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diff --git a/6352.txt b/6352.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31a319a --- /dev/null +++ b/6352.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6150 @@ +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. 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