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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dora Deane, by Mary J. Holmes
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dora Deane
+
+Author: Mary J. Holmes
+
+Posting Date: January 15, 2013 [EBook #6352]
+Release Date: August, 2004
+First Posted: November 29, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DORA DEANE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ralph Zimmerman, Charles Franks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+DORA DEANE
+
+OR
+
+THE EAST INDIA UNCLE
+
+BY
+
+MRS. MARY J. HOLMES
+
+_Author of "Tempest and Sunshine," "Meadow Brook," "Homestead on the
+Hillside," "The English Orphans," "Maggie Miller," etc._
+
+
+
+
+DORA DEANE,
+
+OR,
+
+THE EAST INDIA UNCLE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+DORA AND HER MOTHER.
+
+
+Poor little Dora Deane! How utterly wretched and desolate she was, as
+she crouched before the scanty fire, and tried to warm the little bit
+of worn-out flannel, with which to wrap her mother's feet; and how hard
+she tried to force back the tears which would burst forth afresh
+whenever she looked upon that pale, sick mother, and thought how soon
+she would be gone!
+
+It was a small, low, scantily furnished room, high up in the third
+story of a crazy old building, which Dora called her home, and its one
+small window looked out on naught save the roofs and spires of the
+great city whose dull, monotonous roar was almost the only sound to
+which she had ever listened. Of the country, with its bright green
+grass, its sweet wild flowers, its running brooks, and its shady trees,
+she knew but little, for only once had she looked on all these things,
+and then her heart was very sad, for the bright green grass was broken,
+and the sweet wild flowers were trampled down, that a grave might be
+made in the dark, moist earth for her father, who had died in early
+manhood, leaving his wife and only child to battle with the selfish
+world as best they could. Since that time, life had been long and
+dreary to the poor widow, whose hours were well-nigh ended, for ere
+to-morrow's sun was risen, _she_ would have a better home than that
+dreary, cheerless room, while Dora, at the early age of twelve, would
+be an orphan.
+
+It was a cold December night, the last one of the year, and the wintry
+wind, which swept howling past the curtainless window, seemed to take a
+sadder tone, as if in pity for the little girl who knelt upon the
+hearthstone, and with the dim firelight flickering over her
+tear-stained face, prayed that she, too, might die, and not be left
+alone.
+
+"It will be so lonely--so cold without my mother!" she murmured. "Oh,
+let me go with her; I _cannot_ live alone."
+
+"Dora, my darling," came faintly from the rude couch, and in an instant
+the child was at her mother's side.
+
+Winding her arms fondly about the neck of her daughter, and pushing the
+soft auburn hair from off her fair, open brow, Mrs. Deane gazed long
+and earnestly upon her face.
+
+"Yes, you are like me," she said at last, "and I am glad that it is so,
+for it may be Sarah will love you better when she sees in you a look
+like one who once called her sister. And should _he_ ever return----"
+
+She paused, while her mind went back to the years long ago--to the old
+yellow farmhouse among the New England hills--to the gray-haired man,
+who had adopted her as his own when she was written _fatherless_--to
+the dark-eyed girl, sometimes kind, and sometimes overbearing, whom she
+had called her sister, though there was no tie of blood between them.
+Then she thought of the red house just across the way, and of the three
+brothers, Nathaniel, Richard, and John. Very softly she repeated the
+name of the latter, seeming to see him again as he was on the day when,
+with the wreath of white apple blossoms upon her brow, she sat on the
+mossy bank and listened to his low spoken words of love. Again she was
+out in the pale starlight, and heard the autumn wind go moaning through
+the locust trees as _Nathaniel_, the strange, eccentric, woman-hating
+Nathaniel, but just returned from the seas, told her how madly he had
+loved her, and how the knowledge that she belonged to another would
+drive him from his fatherland forever--that in the burning clime of
+India he would make gold his idol, forgetting, if it were possible, the
+mother who had borne him! Then she recalled the angry scorn with which
+her adopted sister had received the news of her engagement with John,
+and how the conviction was at last forced upon her that Sarah herself
+had loved him in secret, and that in a fit of desperation she had given
+her hand to the rather inefficient Richard, ever after treating her
+rival with a cool reserve, which now came back to her with painful
+distinctness.
+
+"But she will love my little Dora for _John's_ sake, if not for mine,"
+she thought, at last; and then, as if she had all the time been
+speaking to her daughter, she continued, "And you must be very dutiful
+to your aunt, and kind to your cousins, fulfilling their slightest
+wishes."
+
+Looking up quickly, Dora asked, "Have you written to Aunt Sarah? Does
+she say I can come?"
+
+"The letter is written, and Mrs. Gannis will send it as soon as I am
+dead," answered Mrs. Deane. "I am sure she will give you a home. I told
+her there was no alternative but the almshouse;" then, after a pause,
+she added: "I wrote to your uncle Nathaniel some months ago, when I
+knew that I must die. It is time for his reply, but I bade him direct
+to Sarah, as I did not then think to see the winter snow."
+
+"Did you tell him of me?" eagerly asked Dora, on whom the name of Uncle
+Nathaniel, or "Uncle Nat," as he was more familiarly called, produced a
+more pleasant impression than did that of her aunt Sarah.
+
+"Yes", answered the mother, "it was of you that I wrote, commending you
+to his care, should he return to America. And if you ever meet him,
+Dora, tell him that on my dying bed I thought of him with
+affection--that my mind wandered back to the years of long ago, when I
+was young, and ask him, for the sake of one he called his brother, and
+for her who grieves that ever she caused him a moment's pain, to care
+for you, their orphan child."
+
+Then followed many words of love, which were very precious to Dora in
+the weary years which followed that sad night; and then, for a time,
+there was silence in that little room, broken only by the sound of the
+wailing tempest. The old year was going out on the wings of a fearful
+storm, and as the driving sleet beat against the casement, while the
+drifting snow found entrance through more than one wide crevice and
+fell upon her pillow, the dying woman murmured, "Lie up closer to me,
+Dora, I am growing very cold."
+
+Alas! 'twas the chill of death; but Dora did not know it, and again on
+the hearthstone before the fast dying coals she knelt, trying to warm
+the bit of flannel, on which her burning tears fell like rain, when
+through the empty wood-box she sought in vain for chip or bark with
+which to increase the scanty fire.
+
+"But I will not tell _her_," she softly whispered, when satisfied that
+her search was vain, and wrapping the flannel around the icy feet, she
+untied the long-sleeved apron which covered her own naked arms, and
+laying it over her mother's shoulders, tucked in the thin bedclothes;
+and then, herself all shivering and benumbed, she sat down to wait and
+watch, singing softly a familiar hymn, which had sometimes lulled her
+mother into a quiet sleep.
+
+At last, as her little round white arms grew purple with the cold, she
+moved nearer to the bedside, and winding them lovingly around her
+mother's neck, laid her head upon the pillow and fell asleep. And to
+the angels, who were hovering near, waiting to bear their sister spirit
+home, there was given charge concerning the little girl, so that she
+did not freeze, though she sat there the livelong night, calmly
+sleeping the sweet sleep of childhood, while the mother at her side
+slept the long, eternal sleep of death!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST AND LAST NEW YEAR'S CALL.
+
+
+It was New Year's morning, and over the great city lay the deep,
+untrodden snow, so soon to be trampled down by thousands of busy feet.
+Cheerful fires were kindled in many a luxurious home of the rich, and
+"Happy New Year" was echoed from lip to lip, as if on that day there
+were no aching hearts--no garrets where the biting cold looked in on
+pinching poverty and suffering old age--no low, dark room where Dora
+and her pale, dead mother lay, while over them the angels kept their
+tireless watch until human aid should come. But one there was who did
+not forget--one about whose house was gathered every elegance which
+fashion could dictate or money procure; and now, as she sat at her
+bountifully-furnished breakfast table sipping her fragrant chocolate,
+she thought of the poor widow, Dora's mother, for whom her charity had
+been solicited the day before, by a woman who lived in the same block
+of buildings with Mrs. Deane.
+
+"Brother," she said, glancing towards a young man who, before the
+glowing grate, was reading the morning paper, "suppose you make your
+first call with me?"
+
+"Certainly," he answered; "and it will probably be in some dreary attic
+or dark, damp basement; but it is well, I suppose, to begin the New
+Year by remembering the poor."
+
+Half an hour later, and the crazy stairs which led to the chamber of
+death were creaking to the tread of the lady and her brother, the
+latter of whom knocked loudly for admission. Receiving no answer from
+within, they at last raised the latch and entered. The fire had long
+since gone out, and the night wind, as it poured down the chimney, had
+scattered the cold ashes over the hearth and out upon the floor. Piles
+of snow lay on the window sill, and a tumbler in which some water had
+been left standing, was broken in pieces. All this the young man saw at
+a glance, but when his eye fell upon the bed, he started back, for
+there was no mistaking the rigid, stony expression of the upturned
+face, which lay there so white and motionless.
+
+"But the child--the child," he exclaimed, advancing forward--"can she,
+too, be dead!" and he laid his warm hand gently on Dora's brow.
+
+The touch aroused her, and starting up, she looked around for a moment
+bewildered; but when at last she turned towards her mother, the dread
+reality was forced upon her, and in bitter tones she cried, "Mother's
+dead, mother's dead, and I am all alone! Oh! mother, mother, come back
+again to me!"
+
+The young man's heart was touched, and taking the child's little red
+hands in his, he rubbed them gently, trying to soothe her grief; while
+his sister, summoning the inmates from the adjoining room, gave orders
+that the body should receive the necessary attention; then, learning as
+much as was possible of Dora's history, and assuring her that she
+should be provided for until her aunt came, she went away, promising to
+return next morning and be present at the humble funeral.
+
+That evening, as Dora sat weeping by the coffin in which her mother
+lay, a beautiful young girl, with eyes of deepest blue, and locks of
+golden hair, smiled a joyous welcome to him whose _first_ New Year's
+call had been in the chamber of death, and whose _last_ was to her, the
+petted child of fashion.
+
+"I had almost given you up, and was just going to cry," she said,
+laying her little snowflake of a hand upon the one which that morning
+had chafed the small, stiff fingers of Dora Deane, and which now
+tenderly pressed those of Ella Grey as the young man answered, "I have
+not felt like going out today, for my first call saddened me;" and
+then, with his arm around the fairy form of Ella, his affianced bride,
+he told her of the cold, dreary room, of the mother colder still, and
+of the noble little girl, who had divested herself of her own clothing,
+that her mother might be warm.
+
+Ella Grey had heard of such scenes before--had cried over them in
+books; but the idea that _she_ could do anything to relieve the poor,
+had never entered her mind. It is true, she had once given a _party
+dress_ to a starving woman, and a _pound of candy_ to a ragged boy who
+had asked for aid, but here her charity ended; so, though she seemed to
+listen with interest to the sad story, her mind was wandering
+elsewhere, and when her companion ceased, she merely said, "_Romantic_,
+wasn't it."
+
+There was a look of disappointment on the young man's face, which was
+quickly observed by Ella, who attributed it to its right source, and
+hastened to ask numberless questions about Dora--"How old was she? Did
+he think her pretty, and hadn't she better go to the funeral the next
+day and bring her home for a waiting-maid?--she wanted one sadly, and
+from the description, the orphan girl would just suit."
+
+"No, Ella," answered her lover; "the child is going to live in the
+country with some relatives, and will be much better off there."
+
+"The country," repeated Ella. "_I_ would rather freeze in New York than
+to live in the dismal country."
+
+Again the shadow came over the gentleman's brow, as he said, "Do you
+indeed object so much to a home in the country?"
+
+Ella knew just what he wanted her to say; so she answered, "Oh, no, I
+can be happy anywhere with you, but do please let me spend just one
+winter in the city after---"
+
+Here she paused, while the bright blushes broke over her childish face.
+She could not say, even to him, "after we are married," so he said it
+for her, drawing her closer to his side, and forgetting Dora Deane, as
+he painted the joyous future when Ella would be all his own. Eleven
+o'clock sounded from more than one high tower, and at each stroke poor
+Dora Deane moaned in anguish, thinking to herself, "Last night at this
+time _she_ was here." Eleven o'clock, said Ella Grey's diamond set
+watch, and pushing back her wavy hair, the young man kissed her rosy
+cheek, and bade her a fond good-night. As he reached the door, she
+called him back, while she asked him the name of the little girl who
+had so excited his sympathy.
+
+"I do not know," he answered. "Strange that I forgot to inquire. But no
+matter. We shall never meet again;" and feeling sure that what he said
+was true he walked away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+DORA'S RELATIVES.
+
+
+There hundred miles to the westward, and the storm, which, on New
+Year's eve, swept so furiously over all parts of the State, was
+perceptible only in the dull, gray clouds which obscured the wintry
+sky, shutting out the glimmering starlight, and apparently making still
+brighter the many cheerful lights which shone forth from the handsome
+dwellings in the village of Dunwood. Still the night was intensely
+cold, and, as Mrs. Sarah Deane, in accordance with her daughter
+Eugenia's request, added a fresh bit of coal to the already well-filled
+stove, she sighed involuntarily, wishing the weather would abate, for
+the winter's store of fuel was already half gone, and the contents of
+her purse were far too scanty to meet the necessity of her household,
+and at the same time minister to the wants of her extravagant daughters.
+
+"But I can economize in one way," she said, half aloud, and crossing
+the room she turned down the astral lamp which was burning brightly
+upon the table.
+
+"Don't, pray mother, make it darker than a dungeon!" petulantly
+exclaimed Eugenia, herself turning back the lamp. "I do like to have
+rooms light enough to see one's self;" and glancing complacently at the
+reflection of her handsome face, in the mirror opposite, she resumed
+her former lounging attitude upon the sofa.
+
+Mrs. Deane sighed again, but she had long since ceased to oppose the
+imperious Eugenia, who was to all intents and purposes the mistress of
+the house, and who oftentimes led her mother and weaker-minded sister
+into the commission of acts from which they would otherwise have
+shrunk. Possessed of a large share of romance, Eugenia had given to
+their place the name of "Locust Grove;" and as Mrs. Deane managed to
+keep up a kind of outside show by practising the most pinching economy
+in everything pertaining to the actual comfort of her family, they were
+looked upon as being quite wealthy and aristocratic by those who saw
+nothing of their inner life--who knew nothing of the many shifts and
+turns in the kitchen to save money for the decoration of the parlors,
+or of the frequent meager meals eaten from the pantry shelf, in order
+to make amends for the numerous dinner and evening parties which
+Eugenia and Alice insisted upon giving, and which their frequent visits
+to their friends rendered necessary. Extensive servant-hire was of
+course too expensive, and, as both Eugenia and Alice affected the
+utmost contempt for anything like _work_, their mother toiled in the
+kitchen from morning until night, assisted only by a young girl, whose
+mother constantly threatened to take her away, unless her wages were
+increased, a thing which seemed impossible.
+
+It was just after this woman's weekly visit, and in the midst of
+preparations for a large dinner party, that Mrs. Deane received her
+sister's letter, to which there was added a postscript, in a strange
+handwriting, saying she was dead. There was a moisture in Mrs. Deane's
+eyes as she read the touching lines; and leaning her heated forehead
+against the cool window pane, she, too, thought of the years gone
+by--of the gentle girl, the companion of her childhood, who had never
+given her an unkind word--of _him_--the only man she had ever
+loved--and Dora was their child--Fanny's child and John's.
+
+"Yes," she said, half aloud, "I will give her a home," but anon there
+came stealing over her the old bitterness of feeling, which she had
+cherished since she knew that Fanny was preferred to herself, and then
+the evil of her nature whispered, "No, I will not receive their child.
+We can hardly manage to live now, and it is not my duty to incur an
+additional expense. Dora must stay where she is, and if I do not answer
+the letter, she will naturally suppose I never received it."
+
+Thus deciding the matter, she crushed the letter into her pocket and
+went back to her work; but there was an added weight upon her spirits,
+while continually ringing in her ears were the words, "Care for John's
+child and mine." "If I could only make her of any use to me," she said
+at last, and then as her eye fell upon _Bridget_, whose stay with her
+was so uncertain, the dark thought entered her mind, "Why could not
+Dora fill her place? It would be a great saving, and of course the
+child must expect to work."
+
+Still, reason as she would, Mrs. Deane could not at once bring herself
+to the point of making a menial of one who was every way her equal;
+neither could she decide to pass the letter by unnoticed; so for the
+present she strove to dismiss the subject, which was not broached to
+her daughters until the evening on which we first introduced them to
+our readers. Then taking her seat by the brightly burning lamp, she
+drew the letter from her pocket and read it aloud, while Alice drummed
+an occasional note upon the piano and Eugenia beat a tattoo upon the
+carpet with her delicate French slipper.
+
+"Of course she won't come," said Alice, as her mother finished reading.
+"It was preposterous in Aunt Fanny to propose such a thing!" and she
+glanced towards Eugenia for approbation of what she had said.
+
+Eugenia's quick, active mind had already looked at the subject in all
+its bearings, and in like manner with her mother she saw how Dora's
+presence there would be a benefit; so to Alice's remark she replied:
+"It will sound well for us to have a _cousin_ in the _poorhouse_, won't
+it? For my part, I propose that she comes, and then be made to earn her
+own living. We can dismiss Bridget, who is only two years older than
+Dora, and we shall thus avoid quarreling regularly with her vixenish
+mother, besides saving a dollar every week--"
+
+"So make a _drudge_ of Dora," interrupted Alice. "Better leave her in
+the poorhouse at once."
+
+"Nobody intends to make a _drudge_ of her," retorted Eugenia. "Mother
+works in the kitchen, and I wonder if it will hurt Dora to help her.
+Every girl ought to learn to work!"
+
+"Except Eugenia Deane," suggested Alice, laughing, to think how little
+her sister's practise accorded with her theory.
+
+At this point in the conversation, Bridget entered, bringing a letter
+which bore the India post-mark, together with the unmistakable
+handwriting of Nathaniel Deane!
+
+"A letter from Uncle Nat, as I live!" exclaimed Eugenia. "What _is_
+going to happen? He hasn't written before in years. I do wish I knew
+when he expected to quit this mundane sphere, and how much of his money
+he intends leaving me!"
+
+By this time Mrs. Deane had broken the seal, uttering an exclamation of
+surprise as a check for $500 fell into her lap.
+
+"Five hundred dollars!" screamed Eugenia, catching up the check and
+examining it closely, to see that there was no mistake. "The old miser
+has really opened his heart. Now, we'll have some _genuine_ silver
+forks for our best company, so we shan't be in constant terror lest
+some one should discover that they are only plated. I'll buy that set
+of _pearls_ at Mercer's, too, and, Alice, you and I will nave some new
+furs. I'd go to Rochester to-morrow, if it were not Sunday. What shall
+we get for you, mother? A web of cloth, or an ounce of sewing silk?"
+and the heartless girl turned towards her mother, whose face was white
+as ashes, as she said faintly: "The money is not ours. It is Dora's--to
+be used for her benefit."
+
+"Not ours! What do you mean! It can't be true!" cried Eugenia,
+snatching the letter, and reading therein a confirmation of her
+mother's words.
+
+After a slight apology for his long silence, Undo Nat had spoken of
+Fanny's letter, saying he supposed she must be dead ere this, and that
+Dora was probably living with her aunt, as it was quite natural she
+should do. Then he expressed his willingness to defray all the expense
+which she might be, adding that though he should never see her, as he
+was resolved to spend his days in India, he still wished to think of
+her as an educated and accomplished woman.
+
+"Accompanying this letter," he wrote, "is a check for $500, to be used
+for Dora's benefit. Next year I will make another remittance,
+increasing the allowance as she grows older. I have more money than I
+need, and I know of no one on whom I would sooner expend it than the
+child of Fanny Moore."
+
+"Spiteful old fool!" muttered Eugenia, "I could relieve him of any
+superfluous dimes he may possess."
+
+But even Eugenia, heartless as she was, felt humbled and subdued for a
+moment, as she read the latter part of her uncle's letter, from which
+we give the following extract:
+
+"I am thinking, to-day, of the past, Sarah, and I grow a very child
+again as I recall the dreary years which have gone over my head, since
+last I trod the shores of my fatherland. You, Sarah, know much of my
+history. You know that I was awkward, eccentric, uncouth, and many
+years older than my handsomer, more highly gifted brother; and yet with
+all this fearful odds against me, you know that I ventured to love the
+gentle, fair-haired Fanny, your adopted sister. You know this, I say,
+but you do not know how madly, how passionately such as I can love--did
+love; nor how the memory of Fanny's ringing laugh, and the thought of
+the sunny smile, with which I knew she would welcome me home again,
+cheered me on my homeward voyage, when in the long night-watches I
+paced the vessel's deck, while the stars looked coldly down upon me,
+and there was no sound to break the deep stillness, save the heavy
+swell of the sea. At the village inn where I stopped for a moment ere
+going to my father's house, I first heard that her hand was plighted to
+another, and in my wild frenzy, I swore that my rival, whoever it might
+be, should die!
+
+"It was my youngest brother--he, who, on the sad night when our mother
+died, had laid his baby head upon my bosom, and wept himself to
+sleep--he whose infant steps I had guided, bearing him often in my
+arms, lest he should 'dash his foot against a stone.' And _his_ life I
+had sworn to take, for had he not come between me and the only object I
+had ever loved? There was no one stirring about the house, for it was
+night, and the family had retired. But the door was unfastened, and I
+knew the way upstairs. I found him, as I had expected, in our old room,
+and all alone; for Richard was away. Had he been there, it should make
+no difference, I said, but he was absent, and John was calmly sleeping
+with his face upturned to the soft moonlight which came in through the
+open window. I had not seen him for two long years, and now there was
+about him a look so much like that of my dead mother when she lay in
+her coffin bed, that the demon in my heart was softened, and I seemed
+to hear her dying words again, 'I can trust you, Nathaniel; and to your
+protection, as to a second mother, I commit my little boy.'
+
+"The little boy, whose curls were golden then, was now a brown-haired
+man--my brother--the son of my angel mother, whose spirit, in that dark
+hour of my temptation, glided into the silent room, and stood between
+me and her youngest born, so that _he_ was not harmed, and _I_ was
+saved from the curse of a brother's blood.
+
+"'Lead us not into temptation,' came back to me, just as I had said it
+kneeling at my mother's side; and covering my face with my hands, I
+thanked God, who had kept me from so great a sin. Bending low, I
+whispered in his ear his name, and in a moment his arms were around my
+neck, while he welcomed me back to the home, which, he said, was not
+home without me. And then, when the moon had gone down, and the stars
+shone too faintly to reveal his blushes, he told me the story of his
+happiness, to which I listened, while the great drops of sweat rolled
+down my face and moistened the pillow on which my head was resting.
+
+"But why linger over those days of anguish, which made me an old man
+before my time? I knew I could not stand by and see her wedded to
+another--neither could I look upon her after she was another's wife;
+so, one night, when the autumn days were come, I asked her to go with
+me out beneath the locust trees, which skirted my father's yard. It was
+there I had seen her for the first time, and it was there I would take
+my final leave. Of the particulars of that interview I remember but
+little, for I was terribly excited. We never met again, for ere the
+morrow's daylight dawned, I had left my home forever--"
+
+Then followed a few more words concerning Dora, with a request that she
+should write to him, as he would thus be able to judge something of her
+character; and there the letter ended.
+
+For a time there was silence, which was broken at last by Eugenia,
+whose active mind had already come to a decision. Dora would live with
+them, of course--it was best that she should, and there was no longer
+need for dismissing Bridget. The five hundred dollars obviated that
+necessity, and it was _theirs_, too--theirs by the way of remuneration
+for giving Dora a home--theirs to spend as they pleased. And she still
+intended to have the _furs_, the _pearls_, and the _silver forks_, just
+the same as though the money had been a special gift to her!
+
+"Suppose _Uncle Nat_ should happen to come home, and Dora should tell
+him?" suggested Alice, who did not so readily fall in with her sister's
+views.
+
+"He'll never do that in the world," returned Eugenia. "And even if he
+should, Dora will have nothing to tell, for she is not supposed to know
+of the money. If we feed, clothe, and educate her, it is all we are
+required to do."
+
+"But would that be exactly just?" faintly interposed Mrs. Deane, whose
+perceptions of right and wrong were not quite so blunted as those of
+her daughter, who, in answer to her question, proceeded to advance many
+good reasons why Dora, for a time at least, should be kept in ignorance
+of the fact that her uncle supported her, and not her aunt.
+
+"We can manage her better if she thinks she is dependent upon us. And
+then, as she grows older, she will not be continually asking what has
+become of the money, which, as I understand the matter, is really
+_ours_, and not _hers_."
+
+Still, Mrs. Deane was not quite convinced, but she knew how useless it
+would be to argue the point; so she said nothing, except to ask how
+Dora was to get there, as she could not come alone.
+
+"I have it," answered Eugenia. "I have long wished to spend a few days
+in New York, but that bane of my life, poverty, has always prevented.
+Now, however, as old Uncle Nat has kindly furnished us with the means,
+I propose that Alice and I start day after to-morrow, and return on
+Saturday. That will give us ample time to see the _lions_ and get the
+city fashions."
+
+"It will cost a great deal for yon both to stay at those large hotels,"
+said Mrs. Deane; and Eugenia replied--
+
+"One hundred dollars will cover all the expense, and pay Dora's fare
+besides. What is the use of money, if we can't use it? I shall get my
+furs, and jewelry, and forks while I'm there, so I'd better take along
+three hundred and fifty dollars, for fear of any accident. We are not
+obliged to spend it all, of course;" she added, as she saw the look of
+dismay on her mother's face. "And we can bring back whatever there is
+left."
+
+For nineteen years Eugenia Deane had been suffered to have her way, and
+her mother did not like to thwart her now, for her temper was violent,
+and she dreaded an outbreak; so she merely sighed in reply, and when,
+on Monday morning, Eugenia started for New York, her purse contained
+the desired three hundred and fifty dollars, which, after her arrival
+in the city, was spent as freely as if it really belonged to her, and
+not to the orphan Dora, who was now staying with Mrs. Grannis, a
+kind-hearted woman in the same block where her mother had died. The
+furs were bought, the pearls examined, the forks priced, and then Alice
+ventured to ask when they were going to find Dora.
+
+"I shall leave that for the last thing," answered Eugenia. "She can't
+run away, and nobody wants to be bothered with a child to look after."
+
+So for three more days little Dora looked out of the dingy window upon
+the dirty court below, wishing her aunt would come, and wondering if
+she should like her. At last, towards the close of Friday afternoon,
+there was a knock at the door and a haughty-looking, elegantly dressed
+young lady inquired if a little orphan girl lived there.
+
+"That's her--Aunt Sarah," exclaimed Dora, springing joyfully forward;
+but she paused and started back, as she met the cold, scrutinizing
+glance of Eugenia's large black eyes.
+
+"Are you the child I am looking for?" asked Eugenia, without deigning
+to notice Mrs. Grannis's request that she would walk in.
+
+"I am Dora Deane," was the simple answer; and then, as briefly as
+possible, Eugenia explained that she had been sent for her, and that
+early the next morning she would call to take her to the depot.
+
+"_Did_ you know mother? Are you any relation?" asked Dora, trembling
+with eager expectation; and Alice, who, without her sister's influence,
+would have been a comparatively kind-hearted girl, answered softly, "We
+are your cousins."
+
+There was much native politeness and natural refinement of manner about
+Dora, and instinctively her little chubby hand was extended towards her
+newly found relative, who pressed it gently, glancing the while at her
+sister, who, without one word of sympathy for the orphan girl, walked
+away through the winding passage, and down the narrow stairs, out into
+the sunlight, where, breathing more freely, she exclaimed, "What a
+horrid place! I hope I haven't caught anything. Didn't Dora look like a
+Dutch doll in that long dress and high-neck apron?"
+
+"Her face is pretty, though," returned Alice, "and her eyes are
+beautiful--neither blue nor black, but a mixture of both. How I pitied
+her as they filled with tears when you were talking! Why didn't you
+speak to her?"
+
+"Because I'd nothing to say," answered Eugenia, stepping into the
+carriage which had brought them there, and ordering the driver to go
+next to Stuart's, where she wished to look again at a velvet cloak.
+
+"It is so cheap, and so becoming, too, that I am half tempted to get
+it," she exclaimed.
+
+"Mother won't like it, I know," said Alice, who herself began to have
+some fears for the three hundred and fifty dollars.
+
+"Fudge!" returned Eugenia, adding the next moment, "I wonder if she'll
+have to buy clothes for Dora the first thing. I hope not," and she drew
+around her the costly fur, for which she had paid fifty dollars.
+
+Of course the cloak was bought, together with several other articles
+equally _cheap_ and becoming, and by the time the hotel bills were
+paid, there were found in the purse just twenty-five dollars, with
+which to pay their expenses back to Dunwood.
+
+---------------
+
+There were bitter tears shed at the parting next morning in Mrs.
+Grannis's humble room, for Dora felt that the friends to whom she was
+going were not like those she left behind; and very lovingly her arms
+wound themselves around the poor widow's neck as she wept her last
+adieu, begging Mrs. Grannis not to forget her, but to write sometimes,
+and tell her of the lady who had so kindly befriended her.
+
+"We can't wait any longer," cried Eugenia, and with one more farewell
+kiss, Dora went out of the house where she had experienced much of
+happiness, and where had come to her her deepest grief.
+
+"Forlorn. What is that old thing going for! Leave it," said Eugenia,
+touching with her foot a square, green trunk or chest, which stood by
+the side of the long, sack-like carpet-bag containing Dora's wardrobe.
+
+"It was father's--and mother's clothes are in it," answered Dora, with
+quivering lips.
+
+There was something in the words and manner of the little girl, as she
+laid her hand reverently on the offending trunk, that touched even
+Eugenia; and she said no more. An hour later, and the attention of more
+than one passenger in the Hudson River cars was attracted towards the
+two stylish-looking ladies who came in, laden with bundles, and
+followed by a little girl in black, for whom no seat was found save the
+one by the door where the wind crept in, and the unmelted frost still
+covered the window pane.
+
+"Won't you be cold here?" asked Alice, stopping a moment, ere passing
+on to her own warm seat near the stove.
+
+"No matter; I am used to it," was Dora's meek reply; and wrapping her
+thin, half-worn shawl closer about her, and drawing her feet up beneath
+her, she soon fell asleep, dreaming sweet dreams of the home to which
+she was going, and of the Aunt Sarah who would be to her a second
+mother!
+
+_God help thee, Dora Deane!_
+
+-----------
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+DORA'S NEW HOME.
+
+
+One year has passed away since the night when, cold, weary and forlorn,
+Dora followed her cousins up the graveled walk which led to her new
+home. One whole year, and in that time she has somewhat changed. The
+merry-hearted girl, who, until a few weeks before her mother's death,
+was happier far than many a favored child of wealth, has become a
+sober, quiet, self-reliant child, performing without a word of
+complaint the many duties which have gradually been imposed upon her.
+
+From her aunt she had received a comparatively welcome greeting, and
+when Eugenia displayed her purchases, which had swallowed up the entire
+three hundred and fifty dollars, Mrs. Deane had laid her hand on the
+little girl's soft, auburn hair, as if to ask forgiveness for the
+injustice done her by the selfish Eugenia, whose only excuse for her
+extravagance was, that "no one in her right mind need to think of
+bringing back any money from New York." And Dora, from her seat on a
+little stool behind the stove, understood nothing, thought of nothing,
+except that Eugenia looked beautifully in her velvet cloak and furs,
+and that her aunt must be very rich, to afford so many handsome
+articles of furniture as the parlor contained.
+
+"And I am glad that she is," she thought, "for she will not be so
+likely to think me in the way."
+
+As time passed on, however, Dora, who was a close observer, began to
+see things in their true light, and her life was far from being happy.
+By her cousin Alice she was treated with a tolerable degree of
+kindness, while Eugenia, without any really evil intention, perhaps,
+seemed to take delight in annoying her sensitive cousin, constantly
+taunting her with her dependence upon them, and asking her sometimes
+how she expected to repay the debt of gratitude she owed them. Many and
+many a night had the orphan wept herself to sleep, in the low, scantily
+furnished chamber which had been assigned her; and she was glad when at
+last an opportunity was presented for her to be in a measure out of
+Eugenia's way, and at the same time feel that she doing something
+towards earning her living.
+
+The oft-repeated threat of Bridget's mother that her daughter should be
+removed, unless her wages were increased, was finally carried into
+effect; and one Saturday night, Mrs. Deane was startled by the
+announcement that Bridget was going to leave. In a moment, Dora's
+resolution was taken, and coming to her aunt's side, she said:
+
+"Don't hire another girl, Aunt Sarah. Let _me_ help you. I can do
+almost as much as Bridget, and you won't have to _pay_ me either. _I_
+shall only be paying you."
+
+Unclasping the handsome bracelet which had been purchased with a
+portion of the remaining one hundred and fifty dollars, Eugenia, ere
+her mother had time to reply, exclaimed:
+
+"That is a capital idea! I wonder how you happened to be so thoughtful."
+
+And so it was decided that Dora should take Bridget's place, she
+thinking how much she would do, and how hard she would try to please
+her aunt, who quieted her own conscience by saying "it was only a
+temporary arrangement until she could find another servant."
+
+But as the days went by, the temporary arrangement bid fair to become
+permanent, for Mrs. Deane could not be insensible to the vast
+difference which Bridget's absence made in her weekly expenses. Then,
+too, Dora was so willing to work, and so uncomplaining, never seeking a
+word of commendation, except once, indeed, when she timidly ventured to
+ask Eugenia if "what she did was enough to pay for her board?"
+
+"Just about," was Eugenia's answer, which, indifferent as it was,
+cheered the heart of Dora, as, day after day, she toiled on in the
+comfortless kitchen, until her hands, which, when she came to Locust
+Grove, were soft and white as those of an infant, became rough and
+brown, and her face gradually assumed the same dark hue, for she could
+not always stop to tie on her sunbonnet, when sent for wood or water.
+
+With the coming of summer, arrangements had been made for sending her
+to school, though Mrs. Deane felt at first as if she could not be
+deprived of her services. Still for appearance' sake, if for nothing
+more, she must go; and with the earliest dawn the busy creature was up,
+working like a bee, that her aunt and cousins might not have so much to
+do in her absence. At first she went regularly, but after a time it
+became very convenient to detain her at home, for at least two days in
+every week, and this wrung from her almost the only tears she had shed
+since the morning, when, of her own accord, she had gone into the
+kitchen to perform a servant's duties.
+
+Possessing naturally a fondness for books, and feeling ambitious to
+keep up with her class, she at last conceived the idea of studying at
+home; and many a night, long after her aunt and cousins were asleep,
+she sat up alone, poring over her books, sometimes by the dim light of
+a lamp, and again by the light of the full moon, whose rays seemed to
+fall around her more brightly than elsewhere. It was on one of these
+occasions, when tracing upon her map the boundary lines of India, that
+her thoughts reverted to her uncle Nathaniel, whose name she seldom
+heard, and of whom she had never but once spoken. Then in the presence
+of her aunt and cousins she had wondered why he did not answer her
+mother's letter.
+
+"Because he has nothing to write, I presume," said Eugenia, who would
+not trust her mother to reply.
+
+And Dora, wholly unsuspecting, never dreamed of the five hundred
+dollars sent over for her benefit, and which was spent long ago--though
+not for her--never dreamed of the letter which Eugenia had written in
+reply, thanking her uncle again and again for his generous gift, which
+she said "was very acceptable, for _ma_ was rather poor, and it would
+aid her materially in providing for the wants of Dora," who was
+represented as being "a queer, old-fashioned child, possessing but
+little affection for any one and who never spoke of her uncle
+Nathaniel, or manifested the least gratitude for what he was doing!"
+
+In short, the impression left upon the mind of Uncle Nat was that Dora,
+aside from being cold-hearted, was uncommonly dull, and would never
+make much of a woman, do what they might for her! With a sigh, and a
+feeling of keen disappointment, he read the letter, saying to himself,
+as he laid it away, "Can this be true of Fanny's child?"
+
+But this, we say, _Fanny's_ child did not know; and as her eyes
+wandered over the painted map of India, she resolved to write and to
+tell him of her mother's dying words--tell him how much she loved him,
+because he was her father's brother, and how she wished he would come
+home, that she might know him better.
+
+"If I only had some keepsake to send him--something he would prize,"
+she thought, when her letter was finished. And then, as she enumerated
+her small store of treasures, she remembered her mother's beautiful
+hair, which had been cut from her head, as she lay in her coffin, and
+which now held a place in the large square trunk. "I will send him a
+lock of that," she said; and kneeling reverently by the old green
+trunk, the shrine where she nightly said her prayers, she separated
+from the mass of rich, brown hair, one long, shining tress, which she
+inclosed within her letter, adding, in a postscript, "It is mother's
+hair, and Dora's tears have often fallen upon it. 'Tis all I have to
+give."
+
+Poor little Dora! Nathaniel Deane would have prized that simple gift
+far more than all the wealth which he called his, but it was destined
+never to reach him. The wily Eugenia, to whom Dora applied for an
+envelope, unhesitatingly showing what she had written, knew better than
+to send that note across the sea, and feigning the utmost astonishment,
+she said: "I am surprised, Dora, that after your mother's ill-success,
+you should think of writing to Uncle Nat. He is a suspicious, miserly
+old fellow, and will undoubtedly think you are after his money!"
+
+"I wouldn't send it for the world, if I supposed he'd fancy such a
+thing as that," answered Dora, her eyes filling with tears.
+
+"Of course you wouldn't," continued Eugenia, perceiving her advantage
+and following it up. "You can do as you like, but my advice is that you
+do not send it; let him write to _you_ first if he wishes to open a
+correspondence!"
+
+This decided the matter, and turning sadly away, Dora went back to her
+chamber, hiding the letter and the lock of hair in the old green trunk.
+
+"How can you be so utterly void of principle?" asked Alice, as Dora
+quitted the room; and Eugenia replied: "It isn't a lack of principle,
+it's only my good management. I have my plans, and I do not intend they
+shall be frustrated by that foolish letter, which would, of course, be
+followed by others of the same kind. Now I am perfectly willing that
+Uncle Nat should divide his fortune between us and Dora, but
+unfortunately he is a _one idea_ man, and should he conceive a fancy
+for our cousin, our hopes are blasted forever; so I don't propose
+letting him do any such thing. Mother has given up the correspondence
+to me, and I intend making the old gentleman think I am a most perfect
+specimen of what a young lady should be, saying, of course, an
+occasional good word for _you!_ I believe I understand him tolerably
+well, and if in the end I win, I pledge you my word that Dora shall not
+be forgotten. Are you satisfied?"
+
+Alice could not say yes, but she knew it was useless to reason with her
+sister, so she remained silent; while a curious train of thoughts
+passed through her mind, resulting at last in an increased kindness of
+manner on her part towards her young cousin, who was frequently
+relieved of duties which would otherwise have detained her from school.
+And Dora's step grew lighter, and her heart happier, as she thought
+that Alice at least cared for her welfare.
+
+On New Year's Day there came a letter from Uncle Nat, containing the
+promised check, which Eugenia held up to view, while she read the
+following brief lines:
+
+"Many thanks to Eugenia for her kind and welcome letter, which I may
+answer at some future time, when I have anything interesting to say."
+
+"Have you written to Uncle Nat, and did you tell him of me, or of
+mother's letter?" exclaimed Dora, Who had been sitting unobserved
+behind the stove, and who now sprang eagerly forward, while her cheeks
+glowed with excitement.
+
+Soon recovering her composure, Eugenia answered, "Yes, I wrote to him,
+and of course, mentioned you with the rest of us. His answer you have
+heard."
+
+"But the other paper," persisted Dora. "Doesn't that say anything?"
+
+For a moment Eugenia hesitated, and then, deciding that no harm could
+come of Dora's knowing of the money, provided she was kept in ignorance
+of the object for which it was sent, she replied, carelessly, "Oh
+that's nothing but a _check_. The old gentleman was generous enough to
+send us a little money, which we need badly enough."
+
+There was not one particle of selfishness in Dora's disposition, and
+without a thought or wish that any of the money should be expended for
+herself, she replied, "Oh, I am so glad, for now Aunt Sarah can have
+that shawl she has wanted so long, and Alice the new merino."
+
+Dear little Dora! she did not know why Eugenia's eyes so quickly sought
+the floor, nor understand why her aunt's hand was laid upon her head so
+caressingly. Neither did she know that Alice's sudden movement towards
+the window was to hide the expression of her face; but when, a few days
+afterwards, she was herself presented with a handsome merino, which
+both Eugenia and Alice volunteered to make, she thought there was not
+in Dunwood a happier child than herself. In the little orphan's pathway
+there were a few sunny spots, and that night when, by the old green
+trunk, she knelt her down to pray, she asked of God that he would
+reward her aunts and cousins according to their kindnesses done to her!
+
+Need we say that childish prayer was answered to the letter!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ROSE HILL.
+
+
+A little way out of the village of Dunwood, and situated upon a slight
+eminence, was a large, handsome building, which had formerly been owned
+by a Frenchman, who, from the great profusion of roses growing upon his
+grounds, had given to the place the name of "Rose Hill." Two years
+before our story opens, the Frenchman died, and since that time Rose
+Hill had been unoccupied, but now it had another proprietor, and early
+in the summer Mr. Howard Hastings and lady would take possession of
+their new home.
+
+Of Mr. Hastings nothing definite was known, except that he was a man of
+unbounded wealth and influence--"and a little peculiar withal," so said
+Mrs. Leah, the matron, who had come up from New York to superintend the
+arrangement of the house, which was fitted up in a style of elegance
+far surpassing what most of Dunwood's inhabitants had seen before, and
+was for two or three weeks thrown open to the public. Mrs. Leah, who
+was a servant in Mr. Hastings's family and had known her young
+mistress's husband from childhood, was inclined to be rather
+communicative, and when asked to explain what she meant by Mr.
+Hastings's peculiarities, replied "Oh, he's queer every way--and no
+wonder, with his kind of a mother. Why she is rich as a Jew, and for
+all that, she made her only daughter learn how to do all kinds of work.
+It would make her a better wife, she said, and so, because _Ella_ had
+rather lie on the sofa and read a nice novel than to be pokin' round in
+the kitchen and tending to things, as he calls it, Mr. Hastings looks
+blue and talks about _woman's_ duties, and all that nonsense. Recently
+he has taken it into his head that late hours are killing her--that it
+isn't healthy for her to go every night to parties, concerts, operas,
+and the like o' that, so he's going to bury her in the stupid country,
+where she'll be moped to death, for of course there's nobody here that
+she'll associate with."
+
+"The wretch!" exclaimed Eugenia, who formed one of the group of
+listeners to this precious bit of gossip; but whether she intended this
+cognomen for the cruel husband, or Mrs. Leah, we do not know, as she
+continued to question the old lady of Mrs. Hastings herself, asking if
+her health were delicate and if she were pretty.
+
+"Delicate! I guess she is," returned Mrs. Leah. "If she hasn't got the
+consumption now, she will have it. Why, her face is as white as some of
+them lilies that used to grow on the ponds in old Connecticut; and then
+to think her husband won't let her take all the comfort she can, the
+little time she has to live! It's too bad," and the corner of Dame
+Leah's silk apron went up to her eyes, as she thought how her lady was
+aggrieved. Soon recovering her composure, she reverted to Eugenia's
+last question, and hastened to reply, "_pretty_, don't begin to express
+it. Just imagine the least little bit of a thing, with the whitest
+face, the bluest eyes and the yellowest curls, dressed in a light blue
+silk wrapper, all lined with white satin, and tied with a tassel as big
+as my fist; wouldn't such a creature look well in the kitchen, telling
+Hannah it was time to get dinner, and seeing if Tom was cleaning the
+vegetables!"
+
+And Mrs. Leah's nose went up at the very idea of a blue silk wrapper
+being found outside of the parlor, even if the husband of said wrapper
+_did_ have to wait daily at least two hours for his badly cooked dinner!
+
+"Oh, but you ought to see her dressed for a party," continued Mrs.
+Leah, "she looks like a queen, all sparkling with diamonds and pearls;
+but she'll never go to many more, poor critter!"
+
+And as the good lady's services were just then needed in another part
+of the building, she bade good morning to her audience, who commented
+upon what they had heard, each according to their own ideas--some
+warmly commending Mr. Hastings for removing his delicate young wife
+from the unwholesome atmosphere of the city, while others, and among
+them Eugenia, thought he ought to let her remain in New York, if she
+chose. Still, while commiserating Mrs. Hastings for being obliged to
+live in "that _stupid village_," Eugenia expressed her pleasure that
+she was coming, and on her way home imparted to Alice her intention of
+being quite intimate with the New York lady, notwithstanding what "the
+spiteful old Mrs. Leah" had said about there being no one in Dunwood
+fit for her to associate with. In almost perfect ecstacy Dora listened
+to her cousin's animated description of Rose Hill, its handsome rooms
+and elegant furniture, and while her cheeks glowed with excitement, she
+exclaimed, "Oh, how I wish I could _really_ live in such a house!"
+
+"And I shouldn't wonder if you did. Your present prospects look very
+much like it," was Eugenia's scornful reply, which Dora scarcely heard,
+for her thoughts were busy elsewhere.
+
+She had an eye for the beautiful, and, strange to say, would at any
+time have preferred remaining in her aunt's pleasant parlor, to washing
+dishes from off the long kitchen table; but as this last seemed to be
+her destiny, she submitted without a murmur, contenting herself the
+while by building _castles_, just as many a child has done before her
+and will do again. Some how, too, Dora's castles, particularly the one
+of which she was mistress, were always large and beautiful, just like
+Eugenia's description of Rose Hill, to which she had listened with
+wonder, it seemed so natural, so familiar, so like the realization of
+what she had many a time dreamed, while her hands were busy with the
+dish towel or the broom.
+
+Dora was a strange child--so her mother and her aunt Sarah both had
+told her--so her teachers thought, and so her companions said, when she
+stole away by herself to _think_, preferring her own thoughts to the
+pastime of her schoolmates. This _thinking_ was almost the only
+recreation which Dora had, and as it seldom interfered with the
+practical duties of her life, no one was harmed if she did sometimes
+imagine the most improbable things; and if for a few days succeeding
+her cousin's visit to Rose Hill, she did seem a little inattentive, and
+somewhat abstracted, it was merely because she had for a time changed
+places with the fashionable Mrs. Hastings, whose blue silk
+morning-gown, while discussed in the _parlor_, was worn in fancy in the
+_kitchen_.
+
+Dream on Dora Deane, dream on--but guard this, your last imagining,
+most carefully from the proud Eugenia, who would scarce deem you worthy
+to take upon your lips the name of Mrs. Hastings, much less to be even
+in fancy the mistress of Rose Hill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MR. AND MRS. HASTINGS.
+
+
+In blissful ignorance of the gossip which his movements were exciting
+in Dunwood, Mr. Hastings in the city went quietly on with the
+preparations for his removal, purchasing and storing away in divers
+baskets, boxes and bags, many luxuries which he knew he could not
+readily procure in the country, and which would be sadly missed by his
+young girl-wife, who sat all day in her mother's parlor, bemoaning her
+fate in being thus doomed to a life in the "horribly vulgar country."
+She had forgotten that "she could live anywhere with _him_," for the
+Ella Hastings of to-day is the Ella Gray of little more than a year
+ago, the same who had listened to the sad story of _Dora Deane_,
+without ever thinking that some day in the future she should meet the
+little girl who made such an impression upon her husband.
+
+Howard Hastings was not the only man who, with a grand theory as to
+what a wife ought to be, had married from pure fancy; finding too late
+that she whom he took for a companion was a mere plaything--a doll to
+be dressed up and sent out into the fashionable world, where alone her
+happiness could be found. Still the disappointment to such is not the
+less bitter, because others, too, are suffering from the effect of a
+like hallucination, and Howard Hastings felt it most keenly. He loved,
+or fancied he loved, Ella Grey devotedly, and when in her soft flowing
+robes of richly embroidered lace, with the orange blossoms resting upon
+her golden curls, and her long eyelashes veiling her eyes of blue, she
+had stood at the altar as his bride there was not in all New York a
+prouder or a happier man. Alas, that in the intimate relations of
+married life, there should never be brought to light faults whose
+existence was never suspected! Yet so it is, and the honeymoon had
+scarcely waned ere Mr. Hastings began to feel a very little
+disappointed, as, one after another, the peculiarities of his wife were
+unfolded to his view.
+
+In all _his_ pictures of domestic bliss, there had ever been a home of
+his own, a cheerful fireside, to which he could repair, when the day's
+toil was done, but Ella would not hear of housekeeping. To be sure, it
+would be very pleasant to keep up a grand establishment and give
+splendid dinner-parties, but she knew that Howard, with his peculiar
+notions, would expect her to do just as his "dear, fussy old mother
+did," and that, she wouldn't for a moment think of, for she really "did
+not know the _names_ of one-half the queer-looking things in the
+kitchen."
+
+"She will improve as she grows older--she is very young yet, but little
+more than eighteen," thought Mr. Hastings; and his heart softened
+towards her, as he remembered the kind of training she had received
+from her mother, who was a pure slave of fashion, and would have deemed
+her daughters degraded had they possessed any knowledge of work.
+
+And still, when the aristocratic Howard Hastings had sued for Ella's
+hand, she felt honored, notwithstanding that both his mother and sister
+were known to be well skilled in everything pertaining to what she
+called "drudgery." To remove his wife from her mother's influence, and
+at the same time prolong her life, for she was really very delicate,
+was Mr. Hasting's aim; and as he had always fancied a home in the
+country, he at last purchased Rose Hill farm in spite of Ella's tears,
+and the frowns of her mother, who declared it impossible for her
+daughter to live without society, and pronounced all country people
+"rough, ignorant and vulgar."
+
+All this Ella believed, and though she was far too amiable and
+sweet-tempered to be really angry, she came very near _sulking_ all the
+way from New York to Dunwood. But when at the depot, she met the new
+carriage and horses which had been purchased expressly for herself, she
+was somewhat mollified and telling her husband "he was the best man in
+the world," she took the reins in her own little soft, white hands, and
+laughed aloud as she saw how the spirited creatures obeyed her
+slightest wish. From the parlor windows of Locust Grove, Eugenia and
+her sister looked out upon the strangers, pronouncing Mr. Hastings the
+most elegant-looking man they had ever seen, while his wife, the
+girlish Ella, was thought far too pale to be very beautiful.
+
+Near the gate at the entrance to Rose Hill, was a clear limpid stream,
+where the school-children often played, and where they were now
+assembled. A little apart from the rest, seated upon a mossy bank, with
+her bare feet in the running water, and her rich auburn hair shading
+her brown cheeks, was Dora Deane, not dreaming this time, but watching
+so intently a race between two of her companions, that she did not see
+the carriage until it was directly opposite. Then, guessing who its
+occupants were she started up, coloring crimson as she saw the lady's
+eyes fixed upon her, and felt sure she was the subject of remark.
+"Look, Howard," said Ella. "I suppose that is what you call a rural
+sight--a barefoot girl, with a burnt face and huge sunbonnet?"
+
+Ere Mr. Hastings could reply, Dora, wishing to redeem her character,
+which she was sure she had lost by having been caught with her feet in
+the brook, darted forward and opening the gate, held it for them to
+pass.
+
+"Shall I give her some money?" softly whispered Ella, feeling for her
+purse.
+
+"Hush-sh!" answered Mr. Hastings, for he knew that money would be an
+insult to Dora, who felt more than repaid by the pleasant smile he gave
+her as he said, "Thank you, miss."
+
+"I have seen a face like his before," thought Dora, as she walked
+slowly down the road, while the carriage kept on its way, and soon
+carried Ella to her new home.
+
+Not to be pleased with Rose Hill was impossible, and as the young
+wife's eye fell upon the handsome building, with its cool,
+vine-wreathed piazza--upon the shaded walks, the sparkling fountains
+and the thousands of roses which were now in full bloom, she almost
+cried with delight, even forgetting, for a time, that she was in the
+"horrid country." But she was ere long reminded of the fact by Mrs.
+Leah, who told of the "crowds of gaping people," who had been up to see
+the house. With a deprecating glance at the village where the "gaping
+people" were supposed to live, Ella drew nearer to her husband,
+expressing a wish that the good folks of Dunwood would confine their
+calls to the house and grounds, and not be troubling her. But in this
+she was destined to be disappointed, for the inhabitants of Dunwood
+were friendly, social people, who knew no good reason why they should
+not be on terms of equality with the little lady of Rose Hill; and one
+afternoon, about a week after her arrival at Dunwood, she was told that
+some ladies were waiting for her in the parlor.
+
+"Dear me! Sophy," said she, while a frown for an instant clouded her
+pretty face, "tell them I'm not at home."
+
+"But I just told them you were," answered Sophy, adding that "the
+ladies were well-dressed and fine-looking," and suggesting that her
+young mistress should wear down something more appropriate than the
+soiled white muslin wrapper in which she had lounged all day, because
+"it was not worth her while to dress, when there was no one but her
+_husband_ to see her."
+
+This, however, Ella refused to do. "It was good enough for country
+folks," she said, as she rather reluctantly descended to the parlor,
+where her first glance at her visitors made her half regret that she
+had not followed Sophy's advice. Mrs. Judge Howell and her
+daughter-in-law were refined, cultivated women, and ere Ella had
+conversed with them five minutes, she felt that if there was between
+them any point of inferiority, it rested with herself, and not with
+them. They had traveled much, both in the Old and New World; and though
+their home was in Boston, they spent almost every summer in Dunwood,
+which Mrs. Howell pronounced a most delightful village, assuring Ella
+that she could not well avoid being happy and contented. Very
+wonderingly the large childish blue eyes went up to the face of Mrs.
+Howell, who, interpreting aright their expression, casually remarked
+that when she was young, she fell into the foolish error of thinking
+there could be _nobody_ outside the walls of a city. "But the
+experience of sixty years has changed my mind materially," said she,
+"for I have met quite as many refined and cultivated people in the
+country as in the city."
+
+This was a new idea to Ella, and the next visitors, who came in just
+after Mrs. Howell left, were obliged to wait while she made quite an
+elaborate toilet.
+
+"Oh, Ella, how much better you are looking than you were an hour or two
+since," exclaimed Mr. Hastings, who entered the chamber just as his
+wife was leaving it.
+
+"There's company in the parlor," answered Ella, tripping lightly away,
+while her husband walked on into the dressing-room, where he stepped
+first over a pair of slippers, then over a muslin wrapper, and next
+over a towel, which Ella in her haste had left upon the floor, her
+usual place for everything.
+
+This time the visitors proved to be Eugenia and Alice, with the first
+of whom the impulsive Ella was perfectly delighted, she was so refined,
+so genteel, so richly dressed, and assumed withal such a _patronizing_
+air, that the shortsighted Ella felt rather overawed, particularly when
+she spoke of her "uncle in India," with whom she was "_such_ a
+favorite." During their stay, _servants_ were introduced as a topic of
+conversation, and on that subject Eugenia was quite as much at home as
+Mrs. Hastings, descanting at large upon the many annoyances one was
+compelled to endure, both from the "ignorance and impertinence of hired
+help." Once or twice, too, the words "my waiting-maid" escaped her
+lips, and when at last she took her leave, she had the satisfaction of
+knowing that Mrs. Hastings was duly impressed with a sense of her
+importance.
+
+"Such charming people I never expected to find in the country, and so
+elegantly dressed too," thought Ella, as from her window she watched
+them walking slowly down the long avenue. "That silk of Miss Eugenia's
+could not have cost less than two dollars a yard, and her hands, too,
+were as soft and white as mine. They must be wealthy--those Deanes: I
+wonder if they ever give any parties."
+
+And then, as she remembered sundry gossamer fabrics which were
+dignified by the title of party dresses, and which, with many tears,
+she had folded away as something she should never need in the country,
+she exclaimed aloud, "Why, can't _I_ have a party here as well as at
+home? The house is a great deal larger than the long narrow thing on
+which mama prides herself so much. And then it will be such fun to show
+off before the country people, who, of course, are not all as refined
+as the Deanes. I'll speak to Howard about it immediately."
+
+"Speak to me about what?" asked Mr. Hastings, who had entered the
+parlor in time to hear the last words of his wife.
+
+Very briefly Ella stated to him her plan of giving a large party as
+soon as a sufficient number of the village people had called.
+
+"You know you wish me to be sociable with them," she continued, as she
+saw the slightly comical expression of her husband's face; "and how can
+I do it better than by inviting them to my house?"
+
+"I am perfectly willing for the party," answered Mr. Hastings, "but I
+do rather wonder what has so soon changed your mind."
+
+"Oh, nothing much," returned Ella, "only the people don't seem half as
+vulgar as mama said they would. I wish you could see Eugenia Deane.
+She's perfectly magnificent--wears a diamond ring, Valenciennes lace,
+and all that. Her mother is very wealthy, isn't she?"
+
+"I have never supposed so--if you mean the widow Deane, who lives at
+the place called 'Locust Grove,'" answered Mr. Hastings; and Ella
+continued, "Yes, she is, I am sure, from the way Eugenia talked. They
+keep servants, I know, for she spoke of a waiting-maid. Then, too, they
+have an old bachelor uncle in India, with a million or more, and these
+two young ladies will undoubtedly inherit it all at his death."
+
+"Miss Deane must have been very communicative," said Mr. Hastings, who
+understood the world much better than his wife, and who readily guessed
+that Miss Eugenia had passed herself off for quite as much as she was.
+
+"It was perfectly natural for her to tell me what she did," answered
+Ella, "and I like her so much! I mean to drive over there soon, and
+take her out riding."
+
+Here the conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the door-bell,
+and it was not again resumed until the Monday morning following, when,
+at the breakfast-table, Ella asked for the carriage to be sent round,
+as "she was going to call at Mrs. Deane's, and take the young ladies to
+ride."
+
+"But it is washing-day," suggested Mr. Hastings, wishing to tease his
+wife. "And nothing, I am told, mortifies a woman more than to be caught
+with her hair in papers, and her arms in the suds. So, if you value
+your friend Eugenia's feelings, you had better wait until to-morrow."
+
+"_Suds_, Howard! What do you mean?" asked the indignant Ella. "Eugenia
+Deane's hands never saw a wash-tub! Why, they are almost as white as
+mine." And the little lady glanced rather admiringly at the small snowy
+fingers, which handled so gracefully the heavy knife and fork of silver.
+
+"You have my permission to go," said Mr. Hastings, "but I am inclined
+to think you'll have to wait a long time for your friends to make their
+appearance."
+
+Mentally resolving not to tell him if she did, Ella ran up to her room,
+where, leaving her morning dress in the middle of the floor, and
+donning a handsome plaid silk, she descended again to the parlor, and
+suggested to her husband the propriety of bringing the young ladies
+home with her to dinner, alleging, as one reason, that "there was no
+use of having a silver dining set and nice things, unless there was
+somebody to see them."
+
+"And am not _I_ somebody?" asked Mr. Hastings, playfully winding his
+arm around the little creature, who answered, "Why, yes--but mama never
+thought it worth her while always to have _the best things_ and fix up
+when there was no one to dinner but us and father; and I don't think I
+need to be so particular as when I was Ella Grey and you were Mr.
+Hastings, for now I am your wife, and you are---"
+
+Here she paused, while she stooped down to caress a huge Newfoundland
+dog, which came bounding in. Then, remembering she had not finished her
+sentence, she added after a moment, "And you are _only Howard!_"
+
+Silenced, if not convinced, Mr. Hastings walked away, wondering if
+every husband, at the expiration of fifteen months, reached the
+enviable position of being "only Howard!" Half an hour later, and Ella
+Hastings, having left orders with Mrs. Leah for a "company dinner," was
+riding down the shaded avenue into the highway, where she bade the
+coachman drive in the direction of Locust Grove.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE VISIT.
+
+
+The plain though comfortable breakfast of dry toast, baked potatoes and
+black tea was over. This morning it had been eaten from the kitchen
+table; for, as Mr. Hastings had surmised, it was _washing day_, and on
+such occasions, wishing to save work, Mrs. Deane would not suffer the
+dining-room to be occupied. To this arrangement the proud Eugenia
+submitted the more readily, as she knew that at this hour they were not
+liable to calls; so she who had talked of her _waiting-maid_ and
+wealthy uncle to Mrs. Hastings, sat down to breakfast _with_ her
+waiting-maid eating her potatoes with a knife and cooling her tea in
+her saucer; two points which in the parlor she loudly denounced as
+positive marks of ill breeding, but which in the kitchen, where there
+was no one to see her, she found vastly convenient! Piles of soiled
+clothes were scattered over the floor, and from a tub standing near, a
+volume of steam was rising, almost hiding from view the form of Dora
+Deane, whose round red arms were diving into the suds, while she to
+herself was softly repeating the lesson in History, that day to be
+recited by her class, and which she had learned the Saturday night
+previous, well knowing that Monday's duties would keep her from school
+the entire day.
+
+In the chamber above--her long, straight hair plaited up in braids, so
+as to give it the wavy appearance she had so much admired in Mrs.
+Hastings--her head enveloped in a black silk apron and her hands
+incased in buckskin gloves, was Eugenia, setting her room to rights,
+and complaining with every breath of her hard lot, in being thus
+obliged to exert herself on hot summer mornings.
+
+"Don't you wish yon were rich as Mrs. Hastings?" asked Alice, who
+chanced to come in.
+
+"That I do," returned Eugenia. "I have been uncomfortable and
+discontented ever since I called upon her, for I can't see why there
+should be such a difference. She has all the money, servants and
+dresses which she wants, besides the handsomest and most elegant man
+for a husband; while I, Eugenia Deane, who am ten times smarter than
+she, and could appreciate these things so much better, am obliged to
+make all sorts of shifts, just to keep up appearances. But didn't I
+impress her with a sense of my _greatness!_" she added, after a pause,
+and Alice rejoined, "Particularly when you talked of your
+_waiting-maid!_ I don't see, Eugenia, how you dare do such things, for
+of course Mrs. Hastings will eventually know that you mean Dora."
+
+"I'm not so sure of that," returned Eugenia; "and even if she does, I
+fancy I have tact enough to smooth it over with her, for she is not
+very deep."
+
+For a moment Alice regarded her sister intently, and then said, "I
+wonder from whom you take your character for deception."
+
+"I've dwelt upon that subject many a time myself," answered Eugenia,
+"and I have at last come to the conclusion that as father was not
+famous for sense of any kind, I must be a second and revised edition of
+mother--but hark, don't you hear the roll of wheels?" And springing up,
+she reached the window just as Mrs. Hastings alighted from her carriage
+which stood before the gate.
+
+"Great goodness!" she exclaimed, "there's Mrs. Hastings coming here to
+call--and _I_ in this predicament. What _shall_ I do?"
+
+"Let her wait, of course, until we change our dresses," answered Alice,
+and rushing down the Stairs, Eugenia bade Dora "show the lady into the
+parlor," adding, "and if she asks for me, say I am suffering from a
+severe headache, but you presume I will see her."
+
+Perfectly delighted at the idea of standing face to face with a person
+of whom she had heard so much, Dora removed her high-necked apron, and
+throwing it across the tub so that the sleeves trailed upon the floor,
+was hurrying away, when her foot becoming accidentally entangled in the
+apron, she fell headlong to the floor, bringing with her _tub_, _suds_,
+_clothes_ and all! To present herself in this drenched condition was
+impossible, and in a perfect tremor lest Mrs. Hastings should go away,
+Eugenia vibrated, brush in hand, between her own chamber and the head
+of the kitchen stairs, scolding Dora unmercifully in the one place, and
+pulling at the long braids of her hair in the other.
+
+At last, just as Mrs. Hastings was about despairing of being heard, and
+was beginning to think that possibly her husband might be right and
+Eugenia in the _suds_ after all, a chubby, brown-faced girl appeared,
+and after giving her a searching, curious glance, shewed her into the
+parlor.
+
+"Are the young ladies at home?" asked Mrs. Hastings; and Dora, who had
+never told a falsehood in her life, and had no intention of doing so
+now, replied that they were and would soon be down; after which, with a
+low courtesy she went back to the scene of her late disaster, while
+Mrs. Hastings busied herself awhile by looking around the room which,
+though small, was very handsomely furnished.
+
+At last, beginning to grow sleepy, she took up a book and succeeded in
+interesting herself so far as to nod quite approvingly, when the rustle
+of female garments aroused her, and in a moment Eugenia and Alice swept
+into the room. Both were tastefully dressed, while about Eugenia there
+was an air of languor befitting the _severe headache,_ of which Mrs.
+Hastings was surprised to hear.
+
+"Then _that girl_ didn't tell you as I bade her to do," said Eugenia;
+adding, that "Mrs. Hastings must have thought her very rude to keep her
+so long waiting."
+
+But Mrs. Hastings was too good-natured to think anything, and, after a
+few commonplace remarks, she told the object of her call, saying, that
+"the fresh air would, undoubtedly, do Eugenia good." In this opinion
+the young lady fully concurred, and, half an hour later, she was slowly
+riding through the principal streets of Dunwood, wondering if her
+acquaintances did not envy her for being on such terms of intimacy with
+the fashionable Mrs. Hastings. Very politely were the young ladies
+received by Mr. Hastings, on their arrival at Rose Hill, and throughout
+the entire day their admiration, both for the place and its owner,
+increased, though Eugenia could not conceal from herself the fact, that
+she stood very much in fear of the latter, whose keen black eyes seemed
+to read her very thoughts. How such a man came to marry Ella Grey, was
+to her a puzzle; and if occasionally she harbored the thought that
+Eugenia Deane was far better suited to be the mistress of Howard
+Hastings's home than the childish creature he had chosen, she was only
+guilty of what had, in a similar manner, been done by more than one New
+York belle. Dinner being over, Ella led the way to an upper balcony,
+which opened from her chamber, and which was a cool, shaded spot.
+Scarcely were they seated, when remembering something she had left in
+the parlor, she went back for it, and, in returning, she ran up the
+stairs so swiftly that a sudden dizziness came over her, and with a low
+cry she fell half fainting into the arms of her husband, who bent
+tenderly over her, while Eugenia made many anxious inquiries as to what
+was the matter, and if she were often thus affected.
+
+"Yes, often," answered Ella, who began to revive; then, as the
+perspiration gathered thickly about the white lips, she pressed her
+blue-veined hand upon her side, and cried, "The pain--the pain! It has
+come again. Country air won't do me any good. I shall die of
+consumption, just as mother said." And as if she saw indeed the little
+grave, on which the next summer's sun would shine, she hid her face in
+her husband's bosom, and sobbed aloud. Instantly a dark thought flashed
+upon Eugenia--a thought which even _she_ would not harbor, and casting
+it aside, she drew nearer to the weeping Ella, striving by an increased
+tenderness of manner to atone for having dared to think of a time when
+the little willow chair on the balcony would be empty, and Howard
+Hastings free. Soon rallying, Ella feigned to smile at her
+discomposure, saying that "consumption had been preached to her so much
+that she always felt frightened at the slightest pain in her side,"
+thoughtlessly adding, as she glanced at her husband, "I wonder if
+Howard would miss me any, were I really to die."
+
+A dark shadow settled upon Mr. Hastings's face, but he made no reply;
+and Eugenia, who was watching him, fancied she could read his thoughts;
+but when they at last started for home, and she saw how tenderly he
+wrapped a warm shawl around his delicate young wife, who insisted upon
+going with them, she felt that however frivolous and uncompanionable
+Ella might be, she was Howard Hastings's wife, and, as such, he would
+love and cherish her to the last.
+
+By her window in the attic sat Dora Deane, poring over to-morrow's
+lessons; but as the silvery voice of Ella fell upon her ear, she arose,
+and going to her cousin's chamber, looked out upon the party as they
+drew near the gate.
+
+"How beautiful she is!" she whispered to herself, as, dropping her
+shawl, and flinging back her golden curls, Ella sprang up to reach a
+branch of locust blossoms, which grew above her head.
+
+Then, as she saw how carefully Mr. Hastings replaced the shawl, drawing
+his wife's arm within his own, she stole back to her room, and,
+resuming her seat by the window, dreamed, as maidens of thirteen will,
+of a time away in the future, when she, too, might perhaps be loved
+even as was the gentle Ella Hastings.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE PARTY.
+
+
+One pleasant July morning, the people of Dunwood were electrified by
+the news that on Thursday evening, Mrs. Howard Hastings would be at
+home to between one and two hundred of her _friends_. Among the first
+invited was Eugenia, who had been Mrs. Hastings's chief adviser, kindly
+enlightening her as to the _somebodies_ and _nobodies_ of the town, and
+rendering herself so generally useful, that, in a fit of gratitude,
+Mrs. Hastings had promised her her brother Stephen, a fast young man,
+who was expected to be present at the party. To appear well in his eyes
+was, therefore, Eugenia's ambition; and the time which was not spent in
+giving directions at Rose Hill, was occupied at home in scolding,
+because her mother would not devise a way by which she could obtain a
+new pink satin dress, with lace overskirt, and flowers to match.
+
+It was in vain that Mrs. Deane sought to convince her daughter how
+impossible it was to raise the necessary funds. Eugenia was determined;
+and at last, by dint of secretly selling a half-worn dress to one Irish
+girl, a last year's bonnet to another, and a broche shawl to another,
+she succeeded in obtaining enough for the desired purchase, lacking
+five dollars, and this last it seemed impossible to procure. But
+Eugenia never despaired; and a paragraph read one evening in a city
+paper, suggested to her a plan which she resolved to execute
+immediately.
+
+It was nearly dark: her mother and sisters were in the village; Dora
+was gone on an errand, and she was alone. Half reluctantly, she opened
+the stair door which led to Dora's room, the low room in the attic. Up
+the steep staircase, and through the narrow hall she went, treading
+softly, and holding her breath, as if she feared lest the dead, from
+her far-off grave in the great city, should hear her noiseless
+footfall, and come forth to prevent the wrong she meditated. But no,
+Fanny Deane slept calmly in her coffin, and Eugenia kept on her way
+unmolested, until the chamber was reached. Then, indeed, she hesitated,
+for there was, to her, something terrifying in the darkness which had
+gathered in the corners of the room, and settled like a pall upon the
+old green trunk. To reach that and secure the treasure it contained,
+would have been the work of a moment; but, wholly powerless to advance,
+Eugenia stood still, while the cold perspiration started from every
+pore.
+
+"I can do anything but _that,_" she said, at last, and, as if the words
+had given her strength to move, she turned back, gliding again through
+the narrow hall, and down the steep stairway, out into the open air;
+and when, that night, as she often did, Dora looked for her mother's
+beautiful _hair,_ it lay in its accustomed place, unruffled and
+unharmed; and the orphan child, as she pressed it to her lips, dreamed
+not of the danger which had threatened it, or of the snare about to be
+laid for herself by Eugenia, who could not yet give up the coveted
+dress.
+
+Next morning, as Dora stood before the mirror, arranging her long,
+luxuriant hair, which she usually wore in braids, hanging down her
+back, Eugenia came up, and with an unusual degree of kindness in her
+manner, offered to fix it for her, commenting the while on the
+exceeding beauty of the rich auburn tresses, and saying, that if she
+were in Dora's place she would have it _cut off,_ as by this means she
+would, when grown up, have much handsomer hair than if it were suffered
+to remain long. Dora remembered having heard her mother say the same;
+but she had a pride in her hair, which was longer and thicker than any
+of her companions'; so she said nothing until Eugenia, who, to serve
+her own purpose, would not hesitate to tell a falsehood, and who knew
+how much Dora admired Mrs. Hastings, spoke of that lady's beautiful
+curls, saying they were all the result of her having worn her hair
+quite short until she was sixteen years of age. Then, indeed, Dora
+wavered. She had recently suffered much from the headache, too, and it
+might relieve that; so that when Eugenia offered her a coral bracelet
+in exchange for her hair, she consented, and Alice entered the room
+just as the last shining braid dropped upon the floor.
+
+"What upon earth!" she exclaimed, stopping short, and then bursting
+into a loud laugh at the comical appearance which Dora presented; for
+Eugenia had cut close to the head, leaving the hair so uneven that
+shingling seemed the only alternative, and to this poor Dora finally
+submitted. When at last the performance was ended, and she glanced at
+herself in the mirror, she burst into a paroxysm of tears, while Alice
+tried to soothe her by saying that it really would eventually benefit
+her hair, and that she would not always look so strangely.
+
+But Dora, who began to suspect that it was pure selfishness on
+Eugenia's part which had prompted the act, felt keenly the injustice
+done her, and refused to be comforted, keeping her room the entire day,
+and weeping until her eyelids were nearly blistered. Meantime, Eugenia
+had hurried off to the city with her ill-gotten treasure, on which the
+miserly old Jew, to whom it was offered, looked with eager longing
+eyes, taking care, however, to depreciate its value, lest his customer
+should expect too much. But Eugenia was fully his equal in management,
+and when at night she returned home, she was in possession of the
+satin, the lace and the flowers, together with several other articles
+of finery.
+
+The next day was the party, and as Dora, besides being exceedingly
+tasteful, was also neat, and handy with her needle, she was kept from
+school, stitching the livelong day upon the dainty fabric, a portion of
+which had been purchased with her hair! Occasionally, as Eugenia
+glanced at the swollen eyelids and shorn head, bending so
+uncomplainingly over the cloud of lace, her conscience smote her for
+what she had done; but one thought of _Stephen Grey_ and the impression
+she should make on him, dissipated all such regrets; and when at length
+the hour for making her toilet arrived, her jaded cousin was literally
+made to perform all the offices of a waiting-maid. Three times was the
+tired little girl sent down to the village in quest of something which
+the capricious Eugenia _must_ have, and which, when brought, was not
+"the thing at all," and must be exchanged. Up the stairs and down the
+stairs she went, bringing pins to Alice and powder to Eugenia,
+enacting, in short, the part of a second Cinderella, except that in her
+case no kind old godmother with her potent wand appeared to her relief!
+
+They were dressed at last, and very beautifully Eugenia looked in the
+pink satin and flowing lace, which harmonized so well with her
+complexion, and which had been bought with the united proceeds of a
+velvet bonnet, a delaine dress, a broche shawl, and Dora's hair!
+
+"Why don't you compliment me?" she said to the weary child, who, sick
+with yesterday's weeping, and the close confinement of to-day, had laid
+her aching head upon the arm of the lounge.
+
+Slowly unclosing her eyes, and fixing them upon her cousin, Dora
+answered--
+
+"You do look beautifully. No one will excel you, I am sure, unless it
+be Mrs. Hastings. I wish I could see how she will dress."
+
+"You might go up and look in at the window; or, if I'd thought of it, I
+could have secured you the office of door-waiter," said the thoughtless
+Eugenia, adding, as she held out her shawl for Dora to throw around
+her, "Don't you wish you could attend a party at Rose Hill?"
+
+There was a sneer accompanying this question, which Dora felt keenly.
+Her little swelling heart was already full, and, with quivering lips
+and gushing tears, she answered, somewhat bitterly--
+
+"I never expect to be anybody, or go any where;" then, as her services
+were no longer needed, she ran away to her humble room, where from her
+window she watched the many brilliant lights which shone from Rose
+Hill, and caught occasional glimpses of the airy forms which flitted
+before the open doors and windows. Once she was sure she saw Eugenia
+upon the balcony, and then, as a sense of the difference between
+herself and her cousins came over her, she laid her down upon the old
+green trunk, and covering her face with her hands, cried out, "Nobody
+cares for me, or loves me either. I wish I had died that winter night.
+Oh, mother! come to me, I am so lonely and so sad."
+
+Softly, as if it were indeed the rustle of an angel's wings, came the
+evening air, through the open casement, cooling the feverish brow and
+drying the tears of the orphan girl, who grew strangely calm; and when
+at last the moon looked in upon her, she was sleeping quietly, with a
+placid smile upon her lips. Years after, and Dora Deane remembered that
+summer night, when, on the hard green trunk, she slept so soundly as
+not to hear the angry voice of Eugenia, who came home sadly out of
+humor with herself and the world at large.
+
+At breakfast, next morning, she was hardly on speaking terms with her
+sister, while _Stephen Grey_ was pronounced "a perfect bore-a baboon,
+with more hair than brains."
+
+"And to that I should not suppose you would object," said Alice,
+mischievously. "You might find it useful in case of an emergency."
+
+To this there was no reply, save an angry flash of the black eyes,
+which, it seems, had failed to interest Stephen Grey, who was far
+better pleased with the unassuming Alice, and who had paid the haughty
+Eugenia no attention whatever, except, indeed, to plant his patent
+leather boot upon one of her lace flounces, tearing it half off, and
+leaving a sad rent, which could not well be mended. This, then, was the
+cause of her wrath, which continued for some time; when really wishing
+to talk over the events of the evening, she became a little more
+gracious, and asked Alice how she liked _Mrs. Elliott_, who had
+unexpectedly arrived from New York.
+
+"I was delighted with her," returned Alice; "she was such a perfect
+lady. And hadn't she magnificent hair! Just the color of Dora's" she
+added, glancing at the little cropped head, which had been so suddenly
+divested of its beauty.
+
+"It wasn't all hers, though," answered Eugenia, who invariably saw and
+spoke of every defect. "I heard her telling Ella that she bought a
+braid in Rochester as she came up. But what ails you?" she continued,
+speaking now to Dora, whose eyes sparkled with some unusual excitement
+and who replied--
+
+"You said Mrs. Elliott, from New York. And that was the name of the
+lady who was so kind to me. Oh, if I only thought it were she, I'd----"
+
+"Make yourself ridiculous, I dare say," interrupted Eugenia, adding,
+that "there was more than one Mrs. Elliott in the world, and she'd no
+idea that so elegant a lady as Mr. Hastings's sister ever troubled
+herself to look after folks in such a miserable old hovel as the one
+where Dora had lived."
+
+This, however, did not satisfy the child, who, during the week that
+Mrs. Elliott remained in the neighborhood, cast many longing glances in
+the direction of Rose Hill, gazing oft with tearful eyes upon a female
+figure which sometimes walked upon the balcony, and which, perhaps, was
+her benefactress. One night it was told at Locust Grove that Mrs.
+Elliott had gone, and then, with a feeling of desolation for which she
+could not account, Dora again laid her face on the old green trunk and
+wept.
+
+Poor Dora Deane! The path she trod was dark, indeed, but there was
+light ahead, and even now it was breaking upon her though she knew it
+not.
+
+-------------------
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+DORA AT ROSE HILL.
+
+
+Summer was over. The glorious September days were gone. The hazy
+October had passed away, and the autumn winds had swept the withered
+leaves from the tall trees which grew around Rose Hill; when one cold,
+rainy November morning, a messenger was sent to Mrs. Deane, saying that
+Mrs. Hastings was sick, and wished to see her.
+
+"Mrs. Hastings sent for mother! How funny! There must be some mistake,"
+said Eugenia, putting her head in at the door. "Are you sure it was
+mother?"
+
+"Yes, quite sure," answered the man. "Mrs. Hastings thought she would
+know what to do for the baby, which was born yesterday, and is a puny
+little thing."
+
+This silenced Eugenia, who waited impatiently until nightfall, when her
+mother returned with a sad account of affairs at Rose Hill. Mrs.
+Hastings was sick and nervous, Mrs. Leah was lazy and cross, the
+servants ignorant and impertinent, the house was in disorder; while Mr.
+Hastings, with a cloud on his face, ill befitting a newly-made father,
+stalked up and down the sick-room, looking in vain for an empty chair,
+so filled were they with blankets, towels, baby's dresses, and the
+various kinds of work which Ella was always beginning and never
+finishing.
+
+"Such an ignorant, helpless creature I never saw," said Mrs. Deane,
+"Why, she _don't know anything_--and such looking rooms! I don't wonder
+her servants give her so much trouble; but my heart ached for him, poor
+man, when I saw him putting away the things, and trying to make the
+room a little more comfortable."
+
+It was even as Mrs. Deane had said. Ella, whose favorite theory was, "a
+big house, a lot of things, and _chairs_ enough to put them in," was
+wholly unprepared for sickness, which found her in a sad condition. To
+be sure there were quantities of French embroidery, thread lace and
+fine linen, while the bed, on which she lay, cost a hundred dollars,
+and the rosewood crib was perfect of its kind, but there was a great
+lack of neatness and order; and as day after day Mr. Hastings stood
+with folded arms, looking first from one window and then from the
+other, his thoughts were far from being agreeable, save when he bent
+over the cradle of his first-born, and then there broke over his face a
+look of unutterable tenderness, which was succeeded by a shade of deep
+anxiety as his eye rested upon his frail young wife, whose face seemed
+whiter even than the pillow on which it lay.
+
+After a few weeks, during which time Ella had gained a little strength
+and was able to see her friends, Eugenia came regularly to Rose Hill,
+sitting all day by the bedside of the invalid, to whom she sometimes
+brought a glass of water, or some such trivial thing. Occasionally,
+too, she would look to see if the baby were asleep, pronouncing it "a
+perfect little cherub, just like its mother;" and there her services
+ended, for it never occurred to her that she could make the room much
+more cheerful by picking up and putting away the numerous articles
+which lay scattered around, and which were a great annoyance to the
+more orderly Mr. Hastings. Once, when Ella, as usual, was expatiating
+upon her goodness, asking her husband if she were not the best girl in
+the world, and saying "they must make her some handsome present in
+return for all she had done," he replied, "I confess, I should think
+more of Miss Deane, if she did you any real good, or rendered you any
+actual service; but, as far as I can discover, she merely sits here
+talking to you until you are wearied out."
+
+"Why, what would you have her do?" asked Ella, her large blue eyes
+growing larger and bluer.
+
+"I hardly know myself," answered Mr. Hastings; "but it seems to me that
+a genuine woman could not sit day after day in such a disorderly room
+as this."
+
+"Oh, Howard!" exclaimed Ella, "you surely cannot expect Eugenia Deane
+to do a servant's duty. Why, she has been as delicately brought up as
+I, and knows quite as little of work."
+
+"More shame for her if this is true," answered Mr. Hastings somewhat
+bitterly, and Ella continued.
+
+"You've got such queer ideas, Howard, of _woman's duties._ I should
+suppose you would have learned, ere this, that few ladies are like your
+mother, who, though a blessed good soul, has the oddest notions."
+
+"But they make a man's home mighty comfortable, those odd notions of
+mother's," said Mr. Hastings; then, knowing how useless it would be to
+argue the point, he was about changing the subject, when the new nurse,
+who had been there but a few days (the first one having quarreled with
+Mrs. Leah, and gone home), came in and announced her intention of
+leaving also, saying, "she would not live in the same house with old
+mother Leah!"
+
+It was in vain that Mr. Hastings tried to soothe the angry girl--she
+was determined, and for a second time was Ella left alone.
+
+"Oh, what will become of me?" she groaned, as the door closed upon her
+late nurse. "Do, pray, Howard, go to the kitchen and get me
+some--some--_I don't know what,_ but get me _something!_"
+
+With a very vague idea as to what he was to get or to do, Mr. Hastings
+left the room just as it was entered by Eugenia, to whom Ella detailed
+her grievances. "Her head ached dreadfully, Howard was cross, and her
+nurse gone. Oh, Eugenia!" she cried, "what shall I do? I wish I could
+die. Don't ever get married. What shall I do?"
+
+And hiding her face in the pillow, poor Ella sobbed bitterly. For a
+time Eugenia stood, revolving the propriety of offering Dora as a
+substitute in the place of the girl who had just left. "Mother can work
+a little harder," she thought. "And Alice can help her occasionally. It
+will please Mr. Hastings, I know. Poor man, _I pity him!_"
+
+So, more on account of the _pity_ she felt for Mr. Hastings, than for
+the _love_ she bore his wife, she said at last, "We have a little girl
+at our house, who is very capable for one of her years. I think she
+would be quite handy in a sick-room. At all events, she can rock the
+baby. Shall I send her up until you get some one else?"
+
+"Oh, if you only would," answered Ella. "I should be so glad,"
+
+So, it was arranged that _Dora_ should come next morning, and then
+Eugenia, who was this time in a hurry, took her leave, having first
+said that Mrs. Hastings "needn't think strange if Dora called _her_
+cousin and her mother _aunt,_ for she was a poor relation, whom they
+had taken out of charity!"
+
+At first Mrs. Deane objected to letting her niece go, "for she was
+needed at home," she said; but Eugenia finally prevailed, as she
+generally did, and the next morning Dora, who was rather pleased with
+the change, started bundle in hand for Rose Hill. She had never been
+there before, and she walked leisurely along, admiring the beautiful
+house and grounds, and thinking Mrs. Hastings must be very happy to
+live in so fine a place. Ella was unusually nervous and low-spirited
+this morning, for her husband had gone to Rochester; and when Dora was
+shown into the room she was indulging in a fit of crying, and paid no
+attention whatever when Mrs. Leah said, "This is the new girl." "She'll
+get over it directly," muttered the housekeeper, as she went from the
+room, leaving Dora inexpressibly shocked at witnessing such grief in
+one whom she had thought so happy.
+
+"Can I do anything for you?" she said at last, drawing near, and
+involuntarily laying her hand on the golden curls she had so much
+admired.
+
+There was genuine sympathy in the tones of that childish voice, which
+touched an answering chord in Ella's heart, and lifting up her head she
+gazed curiously at the little brown-faced girl, who stood there neatly
+attired in a dress of plain dark calico, her auburn hair, which had
+grown rapidly, combed back from her open brow, and her dark-blue eyes
+full of tears. No one could mistake Dora Deane for a menial, and few
+could look upon her without being at once interested; for early sorrow
+had left a shade of sadness upon her handsome face, unusual in one so
+young. Then, too, there was an expression of goodness and truth shining
+out all over her countenance, and Ella's heart yearned towards her at
+once as towards a long-tried friend. Stretching out her white, wasted
+hand, she said, "And you are _Dora._ I am glad you have come. The sight
+of you makes me feel better already," and the small, rough hand she
+held was pressed with a fervor which showed that she was sincere in
+what she said. It was strange how fast they grew to liking each
+other--those two children--for in everything save years, Ella was
+younger far than Dora Deane; and it was strange, too, what a change the
+little girl's presence wrought in the sick-chamber. Naturally neat and
+orderly, she could not sit quietly down in the midst of disorder, and
+as far as she was able, she put things in their proper places; then, as
+her quick-seeing eye detected piles of dust which for days had been
+unmolested, she said, "Will it disturb you if I sweep?"
+
+"Not at all. Do what you like," answered Ella, her own spirits rising
+in proportion as the appearance of her surroundings was improved.
+
+Everything was in order at last. The carpet was swept, the furniture
+dusted, the chairs emptied, the curtains looped back, and the hearth
+nicely washed. Fresh, clean linen was put upon the pillows, while
+Ella's tangled curls were carefully brushed and tucked under her
+tasteful cap, and then for the first time Dora took the baby upon her
+lap. It was a little thing, but very beautiful to the young mother, and
+beautiful, too, to Dora, when she learned that its name was "Fannie."
+
+"_Fannie!_" how it carried her back to the long ago, when her father
+had spoken, and her precious mother had answered to that blessed name!
+And how it thrilled her as she repeated it again and again, while her
+tears fell like rain on the face of the unconscious infant.
+
+"Why do you cry?" asked Ella, and Dora answered, "I am thinking of
+mother. Her name was Fannie, and I shall love the baby for her sake."
+
+"Has your mother long been dead? Tell me of her," said Ella; and
+drawing her chair close to the bedside, Dora told the sad story of her
+life, while Ella Hastings's tears fell fast and her eyes opened wide
+with wonder as she heard of the dreary room, the dead mother, the
+bitter cold night, and of the good lady who brought them aid.
+
+Starting up in bed and looking earnestly at Dora, Ella said, "And _you_
+are the little girl whom Howard and Mrs. Elliott found sleeping on her
+mother's neck that New Year's morning. But God didn't let you freeze.
+He saved you to live with me, which you will do always. And I will be
+to you a sister, for I know you must be good."
+
+And the impulsive creature threw her arms around the neck of the
+astonished Dora, who for some time could not speak, so surprised and
+delighted was she to learn that her benefactress was indeed the sister
+of Mr. Hastings, After a moment, Ella continued, "And you came to live
+with some distant relatives--with Mrs. Deane?"
+
+"Yes, with Aunt Sarah," answered Dora, stating briefly the
+comparatively double relationship that existed between herself and her
+cousins, and casually mentioning her uncle Nathaniel, whom she had
+never seen.
+
+"Then he is _your_ uncle, too--the old East India man, whose heir
+Eugenia is to be. I should think he would send _you_ money."
+
+"He never does," said Dora, in a choking voice. "He sent some to
+Eugenia once, but none to me," and a tear at her uncle's supposed
+coldness fell on the baby's head.
+
+Ella was puzzled, but she could not doubt the truth of what Dora had
+said, though she wisely refrained from betraying Eugenia, in whom her
+confidence was slightly shaken, but was soon restored by the appearance
+of the young lady herself, who overwhelmed her with caressess, and went
+into ecstasies over the little Fannie, thus surely winning her way to
+the mother's heart. Owing to a severe cold from which Eugenia was
+suffering, she left for home about dark, and soon after her departure,
+Ella began to expect her husband.
+
+"If you will tell me where to find his dressing-gown and slippers, I'll
+bring them out for him," said Dora, wheeling up before the glowing
+grate the large easy-chair which she felt almost sure was occupied by
+Mr. Hastings.
+
+"His gown and slippers!" repeated Ella. "It's an age since I saw them,
+but I guess they are in the dressing-room, either behind the door, or
+in the black trunk, or on the shelf--or, stay, I shouldn't wonder if
+they were on the _closet floor._"
+
+And there, under a promiscuous pile of other garments, Dora found them,
+sadly soiled, and looking as if they had not seen the light for many a
+day. Shaking out the gown, and brushing the dust from off the slippers,
+she laid them in the chair, and Ella, who was watching her, said,
+"Pray, what put that into your mind?"
+
+"I don't know," returned Dora; "only I thought, perhaps, you did so,
+when you were well Ever so long ago, before pa died, mother made him a
+calico dressing-gown, and he used to look so pleased when he found it
+in his chair."
+
+"Strange I never thought of such things," softly whispered Ella,
+unconsciously learning a lesson from the little domestic girl, who
+brushed the hearth, dropped the curtains, lighted the lamp, and then
+went out to the kitchen in quest of milk for Fannie.
+
+"He will be so happy and pleased!" said Ella, as, lifting up her head,
+she surveyed the cheerful room.
+
+And happy indeed he was. It was the first time he had left his wife
+since her illness, and with a tolerable degree of satisfaction he took
+his seat in the evening cars. We say _tolerable_, for though he was
+really anxious to see Ella and the baby, he was in no particular haste
+to see the room in which he had left them; and rather reluctantly he
+entered his handsome dwelling, starting back when he opened the door of
+the sick chamber, and half thinking he had mistaken another man's house
+for his own. But Ella's voice reassured him, and in a few moments he
+had heard from her the story of Dora Deane, who ere long came in, and
+was duly presented. Taking her hand in his, and looking down upon her
+with his large black eyes, he said, "I have seen you before, I believe,
+but I did not then think that when we met again I should be so much
+indebted to you. I am glad you are here, Dora."
+
+Once before had he held that hand in his, and now, as then, the touch
+sent the warm blood bounding through her veins. She had passed through
+much since that wintry morning, had grown partially indifferent to
+coldness and neglect, but the extreme kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Hastings
+touched her heart; and stammering out an almost inaudible reply, she
+turned away to hide her tears, while Mr. Hastings, advancing towards
+the fire, exclaimed, "My double gown! And it's so long since I saw it!
+To whose thoughtfulness am I indebted for this?"
+
+"'Twas Dora," answered Ella. "She thinks of everything. She is my good
+angel, and I mean to keep her always, if she will stay. Will you, dear?"
+
+"Oh, if I only could," answered Dora; "but I can't. They need me at
+home!"
+
+"Why need you? They have servants enough," said Ella, who had not yet
+identified Eugenia's waiting-maid with the bright, intelligent child
+before her.
+
+"We have no servants but _me,_" answered the truthful Dora. "We are
+poor, and I help Aunt Sarah to pay for my board; so, you see, I can't
+stay. And then, too, I must go to school."
+
+Perfectly astonished at this fresh disclosure, Ella glanced towards her
+husband, whose quizzical expression kept her silent, for it seemed to
+say, "I told you all the time, that Miss Eugenia was not exactly what
+you supposed her to be."
+
+"How could she deceive me so?" thought Ella, while Mr. Hastings was
+mentally resolving to befriend the child, in whom he felt such a strong
+interest.
+
+Wishing to know; something of her education, he questioned her during
+the evening concerning her studies, and the books she had read, feeling
+surprised and pleased to find how good a scholar she was, considering
+her advantages.
+
+"There's the germ of a true, noble woman there. I wish my sister could
+have the training of her," he thought, as he saw how animated she
+became when he mentioned her favorite books, and then watched her as
+she hovered round the bedside of his wife.
+
+Very swiftly and pleasantly passed the three following days, and during
+all that time Eugenia did not once appear; but at the close of the
+fourth day, a note was brought to Ella, saying that both Eugenia and
+her mother were sick, and Dora must come home.
+
+"Oh, how can I let you go?" cried Ella, while Dora crept away into a
+corner and wept.
+
+But there was no alternative, and just at dark she came to say good-by.
+Winding her feeble arms around her neck, Ella sobbed out her adieu, and
+then, burying her face in her pillow, refused to be comforted. One kiss
+for the little Fannie--one farewell glance at the weeping Ella, and
+then, with a heavy heart, Dora went out from a place where she had been
+so happy--went back to the home where no one greeted her kindly, save
+the old house cat, who purred a joyous welcome, and rubbed against her
+side as she kindled a fire in the dark, dreary kitchen, where, on the
+table, were piles of dishes left for her to wash. That night, when, at
+a late hour, she stole up to bed, the contrast between her humble room
+and the cozy chamber where she had recently slept, affected her
+painfully, and, mingled with her nightly prayer, was the petition, that
+"sometime she might go back and live with _Mr. Hastings._"
+
+Meantime at Rose Hill there was sorrowing for her, Ella refusing to be
+comforted unless she should return, Mr. Hastings, who had spent the day
+in the city, and did not come home until evening, felt that something
+was wrong the moment he entered the door of his chamber. The fire was
+nearly out, the lamp was burning dimly, and Ella was in tears.
+
+"What is it, darling?" he asked, advancing towards her; and laying her
+aching head upon his bosom, she told him of her loss, and how much she
+missed the little brown-faced girl, who had been so kind to her.
+
+And Howard Hastings missed her too--missed the tones of her gentle
+voice, the soft tread of her busy feet, and more than all, missed the
+sunlight of comfort she had shed over his home. The baby missed her,
+too; for over her Dora had acquired an almost mesmeric influence, and
+until midnight her wailing cry smote painfully upon the ear of the
+father, who, before the morning dawned, had concluded that Rose Hill
+was nothing without Dora Deane. "She shall come back, too," he said,
+and the sooner to effect this, he started immediately after breakfast
+for the house of Mrs. Deane. Very joyfully the deep blue eyes of Dora,
+who met him at the door, looked up into his, and her bright face
+flushed with delight when he told her why he had come. Both Eugenia and
+her mother were convalescent, and sitting by the parlor fire, the one
+in a shilling calico, and the other in a plaid silk morning gown. At
+first Mrs. Deane objected, when she heard Mr. Hastings's errand,
+saying, with a sudden flash of pride, that "it was not necessary for
+her niece to work out."
+
+"And I assure you, it is not our intention to make a servant of her,"
+answered Mr. Hastings, "We could not do otherwise than treat so near a
+relative of yours as an equal."
+
+This last was well timed, and quite complacently Mrs. Deane listened,
+while he told her that if Dora were allowed to stay with them until his
+wife was better, she should be well cared for, and he himself would
+superintend her studies, so she should lose nothing by being out of
+school. "Come, Miss Eugenia," he continued, "please intercede for me,
+and, I assure you, both Ella and myself will be eternally grateful."
+
+He had touched the right cord at last. Rumor said that Ella Hastings
+would never see another summer, and if before her death the husband was
+eternally grateful, what would he not be after her death? Then, too,
+but the day before they had received a remittance from Uncle Nat, and
+with that they could afford to hire a servant; so, when Eugenia spoke,
+it was in favor of letting "_Mr. Hastings have Dora just when he wanted
+her_, if it would be any satisfaction to poor dear Ella!"
+
+A while longer Mr. Hastings remained, and when at last he arose to go,
+he was as sure that Dora Deane would again gladden his home as he was
+next morning, when from his library window he saw her come tripping up
+the walk, her cheeks flushed with exercise, and her eyes sparkling with
+joy, as, glancing upward, she saw him looking down upon her. In after
+years, when Howard Hastings's cup was full of blessings, he often
+referred to that morning, saying "he had seldom experienced a moment of
+deeper thankfulness than the one when he welcomed back again to his
+fireside and his home the orphan Dora Deane."
+
+------------
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ELLA.
+
+
+Very pleasantly to Dora did the remainder of the winter pass away. She
+was appreciated at last, and nothing could exceed the kindness of both
+Mr. and Mrs. Hastings, the latter of whom treated her more like a
+sister than a servant, while even Eugenia, who came often to Rose Hill,
+and whose fawning manner had partially restored her to the good opinion
+of the fickle Ella, tried to treat her with a show of affection, when
+she saw how much she was respected. Regularly each day Dora went to the
+handsome library where she recited her lessons to Mr. Hastings, who
+became deeply interested in watching the development of her fine
+intellectual mind.
+
+One thing, however, troubled her. Ella did not improve, and never since
+Dora came to Rose Hill had she sat up more than an hour, but lay all
+day on her bed, while her face grew white almost as the wintry snow,
+save when a bright red spot burned upon her cheeks, making her, as Dora
+thought, even more beautiful than she had been in health. Once in the
+gathering twilight, when they sat together alone, she startled Dora
+with the question, "Is everybody afraid to die?"
+
+"Mother was not," answered Dora, and Ella continued, "But she was good,
+and I am not. I have never done a worthy act in all my life. Never
+thought of _death_, or even looked upon it, for mother told us there
+was no need of harrowing up our feelings--it would come soon enough,
+she said; and to me, who hoped to live so long, it has come _too
+soon_--all too soon;" and the hot tears rained through the transparent
+fingers, clasped so convulsively over her face.
+
+For many weeks Dora had felt an undefined presentiment of coming
+evil--had seen it in Ella's failing health--in the increased tenderness
+of Mr. Hastings's manner, whenever he bent over the pillow of his young
+wife, or bore her in his arms, as he sometimes did, to the window, that
+she might look out upon, the garden, and the winding walks which she
+would never tread again. And now Ella herself had confirmed it--had
+spoken of death as something very near.
+
+"Oh, she must not die!" was Dora's mental cry of anguish, as moving
+nearer to the bedside she grasped the little wasted hand which lay
+outside the counterpane, and this was her only answer, for she could
+not speak. There was a numbness at her heart, a choking sensation in
+her throat, which prevented her utterance. But Ella understood her, and
+returning the warm pressure, she continued, "You, too, have seen it
+then, and know that I must die; but oh! you do not know how I dread the
+lonesome darkness of the grave, or the world which lies beyond. If
+somebody would go with me, or teach me the way, it wouldn't be so hard."
+
+Poor Ella! Her life had been one round of fashionable folly, and now
+that the world was fading from her view, her fainting soul cried out
+for light to guide her through the shadowy valley her feet were soon to
+tread. And light came at last, through the word of God and the
+teachings of the faithful clergyman, who was sent for at her request,
+and who came daily up to see her. There was no more fear now--no more
+terror of the narrow tomb, for there was _One_ to go with her--one
+whose arm was powerful to save; and on Him Ella learned to lean,
+clinging still with an undying love to her husband, with whom she often
+talked of the time when he would be alone and she be far away.
+
+"It is so hard to give you up," she said one day, when as usual he was
+sitting by her side; "so hard to say good-by forever, and know that
+though you will miss me at first, and mourn for me too, there _will_
+come a time when another will take my place--another than Ella can call
+you hers; but I am willing," she continued, as she saw him about to
+speak, "willing that it should be so. I have loved you, Howard, more
+than you can know, or I can ever tell; but I am not worthy of you. I do
+not satisfy the higher feelings of your heart; I am not what _your_
+wife should be, and for this I must die. Many a night, when you were
+sleeping at my side, have I lain awake, asking myself why _I_, to whom
+the world was so beautiful and bright, must leave it so soon; and as I
+thought over the events of our short married life, the answer came to
+me, 'I cannot make you happy as you ought to be, and for your sake I am
+taken away.'"
+
+"Oh, Ella, Ella!" groaned Mr. Hastings, laying his head beside hers,
+upon the pillow.
+
+From his inmost soul he knew that what she said was true; but for this
+he would not that she should die. She had been to him a gentle, loving
+wife, the one he had chosen from all others to share his home; and
+though he had failed to find in her the companion he had sought, she
+was very dear to him--was the mother of his child; and the strong man's
+heart was full of anguish as he thought of giving her up so soon. Who
+would comfort him when she was gone or speak to him words of love?
+
+Softly the chamber door unclosed, and Dora Deane looked in; but seeing
+them thus together she stole away into the garden, where the early
+spring grass was just starting into life, and there, weeping bitterly,
+she too prayed that Ella might not die. But neither tears nor prayers
+were of avail to save her. Still for weeks she lingered, and the soft
+June air, stealing in through the open window, had more than once
+lifted the golden curls from off her fading brow, and more than one
+bouquet of sweet wild blossoms had been laid upon her pillow, ere the
+midnight hour, when, with anguish at their hearts, Howard Hastings and
+Dora Deane watched together by her side, and knew that she was dying.
+There had been long, dreary nights of wakefulness, and the worn-out
+sufferer had asked at last that she might die--might sleep the
+dreamless sleep from which she would never waken. And Howard Hastings,
+as night after night went by, and the laughing blue eyes which had won
+his early love grew dim with constant waking, had felt that it would be
+better when his loved one was at rest. But death, however long
+expected, is sudden at the last, and so it was to him, when he saw the
+shadow creeping over her face, which cometh once to all. She would not
+suffer them to rouse the household, she would rather die with them
+alone, she said, with Dora standing near, and her husband's arms about
+her so that the tones of his voice should be the last sound which would
+fall upon her ear, and Dora's hand the last to minister to her wants.
+
+"I have loved you so much, Howard, oh, so much!" and the white clammy
+fingers, so soon to be laid away beneath the summer flowers, strayed
+lovingly through the raven locks of her husband, who could answer only
+with his tears, which fell fast upon her face. "And you too, Dora," she
+continued, motioning the weeping girl to advance, "I have loved you
+too, for you have been kind to me, and when I am gone, you will live
+here still and care for my child, whom we have called _Fannie_. It is a
+beautiful name, Dora--your mother's name, and for your sake, I would
+fain let her keep it--but," turning to Mr. Hastings, and laying her
+hand caressingly upon his head, "when I no longer live, I would rather
+you should call my baby _Ella Grey;_ and if my husband"--here she
+paused to gather strength for what she was about to say, and after a
+moment continued, "if, in coming years, another sits beside you in my
+chair, and the voices of other children shall call you father, you will
+not forget your first-born, I know, but will love her better, and
+think, perchance, the oftener of me, if she bears my name, for,
+however, truly you may hereafter love, it was Ella Grey that won your
+first affection."
+
+Again she paused, and there was no sound heard in the chamber of death,
+save the sobs of those about to be bereaved, and the faint rustling of
+the leaves without, which were gently moved by the night wind.
+
+"Bring me my baby," she said at last; and Dora laid the sleeping child
+in the arms of the young mother, who, clasping it fondly to her bosom,
+breathed over it a dying mother's blessing, and with a dying mother's
+tears baptized it Ella Grey.
+
+There was a long, deep silence then, and when at last Howard Hastings
+lifted up his head from the pillow where it had been resting, and Dora
+Deane came timidly to his side, they gazed together on the face of the
+sweetly sleeping dead.
+
+----------------
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE HOUSE OF MOURNING.
+
+
+Ella Hastings was dead. The deep-toned bell proclaimed it to the people
+of Dunwood, who, counting the nineteen strokes, sighed that one so
+young should die. The telegraphic wires carried it to her childhood's
+home, in the far-off city; and while her tears were dropping fast for
+the first dead of her children, the fashionable mother did not forget
+to have her mourning in the most expensive and becoming style. The
+servants in the kitchen whispered it one to the other, treading softly
+and speaking low, as if aught could disturb the slumber of her who lay
+so motionless and still, unmindful of the balmy summer air which kissed
+her marble cheek. The grief-stricken husband repeated it again and
+again as he sat by her side in the darkened room; and only they who
+have felt it, can know with what a crushing weight they fell upon his
+heart, the three words--"She is dead!"
+
+Yes, Ella was dead, and Eugenia Deane, with hypocritical tears, upon
+her cheek, gathered fresh, white rosebuds, and twining them in the
+golden curls which shaded the face of the beautiful dead, dared even
+there to think that _Howard Hastings was free_; and as she saw the
+silent grief of the stricken man, who, with his head upon the table,
+sat hour after hour, unmindful of the many who came to look on what had
+been his wife, her lip curled with scorn, and she marveled that one so
+frivolous as Ella should be so deeply mourned. Once she ventured to
+speak, asking him some trivial thing concerning the arrangement of
+affairs, and without looking up, he answered, "Do as you like, until
+her mother comes. She will be here to-morrow."
+
+So, for the remainder of the day, Eugenia flitted from the parlor to
+the chamber of death, from the chamber of death to the kitchen, and
+from the kitchen back again to the parlor, ordering the servants,
+admitting visitors, and between times scolding Dora for "being so
+foolish as to cry herself sick for a person who, of course, cared
+nothing for her, except as a waiter!"
+
+Since the night of her mother's death, Dora's heart had not been half
+so sore with pain. The girlish Ella had been very dear to her, and the
+tears she shed were genuine. To no one else would the baby go, and
+after dinner was over, the dinner at which Eugenia presided, and of
+which Mr. Hastings could not be induced to partake, she went into the
+garden with her little charge, seating herself in a pleasant
+summer-house, which had been Ella's favorite resort. It was a warm,
+drowsy afternoon, and at last, worn out with weeping, and the fatigue
+of the last night's watching, she fell asleep, as the baby had done
+before. Not long had she sat thus, when Mr. Hastings, too, came down
+the graveled walk, and stood at the arbor door. The constant bustling
+in and out of Eugenia annoyed him, and wishing to be alone, he had come
+out into the open air, which he felt would do him good. When his eye
+fell on Dora, who was too soundly sleeping to be easily aroused, he
+murmured, "Poor child! she is wearied with so many wakeful nights;"
+then fearing lest the slender arms should relax their hold and drop the
+babe, he took it gently from her, and folding it to his bosom, sat down
+by her side, so that her drooping head could rest upon his shoulder.
+
+For two long hours she slept, and it was not until the baby's waxen
+fingers gave a vigorous pull to her short thick hair, that she awoke,
+feeling greatly surprised when she saw Mr. Hastings sitting near.
+
+"I found you asleep," he said, by way of explanation, "and knowing how
+tired you were, I gave you my arm for a pillow;" then, as the baby
+wished to go to her, he gave it up, himself going slowly back to the
+lonesome house, from which Ella was gone forever.
+
+The next morning, the mother and her three youngest daughters, all
+draped in deepest black, arrived at Rose Hill prepared to find fault
+with everything which savored at all of the "horrid country." Even
+Eugenia sank into nonentity in the presence of the cold city-bred
+woman, who ignored her existence entirely, notwithstanding that she
+loudly and repeatedly expressed so much affection for the deceased.
+
+"Perhaps your daughter wrote to you of me (Miss Deane); we were great
+friends," she said, when they stood together in the presence of the
+dead, and Mrs. Grey's emotions had somewhat subsided.
+
+"Possibly; but I never remember names," returned the haughty lady,
+without raising her eyes.
+
+"There are so few people here with whom she could be intimate,"
+continued Eugenia, "that I saw a great deal of her."
+
+But to this Mrs. Grey made no reply, except to ask, "Whose idea was it
+dressing Ella in this plain muslin wrapper, when she had so many
+handsome dresses? But it don't matter," she continued, as Eugenia was
+about to disclaim all participation in that affair. "It don't matter,
+for no one here appreciates anything better, I dare say. Where's the
+baby? I haven't seen that yet," she asked as they were descending the
+stairs.
+
+"She's with Dora, I presume," answered Eugenia; and Mrs. Grey
+continued--
+
+"Oh, the nurse girl, whom Ella wrote so much, about. Send her in."
+
+But Eugenia was not one to obey orders so peremptorily given, and, for
+a long time, Madam Grey and her three daughters waited the appearance
+of the nurse girl, who, not knowing that they were in the parlor,
+entered it at last, of her own accord, and stood before them with such
+a quiet, self-possessed dignity, that even Mrs. Grey treated her with
+far more respect than she had the assuming Eugenia, whose rule, for the
+time being, was at an end. Everything had been done wrong; and when Mr.
+Hastings spoke of having Ella buried at the foot of the spacious
+garden, in a quiet, grassy spot, where trees of evergreen were growing,
+she held up her hands in amazement at the idea that her daughter should
+rest elsewhere than in the fashionable precincts of Greenwood. So Mr.
+Hastings yielded, and on the morning of the third day, Dora watched
+with blinding tears the long procession winding slowly down the avenue,
+and out into the highway towards the village depot, where the shrieking
+of the engine, and the rattling of the car bell would be the only
+requiem tolled for Ella Hastings, as she was borne rapidly away from a
+spot which had been her home for one brief year.
+
+The little Ella was in Dora's arms, and as she, too, saw the handsome
+steeds and moving carriages, she laughed aloud, and patted the
+window-pane with her tiny baby hands. Dear little one! she did not
+know--would never know, how much she was bereaved; but Dora knew, and
+her tears fell all the faster when she thought that she, too, must
+leave her, for her aunt had said to Mr. Hastings, that after the
+funeral Dora must go home, adding, that Mrs. Leah would take care of
+Ella until his return. So, when the hum of voices and the tread of feet
+had ceased, when the shutters were closed and the curtains dropped,
+Eugenia came for her to go, while Mrs. Leah came to take the child, who
+refused to leave Dora, clinging so obstinately to her neck, and crying
+so pitifully, that even Eugenia was touched, and bade her cousin remain
+until Mr. Hastings came home. So Dora stayed, and the timid servants,
+as they sat together in the shadowy twilight, felt not half so lonely
+when they heard her gentle voice singing the motherless babe to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WAYS AND MEANS.
+
+
+With all the showy parade and empty pomp of a fashionable city funeral,
+Ella was laid to rest in Greenwood, and, in their darkened parlor,
+arrayed in the latest style of mourning, the mother and sisters
+received the sympathy of their friends, who hoped they would try to be
+reconciled, and were so sorry they could not now go to the Springs, as
+usual. In another parlor, too, far more elegant but less showy than
+that of Mrs. Grey, another mother wept for her only son, speaking to
+him blessed words of comfort in his bereavement, and telling him of the
+better world, where again he would meet the loved and lost. Once she
+ventured to hope that he would come back again to her fireside, now
+that his was desolate, but he refused. Rose Hill henceforth would be
+his home, and though it was lonely and drear, he must in a few days go
+back to it; for the sake of the little one, doubly dear to him now that
+its mother was gone. Oh, how sad was that journey back, and what a
+sense of desolation came over him, as he drew near his home, and knew
+that Ella was not there!--that never more would she come forth to meet
+him--never again would her little feet stray through the winding walks,
+or her fairy fingers pluck the flowers she had loved so well.
+
+It was near the first of July. The day had been rainy and the evening
+was dark and cold. Wet, chilly, and forlorn, he entered the hall and
+ascended the stairs, but he could not that night go to the old room and
+find it empty; and he was passing on to his library, when the sound of
+some one singing made him pause, while a thrill of joy ran through his
+veins, for he knew that childish voice, knew it was Dora Deane singing
+to his child. Another moment and he stood within the room where Ella
+had died. All traces of sickness and death had been removed, and
+everything was in perfect order. Vases of flowers adorned the mantel
+and the stands, seeming little out of place with the rain which beat
+against the window, and the fire which burned within the grate. In her
+crib lay Fannie, and sitting near was Dora Deane, her rich auburn hair
+combed smoothly back, and the great kindness of her heart shining out
+from the depths of her clear blue eyes.
+
+There are people whose very presence brings with it a feeling of
+comfort, and such a one was Dora. Mr. Hastings had not expected to find
+her there; and the sight of her bright face, though it did not remove
+the heavy pain from his heart, took from him the sense of utter
+desolation, the feeling of being alone in his sorrow.
+
+"Dora," he exclaimed, coming to her side, "I did not expect this! How
+happened you to stay?"
+
+"The baby cried so hard," answered Dora, "that Eugenia told me I might
+remain until your return."
+
+"It was very kind and thoughtful in her, and I thank her very much.
+Will you tell her so?" he said, involuntarily laying his hand on Dora's
+head.
+
+Divesting himself at last of his damp overcoat, and donning the warm
+dressing gown, which Dora brought him, he sat down before the fire, and
+listened while she told him how she had stayed in that room and kept it
+in order for him, because she thought it would not seem half so bad to
+him if he came into it at once and found it comparatively pleasant.
+
+"You are a very thoughtful girl," he said, when she had finished, "and
+I hope I shall some time repay you for your kindness to myself and
+Ella."
+
+But Dora did not wish for any pay, and at the mention of Ella's name
+her tears burst forth afresh. The next morning, when news of Mr.
+Hastings's return was received at Locust Grove, Eugenia at once
+suggested that Dora be sent for immediately. "It did not look well,"
+she said, "for a good sized girl, fourteen and a half years of age, to
+be staying in the same house with a widower. Folks would talk!"
+
+And growing suddenly very careful of her cousin's reputation, she
+dispatched a note to Rose Hill requesting her immediate return. Not
+that she really thought there would be any impropriety in Dora's
+staying with Mr. Hastings, but because she had a plan by which she
+hoped herself to see him every day. And in this plan she succeeded. As
+she had expected, her note brought down Mr. Hastings himself, who, on
+his child's account, objected to parting with Dora, unless it were
+absolutely necessary.
+
+"She is as well off there as here," said he; "and why can't she stay?"
+
+"I am perfectly willing she should take care of little Ella," answered
+the previously instructed Mrs. Deane, who, in a measure, shared her
+daughter's ambitious designs; "but it must be done here, if at all. I
+can't suffer her to remain alone with those gossiping servants."
+
+"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Eugenia, speaking as if this were the first she
+had heard of it. "That is a good idea. It will be delightful to have
+the dear little creature here, and so much better for her too in case
+of _croup_, or anything like that, to be with an experienced person
+like mother!"
+
+"But," said Mr. Hastings, "this would keep Dora entirely from her
+studies, and that ought not to be."
+
+"It need not," hastily interrupted Eugenia. "She can go to school every
+day, for nothing will give me greater pleasure than to take care of our
+dear Ella's child;" and the pocket-handkerchief went up to her face to
+conceal the tears which might have been there, but probably were not.
+
+It was finally arranged, and in the course of a few days the parlor of
+Locust Grove was echoing sometimes to the laughter, and sometimes to
+the screaming, of little Ella Grey, who, from some unaccountable freak
+of babyhood, conceived a violent fancy for Eugenia, to whom she would
+go quite as readily as to Dora, whose daily absence at school she at
+last did not mind. Regularly each day, and sometimes twice a day, Mr.
+Hastings came down to Locust Grove, and his manner was very kind toward
+Eugenia, when he found her, as he often did, with his baby sleeping in
+her arms. He did not know how many times, at his approach, it was
+snatched from the cradle by Eugenia, who, in reality, was not
+remarkably fond of baby-tending, and who, in the absence of the father,
+left the child almost wholly to the care of her mother and sister.
+Management, however, was everything, and fancying she had found the
+shortest avenue to Mr. Hastings's heart, she, in his presence, fondled,
+and petted and played with his child, taking care occasionally to hint
+of neglect on the part of Dora, whom he now seldom saw as, at the hour
+of his calling, she was generally in school. It was by such means as
+this that Eugenia sought to increase Mr. Hastings's regard for herself,
+and in a measure she succeeded; for though his respect for Dora was
+undiminished, he could not conceal from himself the fact that Eugenia
+was very agreeable, very interesting and very _kind to his daughter_!
+
+As the autumn advanced, and the cold rainy weather precluded out-door
+exercise, it was but natural that he should spend much of his time at
+Locust Grove, where his tastes were carefully studied, his favorite
+books read, and his favorite authors discussed, while Eugenia's
+handsome black eyes smiled a welcome when he came, and drooped
+pensively beneath her long eyelashes when he went away. Thus the autumn
+and the winter passed, and when the spring had come, the village of
+Dunwood was rife with rumors concerning the attraction which drew Mr.
+Hastings so often to Locust Grove; some sincerely pitying him if,
+indeed, he entertained a serious thought of making Eugenia Deane his
+wife, while others severely censured him for having so soon forgotten
+one whose grave had not been made a twelvemonth. But he had not
+forgotten, and almost every hour of his life was her loved name upon
+his lips, and the long golden tress his own hand had severed from her
+head was guarded as his choicest treasure, while the dark hours of the
+night bore witness to his lonely grief. And it was to escape this
+loneliness--to forget for a brief time the sad memories of the
+past--that he went so often to Locust Grove, where as yet his child was
+the greater attraction, though he could not be insensible to the charms
+of Eugenia who spared no pains to interest him in herself.
+
+He was passionately fond of music, and many an hour she sat patiently
+at the piano, seeking to perfect herself in a difficult piece, with
+which she thought to surprise him. But nothing, however admirably
+executed, could sound well upon her old-fashioned instrument, and how
+to procure a new one was the daily subject of her meditations.
+Occasionally, as she remembered the beautiful rosewood piano standing
+useless and untouched in the parlors of Rose Hill, something whispered
+her to wait "and it would yet be hers." But this did not satisfy her
+present desire, for aside from the sweet sounds, with which she hoped
+to entrance Mr. Hastings, was the wish to make him think them much
+wealthier than they were. From one or two circumstances, she had
+gathered the impression that he thought them poor, and, judging him by
+herself, she fancied her chances for becoming Mrs. Hastings 2d, would
+be greatly increased if by any means he could be made to believe her
+comparatively rich. As one means of effecting this, she must and would
+have a new piano, costing not less than four hundred dollars. But how
+to procure the money was the question; the remittance from Uncle Nat,
+which had come on the first day of January, was already half gone, and
+she could not, as she had once done before, make Dora's _head_ keep her
+out of the difficulty. At last, a new idea suggested itself, and
+springing to her feet she exclaimed aloud, for she was alone, "I have
+it; strange I didn't think of that before. I'll write to the old man,
+and tell him that as Dora is now fifteen, we would gladly send her away
+to school, if we had the means, but our expenses are so great it is
+impossible, unless the money comes from him. And he'll do it too, the
+old miser!--for in his first letter he said he would increase the
+allowance as Dora grew older."
+
+Suiting the action to the word, she drew out her writing-desk, and
+commenced a letter to her "dearest Uncle Nathaniel," feelingly
+describing to him their straitened circumstances, and the efforts of
+herself and her sister to keep the family in _necessaries_, which they
+were enabled to do very comfortably with the addition of the allowance
+he so generously sent them every year. But they wished now to send Dora
+to school, to see if anything could be made of her! She had improved
+latterly, and they really hoped a change of scene would benefit her.
+For Dora's sake, then, would "her dear uncle be so kind as to send
+them, on the receipt of that letter, such a sum as he thought best. If
+so, he would greatly oblige his loving niece."
+
+"There! That will do," she said, leaning back in her chair, and
+laughing as she thought what her mother and Alice would say, if they
+knew what she had done. "But they needn't know it," she continued
+aloud, "until the money comes, and then they can't help themselves."
+
+Then it occurred to her that if Dora herself were to send some message,
+the coming of the money might be surer; and calling her cousin into the
+room, she said:
+
+"I am about writing to old Uncle Nat--have you any word or anything to
+send him?"
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Dora. "Give him my love, and tell him how much I
+wish he would come home--and stay!" she added, leaving the room, and
+soon returning with a lock of soft brown hair, which she laid upon the
+table. "Give him that, and tell him it was mother's."
+
+Had a serpent started suddenly into life before Eugenia, she could not
+have turned whiter than she did at the sight of that hair. It brought
+vividly to mind the shadowy twilight, the darkness in the corners, and
+the terror which came over her on that memorable night, when she had
+thought to steal Dora's treasure. Soon recovering her composure,
+however, she motioned her cousin from the room, and, resuming her pen,
+said to herself, "I shan't write all that nonsense about his coming
+home, for nobody wants him here; but the love and the hair may as well
+go."
+
+Then, as she saw how much of the latter Dora had brought, she
+continued, "There's no need of sending all this. It would make
+beautiful hair ornaments, and I mean to keep a part of it; Dora won't
+care, of course, and I shall tell her."
+
+Dividing off a portion of the hair for her own use, she laid it aside,
+and then in a postscript wrote, "Dora sends"--here she paused; and
+thinking that "Dora's _love_" would please the old man too much, and
+possibly give him too favorable an opinion of his niece, she crossed
+out the "sends," and wrote, "Dora wishes to be remembered to you, and
+sends for your acceptance a lock of her mother's hair."
+
+Thus was the letter finished, and the next mail which left Dunwood bore
+it on its way to India, Eugenia little thinking how much it would
+influence her whole future life.
+
+----------------
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+UNCLE NAT.
+
+
+IT was a glorious moonlight night, and, like gleams of burnished
+silver, the moonbeams flashed from the lofty domes and minarets of
+Calcutta, or shone like sparkling gems on the sleeping waters of the
+bay. It was a night when the Hindoo lover told his tale to the dusky
+maiden at his side, and the soldier, wearing the scarlet uniform,
+talked to his blue-eyed bride of the home across the waters, which she
+had left to be with him.
+
+On this night, too, an old man in his silent room, sat thinking of
+_his_ home far beyond the shores of "Merrie England." Near him lay a
+letter, Eugenia's letter, which was just received. He had not opened it
+yet, for the sight of it had carried him back across the Atlantic wave,
+and again he saw, in fancy, the granite hills which had girded his
+childhood's home--the rock where he had played--the tree where he had
+carved his name, and the rushing mountain stream, which ran so swiftly
+past the red house in the valley--the home where he was born, and where
+had come to him the heart grief which had made him the strange,
+eccentric being he was. Thoughts of the dead were with him, too,
+to-night, and with his face buried in his broad, rough hands, he
+thought of, _her_, whose winsome smile and gentle ways had woven around
+his heart a mighty and undying love, such as few men ever felt. Of
+Dora, too, he thought--Dora, whom he had never seen--and his heart
+yearned towards her with a deep tenderness, because his Fannie had been
+her mother.
+
+"I should love her, I know," he said, "even though she were
+cold-hearted and stupid as they say;" then, as he remembered the
+letter, he continued, "I will open it, for it may have tidings of the
+child."
+
+The seal was broken, the letter unfolded, and a tress of shining hair
+dropped on the old man's hand, clinging lovingly, as it were, about his
+fingers, while a low, deep cry broke the stillness of the room. He knew
+it in a moment--knew it was _Fannie's hair_--the same he had so oft
+caressed when she was but a little girl and he a grown-up man. It was
+Fannie's hair, come to him over land and sea, and his eyes grew dim
+with tears, which rained over his thin, dark face as he kissed again
+and again the precious boon, dearer far to him than the golden ore of
+India. "Fannie's hair!" very softly he repeated the words, holding it
+up to the moonlight, and then turning it toward the lamp, as if to
+assure himself that he really had it in his possession. "Why was it
+never sent before?" he said at last, "or why was it sent at all?" and
+taking up the letter, he read it through, lingering long over the
+postscript, and grieving that Dora's message, the first he had ever
+received, should be comparatively so cold.
+
+"Why couldn't she have sent her _love_ to her poor old uncle, who has
+nothing in the wide, wide world to love save this one lock of hair! God
+bless you, Dora Deane, for sending that," and again he raised it to his
+lips, saying as he did so, "And she shall have the money, too, aye,
+more than Eugenia asked; _one golden dollar for every golden hair_,
+will be a meet return!" And the old man laughed aloud at the novel
+idea, which no one but himself would have conceived.  It was a long,
+weary task, the counting of those hairs; for more than once, when he
+paused in his work to think of her whose head they once adorned, he
+forgot how many had been told, and patiently began again, watching
+carefully, through blinding tears, to see that none were lost, for he
+would not that one should escape him. It was strange how childish the
+strong man became, counting those threads of hair; and when at last the
+labor was completed, he wept because there were no more. Fifteen
+hundred dollars seemed too small a sum to pay for what would give him
+so much joy; and _he_ mourned that the tress had not been larger, quite
+as much as did Eugenia, when she heard of his odd fancy.
+
+The moon had long since ceased to shine on the sleeping city, and day
+was breaking in the east, ere Nathaniel Deane arose from the table
+where he had sat the livelong night, gloating over his treasure, and
+writing a letter which now lay upon the table. It was addressed to
+Dora, and in it he told her what he had done, blessing her for sending
+him that lock of hair, and saying that the sight of it made his
+withered heart grow young and green again, as it was in the happy days
+when he so madly loved her mother. Then he told her how he yearned to
+behold her, to look upon her face and see which she was like, her
+father or her mother. Both were very dear to him, and for their sake he
+loved their child.
+
+"No one will ever call me _father_," he wrote, "and I am lonely in my
+Indian home, lined all over, as it is, with gold, and sometimes, Dora,
+since I have heard of you, orphaned thus early, I have thought I would
+return to America, and seeking out some pleasant spot, would build a
+home for you and me. And this I would do, were I sure that I was wanted
+there--that you would be happier with me than with your aunt and
+cousins. Are they kind to you, my child? Sometimes, in my reveries, I
+have fancied they were not--have dreamed of a girlish face, with locks
+like that against which my old heart is beating, and eyes of deep dark
+blue, looking wistfully at me, across the waste of waters, and telling
+me of cruel neglect and indifference. Were this indeed so, not all
+India would keep me a moment from your side.
+
+"Write to me, Dora, and tell me of yourself, that I may judge something
+of your character. Tell me, too, if you ever think of the lonesome old
+man, who, each night of his life, remembers you in his prayers, asking
+that if on earth he may never look on _Fannie's_ child, he may at last
+meet and know her in the better land. And now farewell, my _daughter_,
+mine by adoption, if from no other cause.
+
+"Write to me soon, and tell me if at home there is one who would kindly
+welcome back.
+
+"Your rough old UNCLE NAT."
+
+"She'll answer that," the old man said, as he read it over. "She'll
+tell me to come home," and, like a very child, his heart bounded with
+joy as he thought of breathing again the air of the western world.
+
+The letter was sent, and with it we, too, will return to America, and
+going backward for a little, take up our story at a period three months
+subsequent to the time when Eugenia wrote to Uncle Nat.
+
+---------
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+MANAGEMENT.
+
+
+One year had passed away since the night when Ella Hastings died, and
+alone in his chamber the husband was musing of the past, and holding,
+as it were, communion with the departed, who seemed this night to be so
+near that once he said aloud, "Ella, are you with me now?" But to his
+call there came no answer, save the falling of the summer rain; and
+again, with his face upon the pillow, just as it had lain one year ago,
+he asked himself if to the memory of the dead he had thus long been
+faithful; if no thought of another had mingled with his love for her;
+and was it to ascertain this that she had come back to him to-night,
+for he felt that she was there, and again he spoke aloud, "I have not
+forgotten you, darling; but I am lonesome, oh, so lonesome, and the
+world looks dark and drear. Lay your hand upon my heart, dear Ella, and
+you will feel its weight of pain."
+
+But why that sudden lifting of the head, as if a spirit hand had indeed
+touched him with its icy fingers? Howard Hastings was not afraid of the
+dead, and it was not this which made him start so nervously to his
+feet. His ear had caught the sound of a light footstep in the hall
+below, and coming at that hour of a stormy night, it startled him, for
+he remembered that the outer door had been left unlocked. Nearer and
+nearer it came, up the winding stairs, and on through the silent hall,
+tin til it readied the threshold of his chamber, where it ceased, while
+a low voice spoke his name.
+
+In an instant he was at the door, standing face to face with Dora
+Deane, whose head was uncovered, and whose hair was drenched with the
+rain.
+
+"Dora," he exclaimed, "how came you here and wherefore have you come?"
+
+"Your child!" was her only answer, and in another moment he, too, was
+cut in the storm with Dora Deane, whose hand he involuntarily took in
+his, as if to shield her from the darkness.
+
+In a few words she told him how she had been aroused from her sleep by
+her aunt, who said the baby was dying with the croup; that the servant
+was timid and refused to go either for him or the physician, and so she
+had come herself.
+
+"And were you not afraid?" he asked; and the heroic girl answered, "No;
+I fancied Ella was with me, cheering me on, and I felt no fear."
+
+Mr. Hastings made no reply, but, when lie reached the house, and saw
+the white, waxen lace of the child, he felt that Ella had indeed been
+near to him that night; that she had come for her little one, who, with
+a faint, moaning cry, stretched its hands towards Dora, as she entered
+the room. And Dora took it in her arms, holding it lovingly there,
+until the last, painful struggle was over, and the father, standing
+near, knew that wife and child had met together in heaven.
+
+At the foot of the garden, beneath the evergreens, where he had wished
+to lay his other Ella, they buried the little girl, and then Howard
+Hastings was, indeed, alone in the world--alone in his great house,
+which seemed doubly desolate now that all were gone. For many weeks he
+did not go to Locust Grove, but remained in his quiet rooms, brooding
+over his grief, and going often to the little grave beneath the
+evergreens. There, once, al the hour of sunset, he found _Eugenia
+Deane_ planting flowers above his sleeping child! She had marveled much
+that he stayed so long away, and learning that the sunset hour was
+always spent in the garden, she had devised a plan for meeting him. It
+succeeded, and with well-feigned embarrassment she was hurrying away,
+when he detained her, bidding her tarry while he told her how much he
+thanked her for her kindness to his child.
+
+"I have wished to come to Locust Grove," he said, "and thank you all,
+but I could not, for there is now no baby face to greet me."
+
+"But there are those there still who would welcome you with pleasure,"
+softly answered Eugenia; and then with her dark eyes sometimes on the
+ground and sometimes looking very pityingly on him, she acted the art
+of a consoler, telling him how much better it was for the child to be
+at rest with its mother.
+
+And while she talked, darkness fell upon them, so that Howard Hastings
+could not see the look of triumph which the dark eyes wore when he
+said, "You must not go home alone, Miss Deane. Let me accompany you."
+
+So the two went together very slowly down the long avenue, and when
+over an _imaginary_ stone the fair Eugenia stumbled, the arm of Howard
+Hastings was offered for her support, and then more slowly still they
+continued on their way. From that time Mr. Hastings was often at
+Eugenia's side, and before the autumn was gone, he had more than once
+been told she was to be his wife. And each time that he heard it, it
+affected him less painfully, until at last he himself began to wonder
+how it were possible for him ever to have disliked and distrusted a
+person so amiable, so intelligent and so agreeable as Eugenia Deane!
+Still he could never quite satisfy himself that he loved her, for there
+was something which always came up before him whenever he seriously
+thought of making her his wife. This something he could not define, but
+when, as he sometimes did, he fancied Eugenia the mistress of his
+house, there was always in the background the form of Dora Deane,
+gliding noiselessly about him, as she did that night when first she
+came to Rose Hill. He saw but little of her now, for whenever he
+called, Eugenia managed to keep from the room both mother, sister and
+cousin, choosing to be alone with the handsome widower, who lingered
+late and lingered long dreading a return to his lonely home.
+
+Eugenia was now daily expecting an answer to her letter and feeling
+sure that it would bring the money, she began to talk to Mr. Hastings
+of her new piano, playfully remarking, that as he was a connoisseur in
+such matters, she believed she should call on him to aid in her
+selection; and this he promised to do, thinking the while of the unused
+instrument in his deserted parlor, and feeling strongly tempted to
+offer her its use. Thus the weeks passed on, while Eugenia became more
+and more impatient for the letter.
+
+"It is an age since I had anything from the post-office I wish you'd
+call and inquire," she said to Dora one afternoon, as she saw her
+preparing to go out.
+
+Scarcely was she gone, however, when, remembering something which she
+wanted, and, thinking she might possibly meet with Mr. Hastings, she
+started for the village herself reaching the office door just as Dora,
+accompanied by Mr. Hastings, was crossing the street in the same
+direction.
+
+"I shan't have to go in now," said Dora; and fancying her companion
+would prefer waiting for her cousin to walking with her, she passed on,
+all unconscious of what she had lost by being a minute too late.
+
+"A letter from Uncle Nat--directed to Dora, too!" and Eugenia grew
+alternately red and white, as, crushing the missive into her pocket,
+she went out into the street, where she was joined by Mr. Hastings.
+
+"Dora left me rather unceremoniously," said he, as he bade her good
+evening, "and so I waited to walk with you."
+
+But Eugenia could not appear natural, so anxious was she to know what
+the letter contained. Up to the very gate Mr. Hastings went, but for
+once she did not ask him to stop; and he turned away, wondering at her
+manner, and feeling a little piqued at her unusual coolness. Hastening
+to her chamber, and crouching near the window, Eugenia tore open Dora's
+letter, and clutching eagerly at the draft, almost screamed with
+delight when she saw the amount. FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS! She could
+scarcely believe her senses: and drawing still nearer the window, for
+the daylight was fading fast, she sought for the reason of this
+unexpected generosity. But the old man's childish fancy, which would
+have touched a heart less hard than hers, aroused only her deepest
+ire--not because he had counted out the hairs, but because there had
+not been more to count. Jumping to her feet in her wrath, she
+exclaimed, "Fool that I was, to have withheld one, when the old dotard
+would have paid for it so richly. But it cannot now be helped," she
+continued, and resuming her seat, she read the letter through,
+exploding, but once more, and that at the point where Uncle Nat had
+spoken of returning asking if there was one who would welcome him home.
+
+"Gracious heavens!" she exclaimed, growing a little faint. "Wouldn't I
+be in a predicament? But it shall never be, if I can prevent, it, and I
+fancy I can. As Dora will not read this letter, it is not reasonably to
+be expected that she will answer it, and it will be some time, I
+imagine, before _I_ invite him to come and see if we are kind to her!
+What a childish old thing he must be, to pay so much for one little
+lock of hair! I'd send him all of mine, if I thought it would bring me
+fifteen hundred dollars."
+
+It did seem a large sum to her, that fifteen hundred dollars, more than
+she dared to appropriate to herself; but the piano she was determined
+to have, and, as she dreaded what her mother might say, she resolved
+upon keeping the letter a secret until the purchase was made, and then
+Mrs. Deane could not do otherwise than indorse the draft, and let her
+have the money.
+
+They had been talking of going to Rochester for some time past, and if
+she could manage to have Mr. Hastings go with her, she could leave her
+mother at the hotel, or dispose of her elsewhere, while she went with
+him to the music rooms, and made the selection. As if fortune were,
+indeed, favoring her, Mr. Hastings called the next, night and they
+were, as usual, left together alone. She was looking uncommonly well
+this evening; and as she saw how often and how admiringly his eyes
+rested upon her, hope whispered that the prize was nearly won. After
+conversing awhile on different subjects, she spoke of her new piano,
+asking him if he remembered his promise of assisting her in a
+selection, and saying she thought of going to the city some day that
+week. Again Mr. Hastings remembered the beautiful rosewood instrument,
+whose tones had been so long unheard in his silent home, and he said,
+"Do you not like Ella's piano?" while a feeling, shadowy and undefined,
+stole over him, that possibly it might, some day, be hers; and Eugenia,
+divining his thoughts, answered artfully, "Oh, very much. I used to
+enjoy hearing dear Ella play, but that don't do me any good. It isn't
+mine, you know."
+
+Very softly and tenderly the beautiful black eyes looked into his, and
+the voice was low and gentle, as it breathed the sacred name of Ella.
+It was the hour of Howard Hastings's temptation; and, scarce knowing
+what he did, he essayed to speak--to offer _her_ the piano, whose keys
+had been so often touched by the fairy fingers, now folded away beneath
+the winter snow. But his lips refused to move; there was a pressure
+upon them, as if a little hand were laid upon his mouth to prevent the
+utterance of words he had better far not speak. Thus was he saved, and
+when Eugenia, impatient at his delay, cast towards him an anxious
+glance, she saw that his thoughts were not of her, and, biting her lips
+with vexation, she half petulantly asked, "if he had any intention of
+going to the city that week?"
+
+"Yes--no--certainly," said he, starting up as if from a deep reverie.
+Then, as he understood what was wanted of him, he continued, "Excuse
+me, Miss Deane. I was thinking of Ella, and the night when she died.
+What were you saying of Rochester? I have business there to-morrow, and
+if you go down, I will aid you all I can. By the way," he continued,
+"that is the night of ----'s grand concert. How would you like to
+attend it?"
+
+"Oh, so much!" answered Eugenia, her fine eyes sparkling with delight.
+
+"But stop," said he, "now I think of it, I have an engagement which may
+possibly prevent me from attending it, as I would like to do with you,
+for I know you would enjoy it. Still, it may be that I can, and if so,
+I'll call for you at the hotel. We can come home on the eleven o'clock
+train."
+
+So, ere Mr. Hastings departed, it was arranged that Eugenia and her
+mother should next morning go down with him to the city, and that in
+the evening he would, perhaps, accompany them to the concert.
+
+"I am progressing fast," thought Eugenia, as she sat alone in her
+chamber that night, after Alice had retired, "but still I wish he'd
+come to the point, and not keep me in such suspense. I thought once he
+was going to, and I believe now he would if he hadn't gone to thinking
+of Ella, and all that nonsense; but never mind, he's worth waiting for,
+with his fine house and immense wealth; I shan't care so much about
+Uncle Nat's money then, though goodness knows I don't want him turning
+up here some day and exposing me, as I dare say the meddlesome old
+thing would do."
+
+This reminded her of the letter, and, as Alice was asleep, she thought
+this as favorable an opportunity for answering it as she would probably
+have. Opening her writing-desk, and taking her pen, she framed a reply,
+the substance of which was, that _ma, Alice_ and _herself_ were very,
+very thankful to her dear uncle for his generous gift to Dora, who,
+strange to say, manifested no feeling whatever!
+
+"If she is grateful," wrote Eugenia, "she does not show it in the
+least. I hardly know what to make of her, she's so queer. Sometime,
+perhaps, she will appreciate your goodness, and meanwhile, rest assured
+that I will see that your gift is used to the best advantage."
+
+Not a word of coming home to the expectant old man, whose heart each
+day grew lighter as he thought of the letter which _Dora_ would write
+bidding him to come to the friends who would welcome him back. Not one
+line from Dora to the kind uncle who, when he read the cruel lines,
+laid his weary head upon his pillow and wept bitterly that this, his
+last fond hope, was crushed!
+
+There is such a thing as Retribution, and Eugenia Deane, sitting there
+alone that night, shuddered as the word seemed whispered in her ear.
+But it could not deter her from her purpose. Howard Hastings must be
+won. "The object to be gained was worthy of the means used to gain it,"
+she thought, as she sealed the letter; then, placing the draft for the
+$1,500 safely in her purse, she crept softly to bed, sleeping ere long
+as soundly as if the weight of a guilty conscience had never rested
+upon her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE NEW PIANO.
+
+
+The next morning, at the appointed time, Mr. Hastings, Mrs. Deane and
+her daughter stood together in the Dunwood Depot, awaiting the arrival
+of the train. Eugenia was in high spirits, chatting gaily with Mr.
+Hastings, whose manner was so unusually lover-like, that more than one
+looker-on smiled meaningly, as they saw how very attentive he was. On
+reaching the city he parted from the ladies for a time, telling
+Eugenia, as he bade her good morning, that he should probably not see
+her again until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when he would
+meet her at the music-rooms.
+
+"Meet you at the music-rooms for what?" asked Mrs. Deane, who, though
+she had frequently heard her daughter talking of a new piano, had never
+for a moment believed her to be in earnest.
+
+"What do you suppose he would meet me for, unless it were to look at
+pianos?" answered Eugenia, and her mother replied, "Look at pianos! A
+great deal of good that will do, I imagine, when both of us together
+have but twenty-five dollars in the world!"
+
+A curious smile flitted over Eugenia's face, as she thought of the
+draft, but she merely replied, "And suppose we haven't any money, can't
+I _make believe_, and by looking at expensive instruments induce Mr.
+Hastings to think we are richer than we are? I don't accuse him of
+being at all mercenary, but I do think he would have proposed ere this,
+if he hadn't thought us so wretchedly poor."
+
+Mrs. Deane could not understand how merely looking at a costly piano
+indicated wealth; but feeling herself considerable interest in her
+daughter's success, she concluded to let her pursue her own course, and
+the subject was not resumed again until afternoon, when, having
+finished their shopping, they sat alone in a private room, opening from
+the public hall, and opposite the ladies' parlor in the hotel. They had
+taken this room, because in case she attended the concert, Eugenia
+would wish to rearrange her hair, and make some little change in her
+personal appearance. "Then, too, when Mr. Hastings came," she said,
+"they would be by themselves, and not have everybody listening to what
+they said. By the way, mother," she continued, as she stood before the
+glass, "if Mr. Hastings can attend the concert, suppose you go home at
+half-past six. You don't care for singing, you know, and besides that,
+you stumble so in the dark, that it will be so much pleasanter for Mr.
+Hastings to have but one in charge."
+
+"And much pleasanter for you, too, to be alone with him," suggested
+Mrs. Deane, who really cared but little for music, and was the more
+willing to accede to Eugenia's proposal.
+
+"Why, yes," answered the young lady. "I think it would be
+pleasanter--so if he says he can accompany me, you go home, like a dear
+good old woman as you are." And tying on her bonnet, Eugenia went out
+to keep her appointment, finding Mr. Hastings there before her, as she
+had expected.
+
+Several expensive pianos were examined, and a selection at last made of
+a very handsome one, whose cost was $450. "I care but little what price
+I pay, if it only suits me," said Eugenia, with the air of one who had
+the wealth of the Indies at her disposal. "You will see that it is
+carefully boxed and sent to Dunwood, will you not?" she continued,
+turning to the man in attendance, who bowed respectfully, and stood
+waiting for the money, while Mr. Hastings, too, it may be, wondered a
+very little if it would be forthcoming. "I did not know certainly as I
+should make a purchase," continued Eugenia, "so I left the money with
+mother at the hotel: I will bring it directly;" and she tripped
+gracefully out of the store, followed by Mr. Hastings, who felt almost
+as if he had done wrong in suffering her to buy a new piano, when
+_Ella's_ would have suited her quite as well, and the name upon it, "E.
+Hastings," would make no difference!
+
+Once, in the street, he thought to say something like this to her and
+prevent the purchase, but again an unseen hand, as it were, sealed his
+lips; and when he spoke, it was to tell her that he could probably
+escort her to the concert, and would see her again about dark. Here
+having reached the hotel, he left her, and walked on a short distance,
+when, remembering something concerning the concert, which he wished to
+tell her, he turned back, and, entering the hotel, went to the parlor,
+where he expected to find her. But she was not there, and thinking she
+had gone out for a moment and would soon return, he stepped into the
+hall, and as the day was rather cold, stood over the register, which
+was very near Eugenia's room. He had been there but an instant, when he
+caught the sound of his own name, and looking up, he saw that the
+ventilator over the door opposite was turned back, so that everything
+said within, though spoken in a low tone, could be distinctly heard
+without. It was Eugenia who was speaking, and not wishing to listen, he
+was about turning away, when the words she uttered aroused his
+curiosity and chained him to the spot.
+
+They were, "And what if Mr. Hastings _did_ give it to me? If he marries
+me, and I intend that he shall, 'twill make no difference whether the
+piano was bought afterward or a little in advance. He knows, or ought
+to know, that I would not use Ella's old one."
+
+"But has he ever said a word to you on the subject of marriage?"
+queried Mrs. Deane, and Eugenia answered, "Not directly, perhaps, but
+he has had it in his mind a hundred times, I dare say. But pray don't
+look so distressed. I never knew before that scheming mothers objected
+to their daughters receiving costly presents from the gentlemen to whom
+they were engaged."
+
+"You are not engaged," said Mrs. Deane, and Eugenia replied, "But
+expect to be, which is the same thing;" then after a pause, she
+continued, "but, jesting aside, Mr. Hastings did not buy the piano. I
+bought it myself and expect to pay for it, too, that is, if you will
+indorse this draft. Look!" and she held to view the draft, of which
+Mrs. Deane was, until that moment, wholly ignorant.
+
+Wiping from his white brow the heavy drops of perspiration which had
+gathered thickly upon it, Mr. Hastings attempted to leave the place,
+but the same hand which twice before had sealed his lips, was
+interposed to keep him there, and he stood silent and immovable, while
+his surprise and indignation increased as the conversation proceeded.
+
+In great astonishment Mrs. Deane examined the draft, and then
+questioned her daughter as to how she came by it. Very briefly Eugenia
+told of the letter she had sent her Uncle Nat. "I knew there was no
+surer way of gaining his goodwill," said she, "than by thrusting Dora
+in his face, so I asked her if she had any message, and she sent her
+love, together with a lock of her mother's hair, which I verily believe
+turned the old fellow's heart. I have not the letter with me which he
+wrote in reply and directed to Dora, but it was a sickish, sentimental
+thing, prating about his love for her mother, and how much he prized
+that lock which he said he would pay for at the rate of one dollar a
+hair! And, don't you believe, the silly old fool sat up all night,
+crying over and counting the hairs, which amounted to fifteen hundred!
+'Twould have been more if I hadn't foolishly kept back some for hair
+ornaments. I was so provoked, I could have thrown them in the fire."
+
+"But if the letter was directed to Dora, how came you by it?" asked
+Mrs. Deane, who, knowing Eugenia as well as she did, was still wholly
+unprepared for anything like this.
+
+"'Twas the merest chance in the world," answered Eugenia, stating the
+circumstances by which the letter came into her possession, and adding
+that "Mr. Hastings must have thought her manner that night very
+strange; but come," she continued, "do sign your name quick, so I can
+get the money before the bank closes."
+
+But this Mrs. Deane at first refused to do, saying it was not theirs,
+and Dora should no longer be defrauded; at the same time, she expressed
+her displeasure at Eugenia's utter want of principle.
+
+"Grown suddenly very conscientious haven't you!" scornfully laughed the
+young lady, reminding her of the remittances annually sent to them for
+Dora's benefit, but which had been unjustly withheld; "very
+conscientious indeed; but I am thankful I parted company with that
+commodity long ago."
+
+Then followed a series of angry words, and bitter recriminations, by
+which the entire history of Eugenia's selfish treatment of her cousin,
+even to the cutting off her hair more than two years before, was
+disclosed to Mr. Hastings, who, immeasurably shocked and sick at heart,
+turned away just as Mrs. Deane, to avoid further altercation, expressed
+her readiness to indorse the draft, on condition that the balance,
+after paying for the piano, should be set aside for Dora.
+
+"And haven't I told you repeatedly that the piano was all I wanted? and
+I shouldn't be so particularly anxious about that, if I did not think
+it would aid me in securing Mr. Hastings."
+
+"Which you never shall, so help me Heaven!" exclaimed the indignant
+man, as he strode noiselessly down the hall, and out into the open air,
+where he breathed more freely, as if just escaping from the poisonous
+atmosphere of the deadly upas.
+
+It would be impossible to describe his emotion, as he walked on through
+one street after another. Astonishment, rage, horror, and disgust each
+in turn predominated, and were at last succeeded by a deep feeling of
+thankfulness that the veil had been removed, and he had escaped from
+the toils of one, who, slowly but surely, had been winding herself
+around his fancy--he would not say affections, for he knew he had never
+loved her. "But she might have duped me," he said, "for I am but
+human;" and then as he thought what a hardened, unprincipled woman she
+was, he shuddered and grew faint at the mere idea of taking such a one
+to fill the place of his gentle, loving Ella. "I cannot meet her
+to-night," he continued, as he remembered the concert. "I could not
+endure the sound of her voice, for I should say that to her which had
+better not be said. I will go home--back to Dunwood, leaving her to
+wait for me as long as she chooses."
+
+With him, to will was to do, and having finished his business, he
+started for the depot, whither Mrs. Deane had preceded him, having been
+coaxed by Eugenia to return at half-past six, and thus leave her the
+pleasure of Mr. Hastings's company alone. The piano had been paid for,
+and as it was quite dark, and beginning to rain, the now amiable young
+lady accompanied her mother to the depot, and having seen her safely in
+the cars, which would not start in some minutes, was on her way back to
+the hotel, her mind too intently occupied with thoughts of coming
+pleasure to heed the man who, with dark lowering brow, and hat drawn
+over his face, met her on the sidewalk, and who at sight of her started
+suddenly as if she had been a crawling serpent.
+
+"Will the Deanes always cross my path?" he exclaimed, as, opening the
+car door, he saw near the stove the brown satin hat and black plumes of
+the mother, who was sitting with her back towards him, and consequently
+was not aware of his presence.
+
+To find a seat in another car was an easy matter, and while Eugenia, at
+the hotel, was alternately admiring herself in the glass, and peering
+out into the hall to see if he were coming, he was on his way to
+Dunwood, breathing more and more freely, as the distance between them
+increased.
+
+"Yes, I have escaped her," he thought, and mingled with thankfulness
+for this, was a deep feeling of sympathy for Dora, to whom such
+injustice had been done.
+
+He understood perfectly her position--knew exactly the course of
+treatment, which, from the first, she had received, and while trembling
+with anger, he resolved that it should not continue. "I _can_ help her,
+and I _will_," he said emphatically; though how, or by what means he
+could not, in his present state of excitement, decide. Arrived at
+Dunwood, he stepped hastily from the car and walked rapidly down the
+street until he came opposite Locust Grove. Then, indeed, he paused,
+while an involuntary shudder ran through his frame as he thought of the
+many hours he had spent within those walls with one who had proved
+herself unworthy even of the name of woman.
+
+"But it is over now," he said, "and when I cross that threshold again,
+may----"
+
+The sentence was unfinished, for a light flashed suddenly out upon him,
+and a scene met his view which arrested his footsteps at once, and,
+raining as it was, he leaned back against the fence and gazed at the
+picture before him. The shutters were thrown open, and through the
+window was plainly discernible the form of Dora Deane, seated at a
+table on which lay a book which she seemed to be reading. There was
+nothing elegant about her dress, nor did Howard Hastings think of this;
+his mind was intent upon _her_ who had been so cruelly wronged, and
+whose young face, seen through the window on that winter night, looked
+very fair, so fair that he wondered he had never thought before how
+beautiful was Dora Deane.
+
+At this point, Mrs. Deane, who had been slower in her movements,
+reached the gate, and, resigning his post near the fence, Mr. Hastings
+walked slowly home, bearing in his mind that picture of Dora Deane as
+he saw her through the window, with no shadows on her brow, save those
+left there by early grief, and which rendered her face still more
+attractive than it would otherwise have been. That night, all through
+the silent hours, there shone a glimmering light from the room where
+Howard Hastings sat, brooding upon what he had heard, and meditating
+upon the best  means for removing Dora from the influence of her
+heartless cousin. Slowly over him, too, came memories of the little
+brown-faced girl who, when his home was cheerless, had come to him with
+her kindly acts and gentle ways, diffusing over all an air of comfort
+and filling his home with sunlight. Then he remembered that darkest
+hour of his desolation--that first coming home from burying his dead;
+and, now as then he felt creeping over him the icy chill which had lain
+upon his heart when he approached the house whence they had borne his
+fair girl wife. But he had found _her_ there--Dora Deane--folding his
+motherless baby to her bosom, and again in imagination he met the soft
+glance of her eye as she welcomed him back to Ella's room which seemed
+not half so lonely with Dora sitting by his side. Again he was with her
+in the storm which she had braved on that night when his child lay
+dying--the child whom she had loved so much, and who had died upon her
+lap. Anon, this picture faded too, and he saw her as he had seen her
+but a few hours before--almost a woman now, but retaining still the
+same fair, open brow, and sunny smile which had characterized her as a
+child. And _this_ was the girl whom Eugenia would trample down--would
+misrepresent to the fond old uncle, far away. "But it shall never be,"
+he said aloud; "I will remove her Iron them by force if need be." But
+"where would she go?" he asked. Then as he remembered Ella's wish that
+he should care for her--a wish which his foolish fancy for Eugenia had
+for a time driven from his mind, he felt an intense longing to have her
+there with him; there, in his home, where he could see her every
+day--not as his wife, for at that time Howard Hastings had never
+thought it possible for him to call her by that name, she seemed so
+much a child; but she should be his sister, and his manly heart
+throbbed with delight, as he thought how he would watch over and
+protect her from all harm. He would teach her and she would learn,
+sitting at his feet as she sat two years before; and life would seem no
+longer sad and dreary, for he would have a pleasant home and in it
+_Dora Deane!_ Ere long, however, his better judgment told him that the
+censorious, curious world would never suffer this to be; _she couldn't
+come as his sister--she couldn't come at all_--and again there came
+over him a sense of desolation, as if he were a second time bereaved.
+
+Slowly and steadily the raindrops pattered against the window pane,
+while the lamp upon the table burned lower and lower, and still Mr.
+Hastings sat there, pondering another plan, to which he could see no
+possible objection, provided Mrs. Deane's consent could be obtained:
+"and she shall consent," he said, "or an exposure of her daughter will
+be the consequence."
+
+Then, it occurred to him that, in order to succeed, he must for a time
+at least appear perfectly natural--must continue to visit at Locust
+Grove, just as he had been in the habit of doing--must meet Eugenia
+face to face, and even school himself to listen to the sound of her
+piano, which he felt would grate so harshly on his ear. And all this he
+could do if in the end Dora would be benefited.
+
+For the more immediate accomplishment of his purpose, it seemed
+necessary that he should visit New York, and as in his present
+excitement, he could not rest at home, he determined upon going that
+very morning, in the early train. Pushing back the heavy drapery which
+shaded the window he saw that daylight was already breaking in the
+east, and, after a few hurried preparations, he knocked at Mrs. Leah's
+door, and telling her that important business  required his presence in
+New York, whither he should be gone a few days, he started for the
+depot, just as the sun was rising; and, that night, Mrs. Elliott, his
+sister, was surprised to hear that he was in the parlor, and wished to
+see her.
+
+"Why, Howard!" she exclaimed, as she entered the room and saw how pale
+and haggard he was, "what is the matter, and why have you come upon me
+so suddenly?"
+
+"I have come, Louise, for aid," he answered, advancing towards her, and
+drawing her to his side. "Aid for an injured orphan. Do you remember
+Dora Deane?"
+
+"Perfectly well," answered Mrs. Elliott. "I was too much interested in
+her to forget her soon. Ella wrote me that she was living in Dunwood,
+and when next I visited you, I intended seeking her out. But what of
+her, and how can I befriend her?"
+
+In as few words as possible, Mr. Hastings told what he knew of her
+history since his sister saw her last, withholding not even the story
+of his own strange fancy for Eugenia. "But that is over, thank Heaven,"
+he continued; "and now, Louise, you must take Dora to live with you.
+You have no child, no sister, and she will be to you both of these. You
+must love her, educate her, make her just such a woman as you are
+yourself; make her, in short, what that noble-hearted old man in India
+will wish her to be when he returns, as he shall do, if my life is
+spared; and Louise," he added, growing more and more earnest, "she will
+well repay you for your trouble. She brought sunshine to my home; she
+will bring it to yours. She is naturally refined and intelligent. She
+is amiable, ingenuous, open-hearted, and will one day be beautiful."
+
+"And you, my brother, love her?" queried Mrs. Elliott, looking him
+steadily in his face, and parting the thick, black hair from off his
+high, white forehead.
+
+"_Love her_, Louise!" he answered, "_I love Dora Deane!_ Why, no. Ella
+loved her, the baby loved her, and for this I will befriend her, but to
+_love her_, I never thought of such a thing!" and walking to the
+window, he looked out upon the night, repeating to himself, "_Love Dora
+Deane_. I wonder what put that idea into Louise's brain?"
+
+Returning ere long to his seat, he resumed the conversation, which
+resulted at last in Mrs. Elliott's expressing her perfect willingness
+to give Dora a home, and a mother's care, to see that she had every
+possible advantage, to watch over and make her not only what Uncle Nat
+would wish to find her, but what Howard Hastings himself desired that
+she should be. Of Mrs. Elliott, we have said but little, neither is it
+necessary that we should dwell upon her character at large. She was a
+noble, true-hearted woman, finding her greatest happiness in doing
+others good. Widowed in the second year of her married life, her home
+was comparatively lonely, for no second love had ever moved her heart.
+In Dora Deane, of whom Ella had written so enthusiastically, she felt a
+deep interest, and when her brother came to her with the story of her
+wrongs, she gladly consented to be to her a mother, nay, possibly a
+sister, for, with woman's ready tact, she read what Mr. Hastings did
+not even suspect, and she bade him bring her at once.
+
+A short call upon his mother, to whom he talked of Dora Deane; a hasty
+visit to Ella's grave, on which the winter snow was lying; a civil bow
+across the street to Mrs. Grey, who had never quite forgiven him for
+having _killed her daughter_; and he started back to Dunwood bearing
+with him a happier, healthier, frame of mind, than he had experienced
+for many a day. There was something now worth living for--the watching
+Dora Deane grow up into a woman, whose husband would delight to honor
+her, and whose children would rise up and call her blessed. This
+picture, however, was not altogether pleasing, though why the thoughts
+of Dora's future husband should affect him unpleasantly, he could not
+tell. Still it did, and mentally hoping she would never marry, he
+reached Dunwood at the time and took his departure from it. And here we
+leave him while, in another chapter, we look in upon Eugenia, whom we
+left waiting for him at the hotel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+FAILURE AND SUCCESS.
+
+
+In a state of great anxiety, which increased each moment, Eugenia
+looked for the twentieth time into the long hall, and seeing no one,
+went back again to the glass, wondering if her new hat, which, without
+her mother's knowledge, had that afternoon been purchased, and now
+adorned her head, were as becoming as the milliner had said, and if
+fifteen dollars were not a great price for one in her circumstances to
+pay for a bonnet. Then she thought if Mr. Hastings proposed soon, as
+she believed he would, she should never again feel troubled about the
+trivial matter of money, of which she would have an abundance. But
+where was he and why did he not come? she asked herself repeatedly,
+caring less, however, for the delay, when she considered that if they
+were late, more people would see her in company with the elegant Mr.
+Hastings, who was well known in the city.
+
+"Eight o'clock as I live," she exclaimed at last, consulting her watch,
+"and the concert was to commence at half-past seven. What can it mean?"
+and with another glance at her bonnet, she walked the length of the
+hall, and leaning far over the balustrade looked anxiously down into
+the office below, to see if by any chance he were there.
+
+But he was not, and returning to her room, she waited another half
+hour, when, grown more fidgety and anxious, she descended to the
+office, inquiring if Mr. Hastings had been there that evening. Some one
+thought they had seen him in the ladies' parlor that afternoon, but
+further information than that she could not obtain, and the discomfited
+young lady went back to her room in no very enviable frame of mind,
+particularly as she heard the falling of the rain and thought how dark
+it was without.
+
+"What can have kept him?" she said, half crying with vexation. "And how
+I wish I had gone home with mother!"
+
+Wishing, however, was of no avail, and when that night at half-past
+ten, the hotel omnibus as usual went to the depot, it carried a very
+cross young lady, who, little heeding what she did, and caring less,
+sat down beneath a crevice in the roof, through which the rain crept
+in, lodging upon the satin bows and drooping plumes of her
+fifteen-dollar hat, which, in her disappointment, she had forgotten to
+exchange for the older one, safely stowed away in the bandbox she held
+upon her lap. Arrived at Dunwood station, she found, as she had
+expected, no omnibus in waiting, nor any one whose services she could
+claim as an escort, so, borrowing an umbrella, and holding up her dress
+as best she could, she started, band-box in hand, for home, stepping
+once into a pool of water, and falling once upon the dirty sidewalk,
+from which the mud and snow were wiped by her rich velvet cloak, to say
+nothing of the frightful pinch made in her other bonnet by her having
+crushed the band-box in her fall.
+
+In a most forlorn condition, she at last reached home, where to her
+dismay she found the door was locked and the fire gone out, her mother
+not having expected her to return on such a night as this. To rouse up
+Dora, and scold her unmercifully, though for what she scarcely knew,
+was under the circumstances quite natural, and while Mr. Hastings at
+Rose Hill was devising the best means of removing Dora from her power,
+she at Locust Grove was venting the entire weight of her pent-up wrath
+upon the head of the devoted girl, who bore it uncomplainingly.
+Removing at last her bonnet, she discovered the marks of the omnibus
+leak, and then her ire was turned towards him as having been the cause
+of all her disasters.
+
+"I'll never speak to him again, never," she exclaimed, as she crept
+shivering to bed.
+
+But a few hours' quiet slumber dissipated in a measure her wrath, and
+during the next day she many times looked out to see him coming, as she
+surely thought he would, laden with apologies for his seeming neglect.
+But nothing appeared except the huge box containing the piano, and in
+superintending the opening of that her mind was for a time diverted.
+Greatly Alice and Dora marveled whence came the money with which the
+purchase had been made, and both with one consent settled upon Mr.
+Hastings as having been the donor. To this suggestion Eugenia made no
+reply, and feeling sure that it was so, Dora turned away and walking to
+the window sighed as she wondered what Ella would say if she could know
+who was to take her place in the heart of Howard Hastings.
+
+The instrument was finely toned, and Eugenia spent the remainder of the
+day in practising a very difficult piece, which she knew Mr. Hastings
+admired, and with which she intended to surprise and charm him. But he
+did not come, either that day or the next, and on the morning of the
+next, which was Saturday, feigning some trivial errand to Mrs. Leah,
+she went herself to Rose Hill, casting anxious glances towards the
+windows of his room to see if he were in sight. Dame Leah was a shrewd
+old woman, and readily guessing that Eugenia's visit was prompted from
+a desire to see her master, rather than herself, she determined to
+tantalize her by saying nothing of him unless she were questioned.
+Continually hoping he would appear, Eugenia lingered until there was no
+longer a shadow of excuse for tarrying, and then she arose to go,
+saying as she reached the door, "Oh, now I think of it, Mr. Hastings
+has a book in his library which I very much wish to borrow. Is he at
+home?"
+
+"No," answered Mrs. Leah, "he went to New York, Thursday morning, on
+the early train."
+
+"To New York!" repeated Eugenia, "for what? and when will he be home?"
+
+"He said he had important business," returned Mrs. Leah, adding that
+"maybe he'd be home that night."
+
+Eugenia had heard all she wished to know, and forgetting entirely the
+_book_, bade Mrs. Leah good-morning, and walked away, feeling in a
+measure relieved, for the _business_ which took him so suddenly to New
+York, had undoubtedly some connection with his failing to call at the
+hotel for her! He had never called upon Sunday evening, but thinking
+that after so long an absence he might do so now, she sat in state from
+six o'clock till nine, starting nervously at every sound, and once,
+when sure she heard him, running from the room, so he would not find
+her there, and think she had been waiting for him. But he did not come,
+and the next day, feeling exceedingly anxious to know if he had
+returned, and remembering the book, which she had failed to get, and
+_must_ have, she towards night sent _Dora_ to Rose Hill, bidding her if
+she saw Mr. Hastings tell him that her piano had come and she wished
+him to hear it.
+
+In the long kitchen by a glowing stove, Dame Leah sat, busy with her
+knitting, which she quickly suspended when she saw Dora, who was with
+her a favorite.
+
+"So Eugenia sent you for that book?" she said, when told of Dora's
+errand. "I'll see if he will lend it."
+
+Mr. Hastings was alone in his library. All that day he had been making
+up his mind to call at Locust Grove, where he knew Eugenia was
+impatiently expecting him, for Mrs. Leah had told him of her call,
+winking slily as she spoke of the _forgotten book_!
+
+"Yes, I will go and have it over," he thought, just as Mrs. Leah
+entered, telling him that "Miss Deane wanted that book."
+
+Thinking that Eugenia was in the house, he answered hastily. "Take it
+to her, and pray don't let her in here."
+
+"It's Dora, not Eugenia," said Mrs. Leah, and instantly the whole
+expression of his countenance changed.
+
+"_Dora!_" he exclaimed. "It's a long time since I saw her in this room.
+Tell her to come up."
+
+Very gladly Dora obeyed the summons, and in a moment she stood in the
+presence of Mr. Hastings.
+
+"I am glad to see you," he said, motioning her to the little stool, on
+which she had often sat when reciting to him her lessons, and when she
+now sat down, it was so near to him that, had he chosen, his hand could
+have rested on her beautiful hair, for she held her hood upon her lap.
+
+Two months before and he would not have hesitated to smooth these
+shining tresses, but the question of his sister, "Do you love her?" had
+produced upon him a curious effect, making him half afraid of the
+child-woman who sat before him, and who, after waiting a time for him
+to speak, looked up into his face, and said, "Do you want me for
+anything in particular, Mr. Hastings?"
+
+"Want you, Dora? Want you?" he said, abstractedly, as if that question,
+too, had puzzled him; then remembering himself, and why he had sent for
+her, he answered, "I want to talk with you, Dora--to tell you
+something. Do you remember my sister Mrs. Elliott?"
+
+The eager, upward glance of Dora's eyes, was a sufficient answer, and
+he continued, "I saw her last week and talked with her of you. She
+wishes you to come and live with her. Will you go?"
+
+Dora could never tell why she cried, but the thought of living with
+Mrs. Elliott, whom she regarded as an almost superior being, overcame
+her, and she burst into tears, while Mr. Hastings looked at her, quite
+uncertain as to what, under the circumstances, it was proper for him to
+do. If his sister had never bothered him with that strange question, he
+would have known exactly how to act; but now in a state of perplexity,
+he sat motionless, until, thinking he must do something, he said
+gently, "_Dora, my child_" The last word removed his embarrassment
+entirely. She _was a child_, and as such he would treat her. So he said
+again, "Dora, my child, why do you cry?" and Dora answered impulsively,
+"It makes me so glad to think of living with Mrs. Elliott, for you do
+not know how unhappy I have been since she found me four years ago."
+
+"I know more than you suppose. But it is over now," he said; and
+stretching out his arm, he drew her nearer to him, and resting her head
+upon his knee, he soothed her as if she were indeed the child he tried
+to believe she was, and he her gray-haired sire, instead of a young man
+of twenty-seven!
+
+And Dora grew very calm sitting there with Mr. Hastings's hand upon her
+head, and when he told her it was all arranged, and she should surely
+go, she sprang to her feet, and while her cheeks glowed with
+excitement, exclaimed, "It is too good to come true. Something will
+happen, Aunt Sarah will not let me go."
+
+"Yes, she will," said Mr. Hastings decidedly. "I am going there
+to-night to talk with her."
+
+Then, as it was already growing dark, he rose to accompany Dora home,
+both of them forgetting the book, which Eugenia seemed destined never
+to receive. But she did not think to ask for it in her joy at meeting
+Mr. Hastings, who succeeded in appearing natural far better than he had
+expected, telling her not that he was sorry for having failed to keep
+his appointment, but that it was not consistent for him to do so, and
+adding that he hoped she was not very much disappointed.
+
+"Oh, no," she said, "I know of course that business detained
+you;"--then, as she saw him looking at her piano, she advanced towards
+it, and seating herself upon the stool, asked, "if he would like to
+hear her play?"
+
+He could not conscientiously answer "yes," for he felt that the sound
+would sicken him; but he stood at her side and turned the leaves of her
+music as usual, while she dashed through the piece she had practised
+with so much care.
+
+"How do you like it?" she said, when she had finished; and he answered,
+"I always admired your playing, you know, but the tone of the
+instrument does not quite suit me. It seems rather muffled, _as if the
+wires were made of hair!_" and his large black eyes were bent
+searchingly upon her.
+
+Coloring crimson, she thought, "Can he have learned my secret?" then,
+as she remembered how impossible it was for him to know aught of the
+money, she answered, "Quite an original idea," at the same time seating
+herself upon the sofa. Sitting down beside her as he had been in the
+habit of doing, he commenced at once upon the object of his visit,
+asking if her mother were at home, and saying he wished to see her on a
+matter of some importance; then, knowing who was really the ruling
+power there, he added, as Eugenia arose to leave the room in quest of
+her mother, "perhaps I had better speak of my business first to you!"
+
+Feeling sure now of a proposal, the young lady resumed her seat,
+involuntarily pulling at her fourth finger, and mentally hoping the
+_engagement ring_ would be a diamond one. What then was her surprise
+when she found that not herself, but Dora was the subject of his
+remarks! After telling her of his visit to his sister, and of her
+wishes with regard to Dora, he said, "since the death of my wife and
+baby, I have felt a deep interest in your family for the kindness shown
+to me in my affliction. I promised Ella that I would befriend Dora, and
+by placing her with Louise, I shall not only fulfil my word, but shall
+also be relieved of all care concerning her. Do yon think I can
+persuade your mother to let her go?"
+
+Eugenia did not know. She would speak to her about it after he was
+gone, and tell him on the morrow.
+
+"I shall rely upon you to plead my cause," he continued; "Louise's
+heart is quite set upon it, and I do not wish to disappoint her."
+
+"I will do my best," answered Eugenia, never suspecting that Mr.
+Hastings was quite as anxious as his sister, who, she presumed,
+intended making a half companion, half waiting-maid of her cousin.
+
+"But it will be a good place for her, and somewhat of a relief to us,"
+she thought, after Mr. Hastings had gone. "She is getting to be a young
+lady now, and growing each year more and more expensive, I presume Mrs.
+Elliott will send her to school for a time at least, and in case our
+families should be connected, it is well for her to do so. I wrote to
+Uncle Nat that we wished to send her away to school, and this is the
+very thing. Mother won't of course insist upon her having all that
+money, for she will be well enough off without it, and if Mr. Hastings
+ever does propose, I can have a handsome outfit! Fortune does favor me
+certainly."
+
+Thus Eugenia mused, and thus did she talk to her mother and she was the
+more easily persuaded when she saw how eager Dora was to go.
+
+"I shall be sorry to leave you, Aunt Sarah," said Dora, coming to her
+side, and resting her hand upon her shoulder, "but I shall be so happy
+with Mrs. Elliott, that I am sure you'll let me go."
+
+Mrs. Deane was naturally a cold, selfish woman, but the quiet,
+unassuming Dora had found a place in her heart, and she would be very
+lonely without her; still it was better for her, and better for them
+all that she should go; so she at last gave her consent, and when the
+next day Mr. Hastings called he was told that Dora could go as soon as
+he thought best.
+
+"Let it be immediately, then," he said. "I will write to Louise
+to-night, and tell her we shall come next week."
+
+"I wish I could go to New York with her," said Eugenia. "It's so long
+since I was there."
+
+"You had better wait till some other time, for I could not now show you
+over the city," answered Mr. Hastings, who had no idea of being
+burdened with Eugenia.
+
+"He expects me to go with him sometime, or he would never have said
+that," thought Eugenia, and this belief kept her good-natured during
+all the bustle and hurry of preparing Dora for her journey.
+
+The morning came at last on which Dora was to leave, and with feelings
+of regret Mrs. Deane and Alice bade her good-by, while Eugenia
+accompanied her to the depot, where she knew she should see Mr.
+Hastings.
+
+"I've half a mind to go with you as far as Rochester," she said to
+Dora, in his presence, as the cars came up, but he made no reply, and
+the project was abandoned.
+
+Kissing her cousin good-by, she stood upon the platform until the train
+had moved away, and then walked slowly back to the house, which even to
+her seemed lonesome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE QUESTION ANSWERED.
+
+
+It was late in the evening when our travelers reached the city, which
+loomed up before Dora like an old familiar friend. They found Mrs.
+Elliott waiting to receive them, together with Mr. Hastings's mother,
+who, having heard so much of _Dora Deane_, had come over to see her.
+Very affectionately did Mrs. Elliott greet the weary girl, and after
+divesting her of her wrappings, she led her to her mother, whose keen
+eyes scrutinized her closely, but found no fault in the fair childish
+face which looked so timidly up to her. Half bewildered, Dora gazed
+about her, and then, with her eyes swimming in tears, whispered softly
+to Mr. Hastings, "I am so afraid it will prove to be a dream."
+
+"I will see that it does not," said Mrs. Elliott, who had overheard
+her, and who, as time passed on, became more and more interested in the
+orphan girl.
+
+For several days Mr. Hastings lingered, showing her all over the city,
+and going once with her to visit the room where he had found her. But
+the elements had preceded them--fire and water--and not a trace of the
+old building remained. At the expiration of a week, Mr. Hastings
+started for home, half wishing he could take Dora with him, and
+wondering if his sister were in earnest, when she asked him _if he
+loved her?_
+
+A new world now seemed open to Dora, who never thought it possible for
+her to be so happy. The ablest instructors were hired to teach her, and
+the utmost care bestowed upon her education, while nothing could exceed
+the kindness both of Mrs. Elliott and Mrs. Hastings, the latter of whom
+treated her as she would have done a young and favorite daughter. One
+evening when Mrs. Elliott was dressing for a party, Dora asked
+permission to arrange her soft glossy hair, which she greatly admired.
+
+"It's not all my own," said Mrs. Eliott, taking off a heavy braid and
+laying it upon the table. "I bought it in Rochester, nearly two years
+ago, on the day of Ella's party. I have often wished I knew whose it
+was," she continued, "for to me there is something disagreeable in
+wearing other people's hair, but the man of whom I purchased it,
+assured me that it was cut from the head of a young, healthy girl."
+
+For a moment Dora stood thinking--then catching up the beautiful braid
+and comparing it with her own she exclaimed, "_It was mine! It was
+mine!_ Eugenia cut it off, and sold it the day before the party. Oh, I
+am so glad," she added, "though I was sorry then, for I did not know it
+would come to you, the dearest friend I ever had," and she smoothed
+caressingly the shining hair, now a shade lighter than her own.
+
+Mrs. Elliott had heard from her brother the story of Dora's shorn
+locks, and the braid of hair was far more valuable to her, now that she
+knew upon whose head it had grown. In her next letter to her brother,
+she spoke of the discovery, and he could not forbear mentioning the
+circumstances to Eugenia, who, not suspecting how much he knew of the
+matter, answered indifferently, "Isn't it funny how things do come
+round? Dora had so much of the headache that we thought it best to cut
+off her hair, which she wished me to sell for her in Rochester, I think
+she was always a little penurious!"
+
+Wholly disgusted with this fresh proof of her duplicity, Mr. Hastings
+could scarcely refrain from upbraiding her for her perfidy, but
+thinking the time had not yet come, he restrained his wrath, and when,
+next he spoke, it was to tell her of a _foreign tour_ which he intended
+making.
+
+"I have long wished to visit the old world," said he, "and as there is
+nothing in particular to prevent my doing so, I shall probably start
+the first of June. I should go sooner, but I prefer being on the ocean
+in the summer season."
+
+For a moment Eugenia grew faint, fancying she saw an end of all her
+hopes, but soon rallying, she expatiated largely upon the pleasure and
+advantages to be derived from a tour through Europe, saying, "it was a
+happiness she had herself greatly desired, but should probably never
+realize."
+
+"Not if you depend upon me for an escort," thought Mr. Hastings, who,
+soon after, took his leave.
+
+Much Eugenia wondered whether he would ask the important question, and
+take her with him, and concluding at last that he would, she secretly
+made some preparations for the expected journey! But alas for her
+hopes! The spring went by the summer came, and she was still Eugenia
+Deane, when one evening towards the middle of June, Mr. Hastings came
+over to say good-by, as he was intending to start next morning for New
+York, or rather for his sister's country seat on the Hudson, where she
+was now spending the summer. This was a death-blow to Eugenia, who
+could scarcely appear natural. Tears came to her eyes, and once when
+she attempted to tell him how lonely Rose Hill would be without him,
+she failed entirely for want of voice.
+
+"How hoarse you are. Have you a cold," said Mr. Hastings, and that was
+all the notice he took of her emotion.
+
+Fearing lest he should suspect her real feelings, she tried to compose
+herself, and after a time said, jokingly, "I shouldn't wonder if you
+were going to take you a wife from some of the city belles."
+
+"Oh, no," he answered lightly. "Time enough to think of that when I
+return."
+
+This gave her hope, and she bore the parting better than she could
+otherwise have done.
+
+"You will not forget me entirely, I trust," she said, as she gave him
+her hand.
+
+"Oh, no," he answered. "That would be impossible. I have many reasons
+which you do not perhaps suspect, for remembering you! By the way," he
+continued, "have you any message for Dora! I shall probably see her as
+she is with my sister."
+
+"Give her my love," answered Eugenia, "and tell her to write more
+definitely of her situation. She never particularizes, but merely says
+she is very happy. I do hope Mrs. Elliott will make something of her!"
+
+The next moment Mr. Hastings's good-by was ringing in her ears, and he
+was gone. Seating herself upon the stairs, and covering her face with
+her hands, Eugenia wept bitterly, and this was their parting.
+
+One week later and at the same hour in the evening, Mr. Hastings sat in
+his sister's pleasant parlor, looking out upon the blue waters of the
+Hudson, and wondering why, as the time for his departure drew near, his
+heart should cling so fondly to the friends he was to leave behind. "I
+shall see them again if I live," he said, "and why this dread of
+bidding them farewell?"
+
+At this moment his sister entered the room, bringing to him a letter
+from a rich old Texan bachelor, who was spending the summer with some
+friends in the vicinity of her home. It was directed to the "Guardians
+of Dora Deane," and asked permission to address her! He had seen her
+occasionally at Mrs. Elliott's house, had met her frequently in his
+morning rambles, and the heart which for forty-five years had withstood
+the charms of northern beauties and southern belles, was won by the
+modest little country girl, and he would make her his wife, would bear
+her to his luxurious home, where her slightest wish should be his law.
+With a curious smile upon her lip, Mrs. Elliott read this letter
+through, and then without a word to Dora, carried it to her brother,
+watching him while he read it, and smiling still more when she saw the
+flush upon his brow, and the unnatural light in his eye.
+
+"Have you talked with Dora?" he said, when he had finished reading.
+
+"No, I have not," answered his sister. "I thought I would leave that to
+you, for in case she should ask my advice, my fear of losing her might
+influence me too much."
+
+"_Louise_" he exclaimed, leaning forward so that his hot breath touched
+her cheek, "you surely do not believe that Dora Deane cares aught for
+that old man. She is nothing but a child."
+
+"She is seventeen next November," said Mrs. Elliott, "almost as old as
+Ella was when first you were engaged, and how can we tell how often she
+has thought of matrimony? Mr. _Trevors_ is a man of unexceptionable
+character, and though old enough to be her father, he is immensely
+wealthy, and this, you know, makes a vast difference with some girls."
+
+"But not with her--not with Dora Deane, I'm sure," he said. "Where is
+she? Send her to me, and I will see."
+
+Dora's governess, who had accompanied them to the country, was
+sometimes very exacting, and this day she had been unusually cross, on
+account of her pupil's having failed in one or two lessons.
+
+"I'll report you to Mr. Hastings, and see what he can do," she had said
+as she hurled the French Grammar back upon the table.
+
+This threat Dora had forgotten, until told that Mr. Hastings had sent
+for her; then, fancying he wished to reprimand her, she entered the
+parlor reluctantly, and rather timidly took a seat upon an ottoman near
+the window, where he was sitting.
+
+During Dora's residence with Mrs. Elliott, she had improved much, both
+in manner and personal appearance, and others than the Texan planter
+called her beautiful. The brownish hue, which her skin had acquired
+from frequent exposure, was giving way to a clearer and more brilliant
+complexion, while the peculiarly sweet expression of her deep blue eyes
+would have made a plain face handsome. But Dora's chief point of beauty
+lay in her _hair_--her beautiful hair of reddish brown. It had grown
+rapidly, fully verifying Alice's prediction, and in heavy shining
+braids was worn around her classically shaped head. And Dora sat there
+very still--demurely waiting for Mr. Hastings to speak, wondering if he
+would be severe, and at last laughing aloud when, in place of the
+expected rebuke, he asked if she knew Mr. Trevors.
+
+"Excuse me," she said, as she saw his look of surprise, "Miss Johnson
+threatened to report me for indolence, and I thought you were going to
+scold me. Yes, I know Mr. Trevors. I rode horseback with him last week."
+
+A pang shot through Mr. Hastings's heart, but he continued, holding up
+the letter, "He has sued for your hand. He asks you to be his wife.
+Will you answer yes?"
+
+And trembling with excitement, he awaited her reply, while the
+revelation of a new light was faintly dawning upon him.
+
+"Mr. Trevors wish _me_ to be his wife--that old man?" she exclaimed,
+turning slightly pale. "It cannot be; let me read the letter." And
+taking it from his hand, she stood beneath the chandelier, and read it
+through, while Mr. Hastings scanned her face to see if he could detect
+aught to verify his fears.
+
+But there was nothing, and breathing more freely, he said, as she
+returned to him the letter, "Sit down here, Dora, and tell me what I
+shall say to him. But first consider well, Mr. Trevors is rich, and if
+money can make you happy, you will be so as his wife."
+
+Dora did not know why it was, but she could not endure to hear him talk
+in such a calm, unconcerned manner of what was so revolting. It grieved
+her, and laying her head upon the broad window seat, she began to cry.
+Mr. Hastings did not this time say "Dora, my child," for Louise had
+told him she was not a child, and he began to think so, too. Drawing
+his chair nearer to her, and laying his hand upon her hair, he said
+gently, "will you answer me?"
+
+"Yes," she replied, somewhat bitterly. "If Mrs. Elliott is tired of me,
+I will go away, but not with Mr. Trevors. I would rather die than marry
+a man I did not love, because of his gold."
+
+"Noble girl!" was Mr. Hastings's involuntary exclamation, but Dora did
+not hear it, and looking him in his face, she said, "do you wish me to
+marry him?"
+
+"Never, never," he answered, "him, nor any one else!"
+
+"Then tell him so," said she, unmindful of the latter part of the
+remark. "Tell him I respect him, but I cannot be his wife."
+
+And rising to her feet she left the room, to wash away in another fit
+of tears the excitement produced by her first offer.
+
+Very still sat Mr. Hastings when she was gone, thought after thought
+crowding fast upon him, and half bewildering him by their intensity. He
+could answer Louise's question now! It had come to him at last, sitting
+there with Mr. Trevor's letter in his hand, and Dora at his feet.
+_Dora_ who was so dear to him, and his first impulse was to hasten to
+her side, and sue for the love she could not give the gray-haired Texan.
+
+"And she will not tell me nay," he said. "It will come to her as it has
+to me--the love we have unconsciously borne each other."
+
+He arose to leave the room, but meeting his sister in the door, he
+turned back, and seating himself with her in the deep recess of the
+window, he told her of the mighty love which had been so long maturing,
+and of whose existence he did not dream until another essayed to come
+between him and the object of his affection.
+
+"And, Louise," he said, "Dora Deane must be mine. Are you willing--will
+you call her sister, and treat her as my wife?"
+
+And Mrs. Elliott answered, "I know, my brother, that you love Dora
+Deane. I knew it when I asked you that question, and if to-night I
+tried to tease you by making you believe it possible that she cared for
+Mr. Trevors, it was to show you the nature of your feelings for her.
+And I am willing that it should be so--but not yet. You must not speak
+to her of love, until you return. Hear me out," she continued, as she
+saw in him a gesture of impatience, "Dora is no longer a child--but she
+is too young to be trammeled with an engagement. And it must not be.
+You must leave her free till she has seen more of the world, and her
+mind is more mature."
+
+"Free till another wins her from me," interrupted Mr. Hastings,
+somewhat bitterly; and his sister answered, "I am sure that will never
+be, though were you now to startle her with your love she probably
+would refuse you."
+
+"_Never_" he said emphatically; and Mrs. Elliott replied, "I think she
+would. She respects and admires you, but as you have looked upon her as
+a child, so in like manner has she regarded you as a father, or, at
+least the husband of Ella, and such impressions must have time to wear
+away. You would not take her with you, and it is better to leave her as
+she is. I will watch over her and seek to make her what your wife ought
+to be, and when you return she will be older, will be capable of
+judging for herself, and she will not tell you no. Do you not think my
+reasoning good?"
+
+"I suppose it is," he replied, "though it is sadly at variance with my
+wishes. Were I sure no one would come between us, I could more easily
+follow your advice, and were it not that I go for _her_ I would give up
+my journey at once, and stay where I could watch and see that no one
+came near."
+
+"This I will do," said Mrs. Elliott, "and I fancy I can keep her safe
+for you."
+
+Awhile longer they talked together, and their conversation was at last
+interrupted by the appearance of Dora herself who came to say good
+night.
+
+"Come and sit by me, Dora," said Mr. Hastings, unmindful of his
+sister's warning glance. "Let me tell you what I wish you to do while I
+am gone," and moving along upon the sofa, he left a place for her at
+his side.
+
+Scarcely was she seated when a servant appeared, wishing to speak with
+Mrs. Elliott, and Mr. Hastings was left alone with Dora, with whom he
+merely talked of what he hoped to find her when he returned. Once,
+indeed, he told her how often he should think of her, when he was far
+away, and asked as a keepsake a lock of her soft hair.
+
+Three days afterwards he went to New York accompanied by Mrs. Elliott
+and Dora. He was to sail next morning, and wishing to see as much of
+the latter as possible, he felt somewhat chagrined when, soon after
+their arrival, his sister insisted upon taking her out for a time, and
+forbade him to follow. For this brief separation, however, he was amply
+repaid when, on the morrow, his sister, who went with him on board the
+vessel, placed in his hand at parting a daguerreotype, which she told
+him not to open till she was gone. He obeyed, and while Dora in his
+sister's home was weeping that he had left them, he in his state-room
+was gazing rapturously on a fair young face, which, looking out from
+its handsome casing, would speak to him many a word of comfort when he
+was afar on the lonely sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+MR. HASTINGS IN INDIA.
+
+
+It was night again in Calcutta, and in the same room where we first
+found him was Nathaniel Deane--not alone this time, for standing before
+him was a stranger--"an American," he called himself, and the old East
+Indiaman, when he heard that word, grasped again the hand of his
+unknown guest, whose face he curiously scanned to see if before he had
+looked upon it. But he had not, and pointing him to a chair, he too sat
+down to hear his errand. Wishing to know something of the character of
+the individual he had come so far to see, Mr. Hastings, for he it was,
+conversed awhile upon a variety of subjects, until, feeling sure that
+'twas a noble, upright man, with whom he had to deal, he said, "I told
+you, sir, that I came from New York, and so I did; but my home is in
+Dunwood."
+
+One year ago, and Uncle Nat would have started with delight at the
+mention of a place so fraught with remembrances of _Dora_, but
+Eugenia's last cruel letter had chilled his love, and now, when he
+thought of Dora, it was as one incapable of either affection or
+gratitude. So, for a moment he was silent, and Mr. Hastings, thinking
+he had not been understood, was about to repeat his remark, when Uncle
+Nat replied, "My brother's widow lives in Dunwood--Mrs. Richard
+Deane--possibly you may have seen her!" And with a slight degree of
+awakened interest, the little keen black eyes looked out from under
+their thick shaggy eyebrows at Mr. Hastings, who answered, "I know the
+family well. Dora is not now at home, but is living with my sister."
+
+Many and many a time had Uncle Nat repeated to himself the name of
+_Dora_, but never before had he heard it from other lips, and the sound
+thrilled him strangely, bringing back in a moment all his olden love
+for one whose mother had been so dear. In the jet black eyes there was
+a dewy softness now, and in the tones of his voice a deep tenderness,
+as, drawing nearer to his guest, he said in a half whisper,
+
+"Tell me of _her_--of _Dora_--for though I never saw her, I knew her
+mother."
+
+"And loved her too," rejoined Mr. Hastings, on purpose to rouse up the
+old man, who, starting to his feet exclaimed, "How knew _you_ that?
+_You_, whom I never saw until to-night! Who told you that I loved
+Fannie Deane? Yes, it is true, young man--true, though _love_ does not
+express what I felt for her; she was my _all_--my very _life_, and when
+I lost her the world was a dreary blank. But go on--tell me of the
+child, and if she is like her mother. Though how should you know? You,
+who never saw my Fannie?"
+
+"I _have_ seen her," returned Mr. Hastings, "but death was there before
+me, and had marred the beauty of a face which once must have been
+lovely. Five years ago last January I found her dead, and at her side
+was Dora, sweetly sleeping with her arms around her mother's neck."
+
+_"You--you,"_ gasped the old man, drawing near to Mr. Hastings--"you
+found them thus! I could kneel at your feet, whoever you may be, and
+bless you for coming here to tell me this; I never knew before how
+Fannie died. They never wrote me that, but go on and tell me all you
+know. Did Fannie freeze to death while in India I counted my gold by
+hundreds of thousands?"
+
+Briefly Mr. Hastings told what he knew of Mrs. Deane's sad death, while
+the broad chest of Uncle Nat heaved with broken sobs, and the big tears
+rolled down his sunken cheeks.
+
+"Heaven forgive me for tarrying here, while she was suffering so much!"
+he cried; "but what of _Dora_ She did not die. I have written to her,
+and sent her many messages, but never a word has she replied, save
+once"--here Uncle Nat's voice grew tremulous as he added, "and then she
+sent me this--look--'twas Fannie's hair," and he held to view a silken
+tress much like the one which lay next Howard Hastings's heart! "Oh,
+what a child it made of me, the first sight of this soft hair," he
+continued, carefully returning it to its hiding-place, without a word
+of the generous manner in which it had been paid for.
+
+"Shall I tell him now?" thought Mr. Hastings, but Uncle Nathaniel spoke
+before him, and as if talking with himself, said softly, "Oh, how I
+loved her, and what a wreck that love has made of me. But I might have
+known it. Twenty-one years' difference in our ages was too great a
+disparity, even had my face been fair as John's. She was seventeen, and
+I was almost forty; I am _sixty_ now, and with every year added to my
+useless life, my love for her has strengthened."
+
+"Could you not transfer that love to her daughter? It might make you
+happier," suggested Mr. Hastings, and mournfully shaking his head,
+Uncle Nat replied, "No, no, I've tried to win her love so hard. Have
+even thought of going home, and taking her to my bosom as my own
+darling child--but to all my advances, she has turned a deaf ear. I
+could not make the mother love me--I cannot make the child. It isn't in
+me, the way how, and I must live here all alone. I wouldn't mind that
+so much, for I'm used to it now, but when I come to die, there will be
+nobody to hold my head, or to speak to me a word of comfort, unless God
+sends Fannie back to me in the dark hour, and who knows but He will?"
+
+Covering his face with his hands, Uncle Nathaniel cried aloud, while
+Mr. Hastings, touched by his grief, and growing each moment more and
+more indignant, at the deception practised upon the lonesome old man,
+said slowly and distinctly: "_Dora Deane never received your
+letter--never dreamed how much you loved her--never knew that you had
+sent her money, She has been duped--abused--and you most treacherously
+cheated by a base, designing woman! To tell you this, sir, I have come
+over land and sea! I might have written it, but I would rather meet you
+face to face--would know if you were worthy to be the uncle of Dora
+Deane!_"
+
+Every tear was dried, and bolt upright, his keen eyes flashing gleams
+of fire, and his glittering teeth ground firmly together, Nathaniel
+Deane sat, rigid and immovable, listening to the foul story of Dora's
+wrongs, till Mr. Hastings came to the withholding of the letter, and
+the money paid for Fannie's hair. Then, indeed, his clenched fists
+struck fiercely at the empty air, as if Eugenia had been there, and
+springing half way across the room, he exclaimed, "_The wretch! The
+fiend! The beast! The Devil!_ What _shall_ I call her? Help me to some
+name which will be appropriate."
+
+"You are doing very well, I think," said Mr. Hastings, smiling in spite
+of himself at this new phase in the character of the excited man, who,
+foaming with rage, continued to stalk up and down the room, setting his
+feet upon the floor with vengeance, and with every breath denouncing
+Eugenia's perfidy.
+
+"Curse her!" he muttered, "for daring thus to maltreat Fannie's child,
+and for making me to believe her so ungrateful and unkind. And she once
+cut off her hair to buy a party dress with, you say," he continued,
+stopping in front of Mr. Hastings, who nodded in the affirmative, while
+Uncle Nat, as if fancying that the few thin locks, which grew upon his
+own bald head, were Eugenia's long, black tresses, clutched at them
+savagely, exclaiming, "The selfish jade! But I will be avenged, and
+Madam Eugenia shall rue the day that she dared thus deceive me. That
+mother, too, had not, it seems, been wholly guiltless. She was jealous
+of my Fannie--she has been cruel to my child. I'll remember that, too!"
+and a bitter laugh echoed through the room, as the wrathful old man
+thought of revenge.
+
+But as the wildest storm expends its fury, so Uncle Nat at last grew
+calm, though on his dark face there were still traces of the fierce
+passion which had swept over it. Resuming his seat and looking across
+the table at Mr. Hastings, he said, "It is not often that _old Nat
+Deane_ is moved as you have seen him moved to-night; but the story you
+told me set me on fire, and for a moment, I felt that I was going mad.
+But I am now myself again, and would hear how you learned all this."
+
+In a few words, Mr. Hastings told of his foolish fancy for Eugenia, and
+related the circumstance of his having overheard her conversation at
+the hotel in Rochester.
+
+"And Dora, you say, is beautiful and good," said Uncle Nat; "and I
+shall one day know her and see if there is in her aught like her angel
+mother, whose features are as perfect to me now as when last I looked
+upon them beneath the locust trees."
+
+Bending low his head, he seemed to be thinking of the past, while Mr.
+Hastings, kissing fondly the picture of Dora Deane, laid it softly upon
+the table, and then anxiously awaited the result. Uncle Nathaniel did
+not see it at first, but his eye ere long fell upon it, and, with a cry
+like that which broke from his lips when first he looked on his dead
+Fannie's hair, he caught it up, exclaiming, "'Tis _her_--'tis
+Fannie--my long-lost darling, come back to me from the other world. Oh,
+Fannie, Fannie!" he cried, as if his reason were indeed unsettled,
+"I've been so lonesome here without you. Why didn't you come before?"
+
+Again, for a time, he was silent, and Mr. Hastings could see the tears
+dropping upon the face of Dora Deane, who little dreamed of the part
+she was acting, far off in Hindostan. Slowly the reality dawned upon
+Uncle Nat, and speaking to Mr. Hastings, he said, "Who are you that
+moves me thus from one extreme to another, making me first a _fury_ and
+then a _child_?"
+
+"I have told you I am Howard Hastings," answered the young man, adding
+that the picture was not that of Fannie, but her child.
+
+"I know--I know it," returned Uncle Nat, "but the first sight of it
+drove me from my senses, it is so like her. The same open brow, the
+same blue eyes, the same ripe lips, and more than all, the same sweet
+smile which shone on me so often 'mid the granite hills of New
+Hampshire. And it is mine," he continued, making a movement to put it
+away. "You brought it to me, and in return, if you have need for gold,
+name the sum, and it shall be yours, even to half a million."
+
+Money could not buy that picture from Howard Hastings, and though it
+grieved him to do so, he said, very gently, "I cannot part with the
+likeness, Mr. Deane, but we will share it together until the original
+is gained."
+
+Leaning upon his elbows and looking steadily at his visitor, Uncle
+Nathaniel said, "You have been married once?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered Mr. Hastings, while his countenance flushed, for
+he readily understood the nature of the questioning to which he was to
+be subjected.
+
+"What was the name of your wife?" was the next query, and Mr. Hastings
+replied, "Ella Grey."
+
+"Will you describe her?" said Uncle Nat, and almost as vividly as the
+features of Dora Deane were delineated by the artist's power, did Mr.
+Hastings portray by word the laughing blue eyes, the pale, childish
+face, the golden curls, and little airy form of her who had once slept
+upon his bosom as his wife.
+
+"And did you love her, this Ella Grey?" asked Uncle Nat.
+
+"Love her? Yes. But she is dead," answered Mr. Hastings, while Uncle
+Nat continued:
+
+"And now if I mistake not, you love Dora Deane?"
+
+"_Yes, better than my life,_" said Mr. Hastings, firmly. "Have you any
+objections?"
+
+"None whatever," answered Uncle Nat, "for, though you are a stranger to
+me, there is that in your face which tells me you would make my darling
+happy. But it puzzles me to know how, loving one as you say you did,
+you can forget and love another."
+
+"I have not forgotten," said Mr. Hastings, sadly; "God forbid that I
+should e'er forget my Ella; but, Mr. Deane, though she was good and
+gentle, she was not suited to me. Our minds were wholly unlike; for
+what I most appreciated, was utterly distasteful to her. She was a
+fair, beautiful little creature, but she did not satisfy the higher,
+nobler feelings of my heart; and she, too, knew it. She told me so
+before she died, and spoke of a coming time when I would love another.
+She did not mention _Dora_, who then seemed like a child, but could she
+now come back to me, she would approve my choice, for she, too, loved
+Dora Deane."
+
+"Have you told her this?" asked Uncle Nat--"told Dora how much you
+loved her?"
+
+"I have not," was Mr. Hastings reply. "My sister would not suffer it
+until my return, when Dora will be more mature. At first I would not
+listen to this; but I yielded at last, consenting the more willingly to
+the long separation, when I considered that with Louise she was at
+least safe from Eugenia, and I hope, safe from any who might seek
+either to harm her, or win her from me."
+
+"You spoke of having stopped in Europe on your way hither," said Uncle
+Nat. "How long is it since you left New York?"
+
+"I sailed from there the latter part of June, almost ten months ago,"
+was Mr. Hastings's answer, adding that, as he wished to visit some
+parts of Europe, and left home with the ostensible purpose of doing so,
+he had thought it advisable to stop there on his way, for he well knew
+that Mr. Deane, after learning why he had come, would be impatient to
+return immediately.
+
+"Yes, yes; you are right," answered the old man. "I would go to-morrow
+if possible; but I shall probably never return to India, and I must
+make some arrangements for leaving my business in the hands of others.
+Were Dora still in Eugenia's power, I would not tarry a moment, I would
+sacrifice everything to save her, but as you say she is safe with your
+sister, and a few weeks' delay, though annoying to me, will make no
+difference with her. Do they know aught of this--those _wretches_ in
+Dunwood?" he continued, beginning to grow excited.
+
+"They suppose me to be in Europe, for to no one save my mother and
+sister, did I breathe a word of India," Mr. Hastings replied; and Uncle
+Nat rejoined, "Let them continue to think so, then. I would rather they
+should not suspect my presence in America until I meet them face to
+face and taunt them with their treachery. It shall not be long, either,
+before I do it. In less than a month, we are homeward bound--and then,
+Miss Eugenia Deane--_we'll see!_" and his hard fist came down upon the
+table, as he thought of her dismay when told that he stood before her.
+
+But alas for Uncle Nat! The time was farther in the distance than he
+anticipated. The excitement of what he had heard, told upon a frame
+already weakened by constant toil and exposure in the sultry climate of
+India, and one week from the night of Mr. Hastings's arrival, the old
+man lay burning with fever, which was greatly augmented by the constant
+chafing at the delay this unexpected illness would cause. Equally
+impatient, Mr. Hastings watched over him, while his heart grew faint
+with hope deferred, as weeks, and even months, glided by; while vessel
+after vessel sailed away, leaving Uncle Nat prostrate and powerless to
+move. He had never been sick before in all his life, and his shattered
+frame was long in rallying, so that the summer, and the autumn and a
+part of the winter passed away, ere, leaning heavily on Mr. Hastings's
+arm, he went on board the ship which was to take him home--take him to
+Dora Deane, who had listened wonderingly to the story of her wrongs,
+told her by Mrs. Elliott at Mr. Hastings's request.
+
+Indignant as she was at Eugenia, she felt more than repaid for all she
+had suffered, by the knowledge that Uncle Nat had always loved her; and
+many a cheering letter from her found its way to the bedside of the
+invalid, who laid each one beneath his pillow, beside the picture which
+Mr. Hastings suffered him to keep. More than once, too, had Dora
+written to Mr. Hastings _kind, sisterly notes_, with which he tried to
+be satisfied, for he saw that she was the same frank, ingenuous girl he
+had left, and from one or two things which she wrote, he fancied he was
+not indifferent to her. "She did not, at least, care for another," so
+Louise assured him. There was comfort in that, and during the weary
+days when their floating home lay, sometimes becalmed and sometimes
+tossed by adverse winds, he and Uncle Nat whiled away the tedious
+hours, by talking of the happiness which awaited them when home was
+reached at last.
+
+During Mr. Deane's illness, Mr. Hastings had suggested that the annual
+remittance be sent to Dunwood, as usual, lest they should suspect that
+something was wrong, if it were withheld, and to this Uncle Nat
+reluctantly consented saying, as he did so, "It's the last dime they'll
+ever receive from me. I'll see her starve before my eyes, that girl
+Eugenia."
+
+Still, as the distance between himself and the young lady diminished,
+he felt a degree of satisfaction in knowing that the draft had as usual
+been sent, thus lulling her into a state of security with regard to
+himself. Rapturously he talked of the meeting with Dora, but his eye
+was fiery in its expression when he spoke of that other meeting, when
+Eugenia would be the accused and he the wrathful accuser. The
+invigorating sea breeze did him good, and when at last the Cape was
+doubled and he knew that the waves which clashed against the ship, bore
+the same name with those which kissed the shores of America, he stood
+forth upon the deck, tall and erect as ever, with an eager, expectant
+look in his eye, which increased as he each day felt that he drew
+nearer and Bearer to his home--and _Dora Deane_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE MEETING.
+
+
+One bright, beautiful summer morning, a noble vessel was sailing slowly
+into the harbor of New York. Groups of passengers stood upon her deck,
+and a little apart from the rest were Uncle Nat and Howard Hastings,
+the former gazing eagerly towards the city, which had more than doubled
+its population since last he looked upon it.
+
+"We are almost home," he said to his companion, joyfully, for though
+the roof that sheltered his childhood was further to the northward,
+among the granite hills, he knew that it was _America_, the land of his
+birth, which lay before him, and as a child returns to its mother after
+a long and weary absence, So did his heart yearn towards the shore they
+were fast approaching.
+
+A crowd of memories came rushing over him, and when, at last, the plank
+was lowered, he was obliged to lean upon the stronger arm of Howard
+Hastings, who, procuring a carriage, bade the hackman drive them at
+once to his sister's. For some time Mrs. Elliott and Dora had been
+looking for the travelers, whose voyage was unusually long, and they
+had felt many misgivings lest the treacherous sea had not been faithful
+to its trust; but this morning they were not expecting them, and
+wishing to make some arrangements for removing to her country seat on
+the Hudson, Mrs. Elliott had gone out there and taken Dora with her.
+Mr. Hastings's first impulse was to follow them, but knowing that they
+would surely be home that night, and remembering how weary Uncle
+Nathaniel was, he wisely concluded to remain in the city and surprise
+them on their return.
+
+Like one in a dream, Uncle Nat walked from room to room, asking every
+half hour if it were not almost time for the train, and wondering if
+Dora would recognize him if no one told her who he was. Scarcely less
+excited, Mr. Hastings, too, waited and watched; and when, just at dark,
+he heard the door unclose, and Dora's voice in the hall without, the
+rapid beating of his heart was distinctly audible.
+
+"That's _her_--that's _Dora_. I'll go to her at once," said Uncle Nat;
+but Mr. Hastings kept him back, and Dora passed on to her room, from
+which she soon returned, and they could hear the sound of her footsteps
+upon the stairs, as she drew near.
+
+With his face of a deathlike whiteness, his lips apart, and the
+perspiration standing thickly about them, Uncle Nat sat leaning
+forward, his eyes fixed upon the door through which she would enter. In
+a moment she stood before them--Dora Deane--but far more lovely than
+Mr. Hastings had thought or dreamed. Nearly two years before, he had
+left her a school girl, as it were, and now he found her a beautiful
+woman, bearing about her an unmistakable air of refinement and high
+breeding. She knew him in an instant, and with an exclamation of
+surprised delight, was hastening forward, when a low, moaning cry, from
+another part of the room, arrested her ear, causing her to pause ere
+Mr. Hastings was reached. Uncle Nat had recognized her--knew that she
+was Dora and attempted to rise, but his strength utterly failed him and
+stretching out his trembling arms towards her, he said
+supplicatingly,"_Me first, Dora me first._"
+
+It was sufficient, and Dora passed on with a welcoming glance at Mr.
+Hastings, who feeling that it was not for him to witness that meeting,
+glided noiselessly from the room in quest of his sister. Fondly the old
+man clasped the young girl to his bosom, and Dora could hear the
+whispered blessings which he breathed over her, and felt the hot tears
+dropping on her cheek.
+
+"Speak to me, darling," he said at last; "let me hear your own voice
+assuring me that never again shall we be parted until your mother calls
+for me to come and be with her."
+
+Looking lovingly up in to his face, Dora answered, "I will never leave
+nor forsake you, my father, but whereever your home may be there will
+mine be also."
+
+Clasping her still closer in his arms, he said, "God bless you, my
+child, for so I will call you, and never, I am sure, did earthly parent
+love more fondly an only daughter than I love you, my precious Dora. I
+have yearned so often to behold you, to look into your eyes and hear
+you say that I was loved, and now that it has come to me, I am willing,
+almost, to die."
+
+Releasing her after a moment, and holding her off at a little distance,
+he looked earnestly upon her, saying, as he did so, "Yes, you _are_
+like her--like your mother, Dora. Some, perhaps, would call you even
+more beautiful, but to me there is not in all the world a face more
+fair than hers."
+
+In his delight at seeing her, he forgot for the time being how deeply
+she had been injured, and it was well that he did, for now nothing
+marred the happiness of this meeting, and for half an hour longer he
+sat with her alone, talking but little, but looking ever at the face so
+much like her whom he had loved and lost. At last, as if suddenly
+remembering himself, he said, "Excuse me, Dora; the sight of you drove
+every other thought from my mind, and I have kept you too long from one
+who loves you equally well with myself, and who must be impatient at
+the delay. He is worthy of you, too, my child," he continued, without
+observing how the color faded from Dora's cheek. "He is a noble young
+man, and no son was ever kinder to a father than he has been to me,
+since the night when I welcomed him to my home in India. Go to him,
+then, my daughter, and ask him to forgive my selfishness."
+
+From several little occurrences, Dora had received the impression that
+a marriage between herself and Mr. Hastings would not be distasteful to
+his sister, but she had treated the subject lightly as something
+impossible. Still the thought of his loving another was fraught with
+pain, and when at last she knew that he was on the stormy sea, and felt
+that danger might befall him--when the faces of his mother and sister
+wore an anxious, troubled look as days went by, bringing them no
+tidings--when she thought it just possible that he would never return
+to them again, it came to her just as two years before it had come to
+him, and sitting alone in her pleasant chamber, she, more than once had
+wept bitterly, as she thought how much she loved him, and how
+improbable it was that he should care for her, whom he had found almost
+a beggar girl.
+
+In the first surprise of meeting him she had forgotten everything, save
+that he had returned to them in safety, and her manner towards him then
+was perfectly natural; but now when Uncle Nat, after telling what he
+did, bade her go to him, she quitted the room reluctantly, and much as
+she wished to see him, she would undoubtedly have run away upstairs,
+had she not met him in the hall, together with Mrs. Elliott, who was
+going to pay her respects to Uncle Nat.
+
+"I have not spoken with you yet, Dora," he said, taking her hand
+between both his. "Go in there," motioning to the room he had just
+left, "and wait until I present Louise to your uncle."
+
+It was a habit of Dora's always to cry just when she wished to least,
+and now entering the little music room, she threw herself upon the sofa
+and burst into tears. Thus Mr. Hastings found her on his return, and
+sitting down by her side, he said gently, "Are you, then, so glad that
+I have come home?"
+
+Dora would not, for the world, let him know her real feelings, and she
+answered, "Yes, I am glad, but I am crying at what Uncle Nat said to
+me."
+
+Mr. Hastings bit his lip, for this was not exactly the kind of meeting
+he had anticipated, and after sitting an awkward moment, during which
+he was wishing that she had not answered him as she did, he said: "Will
+you not look up, Dora, and tell me how you have passed the time of my
+absence? I am sure you have improved it both from your own appearance
+and what Louise has told me."
+
+This was a subject on which Dora felt that she could trust herself, and
+drying her tears, she became very animated as she told him of the books
+she had read, and the studies she had pursued. "I have taken music
+lessons, too," she added. "Would you like to hear me play?"
+
+Mr. Hastings would far rather have sat there, watching her bright face,
+with his arm thrown lightly around her waist, but it was this very act,
+this touch of his arm, which prompted her proposal, and gracefully
+disengaging herself she crossed over to the piano, which was standing
+in the room, and commenced singing the old, and on that occasion very
+appropriate, song of "Home again, home again, from a foreign shore."
+The tones of her voice were rich and full, and they reached the ear of
+Uncle Nat, who in his eagerness to listen, forgot everything, until
+Mrs. Elliott said, "It is Dora singing to my brother. Shall we join
+them?"
+
+Leading the way she ushered him into the music room, where, standing at
+Dora's side, he listened rapturously to her singing, occasionally
+wiping away a tear, called forth by the memories that song had
+awakened. The sight of the piano reminded him of Eugenia, and when Dora
+had finished playing, he laid his broad hand upon her shoulder and
+said, "Do you ever hear from them--the villains?"
+
+Dora knew to whom he referred, and half laughing at his excited manner,
+she replied, as she stole a mischievous glance towards Mr. Hastings, "I
+received a letter from Eugenia not long since, and she seemed very
+anxious to know in what part of Europe Mr. Hastings was now traveling,
+and if he were ever coming home!"
+
+"Much good his coming home will do _her_, the _trollop!_" muttered
+Uncle Nat, whispering incoherently to himself as he generally did, when
+Eugenia was the subject of his thoughts. "Don't answer the letter," he
+said at last, "or, if you do, say nothing of me; I wish to meet them
+first as a stranger."
+
+Near the window Mr. Hastings was standing, revolving in his own mind a
+double surprise which he knew would mortify Eugenia more than anything
+else. But in order to effect this, Uncle Nat must remain _incog._ for
+some time yet, while Dora herself must be won, and this, with the
+jealous fears of a lover, he fancied might be harder to accomplish than
+the keeping Uncle Nat silent when in the presence of Eugenia.
+
+"To-morrow I will see her alone, and know the worst," he thought and
+glancing at Dora, he felt a thrill of fear lest she, in all the
+freshness of her youth, should refuse her heart to one, who had called
+another than herself his wife.
+
+But Ella Grey had never awakened a love as deep and absorbing as that
+which he now felt for Dora Deane, and all that night he lay awake,
+wondering how he should approach her, and fancying sometimes that he
+saw the cold surprise with which she would listen to him, and again
+that he read in her dark blue eyes the answer which he sought. The
+morrow came, but throughout the entire day, he found no opportunity of
+speaking to her alone, for Uncle Nat hovered near her side, gazing at
+her as if he would never tire of looking at her beautiful face. And
+Dora, too, had much to say to the old man, on this the first day after
+his return. With his head resting upon her lap, and her soft white hand
+upon his wrinkled brow, she told him of her mother, and the message she
+had left for him on the sad night when she died. Then she spoke of her
+Aunt Sarah, of Eugenia and Alice, and the wrath of Uncle Nat was
+somewhat abated, when he heard _her_ pleading with him not to be so
+angry and unforgiving--
+
+"I can treat Alice well, perhaps," he said, "for she, it seems, was
+never particularly unkind. And for your sake, _I_ may forgive the
+mother. But Eugenia _never!_--not even if Fannie herself should ask me!"
+
+Thus passed that day, and when the next one came, Uncle Nat still
+stayed at Dora's side, following her from room to room, and never for a
+moment leaving Mr. Hastings with her alone. In this manner nearly a
+week went by, and the latter was beginning to despair, when one evening
+as the three were together in the little music room, and Mrs. Elliott
+was with her mother, who was ill, it suddenly occurred to Uncle Nat
+that he had appropriated Dora entirely to himself, not giving Mr.
+Hastings a single opportunity for seeing her alone.
+
+"I have wondered that he did not tell me he was engaged," he thought,
+"but how could he when I haven't given him a chance to speak to her,
+unless he did it before me; strange, I should be so selfish: but I'll
+make amends now--though I do hope he'll be quick!"
+
+Rising up, he walked to the door, when thinking that Mr. Hastings might
+possibly expect him to return every moment, and so keep silent, he
+said, "I've been in the way of you young folks long enough, and I feel
+just as if something might happen if I left you together! Call me when
+you want me?" so saying he shut the door, and Mr. Hastings was alone at
+last with Dora Deane!
+
+Both knew to what Uncle Nat referred, and while Dora fidgeted from one
+thing to another, looking at a book of prints wrong side up, and
+admiring the pictures, Mr. Hastings sat perfectly still, wondering why
+he was so much afraid of her. Two years before he felt no fear; but a
+refusal at that time would not have affected him as it would do now,
+for he did not then know how much he loved her. Greatly he desired that
+she should speak to him--look at him--or do something to break the
+embarrassing silence; but this Dora had no intention of doing, and she
+was just meditating the propriety of _running away_, when he found
+voice enough to say, "Will you come and sit by me, Dora?"
+
+She had always obeyed him, and she did so now, taking a seat, however,
+as far from him as possible, on the end of the sofa. Still, when he
+moved up closely to her side, and wound his arm about her, she did not
+object, though her face burned with blushes, and she thought it quite
+likely that her next act would be to cry! And this she did do, when he
+said to her, "Dora, do you remember the night when Ella died?"
+
+He did not expect any answer yet, and he continued, "She told me, you
+know, of a time when, though not forgetting her, I should love
+another--should seek to call another my wife. And, Dora, she was right,
+for I do love another, better, if it be possible, than I did my lost
+Ella. 'Tis four years since she left me, and now that I would have a
+second wife, will the one whom I have chosen from all the world to be
+that wife, answer me _yes?_ Will she go back with me in the autumn to
+my long deserted home, where her presence always brought sunlight and
+joy?"
+
+There was no coquetry about Dora Deane, and she could not have
+practised it now, if there had been. She knew Mr. Hastings was in
+earnest--knew that he meant what he said--and the little hand, which at
+first had stolen partly under her dress, lest he should touch it, came
+back from its hiding-place, and crept slowly along until his was
+reached, and there she let it lay! _This_ was her answer, and he was
+satisfied!
+
+For a long long time they sat together, while Mr. Hastings talked, not
+wholly of the future when she would be his wife, but of the New Year's
+morning, years ago, when he found her sleeping in the chamber of
+death--of the bright June afternoon, when she sat with her bare feet in
+the running brook--of the time when she first brought comfort to his
+home--of the dark, rainy evening, when the sight of her sitting in
+Ella's room, with Ella's baby on her lap, had cheered his aching
+heart--of the storm she had braved to tell him his baby was dying--of
+the winter night when he watched her through the window--of the dusky
+twilight when she sat at his feet in the little library at Rose
+Hill--and again in his sister's home on the Hudson, when he first knew
+how much he loved her. Of all these pictures so indelibly stamped upon
+his memory, he told her, and of the many, many times his thoughts had
+been of her when afar on a foreign shore.
+
+And Dora, listening to him, did not care to answer, her heart was so
+full of happiness, to know that she should be thus loved by one like
+Howard Hastings. From a tower not far distant, a city clock struck
+_twelve_, and then, starting up, she exclaimed, "_So late!_ I thought
+'twas only ten! We have kept Uncle Nat too long. Will you go with me to
+him?" and with his arms still around her, Mr. Hastings arose to
+accompany her.
+
+For half an hour after leaving the music-room Uncle Nat had walked up
+and down the long parlors, with his hands in his pockets, hoping Mr.
+Hastings _would_ be brief, and expecting each moment to hear Dora
+calling him back! In this manner an hour or more went by, and then
+grown very nervous and cold (for it was a damp, chilly night, such as
+often occurs in our latitude, even in summer) he began to think that if
+_Dora_ were not coming, a fire would be acceptable, and he drew his
+chair near to the register, which was closed. Wholly unaccustomed to
+furnaces, he did not think to open it, and for a time longer he sat
+wondering why he didn't grow warm, and if it took everybody as long to
+propose as it did Mr. Hastings.
+
+It "didn't take me long to tell my love to Fanny," he said, "but then
+she refused, and when they accept, as Dora will, it's always a longer
+process, I reckon!"
+
+This point satisfactorily settled, he began to wish the atmosphere of
+the room would moderate, and hitching in his chair, he at last sat
+directly over the register! but even this failed to warm him, and
+mentally concluding that although furnaces might do very well for New
+Yorkers, they were of no account whatever to an East India man, he fell
+asleep. In this situation, Dora found him.
+
+"Poor old man," said she, "'twas thoughtless in me to leave him so
+long," and kissing his brow, she cried, "Wake up, Uncle Nat--wake up!"
+and Uncle Nat, rubbing his eyes with his red stiff fingers, and looking
+in her glowing face, thought "that something had happened!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE SPRINGS.
+
+
+Mr. Hastings and Dora were engaged. Mrs. Hastings, the mother, and Mrs.
+Elliott, the sister, had signified their entire approbation, while
+Uncle Nat, with a hand placed on either head of the young people, had
+blessed them as his children, hinting the while that few brides e'er
+went forth as richly dowered as should Dora Deane. The marriage was not
+to take place until the following October, as Mr. Hastings wished to
+make some improvements at Rose Hill, which was still to be his home
+proper, though Uncle Nat insisted upon buying a very elegant house in
+the city for a winter residence, whenever they chose thus to use it. To
+this proposal Mr. Hastings made no objection, for though he felt that
+his greatest happiness would be in having Dora all to himself in
+Dunwood, he knew that society in the city would never have the effect
+upon her which it did upon Ella, for her tastes, like his own, were
+domestic, and on almost every subject she felt and thought as he did.
+
+Immediately after his engagement he imparted to Uncle Nat a knowledge
+of the double surprise he had planned for Eugenia, and the old
+gentleman at last consented, saying though, that "'twas doubtful
+whether he could hold himself together when first he met the young
+lady. Still with Mr. Hastings's presence as a check, he would try."
+
+So it was arranged that in Dunwood, where Mr. Hastings's return was
+still unknown, Uncle Nat should pass as a _Mr. Hamilton_, whom Mr.
+Hastings had picked up in his travels. Four years of his earlier life
+had been spent in South America, and whenever he spoke of any
+particular place of abode it was to be of _Buenos Ayres_, where he had
+once resided. By this means he could the more easily learn for himself
+the character and disposition of his relatives, and feeling now more
+eager than ever to meet them, he here started with Mr. Hastings for
+Dunwood. It was morning when they reached there, and with a dark,
+lowering brow, he looked curiously at the house which his companion
+designated as _Locust Grove_. It was a pleasant spot, and it seemed
+almost impossible that it should be the home of a woman as artful and
+designing as Eugenia. About it now, however, there was an air of
+desertion. The doors were shut and the blinds closed, as if the inmates
+were absent.
+
+On reaching Rose Hill, where he found his servants overwhelmed with
+delight at his unexpected return, Mr. Hastings casually inquired of
+Mrs. Leah if the Deanes were at home. A shadow passed over the old
+lady's face, and folding her arms, she leaned against the door and
+began: "I wonder now, if you're askin' after them the first thing! I
+don't know but they are well enough, all but Eugenia, I believe I never
+disliked anybody as I do her, and no wonder, the way she's gone on. At
+first she used to come up here almost every week on purpose to ask
+about you, though she pretended to tumble over your books, and mark 'em
+all up with her pencil. But when that scapegrace _Stephen Grey_ came,
+she took another _tack_, and the way she and he went on was scandalous.
+She was a runnin' up here the whole time that he wasn't a streakin' it
+down there."
+
+"_Stephen Grey been here?_ When and what for?" interrupted Mr.
+Hastings, who, as his father-in-law, during his absence, had removed to
+Philadelphia, knew nothing of the family.
+
+"You may well ask that," returned Mrs. Leah, growing very much excited
+as she remembered the trouble the fast young man had made her. "Last
+fall in shootin' time, he came here, bag, baggage, gun, dogs and
+all--said it didn't make a speck of difference, you being away--'twas
+all in the family, and so you'd a' thought, the way he went on,
+drinkin', swearin', shootin', and carousin' with a lot of fellers who
+stayed with him here a spell, and then, when they were gone, he took a
+flirtin' with Eugenia Deane, who told him, I'll bet, more'n five
+hundred lies about an old uncle that, she says, is rich as a Jew, and
+has willed his property to her and Alice."
+
+"The viper!" muttered Uncle Nat to himself; and Mrs. Leah continued, "I
+shouldn't wonder if old Mr. Grey was gettin' poor, and Steve, I guess,
+would marry anybody who had money; but Lord knows I don't want him to
+have her, for though he he ain't an atom too good, I used to live in
+the family and took care of him when he was little. I should a' written
+about his carryin's on to Mrs. Elliott, only I knew she didn't think
+any too much of the Greys, and 'twould only trouble her for nothin'."
+
+"But where are they now--Mrs. Deane and her daughters?" asked Mr.
+Hastings; and Mrs. Leah replied. "Gone to Avon Springs: and folks do
+say they've done their own work, and ate cold victuals off the pantry
+shelf ever since last November, so as to save money, to cut a swell. I
+guess Eugenia'll be mighty glad if that old uncle ever dies. For my
+part, I hope he won't! or, if he does, I hope he won't leave her a
+dollar."
+
+"_Not a dime!_" thought Uncle Nat, who, not being supposed to feel
+interested in Eugenia Deane, had tried to appear indifferent, holding
+hard the while upon the rounds of his chair "to keep himself together."
+
+Alone with Mr. Hastings, his wrath burst forth, but after a few
+tremendous explosions, he grew calm, and proposed that they too should
+go at once to Avon. "We shall then see the lady in all her glory," said
+he, "and maybe hear something about her old uncle, though you'll have
+to keep your eye on me, or I shall go off on a sudden, and shake her as
+a dog would a snake! We'll send for Mrs. Elliott and Dora to join us
+there," he continued; "it will be fun to bring them together, and see
+what Eugenia will do."
+
+"I am afraid you could not restrain yourself," said Mr. Hastings; but
+Uncle Nat was sure he could, and after a few days they started for
+Avon, where "Miss Eugenia Deane, the heiress," was quite a belle.
+
+For a long time after Mr. Hastings's departure for Europe, she had
+remained true to him, feeding on the remembrance of his parting words,
+that "he had more reasons for remembering her than she supposed;" but
+when, as months went by, he sent her neither letter, paper nor message,
+she began to think that possibly he had never entertained a serious
+thought concerning her, and when Stephen Grey came, she was the more
+ready to receive his attentions, and forgive his former neglect. He was
+a reckless, unprincipled fellow, and feeling this time rather pleased
+with the bold dashing manner of Eugenia, backed as it was by the
+supposed will of Uncle Nat, he made some advances, which she readily
+met, making herself and him, as Mrs. Leah had said, "perfectly
+ridiculous." When he left Dunwood he went west, telling her playfully,
+that, "if he found no one there who suited him better than she, he
+would the next summer meet her at Avon, and perhaps propose! He was
+disgusted with Saratoga, Newport, Nahant, and all those stupid places,"
+he said, "and wished to try something new."
+
+To spend several weeks at Avon, therefore, was now Eugenia's object.
+She had succeeded in coaxing her mother to withhold from Dora the
+thousand dollars, a part of which was safely invested for their own
+benefit, but this alone would not cover all their expenses, for Mrs.
+Deane, growing gay and foolish as she grew older, declared her
+intention of going to Avon also. "The water would do her good." she
+said, "and 'twas time she saw a little of society."
+
+To this plan Eugenia did not particularly object, for it would indicate
+wealth, she thought, for the whole family to spend the summer at a
+watering place. Still it would cost a great deal, and though Uncle
+Nat's remittance came at the usual time, they did not dare to depend
+wholly upon that, lest on their return there should be nothing left
+with which to buy their bread. In this emergency, they hit upon the
+expedient of dismissing their servant, and starving themselves through
+the winter and spring, for the purpose of making a display in the
+summer; and this last they were now doing. Eugenia fluttered like a
+butterfly, sometimes in white satin, sometimes in pink, and again in
+embroidered muslin; while her mother, a very little disgusted with
+_society_, but still determined to brave it through, held aside her
+cambric wrapper and made faces over _three glasses_ of spring water in
+the morning, drowned herself in a hot bath every other day, rode twice
+a day in crowded omnibuses to and from the springs, through banks of
+sand and clouds of dust, and sat every evening in the heated parlors
+with a very red face, and a very tight dress, wondering if everybody
+enjoyed themselves as little in society as she did, and thinking ten
+dollars per week a great deal to pay for being as uncomfortable as she
+was!
+
+For her disquietude, however, she felt in a measure repaid when she saw
+that Eugenia was the most showy young lady present, and managed to keep
+about her a cross-eyed widower, a near-sighted-bachelor, a medical
+student of nineteen, a broken-down merchant, a lame officer, a
+spiritualist, and Stephen Grey! This completed the list of her
+admirers, if we except a gouty old man, who praised her dancing, and
+would perhaps have called her beautiful, but for his better half, who
+could see nothing agreeable or pleasing in the dashing belle. True to
+his promise, Stephen Grey had met her there, and they were in the midst
+of quite a flirtation, when Mr. Hastings and Uncle Nat arrived; the
+latter registering his name as _Mr. Hamilton_; and taking care soon
+after to speak of _Buenos Ayres_, as a place where he formerly lived.
+The ruse was successful, and in less than half an hour, it was known
+through the house, that "the singular looking old gentleman was a South
+American, a bachelor, and rich undoubtedly, as such men always were!"
+
+The Deanes were that afternoon riding with Stephen Grey, and did not
+return until after supper, a circumstance which Eugenia greatly
+lamented when she learned that their numbers had been increased by the
+arrival of an elegant looking stranger from New York, together with an
+old South American, whose name was Hamilton. The name of the other
+Eugenia's informant did not know, for he had not registered it, but "he
+was a splendid looking man," she said, and with more than usual care,
+Eugenia dressed herself for the evening, and between the hours of eight
+and nine, sailed into the parlor with the air of a queen.
+
+From his window in an upper chamber Uncle Nat had seen the ladies, as
+they returned from their ride; and when Mr. Hastings, who at that time
+was absent from the room, came back to it, he found the old gentleman
+hurriedly pacing the floor and evidently much excited.
+
+"_I've seen her_," said he, "_the very one herself--Eugenia Deane!_ I
+knew her mother in a moment, and I knew her too, by her evil eyes. I
+could hardly refrain from pouncing upon her, and I believe I did shake
+my fist at her! But it's over now," he continued, "and I am glad I have
+seen her, for I can meet her and not betray myself; though, Hastings,
+if at any time I am missing, you may know that I've come up here to let
+myself off, for my wrath must evaporate somehow."
+
+Feeling confident that he could trust him, Mr. Hastings ere long
+accompanied him to the parlor, where his gentlemanly manners, and
+rather peculiar looks procured for him immediate attention; and when
+Eugenia entered the room, he was conversing familiarly with some
+gentlemen whose notice she had in vain tried to attract. At a little
+distance from him and nearer the door was Mr. Hastings, talking to
+Stephen Grey. Eugenia did not observe him until she was directly at his
+side, then, turning pale, she altered an exclamation of surprise, while
+he, in his usual polite, easy manner, offered his hand, first to her
+mother, and then to herself and Alice, saying, in reply to their many
+inquiries as to when he returned, that he reached Dunwood a few days
+before, and finding they were all at Avon, had concluded to follow. At
+this remark the pallor left Eugenia's cheek, and was succeeded by a
+bright glow, for "Mr. Hastings must feel interested in her, or he would
+not have followed her there;" and the black eyes, which a few hours
+before had smiled so bewitchingly upon Stephen Grey, now shone with a
+brighter lustre, as she talked with Mr. Hastings of his European tour,
+asking him why he had stayed so long, and telling him how natural it
+seemed to have him home once more.
+
+"By the way," she continued, "they say there is an old South American
+here--a queer old fellow--did he come with you?"
+
+"Yes," answered Mr. Hastings, glancing towards Uncle Nat, whose eyes
+had never for a moment lost sight of Eugenia; "I found him in my
+travels, and liking him very much, brought him home with me. Allow me
+to introduce you, for though rather eccentric, he's a fine man, and
+quite wealthy, too."
+
+"_Wealth is nothing!_ I wouldn't think any more of him for that,"
+returned Eugenia, taking Mr. Hastings's arm, and advancing toward Uncle
+Nat, whose left hand grasped tightly one side of his blue coat, while
+the other was offered to Eugenia.
+
+With a slight shudder, he dropped her hand as soon as it was touched;
+then, pressing his fingers together so firmly, that his long nails left
+marks in his flesh, he looked curiously down upon her, eyeing her
+furtively as if she had been a wild beast. Nothing of all this escaped
+Eugenia, who, feeling greatly amused at what she thought to be his
+embarrassment, and fancying he had never before conversed with so fine
+a lady as herself, she commenced quizzing him in a manner excessively
+provoking to one of his excitable temperament. Lifting up first one
+foot, and then the other, he felt his patience fast giving way, and at
+last, as her ridicule became more and more marked, he could endure it
+no longer, but returned it with a kind of sarcasm far more scathing
+than anything she could say. Deeply chagrined, and feeling that she had
+been beaten with her own weapons, she was about to leave the "old bear"
+as she mentally styled him, when remembering that he was Mr. Hastings's
+friend, and, as such worthy of more respect than she had paid him, she
+said playfully, "I have a mother and sister here, whom you may like
+better than you do me. I'll introduce them," and tripping across the
+room, she made known her wishes to her mother, adding that "there was a
+chance for her, as he was an old bachelor."
+
+Long and searchingly the old man looked in the face of the widow,
+thinking of the time when she had called _Fannie_ her sister; but of
+this Mrs. Deane did not know; and remembering what Eugenia had said,
+she blushed crimson, and as soon as possible, stole away, leaving him
+alone with Alice, with whom he was better pleased, talking with her so
+long that Eugenia, who was hovering near Mr. Hastings, began to laugh
+at what she called her _sister's conquest_. Nothing had escaped Mr.
+Hastings, and thinking this a good opportunity for rebuking the young
+lady, he spoke of Mr. Hamilton in the highest terms, saying that, "he
+should consider any disrespect paid to his friend a slight to himself."
+This hint was sufficient, and wishing to make amends for her rudeness,
+Eugenia ere long sought the stranger, and tried to be very agreeable;
+but there was no affinity between them, and to Mr. Hastings, who was
+watching them, they seemed much like a fierce mastiff, and a spiteful
+cat, impatient to pounce upon each other!
+
+During the evening the three were standing together, and Eugenia
+suddenly remembering Dora, asked Mr. Hastings how she was, saying she
+seldom wrote to them, and when she did, her letters amounted to
+nothing. With a warning glance at Uncle Nat, whose face grew very dark,
+Mr. Hastings replied that she was well, and had, he thought, improved
+under his sister's care.
+
+"I am glad," said she, "for there was need enough of improvement. She
+was so unrefined, always preferring the kitchen to the parlor, that we
+couldn't make anything of her."
+
+A sudden "_Ugh!_" from Uncle Nat stopped her, and she asked him what
+was the matter.
+
+"Nothing, nothing," said he, wiping his face, "only I am getting pretty
+warm, and must cool off."
+
+The next moment he was gone, and when, at a late hour, Mr. Hastings
+repaired to his room, he knew by the chairs, boots, brushes, and books
+scattered over the floor, that Uncle Nat, snoring so loudly in bed, had
+cooled off!
+
+"I had to hold on, to keep from falling to pieces right before her," he
+said, next morning, in speaking of the last night's adventure; "but I
+shall do better next time. I am getting a little accustomed to it."
+
+And he was right, for only twice during the entire day and evening did
+he disappear from the room. Once when Eugenia sat down to play, and
+once when he heard her telling Stephen Grey, who asked her to ride
+again, that, "he really must excuse her, as she had a letter to write
+to _Uncle Nat_, who undoubtedly wondered why she was so tardy. And you
+know," she said, "it won't do to neglect him!"
+
+Uncle Nat knew it was a farce to get rid of Stephen Grey, who was
+nothing compared with his brother-in-law, but his indignation was not
+the less; and Mr. Hastings, when he saw the long blue coat flying up
+the stairs, smiled quietly, though he pitied the poor old man, who was
+thus kept vibrating between his chamber and the parlor.
+
+In this manner several days passed away, during which time Uncle Nat's
+temper was severely tested, both by Eugenia's remarks concerning Dora,
+and by what she said of himself, for he more than once heard her
+speaking of _"Old Uncle Nat,"_ who sent her money to buy the various
+articles of jewelry which she wore. On such occasions it seemed almost
+impossible for him to restrain his anger, and he often wished he had
+never promised to keep silent; but by frequent visits to his chamber,
+which witnessed many a terrific storm, he managed to be quiet, so that
+Eugenia had no suspicion whatever, though she disliked him greatly, and
+wished he had never come there. Mr. Hastings troubled her, too, for she
+felt very uncertain as to the nature of his feelings towards her. He
+treated her politely, but that was all, and no management on her part
+could draw from him any particular attention.
+
+"Maybe he's jealous of Stephen Grey," she thought, and then she became
+so cold towards the latter individual, that had he not remembered
+_Uncle Nat's will_, in which he firmly believed, he would have packed
+his trunk at once, and left her in disgust.
+
+But Stephen's necessities were great. There was standing against him a
+long list of bills, which his father refused to pay, and he was ready
+to marry the first purse which was offered. Had Eugenia been altogether
+agreeable to him, he would have proposed ere this, but without knowing
+why, he felt afraid of her. Added to this was the memory of his
+mother's threat, that his father should disinherit him if he disgraced
+them by marrying _that Deane girl_, in whose expected fortune she did
+not believe. So halting between two opinions, he allowed himself to be
+taken up and cast off whenever the capricious Eugenia chose.
+
+In the meantime, Uncle Nat had cultivated the acquaintance of Mrs.
+Deane and Alice, finding the latter quite a pleasant girl, and feeling
+disposed to think more favorably of the former when he heard her speak
+kindly of Dora, as she always did. Matters were in this state, when,
+one afternoon, in compliance with her brother's written request, Mrs.
+Elliott arrived, together with Dora. Most of the visitors were at the
+springs, and as Eugenia never let an opportunity pass for showing
+herself to the guests of the different houses, she too was there, and
+thus failed to see how tenderly Dora was greeted by Mr. Hastings, and
+how fondly Uncle Nat clasped her in his arms, holding her hand all the
+way up the stairs, and only releasing her when she reached the door of
+the room, which had been previously engaged for them by Mr. Hastings.
+Feeling slightly indisposed, Mrs. Elliott did not go down to supper,
+and as Dora chose to remain with her, neither of them were seen until
+evening. Eugenia had heard of the arrival of two aristocratic looking
+ladies, one of whom was young and very beautiful, and this aroused her
+fears at once. Hitherto she had reigned without a rival, for aside from
+her beauty, the generally believed rumor of her being an heiress,
+procured for her attention for many who otherwise would have been
+disgusted with her overbearing manner and boisterous conduct; for, like
+many others, she had fallen into the error of thinking that to be
+_fashionable_, she must be bold and noisy, and no voice in the
+drawing-room ever reached so high a note as hers. Still she was
+tolerated and flattered, and when the friend, who told her of the new
+arrivals, and who had caught a view of Dora's face, laughingly bade her
+beware lest her star should begin to wane, she curled her lip in scorn,
+as if anything in Avon could compete with her, who "had spent so many
+seasons at _Saratoga_ and _Newport_, and who would have gone there this
+summer, only she wanted a change, and then it was more quiet for _Ma_!"
+
+This was one of her stereotyped remarks until Mr. Hastings came, but he
+knew her, and in his presence she was less assuming. She had heard that
+the new arrivals were his friends, and thinking they must of course be
+_somebody_, she arrayed herself for the evening with unusual care,
+wearing her white satin and lace bertha, the most becoming and at the
+same time the most expensive dress she had.
+
+"I wish I had some pearls," she said, glancing at her raven hair; "they
+would look so much richer than these flowers."
+
+"I should think an heiress like _you_ would have everything she
+wanted," suggested Alice, mischievously, and Eugenia replied, "Oh,
+pshaw! We shall never get more than five hundred a year from Uncle Nat,
+but I don't much care. Old Mr. Grey is wealthy, and if Mr. Hastings
+don't manifest any more interest in me than he has since he came here,
+I shall let that foolish _Steve_ propose, much as I dislike him."
+
+So saying, she clasped upon her arm a heavy bracelet, for which the sum
+of forty dollars had been paid, and descended with her mother and
+sister to the parlor. Mrs. Elliott and Dora were there before her--the
+former leaning on Mr. Hastings's arm, while the latter was already
+surrounded by a group of admirers, a few of whom had met her before.
+She was standing with her back towards Eugenia, who singled her out in
+a moment, as her rival, noticing first her magnificent hair, in which
+an ornament of any kind would have been out of place, and which was
+confined at the back of the head by a small and elegantly wrought gold
+comb. Her dress was perfectly plain, consisting simply of white India
+muslin, which fitted her admirably and seemed well adapted to her
+youthful form.
+
+"Who is she?" inquired Eugenia of Uncle Nat, who had stationed himself
+near the door, on purpose to see how the first sight of Dora would
+affect her.
+
+"Who is she!" he replied. "Strange you don't know your own cousin _Dora
+Deane_," and a look of intense satisfaction danced in his keen eyes, as
+he saw the expression of astonishment which passed over Eugenia's face.
+
+"Impossible!" she exclaimed, while a pang of envy shot through her
+heart. "That stylish looking girl can't be Dora! Why, I always supposed
+Mrs. Elliott made a half servant, half companion of her. She never told
+us any different;" and with a vague hope that the old South American
+might be mistaken, she took a step or two forward just as Dora turned
+round, disclosing to view her face.
+
+There was no longer any doubt, and with mingled feelings of surprise,
+mortification, jealousy, and rage, Eugenia advanced to meet her, wisely
+resolving as she did so to make the best of it, and never let her
+cousin know how much annoyed she was. Both Mrs. Deane and Alice were
+greeted kindly by Dora, who could scarcely be more than polite to
+Eugenia, and when the latter made a movement to kiss her, she
+involuntarily drew back, feeling that she could not suffer it.
+
+"Grown suddenly very proud," muttered Eugenia, at the same time
+determining that her mother should insist upon taking Dora home with
+them, and secretly exulting as she thought how she should again work in
+the dark kitchen at Locust Grove, as she had done before. "That'll
+remove some of her fine airs, I reckon," she thought, as, with bitter
+hatred at her heart, she watched her young cousin, who, throughout the
+entire evening, continued to be the center of attraction.
+
+Everybody asked who she was; everybody pronounced her beautiful, and
+everybody neglected Eugenia Deane, who, greatly enraged, retired early,
+and vented her wrath in tears, to think that the once despised Dora
+should now be so far above her.
+
+"But it shall not be," she said, and then to her mother she unfolded
+her plan of having Dora go home with them immediately. "I'd as soon be
+in Joppa as to stay here with her for a rival," she said. "Mr. Hastings
+don't care for me, I know, and I hate that old codger of a Hamilton,
+with his sarcastic remarks and prying eyes. I've been here long enough,
+and I mean to go home."
+
+To this proposition Mrs. Deane assented willingly; but she expressed
+her doubts concerning her ability to make Dora accompany them.
+
+"Of course she'll go," said Eugenia. "Her mother placed her under your
+control, and she is bound to obey."
+
+Yielding at last, as she generally did, Mrs. Deane promised to see what
+she could do, and the next day she announced to Mrs. Elliott her
+intention of taking _Dora_ home with her. "I am grateful for all you
+have done for her," said she; "but we need her, and cannot spare her
+any longer, so, Dora dear," turning to her niece, "pack up your things,
+and we will start to-morrow morning."
+
+Had Uncle Nat been there, he would, undoubtedly, have exploded at once;
+but he was not present, neither was Mr. Hastings, and it remained for
+Mrs. Elliott alone to reply, which she did firmly and decidedly. "No,
+Mrs. Deane, Dora cannot go. She was committed to your care, I know, but
+you gave her up to me, and I shall not part with her unless I am
+legally compelled to do so, or she wishes to go. She can answer this
+last for herself," and she turned towards Dora, who, drawing nearer to
+her, replied, "I am sorry to disobey you, Aunt Sarah, but I cannot
+leave Mrs. Elliott."
+
+Mrs. Deane was not very courageous, and unwilling to press her claim,
+she turned away and reported her ill-success to Eugenia, who heaped a
+torrent of abuse upon both Mrs. Elliott, Dora, the old South American,
+and Mr. Hastings, who, she declared, were all leagued against them.
+
+"But I don't care," said she, "old Mr. Grey is quite as wealthy as Mr.
+Hastings, and by saying the word, I can marry _Steve_ at any time; and
+I will do it, too," she continued, "and that proud Mrs. Elliott shall
+yet be obliged to meet me on terms of equality, for she will not dare
+to neglect _the Greys!_"
+
+Somewhat comforted by this thought, she dried her tears, and signified
+her willingness to start for home on the morrow, even if Dora did not
+accompany her. As yet, she had no suspicion whatever of the engagement
+existing between Mr. Hastings and her cousin. There was nothing in the
+manner of either to betray it, and when, next morning, attired in her
+traveling dress, she stood with them upon the piazza, she little
+thought how and where she would next meet them. At her side was Stephen
+Grey. He had been won over by her gracious smiles the night previous,
+and was now going with her as far as Rochester, where, if a favorable
+opportunity were presented, he intended offering himself for her
+acceptance. Uncle Nat was not present, and Eugenia was glad that it was
+so, for there was something about him exceedingly annoying to her, and
+she always felt relieved at his absence.
+
+"Why do you go so soon? I thought you were intending to spend the
+summer," said one of her old admirers; and with a scornful toss of her
+head, she replied, "It is getting so insufferably dull here, that I
+can't endure it any longer."
+
+Just then the omnibus was announced, and with a hurried good-by, she
+followed her baggage down the stairs, and amid a cloud of dust was
+driven rapidly away, while Uncle Nat, from his chamber window, sent
+after her a not very complimentary or affectionate adieu. Arrived at
+the hotel in Rochester, where Eugenia had once waited in vain for Mr.
+Hastings, Stephen Grey managed to hear from her again, that she had
+well founded hopes of being one of the heirs of Nathaniel Deane, who,
+she said, sent them annually a sum of money varying from five to
+fifteen hundred dollars. This was quite a consideration for one whose
+finances were low, and whose father, while threatening to disinherit
+him, was himself on the verge of bankruptcy, and thinking the annual
+remittance worth securing, even if the _will_ should fail, Stephen
+found an opportunity to go down on his knees before her after the most
+approved fashion, telling her that "she alone could make him happy, and
+that without her he should be wretched;" and she, knowing just how much
+in earnest he was, promised to be his wife, intending the while to
+break that promise if she saw in Mr. Hastings any signs of renewed
+interest. So when Stephen pressed her to name an early day, she put him
+off, telling him she could not think of being married until near the
+middle of autumn, and at the same time requesting him to keep their
+engagement a secret, for she did not wish it to be a subject of remark,
+as engaged people always were. To this, Stephen consented willingly, as
+he would thus escape, for a time, his mother's anger. And so when,
+tired, jaded, cross and dusty, Eugenia Deane reached Locust Grove, she
+had the satisfaction of knowing that her trip to the Springs had been
+successful, inasmuch as it procured for her "_a husband such as he
+was_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE DOUBLE SURPRISE.
+
+
+The Deanes had been home about two weeks when Mr. Hastings returned to
+Rose Hill, accompanied by the "Old South American," who seemed to have
+taken up his abode there. Being naturally rather reserved, the latter
+visited but little in the village, while at Locust Grove he never
+called, and seldom saw Eugenia when he met her in the street.
+
+Mr. Hastings, too, was unusually cool in his manner towards her, and
+this she imputed wholly to the fact of her having been rude to his
+friend on the night of her introduction. "He was never so before," she
+thought, and she redoubled her efforts to be agreeable, to no effect,
+as he was simply polite to her and nothing more. So after a series of
+tears and headaches, she gave him up, comforting herself with the
+belief that he would never marry anybody. After this, she smiled more
+graciously upon Stephen Grey, who, pretending to be a lawyer, had,
+greatly to her annoyance, hung out his sign in Dunwood, where his
+office proper seemed to be in the bar-room, or drinking-saloon, as in
+one of these he was always to be found, when not at Locust Grove.
+
+One evening, towards the last of September, when he came as usual to
+see her, he startled her with the news, that there was ere long to be a
+new bride at Rose Hill! Starting involuntarily, Eugenia exclaimed, "A
+new bride! It can't be possible! Who is it?"
+
+It was months since Stephen had been in New York, and he knew nothing,
+except that the lady was from the city, and he mentioned a _Miss
+Morton_, with whom he had several times seen Mr. Hastings walking, and
+who was very intimate with Mrs. Elliott. At first Eugenia refused to
+believe it, but when she had remembered how extensively Mr. Hastings
+was repairing his place, and heard that the house was being entirely
+refurnished, and fitted up in a princely style, she wept again over her
+ruined hopes, and experienced many a sharp pang of envy, when from time
+to time she saw go by loads of elegant furniture, and knew that it was
+not for herself, but another. The old South American, too, it was said,
+was very lavish of his money, purchasing many costly ornaments, and
+furnishing entirely the chamber of the bride. For this the fair Eugenia
+styled him "a silly old fool," wondering "what business it was to him,"
+and "why he need be so much interested in one who, if she had any
+sense, would, in less than two weeks, turn him from the house, with his
+heathenish ways." Still, fret as she would, she could not in the least
+retard the progress of matters, and one morning towards the last of
+October, she heard from Mrs. Leah, whom she met at a store in the
+village, that the wedding was to take place at the house of the bride
+on Tuesday of the next week, and that on Thursday evening following,
+there was to be a grand party at Rose Hill, far exceeding in splendor
+and elegance the one given there some years before.
+
+"Crowds of folks," she said, "are coming from the city with the bridal
+pair, who would start on Wednesday, stay in Syracuse all night, and
+reach Dunwood about three o'clock on Thursday afternoon. The
+invitations for the village people," she added, "were already written
+and were left with her to distribute on Wednesday morning."
+
+Eugenia would have given much to know if she were invited, but she was
+too proud to ask, and assuming an air of indifference she casually
+inquired the name of the bride.
+
+With the manner of one in a deep study, Mrs. Leah replied, "Let me see!
+It's a very common name. Strange I don't speak it!"
+
+"_Morton?_" suggested Eugenia, but Mrs. Leah affected not to hear her,
+and, having completed her purchases, she left the store and walked
+slowly homeward, dropping more than one tear on the brown paper parcel
+she held in her hand.
+
+Crying, however, was of no avail, and mentally chiding herself for her
+weakness, she resolved to brave it through, comforting herself again
+with the thought that _the Greys_ were as aristocratic as the
+_Hastings_, and as Stephen's wife she should yet shine in the best
+society, for in case she married him she was resolved that he should
+take her at once to Philadelphia, where she would compel his proud
+mother to notice her. This helped to divert her mind, and in the course
+of the day she was talking gaily of the party, and wondering if she
+should be as intimate with the second Mrs. Hastings as she had been
+with the first!
+
+That night, Alice went down to the post-office, from which she soon
+returned, evidently much excited; and rushing into the room where her
+mother and sister were sitting, she said, as she threw a letter into
+the lap of the latter, "It's from _Uncle Nat_, and postmarked _New
+York_."
+
+Turning whiter than ever she was before, Eugenia could scarcely command
+herself to break the seal, and read the few brief lines which told her
+that Uncle Nat had, at last, concluded to come home, that a matter of
+some importance would keep him from Locust Grove for a few days; but if
+nothing occurred, he would be with them on Saturday evening of next
+week! In the postscript, he added, that "he should expect to find Dora
+with them, and he hoped her going away to school had been a benefit to
+her."
+
+So great was their consternation that for some minutes neither of them
+uttered a word, but each waited for the other to suggest some way of
+acting in the present emergency. As Eugenia's mind was the most active
+of the three she was the first to speak. After venting her indignation
+upon Uncle Nat, for intruding himself where he was not wanted, she
+continued: "We are in a sad dilemma, but we must make the best of it,
+and inasmuch as he is coming, I am glad that Dora is what she is. We
+can tell him how rapidly she has improved, and how rejoiced we are that
+it is so. I am glad I have said nothing about her for the last two
+years, except that she was away at school. I'll write to her to-night,
+and tell her to meet him here, and come immediately. You know, she is
+good-natured, and on my bended knees I'll confess what I have done, and
+beg of her not to betray me to him, or let him know that we did not pay
+for her education, and if she refuses, you, mother, must go down on
+your knees, too, and we'll get up between us such a scene that she will
+consent, I know--if not, why, we must abide the consequence"--and with
+the look of one about to be martyred, Eugenia sat down and wrote to
+Dora, beseeching her to "come without delay, as there was something
+they must tell her before meeting Uncle Nat!"
+
+This was Friday night, and very impatiently she awaited an answer,
+which, though written on Monday, did not come until the Wednesday
+following.
+
+"What does she say?" cried Mrs. Deane and Alice, crowding around her,
+while with a rueful face she read that Dora would be delighted to meet
+Uncle Nat at Locust Grove, but could not come quite so soon as they
+wished to have her.
+
+ "You have undoubtedly heard," she wrote, "of Mr. Hastings's
+approaching marriage, at which I wish to be present. Mrs. Elliott will
+accompany the bridal party to Rose Hill on Thursday, and she thinks I
+had better wait and come with her. I shall probably see you at the
+party.
+
+"Yours in haste, "DORA DEANE."
+
+On Eugenia's mind there was not a shadow of suspicion that _Dora
+Deane_, appended to that letter, had ere this ceased to be her cousin's
+name--that Mr. Hastings, who, together with Uncle Nat, had the Saturday
+previous gone down to New York, had bent fondly over her as she wrote
+it for the last time, playfully suggesting that she add to it an H, by
+way of making a commencement, nor yet that Uncle Nat, with an immense
+degree of satisfaction in his face, had read the short note, saying as
+he did so, "We'll cheat 'em, darling, won't we?"
+
+Neither did she dream that last night's moon shone down on Dora Deane,
+a beautiful, blushing bride, who, with orange blossoms in her shining
+hair, and the deep love-light in her eye, stood by Mr. Hastings's side
+and called him her husband. Nothing of all this she knew, and hastily
+reading the letter, she exclaimed, "Plague on her! a vast deal of
+difference _her_ being at the wedding would make. But no matter, the
+old codger will not be here until Saturday night, and there'll be time
+enough to coax her."
+
+Just then the cards of invitation were left at the door, and in the
+delightful certainty of knowing that she was really invited, she forgot
+in a measure everything else. In the evening she was annoyed as usual
+with a call from Stephen Grey. He had that day received news from home
+that his father's failure could not long be deferred, and judging
+Eugenia by himself, he fancied she would sooner marry him now, than
+after he was the son of a bankrupt. Accordingly he urged her to consent
+to a private marriage at her mother's on Friday evening, the night
+following the party.
+
+"There was nothing to be gained by waiting," he said--an opinion in
+which Eugenia herself concurred, for she feared lest in some way her
+treachery should be betrayed, and she should lose Stephen Grey, as well
+as Mr. Hastings.
+
+Still she could hardly bring herself to consent until she had seen
+Dora, and she replied that she would think of it, and answer him at the
+party. Thursday morning came, and passed, and about half-past two,
+Eugenia saw Mr. Hastings's carriage pass on its way to the depot,
+together with two more, which had been hired to convey the guests to
+Rose Hill. Seating herself by her chamber window, she waited
+impatiently for the cars, which came at last, and in a few moments the
+roll of wheels announced the approach of the bridal party. Very eagerly
+Eugenia, Alice, and their mother gazed out through the half closed
+shutters upon the carriage in front, which they knew was Mr. Hastings's.
+
+"There's Mrs. Elliott looking this way. Don't let her see us,"
+whispered Alice, while her mother singled out old Mrs. Hastings for
+Dora, wondering why she didn't turn that way.
+
+But Eugenia had no eye for any one, save the figure seated next to Mr.
+Hastings, and so closely veiled as entirely to hide her features.
+
+"I wouldn't keep that old brown thing on my face, unless it was so
+homely I was afraid of having it seen," she said; and hoping the bride
+of Howard Hastings might prove to be exceedingly ugly, she repaired to
+Dora's room, and from the same window where Dora once had watched the
+many lights which shone from Rose Hill, she now watched the travelers
+until they disappeared within the house. Then, rejoining her mother and
+sister she said, "I don't see why Dora can't come over here a little
+while before the party. There's plenty of time and I do want to have it
+off my mind. Besides that, I might coax her to assist me in dressing,
+for she has good taste, if nothing more; I mean to write her a few
+lines asking her to come."
+
+The note was accordingly written, and despatched by the Irish girl, who
+soon returned, bearing another tiny note, which read as follows:
+
+"I cannot possibly come, as I have promised to be present at the
+dressing of the bride.                                    "DORA."
+
+
+Forgetting her recent remark, Eugenia muttered something about, "folks
+thinking a great deal of her taste," then turning to the servant girl,
+she asked "how Dora looked, and what she said?"
+
+"Sure, I didn't see her," returned the girl; "Mistress Leah carried
+your letter to her, and brought hers to me. Not a ha'p'orth of anybody
+else did I see." And this was all the information which Eugenia could
+elicit concerning the people of Rose Hill.
+
+The time for making their toilet came at last, and while Eugenia was
+missing the little _cropped head_ girl, who, on a similar occasion, had
+obeyed so meekly her commands, a fair young bride was thinking also of
+that night, when she had lain upon her mother's old green trunk, and
+wept herself to sleep. Wishing to be fashionable, Eugenia and her party
+were the last to arrive. They found the parlors crowded, and the
+dressing-room vacant, so that neither of them received the slightest
+intimation of the surprise which awaited them. In removing her veil,
+Eugenia displaced one of the flowers in her hair, and muttering about
+Alice's awkwardness, she wished she could see Dora just a minute, and
+have her arrange the flowers!
+
+But Dora was busy elsewhere, and pronouncing herself ready, Eugenia,
+took the arm of Stephen Grey, and followed her mother and sister
+downstairs. At a little distance from the door was Mr. Hastings, and at
+his side was Dora, wondrously beautiful in her costly bridal robes. She
+had gracefully received the congratulations of her Dunwood friends,
+who, while expressing their surprise, had also expressed their delight
+at finding in the new mistress of Ross Hill, the girl who had ever been
+a favorite in the village. Near her was Uncle Nat, his face wearing an
+expression of perfect happiness, and his eye almost constantly upon the
+door, through which Eugenia must pass. There was a rustle of silk upon
+the stairs, and drawing nearer to Dora, he awaited the result with
+breathless interest.
+
+Mrs. Deane came first, but scarcely had she crossed the threshold, ere
+she started back, petrified with astonishment, and clutching Alice's
+dress, whispered softly, "am I deceived, or _is it Dora?_"
+
+And Alice, with wild staring eyes, could only answer "_Dora_;" while
+Eugenia, wondering at their conduct, strove to push them aside. Failing
+in this, she raised herself on tiptoe, and looking over their heads,
+saw what for an instant chilled her blood, and stopped the pulsations
+of her heart. It was the _bride_, and fiercely grasping the arm of
+Stephen Grey to keep herself from falling, she said, in a hoarse,
+unnatural voice, "_Great Heaven--it is Dora!_ DORA DEANE!"
+
+Fruitful as she had hitherto been in expedients, she was now utterly
+powerless to act, and knowing that in her present state of excitement,
+she could not meet her cousin, she turned back and fleeing up the
+stairs, threw herself upon a chair in the dressing-room, where, with
+her hands clasped firmly together, she sat rigid as marble until the
+storm of passion had somewhat abated.
+
+"And _she_ has won him--_Dora Deane_, whom I have so ill treated," she
+said at last, starting at the sound of her voice, it was so hollow and
+strange. Then, as she remembered the coming of Uncle Nat and the
+exposure she so much dreaded, she buried her face in her hands, and in
+the bitterness of her humiliation cried out, "It is more than I can
+bear!"
+
+Growing ere long more calm, she thought the matter over carefully, and
+decided at last to brave it through--to greet the bride as if nothing
+had occurred, and never to let Mr. Hastings know how sharp a wound he
+had inflicted. "It is useless now," she thought, "to throw myself upon
+the mercy of Dora. She would not, of course, withhold my secret from
+her husband, and I cannot be despised by him. I have loved him too well
+for that. And perhaps he'll never know it," she continued, beginning to
+look upon the brighter side. "Uncle Nat may not prove very
+inquisitive--may not stay with us long; or if he does, as the wife of
+Stephen Grey, I can bear his displeasure better," and determining that
+ere another twenty-four hours were gone, she would cease to be Eugenia
+Deane, she arose and stood before the mirror, preparatory to going down.
+
+The sight of her white haggard face startled her, and for a moment she
+felt that she could not mingle with the gay throng below, who would
+wonder at her appearance. But the ordeal must be passed, and summoning
+all her courage, she descended to the parlor, just as her mother and
+Alice, alarmed at her very long absence, were coming in quest of her.
+Crossing the room mechanically she offered her hand to Dora, saying,
+while a sickly smile played around her bloodless lips, "You have really
+taken us by surprise, but I congratulate you; and you too," bowing
+rather stiffly to Mr. Hastings, who returned her greeting so
+pleasantly, that she began to feel more at ease, and after a little,
+was chatting familiarly with Dora, telling her she must be sure and
+meet, "Uncle Nat," on Saturday evening, and adding in a low tone, "If
+I've ever treated you badly, I hope you won't tell him." "I shall tell
+him nothing," answered Dora, and comforted with this answer, Eugenia
+moved away.
+
+"You are looking very pale and bad to-night. What is the matter?" said
+Uncle Nat, when once he was standing near her.
+
+"Nothing but a bad headache," she replied, while her black eyes flashed
+angrily upon him, for she fancied he saw the painful throbbings of her
+heart, and wished to taunt her with it.
+
+Supper being over, Stephen Grey led her into a little side room, where
+he claimed the answer to his question. It was in the affirmative, and
+soon after, complaining of the intense pain in her head, she begged to
+go home. Alone in her room, with no one present but her mother and
+Alice, her pent-up feelings gave away, and throwing herself upon the
+floor she wished that she had died ere she had come to this humiliation.
+
+"That Dora, a beggar as it were, should be preferred to _me_ is
+nothing," she cried, "compared to the way which the whole thing was
+planned. That old wretch of a Hamilton had something to do with it, I
+know. How I hate him, with his sneering face!"
+
+Becoming at length a little more composed, she told her mother of her
+expected marriage with Stephen Grey.
+
+"But why so much haste?" asked Mrs. Deane, who a little proud of the
+alliance, would rather have given a large wedding.
+
+Sitting upright upon the floor, with her long loose hair falling around
+her white face, Eugenia answered bitterly, "Stephen Grey has no more
+love for me than I have for him. He believes that we are rich, or we
+will be when Uncle Nat is dead. For _money_ he marries me, for money I
+marry him. I know old Grey is wealthy, and as the wife of his son, I
+will yet ride over Dora's head. But I must be quick, or I lose him, for
+if after Uncle Nat's arrival our real situation should chance to be
+disclosed, Steve would not hesitate to leave me.
+
+  'So to-morrow or never
+  a bride I shall be,'"
+
+she sang with a gaiety of manner wholly at variance with the worn,
+suffering expression of her countenance. Eugenia was terribly expiating
+her sins, and when the next night, in the presence of a few friends,
+she stood by Stephen Grey, and was made his wife, she felt that her own
+hands had poured the last drop in the brimming bucket, for, as she had
+paid, there was not in her heart a particle of esteem or love for him
+who was now her husband.
+
+"It's my destiny," she thought; "I'll make the best of it," and her
+unnatural laugh rang out loud and clear, as she tried to appear gay and
+happy.
+
+Striking contrast between the gentle bride at Rose Hill, who felt that
+in all the world, there was not a happier being than herself--and the
+one at Locust Grove, who with bloodshot eyes and livid lips gazed out
+upon the starry sky, almost cursing the day that she was born, and the
+fate which had made her what she was. Ever and anon, too, there came
+stealing on her ear the fearful word _retribution_, and the wretched
+girl shuddered as she thought for how much she had to atone.
+
+Marveling much at the strange mood of his bride, Stephen Grey, on the
+morning succeeding his marriage, left her and went down to the village,
+where he found a letter from his father, telling him the crisis had
+come, leaving him more than one hundred thousand dollars in debt!
+Stephen was not surprised--he had expected it, and it affected him less
+painfully when he considered that his wife would inherit a portion of
+Uncle Nathaniel's wealth.
+
+"I won't tell her yet," he thought, as he walked back to Locust Grove,
+where, with an undefined presentiment of approaching evil, Eugenia
+moved listlessly from room to room, counting the hours which dragged
+heavily, and half wishing that Uncle Nat would hasten his coming, and
+have it over!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+The sun went down, and as darkness settled o'er the earth, a heavy load
+seemed pressing upon Eugenia's spirits. It wanted now but a few minutes
+of the time when the train was due, and trembling, she scarcely knew
+why, she sat alone in her chamber, wondering how she should meet her
+uncle, or what excuse she should render, if her perfidy were revealed.
+The door bell rang, and in the hall below she heard the voices of Mr.
+Hastings and Dora.
+
+"I must go down, now," she said, and forcing a smile to her face, she
+descended to the parlor, as the shrill whistle of the engine sounded in
+the distance.
+
+She had just time to greet her visitors and enjoy their surprise at the
+announcement of her marriage, when her ear caught the sound of heavy,
+tramping footsteps, coming up the walk, and a violent ringing of the
+bell announced another arrival.
+
+"You go to the door, Stephen," she whispered, while an icy coldness
+crept over her.
+
+He obeyed, and bending forward in a listening attitude she heard him
+say, "Good evening, Mr. Hamilton."
+
+Just then, a telegraphic look between Mr. Hastings and Dora caught her
+eye, and springing to her feet, she exclaimed, "_Mr. Hamilton!_" while
+a suspicion of the truth flashed like lightning upon her. The next
+moment he stood before them, Uncle Nat, his glittering black eyes fixed
+upon Eugenia, who quailed beneath that withering glance.
+
+"_I promised you I would come to-night_" he said, "_and I am here,
+Nathaniel Deane! Are you glad to see me?_" and his eyes never moved
+from Eugenia, who sat like one petrified, as did her mother and sister.
+"Have you no word of welcome??" he continued. "Your letters were wont
+to be kind and affectionate. I have brought them with me, as a passport
+to you friendship. Shall I show them to you?"
+
+His manner was perfectly cool and collected, but Eugenia felt the sting
+each word implied, and, starting up, she glared defiantly at him,
+exclaiming, "Insolent wretch! What mean you by this? And what business
+had you thus to deceive us?"
+
+"The fair Eugenia does not believe in _deceit_, it seems. Pity her
+theory and practise do not better accord," he answered, while a
+scornful smile curled his lips.
+
+"What proof have you, sir, for what you say?" demanded Eugenia; and
+with the same cold, scornful smile, he replied, "Far better proof than
+you imagine, fair lady. Would you like to hear it?"
+
+Not suspecting how much he knew, and goaded to madness by his calm,
+quiet manner, Eugenia replied, "I defy you, old man, to prove aught
+against me."
+
+"First, then," said he, "let me ask you what use you made of that
+fifteen hundred dollars sent to Dora nearly three years ago? Was not
+this piano," laying his hand upon the instrument, "bought with a part
+of that money? Did Dora ever see it, or the five hundred dollars sent
+annually by me?"
+
+Eugenia was confounded. He did know it all, but how had she been
+betrayed? It must be through Dora's agency, she thought, and turning
+fiercely towards her, she heaped upon her such a torrent of abuse,
+that, in thunder-like tones, Uncle Nat, now really excited, bade her
+keep silent; while Howard Hastings arose, and confronting the angry
+woman, explained briefly what he had done, and why he had done it.
+
+"Then you, too, have acted a traitor's part?" she hissed; "but it shall
+not avail, I will not be trampled down by either you, or this
+gray-haired--"
+
+"Hold!" cried Uncle Nat, laying his broad palm heavily upon her
+shoulder. "I am too old to hear such language from you, young lady. I
+do not wish to upbraid you farther with what you have done. 'Tis
+sufficient that I know it all, that henceforth we are strangers;" and
+he turned to leave the room, when Mrs. Deane, advancing towards him
+said pleadingly, "Is it thus, Nathaniel, that you return to us, after
+so many years? Eugenia may have been tempted to do wrong, but will you
+not forgive her for her father's sake?"
+
+"_Never!_" he answered fiercely, shaking off the hand she had lain upon
+his arm. "Towards Alice I bear no ill will; and you, madam, who
+suffered this wrong to be done, I may, in time, forgive, but _that
+woman_," pointing towards Eugenia, "_Never!_" And he left the room,
+while Eugenia, completely overwhelmed with a sense of her detected
+guilt, burst into a passionate fit of tears, sobbing so bitterly that
+Dora, touched by her grief, stole softly to her side, and was about to
+speak, when, thrusting her away, Eugenia exclaimed, "Leave me, Dora
+Deane, and never come here again. The sight of you mocking my
+wretchedness is hateful and more than I can bear!"
+
+There were tears in Dora's eyes, as she turned away, and offering her
+hand to her aunt and cousin, she took her husband's arm, and went out
+of a house, where she had suffered so much, and which, while Eugenia
+remained, she would never enter again.
+
+Like one in a dream sat Stephen Grey. He had been a silent spectator of
+the exciting scene, but thought had been busy, and ere it was half
+over, his own position was clearly defined, and he knew that, even as
+he had cheated Eugenia Deane, so Eugenia Deane had cheated him. It was
+an even thing, and unprincipled and selfish as he was, he felt that he
+had no cause for complaint. Still the disappointment was not the less
+severe, and when the bride of a day, looking reproachfully at him
+through her tears, asked, "why he didn't say to her a word of comfort?"
+he coolly replied, "because I have nothing to say. You have got
+yourself into a deuced mean scrape, and so have I!"
+
+Eugenia did not then understand what he meant, and, when, an hour or
+two later, she dried her tears, and began to speak of an immediate
+removal to Philadelphia, where she would be more effectually out of
+Uncle Nat's way, she was surprised at his asking her, "what she
+proposed doing in the city, and if she had any means of support."
+
+"Means of support!" she repeated. "Why do you ask that question, when
+your father is worth half a million, and you are his only son?"
+
+With a prolonged whistle, he answered, "Father worth a copper cent and
+I a precious fool comes nearer the truth!"
+
+"What do you mean?" she asked, in unfeigned astonishment; and he
+replied, "I mean that three days ago father _failed_, to the tune of
+one hundred thousand dollars, and if you or I have any bread to eat
+hereafter, one or the other of us must earn it!"
+
+Eugenia had borne much to-day, and this last announcement was the one
+straw too many. Utterly crushed, she buried her face in her hands, and
+remained silent. She could not reproach her husband, for the deception
+had been equal, and now, when this last hope had been swept away, the
+world indeed seemed dreary and dark.
+
+"What shall we do?" she groaned at last, in a voice so full of despair,
+that with a feeling akin to pity, Stephen, who had been pacing up and
+down the room, came to her side, saying, "Why can't we stay as we are?
+I can average a pettyfogging suit a month, and that'll be better than
+nothing."
+
+"I wouldn't remain here on any account after what has happened," said
+Eugenia; "and besides that, we couldn't stay, if we would, for now that
+Uncle Nat's remittance is withdrawn, mother has nothing in the world to
+live on."
+
+"Couldn't you take in _sewing_," suggested Stephen, "or _washing_, or
+_mopping_?"
+
+To the sewing and the washing Eugenia was too indignant to reply, but
+when it came to the _mopping_, she lifted up her hands in astonishment,
+calling him "a fool and a simpleton."
+
+"Hang me, if I know anything about woman's work," said Stephen,
+resuming his walk, and wondering why the taking in of _mopping_ should
+be more difficult than anything else. "I have it," he said at length,
+running his fingers over the keys of the piano. "Can't you teach music?
+The piano got you into a fix, and if I were you, I'd make it help me
+out."
+
+"I'll use it for kindling-wood first," was her answer, and Stephen
+resumed his cogitations, which resulted finally in his telling her,
+that on the prairies of Illinois there were a few acres of land, of
+which he was the rightful owner. There was a house on it, too, he said,
+though in what condition he did not know, and if they only had a little
+money with which to start, it would be best for them to go out there at
+once. This plan struck Eugenia more favorably than any which he had
+proposed.
+
+Humbled as she was, she felt that the further she were from Dunwood,
+the happier she would be, and after a consultation with Mrs. Deane, it
+was decided that the beautiful rosewood piano should be sold, and that
+with the proceeds, Stephen and Eugenia should bury themselves for a
+time at the West. Two weeks more found them on their way to their
+distant home, and when that winter, Dora Hastings, at Rose Hill, pushed
+aside the heavy damask which shaded her pleasant window, and looked out
+upon the snow-covered lawn and spacious garden beyond, Eugenia Grey, in
+her humble cabin, looked through her paper-curtained window upon the
+snow-clad prairie, which stretched away as far as eye could reach, and
+shed many bitter tears, as she heard the wind go wailing past her door,
+and thought of her home far to the east, towards the rising sun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+Three years have passed away, and twice the wintry storms have swept
+over the two graves, which, on the prairies of Illinois, were made when
+the glorious Indian summer sun was shining o'er the earth, and the
+withered leaves of autumn were strewn upon the ground. Stephen and
+Eugenia are dead--he, dying as a drunkard dies--she, as a drunkard's
+wife. Uncle Nat had been to visit the western world, and on his return
+to Rose Hill, there was a softened light in his eye, and a sadness in
+the tones of his voice, as, drawing Dora to his side, he whispered, "I
+have forgiven her--forgiven Eugenia Deane."
+
+Then he told her how an old man in his wanderings came one day to a
+lonely cabin, where a wild-eyed woman was raving in delirium, and
+tearing out handfuls of the long black hair which floated over her
+shoulders. This she was counting one by one, just as the old East India
+man had counted the silken tress which was sent to him over the sea,
+and she laughed with maniacal glee as she said the numbering of all her
+hairs would atone for the sin she had done. At intervals, too, rocking
+to and fro, she sang of the fearful night when she had thought to
+_steal_ the auburn locks concealed within the old green trunk; on which
+the darkness lay so heavy and so black, that she had turned away in
+terror, and glided from the room. In the old man's heart there was much
+of bitterness towards that erring woman for the wrong she had done to
+him and his, but when he found her thus, when he looked on the new-made
+grave beneath the buckeye tree, and felt that she was dying of
+starvation and neglect, when he saw how the autumn rains, dripping from
+a crevice in the roof, had drenched her scanty pillows through and
+through--when he sought in the empty cupboard for food or drink in
+vain, his heart softened towards her, and for many weary days he
+watched her with the tenderest care, administering to all her wants,
+and soothing her in her frenzied moods, as he would a little child, and
+when at last a ray of reason shone for a moment on her darkened mind,
+and she told him how much she had suffered from the hands of one who
+now slept just without the door, and asked him to forgive her ere she
+died, he laid upon his bosom her aching head, from which in places the
+long hair had been torn, leaving it spotted and bald, and bending
+gently over her, he whispered in her ear, "As freely as I hope to be
+forgiven of Heaven, so freely forgive I you."
+
+With a look of deep gratitude, the dark eyes glanced at him for a
+moment, then closed forever, and he was alone with the dead.
+
+Some women, whose homes were distant two or three miles, had
+occasionally shared his vigils, and from many a log cabin the people
+gathered themselves together, and made for the departed a grave, and
+when the sun was high in the heavens, and not a cloud dimmed the canopy
+of blue, they buried her beside her husband, where the prairie flowers
+and the tall rank grass would wave above her head.
+
+This was the story he told, and Dora listening to it, wept bitterly
+over the ill-fated Eugenia, whose mother and sister never knew exactly
+how she died, for Uncle Nathaniel would not tell them, but from the
+time of his return from the West his manner towards them was changed,
+and when the New Year came round, one hundred golden guineas found
+entrance at their door, accompanied with a promise that when the day
+returned again, the gift should be repeated.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+On the vine-wreathed pillars, and winding walks of Rose Hill, the
+softened light of the setting sun is shining. April showers have
+wakened to life the fair spring blossoms, whose delicate perfume,
+mingling with the evening air, steals through the open casement, and
+kisses the bright face of Dora, beautiful now as when she first called
+him her husband who sits beside her, and who each day blesses her as
+his choicest treasure.
+
+On the balcony without, in a large-armed willow chair, is seated an old
+man, and as the fading sunlight falls around him, a bright-haired
+little girl, not yet two years of age, climbs upon his knee, and
+winding her chubby arms around his neck lisps the name of "Grandpa,"
+and the old man, folding her to his bosom, sings to her softly and low
+of _another Fannie_, whose eyes of blue were much like those which look
+so lovingly into his face. Anon darkness steals over all but the new
+moon, "hanging like a silver thread in the western sky," shows us where
+Howard Hastings is sitting, still with Dora at his side.
+
+On the balcony, all is silent; the tremulous voice has ceased; the
+blue-eyed child no longer listens; old age and infancy sleep sweetly
+now together; the song is ended; the story is done.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dora Deane, by Mary J. Holmes
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