a very slight ambition to gratify," returned Harry +Kendal. "You may have—"</p> + +<p>He was about to add, "Black Beauty," but at that instant his eyes fell +upon Dorothy. She was leaning forward, her sightless eyes turned in his +direction, with a world of anguish in them that would have melted a +heart of stone.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kemp saw the storm approaching, and said, hastily:</p> + +<p>"I have always been thinking of buying a pony for my niece, and if she +is a very good girl, she may get one for Christmas."</p> + +<p>Harry looked his thanks to Mrs. Kemp for coming to his rescue so timely.</p> + +<p>Dorothy lingered after the others had left the breakfast-room, and +called to Harry to wait a minute, as she wished to speak with him.</p> + +<p>He had a guilty conscience; he knew what was coming. She meant to ask +him if he intended offering Black Beauty to Miss Vincent, and, of +course, he made up his mind to deny it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XII" id="Chapter_XII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XII.</span></h2> + + +<p>The long weeks that had passed since the never-to-be-forgotten steamboat +incident on Labor Day passed like a nightmare to poor Jack Garner.</p> + +<p>Slowly but surely the knowledge had come to him that Dorothy, his little +sweetheart, had faded like a dream from his life; and as this became a +settled fact in his mind, his whole nature seemed to change.</p> + +<p>He grew reckless, morbid, and gay by turns, until his old mother grew +terrified, fearing for his reason. His whole heart had been in his work +before and his one aim in life had been to make money.</p> + +<p>He had saved quite a snug little sum, which he very prudently placed in +the bank.</p> + +<p>Now, to his mother's horror, his recklessness lost him his position, and +he did not have enough ambition to try and secure another place, but +commenced to draw his little hoard from the bank, and his money was +disappearing like snow before a summer's sun.</p> + +<p>He began coming in late at nights, as well, and the widow, who listened +for his footsteps, cried out in anguish: "Would to God that I had died +ere I had lived to see this horrible change take place in my idolized +son!"</p> + +<p>His cousin Barbara keenly felt the change in him. It was she who +comforted the poor old mother, and who pleaded with Jack to try and take +up the duties of life again, and to forget faithless Dorothy.</p> + +<p>But he would only shake his head, and answer that he would never cease +to love Dorothy and search for her while life lasted. But troubles never +seem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> to come singly. One day, as Jack was pacing restlessly up and down +Broadway—the vantage-ground which he always sought at six o'clock each +evening, to scan the faces of the working-girls as they passed, with the +lingering hope in his heart that some day, sooner or later, his +vigilance would be rewarded by seeing Dorothy—a terrible accident +happened which almost cost him his life.</p> + +<p>An old sign on one of the corner buildings, which had done service many +a year, suddenly fell, and Jack—poor Jack, was knocked senseless to the +pavement.</p> + +<p>Surely it was the workings of Providence that Jessie Staples happened +along just at that critical moment.</p> + +<p>With a wild, bitter cry she sprang forward, flinging herself upon the +prostrate body, shrieking out as she saw his handsome, white face with +the stains of blood upon it:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Heaven have mercy! It is Jack—Jack Garner!"</p> + +<p>Kindly hands raised him. No, he was not dead—only stunned, and terribly +bruised.</p> + +<p>A cab was hastily summoned, and, accompanied by Jessie, he was taken +home.</p> + +<p>The girl broke the sad news gently to Jack's mother and to Barbara. It +was many and many a day before Jack left his couch; the accident had +proved more dangerous than had been at first anticipated, for brain +fever had set in.</p> + +<p>Every day on her way home from the book-bindery Jessie would go several +blocks out of her way to see how Jack was getting along, and Barbara and +his mother soon discovered that it was something more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> than mere +friendship that actuated the girl's visits. Although against their +expostulations, every cent that she could scrape together, over and +above the cost of the bare necessities of her living, she would expend +for fruit to bring to Jack.</p> + +<p>"I feel such a great pity for him," she would say; "for he has never, +never been the same since Dorothy disappeared so suddenly." And they +would look at the girl with wistful eyes, realizing that in her case, +surely, pity was akin to love.</p> + +<p>They guessed Jessie's secret long before she knew it herself, and they +felt sorry for her; for they knew her hopes were useless—that Jack +could never return the girl's love.</p> + +<p>Jack's mother and Barbara talked the matter over carefully, and +concluded that it was best for the girl's peace of mind to break up this +infatuation, if they could, at once.</p> + +<p>At this epoch an event happened which turned the tide of affairs into a +strange channel.</p> + +<p>By the death of a relative Jack suddenly found himself possessed of a +fortune.</p> + +<p>He heard the startling news with a white, calm, unmoved face, while his +mother and Barbara almost went wild with joy over it.</p> + +<p>"It matters little to me now," he said. "Wealth has no charms for me." +And they well knew why.</p> + +<p>The intelligence came like a thunderbolt to Jessie Staples.</p> + +<p>It was Mrs. Garner who told about it while the family were gathered +about the tea-table.</p> + +<p>The girl's face grew white as death, and she looked over at Jack with +startled eyes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>Before she could ask the question that sprang to her lips, Mrs. Garner +added:</p> + +<p>"Of course this will make a great change in Jack's prospects. He says +that we shall soon leave the little cottage and go out West +somewhere—Barbara and I and himself—and that we will leave New York +City far behind us, as there is no tie that binds him here now."</p> + +<p>Jessie tried to speak, but the words refused to come to her icy lips. +She made an effort to raise her eyes to Jack's face, with a careless +smile; but it was a failure—a dire failure.</p> + +<p>The table seemed to suddenly rise and dance before her.</p> + +<p>She rose hastily, with a wild prayer that she might get quickly out of +the room, for she felt her throat choking up with great sobs, and +realized that in an instant more she would have burst into tears.</p> + +<p>Poor Jessie Staples took one step forward, then fell unconscious at +Jack's feet.</p> + +<p>"Why, what in the world can be the matter with Jessie?" he cried, +raising her in his strong arms. "Is she ill? Let us send for a +physician—quick!"</p> + +<p>"Stay!" said his mother, as he deposited Jessie on the sofa and turned +quickly to put this last thought into execution. "Jessie's trouble is +one which no physician can alleviate. It is an affair of the heart."</p> + +<p>Jack looked at his mother in amazement.</p> + +<p>"An affair of the heart?" he repeated. "Surely not, mother. Why, I have +known Jessie ever since I can remember, and I never knew her to have a +beau."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she has given her heart to some one who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> does not return her +love—who may not even know of it," suggested Mrs. Garner, quietly.</p> + +<p>"Impossible," declared Jack. "I have known her for years, I say, and if +there was an affair of the heart between Jessie and any of the young men +at the bindery, I should have known something of it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garner came nearer and laid her hand on her son's arm.</p> + +<p>"Are you <i>sure</i>, Jack?" she asked, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>He gave a great start.</p> + +<p>"I know of one whom she loves, and who, she knows, never thinks of her. +When his life hung in jeopardy her secret was revealed to me."</p> + +<p>"Surely you <i>do not</i>—you <i>can not</i> mean, mother—that she—that I—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is what I mean," returned Mrs. Garner, quietly. "Jessie +Staples loves <i>you</i>, my boy; but do not be hard on the poor girl. +Remember, love goes where it is sent. She never intended that you should +know it. She did not breathe a word about it to any one. It was by the +merest chance that we made the discovery, and she does not dream that we +know it."</p> + +<p>Jack sank down in the nearest chair, quite overcome with dismay.</p> + +<p>His mother came and bent over him, smoothing the fair hair back from his +damp brow with a trembling hand, but uttering no word.</p> + +<p>At last he broke the deep silence:</p> + +<p>"What am I to say—what am I to do, mother, if—if—your surmises be +actually true?"</p> + +<p>"They are not surmises, my boy," returned his mother; "they are truths."</p> + +<p>"You know that I like Jessie," he went on, huskily;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> "but as for any +other sentiment—why, it would be impossible. My life will always be +tinged with the bitter sorrow of that other love-dream which was so +cruelly shattered. I—I wish to Heaven you had not told me your +suspicions about Jessie, mother."</p> + +<p>"Her secret fell from my lips in an unguarded moment," she answered, +slowly, "and I am sorry you know all. Yet it must be a source of comfort +to you to know that although Dorothy Glenn was false to you, there is +<i>one</i> heart which beats only for you."</p> + +<p>Jack started to his feet, a dull pallor creeping into his face as he +drew back from his mother's touch.</p> + +<p>"Dorothy is <i>not false</i> to me!" he cried. "If an angel from heaven +should tell me so I would not believe it. She is my betrothed bride. She +wears my betrothal-ring upon her little hand. No matter where she is, +she is true to me—true as God's promise. Shame has caused her to hide +herself from me, because she was so foolish as to go with another on an +excursion on Labor Day. But I have forgiven all that long ago. Oh, +Heaven! if I could but let her know it!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garner shook her head.</p> + +<p>"A young girl who can leave you for months without a word does not care +for you, my boy," she answered, sadly. "Surely there is great truth in +the words that 'Love is blind,' if you can not be made to see this."</p> + +<p>Still the noble lover shook his head. There was no power on earth strong +enough to shake his faith in Dorothy's love.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garner had said all that she could say for Jessie, and she bowed +her head, and great tears rolled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> down her cheeks. She felt great pity +for Jessie. Why could not her son love her? She had heard the story of +jilted lovers turning to some sympathizing heart for solace, and in time +learning to love their consoler, and she wondered if this might not +mercifully happen to her darling, idolized boy.</p> + +<p>She watched him as he paced excitedly up and down the room. Suddenly he +turned to her, and during all the long after years of sorrow and pain +she never forgot the expression of his face.</p> + +<p>"Mother!" he cried, hoarsely, "if my Dorothy ever proved false to me, I +should be tempted to—to—kill her—and—then—kill—myself!"</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XIII" id="Chapter_XIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XIII.</span></h2> + + +<p>The <i>contretemps</i> which had been so cleverly averted—of giving the +pony, Black Beauty, to Miss Vincent, and Dorothy's keen +resentment—should have proved a lesson to Harry Kendal and warned him +not to play with edged tools.</p> + +<p>He was a little careful of what he said to Iris for the next few days, +when Dorothy was present; but gradually this restraint began to wear +off, and he grew to be almost reckless in the way he laughed and carried +on with the girl, even though his <i>fiancée</i> was in the room. This +attention was certainly not discouraged by Iris Vincent.</p> + +<p>He smiled to see her go in raptures over everything in and about Gray +Gables, and she, with her glorious dark eyes, always smiled back at him. +Their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> chats grew longer and more frequent; they were fast becoming +excellent friends.</p> + +<p>They had sent for Iris Vincent to become Dorothy's companion, but it was +whispered among the old servants of the household that she was proving +herself to be more frequently the companion of Mr. Kendal, and they +talked about it in alarm, wondering how it would all end. They felt +indignant, too, that such a bold flirtation—for it had certainly come +to that—should be carried on right in the face of poor, blind Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"Some one ought to give her a hint of what is going on," cried indignant +little Katy, the maid. But there was no one who could find it in his or +her heart to warn her of what was transpiring. The blow would be more +than she could bear, for she loved Harry Kendal better than life itself.</p> + +<p>They wondered if little Dorothy guessed that he led Iris to the table, +while she, blind as she was, groped her way as best she could to her own +seat. They hated to see him lavish attentions on the beauty, and it +drove them almost out of their self-possession to see their eyes meet in +that provoking, mutual smile.</p> + +<p>Dorothy was beginning to feel Harry's neglect, but no thought of the +true cause of it ever dawned upon her.</p> + +<p>Ah! could she have seen how they paced the grounds together arm in arm, +and how near they sat together on the step of the front porch, and in +what a lover-like manner he bent his dark head over her little, white +hands, the sight would have killed Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if they think we are fools!" whispered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> the servants, +indignantly, one to the other; and their blood boiled with rage at this +open love-making.</p> + +<p>But even the attention of handsome Harry Kendal seemed to pall upon the +beauty. Gray Gables was dull; she wanted more life, more gayety.</p> + +<p>"Why not give a grand ball," she suggested, "and invite the whole +country-side?"</p> + +<p>She longed for more hearts to conquer. Iris was one of those vain, +shallow girls who must and will have a sentimental flirtation with some +young man always on hand. She, like those of her mischievous class, +really meant no harm while doing a great deal of wrong. Such a girl, +from mere vanity and pastime, will try to outshine a companion and even +win the heart of a betrothed lover from his sweetheart, caring little +for the broken vows and the ruined lives strewn along her path.</p> + +<p>Harry Kendal seized eagerly upon the idea, because it would please Iris. +Mrs. Kemp knew no other than her beautiful, willful niece's pleasure. No +one consulted Dorothy. She seemed to have been left entirely out of the +calculation.</p> + +<p>For the first time since Iris Vincent had come to Gray Gables, Dorothy +regretted her presence there.</p> + +<p>What would be the ball to her? Surely they ought to know that she could +take no part in it, for she was blind.</p> + +<p>When she found herself alone with Iris she spoke of this, but the girl +turned it off with a little laugh.</p> + +<p>"Even so," she declared, "Gray Gables ought not to be shut up and +barricaded. You need to have a little life to keep your spirits up. You +are just dying for some kind of liveliness. And poor Harry! every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> one +is feeling sorry for him. They say he is growing so dull."</p> + +<p>"Do they say that?" cried Dorothy, the color deepening in her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Yes—and more," assented Iris. "And for that reason I would advise you +to study appearances, so that every one may know that he is happy—at +least, let them think he is."</p> + +<p>The words struck Dorothy with a cold chill, as her companion had +intended that they should.</p> + +<p>"Then let the ball be given, by all means," returned Dorothy, with a +little quiver in her voice.</p> + +<p>And so the matter was arranged.</p> + +<p>For the next week Iris and Harry were busy with the invitations. They +sat side by side, comparing them as they made them out, and never once +seemed to note Dorothy's presence.</p> + +<p>If any one on the list did not quite suit their fancy, they were quickly +rejected; but Dorothy noticed that he never once turned to her, his +betrothed bride, and asked her opinion.</p> + +<p>There was one young girl to whom Dorothy had been quite attached, who +lived very near Gray Gables, and who had run over to see her almost +every day, up to the time Iris had come. Since then her visits had been +less and less frequent; within the last fortnight they had ceased +altogether.</p> + +<p>Dorothy was very anxious, of course, that this young girl should be +invited; but Iris put in a demurrer at once.</p> + +<p>"Of all the girls I ever met, I dislike her the most," declared Iris.</p> + +<p>She was very careful not to tell the real reason why.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>This same young girl had been the first to notice her flirtation with +Harry Kendal. They had had quite a stormy little scene over it, for the +girl had attempted to rebuke Iris, in her modest way, and she had +retorted by flashing out that it was none of her business, anyway, +saying that she would flirt with Harry Kendal just as much as she +pleased, and that it was a shame for such a handsome young fellow to +marry a girl stone blind.</p> + +<p>They had parted in anger. No wonder, we repeat, that Iris objected to +inviting Dorothy's friend to the grand ball.</p> + +<p>"Oh! of course we must invite her," said Dorothy, when her friend's name +was brought under discussion. "Mustn't we, Harry?"</p> + +<p>He turned away and walked moodily to the window without replying. If +Iris did not like her, that settled the matter. He dared not put in one +word in the girl's favor, though Dorothy was clamoring for his opinion.</p> + +<p>"You must settle the matter, Harry," said Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"Let me suggest a better way," he replied, gallantly, as he took his +seat at the table again. "You two girls arrange it between yourselves."</p> + +<p>"But we do not think we will come to an agreement," pouted Iris. "You +will have to choose for Dorothy and me."</p> + +<p>He gave her a startled, sweeping look, and she knew by that that he +would not dare go against her for Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"I must decline," he said again, for he felt nervous with those +sightless eyes turned eagerly in his direction.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>"You must say 'Yes' or 'No,'" said Dorothy, never dreaming that his +answer would be in the negative, for on the week that she had first come +to Gray Gables he had said: "I must introduce you at once to Alice Lee, +who lives across the way. She is a lovely, quiet girl, and I know you +will like her." And Dorothy had liked gentle Alice Lee.</p> + +<p>She thought of this now as the question of inviting her to the ball had +come up, and never for a moment had she doubted the result of his +decision.</p> + +<p>"You must answer 'Yes' or 'No,'" pouted Iris, impatiently. "Come, we are +wasting time."</p> + +<p>Iris leaned over close to his chair—so near that the dark rings of her +hair brushed his cheek, thrilling him to the soul.</p> + +<p>"You must choose," she whispered; and he knew that it was a challenge as +to which he should please—herself or Dorothy.</p> + +<p>Closer, closer still she leaned, until his very pulses grew mad with the +nearness of her presence, and with child-like confidence her soft little +hand crept into his, and nestled there securely.</p> + +<p>There was no one to see, though Dorothy—God help her!—sat so near her. +The touch of that little hand was magical. In the mad impulse of the +moment he raised it to his lips and kissed it, and Iris knew that she +had won the battle even before he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Alice Lee had better not be invited to the ball," he said, huskily. +"That is my decision."</p> + +<p>Dorothy sank back in her chair as though a sudden blow had been struck +her. She never once dreamed that her betrothed lover would decide +against her.</p> + +<p>It fairly took her breath away, and a sudden new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> sensation shot through +her heart that had never found lodgment there before.</p> + +<p>She drew back and said no more, a deathly pallor overspreading her face. +She did not interfere again, and she suffered them to arrange the +invitations after that to please themselves.</p> + +<p>She rose quietly at length and made her way to the window, great tears +rising to her sightless eyes.</p> + +<p>They did not even notice her absence, but chatted and laughed quite the +same.</p> + +<p>After they had finished Harry proposed that they should take the +invitations to be mailed. This Iris gayly assented to, and they left the +room without once making any excuse to Dorothy for leaving her there +alone.</p> + +<p>The fact was that they were not even aware that she had seated herself +in the bay window behind the great, heavy <i>portières</i>.</p> + +<p>For the first time Dorothy wished that Iris had not come. She was +already beginning to feel the weight of the iron hand that was soon to +crush her—jealousy.</p> + +<p>She awaited their coming with the greatest impatience, but it was long +hours ere they returned.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XIV" id="Chapter_XIV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XIV.</span></h2> + + +<p>Harry Kendal did not intend being untrue to Dorothy when he let himself +drift into that platonic friendship with Iris, the beauty, which had +developed into such a dangerous flirtation.</p> + +<p>Gradually the girl's fascinations seemed to over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>power him, and before +he quite realized it, Iris had become part and parcel of his life.</p> + +<p>On the way to the postoffice a little event had happened which had +almost changed the current of his life.</p> + +<p>They had taken the short cut from Gray Gables to the postoffice, which +lay over the hills, and were walking along arm in arm when suddenly +Iris' foot slipped upon a stone, and she stumbled headlong in the path +with a little, terrified cry.</p> + +<p>In an instant Harry had raised her, and to his utter consternation she +clung to him half fainting.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Kendal—Harry—I—I have sprained my ankle! I can not walk!" +she said; and a low cry of pain broke from her lips.</p> + +<p>He gathered her close in his arms, and did everything in his power to +soothe her.</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry—so sorry that I let you undertake this trip with me. Let +me carry you back to the house."</p> + +<p>"My—my ankle is not sprained," she faltered; "it was only wrenched a +little as it turned over against that stone. We will sit down on this +log a few moments, and after a little rest I will be all right again."</p> + +<p>To this Kendal willingly assented, but he did not remove his arm from +the slender waist.</p> + +<p>"I am so thankful that it is no worse, Iris," he breathed, huskily.</p> + +<p>"Would you have cared so very much if I had sprained my ankle?" she +faltered, looking up into his face with those great, dark, mesmeric eyes +that no one had ever yet been able to resist.</p> + +<p>He looked away from her quickly and did not reply.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>"Would you?" persisted Iris, in her low, musical voice.</p> + +<p>Throwing prudence to the winds, he turned to her suddenly and clasped +her still closer in his arms.</p> + +<p>"Does not your own heart teach you that, Iris?" he returned, hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"Oh! if I could only believe what my heart would fain tell me," she +murmured, "I—I would be so happy!"</p> + +<p>"If it told you that I—I love you," he cried, "then it would—"</p> + +<p>The rest of the sentence died away on his lips for there, directly in +the path before him, stood Mrs. Kemp. She might have been blind to all +her beautiful niece's short-comings, but she was not a woman to so mix +right and wrong as to permit Iris to listen to a word of love from one +she knew belonged, in the sight of God, to another.</p> + +<p>Iris was equal to the occasion.</p> + +<p>"Oh, aunt!" she cried, "I am so glad that you happened along just now. +I—I hurt my foot, and it was so painful that I had to sit down and +rest; and Mr. Kendal was kind enough to remain here with me a few +moments, although—although—besides the invitations we had to mail, he +had other important letters to go out to-day."</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure your ankle is not sprained, my dear?" cried Mrs. +Kemp, in alarm. "The wisest thing to do will be to come home with me at +once, and we will send for a doctor to examine it."</p> + +<p>Iris sprang to her feet with a wicked little laugh.</p> + +<p>"See, it is better now—almost as good as new,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> she declared, "thanks +to Mr. Kendal for insisting upon my sitting down here to rest."</p> + +<p>Had it been any one else but Iris, Kendal would have said the affair had +been a clever little ruse to give him the opportunity to make love to +her.</p> + +<p>But in this instance it never occurred to him but that Iris was telling +the plain facts—that her ankle had been wrenched, and with a few +moments' rest it was as good as ever again.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kemp looked greatly relieved.</p> + +<p>"We may as well be going," said Iris, hoping that her aunt would pass on +and leave them to enjoy the <i>téte-à-téte</i> which she had interrupted at +such an inopportune time.</p> + +<p>"I will go with you both as far as the postoffice," said Mrs. Kemp; and +the good soul did not notice the expression of annoyance on both faces, +and, very much against the will of each, she accompanied them there and +back.</p> + +<p>Iris was bitterly annoyed, but she was diplomatic enough to conceal it; +and she could see, too, by Harry's face that he was disappointed in +being so ruthlessly cheated out of a <i>téte-à-téte</i> with her.</p> + +<p>They loitered long by the way, trusting that Mrs. Kemp would become +impatient with their delay, and excuse herself, to get back to the house +in time to superintend dinner, which was quite a feature at Gray Gables.</p> + +<p>"You do not seem to be in any hurry to-day," laughed Iris, eyeing her +aunt sideways.</p> + +<p>"No; for it is not often that I indulge myself in going out for a +stroll," answered Mrs. Kemp, "and I need to make the most of it. If I am +not back at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> the usual time Dorothy will superintend affairs—bless her +dear little heart! Why, she's a regular little jewel about the house, +even with her affliction."</p> + +<p>This praise of Dorothy was anything but pleasant to Iris, especially +when Kendal was present, and she turned the conversation at once into +another channel.</p> + +<p>As they neared the house they met one of the servants hurrying down the +road.</p> + +<p>"You are the very person I am looking for, ma'am," he cried, +breathlessly. "There is something the matter with the range, and they +are all in a stew over it, not knowing what to do until you come."</p> + +<p>"Good gracious! if I step out of the house for a moment something is +sure to happen," cried the good old lady, despairingly. "Say that I will +be there directly, John;" and much to Iris' relief, she hurriedly left +them.</p> + +<p>"Why need we hasten?" said Kendal, in a low voice. "This is the +pleasantest part of the afternoon."</p> + +<p>"I am in no hurry," assented the girl.</p> + +<p>"We will linger here in this delightful spot, and I will gather you some +autumn leaves," cried Harry. "Would you like that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she assented; "if you will help me to weave them into garlands."</p> + +<p>"Nothing would give me more pleasure," he declared; "that is, if you are +not afraid of the old tradition becoming true."</p> + +<p>She looked up into his face, blushing as crimson as the heart of a +deep-red rose.</p> + +<p>"I have never heard it," she said. "Do tell me what it is."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>"Bye and bye, with your permission, while we are weaving the garlands," +Harry answered, with a rich, mellow laugh. "If I should tell you +beforehand, you might refuse to accept my services altogether."</p> + +<p>"Is it so bad as that?" laughed Iris.</p> + +<p>"You had better use the word <i>good</i> instead of bad. The idea would be +more pleasant."</p> + +<p>"Not knowing what you are talking about, and not possessing the key to +solve the riddle of your incomprehensible words, I had better make no +further reply, lest I get into deep water," she pouted. "But really you +have aroused my curiosity."</p> + +<p>"Well, when we have the first wreath made, then, and not until then, +will I tell you what they say of the youth and maiden who weave autumn +leaves for each other, and together. Come and sit on this mossy ledge. I +will spread my overcoat upon it. It shall be your throne."</p> + +<p>"I will be a queen, but where will be my king?" laughed Iris, gayly.</p> + +<p>"Your king will come a-wooing all in good time," he answered, his dark +eyes seeking hers with a meaning glance, which the beauty and coquette +understood but too well.</p> + +<p>In less time than it takes to tell it, Kendal had gathered about her +heaps of the beautiful, shining leaves.</p> + +<p>"Oh, aren't they lovely!" cried Iris, delightedly. "I fairly adore +autumn leaves."</p> + +<p>"I did not know that you had such an eye for the beautiful in nature," +he retorted, rather pleased.</p> + +<p>"I adore everything that is handsome," she said, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> a low voice, +returning his look of a few moments ago with interest.</p> + +<p>An hour flew by on golden wings, and the wreaths grew beneath their +touch.</p> + +<p>"Now you look indeed a queen!" cried Harry, raising one gracefully, and +laying it on the girl's dark curls. "You remind me just now of pictures +I have seen of Undine and the woodland nymphs."</p> + +<p>"Ah! but Undine had no heart," declared Iris.</p> + +<p>"In some respects you are like Undine," he retorted. "She never knew she +had a heart till she was conscious of its loss. Ah, but you do look +bewitching, Miss Vincent—Iris, with that wreath of autumn foliage on +your head, like a crown of dying sunset. When I see the leaves turn in +the autumn, lines that I read somewhere always recur to me:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'As bathed in blood the trailing vines appear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While 'round them, soft and low, the wild wind grieves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heart of autumn must have broken here,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And poured her treasure out upon the leaves.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>"What pretty poetry!" sighed Iris. "Why, it seems to me that you have +some beautiful sentiment, set to rhyme, to express almost every thought! +You must love poetry. Does—does Dorothy care for it?"</p> + +<p>"No," he returned, in a low voice, and looked away from her with a moody +brow.</p> + +<p>"That is strange," mused Iris. "I should think that you would inspire +her with a love for it."</p> + +<p>"If it is not in one's soul, how can you expect to find it there," he +retorted, rather bitterly. "No, Dorothy has no love for poetry, flowers, +or birds,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> nor, in fact, anything that other young girls care for. I +imagine she would quite as soon prefer a garden filled with hollyhocks +and morning-glories to the daintiest flowers that ever bloomed. Alas, +there are few tastes in common between us!"</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XV" id="Chapter_XV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XV.</span></h2> + + +<p>"What a pity!" sighed Iris, and her hand crept sympathizingly into his. +The gloomy look deepened on his face.</p> + +<p>"Do you believe that there is a true mate for each heart, Iris?" he +asked, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"I might better ask <i>you</i> that question," she answered, evasively. "You +are engaged—<i>you</i> seem to have found a heart that is the mate for your +own."</p> + +<p>"Do you think there is such a thing as making a mistake, even in so +grave a matter?" he asked, huskily, "and that those who discover their +error should keep on straying further and further in the wrong path? Do +you not believe that there should be the most ardent love between those +who wed—and that where there is a lack of it the two should separate, +and each go his or her own way?"</p> + +<p>Iris drooped her head; but ere she could reply—utter the words that +sprang to her lips—an exclamation of the deepest annoyance, mingled +with a fierce imprecation, was ground out from between Kendal's teeth.</p> + +<p>There, directly in the path before them, stood Alice Lee.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>Had she been standing there long? If so, she must have heard every word +that had been uttered.</p> + +<p>Alice Lee had heard, and every word had cut to her heart like the sharp +point of a sword.</p> + +<p>She had feared this, but had tried to reason the matter out in her own +mind; but although circumstances did look tellingly against the beauty +who had come to Gray Gables to be Dorothy Glenn's companion, yet she had +tried to make herself believe that her suspicions were groundless.</p> + +<p>"Have you been eavesdropping?" cried Iris, springing to her feet, her +black eyes flashing luridly.</p> + +<p>A thousand thoughts flashed through Alice Lee's mind in an instant.</p> + +<p>No; she was too proud to let them realize that she had overheard the +perfidy of Dorothy's treacherous lover.</p> + +<p>No; better plead ignorance, until she had time to think over the matter, +for Dorothy's sake, if not for her own.</p> + +<p>"I have but just turned the bend in the road," she replied, with sweet +girlish dignity. "Your question, Miss Vincent, surprises me," she said. +"I have no need to answer it, I think."</p> + +<p>"But you always do happen around just when people least expect you, +Alice Lee."</p> + +<p>"I hope my old friends will always find my presence welcome," returned +Alice, quietly.</p> + +<p>"To be sure, you are welcome," interposed Kendal. "Miss Vincent and I +were only conversing upon the salient points of a new novel we finished +reading yesterday. If you would care to hear it, I shall be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> pleased to +go over the plot with you, and hear your opinion regarding it."</p> + +<p>"I fear it would not benefit you, for I am not much of a novel reader, +and understand very little of plots and plotting."</p> + +<p>Was this a quiet drive at them? both thought as they looked up +instantly.</p> + +<p>But the soft, gray eyes of Alice Lee looked innocently enough from one +to the other.</p> + +<p>She seemed in no hurry to pass on, and Iris felt that for the second +time that afternoon her <i>téte-à-téte</i> with handsome Harry Kendal was to +be broken up, and from this moment henceforth she owed Alice Lee more of +a grudge than ever, and she felt sure that the girl knew it.</p> + +<p>Upon one point Alice was determined—that no matter how coldly Iris +Vincent might treat her, she should not leave Dorothy's lover alone with +her and in her power—she would stand by her poor little blind friend, +who needed her aid in this terrible hour more than she would ever know, +God help her!</p> + +<p>Although long silences fell between the trio, still Alice lingered, +chatting so innocently that they could not find it in their hearts to be +very angry with her; and they could not bring themselves to believe that +she had a purpose in her guileless actions.</p> + +<p>There was no alternative but to walk homeward with her; but they did not +ask her in when they reached the gates of Gray Gables, and so Alice had +no excuse to enter to see Dorothy and warn her, but was obliged to pass +on.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kemp and two or three of the servants were on the porch, so that +there was no opportunity to ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>change but a few whispered words. They +were just about to part when Iris happened to think that Kendal had not +told her what was said of those who gather and weave autumn leaves +together, as he had promised.</p> + +<p>She paused suddenly and looked up archly into his face.</p> + +<p>"What about the autumn-leaf mystery?" she exclaimed. "You know you were +to tell me all about it?"</p> + +<p>"Do you promise not to be angry with me, Iris?" he answered, in his +deep, musical voice. "You know I can not help old adages—I do not make +them."</p> + +<p>"Why should I be angry?" she exclaimed, having a rather faint idea of +what was coming.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said Kendal, fixing his dark eyes full upon her, "it is +said that the youth and maiden who twine the ruby and golden leaves +together are intended for each other. There, are you so very angry?"</p> + +<p>Iris dropped his arm with a little cry, and fled precipitately into the +house.</p> + +<p>He walked on slowly through the great hall and into the library. He knew +Dorothy would be waiting for him, and he did not feel equal to the +ordeal of meeting her just then.</p> + +<p>He wanted a moment to think. He felt that he was standing on the brink +of a fearful abyss, and that one more step must prove fatal to him.</p> + +<p>Which way should he turn? He was standing face to face with the terrible +truth now, that he loved Iris Vincent madly—loved her better than his +own life—he, the betrothed of another.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>But with that knowledge came another. Iris could be nothing to him, for +they were both poor.</p> + +<p>He was sensible enough to sit down and look the future in the face. He +realized that if he should marry Iris on the spur of the moment, that +would be only the beginning of the end.</p> + +<p>It would be all gay and bright with them for a few brief weeks, or +perhaps for a few months; then their sky would change, for Iris was not +a girl to endure poverty for love's sake. She wanted the luxuries of +life—these he could not give her; and there would be reproaches from +the lips that now had only smiles for him.</p> + +<p>She would want diamonds and silks, and all the other feminine +extravagances so dear to the hearts of other women, and he was only a +struggling doctor, who would have to fight a hand-to-hand battle with +grim poverty. And sitting there in the arm-chair, before the glowing +grate, where he had flung himself, he pictured a life of poverty that +would spread out before him if he defied the world for love's sake.</p> + +<p>A dingy office; a worn coat, and trousers shiny at the knees; a necktie +with a ragged edge; an unkempt beard, a last season's hat, and hunger +gnawing at his vitals.</p> + +<p>The picture filled him with the most abject horror.</p> + +<p>He was stylish and fastidious to a fault. He loved Iris; but did he not +equally love his own ease? He could barely tolerate Dorothy, the poor, +tender, plain little creature who lavished a world of love upon him; but +he swallowed the bitter draught of having to endure her by always +remembering that she was heiress,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> in all probability, to a cool million +of money, and money had been his idol all his life long. He could not +exist without it.</p> + +<p>He was not one of the kind who could face the world manfully and snatch +from it its treasures by the sweat of his brow. No, he could not give up +this dream of wealth that was almost as much as life to him.</p> + +<p>In the very midst of his reverie a light step crossed the library, but +he did not hear it. It was Dorothy.</p> + +<p>She stole up quietly and knelt on the hassock beside his chair.</p> + +<p>"What were you thinking of, Harry?" she said.</p> + +<p>He was equal to the occasion.</p> + +<p>"Of what or whom should I be thinking but yourself, Dorothy?" he +replied.</p> + +<p>"It could not have been a very pleasant thought, I fear, for you sighed +deeply," she murmured.</p> + +<p>"That is all your fancy, Dorothy," he declared—"that my thoughts were +not pleasant. True, I may have sighed, but did you never hear of such a +thing as a sigh of contentment?"</p> + +<p>She laughed merrily.</p> + +<p>"I have heard of it, but thought the words rather misplaced."</p> + +<p>"I assure you they are quite true and practicable."</p> + +<p>"Where is Iris?" she asked, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"I am sure I do not know," he answered, trying to speak carelessly.</p> + +<p>"I want to have a real long talk with you, Harry," she said. "I have +heard that there should be nothing but the utmost confidence between +engaged lovers. Shall it not be so with us?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>"Of course," he answered, starting rather guiltily, for he had a faint +intuition of what was coming.</p> + +<p>"Harry," she whispered, "I want you to tell me—is it true—what they +are all saying—that you have ceased to love me?"</p> + +<p>"All saying!" he echoed. "Who is saying it? What old busybodies are +sticking their noses in my affairs now?" he cried, with something on his +lips that sounded very like an imprecation.</p> + +<p>"But it isn't true, is it, Harry?" she breathed. "I should want to die +if I thought it was."</p> + +<p>"Look here, Dorothy," he cried, "if you want to believe all these +mischief-makers tell you, you will have enough to do all through your +life. You will have to either believe me or believe them. Now, which +shall it be?"</p> + +<p>"But answer my question, 'Yes' or 'No?'" pleaded Dorothy. "I—I am +waiting for your answer, Harry."</p> + +<p>There was a slight rustle in the doorway, and glancing up with a start, +Kendal saw Iris Vincent standing there, looking on the tender scene with +a scornful smile, and the words he would have answered died away unsaid +on his lips.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XVI" id="Chapter_XVI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XVI.</span></h2> + + +<p>With a scornful toss of her head, Iris wheeled about. She would not +enter the room, though she was just dying to know what they were +saying—as Kendal sat in the arm-chair before the glowing coals, while +Dorothy knelt on the hassock at his feet.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>But that one glance of Iris had proved fatal to Kendal's peace of mind, +and the hope swept over his soul that she would not think that he was +talking love to Dorothy.</p> + +<p>His silence perplexed the girl kneeling at his feet.</p> + +<p>"I try to picture what our future life will be together, Harry," she +murmured.</p> + +<p>"Don't let us talk about it!" he exclaimed, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"But I like to," she insisted. "It is my constant thought by night and +by day. And, oh! I shall try to make you so happy. I shall go out dining +with you every day, if you like, and I will always wear a little veil +over my face, that no one need know as they pass us by that your bride +is blind. And I shall try to be so wise, and learn to talk with you upon +the subjects you love best. You will not be ashamed of me, will you, +Harry?"</p> + +<p>This with wistful eagerness pitiful to behold.</p> + +<p>"I do wish, Dorothy, that you would cease your harping on the same old +subject!" he cried, worriedly. "You annoy me so!"</p> + +<p>"Annoy you?" whispered Dorothy, half under her breath. "Why, I did not +know that we could say anything to those we love which could make them +vexed at us, because I thought we were:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Two souls with but a single thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two hearts that beat as one.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It seems, Harry, as though we had so little time to talk with each other +now. And, oh! how I miss those little chats we used to have together; +don't you?"</p> + +<p>"You talk like a child, Dorothy," he cried. "Do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> you expect me to be +dancing attendance upon you all the time?"</p> + +<p>"No; I have ceased to expect that," murmured the girl, choking back a +sob—"especially lately."</p> + +<p>"I hope," he cried, "that you are not getting to be one of those +exacting creatures who are jealous if a man is not at their side every +moment? I could never endure that."</p> + +<p>With a sudden impulse, Dorothy threw her arms about his neck and nestled +her snow-white cheek against his.</p> + +<p>"Let me tell you the truth, Harry," she whispered. "I am trying not to +be jealous, as hard as ever I can; but, oh! there seems such a coldness +between us lately. My intuition—my heart tells me so. Everything has +changed since Iris came," she repeated. "I am glad you have some one to +go with you on your rambles, as I used to do—some one to walk and read +with you, as I once did. But when I think of it, and picture you two +together, and know that she takes the same place by your side that I was +wont to take, can you wonder that my heart throbs with a slow, dull +pain?"</p> + +<p>"Women magnify everything!" cried Kendal, harshly. "I suppose you will +begrudge me a moment's comfort where another young girl is concerned, +because you can not participate in it."</p> + +<p>"I wonder that you can find comfort, as you phrase it, with another," +said Dorothy, with a little tremor in her voice. "I have never heard +that any other society was satisfying to an engaged lover than that of +the sweetheart whom he avers to love."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>Kendal laughed a little low, tantalizing laugh which grated keenly on +the girl's ears.</p> + +<p>"Men differ in their tastes and inclinations," he retorted laconically. +"I do not choose to be tied down and governed by one woman's whims, nor +to be dictated to."</p> + +<p>"You should not speak of it in that way, Harry," whispered the girl in a +choking voice; "rather, you should say to yourself that you would not do +the slightest thing that might cause me one pang of annoyance. He who +truly loves finds no interest, no attraction but in the one face, the +one presence. I have known many betrothed young men, and I never yet +knew one who paid the girl he loved so little courtesy as to flirt, ever +so slightly, with another."</p> + +<p>She could not see the flush that burned his face, for he knew that every +word she uttered was but too true. He felt guilty in her sweet, innocent +presence. Had he but loved her, he would have found no pleasure whatever +in Iris Vincent's dangerous coquetries.</p> + +<p>He would not have encouraged her by smile, word, or deed.</p> + +<p>A wave of pity swept over his heart for Dorothy as he looked down into +the pure, uplifted face. But it was only short-lived, for at that +instant he heard Iris' silvery laughter from an adjoining room.</p> + +<p>"I propose that we finish this interesting subject at some future time," +he said, carelessly. "I have some important letters to write, and if you +will excuse me for a little while, I should be very glad."</p> + +<p>Sorrowfully Dorothy rose from the hassock and slowly quitted the room.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>With lagging steps she made her way to her own room, her heart as heavy +as lead in her bosom.</p> + +<p>She had entered the library with buoyant steps and a light heart; aye, +even a little snatch of song on her lips, for she had made up her mind +that she would wait there until Harry came and have a good talk with +him.</p> + +<p>She had been so sure that he would take her in his arms and soothe away +her fears, laughing at them in his own way as being the most ridiculous +fancies which her sensitive little brain had conjured up.</p> + +<p>And ah! how different had been the reality.</p> + +<p>He had rudely repulsed her—and she his promised wife! Katy noticed how +gloomy she was, and ran quickly to her young mistress' side.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Dorothy," she cried, "you do look so pale. Let me place you in +a chair and bring you some wine."</p> + +<p>Dorothy shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I am not ill, Katy," she said, wearily, "only I—I have a slight +headache. If you will leave me by myself I will take a short rest if I +can, then I shall be all right."</p> + +<p>But Katy insisted upon bringing her a cordial, if not the wine, and +surely she was forgiven for putting a few drops of a sleeping potion in +the glass ere she handed it to her mistress. She well knew that she had +not slept soundly for some time past.</p> + +<p>Surely she was breaking down slowly from some terrible mental strain. +She realized but too well what that mental strain was.</p> + +<p>Dorothy allowed her to lead her passively to the sofa, and to deposit +her among the cushions.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>"You will ring when you want me, Miss Dorothy," she said, placing a +table with a bell on it close by her side.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Dorothy, wearily. "Now go and leave me, that's a good girl;" +and Katy passed into the next apartment, drawing the curtains softly +behind her. There she sat down and waited until her mistress should fall +asleep. It almost made the girl's heart bleed to hear the great sighs +that broke from Dorothy's lips.</p> + +<p>"Poor soul! poor soul!" she cried; "how unhappy she is!"</p> + +<p>But soon the potion began to take effect, and the sighs soon melted into +deep, irregular breathing, and then Katy knew that she slept.</p> + +<p>An hour passed, and yet another, still she did not waken, though there +were loud sounds of mirth and revelry in the drawing-room beneath. The +maid recognized Iris' voice and that of Harry Kendal.</p> + +<p>"The grand rascal!" muttered the girl; "how I feel like choking that +man! He doesn't care any more for that poor blind girl in there, that +he's engaged to, than the dust which sticks to his patent leather shoes. +I believe the truth is slowly beginning to dawn upon her."</p> + +<p>At that moment she heard Dorothy's voice calling her, and she went +quickly to her side.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how long have I slept, Katy?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"An hour or such a matter," responded the girl. "They have all been to +dinner, but I thought sleep would be better for you."</p> + +<p>"How long since?" cried Dorothy, springing from the sofa. "And did they +not send up for me?" asking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> both questions in a breath, and waiting +with feverish impatience for an answer.</p> + +<p>"No," said the girl, bluntly.</p> + +<p>"Did they forget me?" whispered Dorothy, in a voice so hollow that the +tone frightened the little maid.</p> + +<p>"It looks very much like it, Miss Dorothy," she answered; "but I did not +forget you; I brought you up a whole trayful of things."</p> + +<p>"I can not eat," sighed Dorothy, and she murmured under her breath: +"Yes, they forgot me—forgot me! Come here, my good girl," she went on, +very nervously; "there is something I want you to do for me."</p> + +<p>Katy came close to her side. Dorothy reached out her hand and caught the +girl's arm in her trembling grasp.</p> + +<p>"I want you to slip down quietly, Katy," she said—"mind, very +quietly—and see what they are doing down in the drawing-room. I hear +Mr. Kendal's voice and Miss Vincent's. Take notice if Mrs. Kemp is with +them, or if they are alone."</p> + +<p>"Are you going down to-night, Miss Dorothy?" asked Katy.</p> + +<p>"If it isn't too late," she answered, in a tremulous voice, adding: "I +want you to lay out the prettiest dress I have, and some nice ribbon for +my hair, before you go. I can be dressing while you are gone; it will +save that much time."</p> + +<p>Katy did as she was bid, and a few moments later was creeping +noiselessly down the back stairway, which led to the drawing-room. +Drawing the heavy silken <i>portières</i> aside, she peered cautiously in. +As<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> she expected, Mr. Kendal and Miss Vincent were enjoying each other's +society, quite alone. But that was not the worst of it.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XVII" id="Chapter_XVII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XVII.</span></h2> + + +<p>Katy gazed long and earnestly at the picture before her.</p> + +<p>Miss Vincent sat at the piano, magnificently dressed in a pale blue +chiffon evening dress, with great clusters of pink roses at her belt, at +her throat, and in the meshes of her jetty curls.</p> + +<p>Beside her, turning over the music, and bending like a lover over her, +was Harry Kendal.</p> + +<p>And as the girl watched she saw him suddenly lift to his lips the little +white hand that was straying over the keys.</p> + +<p>"Do let me persuade you to sing for me, Iris," he was saying. "In what +have I so far offended you that you are so ungracious to me this +evening, Iris?" he murmured, reproachfully.</p> + +<p>"I do not know that I am any different to-night from what I have always +been," pouted the beauty. "I simply do not feel like singing, that is +all."</p> + +<p>"You have changed your mood very suddenly, Iris," he declared. "You +asked me to come into the drawing-room to hear you sing, and now you +tell me that you have changed your mind. What am I to think?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever you please," she answered, curtly.</p> + +<p>"Tell me one thing, Iris," he murmured, a little hoarsely, bending +nearer over the pretty, willful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> coquette; "were the words of the song +you intended to sing suggestive of a sudden coldness between two very +near and very dear friends?"</p> + +<p>"I will not listen to you!" cried Iris, petulantly.</p> + +<p>"I repeat, what have I done to offend you, my dear girl?" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Say to yourself that it was surely not my intention nor my will. You +asked me to come to the library to listen to some poems. When I stepped +into the room I saw at a glance that you had quite forgotten the +appointment, Harry, by the picture that met my glance."</p> + +<p>He knew in an instant to what she referred—he sitting in the arm-chair +with Dorothy by his side, her arms twined about him.</p> + +<p>"I did not ask her in there, Iris," he said, huskily. "I found her in +there when I entered the apartment. She was evidently waiting for me. +She met me with tears and reproaches, and if there is anything that is +detestable to a man it is that line of conduct, believe me."</p> + +<p>Iris shrugged her shoulders, but made no reply.</p> + +<p>"Why did you not come in when you came to the door?" he asked, bending +dangerously near the fatally beautiful face so near his own.</p> + +<p>"Because I thought that two was company—three would be a crowd," she +responded, proudly tossing back her jetty curls.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> would always be welcome to <i>me</i>, Iris," he said, huskily. "You +know that but too well by this time, don't you?" and his hand closed +tightly over the one lying lightly in her lap, and his head drooped +nearer still.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>"Great Scott! they are almost kissing each other, the two vipers!" +panted Katy to herself, her blood fairly boiling in her veins at the +sight of this billing and cooing. "Oh, if I only dared put poor Miss +Dorothy on her guard!"</p> + +<p>She could not refrain from bursting in upon them at this critical +instant, and in less time than it takes to tell it she had bounded into +the room.</p> + +<p>"A-hem, a-hem!" she coughed, pantingly; "but if you please, miss," +turning and addressing herself to Iris, "the housekeeper is looking for +you, and wants you to come to her."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Iris, springing up from the piano stool with a face +flushed as red as a peony and a very confused look in her eyes; "I will +go at once;" and with an assumed smile on her face she glided from the +room, muttering below her breath:</p> + +<p>"I'd like to choke that little imp of a maid! Whenever I am talking to +Harry Kendal, if I turn around I find her at my elbow."</p> + +<p>Katy was about to follow Miss Vincent from the room, when Harry called +to her.</p> + +<p>"Remain a moment," he said. "I wish to see you."</p> + +<p>With a little courtesy Katy obeyed.</p> + +<p>For a moment or two he stood quite still in the center of the room, +toying nervously with the medallion on his watch chain, and a very +perceptible frown on his dark, handsome face.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, how long have you been standing there, girl?"</p> + +<p>She hung her head, but did not answer; but that silence told him quite +as much as words.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>"The wisest girls are those who never see or hear anything," he +declared, eyeing her sharply.</p> + +<p>Again Katy courtesied, making no reply. She knew quite well what he +meant.</p> + +<p>"I may as well come to the point and say that you are not to mention to +any one anything that has taken place in this house—especially in this +room to-night. Now here is something that may help you to remember the +old adage that 'silence is golden.'" And as he spoke he thrust a bill +into the girl's hand, motioning her from the drawing-room, and turning +abruptly on his heel, he sauntered slowly across the room and flung +himself down in an easy chair.</p> + +<p>Katy hurried quickly upstairs.</p> + +<p>"The grand rascal!" she muttered; "to pay me to help deceive Miss +Dorothy! How my fingers tingled to box his ears! I longed to stamp my +foot and cry out: 'You handsome villain—engaged to marry one young girl +and making love to another! Oh! for shame! for shame!' It's a pity that +Miss Dorothy hasn't a good big brother to give him the trouncing he so +richly deserves. The Lord knows it's an unhappy life Miss Dorothy will +lead with him, and it would be a blessing in disguise if something +should happen to prevent the marriage from taking place. As for that +sly, black minx, Iris Vincent, she must have a soul as hard as adamant +and cruel as death to cheat a poor blind girl out of her lover, and to +try all her arts to win him from her. They fairly make love to each +other in her very presence; and she, poor soul! never knows it, because +she is blind! The curse of God will surely fall on them, and they will +be punished for their treachery to poor Miss Dorothy—and she so +trustful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> and innocent! I wish I could think of some plan to break that +up. Goodness knows, I wouldn't do such a thing for anything in the wide +world. I have always believed that the angels take terrible vengeance +upon any girl who takes another girl's lover from her by her wicked +coquetries."</p> + +<p>By this time she had reached Dorothy's <i>boudoir</i>. She found her young +mistress waiting for her with the greatest impatience.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Dorothy, quite as soon as she had opened the door, "who's +down there?"</p> + +<p>For an instant the inclination was strong within Katy's heart to tell +the whole truth of what she had seen and heard. It was not the dollar, +which seemed to burn in her pocket, that made her hold her tongue, but +the fear of giving poor blind Dorothy pain, that caused her to hold her +peace.</p> + +<p>"Only Mr. Kendal, miss."</p> + +<p>"I thought I heard voices," she said, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"Miss Vincent was there when I entered the room, but left a moment or so +after," answered Katy, truthfully.</p> + +<p>"Were they talking together? And what were they talking about?" asked +Dorothy, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"That I can not say, miss," returned the girl, flushing to the roots of +her hair, and inwardly thankful that her poor young mistress could not +see the distress which she knew must be mirrored on her face.</p> + +<p>"Were they speaking so low that you could not hear them?" inquired +Dorothy, quickly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, miss! quite loud; but I was not listening."</p> + +<p>Dorothy gave a sigh of relief.</p> + +<p>"If it were not so late, I would go down stairs," she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> said, +reflectively. "But then, there's the ball to-morrow night. I will be up +late, so I suppose it would be just as well for me to rest to-night, for +I want to look my best, Katy. I would give the world to look bright and +gay as any girl there. I could hear the music, the patter of dancing +feet, and the sound of merry laughter. And, oh, Katy! perhaps I might +forget for a few brief moments my terrible affliction. I know Harry will +be happy amid the brilliant throng, and that thought alone will be joy +enough for me. You shall sit with me, Katy, to hold my wraps, my +flowers, my fan, and—and you must watch sharp, and tell me, Katy, if he +dances with any pretty girl the second time."</p> + +<p>She felt that she must make a confidant of some one, even though it was +Katy, the maid.</p> + +<p>"You must not think for one moment I am jealous, Katy," she said, "for I +assure you I am not; only as host I should not like him to pay too much +courtesy to any one person, you know."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," assented Katy.</p> + +<p>"I have asked Iris what she intends to wear, but for some reason she +does not tell me, so I want you to notice particularly what she has on, +and if she looks very pretty. But then, I think she is sure to look +nice."</p> + +<p>"I shall look very closely, you may be sure of that," responded Katy, +"and tell you of everything that goes on—who's dancing, and who's +sitting in corners flirting, and just who Mr. Kendal dances with. Will +he take you in to supper, miss?" she asked, suddenly.</p> + +<p>She was sorry the moment after that she had asked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> the question, for +Dorothy's poor, sightless eyes filled with great tears.</p> + +<p>"You know that he would like to," she murmured, faintly, "but it would +be a ghastly sight—a poor blind girl sitting at the festal board with +the gay guests. Oh! why did God put such a terrible affliction upon me?" +throwing out her little white hands and beating the air as she sobbed +aloud in her agony. "Why can I not enter into his joys, and share them +with him as others do? Oh, Katy! will I not make but a sorry wife for my +handsome king—my idol? I wonder what he can find about me to hold me +still dear in his eyes, for I am no longer pretty, willful, madcap +Dorothy, as they once called me."</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XVIII" id="Chapter_XVIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XVIII.</span></h2> + + +<p>The night of the ball came at last—the night which had been looked +forward to so anxiously for weeks by many a maiden and brave swain.</p> + +<p>By the time night had drawn her sable curtains over the sleeping earth +all the preparations had been completed at Gray Gables, and when the +lights were lighted it presented such a brilliant spectacle that those +who witnessed never forgot it.</p> + +<p>The guests began to arrive early, in order to have a long evening of +enjoyment.</p> + +<p>Late that afternoon an odd discussion had arisen which came near +wrecking the whole affair.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kemp, Iris, and Dorothy were all seated in the general sitting-room +discussing the last but by no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> means least important matter of who +should receive the guests.</p> + +<p>"You are the young lady of the house," said Mrs. Kemp, turning to +Dorothy with a puzzled air, "and of course every one expects you to +perform that pleasant duty; but—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, no!" cut in Dorothy. "My—my affliction makes that an +impossibility. <i>You</i> must do it, Mrs. Kemp."</p> + +<p>"Really, child, my presence is so much of a necessity in looking after +the servants and overlooking affairs in general that I assure you I can +not be spared even for a brief half hour; so, as near as I can see, Iris +must take your place for that occasion, with Mr. Kendal, to welcome your +guests. What do you say, my dear?" she asked, turning anxiously to the +beauty, who sat disconsolately by the window, listening to the +conversation, feeling confident as to how the debate must end—in <i>her +own</i> favor.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I do not mind doing so, if the arrangement suits Mr. Kendal +and—Dorothy."</p> + +<p>Harry entered the room at this stage, and of course the matter was +quickly laid before him.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, Iris can help me receive the guests," he declared. "What a +happy thought! I supposed I alone was to be delegated to that task. Yes, +let us settle it in that manner, by all means."</p> + +<p>As usual, no one thought of consulting Dorothy's opinion. Indeed, they +scarcely missed her presence when, a few moments later, she slipped from +the room to have a good cry over the matter.</p> + +<p>Katy was startled as she beheld her white face as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> she groped her way +into the room. She sat so still that Dorothy imagined herself quite +alone.</p> + +<p>"I—I can not bear it!" she sobbed, flinging herself face downward on +the carpet with a wretched little sob. "In everything she seems to come +between me and my lover! Oh, I wish to Heaven that Iris Vincent would go +away! Harry has not been the same to me since she has been beneath this +roof. They tell me it is my imagination, but my heart tells me it is no +idle fancy. <i>She</i> will be standing by my lover's side receiving <i>my</i> +guests! Oh, angels up in Heaven, forgive me if the pangs of jealousy, +cruel as death, spring up in my poor heart at that bitter thought!" And +another thought: "Harry is beginning to depend so much upon her society. +Now, if I ask, 'Where is Harry?' the answer is, 'Out driving or walking +or singing with Iris.' Katy tells me she is very plain of face—nay, +even homely. If she were beautiful I should be in terror too horrible +for words. It is wicked of me, but, oh! I can not help but thank God she +is not fair of face, to attract my darling from me."</p> + +<p>Tears rolled down Katy's cheeks as she listened. Not for the world would +she have let her poor young mistress know that her grief had had a +witness. She kept perfectly quiet, making no sound, scarcely breathing, +until Dorothy passed slowly into an inner apartment, and she was +heartily glad that she touched her bell a moment after.</p> + +<p>Katy hurried to her with alacrity, taking pains, however, to tiptoe to +the door, open it, and close it again, quite as if she had just come in +from the corridor.</p> + +<p>"Now, Katy," said her young mistress, "you must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> make haste to help me +dress. I am impatient. I feel dreadfully nervous, as though a great +calamity was to take place. I feel just such a strange sensation as +seemed to clutch at my heart before that terrible accident happened that +has blighted my whole life."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear Miss Dorothy, <i>please</i> don't talk so!" cried Katy, aghast. +"I'm sure it isn't right, if I may make so bold as to say so to you. I +have always heard it said: 'Never cross a bridge of trouble until you +come to it.'"</p> + +<p>"'Coming events cast their shadows before,'" quoted Dorothy, slowly.</p> + +<p>"I have made your dress look so lovely, Miss Dorothy," she cried, +bravely attempting to turn her thoughts into another channel, "and it's +right sorry I am that you can't see it. Every one will say that it is +the prettiest dress at the ball. You said I might fix it any way that I +liked, so long as it looked grand."</p> + +<p>"How have you arranged it, Katy?" asked Dorothy, with a faint smile, +being girl enough to forget her sorrow for an instant in speaking of her +ball dress.</p> + +<p>"It is your new white tulle, miss, that I picked out—the one that you +had made to go to parties in, providing you were ever asked to any, the +first week you came to Gray Gables, you remember."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," murmured Dorothy, clasping her little hands. "I—I remember +so well how nice it looked on me, too."</p> + +<p>"You looked like an angel in it!" declared Katy; resuming: "Well, it's +that one, miss, and I have been embroidering flowers all over the front +of it as a surprise for you, and, oh, they look perfectly magnificent on +it!—just as though some one stood near you and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> threw a great handful +of blossoms over you and they clung to your white tulle dress just where +they fell."</p> + +<p>"What kind of flowers are they?" asked Dorothy, delightedly.</p> + +<p>"Wisteria blossoms," said Katy.</p> + +<p>Dorothy sprang to her feet, pale as death.</p> + +<p>"You have embroidered purple wisteria blossoms all over my ball dress?" +she whispered, in an awful voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes," returned the girl, wondering what was coming next.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Katy!" she cried, in a choking voice, "don't you know that purple +wisteria blossoms mean tears?"</p> + +<p>"I don't believe in all those old women's superstitions, miss," declared +Katy, stoutly. "I imagine that it was got up by some muddy-complexioned +creature, whose only annoyance was that the pretty blossoms didn't look +good on her, and consequently she gave them a bad name to keep others +from wearing them. There's plenty of such things being done."</p> + +<p>This explanation, or rather explosion of the pet superstition, amused +Dorothy vastly.</p> + +<p>"Well, I shall not mind the old adage about wisteria blossoms and tears. +I'll wear the dress anyhow, Katy, come what may. But do you know what +Iris is going to wear? I haven't been able to find out."</p> + +<p>"Nor has any one, ma'am," muttered Katy. "She has been making up her +ball dress in her own room for the past fortnight, and keeps the door +securely fastened; but we shall see very soon now, for it is quite time +to dress, and she has to be ready first to receive the guests. I heard +Mr. Kendal telling her so, a few moments since, as they passed through +the corridor just as I opened the door."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>She saw Dorothy turn a shade paler, and her head drooped, but she made +no reply.</p> + +<p>"Shall I commence now to arrange your toilet?" she asked, anxious to +dress her mistress, and then don her own new dress for the gala +occasion.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to go into the ball-room until all the guests have +arrived, and then I want to slip in quietly," said Dorothy; "so you need +not hurry."</p> + +<p>It was a sorry task at best for Katy, dressing her poor, blind mistress +for the ball.</p> + +<p>Ah! it was pitiful to see her sitting so patiently there with her back +to the mirror, while the maid, with great tears rolling down her cheeks, +fastened the clouds of tulle here and there with the dark blossoms, and +twined them in the golden curls that fell about her white neck.</p> + +<p>Oh, how radiantly fair she looked! And Katy knew that no one gazing in +those beautiful violet eyes would ever realize that the lovely girl was +blind—stone blind.</p> + +<p>Her hand trembled violently as, an hour later, she clung to her maid's +arm, and timidly, shrinkingly entered the great ball-room crowded with +guests. No one noticed their entrance, the throng was so great, and she +had her heart's desire. She slipped into a corner without her presence +being commented on.</p> + +<p>She did not know that a little place among a bower of ferns had been +previously arranged for her by Katy, where she could sit and hear the +music without being seen herself; nor would Katy be seen by the guests.</p> + +<p>"Tell me," she whispered, nervously clutching the girl's hand, "where is +Harry, and is—is Miss Vincent with him, and how does she look?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>Before Katy could frame a reply the last question was rudely answered by +a stranger. Two young ladies at that instant dropped down into seats so +near Dorothy that she could easily have touched them had she reached out +her hand from her screen of palms and roses.</p> + +<p>"What a magnificent-looking girl that Iris Vincent is!" cried one of the +young girls. "The fame of her great beauty is spreading everywhere; but +I never dreamed she was as beautiful as the description I have heard of +her, and I find she far surpasses it. I wonder that poor, blind Dorothy +Glenn is not jealous that her affianced husband should pay the girl so +much attention."</p> + +<p>"This is the first time I have seen her," replied her companion, "and I, +too, am amazed at her marvelous beauty. As I stepped into the ball-room +she was the first person I beheld, and she has dazzled my eyes ever +since. Oh, it was a wonderful picture she made, standing under a slender +palm tree, in her white tulle dress flecked with gold and pearls, and +those blood-red rubies encircling her white throat and perfect arms and +coiled in her jetty curls; and then those glorious dark eyes! No wonder +men lose their hearts over her at the first fatal glance into their +wonderful, mesmeric depths. She is fairer than the fairest of poets' +dreams."</p> + +<p>Dorothy listened with bated breath, then turned quickly to Katy.</p> + +<p>"Have you deceived me—<i>me</i>, a poor blind girl?" she cried in a terrible +voice that sounded like a cry from the tomb. "You told me that the girl +who had come beneath this roof was homely and terribly plain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> <i>They</i> +say she is beautiful. Oh, God! have you deceived me? I must know the +truth at once."</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XIX" id="Chapter_XIX"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XIX.</span></h2> + + +<p>"Katy," repeated Dorothy, in a shrill, awful whisper, "tell me, have you +willfuly deceived me? You have said Miss Vincent was plain—nay, more, +that she was homely—and on all sides of me I hear them speaking of her +wonderful beauty."</p> + +<p>Katy sank back shivering in her seat.</p> + +<p>"It's fine feathers that make fine birds to-night," she rejoined, +faintly. "No wonder they think Iris Vincent looks well to-night. She's +rigged out like a real peacock; and her face is painted, too. I can see +it clear across the room; and I am quite sure that Mr. Kendal has +noticed it; and I've heard him say that if there's anything which he +detests, it's girls who whiten their faces with chalk."</p> + +<p>Still Dorothy did not feel comforted. A nameless fear which she could +scarcely define by words had crept into her heart, and a smoldering +flame of jealousy burst suddenly forth; and that was the beginning of a +terrible end.</p> + +<p>She leaned wearily back in her seat, and looked so white that Katy was +frightened.</p> + +<p>"Shall I get you a glass of ice-water, Miss Dorothy?" she cried.</p> + +<p>The pale lips murmured assent, and she flew to do her mistress' bidding.</p> + +<p>Left to herself, Dorothy sprang hastily to her feet.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>"It almost seems as if I shall go mad!" she murmured—"yes, mad—with +this terrible fear clutching at my heart! I must have air. I am +stifling!"</p> + +<p>All unmindful of the errand upon which she had sent Katy, Dorothy rose +hastily to her feet, and, remembering that there was a rear entrance +leading from the ball-room near where she sat, she groped her way +thither.</p> + +<p>The night air fanned her feverish cheek, but it did not cool the fever +in her brain or the fire that seemed eating into her very heart. A +thousand fancies, so weird and strange that they terrified her, seemed +to take possession of her brain. She had relied so entirely upon what +they had told her—that Miss Vincent was very plain—that the feeling of +jealousy had never before occurred to her; for well she knew that Harry +Kendal was a beauty-worshiper, and that no matter how much he might be +thrown in contact with a girl who was plain of face, he would never +dream of being anything else than simply courteous to her.</p> + +<p>Now affairs seemed to take on a new and hideous form.</p> + +<p>She recalled each and every incident that had taken place since Miss +Vincent's arrival, and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">"Trifles light as air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seemed confirmation strong as Holy Writ"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>as she viewed them now.</p> + +<p>"Even the guests notice how attentive he is to her," she said to +herself, with a bitter sob, wringing her cold little hands and clutching +them tightly over her heart.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>Suddenly she heard the sound of voices, and sank down upon a seat at +hand until they should pass by.</p> + +<p>She did not know that the seat which she had selected on the broad +piazza was directly back of one of the large, vine-wreathed, fluted +pillars, and in the dense shadow.</p> + +<p>This time she readily divined that the voices must belong to two +light-hearted, happy girls.</p> + +<p>"Are you having a good time, Grace, dear?" asked one.</p> + +<p>"Oh, quite the jolliest I have ever had in all my life!" was the reply. +"I haven't missed one dance, and all my partners have been so +handsome—quite the prettiest fellows in the ball-room! And how is it +with you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm enjoying myself, too!" laughed the other girl, "But did you +notice what a ninny I had in that last waltz-quadrille? Don't you hate +partners who stand away off, and barely touch your finger-tips as they +dance with you? Upon my word, I'd rather have the straight-as-a-mackerel +kind, who hold you so tight you can scarcely catch your breath!"</p> + +<p>And at this both girls went off into uproarious laughter, when suddenly +one of them exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Have you yet had a waltz with handsome Harry Kendal?"</p> + +<p>"No," returned the other, ruefully. "At the last ball I went to he was +almost wild to put his name down for every waltz with me. But, after +all, I can not wonder at that when I see how greatly he is infatuated +with the beauty of the ball to-night—the fair Iris Vincent."</p> + +<p>"Have you heard all the talk to-night about that?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> chimed in the other, +her voice sinking to a low, confidential tone. "Every one has noticed +it, and it is the talk of the ball-room."</p> + +<p>"It is shameful for him to carry on so," returned her companion, "when +every one knows that his wedding day with poor, blind Dorothy Glenn is +so near at hand."</p> + +<p>"Do you know," said the other, slowly, "that I doubt if he will ever +marry Dorothy now? You must remember that he became engaged to her +before that terrible accident. And do you know there is great diversity +of opinion as to whether the poor fellow should marry her or not. It is +very nice to read about in books—of lovers proving true to their +<i>fiancées</i> through every trouble and tribulation—but I tell you they +don't do it in real life. When trouble comes to a girl, nine lovers out +of ten fly from her 'to seek pastures new;' and, after all, to come +right down to the fine point, between you and me, could you really blame +Harry Kendal if he were to break off with Dorothy? He is young and +handsome, and I say that it would be a bitter shame for him to go +through life with a blind girl for a wife; and when I think of it I +actually feel indignant with the girl for holding him to his engagement +under such circumstances. She ought to know that in time he would +actually hate her for it. She can share none of his joys. Why, she would +be only a pitiful burden to handsome Harry Kendal! That girl whom he +seems so infatuated with would be a thousand times more suitable for +him. Oh, what a handsome couple they do make! And every one can see, +though they think they hide it so well, how desperately they are in love +with each other."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>They moved on, little dreaming of the ruin and blight they had left +behind them.</p> + +<p>They were scarcely out of hearing when the great cry that had been +choked back so long burst forth in a wild, piercing wail of agony that +meant the breaking then and there of a human heart. But the dance-music +inside, to which the joyous, merry feet kept time, completely drowned +it.</p> + +<p>Dorothy had risen from her chair, and the look on her face was terrible +to behold.</p> + +<p>"Let me quite understand it," she whispered—"let me try to realize and +grasp the awful truth: Harry Kendal, my lover, has ceased to care for +me, and is lavishing his attention, nay, more, his affection, upon +another and one who in return loves him; and they say that I should give +him up to her—I, who love him better than my own life! He is all I have +left me in my terrible affliction, and they would take even him from me +and give him to another. They said it was not right for me to cling to +him, and to burden him with a blind wife through life—that the thought +is torture to him. Oh, God in Heaven! can it be true?"</p> + +<p>And again the angels at the great White Throne were startled with the +piercing cries of woe that broke from the girl's white lips, which once +more the dance-music mercifully drowned.</p> + +<p>"I will go to him and confront him with what I have heard. He shall +choose between us before all the people assembled here to-night. I will +fling myself upon my knees at his feet, crying out: 'Oh, my darling! my +love! my life! tell me that the cruel rumors which I have heard are +false—that you do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> not hate me because—because of the awful affliction +that Heaven has seen fit to put upon me! Turn from the girl by your side +to me—to me, your promised bride! She can never love you as I do. You +are my all—my world! If I were to die to-day—aye, within this hour—my +soul could not leave this earth while you were here! I would cling to +you in life or in death!'"</p> + +<p>With a swift motion Dorothy turned and re-entered the house, forgetful +of her blindness, and to count the steps which she had taken, +remembering only that she was undergoing the greatest trial of her life.</p> + +<p>Swift as a fluttering swallow she hastened across the broad piazza, but +in the confusion of her whirling brain she had mistaken the direction.</p> + +<p>One instant more, too quick for a cry, too quick for a moan, she had +stepped off the veranda, and fell with a terrible thud down five feet +below, and lay, stunned and unconscious, on the graveled walk.</p> + +<p>The shock was so sudden, so terrible that surely God in His mercy was +kind in that the fearful pain of the fall was not realized by her.</p> + +<p>The moments dragged themselves wearily by as she lay there. Fully half +an hour elapsed. No one missed her save Katy, no one thought of looking +for her out in the cold and darkness, which was penetrated only by the +dim light of the stars. The dew of night fell silently, pityingly upon +the white, upturned face and curling golden hair, which lay tangled +among the sharp pebbles. Gradually consciousness dawned upon her brain. +The warm blood crept back to the chilled veins and pulsed feebly, but +with it came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> the remembrance of the terrible blow that had fallen upon +her.</p> + +<p>Dorothy staggered to her feet, but as she did so a strange electric +shock seemed to pass through her body and balls of fire to whirl before +her eyes. But as they cleared away a great cry broke from the girl's +lips:</p> + +<p>"Oh, God! can it be true? Heaven has restored my sight to me as +miraculously as it was taken from me!"</p> + +<p>Once again she saw the blue sky, with its myriads of golden-hearted +stars, bending over her; the great stone house, with its lighted +windows, and beyond, the tall, dark oak trees, with their great, +widespread tossing branches; and she fell upon her knees and kissed the +very stones at her feet and the green blades of waving grass that she +never once thought she would see again, and she raised her white arms to +heaven with such piteous cries of thankfulness that the angels must have +heard and wept over.</p> + +<p>Yes, Dorothy's sight had been restored to her as miraculously as it had +been taken from her.</p> + +<p>But even in the midst of her great joy the dregs of woe still lingered +as memory brought back to her the terrible ordeal through which she had +passed.</p> + +<p>With bated breath she turned and crept swiftly back to the house and up +to the long windows that opened out on the porch, sobbing bitterly to +herself that she would see at last if her lover was true or false to +her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XX" id="Chapter_XX"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XX.</span></h2> + + +<p>With her heart throbbing with the most intense excitement, Dorothy +pushed aside the great clusters of crimson creepers and thick green +leaves, pressed her white face close against the window-pane, and gazed +in upon the gorgeous scene.</p> + +<p>For an instant the great blaze of light dazzled her weak eyes, and +everything seemed to swim before her.</p> + +<p>But gradually, little by little, she began to distinguish objects, and +at last her eyes fell upon the face of Harry Kendal.</p> + +<p>With a great cry, the girl clutched her hands tightly over her heart. +She never thought that she would look upon his face again in this world.</p> + +<p>It was <i>his</i> face—the face of her hero, her king, before which all else +paled as the moonbeams pale before the glaring light of the rising sun. +Then suddenly she saw the face beside him into which he was gazing, and +it was then that the heart in her bosom almost turned to stone.</p> + +<p>Never in all her life had she beheld such a vision of loveliness, and +she knew in an instant that the proud beauty must be Iris Vincent.</p> + +<p>Slowly Dorothy crept around to the other side of the porch, up to the +window, that she might have a better view of them, and perhaps she could +hear what they were saying.</p> + +<p>But as she reached it, to her great disappointment she saw them link +arms and stroll out of the ball-room toward the conservatory, and +thither she bent her steps, intent upon reaching it before they did.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>She had barely screened herself behind a tall <i>jardinière</i> of roses and +flowering plants, ere, laughing and chattering, the two entered the +floral bower.</p> + +<p>"The ball is a grand success, Iris," he was saying, gayly; "they all +seem to be enjoying themselves immensely. How is it with you?"</p> + +<p>"It is a night that will stand out forever in my life," she responded, +glancing up at him with those dangerously dark eyes, and a smile on her +red lips.</p> + +<p>The girl who watched them breathlessly from behind the roses clutched +her hands over her heart.</p> + +<p>The sight maddened her. They were so near each other, their heads bent +so close; and while she gazed, suddenly Kendal bent still closer and +kissed the girl's lips.</p> + +<p>Dorothy tried to cry aloud, to spring out and confront them. Her brain +reeled; the blood, chill as ice, stood still in her veins, and without a +cry, or even a moan she sank down unconscious in her hiding-place.</p> + +<p>"What is that sound?" cried Iris, with a start.</p> + +<p>"Only some of the clumsy servants in the corridor without," replied +Kendal. "But, Iris, are you trying to avoid me? I have brought you here +to tell you something, and you must listen. The time has come when we +must fully understand each other. You know quite as well as I that the +life we are leading, Iris, can not go on like this forever. From the +first moment we met the attraction I felt toward you changed the whole +current of my life."</p> + +<p>Iris hid her face in the bouquet of white hyacinths which she carried.</p> + +<p>"It is too late to talk of that now," she murmured.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> "Your heart went +out to another before—before I met you."</p> + +<p>"There is such a thing as affections waning when one discovers that +one's heart is not truly mated, Iris," he cried.</p> + +<p>She did not answer; and thus emboldened by her silence, he went on, +huskily:</p> + +<p>"Let me give you the whole history of my meeting with Dorothy Glenn, +from first to last, and you will understand the situation better. You +can realize, Iris, that an acquaintance which commences through a +flirtation, as it were, can never end in true love. Such an acquaintance +is not a lasting one. Come and sit down on this rustic seat, Iris, and +listen; and as we sit here in the dim, mellow light, you shall judge me, +and your decision shall seal my fate."</p> + +<p>At the self-same moment in which Harry Kendal was beginning his +narrative, there was quite a commotion at the outer gate which guarded +the main entrance of Gray Gables.</p> + +<p>One of the servants, lounging lazily at his post of duty, was suddenly +startled out of the doze into which he had fallen by the shadow of a +woman flitting hurriedly past him.</p> + +<p>"Hold on, there! Hold on, I say! Who are you, and what do you want?"</p> + +<p>A figure clad in a long dark cloak, hooded and veiled, stopped short +with a little exclamation, which he could not quite catch.</p> + +<p>"Hold on, there! Where are you going?" he repeated, springing to her +side. "There is something going on here to-night. You can't enter these +grounds until I know who you are and what your business is."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>"This is Gray Gables, is it not?" exclaimed a tremulous voice from +behind the veil.</p> + +<p>"I should have supposed you would have found that out before you entered +the grounds," declared the man, suspiciously.</p> + +<p>She saw her mistake, and started.</p> + +<p>"I only wanted to make sure that I was right," she said, apologetically. +"I—I have business with the housekeeper; I want to see her."</p> + +<p>Before she could utter another word he whistled sharply. His call +brought a small lad to his side.</p> + +<p>"Tell Mrs. Kemp there's a young woman here who would like to see her. +What name, please?" he asked, abruptly, turning to the veiled figure.</p> + +<p>"I—I am afraid she wouldn't know; but you might, mention the name—Miss +Mead"—this rather stutteringly.</p> + +<p>Very soon the answer came back that the housekeeper did not know Miss +Mead, and hadn't time to see strangers.</p> + +<p>"But I must see her!" implored the excited voice from behind the thick +veil. "Do let me go to the house to her. I will detain her but a moment, +I assure you. She would be so sorry if she missed seeing me."</p> + +<p>With no suspicion of the terrible catastrophe that was to follow on the +heels of it, the man without further ado allowed her to pass.</p> + +<p>The stranger sped quickly up the graveled walk, and, as Dorothy had done +but a short time before, drew cautiously up to the brilliantly lighted +window, threw back her veil, and peered breathlessly in upon the +gorgeous scene.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>As the light fell athwart her, you and I, dear reader, can easily +recognize the marble-white face of—Nadine Holt.</p> + +<p>"So!" she muttered, between her clinched teeth, "I have tracked my +false, perfidious lover to his home at last. When Harry Kendal lighted +the fire of love in my heart, he little knew that the blaze would in +time consume himself. I am not one to be made love to and cast off at +will, as he shall soon see.</p> + +<p>"From the hour that he eloped with Dorothy Glenn, on that memorable +Labor Day, life lost all its charms for me, and I vowed to Heaven that I +would find them, and deal out vengeance to them. They crushed my heart, +and now I shall crush theirs. Ah, how I watched for him in the crowded +streets, the ferries, and on the elevated roads!</p> + +<p>"I believed sooner or later that I should find him, and I was right. +Only a week ago I met him face to face, but he did not know me because +of the thick veil I wore. I might have raised my veil and he would never +have recognized in the pinched and haggard features the countenance of +Nadine Holt, whose beauty he was wont to praise so lavishly. Ah, the +traitor!</p> + +<p>"He turned into a florist's shop, and he never dreamed who the woman was +who entered the place and stood silently beside him while he gave the +order for the great decorations for the grand ball which was to take +place at his home in Gray Gables, in Yonkers, a fortnight from that +date.</p> + +<p>"When he quitted the shop I flew out after him; but all in an instant he +disappeared from my sight as though the ground had suddenly opened and +swal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>lowed him. But I laughed aloud. What cared I then. I knew just +where to find him. The place was written indelibly on my brain in +letters of fire—Gray Gables, Yonkers!</p> + +<p>"Only Heaven knows how I have worked to get a day off and to earn extra +money to make this little trip! And now I am here to face him. Is he +married to Dorothy Glenn, I wonder? It would take only that knowledge to +make a fiend incarnate of me!"</p> + +<p>At that moment one of the servants passing along the porch stopped short +at sight of the young woman in black, with the death-white face and +flashing black eyes, peering into the ball-room from the long porch +window.</p> + +<p>"They are having a great time in there," he said, jerking his head with +a nod in the direction of the ball-room.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" returned Nadine Holt, sharply.</p> + +<p>Then it occurred to her that she could find out something about the +lover who had deserted her. And there was another thing which puzzled +her greatly. The name which he had given the florist was not the one by +which she had known him—she would find out all by this man. Now he was +calling himself Mr. Harry Kendal—that was the name he had given the +florist.</p> + +<p>"In whose honor is the ball given, my good fellow?" she asked, with an +assumption of carelessness.</p> + +<p>For a moment he looked stupidly at her.</p> + +<p>"I mean, who is giving the ball?" she added.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's Mr. Kendal, ma'am—leastwise, he and Miss Dorothy are giving +it together."</p> + +<p>She started as though a serpent had stung her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> then stood perfectly +still and looked at the man with gleaming eyes.</p> + +<p>"Miss Dorothy—who?" she asked, knowing full well what his answer must +be.</p> + +<p>"Miss Dorothy Glenn, ma'am," he replied. "But she won't be 'miss' very +long, for she is soon to marry Mr. Kendal."</p> + +<p>"Soon to marry him!" she repeated, vaguely, saying in the next breath, +"then they are not <i>already</i> married," muttering the words more to +herself than to the man. "Where does this girl, Dorothy live?" she +asked, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"That I couldn't say, ma'am," he replied. "I only came to Gray Gables +to-day, to work. I know only the little that I have heard the servants +say while at their work this afternoon. They say Miss Dorothy is very +beautiful."</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXI" id="Chapter_XXI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXI.</span></h2> + + +<p>The white face into which the man gazed grew whiter still, the eyes +dilated, and her heart twinged with a pang of jealousy more bitter than +death to endure.</p> + +<p>People always made that remark when speaking of Dorothy. It was that +fatal gift which had won her lover from her, Nadine said to herself, and +which had wrecked her life.</p> + +<p>Oh! if she could but destroy that pink-and-white beauty!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>The thought was born in Nadine Holt's breast all in an instant, and +seemed to fire her whole being.</p> + +<p>She knew her lover's passionate adoration of a beautiful face, and then +and there the thought came to her: How long would he love Dorothy Glenn +if that pretty pink-and-white face were seamed and scarred?</p> + +<p>She laughed—a low, strange, eerie laugh that quite startled the man as +he walked away.</p> + +<p>Left to herself, Nadine Holt deliberately opened the hall door and stole +into the house. She had but one purpose in view, and that was to +confront her lover and Dorothy before all the invited guests.</p> + +<p>There was nothing about the dark figure to attract especial attention, +and she glided through the corridor unnoticed.</p> + +<p>Was it the hand of fate most terrible that guided her toward the +conservatory? The dark figure glided like a shadow toward the open door, +and then paused abruptly, for the low sound of voices fell upon her ear, +and one of them she recognized as that of her perfidious lover.</p> + +<p>Through the softened pearly gloom she saw him sitting on the rustic +bench close—very close—to the slender, girlish figure in fleecy white, +and the sight made the blood in her veins turn to molten fire.</p> + +<p>Like an evil spirit she crept toward them. She would—she <i>must</i>—know +what he was saying to his companion in that leafy bower.</p> + +<p>She said to herself, of course it was Dorothy, and that they had stolen +away from the lights and the music for a few tender words with each +other, after the fashion of love-sick lovers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>It had not been so very long ago since he had been talking with her in +just that lover-like way, only their courtship had taken place in the +public parks, sitting on the benches, or walking lovingly arm in arm +along the crowded thoroughfares; and he had brought Dorothy to his own +grand home—Dorothy, her hated rival!—to enjoy this paradise of a +place, and to make love to her in this Eden bower of roses and scented, +murmuring, tinkling fountains.</p> + +<p>"Dorothy!" he murmured in his rich, low, musical voice. How plainly she +heard the name! The rest of the sentence she could not catch, though she +crept nearer and nearer, and strained every nerve to listen. "I love you +as I have never loved anything in this life before," she heard him say, +"and my future without you would be unendurable. I can not endure it—I +will not!"</p> + +<p>The poor wretch who listened grew mad as she heard the tender words +whispered into the ears of another by her false lover.</p> + +<p>She crouched still lower, and her hand, as she threw it out wildly, came +in contact with something hard and cold. It was a long, thin, +sharp-bladed knife which the gardener had been using only that day to +trim the bushes, and which, in his hurry, he had carelessly forgotten. +She realized instantly what it was, and, with the thought, a diabolical +idea crept into her brain.</p> + +<p>"Why should Dorothy Glenn live to enjoy the smiles of the man whose love +she has robbed me of," she muttered below her breath, "while my heart +hungers and my soul quivers in endless torture for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> affection that +is denied me? I can endure it no longer!"</p> + +<p>The mad desire to spoil the fair beauty of her rival overpowered her +until the thought possessed her and rendered her almost a fiend +incarnate.</p> + +<p>Grasping the long, sharp-bladed knife tightly, Nadine Holt raised her +right arm slowly, cautiously. Not so much as a leaf rustled to warn the +two sitting on the rustic bench of the terrible danger that hung over +them.</p> + +<p>Harry Kendal's low, musical voice sank to a lower cadence. He drew the +slender figure of the girl nearer and that action was fatal.</p> + +<p>There was a quick, whizzing sound, followed by an awful cry of terror +from Iris, and Kendal's hand, resting lightly about her waist, was +deluged in blood.</p> + +<p>"Murder! murder! Oh, heavens!" shrieked Iris, and she fell at his feet +in a swoon.</p> + +<p>In the commotion Nadine Holt turned like a pantheress and made her +escape from the conservatory and from the house.</p> + +<p>"Murder! murder!" Those terrible cries that rent the air were the first +sounds that Dorothy heard as her benumbed brain gained consciousness. +And as she staggered, benumbed and dazed, to her feet she almost fell +over a slimy knife lying there, and at that instant a strong hand flung +back the rose-vines and Harry Kendal, white and quivering with wrath, +confronted her.</p> + +<p>"Dorothy Glenn!" he cried, in a horrible voice fairly reverberating with +intense emotion, "You! Oh, you cruel, wicked girl! You—you fiend! to do +what you have done!" and reaching out his hand he flung<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> her backward +from him as though she were a scorpion whose very touch was +contamination. "Fly up to your own room," he cried, hoarsely, "and do +not leave it for a moment until I come to you there! Have nothing to +say; refuse to speak to any one!" and catching her fiercely by the +shoulder, he fairly dragged her through the conservatory toward the rear +door, which communicated with a back stairway that led up to her room.</p> + +<p>Faint and dazed, Dorothy had not offered the least resistance to this +cruel treatment. Her brain seemed stupefied by the whirling, confusing +events taking place so rapidly around her. She only realized two things: +that she had betrayed her presence in the conservatory when she fell to +the floor upon hearing her lover speak words of affection to her rival, +and that Harry was bitterly angry with her for being there. She did not +remember that she had lost consciousness. It seemed to her that as her +senses were about leaving her strange cries recalled them.</p> + +<p>It occurred to her that in his excitement and anger her lover had not +noticed that she had regained her sight.</p> + +<p>Wearily Dorothy ascended the steep, narrow stairway and entered her own +room. A soft, low, dim light flooded the apartment, upon which she had +not gazed for many and many a long day.</p> + +<p>Katy was not there, and she flung herself into the nearest arm-chair, +sobbing wretchedly, although on that night she had cause to cry out to +Heaven and rejoice for God's mercy to her for so unexpectedly restoring +her sight. But, ah, me! how strange it is that all the blessings Heaven +can shower upon us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> seem as dross when the one love we crave proves +fickle.</p> + +<p>Dorothy did not have the heart to cry out joyfully and thankfully. Her +head drooped on her breast with a low, quivering sigh, and her hands +fell in her lap.</p> + +<p>Suddenly something around the bottom of her dress caught her eye, and +she started to her feet with a low cry.</p> + +<p>"It is blood!" she cried out in an awful voice.</p> + +<p>No sooner had the door closed behind Dorothy ere Kendal flew back to +Iris' side.</p> + +<p>No one had heard the terrible cries. He thanked Heaven for that. The +music had drowned them.</p> + +<p>He had quite believed that Iris was dying. A hasty examination showed +him that it was only a slight wound on the shoulder, from which blood +was flowing profusely.</p> + +<p>"Thank God it is no worse!" he cried, breathing freely.</p> + +<p>He quickly set about restoring Iris, and in a moment she opened her +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Murder! murder!" she would have cried again, but he put his hand +instantly over her red lips.</p> + +<p>"Hush! hush! in Heaven's name!" he cried. "You will alarm the whole +household. You are not seriously hurt!"</p> + +<p>"Some one was trying to murder me!" shrieked Iris, hysterically.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" he returned, quickly. "Listen, Iris, for Heaven's sake! One of +the panes of glass of the conservatory directly overhead was broken, +and—and a little part of it fell in, grazing your shoulder. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> a +deep and painful scratch, I can well understand; but it is only a +scratch, I can assure you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it has ruined my dress!" cried the girl, in anger and dismay, never +thinking for an instant of doubting the truth of his assertion. "I can +not appear in the ball-room again. No one must know that we were here +together," she went on, hastily—"not one human soul! You must give out +that I—I became suddenly indisposed and went to my own room."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think your suggestions are best," he agreed.</p> + +<p>The guests received this explanation of the sudden absence of the beauty +of the ball with regret, and more than one whisper went the rounds of +the room how this seemed to disturb handsome Harry Kendal, for his face +was very pale, and he seemed so nervous.</p> + +<p>At the earliest opportunity Harry Kendal slipped away from the merry +throng and up to Dorothy's apartment, hastily knocking at the door.</p> + +<p>She opened it herself.</p> + +<p>"Step out into the corridor," he said, sternly; "I want to speak to +you."</p> + +<p>And trembling with apprehension caused by his stern manner, Dorothy +obeyed.</p> + +<p>She could see, even in the dim light, that his face was white as death.</p> + +<p>"I have come to have an understanding with you, Dorothy Glenn!" he cried +hoarsely. "Your dastardly action of to-night has forever placed a +barrier between you and me! I am here to say this to you: here and now I +sever our betrothal! The same roof shall no longer shelter us both! +Either you leave this house to-night, or I'll go!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXII" id="Chapter_XXII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXII.</span></h2> + + +<p>It was the most pitiful scene that pen could describe. The beautiful +young girl, in her dress of fleecy white, with the faded purple blossoms +on her breast entwined among the meshes of her disheveled golden hair, +crouching back among the green leaves, and the white-faced, handsome, +angry man clutching her white arm, crying out hoarsely that never again +should they both breathe the same air beneath that roof—that she must +leave Gray Gables within the hour, or he would.</p> + +<p>"I did not know that I had done so terribly wrong," moaned the girl, +shrinking back from those angry, fiery eyes that glowered down so +fiercely into her own.</p> + +<p>A laugh that was more horrible than the wildest imprecation could have +been broke from his lips.</p> + +<p>"You seem to have a remarkably mixed idea of right and wrong," he +retorted, sternly, relaxing his hold and standing before her with rigid, +folded arms, his anger growing more intense with each passing instant as +he looked down into the girl's agonized face.</p> + +<p>Had she done so very, very wrong in remaining in the conservatory, and +in listening to her betrothed make love to her rival? she wondered +vaguely.</p> + +<p>Surely, she should have been the one to have cried out in bitter anger, +not he.</p> + +<p>"Let me tell you how it all came about," she gasped, faintly.</p> + +<p>"I—I was in the ball-room with Katy, when it grew so warm that I sent +for an ice. She did not return as soon as I had expected her, and—and I +groped my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> way out into the garden to await her there. But as I stepped +from the porch a wonderful thing happened, Harry. I—I missed my footing +and fell headlong down the steps to the graveled walk below, and the +shock restored my sight. Oh! look at me, Harry!" she exclaimed, with +quivering intensity, holding out her white arms toward him. "I can see +now. I can see your idolized face, oh, my beloved! I—I came here to +tell you this—to tell you the wonderful tidings! I intended to send to +the ball-room for you, but before I could put my intention into +execution I—I heard steps approaching, and drew back among the +screening leaves till they should pass. You came in with Iris Vincent, +and I heard what you said, and my brain whirled—I grew dazed. You—you +know the rest!"</p> + +<p>He was not overwhelmed by the great tidings that she had regained her +sight, as she had expected he would be. Instead, he retorted brusquely:</p> + +<p>"It was a pity that your sight returned to you to enable you to do so +dastardly a deed; and I am beginning to have my doubts whether or not +you have not been duping us all along, and, under that guise, spying +upon us—which seems to be your forte. This revelation makes me angrier +than ever," he went on, "for it leaves you with no possible hope of +pardon for your atrocious conduct, which merits the whole world's scorn +and contempt!"</p> + +<p>"I see it all!" cried Dorothy, springing to her feet and facing him. +"You have prearranged this quarrel with me to break our betrothal, that +you might wed your new love—Iris Vincent. But, just for pure spite, I +will not release you—never! I will tell the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> whole world of your +duplicity. An engagement is a solemn thing. It takes two to enter into +it and two to break it."</p> + +<p>The scorn on his handsome face deepened.</p> + +<p>"I do not very well see how you can marry a man when he makes up his +mind not to have you," he declared. "That is a difficult feat, and I +shall have to see it done before I can be convinced that it can be +accomplished," he replied, icily, adding: "There are many women in this +world who would stand back and watch such a proceeding with the wildest +anxiety, I imagine;" this sneeringly.</p> + +<p>"You shall never marry Iris Vincent!" Dorothy panted. "I—I would +prevent it at any cost. Once before you forsook me when I needed you +most; you left me to die when I fell from the steamer down into +the dark water, when we were returning from Staten Island, that +never-to-be-forgotten night; so why should I be surprised at your +willingness to desert me now?"</p> + +<p>He turned on his heel.</p> + +<p>"It is now two o'clock in the morning," he said. "My duty requires me to +go down to the ball-room and bid the guests adieu as they take their +departure, and when that is over I shall leave this house until this +difficulty has been settled. The reading of Doctor Bryan's will is to +take place at noon. I shall be present then, and after that—well—well, +we shall see what will take place."</p> + +<p>With these words Kendal quitted the room, and left Dorothy standing +there with the tears falling like rain down her cheeks—surely the most +piteous object in the whole wide world.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>When Kendal found himself alone his intense anger against Dorothy began +to cool a little.</p> + +<p>"It is true she attempted to do a horrible deed," he muttered; "but I +must not forget that love for me prompted her to it, and show her <i>some</i> +mercy."</p> + +<p>After all the guests had taken their departure, and the house had +settled down into the darkness and quiet of the waning night, Kendal +paced his room in a greatly perturbed state of mind, thinking the matter +over.</p> + +<p>He was terribly in love with Iris, he admitted to himself; but he had +done wrong, fearfully wrong, in breaking off his engagement with Dorothy +until after the reading of the will. Iris was beautiful, bewitching—his +idea of all that a proud, imperious, willful sweetheart should be—but +Dorothy would have what was much better than all this, the golden +shekels; and then, too, now that the girl was no longer blind, she would +have plenty of admirers; and he could have cursed himself for those +hasty words, that no longer should she live under the same roof with +himself.</p> + +<p>It was daylight when he threw himself down on the bed, fairly worn out; +and his head no sooner touched the pillow than he fell into a deep +sleep, and it was almost noon ere he opened his eyes again, and then it +was the slow, measured chime of the clock as it struck the half hour +which awakened him.</p> + +<p>"Great Heaven! half past eleven!" he ejaculated, springing from the +couch. "I shall barely have time to get downstairs to be present at the +reading of the will. I must make all haste; but first of all I must find +out how Iris is, and if her shoulder pains her much."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>He rang the bell hastily, and to the servant who answered the summons he +gave his verbal message to Miss Vincent. But in a very short time the +man returned, placing a letter in his hand.</p> + +<p>Kendal was mystified, for he saw that it was Iris' delicate chirography. +He tore open the envelope with the fever of impatience, and as his eye +fell upon the delicately written lines his handsome face turned white as +marble.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My <span class="smcap">dear Harry</span>," it commenced, "you will feel greatly +surprised at the contents of this letter. I think it +best to break into the subject at once, and to tell you +the plain truth of just what has happened.</p> + +<p>"Shortly after I left you and retired to my own +apartments the pain in my shoulder became so intense +that, remembering there was a young surgeon among the +invited guests, I sent for him at once. I can never +tell you just exactly how it came about, but the upshot +of the whole matter was that he asked me to marry him.</p> + +<p>"I wanted time to consider it; but he said it must be +then and there, within the hour, or never. I demurred, +but he was resolute.</p> + +<p>"I realized that I held my future in my own hands, and +that I had to decide upon my own destiny at once.</p> + +<p>"He is a millionaire's son, and you are only a poor, +struggling physician. Can you wonder that it could +terminate only in one way?</p> + +<p>"I accepted him, and by the time that you are reading +this we shall be married and far away. So good-bye, +Harry. Try and forgive me, if you can.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right;">"<span class="smcap">Iris.</span>"</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>With a horrible imprecation, Kendal tore the note into a thousand +fragments, hurled them upon the floor, and ground his heel into them.</p> + +<p>"False!" he cried. "I might have known it. It is always these beautiful +women who are so heartless. They draw men on with their smiles and their +bewitching fascinations, only to throw them over when a more eligible +<i>parti</i> appears upon the scene."</p> + +<p>Deeply as he had been smitten with her charms, her action caused an +instantaneous revulsion of feeling.</p> + +<p>"'What care I how fair she be, if she be not fair to me?'" he cried out, +bitterly, to himself. "What a fool I was, to be duped by her so long! +The iron has entered deep into my soul, but she shall see that she can +not quite crush me. I will live to be revenged upon Iris Vincent if it +costs me my life! If Dorothy inherits the million, I will marry her +before the sun sets to-night. I only wish that I had known the way that +affairs were shaping themselves. I—I should not have treated Dorothy so +harshly."</p> + +<p>It seemed as though all in an instant his heart went back to her in the +rebound.</p> + +<p>He rushed hurriedly down into the dining-room, there to be met by Mrs. +Kemp, who advanced toward him with a white, startled face.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Kendal," she gasped, breathlessly, "you can never in the world +guess what has happened!"</p> + +<p>"I rather think I can," retorted the young man, harshly: "your niece, +Miss Vincent, has eloped with the millionaire's son across the way."</p> + +<p>"That—that is not what I had reference to," said Mrs. Kemp, with a sob. +"I—I admit that Iris has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> eloped, but it is not she whom I meant, but +Dorothy."</p> + +<p>"What of her?" cried Kendal, sharply, little dreaming the truth.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXIII" id="Chapter_XXIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIII.</span></h2> + + +<p>For an instant Kendal looked at the housekeeper in amazement.</p> + +<p>"What of Dorothy?" he repeated, breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"She has disappeared too!" returned the housekeeper, faintly, adding: +"She did not go with Iris, as you may imagine."</p> + +<p>"No?" he echoed, faintly, inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"No," she responded; "she went alone. She said to Katy, last night, 'If +you wake up on the morrow, and do not find me here, do not weep. I shall +be where I will be better off. No one will miss me—no one will know or +care whither I have gone.' Katy thought them idle words, and paid little +heed to them; but this morning, when she awoke and found that Dorothy +was not in her room, in the greatest of alarm she came to me and told me +what had occurred. At that moment I was just smarting under the blow of +Iris' elopement, and words fail to describe my feelings at this second +and most terrible catastrophe, for I realized how it would affect you, +my poor boy."</p> + +<p>Kendal had sunk down into the nearest chair, white as death, and +trembling like an aspen-leaf.</p> + +<p>He could hardly grasp the meaning of her words. "Dorothy gone—Iris fled +with another!" His lips twitched convulsively, but he uttered no sound.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>"I made diligent search for Iris and Dorothy," Mrs. Kemp went on, +tearfully. "I found my niece had been married at the rectory, and had +taken the first train to the city with her newly made husband; they +intend starting on the steamer which leaves New York for Europe to-day. +So, of course, there was nothing to be done in Iris' case, so I turned +my attention to Dorothy. But, as I remarked before, it was useless. I +think she must have gone to New York City, and if she has, trying to +find her will be like hunting for a needle in a hay-stack. I was shocked +that she should have left to-day, because she well knew that this was +the day on which the will was to be read, and that concerns her so +vitally. Ah! here is the lawyer now," and before Kendal could frame a +reply the gentleman was ushered into the old-fashioned library.</p> + +<p>He greeted both Mrs. Kemp and the young man gravely, and they knew by +his demeanor that he had heard what occurred.</p> + +<p>His very first words assured them of that fact, and he went on to say +that Dorothy's disappearance, however, would make no difference in the +reading of Doctor Bryan's will, which was set for that day and hour.</p> + +<p>"As my time is rather limited," he continued, "you will, I trust, pardon +me if I proceed to business at once."</p> + +<p>He looked sharply from one to the other, and, as they both bowed assent, +he opened the satchel he had brought with him, and proceeded to take out +the document which meant so much to Kendal, unfolded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> it with great +precision, and in his high, metallic voice he read it through slowly and +impressively.</p> + +<p>Kendal had quite imagined that the old doctor would leave him a goodly +share of his vast estate—perhaps something like a hundred thousand or +so—indeed, he would not have been surprised to have learned that the +doctor had left him a quarter of a million dollars.</p> + +<p>To his unspeakable horror he found that he had been cut off without a +dollar; all had been left to Dorothy, without reserve or condition, save +one, and that condition was a most important one: that she should marry +Kendal six months after his decease, or relinquish the fortune +bequeathed to her.</p> + +<p>"I may as well explain to you my old friend's idea in making this will," +said the lawyer, turning to the young man. "He wished Miss Glenn to +marry you, and thought this the most expedient and effectual way of +bringing about the marriage of two young people whose interests he had +so deeply at heart. Had he lived long enough to have made a new will, I +am sure it would have been entirely different."</p> + +<p>But not one word of all this did Harry Kendal hear. His brain was on +fire. He only realized one thing—that he was a beggar on the face of +God's earth; and, to make matters worse, he had by his own rash act +driven Dorothy from beneath that roof, thereby cutting off his own +chance of marrying her and being master of Gray Gables.</p> + +<p>He clinched his hand and ground his handsome white teeth together in +terrible rage.</p> + +<p>There was but one thing to do, and that was to find Dorothy ere the +fortnight waned, and marry her at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> once—that is, if he could ever +persuade her to forgive him.</p> + +<p>He had parted from her in bitter anger, and said words to her that women +never forgive when uttered by those whom they love. The worst part of +the whole affair was, their quarrel had been over another girl.</p> + +<p>"No steps will be taken until the fortnight has elapsed," said the +lawyer in his metallic voice; "and at the expiration of that time, if we +do not congratulate you, Mr. Kendal, upon your marriage to Miss Dorothy, +we shall have to make great changes at Gray Gables. Allow me to wish you +both a very good-morning."</p> + +<p>With these brief words the brisk little lawyer took a hasty departure.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kemp and Kendal stood looking at each other long after his +departure with faces pale as death.</p> + +<p>It was the housekeeper who broke the silence.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for you, Mr. Kendal," she said. "It is a terrible thing to +have one's hopes dashed after that fashion—and when one doesn't deserve +it, either. You were always so good and faithful and true to Dorothy, +sir; even keeping your promise with her through the most terrible +affliction that ever could have befallen her—that of blindness. It is +dreadful to think that the moment she regained her sight, and believing +herself to be the possessor of a great fortune, that she should show +every one so plainly that she thought you were not good enough for her +to marry by running away from you, Mr. Kendal!"</p> + +<p>Every word she so innocently uttered cut him like a sharp sword.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>"Not good enough for her?" he echoed, crushing back the imprecation that +sprang to his lips. His blood boiled at the construction which she put +upon the matter. It was a terrible blow to his pride, yet he dared not +utter the truth until he should know whether or not he should be able to +find Dorothy and marry her within the allotted fortnight.</p> + +<p>Without a word Kendal turned on his heel and quitted the room, slamming +the door after him with a decided bang.</p> + +<p>Before the sun set that night he was in New York City again and +searching for Dorothy.</p> + +<p>It meant a fortune for him. He <i>must</i> find her. He dared not think of +what failure would mean to him—of the ruin that would stare him in the +face.</p> + +<p>The idea suggested itself to him that in all probability Dorothy would +seek out her old companions of the book-bindery. He felt that it would +be rather daring to go there, where he would meet Nadine Holt, after his +so abrupt desertion of her; but his anxiety over Dorothy overcame all +scruples, and late that afternoon the girls of the Hollingsworth +book-bindery were astonished at the door being flung suddenly open and +seeing the handsome young man whom they had known as the street-car +conductor and Nadine Holt's lover standing on the threshold.</p> + +<p>His eyes ran rapidly over the scores of girls at their tables, resting +at length upon a fair, pale thoughtful young girl standing nearest him. +He remembered having often seen her with Dorothy. He recollected, too, +that her name was Nannie Switzer. He stepped up to her and raised his +hat with that courteous bow that was always so fascinating to young +girls.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>"I beg your pardon," he said, "but, finding myself in your vicinity, I +dropped in to look up my old friend. I refer to the young girl with whom +I used to see you so much—Dorothy Glenn."</p> + +<p>To his utmost surprise, the young girl burst into a flood of tears.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir, you can not tell how your words affect me!" she sobbed.</p> + +<p>"Why?" he asked, surprisedly.</p> + +<p>The girl hung her pretty head, and her blue eyes sought the floor in the +greatest embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Will you tell me why?" he repeated, earnestly. "It is my right to know, +is it not, Miss Nannie?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you see, sir," she stammered, confusedly, "we have not seen or +heard anything from Dorothy Glenn since Labor Day and every one +hereabouts thought that—that <i>you</i> knew where she was."</p> + +<p>He flushed a dark crimson and gave a guilty start.</p> + +<p>"I am so glad to know that our suspicions were groundless," she +breathed, thankfully; adding: "I am indeed sorry that I can not tell you +where Dorothy is; we would all give the world to know, I assure you."</p> + +<p>He could not help asking next, in a low, husky voice:</p> + +<p>"What of Nadine Holt? Where is she?"</p> + +<p>Again the girl's face clouded.</p> + +<p>"She has worked right along here with us up to a week ago," she +answered, "and then Nadine went away suddenly, without saying so much as +good-bye to any of us." She could not help but add: "She has changed so +greatly that you would never know her. She is no longer the dark-eyed +beauty whom you re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>member; she looks ten years older. She never smiles +now, and there is a horrible look in her eyes—like the cunning gleam +one sees in the eyes of the insane; and, oh! sir, let me warn +you—<i>you</i>, of all men—for the love of Heaven, do not cross her path! +Remember, I—I warn you."</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXIV" id="Chapter_XXIV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIV.</span></h2> + + +<p>Harry Kendal threw back his dark, handsome head with a gesture of +disdain and looked at the girl.</p> + +<p>"I do not know of any reason why you should warn <i>me</i>, above all other +men, that it is dangerous to cross Miss Holt's path," he said. "Almost +any young man will flirt with a pretty girl when he finds her so <i>very</i> +willing. She understood that it was only a flirtation; but when I met +your little friend Dorothy, of course all that nonsense with Nadine +ceased."</p> + +<p>"Nadine did not call it a flirtation," returned the girl, gravely. "You +might call it that. She thought of it differently, I am sure."</p> + +<p>"Where is Jessie Staples?" he asked, abruptly, to change the +embarrassing subject.</p> + +<p>"She, too, has left the bindery," was the unexpected reply. "There have +been great changes among the people in this book-bindery within the last +few months. A young man connected with the place had quite a sum of +money left him, and Jessie Staples was a great favorite with this young +man's mother, so at their invitation Jessie went to live with them."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>Finding that she had nothing more to tell him, Kendal soon after took +his departure.</p> + +<p>He was desperate as he walked along the street.</p> + +<p>"What in the name of Heaven shall I do?" he cried. "One day of the +fortnight has already passed, and I have not even the slightest clew to +Dorothy's whereabouts." And in that hour in which he realized that she +was indeed lost to him he knew how well he actually loved the girl. +Iris' fickleness had killed his mad infatuation at one blow, and, +man-like, his heart returned at once to its old allegiance.</p> + +<p>Now that he knew that it was only a question of the merest chance of +ever finding Dorothy, his very soul seemed to grow wild with anxiety.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a thought born of desperation occurred to him—why not consult +a fortune-teller as a last resort? It just flashed across his brain, an +advertisement he had read and laughed over in one of the New York papers +a few days before:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Madame ——, seventh daughter of the seventh daughter, +reveals to those who wish to consult her all the main +incidents of their past, present, and future life; +brings together the hearts of those who are suffering +from the pangs of lovers' quarrels, though the whole +wide earth should separate them; indicates the +whereabouts of missing ones, though they should be +hidden as deeply and securely from sight as the bowels +of the earth. The madame can with ease secure for you +the love of any person whom you may choose to win, put +each and every person in the way of making fabulous +fortunes in the shortest possible space of time, and +all this for the small sum of fifty cents. Madame can +be found, between the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> hours of nine and twelve in the +forenoon, one and six in the afternoon, and from seven +until eleven in the evening, by those who wish to +consult her marvelous powers, on the fourth floor of +the last tenement house on Hester Street. Visitors will +please take note that Madame's consultation studio is +in the rear of the building. A candle lights the way."</p></div> + +<p>By dint of much perseverance Kendal found the place.</p> + +<p>Taking the candle, he groped his way through the long, narrow, grimy +passage, and found himself at length standing before Room 106, as the +advertisement had indicated.</p> + +<p>His loud, impatient knock was answered, after some little delay, by a +tall figure hooded and cloaked, the face almost concealed by a long, +thick veil that was thrown about the head, and which reached almost to +the feet.</p> + +<p>In a black-gloved hand this strange apparition held a lighted candle.</p> + +<p>"I trust I have found the right place," said Kendal. "I am in search of +Madame Morlacci, the fortune-teller."</p> + +<p>At the sound of the deep, rich, mellow voice, the figure started back as +though it had been struck a sudden blow, the black-shrouded hand that +held the candle shook as if from palsy.</p> + +<p>"Come in," replied a muffled voice, that sounded like nothing human, it +was so weird.</p> + +<p>Kendal stepped fearlessly into the room, the corners of which were in +deepest gloom, which the flickering rays of the candle could not +penetrate.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Kendal, impatiently, "I should be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> grateful to commence the +preliminaries of this fortune-telling business at your earliest +convenience, if you please, madam; my time is somewhat limited."</p> + +<p>Kendal drew forth his pocket-book, took out a bank-bill and handed it to +the strange creature; but, to his intense surprise, she flung it back +almost in his face.</p> + +<p>"I can tell you all you wish to know without a fee," cried the hoarse, +muffled voice, which somehow made every drop of blood in Kendal's veins +run cold as he heard it.</p> + +<p>"That would not be very profitable to you, I am sure, madame," he said, +wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"That makes no difference to you," was the almost rude answer. He felt +quite disconcerted; he hardly knew what to say next. This certainly was +an odd <i>contretemps</i>, to say the least. "You are here to learn the +whereabouts of—a woman?" she whispered, in a deep, uncanny voice. "Is +it not so?"</p> + +<p>"By Heaven! you are quite right," cried Kendal, in amazement, quite +startled out of his usual politeness.</p> + +<p>This woman had never laid eyes on him before, he told himself. Now, how, +in the name of all that was wonderful, could she have known this? He had +sneered at fortune-telling all his whole life through; now he began to +wonder if there was not something in it, after all.</p> + +<p>"This woman, who is young, and by some called beautiful, will be your +evil genius!" she hissed. "You wronged her through your +fickle-mindedness, and wrecked her young life."</p> + +<p>"Great God!" he cried, "are you woman or devil, or a combination of +both? But go on—go on!" he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> cried, excitedly. "I see you know all my +past. There is no use in my attempting to hide anything from you. But +tell me, where shall I find this young woman of whom you speak? I must +track her down."</p> + +<p>A laugh that was horrible to hear broke from the lips of the veiled +woman opposite him.</p> + +<p>"That you will never be able to do!" she cried, fiercely. "Though she +may cross your path at will, you might as well hunt for a particular +grain of sand along the sea-shore, a needle in a haystack, a special +blade of grass in a whole field. You may recognize this fact, and abide +by it. But, hark you! listen to what I have to say: The fates have +decreed that your heart shall be wrung as you have wrung hers—pang for +pang!"</p> + +<p>"Who and what are you," he cried, "who talk to me in this way? You act +more like a vengeful spirit than a woman unconcerned in my affairs. Who +and what are you, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"I tell you only what I see," was the muttered response.</p> + +<p>"See where?" demanded Kendal in agitation.</p> + +<p>"That is not for you to know."</p> + +<p>"But I shall—I will know!" he cried, furiously. "There is something +underneath all this trumpery. I am not a man to be trifled with in +this fashion, I can tell you, with your fortune-telling +nonsense—humbuggery!"</p> + +<p>"Then, pray, what brings you here? what is your object in coming?" asked +the other, with a covert sneer.</p> + +<p>"To hear what lies you could trump up," replied Kendal boldly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>"Our interview is ended," said the veiled figure, rising and pointing +her long arm toward the door.</p> + +<p>He knew that he must temporize with her if he would find out Dorothy's +whereabouts, which he was beginning to believe she might find out for +him.</p> + +<p>"Will you pardon me?" he asked, humbling himself. "I—I must know more."</p> + +<p>"You have heard all that I have to say, Harry Kendal!" she cried.</p> + +<p>Who was this creature who knew him—aye, knew his name, his most secret +affairs? He must—he would know.</p> + +<p>With a quick bound he cleared the space which divided them, and in a +trice he had grasped her wrists firmly and torn the veil from her face.</p> + +<p>This was followed by a mighty cry.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXV" id="Chapter_XXV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXV.</span></h2> + + +<p>The instant Harry Kendal sprang toward the veiled woman she sprang +backward, as though anticipating the movement, and quick as a flash she +overturned the candle, just as he tore the veil from her face.</p> + +<p>A low, taunting laugh broke from her lips through the inky darkness of +the room. In a trice she had torn herself free from his grasp, and like +a flash she had sped from the room and down the narrow hall and +stairway, like a storm-driven swallow, leaving her companion stumbling +about the place, and giving vent to curses loud and deep as he fumbled +about his vest pocket for matches.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>The veiled woman never stopped until she reached the street, then paused +for a moment and looked back as she reached the nearest gas lamp.</p> + +<p>As the flickering rays of the street lamp fell athwart her face, the +features of Nadine Holt were clearly revealed, her black eyes blazing, +and her jet black hair streaming wildly about her face.</p> + +<p>"How strange!" she panted, "that this idea of fortune telling should +have come to me as a means of gaining my living! I was driven to do +something. And that he should have been the very first patron to come to +me—he, of all others! He is tracking me down because I maimed the girl +whom he is so soon to wed—yes, tracking me down to throw me into +prison—and yet he was once my lover! It is always the way. When a man's +heart grows cold to one love, and another's face has charmed him, it +seems to me as though men have a cruel, feverish desire to thrust the +first love from them at whatever cost. But I will be revenged upon him! +I will live to make his very life a torture; but I shall do it through +Dorothy Glenn. I will go to Dorothy Glenn at once, and we shall see what +will happen then."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, after much fumbling and imprecations loud and deep, Kendal +succeeded in striking a match and finding the overturned bit of wax +taper, which he hastily lighted, peering cautiously into the inky +darkness which surrounded him.</p> + +<p>He was tired and exhausted, and he told himself that he would turn in at +the nearest hotel, take a good night's rest, and mature his plans on the +morrow for finding Dorothy.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, let us go back, dear reader, to the hour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> in which our +heroine, little Dorothy, decided to leave Gray Gables.</p> + +<p>For some moments after Harry Kendal had left her in anger in the +corridor she stood quite still—stood there long after the sound of his +footsteps had died away, trying to realize the full purport of his +words—that their engagement was at an end, and that they had parted +forever.</p> + +<p>The whole world seemed to stand still about her. Then, like one suddenly +dazed, she turned and crept into her own room. Katy was there awaiting +her.</p> + +<p>She suffered the girl to place her in a chair, to take the faded +blossoms from her hand and from her corsage, to unfasten the strings of +pearls, and to remove her ball dress.</p> + +<p>By degrees she had informed Katy of her regaining her sight, and the +poor girl's joy knew no bounds.</p> + +<p>She wondered greatly how Dorothy could feel so downcast in such an hour, +and she never once heeded Dorothy's sad words—that she was going to +leave Gray Gables before the dawn, as there was no one there who loved +her.</p> + +<p>It was so late when Katy sought her own couch that she soon dropped into +a deep sleep. This Dorothy had watched for with the greatest impatience. +She soon rose, robed herself in a dark dress and Katy's long cloak, and +was soon ready for the great undertaking which she had mapped out for +herself.</p> + +<p>Hastily writing a note, she placed it where Katy's eyes would be sure to +fall upon it early the next morning; then she stole quietly from the +room. The great clock in the corridor below struck three as she passed +it with bated breath and trembling in every limb.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>She opened the door softly and stole out into the chill, raw night.</p> + +<p>There was no one in this wide world to miss her, no one to care what +became of her! She was in every one's way. Only one thought suggested +itself to her—to end it all. Perhaps Harry Kendal would feel very sorry +when the news came to him on the morrow that she was dead—she whom he +had spurned so cruelly only the night before. And perhaps he would throw +himself beside her cold, dead body and wish that he had been less cruel +to her, and cry out:</p> + +<p>"Oh, if God would but roll back His universe and give me yesterday!"</p> + +<p>She had no fixed destination, but walked on and on, until she suddenly +found herself down by the Yonkers Boat Club House, that stretched its +dark shadow afar out into the river. It was connected with the shore by +a long, narrow plank walk.</p> + +<p>Mechanically Dorothy crept down the narrow, winding stairway that led to +it. Midway on the plank walk she paused, clung desperately to the rail +and looked fearfully down into the dark, flowing river that rushed on so +madly but a few feet below her.</p> + +<p>Only a few flickering stars would see and know all, she told herself. +There would be but a plunge, a deathly shiver as her warm body came in +contact with the icy waves, a moment of choking, a terrible sensation, +then all would be over—her troubles would be at an end!</p> + +<p>What cared she for the wealth of a hundred Gray Gables and princely +estates when love's boon was denied her?</p> + +<p>Even in that hour and in that weird place she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> thought of the words +another heart-broken girl had uttered long years before:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"You have learned to love another,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">You have broken every vow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We have parted from each other,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And my heart is lonely now.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oh! was it well to sever<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This fond heart from thine forever?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can I forget thee? Never!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Farewell, lost love, forever!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"We have met, and we have parted,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But I uttered scarce a word;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, God! how my poor heart started<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When thy well-known voice I heard!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oh! woman's love will grieve her,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And woman's pride will leave her;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life has fled when love deceives her,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Farewell—farewell forever!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"I am so young to die!" sobbed Dorothy. "I haven't done very much good +in the world, but surely I have done no wrong."</p> + +<p>Then it occurred to her suddenly—a little trifle which she had quite +forgotten:</p> + +<p>She had taken Nadine Holt's lover from her, and the girl was +broken-hearted over his loss; and now Heaven had, in turn, taken him +from her. This was God's vengeance upon her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>Could even Nadine Holt see her now she would feel sorry and find pity +for her.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, to her intense amazement, Dorothy saw a man hurrying along the +high cliff just above where she stood. He was advancing toward her with +hasty strides that broke almost into a run.</p> + +<p>Dorothy noticed that he carried a large black bundle in his arms, and +that he was heading directly toward the boat house.</p> + +<p>She saw him lean forward, raise the bundle quickly and dash it into the +river, turn rapidly, and break into a quick run in the opposite +direction.</p> + +<p>The bundle did not quite reach the water's edge, she saw; he had missed +his aim.</p> + +<p>Dorothy stopped short and peered over the rails at it, wondering what it +could contain.</p> + +<p>As she did so she observed that there was motion within the small, dark +bundle. It contained some living thing, she felt quite sure.</p> + +<p>Dare she go and examine it? she asked herself. Perhaps it was some poor +animal doomed to death that was bound up in that unsightly bundle.</p> + +<p>Her heart stirred with pity at the thought, and at that moment a cry, +faint and muffled, broke the stillness of the night.</p> + +<p>It emanated from the dark bundle. Quick as a flash Dorothy retraced her +steps until she reached the bank, and down this she clambered with +alacrity.</p> + +<p>But when she was almost within reach of the bundle it rolled down into +the water with a splash, and the mad waves covered it.</p> + +<p>With a cry Dorothy sprang forward just in time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> and caught it as the +undertow was bearing it out into the deep water.</p> + +<p>Again there was a quick cry and struggle within the bundle. In a +twinkling Dorothy had torn off the wrappings.</p> + +<p>"Oh, God in Heaven!" she cried, "it is a little child!"</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXVI" id="Chapter_XXVI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVI.</span></h2> + + +<p>The cry died away in Dorothy's throat as her terrified eyes fell upon +the bundle which she held in her arms.</p> + +<p>Yes, it was a little child.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the cruelty of it!" she sobbed aloud. Some one had doomed it to +death on this bitter night, and she thanked Heaven for bringing her to +that spot to save its life.</p> + +<p>Wrapping it quickly in the ends of her long thick cloak, Dorothy hurried +to the nearest shelter with it.</p> + +<p>This happily proved to be a small cottage on the outskirts of the town. +A solitary ray of light shone from one of the windows, and without +hesitation Dorothy hastened up the little narrow path to the porch and +rang the bell.</p> + +<p>She quite believed that she would know the inmates of the cottage, for +she well knew every one in the village.</p> + +<p>It was a strange woman that opened the door at length and peered out at +her, and a shrill voice cried:</p> + +<p>"Why, as I live, Maria, it's a woman standing out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> here with a child in +her arms! Why, what in the world can you want?" she cried, addressing +Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"I thought I should see some one here whom I knew," faltered Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"No; we are strangers here," replied the woman. "We have just moved into +this cottage to-day. We are from down country, my man and me, and my +girl Maria. We don't know any one hereabouts, so I can't direct you. +But, dear me! it's an uncanny time of night for a woman to be out. You +ought to be careful of your little baby, if you have no thought for +yourself, ma'am."</p> + +<p>Dorothy tried to speak, but words seemed to fail her.</p> + +<p>"But won't you come in and rest for a bit?" asked the woman, pityingly. +"I can't let you go away without at least warming yourself by the fire. +I am sitting up with my sick daughter."</p> + +<p>Dorothy gladly accepted the kindly offer and entered.</p> + +<p>Dorothy was about to tell the woman the story of how she had rescued the +little one, when it occurred to her that this would necessitate her +explaining how she herself had come to be in that locality at that hour, +and this she shrank from doing.</p> + +<p>The woman was a stranger in the neighborhood, she argued to herself, and +would never know her again. Why not hold her peace? But, then, what +would she do with the little one that Fate had thrown so strangely upon +her mercy?</p> + +<p>She quite believed that it did not belong to any one in the +neighborhood, nor had she heard of a little one like this. She saw that +the clothing upon it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> of the daintiest texture, and the embroidery +upon it was of the finest.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a beautiful little baby!" cried the woman, her heart at once +warming toward the little stranger. "How much it looks like you!" she +added, turning to Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"What!" cried the girl, in amazement.</p> + +<p>"I said your baby looked like you," repeated the woman.</p> + +<p>She wondered why the young girl flushed to the roots of her golden hair.</p> + +<p>"We must go now," said Dorothy at length; "and I thank you, madame, for +your hospitality."</p> + +<p>The woman, with clouded eyes, looked after the slender figure as it +disappeared.</p> + +<p>"A lovely but very mysterious young woman!" she ejaculated. "I hope +everything is all right. She is so very young. It is a great pity for +the little child."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Dorothy struggled on through the dim light of the fast dying +night, and soon found herself at the railway station without any seeming +volition of her own.</p> + +<p>In her pocket was her purse, which the good old doctor in one of his +generous moods had filled to overflowing. She had had no occasion to use +it until now.</p> + +<p>The poor little one had commenced to cry now, and when Dorothy hushed +its cries it cuddled up to her with a grateful sob and nestled its head +on her arm.</p> + +<p>Why shouldn't she keep the baby that fate had sent directly into her +arms? she asked herself?</p> + +<p>Yes, she would keep it. For was there not a bond of sympathy between +this poor little one, whom those who should have loved and cared for had +consigned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> to a watery grave, and herself, who had sought the same +watery grave to end her own wretched existence?</p> + +<p>"You and I will live for each other, baby," she sobbed, holding the wee +mite closer. "I will keep you for my very own, and I will pray for the +time to come when you will be big enough for me to tell you all my +sorrows. You will put your little arms around my neck and your soft, +warm cheek against mine, and try to comfort me."</p> + +<p>Dorothy had made her resolve, little dreaming that it would end in a +tragedy.</p> + +<p>She boarded the train, and was soon steaming away toward New York +city—the great, cruel city of New York, rampant with wickedness and +crime.</p> + +<p>More than one passenger noticed the lovely young girl with the tiny +infant in her arms, and marveled as to whether or not it could possibly +belong to her; for surely the girl could not be a day over sixteen, or +seventeen, at most.</p> + +<p>All unconscious of this close scrutiny, Dorothy watched the little one +with wondering eyes all the way until she reached the metropolis.</p> + +<p>Her first idea was to seek a boarding place, and then she could look +about her.</p> + +<p>To her dismay, among the half score to which she walked until she could +almost drop down from exhaustion, no one cared to take her and the child +in; and it seemed to her, too, that they were rude in refusing her, and +more than one actually shut the door in her face.</p> + +<p>She was tired—so tired—carrying the heavy child in her arms. She had +given the name Miss Brown to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> each instance, and at last one landlady +came out bluntly and said to her:</p> + +<p>"It would sound a deal more proper to call yourself Mrs. Brown, if you +please, ma'am," at the same time pointing to the child in her arms.</p> + +<p>Then it dawned upon Dorothy's mind why every one had refused them +shelter, even for money.</p> + +<p>"Why shouldn't I call myself Mrs. instead of Miss Brown? One name is as +good as another," she said to herself. It was all the same to her; +anything, so that she would not be separated from this poor little baby, +whom she had learned to love in those short hours with all the strength +of her yearning heart.</p> + +<p>At the next boarding house, recklessly enough, Dorothy gave the name of +Mrs. Brown, and she found no trouble in securing accommodations there.</p> + +<p>"Poor child! she seems so young to be left a widow!" exclaimed the +landlady, in relating to her other boarders that night that she had let +room sixteen to such a pretty young woman, with the loveliest little +angel of a baby that ever was born.</p> + +<p>No one ever yet took a false position without finding himself ere long +hedged in with difficulties.</p> + +<p>And so poor Dorothy found it.</p> + +<p>She was continually plied with questions by the rest of the boarders as +to how long since her husband had died, and how long since she had taken +off mourning, or if she had put on mourning at all for him, and if baby +reminded her of its poor, dear, dead papa.</p> + +<p>Dorothy's alarm at this can more readily be imagined than described. She +almost felt like bursting into a flood of tears and running from the +room.</p> + +<p>It had gone so far now that she was ashamed to tell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> the truth; and then +there was the terrible fear that if people knew it was not her very own +they would take it from her; and she had learned to love it with all the +fondness of her desperate, lonely heart.</p> + +<p>And then, too, it seemed to know her and feel sorry for her.</p> + +<p>It knew her, and would coo to her, and cry for her to take it.</p> + +<p>She had named it, long since, little Pearl, because she had fished it +from the water. But, to tell the truth, she found it a terrible +responsibility on her hands.</p> + +<p>She did not know what to do with the child.</p> + +<p>She could not go out and leave it in the house, and she couldn't take it +with her.</p> + +<p>She had been searching for a situation the last few days, and, to her +unspeakable horror, she found that no one wanted a young woman +encumbered with a child.</p> + +<p>Had she been older, she would have known better than to have assumed +such a responsibility; but Dorothy was young, and had some of life's +bitterest lessons yet to learn.</p> + +<p>Dorothy had turned her face resolutely against the fortune which Doctor +Bryan had left.</p> + +<p>She quite believed, if she was not there to receive it, it would go to +Kendal, her faithless lover.</p> + +<p>She wanted him to have it. She did not care for any of it.</p> + +<p>She had been only a working girl when Doctor Bryan sought her out and +took her to his home; she could be only a working girl again.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXVII" id="Chapter_XXVII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVII.</span></h2> + + +<p>In the hour of Dorothy's desolation her heart went back to Jack Garner, +who had loved her so in other days. Poor Jack! whom she had thrown over +so cruelly for a handsomer, wealthier fellow, only to be deserted by him +in turn for the first pretty face that had crossed his path.</p> + +<p>And that very day came the turning point of her life.</p> + +<p>She had answered an advertisement a few days before by letter to an +intelligence office, and in the course of a week she received the +following reply:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Madam</span>—Replying to your note, would say your +communication was hardly explicit enough for us to +determine whether you would suit our patron or not.</p> + +<p>"The party we refer to is Mrs. Garner, a widow. Her +family consists of one son, a niece who lives with +them, and a young lady.</p> + +<p>"They wish a companion for Mrs. Garner. She requires a +somewhat elderly woman. Even the child would not be so +objectionable, if the right person were secured."</p></div> + +<p>The letter dropped from Dorothy's hand, and she uttered a low cry; but +presently picking it up, and reading it eagerly through again, she found +a postscript added to it which read as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Call, if you please, at the Garner homestead +to-morrow, at 10:30 <span class="smcap">a. m.</span>, if convenient."</p></div> + +<p>Dorothy's heart beat quickly. Could it be possible that this Garner +family and the one she had known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> were one and the same? Oh, no! it +could not be, for they were poor, very poor, and these people lived in a +fashionable quarter.</p> + +<p>Jack might plod along all his life and never have a dollar ahead. Poor +Jack! And her eyes grew moist as she thought of him. Ah, how well he had +loved her!</p> + +<p>Dorothy knew quite well that according to the requirements of the +advertiser she would not suit on account of her youth. An older person +than herself was wanted; yet the thought of the possibility of taking +little Pearl with her caused her to ponder over the matter very +carefully. Surely there was <i>some</i> way to meet the difficulty.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid I will not get the situation I was telling you of last +night," said Dorothy to her landlady; and she told her why.</p> + +<p>"Youth and beauty, although the greatest blessings Heaven can give us, +often bring with them a certain train of disadvantages. I once knew a +young and most lovely girl who, on this very account, could not get +work. She resorted to a desperate measure, but it insured success. +Perhaps it might in <i>your</i> case. She put on, over her golden curls, a +dark wig with plenty of gray in it, seamed a wrinkle or two under her +long lashes with a camel's hair pencil, and put on a pair of glasses. +She secured a position as housekeeper in an eccentric old bachelor's +family, which consisted of only himself and his aged parents. Well, the +old folks soon passed away, the old bachelor soon following them, and +every dollar he had on earth he left to his housekeeper, to 'keep her +from the poor house to which she would soon have to go in her old age,' +as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> phrased it. It was a large fortune, and she is enjoying it to-day +with a young husband and dear little children gathered about her, and +she often speaks of it when I see her, and tells me all her good luck +came from putting on that wig, donning the spectacles, and lining her +face to make it look old. She never would have gained that position +otherwise, for she was very fair and childish in appearance."</p> + +<p>"I think I will do the same thing!" cried Dorothy, enthusiastically. "It +can do no harm, anyway. It is a terrible deceit to practice, but if I +secure the position, and the people learn to like me, in a very short +time I will reveal the truth to them, and I think they will find pardon +for me and keep me in their employ."</p> + +<p>"I am sure they will," assented her companion, "and all I can say is, I +hope you may have as great good luck as the girl I told you about."</p> + +<p>Dorothy smiled faintly.</p> + +<p>"I—I would never care to be—be rich," she faltered. "There are some +people whom Heaven intended to always work for a living—I am one of +them."</p> + +<p>"If you think of buying a wig, I have one to sell you," said the +landlady. "I used to be in the theatrical business, and had all those +things. I will show you how to make up for a middle-aged woman, so that +even your own folks wouldn't know you in broad daylight."</p> + +<p>Dorothy was a little dubious upon hearing all this. She wondered if it +was not to sell the outfit that the landlady had suggested all this. +However, she passively placed herself in her hands, and the work of +transformation began.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>"Now, look!" exclaimed the landlady, at length. "What do you think of +yourself now?" and she placed a hand glass before her.</p> + +<p>Dorothy uttered a low cry. Could that face be her own at which she gazed +in the mirror's depths? Was she the old woman represented there? And +from the bottom of her heart she thanked God that it was only +make-believe; that beneath it all her face was still young and fair, +without the ravaging touch of Time's withering hand.</p> + +<p>But it touched her heart keenly to see her little Pearl, whom she was +learning to fairly idolize, shrink from her.</p> + +<p>"I must, indeed, look greatly changed," she said, with a sob.</p> + +<p>Hastily dressing the little one, and taking her with her, Dorothy wended +her way to her destination.</p> + +<p>She had always looked upon a little child much the same as a little girl +admires a big wax doll. <i>Now</i> she was beginning to realize that a real +live baby must be washed and dressed and fed and attended to; that it +wouldn't go to sleep or keep awake when people wished; in short, she was +beginning to understand that it could be a darling little nuisance at +times, even to those who adored the dimpled bit of precious humanity the +most.</p> + +<p>Fairly panting with carrying so heavy a burden in her slender arms, +Dorothy reached at length the avenue and number—a magnificent brown +stone mansion in the center of the block.</p> + +<p>With beating heart she ascended the steps and touched the bell.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>A very polite servant answered her summons and ushered her into a +spacious drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"Madame will be with you presently, as she is expecting you," he said, +indicating a seat.</p> + +<p>Little Pearl commenced to cry, and Dorothy was at her wit's end to know +what to do with her.</p> + +<p>She was all flushed with nervousness by the time she heard footsteps in +the corridor approaching the room.</p> + +<p>An instant later the silken <i>portières</i> were swept aside by a white, +jeweled hand, and a white-haired lady entered.</p> + +<p>Dorothy rose to her feet, and caught her breath with a low cry that died +in her throat.</p> + +<p>The room seemed to whirl around her. She stood face to face with Jack's +mother!</p> + +<p>Dorothy had never seen her but once or twice before in those old days.</p> + +<p>She remembered every lineament of her face perfectly, however. How could +she help it, when Mrs. Garner bore such a striking resemblance to her +fair-haired, handsome son? But she could not understand it; it almost +seemed as if she was in a dream to find Mrs. Garner here surrounded by +such elegance as this.</p> + +<p>But before she could collect her scattered senses the lady advanced +toward her, saying, in her sweet, kind voice:</p> + +<p>"You are very punctual, Mrs. Brown. This is in itself a great +recommendation. You are tired holding the baby in your arms. I will ring +for one of the servants to relieve you for a little while, if you wish."</p> + +<p>Dorothy never remembered in what words she thanked her, and she was even +too confused to keep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> the thread of the conversation, but was conscious +that she was replying at random. Yet the kind old lady did not seem to +notice her confusion.</p> + +<p>"I want some one for a companion," said the lady, slowly. "I have +recently lost my niece, Miss Barbara Hallenbeck, and her death preys +heavily upon my mind."</p> + +<p>Dorothy was shocked at the news, but she could utter no comment.</p> + +<p>"I am soon to lose my son," went on Mrs. Garner, slowly.</p> + +<p>Dorothy sprang to her feet with a gasping cry:</p> + +<p>"Jack dying!"</p> + +<p>Poor, dear, faithful Jack Garner, who had loved her so well! It seemed +to Dorothy that every pulse in her body quivered, and her heart was +almost bursting at the news.</p> + +<p>In that one hour the girl's heart was revealed to her.</p> + +<p>She was face to face with the truth at last: she loved Jack Garner—yes, +she loved Jack!</p> + +<p>In that moment of time the past seemed to glide before her mental vision +like a vast panorama.</p> + +<p>She turned with a gesture of woe pitiful to behold to his dear old +mother.</p> + +<p>"You are about to lose your only son?" she gasped. "May Heaven pity +you!" She was almost about to add: "If I could save his life by giving +my own, oh, how gladly I would do it!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garner saw the look on her face, and rightly interpreted it.</p> + +<p>"Do not misunderstand me," she added, hastily. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> do not mean that I am +to lose him by death. My son is soon to be married."</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXVIII" id="Chapter_XXVIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVIII.</span></h2> + + +<p>For a moment the room seemed to whirl around Dorothy. The words seemed +to strike into her very brain as they fell from Mrs. Garner's lips. "My +son is soon to be married!" and the four walls seemed to repeat and +re-echo them.</p> + +<p>"I shall lose a son, but I shall gain a dear daughter," added the old +lady, softly.</p> + +<p>For an instant, as Dorothy sat trembling there, the impulse was strong +upon her to fly from the house. The very air seemed to stifle her.</p> + +<p>While she hesitated, fate settled the matter for her. The front door was +opened by some one who had a latch-key, and a voice that thrilled every +fiber of her being addressed some question to a servant passing through +the corridor.</p> + +<p>"Here is my son coming at last!" exclaimed the old lady, in pleased +eagerness.</p> + +<p>"Jack—Jack, my dear!" she called; "I am in the drawing-room. Step in a +moment, my son;" and before Dorothy could collect her scattered senses +the <i>portières</i> were parted by a strong, white hand, and Jack Garner +stood on the threshold.</p> + +<p>Ah! how changed he was in those few short months! The boyish expression +had vanished. He looked older, more care-worn. The fair, handsome face +was graver; the blue eyes were surely more thoughtful.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> Even his fair +chestnut hair seemed to have taken on a deeper, more golden hue.</p> + +<p>He crossed the room, bent over his mother, and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"This is my son—Mrs. Brown, Mr. Garner," said the old lady, her voice +lingering over the words with pardonable pride.</p> + +<p>It was a terrible moment for Dorothy.</p> + +<p>Would Jack know her? Would not those keen, grave, searching eyes +penetrate her disguise?</p> + +<p>He gave but a casual glance to the small, slim figure clad in black, and +bowed courteously, then turned away.</p> + +<p>The greatest ordeal of her life was past.</p> + +<p>She had met Jack—Jack who had loved her so—face to face, and he had +not recognized her.</p> + +<p>She rallied from her confused thoughts by a great effort, for Mrs. +Garner was speaking to her.</p> + +<p>"I was saying, that as we seem mutually pleased with each other, we may +as well consider the arrangement as settled between us."</p> + +<p>Dorothy bowed. She could not utter a word in protest to save her life, +although she had quite made up her mind not to remain under that roof.</p> + +<p>"Your duties will be light, and I feel sure you will find ours a +pleasant home. I will ring for one of the servants to show you to your +room;" and suiting the action to the word, she touched the bell, and an +instant later a neat little maid appeared, who courtesied and asked +Dorothy to follow her.</p> + +<p>"Madame will find her little child has already been taken to her +apartments," said the girl, opening the door at the further end of the +upper corridor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>Yes, little Pearl was there, cooing with delight at her new +surroundings, and over the cup of hot milk and crackers on the little +stand close beside her.</p> + +<p>The girl rose hastily as Dorothy entered, set down the child, and +quitted the apartment.</p> + +<p>Upon finding herself alone with Pearl, Dorothy snatched the child up in +her arms, sank down in the depths of a great easy-chair, and sobbed as +though her heart would break.</p> + +<p>"Oh, little Pearl! how I wish that we had never come here!" she moaned. +"It makes me feel so sad."</p> + +<p>The baby's blue eyes looked up into her own in wonder, but her soft +cooing and the clasp of her little soft, warm fingers could not comfort +Dorothy.</p> + +<p>After luncheon she was called into Mrs. Garner's room.</p> + +<p>"I am not feeling well," she said, motioning Dorothy to a seat. "I +should like you to read to me until I fall asleep. Take any of the books +from the book-case in the library. I have no choice."</p> + +<p>The silent little figure in black bowed, and glided out of the room.</p> + +<p>It was dusk in the library as she entered it, and while she pondered as +to whether she should call some one to light the gas, to enable her to +read the titles on the volumes, she heard Jack's voice.</p> + +<p>But instead of passing, he entered, and proceeded to light the gas. With +a beating heart Dorothy drew still further back, and at that moment +another person entered the room.</p> + +<p>"I knew I should find you here, Jack," said a voice that sounded +terribly familiar to the figure in the window hidden by the silken +draperies. "I have come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> to ask a little favor of you. I hope you will +not find it in your heart to refuse me."</p> + +<p>Before the last comer in the room had ceased speaking, Dorothy knew who +it was—Jessie Staples!</p> + +<p>A great lump rose in her throat, and her heart beat. She knew that she +should have slipped from her place of concealment and quitted the room, +but she seemed to have been held spell-bound by a power she could not +control. She leaned heavily against the wall and listened with painful +intensity to the conversation that was taking place between her old +lover and Jessie, although she knew that it was wrong for her to do so.</p> + +<p>"A favor you would ask of me?" repeated Jack, quickly. "Why, consider it +granted beforehand," he returned, "if it is within my power."</p> + +<p>"You are more than kind," murmured Jessie, adding: "The fact is, I have +too painful a headache to attend the opera with you to-night, but I want +you to go and enjoy yourself, and take some young girl in my place. I—I +do not want to mar your happiness for this evening."</p> + +<p>"I am quite sorry to seem unkind," he returned, "but really, Jessie, I +beg that you will not ask me to take any one else to the opera, if you +can not go. Although I promised beforehand, I trust you will not hold me +to anything like that. I do not feel inclined to entertain any of your +friends this evening, especially when you are not present. But, really, +Jessie, I think it might do you good to go—the lights, and the music, +and the gay throng, might divert your thoughts from yourself, and act as +a wonderful panacea in banishing your headache."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>"No—no!" returned Jessie; "believe me, I shall feel much better at +home. But you must go. I could not forgive myself if I were to be the +cause of your losing one hour of happiness, and I know, Jack, that you +enjoy affairs of that kind so much. Go, if only to please me."</p> + +<p>"If you are sure that it <i>will</i> please you, Jessie, I can not withstand +your entreaties," he returned, thoughtfully. "Still, I have the hope +that you may change your mind at the eleventh hour, and be ready to go +with me," he added, laughingly. "I have a few letters to write, and will +see you after I finish them. Remember it is not every night that one can +hear Patti;" and with a few more pleasant words he quitted the room.</p> + +<p>For some moments after he had left, Jessie Staples stood leaning against +the mantel, gazing thoughtfully into the fire; then she was startled by +a step close beside her.</p> + +<p>She turned her head suddenly and saw a dark figure just leaving the +room.</p> + +<p>"Stay!" she called out; and the figure hesitated on the threshold. "Come +here!" and the dark-robed figure advanced slowly and stood before her. +"You are Mrs. Brown, the new companion?" she said, interrogatively.</p> + +<p>"Yes," murmured a stifled voice.</p> + +<p>"May I ask how long you have been standing in the room?" Miss Staples +inquired, rather curiously. "I did not see you come in."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," came the faint answer. "I entered a few moments +before you did, and when the gentleman entered and you commenced +speaking,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> I—I hardly knew how to make my presence known, the +conversation was so personal. I tried to make my escape from the room as +soon as it was possible. I—I hope you are not angry with me."</p> + +<p>"No," said Miss Staples, slowly. "I am sure the facts are as you stated +them. You may resume your duties. That is all I wish to say," said Miss +Staples.</p> + +<p>Still the slight figure hesitated.</p> + +<p>Poor Dorothy, how she longed to fling herself in Jessie's arms and cry +out:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jessie, Jessie! don't you know me? I am Dorothy—your poor little +friend Dorothy whom you used to love so dearly in the old days."</p> + +<p>Still she dared not; no, she dared not betray her identity. And with one +lingering glance she turned and slowly left the library, holding, +tightly clutched in her hand, one of the volumes from the great +book-case.</p> + +<p>She had caught up the first one which she laid her hand on.</p> + +<p>"You have been gone some time, Mrs. Brown," said Mrs. Garner, fretfully, +as she entered the <i>boudoir</i>. "Let me see your selection. What book have +you brought me? Why, as I live, it is the dictionary!" she exclaimed, in +a most astonished voice. "Did you think I had need of that?"</p> + +<p>The old lady flushed painfully. It was well known that it was one of her +weak points to guard carefully from the world that she had no education +whatever.</p> + +<p>She would rather have died than to have let people know that she had at +one time been a poor working-woman; and now this stranger, who had been +only a hours beneath her roof, had discovered it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>She did not know what remark to make to Mrs. Brown, she was so aghast +when the dictionary was handed her.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXIX" id="Chapter_XXIX"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIX.</span></h2> + + +<p>"You have made a very wise selection, Mrs. Brown," she said. "I quite +agree with you that there is no book more instructive than the +dictionary. You may read me twenty pages, or such a matter. I deem it +very instructive, indeed—to you."</p> + +<p>With a gasp, Dorothy took the book. Oh, how tedious it was, pronouncing +word after word, and giving their definitions!</p> + +<p>Every now and then Mrs. Garner would nod her head, remarking that such +and such a word it would be well for her to take extra pains to +remember, as they were in such general use in every-day conversation.</p> + +<p>At length she ceased to make remarks altogether, and when Dorothy +glanced up at her through the blue glasses which she wore, she found +that the old lady was fast asleep, and with a very tired look on her +face.</p> + +<p>Dorothy laid down the book with a sigh, crossed her thin little white +hands in her lap, and gave herself up to conflicting thoughts.</p> + +<p>Only a little while before Jack had loved her so devotedly, and now he +was about to marry Jessie, her friend of other days, whom he scarcely +noticed when she was only Dorothy's friend.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>While she was meditating over the matter, one of the maids put her head +in at the door.</p> + +<p>"If you please, Mrs. Brown, would you mind coming to Miss Staples a few +moments?" she asked. "Her maid has leave of absence this week, and she +misses her services."</p> + +<p>"I will go with pleasure," said Dorothy, rising and following her at +once.</p> + +<p>As she entered the pretty blue-and-gold <i>boudoir</i>, she saw that Jessie +had changed her mind about going to the opera that evening, for she was +already dressed in opera attire.</p> + +<p>"You wished to see me?" said Dorothy, in a husky voice.</p> + +<p>"If you please, Mrs. Brown," said Jessie. "I should like you to +accompany Mr. Garner and myself to the opera to-night, as my maid—that +is, if Jack's mother has no objection, of course."</p> + +<p>She did not catch the murmured words her companion uttered.</p> + +<p>"There are a few little finishing touches to my toilet which I would +like to have you help me with. In that velvet case on the center-table +you will find a necklace of sapphires and diamonds. You may fetch it to +me."</p> + +<p>With trembling hands Dorothy clasped the necklace around Miss Staples' +firm white throat.</p> + +<p>"They are very beautiful—don't you think so?" she asked, looking at +Dorothy with the old-time burst of enthusiasm which she remembered so +well.</p> + +<p>"Yes," returned Dorothy, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"They are Mr. Garner's gift to me. To-day is my birthday," she went on, +"and this is Mr. Garner's gift—beautiful, is it not?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>"Yes," said Dorothy, in the same low, wistful voice.</p> + +<p>"He is so considerate of my wishes; I had merely expressed the words +that I admired sapphires and diamonds, and see! he has presented me with +this lovely set!"</p> + +<p>"The gentleman must have a very generous heart," said Dorothy, faintly.</p> + +<p>Jessie Staples started and looked at her searchingly.</p> + +<p>"Do you know that your voice reminds me of the voice of a young girl +whom I once knew and loved dearly?" she said, huskily.</p> + +<p>Oh, how those words thrilled every fiber of Dorothy's being!</p> + +<p>"She was a very fair young girl," continued Jessie, thoughtfully, "but +she went astray."</p> + +<p>The bracelet that Dorothy was holding fell to the floor with a crash.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I—I must have broken it!" she sobbed.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Miss Staples; "you could not help it. Accidents are +liable to happen at any time. It is not past mending, I am sure. Do not +allow it to trouble you."</p> + +<p>She quite believed that Mrs. Brown was a trifle awkward—probably a +little nervous, and she did her best to reassure her.</p> + +<p>"You must not feel badly about it," she repeated kindly. "I, too, am +nervous sometimes. Why, only to-night I dropped my cup of chocolate, +breaking the cup into bits, my hands were so nervous. I had such a +headache all day, that I did not feel able to go down to the table. Even +now I am by no means free from the terrible pain in my head. We shall +leave the opera<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> early," she went on, adding: "No doubt you are pleased +to hear that."</p> + +<p>"It does not matter much to me, madame," came the faint reply.</p> + +<p>"The carriage will be here in half an hour. I trust you will be ready, +Mrs. Brown. Please have my wraps in readiness then. One of the maids +will tell you where to find them. You will not have much time to get +your own wraps."</p> + +<p>At the hour named, Dorothy stood ready, and a few minutes later Mr. +Garner appeared in the corridor.</p> + +<p>Taking Jessie's arm, he led her down to the carriage, seated her, helped +in the little dark figure, and then proceeded carefully to tuck Jessie +in with all the robes.</p> + +<p>They were only ordinary attentions bestowed upon her companion, but they +rankled deeply, like the thrust of a sharp sword, in the heart of the +girl who sat there witnessing it all.</p> + +<p>They talked upon indifferent subjects, but it seemed to Dorothy that +every word held a double meaning.</p> + +<p>Oh, how solicitous he was for her comfort! how he gathered the wraps +about her, anxiously inquiring if she felt the cold air! how low and +tender his words seemed to the girl sitting opposite them, and both +seemed entirely oblivious to her presence.</p> + +<p>The curtain was up when they reached their box, but all through the +opera the little dark figure who shrank back behind the silken hangings +saw nothing, heard nothing; she was watching so intently the old lover +who was so near, and yet, alas! so far from her.</p> + +<p>In the old days she had loved Jessie Staples, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> now, as she saw her +old friend and Jack Garner all in all to each other, she grew in a +single hour to almost hate her for usurping her place in his heart.</p> + +<p>True, there was not the same devotion that he had been wont to pay her; +but then, Jack was older now and graver. How he had come by this sudden +wealth puzzled her. Then, by degrees it all came back to her—how he +used to say that some day there was a bare possibility of his being +wealthy—-that he had some expectations from a distant relative. Surely +those expectations must have been realized, or he could not be in the +position which he was now enjoying. How strange that the Garners had +lifted Jessie Staples out of the old life, and that she now was Jack's +betrothed bride. And she wondered vaguely if he had forgotten the +Dorothy he had loved so well.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he turned toward her, and at that moment Jessie rose hastily to +her feet.</p> + +<p>"We will get home as quickly as possible," he said, hurriedly. "Miss +Staples is indisposed."</p> + +<p>Jessie leaned heavily on his arm, and they went quickly out of the +building and into the carriage.</p> + +<p>All the way home his arm supported her, and her head leaned helplessly +on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>Dorothy followed with her wraps up to Miss Staple's <i>boudoir</i>.</p> + +<p>"Thank you—that will do," she said, wearily, dismissing her at her +door, and Dorothy turned away.</p> + +<p>One of the maids had rocked little Pearl to sleep, and the babe lay +slumbering quietly in her crib.</p> + +<p>Dorothy did not go toward it, as was her wont upon entering her room at +night—indeed, she had forgotten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> about the child until she heard her +cough, a little later on.</p> + +<p>She was just about to cross the room to the little one, when one of the +maids came hurriedly to her door.</p> + +<p>"Would you mind sitting up with Miss Staples?" she cried, breathlessly; +"she is anything but well. It looks to me as though she has a fever, but +she will not hear to having a doctor called, or even of letting Mrs. +Garner know how ill she is. She declares that, with a good night's rest, +she will be all right in the morning."</p> + +<p>Dorothy went hastily to Jessie Staples' room, while the girl remained to +take charge of the child for the night.</p> + +<p>She found Jessie as the maid had declared—quite ill and +feverish-looking, but still wearing the soft chiffon dress she had worn +at the opera, with the sapphire necklace gleaming on her white throat, +and bracelets shining on her polished arms.</p> + +<p>Dorothy went quickly up to her.</p> + +<p>"You must let me remove these things, and get you into bed at once," she +said coaxingly but firmly. "Your face is scarlet, and your hands +tremble. You must take some hot lemonade, and go quietly to sleep."</p> + +<p>Jessie was quite passive under her commands, but the pain in her head +did not seem to abate.</p> + +<p>For long hours, Dorothy worked patiently with her to allay the fever, +but it seemed to increase with every moment.</p> + +<p>She wanted to arouse the household, and send for a doctor, but Jessie +pleaded most pitifully.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>"You are very, very ill," cried Dorothy, in agony. "I must send for some +one, or you will die!"</p> + +<p>"Hush! I want to die!" cried Jessie, in a low whisper; "that is just it; +I do not want to live."</p> + +<p>Dorothy tried to soothe her, thinking it was but the idle vagaries of a +wandering mind.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXX" id="Chapter_XXX"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXX.</span></h2> + + +<p>"Hush!" cried Jessie, sinking back on her pillow, and clutching +frantically the hand that held hers. "You must not call any one. I want +to die! I am so tired of living. I want to tell you my story, Mrs. +Brown—it seems to me that I shall go wild if I do not tell some one; +and you seem so sympathetic and kind. May I trust you?" she whispered, +with a great tremor in her voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Dorothy, slowly; "anything that you may say to me I will +hold sacred."</p> + +<p>"You are very good," returned the other. "You would think," she began, +quickly, "that with wealth, and being the <i>fiancée</i> of a noble young man +like Mr. Garner, and so soon to marry him, that I was the happiest girl +in the world."</p> + +<p>"Yes," returned the other, choking back a sob.</p> + +<p>"I was not always surrounded by wealth and affluence, as you see me +now," commenced Jessie Staples, burying her head in her pillow. "Only a +few short months ago I was poorer than you are now, and worked for my +daily bread. Among the companions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> who stood side by side with me was +one, a lovely girl whom I loved with all my heart.</p> + +<p>"She was gay and thoughtless, the life of the work-room, with her +bright, girlish, mischievous pranks. Though they called her 'Madcap +Dorothy,' yet every one loved her for her bright, winning ways.</p> + +<p>"There was one employed in the same place whom I had loved ever since I +could remember—loved in secret, making no sign, for it was hopeless—as +he loved pretty Madcap Dorothy, and loved her with all the strength of +his great, noble, manly heart.</p> + +<p>"I was her best friend, even though she was in secret my rival. I did +not care for myself. I only wanted to see the two whom I loved so well +happy. One of them was Jack Garner, and the other Dorothy; and I will +tell you of her."</p> + +<p>"She was young, and gay, and pretty, as I have said, and she knew it. +She knew that she had all of Jack's heart, but she longed for more +heroes to conquer.</p> + +<p>"One fatal day—oh, how well I remember it!—she fell in love with a +handsome, black-eyed stranger—a car conductor on Broadway. That was the +beginning of the end for Jack, who loved her so. One fatal day she ran +away with the stranger and was never heard of again.</p> + +<p>"Rumor has it that later on he tired of her, and was soon to lead to the +altar a proud and lovely young girl—a school-girl—who had never known +what it was to earn her bread, as did poor, pretty Madcap Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"Dorothy's desertion nearly cost Jack Garner his life. I went and nursed +him and took care of him; and when he recovered, his mother was stricken +low, and I in turn nursed her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>"In the darkest hour of that terrible illness, when we were all gathered +about her bedside, waiting for the angel of death to stoop and bear her +away to that bright land that knows no grief nor partings, suddenly she +beckoned Jack near her.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, mother, is there anything that you wish?' he cried. 'Anything that +I can do for you? Tell me if there is.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' she whispered, 'there is one thing you could do, my son, that +would make death easier to me. I—I could die happy if you would do as I +ask.'</p> + +<p>"'I promise you beforehand, mother,' he cried, 'if there is anything +which I can do, it shall be done.'</p> + +<p>"Feebly her hand crept toward mine and drew it toward Jack's, clasping +them both together.</p> + +<p>"'She has saved your life, my boy,' she whispered, 'and she has been as +faithful as an angel to me—unto the last of mine. If you care for your +mother's wishes, ask her to marry you, here and now. I love her as +dearly as my life, Jack. My one wish in this world is to see you wedded +to each other. You must say "Yes" or "No."'</p> + +<p>"He buried his head in his hands, and I could see his stalwart form +shake like a reed in a blast.</p> + +<p>"He hesitated, but only for an instant. Slowly he raised his head, and I +could see that his face was as white as death, in the dim-shaded light +of the lamp. Then slowly he stretched out his hand toward me.</p> + +<p>"'You know of my past, Jessie,' he said, huskily, 'and you know that my +life-hopes were blasted. Will you take me under these conditions—if not +for my sake, for—for my mother's?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>"I could not tell you the emotions that swept through my heart in that +one moment of time.</p> + +<p>"I do not know in what words I answered him; but, even without scarcely +realizing what I did, my hand crept into his strong, cold one, and I +nodded my head. I could not have spoken to have saved my life—my heart +was too full for utterance.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Garner did not die that night, and she has always said ever since +that she believed that promise brought her back from the gates of death +to be a living witness to our happiness.</p> + +<p>"Three months passed, with, oh! such unspeakable joy for me. My lover +was all that a lover could be; still, there were times when I thought +Jack's heart was not in his words, but was far away with the girl who +had so cruelly jilted him.</p> + +<p>"At length the wedding invitations were printed and sent out, and only a +week later the terrible <i>dénouement</i> came that has shattered all my +hopes.</p> + +<p>"I was about to enter Mrs. Garner's <i>boudoir</i> one night, when I heard +the sound of voices.</p> + +<p>"Playfully I drew back, for I had recognized Jack's voice. I had a +little gift for him, and I was hesitating a moment as to whether I +should take it in and lay it on his lap, or wait until the next morning +and give it to him in the library. Jack was pacing up and down, and I +saw through the door, which was slightly ajar, that his face was very +pale and stormy—and this was something unusual with calm, placid, +courteous Jack.</p> + +<p>"'For Heaven's sake, don't nag me any more, mother,' he cried, 'or you +will drive me mad! Constant dripping will in time wear out even a stone. +I have ruined my life to satisfy one of your whims;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> surely that ought +to suffice. If I can't have peace in the house, I will take my hat and +walk out of it. I can not endure this eternal nagging, that I must treat +Jessie better—more as becomes a betrothed lover. You know very well +that I do not love her. My marriage with her will be all your doing. My +heart is with Dorothy; and when a man loves as I loved her, even if that +love is destroyed, no one can ever fill the same niche in his +affections. It is an impossibility. So, have done with this subject, +mother, at once and forever.</p> + +<p>"'I shall marry Jessie, because I am pledged to do so. I will make her +life as happy as I can. She need never know that my heart is not hers, +although she will bear my name.'</p> + +<p>"I—I—never knew how I groped my way into an adjoining room," continued +Jessie, "and there I sank down unconscious.</p> + +<p>"How long I remained there I never knew. When I came to, Mrs. Garner, +greatly frightened, was kneeling beside me and laving my face with +eau-de-Cologne.</p> + +<p>"And I knew by the fearful look in her eyes that she suspected that I +had found out about Jack not caring for me.</p> + +<p>"'Tell me what is the matter, my little Jessie!' she said, clasping me +in her arms and pillowing my head on her breast.</p> + +<p>"In broken gasps I told her, adding that I was going away—back to the +poverty from which they had taken me, and Jack should never see my face +again. Oh! how she prayed and pleaded with me on her bended knees, +crying out:</p> + +<p>"'If you love me, Jessie, do not break from Jack<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>. I am sure he did not +mean all he said. He was only incensed a little at me. He would not have +you know it for the whole wide world. Oh, believe me, Jessie! Do not try +to break my heart by your rash action. The marriage invitations have +gone forth. What could we say to the people? Think of the scandal, +Jessie, and save us from it. Let my words be a prayer to you. I am older +than you are, Jessie. Let me tell you how this will be:</p> + +<p>"'There might be in his heart only deep respect for you, but when he +marries you, he will learn to love you. Every man loves his wife.'</p> + +<p>"Against my own will and my better judgment, I allowed her to persuade +me.</p> + +<p>"I made no mention to Jack of what I had learned, but every day it has +eaten into my heart like a worm in the heart of a rose.</p> + +<p>"I loved him so well, I was only too willing to hold to him. I did not +have the strength to follow the dictates of my own will; and now, God +help me! the day is drawing nearer and nearer. What shall I do?</p> + +<p>"My brain is going mad with the torturous thought that I shall stand at +the altar by the side of a man who does not love me—whose heart is +given to another.</p> + +<p>"Every time that he stoops to kiss my lips I am sure he wishes they were +hers.</p> + +<p>"His thoughts are with her. I am a mere shadow to his life; she was the +substance.</p> + +<p>"People about me look upon me with envy, but you can realize that I am +more to be pitied than the poorest beggar on the street. Tell me," she +cried,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> eagerly, "do you think any one on this earth ever had a sorrow +equal to mine?"</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXXI" id="Chapter_XXXI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXI.</span></h2> + + +<p>As the hours wore on, poor Jessie Staples grew so alarmingly worse, and +the fever increased so rapidly, that, despite her entreaties, Dorothy +felt that she must summon medical aid.</p> + +<p>Soon after the entire household had gathered about Jessie, in the +greatest alarm.</p> + +<p>A physician was sent for at once—Doctor Crandall, whom Mrs. Garner had +known for long years.</p> + +<p>It so happened that the doctor lay very ill himself from an attack of +<i>la grippe</i>, and, penning a line or so to Mrs. Garner, he explained that +he had sent as a substitute a young doctor whom he had taken into his +office to act for him during his illness. He felt sure they could rest +Miss Staples' case with all safety in his hands.</p> + +<p>That was the beginning of the terrible end.</p> + +<p>Surely a cruel fate must have brought the situation about. It happened +in this way:</p> + +<p>When Harry Kendal had exerted every means to find Dorothy, and had +failed, he commenced to look about for something to do.</p> + +<p>It occurred to him that perhaps the best person to whom he could apply +was Doctor Crandall, who had been the life-long friend of his old +benefactor, Doctor Bryan.</p> + +<p>Kendal's appeal was not in vain. He was taken in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> at once. Indeed, his +coming was most opportune, he was told.</p> + +<p>It so happened that his very first call was to the home of Mrs. Garner.</p> + +<p>"Garner!" The name sounded very familiar to him. His brow darkened as he +heard it. Was not that the name of the young man who had been Dorothy +Glenn's lover when he first met little Dorothy in the book-bindery? Of +course, it was absurd to imagine that there could be anything in common +between these wealthy Garners and that poor fellow who worked hard at +his trade. Still he hated the name.</p> + +<p>When he reached the mansion and was ushered into the corridor, to his +intense surprise, the first person whom he met face to face was Jack +Garner! He recognized Jack at once; but the light in the corridor was +low, and, besides, he had turned up his coat-collar, and with the heavy +beard he had grown, Garner, as it was not to be wondered at, did not +know him. Besides, Jack had seen him but twice—once as he was putting +Dorothy into a coach, and again on the Staten Island boat, in the dim, +uncertain moonlight.</p> + +<p>"Your patient is this way, doctor," he said, motioning him up the broad +stairway.</p> + +<p>A sudden, strange thought came to Kendal: What if he should find Dorothy +there?</p> + +<p>He no sooner entered the room and uttered the first word than the slim +figure in black, wearing the blue glasses, started violently. Dorothy +recognized him at once, despite the heavy beard.</p> + +<p>"How in the world came he here?" she gasped to herself, in the greatest +amazement.</p> + +<p>But she had no opportunity to think long over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> matter, for Jessie +required the most immediate attention.</p> + +<p>"I think it will be best to send you a practical nurse," he said, as he +took his departure.</p> + +<p>He spoke to Doctor Crandall about it immediately upon his return to the +office.</p> + +<p>"There is only one young woman whom I can think of just at present," +said the doctor. "She is not what you might call a trained nurse, but +she claims to have had a little experience. We shall have to secure her +in a case of emergency. I shall send for her to-night; she will probably +be there in the morning when you arrive."</p> + +<p>As Kendal ascended the steps of the palatial home of the Garners, he +came face to face with a woman who was standing in the vestibule, just +in the act of touching the bell. One glance, and he fairly reeled back.</p> + +<p>"Nadine Holt!" he cried, aghast, "is it you—<i>you</i>?"</p> + +<p>"We meet again at last!" hissed the girl, confronting him with +death-white face. "I knew I should find you sooner or later, and I have +been on your track."</p> + +<p>"Hush! hush! Nadine," he cried; "what do you mean? In Heaven's name, +don't speak so loud! Every one is listening. You will ruin me."</p> + +<p>"That is what I intend to do!" she shrieked, clutching frantically at +his arm with her long, thin fingers. "You deserted me and wedded +another."</p> + +<p>"What put such a notion in your head, anyhow, Nadine?" he said, +evasively, thinking it best to temporize with the raging fury +confronting him.</p> + +<p>"I heard all about it," she panted, hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"Then some one has been cruelly maligning me,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> he cried; "and you, of +all people in the world, Nadine, should not have believed it. Hush! some +one is coming. I hear footsteps. Meet me later. I want to have a long +talk with you. But, by the way, what are you doing here at this house, +Nadine?"</p> + +<p>"Did I not tell you that I answered Doctor Crandall's advertisement for +a nurse, and that this is my errand here? But what are <i>you</i> doing +here?"</p> + +<p>"I may as well tell you the truth, Nadine," he said, despairingly, +seeing that it would all come out sooner or later. "I—I have been +studying medicine since I met you, and they have engaged me as +physician. But now that surprises are in order, I suppose you know who +lives here?"</p> + +<p>"No," she answered.</p> + +<p>"It is your old friend Garner, who used to be in the book-bindery. He +has acquired sudden wealth—Heaven knows how. His mother is living with +him, and also that pretty girl whom I used to think was so quiet—Miss +Staples."</p> + +<p>Before Nadine could reply, her amazement was so great, the door was +opened by the quiet footman, and they were ushered into the +drawing-room.</p> + +<p>Kendal had barely time to whisper to Nadine: "These people do not know +that I am the same one whom they used to know as the car conductor. +Don't give me away," ere the door opened, and Mrs. Garner made her +appearance.</p> + +<p>"Ah! you have brought a nurse with you, doctor," she said, in a tone of +great relief.</p> + +<p>So saying, she led the way to the sick-room.</p> + +<p>Nadine's entrance caused the greatest surprise to both Mr. Garner and +Jessie.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>No one thought of noticing the plain, dark little figure half hidden by +the curtains in the bay window, or they would have seen Dorothy start +and fairly gasp for breath as her eyes fell upon the nurse Kendal had +brought with him, and heard them discuss the point that Nadine must be +installed there as nurse.</p> + +<p>Her brain fairly reeled, and it flashed over her mind what a villain +Kendal really was.</p> + +<p>She had quite believed all this long time that he had parted from Nadine +Holt, and here he had been keeping up Nadine's friendship clandestinely +through it all.</p> + +<p>Of course Iris Vincent was expecting to marry him.</p> + +<p>It was clear that Kendal had a good many irons in the fire.</p> + +<p>She only wished that Iris Vincent knew of his friendship for Nadine.</p> + +<p>Dorothy wondered if Nadine would penetrate her disguise.</p> + +<p>Nadine assumed her duties at once, and the first thing which she did was +to order the slim creature about, scarcely giving her a moment's rest.</p> + +<p>Nadine had always heard that this was the way paid nurses invariably +did.</p> + +<p>She took every opportunity to consult Doctor Kendal and waylay him for +long chats. Even Jessie noticed this, as ill as she was; and she +noticed, too, that the young doctor resented it; and Nadine herself was +not slow in perceiving his lack of interest in herself.</p> + +<p>"How very interested you are in your pretty white-faced patient," Nadine +said, on the second day of her stay there. "I almost believe you have +fallen in love<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> with Jessie Staples, and mean to bring her quickly back +to health, and—and marry her."</p> + +<p>Kendal turned from her with a fierce imprecation, and muttering +something that sounded very like "the cursed jealousy of some women," +abruptly quitted the room, slamming the door after him.</p> + +<p>Then Nadine felt <i>sure</i> that she had stumbled upon the terrible truth.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXXII" id="Chapter_XXXII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXII.</span></h2> + + +<p>Whenever a jealous woman is looking for something with which to feed the +green-eyed monster, she usually finds it, or imagines she does, which +amounts to the same thing. It was so with Nadine.</p> + +<p>No one mentioned to Nadine the fact that Jessie was betrothed to Jack +Garner. Even had she heard it, she would not have believed it. She would +have imagined that it was a falsehood made up for her benefit.</p> + +<p>She could not endure the kindly looks he gave Jessie, nor endure to see +him bend over her, raise her from her pillow, and, while one strong arm +supported her, coax her to take her medicine.</p> + +<p>Such sights as these were more terrible for Nadine to endure than the +pangs of death; and for hours afterward she would feel an almost +uncontrollable desire to strangle the sick girl.</p> + +<p>In Nadine's heart there rose a mad wish that Jessie would die before +Harry Kendal became too fond of her.</p> + +<p>While Jessie slept and she was not buried in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> depths of a newspaper +to kill time, she would be brooding over this subject: If Jessie Staples +would only die!</p> + +<p>One day, while in this morbid mood, her eyes fell upon a fatal paragraph +that riveted her attention with breathless interest.</p> + +<p>It spoke of the death of a once noted court beauty who had been in her +time the toast of all Europe. Men had fought duels for her sake, and +courtiers thought it a great honor to risk life and limb to do her +bidding, being repaid by only a smile or one glance from her wine-dark +eyes.</p> + +<p>It happened that while riding about in her pony-cart she had, by chance, +one day encountered a poor tradesman's son who had stopped by a brook at +which her own horse was slaking his thirst, to give his steed a drink.</p> + +<p>One glance at the fair, handsome Saxon face, and the girl who had +laughed to scorn full many a lover, felt her heart going from her +keeping to this bonny stranger.</p> + +<p>Although he was poor—only a tradesman's son—and she had wealth untold, +yet the beauty was not fair in his eyes.</p> + +<p>He passed her by with only a gracious bow, as any courtier might, for he +was in a hurry to reach the side of his beloved Gretchen. She was only a +peasant maid, but in his eyes she was more beautiful than a queen.</p> + +<p>He loved the pretty Gretchen with all his heart.</p> + +<p>When my lady came to inquire about him, and learned he had a pretty +little sweetheart, she grew very wroth, but she said never a word.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>On that day she sent for Gretchen, and employed her as her maid. But +from that hour there was a change in Gretchen's life.</p> + +<p>Slowly but surely she faded, although her distracted lover did +everything in his power to prolong the life of the maid he loved.</p> + +<p>In the early spring-time, while robins sang and the trees put forth +their blossoms, he gazed his last on all that was mortal of poor +Gretchen.</p> + +<p>The great lady tried her best to comfort Gretchen's lover, but he would +not be comforted.</p> + +<p>His hopes were buried in Gretchen's grave, and she could not turn his +thoughts to herself, and ere the first moon waned, they laid him, too, +beside his Gretchen, in his last home.</p> + +<p>The great lady never smiled again, and soon after the doors of the +convent closed upon one of the most beautiful women of her time.</p> + +<p>On her death-bed she called one and all of those about her to listen to +her tragic story.</p> + +<p>She cried out that they must not touch her hand, for it was stained with +human blood; and it was then that her horrible story was brought to +light.</p> + +<p>And in an awful whisper, while the long shadows deepened, she made this +terrible revelation: that years, before she had murdered her maid, +Gretchen, because the girl was loved by him whom she would have won.</p> + +<p>By night and by day she pondered upon how it should be done, then +suddenly the way and means occurred to her.</p> + +<p>There was a powerful drug of which she had heard that gave women the +most marvelous of complexions, but which sooner or later caused death.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>Gretchen should take it; it could be placed in the basin of water in +which she was wont to bathe her face each morning, and it would enter +the body through the pores of the skin. In this way the doctors would be +completely baffled, for they would not be able to trace the poison.</p> + +<p>She put this dastardly plot into execution, and her cruel heart did not +upbraid her, though she saw the girl droop and fade daily before her +eyes.</p> + +<p>When she looked out of her window and saw Gretchen and her lover pacing +up and down the primrose path in the moonlight, a horrible laugh would +break from the great lady's ripe, red lips.</p> + +<p>"There will be but a few more of these meetings, tender partings and +kisses under the larch-tree boughs."</p> + +<p>She had never dreamed, this false, cruel beauty, that a man's heart +could be constant to a dead love and spurn a living one.</p> + +<p>All these years she had lived to rue it; but neither prayers, nor +suffering, nor pangs of conscience could atone for the terrible crime +committed.</p> + +<p>During all the years that had passed since Gretchen had been lying in +that lonely grave, she had never known one moment's peace of mind, until +this hour when she lay dying and had confessed all.</p> + +<p>Slowly, twice, thrice, Nadine Holt read the story through, and as she +read, a terrible thought came into her own mind.</p> + +<p>Why could not she procure this same drug and administer it in the same +way to Jessie Staples?</p> + +<p>She took the paper up to her room and hid it very carefully in her +satchel.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>True, Jessie had taken her in this time without saying one word of the +past unpleasantness, treating her as though that quarrel had never been.</p> + +<p>But Nadine was different. She was one of the kind that "never forgets, +never forgives" while life lasts.</p> + +<p>When the household was wrapped in deep sleep that night, Nadine stole +out upon her terrible mission.</p> + +<p>Several careful druggists refused to fill her order; but this did not +daunt her. She knew that among the lot she would soon come across a +catch-penny, and in this supposition she was quite right.</p> + +<p>She soon found a place, and secured the deadly drug which she called +for, and she stole into the house again without any one being the wiser +for her midnight trip.</p> + +<p>The light was burning low in the sick-room as she entered it, and Mrs. +Brown sat half dozing in her chair by the bedside.</p> + +<p>She started up as Nadine crossed the threshold.</p> + +<p>"You needn't mind staying any longer," she remarked, brusquely; "I will +take charge of the patient now."</p> + +<p>"No," said the other, quietly but firmly. "It is between twelve and one +that the most important medicine must be administered."</p> + +<p>"Don't you suppose I am capable of giving it?" retorted Nadine angrily +enough. "You don't seem to realize what is the business of a paid +nurse!"</p> + +<p>The other made no remark, but still she lingered. Had she a suspicion +that there was anything amiss?</p> + +<p>She was a strange creature, anyhow, with that old-looking face, the +great mass of thick black hair studded with gray, and the thick blue +glasses.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>Where had she seen some one of whom this creature reminded her so +strangely and so strongly?</p> + +<p>Even the tone of her voice, although it sounded hoarse and unnatural, +was somehow familiar to her.</p> + +<p>The very way in which Mrs. Brown crested her head she had seen somewhere +before, and it had made quite an impression upon her at the time.</p> + +<p>"I can not help thinking that she is always spying upon every movement +of mine, and she listens—I am sure she does—to every word the doctor +and I say; and these people who watch others so much always need +watching themselves."</p> + +<p>Seeing that Nadine Holt was determined to banish her from the sick-room, +Dorothy quitted the apartment with a very heavy heart, though she could +not have told why.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXXIII" id="Chapter_XXXIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXIII.</span></h2> + + +<p>The days that followed were dark ones to the Garner household, for +Jessie began to fail rapidly.</p> + +<p>She grew so weak that the entire household began to grow terribly +alarmed over her condition. Even the doctor had grave apprehension for +his patient.</p> + +<p>"The case of Miss Staples puzzles me completely," he said to Doctor +Crandall, when he returned to his office one afternoon. "I have never +known of symptoms like hers;" and he minutely described the strange turn +the case had taken which had baffled him completely.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>"As soon as I am able to be about I will go with you and see for myself +just where the trouble is."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, a serious matter was agitating the brain of poor Jessie +Staples.</p> + +<p>She realized before any of the rest did that her condition was becoming +alarming, and her wedding-day was drawing nearer and nearer.</p> + +<p>But when that day dawned, a secret voice in her heart whispered that she +would be "the bride of death," and not Jack Garner's.</p> + +<p>She wondered if Heaven meant it for the best, that she must give up the +life that might have held so much for her. She had longed for death many +a time; but now that it seemed imminent, her very soul grew frightened +because of one thought: she would have to leave Jack behind her. It +seemed to her that though she should be buried fathoms deep, her soul +would cling to earth—and Jack. What if, in time to come, he should +forget her! Ah! that was the bitterest stroke of all; and she realized +that, no matter how deeply a person may love, when the object of that +affection dies, time brings balm to his woe, and mellows it into +forgetfulness or to a shadowy memory.</p> + +<p>If she were to die, would he ever love another, and stand with that +other before the altar?</p> + +<p>In her day-dreams, in times gone by, Jessie had pictured to herself—as +girls will in those rosy moments—how she would stand at the altar, and +listen with whirling brain and beating heart to those sweet, solemn +words that would bind her forever to the man she loved with more than a +passing love. She pictured how she would walk down the aisle, leaning on +his arm—that great, strong arm that would be her sup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>port for +evermore—a great mist of happy tears in her eyes as she clung to him.</p> + +<p>She even pictured to herself how he would help her into the coach, and +how they would drive away out into the great wide world together, to be +separated never again.</p> + +<p>Instead of all this, now she would be lying in her grave, with blue +forget-me-nots and pale primroses on her breast.</p> + +<p>Jack would be going through that scene with another as his bride; and as +the years rolled by he would forget her, or think of her only now and +then at times—not with keen regret, but with faint, vague indifference.</p> + +<p>Oh, God! if it had been <i>he</i> who was destined to die, she would have +shut herself up from the world, and would have lived only for his +memory.</p> + +<p>Her last prayer would have been, when death's dew gathered on her brow, +to be buried beside him.</p> + +<p>But men are more fickle than women. How few of them remain true to a +dead love!</p> + +<p>As she tossed to and fro on her pillow, these thoughts tortured her more +than tongue could tell.</p> + +<p>Then a strange fancy took possession of her.</p> + +<p>The more she thought of it, the more her heart longed to accomplish it, +until she could not restrain the longing that seemed to take entire +possession of her.</p> + +<p>And one day, when she seemed even more ill than usual, she could no +longer restrain the impulse to send for Jack.</p> + +<p>He came quickly at her bidding, sat down by her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> couch, caught the +little white hand—ah! terribly thin and white now—in his, and raised +it to his lips.</p> + +<p>"Did you wish me to sit with you, Jessie?" he said. "Or would you like +me to read to you?"</p> + +<p>"No; I want to talk to you, Jack," she said, with a little quiver in her +voice.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever thought how near it is to—to our wedding-day, Jack," she +whispered, faintly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Jack, with never a thought of what was coming.</p> + +<p>"What—what would you do if I were still ill when it dawned?"</p> + +<p>"The ceremony could be performed just the same," he answered, promptly. +"There would be no wedding at the church, no invited guests; that would +be all the difference."</p> + +<p>"Would you wish to marry me if—if you knew that I would never be well +again, and that perhaps death would be hovering very, very near to claim +me, and to part me from you?"</p> + +<p>"I will keep to my part of the compact, Jessie," he said, huskily.</p> + +<p>"But what if I should die before it, Jack?" she questioned, faintly.</p> + +<p>"I do not know what you mean, Jessie," he said, gravely—"what you are +trying to get at."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jack! I mean this: I—I want to belong to you in life and in death. +I do not want you to have any other love but me, even if I should be +taken from you. I want you to be true to me forever. I could not rest in +my grave, though they burled me fathoms deep, if you ever called +another—wife! If I am to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> die, Jack, you must promise me one +thing—that you will never wed—another!"</p> + +<p>"How can you talk of such a thing, my dear Jessie?" he said, +reproachfully. "You pain me beyond measure."</p> + +<p>"You will give me that promise, will you not, Jack?" she pleaded. "The +pangs of death will be easier to bear if my mind is but at rest on that +subject."</p> + +<p>"You are going to get well soon, and the ceremony will take place as we +have arranged," he said, soothingly; but she shook her head.</p> + +<p>"If I should not, Jack," she whispered, fixing her burning eyes +wistfully on his face, "let me have the assurance from your lips that +you will never, never put another in my place."</p> + +<p>"If it will settle any doubts in your mind, I give you the promise that +you ask," he answered, in a low, grave voice; and it was worth that +promise to see the girl's pale face light up with a swift flush of joy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you—thank you, Jack!" she sobbed.</p> + +<p>At that moment a strange incident was taking place in Dorothy's room.</p> + +<p>Almost thoroughly exhausted with night-watching, Dorothy had fallen +asleep in a chair, in which she had sat down for a few moments' rest.</p> + +<p>Was it only a vision? she wondered, or did she hear some one call her +name softly: "Dorothy! Dorothy!"</p> + +<p>She turned her head quickly, but she could see no one, although some one +was whispering:</p> + +<p>"Why do you nurse Jessie so carefully? If it is destined that she should +die, I wonder that you grieve<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> when you know that her death will bring +freedom to Jack Garner and love to you!"</p> + +<p>The idea was so startling that for a time it nearly took her breath +away.</p> + +<p>"Let her drift quietly on to the end which is near. If you do not work +too zealously to save her, your reward will be the heart of him whom you +<i>love at last</i>. Take warning, and heed my words!"</p> + +<p>Dorothy sprang from her chair, quivering with excitement.</p> + +<p>She had been fast asleep, and the words that still rang in her ears +shocked her yet, even though she knew it was but a dream—though such a +vivid one—and the voice that whispered those words to her seemed so +like Jack's.</p> + +<p>Still the idea was in her head. If Jessie Staples died, her lover would +be free again, and she knew what that would mean for herself.</p> + +<p>She tried to put the thought from her, but she could not; it haunted her +continually.</p> + +<p>She tried to tell herself that even if Jessie were to die, she would +never make herself known to Jack.</p> + +<p>But, even after she had said all that, she knew in her own mind that she +would be sure to let Jack know at last, for she would never realize a +moment's happiness until she was once more what she had been to Jack in +the past.</p> + +<p>It had been such a slight affair that had parted them, and that had +drifted two hearts asunder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas! how light a cause may move<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dissensions between hearts that love—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hearts that the world in vain had tried,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sorrow but more closely tied;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That stood the storm when waves were rough,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet in a sunny hour fell off,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like ships that have gone down at sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When heaven was all tranquillity."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXXIV" id="Chapter_XXXIV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXIV.</span></h2> + + +<p>During the week that followed, the words that Dorothy had heard in her +dream constantly recurred to her.</p> + +<p>At first she fought against the feeling that seemed to be forced upon +her.</p> + +<p>She cried out to herself that Jessie must live; but with that thought +always came the one that, if Jessie recovered, it would mean the +downfall of all her own future happiness.</p> + +<p>At last her growing love for Jack Garner conquered her. She yielded to +it. It was like the intoxication of rare wine, of sweet, subtle perfume, +until at last, in secret, she confessed to herself that she loved him. +She thought of nothing but that she loved Jack with all the strength and +fervor of her despairing soul, and the only barrier between them +was—Jessie.</p> + +<p>To make matters all the worse, the sick girl made a confidante of her, +and would talk to her for long hours at a time over her approaching +marriage—that is, if she should recover.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>Every word she said was like the sharp thrust of a sword to Dorothy; but +day by day Dorothy could not help but notice the terrible change that +was taking place in Jessie Staples.</p> + +<p>Every afternoon her couch was drawn to the bay-window. She liked to be +propped up where she could look out into the sunlit garden, with its +green foliage and bright-hued flowers; for it was in the garden that +Jack could be seen, pacing up and down under the trees, smoking his +afternoon cigar.</p> + +<p>She would always call for Jack when she saw him, and when he came into +the room she would hold out her arms to him with a strange, low cry.</p> + +<p>He would always kneel down by her side, talk to her, try to cheer her. +Sleep would never come to her unless he sat by her side, holding her +hands in his.</p> + +<p>It was with great relief that Mr. Garner heard at length that Doctor +Crandall was so much better that he would visit Jessie the next +afternoon.</p> + +<p>When he came Doctor Kendal took him at once to the sick-room, and there +they held a long and secret consultation.</p> + +<p>"I am obliged to say, sir, that I shall have to abandon the case," said +Kendal. "I am completely dumbfounded with it. I have most carefully +followed out your every suggestion, and yet the patient fails rapidly +before my eyes day after day."</p> + +<p>Doctor Crandall looked thoughtful.</p> + +<p>When he left Jessie's couch he found Mr. Garner awaiting him in the +library.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of her, sir?" he asked, quickly.</p> + +<p>"There is not much the matter," he replied; "a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> good tonic, rest, and a +little cheerful society will soon set the young lady right again."</p> + +<p>"It is the first time that you have seen her, doctor," said Jack, rather +dubiously. "You never saw her in health, sir. You do not know how +alarmingly she has changed for the worse. She had a brilliant color, but +it has all gone."</p> + +<p>"It will soon return," said the doctor, encouragingly; and with a few +further words he left Jack, more mystified than ever.</p> + +<p>For forty odd years he had enjoyed a large practice, but in all that +time he had never had a case exactly like this.</p> + +<p>He made up his mind then and there that there was something about this +case which was beyond him—there was something about it that he could +not fathom, that was shrouded in mystery.</p> + +<p>He wired without delay, an urgent message to an eminent physician with +whom he was on excellent terms. It was almost midnight when Doctor +Schimpf arrived at the Garner mansion.</p> + +<p>His friend, Doctor Crandall, was awaiting him, and together they made +their way at once to the sick-room.</p> + +<p>"This is an urgent case, I suppose," said Doctor Schimpf.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid so," was the reply. "You will be able to judge when you see +the patient."</p> + +<p>Doctor Schimpf's stern face grew sterner still as he made his +examination of poor Jessie. Then the doctors quitted the room and +commenced their consultation.</p> + +<p>Nadine Holt looked after them with a strange smile on her face, her +black eyes glittering.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>"Well," said Doctor Crandall, "I wonder if we both have the same opinion +in regard to this case."</p> + +<p>"It can admit of but one," returned Doctor Schimpf, with a shake of his +head.</p> + +<p>"And that is?"</p> + +<p>"It is a case of slow poisoning," was the answer.</p> + +<p>Doctor Crandall grasped his friend's hand.</p> + +<p>"That was my view exactly," he said, huskily.</p> + +<p>"There is but one way to proceed," returned Doctor Schimpf: "we must set +a watch upon the inmates of the sick-room, and discover who is the +perpetrator of this awful crime; and in the meantime make minute +inquiries if there is any one under this roof who would be likely to be +benefited by this poor girl's death. I propose that we proceed without +an hour's delay."</p> + +<p>"Agreed!" returned the other, promptly. "And I would suggest, as well, +that a woman be secured, if possible, to undertake this task of +ferreting out who is responsible for this awful crime that will soon +terminate fatally if not nipped in the bud."</p> + +<p>The next morning a young colored girl duly presented herself at the +Garner mansion.</p> + +<p>"I have brought you an assistant," said Doctor Crandall, leading her +into the presence of Dorothy and Nadine Holt, and bowing to each in +turn. "She is to obey your orders implicitly, and wait upon you. The +medicines we have left are of an extremely pungent odor, and likely to +overcome a person unused to them. She can attend to mixing the +preparations for you, if you both consider her competent to do so, which +you can tell after a short trial;" adding, besides: "One drop of this +stains the hands, and it can not be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> got off for months. I thought this +might be sufficient reason for placing this young girl at your +disposal."</p> + +<p>"You are very thoughtful, sir," said Nadine Holt, sweetly; but Dorothy +spoke never a word.</p> + +<p>Both doctors turned and looked keenly at her; then the conversation +drifted quickly into another channel; but both had made up their minds +that this boded no good for the slender, dark-looking woman with the +blue glasses who hovered continually about the sick girl's couch.</p> + +<p>As the doctors were leaving, under guise of giving a few words of +instruction to Myra, the mulatto girl, they whispered hurriedly in her +ear.</p> + +<p>"I understand," she answered, with a nod of her head. "Nothing shall +escape my eye."</p> + +<p>The next day Doctor Crandall made minute inquiries regarding every +member of the household, and every addition that had been made to it for +the past few months; and he learned, casually, that the only person +under that roof with whose history the Garners were not thoroughly +acquainted was—Mrs. Brown.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, he discovered that she had secured the place without proper +recommendations. This he considered a serious affair. He was quite +willing to give her the benefit of a doubt; still, it was too grave a +matter of which he had charge. Every moment of time wasted in +discovering the perpetrator of the awful crime was dangerous to Miss +Staples, his beautiful patient, exposed to such deadly peril.</p> + +<p>All unmindful of the espionage placed upon her, Dorothy went about her +duties in the same faithful manner.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>In the morning she read to and amused old Mrs. Garner. In the afternoon +she attended to all the duties of the household; for in the midst of +their difficulties their housekeeper had left them.</p> + +<p>In the evening she relieved Nadine Holt from her arduous duties in the +sick-room.</p> + +<p>The only gleam of brightness that fell athwart her path was meeting Jack +Garner at the table three times a day. Her life merged into one great +longing to be near him.</p> + +<p>She tried to picture how it would be when Jessie recovered and he should +marry her. Of course, they would still dwell beneath that roof. Could +the same home that held them hold her?</p> + +<p>She could not endure seeing them so happy in each other's love. Whenever +Jack entered the sick-room, Dorothy always made some pretense to leave +it.</p> + +<p>The sight of him bringing a flower to Jessie would be enough to almost +break her heart with poignant grief.</p> + +<p>She could not help but notice how handsome he was growing day by day.</p> + +<p>Oh, what would she not have given for just one of the kindly words he +used to speak to her, a tender look, a caress!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXXV" id="Chapter_XXXV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXV.</span></h2> + + +<p>Not one thought did Dorothy give to Harry Kendal during these days. It +is strange what a power some young girls possess in throwing off all +tender thoughts from their hearts when the object of them has proven +himself unworthy.</p> + +<p>All love for Harry Kendal had gone out of her heart when she saw him +choose Iris' society instead of her own, and she at the time his +betrothed bride.</p> + +<p>Dorothy's only hope was that Kendal would not penetrate her disguise, +and never know what had become of her.</p> + +<p>She did not know but what he was now betrothed to Iris, and <i>she did not +care</i>. She was glad to be rid of him at any cost. She only wished that +Nadine Holt—who was still so insanely in love with her false +lover—knew how treacherous he was. She wished she dare tell her about +Iris.</p> + +<p>In her hours of loneliness little Pearl was a great comfort to Dorothy. +She almost lost sight of her troubles at times in taking care of the +child, who was quite as desolate in the world as herself.</p> + +<p>She never forgot one morning that broke sunny enough for her, but ended +in desolation more bitter to endure than death.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garner and herself were seated at the breakfast table, when Jack +entered and took his seat opposite Dorothy. He bent his fair, handsome +head, and kissed his mother as he passed her, and bowed courteously to +"Mrs. Brown."</p> + +<p>Both noticed that his fair, handsome face was very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> pale, and his right +hand looked bruised. Mrs. Garner spoke of it at once.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter—what has happened, Jack, my boy?" she asked, +earnestly. "What does your agitation mean? You must tell me at once. +Your—your appearance alarms me more than I can tell you."</p> + +<p>He tried to laugh the matter off, but his mother would not be persuaded +to change the subject.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, if you <i>must</i> know, I will tell you when—we—are—alone," +he said, a little unsteadily.</p> + +<p>"You need not mind Mrs. Brown," she answered, quickly. "I do not +hesitate speaking before her on any topic."</p> + +<p>Dorothy rose hurriedly to her feet.</p> + +<p>"I—I have finished my breakfast," she said, in the low tone she had +assumed, and which so charmed every one; "and if you will excuse me, I +shall be grateful."</p> + +<p>Jack bowed courteously; but Mrs. Garner held out a fluttering hand to +stay her steps.</p> + +<p>"Do not go very far, Mrs. Brown," she said. "I may need you at any +moment. Step into the conservatory and wait for further orders there."</p> + +<p>With a bow of assent Dorothy glided from the room. She was sorry that +Mrs. Garner had requested her to remain in the conservatory, for she +knew full well that more or less of the conversation between mother and +son must needs reach her ears.</p> + +<p>The door had no sooner closed behind the slim, retreating figure ere +Mrs. Garner turned quickly to her son, who was now pacing up and down +the breakfast-room, with his arms folded tightly over his breast,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> his +head crested proudly erect and a strange look in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, Jack." she said, at length, seeing that he was in no hurry to +break the silence, "what is the matter? You used to tell your mother all +your troubles when you were a little boy. Come to me with them now. +Something has happened to disturb you greatly. I can see it in your +face. Tell me what it is, my boy. Tell your mother what annoys you, my +dear."</p> + +<p>"You are right, mother; something <i>has</i> happened to disturb me," he +said. "I ought not to worry you with it, but if you care to hear it you +shall know all. You remember a conversation we had several months ago +about—about little Dorothy, mother?"</p> + +<p>"We <i>did</i> have a conversation about that girl, but I do not remember +specially all that was said."</p> + +<p>"You remember that I told you then, mother, that—that I still loved +Dorothy, and if I ever came across the man who lured her away from me it +would go hard with him or with me."</p> + +<p>"I was in hopes that you were getting over that nonsense," she said, +"especially since your betrothal to poor Jessie."</p> + +<p>"I told you then, as I tell you now, mother, that I shall never forget +Dorothy nor cease to love her. But for the story I have to tell: An hour +since, as I was taking an early morning stroll to get a cigar, a little +incident happened which caused me to pause and to quite forget my +errand. It was only a little lame boy singing for pennies on the street, +and the song that he sang touched my heart, as it has not been touched +for long months, and thrilled every fiber of my being with a sharp, keen +pain.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>"You have heard the same song, mother. You remember how I rose and +abruptly left the room when some young girl commenced to sing it in our +drawing-room only a few short weeks ago. To-day I listened to it, +spellbound; and the boy's accompaniment on the violin held me as one +fascinated. I tried to move away, but could not, as you can judge by +what occurred afterward. There was a strange fate in my standing there.</p> + +<p>"I stood quite still and listened to the well-remembered words which +carried me back so forcibly to my own past with Dorothy:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Far away in summer meadows,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where the merry sunbeams played,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oft I lingered 'mid the clover<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Singing to a village maid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She was fairer than the fairest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ever faithful, fond and true,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she wore beneath her bonnet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Amber tresses tied with blue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Ere the summer days departed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We had made a solemn vow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I never, never wearied<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Kissing her sweet cheek and brow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She was dearer than the dearest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pure as drops of morning dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And adown her back were hanging,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Amber tresses tied with blue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"''Twas decreed that fate should part us<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ere the leaves of autumn fell,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And two loving hearts were severed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That had loved each other well.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She was all I had to cherish,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We have bade our last adieu.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still I see in every vision<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Amber tresses tied with blue.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Just at that moment a step sounded on the pavement.</p> + +<p>"A man rushed down, hatless, from an adjacent mansion, and in a +twinkling seized the offending young musician by the throat, and hurled +him from the sidewalk, crying, fiercely:</p> + +<p>"'I will teach you to come here every morning and to sing that accursed +song of all others in front of my door. I have ordered you away twice +before. I'll teach you better than to come back again.'</p> + +<p>"The unprovoked assault upon the helpless cripple awoke all the anger in +my nature.</p> + +<p>"I sprang forward and separated them; but when I saw who the cripple's +assailant was, my amazement knew no bounds.</p> + +<p>"It was the young doctor who comes here to attend Jessie.</p> + +<p>"He turned on me with terrible ferocity; then I recognized the fumes of +wine on his breath.</p> + +<p>"'This is the second time you have interfered in my business, Garner!' +he cried, fairly foaming with rage. 'Once when you attempted to take +Dorothy Glenn from me on the Staten Island boat, and—now.'</p> + +<p>"I fell back as though he had struck me a terrible blow. In an instant I +recognized him. I had been looking for him ever since Dorothy's flight. +I had caught but a fleeting glimpse of him in the past, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> his +whiskers made such a change in him, no wonder I did not recognize him as +he crossed our threshold; and this accounted for the manner in which he +had managed to avoid me in my own household.</p> + +<p>"'You! You fiend incarnate, have I found you at last? I could kill you +here and now!' I cried as my fingers tightened around his throat. 'But I +will give you one chance to save yourself. Name your own place as to +where you will meet me. I did not recognize you before. You shall tell +me what you have done with Dorothy Glenn, or I will kill you!'</p> + +<p>"Those words seemed to recall him to his senses. He drew back defiantly, +and his flashing black eyes met mine, while a terrible sneer curled his +lips.</p> + +<p>"'You shall never know whether Dorothy Glenn is living or dead!' he +cried.</p> + +<p>"I could have borne anything better than those scathing words from the +lips of the man who had taken from me the girl I loved.</p> + +<p>"'You will find me at my home up to the hour of noon,' he said. 'Make +any arrangements you deem necessary.'</p> + +<p>"I turned on my heel and left him; and here I am, awaiting a summons +from him."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garner had risen slowly to her feet. The import of his words had +just begun to dawn upon her.</p> + +<p>"Jack!" she cried, wildly, throwing herself upon her knees at his feet, +"is it to be a duel? Oh, my God, Jack, answer me!"</p> + +<p>They heard a crash in the conservatory, but both were too excited to +mind it.</p> + +<p>"Let me go in your place," cried a hoarse voice from the doorway of the +conservatory. "Pardon me,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> but I could not help overhearing all;" and +Mrs. Brown advanced excitedly into the breakfast-room, and up to Jack's +side. "Let me go in your place," she repeated. "Let me give my life for +yours. I—I have nothing left to live for; you have."</p> + +<p>Jack was deeply touched.</p> + +<p>"You forget your little child," he said, gently. "Besides, any man might +reasonably take up the quarrel of a lady, and, if need be, die in her +defense, be she friend or stranger; but no woman should make such a +sacrifice for a man. I thank you for the kindness of heart that prompted +the words; but it can not be. I am sorry that you overheard my words to +my mother. See! she has swooned away. I beg that you will take care of +her, and let none of the household know what is about to occur."</p> + +<p>As Jack Garner uttered the words, he kissed the prostrate form of his +mother, and, turning, walked hastily out of the room.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXXVI" id="Chapter_XXXVI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXVI.</span></h2> + + +<p>Dorothy then set about restoring Jack's mother, and with the first +breath of returning consciousness she fled from the room and up to her +own.</p> + +<p>She was just about to seize her hat and cloak, and to dash out into the +street, in the mad hope of overtaking him, all heedless of little +Pearl's cry, as she woke from her sleep and held out her hand, when +there came a sudden knock upon the door.</p> + +<p>It was the colored maid.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>"If you please, ma'am, you are wanted in Miss Staples' room."</p> + +<p>"I—I can not go now," cried Dorothy, incoherently. "I have an urgent +errand that I must attend to at once."</p> + +<p>"But you must come, madame," said the girl, slowly, but very +impressively.</p> + +<p>"It is impossible," returned Dorothy, attempting to pass her by. "Every +moment of my time is precious."</p> + +<p>"But madame must go to the sick-room," reiterated the girl so earnestly +that Dorothy paused.</p> + +<p>"I will look in at the sick-room one moment," she said. "Then you—you +must not detain me."</p> + +<p>Suddenly she turned and asked:</p> + +<p>"Do you know whether Mr. Garner is in the house?"</p> + +<p>"He is in the library, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"You are sure?" gasped Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"Quite sure, ma'am. He also has had a message to come to the sick-room. +I stopped and gave it to him myself on my way here."</p> + +<p>Thus assured that he had not yet left the house, Dorothy breathed a +great sigh of intense relief.</p> + +<p>"I—I do not mind going to the sick-room with you now," she whispered, +in a low, unsteady voice; and, all unconscious of what was to accrue +from it, Dorothy followed her companion from the room and up to Jessie's +chamber.</p> + +<p>The silence of death was upon all things as she parted the silken +<i>portières</i> and entered the room where the sick girl lay, white and +gasping, upon the couch.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>The two doctors made way for her, motioning her to advance to the couch.</p> + +<p>"Oh! she is not dying—not dying?" gasped Dorothy, with a wild wail of +terror. "You must not tell me that!"</p> + +<p>"Are you so very much surprised?" asked Doctor Crandall, slowly and +impressively.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she must not die—-she must not die!" she cried. "Where is all your +vaunted skill if you can not save her life?"</p> + +<p>"Man can work against the skill of man," significantly replied Doctor +Crandall, "but not against the will of Heaven."</p> + +<p>"But is she dying?" wailed Dorothy, grasping the ice-cold hands.</p> + +<p>"She shall not die if we can save her," simultaneously echoed both +doctors.</p> + +<p>They uttered the words in so strange a tone that Dorothy turned and +looked at them in wonder.</p> + +<p>At that moment Mr. Garner entered the room. His face was still very +pale, but he was outwardly calm.</p> + +<p>He was just in time to catch the last words, and he stepped up hurriedly +to the doctor ere he could utter another word to Dorothy.</p> + +<p>"Do you say that my betrothed is dying?" he cried, hoarsely, flinging +himself on his knees beside the couch, on the side opposite to where +Dorothy was.</p> + +<p>"What we have to say had better be deferred for a few moments, until he +is more calm and better able to bear the shock," said Doctor Schimpf, +nodding in the direction where Mr. Garner knelt prostrated with grief.</p> + +<p>Dorothy had become strangely calm, and both doc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>tors noticed that she +intently watched the actions of young Mr. Garner.</p> + +<p>"I think I have unearthed the secret of the whole affair," whispered +Doctor Crandall to his friend. "Watch the gaze Mrs. Brown is bending +upon the betrothed lover of the girl who lies sick unto death!"</p> + +<p>He motioned the doctor back into the recess of the bay-window.</p> + +<p>"Let me finish my story here," he whispered under his breath. "This is +what I would say: This strange woman in the black dress loves Mr. +Garner. Ah! you start, my friend. So did I when the thought first +flashed across my mind. Within the last few moments this thought has +settled into a conviction. She is the only one interested in the death +of Miss Staples. Look carefully into the chain of evidence I present to +you, and you will have the same opinion that I have formed, no doubt.</p> + +<p>"In the first place, as we both know, Miss Staples' sudden attack of +illness dated from a few days after this mysterious young woman crossed +this threshold.</p> + +<p>"Who she is, or whence she came, no one seems to have been clever enough +to find out.</p> + +<p>"She has come and gone from this house, alone, and at all hours, no one +questioning her movements.</p> + +<p>"She has taken full charge of the patient, from midnight until early +morning, and each forenoon our patient seems to have grown alarmingly +worse. We have both discovered the presence of arsenic, which has been +administered to her.</p> + +<p>"And now last, but by no means least, I have been observing this +mysterious woman with keen scrutiny. I could stake my life upon it she +wears a wig, that her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> complexion is a 'made-up' one. By this you will +understand me to say that the lines we see traced upon her face are the +work of art, not time. The eyes covered by those blue glasses are bright +as stars. In short, she is not the middle-aged personage that she +appears, but is a young woman, or rather a fiend incarnate, in disguise.</p> + +<p>"I propose within the next few moments to lay the matter before Mr. +Garner, and to gain his sanction to compel her to throw off this +disguise before she leaves this room, to confront her with the evidence +of her crime, and to force her to make a full confession at the bedside +of her would-be victim."</p> + +<p>"I quite agree with your plan," assented the other. "But there is one +precaution which we must not forget: the key must be turned in the lock +and removed, if you would have your bird securely caged. Delays are +dangerous. Let Mr. Garner be told the terrible truth without a moment's +delay, and we will rest the case wholly with him."</p> + +<p>Without attracting attention, Doctor Crandall called Mr. Garner into the +recess of the bay-window, while Doctor Schimpf engaged Dorothy in +conversation to pass the time away.</p> + +<p>To attempt to describe Jack Garner's astonishment, which gradually +deepened into the most intense horror as the terrible story was unfolded +to him, can better be imagined than described.</p> + +<p>"Jessie suffering from the effects of poison?" he gasped, incredulously. +"Great Heaven! how can I believe such an uncanny tale? Miss Staples has +not an enemy in the whole world, I am sure. No one could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> have a motive +in attempting to put her out of the way."</p> + +<p>"Will you answer one question?" said the doctor, looking earnestly at +the young man.</p> + +<p>"Anything which you may ask," quickly returned the other.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever have any other sweetheart than Miss Staples? Did any other +woman ever love you in the past?"</p> + +<p>For a moment Jack hesitated, and his fair, handsome face flushed; then +he frankly raised his eyes and met the keen gaze fixed upon him.</p> + +<p>"I have no hesitancy in acknowledging that I did have a romance in my +life before my betrothal to poor Jessie. But she knew about it from +beginning to end."</p> + +<p>"Did you give this girl up for Miss Staples? Pardon me for asking such a +direct question, but your answer is vitally important."</p> + +<p>The handsome face into which the old doctor gazed grew very white, and +the lines about the firm mouth deepened into an expression of pain.</p> + +<p>"My little sweetheart disappeared one day with a handsomer man than I," +he said, huskily, "and from that time to this I have never looked upon +her false but fair face."</p> + +<p>"Did she love you in those days?" was the next query.</p> + +<p>"I wonder that you can ask the question," said Jack, with a touch of +haughty bitterness. "Does it look very much as though she loved me when +she ran away with another man? On the contrary, any one could see that, +in pursuing the course she did toward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> me, she must have detested me. I +never saw this Mrs. Brown before we engaged her as a companion to my +mother, nor has Jessie, I am sure. I am completely at sea," Jack added, +"and therefore I leave the matter entirely with you. If Jessie is dying +of slow poison, I beseech you to discover the perpetrator of the deed, +at any cost—aye, and though it takes every dollar of my fortune, the +wretch shall be punished to the full extent of the law."</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXXVII" id="Chapter_XXXVII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXVII.</span></h2> + + +<p>Quietly the doctors filed into the room, and one of them turned the key +in the door.</p> + +<p>It was Dr. Crandall who undertook the delicate task of unmasking the +suspected would-be murderess.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you," he said, slowly. "The poor girl on the couch beside +which you have often knelt is dying of slow poison, administered to her +by some person beneath this roof."</p> + +<p>Dorothy sprang from her chair and reeled backward, looking at him with +widely dilated eyes. She never knew how it happened, but in that instant +of time a terrible thought came to her. Could Jack Garner be guilty of +administering it to her, to free himself from the bonds he so cruelly +hated?</p> + +<p>Oh, God! how the thought tortured her. She would not—she could not +believe it.</p> + +<p>"Some one under this roof has been guilty of this most atrocious act," +continued the doctor, in a stern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> voice. "We suspect—we know the guilty +party, and that party is in this very room!"</p> + +<p>Dorothy clasped her hands in dumb agony, and her terrified eyes never +left the form of him who had once been her lover.</p> + +<p>"You do not answer me, Mrs. Brown," said the doctor, frowning. "What +have you to say?"</p> + +<p>"What could I say?" she sobbed, piteously.</p> + +<p>"The one who is guilty of this diabolical deed must be held accountable +for it," said the doctor, facing her sternly. "A just punishment must +and shall be meted out to the wicked party. If you say that you will not +admit the truth, then I will turn the affair over to Mr. Garner, here +and now!"</p> + +<p>What would they do with Jack? In imagination she saw him in a prison +cell, perhaps doomed to drag out all the after years of his life there, +and the thought seemed to drive her to madness.</p> + +<p>"I will take it upon myself, and Jack shall go free," she said to +herself—"yes blameless and free."</p> + +<p>Slowly the doctor stepped around to Jack's side.</p> + +<p>"What have you to say in this matter, Mr. Garner?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Let me answer instead of him," Dorothy panted, hoarsely. "He knows +nothing about it. Oh, hear me!—listen to me, I pray you! It is I—I +whom you must hold guilty. Do with me as you will!"</p> + +<p>Both of the doctors nodded toward each other. A groan broke from +Garner's lips—this acknowledgement was so terrible for him to hear from +this strange woman's lips.</p> + +<p>"Who are you, and what was your motive for this horrible crime?" asked +the doctor, sternly. "You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> must make a clean breast of why you attempted +to poison Miss Staples, here and now."</p> + +<p>There was one person in that room who listened to Dorothy's most +extraordinary confession, white with terror, and that was—Nadine Holt.</p> + +<p>She knew full well that the stranger was entirely guiltless; then why +under heaven had she placed herself in such a horrible position?</p> + +<p>Nadine recovered her outward composure by a great effort, and listened +intently to what they were saying.</p> + +<p>"You must reveal your identity here and now," Doctor Crandall was +repeating, vehemently, "or I shall force you to do so. When we once +become convinced who you are, and your motive for this crime, then we +will know how to proceed against you. In the first place, I order you to +remove both the wig and glasses which we have discovered that you are +wearing. Your identity is the first step in this matter."</p> + +<p>Like a flash Dorothy flung herself at Jack Garner's feet.</p> + +<p>Ere he could put out his hand toward her, Doctor Crandall had sprung +forward, and with a quick motion gently but deftly snatched the wig from +her head and the glasses from her eyes, and Dorothy—Dorothy Glenn stood +revealed, in all her terror, before the astonished gaze of Jack Garner +and Nadine Holt.</p> + +<p>"You—you!" cried Jack, in horror too great for words.</p> + +<p>"Save me—save me!" gasped the girl.</p> + +<p>He wondered that he did not go mad, then and there at the sight of her.</p> + +<p>"Let me go!" she panted, imploring.</p> + +<p>The doctor shook his head.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>"You must be held answerable for your crime," he said, sternly. "You +showed no pity to the girl lying here so helpless, and why should it be +shown you? She lies here in a deep sleep, and when she awakens we shall +know whether it is life or death she has to face. We hope it is life, +but we can not be too sure. In the interim, while we decide your fate, +you should thank Heaven that your plans are frustrated. We can not +decide, until the crisis is past, as to what is best to be done."</p> + +<p>"Jack," she whispered again, "let me go far away and leave you with +Jessie. She will recover, and you will marry her and be happy after all, +and I—I will never cross your path again."</p> + +<p>He tore away the white little hands that clung to him, and turned to the +doctors. They were awed at the sight of his white, desperate face.</p> + +<p>"You have both assured me that Miss Staples will not die from this +poisoning," he said, hoarsely; "and I—I, the one most vitally +interested in this affair, say to you: Open that door and let her go her +way."</p> + +<p>Ah, God! that they should meet and part like this, after all those weary +months of heartache!</p> + +<p>"God only knows her object in coming here in disguise and committing +this awful crime," was his mental thought; but aloud, he only said:</p> + +<p>"Go, and may Heaven forgive you! Go to the father of your child."</p> + +<p>A terrible lump rose in his throat; he could say no more.</p> + +<p>The little one had crept out of Dorothy's arms, and out into the middle +of the floor; but Dorothy never, in that awful moment, thought of the +child. She was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> so stunned that the full import of his words did not +strike her just then.</p> + +<p>She only knew that he was opening the door for her, and harshly +commanding her to go.</p> + +<p>Like a storm-driven swallow, with one quick glance in his face, the girl +turned and fled from the room, and out of the house.</p> + +<p>"You were too generous toward her," cried one of the doctors. "See! she +has abandoned her little child, Mr. Garner."</p> + +<p>Then suddenly the doctor stopped short, and looked first at the +fair-haired, beautiful babe, then at Mr. Garner, and said no more.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXXVIII" id="Chapter_XXXVIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXVIII.</span></h2> + + +<p>When Dorothy fled so precipitately from the room, she fairly ran into +the arms of a man who was crouching at one side, listening intently. +With a muttered imprecation, he drew back, and it was then Dorothy saw +his face.</p> + +<p>"Hush! On your life, don't dare to make an outcry!" cried the harsh +voice of Harry Kendal.</p> + +<p>Before she could utter the scream that welled up from her heart, he had +seized her in his strong arms, thrown a dark shawl over her head, dashed +out into the street with her, and into a cab in waiting.</p> + +<p>Too weak to struggle, too weak to cry out, her head fell backward upon +her abductor's shoulder, and she knew no more.</p> + +<p>When she awoke to consciousness of what was trans<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>piring about her, she +found herself still in the coach beside Kendal, and the vehicle was +whirling along through the sunshine and shadow of a country road with +alarming rapidity.</p> + +<p>"Dorothy—my darling Dorothy!" he cried, clasping her hands and +showering kisses upon her upturned face. "Oh, Dorothy, my little bride +that is to be, why did you fly from me so cruelly the morning after the +great ball at our home in Yonkers?"</p> + +<p>"Do not speak to me! Stop this coach immediately, and let me get out!" +she cried. "How dare you attempt to thrust your unwelcome face in my way +again? Go back to Iris Vincent, for whom you left me; or to Nadine Holt, +whose heart and whose life you have wrecked. I know you for what you +are, and I abhor you a thousand times more than I ever imagined I +fancied you."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that you do not wish to go back to the Yonkers home and +marry me?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>But before she could find time to reply, he went on:</p> + +<p>"You were terribly foolish to grow so jealous of Iris Vincent as to run +away from me. Why, I—I was merely flirting with her because she was +pretty.</p> + +<p>"Why, she is married now, and at the other end of the world, for aught I +know or care. I can only add that, from the moment I learned of your +disappearance, I have been searching for you night and day. Oh, Dorothy, +now that I have found you, do not treat me like this, I beseech you! Let +us kiss and make up. We are driving direct toward the parsonage, where +we are to be married.</p> + +<p>"Few men would care for you so much upon making the terrible discovery +that you had fled from home<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> and directly to the arms of an old lover, +remaining under his roof until you were cast out from it by that lover +himself. I do not know even what your quarrel with him was about. I do +not ask to know. The object which took me there, I do not mind telling +you. I had a quarrel with your lover, Jack Garner. We were to meet early +this morning to settle the affair of honor; but as he did not show up to +make the arrangements, I forced my way into his house, in order that I +might not miss him. I heard him turning you from his door. Then +amazement held me spell-bound. I shall take this into account when—when +I have my settlement with him, later on. Any indignity offered to you +shall be my affair, as your husband, to settle."</p> + +<p>Dorothy had drawn back from him listening with horror to the words that +fell from his lips.</p> + +<p>"The duel must be averted at any cost," she told herself; yet she could +not—oh, she could not!—marry him. "I must think of some way out of +this," thought Dorothy, in the wildest agony. "I must save myself, and +save him, too."</p> + +<p>But in a moment, while she was pondering over the affair, the vehicle +came to a sudden stop, and, looking out, she saw it was standing before +the wide entrance-gate of a parsonage.</p> + +<p>"Here we are!" cried Kendal, holding out his hand to her.</p> + +<p>"I have not said that I would marry you," she cried. "How dared you +bring me here?"</p> + +<p>"That fact was settled between you and me so long ago that you surprise +me by your words," he said, angrily.</p> + +<p>"There is such a thing as a person changing her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> mind," said Dorothy, as +she leaped from the carriage, and stood facing him under the trees.</p> + +<p>"Surely you do not mean that you have changed yours?" retorted Kendal, +knowing that his best policy was to temporize with her.</p> + +<p>"I have, indeed," declared the girl; "and you will therefore oblige me, +Mr. Kendal, by re-entering your carriage and driving along."</p> + +<p>"Do you think I would leave you here, Dorothy," he said, in his most +winning voice—"here, at this strange parsonage? I should say not! If +you object to marrying me now, I know it is only through pique; but +still I say that I shall await your own good time; and, as the song +goes, 'When love has conquered pride and anger, you will call me back +again.' Do get in, Dorothy, darling; do not make a scene here. See! they +are watching us from the window. Get in, and we will drive on to +Yonkers. It is only four miles farther up the road. I promise you you +shall have your own way. Mrs. Kemp is at the old home. You will be +welcomed with open arms."</p> + +<p>"Take your hand off my arm, or I shall scream!" cried the girl, +struggling to free herself.</p> + +<p>Quick as a flash he seized her, and, with the rapidity of lightning, +thrust her back into the coach.</p> + +<p>"Drive on—drive on!" Kendal yelled to the driver—"you know where!" and +despite Dorothy's wild, piercing cries, the coach fairly flew down the +white, winding road, and was soon lost to view amid the dense trees.</p> + +<p>It soon became evident to Dorothy that she was only losing her strength +in shouting for help.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>Kendal was leaning back in his seat, with the most mocking smile on his +lips that ever was seen.</p> + +<p>"It is a pity to waste so much breath on the desert air," he sneered. "I +would advise you to stop before you become exhausted, as there is no one +to hear you and to come to your aid."</p> + +<p>But Dorothy did not heed, and renewed her cries the more vociferously.</p> + +<p>He had said thoughtlessly, that her cries would startle the horses, +never dreaming that this would indeed be the case. But, much to his +alarm, he noticed that their speed was increasing with every instant of +time. It broke upon him all too soon that they were indeed running away, +and that the driver was powerless to check them.</p> + +<p>In great alarm, Kendal sprang to his feet and threw open the door. That +action was fatal; for at that instant the horses suddenly swerved to the +right, and he was flung head foremost from the vehicle; the wheels +passed over him, and the next instant the coach collided with a large +tree by the road-side, and Dorothy knew no more.</p> + +<p>Up this lonely path walked a woman, young and very fair, but with a face +white as it would ever be in death. And as her despairing eyes traveled +up and down the scene they suddenly encountered the white upturned face +of a woman lying in the long grass.</p> + +<p>With a great cry she reached her side.</p> + +<p>"Dead!" she whispered in a voice of horror, as she knelt beside the +figure lying there, and placed her hand over her heart. But no; the +heart beneath her light touch beat ever so faintly. "Thank God!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> this +poor creature is not dead," murmured the stranger, fervently.</p> + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="Chapter_XXXIX" id="Chapter_XXXIX"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XXXIX.</span></h2> + + +<p>Dorothy opened her eyes wide, looking up in wonder at the pale, sweet +face bending over her.</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" murmured a sweet, pathetic voice.</p> + +<p>A kindly hand raised her, gently but firmly, from the dew-wet grass, and +pushed the damp, golden curls back from her face.</p> + +<p>The caressing touch thrilled the girl's being through every fiber.</p> + +<p>"You ask why I am here!" she sobbed. "Let me tell you: I came here to +die. Death would have come to me, I feel sure, if you had not crossed my +path. I should have crept to the brink of the bank yonder, and thrown +myself down into the river, and ended a life that is not worth the +living."</p> + +<p>"You must have seen a great deal of trouble to cause you to talk like +that."</p> + +<p>"I have seen more trouble than any other person on earth," retorted +Dorothy, bitterly.</p> + +<p>"Have you lost friends, or those nearer and dearer to you?" came the +gentle question, and Dorothy did not hesitate, strangely enough, to +answer it.</p> + +<p>"I never had a relative that I can remember," she answered, with a +little sob. "But I have lost my lover—my lover! He is to wed another, +and that other a girl who was once my dearest friend."</p> + +<p>"Your story is a sad one," replied the stranger,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> soothingly; "but it +might have been worse—much worse. What if you had lost a husband whom +you loved, or a little child whom you idolized? That would have been +trouble before which such as you are grieving over now would have paled +as the stars pale before a strong noon-day sun.</p> + +<p>"I do not ask you your story, my poor girl, but listen, and I will tell +you mine, and you can then judge how much mightier is my grief than +yours."</p> + +<p>"If you look through the trees yonder you will see a great stone mansion +on the brow of the hill.</p> + +<p>"It is my home. I live there with a dear young husband who adores me; my +slightest wish is his law.</p> + +<p>"I have liveried servants who anticipate and execute my slightest wish. +I have all that wealth can buy and love can lavish upon me, but, God +help me! I am the most unhappy creature that walks this flower-strewn +earth.</p> + +<p>"I have endured a sorrow so great that the wonder is it has not turned +my brain. Some few months since I was happy in the love of a little +child. Oh! I idolized my babe with a love that seemed greater than human +affection. It was the loadstar of my life.</p> + +<p>"'Take care! Beware!' cried one and all. 'Such idolatry is not wise; it +displeases Heaven.'</p> + +<p>"I laughed, and did not heed. One day we discharged a worthless servant +and he cried out to my husband, as he turned away from the door: 'You +shall repent this! I will yet wring the heart of you and yours to the +very core; and in that moment, remember me!'</p> + +<p>"A week passed. One night I suddenly awoke from a troubled dream about +my babe.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>"I put out my hand. It was not in its little crib of white and gold. I +sprang from my couch with wild cries that alarmed the household, for I +could not find my child. She was gone, as if the earth had opened and +swallowed her. But on the pillow of the crib the servants found a note +which bore these words:</p> + +<p>"'My revenge is complete. It is useless to search for your child, for by +the time this meets your eye your little one will have found a watery +grave.'</p> + +<p>"I was wild with grief for days and weeks. And when I became somewhat +rational, and could understand what was passing about me, I learned the +terrible truth—the sad, pitiful story: my babe had indeed found a +watery grave. They found a little shoe, its cape, and portions of its +dress floating on the waves the next morning. But the body was never +recovered; it had drifted out to sea. Now you will not wonder why I +wander up and down this lonely path at midnight—why I listen on my +bended knees for hours to the whispering voice of the waves. It seems to +me like the voice of my little child; and some day I shall follow her +into the dark, cold waves, and be at rest with my darling whose tiny +hands beckon me down to death in the cold, watery depths whose waves are +glinted by the golden light of the flickering stars."</p> + +<p>Dorothy scarcely breathed, so intense was her effort to restrain herself +until the other had finished.</p> + +<p>In fewer words than we can explain it she had flung her arms about the +stranger's neck and breathed out to her the startling story of that +never-to-be-forgotten night when she had rescued from the waves the +child this poor young mother was describing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, take me to my child!" she cried. "Now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>—now! Let not an instant's +time elapse. Every moment is precious. I can not wait—I can not!"</p> + +<p>Then Dorothy had her own story to tell: that she dared not return to +Jack Garner's home, where she had left little Pearl; and she told her +the whole story from beginning to end. Then came another revelation:</p> + +<p>"Jack Garner is my husband's partner!" the strange lady cried. "Come +back with me, and leave it to me to fully establish your innocence of +the atrocious crime of which they believe you guilty.</p> + +<p>"We have never visited at each other's homes, strangely enough, because +of some slight disagreement in the firm at the very time Mr. Garner was +taken in.</p> + +<p>"Come and talk it over with my husband. We will do whatever he decides."</p> + +<p>Oh, the great rejoicing in the old stone mansion! The horses were +hitched up without an instant's delay, and driven like mad into the +city, arriving at the Garner mansion just as the clock was striking +twelve.</p> + +<p>The old servant who answered the loud peal of the bell was shocked at +the sight of the beautiful lady who rushed past him in the corridor, +crying out: "Oh, for the love of Heaven, bring quickly to me the baby +whom you call Pearl!"</p> + +<p>Dorothy and the lady's husband followed.</p> + +<p>The great disturbance awoke Jack Garner. He heard the scurrying of feet +past his door. They stopped at the next room, where the little abandoned +babe was sleeping.</p> + +<p>The next instant a great, wild, happy cry rent the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> air, which the +angels must have heard and wept rejoicingly over; and he heard the +joyful cry:</p> + +<p>"Yes; it is my child—my own little, lost child!"</p> + +<p>Robing himself hurriedly, Jack quickly opened the door; but his partner +was standing there, and thrust him back.</p> + +<p>Jack knew of the loss of the little one, and his partner explained to +him how mysteriously it had been found, and by Jack's old sweetheart, +Dorothy Glenn.</p> + +<p>"Then the child she had here was not her own?" cried Jack, white as +death.</p> + +<p>And as the whole story began to dawn upon him, Jack buried his fair, +handsome, haggard face in his hands, and wept for joy.</p> + +<p>But when his partner touched upon the subject of Dorothy's being accused +of poisoning Miss Staples, he sprang up hastily and grasped the other's +hand.</p> + +<p>"The accusation was not true," cried Jack. "Dorothy was not guilty. A +girl whom Jessie had known for years, and who was at her bedside, did +the deed. She wrote a full confession. I found it under my plate at the +dinner-table. Nadine Holt has fled to escape just punishment. Oh, how I +wish I could find poor, abused Dorothy, to tell her the truth!"</p> + +<p>And when he found Dorothy was beneath that roof, and at Jessie Staples' +bedside, his joy knew no bounds.</p> + +<p>He sought her there at once to crave her pardon for the unjust +suspicion, and no one ever knew just exactly what passed between the +sick girl lying there, Dorothy, and her old lover.</p> + +<p>In his great generous-heartedness, Jack sent hur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>riedly out to learn the +fate of the hapless Kendal. He was not dead, they soon discovered, but +in a very critical condition. And Jack's generosity went so far as to +bring his rival beneath that roof, and nurse him back to health and +strength.</p> + +<p>From the first, even while lying on her sick-bed, Jessie took the +greatest interest in the young doctor who, she remembered, had always +been so kind to her; and as soon as she was able, she begged that her +chair might be drawn up to his bedside, that she might show him her +kindly sympathy. And in the days and weeks that they were thus thrown +together, Jessie learned to care for the handsome, dark-eyed Harry +Kendal quite as much as she had ever cared for Jack.</p> + +<p>One day, when the sun was shining, and the birds were twittering to each +other of early spring, Harry Kendal asked the pale, sweet girl who knelt +beside his couch to be his bride.</p> + +<p>And she answered him, through her bitter tears, that though she had been +mad enough to learn to love him, it could never be, for she was +betrothed to Jack.</p> + +<p>Jack had entered the room unperceived by both, and had heard all, and +with the magnanimity so characteristic of him, he stepped nobly forward +and placed Jessie's hand in that of the man she loved.</p> + +<p>"I absolve you from your promise, my dear girl," he said. "You must wed +him whom you love best. Never mind me."</p> + +<p>"But you?" sobbed Jessie. "I—I will accept my freedom only on one +condition, Jack; and that is, that you ask Dorothy to fill my +place—aye, to take her own old place again in your heart and life!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>"Not now," he said; "but perhaps I may speak to her some time in the +future."</p> + +<p>And he must have spoken to her, for three weeks later there was a double +wedding at the Garner mansion; and there never were two more beautiful +brides than Jessie and Dorothy, nor two happier young husbands than +Harry Kendal and Jack Garner; and Jack never ceased blessing the fates +that gave to him for his bride, after all his trials, pretty Madcap +Dorothy. But, then, the course of true love never did ran smooth.</p> + + +<p class="center" style="margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em;">THE END.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original text have been corrected for this electronic edition.</p> + +<p>In Chapter XXXII, "couriers thought it a great honor" was changed to +"courtiers thought it a great honor".</p> + +<p>In Chapter XXXV, "unprovoked assult" was changed to "unprovoked +assault".</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Pretty Madcap Dorothy, by Laura Jean Libbey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRETTY MADCAP DOROTHY *** + +***** This file should be named 29776-h.htm or 29776-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/7/29776/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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: Pretty Madcap Dorothy + How She Won a Lover + +Author: Laura Jean Libbey + +Release Date: August 24, 2009 [EBook #29776] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRETTY MADCAP DOROTHY *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +PRETTY MADCAP DOROTHY + +OR +How She Won a Lover + + +A Romance of the Jolliest Girl in the Book-Bindery, and +a magnificent Love Story of the life of a Beautiful, +Willful New York Working Girl. + + +BY MISS LAURA JEAN LIBBEY + + +HART SERIES No. 19. + +COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY GEO. MONRO'S SONS + +Published by +THE ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANY, +CLEVELAND, O., U.S.A. + + + + +CONTENTS. + PAGE +Chapter I 5 +Chapter II 12 +Chapter III 20 +Chapter IV 32 +Chapter V 38 +Chapter VI 45 +Chapter VII 53 +Chapter VIII 60 +Chapter IX 66 +Chapter X 73 +Chapter XI 79 +Chapter XII 86 +Chapter XIII 92 +Chapter XIV 98 +Chapter XV 105 +Chapter XVI 111 +Chapter XVII 118 +Chapter XVIII 124 +Chapter XIX 131 +Chapter XX 138 +Chapter XXI 144 +Chapter XXII 151 +Chapter XXIII 157 +Chapter XXIV 163 +Chapter XXV 168 +Chapter XXVI 174 +Chapter XXVII 180 +Chapter XXVIII 186 +Chapter XXIX 192 +Chapter XXX 198 +Chapter XXXI 204 +Chapter XXXII 209 +Chapter XXXIII 214 +Chapter XXXIV 220 +Chapter XXXV 226 +Chapter XXXVI 232 +Chapter XXXVII 238 +Chapter XXXVIII 242 +Chapter XXXIX 247 + + + + +Pretty Madcap Dorothy + +OR + +How She Won a Lover + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +"It's so hard for working-girls to get acquainted. They never meet a +rich young man, and they don't want a poor one. It seems to me that a +girl who has to commence early to work for her living might just as well +give up forever all hopes of a lover and of marrying," declared Nadine +Holt, one of the prettiest girls in the immense book-bindery, to the +group of companions who were gathered about her. "It's get up at +daylight, swallow your breakfast, and hurry to work; and it's dark +before you are out on the street again. How can we ever expect to meet a +marriageable fellow?" + +"Do you know what _I_ think, girls?" cried a shrill but very sweet young +voice, from the direction of the window-ledge, adding breathlessly: "I +believe if fate has any lover in store for a girl, that he will be sure +to just happen to come where she is, on one mission or another. That's +the way that it all happens in novels, I took particular pains to +notice. These people who write must know just how it is, I reckon." + +"Well, now, who would ever have imagined that a chit of a thing like +_you_, Dorothy Glenn, would have the impudence to put in your oar, or +that you ever thought of lovers, or marrying, and you only sixteen a day +or so ago?" cried one. "It's absurd!" + +"I wasn't saying anything about _my_ ever marrying, I was just telling +you what I thought about ever meeting the fellow who is intended for +you--'_the_ right _one_'--as you call it." + +"What if you were in a desert?" suggested Nadine, with a curl of her red +lip. "Surely you couldn't expect a young man would ever find a business +that would bring him out there to you, could you?" + +"Why not?" cried pretty little Dorothy. "Of course fate would send my +Prince Charming even into a desert to find me," cooed Dorothy. "And as +to the business that would bring him--why, he could come there to +capture the ostriches which are to be found only in the heart of the +desert--so there! You know the old adage: 'People meet where hills and +mountains don't.' I tell you there's some truth in that." + +"It's a good thing to have so much assurance and hope," said Nadine, +with a curl of her lip. "I trust that you may find plenty of lovers in +the future, though I doubt it." + +"I have plenty now," declared Dorothy, waltzing nimbly about the floor, +as only a bright, happy, thoughtless young girl can who is free from +care. "I couldn't count all who make eyes at me now, so what will it be +when I get as old as the rest of you girls?"--this a trifle maliciously, +for every one of them was at least twenty, and that seemed rather +_passee_ to this bit of femininity of sweet sixteen. + +Some one noticed that the huge clock on the mantel wanted just three +minutes to one, so the fragments of luncheon were crammed back into +their baskets, and the girls, chatting and laughing, went back to their +work, for they had a very particular foreman. But one of their number, +Jessie Staples, hung back to have a word with Dorothy. + +"I hope that you will not grow into a flirt," she said, slipping her arm +about Dorothy's waist and looking into the young girl's flushed face +with serious eyes, adding: "This brings me to the question that I +intended asking you this noon. Where did you meet that young car +conductor who walked up as far as your home with you last night? Do tell +me, little Dorothy." + +"Were you spying upon me, you mean thing?" cried Dorothy Glenn, blushing +as fiery red as the crimson heart of a peony, and stamping angrily the +tiniest of little feet; and she flung her companion's arm from her as +though it had stung her. + +"Can't you tell me?" pleaded Jessie, earnestly. "Remember, you have no +one to warn you. You are an orphan in this great, cold world, and--and +you are so young that you don't know life, and can not realize that +every young man who smiles into your eyes and says flattering things is +_not_ in love. When you have no relative to confide in, you ought to +have a girl friend older and wiser than yourself. Let me be that friend +to you, Dorothy." + +As she listened, the momentary anger died out of the girl's face. She +couldn't keep angry with anybody very long, and quite before Jessie had +finished her sentence a pair of plump white arms were thrown round her +neck and Dorothy's soft, peachy pink cheek was nestling against her own, +while the sweet young voice whispered: + +"Won't you breathe it, Jess, if I tell you the greatest secret in the +whole wide world? Promise on your word and honor that you won't and I'll +tell you, and it will fairly make you hold your breath. It's just like +those grand love stories all of us girls like to crowd around together +at lunch hour and read in the Fireside Companion, when we pick up the +special copies they throw around; only this is in real life, you know." + +"I promise," returned Jessie Staples, gravely; "only I hope this isn't a +ruse to turn off the question about the young car conductor whom I saw +you with." + +"Oh, no! the secret is about him," laughed Dorothy, gleefully, "and it +will make you open your eyes wider than they are now when you hear it; +and it's so dreadfully romantic, too. You know how Nadine Holt has been +boasting of late about the handsome new conductor on the Broadway car, +on whom she has 'made a mash,' as she phrases it. Well, the young man +you saw me talking to--is he." + +"What?" gasped Jessie. "Do you mean it was Nadine's beau to whom you +were talking?" + +"He's _not_ her beau!" declared Dorothy, flushing up redly and angrily. +"He doesn't care a snap of his finger for Nadine. He told me so." + +"He--told--you--so?" repeated Jessie Staples, too amazed at the instant +to frame any other remark, while the thought flashed through her brain +how deeply Nadine Holt loved this handsome young man, and that she was +confident of a proposal of marriage from him sooner or later. She had +often told Jessie as much as that of late. + +"It was only last week that I first met him," Dorothy went on, "and it +happened in this way: I came down, just by chance, on his car, and--and +I noticed that he looked at me rather admiringly, as he changed my +fifty-cent piece, while standing beside me; and--and I noticed, too, +that he leaned against me a little more than the occasion demanded, or +at least I fancied so; but perhaps it was the jolting of the car. I took +little shy peeps at him. I wanted to see what he looked like, Nadine had +been sounding his praises so. I found he was dreadfully nice, quite the +handsomest young fellow I had ever seen--elegantly formed, straight as +an arrow, with such a beautiful dark mustache, dark hair, and laughing +black eyes, and the whitest of white hands. When he helped me off the +car he held my hand so tightly and so long that I felt terribly +embarrassed and did not know what to do or say. But, oh! he was _so_ +polite! I dropped my eyes and never looked at him as I stepped off. How +I ever got into the other car I never knew. A moment later the other +conductor came around for my fare, and then--oh, horrors! I could not +find my pocket-book. I searched frantically in every pocket. 'I--I must +have _lost_ my purse,' I faltered, beginning to cry, for I saw he did +not believe me, and thought that I meant to beat my way, as they call +it, when just at that instant puffing and panting, up came the other +conductor--the handsome fellow whom I had just left. + +"'You dropped your purse on the seat of my car,' he said, raising his +hat from his dark curls. 'Permit me to return it to you.' + +"I was so overjoyed to get it that I forgot to thank him. I remembered +later that I had not done so. And what do you think? that very evening +he called with a book I had also left on the seat, and which I had +entirely forgotten. My name and address were written on the fly-leaf. +Just at that moment one of the young men from the book-bindery happened +along who knew him, and he introduced us. I did not invite him in, but +we stood and talked for an hour or more on the steps, and he asked at +length for the pleasure of my company to go with him to the theater the +following evening, if my folks were willing. + +"I told him I had no relatives to consult, and that I'd like ever so +much to go, but--but I had heard that he was Nadine Holt's regular +company. Oh, Jess, how angry he got when I said that! He flushed to the +very roots of his dark hair. You ought to have seen him. + +"'Pardon me, but I am _not_!' he replied, 'though I hear that she is +circulating such a story; but there is no better authority on the +subject than myself. I have spoken to her a few times; but it is +ridiculous for a girl to presume, if a man is pleasant to her, that he +wants to marry her. I cannot even say that I admire Miss Nadine Holt. As +a rule a man like myself does not admire a girl whose acquaintance he +can form through a handkerchief flirtation. + +"I thought of telling Nadine that, but you know what a fury she is. Why, +she would almost kill me, I believe, if she once got an inkling that I +knew about it. + +"Well, to make a long story short, it so chanced that he happened along +our street every night after that, and always found me, quite by chance, +sitting out on the steps, and so he stopped for a chat. And now comes +the most wonderful part of the affair. He is no _real_ street-car +conductor at all. I don't mean just that, but--oh, Jess! this is what I +mean: he--he bet with a number of young gentlemen the last election and +lost the wager. If he lost he was to come to New York and be a +street-car conductor for three months, and that is what he did. He is a +young lawyer in a small town near here, and has great expectations, he +says. + +"His time will be up to-morrow, Jessie, and then he is going back to his +home, and--and I shall never see him again. He is like a prince in +disguise--such as we read about. I always thought him too grand and +polite to be only a street-car conductor." + +Jessie Staples felt greatly relieved in her heart that he was going away +so soon, but she was too wise to say so to Dorothy, knowing that if one +attempts to break up an infatuation on the part of a girl of that age, +ten to one it makes matters only worse. + +"Life will never be the same to me after Harry Langdon goes, for, +Jessie, I--I have learned to care for him. I couldn't help myself though +I tried hard not to, and to be gay and jolly before all the girls. But, +oh, Jessie, pity me! My heart is breaking! I wish I could die!" + +They did not notice, as they moved on, that the door near where they had +stood talking was partly ajar, nor did they see the girl who had paused +in the entry outside almost at the very beginning of their +conversation. It was Nadine Holt, and she had heard every word, from +beginning to end, that Dorothy had uttered; and even after they had +passed on she stood there, cold and motionless as a statue cut in +marble. + +"Great God in heaven! this explains Harry Langdon's sudden coolness," +she muttered, with a great, choking sob; "but if Dorothy Glenn attempts +to take my lover from me--let her beware! this earth will not be broad +enough to hold the two of us. It will be war to the very death between +us, and we shall see which one of us shall win him!" + +By a violent effort Nadine controlled her wild grief and passed into the +work-room. It was only her indomitable pride that kept her from taking +her hat and sacque and going straight home and to her bed, there to weep +her very heart out--aye, weep her very life out, if she could. If her +lover was fickle, Nadine told herself that she did not care to live and +face the dull, cold world, for what is life and the world to a young +girl if the lover on whom she has set her heart and her hopes proves +false to her? + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +From the moment that Nadine Holt heard the story of the perfidy of her +lover she was a changed being. + +She went wearily enough to the lodging-house she called home, and paced +the floor up and down the live-long night. + +"He was pleased enough with me before Dorothy Glenn's pink-and-white +baby face came between us," she moaned, clinching her hands tightly +together and bursting ever and anon into a flood of tears. + +She looked around at the little, stuffy room, and thought of all her +girlish day-dreams--of the sweet hopes she had had of soon leaving those +dingy four walls, and of having a little bower of a cottage to call +"home," with a handsome young husband all her own to love her. + +She had pictured every scene to herself--just how each cozy room should +be furnished, and what vines and flowers should grow in the garden, and +the pretty dresses she would wear, and how she would stand at the window +and watch for handsome Harry to come home each night, and what a dear, +cozy life they would lead, loving each other so dearly. + +And now what of those vanished day-dreams? Ah! God in heaven pity her! +they lay in ruins around her, and heart-wrecked, heart-broken, she was +facing the cold, bleak world again. + +It had been by the greatest effort that she had looked in Dorothy's face +during the day that followed without betraying her bitter hatred of her; +but as the hours crept on, and she saw Dorothy's glance wander uneasily +now and then toward the clock, her intense rage grew almost +uncontrollable. + +"She is longing for the hours to pass, so that she may join _him_," +thought Nadine, and her black eyes fairly scintillated at the thought. + +Suddenly Dorothy raised her curly head from her work. + +"Girls!" she exclaimed, shrilly and eagerly, "have you all forgotten +that Monday is Labor Day? What are you going to do with yourselves?" + +A score or more of voices answered at random that they thought it had +been decided long since that they were all going up the Hudson on an +excursion. + +"I can't go on the excursion with you, girls," returned Dorothy, "for +I've got another engagement." + +"Bring your company with you," chorused a dozen or more of the girls. + +Dorothy glanced up hastily and met Nadine's burning eyes fixed intently +upon her. + +She started, turned deathly pale, and then turned defiantly away, +wondering if Nadine could by any means suspect that the engagement she +had was to accompany handsome Harry Langdon to the matinee. + +She wondered vaguely if Jessie, to whom she had confided this, had +betrayed her. + +The look in Nadine Holt's eyes as they met her own startled her. + +The bell which released the girls from the work-room that night had +scarcely rung ere Dorothy had on her sacque and sailor hat and was +fairly flying down the steps and out into the street. + +"I hope to goodness that I shall escape Jack to-night!" she muttered. +"He can not get out as soon as I do, and I will be almost home while he +is waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs;" and a little, light, +airy laugh bubbled from her red lips. + +Jack, as she called him, was one of the gilders in the book-bindery--a +tall, handsome, manly young fellow of four-and-twenty, whose only +failing was that he loved little Dorothy Glenn to distraction. + +"Yes, I shall escape Jack, sure, to-night!" laughed Dorothy again. + +But the laugh died from her lips, for at that instant there was the +sound of hurried footsteps behind her--footsteps she knew but too +well--and the next instant Jack Garner stood beside her. + +"Dorothy!" he panted, "Why didn't you wait for me, little girl?" + +Dorothy started guiltily. + +"Why, gracious! is it you, Jack?" she cried. "I certainly thought you +had gone home long ago, and so I hurried away." + +His handsome face brightened; the dark shadow was quickly dispelled from +his earnest, brown eyes. + +"Do you know, Dorothy," he said, "I was half afraid that you had run +away from me intentionally; and yet I could hardly bring myself to +believe it, the thought gave me such a sharp pang of pain at the heart." +The girl laughed a little nervously. + +"I wanted to talk to you about Labor Day," he said earnestly; "but I +fear what I have to say will grieve you, dear." ("Oh, gracious goodness, +that's just what I expected!" was the thought that flashed through her +guilty little brain.) "Dorothy," he said, huskily, "I'm afraid that I +will not be able to get off Labor Day, although it is a legal holiday +and I had set my heart upon taking you somewhere. We have found that +there is some work which must be got out, or it will mean a heavy loss +to our employers. I was the only one whom they felt they could call upon +to help them in their dilemma, and I could not refuse them, even though +a vision of your pretty, disappointed face rose up before my mind's eye. +I knew you would be expecting me to take you somewhere on Labor Day. Oh! +Dorothy, how can I make amends for it?" + +To his great surprise, she laughed gayly. + +"Don't trouble yourself about me, Jack," she exclaimed. "I won't mind it +one bit;" and her pink-and-white face fairly dimpled over with smiles. + +He opened his brown eyes wide and looked at her in surprise, remembering +quite well that for many a week past Dorothy had been looking forward to +this holiday and calculating how she should spend it. + +"But you will be so disappointed, little one," he reiterated, earnestly, +and not a little puzzled by the way she took it. + +Again she laughed--a little, light, airy laugh that somehow grated on +his nerves. + +"I was thinking," he continued, "that perhaps you would like to go +somewhere with my cousin Barbara--go up the river, or to a matinee, or +some place like that. I would pay all the bills, of course, and--" + +"Go with your cousin Barbara?" she cut in. "No, I guess not. It's just +like you not to want me to have a good time. If _you_ can't be there, +Jack Garner, pray excuse me from going with _her_!" + +He looked down at her with grieved eyes. + +"Barbara is not as young and gay as you are, I know, dear," he said, +huskily; "but, oh! if you only knew what a good, gentle soul she is, and +how kind her heart is! She would go out of her way--do anything she +could to give you a few hours' pleasure, because--because she knows how +dear you are to me." + +Dorothy shrugged her shoulders and curled her pretty red lips +scornfully. Barbara Hallenbeck, his quiet, sedate cousin, was +four-and-twenty. No wonder that gay little Dorothy did not consider her +quite companionable for a day's outing. + +"She would be very glad to take you to the matinee, Dorothy," he +persisted. "_Do_ consent to go with her, and then I will feel quite +happy, for I shall feel sure that you are having a pleasant day, even if +I am not with you. Otherwise, I should be so troubled, thinking of you +sitting all alone in the house." + +She looked up innocently into his face. + +"I need not stay in the house if I do not like," she retorted. "There's +a number of girls from the bindery going on an excursion up the river, +and they have invited me." + +Poor, innocent Jack! it did not occur to him then that, although she had +remarked she was invited, she had not said she was going. He jumped at +conclusions readily enough. + +"I am so glad, Dorothy!" he exclaimed, joyfully. "I know if you are with +a crowd of the girls the day will pass pleasantly for you. But you will +not forget in the midst of all your happiness to give a thought to me, +will you?" he whispered, with a world of tenderness in his voice. + +"Of course not," she said, promptly. + +"Especially when your eye rests upon our betrothal-ring," he added, +wistfully. + +Dorothy blushed alarmingly red, then paled as quickly, at the mention of +the ring. + +The truth may as well be told here and now: Dorothy, like many another +silly, thoughtless young girl, had drifted into an engagement with Jack +just to get the ring which he wore on his finger, which she had admired +with all her heart and longed to possess. + +But with Dorothy, possession had dimmed her appreciation for the little +turquois and pearl affair which adorned her finger, and at which +handsome Harry Langdon had glanced so contemptuously only the evening +before, and then down at the elegant monogrammed diamond ring which +glistened on his own white, shapely hand. + +Only that very day Dorothy had wished with all her heart that she could +get up some excuse to break what Jack considered an engagement, and give +him back his little cheap pearl and turquois ring; but the occasion did +not seem to be quite ripe, and Jack, poor fellow! had been kinder to her +than ever that day. + +At the corner she hesitated. It would never do to walk much farther with +Jack and stand a chance of meeting handsome Harry Langdon, she told +herself. + +"I have a little shopping to do, and I shall have to leave you here," +she said, hastily; and she made her parting very brief with Jack. + +He noticed it, and a sudden fear stirred his heart. He looked after the +slender figure flitting away through the slanting sunshine, with his +soul in his eyes. + +"She is so dear to me," he murmured. "I--I often think I would go mad if +I were to lose her." + +He walked slowly down the street, but, contrary to his usual custom, he +did not turn his footsteps homeward, but proceeded aimlessly along the +crowded thoroughfare. + +How far he went Jack Garner never knew. Suddenly in turning a corner the +first object his eyes fell upon was Dorothy, and by her side a tall, +handsome dark-eyed young man whose arm was linked with hers, and they +were walking along, deeply engaged in conversation, oblivious to the +whole world. + +He stood quite still; the heart in his bosom seemed to almost tear +itself asunder with one mighty throb. Was it Dorothy, or did his eyes +deceive him? He quickened his pace until he stood beside them. The +impulse was strong within him to seize the girl's hand and tear her from +her companion. The blood surged like fire through his veins. + +But before he could put his mad thought into execution the crowd on the +thronged thoroughfare swept between them. + +In that instant Dorothy's companion called a cab and placed the girl in +it. The door closed with a bang, and the next instant the vehicle was +whirling down the avenue, and turning around the first corner was +instantly lost to sight. + +Quick as the lightning's flash Jack leaped upon a passing car. He felt +intuitively that the stranger was taking Dorothy to her home. This car +would pass the door. He would confront them there, even though they had +gone by another street. + +By a strange fatality he had in his breast pocket a small revolver which +a friend had asked him to call for that day at a store where it was +being repaired, and bring to him, as Jack would be passing that way. It +was an unlucky moment for Jack, Heaven knows, when he consented to call +for the fatal revolver for his friend. + +As his hand touched it in his breast pocket a terrible thought flashed +across his excited brain. + +Ten minutes later he reached the cottage where Dorothy boarded. One of +the bindery girls was sitting on the porch as he came up. + +"Why, hello, Jack!" she cried. "What are you doing here?" + +"Where's Dorothy?" he interrupted, quickly. "Is she in the house yet? I +want the truth. You must tell me!" + +The girl looked in Jack's face, and dared not tell him all. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Jessie Staples--for it was she--looked at Jack Garner with troubled +eyes. She knew how much he cared for Dorothy, and she realized that it +would never do to tell him that his fickle sweetheart had gone riding +with another man. He was hot-tempered, and in jealousy there is little +reason. Like the wise girl that she was, Jessie made excuses for her +friend. + +"No, Dorothy is not here, Jack," she said, presently; "but I feel sure +she would have been had she known you were coming. She has gone to spend +the evening with one of the girls, who sent her lover specially to bring +Dorothy over, with the request that he was not to come back without her; +and no doubt Dorothy will pass Sunday with her." + +"Which one of the girls is it?" he inquired. + +"I don't really know that," said Jessie, a little faintly. + +Jack Garner drew a great, long breath of relief, and the old happy +smile lighted up his face in an instant. + +What a foolish fellow he had been to mistrust Dorothy! he told himself. +But, after all, he was glad he had come and seen Jessie and thus had the +horrible doubt removed from his mind. + +"Well, it does not matter so much, Jess, that I did not see her. I did +not want anything in particular. I am glad she will have a pleasant time +this evening and to-morrow. And about your holiday. I suppose you will +be going on the excursion with the rest of the girls on Monday?" + +"Oh, yes!" replied Jessie lightly but constrainedly. + +He drew nearer and looked wistfully into her face. + +"I can not go, unfortunately," he said, "but I hope, Jess, that you will +see that Dorothy has as good a time as the rest of the girls." He +stopped a moment, and looked down confusedly, as if at a loss to know +how to proceed with the rest of his sentence, but concluded at length to +break right into it boldly. "If I were there I would treat all you girls +to as much ice-cream as you could eat," he went on with a laugh. "But, +seeing that I am _not_ to be one of the party, I want you to do the +honors for me, Jess, and here's the money to pay for it, with my +compliments to the crowd." + +And as he spoke he drew a crisp bill from his vest pocket and thrust it +into Jessie's hand. + +"Oh, Jack," cried the girl, "you are too good and too kind!" and she +felt rather guilty as she took it, for she knew that he was giving it +solely that they would make it pleasant for pretty little Dorothy, and +she knew that Dorothy was not to be there. + +Only that day she had confessed to her that she had made an engagement +to go to the matinee with the handsome car conductor. + +But there would be a tragedy if Jack got an inkling of this, she well +knew. She had deceived him, poor fellow; but was it not for the best, +under the circumstances? + +Jack went to his home with a light heart, and much relieved in feelings. +It was well for him that he did not know just how Dorothy was passing +those very moments. + +When Harry Langdon had met Dorothy on the street that afternoon he had +quite hoped to slip by her unnoticed. Not that he was displeased to see +her; but the girl was dressed so cheaply, and, to make matters worse, +she carried her little dinner-basket on her arm, and he knew that if any +of his friends were to see him they would smile in derision, for they +could not help knowing by the dinner-basket that his companion was a +working-girl. + +His pride was the one fault of his life. He felt that he was quite +handsome enough to woo and win an heiress, if one chanced in his way. In +fact, that was what he was looking for. + +It would never do to be seen walking along the streets with this pretty +little working-girl, and it was for this very reason that Langdon had +called a cab to take her home. + +"The ride is too short," he said, as they reached the cottage where +Dorothy lived, and where Jessie Staples was awaiting her on the porch. +"Let us go around a few blocks; I want to talk to you about the +arrangements for the outing." + +Nothing loath, Dorothy consented, and away they whirled down the street; +and it was very fortunate too, for in less than three minutes later Jack +had appeared at the cottage. + +"I have been wondering if you really cared to go to the matinee on Labor +Day," said Langdon, in his low, sweet, smooth voice, which had never yet +failed to capture the hearts of susceptible young girls. "I was +wondering if you would not prefer a sail up the river. I understand that +there is to be quite an excursion to West Point." + +The truth is Langdon had just discovered that several of his +acquaintances were to be at the matinee on that day, and he regretted +that he had invited Dorothy to go, realizing how terribly ashamed he +would be of the shabby clothes of the girl whose only recommendation was +her pretty young face, and he had determined that he should not take +Dorothy to that matinee, at any cost. + +"Why, I would just as soon go to the excursion as to the matinee," +declared Dorothy; "but there's one objection--all the rest of the girls +in the book-bindery are going up on the boat to West Point, and among +them Nadine Holt." + +Langdon smothered back a fierce imprecation behind his silky curled +mustache. + +"Then we will abandon the West Point trip." he said, laughingly. "But we +can go to Staten Island, besides, I think it will be quite as enjoyable, +for, now that I think of it, there will be an immense crowd there. The +picnic grounds are to be thrown open to the public, and they are to have +a grand garden _fete_, with dancing and so forth." + +"Oh, I should enjoy that more than I could tell you!" cried Dorothy, +clapping her hands, her blue eyes expanding wide with expectancy. "I +adore dancing, and I was never at a garden-party in all my life, and I +have read so much about them." + +"We can remain all the afternoon and evening, have refreshments, and +then come home on the steamer. It will be a beautiful moonlight night, +and when the band plays on the deck you will enjoy it hugely, Dorothy." + +The girl's eyes sparkled and her cheeks glowed. + +Soon afterward the cab stopped before Dorothy's cottage again, and, with +a shy, sweet smile, she bade her admirer "good-night," and flitted up +the steps and into the hall, and directly into the arms of Jessie +Staples, who was awaiting her there. + +"Oh, Dorothy!" she began, reproachfully, "how _could_ you do it?" + +"Do what?" cried Dorothy, with a very innocent air. + +"Come riding home from work with that stranger!" cried Jessie, +reproachfully. + +The gayest laugh that ever was heard broke from Dorothy's ripe red lips, +and her blue eyes fairly danced. + +"I did not think that _you_, of all other girls, would be jealous, +Jessie Staples!" she declared. + +"I am not jealous," responded the girl, quietly--"only I pity you for +your want of sense in being fascinated by a handsome stranger, when you +have such a lover as honest, warm-hearted Jack Garner, who fairly +worships the ground you walk on. Every one knows that--and--and pities +him." + +Dorothy's red lips curled scornfully, and she turned away on her heel. + +"He is only a gilder in the bindery," she declared, "while the one I +came home with is a grand high-toned, wealthy young fellow, and so +aristocratic. He thought nothing of bringing me home in a cab, while +Jack Garner would have fainted at the idea. He is so frightened if he +spends a dollar of his hard-earned wages. It's no fun going around with +a _poor_ fellow. I hate them! So there!" + +With that Jessie took the bill from her pocket, and told all that poor +Jack had said about treating to the ice-cream. + +Dorothy looked astounded, but turned the matter off by saying: + +"It is a good thing to have him stand treat once in his life-time, I +declare!" + +But, nevertheless, she felt ashamed deep down in her own heart for the +way she had spoken of poor Jack. Still she would not listen to Jessie's +admonition, declaring, too, that she meant to go on an excursion on +Labor Day with Harry Langdon, even though it made an enemy of Jack for +life. She was tired of Jack, anyhow. + +"You will rue it if you go with that stranger. Trouble will come of it +as sure as you live." Those were Jessie's last words to Dorothy as they +parted an hour later, and they rang in Dorothy's brain for many and many +a long day afterward; and these two girls, who had been such steadfast +friends parted from each other in coldness and in anger for the first +time in their lives. + +The sun rose bright and golden on the eventful morning, and Dorothy was +in high glee as she looked out from her curtained window, and the +visions of a joyous day flitted before her. + +At two o'clock Langdon put in a prompt appearance, and Dorothy was quite +ready, and he could not help but own to himself that she looked as fair +and pretty and quite as stylish as any young girl you would meet in a +day's travel in her neat navy-blue merino dress, with its white duck +vest and broad, white cuffs and sailor collar, and the white sailor hat, +with the white silk band about it to match. And nothing could have been +more dainty than her neat kid boots and gloves. + +Langdon raised his hat to this fair young vision of loveliness with all +the gallantry he was capable of, and away they went in high spirits and +high glee, and with never a thought in Dorothy's heart of poor Jack +toiling at that moment in the book-bindery. + +It was a delightful sail down the bay, and when they arrived at their +destination they found the island thronged with a merry group of +pleasure seekers. + +The hours flew by on golden wings. Dusk gathered. Night soon drew her +sable curtains, and pinned them with a star. + +They dined sumptuously at the Hotel Castleton, and then went back to the +picnic grounds, which were ablaze with light and color, resounding to +the merry strains of music, the babble of gay voices and joyous +laughter, and the sound of feet keeping step in the dance. + +Never had Dorothy enjoyed herself so well. Harry Langdon was the prince +of escorts. He knew how to make himself agreeable and entertaining. He +whispered tender words into his companion's ears, held her little hand, +and conveyed to her in a thousand different ways that this was the +happiest day of his life, because she was by his side. + +At length the hour drew near for the picknickers to leave the grounds, +for the boat had already steamed into the dock. In twenty minutes' time +she was to start back to the city. + +"Have you had a pleasant time, Dorothy?" asked her companion, smiling +down into her pleased, flushed face. + +"I have had the most pleasant hours of my life!" declared Dorothy. "It +has been like heaven here; I am sorry to go. And oh! how dark and drear +to-morrow will be in the bindery, after such a pleasant outing here." + +"You need not return to the bindery to-morrow unless you wish," +whispered Langdon, still holding the girl's little hand in his. + +Dorothy's heart beat high. Was handsome Harry Langdon about to propose +to her? she wondered. + +But no! the words she was waiting for did not fall from his lips, +although he had plenty of opportunity as they walked down the gayly +festooned path that led to the wharf. + +"Perhaps he means to wait until he gets on the boat," she thought, with +a fluttering heart. + +Poor little Dorothy! there was no one to warn her against him. How was +she to realize that the thought of marriage had never entered his head, +and that he was of the kind who smile on and flatter women and then ride +away, little caring how many broken hearts are left behind? + +Dorothy's pretty, innocent face had captivated his fancy, but he would +never have dreamed of making her his wife. + +As they neared the boat, so great was the crowd clambering on board that +Dorothy would have been separated from her companion had she not clung +to his arm. + +"You need never go back to the book-bindery, Dorothy," he managed to +whisper again. + +At that moment they stepped aboard the steamer and started toward the +upper deck. + +It had been a happy day for Dorothy, but a most miserable one for poor +Jack. Contrary to his expectations, he finished the task allotted to him +much sooner than he had anticipated, and by two o'clock he was ready to +quit the book-bindery for the day. + +Hurrying home, he quickly changed his clothing, smiling the while as he +thought of putting the wish into execution that had been in his heart +all day, of joining the crowd up at West Point; and how delighted +Dorothy would be to see him--what a surprise it would be to her! + +His mother and his cousin watched him out of sight from their humble +cottage door, and then turned back to their duties with a sigh. They had +hoped that he would spend the day with them. + +With a joyful heart Jack boarded the boat for West Point, but when he +reached there and found that Dorothy was not among the group, his +disappointment knew no bounds. + +"My tender-hearted little darling!" he thought. "She would not join them +for a day's pleasure because she thought I could not go, and she is +having a lonely time of it at home." + +Back to the city Jack posted in all haste, and although the hour was +late when he reached there--the clocks in the belfries sounding the hour +of nine--still he could not refrain from stopping a moment at the +cottage, just to let Dorothy know how cruelly fate had tricked him. + +To his great consternation, he learned there, from the lady who kept the +boarding-house, that Dorothy--his Dorothy--had left the house at two +o'clock that afternoon with handsome Mr. Langdon, and that they had +started for Staten Island for a day's outing. + +He stood quite still, stupefied with amazement too great for words, and +a white, awful horror broke over his face and shone in his eyes. + +"Tell me about him again!" he cried, hoarsely. "What was he like--this +man who took Dorothy away?" And as he listened to the description his +face grew stormy with terrible wrath, for it tallied exactly with that +of the man who had put Dorothy in the cab and rode away with her. + +Like a lightning's flash Jack tore down to the Staten Island wharf, and +was just in time to catch the out-going boat. He would surprise them, he +told himself, and tear little Dorothy, his promised bride, from his +rival's arms, or die in the attempt. + +All the way down the bay Jack paced the deck in a tumult of fury that +increased with every breath he drew. + +The half hour that it took to reach his destination seemed as endless as +the pangs of purgatory to lost souls. He never knew how the journey was +made, or how he reached the island--flaming with lights on this gala +night, and gorgeous with flags and gilded banners. + +There were few passengers going down to Staten Island. The steamer had +come to take the revellers back to the city, and the gang-plank was no +sooner lowered than the crowd rushed aboard with happy laughter and gay +repartee. Among the first to gain a foothold on the stairway that led to +the upper deck were Harry Langdon and Dorothy; and here, face to face, +they met--Jack! + +"Unhand that young girl!" he cried, sternly, facing Langdon. "You have +no right to be here with her." + +Langdon started back, and glanced in haughty amazement at the +broad-shouldered, fair-haired young man confronting him. + +But without waiting for him to answer, Jack turned to Dorothy, holding +out his hands to her, saying huskily: + +"Leave him, little one, and come with me." + +But Dorothy threw back her head with rising anger. + +"How _dare_ you, Jack Garner!" she cried, stamping her tiny foot, her +blue eyes flashing. "I shall never speak to you again for +this--_never_!" + +"Step out of our way," cried Dorothy's companion, "and allow this young +lady and myself to pass!" + +"You shall never pass me with her!" cried Jack, furiously, his hand +stealing involuntarily to his breast pocket. + +"Step aside; we wish to go on deck!" returned Langdon, haughtily, "and +we intend to do so!" + +"You will never go on deck with her, unless it be over my dead body!" +cried Garner, his face white as death, his voice trembling with +excitement, and his brown eyes flashing like living coals of fire. + +"_You_ can not prevent me," retorted Langdon, in a sneering, +contemptuous voice. Then, turning to Dorothy, he added: "I am glad that +I am here to stand between you and this intrusive fellow. Come; I will +thrust him aside, and we will go on deck, my dear." + +The familiarity with which he addressed his companion stung Jack to +madness. + +"You can pass on deck alone, but not one step shall you proceed with +that young girl! Try it at your peril!" shouted Jack, hoarsely. + +Langdon did not heed the terrible warning, but attempted to push past +with his companion; and in that instant the passengers crowding up from +below heard the wild, piercing, terrified cry of the young girl ring out +on the night air, and mingled with it the report of a revolver--three +shots in quick succession--and the voice of a man crying out in mortal +agony: "My God! I am shot!" and the next instant a beautiful, +fair-haired girl plunged from the deck down, down into the dark, mad +waves, and the seething waters closed quickly over her golden head and +white, lovely, childish face. + +In an instant there was the most intense excitement and confusion on +board the steamer. Young girls fainted, women cried aloud, and strong +men stood fairly paralyzed with horror. Great God! the steamer was +backing slowly over the spot where the girl had gone down, and where she +would reappear. Nothing could save her now. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +All in an instant the cry rang from lip to lip: "There's a man +overboard!" Will he save her? Oh, heavens, is he too late to save the +life of the beautiful, rash girl who had plunged into the mad waters +scarcely a moment before, or will it mean death for both of them? + +He had disappeared beneath the steamer. The next moment that passed +seemed the length of eternity to the horrified spectators who lined the +dock and the decks, straining their eyes looking down into the dark +waters lighted up so fitfully by the pallid moonlight. + +He rose, and a great cry broke from every lip. He was alone, and almost +instantly he disappeared again. And again he rose, still alone. Every +heart sank. People held their breath. Useless, useless to hope. The poor +girl's fate was sealed. + +Then a mighty cheer broke forth. The waters parted, and they saw him +again. This time he was making for the shore, holding in one arm the +body of the luckless young girl whom he had risked his own life to save. + +Suddenly they heard him utter a sharp cry. + +"A rope! A rope! I am sinking!" + +In less time than it takes to tell it, a score or more of strong arms +hurled one out to him, and he caught it in the nick of time. + +Then amidst the greatest excitement he was drawn to the deck with his +inanimate burden. + +So intense had been the excitement that the passengers who had stood +nearest the principals in the bitter quarrel which had taken place had +lost track entirely of the fact that a tragedy had almost been enacted +in their midst. + +And when they began to inquire into the matter no one could tell what +had become of the man who had cried out that he had been shot, and they +considered it a false alarm. + +Had this lovely young girl anything to do with this matter, or was it a +coincidence that at the self-same moment she had flung herself into the +water? + +Meanwhile, kindly hands took the burden from the young man's arms. As he +was drawn on deck some one in the crowd cried out in consternation: + +"Great Heavens! It's Jack Garner! And the girl whom he has saved is +little Dorothy Glenn!" + +There was much speculation as to why the girl had attempted to commit +suicide; but Jack's friend, a fellow-workman in the book-bindery, +declared quickly that it never could have been a case of attempted +suicide--the girl must have fallen overboard, and Jack had of course +sprung to the rescue. + +This looked plausible enough; and what they had all expected to be a +great sensation seemed to turn out but an accident pure and simple. + +As for Langdon, he had suddenly disappeared in the crowd after striking +at the revolver which Jack had drawn upon him and crying out mockingly +that he was shot when it was discharged, simply to get Jack into trouble +and to get sympathy for himself. + +They found it no easy matter to restore the girl to consciousness, and +at this juncture an old gentleman, a retired doctor who had been in the +cabin when the accident had happened, came hurriedly to her assistance +when he heard that she was beyond the skill of those attending her in +the ladies' cabin. + +"Stand back!" he cried, forcing his way through the crowd of women. "How +do you suppose you can bring her to while you stand round her and +exclude the air? And by all that's wonderful, although you poured brandy +down her throat, no one seemed to know enough to open her dress!" + +And forthwith he began hurriedly to open the dress at the throat. But as +he did so a low cry broke from his lips, and his florid old face turned +deathly white. + +"My God, it is she!" he cried, hoarsely; and despite the curious throng +about him, the old doctor burst into tears and wept like a child. + +He felt that some explanation was due, and in a broken, husky voice he +said, pointing to a small, irregular mark over the girl's chest: + +"I have been searching for her for sixteen years by night and by day, +and finally abandoned all hope of finding her. She--she is not a +relative, as you may suppose. A few words will explain: + +"Some sixteen years ago I had a beautiful ward, as fair a young girl as +ever the sun shone on, and I, a lonely old man who had outlived all his +kinsfolk, loved her with all the devotion of my heart. + +"She was happy enough in my home--aye, as happy as the day was long, +but, like many another young girl, the bitter trial of life came with +her first dream of love. She fell in love with a scoundrel. I knew the +man better than she, and refused my consent. But young girls are +willful, and the upshot of the whole matter was--she eloped with him. It +was the most terrible blow of my life. Two years went by, in which I +neither saw nor heard of her. Then unexpectedly I received a short, +hastily written letter from my heart-broken Alice. + +"'When you read this I shall be no more,' she wrote. 'Oh, Doctor Bryan, +I have paid the penalty of my folly with my life. I am slowly dying of +starvation. For myself, I bow to the fate I have brought upon my own +head. But the result of my folly does not rest here. It falls upon the +head of an innocent little babe whom I must leave behind me. Oh, Doctor +Bryan, this is the prayer that in the last moments of my life I make to +you: + + "'Plead with the little one's father to let her come to + you. If he keeps her, may God in heaven pity her + future. He will blast her life as he did mine, or--if + it suits his pleasure, he will abandon her on the + streets to starve, as I am doing now. If I could think + that she would be with you, I would die without this + heavy load on my heart. She is so fair and + beautiful--my poor little baby! She has only one + blemish--the same scar is upon her bosom that is upon + mine, and which I have heard you say was upon the bosom + of my mother--the birthmark of the three spears. + + "'I can not write any more. My hand trembles so that I + can scarcely hold the pen. + + "'Good-bye, Doctor Bryan. Never forget your poor, + heart-broken ALICE.' + +"I searched for her night and day," repeated the old man, with a sob in +his voice. "Alice died at sea, and the fate of the little one could not +be learned, nor that of the father. I never ceased searching until the +last year. Then I said to myself, 'It is useless--useless. Alice's baby +is dead.' But I have found her most miraculously at last, thank God!" + +This revelation created the most intense excitement among the women, who +had listened breathlessly to the _denouement_. + +He had scarcely ceased speaking ere Dorothy opened her eyes. She found +to her great consternation a crowd surrounding her. + +But in an instant memory returned to her, and with a startled cry she +struggled up to a sitting posture, gazing in blank bewilderment upon the +crowd that had gathered about her. + +"I--I fainted and fell backward," she began; but the old gentleman bent +quickly over her, interrupting, hastily: + +"Yes, you fell backward and down into the water, my child, and came near +drowning. Where is the young man who saved her?" he cried. "Will some +one fetch him here at once to me, so that I may thank him? Oh, child, +child!" he cried, again bending over Dorothy, "I would have recognized +you among ten thousand! You look at me with your mother's eyes!" + +"My mother?" cried Dorothy, in awe, thinking that she had not heard +aright, or that the gentleman had mistaken her for some one else. "I--I +am an orphan; my name is Dorothy Glenn." + +The old gentleman did not utter the words that sprang to his lips when +she mentioned the name Glenn, though his face darkened for an instant +with bitter memory. + +"But will you tell me," cried Dorothy, with a piteous sob, "what has +become of my escort, Mr. Langdon?" + +Nobody seemed to know, and it soon became apparent to everyone--even to +the girl herself--that in her peril he had miserably deserted her rather +than risk his life to save hers. + +"Another young man periled his life for you," some one answered; but who +it was Dorothy could not learn, and in that moment she was glad enough +to call for Jack--poor, faithful Jack Garner. + +But he did not come this time at her bidding. No one told her that he +was suffering from a severe contusion on the side of the head, and was +scarcely conscious of the message that was sent him at that time. + +"You have no need of their protection. From this time henceforth you +shall be under my watchful care, little Dorothy;" and very briefly, and +to her intense amazement, Mr. Bryan told her the story that he had +already related to those about her. "I shall take you home with me," he +said, "and you shall never again know want." + +To the girl it seemed as though what she had heard was but the wild +vagaries of a dream, from which she should awaken presently and find +herself back in the old book-bindery with the other girls. But the +exclamations of the people who pressed around her congratulating her +upon her good fortune, which read so much like a romance, were real +enough, for they all knew Doctor Bryan, the wealthy old retired +physician, whose elegant country place was just outside of New York. + +The loss of Dorothy's handsome lover, who had forsaken her in so +shameful a manner, would have been a terrible blow to her had she had +time to think and brood over the matter. But this new excitement that +had come so suddenly upon her, making part and parcel of her life, threw +her thoughts in quite a different channel. How surprised Harry Langdon +would be when he heard the wonderful news, and how all the book-bindery +girls would hold their breath in astonishment too great for words when +she did not come to work on the following day, but got a letter from her +instead, explaining the wonderful change in her fortunes! Nadine Holt +would be green with envy, and so would the rest of the girls, down in +the secret depths of their hearts. There was only one among them who +would rejoice because her working-days among them were over, and that +was Jessie Staples, who had always declared Dorothy was born to be a +real lady. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Great was the consternation at Gray Gables, as the Bryan mansion was +called, when the doctor drove up to the door in the old family carriage, +and the housekeeper, looking from the window, saw a young girl seated by +his side. + +For many years past he had had the strongest aversion to young girls, +and it was over sixteen years since one had crossed that threshold. No +wonder that the housekeeper was amazed to see him assist her from the +carriage and lead her by the hand up the broad walk toward the porch. + +"Great Heaven!" cried Mrs. Kemp, as they drew nearer, "it looks like +Miss Alice; but it couldn't be her; for long years have passed +since--since the night she ran away. It must be her daughter--yes, that +is it!" + +All of a tremble, she hastened to the door, and flung it open wide. She +could see by Mr. Bryan's face that something unusual had occurred, even +before her eyes rested on the fair young creature beside him. + +"Mrs. Kemp," he said, huskily, "I have here with me one who will +surprise you greatly when you hear her name--nay, astound you." + +"I can see for myself that she bears a striking resemblance to--to--" +and the rest of the sentence was lost in a choking sob. + +"I am sorry that I make you feel so bad," said the fresh young voice; +and the next instant a pair of plump arms were about the old lady's neck +and a soft, velvety cheek was pressed close to hers. "Doctor Bryan has +told me all my history," the girl cried in the same breath--"how he has +been searching for me all these years, finding me at last; and that I am +hereafter to live in this grand old place. And I have been fairly crying +with joy all the way up from New York to-day. I could not help but +scream with delight, though I know it quite horrified Doctor Bryan, when +I saw the house and the magnificent grounds around it. As soon as I take +off my hat I want to run into the garden and see the rose-bushes with +real roses growing on them, and see what a house is like. I've always +lived in a tenement flat or boarding-house." + +It made Mrs. Kemp laugh, even through her tears, at the girl's wild +enthusiasm. She was like an untrained, untutored child, despite her +years, she thought. + +The doctor's eyes grew moist as he listened, and during the few days +that followed he watched her from his study window with unfeigned +delight. She appeared to him more like a child of seven than a young +lady of seventeen. + +She was too busy in looking over the place, for the next fortnight, to +carry out her intention of writing to the girls. + +She seemed to have been lifted into a different world, where the dark +past lay far behind her. + +At this juncture an event happened which cast a dark shadow over all +poor Dorothy's after life. + +She was out in the garden one day with Mrs. Kemp, when the doctor joined +them, holding a telegram in his hand. + +"I have just received word from Harry that he will be here to-morrow," +he said, with a pleased expression on his face. "I hope that you will +see that a room is put in readiness for him." + +"To be sure, sir," responded the housekeeper, with a little courtesy. + +His footsteps had scarcely died away ere Dorothy turned eagerly to her +companion. + +"Who is Harry?" she asked, with all a young girl's curiosity. + +"He is a young gentleman who has been studying medicine with Dr. Bryan +for the last year," returned the housekeeper, adding, with a slight +frown on her comely face: "The doctor is quite fond of him. He has been +away for the last three months, and the house has been so nice and quiet +without him." + +"By the way you speak one wouldn't fancy that you liked this Mr. Harry," +laughed Dorothy. + +The housekeeper turned grimly away. + +"But what is he like?" persisted Dorothy, pursuing the subject. + +"Is he young--is he handsome?" + +"Handsome is as handsome does," replied Mrs. Kemp, ominously. + +"Doesn't he do handsome?" retorted Dorothy, throwing back her curly head +with a rich mellow laugh, adding: "But what is he like, anyhow? Is he +dark or fair, young or old?" + +"No doubt he will strike you as being quite handsome," returned Mrs. +Kemp, thoughtfully. "He has very dark eyes and dark waving hair. Young +girls would consider him quite good looking." + +"And will he, too, live in the house with us?" asked Dorothy, curiously. + +"You had better ask Doctor Bryan," responded Mrs. Kemp, evasively. + +The next morning, as Dorothy stepped out into the garden to gather +flowers for the breakfast-table, she came suddenly upon a young man +pacing up and down under the trees with his hands in his pockets, +smoking a cigar. + +When he heard the light, pattering footsteps he wheeled round, and was +just about to raise his hat to the vision of girlish loveliness before +him when a low cry of intense astonishment broke from his lips. + +"Dorothy Glenn, by all that is wonderful!" he exclaimed. + +The amazement was mutual. + +"Harry Langdon!" the girl shrieked, turning pale as death. + +"What in the name of Heaven brings you to this house?" he cried, +hoarsely, catching her wrist and holding it in a tight grip. + +"You have no right to know, after the way you deserted me in my peril," +flashed Dorothy. + +"But how came you here," he repeated, "of all places in the world? I +must know!" + +The girl briefly outlined how it happened, her anger rising against her +questioner with every word; and as he listened his face was a study. + +"Dorothy," he said, in his low, smooth voice, "you accuse me of not +trying to save you when you fell overboard. But let me speak just one +word in my own defense: You remember just what was taking place as we +reached the deck. You heard the shot, but you fainted and did not know +what happened. The bullet whizzed by me, and I fell back on the deck +stunned--unconscious. I did not recover until long after the steamer +reached New York. All the people had dispersed long before I returned to +consciousness. I made diligent search for you, and to my great horror it +soon dawned upon me that not one whom you knew could tell me whither you +had gone." + +Dorothy was young and guileless, or he could never have fooled her so +easily. But the story seemed very plausible to her ears, and her face +brightened. + +It was a great load lifted from her heart--her trustful belief that +handsome Mr. Langdon had not been false to her after all. + +"Now, Dorothy, I have something to say to you," he began. "Walk down +this path with me, for you must listen intently to what I have to say to +you. I have a little confession to make to you, and a favor to ask, and +surely you are too kind of heart and too good a friend to me to refuse. +I had intended telling you this upon our return on the boat. My name is +not Harry Langdon, as you have believed, but Harry Langdon Kendal. + +"I am studying medicine with Doctor Bryan, instead of law, as I once led +you to believe. And as to the great expectations I told you about, I +confess that they exist only in my mad hopes that Doctor Bryan, who is +alone in the world, without kith or kin, might take a fancy to leave me +something some day. He does not know of my rash wager, and that by +losing it I was forced to go to New York and place myself on a street +car as conductor for a while. He would disapprove of it if he knew, and, +Dorothy, you must never tell him--promise me that here and now--he must +never know that we have ever met before!" + +Dorothy did not hesitate to give him the required assurance, for which +he thanked her so profusely that it brought the warm blushes in a +flood-tide to the girl's dimpled cheeks; and Mrs. Kemp wondered why +Dorothy looked so happy as she entered the house. + +Left to himself, Kendal paced excitedly under the trees, puffing away +vigorously at his cigar. + +"A devil of a fix this," he muttered, setting his white teeth hard +together. "Great Heaven! this is a romance in real life more strangely +weird than any fiction. Who would have thought of finding this girl +here, of all persons in the world, and under such circumstances! And +then, to make matters worse, I have been making violent love to the +girl. It was all very well to make desperate love to the little New York +working-girl, but to make love to Miss Glenn, the doctor's _protegee_, +is quite another matter. I shall be expected to ask for her hand in +marriage, of course, and she without a dollar. No, thanks! I'd rather +that some other fellow would woo and win the little blue-eyed fairy. +When it comes to marrying I must have a girl with money, who can put up +the needful for both if necessary. If she will only keep my secret I +will be but too grateful!" + +Meanwhile, Dorothy had stolen up to her own room, and at that moment was +standing before the mantel, resting her elbows on it, her dimpled chin +upon her hands, gazing wistfully into the mirror's depths at the lovely +young face it reflected. + +"Oh, how my cheeks burn!" she cried, excitedly, "and how my heart thumps +even yet. I was sure he would hear it. I thought I should never see him +again, but it is fate that brings us together here. I shall always +believe in it firmly and truly after this. He cares for me. He as much +as told me so on the night that we went to the moonlight picnic on +Staten Island, and the fortune-teller who told my fortune said--when all +of us bindery girls visited her one day--'I see a short journey for you, +miss--a dark young man and a marriage-ring;'" and for the next ten +minutes Dorothy capered around the room, dancing in such hoidenish, +girlish glee that she would fairly have shocked the old housekeeper +could she have seen her. "It's all coming true!" cried Dorothy, +breathlessly, to herself. But not one thought did she give to poor Jack, +whose betrothal-ring she carried pinned to her pocket. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +How the hours passed up to luncheon time Dorothy never afterward +realized, her foolish little heart was in such a flutter of excitement. + +She knew she should meet Harry at the table, and oh! it would be so hard +to pretend before Doctor Bryan and the stern, keen-eyed old housekeeper +that they were strangers. + +She had but two dresses as yet, which the housekeeper had provided her +with, and she tried on each of them in succession to see which looked +best on her. + +Which should it be? The pale-blue merino or the rose-pink cashmere? + +After much studying and slipping on and off, Dorothy decided upon +wearing the rose-pink. + +She was scarcely dressed ere the luncheon bell rang. + +Taking up her handkerchief, Dorothy flew down the stairway, pausing +before the doorway to catch her breath and to summon courage to enter. + +But the longer she stood there the more difficult it seemed to get +courage enough to open the door and face the music. At length she heard +Doctor Bryan inquire surprisedly of Mrs. Kent: + +"Where can Dorothy be, I wonder?" + +And the next instant they heard a faint voice exclaim: + +"Here I am, please." + +And, turning to see from whence the sound proceeded, they all saw +distinctly that the door was open the space of an inch, and that a +human eye was applied to the crack, while four little fingers clutched +it frantically to keep it open. + +"Come in, Dorothy," commanded Mr. Bryan, inwardly highly amused at the +girl's bashfulness in venturing in when she saw a stranger seated at the +board. + +Dorothy opened the door, stumbled over the mat, and, with a face red as +a beet, walked awkwardly to the table and took her seat, which happened +to be directly opposite Harry's. + +She did not dare for the life of her to look at him, for she knew that +his black eyes were bent upon her. She felt them scorching down into her +soul. + +"Dorothy," said Mr. Bryan, pompously, "allow me to present to you my +young friend, Mr. Kendal." + +"I am right glad to see him, sir," said Dorothy, faintly, without +raising her eyes. + +Noticing her embarrassment, Doctor Bryan quickly turned the conversation +into another channel; but he soon observed that his young friend was +looking at the girl across the table, almost convulsed with laughter. + +It took but one glance that way to see the cause. + +In her great confusion Dorothy was making dire efforts to eat her soup +with a fork, catching occasionally a stray bean. + +"Remove the soup plates!" roared the doctor to the servant who stood in +waiting, and who was also grinning at the girl's discomfiture. + +It was the most confusing meal that Dorothy had ever sat down to. + +And when she arose from the table she was far hungrier than when she sat +down. + +She had scarcely eaten a good solid mouthful. + +Oh, it was so hard to act out such a falsehood as handsome Harry had +prevailed upon her to do. + +During the fortnight that followed, she became more used to the +situation, but it was no little wonder, both to the housekeeper and +Doctor Bryan, what excellent friends they were getting to be in so short +a time. + +It could not be that they were falling in love with each other; and the +doctor looked rather serious at the last thought. + +As for Dorothy, it was quite a clear case; she was deeply in love with +Harry Kendal. Like all girls, her day-dreams were rosy. It was so sweet +to wander with him through the grand grounds surrounding Gray Gables, or +sit in the sunshine in the clover meadow beyond, with the babbling brook +at their feet, and the great branches of the oak trees over their heads, +and listen to him while he read such sweet poems to her--poems of how +some lover loved a lassie, and how bright was their future. + +But still there was a change in him; he wasn't just like he used to be +when she was only Dorothy Glenn, working for her living in the +book-bindery. And just to show him that she did not notice the change, +and did not care, she was so gay and hoidenish, so full of repartee and +laughter, that she saw him open his eyes in wonder more than once; and +Doctor Bryan gave her the _soubriquet_ of "Madcap Dorothy," which seemed +to suit her exactly. + +There was no prank that could ever have entered a roguish girl's brain +which she did not play upon Kendal. + +This phase of her character rather annoyed Kendal than pleased him; and +it seemed to him that she took a special delight in teasing him. She hid +his slippers, slipped briars into his couch, turned tack-points upward +in his lounging chairs, and substituted periodicals a month old for his +morning journals and magazines, until he almost grew to detest her for +becoming the torment of his life. Shrewd as he was in the ways of young +girls, he did not know that this is the course which many a young girl +pursues toward a young man with whom she has fallen in love, and would +not have him know it for the whole world. + +If there was anything which Kendal detested, it was a girl who was +always on the lookout to turn every word and action into a joke. He +preferred them modest and flower-like; still, he was in duty bound to +treat her as well as he could because she was under that roof. + +And there was another reason why he began to abhor Dorothy. Before her +appearance on the scene, there had been a wild hope in his heart that +some day he might possibly inherit a good portion of Doctor Bryan's +money. For two years or more he had left no stone unturned to get into +the old gentleman's good graces. + +True, Dorothy was as much of a stranger to Doctor Bryan as he himself +was, but who knew but that, by some freak of unlucky fate, he might take +a notion to leave the girl all of his fortune? He wished to Heaven she +had never crossed the threshold of Gray Gables. + +At this turn of affairs it occurred to him that it would not be a bad +idea to test the old gentleman's friendship for himself; and the +greatest of all tests, he believed, was to borrow money from him. If +Doctor Bryan refused this little favor, he reasoned to himself, all his +hopes in regard to inheriting the old gentleman's money, in time to +come, would be dashed. He would ask him for a small loan; and on the +very day this occurred to him he proceeded to put it into execution, +saying to himself: + + "'He either fears his fate too much, + Or his deserts are small, + Who fears to put it to, the touch + To win or lose it all.'" + +He knew that he should find the doctor in his study directly after +luncheon, and here he presented himself with some trepidation. + +"Come in," called the doctor, in answer to his knock. + +"Oh, it's _you_, is it, Harry?" he exclaimed, placing a chair for him, +which the young man took rather awkwardly. + +"It is not often I trouble you in your study, sir," began Harry, "but I +have something of importance to say to you, and I beg that you will +pardon the intrusion. I chose a time when we will be least apt to be +interrupted." + +"I wouldn't advise you to begin it if it will take long to tell," said +Mr. Bryan, "for we might be interrupted at any moment. I am expecting an +old friend, who is to accompany me on a horse-back ride. He ought to +have been here by this time." + +Harry fidgeted nervously about in his chair. It required something of +an effort to make his request carelessly. + +"You are the only one," he began, a little disconcertedly, "I feel sure, +who can help me in my present dilemma." + +The old doctor wheeled suddenly around in his chair, and all in an +instant the object of the young man's visit flashed over his mind. + +"To my mind he is come to tell me that he has fallen head over heels in +love with little Dorothy, and wants to marry her;" and with the thought +a broad smile crept up to the lips the white beard covered. + +He had never been in love himself--but, for all that, he always +sympathized with young folks in their tender affairs of the heart, and +many a secret sigh escaped his lips for the lost opportunities of the +past. + +"Well," he began, brusquely, "why don't you proceed, my boy?" + +"It is such a delicate matter," began Kendal, "that I scarcely know how +to frame the words. You have always been so kind to me in the past, that +the remembrance of it has led me to dare hope that your goodness will +not desert me in the present emergency." + +"Well," said the old gentleman, rather enjoying the young man's evident +discomfiture, "pray go on." + +"The boon I have to ask," began Kendal, "will either make or mar my +future." + +"Is it so bad as that?" returned the old gentleman with assumed +innocence. + +"You could never imagine what it is that I wish to ask," continued the +young man. + +"I might guess, perhaps," laughed the doctor, with a roguish twinkle in +his eye. + +"Surely you--you couldn't have noticed the one great wish of my heart," +gasped Kendal. "I--" + +At that moment the expected visitor was announced. + +"Come and see me in my library this evening," said Doctor Bryan, +grasping the young man's hand, "and we will talk over the matter you +have so much at heart, and I will give you my answer in regard to it." + +"You are too good, sir," cried Kendal, in bewilderment. + +At that moment the entrance of the visitor put a stop to all further +conversation, and Kendal arose and took his leave after an exchange of +greetings. + +"How could he possibly have divined that I was thinking of asking him +for money?" he pondered. + +He heard Dorothy singing at the top of her voice in the drawing-room, +and he turned on his heel in the hallway, and walked in an opposite +direction with a frown of impatience on his face. + +Dorothy saw him pass the door, and she bit her lip with vexation. + +"Of course he heard me playing on the piano, for I thumped as loud as +ever I could; but he did not come in. It seems to me he is trying 'to +cool off,' as we girls in the bindery used to say." + +Dorothy tiptoed over to the window as she heard the front door slam +after him, and if he had looked back he would have seen a very defiant +though tear-stained face peering earnestly after him from behind the +lace curtains. + +Kendal walked disconsolately enough through the spacious grounds and out +into the main road, little dreaming that a strange fate was drawing him +onward with each step he took. + +He had traveled a mile or more over the country road, when suddenly he +was startled by the sound of horses' hoofs. + +The next instant, from around the bend in the road, a horse dashed +riderless, covered with foam, and so near him that he had to spring +aside or its hoofs would have been buried in his brain. One glance, and +a cry of horror broke from his lips. It was Doctor Bryan's horse. + +Great God! where was he? Kendal realized that there had been a terrible +accident, and that at that moment the doctor lay dying--perhaps dead--by +the road-side. + +In all haste he rushed down the road in the direction whence the horse +had come, and around the first bend he beheld the prostrate figure of +Doctor Bryan lying covered with dust, his friend bending over him. + +In an instant he was by his side. One glance, and his worst fears were +realized--the old gentleman had been mortally injured--he was dying. He +held out his hand when he saw Kendal bending over him, and nodded assent +as his companion briefly and hurriedly related how the terrible accident +had come about. + +"I was just about to go for you," said the friend. "The doctor has +something to say to you. Surely it was the work of Providence that you +happened along just now." + +Kendal bent over the prostrate form. + +"I--I am dying, Harry!" gasped the doctor; "but that--of which we +were--talking--this--afternoon--is--uppermost--in--my--mind. +You--you--wished--me--to--give my--consent--to--to--your--wooing--and +wedding little--Dorothy. I--give--it--to +you--here--and--now--with--my--blessing--for--I--know--she--cares--for +you. Six months--from--to-day--at--noon--my--will--must be read; and on +that day you--must marry her--if ever--aye--you must--be wedded--ere +that noon-hour--shall have waned. Then--then--within that hour--you +shall know--the contents of--my will; and--remember, too, +that--it--is--irrevocable!" + +Harry Kendal reeled back, like one dazed by an awful blow. + +The suddenness of this affair had taken his breath away. But before he +could raise his voice in protest, or utter one word of the terrible +mistake which the old gentleman was laboring under, Doctor Bryan +breathed his last, and he found himself betrothed, as it were, to +Dorothy, and by the most terrible mistake that ever a man labored under. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +A fortnight had passed since the fatal accident in Brighton Woods, and +life at Gray Gables had once more resumed the even tenor of its regular +routine. + +The first words that Doctor Bryan had gasped out to his friend, when he +regained consciousness and found himself fatally injured, were: + +"Tell--tell--them at home--that--everything--must go--on--the +same--until--after--my will--has--been read--and that--must not +be--until--six--months--after--my--decease." + +The sudden loss of Doctor Bryan, the kind-hearted old gentleman who had +raised her from poverty to great wealth, was a severe blow to Dorothy. +For in that short length of time she had learned to love him, as a +daughter might have done, with all the strength of her passionate, +girlish heart. + +The old housekeeper and the servants, who had been in his employ a +quarter of a century or more, mourned for him and refused to be +comforted. + +Great was the excitement in the household when the friend who had +accompanied Doctor Bryan on that fatal ride broke to them the strange +compact between the doctor and Kendal, to which he had been a witness. + +He readily decided that it was best not to tell Dorothy the exact +situation of affairs, and that it would probably be more in accordance +with a young girl's romantic idea of marriage for Kendal to woo her on +his own account, and gain her consent, ere he breathed to her that this +was Doctor Bryan's wish. + +And this was the course that Kendal followed. He allowed fully a month +to transpire ere he made the slightest advances to her. Long and +carefully he had thought the matter over in his own mind, and had +concluded that there was no way out of the strange betrothal into which +he had been forced, as it were, against his will. + +He made up his mind to accept the situation gracefully and become +engaged to Dorothy, and if he found out that she had not been remembered +in the old gentleman's will, he could break it without one word of +warning or the least compunction. He noticed, too, that Dorothy was +growing quite shy of him of late. She had been quite fond of him in the +past; it would never do to allow her to grow indifferent to him. He +made up his mind to settle the matter--as far as the engagement was +concerned--at the first opportunity; and one presented itself on the +very day he made this resolve. + +Dorothy was in the conservatory that afternoon, when he suddenly +surprised her, stealing up on tip-toe behind her, clasped her in his +arms, holding his hands over her eyes, whispering: + +"Guess who it is, Dorothy." + +The struggle to escape those firm arms suddenly ceased. The girl was +dumbfounded with amazement. + +"Is it--can it be you, Harry--Mr. Kendal?" she gasped, breathlessly. + +"Do you wish it were some one else, Dorothy?" he whispered, releasing +her from his arms, but catching her hands in a tight clasp and looking +eagerly down into her eyes. + +The girl's face flushed burning red, and her gaze fell beneath a pair of +dark eyes that seemed to search into her very soul. But in an instant +she recovered something of her old hoidenish composure; and in that +moment she remembered, too, how he had seemed to slight her of late, and +her pride rebelled hotly. + +"How dare you frighten me so, Harry Kendal?" she cried, drawing back and +stamping her little foot, her blue eyes blazing angrily. + +"Are you so very displeased?" he inquired, reproachfully, adding +quietly: "If that is the case, I beg your pardon. I shall never so +trespass again;" and he dropped her hand and turned away, walking +moodily to the window. + +"Gracious! I have done it now!" thought Dorothy, repenting on the +instant; and, as he made no effort to turn around or speak to her +again, she advanced slowly to where he stood idly drumming upon the +window-sill. + +"I wasn't so very angry," she began, hesitatingly, picking nervously at +the blue ribbons which tied her long, curling hair. "I said I wasn't so +very angry!" repeated Dorothy, nervously. He heard her, but never turned +his head, and Dorothy was at a loss what to say next to mend matters. +"Would you like a rose?" she stammered. + +"Thanks--no!" replied Kendal, shortly, still without turning his head. +Then, after a brief pause: + +"Or would you like me to show you a new book of poems I just bought?" + +"You needn't mind. Pray don't trouble yourself," he responded. + +Dorothy looked at him an instant, quite as though she was ready to cry; +then the best thing that could have happened, under the circumstances, +came to her relief. + +She grew angry. + +"I wouldn't show you the book now, to save your life!" she cried, her +breath coming and going in panting gasps, and her cheeks flaming as +scarlet as the deep-red rose she had brought him as a peace-offering; +"nor would I give you this flower. I'd tear it up and stamp it beneath +my feet first--you are so mean!" + +He turned with a very tantalizing smile, and looked at her out of the +corners of his eyes. + +She had hidden her face in her hands, but by the panting of her breast +he saw that she was weeping, that a storm of sobs was shaking her +childish frame. + +He stooped and passed his arm lightly around the slim waist, his hand +holding hers. + +Dorothy trembled. + +"Won't you let me comfort you?" he asked, in that low, winning voice of +his. + +The thought flashed across Dorothy's brain that, if she pushed him from +her, he would never again put his arms about her, and she meekly endured +the caress for an instant; and not being repulsed, he grew bold enough +to kiss the rosy cheek that peeped out from between the white fingers. + +"I have something to say to you, Dorothy," he whispered. "It is this: I +love you! Will you be my wife?" + +Dorothy had always imagined just how a lover should propose, but she had +never imagined anything so commonplace as this. + +He stooped to caress her again, but she drew back. + +"You frighten me!" she cried; and at these words he instantly released +her. + +"It is alarming--being kissed--and especially when you're not used to +it. But that does not answer my question. Will you marry me, or will you +not?" + +"I don't know!" cried Dorothy, faintly. "You mustn't ask me; you must +talk to Mrs. Kemp about it." + +"I might talk to Mrs. Kemp about changing my room in the house, or ask +her concerning anything belonging to the household, but I couldn't think +of asking her to find me a wife and to seal the bargain for me. The +'Yes' or 'No' must be said by the girl herself, as she is the one who is +to live with me and to make the best or the worst of the bargain +through life. Now, Dorothy, I want a plain, straightforward answer. +Tell me, will you be my bride?" + +She colored and smiled, and the sort of shy half fear which always +assailed her at his approach came over her now more strongly than ever, +and the quick blood came rushing to her finger-ends. + +"I--don't know what to say!" gasped Dorothy. "I couldn't marry anybody, +I think." + +His arms dropped from about her. + +"Am I to understand, then," he asked, in a constrained voice, "that you +refuse me?" + +"Oh, I don't know!" cried Dorothy, melting into fresh, quick tears. +"I--I--should want to ask somebody about it first before I said 'Yes.'" + +He had quite believed that she would accept him on the spot the moment +he proposed, and her failure to do this made him almost catch his breath +in astonishment. + +This uncertainty in the matter gave more zest to his ardor. + +"You dislike me?" he questioned, wondering if that could possibly be. + +"Oh, no, no! I like you. Won't you believe me?" + +He stepped back and looked at her with a sarcastic smile--looked at the +little figure leaning against the fountain, with one hand resting on the +rim of it, the other held out imploringly toward him. + +"Believe you? Why do you insist upon making me uncivil?" he replied. "I +do _not_ believe you! I dare say you fancy that you are telling the +truth; but if another man were to come on the scene with a few thousands +a year more, and a higher position in the social scale, you would have +a very different answer for him at your tongue's end." + +He looks at her--looks at the innocently wooing arms--at the +tear-stained, dimpled, tremulous face, and, now that he thinks that he +can not win her, all in an instant he falls madly in love with her. + +"You must answer me, here and now!" he cried; but Dorothy turned from +him, and, like a startled fawn, slipped through his outstretched hands, +through the conservatory, and out of the corridor beyond, leaving him +staring after her, his handsome face pale with emotion. + +Dorothy never paused until she reached her own room. + +She closed and locked the door with trembling hands and beating heart; +then, after the fashion of young girls, she laughed and cried +hysterically all in a breath, dancing around the room in a mad fashion, +clapping her hands and sobbing out: + +"Oh, at last--at last, my hero, my ideal has turned from a block of +marble to human clay, and tells me that he loves me and wants me to be +his wife--me--a silly little thing like me!" and she paused before the +glass, wondering what he saw in the pink-and-white face reflected there +to love forever and ever. She wished she knew. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Dorothy's merriment was soon interrupted by a loud knock at the door, +and when she opened it, panting with her exertion of dancing around the +room, she found Mrs. Kemp standing there, with a white, frightened face. + +"What in the world is the matter here, child?" she cried, in alarm. "I +was afraid there were burglars, or Heaven knows what, up here in this +room." + +Dorothy burst into a peal of laughter that amazed the old lady and made +the very walls echo with her bright young voice. + +"Oh, something so funny has just happened!" she gasped. "You will be as +much surprised as I was, Mrs. Kemp, when you hear it." + +The housekeeper knew just what had happened, for, although unknown to +Dorothy, she was in the conservatory when she had entered; but before +she could make her presence known Kendal had appeared upon the scene, +and the proposal of marriage had followed so quickly upon the heels of +it that she felt she could not leave without embarrassing both, so she +waited there until they had quitted the conservatory. + +As soon as she thought it practicable she followed Dorothy to her room +to congratulate her, and the sight that met her view surprised her--the +girl's face, instead of being flushed with tell-tale blushes and covered +with confusion, as she had expected, was convulsed with laughter. + +"Oh, do come in!" cried Dorothy, excitedly. "I have something that I +want to tell you--I want you to decide for me what is best to do." + +"I will give you the best advice I can," said the old housekeeper, +drawing the girl down beside her on the sofa, and putting her arm about +her. + +"I've just had a--a proposal of--of marriage. There! the whole secret is +out!" cried Dorothy, breathlessly. + +But the good old lady did not look a particle amazed, much to Dorothy's +surprise. + +"You do not ask me who it is that wants me," cried the girl, in bitter +disappointment. + +Mrs. Kemp smiled. + +"It was very easy to see that for myself," she responded. "Every one +could tell that Harry Kendal was very fond of you, my dear, and that +sooner or later he would ask you to marry him. But tell me, what answer +did you make him?" + +"I--I ran away without making any answer at all," confessed Dorothy, +shamefacedly. "I thought I could write him a note and put my answer in +it--ever so much better than to look up into his face and tell him," she +faltered. "I wonder that girls can ever say 'Yes' right up and down, +then and there; it seems so bold a thing to do. Why, I never felt so +embarrassed in my life. When I tried to say something my tongue cleaved +to the roof of my mouth. I trembled from head to foot, and--oh, +gracious!--he must have heard how my heart thumped. I know I must have +acted like the greatest simpleton the world ever held. Wasn't it +wonderful to think that he wanted to marry me? I can't understand it." + +"It is not so very wonderful, but very natural," responded Mrs. Kemp, +warmly. "I do not know whether it is wise to tell you so or not, but you +are really beautiful. Every one thinks so hereabouts. And then you are +not too young to marry--you are seventeen." + +"But I'm not a bit wise," persisted Dorothy. + +"You are quite wise enough to suit the exacting eyes of love," declared +the housekeeper, reassuringly, "and that is all that is needed. The +greatest of all questions, however, is: Do you think you care for Mr. +Kendal? Let me tell you two things, my dear--never marry a man whom you +do not love; and if the one whom you do love asks you, do not coquet +with him." + +"Will you help me to write the note to him?" cried Dorothy, drawing up a +hassock, and slipping down upon it at her companion's feet. "I want to +write it stiff and proud, as though I didn't care much, and I want to +get all the big words in it that I can." + +"Of course I will help you," replied Mrs. Kemp. "But it's many a year +since I wrote a love letter, and I'm a little awkward at it now. But as +long as it conveys the idea of 'Yes' to him, your ardent lover will +think it the grandest epistle that ever a young girl wrote." + +Such a time as there was over that letter! + +Over and over again it was copied, this word erased, and that word +inserted, until at the very best it looked more like the map of Scotland +than anything else. + +Dorothy was terribly in earnest over it. + +One would almost have thought, to have seen her, that her life was at +stake over the result of it; but at last it was finished, and one of +the servants was called to take it to Mr. Kendal's room. + +Harry was pacing restlessly up and down when it was delivered to him. He +took it eagerly and broke the seal, for he had recognized Dorothy's +cramped, school-girl chirography at once. + +"She is mine!" he cried, triumphantly; and with the knowledge that he +had won her without a doubt, his ardor suddenly cooled; he did not know +whether he was pleased or sorry over the result of his wooing. + +After he had read the letter over carefully, he fell to scrutinizing the +chirography. + +"The first thing I shall have to do will be to teach the girl how to +write a legible letter," he thought. + +Only the day before she had written a letter to Jack, which contained +but the few words that she was well and happy, and that a great change +of fortune had come into her life. But the letter bore neither date, +postmark, nor signature, and he could not tell where it had been posted. + +But it was the first intimation which Jack had had that she was in the +land of the living, and to have seen his face as he read it would have +touched a heart of stone. + +Tears sprang to his eyes, strong young man though he was, and he covered +the half-written page with burning kisses. To him those irregular, +girlish strokes were dearer than anything else this wide world held, +because they were Dorothy's. + +Although she had suddenly disappeared, and all her friends had turned +against her in the bindery, declaring that she had eloped with the +handsome, dark-eyed stranger, he still believed her true. He had been +searching for her ever since, without rest--almost without food--day and +night, until he had almost worn himself out. + +He believed she was in the city somewhere, that she had been ashamed to +return to the bindery after that scene on the steamer, and had gone some +place else to work, and he walked the streets for hours at a time, +searching for her among the crowds of working-girls as they trooped down +Broadway in laughing, chattering groups each evening, only to turn away, +alas! disappointed and almost broken-hearted. + +And thus another month dragged its slow length by. It was well that he +did not know where Dorothy was, or what was occurring during those days +of suspense. + +The news of her betrothal to handsome Harry Kendal had spread over the +entire village, and it caused no little sensation in Yonkers, on the +outskirts of which Gray Gables was situated; for every one had said that +this was the way the affair would terminate when the doctor brought the +handsome young stranger beneath the same roof with dashing, dark-eyed +Harry Kendal, the _beau-ideal_ of all the girls. + +But there was some disappointment when they learned that the marriage +would not take place for nearly half a year yet. + +"It's all very well _now_, with rosy love in their sky; but delays are +dangerous," said some people, shaking their heads ominously. + +Dorothy was as happy as the day was long, for she was learning to fairly +adore her lover, and treated him in a childish fashion which rather +amused every one who saw them together. + +If he brought her a box of _bonbons_ she would spring up and throw her +arms about his neck, like an overgrown baby, and end by giving him a +hearty smack straight on the lips--no matter who was present. + +Once or twice he had attempted to expostulate with her sternly, coldly, +but his manner so frightened her that she almost went into hysterics, +and turning away with a white, set face, he would say no more. + +What could he expect? he asked himself, grimly. He had asked an +untutored school-girl to be his wife--he had sown the wind, and now he +was commencing to reap the whirlwind. Every one else seemed highly +delighted over Dorothy's childish, romping ways; but as for himself, +they rankled upon his proud, sensitive, haughty nature. + +He loved her in such a cool, lordly manner, and poor little Dorothy was +always impressed with his superiority. She was obliged to acknowledge +that Harry Kendal was her master. She could never make him her slave. + +At this juncture an event happened that changed the current of poor +Dorothy's after life. It was election night, and the bonfires were +blazing on hill and vale, and all the young people of the village were +wild with enthusiasm over the affair. + +A great bonfire had been built in the road in front of Gray Gables, as +had been the custom for years. The old doctor had been very patriotic. + +"This year there is no one to cheer the boys on in their good work," +said the housekeeper, sadly, as they were all standing out on the porch. + +"I'll do it," cried Dorothy, and before the echo of her words had died +away rousing cheers broke from her lips, that were answered back +heartily by the crowd assembled with an enthusiastic "Hip, hip, hurrah, +and a tiger!" for the young lady of Gray Gables. + +Kendal was mortally angry, and his face grew dark. He strode up to her +and grasped her shoulder, his fingers unwittingly clinching deeply into +the soft flesh. + +"For Heaven's sake, stop, you tom-boy!" he cried. "Stop disgracing me!" + +She flung up her little head proudly. If he had spoken to her alone she +would not have cared, but before all these people! Oh, it was +unbearable. She would resent it if it killed her. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +For an instant their eyes met--his blazing dark and stormy in the clear, +bright moonlight, and his face white and wrathy; even his hands were +clinched fiercely. + +All in an instant the old fire and pride blazed up in Dorothy Glenn's +heart. + +"You shall not coerce me as if I were your very slave!" she said, +smiting her little hands together and pushing him from her, forgetting +in her great anger whether or not her action accorded well with her +dignity. "They cheered me, and I shall respond!" and before he could +utter one word of protest she had sped like a swallow down the graveled +path and out through the great arched gateway into the very midst of the +throng of merry maidens and young men who were gathered with hilarious +glee around the roaring bonfire. + +The great stacks of burning barrels and boxes sent forth a glare of red +light and columns of flame shooting skyward, lighting up the scene with +a grand, weird beauty that lent a splendor to the night. + +Great sparks flew heavenward, and the crackling sounds mingled with the +rousing cheers that rent the air. + +They all saw Dorothy, the village favorite, flying toward them, and the +great throng parted to make way for her. Then the sport of the evening +went on with renewed vigor. + +"Pile on the barrels!" cried one enthusiastic fellow. "Whether the +election is going Democratic or Republican, let's all give three cheers +for the incoming governor!" and a loud huzza that made the old town ring +broke from a couple of hundred throats, but mingled with it sounded a +wild cry of mortal terror in Dorothy's agonizing voice. + +"Oh, my God! my eyes--my eyes! the sparks--the sparks have flown into +them! They are burning! Oh, God!" + +And with that agonizing cry she fell backward in a dead faint in the +midst of the dazed crowd. + +In an instant the greatest confusion prevailed, and the shouts of +laughter were turned to sobs of wailing. + +Kind hands quickly raised her and bore her to the house. We will pass +gently, dear reader, over the two weeks that followed, for Gray Gables +was buried in the deepest sorrow. + +One of the most pitiful calamities that ever could have befallen a human +being had happened to beautiful, hapless Madcap Dorothy. Poor child! she +was blind! + +Never again would she see the light of the golden sunshine--never again +see the green, waving grass and the budding flowerets--never see the +blue sky, with its fleecy clouds, or the heavens at night blazing with +the soft, pale light of the twinkling stars--never again look upon a +human face. But while her life lasted she would grope through a world of +darkness--blind! + +The shock had been terrible to both Mrs. Kemp and Harry Kendal, and oh! +in her pitiful condition how she clung to them! + +"You will not throw me off now because I am blind, Harry?" she wailed, +laying her head against his bosom and weeping as she had never before +wept in all her young life. + +"No!" he said, huskily; and that promise reassured her. + +She clasped her white arms around his neck and clung to him in the +abandonment of her pitiful woe. + +She was wild and willful Madcap Dorothy no longer. + +During the first days of her trial friends flocked to see her, but as +they grew used to the situation they dropped off, and she was left with +only the old housekeeper, and her lover, and the servants of Gray Gables +for her companions. + +At first she grieved over the terrible calamity with all the bitterness +of her soul, then by degrees she became reconciled to it. + +But the one great anxiety of her life was in regard to her lover. He had +promised to love her still and be true to her; but would he--would he? +The very thought alarmed her soul and became the one terror of her life. + +The blind are always acute in other senses. + +She felt intuitively, as the days wore on, that he was growing cold +toward her. It was pitiful to see her grasp the hands of the little maid +that had been engaged to take care of her, and hear her beg her to dress +her prettily, and to see that every curl was in place, and the lace at +her throat and sleeves fresh and white. + +"Oh, Katy, do I look very horrible?" she would whisper, in a breath of +intense agony, over and over again a hundred times during the day. "Are +there not cruel scars on my face? Oh, God! the terrible fire burned my +eyes to their sockets--dry. Surely I must be a thing so horrible to the +sight, that people who see me turn away quickly, suppressing a cry on +their lips. Is it not so?" + +"Oh, no, miss! Believe me, there is not a scar on your pretty face. Your +cheeks have lost a little of their bloom, that is all, and the white +lids gently cover your poor eyes, and the long lashes sweep your cheeks. +You look as though you were walking in your sleep." + +"But tell me, Katy," sobbed Dorothy, "do you think Harry does--do you +think Harry could love me as well as before?" + +"And why not, miss?" returned the little maid. "Surely, with your +affliction, he should love you doubly more than he ever did before. You +needn't fear about my not dressing you in your prettiest, Miss Dorothy. +Sure, I'm always making little bows and fancy things for your dresses, +and twining the loveliest of flowers in your pretty golden hair!" + +Dorothy would smile faintly, piteously, and sigh ever so gently. + +Oh, God! the pity of groping around those rooms day in and day out! What +mattered it if she sat by the open window, as she had been wont to do? +She could not see her lover strolling under the maple-trees, even though +she heard his voice and knew he was there. + +She would look upon his darkly handsome face never again in this world; +and at times Dorothy's soul grew so bitter over her terrible misfortune +that she wished she could die. As for Harry Kendal, after the first +shock of intense pity over Dorothy's unhappy fate was past, he grew +morose and taciturn. + +It was bad enough to wed a maiden whom he did not love with all his +heart and soul--such as he had heard it expressed in the burning, +eloquent words of authors and poets--but to go through life with a blind +woman at his side! The very thought made his soul shudder and grow sick +within him. + +He dared not make any attempt to break their engagement just then, for +public sentiment was strongly with the girl; but the chains that bound +him to her began to grow very heavy. + +Surely she ought not wish to hold him in thraldom now. It was irksome +for him to go where she was, to passively receive her caresses as well +as attempt to stay her burning tears, and to be obliged to assure her +over and over again, with every breath, that he would be sure to be true +to her. + +Alas! what a slender thread of circumstances in this world changes our +fate for weal or for woe! + +Ever since the accident had happened, and the doctors had all pronounced +the terrible decree that poor Dorothy would go through life totally +blind, the poor old housekeeper had been maturing a plan in her head +which she thought would be a world of comfort to the poor girl. + +Mrs. Kemp had a niece whom she had kept at boarding-school all the +girl's life, for she was an orphan, and she said to herself: "How grand +a plan it would be to bring the girl to Gray Gables to be a companion to +Dorothy until she marries!" + +Her niece was a bright, gay creature, and would be just the one to cheer +Dorothy up. + +Mrs. Kemp concluded to put this plan into execution at once, as there +was no one to say nay in regard to it, and she wrote to her niece to +come on without delay, little dreaming that this one action would prove +the curse of three lives--aye, the bitterest curse that ever wrung a +human heart, and that heart poor, hapless Dorothy's. + +Ah, me! how often in this world that which we mean for the greatest good +turns out the source of the cruelest woe. + +Dorothy heard of the plan, and agreed to it eagerly. + +"Oh, thank you--thank you for the happy thought, Mrs. Kemp!" she cried; +"for I am lonely--so pitifully lonely. Yes, I would give the world for a +girl of my own age to be a companion to me until--until I marry Harry." + +Kendal received the intelligence with a look of interest in his eyes. + +"When does your niece come, Mrs. Kemp?" he inquired. + +"I expect Iris to come to-morrow," she replied. And on the following +afternoon Iris Vincent arrived. + +The carriage met her at the depot. Harry went for her himself. Dorothy +stood at the window, with Katy, her faithful little maid, awaiting Iris' +coming with the greatest impatience. + +At last the carriage stopped before the arched gateway, and she heard +the sound of voices, then a peal of light, girlish laughter ringing out +above all the rest. + +"Has she come?" whispered Dorothy. + +"Yes, miss," murmured the little maid, in a low voice. + +"What is she like?" questioned Dorothy, eagerly. + +Faithful little Katy looked out of the window, then at Dorothy, a sudden +lump rising in her throat and a great fear at her heart. + +She dared not tell her that the strange young girl was as beautiful as a +poet's dream--slim as a young willow, dressed in the height of fashion, +and, worse still--oh, a thousand times worse!--she was bringing all her +charms to bear upon handsome Harry Kendal, who was walking up the +graveled walk with her. + +"Why don't you answer me?" cried Dorothy, impatiently. + +"She--she is about your height," stammered Katy, "and--and she is very +plain, and--and not so fair as you;" and Katy lifted up her face to +heaven, clasping her hands, whispering to herself: "May God forgive me! +It is my first lie!" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +Mrs. Kemp hastened to the door to meet her niece, and the next moment +the echo of a gay young voice, bright and joyous, rang through the +corridor. + +"She must be a very happy girl, and light of heart," sighed Dorothy. + +Katy, the maid, had nothing to say. Much to Dorothy's surprise, they did +not come to the room in which she was awaiting them, and she heard them +go on to the drawing-room, and the door close behind them. + +Ten, twenty minutes, half an hour passed, still they did not come to +her, though the sound of their merry laughter fell upon her ears from +time to time. Katy tried to arouse her mistress' interest, but it was +useless--the girl never moved from her position, sitting pale and white +in the great arm-chair, with her sightless eyes turned toward the door. + +Suddenly she turned to Katy with a great sob. + +"They have forgotten me," she said. + +Katy had come to this conclusion long before. + +"I will tell them you are waiting," she replied, and as she spoke she +hurried from the room to the drawing-room. On the threshold she came +face to face with Mr. Kendal, and at a glance she could not help but +notice the happy, flushed look on his face. + +"Miss Dorothy sent me in search of you, sir," she said, with a low +courtesy. The smile on his lips died away in an instant, giving place to +a dark frown of impatience. + +"What does she want?" he asked, sharply. + +"She says she is so lonesome, sir, and sent me to tell you so." + +"Is there a minute of my life that she is not sending for me--expecting +me to be at her beck and call?" he said. "I am going out into the +conservatory to get some flowers for Miss Vincent. I guess it won't hurt +Dorothy to wait a little while, will it?" + +"Is that what I shall tell her?" asked the girl, quietly. + +"Tell her whatever you like," he said to the girl, hurrying on and +leaving her standing there with a very white, sorrowful face. + +Slowly she walked back to the breakfast-room, her heart burning with +indignation. Dorothy met her eagerly. + +"Are they coming?" she asked. + +"Very soon now, miss," replied Katy. + +"What delayed them?" + +"I--I think they were getting a cup of tea for the strange young lady, +miss. You know she came quite a long way, and she must be very tired." + +"Why, that is very true," said Dorothy. "I wonder that I never thought +of that before. It seemed as though I was not missed," and a sigh +trembled over the girl's pale lips as she spoke. + +A few moments later Kendal's step was heard in the corridor. + +Dorothy sprang eagerly to meet him, and threw her arms impulsively +around his neck. + +Was it only her fancy, or did he draw back from the usual caress as +though he did not care to receive it? + +Oh! surely not. Since this horrible blindness had come upon her, her +imagination was running riot against her judgment. The one great fear of +her life was that he might cease to love her, now that this great +affliction had come upon her, and she noted every word, every action, +and every touch of his dear hand, and weighed it over in her mind, for +hours at a time, when she found herself alone. + +God pity her if that love should ever fail her! + +"Shall Miss Vincent see me soon, Harry?" she asked, nestling her head +against his shoulder, her little hands seeking his. + +"Very soon now," he responded. Was it her fancy, or did even his voice +seem changed? + +"Do you like her?" asked Dorothy, wistfully. + +"Like her?" he cried. "Why, she is charming!" + +"Is she fair of face?" asked Dorothy, slowly. + +"The most beautiful girl I have ever seen!" he cried, enthusiastically, +all forgetful of the girl by his side, to whom his troth was plighted. + +The words struck Dorothy's heart with a cold chill, as a blast of icy +winter wind strikes death to the heart of a tender hot-house flower when +its chill breath sweeps across it. + +"They say you went down to the train to meet her," said Dorothy. + +"Yes; Mrs. Kemp wanted me to," he responded; "and I shall never forget +that meeting with her niece while life lasts, it was so ludicrous. I +arrived at the depot just as the train had stopped, and the passengers +were already pouring from the car. In my haste to reach the throng I +slipped upon a banana peel, and the next instant I was plunging headlong +forward, bumping straight into an old lady carrying numerous bundles and +boxes, who had just alighted from the train. + +"There was a crash and a yell, and a roar of laughter from the +by-standers; and no wonder, for I had crashed directly into a huge jar +of jam which she held in her hand, and in less time than it takes to +tell it I was completely besmeared with it from head to foot. For once +in my life I got enough jam in my mouth, and as I scrambled to my feet I +beheld a young lady standing before me screaming with laughter. + +"At a glance I knew it could be none other than Miss Vincent. What I +said as I hastily stepped up to her is but a confused memory to me. I +managed to articulate that I had been sent from Gray Gables with a +carriage for her. The more I said the more she screamed with laughter, +in which I could not help joining to have saved my life. + +"'What! ride through the town with a jammed-up man like that!' she +ejaculated. 'Why, that would be too sweet for anything--so sweet that +all the bees in the clover fields we passed would come flying after us +to enjoy the sport.' + +"The laugh that followed fairly made the rafters of the old depot ring; +and at this juncture a friend in need came to my assistance--one of my +old chums--and in a trice had stripped off my coat and hat, and replaced +them by a new overcoat and Derby hat which he had just purchased. And +when the luckless jam was washed from my face 'Richard was himself +again.' + +"'Now you look something like a respectable human being,' she declared, +as I helped her into the carriage. + +"And all during the drive home we had the greatest kind of a laugh over +my ludicrous mishap. It was forming each other's acquaintance under +difficulties, as she phrased it. I can truthfully say that I never was +so much embarrassed before a young girl in all my life. But do you know, +Dorothy," he went on, "that that laughable incident which happened made +us better acquainted with each other during that half hour's ride home +than if we had met under ordinary circumstances and known each other for +long months?" + +Dorothy laughed heartily at the highly amusing scene which he pictured +so graphically, and said to herself that now she could understand why +Harry and this strange young girl were laughing so gayly together as +they came up the graveled walk. + +"You will be sure to like her," cried Harry, enthusiastically. "I will +go and fetch her to you now." + +But just as he was about to put his intention into execution, they heard +the voice of Mrs. Kemp and her niece outside, and they entered an +instant later. + +"Dorothy," said Mrs. Kemp, "my niece, Iris, is here. Iris, this is +Dorothy. I am sure you two girls will love each other dearly." + +Dorothy, turned hastily toward the direction from whence the sound +proceeded, holding out her little white hands nervously, a great hectic +flush stealing up into her pale face. + +"Welcome to Gray Gables, Miss Vincent--Iris," she said in her sweet, +tremulous, girlish voice. "I--I would cross the room to where you are +standing, if I could, but I can not. I can not look upon your face to +welcome you, for--I am--blind!" + +There was a _frou-frou_ of skirts upon the velvet carpet, and the next +moment Iris Vincent's arms were about her. + +"There could not be a sweeter welcome, Dorothy--if I may call you +so--and I am sure we shall get on famously together," murmured Miss +Vincent, and a pair of ripe red lips met Dorothy's; but the kiss was as +light as the brush of a butterfly's wings against the petals of a rose, +and there was no warmth in the clasp of the soft, ringed fingers. + +Somehow, although the stranger's voice was sweet as the sound of a +silver lute, and her manner caressing, Dorothy did not feel quite at +home with her. + +"If I should judge by the tone of her voice and the words she utters, my +fancy would lead me to believe that she was very beautiful," thought +Dorothy. "But then Katy said that she was plain, very plain of face, +although Harry has said that she was beautiful. No doubt he wanted to +leave a good impression on my mind regarding her." + +The evening that followed was a happy one for Dorothy, because, even +without being coaxed, Harry signified his intention of remaining in the +house, instead of going out to the club, as was his custom. + +It had always been a deep grievance of Dorothy's that her musical +accomplishments were so meager. + +She only knew a few accompaniments that she had picked up, while Miss +Vincent played divinely. + +And her voice--ah! it sounded like the chiming of silver bells. And +then, too, she knew so many beautiful songs, and they were all such +tender love songs. + +She was so glad that Harry liked them, too, and her poor face would +flush scarlet, and her white lids droop over her sightless eyes, as the +sweet singer's voice rose and thrilled over some tender love words; for +she felt sure that her Harry was looking at her with all love's tender +passion in his glorious dark eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +It was quite late when the group that was gathered in the drawing-room +dispersed that evening; but when the girls found themselves alone in +their own room, which they were to share together, they sat down for a +comfortable chat ere they retired. + +"Do you think you will like Gray Gables?" asked Dorothy. + +"It seems pleasant enough," returned Iris, with a yawn; "but it's not +the house so much, it's the people in the neighborhood. Are there many +young folks hereabouts?" + +"Quite a number." + +"Are they very jolly, or are they terribly dull?" + +"Well, about as jolly as Mr. Kendal," laughed Dorothy. "He's not so very +jolly, and yet he is wonderfully good company." + +"Yes, he is indeed," assented Miss Vincent. "Is he rich?" she asked, +point-blank, in the very next breath. + +"No," returned Dorothy; "but he may be well off some day, I hope." + +"Handsome and poor! That's too bad--that's a poor combination!" sighed +Miss Vincent, her countenance falling. "But tell me about him, Dorothy, +and--and how he ever happened to take a fancy to a quiet little mouse +like yourself. I have heard that it was your guardian's wish, as he was +dying, and that the idea was quite a surprise to him--to Mr. Kendal, I +mean. Is that true?" + +"Yes," assented Dorothy, thoughtlessly enough. + +She would not have answered the question in that way could she have seen +the eager anxiety on the face of the girl who asked it. + +"Does he make love to you very much?" whispered Iris, laying her soft +cheek close against the blind girl's. "Forgive the question, but, do you +know, I have always had a longing to know just what engaged people said +to each other and how they acted--whether they grew more affectionate, +or, after the grand climax of an engagement had been entered into, +if--if somehow they did not act a little constrained toward each other." + +Dorothy laughed long and merrily at the quaint ideas of her new friend. +But, then, no doubt all girls wished to know that. She had done so +herself once. + +"You do not answer me," murmured Miss Vincent. "Now, please don't be +unkind, Dorothy, when I'm just dying to know." + +"Well," said Dorothy, waxing very confidential, after the fashion of +girls, "I'll tell you _my_ experience; but mind, I don't say that it is +like every other girl's. Harry has been just a trifle bashful ever since +the afternoon that he asked me to--to be his wife, and just a little +constrained; but I always account for it in this way: that he does not +want me to think him silly and spoony. He has grown, oh! ever so +dignified. Why, he hardly ever says anything more about love--he thinks +he has said all there is to say. And his caresses are the same way--just +a little bit constrained, you know." + +Iris Vincent had learned all she cared to know. + +"Thank you, dear, ever so much, for gratifying my curiosity," she said +aloud; but in her own heart she said: + +"I knew it--I knew it! Handsome Harry Kendal does not love this girl +with whom they have forced him into a betrothal. No wonder he looks sad +and melancholy, with a prospect before him of marrying a blind wife! Ah, +me! it is too dreadful a fate to even contemplate." + +She looked complacently in the mirror at her own face. Well might Harry +Kendal have remarked that it was as beautiful as a poet's dream. + +Nothing could have been more exquisitely lovely than the deep, velvety, +violet eyes, almost purple in their glorious depths, and the bronze-gold +hair, such as Titian loved to paint, that fell in heavy curls to her +slender waist. + +One would scarcely meet in a life-time a girl of such wondrous +loveliness. Iris was only twenty, but already she had broken hearts by +the score. + +She had only to smile at a man with those ripe, red, perfect lips, and +give him one glance from those mesmeric eyes, and he was straightway her +slave. And she gloried in her power. + +Thrice she had broken up betrothals, and three young girls were +heart-broken in consequence, and had lifted up their anguished voices +and cursed her for her fatal beauty. But Iris only laughed her mellow, +wicked little laugh when she heard of it, and said: + +"Poor little simpletons! Before they engage themselves they ought to +have been sure that they held their lovers' hearts completely. It were +better for them to realize before than after marriage that the men they +meant to stake their all upon could prove fickle at the first +opportunity when a pretty girl crossed their paths." + +And who could say that there was not some little truth in this? + +The two girls whose paths were to cross so bitterly slept peacefully +side by side that night; but long after Iris' eyes had closed in +slumber, Dorothy lay awake with oh! such a heavy load on her heart. + +She wished she was gay and bright, like Iris, and oh! what would she not +have given only to see--only to see once again! And she turned her face +to where she knew the moonlight lay in great yellow bars on the floor, +and sobbed as she had never sobbed since she had become blind, and fell +asleep with the tear-drops staining her pale face, a long, deep sigh +trembling over her lips. + +Both girls awoke early the next morning. + +"When do you have breakfast?" asked Iris, with a yawn. + +"At eight o'clock," said Dorothy; "so we need not be in a hurry about +getting up. It can not be more than six now." + +"Oh, dear! then I shall have to get up at once," cried Iris; "for it +takes me fully that long to dress." + +"Two hours!" cried Dorothy, amazed, adding: "Why, just put on a wrapper. +Nobody here ever thinks of making a toilet to appear at the +breakfast-table. There is no one but Mrs. Kemp, Harry, you and I." + +She could not catch Iris' unintelligible reply, but she noticed that the +girl was not to be persuaded. + +She commenced dressing at once. + +Soon Dorothy detected a strange odor of burning paper in the room. + +"What is that?" she cried, in alarm. "Oh, Miss Vincent, the house must +be on fire!" + +Iris laughed long and loud. + +"You delightful, innocent little goose!" she cried. "I am only curling +my bangs with an iron heated over the gas, and I'm trying the tongs on +paper to see that they are not too hot. I put my curls up in paper last +night, but the horrid old things wouldn't curl because of the damp +atmosphere, and--" She did not finish the sentence for Dorothy supplied +it in her own mind--"her new friend was desirous of looking her best." + +Harry was pacing impatiently up and down the breakfast-room when they +entered. + +"Good-morning, Miss Vincent; good-morning, Dorothy!" he exclaimed, +eagerly; and Dorothy's heart gave a quick start, noting that he called +her name last. + +And another thing struck Dorothy quite forcibly. To her great surprise, +she noticed that Iris spoke in quite a different tone from what she did +when they were alone together in their own room. + +There her accents were drawling, but now they were so wonderfully sweet +and musical that Dorothy was struck with wonder. She never knew that a +person could speak in two different tones of voice like this. + +At the breakfast-table the conversation was bright and merry, though +outside the rain had commenced to patter against the window-pane. + +Dorothy felt strangely diffident, for only a small portion of the +conversation was directed now and then to her, and Harry and Miss +Vincent kept up such a lively chatter that there was scarcely an +opportunity to get in a word edgewise. + +The conversation turned upon horseback riding, and it brought a strange +pang to Dorothy's heart, for that had been the most pleasurable +accomplishment she had learned during the first few weeks she had been +at Gray Gables, and she loved it passionately. + +In the very hour when they told her that she would for evermore be +blind--stone-blind--the cry that had sprung to her lips was, "And can I +never again ride Black Beauty?" and she bowed her head in a storm of +wild and tempestuous grief. + +For many a day after Harry would not even have the name of Black Beauty +mentioned in her hearing. And now how strange that he should bring up +the subject in her presence! + +"I am sorry it is raining, Miss Vincent," he said, "for I had promised +myself such a pleasure for this morning. I had intended asking you to +join me in a canter over the country. This is just the season of the +year to enjoy the bracing air. We have a little horse in the stable that +would delight you, if you are a judge of equine flesh. Its very name +indicates what it is--Black Beauty. You ride, of course?"--this +interrogatively. + +"Oh, yes!" declared Iris; "and I always thought it would be the height +of my ambition if I could own a horse." + +"That would be a very slight ambition to gratify," returned Harry +Kendal. "You may have--" + +He was about to add, "Black Beauty," but at that instant his eyes fell +upon Dorothy. She was leaning forward, her sightless eyes turned in his +direction, with a world of anguish in them that would have melted a +heart of stone. + +Mrs. Kemp saw the storm approaching, and said, hastily: + +"I have always been thinking of buying a pony for my niece, and if she +is a very good girl, she may get one for Christmas." + +Harry looked his thanks to Mrs. Kemp for coming to his rescue so timely. + +Dorothy lingered after the others had left the breakfast-room, and +called to Harry to wait a minute, as she wished to speak with him. + +He had a guilty conscience; he knew what was coming. She meant to ask +him if he intended offering Black Beauty to Miss Vincent, and, of +course, he made up his mind to deny it. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +The long weeks that had passed since the never-to-be-forgotten steamboat +incident on Labor Day passed like a nightmare to poor Jack Garner. + +Slowly but surely the knowledge had come to him that Dorothy, his little +sweetheart, had faded like a dream from his life; and as this became a +settled fact in his mind, his whole nature seemed to change. + +He grew reckless, morbid, and gay by turns, until his old mother grew +terrified, fearing for his reason. His whole heart had been in his work +before and his one aim in life had been to make money. + +He had saved quite a snug little sum, which he very prudently placed in +the bank. + +Now, to his mother's horror, his recklessness lost him his position, and +he did not have enough ambition to try and secure another place, but +commenced to draw his little hoard from the bank, and his money was +disappearing like snow before a summer's sun. + +He began coming in late at nights, as well, and the widow, who listened +for his footsteps, cried out in anguish: "Would to God that I had died +ere I had lived to see this horrible change take place in my idolized +son!" + +His cousin Barbara keenly felt the change in him. It was she who +comforted the poor old mother, and who pleaded with Jack to try and take +up the duties of life again, and to forget faithless Dorothy. + +But he would only shake his head, and answer that he would never cease +to love Dorothy and search for her while life lasted. But troubles never +seem to come singly. One day, as Jack was pacing restlessly up and down +Broadway--the vantage-ground which he always sought at six o'clock each +evening, to scan the faces of the working-girls as they passed, with the +lingering hope in his heart that some day, sooner or later, his +vigilance would be rewarded by seeing Dorothy--a terrible accident +happened which almost cost him his life. + +An old sign on one of the corner buildings, which had done service many +a year, suddenly fell, and Jack--poor Jack, was knocked senseless to the +pavement. + +Surely it was the workings of Providence that Jessie Staples happened +along just at that critical moment. + +With a wild, bitter cry she sprang forward, flinging herself upon the +prostrate body, shrieking out as she saw his handsome, white face with +the stains of blood upon it: + +"Oh, Heaven have mercy! It is Jack--Jack Garner!" + +Kindly hands raised him. No, he was not dead--only stunned, and terribly +bruised. + +A cab was hastily summoned, and, accompanied by Jessie, he was taken +home. + +The girl broke the sad news gently to Jack's mother and to Barbara. It +was many and many a day before Jack left his couch; the accident had +proved more dangerous than had been at first anticipated, for brain +fever had set in. + +Every day on her way home from the book-bindery Jessie would go several +blocks out of her way to see how Jack was getting along, and Barbara and +his mother soon discovered that it was something more than mere +friendship that actuated the girl's visits. Although against their +expostulations, every cent that she could scrape together, over and +above the cost of the bare necessities of her living, she would expend +for fruit to bring to Jack. + +"I feel such a great pity for him," she would say; "for he has never, +never been the same since Dorothy disappeared so suddenly." And they +would look at the girl with wistful eyes, realizing that in her case, +surely, pity was akin to love. + +They guessed Jessie's secret long before she knew it herself, and they +felt sorry for her; for they knew her hopes were useless--that Jack +could never return the girl's love. + +Jack's mother and Barbara talked the matter over carefully, and +concluded that it was best for the girl's peace of mind to break up this +infatuation, if they could, at once. + +At this epoch an event happened which turned the tide of affairs into a +strange channel. + +By the death of a relative Jack suddenly found himself possessed of a +fortune. + +He heard the startling news with a white, calm, unmoved face, while his +mother and Barbara almost went wild with joy over it. + +"It matters little to me now," he said. "Wealth has no charms for me." +And they well knew why. + +The intelligence came like a thunderbolt to Jessie Staples. + +It was Mrs. Garner who told about it while the family were gathered +about the tea-table. + +The girl's face grew white as death, and she looked over at Jack with +startled eyes. + +Before she could ask the question that sprang to her lips, Mrs. Garner +added: + +"Of course this will make a great change in Jack's prospects. He says +that we shall soon leave the little cottage and go out West +somewhere--Barbara and I and himself--and that we will leave New York +City far behind us, as there is no tie that binds him here now." + +Jessie tried to speak, but the words refused to come to her icy lips. +She made an effort to raise her eyes to Jack's face, with a careless +smile; but it was a failure--a dire failure. + +The table seemed to suddenly rise and dance before her. + +She rose hastily, with a wild prayer that she might get quickly out of +the room, for she felt her throat choking up with great sobs, and +realized that in an instant more she would have burst into tears. + +Poor Jessie Staples took one step forward, then fell unconscious at +Jack's feet. + +"Why, what in the world can be the matter with Jessie?" he cried, +raising her in his strong arms. "Is she ill? Let us send for a +physician--quick!" + +"Stay!" said his mother, as he deposited Jessie on the sofa and turned +quickly to put this last thought into execution. "Jessie's trouble is +one which no physician can alleviate. It is an affair of the heart." + +Jack looked at his mother in amazement. + +"An affair of the heart?" he repeated. "Surely not, mother. Why, I have +known Jessie ever since I can remember, and I never knew her to have a +beau." + +"Perhaps she has given her heart to some one who does not return her +love--who may not even know of it," suggested Mrs. Garner, quietly. + +"Impossible," declared Jack. "I have known her for years, I say, and if +there was an affair of the heart between Jessie and any of the young men +at the bindery, I should have known something of it." + +Mrs. Garner came nearer and laid her hand on her son's arm. + +"Are you _sure_, Jack?" she asked, in a low voice. + +He gave a great start. + +"I know of one whom she loves, and who, she knows, never thinks of her. +When his life hung in jeopardy her secret was revealed to me." + +"Surely you _do not_--you _can not_ mean, mother--that she--that I--" + +"Yes, that is what I mean," returned Mrs. Garner, quietly. "Jessie +Staples loves _you_, my boy; but do not be hard on the poor girl. +Remember, love goes where it is sent. She never intended that you should +know it. She did not breathe a word about it to any one. It was by the +merest chance that we made the discovery, and she does not dream that we +know it." + +Jack sank down in the nearest chair, quite overcome with dismay. + +His mother came and bent over him, smoothing the fair hair back from his +damp brow with a trembling hand, but uttering no word. + +At last he broke the deep silence: + +"What am I to say--what am I to do, mother, if--if--your surmises be +actually true?" + +"They are not surmises, my boy," returned his mother; "they are truths." + +"You know that I like Jessie," he went on, huskily; "but as for any +other sentiment--why, it would be impossible. My life will always be +tinged with the bitter sorrow of that other love-dream which was so +cruelly shattered. I--I wish to Heaven you had not told me your +suspicions about Jessie, mother." + +"Her secret fell from my lips in an unguarded moment," she answered, +slowly, "and I am sorry you know all. Yet it must be a source of comfort +to you to know that although Dorothy Glenn was false to you, there is +_one_ heart which beats only for you." + +Jack started to his feet, a dull pallor creeping into his face as he +drew back from his mother's touch. + +"Dorothy is _not false_ to me!" he cried. "If an angel from heaven +should tell me so I would not believe it. She is my betrothed bride. She +wears my betrothal-ring upon her little hand. No matter where she is, +she is true to me--true as God's promise. Shame has caused her to hide +herself from me, because she was so foolish as to go with another on an +excursion on Labor Day. But I have forgiven all that long ago. Oh, +Heaven! if I could but let her know it!" + +Mrs. Garner shook her head. + +"A young girl who can leave you for months without a word does not care +for you, my boy," she answered, sadly. "Surely there is great truth in +the words that 'Love is blind,' if you can not be made to see this." + +Still the noble lover shook his head. There was no power on earth strong +enough to shake his faith in Dorothy's love. + +Mrs. Garner had said all that she could say for Jessie, and she bowed +her head, and great tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt great pity +for Jessie. Why could not her son love her? She had heard the story of +jilted lovers turning to some sympathizing heart for solace, and in time +learning to love their consoler, and she wondered if this might not +mercifully happen to her darling, idolized boy. + +She watched him as he paced excitedly up and down the room. Suddenly he +turned to her, and during all the long after years of sorrow and pain +she never forgot the expression of his face. + +"Mother!" he cried, hoarsely, "if my Dorothy ever proved false to me, I +should be tempted to--to--kill her--and--then--kill--myself!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +The _contretemps_ which had been so cleverly averted--of giving the +pony, Black Beauty, to Miss Vincent, and Dorothy's keen +resentment--should have proved a lesson to Harry Kendal and warned him +not to play with edged tools. + +He was a little careful of what he said to Iris for the next few days, +when Dorothy was present; but gradually this restraint began to wear +off, and he grew to be almost reckless in the way he laughed and carried +on with the girl, even though his _fiancee_ was in the room. This +attention was certainly not discouraged by Iris Vincent. + +He smiled to see her go in raptures over everything in and about Gray +Gables, and she, with her glorious dark eyes, always smiled back at him. +Their chats grew longer and more frequent; they were fast becoming +excellent friends. + +They had sent for Iris Vincent to become Dorothy's companion, but it was +whispered among the old servants of the household that she was proving +herself to be more frequently the companion of Mr. Kendal, and they +talked about it in alarm, wondering how it would all end. They felt +indignant, too, that such a bold flirtation--for it had certainly come +to that--should be carried on right in the face of poor, blind Dorothy. + +"Some one ought to give her a hint of what is going on," cried indignant +little Katy, the maid. But there was no one who could find it in his or +her heart to warn her of what was transpiring. The blow would be more +than she could bear, for she loved Harry Kendal better than life itself. + +They wondered if little Dorothy guessed that he led Iris to the table, +while she, blind as she was, groped her way as best she could to her own +seat. They hated to see him lavish attentions on the beauty, and it +drove them almost out of their self-possession to see their eyes meet in +that provoking, mutual smile. + +Dorothy was beginning to feel Harry's neglect, but no thought of the +true cause of it ever dawned upon her. + +Ah! could she have seen how they paced the grounds together arm in arm, +and how near they sat together on the step of the front porch, and in +what a lover-like manner he bent his dark head over her little, white +hands, the sight would have killed Dorothy. + +"I wonder if they think we are fools!" whispered the servants, +indignantly, one to the other; and their blood boiled with rage at this +open love-making. + +But even the attention of handsome Harry Kendal seemed to pall upon the +beauty. Gray Gables was dull; she wanted more life, more gayety. + +"Why not give a grand ball," she suggested, "and invite the whole +country-side?" + +She longed for more hearts to conquer. Iris was one of those vain, +shallow girls who must and will have a sentimental flirtation with some +young man always on hand. She, like those of her mischievous class, +really meant no harm while doing a great deal of wrong. Such a girl, +from mere vanity and pastime, will try to outshine a companion and even +win the heart of a betrothed lover from his sweetheart, caring little +for the broken vows and the ruined lives strewn along her path. + +Harry Kendal seized eagerly upon the idea, because it would please Iris. +Mrs. Kemp knew no other than her beautiful, willful niece's pleasure. No +one consulted Dorothy. She seemed to have been left entirely out of the +calculation. + +For the first time since Iris Vincent had come to Gray Gables, Dorothy +regretted her presence there. + +What would be the ball to her? Surely they ought to know that she could +take no part in it, for she was blind. + +When she found herself alone with Iris she spoke of this, but the girl +turned it off with a little laugh. + +"Even so," she declared, "Gray Gables ought not to be shut up and +barricaded. You need to have a little life to keep your spirits up. You +are just dying for some kind of liveliness. And poor Harry! every one +is feeling sorry for him. They say he is growing so dull." + +"Do they say that?" cried Dorothy, the color deepening in her cheeks. + +"Yes--and more," assented Iris. "And for that reason I would advise you +to study appearances, so that every one may know that he is happy--at +least, let them think he is." + +The words struck Dorothy with a cold chill, as her companion had +intended that they should. + +"Then let the ball be given, by all means," returned Dorothy, with a +little quiver in her voice. + +And so the matter was arranged. + +For the next week Iris and Harry were busy with the invitations. They +sat side by side, comparing them as they made them out, and never once +seemed to note Dorothy's presence. + +If any one on the list did not quite suit their fancy, they were quickly +rejected; but Dorothy noticed that he never once turned to her, his +betrothed bride, and asked her opinion. + +There was one young girl to whom Dorothy had been quite attached, who +lived very near Gray Gables, and who had run over to see her almost +every day, up to the time Iris had come. Since then her visits had been +less and less frequent; within the last fortnight they had ceased +altogether. + +Dorothy was very anxious, of course, that this young girl should be +invited; but Iris put in a demurrer at once. + +"Of all the girls I ever met, I dislike her the most," declared Iris. + +She was very careful not to tell the real reason why. + +This same young girl had been the first to notice her flirtation with +Harry Kendal. They had had quite a stormy little scene over it, for the +girl had attempted to rebuke Iris, in her modest way, and she had +retorted by flashing out that it was none of her business, anyway, +saying that she would flirt with Harry Kendal just as much as she +pleased, and that it was a shame for such a handsome young fellow to +marry a girl stone blind. + +They had parted in anger. No wonder, we repeat, that Iris objected to +inviting Dorothy's friend to the grand ball. + +"Oh! of course we must invite her," said Dorothy, when her friend's name +was brought under discussion. "Mustn't we, Harry?" + +He turned away and walked moodily to the window without replying. If +Iris did not like her, that settled the matter. He dared not put in one +word in the girl's favor, though Dorothy was clamoring for his opinion. + +"You must settle the matter, Harry," said Dorothy. + +"Let me suggest a better way," he replied, gallantly, as he took his +seat at the table again. "You two girls arrange it between yourselves." + +"But we do not think we will come to an agreement," pouted Iris. "You +will have to choose for Dorothy and me." + +He gave her a startled, sweeping look, and she knew by that that he +would not dare go against her for Dorothy. + +"I must decline," he said again, for he felt nervous with those +sightless eyes turned eagerly in his direction. + +"You must say 'Yes' or 'No,'" said Dorothy, never dreaming that his +answer would be in the negative, for on the week that she had first come +to Gray Gables he had said: "I must introduce you at once to Alice Lee, +who lives across the way. She is a lovely, quiet girl, and I know you +will like her." And Dorothy had liked gentle Alice Lee. + +She thought of this now as the question of inviting her to the ball had +come up, and never for a moment had she doubted the result of his +decision. + +"You must answer 'Yes' or 'No,'" pouted Iris, impatiently. "Come, we are +wasting time." + +Iris leaned over close to his chair--so near that the dark rings of her +hair brushed his cheek, thrilling him to the soul. + +"You must choose," she whispered; and he knew that it was a challenge as +to which he should please--herself or Dorothy. + +Closer, closer still she leaned, until his very pulses grew mad with the +nearness of her presence, and with child-like confidence her soft little +hand crept into his, and nestled there securely. + +There was no one to see, though Dorothy--God help her!--sat so near her. +The touch of that little hand was magical. In the mad impulse of the +moment he raised it to his lips and kissed it, and Iris knew that she +had won the battle even before he spoke. + +"Alice Lee had better not be invited to the ball," he said, huskily. +"That is my decision." + +Dorothy sank back in her chair as though a sudden blow had been struck +her. She never once dreamed that her betrothed lover would decide +against her. + +It fairly took her breath away, and a sudden new sensation shot through +her heart that had never found lodgment there before. + +She drew back and said no more, a deathly pallor overspreading her face. +She did not interfere again, and she suffered them to arrange the +invitations after that to please themselves. + +She rose quietly at length and made her way to the window, great tears +rising to her sightless eyes. + +They did not even notice her absence, but chatted and laughed quite the +same. + +After they had finished Harry proposed that they should take the +invitations to be mailed. This Iris gayly assented to, and they left the +room without once making any excuse to Dorothy for leaving her there +alone. + +The fact was that they were not even aware that she had seated herself +in the bay window behind the great, heavy _portieres_. + +For the first time Dorothy wished that Iris had not come. She was +already beginning to feel the weight of the iron hand that was soon to +crush her--jealousy. + +She awaited their coming with the greatest impatience, but it was long +hours ere they returned. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Harry Kendal did not intend being untrue to Dorothy when he let himself +drift into that platonic friendship with Iris, the beauty, which had +developed into such a dangerous flirtation. + +Gradually the girl's fascinations seemed to overpower him, and before +he quite realized it, Iris had become part and parcel of his life. + +On the way to the postoffice a little event had happened which had +almost changed the current of his life. + +They had taken the short cut from Gray Gables to the postoffice, which +lay over the hills, and were walking along arm in arm when suddenly +Iris' foot slipped upon a stone, and she stumbled headlong in the path +with a little, terrified cry. + +In an instant Harry had raised her, and to his utter consternation she +clung to him half fainting. + +"Oh, Mr. Kendal--Harry--I--I have sprained my ankle! I can not walk!" +she said; and a low cry of pain broke from her lips. + +He gathered her close in his arms, and did everything in his power to +soothe her. + +"I am so sorry--so sorry that I let you undertake this trip with me. Let +me carry you back to the house." + +"My--my ankle is not sprained," she faltered; "it was only wrenched a +little as it turned over against that stone. We will sit down on this +log a few moments, and after a little rest I will be all right again." + +To this Kendal willingly assented, but he did not remove his arm from +the slender waist. + +"I am so thankful that it is no worse, Iris," he breathed, huskily. + +"Would you have cared so very much if I had sprained my ankle?" she +faltered, looking up into his face with those great, dark, mesmeric eyes +that no one had ever yet been able to resist. + +He looked away from her quickly and did not reply. + +"Would you?" persisted Iris, in her low, musical voice. + +Throwing prudence to the winds, he turned to her suddenly and clasped +her still closer in his arms. + +"Does not your own heart teach you that, Iris?" he returned, hoarsely. + +"Oh! if I could only believe what my heart would fain tell me," she +murmured, "I--I would be so happy!" + +"If it told you that I--I love you," he cried, "then it would--" + +The rest of the sentence died away on his lips for there, directly in +the path before him, stood Mrs. Kemp. She might have been blind to all +her beautiful niece's short-comings, but she was not a woman to so mix +right and wrong as to permit Iris to listen to a word of love from one +she knew belonged, in the sight of God, to another. + +Iris was equal to the occasion. + +"Oh, aunt!" she cried, "I am so glad that you happened along just now. +I--I hurt my foot, and it was so painful that I had to sit down and +rest; and Mr. Kendal was kind enough to remain here with me a few +moments, although--although--besides the invitations we had to mail, he +had other important letters to go out to-day." + +"Are you quite sure your ankle is not sprained, my dear?" cried Mrs. +Kemp, in alarm. "The wisest thing to do will be to come home with me at +once, and we will send for a doctor to examine it." + +Iris sprang to her feet with a wicked little laugh. + +"See, it is better now--almost as good as new," she declared, "thanks +to Mr. Kendal for insisting upon my sitting down here to rest." + +Had it been any one else but Iris, Kendal would have said the affair had +been a clever little ruse to give him the opportunity to make love to +her. + +But in this instance it never occurred to him but that Iris was telling +the plain facts--that her ankle had been wrenched, and with a few +moments' rest it was as good as ever again. + +Mrs. Kemp looked greatly relieved. + +"We may as well be going," said Iris, hoping that her aunt would pass on +and leave them to enjoy the _tete-a-tete_ which she had interrupted at +such an inopportune time. + +"I will go with you both as far as the postoffice," said Mrs. Kemp; and +the good soul did not notice the expression of annoyance on both faces, +and, very much against the will of each, she accompanied them there and +back. + +Iris was bitterly annoyed, but she was diplomatic enough to conceal it; +and she could see, too, by Harry's face that he was disappointed in +being so ruthlessly cheated out of a _tete-a-tete_ with her. + +They loitered long by the way, trusting that Mrs. Kemp would become +impatient with their delay, and excuse herself, to get back to the house +in time to superintend dinner, which was quite a feature at Gray Gables. + +"You do not seem to be in any hurry to-day," laughed Iris, eyeing her +aunt sideways. + +"No; for it is not often that I indulge myself in going out for a +stroll," answered Mrs. Kemp, "and I need to make the most of it. If I am +not back at the usual time Dorothy will superintend affairs--bless her +dear little heart! Why, she's a regular little jewel about the house, +even with her affliction." + +This praise of Dorothy was anything but pleasant to Iris, especially +when Kendal was present, and she turned the conversation at once into +another channel. + +As they neared the house they met one of the servants hurrying down the +road. + +"You are the very person I am looking for, ma'am," he cried, +breathlessly. "There is something the matter with the range, and they +are all in a stew over it, not knowing what to do until you come." + +"Good gracious! if I step out of the house for a moment something is +sure to happen," cried the good old lady, despairingly. "Say that I will +be there directly, John;" and much to Iris' relief, she hurriedly left +them. + +"Why need we hasten?" said Kendal, in a low voice. "This is the +pleasantest part of the afternoon." + +"I am in no hurry," assented the girl. + +"We will linger here in this delightful spot, and I will gather you some +autumn leaves," cried Harry. "Would you like that?" + +"Yes," she assented; "if you will help me to weave them into garlands." + +"Nothing would give me more pleasure," he declared; "that is, if you are +not afraid of the old tradition becoming true." + +She looked up into his face, blushing as crimson as the heart of a +deep-red rose. + +"I have never heard it," she said. "Do tell me what it is." + +"Bye and bye, with your permission, while we are weaving the garlands," +Harry answered, with a rich, mellow laugh. "If I should tell you +beforehand, you might refuse to accept my services altogether." + +"Is it so bad as that?" laughed Iris. + +"You had better use the word _good_ instead of bad. The idea would be +more pleasant." + +"Not knowing what you are talking about, and not possessing the key to +solve the riddle of your incomprehensible words, I had better make no +further reply, lest I get into deep water," she pouted. "But really you +have aroused my curiosity." + +"Well, when we have the first wreath made, then, and not until then, +will I tell you what they say of the youth and maiden who weave autumn +leaves for each other, and together. Come and sit on this mossy ledge. I +will spread my overcoat upon it. It shall be your throne." + +"I will be a queen, but where will be my king?" laughed Iris, gayly. + +"Your king will come a-wooing all in good time," he answered, his dark +eyes seeking hers with a meaning glance, which the beauty and coquette +understood but too well. + +In less time than it takes to tell it, Kendal had gathered about her +heaps of the beautiful, shining leaves. + +"Oh, aren't they lovely!" cried Iris, delightedly. "I fairly adore +autumn leaves." + +"I did not know that you had such an eye for the beautiful in nature," +he retorted, rather pleased. + +"I adore everything that is handsome," she said, in a low voice, +returning his look of a few moments ago with interest. + +An hour flew by on golden wings, and the wreaths grew beneath their +touch. + +"Now you look indeed a queen!" cried Harry, raising one gracefully, and +laying it on the girl's dark curls. "You remind me just now of pictures +I have seen of Undine and the woodland nymphs." + +"Ah! but Undine had no heart," declared Iris. + +"In some respects you are like Undine," he retorted. "She never knew she +had a heart till she was conscious of its loss. Ah, but you do look +bewitching, Miss Vincent--Iris, with that wreath of autumn foliage on +your head, like a crown of dying sunset. When I see the leaves turn in +the autumn, lines that I read somewhere always recur to me: + + "'As bathed in blood the trailing vines appear, + While 'round them, soft and low, the wild wind grieves; + The heart of autumn must have broken here, + And poured her treasure out upon the leaves.'" + +"What pretty poetry!" sighed Iris. "Why, it seems to me that you have +some beautiful sentiment, set to rhyme, to express almost every thought! +You must love poetry. Does--does Dorothy care for it?" + +"No," he returned, in a low voice, and looked away from her with a moody +brow. + +"That is strange," mused Iris. "I should think that you would inspire +her with a love for it." + +"If it is not in one's soul, how can you expect to find it there," he +retorted, rather bitterly. "No, Dorothy has no love for poetry, flowers, +or birds, nor, in fact, anything that other young girls care for. I +imagine she would quite as soon prefer a garden filled with hollyhocks +and morning-glories to the daintiest flowers that ever bloomed. Alas, +there are few tastes in common between us!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +"What a pity!" sighed Iris, and her hand crept sympathizingly into his. +The gloomy look deepened on his face. + +"Do you believe that there is a true mate for each heart, Iris?" he +asked, suddenly. + +"I might better ask _you_ that question," she answered, evasively. "You +are engaged--_you_ seem to have found a heart that is the mate for your +own." + +"Do you think there is such a thing as making a mistake, even in so +grave a matter?" he asked, huskily, "and that those who discover their +error should keep on straying further and further in the wrong path? Do +you not believe that there should be the most ardent love between those +who wed--and that where there is a lack of it the two should separate, +and each go his or her own way?" + +Iris drooped her head; but ere she could reply--utter the words that +sprang to her lips--an exclamation of the deepest annoyance, mingled +with a fierce imprecation, was ground out from between Kendal's teeth. + +There, directly in the path before them, stood Alice Lee. + +Had she been standing there long? If so, she must have heard every word +that had been uttered. + +Alice Lee had heard, and every word had cut to her heart like the sharp +point of a sword. + +She had feared this, but had tried to reason the matter out in her own +mind; but although circumstances did look tellingly against the beauty +who had come to Gray Gables to be Dorothy Glenn's companion, yet she had +tried to make herself believe that her suspicions were groundless. + +"Have you been eavesdropping?" cried Iris, springing to her feet, her +black eyes flashing luridly. + +A thousand thoughts flashed through Alice Lee's mind in an instant. + +No; she was too proud to let them realize that she had overheard the +perfidy of Dorothy's treacherous lover. + +No; better plead ignorance, until she had time to think over the matter, +for Dorothy's sake, if not for her own. + +"I have but just turned the bend in the road," she replied, with sweet +girlish dignity. "Your question, Miss Vincent, surprises me," she said. +"I have no need to answer it, I think." + +"But you always do happen around just when people least expect you, +Alice Lee." + +"I hope my old friends will always find my presence welcome," returned +Alice, quietly. + +"To be sure, you are welcome," interposed Kendal. "Miss Vincent and I +were only conversing upon the salient points of a new novel we finished +reading yesterday. If you would care to hear it, I shall be pleased to +go over the plot with you, and hear your opinion regarding it." + +"I fear it would not benefit you, for I am not much of a novel reader, +and understand very little of plots and plotting." + +Was this a quiet drive at them? both thought as they looked up +instantly. + +But the soft, gray eyes of Alice Lee looked innocently enough from one +to the other. + +She seemed in no hurry to pass on, and Iris felt that for the second +time that afternoon her _tete-a-tete_ with handsome Harry Kendal was to +be broken up, and from this moment henceforth she owed Alice Lee more of +a grudge than ever, and she felt sure that the girl knew it. + +Upon one point Alice was determined--that no matter how coldly Iris +Vincent might treat her, she should not leave Dorothy's lover alone with +her and in her power--she would stand by her poor little blind friend, +who needed her aid in this terrible hour more than she would ever know, +God help her! + +Although long silences fell between the trio, still Alice lingered, +chatting so innocently that they could not find it in their hearts to be +very angry with her; and they could not bring themselves to believe that +she had a purpose in her guileless actions. + +There was no alternative but to walk homeward with her; but they did not +ask her in when they reached the gates of Gray Gables, and so Alice had +no excuse to enter to see Dorothy and warn her, but was obliged to pass +on. + +Mrs. Kemp and two or three of the servants were on the porch, so that +there was no opportunity to exchange but a few whispered words. They +were just about to part when Iris happened to think that Kendal had not +told her what was said of those who gather and weave autumn leaves +together, as he had promised. + +She paused suddenly and looked up archly into his face. + +"What about the autumn-leaf mystery?" she exclaimed. "You know you were +to tell me all about it?" + +"Do you promise not to be angry with me, Iris?" he answered, in his +deep, musical voice. "You know I can not help old adages--I do not make +them." + +"Why should I be angry?" she exclaimed, having a rather faint idea of +what was coming. + +"Well, then," said Kendal, fixing his dark eyes full upon her, "it is +said that the youth and maiden who twine the ruby and golden leaves +together are intended for each other. There, are you so very angry?" + +Iris dropped his arm with a little cry, and fled precipitately into the +house. + +He walked on slowly through the great hall and into the library. He knew +Dorothy would be waiting for him, and he did not feel equal to the +ordeal of meeting her just then. + +He wanted a moment to think. He felt that he was standing on the brink +of a fearful abyss, and that one more step must prove fatal to him. + +Which way should he turn? He was standing face to face with the terrible +truth now, that he loved Iris Vincent madly--loved her better than his +own life--he, the betrothed of another. + +But with that knowledge came another. Iris could be nothing to him, for +they were both poor. + +He was sensible enough to sit down and look the future in the face. He +realized that if he should marry Iris on the spur of the moment, that +would be only the beginning of the end. + +It would be all gay and bright with them for a few brief weeks, or +perhaps for a few months; then their sky would change, for Iris was not +a girl to endure poverty for love's sake. She wanted the luxuries of +life--these he could not give her; and there would be reproaches from +the lips that now had only smiles for him. + +She would want diamonds and silks, and all the other feminine +extravagances so dear to the hearts of other women, and he was only a +struggling doctor, who would have to fight a hand-to-hand battle with +grim poverty. And sitting there in the arm-chair, before the glowing +grate, where he had flung himself, he pictured a life of poverty that +would spread out before him if he defied the world for love's sake. + +A dingy office; a worn coat, and trousers shiny at the knees; a necktie +with a ragged edge; an unkempt beard, a last season's hat, and hunger +gnawing at his vitals. + +The picture filled him with the most abject horror. + +He was stylish and fastidious to a fault. He loved Iris; but did he not +equally love his own ease? He could barely tolerate Dorothy, the poor, +tender, plain little creature who lavished a world of love upon him; but +he swallowed the bitter draught of having to endure her by always +remembering that she was heiress, in all probability, to a cool million +of money, and money had been his idol all his life long. He could not +exist without it. + +He was not one of the kind who could face the world manfully and snatch +from it its treasures by the sweat of his brow. No, he could not give up +this dream of wealth that was almost as much as life to him. + +In the very midst of his reverie a light step crossed the library, but +he did not hear it. It was Dorothy. + +She stole up quietly and knelt on the hassock beside his chair. + +"What were you thinking of, Harry?" she said. + +He was equal to the occasion. + +"Of what or whom should I be thinking but yourself, Dorothy?" he +replied. + +"It could not have been a very pleasant thought, I fear, for you sighed +deeply," she murmured. + +"That is all your fancy, Dorothy," he declared--"that my thoughts were +not pleasant. True, I may have sighed, but did you never hear of such a +thing as a sigh of contentment?" + +She laughed merrily. + +"I have heard of it, but thought the words rather misplaced." + +"I assure you they are quite true and practicable." + +"Where is Iris?" she asked, suddenly. + +"I am sure I do not know," he answered, trying to speak carelessly. + +"I want to have a real long talk with you, Harry," she said. "I have +heard that there should be nothing but the utmost confidence between +engaged lovers. Shall it not be so with us?" + +"Of course," he answered, starting rather guiltily, for he had a faint +intuition of what was coming. + +"Harry," she whispered, "I want you to tell me--is it true--what they +are all saying--that you have ceased to love me?" + +"All saying!" he echoed. "Who is saying it? What old busybodies are +sticking their noses in my affairs now?" he cried, with something on his +lips that sounded very like an imprecation. + +"But it isn't true, is it, Harry?" she breathed. "I should want to die +if I thought it was." + +"Look here, Dorothy," he cried, "if you want to believe all these +mischief-makers tell you, you will have enough to do all through your +life. You will have to either believe me or believe them. Now, which +shall it be?" + +"But answer my question, 'Yes' or 'No?'" pleaded Dorothy. "I--I am +waiting for your answer, Harry." + +There was a slight rustle in the doorway, and glancing up with a start, +Kendal saw Iris Vincent standing there, looking on the tender scene with +a scornful smile, and the words he would have answered died away unsaid +on his lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +With a scornful toss of her head, Iris wheeled about. She would not +enter the room, though she was just dying to know what they were +saying--as Kendal sat in the arm-chair before the glowing coals, while +Dorothy knelt on the hassock at his feet. + +But that one glance of Iris had proved fatal to Kendal's peace of mind, +and the hope swept over his soul that she would not think that he was +talking love to Dorothy. + +His silence perplexed the girl kneeling at his feet. + +"I try to picture what our future life will be together, Harry," she +murmured. + +"Don't let us talk about it!" he exclaimed, impatiently. + +"But I like to," she insisted. "It is my constant thought by night and +by day. And, oh! I shall try to make you so happy. I shall go out dining +with you every day, if you like, and I will always wear a little veil +over my face, that no one need know as they pass us by that your bride +is blind. And I shall try to be so wise, and learn to talk with you upon +the subjects you love best. You will not be ashamed of me, will you, +Harry?" + +This with wistful eagerness pitiful to behold. + +"I do wish, Dorothy, that you would cease your harping on the same old +subject!" he cried, worriedly. "You annoy me so!" + +"Annoy you?" whispered Dorothy, half under her breath. "Why, I did not +know that we could say anything to those we love which could make them +vexed at us, because I thought we were: + + "'Two souls with but a single thought, + Two hearts that beat as one.' + +It seems, Harry, as though we had so little time to talk with each other +now. And, oh! how I miss those little chats we used to have together; +don't you?" + +"You talk like a child, Dorothy," he cried. "Do you expect me to be +dancing attendance upon you all the time?" + +"No; I have ceased to expect that," murmured the girl, choking back a +sob--"especially lately." + +"I hope," he cried, "that you are not getting to be one of those +exacting creatures who are jealous if a man is not at their side every +moment? I could never endure that." + +With a sudden impulse, Dorothy threw her arms about his neck and nestled +her snow-white cheek against his. + +"Let me tell you the truth, Harry," she whispered. "I am trying not to +be jealous, as hard as ever I can; but, oh! there seems such a coldness +between us lately. My intuition--my heart tells me so. Everything has +changed since Iris came," she repeated. "I am glad you have some one to +go with you on your rambles, as I used to do--some one to walk and read +with you, as I once did. But when I think of it, and picture you two +together, and know that she takes the same place by your side that I was +wont to take, can you wonder that my heart throbs with a slow, dull +pain?" + +"Women magnify everything!" cried Kendal, harshly. "I suppose you will +begrudge me a moment's comfort where another young girl is concerned, +because you can not participate in it." + +"I wonder that you can find comfort, as you phrase it, with another," +said Dorothy, with a little tremor in her voice. "I have never heard +that any other society was satisfying to an engaged lover than that of +the sweetheart whom he avers to love." + +Kendal laughed a little low, tantalizing laugh which grated keenly on +the girl's ears. + +"Men differ in their tastes and inclinations," he retorted laconically. +"I do not choose to be tied down and governed by one woman's whims, nor +to be dictated to." + +"You should not speak of it in that way, Harry," whispered the girl in a +choking voice; "rather, you should say to yourself that you would not do +the slightest thing that might cause me one pang of annoyance. He who +truly loves finds no interest, no attraction but in the one face, the +one presence. I have known many betrothed young men, and I never yet +knew one who paid the girl he loved so little courtesy as to flirt, ever +so slightly, with another." + +She could not see the flush that burned his face, for he knew that every +word she uttered was but too true. He felt guilty in her sweet, innocent +presence. Had he but loved her, he would have found no pleasure whatever +in Iris Vincent's dangerous coquetries. + +He would not have encouraged her by smile, word, or deed. + +A wave of pity swept over his heart for Dorothy as he looked down into +the pure, uplifted face. But it was only short-lived, for at that +instant he heard Iris' silvery laughter from an adjoining room. + +"I propose that we finish this interesting subject at some future time," +he said, carelessly. "I have some important letters to write, and if you +will excuse me for a little while, I should be very glad." + +Sorrowfully Dorothy rose from the hassock and slowly quitted the room. + +With lagging steps she made her way to her own room, her heart as heavy +as lead in her bosom. + +She had entered the library with buoyant steps and a light heart; aye, +even a little snatch of song on her lips, for she had made up her mind +that she would wait there until Harry came and have a good talk with +him. + +She had been so sure that he would take her in his arms and soothe away +her fears, laughing at them in his own way as being the most ridiculous +fancies which her sensitive little brain had conjured up. + +And ah! how different had been the reality. + +He had rudely repulsed her--and she his promised wife! Katy noticed how +gloomy she was, and ran quickly to her young mistress' side. + +"Oh, Miss Dorothy," she cried, "you do look so pale. Let me place you in +a chair and bring you some wine." + +Dorothy shook her head. + +"I am not ill, Katy," she said, wearily, "only I--I have a slight +headache. If you will leave me by myself I will take a short rest if I +can, then I shall be all right." + +But Katy insisted upon bringing her a cordial, if not the wine, and +surely she was forgiven for putting a few drops of a sleeping potion in +the glass ere she handed it to her mistress. She well knew that she had +not slept soundly for some time past. + +Surely she was breaking down slowly from some terrible mental strain. +She realized but too well what that mental strain was. + +Dorothy allowed her to lead her passively to the sofa, and to deposit +her among the cushions. + +"You will ring when you want me, Miss Dorothy," she said, placing a +table with a bell on it close by her side. + +"Yes," said Dorothy, wearily. "Now go and leave me, that's a good girl;" +and Katy passed into the next apartment, drawing the curtains softly +behind her. There she sat down and waited until her mistress should fall +asleep. It almost made the girl's heart bleed to hear the great sighs +that broke from Dorothy's lips. + +"Poor soul! poor soul!" she cried; "how unhappy she is!" + +But soon the potion began to take effect, and the sighs soon melted into +deep, irregular breathing, and then Katy knew that she slept. + +An hour passed, and yet another, still she did not waken, though there +were loud sounds of mirth and revelry in the drawing-room beneath. The +maid recognized Iris' voice and that of Harry Kendal. + +"The grand rascal!" muttered the girl; "how I feel like choking that +man! He doesn't care any more for that poor blind girl in there, that +he's engaged to, than the dust which sticks to his patent leather shoes. +I believe the truth is slowly beginning to dawn upon her." + +At that moment she heard Dorothy's voice calling her, and she went +quickly to her side. + +"Oh, how long have I slept, Katy?" she cried. + +"An hour or such a matter," responded the girl. "They have all been to +dinner, but I thought sleep would be better for you." + +"How long since?" cried Dorothy, springing from the sofa. "And did they +not send up for me?" asking both questions in a breath, and waiting +with feverish impatience for an answer. + +"No," said the girl, bluntly. + +"Did they forget me?" whispered Dorothy, in a voice so hollow that the +tone frightened the little maid. + +"It looks very much like it, Miss Dorothy," she answered; "but I did not +forget you; I brought you up a whole trayful of things." + +"I can not eat," sighed Dorothy, and she murmured under her breath: +"Yes, they forgot me--forgot me! Come here, my good girl," she went on, +very nervously; "there is something I want you to do for me." + +Katy came close to her side. Dorothy reached out her hand and caught the +girl's arm in her trembling grasp. + +"I want you to slip down quietly, Katy," she said--"mind, very +quietly--and see what they are doing down in the drawing-room. I hear +Mr. Kendal's voice and Miss Vincent's. Take notice if Mrs. Kemp is with +them, or if they are alone." + +"Are you going down to-night, Miss Dorothy?" asked Katy. + +"If it isn't too late," she answered, in a tremulous voice, adding: "I +want you to lay out the prettiest dress I have, and some nice ribbon for +my hair, before you go. I can be dressing while you are gone; it will +save that much time." + +Katy did as she was bid, and a few moments later was creeping +noiselessly down the back stairway, which led to the drawing-room. +Drawing the heavy silken _portieres_ aside, she peered cautiously in. +As she expected, Mr. Kendal and Miss Vincent were enjoying each other's +society, quite alone. But that was not the worst of it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +Katy gazed long and earnestly at the picture before her. + +Miss Vincent sat at the piano, magnificently dressed in a pale blue +chiffon evening dress, with great clusters of pink roses at her belt, at +her throat, and in the meshes of her jetty curls. + +Beside her, turning over the music, and bending like a lover over her, +was Harry Kendal. + +And as the girl watched she saw him suddenly lift to his lips the little +white hand that was straying over the keys. + +"Do let me persuade you to sing for me, Iris," he was saying. "In what +have I so far offended you that you are so ungracious to me this +evening, Iris?" he murmured, reproachfully. + +"I do not know that I am any different to-night from what I have always +been," pouted the beauty. "I simply do not feel like singing, that is +all." + +"You have changed your mood very suddenly, Iris," he declared. "You +asked me to come into the drawing-room to hear you sing, and now you +tell me that you have changed your mind. What am I to think?" + +"Whatever you please," she answered, curtly. + +"Tell me one thing, Iris," he murmured, a little hoarsely, bending +nearer over the pretty, willful coquette; "were the words of the song +you intended to sing suggestive of a sudden coldness between two very +near and very dear friends?" + +"I will not listen to you!" cried Iris, petulantly. + +"I repeat, what have I done to offend you, my dear girl?" he cried. + +"Say to yourself that it was surely not my intention nor my will. You +asked me to come to the library to listen to some poems. When I stepped +into the room I saw at a glance that you had quite forgotten the +appointment, Harry, by the picture that met my glance." + +He knew in an instant to what she referred--he sitting in the arm-chair +with Dorothy by his side, her arms twined about him. + +"I did not ask her in there, Iris," he said, huskily. "I found her in +there when I entered the apartment. She was evidently waiting for me. +She met me with tears and reproaches, and if there is anything that is +detestable to a man it is that line of conduct, believe me." + +Iris shrugged her shoulders, but made no reply. + +"Why did you not come in when you came to the door?" he asked, bending +dangerously near the fatally beautiful face so near his own. + +"Because I thought that two was company--three would be a crowd," she +responded, proudly tossing back her jetty curls. + +"_You_ would always be welcome to _me_, Iris," he said, huskily. "You +know that but too well by this time, don't you?" and his hand closed +tightly over the one lying lightly in her lap, and his head drooped +nearer still. + +"Great Scott! they are almost kissing each other, the two vipers!" +panted Katy to herself, her blood fairly boiling in her veins at the +sight of this billing and cooing. "Oh, if I only dared put poor Miss +Dorothy on her guard!" + +She could not refrain from bursting in upon them at this critical +instant, and in less time than it takes to tell it she had bounded into +the room. + +"A-hem, a-hem!" she coughed, pantingly; "but if you please, miss," +turning and addressing herself to Iris, "the housekeeper is looking for +you, and wants you to come to her." + +"Certainly," said Iris, springing up from the piano stool with a face +flushed as red as a peony and a very confused look in her eyes; "I will +go at once;" and with an assumed smile on her face she glided from the +room, muttering below her breath: + +"I'd like to choke that little imp of a maid! Whenever I am talking to +Harry Kendal, if I turn around I find her at my elbow." + +Katy was about to follow Miss Vincent from the room, when Harry called +to her. + +"Remain a moment," he said. "I wish to see you." + +With a little courtesy Katy obeyed. + +For a moment or two he stood quite still in the center of the room, +toying nervously with the medallion on his watch chain, and a very +perceptible frown on his dark, handsome face. + +"Tell me, how long have you been standing there, girl?" + +She hung her head, but did not answer; but that silence told him quite +as much as words. + +"The wisest girls are those who never see or hear anything," he +declared, eyeing her sharply. + +Again Katy courtesied, making no reply. She knew quite well what he +meant. + +"I may as well come to the point and say that you are not to mention to +any one anything that has taken place in this house--especially in this +room to-night. Now here is something that may help you to remember the +old adage that 'silence is golden.'" And as he spoke he thrust a bill +into the girl's hand, motioning her from the drawing-room, and turning +abruptly on his heel, he sauntered slowly across the room and flung +himself down in an easy chair. + +Katy hurried quickly upstairs. + +"The grand rascal!" she muttered; "to pay me to help deceive Miss +Dorothy! How my fingers tingled to box his ears! I longed to stamp my +foot and cry out: 'You handsome villain--engaged to marry one young girl +and making love to another! Oh! for shame! for shame!' It's a pity that +Miss Dorothy hasn't a good big brother to give him the trouncing he so +richly deserves. The Lord knows it's an unhappy life Miss Dorothy will +lead with him, and it would be a blessing in disguise if something +should happen to prevent the marriage from taking place. As for that +sly, black minx, Iris Vincent, she must have a soul as hard as adamant +and cruel as death to cheat a poor blind girl out of her lover, and to +try all her arts to win him from her. They fairly make love to each +other in her very presence; and she, poor soul! never knows it, because +she is blind! The curse of God will surely fall on them, and they will +be punished for their treachery to poor Miss Dorothy--and she so +trustful and innocent! I wish I could think of some plan to break that +up. Goodness knows, I wouldn't do such a thing for anything in the wide +world. I have always believed that the angels take terrible vengeance +upon any girl who takes another girl's lover from her by her wicked +coquetries." + +By this time she had reached Dorothy's _boudoir_. She found her young +mistress waiting for her with the greatest impatience. + +"Well," said Dorothy, quite as soon as she had opened the door, "who's +down there?" + +For an instant the inclination was strong within Katy's heart to tell +the whole truth of what she had seen and heard. It was not the dollar, +which seemed to burn in her pocket, that made her hold her tongue, but +the fear of giving poor blind Dorothy pain, that caused her to hold her +peace. + +"Only Mr. Kendal, miss." + +"I thought I heard voices," she said, wonderingly. + +"Miss Vincent was there when I entered the room, but left a moment or so +after," answered Katy, truthfully. + +"Were they talking together? And what were they talking about?" asked +Dorothy, eagerly. + +"That I can not say, miss," returned the girl, flushing to the roots of +her hair, and inwardly thankful that her poor young mistress could not +see the distress which she knew must be mirrored on her face. + +"Were they speaking so low that you could not hear them?" inquired +Dorothy, quickly. + +"Oh, no, miss! quite loud; but I was not listening." + +Dorothy gave a sigh of relief. + +"If it were not so late, I would go down stairs," she said, +reflectively. "But then, there's the ball to-morrow night. I will be up +late, so I suppose it would be just as well for me to rest to-night, for +I want to look my best, Katy. I would give the world to look bright and +gay as any girl there. I could hear the music, the patter of dancing +feet, and the sound of merry laughter. And, oh, Katy! perhaps I might +forget for a few brief moments my terrible affliction. I know Harry will +be happy amid the brilliant throng, and that thought alone will be joy +enough for me. You shall sit with me, Katy, to hold my wraps, my +flowers, my fan, and--and you must watch sharp, and tell me, Katy, if he +dances with any pretty girl the second time." + +She felt that she must make a confidant of some one, even though it was +Katy, the maid. + +"You must not think for one moment I am jealous, Katy," she said, "for I +assure you I am not; only as host I should not like him to pay too much +courtesy to any one person, you know." + +"Certainly not," assented Katy. + +"I have asked Iris what she intends to wear, but for some reason she +does not tell me, so I want you to notice particularly what she has on, +and if she looks very pretty. But then, I think she is sure to look +nice." + +"I shall look very closely, you may be sure of that," responded Katy, +"and tell you of everything that goes on--who's dancing, and who's +sitting in corners flirting, and just who Mr. Kendal dances with. Will +he take you in to supper, miss?" she asked, suddenly. + +She was sorry the moment after that she had asked the question, for +Dorothy's poor, sightless eyes filled with great tears. + +"You know that he would like to," she murmured, faintly, "but it would +be a ghastly sight--a poor blind girl sitting at the festal board with +the gay guests. Oh! why did God put such a terrible affliction upon me?" +throwing out her little white hands and beating the air as she sobbed +aloud in her agony. "Why can I not enter into his joys, and share them +with him as others do? Oh, Katy! will I not make but a sorry wife for my +handsome king--my idol? I wonder what he can find about me to hold me +still dear in his eyes, for I am no longer pretty, willful, madcap +Dorothy, as they once called me." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +The night of the ball came at last--the night which had been looked +forward to so anxiously for weeks by many a maiden and brave swain. + +By the time night had drawn her sable curtains over the sleeping earth +all the preparations had been completed at Gray Gables, and when the +lights were lighted it presented such a brilliant spectacle that those +who witnessed never forgot it. + +The guests began to arrive early, in order to have a long evening of +enjoyment. + +Late that afternoon an odd discussion had arisen which came near +wrecking the whole affair. + +Mrs. Kemp, Iris, and Dorothy were all seated in the general sitting-room +discussing the last but by no means least important matter of who +should receive the guests. + +"You are the young lady of the house," said Mrs. Kemp, turning to +Dorothy with a puzzled air, "and of course every one expects you to +perform that pleasant duty; but--" + +"Oh, no, no!" cut in Dorothy. "My--my affliction makes that an +impossibility. _You_ must do it, Mrs. Kemp." + +"Really, child, my presence is so much of a necessity in looking after +the servants and overlooking affairs in general that I assure you I can +not be spared even for a brief half hour; so, as near as I can see, Iris +must take your place for that occasion, with Mr. Kendal, to welcome your +guests. What do you say, my dear?" she asked, turning anxiously to the +beauty, who sat disconsolately by the window, listening to the +conversation, feeling confident as to how the debate must end--in _her +own_ favor. + +"I'm sure I do not mind doing so, if the arrangement suits Mr. Kendal +and--Dorothy." + +Harry entered the room at this stage, and of course the matter was +quickly laid before him. + +"Why, yes, Iris can help me receive the guests," he declared. "What a +happy thought! I supposed I alone was to be delegated to that task. Yes, +let us settle it in that manner, by all means." + +As usual, no one thought of consulting Dorothy's opinion. Indeed, they +scarcely missed her presence when, a few moments later, she slipped from +the room to have a good cry over the matter. + +Katy was startled as she beheld her white face as she groped her way +into the room. She sat so still that Dorothy imagined herself quite +alone. + +"I--I can not bear it!" she sobbed, flinging herself face downward on +the carpet with a wretched little sob. "In everything she seems to come +between me and my lover! Oh, I wish to Heaven that Iris Vincent would go +away! Harry has not been the same to me since she has been beneath this +roof. They tell me it is my imagination, but my heart tells me it is no +idle fancy. _She_ will be standing by my lover's side receiving _my_ +guests! Oh, angels up in Heaven, forgive me if the pangs of jealousy, +cruel as death, spring up in my poor heart at that bitter thought!" And +another thought: "Harry is beginning to depend so much upon her society. +Now, if I ask, 'Where is Harry?' the answer is, 'Out driving or walking +or singing with Iris.' Katy tells me she is very plain of face--nay, +even homely. If she were beautiful I should be in terror too horrible +for words. It is wicked of me, but, oh! I can not help but thank God she +is not fair of face, to attract my darling from me." + +Tears rolled down Katy's cheeks as she listened. Not for the world would +she have let her poor young mistress know that her grief had had a +witness. She kept perfectly quiet, making no sound, scarcely breathing, +until Dorothy passed slowly into an inner apartment, and she was +heartily glad that she touched her bell a moment after. + +Katy hurried to her with alacrity, taking pains, however, to tiptoe to +the door, open it, and close it again, quite as if she had just come in +from the corridor. + +"Now, Katy," said her young mistress, "you must make haste to help me +dress. I am impatient. I feel dreadfully nervous, as though a great +calamity was to take place. I feel just such a strange sensation as +seemed to clutch at my heart before that terrible accident happened that +has blighted my whole life." + +"Oh, dear Miss Dorothy, _please_ don't talk so!" cried Katy, aghast. +"I'm sure it isn't right, if I may make so bold as to say so to you. I +have always heard it said: 'Never cross a bridge of trouble until you +come to it.'" + +"'Coming events cast their shadows before,'" quoted Dorothy, slowly. + +"I have made your dress look so lovely, Miss Dorothy," she cried, +bravely attempting to turn her thoughts into another channel, "and it's +right sorry I am that you can't see it. Every one will say that it is +the prettiest dress at the ball. You said I might fix it any way that I +liked, so long as it looked grand." + +"How have you arranged it, Katy?" asked Dorothy, with a faint smile, +being girl enough to forget her sorrow for an instant in speaking of her +ball dress. + +"It is your new white tulle, miss, that I picked out--the one that you +had made to go to parties in, providing you were ever asked to any, the +first week you came to Gray Gables, you remember." + +"Oh, yes," murmured Dorothy, clasping her little hands. "I--I remember +so well how nice it looked on me, too." + +"You looked like an angel in it!" declared Katy; resuming: "Well, it's +that one, miss, and I have been embroidering flowers all over the front +of it as a surprise for you, and, oh, they look perfectly magnificent on +it!--just as though some one stood near you and threw a great handful +of blossoms over you and they clung to your white tulle dress just where +they fell." + +"What kind of flowers are they?" asked Dorothy, delightedly. + +"Wisteria blossoms," said Katy. + +Dorothy sprang to her feet, pale as death. + +"You have embroidered purple wisteria blossoms all over my ball dress?" +she whispered, in an awful voice. + +"Yes," returned the girl, wondering what was coming next. + +"Oh, Katy!" she cried, in a choking voice, "don't you know that purple +wisteria blossoms mean tears?" + +"I don't believe in all those old women's superstitions, miss," declared +Katy, stoutly. "I imagine that it was got up by some muddy-complexioned +creature, whose only annoyance was that the pretty blossoms didn't look +good on her, and consequently she gave them a bad name to keep others +from wearing them. There's plenty of such things being done." + +This explanation, or rather explosion of the pet superstition, amused +Dorothy vastly. + +"Well, I shall not mind the old adage about wisteria blossoms and tears. +I'll wear the dress anyhow, Katy, come what may. But do you know what +Iris is going to wear? I haven't been able to find out." + +"Nor has any one, ma'am," muttered Katy. "She has been making up her +ball dress in her own room for the past fortnight, and keeps the door +securely fastened; but we shall see very soon now, for it is quite time +to dress, and she has to be ready first to receive the guests. I heard +Mr. Kendal telling her so, a few moments since, as they passed through +the corridor just as I opened the door." + +She saw Dorothy turn a shade paler, and her head drooped, but she made +no reply. + +"Shall I commence now to arrange your toilet?" she asked, anxious to +dress her mistress, and then don her own new dress for the gala +occasion. + +"I don't want to go into the ball-room until all the guests have +arrived, and then I want to slip in quietly," said Dorothy; "so you need +not hurry." + +It was a sorry task at best for Katy, dressing her poor, blind mistress +for the ball. + +Ah! it was pitiful to see her sitting so patiently there with her back +to the mirror, while the maid, with great tears rolling down her cheeks, +fastened the clouds of tulle here and there with the dark blossoms, and +twined them in the golden curls that fell about her white neck. + +Oh, how radiantly fair she looked! And Katy knew that no one gazing in +those beautiful violet eyes would ever realize that the lovely girl was +blind--stone blind. + +Her hand trembled violently as, an hour later, she clung to her maid's +arm, and timidly, shrinkingly entered the great ball-room crowded with +guests. No one noticed their entrance, the throng was so great, and she +had her heart's desire. She slipped into a corner without her presence +being commented on. + +She did not know that a little place among a bower of ferns had been +previously arranged for her by Katy, where she could sit and hear the +music without being seen herself; nor would Katy be seen by the guests. + +"Tell me," she whispered, nervously clutching the girl's hand, "where is +Harry, and is--is Miss Vincent with him, and how does she look?" + +Before Katy could frame a reply the last question was rudely answered by +a stranger. Two young ladies at that instant dropped down into seats so +near Dorothy that she could easily have touched them had she reached out +her hand from her screen of palms and roses. + +"What a magnificent-looking girl that Iris Vincent is!" cried one of the +young girls. "The fame of her great beauty is spreading everywhere; but +I never dreamed she was as beautiful as the description I have heard of +her, and I find she far surpasses it. I wonder that poor, blind Dorothy +Glenn is not jealous that her affianced husband should pay the girl so +much attention." + +"This is the first time I have seen her," replied her companion, "and I, +too, am amazed at her marvelous beauty. As I stepped into the ball-room +she was the first person I beheld, and she has dazzled my eyes ever +since. Oh, it was a wonderful picture she made, standing under a slender +palm tree, in her white tulle dress flecked with gold and pearls, and +those blood-red rubies encircling her white throat and perfect arms and +coiled in her jetty curls; and then those glorious dark eyes! No wonder +men lose their hearts over her at the first fatal glance into their +wonderful, mesmeric depths. She is fairer than the fairest of poets' +dreams." + +Dorothy listened with bated breath, then turned quickly to Katy. + +"Have you deceived me--_me_, a poor blind girl?" she cried in a terrible +voice that sounded like a cry from the tomb. "You told me that the girl +who had come beneath this roof was homely and terribly plain. _They_ +say she is beautiful. Oh, God! have you deceived me? I must know the +truth at once." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +"Katy," repeated Dorothy, in a shrill, awful whisper, "tell me, have you +willfuly deceived me? You have said Miss Vincent was plain--nay, more, +that she was homely--and on all sides of me I hear them speaking of her +wonderful beauty." + +Katy sank back shivering in her seat. + +"It's fine feathers that make fine birds to-night," she rejoined, +faintly. "No wonder they think Iris Vincent looks well to-night. She's +rigged out like a real peacock; and her face is painted, too. I can see +it clear across the room; and I am quite sure that Mr. Kendal has +noticed it; and I've heard him say that if there's anything which he +detests, it's girls who whiten their faces with chalk." + +Still Dorothy did not feel comforted. A nameless fear which she could +scarcely define by words had crept into her heart, and a smoldering +flame of jealousy burst suddenly forth; and that was the beginning of a +terrible end. + +She leaned wearily back in her seat, and looked so white that Katy was +frightened. + +"Shall I get you a glass of ice-water, Miss Dorothy?" she cried. + +The pale lips murmured assent, and she flew to do her mistress' bidding. + +Left to herself, Dorothy sprang hastily to her feet. + +"It almost seems as if I shall go mad!" she murmured--"yes, mad--with +this terrible fear clutching at my heart! I must have air. I am +stifling!" + +All unmindful of the errand upon which she had sent Katy, Dorothy rose +hastily to her feet, and, remembering that there was a rear entrance +leading from the ball-room near where she sat, she groped her way +thither. + +The night air fanned her feverish cheek, but it did not cool the fever +in her brain or the fire that seemed eating into her very heart. A +thousand fancies, so weird and strange that they terrified her, seemed +to take possession of her brain. She had relied so entirely upon what +they had told her--that Miss Vincent was very plain--that the feeling of +jealousy had never before occurred to her; for well she knew that Harry +Kendal was a beauty-worshiper, and that no matter how much he might be +thrown in contact with a girl who was plain of face, he would never +dream of being anything else than simply courteous to her. + +Now affairs seemed to take on a new and hideous form. + +She recalled each and every incident that had taken place since Miss +Vincent's arrival, and + + "Trifles light as air + Seemed confirmation strong as Holy Writ" + +as she viewed them now. + +"Even the guests notice how attentive he is to her," she said to +herself, with a bitter sob, wringing her cold little hands and clutching +them tightly over her heart. + +Suddenly she heard the sound of voices, and sank down upon a seat at +hand until they should pass by. + +She did not know that the seat which she had selected on the broad +piazza was directly back of one of the large, vine-wreathed, fluted +pillars, and in the dense shadow. + +This time she readily divined that the voices must belong to two +light-hearted, happy girls. + +"Are you having a good time, Grace, dear?" asked one. + +"Oh, quite the jolliest I have ever had in all my life!" was the reply. +"I haven't missed one dance, and all my partners have been so +handsome--quite the prettiest fellows in the ball-room! And how is it +with you?" + +"Oh, I'm enjoying myself, too!" laughed the other girl, "But did you +notice what a ninny I had in that last waltz-quadrille? Don't you hate +partners who stand away off, and barely touch your finger-tips as they +dance with you? Upon my word, I'd rather have the straight-as-a-mackerel +kind, who hold you so tight you can scarcely catch your breath!" + +And at this both girls went off into uproarious laughter, when suddenly +one of them exclaimed: + +"Have you yet had a waltz with handsome Harry Kendal?" + +"No," returned the other, ruefully. "At the last ball I went to he was +almost wild to put his name down for every waltz with me. But, after +all, I can not wonder at that when I see how greatly he is infatuated +with the beauty of the ball to-night--the fair Iris Vincent." + +"Have you heard all the talk to-night about that?" chimed in the other, +her voice sinking to a low, confidential tone. "Every one has noticed +it, and it is the talk of the ball-room." + +"It is shameful for him to carry on so," returned her companion, "when +every one knows that his wedding day with poor, blind Dorothy Glenn is +so near at hand." + +"Do you know," said the other, slowly, "that I doubt if he will ever +marry Dorothy now? You must remember that he became engaged to her +before that terrible accident. And do you know there is great diversity +of opinion as to whether the poor fellow should marry her or not. It is +very nice to read about in books--of lovers proving true to their +_fiancees_ through every trouble and tribulation--but I tell you they +don't do it in real life. When trouble comes to a girl, nine lovers out +of ten fly from her 'to seek pastures new;' and, after all, to come +right down to the fine point, between you and me, could you really blame +Harry Kendal if he were to break off with Dorothy? He is young and +handsome, and I say that it would be a bitter shame for him to go +through life with a blind girl for a wife; and when I think of it I +actually feel indignant with the girl for holding him to his engagement +under such circumstances. She ought to know that in time he would +actually hate her for it. She can share none of his joys. Why, she would +be only a pitiful burden to handsome Harry Kendal! That girl whom he +seems so infatuated with would be a thousand times more suitable for +him. Oh, what a handsome couple they do make! And every one can see, +though they think they hide it so well, how desperately they are in love +with each other." + +They moved on, little dreaming of the ruin and blight they had left +behind them. + +They were scarcely out of hearing when the great cry that had been +choked back so long burst forth in a wild, piercing wail of agony that +meant the breaking then and there of a human heart. But the dance-music +inside, to which the joyous, merry feet kept time, completely drowned +it. + +Dorothy had risen from her chair, and the look on her face was terrible +to behold. + +"Let me quite understand it," she whispered--"let me try to realize and +grasp the awful truth: Harry Kendal, my lover, has ceased to care for +me, and is lavishing his attention, nay, more, his affection, upon +another and one who in return loves him; and they say that I should give +him up to her--I, who love him better than my own life! He is all I have +left me in my terrible affliction, and they would take even him from me +and give him to another. They said it was not right for me to cling to +him, and to burden him with a blind wife through life--that the thought +is torture to him. Oh, God in Heaven! can it be true?" + +And again the angels at the great White Throne were startled with the +piercing cries of woe that broke from the girl's white lips, which once +more the dance-music mercifully drowned. + +"I will go to him and confront him with what I have heard. He shall +choose between us before all the people assembled here to-night. I will +fling myself upon my knees at his feet, crying out: 'Oh, my darling! my +love! my life! tell me that the cruel rumors which I have heard are +false--that you do not hate me because--because of the awful affliction +that Heaven has seen fit to put upon me! Turn from the girl by your side +to me--to me, your promised bride! She can never love you as I do. You +are my all--my world! If I were to die to-day--aye, within this hour--my +soul could not leave this earth while you were here! I would cling to +you in life or in death!'" + +With a swift motion Dorothy turned and re-entered the house, forgetful +of her blindness, and to count the steps which she had taken, +remembering only that she was undergoing the greatest trial of her life. + +Swift as a fluttering swallow she hastened across the broad piazza, but +in the confusion of her whirling brain she had mistaken the direction. + +One instant more, too quick for a cry, too quick for a moan, she had +stepped off the veranda, and fell with a terrible thud down five feet +below, and lay, stunned and unconscious, on the graveled walk. + +The shock was so sudden, so terrible that surely God in His mercy was +kind in that the fearful pain of the fall was not realized by her. + +The moments dragged themselves wearily by as she lay there. Fully half +an hour elapsed. No one missed her save Katy, no one thought of looking +for her out in the cold and darkness, which was penetrated only by the +dim light of the stars. The dew of night fell silently, pityingly upon +the white, upturned face and curling golden hair, which lay tangled +among the sharp pebbles. Gradually consciousness dawned upon her brain. +The warm blood crept back to the chilled veins and pulsed feebly, but +with it came the remembrance of the terrible blow that had fallen upon +her. + +Dorothy staggered to her feet, but as she did so a strange electric +shock seemed to pass through her body and balls of fire to whirl before +her eyes. But as they cleared away a great cry broke from the girl's +lips: + +"Oh, God! can it be true? Heaven has restored my sight to me as +miraculously as it was taken from me!" + +Once again she saw the blue sky, with its myriads of golden-hearted +stars, bending over her; the great stone house, with its lighted +windows, and beyond, the tall, dark oak trees, with their great, +widespread tossing branches; and she fell upon her knees and kissed the +very stones at her feet and the green blades of waving grass that she +never once thought she would see again, and she raised her white arms to +heaven with such piteous cries of thankfulness that the angels must have +heard and wept over. + +Yes, Dorothy's sight had been restored to her as miraculously as it had +been taken from her. + +But even in the midst of her great joy the dregs of woe still lingered +as memory brought back to her the terrible ordeal through which she had +passed. + +With bated breath she turned and crept swiftly back to the house and up +to the long windows that opened out on the porch, sobbing bitterly to +herself that she would see at last if her lover was true or false to +her. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +With her heart throbbing with the most intense excitement, Dorothy +pushed aside the great clusters of crimson creepers and thick green +leaves, pressed her white face close against the window-pane, and gazed +in upon the gorgeous scene. + +For an instant the great blaze of light dazzled her weak eyes, and +everything seemed to swim before her. + +But gradually, little by little, she began to distinguish objects, and +at last her eyes fell upon the face of Harry Kendal. + +With a great cry, the girl clutched her hands tightly over her heart. +She never thought that she would look upon his face again in this world. + +It was _his_ face--the face of her hero, her king, before which all else +paled as the moonbeams pale before the glaring light of the rising sun. +Then suddenly she saw the face beside him into which he was gazing, and +it was then that the heart in her bosom almost turned to stone. + +Never in all her life had she beheld such a vision of loveliness, and +she knew in an instant that the proud beauty must be Iris Vincent. + +Slowly Dorothy crept around to the other side of the porch, up to the +window, that she might have a better view of them, and perhaps she could +hear what they were saying. + +But as she reached it, to her great disappointment she saw them link +arms and stroll out of the ball-room toward the conservatory, and +thither she bent her steps, intent upon reaching it before they did. + +She had barely screened herself behind a tall _jardiniere_ of roses and +flowering plants, ere, laughing and chattering, the two entered the +floral bower. + +"The ball is a grand success, Iris," he was saying, gayly; "they all +seem to be enjoying themselves immensely. How is it with you?" + +"It is a night that will stand out forever in my life," she responded, +glancing up at him with those dangerously dark eyes, and a smile on her +red lips. + +The girl who watched them breathlessly from behind the roses clutched +her hands over her heart. + +The sight maddened her. They were so near each other, their heads bent +so close; and while she gazed, suddenly Kendal bent still closer and +kissed the girl's lips. + +Dorothy tried to cry aloud, to spring out and confront them. Her brain +reeled; the blood, chill as ice, stood still in her veins, and without a +cry, or even a moan she sank down unconscious in her hiding-place. + +"What is that sound?" cried Iris, with a start. + +"Only some of the clumsy servants in the corridor without," replied +Kendal. "But, Iris, are you trying to avoid me? I have brought you here +to tell you something, and you must listen. The time has come when we +must fully understand each other. You know quite as well as I that the +life we are leading, Iris, can not go on like this forever. From the +first moment we met the attraction I felt toward you changed the whole +current of my life." + +Iris hid her face in the bouquet of white hyacinths which she carried. + +"It is too late to talk of that now," she murmured. "Your heart went +out to another before--before I met you." + +"There is such a thing as affections waning when one discovers that +one's heart is not truly mated, Iris," he cried. + +She did not answer; and thus emboldened by her silence, he went on, +huskily: + +"Let me give you the whole history of my meeting with Dorothy Glenn, +from first to last, and you will understand the situation better. You +can realize, Iris, that an acquaintance which commences through a +flirtation, as it were, can never end in true love. Such an acquaintance +is not a lasting one. Come and sit down on this rustic seat, Iris, and +listen; and as we sit here in the dim, mellow light, you shall judge me, +and your decision shall seal my fate." + +At the self-same moment in which Harry Kendal was beginning his +narrative, there was quite a commotion at the outer gate which guarded +the main entrance of Gray Gables. + +One of the servants, lounging lazily at his post of duty, was suddenly +startled out of the doze into which he had fallen by the shadow of a +woman flitting hurriedly past him. + +"Hold on, there! Hold on, I say! Who are you, and what do you want?" + +A figure clad in a long dark cloak, hooded and veiled, stopped short +with a little exclamation, which he could not quite catch. + +"Hold on, there! Where are you going?" he repeated, springing to her +side. "There is something going on here to-night. You can't enter these +grounds until I know who you are and what your business is." + +"This is Gray Gables, is it not?" exclaimed a tremulous voice from +behind the veil. + +"I should have supposed you would have found that out before you entered +the grounds," declared the man, suspiciously. + +She saw her mistake, and started. + +"I only wanted to make sure that I was right," she said, apologetically. +"I--I have business with the housekeeper; I want to see her." + +Before she could utter another word he whistled sharply. His call +brought a small lad to his side. + +"Tell Mrs. Kemp there's a young woman here who would like to see her. +What name, please?" he asked, abruptly, turning to the veiled figure. + +"I--I am afraid she wouldn't know; but you might, mention the name--Miss +Mead"--this rather stutteringly. + +Very soon the answer came back that the housekeeper did not know Miss +Mead, and hadn't time to see strangers. + +"But I must see her!" implored the excited voice from behind the thick +veil. "Do let me go to the house to her. I will detain her but a moment, +I assure you. She would be so sorry if she missed seeing me." + +With no suspicion of the terrible catastrophe that was to follow on the +heels of it, the man without further ado allowed her to pass. + +The stranger sped quickly up the graveled walk, and, as Dorothy had done +but a short time before, drew cautiously up to the brilliantly lighted +window, threw back her veil, and peered breathlessly in upon the +gorgeous scene. + +As the light fell athwart her, you and I, dear reader, can easily +recognize the marble-white face of--Nadine Holt. + +"So!" she muttered, between her clinched teeth, "I have tracked my +false, perfidious lover to his home at last. When Harry Kendal lighted +the fire of love in my heart, he little knew that the blaze would in +time consume himself. I am not one to be made love to and cast off at +will, as he shall soon see. + +"From the hour that he eloped with Dorothy Glenn, on that memorable +Labor Day, life lost all its charms for me, and I vowed to Heaven that I +would find them, and deal out vengeance to them. They crushed my heart, +and now I shall crush theirs. Ah, how I watched for him in the crowded +streets, the ferries, and on the elevated roads! + +"I believed sooner or later that I should find him, and I was right. +Only a week ago I met him face to face, but he did not know me because +of the thick veil I wore. I might have raised my veil and he would never +have recognized in the pinched and haggard features the countenance of +Nadine Holt, whose beauty he was wont to praise so lavishly. Ah, the +traitor! + +"He turned into a florist's shop, and he never dreamed who the woman was +who entered the place and stood silently beside him while he gave the +order for the great decorations for the grand ball which was to take +place at his home in Gray Gables, in Yonkers, a fortnight from that +date. + +"When he quitted the shop I flew out after him; but all in an instant he +disappeared from my sight as though the ground had suddenly opened and +swallowed him. But I laughed aloud. What cared I then. I knew just +where to find him. The place was written indelibly on my brain in +letters of fire--Gray Gables, Yonkers! + +"Only Heaven knows how I have worked to get a day off and to earn extra +money to make this little trip! And now I am here to face him. Is he +married to Dorothy Glenn, I wonder? It would take only that knowledge to +make a fiend incarnate of me!" + +At that moment one of the servants passing along the porch stopped short +at sight of the young woman in black, with the death-white face and +flashing black eyes, peering into the ball-room from the long porch +window. + +"They are having a great time in there," he said, jerking his head with +a nod in the direction of the ball-room. + +"Yes!" returned Nadine Holt, sharply. + +Then it occurred to her that she could find out something about the +lover who had deserted her. And there was another thing which puzzled +her greatly. The name which he had given the florist was not the one by +which she had known him--she would find out all by this man. Now he was +calling himself Mr. Harry Kendal--that was the name he had given the +florist. + +"In whose honor is the ball given, my good fellow?" she asked, with an +assumption of carelessness. + +For a moment he looked stupidly at her. + +"I mean, who is giving the ball?" she added. + +"Oh, it's Mr. Kendal, ma'am--leastwise, he and Miss Dorothy are giving +it together." + +She started as though a serpent had stung her, then stood perfectly +still and looked at the man with gleaming eyes. + +"Miss Dorothy--who?" she asked, knowing full well what his answer must +be. + +"Miss Dorothy Glenn, ma'am," he replied. "But she won't be 'miss' very +long, for she is soon to marry Mr. Kendal." + +"Soon to marry him!" she repeated, vaguely, saying in the next breath, +"then they are not _already_ married," muttering the words more to +herself than to the man. "Where does this girl, Dorothy live?" she +asked, suddenly. + +"That I couldn't say, ma'am," he replied. "I only came to Gray Gables +to-day, to work. I know only the little that I have heard the servants +say while at their work this afternoon. They say Miss Dorothy is very +beautiful." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +The white face into which the man gazed grew whiter still, the eyes +dilated, and her heart twinged with a pang of jealousy more bitter than +death to endure. + +People always made that remark when speaking of Dorothy. It was that +fatal gift which had won her lover from her, Nadine said to herself, and +which had wrecked her life. + +Oh! if she could but destroy that pink-and-white beauty! + +The thought was born in Nadine Holt's breast all in an instant, and +seemed to fire her whole being. + +She knew her lover's passionate adoration of a beautiful face, and then +and there the thought came to her: How long would he love Dorothy Glenn +if that pretty pink-and-white face were seamed and scarred? + +She laughed--a low, strange, eerie laugh that quite startled the man as +he walked away. + +Left to herself, Nadine Holt deliberately opened the hall door and stole +into the house. She had but one purpose in view, and that was to +confront her lover and Dorothy before all the invited guests. + +There was nothing about the dark figure to attract especial attention, +and she glided through the corridor unnoticed. + +Was it the hand of fate most terrible that guided her toward the +conservatory? The dark figure glided like a shadow toward the open door, +and then paused abruptly, for the low sound of voices fell upon her ear, +and one of them she recognized as that of her perfidious lover. + +Through the softened pearly gloom she saw him sitting on the rustic +bench close--very close--to the slender, girlish figure in fleecy white, +and the sight made the blood in her veins turn to molten fire. + +Like an evil spirit she crept toward them. She would--she _must_--know +what he was saying to his companion in that leafy bower. + +She said to herself, of course it was Dorothy, and that they had stolen +away from the lights and the music for a few tender words with each +other, after the fashion of love-sick lovers. + +It had not been so very long ago since he had been talking with her in +just that lover-like way, only their courtship had taken place in the +public parks, sitting on the benches, or walking lovingly arm in arm +along the crowded thoroughfares; and he had brought Dorothy to his own +grand home--Dorothy, her hated rival!--to enjoy this paradise of a +place, and to make love to her in this Eden bower of roses and scented, +murmuring, tinkling fountains. + +"Dorothy!" he murmured in his rich, low, musical voice. How plainly she +heard the name! The rest of the sentence she could not catch, though she +crept nearer and nearer, and strained every nerve to listen. "I love you +as I have never loved anything in this life before," she heard him say, +"and my future without you would be unendurable. I can not endure it--I +will not!" + +The poor wretch who listened grew mad as she heard the tender words +whispered into the ears of another by her false lover. + +She crouched still lower, and her hand, as she threw it out wildly, came +in contact with something hard and cold. It was a long, thin, +sharp-bladed knife which the gardener had been using only that day to +trim the bushes, and which, in his hurry, he had carelessly forgotten. +She realized instantly what it was, and, with the thought, a diabolical +idea crept into her brain. + +"Why should Dorothy Glenn live to enjoy the smiles of the man whose love +she has robbed me of," she muttered below her breath, "while my heart +hungers and my soul quivers in endless torture for the affection that +is denied me? I can endure it no longer!" + +The mad desire to spoil the fair beauty of her rival overpowered her +until the thought possessed her and rendered her almost a fiend +incarnate. + +Grasping the long, sharp-bladed knife tightly, Nadine Holt raised her +right arm slowly, cautiously. Not so much as a leaf rustled to warn the +two sitting on the rustic bench of the terrible danger that hung over +them. + +Harry Kendal's low, musical voice sank to a lower cadence. He drew the +slender figure of the girl nearer and that action was fatal. + +There was a quick, whizzing sound, followed by an awful cry of terror +from Iris, and Kendal's hand, resting lightly about her waist, was +deluged in blood. + +"Murder! murder! Oh, heavens!" shrieked Iris, and she fell at his feet +in a swoon. + +In the commotion Nadine Holt turned like a pantheress and made her +escape from the conservatory and from the house. + +"Murder! murder!" Those terrible cries that rent the air were the first +sounds that Dorothy heard as her benumbed brain gained consciousness. +And as she staggered, benumbed and dazed, to her feet she almost fell +over a slimy knife lying there, and at that instant a strong hand flung +back the rose-vines and Harry Kendal, white and quivering with wrath, +confronted her. + +"Dorothy Glenn!" he cried, in a horrible voice fairly reverberating with +intense emotion, "You! Oh, you cruel, wicked girl! You--you fiend! to do +what you have done!" and reaching out his hand he flung her backward +from him as though she were a scorpion whose very touch was +contamination. "Fly up to your own room," he cried, hoarsely, "and do +not leave it for a moment until I come to you there! Have nothing to +say; refuse to speak to any one!" and catching her fiercely by the +shoulder, he fairly dragged her through the conservatory toward the rear +door, which communicated with a back stairway that led up to her room. + +Faint and dazed, Dorothy had not offered the least resistance to this +cruel treatment. Her brain seemed stupefied by the whirling, confusing +events taking place so rapidly around her. She only realized two things: +that she had betrayed her presence in the conservatory when she fell to +the floor upon hearing her lover speak words of affection to her rival, +and that Harry was bitterly angry with her for being there. She did not +remember that she had lost consciousness. It seemed to her that as her +senses were about leaving her strange cries recalled them. + +It occurred to her that in his excitement and anger her lover had not +noticed that she had regained her sight. + +Wearily Dorothy ascended the steep, narrow stairway and entered her own +room. A soft, low, dim light flooded the apartment, upon which she had +not gazed for many and many a long day. + +Katy was not there, and she flung herself into the nearest arm-chair, +sobbing wretchedly, although on that night she had cause to cry out to +Heaven and rejoice for God's mercy to her for so unexpectedly restoring +her sight. But, ah, me! how strange it is that all the blessings Heaven +can shower upon us seem as dross when the one love we crave proves +fickle. + +Dorothy did not have the heart to cry out joyfully and thankfully. Her +head drooped on her breast with a low, quivering sigh, and her hands +fell in her lap. + +Suddenly something around the bottom of her dress caught her eye, and +she started to her feet with a low cry. + +"It is blood!" she cried out in an awful voice. + +No sooner had the door closed behind Dorothy ere Kendal flew back to +Iris' side. + +No one had heard the terrible cries. He thanked Heaven for that. The +music had drowned them. + +He had quite believed that Iris was dying. A hasty examination showed +him that it was only a slight wound on the shoulder, from which blood +was flowing profusely. + +"Thank God it is no worse!" he cried, breathing freely. + +He quickly set about restoring Iris, and in a moment she opened her +eyes. + +"Murder! murder!" she would have cried again, but he put his hand +instantly over her red lips. + +"Hush! hush! in Heaven's name!" he cried. "You will alarm the whole +household. You are not seriously hurt!" + +"Some one was trying to murder me!" shrieked Iris, hysterically. + +"No, no!" he returned, quickly. "Listen, Iris, for Heaven's sake! One of +the panes of glass of the conservatory directly overhead was broken, +and--and a little part of it fell in, grazing your shoulder. It is a +deep and painful scratch, I can well understand; but it is only a +scratch, I can assure you." + +"Oh, it has ruined my dress!" cried the girl, in anger and dismay, never +thinking for an instant of doubting the truth of his assertion. "I can +not appear in the ball-room again. No one must know that we were here +together," she went on, hastily--"not one human soul! You must give out +that I--I became suddenly indisposed and went to my own room." + +"Yes, I think your suggestions are best," he agreed. + +The guests received this explanation of the sudden absence of the beauty +of the ball with regret, and more than one whisper went the rounds of +the room how this seemed to disturb handsome Harry Kendal, for his face +was very pale, and he seemed so nervous. + +At the earliest opportunity Harry Kendal slipped away from the merry +throng and up to Dorothy's apartment, hastily knocking at the door. + +She opened it herself. + +"Step out into the corridor," he said, sternly; "I want to speak to +you." + +And trembling with apprehension caused by his stern manner, Dorothy +obeyed. + +She could see, even in the dim light, that his face was white as death. + +"I have come to have an understanding with you, Dorothy Glenn!" he cried +hoarsely. "Your dastardly action of to-night has forever placed a +barrier between you and me! I am here to say this to you: here and now I +sever our betrothal! The same roof shall no longer shelter us both! +Either you leave this house to-night, or I'll go!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +It was the most pitiful scene that pen could describe. The beautiful +young girl, in her dress of fleecy white, with the faded purple blossoms +on her breast entwined among the meshes of her disheveled golden hair, +crouching back among the green leaves, and the white-faced, handsome, +angry man clutching her white arm, crying out hoarsely that never again +should they both breathe the same air beneath that roof--that she must +leave Gray Gables within the hour, or he would. + +"I did not know that I had done so terribly wrong," moaned the girl, +shrinking back from those angry, fiery eyes that glowered down so +fiercely into her own. + +A laugh that was more horrible than the wildest imprecation could have +been broke from his lips. + +"You seem to have a remarkably mixed idea of right and wrong," he +retorted, sternly, relaxing his hold and standing before her with rigid, +folded arms, his anger growing more intense with each passing instant as +he looked down into the girl's agonized face. + +Had she done so very, very wrong in remaining in the conservatory, and +in listening to her betrothed make love to her rival? she wondered +vaguely. + +Surely, she should have been the one to have cried out in bitter anger, +not he. + +"Let me tell you how it all came about," she gasped, faintly. + +"I--I was in the ball-room with Katy, when it grew so warm that I sent +for an ice. She did not return as soon as I had expected her, and--and I +groped my way out into the garden to await her there. But as I stepped +from the porch a wonderful thing happened, Harry. I--I missed my footing +and fell headlong down the steps to the graveled walk below, and the +shock restored my sight. Oh! look at me, Harry!" she exclaimed, with +quivering intensity, holding out her white arms toward him. "I can see +now. I can see your idolized face, oh, my beloved! I--I came here to +tell you this--to tell you the wonderful tidings! I intended to send to +the ball-room for you, but before I could put my intention into +execution I--I heard steps approaching, and drew back among the +screening leaves till they should pass. You came in with Iris Vincent, +and I heard what you said, and my brain whirled--I grew dazed. You--you +know the rest!" + +He was not overwhelmed by the great tidings that she had regained her +sight, as she had expected he would be. Instead, he retorted brusquely: + +"It was a pity that your sight returned to you to enable you to do so +dastardly a deed; and I am beginning to have my doubts whether or not +you have not been duping us all along, and, under that guise, spying +upon us--which seems to be your forte. This revelation makes me angrier +than ever," he went on, "for it leaves you with no possible hope of +pardon for your atrocious conduct, which merits the whole world's scorn +and contempt!" + +"I see it all!" cried Dorothy, springing to her feet and facing him. +"You have prearranged this quarrel with me to break our betrothal, that +you might wed your new love--Iris Vincent. But, just for pure spite, I +will not release you--never! I will tell the whole world of your +duplicity. An engagement is a solemn thing. It takes two to enter into +it and two to break it." + +The scorn on his handsome face deepened. + +"I do not very well see how you can marry a man when he makes up his +mind not to have you," he declared. "That is a difficult feat, and I +shall have to see it done before I can be convinced that it can be +accomplished," he replied, icily, adding: "There are many women in this +world who would stand back and watch such a proceeding with the wildest +anxiety, I imagine;" this sneeringly. + +"You shall never marry Iris Vincent!" Dorothy panted. "I--I would +prevent it at any cost. Once before you forsook me when I needed you +most; you left me to die when I fell from the steamer down into +the dark water, when we were returning from Staten Island, that +never-to-be-forgotten night; so why should I be surprised at your +willingness to desert me now?" + +He turned on his heel. + +"It is now two o'clock in the morning," he said. "My duty requires me to +go down to the ball-room and bid the guests adieu as they take their +departure, and when that is over I shall leave this house until this +difficulty has been settled. The reading of Doctor Bryan's will is to +take place at noon. I shall be present then, and after that--well--well, +we shall see what will take place." + +With these words Kendal quitted the room, and left Dorothy standing +there with the tears falling like rain down her cheeks--surely the most +piteous object in the whole wide world. + +When Kendal found himself alone his intense anger against Dorothy began +to cool a little. + +"It is true she attempted to do a horrible deed," he muttered; "but I +must not forget that love for me prompted her to it, and show her _some_ +mercy." + +After all the guests had taken their departure, and the house had +settled down into the darkness and quiet of the waning night, Kendal +paced his room in a greatly perturbed state of mind, thinking the matter +over. + +He was terribly in love with Iris, he admitted to himself; but he had +done wrong, fearfully wrong, in breaking off his engagement with Dorothy +until after the reading of the will. Iris was beautiful, bewitching--his +idea of all that a proud, imperious, willful sweetheart should be--but +Dorothy would have what was much better than all this, the golden +shekels; and then, too, now that the girl was no longer blind, she would +have plenty of admirers; and he could have cursed himself for those +hasty words, that no longer should she live under the same roof with +himself. + +It was daylight when he threw himself down on the bed, fairly worn out; +and his head no sooner touched the pillow than he fell into a deep +sleep, and it was almost noon ere he opened his eyes again, and then it +was the slow, measured chime of the clock as it struck the half hour +which awakened him. + +"Great Heaven! half past eleven!" he ejaculated, springing from the +couch. "I shall barely have time to get downstairs to be present at the +reading of the will. I must make all haste; but first of all I must find +out how Iris is, and if her shoulder pains her much." + +He rang the bell hastily, and to the servant who answered the summons he +gave his verbal message to Miss Vincent. But in a very short time the +man returned, placing a letter in his hand. + +Kendal was mystified, for he saw that it was Iris' delicate chirography. +He tore open the envelope with the fever of impatience, and as his eye +fell upon the delicately written lines his handsome face turned white as +marble. + + "My DEAR HARRY," it commenced, "you will feel greatly + surprised at the contents of this letter. I think it + best to break into the subject at once, and to tell you + the plain truth of just what has happened. + + "Shortly after I left you and retired to my own + apartments the pain in my shoulder became so intense + that, remembering there was a young surgeon among the + invited guests, I sent for him at once. I can never + tell you just exactly how it came about, but the upshot + of the whole matter was that he asked me to marry him. + + "I wanted time to consider it; but he said it must be + then and there, within the hour, or never. I demurred, + but he was resolute. + + "I realized that I held my future in my own hands, and + that I had to decide upon my own destiny at once. + + "He is a millionaire's son, and you are only a poor, + struggling physician. Can you wonder that it could + terminate only in one way? + + "I accepted him, and by the time that you are reading + this we shall be married and far away. So good-bye, + Harry. Try and forgive me, if you can. + + "IRIS." + +With a horrible imprecation, Kendal tore the note into a thousand +fragments, hurled them upon the floor, and ground his heel into them. + +"False!" he cried. "I might have known it. It is always these beautiful +women who are so heartless. They draw men on with their smiles and their +bewitching fascinations, only to throw them over when a more eligible +_parti_ appears upon the scene." + +Deeply as he had been smitten with her charms, her action caused an +instantaneous revulsion of feeling. + +"'What care I how fair she be, if she be not fair to me?'" he cried out, +bitterly, to himself. "What a fool I was, to be duped by her so long! +The iron has entered deep into my soul, but she shall see that she can +not quite crush me. I will live to be revenged upon Iris Vincent if it +costs me my life! If Dorothy inherits the million, I will marry her +before the sun sets to-night. I only wish that I had known the way that +affairs were shaping themselves. I--I should not have treated Dorothy so +harshly." + +It seemed as though all in an instant his heart went back to her in the +rebound. + +He rushed hurriedly down into the dining-room, there to be met by Mrs. +Kemp, who advanced toward him with a white, startled face. + +"Oh, Mr. Kendal," she gasped, breathlessly, "you can never in the world +guess what has happened!" + +"I rather think I can," retorted the young man, harshly: "your niece, +Miss Vincent, has eloped with the millionaire's son across the way." + +"That--that is not what I had reference to," said Mrs. Kemp, with a sob. +"I--I admit that Iris has eloped, but it is not she whom I meant, but +Dorothy." + +"What of her?" cried Kendal, sharply, little dreaming the truth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +For an instant Kendal looked at the housekeeper in amazement. + +"What of Dorothy?" he repeated, breathlessly. + +"She has disappeared too!" returned the housekeeper, faintly, adding: +"She did not go with Iris, as you may imagine." + +"No?" he echoed, faintly, inquiringly. + +"No," she responded; "she went alone. She said to Katy, last night, 'If +you wake up on the morrow, and do not find me here, do not weep. I shall +be where I will be better off. No one will miss me--no one will know or +care whither I have gone.' Katy thought them idle words, and paid little +heed to them; but this morning, when she awoke and found that Dorothy +was not in her room, in the greatest of alarm she came to me and told me +what had occurred. At that moment I was just smarting under the blow of +Iris' elopement, and words fail to describe my feelings at this second +and most terrible catastrophe, for I realized how it would affect you, +my poor boy." + +Kendal had sunk down into the nearest chair, white as death, and +trembling like an aspen-leaf. + +He could hardly grasp the meaning of her words. "Dorothy gone--Iris fled +with another!" His lips twitched convulsively, but he uttered no sound. + +"I made diligent search for Iris and Dorothy," Mrs. Kemp went on, +tearfully. "I found my niece had been married at the rectory, and had +taken the first train to the city with her newly made husband; they +intend starting on the steamer which leaves New York for Europe to-day. +So, of course, there was nothing to be done in Iris' case, so I turned +my attention to Dorothy. But, as I remarked before, it was useless. I +think she must have gone to New York City, and if she has, trying to +find her will be like hunting for a needle in a hay-stack. I was shocked +that she should have left to-day, because she well knew that this was +the day on which the will was to be read, and that concerns her so +vitally. Ah! here is the lawyer now," and before Kendal could frame a +reply the gentleman was ushered into the old-fashioned library. + +He greeted both Mrs. Kemp and the young man gravely, and they knew by +his demeanor that he had heard what occurred. + +His very first words assured them of that fact, and he went on to say +that Dorothy's disappearance, however, would make no difference in the +reading of Doctor Bryan's will, which was set for that day and hour. + +"As my time is rather limited," he continued, "you will, I trust, pardon +me if I proceed to business at once." + +He looked sharply from one to the other, and, as they both bowed assent, +he opened the satchel he had brought with him, and proceeded to take out +the document which meant so much to Kendal, unfolded it with great +precision, and in his high, metallic voice he read it through slowly and +impressively. + +Kendal had quite imagined that the old doctor would leave him a goodly +share of his vast estate--perhaps something like a hundred thousand or +so--indeed, he would not have been surprised to have learned that the +doctor had left him a quarter of a million dollars. + +To his unspeakable horror he found that he had been cut off without a +dollar; all had been left to Dorothy, without reserve or condition, save +one, and that condition was a most important one: that she should marry +Kendal six months after his decease, or relinquish the fortune +bequeathed to her. + +"I may as well explain to you my old friend's idea in making this will," +said the lawyer, turning to the young man. "He wished Miss Glenn to +marry you, and thought this the most expedient and effectual way of +bringing about the marriage of two young people whose interests he had +so deeply at heart. Had he lived long enough to have made a new will, I +am sure it would have been entirely different." + +But not one word of all this did Harry Kendal hear. His brain was on +fire. He only realized one thing--that he was a beggar on the face of +God's earth; and, to make matters worse, he had by his own rash act +driven Dorothy from beneath that roof, thereby cutting off his own +chance of marrying her and being master of Gray Gables. + +He clinched his hand and ground his handsome white teeth together in +terrible rage. + +There was but one thing to do, and that was to find Dorothy ere the +fortnight waned, and marry her at once--that is, if he could ever +persuade her to forgive him. + +He had parted from her in bitter anger, and said words to her that women +never forgive when uttered by those whom they love. The worst part of +the whole affair was, their quarrel had been over another girl. + +"No steps will be taken until the fortnight has elapsed," said the +lawyer in his metallic voice; "and at the expiration of that time, if we +do not congratulate you, Mr. Kendal, upon your marriage to Miss Dorothy, +we shall have to make great changes at Gray Gables. Allow me to wish you +both a very good-morning." + +With these brief words the brisk little lawyer took a hasty departure. + +Mrs. Kemp and Kendal stood looking at each other long after his +departure with faces pale as death. + +It was the housekeeper who broke the silence. + +"I am sorry for you, Mr. Kendal," she said. "It is a terrible thing to +have one's hopes dashed after that fashion--and when one doesn't deserve +it, either. You were always so good and faithful and true to Dorothy, +sir; even keeping your promise with her through the most terrible +affliction that ever could have befallen her--that of blindness. It is +dreadful to think that the moment she regained her sight, and believing +herself to be the possessor of a great fortune, that she should show +every one so plainly that she thought you were not good enough for her +to marry by running away from you, Mr. Kendal!" + +Every word she so innocently uttered cut him like a sharp sword. + +"Not good enough for her?" he echoed, crushing back the imprecation that +sprang to his lips. His blood boiled at the construction which she put +upon the matter. It was a terrible blow to his pride, yet he dared not +utter the truth until he should know whether or not he should be able to +find Dorothy and marry her within the allotted fortnight. + +Without a word Kendal turned on his heel and quitted the room, slamming +the door after him with a decided bang. + +Before the sun set that night he was in New York City again and +searching for Dorothy. + +It meant a fortune for him. He _must_ find her. He dared not think of +what failure would mean to him--of the ruin that would stare him in the +face. + +The idea suggested itself to him that in all probability Dorothy would +seek out her old companions of the book-bindery. He felt that it would +be rather daring to go there, where he would meet Nadine Holt, after his +so abrupt desertion of her; but his anxiety over Dorothy overcame all +scruples, and late that afternoon the girls of the Hollingsworth +book-bindery were astonished at the door being flung suddenly open and +seeing the handsome young man whom they had known as the street-car +conductor and Nadine Holt's lover standing on the threshold. + +His eyes ran rapidly over the scores of girls at their tables, resting +at length upon a fair, pale thoughtful young girl standing nearest him. +He remembered having often seen her with Dorothy. He recollected, too, +that her name was Nannie Switzer. He stepped up to her and raised his +hat with that courteous bow that was always so fascinating to young +girls. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, "but, finding myself in your vicinity, I +dropped in to look up my old friend. I refer to the young girl with whom +I used to see you so much--Dorothy Glenn." + +To his utmost surprise, the young girl burst into a flood of tears. + +"Oh, sir, you can not tell how your words affect me!" she sobbed. + +"Why?" he asked, surprisedly. + +The girl hung her pretty head, and her blue eyes sought the floor in the +greatest embarrassment. + +"Will you tell me why?" he repeated, earnestly. "It is my right to know, +is it not, Miss Nannie?" + +"Well, you see, sir," she stammered, confusedly, "we have not seen or +heard anything from Dorothy Glenn since Labor Day and every one +hereabouts thought that--that _you_ knew where she was." + +He flushed a dark crimson and gave a guilty start. + +"I am so glad to know that our suspicions were groundless," she +breathed, thankfully; adding: "I am indeed sorry that I can not tell you +where Dorothy is; we would all give the world to know, I assure you." + +He could not help asking next, in a low, husky voice: + +"What of Nadine Holt? Where is she?" + +Again the girl's face clouded. + +"She has worked right along here with us up to a week ago," she +answered, "and then Nadine went away suddenly, without saying so much as +good-bye to any of us." She could not help but add: "She has changed so +greatly that you would never know her. She is no longer the dark-eyed +beauty whom you remember; she looks ten years older. She never smiles +now, and there is a horrible look in her eyes--like the cunning gleam +one sees in the eyes of the insane; and, oh! sir, let me warn +you--_you_, of all men--for the love of Heaven, do not cross her path! +Remember, I--I warn you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +Harry Kendal threw back his dark, handsome head with a gesture of +disdain and looked at the girl. + +"I do not know of any reason why you should warn _me_, above all other +men, that it is dangerous to cross Miss Holt's path," he said. "Almost +any young man will flirt with a pretty girl when he finds her so _very_ +willing. She understood that it was only a flirtation; but when I met +your little friend Dorothy, of course all that nonsense with Nadine +ceased." + +"Nadine did not call it a flirtation," returned the girl, gravely. "You +might call it that. She thought of it differently, I am sure." + +"Where is Jessie Staples?" he asked, abruptly, to change the +embarrassing subject. + +"She, too, has left the bindery," was the unexpected reply. "There have +been great changes among the people in this book-bindery within the last +few months. A young man connected with the place had quite a sum of +money left him, and Jessie Staples was a great favorite with this young +man's mother, so at their invitation Jessie went to live with them." + +Finding that she had nothing more to tell him, Kendal soon after took +his departure. + +He was desperate as he walked along the street. + +"What in the name of Heaven shall I do?" he cried. "One day of the +fortnight has already passed, and I have not even the slightest clew to +Dorothy's whereabouts." And in that hour in which he realized that she +was indeed lost to him he knew how well he actually loved the girl. +Iris' fickleness had killed his mad infatuation at one blow, and, +man-like, his heart returned at once to its old allegiance. + +Now that he knew that it was only a question of the merest chance of +ever finding Dorothy, his very soul seemed to grow wild with anxiety. + +Suddenly a thought born of desperation occurred to him--why not consult +a fortune-teller as a last resort? It just flashed across his brain, an +advertisement he had read and laughed over in one of the New York papers +a few days before: + +"Madame ----, seventh daughter of the seventh daughter, reveals to those +who wish to consult her all the main incidents of their past, present, +and future life; brings together the hearts of those who are suffering +from the pangs of lovers' quarrels, though the whole wide earth should +separate them; indicates the whereabouts of missing ones, though they +should be hidden as deeply and securely from sight as the bowels of the +earth. The madame can with ease secure for you the love of any person +whom you may choose to win, put each and every person in the way of +making fabulous fortunes in the shortest possible space of time, and all +this for the small sum of fifty cents. Madame can be found, between the +hours of nine and twelve in the forenoon, one and six in the afternoon, +and from seven until eleven in the evening, by those who wish to consult +her marvelous powers, on the fourth floor of the last tenement house on +Hester Street. Visitors will please take note that Madame's consultation +studio is in the rear of the building. A candle lights the way." + +By dint of much perseverance Kendal found the place. + +Taking the candle, he groped his way through the long, narrow, grimy +passage, and found himself at length standing before Room 106, as the +advertisement had indicated. + +His loud, impatient knock was answered, after some little delay, by a +tall figure hooded and cloaked, the face almost concealed by a long, +thick veil that was thrown about the head, and which reached almost to +the feet. + +In a black-gloved hand this strange apparition held a lighted candle. + +"I trust I have found the right place," said Kendal. "I am in search of +Madame Morlacci, the fortune-teller." + +At the sound of the deep, rich, mellow voice, the figure started back as +though it had been struck a sudden blow, the black-shrouded hand that +held the candle shook as if from palsy. + +"Come in," replied a muffled voice, that sounded like nothing human, it +was so weird. + +Kendal stepped fearlessly into the room, the corners of which were in +deepest gloom, which the flickering rays of the candle could not +penetrate. + +"Well," said Kendal, impatiently, "I should be grateful to commence the +preliminaries of this fortune-telling business at your earliest +convenience, if you please, madam; my time is somewhat limited." + +Kendal drew forth his pocket-book, took out a bank-bill and handed it to +the strange creature; but, to his intense surprise, she flung it back +almost in his face. + +"I can tell you all you wish to know without a fee," cried the hoarse, +muffled voice, which somehow made every drop of blood in Kendal's veins +run cold as he heard it. + +"That would not be very profitable to you, I am sure, madame," he said, +wonderingly. + +"That makes no difference to you," was the almost rude answer. He felt +quite disconcerted; he hardly knew what to say next. This certainly was +an odd _contretemps_, to say the least. "You are here to learn the +whereabouts of--a woman?" she whispered, in a deep, uncanny voice. "Is +it not so?" + +"By Heaven! you are quite right," cried Kendal, in amazement, quite +startled out of his usual politeness. + +This woman had never laid eyes on him before, he told himself. Now, how, +in the name of all that was wonderful, could she have known this? He had +sneered at fortune-telling all his whole life through; now he began to +wonder if there was not something in it, after all. + +"This woman, who is young, and by some called beautiful, will be your +evil genius!" she hissed. "You wronged her through your +fickle-mindedness, and wrecked her young life." + +"Great God!" he cried, "are you woman or devil, or a combination of +both? But go on--go on!" he cried, excitedly. "I see you know all my +past. There is no use in my attempting to hide anything from you. But +tell me, where shall I find this young woman of whom you speak? I must +track her down." + +A laugh that was horrible to hear broke from the lips of the veiled +woman opposite him. + +"That you will never be able to do!" she cried, fiercely. "Though she +may cross your path at will, you might as well hunt for a particular +grain of sand along the sea-shore, a needle in a haystack, a special +blade of grass in a whole field. You may recognize this fact, and abide +by it. But, hark you! listen to what I have to say: The fates have +decreed that your heart shall be wrung as you have wrung hers--pang for +pang!" + +"Who and what are you," he cried, "who talk to me in this way? You act +more like a vengeful spirit than a woman unconcerned in my affairs. Who +and what are you, anyhow?" + +"I tell you only what I see," was the muttered response. + +"See where?" demanded Kendal in agitation. + +"That is not for you to know." + +"But I shall--I will know!" he cried, furiously. "There is something +underneath all this trumpery. I am not a man to be trifled with in +this fashion, I can tell you, with your fortune-telling +nonsense--humbuggery!" + +"Then, pray, what brings you here? what is your object in coming?" asked +the other, with a covert sneer. + +"To hear what lies you could trump up," replied Kendal boldly. + +"Our interview is ended," said the veiled figure, rising and pointing +her long arm toward the door. + +He knew that he must temporize with her if he would find out Dorothy's +whereabouts, which he was beginning to believe she might find out for +him. + +"Will you pardon me?" he asked, humbling himself. "I--I must know more." + +"You have heard all that I have to say, Harry Kendal!" she cried. + +Who was this creature who knew him--aye, knew his name, his most secret +affairs? He must--he would know. + +With a quick bound he cleared the space which divided them, and in a +trice he had grasped her wrists firmly and torn the veil from her face. + +This was followed by a mighty cry. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +The instant Harry Kendal sprang toward the veiled woman she sprang +backward, as though anticipating the movement, and quick as a flash she +overturned the candle, just as he tore the veil from her face. + +A low, taunting laugh broke from her lips through the inky darkness of +the room. In a trice she had torn herself free from his grasp, and like +a flash she had sped from the room and down the narrow hall and +stairway, like a storm-driven swallow, leaving her companion stumbling +about the place, and giving vent to curses loud and deep as he fumbled +about his vest pocket for matches. + +The veiled woman never stopped until she reached the street, then paused +for a moment and looked back as she reached the nearest gas lamp. + +As the flickering rays of the street lamp fell athwart her face, the +features of Nadine Holt were clearly revealed, her black eyes blazing, +and her jet black hair streaming wildly about her face. + +"How strange!" she panted, "that this idea of fortune telling should +have come to me as a means of gaining my living! I was driven to do +something. And that he should have been the very first patron to come to +me--he, of all others! He is tracking me down because I maimed the girl +whom he is so soon to wed--yes, tracking me down to throw me into +prison--and yet he was once my lover! It is always the way. When a man's +heart grows cold to one love, and another's face has charmed him, it +seems to me as though men have a cruel, feverish desire to thrust the +first love from them at whatever cost. But I will be revenged upon him! +I will live to make his very life a torture; but I shall do it through +Dorothy Glenn. I will go to Dorothy Glenn at once, and we shall see what +will happen then." + +Meanwhile, after much fumbling and imprecations loud and deep, Kendal +succeeded in striking a match and finding the overturned bit of wax +taper, which he hastily lighted, peering cautiously into the inky +darkness which surrounded him. + +He was tired and exhausted, and he told himself that he would turn in at +the nearest hotel, take a good night's rest, and mature his plans on the +morrow for finding Dorothy. + +Meanwhile, let us go back, dear reader, to the hour in which our +heroine, little Dorothy, decided to leave Gray Gables. + +For some moments after Harry Kendal had left her in anger in the +corridor she stood quite still--stood there long after the sound of his +footsteps had died away, trying to realize the full purport of his +words--that their engagement was at an end, and that they had parted +forever. + +The whole world seemed to stand still about her. Then, like one suddenly +dazed, she turned and crept into her own room. Katy was there awaiting +her. + +She suffered the girl to place her in a chair, to take the faded +blossoms from her hand and from her corsage, to unfasten the strings of +pearls, and to remove her ball dress. + +By degrees she had informed Katy of her regaining her sight, and the +poor girl's joy knew no bounds. + +She wondered greatly how Dorothy could feel so downcast in such an hour, +and she never once heeded Dorothy's sad words--that she was going to +leave Gray Gables before the dawn, as there was no one there who loved +her. + +It was so late when Katy sought her own couch that she soon dropped into +a deep sleep. This Dorothy had watched for with the greatest impatience. +She soon rose, robed herself in a dark dress and Katy's long cloak, and +was soon ready for the great undertaking which she had mapped out for +herself. + +Hastily writing a note, she placed it where Katy's eyes would be sure to +fall upon it early the next morning; then she stole quietly from the +room. The great clock in the corridor below struck three as she passed +it with bated breath and trembling in every limb. + +She opened the door softly and stole out into the chill, raw night. + +There was no one in this wide world to miss her, no one to care what +became of her! She was in every one's way. Only one thought suggested +itself to her--to end it all. Perhaps Harry Kendal would feel very sorry +when the news came to him on the morrow that she was dead--she whom he +had spurned so cruelly only the night before. And perhaps he would throw +himself beside her cold, dead body and wish that he had been less cruel +to her, and cry out: + +"Oh, if God would but roll back His universe and give me yesterday!" + +She had no fixed destination, but walked on and on, until she suddenly +found herself down by the Yonkers Boat Club House, that stretched its +dark shadow afar out into the river. It was connected with the shore by +a long, narrow plank walk. + +Mechanically Dorothy crept down the narrow, winding stairway that led to +it. Midway on the plank walk she paused, clung desperately to the rail +and looked fearfully down into the dark, flowing river that rushed on so +madly but a few feet below her. + +Only a few flickering stars would see and know all, she told herself. +There would be but a plunge, a deathly shiver as her warm body came in +contact with the icy waves, a moment of choking, a terrible sensation, +then all would be over--her troubles would be at an end! + +What cared she for the wealth of a hundred Gray Gables and princely +estates when love's boon was denied her? + +Even in that hour and in that weird place she thought of the words +another heart-broken girl had uttered long years before: + + "You have learned to love another, + You have broken every vow; + We have parted from each other, + And my heart is lonely now. + + "Oh! was it well to sever + This fond heart from thine forever? + Can I forget thee? Never! + Farewell, lost love, forever! + + "We have met, and we have parted, + But I uttered scarce a word; + But, God! how my poor heart started + When thy well-known voice I heard! + + "Oh! woman's love will grieve her, + And woman's pride will leave her; + Life has fled when love deceives her, + Farewell--farewell forever!" + +"I am so young to die!" sobbed Dorothy. "I haven't done very much good +in the world, but surely I have done no wrong." + +Then it occurred to her suddenly--a little trifle which she had quite +forgotten: + +She had taken Nadine Holt's lover from her, and the girl was +broken-hearted over his loss; and now Heaven had, in turn, taken him +from her. This was God's vengeance upon her. + +Could even Nadine Holt see her now she would feel sorry and find pity +for her. + +Suddenly, to her intense amazement, Dorothy saw a man hurrying along the +high cliff just above where she stood. He was advancing toward her with +hasty strides that broke almost into a run. + +Dorothy noticed that he carried a large black bundle in his arms, and +that he was heading directly toward the boat house. + +She saw him lean forward, raise the bundle quickly and dash it into the +river, turn rapidly, and break into a quick run in the opposite +direction. + +The bundle did not quite reach the water's edge, she saw; he had missed +his aim. + +Dorothy stopped short and peered over the rails at it, wondering what it +could contain. + +As she did so she observed that there was motion within the small, dark +bundle. It contained some living thing, she felt quite sure. + +Dare she go and examine it? she asked herself. Perhaps it was some poor +animal doomed to death that was bound up in that unsightly bundle. + +Her heart stirred with pity at the thought, and at that moment a cry, +faint and muffled, broke the stillness of the night. + +It emanated from the dark bundle. Quick as a flash Dorothy retraced her +steps until she reached the bank, and down this she clambered with +alacrity. + +But when she was almost within reach of the bundle it rolled down into +the water with a splash, and the mad waves covered it. + +With a cry Dorothy sprang forward just in time, and caught it as the +undertow was bearing it out into the deep water. + +Again there was a quick cry and struggle within the bundle. In a +twinkling Dorothy had torn off the wrappings. + +"Oh, God in Heaven!" she cried, "it is a little child!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +The cry died away in Dorothy's throat as her terrified eyes fell upon +the bundle which she held in her arms. + +Yes, it was a little child. + +"Oh, the cruelty of it!" she sobbed aloud. Some one had doomed it to +death on this bitter night, and she thanked Heaven for bringing her to +that spot to save its life. + +Wrapping it quickly in the ends of her long thick cloak, Dorothy hurried +to the nearest shelter with it. + +This happily proved to be a small cottage on the outskirts of the town. +A solitary ray of light shone from one of the windows, and without +hesitation Dorothy hastened up the little narrow path to the porch and +rang the bell. + +She quite believed that she would know the inmates of the cottage, for +she well knew every one in the village. + +It was a strange woman that opened the door at length and peered out at +her, and a shrill voice cried: + +"Why, as I live, Maria, it's a woman standing out here with a child in +her arms! Why, what in the world can you want?" she cried, addressing +Dorothy. + +"I thought I should see some one here whom I knew," faltered Dorothy. + +"No; we are strangers here," replied the woman. "We have just moved into +this cottage to-day. We are from down country, my man and me, and my +girl Maria. We don't know any one hereabouts, so I can't direct you. +But, dear me! it's an uncanny time of night for a woman to be out. You +ought to be careful of your little baby, if you have no thought for +yourself, ma'am." + +Dorothy tried to speak, but words seemed to fail her. + +"But won't you come in and rest for a bit?" asked the woman, pityingly. +"I can't let you go away without at least warming yourself by the fire. +I am sitting up with my sick daughter." + +Dorothy gladly accepted the kindly offer and entered. + +Dorothy was about to tell the woman the story of how she had rescued the +little one, when it occurred to her that this would necessitate her +explaining how she herself had come to be in that locality at that hour, +and this she shrank from doing. + +The woman was a stranger in the neighborhood, she argued to herself, and +would never know her again. Why not hold her peace? But, then, what +would she do with the little one that Fate had thrown so strangely upon +her mercy? + +She quite believed that it did not belong to any one in the +neighborhood, nor had she heard of a little one like this. She saw that +the clothing upon it was of the daintiest texture, and the embroidery +upon it was of the finest. + +"Oh, what a beautiful little baby!" cried the woman, her heart at once +warming toward the little stranger. "How much it looks like you!" she +added, turning to Dorothy. + +"What!" cried the girl, in amazement. + +"I said your baby looked like you," repeated the woman. + +She wondered why the young girl flushed to the roots of her golden hair. + +"We must go now," said Dorothy at length; "and I thank you, madame, for +your hospitality." + +The woman, with clouded eyes, looked after the slender figure as it +disappeared. + +"A lovely but very mysterious young woman!" she ejaculated. "I hope +everything is all right. She is so very young. It is a great pity for +the little child." + +Meanwhile, Dorothy struggled on through the dim light of the fast dying +night, and soon found herself at the railway station without any seeming +volition of her own. + +In her pocket was her purse, which the good old doctor in one of his +generous moods had filled to overflowing. She had had no occasion to use +it until now. + +The poor little one had commenced to cry now, and when Dorothy hushed +its cries it cuddled up to her with a grateful sob and nestled its head +on her arm. + +Why shouldn't she keep the baby that fate had sent directly into her +arms? she asked herself? + +Yes, she would keep it. For was there not a bond of sympathy between +this poor little one, whom those who should have loved and cared for had +consigned to a watery grave, and herself, who had sought the same +watery grave to end her own wretched existence? + +"You and I will live for each other, baby," she sobbed, holding the wee +mite closer. "I will keep you for my very own, and I will pray for the +time to come when you will be big enough for me to tell you all my +sorrows. You will put your little arms around my neck and your soft, +warm cheek against mine, and try to comfort me." + +Dorothy had made her resolve, little dreaming that it would end in a +tragedy. + +She boarded the train, and was soon steaming away toward New York +city--the great, cruel city of New York, rampant with wickedness and +crime. + +More than one passenger noticed the lovely young girl with the tiny +infant in her arms, and marveled as to whether or not it could possibly +belong to her; for surely the girl could not be a day over sixteen, or +seventeen, at most. + +All unconscious of this close scrutiny, Dorothy watched the little one +with wondering eyes all the way until she reached the metropolis. + +Her first idea was to seek a boarding place, and then she could look +about her. + +To her dismay, among the half score to which she walked until she could +almost drop down from exhaustion, no one cared to take her and the child +in; and it seemed to her, too, that they were rude in refusing her, and +more than one actually shut the door in her face. + +She was tired--so tired--carrying the heavy child in her arms. She had +given the name Miss Brown to each instance, and at last one landlady +came out bluntly and said to her: + +"It would sound a deal more proper to call yourself Mrs. Brown, if you +please, ma'am," at the same time pointing to the child in her arms. + +Then it dawned upon Dorothy's mind why every one had refused them +shelter, even for money. + +"Why shouldn't I call myself Mrs. instead of Miss Brown? One name is as +good as another," she said to herself. It was all the same to her; +anything, so that she would not be separated from this poor little baby, +whom she had learned to love in those short hours with all the strength +of her yearning heart. + +At the next boarding house, recklessly enough, Dorothy gave the name of +Mrs. Brown, and she found no trouble in securing accommodations there. + +"Poor child! she seems so young to be left a widow!" exclaimed the +landlady, in relating to her other boarders that night that she had let +room sixteen to such a pretty young woman, with the loveliest little +angel of a baby that ever was born. + +No one ever yet took a false position without finding himself ere long +hedged in with difficulties. + +And so poor Dorothy found it. + +She was continually plied with questions by the rest of the boarders as +to how long since her husband had died, and how long since she had taken +off mourning, or if she had put on mourning at all for him, and if baby +reminded her of its poor, dear, dead papa. + +Dorothy's alarm at this can more readily be imagined than described. She +almost felt like bursting into a flood of tears and running from the +room. + +It had gone so far now that she was ashamed to tell the truth; and then +there was the terrible fear that if people knew it was not her very own +they would take it from her; and she had learned to love it with all the +fondness of her desperate, lonely heart. + +And then, too, it seemed to know her and feel sorry for her. + +It knew her, and would coo to her, and cry for her to take it. + +She had named it, long since, little Pearl, because she had fished it +from the water. But, to tell the truth, she found it a terrible +responsibility on her hands. + +She did not know what to do with the child. + +She could not go out and leave it in the house, and she couldn't take it +with her. + +She had been searching for a situation the last few days, and, to her +unspeakable horror, she found that no one wanted a young woman +encumbered with a child. + +Had she been older, she would have known better than to have assumed +such a responsibility; but Dorothy was young, and had some of life's +bitterest lessons yet to learn. + +Dorothy had turned her face resolutely against the fortune which Doctor +Bryan had left. + +She quite believed, if she was not there to receive it, it would go to +Kendal, her faithless lover. + +She wanted him to have it. She did not care for any of it. + +She had been only a working girl when Doctor Bryan sought her out and +took her to his home; she could be only a working girl again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +In the hour of Dorothy's desolation her heart went back to Jack Garner, +who had loved her so in other days. Poor Jack! whom she had thrown over +so cruelly for a handsomer, wealthier fellow, only to be deserted by him +in turn for the first pretty face that had crossed his path. + +And that very day came the turning point of her life. + +She had answered an advertisement a few days before by letter to an +intelligence office, and in the course of a week she received the +following reply: + + "MY DEAR MADAM--Replying to your note, would say your + communication was hardly explicit enough for us to + determine whether you would suit our patron or not. + + "The party we refer to is Mrs. Garner, a widow. Her + family consists of one son, a niece who lives with + them, and a young lady. + + "They wish a companion for Mrs. Garner. She requires a + somewhat elderly woman. Even the child would not be so + objectionable, if the right person were secured." + +The letter dropped from Dorothy's hand, and she uttered a low cry; but +presently picking it up, and reading it eagerly through again, she found +a postscript added to it which read as follows: + + "Call, if you please, at the Garner homestead + to-morrow, at 10:30 A. M., if convenient." + +Dorothy's heart beat quickly. Could it be possible that this Garner +family and the one she had known were one and the same? Oh, no! it +could not be, for they were poor, very poor, and these people lived in a +fashionable quarter. + +Jack might plod along all his life and never have a dollar ahead. Poor +Jack! And her eyes grew moist as she thought of him. Ah, how well he had +loved her! + +Dorothy knew quite well that according to the requirements of the +advertiser she would not suit on account of her youth. An older person +than herself was wanted; yet the thought of the possibility of taking +little Pearl with her caused her to ponder over the matter very +carefully. Surely there was _some_ way to meet the difficulty. + +"I am afraid I will not get the situation I was telling you of last +night," said Dorothy to her landlady; and she told her why. + +"Youth and beauty, although the greatest blessings Heaven can give us, +often bring with them a certain train of disadvantages. I once knew a +young and most lovely girl who, on this very account, could not get +work. She resorted to a desperate measure, but it insured success. +Perhaps it might in _your_ case. She put on, over her golden curls, a +dark wig with plenty of gray in it, seamed a wrinkle or two under her +long lashes with a camel's hair pencil, and put on a pair of glasses. +She secured a position as housekeeper in an eccentric old bachelor's +family, which consisted of only himself and his aged parents. Well, the +old folks soon passed away, the old bachelor soon following them, and +every dollar he had on earth he left to his housekeeper, to 'keep her +from the poor house to which she would soon have to go in her old age,' +as he phrased it. It was a large fortune, and she is enjoying it to-day +with a young husband and dear little children gathered about her, and +she often speaks of it when I see her, and tells me all her good luck +came from putting on that wig, donning the spectacles, and lining her +face to make it look old. She never would have gained that position +otherwise, for she was very fair and childish in appearance." + +"I think I will do the same thing!" cried Dorothy, enthusiastically. "It +can do no harm, anyway. It is a terrible deceit to practice, but if I +secure the position, and the people learn to like me, in a very short +time I will reveal the truth to them, and I think they will find pardon +for me and keep me in their employ." + +"I am sure they will," assented her companion, "and all I can say is, I +hope you may have as great good luck as the girl I told you about." + +Dorothy smiled faintly. + +"I--I would never care to be--be rich," she faltered. "There are some +people whom Heaven intended to always work for a living--I am one of +them." + +"If you think of buying a wig, I have one to sell you," said the +landlady. "I used to be in the theatrical business, and had all those +things. I will show you how to make up for a middle-aged woman, so that +even your own folks wouldn't know you in broad daylight." + +Dorothy was a little dubious upon hearing all this. She wondered if it +was not to sell the outfit that the landlady had suggested all this. +However, she passively placed herself in her hands, and the work of +transformation began. + +"Now, look!" exclaimed the landlady, at length. "What do you think of +yourself now?" and she placed a hand glass before her. + +Dorothy uttered a low cry. Could that face be her own at which she gazed +in the mirror's depths? Was she the old woman represented there? And +from the bottom of her heart she thanked God that it was only +make-believe; that beneath it all her face was still young and fair, +without the ravaging touch of Time's withering hand. + +But it touched her heart keenly to see her little Pearl, whom she was +learning to fairly idolize, shrink from her. + +"I must, indeed, look greatly changed," she said, with a sob. + +Hastily dressing the little one, and taking her with her, Dorothy wended +her way to her destination. + +She had always looked upon a little child much the same as a little girl +admires a big wax doll. _Now_ she was beginning to realize that a real +live baby must be washed and dressed and fed and attended to; that it +wouldn't go to sleep or keep awake when people wished; in short, she was +beginning to understand that it could be a darling little nuisance at +times, even to those who adored the dimpled bit of precious humanity the +most. + +Fairly panting with carrying so heavy a burden in her slender arms, +Dorothy reached at length the avenue and number--a magnificent brown +stone mansion in the center of the block. + +With beating heart she ascended the steps and touched the bell. + +A very polite servant answered her summons and ushered her into a +spacious drawing-room. + +"Madame will be with you presently, as she is expecting you," he said, +indicating a seat. + +Little Pearl commenced to cry, and Dorothy was at her wit's end to know +what to do with her. + +She was all flushed with nervousness by the time she heard footsteps in +the corridor approaching the room. + +An instant later the silken _portieres_ were swept aside by a white, +jeweled hand, and a white-haired lady entered. + +Dorothy rose to her feet, and caught her breath with a low cry that died +in her throat. + +The room seemed to whirl around her. She stood face to face with Jack's +mother! + +Dorothy had never seen her but once or twice before in those old days. + +She remembered every lineament of her face perfectly, however. How could +she help it, when Mrs. Garner bore such a striking resemblance to her +fair-haired, handsome son? But she could not understand it; it almost +seemed as if she was in a dream to find Mrs. Garner here surrounded by +such elegance as this. + +But before she could collect her scattered senses the lady advanced +toward her, saying, in her sweet, kind voice: + +"You are very punctual, Mrs. Brown. This is in itself a great +recommendation. You are tired holding the baby in your arms. I will ring +for one of the servants to relieve you for a little while, if you wish." + +Dorothy never remembered in what words she thanked her, and she was even +too confused to keep the thread of the conversation, but was conscious +that she was replying at random. Yet the kind old lady did not seem to +notice her confusion. + +"I want some one for a companion," said the lady, slowly. "I have +recently lost my niece, Miss Barbara Hallenbeck, and her death preys +heavily upon my mind." + +Dorothy was shocked at the news, but she could utter no comment. + +"I am soon to lose my son," went on Mrs. Garner, slowly. + +Dorothy sprang to her feet with a gasping cry: + +"Jack dying!" + +Poor, dear, faithful Jack Garner, who had loved her so well! It seemed +to Dorothy that every pulse in her body quivered, and her heart was +almost bursting at the news. + +In that one hour the girl's heart was revealed to her. + +She was face to face with the truth at last: she loved Jack Garner--yes, +she loved Jack! + +In that moment of time the past seemed to glide before her mental vision +like a vast panorama. + +She turned with a gesture of woe pitiful to behold to his dear old +mother. + +"You are about to lose your only son?" she gasped. "May Heaven pity +you!" She was almost about to add: "If I could save his life by giving +my own, oh, how gladly I would do it!" + +Mrs. Garner saw the look on her face, and rightly interpreted it. + +"Do not misunderstand me," she added, hastily. "I do not mean that I am +to lose him by death. My son is soon to be married." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +For a moment the room seemed to whirl around Dorothy. The words seemed +to strike into her very brain as they fell from Mrs. Garner's lips. "My +son is soon to be married!" and the four walls seemed to repeat and +re-echo them. + +"I shall lose a son, but I shall gain a dear daughter," added the old +lady, softly. + +For an instant, as Dorothy sat trembling there, the impulse was strong +upon her to fly from the house. The very air seemed to stifle her. + +While she hesitated, fate settled the matter for her. The front door was +opened by some one who had a latch-key, and a voice that thrilled every +fiber of her being addressed some question to a servant passing through +the corridor. + +"Here is my son coming at last!" exclaimed the old lady, in pleased +eagerness. + +"Jack--Jack, my dear!" she called; "I am in the drawing-room. Step in a +moment, my son;" and before Dorothy could collect her scattered senses +the _portieres_ were parted by a strong, white hand, and Jack Garner +stood on the threshold. + +Ah! how changed he was in those few short months! The boyish expression +had vanished. He looked older, more care-worn. The fair, handsome face +was graver; the blue eyes were surely more thoughtful. Even his fair +chestnut hair seemed to have taken on a deeper, more golden hue. + +He crossed the room, bent over his mother, and kissed her. + +"This is my son--Mrs. Brown, Mr. Garner," said the old lady, her voice +lingering over the words with pardonable pride. + +It was a terrible moment for Dorothy. + +Would Jack know her? Would not those keen, grave, searching eyes +penetrate her disguise? + +He gave but a casual glance to the small, slim figure clad in black, and +bowed courteously, then turned away. + +The greatest ordeal of her life was past. + +She had met Jack--Jack who had loved her so--face to face, and he had +not recognized her. + +She rallied from her confused thoughts by a great effort, for Mrs. +Garner was speaking to her. + +"I was saying, that as we seem mutually pleased with each other, we may +as well consider the arrangement as settled between us." + +Dorothy bowed. She could not utter a word in protest to save her life, +although she had quite made up her mind not to remain under that roof. + +"Your duties will be light, and I feel sure you will find ours a +pleasant home. I will ring for one of the servants to show you to your +room;" and suiting the action to the word, she touched the bell, and an +instant later a neat little maid appeared, who courtesied and asked +Dorothy to follow her. + +"Madame will find her little child has already been taken to her +apartments," said the girl, opening the door at the further end of the +upper corridor. + +Yes, little Pearl was there, cooing with delight at her new +surroundings, and over the cup of hot milk and crackers on the little +stand close beside her. + +The girl rose hastily as Dorothy entered, set down the child, and +quitted the apartment. + +Upon finding herself alone with Pearl, Dorothy snatched the child up in +her arms, sank down in the depths of a great easy-chair, and sobbed as +though her heart would break. + +"Oh, little Pearl! how I wish that we had never come here!" she moaned. +"It makes me feel so sad." + +The baby's blue eyes looked up into her own in wonder, but her soft +cooing and the clasp of her little soft, warm fingers could not comfort +Dorothy. + +After luncheon she was called into Mrs. Garner's room. + +"I am not feeling well," she said, motioning Dorothy to a seat. "I +should like you to read to me until I fall asleep. Take any of the books +from the book-case in the library. I have no choice." + +The silent little figure in black bowed, and glided out of the room. + +It was dusk in the library as she entered it, and while she pondered as +to whether she should call some one to light the gas, to enable her to +read the titles on the volumes, she heard Jack's voice. + +But instead of passing, he entered, and proceeded to light the gas. With +a beating heart Dorothy drew still further back, and at that moment +another person entered the room. + +"I knew I should find you here, Jack," said a voice that sounded +terribly familiar to the figure in the window hidden by the silken +draperies. "I have come to ask a little favor of you. I hope you will +not find it in your heart to refuse me." + +Before the last comer in the room had ceased speaking, Dorothy knew who +it was--Jessie Staples! + +A great lump rose in her throat, and her heart beat. She knew that she +should have slipped from her place of concealment and quitted the room, +but she seemed to have been held spell-bound by a power she could not +control. She leaned heavily against the wall and listened with painful +intensity to the conversation that was taking place between her old +lover and Jessie, although she knew that it was wrong for her to do so. + +"A favor you would ask of me?" repeated Jack, quickly. "Why, consider it +granted beforehand," he returned, "if it is within my power." + +"You are more than kind," murmured Jessie, adding: "The fact is, I have +too painful a headache to attend the opera with you to-night, but I want +you to go and enjoy yourself, and take some young girl in my place. I--I +do not want to mar your happiness for this evening." + +"I am quite sorry to seem unkind," he returned, "but really, Jessie, I +beg that you will not ask me to take any one else to the opera, if you +can not go. Although I promised beforehand, I trust you will not hold me +to anything like that. I do not feel inclined to entertain any of your +friends this evening, especially when you are not present. But, really, +Jessie, I think it might do you good to go--the lights, and the music, +and the gay throng, might divert your thoughts from yourself, and act as +a wonderful panacea in banishing your headache." + +"No--no!" returned Jessie; "believe me, I shall feel much better at +home. But you must go. I could not forgive myself if I were to be the +cause of your losing one hour of happiness, and I know, Jack, that you +enjoy affairs of that kind so much. Go, if only to please me." + +"If you are sure that it _will_ please you, Jessie, I can not withstand +your entreaties," he returned, thoughtfully. "Still, I have the hope +that you may change your mind at the eleventh hour, and be ready to go +with me," he added, laughingly. "I have a few letters to write, and will +see you after I finish them. Remember it is not every night that one can +hear Patti;" and with a few more pleasant words he quitted the room. + +For some moments after he had left, Jessie Staples stood leaning against +the mantel, gazing thoughtfully into the fire; then she was startled by +a step close beside her. + +She turned her head suddenly and saw a dark figure just leaving the +room. + +"Stay!" she called out; and the figure hesitated on the threshold. "Come +here!" and the dark-robed figure advanced slowly and stood before her. +"You are Mrs. Brown, the new companion?" she said, interrogatively. + +"Yes," murmured a stifled voice. + +"May I ask how long you have been standing in the room?" Miss Staples +inquired, rather curiously. "I did not see you come in." + +"I beg your pardon," came the faint answer. "I entered a few moments +before you did, and when the gentleman entered and you commenced +speaking, I--I hardly knew how to make my presence known, the +conversation was so personal. I tried to make my escape from the room as +soon as it was possible. I--I hope you are not angry with me." + +"No," said Miss Staples, slowly. "I am sure the facts are as you stated +them. You may resume your duties. That is all I wish to say," said Miss +Staples. + +Still the slight figure hesitated. + +Poor Dorothy, how she longed to fling herself in Jessie's arms and cry +out: + +"Oh, Jessie, Jessie! don't you know me? I am Dorothy--your poor little +friend Dorothy whom you used to love so dearly in the old days." + +Still she dared not; no, she dared not betray her identity. And with one +lingering glance she turned and slowly left the library, holding, +tightly clutched in her hand, one of the volumes from the great +book-case. + +She had caught up the first one which she laid her hand on. + +"You have been gone some time, Mrs. Brown," said Mrs. Garner, fretfully, +as she entered the _boudoir_. "Let me see your selection. What book have +you brought me? Why, as I live, it is the dictionary!" she exclaimed, in +a most astonished voice. "Did you think I had need of that?" + +The old lady flushed painfully. It was well known that it was one of her +weak points to guard carefully from the world that she had no education +whatever. + +She would rather have died than to have let people know that she had at +one time been a poor working-woman; and now this stranger, who had been +only a hours beneath her roof, had discovered it. + +She did not know what remark to make to Mrs. Brown, she was so aghast +when the dictionary was handed her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +"You have made a very wise selection, Mrs. Brown," she said. "I quite +agree with you that there is no book more instructive than the +dictionary. You may read me twenty pages, or such a matter. I deem it +very instructive, indeed--to you." + +With a gasp, Dorothy took the book. Oh, how tedious it was, pronouncing +word after word, and giving their definitions! + +Every now and then Mrs. Garner would nod her head, remarking that such +and such a word it would be well for her to take extra pains to +remember, as they were in such general use in every-day conversation. + +At length she ceased to make remarks altogether, and when Dorothy +glanced up at her through the blue glasses which she wore, she found +that the old lady was fast asleep, and with a very tired look on her +face. + +Dorothy laid down the book with a sigh, crossed her thin little white +hands in her lap, and gave herself up to conflicting thoughts. + +Only a little while before Jack had loved her so devotedly, and now he +was about to marry Jessie, her friend of other days, whom he scarcely +noticed when she was only Dorothy's friend. + +While she was meditating over the matter, one of the maids put her head +in at the door. + +"If you please, Mrs. Brown, would you mind coming to Miss Staples a few +moments?" she asked. "Her maid has leave of absence this week, and she +misses her services." + +"I will go with pleasure," said Dorothy, rising and following her at +once. + +As she entered the pretty blue-and-gold _boudoir_, she saw that Jessie +had changed her mind about going to the opera that evening, for she was +already dressed in opera attire. + +"You wished to see me?" said Dorothy, in a husky voice. + +"If you please, Mrs. Brown," said Jessie. "I should like you to +accompany Mr. Garner and myself to the opera to-night, as my maid--that +is, if Jack's mother has no objection, of course." + +She did not catch the murmured words her companion uttered. + +"There are a few little finishing touches to my toilet which I would +like to have you help me with. In that velvet case on the center-table +you will find a necklace of sapphires and diamonds. You may fetch it to +me." + +With trembling hands Dorothy clasped the necklace around Miss Staples' +firm white throat. + +"They are very beautiful--don't you think so?" she asked, looking at +Dorothy with the old-time burst of enthusiasm which she remembered so +well. + +"Yes," returned Dorothy, in a low voice. + +"They are Mr. Garner's gift to me. To-day is my birthday," she went on, +"and this is Mr. Garner's gift--beautiful, is it not?" + +"Yes," said Dorothy, in the same low, wistful voice. + +"He is so considerate of my wishes; I had merely expressed the words +that I admired sapphires and diamonds, and see! he has presented me with +this lovely set!" + +"The gentleman must have a very generous heart," said Dorothy, faintly. + +Jessie Staples started and looked at her searchingly. + +"Do you know that your voice reminds me of the voice of a young girl +whom I once knew and loved dearly?" she said, huskily. + +Oh, how those words thrilled every fiber of Dorothy's being! + +"She was a very fair young girl," continued Jessie, thoughtfully, "but +she went astray." + +The bracelet that Dorothy was holding fell to the floor with a crash. + +"Oh, I--I must have broken it!" she sobbed. + +"Never mind," said Miss Staples; "you could not help it. Accidents are +liable to happen at any time. It is not past mending, I am sure. Do not +allow it to trouble you." + +She quite believed that Mrs. Brown was a trifle awkward--probably a +little nervous, and she did her best to reassure her. + +"You must not feel badly about it," she repeated kindly. "I, too, am +nervous sometimes. Why, only to-night I dropped my cup of chocolate, +breaking the cup into bits, my hands were so nervous. I had such a +headache all day, that I did not feel able to go down to the table. Even +now I am by no means free from the terrible pain in my head. We shall +leave the opera early," she went on, adding: "No doubt you are pleased +to hear that." + +"It does not matter much to me, madame," came the faint reply. + +"The carriage will be here in half an hour. I trust you will be ready, +Mrs. Brown. Please have my wraps in readiness then. One of the maids +will tell you where to find them. You will not have much time to get +your own wraps." + +At the hour named, Dorothy stood ready, and a few minutes later Mr. +Garner appeared in the corridor. + +Taking Jessie's arm, he led her down to the carriage, seated her, helped +in the little dark figure, and then proceeded carefully to tuck Jessie +in with all the robes. + +They were only ordinary attentions bestowed upon her companion, but they +rankled deeply, like the thrust of a sharp sword, in the heart of the +girl who sat there witnessing it all. + +They talked upon indifferent subjects, but it seemed to Dorothy that +every word held a double meaning. + +Oh, how solicitous he was for her comfort! how he gathered the wraps +about her, anxiously inquiring if she felt the cold air! how low and +tender his words seemed to the girl sitting opposite them, and both +seemed entirely oblivious to her presence. + +The curtain was up when they reached their box, but all through the +opera the little dark figure who shrank back behind the silken hangings +saw nothing, heard nothing; she was watching so intently the old lover +who was so near, and yet, alas! so far from her. + +In the old days she had loved Jessie Staples, but now, as she saw her +old friend and Jack Garner all in all to each other, she grew in a +single hour to almost hate her for usurping her place in his heart. + +True, there was not the same devotion that he had been wont to pay her; +but then, Jack was older now and graver. How he had come by this sudden +wealth puzzled her. Then, by degrees it all came back to her--how he +used to say that some day there was a bare possibility of his being +wealthy---that he had some expectations from a distant relative. Surely +those expectations must have been realized, or he could not be in the +position which he was now enjoying. How strange that the Garners had +lifted Jessie Staples out of the old life, and that she now was Jack's +betrothed bride. And she wondered vaguely if he had forgotten the +Dorothy he had loved so well. + +Suddenly he turned toward her, and at that moment Jessie rose hastily to +her feet. + +"We will get home as quickly as possible," he said, hurriedly. "Miss +Staples is indisposed." + +Jessie leaned heavily on his arm, and they went quickly out of the +building and into the carriage. + +All the way home his arm supported her, and her head leaned helplessly +on his shoulder. + +Dorothy followed with her wraps up to Miss Staple's _boudoir_. + +"Thank you--that will do," she said, wearily, dismissing her at her +door, and Dorothy turned away. + +One of the maids had rocked little Pearl to sleep, and the babe lay +slumbering quietly in her crib. + +Dorothy did not go toward it, as was her wont upon entering her room at +night--indeed, she had forgotten about the child until she heard her +cough, a little later on. + +She was just about to cross the room to the little one, when one of the +maids came hurriedly to her door. + +"Would you mind sitting up with Miss Staples?" she cried, breathlessly; +"she is anything but well. It looks to me as though she has a fever, but +she will not hear to having a doctor called, or even of letting Mrs. +Garner know how ill she is. She declares that, with a good night's rest, +she will be all right in the morning." + +Dorothy went hastily to Jessie Staples' room, while the girl remained to +take charge of the child for the night. + +She found Jessie as the maid had declared--quite ill and +feverish-looking, but still wearing the soft chiffon dress she had worn +at the opera, with the sapphire necklace gleaming on her white throat, +and bracelets shining on her polished arms. + +Dorothy went quickly up to her. + +"You must let me remove these things, and get you into bed at once," she +said coaxingly but firmly. "Your face is scarlet, and your hands +tremble. You must take some hot lemonade, and go quietly to sleep." + +Jessie was quite passive under her commands, but the pain in her head +did not seem to abate. + +For long hours, Dorothy worked patiently with her to allay the fever, +but it seemed to increase with every moment. + +She wanted to arouse the household, and send for a doctor, but Jessie +pleaded most pitifully. + +"You are very, very ill," cried Dorothy, in agony. "I must send for some +one, or you will die!" + +"Hush! I want to die!" cried Jessie, in a low whisper; "that is just it; +I do not want to live." + +Dorothy tried to soothe her, thinking it was but the idle vagaries of a +wandering mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +"Hush!" cried Jessie, sinking back on her pillow, and clutching +frantically the hand that held hers. "You must not call any one. I want +to die! I am so tired of living. I want to tell you my story, Mrs. +Brown--it seems to me that I shall go wild if I do not tell some one; +and you seem so sympathetic and kind. May I trust you?" she whispered, +with a great tremor in her voice. + +"Yes," said Dorothy, slowly; "anything that you may say to me I will +hold sacred." + +"You are very good," returned the other. "You would think," she began, +quickly, "that with wealth, and being the _fiancee_ of a noble young man +like Mr. Garner, and so soon to marry him, that I was the happiest girl +in the world." + +"Yes," returned the other, choking back a sob. + +"I was not always surrounded by wealth and affluence, as you see me +now," commenced Jessie Staples, burying her head in her pillow. "Only a +few short months ago I was poorer than you are now, and worked for my +daily bread. Among the companions who stood side by side with me was +one, a lovely girl whom I loved with all my heart. + +"She was gay and thoughtless, the life of the work-room, with her +bright, girlish, mischievous pranks. Though they called her 'Madcap +Dorothy,' yet every one loved her for her bright, winning ways. + +"There was one employed in the same place whom I had loved ever since I +could remember--loved in secret, making no sign, for it was hopeless--as +he loved pretty Madcap Dorothy, and loved her with all the strength of +his great, noble, manly heart. + +"I was her best friend, even though she was in secret my rival. I did +not care for myself. I only wanted to see the two whom I loved so well +happy. One of them was Jack Garner, and the other Dorothy; and I will +tell you of her." + +"She was young, and gay, and pretty, as I have said, and she knew it. +She knew that she had all of Jack's heart, but she longed for more +heroes to conquer. + +"One fatal day--oh, how well I remember it!--she fell in love with a +handsome, black-eyed stranger--a car conductor on Broadway. That was the +beginning of the end for Jack, who loved her so. One fatal day she ran +away with the stranger and was never heard of again. + +"Rumor has it that later on he tired of her, and was soon to lead to the +altar a proud and lovely young girl--a school-girl--who had never known +what it was to earn her bread, as did poor, pretty Madcap Dorothy. + +"Dorothy's desertion nearly cost Jack Garner his life. I went and nursed +him and took care of him; and when he recovered, his mother was stricken +low, and I in turn nursed her. + +"In the darkest hour of that terrible illness, when we were all gathered +about her bedside, waiting for the angel of death to stoop and bear her +away to that bright land that knows no grief nor partings, suddenly she +beckoned Jack near her. + +"'Oh, mother, is there anything that you wish?' he cried. 'Anything that +I can do for you? Tell me if there is.' + +"'Yes,' she whispered, 'there is one thing you could do, my son, that +would make death easier to me. I--I could die happy if you would do as I +ask.' + +"'I promise you beforehand, mother,' he cried, 'if there is anything +which I can do, it shall be done.' + +"Feebly her hand crept toward mine and drew it toward Jack's, clasping +them both together. + +"'She has saved your life, my boy,' she whispered, 'and she has been as +faithful as an angel to me--unto the last of mine. If you care for your +mother's wishes, ask her to marry you, here and now. I love her as +dearly as my life, Jack. My one wish in this world is to see you wedded +to each other. You must say "Yes" or "No."' + +"He buried his head in his hands, and I could see his stalwart form +shake like a reed in a blast. + +"He hesitated, but only for an instant. Slowly he raised his head, and I +could see that his face was as white as death, in the dim-shaded light +of the lamp. Then slowly he stretched out his hand toward me. + +"'You know of my past, Jessie,' he said, huskily, 'and you know that my +life-hopes were blasted. Will you take me under these conditions--if not +for my sake, for--for my mother's?' + +"I could not tell you the emotions that swept through my heart in that +one moment of time. + +"I do not know in what words I answered him; but, even without scarcely +realizing what I did, my hand crept into his strong, cold one, and I +nodded my head. I could not have spoken to have saved my life--my heart +was too full for utterance. + +"Mrs. Garner did not die that night, and she has always said ever since +that she believed that promise brought her back from the gates of death +to be a living witness to our happiness. + +"Three months passed, with, oh! such unspeakable joy for me. My lover +was all that a lover could be; still, there were times when I thought +Jack's heart was not in his words, but was far away with the girl who +had so cruelly jilted him. + +"At length the wedding invitations were printed and sent out, and only a +week later the terrible _denouement_ came that has shattered all my +hopes. + +"I was about to enter Mrs. Garner's _boudoir_ one night, when I heard +the sound of voices. + +"Playfully I drew back, for I had recognized Jack's voice. I had a +little gift for him, and I was hesitating a moment as to whether I +should take it in and lay it on his lap, or wait until the next morning +and give it to him in the library. Jack was pacing up and down, and I +saw through the door, which was slightly ajar, that his face was very +pale and stormy--and this was something unusual with calm, placid, +courteous Jack. + +"'For Heaven's sake, don't nag me any more, mother,' he cried, 'or you +will drive me mad! Constant dripping will in time wear out even a stone. +I have ruined my life to satisfy one of your whims; surely that ought +to suffice. If I can't have peace in the house, I will take my hat and +walk out of it. I can not endure this eternal nagging, that I must treat +Jessie better--more as becomes a betrothed lover. You know very well +that I do not love her. My marriage with her will be all your doing. My +heart is with Dorothy; and when a man loves as I loved her, even if that +love is destroyed, no one can ever fill the same niche in his +affections. It is an impossibility. So, have done with this subject, +mother, at once and forever. + +"'I shall marry Jessie, because I am pledged to do so. I will make her +life as happy as I can. She need never know that my heart is not hers, +although she will bear my name.' + +"I--I--never knew how I groped my way into an adjoining room," continued +Jessie, "and there I sank down unconscious. + +"How long I remained there I never knew. When I came to, Mrs. Garner, +greatly frightened, was kneeling beside me and laving my face with +eau-de-Cologne. + +"And I knew by the fearful look in her eyes that she suspected that I +had found out about Jack not caring for me. + +"'Tell me what is the matter, my little Jessie!' she said, clasping me +in her arms and pillowing my head on her breast. + +"In broken gasps I told her, adding that I was going away--back to the +poverty from which they had taken me, and Jack should never see my face +again. Oh! how she prayed and pleaded with me on her bended knees, +crying out: + +"'If you love me, Jessie, do not break from Jack. I am sure he did not +mean all he said. He was only incensed a little at me. He would not have +you know it for the whole wide world. Oh, believe me, Jessie! Do not try +to break my heart by your rash action. The marriage invitations have +gone forth. What could we say to the people? Think of the scandal, +Jessie, and save us from it. Let my words be a prayer to you. I am older +than you are, Jessie. Let me tell you how this will be: + +"'There might be in his heart only deep respect for you, but when he +marries you, he will learn to love you. Every man loves his wife.' + +"Against my own will and my better judgment, I allowed her to persuade +me. + +"I made no mention to Jack of what I had learned, but every day it has +eaten into my heart like a worm in the heart of a rose. + +"I loved him so well, I was only too willing to hold to him. I did not +have the strength to follow the dictates of my own will; and now, God +help me! the day is drawing nearer and nearer. What shall I do? + +"My brain is going mad with the torturous thought that I shall stand at +the altar by the side of a man who does not love me--whose heart is +given to another. + +"Every time that he stoops to kiss my lips I am sure he wishes they were +hers. + +"His thoughts are with her. I am a mere shadow to his life; she was the +substance. + +"People about me look upon me with envy, but you can realize that I am +more to be pitied than the poorest beggar on the street. Tell me," she +cried, eagerly, "do you think any one on this earth ever had a sorrow +equal to mine?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +As the hours wore on, poor Jessie Staples grew so alarmingly worse, and +the fever increased so rapidly, that, despite her entreaties, Dorothy +felt that she must summon medical aid. + +Soon after the entire household had gathered about Jessie, in the +greatest alarm. + +A physician was sent for at once--Doctor Crandall, whom Mrs. Garner had +known for long years. + +It so happened that the doctor lay very ill himself from an attack of +_la grippe_, and, penning a line or so to Mrs. Garner, he explained that +he had sent as a substitute a young doctor whom he had taken into his +office to act for him during his illness. He felt sure they could rest +Miss Staples' case with all safety in his hands. + +That was the beginning of the terrible end. + +Surely a cruel fate must have brought the situation about. It happened +in this way: + +When Harry Kendal had exerted every means to find Dorothy, and had +failed, he commenced to look about for something to do. + +It occurred to him that perhaps the best person to whom he could apply +was Doctor Crandall, who had been the life-long friend of his old +benefactor, Doctor Bryan. + +Kendal's appeal was not in vain. He was taken in at once. Indeed, his +coming was most opportune, he was told. + +It so happened that his very first call was to the home of Mrs. Garner. + +"Garner!" The name sounded very familiar to him. His brow darkened as he +heard it. Was not that the name of the young man who had been Dorothy +Glenn's lover when he first met little Dorothy in the book-bindery? Of +course, it was absurd to imagine that there could be anything in common +between these wealthy Garners and that poor fellow who worked hard at +his trade. Still he hated the name. + +When he reached the mansion and was ushered into the corridor, to his +intense surprise, the first person whom he met face to face was Jack +Garner! He recognized Jack at once; but the light in the corridor was +low, and, besides, he had turned up his coat-collar, and with the heavy +beard he had grown, Garner, as it was not to be wondered at, did not +know him. Besides, Jack had seen him but twice--once as he was putting +Dorothy into a coach, and again on the Staten Island boat, in the dim, +uncertain moonlight. + +"Your patient is this way, doctor," he said, motioning him up the broad +stairway. + +A sudden, strange thought came to Kendal: What if he should find Dorothy +there? + +He no sooner entered the room and uttered the first word than the slim +figure in black, wearing the blue glasses, started violently. Dorothy +recognized him at once, despite the heavy beard. + +"How in the world came he here?" she gasped to herself, in the greatest +amazement. + +But she had no opportunity to think long over the matter, for Jessie +required the most immediate attention. + +"I think it will be best to send you a practical nurse," he said, as he +took his departure. + +He spoke to Doctor Crandall about it immediately upon his return to the +office. + +"There is only one young woman whom I can think of just at present," +said the doctor. "She is not what you might call a trained nurse, but +she claims to have had a little experience. We shall have to secure her +in a case of emergency. I shall send for her to-night; she will probably +be there in the morning when you arrive." + +As Kendal ascended the steps of the palatial home of the Garners, he +came face to face with a woman who was standing in the vestibule, just +in the act of touching the bell. One glance, and he fairly reeled back. + +"Nadine Holt!" he cried, aghast, "is it you--_you_?" + +"We meet again at last!" hissed the girl, confronting him with +death-white face. "I knew I should find you sooner or later, and I have +been on your track." + +"Hush! hush! Nadine," he cried; "what do you mean? In Heaven's name, +don't speak so loud! Every one is listening. You will ruin me." + +"That is what I intend to do!" she shrieked, clutching frantically at +his arm with her long, thin fingers. "You deserted me and wedded +another." + +"What put such a notion in your head, anyhow, Nadine?" he said, +evasively, thinking it best to temporize with the raging fury +confronting him. + +"I heard all about it," she panted, hoarsely. + +"Then some one has been cruelly maligning me," he cried; "and you, of +all people in the world, Nadine, should not have believed it. Hush! some +one is coming. I hear footsteps. Meet me later. I want to have a long +talk with you. But, by the way, what are you doing here at this house, +Nadine?" + +"Did I not tell you that I answered Doctor Crandall's advertisement for +a nurse, and that this is my errand here? But what are _you_ doing +here?" + +"I may as well tell you the truth, Nadine," he said, despairingly, +seeing that it would all come out sooner or later. "I--I have been +studying medicine since I met you, and they have engaged me as +physician. But now that surprises are in order, I suppose you know who +lives here?" + +"No," she answered. + +"It is your old friend Garner, who used to be in the book-bindery. He +has acquired sudden wealth--Heaven knows how. His mother is living with +him, and also that pretty girl whom I used to think was so quiet--Miss +Staples." + +Before Nadine could reply, her amazement was so great, the door was +opened by the quiet footman, and they were ushered into the +drawing-room. + +Kendal had barely time to whisper to Nadine: "These people do not know +that I am the same one whom they used to know as the car conductor. +Don't give me away," ere the door opened, and Mrs. Garner made her +appearance. + +"Ah! you have brought a nurse with you, doctor," she said, in a tone of +great relief. + +So saying, she led the way to the sick-room. + +Nadine's entrance caused the greatest surprise to both Mr. Garner and +Jessie. + +No one thought of noticing the plain, dark little figure half hidden by +the curtains in the bay window, or they would have seen Dorothy start +and fairly gasp for breath as her eyes fell upon the nurse Kendal had +brought with him, and heard them discuss the point that Nadine must be +installed there as nurse. + +Her brain fairly reeled, and it flashed over her mind what a villain +Kendal really was. + +She had quite believed all this long time that he had parted from Nadine +Holt, and here he had been keeping up Nadine's friendship clandestinely +through it all. + +Of course Iris Vincent was expecting to marry him. + +It was clear that Kendal had a good many irons in the fire. + +She only wished that Iris Vincent knew of his friendship for Nadine. + +Dorothy wondered if Nadine would penetrate her disguise. + +Nadine assumed her duties at once, and the first thing which she did was +to order the slim creature about, scarcely giving her a moment's rest. + +Nadine had always heard that this was the way paid nurses invariably +did. + +She took every opportunity to consult Doctor Kendal and waylay him for +long chats. Even Jessie noticed this, as ill as she was; and she +noticed, too, that the young doctor resented it; and Nadine herself was +not slow in perceiving his lack of interest in herself. + +"How very interested you are in your pretty white-faced patient," Nadine +said, on the second day of her stay there. "I almost believe you have +fallen in love with Jessie Staples, and mean to bring her quickly back +to health, and--and marry her." + +Kendal turned from her with a fierce imprecation, and muttering +something that sounded very like "the cursed jealousy of some women," +abruptly quitted the room, slamming the door after him. + +Then Nadine felt _sure_ that she had stumbled upon the terrible truth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +Whenever a jealous woman is looking for something with which to feed the +green-eyed monster, she usually finds it, or imagines she does, which +amounts to the same thing. It was so with Nadine. + +No one mentioned to Nadine the fact that Jessie was betrothed to Jack +Garner. Even had she heard it, she would not have believed it. She would +have imagined that it was a falsehood made up for her benefit. + +She could not endure the kindly looks he gave Jessie, nor endure to see +him bend over her, raise her from her pillow, and, while one strong arm +supported her, coax her to take her medicine. + +Such sights as these were more terrible for Nadine to endure than the +pangs of death; and for hours afterward she would feel an almost +uncontrollable desire to strangle the sick girl. + +In Nadine's heart there rose a mad wish that Jessie would die before +Harry Kendal became too fond of her. + +While Jessie slept and she was not buried in the depths of a newspaper +to kill time, she would be brooding over this subject: If Jessie Staples +would only die! + +One day, while in this morbid mood, her eyes fell upon a fatal paragraph +that riveted her attention with breathless interest. + +It spoke of the death of a once noted court beauty who had been in her +time the toast of all Europe. Men had fought duels for her sake, and +courtiers thought it a great honor to risk life and limb to do her +bidding, being repaid by only a smile or one glance from her wine-dark +eyes. + +It happened that while riding about in her pony-cart she had, by chance, +one day encountered a poor tradesman's son who had stopped by a brook at +which her own horse was slaking his thirst, to give his steed a drink. + +One glance at the fair, handsome Saxon face, and the girl who had +laughed to scorn full many a lover, felt her heart going from her +keeping to this bonny stranger. + +Although he was poor--only a tradesman's son--and she had wealth untold, +yet the beauty was not fair in his eyes. + +He passed her by with only a gracious bow, as any courtier might, for he +was in a hurry to reach the side of his beloved Gretchen. She was only a +peasant maid, but in his eyes she was more beautiful than a queen. + +He loved the pretty Gretchen with all his heart. + +When my lady came to inquire about him, and learned he had a pretty +little sweetheart, she grew very wroth, but she said never a word. + +On that day she sent for Gretchen, and employed her as her maid. But +from that hour there was a change in Gretchen's life. + +Slowly but surely she faded, although her distracted lover did +everything in his power to prolong the life of the maid he loved. + +In the early spring-time, while robins sang and the trees put forth +their blossoms, he gazed his last on all that was mortal of poor +Gretchen. + +The great lady tried her best to comfort Gretchen's lover, but he would +not be comforted. + +His hopes were buried in Gretchen's grave, and she could not turn his +thoughts to herself, and ere the first moon waned, they laid him, too, +beside his Gretchen, in his last home. + +The great lady never smiled again, and soon after the doors of the +convent closed upon one of the most beautiful women of her time. + +On her death-bed she called one and all of those about her to listen to +her tragic story. + +She cried out that they must not touch her hand, for it was stained with +human blood; and it was then that her horrible story was brought to +light. + +And in an awful whisper, while the long shadows deepened, she made this +terrible revelation: that years, before she had murdered her maid, +Gretchen, because the girl was loved by him whom she would have won. + +By night and by day she pondered upon how it should be done, then +suddenly the way and means occurred to her. + +There was a powerful drug of which she had heard that gave women the +most marvelous of complexions, but which sooner or later caused death. + +Gretchen should take it; it could be placed in the basin of water in +which she was wont to bathe her face each morning, and it would enter +the body through the pores of the skin. In this way the doctors would be +completely baffled, for they would not be able to trace the poison. + +She put this dastardly plot into execution, and her cruel heart did not +upbraid her, though she saw the girl droop and fade daily before her +eyes. + +When she looked out of her window and saw Gretchen and her lover pacing +up and down the primrose path in the moonlight, a horrible laugh would +break from the great lady's ripe, red lips. + +"There will be but a few more of these meetings, tender partings and +kisses under the larch-tree boughs." + +She had never dreamed, this false, cruel beauty, that a man's heart +could be constant to a dead love and spurn a living one. + +All these years she had lived to rue it; but neither prayers, nor +suffering, nor pangs of conscience could atone for the terrible crime +committed. + +During all the years that had passed since Gretchen had been lying in +that lonely grave, she had never known one moment's peace of mind, until +this hour when she lay dying and had confessed all. + +Slowly, twice, thrice, Nadine Holt read the story through, and as she +read, a terrible thought came into her own mind. + +Why could not she procure this same drug and administer it in the same +way to Jessie Staples? + +She took the paper up to her room and hid it very carefully in her +satchel. + +True, Jessie had taken her in this time without saying one word of the +past unpleasantness, treating her as though that quarrel had never been. + +But Nadine was different. She was one of the kind that "never forgets, +never forgives" while life lasts. + +When the household was wrapped in deep sleep that night, Nadine stole +out upon her terrible mission. + +Several careful druggists refused to fill her order; but this did not +daunt her. She knew that among the lot she would soon come across a +catch-penny, and in this supposition she was quite right. + +She soon found a place, and secured the deadly drug which she called +for, and she stole into the house again without any one being the wiser +for her midnight trip. + +The light was burning low in the sick-room as she entered it, and Mrs. +Brown sat half dozing in her chair by the bedside. + +She started up as Nadine crossed the threshold. + +"You needn't mind staying any longer," she remarked, brusquely; "I will +take charge of the patient now." + +"No," said the other, quietly but firmly. "It is between twelve and one +that the most important medicine must be administered." + +"Don't you suppose I am capable of giving it?" retorted Nadine angrily +enough. "You don't seem to realize what is the business of a paid +nurse!" + +The other made no remark, but still she lingered. Had she a suspicion +that there was anything amiss? + +She was a strange creature, anyhow, with that old-looking face, the +great mass of thick black hair studded with gray, and the thick blue +glasses. + +Where had she seen some one of whom this creature reminded her so +strangely and so strongly? + +Even the tone of her voice, although it sounded hoarse and unnatural, +was somehow familiar to her. + +The very way in which Mrs. Brown crested her head she had seen somewhere +before, and it had made quite an impression upon her at the time. + +"I can not help thinking that she is always spying upon every movement +of mine, and she listens--I am sure she does--to every word the doctor +and I say; and these people who watch others so much always need +watching themselves." + +Seeing that Nadine Holt was determined to banish her from the sick-room, +Dorothy quitted the apartment with a very heavy heart, though she could +not have told why. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +The days that followed were dark ones to the Garner household, for +Jessie began to fail rapidly. + +She grew so weak that the entire household began to grow terribly +alarmed over her condition. Even the doctor had grave apprehension for +his patient. + +"The case of Miss Staples puzzles me completely," he said to Doctor +Crandall, when he returned to his office one afternoon. "I have never +known of symptoms like hers;" and he minutely described the strange turn +the case had taken which had baffled him completely. + +"As soon as I am able to be about I will go with you and see for myself +just where the trouble is." + +Meanwhile, a serious matter was agitating the brain of poor Jessie +Staples. + +She realized before any of the rest did that her condition was becoming +alarming, and her wedding-day was drawing nearer and nearer. + +But when that day dawned, a secret voice in her heart whispered that she +would be "the bride of death," and not Jack Garner's. + +She wondered if Heaven meant it for the best, that she must give up the +life that might have held so much for her. She had longed for death many +a time; but now that it seemed imminent, her very soul grew frightened +because of one thought: she would have to leave Jack behind her. It +seemed to her that though she should be buried fathoms deep, her soul +would cling to earth--and Jack. What if, in time to come, he should +forget her! Ah! that was the bitterest stroke of all; and she realized +that, no matter how deeply a person may love, when the object of that +affection dies, time brings balm to his woe, and mellows it into +forgetfulness or to a shadowy memory. + +If she were to die, would he ever love another, and stand with that +other before the altar? + +In her day-dreams, in times gone by, Jessie had pictured to herself--as +girls will in those rosy moments--how she would stand at the altar, and +listen with whirling brain and beating heart to those sweet, solemn +words that would bind her forever to the man she loved with more than a +passing love. She pictured how she would walk down the aisle, leaning on +his arm--that great, strong arm that would be her support for +evermore--a great mist of happy tears in her eyes as she clung to him. + +She even pictured to herself how he would help her into the coach, and +how they would drive away out into the great wide world together, to be +separated never again. + +Instead of all this, now she would be lying in her grave, with blue +forget-me-nots and pale primroses on her breast. + +Jack would be going through that scene with another as his bride; and as +the years rolled by he would forget her, or think of her only now and +then at times--not with keen regret, but with faint, vague indifference. + +Oh, God! if it had been _he_ who was destined to die, she would have +shut herself up from the world, and would have lived only for his +memory. + +Her last prayer would have been, when death's dew gathered on her brow, +to be buried beside him. + +But men are more fickle than women. How few of them remain true to a +dead love! + +As she tossed to and fro on her pillow, these thoughts tortured her more +than tongue could tell. + +Then a strange fancy took possession of her. + +The more she thought of it, the more her heart longed to accomplish it, +until she could not restrain the longing that seemed to take entire +possession of her. + +And one day, when she seemed even more ill than usual, she could no +longer restrain the impulse to send for Jack. + +He came quickly at her bidding, sat down by her couch, caught the +little white hand--ah! terribly thin and white now--in his, and raised +it to his lips. + +"Did you wish me to sit with you, Jessie?" he said. "Or would you like +me to read to you?" + +"No; I want to talk to you, Jack," she said, with a little quiver in her +voice. + +"Have you ever thought how near it is to--to our wedding-day, Jack," she +whispered, faintly. + +"Yes," said Jack, with never a thought of what was coming. + +"What--what would you do if I were still ill when it dawned?" + +"The ceremony could be performed just the same," he answered, promptly. +"There would be no wedding at the church, no invited guests; that would +be all the difference." + +"Would you wish to marry me if--if you knew that I would never be well +again, and that perhaps death would be hovering very, very near to claim +me, and to part me from you?" + +"I will keep to my part of the compact, Jessie," he said, huskily. + +"But what if I should die before it, Jack?" she questioned, faintly. + +"I do not know what you mean, Jessie," he said, gravely--"what you are +trying to get at." + +"Oh, Jack! I mean this: I--I want to belong to you in life and in death. +I do not want you to have any other love but me, even if I should be +taken from you. I want you to be true to me forever. I could not rest in +my grave, though they burled me fathoms deep, if you ever called +another--wife! If I am to die, Jack, you must promise me one +thing--that you will never wed--another!" + +"How can you talk of such a thing, my dear Jessie?" he said, +reproachfully. "You pain me beyond measure." + +"You will give me that promise, will you not, Jack?" she pleaded. "The +pangs of death will be easier to bear if my mind is but at rest on that +subject." + +"You are going to get well soon, and the ceremony will take place as we +have arranged," he said, soothingly; but she shook her head. + +"If I should not, Jack," she whispered, fixing her burning eyes +wistfully on his face, "let me have the assurance from your lips that +you will never, never put another in my place." + +"If it will settle any doubts in your mind, I give you the promise that +you ask," he answered, in a low, grave voice; and it was worth that +promise to see the girl's pale face light up with a swift flush of joy. + +"Oh, thank you--thank you, Jack!" she sobbed. + +At that moment a strange incident was taking place in Dorothy's room. + +Almost thoroughly exhausted with night-watching, Dorothy had fallen +asleep in a chair, in which she had sat down for a few moments' rest. + +Was it only a vision? she wondered, or did she hear some one call her +name softly: "Dorothy! Dorothy!" + +She turned her head quickly, but she could see no one, although some one +was whispering: + +"Why do you nurse Jessie so carefully? If it is destined that she should +die, I wonder that you grieve when you know that her death will bring +freedom to Jack Garner and love to you!" + +The idea was so startling that for a time it nearly took her breath +away. + +"Let her drift quietly on to the end which is near. If you do not work +too zealously to save her, your reward will be the heart of him whom you +_love at last_. Take warning, and heed my words!" + +Dorothy sprang from her chair, quivering with excitement. + +She had been fast asleep, and the words that still rang in her ears +shocked her yet, even though she knew it was but a dream--though such a +vivid one--and the voice that whispered those words to her seemed so +like Jack's. + +Still the idea was in her head. If Jessie Staples died, her lover would +be free again, and she knew what that would mean for herself. + +She tried to put the thought from her, but she could not; it haunted her +continually. + +She tried to tell herself that even if Jessie were to die, she would +never make herself known to Jack. + +But, even after she had said all that, she knew in her own mind that she +would be sure to let Jack know at last, for she would never realize a +moment's happiness until she was once more what she had been to Jack in +the past. + +It had been such a slight affair that had parted them, and that had +drifted two hearts asunder. + + Alas! how light a cause may move + Dissensions between hearts that love-- + Hearts that the world in vain had tried, + And sorrow but more closely tied; + That stood the storm when waves were rough, + Yet in a sunny hour fell off, + Like ships that have gone down at sea + When heaven was all tranquillity." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +During the week that followed, the words that Dorothy had heard in her +dream constantly recurred to her. + +At first she fought against the feeling that seemed to be forced upon +her. + +She cried out to herself that Jessie must live; but with that thought +always came the one that, if Jessie recovered, it would mean the +downfall of all her own future happiness. + +At last her growing love for Jack Garner conquered her. She yielded to +it. It was like the intoxication of rare wine, of sweet, subtle perfume, +until at last, in secret, she confessed to herself that she loved him. +She thought of nothing but that she loved Jack with all the strength and +fervor of her despairing soul, and the only barrier between them +was--Jessie. + +To make matters all the worse, the sick girl made a confidante of her, +and would talk to her for long hours at a time over her approaching +marriage--that is, if she should recover. + +Every word she said was like the sharp thrust of a sword to Dorothy; but +day by day Dorothy could not help but notice the terrible change that +was taking place in Jessie Staples. + +Every afternoon her couch was drawn to the bay-window. She liked to be +propped up where she could look out into the sunlit garden, with its +green foliage and bright-hued flowers; for it was in the garden that +Jack could be seen, pacing up and down under the trees, smoking his +afternoon cigar. + +She would always call for Jack when she saw him, and when he came into +the room she would hold out her arms to him with a strange, low cry. + +He would always kneel down by her side, talk to her, try to cheer her. +Sleep would never come to her unless he sat by her side, holding her +hands in his. + +It was with great relief that Mr. Garner heard at length that Doctor +Crandall was so much better that he would visit Jessie the next +afternoon. + +When he came Doctor Kendal took him at once to the sick-room, and there +they held a long and secret consultation. + +"I am obliged to say, sir, that I shall have to abandon the case," said +Kendal. "I am completely dumbfounded with it. I have most carefully +followed out your every suggestion, and yet the patient fails rapidly +before my eyes day after day." + +Doctor Crandall looked thoughtful. + +When he left Jessie's couch he found Mr. Garner awaiting him in the +library. + +"What do you think of her, sir?" he asked, quickly. + +"There is not much the matter," he replied; "a good tonic, rest, and a +little cheerful society will soon set the young lady right again." + +"It is the first time that you have seen her, doctor," said Jack, rather +dubiously. "You never saw her in health, sir. You do not know how +alarmingly she has changed for the worse. She had a brilliant color, but +it has all gone." + +"It will soon return," said the doctor, encouragingly; and with a few +further words he left Jack, more mystified than ever. + +For forty odd years he had enjoyed a large practice, but in all that +time he had never had a case exactly like this. + +He made up his mind then and there that there was something about this +case which was beyond him--there was something about it that he could +not fathom, that was shrouded in mystery. + +He wired without delay, an urgent message to an eminent physician with +whom he was on excellent terms. It was almost midnight when Doctor +Schimpf arrived at the Garner mansion. + +His friend, Doctor Crandall, was awaiting him, and together they made +their way at once to the sick-room. + +"This is an urgent case, I suppose," said Doctor Schimpf. + +"I am afraid so," was the reply. "You will be able to judge when you see +the patient." + +Doctor Schimpf's stern face grew sterner still as he made his +examination of poor Jessie. Then the doctors quitted the room and +commenced their consultation. + +Nadine Holt looked after them with a strange smile on her face, her +black eyes glittering. + +"Well," said Doctor Crandall, "I wonder if we both have the same opinion +in regard to this case." + +"It can admit of but one," returned Doctor Schimpf, with a shake of his +head. + +"And that is?" + +"It is a case of slow poisoning," was the answer. + +Doctor Crandall grasped his friend's hand. + +"That was my view exactly," he said, huskily. + +"There is but one way to proceed," returned Doctor Schimpf: "we must set +a watch upon the inmates of the sick-room, and discover who is the +perpetrator of this awful crime; and in the meantime make minute +inquiries if there is any one under this roof who would be likely to be +benefited by this poor girl's death. I propose that we proceed without +an hour's delay." + +"Agreed!" returned the other, promptly. "And I would suggest, as well, +that a woman be secured, if possible, to undertake this task of +ferreting out who is responsible for this awful crime that will soon +terminate fatally if not nipped in the bud." + +The next morning a young colored girl duly presented herself at the +Garner mansion. + +"I have brought you an assistant," said Doctor Crandall, leading her +into the presence of Dorothy and Nadine Holt, and bowing to each in +turn. "She is to obey your orders implicitly, and wait upon you. The +medicines we have left are of an extremely pungent odor, and likely to +overcome a person unused to them. She can attend to mixing the +preparations for you, if you both consider her competent to do so, which +you can tell after a short trial;" adding, besides: "One drop of this +stains the hands, and it can not be got off for months. I thought this +might be sufficient reason for placing this young girl at your +disposal." + +"You are very thoughtful, sir," said Nadine Holt, sweetly; but Dorothy +spoke never a word. + +Both doctors turned and looked keenly at her; then the conversation +drifted quickly into another channel; but both had made up their minds +that this boded no good for the slender, dark-looking woman with the +blue glasses who hovered continually about the sick girl's couch. + +As the doctors were leaving, under guise of giving a few words of +instruction to Myra, the mulatto girl, they whispered hurriedly in her +ear. + +"I understand," she answered, with a nod of her head. "Nothing shall +escape my eye." + +The next day Doctor Crandall made minute inquiries regarding every +member of the household, and every addition that had been made to it for +the past few months; and he learned, casually, that the only person +under that roof with whose history the Garners were not thoroughly +acquainted was--Mrs. Brown. + +Furthermore, he discovered that she had secured the place without proper +recommendations. This he considered a serious affair. He was quite +willing to give her the benefit of a doubt; still, it was too grave a +matter of which he had charge. Every moment of time wasted in +discovering the perpetrator of the awful crime was dangerous to Miss +Staples, his beautiful patient, exposed to such deadly peril. + +All unmindful of the espionage placed upon her, Dorothy went about her +duties in the same faithful manner. + +In the morning she read to and amused old Mrs. Garner. In the afternoon +she attended to all the duties of the household; for in the midst of +their difficulties their housekeeper had left them. + +In the evening she relieved Nadine Holt from her arduous duties in the +sick-room. + +The only gleam of brightness that fell athwart her path was meeting Jack +Garner at the table three times a day. Her life merged into one great +longing to be near him. + +She tried to picture how it would be when Jessie recovered and he should +marry her. Of course, they would still dwell beneath that roof. Could +the same home that held them hold her? + +She could not endure seeing them so happy in each other's love. Whenever +Jack entered the sick-room, Dorothy always made some pretense to leave +it. + +The sight of him bringing a flower to Jessie would be enough to almost +break her heart with poignant grief. + +She could not help but notice how handsome he was growing day by day. + +Oh, what would she not have given for just one of the kindly words he +used to speak to her, a tender look, a caress! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + +Not one thought did Dorothy give to Harry Kendal during these days. It +is strange what a power some young girls possess in throwing off all +tender thoughts from their hearts when the object of them has proven +himself unworthy. + +All love for Harry Kendal had gone out of her heart when she saw him +choose Iris' society instead of her own, and she at the time his +betrothed bride. + +Dorothy's only hope was that Kendal would not penetrate her disguise, +and never know what had become of her. + +She did not know but what he was now betrothed to Iris, and _she did not +care_. She was glad to be rid of him at any cost. She only wished that +Nadine Holt--who was still so insanely in love with her false +lover--knew how treacherous he was. She wished she dare tell her about +Iris. + +In her hours of loneliness little Pearl was a great comfort to Dorothy. +She almost lost sight of her troubles at times in taking care of the +child, who was quite as desolate in the world as herself. + +She never forgot one morning that broke sunny enough for her, but ended +in desolation more bitter to endure than death. + +Mrs. Garner and herself were seated at the breakfast table, when Jack +entered and took his seat opposite Dorothy. He bent his fair, handsome +head, and kissed his mother as he passed her, and bowed courteously to +"Mrs. Brown." + +Both noticed that his fair, handsome face was very pale, and his right +hand looked bruised. Mrs. Garner spoke of it at once. + +"What is the matter--what has happened, Jack, my boy?" she asked, +earnestly. "What does your agitation mean? You must tell me at once. +Your--your appearance alarms me more than I can tell you." + +He tried to laugh the matter off, but his mother would not be persuaded +to change the subject. + +"Well, then, if you _must_ know, I will tell you when--we--are--alone," +he said, a little unsteadily. + +"You need not mind Mrs. Brown," she answered, quickly. "I do not +hesitate speaking before her on any topic." + +Dorothy rose hurriedly to her feet. + +"I--I have finished my breakfast," she said, in the low tone she had +assumed, and which so charmed every one; "and if you will excuse me, I +shall be grateful." + +Jack bowed courteously; but Mrs. Garner held out a fluttering hand to +stay her steps. + +"Do not go very far, Mrs. Brown," she said. "I may need you at any +moment. Step into the conservatory and wait for further orders there." + +With a bow of assent Dorothy glided from the room. She was sorry that +Mrs. Garner had requested her to remain in the conservatory, for she +knew full well that more or less of the conversation between mother and +son must needs reach her ears. + +The door had no sooner closed behind the slim, retreating figure ere +Mrs. Garner turned quickly to her son, who was now pacing up and down +the breakfast-room, with his arms folded tightly over his breast, his +head crested proudly erect and a strange look in his eyes. + +"Well, Jack." she said, at length, seeing that he was in no hurry to +break the silence, "what is the matter? You used to tell your mother all +your troubles when you were a little boy. Come to me with them now. +Something has happened to disturb you greatly. I can see it in your +face. Tell me what it is, my boy. Tell your mother what annoys you, my +dear." + +"You are right, mother; something _has_ happened to disturb me," he +said. "I ought not to worry you with it, but if you care to hear it you +shall know all. You remember a conversation we had several months ago +about--about little Dorothy, mother?" + +"We _did_ have a conversation about that girl, but I do not remember +specially all that was said." + +"You remember that I told you then, mother, that--that I still loved +Dorothy, and if I ever came across the man who lured her away from me it +would go hard with him or with me." + +"I was in hopes that you were getting over that nonsense," she said, +"especially since your betrothal to poor Jessie." + +"I told you then, as I tell you now, mother, that I shall never forget +Dorothy nor cease to love her. But for the story I have to tell: An hour +since, as I was taking an early morning stroll to get a cigar, a little +incident happened which caused me to pause and to quite forget my +errand. It was only a little lame boy singing for pennies on the street, +and the song that he sang touched my heart, as it has not been touched +for long months, and thrilled every fiber of my being with a sharp, keen +pain. + +"You have heard the same song, mother. You remember how I rose and +abruptly left the room when some young girl commenced to sing it in our +drawing-room only a few short weeks ago. To-day I listened to it, +spellbound; and the boy's accompaniment on the violin held me as one +fascinated. I tried to move away, but could not, as you can judge by +what occurred afterward. There was a strange fate in my standing there. + +"I stood quite still and listened to the well-remembered words which +carried me back so forcibly to my own past with Dorothy: + + "'Far away in summer meadows, + Where the merry sunbeams played, + Oft I lingered 'mid the clover + Singing to a village maid. + She was fairer than the fairest, + Ever faithful, fond and true, + And she wore beneath her bonnet + Amber tresses tied with blue. + + "'Ere the summer days departed, + We had made a solemn vow, + And I never, never wearied + Kissing her sweet cheek and brow. + She was dearer than the dearest, + Pure as drops of morning dew, + And adown her back were hanging, + Amber tresses tied with blue. + + "''Twas decreed that fate should part us + Ere the leaves of autumn fell, + And two loving hearts were severed, + That had loved each other well. + She was all I had to cherish, + We have bade our last adieu. + Still I see in every vision + Amber tresses tied with blue.' + +Just at that moment a step sounded on the pavement. + +"A man rushed down, hatless, from an adjacent mansion, and in a +twinkling seized the offending young musician by the throat, and hurled +him from the sidewalk, crying, fiercely: + +"'I will teach you to come here every morning and to sing that accursed +song of all others in front of my door. I have ordered you away twice +before. I'll teach you better than to come back again.' + +"The unprovoked assault upon the helpless cripple awoke all the anger in +my nature. + +"I sprang forward and separated them; but when I saw who the cripple's +assailant was, my amazement knew no bounds. + +"It was the young doctor who comes here to attend Jessie. + +"He turned on me with terrible ferocity; then I recognized the fumes of +wine on his breath. + +"'This is the second time you have interfered in my business, Garner!' +he cried, fairly foaming with rage. 'Once when you attempted to take +Dorothy Glenn from me on the Staten Island boat, and--now.' + +"I fell back as though he had struck me a terrible blow. In an instant I +recognized him. I had been looking for him ever since Dorothy's flight. +I had caught but a fleeting glimpse of him in the past, and his +whiskers made such a change in him, no wonder I did not recognize him as +he crossed our threshold; and this accounted for the manner in which he +had managed to avoid me in my own household. + +"'You! You fiend incarnate, have I found you at last? I could kill you +here and now!' I cried as my fingers tightened around his throat. 'But I +will give you one chance to save yourself. Name your own place as to +where you will meet me. I did not recognize you before. You shall tell +me what you have done with Dorothy Glenn, or I will kill you!' + +"Those words seemed to recall him to his senses. He drew back defiantly, +and his flashing black eyes met mine, while a terrible sneer curled his +lips. + +"'You shall never know whether Dorothy Glenn is living or dead!' he +cried. + +"I could have borne anything better than those scathing words from the +lips of the man who had taken from me the girl I loved. + +"'You will find me at my home up to the hour of noon,' he said. 'Make +any arrangements you deem necessary.' + +"I turned on my heel and left him; and here I am, awaiting a summons +from him." + +Mrs. Garner had risen slowly to her feet. The import of his words had +just begun to dawn upon her. + +"Jack!" she cried, wildly, throwing herself upon her knees at his feet, +"is it to be a duel? Oh, my God, Jack, answer me!" + +They heard a crash in the conservatory, but both were too excited to +mind it. + +"Let me go in your place," cried a hoarse voice from the doorway of the +conservatory. "Pardon me, but I could not help overhearing all;" and +Mrs. Brown advanced excitedly into the breakfast-room, and up to Jack's +side. "Let me go in your place," she repeated. "Let me give my life for +yours. I--I have nothing left to live for; you have." + +Jack was deeply touched. + +"You forget your little child," he said, gently. "Besides, any man might +reasonably take up the quarrel of a lady, and, if need be, die in her +defense, be she friend or stranger; but no woman should make such a +sacrifice for a man. I thank you for the kindness of heart that prompted +the words; but it can not be. I am sorry that you overheard my words to +my mother. See! she has swooned away. I beg that you will take care of +her, and let none of the household know what is about to occur." + +As Jack Garner uttered the words, he kissed the prostrate form of his +mother, and, turning, walked hastily out of the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + +Dorothy then set about restoring Jack's mother, and with the first +breath of returning consciousness she fled from the room and up to her +own. + +She was just about to seize her hat and cloak, and to dash out into the +street, in the mad hope of overtaking him, all heedless of little +Pearl's cry, as she woke from her sleep and held out her hand, when +there came a sudden knock upon the door. + +It was the colored maid. + +"If you please, ma'am, you are wanted in Miss Staples' room." + +"I--I can not go now," cried Dorothy, incoherently. "I have an urgent +errand that I must attend to at once." + +"But you must come, madame," said the girl, slowly, but very +impressively. + +"It is impossible," returned Dorothy, attempting to pass her by. "Every +moment of my time is precious." + +"But madame must go to the sick-room," reiterated the girl so earnestly +that Dorothy paused. + +"I will look in at the sick-room one moment," she said. "Then you--you +must not detain me." + +Suddenly she turned and asked: + +"Do you know whether Mr. Garner is in the house?" + +"He is in the library, ma'am." + +"You are sure?" gasped Dorothy. + +"Quite sure, ma'am. He also has had a message to come to the sick-room. +I stopped and gave it to him myself on my way here." + +Thus assured that he had not yet left the house, Dorothy breathed a +great sigh of intense relief. + +"I--I do not mind going to the sick-room with you now," she whispered, +in a low, unsteady voice; and, all unconscious of what was to accrue +from it, Dorothy followed her companion from the room and up to Jessie's +chamber. + +The silence of death was upon all things as she parted the silken +_portieres_ and entered the room where the sick girl lay, white and +gasping, upon the couch. + +The two doctors made way for her, motioning her to advance to the couch. + +"Oh! she is not dying--not dying?" gasped Dorothy, with a wild wail of +terror. "You must not tell me that!" + +"Are you so very much surprised?" asked Doctor Crandall, slowly and +impressively. + +"Oh, she must not die---she must not die!" she cried. "Where is all your +vaunted skill if you can not save her life?" + +"Man can work against the skill of man," significantly replied Doctor +Crandall, "but not against the will of Heaven." + +"But is she dying?" wailed Dorothy, grasping the ice-cold hands. + +"She shall not die if we can save her," simultaneously echoed both +doctors. + +They uttered the words in so strange a tone that Dorothy turned and +looked at them in wonder. + +At that moment Mr. Garner entered the room. His face was still very +pale, but he was outwardly calm. + +He was just in time to catch the last words, and he stepped up hurriedly +to the doctor ere he could utter another word to Dorothy. + +"Do you say that my betrothed is dying?" he cried, hoarsely, flinging +himself on his knees beside the couch, on the side opposite to where +Dorothy was. + +"What we have to say had better be deferred for a few moments, until he +is more calm and better able to bear the shock," said Doctor Schimpf, +nodding in the direction where Mr. Garner knelt prostrated with grief. + +Dorothy had become strangely calm, and both doctors noticed that she +intently watched the actions of young Mr. Garner. + +"I think I have unearthed the secret of the whole affair," whispered +Doctor Crandall to his friend. "Watch the gaze Mrs. Brown is bending +upon the betrothed lover of the girl who lies sick unto death!" + +He motioned the doctor back into the recess of the bay-window. + +"Let me finish my story here," he whispered under his breath. "This is +what I would say: This strange woman in the black dress loves Mr. +Garner. Ah! you start, my friend. So did I when the thought first +flashed across my mind. Within the last few moments this thought has +settled into a conviction. She is the only one interested in the death +of Miss Staples. Look carefully into the chain of evidence I present to +you, and you will have the same opinion that I have formed, no doubt. + +"In the first place, as we both know, Miss Staples' sudden attack of +illness dated from a few days after this mysterious young woman crossed +this threshold. + +"Who she is, or whence she came, no one seems to have been clever enough +to find out. + +"She has come and gone from this house, alone, and at all hours, no one +questioning her movements. + +"She has taken full charge of the patient, from midnight until early +morning, and each forenoon our patient seems to have grown alarmingly +worse. We have both discovered the presence of arsenic, which has been +administered to her. + +"And now last, but by no means least, I have been observing this +mysterious woman with keen scrutiny. I could stake my life upon it she +wears a wig, that her complexion is a 'made-up' one. By this you will +understand me to say that the lines we see traced upon her face are the +work of art, not time. The eyes covered by those blue glasses are bright +as stars. In short, she is not the middle-aged personage that she +appears, but is a young woman, or rather a fiend incarnate, in disguise. + +"I propose within the next few moments to lay the matter before Mr. +Garner, and to gain his sanction to compel her to throw off this +disguise before she leaves this room, to confront her with the evidence +of her crime, and to force her to make a full confession at the bedside +of her would-be victim." + +"I quite agree with your plan," assented the other. "But there is one +precaution which we must not forget: the key must be turned in the lock +and removed, if you would have your bird securely caged. Delays are +dangerous. Let Mr. Garner be told the terrible truth without a moment's +delay, and we will rest the case wholly with him." + +Without attracting attention, Doctor Crandall called Mr. Garner into the +recess of the bay-window, while Doctor Schimpf engaged Dorothy in +conversation to pass the time away. + +To attempt to describe Jack Garner's astonishment, which gradually +deepened into the most intense horror as the terrible story was unfolded +to him, can better be imagined than described. + +"Jessie suffering from the effects of poison?" he gasped, incredulously. +"Great Heaven! how can I believe such an uncanny tale? Miss Staples has +not an enemy in the whole world, I am sure. No one could have a motive +in attempting to put her out of the way." + +"Will you answer one question?" said the doctor, looking earnestly at +the young man. + +"Anything which you may ask," quickly returned the other. + +"Did you ever have any other sweetheart than Miss Staples? Did any other +woman ever love you in the past?" + +For a moment Jack hesitated, and his fair, handsome face flushed; then +he frankly raised his eyes and met the keen gaze fixed upon him. + +"I have no hesitancy in acknowledging that I did have a romance in my +life before my betrothal to poor Jessie. But she knew about it from +beginning to end." + +"Did you give this girl up for Miss Staples? Pardon me for asking such a +direct question, but your answer is vitally important." + +The handsome face into which the old doctor gazed grew very white, and +the lines about the firm mouth deepened into an expression of pain. + +"My little sweetheart disappeared one day with a handsomer man than I," +he said, huskily, "and from that time to this I have never looked upon +her false but fair face." + +"Did she love you in those days?" was the next query. + +"I wonder that you can ask the question," said Jack, with a touch of +haughty bitterness. "Does it look very much as though she loved me when +she ran away with another man? On the contrary, any one could see that, +in pursuing the course she did toward me, she must have detested me. I +never saw this Mrs. Brown before we engaged her as a companion to my +mother, nor has Jessie, I am sure. I am completely at sea," Jack added, +"and therefore I leave the matter entirely with you. If Jessie is dying +of slow poison, I beseech you to discover the perpetrator of the deed, +at any cost--aye, and though it takes every dollar of my fortune, the +wretch shall be punished to the full extent of the law." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + +Quietly the doctors filed into the room, and one of them turned the key +in the door. + +It was Dr. Crandall who undertook the delicate task of unmasking the +suspected would-be murderess. + +"I will tell you," he said, slowly. "The poor girl on the couch beside +which you have often knelt is dying of slow poison, administered to her +by some person beneath this roof." + +Dorothy sprang from her chair and reeled backward, looking at him with +widely dilated eyes. She never knew how it happened, but in that instant +of time a terrible thought came to her. Could Jack Garner be guilty of +administering it to her, to free himself from the bonds he so cruelly +hated? + +Oh, God! how the thought tortured her. She would not--she could not +believe it. + +"Some one under this roof has been guilty of this most atrocious act," +continued the doctor, in a stern voice. "We suspect--we know the guilty +party, and that party is in this very room!" + +Dorothy clasped her hands in dumb agony, and her terrified eyes never +left the form of him who had once been her lover. + +"You do not answer me, Mrs. Brown," said the doctor, frowning. "What +have you to say?" + +"What could I say?" she sobbed, piteously. + +"The one who is guilty of this diabolical deed must be held accountable +for it," said the doctor, facing her sternly. "A just punishment must +and shall be meted out to the wicked party. If you say that you will not +admit the truth, then I will turn the affair over to Mr. Garner, here +and now!" + +What would they do with Jack? In imagination she saw him in a prison +cell, perhaps doomed to drag out all the after years of his life there, +and the thought seemed to drive her to madness. + +"I will take it upon myself, and Jack shall go free," she said to +herself--"yes blameless and free." + +Slowly the doctor stepped around to Jack's side. + +"What have you to say in this matter, Mr. Garner?" he said. + +"Let me answer instead of him," Dorothy panted, hoarsely. "He knows +nothing about it. Oh, hear me!--listen to me, I pray you! It is I--I +whom you must hold guilty. Do with me as you will!" + +Both of the doctors nodded toward each other. A groan broke from +Garner's lips--this acknowledgement was so terrible for him to hear from +this strange woman's lips. + +"Who are you, and what was your motive for this horrible crime?" asked +the doctor, sternly. "You must make a clean breast of why you attempted +to poison Miss Staples, here and now." + +There was one person in that room who listened to Dorothy's most +extraordinary confession, white with terror, and that was--Nadine Holt. + +She knew full well that the stranger was entirely guiltless; then why +under heaven had she placed herself in such a horrible position? + +Nadine recovered her outward composure by a great effort, and listened +intently to what they were saying. + +"You must reveal your identity here and now," Doctor Crandall was +repeating, vehemently, "or I shall force you to do so. When we once +become convinced who you are, and your motive for this crime, then we +will know how to proceed against you. In the first place, I order you to +remove both the wig and glasses which we have discovered that you are +wearing. Your identity is the first step in this matter." + +Like a flash Dorothy flung herself at Jack Garner's feet. + +Ere he could put out his hand toward her, Doctor Crandall had sprung +forward, and with a quick motion gently but deftly snatched the wig from +her head and the glasses from her eyes, and Dorothy--Dorothy Glenn stood +revealed, in all her terror, before the astonished gaze of Jack Garner +and Nadine Holt. + +"You--you!" cried Jack, in horror too great for words. + +"Save me--save me!" gasped the girl. + +He wondered that he did not go mad, then and there at the sight of her. + +"Let me go!" she panted, imploring. + +The doctor shook his head. + +"You must be held answerable for your crime," he said, sternly. "You +showed no pity to the girl lying here so helpless, and why should it be +shown you? She lies here in a deep sleep, and when she awakens we shall +know whether it is life or death she has to face. We hope it is life, +but we can not be too sure. In the interim, while we decide your fate, +you should thank Heaven that your plans are frustrated. We can not +decide, until the crisis is past, as to what is best to be done." + +"Jack," she whispered again, "let me go far away and leave you with +Jessie. She will recover, and you will marry her and be happy after all, +and I--I will never cross your path again." + +He tore away the white little hands that clung to him, and turned to the +doctors. They were awed at the sight of his white, desperate face. + +"You have both assured me that Miss Staples will not die from this +poisoning," he said, hoarsely; "and I--I, the one most vitally +interested in this affair, say to you: Open that door and let her go her +way." + +Ah, God! that they should meet and part like this, after all those weary +months of heartache! + +"God only knows her object in coming here in disguise and committing +this awful crime," was his mental thought; but aloud, he only said: + +"Go, and may Heaven forgive you! Go to the father of your child." + +A terrible lump rose in his throat; he could say no more. + +The little one had crept out of Dorothy's arms, and out into the middle +of the floor; but Dorothy never, in that awful moment, thought of the +child. She was so stunned that the full import of his words did not +strike her just then. + +She only knew that he was opening the door for her, and harshly +commanding her to go. + +Like a storm-driven swallow, with one quick glance in his face, the girl +turned and fled from the room, and out of the house. + +"You were too generous toward her," cried one of the doctors. "See! she +has abandoned her little child, Mr. Garner." + +Then suddenly the doctor stopped short, and looked first at the +fair-haired, beautiful babe, then at Mr. Garner, and said no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + +When Dorothy fled so precipitately from the room, she fairly ran into +the arms of a man who was crouching at one side, listening intently. +With a muttered imprecation, he drew back, and it was then Dorothy saw +his face. + +"Hush! On your life, don't dare to make an outcry!" cried the harsh +voice of Harry Kendal. + +Before she could utter the scream that welled up from her heart, he had +seized her in his strong arms, thrown a dark shawl over her head, dashed +out into the street with her, and into a cab in waiting. + +Too weak to struggle, too weak to cry out, her head fell backward upon +her abductor's shoulder, and she knew no more. + +When she awoke to consciousness of what was transpiring about her, she +found herself still in the coach beside Kendal, and the vehicle was +whirling along through the sunshine and shadow of a country road with +alarming rapidity. + +"Dorothy--my darling Dorothy!" he cried, clasping her hands and +showering kisses upon her upturned face. "Oh, Dorothy, my little bride +that is to be, why did you fly from me so cruelly the morning after the +great ball at our home in Yonkers?" + +"Do not speak to me! Stop this coach immediately, and let me get out!" +she cried. "How dare you attempt to thrust your unwelcome face in my way +again? Go back to Iris Vincent, for whom you left me; or to Nadine Holt, +whose heart and whose life you have wrecked. I know you for what you +are, and I abhor you a thousand times more than I ever imagined I +fancied you." + +"Do you mean that you do not wish to go back to the Yonkers home and +marry me?" he demanded. + +But before she could find time to reply, he went on: + +"You were terribly foolish to grow so jealous of Iris Vincent as to run +away from me. Why, I--I was merely flirting with her because she was +pretty. + +"Why, she is married now, and at the other end of the world, for aught I +know or care. I can only add that, from the moment I learned of your +disappearance, I have been searching for you night and day. Oh, Dorothy, +now that I have found you, do not treat me like this, I beseech you! Let +us kiss and make up. We are driving direct toward the parsonage, where +we are to be married. + +"Few men would care for you so much upon making the terrible discovery +that you had fled from home and directly to the arms of an old lover, +remaining under his roof until you were cast out from it by that lover +himself. I do not know even what your quarrel with him was about. I do +not ask to know. The object which took me there, I do not mind telling +you. I had a quarrel with your lover, Jack Garner. We were to meet early +this morning to settle the affair of honor; but as he did not show up to +make the arrangements, I forced my way into his house, in order that I +might not miss him. I heard him turning you from his door. Then +amazement held me spell-bound. I shall take this into account when--when +I have my settlement with him, later on. Any indignity offered to you +shall be my affair, as your husband, to settle." + +Dorothy had drawn back from him listening with horror to the words that +fell from his lips. + +"The duel must be averted at any cost," she told herself; yet she could +not--oh, she could not!--marry him. "I must think of some way out of +this," thought Dorothy, in the wildest agony. "I must save myself, and +save him, too." + +But in a moment, while she was pondering over the affair, the vehicle +came to a sudden stop, and, looking out, she saw it was standing before +the wide entrance-gate of a parsonage. + +"Here we are!" cried Kendal, holding out his hand to her. + +"I have not said that I would marry you," she cried. "How dared you +bring me here?" + +"That fact was settled between you and me so long ago that you surprise +me by your words," he said, angrily. + +"There is such a thing as a person changing her mind," said Dorothy, as +she leaped from the carriage, and stood facing him under the trees. + +"Surely you do not mean that you have changed yours?" retorted Kendal, +knowing that his best policy was to temporize with her. + +"I have, indeed," declared the girl; "and you will therefore oblige me, +Mr. Kendal, by re-entering your carriage and driving along." + +"Do you think I would leave you here, Dorothy," he said, in his most +winning voice--"here, at this strange parsonage? I should say not! If +you object to marrying me now, I know it is only through pique; but +still I say that I shall await your own good time; and, as the song +goes, 'When love has conquered pride and anger, you will call me back +again.' Do get in, Dorothy, darling; do not make a scene here. See! they +are watching us from the window. Get in, and we will drive on to +Yonkers. It is only four miles farther up the road. I promise you you +shall have your own way. Mrs. Kemp is at the old home. You will be +welcomed with open arms." + +"Take your hand off my arm, or I shall scream!" cried the girl, +struggling to free herself. + +Quick as a flash he seized her, and, with the rapidity of lightning, +thrust her back into the coach. + +"Drive on--drive on!" Kendal yelled to the driver--"you know where!" and +despite Dorothy's wild, piercing cries, the coach fairly flew down the +white, winding road, and was soon lost to view amid the dense trees. + +It soon became evident to Dorothy that she was only losing her strength +in shouting for help. + +Kendal was leaning back in his seat, with the most mocking smile on his +lips that ever was seen. + +"It is a pity to waste so much breath on the desert air," he sneered. "I +would advise you to stop before you become exhausted, as there is no one +to hear you and to come to your aid." + +But Dorothy did not heed, and renewed her cries the more vociferously. + +He had said thoughtlessly, that her cries would startle the horses, +never dreaming that this would indeed be the case. But, much to his +alarm, he noticed that their speed was increasing with every instant of +time. It broke upon him all too soon that they were indeed running away, +and that the driver was powerless to check them. + +In great alarm, Kendal sprang to his feet and threw open the door. That +action was fatal; for at that instant the horses suddenly swerved to the +right, and he was flung head foremost from the vehicle; the wheels +passed over him, and the next instant the coach collided with a large +tree by the road-side, and Dorothy knew no more. + +Up this lonely path walked a woman, young and very fair, but with a face +white as it would ever be in death. And as her despairing eyes traveled +up and down the scene they suddenly encountered the white upturned face +of a woman lying in the long grass. + +With a great cry she reached her side. + +"Dead!" she whispered in a voice of horror, as she knelt beside the +figure lying there, and placed her hand over her heart. But no; the +heart beneath her light touch beat ever so faintly. "Thank God! this +poor creature is not dead," murmured the stranger, fervently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + +Dorothy opened her eyes wide, looking up in wonder at the pale, sweet +face bending over her. + +"Poor child!" murmured a sweet, pathetic voice. + +A kindly hand raised her, gently but firmly, from the dew-wet grass, and +pushed the damp, golden curls back from her face. + +The caressing touch thrilled the girl's being through every fiber. + +"You ask why I am here!" she sobbed. "Let me tell you: I came here to +die. Death would have come to me, I feel sure, if you had not crossed my +path. I should have crept to the brink of the bank yonder, and thrown +myself down into the river, and ended a life that is not worth the +living." + +"You must have seen a great deal of trouble to cause you to talk like +that." + +"I have seen more trouble than any other person on earth," retorted +Dorothy, bitterly. + +"Have you lost friends, or those nearer and dearer to you?" came the +gentle question, and Dorothy did not hesitate, strangely enough, to +answer it. + +"I never had a relative that I can remember," she answered, with a +little sob. "But I have lost my lover--my lover! He is to wed another, +and that other a girl who was once my dearest friend." + +"Your story is a sad one," replied the stranger, soothingly; "but it +might have been worse--much worse. What if you had lost a husband whom +you loved, or a little child whom you idolized? That would have been +trouble before which such as you are grieving over now would have paled +as the stars pale before a strong noon-day sun. + +"I do not ask you your story, my poor girl, but listen, and I will tell +you mine, and you can then judge how much mightier is my grief than +yours." + +"If you look through the trees yonder you will see a great stone mansion +on the brow of the hill. + +"It is my home. I live there with a dear young husband who adores me; my +slightest wish is his law. + +"I have liveried servants who anticipate and execute my slightest wish. +I have all that wealth can buy and love can lavish upon me, but, God +help me! I am the most unhappy creature that walks this flower-strewn +earth. + +"I have endured a sorrow so great that the wonder is it has not turned +my brain. Some few months since I was happy in the love of a little +child. Oh! I idolized my babe with a love that seemed greater than human +affection. It was the loadstar of my life. + +"'Take care! Beware!' cried one and all. 'Such idolatry is not wise; it +displeases Heaven.' + +"I laughed, and did not heed. One day we discharged a worthless servant +and he cried out to my husband, as he turned away from the door: 'You +shall repent this! I will yet wring the heart of you and yours to the +very core; and in that moment, remember me!' + +"A week passed. One night I suddenly awoke from a troubled dream about +my babe. + +"I put out my hand. It was not in its little crib of white and gold. I +sprang from my couch with wild cries that alarmed the household, for I +could not find my child. She was gone, as if the earth had opened and +swallowed her. But on the pillow of the crib the servants found a note +which bore these words: + +"'My revenge is complete. It is useless to search for your child, for by +the time this meets your eye your little one will have found a watery +grave.' + +"I was wild with grief for days and weeks. And when I became somewhat +rational, and could understand what was passing about me, I learned the +terrible truth--the sad, pitiful story: my babe had indeed found a +watery grave. They found a little shoe, its cape, and portions of its +dress floating on the waves the next morning. But the body was never +recovered; it had drifted out to sea. Now you will not wonder why I +wander up and down this lonely path at midnight--why I listen on my +bended knees for hours to the whispering voice of the waves. It seems to +me like the voice of my little child; and some day I shall follow her +into the dark, cold waves, and be at rest with my darling whose tiny +hands beckon me down to death in the cold, watery depths whose waves are +glinted by the golden light of the flickering stars." + +Dorothy scarcely breathed, so intense was her effort to restrain herself +until the other had finished. + +In fewer words than we can explain it she had flung her arms about the +stranger's neck and breathed out to her the startling story of that +never-to-be-forgotten night when she had rescued from the waves the +child this poor young mother was describing. + +"Oh, take me to my child!" she cried. "Now--now! Let not an instant's +time elapse. Every moment is precious. I can not wait--I can not!" + +Then Dorothy had her own story to tell: that she dared not return to +Jack Garner's home, where she had left little Pearl; and she told her +the whole story from beginning to end. Then came another revelation: + +"Jack Garner is my husband's partner!" the strange lady cried. "Come +back with me, and leave it to me to fully establish your innocence of +the atrocious crime of which they believe you guilty. + +"We have never visited at each other's homes, strangely enough, because +of some slight disagreement in the firm at the very time Mr. Garner was +taken in. + +"Come and talk it over with my husband. We will do whatever he decides." + +Oh, the great rejoicing in the old stone mansion! The horses were +hitched up without an instant's delay, and driven like mad into the +city, arriving at the Garner mansion just as the clock was striking +twelve. + +The old servant who answered the loud peal of the bell was shocked at +the sight of the beautiful lady who rushed past him in the corridor, +crying out: "Oh, for the love of Heaven, bring quickly to me the baby +whom you call Pearl!" + +Dorothy and the lady's husband followed. + +The great disturbance awoke Jack Garner. He heard the scurrying of feet +past his door. They stopped at the next room, where the little abandoned +babe was sleeping. + +The next instant a great, wild, happy cry rent the air, which the +angels must have heard and wept rejoicingly over; and he heard the +joyful cry: + +"Yes; it is my child--my own little, lost child!" + +Robing himself hurriedly, Jack quickly opened the door; but his partner +was standing there, and thrust him back. + +Jack knew of the loss of the little one, and his partner explained to +him how mysteriously it had been found, and by Jack's old sweetheart, +Dorothy Glenn. + +"Then the child she had here was not her own?" cried Jack, white as +death. + +And as the whole story began to dawn upon him, Jack buried his fair, +handsome, haggard face in his hands, and wept for joy. + +But when his partner touched upon the subject of Dorothy's being accused +of poisoning Miss Staples, he sprang up hastily and grasped the other's +hand. + +"The accusation was not true," cried Jack. "Dorothy was not guilty. A +girl whom Jessie had known for years, and who was at her bedside, did +the deed. She wrote a full confession. I found it under my plate at the +dinner-table. Nadine Holt has fled to escape just punishment. Oh, how I +wish I could find poor, abused Dorothy, to tell her the truth!" + +And when he found Dorothy was beneath that roof, and at Jessie Staples' +bedside, his joy knew no bounds. + +He sought her there at once to crave her pardon for the unjust +suspicion, and no one ever knew just exactly what passed between the +sick girl lying there, Dorothy, and her old lover. + +In his great generous-heartedness, Jack sent hurriedly out to learn the +fate of the hapless Kendal. He was not dead, they soon discovered, but +in a very critical condition. And Jack's generosity went so far as to +bring his rival beneath that roof, and nurse him back to health and +strength. + +From the first, even while lying on her sick-bed, Jessie took the +greatest interest in the young doctor who, she remembered, had always +been so kind to her; and as soon as she was able, she begged that her +chair might be drawn up to his bedside, that she might show him her +kindly sympathy. And in the days and weeks that they were thus thrown +together, Jessie learned to care for the handsome, dark-eyed Harry +Kendal quite as much as she had ever cared for Jack. + +One day, when the sun was shining, and the birds were twittering to each +other of early spring, Harry Kendal asked the pale, sweet girl who knelt +beside his couch to be his bride. + +And she answered him, through her bitter tears, that though she had been +mad enough to learn to love him, it could never be, for she was +betrothed to Jack. + +Jack had entered the room unperceived by both, and had heard all, and +with the magnanimity so characteristic of him, he stepped nobly forward +and placed Jessie's hand in that of the man she loved. + +"I absolve you from your promise, my dear girl," he said. "You must wed +him whom you love best. Never mind me." + +"But you?" sobbed Jessie. "I--I will accept my freedom only on one +condition, Jack; and that is, that you ask Dorothy to fill my +place--aye, to take her own old place again in your heart and life!" + +"Not now," he said; "but perhaps I may speak to her some time in the +future." + +And he must have spoken to her, for three weeks later there was a double +wedding at the Garner mansion; and there never were two more beautiful +brides than Jessie and Dorothy, nor two happier young husbands than +Harry Kendal and Jack Garner; and Jack never ceased blessing the fates +that gave to him for his bride, after all his trials, pretty Madcap +Dorothy. But, then, the course of true love never did ran smooth. + + +THE END. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original text have been corrected for this electronic edition. + +In Chapter XXXII, "couriers thought it a great honor" was changed to +"courtiers thought it a great honor". + +In Chapter XXXV, "unprovoked assult" was changed to "unprovoked +assault". + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Pretty Madcap Dorothy, by Laura Jean Libbey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRETTY MADCAP DOROTHY *** + +***** This file should be named 29776.txt or 29776.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/7/29776/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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