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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/5990.txt b/5990.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f79f829 --- /dev/null +++ b/5990.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4623 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rosamond, by Mary J. Holmes +#3 in our series by Mary J. Holmes + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Rosamond + or, The Youthful Error + +Author: Mary J. Holmes + +Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5990] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 9, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSAMOND *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +ROSAMOND + +OR + +THE YOUTHFUL ERROR + +A Tale of Riverside + +AND OTHER STORIES + +BY + +MRS. MARY J. HOLMES +Author of "Tempest And Sunshine," "Lena Rivers," +"Meadowbrook," Etc., Etc. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I. + +The Owner of Riverside + +CHAPTER II. + +Rosamond Leyton + +CHAPTER III. + +Ben's Visit + +CHAPTER IV. + +Rosamond's Education + +CHAPTER V. + +Brother and Sister + +CHAPTER VI. + +Marie Porter + +CHAPTER VII. + +Making Love + +CHAPTER VIII. + +News + +CHAPTER IX. + +The Guest at Riverside + +CHAPTER X. + +The Story + +CHAPTER XI. + +The End + +----- + +DIAMONDS + +BAD SPELLING + +MAGGIE LEE + +THE ANSWERED PRAYER + + + + +ROSAMOND; + +OR + +THE YOUTHFUL ERROR. +A TALE OF RIVERSIDE. + +CHAPTER I. + +THE OWNER OF RIVERSIDE. + + +All the day long the September rain had fallen, and when the night +closed in it showed no sign of weariness, but with the same monotonous +patter dropped upon the roof, or beat against the windows of the +pleasantly lighted room where a young man sat gazing at the glowing +grate, and listening apparently to the noise of the storm without. But +neither the winds, nor yet the rain, had a part of that young man's +thoughts, for they were with the past, and the chain which linked them +to that past was the open letter which lay on the table beside him. +For that letter he had waited long and anxiously, wondering what it +would contain, and if his overtures for reconciliation with one who +had erred far more than himself, would be accepted. It had come at +last, and with a gathering coldness at his heart he had read the +decision,--"she would not be reconciled," and she bade him "go his way +alone and leave her to herself." + +"It is well," he said; "I shall never trouble her again,"--and with a +feeling of relief, as if a heavy load, a dread of coming evil, had +been taken from his mind, he threw the letter upon the table, and +leaning back in his cushioned chair, tried to fancy that the last few +years of his life were blotted out. + +"Could it be so, Ralph Browning would be a different man." he said +aloud; then, as he glanced round the richly furnished room, he +continued--"People call me happy, and so perhaps I might be, but for +this haunting memory. Why was it suffered to be, and must I make a +life-long atonement for that early sin?" + +In his excitement he arose, and crushing the letter for a moment in +his hand, hurled it into the fire; then, going to his private drawer, +he took out and opened a neatly folded package, containing a long +tress of jet black hair. Shudderingly he wound it around his fingers, +laid it over the back of his hand, held it up to the light, and then +with a hard, dark look upon his face, threw it, too upon the grate, +saying aloud, "Thus perisheth every memento of the past, and I am free +again--free as air!" + +He walked to the window, and pressing his burning forehead against the +cool, damp pane, looked out upon the night. He could not see through +the darkness, but had it been day, his eye would have rested on broad +acres all his own; for Ralph Browning was a wealthy man, and the house +in which he lived was his by right of inheritance from a bachelor +uncle for whom he had been named, and who, two years before our story +opens, had died, leaving to his nephew the grand old place, called +_Riverside_, from its nearness to the river. It was a most beautiful +spot; and when its new master first took possession of it, the maids +and matrons of Granby, who had mourned for the elder Browning as +people mourn for a good man, felt themselves somewhat consoled from +the fact that his successor was young and handsome, and would +doubtless prove an invaluable acquisition to their fireside circles, +and furnish a theme for gossip, without which no village can well +exist. But in the first of their expectations they were mistaken, for +Mr. Browning shunned rather than sought society, and spent the most of +his leisure hours in the seclusion of his library, where, as Mrs. +Peters, his housekeeper, said, he did nothing but mope over books and +walk the floor. "He was melancholy," she said; "there was something +workin' on his mind, and what it was she didn't know more'n the dead-- +though she knew as well as she wanted to, that he had been crossed in +love, for what else would make so many of his hairs gray, and he not +yet twenty-five!" + +That there was a mystery connected with him, was conceded by most of +the villagers, and many a curious gaze they bent upon the grave, +dignified young man, who seldom joined in their pastime or intruded +himself upon their company. Much sympathy was expressed for him in his +loneliness, by the people of Granby, and more than one young girl +would gladly have imposed upon herself the task of cheering that +loneliness; but he seemed perfectly invulnerable to maiden charms; and +when Mrs. Peters, as she often did, urged him "to take a wife and be +somebody," he answered quietly, "I am content to follow the example of +my uncle. I shall probably never marry." + +Still he was lonely in his great house--so lonely that, though it hurt +his pride to do it, he wrote the letter, the answer to which excited +him so terribly, and awoke within his mind a train of thought so +absorbing and intense, that he did not hear the summons to supper +until Mrs. Peters put her head into the room, asking "if he were deaf +or what." + +Mrs. Peters had been in the elder Browning's household for years, and +when the new owner came, she still continued at her post, and +exercised over her young master a kind of motherly care, which he +permitted because he knew her real worth, and that without her his +home would be uncomfortable indeed. On the occasion of which we write, +Mrs. Peters was unusually attentive, and to a person at all skilled in +female tactics, it was evident that she was about to ask a favor, and +had made preparations accordingly. His favorite waffles had been +buttered exactly right--the peaches and cream were delicious--the +fragrant black tea was neither too strong nor too weak--the fire +blazed brightly in the grate--the light from the chandelier fell +softly upon the massive silver service and damask cloth;--and with all +these creature comforts around him, it is not strange that he forgot +the letter and the tress of hair which so lately had blackened on the +coals. The moment was propitious, and by the time he had finished his +second cup, Mrs. Peters said, "I have something to propose." + +Leaning back in his chair, he looked inquiringly at her, and she +continued: "You remember Mrs. Leyton, the poor woman who had seen +better days, and lived in East Granby?" + +"Yes." + +"You know she has been sick, and you gave me leave to carry her any +thing I chose?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, she's dead, poor thing, and what is worse, she hain't no +connection, nor never had, and her little daughter Rosamond hain't a +place to lay her head." + +"Let her come and sleep with you, then," said Mr. Browning, rattling +his spoon upon the edge of his cup. + +"Yes, and what'll she do days?" continued Mrs. Peters. "She can't run +the streets, that's so; now, I don't believe no great in children, and +you certainly don't b'lieve in 'em at all, nor your poor uncle before +you; but Rosamond ain't a child; she's _thirteen_--most a woman--and +if you don't mind the expense, I shan't mind the trouble, and she can +live here till she finds a place. Her mother, you know, took up +millinering to get a living." + +"Certainly, let her come," answered Mr. Browning, who was noted for +his benevolence. + +This matter being thus satisfactorily settled, Mrs. Peters arose from +the table, while Mr. Browning went back to the olden memories which +had haunted him so much that day, and with which there was not mingled +a single thought of the little Rosamond, who was to exert so strong an +influence upon his future life. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ROSAMOND LEYTON. + + +Rosamond had been some weeks at Riverside, and during all that time +Mr. Browning had scarcely noticed her at all. On the first day of her +arrival he had spoken kindly to her, asking her how old she was, and +how long her mother had been dead, and this was all the attention he +had paid to her. He did not even yet know the color of her eyes, or +texture of her hair,--whether it were curly or straight, black or +brown; but he knew in various ways that she was there--knew it by the +sound of dancing feet upon the stairs, which were wont to echo only to +Mrs. Peters' heavy tread--knew it by the tasteful air his room +suddenly assumed--by the ringing laugh and musical songs which came +often from the kitchen, and by the thousand changes which the presence +of a merry-hearted girl of thirteen brings to a hitherto silent house. +Of him Rosamond stood considerably in awe, and though she could +willingly have worshipped him for giving her so pleasant a home, she +felt afraid of him and kept out of his way, watching him with childish +curiosity at a distance, admiring his noble figure, and wondering if +she would ever dare speak to him as fearlessly as Mrs. Peters did. + +From this woman Rosamond received all a mother's care, and though the +name of her lost parent was often on her lips, she was beginning to be +very happy in her new home, when one day toward the middle of October +Mrs. Peters told her that Mr. Browning's only sister, a Mrs. Van +Vechten, who lived South, was coming to Riverside, together with her +son Ben. The lady Mrs. Peters had never seen, but Ben, who was at +school in Albany, had spent a vacation there, and she described him as +a "great, good-natured fool," who cared for nothing but dogs, cigars, +fast horses and pretty girls. + +Rosamond pushed back the stray curls which had fallen over her face, +glanced at the cracked mirror which gave her _two_ noses instead of +one, and thinking to herself, "I wonder if he'll care for me," +listened attentively while Mrs. Peters continued,--"This Miss Van +Vechten is a mighty fine lady, they say, and has heaps of niggers to +wait on her at home,--but she can't bring 'em here, for _I_ should set +'em free--that's, so. I don't b'lieve in't. What was I sayin'? Oh, I +know, she can't wait on herself, and wrote to have her brother get +some one. He asked me if you'd be willin' to put on her clothes, wash +her face, and _chaw her victuals_ like enough." + +"Mr. Browning never said that," interrupted Rosamond, and Mrs. Peters +replied--"Well, not that exactly, but he wants you to wait on her +generally." + +"I'll do anything reasonable," answered Rosamond. "When will she be +here?" "I'll do anything reasonable," answered Rosamond, "I must +hurry, or I shan't have them north chambers ready for her. Ben ain't +coming quite so soon." + +The two or three days passed rapidly, and at the close of the third a +carriage laden with trunks stopped before the gate at Riverside, and +Mrs. Van Vechten had come. She was a thin, sallow-faced, proud-looking +woman, wholly unlike her brother, whose senior she was by many years. +She had seen much of the world, and that she was conscious of her own +fancied superiority was perceptible in every movement. She was Mrs. +Richard Van Vechten, of Alabama--one of the oldest families in the +state. Her deceased husband had been United States Senator--she had +been to Europe--had seen the Queen on horseback--had passed the +residence of the Duchess of Sutherland, and when Rosamond Leyton +appeared before her in her neatly-fitting dress of black and asked +what she could do for her, she elevated her eyebrows, and coolly +surveying the little girl, answered haughtily, "Comb out my hair." + +"Yes, I will," thought Rosamond, who had taken a dislike to the grand +lady, and suiting the action to the thought, she did comb out her +hair, pulling it so unmercifully that Mrs. Van Vechten angrily bade +her stop. + +"Look at me, girl," said she; "did you ever assist at any one's toilet +before?" + +"I've hooked Mrs. Peters' dress and pinned on Bridget's collar," +answered Rosamond, her great brown eyes brimming with mischief. + +"Disgusting!" returned Mrs. Van Vechten--"I should suppose Ralph would +know better than to get me such an ignoramus. Were you hired on +purpose to wait on me?" + +"Why, no, ma'am--I live here," answered Rosamond. + +"Live here!" repeated Mrs. Van Vechten, "and pray, what do you do?" + +"Nothing much, unless I choose," said Rosamond, who, being a great pet +with Mrs. Peters and the other servants, really led a very easy life +at Riverside. + +Looking curiously into the frank, open face of the young girl, Mrs. +Van Vechten concluded she was never intended to take a negro's place, +and with a wave of her hand she said, "You may go; I can dress myself +alone." + +That evening, as the brother and sister sat together in the parlor, +the latter suddenly asked, "Who is that Rosamond Leyton, and what is +she doing here?" + +Mr. Browning told her all he knew of the girl, and she continued, "Do +you intend to educate her?" + +"Educate her!" said he--"what made you think of that?" + +"Because," she answered, with a sarcastic smile, "as you expect to do +penance the rest of your lifetime, I did not know but you would deem +it your duty to educate every beggar who came along." + +The idea of educating Rosamond Leyton was new to Mr. Browning, but he +did not tell his sister so--he merely said, "And suppose I do educate +her?" + +"In that case," answered the lady, "Ben will not pass his college +vacations here, as I had intended that he should do." + +"And why not?" asked Mr. Browning. + +"Why not?" repeated Mrs. Van Vechten. "Just as though you did not know +how susceptible he is to female beauty, and if you treat this Rosamond +as an equal, it will be like him to fall in love with her at once. She +is very pretty, you know." + +Mr. Browning did not know any such thing. In fact, he scarcely knew +how the young girl looked, but his sister's remark had awakened in him +an interest, and after she had retired, which she did early, he rang +the bell for Mrs. Peters, who soon appeared in answer to his call. + +"Is Rosamond Leyton up," he asked. + +"Yes, sir," answered Mrs. Peters, wondering at the question. + +"Send her to me," he said, and with redoubled amazement Mrs. Peters +carried the message to Rosamond, who was sitting before the fire, +trying in vain to undo an obstinate knot in her boot-string. + +"Mr. Browning sent for me!" she exclaimed, her cheeks flushing up. +"Wants to scold me, I suppose, for pulling his sister's hair. I only +did what she told me to," and with a beating heart she started for the +parlor. + +Rosamond was afraid of Mr. Browning, and feeling sure that he intended +to reprove her, she took the chair nearest to the door, and covering +her face with her hands, began to cry, saying--"It was ugly in me, I +know', to pull Mrs. Van Vechten's hair, and I did it on purpose, too; +but I won't do so again, I certainly won't." + +Mr. Browning was confounded. This was the first intimation he had +received of the _barbaric_ performance, and for a moment he remained +silent, gazing at the little girl. Her figure was very slight, her +feet and hands were very small, and her hair, though disordered now +and rough, was of a beautiful brown, and fell in heavy curls around +her neck. He saw all this at a glance, but her face, the point to +which his attention was chiefly directed, he could not see until those +little hands were removed, and as a means of accomplishing this he at +last said, kindly--"I do not understand you, Rosamond. My sister has +entered no complaint, and I did not send for you to censure you. I +wish to talk with you--to get acquainted. Will you come and sit by me +upon the sofa?" + +Rosamond's hands came down from her face, but she did not leave her +seat; neither did Mr. Browning now wish to have her, for the light of +the chandelier fell full upon her, giving him a much better view of +her features than if she had been nearer to him. If, as Mrs. Peters +had said, Ben Van Vechten was fond of pretty girls, he in a measure +inherited the feeling from his uncle, who was an ardent admirer of the +beautiful, and who now felt a glow of satisfaction in knowing that +Rosamond Leyton was pretty. It was a merry, sparkling, little face +which he looked upon, and though the nose did turn up a trifle, and +the mouth was rather wide, the soft, brown eyes, and exquisitely fair +complexion made ample amends for all. She was never intended for a +menial--she would make a beautiful woman--and with thoughts similar to +these, Mr. Browning, after completing his survey of her person, said-- +"Have you been to school much?" + +"Always, until I came here," was her answer; and he continued--"And +since then you have not looked in a book, I suppose?" + +The brown eyes opened wide as Rosamond replied,--"Why, yes I have. +I've read over so much in your library when you were gone. Mrs. Peters +told me I might," she added, hastily, as she saw his look of surprise, +and mistook it for displeasure. + +"I am perfectly willing," he said; "but what have you read? Tell me." + +Rosamond was interested at once, and while her cheeks glowed and her +eyes sparkled, she replied--"Oh, I've read Shakespeare's Historical +Plays, every one of them--and Childe Harold, and Watts on the Mind, +and Kenilworth, and now I'm right in the middle of the Lady of the +Lake. Wasn't Fitz-James the King? _I_ believe he was. When I am older +I mean to write a book just like that." + +Mr. Browning could not forbear a smile at her enthusiasm, but without +answering her question, he said,--"What do you intend to do until you +are old enough?" + +Rosamond's countenance fell, and after tapping her foot upon the +carpet awhile, she said, "Mrs. Peters will get me a place by-and-by, +and I s'pose I'll have to be a milliner." + +"Do you wish to be one?" + +"Why, no; nor mother didn't either, but after father died she had to +do something. Father was a kind of a lawyer, and left her poor." + +"Do you wish to go away from here, Rosamond?" + +There were tears on the long-fringed eye-lashes as the young girl +replied, "No, sir; I'd like to live here always, but there's nothing +for me to do." + +"Unless you go to school. How would you like that?" + +"I have no one to pay the bills," and the curly head shook mournfully. + +"But I have money, Rosamond, and suppose I say that you shall stay +here and go to school?" + +"Oh, sir, _will_ you say so? _May_ I live with you always?" and +forgetting her fear of him in her great joy, Rosamond Leyton crossed +over to where he sat, and laying both her hands upon his shoulder, +continued--"Are you in earnest, Mr. Browning? May I stay? Oh, I'll be +so good to you when you are old and sick!" + +It seemed to her that he was old enough to be her father, then, and it +almost seemed so to him. Giving her a very paternal look, he answered, +"Yes, child, you shall stay as long as you like and now go, or Mrs. +Peters will be wondering what keeps you." + +Rosamond started to leave the room, but ere she reached the door she +paused, and turning to Mr. Browning, said, "You have made me _so_ +happy, and I like you so much, I wish you'd let me kiss your hand--may +I?" + +It was a strange question, and it sent the blood tingling to the very +tips of Mr. Browning's fingers. + +"Why, ye-es,--I don't know. What made you think of that?" he said, and +Rosamond replied,--"I always kissed father when he made me very happy. +It was all I could do." + +"But I am not your father," stammered Mr. Browning; "I shall not be +twenty-five until November. Still you can do as you please." + +"Not twenty-five yet," repeated Rosamond;--"why, I thought you were +nearer _forty_. I don't believe I'd better, though I like you just as +well. Good night." + +He heard her go through the hall, up the stairs, through the upper +hall, and then all was still again. + +"What a strange little creature she is," he thought; "so childlike and +frank, but how queer that she should ask to _kiss me!_ Wouldn't Susan +be shocked if she knew it, and won't she be horrified when I tell her +I _am_ going to educate the girl. I shouldn't have thought of it but +for her. And suppose Ben does fall in love with her. If he knew a +little more, it would not be a bad match. Somebody must keep up our +family, or it will become extinct. Susan and I are the only ones left, +and _I_"--here he paused, and starting to his feet, he paced the floor +hurriedly, nervously, as if seeking to escape from some pursuing evil. +"It is terrible," he whispered, "but I _can_ bear it and will," and +going to his room he sought his pillow to dream strange dreams of +tresses black, and ringlets brown,--of fierce, dark eyes, and shining +orbs, whose owner had asked to kiss his hand, and mistaken him for her +sire. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +BEN'S VISIT. + + +The next morning, as Mrs. Van Vechten was slowly making her toilet +alone, there came a gentle rap at her door, and Rosamond Leyton +appeared, her face fresh and blooming as a rose-bud, her curls brushed +back from her forehead, and her voice very respectful, as she said--"I +have come to ask your pardon for my roughness yesterday. I can do +better, and if you will let me wait on you while you stay, I am sure I +shall please you." + +Mrs. Van Vechten could not resist that appeal, and she graciously +accepted the girl's offer, asking her the while what had made the +change in her behavior. Always frank and truthful, Rosamond explained +to the lady that Mr. Browning's kindness had filled her with gratitude +and determined her to do as she had done. To her Mrs. Van Vechten said +nothing, but when she met her brother at the breakfast table, there +was an ominous frown upon her face, and the moment they were alone, +she gave him her opinion without reserve. But Mr. Browning was firm. +"He should have something to live for," he said, "and Heaven only knew +the lonely hours he passed with no object in which to be interested. +Her family, though unfortunate, are highly respectable," he added, +"and if I can make her a useful ornament in society, it is my duty to +do so." + +Mrs. Van Vechten knew how useless it would be to remonstrate with him, +and she gave up the contest, mentally resolving that "Ben should not +pass his college vacations there." + +When the villagers learned that Mr. Browning intended to educate +Rosamond and treat her as his equal, they ascribed it wholly to the +influence of his sister, who, of course, had suggested to him an act +which seemed every way right and proper. They did not know how the +lady opposed it, nor how, for many days, she maintained a cold reserve +toward the young girl, who strove in various ways to conciliate her, +and at last succeeded so far that she not only accepted her services +at her toilet, but even asked of her sometimes to read her to sleep in +the afternoon, a process neither long nor tedious, for Mrs. Van +Vechten was not literary, and by the time the second page was reached +she usually nodded her full acquiescence to the author's opinions, and +Rosamond was free to do as she pleased. + +One afternoon when Mrs. Van Vechten was fast asleep, and Rosamond deep +in the "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner," (the former having selected +that poem as an opiate because of its musical jingle,) there was the +sound of a bounding step upon the stairs, accompanied by the stirring +notes of Yankee Doodle, which some one whistled at the top of his +voice. Rosamond was about going to see who it was, when the door +opened and disclosed to view a long, lank, light-haired, good-natured +looking youth, dressed in the extreme of fashion, with a huge gold +chain dangling across his vest, and an immense diamond ring upon his +little finger. This last he managed to show frequently by caressing +his chin, where, by the aid of a microscope, a very little down might +possibly have been found! This was Ben! He had just arrived, and +learning that his mother was in her room, had entered it +unceremoniously. The unexpected apparition of a beautiful young girl +startled him, and he introduced himself to her good graces by the very +expressive exclamation, "_Thunder!_ I beg your pardon, Miss," he +continued, as he met her surprised and reproving glance. "You scared +me so I didn't know what else to say. It's a favorite expression of +mine, but I'll quit it, if you say so. Do you live here?" + +"I wait upon your mother," was the quiet answer, which came near +wringing from the young man a repetition of the offensive word. + +But he remembered himself in time, and then continued, "How do you +know she's my mother? You are right, though. I'm Ben Van Vechten--the +veriest dolt in school, they say. But, as an offset, I've got a heart +as big as an ox; and now, who are you? I know you are not a waiting- +maid!" + +Rosamond explained who she was, and then, rather pleased with his off- +hand manner, began to question him concerning his journey, and so +forth. Ben was delighted. It was not every girl who would of her own +accord talk to him, and sitting down beside her, he told her twice +that she was handsome, was cautiously winding his arm around her +waist, when from the rosewood bedstead there came the sharp, quick +word, "Benjamin!" and, unmindful of Rosamond's presence, Ben leaped +into the middle of the room, ejaculating, "Thunder! mother, what do +you want?" + +"I want _her_ to leave the room," said Mrs. Van Vechten, pointing +toward Rosamond, who, wholly ignorant of the nature of her offence, +retreated hastily, wondering how she had displeased the capricious +lady. + +Although Ben Van Vechten would not have dared to do a thing in direct +opposition to his mother's commands, he was not ordinarily afraid of +her, and he now listened impatiently, while she told him that Rosamond +Leyton was not a fit associate for a young man like himself, "She was +a sort of nobody, whom her brother had undertaken to educate," she +said, "and though she might be rather pretty, she was low-born and +vulgar, as any one could see." + +Ben confessed to a deficiency of eye-sight on that point, and then, as +his mother showed no signs of changing the conversation, he left her +abruptly, and sauntered off into the garden, where he came suddenly +upon Rosamond, who was finishing the Ancient Mariner in the summer- +house, her favorite resort. + +"So we've met again," said he, "and a pretty lecture I've had on your +account." + +"Why on my account?" asked Rosamond; and Ben, who never kept a thing +to himself, told her in substance all his mother had said. + +"She always wakes in the wrong time," said he, "and she saw me just as +I was about to give you a little bit of a hug--so"--and he proceeded +to demonstrate. + +Rosamond's temper was up, and equally indignant at mother and son, she +started to her feet, exclaiming, "I'd thank you, sir, to let me +alone." + +"Whew-ew," whistled Ben. "Spunky, ain't you. Now I rather like that. +But pray don't burst a blood vessel. I've no notion of making love to +you, if mother does think so. You are too small a girl." + +"Too small a girl," repeated Rosamond, scornfully. "I'm _fourteen_ to- +morrow--quite too old to be insulted," and she darted away, followed +by the merry laugh of the good-humored Ben. + +Two hours before, Rosamond would not have been so excited, for though +nearly fourteen, she was in thought and feeling a very child, as was +proved by her asking to kiss her benefactor's hand; but Mrs. Van +Vechten's remarks, repeated to her by Ben, had wrought in her a +change, and, in some respects, transformed her into a woman at once. +She did not care so much for the liberties Ben had attempted to take, +but his mother's words rankled in her bosom, awakening within her a +feeling of bitter resentment; and when, next day, the lady's bell rang +out its summons for her to come, she sat still upon the doorsteps and +gave no heed. + +"Rosamond," said Mrs. Peters, "Mrs. Van Vechten is ringing for you." + +"Let her ring, I'm not going to wait on her any more," and Rosamond +returned to the book she was reading. + +Meantime, flurried and impatient, the lady above stairs pulled at the +bell-rope, growing more nervous and angry with every pull, until at +last, as she heard her brother's step in the hall, she went out to him +and said, "I wish you'd send that girl to me. I've rung at least fifty +times; and dare say she's enticing Ben again. I knew it would be so." + +Going hurriedly down the stairs, Mr. Browning sought out Rosamond and +said to her, "My sister is ringing for you." + +"I know it, sir;" and the brown eyes, which heretofore had seemed so +soft and gentle, flashed upon him an expression which puzzled him. + +"Then why do you not go?" he asked; and the young girl replied, "I +shall not wait upon, her any more." + +"_Rosamond!_" said Mr. Browning. There was severity in the tone of his +voice, and Rosamond roused at once. + +"She says I am _vulgar_, and _low-born_, and have designs upon Ben," +said she, "and it's a falsehood. My mother was as much a lady as she. +I am _not_ vulgar, and I hate Ben, and I won't stay here if I must +wait on _her_. Shall I go away?" + +If Rosamond left, the life of the house went with her. This Mr. +Browning knew; but man-like, he did not wish to be conquered by a +woman, and after questioning her as to the nature of Mrs. Van +Vechten's offence, he answered, "My sister says some foolish things, I +know, but it is my request that you attend to her while she stays, and +I expect to be obeyed." + +That last word was unfortunate, for Rosamond had a strong will of her +own, and tapping her little foot upon the ground, she said saucily, +"And suppose you are not obeyed?" + +He did not tell her she must leave Riverside, but he said, "You must +answer for your disobedience to me, who have certainly some right to +control you;" then, fearing that his own high temper might be tried +more than he chose to have it, he walked away just in time to avoid +hearing her say, "she cared less for him than for his sister!" + +Rosamond was too impulsive not to repent bitterly of her conduct; and +though she persisted in leaving Mrs. Van Vechten to herself, and +refused to speak to Ben, whose face, in consequence, wore a most +melancholy expression, she almost cried herself sick, and at last, +startled Mrs. Peters, just as that lady was stepping into bed, by +declaring that she must see Mr. Browning before she slept. + +Mr. Browning sat in his library, alone. He did not usually retire +early, but this night he had cause for wakefulness. The burst of +passion he had witnessed in his protegee, had carried him back to a +time when another than little Rosamond Leyton had laughed his wishes +to scorn. + +"And is it ever thus with them?" he said. "Are all women furies in +disguise?--and Rosamond seemed so gentle, so good." + +He did not hear the low knock on his door, for his thoughts were far +away in the south-land, where he had learned his first lesson of +womankind. Neither did he hear the light footfall upon the floor, but +when a sweet, tearful voice said to him, "Mr. Browning, are you +feeling so badly for me?" he started, and on a hassock at his feet saw +Rosamond Leyton. The sight of her was unexpected, and it startled him +for a moment, but soon recovering his composure, he said gently: "Why +are you here? I supposed you were in bed." + +Rosamond began to cry, and with her usual impetuosity replied, "I came +to tell you how sorry I am for behaving so rudely to you. I do try to +govern my temper so hard, but it sometimes gets the mastery. Won't you +forgive me, sir? It wasn't Rosamond that acted so--it was a vile, +wicked somebody else. Will you forgive me?" and in her dread that the +coveted forgiveness might be withheld, she forgot that he was only +_twenty-four_, and laid her head upon his knee, sobbing like a little +child. + +"Had _she_ done like this, how different would my life have been," +thought Mr. Browning, and involuntarily caressing the curly head, he +was about to speak, when Rosamond interrupted him, saying, + +"I won't deceive you, Mr. Browning, and make you think I'm better than +I am. I am sorry I acted so to you, but I don't believe I'm sorry +about Mrs. Van Vechten. I don't like her, for she always treats me as +though I were not near as good as she, and I can't wait on her any +more. Must I? Oh, don't make me," and she looked beseechingly into his +face. + +He could not help respecting her for that inborn feeling, which would +not permit herself to be trampled down, and though he felt intuitively +that she was having her own way after all, he assured her of his +forgiveness, and then added: "Mrs. Van Vechten will not require your +services, for she received a letter to-night, saying her presence was +needed at home, and she leaves us to-morrow." + +"_And Ben?_" she asked--"does he go, too?" + +"He accompanies his mother to New York," Mr. Browning said, "and I +believe she intends leaving him there with a friend, until his school +commences again." + +In spite of herself, Rosamond rather liked Ben, and feeling that she +was the cause of his banishment from Riverside, her sympathy was +enlisted for him, and she said, "If I were not here, Ben would stay. +Hadn't you rather send me away?" + +"No, Rosamond, no;--I need you here," was Mr. Browning's reply, and +then as the clock struck eleven, he bade her leave him, saying it was +time children like her were in bed. + +As he had said, Mis. Van Vechten was going away, and she came down to +breakfast next morning in her traveling dress, appearing very +unamiable, and looking very cross at Rosamond, with whom she finally +parted without a word of reconciliation. Ben, on the contrary, was all +affability, and managed slyly to kiss her, telling her he should come +there again in spite of his mother. + +After their departure the household settled back into its usual +monotonous way of living, with the exception that Rosamond, being +promoted to the position of an equal, became, in many respects, the +real mistress of Riverside, though Mrs. Peters nominally held the +reins, and aside from superintending her work, built many castles of +the future when her protegee would be a full grown woman and her +master still young and handsome! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ROSAMOND'S EDUCATION + + +One year has passed away since Mrs. Van Vechten departed for the +South, and up the locust lined avenue which leads to Riverside, the +owner of the place is slowly riding. It is not pleasant going home +tonight, and so he lingers by the way, wondering why it is that the +absence of a _child_ should make so much difference in one's feelings! +During the year Rosamond had recited her lessons to him, but with many +others he fancied no girl's education could be finished unless she +were _sent away_--and two weeks before the night of which we write he +had taken her himself to Atwater Seminary, a distance of more than two +hundred miles, and then, with a sense of desolation for which he could +not account, he had returned to his home, which was never so lonely +before. There was no merry voice within the walls,--no tripping feet +upon the stairs,--no soft, white hand to bathe his forehead when +suffering from real or fancied headaches,--no slippers waiting by his +chair,--no flowers on the mantel,--no bright face at the window,--no +Rosamond at the door. + +Of all this was he thinking that November afternoon, and when at last +he reached his house, he went straight to his library, hoping to find +a letter there, telling him of her welfare. But letter there was none, +and with a feeling of disappointment he started to the parlor. The +door was ajar and he caught glimpses of a cheerfully blazing fire +within the grate. The shutters, too, were open and the curtains were +put back just as they used to be when _she was there_. It seemed like +the olden time, and with spirits somewhat enlivened he advanced into +the room. His favorite chair stood before the fire, and so near to it +that her head was leaning on its arm, sat a young girl. Her back was +turned toward him, but he knew that form full well, and joyfully he +cried: "Rosamond, how came you here?" + +Amid her smiles and tears, Rosamond tempted to tell him the story of +her grievances. She was homesick, and she could not learn half so much +at the Atwater Seminary as at home--then, too, she hated the strait- +jacket rules, and hated the lady-boarder, who pretended to be sick, +and wouldn't let the school-girls breathe, especially Rosamond Leyton, +for whom she seemed to have conceived a particular aversion. + +Pleased as Mr. Browning was to have Rosamond with him again, he did +not quite like her reasons for coming back, and he questioned her +closely as to the cause of her sudden return. + +"I shouldn't have come, perhaps," said Rosamond, "if that sick woman +hadn't been so nervous and disagreeable. She paid enormous sums for +her board, and so Mrs. Lindsey would hardly let us breathe for fear of +disturbing her. My room was over hers, and I had to take off my shoes +and walk on tiptoe, and even then she complained of me, saying I was +rude and noisy, when I tried so hard to be still. I made some hateful +remark about her in the hall, which she overheard, and when Mrs. +Lindsey scolded me for it, saying she was a very wealthy lady from +Florida, and accustomed to every attention at home, I said back some +pert things, I suppose, for she threatened to write and tell you, and +so I thought I'd come and tell you myself." + +There was a dizzy whirl in Mr. Browning's brain--a pallor about his +lips--for a terrible suspicion had flashed upon him, and leaning +forward, he said in a voice almost a whisper, "What was the Florida +lady's name?" + +"Potter, or Porter--yes, _Miss Porter_, that was it. But what is the +matter? Are you sick?" Rosamond asked, as she saw how white he was. + +"Only a sudden faintness. It will soon pass off," he said. "Tell me +more of her. Did she see you? Were you near her?" + +"No," answered Rosamond. "She was sick all the time I was there, and +did not leave her room. The girls said, though, that she was rather +pretty, but had big, black, evil-looking eyes. I don't know why it +was, but I felt afraid of her--felt just as though she was my evil +genius. I couldn't help it--but you _are_ sick, Mr. Browning--you are +pale as a ghost. Lie down upon the sofa, and let me bring the pillows, +as I used to do." + +She darted off in the direction of his sleeping-room, unconscious of +the voice which called after her, asking if it were not dark in the +hall, and bidding her take a light. + +"But what does it matter?" he said, as he tottered to the sofa. "_She_ +is not here. Atwater Seminary is two hundred miles away. She can't +harm Rosamond now." + +By this time Rosamond came with the pillows, which she arranged upon +the sofa, making him lie down while she sat by, and laid her hand +soothingly upon his burning forehead. + +"We will have tea in here to-night," she said, "I told Mrs. Peters so, +and I will make it myself. Do you feel any better?" and she brought +her rosy face so near to his that he felt her warm breath upon his +cheek. + +"Yes, I am better," he replied, "but keep your hand upon my forehead. +It assures me of your presence, when my eyes are shut." + +So Rosamond sat beside him, and when Mrs. Peters came in to lay the +cloth, she found them thus together. Smiling knowingly, she whispered +to herself, "'Nater is the same everywhere," and the good lady bustled +in and out, bringing her choicest bits and richest cake in honor of +her pet's return. That night, freed from boarding-school restraint, +Rosamond slept soundly in her own pleasant chamber, but to Ralph +Browning, pacing up and down his room, there came not a moment of +unconsciousness. He could not forget how near he had been to one who +had embittered his whole life--nor yet how near to her young Rosamond +had been, and he shuddered as if the latter had escaped an unseen +danger. Occasionally, too, the dread thought stole over him, "suppose +she should come here, and with her eagle eye discover what, if it +exist at all, is hidden in the inmost recesses of my heart." + +But of this he had little fear, and when the morning came he was +himself again, and, save that it was haggard and pale, his face gave +no token of the terrible night he had passed. But what should he do +with Rosamond? This was the question which now perplexed him. He had +no desire to send her from him again, neither would she have gone if +he had--and he at last came to the very sensible conclusion that the +school in his own village was quite as good as any, and she +accordingly became an attendant at the Granby Female Seminary. Here +she remained for two years and a half, over which time we will pass +silently and introduce her again to our readers, when she is nearly +eighteen--a graduate---a belle--and the sunshine of Riverside. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +BROTHER AND SISTER. + + +During the time which had elapsed since Ben Van Vechten first made the +acquaintance of Rosamond, he had not once been to Riverside, for, +failing to enter college, and overwhelmed with mortification at his +failure, he had returned to Alabama, from which place he wrote to her +occasionally, always addressing her as a little girl, and speaking of +himself as a very ancient personage in comparison with herself. But +that Rosamond was now no longer a little girl was proved by her finely +rounded figure, her intelligent face, her polished manners and self- +reliant air. And Rosamond was beautiful, too--so beautiful that +strangers invariably asked _who_ she was, turning always for a second +look, when told she was the adopted sister or daughter--the villagers +hardly knew which--of the wealthy Mr. Browning. But whether she were +the daughter or the sister of the man with whom she lived, she was in +reality the mistress of his household, and those who at first slighted +her as the child of a milliner, now gladly paid her homage as one who +was to be the heir of Mr. Browning's wealth. He would never marry her, +the wise ones thought--would never marry anybody--and so, with this +understanding, he was free to talk, walk, and ride with her as often +as he chose. He liked her, the people said, but did not love her, +while Rosamond herself believed he almost hated her, so strangely cold +and harsh was his manner toward her at times. + +This coldness had increased of late, and when the Lawries, who, next +to Mr. Browning, were the most aristocratic people in the place, +suggested that she should accompany them for a few weeks to the +Springs, she was delighted with the plan, and nothing doubting that +Mr. Browning would be glad to have her out of the way, she went to him +for his consent. She found him in his library, apparently so absorbed +in reading that he did not observe her approach until she stood +between him and the light. Then he looked up quickly, and, as she +fancied, an expression of displeasure passed over his face. + +"Excuse me for disturbing you," she said, rather petulantly; "I have +to break in upon your privacy if I would see you at all." + +He gave her a searching glance, and then, laying aside his book and +folding his arms, said pleasantly, "I am at your service now, Miss +Leyton. What is it you wish?" + +Very briefly she stated her request, and then sitting down in the +window, awaited his answer. It was not given immediately, and when he +did speak, he said--"Rosamond, do you wish to go?" + +"Of course I do," she replied, "I want to go where it is not as +lonesome as I find it here." + +"Lonesome, Rosamond, lonesome," he repeated. "Riverside has never been +lonesome since--" he paused a moment and then added, "since you came +here." + +The shadow disappeared from Rosamond's face, as she replied--"I did +not suppose you cared to have me here. I thought you did not like me." + +"Not like you, Rosamond?" and over his fine features there came a look +of pain, which increased as Rosamond continued:--"You are so cold at +times, and shun me as it were; inventing excuses to drive me from you +when you know I would rather stay." + +"Oh, Rosamond," he groaned, "how mistaken you are. The world would be +to me a blank were it not for you; and if my manner is sometimes cold +and cruel, it is because stern duty demands it should be so. I cannot +lay bare my secret heart to you of all others, but could you know me +as I am, you would censure much, but pity more." He paused a moment, +then, scarcely knowing what he said, he continued--"Rosamond, we will +understand each other. _I shall never marry_--never _can_ marry. In +your intercourse with me, will you always remember that?" + +"Why, yes," answered Rosamond, puzzled to comprehend him. "I'll +remember that you say so, but it is not likely you'll keep your word." + +"I am not trifling with you," he said." Marriage is not for _me_. +There is a dreadful reason why I cannot marry, and if at times I am +cold toward you, it is because--because--" + +Rosamond's eyes were riveted upon his face--darker and darker they +grew, becoming at last almost black in their intensity. She was +beginning to understand him, and coloring crimson, she answered, +bitterly: "I know what you would say, but you need have no fears, for +I never aspired to that honor. Rosamond Leyton has yet to see the man +she could love." + +"Rosamond," and Mr. Browning's voice was so low, so mournful in its +tone that it quelled the angry feelings in the young girl's bosom, and +she offered no resistance when he came to her side and took her hand +in his, saying as he did so--"Listen to me. You came here a little +girl, and at first I did not heed you, but you made your presence felt +in various ways, until at last I thought I could not live without you. +You are a young lady now--the world calls you beautiful. To me you are +beautiful. Oh, _so_ beautiful," and he laid one hand upon her shining +hair, softly, tenderly nay, proudly, as if she had been his child. "I +am not old yet, and it would be natural that we should love each +other, but we must not--we cannot." + +"And lest I should love you too well, you have tried to make me hate +you," interrupted Rosamond, trying in vain to release herself from his +powerful grasp, and adding, "but you can spare yourself the trouble. I +like you too well to hate you; but as I live, I would not marry you if +I could. I mean what I say!" + +He released her hand, and returning to his chair, laid his head upon +the table, while she continued--"I know just about how well you like +me--how necessary I am to your comfort, and since fate has decreed +that we should be thrown together, let us contribute to each other's +happiness as far as in us lies. I will think of you as a brother, if +you like, and you shall treat me as a sister, until somebody takes me +off your hands. Now, I can't say _I_ shall never marry, for I verily +believe I shall. Meantime, you must think of me just as you would if +you had a wife. Is it a bargain, Mr. Browning?" + +She spoke playfully, but he knew she was in earnest, and from his +inmost soul he blessed her for having thus brought the conversation to +a close. He would not tell her why he had said to her what he had--it +was not what he intended to say, and he knew she was in a measure +deceived, but he could not explain to her now; he could not tell her +that he trembled for himself far more than for her, and it was not for +her then to know how much he loved her, nor how that love was wearing +his life away because of its great sin. He was growing old now very +fast. The shadows of years were on his brow, and Rosamond almost +fancied she saw his brown locks turning white. She was a warm-hearted, +impulsive girl, and going toward him, she parted from his forehead the +hair streaked with gray, saying softly to him: "Shall it not be so? +May I be your sister?" + +"Yes, Rosamond, yes," was his answer; and then, wishing to bring him +back to the point from which they started, Rosamond said abruptly-- +"And what of the Springs? Can I go?" + +The descent was a rapid one, but it was what he needed, and lifting up +his head, he replied, just as he had done before, "Do you want to go?" +"Not as much as I did when I thought you were angry, and if you would +rather, I had quite as lief stay with you." + +"Then stay," he said, "and we will have no more misunderstandings." + +The next evening, as he sat alone in the parlor, a servant brought to +him a letter, the superscription of which made him reel, as if he +would have fallen to the floor. It was nearly four years since he had +seen that handwriting--he had hoped never to look upon it again--but +it was there before his eyes, and she who wrote that letter was coming +to Riverside--"would be there in a few days, Providence permitting. Do +not commit suicide on my account," she wrote, "for I care as little as +yourself to have our secret divulged, and unless I find that you are +after other _prey_, I shall keep my own counsel." + +The letter dropped from his nerveless fingers--the objects in the room +swam before his eyes, and like one on whom a crushing weight has +fallen, he sat bewildered, until the voice of Rosamond aroused him, +and fleeing to his chamber he locked the door, and then sat down to +think. She was coming to Riverside, and wherefore? He did not wish for +a reconciliation now--he would rather live there just as he was, with +Rosamond. + +"Nothing will escape her," he said; "those basilisk eyes will see +everything--will ferret out my love for that fair young girl. Oh, +Heaven, _is_ there no escape!" + +He heard the voice of Anna Lawrie in the yard. She was coming for +Rosamond's decision, and quick as thought he rang the bell, bidding +the servant who appeared to send Miss Leyton to him. + +"Rosamond," he said, when she came to the door, "I have changed my +mind. You must go to the Springs." + +"But I'd rather stay at home--I do not wish to go," she said. + +"I say you _must_. So tell Miss Lawrie you will," he answered, and his +eyes flashed almost savagely upon her. + +Rosamond waited for no more. She had discovered the impediment to his +marrying. It was _hereditary insanity_, and she had seen the first +signs of it in him herself! Magnanimously resolving never to tell a +human being, nor let him be chained if she could help it, however +furious he might become, she went down to Miss Lawrie, telling her she +would go. + +One week from that day was fixed upon for their departure, and during +that time Rosamond was too much absorbed in dresses and finery to pay +much heed to Mr. Browning. Of one thing she was sure, though--he was +_crazy_; for what else made him stalk up and down the gravel-walk, his +head bent forward, and his hands behind him, as if intently thinking. +Once, when she saw him thus, she longed to go out to him, to tell him +she knew his secret, and that she would never leave him, however +unmanageable he should become! But his manner toward her now was so +strange that she dared not, and she was almost as glad as himself when +at last the morning came for her to go. + +"Promise me one thing," he said, as they stood together a moment +alone. "Don't write until you hear from me, and don't come home until +I send for you." + +"And suppose the Lawries come, what then?" she asked, and he replied, +"No matter; stay until I write. Here are five hundred dollars in case +of an emergency," and he thrust a check into her hand. + +"Stop," he continued, as the carriage came round--"did you put your +clothes away where no one can see them, or are you taking them all +with you?" + +"Why, no, why should I?" she answered. "Ain't I coming back?" + +"Yes, yes--Heaven only knows," he said. "Oh, Rosamond, it may be I am +parting with you forever, and at such a moment, is it a sin for you to +kiss me? You asked to do so once. Will you do it now?" + +"I will," she replied, and she kissed, unhesitatingly, his quivering +lips. + +The Lawries were at the door--Mrs. Peters also--and forcing down his +emotion, he bade her a calm good-by. The carriage rolled away, but ere +its occupants were six miles from Riverside, every article of dress +which had belonged to Rosamond had disappeared from her room, which +presented the appearance of any ordinary bed-chamber, and when Mrs. +Peters, in great alarm, came to Mr. Browning, asking what he supposed +had become of them, he answered quietly--"I have put them in my +private closet and locked them up!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MARIE PORTER. + + +The models were crowded with visitors. Every apartment at ---- Hall, +from basement to attic, was full, save two small rooms, eight by ten, +so dingy and uncomfortable, that only in cases of emergency were they +offered to guests. These, from necessity, were taken by the Lawries, +but for Rosamond there was scarcely found a standing point, unless she +were willing to share the apartment of a sick lady, who had graciously +consented to receive any genteel, well-bred person, who looked as +though they would be quiet and not rummage her things more than once a +day! + +"She was a very high-bred woman," the obsequious attendant said, "and +her room the best in the house; she would not remain much longer, and +when she was gone the young lady could have it alone, or share it with +her companions. It contained two beds, of course, besides a few +_nails_ for dresses." + +"Oh, do take it," whispered the younger Miss Lawrie, who was not yet +thoroughly versed in the _pleasures_ of a watering place, and who cast +rueful glances at her cheerless _pen_, so different from her airy +chamber at home. + +So Rosamond's trunks were taken to No. 20, whither she herself +followed them. The first occupant, it would seem, was quite an +invalid, for though it was four in the afternoon, she was still in +bed. Great pains, however had evidently been taken with her toilet, +and nothing could have been more perfect than the arrangement of her +pillows--her hair--her wrapper, and the crimson shawl she wore about +her shoulders. Rosamond bowed to her politely, and then, without +noticing her particularly, went over to the side of the room she +supposed was to be hers. She had just laid aside her hat, when the +lady said: "That open blind lets in too much light. Will you please +shut it Miss ---- I don't know what to call you." + +"Miss Leyton," answered Rosamond, "and you are--" + +"Miss Porter," returned the speaker. + +"Rosamond started quickly, for she remembered the name, and looking +for the first time directly at the lady, she met a pair of large black +eyes fixed inquiringly upon her. + +"Leyton--Leyton," repeated the lady, "where have I heard of you +before?" + +"At Atwater Seminary, perhaps," suggested Rosamond, a little doubtful +is to the manner in which her intelligence would be received. + +A shadow flitted over the lady's face, but it was soon succeeded by a +smile, and she said graciously, "Oh, yes, I know. You annoyed me and I +annoyed you. It was an even thing, and since we are thrown together +again, we will not quarrel about the past. Ain't you going to close +that blind? The light shines full in my face, and, as I did not sleep +one wink last night, I am looking horridly to-day." + +"Excuse me, madam," said Rosamond, "I was so taken by surprise that I +forgot your request," and she proceeded to shut the blind. + +This being done, she divested herself of her soiled garments, washed +her face, brushed her curls, and was about going in quest of her +companions, when the lady asked if she had friends there. Rosamond +replied that she had, at the same time explaining how uncomfortable +they were. + +"The hotel is full," said the lady, "and they all envy me my room; but +if I pay for the best, I am surely entitled to the best. I shall not +remain here long, however. Indeed, I did not expect to be here now, +but sickness overtook me. I dare say I am the subject of many anxious +thoughts to the person I am going to visit." + +There was a half-exultant expression upon the lady's face as she +uttered these last words, but in the darkened room, Rosamond did not +observe it. She was sorry for one thus detained against her will, and +leaning against the foot-board, she said: "You suffer a great deal +from ill-health, do you not? Have you always been an invalid?" + +"Not always. I was very healthy once, but a great trouble came upon +me, shocking my nervous system terribly, and since then I have never +seen a well day. I was young when it occurred--about your age, I +think. How old are you, Miss Leyton?" + +"I am eighteen next October," was Rosamond's reply, and the lady +continued, "I was older than that. Most nineteen. I am twenty-eight +now." + +Rosamond did not know _why_ she said it, but she rejoined quickly: +"Twenty-eight. So is _Mr._ Browning!" + +"_Who?_" exclaimed the lady, the tone of her voice so sharp--so loud +and earnest, that Rosamond was startled, and did not answer for an +instant. + +When she did, she said, "I beg your pardon; it is Mr. Browning who is +twenty-eight." + +"Ah, yes, I did not quite understand you. I'm a little hard of +hearing. Who is Mr. Browning?" + +The voice had assumed its usually soft, smooth tone, and Rosamond +could not see the rapid beatings of the heart, nor the eager curiosity +lurking in the glittering black eyes. The lady _seemed_ indifferent, +and smoothed carelessly the rich Valenciennes lace, which edged the +sleeve of her cambric wrapper. + +"Did you tell me who Mr. Browning was, dear?" and the black eyes +wandered over the counterpane looking everywhere but at Rosamond, so +fearful was their owner lest they should betray the interest she felt +in the answer. + +"Mr. Browning," said Rosamond, "is--is--I hardly know what he is to +me. I went to his house to live when I was a little, friendless +orphan, and he very kindly educated me, and made me what I am. I live +with him still at Riverside." "Ye-es--Riverside--beau-ti-ful name--his +country--seat--I--sup-pose," the words dropped syllable by syllable +from the white lips, but there was no quiver in the voice--no ruffle +upon her face. + +Raising herself upon her elbow, the lady continued, "Pray, don't think +me fidgety, but won't you please open that shutter. I did not think it +would be so dark. There, that's a good girl. Now, come and sit by me +on the bed, and tell me of Riverside. Put your feet in the chair, or +take this pillow. There, turn a little more to the light. I like to +see people when they talk to me." + +Rosamond complied with each request, and then, never dreaming of the +close examination to which her face was subjected, she began to speak +of her beautiful home--describing it minutely, and dwelling somewhat +at length upon the virtues of its owner. + +"You like him very much," the lady said, nodding a little affirmative +nod to her own question. + +"Yes--very--very much," was Rosamond's answer; and the lady continued, +"And _Mrs_. Browning? Do you like her, too?" + +"There is no Mrs. Browning," returned Rosamond, adding, quickly, as +she saw in her auditor's face an expression she did not understand, +"but it is perfectly proper I should live there, for Mrs. Peters, the +housekeeper, has charge of me." + +"Perhaps, then, he will marry you," and the jeweled hands worked +nervously under the crimson shawl. + +"Oh, no, he won't," said Rosamond, decidedly, "he's too old for me. +Why, his hair is turning gray!" + +"That's nothing," answered the lady, a little sharply. "Everybody's +hair turns early now-a-days. Sarah found three or four silver threads +in mine, this morning. Miss Leyton, don't you love Mr. Browning?" + +"Why, yes," Rosamond began, and the face upon the pillow assumed a +dark and almost fiendish expression. "Why, yes, I love him as a +brother, but nothing else. I respect him for his goodness, but it +would be impossible to love him with a marrying love." + +The fierce expression passed away, and Miss Porter was about to speak +when Anna Lawrie sent for Rosamond, who excused herself and left the +room, thinking that, after all, she should like her old enemy of +Atwater Seminary very much. + +Meantime "the enemy" had buried her face in her pillows, and clenching +her blue veined fists, struck at the empty air, just as she would have +struck at the owner of Riverside had he been standing there. + +"Fine time he has of it," she muttered, "living there with her, and +she so young and beautiful. I could have strangled her--the jade!-- +when she sat there talking so enthusiastically to _me, of him!_ And +she loves him, too. I know she does, though she don't know it herself. +But I must be wary. I must seem to like this girl--must win her +confidence--so I can probe her heart to its core, and if I find they +love each other!"--she paused a moment, then grinding her teeth +together, added slowly, as if the sound of her voice were musical and +sweet, "Marie Porter will be avenged!" + +That strange woman could be a demon or an angel, and as the latter +character suited her just now, Rosamond, on her return to her room, +found her all gentleness and love. + +That night, when all around the house was still, the full moon shone +down upon a scene which would have chilled the blood of Ralph Browning +and made his heart stand still. Upon a single bedstead near the window +Rosamond Leyton lay calmly sleeping--her brown curls floating o'er the +pillow--her cheeks flushed with health and beauty--her lips slightly +apart and her slender hands folded gracefully upon her bosom. Over her +a fierce woman bent--her long, black hair streaming down her back--her +eyes blazing with passion--her face the impersonation of malignity and +hate; and there she stood, a vulture watching a harmless dove. +Rosamond was dreaming of her home, and the ogress, standing near, +heard her murmur, "dear Mr. Browning." + +For a moment Marie Porter stood immovable--then gliding back to her +own couch, she whispered, "It is as I believed, and now _if_ he loves +_her_, the time I've waited for so long has come." + +All that night she lay awake, burning with excitement and thirsting +for revenge, and when the morning came, the illness was not feigned +which kept her in her bed and wrung from her cries of pain. She was +really suffering now, and during the next few days, Rosamond stayed +almost constantly at her side, administering to her wants, and caring +for her so tenderly that hatred died out of the woman's heart, and she +pitied the fair young girl, for in those few days she had learned what +Rosamond did not know herself, though she was gradually waking up to +it now. It was a long time since she had been separated from Mr. +Browning, and she missed him so much, following him in fancy through +the day, and at night wondering if he were thinking of her, and +wishing he could hear the sound of her voice singing to him as she was +wont to do when the twilight was over the earth. Anon there crept into +her heart a feeling she could not define--a feverish longing to be +where he was--a sense of desolation and terrible pain when she thought +of his insanity, and the long, dreary years which might ensue when he +would lose all knowledge of her. She did not care to talk so much of +him now, but Miss Porter cared to have her, and caressingly winning +the girl's confidence, learned almost everything--learned that there +was an impediment to his marrying, and that Rosamond believed that +impediment to be _hereditary insanity_--learned that he was often +fitful and gloomy, treating his ward sometimes with coldness, and +again with the utmost tenderness. Of the interview in the library +Rosamond did not tell, but she told of everything else--of his +refusing to let her come to the Springs and then compelling her, +against her will, to go; and Marie Porter, holding the little hands in +hers, and listening to the story, read it all, and read it aright, +gloating over the anguish she knew it cost Ralph Browning to see that +beautiful girl each day and know he must not win her. + +"But I pity _her_" she said, "for there is coming to her a terrible +awakening." + +Then, for no other reason than a thirst for excitement, she longed to +see that awakening, and one day when they sat together alone, she took +Rosamond's hand in hers, and examining its scarcely legible lines, +said, half playfully, half seriously, "Rosamond, people have called me +a fortune-teller. I inherited the gift from my grandmother, and though +I do not pretend to much skill, I can surely read your destiny. You +_love_ Mr. Browning. I have known that all along. You think of him by +day--you dream of him by night, and no thought is half so sweet as the +thought of going home to him. But, Rosamond, you will not marry him. +There is an impediment, as you say, but not insanity. I cannot tell +you what it is, but I can see," and she bent nearer to the hand which +trembled in her own. "I can see that for you to marry him, or--mark +me, Rosamond--for you even to love him, is a most wicked thing--a +dreadful sin in the sight of Heaven, and you must forget him--will +you?" + +Rosamond had laid her face upon the bed and was sobbing hysterically, +for Miss Porter's manner frightened her even more than her words. In +reply to the question, "Will you?" she at last answered passionately, +_"No, I won't!_ It is _not_ wicked to love him as I do. I am his +_sister_, nothing more." + +Miss Porter's lip curled scornfully a moment, and then she said, "Let +me tell you the story of _my_ life, shall I?" + +No answer from Rosamond, and the lady continued: "When I was about +your age I fancied I loved a man who, I think, must have been much +like Mr. Browning--" + +"No, no," interrupted Rosamond. "Nobody was ever like Mr. Browning. I +don't want to hear the Miss Porter, but if I mistake not she will go +home story. I don't want anything but to go home." + +I will not tell her until it's more necessary, thought much sooner +than she anticipates. And she was right, for on that very night Mr. +Browning sat reading a letter which ran as follows: + +"I find myself so happy with _your little_ Rosamond, who chances to be +my room-mate, that I have postponed my visit to Riverside, until some +future time, which, if you continue neutral, may never come--but the +moment you trespass on forbidden ground, or breathe a word of love +into _her_ ear--beware! She loves _you_. I have found that out, and I +tell it because I know it will not make your life more happy, or your +punishment easier to bear!" + +He did not shriek--he did not faint--he did not move--but from between +his teeth two words came like a burning hiss, "Curse her!" Then, +seizing his pen, he dashed off a few lines, bidding Rosamond "not to +delay a single moment, but to come home at once." + +"She knows it all," he said, "and now, if _she_ comes here, it will +not be much worse. I can but die, let what will happen." + +This letter took Rosamond and the Lawries by surprise, but not so Miss +Porter. She expected it, and when she saw how eager Rosamond was to +go, she smiled a hard, bitter smile, and said, "I've half a mind to go +with you." + +"_What! where?_ To _Riverside?_" asked Rosamond, suspending her +preparations for a moment, and hardly knowing whether she were pleased +or not. + +"Yes, to Riverside," returned Miss Porter, "though on the whole, I +think I'd better not. Mr. Browning may not care to see me. If he does, +you can write and let me know. Give him my love, and say that if you +had not described him as so incorrigible an old bach, I might be +coming there to try my powers upon him. I am _irresistible in my +diamonds_. Be sure and tell him that; and stay, Rosamond, I must give +you some little token of my affection. What shall it be?" and she +feigned to be thinking. + +Most cruel must her thoughts have been, and even she hesitated a +moment ere she could bring herself to such an act. Then with a +contemptuous--"Pshaw!" she arose and opening her jewel box took from a +private drawer a plain gold ring, bearing date nine years back, and +having inscribed upon it simply her name "Marie." This she brought to +Rosamond, saying, "I can't wear it now;--my hands are too thin and +bony, but it just fits you,--see--" and she placed it upon the third +finger of Rosamond's left hand! + +Rosamond thanked her,--admired the chaste beauty of the ring and then +went on with her packing, while the wicked woman seated herself by the +window and leaning her head upon her hands tried to quiet the voice of +conscience which cried out against the deed she had done. + +"It does not matter," she thought. "That tie was severed years ago,-- +by his own act, too. The ring shall go. But will he see it! Men do not +always observe such things," and then lest he should not quaff the cup +of bitterness prepared for him, she wrote on a tiny sheet of gilt- +edged paper, "Look on Rosamond's third finger!" + +This she carefully sealed and gave to Rosamond, bidding her hand it to +Mr. Browning, and saying in answer to her look of inquiry, "It is +about a little matter concerning yourself. He can show it to you, if +he thinks proper!" + +"The omnibus, Miss, for the cars," cried a servant at the door, and +with a hurried good-bye to her friends, Rosamond departed and was soon +on her way to Riverside. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +MAKING LOVE. + + +An accident had occurred to the downward train, and Rosamond was +detained upon the road for a long time, so that it was already dark +when she reached the Granby depot. Wishing to surprise Mr. Browning, +she started for home on foot, leaving her trunks in charge of the +baggage master. All around the house was still, and stepping into the +hall she was about passing up the stairs, when the parlor door +suddenly opened, throwing a glare of light upon her face. The same +instant some one caught her round the neck, and kissing her twice, +only released her when she exclaimed, "_Mr. Browning_, I am surprised +at you!" + +"Mr. Browning! _Thunder!_ Just as though I was my uncle!" cried a +familiar voice, and looking at the speaker, Rosamond recognized _Ben +Van Vechten!_ He had come to Riverside the day previous, he said, and +hearing she was expected, had waited at the depot four mortal hours, +and then returned in disgust. + +"But how did you know me?" she asked, and he replied, "By your +daguerreotype, of course. There is but one such beautiful face in the +whole world." + +He was disposed to be complimentary, and Rosamond was not sorry when +his mother appeared, for in her presence he was tolerably reserved. +Mrs. Van Vechten greeted Rosamond politely, but the old hauteur was +there, and her manner seemed to say, "If you are educated and refined, +I can't forget that you were once my waiting-maid." + +"Where is Mr. Browning?" asked Rosamond, and _Ben_ replied, "Oh, up in +his den having the shakes. He mopes there all the time. Can't you +break him of the blues?" + +"I'll go and try," answered Rosamond, and she started up the stairs, +followed by Ben, whose mother called him back, bidding him, in a low +voice, "stay where he was, and not make a fool of himself." + +She could trust her _brother_, but not her _son_, and she thus did the +former the greatest favor she could have done--she let him meet young +Rosamond Leyton alone. The evening was quite chilly for July, and, as, +since the receipt of Miss Porter's note, Mr. Browning had seemed +rather agueish, there was a fire burning in the grate, and it cast its +shadows upon him as he sat in his accustomed chair. His back was +toward the door, and he knew nothing of Rosamond's return until two, +soft, white hands were placed before his eyes, and a voice which tried +to be unnatural, said "Guess who I am." + +"Rosamond--darling--have you come back to me again?" he exclaimed, and +starting up, he wound his arm about her, and looked into her face, +expecting, momentarily, to hear her say, "Yes, I know it all." + +But Rosamond did not say so. She merely told him how glad she was to +be at home once more, in her delight forgetting that Marie Porter had +said she loved the man who held her closely to his side and smoothed +her wavy hair even while his heart throbbed painfully with memories of +the past and trembled for the future. He longed to speak of her room- +mate, but he dared not betray his knowledge of her existence, and he +sat there waiting, yet dreading to hear the hated name. + +"Did you room alone?" he asked at last, and now remembering the words, +"You do love him," Rosamond moved quickly from his side. "She does +know," he thought, and a silent moan of anguish died upon his lips. +But Rosamond did not know--the movement was actuated by mere maidenly +reserve, and sitting down directly opposite him, she told him of Miss +Porter, whom she said she liked so well. + +"How much of an invalid is she?" asked Mr. Browning, when he could +trust his voice to speak. + +"Her health is miserable," returned Rosamond. "She has the heart +disease, and her waiting-maid told me she was liable to die at any +time if unusually excited." + +It might have been because Rosamond was there that Mr. Browning +thought the room was brighter than it had been before, and quite +calmly he listened while she told him more of her new friend. + +"She seemed so interested in you, and in Riverside," said Rosamond, +"and even proposed coming home with me--" + +Mr. Browning started suddenly, and as suddenly a coal snapped out upon +the carpet. This was an excuse for his movement, and Rosamond +continued, "She thought, though, you might not care to see her, being +a stranger, but she sent you _her love,_ and--. You are cold, ain't +you, Mr. Browning? You shiver like a leaf. Ben said you'd had the +ague." + +Rosamond closed the door and commenced again. "Where was I? Oh, I +know. She said if you were not a confirmed bachelor she would try her +powers on you. _'She was irresistible in her diamonds,'_ she bade me +tell you. But have you an ague chill, really? or what makes your teeth +chatter so? Shall I ring for more coal?" + +"No, Rosamond, no. Fire does not warm me; I shall be better soon." + +Rosamond pitied him, he looked so white and seemed to be suffering so +much, and she remained silent for a time. Then remembering the note, +she handed it to him, and turning toward the fire, stooped down to fix +a bit of coal which was in danger of dropping from the grate. While in +this attitude a cry between a howl of rage and a moan of anguish fell +upon her ear--her shoulders were grasped by powerful hands, and +looking up she saw Mr. Browning, his face distorted with passion and +his flashing eyes riveted upon the _ring_ glittering in the firelight. +Seizing her hand, he wrenched it from her finger, and glanced at the +name--then, swift as thought, placed it upon the marble hearth, and +crushed it with his heel. + +"It's mine--you've broken it," cried Rosamond, but he did not heed +her, and gathering up the pieces, he hurled them into the grate--then, +pale as ashes, sank panting into the nearest chair. + +Rosamond was thunder-struck. She did not suppose he had had time to +read the note, and never dreaming there was any connection between +that and his strange conduct, she believed him to be raving mad, and +her first impulse was to fly. Her second thought, however, was, "I +will not leave him. He has these fits often, now, I know, and that is +why he sent for me. He knew I could quiet him, and I will." + +So Rosamond stayed, succeeding so far in soothing him that his eyes +lost their savage gleam, and were suffused with a look of unnatural +tenderness when they rested on her face. He did not ask her how she +came by the ring, for he knew it had been sent as an insult to him, +and he felt a glow of satisfaction in knowing that it was blackening +on the grate. Ben's voice was now heard in the hall, asking if they +intended staying there all night, and in a whisper Mr. Browning bade +Rosamond go down and apologize for him. She accordingly descended to +the parlor, telling Mrs. Van Vechten that her brother was too much +indisposed to come down, and wished to be excused. Mrs. Van Vechten +bowed coolly, and taking a book of prints, busied herself for awhile +in examining them; then the book dropped from her hand--her head fell +back--her mouth fell open, and Ben, who was anxiously watching her, +knew by unmistakable sounds that she was fast asleep. It was now his +time, and faithfully did he improve it, devoting himself so +assiduously to Rosamond, that she was glad when a _snore,_ louder and +more prolonged than any which had preceded it started the lady +herself, and produced symptoms of returning consciousness. + +The next day, and the next, it was the same, and at the expiration of +a week, Ben had determined either to marry Rosamond Leyton, or go to +the _Crimean War,_ this last being the bugbear, with which he intended +frightening his mother into a consent. He hardly dared disobey her +openly for fear of disinheritance, and he would rather she should +express her willingness to receive Miss Leyton as her daughter. He +accordingly startled her one day by asking her to sanction his +intended proposal to the young girl. Nothing could exceed Mrs. Van +Vechten's amazement and contempt. She would never consent, and if Ben +persisted in making so disgraceful an alliance, she would disinherit +him at once. Ben knew she was in earnest, and so fell back upon the +Crimean war as a last resort. "He would go immediately--would start +that very day for New York--he had money enough to carry him there," +and he painted so vividly "death on a distant battle-field, with a +ferocious _Russian_ rifling his trousers' pocket," that his mother +began to cry, though she still refused to relent. + +"Choose, mother, choose," said he. "It's almost car time--Rosamond or +the war," and he drew on his heavy boots. + +"Oh Benjamin, you, will kill me dead." + +"I know it. I mean to. Rosamond or the war!" and he buttoned up his +coat preparatory to a start. + +"Do, Ben, listen to reason." + +"I won't--I won't;--Rosamond or the war! I shall rush into the +thickest of the fight, and be killed the first fire, of course, and +black is _so_ unbecoming to you." + +"Stop, I entreat. You know you are afraid of cannons;" this was said +beseechingly. + +"Thunder, mother! No, I ain't! Rosamond or the war--choose quick. I +hear the whistle at East Granby." + +He left the room--went down the stairs, out at the door, through the +yard, and out into the avenue, while his distracted mother looked +after him through blinding tears. She knew how determined he was when +once his mind was made up, and she feared his present excitement would +last until he was fairly shipped, and it was too late to return. He +would never fight, she was sure, and at the first battle-sound he +would fly, and be hung as a deserter, no doubt! This touched her +pride. She would rather people should say of her boy that he married a +milliner's daughter than that he was hung, and hurrying to the window +just as Ben looked back, hoping for a signal, she waved her hand for +him to return, calling out at the top of her voice, "I relent--I +relent." "I knew the _Crimea_ would fetch her," said Ben; "lucky I +thought of that," and without going to his mother at all, he sought +out Rosamond. Half an hour later he astonished the former by rushing +into her presence, and exclaiming, "She's refused me, mother; and she +meant it, too. Oh, _I shall die_--I know I shall. _Oh, oh, oh!"_ and +Ben rolled on the floor in his frantic grief. As nearly as she could, +Mrs. Van Vechten learned the particulars of his interview with +Rosamond, and, though at first secretly pleased that he had been +refused, she felt a very little piqued that her son should thus be +dishonored, and when she saw how wretched it had made him, her +feelings were enlisted in his behalf, and she tried to soothe him by +saying that her brother had a great deal of influence with Rosamond, +and they would refer the matter to him. + +"Go now, mother. Don't wait a minute," pleaded Ben, and Mrs. Van +Vechten started for her brother's library. + +She found him alone, and disclosed the object of her visit at once. +Rosamond had refused her son, who, in consequence, was nearly +distracted, and threatened going to the Crimean war--a threat she knew +he would execute unless her brother persuaded Rosamond to revoke her +decision and think again. + +Mr. Browning turned as white as marble, but his sister was too much +absorbed in her own matters to heed his emotions, and she continued-- + +"Of course it will be mortifying to us all to have her in the family, +and maybe Ben will get over it; but they must be engaged somehow, or +he'll go away. I'll send her up to you immediately," and she hurriedly +left the room in quest of Rosamond. For a moment Mr. Browning sat like +one stupefied; then, covering his face with his hands, he moaned, +"Must _this_ come upon me, too? Must I, who love her so madly, bid her +marry another? And yet what does it matter? She can never be mine--and +if she marries Ben I can keep them with me always, and that vile woman +will have no cause for annoying me. She said Rosamond loved me, but I +pray Heaven that may not be so." + +A light tread echoed in the hall, and with each fall of those little +feet, Ralph Browning's heart throbbed painfully. Another moment and +Rosamond was there with him--her cheeks flushed--her eyelashes wet +with tears, and her whole manner betrayed an unusual degree of +excitement. + +"I understand from your sister," said she, "that you wish me to marry +_Ben,_ or leave your house. I will do the latter, but the former-- +never! Shall I consider our interview at an end?" + +She turned to leave the room, but Mr. Browning caught her dress, +exclaiming: "Stay, Rosamond, and hear me. I never uttered such words +to Mrs. Van Vechten. I do not wish you to marry Ben unless you love +him. Do you love him, Rosamond? Do you love anybody?" + +This was not what he intended to say--but he had said it, and now he +waited for her answer. To the first question it came in a decided "No, +I do not love him," and to the last it came in burning blushes, +stealing over her cheek--her forehead--her neck, and speaking in her +downcast eye. She had never believed that she did love her guardian, +until told that he wished her to marry another, when it burst upon her +in all its force, and she could no more conceal it now than she could +stop the rapid beatings of her heart. He saw it all in her tell-tale +face, and forgetting everything, he wound his arms around her, and +drawing her to his side, whispered in her ear, "Darling, Rosamond, say +that you love me. Let me hear that assurance once, and I shall be +almost willing to die." + +"Ladies do not often confess an attachment until sure it is returned," +was Rosamond's answer, and doubly forgetful now of all the dreary +past, Ralph Browning poured into her ear hot, burning words of love-- +hugging her closer and closer to him until through the open window +came the sound of Mrs. Peters' voice calling to the stranger girl who +had that morning entered service at Riverside as a waiting-maid in +general. _Maria_ was the name, and as the ominous word fell upon Mr. +Browning's ear, he started, and pushing Rosamond from him, turned +his face away so she could not see the expression of mute despair +settling down upon it. Sinking upon the lounge he buried his face in +its cushions while Rosamond looked curiously upon him, feeling sure +that she knew what it was that so affected him. He had told her of his +love--had said that she was dearer to him than his life, and in +confessing this he had forgotten the dark shadow upon his life, and it +was the dread of telling it to her--the pain of saying "I love you, +but you cannot be my wife," which affected him so strangely. But she +knew it all, and she longed to assure him of her sympathy. At last +when he seemed to be more calm, she stole up to him, and kneeling at +his side bent over him so that her bright hair mingled with his own. + +"Mr. Browning," she whispered softly, "I _know your secret,_ and I do +not love you less." + +"_You, Rosamond, you know it!_" he exclaimed, gazing fixedly at her. +"It cannot be. You would never do as you have done." + +"But I do know it," she continued, taking both his hands in hers, and +looking him steadily in the eye, by way of controlling him, should he +be seized with a sudden attack, "I know exactly what it is, and though +it will prevent me from being your wife, it will not prevent me from +loving you just the same, or from living with you either. I shall stay +here always--and--and--pardon me, Mr. Browning, but when you get +furious, as you sometimes do, I can quiet you better than any one +else, and it may be, the world will never need to know you're a +_madman!"_ + +Mr. Browning looked searchingly into her innocent eyes, and then, in +spite of himself, he laughed aloud. He understood why she should think +him a madman, and though he repented of it afterward, he hastened to +undeceive her now. "As I hope to see another day, it is not that," he +said. "It is far worse than insanity; and, Rosamond, though it breaks +my heart to say it, it is wicked for me to talk of love to you, and +you must not remember what I said. You must crush every tender thought +of me. You must forget me--nay, more--you must _hate_ me. Will you, +Rosamond?" + +"No--no--no! she cried, and laying her face in his lap, she burst into +a passionate flood of tears. + +"Leave me," he whispered, "or I _shall_ go mad, for I know I am the +cause of this distress." + +There was decision in the tones of his voice, and it stilled the +tumult in Rosamond's bosom. Rising to her feet, she said calmly: "I +will go, but I cannot forget that you deceived me. You have wrung from +me a confession of my love, only to throw it back upon me as a +priceless thing." + +Not thus would he part with her, and grasping her arm, he began: +"Heaven knows how much more than my very life I love you--" + +He did not finish the sentence, for through the air a small, dark +object came, and, missing its aim, dropped upon the hearth, where it +was broken in a hundred pieces. It was a vase which stood upon the +table in the hall, and Ben Van Vechten's was the hand that threw it! +Impatient at the delay, he had come up in time to hear his uncle's +last words, which aroused his Southern blood at once, and seizing the +vase, he hurled it at the offender's head--then, rushing down the +stairs, he burst upon his mother with "Great thunder! mother; Uncle +Ralph is making love to Rosamond himself, and she likes it too. I saw +it with my own eyes! I'll hang myself in the barn, or go to the +Crimean war!" and Ben bounded up and down like an India-rubber ball. +Suddenly remembering that another train was due ere long, he darted +out of the house, followed by his distracted mother, who, divining his +intention, ran swiftly after him, imploring him to return. Pausing for +a moment as he struck into the highway, he called out, "Good-by, +mother. I've only one choice left--WAR! Give my love to Rosamond, and +tell her I shall die like a hero. You needn't wear black, if you don't +want to. Good-by." + +He turned the corner--he had started for the _war_--and mentally +resolving to follow him in the next train, Mrs. Van Vechten returned +to the house, and sought her brother. + +"Ralph," she began, sternly, "have you talked of love to Rosamond?" + +Mr. Browning had borne so much that nothing startled him now, and +returning her glance unflinchingly, he replied, "I have." + +"How, then--is Marie dead?" the lady asked. + +"Not to my knowledge--but hist," was the reply, as Mr. Browning nodded +toward the hall, where a rustling movement was heard. + +It was the _new girl_, coming with a dust-pan and brush to remove the +fragments of the vase, though how she knew they were there, was a +question she alone could answer. For a single instant her dull, gray +eye shot a gleam of intelligence at the occupants of the room, and +then assuming her usual appearance, she did what she came to do, and +departed. When they were again alone, Mrs. Van Vechten demanded an +explanation of her brother, who gave it unhesitatingly. Cold-hearted +as she always seemed, Mrs. Van Vechten had some kind feelings left, +and, touched by her brother's tale of suffering, she gave him no word +of reproach, and even unbent herself to say that a brighter day might +come to him yet. Then she spoke of Ben, announcing her determination +of following him that night. To this plan Mr. Browning offered no +remonstrance, and when the night express left the Granby station, it +carried with it Mrs. Van Vechten, in pursuit of the runaway Ben. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +NEWS. + + +Nearly two weeks had passed away since the exciting scene in Mr. +Browning's library, and during that time Rosamond had kept herself +aloof from her guardian, meeting him only at the table, where she +maintained toward him a perfectly respectful but rather freezing +manner. She was deeply mortified to think he had won from her a +confession of her love, and then told her how useless--nay, worse--how +wicked it was for her to think of him. She knew that he suffered +intensely, but she resolutely left him to suffer alone, and he would +rather it should be so. + +Life was growing more and more a wearisome burden, and when, just one +week after the library interview, he received a note in the well- +remembered handwriting, he asked that he might die and forget his +grief. The letter was dated at the Springs, where Miss Porter was +still staying, though she said she intended starting the next day for +Cuyler, a little out-of-the-way place on the lake, where there was but +little company, and she could be quiet and recruit her nervous system. +The latter had been terribly shocked, she said, by hearing of his +recent attempt at making love to Rosamond Leyton! "Indeed," she wrote, +"it is to this very love-making that you owe this letter from me, as I +deem it my duty to keep continually before your mind the fact that +_I_ am still alive." + +With a blanched cheek Mr. Browning read this letter through--then tore +it into fragments, wondering much who gave her the information. There +were no _spies_ about his premises. Rosamond would not do it, and it +must have been his sister, though why she should thus wish to annoy +him he did not know, when she, more than any one else, had been +instrumental in placing him where he was. Once he thought of telling +Rosamond all, but he shrank from this, for she would leave his house, +he knew, and, though she might never again speak kindly to him, he +would rather feel that she was there. + +And so another dreary week went by, and then one morning there came to +him tidings which stopped for an instant the pulsations of his heart, +and sent through his frame a thrill so benumbing and intense that at +first pity and horror were the only emotions of which he seemed +capable. It came to him in a newspaper paragraph, which in substance +was as follows: + +"A sad catastrophe occurred on Thursday afternoon at Cuyler, a little +place upon the lake, which of late has been somewhat frequented during +the summer months. Three ladies and one gentleman went out in a small +pleasure-boat which is kept for the accommodation of the guests. They +had not been gone very long when a sudden thunder-gust came on, +accompanied by a violent wind, and the owner of the skiff, feeling +some alarm for the safety of the party, went down to the landing just +in time to see the boat make a few mad plunges with the waves, and +then capsize at the distance of nearly half a mile from the shore. + +"Every possible effort was made to save the unfortunate pleasure- +seekers, but in vain; they disappeared from view long before a boat +could reach them. One of the bodies has not yet been recovered. It is +that of a Miss Porter, from Florida. She had reached Cuyler only the +day previous, and was unaccompanied by a single friend, save a +waiting-maid, who seems overwhelmed with grief at the loss of her +mistress." + +This, then, was the announcement which so affected Ralph Browning, +blotting out for a moment the wretched past, and taking him back to +the long ago when he first knew Marie Porter and fancied that he loved +her. She was _dead_ now--_dead._ Many a time he whispered that word to +himself, and with each repetition the wish grew strong within him--not +that she were living, but that while living he had not hated her so +bitterly, and with the softened feeling which death will always bring, +he blamed himself far more than he did her. There had been wrong on +both sides, but he would rather now, that she had been reconciled to +him ere she found that watery grave. Hand in hand with these +reflections came another thought; a bewildering, intoxicating thought. +He was _free_ at last--free to _love_--to _worship_--to _marry_ +Rosamond. + +"And I will go to her at once," he said, after the first hour had been +given to the dead; "I will tell her all the truth." + +He rose to leave the room, but something stayed him there, and +whispered in his ear, "There may be some mistake. Cuyler is not far +away. Go there first and investigate." + +For him to will was to do, and telling Mrs. Peters he should be absent +from home for a time, he started immediately for Cuyler, which he +reached near the close of the day. Calm and beautiful looked the +waters of the lake on that summer afternoon, and if within their +caverns the ill-fated Marie slept, they kept over her an unruffled +watch and told no tales of her last dying wail to the careworn, +haggard man who stood upon the sandy beach, where they said that she +embarked, and listened attentively while they told him how gay she +seemed that day, and how jestingly she spoke of the dark thunderhead +which even then was mounting the western horizon. They had tried in +vain to find her, and it was probable she had sunk into one of the +unfathomable holes with which the lake was said by some to abound. +Sarah, the waiting-maid, wept passionately, showing that the deceased +must have had some good qualities, or she could not thus have attached +a servant to her. + +Looking upon Mr. Browning as a friend of her late mistress, she relied +on him for counsel, and when he advised her immediate return to +Florida, she readily consented, and started on the same day that he +turned his face toward Riverside. They had said to him: "If we find +her, shall we send her to your place?" and with an involuntary shudder +he had answered, "No--oh, no. You must apprise me of it by letter, as +also her Florida friends--but bury her quietly here." + +They promised compliance with his wishes, and feeling that a load was +off his mind, he started at once for home. Certainty now was doubly +sure. Marie was dead, and as this conviction became more and more +fixed upon his mind, he began to experience a dread of telling +Rosamond all. Why need she know of it, when the telling it would throw +much censure on himself. She was not a great newspaper reader--she had +not seen the paragraph, and would not see it. He could tell her that +the obstacle to his happiness had been removed--that 'twas no longer a +sin for him to think of her or seek to make her his wife. All this he +would say to her, but nothing more. + +And all this he did say to her in the summer-house at the foot of the +garden, where he found her just as the sun was setting. And Rosamond +listened eagerly--never questioning him of the past, or caring to hear +of it. She was satisfied to know that she might love him now, and with +his arm around her, she sat there alone with him until the August moon +was high up in the heavens. He called her his "sunshine"--his "light" +--his "life," and pushing the silken curls from off her childish brow, +kissed her again and again, telling her she should be his wife when +the twentieth day of November came. That was his twenty-ninth +birthday, and looking into her girlish face, he asked her if he were +not too old. He knew she would tell him _no_, and she did, lovingly +caressing his grayish hair. + +"He had grown young since he sat there," she said, and so, indeed, he +had, and the rejuvenating process continued day after day, until the +villagers laughingly said that his approaching marriage had put him +back ten years. It was known to all the town's folks now, and unlike +most other matches, was pronounced a suitable one. Even Mrs. Van +Vechten, who had found Ben at Lovejoy's Hotel, and still remained with +him in New York, wrote to her brother a kind of congratulatory letter, +mingled with sickly sentimental regrets for the "heart-broken, +deserted and now departed Marie." It was doubtful whether she came up +to the wedding or not, she said, as Ben had positively refused to +come, or to leave the city either, and kept her constantly on the +watch lest he should elope with a second-rate actress at Laura Keene's +theatre. + +Rosamond laughed heartily when Mr. Browning told her of this sudden +change in Ben, and then with a sigh as she thought how many times his +soft, good-natured heart would probably be wrung, she went back to the +preparations for her bridal, which were on a magnificent scale. They +were going to Europe--they would spend the winter in Paris, and as Mr. +Browning had several influential acquaintances there, they would of +course see some society, and he resolved that his bride should be +inferior to none in point of dress, as she was to none in point of +beauty. Everything which love could devise or money procure was +purchased for her, and the elegance of her outfit was for a long time +the only theme of village gossip. + +Among the members of the household none seemed more interested in the +preparations than the girl Maria, who has before been incidentally +mentioned. Her dull eyes lighted up with each new article of dress, +and she suddenly displayed so much taste in everything pertaining to a +lady's toilet, that Rosamond was delighted and kept her constantly +with her, devising this new thing and that, all of which were +invariably tried on and submitted to the inspection of Mr. Browning, +who was sure to approve whatever his Rosamond wore. And thus gayly +sped the halcyon hours, bringing at last the fading leaf and the +wailing October winds; but to Rosamond, basking in the sunlight of +love, there came no warning note to tell her of the dark November days +which were hurrying swiftly on. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE GUEST AT RIVERSIDE. + + +The November days had come. The satin dress was made--the bridal veil +sent home--the wreath of orange, too; and then, one morning when the +summer, it would seem, had come to revisit the scenes of its brief +reign, Mr. Browning kissed his bride-elect, and wiped away the two big +tears which dropped from her eyelashes when he told her that he was +going away for that day and the next. + +"But when to-morrow's sun is setting, I shall be with you again," he +said, and he bade her quiet the fluttering of her little heart, which +throbbed so painfully at parting with him. + +"I don't know why it is," she said, "I'm not one bit superstitious, +but Bruno howled so dismally under my window all night, and when he +ceased, a horrid owl set up a screech. I told Maria, and she said, in +her country the cry of an owl was a sign that the grave was about to +give up its dead, and she looked so mysterious that she frightened me +all the more--" + +"That Maria is too superstitious, and I don't like her to be with you +so much," said Mr. Browning, his own cheek turning slightly pale, as +he thought of the grave giving up _his_ dead. Thrice he turned back to +kiss the little maiden, who followed him down the avenue, and then +climbed into a box-like seat, which had been built on the top of the +gate-post, and was sheltered by a sycamore. "Here," said she, "shall I +wait for you to-morrow night, when the sun is away over there. Oh, I +wish it would hurry." + +He wished so, too, and with another fond good-by they parted. The day +seemed long to Rosamond, and, though she varied the time by trying on +each and every one of her new dresses, she was glad when it was night, +so she could go to bed and sleep the time away. The next morning the +depression of spirits was gone; he was coming--she should wait for him +beneath the sycamore--possibly she would hide to make him believe she +was not there, and the bright blushes stole over her dimpled cheeks as +she thought what he would do when he found that she _was_ there. + +"Ten o'clock," she said to herself, as she heard the whistle of the +upward train. "Seven hours more and he will come." + +Going to her room, she took a book, in which she tried to be +interested, succeeding so well that, though her windows commanded a +view of the avenue, she did not see the lady who came slowly up the +walk, casting about her eager, curious glances, and pausing more than +once to note the exceeding beauty of the place. Once she stopped for a +long time, and, leaning against a tree, seemed to be debating whether +to turn back or go on. Deciding upon the latter, she arose, and +quickening her movements, soon stood upon the threshold. Her ring was +answered by Maria, who betrayed no surprise, for from the upper hall +Mrs. Peters herself was closely inspecting the visitor. + +"Is Mr. Browning at home?" the lady asked. + +"Gone to Buffalo," was the laconic reply, and a gleam of satisfaction +flitted over the face of the questioner, who continued--"And the young +lady, Miss Leyton? Has she gone too?" + +"She is here," said Maria, still keeping her eye upon the shadow +bending over the balustrade. "What name shall I give her?" + +"No name. I wish to surprise her," and passing on into the parlor, +thestranger laid aside her hat and shawl with the air of one perfectly +at +home; then seating herself upon a sofa, she examined the room as +curiously as she had examined the grounds of Riverside. + +"It seems a pity to mar all this," she said, "and were it not that I +hate him so much, I would go away forever, though that would be a +greater injury to her than my coming to life will be. Of course he's +told her all, and spite of her professed liking for me, she is glad +that I am dead. I long, yet dread, to see her amazement; but hist--she +comes." + +There was the sound of little, high-heeled slippers on the stairs, the +flutter of a pink morning gown, and then Rosamond Leyton stood face to +face with--Marie Porter! The grave had given up its dead, and without +any visible marks of the world prepared for such as she, save, indeed, +the increased _fire_ which burned in her black eyes, the risen woman +sat there much as living people sit--her head bent forward--her lips +apart--and a look of expectation upon her face. But she was doomed to +disappointment. Rosamond knew nothing of the past, and with a cry of +pleasurable surprise she started forward, exclaiming, "Oh, Miss +Porter, I felt so cross when told a visitor was here, but now I know +who 'tis, I am so glad, for I am very lonely to-day." + +The hard woman swept her hand a moment before her eyes, and with that +movement swept away the kindly spirit, which whispered, "Don't +undeceive her. Don't quench the light of that bright face, nor break +that girlish heart." + +But it was necessary; Marie Porter knew that, and though she repented +of what she had done, it was now too late to retreat, and all she +could do was to break the heart of the unsuspecting girl as tenderly +as possible. + +"Why are you so lonely?" she said, "This is a most beautiful spot. I +believe I'd like to live here myself." + +"Oh, yes, 'tis a lovely place," answered Rosamond, "but--but--Mr. +Browning is not here," and she averted her crimson face. + +"Is Mr. Browning so necessary to your happiness" Miss Porter asked, +and bringing an ottoman, Rosamond sat down at her visitor's feet and +thus replied: "We talked so much of him at the Springs that it surely +is not foolish in me to tell you what everybody knows. Now, you won't +laugh at me, will you? Mr. Browning and I are going to--oh, I can't +tell it; but, any way, your fortune-telling is not true." + +"Mr. Browning and you are going to be married. Is that it?" the woman +asked; and with a quick, upward glance of her soft, brown +eyes, Rosamond replied, Yes, that's it--that's it; and oh, you can't +begin to guess how happy I am. He is not _crazy_ either. It was +something else, though I don't know what, for he never told me, and I +do not care to know. The obstacle has been removed, whatever it was, +and it has wrought such a change in him. He's so much younger-- +handsomer, now, and so kind to me. I'm glad you've come, Miss Porter, +and you'll stay till after the wedding. It's the twentieth, and he has +bought me so many new things. We are going to Europe. Just think of a +winter in Paris, with Mr. Browning! But, what! Are you _crying_?" and +Rosamond started as a burning tear fell upon her forehead. + +"Rosamond Leyton," said Miss Porter, in a voice husky with emotion, "I +have not wept in eight long years, but the sight of you, so innocent, +so happy, wrings the tears from my stony heart, as agony will +sometimes force out the drops of perspiration when the body is +shivering with cold. I was young like you once, and my bridal was +fixed--" She paused, and stealing an arm around her waist, Rosamond +said pleadingly, "Tell me about it, Miss Porter, I always knew you had +a history. Did the man die?" + +"No--no. Better for me if he had--aye, and better, too, for you." + +This last was a whisper, and Rosamond did not hear it. Her thoughts +were bent upon the story, and she continued, "Will it pain you too +much to tell it now?" + +"Yes, yes, wait," Miss Porter said, "Wait until after dinner, and +meantime, as I cannot possibly stay until the 20th, perhaps you will +let me see your dresses." + +Nothing could please Rosamond more, and gay as a little child, she led +the way to a large upper room, which contained her wedding outfit. +Proudly she displayed her treasures, flitting like a bird from one +pile of finery to another, and reserving the most important until the +very last. + +"There's the dinner-bell," she suddenly exclaimed, "I did not think it +could be _one_. Only four hours more--but come, let us go down and +after dinner, if you'll never tell Mrs. Peters, nor anybody, I'll try +on my bridal dress and let you see if it is becoming. I want so much +to know how it looks, since Maria put the rose-buds in the berthe. And +then your story. I must hear that." + +As they were going down the stairs Miss Porter took Rosamond's hand +and said, "How is this?--Where is my ring?" + +Rosamond could not tell her of an act which now that it no longer had +insanity for an excuse, puzzled her not a little. So she made some +trivial excuse, which, however, did not deceive her auditor. But the +latter deemed it wise to say no more just then, and silently followed +her young friend into the dining-room. Dinner being over they went up +to Rosamond's chamber, the closet of which contained the bridal robes. + +"_Two o'clock_," said Rosamond, consulting her watch, then bringing +out the rich white satin and exquisite overskirt of lace, she +continued, "I shall have just time to try this on, hear your story and +get dressed before Mr. Browning comes. How short the day seems with +you here! I told him I'd be sitting in that little box which you +possibly noticed, built on the gate-post against the tree.--And he'll +be so disappointed not to find me there, that maybe you won't mind my +leaving you awhile when the sun is right over the woods." + +"Certainly not," answered Miss Porter, and the dressing-up process +began, Rosamond chatting gayly all the while and asking if it were +very foolish for her to try on the dress. "I should not do it," she +said, "if you would stay. Can't you?" + +The answer was a decided negative, and adjusting her little slipper, +Rosamond stood up while her companion put over her head the satin +dress. It fitted admirably, and nothing could have been fairer than +the round, chubby arms and plump, well-shaped shoulders which the +_shortcomings_ of the dress showed to good advantage. Now the lace +over-skirt--now the berthe--and then the veil, with the orange-wreath +twined among the flowing curls, and Rosamond was dressed at last. + +"How do I look?" she asked, but Marie Porter made no immediate reply, +and as she gazed upon the young girl, so beautiful, so innocent, and +unsuspecting, who can tell of the keen anguish at her heart, or how +she shrank from the bitter task which she must do, and quickly, too, +for the clock pointed to _three_, and her plan was now to strike the +_dove_ and then flee ere the _eagle_ came. She would thus wound him +more deeply, for the very uncertainty would add fresh poison to his +cup of agony. + +"How do I look?" Rosamond asked again, and after duly complimenting +the dress, Miss Porter added, "I promised you my story, and if I tell +it at all to-day, I must begin it now, for it is long, and I would +finish it ere Mr. Browning comes." + +"Very well, I'm all attention," said Rosamond, and like a lamb before +its slaughterer she knelt before the woman, bending low her graceful +head to have the wreath removed. + +This done, Miss Porter said, "Have you any camphor handy, or +hartshorn? I am sometimes faint and may want them." + +"Yes, both, here, in the bathing-room," said Rosamond, and she brought +them to the lady, who placed them upon the table--not for herself, but +for one who would need them more--for poor, poor Rosamond. The +disrobing proceeded slowly, for the little girl was well pleased with +the figure reflected by the mirror. But Miss Porter could not wait, +and when the wreath, the veil, and berthe were removed, she seated +herself by the window in a position which commanded a full view of her +victim's face; and forcing down the throbbings of her heart, which it +seemed to her were audible in that silent room, she commenced the +story. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE STORY. + + +"My home," began Miss Porter, "is, as you know, in Florida. I am an +only child, as were both my parents, so that I have now living no +nearer relative than a great-uncle--a superannuated clergyman, who +superintends my affairs, and who, in case I die before he does, which +is very probable, will be heir to my possessions. + +"It is now nearly ten years since my father started for Europe, and I +went to an adjoining state to visit a widow lady, whom I had met in +New Orleans the winter previous. It is not necessary that I should use +real names, consequently I will call her Mrs. Le Vert. She was +spending the summer on her plantation, at what she called her country- +seat. It was a large, old-fashioned, wooden building, many miles from +any neighbors, and here she lived alone--for her only son, a lad of +twelve years of age, was at some northern school. At first I was very +lonely, for the secluded life we led at Holly Grove was hardly in +accordance with the taste of a young girl. Still, I did not mind it as +much as some, for I cared but little for gentlemen's society, and had +frequently declared that I should never marry. + +"Toward the last of July, Mrs. Le Vert's brother came to visit her. He +was a handsome, boyish-looking youth, six months older than myself-- +just out of college--full of life and very fond of pretty girls, +particularly if they chanced to be wealthy." + +"That's a little like Ben," said Rosamond, and Miss Porter continued: + +"From the first, Mrs. Le Vert seemed determined to make a match +between us, for her brother was poor, and she fancied it would be a +fine idea to have the Porter estate come into the Dunlap family. So +she threw us constantly together--talked of me to him and of him to +me, until I really began to believe I liked him. He, on the contrary, +cared for nothing but my money. Still he deemed it advisable to assume +a show of affection, and one night talked to me of love quite +eloquently. I had been to a dinner party that day, and had worn all my +diamonds. He had never seen them before, and they must have inflamed +his avarice, for I afterward heard him tell his sister that he never +should have proposed if I had not looked so beautiful that night. +'_I was irresistible in my diamonds_,' he said." + +Miss Porter paused a moment to witness the effect of her last words, +but Rosamond was looking over her shoulder at a _wrinkle_ she had just +discovered in the waist, and did not heed them. Still she was +listening, and she said, "Yes--go on. You were looking beautifully +that night. Did you consent to marry him?" + +"Unhappily, I did," returned Miss Porter, "for I had made myself +believe that I loved him. I wished that he was older, to be sure, but +he said he would wait until he was of age. This plan, however, did not +suit his ambitious sister. She knew I intended asking my father's +approval, and from what she heard of him she feared he would never +consent to my marrying a poor student, and she urged an immediate +union. But I persisted in writing to my father, who answered +immediately, forbidding me to think of young Dunlap, ordering me to go +home, and saying he always intended me for John Castlewell, a neighbor +of ours--a millionaire--a _booby_--a _fool_--whom I hated as I did +poison. + +"Not long after the receipt of this letter I was surprised by the +sudden appearance of Uncle Bertram, who had come at my father's +request to take me home. This roused me at once. My father was a +tyrant, I said, and I would let him know I could do as I pleased. In +my excitement, I fancied I could not exist a moment without Richard +Dunlap, while he declared that life would be a blank for him if passed +away from me. At this opportune moment Mrs. Le Vert suggested that we +be married immediately--that very night. Uncle Bertram fortunately was +a clergyman, and could officiate as well as any other. In justice to +Richard, I will say that he hesitated longer than I did--but he was +persuaded at last, as was Uncle Bertram, and with no other witness +than Mrs. Le Vert and a white woman who lived with her as half +waiting-maid and half companion, we were married." + +Rosamond was interested now, and forgetting to remove her dress, she +threw a crimson shawl around her shoulders, and sitting down upon the +bed, exclaimed, "Married! You married! Why, then, are you called +Porter?" + +"Listen and you shall know," returned the lady, a dark look settling +down upon her face. + +"Scarcely was the ceremony over, when I began to regret it--not +because I disliked Richard, but because I dreaded my father's +displeasure, for he had a most savage, revengeful temper, and his +daughter possesses the same." This was bitterly spoken, and she +continued--"Hardly an hour after we were married, a negro brought a +letter to Richard from an eccentric old man for whom he had been +named. In it the old man said he had made his namesake his heir, +provided he did not marry until he was _twenty-five_. + +"'I know just how _frillickin'_ you are,' he wrote, 'and I know, too, +how unsuitable and how unhappy most early marriages are--so my boy, if +you want Sunnyside, wait till you are twenty-five before you take an +extra rib. I hate to be bothered with letters, and if you don't answer +this, I shall conclude that you accept my terms.'" + +"Mrs. Le Vert at once suggested that, as the old gentleman had already +had two fits of apoplexy, and would undoubtedly soon have the third, +our marriage should for a time be kept a secret. + +"But he didn't consent," cried Rosamond. + +"Yes, he did," answered Miss Porter, "and though I, too, said it would +be best, I began to distrust him from that moment--to think that he +preferred money to myself. Uncle Bertram promised secrecy and went +back alone, and then commenced a life of wretchedness, which makes me +shudder even to recall it. With the exception of my own servant, who +dared not tell if I bade her be silent, the blacks knew nothing of our +marriage, and though we lived together as man and wife, so skillfully +did Mrs. Le Vert and Esther, her white domestic, manage the matter, +that for a time our secret was safely kept. A few of the negroes +discovered it ere I left, but as they always lived in that out-of-the- +way place, it never followed me, and to this day no human being in +Florida, save Uncle Bertram knows of the marriage. + +"I am very impulsive, and the excitement being over, my affection +began to cool. Richard could have kept it alive had he tried, but he +did not. On the contrary he was much alone, and when with me was +always tormenting me with conscientious scruples about deceiving 'the +old man.'" + +"Oh, I like him for that," cried Rosamond, "I like him for that. Why +didn't you let him tell?" + +"Because," returned Miss Porter, "I had fears that father would +disinherit _me_, and if Richard lost Sunnyside we should be poor +indeed." + +A shadow passed over Rosamond's face, and she said involuntarily, "I +could be happy with Mr. Browning if we _were_ poor." + +Marie started and answered quickly, "What has _Mr. Browning_ to do +with my story?" + +"Nothing, nothing," returned Rosamond, "only I was thinking that if +you loved Richard as well as I do Mr. Browning, you would not have +cared for money." + +"But I didn't," returned Marie. "I was mistaken. 'Twas a mere childish +fancy. I never loved him. _I hate him now_." + +She spoke vehemently, and when Rosamond said mournfully. "Hate your +husband!" she replied, "Yes, more than _hate_, or I had never come to +tell you this; but listen--from indifference we came to coldness--from +coldness to recrimination--from that to harsh words--from harsh words +to quarrels--and from quarrels to _blows_!" + +She uttered the last word slowly, while Rosamond exclaimed, "Not +_blows_, Miss Porter! No man would strike a woman. _I_ almost hate +him, now." + +The proud lip curled scornfully--a gleam of satisfaction shot from the +keen black eyes, and Marie went on. "He would say--nay does say _I_ +was the most to blame--that I aggravated him beyond human endurance-- +but he provoked me to it. Think of his swearing at me, Rosamond-- +calling me a _she-devil_ and all that. Think, too, of his telling me +to my face that he was driven into the marriage wholly by his sister-- +that he regretted it more than I, and to crown all, think of his +_boxing my ears!_--he, a poor, insignificant Northern _puppy_, boxing +_me_--a Porter, and a Southern heiress!" + +She was terribly excited, and Rosamond, gazing at her face, distorted +with malignant passion, began to fancy that the greater wrong might +perhaps have lain with her. + +After a moment's pause, Marie began again. "When we had been three +months man and wife, he wrote to the old man, confessing his marriage, +and saying sundry things not wholly complimentary to his bride; but I +intercepted it, read it, tore it up, and taunted him with it. I +believe I called him a low-lived Yankee, or something like that, and +then it was he struck me. The blow sunk deep into my soul. It was an +insult, an unpardonable insult, and could not be forgiven. My Southern +blood was all on fire, and had I been a man, he should have paid for +that blow. I feel it yet; the smart has never for a moment left me, +but burns upon my face just as hatred for him burns upon my heart!" + +"Oh, Miss Porter," cried Rosamond, as the former ground her teeth +together, "don't look so terribly. You frighten me. He struck you, but +he asked your pardon, sure?" + +"Yes, he pretended to, but I spat at him and bade him leave me +forever. His sister tried to interfere, but she made the matter worse, +and as my father was on the eve of embarking for America, I determined +to go home, and when he came, tell him the whole and ask him to seek +satisfaction from one who had dared to strike his daughter. Richard +made a show of trying to keep me--said we had better live together, +and all that, while his sister called us two silly children who needed +whipping. But I did not heed it. I went home to Uncle Bertram and +waited for my father, who never came. He died upon the sea, and I was +heir of all his vast possessions. Then Richard made overtures for +reconciliation, but I spurned them all. You've heard of _woman- +haters,_ Rosamond--I am a _man-hater_. I loathe the whole sex, Uncle +Bertram excepted. My marriage was of course a secret in Florida. My +servant, who knew of it, died soon after my father, and as Uncle +Bertram kept his own counsel, more than one sought my hand, but I +turned my back upon them all. + +"Four or five years ago he wrote me a letter. He was then master of +Sunnyside, for the old man left it to him after all. He was lonely +there, he said, and he asked a reconciliation. Had he never struck me, +I might have gone, for his letter was kindly enough, but the blow was +a barrier between us, so I refused to listen, and exulted over the +thought of his living there alone all his days, with the secret on his +mind. + +"The sweetest morsel of all in the cup of revenge was, however, for a +time withheld, but it came at last, Rosamond. It came at last. He +loved a beautiful young girl, loved her all the more that he could not +marry her." + +She drew nearer to Rosamond, who, though still unsuspecting, trembled +from head to foot with an undefinable emotion of coming evil. + +"I saw her, Rosamond; saw this young girl with his name upon her lips +when waking--saw her, too, with his name upon her lips when sleeping, +and all this while she did not dream that I, the so-called Marie +Porter, was his wife, the barrier which kept him from saying the words +her little heart longed so to hear." + +There were livid spots on Rosamond's neck--livid spots upon her face, +and still she did not move from her seat, though her clammy hand +clutched nervously her bridal dress. A _horrid_ suspicion had flashed +upon her, but with a mighty effort she threw it off as injustice to +Mr. Browning, and mentally crying, "It cannot be," she faintly +whispered, "Go on." + +"The summer I met her," said Miss Porter, I was at Cartersville, a +little out-of-the-way place on a lake--" + +"You're telling me true?" interrupted Rosamond, joy thrilling in her +tones. + +"Yes, true," returned Miss Porter. + +"Then bless you--bless you for those last words," rejoined Rosamond, +burying her face in her companion's lap. "A terrible fear for a moment +came over me, that it might be _I_. But it isn't. _I_ met you at the +Springs. Oh, if it had been me, I should most surely die." + +"But _she_ did not--the young girl," resumed Miss Porter. "She had a +brave, strong heart, and she bore up wondrously. She felt that he had +cruelly deceived her, and that helped her to bear the blow. Besides, +she was glad she knew of it in time, for, had he married her, she +would not have been his wife, you know." + +Rosamond shuddered and replied, "I know, but my heart would have +broken all the same. It aches so now for her. But go on, how did she +find it out? Who could have strength to tell her?" + +There was a pause, and each could hear the beating of the other's +heart. The November wind had risen within the last half hour, and now +howled dismally past the window, seeming to Rosamond like the wail +that young girl must have uttered when she first learned how her trust +had been betrayed. _The clock struck four!_ Rosamond counted each +stroke, and thought, "One hour more, and _he_ will be here." Marie +counted each stroke, and thought, "One hour more, and I must be +gone." + +"Rosamond," she began again, "what I now have to confess is an act of +which I have repented bitterly, and never more than since I sat within +this room. But it was not premeditated, and believe me, Rosamond, it +was not done for any malice I bore to that young girl, for I pitied +her so much--oh, so much," and her hand wandered caressingly over the +bright hair lying on her lap. + +"We went out one afternoon--two ladies, a gentleman, and myself--in a +small sail-boat upon the lake. _I_ planned the excursion and thought I +should enjoy it, but we had not been out long when my old affection of +the heart began to trouble me. I grew faint, and begged of them to put +me on the land. They complied with my request, and set me down upon a +point higher up than that from which we had embarked, and near to a +dilapidated cabin where lived a weird old hag, who earned a scanty +livelihood by fortune-telling. I told her I was sick, and sat down by +her door where I could watch the movements of the party. Suddenly a +terrific thunderstorm arose, the wind blew a hurricane, and though the +boat rode the billows bravely for a time, it capsized at length, and +its precious freight disappeared beneath the foaming waves. For a +moment horror chilled my blood; then, swift as the lightning which +leaped from the cloud overhanging the graves of my late companions, a +maddening thought flashed upon my mind." + +"But the girl--hasten to that part," said Rosamond, lifting up her +head, while Miss Porter went back to her chair. + +"I shall come to her soon enough," returned Miss Porter, continuing +her story. "No living being, save the old woman at my side, knew of my +escape, and I could bribe her easily. Fortunately I carried the most +of my money about my person, and I said to her, 'There are reasons +why, for a time at least, I wish to be considered dead. Here are +twenty dollars now, and the same shall be paid you every month that +you are silent. No human creature must know that I am living.' I saw +by the kindling of her eye at the sight of the gold that I was safe, +and when the night shadows were falling I stole from her cabin, and +taking a circuitous route to avoid observation, I reached the midway +station in time for the evening train. + +"Three days later in a distant city I read of the sad catastrophe-- +read that all had been found but one, a Miss Porter, from Florida, and +as I read I thought '_he_ will see that, too.' He did see it. Before +going to Carterville I sent to Sunnyside a girl who was under peculiar +obligations to me, and one whom I could trust. She secured the place. +She was employed at last about the person of that young girl, _who had +lived at Sunnyside since she was a child, a friendless orphan_." + +There was a quick, gasping moan as if the soul were parting from the +body, and Rosamond fell upon her face, which the pillows concealed +from view, while Miss Porter hurriedly proceeded: + +"There is but little more to tell. I wrote to the girl who took her +own letters from the office. I told her all, and from her heard that +the bridal day was fixed. The obstacle was removed--not +_insanity_, but a _living wife_. Need I say more?" + +She paused, but from the bed where the crushed, motionless figure lay, +there came no sound, and she said again, "Speak, Rosamond. Curse me, +if you will, for saving you from an unlawful marriage." + +Still there was no sound, save the low sighing of the wind, which +seemed to have taken a fresh note of sadness as if bewailing the +unutterable desolation of the young girl, who lay so still and +lifeless that Marie Porter's heart quickened with fear, and drawing +near, she touched the little hand resting on the pillow. It was cold-- +rigid--as was also the face which she turned to the light. + +"_It is death!_" she cried, and a wild shriek rang through the house, +bringing at once the servants, headed by Mrs. Peters. + +"_What is it?_" cried the latter, as she saw the helpless figure and +beautiful upturned face. + +"_It's death, madam--death_, and it's coming on me, too," +answered Miss Porter, clasping her hands over her heart, which +throbbed as it never had done before, and which at last prostrated her +upon the lounge. + +But no one heeded her, save the girl Maria. The rest gave their +attention to Rosamond, who lay so long in the death-like stupor that +others than Miss Porter believed her dead. + +_The clock struck five!_ and echoing from the Granby hills the engine- +whistle came. Then a slight tremor ran through her frame, and Mrs. +Peters whispered joyfully, "There's life--there's hope." + +Along the highway the returning traveler came with rapid tread, but +'neath the sycamore no Rosamond was waiting. + +"She is hiding from me," he said, but his search for her was vain, and +he rapidly hastened on. + +All about the house was still. There was no Rosamond at the door--nor +in the hall--nor in the parlor--nor on the stairs; but from her +chamber came the buzz of voices, and he entered unannounced, recoiling +backward when he saw the face upon the pillow, and knew that it was +Rosamond's. Every particle of color had left it; there were dark +circles beneath the eyes, and a look about the mouth as if the +concentrated agony of years had fallen suddenly upon her. + +"What is it?" he asked, and at the sound of his voice, the brown eyes +he had been wont to call so beautiful unclosed, but their sunny +brightness was all gone, and he shuddered at their dim, meaningless +expression. + +She seemed to know him, and stretching her arm toward him as a child +does toward its mother when danger threatens, she laid her head upon +his bosom with a piteous wail--the only really audible sound she had +yet uttered. + +"Rosamond, darling--what has come upon you?" he said, "and why are you +in your bridal dress?" + +At that word she started, and moving away from him, moaned sadly, "It +was cruel--oh, so cruel to deceive me, when I loved and trusted him so +much." + +"Won't somebody tell me what this means?" he demanded, and Mrs. Peters +replied, "We do not know. There's been a strange woman here, and she +was with Rosamond when it happened." + +"Woman? What woman? And where is she now?" he asked, and Mrs. Peters +replied, "She was faint--dying, she said, and Maria took her into +another chamber." + +Mechanically he started for that chamber--hearing nothing--seeing +nothing--thinking nothing for the nameless terror which had fallen +upon him. He did not suspect the real truth. He merely had a vague +presentiment that some one who knew nothing of the drowning had come +there to save his Rosamond from what they supposed to be an unlawful +marriage, and when at last he stood face to face with his living wife, +when he knew the grave had given up its dead, he dropped to the floor +as drops the giant oak when felled by the lightning's power! + +Marie Porter, even had she been cruelly wronged, was avenged--fully, +amply avenged, and covering her face with her hands, she moaned, "I +have killed them both, and there's nothing left for me now but to +die!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE END + + +Over the horrid awakening which came to the wretched man, we need not +linger; neither is it necessary to dwell upon the first few days of +mystery and dread, when death seemed brooding over Riverside, and +rumor was busy with surmises and suspicions concerning the stranger, +and the relation, if any, which she bore to Rosamond Leyton. We will +rather hasten on to the morning when to Mr. Browning the joyful +tidings came that Rosamond was better--so much better, indeed, that he +could see and talk with her if he chose. + +Only once since the fearful night when he found her moaning in her +bridal dress, had he stood by her bedside--for, though he longed to be +there, he could not endure to see her turn away from him, whispering +as she did so, "It was cruel--oh, so cruel to deceive me so." Neither +had he been near Marie Porter, consequently he knew nothing of the +means by which she had imposed upon him the story of her death. But +Rosamond knew--Rosamond could tell him, and from no other lips would +he hear it. So, when he learned that she was better, he asked to see +her alone, and Mrs. Peters, to whom he had necessarily confided the +story of his marriage, carried his message to Rosamond. + +For a moment Rosamond did not seem to hear, but when the message was +repeated, the great tears forced themselves from beneath her long +eyelashes, and rolling down her cheeks, dropped upon the pillow. + +"He might have spared me this," she said," but if it is his wish, I +can see him." + +With a mighty effort she stilled the violent throbbings of her heart, +forced an unnatural calm upon her face and whispered--"Let him come +now; I am ready." + +He was standing without the door, so near that he heard the words, and +in a moment he was at her side. Falling upon his knees before her, he +clasped her hands in his, imploring her forgiveness for the great +wrong he had done her in not telling her the truth at first. "But I am +innocent of the last," he said; "believe me, Rosamond, I thought her +dead, or I had never asked you to be my wife. I know not how she +deceived me so terribly, but you know, and I have sought this +interview to hear the story from your own lips. Will you tell it to +me, darling--Miss Leyton, I mean," he added hastily, as he saw a +shadow of pain flit over her face. + +"I will if I can," she faintly answered, and summoning all her +strength, she repeated to him what Miss Porter had told her, except, +indeed, the parts with which she knew he was familiar. + +"The plot was worthy of her who planned it," he said bitterly; then, +as Rosamond made no reply, he continued--"she told you, I suppose, of +our married life, and painted me the blackest villain that ever trod +the earth. This may in part be true, but, Rosamond, though I may never +know the bliss of calling you my wife, I cannot be thus degraded in +your sight and offer no apology. I was a boy--a self-willed, high- +tempered boy, nineteen years of age, and she aggravated me beyond all +human endurance, seeking ways and means by which she could provoke me. +I loved her at first--nay, do not turn away incredulously. Heaven is +my witness that I loved her, or thought I did, but 'twas a boyish +love, and not such as I feel for you," + +"You swore at her," said Rosamond, unable to reconcile love with an +oath. + +"Once--only once," he replied. "I blush to own it, for it was not a +manly act." + +"You struck her," and for the first time since he had been in that +room the brown eyes rested full upon his face. + +"Yes, Rosamond," he answered; "I own that, too, but she goaded me to +madness, and even raised her voice against my sainted mother, who had +borne so dastardly a son as _I_!" + +"And Riverside?" said Rosamond. "Did your uncle die deceived?" + +"Never--never," Mr. Browning exclaimed, starting to his feet. "I told +the whole truth, or I would not have lived here a day. Rosamond, I +have greatly sinned, but she has not been blameless. She insulted me +in every possible way, even to giving _you_ her _wedding ring_, and +then, lest I should not see it, wrote to me 'to look upon your +finger.' No wonder you thought me mad!" + +"Her _wedding ring_! Could she do that?" said Rosamond. + +"Yes, her wedding ring. It first belonged to Susan, who gave it to me +for the occasion, and two weeks after I had it marked with Marie's +name and the date of our marriage. It is broken now, and I would to +Heaven I could thus easily break the tie which binds me to her, and +keeps me from you! Oh, Rosamond, Rosamond, must it be? Must I live my +life without you, when I need you so much--when my heart longs so to +claim you for its own?" + +He covered his face with his hands, and Rosamond could see the tears +dropping slowly through his fingers. Terribly was he expiating the sin +of his boyhood, and what wonder is it, if, in his agony, he cried, "My +punishment is greater than I can bear!" + +Rosamond alone was calm. She seemed to have wept her tears away, and +the blow which had fallen so crushingly upon her, had benumbed her +heart, so that she now did not feel as acutely as the weeping man +before her. Very soothingly she spoke to him, but she offered no word +of cheer--no hope that all would yet be well. "They would bear it with +brave hearts," she said, "and he must be reconciled to his wife." + +"Never--never," he exclaimed. "The same roof cannot shelter us both, +and if she chooses to stay when she is better, she is welcome to +Riverside, but I cannot share it with her." + +Neither said to the other, "It may be she will die," for such a +thought had never intruded itself upon their minds, and yet Marie +Porter's life was numbered now by days. The heart disease, from which +she had long been suffering, was greatly aggravated by the strong +nervous excitement through which she had recently been passing. +Stimulants of a most powerful kind had created a kind of artificial +strength, which had enabled her to come to Riverside, but this was +fast subsiding; and when she bent over the motionless form of +Rosamond, and feared that she was dead, she felt, indeed, that death +would ere long claim her as his own. The sight of her husband, too, +had well nigh been more than she could bear. For nearly nine long +years she had not looked upon his face, but she remembered it well--a +handsome, boyish face. His hair, she remembered, too--his soft, dark, +wavy hair, through which her fingers had sometimes strayed, in the far +back days at Holly Wood, before she was his bride. He would not be +greatly changed, she thought; and when, on that fatal night, she heard +his coming footsteps, she pictured him in her mind much as he was that +winter-day, when, standing in his sister's door, he bade her a long +good-by. Nearer and nearer he had come--faster and louder had beaten +her heart, while a cold, faint sickness crept over her. + +"Open the window--I cannot breathe," she gasped; but ere her request +was obeyed, Ralph Browning had fainted on the threshold, and she had +asked that she might die. + +She had seen him only for an instant, but that sufficed to tell her he +was changed from the dark-haired, handsome boy, into the gray-haired +suffering man. His eyes had met hers, but the fierce hatred she +expected, was not there; and the look of utter hopeless despair which +she saw in its place, touched her as reproach and resentment could not +have done. + +"Oh, I hope I shall die," she said, as she hid her face in the pillow. +"I hope I shall die." + +This wish she uttered every hour; and when, at last, the physician +said to her, "Madam, you _will_ die," she answered, "It is well!" + +She did not ask for Mr. Browning, for she knew he would not come, but +she inquired anxiously each day for Rosamond; and when, at last, she +heard they were together, she laid her hand upon her heart, and +watching its rise and fall, smiled to think how fast her life was +going out. + +"Listen, Maria," she said, "Listen to what they say, and hear if they +talk of me." + +Noiselessly Maria glided to the door of Rosamond's chamber--stood +there for a moment and then as noiselessly came back repeating to her +mistress the substance of what she had heard, together with sundry +little embellishments of her own. + +"He will give you Riverside and go away himself," she said, and Miss +Porter quickly rejoined, "Go where? Go with whom?" + +"With Miss Leyton of course," returned Maria. "He said he would not +live without her." + +"The wretch!" ejaculated the angry woman, all her softer emotions +giving way to this fancied insult. "He might at least wait now until +I'm dead. I'll go to him myself, and see if in my presence he dare +talk thus to her." + +She was greatly excited, and in spite of the painful throbbings of her +heart and the dizzy sensation she felt stealing over her, she stepped +upon the floor, and hurriedly crossed the room. The effort was too +much for her feeble strength, and she sank fainting upon a chair. The +girl Maria had seen her faint before, but never before had she seen so +fearful a look upon her face, and she ran in terror to Mr. Browning, +beseeching him to come "for her mistress was dying sure, and would +trouble nobody much more." + +For a moment he hesitated, but when Rosamond said, "Go," he went. +Taking the fainting woman in his arms he laid her upon the bed as +gently, though not as tenderly as he would have laid his Rosamond +there. + +"Call Mrs. Peters," he said, and when that matron came, he bade her +give to the invalid every possible care. + +Slowly Miss Porter came back to life, but it was only to faint again, +and with each fainting fit it became more and more apparent that life +was ebbing fast. They did not say to Rosamond that she would die, but +they told it to Mr. Browning, who heard as one who hears not. Every +other sensation seemed to have given place to a feeling of horror, and +when at the close of the second day word came to him that she _was +dying_, and had asked to see him, he arose mechanically and walked to +her sick room as calmly as he had visited it the previous night, when +he knew she was asleep. One glance, however, at her white face and +wild bright eyes roused him to the reality, and bending over her +pillow, he forced himself to take her hand in his, saying kindly, +"Marie, do you know me?" + +"Know you? Yes," she answered. "You are my husband--my husband." She +lingered upon that name as if its sound recalled to life some olden +feeling--some memory of Holly Wood, where they first had met. + +"Marie, you are dying," he continued. "Shall we part in anger, or in +peace?" + +"In peace, if you will," she answered. "I have had my revenge--but it +is _not_ sweet as some say it is. I would rather, Ralph, that I had +never known you, for then I should not have been the wicked wretch I +am." + +Mr. Browning did not reply to this, and for a few moments there was +silence, during which she seemed to sleep. Rousing up ere long, she +gasped for breath, and grasping nervously her husband's hand, she +whispered, "I am going now--there's no sham this time--five minutes +more, and you are free to marry Rosamond. Be kind to her, Ralph. Deal +with her not as you dealt with me, and--and--come closer to me, Ralph. +Let me whisper this last so as no one can hear." + +He bent him down to listen, and summoning all her strength, she said, +not in a whisper, but in tones which echoed through the silent room-- +"NEVER, NEVER STRIKE ROSAMOND, WILL YOU?" + +................................................. + +Rapidly the story circulated that the strange woman who lay dead at +Riverside had been Ralph Browning's wife, and hundreds flocked to the +funeral, hoping to gain a view of the deceased. But in this they were +disappointed, for there was nothing visible, save the handsome coffin, +on whose silver plate was inscribed the word "MARIE." + +Some said that "Browning" might have been added to the name, and while +others marvelled that the husband wore no badge of mourning, a few +said wisely that the _mourning_ was visible in other than the usual +signs--in the hair gray before its time, and in the deep-cut lines +which a _living_ sorrow alone had made. And so, amid surmises of the +past and foretellings of the future, the ill-fated Marie was laid in +the village vault, until word could be received from her old uncle, +who might wish to have her rest among the balmy groves and fragrant +flowers of her beautiful Florida home. + +And now our story winds to its close. Ralph Browning was free indeed, +but death had been at Riverside, and the shadow it had left must +disappear ere he took to himself a second bride. Rosamond, too, must +recover from the blow which had fallen so crushingly on her--must +learn to confide again in the man she loved--to think of the great +wrong he had done her as the result of an early, boyish error, which +he regretted even more bitterly than herself. + +And so the warm spring rains had fallen and the April blossoms were +bursting from the dark, moist earth ere the wedding morning came. At +the bridal there was no satin dress--no orange wreath--no flowing +veil--but there was perfect love shining in the beautiful brown eyes +of the girlish bride, while the fine face of the bridegroom wore a +look of perfect happiness, as if the past were all forgotten, and the +world was bright and new. Europe was still their destination, and +among those who accompanied them to New York, going with them even to +the vessel's deck, none bade them a more affectionate adieu than Mrs. +Van Vechten herself. She had spent a part of the winter at Riverside, +and had learned to appreciate the gentle girl who she knew was to be +her brother's wife. + +Ben, too, was of the party. He had listened in amazement to the story +of his uncle's first marriage, wondering how it could have been kept +from him, and remembering several little incidents, the meaning of +which he now understood. He had given up the Crimean war, as well as +the dancing girl, and now he had given up Rosamond, too, but he bore +it quite heroically, and ever after took especial pains to speak of +her as "My Aunt Rosamond." For more than a year the bridal pair +remained abroad, and then returned again to Riverside, where now the +patter of tiny feet, and the voice of childhood is heard, for children +have gathered around the hearthstone, and in all the world there is +not a prouder, happier wife and mother than the little Rosamond who +once on a dreary November day listened, with a breaking heart, to the +story of Ralph Browning's Youthful Error. + + + + +DIAMONDS. + + +"The boys mustn't look at the girls, and the girls must look on their +books," was said at least a dozen times by the village school-master, +on that stormy morning when Cora Blanchard and I--she in her brother's +boots, and I in my father's socks--waded through drift after drift of +snow to the old brown school-house at the foot of the long, steep +hill. + +We were the only girls who had dared to brave that wintry storm, and +we felt amply repaid for our trouble, when we saw how much attention +we received from the ten tall boys who had come--some for fun--some +because they saw Cora Blanchard go by--and one, Walter Beaumont, +because he did not wish to lose the lesson of the day. Our teacher, +Mr. Grannis, was fitting him for college, and every moment was +precious to the white-browed, intellectual student, who was quite a +lion among us girls, partly because he was older, and partly because +he never noticed us as much as did the other boys. On this occasion, +however, he was quite attentive to Cora, at least, pulling off her +boots, removing her hood, and brushing the large snow-flakes from her +soft wavy hair, while her dark brown eyes smiled gratefully upon him, +as he gave her his warm seat by the stove. + +That morning Cora wrote to me slyly on her slate: "I don't care if +mother _does_ say Walter Beaumont is _poor_ as _poverty_--I like him +best of anybody in the world--don't you?" + +I thought of the big red apple in my pocket, and of the boy who had so +carefully shaken the snow from off my father's socks, and answered, +"No"--thinking, the while, that I should say _yes_, if Walter had ever +treated me as he did my playmate and friend Cora Blanchard. She was a +beautiful young girl, a favorite with all, and possessing, as it +seemed, but one glaring fault--a proneness to estimate people for +their wealth rather than their worth. This in a measure was the result +of her home-training, for her family, though far from being rich, were +very aristocratic, and strove to keep their children as much as +possible from associating with the "vulgar herd," as they styled the +laboring class of the community. In her secret heart Cora had long +cherished a preference for Walter, though never, until the morning of +which I write, had it been so openly avowed. And Walter, too, while +knowing how far above him she was in point of position, had dared to +dream of a time when a bright-haired woman, with a face much like that +of the girlish Cora, would gladden his home, wherever it might be. + +That noon, as we sat around the glowing stove, we played as children +will, and it came my turn to "answer truly whom I intended to marry." +Without a thought of the big apple, the snowy socks, or of any one in +particular, I replied unhesitatingly--"The one I love best," and the +question passed on to Cora, who was sitting by the side of Walter +Beaumont. He had not joined in our sport, but now his eye left his +book and rested upon Cora with an expression half fearful, half +expectant. She, too, glanced at him, and as if the spirit of prophecy +were upon her, she said--"I shall not marry the one I love the best, +but the one who has the most money, and can give me the handsomest +_diamonds_. Sister Fanny has a magnificent set, and she looks so +beautifully when she wears them." + +Instantly there fell a shadow on Walter Beaumont's face, and his eye +returned again to the Latin lettered page. But his thoughts were not +of what was written there; he was thinking of the humble cottage on +the borders of the wood, of the rag-carpet on the oaken floor, of the +plain old-fashioned furniture, and of the gentle, loving woman who +called him "her boy," and that spot her home. There were no _diamonds_ +there--no money--and Cora, if for these she married, would never be +his wife. Early and late he toiled and studied, wearing his threadbare +coat and coarse brown pants--for an education, such as he must have, +admitted of no useless expenditure, and the costly gems which Cora +craved were not his to give. In the pure, unselfish love springing up +for her within his heart, there were diamonds of imperishable value, +and these, together with the name he would make for himself, he would +offer her, but nothing more, and for many weeks there was a shadow on +his brow, though he was kind and considerate to her as of old. + +As the spring and summer glided by, however, there came a change, and +when, in the autumn, he left our village for New Haven, there was a +happy, joyous look upon his face, while a tress of Cora's silken hair +was lying next his heart. Every week he wrote to her, and Cora +answered, always showing to me what she had written, but never a word +of his. "There was too much love," she said, "too much good advice in +his letters for me to see," and thus the time passed on, until Walter, +who had entered the junior class, was graduated with honor, and was +about to commence a theological course at Andover, for he had made the +ministry his choice. He was twenty-one now, and Cora was sixteen. +Wondrously beautiful was she to look upon, with her fair young face, +her soft brown eyes, and wavy hair. And Walter Beaumont loved her +devotedly, believing too, that she in turn loved him, for one summer +afternoon, in the green old woods which skirted the little village, +she had sat by his side, and with the sunbeams glancing down upon her +through the overhanging boughs, she had, told him so, and promised +some day to be his wife. Still, she would not hear of a positive +engagement--both should be free to change their mind if they wished, +she said, and with this Walter was satisfied. + +"I have no _diamonds_ to give you, darling," he said, drawing her +close to him; and Cora, knowing to what he referred, answered that +"_his_ love was dearer to her than all the world besides." Alas, that +woman should be so fickle! + +The same train which carried Walter away, brought Mrs. Blanehard a +letter from her daughter, a dashing, fashionable woman, who lived in +the city, and who wished to bring her sister Cora "out" the coming +winter. "She is old enough, now," she wrote, "to be looking for a +husband, and of course she'll never do anything in that by-place." + +This proposition, which accorded exactly with Mrs. Blanchard's wishes, +was joyfully acceded to by Cora, who, while anticipating the pleasure +which awaited her, had yet no thought of proving false to Walter, and +in the letter which she wrote informing him of her plan, she ensured +him of her unchanging fidelity, little dreaming that the promise thus +made would so soon be broken! Petted, caressed, flattered and admired, +as she was in the circle of her sister's friends, how could she help +growing worldly and vain, or avoid contrasting the plain, unassuming +Walter, with the polished and gayly-dressed butterflies who thronged +Mrs. Burton's drawing-room. When the summer came again, she did not +return to us as we had expected, but we heard of her at Saratoga, and +Newport, the admired of all admirers; while one, it was said, a man of +high position and untold wealth, bid fair to win the beauteous belle. +Meantime, her letters to Walter grew short and far between, ceasing at +length altogether; and one day, during the second winter of her +residence in the city, I received from her a package containing his +miniature, the books he had given her, and the letters he had written. +These she wished me to give him when next I saw him, bidding me tell +him to think no more of one who was not worthy of him. + +"To be plain, Lottie," she wrote, "I'm engaged, and though Mr. +Douglass is not a bit like Walter, he has a great deal of money, +drives splendid horses, and I reckon we shall get on well enough. I +wish, though, he was not quite so old. You'll be shocked to hear that +he is almost _fifty_, though he looks about _forty!_ I know I don't +like him as well as I did Walter, but after seeing as much of the +world as I have, I could not settle down into the wife of a poor +minister. I am not good enough, and you must tell him so. I hope he +won't feel badly--poor Walter. I've kept the lock of his hair. I +couldn't part with that, but, of course, Mr. Douglass will never see +it. _His_ hair is gray! Good-by." + +This was what she wrote, and when I heard from her again, she was Cora +Douglass, and her feet were treading the shores of the old world, +whither she had gone on a bridal tour. + +In the solitude of his chamber, the young student learned the sad news +from a paragraph in a city paper, and bowing his head upon the table, +he strove to articulate, "It is well," but the flesh was weak, warring +with the spirit, and the heart which Cora Blanchard had cruelly +trampled down, clung to her still with a death-like fondness, and +followed her even across the waste of waters, cried out--"How can I +give her up!" But when he remembered, as he ere long did, that 'twas a +sin to love her now, he buried his face in his hands, and, calling on +God to help him in this his hour of need, wept such tears as never +again would fall for Cora Blanchard. + +The roses in our garden were faded, and the leaves of autumn were +piled upon the ground, ere he came to his home again, and I had an +opportunity of presenting him with the package which many months +before had been committed to my care. His face was very pale, and his +voice trembled as he asked me--"Where is she now?" + +"In Italy," I answered, adding that "her husband was said to be very +wealthy." + +Bowing mechanically, he walked away, and a year and a half went by ere +I saw him again. Then he came among us as our minister. The old, +white-haired pastor, who for so long had told us of the Good Shepherd +and the better land, was sleeping at last in the quiet graveyard, and +the people had chosen young Walter Beaumont to fill his place. He was +a splendid-looking man--tall, erect, and finely formed, with a most +winning manner, and a face which betokened intellect of the highest +order. We were proud of him, all of us--proud of our clergyman, who, +on the third Sabbath in June, was to be ordained in the old brick +church, before whose altar he had years ago been baptized, a smiling +infant. + +On the Thursday afternoon preceding the ordination, a large traveling +carriage, covered with dust and laden with trunks, passed slowly +through our village, attracting much attention. Seated within it was a +portly, gray-haired man, resting his chin upon a gold-headed cane, and +looking curiously out at the people in the street, who stared as +curiously at him. Directly opposite him, and languidly reclining upon +the soft cushions, was a white, proud-faced lady, who evidently felt +no interest in what was passing around her, for her eyes were cast +down, and her thought seemed busy elsewhere. I was sitting at my +chamber window, gazing out upon them, and just as they drew near the +gate, the lady raised her eyes--the soft, brown eyes, which once had +won the love of Walter Beaumont, and in which there was now an +unmistakable look of anguish, as if the long eyelashes, drooping so +wearily upon the colorless cheek, were constantly forcing back the +hidden tears. And this was Cora Douglass, come back to us again from +her travels in a foreign land. She knew me in a moment, and in her +face there was much of her olden look as, bending forward, she smiled +a greeting, and waved toward me her white, jeweled hand, on which the +_diamonds_ flashed brightly in the sunlight. + +The next morning we met, but not in the presence of the old man, her +husband. Down in the leafy woods, about a quarter of a mile from Mrs. +Beaumont's cottage, was a running brook and a mossy bank, overshadowed +by the sycamore and elm. This, in the days gone by, had been our +favorite resort. Here had we built our play-house, washing our bits of +broken china in the rippling stream--here had we watched the little +fishes as they darted in and out of the deeper eddies--here had we +conned our daily tasks--here had she listened to a tale of love, the +memory of which seemed but a mocking dream, and here, as I faintly +hoped, I found her. With a half-joyful, half-moaning cry, she threw +her arms around my neck, and I could feel her tears dropping upon my +face as she whispered, "Oh, Lottie, Lottie, we have met again by the +dear old brook." + +For a few moments she sobbed as if her heart would break, then +suddenly drying her tears, she assumed a calm, cold, dignified manner, +such as I had never seen in Cora Blanchard. Very composedly she +questioned me of what I had done during her absence, telling me, too, +of her travels, of the people she had seen and the places she had +visited, but never a word said she of him she called her husband. From +the bank where we sat, the village grave-yard was discernible, with +its marble gleaming through the trees, and at last, as her eye +wandered in that direction, she said, "Have any of our villagers died? +Mother's letters were never very definite." + +"Yes," I answered, "Our minister, Mr. Sumner, died two months ago." + +"Who takes his place?" she asked; and, as if a suspicion of the truth +were flashing upon her, her eyes turned toward me with an eager, +startled glance. + +"Walter Beaumont. He is to be ordained next Sabbath, and you are just +in time," I replied, regretting my words the next instant, for never +saw I so fearful a look of anguish as that which swept over her face, +and was succeeded by a cold, hard, defiant expression, scarcely less +painful to witness. + +She would have questioned me of him, I think, had not an approaching +footstep caught our ear, sending a crimson flush to Cora's hitherto +marble cheek, and producing on me a most unpleasant sensation, for I +knew that the gray-haired man now within a few paces of us, was he who +called that young creature _his wife._ _Golden_ was the chain by which +he had bound her, and every link was set with diamonds and costly +stones, but it had rusted and eaten to her very heart's core, for the +most precious gem of all was missing from that chain--love for her +husband, who, fortunately for his own peace of mind, was too conceited +to dream how little she cared for him. He was not handsome, and still +many would have called him a fine-looking, middle-aged man, though +there was something disagreeable in his thin, compressed lips and +intensely black eyes--the one betokening a violent temper, and the +other an indomitable will. To me he was exceedingly polite--rather too +much so for my perfect ease, while toward Cora he tried to be very +affectionate. + +Seating himself at her side, and throwing his arm around her, he +called her a "little truant," and "why she had run away from him." + +Half pettishly she answered, "Because i like sometimes to be alone," +then, rising up and turning toward me she asked if "the water still +ran over the, old mill dam in the west woods just as it used to do," +Saying if it did, she wished to see it. "You can't go," she continued, +addressing her husband, "for it is more than a mile, over fences and +plowed fields." + +This was sufficient, for Mr. Douglass was very fastidious in all +matters pertaining to his dress, and had no fancy for soiling his +white pants, or patent leathers. So Cora and I set off together, while +he walked slowly back to the village. Scarcely was he out of sight, +however, when, seating herself beneath a tree, and throwing herself +flat upon the ground, Cora announced her intention of not going any +further. + +"I only wished to be alone. I _breathe_ so much better," she said, and +when I looked inquiringly at her, she continued, "Never marry a man +for his wealth, Lottie, unless you wish to become as hard, as wicked +and unhappy as I am. John Douglass is worth more than half a million, +and yet I would give it all if I were the same little girl who, six +years ago, waded with you through the snow-drifts to school on that +stormy day. Do you remember what we played that noon and my foolish +remark that I would marry for _money_ and _diamonds!_ Woe is me, I've +won them both!" and her tears fell fast on the sparkling gems which +covered her slender fingers. + +Just then I saw in the distance a young man whom I knew to be Walter +Beaumont. He seemed to be approaching us, and when Cora became aware +of that, she started up and grasping my arm, hurried away, saying, as +she cast backward a fearful glance, "I would rather die than meet him +now. I am not prepared." + +For the remainder of the way we walked on in silence, until we reached +her mother's gate, where we found her husband waiting for her. Bidding +me good morning she followed him slowly up the graveled walk and I saw +her no more until the following Sabbath. It was a gloriously beautiful +morning, and at an early hour the old brick church was filled to +overflowing, for Walter had many friends, and they came together +gladly to see him made a minister of God. During the first part of the +service he was very pale, and his eye wandered often toward the large, +square pew where sat a portly man and a beautiful young woman, richly +attired in satin and jewels. It had cost her a struggle to be there, +but she felt that she must look again on one whom she had loved so +much and so deeply wronged. So she came, and the sight of him standing +there in his early manhood, his soft brown hair clustering about his +brow, and his calm, pale face wearing an expression almost angelic, +was more than she could bear, and leaning forward she kept her +countenance concealed from view until the ceremony was ended, and +Walter's clear, musical voice announced the closing hymn. Then she +raised her head, and her face, seen through the folds of her costly +veil, looked haggard and ghastly, as if a fierce storm of passion had +swept over her. By the door she paused, and when the newly-ordained +clergyman passed out, she offered him her hand, the hand which, when +he held it last, was pledged to him, There were _diamonds_ on it now-- +diamonds of value rare, but their brightness was hateful to that +wretched woman, for she knew at what a fearful price they had been +bought. + +They did not meet again, and only once more did Walter see her; then, +from our door, he looked out upon her as with her husband she dashed +by on horseback, her long cloth skirt almost sweeping the ground, and +the plumes of her velvet cap waving in the air. + +"Mrs. Douglass is a fine rider," was all Walter said, and the tone of +his voice indicated that she was becoming to him an object of +indifference. Desperately had he fought with his affection for her, +winning the victory at last, and now the love he once had felt for her +was slowly and surely dying out, The next week, tiring of our dull +village life, Cora left us, going to Nahant, where she spent most of +the summer, and when in the winter we heard from her again, she was a +widow--the sole heir of her husband who had died suddenly, and +generously left her that for which she married him--his money, + +"Will Walter Beaumont marry Cora now?" I had asked myself many a time, +without, however, arriving at any definite conclusion, when a little +more than a year succeeding Mr. Douglass's death, she wrote, begging +me to come to her, as she was very lonely, and the presence of an old +friend would do her good. I complied with her request, and within a +few days was an inmate of her luxurious home, where everything +indicated the wealth of its possessor. And Cora, though robed in +deepest black, was more like herself, more like the Cora of other +days, than I had seen her before since her marriage. Of her husband +she spoke freely and always with respect, saying he had been kinder +far to her than she had deserved. Of Walter, too, she talked, +appearing much gratified when I told her how he was loved and +appreciated by his people. + +One morning when we sat together in her little sewing room, she said, +"I have done what you perhaps, will consider a very unwomanly act. I +have written to Walter Beaumont. Look," and she placed in my hand a +letter, which she bade me read. It was a wild, strange thing, telling +him of the anguish she had endured, of the tears she had shed, of the +love which through all she had cherished for him, and begging him to +forgive her if possible, and be to her again what he had been years +ago. She was not worthy of him, she said, but he could make her +better, and in language the most touching, she besought of him not to +cast her off, or despise her because she had stepped so far aside from +womanly delicacy as to write to him this letter. "I will not insult +you," she wrote in conclusion, "by telling you of the _money_ for +which I sold myself, but it is mine now, lawfully mine, and most +gladly would I share it with you." + +"You will not send him this?" I said. "You cannot be in earnest?" + +But she was determined, and lest her resolution should give way, she +rang the bell, ordering the servant who appeared to take it at once to +the office. He obeyed, and during the day she was unusually gay, +singing snatches of old songs, and playing several lively airs upon +her piano, which for months had stood unopened and untouched. That +evening, as the sun went down, and the full moon rose over the city, +she asked me to walk with her, and we, ere long, found ourselves +several streets distant from that in which she lived. Groups of people +were entering a church near by, and from a remark which we overheard, +we learned that there was to be a wedding. + +"Let us go in," she said, "it may be some one I know," and entering +together, we took our seats just in front of the altar. + +Scarcely were we seated when a rustling of satin announced the +approach of the bridal party, and in a moment they appeared moving +slowly up the aisle. My first attention was directed toward the bride, +a beautiful young creature, with a fair sweet face, and curls of +golden hair falling over her white, uncovered neck. + +"Isn't she lovely?" I whispered; but Cora did not hear me. + +With her hands locked tightly together, her lips firmly compressed, +and her cheeks of an ashen hue, she was gazing fixedly at the +bridegroom, on whom I, too, now looked, starting quickly, for it was +our minister, Walter Beaumont! The words were few which made them one, +Walter and the young girl at his side, and when the ceremony was over, +Cora arose, and leaning heavily upon my arm, went out into the open +air, and on through street after street, until her home was reached. +Then, without a word, we parted--I going to my room, while she, +through the live-long night, paced up and down the long parlors where +no eye could witness the working of the mighty sorrow which had come +upon her. + +The next morning she was calm, but very, very pale, saying not a word +of last night's adventure. Neither did she speak of it for several +days, and then she said, rather abruptly, "I would give all I possess +if I had never sent that letter. The mortification is harder to bear +even than Walter's loss. But he will not tell of it, I'm sure. He is +too good--too noble," and tears, the first she had shed since that +night, rained through her thin, white fingers. It came at last--a +letter bearing Walter's superscription, and with trembling hands she +opened it, finding, as she had expected, his wedding card, while on a +tiny sheet was written, "God pity you, Cora, even as I do.--WALTER." + +"Walter! Walter!" she whispered, and her quivering lips touched once +the loved name which she was never heard to breathe again. + +Prom that day Cora Douglass faded, and when the autumnal days were +come, and the distant hills were bathed in the hazy October light, she +died. But not in the noisy city, for she had asked to be taken home, +and in the pleasant room where we had often sat together, she bade me +her last good-by. They buried her on the Sabbath, and Walter's voice +was sad and low as with Cora's coffin at his feet he preached from the +words, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." His young wife, too, wept +over the early dead, who had well nigh been her rival, and whose +beautiful lace wore a calm, peaceful smile, as if she were at rest. + +There was a will, they said; and in it Walter was generously +remembered, while to his wife was given an ivory box, containing +Cora's _diamonds_--necklace, bracelets, pin and ear-rings--all were +there; and Walter, as he looked upon them, drew nearer to him his +fair girl-wife, who but for these, might not, perchance, have been to +him what she was--his dearest earthly treasure. + + + + +BAD SPELLING + + +The last notes of the bell which duly summoned to their task the +pupils of Madame Duvant's fashionable seminary had ceased, and in the +school-room, recently so silent, was heard the low hum of voices, +interspersed occasionally with a suppressed titter from some girl more +mischievous than her companions. Very complacently Madame Duvant +looked over the group of young faces, mentally estimating the probable +gain she should receive from each, for this was the first day of the +term, then with a few low-spoken words to the row of careworn, pale- +faced teachers, she smoothed down the folds of her heavy gray satin +and left the room, just as a handsome traveling-carriage stopped +before the door. + +The new arrival proved to be a fashionably-dressed woman, who, with an +air of extreme hauteur, swept into the parlor, followed by two young +girls, one apparently sixteen and the other fourteen years of age. The +younger and, as some would call her, the plainer looking of the two, +was unmistakably a "poor relation," for her face bore the meek, +patient look of a dependent, while the proud black eyes and scornfully +curved lip of the other, marked her as the daughter of the lady, who, +after glancing about the room and satisfying herself that the chairs, +tables, and so forth, were _refined_, gave her name as "Mrs. +Greenleaf, wife of the Hon. Mr. Greenleaf, of Herkimer county, N.Y." + +"I have come," said she, apparently speaking to Madame Duvant, but +looking straight at the window, "I've come to place my daughter +Arabella under your charge, and if she is pleased with your +discipline, she will finish her education here--graduate--though I +care but little for that, except that it sounds well. She is our only +child, and, of course, a thorough education in the lower English +branches is not at all necessary. I wish her to be highly accomplished +in French, Italian, music, drawing, painting, dancing, and, perhaps, +learn something of the old poets, so as to be able to talk about them +a little, if necessary, but as for the other branches, such as +geography, history, arithmetic, grammar, and the like, she can learn +them by herself, and it is not my wish that she should waste her time +over any thing so common. These will do for Mildred," and she glanced +toward the _poor relation_, whose eyes were bent upon the carpet. + +"She is the child of my husband's sister, and we have concluded to +educate her for a teacher, so I wish, you to be very thorough with her +in all those stupid things which Arabella is not to study." + +Madame Duvant bowed, and Mrs. Greenleaf continued, "Last term they +were at Bloomington Seminary, and, if you'll believe it, the principal +insisted upon putting Arabella into the spelling-class, just because +she didn't chance to spell every word of her first composition +correctly! I dare say it was more Mildred's fault than hers, for she +acknowledged to me that 'twas one of Mildred's old pieces that she +found and copied." + +An angry flash of Arabella's large black eyes, and a bright red spot +on Mildred's cheek, were the only emotions manifested by the young +girls, and Mrs. Greenfield proceeded: "Of course, I wouldn't submit to +it--my daughter spelling _baker_, and all that nonsense, so I took her +away at once. It was my wish that Mildred should remain, but husband, +who is peculiar, wouldn't hear of it, and said she should go where +Arabella did, so I've brought them both." + +After little further conversation, it was arranged that Miss Arabella +should go through a course of merely fashionable accomplishments, +Madame Duvant assuring her mother that neither spelling-book nor +dictionary should in any way annoy her. Mildred, on the contrary, was +to be thoroughly drilled in every thing necessary for a teacher to +know, Mrs. Greenleaf hinting that the sooner her education was +completed the better she would be pleased, for it cost a great deal to +clothe, feed and school her. Madame Duvant promised to execute the +wishes of her patron, who gathered up her flowing robes, and with a +dozen or more kisses for her daughter, and a nod of her head for +Mildred, stepped into her carriage and was driven rapidly away. + +Just across the spacious grounds of the Duvant Seminary, and divided +from them by a wall which it seemed almost impossible to scale, stood +a huge stone building, whose hacked walls, bare floors and dingy +windows--from which were frequently suspended a cap, a pair of +trousers, or a boy's leg--stamped it at once as "The College," the +veriest pest in the world, as Madame Duvant called it, when, with all +the vigilance both of herself and Argus-eyed teachers, she failed to +keep her young ladies from making the acquaintance of the students, +who winked at them in church, bowed to them in the streets, tied notes +to stones and threw them over the ponderous wall, while the girls +waved their handkerchiefs from their windows, and in various other +ways eluded the watchfulness of their teachers. A great acquisition to +the fun-loving members of the seminary was Arabella Greenleaf, and she +had scarcely been there six weeks ere she was perfectly well +acquainted with every student whom she considered at all worth +knowing. But upon only one were her brightest glances and her most +winsome smiles lavished, and that was George Clayton, a young man from +South Carolina, who was said to be very wealthy. He was too honorable +to join in the intrigues of his companions, and when at last he became +attracted by the witching eyes and dashing manners of Arabella +Greenleaf, he went boldly to Madame Duvant and asked permission to see +the young lady in the parlor. + +His request was granted, and during the two years he remained at +college, he continued occasionally to call upon Arabella, who, each +time that he saw her, seemed more pleasing, for she was beautiful, and +when she chose to be so was very courteous and agreeable. One evening +when George called as usual and asked to see her, he waited a long +time, and was about making up his mind to leave, when a fair, delicate +looking girl, with deep blue eyes and auburn hair, entered the room, +introducing herself as _Miss Graham_, the cousin of Arabella, who, she +said, was indisposed and unable to come down. + +"She bade me say that she was very sorry not to see you," added +Mildred, for she it was, blushing deeply as she met the eager, +admiring eye of George Clayton. + +Gladly would he have detained her, but with a polite good evening, she +left him in a perfect state of bewilderment. "Strange that I never +observed her before, for I must have seen her often," he thought, as +he slowly wended his way back to his rooms, "and stranger still that +Arabella never told me she had a cousin here." + +The next time he met Arabella his first inquiry was for her cousin, +and why she had never mentioned her. With a heightened color Arabella +answered, "Oh, she's a little body, who never cares to be known--a +perfect bookworm and man-hater." + +The words bookworm and man-hater produced upon George Clayton a far +different effect from what Arabella had intended, and he often found +himself thinking of the soft blue eyes of Mildred Graham. Unlike some +men, there was nothing terrible to him in a bookish woman, and he +might, perhaps, have sought another interview with Mildred, but for a +circumstance which threw her entirely in the shade. + +The annual examination of Madame Duvant's seminary was drawing near. +Arabella was to graduate, while both she and Mildred were competitors +for a prize offered for the best composition. There was a look of +wonder on Mildred's face, when she saw her cousin's name among the +list, for composition was something in which Arabella did not excel. +Greatly then did Mildred marvel when day after day she found her, +pencil in hand, and apparently lost in thought, as she filled one +sheet after another, until at last it was done. + +"Now, Milly," said Arabella, "You correct the spelling and copy it for +me--that's a good girl." + +Mildred had acted in this capacity too often to refuse, and with a +martyr's patience, she corrected and copied the manuscript, wondering +the while from whence came the sudden inspiration which had so +brightened Arabella's ideas. But if she had any suspicions of the +truth, she kept them to herself, handing her own composition in with +that of her cousin, and calmly waiting the result. + +The examination was over. Arabella, who knew exactly what questions +would be put to her, had acquitted herself with great credit, and her +proud lady mother, who was one of the numerous visitors, fanned +herself complacently as she heard on all sides the praises of her +daughter. + +And now nothing remained but the evening exhibition, at which music +and the prize compositions formed the chief entertainment. At an early +hour the large school-rooms were densely crowded. Among the first who +came was George Clayton--securing a seat as near as possible to the +stage, so that he should not lose a single word. He himself had +graduated but two weeks previously, and was now about to make the tour +of Europe together with his father, who was present. They were to sail +the next night, and at nine o'clock this evening they were to leave +for New York. During the examination Arabella had risen greatly in +George's estimation, and if she had seemed beautiful to him then, she +was tenfold more so now, when, with flowing curls and simple white +muslin dress, she tripped gracefully across the stage, and seating +herself at the piano, played and sang with exquisite skill the well- +known song entitled, "No More, Never More." + +Then followed the reading of the compositions, Mildred being called +upon first, in a clear and peculiarly sweet voice she read, chaining +to perfect silence her audience, which, when she was done, greeted her +with noisy cheers, whispering one to another that she was sure to win. +Arabella, at her own request, was the last. With proud, flashing eyes +and queenly air, she coolly surveyed the mass of heads before her, +caught an admiring glance from George Clayton, and then, with a steady +hand unrolled her manuscript and read. Her subject was "The Outward +and the Inward Life," and no gray-haired sage ever handled it more +skilfully than she. When she finished one universal burst of applause +shook the building to its centre, while her name was on every lip as +she triumphantly left the room. Just then a distant bell struck the +hour of nine, and George Clayton arose to go. He was sure of +Arabella's success, and in the hall below, whither she had gone to bid +him adieu, he shook her hand warmly, telling her how happy it made him +to see her thus victorious, and winning from her a promise to write to +him when he should be over the sea. + +Half an hour later and the night express was bearing him far away. +Half an hour later, and with flushed brow Arabella stood up and +received the prize, which consisted of two elegantly bound volumes of +Wordsworth and Coleridge. + +Forty minutes later, and from the seat by the door, a little bent, +weird-looking woman arose, and making her way through the crowd, +advanced until she stood upon the stage, then stretching her long, +bony finger toward Arabella, who had returned, she said, "I am a lover +of justice, and should I hold my peace, the very stones would cry out +against me. Yonder young lady has no right to the prize, for the piece +which she has palmed off as her own appeared in the _Woodland +Gazette_, a paper published in an obscure New Hampshire village. How +she came by it, she can, perhaps, explain, but I cannot." + +At the commencement of this strange speech, Arabella arose as if to +defy the woman, who was thus blasting her good name, but at the +mention of the _Woodland Gazette_ she fainted and was carried from the +room. Madame Duvant now came forward and addressed a few low-spoken +words to the woman, who answered aloud, "I have the best of reasons +for what I have said. My son, who lives in New Hampshire, occasionally +sends me the _Gazette_, and in one number, which came nearly a year +ago, appeared this very article, taken originally from an old English +paper." + +"Prove it! Produce the paper!" fiercely ejaculated Mrs. Greenleaf, as +she left the room in quest of her daughter. + +"I can do so," answered the woman; "I never tore up a newspaper in my +life, and if the audience will wait for the space of ten minutes, I +can show them the very article"--saying which she glided noiselessly +from the room. + +She was a strange, half-crazy old creature, of wonderful memory, who +occupied a small cottage in the suburbs of the village, and many +doubts were expressed as to the veracity of her statement. But these +were soon put to flight by her reappearance. Infolding the dingy +yellow paper, she read aloud to her astonished hearers the article +which proved to have been taken from the "London Examiner". There was +now no longer a shadow of doubt and the prize was withdrawn from the +treacherous Arabella, and as Mildred's composition was pronounced the +next in order, it was bestowed upon her. + +Mollified, indignant and almost frantic at this public disgrace, +Arabella finally confessed to having stolen the piece from a paper +sent her some months before by a former schoolmate. The next morning +she left the village, heaping her pent-up wrath upon the head of her +innocent cousin, who was destined in more ways than one to rival her. + +Three months had passed away since the night of the exhibition, and in +a private parlor at a London hotel sat George Clayton, rather +impatiently awaiting the return of his servant from the post-office. +As yet he had received no letter from Arabella, for though she had +written it had failed to reach him, and while he in the Old World was +marvelling at her long delay, she in the New was wondering why he did +not answer. The mortification which she had endured affected her +deeply, bringing on at last a slow fever, which confined her to her +bed, where for weeks she lay, carefully attended by Mildred, who once, +when she complained of George's neglect, suggested the possibility of +his not having received the letter. This was a new idea to Arabella, +and as she was herself unable to write, she persuaded Mildred to do it +for her, and strange to say, the two letters reached their destination +at the same time. + +With eager haste George took them from his servant, who soon went out +leaving him alone. The handwriting of both was not alike, and in some +trepidation the young man broke the seal of the one bearing the more +recent date. It was beautifully written, and mentally complimenting +the fair writer, George opened the other, uttering an exclamation of +surprise ere he had read a dozen lines. It was a sickly, sentimental +affair, taken partly from an old letterwriter, and containing many +highflown sentences concerning the "_pearling rill,_" the "_silverey +starlite_" and the "_rozy morn_" which, being spelled as they were, +presented a most formidable aspect to the fastidious young man. + +Although Arabella had taken much pains with her letter, at least one- +fourth of the words were misspelt, and by the time George had finished +reading, he entertained no other feeling toward the writer than one of +disguest, to think that, with all her showy accomplishments, she had +neglected what to him was the most important of all, for in nothing is +the ignorance of a young lady more apparent than in a badly-spelled +letter. It was a long time ere he answered it, and then the few lines +which he wrote were so cold, so different from his first, that in a +fit of anger Arabella tossed it into the fire, repenting the act the +moment after, and, as if to make amends, writing in return a long +letter, to which there came no response, and thus the correspondence +ended. + +Eighteen months later, and again Madame Duvant's rooms were crowded to +overflowing, but this time Arabella Greenleaf was not there, though +George Clayton was, eagerly watching each word and movement of Mildred +Graham, whose uncle had insisted upon her remaining at school until +she, too, should graduate, and who now, justly, received the highest +honors of her class. Very beautifully looked the young girl, and as +she modestly received the compliments of her friends, George Clayton's +was not the only admiring eye which rested upon her, for many now paid +her homage. + +That night George asked to see her alone. His request was granted, and +when next she parted from him it was as his betrothed. Immediately +after George's return from Europe, he had heard the story of +Arabella's perfidy, and if no other circumstances had interposed to +wean him from her entirely, this alone would have done it, for he +could not respect a woman who would thus meanly stoop to deception. He +had lingered in G-- for the purpose of renewing his former +acquaintance, with Mildred, the result of which we have seen. + +Mortified beyond measure, Arabella heard of her cousin's engagement, +and when George came at last to claim his bride, she refused to see +him, wilfully absenting herself from home that she should not witness +the bridal, which took place one bright October morning, when the +forest trees, as if in honor of the occasion, were dressed in their +most gorgeous robes, and the birds were singing their farewell songs. + +New misfortunes, however, awaited poor Arabella, for scarcely was +Mildred gone to her southern home when the red flag of the auctioneer +waved from the windows of Mr. Greenleaf's luxurious house, which, with +its costly furniture, was sold to the highest bidder, and the family +were left dependent upon their own exertions for support. When the +first shock was over, Mr. Greenleaf proposed that his daughter should +teach, and thus bring into use her boasted accomplishments. For a time +Arabella refused, but hearing at last of a situation which she thought +might please her, she applied for it by letter. But alas, the mistake +she made when she abandoned the spelling-book for the piano, again +stood in the way, for no one would employ a teacher so lamentably +ignorant of orthography. Nor is it at all probable she will ever rise +higher than her present position--that of a _plain_ sewer--until she +goes back to _first_ principles, and commences again the despised +column beginning with "_baker!_" + + + + +MAGGIE LEE + + +The usually quiet little village of Ellerton was, one June morning, +thrown into a state of great excitement by the news that the large +stone building on the hill, which, for several years had been shut up, +was at last to have an occupant, and that said occupant was no less a +personage than its owner, Graham Thornton, who, at the early age of +twenty-eight, had been chosen to fill the responsible office of judge +of the county. Weary of city life, and knowing that a home in the +country would not materially interfere with the discharge of his new +duties, particularly as Ellerton was within half an hour's ride of the +city, young Thornton had conceived the idea of fitting up the old +stone house, bequeathed to him by his grandfather, in a style suited +to his abundant means and luxurious taste. Accordingly, for several +weeks, the people of Ellerton were kept in a constant state of +anxiety, watching, wondering and guessing, especially Miss Olivia +Macey, who kept a small store in the outskirts of the village, and +whose fertile imagination supplied whatever her neighbors lacked in +actual knowledge of the proceedings at "Greystone Hall," as Judge +Thornton called his place of residence. + +At last, every thing was completed and the day appointed for the +arrival of the Judge, who, disliking confusion, had never once been +near his house, but, after a few general directions, had left the +entire arrangement of the building and grounds to the management of +one whom he knew to be a connoisseur in such matters. As was very +natural, a great deal of curiosity was felt concerning the arrival of +the distinguished stranger, and as his mother, a proud, stately woman, +was to accompany him, Miss Olivia Macey, who boasted of having once +been a schoolmate of the haughty lady, resolved upon meeting them at +the depot, thinking she should thereby show them proper respect. + +"So, Maggie," said she to her niece, a dark-haired, white-browed girl +of fifteen, who, at noon, came bounding in from school, "so Maggie, +you must watch the store, for there's no knowing how long I shall be +gone. Miss Thornton may ask me home with her, and it would not be +polite to refuse." + +For an instant Maggie's dark brown eyes danced with mischief as she +thought how improbable it was that the lofty Mrs. Thornton would seek +to renew her acquaintance with one in Miss Macey's humble position, +but the next moment they filled with tears, and she said, "Oh, aunt, +_must_ I stay from school again? It is the third time within a week. I +never shall know anything!" + +"Never mind, Mag," shouted little Ben, tossing his cap across the room +and helping himself to the largest piece of pie upon the dinner-table. +"Never mind. I'll stay with you, for I don't like to go to school any +way. And we'll get our lessons at home." + +Maggie knew how useless it would be to argue the point, so with a +dejected air she seated herself at the open window and silently +watched her aunt until she disappeared in the distance--then taking up +her book, she tired to study, but could not, for the heavy pain at her +heart which kept whispering of injustice done to her, unconsciously, +perhaps, by the only mother she had ever known. Very dear to Miss +Macey were the orphan children of her only sister, and faithfully did +she strive to fulfill her trust, but she could not conceal her +partiality for fun-loving, curly-haired Ben, nor the fact that the +sensitive and ambitious Maggie, who thirsted for knowledge, was wholly +unappreciated and misunderstood. Learning--learning was what Maggie +craved, and she sat there alone that bright June afternoon, holding +upon her lap the head of her sleeping brother, and watching the summer +shadows as they chased each other over the velvety grass in the meadow +beyond, she wondered if it would ever be thus with her--would there +never come a time when she could pursue her studies undisturbed, and +then, as the thought that this day made her _fifteen_ years of age, +her mind went forward to the future, and she said aloud--"Yes--three +years from to-day and I shall be free--free as the air I breathe!" + +But why that start, sweet Maggie Lee? Why that involuntary shudder as +you think of the long three years from now? She cannot tell, but the +shadows deepen on her fair, girlish face, and leaning her brow upon +her hand, she thinks long and earnestly of what the three years may +bring. A footstep on the floor--the first which has fallen there that +afternoon--and Maggie looks up to see before her a tall, fine-looking +man, who, the moment his eye fell upon her, checked the _whistle_, +intended for his dog, which was trembling on his lip, and lifting his +hat deferentially, he asked if "this were Miss Macey's store?" + +"Yes, sir," answered Maggie, and laying Bennie gently down, she went +round behind the counter, while the young man, gazing curiously at +her, continued, "You surely are not Miss Macey?" + +There was a most comical expression in the brown eyes which met the +black ones of the stranger, as Maggie answered, "No sir, I am nobody +but Maggie Lee." + +There must have been something attractive either in the name or the +little maiden who bore it, for long after the gentleman had received +the articles for which he came, he lingered, asking the young girl +numberless questions and playing with little Ben, who now wide awake, +met his advances more than half way, and was on perfectly familiar +terms both with the stranger and the dog Ponto, who had stretched his +shaggy length before the door. + +"Mag cries, she does, when Aunt Livy makes her stay home from school," +said Ben, at last, beginning to feel neglected and wishing to attract +attention. + +Showing his white, handsome teeth, the gentleman playfully smoothed +the silken curls of little Ben, and turning to the blushing Maggie, +asked "if she were fond of books?" + +"Oh, I love them so much," was the frank, impulsive answer, and ere +ten minutes had passed away, Judge Thornton, for he it was, understood +Maggie's character as well as if he had known her a lifetime. + +Books, poetry, music, paintings, flowers, she worshiped them all, and +without the slightest means either of gratifying her taste. + +"I have in my library many choice books, to which you are welcome at +any time when you will call at Greystone Hall," the stranger said at +last. + +"Greystone Hall!" gasped Maggie, the little red spots coming out all +over her neck and face--"Greystone Hall!--then you must be---" + +"Judge Thornton, and your friend hereafter," answered the gentleman, +offering his hand and bidding her good-by. + +There are moments which leave their impress upon one's lifetime, +changing instantaneously, as it were, our thoughts and feelings, and +such an one had come to Maggie Lee, who was roused from a deep reverie +by the shrill voice of her aunt, exclaiming, "Well, I've been on a +Tom-fool's errand once in my life. Here I've waited in that hot depot +over two trains, and heard at the last minute that Mrs. Thornton and +her son came up last night, and I hain't seen them after all. It's too +bad." + +Very quietly Maggie told of the judge's call, repeating all the +particulars of the interview; then stealing away to her chamber, she +thought again, wondering _where_ and _what_ she would be three years +from that day. + +A year has passed away, and Graham Thornton, grown weary of his +duties, has resigned the office of judge, and turned school-teacher, +so the gossiping villagers say, and with some degree of truth, for +regularly each day Maggie Lee and Ben go up to Greystone Hall, where +they recite their lessons to its owner, though always in the presence +of its lady mistress, who has taken a strange fancy to Maggie Lee, and +whose white hand has more than once rested caressingly on the dark, +glossy hair of the young girl. To a casual observer, the Maggie of +_sixteen_ is little changed from the Maggie of _fifteen_ years; but to +him, her teacher, she is not the same, for while in some respects she +is more a woman and less a child, in everything pertaining to himself +she is far more a child than when first he met her one short year ago. +Then there was about her a certain self-reliance, which is now all +gone, and he who has looked so often into the thoughts and feelings of +that childish heart knows he can sway her at his will. + +"But 'tis only a girlish friendship she feels for him," he says; "only +a brotherly interest he entertains for her;" and so day after day she +comes to his library, and on a low stool, her accustomed seat at his +side, she drinks in new inspirations with which to feed that girlish +friendship, while he, gazing down into her soft, brown, dreamy eyes, +feels more and more how necessary to his happiness is her daily +presence there. And if sometimes the man of the world asks himself +"where all this will end?" his conscience is quieted by the answer +that Maggie Lee merely feels toward him as she would toward any person +who had done her a like favor. So all through the bright summer days +and through the hazy autumn time, Maggie dreams on, perfectly happy, +though she knows not why, for never yet has a thought of _love_ for +him entered her soul. She only knows that he to her is the dearest, +best of friends, and Greystone Hall the loveliest spot on earth, but +the wish that _she_ might ever be its mistress has never been +conceived. + +With the coming of the holidays the lessons were suspended for a time, +for there was to be company at the hall, and its master would need all +his leisure. + +"I shall miss you so much," he said to Maggie, as he walked with her +across the fields which led to her humble home. "I shall miss you, but +the claims of society must be met, and these ladies have long talked +of visiting us." + +"Are they young and handsome?" Maggie asked involuntarily. + +"Only one--Miss Helen Deane is accounted a beauty, She is an heiress, +too, and the best match in all the city of L--," answered Mr. +Thornton, more to himself than Maggie, who at the mention of Helen +Deane felt a cold shadow folding itself around her heart. + +Alas, poor Maggie Lee. The world has long since selected the proud +Helen as the future bride of Graham Thornton, who, as he walks slowly +back across the snow-clad field, tramples upon the delicate footprints +you have made, and wishes it were thus easy to blot out from his heart +all memory of you! Poor, poor Maggie Lee, Helen Deane _is_ beautiful, +far more beautiful than you, and when in her robes of purple velvet, +with her locks of golden hair shading her soft eyes of blue, she flits +like a sunbeam through the spacious rooms of Greystone Hall, waking +their echoes with her voice of richest melody, what marvel if Graham +Thornton does pay her homage, and reserves all thoughts of you for the +midnight hour, when the hall is still and Helen's voice is no longer +heard? He is but a man--a man, too, of the world, and so, though you, +Maggie Lee, are very dear to him, he does not think it possible that +he can raise you to his rank--make you the honored mistress of his +home, and still lower himself not one iota from the station he has +ever filled. And though his mother loves you, too, 'tis not with a +mother's love, and should children ever climb her knee calling her son +their sire, she would deem you a _governess_ befitting such as they, +and nothing more. But all this Maggie does not know, and when the +visiting is over and Helen Deane is gone, she goes back to her old +place and sits again at the feet of Graham Thornton, never wondering +why he seems so often lost in thought, or why he looks so oft into her +eyes of brown, trying to read there that he has not wronged her. + +Another year has passed, and with the light of the full moon shining +down upon him, Graham Thornton walks again with Maggie Lee across the +fields where now the summer grass is growing. The foot-prints in last +winter's snow have passed away just as the light will go out from +Maggie's heart when Graham Thornton shall have told the tale he has +come with her to tell. With quivering lips and bloodless cheek she +listened while he told her indifferently, as if it were a piece of +news she had probably heard before, that when the next full moon +should shine on Greystone Hall, Helen Deane would be there--his bride! + +"This, of course, will effectually break up our pleasant meetings," he +continued, looking everywhere save in Maggie's face. "And this I +regret--but my books are still at your disposal. You will like Helen, +I think, and will call on her of course." + +They had reached the little gate, and taking Maggie's hand, he would +have detained her for a few more parting words, but she broke away, +and in reply to his last question, hurriedly answered, "Yes, yes." + +The next moment he was alone--alone in the bright moonlight. The door +was shut. There was a barrier between himself and Maggie Lee, a +barrier his own hands had built, and never again, so long as he lived, +would Graham Thornton's conscience be at rest. Amid all the pomp of +his bridal day--at the hour when, resplendent with beauty, Helen stood +by his side at the holy altar, and breathed the vows which made her +his forever--amid the gay festivities which followed, and the noisy +mirth which for days pervaded his home, there was ever a still, small +voice which whispered to him of the great wrong he had done to Maggie +Lee, who never again was seen at Greystone Hall. + +Much the elder Mrs. Thornton marveled at her absence, and once when +her carriage was rolling past the door of the little store, she bade +her coachman stop, while she herself went in to ask if her favorite +were ill. Miss Olivia's early call at Greystone Hall had never been +returned, and now she bowed coldly and treated her visitor with marked +reserve, until she learned why she had come; then, indeed, her manner +changed, but she could not tell her how, on the night when Graham +Thornton had cruelly torn the veil from Maggie's heart, leaving it +crushed and broken, she had found her long after midnight out in the +tall, damp grass, where, in the wild abandonment of grief she had +thrown herself; nor how, in a calmer moment she had told her sad +story, exonerating him from wrong, and blaming only herself for not +having learned sooner how much she loved one so far above her, so she +simply answered, "Yes, she took a violent cold and has been sick for +weeks. Her mother died of consumption; I am afraid Maggie will +follow." + +"Poor girl, to die so young," sighed Mrs. Thornton, as she returned to +her carriage and was driven back to Greystone Hall, where, in a recess +of the window Graham sat, his arm around his wife, and his fingers +playing with the curls of her golden hair. + +But the hand dropped nervously at his side when his mother startled +him with the news that "Maggie Lee was dying." Very wonderingly the +large blue eyes of Helen followed him, as, feigning sudden faintness, +he fled out into the open air, which, laden though it was with the +perfume of the summer flowers, had yet no power to quiet the voice +within which told him that if Maggie died, he alone was guilty of her +death. "But whatever I can do to atone for my error shall be done," he +thought at last, and until the chill November wind had blasted the +last bud, the choicest fruit and flowers which grew at Greystone Hall +daily found entrance to the chamber of the sick girl, who would +sometimes push them away, as if there still lingered among them the +atmosphere they had breathed. + +"They remind me so much of the past that I cannot endure them in my +presence," she said one day when her aunt brought her a beautiful +bouquet, composed of her favorite flowers, and the hot tears rained +over the white, wasted face, as she ordered them from the room. + +Much she questioned both her aunt and Bennie of her rival, whose +beauty was the theme of the whole village, and once, when told that +she was passing, she hastened to the window, but her cheek grew whiter +still, and her hands clasped each other involuntarily as she saw by +the side of the fair Helen the form of Graham Thornton. They both were +looking toward her window, and as Helen met the burning gaze, she +exclaimed, "Oh, Graham, it is terrible. It makes me faint," and +shudderingly she drew nearer to her husband, who, to his dying hour, +never forgot the wild, dark eyes which looked down so reproachfully +upon him that memorable wintry day. + +Three years have passed away since the time when first we met with +Maggie Lee--three years which seemed so long to her then, and which +have brought her so much pain. She has watched the snow and ice as +they melted from off the hill-side. She has seen the grass spring up +by the open door--has heard the robin singing in the old oak tree--has +felt the summer air upon her cheek. She, has reached her _eighteenth_ +birthday, and ere another sun shall rise will indeed be free. + +"Oh, I cannot see her die," cried poor little Ben, when he saw the +pallor stealing over her face, and running out into the yard he threw +himself upon the grass, sobbing bitterly, "My sister, oh, my sister." + +"Is she worse?" said the voice of Graham Thornton. He was passing in +the street and had heard the wailing cry. Ben knew that in some way +Judge Thornton was connected with his grief, but he answered +respectfully. "She is dying. Oh, Maggie, Maggie. What shall I do +without her?" + +"You shall live with _me_," answered Mr. Thornton. + +'Twas a sudden impulse, and thinking the assurance that her brother +should be thus provided for would be a comfort to the dying girl, he +glided noiselessly into the sick room. But she did not know him, and +falling on his knees by her side, he wept like a little child. "She +was sleeping," they said, at last, and lifting up his head he looked +upon her as she slept, while a fear, undefined and terrible, crept +over him, as she lay so still and motionless. At length rising to his +feet, he bent him down so low that his lips touched hers, and then, +without a word, he went out from her presence, for _he_ knew that +Maggie Lee _was dead!_ + +The next day, at sunset, they buried her in the valley where the mound +could always be seen from the window of Graham Thornton's room, and, +as with folded arms and aching heart he stood by, while they lowered +the coffin to its resting-place, he felt glad that it was so. "It will +make me a better man," he thought," for when evil passions rise, and I +am tempted to do wrong, I have only to look across the fields toward +the little grave which but for me would not have been made so soon, +and I shall be strengthened to do what is right." + +Slowly and sadly he walked away, going back to his home, where, in a +luxuriously furnished chamber, on a couch whose silken hangings swept +the floor, lay his wife, and near her his infant daughter, that day +four weeks of age. As yet she had no name, and when the night had +closed upon them, and it was dark within the room, Graham Thornton +drew his chair to the side of his wife, and in low, subdued tones, +told her of the fair young girl that day buried from his sight. Helen +was his wife, a gentle, faithful wife, and he could not tell her how +much he had loved Maggie Lee, and that but for his foolish pride she +would perhaps at that moment have been where Helen was, instead of +sleeping in her early grave.--No, he could not tell her this, but he +told her that Maggie had been very dear to him, and he feared it was +for the love of him that she had died. "I wronged her. Nellie, +darling," he said smoothing the golden tresses which lay on the +pillow. "_I_ broke her heart, and now that she is gone I would honor +her memory by calling our first-born daughter 'MAGGIE LEE.' 'Tis a +beautiful name," he continued, "and you will not refuse my request." + +There was much of pride in Helen Thornton's nature, and she did +refuse, for days and even weeks; but when she saw the shadows deepened +on the brow of her husband, who would stand for hours looking out +through the open window toward the valley where slept the village +dead, and when the mother in pity for her son, joined also in the +request, she yielded; and, as if the sacrifice were accepted and the +atonement good, the first smile which ever dimpled the infant's cheek, +played on its mouth, as with its large, strange, bright eyes fixed +upon its father's face, it was baptized "Maggie Lee." + +Four years of sunshine and storm have fallen upon Maggie's grave, +where now a costly marble stands, while the handsome iron fence and +the well-kept ground within show that some hand of love is often busy +there. In a distant city Ben is striving to overcome his old dislike +for books, and seeking to make himself what he knows his sister would +wish him to be. At home, the little store has been neatly fitted up, +and Miss Olivia sits all day long in her pleasant parlor, feeling sure +that the faithful clerk behind the counter will discharge his duties +well. Greystone Hall is beautiful as ever, with its handsome rooms, +its extensive grounds, its winding walks, its bubbling fountains and +its wealth of flowers, but there is a shadow over all--a plague-spot +which has eaten into the heart of Graham Thornton, and woven many a +thread of silver among his raven locks. It has bent the stately form +of his lady mother, and his once gay-hearted wife wanders with a +strange unrest from room to room, watching over the uncertain +footsteps of their only child, whose large, dark eyes, so much like +those which, four long years ago flashed down on Helen their +scrutinizing gaze, are darkened forever, _for little Maggie Lee is +blind!_ + +They are getting somewhat accustomed to it now--accustomed to calling +her their "poor, blind bird," but the blow was crushing when first it +came, and on the grave in the valley, Graham Thornton more than once +laid his forehead in the dust, and cried, "My punishment is greater +than I can bear," + +But He "who doeth all things well," has in a measure healed the wound, +throwing so much of sunshine and of joy around her, who never saw the +glorious light of day, that with every morning's dawn and every +evening's shade, the fond parents bless their little blind girl, the +angel of their home. + + + + +THE ANSWERED PRAYER + + +All day long the canary bird' had sung unheeded in his gilded cage by +the door, and the robin had caroled unheard by his nest in the tall +maple tree, while the soft summer air and the golden rays of the warm +June sun entered unnoticed the open windows of the richly furnished +room, where a pale young mother kept her tireless watch by the bedside +of her only child, a beautiful boy, three summers old. For many days +he had hovered between life and death, while she, his mother, had hung +over him with speechless agony, terrible to behold in one so young, so +fair as she. He was her all, the only happiness she knew, for poor +Lina Hastings was an unloving wife, who never yet had felt a thrill of +joy at the sound of her husband's voice, and when occasionally his +broad hand rested fondly upon her flowing curls, while he whispered in +her ear how dear she was to him, his words awoke no answering chord of +love. + +How came she then his wife--and the mistress of his princely home? +Alas! _wealth_ was then the god which Lina Moore worshipped, and when +Ralph Hastings, with his uncouth form and hundreds of thousands, asked +her to be his wife, she stifled the better feelings of her nature +which prompted her to tell him No, and with a gleam of pride in her +dark blue eyes, and a deeper glow upon her cheek, she one day passed +from the bright sunshine of heaven into the sombre gloom of the gray +old church, whence she came forth Lina Hastings, shuddering even as +she heard that name, and shrinking involuntarily from the caresses +which the newly made husband bestowed upon her. And so the love she +withheld from him was given the child who now lay motionless and white +as the to the costly linen on which his golden curls were streaming. + +All day she had watched him, for they told her that if he lived until +the sun setting, there was hope, and as the hours wore on and the long +shadows stretching to the eastward, betokened the approach of night, +oh, how intense became the anxiety in her bosom. Fainter and softer +grew the sunlight on the floor, and whiter grew the face of the +sleeping boy. 'Twas the shadow of death, they said, and with a bitter +wail of woe, Lina fell upon her knees, and as if she would compel the +God of heaven to hear her, she shrieked, "Spare my child. Let him +live, and I will bear whatsoever else of evil thou shalt send upon me. +Afflict me in any other way and I can bear it, but spare to me my +child." + +In mercy or in wrath, Lina Hastings' prayer was answered. The pulse +grew stronger beneath her touch--the breath came faster through the +parted lips--a faint moisture was perceptible beneath the yellow +curls, and when the sun was set the soft eyes of Eddie Hastings +unclosed, and turned with a look of recognition upon his mother, who, +clasping him in her arms, wept for joy, but returned no word or +thought of gratitude toward Him who had been thus merciful to her. + +In a small brown cottage in a distant part of the same village, +another mother was watching beside her first-born, only son. They had +been friends in their girlhood, she and Lina Hastings. Together they +had conned the same hard tasks--together they had built their +playhouse beneath the same old chestnut tree--together, hand in hand +they wandered over the rocky hills and through the shady woods of New +England, and at the same altar had they plighted their marriage vows, +the one to the man she loved, the other to the man she tolerated for +the sake of his surroundings. From this point their paths diverged, +Lina moving in the sphere to which her husband's wealth had raised +her, while Mabel Parkman one sad morning awoke from her sweet dream of +bliss to find herself wedded to a drunkard! Only they who like her +have experienced a similar awakening can know the bitterness of that +hour, and yet methinks she was happier than the haughty Lina, for her +love was no idle passion, and through weal and woe she clung to her +husband, living oft on the remembrance of what he had been, and the +hope of what he might be again, and when her little Willie was first +laid upon her bosom, and she felt her husband's tears upon her cheek +as he promised to reform for her sake and for his son's, she would not +have exchanged her lot with that of the proudest in the land. That +vow, alas, was ere long broken, and then, though she wept bitterly +over his fall, she felt that she was not desolate, for there was music +in her Willie's voice and sunshine in his presence. + +But now he was dying, he was leaving her forever, and as she thought +of the long dark days when she should look for him in vain, she +staggered beneath the heavy blow, and in tones as heart-broken as +those which had fallen from Lina Hasting's lips, she prayed "If it be +possible let this cup pass from me," adding, "Not my will, oh God, but +thine be done." + +"I will do all things well," seemed whispered in her ear, and thus +comforted she nerved herself to meet the worst. All the day she +watched by her child, chafing his little hands, smoothing his scanty +pillow beneath his head, bathing his burning forehead, and forcing +down her bitter tears when in his disturbed sleep he would beg of his +father to "bring him an orange--a nice yellow orange--he was so dry." + +Alas, that father was where the song of the inebriate rose high on the +summer air, and he heard not the pleadings of his son. 'Twas a dreary, +desolate room where Willie Parkman lay, and when the sun went down and +the night shadows fell, it seemed darker, drearier still. On the rude +table by the window a candle dimly burned, but as the hours sped on it +flickered awhile in its socket, then for an instant flashed up, +illuminating the strangely beautiful face of the sleeping boy, and +went out. + +An hour later, and Willie awoke. Feeling for his mother's hand, he +said; "Tell me true, do drunkards go to heaven?" + +"There is for them no promise," was the wretched mother's answer. + +"Then I shall never see pa again. Tell him good-by, good-by forever." + +The next time he spoke it was to ask his mother to come near to him, +that he might see her face once more. She did so, bending low and +stifling her own great agony, lest it should add one pang to his dying +hour. + +"I cannot see you," he whispered, "it is so dark--so dark." + +Oh, what would not that mother have given then for one of the lights +which gleamed from the windows of the stately mansion where Eddie +Hastings was watched by careful attendants. But it could not be and +when at last the silvery moon-beams came struggling through the open +window and fell upon the white brow of the little boy, they did not +rouse him, for a far more glorious light had dawned upon his immortal +vision--even the light of the Everlasting. + + In her tasteful boudoir sat Lina Hastings, and at her side, on a +silken lounge, lay Eddie, calmly sleeping, The crisis was past--she +knew he would live, and her cup of happiness was full. Suddenly the +morning stillness was broken by the sound of a tolling bell. 'Twas the +same which, but for God's mercy, would at that moment, perhaps, have +tolled for her boy, and Lina involuntarily shuddered as she listened +to the strokes, which, at first were far between. Then they came +faster, and as Lina counted _five_ she said aloud, "'Twas a child but +two years older than Eddie." + +Later in the day it came to her that the bereaved one was her early +friend, whom now she seldom met. Once Lina would have flown to Mabel's +side, and poured into her ear words of comfort, but her heart had +grown hard and selfish, and so she only said, "Poor Mabel, she never +was as fortunate as I"--and her eye glanced proudly around the +elegantly-furnished room, falling at last upon Eddie, whom she clasped +to her bosom passionately, but without thought of Him who had decreed +that not then should she be written childless. + +The humble funeral was over. The soft, green turf had been broken, and +the bright June flowers had fallen beneath the old sexton's spade as +he dug the little grave where Willie Parkman was laid to rest. In the +drunkard's home there was again darkness and a silence which would +never be broken by the prattle of a childish voice. Sobered, +repentant, and heartbroken, the wretched father laid his head in the +lap of his faithful wife, beseeching of her to pray that the vow that +morning breathed by Willie's coffin and renewed by Willie's grave +might be kept unbroken. And she did pray, poor Mabel. With her arms +around the neck of the weeping man, she asked that this, her great +bereavement, might be sanctified to the salvation of her erring +husband. + +"I will do all things well," again seemed whispered in her ear and +Mabel felt assured that Willie had not died in vain. 'Twas hard at +first for Robert Parkman to break the chains which bound him, but the +remembrance of Willie's touching message--"Tell pa good-by, good-by +forever," would rush to his mind whenever he essayed to take the +poisonous bowl, and thus was he saved, and when the first day of a new +year was ushered in, he stood with Mabel at the altar, and on his +upturned brow received the baptismal waters, while the man of God +broke to him the bread of life. Much that night they missed their +child, and Mabel's tears fell like rain upon the soft, chestnut curl +she had severed from his head, but as she looked upon her husband, now +strong again in his restored manhood, she murmured--"It was for this +that Willie died, and I would not that it should be otherwise." + +Fifteen years have passed away since the day when Lina Hastings +breathed that almost impious prayer--"Send upon me any evil but this," +and upon the deep blue waters of the Pacific a noble vessel lay +becalmed, Fiercely the rays of a tropical sun poured down upon her +hardy crew, but they heeded it not. With anxious, frightened faces and +subdued step, they trod the deck, speaking in whispers of some dreaded +event. There had been mutiny on board that mat-of-war-a deep-laid plot +to murder the commanding officers, and now, at sun-setting, the +instigators, four in number, were to pay the penalty of their crime. +Three of them were old and hardened in sin, but the fourth, the +fiercest spirit of all 'twas said, was young and beautiful to look +upon. In the brown curls of his waving hair there were no threads of +silver, and on his brow there were no lines save those of reckless +dissipation, while his beardless cheek was round and smooth as that of +a girl. Accustomed from his earliest childhood to rule, he could not +brook restraint, and when it was put upon him, he had rebelled against +it, stirring up strife, and leading on his comrades, who, used as they +were to vice, marveled that one so young should be so deeply depraved. + +The sun was set. Darkness was upon the mighty deep, and the waves +moved by the breeze which had sprung up, seemed to chant a mournful +dirge for the boy, who, far below, lay sleeping in a dishonored grave, +if grave it can be called, where + +"The purple mullet and gold fish rove, Where the sea flower spreads +its leaves of blue Which never are wet with the falling dew, But in +bright and changeful beauty shine Far down in the depths of the glassy +brine." + +Over the surging billow and away to the north ward, other robins are +singing in the old maple-tree than those which sang there years ago, +when death seemed brooding o'er the place. Again the summer shadows +fall aslant the bright green lawn, and the soft breezes laden with the +perfume of a thousand flowers, kiss the faded brow of Lina Hastings, +but they bring no gladness to her aching heart, for her thoughts are +afar on the deep with the wayward boy who, spurning alike her words of +love and censure, has gone from her "to return no more forever," he +said, for he left her in bitter anger. For three years the tall grass +has grown over the grave of her husband, who to the last was unloved, +and now she is alone in her splendid home, watching at the dawn of day +and watching at the hour of eve for the return of her son. + +Alas, alas, fond mother, Mabel Parkman in her hour of trial, never +felt a throb of such bitter agony as that which wrung your heart- +strings when first you heard the dreadful story of your disgrace. +There were days and weeks of wild frenzy, during which she would +shriek "Would to heaven he had died that night when he was young and +innocent," and then she grew calm, sinking into a state of imbecility +from which naught had the power to rouse her. + +A year or two more, and they made for her a grave by the side of her +husband, and the hearts which in life were so divided, now rest +quietly together, while on the costly marble above them there is +inscribed the name of their son, who sleeps alone and unwept in the +far-off Southern Seas. + +The End. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rosamond, by Mary J. 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