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diff --git a/old/67869-0.txt b/old/67869-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index f8e995f..0000000 --- a/old/67869-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6850 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Love Conquers Pride, by Mrs. Alex. -McVeigh Miller - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Love Conquers Pride - or, Where Peace Dwelt - -Author: Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller - -Release Date: April 18, 2022 [eBook #67869] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Demian Katz, Craig Kirkwood, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Images courtesy - of the Digital Library@Villanova University.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE CONQUERS PRIDE *** - - -Transcriber’s Notes: - -Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - -Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end. - - * * * * * - -NEW EAGLE SERIES No. 1164 - -LOVE CONQUERS PRIDE - -_BY MRS. ALEX. McVEIGH MILLER_ - -[Illustration] - - * * * * * - -POPULAR COPYRIGHTS - -New Eagle Series - -PRICE, FIFTEEN CENTS - -Carefully Selected Love Stories - -_Note the Authors!_ - -There is such a profusion of good books in this list, that it is an -impossibility to urge you to select any particular title or author’s -work. All that we can say is that any line that contains the complete -works of Mrs. Georgie Sheldon, Charles Garvice, Mrs. Harriet Lewis, -May Agnes Fleming, Wenona Gilman, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller, and other -writers of the same type, is worthy of your attention, especially when -the price has been set at 15 cents the volume. - -These books range from 256 to 320 pages. They are printed from good -type, and are readable from start to finish. - -If you are looking for clean-cut, honest value, then we state most -emphatically that you will find it in this line. - -_ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT_ - - 1--Queen Bess By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 2--Ruby’s Reward By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 7--Two Keys By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 9--The Virginia Heiress By May Agnes Fleming - 12--Edrie’s Legacy By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 17--Leslie’s Loyalty By Charles Garvice - (His Love So True) - 22--Elaine By Charles Garvice - 24--A Wasted Love By Charles Garvice - (On Love’s Altar) - 41--Her Heart’s Desire By Charles Garvice - (An Innocent Girl) - 44--That Dowdy By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 50--Her Ransom By Charles Garvice - (Paid For) - 55--Thrice Wedded By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 66--Witch Hazel By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 70--Sydney By Charles Garvice - (A Wilful Young Woman) - 73--The Marquis By Charles Garvice - 77--Tina By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 79--Out of the Past By Charles Garvice - (Marjorie) - 84--Imogene By Charles Garvice - (Dumaresq’s Temptation) - 85--Lorrie; or, Hollow Gold By Charles Garvice - 88--Virgie’s Inheritance By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 95--A Wilful Maid By Charles Garvice - (Philippa) - 98--Claire By Charles Garvice - (The Mistress of Court Regna) - 99--Audrey’s Recompense By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 102--Sweet Cymbeline By Charles Garvice - (Bellmaire) - 109--Signa’s Sweetheart By Charles Garvice - (Lord Delamere’s Bride) - 111--Faithful Shirley By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 117--She Loved Him By Charles Garvice - 119--’Twixt Smile and Tear By Charles Garvice - (Dulcie) - 122--Grazia’s Mistake By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 130--A Passion Flower By Charles Garvice - (Madge) - 133--Max By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 136--The Unseen Bridegroom By May Agnes Fleming - 138--A Fatal Wooing By Laura Jean Libbey - 141--Lady Evelyn By May Agnes Fleming - 144--Dorothy’s Jewels By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 146--Magdalen’s Vow By May Agnes Fleming - 151--The Heiress of Glen Gower By May Agnes Fleming - 155--Nameless Dell By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 157--Who Wins By May Agnes Fleming - 166--The Masked Bridal By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 168--Thrice Lost, Thrice Won By May Agnes Fleming - 174--His Guardian Angel By Charles Garvice - 177--A True Aristocrat By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 181--The Baronet’s Bride By May Agnes Fleming - 188--Dorothy Arnold’s Escape By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 199--Geoffrey’s Victory By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 203--Only One Love By Charles Garvice - 210--Wild Oats By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 213--The Heiress of Egremont By Mrs. Harriet Lewis - 215--Only a Girl’s Love By Charles Garvice - 219--Lost: A Pearle By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 222--The Lily of Mordaunt By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 223--Leola Dale’s Fortune By Charles Garvice - 231--The Earl’s Heir By Charles Garvice - (Lady Norah) - 233--Nora By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - 236--Her Humble Lover By Charles Garvice - (The Usurper; or, The Gipsy Peer) - 242--A Wounded Heart By Charles Garvice - (Sweet as a Rose) - 244--A Hoiden’s Conquest By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon - - - - -Love Conquers Pride - - - OR, - WHERE PEACE DWELT - - BY - MRS. ALEX. McVEIGH MILLER - - Author of “The Man She Hated,” “A Married Flirt,” “Loyal - Unto Death,” “Only a Kiss”--published in the NEW EAGLE - SERIES. - - [Illustration] - - STREET & SMITH CORPORATION - PUBLISHERS - 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York - - * * * * * - - Copyright, 1888 - - NORMAN L. MUNRO - Renewal for 28 years, from - November 8, 1916, granted - to Mrs. Alex. McVeigh - Miller - - Love Conquers Pride - -(Printed in the United States of America) - - * * * * * - -LOVE CONQUERS PRIDE. - - - - -CHAPTER I. A PRETTY FACTORY GIRL. - - -Pretty Pansy lay lazily in the hammock at the foot of the lawn, and -listened to the south wind rushing through the tree tops overhead, -thinking to herself, with a blush, that it seemed to be whispering a -name--whispering it over and over: - -“Norman Wylde!” - -At the top of the green, sloping lawn stood a big white farmhouse, -with long porches shaded by rose vines and honeysuckles. Pansy’s uncle -and aunt lived there, and she had come on a month’s visit to them. The -month was slipping away very fast now, and she must soon return to -her work in Richmond, for Pansy Laurens was no pampered favorite of -fortune, but an employee of one of the great tobacco factories. - -Pansy was only fifteen when her father, a machinist at the Tredegar -Works, had died and left his wife and five children penniless, save for -what they could earn by the labor of their own hands. Pansy was the -eldest, and her mother had to take her from school that the labor of -her little white hands might help to earn the family support. - -Nothing offered but the tobacco factories, and Pansy went there, while -her brother Willie found work as a cash boy in a dry-goods store on -Broad Street. The three younger ones, being too small to work, were -continued at school, while the mother took in sewing to help eke out -the family income. - -It was hard on them all, most especially on Pansy, who was so -intelligent and refined, and who hated to leave school and toil at -repulsive tasks among companions who were mostly uncongenial, for, -although some of the girls were sweet and pretty as herself, others -were coarse and rude, and sneered at her, calling her proud and -ambitious, although they knew at heart that they were only jealous of -the lovely face, so round and dimpled, with its big purplish-blue eyes, -shaded by such a beautiful fringe of long black curling lashes. - -They all envied her that fair face and those silky masses of wavy dark -hair that made such a becoming frame for the transparent white skin, -with its wild-rose tints and delicate tracery of blue veins. - -But, pretty or ugly, it did not matter, the girl said to herself -sometimes, with bitter discontent, as she looked at her fair reflection -in the mirror. She was nothing but a factory girl, after all, and there -were people who looked down on her for that act as if the very sound -were the essence of vulgarity. To have been a shopgirl even, or a -dressmaker, or milliner, would have been far more genteel, she said to -herself. - -This was the first time in three years that she had got away from the -factory, and she would not have done so then if she had not been given -a furlough from work because there was a temporary dullness in trade. - -Then Uncle Robbins had come to Richmond from his country home on a -little business, and, struck by her pale cheeks and air of languor, -invited her to go home with him. Mother urged her to accept the -invitation, declaring that she could get along without her, and Pansy -went gladly away on her little summer holiday, which was now drawing to -an end. - -Her heart was full of this as she swung to and fro in the hammock -beneath the trees, and listened to the wind rustling the leaves so -musically, seeming to murmur over and over that name so dear to her -heart: - -“Norman Wylde!” - -He was a summer boarder at her aunt’s, and he had been kind to her, not -cool and supercilious like the others, who looked down upon her because -she was a working girl. - -Pansy thought him the handsomest man she had ever seen, and she was -grateful to him for the courteous way in which he treated her, never -seeming to realize any difference in the social position of herself and -Miss Ives, the Richmond belle, who was here with her mother because -the doctors had tabooed any gayety for the elderly lady this summer on -account of a serious heart trouble. - -Juliette Ives was as much in love with the handsome young gentleman as -Pansy herself, and she sneered at the factory girl in her cheap lawns -and ginghams. - -“Actually setting herself up as an equal among her aunt’s boarders,” -she said disdainfully. “I mean to put her down at once, and let her -know that we do not desire her company.” - -So she boldly asked Pansy if she could hire her to do the washing for -her mother and herself. - -“I am not a servant,” Pansy answered, flushing angrily. - -“You are a factory girl, aren’t you?” disdainfully. - -“Yes, but not a servant.” - -“I don’t see much difference,” said the rich girl insolently; and from -that moment the two were open enemies. - -Juliette Ives knew in her own heart that her spiteful actions had -been the outcome of jealousy because Norman Wylde had looked so -admiringly at Pansy when he first met her, and Pansy was quick enough -to understand the truth. - -“She is in love with him, and is jealous of me, in spite of my poverty -and my lonely position. Very well, I’ll pay her back for her scorn, if -I can,” she resolved, with girlish pique. - -And as she possessed beauty equal to, if not greater than, Juliette’s -blond charms, and was fairly well educated and intelligent, she had -some advantages, at least, with which to enter the lists with the -aristocratic belle who scorned her so openly. - -And Norman Wylde, who had a noble, chivalrous nature, could not help -taking Pansy’s part when he saw how the boarders tried to put her down. - -“Poor little thing! It’s a shame, for she is as sweet and pretty as a -wild rose, and they ought to be friendly with her and help to brighten -her hard lot,” he thought, with indignation. - - - - -CHAPTER II. LOVE ALL HIS OWN. - - -The boarders had organized a fishing party, and everybody had gone, -even Mr. Wylde, so it was very quiet at the farmhouse. Aunt Robbins and -her servants were busy making preserves, and Uncle Robbins was in the -meadow, hauling and stacking the wheat he had cut a few days before. -Pansy had helped to peel apples for the preserves until her back ached -and her hands smarted, so at last Aunt Robbins sent her out to rest. - -“I shan’t need you any more to-day, so you had better go and take a nap -in the hammock before that stuck-up Jule Ives comes to turn you out of -it,” said the good woman. - -Pansy went out, but she took off her calico dress and gingham apron -first, and donned her prettiest dress, an organdie lawn with a white -ground sprigged with blue flowers. A pretty bow of blue ribbon fastened -the white lace at her throat, and another one tied back the mass -of rippling dark hair from the white temples, leaving just a few -bewitching love locks to curl over the white brow. Thus attired, she -looked exquisitely fair, cool, and charming, and she knew well that -when the boarders returned, tired and hot from the day’s amusements, -they would envy her sweet, comfortable appearance. - -She was not disappointed, for by and by, when they came trooping -through the big white gate close by her, every one stopped and stared, -and Miss Ives exclaimed, in a loud, sarcastic voice: - -“Good gracious, is it Sunday?” - -“Why, no, of course not, Juliette,” said Chattie Norwood. “Why, what -made you think of such a funny thing?” - -“Why, Pansy Laurens has on her Sunday dress, that’s all,” with a loud -laugh. - -“Oh, pshaw! Her other one is in the washtub,” tittered Miss Norwood, -and every word came distinctly to Pansy’s ears. An angry impulse -prompted her to make some scathing reply, but an innate delicacy -restrained her, and she would not lift her beautiful, drooping lashes -from the book she pretended to be reading, although the angry color -deepened to crimson on her cheeks. - -The tittering party passed on toward the house, but, although Pansy -did not look up, she was conscious that one had lingered and stopped. -It was Norman Wylde, and he came up to the hammock, and said gently: - -“Poor little Pansy!” - -Her sweet lips quivered, and she looked up, meeting the tender, -sympathetic gaze of his splendid dark eyes. - -“You are a brave little girl,” he continued warmly. “I was glad that -you proved yourself too much of a lady to reply to their coarse sneers. -Your sweet dignity makes me love you all the more.” - -Pansy gave a little start of surprise and rapture. Did he indeed love -her? The color flamed up brightly on her delicate cheeks, and the -lashes drooped bashfully over her eyes. - -“Look at me, Pansy,” said the young man, in a tone made up of tender -command and fond entreaty. “You are not surprised. You guessed that I -loved you, didn’t you?” - -“No. I was afraid that--that you loved Miss Ives,” she faltered, and a -frown darkened his handsome face. - -“Do not speak to me of her,” he said impatiently. “Who could love her -after the meanness and injustice of her conduct to you?” He imprisoned -both her little hands in his, as he continued ardently: “Pansy, do you -love me, my little darling?” - -A bashful glance from the sweet blue eyes answered his question, and, -stooping down, he was about to press a kiss on her beautiful lips when -a stealthy footstep came up behind them, and an angry voice exclaimed: - -“Really, Mr. Wylde, when you want to flirt with factory girls you -should not choose such a public place, especially when the girl you are -engaged to is close at hand.” - -He started backward as if shot, and Pansy sprang from the hammock with -a shriek: - -“It is false!” - -Juliette Ives laughed scornfully, and replied: - -“Ask him. He will not deny it.” - -Pretty Pansy, with a face that had grown white as a lily, turned to -Norman Wylde. - -“Is it true? Are you engaged to her?” she demanded sharply. - -“Yes, but----” - -“That is enough!” interrupted Pansy, with flashing eyes. She would -not let him finish his sentence, so keen was her resentment at his -trifling, as she deemed it; and, looking scornfully at him, she said: - -“Never presume to speak to me again, sir!” - -Then she walked rapidly from the spot, and Norman Wylde and Juliette -Ives stood looking at each other with angry eyes. - -“Are you not ashamed of yourself?” she cried indignantly. - -“Eavesdropper!” he retorted passionately, forgetting his -gentlemanliness in his resentment at her conduct. - -“Traitor!” she retorted defiantly, then burst out fiercely: “Call me -what names you will, I have borne your trifling until I could bear no -more. If you wanted to flirt, why couldn’t you have chosen some one in -your own station in life, instead of that miserable tobacco-factory -girl?” - -He had folded his arms across his chest, and was listening with a sneer -to her angry speech. When she paused he answered, in a low yet distinct -voice: - -“I beg your pardon. It was not flirting, but earnest.” - -A sharp remonstrance sprang to her lips, but, without taking any note -of it, he continued coldly: - -“I had a fancy for you once, Juliette, but it perished when I saw how -mean and base you could be to a less fortunate sister woman. I have -watched you and your clique, Juliette, and I have been ashamed of -you all--ashamed and indignant, and my heart turned away from you to -that sweet persecuted girl with a deeper tenderness than it ever felt -before. I made up my mind to snap the bonds that held me as your slave, -and to win her for my own. But I acted prematurely in declaring my love -for her first. You drove me to it with your unwomanly conduct of a -little while ago, else I had not been so hasty.” - -She stood staring at him with angry incredulity, wondering if he spoke -the truth, if he really meant to throw her over for the sake of a girl -he had barely known a month. - -“What if I refuse to give you your freedom?” she asked harshly.’ - -“You would not wish to hold an unwilling captive,” he replied, with -a touch of scorn, and she saw that it would be impossible to hold him -without a sacrifice of her pride. Curbing herself a little, she asked -humbly: - -“Hadn’t we better take time to think it over, Norman? I admit I was -jealous and a little hasty.” - -He looked disappointed and uneasy. Was she really going to hold him to -that bond of which he was so weary, against which he chafed so fiercely? - -She caught that look, and comprehended it with bitter mortification. -Anger came to her aid. “Go--you are free as air, and I am well rid of a -fickle flirt,” she exclaimed hotly. - -“I thank you, Miss Ives,” he replied, in a tone of relief, and, bowing -coldly, he walked away toward the house, leaving Juliette stamping on -the soft grass in a tempest of fury and disappointment. - -He was anxious to find little Pansy and explain his conduct to her. -Surely she would forgive him when she knew that it was for her sake he -had broken faith with Juliette Ives. Of course she would be ready to -make up with him. - -And his heart throbbed madly at the thought that sweet Pansy’s love -was all his own. He knew that there would be a bitter battle with his -relatives, but he was determined to make her his wife. - - - - -CHAPTER III. A JEALOUS RAGE. - - -Juliette Ives rushed up to the house presently and poured the story of -her lover’s treachery into the ears of her mother, who became quite -indignant at the turn affairs were taking. - -“I will go at once to the farmer’s wife, and give her a piece of my -mind about her impudent niece,” she said, and she went immediately -to Mrs. Robbins, who was in the pantry, labeling the nice jars of -preserves she had made that day. - -“I have come to complain of your niece, that bold factory girl, who has -been making trouble between my daughter and the gentleman she’s engaged -to,” she began. - -Mrs. Robbins looked around in amazement. - -“What has Pansy done, ma’am, to be called sech names?” she exclaimed, -rather resentfully; and then Mrs. Ives poured out a garbled version of -poor Pansy’s flirtation with Norman Wylde, making it appear that she -was a bold, forward creature, who had actually forced the gentleman to -pay her attention. - -“Maybe she thinks he will marry her and make her a fine lady, but she’s -mistaken,” she sneered. “It’s only a way he has of flirting, but it -means nothing, as many a poor girl in Richmond and elsewhere knows -to her cost. He’s very wild, but he promised my daughter, when she -accepted him, that he would reform. I believe he was trying to do so, -but when Pansy Laurens kept throwing herself in his way he couldn’t -resist the temptation to make a fool of her. So when my daughter caught -him kissing the girl, just now, in the hammock, she discarded him at -once, and he’s so angry he’ll maybe fall into some mischief that will -make Pansy Laurens rue the day she ever saw him. If I were you, Mrs. -Robbins, I’d send the girl home to her mother at once,” she advised -eagerly. - -Mrs. Robbins sat silent, gravely cogitating. She was a large, fleshy -woman, good-natured, and slow to anger. It did not occur to her to fly -into a passion and resent Mrs. Ives’ harsh opinion of Pansy. - -On the contrary, to her calm, equable nature, it seemed best to weigh -the pros and cons in the case. Besides, Pansy was her husband’s niece, -not hers, and she had no special fondness for the girl, whom she had -never seen till this summer. - -Mrs. Ives watched her closely, and, seeing how quietly she had taken -everything, took heart to continue pouring out her venom. - -“I’m afraid that girl is going to make you lots of trouble,” she -ventured. “She will want to hang on to Mr. Wylde, of course.” - -Mrs. Robbins turned her large, ruminating eyes on the lady’s face, and -remarked: - -“Perhaps he means fair. Rich men have married poor geerls before now. -And Pansy Laurens is a good-looking geerl--as pritty as your Jule, I -think, ma’am.” - -Mrs. Ives grew quite red in the face with anger, but she restrained -herself, hoping to mold the simple-minded woman to her will. Shaking -her head vehemently, she replied: - -“Ah, you don’t know the Wyldes! They are the proudest people in -Richmond, rich and fashionable, and belong to one of the oldest -families in Virginia. All of them have been professional men, and -they consider working people as no better than their servants. If -Norman Wylde was fool enough to want to marry a mechanic’s daughter -and a working girl, which you may be sure he isn’t, his folks would -disinherit him, and never speak to him again.” - -Mrs. Robbins shook her head and sighed. - -“I hate to think of my husband’s niece a-being in sech a scrape. Ef -she’s been bold and forrard, ma’am, I never noticed it.” - -“Of course not. She was too sly,” sneered Mrs. Ives. “But I see you’re -bound to take her part, Mrs. Robbins, and I’ll say no more, only this: -If disgrace comes on your family through that audacious piece, remember -I warned you.” - -“I’ll talk to Mr. Robbins,” was the only answer from the woman of few -words. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. THE BIRD FLIES. - - -Meanwhile poor Pansy, half crazed with shame and grief, was sobbing -forlornly up in her little chamber under the eaves. - -She believed that Norman Wylde had been amusing himself with her, and -the thought was agony to her fond, loving heart. - -“I loved him so! Oh, I loved him so! And it was cruel, cruel for him -to deceive me,” she moaned bitterly, while the shame of it all weighed -heavily on her sensitive spirit. - -Suddenly the hired girl, a bright mulatto, put her head into the room, -and started at seeing Pansy lying on the floor in tears. - -“Lor’, Miss Pansy, what’s de matter? You sick?” she exclaimed. - -“No--yes. What do you want, Sue?” fretfully. - -“Mr. Wylde tole me to tole you to come downsta’rs. He wants to tell you -sumfin.” - -Pansy’s blue eyes flashed through their tears. - -“Tell him I won’t come, that I don’t want to see him!” she replied -spiritedly. - -Norman Wylde sighed when he received the message, and turned away -without a word. Going to his room, he dashed off a hasty letter to -Pansy, explaining everything, and begged her consent to become his -wife. Then he went down, and, finding Sue alone in the kitchen, gave -her the letter to take to Pansy, liberally rewarding her for the -service. - -Just outside Pansy’s door she came upon Juliette Ives, who said -carelessly: - -“Give me that letter. I’ll hand it to Pansy.” - -She held up her hand, with a silver piece shining in its palm. Sue -snapped at the bait, and immediately delivered up the precious letter, -which Miss Ives hid in her pocket, then ran away to her own room. - -Her pale-blue eyes sparkled with fury as she read the tender love -letter Norman Wylde had written to Pansy. - -“She shall never be his wife if I can prevent it!” she vowed bitterly. - -The impatient lover waited in vain for a reply to his letter, for Pansy -did not come down that evening, and when he arose, very early the next -morning, he learned, to his dismay, that Farmer Robbins had taken his -niece away on the midnight train. - -He went impatiently to Mrs. Robbins, and she told him, in her cool, -straightforward way, that Mr. Robbins had taken Pansy away because he -did not approve of her flirting with young men. - -“But, my dear madam, my intentions were strictly honorable. I wished to -marry Pansy,” he expostulated. - -“You are engaged to Miss Ives, ain’t you?” she returned curtly. - -“I was, but I am no longer. I broke off with her that I might ask Pansy -Laurens to marry me.” - -He seemed so manly and straightforward that Mrs. Robbins must have -been forced to believe in his sincerity had not her mind been poisoned -beforehand by the slanders of Mrs. Ives. But the poison had done its -work, and she looked on him as a liar and a libertine. So she answered -curtly again: - -“Rich young men like you, Mr. Wylde, don’t marry poor working geerls -like little Pansy Laurens. I’ve heerd all about your character from -Mrs. Ives, sir, and I know you didn’t mean any good to Pansy, so her -uncle up and took her away out o’ harm’s reach.” - -His black eyes flashed with anger. - -“I shall follow her!” he exclaimed hotly, and rushed out on the lawn, -where Mrs. Ives was leisurely promenading under the trees. - -She cowered a little when she saw his handsome face so pale with anger, -and his burning dark eyes fixed on her with such resentful passion. - -Controlling his fierce anger by a strong effort of will, he advanced -toward her, and said, with forced calmness: - -“I am curious to know, Mrs. Ives, what kind of character you have -given me to Mrs. Robbins, since it had the effect of incensing her so -bitterly against me?” - -She tossed up her head defiantly, and replied: - -“It was your flirting with her niece that angered Mrs. Robbins.” - -His brow darkened, and he waved his hand, as if thrusting aside her -petty subterfuge. - -“Mrs. Robbins told me that she had had my character from you.” - -“Oh, pshaw! What was the foolish creature thinking of?” cried the -lady airily. “She asked me about you, and I merely said that you were -fickle-minded--that was all. You will grant that I had room to say that -much, after your treatment of my daughter?” - -He recoiled from the envenomed thrust, and turned away, with a cold -bow. He felt sure that she had said much more, but she was not a -man--he could not force her to answer for the slanders she had uttered -against him. - -As he left her side, Juliette approached eagerly, and inquired what -Norman had said. Mrs. Ives repeated it, and added, with a chuckle of -triumph: - -“He did not believe me, but he dared not say so.” - -“Have you written to the Wyldes, mamma?” - -“Yes; and colored the whole affair as highly as possible.” - -“You do not believe they will allow him to marry that upstart girl?” - -“No, indeed; for I have given her a fine character, you may be sure,” -replied the heartless woman complacently. - -“I should die of spite if he married her,” cried Juliette jealously. - -“He will not marry her, my dear, for I am determined to thwart her, if -possible. I have poisoned the minds of all her relations against him, -and they will be sure to keep him at a distance. Besides, you said -yourself that she was angry with him, and declared she would never -speak to him again.” - -“Yes; but if he had a chance to explain----” - -“They will have no chance to explain. Their relations will keep them -apart,” interrupted her mother firmly. - - - - -CHAPTER V. THE LOVER REAPPEARS. - - -Arnell & Grey, the firm at whose immense tobacco factory Pansy -Laurens worked, were noted for their kindness and liberality to their -employees. Every year they planned and carried out, at their own -expense, some pleasant entertainment, to which every one in the factory -was cordially invited; and this summer it took the form of a delightful -excursion. - -A crowded steamer carried the large number of employees down the James -River, and a fine band furnished music for the gay young people, who -danced all day upon the deck, under the blue sky and bright sunlight of -August. Downstairs a dinner was waiting, and nothing that could conduce -to the pleasure of the occasion had been forgotten by Arnell & Grey, -who delighted in the success of their generous undertakings. - -Pansy Laurens went, of course--naughty Pansy, who had been in disgrace -for a month with her relations, on account of her crime of stealing a -rich girl’s lover away. Yes, it was almost five weeks now since Uncle -Robbins had taken Pansy back to Richmond and told her mother sternly -that he was sorry he had ever taken her away, since she had made -serious trouble among his boarders, and flirted boldly with a young man -who was engaged to another girl. - -He had brought her home to get her out of harm’s way, he said, and he -advised his sister to keep a sharp lookout upon the willful girl, as -Norman Wylde had vowed he would follow her to Richmond. - -Mrs. Laurens expressed herself to her brother as being ashamed of her -daughter’s bad conduct, and determined to keep her in strict bounds -hereafter. - -She scolded Pansy, and threatened to lock her in her room on bread and -water if she ever spoke to that dangerous young man again. - -Poor Pansy could do nothing but tell her own side of the story. - -She had not been bold and forward. She had not known Norman Wylde was -engaged to anybody, and she did not know that he was amusing himself -only, when he made love to her in those bright summer days. When she -found out that he was only flirting she had told him never to speak to -her again. - -“Stick to that, little gal, and there won’t be no more trouble,” said -Uncle Robbins approvingly. - -“Yes; don’t let him come near you again as long as you live,” added -Mrs. Robbins sharply, and Pansy thought to herself that she never would. - -She was overwhelmed with shame and grief at this pitiless exposé of -her futile love dream, and down in her little heart was a secret -resentment, too, at the hardness of everybody. Why should they declare -that she had been bold and forward? She knew that it was untrue, and -their blame cut deep into the sensitive heart. Norman Wylde, too--how -could he have been so cruel, so unkind? Her pillow was wet with tears -every night as she strove through long, sleepless hours to banish from -memory the false, sweet smiles and loving dark eyes that haunted her -and made so hard the bitter task she was essaying. - -She was not among the dancers to-day, although she was the prettiest -girl on board, and had many invitations from gallant young men. But -she chose rather to sit leaning pensively over the handrail and gaze -with grave blue eyes into the foamy depths of the water. Many eyes -wandered to the pretty figure in the snowy-white dress and wide, -daisy-trimmed straw hat; many wondered why she seemed so sad, but none -guessed that she was thinking that she would like to be at rest under -those softly lapping waves, with the story of her young life ended here -and now. - -Ah, how suddenly her despondent mood was changed! A shadow came between -her and the light--some one sat down beside her and facing her. She -looked up, startled, and saw--Norman Wylde. - -Norman Wylde, pale and impassioned-looking, with a determined light in -his splendid dark eyes. - -As she made a movement to rise, his strong hand closed over her weak -little white ones, and forced her back into her seat. - -“Sit still,” he whispered hoarsely, desperately. “I must speak to you, -and you shall listen.” - -She glanced about her with frightened eyes. No one was looking. The -music was pulsing sweetly on the air, and the dancers were keeping -time with flying feet. She looked up at him, pale with emotion. - -“You can have nothing to say to me that I wish to hear, Mr. Wylde, for -I despise you,” she answered bitterly. - -“That is not true, Pansy, for a month ago you owned that you loved me, -and you have not unlearned your love so soon. Falsehoods have been told -you, and you knew no better than to believe them without giving me a -chance to defend myself. I have written to you, but my letters came -back to me unopened. I have dogged your footsteps on the streets, but -you fled from me, and, as a last resort, I came upon this excursion, -determined to force a hearing from you. Will you listen to me? Will you -let me explain the meaning of that scene with Juliette Ives that day?” - -She struggled under his detaining hand, anxious to escape, yet not -wishing to make a scene. - -“You were engaged to her, yet you made love to me; that is enough for -me to know,” she answered, turning crimson in her humiliation; but her -indifference and eagerness to get away only made him more determined to -conquer her pride. - -“Pansy, you are driving me mad,” he cried imploringly; then, with -sudden passion, he added: “Unless you will sit still and listen to what -I have to say to you, I swear I will drown myself before your eyes!” - - - - -CHAPTER VI. A HAPPY EXCURSION. - - -Pansy was so startled by the threat of her desperate lover that she -sank back into her seat without a word, her slight form trembling with -terror. She certainly did not want him to drown himself, although he -had treated her so cruelly. - -So she consented to listen to him. There could be no great harm in -that, for it would not alter her opinion of him at all. He had been -false to Juliette Ives and false to her. She was quite sure that she -despised him, although her heart was beating furiously as she looked -up into the pale, impassioned face, with its eager, burning dark eyes, -that seemed fairly to devour her white, startled young face. - -Now that he had his chance, he improved it in eloquent fashion. He -explained everything clearly, making her understand that he was not the -villain they made him out, and that if he were to blame in any way it -was for breaking loose from the bonds that held him to a girl whose -selfishness and cruelty had changed his love to hate. - -“If I ever really loved her, which seems doubtful to me now,” he said. -“It was last winter that we became engaged, and, although I admired -her fair face and enjoyed her society, I swear to you, Pansy, that the -thought of marrying her never crossed my mind until one night in the -conservatory, when I was, somehow, drawn into asking her to marry me. -I hardly know how it was, unless it was the romance of the moment. You -remember the lines: - - “Azure eyes, golden hair, scented robes-- - -“They had crazed my hot, foolish brain then. - - “Ah, the silliest woman can make - A fool of the wisest of men!” - -“But they say that you are fickle,” murmured Pansy, speaking for the -first time. - -“It is not true, my little darling. I never really fell in love until -your sweet face dawned on my vision. Then I began to realize that my -engagement to Juliette was a terrible mistake, and that I would be -wrong to continue it. But I kept waiting from day to day, hoping she -would see how things were and throw me over herself, as she did at -last, but only after I had bungled matters by telling you too soon of -my love.” - -Where was Pansy’s bitter resentment now? It was melting like snow in -the sunshine under his eager words. Everything looked so different now -in the light of his manly, straightforward explanations. - -Her sad heart bounded with renewed hope, and a leaden weight seemed to -be lifted from her spirits. - -“Now, Pansy, you see that I was not to blame,” said her lover eagerly. -“You will forgive me, will you not, and promise what I was going to ask -you that day--that you will be my own little wife?” - -She blushed brightly, and could not utter a word. He took her little -hand tenderly in his, and whispered: - -“‘Silence gives consent.’” - -Presently she lifted her little head from his breast, where he had -drawn it in reckless defiance of the whole world, if it had been -looking on. But, fortunately, no one saw or heeded the pair of happy -lovers. - -“But how can I be your wife?” she whispered, in a troubled tone. “Mrs. -Ives told Aunt Robbins that your family was very rich and grand--that -they would never permit you to marry me.” - -“Never mind, I will bring them around,” he replied, with pretended -carelessness. - -He would not tell her that he had spoken to his parents about her, and -that both had sternly forbidden him to think of marrying one so far -beneath him in position, birth, and fortune. - -“Remember that you are descended from one of the first families of -Virginia,” exclaimed his haughty mother. - -“I shall only regret that fact if it is to separate me from the girl -I love,” he replied angrily, and then his father threatened him with -disinheritance if he did not give up Pansy Laurens. He told Pansy -nothing of all this, although it lay deep in his own heart, like a -leaden weight, for he knew that he could not support a wife if his -father threw him over. He had no fortune of his own, and, although he -had been educated for the law, he had only just hung out his “shingle,” -as he humorously called it. It was folly, madness, to woo Pansy -Laurens in the face of such prospects, and yet he went straight on, -hoping against hope that something would turn up in his favor. - -“I will bring them around in time,” he repeated, and she, looking up at -her splendid lover in worshipful adoration, believed him, and bright -visions of happiness flitted before her mind’s eye. She could not help -triumphing in her thoughts over her insolent rival, Juliette Ives. - -Oh, how suddenly the face of all the world was changed to the girl who -such a little while ago was so unhappy that she wished herself dead! -The beautiful face grew so animated that he was charmed and delighted. -He told her that she had the fairest face he had ever seen, and that he -would like to be a king, that he might make her a queen. - -All too soon that happy excursion came to an end, but it stood out -brightly forever in Pansy’s memory. She had been so happy, so blessed; -and when she parted with her lover it was to look forward to secret -meetings--pleasant walks with him that would take away the dreariness -and loneliness of her life. He told her that it would not be wrong, -and she loved him too well to doubt his word. - -Several weeks afterward Pansy’s mother was quite sick one day with a -headache, and the girl had to stay home from work. Toward afternoon she -grew much better, and then Pansy, who was sitting near the bed with her -sewing, said timidly: - -“Mamma, I am afraid that we have all been too hard on Norman Wylde. -Perhaps he did love me and mean to marry me.” - -“Nonsense!” the mother exclaimed curtly, and then she saw tears in -Pansy’s blue eyes, much to her dismay, for she thought Pansy had got -over her fancy for Norman Wylde. - -“But, mamma----” - -“I do not wish to hear anything about that villain,” answered the -mother sharply, and, although the girl had made up her mind to -confess everything to her mother, she was frightened out of it by her -harshness; and the next time she saw Norman she told him that she had -made the effort to tell her mother all, but had failed through dread of -her anger. - -They were in the Capitol Square, for it was Sunday afternoon, and -Pansy had told her mother that she was going for a little walk. - -Norman Wylde was waiting for her under the tree in a secluded part of -the grounds, and they sat down together on a rustic bench while Pansy, -half in tears, related her failure with her mother. - -“I am sorry, for I have wished so much that I might be able to visit -you at your own home,” said her lover. Then his face brightened, and he -added: - -“But never mind, darling, it does not matter so much now, for I am -going away from Richmond very soon. Do not look so woebegone, my little -Pansy, for I have good news for you.” - -She started and looked up eagerly, wondering if his parents had -relented. - -But it was nothing like that. - -In a moment he continued: - -“Congratulate me, my dearest. I have at last found a client!” - -“Oh!” cried Pansy gladly. - -“Yes, and a wealthy one, too,” said the young man exultantly. “He -wishes me to go to London upon some law business for him, and if my -mission proves successful my reputation will be made at once, and I -shall earn a princely fee, also.” - -“But to go away so far--oh!” cried Pansy, in unutterable distress. - -But her lover laughed. - -“Pshaw! Not so very far,” he said lightly, then, pressing her little -hand warmly, he whispered: “We can bear the separation, my darling, -since, in reality, it only brings us nearer together, as, of course I -shall be in a position to marry then.” - -But Pansy had burst into tears. A dark cloud had settled over her -spirits. - -No one was near them, and he bent tenderly over her, trying to soothe -her girlish distress. - -“It is only for a few months, dearest, and we will write to each other -every week. Then, when I come back, we will be happy.” - -“I feel as if we were parting forever,” she sighed, but he smiled -tenderly, and answered: - -“No, no, Pansy--only for a little while.” - -But his own heart was heavy, too. He adored his lovely little -sweetheart, and vague fears assailed him lest some one should win -her away from him during his enforced absence. She was so young, so -untaught, what if she learned to doubt him? What if the enemies that -encompassed both should turn her heart against him? - -A sudden mad resolve came over him. With quickened breath, he whispered: - -“Pansy, in a week I must go and leave you. What if I married you before -I went, and left my own sweet wife waiting for my return?” - -She started and gazed wildly at him. - -“They--they--would not permit it,” she returned breathlessly. - -He smiled triumphantly. - -“We could run away, my pet,” he said. “For instance, suppose when you -started to work to-morrow morning I should meet you? We could take the -early morning train for Washington, be married, and return by the time -the factory closes for the day. You could go quietly home again, and no -one need know our sweet secret until I came back to claim you.” - - - - -CHAPTER VII. ACQUIRING A STEPFATHER. - - -Mrs. Laurens would have been only too glad to listen to her daughter, -if she had had any idea that Norman Wylde’s intentions toward Pansy -were strictly honorable. But her brother’s representations had so -thoroughly alarmed her that she deemed it proper to repress the girl -with the utmost sternness, while at the same time her motherly heart -yearned tenderly over her and she longed for the means of lightening -the girl’s hard lot in life. And it was for her children’s sake more -than aught else that the yet young widow began to contemplate the idea -of a second marriage. - -She was still a pretty and attractive woman, and for a year past she -had had an admirer who had pressed his suit more than once, and would -have been accepted only for the fact that her five children were, with -one accord, vehemently opposed to having a stepfather. - -The widow could not help feeling vexed with her dictatorial brood. - -Her suitor was a groceryman with a fair business, and owned a neat -brick house, well furnished, from which a wife had been carried out -more than two years ago to her grave. - -The widower sadly wanted a housekeeper, and it seemed to him that -pretty little Mrs. Laurens was the proper one to fill the position. - -The children were rather a drawback, it was true, but he had decided -that Pansy could go on earning her living at the factory and Willie at -the store. - -Mrs. Laurens, all unconscious of her suitor’s sordid intentions, -wished very much to marry Mr. Finley, and at last permitted him to -overrule her objections and persuade her that her children had no right -to dictate to her in regard to a second marriage. It seemed quite a -coincidence that, on the very Sunday when Norman Wylde was persuading -pretty Pansy to a secret marriage, her mother was listening to counsel -somewhat similar from her elderly lover. - -And on Monday evening, when Pansy got in, rather late, flustered -and frightened lest her mother should chide her for her tardiness, -she found the children sitting around, supperless and forlorn, and -manifestly relieved at her entrance. - -“Where is mamma?” she asked, glancing around, rather guiltily; and -Alice, the eldest of the three younger children, replied: - -“Mamma had on her gray cashmere dress when we got home from school, and -she put on her bonnet and said she was going out a while, and that we -must be good children till she got back.” - -“Very well; I will get you some supper,” their sister answered, -relieved to think that her own escapade would pass undetected. She -bustled around with glowing cheeks and curiously bright eyes, until, in -a few moments, carriage wheels were heard pausing in the street before -their door, and the eager children hastened to open it, tumbling over -each other in their gleeful excitement. - -What was their surprise to find that it was their own mother who had -come in the carriage. She was accompanied by Mr. Finley, who came with -her into the house and stood by her side with a consequential air, -while she said, in a half-frightened voice: - -“Now, don’t get mad, children, for it won’t do any good. I was married -half an hour ago to Mr. Finley.” - -Sheer surprise sealed every mouth, and, taking advantage of the -momentary pause, she continued: - -“I did it this way to escape the fuss I knew you would all make. I -am going with Mr. Finley on a wedding tour of a week, to visit his -relations in North Carolina. I packed my trunk to-day, and I depend -on you, Pansy, dear, to keep house for me while I’m gone. You needn’t -go to work any more till I come back. Now, come and kiss me good-by, -my precious children, for the carriage is waiting to take me to the -train.” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. SECRET VISITS. - - -Poor Mrs. Laurens! Her anticipation of a brighter future for her -children very speedily dissolved into thin air. - -She came back in a week from her wedding tour, and moved into her new -home, Mr. Finley’s nice brick residence on Church Hill; and then she -hinted broadly to her new-made husband that she would like to take -Pansy from the factory and Willie from the store, and send both to -school again. - -To her grief and dismay, Mr. Finley promptly refused her requests. - -“I married you, not your family, Mrs. Finley,” he said coarsely. - -“But I surely expected--and you certainly let me think, sir--that you -would support my children,” faltered the bride. - -“The three younger children, who are yet too young to work for -themselves, I expect to board and clothe, certainly, but not the two -others. They must remain at work, clothe themselves, and pay a small -sum monthly for board,” was the stern reply, which so angered the -astonished woman that she cried out resentfully: - -“If I had known this I would not have married you!” - -“If you married me with mercenary motives you deserve to be -disappointed,” was the cold reply of her liege lord, and, as may be -supposed, the honeymoon did not proceed very smoothly after that. - -Willie kept on at the store, the children at school, and Pansy at the -factory. She had not expected anything else, she told her mother, -with some slight bitterness, when she half apologized to her for the -necessity of her keeping on at work. - -She resented with silent jealousy her mother’s marriage to this stern, -hard man, so unlike her own father, who had been so gentle and loving, -and the breach between her heart and her mother’s grew wider still as -days passed on and brought the cold, dark days of winter. - -For one day one of the little children had unwittingly let out a secret -that Pansy had adjured her to keep. It was the fact that Norman Wylde -had several times visited the house during Mrs. Finley’s absence on her -wedding tour. - -There had been a scene between mother and daughter, harsh reproaches -and upbraidings, answered first by tears, then by girlish resentment. - -“I had as much right to deceive you as you had to run away and marry -that horrid man!” the girl cried, with flashing eyes. - -Then Mrs. Finley had so far forgotten love and dignity as to strike -her rebellious daughter--slapping both cheeks soundly, and threatening -something of the same kind unless Pansy broke off with Norman Wylde. - -“He is gone to England,” the girl answered sullenly, and the mother -prayed in secret that he might never return, unwitting of the terrible -interest Pansy had in the absentee. - -So the long winter days wore away, and Pansy’s companions at the -factory began to remark a great change in the young girl. Her cheeks -had grown pale and wan, and her eyes dim, as if from constant tears. -Her light, dancing step had become heavy and dragging, and she no -longer seemed to care about her personal appearance, for her dresses -were cheap and ill-fitting, and she was always shivering with cold, -although constantly wrapped in a thick shawl. The gay girls at the -factory often teased her about her chilliness, and told her she must be -going into a consumption. - -Poor child! If they had guessed what was aching at her heart they must -have pitied her. Not a word or line had she received from Norman Wylde -since the day he had sailed away from Richmond, after the one week of -delirious happiness in which she had been his adored wife. - -Faithfully had she kept the secret of her marriage, but the time was -coming when it must be declared, or she would have to bear the burden -of a bitter shame. Unless Norman Wylde returned soon, she would be the -mother of a child on whom the world would frown in scorn, while she, -poor girl, would never be able to lift up her head again. - -Oh, how she repented her disobedience to her mother! If she had -listened to her she would not have come to this terrible pass. Perhaps -Norman was false to her, perhaps that marriage in Washington had been a -fraudulent one. She had read of such things. - -“Heaven pity me, how shall I ever confess the truth to my mother?” she -sobbed nightly, as she lay wide awake in her little room, too wretched -and frightened to sleep, wondering why her husband did not write to -her, and praying always that Heaven would remove her very soon from a -world that she had found so dark and cruel. - -A dark, terrible day came to her at last--dark, although the sun was -shining in the sky, the green grass springing, and the gay birds -chirping in the budding trees, for it was May now, and the world was -made new again--she was discharged from the factory. - -No reason was given, none asked. She understood. - -For many days she had seen that her companions at work shunned and -sneered at her. She had had many friends among them once, but now not -one. She did not blame them. In their place she would perhaps have -acted the same. There is a wide, wide gulf between womanly purity -and fallen virtue, and they believed that she was a lost and ruined -creature. - -As she went slowly, wearily homeward she felt that she could not bear -to tell her mother of her discharge, for then she would have to -confess all the rest. - -“I could more easily die than confess to her, for, oh, she will be so -angry, so angry!” she shuddered weakly, and a desperate resolve came to -her. - -She would run away and hide herself from all who had ever known her. - -Perhaps she would die when her trouble came. She hoped so, for she was -weary of her life. - -Out of the money that remained from her wages after paying her board, -she had saved a few dollars. She would take it and go away. Mamma -would not miss her much. She had never seemed the same to her children -since she married the hard, stern man who kept her at work even more -slavishly than when she was a widow, for he would not hire a servant, -and she was compelled to do the drudgery of the house herself. - -Pansy went into the house very quietly, then helped her mother with -the supper, as was her usual custom. She pretended to eat something -herself, then went up to her own little room, eager to make her -arrangements for getting away. - -There was not much to do, only to make up a bundle of such clothing as -she would need the most and could conveniently carry. There were some -tiny garments, too, clumsily fashioned by the poor girl’s unskillful -hands; they must not be left behind. She tied them all up securely, put -on her hat, and sat down to wait until the house should be still, when -she would slip quietly out and make her way to the station, where she -could take the first train to Petersburg. - -She felt ill and wretched. Her heart was throbbing to suffocation. How -dreadful the suspense was, how slowly the time crept by! - -Thank Heaven, they were all abed at last, and she could go now. - -She rose up with her bundle, shrinking a little at the thought of being -alone in the streets by night. - -At that inauspicious moment Mrs. Finley suddenly entered the room. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. THE SECRET DIVULGED. - - -At the opening of the door, mother and daughter recoiled from each -other with smothered cries of amazement. - -Pansy, who had counted herself so sure of escaping, saw herself -detected in the act of flight, forced to confession, shamed, disgraced; -but after that one exclamation of alarm she hurriedly determined to -brave it out, if possible; so, clutching her bundle tightly, she -assumed an expression of calmness that she was very far from feeling. - -“Why, Pansy, what does this mean? I expected to find you abed,” -exclaimed her mother, staring in astonishment at the shrinking girl. - -“I--I--wanted to go out a few minutes, mamma, dear. My new calico, -you know, I must take it to that sewing girl on the next square, -for I shall need it next week,” stammered Pansy, trying to push by -her mother; but Mrs. Finley suddenly put her back against the door, -exclaiming suspiciously: - -“Going to the dressmaker’s at this time of night? I don’t believe it! -You are up to some mischief, Pansy Laurens! Running away, perhaps, and -it’s a good thing I caught you in the nick of time. Give me that bundle -and let me look into it.” - -There was a brief, short struggle, then Mrs. Finley triumphed, and -Pansy flung herself, bitterly weeping, upon the floor, while her mother -rummaged through the telltale bundle. - -“Aha, just as I thought! Change of clothes--oh, you wicked girl! What -is this? Oh-h-h, heavens! Pa-a-n-sy Lau-rens, what does this mean?” - -She was holding up sundry tiny bits of soft flannel and linen trimmed -with homemade crochet edging. Pansy did not lift her head. She knew -without looking, and she moaned despairingly: - -“Oh, mamma, mamma, if only you had let me go away in peace you need -never have known!” - - * * * * * - -“You say that she will live, doctor? Oh, I am so glad! And yet it would -be better, perhaps, for my poor girl if she had died.” - -Pansy’s eyelids felt too tired and heavy to lift from her eyes, but she -seemed to struggle back to consciousness and hear those words spoken -above her head. In that moment, too, came a confused memory of the -stormy scene with her mother when she had been forced to tell all her -story and to bear such bitter reproach and shame as almost maddened -her, so that she was glad of the unconsciousness that stole upon her, -blotting out for a few weeks all the bitter past and shameful present. - -Yes, it had been three weeks since that terrible night, and when Pansy -heard those words spoken over her head in her mother’s voice she -guessed aright that she had had a dangerous illness. - -She opened her blue eyes with an effort, and saw the doctor standing -with her mother by the bed. - -“See--she is conscious at last. She will begin to get well very fast -now,” he said, and gave her an encouraging smile; but Pansy had none to -give in return. - -It seemed to her that she should never smile again. - -When he had gone, she looked wistfully at her mother, without daring -to speak, fearing to hear again the scathing reproaches with which she -had been assailed that night; but Mrs. Finley had been softened by her -daughter’s illness, and she spoke to her very kindly: - -“My dear, you have been ill three weeks of fever, but the doctor thinks -you are going to get well now.” - -Pansy thought of the words she had overheard: - -“It would be better, perhaps, for my poor girl if she had died.” - -She could not speak just yet, but her big, mournful blue eyes asked a -question that Mrs. Finley quickly understood. - -“Yes, it is all over long ago. It happened that night when I kept you -from running away. You were so ill you never knew.” - -She paused, but the big, beseeching blue eyes were still asking silent -questions, and, putting her hand up to her face, Mrs. Finley said, in a -broken voice: - -“Your child only lived one day, Pansy. It was better so.” - -“Dead!” - -That one wailing cry broke the stillness, then low and bitter sobs -heaved Pansy’s breast. The mother who had never seen the face of her -child was weeping over its death. - -“It was better so, my dear, better so. Had it lived it could but have -added to your disgrace,” Mrs. Finley kept repeating, and at last the -poor girl, stung by the words, answered petulantly: - -“How can you talk of disgrace? I told you that I was the wife of Norman -Wylde.” - -“You were deceived, my poor child,” answered her mother sadly. - -“Deceived!” - -“Yes, Pansy. I told Mr. Finley everything. He went to Washington to -find out the truth. My poor girl, that villain deceived you. There was -no license taken out; there was no minister of the name you told me, -and you had no marriage certificate. By your confidence in a villain -against whom we all warned you, you have ruined yourself and brought -disgrace upon your relations.” - -There was a long, long pause of utter consternation, then the stricken -girl moaned pitifully: - -“Oh, mamma, why did you nurse me back to life? You should have let me -die.” - -One week later Pansy was sitting up, a pale little ghost of the bright, -pretty girl who, just a year ago, had gone home with Uncle Robbins to -find so cruel a fate. She had been watching the sun set, and turned -with heavy, listless eyes when her mother entered with a slice of toast -and some tea for her supper. - -“Mamma, will you tell me why you always lock my door on the outside? -Are you afraid that I will run away?” she asked sadly. - -“Oh, my dear, do not be frightened, but--I am afraid of your brother.” - -“Mamma--of Willie?” - -“Yes, he is sixteen now, you know--old enough to feel keenly the -disgrace that has fallen on the family. He is so angry, and he has been -egged on, I know, by Mr. Finley. I--I--hope he will come to his senses -some time,” sighing. - -“Mamma, you said you were afraid. You locked the door whenever you went -out. Why?” panted Pansy, with dilated eyes; and the wretched mother, -leaning over her wretched child, whispered plaintively: - -“Try to forgive him, my poor child, for he is half crazed now, and his -passionate boyish temper all ablaze with anger. Poor lad! The disgrace -has blighted all his future, he says, and he has sworn revenge.” - -“Revenge--on me?” questioned Pansy faintly. - -“Yes, on you. He has got hold of a pistol somehow, and he is no longer -very steady at his work. I fear he drinks some. He vows he will shoot -you on sight.” - -“Oh, my Heaven!” - -“But do not be frightened, dear. It is nothing but boyish bluster, I -am sure. Only I am afraid of him just yet, while the drink fires his -blood. So it is better to keep your room a while.” - -“Every one knows, then, mamma?” with a burning blush. - -“We could not keep it a secret. Every one suspected you,” sighed the -unhappy woman, bursting into a flood of tears. - -But she wept more bitterly still next morning, for, in spite of the -locked door, Pansy was missing, and a tiny note on her pillow told the -story: - - Bless you, my faithful mamma, and help you to forgive me for my - willful ways that caused you so much sorrow. Tell Willie not to drink - any more. I will never come back, never disgrace him again. - - UNHAPPY PANSY. - - - - -CHAPTER X. A HEARTSICK FUGITIVE. - - -Pansy Laurens meant to keep her word when she wrote to her mother that -she would never come back. She felt that this would be best. - -If she remained at home the shadow of her deep disgrace would be -reflected on her family. If she went away people would forget it in -time. - -“I should like for them to think that I am dead. Then mamma would not -feel any further anxiety over my fate. Her mind would be easy. She -would feel that I was at rest,” she thought, and it was this that led -her to take away with her a small bundle of clothing marked with her -name, and throw it into the river. “It will be found by some one, and -then they will say that I drowned myself. It will be a great relief to -Willie,” she said to herself, with sorrowful satisfaction, and with a -bravery born of despair, she escaped from her room by means of a rope -plaited of torn sheets. - -Her hands were torn and bleeding when she reached the bottom, but, -without a murmur, she took up the bundle she had thrown down, and made -her way to Libby Hill, that beautiful eminence overlooking the historic -James River. She sat down there a while to rest in the soft gleam of -the summer moonlight, and to think of the times when she had met Norman -Wylde there and wandered with him through the beautiful park, while her -young heart thrilled with love, and hope. - -“Alas, alas! he was but amusing himself with the humble working girl; -he but plucked the flower of my love to trample it under his feet,” she -murmured, in bitterest despair; and presently she went through the park -and past the line of stately houses that guarded it on the left side, -and dragged herself down the steep declivity to the river. - -How beautiful, how silvery white it gleamed in the clear moonlight as -it pursued its winding course toward Chesapeake Bay. The factory girl, -whose soul was deeply imbued with a love of the beautiful, gazed with a -sort of solemn rapture on the magnificent scene outspread before her, -and as she flung her little bundle into the glittering waves, lifted -her sad eyes to heaven, murmuring, in a tone of awe: - -“I am tempted to spring into those bright waves and end all my sorrow.” - -Then she saw a dark form moving toward her at some little distance, and -fled away, fearing lest she should be arrested by a policeman, for it -was nearing midnight, and she knew that it would seem strange to see a -woman alone in the streets, deserted as they were by almost every one. - -She went along slyly and quietly, like a fugitive fleeing from justice, -over the long distance--two miles and more--that intervened between her -and the railway station, at which she meant to take a train for the -West. - -How strange it seemed to be stealing along Main Street like a shadow, -frightened at the glare of the street lamps, lest they should reveal -her hurrying form to some alert policeman. She was glad when she -reached Seventeenth Street Market, and darted inside of it, gliding -nervously along between the brick stalls as far as they went, and -coming out at last almost at the end of her journey, for soon Broad -Street was gained, and then, a little later, the depot. - -There was a midnight train making up for the West. She hurried to the -ticket office and bought a ticket for Cincinnati. - -“I shall be sure to find work in a great big city like that,” she -thought, as she took her place in a car and sank wearily into a seat, -bursting into tears as the whistle blew and the train rushed out of -the station, at the thought that she was leaving behind her forever -mother, home, and native city--dear old Richmond, on its green, smiling -hills--the place where she was born, and where she had spent her -eighteen years of life. - -She had never known how well she loved Richmond until she felt herself -leaving it forever behind her, with all the associations so dear to -her heart. Tears blinded her beautiful eyes, and a sort of passionate -hatred for the lover who had wrought her so much woe swelled her young -heart. - -“Oh, did he think of all this when he betrayed me?” she wondered -bitterly, and a yearning for revenge came to her, a bitter longing to -pay him back in his own coin for all that she was suffering now. - -“Heaven will send me the chance, and I will wring his heart as he has -tortured mine,” she vowed to herself, with eyes that flashed through -her tears, and just then the conductor came along to take up the -tickets. - -The car was not crowded, and he had time to observe how Pansy’s face -was all wet with tears, and how nervously her little hand shook when -she presented her ticket. - -“Are you ill, miss?” he asked politely. “Can I do anything for you?” - -“No, I am not ill; there is nothing I wish, thank you,” she answered; -but, as she saw how surprised he looked, she added: “I was only crying -because I am leaving my native city forever, to go among strangers. I -am an orphan, and must seek work in the West.” - -“I should think you could certainly find work in Richmond,” he said; -but she shook her head and put her hand to her white throat in such a -pathetic way that he knew she was choked with tears. - -He turned away with a heart full of pity, thinking of his own pretty -daughter at home, and hoping that she might never come to this. The -next day he heard that a beautiful young working girl of Richmond had -drowned herself in the James River, and his thoughts involuntarily flew -to the one who had left Richmond last night, although he did not think -of connecting the two together, save as sisters in sorrow. - -“There was a tragedy of woe in the beautiful face of that orphan girl,” -he thought often, for the memory of her grief did not fade from his -mind for some time. - -Pansy was touched by his manly sympathy, but she pretended not to -notice it. She did not want him to find out who she was, or anything -about her, lest it should interfere with the success of her plan for -making everybody believe she was dead. - -But, oh, that long, weary night in which she was whirled away so -rapidly from all that she had ever known--it would stay in her memory -forever, with all its pain and sadness. - -When they reached Staunton, quite a large crowd came in, and there was -another conductor, who had so many tickets to take up that he did not -pay much attention to the sad young traveler who seemed so lonely and -friendless, and who at last fell into a deep sleep of exhaustion, and -did not awaken for many hours afterward--not, in fact, until a terrible -railroad collision near Louisville, Kentucky, derailed the train and -sent many of the passengers into their last long sleep. - -Pansy was rudely awakened by the shock and jar, and found herself -fastened down beneath some timbers which had, fortunately, formed a -sort of arch over her form, holding her down, yet still protecting her, -so that she was quite unhurt, although so frightened that she fainted -dead away at hearing the shrieks of the wounded and dying all around -her. - -Busy, helpful hands were soon at work, and within an hour she was -released from her uncomfortable position. They carried her out into a -grassy field, where the survivors of the accident were sitting around -in the burning sunshine. Pansy was struck by one lady, who looked as if -she were far gone in consumption, and who was sobbing bitterly over the -death of her maid. - -“I was quite alone but for her, and we were traveling to California for -my health,” she said. “Oh, I know not what to do! I am too weak and ill -to travel alone.” - -Pansy went up to the poor invalid, and said timidly: - -“Lady, I am an orphan, and I was going to Cincinnati to seek for work. -Perhaps you would be willing to take me in the place of your maid that -was killed. I would try very hard to please you.” - -“Oh, thank you, thank you, my child! I am only too glad to get some one -to go on with me,” cried the invalid, eagerly accepting the offer. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. SHELTERING ARMS. - - -Pansy Laurens had found that “friend in need” who is “a friend, -indeed,” when she became acquainted with Mrs. Beach, the invalid lady. -She took a deep, kindly interest in the lonely, friendless girl, and -during the few days when they stayed over at Louisville to recover from -the shock of the accident mastered much of her story. - -She was surprised when she learned that the lovely girl was of the -working classes, for she had fancied that Pansy’s wonderful beauty had -descended from aristocratic, high-bred parentage, but Pansy proudly -undeceived her. - -“My father was a mechanic, and my grandfather was a farmer. My mother -was a farmer’s daughter, too, so we were only plain, hard-working -people. I left the public school where I was educated as soon as my -father died, and worked in a tobacco factory three years.” - -Mrs. Beach, who was a Southerner, and “a born aristocrat,” looked -honestly surprised, and spoke out frankly her astonishment. - -“I thought,” she said, “that the girls employed in the tobacco -factories of the South were of a very low and ignorant class, indeed. I -have received that impression somehow.” - -Pansy thought of Juliette Ives and the scorn she had displayed toward -her, and answered bitterly: - -“Many have thought the same, Mrs. Beach; but in the three years I spent -in a tobacco factory I met many girls as beautiful, as refined, and -as good as are met with in the highest circles of what is called good -society. I cannot believe that nobility is only to be met with in the -ranks of the rich and well-born. The good and bad are met with in all -classes.” - -“That is quite true, my child,” said the lady, to whom Pansy had not -confided the story of her cruel experience among the aristocrats of her -native city. She gazed admiringly at the flushed face of the excited -girl, and added: “I do not wish to flatter you, my dear girl, but I -will say frankly that both your mind and person fit you to adorn the -highest society. It would be an injustice to you to lower you to the -position of my personal attendant; therefore you shall remain with me -as my companion, and as soon as we reach San Diego, my destination, I -will try to secure some elderly woman as my maid.” - -Pansy’s tears of gratitude amply thanked the noble woman for her -generous words, and she sighed to think that she dared not confide to -her the whole story of her life. - -But she could not bring herself to repeat to a stranger, however -kindly, the sorrows of her unfortunate love affair. - -“And, then, I dare not, for she would perhaps spurn me from her -presence, deeming me wicked where I was only unfortunate,” she thought -shrinkingly. - -She had told Mrs. Beach that her name was Pansy Wilcox, and that she -had left home because her mother had married a man who was unkind to -his stepchildren. Mrs. Beach thought the reason was a fair one, and -did not blame the young girl much. She had some reason for knowing how -unpleasant a girl’s home could be made under such circumstances. - -They safely reached San Diego, one of the most beautiful and romantic -places in California, and for a while Pansy was so enchanted with her -new home and its Italian-like surroundings that she ceased to grieve -for her native Richmond and the dear ones left behind. A new life -opened before her: one of comparative ease and luxury, compared to what -she had known, for with the gentle invalid lady her duties as companion -were usually light and pleasant. Mrs. Beach had soon found a clever -maid, and, as she rented a small furnished cottage near the beautiful -bay of San Diego, and hired two Chinese servants, life began to flow on -very smoothly and fairly to those who made up her household. - -She had told Pansy very little about herself, save that she was a widow -with a fair income that would cease at her death. - -“I have no relatives save a distant one of my husband, who will, -perhaps, be glad when I die, as he will then inherit the property,” she -said, adding: “But I mean to live as long as I can, and this charming -climate makes me feel almost as if I am going to get well again.” - -“Heaven grant you may,” exclaimed Pansy, but when she looked at the wan -cheeks and sunken eyes of the hapless lady it seemed to her that Mrs. -Beach could not live much longer, even in this charming climate. - -“And when she dies I shall be thrown homeless upon the world again,” -she thought, with a shudder of fear and terror. - -Perhaps Mrs. Beach thought of this, too, for she took a deep interest -in her fair young companion. One day she said gravely to Pansy: - -“Do you ever expect to marry, Pansy?” - -Pansy grew crimson first, then deadly pale. - -“No, never. I hate men!” she exclaimed, with such energy that Mrs. -Beach, a keen student of human nature, exclaimed: - -“Ah, then, you have had a lover?” - -Pansy saw that she had betrayed herself by her vehemence, and, hanging -her head bashful she sighed: - -“Yes, I had a lover once, and he proved false to me. No one else shall -ever make love to me again.” - -“Poor child!” said the lady compassionately. She remained silent a few -moments, then said: “I hope you will not think me a meddlesome old -lady, Pansy, but I have been thinking of your future. If I should die, -what would become of you?” - -Pansy burst into passionate tears. “I should never find such a noble -friend again,” she sobbed. - -“I have been thinking of that,” said Mrs. Beach, laying her thin hand -gently on the bowed head. “Your future has been on my mind for some -time. You ought to be learning something by which you could support -yourself. There are many avenues of support open to women now.” - -“Oh, I know it, but I have had no chance to learn anything. Dear, noble -friend, if only you could suggest something!” cried Pansy gratefully. - -“I will think over it a few days, and then advise you,” answered Mrs. -Beach gravely. - -And at the end of a week she told Pansy that she believed that -typewriting would prove a remunerative business for a young girl. - -“I will purchase a good machine, and you shall learn,” she said kindly. - -“Oh, how kind you are to me! I wish I knew how to thank you for all -your goodness,” cried the poor girl, with tears of gratitude. - -Mrs. Beach smiled and answered: - -“Only stay with me while I live, Pansy, and I shall be well rewarded. -After all, my kindness to you is only a species of selfishness, for -I wish to have you with me. It brightens my lonely life to have the -beautiful face of a young girl about me all the time.” - -They stayed in San Diego a year, and every month made the exquisite -place more dear to them. Pansy worked industriously at her typewriting -machine, and became quite proficient; but she did not neglect her kind -benefactress. - -It was both her duty and her pleasure to add as much of happiness as -possible to the life of the suffering invalid. In doing so she reaped -the rich reward of those who try to lighten the sorrows of others, for -she had less time to think of her own, and in consequence was far less -unhappy. - -There was not a day in which she did not thank Heaven for providing -such a safe haven for her when she had fled, frightened and despairing, -from her old home; not a day in which she did not pray for the dear -ones she had left behind. Most bitterly she repented the willfulness -that had led to all her sorrow. - -“Had I only minded my mother, no harm would have come to me,” she -sighed over and over. - -Suddenly over the calm, peaceful life they were leading in the little -cottage home fell a dark shadow. - -Mrs. Beach had been failing for some time, and at last it became only -too evident to Pansy and the few friends they had made in San Diego -that her days were numbered. The invalid herself was not ignorant -of the fact, for after an interview with her physician one day she -sent for Pansy and gently broke the sad tidings that she had, in all -probability, but a few weeks to live. - -“Do not grieve, my dear. You know I have been prepared for this some -time,” she said, with sweet resignation. “It only remains now for me to -make my arrangements for the end.” - -Pansy’s irrepressible sobs drowned her voice for a while, but when the -agitated girl had grown calmer she continued: - -“I have telegraphed for my husband’s cousin, who will inherit the -fortune whose income I am using, to come at once to San Diego; and he -will attend to all the final arrangements. I will be buried here, as -my husband was lost at sea many years ago, and it matters not to me -where my ashes repose, as they can never rest beside his. I wish, my -dear girl, that I had a fortune to leave you, more especially as the -man who will inherit mine does not need it, being already very wealthy. -But my husband’s wealth, as I never bore him any children, reverts by -his will to his own family.” - - - - -CHAPTER XII. BEGINNING OVER AGAIN. - - -Colonel Falconer, the man whose coming was so anxiously expected by -Mrs. Beach, arrived in ten days at San Diego; but the invalid had died -just a few hours before his arrival. - -Poor Pansy was once more alone in the world, for Colonel Falconer, -though full of pity and sympathy for the friendless girl, could not -be to her such a friend as he wished. He was fifty years old, and a -bachelor, therefore if he had offered to divide with her the fortune -that had come to him by Mrs. Beach’s death the world would have caviled. - -He was a typical Virginian, generous and true-hearted, and he grieved -that such should be the case, for he would willingly have made ample -provision for the support of the lovely, penniless girl who had been so -dear to his deceased relative. - -“It is a deuced shame that my hands are tied in this way. I feel mean, -taking all that money and seeing that beautiful little creature go -out to earn her own living,” he said to himself the day after the -funeral, when Pansy had come to him to tell him, with a pale, sad -little face, that she had been so fortunate as to be offered a place in -a real-estate office as a typewriter. - -“I have accepted the place, and will enter on my duties to-morrow,” she -said simply; and then he drew forward a chair, and begged her to be -seated. - -“It seems very sad that you should be left alone like this. Have you no -relations, no friends, Miss Wilcox?” - -Pansy flushed warmly, then grew pale again, and, after a moment’s -hesitancy, said: - -“I came from Louisville to this place with Mrs. Beach because I wished -to work for myself. My father was dead, my mother had married again, -and my stepfather was not kind to me. I prefer to remain in California -alone, rather than to return to my own home.” - -“She is a plucky little thing,” thought the colonel admiringly, and he -answered, aloud: - -“I don’t know but what you’re right, Miss Wilcox, and I admire your -independence. I want you to promise one thing: You will let me be your -friend? I shall remain in San Diego some time yet, and if you will -permit me to call on you sometimes I shall be very glad.” - -He did not mean to lose sight of her if he could help it, for he had -a fancy that if Mrs. Beach had lived to see him again she would have -commended her protégée to his care. - -“Hang it all, if I were twenty years younger I’d marry her if she would -have me,” he said to himself, when she had gone out, after giving her -consent to his request and telling him where she should go to board. It -was at a very simple, unpretentious place, for in San Diego, as in all -of the rapidly growing towns of southern California, board and lodging -were very high. It would take all of her salary to support her even in -a simple fashion. - -Colonel Falconer knew this well, and his heart ached for the brave, -beautiful girl who had made a stronger impression on him than any woman -he had ever met. When she bade him good-by that afternoon and went away -with Mrs. Beach’s maid, who was also rendered homeless by the death of -her mistress, he felt a strangely tender yearning to take the beautiful -girl in his arms and kiss away the tears that he saw trembling on her -long, curling lashes. - -He retained the Chinese servants, and stayed on at the cottage during -the summer, and in that time he managed to see a great deal of -beautiful little Pansy, although he knew that it was unwise, for he -soon found that his ardent admiration for the lovely girl was deepening -into love. - -If he had been younger he would have proposed to marry her; but it -seemed to him that Pansy would only laugh at the idea of having such an -old fellow for a husband. - -He did not know how Pansy was touched by his kindness and friendship. -She was very lonely, for the few acquaintances she had made during -Mrs. Beach’s life did not trouble themselves about her now that she -was poor and friendless. They were rich, fashionable people, too, who -had no time, if they had had the inclination, to look after any one -not in society. They were very gracious to Colonel Falconer, but that -little typewriter girl to whom he was so attentive--that was altogether -different. Some there were who hinted to him that it was a mistake on -his part to show her so much kindness. It would spoil her for her -humbler lot, awaken in her aspirations for higher things than she could -reasonably expect. - -They set Colonel Falconer thinking, and the upshot of it was that he -went away to San Francisco for several months. He did not go to bid -Pansy good-by, but simply sent her a note of farewell, saying that he -would write her sometimes and requesting the favor of a reply. - -“Oh, how I miss him! It was like having a kind elder brother,” Pansy -sighed to herself, and now the evenings and Sundays grew very lonely, -indeed. - -There were no more pleasant drives Sunday afternoons, spinning over the -sands past the glittering bay; no more books, nor fruits and flowers. -There was a young clerk in the office where she worked who would have -made love to her if she would have noticed him, but she never did, and -in her loneliness her thoughts went back more and more to her lost love -and her dead past. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. IN A BOARDING HOUSE. - - -Perhaps it was the brooding over the past and the pain and remorse that -wore upon Pansy until she fell ill and had that long fever, although -some of the little household declared that it was something she had -read in a Southern paper. - -When Colonel Falconer, who had grown uneasy because his last letter to -Pansy was not answered, came suddenly back to San Diego, he found that -the girl had been ill of a brain fever for several weeks. - -The mistress of the boarding house, who had been very kind to the sick -girl, explained everything as well as she could: - -“She had been looking droopy an’ peaked some time, an’ her appetite no -better than a baby’s, when she kem inter the parlor one Sunday after -church, an’ set down to read. All at once she screamed out, an’ fell -in a faint. She had this paper in her hand, an’ I’ll allus believe -she read something in it that was bad news to her. But I’ve read it -through an’ through, and I can’t guess what ’tis. Maybe you kin.” - -She put the newspaper in his hand--one almost two months old. It was a -daily paper, published at Richmond, Virginia. - -“I do not think anything in this could have affected her. She was from -Kentucky. Where did she get this?” he asked. - -“Some transient boarder must have left it, I think. It had been laying -around on the parlor table several days when she picked it up.” - -He went over the paper carefully--the deaths, the marriages--but he -saw nothing about any one by the name of Wilcox. There was a society -column, and he went over that, too, although he did not expect to find -anything relating to her, for she had been very careful to impress -upon his mind, with a sort of proud humility, that she belonged to the -humble walks of life. - -“Ah!” he exclaimed suddenly. - -“You’ve found it?” exclaimed Mrs. Scruggs. - -“Oh, no, nothing relating to her,” he answered quickly. - -The paragraph that had surprised him was this: - - Norman Wylde has returned from his long sojourn abroad, and his - much-talked-of marriage to the beautiful Miss Ives will take place - very soon. - -Major Falconer knew both parties very well, but he had never spoken of -them to Pansy. He forgot both almost immediately in his anxiety over -the sick girl. - -“Mrs. Scruggs, I wonder if I might see her? I am a very old friend,” he -said. - -“She is sitting up a little while to-day. I know she would be glad to -see you,” was the answer, and she immediately conducted him to Pansy’s -room. - -The sick girl was so surprised that she uttered a cry of joy. Her blue -eyes lighted with pleasure. - -“Oh, I am so glad!” she exclaimed impulsively. - -Mrs. Scruggs went quietly out. He knelt down by her side and kissed her -little hands with the ardor of a younger lover. - -Yes, all his prudent resolves had melted before his joy at seeing her -again, and his pity for her suffering. Gently, so as not to startle her -from him, he told her of his love, and begged her to be his wife. - -“I am old enough to be your father, I know; but my heart is young, and, -then, I could take such good care of you, my darling,” he said. - -“Oh, you are too good to me, and I--I could not love you enough,” she -faltered. - -“I would teach you to love me,” he answered. And she had such a deep -regard for him that it seemed to her that it would be very easy to -learn that lesson. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. A SECOND MARRIAGE. - - -San Diego had a sensation when Colonel Falconer, the rich Southerner, -married the beautiful young typewriter within a few days after his -return from San Francisco. - -He had pleaded for an early marriage, and she, after some hesitancy, -had consented. - -“There is no one whose consent I have to ask, I suppose?” he said; and, -after a moment’s silence, she answered: - -“No, there is no one. I have reason to think that my mother believes me -dead. I have no wish to undeceive her.” - -“But does not that seem cruel?” he asked, and tears started to her eyes -as she answered bitterly: - -“She has her new husband and other children to comfort her for my loss.” - -He said no more on the subject, and preparations were made for a speedy -marriage. He declared that that would be best, and Pansy could not -gainsay the assertion. Her small stock of money had been exhausted -during her illness, and she was still too weak to go back to work. - -So when her lover declared that they would be married quietly this -week, and go at once upon a wedding tour abroad, she did not make any -objection to the plan. She was glad to have her way smoothed out before -her by his kindly, generous hand. - -“Oh, how good he is to me--how noble! I wish that I could love him more -in return for all his goodness,” she thought, sadly contrasting her -gentle, quiet affection for this good man with the passionate love she -had felt for one less worthy. - -“Perhaps even now he is the husband of haughty Juliette Ives,” she -thought, and grew cold and pale at the fancy. - -She believed that she hated Norman Wylde, and she trusted that she -might never meet him on earth again. To Colonel Falconer she gave the -utmost respect, and a placid, gentle affection utterly unlike that -ardent passion which she had outlived and outworn, as she believed, in -her heart. - -She thought it a little strange that he never mentioned any of his -relatives, and, the day before they were married, she said: - -“Are you sure that none of your grand relatives will object to your -marrying a poor little typewriter girl?” - -To her surprise, he started and looked visibly embarrassed. - -“Ah, I made a clever guess!” she exclaimed, with faint sarcasm, and -then he recovered himself. - -“No--yes,” he stammered, and then added: “I have no near relatives, -Pansy, except a widowed sister. She has one child--a beautiful -daughter, who has counted confidently on being my heiress. I think they -both will feel disappointed at hearing of my marriage, but they have no -right to do so. My sister has a neat little fortune of her own, and her -daughter is soon to marry a rich man.” - -“Then you have not written to ask their consent?” Pansy asked, with -unconscious bitterness, feeling an unaccountable antagonism to those -two unknown ones. - -“Certainly not,” Colonel Falconer answered, with some surprise, and -continued: “I’m ashamed to confess that I don’t pretend to keep up any -correspondence with my sister. I have written her once since I came to -San Diego. She has not answered yet, so I shall not take the trouble to -announce my marriage to her until we are safe on the other side of the -Atlantic. She will be glad for such bad news to be delayed,” laughing -grimly. - -Afterward it seemed strange to her that she had never thought of asking -the names of these people, who would soon be related to her so closely -by her marriage with Colonel Falconer. And it seemed equally strange -that he did not tell her without the asking. There was a fate in it, -she told herself, when she came to know, for if she had heard those two -names she would never have married Colonel Falconer, and run the risk -of again meeting Norman Wylde. - -The next day they were married quietly at church, but there were quite -a number of people present, for the affair had become known through the -gossip of the delighted Mrs. Scruggs. Pansy remembered with a bitter -thrill that ceremony in Washington, which had made her so blindly -happy. - -“Poor, deluded fool that I was!” she sighed, thinking how much sadder -and wiser she had grown since then, for now she was past twenty, -although she looked so fair and girlish no one would have thought she -was more than sixteen. - -They left San Diego directly, and went abroad. They spent a year in -travel, and in that time Pansy learned much and improved much. The -clouds passed from her beautiful face, and she was tranquilly happy -with her husband, save when one blighting memory intervened. It was the -thought of Norman Wylde and the dark episode in her life that she had -concealed from Colonel Falconer. - -“He believes me pure and good; he has the greatest confidence in my -goodness; yet all the while I am hiding from him a dark secret which I -dare not disclose. Heaven grant he may never find out the truth, for it -would be so hard for me to convince him that I was innocent, although -so foully wronged,” she thought often, when the unfailing kindness of -her husband touched her with ardent admiration for his noble nature and -awakened self-reproach within her sensitive mind. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. STARTLING NEWS. - - -Colonel Falconer had written, quite six months before, to his -relatives, apprising them of his marriage to a beautiful young girl -in California, but apparently they did not have any congratulations -to offer him, or they were deeply offended, for no reply came to his -letter. - -“I am glad that they can afford to be so independent,” he thought, with -pique and contempt commingled. - -He felt quite sure that they were indignant at the marriage that -deprived his niece of her anticipations of being his heiress, and he -resented the way in which they had treated him. - -“Not even to wish me joy, after all the kindness they have received -from me,” he said bitterly; and, dismissing them from his thoughts, he -gave all his attention to his lovely young bride, who was so grateful -for his love, and who seemed to return it in a shy, gentle fashion that -was very pleasing. - -They had not given a thought to returning home yet, when one morning -he found in his morning’s mail an American letter, broadly edged with -black. He turned pale as he caught it up, exclaiming: - -“Juliette’s handwriting! My sister must be dead!” - -And, tearing it open, he ran his eyes hastily over the black-edged -sheet. - -Pansy watched him with startled eyes. That name Juliette had touched an -unpleasant chord in her memory. - -Colonel Falconer heaved a long sigh, and placed the letter in her hands. - -Pansy, womanlike, read the name at the end first. It was traced in -ornate characters, but it stung her like a serpent’s fang: - - Your unhappy niece, - JULIETTE IVES. - -She glanced at the top of the sheet, and read: - - RICHMOND, Virginia. - -Colonel Falconer had walked to the window of their pretty breakfast -room, and was looking out--perhaps to hide a moisture in his eyes. - -He did not see how pale grew the beautiful face of his young wife, nor -how her jeweled hands trembled as they held the letter before her eyes. -She read on, with a sinking heart: - - DEAR UNCLE: This is to tell you that mamma died yesterday, although I - do not suppose you will care much, as you are so happy with the wife - who crowded poor mamma and me out of your heart. She died suddenly, - of heart disease, from which she suffered so long, and I am left - penniless and friendless, for she spent everything she had before she - died. We would have been more saving, but you always let us think I - would have your money, and I think the news of your marriage hastened - her death, she was so disappointed. - - Now what am I to do? I have no money, as you know, and I am not - fitted to work for my living. Has your wife turned your heart against - me, or are you willing to take mamma’s place and support me in the - style I’ve been used to? I suppose I’ll be married, some time, - although poor girls don’t stand much chance. I don’t think Norman - would care for poverty, though, if only he would come to his senses - in other things. I am here in your house still. We were glad you left - us that when you married so suddenly and strangely. I’ve promised - the servants you will pay their wages. I hope you will come home and - settle with the people mamma owed. I charged the funeral expenses to - you. I knew you wouldn’t mind. Please answer at once, and let me know - what to expect from you. - - Your unhappy niece, - JULIETTE IVES. - -“So she is my husband’s niece? What a fatality!” Pansy murmured to -herself, fighting hard against the weakness and faintness stealing over -her. “And Norman Wylde has not married her yet,” her thoughts ran on, -with a sort of bitter triumph. - -She sat silent, crushing the black-bordered sheet in her hands, her -heart beating slowly and heavily in her breast, a chill presentiment of -evil stealing over her mind. - -“Is it possible that I shall have to come in contact again with that -proud, cruel girl? Oh, if I had only known this I should never have -married Colonel Falconer,” she thought bitterly. - -Colonel Falconer turned around suddenly from the window. - -“Well, my dear, what do you think of my niece’s letter?” he asked. - -Pansy’s face flamed and her eyes flashed. - -“I think it is impertinent, selfish, and heartless,” she answered -spiritedly. - -He sighed, for that was his own impression of the letter, although he -hated to acknowledge it, even to himself. What hurt him most was her -half-contemptuous allusions to his wife, and the fact that she had -disdained to send a single kindly message to the woman who was, by -marriage, at least, her near relative. - -“Juliette is a spoiled child. She has been pampered and indulged until -she considers no one but herself,” he said uneasily. - -“That is easy to be seen,” she answered, with a touch of scorn. - -“But there is some excuse for her just now,” continued the colonel, who -could not overcome at once the habit of long years of affection. “We -must consider the petulance of affliction, so natural in one reared -selfishly and luxuriously, as Juliette has been. Then, too, the poor -girl has had a love trouble that has helped to sour her temper.” - -“A love trouble?” Pansy questioned, in a thick voice, without looking -up. - -“Yes; she was engaged several years ago to a Mr. Wylde, of Richmond--a -fine young man in every respect, handsome, rich, and of fine family. -Juliette adored him, and was very jealous, so that when he engaged -in a flirtation with a designing little beauty of the lower classes -Juliette would take no excuses, but dismissed him in bitter anger. He -went abroad, leaving her to repent her harshness, and to try to mourn -her haste; for love soon conquered pride, and she would give the world -now to win him back. I had reason, a year ago, to believe that they had -made up their quarrel and would soon be married, but I was mistaken, -and Juliette no doubt is still pining for her lost lover.” - -Pansy made no comment, for her husband’s words still rang in her ears: - -“‘A designing little beauty of the lower classes.’ Oh, what if he knew! -what if he knew!” she thought, in terror that held her lips dumb. - -Colonel Falconer took up a package of newspapers, and drew out one--the -Richmond _Dispatch_. - -“Ah, this, too, is from Juliette. No doubt it contains the notice of -her mother’s death,” he said. - -His surmise was correct. It recorded the death of Mrs. Ives, at the age -of fifty-four, for she had been his elder by several years. - -He placed the paper, as he had done the letter, before Pansy’s eyes; -and she read and reread the words announcing her enemy’s death, but in -a dull, mechanical way, without any triumph in the fact that those -cruel lips would never utter any falsehoods against her again. She felt -half dazed by the suddenness with which the past had risen before her -just as she began to hope and believe that it was buried forever. - -Her dull eyes traveled soberly up and down the short list of married -and dead, and suddenly a wild gleam came into them. A familiar name had -caught her attention. She read: - - On the 6th instant, at the residence of her mother, on Church Hill, - Rosa Laurens, aged nine years and seven days, of diphtheria. Funeral - private. - -It was Pansy’s youngest sister--the baby, as she was always called in -the family. A wave of passionate grief overflowed Pansy’s heart and -forced a cry of despair from her white lips. Then she slipped from her -chair and lay in a long swoon upon the floor. - -When reason returned she was lying upon her bed, with her maid chafing -her cold hands anxiously, and her husband bending over her with -frightened eyes. - -“Oh, Pansy, what a shock you have given me!” he exclaimed; and as -everything rushed quickly over her she realized that she must hide her -troubles under a mask of smiles. - -With a pitiful attempt at gayety, she faltered: - -“You must learn not to be frightened at a woman’s fainting. It means -nothing but temporary weakness.” - -“Are you sure of that?” he asked. “Because----” Then he paused. - -“What?” she questioned. - -“I feared you had read something in that paper that grieved or -frightened you,” he answered, remembering at the same time that when -she had that illness in California Mrs. Scruggs had asserted that -something she had read in a paper was the primary cause. - -But Pansy denied that anything in the paper had affected her in the -least. - -“How could it be so, when I had never been in Richmond, and knew no -one there?” she said. “Besides, I had but just taken the paper and had -read nothing but your sister’s death, when suddenly I felt my strength -leaving me, and I fell. Tell him, Phebe,” she said, looking at her -maid, “that it is a very common occurrence for ladies to faint.” - -Phebe asserted that all fashionable ladies were given to fainting, and -his own experience bore him out in the fact. The only difference was -that he had never regarded Pansy in the light of a society lady. She -was a beautiful, natural child of nature, he had been proud to think. - -She insisted on getting up to dress and to drive in the park. - -“I want fresh air,” she said; and, looking at her pale cheeks and heavy -eyes, he thought so, too. - -“Mind you don’t give me another such scare shortly,” he said, as he -went out to order the carriage, for they had taken a pretty house in -Park Lane for the season, and surrounded themselves with luxuries. They -had been going into society some little, but neither cared much for it. -He had seen enough of it to be blasé, and she was timid. - -When they were driving along he said abruptly: - -“I suppose we must make some plans for my poor niece. What do you say, -darling? Shall we go home and take care of Juliette?” - -“Oh, must we go home? I am so happy here!” she cried. - -“But I shall be obliged to go back and settle up my sister’s affairs, -Pansy.” - -“Couldn’t you leave me, and come back when you had fixed everything?” -she inquired vaguely. - -“But--Juliette?” he objected. - -“Couldn’t you give her some money, and leave her there with--with some -of her friends?” - -He looked in surprise at the girl who was usually so sweet and gentle. -Her words sounded heartless. - -“How strangely you talk--as if you had taken a dislike to that poor -orphan girl whom you have never even seen,” he said severely. - -“Oh, forgive me!” she cried, frightened at his displeasure. Nestling -closer to his side, she murmured: “It is naughty of me, I know, but I -can’t help feeling jealous of that girl you like so much. She will come -between us. We will never be as happy again as we were in this past -year.” - -“Nonsense!” he answered; but he was secretly pleased at her jealousy, -although there was really no cause for it, as he hastened to assure -her. “I am only thinking of what people will say,” he explained. “I am -sure we should be happier without her, spoiled little beauty that she -is. But she has no relative but me, and if I desert her people will say -that it is all your fault. Do you realize this, my pet?” - -Yes, she began to realize it with a sort of wonder. The fate of -Juliette Ives, her bitter enemy, lay in her hands to make or mar. She -knew that she could mold her noble husband to her will if she chose; -could make Juliette Ives’ life infinitely bitter and hard. For a moment -she was pleased with the thought, half tempted to use her power. - -Then her better nature triumphed. She flung revenge to the winds. - -“I cannot do it. I cannot be so mean,” she thought, with keen -self-scorn. “Poor soul! Why should I blame her? We both suffered -through his falsity, and now I will be her friend if she will let me.” - -With all that she knew of Juliette, she did not fully comprehend the -girl’s ignoble soul. She pitied her, and, out of a generous impulse, -resolved to stand her friend. - -“I will go back with you, Colonel Falconer, and I will try to be a true -friend to your orphan niece,” she said, believing that as his wife she -could fairly run the risk of a return to her old home. - -“I look older now. No one will recognize me,” she decided confidently. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. THE SAD RETURN. - - -In due course of time Juliette Ives received a kind letter from her -absent uncle, stating that he would return with his wife to Richmond -within the month. - - “You may rest assured, my dear girl, that I intend to act fairly - by you,” he wrote. “Of course I cannot leave you my fortune, as - I expected to do if I died single; but you shall receive a fair - portion of it, so you need not consider yourself penniless. I will - also pay your mother’s debts. For the rest, your home will be with - us. My charming wife, who is even younger than yourself, will be - your warmest friend if you show any disposition toward friendship. - I inferred from your letter--in which you neglected to send Mrs. - Falconer a single kind message--that you seriously resented my - marriage. Of course you understand that my young wife is to be - treated with all respect and consideration. While you have a strong - claim on my love and kindness, she has a stronger one, which you - must never for an instant forget. But I need hardly caution you on - these points, as your own good sense will sufficiently instruct you. - Besides, I expect that you will at once fall in love with Pansy’s - sweet disposition and lovely face.” - -“Pansy--Pansy!” Miss Ives muttered sharply, as she flung the obnoxious -letter on the floor. “So that is her name! Strange that, as that -name once came between me and love, it should now come between me and -fortune. Why, if I had not hated her already, I should loathe her for -that name!” - -She was alone in the spacious and elegant parlor of Colonel Falconer’s -elegant residence on Franklin Street. She wore deep, lusterless black -that set off her delicate blond beauty to great advantage, and she -moved with the air of some princess, so proud was her step, so haughty -the curve of her white throat. - -“It is going to be war to the knife between us--I foresee that,” she -muttered hoarsely. “I mean to make her life as disagreeable as I can, -out of revenge for the evil she has wrought for me. Yes, she shall not -sleep upon a bed of roses in this house! I shall be as disrespectful -as I please. They dare not turn me out of the house for fear of people -talking, as I am his own niece.” - -A few days later she received a telegram from New York, stating that -Colonel Falconer and wife had arrived in that city, would remain there -a week, and then come on to Richmond. - -Pansy had persuaded her husband to remain in New York and show her the -sights of the great city. At heart she cared little for it, but it -served as a pretext to delay for a little her return to her old home, -and to the memories that would crowd upon her there. - -But at last the time was over, and no further pretext could delay her -going. Pale and heartsick, she was standing on the steamer’s deck -beside her husband while they rounded the last curve of James River, -that brought picturesque Libby Hill into full view, with all its -bittersweet memories. - -It was three years and a half since she had crouched on yonder hill, a -forlorn little figure with wet eyes and a pale, pale face, watching the -steamer bearing away her young husband on that mission which he said -was to make him rich enough to claim the bride he had wedded in secret. -How it all rushed over her again as she stood there by the side of her -proud, rich husband, and listened mechanically as he pointed out with -pride and enthusiasm the beauties of the river and the land. - -“How glad I am to be in Virginia again!” he exclaimed; but Pansy’s -smile was sadder than tears. - -Juliette had sent the family carriage, with its high-stepping bay -horses, to meet them, and soon they were borne swiftly toward their -home; but while Colonel Falconer’s thoughts went toward Franklin Street -and its aristocratic environments, his fair young bride was thinking of -the humble house on Church Hill, where her mother was mourning the loss -of her youngest born--the household pet. - -“Oh, mother, mother, mother, if only I dared go to you in your sorrow!” -was the cry of her heart. - -But she knew that she must remain dead to that beloved mother. There -was her husband and her position to be considered, and there was -Willie, who had sworn in his wrath to kill the sister who had brought -disgrace on a respectable family. Her own safety, if nothing else, -demanded silence. - -“Here we are, my darling, at home!” exclaimed Colonel Falconer’s voice, -seeming to come from far away, so intently had she been brooding over -her sorrows. - -She glanced out, and saw the sunset gleams lighting up, like -jewels, the windows of an old-fashioned red brick mansion, set in -a pretty green lawn studded with shrubbery and flowers. He looked -up at the broad porch, guarded by two lions, and said, in a tone of -disappointment: - -“Juliette is too dignified to come out on the porch to welcome us home. -She will be waiting in the hall.” - -He led his lovely bride up the steps, and, with a strong effort of -will, Pansy threw off her agitation and braced herself to meet Juliette -Ives with pride and dignity equal to her own. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. A DRAMATIC MEETING. - - -Yes, Juliette was waiting in the hall. - -The day was warm, and she wore a black dress, rich in quality, but of -a soft, diaphanous material, through which her neck and arms gleamed -snowy white. Her golden hair was arranged so as to make the very most -of its beauty. She wished to overawe her uncle’s wife, if possible, -with her dignity and beauty. - -The door opened, and as soon as Colonel Falconer appeared she rushed to -his arms with theatrical effect. He returned her kiss, and disengaged -himself as soon as possible from her embrace, that he might present her -to the beautiful creature waiting in the background: - -“My wife, Juliette.” - -Juliette looked, and saw a figure of medium height, but so exquisitely -slender, though rounded, that it looked taller. It was clothed in a -Parisian suit of dove gray, and from under the demure little bonnet -looked the loveliest face in the world--sweet yet spirited, with -exquisite features, dazzling complexion, and eyes of purplish blue -under lovely curling lashes, dark as night. - -But what was it that made Juliette stare in wonder and gasp in fear? -She caught her uncle’s arm, and he felt her trembling from head to foot. - -“Juliette, my poor girl, this meeting has unnerved you,” he exclaimed -pityingly, and Pansy advanced, as if to offer assistance, but was -instantly repulsed, Juliette flinging out a frantic arm to keep her off. - -“Keep back, keep back! Do not come near me with that face!” she hissed -angrily; and Pansy looked at her husband in cold amazement. - -“Has Miss Ives gone suddenly mad?” she demanded haughtily, and at the -sound of her voice, so cold yet silvery sweet, Juliette shrank closer -to her uncle, crying out: - -“I am not mad, uncle, but I shall be soon if you do not take away that -ghost! Oh, that face, that voice! They have been drowned almost three -years, and now they rise to haunt me from their watery grave!” - -She began to scream with actual terror, bringing the housekeeper and -several servants to the scene. Her uncle caught her in his arms and -carried her into the parlor, saying to Pansy over his shoulder: - -“Keep out of sight a few moments, dear, and I will bring her to her -senses. She has evidently been startled by your likeness to some one -she has known.” - -Pansy sat down just inside the parlor door, which she carefully closed, -thus shutting out the gaping servants. Colonel Falconer set himself to -the task of quieting his hysterical niece. - -Believing herself alone with him, she soon grew calmer, and asked: - -“Oh, uncle, where did you find that girl? I thought she was dead!” - -“Of whom does she remind you, dear?” he asked soothingly. - -Shivering with terror, she replied: - -“Of Pansy Laurens, the girl who made all the trouble between Norman and -myself. You know, it was thought she drowned herself, but now I can no -longer believe it, for surely this is no other than Pansy Laurens!” - -Pansy sat motionless, and heard her husband saying sternly: - -“You will oblige me, Juliette, by never making such foolish remarks -again. I never saw Pansy Laurens; but if my wife resembles her, that -is nothing but a chance likeness. Mrs. Falconer was a Miss Wilcox, of -Louisville, and has never been in Richmond until to-day.” - -“Oh, uncle, are you sure? For indeed she frightened me with her -awful likeness, although I believe she is prettier than that Laurens -creature,” gasped Juliette. - -“Prettier--well, I should say so! My wife is the loveliest creature on -earth!” exclaimed the jovial colonel. - -But Juliette, still shivering, sighed: - -“How can I live in the same house with that face and voice?” - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. A FALSE SMILE. - - -Colonel Falconer began to grow angry at Juliette’s foolishness, as he -called it to himself. Drawing back from her, he said stiffly: - -“If you cannot live in the same house with my wife, Juliette, you are -quite at liberty to seek a boarding house anywhere you choose, and I -will pay your board and furnish you pin money.” - -Juliette sprang upright in a perfect fury, shrieking out: - -“You are planning to get rid of me already!” - -Before the poor, badgered man could reply, Pansy came gliding forward, -and said sweetly: - -“Perhaps Miss Ives would prefer for us to go away, and leave her in -possession of the house. If so, I am perfectly willing to do so, as I -fear we shall not get on together, judging from what I have already -seen of her disposition toward me.” - -She hoped that Juliette would take her at her word, and that by this -means she would be enabled to leave this once dear, now dreaded, city. -She was frightened, too, at Juliette’s recognition of her, and foresaw -trouble if she remained. - -But Juliette was startled at her uncle’s proposition, and she began -to come to her senses. She remembered that but for his liberality she -must be a beggar, and she dared not try him too far. Summoning a false, -sweet smile to her lips, she turned to him, and exclaimed: - -“Dear uncle, forgive me. I fear I have been acting very foolishly. Of -course, I do not want to go away from the only relative I have in the -world, now that poor mamma is dead. I love you too well to leave you, -or to drive you from me. And, indeed, I was preparing to welcome my new -aunt with affection, when her striking likeness so startled me that I -behaved ridiculously, I fear, on the impulse of the moment. You will -excuse me, Mrs. Falconer, will you not?” turning to Pansy and holding -out a hand sparkling with costly gems. - -Pansy clasped the offered hand with one as cold as ice, even through -its tiny gray kid glove, as she replied: - -“Certainly, Miss Ives, for I am anxious to be your friend, if you will -let me.” - -“Oh, thank you! I shall only be too glad, for I had feared that a -beautiful young wife would prejudice my uncle against me, and I am -glad to find that it is not so,” exclaimed Juliette, with pretended -cordiality. Rising to her feet, she continued: “Excuse me one moment, -while I see if your rooms are in readiness.” - -She ran hastily to her own apartment, where she secured a framed -photograph of Norman Wylde, which she placed conspicuously on the -mantel of Pansy’s room. - -“I believe she is Pansy Laurens, and I shall prepare many a severe test -for her,” she muttered angrily, as she returned to the parlor and told -Pansy, with a show of friendliness, that her rooms were in readiness, -and she was ready to show them to her. - -They walked side by side through the broad hall, with its Turkish -carpet, statuary in niches, and stands of blooming flowers, up the -broad stairway to a suite of beautiful rooms in cream and scarlet. - -“I hope you will like these rooms. Mamma had them furnished over but -a few months ago. Mine are like these, only in blue,” said Juliette, -with a patronizing air that at once aroused a teasing mood in Pansy, -and she exclaimed: - -“Then I ought to have had your rooms instead of these, for blue is my -color, too!” - -She saw a frown contract Juliette’s eyebrows, but she took no notice, -and walked over to the mantel, where the first thing she saw was the -handsome face of Norman Wylde smiling on her from an easel frame. It -gave her a start, but she had nerved herself to meet even the original -in this house, and now she merely lifted her arm to take up a piece of -bric-a-brac and examine it more closely, when the hanging sleeve of her -light gray wrap caught the top of the small easel, and it was instantly -hurled to the floor. - -“Oh, what have I broken?” she cried, in pretended dismay. And Juliette -came forward to gather up the fragments. - -“The easel is broken, but the photograph is unhurt. See,” she said, -holding it up before Pansy’s eyes and watching her closely; but Pansy -glanced at it with the careless interest of a stranger. - -“What a handsome young man!” she said. “Is he one of your admirers, -Miss Ives?” - -“I was once engaged to him,” Juliette answered. “I will take it away,” -she added, hurrying out of the room to conceal her chagrin at the -failure of her first test. - -She could not decide whether the accident had been a real one or not. -Pansy had carried it out with such perfect ease that she began to -falter in her belief that this was Pansy Laurens. - -“I may possibly be mistaken, but the likeness is so startling that I -shall test her in every way,” she decided. - -The next morning Pansy appeared at their late breakfast in such an -exquisite and becoming morning gown that Juliette could not repress her -admiration, in spite of the anger with which she saw her uncle’s wife -take her place in front of the coffee urn. - -“I thought you would be too tired to pour coffee this first morning,” -she said, almost angrily. - -“Oh, no, indeed. I feel quite well, thank you,” was the bright reply, -and, as her white hands fluttered like birds over the china and silver, -she continued: “Colonel Falconer, I hope you are going to take me for -a long drive to-day so that I may see some of the beauties of your -historic Richmond.” - -“Just what I was thinking of, my love,” said her husband. “You will -join us, will you not, Juliette?” - -“Gladly,” she replied, thinking that she would thereby have another -opportunity of testing Pansy’s identity. - -After breakfast Pansy invited her to come upstairs, where her maid was -unpacking her trunks, saying that she had brought her some presents -from London. - -“Of course, as I had never seen you, I could not have decided what -would be most becoming to you had not my husband assisted me with a -description of your style and tastes,” she said. And when Juliette saw -the beautiful gifts that had been chosen for her she could not help -being pleased, both with the taste and generosity displayed by Pansy, -whom she thanked quite prettily, saying: - -“I did you an injustice, feeling jealous of uncle’s love for you, when -all the time you were planning these pleasant surprises for me.” - -Pansy hardly knew whether to trust these sweet protestations or not. -She would have liked to be at peace with Juliette Ives, but she could -not help distrusting her, and she resolved to watch her closely before -she quite discarded her distrust. - -Juliette lay lazily back in a great crimson chair and watched Phebe, -the maid, unpacking Pansy’s beautiful clothes. She was obliged to own -that she had never seen such a magnificent trousseau as that with which -Colonel Falconer had provided his lovely bride. - -“You are a woman to be envied, Mrs. Falconer,” she said; and Pansy -sighed faintly, although Juliette could not have told whether the sigh -meant supreme content or some hidden sorrow. - -“She does not look as if she had always been really happy. There are -pensive curves about her lips when she is not smiling, and now and then -her eyes look anxious,” the girl decided. - -In the afternoon an elegant open barouche took the three out riding, -and Colonel Falconer felt very proud of his beautiful wife and almost -equally beautiful niece, in their carriage costumes. - -It was a lovely May day, and the city presented its best appearance -under a blue, smiling sky, which every Virginian believed as fair as -that of Italy. They rode out upon the popular Grove Road, then the -most fashionable drive in the city, and to that beautiful place, the -New Reservoir, with its bright waters glittering in the sun. Pansy -exclaimed with delight at the miniature lake, with the water lilies -fringing the green banks, and the little boats rocking on its breast. - -Then the beautiful cemetery of Hollywood, with its magnificent monument -to the Confederate dead, was the next point of interest. Colonel -Falconer then gave the command to drive through the principal parks and -streets. - -“Do not forget Seventh Street,” Juliette whispered to the driver, and -when they were rolling along before an immense structure on that street -she said: “That building, Mrs. Falconer, is the great tobacco factory -of Arnell & Grey. They employ an immense number of girls and women to -work for them--twelve hundred at least, I am told. Would you not like -to go through the factory? I presume it would furnish some interesting -sights to one unfamiliar with our Southern institutions.” - -“I dare say it would, but unfortunately the smell of tobacco always -makes me very ill. Colonel Falconer, cannot we drive faster, so as to -escape this unpleasant odor?” exclaimed Pansy. He saw that her face had -certainly grown very pale, while her eyes were half closed. He directed -the driver to hasten out of the neighborhood. - -“I am sorry it sickened you, but the odor was strong,” said Juliette. -“I do not know how those poor girls endure it. Their very clothing must -be impregnated with the disagreeable odor. But perhaps they do not mind -it like you and I, Mrs. Falconer--useless, fine ladies that we are.” - -Mrs. Falconer’s blue eyes flashed, and the color rushed back into her -pale cheeks. She answered, with a flash of girlish spirit: - -“You and I, Miss Ives, are made of the same clay as those factory -girls. We are more fortunate, that is all.” - -“Goodness, Uncle Falconer, I hope your wife isn’t a socialist!” -exclaimed Juliette, shrugging her shoulders. - -He frowned, and answered: - -“My wife is an angel, Juliette, and has the kindest, tenderest heart -in the world. I’m glad to hear her speak up for our Richmond working -girls. I have the greatest respect for them all, as well as sympathy -for the poverty that makes their lot in life so hard. I know also that -many of them are from good families that were reduced to poverty by the -late war.” - -Juliette turned her back on him impatiently, and addressed herself to -Pansy: - -“You remember how foolishly I behaved last night, taking you for a girl -that disgraced her family and drowned herself three years ago?” - -“Yes,” Pansy answered coldly. - -“Well, she was a tobacco-factory girl, and worked at Arnell & Grey’s. -Her name was Pansy Laurens--similarity in names, as well as faces, -you see. Your name is Pansy, too, isn’t it? She was a low, designing -creature, and, by her boldness, caused a rupture between my betrothed -and myself, over which he grieves to this day.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. A POISONED LIFE. - - -Bravely as Pansy carried off everything, she began to fear that her -life with Juliette Ives would never be one of friendship or peace, for -the girl seemed to bristle at all points with poisoned arrows for her -uncle’s wife. - -Not that Juliette was outwardly repellent. She had false, sweet smiles -in plenty for Pansy; but she had also the sharpest claws beneath her -silky fur. She lost no opportunity of wounding, when she could do so -with impunity. - -A week passed away, and several of the best families in the city had -called upon Colonel Falconer and his wife. None saw her but to praise -her wonderful beauty and her graceful ease of manner; although they had -gathered from Juliette that her origin was obscure, they decided that -she must certainly have been used to good society, and they made due -allowance when Juliette sneered for her disappointment in losing her -uncle’s money. - -But the supreme trial of all had not fallen on her yet. Norman Wylde -had not called, although Juliette had given several intimations that he -would do so soon. Sometimes Pansy resolved that she would not see him, -but then that course would be sure to excite remark. The meeting must -take place some time, and she made up her mind at last that she would -face it without a falter. - -“I despise him, but I will treat him with the same courtesy that I do -others, that none may suspect what lies hidden beneath the surface,” -she thought. - -She had been home something more than a week when Colonel Falconer told -her one morning, with a tender caress, that he should have to leave her -to her own devices, or to Juliette’s society, all day, as he would have -to spend some hours with his lawyers, settling up his sister’s affairs. - -“I have a new book. I will interest myself in that,” she replied, -returning his kiss in her gentle, affectionate way. - -He went away, and, lest Juliette should think her unsociable, she took -her book into the parlor. It was a warm day, and she wore a lovely -morning dress, all white embroidery and lace, with fluttering loops -of blue ribbons. Her lovely dark hair was drawn into a loose coil on -top of her head, and some curling locks strayed prettily over her white -forehead. - -“How pretty you are in that white wrapper, Mrs. Falconer. I do not see -how such a plain old fellow as my uncle ever induced a beautiful young -girl like you to marry him. But, then, these rich old fellows can marry -any one they choose!” exclaimed Juliette. - -“I do not consider Colonel Falconer old,” Pansy answered resentfully, -but further words were prevented by the loud ringing of the doorbell. - -Juliette sat upright, with a gleam of expectancy in her pale-blue eyes, -and the next moment a servant appeared at the door, saying that a man -wished to see Mrs. Falconer a few moments. - -“Show him in here. It is no doubt some message from uncle,” quickly -exclaimed Juliette. - -Instantly there darted into Pansy’s mind a quick suspicion: - -“She has laid another trap for me.” - -And she braced herself to bear anything unflinchingly. - -The door opened again, and Mr. Finley, the grocer, her hated -stepfather, entered the room. - -Pansy grew pale, but, still holding her book, she arose in a stately -way, fixing on the intruder a cold glance of inquiry. - -Mr. Finley, coming in from the outer daylight into the semigloom of the -parlor, did not at first see very clearly. He bowed profoundly to both -ladies, in an awkward way, and began to speak briskly: - -“Mrs. Falconer, I am a grocer, and enjoyed the custom and confidence -of the late Mrs. Ives. I have called to solicit----” He stopped and -stared. The beautiful face looking at him struck him with fear and -terror. - -He made a retrograde movement toward the door, keeping his bewildered -eyes on her face, and then he caught a glance from Juliette’s eyes that -suddenly loosened his tongue. - -He stopped short, exclaiming: - -“Heavens, I can’t be mistaken! It--is--she! Mrs. Falconer, excuse me, -please, but are you not my missing stepdaughter, Pansy Laurens?” - -A gay little laugh trilled over Pansy’s lips as she blandly assured him -that she had never seen him before in her life, that her maiden name -was Miss Wilcox, and that she was a native of Louisville. - -“This is the second time I’ve been told of my likeness to Pansy -Laurens. It is a coincidence, nothing more. Such things often happen,” -she observed carelessly. “By the way, you called to solicit custom for -your business, I believe. You may leave your card, and I will refer it -to my husband.” - -Thus coolly dismissed, and quite ignoring the request for his card, Mr. -Finley stumbled out, with a fixed conviction in his mind that Pansy -Laurens had never been drowned at all, but had married this rich man -and come back to triumph over them all. - -He understood now why Juliette had sent him that little note, saying -that her uncle’s wife would be glad to have him call, as she wished to -make arrangements with him about supplying the family groceries. - -“She recognized her, and wished for me to do so, unaided by any hint -from her,” he thought and wondered: “What ought I to do about it? -I hope I shall see Miss Ives soon, for this discovery places a mine -of gold in my reach, and I must speedily find out in what way I am -to make the most of it. Miss Ives is poor now, and Norman Wylde is -comparatively so, as he will have no money until his father dies. I do -not know which I should blackmail--Falconer or his wife.” - - - - -CHAPTER XX. AN EVENING OF SUSPENSE. - - -When Pansy went to dress for dinner she was so particular that the maid -smiled, and thought: - -“Her husband has been gone all day, and she wishes to look her best -this evening.” - -But Pansy, looking for Norman Wylde’s appearance every hour, was -anxious to appear as beautiful as possible in the eyes of the man who -had wronged her so deeply. - -A lovely dress of cream-colored mull and Valenciennes lace was donned. -The sleeves were short, and the bodice was a low V neck. She wore no -ornaments, except a diamond locket on the black velvet band at her -throat and a bunch of creamy-white roses at her slender waist. Thus -attired, she was so dazzlingly lovely when she descended to the parlor -that Juliette fairly hated her, and could scarcely keep from saying so. - -Colonel Falconer came in presently, with his kind, intelligent face -and fine military bearing, and was charmed with the beauty of the two -girls, for Juliette looked her best in a dress of black net with pearl -jewelry. - -“It is a pity for so much loveliness to be wasted on an old fellow like -me. I hope we shall have some callers after dinner,” he said gayly. - -After dinner he begged Juliette to give them some music, but, with a -malicious glance at Pansy, she exclaimed: - -“I do not like to touch the piano, as I am sure your wife plays ever so -much better than I do.” - -Pansy smiled, and answered coolly: - -“Then your musical attainments must be very superficial, indeed, Miss -Ives, for I only know enough of music to play my own accompaniments to -a few songs.” - -“Then you will give us a song, won’t you, and I will play afterward?” -cried artful Juliette, thinking that here, at least, she could outshine -her uncle’s wife. - -“Certainly,” Pansy answered carelessly, and moved toward the piano, -secure in her consciousness of an exquisitely sweet voice, which had -had careful culture when she was a simple schoolgirl, before her father -died. - -Colonel Falconer leaned against the piano, with his back to the door, -and Juliette began to turn over the piles of music. - -“Don’t trouble yourself. I will sing some little thing from memory,” -said Pansy. - -Juliette flung herself into an easy-chair and listened with a sneer, -saying to herself: - -“I would not try to play if I knew nothing but a few accompaniments.” - -But when that low, sweet, thrilling voice broke the silence, she -started in wonder and delight, for she was intensely fond of music, and -Pansy’s touch and voice were both exquisite. - -No one noticed that the door had opened to admit visitors, who paused -uncertainly on the threshold, to listen, too, for all were absorbed in -the singer. - -At last the white hands dropped from the piano keys, the thrilling -voice became silent. Touched in spite of herself, Juliette said softly: - -“Oh, how sweet and sad! You have brought tears to my eyes, Mrs. -Falconer.” - -Before Pansy could reply, all three became aware that visitors were -advancing into the room. - -“Oh, Mrs. Wylde, I am so glad to see you--and you, too, Rosalind. Oh, -Judge Wylde, it was so kind of you and Norman to come!” rattled quickly -from Juliette’s lips, as she hastened to welcome the newcomers. - -Colonel Falconer also greeted the visitors as if they were old friends, -and hastened to present his wife. - -She, the poor little factory girl whom they had scorned, stood by her -husband’s side like a queen, and greeted his friends with a calm and -stately dignity that made a profound impression. She glanced only -slightly at Norman Wylde, or she would have seen that he was terribly -agitated. When their hands touched each other both were cold as ice. - -When all were seated, Pansy saw that he had retreated to a distant -corner, and, as the conversation proceeded, he took little or no part -in it. He was almost stricken speechless by her marvelous likeness -to one he had loved and lost, and, but for the interval for thought -afforded him while she was singing, he could not have preserved his -calmness; he must have spoken out on the spur of the moment, and -claimed her, as Mr. Finley had done, as Pansy Laurens. - -When he had first beheld the beautiful face in profile from the door -his senses had almost reeled; but before her song ceased he had -persuaded himself that he was mistaken in thinking her the counterpart -of Pansy. She was more beautiful, more distinguished-looking. Pansy -had been very shy and bashful, but this girl held her small head high. -There was a likeness--a great one--but nothing more. One was the -wayside rose, the other the cultivated flower. - -From his distant seat he watched the lovely face and form with a -throbbing heart. How the rich, creamy-hued robe and diamond locket set -off the flowerlike face, with its background of dark, rippling hair. -The beautiful white hands played with some rose petals she had plucked -from her belt, and he noticed how small they were, with pink palms and -finger tips, dimpled at the joint, like a child’s. Pansy had had just -such dainty hands, although she was only a working girl. - -“I wish I had not come,” he thought, with bitter pain. “Mrs. Falconer’s -face has brought everything back. Oh, how am I to bear it? Does -Juliette see the likeness, I wonder? Surely not, or else she could -scarcely endure to be haunted so by the image of one she hated.” - -Pansy, on her part, felt a bitter triumph in seeing that he took such -slight notice of Juliette. Surely he did not care for her, else his -eyes would have wandered to her face sometimes, for it was plain to be -seen that she worshiped him. - -“He does not care for her,” Pansy said to herself, as she saw how -carelessly he answered the remarks Juliette addressed to him. “He has a -fickle heart.” - -And she gazed with silent admiration at her noble husband, who loved -her so devotedly, and who had not been too proud to marry a simple -working girl and lift her to his own station in life. Although she did -not love him in a romantic fashion, she admired his noble, manly nature -more and more daily. - -And she found a bitter satisfaction in seeing that her betrayer did not -look so gay and debonair as in the past. He was certainly altered; his -face was pale and grave, his eyes were sad and serious. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. A RETURN CALL. - - -Something more than a week after the Wyldes had called upon the -Falconers, Juliette suggested, one day, that it was time that they -should return the call. - -“You and Pansy can do so this afternoon,” Colonel Falconer replied. “As -for me, I cannot spare a day from those lawyers until I get through my -business, for I am hurrying all I can, that I may take my family away -from the city before the heated term sets in.” - -“Then we will call to-day, and we can then find out where they intend -to summer, for I should like to go to the same place,” exclaimed -Juliette. - -So at noon that day they found themselves ringing the doorbell at a -residence on Grace Street, quite as elegant as the one they had left. -They were shown into an elegant and tasteful drawing-room, and told -that the ladies would be down directly. - -Pansy sat silent, with her eyes fixed on the door, when suddenly it was -pushed ajar by a dimpled little hand, and the figure of a child became -partly visible--a beautiful child, of perhaps three years old. The -little fellow was simply clothed, in a white Mother Hubbard slip, and -his big, dark eyes looked fearlessly at the two ladies. - -Pansy’s heart thrilled strangely at sight of the child, for there was -something in his face that suggested Norman Wylde. Holding out her -hands, she cried coaxingly: - -“Come here, you pretty little darling!” - -The child hesitated a moment, then pattered lightly across the carpet -with his little bare feet to her side. She placed him on her knee, and, -clasping him in her arms, kissed the pretty, rosy face repeatedly. - -“What is your name, dear?” she asked. - -“Pet!” he replied, while Juliette looked on coldly. - -Apparently the child quite reciprocated the fancy Mrs. Falconer had -shown for him. While she smoothed his sunny curls with loving hands, he -patted her cheek tenderly, and cooed: - -“Pretty yady, pretty yady!” - -Suddenly the door unclosed, admitting Mrs. Wylde, the stately matron, -and her handsome daughter, Rosalind. They frowned at sight of the -pretty child, and, after exchanging greetings with their guests, -Rosalind exclaimed sharply: - -“What are you doing here, Pet? Get down this instant, and go away.” - -But, to her astonishment, the little one clung to Pansy, and cried out -rebelliously: - -“No, no, me stay ’ith pretty yady!” - -“The little monkey! He never offered to disobey me before,” exclaimed -Rosalind, frowning, and she removed him by force from Pansy’s lap, for -he screamed and struggled to stay. - -“Oh, please let me keep him. I love children!” exclaimed Pansy -pleadingly; but just here Mrs. Wylde chimed in: - -“You do not quite understand, Mrs. Falconer. The child belongs to my -housekeeper, who adopted him in infancy. She has her orders to keep -him in her own part of the house, but occasionally he slips away and -intrudes upon us, although this is the first time he has ever ventured -into the drawing-room.” - -“It was my fault. I called him in when I saw him peeping in at the -door. He was such a lovely little child, and I thought he belonged -to you,” said Pansy, as her yearning eyes followed Rosalind, who was -leading the sobbing child from the room. - -“He is a very pretty child, and usually a very good-tempered, -affectionate one,” Mrs. Wylde acknowledged. “This is the first time -I ever saw him display any temper. Indeed, I have felt myself on the -verge of falling in love with the little creature often, only I would -not allow myself to do so, being convinced that he must be a child of -shame.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. A BEAUTIFUL CHILD. - - -“A child of shame!” Pansy echoed, and a wave of hot color rushed over -her face as she remembered the little child that had died before its -young mother ever saw its face. - -“Yes,” answered the stately lady, rather coldly. “He is a foundling, -and was left on our steps almost three years ago. We would have sent it -to the almshouse, but our old housekeeper, who has been with us so many -years that we like to indulge her some, took a fancy to the little one, -and begged to keep it.” - -“It is a beautiful little child. I could not help falling in love with -it,” said Pansy earnestly, while Juliette sneered: - -“It is a pity you have not a child of your own to love!” - -“I wish I had,” Pansy answered. “I am very fond of children.” And she -wished within herself that she could have little Pet to carry home with -her, for a wild suspicion was growing up in her heart: What if this -were her own child? - -Her mother had told her that her child had died, but perhaps she had -deceived her. Perhaps Mr. Finley, whom she had always disliked and -distrusted, had taken the child away and forced her mother to utter -that falsehood. What more natural than that he should have placed it on -the threshold of the Wylde mansion? - -Wild suspicion grew almost into agonized certainty as she recalled the -startling likeness of the child to Norman Wylde. - -“Is it possible that his family can fail to see the likeness in his -face?” she wondered, and, while she held with difficulty her part in -the conversation going forward over the merits of different summer -resorts, she was thinking wildly: - -“I do not believe now that my baby died. This child, with Norman’s -eyes, belongs to me. My heart claimed him the moment he appeared at the -door. And he was fond of me, too. He struggled so hard to get back to -me when Rosalind forced him away. Oh, I must manage somehow to see that -old housekeeper soon, and find out all that I can about little Pet.” - -“I think I shall go to White Sulphur Springs,” said Mrs. Wylde. “Have -you decided where you shall go, Mrs. Falconer?” - -“No, I cannot come to a decision, so I shall leave it to my husband,” -replied Pansy. - -“Oh, then you must go to White Sulphur! It is charming there,” cried -Juliette, who wanted to go wherever the Wyldes went. - -“One place will please me quite as well as another,” Pansy replied -indifferently; and when they took their leave it was quite understood -that the Wyldes and the Falconers were to form a party for the springs -as soon as possible. - -“But,” said dark-eyed Rosalind to her mother, “Juliette is going to be -disappointed, for, of course, she thinks Norman is going with us.” - -“Norman must go. It is quite foolish, his being so stiff with us, and -resenting things that were only done for his good,” Mrs. Wylde replied, -in a displeased tone. - -When Pansy and Juliette were riding home, the latter observed: - -“Mrs. Falconer, did you notice what a strong resemblance that foundling -child had to Norman Wylde?” - -Pansy looked at her with a startled air, and answered: - -“You know I’ve only seen Norman Wylde once, and can’t really recall his -features exactly. Does the child really resemble him? And, if so, what -does it mean?” - -“Norman Wylde has lived a very fast life, you know,” Juliette -answered. “I have long suspected that the child is his own, flung -upon his doorstep in desperation by some one of his victims. Perhaps -he suspects, perhaps he does not--but I feel almost certain of its -parentage.” - -“And the family?” Pansy asked faintly. - -“I do not believe they suspect anything. If they did, they would not -permit it to be kept beneath their roof. They would be perfectly -furious,” replied Juliette, with an air of certainty, and watching -Pansy closely for some signs of emotion. - -But the beautiful girl seemed to grow suddenly weary of the subject, -for she said: - -“I wonder if my trousseau will do for the White Sulphur, or if I ought -to order anything new?” - -“You will not need a new thing, nor shall I, as I am in mourning, and -cannot dance this season,” replied Juliette. - -As their carriage rolled along Grace Street, they saw Norman Wylde -among the pedestrians on the pavement. He lifted his hat, and passed on -without stopping, to the chagrin of Juliette, who hoped he would stop -and chat with her a while. - -Her conscience did not reproach her for the falsehoods she had uttered -against his fair fame, although she knew that there was not a purer, -more high-minded young man in the whole city. But while she was still -uncertain as to the identity of her uncle’s wife, it suited her best -to pretend that Norman Wylde was dissolute and guilty. Although she -suspected that little Pet was the child of Pansy Laurens, she was not -certain, and she did not wish Mrs. Falconer to believe it. - -“She will, if she is really Pansy Laurens, hate him more if she -believes that the child is some other woman’s,” she thought shrewdly, -and smiled when she saw the signs of trouble that Pansy could not -wholly disguise on her fair face. - -Poor Pansy! Her heart was well-nigh breaking, and when she reached -home she feigned a headache, that she might have an excuse for shutting -herself up in her own room to think over the events of to-day, which -had aroused suspicions never to be laid again until they were either -confirmed or proved baseless. The dark eyes of the little child had -aroused the mother’s heart within her breast, and it ached with a -bitter yearning. - -“Oh, if my baby did not die, they were cruel and wicked to deceive me, -to cheat me out of its love all these years! But only let me find out -if that child is mine, and I will have it--I will!” she sobbed wildly, -in a mood of passionate recklessness. - -But suddenly she heard her husband’s voice in the hall, and shivered. - -“Oh, what am I talking of? How dare I claim my child in the face of -everything that is against me?” she moaned bitterly; and just then -Colonel Falconer entered, with a face full of anxiety. - -“They told me you had a headache. Can I do anything for you, my -darling?” he asked tenderly. - -“Only love me and pity me,” the girl answered, almost despairingly, out -of her hidden sorrow. - -He was alarmed at her tone, and feared she was suffering greatly. - -“Let me send for a physician,” he urged. - -“No, no, I do not need medicine--only rest and quiet,” she pleaded, -with a feeling of remorse in her heart that she could not love him -better--he was so good and true. - -But since she had come back to Richmond, she was conscious that there -was less chance than ever for her to love her husband in the ardent -fashion to which he had the best claim. Her affection for him was so -calm, so friendly, only, while, to her dismay, all her old madness had -returned at the first sight of Norman Wylde’s handsome face. - -“Oh what a tyrant love is!” she sighed bitterly. “I thought I hated -him--I know I ought to hate him--yet his face haunts me as it did in -those old days when I loved him first. I dream of him by night, and I -think of him by day, in spite of every endeavor to forget him. Heaven -help me, for I am wretched!” - -Days passed, and Pansy found some relief from the haunting image of -Norman Wylde in thinking of the little child that she firmly believed -to be her own. She struck up a great intimacy with the Wyldes in hopes -of seeing the little one more frequently; but she was disappointed. - -Apparently the housekeeper had received strict orders, for Pet’s black -eyes were no longer to be seen laughing around the drawing-room door, -nor his footsteps heard pattering through the halls. There was a sunny -plot of grass in the back yard where he played all day now, except when -he was in that part of the house allotted to the housekeeper. - -But he had never forgotten the “pretty yady,” and he often asked Mrs. -Meade, the housekeeper, about her, prattling so sweetly that the good -old woman grew quite curious, and at last asked Mrs. Wylde about Mrs. -Falconer. - -“Yes, she is very beautiful--the most beautiful woman I ever saw,” Mrs. -Wylde admitted. “She took quite a fancy to Pet, and admitted she was -fond of children.” - -“He is always talking about her. I never knew him so fond of any one -before,” said Mrs. Meade. “Did you say she came from California, ma’am?” - -“Colonel Falconer married her in California, but she is a native of -Kentucky, and was never in Richmond until now,” was the reply, which, -if Mrs. Meade had harbored any suspicion, at once dissipated. - -Still she cherished a desire to see the woman who had been so kind to -her little adopted child as to win its warm little heart. - -“I’d like to thank her for noticing the poor, forsaken little lamb,” -she said to herself. “No one ever shows it any kindness, except Mr. -Norman, and Heaven knows he ought to love it, for I firmly believe he -is the father, though whether he suspects it or not, I can’t tell. -Anyway, he’s fond of it, and kind to it.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. A DARING MOVE. - - -Fate helped Mrs. Meade to the accomplishment of her wish. - -One day all the negro servants had leave of absence to attend a meeting -of some society very popular with all of their race, and there was no -one left to answer the doorbell but the housekeeper. - -In the afternoon Mrs. Wylde and Rosalind went out to do some shopping, -and Mrs. Meade seated herself with Pet in the wide, cool hall, that she -might be within hearing of the bell. - -“Ain’t you doin’ to take me on the Capitol Square dis even’?” queried -Pet. - -“No, my precious, I can’t take you out to-day,” answered the kind old -woman, putting down her knitting to caress the beautiful boy, whose -sunny curls and bright black eyes were so dear to her heart. - -“Den I wish dat pretty yady would tum adin,” exclaimed the child, -looking longingly at the front door. - -At that moment there came a hurried, nervous peal at the doorbell. - -Mrs. Falconer had been driving out alone when she saw Mrs. Wylde and -her daughter entering a store on Broad Street, and she almost instantly -left her carriage and directed the driver to wait for her, as she -desired to do some shopping. - -Entering the same store, she bought a box of handkerchiefs, then, -slipping out quietly, she made her way on foot to Grace Street, -scarcely knowing what she meant to do, but thrilled by a wild longing -to see once more the lovely child that she believed was her own. - -In the absence of the family, she believed that little Pet might -perhaps be permitted the freedom of the house. She might make some -pretext for entering the house and awaiting Mrs. Wylde’s return. Thus -she might catch a glimpse of the little one whose charms had won her -heart. - -She rang the bell with a trembling hand, and, to her joy and amazement, -the first thing she saw when the door opened was little Pet, clinging -to the dress of the white-haired, kindly looking old woman who invited -her in. - -“Pretty yady! pretty yady!” screamed the child, and those words -acquainted Mrs. Meade with the fact that Mrs. Falconer stood before her. - -“Will you walk in, ma’am? The ladies are out shopping, but they may -come in at any minute,” she exclaimed eagerly, anxious that little Pet -should have a few minutes at least with the woman he loved so dearly. - -Mrs. Falconer trailed her soft summer silk through the doorway, and -held out her hands to the eager child. - -“Well, I will rest a few minutes, anyhow, as I walked from Broad Street -and feel quite tired,” she exclaimed, adding gayly: “Oh, how cool and -nice it is here in the hall. I will not go into the parlor, please.” - -She sank down upon the broad antique sofa, and little Pet, as clean and -sweet as a rosebud, in his little white dress and slippers, climbed -into her lap and clasped his chubby arms about her neck. Mrs. Meade -closed and locked the door, and began to expostulate with him. - -“Oh, please don’t scold him! Let him stay with me. I love children so -dearly!” exclaimed Pansy, pressing the child to her heart and kissing -him many times. - -Then she looked up a little apprehensively at the old woman, asking -timidly: - -“Are you--his--mother?” - -“No, madam; he’s my adopted child. He was left at this door almost -three years ago, and I begged the family to let me keep the poor little -forsaken baby for my own. I’m only the housekeeper, ma’am, and the -child’s company for me,” explained Mrs. Meade, looking curiously into -the beautiful, agitated face before her and wondering if Mrs. Falconer -could possibly know anything of the child’s parentage, for the tender -interest she took in him seemed very strange. - -“Can you remember what month it was when the child was left here?” -queried Pansy eagerly. - -“It was on the night of the twenty-eighth of May, ma’am, and I feel -sure it wasn’t more than an hour old--a poor little deserted newborn -baby,” said Mrs. Meade, and Pansy sternly repressed a cry of joy as she -hid her startled face in the boy’s plump neck, pretending to bite him, -that she might hear his vociferous baby laughter. - -“He is mine! It is just as I thought. I was deceived by my mother, and -my child stolen from me. Oh, what am I to do, for I feel that I cannot -live without him?” she thought wildly. - -The little one clung to her, showering her face with kisses, and -filling Mrs. Meade with wonder, for he was usually very shy of -strangers. - -“Would you like to see the clothes he wore when he came here?” she -asked, and went away, returning presently with a bundle, which she -unrolled before Pansy’s eyes. - -“See this little linen shirt and gown, so neatly trimmed with crochet -edging, and this fine soft flannel petticoat,” she said; and Pansy -almost fainted when she saw the selfsame baby garments on which she had -worked, in silence and secrecy, so many nights when she was at home, a -wretched creature, looking forward with dread to her baby’s coming. - -She wound her arms about the child, and said faintly: - -“You ought to take good care of these things, for by their aid you -might be enabled to trace the child’s mother some time.” - -But she flushed deeply when Mrs. Meade answered: - -“I mean to take care of them, but I don’t know as I care to trace the -mother. She must be a hard-hearted creature, to abandon her baby like -she did.” - -“Oh, don’t judge her so hardly, please. Perhaps--perhaps--it was -not her fault. They might have taken it from her,” exclaimed Pansy -pleadingly, then paused in dismay, for, by the sudden lighting up of -Mrs. Meade’s face, she saw that she had made a mistake in speaking so -impulsively. Anxious to remove any suspicion from the woman’s mind, -she went on apologetically: “Of course, the mother might have been -hard-hearted. There are plenty such women, but it does seem strange -that any one could desert such a beautiful child as this one.” - -“He is beautiful, and as good and sweet as he is pretty,” said Mrs. -Meade warmly, and Pansy exclaimed, almost passionately: - -“I wish he had been left at my door! I would certainly have adopted him -for my own. I love him dearly.” - -“I ’ove oo!” cried little Pet, gazing into her beautiful face with -shining eyes, and she strained him close to her heart again, exclaiming: - -“Oh, you sweet little darling!” - -Mrs. Meade gazed on the pretty scene with wonder and suspicion, asking -herself why Mrs. Falconer and the child were so strongly attached to -each other. She knew that Norman Wylde had been in trouble several -years before on account of a pretty factory girl, who was reported to -have drowned herself, but she had never heard that there was a child -in the case. She wondered now if that unfortunate girl had looked like -Mrs. Falconer. - -“I mean to find out,” she resolved, just as Pansy looked up and asked -pleadingly: - -“Won’t you give me this child if my husband will allow me to adopt him? -I will be like a mother to him, educate him, bring him up to a noble -manhood, if he lives.” - -“Would you like to go with the lady, and leave your poor old Meade, -my pet?” exclaimed the housekeeper, and the little one murmured a -delighted affirmative. - -“You see!” cried Pansy triumphantly. “Now, may I have him?” - -Mrs. Meade shook her head. - -“Colonel Falconer would never permit you to have him,” she said. - -“My husband has never refused a request of mine in our whole -acquaintance,” cried Pansy impatiently. - -“But he would refuse this,” said Mrs. Meade. “You will have some -children of your own some time, Mrs. Falconer, then this poor little -one would be thrust aside. No, no--I could not part with him, even to -one who likes him as much as you do, dear lady.” - -Pansy gazed at her with a grieved and baffled air. Her red under lip -quivered and tears started to her beautiful eyes. For a moment she -could not speak, so bitter was her disappointment; and Mrs. Meade -folded up the tiny garments in an embarrassed fashion, ashamed of -refusing the lady’s request, but feeling that she was acting for the -best. - -Suddenly a bright thought came to Pansy. - -“Mrs. Meade, I see that you love Pet too well to give him up,” she -said gently. “I don’t blame you, for I love him dearly myself. But -couldn’t you come and be my housekeeper? Then I could see him every -day.” - -Mrs. Meade threw up her hands in dismay. - -“Leave the Wyldes!” she cried. “Oh, my dear young lady, I’ve kept house -for them these twenty-five years, and to leave them now would be like -pulling up an old tree by the roots. I’m too old to be transplanted. I -should die.” - -Pansy clasped the child close to her aching heart with a cry of despair -that she could not repress. - -“Oh, my little darling, my little darling, I shall see you no more, -then! Fate is too strong for us,” she cried. - -Mrs. Meade took off her spectacles and wiped the moisture of tears from -them. She was deeply touched by Pansy’s affection for Pet, and, after a -moment, she said significantly: - -“Mrs. Falconer, I’m sorry to seem harsh and unkind, refusing to give -you the child, but I know you will forget it directly. While, as for -me, my heart is bound up in him, and I’ve always said that I’d never -give up my claim, except to some one who had a better right to him -than I have.” - -Pansy glanced up, startled, and met the significant gaze of the kind -old eyes. She understood. - -With a burning blush, she put the little one out of her arms and rose -to go. - -“Then, of course, I can urge you no longer. Your claim is too -strong,” she said, trying to speak coldly, as a mask for her bitter -disappointment. - -“As for not seeing Pet any more, Mrs. Falconer, if you care about it I -can make it easy enough for you to see him. I take him to the Capitol -Square every pleasant afternoon,” said Mrs. Meade; and then she asked -eagerly; “Won’t you come in the parlor and play the piano for Pet? He -loves music so dearly.” - -“I ought to go this minute,” she said, but yielded to the tiny, -persuasive little fingers that clasped hers, and stayed almost an hour -longer, playing and singing for the delighted little one. - -When she took leave she slipped a golden coin in the baby fingers. - -“To buy candy,” she said, kissing him fondly, and promising to come to -the Capitol Square the next afternoon to see him. Then she tore herself -away, and Mrs. Meade had hard work to console Pet, who wept bitterly at -the parting. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. OLD LOVERS FACE TO FACE. - - -How strange it seemed to Pansy to be going again, after the lapse of -more than three years, to the Capitol Square to meet one whom she -loved, but whom she must see in secret because a cruel fate kept them -sundered in life, but one in heart. Then it was the father--now it was -the child. - -While she was wondering how she was to get away from the lynx eyes of -her husband’s niece, Juliette came in to say that she would like to -have the phaëton for her own use that afternoon, if Mrs. Falconer was -not going out. - -“One of my dearest friends, Miss Norwood, is just home from a long -visit in New York, and I would like so much to take her for a drive,” -she said. - -“Pray do so. I shall not need the phaëton this afternoon,” Pansy -answered eagerly. - -“You are not going out yourself?” Juliette asked. - -“I don’t know. Should I do so, it will only be for a short walk.” - -Juliette thanked her and hastened away. - -“Colonel Falconer is busy with his lawyer, Juliette away, and the field -clear. I will go and see my child,” she thought gladly. - -It was July, and the day was warm and sultry. Pansy dressed herself -simply, in a plain white dress and leghorn hat, and, taking a large -sun-shade in her hand, started for the Capitol Square. - -Her heart throbbed painfully as she walked slowly along the old -familiar streets, thinking of those past days, so full of love and pain. - -It was only four o’clock when she reached the square, and the nurses -and children were just beginning to come in. She looked everywhere, but -there was no sign of Mrs. Meade and little Pet. - -“I am too early. I must sit down in some quiet, secluded spot and -wait,” she thought, and sought a shady seat on the slope of the hill -back of the Capitol building. - -“It was here we sat that day when Norman told me he was going to -London,” she murmured sadly, and then she recoiled with a sudden cry: - -“Oh!” - -The quiet bench she sought was already occupied, and by Norman Wylde -himself. - -She could scarcely repress a wild and passionate cry of pain and -reproach. As it was, she dared not trust herself, and turned to flee. - -But Norman Wylde had been aroused from a deep abstraction by her low -exclamation of dismay, and, starting up, he confronted her, coming out -of such a mood that he for a moment fancied his lost love had come back -from the other world to comfort his sad heart. A glad cry came from his -lips: - -“Pansy!” - -That name arrested her footsteps. She paused, frightened, moveless. Had -he recognized her? Would he tax her with her identity? - -“Pansy!” he repeated tenderly, and, although she trembled and grew -faint at the passion in his voice, it came to her suddenly that she -must make some defense for herself. She, the honored wife of the proud -Colonel Falconer, must never own herself to be that Pansy Laurens whom -the man before her had deceived and betrayed. She would be brave and -proud for her husband’s sake, as well as for her own. - -Steeling her heart and her nerves as well as she could, she turned -toward him, saying coldly: - -“It is quite true, Mr. Wylde, that my name is Pansy, but as you and I -have never met but once before to-day, it seems to me that I should be -Mrs. Falconer to you.” - -Norman Wylde could only stare for a moment with bewildered eyes at the -lovely speaker, and mutter helplessly: - -“Mrs. Falconer!” - -“Yes,” she replied coldly, and suddenly he struck his hand against his -forehead, exclaiming: - -“I am a fool, a madman! Madam, pardon me. I--I--was mistaken.” Then, -seeing that she lingered, he added, with an imploring gesture: “Will -you not sit down here for one moment and let me explain?” - -She knew quite well that she ought not to stay, but she could not turn -from him. She sank down on the rustic bench and waited with throbbing -pulses for an explanation. What would he say--what could he say? - -He sat down beside her, pale with emotion, but so splendidly handsome -in his cool summer suit and spotless linen that her heart throbbed -madly, and she thought: - -“Oh, my false love! How grandly handsome, how winning you are! It is -no wonder that I lost my heart to you, innocent child that I was! Oh, -would that you had been true and good, as well as fascinating.” - -But no one who saw how coldly and proudly her blue eyes looked at him -would have thought that such passionate thoughts thrilled her heart. He -himself believed that she was bitterly angry, and he hastened to say -deprecatingly: - -“Mrs. Falconer, you are so startlingly like one I used to know that -when you appeared before me I did not remember you as Mrs. Falconer, -and I called you by that name unwittingly. No offense to you was -intended. I did not know that you were called Pansy.” - -“Yes, that is my name. I was Pansy Wilcox when Colonel Falconer -married me. And so you say that I resemble some one you used to know, -Mr. Wylde? How strange!” Pansy said, trying to draw him into some -reminiscences of the past, womanlike, wishing to know whether he -remembered her with love or remorse. - -He sighed heavily, and answered: - -“Yes, you are the image of one I loved and lost. Do you remember the -night I came to your house, Mrs. Falconer? I came very near calling -you Pansy then--I was so startled at the first sight of your face. But -while you were singing I recovered myself so that I could greet you -calmly. It was different just now, for I was thinking of that other -Pansy, and you came upon me so suddenly that I had no time for thought, -and I called you by her name.” - -“It was some one you loved?” Pansy said, in a low, soft voice. - -“Loved!” exclaimed Norman Wylde hoarsely, and his dark eyes seemed to -burn into her soul as he added: “Love is hardly the word. I worshiped, -adored my little Pansy.” - -“Did she die?” asked Pansy gently. - -“Yes, she died,” he replied hoarsely; then, pausing abruptly: “Has not -Juliette Ives told you all about it?” he asked. - -“No.” - -“It is a wonder,” he muttered. - -“You make me quite curious. I think unfortunate love affairs are so sad -and romantic. Was yours unfortunate, Mr. Wylde?” asked Pansy, still -leading him on. - -“It was tragic,” he answered gloomily; and she was glad when she saw he -was suffering some remorse for the ill that he had wrought. Her heart -began to grow softer toward him. - -“He is sorry for his sin. Perhaps he would undo it if he could,” -whispered her heart. - -Norman Wylde lifted his sad, dark eyes and looked at her gravely. Oh, -how strong was the resemblance to his lost love, and how strangely his -heart thrilled at the sound of her voice! No one but Pansy Laurens had -ever made his heart beat faster by a voice of music. - -“I wish you would tell me all about it,” she said persuasively. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. AN OLD STORY. - - -Pansy had quite forgotten why she came to the Capitol Square. She could -think of nothing but Norman Wylde and the sorrow on his handsome face. -She lingered beside him until he consented to tell her the story of his -unhappy love affair. - -“I was engaged to Juliette Ives, but I was not very much in love -with her. I met, in the country, a beautiful young girl named Pansy -Laurens,” he said. “The young lady was not in our set. She was poor, -and worked at Arnell & Grey’s tobacco factory; but she was the fairest, -sweetest, most charming little creature I ever met. We fell in love -at first sight, and I broke my engagement with Juliette for her sake. -But, of course, you think, as every one else did, Mrs. Falconer, that I -acted badly.” - -He stopped and looked searchingly into her pale face. Oh, how like it -was to his lost love’s, only with a proud smile on it that made it a -little different from Pansy’s, that had been so sweet and gentle. - -“I am very much interested; please go on,” she murmured. And, sighing -heavily, Norman Wylde continued: - -“Of course, everybody set themselves against us, Pansy’s relations as -well as mine.” - -Pansy trembled, for the deep, sweet, thrilling voice went to her heart, -which began to beat heavily and painfully. How her thoughts went back -to the past, when he had been her worshiped lover, and she had thought -him true! - -“We met in secret, my sweet little love and I,” continued Norman, “but -we could not see each other very often, because she had to work in the -factory all the week. But on Sundays I saw her at church, and in the -afternoons she would come here, or to Libby Hill Park, always to a -different place, that no one might suspect us. I would have married her -at once, but we should have had nothing to live on, as I had no clients -yet, and my father had threatened to disinherit me if I did not give -her up. But I vowed in secret that I would not do that, and, at last, -fate--as I thought--opened out a way for us to be happy. I found a -client who wished me to go to Europe and manage an important case.” - -“And you went?” she asked, for he paused so long that she feared his -confidences were at an end. - -“Yes, I went,” he answered slowly; then he looked at her gravely, -and said: “You are a stranger, Mrs. Falconer, and there is something -connected with my trip to London that I should not betray, perhaps, for -the sake of my family.” - -“Whatever you tell me will be held sacred,” she said, almost inaudibly, -and the dark eyes looked at her in a sort of wonder. - -“I ought not to betray this to any one but a dear friend,” he said -hesitatingly. “Mrs. Falconer, I wonder if you could like me well enough -to be my friend? It would be very pleasant to me. You look so much like -her that I should find comfort in your friendship.” - -Many and many a time Pansy Laurens had said to herself that Norman -Wylde was the greatest enemy she had on earth. But now she held out her -hand to him, in its soft silken glove, and he took it and pressed it -eagerly. - -“I will be your friend,” she said, wondering if he was going to confess -to her now about the secret marriage that was no marriage, after all. -She was so curious to hear how he would justify that that she did not -hesitate to promise him her friendship. - -But, to her wonder and indignation, he skipped quite over that -important era in his love affair, and went on telling her about his -trip to London: - -“Mrs. Falconer, that tour on which I prided myself was a plot, a trap, -laid by my parents to get me away from Richmond and from Pansy. My -client was a paid tool of my father’s, and his craft followed me to -London, where, for almost a year, I remained, vainly seeking links in -a case that never had existed, save in the fertile brain of those who -invented that pretext for the purpose of luring me away from home and -love. My brain whirls yet when I recall how I was duped and deceived, -my life and hers made pitiable wrecks for the sake of a despicable -pride of birth and position.” - -His agitation was terrible for the moment. His dark eyes blazed, great -drops of perspiration started out on his pallid brow. As for her, she -could not speak; she sat staring at him with parted lips and blue eyes -full of misery. - -“Oh, I ought not to have gone back to that time, for it stirs the -smoldering ashes into fire again,” he cried bitterly. “Think, Mrs. -Falconer, how I suffered all that time, never hearing a word from my -darling, although I wrote to her every week, and she had promised to -write to me. And, at last--oh, Heaven!--there came to me a Richmond -paper, saying that she had drowned herself.” - -“Oh!” sighed Pansy sympathetically, but he did not seem to hear her. -His head drooped, and his eyes sought the ground. He seemed to be -oblivious to all but his own pain. - -For her, she was thinking bitterly: - -“I am glad he is capable of some remorse for his sin. It makes me think -a little more kindly of him.” - -Then she shuddered at herself, for she knew that she was thinking of -him more than kindly--fast falling under the old glamour--and she knew -this must not be, that she ought to fly as from the tempting of a -serpent. She made a motion to rise, but he looked up quickly. - -“Do not go--yet,” he said pleadingly. “Somehow, it is a sad pleasure to -me to see you sitting there, with that face so like poor dead Pansy’s -that it brings back all the perished past.” - -At those words she could not rise. She seemed to have no volition -of her own. She sat still, comparing herself to a bird charmed by a -serpent. - -“Do you know,” he went on, “we sat here on the very bench one Sunday, -just a week before I sailed for England. She wore a white dress and -wide straw hat, something like you wear now. I told her of my good -fortune, but, poor child, a presentiment seemed to come over her gentle -spirit, and she wept most bitterly because I was going away.” - -“He will tell me now of that most shameful marriage,” Pansy thought; -but again she was mistaken. - -“Poor little darling! No wonder she felt so gloomy, for our parting -was the knell of her fate,” said Norman Wylde. “I feel quite sure that -by some underhand means our letters to each other were suppressed, for -not a line ever came to me, though I shall never doubt that she wrote -often, and I feel quite certain that it was the agony of suspense and -hope deferred that drove her to suicide.” - -“You came home, then, did you not?” she asked. - -“No; for I could not have borne to return and find her gone. What was -there to come back to, Mrs. Falconer? Not even a grave, for her body -was never recovered from the river.” - -He raised his downcast eyes and looked into her face with such a -searching expression that she trembled lest he was going to tax her -with her identity. - -But he did not do so. He only said: - -“I was too miserable and distracted to come home then. Besides, I had -not yet discovered the fraud that had been perpetrated on me. I stayed -in London almost a year longer, vainly prosecuting my search for the -missing links in my client’s case, and then, by accident, I found out -how I had been deceived. I came home at once then, and taxed my parents -with the truth. They acknowledged the deception, but claimed that it -had been done for my good, and begged my pardon. I would not forgive -them, yet, for the sake of family pride, I kept secret their perfidy, -and you are the first one to whom it has been revealed.” - -“Oh, what a sad, what a miserable ending for so sweet a love story! It -seems a pity you did not marry the girl and take her away with you!” -cried Pansy. - -“I wish that I had done so, for then I might have been happy, instead -of the most miserable and remorseful man in the whole world,” groaned -Norman Wylde; and she wondered how much of this was acting and how much -reality. - -“Perhaps he loved me better than he knew, and repented when too late -the miserable betrayal that wrecked my life,” she thought, softening -more and more toward him whom she knew she ought to hate. - -But before either one could utter another word, the prattling voice of -a little child was heard, and Pansy looked up and saw Mrs. Meade and -little Pet coming along the path toward where she sat. - -Pet caught sight of the two sitting there together, and ran forward -with a cry of delight. - -“Pretty yady, pretty yady!” he cried joyously, and climbed into Pansy’s -lap and kissed her. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. THE ENEMY AT WORK. - - -Norman Wylde seemed almost petrified with amazement at the scene before -him. He gazed in wonder at Pansy and the child, and from them to Mrs. -Meade. - -The old housekeeper, on her part, was surprised, too. She scarcely knew -what to make of finding Norman Wylde here with Mrs. Falconer, but she -knew not what to say. She could only stand and stare with a look of -wonder on her fat face, which was flushed crimson from walking in the -hot sun. - -Perhaps Pansy understood something of the surprise she was exciting in -Norman Wylde’s mind, for the color rose warmly into her face as she -returned the child’s caress and arose in a hasty way, gently putting -him down upon the seat, and turning toward Mrs. Meade. - -“Good afternoon, Mrs. Meade. I am glad you have brought your sweet -little boy out for a holiday,” she exclaimed, adding sweetly: “I wish -I could stay for another romp with him, such as I had the other day. -But I have an engagement in a few minutes. Good afternoon, Mr. Wylde. I -have quite enjoyed my little chat with you while I rested under these -beautiful trees.” - -He rose and bowed courteously, giving her a glance of grave -friendliness that made her heart beat faster as she walked away, -leaving all her heart behind her with her child and the father of -her child, for--guilty wretch though she believed him--she could not -strangle her yearning love. - -“I believe that he is sorry for his sin,” she kept telling herself, -as some palliative of her tenderness for him, when suddenly she heard -quick footsteps behind her and a hand stealthily touched her elbow. - -“He has followed me,” she thought, with some alarm, and turned her head -quickly. - -Then a low cry of dismay and anger came from her lips. - -Mr. Finley, the grocer, her feared and hated stepfather, was walking -along by her side, leering wickedly down into her face with an air of -recognition that almost made her heart stop its beating. - -“Good afternoon, Pansy. I am glad to see that you are making it up -with your old lover. I was behind a tree, watching you two while you -sat on that bench talking. You find the old love as sweet as ever, eh? -Well, no one can blame you for not loving that old man you married for -his money,” were the impertinent words that greeted her astonished ears. - -She drew herself up haughtily, and tried to freeze him with her -indignant glance. - -“Get out of my path, you wretch! How dare you persist in pretending to -recognize me as some one you have known?” she exclaimed angrily; but he -only laughed, and, staying close by her side, retorted: - -“Somebody else recognized you as some one he had known before, too, -Mrs. Falconer. Didn’t I hear Norman Wylde calling you Pansy an hour or -so ago, when you first came up to him?” - -She trembled with horror at the accusation, but, remembering that she -had not admitted the truth to Norman Wylde, took courage. - -“Pshaw! Resemblances are common,” she said carelessly. “I do not -deny that Mr. Wylde took me for some one else, but he immediately -apologized for his mistake, and if you had the instincts of a gentleman -you would do the same.” - -“But I have not made a mistake,” leered Finley. He kept along by her -side, although she was walking fast, and continued: “Pansy, you had as -well own up to me, for I have recognized you, and I mean to make money -out of my knowledge. I am poor, and I have your mother and sisters to -support. You are rich, and you must give me some money for them, or I -will betray you to your husband.” - -Although Pansy trembled inwardly at his bold threat, she determined -that she would not yield to his demands. - -“Once own that I am Pansy Laurens, and all is lost. I could never -satisfy the man’s rapacity, and he would only betray me at last. -Besides, he cannot prove my identity; he only suspects it,” she thought -wisely; and, to his angry astonishment, she laughed scornfully. - -“Why are you laughing?” he demanded; and, lifting her bright face -defiantly, she answered: - -“I am pleased because I see a policeman up there near the governor’s -mansion, and I am going to give you into custody for annoying me.” - -He followed her glance and grew pale as he saw the blue-coated -custodian of the law pacing along the walk she indicated. Stopping -short, he growled fiercely: - -“You wouldn’t dare!” - -“You will see, my clever friend,” she replied airily, also stopping and -looking up at him again so coolly that he wondered at her unconcern. - -“You had better leave me,” she said calmly, though white to the lips -with anger. “I do not desire to have you arrested, for I know my -husband would have you punished to the full extent of the law. He knows -all about my past, and your talk of betrayal is the senseless chatter -of a madman. Will you go now, or shall I call the policeman, or any of -these gentlemen sitting around?” - -He was baffled by her cool assumption of fearlessness, for he did not -dare to drive her to bay. No one knew so well as himself what cause he -had to dread exposure. - -Glowering fiercely on her from his small, beady black eyes, he hissed, -low and threateningly: - -“I am going now, but not that I’m afraid of you, nor that policeman, -either, only for your mother’s sake, because it would break her heart -to know that her shameless child was still alive. But you will hear -from me again--remember that, my saucy madam, and live in fear of my -vengeance.” - -“I am not in the least afraid of you, and I am going to call that -policeman this minute,” Pansy answered, walking briskly away; and, to -her joy, Mr. Finley turned and walked quickly off, going out of the -square at a gate directly opposite. - -“He is a coward, despite his threats, and he will not trouble me again, -I hope,” she murmured, leaving the square and going quickly toward home -with no other drawback, except meeting several factory girls going home -from work whose faces were perfectly familiar to her, and who had not -forgotten hers, either, for one nudged the other and exclaimed audibly: - -“Good gracious, the very image of poor Pansy Laurens!” - -Pansy’s heart gave a wild throb, and she hurried past the girls, -thinking: - -“I ought never to have come back here. I am not changed as I thought I -was. Every one knows my face, and I fear trouble will come of it yet. -Suppose I were to meet my mother, or sisters, for instance, and they -were to claim me, I do not believe I could be brave enough to deny my -identity.” - -That night she begged her husband to hurry up his business, that he -might take her away from the city. - -“It is so warm and sultry here that I am almost afraid I shall fall ill -if I stay,” she said; and he, remembering her headache of a few days -before, took alarm at once. - -“It is very vexatious, this law business. My sister’s affairs were in -a terribly tangled condition, and I’m afraid it will be several days -yet before I can get away,” he said; then, smiling and encircling -the graceful figure with his arm, he added; “But that is no reason, -my darling, that you and Juliette should remain here. Both of you -are quite ready to go, you say. Then why not start to White Sulphur -to-morrow, and let me follow when I get through my task here?” - -Her heart leaped with joy, then she inwardly chided herself for her -eagerness to leave him. - -“It would not be kind to leave you--and--I should miss you so,” she -murmured, speaking quite truthfully, for she had a gentle affection -for him still, in spite of the truant heart that fluttered so at the -very thought of Norman Wylde. - -“But if I can get away from Richmond I shall not think so often of him, -and I can be truer in heart to my husband,” she thought, for she had -heard the Wyldes say that Norman would not consent to accompany them. - -Colonel Falconer was pleased at the knowledge that she would miss him, -but he declared that he was afraid she would be sick if she remained -any longer in the city. - -“And as I cannot get away yet, you must not wait for me any longer. You -can write to me every day, and that will be some consolation for your -absence,” he said. - -Juliette was delighted when she heard that they were not to wait -for her uncle. She hurried around to the Wyldes the next morning to -persuade them to go, too, and was successful in her mission. - -“Only Norman says he can’t get away from his business this summer,” -said Rosalind. - -“And he won’t go?” Juliette asked, bitterly disappointed. - -“No.” - -“Oh, very well. There will be plenty of other beaus!” Juliette said, -tossing her head and pretending to be indifferent. “Well, it is settled -that we meet at the depot this evening, Mrs. Wylde?” - -“Yes,” replied the lady; and Juliette hurried home to make her -arrangements, and to vent her spleen on Norman Wylde by saying to Pansy: - -“Norman Wylde won’t go because I have treated him so coldly, Rosalind -says; but he may sulk all he chooses. I shall not make up with him in a -hurry.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. “A MARRIED FLIRT.” - - -When Pansy had left Norman Wylde, Mrs. Meade sat down on the seat she -had vacated, and her face was very grave and thoughtful. - -It had appeared very strange to her to find Norman Wylde and the -beautiful Mrs. Falconer alone in the park together, and seeming to be -on very amicable terms with each other, whereas she had supposed them -to be almost utter strangers. - -“Perhaps she is a flirt,” she thought suspiciously; and just then -Norman Wylde turned his head, after watching Pansy until she -disappeared, and said: - -“How does it happen that Mrs. Falconer and Pet are so well acquainted -with each other?” - -The old housekeeper, who had known him ever since he was a little boy, -answered dryly: - -“Mr. Norman, I was just going to ask the same question about yourself -and Mrs. Falconer.” - -He smiled at first, then flushed a dark red at her searching glance, -and answered: - -“But I do not know Mrs. Falconer very well. I have never met her but -once or twice until she came down this path, quite by accident, a while -ago, and I invited her to rest a few minutes--she looked so tired and -warm.” - -“I was afraid she was one of them married flirts that’s getting so -fashionable nowadays,” muttered Mrs. Meade. - -“A married flirt! No, indeed! I believe Mrs. Falconer is as pure and -sweet and shy as a child. She is so much like one I knew years ago that -she could not be otherwise,” exclaimed Norman Wylde earnestly, as he -fondled Pet, who had crept to his knee, thus consoling himself for the -departure of his “pretty yady.” - -Mrs. Meade looked up, all eager interest. - -“Like some one you knew?” she exclaimed eagerly. - -“Yes,” he replied, with a heavy sigh, and the housekeeper asked -coaxingly: - -“Would you mind telling me whom she looked like, Mr. Norman?” - -“Curiosity, thy name is woman!” he said, with a low laugh, half dreary -amusement, half bitterness; then, with another sigh, he went on: “Mrs. -Meade, I suppose you know all about my unfortunate love affair of three -years ago?” - -She nodded, and then he said: - -“This beautiful Mrs. Falconer is the image of the girl I loved, and -from whom my parents parted me. She committed suicide by drowning -within a year after I went away, you remember?” - -“Ah!” exclaimed the old housekeeper, and her face began to glow with -excitement. - -“Mr. Norman, are you sure she drowned herself?” she asked eagerly. - -“Sure!” he repeated, turning toward her, with wondering eyes. “Why, -what do you mean, Mrs. Meade?” - -“Was her body ever recovered from the river?” retorted the housekeeper -significantly. - -He started violently, then answered: - -“No!” - -“So I thought,” said Mrs. Meade, and, following up her train of -thought, she added: “There isn’t any possibility that Mrs. Falconer can -be the same girl, is there, Mr. Norman?” - -He sprang from his seat, pushing Pet unconsciously from him, and -confronted her, pale with surprise and excitement. - -“You must be mad!” he exclaimed. “This lady was one of the belles of -Louisville--never was in Richmond until this summer, I am told.” - -“Sit down, Mr. Norman, and forgive me for talking like an old fool, -although maybe I’m not such a fool, after all,” answered Mrs. Meade. -But he would not sit down again; he remained standing in front of her -and looking down consciously into her agitated face as she continued, -in a low, grave voice: - -“Being such an old woman, Mr. Norman, and knowing you ever since you -was no bigger than Pet here, you needn’t mind my asking you questions -that might be impertinent from some people.” - -“Ask what you please, Mrs. Meade. I am too much your friend to take -offense at your plain speaking,” he replied encouragingly; and, without -any further preamble, she queried: - -“In that unfortunate love affair of yours, Mr. Norman, was there any -prospect of--a--child?” - -“No!” he answered quickly, almost angrily, yet she saw the hot color -shoot up to his brow, and his glance fell before hers. - -She sighed, and exclaimed: - -“Then I’m all at sea again, for, to tell you the truth, Mr. Norman, -I’ve been half believing all this time that Pet here was your own -child!” - -He started as if shot, and, dropping into a seat again, caught Pet’s -hand and drew him forward, scrutinizing his beautiful features with -eager eyes: - -“Can’t you see that he has your eyes, your features?” exclaimed Mrs. -Meade triumphantly, and, with something like a groan, he muttered: - -“And something of her, too!” he said. “That smile, those dainty -dimples, how like, how like! Now I understand what drew my heart so -strongly to the child. Mrs. Meade,” looking up at her with blazing -eyes, “you must answer now the question I asked you first: How is it -that Pet and Mrs. Falconer know each other so well?” - -And, for answer, she began at the first meeting of Mrs. Falconer -and the child, and related all that had taken place since, dwelling -strongly on their mutual passionate attachment for each other, and on -the lady’s eager desire to adopt the child. - -“I will tell you the truth, Mr. Norman: I strongly suspect that this -beautiful lady is the child’s own mother, and if there is no chance -that the little one can be yours, why, then I ought to let her have -him, maybe. I refused because I thought he was yours,” she said. - -“You were right not to let her have him,” he exclaimed hurriedly. -Then his face dropped into his hands a moment, and passers-by looked -curiously at the old woman, the pretty child, and the handsome man -bowed in an attitude of deep dejection. - -Little Pet was so grieved at the man’s sorrowful attitude that he -went up to him and encircled Norman’s neck with his chubby arms, and -inquired tenderly: - -“Oo kyin’ tause pretty yady gone?” - -The young man caught him in his arms, straining him to his breast, and -again gazed eagerly into his lovely face. - -“My little darling, what if it were to prove true?” he muttered -hoarsely; then, looking around at Mrs. Meade, he asked: - -“Do you know where Mrs. Laurens, the mother of poor little Pansy, -lives?” - -“No, I do not know,” she replied; and a look of bitter disappointment -came over his face. - -“I have been trying ever since I came home to trace that woman,” he -exclaimed. “I remember that just before I went away she was married a -second time, and went on a bridal tour with her husband. But I do not -know the name of the person she married, nor where she is living now, -for she has moved away from where she resided when I went away.” - -Was it fate, or only a blind chance, for at that moment there came -along the walk a plainly dressed, stooping figure, with a sad, worn -face that had once been very pretty, though now faded and forlorn. -Norman had seen Pansy’s mother only once, but he recognized her again -in this passer-by, and, springing to his feet, exclaimed: - -“Mrs. Laurens!” - -The pale, sad-looking creature recoiled from him with a frightened -denial: - -“I--I--that is not my name!” - -Norman caught her wrist in a firm yet tender clasp, for she was trying -to get away. - -“Wait!” he said sternly. “Denials are useless, for I know that you are -Mrs. Laurens, and I think you know that I am Norman Wylde. I was just -speaking about you and wishing I knew where to find you. I want you -to tell me the truth about this child here. Is it not your daughter -Pansy’s?” - -“No--oh, no!” she exclaimed wildly; but just then Mrs. Meade exclaimed -surprisedly: - -“La, me, that’s the very woman I have seen dozens of times, hanging -about when I took Pet out, but never mistrusted who she was!” - -Mrs. Laurens looked at her imploringly, and faltered out: - -“You must be mistaken. I never saw you before, ma’am.” - -“Well, I never!” ejaculated the housekeeper, and little Pet himself -gave the lie to Mrs. Laurens’ denial, for he came to her with a smile, -and cooed sweetly: - -“Is oo dot any more tandy to-day?” - -“You see, the child knows you. Confess the truth now! Are you not his -own grandmother?” exclaimed Norman, low but eagerly. - -Mrs. Laurens writhed under his grasp, and looked from right to left -with frightened eyes. - -“Answer me!” persisted Norman. But a dogged look came over her face, -and she replied: - -“No, my daughter Pansy never had a child. Why do you want to throw -disgrace on my poor dead girl?” And she suddenly burst into tears, -and, tugging at his hand, wailed out: “Oh, let me go! I promised to -meet my daughter Alice when she was coming home from the factory, -and--and--it’s past the closing time now.” - -“Will you swear that this is not Pansy’s child?” Norman insisted -hoarsely; but at that moment she succeeded in freeing her hand from his -clasp and darted away like a startled deer. Not wishing to create a -sensation, he had to refrain from following her. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. THE BLACKMAILER BAFFLED. - - -Mr. Finley had left Pansy and sought his home again in a tempest -of fury and baffled cupidity, realizing fully that his scheme of -blackmailing her would not succeed, and that he must look elsewhere for -booty. - -Pansy’s dauntless bravery and defiance had certainly staggered his bold -courage, and he began to fear that he was not going to receive such a -windfall as he had expected from Pansy’s secret. Having a dangerous -secret of his own, which would be sure to come to light if he proceeded -openly against her, he found himself in a quandary. - -“The plucky little wretch! Who would have believed that she would -openly defy me, and deny her identity? Why, she would have handed me -over to that policeman in another moment if I hadn’t cut and run,” -he exclaimed angrily, feeling that he would like to shake the little -beauty for her bold defiance. - -He slept but little that night for thinking about her, and the next day -he came to the conclusion that, of all those concerned in the drama -in which he was so cleverly enacting the villain’s part, there was no -chance of blackmailing any but Colonel Falconer. - -“He is rich and will pay liberally for the keeping of the secret I -hold against his wife,” he decided, and then he set his cunning brain -to work to devise a plan by which to approach Colonel Falconer on the -delicate subject of his wife. - -Poor little Mrs. Finley, whom he had long ago reduced to the status -of a trembling, obedient slave, looked at him in wonder as he lounged -about the house, paying no attention to the grocery, for he had long -ago placed Willie in his store as a clerk, and the youth was very -reliable. She thought fearfully: - -“There is something brewing in his cunning mind. Has he found out that -I have been seeing my poor little grandchild by stealth, and is he -planning some punishment for me?” - -She trembled at the thought, for she knew that he was both cunning and -vindictive. He ruled her and her children with a rod of iron. - -He had never forgotten or forgiven the assertion of his wife, that she -would never have married him if she had known that he would not care -for her children, and he made her and them suffer for it in various -ways. One of his favorite methods was to taunt them with the disgrace -that Pansy had brought upon them, and another was to keep alive in -Willie’s breast the fierce resentment and murderous wrath that had -taken hold of him when he first learned that his beautiful sister had -gone astray. - -Left to himself and to the remorseful pleadings of his mother, the -young man might have got over some of his anger, more especially as -poor Pansy had atoned for her fault with her life. There were times -when the remembrance of her message to him, her pitiful promise that -she would never disgrace him again, stung keenly, and forced him to -accuse himself of being accessory to her death; but these moods never -lasted long, for whenever Mr. Finley found these kinder impulses taking -root in the youth’s mind he would dispel them by maliciously hinting -that, in all probability, Pansy was yet alive, and might turn up at any -time to recall to the world the scandal that had trailed its slime -over the name of Laurens. - -“Pretty Kate North would not smile so sweetly then when she saw you -waiting at the church door on Sundays,” he suggested, with a leer that -brought the hot color to Willie’s cheeks, for this, his first real love -affair, was a very tender point with him, and he had often wondered to -himself if pretty little Kate North, with her black eyes and dimpled -red cheeks, thought any the less of him because of the family disgrace. - -His love for Kate made him all the more bitter in his thoughts toward -Pansy. - -“How dared she disgrace the family so? I hate her memory, even though -believing her dead and if I knew she were alive I should be tempted to -carry out my threat, and shoot her on sight,” he replied angrily to -the taunt of his stepfather that day on which Mr. Finley’s mind was -so engaged in plotting the best means by which to extort money from -Colonel Falconer for keeping the dark secret of his wife’s past. - -He did not know that his malice had overreached itself, and that the -fury smoldering in Willie’s impetuous mind, and fanned into flame by -his sneers and gibes, would bear fruit to disappoint him of all his -avaricious hopes. - -Willie was almost twenty now, with an overstrained sense of honor, -sharpened in intensity by his sister’s fault. He was sensitively alive -to the disgrace that rested on the family name, and had brooded over it -until he had grown morbid. His handsome young face remained dark and -cloudy after Mr. Finley went out, and his thoughts were so absorbed -that he could scarcely wait upon the customers who came in and out of -the neat store. - -“Strange that he is always suggesting the thought that Pansy may be -alive, after all. Perhaps he knows more than he chooses to tell,” he -muttered. And the thought wore on him so that he went to the corner of -a shelf, where his stepfather kept a private bottle, and took a drink -of brandy to steady his shaking nerves. - -Then, from a case in a hiding place of his own he took a small pistol -and examined it with gloomy eyes. - -“It is all right,” he muttered hoarsely; then, at the sound of a step -entering the store, he replaced it hurriedly, and turned around, to -face Mr. North, the father of the girl he loved. - -“Good afternoon, Mr. North. What can I do for you?” he inquired -politely. - -Mr. North was only a clerk, but he was inordinately proud and -ambitious, and his face darkened with anger as he returned brusquely: - -“I want a few words with you, young man. My wife tells me that you have -been paying some attention to my daughter Kate?” - -“Ye-es, Mr. North,” Willie stammered, with a boyish flush, adding -anxiously: “I trust you have no objection to my love for her?” - -“Nonsense! You are nothing but a boy,” replied Mr. North curtly, and -the handsome young face before him deepened in color at the taunt; but -he answered, in a manly way: - -“I am almost twenty, and my stepfather has promised to give me a -partnership in the store when I am twenty-one. My prospects are fair.” - -“I care nothing for your prospects! It is your family I object to,” was -the brusque, startling reply. Then, as if ashamed of the taunt, Mr. -North went on, more gently: “I am sorry to wound your feelings, Willie; -I believe you are a good boy, in the main, although it was said at one -time that you were dissipated and wild. Still, you had an excuse for -that--the same excuse that I have in forbidding your attentions to my -daughter.” - -“Mr. North!” - -“I said that I forbade any more attentions to Kate. When she marries, -it must be one with a stainless family record. Your sister’s fault has -disgraced her family, and may do so even more terribly, for there are -many who doubt that she was ever drowned, and she may reappear at any -time.” - -“Mr. North, are there any grounds for this belief?” the poor fellow -asked hoarsely. - -“A face like hers has been seen several times in Richmond lately. Some -of the factory girls believe that they saw her yesterday as they came -from work. She is always richly dressed, and it must be that she is -leading a life of gilded shame in this city.” - -A hoarse groan came from the stricken young man’s lips; then, with -flashing eyes, he exclaimed: - -“Then she is running a terrible risk, for only let me find her, and I -will send a bullet crashing through her shameless heart!” - -“No, no!” the gentleman exclaimed, recoiling in dismay, but Willie -Laurens angrily reiterated his threat. - -“You will see,” he said. “She wrecked my life, and I will wipe out the -family disgrace in her heart’s blood.” - -“You are mad, simply mad! Would you become your sister’s murderer, and -break your poor mother’s heart?” cried Mr. North, shocked and pained -by his furious mood, and not dreaming of the fiery fluid that had -inflamed the young man’s blood. He turned away from the reckless boy, -and was going abruptly out of the store when a horseman drew rein on -the pavement before him, and asked excitedly: - -“Does the mother of Miss Alice Laurens live here?” - -“Yes; is there anything wrong?” inquired Mr. North curiously, and at -the same moment the pale, agitated face of Willie Laurens appeared in -the doorway, and he said: - -“I am the brother of Alice Laurens. What is wrong?” - -The man looked at him with pitying eyes, and answered: - -“Heaven knows I hate to tell you, but I have no choice. An accident has -befallen your sister. She fell through an open hatchway at Arnell & -Grey’s a few minutes ago, and--break it to her mother as gently as you -can, for they are bringing her here now. She is very badly hurt. It is -not believed that she can live.” - -“Terrible!” cried Mr. North, as he flung out his arms to support Willie -Laurens, who had reeled and staggered in agony at that heart-rending -announcement. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX. CAUGHT IN A TRAP. - - -Pretty sixteen-year-old Alice Laurens looked wonderfully like her elder -sister as she lay, with pale face and close-shut lids, upon her little -bed, with her mother and only remaining sister, Nora, weeping over -her, while Mr. Finley hovered, like a bird of prey, in the background, -heartlessly calculating in his own mind how far this accident might be -turned to his advantage in forcing Pansy Falconer to own her identity, -and to pay his price for keeping her secret from her proud husband. - -Alice Laurens had a broken arm, and had remained unconscious ever -since her fall, so that the physicians feared she had sustained -internal injuries that would speedily result in death. One of them had -accompanied her home, and sat in grave silence, watching the scene, -while Willie Laurens, utterly crushed and disheartened, had flung -himself into a chair, and, with his convulsed face hidden in his hands, -seemed utterly oblivious to everything but his sorrow. - -Altogether, it was a sad scene on which the parting sun’s rays fell, -as they slanted in at the open door and penciled with golden beams the -prematurely silvered head of the unhappy mother as she knelt by her -unconscious child, uttering piteous moans of grief and despair, for her -afflictions pressed heavily on her heart. - -Minutes passed, and there was apparently no change in Alice. That -she still lived was only evident from a faint pulsation which the -clever physician could barely detect in her wrist, and every moment he -expected that even that faint, fluttering spark would go out in death. - -The lingering sunset began to fade. Some of the neighbors came in with -hushed footsteps and sympathetic faces. On the dark, frowning face of -Mr. Finley a light of satisfaction began to dawn. - -When twilight began to darken the summer sky, he slipped from that -solemn chamber, where they were watching for death to come in and -dispossess the mother’s heart of its treasure, and disappeared from the -scene. - -He made his way quickly to Franklin Street, and rang the bell at -Colonel Falconer’s door. When a servant appeared he pushed past him -and unceremoniously entered the wide hall. - -“Tell Mrs. Falconer that a man is waiting with an important message -from her husband,” he said boldly. - -The servant showed him into a small reception room, and disappeared, -while Finley waited--rather nervously, it must be confessed, for he was -by no means certain that Colonel Falconer was out. What if he should -appear, and kick the lying intruder out of doors? - -But fortune favored him, for in a very few moments the rustle of a -woman’s garments was audible, and then Pansy appeared before him, -simply clad in a pale-gray traveling dress, and with a tear-stained -face and swollen eyes. She closed the door carefully behind her, then -started back as she beheld her visitor. - -“You!” she exclaimed, in horrified tones. - -He rose and bowed profoundly. - -“I came to bring you the sad news of poor Alice, but I see from your -face that you have already heard,” he said pointedly. - -Pansy made a scornful gesture, and sank into a seat. - -“What do you mean?” she demanded, trying to keep up an assumption of -indifference that was only too plainly belied by her trembling voice -and swollen eyelids. - -“Your sister Alice, Mrs. Falconer, fell, by accident, through an open -hatchway at Arnell & Grey’s this afternoon, and is now on her deathbed. -She raves for you--calls for you every moment. Can you have the heart -to refuse to go to your dying sister?” - -She looked steadily at him, and answered defiantly: - -“I have heard of that accident at Arnell & Grey’s, but what is that to -me? I do not know the poor girl.” - -“What is the use your trying to fence with me like this, Pansy? I know -you!” cried Finley harshly, adding: “But I did not know your cursed -pride was so strong, else I had not come for you, even to please that -poor, dying girl, who begged me so piteously to come.” - -“She did not send you. She believes that her erring sister died,” Pansy -answered irresolutely. - -“She believed that once, but not lately. There have been rumors that -she is still alive, that she had been seen of late on the streets of -this city, and that she is living a life of gilded shame. The story has -preyed on the poor girl’s mind, and she sent me to seek you, that she -might pray you with her dying breath to forsake your sinful life.” - -“You have told those base falsehoods to that poor, credulous child!” -Pansy flashed forth indignantly, but he denied the accusation, and -continued: - -“I cannot bear to return to her without you. The disappointment in her -dying eyes would haunt me. I will make you a proposition, Pansy: Come -with me to her dying bed, and I will manage things so that you shall -see her alone. Not even her mother shall enter the room, and you shall -go away again, and not a living soul be any the wiser for your presence -there.” - -She saw that he was very much in earnest, that he would do as he said, -and, twisting her little hands together in an agony of indecision, she -exclaimed: - -“Do you know that in little more than an hour I am to leave here for -the White Sulphur Springs? Miss Ives has already gone around to her -friends who will accompany us. My husband will come home presently to -drive with me to the depot.” - -“And in the meantime your poor, dying sister is calling for you in -vain. Pansy Laurens, you are utterly heartless!” exclaimed Mr. Finley, -with a fine show of indignation. - -She trembled perceptibly, and grew pale as a snowdrop under the glare -of the gaslight. - -“May her uneasy spirit haunt you, and drive repose from your breast!” -he cried tragically. - -Whirling toward him with a disdainful gesture of her white hand, she -exclaimed: - -“What if I went with you, simply to humor the fancy of this poor, dying -girl--mind, I own to no relationship with her--what would be the price -of your silence?” - -Without moving a muscle, he answered coolly: - -“A thousand dollars!” - -“You are certainly rapacious! I could not give you such a sum to-night.” - -“I should not expect it. I would give you a week to raise it, if you -would leave with me some of your diamonds as a guarantee of good -faith,” he replied, with an air of business that amused while it -disgusted her. - -“Unfortunately, my jewels are packed and my trunks are gone. You will -have to depend upon my simple word of honor, or go back as you came,” -she replied coldly. - -He studied her face a moment, then said sullenly: - -“I will take your word of honor, then. You have too much at stake to -risk disappointing me. So that is settled. Of course, if you did not -pay me in a week I should follow you to the White Sulphur Springs. Will -you come with me now?” - -“Go out and hail some passing cab, and keep it waiting at the corner -around the next square. I will join you there in a few minutes, for I -have no time to lose. I must return here in time to join my husband,” -Pansy answered, dismissing him with a wave of her hand, and then -hastening upstairs to don a concealing bonnet and veil, and to leave -some plausible excuse with Phebe for Colonel Falconer, who might return -at any moment. - -She left the house regretfully, with unsteady steps and a foreboding -heart, fearing that she was doing wrong, but drawn by a passionate -yearning to the deathbed of her beloved sister. - -“How could I refuse her dying prayer, even though its granting be -attended with so much risk and cost to myself?” she thought, with -generous pity and self-sacrificing love. - -“Remember,” she said to Finley, as they were whirled swiftly up the -steep grade of Broad Street toward his home on Church Hill, “I must see -Alice Laurens alone. You will go in first, and see that every one else -leaves the room.” - -“I will do so,” he promised, and no more was said between them. At -the corner below his residence the hack was stopped. He got out, and -directed her to wait until he returned for her. - -When he reëntered the house he found that a great change had taken -place in the invalid. - -She had recovered full consciousness, and appeared so much better than -had been expected by her physician that he declared it quite likely she -would recover, if no untoward circumstances intervened. Fortunately for -Finley’s purpose, the physician was watching by her bed alone, having -persuaded the family to go into the dining room and partake of tea. A -clever thought came to Finley, and he exclaimed: - -“Doctor Hewitt, a man has fallen in a fit on the corner two squares -below, and they are hunting a physician everywhere. I will watch beside -Alice if you will go.” - -The physician seized his hat, and, promising to return after a while, -darted out, leaving the grocer in possession. - -He stooped over Alice, who was regarding him with wide-open, loathing -eyes, for he was universally hated by his stepchildren, and, bending -down, whispered hurriedly: - -“Your sister Pansy is coming to see you. Mind, there must be no outcry, -and you must never tell any one she came, for she can stay but a few -minutes, and no one must ever know she has been here.” - -In a few minutes more the two long-parted sisters were weeping in each -other’s arms. - -“Do not try to talk, my darling sister,” whispered Pansy fondly, -while Finley adroitly lowered the gas and turned the key in the door. -Tenderly caressing Alice, Pansy continued: “I was not drowned, Alice, -but I made you all think so that you might not worry over my fate. I am -the wife of a good man, but he does not know my sad story, and I can -never own my relatives, for then he would find out everything, and he -is so proud he would cast me off. But I could not stay away, dear, when -they told me you were dying, so I came in secret.” - -“I am glad that you came, my precious sister; but there is some mistake -about my dying, for the doctor says I have a fair chance of getting -well,” Alice answered feebly. - -“Thank Heaven!” murmured her beautiful sister, and the silence of deep -emotion fell over them as they clung to each other. - -Finley looked on with exultation. These moments of reunion between the -long-parted sisters were worth a thousand dollars to him now, and much -more in the future; for, having once established a claim on Pansy, he -would never rest satisfied until he had wrung from her every dollar she -could command for years to come. - -“Oh, Alice, I long to see our mother, but I dare not do so. She must -never know that I am living. You must keep the secret of this meeting, -and, oh, you must love her well, and be very good to her for my sake, -as well as your own,” murmured Pansy, with tears in her beautiful eyes, -as she drew herself reluctantly from Alice’s clasping arms. - -“Must you go so soon?” sighed the suffering girl. - -“I dare not stay longer,” sobbed Pansy. She bent down and whispered -hurriedly: “Alice, I will send you some money anonymously, and you must -let no one know it came from me. Spend it for yourself, mamma, and -Nora. Good-by, darling!” And, pressing her lips to her sister’s cheek -in despairing love, she rose upright, and said anxiously: - -“Mr. Finley, I must go now, or they will come in and find me here.” - -She had pushed her thick veil back to the top of her bonnet, and her -beautiful, pale face was clearly defined, even in the dim light of -the room. Mr. Finley had forgotten that in this room, which was upon -the first floor, there was a window that opened upon a narrow alley. -The shutters were drawn, but the sash was raised, and Willie Laurens, -anxious to see how Alice was, but fearful of intruding on the strict -quiet prescribed for her, had tiptoed through the alley and slanted the -shutters that he might gaze into the room. - -He saw with amazement the beautiful form kneeling by Alice and clasping -her in its tender arms, saw the fond parting kiss, heard the words -addressed to Mr. Finley, and beheld with mad, murderous rage the -beautiful, despairing face of the sister whose sin had disgraced him -and put the girl he loved so far above his reach. - -The seed Mr. Finley had industriously planted in his pliant mind had -grown by now into a tree that was ready to bear deadly fruit. With a -smothered imprecation, he rushed back into the store, and presently, -when Pansy came stealing through the darkened hallway on her way to the -street, her brother was waiting for her with the fires of hell in his -young heart. - -He lifted the pistol in his hand, fired, and Pansy fell, bathed in -blood, just inside the doorway. - - - - -CHAPTER XXX. A SUPPOSED SUICIDE. - - -In the very moment that Willie Laurens beheld his doomed sister fall -by his hand, a torrent of remorse and despair overwhelmed the anger -that had hurried him on to the awful deed, and, hurling the pistol from -his grasp, he rushed to her side, and fell down on his knees, uttering -bitter cries of remorse and self-reproach. - -Mr. Finley, coming instantly upon the scene, dragged him furiously to -his feet. - -“You devil, you have killed your sister! Now fly, fly, and save -yourself from the law!” - -But even while he spoke, the dining-room door was thrown violently -open, and Mrs. Finley, followed by Nora, rushed upon the scene. - -By the light thrown from the open doorway of the room they had left, -Pansy’s recumbent figure, with the blood flowing from it, was plainly -seen on the floor. - -“Oh, Heaven, what is this?” cried the distracted woman, and Willie -wrenched himself loose from his stepfather’s hold, and answered -despairingly: - -“Mother, it is Pansy. She came back, as this wretch here was always -hinting she would, and my fiendish temper got the better of me----” - -“And you killed her, you devil!” interrupted Mrs. Finley. She lifted -her arm, shrieking hoarsely: “Go, go--with a mother’s curse on your -wicked head! You are no longer a child of mine.” - -But Mr. Finley exclaimed sharply: - -“Hush your clatter, you parcel of fools! Perhaps she is not dead, after -all. Doctor Hewitt will be back in a moment. Willie, go to your room, -and stay there until I come to you!” - -Trained to habits of the strictest obedience to his harsh stepfather, -Willie mechanically obeyed, and then Mr. Finley turned to his wife and -said sharply: - -“I shall tell Hewitt that this is a case of suicide, and don’t either -of you dare contradict me!” - -At that moment Doctor Hewitt appeared upon the doorstep, returning from -his fool’s errand, and Mr. Finley hurriedly drew him in, and shut the -door, turning the key in the lock. Strangely enough, no one had been -attracted to the scene by the sound of the pistol shot, and he felt -safe to carry out the deception. - -“Doctor, here is a new case for you!” he exclaimed, and, turning up the -gas, the dreadful scene was revealed in all its horror and pathos. - -Doctor Hewitt had been physician to Arnell & Grey for many years, and, -in the beautiful girl lying unconscious in a pool of blood on the -floor, he instantly recognized the little factory girl who had come to -harm years ago and then disappeared so mysteriously as to leave abroad -the impression that she had drowned herself. - -“Pansy Laurens!” he exclaimed, in a shocked tone, and Mr. Finley -replied: - -“Yes, it is poor Pansy. Is it not dreadful to think that, after staying -away all these years, she should return to commit suicide in her -mother’s house?” - -“Suicide?” echoed Doctor Hewitt. - -“Yes; we all heard a shot, and, rushing into the hall, found Pansy -lying like this, and this pistol on the floor, where it had dropped -from her hand,” exhibiting the pistol Willie had thrown down. - -Doctor Hewitt was on his knees by Pansy’s side, examining her wound, -and in a few minutes he looked up, and said, in a tone of relief: - -“She has not succeeded in her awful design. The bullet only went -through her shoulder, and she is not likely to die from that.” - -“Thank Heaven!” cried Mrs. Finley gladly, and her wicked husband could -not help slightly echoing her words, for he was beginning to feel like -a murderer, remembering how he kept at white heat, by his taunts and -sneers, the fire of murderous rage in Willie Laurens’ heart. - -“She must be put to bed at once, and her wound dressed,” said the -physician; and they carried her upstairs to her own room, where she had -spent such unhappy hours four years ago. Then Mr. Finley said: - -“Doctor Hewitt, I would be glad to keep this whole miserable affair, -even Pansy’s presence in this house, a secret, for the sake of her -innocent young sisters. Will you help me to do it?” - -“Yes,” Doctor Hewitt replied, and then he sent Mr. Finley down to see -after the patient who had been forgotten for the moment in the horror -of this new calamity. - -When Pansy’s wound had been dressed she revived, and found her mother -and sister by her side. They greeted each other with solemn, tender -sadness, and then Pansy recognized the physician, and asked him quietly -if she were going to die. - -“I hope not. Your wound is a painful one, but not necessarily -dangerous. With good nursing, you will recover,” he replied pleasantly, -and then he went down to see about Alice. - -Pansy lay for a long time in silence, then asked that Willie might come -to her. When he came into the room, it seemed as if years had gone over -his head, he was so changed by his grief and remorse. - -If she knew that his hand had fired that fatal shot, she made no sign -of her knowledge. Greeting him with tender sisterly love, she drew him -down to her, and whispered softly: - -“Go to Franklin Street, and tell Colonel Falconer to come with you to -see his wife. Yes, I am his wife, Willie,” as he started wildly. “Do -not tell him I was wounded. It would startle him too much. Only ask him -to come to me.” - -She realized that further concealment of her past, after all that had -happened would be useless. She must confess all, and throw herself on -Colonel Falconer’s mercy. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXI. AN AMAZED HUSBAND. - - -Willie Laurens found Colonel Falconer pacing up and down the walk in -front of his house, watching impatiently for his wife’s return from the -errand of kindness on which she had vaguely told the maid she was going. - -It was no wonder he was impatient, for it lacked scarcely ten minutes -to train time. The carriage was waiting for Pansy, and Phebe, the maid, -was already seated within it. - -“You are Colonel Falconer, sir?” Willie Laurens asked politely. - -“Yes. Have you any business with me?” - -“A message from your wife. She wishes that I should conduct you to her -side.” - -“Has anything happened to my wife?” exclaimed Colonel Falconer -excitedly. - -“You will soon know if you will accompany me,” returned Willie -evasively. - -“Where is she?” - -“At my mother’s house on Church Hill.” - -Colonel Falconer gave a keen, scrutinizing glance into the young man’s -face by the light afforded from a gas lamp near by. - -Then he started violently. - -In the boyish beauty of Willie’s face he detected a strong likeness to -his wife. - -“Your name?” he exclaimed. - -“Willie Laurens.” - -“Are you related to my wife?” - -“That is for her to say, Colonel Falconer,” replied the young man -modestly. - -“But I don’t understand this at all. My wife should be here to -accompany me at once. She will miss her train,” exclaimed Colonel -Falconer testily. - -“I think she expected that, sir,” was the answer he received from -Willie, who began to grow nervous as he scrutinized the big, -good-looking colonel, wondering what he would say if he knew that the -slight youth before him had attempted his wife’s life. - -“He would strike me down at his feet in a moment,” he decided -nervously, and, in order to ward off all further questions, he said: - -“I think, sir, that if you would come at once with me to Mrs. Falconer -she would explain everything to your satisfaction.” - -“Very well, then, I will do so, for I am very much puzzled over all -this. Will you come with me in my carriage, Mr. Laurens?” - -“I shall be glad of a seat with you, sir, as it will enable us to reach -Mrs. Falconer sooner.” - -“Come, then!” And they entered the carriage, where they found Phebe in -a fever of curiosity. - -“Would it be advisable to take my wife’s maid?” the colonel then asked; -and Willie, remembering that Pansy would need a nurse, and that his -mother would have her hands full in caring for Alice, replied in the -affirmative. - -He then gave the address to the driver, and in a very short time they -arrived at their destination. - -“Perhaps you had better leave the maid in the carriage,” suggested -Willie, and Colonel Falconer readily acquiesced, thinking that Pansy -would be ready to accompany him home in a few minutes. - -During the drive to Mr. Finley’s house he had come to the conclusion -that Pansy’s warm sympathies had been enlisted by some charitable -object for which she wished to secure his pity and aid. For this -laudable purpose she had doubtless delayed starting on her trip, -thinking that to-morrow would do as well. - -“But Juliette and the Wyldes will have already gone,” he thought. “No -matter; Mrs. Wylde can chaperon Juliette until Pansy goes.” - -But his complacent feelings were soon dissipated, for, as they went -upstairs, Willie Laurens said reluctantly: - -“Colonel Falconer, your wife was seized with a sudden sickness an hour -ago, and you must not be surprised or frightened if you find her still -in bed.” - -Then he threw open Pansy’s door. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXII. THE REVELATION. - - -Colonel Falconer was so shocked and startled by Willie Laurens’ words -that he staggered rather than walked across the threshold of the room -where Pansy was lying, with close-shut eyes, among the white pillows of -the bed, carefully watched by Nora Laurens, who now, at a sign from her -brother, arose and left the room. - -Colonel Falconer found himself alone with Pansy, and, at the closing -of the door, she opened wide those wondrous eyes of violet blue, and -looked mournfully up into his face. - -Oh, the pain, the grief, the despair of that glance! It went straight -to the man’s loving heart, and he fell on his knees with a groan, and -pressed his lips to her white brow in passionate love. - -She lay still and sorrowful, while fond words of love poured from -his lips, and kisses rained on her fair face. She said to herself -that if he repudiated her and cast her off after he had heard her sad -confession, she would have the memory of these caresses to comfort her -when her noble husband was lost to her forever. - -By and by he lifted his head, and said reproachfully: - -“You should not have gone out, my darling, if you were not feeling -well. You know you have not been strong for some time.” - -She knew that she must speak now, and so she answered faintly: - -“I have had an accident, Colonel Falconer. I have been shot in the -shoulder.” - -He recoiled with a cry of dismay, and she continued, in a low but -distinct voice: - -“Stay here by me, and--I--will--tell you all--about it. I am not going -to die, they say, although it--might--be--better if I were.” - -“Pansy, you must be raving! You do not mean that,” he exclaimed, in -alarm, and with such a tender look that she exclaimed remorsefully: - -“Ah, how good you are to me! But I do not deserve it, for I have -deceived you shamefully, and when I have confessed my sin you -will--cast me off--you will never--speak--to--poor--Pansy again!” - -“Now I am quite sure that you are raving. You have done nothing, my -precious wife, for which I could visit you with such harsh punishment -as that,” exclaimed her husband fondly, as he bent over her and -smoothed back with loving hands the curling locks that strayed over her -blue-veined brow. - -A heavy sigh drifted over the lips that were pale with pain, and Pansy -murmured sadly: - -“I am not raving. Although I am in great pain from the wound in my -shoulder, I know quite well what I am saying. I have deceived you, my -kind, noble husband, and when you know all you will hate me.” - -“Nonsense!” he replied cheerily, and, clasping her cold little hand -warmly and closely in his, he murmured reassuringly: - -“Come, let us have that dreadful confession, my pet, that your foolish -alarms may be speedily dissipated.” - -But no answering smile met his. Pansy was as pale as death as she began: - -“Louisville was not my--native place--as I told you. I--I--was born--in -Richmond--and I am at this moment--under my mother’s roof.” - -Colonel Falconer started violently, but he still kept fast hold of her -little hand as she continued: - -“That is not all. I--I--had run away from my home when I met -Mrs. Beach. There--there--was a stain--upon my name--although,” -passionately, “I swear to you it was not my fault! I am--Heaven pity -me!--that girl whom Juliette Ives hates so relentlessly because she -caused the breaking of her engagement with Norman Wylde.” - -“Pansy Laurens!” Colonel Falconer uttered, in a voice of horror; and he -dropped her hand and started back. - -She made no reply. Her confession had exhausted her strength, and she -had fainted. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIII. NOBLE FORGIVENESS. - - -Colonel Falconer stood gazing like one petrified at his unconscious -wife until suddenly his own face whitened to a marble pallor, an -expression of keen agony convulsed his features, and, clasping both -hands upon his breast, he sank backward into a chair, while a low moan -of pain escaped his lips. - -He had been seized with a spasm at the heart, a misfortune that had -befallen him at various times in his life, but of which he had never -spoken to Pansy, being very sensitive on the score of the heart -disease, which was hereditary in the Falconer family, and of which his -sister, Mrs. Ives, had died. - -For a few moments he lay back in the chair, struggling with all his -strength of mind against his misery; then, putting his hand into his -breast pocket, he brought out a small vial, from whose contents he -swallowed a few drops. The effect soon became apparent in a cessation -of the terrible pain. Then a low, frightened cry from the bed made him -look toward Pansy, and he found that she had revived and was staring at -him with a glance of wonder and fear. - -“Oh, what is it? Have I killed you?” she gasped faintly. - -“It is nothing--a slight spasm of the heart, brought on by excitement. -I am better now,” Colonel Falconer replied coldly, and just then the -door opened and Mrs. Finley came nervously into the room. - -“Mamma, this is Colonel Falconer,” Pansy half whispered, adding -anxiously: “I have told you how good he has been to me, and I have told -him who and what I am, but briefly. Now I want you to tell him the -story of my willful girlhood, and the full extent of my sin.” - -“Will you listen, sir?” asked the pale, gray-haired little woman -timidly. - -A dark frown came between his eyebrows, but he answered impatiently: - -“Yes.” - -And so, in the little room where Pansy lay, pale with pain and -despair, the story of her girlhood was told to the husband she had -deceived--told kindly and gently by her mother’s lips, yet without -abating one jot of the truth. - -“If she had taken her mother’s advice, sir, she would never have come -to this pass. I told her that a rich young man like Mr. Wylde wouldn’t -think of marrying a poor little factory girl, but she didn’t believe my -warning. She wouldn’t heed me,” sighed poor Mrs. Finley, when she had -told, in her pitiful little way, the story of Pansy’s willfulness and -disobedience. - -But she, poor thing, looked pleadingly at her pale, silent husband. - -“But you see how it was, don’t you?” she cried imploringly. “I loved -him so, and I fell under his fascinations so that I couldn’t help -myself; and I thought mother would be so pleased when she found out I -was his wife she would forgive all the rest. Ah, Heaven! I paid dearly, -dearly for that disobedience!” - -He sat silent, rigid, looking and listening without a word, and Pansy -sobbed bitterly: - -“Did I not say you would never forgive me? But I deserve it. I have -not one word to say for myself, only this: You will keep my miserable -secret, for when Norman Wylde charged me with my identity I denied it -bitterly. Oh, he must never know the truth, and if I recover from my -wound I will go away from here, Colonel Falconer, and never trouble -your peace again.” - -He smiled a sad, derisive smile at those words, as if in mockery of her -promise, and then said: - -“But I have not yet heard how you came by that wound.” - -“My brother Willie swore that he would kill me for the disgrace that -I had brought on the honest name of Laurens. When I came back home to -see my sister he tried to carry out his threat. I do not blame him, nor -must you, for my stepfather had goaded him to madness by his taunts and -slurs. Poor boy! He is sorry now for his insane deed, and the world -must never know.” - -He smothered some angry words under his dark mustache, for Pansy was -beginning to speak again in her soft, hopeless little voice: - -“While I lay here waiting for Willie to bring you, I made some clever -little plans. Juliette went with the Wyldes, did she not?” - -“Of course.” - -“Then you will telegraph her to-morrow that I have changed my mind, -and will go North to some gay watering place, but that she will remain -under the chaperonage of Mrs. Wylde. My presence in this house can be -kept a dead secret until I get well enough to go away--into a convent, -perhaps--into lasting exile, certainly. Do not grieve, mamma,” as a -whimper of protest came from the little woman’s grieved heart. “You -will have your other children, you know.” Then, looking back at her -husband, went on plaintively: “In the meantime, you will have gone -away, and by and by you will write back to your friends that poor -little Pansy is dead and buried. You will come home to Juliette then, -and--after a while--you will forget.” - -The plaintive voice broke, and Colonel Falconer sat still for a few -moments, lost in deep thought. Suddenly he spoke: - -“You are very clever,” he said. - -“I thought it all out for your sake. I was so anxious that no disgrace -should touch you,” she answered humbly. - -“Poor little one!” he muttered; then rose and laid his hand solemnly -on her head. “Dear, you have been bitterly punished for your girlish -fault,” he said gravely; then, in tones vibrating with tenderness, he -added: “You are my beloved wife still. I forgive your deception, and I -will never forsake you.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIV. IMAGINARY DECEIT. - - -“Rosalind, what do you think of this?” asked Juliette, coming up to her -friend with an open letter in her hand. - -It was the second day after her arrival at the White Sulphur Springs, -and they were out on the lawn before the grand hotel. All was -brightness and gayety. Throngs of beautiful women and handsome men lent -variety to the sylvan scene, and the merry music played by the band -made one’s step light and one’s heart gay. - -“What is it, Juliette?” asked Miss Wylde curiously. - -“A letter from my uncle, in which he explains the cause of his wife not -joining us here.” - -“Is she not coming, then?” asked Mrs. Wylde, in a tone of regret. - -“No.” - -“But why not?” - -“She was taken suddenly ill that afternoon, but would not send us -word, lest we should wait for her and be disappointed in going. She is -better now, and has taken up an idea that sea air would be of more -benefit to her than the springs,” replied Juliette, reading from her -uncle’s letter. - -“Oh, I am sorry she will not join us. I had fallen in love with her,” -exclaimed Mrs. Wylde, and her daughter echoed: - -“I had, too, mamma.” - -A frown crossed Juliette’s pearl-fair face, and she read on slowly: - - “So I will take her away to the sea, and you can remain with Mrs. - Wylde if she will have the kindness to chaperon you.” - -She looked at Mrs. Wylde, and that lady said cordially: - -“Your uncle ought to know that I will take great pleasure in doing -that.” - -“Thank you,” cried Juliette; then, crushing the letter in her hand, she -said spitefully: “I believe Pansy had all that planned before, and did -not mean from the first to accompany us here.” - -Mrs. Wylde and Rosalind looked startled. - -“Why should she deceive us?” cried Rosalind. - -“Oh, she had some hidden design in it, of course. She is naturally -deceitful. I never liked her from the first!” Juliette cried -peevishly, goaded to jealous anger by their declaration that they were -fond of Pansy. - -“Well, you ought to know, of course, having lived in the same house -with her,” exclaimed Rosalind, in astonishment, adding: “But I never -should have supposed that dear little thing could be deceitful and -designing.” - -“Nor I, for she always seemed so frank and open,” said her mother. -“Indeed, I had taken a great fancy to her.” - -Every word stung Juliette more deeply, for she hated Pansy with an -intense hatred. She would have hated her for marrying her uncle if for -nothing else, but added to this was always her suspicion of Pansy’s -identity, and this fanned the fire of her rage into fury. - -She made an excuse for leaving the Wyldes, that she might give full -vent, in the privacy of her own room, to the spite that possessed her, -and then Rosalind observed: - -“Mamma, I do not think Juliette quite does justice to Mrs. Falconer. -She hates her because she married Colonel Falconer and disappointed her -expectations of getting all her uncle’s money.” - -“That is it,” replied Mrs. Wylde. “Mrs. Falconer is without doubt a -charming woman, and Juliette’s suspicions of her deceitfulness have -their sole origin in nothing but envy and jealousy.” - -While Juliette, alone in her own room, was saying bitterly: - -“Oh, yes, they have fallen in love with her, have they? That is because -she is the rich Mrs. Falconer. They have no admiration to spare for -Norman’s sweetheart, the poor little tobacco-factory girl, who was -quite as beautiful, innocent, and charming as my uncle’s proud wife.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXXV. GENEROUS DEEDS. - - -When Colonel Falconer, out of the generosity of his great heart, -forgave his unhappy wife the deception she had practiced upon him, he -made up his mind that he would take her away from the fatal city of her -birth, never to return. - -They would go abroad, and begin a new life, in which they would be all -in all to each other; and he would try to forget the dark shadow that -lay on his wife’s past, and make her happy as she had seemed before -they came back to Richmond and the tragedy of her buried sin rose to -overwhelm her again with its ignominy. - -He made arrangements for keeping Pansy’s presence in her mother’s -house a secret from the world. Phebe was told only such facts as were -strictly necessary, and then installed as the faithful nurse of her -mistress. - -Colonel Falconer himself came in disguise to visit her; and Doctor -Hewitt, who was the only one outside the house who was in the secret of -Pansy’s continued existence, never dreamed that the invalid was the -wife of one of the grandest, noblest men in the city, and mistress of a -palatial home on Franklin Street. He pitied her very much, and advised -her one day to remain with her mother and begin a new life. - -Pansy wept bitterly, but made no reply, and he went away feeling very -sad over her probable future, for both she and Alice were so much -better now that there was no occasion for his further visits. He would -see the beautiful erring girl no more, and he feared that, with the -return of health and strength, she would drift back to her old sinful -life. - -In the meantime, Colonel Falconer busied himself generously in trying -to brighten the lives of Pansy’s relatives. - -In the first place, he had to bribe that wretch, Finley, to silence on -the fact that Pansy Laurens was still living. He accepted gladly enough -a much smaller sum than he had demanded from Pansy, fearing that if he -demurred he might not get anything. - -Colonel Falconer, with his keen insight into human nature, soon saw -that Pansy’s mother was unhappy and ill-treated--a mere slave to her -sullen, brutal husband. He proposed to Pansy to settle a sum of money -on her mother that should be strictly her own, and the income from -which would enable her to lead a life of ease, independent of her -miserly husband. - -“How shall I ever repay all your goodness?” Pansy cried, when he told -her that he had settled twenty-five thousand dollars on her mother, and -that Alice and Nora were to be sent to Staunton to boarding school. His -kind intentions toward Willie were all frustrated, for the young man, -ashamed and remorseful over what he had done, and standing in great awe -of his aristocratic brother-in-law, had abruptly left home the same -night on which he had wounded Pansy, and as yet no tidings had been -received from him. - -The time came when Pansy was to leave home and mother for the second -time, and it was, indeed, a sad parting; yet not as bitter as the -first, for then Pansy was going alone into exile, but now there was a -strong arm and a brave heart between her and the world. - -“Only love me, my poor little darling,” he had answered, gently and -gravely, in reply to her expressions of gratitude, and she had promised -that she would, while, at the same time, she contrasted his noble soul -with that of Norman Wylde. - -“One so noble and high-minded, the other so false and cruel! Oh, Heaven -help me to tear his image from my weak womanly heart, and enshrine -there this good and noble husband!” she prayed passionately. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVI. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. - - -Two months had passed since Colonel Falconer had taken Pansy away from -Richmond. They were summering quietly at a little mountain retreat -in the Adirondacks, but his mail was sent to Cape May, and, by an -arrangement with the postmaster there, was forwarded to him. - -He had done this to conceal the place of his residence from Juliette -and others, not wishing that any prying eyes should intrude upon their -seclusion, for Pansy was still weak and delicate, and her nerves had -been sadly shattered by the trying scenes she had gone through. - -They had taken a little cottage in the mountains, and, with Phebe and -a few servants, were keeping house in a simple, quiet way, waiting -for the roses to come back to Pansy’s cheeks, that the colonel might -leave her long enough to return to Virginia and settle up his business, -preparatory to taking up his future residence in Europe. - -“You will not take Juliette with us? She hates me, and every word and -glance has a sting for me. She suspects my identity, in spite of all my -denials,” pleaded Pansy. - -“She shall not go with us,” he said; then a thoughtful frown came -between his dark eyebrows. “But what under heaven shall I do with her?” -he asked. - -“Let her stay in the house on Franklin Street with a chaperon,” -answered Pansy readily. - -“That will do very well, I suppose; but I wish she would get married. I -should feel better satisfied over her then,” said the colonel, and they -both thought at once of Norman Wylde. - -The color rose to her delicate pearl-fair face in a warm tide of -crimson, and Colonel Falconer grew pale, and smothered an oath between -his lips. - -“Pansy, I feel like I ought to kill that fellow for his villainy to -you,” he said abruptly. - -“Let him alone. Heaven will punish him for my wrongs,” she answered, -and then, clasping her beautiful hands imploringly, she wailed: “But, -oh, my poor, deserted little child, my heart aches when I think of him! -If I only had him with me I could be content.” - -“Do not grow impatient, darling. I have promised to try to get the -child for you, but it must be done very quietly, for no one must -suspect that we had anything to do with abducting him. He must be -abducted, you understand that, do you not, Pansy?” - -“Yes, for I know well that no amount of bribery would induce Mrs. Meade -to give him up, and I dare not assert my legal claim to him,” sighed -poor, unhappy Pansy. - -He tried to comfort her, as if she had been a little child, and at last -she sobbed herself to sleep in his arms, and he held her thus for more -than an hour, gazing on the sweet, sad little face with eyes full of -love and pity. - -“Poor little darling, how bitterly and undeservedly you have suffered,” -he thought, adding bitterly: “Curses on the false-hearted villain that -betrayed her innocent youth! I hope I may never meet him again, for if -I did I fear I should take vengeance into my own hands.” - -The next morning, when the colonel’s valet brought in the mail, -it consisted of nothing but the New York papers. He had finished -breakfast, and took them out on the porch to read. Pansy followed -him, and sat down in her little rocking-chair to enjoy the beautiful -mountain scenery that lay outspread like a succession of pictures -before her eyes. - -Colonel Falconer selected his favorite paper, lighted his morning -cigar, and disposed himself comfortably to read. - -And none seeing the quiet, homelike picture, the handsome man, and the -lovely woman, seeming so calmly happy in their domestic life, would -have dreamed that a heavy storm cloud surcharged with woe was about to -burst in fury upon their heads. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVII. THE STORM BREAKS. - - -Colonel Falconer opened his fresh paper, and the first thing that -caught his eyes were these words, in staring headlines: - - A VIRGINIA TRAGEDY, - - INVOLVING SOME OF THE F. F. V.’S WITH THE WORKING CLASSES, AND BEING - THE CLIMAX TO A ROMANCE OF LOVE AND SORROW EQUAL TO ANY EVER EVOLVED - FROM THE BRAIN OF A NOVELIST. - -He uttered an exclamation of interest, and Pansy looked around. - -“What is it, dear?” she asked languidly. - -“Nothing--that is---- Well, you shall have the paper presently,” he -answered, and read on: - - Something more than three years ago there was a ripple of excitement - in the fashionable society of Richmond over the fact that an - engagement of marriage between two prominent people had been - dissolved, owing to a sudden infatuation on the young man’s part for - a beautiful, charming young girl, an employee at Arnell & Grey’s - tobacco factory. - - The girl, though of poor parentage, and compelled to labor for - her own support, was said to be wonderfully lovely, fairly well - educated, and of so fair a character that it had never been sullied - by a breath of scandal. But parents on either side proved unkind. - The young man was forbidden to marry the little beauty, and she on - her part had stern orders from a widowed mother never to hold any - communication with her lover. - - In a few months afterward, the young man was sent on a mission - to Europe, and it was supposed that all was at an end with the - unfortunate love affair. But nine months later there was a scandalous - story circulated about the young girl, to which a color of truth - was lent by her suicide by drowning in the James River. At last, - some of her clothing was found in the river, but her body was never - recovered. At the same time a beautiful, newborn boy baby was left - on the steps of the young man’s father, and adopted by the old - housekeeper. - - Two years later the hero of that long-past love affair returned, and - seeing the adopted child, conceived the idea that it was his own. He - sought the mother of his dead love in order to ascertain the truth, - but could not find her, she having married a second time and removed - to another part of the city. Lately, in desperation, he placed a - detective on the woman’s track, with the result that she was soon - found, and a story of sorrow laid bare that maddened the hero of the - story. - - He told the mother that her daughter had been his wife by a secret - marriage in Washington, and by this declaration was laid bare the - perfidy of a wicked stepfather and a slighted love, who for revenge - had bribed the man to lie about the marriage. This man, Finley by - name, was sent to Washington to verify Pansy Laurens’ declaration - that she was the wife of Norman Wylde. He was bribed by a fair and - slighted lady to declare that there had been no marriage, thus - breaking the heart of the poor girl, who had never received a line - from her young husband during his absence. - - When Norman Wylde learned of this horrible perfidy that had made - of his beloved young wife a suicide, and of his legitimate child a - foundling, he went wild with rage against the villain who had made - these things possible, and struck him with all the fierce strength of - an outraged arm. He fell heavily, and striking his head against the - counter in his store was rendered unconscious by concussion of the - brain. - - He is lying now in a state of coma, never having returned to - consciousness since his fall. Norman Wylde is under heavy bonds - pending the result of Finley’s injuries, but it is believed that a - chivalrous Virginia jury will acquit him of blame in the vengeance he - took against the destroyer of his domestic happiness. - -Pansy turned her head at hearing a strange, choking sound, and saw her -husband with his head fallen backward, and his face convulsed with -pain, as it had been on the night when she made her confession to him. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVIII. VISIONS OF HAPPINESS. - - -When Pansy saw the condition of her husband she uttered a scream of -terror that brought Colonel Falconer’s valet and her maid rushing to -the scene from the back of the cottage, where they had been flirting -with each other in default of something better to do. - -Charles, the valet, immediately ran into the house for his master’s -drops, while Pansy lifted her husband’s head and pillowed it against -her breast. Phebe could do nothing but wring her hands and utter -excited ohs and ahs. - -“You had better leave him to me, ma’am,” said Charles, with a composure -that betrayed his familiarity with these painful attacks. He took -her place with polite insistence, and then Pansy remembered that her -husband had seemed a little excited over something in the paper he was -reading. - -She took the paper up from the floor, where it had fallen, and, in a -very few moments, had found out the cause of Colonel Falconer’s sudden -seizure. - -Forgetful of everything but herself in the wild rush of joy that -overwhelmed her soul, she rushed upstairs to her room, and, throwing -herself into a chair, read and reread the precious paper, while her -love for Norman Wylde, so long repressed and denied, thrilled her whole -being again with inexpressible rapture. - -“Oh, my love, my love! You were true to me--you loved me, you mourned -for me, for I was, indeed, your wife! The dark stain of disgrace is -effaced from me, and the whole world may know now that Pansy Laurens -was an honored wife, and that her child had a right to its father’s -name. Oh, my little Pet, my precious child, would that I could fly -this moment and take you by the hand and lead you to your beloved -father, telling him how much I love you both!” she sobbed passionately, -forgetting for the moment the man downstairs, whose heart was so bound -up in her. - -It was not natural that she should remember him at that moment, for the -shock of joy had been so great as to blot out everything else for the -time being. Joy in Norman’s constancy and love, and horror at the sin -of Mr. Finley and Juliette Ives, filled her whole mind. - -She forgot Colonel Falconer and his illness, forgot that she was -another man’s wife, forgot everything but her love for Norman Wylde, -the young husband from whom she had been sundered by such a cruel fate. - -“Oh, my love, my darling, would that you were here now,” she kept -murmuring over and over, forgetful of the lapse of time, until she was -startled from her blissful reverie by a low tap upon the door. - -“Come in!” she exclaimed, and the door unclosed, admitting Colonel -Falconer, who was ghastly pale, and staggered unsteadily across the -threshold. - -“Oh!” cried Pansy, in a heart-piercing tone, for everything rushed over -her at once at the sight of his haggard, pain-drawn face. - -“Poor child! You were so happy that you had forgotten me,” he said -gently. - -“Forgive me!” she sighed remorsefully, and then suddenly the pretty -dark head fell back against her chair, and she became unconscious. - -Colonel Falconer made no effort to revive her. He stood by her side, -gazing with gloomy eyes at the white, unconscious face, and at length -he muttered: - -“Poor little one! I wish that you would die now, just as you are; then -I should never have the pain of resigning you to one who has a better -right to you than I have, and in whose love you will utterly forget him -who has had no thought but of you since first he saw your beautiful -face.” - -But he did not have his wish granted, for presently Pansy revived of -herself, and looked up dreamily into his face. - -“I--I--fainted, did I not?” she murmured slowly. Then, remembering his -illness, she asked: “Are you better?” - -“Yes,” he answered, but his face was ghastly as he said it. Making a -brave effort for calmness, he added: “You stayed away so long, Pansy, -that I grew uneasy, and came to seek you.” - -“While I selfishly forgot you in my absorption. Oh, forgive me! forgive -me!” she cried remorsefully. - -“There is nothing to forgive. Your news was startling enough to excuse -you for everything,” he replied patiently. Drawing a chair near her, -he continued wistfully: “It must have been a great shock of joy to you, -Pansy, to find that Norman Wylde was your true husband, instead of the -false-hearted wretch we deemed him.” - -“Yes,” she murmured faintly. - -“And you will wish to be restored to him at once, dear?” he continued, -masking with a brave effort the pain he felt in speaking those words. - -She started wildly. - -“But--I--belong--to--you!” she faltered. - -“No, dear. The ceremony that bound you to me is void in law, since you -had a husband living when I married you. You are free of any claim of -mine. Shall you go at once to him, or will you write for him to come -for you?” - -She read his keen anxiety in his ghastly face, and it came to her -suddenly that her happiness would prove a deathblow to this good man, -who was so devoted to her that it seemed impossible for his enfeebled -heart to bear the shock of her loss. - -Looking up at him with troubled eyes, she said: - -“Leave me here alone till morning, that I may decide what is best for -me to do.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIX. REACHING A DECISION. - - -Colonel Falconer would never forget as long as he lived, nor would -Pansy, the awful suspense of that night. He spent it among the -mountains, walking hard all night, in order to overcome his misery by -sheer physical weakness. She spent it on her knees by her bedside, -praying. - -It seemed to her that it would be wrong to desert Colonel Falconer and -go back to her dear love, her faithful husband, even though she really -belonged to him, for it would surely break Colonel Falconer’s heart. - -“And how could I be happy even with my beloved Norman and our darling -child, if I knew that I had caused the death of one who loved me so -well, and who had died for my sake?” the generous young wife kept -saying over and over to herself, and resolutely shutting out of her -heart all thoughts of the happiness she could have if she returned to -Norman. - -Passionately as she loved Norman, her young heart had become so inured -to sorrow, that she was capable of making a great sacrifice for -another’s sake, and at last she decided that for Colonel Falconer’s -sake she would bear the burden of a secret sorrow till the day of her -death. - -“Norman believes me dead long ago, and he need never be undeceived,” -she thought. “Then, too, he will have our sweet little boy to comfort -him, while I will pray for them both every night, and feel that I -have done right to sacrifice my one chance of earthly happiness for -another’s sake.” - -Her resolve did not falter, although it had cost her so much to make -it, and in the morning, when she went down to breakfast, she was pale -as a lily, and the blue circles under her downcast eyes hinted at -bitter tears shed in the lonely vigils of the night. - -Colonel Falconer had come in an hour before from his wild mountain -tramp, and appeared at breakfast freshly dressed, but wretchedly pale -and weary-looking, with a despairing look in his eyes that it was -impossible to hide. - -The unhappy pair made a slight pretense at eating, then went out on the -porch together, and Pansy said quietly: - -“Let us walk up the mountain road a little way, that no one may -overhear what I wish to say to you.” - -They walked away out of earshot of Charles and Phebe, who had no idea -that anything was wrong between their master and mistress, and then -Colonel Falconer asked sadly: - -“Have you made up your mind, dear?” - -“Yes; I shall stay with you.” - -He stared at her, speechless with wonder, until the warm color rose to -her face; then he exclaimed: - -“My dear Pansy, how could you do that? I explained to you, did I not, -that our marriage was not legal?” - -Placing her trembling little hand on his arm, she whispered: - -“I understand all that. What I meant was that--you--should--help me--to -secure a divorce--from Norman Wylde--that I might quietly remarry you. -It could be done, could it not?” - -His face shone with happiness and love as he replied: - -“It would be easy enough, I think; but, Pansy, darling, it would not -be right for me to permit this sacrifice on your part.” - -“I will not permit you to call it a sacrifice. I love you, and I prefer -to cast my lot with yours,” she answered truly. - - - - -CHAPTER XL. A GREAT SACRIFICE. - - -“Heaven help me, for I am scarcely brave enough to refuse this noble -sacrifice of yours, Pansy,” groaned Colonel Falconer. “Oh, my little -love, are you quite sure you will never regret this--never wish for -Norman Wylde and your lost happiness?” - -Clasping her slender white hands tenderly around his arm, and lifting -her sad white face, with all a woman’s tenderness shining out of her -soulful eyes, she replied earnestly: - -“The happiness you speak of could not be mine, for if I left you for -Norman the thought of you would always sadden me so that I should -suffer from remorse and anxiety. I love you, though not with the wild -passion I felt for my first love. But this deep, steady affection, born -of admiration for your manliness and your many virtues, is so strong -that it would divide the allegiance I should owe to Norman. You would -be ever in my thoughts, for you need me so much, and would miss me so -much, while he has long believed me dead and could bear the shock of -losing me better. Therefore, if you will help me about the divorce, I -will be your wife again as soon as possible.” - -“I will send the most clever lawyer in New York to you, Pansy, and you -can commit your case to him. Bless you for your noble decision! I did -not dare hope for such a sacrifice on your part, but I love you so well -that I have not courage to refuse it.” - -She bowed her head in silence, and he continued: - -“Of course you understand, darling, that I must leave you to-day and -remain away from you until the divorce is procured. Do you wish to -remain here quietly with Phebe, Charles, and the other servants, or -have you any other plans?” - -She was silent a few moments, then she answered: - -“I will remain here.” - -He left the mountains for New York City that day, and on the next -she was visited by an eminent lawyer, who took her case in hand, and -assured her that he believed there would be no difficulty in securing a -divorce. - -When he had gone she fell sobbing on the floor of her chamber, crying -out: - -“Oh, my lost love, my lost love!” - -Colonel Falconer wrote her in a few days, saying that he would go to -White Sulphur Springs, to try to make some arrangements for the future -of Juliette Ives. - -“I shall never care for her in the same fashion as I did before I -learned her treachery to you and Norman Wylde,” he wrote. “But she has -no living relative but me, and she is dependent on me for support, and, -for her mother’s sake, I will not shirk the responsibility.” - -He found his pretty niece cool, impudent, defiant. She utterly denied -her complicity in Mr. Finley’s crime. - -“I did not even know the man. Never saw him in my life!” she affirmed. - -He was staggered by her effrontery and scarcely knew what to say, and -she went on eagerly: - -“Dear uncle, please tell me the truth: You have found out at last that -your wife is really Pansy Laurens, have you not?” - -“Nonsense!” he answered sharply; and she opened wide her pale-blue -eyes, exclaiming: - -“Is it possible she can still deny it, after finding out that she was -really Norman’s wife? Ah, I see it all now! She will stay with you -because you are rich and her legal husband is poor.” - -Colonel Falconer’s eyes flashed wrathfully. - -“Beware, Juliette, how you try me too far! Remember that you are -helpless and penniless, except for my bounty!” - -“And because I will not cringe and fawn upon the lowbred creature -you have made your wife, although, unfortunately, the tie is not a -legal one, you threaten to deprive me of the pittance sufficient for -my support! Very well, I can go and work in Arnell & Grey’s tobacco -factory. You will not consider it a disgrace for your niece to work -there, as the woman you call your wife was an employee there for -many years!” she burst out spitefully, her virago temper all aflame, -and goading her to such rebellion that she actually shook her little -jeweled fist in his face. - -She knew his good heart and generous nature so well that she believed -she could defy him with impunity. He would not dare cast her helpless -on the world, no matter what she did to him or the wife he idolized. - -But her insults to Pansy had struck a fire of rage in his nature, and, -while his face whitened with pain and his eyes gleamed with anger, he -turned on her, and said sternly: - -“Since you are so willing to earn your own support, I wash my hands -of a most unwelcome burden! Go into a tobacco factory as soon as you -please, and I hope you may be industrious enough to retain a position -there as long as Pansy Laurens did!” - -With those words, the offended gentleman stalked out of the presence -of Juliette, who comprehended instantly that she had gone too far in -her spiteful defiance, and that she must either humiliate herself by -apologizing or go to work, as she had threatened, to earn her own -living. - -It did not take her a minute to decide which of these alternatives to -choose, and as soon as the door banged to behind the irate colonel she -jerked it open and flew swiftly down the corridor, arresting his quick -footsteps by clasping both hands around his arm. - -“Oh, uncle, dear uncle, come back and forgive me! I am sorry I wounded -your feelings. I did not mean it; but every one had deserted me, and I -felt so miserable!” she panted eagerly, as she clung to his arm. - -He stopped short and looked suspiciously into her false face. - -“Where is Mrs. Wylde?” he asked. - -“Come back, and I will tell you. We might be overheard here,” she -replied, looking uneasily down the length of the broad hotel corridor, -and very unwillingly he accompanied her back to her room. Then she said: - -“Mrs. Wylde and Rosalind have gone back to Richmond, and I am here -alone with my maid.” - -“She promised to chaperon you,” he said, frowning. - -“I know,” whimpered Juliette; “but we quarreled dreadfully. They--they -actually believed that man Finley’s falsehood about me, although I -denied it bitterly. The truth is that they are the ones in fault, -for they sent Norman off to London on a false scent, just to break -up his love affair; but now they have the meanness to say that they -would never have sent him if they had known he was actually married -to the girl,” panted Juliette angrily, adding: “So we had a bitter -quarrel when they refused to believe my story. And Mrs. Wylde said she -hoped you would take me from under her care soon, as she was tired of -chaperoning a girl who had brought such trouble on her poor son. I told -her I would never speak to her again, so then she and Rosalind packed -up and went back, as Judge Wylde had telegraphed for them. She sent me -a note, asking if I cared to go back with them, and I declined. But -they set every one against me. I am so stared at and snubbed by people -since Finley’s lies against me were published that I cannot bear to go -outside my room,” concluded Juliette, going into hysterical sobs. - -“This is very bad. I do not know what I shall ever do with you, -Juliette,” sighed the colonel, in dismay. - -“I shall go back to you, of course,” she sobbed. - -“No; that plan will not answer any longer. I can never have you again -as a member of my family,” he replied firmly. - -She could scarcely resist the impulse to cry out against him with the -sharpest reproaches, but wisely restrained herself, and presently he -said: - -“I will remain with you here for a week, Juliette, and in that time I -will decide regarding your future.” - -That same day he wrote to Pansy and explained the situation to her, -asking for her advice in the matter. - -When Pansy heard of the sad plight of the girl whose wickedness had -wrought her so much woe she rejoiced at first, thinking that Juliette -had met her just reward for her sin. - -Then kinder, more pitiful thoughts intervened, and at length she wrote -to Colonel Falconer: - - Send Juliette here to me, and I will stand her friend if she will - treat me with proper respect. - -He read those words to Juliette, who curled her lip, but did not -refuse, for the contempt of all her old associates in her little social -world had so cowed her that she was only too happy to accept Pansy’s -offer. - -When they met again, Pansy said determinedly: - -“Miss Ives, there shall be no further concealments between us. I am -Pansy Laurens, as you thought, but I am going to procure an immediate -divorce from Norman Wylde, that I may be remarried to your uncle, -Colonel Falconer. Wait!” as Juliette was about to make an excited -remonstrance. “It will be against your own interest to betray me, for -your uncle’s will is made in my favor now, and if you go against me I -will use my strong influence to have you sent adrift penniless.” - - - - -CHAPTER XLI. A FALSE WITNESS. - - -Juliette Ives was walking along the mountain road just a few rods from -the cottage, kicking up the dead leaves from the ground at every step, -and frowning discontentedly. - -“It is almost two months since I came to this place, and it is as -dreary as a prison. I hope we shall certainly get away this week, or -I shall die of ennui,” she was muttering angrily to herself, when -suddenly she came face to face with a man who was hurrying in the -direction of the cottage--Norman Wylde. - -It was the first time he had seen Juliette since Finley’s sullen -confession had convicted her of such a treacherous deed, and Norman’s -brow grew dark at sight of the fair blond face, with its light-blue -eyes, and pale golden tresses flying loosely in the wind under a -picturesque little scarlet cap, for Juliette was always vain and -coquettish, and even here in this secluded retreat, where she expected -to see no one, paid particular attention to her personal appearance. -But her charms were all unheeded by Norman Wylde, who lifted his hat -with grave courtesy, and was about to pass by when she arrested him -with a pleading cry: - -“Norman--Mr. Wylde!” - -He paused, but with an impatient gesture, and, coming close up to him, -she said eagerly: - -“I cannot let pass this opportunity of clearing myself from the foul -imputation cast upon me by that wicked wretch, Finley. Oh, Norman, I -swear to you that I had nothing to do with his sin! I did not even know -the man.” - -She never forgot how handsome and how scornful her lost lover looked as -he fixed his splendid, piercing black eyes on her false face. Regarding -her with supreme contempt, he answered: - -“Unfortunately for your denial, Miss Ives, Finley had written proofs in -his possession that proved your guilt clearly.” - -“I deny it in spite of all his proofs,” she cried desperately, but, -smiling scornfully still, he answered: - -“As you please, Miss Ives; but permit me to pass. I am anxious to meet -my wife!” - -“You have no wife!” she exclaimed, with such spiteful yet earnest -emphasis that he paused again, and said: - -“Deny it as you will; but I have proved to the world’s satisfaction -that Pansy Laurens is my wife, and a week ago, when Mr. Finley -recovered from the long stupor and loss of memory that followed upon -his fall, he told me my wife still lived, in the person of Mrs. -Falconer. I wondered why she had not come at once to me on learning -that she was truly my wife. But, guessing that it was owing to -her sensitive, retiring nature, I set myself to work to learn her -whereabouts. I learned that she had separated from Colonel Falconer, -and was living here in strict retirement. I hurried here at once.” - -“In spite of all that, I repeat my assertion: You have no wife!” -answered Juliette, with savage emphasis and barbarous delight in the -torture she was inflicting on his heart. - -“My Heaven!” he cried, shuddering. “You do not mean to tell me that -Pansy is dead!” - -“No; it is worse than that.” She paused a moment, watching him keenly, -the better to enjoy her triumph, then added: “She has procured a -divorce from you.” - -Then she shrank in spite of herself, for the rage and despair on that -darkly handsome face frightened her, defiant as she was, and his voice -seemed to breathe menace as he shouted hoarsely: - -“It is false! False as your treacherous heart, Juliette Ives!” And, -with the words, he rushed madly from her toward the cottage, wild to -know the truth from Pansy’s own beautiful lips. - -Juliette followed slowly after, with a white face of wrath and envy, -for she well knew that, though Pansy was lost to Norman forever, he -would never love another. - -Phebe went up to her mistress with a message from Mr. Wylde, and, after -a long interval, returned with a brief, ambiguous note: - - I refuse to see you. I received my decree of divorce this morning, - and to-morrow I shall be married to Colonel Falconer. Forgive me, - Norman, for I have acted for the best as far as I could see my duty. - Let our child comfort you. Love him, and make up to him for his - mother’s loss. I go abroad in a few days, never to return. Forget me - if you can, and if not, remember me with pity. Farewell forever, and - may Heaven bless you! - - PANSY. - -Crushing the perfumed sheet in his hand, he staggered across the -doorway with a face like a corpse. A white hand fluttered down on his -coat sleeve, and tender blue eyes gazed into his agonized face. - -“You see now!” said Juliette triumphantly. “She was like the majority -of women. She cared more for Colonel Falconer’s money than for her -husband’s love! Oh, Norman,” her voice sank into a low, pleading -cadence, “will you not forget her now and make up our wretched quarrel? -Remember, we loved each other before you ever saw her face!” - -“I never loved you--never! And for the misery your sin has brought me -I curse you!” he answered. “I have lost her, but it was through your -treachery at the beginning that she was forced into a position where -her noble nature made her sacrifice herself and me to a mistaken sense -of duty. Ah, I understand her generous soul! Do not prate to me of -gold. She cared nothing for that, but, in her pity for him, she has -broken both her heart and mine.” And, throwing off her touch as though -it were a serpent’s coil, he rushed away. - - - - -CHAPTER XLII. REMARRIED. - - -In a short time the words were spoken that made Pansy Laurens for -a second time a wife, and, though it was like a deathblow to her -happiness, she bore herself with proud calmness that the good man -by her side should have no cause to suspect that she had sacrificed -herself for his sake. - -In a few days more they went abroad, taking Juliette with them, as also -the valet and the two maids. Several months were spent in Italy, then -when winter was past they traveled for several months. When autumn came -round again Colonel Falconer began to think of purchasing a home and -settling down in the land of his adoption. - -Juliette was behaving herself quite well; that is to say, she was -treating her uncle’s wife with a show of respect, though hating her as -bitterly as ever in her secret heart. - -At times she complained to her uncle that she did not wish to remain -always abroad, but he had only to remind her of the snubbing she had -received from her friends at home to reduce her to instant silence and -submission. - -At such times she would recall the Wyldes with bitter chagrin, and she -made up her mind that she would marry a title if she could possibly -compass it, and then go to Virginia to spend her honeymoon, in order -to mortify those of her old friends who had dared to disapprove of her -because of the revenge she had taken on her rival, the poor working -girl, Pansy Laurens. - -She was anxious to get away from the guardianship of her uncle and his -wife. To live always with the rival who had triumphed over her, and to -have those triumphs renewed daily--for Pansy had been a decided success -wherever she had appeared in society, and the society journals always -mentioned them as “Colonel Falconer’s beautiful bride, and his pretty -niece, Miss Ives”--was too bitter to her pride. - -“I am tired of it all! I have eaten humble pie till I loathe the -taste,” Juliette muttered discontentedly; and when at last old Sir John -Crowley, who was as yellow as a pumpkin, having spent the best years of -his life in India before succeeding to a baronetcy, proposed marriage -to her, she accepted him joyfully. - -“Oh, Juliette, that old man! Why, he is past sixty, and yellow and ugly -and cross!” Pansy cried, in dismay; but Juliette tossed her head, and -answered: - -“You married an old man for his money, and I’m going to marry one for a -title and money, too, that’s all!” - -“But I have heard that he isn’t rich--that the title is almost a barren -honor. He has nothing but a small estate in Cornwall. You will have to -nurse him half your time, as he is in poor health.” - -“I don’t care, and I wish you would mind your own business! Uncle has -promised me a marriage portion, anyhow, and that shall be strictly -settled on myself. Sir John is so much in love with me that he’ll agree -to anything,” Juliette retorted. But events proved differently. Sir -John would not agree to the proposition, and so Juliette, in a huff, -declared the match off, vowing that the baronet was a wretched old -fortune hunter. - -Following hard upon the breaking of this engagement, which occurred in -the second winter after Pansy’s remarriage to Colonel Falconer, came a -very sad event. - -A beautiful villa at Florence had been purchased, and the small -family had settled down there for the winter. It was a very pleasant -neighborhood, and one evening they were entertaining a small party of -friends, when the colonel suddenly complained of severe pains, and a -physician was at once summoned to his side. But medical skill proved -vain, for within an hour he died, as Juliette’s mother had died, of -heart failure. - -He comprehended that the end was near, for, between the paroxysms of -pain, he whispered to Pansy: - -“You have made this past year very happy, my darling. I have never had -cause to believe that you cherished a single regret.” - - - - -CHAPTER XLIII. A LOVELY WIDOW. - - -“I suppose you will go home now and marry Norman Wylde!” cried Juliette -spitefully. - -It was almost immediately after the funeral, and the sad young widow -turned a shocked face upon the heartless speaker. - -“Juliette, how can you be so cruel? Do you think I do not grieve for my -noble husband?” she exclaimed. - -“Norman Wylde could comfort you very easily in your grief,” was the -unfeeling reply that sent Pansy from the room in bitter tears. - -Juliette was the trial of Pansy’s daily life. She had tried all in vain -to overcome the girl’s jealous dislike of her, but it seemed a hopeless -task, and she longed for the time to come when she would marry and -leave her in peace. - -“I believe she would murder me if she thought she could do so without -being discovered,” she thought sometimes fearfully. - -She did not dream that her patient endurance of her dreadful incubus -and her never-failing goodness had all along been having their effect -on Juliette, although she struggled bitterly against that saving -influence. - -Just now she felt more bitter than usual, for, in addition to the fact -that she believed that Pansy and Norman would be reunited in a few -weeks, she had found out that her uncle’s will was made solely in his -wife’s favor, with the exception of a legacy to his niece, the amount -of which was to be decided by Pansy. - -The next time Juliette saw Pansy she began to tease her about the will. - -“It was a shame for uncle to treat me so shabbily. He might have known -you would put me off with just a few hundreds!” she cried spitefully. - -Pansy sighed at Juliette’s unrelenting hate, and answered patiently: - -“Colonel Falconer understood me better than you do, Juliette, or he -would never have trusted your future to me. When his affairs are -settled there will not be more than a hundred thousand dollars left, as -he made several investments lately that resulted disastrously. But of -that hundred thousand I shall give you fifty thousand.” - -“You do not mean it!” Juliette cried incredulously. - -“Yes,” Pansy answered; and for a minute there was a silence, which the -young widow broke in a tremulous, pleading voice. - -“Perhaps,” she said, “when this money is settled on you, Juliette, -it will please you best to leave me, and make a home for yourself -elsewhere?” - -“You want me to go away--you are tired of me!” Juliette cried, in a -high, resentful key; and then Pansy lifted her head and looked at her -with those sad pansy-blue eyes, in which tears of grief were standing -thickly. - -“Oh, Juliette,” she sobbed, “I--I--only want peace, and you make my -life so dreary and unhappy with your unrelenting hate!” - -Juliette did not answer. She gave a choking gasp and rushed from the -room. - -Pansy saw her no more for several hours; then she entered her boudoir -with a pale face and very red eyes, and said humbly: - -“Pansy, please do not ask me to leave you! I love you--yes, love you, -in spite of all my wickedness. Your goodness and sweetness have been -growing on me for years, although I tried to steel myself to their -noble influence, and your words just now opened my eyes and showed me -my heart. I repent all my wickedness toward you, and beg you to forgive -me for my share in your unhappiness. Henceforth I will love you as -dearly as my uncle loved you, and I will do all that I can to atone for -my heartless behavior in the past.” - -“Oh, Juliette!” Pansy cried gladly. For it was an exquisite -satisfaction to her to feel that she had conquered Juliette’s hate at -last by her gentleness and patience. - -She accepted Juliette’s repentance by a gentle kiss on her white brow. - - - - -CHAPTER XLIV. A MOTHER’S YEARNING. - - -Pansy wrote to her mother of Colonel Falconer’s death, and in return -received some unexpected news. - -Mr. Finley, after he recovered from the long spell that had followed -upon his fall and the injury to his head, had become more brutal and -morose than ever, and made life with him very hard to bear. Finally -he announced his intention of selling out all his property and going -to California to invest the proceeds in real estate. He told his -long-suffering wife that he was tired of her, and did not propose to -take her with him. She acquiesced very thankfully in this decision, and -the brute had gone away several months before, and no more had been -heard of him, much to her joy and relief, for she had long ago repented -her unfortunate second marriage. - -Soon after Finley left, Willie had returned, and, to her surprise, he -had been hard at work in New York, and brought back his savings. He -was bitterly repentant for his wicked deed, and would write to his -sister and tell her how much he had suffered from remorse. Mrs. Finley -added that she was going to help her son set up business for himself, -that he might marry little Kate North, to whom he was now engaged, with -the free consent of her parents. - -“Poor brother Willie! I am glad he is going to be so happy,” thought -Pansy, without a shadow of anger against the hot-headed boy; and then -she read on, and found that Alice and Nora were still at school in -Staunton. They were learning fast, and sent much love to their sister, -and grieved for the good brother-in-law who had been so generous to -them all. - -“But why does she not say something about my boy, my little Pet, who, -perhaps, has some other name, now that Norman knows he is his son?” -thought Pansy impatiently; but on turning the next page she read these -words: - - Judge Wylde died last week, and they say he left a pretty penny to - his family, though I don’t think Norman needs it much, he’s getting - rich so fast with his law business. He works so hard, they say, - that he has no time for any one but his child. He has given it the - name of Charley for your poor, dead father, which I think was quite - nice of him. I see the little fellow often, as the Wyldes are quite - friendly with me; also that good Mrs. Meade, who says she was quite - certain from the first that things would turn out as they have. I - haven’t seen Norman since your husband died. I don’t know how he - takes it, but I hope you and he will make it up some time, as it - can’t do Colonel Falconer--poor, dear saint--any good for you to stay - always a widow. But forgive me, dear daughter, for I know your sorrow - is too deep for me to hint at such things yet. - -Pansy sat silent for a long time, brooding over those words, and her -breast heaved with many hopeless sighs. - -“No one need ever think of that,” she thought mournfully. “Norman will -never forgive me for what I did. He will think always that it was for -Colonel Falconer’s money, not for pity’s sake.” - -And at thought of her little child, her beautiful Charley, out of whose -love she had been tricked and cheated by her wicked stepfather, Pansy -wept most bitterly and longingly. - -“Whether he ever forgives me or not, I must see my child sometimes,” -she thought; but she determined that she would spend her year of -mourning at the villa. Life was not so unhappy since Juliette had -repented her wickedness and fallen in love with her uncle’s wife. They -had become fast friends, and Juliette now prayed earnestly that the -time would come when Pansy would again be Norman’s wife. - - - - -CHAPTER XLV. SUPREME JOY. - - -A year went slowly past, and found Pansy and Juliette still at the -villa; but it was not likely that the latter would be there much -longer, for she had lately made the acquaintance of a handsome young -man, a rich New Yorker, who had wintered in Italy, and who had been so -very much smitten with the charms of Miss Ives that he had proposed -marriage on very short acquaintance, and had been accepted, for he was -the first man who had ever touched her heart since she had lost Norman -Wylde. - -In truth, Juliette was very much altered for the better. She had -taken gentle Pansy for her model, and was fast becoming a changed and -improved woman. Not content with owning her fault to Pansy, she had -written to the Wyldes, mother and son, and confessed her folly and her -repentance, declaring that she now loved Pansy as fondly as she had -once hated her, and that her dearest wish now was for the happiness of -the two she had injured so much. - -When Arthur Osborne first declared his love to Juliette she had a hard -struggle with her pride, but before she gave him her answer she told -him the whole story of her folly and sin and repentance. - -“If you had known this you would not have asked me to be your wife,” -she said sadly. - -But she was mistaken, for he reiterated his offer, declaring that he -admired her frankness and believed in her repentance. - -“I will help you to forget your bitter past,” he said; then Juliette -gave him a blushing yes. - -The betrothal was a month old when, one day, as Pansy sat alone in the -drawing-room of her beautiful home, some visitors were announced, and -Mrs. Wylde, with her daughter and a beautiful little boy, entered the -room. - -Pansy sprang up with a little startled cry, and was immediately half -smothered in kisses and embraces from all three. - -“Forgive me for my share in your past unhappiness. I had never seen -you, and believed you to be a coarse, ignorant girl, unsuited to my son -in every way,” murmured Mrs. Wylde regretfully. - -“Let us forget the past,” answered the noble girl she had injured, as -she drew her child to her breast, wondering, yet not daring to ask, -about his father. - -Juliette came in presently, and they met her with the cordiality of old -friends. Then she looked at Pansy. - -“Norman is here, too,” she said smilingly, “but I think he was doubtful -of a welcome, and he stopped in the summerhouse. Will you meet him -halfway, Pansy?” - -The blush that rose to her face betrayed her heart without words, and -Mrs. Wylde said tenderly: - -“Go, dear; we will excuse you.” - -Juliette took her trembling hand and led her to the door. Then she -kissed her fondly. - -“Bless you both, dear!” she said earnestly, and went back to the guests. - -But little Charley, now almost five years old, followed his newfound -mother. - -Norman was waiting in the flower-wreathed summerhouse, and at one -glance into each other’s eyes the two read each other’s heart. - -“You will not send me away again, my darling!” he murmured, as he -clasped her to his heart in passionate love. - -A few weeks sufficed for their second courtship. They were married on -the same day with Arthur Osborne and Juliette Ives. Both the brides -looked wonderfully beautiful, and both the bridegrooms handsome and -happy. - -In the spring they all went back to America. Juliette’s home was to be -in New York, but not the least of Pansy’s pleasures was the fact that -she would spend the rest of her life among the dear friends and old -familiar scenes of her beloved Richmond. - -THE END. - -No. 1165 of the NEW EAGLE SERIES, entitled “His Unbounded Faith,” -by Charlotte M. Stanley, is a fascinating story. The reader will -sympathize with the heroine in the storms of hate and jealousy that -rage around her, but they will breathe a sigh of relief when she finds -a secure haven in her husband’s love and faith. - - * * * * * - -Love Stories - -There is a great deal of difference between love stories and sex -stories. There is something about _love_ which commands respect and -reverence. - -There is nothing about the sex story which commands either. Most -decent-minded people are disgusted with the sort of literature that -some publishers are putting out in the guise of truth. - -If you want to know what a really decent, clean, wholesome love story -is, ask your dealer to sell you a copy of the _Bertha Clay Library_, or -the _Eagle Library_. - -In these two series, you will find everything that is necessary in -fiction to hold your interest, and a great deal that is preferable to -the sort of stuff which is being put out under camouflage by certain -publishers who are not very careful either about the way they make -money or what they publish. - - STREET & SMITH CORPORATION - 79 Seventh Avenue New York City - - * * * * * - - _Adventure Stories_ - _Detective Stories_ - _Western Stories_ - _Love Stories_ - _Sea Stories_ - -All classes of fiction are to be found among the Street & Smith novels. -Our line contains reading matter for every one, irrespective of age or -preference. - -The person who has only a moderate sum to spend on reading matter will -find this line a veritable gold mine. - - STREET & SMITH CORPORATION, - 79 Seventh Avenue, - New York, N. 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